Love Letter To My Library

a tribute to great non-fiction books across multiple genres

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“Charlatan”

Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock is an engaging historical tale about medical quackery from the early 20th century.  I enjoyed the brief mention this story had received in Mary Roach’s Bonk, but it was great to read the whole tale. The book […]

Posted in American History, Biography, Biological Science, Crime, History, Medical Science, Modern History, Political, Science Tagged alt med, alternative medicine, blaster radio, charlatan, con artist, goat testicles, impotence, John Brinkley, malpractice, medical quakery, Medical Question Box, Mexican border blaster, Morris Fishbein, Pope Brock, quack, transplantation, woo, xenotransplantation Leave a comment

“The Great Influenza”

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry is a fascinating look at the influenza pandemic that rocked the world in 1918.  This terrifying virus killed between 3-6% of the world’s population between June 1918 and December 1920, and infected almost 30%.  It is a history book, but it is heavy in the science. It is […]

Posted in », American History, Biological Science, History, History of Science, Medical Science, Military / Warfare, Modern History, Political, Science Tagged 1918, American, government, h1n1, historical, influenza, John M. Barry, medicine, outbreak, pandemic, science, science history, science research, spanish flu, the Great War, viral, virus, WWI Leave a comment

Good Books: on Richard Feynman

I’m going to break my standard format here and talk about two books in the same entry: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? They are both collections of autobiographical stories and accounts from famed physicist Richard Feynman’s life. I’m combining discussion of these because they are both […]

Posted in "PopSci", », American History, Autobiography, Biography, History, History of Science, Memoirs, Modern History, Physics, Science, Technology Tagged "Great Explainer", atomic bomb, autobiographical, Bethe-Feynman formula, bongos, Brazil, Caltech, cancer, Challenger shuttle, codes, electrodynamics, Feynman Diagrams, Feynman Lectures on Physics, freshman lectures, frigideira, IBM, lockpicking, Manhattan Project, memoirs, MIT, NASA, Nobel Prize, Oersted Medal, particle physics, physicist, physics, Princeton, puzzles, QED, quantum mechanics, quantum physics, Richard Feynman, Rogers Commission, Royal Society, safecracking, science, scientist, Six Easy Pieces, superfluidity, Synesthesia, textbook committee, trinity, tuberculosis, Tuva, weak decay Leave a comment

“Lies My Teacher Told Me”

I just finished the book Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. This book is a bit of a “cult classic.” Although this was the first time I’d read it, I had heard it mentioned and cited numerous times over the years and have crossed it on feature tables and end caps in […]

Posted in », American History, History Tagged American, American history, American Indian, American Indians, class, class studies, classism, cultural studies, education, ethics, government, historical, history textbook, indiginous peoples, Native Americans, North America, political, politics, public school, race, racism, research, socioeconomics, Texas, textbook, textbook committee Leave a comment

Good Books: History

Good Books: History

Posted in », African-American Studies, American History, European History, History, Medical Science, Middle-Eastern History, Military / Warfare, Modern History Tagged african-american, American, American Sign Language, Americas, ancient, arctic, Aztec, biological warfare, British navy, Central America, Charles Mann, chemical warfare, civilisation, David Shipler, David von Drehle, Deaf, Deaf culture, domestication, Dust Bowl, ethics, exploration, factory, fire, Franklin Expedition, germs, Harriet Washington, historical, Incas, Indians, indiginous peoples, Innuit, inuit, Israel, Jared Diamond, medical experimentation, Middle East, native american, New York, New York City, North America, Northwest Passage, Owen Beattie, Palestine, patient consent, patient rights, political, poverty, pre-Columbian, social, society, South America, Tammany Hall, Timothy Egan, Triangle fire, Tuskegee, union, war, warfare, weapon, weapons, workplace reform Leave a comment

    I LOVE NON-FICTION!

    I am always looking for good non-fiction books to read! Please leave me suggestions in the comments here.

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