The Y Logs

Yzabel / July 17, 2020

Review: Stopping the Next Pandemic

Stopping the Next Pandemic: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened, and How to Stop the Next One by Debora MacKenzie
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

Over the last 20 years of epidemics, we learned every lesson needed to stop this coronavirus outbreak in its tracks. We heeded none of them. The result is a pandemic on a scale never before seen in our lifetimes. In this captivating, authoritative, and eye-opening book, science journalist and researcher Debora MacKenzie lays out the full story of how and why it happened: the previous viruses that should have prepared us, the shocking public health failures that paved the way, the failure to contain the outbreak, and most importantly, what we must do to prevent future pandemics.

Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades, and she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a manageable outbreak to a global pandemic. Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101–how viruses spread and how pandemics end–and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis. In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously. Fighting this pandemic and preventing the next one will take political action of all kinds, globally, from governments, the scientific community, and individuals–but it is possible.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I must be a glutton for punishment for reading this kind of book while the world is still not done with COVID-19. However, I also want to stay informed and learn things without having to wade through the dramafest that news in general have become, so all in all, this was a very appropriate read: informative, interesting, considering the ecological impact as well (no, killing all the bats is not a solution, plus it would collapse the whole ecosystem anyway), on the whistle-blowing side yet also covering what could be done (a.k.a not being alarmist just for the sake of being alarmist)… and not so depressing or anxiety-inducing as I had feared.

I didn’t know the author before reading this specific piece of her work. As a scientific journalist who’s been working that field for decades, she was able to bring her own experience and point of view, gathered from observations made on previous outbreaks, and that also gave the book a more personalised tone. In general, “COVID-19” seemed to me well-researched, easy to grasp and follow (no reliance on over-complicated scientific terms here), and a reflection on how countering such viruses is definitely not only scientists’ responsibility, but also governments’, for implementing (or choosing not to…) the policies that will help fund research and curb the spreading. (Let’s just say I wasn’t too impressed with the UK and the USA on that one… though they were far from being the only ones farting in their hands about this).

Conclusion: Perhaps not the kind of book I’d recommend to an audience who already knows a lot about SARS-CoV-2, because it reads more like an introduction—but as, well, a good intro and recap on the topic, it did the job top notch for me.

Yzabel / June 29, 2020

Review: Mini Chibi Art Class

Mini Chibi Art Class: A Complete Course in Drawing Cuties and Beasties – Includes 19 Step-by-Step Tutorials! (Volume 1) by Yoai
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

In this highly portable mini version of Chibi Art Class , renowned anime artist Yoai teaches you the art of chibi, step by adorable step.

Chibi is Japanese slang for “short,” and popular Instagram anime artist Yoai (@yoaihime) shows you how to draw these adorable doll-like characters in Mini Chibi Art Class . Chibis are mini versions of Japanese anime and manga characters and are defined by their large heads and tiny bodies, both of which contribute to their kawaii , or cuteness, factor .

Here, you’ll learn how to create chibis’ signature bodies, facial features, and props, including dreamy eyes, fun clothes and shoes, vibrant hair, colorful accessories, and lively backgrounds. You’ll also learn how to color and shade your vertically challenged characters for optimal cuteness. This book also features 19 chibi tutorials with simple step-by-step illustrations and instructions , inspiration galleries, blank body bases for you to start your own chibi drawings, and uncolored chibis for practicing coloring and shading.

Mini Chibi Art Class is part of a series of adorable mini versions of Race Point art reference books that include Mini Kawaii Doodle Class and Mini Kawaii Doodle Cuties .

Thanks to this take-anywhere crash course , soon you will be enhancing your notebooks, stationery, artwork, and more with your own unique chibi world. Mini Chibi Art Class is now in session!

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I don’t draw chibi a lot, and the few I’ve drawn so far are, in hindsight, not so great, so I thought a book like this could help me get back to them, correct, and become better at it.

This “Mini Chibi Art Class” involves several step-by-step guides, relying on examples to follow (because “just draw whatever comes to your mind, using this or that base” would be cool, too, but not necessarily when coming out of the blue for training purposes). It also includes information about materials, references for eye styles and expressions, and ideas for inspiration. All in all, things I can definitely use again later, when I want to go back to drawing chibi.

I would recommend getting the paper version rather than the digital one, though—the latter is good as well, but if you’re anything like me, a physical book will work better for art reference and tutorials purposes.

Yzabel / June 13, 2020

Review: Devolution

Devolution by Max Brooks
My rating: ★★★☆☆

Blurb:

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined… until now. But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing – and too earth-shattering in its implications – to be forgotten.

In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the beasts behind it, once thought legendary but now known to be terrifyingly real.

Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us – and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley and Pigeonhole, in exchange for an honest review.]

Maybe not the best book to read considering the circumstances at the time (and still now), but I guess I can be a glutton for punishment sometimes, and I had liked “World War Z” a few years ago. I liked it for its “cabin fever” atmosphere (a few people completely isolated from the external world, having to survive while contending with themselves and each other), but not as much as I expected.

While the format itself—interviews, excerpts from a journal…—worked well enough for me in general, I found the pacing a little off at times (for instance, I’d expect more action, but get an article instead, which slowed down the narrative). The limits of the journal entries format is reached regularly when it comes to, well, action scenes (would someone really write it down like this in their personal journal?). I was also on the fence regarding another thing that I found interesting, that is, the breaking down of the small Greenloop community: I couldn’t decide if this, or the Bigfoot part, was the more interesting, and I felt that, in a way, the novel would’ve been more powerful if focused on one of the other, but not having both share the screen time, so to speak. Maybe that’s just me, though—and, let’s be honest, at first I had also picked this novel for the Bigfoot part anyway.

I did like the ending. It is a very open one, with several hypotheses as to what happened to the characters in the end, and it may make it or break it for a lot of people… but I liked having such an opening, allowing me to pick an ending, or none.

Conclusion: 3 stars. It was entertaining, but not amazing.

Yzabel / June 2, 2020

Review: The Better Half

The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women by Sharon Moalem
My rating: ★★★☆☆

Blurb:

From birth, genetic females are better at fighting viruses, infections and cancer. They do better at surviving epidemics and famines. They live longer, and even see the world in a wider variety of colours. These are the facts; they are simply stronger than men at every stage of life. Why? And why are we taught the opposite?Drawing on his wide-ranging experience and cutting-edge research as a medic, geneticist and specialist in rare diseases, Dr Sharon Moalem reveals how the answer lies in our the female’s double XX chromosomes offer a powerful survival advantage. And he calls for a long-overdue reconsideration of our one-size-fits-all view of the body and medicine – a view that still frames women through the lens of men.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Some things in this book I already knew (such as the role of the X chromosome when it comes to colour vision, and why many more men than woman are colour-blind). Some others were completely new to me, although also related to the X in general (immune system features, for instance, including autoimmune conditions) and I was glad I could expand on my knowledge in that regard.

The book draws a lot on genetic research, obviously, both past findings and current ones. I found it easy enough to follow, and it didn’t strike me as heavy-handed on the medical lingo, but perhaps it would be a little confusing for someone who’s really a beginner in that area, and therefore would be better targeted at people who already have some basic knowledge about genetics here?

I did find it somewhat repetitive, though (as in, keep the examples for sure, but no need to reiterate so often that a lot of it stems from genetic females having a “spare”), and the narrative style, when it uses examples from the author’s real life to illustrate certain points, wasn’t always very clear. The concept behind it and the way it is at times expressed could also be easily problematic; the term “genetic superiority” is fraught with double-meaning, after all, and I can no doubt see it interpreted in less than savoury ways. So, one has to be careful about how they approach this: it is strictly about the advantages brought by having two X chromosomes rather than one if you’re a genetic human female (or having two Ws if you’re a male bird—same difference), and definitely not about who is “superior, with a hint of who should therefore dominate the other”.

Conclusion: 3.5 stars

Yzabel / May 31, 2020

Review: The End of Everything

The End of Everything by Katie Mack
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

We know the universe had a beginning. With the Big Bang, it went from a state of unimaginable density to an all-encompassing cosmic fireball to a simmering fluid of matter and energy, laying down the seeds for everything from dark matter to black holes to one rocky planet orbiting a star near the edge of a spiral galaxy that happened to develop life. But what happens at the end of the story? In billions of years, humanity could still exist in some unrecognizable form, venturing out to distant space, finding new homes and building new civilizations. But the death of the universe is final. What might such a cataclysm look like? And what does it mean for us?

Dr. Katie Mack has been contemplating these questions since she was eighteen, when her astronomy professor first informed her the universe could end at any moment, setting her on the path toward theoretical astrophysics. Now, with lively wit and humor, she unpacks them in The End of Everything, taking us on a mind-bending tour through each of the cosmos’ possible finales: the Big Crunch; the Heat Death; Vacuum Decay; the Big Rip; and the Bounce. Guiding us through major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory, and much more,The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley and Pigeonhole, in exchange for an honest review.]

A fascinating read, if a little too short to my liking—call me morbid but I wanted to see even more various possible deaths of the universe.

In fact, I’m especially fascinated with the vacuum decay theory (incidentally, I had read an article about it by Katie Mack some time ago, and that was what prompted me to request the book in turn). I can’t tell why this one calls to me more than the others—perhaps because, if it does come to pass, we at least know none of us will ever be aware of it, we just won’t have the time to see it coming. Perhaps because it does make a lot of sense. Perhaps because I have something with oblivion in general, or because of the author’s sense of humour that permeates her writing.

I learnt a lot here about other theories as well, which were explained in a way that made them quite easy to understand (some of them I had previously brushed on, but now I feel like I hadn’t fully understood them at the time). What will come to pass, in the end? The Heat Death? The Big Crunch? Will something, anything, get out of it, or will whatever happen put an end to everything, if we are indeed in a false vacuum now? It is scary and fascinating and mind-boggling all together, and it prompts so many thoughts. I found it more exciting than depressing, which is telling, considering when I read it (2020, I’m glaring at you, really).

Conclusion: 4 solid stars.

Yzabel / April 29, 2020

Review: The Holdout

The Holdout by Graham Moore
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

One jury member changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?

It was the most sensational case of the decade.

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It’s an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.

Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.

The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A mystery where the “detective” is not actually with the police, but a lawyer. Ten years before the beginning of the novel, Maya Seal was drafted as juror in a high-visibility abduction-possible-murder case where a guilty verdict seemed the obvious result… only Maya wasn’t convinced, and managed to bring the whole jury to vote not guilty.

I really enjoyed this novel. As the prime suspect in the murder, and after the controversy that followed the trial from 10 years ago, Maya is well aware that no one is going to cut her some slack—on the contrary!—and that if she doesn’t do something, she may very well be found guilty. And so, she embarks on her own investigation, trying to root out the truth from her former fellow jurors as well as from the previous trial’s defendant. And all along, things are never truly certain, for there are in fact two mysteries, not just one. Was that man actually guilty, or not? And, of course, who’s the culprit in the recent murder?

It’s difficult to write much about this novel, for fear of accidental spoilers, but I can at least say that overall, I liked the characters (they all had their good sides and their darker little secrets), and I found the pacing appropriate.

One thing that I deeply regretted, though: one of the chapters completely spoils the endings to several Agatha Christie novels. Yes, I know, I know, by now the whole world is supposed to have read them, but I guarantee this is not the case (so now, I need to wait a few more years until I forget the spoilers to read those Christie stories…). I don’t know why authors do that, but please don’t. Seriously, don’t. I’d have made it a 4* book, but this kind of stunt makes me feel obligated to dock a half star just on principle.

Conclusion: 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / April 15, 2020

Review: Monstrous Devices

Monstrous Devices by Damien Love
My rating: ★★☆☆☆

Blurb:

When twelve-year-old Alex receives an old tin robot in the post, the note from his grandfather simply reads: ‘This one is special’. But as strange events start occurring around him, it doesn’t take Alex long to suspect that the small toy is more than special; it might also be deadly.

Just as things are getting out of hand, Alex’s grandfather arrives, whisking him away from his otherwise humdrum life and into a world of strange, macabre magic. From Paris to Prague, they flee across snowy Europe in a quest to unravel the riddle of the little robot, and outwit relentless assassins of the human and mechanical kind. How does Alex’s grandfather know them? And can Alex safely harness the robot’s power, or will it fall into the wrong, wicked hands?

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

One of my favourite themes being in here, I still enjoyed the story for that aspect, but I admit that otherwise, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I expected to.

While it definitely deals with cool concepts (the aloof, badass grandpa; the robots; the mysterious men wanting Alex’s just as mysterious robot; their magic, both awesome and gruesome), plot-wise the story was also completely over the place. In a way, it reminded me precisely of the way I envisioned stories myself when I was a young reader: “Something mysterious! A bully! School woes! Something else happens! Grandpa arrives! Mum is not happy with him! Something else happens! Let’s run away!” And so on. So perhaps this would appeal to a 10-year old audience? I’m not entirely sure either. (To be clear, it’s not the fast pace itself I found problematic—such a pace can be very powerful indeed؅—but the disjointed way in which it was handled.)

“Monstrous Devices” also contains a very specific pet peeve of mine, a.k.a “I’m not telling you anything because for some reason, I think it will protect you, yet I completely fail to see that it actually endangers you more.” I don’t know why this trope is so prevalent. Just talk to your kids, people, they’re not stupid, and if you think it’s OK to take them traipsing all over Europe while pursued by murderous robots, then why not equip them to deal with it better, hm? (And as a result, the reader is none the wiser either. Having a few things left open at the end, for the next volume or two, is cool; having too many is not.)

Conclusion: 2.5/5. Cool themes, and this will probably work for part of the intended audience at least, but not so much for me.

Yzabel / March 27, 2020

Review: The Mother Code

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers
My rating: ★★★☆☆

Blurb:

It’s 2049, and the survival of the human race is at risk. Earth’s inhabitants must turn to their last plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots-to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order-an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right-the Mother Code.

Kai is born in America’s desert southwest, his only companion is his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too-in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?

In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human-and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A bit of a sore spot for personal reasons as well as in the current situation (long story short, and not spoiler since it’s revealed in the first chapters: man-made bio-weapon targeting lung cells to make them immortal and proliferating, aka welcome lung cancer). But that’s just me, of course, and the story itself was a good read all along, even though I didn’t absolutely love it.

The premise of this novel hinges on the “illness” I mentioned, on the need to conceive human babies with modified genes who’ll be able to survive in this not-so-brave new world, and on that other need: the babies will need mothers, and those won’t be human women, since they’ll be pretty much, well, all dead soon. Quite a ghastly future, this. The story thus follows two timelines: one where Kai, one of these new children, travels with his mother Rho-Z; and one, a few years before that, where scientists desperately fight against time to engineer suitable embryos and robotic mothers.

I must say, I liked that second timeline: as frightening as it was, I enjoyed the technological and genetic basis on which it was built. Another aspect of the book I liked was that, all in all, it still deals with hope, with thoughts about what being human is and about parent/child relationships, and with a deep-seated desire to help the children survive. The world they’re in is not hostile the way it is in traditional post-apocalyptic stories—no bands of looting survivors is threatening them; but it is empty, desperately empty, and that means scavenging for dwindling resources while also being restricted in some ways by the “Mother Code” . For 10-year-old kids, that’s not so grand.

Where I didn’t love the novel was in terms of characters. They’re good in general—they have motivations and background stories of their own—yet for some reason, I didn’t feel a connection with them, or not enough to make me really love them. The children didn’t feel like they were “children” enough, and the world of the adults was a little too… distant?

Conclusion: Interesting story and an overall interesting read, even though I didn’t connect much with the characters.

Yzabel / March 20, 2020

Review: How to Find a Higgs Boson—and Other Big Mysteries in the World of the Very Small

How to Find a Higgs Boson—and Other Big Mysteries in the World of the Very Small by Ivo van Vulpen
My rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb:

The history of particle physics, the hunt for the most elusive particle, and the fundamental questions the search has inspired

How did physicists combine talent and technology to discover the Higgs boson, the last piece in our inventory of the subatomic world? How did the Higgs change our understanding of the universe? And now, nearly a decade after its detection, what comes next? Answering these questions, Ivo van Vulpen—a CERN particle physicist and member of the team behind the detection—invites us on a journey to the frontiers of our knowledge.

Enjoy van Vulpen’s accessible explanation of the history of particle physics and of concepts like quantum mechanics and relativity—and ponder his inquiries regarding the search for new particles (to explain dark matter), a new force (to combine the existing fundamental forces), and new phenomena (undiscovered dimensions of space). This is a lively account of work at the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator, with inspiring personal reflections on humanity’s discoveries deeper and deeper into the world of the very small.

Review:

[I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A good, solid read about particle physics in general, and the confirmation of the Higgs boson at CERN. The beginning may seem deceptively simple for a layperson who already knows the basics, but it’s obviously here to pave the way for what follows, which goes a little more into the nitty-gritty technical details. Maybe someone who really doesn’t know anything about physics might find it difficult to follow, although I’m not convinced; the way it’s explained should take care of that. It was really interesting, and a testament, too, to what a venture such as CERN can accomplish.

Also, yet another proof that we really, really need to stop funding research and experiments according to “how much money we can make off it”, because if this keeps happening, we’ll just stop making new discoveries altogether. Another interesting side of this book was how it illustrated in which (often unexpectedly) physics CAN actually lead to very useful applications, even though the research may have appeared as random at first–PET scanners, for instance: who would’ve known?

The author’s writing is easy to follow, both when it comes to the book’s structure and to its translation. I’ll have no qualms recommending it to non-physicists, and to physicists as well, come to think of it.

Yzabel / March 14, 2020

Review: Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars

Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth by Kate Greene
My rating: ★★★☆☆

Blurb:

In 2013, Kate Greene moved to Mars. That is, along with five fellow crew members, she embarked on NASA’s first HI-SEAS mission, a simulated Martian environment located on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawai’i. For four months she lived, worked, and slept in an isolated geodesic dome, conducting a sleep study on her crew mates and gained insight into human behavior in tight quarters, as well as the nature of boredom, dreams, and isolation that arise amidst the promise of scientific progress and glory.

The book is a story of the author, a science journalist and her personal life, her brother’s disability, her marriage and the food and isolation of pretending to live on Mars.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Part memoir, part essays, this book chronicles loosely the months the author spent in a simulated Mars environment recreated as best as possible in Hawai’i.

It’s not so much an exact chronological memoir, than a series of musings and thoughts about loneliness, learning to live in limited space with other people, relationships (inside and outside of the dome), personal reflections… which was both a good and a bad thing as far as I was concerned.

I absolutely loved the parts concerning the mission, its pitfalls and its successes, the people that worked on it. I also found fascinating some of the reflexions, especially when it came to the usual “Earthian” habits (checking social media, instant communication with our loved ones…) getting lost after weeks of isolation. For a real Mars mission would definitely leave its astronauts isolated in that regard as in many others.

I admit I was less interested, though, when reflexions went along other lines than the mission’s. It wasn’t uninteresting per se, but it wasn’t what I came for, so to speak. Had I been in a different frame of mind, perhaps I would’ve enjoyed those more.

Conclusion: 3.5 stars