The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

 

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The periodic table of elements doesn't often make for exciting reading. Or even fun reading. It's a chart with a bunch of numbers and letters, plus the element names are based on the archaic Latin system. It's not the easiest thing to decipher.

However, Sam Kean takes a different approach, history and curiosity. Why are the elements arranged that way? Who discovered this element or that one? How does one go about looking for elements in the first place? Kean has a signature style of making topics like the elements or neuroscience (The Dueling Neurosurgeons) interesting for the lay-person. He approaches science with humor and quirkiness. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this telling of the table. It all starts with a boy's fascination with the mercury in the old thermometers. (We don't really use mercury thermometers anymore.) From there, he let his curiosity lead the history. Oh, and if you are curious as to why the spoon disappears, look up gallium. 

The Great Mortality by John Kelly

 

The Great Mortality by John Kelly ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ysenia Pestis, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, rats. These words inspire a thrill of fear in many of us, even if we aren't 100% sure why. 

Since 2020, we, as a society, have become familiar with the fear and uncertainty of  a plague. Ours didn't have the dramatic name, but it was, and still is, a source of anger and even Xenophobia. This isn't new. Throughout the Great Mortality of the 1340s, the one group of people that was blamed for this massive die-off was the Jews. Apparently, there was a global conspiracy to kill the Gentiles! Of course, Jews died at pretty much the same rate as the Christians... 

John Kelly braids a massive world tragedy with multiple strands into an interesting narrative for the lay-person to grasp. For those that want to understand a pivotal moment in history, how it effects us today, and what the people felt, then I would highly recommend this history.

Law and Disorder by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

 

John Douglas is a respected law enforcement officer. Many will recall his name from the Nexflix series Mindhunter (another book I'll review soon). What we consider the psychology of a criminal or serial killer, Douglas and his team at Quantico studied first. However, I'm sure you know all this, but what you may not know is some of the details of the more famous crimes in US history. 

West Memphis Three. Amanda Knox. JonBenet Ramsey.  These cases are famous in the American psyche, but Douglass gives us what we may not know because of how the media will portray the story. These are not the only case studies in this book, others are just as thrilling. Douglas opens the secret cupboard and shows us that mistakes are made in homicide cases, especially when the case involves the death of a child. Emotions run high and sometimes an innocent man is sent to prison.

I love the candid nature of this book. As human, we tend to hide our mistakes and defend our false assumptions, Douglas and Olshaker don't, to put it simply, and that is refreshing-- if tragic-- in the out come.