Welcome to Litsy!

These are the books that were up before my #Finance display, it was #Language & Lit Display. 😁

Have you read any of these?

#LitsyLovesLibraries #MrBooksDisplays

Quite entertaining, but often absurd. This book has lots of interesting facts, but Kaplan wastes his (and our) time offering up theories about ridiculous fairy tales like the story of Adam and Eve, writing that if Adam and Eve had eaten a fungus equivalent to magic mushrooms, then this nonsense might have actually been real. Kaplan knows better than this, but he pretends not to.

Fascinating!

Sword swallowing Part 2 of 2

Sword swallowing, Part 1 of 2 #StopThinkingAboutFellatio

Regarding the film Rain Man.

Nicotine replacement therapy, the current strategy for helping folks stop smoking, is only effective 7 percent of the time.

Nevertheless, by the fifteenth century, arsenic trioxide was so widely used to kill royalty that it came to be known as the powder of succession.

A foaming mouth or frantic kicking of the feet indicated that Ares, the God of war, was behind the seizure. Delirium was a spell cast by Hectate, the goddess of sorcery. It's easy to be amused at the behaviors of our ancestors, but were the Greeks really behaving all that differently from many people today? When I did rounds in the ER as an emergency medic in 1998, I heard many people say, "I'll pray for you," as their loved ones were wheeled off.

Teller of Penn & Teller

#dressesoncovers I think I want this woman's outfit. Also her magical powers. Each of this book's chapters covers a different kind of magic in myth and folklore, from enchantment to transformation to prophecy. Kaplan adds a new scientific lens to fields that we usually dismiss out of hand as hopelessly chimerical. #readjanuary

This book is smart and sassy and full of conversation starters. Also filled with reminders of why we tend to move away from ancient rituals. Like sticking fish in us to make a man fall in love... #LesPoissons #LovePotionNumberNeverMind

Highly enjoyable and accessible read. Kaplan writes respectfully and with humor; the goal is always to understand and appreciate, not to disdain or judge, beliefs and lore. Nice blend of science, myth, anthropology, etc.