Mini Book Reviews: Solutions and Other Problems, Tunnel of Bones...

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Published: October 10th, 2020 by Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Format: Paperback, 519 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

The series gets a solid 4 stars for me. But this particular book was very slow in the beginning. But it picked up halfway through and carried us on. But I'll be honest I did not like the ending as much as I was hoping. It felt like Pullman didn't quite know how to end such a grand series and world and so it just kind of felt like hmmmf. Also, the implication of how one's daemon might not change anymore was not great. He never said for everyone but that was implied. The implications of that are a bit harried and I don't think he thought much about it beyond his characters.

But despite those misgivings it's a fantastic series. So very clever, full of philosophy about life and death and religion and power and agency. It's a true classic and am so glad I read it with G. We had lots to discuss.

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

Published: July 7th, 2020 by Riverhead Books

Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction, Medicine

Format: Audiobook, 7 hours, 46 minutes, Library

Rating: 3.5 stars

My Thoughts:

I really liked this one. She has a very unique perspective has a Black woman physician working in emergency medicine. Her childhood was heartbreaking and her desire to heal her patients is truly inspirational. She doesn't shy away from microaggressions at work or with patients.

I also found inspirational the ways she was able to heal herself so she could go on trying to heal others. She maintained healthy boundaries with her abusive father but always with the option of healing and forgiving on her own terms.

The only thing that brought it down was the way she talked about holistic healing in conjunction with medicine. While I agree a lot that if everyone had access to basic medical care and could make a living wage with one job this would be a good way to help people manage their stress and take care of themselves. But it felt a little bit like because I can do it (meditate, yoga retreats, acupuncture, self care top priority outside of work) then anyone can. Maybe she actually wouldn't say that, I doubt she would but that is what it felt like to me. If she had talked about how these things helped her personally and kept it at that I would have found it more appealing and honest.

But overall, it's a beautiful memoir and her experiences are priceless. I also listened to the author read the book and she did great! I highly recommend the audio.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Published: July 14th, 2020 by Gallery/Saga Press

Genre: Horror

Format: Kindle, 310 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

This was a trip! I loved it. The only thing I didn't love was how little I got to know some of the characters before the end. Take Lewis. I felt like he focused the most on him. And his horror story was the most twisted of all but it's only in the first half. But the ending is spot on and made everything come together. It's a gory and twisted and yet hopeful and poignant story. Even if horror isn't your thing I still feel like this is one to read. Jones an American Indian and he knows how to weave this tale that brings race, land, and colonialism all into view. 

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

Published: September 3rd, 2019 by Scholastic Press

Genre: Horror, Juvenile Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

This is the second book in the Cassidy Blake series. The first was in Edenborough, Scotland and this one is in Paris! The catacombs take front and center and are they ever creepy. Cassidy and best friend Jacob (who's a ghost) want to keep out of trouble as they tour the Catacombs but Cassidy accidentally disturbs a poltergeist, a ghost who's forgotten who he or she is. They're more powerful and you need to get them to remember who they are and how they died before you can send them on to the "light."

I loved reading about Cassidy in Paris and how she worked through the mystery of the poltergeist. It's a sad tale and we find out more about Jacob as well. Schwab always handles the tough stuff with aplomb. 

G also read this one. He couldn't remember the first one from last year so he read that one and then this one. Loved them both and can't wait til the third one comes out in March. He also hopes the next one will feature more of Grim their fluffy black cat!

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

Published: September 22nd, 2020 by Gallery Books

Genre: Graphic Novel, Funny, Nonfiction, Memoir

Format: Hardcover, 518 Pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

My Thoughts:

Allie Brosh keeps it raw, real and humorous. I haven't read something that makes me so sad and happy at the same time. She writes about the death of her sister and it's truly devastating. But it's also real and vulnerable. We've all been there with those who have died before their time and we love them.

Her story about her sister and her sister's best friend is disturbing and beautiful. We get to hear about the Hammer Guy next door and how she takes revenge! And guided meditation and the employees at the grocery store will never be the same for me again!

If you loved her first one you'll love this one. And if you haven't read Hyperbole and a Half go get it now and then this one. You're welcome.

Mini Book Reviews: Nonfiction: Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, Invincible Microbe, Spillover...

Here's the nonfiction I've read over the last couple of months...

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

Published: August 17th, 2015 by Haymarket Books

Genre: Nonfiction, Essays, Memoir

Format: Audible, 5 Hours and 47 minutes, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.

Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."

My Thoughts:

Excellent. I loved listening to Ms. Davis. I saw her do a lecture/Q&A at a local university a few years ago when this came out. I loved hearing her story. We have a long way to go. The main thing I got besides freedom is a constant struggle, was how we need to understand the global perspective and how it all affects us. Global movements are our movements. Our circle of empathy needs to stretch globally.

My only complaint with the audio book version is it was hard to follow Ms. Davis in the interview transcripts. She read both the interviewer and herself and it was very difficult to figure out who and what while listening.

And there is nuance with the Israeli and Palestinian conflict that she didn't discuss. But I understand that wasn't the focus of the essay or speech she used.

Overall, a fantastic collection of her thoughts and ideas. She's very inspiring.

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy

Published: July 12th, 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: Nonfiction, Science, History, Medicine

Format: Paperback, 160 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

This is the story of a killer that has been striking people down for thousands of years: tuberculosis. After centuries of ineffective treatments, the microorganism that causes TB was identified, and the cure was thought to be within reach—but drug-resistant varieties continue to plague and panic the human race.

The “biography” of this deadly germ, an account of the diagnosis, treatment, and “cure” of the disease over time,and the social history of an illness that could strike anywhere but was most prevalent among the poor are woven together in an engrossing, carefully researched narrative. Bibliography, source notes, index.

My Thoughts:

I read this out loud with G. I wanted to learn with him more about germs and how tuberculosis was brought under control with antibiotics. But I did not know that tuberculosis was still a force to be reckoned with. There are super resistant strains that need to be killed with ever-more powerful antibiotics. It's a devastating disease. It was a great summary for kids and teens and people in general who don't know a lot about tuberculosis and its lasting devastation.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Human Pandemic by David Quammen

Published: September 24th, 2012 by W.W. Norton Company

Genre: Nonfiction, Science, Medicine

Format: Kindle, 592 Pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit these diseases all originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In this gripping account, David Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge and asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be? 

My Thoughts:

Well, we know what the next one is... a coronavirus SARS-COV-2 and its disease Covid-19. He talks about SARS in the early portions of the book. I actually started this one the weekend we started quarantining. Talk about surreal.

Quammen is a fantastic science writer. He actually travels around the world and talks to the scientists and epidemiologists involved with each of these diseases. He talks about his experiences and uses those to talk about the topic at-hand. I learned so much about AIDS and HIV and where it probably first made spillover in the early 1900s and where and why.

"Zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. Pondering them as a group tends to reaffirm the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal, inextricably connected with other animals: in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health."

"Make no mistake, they are connected, these disease outbreaks coming one after another. And they are not simply happening to us; they represent the unintended results of things we are doing. They reflect the convergence of two forms of crisis on our planet... first crisis is ecological, the second is medical.

Human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading those pathogens ever more widely and quickly."

The rest of the book delves into detail how and why we are doing this and how we are our own worst enemies if we don't do more to change our ways.

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Published: June 1st, 2017 by PublicAffairs

Genre: Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, History

Format: Paperback, 352 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

In 1918, the Italian-Americans of New York, the Yupik of Alaska and the Persians of Mashed had almost nothing in common except for a virus--one that triggered the worst pandemic of modern times and had a decisive effect on the history of the twentieth century.
The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. It infected a third of the people on Earth--from the poorest immigrants of New York City to the king of Spain, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi and Woodrow Wilson. But despite a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people, it exists in our memory as an afterthought to World War I.
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted--and often permanently altered--global politics, race relations and family structures, while spurring innovation in medicine, religion and the arts. It was partly responsible, Spinney argues, for pushing India to independence, South Africa to apartheid and Switzerland to the brink of civil war. It also created the true "lost generation." Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology and economics, Pale Rider masterfully recounts the little-known catastrophe that forever changed humanity.

My Thoughts:

This just touches on the history of the Spanish Flu through various parts around the world that dealt with it. We get the U.S., the frontlines of war in France, China, Brazil, etc. She talks about three or four possible scenarios of where the spillover happened and how it could have spread and why. The last section focuses on how it changed the world culturally. How did artists and writers and architects change after surviving and experiencing this devastating pandemic?

It's very short on the ground. It doesn't focus on any one country but just small parts everywhere. But I appreciated the jump from place to place and a story or two to humanize it. There are so many books on the Spanish Flu that I'm sure I'll find one to go into more detail.

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter

Published: October 1st, 2008 by Gotham Books

Genre: Nonfiction, Language, History

Format: Kindle, 230 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar

Why do we say "I am reading a catalog" instead of "I read a catalog"? Why do we say "do" at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Language distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history.

Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century ad, John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor. Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English--and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for (and no, it's not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition). 

My Thoughts:

I am a huge fan of John McWhorter. I've read one of his books before this and I've enjoyed his Great Courses series on all-things linguistics. I got my Bachelor's in Linguistics so I love me some language stuff. I've taken two courses on English language history and his two main ideas he focuses on in this book, I'd never ever heard before! He blew my mind. Things that were weird about English now kind of make sense. I recommend reading this with another book on the history of English, one that gives a more detailed history and then his book just adds another layer.

He also has such a dry and funny humor; he just made me laugh out loud a few times. He's got dad jokes all throughout....