Book Review - 59 Seconds

If you've ever wondered whether the zillion other self help books out there know what they're talking about (after all, how many of them actually refer to any scientific studies to prove what they claim) then you can now stop wondering and use all the other self help books you've ever bought as footrests in your living room, because 59 Seconds, by Richard Wiseman, may be the only self help book you ever need.

All hyperbole aside, the book was an easy read and provides detailed evidence for what does and does not work when it comes to trying to improve your life, whether that means being fitter, more creative, getting that new job, fixing your love life or just being happy. The various psychological experiments described in the book, from which these conclusions have been drawn, are fascinating and humorously related, to the point where I would still consider the book well worth reading even if they were all it contained. But they're not. After the book is done, you get to walk away with things you can immediately start applying. Best of all, it doesn't involve lengthy courses and therapy. Richard Wiseman shows here that all you need is 59 seconds of your time to help change your life.

Yours,
Charles

Book Review - Confession of an Unrepentant Lesbian Ex-Mormon

I rarely heard of Mormons while I was growing up. I remember reading a book by Orson Scott Card, reading the word Mormon and assuming it meant a black person, because it sounded like Moor. I was 11 or so at the time. It was only later that I came to learn it was a religion, but I knew very little other than the fact that it was another offshoot of Christianity, with perhaps more than its share of qookiness.

When I travelled through the United States less than two years ago, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the history of the Mormons, or Latter Day Saints (or the many other variations of the name). Not just the founding mythos, but the actual subset of US history relating to the Mormons' travel to Utah and their relationship with the rest of the Union. It was very interesting.

So when I saw Sue-Ann Post perform at a dinner in Sydney, and then subsequently promoted her book, Confession of an Unrepentant Lesbian Ex-Mormon, relating her experiences as a child in the Mormon church and then her subsequent journey to agnostic atheist, I wanted to have a read. She'd run out of copies that night, but gave me her card, so that I could order a copy through her agent. I did so, and the copy arrived, signed by Sue-Ann herself. (Anyone else signing it would have been strange and unexpected).

Being caught up with many things, it took me a while to get around to reading it, though it was prominently placed on my reading table. Eventually, I carved out a little time and set about reading. I found it engrossing. The book, of course, relates her experience when she was invited to perform her comedy routine in the heart of Mormon territory, Utah, at a conference for gay and excommunicated Mormons. As part of this, Sue-Ann reflects on her past in the Church, her journey away from it as she realised she was a lesbian, and then furthermore, an atheist (agnostic) lesbian. Her story is told honestly, almost brutally so in a way that pulls no punches towards the Mormon Church, but at the same time gives credit where credit is due.

I very much enjoyed reading the book, because as well as being well written, informative and entertaining it reminded me of several things. Very few things are ever as simple as 'Everything an institution does is good' or 'Everything an institution does is bad'. The pressures keeping people dependant on a particular faith and social group can be immense and are often unrecognised both by people on the outside, but also by the adherents themselves. Finally, whilst some things can scar someone for the rest of their lives, that doesn't mean they can't still strive for a better life despite it, and succeed.

After reading the book, I found myself with a more informed and rounded view of the Mormon Church (which is after all no stranger than any other religion, except perhaps Scientology) and a better appreciation for some of the hardships faced by those true believers who, thanks to their curiousity and quest for answers, find themselves becoming atheists, with no one else around to support them when much of what they thought was true and based their lives on, turns out to be false.

Book Review - Moments in Science #3

Moments in Science #3, or 'Munching Maggots, Noah's Flood & TV Heart Attacks', by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki collects in one place some of the odder or less well known facts discovered by science; like whether running in the rain is better than walking if you want to stay dry, or how maggots can help us fight disease. The book also clears up some persistent myths about astrology, and whether CPR will help you once your heart flatlines, like it does in Hollywood movies. There are also musings on space travel, information about why brocoli is good for you and just about everything you could ever want to know about coffee. (And that last part isn't even hyperbole). The book is as entertaining as it is informative, which means plentiful helpings of both.

Book Review - Dis Information

In Dis Information, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki dispels many of the myths that are held as common knowledge. Has Hollywood taught you that bodies explode in a vacuum, that bodies get thrown back by a bullet's impact, or that the Titanic ran into an iceberg because its captain was trying to break a record? Then you've been misled, and Dr Karl can set you straight. Have you ever wondered why cats purr or whether you really shouldn't drink alcohol while you're on antibiotics? Dr Karl not only knows the answers to those questions but will share them with you, along with the answers to quite a few other questions you've never thought to ask, and the real facts behind myths you've never thought to question.

Book Review - Living Dolls

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism is a fascinating read revealing that, despite the many advances feminism has helped women achieve, there still exists, lurking behind the facade of female sexual empowerment, the very real presence of sexism.

Natasha Walter makes the case that some women may be unknowingly stepping women's equality back a pace or two by overly buying into the narrow stereotypes being presented to them by men and, sadly, by other women as well.

I very much enjoyed the book. Full of personal anecdotes and interviews with various women in all situations, the book doesn't take the holier-than-thou attitude I'm always afraid of encountering whenever I read on the subject of feminism. Instead, Natasha shows that society is, whether consciously or not, pressuring women and men both to conform to some sort of impossible and more dangerously, a restricting ideal, rather than being free to be or do whatever they can be.

Yours,
Charles

Book Review - When God Speaks for Himself

When God Speaks for Himself, by Mark Tier and George Forrai, is a compilation of passages from the bible that contradict one another, or don't make sense, or are plain disgusting and immoral, and yet are the word and commands of God. The idea behind the book is a good one. Many adherents of Christianity haven't read the bible at all, and those who have have often read only portions or been read portions of the bible by their reverend or priest or pastor. Often, too often, these chosen passages from the bible are the nice ones, the ones that fit into the 'God is just a really nice, laid back guy' idea that most people start off with. Obviously any god they follow, being decent people themselves, would also have to worthy of their admiration. So this book aims to remind people of all the horrific, crazy and, dare I say, evil, parts of the bible that show God for what he really is, someone who makes any human dictator or mass murderer look like a kid messing around at playtime.

Unfortunately, there were several things that made the book slightly harder to read. One was the way the text has been formatted. The fonts and sizes used to differentiate the side-notes or addenda as well as quotes and excerpts from the bible from the main text are confusing. Often, I would lose track of when I was supposed to be reading a passage from the bible and when I was back reading what the authors had to say.

Which brings me to one of the other problems I had. The terms of phrase and wording used by the authors are fairly colloquial and everything written is thick with the authors' opinions. There is nothing wrong with this on the whole, obviously, I have purchased their book and therefore it is their opinion I want to read, but there are occasions in the book where it feels like the authors are stretching to interpret several bible quotes in a negative fashion. This, combined with the fact that in those cases, little extra context, whether historical or current theological opinion or any other basis for more objectively and concretely showing that said passages mean what the authors are telling us they mean, impacts on how objective I perceived the authors as being, and therefore how trustworthy the rest of the information was. The book ended up coming across in parts as more of an opinion piece rather than the reference material I had hoped it would be.

And this is a shame, because the vast majority of the information is obviously correct and those passages in the bible do exist and they are as vile or wacky as the authors are pointing out (after all, you can check the passages are in the bible yourself).

At the end of the book, I found myself hoping that the authors would create a second edition of the book, improving on the formatting and various other small issues, so that the book could be the absolute reference to shocking bible quotes that it deserves to be.

Yours,
Charles

Book Review - Defending Pornography

Nadine Strossen's book, Defending Pornography tackles the highly loaded issue of pornography and its relationship with free speech. She explains in detail why it is crucial that governments not be given the power of censorship, nor the legal powers to determine what is or is not obscene.

As a professor of Law, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)'s president from 1991 until 2008, Strossen has many examples and case studies of how attempts by governments to censor sexual material not only fail to achieve their stated goal - the decrease of violence and sexist attitudes towards women - but also consistently resulted in censorship of a far wider range of free expression than expected or desired, even by those backing the censorship laws.

This book was another that was lying on my shelf for a long time. Worried that the book might prove to be dry reading (being written by a lawyer), I was in fact surprised at how engrossing I found it to be.

The fact that the Australian Government is attempting to put in place a mandatory internet filter only goes to show that the issue of freedom of speech is as relevant today as it was in 1995 when this book was written and how relevant it is likely to remain in the future.*

Yours,
Charles

* And worth keeping as reference for those times when Conroy shouts "Think about the children!"

Book Review - Death from the Skies!

Imagine a book detailing the most horrific natural disasters conceivable by the human mind. Now imagine it detailing disasters not even conceivable by the human mind, on a scale so large and terrifying that the most devastating cataclysms known to date are like a candle to a firestorm. Even more aptly, like an ember to the end of the WORLD!

Scared yet?

Spare a thought for how much more terrifying this is for a tiny monkey*.

This is Death from the Skies!, another book by Philip Plait, PhD. In his book, Phil Plait delights in explaining the various threats the earth faces on a constant basis from outer space. Asteroids, gamma ray bursts (or GRBs) and gluttonous black holes. Still Phil Plait eases the fear by telling us exactly how likely these events are and what, if anything, we can do about them.

I won't lie, the book makes you feel very very small and puts all petty concerns firmly and brutally into perspective. At the same time though, it makes you take another look at the staggering, truly breath-taking beauty of the universe we live in.

This is absolutely recommended reading for anyone, regardless of educational background.

Yours,
Charles

*5 cm tall, or thereabouts.

Book Review - Bad Astronomy

When I bought a copy of Bad Astronomy, a book by Philip Plait (PhD), at TAM 2009, I'd already had the book on my to-buy and to-read list for at least a year. After buying it and getting it signed by Phil Plait himself, I returned home from TAM having every intention of reading it as soon as I got home, if not before (plane flights are long and even more boring when you're in the baggage compartment).

It sat on my bookshelf for almost another year until in March, I picked it up and decided I would finally carve out some time to read it. This time, I did, and I managed to read it in less than a week, or roughly 10 hours (So I’m a slow reader, you can stow it, I'm a monkey! It's amazing I can read at all.).

Phil Plait's style of writing is relaxed and witty. He easily exposes and explains a myriad of mistakes people make with regards to science and astronomy, like thinking NASA didn't send astronauts to the moon, to answering questions like why the sky is blue. I confess I accidentally found myself learning some basic astronomy and science, which, given my usual attention span when reading actual textbooks, is no mean feat.

In fact, I move that Bad Astronomy be a recommended text book at secondary schools everywhere, or even primary schools, for that matter. Scratch that. Everyone in the world should read this book. Phil Plait manages to break things down to an easily understandable level, so that people without a background in physics or astronomy* can grasp the core concepts.

The lesson to be learned here is not to let this book collect dust on your shelf. At least, not until after you’ve read it.

Yours,

Charles

* Like yours truly. Though I do have some knowledge of physics. After all, you don't live in trees without coming to some sort of understanding with gravity. She is a harsh mistress.