Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Reading!

 

Hi friends,

November was a crazy month for us. It sometimes seems like nothing happens for a long time and then everything happens at once. Dan’s been looking for a job since he graduated in March. He’s now accepted one in Louisville, CO. So we’re moving to the Boulder area! I’m thankfully able to keep my job as GAO has a field office in Denver. November has been full of moving preparations including preparing our house to sell, buying a house in CO, securing financing, searching for new childcares, etc… We’re definitely going to miss Maryland and our friends here, but we’re excited to start a new adventure.

Because of that, I didn’t have a ton of time for reading, but I read a few good novels and two fascinating nonfiction books.

I hope that you all enjoyed Thanksgiving, and let me know if you have thoughts about these books or suggestions for future reading.

Thanks!

Tonya

 

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes!

Review: From my work as a policy analyst evaluating Department of Defense weapons systems, I’m very familiar with the term “military industrial complex” and the implications it has for how our tax dollars are spent, ideas that get developed, communities that receive jobs, and the U.S. role as a world leader. Before reading this book, I was unaware though of the “prison industrial complex.” Davis explains that, “the term industrial complex was introduced by activists and scholars to contest prevailing beliefs that increased levels of crime were the root cause of mounting prison populations. Instead, they argued, prison construction and the attendant drive to fill these new structures with human bodies have been driven by ideologies of racism and the pursuit of profit.” She explains that these two ideologies have been so successful in the U.S. that we now have the largest prison population in the world and that these prisons are disproportionately filled with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). She acknowledges that while a call to abolish prisons now seems extremely radical, calls to abolish slavery and segregation laws were also considered equally as radical before those things happened. She explores alternatives to the current system of mass incarceration including “demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.” This book may have been written almost 20 years ago, but it’s more relevant and applicable than before. Definitely a necessary read for anyone interested in solving some of the biggest problems that the U.S. continues to struggle with to this day.

 

 

If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes! For anyone interested in learning about how political campaigns and big tech companies came about

Review: This was a particularly relevant book to read before and following the 2016 election. Lepore tells the story of a long-forgotten 1960s political campaign/advertising/ behavioral data analystic company called Simulmatics that founded or fundamentally changed these fields. Nowadays, we all take it for granted that every political campaign and any company that wants to continue to stay in business gathers as much data as possible about their potential voters/consumers. They segment people into groups and then target ads and political messages to us. Some labels that apply to me would be: millennial, mother of small children, wife, employee, lives in Maryland, etc.... However, the world didn’t use to be this way. The Simulmatics corporation birthed the ideas of applying quantitative analysis to the study of human behavior. They worked for the Kennedy campaign, had multiple contracts with the Johnson administration in Vietnam and at home to study among other things what the effect of a civil rights speech from Kennedy in Nashville would have on Black voters in the North; how long the Vietcong would continue to resist; and how to predict riots in the late 1960s. She explores the stories of the men who founded the company, and as she always does, brings depth and complexity to the story by discussing the women and families in the lives of these powerful but sometimes crazy men. She quotes an author from the 1960s who observed. “Burdick wondered whether pluralism could survive when the nation’s political scientists had dedicated themselves to the project of segmenting the electorate.” Now that we’re living this reality, I think it’s fair to say that pluralism has died or is struggling for its last breaths. From what I can see, the main tactic that both parties take in elections is to take the most emotional and hot button issues they can think of and then terrify the electorate into coming to vote. Another writer observed that, “How far can one push the rational faculties of the voter without tripping some mechanism of doubt and anxiety.” In the fight to overcome antipathy, both parties vilify the other and paint a horrific picture of death and destruction should their party lose. This is, in my opinion, the largest problem with our political discourse now. I’ve worked in government long enough, and lived in both predominantly conservative and liberal communities long enough to be well-acquainted with both liberals and conservatives that I can tell you that NO ONE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTY IS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY! We all have different priorities for selecting problems that need to be solved and then different methods for solving them. Excuse me. I’ll get off my soapbox, as I’ve digressed far from this review. Anyway, Lepore notes that, “Simulmatics died. The fantasy of predicting human behavior by way of machines did not. …. Simulmatics failed, but not before its scientists built a very early version of the machine in which humanity would in the early twenty-first century find itself trapped, a machine that applies the science of psychological warfare to the affairs of ordinary life, a machine that manipulates opinion, exploits attention, commodifies information, divides voters, fractures communities, alienates individuals, and undermines democracy. “… Long before the age of quarantine and social distancing, Simulmatics helped atomize the world.” Only time will tell what the long-term implications of this atomization will be.

 

 

 

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: sure

Review: What would you do if your best friend from high school who you haven’t seen for 20 years writes you out of the blue and asks you to come nanny her two new step children who occasionally explode into flames when experiencing difficult emotions? This is the exact situation Lillian finds herself in, and her response is yes! She'll do it! This book explores some of the most important and scary relationships and emotions that we experience as humans from parental love, to depression, to loss. It made me think a lot about what motivates me in relationships as the characters struggle with ambition, betrayal, and love. It also does a wonderful job exploring how differences in class affect how we relate to ourselves and those around us. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a read that will help them experience the full spectrum of human emotion.

 

 

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes! For anyone who likes epic fantasy

Review: I’m a huge fan of Sanderson and his epic fantasy creation the Cosmere. This is the fourth installment in the Stormlight archive series. Each book comes in at 1,000+ pages, and I think this is the longest one yet at 1,242 pages. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys fantasy worlds along the lines of Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings. Each Stormlight book tells the back story of one of the main characters through flashbacks, and this book was the story of the Parshendi, the seemingly eternal enemies of the humans in the never-ending war for the planet Roshar. While I still enjoy reading about our favorite old characters – Shallan, Dalinar, and Kaladin – my favorite part of this book was getting to know Queen Navani better and accompany her on her scholarly endeavors that, as always, result in a final climax that rocks the foundation of Roshar and will have ripple effects through the whole Cosmere. I also enjoyed the mental health elements in this book as one of our favorite characters makes an unexpected career move. Two years can’t go by fast enough as I can’t wait for the next installment in the Stormlight sage. I highly recommend for any fantasy fans out there.  

Mommy Corner

We all went to Target together. It was notable because it's the first time we all went shopping together since before the Pandemic. 

Chloe having fun at school.

As anyone with a toddler would know, you end up decorating the tree way too many times every year. Maya thought these little, round ornaments were toys just for her. 

She also enjoyed playing with the little nativity set that actually is just for her. 

I did absentee voting this year and got a link to this sticker when my ballot was counted. 

October Reading

 Hi friends,

October was a whirlwind month for us, but I managed to get some reading in, mostly some excellent novels but one outstanding memoir and one nonfiction. Thanks to Julia Ventura and my mom for recommending two of these books.

As always, let me know if you have any thoughts about these books or recommendations for further reading.

Cheers,

Tonya

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, especially if you like mysteries

Review: This is an excellent mystery novel. The premise is that the main character is stuck in a time loop where he relives the same day over and over in different host bodies until he can solve the mystery of the death of Evelyn Hardcastle. The classic mystery novel setting is reminiscent of Clue, happening at a large house party in the late 19^th century British countryside. There are mysteries within mysteries, and you don’t really know what truly happened until almost the last page. I really didn’t see  any of the twists or turns coming, and was truly surprised at how it all played out. In addition to being an excellent mystery, it provided interesting insights into the capacity of humans to grow and change for the better even in dire circumstances. I definitely recommend and would love to see a movie based on this.

 

 

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, to help you understand the economic crisis

Review: I was barely out of high school when the subprime market crash shook the world economy in 2008-2009. I do remember close friends and family losing their jobs though, and the ensuing difficulties. This book tells the story of the financial crisis from an interesting point of view: those who saw it coming, used insanely complicated financial instruments to bet against it, and then made a fortune when everything hit the fan. Lewis writes very accessibly, so even me, with almost no understanding of financial markets, was able to follow and mostly understand what happened in the convoluted mess that resulted in the government bailing out banks while millions lost their jobs and homes and former CEOs and managers walked away with tens of millions of dollars in bonuses. What I would like to read next is a follow-up that analyzes what’s changed since the financial crisis, and what’s been done to prevent it from happening again. It seems that the root of the problem seemed to be perverse incentives that don’t seem to have really changed. This book also made me grateful that I never was interested in working in finance. Apparently, society values people who seem to do nothing more than literally move money around and think of ways to take money from others as these people make ridiculous amounts of money, but I don’t see any value in this type of work.

 

 

The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, everyone should read this book

Review: Bill Gates recommended this book a few months ago. It’s the memoir of Hungarian Jew and Auschwitz survivor Edith Eger. It is extremely well-written and powerful. The first 25 percent of the book tells Eger’s survival story as she and her sister miraculously survived Auschwitz, the Death March, and other horrors. Eger doesn’t go into much detail about the trauma she experienced, but the small bit she does describe was distressing as is. The book focuses on her journey healing from that trauma. Eger eventually marries, has a daughter, and immigrates to the United States as conditions deteriorate in Hungary and the iron curtain descends. Moving from a life of wealth in Hungary to poverty in the United States requires a challenging adjustment and little opportunity for Eger to resolve her trauma. Eventually she gets a doctorate in clinical psychology and develops an expertise in helping trauma victims. She intertwines her story with those of some of her patients. She teaches that everyone has a choice about how to react no matter what happens to you. When she was first imprisoned in Auschwitz having her parents murdered just hours before, Josef Mengele forces her to dance for him. She describes how in that moment she felt more free than Mengele as she escapes her hellish surroundings in her guilt-free mind. Eventually, she returns to Auschwitz to help absolve herself of her survivor’s guilt and prove that Hitler did not win the war. It’s a beautiful, powerful story that everyone should read.

 

 

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: only if you really like Twilight

Review: I’m not going to lie, I was a big Twilight fan back in the high school and early college years. I remember one summer when I was working in Alaska, one of the books came out, and I took my day off and drove the 5 hour round-trip from our lodge to Wasilla to buy it. As time went on, and the conversation around the books changed to point out the absurdities of the Bella-Edward relationship, I drifted away from it. My justification for reading this one is that my Mom gave me the book. Ironically, this book is about twice as long as the original Twilight book, although it’s telling the same story just from Edward’s perspective instead of Bella's. This is because Edward is an exhaustive narrator and overthinks everything. These character traits are apparent in the original series, but makes this book really long. For some reason, I couldn’t stop reading it, though. Even acknowledging all the weirdness of their relationship, I wanted to keep reading. I will say that the type of obsessively passionate romance described in the books isn’t something that I can relate to. I feel fulfilled in my romantic relationship with my husband, but I don’t think it resembles at all how Bella and Edward feel about it each other. Maybe this is because my relationship is real and theirs is fictional? In any case, while I enjoyed feeding my guilty pleasure of vampire teenage romance, I don’t think that I’ll return to the Twilight universe anytime soon.

 

 

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: sure

Review: This is a short and intense novel that, while written before the pandemic, is unfortunately appropriate for 2020. It tells the story of Julia Power, a nurse and midwife during the 1918 Spanish Flu in a Dublin hospital. The story incorporates real-life Dr. Kathleen Lynn, one of a handful of female doctors at the time and a leader in the Irish independence movement who's wanted for her role in a recent rebellion. It takes place over just three long days that are filled with life, death,love, and heartbreak for Nurse Power and her new assistant recruited from the local orphanage. Nurse Power is in charge of a small ward caring for pregnant woman who have caught the flu. It has several very intense and well-written birthing scenes that reminded me of one of my favorite shows, Call the Midwife. As expected, it’s full of tragedy and love. Definitely a powerful, short read. The ending left a lot of questions and unknowns, but packed a punch.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes!

Review: I’ve read most of Haig’s novels and always binge-read them in, like, two days because they are that good. This one was no exception. The main character after attempting to commit suicide finds herself in the midnight library with an infinite number of books each representing a different version of her life. In an attempt to resolve her many regrets that led to her suicide, she gets to live some of these lives: one where she’s an Olympic swimming champion, one where she’s the most popular rock star in the world, one where she actually married her ex, and so on. As she lives these alternate lives, she tries to find any life that doesn’t contain some element of regret, which after feeling, sends her dissolving back to the midnight library for another selection. It’s a compelling story and reinforces the idea that regret is pointless and explores why we live at all. Is happiness the goal? Fame? Success? I highly recommend.

Mommy Corner

We had fun picking apples and enjoying the fall weather. 

We pick apples every year. It's one of our favorite family activities. It was a little weird this year because of COVID-19, but still fun. We made a yummy caramel apple pie. 

We celebrated Chloe's fourth birthday at the beginning of the month at home and at school. As you can tell, she was super excited about her birthday. 😁 It was literally all she talked about for months. 

Grandmas always buy the gifts that are either noisy or get everywhere. The girls love these stacking flowers my mom bought for Chloe's birthday, but now I'm finding them in weird places all over the house like my bed, the kitchen counter, etc. 

We had a lackluster Halloween at home but Maya at least had fun at school. At the beginning of the month, Chloe told me that she wanted to be a doctor for Halloween and Maya was going to be a bumblebee, so that's what we did. 

Maya can climb this rock at the park all by herself, but she does need help getting down. She loves to sit up there and stare at everyone playing in the park. She's on top of the world. 

Chloe's Halloween was overshadowed by her ureter reimplantation surgery on Thursday. It's an invasive surgery, and she's recovering at home now after two days in the hospital. It's pretty rough here taking care of her and managing her pain, but she's getting better each day.  

September: Fall(Finally!) and Back to School

 Hello fellow bibliophiles,

September was a huge improvement over August in our house. For one, we had the coolest September in several decades in the DC area, which meant lovely fall weather all month instead of summer dragging on. Also, our preschool/daycare reopened after Labor Day, and so far, has been able to stay open. Hooray! And there was much rejoicing. The girls were really happy to be back at school, especially Chloe, how was literally like, “see ya guys!” Maya took a few days to adjust, but now toddles off to class happily every day.

I had some interesting reading this month too with three quick novels and one really long nonfiction book. As always, let me know your thoughts about these books and any suggestions for future reading.

Cheers,

Tonya

 

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, if you enjoy fantasy and mythology especially

Review: Moreno-Garcia writes a column reviewing and recommending novels for the Washington Post that I enjoy, so I decided to check out this book. It was amazing. It had all of the things that I love in fantasy: a strong female lead, a fascinating mythology that is skillfully woven into the plot instead of just explained to the reader, a believable romance, and an amazing quest with world-saving/ending stakes. The story is set in 1920s Mexico. It starts in the Yucatan peninsula, but our heroes' journey takes them to Mexico City, San Antonio, Baja, and Xibalba – the Mayan underworld. Casiopea is our fearless heroine who begins on a life-and-death journey with the Mayan god of death after accidentally releasing him from a century-long prison. They embark together on an epic quest to restore his throne and kingdom that his traitorous twin brother usurped from him. It’s awesome. I really enjoyed how each character was multidimensional and believable. Even the bad guys have relatable motivations, and I ended up unexpectedly empathizing with surprising characters. Really well written and an awesome idea.

 

 

Pitfall by Clair M. Paulson

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: meh

Review: This was the first “Mormon” fiction book that I’ve read in a long time, and it was a bit weird to read characters talking about ministering and young women’s activities in the context of a murder mystery. The author was a career detective, who has since written several dozen mystery novels. The thing that I found most unbelievable though was the motivations and intelligence of the bad guy. In the book, sixteen year-old Sparky Graves is the adopted second brother in a family of six. His older brother, Kal, is literally a psychopath, who always manages to blame his wrong-doings on Sparky. Fed up with the abuse, Sparky runs away. Kal kills their mother when she begins to suspect that Sparky wasn’t responsible for everything his older brother had blamed on him. That’s right. Kal kills his mother. This seemed really dark considering the audience and general tone of the book otherwise. The book tells the story of Sparky’s escape and how he eventually finds a safe haven at a ranch in southern Utah, which is where he meets several members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, hence the religious connection and discussions. I was surprised to find though the second half of the story was mostly told from the perspective of two detectives who are trying to piece together what really happened to the boys' mother and find Sparky. It’s billed as a “suspense” novel, but it wasn’t the suspense that kept me reading, but the disbelief at the stupidity of the murderous older brother. His absolute hatred of the protagonist was mystifying, and the author’s only explanation is “he’s a psychopath.” Maybe there are criminals like that in the world, but it wasn’t very believable to me.

 

 

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibran X. Kendi

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I’m continuing to learn more about how to be anti-racist, and Kendi is definitely an expert on racism and anti-racism. As in his other book How to be an Antiracist, he defines racism as an adjective to describe any idea or action that is based on the idea that races aren’t equal. From this definition, he explains how himself and other great civil rights and abolition activists from W.E.B. Du Bois to William Lloyd Garrison espoused racist ideas at different points in their lives. This book is much denser than Antiracist because it’s basically a history book. It took me a while to slog through, and I struggled to keep track of all the names and dates that he introduces. The book is told in five large parts as he explains the progression of racist thought in America through the lens of the lives and writings of prominent historical people. Starting in pre-revolutionary times with Cotton Mather, moving on with Thomas Jefferson to the revolution and establishment of the Constitution with all of its racist flaws, continuing to the Civil War and abolition with William Lloyd Garrison, covering the failure of Reconstruction and eventual reinstallation of white supremacy with W.E.B. Du Bois, and then bringing us through the Civil Rights movement and to present day with Angela Davis. It’s a hard read, and not just because it’s long and dense. It’s hard to read about and accept the prominent role that racism has played in U.S. history, and it’s no wonder that it’s still a problem today. I highly recommend that everyone read this book. I know that my public school education, and subsequent college and graduate studies woefully omitted this disturbing part of my country’s history. I think every U.S. citizen needs to come to terms with this racist past and learn about how it continues to effect our present through pervasive and systemic inequalities in income, education, justice, etc. between white and black communities. Then we need to decide what we’re going to do to change it and take more steps towards building an anti-racist society.

 

 

Power of Pen and Voice: A Spoken Mage Companion Novel by Melanie Cellier

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, but only if you’ve read the 4 other books in the Spoken Mage series

Review: This is a spin-off novel from the four volume Spoken Mage series that focuses on two minor characters in that series. I enjoyed the fantasy world and magic system that she created there. This book expands on that world, adding new revelations about the people and the magic system. As was the case with the original series, a budding romance is a key plot in the story, but there’s also action, intrigue, and a good deal of mystery. Highly recommend for fans of the original series, though you might want to find an online plot summary of the first four before reading. I had trouble remembering all the characters at the beginning of the book. I particularly enjoyed that this was a one-novel story. Sometimes it's nice to read some fantasy that isn't a three-ten book series. 

Mommy Corner

Chloe was very brave at the dentist. No cavities!

Maya's learning lots of new things at school, like how to drink from a cup!

and how to sleep on a cot.

Chloe loves the art projects they do in class. She has a tendency to write her name backwards, I think it's because she's left-handed. Any other lefties out there that had the same problem as kids?

We enjoyed the cool, fall weather at the park.

August: Family and Shutdowns

Hi friends,

August had some ups and downs. On the up-side, we spent about two weeks visiting family in Colorado and Utah. It was a much-needed break, and it was great to see family for the first time since January. We spent some time at my in-law’s cabin, but mostly just enjoyed being together.

On the down-side, our childcare provider closed for two weeks right after we got back because one of the staff tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, the two weeks are almost up, and no one else has tested positive. Unfortunately, it meant we were once again required to isolate for two weeks while Daniel and I tried to work full-time and provide full-time childcare. I know a lot of people are in the same boat as we are, and I’m sure you can relate when I say that this is getting really old….

Anyway, I did get some reading in among the travel and quarantining. This month’s selection of books includes a super hero novel, recommended by my siblings, and a few good nonfiction books ranging from topics such as the misapplication of metrics to Bob Iger’s memoir.

As always, let me know your thoughts if you’ve read any of these books, and feel free to leave suggestions for future reading.

Happy reading,

Tonya

 

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Sure! If you’re interested in leadership and learning about how large companies work

Review: This is nominally a leadership book, but I read it because I wanted the inside story about all the large acquisitions – Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox – that Disney executed under Iger’s leadership and that have created the entertainment landscape as we know it today. As you would expect from the head of a massive corporation that has given me some of my favorite stories, he’s a very good story teller, and the book is mostly him telling stories about his career and those large acquisitions. The leadership nuggets are spread throughout those stories. One of my favorites that I think is particularly applicable in our failure-adverse society today was, “You earn as much respect and goodwill by standing by someone in the wake of a failure as you do by giving them credit for a success.” Some memoirs by already-famous people aren’t very well written, but I was impressed with the quality of the writing here.

 

 

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes!

Review:  To help me continue to learn more about how to be anti-racist, I set a goal a few months ago to read at least one book a month authored by someone from the Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC) community. This book is a collection of 8 essays, one for each year of Obama’s presidency, that Coates compiled and expounded on in this book published shortly after the 2016 election. The essays range in topics. One focuses on why black people don’t study the Civil War. As he says “the message has long been clear: The Civil War is a story for white people … in which blacks feature strictly as stock characters and props. We are invited to listen, but never to truly join the narrative, for to speak as the slave would, to say that we are as happy for the Civil War as most Americans are for the Revolutionary War, is to rupture the narrative.” Another focuses on reparations where he makes the case that while slavery ended over 150 years ago, its continued costs in the form of Jim Crow laws, housing discrimination, and mass incarceration are still being accumulated by the Black community and are manifested in the stark economic inequality between the Black community and all other races. He notes that “Perhaps no statistic better illustrates the enduring legacy of our country’s shameful history of treating black people as sub-citizens, sub-Americans, and sub-humans than the wealth gap. Reparations would seek to close this chasm.” His final essay focuses on Trump’s election built on the defense of white supremacy in the wake of the first black president. He notes that, “every Trump voter is most certainly not a white supremacist, just as every white person in the Jim Crow South was not a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one.” Well said.

 

 

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, if you like super hero stories

Review: This book was recommended to me by my siblings, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a superhero story with a little more depth than I usually see in movies. Contrary to most of the superhero stories I’m familiar with, the good guys and the bad guys are presented as complex characters with faults and gifts, which is refreshing. Grossman does an excellent job as well of creating a fascinating superhero world that highlights the often undiscussed aspects of being a superhero/villain – mainly the Public Relations aspect. To be honest, the villain was my favorite character. Despite the fact that he failed at every super villain world take-over attempt ever conceived from hijacking the moon, to nanobots, he continues to persevere and take over the world just one last time. You got to admire that diligence.

 

 

The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, especially for those who use metrics to make decisions

Review: The point of this book can pretty much be summed up by saying that metrics are largely overused and relied upon and should not substitute for professional judgement. Muller talks about how many organizations from healthcare, to business, to government have become fixated on measurements, trying to justify their decisions with supposedly “objective” numbers as institutional trust has declined. He discusses how whenever performance metrics are tied to compensation the inevitable result is the gaming of the metrics. He presents examples from police departments that downgrade crimes in their precincts to meet metric goals, to teachers that teach to the tests instead of educating their students, and surgeons who won’t operate on especially complicated cases for fear of reducing their success rates. He particularly notes that in mission-focused organizations pay-for-performance schemes can be detrimental. Working in a mission-focused organization that has a pay-for-performance system, I can say that this sounds about right. I highly encourage anyone who works with metrics or data to read this book and make sure that the metrics that you use are value-adding, haven’t been gamed, and are combined with professional judgement. 

 

 

What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes!

Review: This book was actually a gift from my sister-in-law to my husband for his birthday, so it’s one of the few books that he read before I did. Muller is a cartoonist from the popular webcomic xkdc. This book is a compilation of extended blogposts where he answers absurd questions from readers, and it strikes that awesome balance between being both entertaining and funny and informative. Some of my favorite questions were “What if everyone on Earth pointed a laser pointer at the same spot on the moon?” and “What if you drained all of Earth’s oceans and dumped the water on top of the Curiosity rover on Mars?” and “How many Lego bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York?” A lot of the answers end up with the world being destroyed somehow, and I loved the little cartoons that punctuated his jokes. I read the paper copy of this one, which I highly recommend so you can enjoy the visuals as well as the text.

Mommy Corner

We had fun playing on Grandpa's ATV at his cabin. Note: Maya didn't actually ride with us. She just hopped on for the picture. Maybe next time!

Chloe and Dan had fun too.

Chloe got to spend some time with her newest cousin in Utah.

Between our trip and the COVID-19 case shutdown, the girls only went to school for 3 days in August. Looks like they did have when they were there, though. 

The Dog Days of Summer... (July 2020)

Hi friends,

Here in the DC area we set a record for the number of days in July with highs above 90 degrees, so it’s been pretty hot, but luckily I was able to get some good summer reading in. My reading interests this month ranged from more books about racial justice to income inequality, one very good scifi novel, and two hilarious essay collections. Quite a wide range that made for good, diverse reading.

We had some big changes this month. We decided to send the girls back to school twice a week for the first time since school closed in March. Dan has also started going into his lab on the days they’re at school. Things are, of course, different now with changes ranging from teachers wearing masks and other PPE to smaller class sizes and increased cleaning measures. Of course, whether or not we or others get sick remains to be seen, but we have enjoyed having long, uninterrupted stretches of quiet time a few days a week. Like, REALLY enjoyed it.

As always, let me know your thoughts about any of these books or suggestions for future reading.

Cheers!

Tonya

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Blindness by Michelle Alexander

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Yes, everyone should read this book

Review: This book is a must read for all Americans. The central thesis of this book asserts that “tough on crime” policies leading to the War on Drugs supported by both Republican and Democratic parties have led to the creation of a new system of racial discrimination to replace the disbandment of Jim Crow era segregation laws with a new, more subtle system of racial segregation. About 1 in 3 black men in the U.S. have spent time in prison, mostly for nonviolent drug crimes. Alexander notes that, “The War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism.” My close friend, who’s a criminal defense attorney in Virginia, confirmed that this is exactly what the War on Drugs does and something that she fights to change every day. Alexander observes that, “African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct. In fact, studies suggest that white professionals may be the most likely of any group to have engaged in illegal drug activity in their lifetime, yet they are the least likely to be made criminals…. Black people have been made criminals by the War on Drugs to a degree that dwarfs its effect on other racial and ethnic groups, especially whites.” Not only does jail time take literal years off a person’s life, but the ensuing system of second-class citizenship that former prisoners enter when released often makes it impossible to find employment and denies them the right to vote. She extends the following invitation to activism several times throughout the book by noting, “racial caste systems do not require racial hostility or overt bigotry to thrive. They need only racial indifference, as Martin Luther King Jr. warned more than forty-five years ago.” I’m still working on educating myself and learning how I can fight racism, and this book was extremely helpful.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes!

Review: As opposed to some of the other policy books that I’ve been reading, this collection of long essays by Coates was definitely a change of pace. Coates weaves the theme of “the black body” through this book as he describes his own experience growing up on the streets in Baltimore, coming to the Mecca of Howard University, and building his career as a writer. The book reads like poetry in parts, and Coates is a master of connecting metaphors to bind the book together into one cohesive unit. As I’ll never know what it’s like to experience life in a black body, this book helped me to see beyond my white privilege and gain more empathy into the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) in America, which is one of the great things that reading can provide.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Sure! If you liked the first book, or like any other of Hank Green’s work

Review: This book surprised me. After reading the first one, this was not the story I was expecting, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Firstly, I liked that this book had more than one narrator. It was great that this story was told from the perspective of some of my favorite characters from the first book. In addition to telling an awesome scifi story that has some truly awesome action sequences, Green makes some resounding and extremely relevant statements about capitalism, the media, and power. He points out that “power is nothing but ability without restriction,” and no one person or company has any inherent right or deserves to wield it. I binge-read this book over two days, and legitimately liked it better than the first.

Capital and Ideology by Thomas Picketty

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Yes, if you are at all concerned with economics or income inequality, you should read the cliff notes version of this book

Review: So, my average time to read a book is about a week, but this book took me 4 months to get through all 1009 pages. I checked out a paper copy from the library literally the day before everything shut down, and they closed the library in March. I would read this book at night before bed, as I mostly read e-books but try to avoid looking at screens after 8:00pm. This book expounds on Picketty’s first work Capital in the Twenty-First Century where Picketty builds a case that income inequality is nearing the historically high levels it attained pre-World War I. in this volume, he builds the case for a “participatory socialism” where the concept of property is fluid and everyone enjoys equal access to high-quality education and healthcare. He shows how there is nothing deterministic about history, and that the present state of our hyper-capitalistic and inequitable world is the result of specific choices taken at different points in time. He says that we stand again at a pivot point in history where we can decide to enact a slew of policies he recommends from introducing transparency to tax collection across borders, to implementing estate taxes, and increasing or implementing more progressive income taxes. While I definitely don’t think this book needed to be 1000+pages – there were definitely some historical sections that could have been briefer – I enjoyed the almost meditative state that I would enter when reading this book. Not gonna lie, this is one of those books you read to make yourself feel smart, and while I didn’t understand ever single argument, I got the gist of most of it and learned a ton.

A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, this book will make you laugh, especially if you’re a female millennial

Review: I read a few columns by Petri in the Washington Post where she’s a staff writer, and they always made me laugh, so I decided to check out this book. It’s a collection of long essays on a variety of topics from her intense Star Wars fandom, which I can relate to, to international pun competitions and her teenage obsessions with Robert E. Lee (Your first celebrity crush is always embarrassing. I can relate; mine was Hayden Christiansen from the much-derided Star Wars prequels.). Anyway, it made me laugh out loud a lot.

Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why by Alexandra Petri

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes! You can laugh or you can cry at the state of the world today, and this book helped me laugh

Review: After laughing out loud reading her first book, I definitely had to read this one. Unlike the first, this was a collection of essays, mostly adapted from Petri’s popular column in the Washington Post. About half of them satirize the Trump administration with reflections on Scott Pruit’s extremely vital need for lotion and reflections on the price of office furniture to outfit Ben Carson’s Housing and Urban Development space. In addition to making me laugh out loud, she also made powerful statements regarding the #MeToo movement and gender inequality. She makes the point early on that the world has been turned upside down and now satire is reality. Reading it definitely made me reflect on the past four years and come to the conclusion that the world we live in is increasingly absurd, and you can either laugh or cry about it, and sometimes you need to do both. Highly recommend.

Mommy Corner

We went blueberry and blackberry picking. It was super hot and sweaty, but the berries were delicious. 

Maya had fun.

Chloe was very happy to be back at school.

Maya just went with the flow

One of Chloe's favorite things about school is art projects. Here she is working on a class art project.