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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 Not Constantinople ISTANBUL: A Tale of Three Cities By Bettany Hughes 800 pp. Da Capo Reviewed by: David E. Hoekenga, M. D. Riding across modern Istanbul’s crowded streets in a bus, I was struck by the drifts of purple hyacinths in the medians, tall pink tulips and yellow daffodils along the curbs. “Where did these colorful bulb flowers originate?” Our guide asked in flawless English. “Holland” or the “Netherlands,” several guests piped up brightly. “No,” Ruslan answered with pride after a pause. “They all came from the mountains of Turkey.” As we drove around the modern city of Istanbul, we saw part of the three cities—Byzantium, Constantinople (you know the song as well as I do-it’s Istanbul not Constantinople), and of course Istanbul—from the Hagia Sophia to the Blue Mosque to the Topkapi Palace to the Ortakoy Mosque. You travel by motor to understand the layout of much of this town of sixteen million people along the Bosporus, a narrow north south channel of water connec...