Essential, enlightening reading in a time of panic and plague.
New Scientist journalist MacKenzie serves up a vivid account of the origins and fortunes of coronavirus, warning that worse may be yet to come.
There are several takeaways in this sharp survey of the current (as of this writing) pandemic. The first is that, decidedly, not enough was done—not by China, which failed to alert the world to the arrival of the novel virus until well after it had spread outside the country; and certainly not by the U.S., whose government seemed to want to wish the virus away. “Once public health fails and contagion appears anywhere, it goes everywhere,” writes the author. Even though COVID-19 (whose formal name is SARS-CoV–2) has shown some signs of abating, the pandemic has exposed gaping holes in the public health regimes of countries around the world, with a few exceptions—Hong Kong, for example, locked down early on and endured the plague with only 715 cases and four deaths as of the end of March 2020. Charting the etiology and course of the virus, MacKenzie observes that nearly everything about its origins and spread offers lessons on how not to act when the next pandemic comes. She goes on to warn that another pandemic is sure to come, perhaps soon, probably some variant of bird flu and, in any case, “worse than the one we are fighting now.” The measures she suggests include better monitoring and reporting of emergent diseases, stockpiling supplies such as face masks and antibiotics to combat diseases that are already known to us, developing “surge capacity in manufacturing,” and holding governments accountable for things said and promises made. For the conspiracy theorists in the crowd, MacKenzie also notes that “one thing we can say for sure: Covid-19 was not created in a lab.”
Essential, enlightening reading in a time of panic and plague.Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-306-92424-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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