The Lost Tomb

Preston, Douglas. The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. New York: Grand Central 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Some writers drank when the words didn't come. Now we have the Internet. Whenever I get stuck writing, instead of sliding open the bottom drawer with the whiskey bottle, I load up the New York Times or Politico, check my email, or, when all else fails, start Googling old acquaintances.


Description:

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Some sort of puzzle filled with suspicious characters up against thoughtful people who try to unravel the tangle of facts to eventually arrive at the truth and a satisfying conclusion by the last page?

But true life mysteries, while equally compelling as fictitious ones, are often not so neatly explained. Conclusions can be muddled, even after scores of scientists, treasure hunters, and researchers have delved into the physical and historic data for years. 

If you are like me, a true life mystery-lover, you should pick up Douglas Preston's The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. The author is a man curious about the odd, unsolved oddities he has read about over the years, leading him to publish heavily-researched articles which detail these mysteries for magazines including Wired, Harper's, and The New Yorker. Thirteen of these articles are collected in The Lost Tomb, conveniently organized into sections of "Uncommon Murders," "Unexplained Deaths," "Unsolved Mysteries," Curious Crimes," and "Old Bones." 

And what unsolved mysteries are detailed? Here's a sample:

• The author's own boyhood treasure chest buried with a friend, but in later life he was unable to find. His search led him to unexpected information about this boyhood friend whom he had lost touch with;

• Hundreds of skeletal bones found in a remote lake high up in the Himalayas whose age, how they got there, and what caused their deaths remain unknown;

• The Oak Island Money Pit, over 190' deep (so far) which has been explored for over 100 years by fortune-hunters and scientists looking for a rumored buried treasure;

• The New Mexico skeleton and accompanying artifacts that might be 20,000 years old, (making this the oldest evidence of man in America), discovered by a quirky Indiana Jones-type anthropologist;

• A 3,500-year-old Egyptian tomb that has 150 rooms (only 10% of which have been uncovered) that might be the final resting place for Rameses II and his 50 sons;
  

• Rare points from arrows and spears created by the ancient Clovis people in America, that suddenly turned up together in a suspiciously rich cache;

• A site with fossils of feathers, glass raindrops, delicate fish, and plant materials so carefully and instantaneously preserved that they might document the exact date when the asteroid hit Earth and destroyed 90% of all life.

Preston gathers the origins of these mysteries, researches the often-conflicting data from various people and scientists who are experts in the mystery, then allows each reader to draw his own conclusions. The people involved in the mystery are as fascinating as the mysteries themselves, presenting diverse opinions and drawing solid, if unproven conclusions that continue to be debated today.

I find real-life mysteries like these to be fascinating, even if they often do not have a tidy conclusion. Buried treasure, ancient bones, lost cities, and unexplained anthropological artifacts stretch my brain to wonder at the complexities of human life and our attempts to understand nature and our own past history. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God  

The author relates his electrifying, dangerous, scientific adventures in 2012 seeking the (rumored) fabulously wealthy, but cursed lost city of gold in Honduras as documented by Cortez and other explorers. A real page-turner for history and treasure buffs alike. (previously reviewed here)

Lessons in Chemistry

Garmus, Bonnie. Lessons in Chemistry. New York: Doubleday 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.

Despite that certainty, she made her way to the lab to pack her daughter's lunch.

Description:

I don't often read books off a best-seller list, but somehow Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry snuck into my To-Be-Read notebook and wow, did I ever enjoy it. It is quirky, character-driven, funny, thoughtful, and always unexpected, my favorite kind of reading.

Elizabeth Zott, the main character of the novel, is a scientist, first and foremost, working as a researcher in 1961, a time when women scientists were few and those in the profession were generally delegated to bringing coffee to men scientists. This role would never do for Elizabeth Zott, a powerfully-driven woman who demands the same facilities, pay, responsibilities, and respect as her fellow (men) workers routinely receive.

She is the mother of the precocious Madeline, who "had been reading since age three and now, at age five, was already through most of Dickens". Madeline despertely wants to fit in with the other students, so tosses away her mother's daily inspirational lunchbox notes ("Play sports at recess but do not automatically let the boys win"). She trades her nutritionally balanced, but odd, food as well so as not appear any stranger. She was just starting kindergarden, so what could go wrong with this strategy?

The other day [Harriet] suggested they make mud pies and Madeline frowned, then wrote 3.1415 with a stick in the dirt. "Done," she said. 

Elizabeth deals with her own chemical research doggedly, but with little encouragement. Her boss steals her research papers and publishes them under his own name. Her lab equipment is reduced and her chances of promotion ignored.

Her grudges were mainly reserved for a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A society that believe men went to work and did important things---discovered planets, developed products, created laws---and women stayed at home and raised children.

That environment all changes, for better and for worse, when she sneaks into five-star researcher Calvin Evans' lab and steals some of his beakers. Soon, they become a couple.

They were more than friends, more than confidants, more than allies, and more than lovers. If relationships are a puzzle, then theirs was solved from the get-go---as if someone shook out the box and watched from above as each separate piece landed exactly right, slipping one into the other, fully interlocked, into a picture that made perfect sense. They made other couples sick.

Inevitably, (not really a spoiler since it is mentioned on the first page), Elizabeth Zott moves out of her lab. She is coerced into hosting a TV cooking show based on science and respect for women who cook for their families. While it is unlike any show and goes against the expressed ideas of the station manager, Supper at Six becomes a huge hit.

 

But Elizabeth Zott is miserable. And always, there are the challenges of childrearing as a single parent.

Every day she found parenthood like taking a test for which she had not studied. The questions were daunting and there wasn't nearly enough multiple choice. Occasionally she woke up damp with sweat, having imagined a knock at the door and some sort of authority figure with an empty baby-sized basket saying, "We've just reviewed your last parental performance report and there's really no nice way to put this. You're fired."

I cannot give away any more. All I have mentioned happens in the first chapters, so there is a lot of ground to cover in this off-beat novel of a women fighting to do what she is trained to do and for what she knows is right, a woman who faces obstacles and antagonists in every corner. And there's still more in this captivating story about rowing, cooking, and a dog named Six-Thirty who is trained to understand hundreds of words.

My highest recommended as a thought-provoking, highly enjoyable look into the 1960's era from the eyes and words of a whipsmart woman. 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Semple, Maria. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

A fiercely-independent architect walks away from her eccentric life, neighbors, and family and heads for an unknown destination after a series of misadventures in her current life. (previously reviewed here)

 

Simsion, Graeme. The Rosie Project.   

An eccentric geneticist creates a 100-point questionaire to find the perfect wife. Unbeknownst to him, a young grad student is mistakenly identified as a potential mate, and the fun begins as the serious woman faces off with a highly-exacting man.  (previously reviewed here)

 

  

Apollo's Arrow

Christakis, Nicholas A. Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. New York: Little, Brown, Spark 2020. Print

First Sentences:

In the late fall of 2019, an invisible virus that had been quietly evolving in bats for decades leaped in an instant to a human being in Wuhan, China.

It was a chance event whose most subtle details we will probably never know. Neither the person to whom the virus gravitated no anyone else was fully aware of what had transpired. It was a tiny, imperceptible change.

Note:

[Note: This book was written and my review post started in late 2020, the middle, and maybe the most fearful  time of the COVID-19 pandemic, months before the vaccine was developed when the feeling of helplessness was high. But as the virus tightened it grip on the world, I abandoned reading his book and my review piece. Just couldn't face writing about the virus.

Now that the vaccine is available, hope is on the rise, and the investigation into the Wuhan labs has re-opened, I thought it might be time to finish reading this book as well as my review to share the author's detailed first-hand research regarding the COVID-19. My review remains as I started it a year ago, with a few updates.]

 

Description:  [written November, 2020]

 

Is it too soon to spend time reading about the origins of COVID-19? 

 

I have been restless in my reading lately: even more impatient with opening paragraphs, unsatisfied with plot, dialog and characters, and generally uninterested in sitting down for long stretches to immerse myself in a book, any book. Most of my readings recently were obtained in piles from the library, then returned in the next day out of frustration ... with the books and with myself for not being more accepting.

 

But then I came across Nicholas Christakis'  Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live and everything changed. I started to look forward to reading something again, and at all hours. I bookmarked pages in this book with interesting information, and I learned a lot about something - the coronavirus - that I realized I knew very little about.

 

Christakis directs the Yale Institute for Network Science as well as the Human Nature Lab. He is a doctor who studied the COVIS-19 virus, its origins, and its effects from its very first days. He is one of the original researchers involved with recognizing COVID-19 and gathering initial data to address the coming pandemic. With this book, you are reading data from a knowledgeable, qualified authority who was there and has studied the research in-depth.

 

He starts his chronolical book with examinations of previous virus encounters, from the bubonic plague to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-1), detailing their causes, protection against, accounts from primary sources from the age, and factors that led to world recovery. He then documents timelines dating from the first known cases of COVID-19 in China as well as in the United States, including the invasion of the virus into his own remote town in New Hampshire where he had previously felt safe due to its isolation. Routes of infected individuals are shown and demonstrates through real examples how one person can affect thousands through casual contact. 

 

In this book, terms like "Flattening the curve," "Physical distancing," and others were still relatively new. There are descriptions of various advisories issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which were suppressed, and Christakis notes the results from ignoring these policies. Studies of mask-wearing were just starting to be conducted.

Some of the interesting information he relates include:

• Security at airports searching for the SARS virus originally included thermal body scans. These intrusive procedures did not identify a single case of SARS among 35 million international travelers,
  
• Droplet transmission of viruses is less worrisome than airborne particles since the droplets are heavier and tend to drop down within six feet of expulsion, whereas the airborne particles can float long distances;
• COVID also brought about some positive changes such as the cessation of automobile and airplane movement which resulted in cleaner air; and people banding together which demonstrated "the importance of collective will and helped set the stage for political activism to address other long-standing problems in society;"
• Marilee Harris, who, as a six-year-old in 1918, contracted the Spanish Flu, then caught the COVID virus at age 107 and survived both episodes.

It is a book depicting a time when the world was still unraveling the mysteries of COVID-19, searching for answers regarding social interaction and personal prevention, and with some denying the growing situation or wistfully hoping for a vaccine. New York City Mayor Bill de Blassio, on March 5, 2020, was photographed on the subway, saying there was "nothing to fear, go about your lives..." Schools were still debating whether to close, and public gatherings still took place. But on March 17, Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down New York theaters, nightclubs, and restaurants, a shocking edict that left many angry, but began the fight back against COVID.

 

This book is the real thing regarding details about COVID, with so much data that you might be wary of being overwhelmed. Rest assured, Christakis is a skilled writer, someone who can recount a myriad of facts and intersperse them with personal accounts to weave a compelling page-turner.

And so Americans were caught unprepared -- emotionally, politically, and practically. We did not even have the equipment needed, from PPE to tests to ventilators, to save our lives. But most of all, we did not have a collective understanding of the threat that we are facing....

Microbes have shaped our evolutionary trajectory since the origin of our species. Epidemics have done so for many thousands of years... Plagues always end. And, like plagues, hope is an enduring part of the human condition.

 

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mukherjee, Siddhartha. The Emperor of All MaladiesL A Biography of Cancer  

Incredibly detailed yet completely readable history of the origin of cancer, its changing treatments, and future. Mukherjee is a eminent researcher who draws on his own experiences treating cancer as well as the extensive literature of doctors throughout history battling the disease.  (previously reviewed here)

Aliens

Al-Khalili, Jim, ed. Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterestrial Life. New York: Picador. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

Extraterrestrial life and alien intelligence have always been fascinating topics on the speculative fringe of science. 

But in the last decade or two, serious advances on several fronts have generated wider interest in these subjects. They have become almost "mainstream" -- vibrant frontiers of science. 

Description:

Who isn't in some way curious about the possibile existence of outer space aliens? From popular movies to government listening devices pointed towards sections of the galaxy, from rumors of alien landings in Roswell, New Mexico, to abductions, there certainly are plenty of sightings, stories, and experiences from all over the world regarding extraterrestrials. A National Geographic Survey in 2012 found that "36% of people surveyed believed UFOs exist and only 17% did not." The rest of were undecided, maybe needing more real proof.

Jim Al-Khalili decided to get to the bottom of all this alien "evidence," but wanted to do so scientifically. In his book, Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterestrial Life, he assembled a stable of reputable scientists from the fields of astrobiology, zoology, physics, psychology, planetary and space sciences, molecular genetics, NASA, and more. Each scientist contributed a chapter on his/her area of expertise regarding a specific alien encounter or idea. They examined the known data and the science behind the possibility for each occurrence, and then made logical if tentative conclusions. Each scientist provided plenty of references to books (fiction and non-fiction), websites (credible and iffy), and movies for additional info on any topic. 

Alien-related topics they explored and explained include:

• Why Aliens Might Visit Us
• Flying Saucers: A Brief History of Sightings and Conspiracies
• Abducted
• Search for Life on Mars
• Aliens in Science Fiction Writing
• The Chemistry of Life
• Aliens in Movies
• Identifying the Signs of Life on Distant Worlds

And what a wealth of information they provide, both for the alien encounters and the questions each incident raises. These scientists ponder: 

• What elements make up life as we know it and how rare/plentiful are these elements throughout the galaxy? 
• What conditions promoted the stages on Earth to create life, then allowed that basic life to evolve into intelligent beings?
• Are those life-promoting conditions and stages possible on other worlds?
• What exactly should we be looking for in the search for life: living creatures or traces of emerging or extinct life (such as on Mars)?
• What are the types of alien movies (first contact; alien invasion; man invades alien worlds; and alien as monster)

And the conclusions and suggestions we get from these scientists? 

• We should practice communication with an intelligence on earth, such as octopuses, that are completely different from us in their brains, thoughts, memories, and lifestyles. Why do we think it will be easier to talk with an alien than an octopus?

• We should look for microscopic signs of developing life, the conditions for life, or evidence of the previous existence of life rather than search for a fully-developed civilization of extraterrestrials with flying spaceships.

• We should consider that we might be alone in the universe. Man must understand that humans have been extremely lucky with conditions that allowed us to develop life, evolve, escape dinosaur domination, etc. Those conditions might never have occurred in other worlds, thus preventing the formation of basic life on other planets, much less evolution, ever having taken hold. 

One interesting comment regarding science fiction stood out for me :

The main role of aliens in well-crafted SF is to provide new and imaginative ways to examine what makes us human. Aliens provide problems for us to overcome, and act as a mirror in which we can examine our own faults and foibles. How we treat aliens, or react to their presence, reveals a lot about ourselves.

Seems an observation highly relevant in today's world. We may be alone in the galaxy. But if we are not, our next steps will be incredibly important and highly revealing, both for us and for our new neighbors. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles

Science fiction stories about humans and their history of exploration, colonization, development, and destruction of Mar and its aliens. (previously reviewed here)

Shark Drunk

Stroksnes, Morten. Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean. New York: Knopf. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Three and a half billion years.  

That's the time it took from the moment the first primitive life-forms developed in the sea until Hugo Aasjord phoned me one Saturday night in July.

Description:

With a title like Morten Stroksnes' Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean, I felt confident I had picked up a humorous book about some goofy guys, a bar bet, and a ridiculous mission with hi-jinks galore. The plot would be something along the lines of Round Ireland with a Fridge where the author, Tony Hawks, tries to hitchhike over an entire country with a mini fridge to see whether anyone would pick him up. 

But I was so wrong about Shark Drunk, despite its ridiculous title. It is a true life adventure with sharks and fishing, to be sure, but is also much more serious and contemplative. It is filled with entrancing stories of the world and culture of arctic Norway, the people who live in the area, the frigid ocean and its creatures, and the enticement (and dangers) of fishing. It is half facts and science, and half local histories and remembered tales from the past, a winning combination for me.

The two adventurers are Author Stroksnes, a writer and the book's author, and his friend Hugo Aasjord, an abstract painter and longtime resident on the island of Engeloya just north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. They made a pact two years earlier to hunt for and then reel in a gigantic Greenland shark found in the freezing waters near Hugo's home. Why? Well, it's hard to them to explain, but once the idea hits, they are seriously dedicated to completing the task. 

The Greenland shark, a bottom-dwelling prehistoric monster, can be bigger than a Great White shark, more ravenously hungry than any other flesh-eater (whole seals have been found in their stomachs along with polar bear remains), and devilishly elusive to find much less pull in from depths of 2,000 feet in the stormy, freezing sea.

They are fascinating beasts. They can live over 400 years and have millions of years of survival evolution in them. That's probably enough to thwart two men in an inflatable boat. Their skin is rough enough that, before World War II, Germany imported these sharkskins to be used as sandpaper. Greenland shark liver fat was a key element in the production of nitroglycerin, causing accidental explosions in shark liver transportation. Greenland shark meat is so toxic it causes fish and humans to become drunk or paralyzed. Too much of this flesh will ensure death.

For one year, Stroksnes traveled north to Engeloya during each season to pursue this shark hunt with Aasjord. They carefully watched the weather for amy brief period of calm winds and seas that would allow their hunt. The wind and sea did not always cooperate for them, sometimes with almost deadly consequences. Even the stoic Hugo had occasion to look at their situation and mutter, "This is not exactly great." Translation: "Death is close."

Using chain instead of the usual fishing line, eight-inch meat hooks skewered with pieces of a decayed Highland bull, and their own determination, the men pursue their quest during the brief periods of calm weather. And they wait in their little boat. And they search. And tell stories. And then ...

Do they succeed in their quest? I won't spoil the outcome. But the stories they tell of fishing, of life in the harsh northern islands of Norway, the ancient legends, and the people who explored and lived there provides a hugely entertaining, often humorous and equally frightening portrait of the Greenland shark and tiny archipelago of Lofoten. 

And Stroksnes provides interesting facts throughout. Did you know white coral grows (and is being destroyed by trawlers) in the arctic seas around arctic Norway? How about that seals sleep on the ocean floor (that's how the slow-swimming Greenland shark catches them). That the oil from a cod's liver makes great paint (which Aasjord uses) and will last 50 years on a house as nothing can stick to it? That the common limpet has teeth 100 times thinner than a human hair "and is made of the hardest biological material on earth"? That 350 million years ago during "The Age of Sharks,"the megladon shark lived which was 65 feet long and weighted 55 tons with six-foot jaws"? That Greenland sharks existed eons before the rise of the dinosaurs?

Sharks kill ten to twenty people a year. In that same period, humans kill "about seventy-three million sharks." From this, the author wrily concludes: "In spite of this, we consider the shark to be the dangerous predator."

The best thing I learned from Shark Drunk was a single ancient Norwegian word used by the northern locals, and it's a beauty of a word: 

"sjybarturn" [pronounced SHE-bah-tune]

The sound of the ocean when heard through a bedroom window on a mild summer night - the sound of water calmly lapping against the shore. 

Isn't that just lovely? Any culture with such a word and any book that shares this with the world has my undying gratitude.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Casey, Susan. The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among American's Great White Sharks.

The author joins several scientists on a lonely island off San Francisco to study great white sharks up close and personal. (previously reviewed here)

Hawks, Tony. Round Ireland with a Fridge

The author makes a bar bet that he can hitchhike around the entire coastline of Ireland with a mini fridge as his only companion. The resulting trip is really funny, with the fridge becoming more popular than the author in neighborhood bars, on the road, and even surfing along the Irish coastline. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

The Devil's Teeth

Casey, Susan. The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among American's Great White Sharks. New York: Holt. 2005. Print.

First Sentences:

The killing took place at dawn and as usual it was a decapitation accomplished by a single vicious swipe 

Blood geysered into the air, creating a vivid slick that stood out on the water like the work of a violent abstract painter. Five hundred yards away, outside of a lighthouse on the island's highest peak, a man watched though a telescope.

Description:

Who isn't fascinated by the great white sharks? Looming menacingly off the coasts of Australia and California, occasionally biting down on a surfboard (or surfer)? Of course, Jaws fascinated and horrified an entire generation enough to keep people out of New England and other beaches worldwide for years.

Now Susan Casey offers a close up peek into the world of these great whites and the people who study them in her riveting new book, The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among American's Great White Sharks

She introduces researchers Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson, temporarily living on the barren Farallones Islands 26 miles off the coast of San Francisco. With only one house and an abandoned lighthouse, battered by very rough seas and weather, hounded by thousands of birds who make these menacing craggy islands their home, the forbidding Farallones (nicknamed "The Devil's Teeth") are also the feeding ground of great white sharks for three months a year. 

Pete and Scot are the first scientists to study the sharks daily using the lighthouse lookout and small boats taken out to film the sharks' killing behavior. It's dangerous, lonely work, but these two men observe incredible data about this previously unknown fish, from how great whites attack sea lions (decapitation), their curiosity (exploring towed decoy surfboards), and the individual characteristics of over one hundred sharks (leading to names like "Stumpy," "Cal Ripkin," and "Cuttail"). 

And then, there are the "Sisters," the enormous, secretive females who return every other year.These rarely seen behemoths are over twenty feet long (most other great whites are twelve to fifteen feet long), eight feet wide and six feet deep! "Swimming buses" is how the Sisters are described when seen from the scientists' tiny observation boat, aptly nicknamed, "Dinner Plate."

Author Casey joins these men for several of the feeding seasons and observes the sharks as well as the men and the lives of both. Living conditions are rough, the house is haunted, and boat-wrecking storms occur regularly. A few tourist boats come to the Farallones to observe whales and sharks. But there are also heart-stopping tales from Ron Elliott, the last of the divers in the shark-infested waters still gathering valuable sea urchins there surrounded by great whites. 

Casey is definitely up to the task of recording great white shark behavior, providing the history of the Devil's Teeth and its inhabitants, and relating her own fears and thrills that come with studying these sharks up close. She even tosses in a historic story about the discovery of underwater stone shark pens found during the construction of Pearl Harbor "where men faced off against sharks in aquatic gladiatorial matches."

You may think you don't want to know this much about great white sharks, but you would be so, so wrong. They are fascinating, silent, efficient, and personable kings (and queens) of the sea. Devils Teeth reveals them for the first time, and boy, what a picture it paints of these magnivicant, fearsome creatures.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf: Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves

A young Canadian naturalist is sent, wholly unprepared, into the backwoods of Canada to study the wolves there and their affect on the profitable (for hunters) caribou herds. Funny, informative, and completely delightful (previously reviewed here)

Quirkology

Wiseman, Richard. Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things. New York: Macmillan. 2007. Print

First Sentences:

I have long been fascinated with the quirky side of human behavior.

When I was a psychology undergraduate one of my first experiments involved standing for hours at London's King's Crossing railroad station look for people meeting partners who had just gotten off the train. The moment they locked in a passionate embrace, I would walk up to them, trigger a hidden stopwatch in my pocket, and ask "Excuse me. Do you mind taking part in a psychological experiment? How many seconds have passed since I said the words, 'Excuse me?'"

After querying about fifty such couples, I discovered that people greatly underestimate the passing of time when they are in love, or, as Albert Einstein once said, 'Sit with a beautiful woman for an hour and it seems like a minute, sit on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour -- that's relativity.'

Description:

Seems only logical that after last week's recommendation of a book about fictional "brain thieves" (who insert probes into people's brains, then released them into the world so their activities could be studied) that I should offer a follow-up of a real life psychologist who actually earns his livelihood studying how we humans behave in everyday activities. 

Of course, his scientific, carefully-constructed studies lead to solid data and therefore logical conclusions about all sorts of quirky, superstitious, strange and unusual patters of behavior. The author, Richard Wiseman, calls his field of research "Quirkology," and presents numerous serious, but wacky behavioral studies of these curiosities in his book, Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Everyday Things.

For many years, Wiseman and like-minded scientists have conducted research into every corner of behavior observing thousands of people worldwide in controlled situations. 

I have examined the telltale signs that give away a liar, explored how our personalities are shaped by month of birth, uncovered the secret science behind speed dating and personal ads, and investigated what a sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of the mind...measured the amount of horn-honking when cars become stalled at traffic lights...discovered whether suicide rates are related to the amount of country music played on national radio...and proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Friday the thirteenth is bad for your health.

Less you think this a frivolous waste of time for him to study and you to read about, let me assure you that Wiseman is dead serious about his work. He pursues his interesting studies with meticulous attention to detail to filter out any chance of corrupting the data and prejudicing the conclusions. 

The work is serious science, and much of it has important implications for the way in which we live our lives and structure our society.

Each chapter is a different series of studies about a question regarding the psychology behind incidents in ordinary life, such as "Can we distinguish between real and fake smiles?" "Does your birthday actually have any influence on the luck you experience in your life?" Can we tell when a person is lying or telling the truth?" and "Are there words to use in personal ads that will provide a positive response?" Wiseman looks at other studies done in this area and then creates his own live experiments to test new hypotheses about behavior. When you are done with the chapter, you cannot help but agree with whatever conclusions he reaches because the data has been taken from such a large sample audience and the tests controlled so carefully to prevent misinterpretation.

Let's take a look at some of the studies conducted and described in Quirkology by Wiseman and other scientists in this field:

• Does the position of planets actually affect personality and key events? (He decides to study similarities in "Time Twins," those individuals born at exactly the same moment, an also gauge the accuracy of astrological predictions);

• Is there evidence that when you are born influences the luck you fell you receive in your life? (Extensive studies in Australia and Europe show that the people who describe themselves as lucky were born in the warmer summer months);

• Can the way you trace a "Q" on your forehead determine whether you  are a high self-monitor (the center of attention, easily adaptable) or low  self-monitor (guided by inner feelings, tell fewer lies)?

• Can people tell when someone is lying on television? (Wiseman's films an actor on television talking about his favorite movie, then films a second interview with the actor describing a different movies as his favorite. Thirty thousand people phoned in their opinion about which was his true favorite, but results showed they did no better in their choice than if they flipped a coin);

• Can people be lead to believe they have experienced an event that they did not participate in? (Wiseman shows how the false-memory is easily created in people, including Ronald Reagan who told a story to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society about when the Medal was awarded to a pilot who chose to go down with his plane and a crew member who could not escape. Unfortunately, that event never happened and was really the plot from a movie that had become embedded in Reagan's memory as a factual event);

• Can subliminal suggestion inserted into movies or television shows actually influence whether you want to buy a specific product or behave in a prescribed manner?

• Does where you live influence your name? (Examining U.S. census records "uncovered an overrepresention of people called Florence living in Florida, George in Georgia, Kenneth in Kentucky, and Virgil in Virginia...Helen in St. Helen...more Charleses in St. Charles, [and] more Thomases in St. Thomas");

• What's the ideal percentage of talk about "self vs. other" to follow at speed dating tables to increase your chances of receiving a phone number of the person to whom you are talking?

• Is there one joke that is considered the funniest? (This idea was based on a Monty Python sketch where the world's funniest joke makes everyone die of laughter and is therefore banned for warfare. Wiseman constructs a website to solicit favorite jokes and evaluate the humorousness of submitted jokes. He receives over 40,000 jokes and 350,000 evaluations. And yes, he does identify a consensus funniest joke, as well as the jokes most popular with women, Germans, scientists, and Dave Barry fans.)

One incredibly weird study after another is fascinatingly researched, constructed, tested, and analyzed with results that are both surprising and wonderful. They are short and wryly funny, with many studies and examples offered for each quirky topic. Every study makes you learn more about how we respond to each other and the world around us with all our beliefs, intelligence, and idiosyncrasies. 

It is a book that will make you think in completely different ways, and offers a plethora of topics to mystify and delight everyone you tell them to. Of course no one will believe that you can tell whether a person is lying just by listening for specific words, but in Quirkology, you now have the scientific proof to back your wild statements. And what a pleasure that is!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Wansink, Brian. Mindless Eating  

Fascinating experiments constructed at the Cornell laboratory to discover unknown influences on ordinary people that determine why and how much we eat. Fascinatingly wonderful and will change how you eat, guaranteed! (previously reviewed here)

Never Cry Wolf

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf: Amazing True Story About Life Among Arctic Wolves. New York: Atlantic-Little Brown 1963. Print 

First Sentences:

It is a long way in time and space from the bathroom of my Grandmother Mowat's house in Oakville, Ontario, to the bottom of a wolf den in the Barren Lands in central Keewatin, and I have no intention of retracing the entire road which lies between. Nevertheless, there must be a beginning to any tale, and the story of my sojourn amongst the wolves begins properly in Granny's bathroom.

Description: 

Can a book deal with a serious topic (depletion of caribou herds by arctic wolves in Canada) in a completely off-beat manner? In the hands of a quirky biologist like Farley Mowat, of course. 

In Never Cry Wolf, he engagingly recollects his adventures as a newly-hired naturalist for the Canadian Wildlife Service and assigned his first task: find out why the arctic timber wolves are decimating the caribou population in the Baffins of Canada, gather information, and then "curb the carnage."

So off he flies to the frozen wilds armed with his plane load of government issue wolf traps, tear gas grenades, smoke generators, seven axes, 4 gross of mousetraps, and a communication radio with 6 hours' worth of batteries. Also smuggled aboard were 10 gallons of 100% grain alcohol (for preservation of specimens) and 15 cases of Moose Brand Beer, contraband which could be mixed together into a "positively ambrosial" concoction. 

Once left in the frozen nothingness, even armed with this elixir, the first howls of a wolf pack send him scurrying for protection under the canoe, "wishing I were a pregnant Eskimo." Don't ask.

Having no experience with wolves, Mowat relies on his wits to locate and study these creatures up close and personal. He gamely tries personal experiments to test the validity of each hypotheses based on what he sees, including living solely on a diet of field mice (to see whether wolves could possible exist on rodents alone) and moving his body in circles in bed to prove this wolf technique helps one drop off to sleep better (an activity he laments later proved to be unpopular with lady friends).

Throughout the book he leads readers on adventure after misadventure, experiencing with him first-hand this environment, its people, and its wildlife. Interactions with native Inuit, visiting hunters, and, of course, the Canadian home office provide numerous instances of bewilderment, humor, scientific observation, bureaucracy, and well-intentioned pursuits.  

His observations change all preconceived notions of wolf behavior, diet, family structure, hunting range, and their relationship with caribou.   

Never Cry Wolf is a book I have recommended for years to adults, children, teens, seniors - anyone looking for a well-written, humorous read on a serious topic set in an exotic local. Mowat is a prodigious writer on a huge variety of topics that can be scientific, humorous, historic, heart-breaking or sometimes all of the above  But by far the best place to start is with Never Cry Wolf.

Happy reading. 


Fred 
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

Comments 

Previous posts

_______________

If this book interests you, there are many others available by Farley Mowat, both humorous and serious. Be sure to check out:

Mowat, Farley. The Snow Walker.  

Tales of the Inuit people Mowat lived with in the Canadian wilderness over many years, as told in their voices to relate stories of the individuals and actions, as well as legends that make up their culture. Highly recommended for great writing, powerful stories, and memorable people.

Mowat, Farley. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. 

Recollections and humorous tales of the author's early boyhood with a dog who rode in cars with goggles and could climb ladders. Great for reading to children as well.