BURNING BRIGHT (Peter Ash #2) (audiobook) by Nick Petrie

 

Published by Penguin Audio in 2017.

Read by Stephen Mendel.
Duration: 11 hours, 55 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

Peter Ash is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has had trouble settling in to civilian life. Specifically, he has a fear of enclosed places. He is good with his hands and restored an old pickup truck. He drives the truck all over the place and explores America by hiking and camping.

The author, Nick Petrie

As Burning Bright starts, Ash is hiking in a forest of giant redwoods and stumbles upon a bear, climbs a tree, meets a girl in the trees, finds out she is being hunted by a professional hit team and that's when everything starts to really get interesting...

My Review:

I like this series, even though it suffers a bit of a sophomore slump in my opinion. This is not to say that it is a bad book - it's not. I am rating this book 4 stars out of 5. I flew through the first half of the book, but the second half of the book was just a bit too ridiculous in my opinion. That being said, I am going to happily continue with this series.

I think you have to start the series at the beginning (click here for my review of the first book in the series) so do not start with this book. 

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: BURNING BRIGHT (Peter Ash #2) (audiobook) by Nick Petrie.

SEA HORSE: THE SHYEST FISH in the SEA by Chris Butterworth

 

Published in 2009 by Candlewick.
Illustrated by John Lawrence

Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea is an early reader picture book aimed at children aged 4-8. It tells the story of a male sea horse named Sea Horse. It describes his daily routine and introduces his mate. Along the way, they have babies. The entire book is read on this 8 minute long YouTube video.

Link to this Tweet on Twitter
Yes, they misspelled Santa Claus.
Perhaps they should read more...😉

I normally don't review books aimed at small children but this summer I have been reading a lot of books that have been included on various book ban lists. This one was on a list in Tennessee because of a group called Moms for Liberty. They thought that the sea horses in the book were too sexy. Also, they argued that this book was a sneaky argument in favor of transgenderism (see attached picture - yes, it's a real Tweet - see the link underneath it to go to the actual Tweet). 

Here are more links to stories about the books they wanted to ban: Link here and here.

How does the subject of transgenderism come into a story about sea horses? Turns out that sea horses have a fairly unique way of breeding. They female deposits her eggs into the male to be fertilized and the male carries them until they hatch and then they leave his body. So, it looks like the male is giving birth. 

As a teacher (30+ years of grades 6-12) and as a dad, I didn't see any problem with this book. My experience tell me that kids love 5 kinds of "fishes" at aquariums, in no particular order:

1) Sharks;
2) Clown Fish (because of Finding Nemo);
3) Tang Fish (because of Finding Nemo);
4) Sea horses;

5) Electric eels.

Sea Horses have a cool factor all their own and kids love to learn things like the fact that they mate for life and the male "gives birth". This is exactly the kind of things that kindergartners learn and tell everyone they meet for the next 3 days.

I encourage you to watch the video I linked above and see if you think that this book is too sexy and encourages children to change genders. I don't think so. Moms for Liberty does. It's not the first time that I disagree with Moms for Liberty. I am certain it won't be the last time, either. 

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: SEA HORSE: THE SHYEST FISH in the SEA by Chris Butterworth.

THE LAST DAYS of the DINOSAURS: AN ASTEROID, EXTINCTION, and the BEGINNING of OUR WORLD (audiobook) by Riley Black

 

Published in April of 2022 by Macmillan Audio.

Read by Christina Delaine.
Duration: 7 hours, 1 minute.
Unabridged.

As the title says, THE LAST DAYS of the DINOSAURS: AN ASTEROID, EXTINCTION, and the BEGINNING of OUR WORLD is about the asteroid that all but wiped out the dinosaurs and the world they lived in.

Technically, very little of the book is about the asteroid itself but hopefully you get the idea.

Riley Black does an excellent job of describing the presumed daily lives of the creatures that we know about before and after the fateful asteroid impact. The author starts out with the most famous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, but also includes less famous dinosaurs, insects, plants and mammals. The primary focus is the American West (Wyoming, Utah, the Dakotas, etc.)  one the most fossil-rich area in the world. But, other areas of the world are looked at as well.

The step-by-step description of what scientists think happened in the seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks after the asteroid's impact is compelling listening. The ways that some small dinosaurs and other creatures and plants survived in the long term is a testament to Jeff Goldblum's line from Jurassic Park: "Life finds a way." The author does a great job of demonstrating that this does not mean that really clever animals figure it out so much as it means that some animals and plants were simply built to survive the extreme heat and extreme cold that followed the impact. Life found a way because life was so diverse that a part of it lucked into survival.

One could think of of the asteroid strike as a nuclear war without the radiation. Nuclear weapons generate an immense amount of heat, but the aftermath would bring a nuclear winter caused by all of the debris that would be tossed into the atmosphere. The same happened here, but on a larger scale than if all of the nuclear weapons that humans have ever built were fired off at the same time. The impact was so large that there is literally an easily identifiable dark-colored line that shows where all of the debris settled afterwards. You can stand a football field away and see it running along exposed cliff faces in those fossil-rich zones I previously mentioned.

The author goes on to describe how those few survivors of the animal and plant world went on to diversify as the climate settled down.

I rate this audibook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE LAST DAYS of the DINOSAURS: AN ASTEROID, EXTINCTION, and the BEGINNING of OUR WORLD by Riley Black.

MEDICAL MYTHS, LIES and HALF-TRUTHS: WHAT WE THING WE KNOW MAY HURT US by Dr. Steven Novella

 

Published by The Great Courses in 2013.

Presented by the author, Dr. Steven Novella.
Duration: 12 hours, 25 minutes.
Unabridged.

Dr. Steven Novella addresses common questions and misconceptions that people often have about medicine. 

The topics covered range from the very serious (like cancer, for example) to the relatively lightweight (do caffeinated drinks actually do anything to hydrate a person?).

Novella explains the science behind each of his discussions in everyday language and his demeanor is more like that of a friend than that of a lecturing authority figure. 

As in all books of this sort, there were parts that I was keenly interested in and parts that I didn't care a whole lot about. But, on the whole, this book is well worth your time.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  MEDICAL MYTHS, LIES and HALF-TRUTHS: WHAT WE THING WE KNOW MAY HURT US by Dr. Steven Novella.

ELECTRIFY: AN OPTIMIST'S PLAYBOOK for OUR CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE (audiobook) by Saul Griffith

 

Published by Tantor Audio in November of 2021.

Read by David Marantz.
Duration: 7 hours, 13 minutes.
Unabridged.

Saul Griffith makes a convincing argument in Electrify that the clean energy future to prevent excessive global warming (No carbon) only comes from making everything, and I mean everything, electric (with the exception of air travel) - electric cars, electric boats, electric trains, electric heat pumps to heat homes, electric stoves, electric ovens, electric water heaters, and electric clothes dryers. 

I mostly picked up this book as a reaction to the fact that so many people in my social media feed keep re-posting anti-electric car memes that they did not create. Someone is really pushing back hard against the concept. I saw this book and began to wonder if this concept were even possible.

According to Griffith, it is very possible and with almost no "and then we come up with magic technology" moments baked into his plan. Based on what is already being done in Australia and the United States, this could be 99.5% done with current technology. We just need to divest from Carbon infrastructure (oil, natural gas, coal) and re-route that spending to renewable electricity (hydroelectric, solar, wind) and carbon free energy like nuclear. 

People will argue that solar and especially wind have to be subsidized to keep up with fossil fuels, but Griffith correctly points out that fossil fuel companies receive billions of dollars of subsidies every year so it's kind of a moot point.

He imagines a world where every roof has solar power cells installed on them and can feed directly into the electrical grid. Every farm has windmills. Every parking lot is covered with a car port cover that is covered with solar power cells. The electric company becomes less of a supplier and more of a distributor from all of those homes. The company would manage the flow and would maintain a backup system (nuclear, hyrdo, or solar power brought in from other locations) to keep it all running. 

The biggest problem is financing all of this. For that, Griffith looks back to American history. After World War II, the U.S. government backed home loans to veterans (and later others) through government programs. This could be duplicated to homeowners, new builds and landlords to pay for solar panels and the changes to a home's electrical grid. Not only would the electricity have to be able to flow away from homes, but it would also have to be able to handle a lot more electricity. Electric cars and trucks take a lot of juice to recharge in a short time. 

I walked away convinced but can only rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

Why the low rating for a compelling argument?

1) I listened to the audio version of this book. Griffith includes a lot of charts and relies on them heavily to make his point. Rather than edit the audiobook text and provide summaries of the charts, Griffith has the narrator literally read the charts. I could have sat down and literally transcribed them onto a piece of paper. Do you know how completely boring it is to listen to all of that data when you are not literally transcribing it to a piece of paper?

2) I am going to go with a stereotype. Griffith is an engineer. I think he was taught to write by middle school English teacher who loved the TRIT writing plan and he never deviates from it (it is tried and true after all). This leads to an easy to follow format - but very boring. Griffith tries to liven it up with some dad joke humor here and there. The result - it reads like a government report presented by a likable guy. Too bad - he has an important message.

3) The audiobook reader is very clear and easy to understand. However, he sounds so detached that I thought he was a computer-generated voice (he sounds similar to a popular synthesized voice you find online).  With the processed writing format it just got tedious at times. 

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  ELECTRIFY: AN OPTIMIST'S PLAYBOOK for OUR CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE (audiobook) by Saul Griffith.

IN PRAISE of WALKING: A NEW SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION (audiobook) by Shane O'Mara

 

Published by Highbridge in 2020.

Read by Liam Gerrard.

Duration: 5 hours, 46 minutes.

Unabridged

I picked up In Praise of Walking because I am a recent convert (the last 4 years or so) to the joys of walking and hiking and have personally seen it change my health. I was hoping to learn some more information about it and experience a bit of confirmation bias from an expert who told me what I already knew - walking and hiking are great forms of exercise with limited chances of injury.

While O'Mara says all of this, I think that this book has been been mis-described in by its publisher. The title is very accurate when it says that this book is "a new scientific exploration." But, the blurb description starts by describing this book as "a hymn to walking, the mechanical magic at the core of our humanity."

Calling it "a hymn" sounds like it is going to be a more literary, story-filled approach to the topic, as authors like Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Roach have done with numerous science topics. Both of them have considerable skill at making obscure scientific concepts very approachable.

If you like those authors, this book may disappoint you. It certainly did disappoint me. 

I had no problem with O'Mara's conclusions - I agree with them wholeheartedly. O'Mara asserts that walks are good for the body and the mind, that walks are a great way to connect to your environment (rural or urban), that walking can be a profoundly social experience and that urban environments must be more friendly to pedestrians.

My problem is that in a nearly six hour audiobook, O'Mara makes those (and similar) points for about half of the book. For the remainder, he often wanders off topic into areas that only vaguely support his thesis. For example, we are told about fish that "walk" for a short period in their lives and then they settle on a spot, attach themselves to a rock and never move from it again. These fish then go through a metamorphosis and absorb their eyes and their vestigial brain. Why are we told this? I think it was to support the idea that you need a brain to walk and walking around may have encouraged human brain development.

Fair enough, but that bit about the fish was tedious to listen to. I think we can all agree that humans have highly developed brains without having to go into the evolutionary steps of how we got here.  O'Mara could just skip into one of his discussions of how the brain maps out its location in the world, or how the brain seems to work better when the body is walking around (the second point was interesting, the first was sort of interesting the first time it was made, less interesting every time that followed). But we could have completely skipped the commentary on the fish that absorbs its own brain.

There was also a long discussion about urban sewage systems and how the 1800's saw a revolution dealing with human bodily waste. All of this discussion was in support of the idea that urban areas need to be more pedestrian friendly. It was a long way to go to make a tenuous connection.

He wandered so far to make these tenuous connections that I often found my mind wandering as I drove and listened during my daily commute. If the audiobook cannot hold my attention, it cannot receive a good rating.

This book just felt like it was a missed opportunity to be so much more. The interesting conclusions were buried in repetitive scientific commentary that wasn't necessarily needed. 

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: IN PRAISE of WALKING: A NEW SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION (audiobook) by Shane O'Mara.

COUNTDOWN 1945: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY of the ATOMIC BOMB and the 116 DAYS THAT CHANGED the WORLD (audiobook) by Chris Wallace and Mitch Weiss

Published by Simon and Schuster in June of 2020.
Read by one of the authors, Chris Wallace.
Duration: 8 hours, 40 minutes.
Unabridged.

The 116 days referred to in the title is the time between the day that Harry S. Truman became President and the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Chris Wallace quickly catches the reader up on what was going on and then uses a countdown for the chapters to add a sense of drama - will the scientists make it on time?

Of course, we know that they do succeed - the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are one of the most well-known historical facts of the 20th century. Wallace's re-telling of the story in Countdown 1945 is full of facts but not particularly told in an interesting way.

For example, there is a great deal of information about the Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945) that met in Germany. The Conference was important because it included the leaders of the USSR, the United States and the UK and in many ways it paved the path for post-war Europe and the Cold War. But, there was so much detail involved (dinner sets, meals, the weather, the cars they rode in) that it began to feel like filler.

Mushroom clouds from the bombings of the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

Of course the Potsdam Conference is an important part of the story, but the main story was the construction, testing and deployment of the bombs. If I had been the editor of this book, I would have pushed for more information on the physical results of the bombs and their effects on the residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and less on the mundane details of the Potsdam Conference like descriptions of the meals they ate.

Note: I thought the authors did a very good job of explaining both points of view on the atomic bombings of Japan, but eventually settle on the argument that they were horrible weapons, but their use was justified.

The audiobook was read by Chris Wallace, one of the authors. This makes sense considering that Wallace is a nationally known television personality. At first I thought this was a great choice. I enjoy Wallace's Sunday morning political show and I think he is a tough, fair interviewer and I like his style. But, that unique voice of his started to wear on me after a while. Not a bad book - I wouldn't tell someone not to read it or listen to it - but not as good as it could have been.

So, I rate it 3 stars out of 5 because parts of the book felt padded and the narrator's voice wore on me.  This book can be found on Amazon.com here: COUNTDOWN 1945: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY of the ATOMIC BOMB and the 116 DAYS THAT CHANGED the WORLD by Chris Wallace and Mitch Weiss.

LIVING DOLLS: THE RETURN of SEXISM by Natasha Walter

Published in 2010 by Virago Press.

Natasha Walter is an English feminist who is looking at how modern culture treats women. She has two main points in Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism. I will reverse the order of their presentation in my review.

Her second main point is the new belief in biological determinism, meaning men and women have areas that they are naturally better at - and that fact overrides everything.

She notes that the scientific studies that this belief is based on have never really

The author, Natasha Walter

been scientifically proven, meaning that they were limited and not replicated on a regular basis. Some have never been replicated even once.

The danger is that people just assume things like "girls aren't good at math" and "men can't take care of babies or children" and they become reality. I see it in the classroom all the time - parents tell their kid they struggled with a certain class and they understand if the kid struggles and the kid struggles. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The main point that she presents at the beginning of the book is more complicated and controversial. She laments that modern Western culture's willingness to affirm female sexuality has, all too often, been appropriated by men to promote male sexual fantasies. She interviewed a lot of women for this book and makes a compelling argument that men have co-opted this idea to encourage women to strip, pole dance, make porn movies and basically do over thing that used to be considered damaging to women -all in the name of feminism.

Her argument is not that female sexuality is a bad thing, but rather that it has become, for too many, the only tool that women have to get ahead. Or, going back to that theme of a self-fulfilling prophecy, too many women think that sex is their only way to get ahead in the world.

She hints at, but never quite labels another way these two thoughts go together. Could it be that the biological determinism theme is reinforcing her argument from the beginning of the book by taking options away from women so that they feel that they have to fall back on sex to get ahead?

This was an interesting book, even if I am reading it as an outsider (being a male). I flew through it. I rate it 5 stars out of 5. It can be found here: LIVING DOLLS: THE RETURN of SEXISM by Natasha Walter.

I CONTAIN MULTITUDES: THE MICROBES WITHIN US and a GRANDER VIEW of LIFE (audiobook) by Ed Yong

Published by HarperAudio in 2016.
Read by Charlie Anson.
Duration: 9 hours, 52 minutes.
Unabridged.

Ed Yong takes his readers (or, in my case, listener) into the tiny world of microbes in I Contain Multitudes. Traditionally, we think of microbes as tiny invaders that make us sick and, as I sit at home after yet another day of social distancing, it is easy to see it that way.

But, Yong takes us into a more complicated world. A world where microbes actually benefit their larger hosts - where microbes can help produce scents or colors for attracting a mate, help guts break down leaves or nuts and even help their hosts survive poisons. In many cases, these microbes and their hosts co-evolved and have become dependent on one another. They have created their own microbiome.

But, it's not that simple, either. Sometimes the microbes affect their host's behavior - and not in a good way. They can turn insects into virtual zombies, they can make mice hyperactive or depressed. They can even make mice suicidal (there is a microbe that resides in the guts of cats. It makes mice confuse the smell of cat with the smell of a mouse that is ready to mate. The mouse runs to the cat, gets eaten and the microbe is happily deposited in the gut of a cat. )

Yong's real message is that there are no good microbes or bad microbes. There are microbes that are good in some places and horrible in others. Your gut microbes, for example, are usually great, but if you have a leak in your gut, those microbes can kill you - and do it in a hurry.

Yong does explore relatively new ideas, such as the idea that gut microbes can change mental attitude, weight, cravings for certain types of food and more. It is true, but it is also true that it is certainly not as easy as it sounds. Some combinations of microbes work with some people with some foods in some situations. All of these combinations make it tricky.

Also, those probiotic yogurts that are so popular do nothing to help. It's not because they aren't helpful, but that you would have to eat A LOT of yogurt and keep doing it to actually change your gut biome.

I was intrigued by a discussion of the traditional concept of infection and how to avoid it. Turns out, if you use a medicine or a cleaner that kills all microbes, it can allow infection because the proper microbes aren't present to crowd out (or even kill) the microbes we consider dangerous. Also, if you want to build a strong immune system in your kids - get a dog.

This book was full of interesting information. At times, it was tremendously interesting. But, at two different times in the book, I seriously considered quitting the book. It has a slow start and a big lull about a third of the way through. For that reason, I am rating this audibook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: I CONTAIN MULTITUDES: THE MICROBES WITHIN US and a GRANDER VIEW of LIFE (audiobook) by Ed Yong.

RANGE: WHY GENERALISTS TRIUMPH in a SPECIALIZED WORLD (audiobook) by David Epstein

Published by Penguin Audio in 2019.
Read by Will Damron.
Duration: 10 hours, 17 minutes.
Unabridged.

In Range David Epstein presents a strong argument that lateral thinkers (people that know a little about a lot of things) are stronger members of a team than the experts that know a whole lot about a narrow subject.

He also argues that people who pick a specialty later in life have a wider perspective on things and can bring fresh ideas into a stale discussion.

I literally have no problems with anything he says in this book, but I did find the book to be poorly put together. It just rambles along from one (usually, but not always) interesting topic to another and makes all of them about 30% too long. 

So, I am going to rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: RANGE: WHY GENERALISTS TRIUMPH in a SPECIALIZED WORLD. 

BUZZ, STING, BITE: WHY WE NEED INSECTS (audiobook) by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in July of 2019.
Read by Kristin Millward.
Duration: 7 hours, 15 minutes.
Unabridged.

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, a Norwegian ecologist, specializing in insects, has written an interesting, often funny and thought-provoking introduction to the world of insects with Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects.

She gives the reader lots of interesting trivia, such as the story of male bugs that die at the climactic moment of mating due to their genitals exploding. She also tells of plants that trick dung beetles into planting their stinky seeds for them, the importance of wood beetles to keeping soil nitrogen-rich and the super-long (and boring) lives of the 17-year cicada. None of these insects gets an in-depth look because this book is an introduction because you can't seriously expect any book to cover the hundreds of thousands of species of insects in any sort of depth

She looks at how insects could be helpful in the fight against pollution and could be managed to help limit the use of pesticides, but that is not the real value of the book.

Most importantly, she demonstrates the value of insects to the ecosystem. Or, as she puts it, insects could live without people, but people couldn't live without insects. She shows how the entire world ecosystem depends on millions of different species of insects pollinating plants, breaking down the dead plants and loosening up the soil for the new plants. Basically, no bugs = no plants. No plants = no people.

My favorite fact in the book: Every year spiders eat so many insects that their combined body weight is greater than the combined body weight of every human being on the planet. So...leave the spiders alone if you can.

The audiobook was read by Kristin Millward. Her VERY British accent was an interesting change of pace. She helped make the already lively text even more interesting.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars our of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: BUZZ, STING, BITE: WHY WE NEED INSECTS.

UNTHINKABLE: AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY THROUGH the WORLD'S STRANGEST BRAINS (audiobook) by Helen Thomson

Published in 2018 by HarperAudio.
Read by the author, Helen Thomson.
Duration: 7 hours, 19 minutes.
Unabridged.

Helen Thomson is a science writer with a background in neurology. She was inspired by the story of the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine to set out to meet and interview ten people who literally experience the world differently than the rest of us.

In Unthinkable, Thomson does a solid job of explaining possible scientific explanations for each of these people's conditions and how those conditions may simply be extreme versions of a phenomenon that we all experience.

As in all collections (in this case, a collection of people), some are more interesting than others. For example, I found the story of the man who believed he was dead to be interesting but the story of the man who believed that he was a were-tiger was pretty lame all of the way around.

The author and narrator

She also looks at a person who doesn't forget anything, a woman who gets lost everywhere, including in her own home and a man who had a radical personality shift after a head injury. The collection, on the whole, is worth exploring.

The audiobook was read by the author. She is a solid reader, but I would have chosen a professional reader instead.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: UNTHINKABLE: AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY THROUGH the WORLD'S STRANGEST BRAINS.

WALKING on the SEA of CLOUDS: A SAGA of the FIRST COLONY on the MOON (audiobook) by Gray Rinehart

Published in 2019 by WordFire Press LLC.
Read by Stephanie Minervino.
Duration: 13 hours, 33 minutes.
Unabridged.

In the year 2034 a private corporation is making an attempt to build a colony on the surface of the moon to act as a home base for asteroid miners. They make the long run from the moon to the asteroid belt and back so that the lunar base can refine the metals found in the asteroids. It's a solid plan, but it has to start with almost nothing and work it's way to the kind of lunar colony you see in the movies.

The world of 2034 is different in some ways. There are early references to some sort of traumatic biological problem, such as rampant infectious disease. A great deal of the early parts of the book is devoted to Stormie and Frank Pastorelli, two prospective lunar colonists that expose themselves to the risk of contracting a bloodborne pathogens when they help the victims of a car crash. The lengths they go to cleanse themselves of pathogens and the fear exhibited by other potential colonists tell me that this was not HIV or hepatitis. Sadly, it is never explained what the infection could have been even though the infection story line comes up again and again throughout the entire book.

NASA is rarely mentioned in Walking on the Sea of Clouds because this colony is a private venture. Imagine if Elon Musk and Space-X decided to go the moon and you get the idea. But, it's not entirely a company operation - there are independent contractors that manage parts of the small-but-growing lunar colony and there are independent contractors that deliver goods. It all can be very complicated and decidedly not glamorous to hash out who has what responsibilities with the lawyers - just like most corporate gigs.

If you remember the literary devices you learned about in school (man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature) - this book is almost entirely man vs. nature - the nature is the harsh environment of the moon. It is the ultimate unforgiving environment - it is so cold that you will die almost instantly upon exposure, it has no atmosphere so you can't even take a breath and fluids burn away immediately when the sunlight hits them. The temperature extremes (more than a 500+ degree Fahrenheit difference) are tough on the machinery and the dust...well the dust gets everywhere and unlike Earth dust, it can be sharp and jagged (no weathering to take off the harsh edges) and it can tear up all sorts of stuff.

Building a colony in such conditions can be a tedious venture. You cannot just say "good enough for now" and then come back and fix the leaks later on once the colony starts to make some money. It all has to be perfect on the first try or people die.

The audiobook was read by Stephanie Minervino. She was given a hard task in this book - there are a lot of male voices and there are a variety of accents (the first lunar colonies will have to access talent from around the world). She did a strong job with this book.

This book gives the reader a taste of what our first lunar colonists (I do believe that we will be there eventually - NASA is making rumblings about it again) will be up against. It will be, as noted above, a tedious venture. Tedious things do not make the best topics for a book and there are times when this book drags. It is is not a horrible book by any means - but it suffers from peaks and valleys and some of the valleys are pretty big.

I am giving this book 3 stars out of 5. It is not the most riveting of books, but this is a must listen/must read book if you are interested in getting a glimpse of the difficulties in the eventual colonizing of the moon.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: WALKING on the SEA of CLOUDS: A SAGA of the FIRST COLONY on the MOON.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

THE INFLUENTIAL MIND: WHAT the BRAIN REVEALS ABOUT OUR POWER to CHANGE OTHERS (audiobook) by Tali Sharot

Published by Macmillan Audio in 2017.
Read by Xe Sands.
Duration: 5 hours, 24 minutes.
Unabridged.

Tali Sharot has written an interesting little book about our brains and the way they work. Clearly, she is an expert with a PhD in psychology and neuroscience, but she has that rare talent of being able to make the complicated seem pretty basic using real life examples.

If you've ever had an online argument, you know the frustration of doing research to show your opponent that they are clearly wrong, only to have them completely ignore the facts.

I recently had this experience with an online story posted by a friend about a single truck stop in a nationwide chain that had stopped flying the American flag. The "reporter" asked a cashier why the flag was not out and he said it was because they didn't want to offend drivers from Mexico. Boom! Big story, right? It turns out that their oversized flag pole's mechanism for raising and lowering the flag was broken and it was going to be fixed soon - not a conspiracy to insult America. I linked two articles about the true story behind the flag and still people continued to pile on about immigrants and crappy un-patriotic American companies even though it clearly wasn't even a real story.

What was that all about? Sharot starts with this phenomenon - it's called confirmation bias. Everyone tends to see the facts of any situation in such a way that they confirm what they already know. We make fun of conspiracy theorists for this (the fact that we don't have more proof that we faked the moon landings just shows how good the conspirators are at covering it up, right?!?!). However, it turns out we all do this with all kinds of less obviously conspiratorial matters.

The author.

For me, the most interesting thing was "the power of agency". In short, if the other person feels like they are participating in some way, you can influence them.  We are hard-wired to like choices and to feel like we are needed. Sharot refers to a study that involved nursing home residents who were given a plant to take care of - a plant that depended on the resident because there was no way that the staff had time to water it or make sure it sat in the sun (not true, of course). Those residents did much better because they had something depending on them. We need choice and we need to be needed - two important thing to remember in life.

This is the first audiobook that I have listened to that was read by Xe Sands. This is weird because she is a prolific audiobook reader and I am a prolific audiobook reviewer (this is my 456th audiobook review). Also, I am online "friends" with audiobook reviewers that know her. Because of that very loose connection I always note her name when I read reviews or look through audiobooks. She sounded exactly like a confident PhD in psychology and neuroscience making a particularly well-done presentation to a group of laypeople in an extended TED Talk. I finally get to hear Xe Sands in action and she nailed it.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE INFLUENTIAL MIND: WHAT the BRAIN REVEALS ABOUT OUR POWER to CHANGE OTHERS by Tali Sharot.

WHAT WOULD SHE DO? 25 TRUE STORIES of TRAILBLAZING REBEL WOMEN by Kay Woodward

Published by Scholastic in 2018

What Would She Do? is collection of very readable short biographies of women - which, after being factually correct, is the most important thing. As David McCullough said, "No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." 

Woodward writes in an informal, approachable style that I enjoyed quite a bit. Each biography is accompanied by a full page illustration of the woman and a little chart with basic biographical information. There is also a large pullout quote from or about her. For example, for Emma Watson there is this quote: "The saddest thing for a girl to do is to dumb herself down for a guy."

Generally, I did not like the "What Would _____ Do?" section that was included at the end of each biography. The author was clearly trying to make a connection between the women in the book and the typical American student with typical American student problems. But, trying to connect Cleopatra to a student who is being laughed at for their fashion choices or Rosa Parks to a girl being left out of group texts was just too far of a stretch for me.

Otherwise, though, this is a strong book. I am gladly handing it over to my 6th grade daughter to read and then we are going to pass it on to her teacher for her classroom library.

The publisher recommends this book for ages 8-12. I would say ages 10-15.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be purchased on Amazon.com here: WHAT WOULD SHE DO? 25 TRUE STORIES of TRAILBLAZING REBEL WOMEN by Kay Woodward.

Note: I received a free review copy of this book as part of the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

BRAVE COMPANIONS: PORTRAITS in HISTORY (audiobook) by David MCCullough

Originally published in hardback book form in 1991.
Published by Simon and Schuster Audio.
Read by the author, David McCullough
Duration: 11 hours, 19 minutes
Unabridged

Brave Companions: Portraits in History is a collection of previously published articles and speeches. It's a smattering of this and that - sometimes it's about art, sometimes about scientists, sometimes about politicians and sometimes it's just some musings from McCullough about history. It doesn't matter, almost all of it is interesting and well-told. McCullough understands the value of telling history as a story - as always he is very approachable.

My favorite entry was the story of the railroad that preceded the Panama Canal. It was an amazing story of the power of human will against nature.

McCullough reads this audiobook, which is great because McCullough has a fantastic speaking voice and is well known for his voice work. I envy both his writing ability and his talents as a speaker.

My favorite quote from the book is from President Harry S. Truman: "The only new thing in the world is the history you don't know."

I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Brave Companions: Portraits in History by David McCullough. 

WHAT IF? SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC ANSWERS to ABSURD HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS (audiobook) by Randall Munroe

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2014

Read by Wil Wheaton

Duration: 6 hours, 36 minutes

Unabridged

Randall Munroe is the writer and illustrator of the web-based comic strip xkcd. On his website, he has a place where people can leave "What if..." science-based questions and he tries to answer them. Why would they leave science questions on a comic strip website? Well, it turns out that Munroe is also a physicist - with a sense of humor.

Munroe has collected the best questions and put them into this book: What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. The questions include things like what would happen if the earth kept growing and when would you notice a change in gravity? What would happen if you fired in an arrow in a zero-gravity environment? How does all of the computing power of all of humanity stack up against all of the actual computers? What would happen if you opened up a giant drain in the lowest part of the ocean and drained it all away? And more.

The author, Randall Munroe

Many of the questions are interesting and some of the explanations are really interesting. But, many of the explanations go on too long for my tastes. The author takes the answer and extends it on too long - many times he goes beyond the scope of the question and expands it to the point where the results end up in the destruction of the earth and/or the death of all of humanity. It was cute at first but after a while I began to roll my eyes when I saw it coming. There were times when I got tired of the length of the answer and just forwarded on to the next question.

Wil Wheaton read the audiobook version and did a stellar job like he usually does. He captured the attitude of the author perfectly.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5 - too many answers that were just too detailed and too long.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: WHAT IF? SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC ANSWERS to ABSURD HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS.

IS SCIENCE RACIST? (DEBATING RACE) by Jonathan Marks

Published by Polity in March of 2017.

If you have ever had the misfortune to run across one of the alt-right's pseudo-scientific webpages that discuss the genetics of race and how science proves one race is smarter/better/nicer/whatever than other races you will see the need for Jonathan Marks' book Is Science Racist?

Sadly, an author I used to Tweet back and forth with a little re-Tweeted some posts from one of these alt-right sites and I got my fill of them during one long evening. They are the internet's version of those young men marching in Charlottesville with the white polo shirts and khaki pants. Like those men, on the surface these sites were pleasant enough until you actually start to pay attention to what was being said.

They wrap themselves in pseudoscience that, unfortunately, is twisted around to sound reasonable. It is these types of people that Jonathan Marks is talking about when he notes:

"Every science has had its own set of ethical issues - chemistry and poison gas; physical anthropology and grave-robbing - but there is one question that only scientists working in human genetics and race have to grapple with. And that is: 'What is it about me that the Nazis like so much?'" (p. 25)

The racists at Charlottesville,
Virginia in 2017.

Marks explores the relationship between science and politics and how scientists have to be careful to guard that their work is not perverted into something evil. Of course, some scientists don't care about where their funding comes from just so long as the checks cash. Others are duped. As noted by the author, "Scientists think like everybody else, and are beset by the same kinds of aspirations, insecurities and disappointments as everybody else." (p. 66) In some cases, scientists with latent racial biases are themselves are victims of confirmation bias - "their presuppositions adversely affect the framing of the research, the collection and analyzing of the data, and the interpretation of the results." (p. 22)

To Marks' credit, he works very hard to make this book accessible to the layman, making reference to popular works such as Frankenstein and Jurassic Park to warn of the dangers of science unfettered by morality. His discussion of genetics wandered a little deeper into the deep end than I preferred a couple of times but, on the whole, this was a surprisingly brisk and informative read.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Is Science Racist by Jonathan Marks.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in order to write an honest review through the Amazon Vine Program.

STIFF: THE CURIOUS LIVES of HUMAN CADAVERS by Mary Roach

Published by Tantor Audio in 2004
Read by Shelly Frasier
Duration: 8 hours, 5 minutes
Unabridged

One fact about life on this planet - we are all going to die. Mary Roach takes a look at what happens once we're dead in Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers and asks what happens next? She's not exploring the afterlife - she is looking, literally, at what happens to our bodies when we "shuffle off this mortal coil."

Roach explores what happens when you donate your body to science - everything from a medical school to a once-living crash test dummy. Or, you can donate your body to a mortuary school so prospective morticians can practice their future craft.

Maybe you don't want to donate your entire body. What happens if you just donate some of your organs?

What if you are not donating anything. What happens when you have a traditional funeral? How about if you are cremated? There are new ways to dispose of a body as well, including one that pretty much cooks the meat off of your bones and one that breaks you up and then mulches you into the earth.

This was a fascinating, entertaining, informative and often very funny book. Let's face it - being dead is sort of ridiculous. The reader, Shelly Frasier, is a natural. She read it so perfectly, with such an ironic tone, that I honestly thought that the author had read the book until I wrote this review. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: STIFF: THE CURIOUS LIVES of HUMAN CADAVERS by Mary Roach.