Trust Women

Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice by Rebecca Todd Peters (2018) 240 pages

Rebecca Todd Peters, a Presbyterian minister and social ethicist, published this book in 2018, before the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, but she could see the restrictions regarding abortion increasing and shame directed at women who chose to have abortions even while the procedure was still legal in all the states. Her well-researched and amply footnoted book has a number of themes: 

Abortion was not always frowned upon in our country. Until the later 1800's, women regularly found ways to limit the number of their children, including by having abortions. "A small and committed group of physicians...transformed public opinion about abortion and criminalized it (p.98).

Peters also states that abortion is not a moral issue, in spite of the fact that many people frame it that way. However, she believes that reproductive justice IS a moral issue; a woman should not need to justify her abortion, or conversely, be coerced into having an abortion she does not want. "The history of women's fertility in his country has been one of using shame, guilt, legal measures, and coercion to control which women get pregnant, carry a pregnancy to term, keep a child, or place it for adoption" (page 118). Peters believes that no woman makes her decision lightly. She makes it clear that women must be seen as "rational, capable, responsible moral agents" (p 8), and not treated as [children] in time-out, where they must adhere to waiting periods or forced to watch ultrasounds or videos before the procedure can be performed, dictates imposed on women as a result of misogyny and patriarchy. 

Peters believes the whole conversation needs to be reframed. What should really be happening is that social structures are put into place so that there are jobs, daycare, affordable housing, more reliable contraception, etc, so that women can make decisions that work for their lives. I found this book to be a thoughtful treatise on this hot-button topic.

Home (Binti #2)

 

Home (Binti #2) by Nnedi Okorafor (2017) 176 pages

I continued the series with the next audiobook narrated by the same person, Robin Miles. I love the artwork on the cover of this one. Binti's former adversary Okwu, a Meduse, is now a good friend, almost a sibling. I did not grasp the change that happened to Binti near the end of the first novella, but it is clear now that she has been injected with some Meduse DNA, and her dreads are now freely moving Medusen tentacles. Binti and Okwu have spent a year at University building new lives amongst many different aliens. Binti feels called to return home for a cleansing pilgrimage. This middle part of the trilogy is really about how going away to college changes you and your home is not the comforting place you once knew. I relate to Binti's character so much. Meanwhile, the alien technology that Binti found when she was eight that came in so handy in the first book, which she has been learning to use at University, breaks. Binti's family is generally polite, but they still think of Okwu as a monster. Binti also learns about her family's bias against the more "savage" people who live in the desert hinterland. They are her father's people and they have different "harmonizer" abilities to communicate over great distances using alien nano-technology. There are some external plot developments, but we really delve into Binti's internal life, the rejection she feels from her family, the confusion she feels about her path.

Atomic Habits

 Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, by James Clear, 306 pages

This was a fast read. I usually despise  "business" self-help books like this but another author I enjoy recommended it. Ultimately, the advice here can be used for anything.

What caught my attention initially was the author's personal story in the introduction. As a young man, he's involved in a horrific baseball accident that puts him into a coma and on a ventilator. He rebounds, but his arduous recovery forces him to develop positive habits to ensure the return of his health and achieve his academic dreams. He attributes this system of habit-building to his current success. 

Bottom line: if you want to get started on a new habit, whatever it is, follow these 4 laws:

• Make it obvious
• Make it attractive
• Make it easy
• Make it satisfying

Each section of the book dives into these laws with abbreviated scientific studies, true-to-life vignettes, and tips on how to implement these laws while trying to solidify your new habit. One interesting trick is known as "habit-stacking," where you attach your newly desired habit to an already existing habit. For example:

1. After I (CURRENT HABIT), I will (HABIT I NEED). 

2. After (HABIT I NEED), I will (HABIT I WANT). 

So after you get back from lunch, you will call three new clients (need).

After you call three new client, you will check social media (want). 

For me, trying to make a new habit produce a dopamine hit seems to be the best way to add it to my schdeudle. If you can associate your desired habit with the reward center in your brain, you'll be on a surefire path to learning how to...knit? Skateboard? Juggle? Juggle your knit creations while skateboarding? Try it out and let me know how that goes. 

Recommended for adults. 

The Mountain in the Sea

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler, 456 pages

Marine scientist Ha is whisked away to a remote island to study a population of octopuses that live there. Once she arrives, she discovers that her only human (or human-equivalent) companions are a war-hardened security officer and her fellow researcher Evrim, an android that actually passed Turing's final test of artificial intelligence. As they begin studying the octopuses, however, Ha and Evrim realize that this population is much more advanced than anything humans have ever seen — they have a discernable visual language, as well as what appears to be culture beyond family dynamics. Interspersed with Ha's storyline are plots that focus on Rustem, a hacker who has been tasked with finding a pathway into the most complex system he's ever seen; and Eiko, a man who was relocating to seek a high-tech job when he was captured and enslaved on an AI-controlled fishing boat.

While the three storylines certainly give context to the world in which Ha is working, jumping back and forth between the plots is a bit jarring and confusing, particularly combined with the (fake) book excerpts that start each chapter. While I enjoyed this hard science look at consciousness and environmental impacts, I think it would have been better if it was structured slightly differently. Still, I'll happily recommend it to those people who are convinced that one day the octopus will rule us all (that's not just me, right?).

Beyond the Wand

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton, 288 pages

In this memoir, actor Felton recounts his years making the Harry Potter movies (he played the sneering Draco Malfoy), as well as the movies and projects he worked on before and after. While most of the book is fairly light and full of anecdotes about boyish troubles on-set, the latter part of the book gets pretty real, with his account of going to rehab for alcohol use and mental health issues. He's frank, self-aware (I loved how he notes that he mansplained something to Emma Watson as a kid), and full of care for the people in his life. I listened to the audiobook (read by Felton) with my Harry Potter-obsessed daughter, and even in the more serious parts, we both enjoyed the listen.

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood (2010) 269 pages

This fifth book in the Corinna Chapman Mystery series is every bit as good an escape as any of her others. Corinna Chapman is a baker in her second career, after having left her career as an accountant as well as her spouse. She's a size 20 woman, who is finally being appreciated for who she is. Now she runs a bakery and shop in a colorful (and slightly seedy) area of Melbourne, Australia.

Her lover, Daniel, has taken a job in which he is to locate Brigid, a the 16-year-old girl who has supposedly broken out of a third story suite in her parents' mansion, while quite pregnant. Also missing is the gardener's son, Manny. Brigid's parents are out for vengeance. As the search continues, Brigid's parents appear more and more culpable.

Meanwhile (there is always a "meanwhile,") Christmas is around the corner, and in Australia, that means it's HOT, and the carolers are out in force, in addition to a group called the "freegans." 

The characters are fun, often rather eccentric, and as they come into the series, they often stay and become people who feel like they're our neighbors as well. One of the newest characters in this book is a donkey named Serena, who turns out to be of great service when Brigid goes into labor. A nice story, with a few weird twists, which keeps the reader wondering.

Everfair

 Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016) 381 pages

After finishing King Leopold's Ghost, I saw a list of steampunk books. When I was reminded that Everfair is set in the Congo in the same period of time, but with an alternative steampunk history, I had to move it up in my reading list priorities. Nisi Shawl acknowledges the inspiration she found from Adam Hochschild's history book. 

Unfortunately, the author provides a single page of historical background, which is not nearly enough. I have an advantage of being familiar with the people and events associated with this history, since I have read the above book, but I was still lost as this book jumps between time, place, and such a large cast of characters. I can only imagine the confusion of a reader that does not know something of the true history. The most clear parallel between historical person and alternative character is George Washington Williams, the black American minister who embraces African languages, and Thomas Jefferson Wilson, the black American minister character who "goes native." The author does not spend enough time setting the scene, describing the societies that the characters come from. Most chapters are quite short and deal primarily with one or two main characters. It takes awhile for these characters' storylines to interconnect. I question why the author chose to create certain main characters (the Poet) who seem to not be that significant to the story, or to the advancing events of the alternative history. Other characters (Lily and Jackie with his Fabian Society) are developed significantly only to be eliminated from the story. I wished other characters were developed more. Unfortunately, many of the African natives still have less agency than the Americans and Europeans and one Chinese engineer. I loved the steampunk aspects. The zeppelin "aircanoes," mechanical limbs for those with war wounds or those who lost hands during Leopold's rule, and arrow guns were great. Other futuristic tech was not described in a way that gave your mind a clear picture. I appreciated the alternative history with three major wars: the war against Leopold, WWI, and a civil war between the African ruler of the region reclaiming his power and all the colonists. Multiple characters are described as doing espionage work, but the story was lacking actual descriptions of intriguing spy craft. I repeatedly wanted certain chapters to continue and give me more, but they would be interrupted by four to five plodding chapters checking in on other characters. Maybe two interesting storylines would be running at a time with other characters making frustrating decisions in between. I'm glad I stuck with it, but it was not a favorite.

Enchantment

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May (2023) 212 pages

Enchantment is a book that I'm finding hard to describe. The author, Katherine May, indicates how much she and her family had been affected by the Covid lockdowns, and how even outdoor recreation was very rare in England during that time. Our sense of danger was high, and it continued at that level. Some of us continue to feel that stress.

May's book is an exploration of how to regain our sense of wonder and connection with our world as adults. Often she looks back at events in her past, and even the household habits of the grandparents who raised her, comparing them to our modern life, and notes how modern life fails to serve us in many ways. She believes that the small doses of awe which help us keep some magic in our lives are more elusive in our lives now, and needed more than ever. Nature and ritual are important parts of our recovery.

This is a sweet book: part memoir, part guidebook, part slice of life.

Binti

 

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015) 96 pages

I previously read Okorafor's memoir Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected about her personal experience as a teen star athlete who becomes paralyzed and finds purpose as a writer of science fiction, specifically africanfuturism.

I listened to the audiobook, the start of a trilogy, on Hoopla. It is narrated by Robin Miles. It is super short and sets up the characters and world in a way that leaves me wanting to find out what happens next. This is a story of diplomacy and stopping a war between alien species. Binti is from a desert community in Africa on Earth. Her peoples' culture and habits seem foreign to the Western majority culture. She loves mathematics and wants to go to the prestigious Oomza University on another planet. She is accepted, but all her friends and family discourage her because they think she will never truly be accepted as representing the larger Earth culture, so she runs away. The spaceship is a sort of living giant shrimp thing with hollow spaces for the humans to inhabit. Binti's new Uni life is interrupted en route by a Medusen attack. There has been a long-standing armed conflict between Earth's majority culture and the Meduse. I picture the Meduse as human-sized jellyfish. Binti's position as an outsider even among humans, coming from a long line of diplomats called "harmonizers," and an alien piece of tech that she does not completely understand makes her unique in position to stop more violence when the spaceship arrives at the University. We meet more diverse alien species at the University, and the resolution happens a bit too quickly. But, perhaps, it is the diversity that leads to quickly accepting the wrong that has been done, apologizing, and ending the war.

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, 369 pages

Tress lives on a rock in the middle of the Emerald Sea. Except that the rock is an island where nobody (except fancy noblemen) is allowed to leave, and the sea isn't water but green spores that burst into fast-growing vines when they come into contact with liquid. Tress is happy with her life there, but when her beloved Charlie (a duke's son who pretends to be the gardener) is kidnapped by the Sorceress while traversing the many spore seas, Tress decides that she must do everything in her power to rescue him. Much derring-do and piracy ensues.

In an afterword to the book, Sanderson notes that he set out to write something akin to The Princess Bride, if only Buttercup had gone out to rescue Wesley instead of assuming he was dead. As much as I love the classic book and movie, Sanderson is on to something, and his book is a fantastic reimagining of that idea. Tress is a level-headed woman who takes on challenges one step at a time, learning a lot about herself as she searches for her beloved. Really, I aspire to Tress's level of cool competency and bravery. An excellent novel, with a great mix of adventure and whimsy. My only regret is that I read the hardcover, which doesn't have the cool illustrations (or the cover shown here) that accompany the original paperback — I would have loved to see a portrait of Hoid (a man cursed with bad taste) in all his glory.

The Cybernetic Tea Shop

 The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz, 118 pages. 

Clara Gutierrez repairs Raises, limited AI companions that are thriving since the creation of true-AI "robots" was banned decades ago for ethical reasons. Technicians like her are needed everywhere, which really enables her nomadic lifestyle. When she rolls into Seattle she expects it to be just another stop. What she doesn't expect is to find is a real robot running a tea shop, and what she expects even less is that her feelings for that robot would leave her not wanting to keep moving. 

Sal has been running the tea shop of her original owner for well over 250 years, and is desperately trying to help the cafe reach it's 300th anniversary, a task that keeps feeling harder and harder with her own failing body and the anti-robot vandalism that keeps striking the cafe. When she and Clara start spending more time things start changing for the first time in centuries, which is a lot to handle.

This was a really cute little novella. I was impressed by how well the author was able to flesh out the world in so few pages. I also found the romance pretty cute, which is also less common for me in short fiction. This is a nice, warm little story. It almost feels like a cup of warm tea itself.

The Ministry for the Future

 The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, 577 pages.

In 2025 The Paris Agreement founded an organization to argue for the as yet unborn people of the future; this organization quickly became known as The Ministry for the Future. This novel covers about forty years of mostly the Ministry's attempts to handle climate change, but also the playing out of other world conditions over those decades. 

I think I would have liked this book better if the synopsis was more accurate. It was described as "told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry For The Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come." While it does contain some fictional primary documents (such as meeting minutes or journal entries), the vast majority of the book is more standard third-person limited novel-style chapters from two protagonists, and even the chapters that are told in a more first-hand lack any sort of identifying information about what kind of format it is supposed to be or who is speaking. It's also marketed as Science Fiction, which I suppose it sort of is, although most of it I would call barely speculative.

This novel feels ambitious. It's a big beast of a book, and sometimes that gives it a needed sense of scale and gravity, and sometimes it means long, dry chapters about economics. I do have to say I think it's a little strange that I think there was more of this book dedicated to economics than any sort of science. I don't think this is a bad book, but I did personally find it a bit of a slog to get through, probably at least partially due to a mix-match of expectations.

Plum Rains

 Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax, 389 pages

Kara wrote about this book here when it was actually the Orc & Aliens book two months ago. I am late to the party, but this book was interesting enough that I wanted to come back and finish it anyways.

This book moved at a pretty leisurely pace, but I think it stayed interesting throughout. The juxtaposition of historical fiction and science fiction segments created some interesting back and forth. It actually reminded me quite a bit of the short story "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling" from Ted Chiang's Exhalation, which I just recently reviewed. My only gripe is that I didn't like how it ended very much. Overall I would still recommend it.

Flow

 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 303 pgs. 

At the heart of this book is a very simple idea: attention is a finite block of mental energy and in order to create positive growth in our lives, we must learn to control our consciousness--or, enter a flow state of mind. 

To do this, we must protect our awareness of the world around us and learn to control our consciousness. In doing so, we can improve our skills, our mental health, our relationships--our entire lives. "The flow experience is typically described...as lacking the sense of worry about losing control." Throughout the book, the author works to illustrate different states of flow, in work, family and our creative endeavors. 

The biggest takeaway for me was the author's description of flow activities. Typically, a person will begin some new skill, like a sport or a craft and as they begin at an easy level, they enter a flow state; it's fun, they're learning and succeeding. But eventually, the person will get bored with their current skill level and need to challenge themselves. This takes them out of the flow state. At that point, they are are learning new skills or improving on current skills, in order to return to the flow state at a higher skill level. 

This diagram illustrates the thinking behind this concept:

So whenever you're doing something and your anxiety is up and the task seems too difficult, just tell yourself you are working towards a flow state 😊

I liked this book overall, though it feels a little dated reading it in 2023 and I wonder if there are similarly-styled works on the same topic. While it is not light on scientific references, it tends to feel that way because of Csikszentmihalyi's writing style--the book reads less like a well-researched psychology text and more like a professor's ongoing lecture. As a result, occasionally it feels like Csikszentmihalyi starts to lose the book's overall message in his own descriptive language and penchant for analogies. But the overall thread remains the same throughout--"attention shapes the self, and is in turn shaped by it." 

Recommended for adults. 

Musicophilia

 Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks, 425 pages.

Have you ever gotten the melody of a song stuck and in your head? We commonly refer to those as earworms but Oliver Sacks like to think of them as "brainworms."

This author has been on my to-read-list for a while now after seeing the 1990 Robin Williams film Awakenings, based on Sacks' work as a neuroscientist.  This is the perfect introduction to his life's work, which details some of his strangest and fascinating encounters with people who become plagued with issues of the mind--this one specifically catalogues stories of patients who suffer with (and in some cases, prosper from) uncontrolled issues of music related to the brain. This is a very empathetic and fascinating read, mostly short vignettes about interesting case studies Sacks has encountered in his storied career in the medical field. Patients who develop musical "hallucinations," concert musicians whose fingers suddenly revolt and refuse to play, a patient who constantly hears micro-tones, people with Tourette's who can only control their condition by continuously playing piano--the list seems endless. 

Many of the tales here feel unresolved, as many of these maladies are so peculiar and strange that cures and treatments are few and far between. Oftentimes, the very real people in these stories must learn to cope and live with their audio-induced ailments. Sacks flits about from one strange encounter to another, curiously musing on each case study briefly but with all the care of a trusted friend. One such heartbreaking story is of Clive Wearing, an accomplished musicologist and conductor, who contracted a herpes simplex virus that attacked his central nervous system and primarily affected his hippocampus. The resulting damage obliterated his brain's ability to make and retain new memories. New memory events for him last between 7 and 30 seconds. He couldn't remember his children's names or the last time he saw his wife (even though she continues to visit him regularly). And yet Clive was still able to play a piece of music from start to finish on the piano. Sacks muses that Clive can do that because melody is not a memory, but plays in our mind. "For those moments he was playing he seemed normal." But when the music stopped, Clive was lost to time once again. 

Fascinating, quick reading about the brain, neurology and music related trauma. Recommended for adults. 

How to Sell a Haunted House

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, 413 pages

Tech designer Louise Joyner hasn't lived in Charleston for more than 20 years when she gets the call nobody wants: her parents have both died in a car crash. Louise and her younger brother Mark have never gotten along, and the sudden death of their parents puts even more strain on their relationship, sparking fights over everything from what to do with the house to how to handle the funeral arrangements. Complicating matters further are the creepy vibes of the Joyner homestead, which is filled with their mother's collection of dolls and the puppets she built as a Christian puppeteer. One puppet, Pupkin, is particularly creepy, and after enough odd things happen to Louise, she's convinced that there's more to Pupkin than meets the eye.

I absolutely adore everything Hendrix writes — he's so adept at mixing horror, humor, and humanity — and this book is no exception. He carefully balances Louise's grief, her complicated relationship with her family, and the absolute horror of creepy dolls and puppets (seriously, after demonic possession and eldritch horror and vampires and slashers, Hendrix was due for a haunted toy story). I loved this book and I'll continue to read anything Hendrix publishes.

Well Traveled

Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca, 305 pages.

Louisa Malone is an attorney at a soul-sucking job where she never seems able to advance. The general terribleness of this finally drives her to a small mental breakdown while visiting a Renaissance Faire on a work trip, where she decides to throw her phone in a tub of water. Intervention from her cousin Mitch and acquaintance Stacey (from Well Matched and Well Played, respectively) soon has her traveling with The Dueling Kilts band and on a complete tech detox for a month or two while she gets her head on straight and decides what to do next. She finds herself starting to be Lulu again, rather than Louisa, and finds that she likes the change. She also finds that she likes the Kilt's guitarist, Dex MacLean (also from Well Played actually) who has a reputation for sleeping around and not much else. But soon Lulu discovers there's more to both herself and him than meets the eye. It's just a shame that their time together has an expiration date. 

This romance novel was fun to read, but I've got to admit that I found a lot of the character development pretty hard to buy. It felt like a lot of character changes, especially in Dex, were made more because the author couldn't have Lulu in love with someone terrible than from any sort of internal place. I also noticed that by the end they don't seem to actually have any common interests, which always makes it a little hard for me to buy a relationship. But! I did have fun reading it, and if you don't think to hard about it the novel can definitely be a good time, especially since we're back in a proper Renaissance Faire atmosphere for pretty much this entire book, which is ultimately why I read them.

Exhalation

 Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang, 350 pages.

Kara just beat me to writing about this month's Orcs & Aliens book, so I'm going to go ahead and link her review here.

I thought this was a really neat collection! It does what I tend to like short story collections to do and is filled with stories that are more about keeping you thinking rather than being focused on narrative. What I also found really cool about it's collection was that by focusing pretty hard on a couple of themes (I found themes of personhood and free will to be particularly prominent) it managed to give a very nuanced examination of them. It felt at times like the collection was in conversation with itself, which was very interesting. This was a great book club discussion, and I definitely think the stories contained within deserve the many awards they've won.
 

An Immense World

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong, 449 pages

We may think we as humans know a lot about the world around us, but what we know is limited by the boundaries of our senses. We can only see a certain spectrum of light and only hear a certain spectrum of sound, for example. But we're not the only living creatures on this planet, and most of them have senses and abilities beyond the scope of the wildest human imagination. However, Yong attempts to tell us about these senses in An Immense World. He explains how some sea creatures can see in ever direction at once (the mantis shrimp's visual abilities still confuse me) and how bird songs are MUCH more complex to birds than they are to us. He explains how dog noses work and how snakes' forked tongues function, and how bats' sonar is so much more complex (and LOUD!) than we as humans generally assume. Basically, every page brings a new revelation about the umwelten (a German word referring to an organism's unique sensory world) of the creatures that share this planet with us. I'm so glad I experienced this book (I listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author), and I'm excited to check out Yong's previous title, I Contain Multitudes.

Exhalation

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang, 350 pages

In this collection of nine science fiction stories, Chiang offers readers many chances to muse on the nature of sentience, humanity, intelligence, memory, and the choices that make us who we are. From the ridiculously short "What's Expected of Us" (about a button that proves destiny and a lack of free will) to the novella-length "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (about artificial intelligence beings that are being raised and shaped by humans over a span of decades) there are a lot of things to think about in this acclaimed collection, and it gave the Orcs & Aliens plenty to discuss.

Last Circle of Love

Last Circle of Love by Lorna Landvik (2022) 275 pages

Mallory Peterson, aka Pastor Pete, has been the pastor of All Souls, a church in Kittleson, Minnesota, for less than a year. She chose the church in spite of the church's shaky finances, hoping that she could help improve the situation. A number of church members have defected in the past few years, going to the Prince of Peace Church, whose finances are in much better health.

A number of women on a church committee called The Naomi Circle are bent on finding a way to fundraise, wanting to do something really different. They brainstorm, along with Pastor Pete and LeAnn, her best friend from college, and someone suggests that instead of a cook book, they produce an ABC Book of Erotica. Not all those present are fully enamored of the idea, but the seed is planted, and Pastor Pete tells them to think it over. We get to know each of the members of this committee (my taking a few notes now and then helped me keep straight who is who) and how their thinking leads them to various letters of the alphabet and what they could write about. Erotica isn't really the right word for what is being produced, but it works to evoke the thinking and change the lives and relationships of several characters along the way.

Landvik's characters are always believable, with values and foibles of real people, which is one reason I really enjoy her novels. 

The Last Neanderthal

 

The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron (2017) 288 pages

I listened to the audiobook through Libby narrated by two women's voices. There are two parallel stories being told: one in prehistoric times, and one in modern day. The tale of prehistoric survival is given more time in, maybe, a 70/30 distribution. I do love imagining the lives of prehistoric people. I've read Jean M. Auel's whole "Earth's Children" series and a prehistoric adventure by Kim Stanley Robinson called Shaman. I've watched some PBS NOVA documentaries about the latest archeological findings. And I generally enjoy the mostly silly films set in prehistoric times with the '80's The Clan of the Cave Bear and Quest for Fire being pretty great. This book explores a lot of themes related to motherhood. The modern day story is about an archeologist navigating the academic/museum world after she uncovers two skeletons in France. The two skeletons appear to be a Neanderthal and a Homo Sapien who were buried together facing each other. The archeologist wants to stretch our understanding of the relationships between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. Are we really so advanced? How did they die out and we survived? I found the prehistoric part of the story more intriguing. We meet a small Neanderthal family who has adopted a young lost or orphaned Homo Sapien boy. He is thought of as a runt to the more stocky Neanderthals. We see one way that the Neanderthals could have died out, and how relationships could be built between the two very similar types of humans. I kind of wish the prehistoric story had gone further into the end of the lives of the two main characters who are found by the archeologist, but the author leaves us with a more open ending in the middle of their lives.

Murder on the Orient Express

 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, 275 pages.

In this (tenth) case of detective Hercule Poirot he is pulled into the investigation of an impossible murder that took place in the train cabin right next to his on the Orient Express. Ratchett, the murdered man, is an American millionaire who had asked Poirot for his protection, believing that someone was planning on killing him. Poirot refused what had sound like a boring case from a man he didn't trust, but now the case is anything but boring. The one who killed him must be one of the thirteen people in the snowbound train, but the evidence keeps getting more puzzling.

I've never actually read an Agatha Christie novel before, and I thought it was finally time to remedy that. I was intrigued by the premise of this one (although I had had the ending spoiled for me), and so decided to jump right into the middle. It was a cool mystery, and I can definitely see why people still read Christie's books. I love how all of the evidence was laid out at various points, and how the book rewards the reader for being observant and putting together some things a little before they are revealed. I may very well read another of her mysteries. 

A Burglar's Guide to the City

 A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh, 306 pages.

A Burglar's Guide to the City takes an architectural and historical approach to crime, mostly focusing on how various criminals use and misuse architecture to commit their crimes. Manaugh spends a lot of time talking about tunneling, lockpicking, fleeing the scene, and other facets of the implementation of crime.

There are definitely some interesting tidbits in this book. Unfortunately, I also found them a little drowned out by the author's somewhat repetitive style. I also noticed that it sometimes felt a little bit more pro-surveillance state than I was strictly comfortable with, probably because most of it's sources were in law enforcement. But there was definitely still some really interesting information in here, especially for me who is fascinated by heists. It also helps that the book is short, so little annoyances are very easy to put up with.

P.S. Kara, who recommended this book to me, reviewed it way back in 2016. You can read her review here.

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier, art by Val Wise, 127 pages

In this short graphic novel, jaded outcast Annie is encouraged by her mom to try out for the cheerleading squad, something that Annie's mom loved in high school, but Annie's a bit skeptical about. Meanwhile, Annie's former friend Bebe is the first trans girl to join the squad, and is constantly fretting about being the perfect girl, both while she's cheering and when she's not. But cheering together reminds the pair about why they liked each other in the first place, rekindling their friendship as they both learn to be comfortable and confident.

What a sweet story, especially for those who don't fit easily into stereotypes. While yes, this focuses on a trans girl and a short and stout lesbian, there are a lot of lessons here that teens and even adults can glean from Annie and Bebe's story. Highly recommended for all.

Stone Blind

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes, 370 pages

The classic story of Medusa is a familiar one: young hero Perseus was sent on a quest by a king to behead the monstrous snake-haired Gorgon. With some assistance from the gods, Perseus completes the task and uses Medusa's head to turn his enemies into stone, at least until he gives the head to Athena to put on her shield. Perseus is hailed as a hero, marries a beautiful woman, and lives happily ever after. Medusa, not so much.

In Stone Blind, however, Haynes reimagines the myth, framing it from Medusa's perspective. Sure, she's a Gorgon, but is it her fault that Poseidon rapes her in Athena's temple, an act that causes the affronted goddess to curse Medusa with her snake hair and stony gaze? Is Perseus really a hero, or is he a foolhardy demigod who only succeeds because he gets some help from the gods? It's a wonderful, thoughtful reimagining of Medusa's story, and even though you know going in how it's going to end, it's still a compelling tale. For those who appreciate Circe, Daughters of Sparta, and other feminist retellings of mythology.

March totals!

It's been a while since we've had a cat meme, so I thought it was time. This one looks both soft and evil. Anyway, here are the totals:

Byron: 7 books/3030 pages

Jan: 9 books/2684 pages

Kara: 9 books/2931 pages

Karen: 6 books/1796 pages

Kelly: 2 books/360 pages

Kevin: 1 book/319 pages

Regan: 11 books/3835 pages

Total: 45 books/14,955 pages