that's pretty neat

Well clearly 2024 hasn't been a great year for blogging so far, but now it's time to catch up! Here's a quick overview of what else I've read this year so far.

2 “Social Engagement” by Avery Carpenter Forrey Fiction, 2023 3/5 stars (or lower in parts) I had higher hopes for this book, despite the low rating and reviews on GoodReads. I was pretty interested in the beginning but it didn't met up to the initial intrigue I had and there was a lot around eating disorders.

“The formal language and stilted conversations in the book made me realize the truth that should've been obvious: the human tendency to obfuscate and edit went back much further than social media. The feed just gave us a tool to commit misrepresentation at a larger scale.”

3 “Finding Me” by Viola Davis Autobiography, 2022 4.75/5 stars Great audiobook read by Viola Davis. I knew almost nothing about her life, man is she talented.

4 “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot Nonfiction, 2010 4.25/5 stars Fascinating story and history that everyone should be aware of. In a nutshell, Henrietta's cancer cells grew at very rapid speeds and survived long after being removed from her body, which was an anomaly. This made them great for scientific research and helped achieve many discoveries. But does her family have any right to the money generated from companies and institutions selling cells that are technically Henrietta's even after she's been dead for decades? This was before patients had to elect to be part of scientific research and black patients were especially taken advantage of.

Surprisingly, it was the parts near the end focused on Henrietta's family and Rebecca building relationships with them that I started to lose some interested. Normally I love that kind of stuff.

5 “Boom Town” by Sam Anderson Nonfiction, 2018 4.25/5 stars Another topic I knew nothing about, the founding/establishment of Oklahoma City and the more recent history about the OKC Thunder NBA team. Chapters alternated between the 2 (very different) time periods/topics but it did a pretty good job tying them all together. Most fascinating to me – when OKC was established, it was basically a land grab. The date of the land run was set ahead of time and people came from all over to stake their (free) claim.

6 “Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore” by Robin Sloan Fiction, 2012 3.25/5 stars Another interesting premise (basically an old secret society that is trying to solve puzzles through various books) that had me at the beginning. But some of the characters and the ending fell flat for me. This was clearly written during the tech boom and the company Google was put on a pedestal throughout the book.

7 “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by JK Rowling Fiction, 2004 The Harry Potter audiobooks continue to be great. I hadn't finished reading this book when I was a kid so glad to have done it now. The earlier books are still my favorite though, maybe because I'm more familiar with those storylines.

8 “The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin Fiction, 2018 3/5 stars I feel like this book was totally different from what I expected reading the summary. Basically 4 siblings visit a fortune teller when they were very young and she tells them each the year that they're going to die. Sure enough, all predictions come true and ¾ die in very tragic ways.

9 “Baracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo'” by Zora Neale Hurston Nonfiction, publish 2018 but written in the 1920's 4/5 stars This terrible, but I don't remember much about this as it was a very short audiobook and parts were a little hard to follow. But the gist African villages were raided for the slave trade and the boat rides over to America were terrible (a surprise to no one).

10 “She Said” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey Nonfiction, 2019 4.75/5 stars Overall really good! The book is focused on their reporting on Harvey Weinstein's misdeeds and all the reporters had to go through to get the story out there. It's amazing to hear all the women they were in contact with, some famous some not, and understand what the women went through to make the decisions to make their stories public. And the craziness coming from Weinstein's camp.

My only qualm with this book is the portion at the end about Christine Blasey Ford and speaking up on being sexually harassed by (now judge) Brett Kavanaugh. Obviously a very important story to tell (and she was so brave to do this), but book structure-wise, I don't think it needed to take up such a large chunk of the book at the end.

11 “Seveneves” by Neal Stephensen Science fiction, 2015 4.25/5 stars What to say about a nearly 900 pg book that took me 8 months to read... The overall premise was really interesting and could probably be a cool movie or series. The moon breaks apart and will start a “white rain” about 2 years later, which will rain depris on the Earth for thousands of years. Only a couple thousand people are sent into space to try to save the human race. After many trials and tribulations in space, only 8 women survive and land on a meteor (I think?). They kinda gloss over the science to make this happen, but they decide that the 7 women of child-bearing age should start popping out kids to keep the race going. With science, the women can choose if they want to alter the DNA in any way before the embryo is implanted in them. Jump forward another few thousand years and a huge civilization in space is established and there are different “races” that come from the seven eves (ah get the title?). The characters we follow in this section eventually go down to earth and find that some people have been living underground since the white rain and now are starting to emerge and reestablish Earth.

There is SO MUCH world building here, which is probably awesome for some people and takes a lot of talent to write, but seemed unnecessary and sometimes uninteresting to me. I kept going because the general plot was interesting and I wanted to see how it turned out, but I would have liked it to be much shorter :)

12 “Robin” by Dave Itzkoff Biography, 2018 5/5 stars Really interesting biography of Robin Williams (and a great audio book, the narrator did good character work throughout the book). While he was a huge name, I really didn't know a lot about his early work and the full extent of his struggles, especially when he was getting started. I also didn't realize he was so sick when he died and that there were strange underlying health issues at play too.

13 “The Luminaries” by Susan Dennard YA Fantasy, 2022 4/5 stars My first foray into YA fantasy (at least in recent years)! The premise had me interested throughout – there are monsters that come out at night in the forests in Hemlock Falls and there are hunters to keep them contained. Winnie, the main character, wants desperately to be a hunter but her family is shunned after her father (allegedly) betrayed the hunters. She does the hunter trials anyway and makes it through. But some weird things are happening in the forest that no one fully listens to her about. There are a few loose ends that I would have loved to have wrapped up at the end, like what is this new monster and what actually happened with her day, but it's a series so those must go into the next book. More to come so I can be more fluent in the genre when Megan's book comes out!

By Danielle Evans 265 pages Published in 2020 Fiction and short stories focused on race 4.5/5 Stars (quick read but powerful)

The book includes several short story and one novella for about 100 pages, which is where the books title comes from. In that story, the government has an Office of Historical Corrections comprised of officers who make correct historical inaccuracies seen in everyday life. The main character, Cassie, works in the office and it sent to remedy an issue in rural Minnesota caused by a correction an ex-coworker (Genevieve) made. It was correcting a plaque memorializing a black man (Josiah) who owned a house in the town that burned down and was thought to have died in the fire. The correction was to name the racist townspeople who may have had something to do with the fire and who took the house, without payment, after the fire. Turns out, Josiah actual fled the fire and liked a long life outside of the town. Cassie uncovers that the Josiah's sister (Ella Mae) was also living in the town while passing as white. The main adversary of the sign is a white supremacist called White Justice, who turns out to be the grandson of Ella Mae (meaning he has black ancestry). The story ends with White Justice in a rage about the news and shooting Genevieve.

“Through the [candy store] windows I could see the checkered floor and wooden countertops. I distrusted, in general, the appeals of nostalgia – I loved the past of archives, but there was no era of the past I had any inclination to visit with my actual human body, being rather fond of it having at least minimal rights and protections.”

“Along again, I asked what was wrong. [Genevieve] told me she'd lost a debate tournament, or rather not lost but come in second, and also not lost because she had, by all accounts and measures had won, been fiercer and smarter and more polished than the girl who beat her, won by every metric but the judge's scorecards. Her teammates had sympathectically shrugged it off as one of those inexplicable decisions, and her parents had given her the twice as good for half the credit lecture, when she wanted, just once, for someone to tell her that she was already good enough and it wasn't all right if the world wasn't fair enough to reward it, wanted someone to acknowledge that even this trivial thing was allowed to hurt, and that the particularity of the unfairness had a name. 'Genie,' I said, 'Fuck those people. You're smarter than all of them.' 'I am,' said Genie. 'But it's never going to be enough.'”

”'I didn't know it was [a fake gunshot] at first,' I said. 'You always think when something like that happens you're going to be the bravest version of yourself. I thought I was ready, and I wouldn't be terrified.' 'Oh, Cassie,' Genie said. 'No, you didn't.'”

By Meghan MaClean Weir 319 pages Published in 2018 Fiction Themes: Family, religion, LGBTQ, sexual abuse 4.25/5 Stars (entertainingly neat)

Clearly this book took a lot of inspiration from the Duggar Family and mega-church families, but I still got into the story and couldn't alway predict what would come next. The writing was pretty simple and I didn't think the Liberty Bell storyline/past added a lot of value, however those didn't bother me too much with the strength of Essie and Roarke as characters. I'd been meaning to read this book for quite a while, and it was the perfect book to finish in the mountains during the last week of the year.

One funny thing – I got my copy at a used book store and there were not markings in the book besides one note about halfway through. The writing was describing Roark getting into a taxi when they arrived in Havana and the note lectured, “Don't ever do this – no need to write pieces that aren't important”.

Plot so I don't forget (spoilers ahead!):

• Essie is the youngest child of the Hicks family, who run a mega-church and have had their own reality TV show since Essie was very young. There are several older brothers and one sister who Essie was very close to until she left for college a couple years earlier and cut ties with the family/TV show.
• As the book starts, we find out Essie is pregnant but don't know who the father is (I assumed it was an incest situation but didn't guess correctly until it's revealed as her brother who is running for Senate). Her mother Celia is discussing options with others involved with the TV show.
• Essie has a plan – she's been planting seeds that leads to the idea that she'll marry a boy named Roarke and they'll pretend the baby is his. Roarke's family is having financial troubles but he's smart and just got into Columbia. Essie knows her family could pay for his tuition and help his family if he agrees to the arrangement. This way, both Roarke and Essie could get out of their small town and to NYC. Essie also knows that Roarke is secretly gay, so they could marry without a physical relationship and Roarke could see whomever he wanted once they got to NYC.
• Essie also chooses a journalist named Liberty Bell to grant exclusive interviews to related to the wedding. Liberty Bell grew up in a cult and wrote a book when she was very young spouting conservative BS. She's turned a leaf since then, and Essie chooses her because she's likely to understand Essie's situation.
• As the wedding approaches, Essie starts sharing more of her secrets with Roarke and Liberty. She reveals that her brother raped and impregnated her. She also leads Liberty to a hard drive with digital copies of her diaries from since she was very young. She instructs Liberty (and her team) to build a book out of her entries, and she wants it released right after the wedding when the contract is “fulfilled” and Essie and Roarke has access to the money promised.
• After the book is complete, Liberty tries to convince Essie that it's a bad idea because of how it may hurt her family, but ultimately Essie decides to go through with it. Right after the wedding ceremony in an interview with Liberty, Essie reveals the truth about her family, that she's pregnant, and that the book is being released. The book then jumps ahead to a year later and overall it's “happily ever after” – Essie and Roarke live in NYC in with the baby girl, Roarke is in a relationship with Essie's cousin (whom he met during the wedding festivities), and Essie is advocating for justice for rape victims (as her brother may not be convicted).
• There are some other twists and plot points that made it interesting along the way – Roarke was sent to a conversion camp one summer, which was terrible, and turns out Essie's rapist brother was sent there too; Essie's relationship with her brothers' wives and their motivations; Essie's sister coming back into the fold, however that storyline was a little anti-climatic.

Like many people of my generation and of the female gender-identifiers, I have a hard time celebrating my accomplishments of any size and can be overly critical of myself. That especially comes out around the New Year when I think back on what I've done over the past year (first thought is always, not a lot) and what I want to “fix” (I know, bad term to use) in the next year.

Of course 2023 was very memorable because I got married and successfully planned and executed a destination wedding and surrounding events/activities. That was a major part of 2023, but it shouldn't be the only thing I take away from the year. So as a reminder to myself, here are some other (smaller) things I accomplished in 2023.

• I currently have a 213 day winning streak in Wordle.
• I read 40 books. This was lower than my original goal of 50 books to match pervious years, but I didn't have as much time for reading in the first half of the year.
• I got in a good rhythm of working out with Peloton. I worked out over 6,500 minutes, about double from 2022, and did exactly 500 workouts (I swear that was not planned). Overall I've felt stronger, been able to do longer and harder workouts, and been constantly reminded than even a little bit of movement makes a huge difference in my mood and stress levels.
• I successfully honeymooned in Norway with Chip, traveling to 4 different cities in 10 days with only a 32 liter backpack.
• I saw some great live performances throughout the year. Some of the most memorable were Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, “The Book of Mormon”, Jonathon Van Ness, Jimmy Carr, Taylor Tomlinson, and Dan Mintz (voice of Tina Belcher).
• Overall, I managed work well and showed my worth. We had a lot of changes in the company this year with several rounds of layoffs, and it means something that I wasn't affected by them. There were bouts of challenges, especially near the end of the year, but I continued to learn and adapt to the work I was given.
• I spent a good amount of time outside with Chip and Pepper. Over the summer we went to local parks almost every weekend and made a couple longer day trips to places like Mountain Park. In the fall and early winter, we also had a routine of getting coffee in Old Town on a weekend morning then walking Pepper through the surrounding neighborhoods.
• I improved at voicing my opinions (when I have them) and following my gut to make decisions.
• Just this writing is an accomplishment! Earlier in the year, I did well physically journaling about the books I've read, and I'm happy to continue doing that and other writing here.

I've been blazing through some shorter books to reach my (reduced) reading goal for 2023. Here are rapid-fire book notes and reviews.

#36 “Incredible Doom”

By Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden 288 pages Published in 2021 Fiction/YA graphic novel 3.75/5 (pretty neat for what it is)

Chip heard about this book somewhere online and bought it a couple months ago. This is the first graphic novel I've fully read and it was a quick one (I got through it in about an hour one evening). The book alternates between two stories related to misunderstood teenagers who find their people or community through online chatrooms or bulletin boards in the early days of the Internet. Themes include abusive families and queer identity/acceptance. The artwork was really good and I liked how the pages varied in structure to enhance the story (guess that's probably how most graphic novels are).

#37 “The Last Thing He Told Me”

By Laura Dave 320 pages Published in 2021 Mystery Thriller 3/5 (first half neat-ish, ending not so neat)

This book got a lot of buzz when it was published, is constantly being given away in Goodreads sweepstakes and has its own TV show now. But like others in these genre, the plot wasn't as thrilling as expected and had plot holes that left me confused. I was pretty invested in the first half as we learned about the characters and the general background, but the “twists” and ending didn't make a lot of sense.

General plot so I don't forget (spoilers ahead!)

• Hannah married Owen about a year prior and lives in Sausalito with his 16 year old daughter, Bailey, in a house boat. Hannah is a woodworker who makes fancy furniture and Own works for a software startup. Bailey and Hannah don't get along well (typical teenage girl issues).
• When Owen's tech company is busted for fraud, he fully disappears and has a young girl give Hannah a note that just says “Protect Her”. After this, Hannah and Bailey have to work together to figure out why Own disappeared and unravel his past.
• Eventually, they head to Austin, TX and discover that Owen lied about his past and Bailey's mother (who Owen said died in a car accident when Bailey was very young).
• They learned that Katherine's (Bailey's real mother) father was a prolific lawyer in Texas who represented a lot of shady people in the latter part of his law career. Katherine did die when Bailey was young, but it's believed that she was murdered by people who wanted to get back at her father. Owen was so distraught by this that he used his intel (he did some work for her father) to help land the father and others in jail. He changed his and Bailey's identities and moved them away from Texas for protection.
• The reason Owen disappeared again is because he was worried that with his new name and appearance being in the news related to the company's fraud that the “bad guys” would track him and Bailey down. Turns out he actually didn't have anything to do with the company's fraud...eyeroll of him being too good of a guy to get involved in that shit.
• This is where it gets a little confusing...Hannah is able to track down the father (recently released from jail) and convinces him that if Bailey visits more and builds more of a relationship with him that he will keep her and Bailey safe. So we're to believe that after all this, everything is resolved with Bailey simply seeing her grandfather/corrupt lawyer more?
• Owen is never able to return because of the choices Hannah made (refusing to join witness protection). But we see a flash-forward in time showing that Hannah and Bailey end up having a strong relationship and that Hannah sees Owen for a passing second at a convention. Happy ending I guess?

#38: “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster”

By John Krakauer 368 pages Listened to the audiobook Published in 1999 Non-fiction 4.5/5 (neat but scary)

John Kraukauer's account of climbing Mt. Everest while disaster struck and 8 people died near the summit of the mountain, including some very experienced climbers/guides. The book alternates between his personal story, the history of climbing Everest, and the background of these famous guides. I was especially shocked when those guides (Rob Hall and Scott Fischer), whom he was building up throughout the book, also perished in the disaster. It takes a special kind of crazy to want to climb it (especially multiple times!) and no way is that me.

#39: “Virgil Wander”

By Leif Enger 300 pages Published in 2018 Literary fiction 4/5 (pretty neat)

Virgil Wander lives in Greenstone, Minnesota, a small mining town in the north, where he owns and lives in a rundown movie theater, The Empress. Virgil almost dies when he drives off the road into Lake Superior and becomes a bolder man after. He goes after the woman he loves, becomes a mentor to some of the young men in town, helps put on the “Hard Luck Days” festival, and turns around the movie theater.

There were a lot of plot lines so a few times they seemed disjointed and not fully realized, but overall I enjoyed the small-town setting and going along for the ride with these characters. It gave shades of Fredrik Backman – the subject matter is dark and depressing at times, but you can't help but feel the optimism of the town and characters at the same time.

“Hand to hand went the kite string. 'Did you know my son?' Rune asked all who flew, and quite a few did. A small town like Greenstone is thoughtful and nosy. It got around fast that Alec's father was here. Rune wrote with a pencil in a pocket-size notebook while the dog [kite] clattered high in the gusts.” I understand the feeling of craving stories of those lost.

“I didn't want to let her go, of course – what I wanted was to hold her tight, to keep hearing her soft, near, barely-awake voice. There is no better sound than whom you adore when they are sleepy and pleased. I wanted to hear about many small things, the smaller the better. I wanted to tell her small things in return.”

By Daniel Kahneman 418 pages Published in 2011 Non-Fiction/Psychology 3.5/5 stars (medium neat)

Not a lot to say about this book beyond the quotes I highlighted. I thought the concept of System 1 and System 2 thinking was interesting and makes sense. The first couple chapters had my attention but it wained after that and felt repetitive. It covers the vast amount of research Kahneman has done, but typically the results of the studies and what they said about the way people think didn't surprise me. It took me a while to get through this book and I had to switch from the physical/ebook to an audiobook to get through it without falling asleep.

“You think with your body, not only with your brain.”

“[Kathleen Vohs'] findings suggest that living in a culture that surrounds us with reminders of money may shape our behavior and our attitudes in ways that we do not know about and of which we may not be proud. Some cultures provide frequent reminders of respect, others constantly remind their members of God, and some societies prime obedience by large images of the Dear Leader.”

“If possible the recipients of your message want to stay away from anything that reminds them of effort, including a source with a complicated name.”

“When we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition...When in a good mood, people become more intuitive and more creative but less vigilant and more prone to logical errors.”

By Rebecca Makkai 418 pages Published in 2018 Historical fiction Themes: LGBT, AIDS crisis, family (biological and chosen), death, love 4.5/5 Stars (Very neat)

“You get afraid of one thing, and then suddenly you're afraid of everything.”

(In reference to Nora's artist friends lost in the war) “Every time I've gone to a gallery, the rest of my life, I've thought about the works that weren't there. Shadow-paintings, you know, that no one can see but you. But there are all those happy young people around you and you realize no, they're not bereft. They don't see the empty spaces.”

“[Richard] said, 'It's always a matter, isn't it, of waiting for the world to come unraveled? When things hold together, it's always only temporary.'”

Misc. Thoughts (Spolier warning!)

• Excellent book that tears at the heart. Having missed the AIDS crisis, I hadn't understood the full scope of the epidemic until probably 10 years ago and this book puts it even more into perspective. The book illustrates how, like wars, the crisis wiped out a generation.
• Yale was a great main character and I was fully bought into all parts of his story. While he was flawed and naive at times, he was relatable by being a good friend, career-focused and becoming attached to Nora and her art. I was convinced he'd be safe from AIDS and yelled at the book when it was revealed that he was likely exposed (after being so safe and cautious).
• I really enjoyed the storyline with Nora and Yale getting to know her story and more about the art she's giving to his gallery. At first I didn't see the need/connection of this to the larger story, but once she talked about losing friends during the war (WWI?), and the lost art that comes with that, that I understood the similarities with her and Yale's experiences.
• I'm not convinced the 2015 storyline was needed. Fiona (Yale's friend Nico's sister and Nora's grandniece) goes to Paris looking for her estranged daughter who ran away with a cult in college. She stays with her and Yale's mutual friend Richard, and feels reconnected to Nico, Yale and others through Richard's photos and videos from the 80's. I guess it showed the impact those loses left on Fiona and Richard, but I can't figure out how the missing daughter (and granddaughter) tie into the larger story. Maybe it's showing how Fiona gave her all into helping Yale and others while they were dying but was too drained and traumatized to be as motherly with her own daughter (Yale died on the day her daughter was born).

Where to start, where to start? Well like any good Internet blog, we should probably start by talking about Lord of the Rings. To the dismay of many friends and even my husband, I had never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies...until yesterday when I finally watched “The Fellowship of the Ring”. I've pieced together the general premise of the movies over the years through pop culture and memes, but had never actually sat down and watched any of them (partially because long movies put me to sleep).

Overall, I enjoyed it and thought it was a neat movie. It held my attention for all ~3 hours and I was invested in the story. I was aware of some of the characters going into the movie (which helped), but I was still confused by some of the more minor characters in the fellowship and their backstories/motivations for being on this quest. Probably on second watch I'll pick up on a lot of more the nuance and side stories.

There were a couple themes that caught my attention... Going in, I generally understood that the one ring gave great power to the owner (hence why it was so precious and had to be destroyed). But I thought the lore around it was interesting in that it shows that men (creatures in this case?) can still be greedy and power-hungry despite being “good” overall. Like the king's son who acquired the ring after Sauron was defeated had a chance to destroy it but didn't. And even Bilbo had a hard time giving it up and losing that power, despite saying that he wanted to. So with all that, does it mean that Frodo is “pure good” since he has not (yet) shown those possessive qualities while holding the ring? Seems like the ring has been more of a burden to him than to other characters and that he is very set on destroying it. Guess we'll see how that storyline progresses.

This may be dumb, but I didn't realize “fellowship of the ring” was actually going to refer to a group of dudes banning together and the themes of brotherhood and loyalty within the oddball group were unexpected. I feel like that isn't seen a lot in movies, or at least in the wholesome way it was depicted here. Like the interaction between Boromir and Strider when Boromir was dying was truly touching. And the Hobbit gang, while not the smartest group of individuals, is heartwarming because of their friendship and loyalty to each other.

Other random thoughts to close out:

• The sets and landscapes are incredible. They cover a lot of ground in the movie and every setting looked amazing (whether real landscape or fabricated). The CGI holds up well over 20 years later too.
• At the same time, my one critique is that since they try fit such a long journey into the movie, I sometimes got confused on where they were and what they were doing there (besides simply passing through to get to Mordor). Like all of the sudden they went from being high up on a snowy mountain to being underground? It's probably explain much more in depth in the book.
• The movie was good and I can see why it's one of the most popular movies of all time, however I'm not sold on the obsession with it yet. I guess it's more for fantasy-buffs and getting into all the lore outside of just the main movies. As Chip pointed out, there wasn't a lot of pure fantasy when the books were written (and even when this movie came out), so that's what attracted a lot of people.
• However I do understand the obsession with Gandalf, he's pretty neat. He's got shade of Dumbledore but with more sass and personality. He comes back after falling off that cliff, right?

I am looking forward to watching the next one, even though it means investing another 3 hours in watching a movie (and hoping I don't fall asleep during it). My holiday break from work is coming soon though so that might be the time.