Greetings
fellow bibliophiles!
June was a
great month for reading, and I flew through quite a few novels that I
thoroughly enjoyed. Gotta love that summer reading! Shout out to Bill Gates
again for recommending several of these books.
In other
mommy news, Chloe had a great time hanging out with my sister and
brother-in-law who came to visit and brought an amazing homemade, wood puzzle
of the United States that she has already mastered. Maya continues to grow more
adorable and smiley every day. Pics below for objective evidence supporting
this claim.
Cheers!
Tonya
The Future
of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties by Paul Collier
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes, to anyone interested in solving the big, nasty problems
the world is facing today
Review: This was
an interesting book to read after recently completing Capital in the 21st Century, which I
reviewed last month. It also discusses how we can solve the problems that
capitalism inevitably produces. The thing that I liked best was Collier’s advice
to put aside ideology from both left and right to find the best solutions to
problems like income inequality and the divide between left behind cities and
rural areas and hyper-affluent metropolises. This approach resonated well with
my data-driven GAO background, and I thought many of his policy solutions
including a progressive tax on high earners in big cities were good
ideas.
The Sun Is
Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Rating: 4 of 5
stars
Recommendation:
Yes, for those looking for a good, quick read and like young adult
romance
Review: After
reading the oft-time gag-worthy Everything, Everything by Yoon, I had
low expectations for this book, so I was pleasantly surprised when this book
was markedly better than that one. I liked that the story was told from the
perspective of several characters, and most of my favorite moments in the book
centered on the moments that these small, sideline characters had to shine. The
romance was predictably gag-worthy at times, but what do you expect in a
teenage romance?! I liked that the ending was somewhat ambiguous and not
entirely expected.
Upheaval:
Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond
Rating: 5 of 5
stars
Recommendation:
Yes, for anyone interested in the problems the world faces
and how to fix them
Review: This book
was illuminating in so many ways, and I learned so much about the six countries
that Diamond uses as case studies that I never knew, and that will help me
understand the world better moving forward. Diamond applies a psychiatric framework
based on how individuals handle personal crises to how nations handle crises.
He applies this framework to evaluate how six countries – Finland, Japan,
Chile, Australia, Indonesia, and Germany – successfully or unsuccessfully
handled their own crises. I enjoyed learning about Finland’s crisis with the
Soviet Union in World War II that still effects their foreign policy today and
Germany’s reaction to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Diamond then
evaluates how America is or isn’t handling current crises that we’re
experiencing and uses his framework to recommend needed changes including, most
importantly, overcoming recent growing trends of political polarization that
has almost killed the bipartisanship that is necessary for this country to function.
It was an excellent read.
Uprooted by Naomi
Novik
Rating: 5 of 5
stars
Recommendation:
Yes! For anyone who enjoys fantasy or novels with awesome
female protagonists
Review: This was
the best fantasy novel I’ve read in a long time. I’ve read a few of Novik’s Temeraire
series, but this was far better. Novik draws inspiration from Eastern
European folklore to tell a tale that has elements of fantasy, romance,
adventure, and horror. The protagonist starts on the classic fantasy path by
discovering she has magical abilities and being whisked away by the powerful
sorcerer, Dragon, who as she eventually figures out after being really slow
about it for 50 pages, teaches her magic. The whole story is overshadowed by an
evil haunted forest that Dragon and the protagonist battle throughout the whole
book. After several hundred pages of grimmy horror and intense fight scenes,
the book ends with a relieving message of forgiveness and love.
The Rosie
Project Series by Graeme Simsion
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes, for those looking for fun, comic reads
Review: Genetics
Professor Don Tillman is not average. The three books in this series explore
how to label him before finally arriving at autistic in the last book. The
first one is basically a clever rom-com. The second is more angsty with the
newly married couple nearly breaking up, and the third jumps forward 10 years
and explores their son’s own experience with autism and bullying at school. All
of them are hilarious as Don puts himself in more and more awkward situations
that create outrageous problems that he then applies his vast scientific and
problem-solving skills to solve. They were all wonderful combinations of funny
and insightful, and I particularly liked the carefully balanced and revealing discussion
about autism and other mental illnesses in the last book, which I wasn’t
entirely expecting after reading the first two.
A Gentleman
in Moscow by Amor Towles
Rating: 5 of 5
stars
Recommendation: Yes!
Review: Not only
does this book have an amazingly original and clever premise, but it’s
beautifully written, and has compelling and life-like characters that you grow
to love or hate as the story unfolds. Count Alexander Rostov is labeled a
Former Person following the Bolshevik Revolution and sentenced to a life of
house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol hotel -- their equivalent of a Ritz. The book
follows the Count over several decades as his life unfolds inside this icon of
Moscow right across the street from the Kremlin. Although this book is fiction,
it helped me learn about what life was like in post-revolutionary Russia, and
as expected, the picture is quite grim. Nevertheless, the book, and its
characters press on and manage to find happiness and fulfillment even while
constricted to the four magnificent walls of the Metropol . The best part was
it kept me guessing until the end, and I fell in love with the Count, his
adopted daughter, and his best friends.
Spinning
Silver by Naomi Novik
Rating: 5 of 5
stars
Recommendation:
Yes, also for those who love folklore-based fantasy and strong
female protagonists
Review: After
reading Uprooted I had to read this, which isn’t a sequel but also draws
from Eastern European folklore to tell a fast-paced, nerve-wracking, and
surprising story about three unlikely allies including the
daughter of a poor Jewish money-lender who can turn silver into gold with a
touch of her hand, the reluctant new Tsarina, and a girl trapped with an
abusive father in extreme poverty. This unlikely threesome work together to
battle a fiery, hellish demon that is possessing the Tsarina’s new husband, end
a prolonged magical winter, and rise above their respective situations. It took
me a bit to get into this book, and at first I didn’t like it as much as Uprooted,
but as the action continued and the plot twisted several times, I found myself
appreciating the different method of story-telling and admiring each girl’s
strength, resilience, and courage.
Squeezed:
Why Our Families Can’t Afford America by Alissa Quart
Rating: 4 of 5
stars
Recommendation: Yes, for
anyone wondering why it’s so dang hard to adult nowadays.
Review: I tried
to read this book last year, but I thought that it would only make me sad and
angry, which it did, but this time I soldiered on and was rewarded with a
better understanding and increased empathy for my fellow Americans just
struggling to make ends meet. I’ve noted before on this blog that I’m very
privileged. My husband and I both come from upper-middle class, white, educated
families who have been able to help us as we finish our education. Not everyone
is so lucky, and many people have been hit particularly hard by the after
effects of the 2008 financial crisis. Quart combines statistics and data on
income inequality with real-life stories of people who are struggling sometimes
unsuccessfully to stay in the middle class. While I didn’t agree with all her
suggestions, I wholeheartedly agree with one of her main arguments that care is
excessively undervalued in America. We are the only rich nation without paid
parental leave of any kind, and all caring professions from teaching to nursing
are underpaid. She talks about how many people are delaying having kids or
having fewer children because of the exorbitant costs of childcare, a
fact that I am intimately familiar with. Even before baby #2 came along,
childcare was our biggest expense, and now it’s going to consume an even larger
portion of our income. Quart lays out the arguments for subsidized, public
childcare, and based on my own experience, I absolutely agree that some policy
solution to address this problem is sorely needed by American families.
Mommy Corner
Chloe and her puzzle. Thanks Aunt Shelby and Uncle Logan!
No comments:
Post a Comment