Hello friends!
I hope that the summer is
treating you all well. We had a great time visiting family in Utah this July,
and I managed to get a little reading in too. This month was all non-fiction,
and I learned about everything from autonomous weapons to blood to the internet.
Reading is the best.
On the mommy news front, Maya
rolled over (tummy to back)!! Chloe provides both joy and myriad opportunities
to develop patience and compassion.
As always, let me know if you
have any suggestions for further reading or any thoughts about these books.
Cheers!
Tonya
P.S. Has anyone noticed that
90% of nonfiction books start with a 1-3 word title followed by a colon and
then, like, an entire sentence? For example, if I were to give this blog a
nonfiction book title it would be something like Books: A Blog about All the
Books Tonya Reads. Is this a recent titular convention, or have I just noticed
it?
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes, for anyone interested in technology and/or warfare
Review: For the job that I actually
get paid for – ie. Not Mommying – I analyze major Department of Defense weapons
systems acquisitions -- think Navy ships, Air Force jets, Army tanks, etc.
Because of that background, I found this book extremely interesting as he
brings up several of the systems that I’ve worked on. Even without that personal
connection, this book would have been fascinating. I feel like everyone in the
news nowadays is throwing around words like autonomous, machine learning,
self-driving, etc. I read this book to get a better understanding of what the
current capabilities are like for autonomous systems and where they’re expected
to be in the next 10-20 years. Part of it was reassuring as we’re not nearly as
close to any dooms day I, Robot type scenarios that much of the media
would lead you to believe, and part of it was worrying thinking about how much
these systems can already do and how little we understand them. Bottom line for
me was that we’re still going to be waiting a while until the robots are all
smarter than us.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation: Yes,
for anyone interested in avoiding the collapse of their society
Review: As you can see, I’ve been on a Jared Diamond kick the past two months,
and this one was just as interesting as the other two that I’ve read. As you
might guess from the title, reading about societal collapse was quite
depressing, but this book isn’t all doom and gloom. Diamond analyzes how
environmental degradation played a crucial part in the collapse of several socities
including ancient Easter Island and Norse Greenland, and modern day Haiti and Rwanda.
I always enjoy the nuance that Diamond includes in his books, and I thought
this book was especially interesting because he explains that societal
leadership and human choices are equally as important as any environmental
conditions in the success or collapse of the societies he analyzes. Good food
for thought for the environmental challenges that my area, country, and the whole
world face today. Highly recommend.
Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and
Mysteries of Blood by Rose George
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation: Yes!
Although some parts are a bit queasy
Review: This book helped me realize that blood is one of the
coolest parts of our frankly amazing bodies. George explores everything from
the beginnings of the national blood donation systems in the US and Britain, to
the modern-day medicinal use of leeches (Yes! This is still a thing!), and the
strong stigmas still associated with menstruation in Nepal, India, and my own
backyard. This book was well-written, engaging, and informative. In the end,
though, for all that it illuminated the history and uses of blood, it also
helped reinforce how much research is still needed to better understand the life-giving
liquid that flows through all our veins.
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum
Rating: 3 of
5 stars
Recommendation:
Sure, for those wondering how they are reading these words
Review: I picked up this book because I was intrigued about the physical infrastructure
of the amorphous web. I’m old enough to remember a time without the internet,
when the internet was a dial-up modem and I used it mainly for chatting with my
middle school friends on AOL, and now when internet access is necessary for me
to do my job, banking, and connecting with friends and family. For better or
for worse, though, turns out that the internet is just a bunch of boxes
connected by a bunch of cables. Blum travels to “internet centers” around the
world and sees a lot of cables and a lot of boxes. Turns out the internet isn’t
as mysterious and amorphous as I had thought. Despite this somewhat letdown,
you’ve got to admit that the internet has dramatically changed the way we work,
live, and connect with each other, as it is the means by which you are
currently reading these words. Not bad for a bunch of boxes and cables I
suppose.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Rating: 4 of
5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes, for anyone wondering why western Europe colonized the rest of the world
and not the other way around
Review: This was by far the best Jared Diamond book that I’ve
read, and considering that it won a Pulitzer, I’m sure I’m not the only person
who thinks that. Turns out that contrary to popular belief, Western Europeans
were able to colonize the rest of the world not by any superior functions of
their race, but because of environmental advantages that led to the early
adaption of agriculture and domestic animals, which spurred technological developments
like steel and trans-oceanic voyages. For anyone wondering why the Aztec, Maya,
or aboriginal Australians didn’t take over Europe, this book is the book for
you. It seems the type of book that only a polymath like Diamond with expertise
in agriculture, linguistics, and botany could have written, and he provides an
extremely convincing argument that does much to tear down many racist beliefs.
Highly recommend for anyone wondering why I’m writing this in English instead
of literally any other language native to the Americas.
Orange is the New Black
by Piper Kerman
Rating: 3 of
5 stars
Recommendation: Sure, for those interested in learning more
about the seriously messed up criminal justice system in the U.S.
Review: So, I’m probably one of the few people who has read
this book without seeing the show on Netflix, but let’s be honest, it has 7
seasons, and who has time to watch that?! Having not seen the show, I can’t
definitively say that the book is better, but based on what I’ve seen from
previews and heard elsewhere, I’m fairly sure that the book is better. This
book is a memoir written like a novel about Kerman’s experience serving a
13-month sentence for a 10-year old drug crime in a women’s federal prison. I will
hopefully never personally experience what it’s like to be an inmate in an
American prison, so it was helpful for me to learn what it’s like from Kerman’s
perspective. Turns out it’s seriously messed up. Based on Kerman’s experience,
instead of providing adequate job training and mental and physical health treatments,
the prison system just makes people either succeed or fail at being prisoners.
I guess that explains with about 10% of the adult population of the US has
served time, and why recidivism rates are so high. I’m interested in learning
more, as reading one book doesn’t make me an expert, but it seems like our prison
system is in drastic need of reform.
Mommy Corner
We had a lot of fun in Utah in July. We stayed with my parents in Farmington for a week and then headed to a Woodbury family reunion in Brian Head for a week. It was awesome to spend some time with family.
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| Some of my favorite cuties in a boat! |
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| Chloe saying "cheese" in a mountain meadow surrounded by wildflowers. |
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| Maya's had an eventful month. She's learned how to roll over and now enjoys sucking on her toes. |
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| Maya enjoyed the meadow so much she took a nap. |
