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HAF Book Club: November poll and discussion

Started by Sandra Craft, October 16, 2020, 11:21:01 PM

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Sandra Craft

Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American at Home and Abroad, by Firoozeh Dumas. A collection of humorous vignettes by the author of Funny in Farsi, primarily centered on the misadventures of her Iranian immigrant family.  (256 pages)

Monster of God: The Man Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, by David Quammen.  The significance of alpha predators (specifically, in this book, the Asiatic lion, crocodiles, tigers and brown bears) and the humans who live alongside them.  (528 pages)

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard.  Dillard's personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.  (288 pages)

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, by Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson.  Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.  (344 pages)

Annals of the Former World, John McPhee.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning view of the continent, across the fortieth parallel and down through 4.6 billion years.  Like the terrain it covers, Annals of the Former World tells a multilayered tale, and the reader may choose one of many paths through it. As clearly and succinctly written as it is profoundly informed, this is our finest popular survey of geology and a masterpiece of modern nonfiction.  (720 pages)

The Sky's the Limit, by Anna Magnusson.  In 2004, Vicky Jack completed the Seven Summits - the highest mountains in each of the seven continents. Whilst pursuing her climbing dream, she also carried on a high-flying career. This book tells her story.  (212 pages)

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: a memoir, by Haruki Murakami.  Based on Murakami's journal about training for the NYC marathon, it's about writing, running and how they intersect.   (188 pages)
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Sandra Craft

I am having a hard time with Quackery.  I'm getting thru it, but the writing style is really getting on my nerves -- it's too jokey and talk-showish for me.  And half of what I've read so far was already covered in The Poisoner's Handbook, which I guess was to be expected but without any new information to add it's leaving me rather flat.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

Quote from: Sandra Craft on November 16, 2020, 01:53:04 AM
I am having a hard time with Quackery.  I'm getting thru it, but the writing style is really getting on my nerves -- it's too jokey and talk-showish for me.  And half of what I've read so far was already covered in The Poisoner's Handbook, which I guess was to be expected but without any new information to add it's leaving me rather flat.
I barely started because I was finishing a larger book. I'm glad, I guess, to have some solidarity because I was having the same feelings.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Davin on November 16, 2020, 06:20:26 PM
Quote from: Sandra Craft on November 16, 2020, 01:53:04 AM
I am having a hard time with Quackery.  I'm getting thru it, but the writing style is really getting on my nerves -- it's too jokey and talk-showish for me.  And half of what I've read so far was already covered in The Poisoner's Handbook, which I guess was to be expected but without any new information to add it's leaving me rather flat.
I barely started because I was finishing a larger book. I'm glad, I guess, to have some solidarity because I was having the same feelings.

It is a bit of a relief not to be alone in this.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

My brief review.

The book covers many quack means of curing people of their ailments from snake oil to not masturbating.

I don't much care for the writing. It was snarky and repetitive. One chapter is the same as the next if you replace the topic. The pattern was: Here's a dumb thing people did, good thing we know better, here's a news style pun about it. Rinse and repeat for the whole book. I prefer them to go more into why the people thought what they did, try to get into their heads a little more. What this ended up being wasn't much more than looking up each topic on wikipedia and then riffing on it.

There were some interesting things in it, I made mental notes when I found the interesting things, but forgot about them from the very repetitive style of the writing. I will say that I think the book did get a little better in the last ≈15% where they did spend a little more time getting into the mindset of the people falling for the quackery.

It was not the worst book I've ever read. I'd put it a zero where -3 is the worst and 3 is the best.

I'm sorry I recommended it for the book club.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

xSilverPhinx

I didn't read the book, but now I don't think I will. ::)

Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 02:13:16 PM
I prefer them to go more into why the people thought what they did, try to get into their heads a little more.

Have you read Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time? I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure whether Shermer is better at explaining the reasons why, but since he's a psychologist I'm going to assume for now that he is.  ;D
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Davin

Quote from: xSilverPhinx on November 23, 2020, 02:40:40 PM
I didn't read the book, but now I don't think I will. ::)

Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 02:13:16 PM
I prefer them to go more into why the people thought what they did, try to get into their heads a little more.

Have you read Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time? I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure whether Shermer is better at explaining the reasons why, but since he's a psychologist I'm going to assume for now that he is.  ;D
I have not, maybe a good suggestion for the book club.

I think the Poisoner's Handbook did a really good job at getting into why a person might come to the conclusions that they did.

Also, that A Fly for the Prosecution book did some of that as well.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 03:12:37 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on November 23, 2020, 02:40:40 PM
I didn't read the book, but now I don't think I will. ::)

Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 02:13:16 PM
I prefer them to go more into why the people thought what they did, try to get into their heads a little more.

Have you read Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time? I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure whether Shermer is better at explaining the reasons why, but since he's a psychologist I'm going to assume for now that he is.  ;D
I have not, maybe a good suggestion for the book club.


Definitely a good suggestion.  And don't feel bad about Quakery, I was the one who suggested The Great Gatsby, after all.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Sandra Craft on November 23, 2020, 08:54:04 PM
Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 03:12:37 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on November 23, 2020, 02:40:40 PM
I didn't read the book, but now I don't think I will. ::)

Quote from: Davin on November 23, 2020, 02:13:16 PM
I prefer them to go more into why the people thought what they did, try to get into their heads a little more.

Have you read Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time? I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure whether Shermer is better at explaining the reasons why, but since he's a psychologist I'm going to assume for now that he is.  ;D
I have not, maybe a good suggestion for the book club.


Definitely a good suggestion. 

Cool  ;D
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Sandra Craft

My FB review, surprisingly positive given my initial reaction to the book.

Quackery: a brief history of the worst ways to cure everything, by Lydia Kang, MD, and Nate Pedersen.  I had a hard time getting into this book at first, despite the fascinating subject.  The writing style annoyed me no end -- it has a jokey, talk show like banter that just puts my teeth on edge.  And then, the first few chapters involved nothing I didn't already know, most of it from the much better written "The Poisoner's Handbook". 

So I was finding it very tedious going, until some new information started turning up that made everything better for me and I actually began enjoying reading Quackery.  Never did get used to the writing style tho.

Anyway, as the title says it covers people coming up with really odd ideas about how to cure this and that.  Much of it was pure ignorance, a lot of it was cynical scams to make money off the gullible and a small but still surprising number were actual medical doctors who really thought they were on to something but just wound up going off the deep end.
Here's a sample on curing people by scorching them:

"How was it done?  Let's say you're a scullery maid with a pounding headache . . .   The physician or apothecary would shove a long iron rod (or, less commonly, copper or platinum if he was feeling fancy) into the fireplace or a hot-coal filled brazier.  When the instrument was heated to red-hot, he'd lay it on your temple until it sizzled and fried the skin.  And it you had an open wound on your noggin?   The doctor would burn the open ends of blood vessels to closure, vaporizing the wound to dryness, and if all went well, leaving a good smoky char behind.  You'd be screaming bloody murder, but hey, at least you're alive!  (For now.)  As for the headache, who the hell cares?  You're too busy dealing with that charred skin on your face."

And the information about amputations in the days before the (comparatively recent) invention of anesthesia!  It's a little too much to go into in depth, but I will tell you about Robert Liston.  He was a Scottish surgeon in the 1840s, known for the speed of his amputations -- 3 minutes to take a leg off from first cut to closing the wound.
Of course that much speed results in a loss of accuracy.  In one leg amputation he accidently sliced the patient's testicles off as well.  In another, he not only sliced off several fingers from one of the assistants holding down the patient (who was fully conscious and feeling everything during this, you will recall) but slashed the coat of an onlooker.  The onlooker dropped dead immediately from fright, the assistant died in a few days of gangrene because of the severed fingers and the patient who got the amputation also died later of complications, probably caused by the filthy conditions in hospitals then, this being before the importance of a sterile environment or even surgeons washing their hands between patients was understood.  That's a 300% mortality rate from one operation.  And Liston was the best surgeon you could get at the time.

In the end it was all very interesting, and I wish I could stand the writing style enough to read other books written by this pair, but no.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Davin

Quote from: Sandra Craft on December 06, 2020, 06:08:25 AM
And the information about amputations in the days before the (comparatively recent) invention of anesthesia!  It's a little too much to go into in depth, but I will tell you about Robert Liston.  He was a Scottish surgeon in the 1840s, known for the speed of his amputations -- 3 minutes to take a leg off from first cut to closing the wound.
Of course that much speed results in a loss of accuracy.  In one leg amputation he accidently sliced the patient's testicles off as well.  In another, he not only sliced off several fingers from one of the assistants holding down the patient (who was fully conscious and feeling everything during this, you will recall) but slashed the coat of an onlooker.  The onlooker dropped dead immediately from fright, the assistant died in a few days of gangrene because of the severed fingers and the patient who got the amputation also died later of complications, probably caused by the filthy conditions in hospitals then, this being before the importance of a sterile environment or even surgeons washing their hands between patients was understood.  That's a 300% mortality rate from one operation.  And Liston was the best surgeon you could get at the time.

He was featured prominently in The Butchering Arts that we read for July 2018:
https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=15851.0

That one went into a lot more detail though because it wasn't covering as many different topics.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Sandra Craft

Oh, I had completely forgotten that!  Getting old sucks.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Randy

Quote from: Sandra Craft on December 07, 2020, 09:38:54 PM
Oh, I had completely forgotten that!  Getting old sucks.
Tell me about it. I'm approaching retirement age and wonder where the years went.
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg