Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye

Format: Audiobook

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: Nonfiction

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publication date: November 14th, 2014

Read on: June 17th to 26th.
 

Thoughts: Since I didn’t grew up in the US, my first knowledge of Bill Nye and his show Bill Nye the Science Guy came after I was at least in my early 20s. Hence I did not get to experience his effect on science appreciation as a kid but that is not to say I didn’t get excited about science as I was listening to his book. The fact that the book is read by Nye himself was the cherry on top of the sundae; he can transmit all of this energy and love for science a way that made me feel like a child again, learning about what makes science great.

Did I learn about evolution with this book? A little. A lot of the facts that are presented in the book are facts that, working in science, I’ve been exposed to before, albeit in a more academic background. At the same time, since I do not work on evolution myself, there were a couple of items that I wasn’t aware off or that needed refreshing in my head.

However, what I take out of this book is how good a person can be making a subject accessible without dumbing the subject down. All the information and data Nye uses are accurate and well researched, but at the same time, the tone and terminology used makes it easy to understand, especially if this is the first time you are approaching evolution.

 

 

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 400

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: Nonfiction

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Publication date: October 13th, 2014

Read on: August 16th to 23rd

Thoughts: When I first heard about this book I was more than interested. I had used the pill before, but more importantly, I'm always interested in scientific breakthroughs and how they came to be (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) or just the history of a big scientific topic (The Emperor of all Maladies), so learning about how the Pill was discovered and how it came to be one of the most popular contraceptives to date was certainly down my alley.

The book focuses on the roles of Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick, Gregory Pincus and John Rock in the pursue, formulation and finally establishment of The Pill. A very well researched book, with all the notes anyone could ask for and as many details as one could imagine for the development of the pill as well as for the personal lives of the people involved. As a woman, even though I knew it would be approved at the end, it was quite a ride to see how hard it was for this 4 people to make the Pill what it is today: effective, approved and widely available to the masses.

Unlike what I experienced with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, where the author pushed the sentimental angle a little bit too much for my licking, Eig stuck to the point...most of the time. The Emperor of all Maladies was a dense book, but even though it alternated with specific cases of patients and then the history of cancer itself, it never felt to me that pieces of information were superfluous. Unfortunately, there were several points in Eig's book where I did get such feeling, mostly when referring to personal parts of the people involved. It's not that I didn't care for this side of the story; it's just that sometimes a line would be dropped about their characters and it wouldn't give anything to the paragraph or the chapter even.

That said, I think Eig did a wonderful job with it's narrative. Some people might think that establishing the flow in a nonfiction piece it's easier, since the time path is already there, but this is so not true. Knowing how to thread the events and the people in a consistent and fluid manner is not easy, and Eig did it skillfully.

It is a very nice micro-history about not just the pill, but the lives of people who have influenced many. 

 

 

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 318

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: NonFiction, Memoir, Humor

Publisher: Amy Einhorn: Putnam

Publication date: April 17th, 2012

Thoughts: First a confession, I bought this book based solely on my memory of everyone singing praises to it, but I had completely forgotten what it was about, let alone that it was a nonfiction book. But even then, I was not disappointed one single bit.

This book was just amazing. Maybe because I didn't know what to expect I was entertained all the way. I was laughing out loud in the metro...which got me very awkward looks from other commuters, but you know what? I didn't care, not one bit. It has been so long since a book makes me loose myself so deep in it that I don't really care about giggling and shaking my head in the bus, while others look at me as if I had issues.

The book, as the title mentions is a memoir of Jenny Lawson, also known as The Bloggess and here is the main thing about her: she is hilarious in that way that you just say stuff and they are inherent funny. Her voice (her book voice, JIC) is extremely vivid; half of the book I felt like she was right there and that just makes it even funnier, when you can feel the sarcasm, wit, etc. in her writing. That's my type of humor. 

On bloggers. #letspretendthisneverhappened #amreading

A photo posted by CaroGomez (@carolikesbooks) on Jun 9, 2015 at 3:50am PDT

From her childhood dealing with quite disturbing puppets, to finding the love of her life, becoming a mom, getting friends and starting her own taxidermy collection, Lawson manages to bring humor to all of this, even when having panic attacks or darker stuff. There are heavy subjects here and I will agree with the author that if you are easily offended you should probably stay away from this book. Otherwise, go ahead and enjoy it. She is so earnest about how she feels and sees things going around her, and she has probably nailed the best definition to everyone who has blogged even for a little while. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year. 

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Format: Audio

Length: 20hrs 49 min

Narrator: Stephen Hoye

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: NonFiction, Cancer, Science

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Publication date: November 10th, 2010

Thoughts: Both A and I have been wanting to read this one for quite a while, and so we decided to make it our road trip listen. As you probably know just by looking at his bio, Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher, and so he introduces us to the world of cancer, with 2 parallel story lines: one of his patients battling cancer and one of cancer research itself.

In the past years, I've read more about cancer in nonfiction that I have done in academic papers, which is normal, considering that my own research is not connected to cancer. But books such as Pandora's DNA where focused on the own personal experience with cancer and with one cancer in particular: breast cancer.

Mukherjee's book deals with all types of cancers, while spending more time with those that we have more information about, such as breast cancer and leukemia. Nevertheless, his narrative on how different discoveries were made both by struck of luck and by perseverance, was captivating. Discoveries both in treatment and prognosis and how the medical and scientific communities dealt with both. To hear that when the Pap test was proposed for the first time and how it was dismissed as useless is both baffling and interesting, especially when compared to nowadays standards.

A fair amount of information in the book wasn't new to me, considering that I had to learn at least the basis of it during my undergrad and graduate studies. However, there was a lot more that I didn't know and was always interesting. I feel that the author did a great job both researching the subject and vulgarizing it, a thing that is not always easy to do, coming from a research background.

Stephen Hoye did a great job as a narrator, I have to say, it didn't feel like a long read (or listen) at all.

Black Milk: On the Conflicting Demands of Writing, Creativity, and Motherhood by Elif Shafak

A photo posted by CaroGomez (@carolikesbooks) on May 22, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

Format: Paperback

Pages: 288

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: NonFiction, Memoir, Motherhood

Publisher: Penguin Books

Publication date: July 31st, 2012

Thoughts: I am not a mother, and for the longest time I thought I would never be. However, recently this thought has changed and I as start to think about the possibility of maybe, some day, having a child, I've started to be more and more curious of other women's experiences. When I heard Elif Shafak's talk in TED, I knew I wanted to read something of her and so I bought Honor but as I was checking out I saw that she also had this nonfiction book, Black Milk and decided to also go for it. I am very happy I did.

From the begging the book grabbed me, so much that for the first time in years I wrote, underlined and dog-eared a book. So many things she was saying that I wanted to mark down, for future me. Shafak's shares with the reader her own debating with settling down, getting married and then with being both a writer and a mother. All the parts of herself, represented in "Thumbelinas" or little women inside of herself, fighting to take prevalence, all the extremes that she put herself through thinking that all this sides of her where incompatible. Then, after her daughter is born, the depression that afflicted her. At the same time, she alternates with other writer's experiences with motherhood.

I took this book with me on a short flight, with a long wait, which allowed me to dive in it and read it almost in one sitting. Her writing is incredibly fluid and the way she describes her surroundings as well as the turmoil that was taking place in her heart embraces the reader easily. While I am still not ready to be a mother, seeing and reading about all possible outcomes, both joyous and sad helps me be a bit less afraid of whatever is to come. 

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya van Wagenen

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 272

Series: NA

Source: Library

Genres: Nonfiction, Advice, Memoir

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House)

Publication date: April 15, 2014

First impression

I got this book last Christmas as a gift from very dear friends. With a line found in the jacket I was hooked:

Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline and a strand of pearls help a shy girl become popular?  

You see, I love pearls.

 

This was a very sweet read, and it felt like it was indeed written by a 14 year old girl, and I mean that in a good way. Sure, she had editors, but her voice is obviously there, she reminded me of my little cousin (she is 15 now) and her way to see the world. It reminded me of 15yo me and how all I wanted at a certain point is to be one of the “it” girls. I thought I was going to be rolling my eyes often when looks and appearance would be discussed, and I did roll them a couple of times, but not as much as I expected. Maya finishes with a very sweet, endearing tone that made me want to hug her.

Final thoughts

Maya van Wagenen considers herself to be in the lowest rank of popularity in her school, but when she founds Betty Cornell’s teenage popularity guide she decides to try a little experiment: she will follow the books advice (keep in mind this is a book written in the 1950s) and see if that takes her from top to bottom. Going from hair, to posture, to diet, to attitude, Maya sticks to her plan, without telling anyone out if her family. This book is her memoir of that year.

I had my first problem with the book when the first chapter was dedicated to figure problems… remember she was a 14yo at the time she was writing this and thinking of someone that young dieting was not easy to swallow, even if her doctor said she was “borderline obese” (for the record, in the pictures she does NOT look borderline obese). But my anxiety went down knowing that 1. She wasn’t obsessing about the diet 2. The diet, while reducing on fat foods, still kept a fair amount of protein, vegetables and fruits, and most importantly 3. She was doing it with her parent’s supervision and not taking it to extremes. Other problems are probably related with the fact that I am no longer a teenager, so let’s not mull over that for too long.

I enjoyed the little bits of her life thrown in with the experiment, this is what made it feel like a real teen diary. I loved how she took a bit of knowledge of each chapter, of each “challenge” and particularly how, when she started talking to a lot of the different clicks, you can see that she is growing more and more comfortable in her skin. And that is why I would recommend this book to my little cousin…and for everyone looking for a short, endearing book that would make you feel better at the end of it…and walk with a better posture ;)

Las Hijas de Juarez (Daughters of Juarez): Un auténtico relato de asesinatos en serie al sur de la frontera by Teresa Rodriguez

Format: Paperback

Pages: 368

Series: NA

Source: Own (Book Depository)

Genres: Non fiction, True Crime

Publisher: Atria books (Simon and Schuster)

Publication date: June 26th 2007 (first published March 27th 2007)

First impression

I stumbled upon this book on Book Depository almost by mistake, while looking for something interesting in the nonfiction section. A gruesome subject, I felt like I barely knew anything about the mass murders that happened in Juarez, so I decided to read it. While I did get more information on the subject, the delivery was far from what I expected. Partly, I believe due to the translation to Spanish, but mostly because there was a serious lack of flow and abrupt cuts between ideas and paragraphs.

Final thoughts

I won’t talk much about what the book is about, since the title pretty much explains it. A case study beginning with the first murders in the early 1990s, the book will not only tell the story of some of the women killed and their families, but also of some of the people involved in the investigation and alleged culprits. I say alleged for every time the authorities seemed to catch the murder(s), women continued being attacked and horribly killed.

The smaller issue I had with the book was the translation. While Teresa Rodiguez is from a Cuban family, she wrote the book originally in English, and then it was translated by Vicente Echerri. But the translation wasn’t consistent, sometimes using the English acronym and sometimes using the translated one; sentences like “las muchachas fueron muertas” made no sense in a Spanish construction, rather it should’ve been “fueron asesinadas”. I realize this might seem like a picky thing to point out, but when similar issues appear constantly it affects the reading experience.

Either from the original manuscript or during the translation, there was also a big lack of consistency when referring to people or institutions. As rule, if you are going to refer to a person by a nickname or use the acronym of an institution, you should at least use the full name when they are first introduced. This was not the case in the book creating a lot of unnecessary backs and forwards when reading it.

While the author wanted to give a voice to the women who lost their lives, the lack of organization, the unnecessary repetition and lack of flow made their names and voices felt really faint. One thing that is for sure transmitted through the book is the lack of a proper investigation through the years and the insane amount of corruption lurking in this town.

If anyone else is interested in the book, I wouldn’t recommend this translation. Maybe without this factor, I would’ve given the book a 3, since it did give me more information about the subject, albeit in a very all over the place manner.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick

Format: eGalley

Pages: 246

Series: NA

Source: NetGalley

Genres: NonFiction

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Publication date: April 21, 2015

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction for the book.

 First impression

It’s hard to say which is more exhausting: the sheer arbitrariness of knowing that her one true love could appear out of anywhere, anytime, and change hr fate in an instant (you never know who is around the corner), or the effortful maintenance (manicures, blowouts, bikini waxes, facials) that ensures she’ll be ripe for the picking when it happens

These words, set in the very beginning of the book caught my attention and with it set the tone for a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was afraid that the book might be a book dedicated to throwing marriage out of the window as just “bad” and how glorious it is to be single, and nothing else. I was very happy to see that Bolick, does not make it sound like being single is the only way, or that women deciding to marry have it wrong or viceversa. Rather it is the telling on how she came to find what worked for her, her inspirations, her questioning on why the connotation of single hood on a woman is immediately associated with “something missing” or why the term spinster has such bad association. Based on her own life experience, Bolick gives a very interesting view on being single for the long term.

Final thoughts

Why is it that there is so much pushing to get married? The whole industry behind weddings, engagements and at the end, marriage sometimes feels overwhelming. Instead, in her book, Kate Bolick talks about wonderful women who were amazing on their own, and at the same time tells the reader how she got to a point on her life where she is perfectly comfortable in her skin, as an unmarried woman, and why, shall it be your decision to do so, you should be perfectly fine with it too.

While women have come a long way in a lot of accounts, it would seem that the idea of you always needing someone else is almost inevitable. Not so much if you area man, although I have seen the pressure on both sides. The idea that you can be happy without being in a couple still feel foreign and somehow, unrealistic. This book make me think so much about single hood, which sometimes felt weird, considering I’ve been in a relationship for more than 5 years now and we are presently engaged. But, the question that kept coming as I read this book, was: Would I be fine if for some reason we break up? Well, off course I would be sad, but I would be ok. Even more telling was realizing how many of my friends might not be, if they would become a “spinster”.

Bolick doesn’t spend the book talking about the evilness of marriage, or even being in a couple. She has been part of a couple and has been happy in it, but she mostly shows how it is perfectly possible to be equally happy being single. With splashes of the rest of her life such as the death of her mother, the big move to New York, and a huge break up, she tells her journey as it is: the journey that took her to love her single hood.

As with any big part of one’s identity, the idea of being single and what it represents changes through her life, and that was probably one of the things I enjoyed the most in the book: how her perspective changed and grew as different moments in her life were taking place and as she met her inspirations. I learned of women I had never heard of, women who were comfortable with themselves and loved their single selves.

I would recommend this book to almost anybody. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it can get very academic some times, and hence a bit heavy in certain passages.