Hello friends!
Summer is officially over, and
we’ve all gone back to school/work this week, which has been an adjustment for
all of us. We’re lucky to have found a good school for the girls that they seem
to be enjoying, and I get to work from home most days, so that’s helped the
adjustment.
Before heading back to work, I
did a bit of reading in August, but I’m not gonna lie, I spent most of my reading time feeding my British television addiction and watching Call the Midwife. So, I’m going to write
a review of that show because why the heck not! It’s my blog; I do what I want!
As usual, let me know if you have
any recs or thoughts on these book or Call
the Midwife.
Thanks!
Tonya
The 4% Universe: Dark Matter,
Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes, for sciencey people
Review: Fun fact: visible matter,
including anything that creates light or can be seen anywhere along the
electromagnetic spectrum and all matter consisting of protons, neutrons, etc. –
consists of only 4% of the universe!! The other 96% is dark energy or dark
matter. Isn’t that crazy! This book tells the story of the discoveries that led
up to this amazing factoid. While some of the book contains technical jargon
and facts that went right over my head, most of it tells the sometimes
melodramatic story of scientists rushing to discover if the universe is
expanding, contracting, or stable. Turns out that scientists can be petty,
dramatic, and mean, but despite these human traits they still discovered
amazing things. I enjoyed learning that even really smart people can be catty,
and found the discoveries fascinating. Most astounding is that despite
everything we do know, there is still so much more to learn! What a great time
to be alive!
Voices from Chernobyl: The
Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes?
Review: This book understandably left me
with mixed feelings. After watching a few episodes of the HBO special somewhat
based on this book, I wanted to get more of the story. I recommend watching the
HBO special or otherwise learning about what happened at Chernobyl before
reading this book. It is a collection of oral interviews compiled from people
who experienced the accident including the liquidators – or people called in to
attempt to clean up the mess -- residents of the nearby town and area, people
resettling the area, scientists involved with the clean-up efforts, and a
random guy who just started yelling at the author. The author assumes that you
know the story and doesn’t provide any context or information about the
accident or clean-up beyond what the interviewees say. This book put very real
and human faces on an event that is sometimes characterized by numbers: amount
of radiation released, numbers killed immediately after the accident, numbers
who contracted cancer following the event, number of acres left unfallowable
and unusable. Needless to say it was traumatizing just to read about it. While
I dearly hope that I will never experience a nuclear disaster, I can better
empathize with those who have. The interviews were all completed in 1996, only
10 years after the accident and 23 years ago. The book left me wanting a sequel
to find out what happened to everyone and what’s being done today to continue
to mitigate the multi-millennial effects of the disaster.
Voice of Life – The Spoken
Mage Series by
Melanie Cellier
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes, for those who enjoy fantasy
with strong female leads
Review: I read and reviewed the first
three books of this series in June, and I thought they were pretty good.
Cellier provides a satisfying conclusion that was surprisingly surprising. The
previous books were fairly stereotypical, but this one had some fun twists. All
in all, I think Cellier created an interesting magic system in a compelling
world with characters who are fun to read and follow.
Call the Midwife
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes!
Review: So, I spent a lot of time
watching this show while I was on maternity leave, and I couldn’t decide if it
was the best or worst show to watch after just having a baby. It’s a very
dramatic show, and gave me all the feels: happy sad, scared, excited, and
traumatic. Mainly it made me just want to cuddle my babies even more. I also
think it’s great that there’s a market for a show that focuses on women’s health
issues, which have often been overlooked by the medical industry and
misrepresented by the media. The show handles well all sorts of sensitive and
hot topic issues including race, class, abortions, infertility, contraception,
female genital cutting, sexual orientation, mental illness, and religion. They
skillfully represent the complexity of these issues and don’t always satisfyingly
resolve them because they can’t be easily resolved. While the issues portrayed
are of course interesting and complex, like most people, I mainly kept watching
because I was attached to the great characters. Although, be warned: don’t get
too attached to the characters because there’s a surprisingly high mortality
rate for the midwifes….
Mommy Corner
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| Chloe wore this dress to my sister's wedding when she was 7 months old -- Chloe not my sister. Maya is only 5 months and the dress fits perfectly. She's kind of a big baby! |
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| We spent a lot of time at the College Park Aviation Museum while I was on leave. This pedal plane is just one of the fun things to play with there. |
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| Sisters are the best! |
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| Uncle Troy got Chloe a special toy from her favorite TV show. We pretty much live by Daniel Tiger, "When you need to go potty, stop and go right away!" |
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| Chloe practicing her photography skills. |
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| Chloe learning how to wink. |
