What We Are Reading Today: Empire of Ice and Stone

What We Are Reading Today: Empire of Ice and Stone
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Updated 26 January 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Empire of Ice and Stone

What We Are Reading Today: Empire of Ice and Stone

Author: Buddy Levy

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. 

The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.

Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Buddy Levy’s “Empire of Ice and Stone” tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership: one selfless, one self-serving, and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history.


What We Are Reading Today: Uncharted Strait by Richard C. Bush

What We Are Reading Today: Uncharted Strait by Richard C. Bush
Updated 01 April 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Uncharted Strait by Richard C. Bush

What We Are Reading Today: Uncharted Strait by Richard C. Bush

The future of the Taiwan Strait is more wide open than at any other time in recent decades. Tensions between China and Taiwan have eased since 2008.

But the movement toward full rapprochement remains fragile. Whether the two sides of the Strait can sustain and expand a cooperative relationship after years of mutual distrust and fear is still uncertain.

Richard Bush, who studied issues surrounding Taiwan during almost 20 years in the US government, explains through this book the current state of relations between China and Taiwan, providing the details of what led to the current situation.

He extrapolates on the likely future of cross-Strait relations. Bush also discusses America’s stake, analyzing possible ramifications for US interests in the critically important East Asia region and recommends steps to protect those interests, according to a review on goodreads.com.

The book raises key questions, such as whether the dispute stems from the protracted division of the Chinese state after WWII.


What We Are Reading Today: The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation of an Iconic Species

What We Are Reading Today: The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and  Conservation of an Iconic Species
Updated 01 April 2023

What We Are Reading Today: The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation of an Iconic Species

What We Are Reading Today: The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and  Conservation of an Iconic Species

Author: Craig Paccker

Lions are the only social cat. They hunt together, raise cubs together, and defend territories together against neighbors and strangers. Lions also rest atop their ecological pyramid, with profound impacts on competitors and prey alike, but their future is far from assured. Craig Packer interweaves his discoveries from more than 40 years of research—including a substantial body of new findings—to provide an unforgettable portrait of the African lion.

He shares insights into the intricacies of lion life from birth until death and describes efforts to conserve lions in an increasingly crowded continent.

With a wealth of breathtaking photographs by Daniel Rosengren, “The Lion” sheds light on a host of intriguing scientific questions, such as why males have manes, why lions are social, how sociality limits and stabilizes lion populations, how close inbreeding affects lion health, why lions become man-eaters, how lions and people can best be protected from each other, and how to ensure the lion’s survival into the next century.


What We Are Reading Today: Control, The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics 

What We Are Reading Today: Control, The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics 
Updated 30 March 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Control, The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics 

What We Are Reading Today: Control, The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics 

Author: Adam Rutherford

Control, The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics is a non-fiction book written by Adam Rutherford in 2022, handling topics of genetics, history, and political ideology. 

Most of his publications - both books and articles - discuss the interdisciplinary relationship between eugenics, science, and race.

While inspired by Charles Darwin’s thoughts on evolution, the book still is quite argumentative in terms of human biology and genetics. 

Rutherford talks about heredity and how it is ruled by human genetics and its related sciences. 

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, Geneticist Francis Galton defined eugenics as “the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations.”

The book is divided into two parts. In part one titled Quality Control, Rutherford traces the history of eugenics as far back as Roman times, to the US’s compulsory sterilization in the 1930s and Nazi Germany. 

He sheds light on books five and four of The Republic, where Plato commended population and breeding control even for children in poverty. 

In part two titled Same As It Was, Rutherford lays out the facts that eugenics did not end with the Third Reich in Germany. He delves deeper into the aftermath of such practices through the Doctor’s Trial and the Nuremberg code. 

Rutherford is currently a lecturer in Biology and Society in the genetics, evolution, and environment Division of Biosciences at University College London. 

In 2021, Rutherford won The Royal Society David Attenborough Award Lecture on the politics of DNA. 

He holds a Ph.D. in developmental genetics of the retina in mammals at the Institute of Child Health at UCL. 

Other books he had written include How to Argue With a Racist, The Book of Humans, and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. 

Rutherford also worked as a scientific consultant for movies such as Ex Machina, Annihilation, World War Z, and even The Cat in The Hat. a
 


What We Are Reading Today: Children of the State by Jeff Hobbs

What We Are Reading Today: Children of the State by Jeff Hobbs
Updated 30 March 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Children of the State by Jeff Hobbs

What We Are Reading Today: Children of the State by Jeff Hobbs

In “Children of the State,” Jeff Hobbs  writes about the school-to-prison pipeline and life in the juvenile “justice” system.

For many kids, a mistake made at age 13 or 14 — often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain — can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy.

Writing with great heart and sensitivity, Hobbs challenges preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works — and demonstrates in brilliant, piercing prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable.


What We Are Reading Today: A Mystery of Mysteries

What We Are Reading Today: A Mystery of Mysteries
Updated 30 March 2023

What We Are Reading Today: A Mystery of Mysteries

What We Are Reading Today: A Mystery of Mysteries

Author: Mark Dawidziak

Mark Dawidziak’s “A Mystery of Mysteries” is a brilliant biography of Edgar Allan Poe that examines the renowned author’s life through the prism of his mysterious death and its many possible causes.

Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849, at just forty, in a painful, utterly bizarre manner that would not have been out of place in one of his own tales of terror. 

In a compelling dual-timeline narrative alternating between Poe’s increasingly desperate last months and his brief but impactful life, the book sheds new light on the enigmatic master of macabre.