Long before the mammoths and sabertooth tigers of the ice age, even more prehistoric mammals roamed the earth, pioneering traits that would one day make us, us.
Read MoreBook Review: Beasts Before Us
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nonfiction
Book Review: The Fabric of Civilization
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I LOVED this book. As someone who grew up with textile crafts, my mind was blown by the myriad of connections that the author makes and repeatedly put it down just to consider how cool it is. I could rave about this book for days, but I will stop writing this preamble so that you can read my actual review and see how wonderful it actually is.
Postrel’s history brings a fresh perspective to textiles of the past by going beyond the expected descriptions of materials and instead delves deep into large and small scale implications of the development of this product over time.
Not only is this a history of textiles, it’s an overview into the history of agriculture, our understanding of chemistry, the shaping of language, the rise of industrialization, and the influence of skilled workers on economics and gender roles through the present day. By using every tool at textile historians’ disposal— from DNA sequencing to determine when humans began domesticating cotton, sheep for wool, and other natural fibers; to studying economic records of the past; to working alongside materials scientists to work on textiles of the future. Postrel paints a fuller picture of the impact of fabric on everyday life (besides the fact that we touch and use it every day) and ties together the seemingly distant threads of what arose in the process.
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Book Review: Let's Talk About Death (Over Dinner)
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This is it: the new book I’m recommending about death to anyone who asks.
Filled with conversation starters, prompts, and stories about people who have contributed to their own Death Dinners in the past, Hebb compiles the ultimate guidebook to having a hard but important conversation with both strangers and loved ones with grace and ease. While it provides guidance, Let’s Talk About Death (Over Dinner) is never a preachy self-help book— instead it guides you through learning and self reflection and gives advice on how to bring this conversation to others.
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Book Review: Big Vape
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Do you ever pick a book up because the title is just so outrageous that you need to be able to say that you read it, if the situation ever arises? That’s what I did when I saw Big Vape on a new releases list.
So feeling bold with an impulse to read, I downloaded the audiobook to listen to while I worked, and I was pleasantly surprised. Big Vape reads like a long-form article that you’d spend a whole morning pouring over, uncovering just how deep the conspiracies and crimes go. It’s fast-paced, but never overwhelming when it comes to names and events. Thanks to regular reminders of who and what everything is, it’s something that you could absolutely marathon reading (like I did) or take your sweet time on, without feeling hopelessly lost.
Big Vape follows the whirlwind success of Juul, the skyrocketing popularity of vaping, and the dramatic business deals, health crises, and legal cases that were left in its wake.
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Book Review: The Icepick Surgeon
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Amongst all of the genres that I read, nonfiction about medical history is one of my top favorites. I especially love audiobooks that walk you through the weird, gross, and somewhat backwards world of pre-FDA medicine, so I was very pumped to get an advance copy of the audiobook for Sam Kean’s newest release, The Icepick Surgeon, expertly narrated by Ben Sullivan.
At its heart, the message that this book is trying to get across is that the ethics and human cost of research is something that we need to constantly need to evolve, scrutinize, and be conscious of. Kean uses true crime-style case studies to discuss the crimes that scientists have committed in the name of advancing our understanding of medicine
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Book Review: Locked In Time
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During my time being a guest on Atlas Obscura’s Dino 101, I met so many truly wonderful people, so I jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of Dean Lomax’s Locked in Time following his appearance on the show. Even though he beat me in a game of Opinion Dominion, it was honestly impossible to hold it against him in writing this review because his book is so wildly good.
There are very few dinosaur (and other extinct species) books that really can get me as excited about them as talking to people does for me, and Locked In Time really did that. Not only does it bring childlike awe to seeing these animals come to life on the page, but it gives them a Planet Earth-esque storyline. We see them play, hunt, take care of their babies, and so much more, and it, at times, made me so emotional for these long dead critters.
Read MoreBook Review: Written in Bone and Out Cold
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To celebrate the start of a new month, six months(-ish) on Bookstagram, and the release day of 2 ARCs that I got to review, so why not start an actual blog to post reviews on?
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