DON'T EVER GIVE UP
2022-09-07 Book Review: The Downside of Human Exceptionalism By Rachel Nuwer The German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was, by all accounts, a miserable human being. He famously sought meaning through suffering, which he experienced in ample amounts throughout his life. Nietzsche struggled with depression, suicidal ideation, and hallucinations, and when he was 44 — […]
2022-08-21 Book Review: A Psychologist Plumbs the Cultural Roots of Emotion by Emily Cataneo When the Australian anthropologist Christine Dureau traveled to the Solomon Islands for research, she brought her toddler along, at first imagining that the universal experience of maternal love would help her relate to the Simbo women living in this foreign culture. […]
Book Review – From Slave to Abolitionist: The Life of William Wells Brown The book titled “From Slave to Abolitionist: The Life of William Wells Brown, narrates a life of former salve, William Wells Brown, and describes his journey to become a “free man.” Brown was born in Kentucky in 1814 to […]
Excerpt from my book Anthology 42 By Nathan H. Chan Preface of Anthology 42 COVID-19 hit, and the world descended into chaos. Combing the shelves of my bedroom library for books I had not yet read, I paused to peer outside the window and saw no one. The once-bustling streets of Hong Kong […]
2022-07-23 Book Review: A Riveting History of Plastic Surgery in World War I by Elizabeth Svoboda In the wee hours of Nov. 20, 1917, a British army private named Percy Clare lay on a grassy hillside, awaiting a German attack that would begin at dawn. When an order came to drive toward a trench a […]
2022-07-11 Book Review: The Limits of Drug-Based Psychiatry by Joshua C. Kendall About 40 years ago, Daniel Bergner’s younger brother, Bob, then 21 and a college dropout, had a psychotic break. He became delusional; he was convinced that he might be the messiah and that he could cure their grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease. Worn down by […]
2022-06-20 Book Review: The Unleashing of Tyrannosaurus Rex By Dan Falk The funny thing about Tyrannosaurus rex is that it’s become so familiar — from Hollywood movies to comic books to children’s toys — that it’s easy to forget that we’ve only known of its existence for about 120 years. Certainly we were fascinated by […]
Book Review: Behind the Quest for Eternal Life by Jenny Morber At first glance, one might assume that Peter Ward’s “The Price of Immortality: The Race to Live Forever” is yet another book promising secrets to regain youth, restore health, and outlive those who lack the knowledge or willpower to cheat time. But this is […]
2022-05-31 Book Review: A Timely History of Nuclear Catastrophes By Mark Wolverton Russia’s invasion of Ukraine not only reminded the world of all the usual horrors of modern warfare, but also stirred the long-slumbering spectre of nuclear catastrophe, both in the form of nuclear war à la “Dr. Strangelove” and of civilian disaster à la […]
2022-05-23 Book Review: An Urgent Plea to Save the World’s Megaforests By M.R. O’Connor The first peer-reviewed map of the world’s megaforests was the result of an improbable collaboration between the Swedish furniture maker Ikea and the environmental activist organization Greenpeace. They were thrust together following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Russia’s forests […]