Geeks was published in 2000, which feels like a very long time ago. It is a non-fiction book about two computer-savvy young men in the 1990s who used technology to “make it possible to change their lives and alter their destiny”. Some part of this book were originally published in Rolling Stone before the book was published.
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The full title of this book is The Great Influenza – The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. I started reading it during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a book I’d been meaning to read long before COVID hit, and now seemed like a very appropriate time to start.
The influenza pandemic happened about 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic did. There are so many similarities between how people back then reacted to influenza and how people today are reacting to COVID-19.
Continue Reading “The Great Influenza – by John M. Barry”
Before the Fallout is filled with footnotes, old photos, a large index, and a glossary at the end. While parts of it do read like a narrative, the book is definitely not a work of fiction. It took me a while to read through this book, not because the information in it was difficult to process, but because there was so much detail to consider.
As such, this review is not going to cover absolutely everything that was in the book. Doing so would be tedious, and Diana Preston wrote it better than I could have. She has her sources cited in footnotes as well as in a section at the back of the book. It is an educationally enlightening read, and I learned some things that I did not know. That said, the book may be too academic for some readers.
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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is a book that I’ve been meaning to read for a long time.
What was holding me back? I had the feeling that this book would make me very angry. What little I knew about it could be summarized as: corporations and corrupt government doing bad things in secret.
It is the kind of book that will make you into a pessimist (if you aren’t already one).
Continue Reading “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – by John Perkins”
Mary Roach is the author of Stiff – the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. After writing about what happens to the human body after the person dies, it seems appropriate to write a book about what happens to the human soul after the body dies. Spook – Science Tackles the Afterlife was written in 2005.
In my opinion, the best way to read Spook is to set aside whatever religious ideas you may have about the afterlife. Go into this book with an open mind and you will definitely learn something about human nature.
Stiff – The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is an exploration of what happens to the human body after the person dies. It is not a book for people who are squeamish, or who are mourning a loved one.
I would definitely recommend Stiff to writers of mystery or crime novels, who need a good source of information about the timeline in which a cadaver decays. There are some things that people probably shouldn’t Google.
March: Book Three is the third is a series of graphic novels that provide a vivid look at the civil rights movement in the United States. Together, this trilogy gives context to the events that you may have only heard a little bit about.
The March series focuses on the life of John Lewis, who is a United States Representative who represents Georgia’s 5th District. John Lewis is a Democrat. Before you read March: Book Three, you need to read March: Book One and March: Book Two.
The March series was written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. The art was done by Nate Powell.
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March: Book Two is the second in a series of three graphic novels that provide a vivid look at the civil rights movements in the United States.
The March series focuses on the life of John Lewis, who is a United States Representative who represents Georgia’s 5th District. John Lewis is a Democrat. Before you read March: Book Two, you should read March: Book One. Doing so will make it clear what happened before the events in March: Book Two and how they led to what happens next.
The March series was written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. The art was done by Nate Powell.
Continue Reading “March: Book Two – by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell”
March: Book One is the first in a series of three graphic novels that provide context to and details about the civil rights movement in the United States.
This series provides a vivid explanation about events that you may have only heard a little about (or briefly saw photos of on social media). It’s also a great resource for people who are interested in using non-violent civil disobedience as a form of protest.
Continue Reading “March: Book One – by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell”
The history classes you took in school undoubtedly covered at least some portion of World War II. It is unlikely that your history textbooks included information about the incredibly important work that women were doing. The full title of this book is The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of The Women Who Helped Win World War II. It was written by Denise Kiernan.
Obviously, this book is non-fiction. It includes a narrative that was based on the interviews that Denise Kiernan did with several women who worked in Oak Ridge, Tennessee – a town that officially did not exist – at the Clinton Engineer Works – which also did not officially exist. Secrecy was vitally important because those who were hired were actually working on the atomic bomb. None of them knew this was what they were doing until after the bomb had been dropped.
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