Lies My Gov't Told Me by Robert W. Malone

Lies My Gov't Told Me
by Robert W. Malone

ISBN-13: 978-1510773240
ebook: 645 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse
Released: November 15, 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
With contributions from eminent doctors, scientists, and experts in their fields, Lies My Gov't Told Me offers a comprehensive look at the coronavirus pandemic–where we are today, how we got here, and what's on the horizon. Challenging the mainstream government-pharma-media narrative, the chapters in this book will not only outrage readers but will also inform and give readers hope.


My Review:
Lies My Gov't Told Me was about things that happened during the 2020-2022 period (like censorship about various COVID treatments or when speaking out about concerns about the shots), and the book is still relevant today. Some of the content was written by others with an expertise in certain areas, but much of the book was written by Malone with his unique expertise. The writers explained their knowledge and experiences on topics like how governments were acting. They provided correct information about treatments, mRNA technology, and vaccines. Overall, I'd recommend this important 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.

"Cause Unknown" by Ed Dowd

"Cause Unknown": The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022
by Ed Dowd

ISBN-13: 9780593197882
Kindle ebook: 381 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse
Released: November 9, 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
2020 saw a spike in deaths in America, smaller than you might imagine during a pandemic, some of which could be attributed to COVID and to initial treatment strategies that were not effective. But then, in 2021, the stats people expected went off the rails. The CEO of the OneAmerica insurance company publicly disclosed that during the third and fourth quarters of 2021, death in people of working age (18–64) was 40 percent higher than it was before the pandemic. Significantly, the majority of the deaths were not attributed to COVID.

A 40 percent increase in deaths is literally earth-shaking. Even a 10 percent increase in excess deaths would have been a 1-in-200-year event. But this was 40 percent.

It isn’t COVID, of course, because we know that COVID is not a significant cause of death in young people. Various stakeholders opine about what could be causing this epidemic of unexpected sudden deaths, but “CAUSE UNKNOWN” doesn’t opine or speculate but just presents the facts and let's you decide.

The book begins with a close look at the actual human reality behind the statistics, and when you see the people who are represented by the dry term Excess Mortality, it’s difficult to accept so many unexpected sudden deaths of young athletes, known to be the healthiest among us. Similarly, when lots of healthy teenagers and young adults die in their sleep without obvious reason, collapse and die on a family outing, or fall down dead while playing sports, that all by itself raises an immediate public health concern. Or at least it used to.

Do you recall seeing these kinds of things occurring during your own life—in junior high? In high school? In college? How many times in your life did you hear of a performer dropping dead on stage in mid-performance? Your own life experience and intuition will tell you that what you’re about to see is not normal. Or at least it wasn’t normal before 2021.


My Review:
"Cause Unknown" focused on the sudden increase in non-COVID deaths that are creating a large rise in Excess Mortality. The author included many pages showing newspaper headlines about healthy young people dying suddenly. These included a web link and QR code so you can go read these articles yourself. Every time something is cited, there's a link so you can read the paper or article or look at the government statistics to make sure the information wasn't taken out of context.

The author mainly looked at young athletes (how often did they used to die versus in 2021 and 2022), young people dying in their sleep, younger medical professionals and famous people dying suddenly. He also looked at when the COVID shots were mandated compared to when the sudden deaths increased, the USA government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting Systems for the COVID shots compared to previous vaccines, how other countries have stopped giving the shots to young people, and how disability claims have gone up. The data is convincing that we need to do something about this rather than just pretending it's not happening. I'd recommend this book to everyone.


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 Light Ages by Seb Falk

The Light Ages by Seb Falk ISBN-13: 9781324002932 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton Company Released: November 17th 2020

Source: review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks, proving that the Middle Ages were home to a vibrant scientific culture.

In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on an immersive tour of medieval science through the story of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk, while following the gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren’t so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to color how we see the world today.


My Review:
The Light Ages explained in detail some of the mathematics, astronomy, and scientific knowledge of the 1300s. Not much is known about a monk named John of Westwyk. What little is known about his life is used as a frame for talking about the mathematics and science that he would've encountered and used. The author didn't just tell what he knew but explained in detail how they did the mathematics or used the machines.

He explained how they could tell time by shadows and the sun's location, how to count using Roman numerals and the sexagesimal system, why they changed over to using Hindu-Arabic numerals, and the development of precise clocks and accurate calendars from the close observation of the sun, moon, and stars. He explained how monks were sent to universities and the opposition to their learning and debating Aristotle's ideas before learning theology. He explained how to use an astrolabe, the Albion device developed at St. Albans, and how astrology was calculated and used to predict weather. He talked about St. Albans and the priory at Tynemouth and how some monks went on crusade. He explained why many medieval maps are distorted but served a distinct, useful purpose, the development of compasses and the exploration of magnetic attraction, and general information about medicine at the time and what was used for dysentery. He ended by explaining John's creation--a computer of the planets--and how it could be used to quickly find where the planets were in the sky. Overall, this book may be of most interest to mathematicians as a lot of math was described, but it does convey how scientific knowledge was being exchanged between cultures and religions and actively developed during the Middle Ages.


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 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars; Kurt Kohlstedt

The 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars; Kurt Kohlstedt ISBN-13: 9780358126607 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Released: October 6th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean? Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? 99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.

Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.


My Review:
The 99% Invisible City explains how different design features in cities have come about and why they are that way. These are short entries, only two or three pages long per topic. Rather than looking at the best design, we're often told about a poor design that doesn't work. Or we're told how someone was inspired to create something and how it works. The book covered things like what various sidewalk markings mean, how to spot fake façades and what they might cover up, how a city changes over time and how to spot marks of the past that have been left behind, how to create a memorable flag or warning symbol, how advertising can literally hide things, why manhole covers are round and have a design on the top, safety features that are built into signs and such, design considerations behind creating cycling lanes, the naming of streets, how revolving doors came about, how regulations have affected architecture over time, lots of things about skyscrapers, and more. There are some rough line drawings that show the object being discussed. Actual pictures would have been better, but you get an idea of what the thing being talked about look like. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting 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.

100 Dives of a Lifetime by Carrie Miller

100 Dives of a Lifetime by Carrie Miller ISBN-13: 9781426220074 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: National Geographic Society Released: Feb. 26, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Explore 100 breathtaking scuba diving sites around the world--from the cenotes of Mexico to the best wreck in Micronesia--through stunning National Geographic photography, expert tips, and cutting-edge travel advice.

Filled with more than 350 images from National Geographic, 100 Dives of a Lifetime provides the ultimate bucket list for ardent scuba divers and aspirational travelers alike. From diving with manta rays at night in Kona, Hawaii, and swimming with hammerheads of Cocos Island in Costa Rica to exploring caves in Belize's Lighthouse Atoll and diving beneath the ice floes of Antarctica, this exquisite inspirational book is filled with beautiful imagery, marine life guides, trusted travel tips, and expert diving advice from world-famous National Geographic divers and explorers like Brian Skerry, Jessica Cramp, and David Doubilet. Organized by diving experience and certification level--from beginner open water and wreck dives to expert cold water and cave dives--each location offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the magic of our world's oceans--from your armchair or with your scuba gear in tow.


My Review:
100 Dives of a Lifetime talked about 100 dives, mostly beginner or intermediate skill, but also some expert dives. They range from reef dives to wrecks, canyons, and caves. There were lovely photos--usually one per dive, but sometimes several for one area. Each suggested dive area was described plus it had information about what you'll see, water temperature, visibility, and depth.


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 Atlas of Disease by Sandra Hempel

The Atlas of Disease by Sandra Hempel ISBN-13: 9781781317907 Hardback: 224 pages Publisher: White Lion Publishing Released: Oct. 30, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Behind every disease is a story, a complex narrative woven of multiple threads, from the natural history of the disease, to the tale of its discovery and its place in history.


My Review:
The Atlas of Disease explores major diseases and epidemics. The author looked at diphtheria, influenza, leprosy, measles, scarlet fever, SARS, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, malaria, plague, typhus, yellow fever, Zika, polio, Ebola, AIDS, and syphilis. She talked about the history of the disease, including quotes from historical people talking about what the disease was like during normal, local appearances or during epidemics or in perhaps the first recorded mentions of a disease. She talked about what may have caused a disease to turn into an epidemic (like war, trade, etc.) and also where the disease is currently still a problem.

While adequate, I had expected more maps and more detailed maps in an atlas. There was usually one or two maps per disease, showing things like the spread of the disease during a certain outbreak. They were usually either color-coded chunks on a map or color-coded arrows indicating the general spread of the disease. While the author did talk about how maps were used to identify the source of the cholera during an epidemic, maps were not the focus of the text but illustrations of what was stated in the text. I found the information about how the diseases were treated and viewed in the past and the present to be interesting.


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.

Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree by Durga Yael Bernhard

Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree by Durga Yael Bernhard ISBN-13: 978-1-937786-34-2 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Wisdom Press Released: April 2015

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Publisher's Website:
Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree explores 12 of the most distinctive trees from across the globe. Yael Bernhard’s playful poem winds through the pages and imagines the many discoveries found while climbing a tree, whether in our backyards or on the other side of the planet. Bernhard's paintings show her careful research of each tree and draw us up into the branches to view new creatures, people, and places.

The appendix to the book offers more facts about the trees, such as their range, habits, uses, and interesting cultural beliefs about the tree. This section will help answer questions that curious young minds might have.


My Review:
Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree is a children's book recommended for "ages 5 and up." The poem is a simple but charming "what if" narrative of a child about the different creatures and things you might find when you climb a tree. I loved climbing trees as a child (and still do), and it reminded me of those adventures.

The pictures show the tree with a local child, setting, and creatures. It's fun to spot the creatures "hiding" in the tree. Parent's may have to explain what some creatures--like sloths--are to young children. There is a label for each tree that tells the tree's common name, scientific name, and the location. This helps you to match up the tree to the further information in the back. There is also a world map on the inner cover that shows where each tree is located.

Further information about the trees is given in the back. It's adult level reading, but much of it would be interesting to a child interested in trees. The trees shown in the poem (and covered in the back) are: Weeping Fig (in Cambodia), Montezuma Cypress (Mexico), Mango (Guinea, West Africa), Monterey Pine (California), Baobab (South Africa), Lychee (Hawaii), Weeping Willow (Holland), Kapok (Brazil), Olive (Israel), Gingko (China), White Mulberry (Australia), Southern Live Oak (Southeast United States).

I recommend this is a fun and potentially educational book to parents of children who love climbing trees. The author even has a note at the end about climbing safely.


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: View an page from the book on the publisher's website.

Natural Disasters That Changed the World by Rodney Castleden

Natural Disasters That Changed the World by Rodney Castleden ISBN-13: 9780785822288 Hardback: 576 pages Publisher: Chartwell Books Released: April 1, 2007

Source: Bought the book.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Contains 170 natural disasters, their causes, their impact on people and landscape, and their significance on the world around us.


My Review:
Natural Disasters That Changed the World is a world history viewed through brief accounts of the natural disasters that influenced history. While mainly about natural disasters, several shipwrecks were included even though the disaster was mainly caused by human error. Not every disaster had a clear "this changed the way we do things" summary at the end, though sometimes the point was how we keep building in areas or doing things that will lead to tragedy when the natural disaster strikes again.

Even with a book this thick, it would have been difficult for the author to go in-depth on 170 different disasters. He briefly described the mechanics of how each type of natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, tornado, landslide, flooding, etc.) occurs at least once in the book. Most of the entries were about 2 pages long and read like a newspaper report--this happened at this time, then this happened, and this much damage was done." From the back cover description I'd read, I expected a lot of first-hand reports of what it was like to live through the event, but first-hand accounts were rarely given and usually brief.

Overall, the book was interesting, but the disasters all started to sound similar by the end of the book. The events chosen for the pre-history part of the book were speculative and vague, and I didn't really get any value out of them. I think I would have enjoyed more details and first-hand accounts for fewer--though significant--disasters rather than such brief overviews.


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.

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel ISBN-13: 9780525951896 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult Released: April 14, 2011

Source: Review copy from the publisher provided as an eBook through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
A leading economist and researcher report from the front lines of a revolution in solving the world's most persistent problem.

When it comes to global poverty, people are passionate and polarized. At one extreme: We just need to invest more resources. At the other: We've thrown billions down a sinkhole over the last fifty years and accomplished almost nothing.

Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an entirely new approach that blazes an optimistic and realistic trail between these two extremes.

In this pioneering book Karlan and Appel combine behavioral economics with worldwide field research. They take readers with them into villages across Africa, India, South America, and the Philippines, where economic theory collides with real life. They show how small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of poor people everywhere.

We in the developed world have found ways to make our own lives profoundly better. We use new tools to spend smarter, save more, eat better, and lead lives more like the ones we imagine. These tools can do the same for the impoverished. Karlan and Appel's research, and those of some close colleagues, show exactly how.

In America alone, individual donors contribute over two hundred billion to charity annually, three times as much as corporations, foundations, and bequests combined. This book provides a new way to understand what really works to reduce poverty; in so doing, it reveals how to better invest those billions and begin transforming the well-being of the world.


My Review:
More Than Good Intentions focused on what programs (or parts of programs) actually achieved their objective of helping the poor. The authors talked about the studies they've done on this and explain their findings about what works, what doesn't, and how various programs might be improved. The authors acknowledge that people don't always act in their long-term best interest, so we need to understand why the poor act in certain ways (including overlooked problems they face), modify programs to take that into account, and test those programs to see if they're working.

The book was easy to read and very engaging. It contained interesting stories of real people that were impacted by these programs. I'd highly recommend this book to those who donate money to organizations that help the poor and to the people who run these programs.

The topics the authors covered were their studies on how to "sell" a program to poor people (as in, get them to use it), various types of microfinance programs (individual, group, along with basic business training, along with specific business advice, etc.), microsavings programs, agricultural programs, educational programs, and health programs (including reproductive health). The last chapter listed the 7 programs that they discussed that they're the most excited about.


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 from Chapter One, from pages 3-4, 5
... Sometimes, even when we have all the good intentions in the world, we don't find the most effective or most efficient way to act on them. This is true whether we want to save fish, make microloans, distribute antimalarial bed-nets, or deliver deworming pills. The question is: How can we get beyond our good intentions and to the best solutions?

The only real consensus view on the issue is about the gravity of the problem. Three billion people, about half the world, live on $2.50 per day. (To be clear, that's $2.50 adjusted for the cost of living--so think of it as living on the amount of actual goods that you could buy for $2.50 per day in the United States.) In the public dialogue about aid and development--that vast complex of people, organizations, and programs that seek to alleviate poverty around the world--there are two main competing explainations for why poverty persists on such a massive scale. One camp maintains that we simply haven't spent enough on aid programs and need to massively ramp up our level of engagement. They point out that the world's wealthist nations dedicate on average less than one percent of their money to poverty reduction. In their view, it just doesn't add up. We could get serious about ending poverty, they say, but we haven't even given our existing programs a fair chance. The first thing we have to do is give more. A lot more.

The other camp tells a starkly different story: Aid as it exists today doesn't work, and simply throwing money at the problem is futile. They point out that $2.3 trillion has been spent by the world's wealthiest nations on poverty reduction over the past fifty years and ask: What have we accomplished with all that money? With poverty and privations still afflicting half the globe, can we really claim to be on the right track? No, they say, we need a fresh start. The aid and development community as it exists today is flabby, uncoordinated, and accountable to nobody in particular. It's bound to fail. They argue that we need to pull away resources from overgrown, cumbersome international organizations like the United Nations, wipe the slate clean, and focus instead on small, agile, homegrown programs.

....Jake and I propose that there actually is a way forward....Sometimes aid works, and sometimes it does not....The critical question, then, is which aid works. The debate has been in the sky, but the answers are on the ground. Instead of getting hung up in the extremes, let's zero in on the details. Let's look at a specific challenge or problem that poor people face, try to understand what they're up against, propose a potential solution, and then test to find out whether it works. If that solution works--and if we can demonstrate that it works consistantly--then let's scale it up so it can work for more people. If it doesn't work, let's make changes or try something new.

The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism by Antoine Sfeir

The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism by Antoine Sfeir ISBN-13: 9780231146418 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Columbia University Press Released: 2007, Nov. 2009

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover (slightly modified):
This volume features more than two thousand entries on the history of Islamism and Islamic countries. It provides a balanced account of events and organizations, as well as philosophers, activists, militants, and other prominent figures, and offers a window into a movement that has irrevocably changed both Muslim and Western societies.

The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism includes entries on the roots of Islamism and jihad in Africa, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, the Balkans, and the United States, among many other countries and locations. It profiles such key individuals as Louis Farrakhan; Tariq Ramadan; Abu Hamza Al-Masri; Algeria's Hassan Hattab, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood; Egypt's Hassan Al-Banna; and the leader of the Afghan Jombesh-i Melli Islami movement, Abdul Rashid Dostum; historical events such as the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and Syria's Hama massacre; organizations and religious movements such as the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Morocco's Justice and Development Party, and Iran's Association for the Defense of the Values of the Islamic Revolution; and groups including Tablighi Jamaat (the Society of the Message), the World Association for Muslim Youth, and Lebanon's Al-Ahbash.

The dictionary uniquely examines this antimodern incarnation of Islam and its efforts to claim (or reclaim) Muslim society, families, and professional environments. The volume considers such questions as whether activist Islam is "terrorist" and if it can coexist with Western societies; whether terrorism can be justified by the Quran; and what are the components of an international Islam. Antoine Sfeir, internationally renowned for his scholarship and expertise on this subject, remains sensitive to the differences between Islam and Islamism and approaches the ideology from geopolitical, sociological, and historical standpoints.


My Review:
The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism is an encyclopedia focused on Islamism and has entries for people, countries, groups, religious denominations, major terrorist acts, and more. I've been using it mainly as a supplement to the news. As in, if I see a person or place mentioned in the news in relation to Islamism, I look it up in this book and learn more. The key here, though, is to realize that his definition of Islamism is "a broad intellectual, religious, and political school within contemporary Islam whose adherents cling to the doctrine that the faith is indivisible, and base their actions on its fundamental principles. Islamists fear modernity, which they regard as a threat to the integrity of their faith." So he mainly focuses on militant Islamic organizations and/or those wanting the Quran as the country's constitution.

If you look up a country, you usually get a listing of the Islamist groups that exist in that country and their history (including how the government viewed them and the group's major terrorist acts). If you look up a prominent Muslim, he won't be in here unless he's an Islamist. If he is, then you get a biography on him. And so on. So this book is excellent at giving extensive information about the topics it covers, but I suspect it has a rather limited audience due to the limited focus.


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.

Historical Atlas of the Medieval World by John Haywood

Historical Atlas of the Medieval World, AD 600-1492 by John Haywood Hardback: 96 pages Publisher: Barnes and Nobles Books Released: 2002

Source: Bought used through Amazon.

Book Description from Book Flap:
The Historical Atlas of the Medieval World offers a fascinating guide to the history of humanity from the emergence of Islam to the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Combining superbly detailed maps with a wealth of supporting narrative and an invaluable A - Z historical encyclopedia, it provides not only unique perspectives on the broad sweep of world history but also detailed coverage of regional developments, presenting hard facts and expert interpretation in a form that is both readily accessible and visually exciting.

Central to the atlas is a series of world maps that present an overview of the grand themes of history at key dates between AD 600 and 1492. They chart the shifting patterns of human settlement and the rise and fall of empires and states, reviewing in addition the spread of trade and exploration on a world scale. These snapshot surveys are then followed by regional maps that look more closely at the great events of each era--the flowering of medieval Europe and the Renaissance, the far-flung Islamic empire of the Arabs, Tang and Song China, and the dynamic Mongol and Inca empires. Equally illuminating insights are also given into the less familiar history of medieval Japan, the empire of Harsha in India, the first African empires, and the Thai state of Nan Chao. All the maps are supported by a wealth of annotation, succinct accompanying essays, and summary timelines, and they are also backed by a network of useful cross-references, an index, and a substantial encyclopedic section that provides an A-Z guide to the people, places, and events that made their mark on history.

Planned with both the expert and the amateur historian very much in mind, the Historical Atlas of the Medieval World forms a highly accessible, beautifully presented survey that will prove ideal for quick reference or more leisurely browsing.


Review:
Historical Atlas of the Medieval World gives an overview of world history for 600 AD - 1492 AD. It didn't give much information on any one event but instead showed the shifting of power on a world scale.

Each 2-page spread had a map, a timeline, and text that tied the timeline and the map together. The text also explained how events in individual empires or countries interacted with the whole to affect overall power shifts. The full-color maps were packed with information but were also easy to read.

The altas divided the world into five areas: Americas; Europe; Middle East; Africa; and East & South Asia. The first series of maps and timelines gave an overview of the major events in all of these five areas at once as well as other details (like were they a nomadic society, a empire, a state, etc.). Then the altas focused on each of the five major areas in turn and covered their major events in more detail. At the back, there was a A-Z guide to the people, places, and events that were mentioned in the text. It gave a summary about the subject and references to where it was mentioned in the text.

Overall, I found this atlas interesting, visually appealing, easy to use, and easy to understand. I'd recommend it to those who are interested in an overview of world history during this time period.


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 from "Viking Age Europe - 793-1050"
In eastern Europe, Swedish venturers known as Rus pioneered trade routes along the rivers of Russia to the Black and Caspian Seas, giving their name to the Russian state which developed at Novgorod around 862.

The Viking raids and settlements were prompted by developments within Scandinavia itself. By the late 8th century, power was becoming centralized, creating an intensely competitive society. For many, pirate raids overseas became a means to acquire wealth, a reputation, and an armed following to support their ambitions at home. Others, denied the chance to rule at home, sought to conquer lands for themselves and their followers abroad. Trade and land hunger, caused by a rising population, were other important factors in the Viking phenomenon.

Compass by Alan Gurney

Compass by Alan Gurney Hardback: 288 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton First Released: 2004

Source: From a library book sale.

Book Description from Publisher's Website:
Compass chronicles the misadventures of those who attempted to perfect the magnetic compass—so precious to sixteenth-century seamen that, by law, any man found tampering with it had his hand pinned to the mast with a dagger. From the time man first took to the seas until only one thousand years ago, sight and winds were the sailor's only navigational aids. It was not until the development of the compass that maps and charts could be used with any accuracy—even so, it would be hundreds of years and thousands of shipwrecks before the marvelous instrument was perfected. And its history up to modern times is filled with the stories of disasters that befell sailors who misused it. In this page-turning history of man's search for reliable navigation of treacherous sea routes around the globe, Alan Gurney brings to life the instrument Victor Hugo called "the soul of the ship."


Review:
Compass tells the impressive story of the development of the marine magnetic compass, starting at about 1187 AD and going into modern times. The movement of the ship and the iron used in building the ship, in ship-board weapons, and in items stored on board caused no end of havoc to the magnetic compass' ability to correctly point toward magnetic north. As ship building techniques changed, new ways of correcting for these problems had to be devised. This book described these developments as well as scientific sea-voyages done to discover what the source of these problems was and some information about other methods of marine navigation. Some of this information overlapped a bit with the story told in Longitude by Dava Sobel.

There were some black and white illustrations--mainly of the various compass types and maps related to the solving of the compass deviation problem. Since details about the scientific (compass-focused) voyages were included, it would have been nice to have a map showing the route of these voyages. However, I could generally follow the route described without a map.

The author assumed the reader had a certain familiarity with ships and the sea, so he would define those terms only once and not very clearly. The book also focused on the developments in the compass from the perspective of Britain, only briefly mentioning what the rest of the world was doing with compasses.

The book was written in a conversational style and, overall, I found the book enjoyable and well-written. It seemed aimed toward people who use a marine compass--to increase their appreciation for it--but the book will probably also appeal to those who read and enjoyed Longitude and to those who like reading about how different technologies have developed.


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 from Chapter One
The cry of "Breakers ahead!" was the first warning that the navigating officers had made a dreadful mistake in their dead reckoning, or, in the mordant Spanish equivalent, their navegacion de fantasia.

Minutes later, in the howling dark of an autumn night, four ships of a Royal Navy fleet were mastless hulks being pounded to pieces between the hammer blows of the Atlantic breakers and the anvil of the Scilly Islands' granite reefs. Some two thousand men and officers from HMS Association, Eagle, Firebrand, and Romney died on that night of October 23, 1707. One more vessel, HMS St. George, struck hard but surged clear and survived.

Among the drowned was the fleet's portly, florid-faced commander, the fifty-seven-year-old Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell. His body was found washed ashore in a sandy bay some seven miles from the wreck. Legend has it that a local woman, thirty years later, made a death-bed confession that she had found a waterlogged Sir Cloudsley unconscious on the shore, and then helped him into eternity for the sake of the diamond and emerald rings on his fingers.

The death by drowning of two thousand men and the loss of ships is still considered the worse shipwreck disaster ever suffered by the Royal Navy. It led the British government, by a 1714 Act of Parliament, to create the Board of Longitude and its financial prizes for anyone discovering a "practicable and useful" method of determining a ship's longitude at sea. The end result was threefold: the publishing of accurate astronomical tables for calculating the lunar distance method of finding longitude; John Hadley's reflecting quadrant for the accurate measurement of lunar distances; and John Harrison's famous marine chronometer.

Ironically enough, the shipwreck disaster was not so much a matter of longitude but more a matter of latitude, inaccurate charts, an unknown current, and shoddy compasses.

The Scent Trail by Celia Lyttelton

The Scent Trail by Celia Lyttelton Trade Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: New American Library First Released: 2007

Source: Bought from Half.com.

Book Description (from publisher's website):
Lyttelton’s passion for fragrance inspired her to have a signature perfume created just for her—and then to embark on the ultimate olfactory odyssey. Armed with a list of ingredients, she tracked down each component of her scent, tracing its origins, history, and culture.

From the iris fields of Tuscany to the vetivert distilleries of India, from the nutmeg plantations of Sri Lanka to the shores of the Arabian Sea, Celia gives readers a glimpse into the world of scent that few people have ever experienced, providing delicious details on its place in history—for example, how Casanova added small amounts of ambergris to chocolate mousses to aid his amorous adventures, and how Charles Dickens carried a monogrammed pocket nutmeg grater in his waist coat at a time when nutmeg was used to ward off evil and to spice rum.


Review:
The Scent Trail is a travelogue focused around finding the ingredients for the author's custom-created perfume. The first chapter talked about the process she went through to decide which scents to have the perfumer put into her perfume. She then traveled to France, Morocco, Turkey, Italy, Sri Lanka, India, Yemen, and Socotra to personally buy the ingredients for her perfume.

Along the way, she gave snippets of interesting history and information about the perfume trade. We also learn about the countries (especially as regards the perfume trade) and the history of the perfume ingredients: mimosa, neroli, petitgrain, damask rose, iris, nutmeg, jasmine, vetivert, frankincense, myrrh, and ambergris. She also summarized the conversations she had with several perfumers and described tours of several buildings where the ingredients are distilled or made into concentrate or absolutes for the perfume trade. While there was a lot of interesting information, she rarely went into any depth on a topic.

Her love of scents and travel came through strongly and made me want to smell the scents she described. However, I would have found some pictures helpful as I had a hard time picturing some of the places and things she described.

People who are interested in both foreign countries and perfume will probably find this memoir/travelogue interesting.


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 from Chapter One
There are only a handful of Bespoke perfumers in London, and Anastasia Brozler, the founder of Creative Perfumers, is one of them.

When I asked her to concoct a formula for my own bespoke perfume she immediately drew me into the world of scent and the magic that smells can conjure up. When I first met her, before she'd founded her own company, we sat down together in front of a cabinet modeled on a Chinese medicine chest which had about one hundred tiny little drawers. From these drawers, she randomly took out lumps of balmy myrrh, earthy orris (iris) roots, vanilla pods--which smells mouthwateringly like chocolate--exotic Iranian saffron, heady Indian sandalwood, spicy nutmeg oil, aromatic cloves and bergamot, basil and even tomato oil. The smell of those last three together reminded me of al fresco suppers on Greek islands.

Some of the ingredients Anastasia held under my nose I'd never imagined making up a perfume: tomato oil, for instance, and guaiac wood from the Holywood tree of Paraguay; and some smells, such as ambergris, musk and civet, I had never smelled before. In parts of the Middle East real musk and civet are still used and sold, but covertly, because the trade is illegal. Ambergris--which comes from the vomit of sperm whales--can still be bought, but it is exceedingly rare, as the whales are difficult to find. So most perfumers use synthetic substitutes.

Who Owns the World by Kevin Cahill, Rob McMahon

Who Owns the World: The Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet by Kevin Cahill with Rob McMahon Trade Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing First Released: 2010

Source: Free review copy from the publisher.

Back Cover Description (slightly modified):
In our modern world, you can IM someone in New Zealand, purchase coffee beans from Timor-Leste, or shop for homes in Dubai on the Internet. But what do we really know about the land in these countries? And what do we know about our own? Now this unique compilation reveals the hidden secrets about landownership in all fifty states and every country and territory on Earth. Fascinating, eye-opening, and sometimes shocking, this informative guide will change the way you look at the world. You'll discover that:

*Two of the largest landowners in the U.S. are the federal government and Ted Turner. The Federal Government owns about 31.4% of the land in the country. Ted Turner owns 1,800,000 acres in America.

*80% of the American population lives in urban areas

*The least crowded state is Alaska, with 670 acres per person. The most crowded is New Jersey, with 0.7 acres per person

*60% of America's population are property owners. That's behind the U.K. (69% homeownership).

*Queen Elizabeth II owns 1/6 of the entire land surface on Earth (if you count both her personal property and the government-owned property held in her name). She personally owns about 637,000 acres.

*Only 15% of the world's population lays claim to landownership

...plus many more incredible facts!


Review:
Who Owns the World was mainly a statistical reference book, though definitely one with an agenda behind it. I found the actual statistics very interesting. I've heard things like "China is terribly crowded" but now I know how it compares to other countries in terms of population in urban areas versus rural areas and so on.

I wasn't very impressed with Part One, which was only 52 pages long. The author's premise was that poverty can be wiped out if everyone in the world was given ownership of even a small piece of land. He then shows how rich people (who, ironically, made their riches from ideas and businesses) own a lot of land. The problem is that not every piece of land is created equal. Giving someone a remote bit of wasteland wouldn't be helpful. Not to mention that I've known a millionaire who owned an old house on a small bit of urban property (as in, he didn't own a lot of land), poor people (including farmers) who owned land, and poor people who inherited land and sold it for quick money (which they promptly wasted) or had to sell it due to debts. Land ownership doesn't automatically lead to riches.

Another problem I had with Part One was that he tended to compare apples to oranges to pears. I realize the difficulty he had in getting precise numbers, and I appreciate that he did usually state what, precisely, he was including in his numbers. However, he had a whole section comparing monarchs to each other with some numbers being what the monarch owned privately plus what the government owned "in their name," others with only government-owned lands credited to them, and others credited with all of the land they ruled over whether they technically own it or not. The various religions were also compared as to total wealth (based on the value of the land containing churches, religious hospitals, etc.) irregardless of the religion's different administrative structures. A religion can't own land, only people, so I didn't get what the comparison was supposed to prove.

I found Part Two very interesting though I was still occasionally exasperated by comments the author made. Part Two covered the statistics on United States in detail, state by state, and then gave the statistics for each country in the world. The statistics for the states included: population, population of the capital, size in acres, acres per person, number of houses, houses owned, houses rented, and acres of developed land. The statistics for countries included: population, size in acres, population, acres per person, GNI, World Bank ranking, and percentage urban population. It also gave the background history and how the state/country is owned (including urban vs farmland vs forestland statistics for the USA states) in a text description. It would have been helpful to have some graphs for each state or country to put everything in perspective, but the information was still interesting.

The book was easy to read. If you like statistical comparison books and are interested in this topic, then you'll probably enjoy this 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 from Pages 110-111
Arkansas
Population: 2,673,400. Capital, and population of capital: Little Rock, 552,194. Became: 25th state in 1836. Size: 34,034,670 acres. Acres per person: 12.7. Country closest in size: Greece, 32,607,360 acres. Houses/dwellings: 1,173,043. Owned: 814,091. Rented/leased: 358,952. Developed land: 1,409,100 acres.

Background
Arkansas was one of a number of states formed from the territory gained in the Louisiana Purchase. The state served as a stopping ground for Native American tribes as they mover out to the west. Bill Clinton, the 42nd President, was born in Arkansas and his presidential library is located in the state capital of Little Rock.

How the state is owned
The Federal Government owns 3,102,800 acres of land--the equivalent of 9.1% of the state.

The state's rural land is divided into 5.3 million acres of pastureland, 7.6 million acres of cropland, 18.7 acres of forest land, 1.4 million acres of developed land and 1.2 million acres of land classified as "other."

There are 45,170 farms in Arkansas, standing on 14,364,955 acres of land. 27,699 farms are wholly owned, 12,596 are partly owned and 4,875 are tenanted. There are 1,613 farms of between 1,000 and 2,000 acres in the state, and 707 farms of over 2,000 acres.

The total forest area of the state is 18,778,600 acres. Of this forest land, the public owns 3,198,400 acres (17%), the forest industry owns 4,531,600 acres (24%) and non-industrial private owners own 10,652,100 acres (56.7%).

The largest landowners are the state with an estimated 1.6 million acres, International Paper (a forestry company) with 1.2 million acres, the Deltic Timber Company (31,000 acres), the John Ed Anthony family (150,000 acres, mainly forests), Anthony Forest Products (32,000 acres), the Carter Jones family (65,000 acres), Rex Timber (20,000-plus acres), the Lee Wilson family (20,000-plus acres), the Calion Lumber Company (20,000-plus acres), and Plum Creek with 773,000 acres.

Terrify No More by Gary A. Haugen

Terrify No More by Gary A. Haugen and Gregg Hunter Hardback: 240 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson First Released: 2005 International Justice Mission website Buy from Amazon

Source: Bought from Half.com

Book Description (from the publisher's website):
In a small village outside of Phnom Pehn, little children as young as five years old were forced to live as sex slaves. Day after day their hope was slipping away.

Tireless workers from International Justice Mission (IJM) infiltrated the ring of brothels and gathered evidence to free the children. Headed up by former war-crimes investigator Gary Haugen, IJM faced impossible odds-police corruption, death threats, and mission-thwarting tip-offs. But they used their expert legal finesse and high-tech investigative techniques to save the lives of 37 young girls and secured the arrest and conviction of several perpetrators. Terrify No More focuses on this dramatic rescue story, and uses flashbacks to tell those of many other victims who were given a second chance at life.


Review:
Terrify No More is a gripping, well-written nonfiction book about a number of rescues the International Justice Mission has done. The main focus of the book is their attempt to rescue 40 children under the age of 14 from forced prostitution in a village near Phnom Pehn in Cambodia.

While the book is clearly about International Justice Mission's work, I felt like the main focus was raising people's awareness about modern slavery and injustice. It covered much of the same information as Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, but it describes less graphic violence and is less technical.

The book describes IJM rescues of forced prostitutes, bonded slaves, and illegally imprisoned people worldwide. It details how the IJM team finds out about cases, gathers evidence, works with the local police to stage a raid, helps to prosecute the perpetrators, and finds aftercare facilities (and what they're like) for the victims. It also describes how victims can end up in these situations and what can be done to stop it.

The International Justice Mission is a Christian organization and the author does talk about how his faith influenced his decisions, but he does not assume the reader is Christian. I think Christians and non-Christians alike will enjoy this book.

I found the book a very inspiring page-turner that made me really appreciate the freedoms we tend to take for granted. If you like thrillers or are interested in undercover detective work or in humanitarian work, you'll probably enjoy reading this book. Overall, I'd highly recommend it.


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 from Chapter Thirty-Seven
The lead lawyer in these police training programs and other casework in Latin America has been our brilliant colleague from Puerto Rico, Jamie Farrant. He directs extensive IJM casework in Peru, Honduras, Mexico, and Bolivia in partnership with indigenous human rights organizations. Recently, case referrals have forced Jaime to also enter the ugly world of sex trafficking that exploits young girls trying to see a better life for their families. While conducting investigations with Robert Earle along the Mexico-Guatemala border, Jaime had to join Robert in playing the part of a sexual predator, and as he shared with me back at HQ about the experience, the agony for Jamie of drawing near to such pain was palpable. It ran very rough over Jamie's huge and compassionate heart.

"Each night becomes more difficult...once again brothel hopping, once again to look for girls, once again to pretend I enjoy doing this, once again a pedophile," Jamie explained. "Once again, we go out until 3:00 A.M. What a disgusting life...."

"One week of doing this is just too long, but what about the victims? What do we do about those girls who cry daily while they put on their masks? How much harder for them when they're only teenagers? How much harder when they recall that they were deceived into coming to this crowded but lonely and heartless place?"

It's the struggle we all experience at IJM when we encounter the world of the victim....

"One of the hard parts of posing as a pedophile," Robert Earle said, "is actually asking the questions of the pimps, using language you don't normally use, talking about things you just don't talk about.

"I need to get the pimp on tape telling me what the girls will do, what sex acts they can perform, and I have to be explicit with him. Of course, that's very unnatural, but it has to appear natural in order to get the evidence we need."

I know from my experience in Svay Pak that those pictures don't quickly fade from one's memory. It is nauseatingly uncomfortable to play the role. But such are the sacrifices my colleagues make--hearts that cannot remain unbroken, minds that now store images that can't be easily erased. And they continue to place themselves voluntarily in these situations where the thick, heavy darkness is palpable. They do it because they know their temporary presence in that underworld may be the only hope innocent victims have of seeing the light of freedom and experiencing the joy of rescue.


Read chapter one.

Defenders of the Faith by James Reston Jr.

Defenders of the Faith Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536 by James Reston Jr. Hardback: 432 pages Publisher: The Penguin Press First Released: 2009 Author Website Buy from Amazon

Source: Review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
A bestselling historian recounts sixteen years that shook the world— the epic clash between Europe and the Ottoman Turks that ended the Renaissance and brought Islam to the gates of Vienna

James Reston, Jr. examines the ultimate battle in a centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar. Each was a poet and cultured cosmopolitan; each was the most powerful man on his continent; each was called “Defender of the Faith”; and each faced strident religious rebellion in his domain. Charles was beset by the “heresy” of Martin Luther and his fervid adherents, even while tensions between him and the pope threatened to boil over, and the upstart French king Francis I harried Charles’s realm by land and sea. Suleyman was hardly more comfortable on his throne. He had earned his crown by avoiding the grim Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide. Shiites in the East were fighting off the Sunni Turks’ cruel repression of their “heresy.” The ferocity and skill of Suleyman’s Janissaries had expanded the Ottoman Empire to its greatest extent ever, but these slave soldiers became rebellious when foreign wars did not engage them.

With Europe newly hobbled and the Turks suffused with restless vigor, the stage was set for a drama that unfolded from Hungary to Rhodes and ultimately to Vienna itself, which both sides thought the Turks could win. If that happened, it was generally agreed that Europe would become Muslim as far west as the Rhine.

During these same years, Europe was roiled by constant internal tumult that saw, among other spectacles, the Diet of Worms, the Sack of Rome, and an actual wrestling match between the English and French monarchs in which Henry VIII’s pride was badly hurt. Would—could—this fractious continent be united to repulse a fearsome enemy?


Review:
Defenders of the Faith is a history covering 1520-1536 AD which mainly focused on the politics and wars in Europe (Charles V, Francis I, Henry VIII, the popes, Martin Luther, etc.). Only a fourth of the book focused on Suleyman's battles in Europe, European diplomacy efforts toward him, descriptions of feasts he held, and his internal politics...and very little was said about the Sunni/Shi'i conflict.

The book used quotes from people living at the time and gave nice details about how things looked which helped bring the events alive in my imagination. However, for all it's detail (describing the scene, the weather, numbers of people, maneuvers, etc.), the book gave only a surface assessment of the motives behind the actions. The author judges the actions from hindsight, knowing the results of the decisions, rather than giving a "this is how the situation might have appeared to them" view. He also assumes the worst motives behind the actions. This critical and cynical view of events results in a lot of negative language being used to describe the people and their actions.

There was a mild bias in this book. Whenever the author described cruel actions by the Turks against Christians, neutral language was used. If Christians did the same actions against Turks/Muslims, negative language was used. Also, the Hospitaller knights were called "fanatics," popes rarely had anything positive said about them, and the author used mocking language when describing how Martin Luther feared he might be killed when he had every reason to think he would be. Also, descriptions of people changed throughout the book. For example, a pope was described as sly/scheming when he was being sly/scheming and then described as gullible when his actions appear gullible. I didn't feel I could trust the author's assessment of the situations, but he also didn't give me enough information for me to draw my own conclusions.

The book included several nice black and white maps covering the areas described and black and whites pictures of the personages described in the book.

If you're interested in the Reformation (which made up a large portion of this book), then I'd recommend other, less biased books. History buffs wanting an overview of European politics during this time period might find this book interesting. If you've read this author's previous books and liked them, then I suspect you'll like this book as 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: Chapter One
In May 1520 a royal flotilla left Spain for the British Isles with precious cargo. He was the twenty-year-old king of Spain, Charles V, the grandson on his mother's side, of the "Catholic kings of Spain," Ferdinand and Isabella, the grandson on his father's side of Maximilian I, Holy Roman emperor. By his maternal lineage, he was also the nephew of Catherine of Aragon, the current wife of Henry VIII. Charles was now on his way to see the English king. The voyage would take seven days, ample time for the sober-sided, determine young monarch to ponder the extraordinary events of the past five years that had taken him from a cloister in the Netherlands to the pinnacle of power in Europe and to his new role as secular leader for all Christianity.

By birth, he was not Spanish but Flemish, born of Austrian parents in Ghent in the Jubilee Year of 100. His first crown had been that of the Netherlands, which he had acquired at the age of six upon the death of his father, Philip the Handsome. The Low Countries, especially their contiguous provinces of Burgundy, would always lodge deep in the sentimentalities of the youthful monarch. Then at the age of seventeen, the crown of Spain was conferred upon him as well through the line to his Spanish grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella, though the Spanish nobility was none too pleased to have this dour youth of Austrian and Dutch background as their monarch.

Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe

Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe Hardback: 704 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books First Released: 1994 Buy from Amazon

Source: Library

Back Cover Description:
We in the twentieth century tend to assume that our era has a monopoly on the inventions of clever machines, labor-saving devices, feats of engineering, and advanced technology. But as the authors of this fascinating and eye-opening book reveal, some of humankind's most important and most amazing inventions actually date back thousands of years. Ancient Inventions is a treasure trove of the triumphs and marvels of applied science, from the stone tools hewn by the earliest prehistoric people to the dawn of the modern era in 1492.

Historian and archaeologist team Peter James and Nick Thorpe have pooled their expertise in amassing this compendium of human ingenuity through the ages. Together they conclusively prove that our ancestors, however long ago they lived ad whatever part of the globe they occupied, were brilliant problem-solvers.

Ancient Inventions reveals that:
*Medieval Baghdad had an efficient postal service, banks, and a paper mill.
*Rudimentary calendars were being used in France as early as 13,000 B.C.
*Apartment condominiums rose in the deserts of the American Southwest a thousand years ago.
*The ancient Greeks used an early form of computer.
*Plastic surgery was being performed in India by the first century B.C.


Review:
Ancient Inventions covers a wide variety of ancient technologies and details of ancient life. The information is interesting, easy to read, and easy to understand. As you can see from the table of contents I listed below, the Sex Life section covers some intimate topics in explicit detail and includes some fairly graphic illustrations. I'd recommend this book to history buffs and anyone needing to do research on ancient technology.

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: Table of Contents (paraphrased)
Chapter 1: Medicine
Introduction; Surgical Instruments; Eye Operations; Plastic Surgery; Brain Surgery; False Teeth and Dentistry; False Limbs; Anesthetics; Acupuncture

Chapter 2: Transportation
Introduction; Mapmaking; Skis and Skates; Odometers; Wind Cars and Rocket Cars; Ships and Liners; The First Suez Canal; The Compass; Lighthouses; Diving Gear; Man-Bearing Kites and Parachutes; Ballooning

Chapter 3: High Tech
Introduction; Computers; Clocks; Coin-Operated Slot Machines; Automatic Doors; The Steam Engine; Automata; Earthquake Detectors; Electric Batteries; Magnets and magnetism; Magnifying Glasses

Chapter 4: Sex Life
Introduction; Aphrodisiacs; Dildos; Contraceptives; Pregnancy Tests; Sex Manuals

Chapter 5: Military Technology
Introduction; Human and Animal Armor; Tanks; Catapults and Crossbows; The "Claws" of Archimedes; Flamethrowers; Hand Grenades; From Gunpowder to the Cannon; Poison Gas

Chapter 6: Personal Effects
Introduction; Mirrors; Makeup; Tattooing; Soap; Razors; Perfume; Wigs; Clothing and Shoes; Jewelry; Spectacles; Umbrella

Chapter 7: Food, Drink, and Drugs
Introduction; Restaurants and Snack Bars; Cookbooks; Refrigeration; Chewing Gum; Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate; Wine Beer, and Brewing; Drugs; Tobacco and Pipes

Chapter 8: Urban Life
Introduction; Sewers; Pipes and Plumbing; Apartment Buildings; Fire Engines; Banks; Coins and Paper Money

Chapter 9: Working the Land
Introduction; The Reaping Machine; Waterwheel and Windmills; Pesticides; Beekeeping; Fish and Oyster Farms; Drilling and Mining; Tunneling

Chapter 10: House and Home
Introduction, Mammoth-Bone Houses; Cats and Dogs; Lavatories; Saunas; Baths; Central Heating; Glass Windows; Keys and Locks

Chapter 11: Communications
Introduction; Calendars; The Alphabet; Codes and Ciphers; Books and Printing; Encyclopedias; Postal Systems; Pigeon Post; Telegraphy

Chapter 12: Sport and Leisure
Introduction; Bullfighting; The Original Olympic Games; Ball Games; Gardens and Gardening; Zoos; Theaters' Musical Instruments; Keyboards; Written Music; Fireworks; Magic Lanterns; Playing Cards

Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara Hardback: 298 pages Publisher: Columbia University Press First Released: 2009

Source: review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
Every year, millions of women and children are abducted, deceived, seduced, or sold into forced prostitution, made to service hundreds if not thousands of men before being discarded. Generating huge profits for their exploiters, sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world's most profitable illicit enterprises, for unlike narcotics, which must be grown, harvested, refined, and packaged, the female body requires no such "processing" and can be repeatedly consumed.

In this first-of-its-kind journey, Siddharth Kara investigates the mechanics of the global sex trafficking business across four continents and takes stock of its devastating human toll. Since first encountering the horrors of sexual slavery in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995, Kara has taken multiple research trips to India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Albania, Moldova, Mexico, and the United States. He has met hundreds of slaves, has witnessed the sale of numerous human beings into slavery, and has confronted some of the criminals who have exploited them.

Drawing on his background in finance and economics, Kara provides a rare business analysis of sex trafficking, focusing on the local drivers and global macroeconomic trends that gave rise to the industry after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He quantifies the size, growth, and profitability of sex trafficking and other forms of modern slavery—metrics that have never been published before—and locates the sectors that would be hardest hit by specifically designed interventions and penalties.

Kara supplements his analysis with a riveting account of this unconscionable industry, sharing the moving stories of victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He concludes with a proposal for aggressive measures that target the essential business and economic functioning of the sex trafficking industry designed to provide a more effective global approach to abolishing these crimes against the world's most vulnerable and exploited persons.

The author will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to the organization Free the Slaves.


Review:
Sex Trafficking is a thought-provoking and heart-touching looking into modern slavery. While the author mainly focused on forced prostitution, he also covered other types of forced labor and slavery. He included many stories of slaves and ex-slaves to give a face to slavery and to demonstrate the variety of ways women are enslaved. The author also gave detailed economic breakdowns of the profitability of forced labor and explained how these economics can be changed to make slavery economically less desirable.

Much of the book was written in an engaging, conversational style. The parts on economics did get a bit technical and dry, but his points were still very understandable.

I don't agree with everything the author said since his view of the world is different than mine. However, the reader can easily use the information he's gathered in this book to come to their own conclusions on how to fight modern slavery. The author does suggest several practical things an individual can do to help.

This book gave insight into modern slavery. It also provided a look into how very different other cultures can be in how they treat women, view slavery, etc. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone desiring a stop to modern slavery, people interested in other cultures, and to all women (especially feminists).


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: Chapter One
Gaunt and distressed, [Maya] was nineteen when I interviewed her, after almost four years as a sex slave in each of Mumbai’s two main red-light districts, Kamathipura and Falkland Road. She was born in the Sindhupalchok region of Nepal, one of the poorest stretches of land on the planet, with an annual per capita income of $180, or fifty cents per day. Desperate to make ends meet, her parents sold her to a local agent for $55 on the promise that she would have a good job at a carpet factory, from which she could send home up to $10 per month. The night Maya left home, the agent resold her to a dalal (trafficker), who took her to Butwal, a border town with India, where they spent the night with another girl. The next day, Maya, the other girl, and the dalal crossed the border into India by foot. A few days later, they were in Mumbai.

This is what Maya told me happened next:

“Once I came to Mumbai, the dalal sold me to a malik [brothel boss] in Kamathipura. The malik told me I owed him thirty-five thousand rupees [$780], and I must have sex with any man who chooses me until this debt is repaid. I refused, and his men raped me and did not feed me. When I agreed to do sex, they gave me medicines because I had a urine infection. I was in that bungalow two years and made sex to twenty men each day. There were hundreds of girls in this bungalow, many from Nepal. One time I tried to escape. I complained to the police, but they did nothing. A few days later the malik’s men found me on the streets and took me back to the brothel. The malik put chili paste on a broomstick and pushed it inside me. Then he broke my ribs with his fist. The gharwali [house manager, madam] tended my wounds for a short time, and after this time I went with clients again, even though my ribs pained very badly. The gharwali gave me opium to make the pain less. After two years, the malik sold me to another malik on Falkland Road. During this time I lived in a pinjara [cage] with one other woman. It was very small and it was on the street, so it was very noisy at night. I was pregnant two times, and the gharwali gave me pills to kill the baby. The second time I became very ill. When I was strong I ran away. I went to a shelter near Falkland Road. They told me I have HIV. They helped me contact my father, but he told me not to come home. He said I can never be married and because I have HIV, I can only bring shame.”

Maya’s story is emblematic of the hundreds of thousands of women and children trafficked and forced into prostitution each year. As with each victim in this book, I have not used Maya’s real name, and in a few instances in which discussing precise geographic locations might result in danger to the individual, I have provided an alternate setting. Like most sex trafficking victims, Maya and her family were vulnerable to deceit due to economic desperation. Once Maya arrived at the brothel, she was swiftly broken down through physical and psychological torture. While her journey to Mumbai was direct, other victims endure multiple stops in several countries, where they are exploited, resold, and tortured. At each destination, victims are told they must work off the “debt” of trafficking them by having sex with up to twenty men per day. The accounting of these debts is invariably exploitative, involving deductions for food, clothing, rent, alcohol, and exorbitant interest rates. The false promise of attaining freedom is a powerful tool that brothel owners utilize to control their victims. As time passes, some slaves accept their fates, and in a Stockholm Syndrome–like transformation, they might be “freed” to serve as working prostitutes who mentor new slaves upon arrival. In Maya’s case, when her brothel owner decided she had worked off her debt, she was resold and given a new debt. If she had not escaped, the cycle of slavery might never have ended.


Read the Preface and part of Chapter One of Sex Trafficking.