Old English Medical Remedies by Sinead Spearing

Old English Medical Remedies by Sinead Spearing ISBN-13: 9781526711700 Hardback: 152 pages Publisher: Pen & Sword Released: Feb. 28, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
In 9th century England Bishop Ælfheah the Bald is dabbling with magic. By collecting folk remedies from pagan women, he risks his reputation. What will modern science make of the elves, hags and nightwalkers which stalk the pages of Bald's book and its companion piece Lacnunga, urging prescriptions of a very different, unsettling nature. Cures for the 'moon mad' and hysteria are interspersed with directives to drink sheep’s dung and jump across dead men’s graves. Old English Medical Remedies explores the herbal efficacy of these ancient remedies whilst evaluating the supernatural, magical elements and suggests these provide a powerful psychological narrative.


My Review:
Old English Medical Remedies looks at Bald's "Leechbook III" and "Lacnunga," where he recorded medical recipes and rituals from 400 to 900 AD Britain. The rituals often targeted supernatural causes of disease, like elves, hags, and night walkers. While the recipes usually do include herbs, the author points out that many of these herbs are toxic and so would not be used in modern medicine. Also, no amounts are recorded, so we can't replicate what they did anyway.

Since many of the remedies involve visualization, focused intention, transference, curses, sympathetic magic, and ritual, the author looked at other ancient traditions and modern things that we do which are similar and how it may help the sick. It's more a philosophical look at the rituals than a scientific one. However, he did consider the medical action of the various herbs and how it may have helped the person, as well as the psychological benefit of the rituals. He also looked at how the church tried to repress these remedies and the memory of the healing women who used them as the Christian Church came into power.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

A Most Deliberate Swindle by Mick Hamer

A Most Deliberate Swindle by Mick Hamer ISBN-13: 9781910453421 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: RedDoor Publishing Released: Sept. 28, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
On a warm April morning in 1906 a crowd of expectant correspondents from London s leading newspapers gathered at the Hotel Cecil in the Strand to view the new wonder of the age the electrobus.

This clean, green machine was gearing up to take on the noisy, polluting petrol vehicle, which was just starting to replace the horse-drawn omnibus and surely had the potential to be a game changer in terms of what it would mean to Londoners and other city-dwellers who were already choking on petrol fumes.

Disastrously though, the London Electrobus Company was in the grip of a gang of greedy and fraudulent financiers, who systematically conned shareholders, looted the company's coffers and drove the promise of the electrobus into the ground.

Rammed with fascinating characters and vividly capturing the Edwardian era, A Most Deliberate Swindle uncovers one of the biggest frauds in history and reveals why a century later this historic scam has left us all gasping for breath.


My Review:
A Most Deliberate Swindle is a well-researched historical true crime story. This interesting tale started in April 1906 with a company promising to run battery-powered buses in London. This was at a time when the new petrol-powered buses were not popular due to the smell and noise. There were also steam-powdered buses vying to be the technology to replace horse-drawn vehicles. Though the battery-powered buses were very popular, they were also more expensive to build. However, they may have become the norm if the company first promoting the buses hadn't been a fraud.

This is the story of the technology, the fraud going on at that time, and the main players who carried off this is astounding fraud. They managed to keep people interested and sending them money even after the company was exposed as a fraud. The company didn't shut down its buses until the early 1910s when new technologies offered better cons. Overall, I'd highly recommend this interesting and cautionary tale to those interested in stocks and new technologies.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Behemoth by Joshua B. Freeman

Behemoth by Joshua B. Freeman ISBN-13: 9780393246315 Hardback: 448 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton Company Released: Feb. 27, 2018

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Historian Joshua B. Freeman tells the story of the factory and examines how it has reflected both our dreams and our nightmares of industrialization and social change. He whisks readers from the textile mills in England that powered the Industrial Revolution and the factory towns of New England to the colossal steel and car plants of twentieth-century America, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union and on to today’s behemoths making sneakers, toys, and cellphones in China and Vietnam.

The giant factory, Freeman shows, led a revolution that transformed human life and the environment. He traces arguments about factories and social progress through such critics and champions as Marx and Engels, Charles Dickens, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Ford, and Joseph Stalin. He chronicles protests against standard industry practices from unions and workers’ rights groups that led to shortened workdays, child labor laws, protection for organized labor, and much more. Freeman also explores how factories became objects of great wonder that both inspired and horrified artists and writers in their time. He examines representations of factories in the work of Charles Sheeler, Margaret Bourke-White, Charlie Chaplin, Diego Rivera, and Edward Burtynsky.


My Review:
Behemoth looked at the history of giant factories from the 1700s until modern day. He started with the British textile mills in 1721 through 1840s. He then talked about the early American textile mills between 1801 through 1842. He looked at steam engines, iron plants, and steel mills from about 1851 to 1919. He looked at Henry Ford and assembly lines, scientific management, and unions from 1908 to the 1940s. He looked at how the Soviet Union industrialized in the 1920s and 1930s and at how America moved away from giant factories (and why) while the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were starting to build larger factories. He finally looked at how China and Vietnam have been building up giant factories.

In each chapter, he looked at why people wanted to build giant factories and at what people were saying about them, both positive and negative. He looked at the challenges and advantages of factories and talked about strikes and legal actions taken to help regulate labor conditions in factories. He talked about what type of people worked in factories: their gender, age, where they came from, how long they stayed, and such. He gave a summary of what happened to those giant factories after the period he mainly talked about. He talked about the impact they made and why things changed. Overall, I found the book very interesting and insightful. I'd recommend this book to people interested in factories.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Drawing Cute with Katie Cook by Katie Cook

Drawing Cute with Katie Cook by Katie Cook ISBN-13: 9781440352300 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Impact Released: Feb. 14, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Fun fact: If you can draw a potato, you can draw animals.

Master of cute Katie Cook teaches you how to draw everything adorable in her first tutorial book with quick and easy-to-follow step-by-step lessons. All you need is a pencil and paper. Learn how to turn curvy blobs, shapes and squiggles into more than 200 different things, including fuzzy animals, cute food and inanimate objects like yarns balls, luggage and a toaster. Add nubbins, swishy bits, and little smiley faces to anything and everything to transform it into something really, really cute.

How to draw lots of cats: fluffy cats, non-fluffy cats, cats in boxes. There are dogs, too. And other pets. How to draw food like ketchup delivery sticks, spicy dragon claws and tiny broccoli trees. Sports and hobby cuteness. Perfect for doodling during class or in meetings. For fans of drawing turkeys from hand outlines (gobble, gobble), Drawing Cute with Katie Cook is a must-own adorable drawing manual, complete with Doctor Who references, fun facts and bad puns.


My Review:
Drawing Cute with Katie Cook is a humorous art instruction book for drawing cute, cartoon-like animals and objects. Her text is more about jokes than instruction, but the drawings pretty much speak for themselves. Each page had step-by-step instructions for 2 different animals or objects, with 4 steps shown for each. The end product was simple enough that 3 drawing steps and a final, colored-in product is enough for even kids to follow successfully. Initial efforts ought to look decent, and results after practice should look even better. She covers:

ANIMALS: chicken, cow, duck, horse, llama, pig, sheep, chinchilla, mixed breed dog, pug, poodle, fluffy dog, goldfish, hamster, hedgehog, cat, fluffy cat, cat in box, bird, jellyfish, octopus, turtle, whale, seal, otter, shark, alligator, crab, frog, walrus, dolphin, clam, narwhal, manta ray, seahorse, penguin, snake, fox, owl, bear, beaver, moose, squirrel, bunny, deer, snail, spider, bee, butterfly, firefly, ladybug, lion, tiger, red panda, sloth, hippo, elephant, giraffe, camel, platypus, dragon.

FOOD: cake, cookie, cupcake, donut, ice cream, pie, chocolates, tea, milkshake, tiki drink, teapot, coffee to go, milk, lemonade, pineapple, strawberry, watermelon, pear, cherry grapes, apple, avocado, mushroom, potato, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, bok choy, broccoli, soup, sandwich, dumpling, sushi, fries, hamburger, lasagna, spaghetti, pizza, bacon and eggs, burrito, taco, banana, cheese, cinnamon roll, hot dog, kiwi, muffin, pancake, peas, popcorn, toast, popsicle, cotton candy.

SPORTS & HOBBIES: yarn, thread, paints, crayons, puzzle, book, ballet shoes, yoga mat, ice skates, basketball & hoop, golf ball, football, hockey stick & puck, skateboard, tennis racket & ball, fishing rod & fish, kayak, surfboard, race car, badminton racket & shuttlecock, hopscotch, croquet mallet & ball, darts & dartboard, guitar, violin, tent, magnifying glass & caterpillar, old style movie projector, video game controller, watering can, whistle,.

HOLIDAYS & SEASONS: snowman, mittens, wreath, holly, Christmas tree, menorah, reindeer, snow globe, gingerbread man, elf, clouds, umbrella, candy hearts, rose, daisy, tulip, chick hatching, birdbath, Easter basket, cactus, sun, grill, hot air balloon, bucket & shovel sand toys, sandcastle, palm tree, sunscreen bottle, sunglasses, mum flower, Jack-O'-Lantern, campfire, bat, acorn, candy corn, ghost, turkey.

OBJECTS: robot, alarm clock, smart phone, headphones, laptop, binoculars, calculator, camera, old style TV, walkman, boombox, record player, polaroid camera, telescope, lamp, file folder, pot, mixer, blender, knife & fork & spoon, toaster, refrigerator, clothes washer, detergent bottle, kite, airplane, mailbox, bathtub, coffee maker, luggage, hammer. And Katie Cook (upper body).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Making the Monster by Kathryn Harkup

Making the Monster by Kathryn Harkup ISBN-13: 9781472933737 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Released: Feb. 6, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
The year 1818 saw the publication of one of the most influential science-fiction stories of all time. Frankenstein: Or, Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley had a huge impact on gothic horror and science fiction genres. How did a 19-year-old woman with no formal education come up with the idea for an extraordinary novel such as Frankenstein? The period of 1790–1820 saw huge advances in our understanding of electricity and physiology. Sensational science demonstrations caught the imagination of the general public, and newspapers were full of tales of murderers and resurrectionists.

Kathryn Harkup examines the science and scientists that influenced and inspired Mary Shelley. It is unlikely that Victor Frankenstein would have been successful in his attempts to create life back in 1818, but we can now resuscitate people using defibrillators, save lives using blood transfusions, and prolong life through organ transplants. Many of these modern achievements are a direct result of 19th century scientists conducting their gruesome experiments on the dead.


My Review:
Making the Monster is about the science and people that influenced the making of the story "Frankenstein." The book started with a biography of Mary Shelley's life, focusing on the people and events that probably inspired parts of the novel. It ended with this biography, briefly talking about Mary Shelley's life after "Frankenstein" was published. The author also compared the books (the original and the 1831 revised version) and the books to the various play and movie adaptations of the story.

The middle of the book explored the scientific thought of the time that lead to the character, Victor, thinking (and succeeding) in making life from dead body parts. The author talked about how Victor might have made the monster (as the novel is vague), discussing things like the various ways they had to preserve dead body parts from decaying. The author talked about the Resurrection Men and how human anatomy was studied in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Frankly, the descriptions in this part were gory and gross. She also covered the process of decomposition in a human body after death.

She gave a brief history of surgical methods up to the early 1800s and considered how the various body parts might have been sewn together. She talked about organ transplants and blood transfusions--both what they could do at the time and the challenges we now know Victor would have faced in piecing a monster together. The author also talked about the electricity experiments going on around that time and the idea that electricity might bring a person back to life. She described how the proto-evolutionary ideas at that time influenced the story. Overall, this book was interesting but more gory in the science details than I cared for.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Adventures in Veggieland by Melanie Potock

Adventures in Veggieland by Melanie Potock ISBN-13: 9781615194063 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: The Experiment Released: Feb. 6, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
A new, foolproof method developed by feeding therapist Melanie Potock, coauthor of Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater, teaches kids ages 3–8 to love vegetables. The book features 20 vegetables divided into four seasons. In addition to the easy-to-follow activities and recipes, Potock offers bite-size advice on kitchen science and parenting in the kitchen.

Her program is a simple—and fun—three-step process: the “Three E’s”" Expose your child to new vegetables with sensory, hands-on, and educational activities (Make Beet Tattoos). Explore the characteristics of each veggie (texture, taste, temperature, and more) with delectable but oh-so-easy recipes (Crispy Asparagus Bundles). Expand your family’s repertoire with more inventive vegetable dishes—including a “sweet treat” with every chapter (Give Peas a Chance Cake).


My Review:
Adventures in Veggieland is about proven ways to help children (ages 3–8) to learn to enjoy eating veggies. The author covered beets, butternut squash, parsnips, sweet potatoes, turnips, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, peas, spinach, bell peppers, corn, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and pumpkin. With each recipe or game, she provided cooking tips, tips for parents on how to make the experience successful, and how this activity benefits your child.

For each vegetable, the author started with a game involving that food, like making temporary tattoos using beets or playing with little plastic toys in mashed potatoes. The intent is to get the child familiar with the food through seeing, touching, and tasting it. She then provided 3 recipes for main or side dishes that use the vegetable. The intent is for the children to help the adult make the food as they're more likely to eat what they help to make. These recipes are pretty simple to do, and she suggests what parts young children can help with and what parts older children can do. The final recipe in each section is for a desert that has some of the veggie in it.

She isn't necessarily making healthy foods so she often added veggies to or made them into more familiar foods, like fries. She used bacon in several recipes (but suggested that you only use a little and use bacon that doesn't have preservatives). But the recipes may not be suitable for children with dietary restrictions as she used dairy, eggs, wheat flour, and such. However, the overall method for getting picky eaters to enjoy their veggies sounds like it should work well.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration by Mindy Lighthipe

The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration by Mindy Lighthipe ISBN-13: 9781633223783 Paperback: 144 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: Nov. 1, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
An expert botanical artist educates you about the tools and materials traditionally used in botanical illustration, including pencils, colored pencils, watercolor, ans gouache. This guide includes overviews of key illustration techniques and basic color theory and mixing and is loaded with exercises designed to help you learn to see shape, value, and form. By learning to understand plant life and anatomy, you can craft elegant flowers, leaves, trees, and much more.

To bring it all together, The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration includes step-by-step demonstrations to follow along with as you practice taking sketches and transforming them into fully rendered, colorful pieces of fine art.


My Review:
The Art of Botanical & Bird Illustration is an art instruction book for using graphite pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor to do botanical illustration. It covered the basic materials and techniques for realistic rendering of plants and birds. She covered plant anatomy and how to draw leaves, branches, roots, flowers, and birds. She talked a little about the special considerations in botanical drawing and how it is different from other artwork. For example, you include the different stages of the flower in one drawing. She also talked about setting up a live plant reference with lighting and such.

She did a good job of explaining drawing terms at a level a beginner can understand. In the demonstrations, she went step-by-step from the idea to the final artwork, explaining what she was doing and why. She included clear illustrations of what she was describing. Overall, I'd recommend this informative book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.