This plot’s preamble begins in 19th-century Oregon, but quickly pivots to a prior time in Ireland during the famine of 1847. It shares the true story of an entire starving village traveling to its British landlord begging for food. Sadly, the landlord refuses succor, and the entire town dies beside a nearby lake. In O’Mahony’s tale, only one person survives, and utterly alone in the world, Honora immediately determines to move west to America in…
I must begin this review with a confession of my biases. I have had bipolar disorder for 20 years and have learned through hard-fought experience how to control it. I also have progressed through medical school, but do not practice medicine due to side effects of medications for bipolar disorder. For a career, I build software infrastructure that supports the medical research system. I found Andrew Scull’s history of psychiatry enlightening. He clearly explains how…
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the truly ancient of ancient stories, is vitally important to civilization for several reasons. First, it’s a really good story talking about the meaning of life, much like Job is to the Bible. Second, it provides a window into early civilization with the view that humans have always been, well, relatively human. It’s a timeless classic. Finally, it’s a religious work from a non-Roman, non-Hebrew, and non-Greek source. It illustrates the…
Pandora Carmichael is the daughter of a once-famous tennis player who now teaches the sport to the well-to-do in the Hudson Valley in 1920s New York. She grows up around opulence, but she possesses none of it. A teenager at the beginning of the book, she explores dating relationships, but struggles to achieve exactly what she wants out of life. She has a deep passion for fashion design, but in pre-World War II America, a…
Telling her story in a journal, Freda evacuates from London in anticipation of German bombing. She comes from a humble family with weak bonds to each other. Her grandmother Nan is the only person she feels close to, but she soon dies after Freda’s departure. Her mother and father have recently divorced as her father has left for another woman. As a mere twelve-year-old, she is alone in the world. After a railroad trip, she…
Research into the human brain comprises an exciting frontier of knowledge today, yet most scientific accounts can dryly bore the average reader. And frankly, a lot of scientists and doctors can benefit from reading narratives of human stories behind scientific discoveries. To fill this gap, Sam Kean chronicles in this book the many functions of the human brain – and of parts of the human brain. He teaches basic neuroscience with the noteworthy interpersonal backstories…
The story of World War II has been well-mined by historians over the past 80 years. It’s hard to provide a new angle on the action, yet this series of podcasts does just that. While many histories focus on stories of foreign battles, this history tells America’s domestic challenges around the war. It does so using audio footage of interviews from people at the time. While I’ve heard some of these narratives before (e.g., women…
The story of the Manhattan Project that produced the world’s first atomic bomb is well known and well told. Without its success, the United States might have invaded Japan’s main island in bloody fashion. Less well-known is the story of how the nuclear ambitions of Nazi Germany failed. With an atomic bomb, Hitler might have annihilated London or New York City and changed the shape of the war. Their ultimate failure determined the course of…
This book opens with Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother “Rain” dying in Toronto at the ripe old age of eighty-three. Rain had lived a full life spanning two countries on two continents. Phoenix spent most of her life caring for her mother, yet her mother’s early life remained buried in mystery even to her daughter. Having recently married a Anglo-Canadian, Phoenix spent most of her life tethered to her mother. Grief and curiosity combined, and Phoenix flies…
When Barack Obama was born, few would have predicted that we’d witness a black US president in his lifetime. And yet he accomplished that himself. When he was elected president, few would have likewise predicted the depths of divide his presidency would unearth. And yet we are here. The pomp and circumstance of politics, as first told by the media, need to be supplemented by presidential memoirs to understand the logic of decisions. Though obviously…