Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang

Quackery taught me that people have been desperately seeking cures for ailments, real and perceived, for ages. Sometimes that search takes them into disgusting or deadly treatments peddled by others who are taking advantage of that desperation for their own gain.

These human vultures have been called “quacks,” among other things.

“But quackery isn’t always about pure deception. Though the term is usually defined as the practice and promotion of intentionally fraudulent medical treatments, it also includes situations when people are touting what they truly believe works.” pg 1

Unfortunately, even those selling the “remedies” with the best of intentions still managed to kill people.

There seemed to be no end to the creative ways we’ve poisoned each other with various metals or concocted deadly and addicting brews in the name of health. We’ve burnt and blistered suffering unfortunates, taken pieces of their skull out to let the evil spirits out of their brains, or ground up human bone and ingested it.

The most disturbing chapter of this book, and there were some serious contenders, was the part about the development of anesthesia.

“Several chapters in the annals of anesthesia were written by some hard-partying, borderline sociopathic characters. So the next time you blissfully awaken from a surgery, remember to thank the child-stranglers, sponge-huffers, and ether frolickers of the past.”

Yeah, there have been some awful things done to both animals and people in the name of medicinal research.

The most amusing anecdote in Quackery goes to a section about creative uses of tobacco.

Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem on Pexels.com

“You know the phrase ‘blowing smoke up your ass’? Well, you can disgust your next blind date with the true life medical origin of that phrase. Because literally blowing smoke up someone’s ass was a sanctioned resuscitation method in the eighteenth century.”

And now you know.

Recommended for readers with a strong stomach who are interested in strange and forgotten medical history.

My book club read this for our June pick but I missed the meeting. I expect an extraordinary conversation was had by all because this book is full of fascinating and disturbing topics of all sorts.

Thanks for reading!

Eight Skilled Gentlemen (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #3) by Barry Hughart

“My experience with the old man has taught me to keep my mouth shut when the wrinkles around his eyes squeeze up in tight concentric circles, so I waited until his mind relaxed along with the wrinkles, and then he shook himself and turned toward me.” “Ox, have you ever visited the Forbidden City?”

Eight Skilled Gentlemen is the final book of The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series. I feel it missed the mark somewhat.

Like the previous two books, it has some beautiful imagery and fantastical magic sequences based in an ancient fictional China of Barry Hughart, the author’s, own creation. As usual, I liked the interactions between our two heroes. I also liked riding along while Master Li and Ox attempt to solve the murder mystery.

“All we can do now is go down that list of involved mandarins and find the weak link. You may have you break a few of the bastard’s bones, my boy, but one way or another he’s going to enable us to toss the rest of them in jail,” the sage said grimly.”

Unlike the rest of the series, the overarching story for this entry felt scattered, so much so, that the ending felt almost tacked on. Which seems like a harsh criticism, except those final scenes were my favorite of the book.

If only it had felt more connected to the rest of the tale…

Like some of the other readers of this series, I noticed some repetition in Hughart’s storytelling by the third book. Formulaic can still be brilliant, but I’m not certain this book reached that bar.

There was also Hughart’s unfortunate tendency to have his characters launch into song or prose within the story. This should have added to the immersive feeling of the reading experience, but I found myself skimming when I reached those sections. Again, it felt more repetitive this time around than magical.

Adding to my disappointment, Eight Skilled Gentlemen was clearly supposed to be part of a longer series. The final few lines of the book offer no satisfying conclusion for characters whom I have come to love during the 850 pages I spent with them.

The little bit I have researched about the author seems to indicate Hughart had a disagreement with his publisher and then tired of writing it. He passed away in August of last year.

It is incredibly sad because the books are so lovely and Hughart deserved the chance to finish them in a manner he saw fit. I think it’s a loss not just for the author’s family but for the entire fantasy-reading world.

In conclusion, if you haven’t read this series and like fantasy, you must give it a try. Just be aware it is a work of art with an abrupt end.

Lust, Lies and Monarchy: The Secrets Behind Britain’s Royal Portraits by Stephen Millar

Stephen Millar examines British royal portraits and artwork created about royalty throughout history. In examining the small details and the context around the art, he shines the light on so many moments of forgotten history.

Through the strategic use of art, royals have controlled their images and used those images to maintain or increase their power. Take, for example, how the famous portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger affected viewers:

“Strategically placed in the Palace of Whitehall and measuring three metres by four, the wall painting dominated the privy chamber where it was located. The effect on visitors was dramatic, one writing it was so ‘lifelike that the spectator felt abashed, annihilated in its presence.'” loc 444, ebook

Millar examines postures, costuming, setting and more so readers feel as if they have a new appreciation of these classic works of art. We’re also given an insider’s view and able to appreciate nuances that we might otherwise have missed.

“Why was Holbein’s depiction of Henry so influential? The stance taken by the king in the painting was radical, unashamedly masculine and defiant, with Henry staring directly at the viewer in a way that was highly unusual in royal portraiture in the early 16th century.” loc 457, ebook

My favorite of the art discussions is “The Rainbow Portrait” of Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger or Isaac Oliver. There is so much symbolism packed into one portrait. It’s fun to take it all apart.

Plus, Elizabeth I is one of my favorite historical figures. I go on about that in my review of Elizabeth I by Margaret George.

Millar helpfully includes the family tree of the royals every couple of chapters so its easy to keep track of who is who. And after the art, there’s a whole section of walking tours through London. At first, the two parts of the book seem unrelated, but when you go through the tours, you notice that he brought forward some of the history from the art and tied it to real world locations.

Talk about making history come alive.

Highly recommended for fans of history, especially forgotten history. Though some of the figures and events are well known, this book contained a few I had never heard of, which is always exciting to discover.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook.

The Story of the Stone (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #2) by Barry Hughart

“Ox,” he said, “the writing of your memoirs is doing wonders for your calligraphy, but I must question the content. Why do you choose the rare cases in which matters run melodramatically amok?” I heroically refrained from saying, “They always do.”
The Story of Stone, Barry Hughart

Master Li and Number Ten Ox are at it again.

There’s an unexplained murder, puzzling fragment of a poorly-finished forgery, and nature herself is leaving clues behind with whole swathes of plants dying in a strange pattern.

“I wasn’t sure that any autopsy could be delightful, but I didn’t care. The old fire had returned to Master Li’s eyes, and I felt like a warhorse who was being called back into battle.”

In the course of solving the mystery, Li and Ox encounter ghosts, hidden torture chambers, and make a journey down to the depths of hell. It is one of the finest homages to Dante’s Inferno that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

“Ox, what do you smell in the air?” he asked. “Wet earth, pine needles, pork fat, donkey manure, and perfume from Mother Ho’s House of Joy,” I said. “Wrong. You smell destiny,” Master Li said happily.

And, as usual, readers get to enjoy the sometimes hilarious, and always entertaining, interplay between a brilliant scholar and his surprisingly strong sidekick.

Recommended for readers who enjoy a blend of fantasy, mystery and historical fiction.

The Hungover Games: A True Story by Sophie Heawood

The Hungover Games is an amusing and poignant glimpse into the world of a woman who didn’t mean to become a mother, but who found her life’s path when she got there.

“It had all happened by accident. I hadn’t meant to have a baby at all. I hadn’t meant not to have a baby either, by which I mean I always thought I’d have children one day.”
Sophie Heawood

Sophie Heawood was barely scraping by, living from paycheck to paycheck as a journalist in Hollywood. After a misadventure in Mexico, which had nothing to do with her reproductive health, she discovers in a round-about way that if she ever does decide to have children, it may be impossible without fertility treatments.

“In my life, it was as if I was the captain of a magnificent ship but was somehow, always, at this moment, just this one perpetual moment, in a dinghy buffeted about in the ship’s wake, always about to catch up with myself. Up ahead on the magnificent ship, I was organised and sober and slim and shiny-haired, all of which was always coming soon, like a trailer in the multiplex that ran in my head twenty-four hours a day.”

But she never seemed to get there.

And then, after a one-night stand with the man she had been one-night-standing with for years, Heawood becomes pregnant. What happens next, her journey into parenthood but also the adjustment of dreams she held her entire life, is a fantastic story.

I think part of what I enjoyed so much about this book is the nature of Heawood’s job. In the short time I spent as a reporter, I loved talking to people, learning what they had to teach me about life, and seeing who they really were behind whatever public persona they were projecting.

Heawood had the opportunity to interview Hollywood A-listers and she gives you an inside view of what that was like. Goldie Hawn, Jodie Foster, and Amy Adams are a few of the names who pop up in the memoir.

In addition to the peek behind the curtain into the mystical world of Hollywood fame, Heawood doesn’t shy away from faithfully recording the sometimes harsh reality of becoming a parent.

“My introduction to being a mother involves being told off by other women, again and again. Told that I am not doing it right, that there are rules. … When I do get home, it only takes me a couple of weeks to recover from the surgery, but it takes me about a year to recover from the few days in the hospital when I was supposed to be recovering, and to regain the caring instincts to protect this tiny creature, the ones that were crushed before they had even dared to begin.”

She faces difficulties not just with the newness of being a parent, but from her path as a single mother. Heawood has trouble finding housing as a single mother and going to prenatal classes alone. In this life transition that can be difficult at the best of times, she faces it on her own.

But her attitude is not woe-is-me. Heawood keeps the positive and empowered spin up throughout most of her challenges and, when she can’t manage it, she still appreciates the gift she has been given through her relationship with her daughter.

I enjoyed this memoir very much and read it in about two sittings. Recommended for readers who enjoy humorous memoirs about parenthood, Hollywood, dating, night-clubbing and the inevitable spiritual evolution that comes from finding the place in life that you were always meant to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations cited in this review may change or be omitted in the final print version.

Bridge of Birds (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #1) by Barry Hughart

Bridge of Birds is a charming, award-winning fantasy novel that follows the investigative efforts of Master Li as he strives to safe the mysteriously stricken children from the village where Number Ten Ox lives.

“Jade plate, Six, Eight. Fire that burns hot, Night that is not. Fire that burns cold, First Silver, then gold.” pg 22, ebook

A beautiful blend of myth and fantasy, the reader is ferried from one exotic locale to the next at the side of the two heroes, one ancient and one young with surprising strength.

We navigate dangerous mazes to hidden treasure hoards, satisfy the grieving souls of haunted ghosts, and marvel at the lightning intellect of Master Li, the scholarly genius with “a slight flaw in his character”.

“My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character,” he said matter-of-factly. “You got a problem?” pg 32, ebook

There is very little downtime in Bridge of Birds. And just when you think things couldn’t possibly get worse for Master Li and Number Ten Ox, somehow they do.

Despite its breakneck pacing, I found many beautiful moments to marvel over in this story. It is a fairy tale with both substance and heart. Easy to see why it received the 1985 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and 1986 Mythopoeic Award for Best Fantasy.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

I think that’s even more impressive when you consider this was Barry Hughart’s debut novel.

“Reverend Sir, in your studies of myth and folklore, have you ever encountered a ghostly handmaiden who pleads that birds must fly?” pg 154, ebook

Highly recommended for readers who like fantasy and historical fiction novels with a dash of mystery and for their heroes to have slight flaws in their character – such a propensity to drink too much wine or the willingness to swindle others but for very good reasons.

Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation by Joseph Campbell

“Each entered the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there’s a way or path, it is someone else’s path; each human being is a unique phenomenon. The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.” pg xxvi

Pathways to Bliss is a collection of Joseph Campbell’s writings and lectures, expanding upon the theory he put together in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Namely, that myths serve a psychological function to help individuals safely traverse the various stages of his or her life.

That statement is over simplifying Campbell’s complex and richly-developed discussions of mythology, but it’s the basic building blocks of the thing.

“If it is a living mythology, one that is actually organically relevant to the life of the people of the time, repeating the myths and enacting the rituals center you. Ritual is simply myth enacted; by participating in a rite, you are participating directly in the myth.” pg xix

Campbell talks about not only the importance of the myths throughout generations of humankind, but the idea that it is a living, breathing system. He believes there is trouble on the horizon if society’s myths don’t change and evolve to keep up with the challenges of the current day.

He also stresses the need for the individual to find their own meanings in the stories and symbols of the mythology. The pathway to that which you are here to live is something that only you can find for yourself.

Though, he does point out, you could experience your unique pathway through ritual and communion with a community of like-minded believers. Campbell applies his mythological lens to the world religions, to life stages, to everything in-between to see what universal truths he can pull out of the stories and the common experience of humanity.

“And my little sermon to the churches of the world is this: you have got the symbols right there on the altar, and you have the lessons as well. Unfortunately, when you have a dogma telling you what kind of effect the symbol is supposed to have upon you, you’re in trouble. It doesn’t affect me that way, so am I a sinner?” pg 43

I found this book easier to understand than The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which I read a few months ago. Despite this, I suggest you read Hero first, because it’ll give you a better contextual base to understand what the heck Campbell is going on about.

I had some issues with his concluding chapter of this book, Dialogues. In an open discussion with some female attendees of one of his seminars, Campbell and the women try to define how the woman’s heroic journey is different than a man’s.

I didn’t agree with some of their conclusions. Maybe you had to be there to truly grasp the essence of what he was saying.

“The suffering overtakes women – it is part of the nature of womanhood. Whereas the man has to undertake suffering – it’s a big difference.” pg 153

Women’s life is suffering? hmmmm…

Recommended for readers interested in more of the musings of Joseph Campbell or for people interested in mythology and its practical applications. Beware that some of the material may be somewhat dated.

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) by Scott Lynch

In The Lies of Locke Lamora, readers are introduced to Locke, an orphan in a fantastical city with magical glass relics the size of entire city blocks. The glass is all that was left behind by the people who founded the city. Its inhabitants now do not understand how it was constructed, but that doesn’t keep them from utilizing the spires of magic glass or appreciating its otherworldly beauty.

Within this strange city that is similar to our world’s Venice, yet so different, Locke Lamora is taken in by various characters in the realm’s criminal underworld. The boy shows promise for a life of theft and confidence games… if he can reign in his propensity for accidentally getting people killed.

“At the height of a long wet summer of the seventy-seventh year of Sendovani, the Thiefmaker of Camorr paid a sudden and unannounced visit to the Eyeless Priest at the Temple of Perelandro, desperately hoping to sell him the Lamora boy.”

There are layers to this tale. There’s intrigue and backstabbing among the criminal underworld or those who call themselves, “the right people”. There’s a gang of criminal masterminds, the Gentleman Bastards, who prey on the city’s upper class citizens, but who pass themselves off as simple sneak thieves to the rest of the gangs.

And while Locke’s gang, the Gentleman Bastards, are running one of the biggest cons of their life, the chapters of that storyline are interspersed with the personal histories of the gang’s members. Part of that history includes the Gentleman Bastards’ training as priests of the various orders in the city, of which there are many.

So, to recap: there’s complex religion, city hierarchy, criminal hierarchy, levels of con games, and then the real story begins when Locke’s plan, as usual, begins to go sideways.

“I ache in places I didn’t previously realize I owned,” said Locke, gingerly applying adhesive paste to his chin with his fingers. “But it can’t be helped.”

I first read The Lies of Locke Lamora eight years ago in March 2012. I recently re-read it in May 2020. To my surprise, I enjoyed it somewhat less the second time around.

I still like the characters, the story and the setting, all of which were beautifully written. My complaint was the pacing. Just as the author gets rolling on the main story line, he draws us back into the past. I didn’t seem to mind it the first time I read the book, but I definitely noticed it in the second reading.

But don’t let a small thing like pacing dissuade you from reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. It is an awfully entertaining fantasy read. And if I remember correctly, the next two books in the series are fun as well.

Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing by Qing Li

“Shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses. This is not exercise, or hiking, or jogging. It is simply being in nature, connecting with it through our sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.” pg 12

Nature lovers or those aspiring to be nature lovers will find much to enjoy in Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing.

Qing Li reminds readers that the human race is a part of this world even if we have walled ourselves up in cities and covered the ground in concrete. Through various scientific studies, he proves again and again that by taking a time out and forest bathing people can sleep more deeply, experience less stress and think more clearly.

“We may not travel very far on our forest walk but, in connecting us with nature, shinrin-yoku takes us all the way home to our true selves.” pg 15

Not convinced? He provides evidence that patients at hospitals heal faster if the view outside their window includes a tree rather than a wall. People who exercise outside report the exertion they need to complete the workout is less and they enjoy the time more than those who churn out the miles on a treadmill.

“The average sleep time of participants after a two-hour forest walk increased by 15 percent, or fifty-four minutes. Participants were significantly less anxious after a two-hour walk in the forest.”

Forest bathers have reported higher levels of creativity, writers find relief from the dreaded block, and the sense of connection caused by the practice has been known to increase feelings of gratitude.

“The researchers concluded that there ‘is a real, measurable cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time truly immersed in a natural setting’, and found that spending time in nature can boost problem-solving ability and creativity by 50 per cent. Is it any wonder that Buddha found enlightenment sitting under a tree?” pg 106

Is there anything that forest bathing doesn’t help? How about your health or physical age?

“A group of Canadian, American and Australian researchers studying tree density and health in Toronto found that… having eleven more trees on a block lowered cardio-metabolic illnesses, like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, comparable to the effects on well-being conferred by being given a $20,000 a year pay rise or being 1.4 years younger.” pg 116

In addition to the information about forest bathing, this book contains beautiful photos of forests every couple of pages. Qing Li gives readers the instructions so, if they desired, they could hold their own traditional tea ceremony in the woods. He includes anecdotal information about aromatherapy, tips on how to bring the forest into your home, advice on how to incorporate beneficial natural sounds into your daily life and more.

I enjoyed this book very much. Highly recommended.

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Tag: Reviews

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang

Eight Skilled Gentlemen (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #3) by Barry Hughart

Lust, Lies and Monarchy: The Secrets Behind Britain’s Royal Portraits by Stephen Millar

The Story of the Stone (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #2) by Barry Hughart

The Hungover Games: A True Story by Sophie Heawood

Bridge of Birds (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, #1) by Barry Hughart

Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation by Joseph Campbell

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) by Scott Lynch

Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing by Qing Li

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