Punderdome

Here is my first review of a non-book: Punderdome, a card game. The creators say the objective is to make the most groan-worthy pun, although if I were the host, I’d give higher points to the most clever pun – sometimes puns are cheap or overused, so usually the less predictable is better, in my opinion. If you’ve watched a show like @midnight, you’ve seen the instantaneousness of pun generating (of course, those are professional comedians) – so 90 seconds, or 120 if you won the first round, might be a little long, but in that time you can come up with several puns and choose the one you like best. Having bad jokes on each card could help keep the players in a punderous state of mind, and there is a card of “just for pun!” examples if more inspiration is needed. While mostly a card game, there is the addition of two mystery envelopes, keeping with the game-show vibe. If you don’t have anything on hand to give away, I think it’d be just as funny to write something imaginary that would make a bad – or good – prize. I like the suggestion of having one awesome prize in one envelope and something terrible in the other. And depending on who you’re playing with, something that could go either way – say a CD of Yanni’s “Greatest Hits.”

Until We Are Free

What at first feels like a collection of disconnected events becomes a more linked memoir of Shirin Ebadi’s ongoing efforts for human rights, and her life after receiving her well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize. Unable to keep her judgeship in Iran, she was still able to practice law, and it is clear from her interactions with anyone working against her that she excelled at this. She knows very well how the system operates, having learned the hard way, but this makes her stronger and better prepared to bring about justice. She is a human like any of us, and includes the details she remembers from her home country, the food, the sounds, the interiors of buildings where she worked, the way people presented themselves. Even though she is exile, and the intelligence ministry has done unthinkable things to try to stop her, she continues to work for what is right.

Women in Science

Very inspiring! is one way to describe “Women in Science,” an awesome new book by Rachel Ignotofsky. Reading this reminded me why I wanted to be a scientist in the first place. The excitement of discovery, defying the status quo, and the positive impact of applying scientific findings to benefit communities. Not only were these women brilliant scientists, they worked just as hard to advance social causes, and to apply their findings to the betterment of humanity.

The Man Who Touched His Own Heart

“The Man Who Touched His Own Heart” is the kind of book so good you’ll be re-telling some of these stories to your friends and family the whole time you’re reading. It’s a good thing I’m not so squeamish anymore – and a wonder I was a biology major – but after a few chapters, I found myself adjusted and just absorbed in the fascinating complexity of the circulatory system, and the adventurous history of how we came to understand what we now know about it. Like the titular character (that was one story I had to share multiple times), these are people who went into new territory at times when doing so was unthinkable. Many of them used their own bodies when no other options were available, and all sought, with a vision, a solution to a known problem. The progress of medical knowledge had slow beginnings, with frustratingly long gaps and setbacks, even the delayed inclusion of women and people of color to contribute. Now this pace seems accelerated, where many of the discoveries described in this book are commonplace, made into standard practice – where available, as the author takes care to point out: the world is still not equitable.