I'm hard-pressed to think of another book that left me this humbled, and also questioning the biases and blindspots in my own formal education. That'sI'm hard-pressed to think of another book that left me this humbled, and also questioning the biases and blindspots in my own formal education. That's a big reason why I choose the books I do - to take off the lenses and blinders, break down the constructs and barriers.
It raises consciousness to read a book like this one.
Alexeivich's polyphonic approach to history has been noted and awarded many times over. These stories of Soviet women during WWII were equal parts inspirational and harrowing. There are hundreds of accounts here, and while some stories 'stand out', the reader is left with echos and reverberations of all of the stories - a virtual chorus - as well as the larger effects of war on culture and society.
Alexeivich won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 for her body of work, one that I plan to keep exploring and learning from....more
Remarkable book. I hope this will gain the same prominence that Omnivore's Dilemma did several years ago.Remarkable book. I hope this will gain the same prominence that Omnivore's Dilemma did several years ago....more
"Her fear was that a mass suicide would not be appreciated as a sincere and historic statement: 'I know we can't worry about how [what we do] will be
"Her fear was that a mass suicide would not be appreciated as a sincere and historic statement: 'I know we can't worry about how [what we do] will be interpreted... maybe in some 50 years someone will understand and perhaps be motivated. I don't have much illusion about all that. I just hate to see it all go for naught.' - Carolyn Layton, Peoples Temple member, and mother of one of Jim Jones' children
Jeff Guinn lays everything out in The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple - he retraces the earliest days, Jones' childhood in rural Indiana, and catapults towards the last day in November 1978. The story is riveting - perhaps because we all know the ending and we are so curious how something could go so wayward and catastrophically wrong - and part because Guinn's research is so in-depth. He uses a multitude of sources: interviews with survivors and defectors, extensive records of the "church" (I hesitate to even call it that), and Jones' own rambling words - he recorded many sermons/diatribes and didn't hold anything back.
I knew the basics of the END of the story - but this book pays special attention to show the lives and the work of the Peoples Temple well before it turned into Jones' own megalomaniac playground.
A few things that I had no idea about, and now I know, thanks to this book:
- Peoples Temple helped hundreds, maybe thousands, of people with their social programs. Elder care, substance abuse rehab, lowering recidivism in urban areas, paying college tuition, alleviating hunger, providing housing/clothing to whomever asked... even digging a well and fixing septic tanks. These things are undeniable... however things really started to go south when Jones later demanded that members cash out their pensions, their retirements, and give all of their Social Security/disability checks and 100% of their savings to the Temple. Forget tithing - this was hundredthing.
- Not a surprise, but Jones was on drugs for about a decade of his life. His signature dark sunglasses protected his incredibly bloodshot and sensitive eyes, although he claimed he needed to wear them to save other people from his laser vision.
- He was a charlatan and huckster from an early age. He continued this racket for years, claiming he could heal and bring people back from the dead. A favorite and often-used trick: chicken offal as "passed" cancerous tumors, produced by his planted members during healing services. Blech.
- As I mentioned before, I knew the end of the story, but I didn't know all of the things that lead up to the final event, specifically the involvement of Congressman Ryan and the media entorage. We get a play-by-play, and while Guinn is respectful in his writing, it is hard to read the details of those last few hours at Jonestown.
Guinn includes a sum up chapter with several updates and check-ins with people he has introduced over the book. I was surprised, however, that he didn't include a followup of Congresswoman Jackie Speier. As a survivor of the massacre (but not a member of the Peoples Temple), she has a very unique story to tell - and she shares some of it in this article, Congresswoman Left for Dead at Jonestown Recalls the Massacre, 37 Years Later but Guinn does not list her among the interviews, or provide any update on this elected official from the state of California. Curious that there wouldn't be a quote or even an interview in this book from an incumbent member of the US House of Representatives who has shared her story in other sources. Why not here in this new authoritative text?
One of the last sentences of the book struck me, shared by Jim Jones Jr., one of the surviving sons of Jim and Marceline Jones:
'Kool-Aid rather than equality is what the rest of the world remembers. The survivors are left to console themselves...' Jim Jones Jr. sighs, smiles, and concludes, 'What I'd say about Peoples Temple is, we failed, but damn, we tried.'
That quote stood out, in contrast to the first I shared, at the beginning of the post - "it all go for naught" to "Kool-Aid".
Highly recommended. Set some time aside, as you'll have a hard time putting this one down....more
The last time Susan Faludi spoke to her father, he was violently assaulting a man who was dating her mother after their separation. That was 27 years The last time Susan Faludi spoke to her father, he was violently assaulting a man who was dating her mother after their separation. That was 27 years ago. Fast forward: a photo postcard arrives, soon followed by an email entitled "Changes". Her long-estranged father has returned to Hungary, country of birth, but also the same country that forced their family into exile and murdered thousands of others who shared their religion and culture... and he recently had sex reassignment / affirmation surgery and is now Steffi Faludi.
In 2004, Susan decides to forge a new relationship with the woman she never knew: her father. She travels to Budapest, city of ghosts and secrets, and memories of her family. In this phenomenal story, we become acquainted with Steffi through her various identities and roles: father, husband, son, Holocaust survivor, professional photographer, Hungarian, world traveler, and finally Stefanie, a septuagenarian trans woman.
Faludi delves into her father's life with care, but also with brutal honesty. There is the larger narrative history of Hungary, history of trans/queer rights, feminism, and then through the personal lens of one incredible but imperfect person searching for identity, belonging, and ultimately acceptance for the true self.
One of the things that struck me again and again about this book was Faludi's sensitivity for gendered pronouns - she immediately adopted "she/her" for Steffi, while simultaneously calling her Father/Dad. There is even deeper layer of meaning to this point when Faludi states that Magyar, the Hungarian language, has no gendered pronouns. Her consistency in language is laudable, and really quite amazing considering the scope and timelines of this story.
I am still unpacking this one - there is just so much. This NYT review synthesizes it much better than I can: Susan Faludi's In the Darkroom.
A stunning book that I've run out of superlatives for - I highly recommend it....more
A beautiful and poignant book about end-of-life care, palliative medicine, and the way we (as humans) age. Gawande, as a well-known surgeon at a leadiA beautiful and poignant book about end-of-life care, palliative medicine, and the way we (as humans) age. Gawande, as a well-known surgeon at a leading research hospital, makes a case for a comfortable and compassionate end-of-life experience, at home, surrounded by the things that one has loved. He tells stories of various patients who chose to return home for their final days, continuing to do what they love in any capacity they can - teaching a few more piano lessons, watching their favorite football team one last time, taking one last vacation - before their last breath.
He learns more from hospice nurses, palliative care physicians, and social workers about how best to talk about death and what is important to the patient in the remaining time. All of this knowledge-gathering assists in his own practice, but especially when his family learns of his own father's inoperable spinal tumor. Through his father's last days, he sees the amazing work of the hospice team, the way his family members relate to their patriarch, and finally his peaceful passing and subsequent requests that the family fulfills for their loved one.
One of the most beautiful and important books I have ever read. Gawande is a gifted writer and I highly recommend this book - all living things experience death, and this book truly captures what matters most at the end.
Mukherjee is a very gifted storyteller. He crafted this book with care, telling the personal history of cancer through his eyes as an oncologist and cMukherjee is a very gifted storyteller. He crafted this book with care, telling the personal history of cancer through his eyes as an oncologist and cancer researcher, and through the lives of some of his patients. He begins the book talking about the earliest mentions of cancer in literature (an Egyptian papyrus that mentions a breast tumor) and a Persian queen who had her slave perform a mastectomy to remove her cancer in 500 BCE. Mukherjee discusses the highlights of cancer research and the general history of medical science through time. Woven throughout the histories, he intersperses stories of patients he has treated - most notably following Carla, the young mother with lymphoma as she goes through treatment for her form of cancer.
From the "black bile" humor theory, the quack treatments, and the extremely damaging and invasive "surgeries" performed in the medieval and early modern period, the true advances in understanding cancer (as much as it can be understood) began in the nineteenth-century. Science in general reached new heights, and the advances of chemistry and physics led to advances in cancer treatment, i.e. chemotherapy and drug development, and radiation treatment. The discovery of carcinogens began the shift towards preventative medicine (fascinating / sad story about the chimney sweep children in Industrial England with their cancers from years of soot and ash inhalation) and the history behind the early screening tests that we so often take for granted (pioneers in mammography and Dr. Paponikolau, the researcher behind the Pap smear, who developed the test with guinea pigs), and the advancements in laboratory and research medicine. Some of the most interesting parts of the book are the social histories around the cancer research. Mukherjee writes a detailed history about the research and the advocacy partnership of Sidney Farber and Mary Lasker, and the founding of the National Cancer Institute and the political push for scientific and cancer-research funding.
Among the most interesting and revelatory sections for me was the research that went into discovering the correlation between tobacco and cigarette-smoking and lung cancer in the 1960s. Mukherjee gives great context for the battle to educate people about lung cancer and prevention. Many of the scientists that were researching did not believe that they would find any correlation - and many of them were chain smokers themselves.
The last section of the book describes the modern cancer research from the late 1970s to today; the discoveries of genetic roles in cancer formation, and the formulation of drugs. This section is the most scientific of the book, and a cursory knowledge of genetics might come in handy.
Mukherjee is a realist, and states it from the outset. Cancer effects us all, and as we age, it will effect everyone in some way - whether personally or with a family member or close friend. As an oncologist, he sees many patients and also sees many deaths. While cancer research has progressed, he is not shy to say that there may never be a way to beat this disease, as it is constantly changing and mutating into something new, something more destructive and invasive. He does say that many treatments now can prolong lives for months and years, and he has also seen long and "successful" remissions, but each case of cancer is different in each individual, and treatments for each case have different results. He encourages us to not think of it as a "War on Cancer" as was the common language in the 1950s-70s, and says that our culture may need to redefine "victory" in this war.
Highly recommend if you are interested in medical/scientific history, and in learning more about the social history, as well as the modern developments in cancer research.
It's one of those books that you get so absorbed in and you learn all of these interesting facts that you want to share with people... for instance (IIt's one of those books that you get so absorbed in and you learn all of these interesting facts that you want to share with people... for instance (I just have to share!) tigers are known for their virility and their strength - and the Sanskrit word for tiger *vyagghra* was Anglicized into "viagra" for the well-known impotency medication. Interesting, right? Well, there's more to learn inside this book!
The author tries to accomplish a lot in this book, and by and large, he succeeds. At the core of the story is the investigation of a unique mauling in the remote forests in coastal Siberia in the mid-1990s. The team that is dispatched to look into the killing is very similar to a forensics team at a crime scene; they read the snow, see how the attack took place, follow the tiger's entrance and exit paths, and begin to formulate ideas based on what they find. The book focuses on this team (Inspection Tiger) and their members, as well as some of the nearby villagers. In doing so, the author's research delves into Soviet and new Russian politics, ideas towards the environment, science, and conservation, the biology and psychology of both the tigers and the humans, the wealth of myths and stories about tigers and other "monsters" throughout human history, the study of predator-prey biospheres, and the economics and black market demand for rare animals by superpowers like China. So, while the isolated incident of this one tiger on this one village is where the story starts, it is much bigger in context and ramifications.
Fascinating read - tied with Henriette Lacks as the best non-fiction of the year for me.
The authors' style really resonated with me. He describes large earth-shattering revelations with such eloquence. Starting with the thesis that the deThe authors' style really resonated with me. He describes large earth-shattering revelations with such eloquence. Starting with the thesis that the death/extinction of predators and "super"predators are to blame for many ecological/environmental, he delves into numerous case studies and ongoing research of many leading biologists. The first chapters discussion of the kelp forests along the Pacific rim was particularly interesting, and made a real case for the rest of the book: ecosystems MUST be looked at from the top-down, rather than the reverse. The scientists that Stolzenburg profiles methodically and systematically demonstrate how the top predators directly relate to such things as river ecology, plant/seed distribution, and seemingly unrelated things like Lyme disease.
While so many points in this book stood out, I particularly enjoyed the one time humans got it "right": the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming in the mid-1990s. It was a success story, and I presume that it remains so this day, over ten years later.
Simply put, this book was amazingly written and infinitely informative. If you care about nature, biodiversity, and the future of our planet and the creatures living on it, reading this book will help you gain insight on how setting life back into the natural balance will remedy many (unfortunately not all) of the ills we face. ...more
One River is a dual biography, an ethnobotanical study of a region and its people, and a snapshot in time. The book combines Davis' own fieldwork in COne River is a dual biography, an ethnobotanical study of a region and its people, and a snapshot in time. The book combines Davis' own fieldwork in Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia in the late 1970s, while retracing the groundbreaking work of his mentor, Richard Evans Schultes, in the 1940-1950s within the same region.
The field of ethnobotany fuses a deeply technical knowledge of plants and taxonomy, with an applied knowledge and "felt sense" of how these plants have been used for millenia by the Indigenous peoples - as food, as medicine, as ritual and sacred, as materials.
Chapters alternate between Schultes and his extensive travel in the forest - plant collecting / studying with shamans and guides in the forest, his WWII era commission by the US government to identify natural sources of rubber - to Davis and his colleague Tim Plowman continuing their study 30 years later. Davis and Plowman are charged with collecting and researching coca specifically, the different species, and varied preparation techniques and uses throughout the Amazon and Andean highlands. Their research sends them on a few (hallucinogenic) journeys, combining adventure along with the scientific field work.
I've had the opportunity to see Wade Davis speak twice at National Geographic over the years. Both times were fantastic, hearing his stories and seeing his photographs of his ethnobotany field work in South America, Borneo, Haiti, and more. I saw him there prior to my own trip to the Amazon in 2007, and he happened to share several anecdotes about Iquitos, Peru, where I spent some time.
I've written a novella here, and barely scratched the surface of this book. It is a remarkable read and now a forever favorite.
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