I laughed so hard at this book. It's a collection
of reports from eighteenth and nineteenth-century medical journals in which
doctors shared their most interesting and unusual cases.
I learned about the
sailor who alleviated his companion's boredom at sea by swallowing knives and
later passing them--until one got stuck. About the use of a chicken to cure a
child's fever, because of course. About how cigar smoke could rescue someone
from drowning (guess where the good doctor was supposed to blow it?). And the
physician who thought he could train his infant son to be amphibious by
immersing him in water. I can't remember if he kept a lighted cigar nearby
during experiments.
I delight in retelling the stories for my students. Still, I'm careful also to note Morris's perceptive point: that however bizarre the
treatments seem today, doctors of the past really were trying to help, using
the medical knowledge available at the time. It's just really hard to help
anyone if you don't know what germs are.
A mysterious epidemic of dental explosions... * A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick. * A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice.
These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries. This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.
From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity - such as the sailor who swallowed…
Here's a simple question: when did people
learn exactly where babies come from?
As a historian and father of three, I'm
embarrassed to say it never occurred to me to ask, despite all the times I've
spent tracing the lives of people in the past and all the pre-natal visits I
joined my wife for. The answer is it was shockingly recent.
Until the late nineteenth
century, the only certainties were that sex sometimes led to pregnancy, that
women had a monthly cycle that was somehow involved, and that men contributed a
fluid "seed."
Everyone knows that ultrasounds are a relatively recent
invention, but I realized that what separates us from the past is not simply
that we can see our babies in the womb, while before, people couldn't. It's also
that we know how the babies got there in the first place.
Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes
Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from.
Taking a page from investigative thrillers, acclaimed science writer Edward Dolnick looks to these early scientists as if they were…
Twenty years
ago, I read Buzz Bissinger's high school football classic Friday Night Lights,
and I've read everything he's published ever since.
At first, it appeared The
Mosquito Bowl, the name refers to a game played between two Marine units on
Guadalcanal at the end of 1944, would be another sports rouser with WWII as the
backdrop.
I quickly realized I had it backward. It's the story of young
men at war: the families and dreams they left behind and the suffering they
endured before, for far too many, death came for them, suddenly, painfully,
senselessly.
Ultimately, it's not a sports book or even a WWII book. It's a
profound meditation on the short lives of young men who go to war at any time.
The cruelty of so many lives cut short was unfathomable. It hurt to read.
Instant New York Times Bestseller * Winner of the General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
"Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it." - John Grisham
An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.
Within the Founding Generation lurked many
unscrupulous figures—men who violated the era’s expectation of public virtue
and advanced their own interests at the expense of others.
They were turncoats and traitors, opportunists
and con artists, spies, and foreign intriguers. Some of their names are well-known, like Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. Others are less notorious now but
were no less threatening, such as James Wilkinson, who served fifteen years as
a commanding general in the US Army despite rumors that he spied for Spain and
conspired with traitors.
A Republic of Scoundrels seeks to re-examine the Founding Generation and replace the
hagiography of the Founding Fathers with something more realistic: a picture
that embraces the many facets of our nation’s origins.
The story of
little bears who sneak out of bed to go find the source of a mysterious
“WHHHHOOOOO” sound, its repetition of phrases makes it easy for emerging
readers.
There can’t be more than 20 different words in the whole book,
but it’s a vivid, fully realized story.
My daughter especially loves it when
they crawl out of bed to go exploring.
This classic children's book is perfect for young and reluctant readers, thanks to its clever repetition and use of only 24 words!
Out of Bed, To the Window, Through the Woods... Whoooo!
It's scares for little bears in this classic children's book for beginning and reluctant readers! Lots of repetition makes for easy learning, and the spooky but safe theme is a big hit with young ones.
Beginner Books are designed to encourage even 'non-reading' children to read. Some Beginner Books are simple stories, others are hilarious nonsense: both types have been designed to give children confidence and make them…
