Oh man, I can't WAIT for the miniseries at the end of May! Neil and Terry are (were 😭) the perfect writing duo.

The dust bowl years will break your heart. 💔

Hooray for 36!

Unpopular opinion time. This makes me angry. The topic is fascinating; not nearly enough is written about Ravensbrück and the women whose lives changed and ended there. So when such a topic gets attention in a book or movie it should be done well. Instead we get this exceedingly mediocre mess, with flat writing and no character development. Maybe this is the best book you read this year... if you don't read many books.

I didn't manage to finish in time, but I don't want to miss book club if I don't have to.

The first half of this really dragged for me, but it was made up with the second half when Marra really brings the story together. I knew nothing about Chechnya or Chechen history, & it is far too complex to understand in this story, taking place between 1994 & 2004. But it is a beginning. This is a story of every day people & survival. What will you do to survive? What is moral in times of war? This is one I will think about for a while.

The first adult tv show I remember loving was Star Trek: Next Generation. Wil Wheaton‘s Westley Crusher was my first crush, but I quickly moved on to Riker. I love the movies (old and new) & I‘ve watched most of the different shows. I even have a Star Trek bikini, in Science blue and not red (of course). So needless to say, I loved Redshirts. And the audio book is read by Wil Wheaton. It doesn‘t get better than that.

"Only the rocks live forever."
Took a quick break from this, but I'm back at it.

Here I am at Shadow Mountain Reservoir, part of the headwaters of the Colorado river. This is an interesting book, part travelogue, part history, part ecology, part water law 101. The answers for how to deal with the over used Colorado are not easy, but something will have to happen eventually.

This is me, right before I met Michelle Obama in Denver. She's right behind that curtain. She was amazing, and so is the book! I recommend the audio.

My Kilty Pleasures calendar is aiding in this review. One of the guys in our book club picked Outlander for this month. It's my second time reading it, and I loved it just as much this time around. I plan on catching up with the series this year, as all the books fit in my theme for the year of epic books! Anything 450-500 pages or longer.

"The Rockies are therefore very young and should never be thought of as ancient. They are still in the process of building and eroding, and no one today can calculate what they will look like ten million years from now. They have the extravagant beauty of youth, the allure of adolescence, and they are mountains to be loved."

Aviva Grossman is a young woman who has made a very bad decision. She's had an affair with the married congressman for whom she is an intern. And of course, it comes out. As it always does. What does she do now? Ms. Zevin tells the tale of a sex scandal through the eyes of the women whose lives are impacted. It is surprisingly light and funny for the topic, as well as intelligent, giving lots of food for thought in our new #MeToo era.

I'm actually a little shocked at how much I liked it. I've been hot and cold on Comey, & even though I don't agree with all the decisions he's made I now understand why he's made them. And the thing I love best about him in this book is that he doesn't insist that he was always right. He admits that some decisions may have been wrong, or another decision may have worked out better. I really do highly recommend this book for everyone.

If Andrew Shaffer is coming to your town on his book tour you should go. Had a great time at the Tattered Cover today!

This was incredibly hard to read, both emotionally and physically. So much of it could have come from my diary. In the course of reading this I underwent the special hell that is a uterine biopsy, and after a decade of begging, was scheduled for a hysterectomy. It will be my 4th abdominal surgery. I don't know if it will work, but it can't be worse.
If you know a woman who suffers from chronic pain, and you probably do, you need to read this.

I try to hide my pain and depression, especially from those who care. Because I love them, I don't want guilt and I don't want pity. And I am afraid of being a burden.

Discussing how women handle pain.

My issues started almost 4 years before they were medically recognized. After all, I had been told in sex ed that periods were supposed to be painful.

We still rarely talk about women's sexual lives in a meaningful way. My chronic pain ended my last relationship, and has kept others from forming for 10 years.

Award winning writer Hillary Mantel struggled with endo as well.

I probably read this for the first time about 10 years ago, and it stuck in my mind. Erik Larson ties the building of the 1892 Chicago World's Fair, the rise of a serial killer, and the path of a mentally disturbed assassin together in an eventful year for Chicago. The stories are all fascinating, and Larson does a great job making all the ties. A great read, even the second time around.

This book is not about modern American politics, but this book is absolutely about modern American politics.
There are disturbing parallels to modern events & political figures. We are separating families. We are stripping citizenship. We are marginalizing certain groups. We have a government controlled by blatant liars who demonize the press & the opposition.
If they want to not be compared to Nazis than they need to stop acting like them.

Yup.

An almost exact copy of the conversation I had with a doctor at the ripe old age of 17. It took them 4 hours to do an exam and ultrasound, and ultimately apologize and tell me I might be having surgery in a few hours.

I've had an interest in criminal justice since middle school. I have a Masters Degree in Legal Studies. I work for defense attorneys who do a lot of indigent defense. I know a lot of the facts behind prosecutorial misconduct. Even I was pissed off by this book.
Basic summary: Everything you see on CSI, NCIS, Bones, ect, is total bullshit. People are doing life, and on death row on this bad evidence. We have probably executed innocent people.

A good read, but not as good as In the Garden of the Beastd or Devil in the White City. Just didn't have the same tension. But it was informative and a good contribution to my WWI reading goal for the year.

Dave Cullen reported on the Columbine story & as he says at the beginning helped report the false stories & narratives that have become embedded in the American mythology around the event. In the book, written 10 years after, Cullen systematically goes through everything that was released.
Some myths he addresses:
• Less a school shooting than a failed bombing
• No target list
• Bullying not a motive
• She didn‘t say “Yes”
• No Trench Coat Mafia

Tomorrow I will finish reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. I live around the corner from the school. It is where my nephews will go to high school. Yesterday I marched in Denver.

Eh, it was okay. I've heard such great things about Mary Roach that I was expecting something more entertaining, or more funny. I'll probably still try another one.

I was reading this book in October of 2016. I could only read about 10 pages at a time before I could feel my blood pressure going up, and the rage reaching a boiling point. And then the election happened. I was too lost in despair to continue the book, and I set it aside. Well, the despair is gone, but the rage is still here. I don't know if that will ever really leave. But I am ready to channel the anger.

This is not about the scientists, the engineers, or the thousands of people that made Apollo possible. This book is about the personal lives and inner thoughts of the astronauts. And it is fascinating. Chaikin's book served as the basis for the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. We only have a few Apollo astronauts left living. Getting to the moon was humanity's baby steps. It's time to start walking.

The book is very interesting, but can be dense at times. It is is fascinating to think of the obstacles these women faced, including refusals of full membership in professional societies, jobs, & far lower pay than their male colleagues. But even facing those obstacles the environment at Harvard was far more welcoming than other facilities around the world. They loved the work that they were doing. There is much to admire in these women.

My mom & I had tickets to see Patti LuPone in Gypsy, prompting our first trip to NYC. We just happened to be in town on September 15, 2008, the day Lehman Brothers collapsed. I am at the oldest end of the "Millenials." At the time I was 25, working my first jobs after college, figuring out what I wanted to do. I didn't know that the train was about to come off the rails, that the job market would collapse, that pay would plateau.

An excellent companion piece to Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World & Me. Dyson is a Baptist theologian & professor at Georgetown, & he writes this book in the form of a sermon. Beyonce, NWA, & Tupac provide his hymns. The seemingly unending videos of police misconduct & his own personal experiences provide the preaching material.

You should watch this video. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ta-nehisi-coates-n-word_us_5a0a025ce4b0b17f...

I can't begin to do this book justice in the space provided here, so follow the link to my Goodreads review. And then get yourself to a bookstore or library and find this book.

Here is a review by Kristy: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2184004229

I'm trying to remember the last time I liked a straight modern mystery. They all have too many half-baked strings that impossibly come together at the and, and are often so needlessly violent. I can do them when they have some science or history mixed in, sometimes. Just not for me.

I first read The Partly Cloudy Patriot about 10 or 11 years ago, during the W era. Since it was only about 5 years old at the time, it hadn't aged badly at all. Reading it now, in the Era of Trump, it all seems so tame and naive. Who knew that I would one day long for the willful befuddlement of George W. Bush? I love Sarah's writing, but this collection of essays isn't as strong as her books with a singular subject. Still a solid read.

This book covers a lot of ground. All the information was interesting, but with all the jumping around it got a little confusing.

This is a book that is worth your time. I hadn't heard of the case before & the author definitely did his research. But this is not one of those civil rights stories where justice ultimately prevails & it can be hard to take at times.

Today I finished a book about the great Halifax explosion. On December 6, 1917 a munitions boat caught fire and exploded in Halifax Harbor. Nearly 2,000 people were killed in the explosion, and another 9,000 injured. A quarter of the population was instantly homeless. This disaster pioneered disaster relief, solidified Canadian-American relations, and was used as a guide by scientists in the Manhattan Project. It was a fascinating read.

All the good readers get hobbit slippers for Christmas.

There is nothing a review of mine can add to the reputation of A Christmas Carol. I read it every year, & listen to the recording by Patrick Stewart every Christmas Eve.
But I am sad, because as I finished it today I read about the final version of the GOP tax plan. Sadly, I don't think the Republicans will have a Scrooge-like enlightenment before they cut taxes on the rich and corporations, and screw students and the middle and working classes.

Too true.

...I'm caught up with Harry Dresden. I've been reading the Dresden files all year, and I've finally caught up.
...
WHAT HAVE I DONE?!? How long will I have to wait for more Harry? Readers are not meant to catch up with a series. It is just wrong.

I feel like there are a few world leaders that need to hear this.

From the essay titled Patriotism, House Loyalty, and the Obligations of Belonging.

I decided that it was time for a re-reading of this book after the Nazi rally in Charleston, South Carolina this year. I never thought that I would see so many Nazis marching in America in my life. But everything that has happened since this despicable "President" took office was beyond my imagination a year ago. I feel like we have gone through the looking glass. So many minor indignities in this book can be related to current events.

I don't know if this will be the best book I read this year, but it will without a doubt be the most important. If I could make everyone in the country or the world read something right now it would be this book.

Another excellent entry in The Dresden Files. Newly appointed Warden Harry is told to be on the lookout for black magic in Chicago, and to find out why Winter and Summer aren't pissed the Red Court Vamps are going through their territory. Also the daughter of an old friend comes to Harry for help. Even when I think I know how Butcher will pull things together he has a little surprise for me. Really enjoying this series!

I've read this one before, but it has been a while. Not quite as good this second time around (previously 4 stars), maybe 3.5 stars if I'm being generous. It's just a little too all over the place, with too many extra characters. Even though I'd read it before I had a hard time keeping them straight. But still a fun adventure mystery, with a little science and history thrown in. Secret Nazis always make great villains. I love to see them go down.