Book Reviews September

BOOK & REVIEW The pain chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering Melanie Thernstrom

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veryone experiences physical pain every now and then, but for some people, pain is a constant part of their lives. Millions of us (70 million in the U.S. alone) suffer from pain on a daily basis. In The Pain Chronicles Melanie Thernstrom tells the story of pain, starting thousands of years ago and ending in experimental modern day pain treatments.

Pain has been conceptualized differently throughout the ages. An early example of pain treatment are painbanishing spells that were cast in ancient Babylonia. Today, thanks to important scientific discoveries, pain is dealt with differently. Read about the leading pain clinics, the newest insights from medical research and about experimental drug treatments. Besides valuable information on treatments, there are the stories of how various people battle with their pain, including the author herself.

A great deal of wisdom can be found in these stories. An example is a story from a woman who, after visiting over 85 doctors, finds relief from her back pain from a chiropractor who advises her to move instead of taking pills. Moving is the solution pursued by the author herself, who found relief in changing her wish for a pain-free life to a wish for a life filled with love and family.

1493: Uncovering the new world Columbus created Charles C. Mann

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493, the sequel to the best-selling 1491, is in fact a book about globalization. It tells of why tomatoes are found in Italy and chili peppers in Thailand. When Christopher Columbus and other travelers set foot on new parts of the planet, they changed the world, bringing species to places where they had never been seen before. Roughly 200 million years ago, the continents were split apart by geological forces. The result was that different ecosystems existed in different parts of the world. However, when Columbus and others traveled to new and unknown parts of the world, these natural niches came to an end.

Their goal was to trade goods throughout the world, but this great Columbian Exchange also lead to some unwelcome side-effects: fungi, rats, bacteria and viruses travelled along with them.

Furthermore, the sad story is that the Columbian Exchange greatly benefited Europe, but devastated other continents such as Africa and Asia. Even many of the political disputes today, according to Mann, can be traced back to the way the Columbian Exchange changed the world.

GET IT HERE

GET IT HERE

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Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker

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ith the death of Osama Bin Laden this year, the U.S. has made important progress in the ‘War on Terror.’ The action – led by US special forces – has astonished the world. But these actions require a great deal of planning and intelligence gathering. In Counterstrike, New York Times reporters Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, uncover how the United States addresses terrorism in innovative new ways, unbeknownst to the outside world.

The 9/11 attacks shocked the world and led the U.S. to declare ‘war on terrorism’ to find terrorist networks responsible for these horrible attacks. This was the starting point for military invasions in places like Iraq, who’s government allegedly had some involvement with terror networks. However, all the firepower and military invasions did not stop terrorism and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new approach.

Counterstrike tells the story of how analysts within the military, law enforcement and spy agencies created new and innovative ways to fight terrorism. These new methods are carried out with extreme secrecy, especially from the general public. This book contains many revelations on how national security works and is managed, including the details of how Osama Bin Laden was found and killed in May 2011.

Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To Sian Beilock

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hy do we mess up an important job interview, forget our lines during a stage performance we practiced many times or play an awful tennis match against a weaker opponent?

Learn the answers to these questions in Choke.

It can happen to all of us: choking up when we need to perform. When it happens, we experience shame and pain and often don’t understand why we forgot lines that we knew by heart a few moments earlier. Even more intriguing is why we sometimes perform at levels that were even higher and better than we ever did before.

Bad performances often happen when the stakes are high. A lot of it has to do with performance anxiety which can make us choke, according to Dr. Sian Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science. Beilock explains what anxiety does to us, how it works in our brains, how body and mind are related, and how we can manage our anxiety more successfully, leading to better performances.

A big consolation for all of us that have experienced choking under pressure: the best performers are most susceptible to it.

GET IT HERE

GET IT HERE

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