The 13th Element by John Emsley

I recently read The Thirteenth Element by John Emsley. This is a popular science book about the element phosphorus. I am a student in biology, and once in a while I like to read a popular science book that relates to what I am studying in a simpler way. I chose this book after randomly seeing it in the library. I was intrigued by its subtitle: "The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus".

The 13th Element starts off by describing how phosphorus was discovered by alchemists and used to impress people with its glowing appearance. The element was discovered in the 17th century when there was no chemistry, only alchemy; and according to this book, it was the discovery of phosphorus and the experiments performed with it that brought about the transition to chemistry. The book goes on to describe how until recently, phosphorus was thought by many to be a cure-all for health problems, when in fact, in its elemental form, it is extremely toxic. It is also highly flammable, and Emsley describes how it began to be used in the production of matches. He describes working conditions in the factories and the health problems the workers developed after being exposed to phosphorus. The main problem was phossy jaw, where the phosphorus would eat away at people's teeth and jawbones. Another aspect that Emsley covers is the use of phosphorus bombs during World War II. They were used to spread fire and devastate the cities that they were dropped on. Emsley goes on to decscribe several cases through the years where phosphorus was used as a poison in cases of murder. It could be discovered in an autopsy because the inside of the victims intestines would glow. Emsley also covers the use of phophates in detergents and fertilizers and its effect on the environment. The final chapter of the book discusses the possibility of spontaneous human combustion and how it could possibly be caused by the production of a gas that can come from the breakdown of phosphorus in the intestines.

I liked this book. I don't think it quite lived up to the excitement promised by its subtitle, but I did learn a lot about a substance that I knew very little about. I most enjoyed the sections in this book that went into the details of specific examples. For example, specific cases of phossy jaw or murder by phosphorus. I was extremely disturbed by the section on spontaneous human combustion, but in the end Emsley concludes that is most likely just a myth and the fires began from other causes. This is after giving specific examples of cases where there was no other known possible cause. That kind of made me paranoid that I'm going to burst into flames. One downside of this book is that in some places it seemed to get bogged down in statistics. In the chapters about match production, Emsley described in great detail the financial situations of all the companies producing phosphorus matches. Also in the chapter on World War II, he gave details on how many of each different type of bomb was used on each day. I found that these details were too extensive and unnecessary for what the book was trying to do, but perhaps they would be interesting to some people. Overall, this book gives a very thorough description of the uses and dangers of phosphorus.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

I borrowed Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott from my mom. She said she liked it. We don't always have the same taste, but I thought it would be a fun, light read, which is what I needed right now. However, I really hated this book.

There is no real way for me to summarize the plot of this book without really giving a lot away, but I will try. The book is narrated by Lydia Brooke, who is a writer. Cameron is her former (married) lover, and his mother, Elizabeth, has just drowned mysteriously. Elizabeth was in the midst of writing a biography of Isaac Newton that described his work in alchemy. Cameron asks Lydia to come in and ghostwrite the rest of the book that his mother hadn't finished. Meanwhile, Cameron is a neuroscientist who is being targeted by an animal rights group because he does research on animals. That's the basic premise of the book. What follows is my opinion of the book, and it will contain spoilers that I will try to keep to a minimum.

So many things in this book really bugged me. First of all, the entire book is narrated by Lydia to Cameron. She is basically explaining to him what has happened to her. However, Cameron would have already known most of it, and at the end of the book, Lydia hates Cameron (I think), so why would she want to tell him this. Secondly, Lydia believes things, shocking things, about people she loves after being told them only once. She blindly accepts these things as fact with no evidence to back it up. Also, Cameron is being targeted by animal rights groups because he does research on animals but then it is revealed that he's also being targeted because an antipsychotic drug he created is being developed into a chemical weapon. But then it's revealed that he's really the one targeting himself just to make the animal rights groups look bad. And if that made no sense, then you get the feel of the book. The book that Elizabeth was writing proves to be controversial in that it reveals certain things Newton did to get ahead. These revelations are the reasons why she died and she chose Lydia to ghostwrite the book because she knew that she would be true to what Elizabeth wanted to say. But then Lydia cuts that part out of the book, because she was threatened by a ghost but then the ghost follows through on the threat anyway.

This book reminded me a lot of the Da Vinci Code, in that something is always happening, but the whole of the book doesn't really amount to anything. The plot of this book was all over the place. The feeling I'm left with is that the author of the book changed her mind about what was going to happen several times, but never went back and changed what happened previously in order to agree with this. So, there was no real cohesive story in this book.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

In the past year, there has been a lot of buzz on Roberto Bolano. I've read on the internet, in newspapers, and in magazines about how amazing and innnovative his work is. Naturally, I wanted to experience it for myself. I actually bought The Savage Detectives in August before I went on vacation, but never got around to reading it until now.


The book is broken up into three sections. The first section is a diary of a young Mexican poet named Juan Garcia Madero who joins the visceral realists, a group of young poets. The leaders of the group are Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. Madero describes his interactions with other members of the group. The second section of the book makes up its bulk. It consists of a series of interviews with many different people who knew Belano and Lima. The interviews basically describe that person's interactions with either one or both of them. The third section of the book picks up Madero's diary where it left off, as he, Belano, Lima, and a prostitute named Lupe escape Mexico City to get away from her pimp. As they travel, they search for Cesarea Tinajero, a poet from the previous generation.

I'm very ambivalent about this book. I don't feel that it is worthy of all the praise that it's received. The book was well written and I really enjoyed the third section. However, the first and the second sections of the book were honestly pretty boring. I found some of the characters and interviews featured in the second section of the book interesting, but the majority were mundane and repetitive. This may have been the point, but I didn't really care. When I finished the book, I was left with some questions, such as who was conducting the interviews. I think that if I went back through the second section of the book I could've figured it out, but I didn't want to. If I could go back, knowing what happened, I would not have read this book. However, the writing was high quality and some parts were really good, so I will probably end up reading another book by Bolano at some point.

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

I've been a fan of Margaret Atwood's for several years now. It started when I read The Blind Assassin several years ago. I loved that book. Definitely one of my all time favorites. Since that time, I've been slowly reading all of her other books (that are available at my local library). I've enjoyed them all, but none has come close, in my opinion, to The Blind Assassin. Neither does Surfacing, but it is quite good.

The book is told in the first person by an unnamed twenty-something female narrator. She has been notified that her father has disappeared from the country house in Quebec where she grew up. She travels to the house with her boyfriend and a married couple with whom they are good friends. The book focuses on how these young people from the city adapt to country life and the interaction within and between the two couples. The narrator tries to piece together what happened to her father through some mysterious drawings she finds in the house and other clues that she feels have been left for her. As she follows these clues, she begins to fall apart mentally. She feels that everyone is becoming American and evolving into machines. When it comes time to leave, the narrator decides to go "back to nature" and live off the land. She soon runs out of food and realizes that she must make peace with society.

This book was not an easy read. I found that as I read, the narrator's depressed state of mind rubbed off on me. The jealousies and insecurities between the male and female characters and between the two female characters were very true to life. As the book progresses, it is revealed that something the narrator said about her past was untrue and that she created that story to protect herself from what had really happened. Strangely enough, this is something that I myself experienced fairly recently. Although this book was somewhat painful and depressing to read, I think it is worthwhile.

Why Blog?

This is a really good question. I'm not sure why I want to do this. I started a blog over a year ago, posted one post, and quit.

Lately, whenever I finish a book, I have to look it up on google blog search to find out others' opinions on it. Through this, I have become an avid reader of several book blogs. Whenever I read them, I think "I want to do this too". So I am going to try.