![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
book reviews and current queues
Feb. 26th, 2005 12:10 pmFinally whittled away most of my last stack from the library. Results:
Didn't care much for Queen Christina. Nothing wrong with the book - it was well written and I did finish it, but the historical character was disappointing, IMHO. I had in my mind a powerful personality who did what she wanted, everyone else be damned. Instead, she was an insecure, arrogant woman who intrigued ceaselessly and ineptly, wasted her money on grandiose schemes, etc. I suppose I should be glad that the author wasn't afraid to show Christina's warts, but it just wasn't the story of a strong, independent woman that I wanted it to be.
Vaccine A - regrettably I used up all my renewals and had to turn it back in just as it was getting interesting. Turns out that even though squalene is a simple oil, it has profound effects on the immune system when injected. It seems that vaccine designers tried to make an anthrax vaccine with squalene to get an immune response without having to use actual killed/attenuated anthrax baccili, winding up with a vaccine that did little to prevent anthrax but a lot to screw up the immune system. U.S. soldiers were involuntary guinea pigs for this vaccine during Gulf War I, and the author's argument is that this vaccine is what caused much of "Gulf War syndrome". I will most likely check this one back out to finish it!
Currently on deck:
( oh man - clipped to create some much needed brevity in this post!! )
Didn't care much for Queen Christina. Nothing wrong with the book - it was well written and I did finish it, but the historical character was disappointing, IMHO. I had in my mind a powerful personality who did what she wanted, everyone else be damned. Instead, she was an insecure, arrogant woman who intrigued ceaselessly and ineptly, wasted her money on grandiose schemes, etc. I suppose I should be glad that the author wasn't afraid to show Christina's warts, but it just wasn't the story of a strong, independent woman that I wanted it to be.
Vaccine A - regrettably I used up all my renewals and had to turn it back in just as it was getting interesting. Turns out that even though squalene is a simple oil, it has profound effects on the immune system when injected. It seems that vaccine designers tried to make an anthrax vaccine with squalene to get an immune response without having to use actual killed/attenuated anthrax baccili, winding up with a vaccine that did little to prevent anthrax but a lot to screw up the immune system. U.S. soldiers were involuntary guinea pigs for this vaccine during Gulf War I, and the author's argument is that this vaccine is what caused much of "Gulf War syndrome". I will most likely check this one back out to finish it!
Currently on deck:
( oh man - clipped to create some much needed brevity in this post!! )
