Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years

Recently finished this book by Tom Standage, author of An Edible History of Humanity. I would not have picked this book up if I'd realized who it was by, because Standage's unsavory politics in AEHH left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was unimpressed by his derivative style. However, this book was (mostly) free of political rhetoric, and I really enjoyed the discussion of "really old" media. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the graffiti at Pompeii and the Roman letter abbreviations like SVBEEV (si vales, bene est, ego valeo = If you are well, that is good; I'm well.) I would like to find a book dealing just with this period of social media.

The Emperor of All Maladies

My bookclub's most recent book (recommended to me by dad) is The Emperor of All Maladies, an unusual piece of nonfiction which reads like a novel, and which the author calls a "biography of cancer." This tale spans the entire known "life" of the disease(s) we call cancer, from the earliest ancient references (Herodotus recorded the strange tale of the Persian Queen Atossa's breast cancer) to the latest advances in medicine and technology. Mukherjee is a masterful storyteller (and a wise person), and weaves a riveting and at times heartbreaking tale of the hundreds of years of scientific inquiry (and ignorant butchery) which form the largest part of cancer's story. It is a frightening tale but ultimately a hopeful one, and I highly recommend this surprising page turner to all.

Dad's review here.

Moonwalking with Einstein

From the cover and the title, I can understand why no one would understand what the heck the book is about. If, however, you observe the tiny subtitle, "The Art and Science of Remembering Everything", you'll find this book to be a treatise on memory and its history.

While the book's main story is the chronicle of how its author, Josh Foer, became the Memory Champion of the United States, some of the more interesting parts of the book are about the history of memory. In fact, the ability to remember things particularly well has been around since ancient Greece, and in ancient cultures, a proclivity towards recall was considered one of the chief attributes of intelligence.

Today, no one cares how well you can memorize things. And Josh Foer gives a detailed account of why. If you think you'd be interested in learning how to remember everything you ever wanted, maybe check out this book.