Book Review - Fauci

Title: Fauci

Author: Michael Specter
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: This is a short biography about Dr. Anthony Fauci who was the 5th Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the 2nd Chief Medical Advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022. Like me, most people probably never heard of Dr. Fauci until the COVID-19 pandemic pushed him into the news. Even now, most people probably still don't know how instrumental he has been in finding cures and treatments for so many diseases like HIV/AIDS, SARS, the Swine flu, MERS, Ebola, and COVID-19. He played a significant role in the early 2000s in creating the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in driving development of biodefense drugs and vaccines following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Needless to say, Dr. Fauci is an amazing person. 

Description (Audible): Pushkin Industries presents Fauci: the first-ever audio biography of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the most prominent voices in the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Written and narrated by New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter, Fauci combines Specter’s unparalleled reporting with exclusive new interviews and archival audio of Dr. Fauci; his wife, Christine Grady, RN, PhD; key colleagues; and peers. Listeners will hear Dr. Fauci speak firsthand about the harassment and death threats he has received as a result of his leadership and about the stress of simultaneously combating the COVID-19 pandemic and an information war waged by his boss, the president of the United States.

Specter has covered Dr. Fauci - and global public health - for more than three decades. In Fauci, Specter traces the doctor’s life from his childhood as a basketball-loving kid in Brooklyn through his leadership during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s to today, when the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of viral research are shaping humanity. With its chorus of voices, archival recordings, and original score, Fauci brings the immediacy and energy of the best documentary podcasts to the audiobook format.

Book Review - A Walk in the Park

Title: A Walk in the Park
Author: Kevin Fedarko 
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read, ever. In fact, it's so good, I needed to expand my rating system to six👍 This book is extremely well written and has everything I love; nature, adventure, science, history, suspense and much more. I literally couldn't put it down. Needless to say, I highly recommend it!  

Description (Audible): Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. A few years after quitting his job to pursue an ill-advised dream of becoming a whitewater guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision as bold as it was harebrained. Together, they would embark on an end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon—a journey that, McBride promised, would be “a walk in the park.” Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed, unaware that the small cluster of experts who had actually completed the crossing billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.”

The ensuing ordeal, which lasted more than a year, revealed a place that was deeper, richer, and far more complex than anything the two men had imagined—and came within a hair’s breadth of killing them both. They struggled to make their way through the all-but impenetrable reaches of the canyon’s truest wilderness, a vertical labyrinth of thousand-foot cliffs and crumbling ledges where water is measured out by the teaspoon and every step is fraught with peril—and where, even today, there is still no trail spanning the length of the country’s best-known and most iconic landmark.

Along the way, veteran long-distance hikers ushered them into secret pockets of enchantment, invisible to the millions of tourists gathered on the rim, that only a handful of humans have ever seen. Members of the canyon’s eleven Native American tribes brought them face-to-face with layers of history that forced them to reconsider myths at the very center of our national parks—and exposed them to the threats of commercial tourism. Even Fedarko’s dying father, who had first pointed him toward the chasm more than forty years earlier but had never set foot there himself, opened him to a new way of seeing the landscape.

And always, there was the great gorge itself: austere and unforgiving, yet suffused with magic, drenched in wonder, and redeemed by its own transcendent beauty. A singular portrait of a sublime place, A Walk in the Park is a deeply moving plea for the preservation of America’s greatest natural treasure.

Book Review - Extinctions: How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves

Title: Extinctions: How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves
Author: Michael J. Benton
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I loved this book. My main reason for reading it was to better understand how life has evolved on Earth. Scientists have determined Earth has experienced at least five major mass extinctions - 

1. End-Ordovician (444 million years ago) - Caused by rapid global cooling and glaciation, which caused sea levels to drop drastically and destroyed shallow marine habitats, followed by quick warming and oxygen loss.
2. Late Devonian (360 million years ago) - Caused by massive ocean anoxia (oxygen depletion) and nutrient overloads (eutrophication), partly linked to early land plants weathering soil and altering atmospheric carbon dioxide
3. End-Permian / "The Great Dying" (250 million years ago) - Triggered by colossal flood basalt volcanic eruptions (the Siberian Traps) that released massive greenhouse gases, causing extreme global warming, ocean acidification, and sulfidic, oxygen-starved oceans. This was the worst event, wiping out 96% of species.
4. End-Triassic (200 million years ago) - Caused by intense volcanic activity tied to the breakup of Pangea, which rapidly pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and drove severe climate change and ocean acidification
5. End-Cretaceous (66 million years ago) - Caused by a huge asteroid impact resulting in the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, which triggered a prolonged "impact winter," blocking sunlight, halting photosynthesis, and collapsing global food chains. The fifth extinction wiped out about 80 percent of all species, including the dinosaurs.

While extinction events are not common, it appears they are a natural part of how life evolved on Earth. Many scientists believe that Earth is now experiencing a human caused "sixth extinction" event (Holocene or Anthropocene extinction) due to habitat destruction, climate change, pollution and over exploitation of natural resources. On a geologic time scale, humans are just a blip and at the rate we're going, I truly believe humans could end up going extinct just like the billions of other species before us. 

Description (Audible): Cutting-edge techniques across biology, chemistry, physics, and geology have transformed our understanding of the deep past, including the discovery of a previously unknown mass extinction. This compelling evidence, revealing a series of environmental crises resulting in the near collapse of life on Earth, illuminates our current dilemmas in exquisite detail.

Beginning with the oldest, Professor Michael J. Benton takes us through the "big five" die outs: the Late Ordovician, which set the evolution of the first animals on an entirely new course; the Late Devonian, apparently brought on by global warming; the cataclysmic End-Permian, also known as the Great Dying, which wiped out over 90 percent of all life on Earth; the newly discovered Carnian Pluvial Event; and the End-Cretaceous asteroid. He examines how global warming, acid rain, ocean acidification, erupting volcanoes, and meteorite impact have affected conditions on Earth, and how life survived, adapted, and evolved.

In Extinctions, listeners will learn about revolutionary new tools used to uncover ancient extinction events and processes in forensic detail, and how scientists are improving our understanding of the deep past. New research allows us to link long-ago upheavals to crises in our current age, the Anthropocene, with important consequences for us all.

Review: Paleontolgical Society

Book Review - A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

Title: A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

Author: Andrew H. Knoll
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍

My Review: I like science and I really appreciate books like this that distill information and make science more accessible. This book definately does that. However, it did feel a bit like a firehose of information. My favorite chapter was the last one that discussed the impacts humans are having on the planet. Needless to say, humans are not good stewards and our time on earth may end up being less than a blink of the eye.  

Description (Audible): Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above.

The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Book Review - The Worst Hard Time The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Title: The Worst Hard Time The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Author: Timothy Egan
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: Timothy Egan is one of my favorite authors. I've read several of his books and they're all great. This book is one of his best. It tells the tragic story of the 1930s dust bowl and the people who lived through it. This book is especially prescient and shows how easy it is for humans to destroy our environment and how we need to be more aware of how our actions affect the planet. I loved this book. 

Description (Audible): In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature.

KU Common Books - Timothy Egan speaks at The University of Kansas about his book "The Worst Hard Time The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl"  (1:14:00)

Oklahoma Horizon TV - Timothy Egan discusses his book and the sense of urgency behind capturing these stories before they are lost to history (6:40)

Book Review - A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

Title: A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

Authors: David Attenborough, Jonnie Hughes
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I loved this book and highly recommend it. It's hard to not be cynical these days. Every day it seems like there's something new to worry about. This book follows David Attenborough's life from his early years to present, providing an amazing perspective on how humans have changed the planet to the point of potentially causing a "sixth extinction", which incidently, could include humans. The book does try to provide ways that humans could prevent our demise which I found to be reassuring. However, considering the book was written prior to Trump's second administration, I'm tending to favor a more cynical view for human survival.  

Description (Audible): In this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century, award-winning broadcaster and natural historian, David Attenborough shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future.See the world. Then make it better.

Description (ChatGPT): This powerful and deeply personal book reads like both a memoir and a warning. Drawing on decades of firsthand observation, Attenborough traces the dramatic decline of Earth’s biodiversity alongside the rise of human impact, making the environmental crisis feel immediate and undeniable. What sets the book apart is its tone: while the middle sections paint a stark picture of climate change, habitat loss, and a possible “sixth mass extinction,” Attenborough never settles into despair. Instead, he offers a clear, science-based vision for restoring the planet—through renewable energy, rewilding, and changes in how we live and consume (SuperSummary)

Concise, accessible, and quietly urgent, A Life on Our Planet is less about guilt and more about responsibility. It leaves readers not just informed, but motivated—reminding us that while the damage is real, so is the possibility of recovery if action is taken now.

Book Review - A World Appears A Journey into Consciousness

Title: A World Appears A Journey into Consciousness
Author: Michael Pollan
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I am a huge fan of Michael Pollan and have read many of his books.  Michael Pollan is a genius. I enjoyed this book but it was a little more esoteric than his others and it may take me a little more time to absorb. The book discusses conciousness and what that means. Michael speculates that maybe plants and other living things have consciousness but on a different level than humans. He also discusses the possiblity that through AI (Artificial Intellegence), computers could achieve a level of simulated conciousness.  Michael has spent alot time experimenting with psychedelics and how they affect our reality. Through the use of psychedelics, he has experienced a reality that helped him see how plants and other living things have a level of conciousness that's hard for humans to see. I've never experimented with psychedelics and don't really plan on it. So, I probably will never know that reality. I do feel though that all living creatures have some level of conciousness and no matter how good AI becomes, computers will only have a simulation of conciousness.  

Michael Pollan speech: A World Appears: A Journey Into Conciousness

PBS NewsHour: Exploring the power and mystery of consciousness

Michael Pollan interview: A Mindblowing Conversation About Humanity With Michael Pollan

Description (Audible): When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have subjective experience of the world remains one of nature’s greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like, when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives—scientific, philosophical, literary, spiritual and psychedelic—to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life.

When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy gray matter could generate a subjective point of view—assuming that the brain is the source of our perceived reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to “plant neurobiologists” searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants, scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness.

In Pollan’s dazzling exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with the world and our deepest selves.

Description (ChatGPT): In A World Appears, Michael Pollan takes readers on a wide-ranging exploration of one of humanity’s deepest mysteries: consciousness. Blending neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and personal experience, Pollan investigates how subjective awareness arises and whether it might exist beyond humans—in animals, plants, or even machines. (Publishers Weekly)

Pollan’s strength lies in his curiosity and storytelling. Rather than presenting definitive answers, he interviews scientists, philosophers, and spiritual practitioners while reflecting on meditation and psychedelic experiences that shape his own thinking about the mind. The result is an engaging, accessible journey through competing theories about sentience, emotion, the self, and the limits of scientific explanations. (Library Journal)

The book is less about solving the “hard problem” of consciousness than about expanding the reader’s sense of wonder about it. Thought-provoking and readable, A World Appears invites us to reconsider what it means to be aware—and how precious that awareness might be.

Book Review - Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World

Title: Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World

Author: Michael E. Mann, Peter J. Hotez
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: Pending...

Description (Audible): Two of the world’s most respected scientists reveal the forces behind the dangerous anti-science movement—and show us how to fight back. 

From pandemics to the climate crisis, humanity faces tougher challenges than ever. Whether it’s the health of our people or the health of our planet, we know we are on an unsustainable path. But our efforts to effectively tackle these existential crises are now hampered by a common threat: politically and ideologically motivated opposition to science.

Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez are two of the most respected and well-known scientists in the world and have spent the last twenty years on the front lines of the battle to convey accurate, reliable, and trustworthy information about science in the face of determined and nihilistic opposition.

In this powerful manifesto, they reveal the five main forces threatening science: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press. It is a call to arms and a road map for dismantling the forces of anti-science. Armed with the information in this book, we can be empowered to promote scientific truths, shine light on channels of dark money, dismantle the corporations poisoning the planet, and ultimately avert disaster.

Description (ChatGPT): “Science Under Siege” is an essential read — particularly for those who care about climate, public health, science communication, or democracy. It confronts a real crisis: not just that we may lack scientific knowledge, but that our ability to accept and act on that knowledge is under systemic threat. Mann and Hotez succeed at both diagnosing the problem and offering reasons for hope. If the book has a mission, it is to push us from helplessness into action. It may feel like a rallying cry, but it’s a rallying cry grounded in science.

If you're looking for something inspirational and deeply informed, this will meet (or exceed) expectations. If you're hoping for a blueprint with all obstacles already overcome, you might find some parts frustrating. But perhaps that’s the point: the work is not done, and this book insists we become part of it.

Book Review - Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis

Title: Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis

Author: Michael E. Mann
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I loved this book but I think I need to read it a few more times to absorb what it's saying. Our Earth and its climate are complicated and this book does an excellent job of describing how Earth has evolved to allow humans to survive and perhaps thrive. Humans are just a blip on Earth's timeline and if we don't do a better job of taking care of the Earth, that blip may be shorter than we realize.  

Description (Audible): In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course. For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings. Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change. The drying of the tropics during the Pleistocene period created a niche for early hominids, who could hunt prey as forests gave way to savannahs in the African tropics. The sudden cooling episode known as the “Younger Dryas” 13,000 years ago, which occurred just as Earth was thawing out of the last Ice Age, spurred the development of agriculture in the fertile crescent. The “Little Ice Age” cooling of the 16th-19th centuries led to famines and pestilence for much of Europe, yet it was a boon for the Dutch, who were able to take advantage of stronger winds to shorten their ocean voyages.The conditions that allowed humans to live on this earth are fragile, incredibly so. Climate variability has at times created new niches that humans or their ancestors could potentially exploit, and challenges that at times have spurred innovation. But there’s a relatively narrow envelope of climate variability within which human civilization remains viable. And our survival depends on conditions remaining within that range.In this book, renowned climate scientist Michael Mann will arm listeners with the knowledge necessary to appreciate the gravity of the unfolding climate crisis, while emboldening them—and others--to act before it truly does become too late.

Description (ChatGPT): In Our Fragile Moment, climate scientist Michael E. Mann presents a compelling, deeply researched narrative that explores Earth's climate history to contextualize today's climate crisis. Mann examines past episodes of dramatic climate shifts—from the Ice Ages to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum—to highlight the resilience and vulnerability of life on Earth. The core message is clear: while the planet has survived extreme changes before, human civilization is uniquely sensitive to today's rapid, human-driven warming. Mann rebuts climate doomerism as firmly as he does denialism, arguing that we are not powerless—our choices now will define the future. Accessible yet rigorous, Our Fragile Moment is both a wake-up call and a guidepost. Mann blends scientific insight with urgency and optimism, making this book an essential read for anyone concerned about climate and humanity’s place within it.

Book Review - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Title: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference 

Author: Malcolm Gladwell
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: Great book. Reading it 25 years after it was first published made it a little dated but the basic concept of how things reach a tipping point are still very relevant to today.  I loved this book. 

Description (Audible): The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

Description (ChatGPT): The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell explores how small actions or changes can trigger major shifts in behavior, trends, and societal movements. Drawing on examples from business, public health, and pop culture, Gladwell introduces concepts like the "Law of the Few," the "Stickiness Factor," and the "Power of Context" to explain how ideas and products reach a tipping point—when they spread like epidemics. The book blends psychology, sociology, and storytelling to uncover what drives sudden change in our world.

Book Review - Becoming Earth How Our Planet Came to Life

Title: Becoming Earth How Our Planet Came to Life

Author: Ferris Jabr
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: Pending...

Description (Audible):One of humanity’s oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis—a planet that breathes, metabolizes, and regulates its climate. Humans are one of the most extreme examples of life transforming Earth. Through fossil fuel consumption, agriculture, and pollution, we have altered more layers of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a crisis. But we are also uniquely able to understand and protect the planet’s wondrous ecology and self-stabilizing processes. Jabr introduces us to a diverse cast of fascinating people who have devoted themselves to this vital work. Becoming Earth is an exhilarating journey through the hidden workings of our planetary symphony—its players, its instruments, and the music of life that emerges—and an invitation to reexamine our place in it. How well we play our part will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come.

Description (ChatGPT): Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life is a thrilling, time-traveling odyssey that zooms from the cosmic chaos of the universe's birth to the quiet drama of Earth's earliest days. With a blend of science and storytelling, it uncovers how our planet went from a swirling mass of rock and gas to the vibrant blue orb we call home — all in the blink of a geological eye. Think of it as Earth’s origin story, told with a wink and a whole lot of science.

Book Review - Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds

Title - Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
Author: Thomas Halliday
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍
My Review: This is an amazing book full of factual information about evolution, biology, botany, geology and every other kind ology you can think of. I found myself getting a little overwhelmed with the amount of information and I probably only absorbed a small fraction. I think my favorite chapter was the last chapter (epilogue) that discusses humans and our role in what is likely the sixth extinction event in the history of Earth.

Description (Audible): This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt―or not. It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree; to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in; into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica; and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life.

Otherlands also offers us a vast perspective on the current state of the planet. The thought that something as vast as the Great Barrier Reef, for example, with all its vibrant diversity, might one day soon be gone sounds improbable. But the fossil record shows us that this sort of wholesale change is not only possible but has repeatedly happened throughout Earth history.

Even as he operates on this broad canvas, Halliday brings us up close to the intricate relationships that defined these lost worlds. In novelistic prose that belies the breadth of his research, he illustrates how ecosystems are formed; how species die out and are replaced; and how species migrate, adapt, and collaborate. It is a breathtaking achievement: a surprisingly emotional narrative about the persistence of life, the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, and the scope of deep time, all of which have something to tell us about our current crisis.

Description (ChatGPT): Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday is a thrilling ride through the planet's prehistoric past, where time travel isn't just possible—it's downright awe-inspiring. Halliday invites readers to explore ancient ecosystems that vanished long before humans existed, from vast forests of towering ferns to deserts teeming with bizarre creatures. His prose is rich, vivid, and laced with just the right amount of humor, making extinct worlds feel both alien and strangely familiar. It’s like Jurassic Park, but with more science and less "run for your life" action. A captivating blend of history, imagination, and pure wonder.

Book Review - Botanical Curses and Poisons

Title - Botanical Curses and Poisons – The Shadow-Lives of Plants
Author: Fez Inkwright
My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I loved this book but, as a botanist, I may be a little biased. I honestly never realized how many common garden plants are poisonous. Another interesting fact I learned is, in the past, there were actually people who specialized in poisonous plants who could be hired to kill people you don't like 😮

Description (ChatGPT): Botanical Curses and Poisons by Fez Inkwright is a mischievous romp through the dark side of the plant world, where every rose has its thorn—and it might just kill you. This book is equal parts botanical guide and gothic fairy tale, revealing the lethal potential lurking in your garden. From ancient curses to poisonings, Inkwright paints plants as cunning characters in their own right, with a flair for the dramatic and the deadly. It’s like your favorite herbalist had a bit too much to drink and started whispering about the deadly secrets of dandelions and the murderous tendencies of mistletoe. A charmingly sinister read for anyone who has ever wondered if their houseplants were plotting something more nefarious. Who knew flora could be so fabulous—and fatal?

Book Review - The Bedside Baccalaureate

Title - The Bedside Baccalaureate – A Daily Primer to Refresh Your Knowledge

Author: David Rubel

My Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: Great book. Also works well as a bathroom reader. 

Description (ChatGPT): The Bedside Baccalaureate is the literary equivalent of a daily vitamin for your brain—minus the unpleasant aftertaste. This charming primer offers a fresh tidbit of knowledge each day, perfect for those who want to sound more sophisticated at dinner parties without actually doing any heavy lifting. From philosophy to science to art, it’s like a mental spa treatment, gently massaging your intellect one bite-sized nugget at a time. It won’t turn you into a Nobel laureate overnight, but it might make you the person everyone turns to for an obscure fact about ancient Greek pottery. A delightful companion for the curious mind—because who doesn’t want to be casually brilliant before their morning coffee?