GenreLand discussion

Fiction or nonfiction is fine as long as it features science. I see Hanging Falls: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, Book 6 on my January TBR, and it is bound to include some veterinary science as well as some forensic science.

I've had Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto on my list for a while and meant to read it for Popsugar in 2020, so I might do that.

Do you consider a book about Arquitecture in Ancient Greece as Science ?
Or Farenheit 451 ?

Marie-thérèse wrote: "Do you consider a book about Arquitecture in Ancient Greece as Science ?
Or Farenheit 451 ?"

I'd call engineering a science, so architecture should fall under that. I'm not sure about Fahrenheit 451. It's been ages since I read it, but I don't remember anything sciencey about the actual story.

So far I'm counting Killer Chardonnay, which has bits of fermentation science and forensic science in it, and Sisters of the Vast Black, which has space nuns using their living ship to battle a plague. For all I know about such things, it may be bad science, but it's still science.

I'm not sure about counting Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea. It's a collection of short stories, and some of them are more science fiction than fantasy, but they are all pretty fantastical and really test the boundaries of sciencey.

So finally we are already on January 12, and I have a paper to write and an exam to prepare, so I will have no time to read any of these two books I proposed for the end of this month.
Maybe Farenheit 451, but for sure not the book about Griek arquitecture.
I will save my neck (I hope) with the paper and the exam: the subject is "Geographia Fisica e Ambiente".

So, physical geography, environment, global warming, deforestation, desertification, energy challenges.

(This was not my first choice to present here because it is in portuguese, and a book from the university only, I can not recommand an English edition, but for sure there are plenty)

I hope it is OK.

I finished my science book last night - The First 20 Minutes and while it did have a lot of good info - much of it was common sense (hey, movement is good for you). The biggest problem I had with it, although it references MANY scientific studies and papers, it doesn't have a foot note or an end note or a bibliography - you just have to trust the author that she has science backing up her statements.

So, overall, not sure I would rec this to anyone - Going to pass it on to my work peeps as that is where it originally came from anyway.

For this topic, I read The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women I found it engaging and horrifying.

Amy, I read that several years ago. I'm still haunted by what those poor women went through. It was all completely avoidable...

Cosmic Landscapes and the Illusion of Intelligent Design by Leonard Susskind

Further on that note...I understood the concepts as written, as Dr.Susskind is extremely good at describing the theory, work and proof. The mathematics were waaaaay above my head.

Amy...I haven't read the book, but recently saw an article about the Radium Girls. It's utterly terrifying. The reason for the article being published, is that the last of the girls just passed away. Apparently, the main factory that made radium products was in near continuous use until the mid 1980's. Also, there is now a government push to clean up the old factories which are essentially Super Fund sites.

Amy wrote: "For this topic, I read The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women I found it engaging and horrifying."

I have that one on my wishlist....

I finished The Body Keeps the Score about neuroscience and trauma. Highly recommend for anyone interested in what makes people tick.

I just got How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems out of the library, so I'm counting that. I may or may not finish it this weekend, but I'm counting it anyway. So far I'm really enjoying it. I own Thing Explainer and What If? and I've been an xkcd fan for years, so it's not surprising that I'm enjoying Munroe's particular brand of science-based humor.

I have made a start on The Knowledge, a book about how we might go about "rebooting" our technology and civilization post-apocalypse. When I originally bought it, there was no particular apocalypse scenario presenting itself. Now, maybe we have a little more background context...

I read Burnout: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It about emotional/physical burnout. I thought it was decent. The science was definitely written for the less scientifically minded audience, with lots of cute references and language that is also a bit cutesy, but I thought it made some good points. The best tip was to be sure to "complete the stress cycle". In other words, aside from dealing with stress itself, you need to deal with the adrenaline and cortisol that stress generates in order to relax. Doing something physical- exercising, walking, dancing, maybe creating something, is a good way to do this.

Stina wrote: "Fiction or nonfiction is fine as long as it features science. I see Hanging Falls: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, Book 6 on my January TBR, and it is bound to include some veterinary s..."

I did finish this one, and yes, it had a significant amount of veterinary and forensic sciences.

C wrote: "I just got How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems out of the library, so I'm counting that. I may or may not finish it this weekend, but I'm counting it any..."

Gotta love xkcd!

Marie-thérèse wrote: "So finally we are already on January 12, and I have a paper to write and an exam to prepare, so I will have no time to read any of these two books I proposed for the end of this month.
Maybe Faren..."

That sounds plenty sciencey! :-)

Angela wrote: "I finished my science book last night - The First 20 Minutes and while it did have a lot of good info - much of it was common sense (hey, movement is good for you). The biggest problem I had with i..."

Aagh, that sounds frustrating!

Amy wrote: "For this topic, I read The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women I found it engaging and horrifying."

I don't think I could handle that. I had a tough time reading The Only Harmless Great Thing, and that was clearly a fictional take on the topic.

Dawn wrote: "Cosmic Landscapes and the Illusion of Intelligent Design by Leonard Susskind"

Oooh, that sounds interesting! Beyond me, but interesting.

Cleokatra wrote: "Amy, I read that several years ago. I'm still haunted by what those poor women went through. It was all completely avoidable..."

Totally avoidable. It was a travesty, how it was handled by the corporation.

Dawn wrote: "Amy...I haven't read the book, but recently saw an article about the Radium Girls. It's utterly terrifying. The reason for the article being published, is that the last of the girls just passed awa..."

It is insane how badly the companies/government handled all of this. Especially considering they went through another round of it in the late 70s at one of the same locations. Ridiculous.

I finally finished Crucible by James Rollins for Science. It was a thriller with witches and the Inquisition and above all, the creation of a viable AI (or at least in the story). Eve (and her creator Mara) go on a whirlwind ride escaping from rabid Inquisitors. This book is in the Sigma series by Rollins which also has a paramilitary team trying to find Mara and Eve. Truly a suspenseful read.