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0802123554
| 9780802123558
| 0802123554
| 3.57
| 1,943
| May 05, 2015
| May 05, 2015
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it was amazing
| As they approach the gate Bethany thinks of the town, small and safe, awaiting their return. It is cloistered, claustrophobically familiar, but ma As they approach the gate Bethany thinks of the town, small and safe, awaiting their return. It is cloistered, claustrophobically familiar, but maybe—and her mother’s trembling hands return to her—mired with its own dark disturbances. It is its own kind of restive campground, in a way, its properties penciled upon common land, impinging on one another despite the fences meant to hold them apart. Huddled in that encampment are each of their families, steely cohorts within the greater clan.Old Cranbury, CT is an older, well established suburb. In the historical part of town some of its homes date from the 18th century, and still carry the names of the families who built them. Residents of those particular homes take pride in preserving their piece of history, some of them maybe a bit too much. OC is a lovely place, a mostly middle and upper-middle-class suburb. Good schools, trimmed lawns. Unlike Chester’s Mill, Wayward Pines, Royston Vasey, or the Village, you can leave if you choose, but you will want to stick around at least long enough to get through the baker’s dozen stories about the local residents in The Wonder Garden. [image] Lauren Acampora There are plenty of weeds in Lauren Acampara’s linked-stories collection, but not the stories. The tales are flower-show ready. I imagine we have all read, seen or heard groups of tales about a particular town, or location. Our Town, Spoon River (yes, yes, I know, poems, not stories), Olive Kitteridge. Now, think hard. Were any of them yuck-fests? Didn’t think so. Ditto here. It is true that most of these stories show a less than lovely side of life in Old Cranbury. The sins are far from original. Disappointment permeates. But there are rays of sunshine as well. Change is possible, at least for some. Hopes may be dashed, but not all of them, and that there are plenty to go around gives one hope that in their imagined lives, some of these folks might live to see their dreams come true. Most of the characters are just trying to make the best of their circumstances. It would not be a portrait of a town if the residents were not watering at least a garden-full of secrets. she becomes aware of the hidden, parallel world beneath the mundane. Just beneath the surface of every defunct moment—finding a spot in the supermarket parking lot, waiting at a stoplight—lurks another moment, sexual, adulterous, waiting to be chosen. It shimmers faintly, a phosphorescent arc of lighter fluid ready to catch fire, detectable only to those attuned to it. She parks the car and watches the men and women going in and out through automatic the doors. Which of them are alight, secretly smoldering?Unfaithfulness is to be expected. Some marriages are strained, while others, surprisingly, appear to be strengthened by big changes. How about wanting to violate all medical ethics to perform a very strange and intimate act? Maybe show the world the face of a concerned citizen but indulge in a bit of pointed vandalism? There is plenty of imposturing going on here. Maybe parenthood is not for everyone, including some parents? Maybe nurture fears that go well beyond the understandable? A sense of the past permeates as well. There is enough moral ambiguity through the thirteen to spark book group debates aplenty. Unlike Olive Kitteridge, there is no single character serving as a trellis on which the stories can be strung like vines. But there is considerable back and forth. Characters are woven into and out of stories like threads in a tapestry. The author likes to introduce characters in one story and offer us their names elsewhere. Acampora admits that she inserted some of the connective tissue later on in the writing process, says the links “presented themselves” to her. It is the town itself that is the organizing structure. But there are some elements that repeat. Gardens appear in many of the stories, serving diverse purposes. Another element that struck me was the characterization of the houses of OC as particularly organic. He intends to keep the bones of the house strong and its organs clean for decades to come, even as the skeletons of newer houses rise and fall around it.And there are more like these. On one level, one might even wonder, in a darker vein, whether people inhabit the town or if the town inhabits them. The homes, as might be expected, often reflect the lives of those who live within. The language of the book is at times lyrical and compelling, more effectively so for the pedestrian circumstances in which it shines: John meets the woman’s eyes again, the crystalline irises with nothing in them but confidence in the universe. He feels nearly dead in comparison, more exhausted by the moment, as if he were being depleted by her presence. It seems that there is a lack of air in this place, that the windows have been sealed shut for decades, since the long-ago children were last measured. A slow moment elapses. In the space of this pause, John feels the breath of the past, the cumulative exhalation of the house and its lost inhabitants. They seem to gather in the basement’s webbed corners, fuzzed with dust and dead skin. It strikes him that this is a last capsule of memory, that when it is swept and painted, the raw floor carpeted and windows unstuck, no trace of life will remain. The history of the house will persist only in the memories of its former residents, those far-flung stewards of dwindling, inexact images.The characters that populate Acampara’s thirteen tales are quite well realized, particularly so, considering the short form involved. The Wonder Garden is a powerful, beautifully written work of fiction. I am sure the horticultural society will approve. Review first posted – 6/12/15 Publication date – 5/5/2015 I received this volume from GR’s First reads program – thanks guys It was first recommended to me by my good, much younger, GR pal - Elyse. I am in your debt. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages The Wonder Garden found its origin in The Umbrella Bird story. Acampora completed a novel, from the perspective of the wife, Madeleine, but thought it was just not good enough. The Umbrella Bird in this collection is the primary remaining nugget from that project. Some of the supporting cast from the novel show up in the collection as well. Acampora grew up in Darien, the inspiration for The Stepford Wives, so knows her suburban towns. In visiting Darien as an adult, she found that the houses seemed almost like characters. Here is an audio interview from The Avid Reader. Beware, though. The sound quality is poor, as the host’s volume is way higher than the author’s so you will have to keep turning the volume way up and way down to keep from being knocked out of your seat. The author in an exchange with Lily King on B&N Here is one complete story from the collection, The Umbrella Bird The Wonder Garden was an Amazon Book of the Month selection for May, 2015 =============================THE STORIES Ground Fault - John Duffy is a building inspector with a perceptive eye, and a willingness to let life’s disappointments affect his work. He could probably do with a bit of self-inspection. Afterglow - Harold, a wealthy corporate raider, wants to be a part of his wife’s brain surgery in an unusual, and very intimate way The Umbrella Bird - David is fed up with his corporate nine-to-five. Fixated on building a tree house for his expected child, he finds a very different muse, and his life goes in a brand new direction. The Wonder Garden - Rosalie is a very involved, mother hen of a parent, with children in several grades of the local school. She sits on boards, hosts an exchange student, but there might be a serpent in her garden. Swarm - Martin, a tenured professor at a state university, is offered the chance of a lifetime to create an art project that would make up for the decades in which he had had to put his art aside. But what might the cost be for realizing this dream? Visa - Camille is a single mother who has found an amazing guy. They plan a wondrous vacation together. Can he possibly be for real? The Virginals - Roger and Cheryl Foster live in an 18th century house. They are heavy into the Revolutionary War period, trying to live as much like those earlier Americans as possible. But the new owners of the period house across the way do not seem quite so enthusiastic. What’s a good neighbor to do? Floortime - Career woman Suzanne Crawford is the single mother of a boy who appears to be on the autism spectrum. This would present a challenge to most parents, but if one’s maternal instincts are on the low end, the problem looms larger. Sentry - when her neighbor’s child is left unattended for a prolonged time, Helen Tanner invites her in, to hang out a while, then a while longer, then… Elevations - Mark and Harris own an antiques shop. They share a lovely home. But they may want different things out of life. Aether - Some young people from OC are at a music festival when something goes terribly wrong. Moon Roof - Lois Hatfield, on her way to a party thrown by her husband’s boss, gets caught at an intersection and cannot decide when to go. Wampum - uneasy at a party thrown by the local one-percenters, Michael succumbs to a bit of paranoia, with dangerous results. ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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May 13, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
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Hardcover
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0812981820
| 9780812981827
| 0812981820
| 3.66
| 8,146
| Jun 12, 2012
| Jun 04, 2013
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it was amazing
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One of the things we enjoy most about spy stories is when a non-pro gets caught up in international intrigue. Richard Hannay in The Thirty Nine Steps
One of the things we enjoy most about spy stories is when a non-pro gets caught up in international intrigue. Richard Hannay in The Thirty Nine Steps (The film, of course. Yes, I know he was an intel-guy in the book) and Roger Thornhill [image] Robert Donat as Hannay in Hitchcock’s classic in North by Northwest pop immediately to mind. While our everyman in Mission to Paris may not exactly be just anyone, Frederic Stahl, a B-list movie star in Paris for a shoot, is, by virtue of his profession, a person of influence. (I see Mads Mikkelsen as Frederic, and yes, I know he is Danish) It is 1938, and Paris is a place where influence and propaganda are manifestations of war by other means. Stahl is targeted by the Nazi propaganda machine, looking to use his renown to help put a reassuring face on their particular brand of unpleasantness. Baronness Maria Von Reschke, the dragon lady hostess of a local and notorious salon, invites him to stop by and hob nob with the rich and Hitlerian. When she is not busy ordering the help around, she passes the time facilitating Nazi intel activities in France. [image] No introductions necessary We know what lies ahead, and most of the characters in the story know what is coming, but no one can prevent the inevitable. However, the Americanized Stahl (born in Austria to an Austrian mother and Slovenian father, but now a Tinsel Town resident), eager to prove his loyalty, is responsive when the American consul asks for his help. He accepts the odd Reichian offer or two at the behest of the diplomat, hoping to use the users to good purpose. Furst populates his tales with an array of fun characters and MtP is no exception. There are bug-eyed Nazi fanatics, contract killers, kidnappers, a Russian intel source, a honey-pot siren, and an entire, colorful cast for the film Stahl is actually making. I quite enjoyed this lineup. There is even a legit love interest for our hero. [image] Mads about Paris? One of the things Furst does best is create a feel for the time and place. And he is particularly fond of Paris. You will have no trouble at all mentally slapping on a beret, lighting up a Galoise and heading out for a nice bowl of potage du l'oignon. We are also treated to a few sidetrips. These include Berlin, a filming in Morocco, along with a bit of intrigue and a murder, another location shoot in Hungary, with a resident count (no, not that one) and a few more for good measure. All the locales are fun in their own way. Furst is economical and effective in depicting place and setting moods, in this case imminent peril, rising international tension, and, on occasion, romance. There is only the rare bit of comic relief in Mission to Paris, but I warn you there is one scene near the end that might cause you to shoot your Moët out your nose. [image] The author Mission to Paris is hardly high literature, but it does not pretend to be. It is a historical spy novel that offers a bit of intel on what was going on at the time. You will definitely learn a thing or two, and get a feel for the political atmosphere of Paris during the buildup to World War II. The politics of funding the Maginot Line is fascinating. The pretext used by the Nazis to organize Krystallnacht is alarming, and will feel familiar. Some detail on the use of sand in Parisian war preparations is surprising. And a very personal motivation for the Warner Brothers Studio’s antipathy to De Fuehrer comes into play. Mostly, though, Mission to Paris is top notch entertainment, a classic, rip-roaring spy novel that you will put down only grudgingly, maybe if you spot someone in the shadows pointing a luger at your head. And while it makes a perfect summer read, I see it more as filling a rainy autumn afternoon, ingested with a warm cup of your favorite liquid at hand, as you race through the pages, a throw over your lap and legs, a fire in a hearth, and if you are very, very lucky, an eyeful of tower in your line of sight. Mission to Paris is the twelfth volume in Furst’s Night Soldiers series. I received this book through the Goodreads Review first posted – July 11, 2014 Publication date - 7/4/2013 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal and FB pages Here is a wonderful piece on Furst in the Wall Street Journal. Definitely worth a look. Wall Street Journal NY Times profile of Furst from 2008 ...more |
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Jun 28, 2014
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Jul 02, 2014
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Jun 28, 2014
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Paperback
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1460208935
| 9781460208939
| 1460208935
| 4.44
| 16
| Aug 21, 2012
| Oct 17, 2013
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liked it
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In Communications: From Pheromones to the Internet and Beyond, Max Swanson, a long-time researcher with Atomic Energy of Canada, and physics prof at t
In Communications: From Pheromones to the Internet and Beyond, Max Swanson, a long-time researcher with Atomic Energy of Canada, and physics prof at the U of North Carolina, offers a wide-ranging overview of communication, from unicellular beasties to complex organisms, from humans to machines, from proximate to distant, from the physical to the abstract, from then to now and from now to the future. Along the way he looks at communication as it pertains to religion, politics, education, government and marketing. He casts an eye on self and spiritual communication as well. He has clearly given the subject a lot of thought and presents myriad ways in which communication occurs, including, but not limited to sight, touch, sound, feel, language and even ways of communication that might not seem obvious, such as DNA. There are significant and valid points raised here. One is the importance of education for females. Another is the danger of concentrating media control in too few hands. Yet another looks at the historical experience of nations that base their education systems on testing to the exclusion of all else. I had very mixed feelings about Communication. It is unclear to me who the intended audience is. It comes across as equal parts fascinating and obvious. There are plenty of jaw-dropping items, where you are pleading for Swanson to tell you more, tucked in between sections that make one want to wonder aloud "yeah, and?" Here is one of the latter, on the relative merits of information vs misinformation. Wild swings in the stock markets and the global economy are due in large part to panic or euphoria caused by inadvisable spin of financial news, whether good or bad. On the other hand, timely worldwide flow of information facilitates the realistic evaluation of news, the distribution of goods, the coordination of health maintenance, and timely warnings of disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.Duh-uh. However, as a springboard for investigation of its composite elements Communication is marvelous. Have a class of 12th graders read this and there is huge potential that each will come across something that stimulates their curiosity. They won't so much be able to satisfy it here as be prompted to a journey that might lead somewhere exciting, even if they do that search on handheld communication devices, and have to occasionally be zapped with tasers whenever they text someone or resume that game of Angry Birds. Here is one of the fun items: In Egypt, thousands of years before the Christian era, giant obelisks may have provided a unique and innovative long-range communication system. By striking these obelisks, priests in Luxor and other religious centers could have created resonant sounds heard many kilometers away.If you are thinking, as I did, that this sounds like a fab idea for an action/adventure novel, sorry, it has already been taken. Damn! Maybe as an element in a video game? And another: Most humans are capable of hearing sounds with a frequency between 20 hertz ad 20,000 hertz (cycles per second) and volume greater than 5-15 decibels. [Are decibels digital temptresses?] Hearing is best in the frequency range between 1,000 and 5,000 hertz. Some very low frequency sounds cannot be consciously heard, but are accompanied by a vague feeling of unease when in their presence. This feeling may be associated with the phenomenon of ghosts.Seems like he buried the lead there, slipping in an item we could use a bit more on, but it is off to the next topic straight away. I am sorry to report that much of Communication reads like a text book, and is sorely lacking in the sort of humor that someone like Mary Roach brings to science to grease the intellectual in-ports. But there are also many fun items to be found here, no question. The issue is balancing the delight of taking in the juicy bits with the not-so-exciting other elements. Bottom line for me is that I am glad I read it. I learned some new things, which is like heroine to me, and that made trudging through the rest an acceptable cost. It might be for you too. This review is cross-posted at Cootsreviews.com Posted April 11, 2014 I received this book through the GR FirstReads program. ...more |
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Mar 21, 2014
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Apr 02, 2014
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Mar 21, 2014
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Paperback
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0812994787
| 9780812994780
| 0812994787
| 4.01
| 13,820
| Jul 01, 2014
| Jul 01, 2014
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really liked it
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We arrive in this world connected, to people, to places, to cultures. Just because we move on with our lives, emotionally, intellectually, or geograph
We arrive in this world connected, to people, to places, to cultures. Just because we move on with our lives, emotionally, intellectually, or geographically, this does not mean that our connections are all left behind. In Mira Jacob’s debut novel, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, her characters all struggle with connections, to each other, to their past, to their culture, and ultimately to themselves. For some that struggle includes a connection to reality. The story looks at three places, India, Albuquerque and Seattle, and three times, the late 70s, early 80s and 1998. When we meet the Eapen family, in 1979, they are visiting the place and family they had left, in Salem, India. Thomas Eapen, a surgeon, had sought a better life for his wife and children in America. Home still has power, though, and his mother, also a physician, tries her best to persuade her son to remain. We meet the family members who had remained, and see some of the strains that might lead one to seek a life elsewhere. The motherland still has a hold, though, and Thomas’s wife Kamala, would like nothing more than to remain. Amina Eapen is a photographer, working in Seattle in 1998. She had been a successful photojournalist, but has stepped back from that for reasons I will not go into here, and is now shooting events. Amina has a gift for capturing telling moments and is our camera into the history and struggles of the Eapen family. Dr. Thomas Eapen is seriously ill, seeing things that are not there, talking to people who are long dead. It has affected his work. When his wife calls Amina, she returns home to Albuquerque. Eapen’s illness is the maguffin for examining the experience of the Eapen family. In addition to the strain of emigrating from India and constructing a new life on the other side of the world, the Eapens suffered a huge loss. We learn early on that Amina’s brother, Akhil, died young. The story goes to the early 1980s, where we see Amina and her brother in school, beginning to have relationships, struggling to grow up. Akhil shows some odd behavior, sleeping for vast stretches, falling asleep in inappropriate situations, believing that something glorious is in store for him if only he can complete a particular task. It is not entirely clear whether this is eccentricity or a condition, and neurosurgeon Thomas dismisses it. [image] The author - from her web site So, there is a bit of mystery here. What happened to Akhil? What is going on with Thomas? It also takes some time to learn why it was that Amina stepped away from photojournalism. It is in peeling back the layers of those stories that we learn about the characters. There is a bit of romance as well, but, thankfully, it does not at all take away from the story. While this is not a laugh-out-loud sort of read, there are plenty of light, even delightful moments that will make you smile. Of course, there are very sad ones as well Much is made of attachment to place. When Thomas cedes his ownership rights to a family property in India there is a direct connection to be made to a story to which Amina is connected, of Native Americans in the northwest ceding land to the extant society in return for the hope that a large amount of cash can improve their lives. There are also smaller scale elements relating to territory. To live in the Eapen’s house was to acknowledge the sharpness of invisible borders, the separations that had divided it like two countries since 1983. It had been years since Amina had seen her mother wade into the yellow light of her father’s porch, and as far as she knew, Thomas had never once crossed the gate into Kamala’s garden.One of the connections made is in the similarities between the old world and the new, between generations. Just as Thomas’s mother schemes to try to keep him in India, Amina’s mother schemes to try to keep her in New Mexico. Just as Thomas’s brother spoke to people who were not there in India, Thomas holds his own conversations with the dead in America. Both Thomas and Akhil balk at the limitations inherent in their conditions. Food is used as a way for old and new to connect Cooking was a talent of her mother’s that Amina often thought of as evolutionary, a way for Kamala to survive herself with friendships intact. Like plumage that expanded to rainbow an otherwise unremarkable bird. Kamala’s ability to transform raw ingredients into sumptuous meals brought her the kind of love her personality on its own might have repelled.Bonds are made through feeding as a way of loving. Another element is secrecy. Amina maintains a private cache of her special photographs, non-commercial ones that epitomize her skill at catching important moments. Thomas keeps his medical situation secret, and a few other things besides. And that ties in to feeling like an outsider, whether one is a native in a land now dominated by European invaders, or a new arrival in America, whether one is a black sheep in a family or an ostracized teen at school. Amina has a wonderful relationship with her cousin, the wonderfully named Dimple, and there is a supportive, non-parental adult, the cool aunt, Sanji, who is able to bridge the gap between the young and the not so young, offering understanding and support, along with adult wisdom. As for the sleepwalking element, there is a character who literally sleepwalks, and his connection to dancing is revealed at the end. Thomas’s visions might be seen as a form of sleepwalking. Akhil has big issues with sleep, but sleepwalking is not among them. And there are other characters who see things that are not there, which may be a form of sleepwalking. There is a mention in the book of a sleepwalker’s disregard for her surroundings. It is unclear if the author is suggesting that we are all sleepwalkers in a way, or that we should pay more attention to our effects on the world, or should attend to our visions. Did not get it. Doesn't matter though. There is plenty to go with here, even if one is not able to cross every thematic t or dot every metaphorical i. Gripes? I would have liked to have seen more, well anything actually, on the Eapen family’s experience when they had first moved to the USA. We only get to see them once they are already settled. Amina is engaging, definitely worth caring about. Family is family is family, whether the family in question is from India or Indiana, and you are sure to recognize some folks in Amina’s clan who remind you of members of yours. The story is interesting. One gets a strong sense of the warmth and humor as well as the struggles inherent in these multigenerational family connections. Awake or asleep, the music is playing here, and it wouldn't hurt to step out onto the dance floor for a while. I received this book through GR’s First Reads program – thanks guys! Review first posted – April 25, 2014 Pub date – July 2014 [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Mira Jacob co-authored Kenneth Cole’s autobio, wrote VH-1’s Pop-Up Video, and was a co-founder of Pete’s Reading Series, at Pete’s Candy Store, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a venue where authors have been reading their work to appreciative audiences for over a decade. She is married to academy award nominated documentarian, Jed Rothstein. They live, with their son, in Brooklyn. Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages The Eapen family are Syrian or Saint Thomas Christians. This Christian sect was news to me. The wiki entry is pretty interesting. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 17, 2014
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Apr 16, 2014
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Mar 17, 2014
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Hardcover
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0385348681
| 9780385348683
| 0385348681
| 3.64
| 363
| Jan 01, 2014
| May 20, 2014
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really liked it
| Realism has its limitationsDon’t I know. But after reading Joseph Hallinan’s Kidding Ourselves, you will find a way to get rid of those extra poun Realism has its limitationsDon’t I know. But after reading Joseph Hallinan’s Kidding Ourselves, you will find a way to get rid of those extra pounds; you will finally step up and demand that raise you have been denied for the last several years; you will ask out that person you have had your eye on for so long; you will give up that nasty habit, you know the one; and you will finally get around to writing that book. All you have to do is want it enough, and think positively. Yeah, right. We have been fed a steady diet of positive thinkology from Norman Vincent Peale to Professor Harold Hill to Tony Robbins, from cultish directions like EST, and from con artists from Ponzi to Madoff. [image][image] Ponzi – old and new Barbara Ehrenreich, in Bright-Sided, pulled back the curtain on a lot of the sort of scamming that the think-positive sorts have been inflicting on us all. I share her views on this stuff. Most of the see-no-evil promulgators seek little more than to divert our attention from the real societal causes of many of our maladies, and in doing so pad their own pockets. Most of us, for example, are not struggling financially because we got too little education, the wrong sort of education, are lazy, unfocused, not good enough, not beautiful or strong enough, or are bad people who deserve what happens to us. It is because the rich SOBs who run the world decided to steal more than they already had, and have the power to make government hold us down while they go through our pockets, and then demand that we thank them for the privilege. Blaming the victim is a national, no, a global past-time, and urging people to believe that the fault is in them and that if they just had a better attitude they would succeed, is the sort of tangy Kool Aid that people like Jim Jones have been peddling for a long time. This is all to say that I approached the book with a full magazine of attitude and an itchy finger. So, is this guy another in a long line of con artists trying to blame the victim? Turns out, not so much. At ease, soldier. [image] Joseph T. Hallinan - image from Amazon Joseph T. Hallinan is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who reported for the Wall Street Journal, has written on the prison system, and wrote a 2009 popular psychology look at some of our many imperfections as human beings, the how and why we are the way we are, Why We Make Mistakes. Hallinan’s latest, Kidding Ourselves, a relatively short book (210 pps in my proof), looks at a narrow range of human behavior, although it does manage to cover a fairly wide swath of human (and sometimes non-human) experience. He is not so much promoting the notion of looking on the sunny side of life as taking a pop-psych microscope to the behavior itself. He breaks down the many ways in which homo sap practices self-delusion, and it is not exactly all positive. Health-wise, he offers evidence that one’s attitude definitely matters. Expecting a positive outcome has measurable palliative results, independent of the pharmacological benefit of drugs or procedures applied to a medical problem. The obverse is true as well, expecting the worst can often bring it about. One really can die from, say, hypochondria, or a broken heart. Depression does cause physical harm to those who experience it. Hallinan looks into the relationship between our perceptions and reality. You know that right-wing uncle who insists that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim? You showed him all the evidence, right? And the result? He absolutely refused to accept the facts, clinging instead to his attitudes. I’d want to smack him too. Hallinan looks into this and offers an explanation for this seemingly inexplicable dedication to ignorance. The book is about how we need to feel some control in our lives, almost more than anything else, whether it is that the cross-walk sign might flash “Walk” sooner in response to our pressing a button, whether it is that we can, through wise investing, control our financial future, or whether we believe that by repeating some ritual behavior we might therefore succeed in some endeavor. And we kid ourselves in order to be able to feel that there is something, anything, that is under our control. Otherwise we feel completely hopeless and the implications of that are not good. One result of this is that the confidence we gain from our beliefs, regardless of their basis in reality, can sometimes make the difference between success and failure, improvement or relapse, life or death. This is, as noted, a short book, so one does not expect a deep, heavily detailed scientific treatise. It is pop-psychology, written by a journalist, not a scientist, meant for readers like you and me. That said, my antennae started to vibrate a time or three when I felt that the analysis was particularly, and problematically blindered. For example, Hallinan cites surveys of public attitudes regarding taxation that shows a persistent degree of dissatisfaction despite changes in rates over time. Problem is that the rate change under study is the top marginal tax rate, the rate paid by the highest wage-earners. Most people are not affected by this, so why would their attitude change at all? And given that taxes on working and middle class wage-earners had not dropped, and may even have gone up over the time span covered in the study, it is no surprise that general attitudes toward taxation would have seen little change. Another section looks at the persistence of false beliefs, as if they exist in a vacuum. How could so many people persistently believe something unsupported by facts?Fuh real? How dim are you guys? Have you never heard of the 24/7 Lie Network at Fox, the masses of newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, or Clear Channel broadcasting, right-wing radio, and the gazillions of know-nothing web-sites that sprout like algal blooms in the path of agricultural runoff, or the deliberately provocative product firehosed across the internet by Russia? Sure, people will cling to nonsense in the absence of such assistance, but when it is blasted into your brain constantly, it will have an impact. So yeah, it does seem sometimes that the author has been a bit blind to some obvious real-world factors, which is ironic, as he points out the bias inherent in some well-known scientists here as well. But he does offer quite a few examples of real scientific studies that indicate that sometimes mind-over-matter really….um…matters. Not, of course, in other-worldly sorts of manifestations, like making that missing limb grow back, or altering the immediate balance in your bank account. But to the extent that confidence comes into play, and it does come into play quite a bit, it might not hurt to accentuate the positive, Whistle a Happy Tune, hum a little Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah or channel a small, very, very small dose of Stuart Smalley. You may be a loser, a 97 pound weakling, too fat, too skinny, too old, too young, too tall, too short, but the extra boost that confidence, fueled by religion, superstition, and downright nonsense injects really can make a difference in many of life’s outcomes. He makes a case that self-delusion, as a defense against hopelessness, is a crucial element in what it means to be human, and that it has provided actual evolutionary advantages. It may be that to err is human, but it would appear equally human to convince ourselves that we were right all along. Hallinan maintains that self-delusion not only exists across all human cultures but is present in animal psychology as well. Rats kid themselves too. There will always be a danger that the limited range covered in this book will be taken by the con artists of the world as being more than it is and be presented as an “I told you so.” It isn’t. It is specific, illuminating and fascinating. I kid you not. This book was received via GR's First Reads program - Thanks, folks Review first posted in March 2014 =============================EXTRA STUFF I did not find a web-site for the author unadorned, but here is one for his earlier book, Why We Make Mistakes. Here is a wiki on a 1986 essay by philosopher Henry G. Frankfurt that seems germane, On Bullshit And a few more musical links that fit right in, from Stevie Wonder, George Michael, and The Monkees. So many more could work here. In Salon, an excerpt from an interesting book by Oliver Burkeman, Positive Thinking is for Suckers October 22, 2014 - A NY Times article, What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set, by Bruce Grierson, looks at the work done by psychologist Ellen Langer on aging and other medical issues. Fascinating stuff. ...more |
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B00BFTDHV4
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really liked it
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Benjamin Mills was born in December 1993. His body seemed to be developing normally over the next year, but all was not right. Soon after his first bi
Benjamin Mills was born in December 1993. His body seemed to be developing normally over the next year, but all was not right. Soon after his first birthday, he was diagnosed with autism. Ron Mills and his wife, Sara, had been handed a parenting burden far in excess of that which most of us must contend with, and far greater than most could handle. Their marriage, strained further by Ron’s depression at the death of his father, and no doubt by chronic sleep deprivation and financial woes, failed. But one thing that did not fail was the love Ron and Sara had for their son, and their dedication to do whatever they could to help him. [image]When Ben was five, he developed a particular affection for a Sorcerer Mickey Mouse doll and a corresponding fondness for Disney films, well, parts of them anyway. It was the beginning of what would become a lifelong relationship for Ben. He even managed to learn how to use the VCR in order to play his favorite parts, over and over and over and over. His first sort-of words were neither “Mama”, “Dada”, “More”, or even “No”. They were fill-ins to omitted words in the song The Bare Necessities that Ron would sing to him. Later, Ben listened to Disney music through his headphones as a way to drown out the overwhelmingness of his surroundings. Given his love for things Disney, Ron and Sara wondered how he might fare with a trip to Disneyworld. It turned out to be, for Ben, the happiest place on earth. Not all black and white. There were a few bumps. But, Ben came alive there as he had nowhere else. Months later, after enduring all sorts of disruption from Ben: I would think about his maddening behaviors, and then think about the Ben that I had seen skipping his way through the Magic Kingdom, and I began to wonder if he actually belonged there.Ron and Sara considered a drastic measure. Kinda tough to give your kid the Disney experience if you are living in Seattle and the park is located diagonally across the continent. It may be a small world, but it’s not that small. Despite being divorced, despite the strains of having to find two new places to live, and two new jobs, and despite there being no guarantee that the magic of his Disney experience would not vanish in a puff of theatrical smoke, Ron and Sara decided to take one more trip, just to make certain, and after that worked out, they moved to Orlando. I have my issues with the Disney corporation. All is not magical in the Magic Kingdom. But there is a place and a time, and this will not be the place or time where I discuss some of the more maleficent leanings of the Monstro-size Disney corporation. For today, and for the gaze we cast on 3500 we will put that aside and go all hakuna matata. Don’t worry. I haven’t gone entirely soft. But for now we will accentuate the positive. Ben became a regular at Walt Disney World, with a particular attachment to Snow White’s Scary Adventure ride. Not an attachment like you or I might indulge in, but a serious, and repetitive attachment. He rode the ride several times every time he went to the park, and his parents took him there very often. Bring Ben to WDW was a form of immersive therapy for Ben, and his behavior took a definite turn for the better. The WDW staff came to recognize him and supported him in diverse ways. There are some particularly moving episodes Mills relates in which the “cast member” employees and management go out of their way to make Ben’s experience a magical one. Snow White held a special place in his heart and when the “cast member” in the role engaged him in person, he was agog. [image] Ben as a teen, with Snow - from the author’s site Ron Mills’ story is a straight ahead narrative, this, then that, and then the other. He has a fluid style and is very easy to read. You will zip-a-dee-doo-dah through 3500 quickly. Telling the story was the goal here, and it has been accomplished. I enjoyed the book. It is a moving chronicle. If I have a gripe about 3500 (you knew there had to be at least one, right?) it is that the volume of information offered on autism, per se, and not just Ben’s experience, is about as thin as Cruella Deville. I do understand that Mills is writing as a caring parent and not as a scientist, but one would think that Ben’s story would have offered an excellent opportunity to teach the rest of us something more about this challenging condition. I wondered, for example, about what the latest theories might be as to causation, what treatment modalities were considered. Are there any research projects afoot that might hold a key to understanding cases and treatment? While Walt Disney World, the Disney corporation and many of the exceptionally kind and caring people who work in the Disney organization went out of their way to help Benjamin Mills, it shines through that the real Magic Kingdom here was the one constructed by Ben’s parents and caregivers. Really, would you move across the country, alongside your ex, on such an enterprise? Love continues long after the theme park rides end, and the gates close. Love and patience, in Jumbo-sized quantities, are what it takes to help an autistic child cope in a world that is not nearly understanding enough. Have some tissues at the ready, particularly when Ben is the last rider on Snow White’s Scary Adventure, before the ride is closed forever. You will most definitely be moved by this magical tale. I received this book via GR’s First Reads program Review first posted – January 7, 2014 It has been cross-posted on Cootsreviews.com =============================EXTRA STUFF You can find more information on Ron’s experience with Ben on the web site that he and his wife run, the unfortunately named Shmoolok.com Definitely check out the Good Day Sacramento video interview on the media page there. ...more |
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Jan 03, 2014
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0307269876
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| 3.85
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really liked it
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Scott Stossel has a problem, anxiety. Big-time. Had it all his life. Think decades of therapy of the talk and chemical varieties. But, he has also had
Scott Stossel has a problem, anxiety. Big-time. Had it all his life. Think decades of therapy of the talk and chemical varieties. But, he has also had a successful career as a journalist, and is currently the editor of the Atlantic magazine. Anxiety, when it’s not debilitating, can bring with it certain gifts: a heightened awareness of your environment; more sensitive social antennae; a general prudence about risk-taking; a spur toward achievement. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard believed that the greater the anxiety, the greater the opportunity for growth. I think there’s definitely something to that—though when my anxiety is at its worst I’d trade away the opportunity for growth in exchange for the anxiety dissipating. (from the Bookpage Interview)Just what is anxiety? What causes it? What are its effects on individuals and society? How has it been viewed historically? What might be done about it? Stossel sets out to look at these and other questions. The wrinkle here is that he uses his personal lifelong battle with anxiety as a lens through which to examine the various understandings that have been put forth about this condition and the treatments that have been tried over time. The historical and analytical elements are fascinating reading, but relating the information to his personal struggle makes Stossel’s a very human approach. [image] Scott Stossel If getting definitive answers to questions is important to you, and not getting such answers makes you uncomfortable, anxious even, you probably should pass on reading My Age of Anxiety. If, however, you enjoy the mental stimulation of seeing the history of how medical science and society at large has viewed what we, today, call “anxiety”, then this significant work should offer you the palliation you require. So, what is anxiety? Stossel’s response reminded me of Tevye’s, in Fiddler on the Roof, to the question of why the Jewish people maintain certain traditions. “I’ll tell you. I don’t know. But it’s a tradition.” Stossel does not break out into song, but offers a comparable explanation, at least to begin. If Freud himself, anxiety’s patron saint, couldn’t define the concept, how am I supposed to?Even contemporary investigations with the highest of tech have not been able to pin it down definitively. There are even different schools of thought over where the primary cause of anxiety lies. Is it in the electromagnetic functioning of the brain, or in the swath of chemicals that also make up our biology. Charmingly, these two camps are referred to as “Sparks” and “Soups.” Is anxiety genetically determined? There really is a thing that researchers call the Woody Allen gene. [image] From Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex Anxiety has offered fodder for cinematic investigation, both serious and satirical, an area that did not receive much attention here. But one could be forgiven for believing that Hollywood product seems to exist, in large measure, in order to instill fear in the population. “Be afraid. Be very afraid.“ The release of Jaws certainly gave many an unwarranted fear of being slurped down by a mega-fishy. There is both the Hitchcockian treatment of acrophobia and Mel Brooks’ somewhat lighter take, depending on whether you prefer your anxiety high or low. And of course newspapers do all they can to flog fear as a means of pushing product. There are enough cop, medical, serial killer and zombie programs on the tube to provide plenty of fodder for nurturing our nervousness. Maybe it is the minority of us who are immune to this constant barrage of market-driven promotion of paranoia. Is it any wonder people are so afraid of so many things? [image][image] Both images found on Wikimedia Do drugs and the ad campaigns of big pharma create more anxiety? Stossel looks into this possibility. Despite the real benefits of some of the products made by large pharmaceutical companies, maybe big pharma is something we should be frightened of. Lest one think Stossel has written a completely dry, scientific, or at least reportorial investigation, you should know that in talking about one of his primary personal miseries, emetophobia, or fear of vomiting, he does seem to take on a bit of a Mary Roach persona while describing some very painful and embarrassing personal experiences. My scatologically-inclined inner twelve-year-old was giddy at times. [image] An out of body experience When Stossel writes of shyness and stage fright, I was whisked back to my early youth, kindergarten or first grade. A school performance. I stood at center stage and recited, “Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater…” I got through the words, but by the time I walked off stage, my trousers had acquired considerable extra moisture. It got better. I had battles with anxiety over the years as an adult as well. Not nearly to the degree that Stossel did. There was a time when I was so burdened with anxiety that my armpits would become viciously inflamed. Not exactly something that might land one in a hospital, for sure. But pain-enforced arms akimbo is not a normal way to present oneself to the world this side of a workout vid. It jars when one is in a suit and tie. It does not matter what caused this somatization. No one turned me into a newt. It did get better. This pales before the travails endured by the author, nearly bolting from his own wedding out of terror that he would boot his lunch, throwing sports matches just to get off the court and stop worrying that he might toss his cookies in public. His anxieties did not make for a happy adolescence in the already terrifying world of dating. (There is plenty more. Read the book to find out just how fortunate you really are.) But I do understand at least a bit, on a very personal level, how anxiety can be physically debilitating. So the book held definite appeal. I imagine that many of us have suffered from anxiety of one sort or another, in varying intensities. It can’t hurt to learn a bit more about where this particular form (or more properly, range of forms) of misery originates. One of the treatments Stossel looks at (and experienced himself) is a thing called exposure therapy. Basically one must confront the thing one fears most over and over until one internalizes the fact that the thing one fears will not do the damage one imagines. It is Mary Roach territory again when he writes of his own exposure therapy treatment, and its effect on those treating him. I can imagine, however that this might not be a particularly helpful approach were one’s fear something like, say, emasculation, or being hit by a car. (or maybe such approaches might be - see Gina's comment #33) He writes of the fascinating connection between the brain and the stomach. Those who suffer from anxiety also have issues with control-freakishness. It was news to learn that there is even a standardized scale for measuring this. That it is called Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale does not give one great confidence in the intent of its designer. There is a wonderful section on blushing. Those of us who are always on the lookout for Darwinian understandings of human behavior will definitely perk up at this. And speaking of Darwin, his is one of many household names Stossel cites as prolonged and acute anxiety sufferers. There is also an enlightening passage on how we get the word panic from the Greek god Pan. You will learn a bunch of nifty new words, well, probably new to you. I know a lot were new to me. Fox News troll John Stossel is Scott’s uncle, so it is clear that there is definitely something sinister swimming about in the family gene pool. At least that particular strain does not seem to have afflicted Scott. His younger sister, Sage, an artist, not only suffers considerably from anxiety, she also just published a book that deals with it, Starling. Thanksgiving must be interesting at Stossel family gatherings. I have one particular gripe about the book and it has to do with physical format. The volume I read was an ARE, so formatting may be different in the final, hard cover edition. But in the volume I read, the page count comes in at 337. No big whoop, even if it is a dense read, and it can be. But the sheer volume of footnotes at the bottom of pages is such that it felt much, much longer. (Maybe call them feetnotes?) There are pages that consist of three lines of actual primary text and what seemed vast, unending streams of subsidiary material in print that seemed to call for an electron microscope. I became almost phobic about turning the page. God knows how much more footnote was lurking there, determined to triple the time it would normally take me to completely read a page. And it should be pretty clear that one of my personal tics is a need to read all the footnotes. And they are definitely worth reading. What I wish though, is that the author had found a way to incorporate that very interesting material into the text of the book itself, at a human-friendly font-size, and let us know up front how long the book really is. It felt like a bit of a cheat to me, stuffing so much material in through that particular back door. If it is really a five or six hundred page book, fine, I’m a big boy. I can handle it. But don’t tell me it’s 337, then cram in another 200 pps of material. Grrrrr. That said, if you do not share my footnote-reading compulsion, it will be a much quicker read for you, but you will miss out on a lot of fascinating stuff. So maybe the solution here is to just tell yourself that the book is maybe 50% longer than the page number indicates and adjust your expectations accordingly. It took a lot of work and a lot of guts for Stossel to expose his personal struggles to public view. Reading My Age of Anxiety may not do anything to remove your particular fears, phobias, neuroses or anxieties, but it may at least offer some comfort from the knowledge that one’s difficulty is unlikely to be unique, that anxiety, like death, taxes, corruption and bloody-minded stupidity has ever been with us, that one suffers in the company of some of the greatest minds humanity has ever produced, that there is likely some relief to be had chemically, and that there can be real personal and social benefit from having at least some anxiety. Unless your fears have to do with reading very informative looks at widespread human problems, works in which the reportage incorporates the personal to illuminate the universal, you might want to risk taking a peek at My Age of Anxiety. There is nothing to be afraid of. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages NY Times article about Scott and sister Sage publishing books at the same time, about the same subject, although very differently Bookpage interview This was named one of Oprah’s 17 books to pick up in January Stossel on Colbert, a fun interview. August 2, 2017 - NY Times - My $1,000 Anxiety Attack - by JoAnna Novak In case you missed the link in the review, here's Mel singing High Anxiety ...more |
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Nov 15, 2013
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Jan 08, 2014
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Nov 15, 2013
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1453297944
| 9781453297940
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| 3.54
| 1,019
| Sep 17, 2013
| Sep 17, 2013
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really liked it
| Whenever I saw Salinger’s novels or story collections on my friends’ bookshelves, or when I heard authors…talk about how much they admired the guy, I Whenever I saw Salinger’s novels or story collections on my friends’ bookshelves, or when I heard authors…talk about how much they admired the guy, I wondered how those books could have influenced them so greatly. I wondered too how Mr. Salinger—in seclusion for more than forty years in Cornish, New Hampshire—felt about the readers who admired his work. If somehow knowing he had touched Hinckley and Chapman and, later, Jared Lee Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, had convinced him that escaping society had been the right move. I wondered how it would feel to write something—a story, a novel, an article—that would inspire someone to change his or her life for better or worse.There are questions raised in The Salinger Contract about where the responsibility of the author leaves off. Would Salinger have written his books had he known they would inspire murderous lunatics? Would it have made any difference at all? Maybe those sorts would have just found the same inspiration somewhere else, and the rest of us might have been deprived of some pretty good reading. The question becomes less than academic here. [image] The Reclusive One Another notion is causality in writing. In an interview with Alexandria Symonds in InterviewMagazine.com, after talking about a proposal by a Hollywood sort that he write a new version of Murder, She Wrote, Langer says: It's such a cliché to have the writer who writes about crime turn around and solve them. I thought that was a lame idea, and I didn't write anything for him, but it did occur to me to completely reverse the polarity on it and come up with an idea of a writer whose books become the basis for crimes.Ever wonder why famous writers vanish during periods we believe to have been creatively fallow? Langer did, and offers one possible answer. Conner Joyce is a writer of crime fiction. But sales are not improving, as attested by the light turnouts on his book tour, and sliding sales. His family finances are not what they should be and his marriage is not exactly the steadiest. So, when a mysterious billionaire, Dex Dunford, offers him a considerable sum to write a novel just for him, and for him alone, Conner is tempted. I had friends who were fairly prominent in the literary world who would meet some guy who did not have an apparently interesting life story but who would say, "I will give you double what you normally make for your book. Write my life story." And if you don't have a trust fund or residuals, it becomes a very tempting sort of offer. - from the Symonds interviewOf course, as with any such deal, there are conditions, secrecy being prime among them. Dex comes complete with a large bodyguard/enforcer named Pavel Bilski. (think a larger version of Steven Bauer as Avi on Ray Donovan, then add a few inches and fifty pounds), so telling would be a definite no-no. One of the things Langer is addressing here is the notion of the boundaries between art and reality. Where one leaves off and the other begins takes concrete form when Langer casts himself as a character in the art he creates. This technique is hardly novel here, calling to mind, among many others, Charlie Kaufman in The Orchid Thief /Adaptation, Jonathan Ames of Bored to Death, Dante as a visitor to several realms in tales that range from the infernal to the paradisiacal, and John Fowles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Langer, the character, had had a bit of time in the limelight while running a New York based literary magazine. He was known for the many interviews he had conducted, and profiles written of authors. Things in the publishing industry being what they are these days, Langer, the character, finds himself trying to work on his personal writing projects while serving as a house-spouse in Bloomington, Indiana, where his wife is teaching at a university, the Lit mag having gone the way of many publications. Real Adam was a senior editor of Book Magazine until it folded. Fictional Langer had written a profile of Joyce back in the day and when the author makes a book-tour stop in Bloomington, the two get together. Langer, the character, is the eyepiece through which we see Conner’s experience, which is the primary plot track. [image] Adam Langer – the real one One of the fun elements in the book is the author’s look at the publishing industry, offering payload on the significance of literary whales, some detail on the experience of book touring, intel on top editors, and the sort of portrait one might expect of a popular author of junk books. Particularly fun was Dex talking about the household name authors who had taken him up on his offer over the years. While you may get a chuckle here or there, this is not a laugh-out-loud sort of satire, but a darker, substantive look at questions that matter in the world of writing and publishing. I enjoyed it for that as much as anything. There are also larger issues in play; what is truth and what is fiction, what are we willing to do for money, what responsibility do authors have for what readers do with their work. There is also a brief look at politics in academia, but that was pretty familiar territory, so did not offer much that was new, although it was entertaining. Fans of the late TV show, 666 Park Avenue will find a Drakian thing or two to enjoy. And residents of Chi-town will appreciate the many local references, by Chicago native Langer. I did find, at times, that there were notions proffered that were problematic, for example In my experience, every criminal would be an artist if he had the talent, and every artist would become a criminal if he had the guts; in my case, it took an artist to teach me how to be a criminal.Really? Rather a broad generalization, no? And later Maybe the reader understood more about a book than its writer ever did. Maybe you know more about me from reading this sentence than I ever could.While there may be something to the notion that once a story has been published into the world, the world will decide what it means, the fact remains that authorial intent is real, and it would be the rare exception, IMHO, for a reader to grasp an author’s intent more clearly than the author herself. So, does it all work? Well, there are some stretches to be made, some disbelief to be suspended, but The Salinger Contract is a fun, fast-paced, engaging read, with a core of serious and satiric content wrapped in a shell of adventure. If you need to hide away for a while, this would be a good book to take along. Posted October 25, 2013 I received this book via GR’s First Reads program – Thanks guys! =============================EXTRA STUFF A Wiki profile of the author, the real one Twitter for Langer An article by AL - How I Learned Not To Be J.D. Salinger The InterviewMagazine.com Adam Langer is not in Hiding - must-read material 12/16/13 - The Salinger Contract was named one of the best fiction books of 2013 by Kirkus ...more |
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not set
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Oct 16, 2013
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Oct 08, 2013
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160529201X
| 9781605292014
| 160529201X
| 3.84
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| Aug 06, 2013
| Aug 06, 2013
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really liked it
| As the planet gets hotter, we’ll live sicker and die quicker.All change is a matter of degrees. Up or down, a bit here, a bit there. And in time, wit As the planet gets hotter, we’ll live sicker and die quicker.All change is a matter of degrees. Up or down, a bit here, a bit there. And in time, with persistence, you really have something. In the Broadway and later film musical, Pajama Game, the cast sings of the accumulating impact of a small change, in this case literal small change. And so it is with global warming. A fraction of a degree here and there, and what with adding that small bit over and over, the overall amount grows significantly. When we think of warming, we tend to think of what is going into the air, water and land right now. When the fact is that we have been making carbon deposits into our environment for a long time, and are beginning to see the result of that. If you will allow another dip into our musical theater history, the show Mary Poppins, offers a lesson on the value of compound interest. In the case of our planet however, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in question has grown far too large, its holdings are increasingly comprised of toxic assets and it threatens us all with more than just a fiscal meltdown. [image] The author with a ring-tailed lemur in Sarasota, Florida Global Warming is a hot topic. When we think of the medical impact of global warming it is usually in terms of coping with personal temperature management, keeping cool in the hot weather. We might think of shrinking polar caps, maybe rising sea levels, more energetic hurricanes and the like. But there are very concrete health impacts that might not be so obvious. What if the breeding season of disease-vector mosquitoes were to be extended? More mosquitoes = more illness. One effect of shifting weather patterns brought on by warming is desertification. Dust storms increase in frequency and severity. While one may think of dust storms as a health threat due to the danger of airborne particulates making their way inside our bodies, such storms also carry fungus spores, and the diseases they can cause. There are many such effects we can look forward to as the short-term focus of corporate and political leaders ensures that our long term is hotter and in need of medical attention. In projecting the likely result of any ongoing situation, the devil is in the details, and the author has collected enough of the pesky horned guys together to raise the global temperature even more. Science writer Linda Marsa, whose previous book, Prescription for Profits, addressed the impact of corporate culture on medical research, has offered compelling details about how a warming planet will, hell, is already affecting our health. A lot of what she reports will surprise you. I am no stranger to the subject, and found that I was being regularly alarmed at what I had not known or suspected. [image] Superstorm Sandy Elements of warming that will affect our health include wider extremes and gyrations in weather, Hot air holds more water, so we will have more torrential rains, more ferocious hurricanes, and, conversely, more dry spells as a result of heat-induced changes in rainfall patterns. Rising temperatures could trigger pestilence, drought-induced food shortages, raging firestorms, massive migrations, political instability, and wars, even the return of the bubonic plague…In the near future, millions might perish and millions more might be sickened by the litany of medical conditions caused or exacerbated by living in a rapidly warming world: heart disease, asthma, severe respiratory infections, heatstroke, and suicidal despair.faster global spreading of disease with the growth of global access and increasing interconnectivity, The explosion of international travel on a hotter, wetter planet—more than 60 million Americans travel abroad every year, and an equal number visit the United States—has created the perfect conditions for the increased transmission of lethal pathogens from the tropics to industrialized nations. Hitchhiking parasites and infected individuals carting microbes that can be passed on by mosquitoes can now go anywhere in the world in less than 24 Hours and deliver reservoirs of malaria, dengue, or chikungunya fever, a particularly nasty infection that causes arthritis-like joint pain, to newly temperate regions…These two factors—global movement and changing global weather—are what enabled the West Nile virus to become entrenched in North America.assaults by air pollution on our ability to breathe, One component of pollution, diesel fumes, delivers a double whammy for health. The diesel exhaust emitted by factories and big rigs not only damages the lungs, but also manes an excellent transport system for fungal spores, which proliferate in hotter, carbon-enriched environments. They attach themselves like glue to the tiny diesel particles, which scatter them in the wind in a “nasty synergy,” to use a phrase coined by the late Dr. Paul Epstein, a pioneer in environmental health at Harvard. The fungi lurking inside the spores can be lethal… [causing Valley Fever] [image] By By Quinn Dombrowski persistent exposure to hotter temperatures, After 48 hours of constant exposure to temperatures in excess of 90°F, the body’s defenses start to break down. Consequently, the swiftness of the public health system’s response to heat-related illnesses can literally mean the difference between life and death.and the stress of exploding demand on existing infrastructure: [re New Orleans post Katrina]…the mental health care infrastructure—which had been inadequate before—was virtually nonexistent at a time when the need couldn’t possibly have been greater. At one point there were only 22 psychiatrists in a city of 200,000. Within a year after Katrina, five doctors became so despondent they took their own lives. “It wasn’t just the destitute poor who had no hope, but professional people who didn’t leave New Orleans and who stayed in the middle of it.It would be easy to look at all the dark sides of our current warming crisis and start looking for a convenient bridge from which to end it all. But wait. There is plenty more between the covers of Marsa’s report. In fact, she goes into some detail about actions that can be taken. Progress is already being made to reduce our carbon footprint, particularly via smart urbanization. She also shows how we can learn from pioneers in confronting the impact of warming, folks in the Netherlands and Australia specifically, who are learning the lessons of coping at the bleeding edge of climatic change. [image] I do not have any gripes about Fevered. Well, ok, maybe a very small and irrelevant one. I am of the opinion that most written work is made more palatable with a dose of humor. I know most of you are not exactly looking for comic relief in a book on global warming, and that is where I happily concede that this is a purely personal bias, and probably needs to be ignored. But the book could have used a smile or two, maybe a Far Side comic, something. But really, feel free to ignore the man behind this paragraph. Marsa is a seasoned pro who has done her homework and whose experience as a popular science writer is on full display here. Which is a long way of saying that is it an easy-to-read book, rich with information, without being dumbed down. It is probably the case that folks who are of the rightist persuasion would not bother picking up any book on global warming that did not feature conspiracies and reassurance that nothing is really wrong. Why confuse ideology with facts? But that leaves two thirds of us. For readers with minimal familiarity with warming, Fevered is a good introduction. The audience that will gain the most from the book, I suspect, consists of those of us who have read and studied enough to know just how bloody real this event is, and can always uses some more specifics, both for use in fending off zombie hordes of deniers and in thinking about where public resources should best be directed to cope with the impact. Hopefully we can apply some heat of our own, get fired up and light a match under the appropriate representatives, senators, mayors, governors, council members and CEOs. Along with us they share responsibility, to a large degree. [image] Global Warming – It’s hee-er! Posted 8/26/2013 This book was received via GR's First Reads program, just so's ya know ==============================EXTRA STUFF The author’s website. There is one video in particular that sums up her expectations for the future, in the blog page of the site Wiki on Valley Fever It is hard to find an example more directly relevant to Marsa’s thesis than this one, Pollution Costs California Hospitals Millions of Dollars by Gina-Marie Cheeseman - March 23rd, 2010 The September, 2013 issue of National Geographic is focused on Rising Seas. This is MUST READ material, very accessible, very alarming. Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries by Justin Gillis - March 22, 2016 - in the Science section of the New York Times July 28, 2017 - NY Times - It’s Not Your Imagination. Summers Are Getting Hotter. - by Nadia Popovich and Adam Pearce August 6, 2017 - by the NY Times - Europe Swelters Under a Heat Wave Called ‘Lucifer’ August 7, 2017 - Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Blunt Climate Report - by Lisa Friedman August 7, 2017 - In case you have not spotted the link, Henry B added this one in comment #43 (At least it is is #43 as this is entered), to the report that is generating such interest. - Final Draft of the Climate Science Special Report February 16, 2019 - Yeah, it really is that bad - NY Times - Time to Panic - by David Wallace-Wells ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jul 28, 2013
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Aug 20, 2013
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Jul 28, 2013
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Hardcover
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1921351403
| 9781921351402
| B003LFJSTU
| 3.65
| 97
| 2008
| 2008
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it was ok
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Dhume’s thesis is stated on page 36, “that Indonesia was being shaped by two essentially opposed forces, Islamisation and globalization, and that of t
Dhume’s thesis is stated on page 36, “that Indonesia was being shaped by two essentially opposed forces, Islamisation and globalization, and that of the two Islam was the more important.” Dhume offers us a series of peeks into some aspects of both as he travels the country. I wanted to like this book. I had acquired it as a freebie through the GoodReads Giveaway program. And it seems reasonable to presume that if you want that good fortune to repeat it might behoove one to offer up a very positive review. Alas. That is not to say that the book lacks merit. There is much here that is positive. Personally, I had little knowledge of Indonesia beyond the basics of Sukarno, Suharto and the massive anti-Communist pogrom that marred that nation’s history, and some reading about terrorism subjects, particularly regarding the organization Jamah Islamayah. So it was informative to get a look into diverse corners of this considerable and important country, and interesting to have a peek at points of cultural and social diversity as well. Dhume is an Indian reporter who is more western than not in his outlook. He has done post-graduate work in high-end American universities and has published articles in major western outlets. So, as a westerner, while this was written by an Indian, I felt there to be enough of a common view to make Dhume seem sufficiently representative of the west that he could function as our eyes and ears in Indonesia. In reading this book, you will learn about a wide range of things. Drilling, for one, but I will not spoil that by telling what sort of drilling it is about which he is writing. He shows us the world of what we might call glitterati, performers, entrepreneurs. He also brings us along when he interviews Islamic leaders. It is unsurprising, depressing actually, to see the depths of real shallowness represented there. Most welcome were his interactions with regular folks of varying persuasions. Dhume offers his conclusions about where Indonesia is headed, but weasels out a bit, by offering his analysis in an IF-Then-Else format that might work well in a computer program but seems merely noncommittal here. I had three main problems with the book. One was structural and may have more to do with me than with the book itself. As someone who knew relatively little about Indonesia going in, it was a bit tough to keep straight the many place names, people names, and terminology used to describe common social structures and activities. The map in the front of the book helped, but it would have been hugely helpful to have had, in addition, an index and a glossary to offer a crutch for those of us with limited memory capacity. Second was that I felt the title was misleading. I expected the book to be much more about the conversations between Dhume and his “traveling companion,” Herry Nurdi, a committed Islamic fundamentalist. The flap copy that uses the term “travelling companion” mis-states their relationship. While a sort of friendship may have developed, Nurdi was more of a fixer than a road buddy. Their interactions did not appear meaningfully in the book until much too far along, and once they did, they were far less significant to the narrative than they should have been. Finally, it helps if you like the writer. While Dhume could certainly be charming at times, overall, I found him to be off-putting, a rich kid who was slumming. He makes a point of telling us about the place he has rented in Jakarta, in the expensive part of town, relating in the latter part of the book how exclusive the area actually is. Was he really just making a point about the relative spread in wealth in the nation, or was there a smidgen of braggadocio here as well? It seems quite clear that Dhume got the most satisfaction in his journey when he was associating with the rich and famous. He even notes the power of name-dropping when he is among those of very modest means. It is fun to learn a bit about the crassness of pop culture in Java, but he seemed too much a part of the action for my taste. An unwelcome arrogance slips out here and there. On page 178, for example, when having a conversation about the Islamist enthusiasm for covering up females, he says, “I don’t really have a problem with ugly women all covered up…” What a guy! On page 220 he writes, “Class only mattered when you felt it, and for the most part you only ever really felt it at home.” I imagine that Karl Marx, or maybe anyone with half a brain, might disagree. And he puts Nurdi in a very awkward position publicly, showing again an unwelcome side of the author. The book feels like a series of articles one might read in Rollingstone or Vanity Fair. There is a breeziness to his style that sometimes works well. But at other times, I just wanted him to move on to matters of substance and spare us excessive detail. Occasionally he will pop up with a piercing observation. When looking at a well known school called Gontor, he writes “The young Hasan al-Banna had boasted that over one hundred fifty Gontor alumni had opened schools of their own. No great writers or painters or scientists, let alone chess grandmasters or orchestra conductors, could emerge from their classrooms. The school was like an amoeba, able to reproduce only itself.” So, overall, this book is a worthwhile trip if you keep good notes and are interested in learning a bit more about Indonesia. As with any journey, you may come to rue your traveling company, but enjoy the sights while you can and hope for better in future. ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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May 2009
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May 06, 2009
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