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--> --> Nonfiction Trading syphilis for smallpox GET WELL SOON History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them By Jennifer Wright 320 pp. Henry Holt and Co, New York. Reviewed by David E. Hoekenga, M. D. Plagues have killed more humans than anything else. In fact, nothing else comes even close. Yet the author writes with unreserved humor and grace, beginning with her dedication: “For Mom and Dad, Would it kill you to go to the doctor now and then?” The author cleverly uses a picture of a Chili’s restaurant which holds 180 adults, to graphically illustrate just how 168 Spaniards (without guacamole) could conquer 80,000 Incas who were weakened by disease and misled by their gods. She remarks when describing encephalitis lethargic that the neurologist Oliver Sacks was the coolest man who ever walked on the earth. With this judgement I totally concur. In chapter after deadly chapter Wright catalogues the deadly effect of plague after plague, accurately describing a v...

Nonfiction Before and beyond the Big Bang UNIVERSAL A Guide to the Cosmos By Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw 280 pp. Da Capo Reviewed by David E. Hoekenga, M.D. This is the story of our universe with cosmological events laid out in clear, fantastic detail. For example, before the Big Bang all the matter in our universe was compressed in an area smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. For those readers who don’t use mathematics and physics in their daily lives, I recommend beginning with the Appendix for a quick review of the powers of ten, units such as light years, ångstrom units, femtometres and mega-electron volt, and elementary particles. Then savor the abundant helpful illustrations in the rest of the book. The authors write, “Cosmology is surely the most audacious branch of science. The idea that the Milky Way, our home galaxy of 400 billion stars, was once compressed in a region so vanishingly small is outlandish enough. That the entire visible congregation...

Nonfiction Doughboys, carrier pigeons, and blind luck NEVER IN FINER COMPANY: The Men of the Great War's Lost Battalion By Edward G. Lengel 368 pp. Da Capo Reviewed By William C. Crawford War produces instantaneous heroes as well as those who percolate up to public prominence over time. The men of the Lost Battalion fall squarely into both camps. This book illustrates how makeshift, multiethnic, military units made up of mostly poor, Gotham City soldiers rose up to demonstrate surprising battlefield valor during the Great War. When the Yanks were surrounded with no food and little ammunition, our boys had a plucky way of shifting the odds miraculously back in their favor. They stuck together and leaned on their New York City roots. Blind luck and a wounded carrier pigeon also played into this saga, but mostly dogged personal determination overcame blatant command mistakes to produce a gripping rescue of US soldiers hopelessly trapped in the Argonne Forest. A disparate...