Lately, I've been worrying about the end of civilization, but this book made me think
that maybe we'll make it through.
Last
summer's wildfires, heat waves, and torrential rains can turn you pretty gloomy, and at first glance, Violet Moller's book wouldn't seem to allay those dark
thoughts. But she details how the wisdom
of the classical Greeks and Romans survived during Europe's Dark Ages because
they were cherished by Arabic and Islamic scholars in a series of great centres
of learning that stretched from Baghdad to Spain.
Moller's
book shows once again just how resilient people can be.
'A lovely debut from a gifted young author. Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
In The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity - Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy - through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad, from Muslim Cordoba to Catholic Toledo, from Salerno's medieval…
This is a "good news" novel about a young mother forced to leave her homeland
during the Civil War in Lebanon with her young son after her husband was
kidnapped.
Muna is up against a lot, and she must find a job, but even though
she's a qualified teacher, the only work she can find is as a telephone salesperson
for a line of weight loss products. She
discovers she has a knack for connecting with her clients, and their problems
put hers in perspective.
I was sure that
things would work out all right for her, but I sat up late to finish the book
because I wanted to see just how her kindness and intelligence would triumph.
I'm a sucker for anyone who loves what they're doing and can explain it to you with lots of details and enthusiasm. Brusatte certainly can do that!
His earlier book about dinosaurs was fascinating, and when his new book about mammals was announced, I couldn't wait to read it. I wasn't disappointed because he covers millions of years of evolution with a combination of first-rate science and charming personal insights.
The take-home lesson? That mammals took advantage of the many niches left open after the dinosaurs perished, and perhaps we can be just as successful in making the best of hard times.
'Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.' - The Sunday Times, 'Best Books For Summer'
The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They - or, more precisely, we - originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back,…
What can we learn about coping with rising sea levels from ancient times?
The scenario we are facing is scary: within a few decades, sea levels around the world may well rise by a metre or more as glaciers and ice caps melt due to climate change. Large parts of our coastal cities will be flooded, the basic outline of our world will be changed, and torrential rains will present their own challenges. But this is not the first time that people have had to cope with threatening waters, because sea levels have been rising for thousands of years, ever since the end of the last Ice Age. Stories told by the Indigenous people in Australia and on the Pacific coast of North America, and those found in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as Roman and Chinese histories all bear witness to just how traumatic these experiences were. The responses to these challenges varied: people adapted by building dikes, canals, and seawalls; by resorting to prayer or magic; and, very often, by moving out of the way of the rushing waters.
Against the Seas explores these stories as well as the various measures being taken today to combat rising waters, focusing on five regions: Indonesia, Shanghai, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, the Salish Sea, and the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. What happened in the past and what is being tried today may help us in the future and, if nothing else, give us hope that we will survive.
