The next Genre Reading Group meeting will be Tuesday, November 24 at 6:30pm on Zoom and the topic up for discussion is fantasy fiction. (register here: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/3502050)
This very broad category can include everything from alternate histories to
paranormal romance to tales of adventure with dragons and elves. I’m happy to help you select something if the
choice seems daunting so don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance! Here is a link to a basic catalog search for
“fantasy fiction”: https://bit.ly/2HJf1pm
Last night, we met to chat about inventions and inventors
and that conversation spread out to innovators, social psychology,
television and movies, and more!
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang
Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash
of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times
unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the
merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly
hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists
and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were
predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams.
With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly
combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and
disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.
House of Invention: The Secret Life of Everyday Products by
David Lindsay
Recounts the origins of articles found in each room of a
house, from the bathroom to the garage, and describes the personalities
responsible for twenty-one everyday objects.
Tesla: Inventor of the Modern by Richard Munson
Drawing on letters, technological notebooks, and other
primary sources, Munson pieces together the magnificently bizarre personal life
and mental habits of the enigmatic inventor whose most famous inventions were
the product of a mind fueled by both the humanities and sciences―Tesla
conceived the induction motor while walking through a park and reciting
Goethe’s Faust. Clear, authoritative, and highly readable, Tesla takes
into account all the phases of Tesla’s remarkable life and career.
The Current War (feature film)
This is the epic story of the cutthroat competition that
literally lit up the modern world. Benedict Cumberbatch is Thomas Edison, the
celebrity inventor on the verge of bringing electricity to Manhattan with his
new DC technology. On the eve of triumph, his plans are upended by charismatic
businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), who believes he and his
partner, Nikolai Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), have a superior idea for how to
rapidly electrify America: with AC current. As Edison and Westinghouse grapple
for who will power the nation, they spark one of the first and greatest
corporate feuds in American history.
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
From Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian, comes a thrilling novel—based on actual events—about the nature of
genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America.
New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of
electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn
night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer
named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems
impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas
Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds
the right to power the country?
The Reckoning by David Halberstam
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Fifties and TheColdest Winter, and filled with intriguing vignettes about Henry Ford, Lee
Iacocca, and other visionary industrial leaders, The Reckoning remains
a powerful and enlightening story about manufacturing in the modern age, and
how America fell woefully behind.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He also invented bifocals, a stove that is still manufactured, a water-harmonica, and the lightning rod. Franklin's extraordinary range of interests and accomplishments are brilliantly recorded in his Autobiography, considered one of the classics of the genre.
Covering his
life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania
Assembly, this charming self-portrait recalls Franklin's boyhood, his
determination to achieve high moral standards, his work as a printer,
experiments with electricity, political career, experiences during the French
and Indian War, and more. Related in an honest, open, unaffected style, this
highly readable account offers a wonderfully intimate glimpse of the Founding
Father sometimes called "the wisest American."
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson (adapted for a doc film of the same name available from
the library and streaming on Hoopla, Kanopy, and Amazon Prime)
In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected
connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning
enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species—to
cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually
uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution;
and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied
by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of
collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative,
informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.
When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery by Simon LeVay
Brilliant scientific successes have helped shape our world,
and are always celebrated. However, for every victory, there are no doubt
numerous little-known blunders. Neuroscientist Simon LeVay brings together a
collection of fascinating, yet shocking, stories of failure from recent
scientific history in When Science Goes Wrong.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel
Pink
In When, Pink distills cutting-edge research and data
on timing and synthesizes them into a fascinating, readable narrative packed
with irresistible stories and practical takeaways that give readers compelling
insights into how we can live richer, more engaged lives.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by
Daniel Pink
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human
motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what
business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three
elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and
surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will
change how we think and transform how we live.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by
David Epstein
Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes
a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the
best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers.
The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their
knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers
master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who
think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will
increasingly thrive.
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
by Daniel Pink
To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art
and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel
H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive
insights. He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it's no longer "Always
Be Closing"), explains why extraverts don't make the best salespeople, and
shows how giving people an "off-ramp" for their actions can matter
more than actually changing their minds.
Along the way, Pink describes the six successors to the elevator pitch, the
three rules for understanding another's perspective, the five frames that can
make your message clearer and more persuasive, and much more. The result is a
perceptive and practical book--one that will change how you see the world and
transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (doc film)
What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s
and 40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and
Bluetooth technology have in common? They were both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour
icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman
and a technological trailblazer who perfected a secure radio guidance system
for Allied torpedoes during WWII.
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven
stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo
Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of
communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases
of all time.
Connections (TV show) (Available on Kanopy)
As the Sherlock Holmes of science, James Burke tracks through
12,000 years of history for the clues that lead us to eight great life changing
inventions-the atom bomb, telecommunications, the computer, the production
line, jet aircraft, plastics, rocketry and television. Burke postulates that
such changes occur in response to factors he calls triggers, some of
them seemingly unrelated. These have their own triggering effects, causing
change in totally unrelated fields as well. And so the connections begin...
Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan
I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float
by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her
clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903,
Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design
a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful
attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each
married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society
and forever change their lives.
Rosenbaum House (located at 601 Riverview Drive Florence,
Alabama 35630)
“Architecture critic Peter Blake wrote in 1960 that “during
the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright built four structures of a beauty unexcelled in
America before or since.” Three of those are Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax
Administrative Building, and Taliesin West. The fourth was the Usonian
prototype of which the Rosenbaum House is one of the purest examples.”
Taliesen West (located in Scottsdale, Arizona)
Taliesin West is a UNESCO World Heritage site and National Historic
Landmark nestled in the desert foothills of the McDowell Mountains in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
Who Killed the Electric Car? (doc film)
It begins with a solemn funeral…for a car. By the end of Chris Paine's lively and informative documentary, the idea doesn't seem quite so strange. As narrator Martin Sheen notes, "They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline." Paine proceeds to show how this unique vehicle came into being and why General Motors ended up reclaiming its once-prized creation less than a decade later.
He begins 100 years ago with the original electric car. By the 1920s, the internal-combustion engine had rendered it obsolete. By the 1980s, however, car companies started exploring alternative energy sources, like solar power. This, in turn, led to the late, great battery-powered EV1. Throughout, Paine deftly translates hard science and complex politics, such as California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, into lay person's terms (director Alex Gibney, Oscar-nominated for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, served as consulting producer).
And everyone gets
the chance to have their say: engineers, politicians, protesters, and petroleum
spokespeople--even celebrity drivers, like Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul, and a
wild man beard-sporting Mel Gibson. But the most persuasive participant is
former Saturn employee Chelsea Sexton. Promoting the benefits of the EV1 was
more than a job to her, and she continues to lobby for more environmentally
friendly options. Sexton provides the small ray of hope Paine's film so
desperately needs. Who Killed the Electric Car? is, otherwise, a
tremendously sobering experience. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (doc film)
While the previous eco-doc Who Killed the Electric Car? spent some time on the world's oil crisis, A Crude Awakening (formerly OilCrash) builds an entire film around the subject. Swiss journalist Basil Gelpke and Irish filmmaker Ray McCormack have constructed their narrative in a conventional manner, alternating between talking heads, archival footage, and modern-day material, but the addition of several pieces by Phillip Glass is an artful touch (and evokes his work on 1988's The Thin Blue Line).
Throughout, a diverse array of experts from the U.S., Azerbaijan, Venezuela, and other countries explain how the 20th century became addicted to "the blood of the dinosaurs," and why contemporary society needs to change course. As attorney/activist Matthew David Savinar puts it, "Oil is our God." As Stanford professor Terry Lynn Karl adds, "More and more oil is going to come from less and less stable places...places that actually challenge the taking of oil in the first place." One of the more chilling revelations concerns the discrepancy between the reserves oil-producing nations claim they possess and the actual amount.
These padded estimates allow them to
drill with impunity, leading to an abundance of wealth in the short term and
cataclysmic consequences once they've depleted their supply of this
non-renewable resource. A Crude Awakening isn't exactly a
day-brightener, but Gelpke and McCormack are comprehensive and impartial in
their inquiry, which makes for an informative examination of a vitally
important subject. Extras include extended interviews with four participants
and bonus chapter Petrostates. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Jazz (Ken Burns doc series)
The story, sound, and soul of a nation come together in the
most American of art forms: jazz. Ken Burns celebrates the music’s soaring
achievements, from its origin in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop, and
fusion.
Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins
A modern, Southern re-invention of The Maltese Falcon,
Crossroad Blues wins noir fans with its nod to the masters and thrilled readers
with a wild ride along Highway 61. It’s here that we first meet Nick Travers,
an ex-New Orleans Saint turned Tulane University blues historian. Nick searches
for the lost recordings of 1930s bluesman Robert Johnson—and a missing
colleague—and finds trouble at every turn. The cast of characters includes a
red-headed siren, an Elvis-worshipping hitman, Johnson’s ghost, and the
Mississippi Delta itself. A decade later, Crossroad Blues still sings.
Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine by Maria Goodavage
In this groundbreaking book, Goodavage brings us behind the
scenes of cutting-edge science at top research centers, and into the lives of
people whose well-being depends on their devoted, highly skilled personal MDs
(medical dogs). With her signature wit and passion, Goodavage explores how
doctor dogs are becoming our happy allies in the fight against dozens of
physical and mental conditions.
Trouble Waters: A Mississippi River Story (doc film)
The Emmy Award-winning Troubled Waters: A Mississippi
River Story tells the story of the unintended yet severe consequences of
farming along the Mississippi, and the efforts being taken to reverse this
damage.
Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, and Emily Watson, Chernobyl tells the story of the 1986 nuclear accident in this HBO miniseries. A companion podcast of the same name, hosted
by NPR’s Peter Sagal and Chernobyl series creator, writer, and executive producer
Craig Mazin, follows each episode and discusses the true stories that shaped
the scenes, themes, and characters.
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