Book Review: The soul of an Octopus

The Soul of an Octopus 

A surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness

 

Author:                         Sy Montgomery

Publisher:                      ATRIA

Type:                              Hard Cover

Pages:                             241

Genre:                            Non-Fiction

Published:                      2015

ISBN:                              9781451697711

This book is a nice hardcover and underneath its colourfull dust cover the book is elegant with black cover and silver writing.
 As a cute added bonus the corner of each page has a little octopus in it, if you flick the pages the octopus moves. There are also eight full color pages of photographs.

 The book is a personal journey of the authors interactions with various octopus. It is a fascinating journey and we grow to know her and her friends which does come to include some cephalopods. 

It looks briefly at some octopus legends. It again draws attention to the science establishment and its attempts to minimise the fact that animals show emotion. It brings up some interesting questions about consciousness.   

 There are a lot of facts scattered throughout the personal story, and the knowledge bombs are dropped smoothly. There is even a little about Na Kika the Octopus God of Gilbert Island.

 I recommend this book for anyone interested in animals, consciousness, psychology, octopus, squid, nautiliod, and especially anyone who eats cephalopods. I should point out, the book isn't preachy, that's all me.

Do you care about animals? Then you really shouldn't eat octopus.

Review Hung Like An Argentine Duck

Hung Like An Argentine Duck

A journey  back in time to the origins of sexual intimacy.

Author:                             Dr John Long

Publisher:                         Fourth Estate

Type:                                 Soft Cover

Pages:                                249

Genre:                               non-fiction

Published:                         2011

ISBN:                                9780732292737

 This is a neat book, its novel sized coming in at, a little over eight inches tall, more than five inches wide and about an inch thick. It was a perfect holiday purchase. I noticed absolutely no editing errors within the books pages. There are a few black and white diagrams thorough that help demonstrate the subject being covered, and there are eight full colour pages in the center of the book. 

 The book beings with an interesting forward and continues on with an interesting preface. The preface begins with a loving poem, somehow ends up at auto erotic asphyxiation before eventually explaining what the book is and what it sets out to do.

  Chapters one through seven detail the authors fossil discovery. In chapter one we look at the penis of ducks, whales and the largest human penis, we examine the genital sizes of the other great apes and are taken to an Australian desert on a fossil hunt. We examine those fossils in chapter two. Chapter three is shark sex 101. In chapter four we see the procedure in writing and releasing a scientific paper.

 In chapter eight we explore the origin of sex. Chapter nine deals with the sometimes horrific sex lives of insects, spiders and crustaceans. From there we move on to chapter tens examination of the first sex on land with amphibians and lizards. Chapter eleven details the difficulties of dinosaur sex. We finally arrive at mammalian sex in chapter twelve. Chapter thirteen has a detailed look at sperm. And finally chapter fourteen ties it all together showing us how we humans are indeed related to that first fossil fish from chapter one.

 We end the book with an epilogue and extensive notes were all the books mentioned are referenced, we then find acknowledgements and an exhaustive index.

 The book does have a brief look at homosexuality but this isn't the books focus, homosexuality is covered as a natural part of animal, human and sexuality, which is as it should be.

 While the book does get a little 'sciencey' at times, everything is quickly explained in an easy to understand manner using common day terms. The author needs to be commended in his ability to do this so well.

  

 I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, sexuality, science, sex, animals, paleontology, evolution, or anyone just wanting a good read.

Book Review; The Van Meter Visitor

The Van Meter Visitor

A true & mysterious encounter with the unknown.

Authors:                                Chad Lewis, 
                                               Noah Voss, 
                                               Kevin Lee Nelson. 

Cover Design:                       Kevin Lee Nelson               

Publisher:                             Back Roads Lore             

Type:                                     TPB

Pages:                                   238

Genre:                                  Non fiction

Published:                            2013

ISBN:                                    978-0982431467

Source:                                 Independently purchased 

 The year was 1903, the place was a Iowa town of 1000 souls, the creatures that clawed there way up the coal mine and into the night to terrify the townsfolk are a mystery. 

This book seeks to explore the event and answer the question that had puzzled historians and zoologists for a hundred years. 

What was the Van Meter Visitor?

The book itself has a nice olden timely cover with a great antiquated looking photo. There are a good number of diagrams, historical photos and news clippings thorough the book, helping to add to the feeling that you are uncovering the secrets of the past.

I noticed about six editing errors while reading the book, though i must stress that they were little things (like sentence missing the word "as"), and none prevented my understanding of the text.

The forward is written by Brad Steiger (an author of works on the paranormal, spirituality, and UFOs), the book has a good contents page, useful appendix, and well spaced bibliography, the photo of the news clipping and reproducing the story in full text form was much appreciated.

This book is a non fiction study of what occurred in Van Meter all those years ago. It is exhaustive and covers many possible explanations for the events in question. The authors seem to know just when they are about to overload the reader with too much information and gently steer us back to the subject, before we are weighed down with the intricacy of any given theory.

I am continually amazed by how today's science is catching up with the knowledge of pagan belief systems, i find this subject fascinating and it was touched on in this work while examining possible explanations for the mystery. Explanations range from the simple; a previously unknown radioactive mutant subterranean species to the truly preposterous, such as an a burglar. While i don't agree with the authors favorite explanation as to what the visitors were, i definitely enjoyed learning about the visitors and building my own opinions based on the evidence uncovered by the authors and appreciate there unbiased reporting.

I found this book to be a fascinating read and i am sure anyone interested in cryptozoology, paranormal activity, meta physics, parapsychology, thought forms, UFOs, aliens, or history will like this equally enjoyable.

Chad Lewis has written many books on the supernatural including The Road guide to mysterious creatures, and The Road guide to haunted locations series's.

Noah Voss has published Mysterious Madison and UFO Wisconsin.

Kevin Lee Nelson has contributed to many books on folklore and been an expert on many television program.

* A version of this review originally appeared in Monkeys Book Reviews.

Book Review: Why Science is Wrong - Alex Tsakiris

Why Science is Wrong

...About Almost Everything.

 

Author:                                Alex Tsakiris

Cover Design:                     Danijela Mijailovic                               

Publisher:                            Anomalist Books             

Type:                                    TPB

Pages:                                   178       

Genre:                                  Non fiction

Published:                            2014

ISBN:                                   978-1-938398-31-5

Source:                                Independently purchased

If you feel that science may be missing something, than this book might be for you. If those "skeptic" debunkers give you a headache with there illogical BS your not alone. This is a book about science by scientists.

The physical book has a nice colorful cover and is of high quality production. The text seems to be on a slight lean, which i think is intentional, there are no pictures in the book at all, though none are really needed.. 
I only noticed one editing error in the entire book, and that may have been due to that section being a transcript of a radio interview. Someone was simply referred to as he instead of she. The book also has a contents, extensive bibliography and well written index.
All in all judging by a book by the cover, the book looks good,though the title may alienate some.

This is a non fiction, exploration of science and why "mainstream science" is wrong and needs a reality check. It is presented in an easy to read and understand format. It is very well written, i often found myself thinking "ahhh but what about...." only to have that very question posed and explained in the next paragraph.

It shows how irrational and close minded some "experts" in the fields really are, how they will ignore and misrepresent the facts to maintain the status quo.

The Author does concentrate a lot on the nature of consciousness, and how "mainstream science" declares us "biological robots", and while i understand that this fact is one of the things that is fundamentally broken about "mainstream science". I can see some readers not fully comprehending the importance of that fact, as most readers do would not believe it in the slightest. Perhaps a little more time could have been devoted to explaining "mainstream science" stance on this issue and its implications.

I found the book to be a very interesting read, and can highly recommend it for anyone interested in science, metaphysics, mindfulness  and anyone who has witnessed the illogical and hypocritical double standards of "skeptics".

The following topics are discussed in this book; Consciousness, Quantum Physics, The Fundamental Reality of Human Existence, Near Death Experience, Psychics, Mediums, Telepathy, Animal ESP Experiments, Psychic Detectives, Healing and Medicine, Energy Healing, The Placebo Effect, Atheism, Evolution,

The author Alex Tsakiris runs a podcast at skeptico.com which is highly recommended listening.