Victorian Britain Day by Day by Nicholas Travers

Victorian Britain Day
by Day by Nicholas Travers

ISBN-13: 9781399041751
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Released: July 30, 2024

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Victorian Britain Day by Day sheds new light on the most remarkable era in British history. Here is a tapestry of time, unpacked and uncovered from January 1st to December 31st, a rich mosaic of facts, events and tales, exploring the most extraordinary moments of the most extraordinary age.

Each day offers a different snapshot into our past, intermingling famous or renowned events, with rare, quirky and fun facts. What was the mysterious Sheep panic of 1888? Who was the notorious Spring heeled Jack? Why was William Gladstone run over by a cow? From the Great Exhibition, to the Industrial Revolution, Dickens and Darwin, Entertainment and Empire, the 19th century was an epoch of momentous political, cultural and social change. With meticulous research, Victorian Britain Day by Day covers every day of the year between 1837-1901.


My Review:
Victorian Britain Day by Day briefly describes significant events that occurred in Britain during 1837-1901. The format takes the reader through the year, one day at a time (January 1, January 2, etc.). The author lists several significant events that occurred on that day, indicating the year that they happened. If you like forming a timeline in your mind, this doesn't help: it's not easy to remember what order they're in or how they relate to each other (does one event lead to another?).

About half of the events focused on politics--forming governments, resignations, a few significant laws that were passed, things Victoria or her children did. There were birthdays, deaths, and weddings. Notable artists, writers, actors, scientists, and such usually got at least a mention of who they were on their birth date. Nothing was covered in detail, with weddings getting the most detailed descriptions. It's more a trivia type book than something you can easily use for research.


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.

The Science of Cleaning by Dario Bressanini

The Science of Cleaning
by Dario Bressanini

ISBN-13: 9781891011320
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: The Experiment
Released: May 21, 2024

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Chemistry professor Dario Bressanini is on a mission to teach readers about safe methods for cleaning their homes while debunking widespread myths. He uses scientific evidence to answer common queries like: Is it more efficient to wash dishes in the sink or in the dishwasher? Can vinegar and baking soda actually unclog your drain? Does bleach remove dirt? How do I get rid of that white stuff on my showerhead?

Bressanini covers these subjects and more by digging into chemistry basics like solubility, pH, and concentration. He explains how to choose the best product for any job, including advice on making selections at the store and using just the right amount to cut down on waste. Everything contains chemicals (yes, even water!)—but we should still be careful and eco-friendly about how we clean.


My Review:
The Science of Cleaning talked about various ingredients used in cleaning products (homemade or store bought) and what those ingredients do. The author got really basic in some places, describing what the laundry symbols mean, for example, and why you might need to use a drycleaner or fabric softener. He also got into the most efficient ways to handwash dishes, though he really thinks you ought to just use a dishwasher and not pre-wash the dishes.

The book also covered bases and acids and how they work to clean various things, the history of things like soap and bleaches, how soap is made, how detergents work and what the various ingredients in them do towards cleaning, and how to remove limescale. He talked about chlorine-based and oxygen-based bleaches, dish washing detergents, disinfectants, and dealing with bacteria, viruses, and mold. And what to use to clean various surfaces, from floors to ovens to drains.

I think he wrote the book just so he could rant on why combining vinegar and baking soda is so obviously a waste and how bad vinegar smells. It also seemed like he wanted to educate the very people that he obviously thinks are dumb. Overall, the book was interesting, but I already knew a lot of the information. The author loves chemicals and really thinks you ought to buy cleaning products rather than try to make them at home. Overall, this book seems best suited for someone who was never taught how to clean their home or wants to clean their home more efficiently.


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.

Wild Watercolour by Inga Buividavice

Wild Watercolour
by Inga Buividavice

ISBN-13: 9780711290297
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Leaping Hare Press
Released: April 2, 2024

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Wild Watercolour starts with an introduction to the basic techniques of watercolour, coaching you for painting success by showing you how to recreate nature’s wildlife and habitats. Each step-by-step project introduces a new watercolour technique. Learn the basics with guided exercises showing you how to depict your favourite animals in watercolour, including:

Dry brush on wet effect – red pandas
Wet brush on wet effect – beetles
Glazing – ladybirds
Blooms – hare silhouettes
Pulling technique – frogs
Watercolour and ink – koi fish
Using masking tape – snake
Using different textures – turtles
Expressive features – flamingos
Using space – dolphins
Different brush strokes – chameleons
Painting patterns – butterflies


My Review:
Wild Watercolour is a beginner guide to painting watercolor animals. The author began by giving advice about materials and supplies, explaining the basic techniques used in the projects and about color mixing, and talking about sketching the subject. Next came the projects, where you learn how to use a technique while creating a painting of an animal. These step-by-step projects included both text descriptions and illustrations and covered: ladybugs, beetles, pandas, frogs, hares, koi fish, flamingos, snakes, tortoise, chameleons, butterflies, and dolphins. The projects came across as doable, more about the principle and trying techniques out than perfectly replicating the painting in the book. Overall, I'd recommend this book to beginner watercolor painters.


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.

The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Real Anthony Fauci
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

ISBN-13: 978-1510766808
Hardcover: 492 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Released: November 16, 2021

Source: Bought.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Pharma-funded mainstream media has convinced millions of Americans that Dr. Anthony Fauci is a hero. Hands down, he is anything but.

As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion in annual taxpayer-provided funding for rigged scientific research, allowing him to dictate the subject, content, and outcome of scientific health research across the globe—truly a dark agenda. Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal in a back handed manner to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals, and thousands of influential doctors and scientists—whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance, or reward in an authoritarian manner.

The Real Anthony Fauci reveals how “America’s Doctor” launched his career during the early AIDS crisis by partnering with pharmaceutical companies to sabotage safe and effective off-patent therapeutic treatments for AIDS. Fauci orchestrated fraudulent do-nothing studies, and then pressured US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators into approving a deadly chemotherapy treatment he had good reason to know was worthless against AIDS. Fauci did the unthinkable and repeatedly violated federal laws to allow his Pharma partners to use impoverished and dark-skinned children as lab rats in beyond order, deadly experiments with toxic AIDS and cancer chemotherapies.

In early 2000, Fauci shook hands with Bill Gates in the library of Gates’ $147 million Seattle mansion, cementing a partnership that would aim to control an increasingly profitable $60 billion global vaccine enterprise with unlimited growth potential. Through funding leverage and carefully cultivated personal relationships with heads of state and leading media and social media institutions, the Pharma-Fauci-Gates alliance exercises dominion over global health policy and our beautiful country.

This is not just another political book. The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets—both conservative and liberal leaning, scientific journals, key government and quasi-governmental agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19 virulence and pathogenesis, and to muzzle debate and ruthlessly censor dissent.


My Review:
The Real Anthony Fauci describes how Fauci got control of a lot of taxpayer money to be used for medical research and used this to control what is researched and where and how that research is done. Anyone who uses a drug or shot created since the mid-1980s should read this as it's clear that the pharmaceutical companies are not being properly regulated. Their interests are being placed above the health of the taxpayers funding the studies. The author described how this has happened over time, and how poorly done drug trials have been covered up or even overlooked and the drugs approved here or for use in poor countries. It's truly sickening to realize how corruption has taken over the health agencies that were meant to help heal and protect us. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to make informed choices about their health.


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.

What the Nurses Saw by Ken McCarthy

What the Nurses Saw
by Ken McCarthy

ISBN-13: 9798870191508
Paperback: 513 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: December 8, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
No human activity can ever be free from error, but calling the failed COVID protocols “errors” is not accurate. These protocols were explicitly ordered by those who took dictatorial control of the medical system early in the Panic (spring of 2020). Further, when they were shown to be demonstrably failing and harming many thousands of people, experienced healthcare professionals who raised informed concerns were silenced through demotion, firing, and organized campaigns of harassment promoted by the news media and enabled by companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, in some cases in collaboration with the White House and the Department of Justice’s FBI.

Featuring in-depth interviews with Erin Marie Olszewski, Kevin Corbett Ph.D., Kimberly Overton, Ashley Grogg, Kristen Nagle, Sarah Choujounian, AJ DePriest, Mark Bishofsky, and Katie Spence. What the Nurses Saw is documentation of what happens in the real world when bureaucrats, in this case bureaucrats in Washington DC, take literal dictatorial control over the practice of medicine.


My Review:
What the Nurses Saw is a collection of interview transcripts of people who worked in the hospitals during the COVID Crisis or who has important information about the medical protocols used to treat COVID. The author, Ken McCarthy, apparently does video interviews, and when he saw nurses speaking out about harmful procedures being used to treat COVID patients, he interviewed them. Several of the interviews where with highly qualified nurses who traveled to New York at the beginning of COVID when the governor of that state appealed for nursing help. They described what it was like to work under those conditions and how the protocols being handled down from above where harming people who might otherwise have survived. Anyone who spoke out against the harm being done was moved to another area of the hospital or were fired. He also interviewed nurses who worked in other areas of the USA as well as nurses in the UK and Canada.

The author also covered topics like how online censorship and harassment was coordinated against those who spoke up, and he talked to a respiratory therapist to uncover why venting people so quickly was a bad idea and to someone who documented the money trail showing how hospitals were paid a lot of money to test for COVID and follow only the new protocols being pushed by those not on the front lines. I knew there had been payments to encourage using certain drugs or procedures, but the details of the 'money trail' are rather horrifying because it's obvious certain people wanted the hospitals to prioritize making money over what's best for the individual patient. Overall, I'd highly recommend 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.

Vax-Unvax by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Brian Hooker

Vax-Unvax
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
and Brian Hooker

ISBN-13: 9781510766969
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse
Released: August 29, 2023

Source: Bought the book.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The Studies the CDC Refuses to Do. This book is based on over one hundred studies in the peer-reviewed literature that consider vaccinated versus unvaccinated populations. Each study is analyzed, and health differences among infants, children, and adults who have been vaccinated and those who have not are presented and put in context.

Readers will find information on the infant/child vaccination schedule, thimerosal in vaccines, live virus vaccines, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, vaccination and Gulf War illness, influenza (flu) vaccines, Hepatitis B vaccination, the COVID-19 vaccine, and vaccines during pregnancy.

Given the massive push to vaccinate the entire global population, this book is timely and necessary for individuals to make informed choices for themselves and their families.


My Review:
Vax-Unvax looks at the scientific studies that show differences in the health of vaccinated children compared to unvaccinated children. The studies usually were focused on a specific shot (DTP, MMR, HPV, flu, etc.). The authors included graphs to illustrate the differences and indicated the statistically significance of the results. All the included studies had results that indicated a real pattern. Results included an increased incidence in vaccinated children of issues like type 1 diabetes and developmental delays to asthma, ADHD, ear infections, and food allergies.

I've been curious for a while if anyone had tested the claim that vaccines have resulted in healthier children, so I was interested in reading about these studies. I've known for several years that vaccines weren't primarily responsible for the decreases in the diseases they're credited with suppressing (increased sanitation played a major role) and that the vaccines can have severe side effects in some people. I found these studies very interesting. I'd recommend this book to everyone as I think it's high time people had an honest talk about this rather than just assuming vaccines = less disease = healthier people. I believe people should be allowed informed choices rather than just given untested statements.


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.

Heal Your Nervous System by Linnea Passaler

Heal Your Nervous System
by Linnea Passaler

ISBN-13: 9780760385654
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Fair Winds Press
Released: Jan. 9, 2024

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Dr. Linnea Passaler has helped thousands address a wide range of symptoms associated with nervous system dysregulation—from mental symptoms, including anxiety, burnout, and brain fog, to physical symptoms, such as digestive issues, chronic inflammation, and fatigue. In Heal Your Nervous System, Dr. Passaler presents her 5-stage plan, developed over the last decade, to equip you with the knowledge to understand and regulate your unique nervous system.

Instead of merely treating the symptoms, Dr. Passaler shows you how to make a profound shift from reactive treatment to proactive healing. Grounded in recent scientific advances in neurobiology, chronic stress, trauma, and sensitivity, this is not a short-term or one-size-fits-all solution, but a comprehensive strategy to tackle the source of your symptoms, and restore your physical, cognitive, and emotional health.

In Heal Your Nervous System, you will discover how to assess your current level of nervous system dysregulation, why nervous system dysregulation can cause both mental and physical symptoms, how your individual sensitivity profile and past experiences came together to tip your nervous system into a state of dysregulation, the four most common mistakes people make in their healing journey and how to avoid them, and simple practices, exercises, and routines that progressively reverse nervous system dysregulation.


My Review:
Heal Your Nervous System provides a 5-step program to help your nervous system shift back into relaxed states and become more resilient. There wasn't much science in the book beyond talking about the different states of the nervous system, from relaxed to fight/flight/freeze states. The author did refer to some studies about how different actions can help you change how you react to stress and be able to handle more stress.

She started by talking about signs of nervous system dysregulation (including a quiz to indicate where you are on the scale) and factors that affect how your nervous system responds to stressors and trauma (like how sensitive you are, genetics, childhood safety levels, and bonding to your caregivers). She then covered each step in a 5 stage program. She suggested small actions or contemplations that take 5-15 minutes She stated you shouldn't make too many changes at once, and many of the activities fit into daily life rather than being things you need to find time to do. The 5 steps involve learning awareness of your reactions, regulating your nervous system, restoration of healthy patterns, connecting with others, and expanding your capacity to handle stress. At the end, she told more of her story and how Buddhism influenced her life (and her program). Overall, I felt like she had helpful advice.




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.