Hi friends,
I don’t know about you all,
but we are ready for cold and flu season, and winter in general, to be over.
We’ve had a rough few weeks in our house, and literally every one of us has
been sick. Yours truly took a turn the past two and a half weeks, so I didn’t
read as much as usual in between recovering mentally and physically.
We did
enjoy greatly-appreciated and fun visits from grandparents, who wanted to see
the baby before she’s not a baby anymore.
I did read a few excellent
gems, though. Let me know if your family has been dealing with illness or if
you’ve read anything good this winter. Recommendations are always appreciated.
Here’s hoping that February is
better!
Tonya
She Has Herr Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and
Potentials of Heredity by Carl Zimmer
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
Yes!
Review: To be honest, before
reading this book, I hadn’t learned anything about heredity since my 7th
grade exercises with Punnett squares. Turns out my education was both
inaccurate and incomplete, but when isn’t it? This book contained more
practical, interesting, and enlightening information about heredity than
anything I’ve encountered throughout all my education. Zimmer discusses the
historical progression of our understanding of heredity and doesn’t balk to
discuss the nastier sides of eugenics, which the genetic fields still struggle
with today. He presents complicated biological issues simply and understandably
and helped me understand that my own heredity is far more than what I inherited
in my cells. It includes a far broader definition including the ultimate
hereditary gift that we can give our children: knowledge and culture. I highly
recommend this book for anyone interested in where they came from, what our
children get from us, and how the society that we live in impacts all of it.
Turns out the answer to nature v. nurture is that you’re asking the wrong
question, but I’ll let Zimmer explain that.
These Truths by
Jill Lepore
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes,
for all American citizens
Review: Apparently, no one has
tried to write a one-volume history of the United States in, like, 50 years,
and after reading this book I can understand why that would be a daunting task.
Lepore tells the story of these United States beginning with the Colombian
exchange and continuing until 2016. Along the way, we hear from all the notable
figures you’d expect: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, etc, but we also
hear a lot from minority and women figures in history, which I appreciated a
lot. For example, Lepore highlights Benjamin Franklin’s sister through the
correspondence she had with him, and discusses the role of Phyllis Schafly in
creating the modern Conservative movement. She also focuses a lot on the
contradiction that began before we were even a nation: that all men were born
free and equal but that some were enslaved to others. She shows how this contradiction
has shaped America to this day as we still struggle with how to deal with it. Another historical thread that I enjoyed learning about was
the history behind the current political parties and ideologies and the role that professional
political campaign businesses, non-elected, for-profit organizations, have had
in creating the political system we currently have. I thought it was
particularly interesting to learn that these organizations rely on emotionally
sensitive issues that stand on shaky legal grounds, such as gun control and
abortion, to incite people to go vote for their candidate. It made me rethink how I
interact with government and my own political opinions and ideas. Highly recommend
to any citizen. I don’t care how well versed in American history you are. There
will be something enlightening in here that will change how you think about
America.
This is How You Lose the Time War: by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
Maybe
Review: This book was recommended to me by multiple
sources, and the premise sounded really cool: super-secret agents from opposing
sides of a massive time war fall in love across time and space. And that part
of the book was really awesome. The thing that I didn’t like was that it was
over-the-top and definitely melodramatic. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good
love story, but this one was a little too much. Maybe my issue was that,
especially at first, I had trouble following what was going on, so I might have
missed the parts where the two main characters fall in love, which meant that I
didn’t connect emotionally very much with the two characters or their
relationship. In any case, I think that it’s a great idea for a cool romance
but was somewhat poorly executed.
Mommy Corner
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| Maya loves to eat! Every week she enjoys beans and rice at school. |
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| We had one 60 degree day in January and enjoyed it at the park. |
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| Chloe somewhat reluctantly started primary this year as a Sunbeam. Here's a picture of her on her first day peaking through the primary room window. She's come around to primary now and was excited to go today. |
