Tag Archive: nonfiction



Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure EverythingQuackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Blurb from GoodReads:

What won’t we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine—yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison—was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

***

I felt it better if you read the blurb rather than if I explained it. After reading Deborah Harkness’s book about the history of science in the time of Elizabethan England, which, though interesting was more a textbook level of nonfiction, I thought this would be fun. Same topic, the history of science, but with more of a sense of humor.

Luckily, I was able to find the Kindle version on Libby. There were pictures of some of the medical quackery. It makes one think how good it is now. Yet, many things haven’t changed and one wonders what will look like quackery to us looking back from the future.

Anyway, I think you would enjoy learning about this history with a sense of humor.

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What This Comedian Said Will Shock YouWhat This Comedian Said Will Shock You by Bill Maher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not finished with this book yet, but I know I will in the next two nights. I will be so busy that I won’t have time to do a proper review. But at 75% finished, I think my thoughts on the review won’t change much.

Bill Maher can cause me to laugh out loud, nod in agreement, OR scream at my TV (at least in my head). And I’m okay with that. I like hearing different points of view presented with a sense of humor or thoughtfully. This book is like his show; it is open and works over ideas. Bill’s point of view. This is one that you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I feel we can disagree and still like/love each other. Bill gives us other ways to look at it all.

I was lucky to get this from Libby as an Audible. Bill Maher narrates with all his best humor and maybe a bit of bitterness. But thoughtfully, respectfully, um, for the most part.

Give it a try and see what you think.

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Uncomfortable Conversations with a JewUncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Emmanuel Acho
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an interesting conversation—and, yes, uncomfortable. But it is enlightening to see how conversations late at night can get, where you ask the hard questions and the other person lets down their social shield and purely expresses what we all really want to know but are afraid to ask.

Emmanuel Acho has written other books, including Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, and he has a podcast similarly named. But with what happened in the East on October 7th, many of us are confused about the whole thing. We think we understand Israel’s stand and possibly Palastine’s, but what was the third people, Hamas? And what was all of that?

I thought I needed to hear it from someone close to the source, Noa Tishby, rather than the opinions of the crowd. This book explores this topic and many of the misconceptions about the Jewish people.

I was fortunate enough to pick this up on Libby. I highly suggest the audio version, as it gives you the full experience of Noa and Emmanuel’s conversation. I will be looking up more by both authors. It’s quite interesting!

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My Grape Christmas (The Grape Series #3)My Grape Christmas by Laura Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series is so sweet. It isn’t a mushy romance, but romance is there. It satisfies my travel bug, and I get to play with a little of my mini French-speaking. This series is the only one I am taking my time to actually read and not listen to. I have it on my old phone in the Kindle. It is a slower read than the Audiobooks, but I can stay with it as I love the characters and the story. Laura Bradbury writes her story well.

In this story, after a year in Quebec, Canada, Laura and her boyfriend return to France to visit his family for Christmas. It is a shorter book than others, but it made me love the family more.

By the way, if you know absolutely no French, you will not be lost in these books, as the little bits are used in context with the English. This series takes you from when Laura does an exchange year in France for high school through her adult life in France. I have already started the next book, in which the couple gets to go back to France for a college exchange program.

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WorthyWorthy by Jada Pinkett Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Autobiographies are hard to rate. It feels like I’m rating the person or their life experiences. So, instead, I will say this was interesting. Ms. Smith did her own narration, which is always more authentic.

What is different about this book is that Jada takes the time to address the reader and guides us through our own issues that might be like what she went through. A little journal prompts the reader to write out their own feelings.

This was a Libby audiobook. I think you all might like it.

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The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIAThe Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whoa! This is a lot! A crazy book to read at bedtime. My emotions were all over the place.

It’s worth the read. So much information! I love that the author did the narration, as you could tell her heart was in the read.

It’s so late at night that I can’t think of what to say that will help others to want to check out this book. It is so worth the read. I’m just warning you. If anger, excitement, sadness, hopelessness, regret, hope, and other huge emotions keep you awake, you might want to read this earlier in the day. I had too many 3 AM bedtimes that didn’t turn into actual sleep. Emotions about women, historical events, and all the wins and losses we’ve all lived through, but receiving only partial information played through my head, wondering what I would have done. What could I have done? How about the personal situations I’ve been through like some of these women; what needed to be done?

So read it for yourself and learn what you can. I was lucky to get to read (listen to) it on Libby.

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My Grape Quebec (The Grape Series, #2)My Grape Quebec by Laura Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this series! I get to exercise my little bit of Duolingo French and travel with Laura, first to France and then to Montreal, Quebec, the destination of this book. The only bit of Canada I’ve been to was Victoria, BC. And then only a few hours on vacation when I was a child.

The relationship between Laura and Franc develops through cold and scary times.

Ms. Bradbury’s writing pulls the reader in. She knows how to tell her story.

I read this on Kindle. I read it a little at a time on one of my old phones. It was great for those moments when waiting, during commercials, etc. It took a bit, but the story stayed with me, so I never felt I needed to review the last bit I read.

I have already ordered the next book in her series.

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The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer (Blue Zones, The)The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer by Dan Buettner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was quite interesting. I was lucky to get the Kindle from Libby. Now, I want to get the paper version to catch the pictures, recipes, and ideas to read more slowly and start bringing more of these ideas into my life. What I’d really like to do is travel to these countries myself. I look forward to watching this on Netflix.

I used to live near the Seventh Day Adventist communities, the one in Loma Linda and the one in La Sierra, California. My friends attended that church, so I had an early intro to the vegetarian diet. That fit quite well for me as I never liked meat. I got to have special dinners with those friends and was amazed at the variety and full flavor of everything offered. The only thing I would object to is the smog. It was very thick in those areas. I would bet that these people would live even longer elsewhere.

This wasn’t a long or engaging read. I used Text-to-Speech and was through it in a couple of nights. Like I said, I look forward to having the book.

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And the flounder is how to not hyperfocus on diamond painting and reading. I find there’s so much to do and read and so little time. I need at least 48 hours for my day!


Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His FamilyPiglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, my goodness! This book was fun from the very beginning. My eyes have difficulties tracking to read; even since cataract surgery fixed a lot of my issues, tracking remains nearly impossible. I have been an avid reader since I was little. Reading was slow going, but I got through the ten books allotted by the library every three weeks. The heft of the books was unwieldy, but I didn’t ask for help.

So, I began reading this book on my old phone using the Kindle app. It took me quite a while to get through even half the book. Finally, I caught up with the Libby audiobooks I had checked out, and Piglet became my bedtime book. Now, I could use text-to-speech and speed up the reading quite a bit. And give my eyes a rest.

Another reason I got into this book is my own dog, Kali, passed last spring after being nearly blind and having doggy dementia and bad hearing. It was so hard at the end of her life, but we had such a hard time from the beginning trying to learn from each other that the bond for her was strong in the end. I miss her so much and feel the need to help another dog as soon as I can. Meanwhile, Piglet helped me. Now I feel even stronger about getting another dog. I know there is one out there that needs me as much as I need him or her.

I think this book has a couple of other inspirational stories within. Melissa Shapiro is a veterinarian who tells her story of how she and her husband got together. Then, she shares her children’s aspirations with music. She tells of their college experiences.

By the way, one of her daughters and her husband have honest and raving reviews on the Piglet GoodReads page. I was delighted to read these as I felt I knew them from the book.

This book is full of the good feels a person needs these days. I look forward to looking all over the internet to find videos and follow the dogs, Melissa, and her family, and all the good they are doing for disabled people and animals.

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When I feel I am floundering, I need to remember the floundering Ms. Shapiro and her husband went through with that one-pound blind, deaf puppy screaming his needs to them. Floundering is how one finds one’s balance. That is what February gives me. Meanwhile, today my turtles got a little more colorful.


Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened AmericaMedgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has to win the Black History Month finest read. Joy-Ann Reid has written and narrated one of the best books I have read in a long time. Especially since I don’t much like nonfiction, there was history and personal story involved. I cared from the beginning for all the characters involved. And Ms. Reid became one of them as she was a personal witness by getting to know Myrlie Evers personally. So, her research was not only factual but personal. That is a true history book!

It wasn’t just a bunch of facts and men, as most history books seem to be. Nor was it only fighting and war and the heroes. However, that was included as only a part of history.

I could not stop listening/reading, so I went over my 3 AM sleep time as I didn’t want to stop listening. Joy-Ann is fun to listen to, and I always feel the wiser when I heed her voice.

I highly recommend this book. I was lucky to find it on Libby as an audiobook.

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