qebo's 2024 books (1)

I'm Katherine, a computer programmer in Lancaster PA, working remotely for a medical imaging company. I've been in CR since 2017, minus 2020 and 2021. I'm a bit player here, not literarily inclined; my reading is typically non-fiction and undemanding fiction, and drops off in the spring as I am converting a 1/5 acre yard to native plants, manage a community garden, have Master Gardener volunteer obligations and administrative roles in a botanical society and a tree committee. You can perhaps sense a theme. Other irregular distractors are genealogy and crocheting.

January
#01: Blackout by Simon Scarrow -- (Jan 2)
#02: Dead of Night by Simon Scarrow -- (Jan 7)
#03: Doppelganger by Naomi Klein -- (Jan 17)
#04: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton -- (Jan 19)

February
#05: Understanding Forensic DNA by Suzanne Bell and John M. Butler -- (Feb 9)
#06: Class by Stephanie Land -- (Feb 23)
#07: The Forever Witness by Edward Humes -- (Feb 25)
#08: I Know Who You Are by Barbara Rae-Venter -- (Feb 29)

April
#09: Prequel by Rachel Maddow -- (Apr 12)
#10: Children Under Fire by John Woodrow Cox -- (Apr 24)

May
#11: The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine Bettinger -- (May 4)
#12: Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder -- (May 21)
#13: Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky -- (May ?)

June
#14: Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo -- (Jun 8)
#15: Spineless by Julie Berwald -- (Jun 19)

July
#16: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley -- (Jul 4)
#17: Unraveling by Peggy Orenstein -- (Jul 9)

August
#18: The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger -- (Aug 21)

October
#19: Ruin Their Crops on the Ground by Andrea Freeman -- (Oct 15)

November
#20: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee -- (Nov 19)

Happy New Year, Katherine! I didn't comment earlier because I didn't want to post before you were done setting up. I'm glad you set up a thread. I know you worry sometimes about not posting enough, but I like having a place to check in with you. I'm glad you are here!

Happy New Year, Katherine!

Happy New year. You’re always reading interesting nonfiction stuff. Wish you a great 2024.

>6 labfs39:, >7 norabelle414:, >8 dchaikin: Thanks!

>8 dchaikin: interesting nonfiction
I still have three evolution books on my desk with pages of notes from 2023, awaiting review. Sigh.

>9 qebo: hmm. Something to look forward to. But also no pressure. This is supposed to be fun. 🙂

Happy new year, Katherine, me too with the interest in sciency books. But no rush, I still have one inspired by a read of yours way back...

Happy New Year, Katherine!

I have ..... sshhhhh SIXTEEN books from November and December to review. :)

Ah well, they will get done. Or they won't. I'll try to keep up better this year.

>11 LolaWalser: Thanks!
>12 streamsong: Oh, I skipped far more than 3 reviews in 2023! These are just the ones I want to retain in my mind.

>1 qebo: happy new year from a little bit east ;-)

Looking forward to tagging along with your reading!

LT mini-meetup!

_Zoe_ and radicarian and RemarkableReads were traveling from VA to NY and paused midway in Lancaster yesterday. We met for dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hotel. The outside temperature was about 95 degrees so we stayed in the air conditioning, no scenic adventures. Somehow I look more bedraggled than they do.

How nice, qebo! I was sorry not to see you in NYC, but the heat and humidity were unbearable. I still hope to make it your way one of these (cooler) days.

>16 qebo: That's so exciting, thanks for sharing!

>17 labfs39: Yeah, NYC in a heat wave, not so attractive.
>18 norabelle414: Zoë said normally they see you on the annual trek to VA, but this year you're tied up with family on nibling watch (I'm keeping an eye on your thread).

>19 qebo: Nibling watch AND a flooded apartment, it's been a real fun couple weeks

Great meet up photos! I recognize three of the four people in these shots...

>69 Hi Katherine! I got to see that same trio as they headed down south. What a wonderful visit that was. I fell truly in love with RemarkableReads. He has the greatest laugh. Now I'll need to see you sometime as well! Maybe one of these days, Jose and I can head up to PA so I can see you again and (finally!) get to meet Darryl. We'll need to wait until the weather is not consistently over 95 degrees every day, though!

Your gardening activities sound terrific (except for having to do them outside in the heat!).

Keep thinking I should get my thread in order, and keep finding other things I'd rather be doing. I've been sitting on a few reviews drafted earlier this year, but otherwise this'll be a minimalist effort.

#01: Blackout by Simon Scarrow -- (Jan 2)
#02: Dead of Night by Simon Scarrow -- (Jan 7)

why now: The 2nd in the series showed up on some list of best mysteries, and intrigued me because William Shirer is a character. I read the 1st in the series for the background.

And it was just awful, but I continued onto the 2nd anyway. Which was better, but William Shirer was not as prominent as I'd hoped, and the book concluded with a romance that struck me as wishful thinking on the part of the author.

#03: Doppelganger by Naomi Klein -- (Jan 17)

why now: RL book group selection.

Naomi Klein and Naomi Wolf often get confused, as Naomi is a just uncommon enough name that people don't expect two of them, and both write books of social/political criticism. In the early pandemic, Naomi Wolf went down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and the identity confusion became more troublesome to Naomi Klein though she recognized the paradox of the No Logo author concerned about her personal brand. Naomi Klein began paying more attention to Naomi Wolf, followed her appearances on the Steve Bannon show, then continued to watch Steve Bannon and his ilk obsessively at other times too, drawn into the disturbing phenomenon that if legitimate anxieties aren't addressed by established institutions then they get co-opted and twisted by the "mirror world".

Alas, renewed relevance post election.

#04: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton -- (Jan 19)

why now: A couple years ago, a small bookstore appeared less than a mile from my house, occupying an old house that has been many things over the decades. I went there to get a specific book by a local author, and saw a calendar of events including a book group that meets monthly. This book was the January selection, had gotten some buzz good and bad, and overlapped with my interests.

And... my main reaction was WTF? and a schedule conflict emerged so I didn't attend the book group meeting (and no selection since has grabbed me). A group of environmental activists with tell-not-show psychological backstories, none especially sympathetic or intriguing, and a villain whose nefarious scheme is explained up front. The activists plant and tend gardens in vacant lots to change the world. How does this work? The mission is supposed to be sustainability and egalitarian anti-capitalism but the crops need water which is difficult to supply, unseen volunteers apparently don't feel integral enough to attend decision-making meetings, and the only interaction with the surrounding community seems to be selling enough of the harvest to buy more seeds. An expanse of land bordering a national park is on the verge of being sold for development and gets blocked off by a landslide. It is a 5 hour drive away, but a subset of the collective sees it as an opportunity for expansion and travels to begin cultivation. Paths cross, conflict ensues. The book is set in New Zealand, about which I know next to nothing, but numerous RL organizations here in my corner of Pennsylvania have compatible missions with vastly more sophisticated operation, and my annoyance was partly with the characters for their poorly run collective, and partly with the author for a poorly conceived plot device manipulating everyone into doom.

#05: Understanding Forensic DNA by Suzanne Bell and John M. Butler -- (Feb 9)
#11: The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine Bettinger -- (May 4)

#07: The Forever Witness by Edward Humes -- (Feb 25)
#08: I Know Who You Are by Barbara Rae-Venter -- (Feb 29)

why now: My cousin (mother's sister's daughter) and I both had DNA tested through Ancestry, and the match indicated we were not the full 1st cousins we'd always assumed. My DNA corresponds to the paper trail and family lore. Hers does not; she has a mystery grandfather. She's not especially interested in the puzzle aspect, but I am, so she gave me view rights to her DNA matches and I've been chipping away at the problem. These are two how-to books, and two cold case books.

I own a copy of No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like something I ought to get to this year.

WTF, Naomi Wolf?! I and, IIRC, Meg from the 75 Books group attended her lecture at the University of London after her book Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love was published. It caused quite a firestorm shortly afterward, as it was found to have numerous inaccuracies. The publisher withdrew the book but Meg and I purchased our copies from the London Review Bookshop, so I have a first edition copy that could be fairly valuable.

The reviews I've read about Birnam Wood haven't made me want to read it but I loved her Booker Prize winning novel The Luminaries.

>28 kidzdoc:
No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics
Sigh. It'd probably be useful to read, but as advice columnist Carolyn Hax put it: "this has to be the most grindingly exhausting human ever birthed".
numerous inaccuracies
Yeah, the public humiliation apparently is what started the descent.
The Luminaries
The plot looks interesting, but at 850 pages it's not a risk I feel inclined to take.

>29 qebo: Reading Naomi Klein's book about Trump might be less useful than reading Mary Trump's analysis of her very psychologically abnormal uncle and grandfather.

I had no idea that Naomi Wolf's reputation fell so sharply after the public firestorm upon the release of Outrages. Needless to say I won't read it or any of her previous books, but I did see a blistering NYT article about her and her checkered career that I'll definitely read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html?unlocke...

The Luminaries was highly recommended to me by Rachael (FlossieT), who interviewed Eleanor Catton for avaland's online journal Belletrista. It was long, but it was an utter delight to read, especially since I took Rachael's advice and ignored the astrological mumbo jumbo.

>30 kidzdoc:
Mary Trump
I haven't read her book, but I've seen her interviewed a bunch of times. She used to have podcast with several other people. I wonder whether it'll be revived now.
astrological mumbo jumbo
850 pages AND astrology? Not enticing. :-)

>31 qebo: 850 pages AND astrology? Not enticing.

😂 I wouldn't stand on Parliament Square, book in hand, and proclaim that The Luminaries is the best novel I've ever read!