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.