Nose in a Book

The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am 100% pro vaccine. So a few weeks ago my sister let me know that I had to listen to this interview on CBC’s radio program The Current. After listening to the interview with author Seth Mnookin where he spoke about his new book, The Panic Virus, I immediately put this book on hold at the library. I’ve just finished reading it and it exceeded my expectations in every way.

After attending a dinner party where several parents began discussing vaccines, Mnookin decided to write this book. What prompted him to do so was a statement made by a another one of the diners. He had decided to delay some of his children’s vaccinations because it felt right. This attitude bothered Mnookin and prompted him to being researching vaccines for himself. After coming to “the conclusion that there was no evidence supporting a link between childhood inoculations and developmental disorders, [he] had to confront a set of issues that get to the heart of social dynamics and human cognition: Why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, do so many people remain adamant in their belief that vaccines are responsible for harming hundreds of thousands of otherwise healthy children? Why is the media so inclined to air their views? Why are so many others so readily convinced? Why, in other words, are we willing to believe things that are, according to all available evidence, false?”  The result is The Panic Virus, an extremely well-researched and fascinating book that covers every angle of the vaccine debate.

What I particularly liked about this book was that Mnookin came to a conclusion about vaccines and then never looked back. He’s fully on the side of vaccinations and he’s not afraid to say so. He’s also not afraid to use strong language when it comes to condemning the media and celebrities who have been so outspoken on the issue of immunization. He’s especially hard on the “feelings” movement espoused by Oprah and others of her ilk, people who make decisions based on their feelings rather than rational thought, people who believe that they can think their cancerous tumours away. (Not that there is anything wrong with having feelings or even using them to help you make decisions, it’s just when they get in the way of rational thought that you have a problem, at least in my opinion.)

I also felt that Mnookin handled the subject with sensitivity. There are many parents out there raising children with autism just looking for answers and he told many of their stories with empathy. He made it clear, in the telling that these people are just concerned parents trying to make sense out of a disease for which the causes are poorly understood. (Unfortunately, the anti-vaccine movement has directed much needed resources away from research that might actually bring some hope and relief to these very parents.) These people are victims, victims of the media’s relentless search for the next big headline, victims of people like Andrew Wakefield who are either incompetent or intent on exploitation.

The Panic Virus was also very well researched. I’m impressed by the dedication it must have taken to carry out this project to the depth that Mnookin did. But at the same time, the book is not a dense tome full of incomprehensible facts about the science behind vaccines. Mnookin isn’t a scientist and he doesn’t pretend to be. Mnookin isn’t trying to convince the reader that vaccines are safe, he’s trying to convince us that the experts, the people who really know what they’re talking about in regards to this issue, actually do have the public’s best interests at heart and we would do well to listen to them. Because the experts and numerous studies say that vaccination is safe, we should believe them. He’s trying to show us that by not listening to experts and instead listening to whomever has the most compelling story or the loudest voice or the most controversial study, that we are doing ourselves and the general public a huge disservice. And I happen to agree. Since when does Jenny McCarthy have a degree in Immunology? Why are people so willing to listen to her and base decisions about their children’s health and safety on her feelings?

One last thing I loved about the book was it’s readability. As I mentioned previously, it’s not about the science of vaccines. Not only was the book accessible to people of all levels of scientific understanding, it was interesting too. He never allowed the reader to be overcome by the immense amount of information contained within because he brought it all together in a way that was meaningful and captivating.

Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, and I plan on doing just that.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

One day as Gretchen Rubin was riding the bus, she realized that she hadn’t spent much time thinking about her happiness and how she might be happier. It was then that she decided to embark on her happiness project, a year spent working on various resolutions that she believed would make her happier. Each month she focused on a different area in her life that she felt could benefit from the extra scrutiny and set out some resolutions that would help her improve in that area. She created a list of Twelve Commandments for herself. She also came up with a “goofier” list of her Secrets of Adulthood – lessons she had learned as she grew up.  Armed with her resolutions, commandments and secrets, she set out to make herself happier. Along the way she also discovered four Splendid Truths about the nature of happiness.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It has really made me look at my life and wonder about the ways that I could be happier. I’m not about to begin my own happiness project but I certainly like the idea of some simple resolutions to make my life smoother and my family happier. I loved her Second Splendid Truth – “One of the best ways to make myself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy myself.” I agree with that statement 100%. I have seen it in action and I love the reminder that my attitude has a huge influence on the people around me. I remember in university we had a TA who was notoriously grumpy and unhelpful. I decided that I was only ever going to be nice to her no matter how she treated me. Pretty soon she was pleasant with me and would actually help me out with my assignments. It got so that the other students in my class would send me to ask her for help because they had noticed that she was pleasant and helpful to me as well. And all it took was a little bit of extra effort on my part. For me, this is one of the most important ideas in her book. One of her resolutions was to cut people some slack. This is something I think I really need to work on. I think I’m very quick to judge people’s actions without really considering why they might have acted that way and giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the book was Rubin’s willingness to share her successes and her failures. She didn’t come across as preachy or superior. She was just sharing her ideas of what made her happier. And she tried things that she thought might work for her and when they didn’t she had no problem just giving them up. One of her Secrets of Adulthood is “What’s fun for other people may not be fun for you – and vice versa.” Occasionally she’s try something that worked for others but did nothing for her and instead of ploughing through she’s just give it up. I, too often, see that as a failure, or as quitting. I’ve learned just recently that sometimes there are certain things that just aren’t worth finishing. (And I’m not saying that if something isn’t FUN it isn’t worth doing, just that there are things that aren’t worth finishing for many different reasons.) I have a compulsion to read every last word of every book I pick up and I’ve just realized that life is too short to read something that I don’t find worthwhile or interesting. I still have a very hard time with this and occasionally will find myself slogging through a book I’m just not enjoying and I just have to give myself permission to move onto the next book. And that is something that’s made me happier!

I really could just keep on and on with the self-analysis but this is supposed to be a book review! I loved this book and although I hate re-reading books, I’m sure that I will re-read parts of this book over again several times. Some of her ideas are things that I know I could work and and they would make me happier but some just aren’t for me. But never once does Rubin say that they should be. She’s very careful to say that these are the things that worked for her and that people interested in a happiness project should write their own resolutions, commandments and secrets. Overall, reading this book made me happy and I think that’s probably the best endorsement for this type of book, right?

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid:Travels Through my Childhood by Bill Bryson

Basically this a is memoir of Bryson’s childhood in the 1950s (I guess that’s pretty obvious from the subtitle)  but it’s so much more.  There’s not much of a summary I can do because it’s a memoir but Bryson covers topics like getting a free meal at a local restaurant (probably my favourite part of the book), the threat of nuclear war (which apparently didn’t worry anybody in those days), trying to get into the nudey tent at the state fair and many, many others.

I’m a big fan of Bill Bryson and this book didn’t disappoint me.  It was laugh out loud funny and always entertaining.  I know this review is kind of lame but there’s not much to say without giving away the funny bits and either you like Bryson or you don’t.

I did find a review where one commenter stated that Bryson was a commie and the reviewer agreed.  I’m not sure where that came from but it could have something to do with the fact that it was pretty obvious that Bryson was not a huge fan of McCarthy.

NutureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Read for: This review from Dreadlock Girl

Wow!  I loved this book and I think everyone who has kids or works with kids or ever plans on having kids should read it.  So basically this book is about child studies with a twist.   They’ve found a bunch of  research that actually turns what we are used to thinking about kids completely upside down.  They’ve examined studies with results that are quite often exactly the opposite of what was expected and then analyzed those results and follow-up studies to determine why exactly they were so surprising.   The different topics covered are intelligence and how it is related to praise and amount of sleep, race, lying, sibling relationships, teen rebellion, self control and language development.  Remember a while back when all those Baby Einstein videos were recalled?  One of the chapters explains why that happened and why those DVDs have been associated with smaller vocabularies in young children.

I was amazed at the insights into children and the way they learn and develop and I can’t wait to try some of them out on my own children.  I found this book to be informative but also really interesting.  With all the information they’ve crammed in there, it could have easily become tedious and boring but it wasn’t at all.  I also think it was really well researched.  I can’t say for sure not being an expert in these fields but everything they said made a lot of sense to me and there is nearly 100 pages of notes and references at the back of the book.  I’d love to read more about this kind of children’s research!

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with books, not bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson

Many people have read Three Cups of Tea and are familiar with Mortenson’s mission to build schools in Pakistan.  In this book Mortenson continues to build schools in Pakistan (with some new challenges) and begins to to build schools in post 9/11 Afghanistan.

As you can imagine, building schools in Afghanistan after 9/11 is no easy task.  And after the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, Mortenson and the CAI had to change the way they built schools in Pakistan.  Add to all that that the CAI’s policy is to build schools in the most remote areas first and then work their way towards the more populated regions.  Mortenson has some amazing people working for him that don’t seem to ever let anything get in their way when it comes to moving forward with these schools.  It’s really inspiring to read about the school building process and the people in the villages where the schools are being built.  (Above: Sitara School, Afghanistan)

I was very impressed with the writing and the way the story was told.  It’s entertaining and engaging and Mortenson told the story that was cohesive and had good flow.  The only complaint I have is that there were some editing problems, missing or wrong words, and some typos.  But the book contains events from as late as September of 2009 and the book was published in early December 2009 so I’ll cut them some slack in the editing department!  If you enjoyed Three Cups of Tea, you will definitely enjoy this one.  If you haven’t read Three Cups of Tea you should probably start there before picking up this one.  I think both books are definitely worth reading.

All images courtesy Central Asia Institute.

Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza

Read for: Global Reading Challenge

Wow, was this one ever intense!  Immaculée was a university student who had travelled home for easter in 1994 when the Rwandan genocide began.  As a Tutsi, she and her entire family were in danger.  She managed to make it to a neighbour’s house where he hid her and several other women in a tiny bathroom for over 100 days while the country literally went insane killing over a million Tutsi people.

I had heard of the Rwandan genocide before but I didn’t really know anything about it.  As I was reading this book, not only was I disgusted by the attitudes of the people responsible for the genocide, I was amazed by how quickly the general population adopted those same attitudes and joined in on the killing.  I am astonished by the capability of human beings to act in this manner, to be so cruel to each other.  In many cases, Tutsis were hunted and murdered by people who had been their neighbours and close friends.  And what they did to children?  Unforgivable.

I think what bothers me the most about the whole thing though is that we, the so-called civilized nations just sat back and allowed this to go on.  We knew what was happening but it took over three months before anyone was willing to enter to country to try and stop the slaughter.

This book made me so angry and sad.  It’s especially saddening to know that this is not a unique circumstance.  It happens all the time.  Why do we as humans feel the need to divide ourselves along racial lines?  Why do we have to feel superior to other races, sexes, religions?  And why does that feeling of superiority give us permission to imprison, enslave, torture and kill those we view as inferior?

I think this book (and others like it) are so important for us to read so we can take steps to prevent these kinds of things from occurring.  What struck me most was that Immaculée’s father was so confident that nothing was going to happen.  On the eve of the genocide, his children tried to convince him that they should leave but he wouldn’t believe that anything could go wrong.  How often do we think that way about where we live?  How often to we read books about the terrible things that go on in the world and think “That could never happen here.”?  “It’s ok for me to be a little bit racist because that could never happen here.”  These are the kind of attitudes and thoughts that eventually lead to hate crimes.

The subtitle for this book is “Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”.  I think this is a little misleading because Immaculée was already very religious before the genocide began.  There is definitely a lot of religion in the book as she is a very devout Catholic but it never bothered me.  It wasn’t preachy or in your face religion.  It’s just what got her through this difficult time in her life.  Because she was able to forgive the killers (which I am astounded at – I can’t even forgive them and it didn’t happen to me!)  she was able to move on and get past this terrible thing that happened to her.  She was able to be happy again.  Amazing.

This is a book I think everyone should read although you may not enjoy it!

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman

There’s not much of a summary I can post for this book.  Basically it’s a set of essays/memoirs of Waldman’s experiences as a mother.  Waldman claimes to be a bad mother because she discusses way in which she is unlike the stereotypical “good mother”.   But I disagree (and I think she probably does too) that she is a bad mother.

I really liked this book for a few reasons.  First of all, quite of few of the chapters really resonated with me.  I can’t really pinpoint any specifics anymore, but I there were times when I knew and understood exactly what she was talking about, because I’ve been there.

The other thing I liked about the book was how honest it was.  Waldman doesn’t back away from sharing the worst things (in her opinion) she’s done as a mother.  And while I disagreed with her philosophy and her decisions on certain issues, I appreciated her candour.  In one particular chapter, she discusses a decision she made as a mother that I would never have even considered, but her emotions about the situation were so raw and real, I couldn’t help but feel for her, even though I disagreed with her choice with all of my being.

I really enjoyed this book, but I know that a lot of people might be offended by it or at least some of Waldman’s choices as a mother.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs

This is the third book by Jacobs that I have read and I found it just as entertaining as the first two.  I think the sub-title for this book pretty much summarizes what it’s about.  Some of the experiments that he does are outsourcing his life to two different companies in India.  One company takes care of the business side of his life and the other the personal.  I think this is probably my favourite chapter because the concept is just so funny!  Another funny chapter is when he decides to practice radical honesty, in which he pretty much says exactly what he’s thinking, which is an interesting concept and I’m sure you can see how that could lead to some funny/awkward situations.  It also leads to some candid conversations.

Some other experiments Jacobs tries are becoming a hot woman (online, as he helps his nanny find a date), impersonating a celebrity at the Oscars, becoming more rational, posing naked for a magazine article, becoming more like George Washington, unitasking (not multitasking), and doing everything his wife asks for an entire month.

This book was just as funny and entertaining as his first two and I really enjoyed it.  Jacobs has a way of making fun of himself that is so honest and endearing.  I can’t imagine living with this man though.  I feel for his wife.  And apparently a lot of people feel this way, which is what led to the last chapter, where he does everything his wife says for a whole month.  She must be one amazing woman!

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

I’m sure most people are aware of what this book is about so I’ll make my summary brief.   Greg Mortenson was coming off the mountain after failing to summit K2 (his failure wasn’t really a failure, he wasn’t really given the opportunity to even attempt the summit when he used up all his strength saving a friend’s life).  Anyway, he was separated from his guide and stumbled upon a village in Pakistan called Korphe.  The people of Korphe were very hospitable and sheltered and fed him for the night until his guide could come and retrieve him.  In the short time that Mortenson spent in the village, he realized what every one before him had failed to see.  The village desperately needed, and deserved, a school.  And Mortenson decided  that he was the right man for the job. And so begins the process that will result in several schools and become Mortenson’s life work.

I loved this book.  It was so inspiring.  It was amazing to me the things that Mortenson went through, without giving up!  When he first began, he wrote 580 letters – mostly by typewriter in 1993 because no one had ever let him in on a little thing called computers!  He got one response to those initial letters – resulting in $100, but he still didn’t give up!  And this was just the beginning.  There were language barriers, funding issues, unfamiliar customs, dishonest dealers, kidnappings, the Taliban and hatred of Americans, and he just kept going!  This man just never let anything get in his way of accomplishing what he set out to do.

I also love the way the book portrays the majority of the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  In the post 9/11 world, I think we tend to see extremists carrying AK-47s when we picture the people in that part of the world, but this books shows that although that exists, it seems to be a minority.  The people that Mortenson grew to love were well-deserving people just trying to do what was best for their family and their village.  These are deeply religious people who are caring and kind.  Most of the major players in Mortenson’s organization sound like people I would like to meet.

This one is a must read.  Anyone who hasn’t already should really pick this one up.

Catch Me if you Can by Frank W. Abagnale

This book is written by con man Frank Abagnale and is the story of the frauds he perpetrated.  He started out impersonating a pilot (and this seems to have been his favourite scam) and used the guise to garner trust for passing bad cheques.  He also pretended to be a doctor and worked in a hospital and was paid for a whole year.  He then passed the bar and worked as a lawyer for nine months, without ever even finishing high school.

I was amazed at how easy it was for Frank (who used several different aliases) to go about stealing money from several banks, hotels and businesses just by passing bad cheques.  I know this wouldn’t be nearly as easy to do today (mostly because most places don’t even take cheques anymore, let alone cash them).  I was also amazed at how long he was able to con these people out of their money, using the same alias.

The book was a really fascinating read and what made it all the more interesting was how intelligent and creative Frank was.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story.  It’s not just for lovers of non-fiction, that’s for sure.  I would give it an 8/10.

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