Solid pop-science analysis of apocalypses and survival.
A wilderness survival instructor looks at past catastrophes to inform our responses to future ones.
Archaeologists study how cultures and civilizations fall, and Begley, an underwater archaeologist and anthropology professor, begins with three once-flourishing civilizations that collapsed: “the Classic Maya civilization in Central America and Mexico, the Western Roman Empire around the Mediterranean, and the many Native American societies in eastern North America after the arrival of European colonizers.” Disease wiped out 90% of North American tribes, jungles teem with abandoned Maya cities and monuments, and the “decline and fall” of Rome remains a staple of literature and “the most discussed decline globally.” Yet, unlike fictional apocalypses portrayed in countless books and movies, these were not sudden events. Maya culture waxed and waned for centuries, and few Romans understood the forces that were leading to their eventual fall. Thankfully, Native Americans have worked for centuries to maintain what they can of their culture. Apocalypses in Hollywood—and in the minds of doomsday preppers—destroy civilization, leaving a few groups behind, mostly heroic, well-armed men who fend off unruly mobs, usually from cities and thus unable to take care of themselves. Begley points out that this is not how humans respond to disasters in real life. Social breakdown is fleeting, and people “rise to the occasion.” The author emphasizes that the most important skill for the future is not self-defense but the ability to cooperate. After an insightful overview of the fantasies and realities of catastrophes, the author describes what to do if you get lost in the wilderness: These are the lessons he teaches in his survival course. They have little to do with the book’s major theme but make entertaining and educative reading: Staying warm, dry, and hydrated must be the first priorities. While food is necessary, you can survive without it for a few days.
Solid pop-science analysis of apocalypses and survival.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5416-7528-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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