'The Personal Librarian' by Marie Benedict and Victoria Murray

 

The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (3.5)

I believe I enjoyed this book more once I finished and realized that the main character existed, survived and even thrived. I now want to find out how and when her secrets were found out. What starts as a story of a young woman, without a college education who is hired to help manage JP Morgan’s collection of famous books. She eventually becomes much more as she goes to Europe and is successful at auctions representing him and obtaining rare books. Throughout her journey she is balancing this new life with a large secret. The authors did a good job in the beginning showing her struggle as the major breadwinner for her family with the new responsibilities and the worry of being discovered. I did feel the book was a little light on how she became so knowledgeable (more than dad’s encouragement) and I wanted to know more about the rare books.

'An Immense World' by Ed Yung

An Immense World, Ed Yong (4.0)

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. I’d say it was eye-opening, but that just underlines the hubris humans have with our favorite sense. It’s easy to forget that virtually every other creature on earth has stronger senses, most of them quite amazing. I enjoyed how in each chapter the author selected a sense (touch, sight, sound, magnetic sensitivity etc.) and illustrated how particular creatures utilized that sense to understand their surroundings. My issue with the second half was the length of examples. I felt it was not as concise with the descriptions and examples which led to information fatigue. As someone in the sciences, I realize if we do ever meet beings from elsewhere, we have very little chance of being able to communicate if we can’t even really understand how the majority of the creatures on earth sense and communicate!