Three different writing styles, each equally important
Get ready to open your eyes!
These authors will acquaint you with the length and breadth of human intelligence. Each of them tackles different genres with different styles.
And of course, each of these books offers deep insight and learning.
Goes without saying… You don’t have to agree with authors’ views in every sense to benefit from their writing.
Let’s go!
Mary Roach
Mary Roach is known for tackling scientific topics humorously. She has written for popular magazines such as Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic. In addition to that, she is the author of various science books.
Human innovation has been driven forward by the dead.
In this book, Mary Roach goes and meets various experts and learns about their work on cadavers.
The author reminds us of the role of cadavers in medical research. She also tells us that dead bodies are used in crash tests and cosmetic surgery practice.
Whoa!
“Sharing a room with a cadaver is only mildly different from being in a room alone.”
From dead body theft to cannibalism, the author covers all.
She is blunt and uses humor, too much for some people’s taste. Because the subject is dead humans. And generally, we want to talk about those who are gone with respect.
But some still enjoy her writing style.
“It is difficult to put words to the smell of decomposing human. It is dense and cloying, sweet but not flower-sweet. Halfway between rotting fruit and rotting meat.”
The author also visits a body farm and observes human decomposition in various stages.
This is an interesting book about those who helped science from beyond the grave.
What happens in our digestive system?
As the title tells us, gulp is the journey of food, from the mouth through the alimentary canal to its final destination, poop.
“Pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that’s what we humans like, and we assume our pets like what we like. We have that wrong. ‘For cats especially,’ Moeller says, ‘change is often more difficult than monotony.’”
We learn about the taste of pet food and how smell is the most important sense in helping us taste food.
Through the book, we also learn of experiments that helped scientists observe the digestion process.
Did you know that an animal’s liver, heart, and stomach are a dense source of nutrients? And we throw them away. In some cultures at least. Others like to eat them.
“Humans have taste receptor cells in the gut, the voice box, the upper esophagus, but only the tongue’s receptors report to the brain.”
Roach also tells us about gut microflora transplant which sounds yuck but has a surprisingly high rate of success.
Learn all you can about the unique and gory aspects of the military.
We follow the author as she talks to various people related to the military… soldiers, scientists, and doctors.
The book doesn’t discuss war strategies. Instead, the author tackles the science of army uniforms, heat, sound, wounds, and more.
“US government button specifications run to twenty-two pages. This fact on its own yields a sense of what it is like to design garments for the Army.”
Maggots in the wounds, diarrhea on the battlefield, and getting genitals blown off, the author leaves nothing unturned.
The author also discusses sleep deprivation and fatigue in soldiers.
“Every now and then in life, a compliment is tucked so seamlessly into a insult that it’s impossible to know how to react.”
Roach is like a curious mind who never shies away from verbalizing whatever question is born inside it.
When human and animal kingdoms collide…
Humans are taking more and more of animal territory. As a result, humans and animals come across often.
There are efforts on the government level to keep animal populations in check.
“We are irrational in our species-specific devotions. I know a man who won’t eat octopus because of its intelligence.”
The author travels to India, New Zealand, and the Vatican in addition to her trips in North America.
As with her style in other books, she meets people, asks them questions, and shares with us whatever she has learned.
From big animals like elephants and moose to small ones like rodents and rats, all are covered in this book. The author raises many ethical questions as well.
“When you tell people you don’t eat beef — or would never use a glue trap — you make the alternative a little less comfortable for them. You keep it from being a thing they give no thought to.”
If you like animals and feel bad about what is happening to them as a result of the expanding human population, this book is the right one.
Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky is an American journalist and author. He has written many books. His first book was published in 1992.
The role of salt in shaping our world.
Through this book, the author traces the history of salt. With it, he goes into related events like trade, wars, and religion.
Demand for salt shaped the trade routes of the past.
“Proteins unwind when exposed to heat, and they do the same when exposed to salt. So salting has an effect resembling cooking.”
We learn about salt curing. Interestingly though, I have eaten salt-cured meat. My mother-in-law makes it by salting and hanging beef strips to dry. It is great, to be honest.
That was the way of meat preservation before refrigerators became a thing.
“When these early settlers hunted, they would leave red herring along their trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves, which is the origin of the expression red herring, meaning ‘a false trail”
We also learn of the role of salt in preserving human bodies.
Salt was once expensive and now we get it cheaply. This transition though, was not smooth.
Tracing history through fish.
As we have seen with his book ‘Salt’, the author picks up one thing and then acquaints us with world history through that.
In this book, it is Codfish.
“Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.”
Cod has been part of food, mythology, culture, and economy.
We learn all the ups and downs through this book. Did you know that Cod’s number has reduced massively because of overfishing?
But there is one country that still has Cod. It controlled the fishing through regulations. Norway.
“Cod became almost a religious icon — a mythological crusader for Christian observance.”
The book also has Cod recipes.
Humans and milk, a relationship uncovered.
I love milk.
The author calls the human consumption of milk beyond infancy unnatural though. He says only humans do that. The rest of the animal world doesn’t.
Well, only humans cook and live in concrete houses. Just saying.
Regardless of my affinity for milk, only 40% of the human population can drink it. As the book tells us, 60% are lactose intolerant.
“Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, and both it and the word “galaxy” have their origins in the Greek word for milk, gala.”
The author analyzes the relationship of humans with milk ever since animals were domesticated. That is 10,000 years ago.
Kurnalsky also talks about milk products like yogurt, cheese, and butter.
“Cows are the leading source of hamburger meat in America. Dairy cows are very lean because they put everything into producing milk, so they make good lean ground meat.”
The book touches on unethical milk farming practices. It includes the treatment of dairy animals and keeping them in places too congested for their size.
Sam Harris
Sam Harris is a neuroscientist. He is also an author and hosts a podcast. His writings and discussions cover a vast variety of topics including science, religion, psychology, and philosophy.
This book will make you give up lying for the best.
In this book, Sam Harris lays down a very compelling account of why lying in every form and shape is wrong.
“Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others.”
He points to the fact that when we lie, we hide our true view of the world from others. We affect the decisions of those who ask for our opinion.
Through his own experiences and the experiences of other people, the author builds support for his argument.
One of Harris’s friends wrote something and showed him. Harris told him that it wasn’t that good.
That friend now trusts Harris’s opinion. This is because he knows that Harris wouldn’t lie about the quality of his work.
“Honest people are a refuge: You know they mean what they say; you know they will not say one thing to your face and another behind your back; you know they will tell you when they think you have failed — and for this reason their praise cannot be mistaken for mere flattery.”
I’d like to think that I don’t lie. Once in a blue moon maybe. But ever since reading this book, I am more convinced in favor of not lying.
Are we puppets or are we masters?
You didn’t pick your parents, gender, or genome, says Harris. You are not in charge.
The author says that we have fooled ourselves into believing that we are free to do what we want. We are not.
Whether you agree or disagree with the author, it is your choice. But it is interesting to see how he analyzes the decisions humans make.
“And now your brain is making choices on the basis of preferences and beliefs that have been hammered into it over a lifetime — by your genes, your physical development since the moment you were conceived, and the interactions you have had with other people, events, and ideas.”
He tells us that our choices are determined by our genes and experience. And there is no freedom in that.
Harris takes us to the basics. Where are your desires coming from?
To some, loss of belief in free will might be depressing. Not for Sam Harris. He says that instead of making him hopeless, this realization has granted him freedom. His hopes and fears seem less personal to him.
The author also says that he is humble in the face of his achievement and forgives others for their blunders. Because he understands that we are not free.
This book is an interesting philosophical account.
Reap the benefits of meditation!
Sam Harris is a critic of religion. He is an atheist who believes in science.
“Every moment of the day — indeed, every moment throughout one’s life — offers an opportunity to be relaxed and responsive or to suffer unnecessarily.”
To me, spirituality is one of the biggest benefits of religion. It offers us hope, helps us be grateful, and allows us to look at the bigger picture.
As an atheist, Harris proposes spirituality without religion. He talks about the benefits of gratitude and meditation.
“Happily, the benefits of training in meditation arrive long before mastery does.”
The author discusses the importance of staying in control of our minds. What it has inside. Mind is the basis of every experience, he says.
He labels the existential questions as false questions of religion. Questions about the meaning and purpose of life.
Harris says that we can live the answers to these questions without answering them.
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