Natural Causes: an epidemic of wellness, the certainty of dying, and killing ourselves to live longer

Prolific political activist and investigative journalist Barbara Ehrenreich has here taken on the--in her view misguided--culture of obsessive "fitness" and keeping people alive at all costs. She challenges some of the evidence (or lack thereof) and precepts of preventive medicine, mindfulness, and the belief we have control over our bodies. But she also ponders some interesting developments in understanding cell biology--especially those we consider dysfunctional, like cancer--such as the scientific quandary of why our immune systems sometimes turn against us. The review from the New York Times sums it up well:
"Nothing in modern life prepares us for the leaving of it. We treat aging as an outrage or, worse, as a sin. In our addiction to betterment, we’ve replaced “health” — an absence of sickness — with the amorphous “wellness” and a flurry of overtesting, fad diets and pointless “alternative” treatments."
At age 76, Ehrenreich has decided that she is "old enough to die." That means no longer subjecting herself to unnecessary exams, tests, and treatments.  “Not only do I reject the torment of a medicalized death, but I refuse to accept a medicalized life.”
With a PhD in cellular immunology, she is certainly qualified to offer an informed opinion on these matters.
Additional reviews from The Guardian, the Washington Post, The Atlantic and Kirkus.

Coffin Road

This is the 2nd book I've read by prolific Scottish author Peter May (see also my post for Black House). He has written several series, but this is among his body of stand-alone novels. The plot for this book, set in the outer Hebrides, is a timely one--the precipitous decline in bee populations around the world. However, we don't know that until we are thoroughly wrapped up in the mysterious protagonist, whose name we aren't sure of, because he has been in a boating accident and lost his memory. People know him as Neal Maclean, a writer delving into the unsolved disappearance of 3 lighthouse keepers from a nearby island over a century ago. He can't remember anything about his life or the people around him, not even the woman in the neighboring cottage with whom he has apparently been having an affair. His dog knows him, but there seem to be no clues to his identity in the cottage he's been renting for the last year and a half. No ID. No e-mails. No pictures. He's told everyone he's writing a book but there's no evidence of this in his computer. All he finds is map of the island highlighting the Coffin Road--an ancient path followed by pall bearers. When someone breaks into his cottage and tries to kill him, the need to recover his identity becomes a mater of life and death.
There are two additional parallel storylines. Teenager Karen Fleming is still trying to come to terms with the apparent suicide of her father 2 years earlier. As she struggles to deal with her mother's plans to move on and remarry, Karen wants to talk to anyone who knew her father. But after she contacts a work colleague of her father's, he dies in an automobile accident--maybe. Karen becomes increasingly convinced that her father's death was not a suicide, and maybe he isn't even dead. Meanwhile DS George Gunn is sent to investigate the murder of a man at the same lighthouse where the keepers disappeared. The stories are connected of course, but you will be led on a totally believable but devious chase to find out how. Part scientific thriller, totally engrossing mystery--well worth the read. Reviews from The Guardian, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly

Star of the North

This timely and compelling thriller by D.B. John (see my post on another book of his that I read, Flight from Berlin) is set largely in North Korea during the rule of Kim Jong Il. The book opens with the kidnapping of a college-age couple by North Korean operatives from a beach in South Korea. Because they were taken aboard a submarine, no information turns up from the usual search and surveillance methods, and the two are eventually presumed drowned. The young woman's twin sister, Jenna--both of them are half Korean-American and half African-American--has never fully accepted her sister's death. Jenna's grief over her missing twin is compounded by her father drinking himself to death after the disappearance, and she has languished in her pursuit of an academic career. Nearly 12 years later, Jenna is tapped by the CIA to participate in talks with the North Koreans and suddenly she has hope that she might be able to find out more about the disappearance of her sister. Her story is interwoven with narratives from the perspective of two North Koreans. One is a poor village woman who finds a propaganda balloon in the forest (which she must by law turn over to the authorities) filled with food and other contraband. She takes a risk and opens a stall in the black market area of the train station with what she's found. The other voice is a high ranking Korean official whose English language skills tap him to be one of the diplomatic party being sent to Washington, D.C. for talks. The characterizations of daily life for ordinary citizens, the inner circle of the regime, and prisoners in the labor camps are all based upon accounts from those who have escaped or defected. Like the descriptions in The Orphan Master's Son, these are often painful to read. The government's deceit and manipulation of its own citizens as well as the rest of the world is a sobering reminder of what we're dealing with in our current negotiations with North Korea. Reviews from Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post, and Kirkus.

Amsterdam: A history of the world's most liberal city

This book by Russell Shorto (am American who now makes his home in Amsterdam) is more than a history. It is also an examination of culture and philosophy and politics and how these evolved in a unique way, derived from Amsterdam's unique geography. It also tells how this relatively small city and country came to have an outsize impact on the developing world from the 16th to the 20th century. Amsterdam residents wrested their land from the sea, which required unrelenting cooperative activity. But they also allowed independent ownership of that land, encouraging entrepreneurship and diversity of thought and action. Early on, Amsterdam became a haven for those with different views, especially around religion, and they often had to fight off much larger and more powerful countries to maintain or regain their sovereignty. Not only was Amsterdam the home of great art (e.g., Rembrandt, van Gogh) and philosophy (e.g., Spinoza) but also of tremendous financial and trade power with the Dutch East India Company. They created the first publicly traded companies and stock market. Only once did they truly fail, when they let the Nazis take over, betraying their significant Jewish population.
Takes a while to get started, but this is a fascinating book. Laudatory and more detailed reviews from
Publishers' Weekly, The New York Times, Kirkus, and The Guardian.