"How We'll Live on Mars" by Stephen L. Petranek

 

Publisher: TED Books
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9781476784762

This book is extremely informative and provided the source material for the docu-drama "Mars" which gives a fictional review of what might be encountered by astronauts going to the Red planet, interspersed with an examination of the current rather sad state of the space program.

Mr. Petranek begins with a basic overview of the space program from its impetus to approximately the 1980s. He deals a fair bit of time with Werner von Braun’s proposal “Das Marsprojekt” for missions to Mars that he began promoting in 1948 (I’ll be looking for a copy of this book as it sounds fascinating). After this he goes on to outline a very logical and in my opinion workable method of how we might actually make it there, and  why we should go.

A portion of the main narrative revolves around the work of Elon Musk and his Space Exploration Corporation aka SpaceX, but Mr. Petranek also looks into the various big questions such as will a small group of people be able to get along with each other, is anybody willing to pay for the project, the safety of the project, effects of prolonged exposure to micro-gravity, medical issues that might come about, and lastly the radiation the astronauts will be exposed to.

He then goes on to look at the economics of the project, the factors that will have to be taken into account if astronauts actually want to live on Mars, terra-forming, and other topics.

The only thing in this book that I found detracted from the overall plan is that it was written in 2015, and in the 6 years since then a number of major advances have been made, so it is hoped that the author will consider writing an updated second edition.

"Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas" by Laura Sook Duncombe

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781613736012

This is an fascinating book filled with great information on the women who were or at the very least contributed to piracy throughout history. The vast majority of works about piracy never mention but a few women, when it seems rather obvious (at least to me) that there must have been a significant number of them. Unfortunately due to the patriarchy most women have been pushed to the side and therefore written out of history. Even more unfortunately is that this is a common occurrence in virtually all aspects of historical writing, unless of course the author is 1) a woman, or 2) cares about representing history truthfully.

I 'met' for the first time in this book many women pirates whom I'd never heard of before. Most people have I'm sure heard of Anne Bonny, and Mary Reed. But the adventures of women pirates started many centuries before these two ladies came on the scene.

Other notable women pirates included in this volume come from many ages throughout history. Some were forced into piracy due to their circumstances, other chose the life for themselves. Some of the women pirates are fictional, but others were real. Some only aided the pirates in their lifestyle while others were actually crew members. The majority of the ones who were actual crew members dressed as men, in some circumstances this was for disguise, while in a number of cases I'm relatively sure it was for practicality.

This was a very well researched and informative book. As for as I can tell Ms. Duncombe hasn't written any others to date but I would watch out for anything she produces in the future.

Highly recommended.

"#Newsfail" by Jamie Kilstein & Allison Kilkenny

Publisher:New York ; Toronto : Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Edition:First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. --.

ISBN:9781476706511 Characteristics:                  xiv, 208 pages

This was an extremely interesting book to read, especially from the standpoint of one who doesn't follow American politics very close. That being said, it did open my eyes to the strange, and disturbing ways that the "truth" is delivered to the public by mass media. I've put the word truth in quotation marks, primarily because I'm a skeptic at heart and I am aware that all sources of information are biased based on the person doing the reporting, even the information provided in this book. However, after reading this book, and seeing the differences between reality and what is being told to the public I am quite in awe of what some people think they can get away with, and what other will believe.

The two authors are the creators of Citizen Radio, a podcast that has been available for many years now. I have never listened to it myself (in fact I wasn't aware it existed prior to reading the book), but believe that I will now be tuning in occasionally so that I know what is going on. Because Citizen Radio deals primarily with American topics and such I personally would much prefer finding a Canadian version. I realize that American politics does affect Canada to a great extent (more than it likely should) In my opinion it is not as important as Canadian politics, and while I'm fairly sure the same biases go on up here I would just like to get our version.

In any case though I think this book is well worth the read, and would make a good supplementary resource for any social studies teacher who is interested in going outside the general scope of things.

"Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate" by Angus Konstam

Publisher: Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Year: 2006
ISBN: 9780471758853


This book was an amazing read that is very well researched and written. I first heard of the author Angus Konstam when I watched a documentary called "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Real Story" which compared the Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" to the facts. and Mr. Konstam was one of the people interviewed.

The book details the life of Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard from his younger days in Bristol, England (as far as can be determined) to his death. It was interesting to read about all his various exploits and how they reinforced the public's impression of him during his short career.

The book goes into a fair bit of detail about the political situation in the American colonies at this time, which I found somewhat unimportant to the story, but this is undoubtedly because I don't really know any American history and therefore have nothing to relate it to. Looking back however (after doing a bit of research) I found that it was very important as the rivalries between the various colonies were both an opportunity that Blackbeard took advantage of, as well as the reason that he was eventually hunted down.

A great book, that I would recommend to all history buffs, and especially those who are fascinated by pirates, and life in general in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.