'Awe-Manac' by Jill Badonsky: Daily Inspiration

https://thatwritererinoriordan.tumblr.com/post/186844949205

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

https://thatwritererinoriordan.tumblr.com/post/186965806140/i-found-my-personal-copies

Comic Book Shop Haul: Rainbow Rowell's Pumpkinheads, Captain Marvel, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

https://thatwritererinoriordan.tumblr.com/post/187665739990

October Mini-Review: 'Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture' Edited by Roxane Gay

This should be required reading in every U.S. high school. It can be grim and depressing to face just how badly American culture (this is primarily U.S.-focused) handles the issue of consent to sex. Every essay in this collection is chilling.

Still, we can't do very much to address the problem unless we're willing to face it head-on. Men, women, and children all deserve better than this.

'Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11' by Mitchell Zuckoff

Forget the conspiracy theories that have cropped up in the past 18 years. If you want to know what happened on September 11, 2001, stick to factual, journalistic reports like this one. Zuckoff cites extensive notes in his sources, including firsthand interviews with survivors, so this isn't just some person with a YouTube channel talking out of their...imagination.

This is a hard read. It was an awful, brutal, cruel act of terrorism, and this narrative pulls no punches when it comes to graphic descriptions. Content warning for descriptions of violence and bodily injury; sensitive readers may not be able to handle some of the more vivid chapters. (One of the really graphic ones relating to the Shanksville, Pennsylvania plane crash was mentioned in the Washington Post review of this book. If you could handle that review, you'll probably be okay.)

This book does two important things. One, it personalizes the unthinkable tragedy, bringing it back down to human scale. Two, it ends on a hopeful note, reminding us that survivors continue to survive and thrive despite their horrific losses and injuries.

I don't know why I'm drawn to reading such sad things. I guess it's a "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" thing. But I do know that an American is more likely to be killed by a bee sting than by a terrorist. The reality is that we're actually safer than we've ever been. So read this history, but don't get depressed.

I borrowed this audio book from my local library using the Libby app. I wasn't obligated to review it in any way.

'The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation'

Pro of this book: It allowed me to peek inside the intellectual lives of many of the American thinkers I studied in American Literature class many years ago: Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, et al.

Con of this book: This is no fault of the author's, but it's disappointing to see that some of the scientifically inaccurate and misleading arguments against Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, as presented in The Origin of Species, are still around and being used by "intelligent design" advocates now. Guys, if it wasn't scientifically accurate in the mid-to-late 19th century, you definitely have no business dragging it back it up now.

I borrowed the audio version of this book from my local library using the Libby app. I was not obligated in any way to review it.

'Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them' by Jennifer Wright

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If your favorite podcast is Sawbones, this book is for you.

This is the first book I've read by Wright, but I really enjoyed her writing style and authorial voice. She belongs to the Roxane Gay school of feminist scholarship that has a sense of humor but puts up with no bullshit. Beginning with the Antonine Plague (probably of smallpox) that killed between 10 and 18 million ancient Romans during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Wright examines how societies reacted each time a mass illness raged through them.

In a predictable historical pattern, individuals have two reactions to plagues: To take advantage (often by selling bogus cures) and to genuinely try to ease suffering. There's a bit of good news in there: Namely, that there's never been a mass illness without individuals reacting with compassion and trying their best to help, even if the cause of the illness was not yet understood. For every bad reaction (like some of the crap that happened to Typhoid Mary), there were people like Father Damien (of Molokai fame) who risked their own lives in the service of others.

Some of humanity's previous plagues were caused by diseases that are curable now. Tuberculosis was the bane of the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, but can now be eliminated with antibiotics. So, too, can syphilis, although knowing this doesn't do much to help the victims of the infamous Tuskegee experiments whose lives were lost or irreparably altered by their unethical doctors withholding the cure from them. (Shame, America. Shame.)

Other plagues could still kill us today. The bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages is still with us. About a dozen Americans get it every year. We could drive ourselves to anxiety thinking about the "Spanish" (actually American) flu spread by service members quartered close together to wage the Great War. Influenza is still one of our deadliest infections and still has no cure.

But worrying us about plagues that will happen in the future isn't Wright's purpose. She's more interested in documenting the ways we've always reacted when our friends, family members, neighbors, and ourselves fall ill in large numbers. Are children cared for or abandoned? Do we spread deadly misinformation, focus on what facts we can glean, or expend our energy on compassion? This book combines sociology, psychology, and medical history.

The most recent plague examined is that of polio*, which terrified Americans through the middle of the 20th century when it could be cured. Wright chose to focus on those epidemics in which the key players are historical ones. In her epilogue, she mentions the AIDS epidemic of the late 1970s and 1980s. She chose not to write about it because it's still within living memory to a much greater extent than polio. I can appreciate that decision. Having lived through the 1980s, I can understand why it's tough to be objective about the lack of government response to the deaths of so many innocent people. (And all victims of disease are innocent - microbes are not a moral judgment).

If you read this book, you'll learn some interesting historical facts. You'll be impressed by the heroes of history who did their best to respond with compassionate care. You'll be saddened by a few less-than-desirable aspects of human behavior. And hopefully, if you ever find yourself caught in a plague, you'll be a little bit wiser. I'll do my best to try to err on the side of compassion. While also remembering that personal protective gear exists.

I borrowed this audiobook from my local library using the Libby app and was not obligated in any way to review it.

*Upon reflection, the encephalitis lethargica epidemic may come after the polio chapter.