Tag: review
Resurrecting Pompeii: The Testimony of Skeletons
It’s amazing what bones will tell you if you know what questions to ask. Dr. Estelle Lazer spent years making inquiries of the skeletons of Pompeii, and her Resurrecting Pompeii is filled with their stories.
This is an academic work, written in academic language, so please don’t go into it expecting an easy, breezy read. There isn’t a ton of geology involved, either. You’re going to be encountering more anatomy and pathology than you might have been strictly prepared for. But if you want to see a lot of myths busted, and learn who the people trapped in Pompeii by the eruption were, this book will more than repay all the time you spend googling unfamiliar terms.
Stoned: The Exact Right Book for all Gemstone and Geology Lovers
Right from the title, you know you’re in for a good time.
Aja Raden’s Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World is written in the irreverant but informative tone that turns otherwise dry, academic facts fun. And yet it doesn’t treat its subject lightly: this book is dense with geology, gemology, history, politics, economics, sociology, and human drama. Few people could pull off writing a book like this. Aja makes it look easy breezy lemon squeezy.
So, yes, you’re going to enjoy yourself, but you’re also going to come out with your knowledge raised to critical nerdicality levels, so be prepared. (more…)
A Must-Have Book for Lava Loving Kids: What’s So Hot About Volcanoes?
Having enjoyed Wendell A. Duffield’s Chasing Lava immensely, I was beyond delighted to discover that Wendell had written a book for younger people. I couldn’t order it fast enough.
What’s So Hot About Volcanoes is a fantastic choice for anyone looking for a book about volcanoes for older kids and tweens, or even adults who want an authoritative but not too technical introduction to how volcanoes work. Younger readers should be able to handle it, too, with assistance from older kids and adults. And it’s got a hook absolutely no one can resist: what happened to Wendell when he was standing on a fresh Kilauea lava field and the seismologist at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory told him the pattern of seismicity right underneath him suggested he should probably run away immediately!
Behind the Curve: A Trip Down the Flat-Earth Rabbit Hole
From time to time, I like to have a snerk at the flat earth crowd. People who refuse to believe thousands of years’ worth of collected evidence, including ships dipping below horizons and airplane flight paths, fascinate and amuse me. It’s amazing to watch grown human beings flatly* deny that the planet is a globe, when there are many simple experiments they could do their own selves to prove that their flat earth hypothesis is pining for the fjords.
We’ve learned from Alfred Russell Wallace that you shouldn’t try to wager with a flat earth fanatic, because they’ll never accept plain scientific evidence. We watched a flat earth enthusiast attempt to prove the world is a pancake by launching himself in a steam-powered rocket ship. And we read a surprisingly good book on the history of flat earth beliefs.
So of course, when the documentary Behind the Curve popped up on Netflix, I had to watch it. That title! That subject matter! I’d heard it went too easy on flat earth beliefs, but I wanted to give it a fair chance.
I’m glad that I did. And if you want to see a master course in subtle digs, I commend it to your attention. I promise you’ll never see a green button the same way again after watching this documentary.
If you want to come at the experience fresh, put this review down and go watch Behind the Curve on Netflix right now (you can also rent or buy it on Amazon Prime if you haven’t got Netflix). If you’re okay with spoilers, proceed!
Soundings: A Richly Detailed Prose Map of Marie Tharp’s Life and Legacy
History dislikes remembering science’s founding mothers. So you may have never heard of the mother of the mid-ocean ridge. She was one of the parents of plate tectonics. Her 100th birthday is today. And Hali Felt’s Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor is the book you need to read about her.
Hali isn’t an earth scientist, but after immersing herself in Marie’s life and work, you’d never know it. She draws the birth of plate tectonics with as much skill and assurance as Marie drew her remarkable maps. But she doesn’t just tell a science story.
A Hero On Mount St. Helens: Remembering David Johnston
Dr. David A. Johnston is a person I’ve looked up to for most of my life. I first learned about him when I was a child, reading Marian T. Place’s book about the eruption of Mount St. Helens. He watched an active volcano. He warned a lot of people that she was going to violently erupt. He saved countless lives, but lost his own. He became a personal hero of mine, especially as I grew up and learned more about the work he did and the risks he took.
So I was super excited when I saw a whole book was being published about him. I bought a copy as soon as I could. Then…