Oaxaca Journal, by Oliver Sacks, 159pp 2002 (hardcover national geographic edition)(available in Lincoln library, audible)
Dr. Sacks (1933-2015), a neurologist and well-known author, in 1999 took a 10 day trip with the American Fern Society to see, catalogue, and draw the large variety of ferns found in Oaxaca, Mexico. He kept a journal of the trip and the book is the resultant description of Zapotec culture, amateur naturalists, edible insects, psychedelics, and especially of ferns. Dr. Sacks was fascinated with these primitive plants that have survived, with little change, for over 300 million years. Dr. John Mickel, the fern curator at the New York Botanical Garden, and well known author led the group. I took his semester long course on ferns and know several of the participants. That made the reading of this well written book even more compelling.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore, 2017, 496 pages
The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring, and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what it’s like to literally lose your mind.
H IS FOR HAWK by HELEN MACDONALD, 2016, 320 pp (paperback ed.)
On the surface H is for Hawk is a falconry book chronicling the training of a Northern Goshawk, and yet it is so much more. It is a brilliantly written memoir of the darkest time in Helen Macdonald’s as she struggled to cope with the sudden death of her father, noted photographer, photo journalist Alisdair MacDonald. She spent a year training a northern goshawk in the wake of her father’s death. Having been a falconer for many years she purchased a young goshawk to help her through the grieving process. The story opens on Helen who is a protagonist as well as a falconer. She’s talking about how she loves birds. Specifically, she talks about the Goshawk, Known for being difficult to train, these savage birds have piqued her interest.
