Artcurious

            

Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal

Summary: A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast.

We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings?

ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.

Angie’s comments: While I have little interest in making art, I love history. Artcurious was nice segue into the art world for me, and the stories behind the art make the art more intriguing.  

Recommended for readers who like history and/or art. 

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Bones

           

Bones: Inside and Out by Roy A. Meals

Summary: Human bone is versatile and entirely unique: it repairs itself without scarring, it's lightweight but responds to stresses, and it's durable enough to survive for millennia. 

In Bones, orthopedic surgeon Roy A. Meals explores and extols this amazing material that both supports and records vertebrate life. Inside the body, bone proves itself the world's best building material. Meals examines the biological makeup of bones; demystifies how they grow, break, and heal; and compares the particulars of human bone to variations throughout the animal kingdom. 

In engaging and clear prose, he debunks familiar myths--humans don't have exactly 206 bones--and illustrates common bone diseases, like osteoporosis and arthritis, and their treatments. Along the way, he highlights the medical innovations--from the first X-rays to advanced operative techniques--that enhance our lives and introduces the giants of orthopedic surgery who developed them. After it has supported vertebrate life, bone reveals itself in surprising ways--sometimes hundreds of millions of years later. 

With enthusiasm and humor, Meals investigates the diverse roles bone has played in human culture throughout history. He highlights allusions to bone in religion and literature, from Adam's rib to Hamlet's skull, and uncovers its enduring presence as fossils, technological tools, and musical instruments ranging from the Tibetan thighbone kangling horn to everyday drumsticks. 

From the dawn of civilization through to the present day, humankind has repurposed bone to serve and protect, and even to teach, amuse, and inspire. Approachable and entertaining, Bones richly illuminates our bodies' essential framework.

Angie’s comments: This book is rather quirky in terms of subject matter, and Meals has many interesting digressions about bones. 

Recommended for readers interested in bones. 

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The Home Edit Life

          

The Home Edit Life: The No-Guilt Guide to Owning What You Want and Organizing Everything by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin

Summary: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The authors of The Home Edit and stars of the Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit teach you how to apply their genius, holistic approach to your work life, on-the-go necessities, and technology.

At home or on the go, you don't have to live like a minimalist to feel happy and calm. The Home Edit mentality is all about embracing your life--whether you're a busy mom, a roommate living with three, or someone who's always traveling for work. You just need to know how to set up a system that works for you.

In the next phase of the home organizing craze, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin go beyond the pantry and bookshelf to show you how to contain the chaos in all aspects of your life, from office space and holiday storage to luggage and pet supplies. Get to know your organizing style, tailor it to your family's lifestyle, and lead the low-guilt life as you apply more genius ideas to every aspect of your life.

Clea and Joanna are here to remind you that "it's okay to own things" in the quest for pretty and smart spaces. With The Home Edit Life, you'll soon be corralling phone cords, archiving old photos, arranging your phone apps by color, and packing your suitcase like a pro.

Angie’s comments: There are a lot of photographs, and each photograph has a explanation of what, how and why they organized it that way. While I can't implement their system for my whole house yet (based on money and space), I can certainly use their ideas to organize a drawer or two and build from there. 

Recommended for readers interested in organizing (and not necessarily getting rid of things).

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Crocodiles of the World

         

Crocodiles of the World: The Alligators, Caimans, Crocodiles and Gharials of the World by Colin Stevenson

Summary: Crocodiles come in a variety in size, shape, habits, and even habitats, from the infamous saltwater crocodiles that occasionally near 6 meters in length, to the diminutive 1.5 meter dwarf caimans from South America's tropics. This book explores all the facts and figures surrounding the ancestry of this intriguing family of reptilians, dispelling myths, and exploring their extensive evolution on the 230 million years that they have lived on this planet. With fantastic photography this book encapsulates the diversity of theses creatures. This book covers their evolutionary history, their biology and ecology and the diversity of the species.

Angie’s comments: The first part of the book deals with the evolution, history, and general characteristics of all crocodilians. The last part of the book goes through each species. I loved the photographs, and I never had so much appreciation for crocodilians. 

Recommended for readers interested in animal biology.

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The Great Indoors

        

The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness by Emily Anthes

Summary: A fascinating, thought-provoking journey into our built environment.

Modern humans are an indoor species. We spend 90 percent of our time inside, shuttling between homes and offices, schools and stores, restaurants and gyms. And yet, in many ways, the indoor world remains unexplored territory. For all the time we spend inside buildings, we rarely stop to consider: How do these spaces affect our mental and physical well-being? Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Our productivity, performance, and relationships?

In this wide-ranging, character-driven book, science journalist Emily Anthes takes us on an adventure into the buildings in which we spend our days, exploring the profound, and sometimes unexpected, ways that they shape our lives. Drawing on cutting-edge research, she probes the pain-killing power of a well-placed window and examines how the right office layout can expand our social networks. She investigates how room temperature regulates our cognitive performance, how the microbes hiding in our homes influence our immune systems, and how cafeteria design affects what--and how much--we eat.

Along the way, Anthes takes readers into an operating room designed to minimize medical errors, a school designed to boost students' physical fitness, and a prison designed to support inmates' psychological needs. And she previews the homes of the future, from the high-tech houses that could monitor our health to the 3D-printed structures that might allow us to live on the Moon.

The Great Indoors provides a fresh perspective on our most familiar surroundings and a new understanding of the power of architecture and design. It's an argument for thoughtful interventions into the built environment and a story about how to build a better world--one room at a time. 

Angie’s comments: An overview of issues in indoor architecture and design. The ideas presented are interesting, and there are a wide range of topics addressed. This is more of an introduction, so this is not for people who want specific guidance for their indoor areas. 

Recommended for readers interested in the intersection of architecture/design and physical and mental health. 

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A Deadly Inside Scoop

       

A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette

Summary: In the charming town of Chagrin Falls, OH, Bronwyn Crewse dishes out sweet confections and solves mysteries from her ice cream shop.

Recent MBA grad Bronwyn Crewse has just taken over her family's ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and she's going back to basics. Win is renovating Crewse Creamery to restore its former glory, and filling the menu with delicious, homemade ice cream flavors-many from her grandmother's original recipes. But unexpected construction delays mean she misses the summer season, and the shop has a literal cold opening- the day she opens her doors an early first snow descends on the village and keeps the customers away.

To make matters worse, that evening, Win finds a body in the snow, and it turns out the dead man was a grifter with an old feud with the Crewse family. Soon, Win's father is implicated in his death. It's not easy to juggle a new-to-her business while solving a crime, but Win is determined to do it. With the help of her quirky best friends and her tight-knit family, she'll catch the ice cold killer before she has a meltdown... 

Angie’s comments: The first in a new series, I was very entertained by the shenanigans of the Crewse family and their friends. Win as a character makes a lot of sense, focusing on her store and only investigating when her family might be involved. Humor is included. Ice cream recipes are at the end. For those looking for diversity in cozy mysteries, Win is African-American.

Recommended for readers who like cozy mysteries. 

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The Rules of Contagion

       

The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop by Adam Kucharski

Summary: From ideas and infections to financial crises and fake news, an "utterly timely" look at why the science of outbreaks is the science of modern life

These days, whenever anything spreads, whether it's a YouTube fad or a political rumor, we say it went viral. But how does virality actually work? In The Rules of Contagion, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explores topics including gun violence, online manipulation, and, of course, outbreaks of disease to show how much we get wrong about contagion, and how astonishing the real science is.

Why did the president retweet a Mussolini quote as his own? Why do financial bubbles take off so quickly? Why are disinformation campaigns so effective? And what makes the emergence of new illnesses -- such as MERS, SARS, or the coronavirus disease COVID-19 -- so challenging? By uncovering the crucial factors driving outbreaks, we can see how things really spread -- and what we can do about it.

Whether you are an author seeking an audience, a defender of truth, or simply someone interested in human social behavior, The Rules of Contagion is an essential guide to modern life.

Angie’s comments: I found this fascinating, especially in light of COVID-19. There is a lot going on in this book, from diseases to social media to gun violence to the financial meltdown of 2008. However, the author explains the concepts using relatively plain language. 

Recommended for readers interested in just about everything. 

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The Remarkable Life of the Skin

       

The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman

Summary: A fascinating exploration of the skin in its multifaceted physical, psychological, and social aspects.

Providing a cover for our delicate and intricate bodies, the skin is our largest and fastest-growing organ. We see it, touch it, and live in it every day. It is a habitat for a mesmerizingly complex world of micro-organisms and physical functions that are vital to our health and our survival. It is also a waste removal plant, a warning system for underlying disease and a dynamic immune barrier to infection. One of the first things people see about us, skin is crucial to our sense of identity,providing us with social significance and psychological meaning. And yet our skin and the fascinating way it functions is largely unknown to us.

In prose as lucid as his research underlying it is rigorous, blending in memorable stories from the past and from his own medical experience, Monty Lyman has written a revelatory book exploring our outer surface that will surprise and enlighten in equal measure. Through the lenses of science, sociology, and history--on topics as diverse as the mechanics and magic of touch (how much goes on in the simple act of taking keys out of a pocket and unlocking a door is astounding), the close connection between the skin and the gut, what happens instantly when one gets a paper cut, and how a midnight snack can lead to sunburn--Lyman leads us on a journey across our most underrated and unexplored organ and reveals how our skin is far stranger, more wondrous, and more complex than we have ever imagined.

Angie’s comments: While full of facts, the book is engaging and fun to read. I learned so much about the skin and will be taking it less for granted!

Recommended for readers interested in biology.

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Death of a Wandering Wolf

      

Death of a Wandering Wolf by Julia Buckley

Summary: When Hana spots a rare porcelain wolf figurine at a local yard sale, she knows it's her lucky day. She also knows the wolf is valuable and tells the seller that he s charging too little for it. His reaction is peculiar he says he received the wolf from someone he doesn t trust and just wants it out of his life. When Hana inspects the figure, she finds a tracking device, and goes to confront the seller about it. But when she arrives at his house, she finds him dead. Hana must now hunt a calculating killer who has no intentions of crying wolf when it comes to murder...

Angie’s comments: You don't have to read the first in this series to enjoy this second book. The relationships between the family members and between Hana and her police boyfriend Erik are a highlight, and the mystery was even more interesting than the first book in the series. The sense of history and family is strong.

Recommended for readers who like cozy mysteries. 

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Ingredients

     

Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put In Us and On Us by George Zaidan

Summary: George Zaidan explores the chemistry of almost everything that makes life comfortable, from freeze-dried potatoes and lipstick to baby wipes and Windex - what you should worry about and what you shouldn't. Sugar, preservatives, sunscreen, formaldehyde, cyanide (not to mention the substance that is 50 million times more deadly than cyanide), Oreos, the ingredients of life and death and nature itself, as well as the genius of aphids are all discussed in exquisite detail at breakneck speed, interspersed with footnotes and informative diagrams that will make you smile. You'll never think of chemistry the same way again!

Angie’s comments: This is not so much about ingredients themselves, or the food that we eat, but it is more an exploration about science. Zaidan looks at the type of studies that scientists use to look at nutrition and the different mistakes that can lead to erroneous conclusions. 

Recommended for readers interested in a look at how to do science. 

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Elemental

    

Elemental: How the Periodic Table Can Now Explain (Nearly) Everything by Tim James

Summary: If you want to understand how our world works, the periodic table holds the answers. When the seventh row of the periodic table of elements was completed in June 2016 with the addition of four final elements--nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson--we at last could identify all the ingredients necessary to construct our world. 

In Elemental, chemist and science educator Tim James provides an informative, entertaining, and quirkily illustrated guide to the table that shows clearly how this abstract and seemingly jumbled graphic is relevant to our day-to-day lives. James tells the story of the periodic table from its ancient Greek roots, when you could count the number of elements humans were aware of on one hand, to the modern alchemists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who have used nuclear chemistry and physics to generate new elements and complete the periodic table. 

In addition to this, he answers questions such as: What is the chemical symbol for a human? What would happen if all of the elements were mixed together? Which liquid can teleport through walls? Why is the medieval dream of transmuting lead into gold now a reality?Whether you're studying the periodic table for the first time or are simply interested in the fundamental building blocks of the universe--from the core of the sun to the networks in your brain--Elemental is the perfect guide.

Angie’s comments: A humorous but insightful look into the periodic table and hwo the elements make up our lives. I love reading books about the elements, and I still managed to pick up a lot of information that I didn't know. 

Recommended for readers interested in chemistry.

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The Well-Gardened Mind

   

The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith

Summary: A distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.

The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the "real" life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it. The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people's lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self.

Stuart-Smith's own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather's return from World War I to Freud's obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives.

Angie’s comments: A lovely look at how gardening can help humans with a variety of mental issues. Hearing about some of the programs for those in prison or in hospital was inspiring. I did find myself spending more time outside after reading this!

Recommended for readers interested in gardening and mental health. 

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Strange Planet

  

Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

Summary: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Straight from the mind of #1 New York Times bestselling author of NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette and 99 Stories I Could Tell Nathan W. Pyle, Strange Planet is an adorable and profound universe in pink, blue, green, and purple, based on the phenomenally popular Instagram of the same name!

Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet's inhabitants, including milestones such as:

The Emergence Day

Being Gains a Sibling

The Being Family Attains a Beast

The Formal Education of a Being

Celebration of Special Days

Being Begins a Vocation

The Beings at Home

Health Status of a Being

The Hobbies of a Being

The Extended Family of the Being

The Being Reflects on Life While Watching the Planet Rotate

With dozens of never-before-seen illustrations in addition to old favorites, this book offers a sweet and hilarious look at a distant world not all that unlike our own. 

Angie’s comments: A cute comic book that reflects life in somewhat scientific terms. I definitely laughed out loud when reading all the humorous takes on modern human life. 

Recommended for readers of funny graphic novels.

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Hidden Valley Road

 

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

Summary: The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope. 

Angie’s comments: A look at schizophrenia through the experience of one family. The story is shocking and sad, yet hopeful. Interspersed with the family's story is the medical story of how research into schizophrenia has developed. 

Recommended for readers interested in family relationships or schizophrenia.

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The Talented Mr. Varg

The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall Smith

Summary: In the second installment in the best-selling Detective Varg series, Ulf and his team investigate a notorious philanderer--a wolf of a man whose bad reputation may be all bark and no bite.
 
The Department of Sensitive Crimes, renowned for taking on the most obscure and irrelevant cases is always prepared to dive into an investigation, no matter how complex. So when the girlfriend of an infamous author who insists her bad-boy beau is being blackmailed approaches Ulf Varg, the department's lead detective, Ulf is determined to help. It's rather difficult to determine what skeletons hide in the hard-living lothario's closet, though. And while Swedes are notoriously tolerant . . . well, there are limits. Even for the Swedish.
 
The case requires Ulf's total concentration, but he finds himself distracted by his ongoing attraction to his co-worker, Anna, whose own fears about her husband's fidelity are causing a strain on her marriage. When Ulf is also tasked with looking into a group of dealers exporting wolves that seem more canis familiaris than canis lupus, it will require all of his team's investigative instincts and dogged persistence to put these matters to bed.

Angie’s comments: This is just funny. The mysteries, although low stakes, are interesting and Ulf Varg is a unique character. It does help to read the first book in the Detective Varg series, although you don't have to. 

Recommended for readers who like zany characters and light mystery. 

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