Science, Chernobyl, and Midwives!! (August Reading and Watching)

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

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!

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. 

Sisters are the best!

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!"

Chloe practicing her photography skills. 

Chloe learning how to wink.