October 2018 Mini-Reviews

It's been awhile, I know, but how about time for some MINI REVIEWS! They're like real reviews, only not as good but take less effort from me so right now, I am a FAN. I will try to get some for real, full reviews done at some point. I swear. But the goblin can walk now (/has been able to walk for a couple months now, which is why it's been so long since my last mini-review post) and has found a whole new world of trouble to get into. So that is fun/exhausting

Anyway, let's look at stuff I read almost a year ago.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

You guys know I love me some Mary Roach. Love her humor and enthusiasm for learning about odd things. She already tackled dead stuff in Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers which focused on the more physical aspects of death. This time around she's going for the more metaphysical. Now there's only so much science on the actual afterlife, which is a bit of a let down for her typical offering. The science that focused more on the historic science where people tried to weigh the soul. I don't feel like I learned as much as with some of her other stuff and the narrator (I listened to this as an audiobook) did some accents that I could have done without, but overall I was still entertained.

OK so I'm back. I realize you had no idea I was gone but I was. Because said goblin interrupted this post and then things were busy. But he's napping now. I don't know how long I have but I'll try to get through this.

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

What a great name if you're going to be a mystery/thriller author, right? I tried to look up if it was a pen name or not but then stopped when I went to her website where she lists herself as "one of the world's most popular and acclaimed storytellers" and settle down, Karin. I am all for being happy and confident in our accomplishments (and she has them) but one of the world's most popular storytellers? I think we're talking a long list then. Anyway, I'm getting distracted from reviewing this book.
It was fine. It's a thriller and those are fun. The main character Claire is rich and pretty and bully for her. One day her husband Paul is murdered and Claire is picking up the pieces of this sudden loss. She doesn't have many people to turn to since she and her mother don't have the most open relationship, I don't remember much about her grandmother other than her being hilariously awful, she doesn't speak to her one sister anymore and her other sister went missing years before. Not only is she dealing with this, but there's news of a new missing girl that sounds eerily like the disappearance of her sister so long ago. Saying too much more starts getting spoilery, but let's say there are secrets and answers to questions maybe you wish you hadn't asked. There's a lot going on and it's a bit tropey, there were some surprises and some stuff that you could see coming, and a lot of violence.
Also, if you're curious, Karin rated her own book on Goodreads and gave it 5 stars. Which again, be proud of your work, but that seems odd and I've also never seen another author rate their own book on Goodreads, though perhaps I'm just missing it.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

I love me some Bryson and this was part of an audiobook collection that included Neither Here Nor There and I'm a Stranger Here Myself/Notes from a Big Country and getting all three for one audible credit was pretty exciting. Anyway. this was a re-read for me, though first time listening and Bryson reads his own stuff, so that's fun. It talks about his travels around Britain, his second home. He had been living in England for almost twenty years when his family decided to head to the US for some time, and so, as a goodbye to this island he loved so much, he travels around writing about it, in his charmingly curmudgeonly way. He talks about ridiculous British place names and round abouts and things being demolished that shouldn't and things being preserved that should and how a boy from middle-America came to live in England in the first place. Even though this audiobook version was an abridgment (sigh) it was still excellent and really, I'd recommend both reading it and listening to it because it's great and you'll probably want to read it multiple times, so give yourself some options.

Good thing I got through those mini-reviews for October because the beast awakens and desperately wants to hit all of the keys on the keyboard. I blame and any all typos on him.

Those who know the human gut intimately see beauty

I thought I was doing a good job keeping up with reviews. I know I'm a bit behind but I thought I was getting into the swing of things. Then I checked my list to see what's up next for review and realized it's a book I finished back in July. In that time I've done some book shelf rearranging which means naturally I don't even know where the book is and man. Two steps forward, one step back over here.

In my defense, part of this is because I started doing NetGalley and I try to review those as soon as I finish them rather than going in order of when I've finished reading the books, so that pushes the books I'm reading on my own back.

ANYWAY, the good news is that I found the book and it's Mary Roach's Gulp so even though this isn't going to be the most well-thought-review* it's Roach and she's great. So, here we go.

First things first, I love Roach. I am all about science books by non-science but very curious people and thus far she hasn't steered me wrong.** So on a trip to Boston when I saw Gulp I had to get it. Obviously. And once again, Roach manages to be hilarious and make me feel like I learned something.

This time Roach takes the reader through the alimentary canal, starting at the top and working her way down. There's the normal stuff you'd expect from a book on the digestive system, such as the role smell plays in taste, how the teeth and stomach do their thing to turn the food you eat into the calories you need. But then there's the off-the-beaten-path stuff that makes her so much fun. There are chapters such as: "Big Gulp: How to survive being swallowed alive", "The Longest Meal: Can thorough chewing lower the national debt", and "Up Theirs: The alimentary canal as criminal accomplice". Truly something for everyone.

And of course a big thing in Roach's work is talking to the scientists that are obsessed with their particular line of study. No one can wax poetic about the benefits of salvia quite like Erika Silletti, or can tell you ALL the nuances to chewing like Andries van der Bilt or the dozens of other scientists that make it their business to understand all their is to know about the taste buds, the stomach, the colon, etc.

She delves into some of the scientific history of how we know what we know about digestion, which includes some disturbing relationships, such as that of William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin and involves one man dropping food into the other man's stomach via a hole in his side (think of it as fishing) to see how stomach acid does its thing.

Depending on your squick factor, there can be some stuff here's that's too gross. I don't think she goes overboard or dwells on anything for too long, and some of the stuff can be gross, but she seems to delight in this grossness which makes it a lot easier to swallow.

Her footnotes are hilarious. Sometimes they shine additional light on whatever the topic is and other points you get things like this:

Also join Litsy

So yeah. Roach is super fun and I highly recommend you check her out.

Gif rating:

*In addition to being behind on reviews I also apparently forgot to take notes after reading this so starting from scratch here. AND I didn't even write down any page numbers with quotes I like. Past me is such an ass.
**Other titles of hers I've liked: Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Title quote from page 326

Roach, Mary. Gulp: Adventures On The Alimentary Canal. W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

I'm interested in the parts no one makes movies about - not the killing but the keeping alive

I've known about NetGalley for awhile but I had never bothered with it. That is until Sarah mentioned that Mary Roach's newest book Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War was available for request, at which point I decided I NEED to get in on this. Luckily I was approved, which was quite exciting. And now I get to talk about more Mary Roach, so that's just swell.

Mary Roach has quickly become a go-to author* where I don't worry too much about WHAT she's written because she hasn't let me down yet. This time she's looking into the science of war, specifically focused on the advancements in keeping soldiers alive and safe, which is a far more interesting aspect of war IMO than the bang bang part.

The opening of the book really sets the tone for what's to come. She talks about experiments shooting chickens at airplane windshield to test the effects of birds flying into a plane. And about the different types of damage different birds do to a plane. And at this point you know that this isn't going to be a book about weaponry. Unless of course we decide to weaponize frozen chickens, something I'm positive has been suggested at some point.

This is the sort of story that drew me to military science - the quiet, esoteric battles with less considered adversaries: exhaustion, shock, bacteria, panic, ducks...This book is a salute to the scientists and the surgeons, running along in the wake of combat, lab coats flapping. Building safer tanks, waging war on filth flies. Understanding turkey vultures.

The book is broken into sections looking at aspects of war such as what the soldiers wear, the difficulties faced by combat medics, the history of shark repellant for military purposes, and then a few chapters about below-the-belt issues (at least 2 chapters about genital injuries including advancements made in penile transplants). As with her other books, she approaches the subject with humor, which is needed when you're talking about something like stink bombs, but the science is serious stuff. Keeping soldiers safe is a lot of work, with seemingly 2 million variables to consider at every turn. As she points out, the "US government button specifications run to twenty-two pages." Those are a lot of points to consider about a button. 

Roach is skilled at taking what could be a dry topic and making it interesting and funny and easy for non-scientific (and in this case non-military) people to understand and enjoy. Right after getting my copy of Grunt, I picked up Gulp for sale at a local bookstore, so yeah, I'm pretty excited to jump into even more Roach.

Gif rating:

*She joins other favorite authors like Bill Bryson, Jasper Fforde, and Christopher Moore.

Title quote from location 73

Roach, Mary. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. NetGalley

Brave and anal: the ideal space explorer

When I found out The Martian movie was going to be released this fall I got super excited and immediately started re-reading the book because of course I did. It's great. Then I decided I needed another themed book to prepare me for the movie and what's this? Mary Roach's Packing for Mars is for sale? SIGN ME UP.

Mary Roach is great. I love her.

As with Bonk and Stiff, Roach approaches a topic, this time space travel, with curiosity and humor. I'm sure it's no surprise that sending things and people into space is a lot of work, but I don't think I quite appreciated all of the details. There's a delicate balance of making sure things actually work in zero gravity, but also don't kill the astronauts. Surprise, it is not all that easy to keep people alive up in space. Roach opens with:

To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with. You and your fluctuating metabolism, your puny memory, your frame that comes in a million different configurations. You are unpredictable. You're inconsistent. You take weeks to fix.

Ugh, humans. Space travel would be so easy without you but you insist on going up there. Pain the ass.

Roach goes into the history of sending people up into the void and all of the issues that have come with that, tackling issues such as toilets and hygiene (fact, people were stinky) and even gets to take a ride in the vomit comet, which sounds equal parts terrifying and super fun. She talks about space programs in the US, Russia, and Japan. Fun fact, Japan uses forensic origami as part of their astronaut training/interview process. "Deterioration [in origami crane folding, as they have to fold 1,000 cranes] in accuracy shows impatience under stress."

Overall this was super fun, as are all of her books, so not too much of a surprise. If you wanted to know way-too-much about bodily functions in space, this is most definitely a book to check out.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 2866

Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. W.W. Norton & Company, 2011. Kindle

We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and death. In between do what we can to forget

Let's talk about dead bodies!

I always assumed Mary Roach would be an author I would like, but it took me forever to pick up any of her books. When I finally read Bonk I realized yes, I have been stupid to put her off. So not too long after that, I picked up a copy of her book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and it was even better. I enjoy science explained to me by non-science people.

You could sort of say Stiff's purpose is to convince you to donate your body to science. And she makes a lot of very good points as to why it would be a good thing to do. The book is all about the benefits that humanity has gained because of experiments done on dead bodies, the lives saved because of organ donations, and even the dead bodies that are used to help solve crimes (or just plane/car accidents). Dead bodies are doing so much and I'm just here sitting on the couch. Way to make me look bad.

I say Roach is trying to convince you to donate your body to science, but maybe that's not quite accurate. She's not saying you HAVE to donate your body. She's not saying that if you don't donate your body that you're selfish and evil and contributing to the downfall of society. She talks about all of the good done that was a direct result of dead bodies and makes the case that when a person is gone their body isn't them, so is more subtle with the suggestion that you, dear reader, maybe want to consider this course of action. But she is also clear that if you don't want to, that's OK. If you wish for your body to be donated after you die, but the loved ones you left behind would rather that didn't happen, maybe let the living decide. Because ultimately you're gone, but they're still here and are going to have to be the ones to live with the decision and do what they have to do to get through the loss. In the end the choice is personal.

I feel like I've made this book sound like a lot more of a downer than it is. Yes, it's dealing with death and dead bodies, but it's a funny book. There's humor in everything. Of course this could go very wrong very quickly so it's a good thing we have Roach's tone. There are a number of footnotes through the book, so when I saw a little asterisk next to "Renaissance philosopher Giolamo Pontano*" I expected an explanation or funny story about the guy. Instead I saw "*I'd never heard of him either." When I saw that I smiled and thought "Oh, Ms. Roach, I am a fan of you. Well played."

And it's not all about the good done with donated bodies. She also looks into more traditional methods of dealing with the newly departed, be it embalming (and going through the history of!), cremation, or some new methods being tried out like freeze drying. There isn't too much about funerals themselves, though she does have a touching bit when she talks about the anatomy students holding a funeral for the bodies they were going to be learning from during the year.

I feel like I'm not doing this book much justice. I'll blame that on my sore throat and general laziness. If you want to read a good review, check out Kayleigh's post which does a much better job.

If the topic is at all something that interests you, I would say try this out. If you like Roach's book, try this. If you like science-y things for the non-science crowd, try this.

Gif rating:

Title quote from page 84

Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Norton, 2003.

The laboratory study of sex has never been an easy, safe, or well-paid undertaking

I've decided to take a break from throwing tinsel around the house to actually write a book review. I really need to get on these considering I'm still working on reviewing books I read in September. Whoops.

Anyway, to the review. Over the years my friends and I have managed to very far from each other, because we're dumb. Also jobs. Whatever. The point is, we decided we wanted to do more stuff despite differences in timezones and thus set up a virtual book club and our first book was Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach.

I've wanted to read one of Roach's book since I heard someone describe her as sort of Bill Bryson-esque, taking on topics like the digestive system, cadavers, and sex. So hell yes I am down with that. And I'm happy to say that Bonk lived up to my expectations.

Bonk is not only a book about sex, but specifically the intersection of sex and science (you know, if you didn't get that from the subtitle); about sex as studied in laboratories. As she says

It wasn't until the past half century that lab-based science embraced the pursuit of better, more satisfying sex...This book is a tribute to the men and women who dared. Who, to this day, endure ignorance, closed minds, righteousness, and prudery. Their lives are not easy. But their cocktail parties are the best.

She talks  about some of the big names like Alfred Kinsey and Masters & Johnson,* but also about Princess Marie Bonaparte (Napoleon's great-grand-niece) and her quest to figure out the optimal distance from clit to vaginal canal for orgasm during intercourse, or Dr. Geng-Long Hsu, a Taiwanese surgeon who performs operations (which are described in great detail, or at least more detail than perhaps I needed) to fix erectile disfunction issues or Dr. Ahmed Shafik, an Egyptian doctor who studied the effects of polyester on sexual activity by studying a bunch of rats in pants. Roach covers the history of sexual science, where it has come from and where it's going and all of the problems it's run into. Problems like male gynecologists not being allowed to look at female genitalia, which is a pretty big fucking problem.

The book isn't in chronological order, but instead hops around to different topics like "The Testical Pushers: If Two Are Good, Would Three Be Better?" and "The Prescription-Strength Vibrator: Masturbating for Health." It's funny without making fun of those that havedevoted their lives to studying sex. Roach takes the work these people are doing seriously, while admitting all of the ridiculous stuff that you might encounter (see above: rats in pants).

If any of the stuff I've said so far interests you, I absolutely recommend you check out this book. I like Roach's style (so much so I just picked up another of her books, Stiff) and as for the topic really, who doesn't want to learn something more about sex? And it was a hit with the book club.

Gif rating:

*SIDE NOTE, have any of you watched Masters of Sex? Because you probably should. It's sort of like Mad Men, in that it's a drama that takes place in roughly the same time period. And it has Lizzy Caplan, Alison Janney, and Sarah Silverman in it.

Title quote from page 303

Roach, Mary. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Norton, 2008.