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Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales.
A fascinating analysis of how people survive accidents, disasters, or other extreme circumstances, complete with gripping accounts of people who survived shipwrecks, getting lost in the wilderness, or (in one case) falling out of an exploded plane and waking up still strapped into your seat, in the middle of a rainforest, with a broken collarbone and possessing nothing but the Communion dress you're wearing. The book has clear and logical explanations of the biological, biochemical, psychological, and sociological processes involved in getting lost, feeling fear, doing stupid things, getting into dangerous situations, and surviving them. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys well-written and (I think) accurate popular science books or survival stories. I think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee, tweedkitten, and branna would particularly enjoy it.
Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse, by Janice Hudson.
The title pretty much says it all. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, you will, and if it doesn't, you won't. I love true medical stories, so I liked this, but it's not well-written enough to lift it above that category and become recommendable to anyone, as James Herriott's books, say, are terrific whether you care about veterinary medicine or not.
The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey, by Linda Greenlaw.
Memoir of the world's only female swordboat captain, this has the exact same problem as the Hudson book: it's fascinating if you're already interested in the subject matter, but less so if you're not. I am not especially interested in boats, fishing, or the ocean, so although this was reasonably well-written I didn't find it gripping and ended up skimming much of it. In contrast, I was positively glued to Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm-- in which Greenlaw makes a cameo appearance.
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, by Jennifer Traig
A childhood memoir about the young Traig's experience with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder which took the form of compulsive and excessive religiousity. Although Traig's family was not only not observant but loved bacon, poor Traig's OCD latched on to Judaic law as the central ordering principle of her life-- and the more obscure and weird the law, the better. Her family was extremely supportive and understanding despite her bizarre behavior, and had a good sense of humor about it, so this memoir is surprisingly positive in tone. In fact, it's one of the most family-friendly memoirs I can recall reading.
The trouble is that there isn't enough material to support an entire book. So while the first few chapters are lively, thought-provoking, and funny, by the halfway mark Traig is clearly padding with long accounts of her family background and peccadillos that have little or nothing to do with her OCD, and are only mildly amusing in and of themselves. This would have made a terrific long feature article, but ultimately there's not enough there there.
A fascinating analysis of how people survive accidents, disasters, or other extreme circumstances, complete with gripping accounts of people who survived shipwrecks, getting lost in the wilderness, or (in one case) falling out of an exploded plane and waking up still strapped into your seat, in the middle of a rainforest, with a broken collarbone and possessing nothing but the Communion dress you're wearing. The book has clear and logical explanations of the biological, biochemical, psychological, and sociological processes involved in getting lost, feeling fear, doing stupid things, getting into dangerous situations, and surviving them. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys well-written and (I think) accurate popular science books or survival stories. I think
yhlee, tweedkitten, and branna would particularly enjoy it.Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse, by Janice Hudson.
The title pretty much says it all. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, you will, and if it doesn't, you won't. I love true medical stories, so I liked this, but it's not well-written enough to lift it above that category and become recommendable to anyone, as James Herriott's books, say, are terrific whether you care about veterinary medicine or not.
The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey, by Linda Greenlaw.
Memoir of the world's only female swordboat captain, this has the exact same problem as the Hudson book: it's fascinating if you're already interested in the subject matter, but less so if you're not. I am not especially interested in boats, fishing, or the ocean, so although this was reasonably well-written I didn't find it gripping and ended up skimming much of it. In contrast, I was positively glued to Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm-- in which Greenlaw makes a cameo appearance.
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, by Jennifer Traig
A childhood memoir about the young Traig's experience with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder which took the form of compulsive and excessive religiousity. Although Traig's family was not only not observant but loved bacon, poor Traig's OCD latched on to Judaic law as the central ordering principle of her life-- and the more obscure and weird the law, the better. Her family was extremely supportive and understanding despite her bizarre behavior, and had a good sense of humor about it, so this memoir is surprisingly positive in tone. In fact, it's one of the most family-friendly memoirs I can recall reading.
The trouble is that there isn't enough material to support an entire book. So while the first few chapters are lively, thought-provoking, and funny, by the halfway mark Traig is clearly padding with long accounts of her family background and peccadillos that have little or nothing to do with her OCD, and are only mildly amusing in and of themselves. This would have made a terrific long feature article, but ultimately there's not enough there there.