'Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe' by Laurence Bergreen

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, Laurence Bergreen (4.0) 

This is a fascinating story with far more politics and internal strife than I ever imagined. The dangers of the journey – mainly trying to find the Spice Islands by going west and finding a strait that would cut through South America, which meant taking large ships to uncharted areas- was dangerous enough. Now top it with a large proportion of the sailors being Spanish and not wanting to follow their Portuguese Captain-General, and you have a mutinous situation from the very beginning. Also add a King of Portugal who wants to stop the fleet (Magellan went to him first, but he declined to support his countryman at the time) and sends out his own ships to stop them. Overall, as arrogant and wrong footed as Magellan could be, you definitely felt sorry for someone with so much working against him and felt somewhat relieved that he eventually gets the discovered straits and even two galaxies named after him! I both enjoyed and learned a lot reading this book.

'A Thousand Acres' by Jane Smiley

A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (3.0)

I enjoyed this book in the beginning, likely seeing the farming families similar to those I had grown up near in the Midwest. But mid-way the story turned dark and I found it tough to read. I didn’t like most of the choices the characters were making, some seeming to come out of the blue and quite disturbing. Maybe had I known it was a tragedy based on King Lear I would have come at it with that lens and enjoyed it more (King divvying up his kingdom to his 3 daughters). I saw the trappings of midwestern life and some of the stereotypes, but actions that didn’t make sense given how the characters were set up.  I can appreciate the quality of writing, but it’s a hard book to recommend as I did not find it enjoyable to read.

'How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to our Past, Present and Future' by Vaclav Smil

How the World Really Works, Vaclav Smil (3.5)

Hyped as a book for non-scientists that helps to explain some of the basics of how humans use fossil fuels and supports the author’s contention that it is not possible to rid them from our lives anytime soon (or at as soon as many climate activists would like to see), this book is quite technical and filled with an inordinate number of numbers! I rarely complain about data, but Smil’s explanations swim in data- more than most people care about or can tolerate. As a Materials Engineer, I did enjoy a good illustration of the basics – that there are four major materials that our modern society cannot go without: steel, concrete, plastics and ammonia, all of which have a high level of fossil fuel involvement. The ammonia surprised me the most. I didn’t realize how prevalent it was in farming and general food production. Our dependence on these materials coupled with the exponential rise of middle class in China (and their subsequent use of them) is not something that can be replaced with solar panels and wind farms. I knew this book would be depressing – the problem is hard and will take coordination that is hard to imagine happening. He gives some ideas of improvements, but the book is to be read more to remind oneself of the basic facts, which can be difficult given our current media environment. Sadly, I agree with most of his data and theories.