Despite Cook’s rigor in minimizing scurvy amongst his crew, his sailors dropped like flies after catching Dysentery and Malaria in Batavia. It was a time without modern medicine when something easily prevented or treated today could be fatal.
Pastoral Song is an easy book to read. It is sometimes poetic, often peppered with relatable observations, even quaint. Because it paints a large picture of the forces at work in Western agriculture over the last 70 years it gives voice to the dawning realization many of us have that farming, coupled with profit motives, results in sub-optimal outcomes when considering the animals, planet, farmers, and consumer health.
Quicksilver is the first of three books of the Baroque Cycle trilogy, and it’s also three independent books in one. It follows the lives of three fictional characters interwoven with real figures from the 17th century such as Louis XIV, Isaac Newton, and Leibniz.