"Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Publisher:New York : Ballantine Books, 1997.
Edition:First Ballantine Books edition.
Copyright Date:©1996
ISBN: 9780345409461
Characteristics: xviii, 457 pages ;,21 cm

This book takes an in-depth look at what humans believe, why we believe it, how we are led to believe certain things, the consequences of us believing them both good and bad.

Dr. Sagan was a very famous popularizer of science, one a few in the field. His explanations are very clear, but his amazement at how people can be bamboozled, and led astray definitely comes through in his writing. But then again this was his goal in writing this book.

He goes into a great deal of detail with regard to the history of skepticism, and gives the reader very good examples with regard to ways in which people nowadays can easily detect when they are being taken advantage of.

I found this book to be a fascinating read, with literally tons of valuable information regarding history, current scientific methodology, the way unscrupulous practitioners deal in their trade, etc. It is a no holds barred look at what people in the past and present believe, why they believe it, how they were led to believe it, and unfortunately in many circumstances why they refuse to believe the truth when it is revealed to them.

Highly recommended.

"Agent to the Stars" by John Scalzi

Publisher: Tom Doherty, New York
Copyright Date:©2005
ISBN: 9780765357007
Characteristics: 385 pages

I am fairly certain that this is first book of John Scalzi's that I read. I am not so certain however, how I came across it, but chances are that I was browsing the shelves at the library. I've always been quite interested in stories that feature first contact scenarios, and this is likely what drew me to the story. Since that time, which was probably about 4 years ago or so, I've read the story a coupe more times, and each reading has brought a new enjoyment at the plotting, and the characters.

The story revolves around a peaceful alien race that wants to contact Earth, but as one of the aliens puts it "We have seen The Blob, and it is us". Add to this the fact that they communicate olfactorily and you have a nice little problem to solve.

It think I've alway enjoyed first contact stories, but sadly the vast majority of them are ones that focus on the military. Those that offer the scenario up in a peaceful manner are somewhat few and far between.

Mr. Scalzi has written a very enjoyable book here, that I'm sure will appeal to readers throughout the science fiction arena. I would highly recommend you check it out.

"How to Becomee a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Practical Guide to Thinking Critically" by Christopher diCarlo

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Higher Education
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-0070968424

I can't remember offhand exactly how I heard about this book, but it's been quite a few years since I purchased it originally. In fact I believe I have the first edition as opposed to what is currently on sale because the cover is different.

The title in itself is quite intriguing shall we say, and while it might offend some people it is extremely relevant to the contents of this book. The fact that students today are not taught any, or at least very few critical thinking skills is a shame. This book goes a long way to correcting this shortsighted component of our educational system.

The book itself gives an extremely in-depth but easy to read introduction to critical thinking, arguments, how arguments are structured, scientific reasoning, the rules of reasoning, and much more. It does this with excellent examples, that should be relevant to any reader.

At the time of writing Dr. Carlo was a professor at University of Ontario Institute of technology, and now according to the internet is at the University of Toronto. I assume, although it's not stated that this book is based on his lectures to undergraduate students.

I believe this would be an excellent book for every undergraduate student in the sciences and liberal liberal arts to read as it gives it a very good background to critical thinking, something that every student should be aware of and be fluent in.

"Caliban's War" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher:New York : Orbit, [2012]
Edition:First edition.
Copyright Date:©2012
ISBN: 9780316129060
Characteristics: 611 pages ;,24 cm

"Caliban's War" is the second book in The Expanse series. It takes place approximately one year after "Leviathan Wakes" which I reviewed a few weeks ago.

During that year the phenomenon on Venus has grown considerably and is under investigation by a number of ships from Mars and Earth. As yet they have not been able to ascertain what it is though.

The characters in this novel are once again very well drawn out and developed. We meet a few new characters, two which stand out are Marine Sergeant Bobbie Draper, the U.N's. Assistant to the Undersecretary of Executive Administration Chrisjen Avasarala, and Botanist Praxidike Meng, amongst others.

The television series in its second season follows the events in this book quite well however there are some differences as to be expected, but for the most part they are very minor. For those of you who have read my column before you know that I tend to dump on Hollywood pretty good, but in this case I am still quite impressed with the job they are doing. Mind you at this point in time it isn't actually Hollywood that's wholly responsible for the series, it is the SyFy Channel, and I'm not certain how they are connected to Hollywood.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the third book in the series, however with the ongoing COVID-19 issues that may have to wait for a while as quite a number of book stores are closed as well as the library system. If however it proves to be as good as the first two books, then it will be well worth the wait.

"I, Mammal: The Story Of What Makes Us Mammals" by Liam Drew

Publisher:London, UK : Bloomsbury Sigma, 2017.
Copyright Date:©2017
ISBN: 9781472922892
Characteristics: 336 pages :,illustrations.

This book was recommended to me by one of the staff at the University of Alberta, and after reading it I can confirm two things: 1) Platypuses are definitely out there on the weird end of the evolutionary tree. 2) Mammals are extremely interesting beasts, and I am quite glad the circumstances that brought the author to write this book happened, but at the same time I'm sorry that it did happen to him - that's gotta hurt!

Dr. Drew essentially takes the reader on quest to discover what makes a mammal, a mammal. In this book he deals with subjects such as why the male gonads are outside the body, the early investigations about what is a mammal, the  role of the 'Y' chromosome in being male, sex in the mammal kingdom, the function of the placenta, nursing, how mammals learn to be caregivers, the mammalian family tree, and much more.

Now while some may consider this to be a very dry subject, Dr. Drew makes it well worth the read as he intersperses numerous examples, real life events, and a good deal spot-on humour to make it an enjoyable read.

I believe this book would make a wonderful supplementary text for any 1st year comparative anatomy course (at least one dealing with mammals), and would suggest that even if you aren't in school, you are a mammal (at least I assume you are), and this is the story of how you came to be what you are.

A great read!

"The Fresco" by Sheri S. Tepper (1929-2016)

Publisher:  Harper Collins
Edition:     First edition.
Copyright: 2000
ISBN:        9780380978792

This is I believe the first book of Ms. Tepper's that I read, and it's been a number of years since I read it the first time. With every subsequent reading it gives you a new insight on how today's world actually works. Her characterization is absolutely wonderful, the interplay between the various characters is also the sign of an excellent writer.

The story tells the tale of first contact with an advanced civilization who have come to Earth to give us the opportunity to join their confederation. To be eligible for a membership however, humans must conform to certain rules the major one being that we have to be able to get along with each other.

Unfortunately humans are an odd species of mammal. I say this because we humans seem to like to fight one another for no apparent reason, we also like to kill each other, and for the most simply cause trouble for each other. The majority of this conflict has had and continues to have its basis in politics, religion, and ethnicity.

Ms. Tepper's book brings a lot of these typically taboo subjects to light, and I believe if only we had the technology to do the things her alien emissaries did, along with the wherewithal to do it, we would probably be able to solve a lot if not all of our world's problems.

I would definitely recommend this book to any person who is looking for not only a feel good book, but one that actually portrays first contact in a positive manner.

"Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully" by Aaron Carroll MD

Publisher:Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.
ISBN: 9780544952560
Characteristics: xxxiv, 234 pages :,illustrations

The title of this book is something of a misnomer, as there are really no such thing as bad foods. However as everybody pretty much in the world is aware there are hundreds of books, websites, articles, and who knows at else that love to give you advice on things that are bad for you. Or at least are supposedly bad for you based on their convoluted idea of what science is.

Dr. Carroll takes a totally different approach in that he examines the science behind nutrition. I say a different approach because a lot of books, websites etc. have nothing to base the claims and recommendations they make to consumers, and Dr. Carroll tells it like it is.

In this book he deals with topics such as butter, meat, eggs, salt, gluten, GMO's, alcohol, coffee, diet soda, MSG, and non-organic foods. He explains these topics very well and anybody who is even slightly concerned about any of these subjects, will I'm sure have their eyes opened wide.

Having seen a few nutritionists in the years previous to this I can definitely understand where he's coming from in the way he presents his material. Pretty much every nutritionist I've seen has given me a different story. I'm not sure if this is because they just simply are not keeping up with literature, but it is extremely frustrating and it makes it seem that they don't know what they're talking about.

In any case--to step down off my soapbox--I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in nutrition and the controversies surrounding it.

"Leviathian Wakes" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher:New York : Orbit, 2011.
Edition:First edition.
Copyright Date:©2011
ISBN: 9780316129084
Characteristics: 582 pages ;,24 cm.

The review this week is one of those rare book & television show combinations. This is something quite rare for me, as readers of this blog typically notice that for the most part I dump on Hollywood a fair bit. Not that I really ever expect someone from Hollywood to ever read this blog, but who knows maybe they will and realise that the public at large  is able to read, and when they buy the rights to a book that they kinda sort of expect that the screen writer is also able to read, and will translate the author's ideas faithfully. Unfortunately this rarely happens, hence my dumping on them.

In this case however, I want to congratulate the screen writers of the SyFy series "The Expanse" for doing an absolutely wonderful job of translating Corey's novel to the screen. For those people who have not had the opportunity to watch "The Expanse" it is a great adaption, and well worth the time. It doesn't really matter if you want to read the book first, or watch the show, as it is that faithful.

This story is the first in the series, and revolves around two characters James Holden the executive officer of a ship that mines the rings of Saturn bringing loads of ice to mining colonies in the Asteroid Belt. Holden and his crew receive a distress call from a ship called "The Scopuli", and when they go to investigate they get more than they bargained for.

The second character is a police officer - Detective Miller who is searching for a missing girl. His assignment is to find the girl, and when his trail leads to "The Scopuli" too, then things get interesting.

The science in this series is well researched, and while there are some things that defy our current understanding of how things work, they are explained well.

Both the book and series are highly recommended. I'll be reviewing the others in the series as I get a chance to read them, but this could take a while as this book was 582 pages.