If you're in a so-called "apostolic" church ★
I own this one, if anyone is interested in reading it. And free samples of it are available here.
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The World Without Us: Required Reading
The World Without Us ~ Alan Weisman
trade paperback 432 pages ISBN-10: 0312427905 ISBN-13: 978-0312427900
When I told people I was reading this non-fiction book and that the premise was "What would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly vanished?" the usual response was to say something like, "So it's fiction?"
Ugh. NO.
First of all, to understand what could happen, we have to understand what has already happened so far. And then, backed up by scientific knowledge from various experts in various fields, the author explains a very likely outcome of what would happen if we were just -- poof -- gone. This book is absolutely fascinating. So much so, that I was routinely ignoring the fantasy fiction I was concurrently reading and kept heading back to this book. I don't often find non-fiction page-turners but this one qualifies. And along with fascinating, this book is frequently alarming -- but not in a strident, self-righteous tone or anything like that. This book presented me with many facts about the earth and our impact on it in a straightforward manner that just makes your proverbial jaw drop. The two most alarming chapters for me were Chapter 9: Polymers Are Forever and Chapter 15: Hot Legacy. In the former I learned all about the plastic refuse that is currently clogging our oceans. A LOT of plastic, mind-boggling... the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was mentioned and then I learned that there are at least six other large plastic-strewn gyres*.
So. That's bad. But then along comes Chapter 15 which goes into detail about radioactive waste, how much of it we have, what we're doing with it, and just how bad it is. HOLY CRAP. Take Uranium-238, for example. This "depleted" version of U-235 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In the United States alone, there's at least a half-million tons of it. U-238 is an unusually dense metal, so we've been making armor-piercing bullets out of it. (They can pierce tank armor.) There's enough concentrated U-238 in the bullet points that radioactivity in the ashen debris can exceed 1,000 times the normal background level. They'll emit radiation for more years than the planet likely has left. (That is, this stuff will still be radioactive when 4 or 5 billion years from now our sun expands to a red giant and incinerates the inner planets in our solar system. Nice.)
I could go on but suffice it to say that this book should be required reading. An excellent book.
*Oceanography. a ringlike system of ocean currents rotating clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Dewey, The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron
Dewey Readmore Books was a library cat for 18 years in the town of Spencer, Iowa. He was a public cat, one who loved his library and its patrons, and he belonged to the whole town. Vicki Myron was his first human. She found him in a book drop, where someone had stuffed him one frozen night, and they adopted each other right away.
Dewey became the emblem of the library and of the town, and he was famous world-wide. The book, Dewey, The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World, is a love letter written by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter to Dewey, to the town of Spencer and the state of Iowa. It's a little saccharine for me sometimes, but I'm not a cat lover and I've never had pets. Don't go by me. It's a heartwarming memoir of a small-town librarian who believed the libraries should be community centers much more than a collection of books, and of the cat who helped her spread that message.
a little fascinating history
A Little History of the World ~ E. H. Gombrich
paperback 304 pages ISBN-10: 030014332X ISBN-13: 978-0300143324
This popular book has been around for many years in over a dozen languages but it has only recently been translated to English. (The reason why is explained in the preface.) Mr. Gombrich originally published this book in Vienna in 1936. It is written for a younger audience which results in a clear, engaging narrative. There are 40 short chapters which include sections on: Ancient Greece and Egypt, the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Jesus, Mohammed, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, Charlemagne, Martin Luther, Napoleon, and so forth up to World War I. Then in the final chapter, the author talks about his experiences during World War II and his hopes for peace. It is a fascinating book, covers a lot of ground, and made many areas of history much clearer for me to understand. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about world history.
Fragged
(download)
This is a story about being 50 + and unemployed during the recession of 2009 - a time of technological change, and pervasive cultural uncertainty.
Legacy
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This is a story about discovering a part of my grandfather's legacy during a visit to the Panama Canal, and my wondering how or in what form my own legacy will be left.
The Women Behind the Carpets
(download)
This is a story about discovering the voices of nomadic women in their carpets - tapestries of their life experiences, during a recent visit to Turkey.
Fooled By Randomness
Book: Fooled by Randomness
Author: Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
What I'm currently reading now. It was a little tough to understand at first, given that we're not biologically tuned to recognise randomness correctly (as stated in the book) and the probability that I'm one of those fools too. Am helped tremendously by the irreverent, witty and ultimately entertaining way in which Mr Taleb wrote his piece. This may well be one of the best books, in terms of the non-fiction I've read this year. More notes to come (am halfway through now).
