It’s been a little while since I did a progress update so it seemed like a good time, though usually I save them for Fridays. Things have been crazy busy with doctor’s appointments, state testing at school and toddlers getting things stuck in their ears. So most of what I’ve been reading it audiobooks but I still pull out physical books and ebooks every day to make even a few minutes of progress.

How it’s going:

The beginning of this one started fairly slowly and I feel like I’ve been waiting to get to the good stuff. We are finally into the good stuff! Kary is still mildly frustrating and fiercely independent. Andrew is such a sweetie and trying so hard to not impose on Kary’s energy or ability even though he really wants to be near here. It’s cute and I can’t help but sigh a little at it. Bianca’s is becoming quite the villain so I am pleased by that development. She was a mostly disposable plot device in the first book but now she is really making strides at being a really despised character. Long way to go still but I am thoroughly invested.

Synopsis:

Keeping skin healthy is a booming industry, and yet it seems like almost no one agrees on what actually works. Confusing messages from health authorities and ineffective treatments have left many people desperate for reliable solutions. An enormous alternative industry is filling the void, selling products that are often of questionable safety and totally unknown effectiveness.

In Clean, doctor and journalist James Hamblin explores how we got here, examining the science and culture of how we care for our skin today. He talks to dermatologists, microbiologists, allergists, immunologists, aestheticians, bar-soap enthusiasts, venture capitalists, Amish people, theologians, and straight-up scam artists, trying to figure out what it really means to be clean. He even experiments with giving up showers entirely, and discovers that he is not alone.

Along the way he realizes that most of our standards of cleanliness are less related to health than most people think. A major part of the picture has been missing: a little-known ecosystem known as the skin microbiome–the trillions of microbes that live on our skin and in our pores. These microbes are not dangerous; they’re more like an outer layer of skin that no one knew we had, and they influence everything from acne, eczema, and dry skin to how we smell. The new goal of skin care will be to cultivate a healthy biome–and to embrace the meaning of “clean” in the natural sense. This can mean doing much less, saving time, money, energy, water, and plastic bottles in the process.

How it’s going:

At first I thought this book would be a little bit too far out there for me. I mean, who is actually going to just stop showering? But this book is about a lot more than that. So far the most interesting parts is when Hamblin ties an evolutionary drive to seek out “clean” things as a method of rooting out disease, but in the modern human we have turned cleanliness into a virtue. It was a very interesting connection that I have never thought about but it makes a lot of sense.