Scott J. Pearson

Review: Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing

By Scott J. Pearson | June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Writing is as much of a tradition as it is an art form, and like most traditions, tricks of the trade are passed down from practitioner to apprentices. This book, informed by Flanagan’s 20 years of experience as a writer, introduces readers to the publishing industry. As the title implies, this work is specifically geared towards writing magazine articles. Flanagan describes how to organize one’s self towards the production of copy for magazines. This book…

History

Review: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

By Scott J. Pearson | June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

What was life like before Columbus ventured into the “New” World? Chances are you were taught in school that there was a lot of wilderness to tame and that American Indians sparsely filled the continents in a passive manner. Citing new research on many fronts, Mann contends that this picture is simply incorrect. The Americas have been filled with many civilizations that were more advanced, in some respects, than their European counterparts. They lived in…

Healthcare

Review: The Laws of Medicine

By Scott J. Pearson | June 14, 2019June 13, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Have you ever wondered what makes people orient to their worlds differently? Such is the realm of philosophy. This book attempts to turn medical thought – what makes doctors act the way they do – into a philosophy. Admittedly, it’s just a beginning, but this quick read explains a lot about how healthcare works today. In this short series of essays, Mukherjee defines three “laws.” (1) “A strong intuition is much more powerful than a…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Review: Jesus: The Human Face of God

By Scott J. Pearson | June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Anyone who attempts to biography Jesus is bound to fail. An author is bound to project herself or himself onto the narrative. That’s why all theology eventually turns into autobiography. In Parini’s work, clearly, both the object (Jesus of Nazareth) and the subject (Parini the author) are worth learning from, and the reader can find much to aspire to. Much of late twentieth and early twenty-first century studies on the Jesus of history devolve into…

Healthcare History

Review: Polio: An American Story

By Scott J. Pearson | June 10, 2019June 8, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

When was the last time you heard the word “polio?” It was probably in reference to a vaccine, not the disease. So thoroughly have the effects of polio vaccination been felt that less than 2,000 cases exist each year and only in remote regions of Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. Ridding the world of it forever (in other words, complete eradication, like with smallpox) is in sight. Polio once caused swimming pools and movie theaters to…

Biography-Memoir Politics

Review: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis

By Scott J. Pearson | June 3, 2019June 1, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

I’m often concerned that American culture is increasingly splitting into two groups that don’t interact much. Our politics and our regionalism tends to reinforce that. There are a few voices which seem to traverse the divide, and Vance’s is one of them. Specifically, he traverses the Appalachia/Rust-Belt divide with Northeastern elites. As such, he can speak to both audiences at the same time while enlightening us all about his experiences. Vance’s family life was incredibly…

Software-Technology

Review: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

By Scott J. Pearson | May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Do you ever wonder whether our computer technology and the Internet are making us better as people? Or do they make us worse off? Are we becoming smarter or more dumb? What happens to our brains when we use the Internet? Carr explores these questions and more in this Pulitzer-Prize-finalist book. Carr borrows heavily from Marshall McLuhan, the scholar whose foresight in the 1960s defined the philosophy of electronic media. He also borrows from modern…

Science

Review: Silent Spring

By Scott J. Pearson | May 30, 2019May 29, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

In today’s world, environmentalism is still controversial, although it’s becoming more popular (witness the growth of the Green Party in Europe’s recent elections). Environmentalism and economics are often counterposed against each other as if one loses when the other wins. In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote this book that brought environmental concerns to the fore. She contended that taking care of the plants and animals around us is a worthwhile project. For the most part, smart…

Fiction-Stories

Review: Song of Solomon

By Scott J. Pearson | May 28, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Have you ever felt like your life is an unsolved mystery, full of dispersed, broken parts that need reassembling? Have you ever felt like a sense of truth and order – indeed a sense of God – was far away and like chaos was all too near? That’s the situation that faces the main character in Morrison’s masterpiece. Milkman Dead – yes, that’s his real name – is confronted by a world in which everything…

Writing-Communication

Review: Arts Reviews: And How to Write Them

By Scott J. Pearson | May 22, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Is it fair to write a review about a book on writing reviews? Perhaps not, but I will attempt the feat nonetheless. In this work, British author Celia Brayfield offers her readers wisdom and experiences from her career of writing arts reviews for periodicals. (She has since moved on to writing full books.) She spends first eight of the ten chapters sharing the rules of the road for writing arts reviews. She fills in these…