Audiobook: Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 084

Ghosts everywhere, and of any colour," was the promise of Spectropia, a book of "surprising spectral illusions" published in 1863. Optical illusions were among the twenty vol. 084 topics, chosen by their readers, which were concerned with science, technology, and medicine, including the societal implications of decision making in these fields: (The Equality of Inertial and Gravitational Mass; The Machine That Thinks; Rocks For Homes; Ottawa Illinois Radiation Area; Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses; Cincinnati's "Old Cunny; and Buck v. Bell). This Troubled World, a 1938 essay by Eleanor Roosevelt, is joined by others with a sociological focus: (The Graves of the Fallen; The American Indian in the Great War (1921); A Letter to a Hindu: The Subjection of India (1908); and Not Revolution, but Evolution). Rational thought is explored in both philosophic and religious contexts (Ascending Forms and Powers; The Four Gospels from a Lawyer's Standpoint). Foibles and quibbles get their due (Mr. Flannery Finds Himself; On Being Bored). The collection is then rounded out with a history of Danzig and letters relating to the Hamilton-Burr duel. Summary by Sue Anderson