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[books 2008] Start the Week selections
Jul. 13th, 2008 10:48 pmTwo more books that I heard about when their authors were promoting them on Radio 4's Start the Week:
36. The Wisdom of Whores - Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Politics of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani
Pisani spent ten years as an epidemiologist researching AIDS throughout the world. Before that she was a journalist. This book is about how the science to stop AIDS in its tracks was available fairly early on, but policy never followed through - because it involves honestly talking about two things people don't like to talk about: sex and drugs. She supplies plenty of anecdotes (?case studies) from her time in the field, mostly with sex workers in Indonesia. This is a wonderful, entertainingly written, angry-making book. I got it from the library but am considering buying my own copy so I can foist it on other people.
37. The Phoenix: St. Paul's Cathedral And The Men Who Made Modern London by Leo Hollis
I can't resist anything about the history of London, even though this is not generally a period that does much for me. It encompasses the period from the Civil War and the plague and Great Fire, to the completion of the new St Paul's early in the 18th century. This coincides with the material covered in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and is concerned with very similar themes - the New Philosophy, founding of the Royal Academy, Hooke, Newton, Wren. The technical architecture bits occasionally baffled me, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this. Definitely recommended.
36. The Wisdom of Whores - Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Politics of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani
Pisani spent ten years as an epidemiologist researching AIDS throughout the world. Before that she was a journalist. This book is about how the science to stop AIDS in its tracks was available fairly early on, but policy never followed through - because it involves honestly talking about two things people don't like to talk about: sex and drugs. She supplies plenty of anecdotes (?case studies) from her time in the field, mostly with sex workers in Indonesia. This is a wonderful, entertainingly written, angry-making book. I got it from the library but am considering buying my own copy so I can foist it on other people.
37. The Phoenix: St. Paul's Cathedral And The Men Who Made Modern London by Leo Hollis
I can't resist anything about the history of London, even though this is not generally a period that does much for me. It encompasses the period from the Civil War and the plague and Great Fire, to the completion of the new St Paul's early in the 18th century. This coincides with the material covered in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and is concerned with very similar themes - the New Philosophy, founding of the Royal Academy, Hooke, Newton, Wren. The technical architecture bits occasionally baffled me, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this. Definitely recommended.
