A book that couldn’t be more timely, providing an accessible introduction to epidemiology.
For those panicked or puzzled by the current pandemic, a handy look at the evolution of infectious diseases and their cures.
Coronaviruses have been with us for a very long time, but the one that first captured the world’s attention emerged only two decades ago, when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome spread out of Hong Kong to 32 countries, eventually killing some 810 people over its five-month run. That seems a trifle against what global health journalis Senthilingam calls “a viral relative that would wreak greater havoc across the planet”: the current outbreak of COVID-19. Although the government of China has not been entirely transparent about the outbreak, it appears at this writing that SARS prepared health workers to quarantine and isolate whole cities to keep the disease from spreading, and the number of new cases there has begun to decline. Outside China, of course, COVID-19 has become a pandemic, “the word that invokes fear in almost everyone,” since pandemics are new diseases that require novel responses. It is no comfort to know that COVID-19 is but one of a roster of “emerging diseases” monitored lest they, too, become pandemics, including Ebola and Marburg viral diseases, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and even a “Disease X”—“meaning a completely new, previously unseen infectious disease, such as COVID–19 at the time of its emergence.” Though some have likened COVID-19 to the flu, there are few commonalities other than the fact that some populations—e.g., the immune-suppressed or the elderly—are more susceptible to being killed by both than other populations, as was witnessed in 2017-2018 with a flu that killed 61,000 people in the U.S. alone, leading Senthilingam to note that “it’s fair to say the harm caused by influenza is far greater than people realize.”
A book that couldn’t be more timely, providing an accessible introduction to epidemiology.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78578-563-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Icon Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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