Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction

Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction by Richard Ives
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book has a depressing conclusion that the age of wild tigers is in its final years ... irrevocably. That is not why I am rating this book so low. Along the voyage of uncovering this animal's plight from central India to southeast Asia, he finds many words to complain and delineate what aggravates him in travelling and seems to entirely miss what must have been stunning, impressive, and meaningful. Also, not a single picture to help us realize these exotic locales.

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Review: Pirates of the Cell

Pirates of the Cell by Andrew Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The more things change, the more they stay the same? This interesting if dated 1985 overview of viruses says of influenza, "A further pandemic appeared in 1977 when an H1N1 variant surfaced, and with immunity against this form now firmly established we await the next shift that will set the pandemic cycle in motion..." Says Wikipedia, "Influenza A (H1N1) virus is the subtype of influenza A virus that was the most common cause of human influenza (flu) in 2009, and is associated with the 1918 outbreak known as the Spanish Flu."

So old and dry (it is a text aimed at college bio majors), this work still held my interest. Profuse illustrations help make the point and I may never tire of that population betwixt living cells and molecules: viruses, prions, and (new to me) "Viroids". They are among the smallest infectious pathogens known, larger only than prions. The other tale in this work is the manifold and complex defenses of the body: killer cells, phagocytes, B-cells, T-cells, etc. The carcinogenic nature of some viruses and how viruses can be harnessed are topics the surface of which are only scratched here.

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Review: The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-Boats

The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-Boats by William Geroux
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic I read of England's maritime-focused Southampton and this has a focus on WW II and since for the America's maritime nexus in Mathews County, Virginia. Here many men served and died as part of American's merchant marine working to deliver commerical and military goods across the North Atlantic while being preyed upon by U-boats. I have read that the United States Merchant Marine has much less than 500 ships, now. This story tells of that civilian organization pressed into service when needed from its highpoint in the fight against the Axis on two oceans to its present, humble scope. Much of this story is told from specific incidents and the lives of specific Matthews men.

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Review: The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago

The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Chicago being inspired here is the 1926 play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins> and later adapted into films and a famous musical. Maurine Watkins, as a wanna-be playwright and a "girl reporter" for the Chicago Tribune, the city's "hanging paper." Newspaperwomen were a rare breed and an important part of this story as Watkins covered by "Stylish Belva" Gaertner and "Beautiful Beulah" Annan—both of whom had shot down their paramours in a time when Chicago was obsessed with lethal women and justice for such femme fatales. Watkins was also involved in covering the Leopold and Loeb thrill killings. This book is in three acts: Dawkins getting into the trade, the courtroom denouement of the Belva and Beulah killings (a pair of names better matched than Thelma and Louise!), and Dawkins' career as a playwright and writer.

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Review: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was drawn to read this book after finding it was a basis for the cable series featuring two of my favorite actors: Steve Buscemi and Michael Shannon - bonus this is narrated by Joe Montegna! Much more than prohibition era, the arc of this tale is from the undeveloped island owned by a Revolutionary War vet to rail era development to prohibition to the decline post-WW II and post-Mafia casino era of Wynn, Donald Trump, and more. The crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and airing on HBO plucks from this the best material from the rise of organized crime's success in Atlantic City and historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson. The book goes into detail on the syndicate operations involving Luciano, Meyer Lansky, et al.

This book is also a primer on bossism, the U.S. historical system of political control centering about a single powerful figure (the boss) and a complex organization of lesser figures (the machine) bound together by reciprocity in promoting financial and social self-interest. Bossism depended upon manipulation of the voters and thus always had some aspects of corruption and fraud, here centered around a Republican Party machine. Control of blocks of votes with favoritism and force enabled bosses and machines to secure the nomination and election or appointment of candidates for public office; the officers thus chosen respond by advancing the interests of the machine.

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Review: Zombification: Stories from National Public Radio

Zombification: Stories from National Public Radio by Andrei Codrescu
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I never really dug Condrescu's NPR bits, but thought maybe his ESL pronunciation was biasing my judgement, so gave this collection a chance - read them in my own voice, as it were. I am still "meh" about the material: it seems like incomplete thoughts lacking punch - all texture without structure and feeling like a draft of a possibly better essay. Still, there were highpoints. I did not know he lived in Louisiana, or at least did during this dated Reagan Era compendium, and I like most his ruminations on that nearest faraway place of this diverse nation. His insights into Roumania are, of course, enlightening. Well traveled he touches on my own Detroit home city with a humble recollection of the 1967 Detroit riot and the persecuted artist Tyree Guyton.

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Review: How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like

How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating and quick read about the mysterious and at times contradictory ways we get pleasure, and to a large extent feel aversion.

There are a lot of enlightening historical tidbits here I didn't know, like a simple chemical test to identify super-tasters along with a lot studies backing up facts about how we place value on ownership and contact around a basic theory of essentialism.

Back when I was at GM, it was remarked prices changed, but you could always get extra work or effect a thank you with a box of donuts. Similarly, doing studies they find they cannot get affluent MIT students to participate in a study for $2, but a candy bar less than two bucks will work. These are some of the human idiosyncrasies studied.

Coming away from the book, I was most impressed with the scientific study of this essentialism: why mothers only want the bronzed booties of their children, why idols' clothing fetches a higher price without dry cleaning and why children that believe you can duplicate a silver cup don't want your duplicator near their wubby. While the authors don't overtly state this, they have found a basis for belief in the supernatural and a tendency for reverence that both develop at an early age in the human mind.

There is a lot of overlap and synchronicity with You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself and The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.

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