The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai

by John Tayman

This was another "I heard it on NPR" book. I think it was Fresh Air two years ago. The author was so animated in his description of the book that I ordered it the next day, forgot I had ordered, and ordered it again. I think Beth Dunigan has the extra copy.

I found it amazing that the United States actually behaved in this manner toward a group of persons infected with leprosy- but then I think about spread of disease and few treatment options at the time. The personal stories are fantastic. Throughout the reading, one meets different famous people who came to "tour" the facilities through the years, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Mark Twain, and movie stars Shirley Temple and Bud Abbot of Abbot and Costello. The reader learns much about leprosy, and the book really makes the reader realize that we as a people know very little of long illness.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183996

Comments

Marie Curie: a Life, by Susan Quinn

Just like most of you, I read Eva Curie's biography of her mother when I was around 10 or 11 years old (mine was is the Reader's Digest for Young Adults). I was, like you, inspired. Recently, I saw the reenactment of Marie Curie by Susan Marie Frontczak, produced on film by Jen Myronuk. The presentation was AMAZING! I really did feel as if Marie Curie was telling her story just to me. MSTA will be discussing sponsoring this presentation at a conference in the future. Susan Marie Frontczak talked with the audience via Skype after the presentation. She told us that she had read Eva Curie's biography in her preparation, but she relyied on the Susan Quinn biography for much of her research and dialogue. I knew I had to read this book, so I downloaded it to my Kindle that very day! The book is, of course, enlightening. I just happened to be reading about Marie's viewing the total eclipse the night before our total eclipse in August. I stopped so I could read th...

Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery

I really enjoyed this book and I am including the book on my biology readings list. The book gives the "first starts" for the many areas contained in forensics, and I do have students interested in this very type of reading. In this, we have a good overview of the Colin Pitchfork case, in which DNA fingerprinting was used for two 1sts: proving a man's innocence and proving a man's guilt. Also included are ballistics, trajectory, blood evidence, etc. Because each chapter is a "short story," this would be an easy biology book club book.

Survival of the Sickest: an Amazon Review

Amazon.com Review Dan Ariely on Survival of the Sickest MIT professor Dan Ariely has become one of the leaders in the growing field of behavioral economics, and his bestselling book debut, Predictably Irrational, has brought his ideas--and his ingenious experiments and charming sense of humor--to a much wider audience. With the simplest of tests (often an auction or a quiz given under a few conditions) he shows again and again not only that we are wired to make irrational decisions in many situations, but that we do so in remarkably predictable ways. I have always been puzzled by the way in which genetic diseases have managed to survive throughout the ages. How could it be that these diseases were able to withstand the evolutionary process, where only the most fit survive, and continue to be transferred from one generation to the next? Survival of the Sickest provides a thought provoking yet entertaining explanation to this puzzle. In this insightful book Dr. Sharon Moalem demonstra...

Aleta's Book Report

Search This Blog