Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir by Wil Wheaton

★★★★★

I'm late to the party as a Wil Wheaton fan, but I'm here now! I loved him on The Big Bang Theory, and I'm also a late-in-life fan of Star Trek, mostly TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Picard. Now, he's one of only a handful of celebrities who helps to normalize masking by posting masked selfies on social media, and as a covid-aware person, I love him for that.

You have to go into this book with the appropriate expectations: It's not a typical memoir; it's a collection of blog posts first published in book form in 2004, with a lot of footnotes written in 2021. Reading this book means constantly jumping back and forth between different time periods. I found myself inadvertently applying 2021 Wil's perspective to the entire text by default, which was confusing, and had to consciously remind myself to use 2004 Wil's mindset when reading content from the original book, and to switch again to Even Younger Wil's frame of mind when reading blog posts written even earlier. Some of the annotations were just injections of humor, but others provided a lot more context and were really interesting, particularly when he noted that something that was supremely consequential for Younger Wil turned out to be just a blip in the trajectory of his life.

Wil Wheaton tells of how he grew into his own skin in his 20s, and then continued to grow personally and professionally in his 30s and 40s. He tells his story well, even when presented in this sort of choppy manner of blog posts and annotations. I like his sense of humor, and as a fellow Gen X-er, I enjoyed his references to 80s and 90s pop culture. He is thoughtful and relatable (at least he was to me, a fellow geek), and I appreciated all he shared about Star Trek, from his personal relationship with his character Wesley Crusher (whom he came to embrace, after a bit of a rocky road) to his interactions with other people from the series. In case it matters to you in a knowing-what-to-expect kind of way, he swears liberally.

Wil Wheaton makes abundantly clear, multiple times in the book, that some of what was published in 2004 was "gross" and "hateful". (p. xix) That he was willing to revisit and examine his previous writings that are now considered shameful (due to misogyny, ableism, etc.), and engage in a public exercise of self-reflection and accountability, shows just how much he (and society in general) has grown and learned in the intervening years. I was truly impressed by his honesty and vulnerability. And it's just good to see a cishet white male put into practice Maya Angelou's quote, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

I also give Wil Wheaton a lot of credit for the way he openly talked about his depression and anxiety, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents. He modeled self-respect and acceptance, and in doing so, he helps to lessen some of the stigma surrounding mental illness, as well as give strength to others who may be victims of abuse.

I'll admit that my 5-star rating may seem generous in light of the somewhat fragmented reading experience, but mostly I just really enjoyed the content. It was fun!

The Covid Safety Handbook: Staying Safe In An Unsafe World by Violet Blue

★★★½

All quotes refer to page numbers in the digital PDF version that I read.

The writing is very casual. At times, the word choice sounded like conversational banter. 

This book was written by and for the covid-cautious community; if you're a member of this group, you will absolutely feel validated and reassured.

If you're not already sympathetic to the concerns of this group, then much of the content will seem over-the-top. Before reading this book, I had hoped it could serve as a tool for helping to convince non-covid-cautious readers to take covid more seriously. The tone, however, is not one of detached science, nor of persuasive argument; rather, the need to take covid precautions is treated as a given. The book opens with a brief rundown of the many known covid-related health risks (there's a more in-depth discussion of long covid later in the book), but ultimately, The Covid Safety Handbook is geared towards people who are already covid-aware, who want to learn more about ways to better mitigate covid risks, and who welcome suggestions on how to maintain personal boundaries and navigate situations in which their covid-cautiousness conflicts with a society that minimizes or ignores covid.

The Covid Safety Handbook is chock-full of solid information about mitigation measures and ideas for how to manage risk assessment and implement precautions in various scenarios. I consider myself well-informed on covid-related matters, and still I learned new things. I appreciate that the book conveys a sense of gradation; covid-caution is not "all or nothing", and some protection is better than none. I'll also mention that, despite being the most covid-cautious person among my own social circles, I have applied only a portion of the strategies described in this book.

The text is peppered with footnotes; if inclined, readers can jump to the extensive References and Resources section and go directly to a respected source and learn more. (My digital copy even included hyperlinks for one-click access to articles.) That said, occasionally I wished for even more references; for example, there was no footnote when covid was referred to as a "neurotropic vasculitis with a minimum 10% chance of making you bed-bound potentially for life" (p. 41), which sounds exaggerated. Similarly, quotes from everyday covid-cautious people were encouraging to read, yet when attributed only to "A" or "LD" and "LC" (p. 27, 70, respectively, etc.), it made me wonder, Who are these people? If these quotes came from an online forum or social media post, a reference to the forum, or a screen shot of the comment, perhaps with a date stamp, would have added credibility.

Though thorough in its scope, the book often felt "mile wide, inch deep", which is understandably consistent with its "handbook" designation; I suspect the author made a conscious decision to not delve too deeply into explanations of why or how things work in order to keep the content more high-level and accessible for the average reader. (Plus, as mentioned, further details are available by following reference links.) At times, though, I wished at least for more accurate wording, for example, I would have liked to see the words "rapid antigen test" to differentiate at-home tests from PCR lab tests in the bullet point, "You’re contagious if your test is still positive." (p. 29) I also noticed a number of editing mistakes.

My rating of 3.5 stars is mainly due to the grievances mentioned; I felt I had to lower my otherwise 4-star rating, as reading this book was overall a positive, helpful experience for me. I especially appreciated the many valuable, up-to-date resources, and the latter chapters that addressed the emotional and psychological toll of being covid-cautious in a covid-minimizing world.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

★★★★★

For me, Ta-Nehisi Coates is not easy to read. I'm generally a slow reader to begin with, and the less conversational the writing, the longer it takes me to read it. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes with a kind of lyricism; he is succinct, but not exactly straightforward.

This book is a reflection on writing. Coates believes that "this tradition of writing, of drawing out a common humanity, is indispensable to our future, if only because what must be cultivated and cared for must first be seen." (p. 16) Through writing, "we are charged with examining the stories we have been told, and how they undergird the politics we have accepted, and then telling new stories ourselves." (p. 19) He addresses the book to his students, tasking young writers with "nothing less than doing their part to save the world." (p. 20)

The Message is a must-read for its ability to open a reader's eyes to the ways in which our beliefs, our perspectives, our very understanding of the world around us, are shaped not only by our own thoughts and the facts at our disposal, but also by the carefully curated narratives we see and hear in the news and other cultural mediums all around us. The job of a writer is to tell people's stories, and it's up to us as readers to seek out what is not automatically presented to us - and to question why some accounts are readily available and others are not.

Much of the book reads like a memoir, with Coates sharing personal experiences and meditations, and other parts like a travelogue, as Coates recounts his visits to Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine.

Describing his time in Dakar, Senegal, Coates writes about the deep poignancy of traveling to Africa for the first time, how he had "come back" (p. 44) to the home of his enslaved ancestors. He thinks of his "exponential grandmothers taken from this side of the world and... their frustrated dreams of getting back home... [and] the home they tried to make on the other side, despite it all." (p. 44) He reflects that only by traveling and experiencing "the unique interaction between that world and your consciousness" (p. 44) are one's own fears and doubts revealed.

In Chapin, South Carolina, Coates visits a high school English teacher forced to defend her curriculum and job against students and parents who want to ban his book, Between the World and Me. In getting to know Mary Wood, and while attending a local school board meeting in her support, he twice "heard of a reading group... as the epicenter of political disruption." (p. 98) To affect change, one must first be able to "imagine that new policies are possible. And now... some people... had, through the work of Black writers, begun that work of imagining." (p. 99)

While touring Palestine, Coates witnesses the "separate and unequal nature of Israeli rule [that] is both intense and omnipresent" (p. 127), "where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet for others was policy." (p. 135) At first he drew connections to Jim Crow segregation, then felt compelled "to describe... [Palestine], not as a satellite of [his] old world but as a world in and of itself." (p. 146) He calls out the journalists who claim to disinterestedly present "both sides" but who "are playing god - it is the journalists who decide which sides are legitimate and which are not... And this power is an extension of the power of other curators of the culture - network execs, producers, publishers - whose core job is deciding which stories get told and which do not." (p. 148) He calls for Palestinian voices, insisting that "[i]f Palestinians are to be truly seen, it will be through stories woven by their own hands." (p. 232)

This book offers many profound and thought-provoking ideas, but one quote sticks with me. At the school board meeting in South Carolina, a man speaking against the book ban called attention to the optics a ban would create, feeding into negative stereotypes of Southern whiteness. Coates notes, "This may seem self-interested, a stance taken more to avoid a stigma than to break an arrangement of power. Given the kind of loud virtue signaling that followed 2020, I understand the question. But virtues should be signaled, and the signalers should act to make their virtues manifest." (p. 102)

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel

★★★★★

In the introduction, Jason Hickel sets the stage. Warning readers new to the climate crisis to "brace yourself" (p. 4), Hickel describes how human activity has disrupted the ecosystem, leading to mass extinction and food shortages, which - combined with extreme weather making some parts of the world unliveable - will lead to world destabilizing human migration. He quotes a UN scientist: "We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide." (p. 8)

Despite knowing exactly what is causing the climate breakdown, "[t]he past half-century is littered with milestones of inaction." (p. 17) Once you're completely freaked out, Hickel jumps into how, fundamentally, we got to this point because of capitalism, the purpose of which is "not primarily to meet specific human needs, or to improve social outcomes. Rather, the purpose is to extract and accumulate an ever-rising quantity of profit." (p. 19) To ensure ever-increasing global GDP (gross domestic product), "production increases, the global economy churns through more energy, resources and waste... overshooting what scientists have defined as safe planetary boundaries." (p. 19-20)

The whole first half of the book is dedicated to describing all the evils of capitalism since its inception and how they came to be, including artificial scarcity and how poverty is a feature, not a bug, that ensures the existence of a labor class. These chapters were particularly eye-opening for me because the author tied together many political issues that seem unrelated but aren't, e.g., it's capitalism from which we need to protect the environment, it's only under capitalism that the unpaid labor of women goes unrecognized, it's because of capitalism that we have to fight against a for-profit healthcare industry and the privatization of public education. 

"[A]re we really content to accept an economy where nearly a quarter of total output goes into the pockets of millionaires?... [We have a choice] between living in a more equitable society, on the one hand, and risking ecological catastrophe on the other." (p. 198) The climate emergency is ultimately about inequality, as it is "being driven almost entirely by excess growth in high-income countries, and in particular by excess accumulation among the very rich, while the consequences hurt the global South, and the poor, disproportionately." (p. 20) "Most global South countries will need to increase resource use in order to meet human needs, while high-income countries will need to dramatically reduce resource use to get back within sustainable levels." (p. 110) 

Meanwhile, extreme weather events in the U.S. and Europe rightfully make headlines, but "they pale in comparison to... the storms that have decimated so much of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, and the droughts in Central America, East Africa and the Middle East that have pushed people into hunger and forced them to flee their homes." (p. 116) In 2010, "around 400,000 people died... due to crises related to climate breakdown - mostly hunger and communicable diseases. No fewer than 98% of these deaths occurred in the [global] South." (p. 117) Yet, "the global North (which represents only 19% of the global population) have contributed 92% of overshoot emissions" that caused that climate breakdown. (p. 115)

In chapter 3, Hickel pushes back hard on the "climate capitalism" philosophy described in Tom Steyer's Cheaper, Faster, Better by making clear that a "growth-obsessed economy powered by clean energy will still tip us into ecological disaster." (p. 21) "[O]n a global scale, growth in energy demand is swamping growth in renewable capacity. All that new clean energy isn't replacing dirty energies, it's being added on top of them." (p. 106)

What's needed, then is degrowth, which Hickel defines as "a planned reduction of excess energy and resource use to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a safe, just and equitable way... while at the same time ending poverty, improving human well-being, and ensuring good lives for all." (p. 29) As it turns out, a high GDP is not necessary for a nation's people to have long and happy lives; studies show "exactly what works: reduce inequality, invest in universal public goods [like healthcare and education], and distribute income and opportunity more fairly" (p. 185), all of which line up with degrowth.

Contrary to the word itself, "degrowth" means deciding which industries need to continue to grow (e.g., clean energy, public healthcare, regenerative agriculture), and which sectors need to be significantly reduced (basically anything directly related to fossil fuels, like airlines, and also those that use a lot of resources, like fast fashion). It's not a recession, which is "what happens when a growth-dependent economy stops growing... It is about shifting to a different kind of economy altogether - an economy that doesn't need growth in the first place." (p. 207) Relatedly, degrowth involves a change in collective mindset, like doing away with "advertising strategies intended to manipulate our emotions and make us feel that what we have is inadequate." (p. 29) Ultimately, "[w]e need to change the way we see the world, and our place within it." (p. 34)

So, what would degrowth look like?

• Government policies would incentivize targeted investment in green energy innovation.
• The transition to clean energy could be funded by redirecting trillions of dollars from fossil fuel subsidies to solar panels, batteries and wind turbines. (p. 200)
• Instead of GDP, new holistic measures of progress would account for "housing, jobs, education, health and happiness." (p. 203)
• To reduce consumption, "right to repair" laws and legislation requiring companies to honor mandatory extended warranties could end the practice of planned obsolescence (when products are purposely created to need replacement after a relatively short period of time). 
• A wealth tax would reign in the disproportionately large ecological damage caused by luxury lifestyles while at the same time reducing inequality, which in itself "reduces competitive consumption across the rest of society." (p. 229)  
• We could further reduce consumption by moving away from ownership, e.g., by promoting public transportation instead of cars and having repositories of shared items (like libraries of things) instead of everyone owning their own seldom-used items. 
• We could reduce the ecological impact of the agriculture industry by reducing food waste and beef consumption.
• Governments would need to carefully manage the shift in labor; work weeks can be shortened, living wages can be instated, and workers in shrinking industries can be trained to work in growing industries.
• Even debt cancellation would be a "vital step towards a more sustainable economy." (p. 238) 

Apparently, as a politically progressive person, I am already on board with all the initiatives described; I just didn't realize they all fall under the umbrella of "degrowth". (Frankly, I'm surprised the book doesn't mention Universal Basic Income.) Of course, such changes could only happen on a large enough scale if government policies and programs support them. Since "the interests of economic elites in the US almost always prevail in government policy decisions even when the vast majority of citizens disagree with them" (p. 247), at the very core of degrowth, it is essential to have a robust democracy in which corporations and wealthy individuals do not have undue influence over elections and politics. The struggle to expand and strengthen democracy includes even more progressive ideas including "radical media reform; strict campaign finance laws... dismantling monopolies... democratising institutions of global governance" (p. 249) like the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO.

I now see the green energy growth part of Tom Steyer's position as an immediate need, but not a final solution and only a stepping stone to degrowth. I do, however, still agree with Tom Steyer that climate activism needs better marketing. I fear that just the word "degrowth" will trigger people to think of "recession", turning them off from learning more and likely causing them to misunderstand the whole movement. Hickel hints at an alternative name when he says, "Degrowth calls for abundance in order to render growth unnecessary." (p. 236) Might re-branding degrowth as something like "an abundance economy" win over more believers?

In the last chapter, Hickel turns his attention to hope. Studies show that "across ecosystems... it takes an average of only sixty-six years for a forest to recover 90% of its old-growth biomass, completely naturally." (p. 253) If we take immediate action towards degrowth, we could see the living world recover in our lifetimes. He reminds us that our human ancestors lived sustainably, integrated with - not separate from - nature, and that many Indigenous peoples still do. From them, we can "learn to see ourselves once again as part of a broader community of living beings" (p. 273), no longer in a position to exploit the ecosystem, but to enrich it. (p. 263)

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

★★★★

*** WARNING!! This review contains spoilers!! ***

An entertaining read with short episodic chapters. Very easy to imagine this book as a hit streaming TV series! I think being a fan of the British TV show Midsomer Murders, with all their episodes featuring English country estates, helped me to enjoy this book even more, allowing me to easily imagine Greshamsbury Hall and the surrounding village.

Once again, Kwan brings us into the world of the uber rich, only this time, it's not just Asians in Asia, but also half-Asians as well as English landed aristocracy, international investors, and Persian-Iranian-Americans drowning in opulence in Hawaii, Morocco, Los Angeles, and Venice. I kept my phone handy to search up words and references I didn't recognize, from fashion and architecture terminology to famous people and places. This time, part of the fun of all the astonishing over-the-top luxury was the disapproval of the more social justice minded characters.

The narrator including each character's educational pedigree since nursery school with their first appearance was downright hilarious (I was disappointed when this feature dropped away in the LA part of the book), and frequent cheeky footnotes added an additional layer of humor. I actually laughed out loud a couple times.

I had every intention of giving this book 5 stars, until the festivities got to Venice. Everything suddenly got to be a bit much. Not that the characters had been very deep to begin with, but now their actions just felt like plot devices. By this point, the inevitable conclusion was obvious, and I was surprised to find myself losing interest, as the ending was not what I had hoped it would be.

*** Warning: Stop reading here to avoid spoilers!! ***

Even Arabella, as willfully oblivious as she was, should have been able to see that Eden didn't care enough about what other people think to be blackmail-able. And I had high hopes for Martha Dung, but she turned out to be not much more than yet another billionaire with an over-the-top lifestyle, willing to throw money at acquaintances she just met. Mostly, I didn't like how ultimately, it was okay for characters to choose love as long as everyone turned out to be secretly wealthy, thereby making them acceptable. I would have liked to have seen how Bea and Rufus - and all the Greshams, really - would have adjusted to life as "regular people", having to get jobs and live within their means. And in the end, I wanted more for Freddy Farman-Farmihian, who I found to be the most interesting character; I was impressed with how Kwan wrote him to elicit a specific first impression, and then developed him so that my opinion of him took an almost 180-degree turn.

Finally, I think there's a fun reference to a character from Crazy Rich Asians, making this book feel like a spin-off, or at least like it exists in the same universe.

Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War by Tom Steyer

★★★★★

Tom Steyer really did give me hope!!

Picking up this book, all I knew about Tom Steyer was that he was the billionaire climate candidate in the Democratic primaries of the 2020 presidential election. 

After reading The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, it became clear to me that saving the climate is at odds with capitalism, and we will never sufficiently address the climate crisis while fossil fuels are profitable and consumerism abounds. Moreover, we are now at a point where we need to implement sustainable practices even when there is no financial gain and when it's a less convenient option. But realistically, degrowth doesn't seem likely, so what are we going to do?

This book's title, then, got my attention. Can we really fix this climate emergency in the context of our capitalistic economy, on the basis of sustainability being cheaper and better? Indeed, Tom Steyer makes exactly that argument, even going so far as to say that clean energy is already a more profitable investment. 

The introduction immediately drew me in. Tom Steyer's optimism is infectious. He described what motivates him: "Protecting humanity from climate change is the fight of our lifetime. Am I doing my part?" (p. 4) The question each of us should be asking ourselves, each other, and our leaders is, "What are you doing to fight climate change?" (p. 4) Our first goal is to reach net zero (when global greenhouse emissions are entirely balanced out by the amount being removed from the atmosphere), and Steyer insists that clean-energy technology will get us there, and beyond. Not only that, he boldly claims, "if you care about getting rich, being part of the revolution taking place in energy is a pretty good way to do it." (p. 10) Like authors featured in The Climate Book, Steyer believes that "the climate movement is no longer about conservation... It's about making the world better than it's ever been before." (p. 11) And he wants you to know that it really is possible.

This book is a very approachable introduction to the climate crisis, how the oil and gas industry have so far misleadingly defined the narrative, and what we need to do in response. Every chapter includes a section highlighting specific climate people who are already doing important work to move us forward, including climate activists, researchers, and entrepreneurs in clean energy and other technologies that help reduce CO2 levels. 

I appreciate that Tom Steyer acknowledges that many "[y]oung people are furious - and rightly so - at older generations for leaving them a huge mess" (p. 84), making them particularly susceptible to despondency and a "climate doomer" mentality. Again, his optimism is unequivocal as he points out that "we're barely scratching the surface of what we can do. Our incomplete effort [at addressing the climate emergency] is already reshaping the way we create and use energy, revolutionizing transportation, making us rethink agriculture... Imagine what would happen if more people [got on board]." (p. 85)

At times, it felt like the book was intended for a moderately wealthy and privileged audience, which, arguably, is the demographic most responsible for carbon pollution and therefore the very people who could make the most difference. Yes, now is truly the time to invest in climate-conscious companies, install solar panels, make the switch to electric vehicles, even take a job in the climate sector; there is value in individual actions as testaments to personal commitment and as examples to others to help spur wider change, but, of course, not everyone is in a position to do those things. Thankfully, Steyer makes clear that "[t]urning a collective problem into a matter of individual responsibility is... exactly what the fossil fuel industry is trying to do... We need systemic change, not perfect people." (p. 133) He encourages everyone to be locally engaged and politically active, and he specifically discussed the power of state ballot measures as conduits of collective action for large-scale change.

While I really want to share Tom Steyer's sanguinity, it's hard to feel confident about the path we are on when even he admits that, generally speaking, most people won't act in the greater interest because "human beings are, let's face it, often driven by our own self-interests." (p. 160) But contrary to my thoughts on capitalism noted earlier, Steyer believes capitalism is exactly what will get people to act. He argues for a "climate capitalism" based on "better tech, better ideas, better rules, and better metrics" that will "shift the incentives so that even the most self-interested people make choices that help stabilize our planet and prevent human catastrophe." (p. 165) I know very little about economics or finance, so whether capitalism will ultimately be our undoing or our savior, what do I know!? All I can say is, it feels like a good thing, that there are climate people working on both sides of that debate, so there are solutions both within and outside of the existing system.

The bottom line is that we need forward-thinking leaders who will take immediate and bold action to enact policies, programs, and laws that will support clean energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, thereby incentivizing companies to make climate-friendly innovations and normalizing sustainable practices. We also need more of the general population to become climate-conscious, and Steyer offered up a number of suggestions for how best to meet others where they are, including focusing on the potential damage to people rather than nature or the weather and being aware of how specific word choices can make topics more accessible.

After reading this book, I am heartened, if not entirely convinced, that humanity can take action with enough urgency to possibly stave off the very worst of climate disaster, which is already underway. It's actually a relief to know that the technologies needed to address the climate crisis do, in fact, already exist or are being developed. What we need now is for all people to become "climate people" so that change can happen quickly and at scale.

Edited to add: I still think this book is worth reading, but urge anyone who reads it to also read Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel.

Making It So by Patrick Stewart

★★★★★

I picked up this book because I'm a big fan of Jean-Luc Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For me, reading memoirs always means imagining the author speaking the words themselves, which was especially easy to do with Patrick Stewart's characteristic voice and accent.

It was remarkable getting to know the whole trajectory of how Patrick Stewart came from such humble beginnings - "hardscrabble" truly describes his youth - and became a Hollywood TV and film star.

I most enjoyed reading about his life before he became famous. I particularly liked his account of being starstruck by Vivien Leigh and how wonderfully kind and gracious she was. It makes sense that a young, up-and-coming actor would cross paths with other aspiring actors, and it was neat when he name-dropped other famous and yet-to-be famous people he worked with, though admittedly I had to look up some names because I'm not so familiar with British actors. Patrick Stewart clearly worked hard at his craft and did not take his successes for granted.

At times it felt like kind of a revelation to be reminded that Patrick Stewart is just a person, too, susceptible to insecurities, faults, and embarrassing situations. Stewart was capable of laughing at himself in hindsight, and seemed willing to reckon with his shortcomings.

The story of how Stewart came to be cast as Jean-Luc Picard is wild, going to show that you never know what significance any one event in your life might hold. Even before this book came out, I had recently re-watched the entire TNG series, so it was fun having the show fresh in my mind as Stewart recounted behind-the-scenes stories and offered his insights on specific episodes.

A very entertaining read.

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao

★★★★★

I love everything about this book, including the dust jacket art that features an Asian main character on the front and the iconic Wellesley bell tower on the back.

I'm not an alum of Wellesley College, but I have a soft spot for it due to a number of personal connections. I wonder if Wellesley students and alum think the portrayal of Wellesley life is authentic? I hope so. I once read a YA book set at my alma mater and was disappointed because the setting was almost irrelevant to the storyline, unlike this book, in which the Wellesley culture and campus were integral.

Representation and intersectionality are the cornerstones of this book. The "Dear Wendy" Instagram account is actually Sophie, who, in addition to being aromantic and asexual, is Chinese with immigrant parents. Her roommate is gay and Indian, with an immigrant dad and a mom who died (not actually a topic in the book). Jo, who is behind the "Sincerely, Wanda" account, is also aromantic and asexual, uses she/they pronouns, and has 2 lesbian moms. One of her roommates is white and bisexual and the other is Black and gay. Introductions with pronouns are modeled as being the norm.

It's perhaps stating the obvious, but one of the best things about this book is its mere existence, its ability to serve as a mirror for aro-ace readers and a window for those who may know nothing about it.

Chapters are written from the first-person perspective of either Sophie or Jo, which is always a fun format to read. Interspersed are Dear Wendy and Sincerely, Wanda relationship questions and responses, which actually amount to pretty good relationship advice for young readers. The fact that texting and social media are fundamental modes of communication for this generation is also reflected in even more fun formatting.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of how a budding friendship can be uncertain in the same ways as a potential romance, e.g., Does the other person even like me? Should I ask them to hang out? What kind of activity should I suggest? What if they say no? There's also a great message that aro-ace or not, a person isn't defined by a romantic relationship, and a close platonic friendship can be just as fulfilling and supportive.

As a Chinese person myself, I appreciated the Chinese dialogue from Sophie's parents, written in accented pinyin. But even though there were plenty of context clues, each line was not directly translated, which is kind of a pet peeve of mine when foreign languages pop up because if I didn't know Chinese, I'd still want to know exactly what was being said in the other language. And maybe that makes me a total Wendy, which I admit and fully accept!

A Ghost in the Machine (Chief Inspector Barnaby #7) by Caroline Graham

★★★

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! I don't give away the murderer, but my thoughts could serve as hints. ***

At first I thought I'd give this book 2 stars, but towards the end I enjoyed it more like 4 stars, so I settled on a 3-star average. 

I don't generally read mysteries, but I am a huge fan of the British TV show Midsomer Murders starring John Nettles. (I haven't gotten used to Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby being replaced by his cousin John Barnaby.) I picked up this book only because of its connection to the show. I would have preferred to start with the first book in the series, but this one - the last in the series - was the only one available at my library when I looked.

The author's strength is in her character-building. The first third of the book was pretty slow-going, nothing really happening and a lot of characters being fleshed out. Like the TV show, there were a couple characters who were unlikable and unpleasant right out of the gate. Surprisingly, a few characters I thought boring at first really grew on me, and eventually I rather liked them. There were even these two characters, one seemingly harmless and another who was downright loathsome, but in the end, the author had me feeling disgusted with the first and sympathetic towards the second! Notably, one of the things I enjoy most about the TV show is how the small, quaint English villages where the murders take place feel like characters in themselves, yet in this book, I never quite felt immersed in the village of Forbes Abbot.

Honestly, without the promise of DCI Barnaby and Detective Sergeant Troy, I might not have continued. In a 375-page book, the murder didn't happen until page 120, about 1/3 of the way through. Then I had to wait another 23 pages for Barnaby and Troy to finally appear. It wasn't until page 195 that something completely unexpected happened, the investigation finally started in earnest, and I actually felt drawn in.

As a fan of the TV series, I have to note that I was immediately disappointed that Troy in the book was a bit of an oaf, not just simply young and with much to learn, as he's depicted in the show. Barnaby, too, was disappointingly more gruff than his TV counterpart.

I did enjoy picking up some new British words and phrases, which is something I enjoy about the TV show, too. Also, every now and then there's a bit humor that made me chuckle.

As far as the book's mystery goes, I think I've been too influenced by TV shows in which there is always a dramatic twist. Without any expectations, I would have suspected character A to be the murderer, based on their backstory. But that would be too easy. Character B felt like a red herring. I thus suspected character C, a minor character with motive and opportunity. In the end, I was somewhat disappointed when character A turned out to be the murderer. But! There was a satisfying twist after all, when character A was revealed to be in cahoots with character D, which I hadn't guessed at all.

I enjoyed the final section labeled "Afterwards". It was nice to see what became of everyone, and all the loose ends were tied up, including some ends I didn't even think needed tying. Not sure how I feel about the developments related to the child Karen, though. I really just wanted her to have a simple, happy life with Roy and the Crudges. The supernatural bit felt out of place and decidedly un-Barnaby-like.

Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy

★★★★

Throughout American history, Asians have been stereotyped as both "subhuman and superhuman threats." (p. x) "An Asian American woman is a lotus blossom, but also a dragon lady." (p. xi) Asian Americans are "whiz kids... who do not complain" (p. ix) but also "harbingers of disease and immorality." (p. x) How did we get here? The author addresses this question "by emphasizing three interconnected themes in Asian American histories of the United States: violence, erasure, and resistance." (p. xii)

Notably, she immediately dispels the myth that Asian Americans are a monolith. She showcases the diversity within the demographic by purposely "writing this book... to narrate and to integrate less well-known stories about Asian Americans... such as Indian, Korean, Filipino, and Cambodian Americans, as well as mixed race and adopted Asian Americans, among others." (p. xvi)

In the preface, the author explains how most Asian American history courses and books tend to cover topics chronologically, "ending approximately in the 1980s...with scant attention to more contemporary issues." (p. xvii) I have found this to be exactly the case in my experience, and I was intrigued by her decision to feature "multiple temporal origins of Asian American history, beginning in 2020, with subsequent chapters moving back in time... [to] illuminate connections among historical events hitherto unseen, such as... the continuity of historical alliances between Black and Asian Americans, from Frederick Douglass's 1869 speech advocating for Chinese immigration to Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X's friendship in the 1960s." (p. xvii)

Truly, the author's unique approach made Asian American history feel less like static past events and more like modern-day issues. For example, the book started with the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the work of Stop AAPI Hate in documenting anti-Asian violence and discrimination, and tied the resurgence of racism at the start of the pandemic to the long history in America of "association of Asian bodies with disease" (p. 2) dating back to the first wave of Asian immigrants in the 1800s. It also provided context to how "COVD-19 was taking a disproportionate toll on Filipino American nurses" (p. 12) by fleshing out the decades-long history of Filipino nurses in the American healthcare workforce. She also connected the 2021 killings of 6 Asian American women in spas in north GA to America's history of sexualizing and objectifying Asian women, starting with the Page Act of 1875, which "created a system of enforcement that conflated Asian women's migration with prostitution." (p. 158)

Other often overlooked Asian American histories that are discussed in this book: the arrival and contribution of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, including the involvement of the U.S. in creating the situations from which they fled; the role of Asian Americans in U.S. farming, agricultural workers' rights, and the restaurant industry; the service and treatment of Asian Americans in the U.S. military; the effect of imperialism and the struggle for independence in their homelands on Korean, Filipino, and Indian immigrants.

Overall, this book is a great survey-level introduction to parts of Asian American history that are somehow both commonly overlooked and also contemporarily relevant. It does not delve into any great detail, and is not academically dry. The author frequently presents anecdotal stories of diverse Asian American experiences that personalize the topics, including episodes from her own life, showing that Asian American history is not just a field of study, but a living history unfolding all around us, even within our own Asian American families.

Incidentally, I have just one complaint: On page 46, the author refers to a "Lao Student Association" that promotes "Lao culture", and then on page 47, there's a "Laotian American Society" that supports the "Laotian community". What's the difference between "Lao" and "Laotian"? An explainer would have been helpful. I searched it up and found this article: "Is it 'Lao' or 'Laotian'? In Laos, There's a Big Difference".

The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg

★★★★★

If you don't already see how climate change is an emergency and causing an existential crisis, literally threatening human life as we know it and thus requiring substantial and immediate action from every possible direction, this book is for you. 

If you're already aware and over the age of 30, this book can still open your eyes to the extent of the danger and the negligence of world leaders over the course of your lifetime. For example, in essay 4.22 "The Myth of Recycling", Nina Schrank describes how Coca-Cola was part of a lobbying group that re-framed the problems posed by single-use plastics as a personal rather than corporate or government responsibility, making recycling "the greatest example of greenwashing on the planet" (p. 296); though in principle recycling is good for the environment, this lobby used the idea of recycling to justify corporations maintaining the status quo of using plastic instead of committing to more sustainable packaging practices. Perhaps understanding what opportunities have already been lost will enrage you and fuel you to redouble your efforts in climate activism, as it did for me. 

If you're already in a state of panic about the looming climate catastrophe, and particularly if you're a young person who has known no other world, reading the first half of this book might send you into a spiral of despair. As the book progresses, though, essays do become more hopeful, and you begin to see some encouraging pieces, such as essay 3.9 "Life at 1.1°C" by Saleemul Huq about successful climate leadership in some communities from which we can all learn. There are also some practical pieces, like essay 4.19 "The Cost of Consumerism" by Annie Lowrey about how it's worth it for us to individually curb our materialism and consumerism because even though "it will take governmental and corporate action to help heal the planet" (p. 281), "household action is a crucial predicate for broader action." (p. 283) Essay 5.3 "Towards 1.5°C Lifestyles" by Kate Raworth goes even further, offering concrete suggestions on what a "1.5°C lifestyle" would look like, both publicly and privately, to put us on a better track to stay within 1.5°C of global heating. Overall, the book starts by laying out the alarming facts and daunting reality of climate change and ends with solutions, ultimately leaving us with a sense of purpose that's found in Indigenous philosophy, "dreaming of a time when we are propelled not by fear of what is coming towards us, fearsome as it is, but by love for a beautiful vision of a world whole and healed." (p. 420) We are invited to imagine that we "can live in such a way that the Earth will be grateful for us." (p. 420)

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, a couple notes on the physical book, which I found disappointing but did not factor into my rating. There are many graphs, charts, maps - all kinds of fantastic infographics - but they are all printed in black-and-white, some with shades of grey that are hard to distinguish. Interspersed among the essays, there are powerful photos from around the world, also printed in black-and-white. A full-color printing would have been much more expensive, but I really think all the images would have been vastly more effective in color. (Does a full color edition of this book exist?) Also, I'm sure my aging eyesight was a factor, but the parts written by Greta Thunberg were black text printed on gray paper, a combination I found difficult to read in anything less than full light.

Now, the content. Being fully aware of the extent of the climate emergency and eager to have a sense of agency, I followed a tip from another reviewer and started by reading the very last section first, essay 5.22 "Hope is something you have to earn", and also the "What Next?" piece about what can and must be done. Thus armed with a modicum of hope, I went back and started the book from the beginning. For a stronger buttress of hope, you could read all of part 5 "What We Must Do Now" first.

Most essays are just a few pages, very accessible, written succinctly while still being chock full of straightforward facts, data, and revelations. The content is essentially a mile wide and an inch deep. Individually and together, they explain climate science, describe the changing climate's effect on human life and other species, and explore the history and current state of climate action and inaction. Though each essay is written by a different expert, the information is carefully scaffolded; one article may introduce a concept and define specific terminology, which is then used in a later piece that explains a part of that issue in greater detail. As a science-based book, it's clear words are chosen carefully; instead of simply saying "climate change", which has been twisted by some to mean "naturally occurring climate change", many authors purposely refer to "anthropogenic climate change" to make clear that the climate is being changed by human activity.

This book covers a huge range of topics just enough to illustrate how the climate crisis isn't just one thing, but many, many interconnected issues. CO2 emissions are a big piece of the puzzle, but other pieces include methane emissions, aerosol emissions, microplastic pollutants, and deforestation. And the consequences of global warming isn't just about warmer temperatures, it's also about altered atmospheric circulation, extreme weather events, ocean acidification, and changing ocean currents, and all of that leading to wildfires, poor air quality, possible extinction of insects and animals that would cause dysfunction in our ecosystems, food and water shortages, increased spread of diseases, increased likelihood of human conflicts and violence, and globally destabilizing climate migration. And that's just a sampling of topics covered. In short, climate change is "deteriorating the conditions for life on our planet." (p. 115)

Many of the essays follow a similar pattern: information is presented, the magnitude and gravity of the situation are made clear, and then we're given a final remaining shred of hope in the concluding paragraph(s). We are not doomed, our planet and species can still survive, if only we commit ourselves to making the necessary changes. Of course, that is a collective "we", though the bulk of the responsibility lies with the richest 10% who cause 50% of the world's CO2 emissions. (p. 132) The countries of the Global North are "most responsible for this crisis" (p. 154) while the most affected people in the most affected areas "are overwhelmingly poor people of colour, even in rich countries." (p. 159) This means "wealthy nations must eliminate their use of fossil fuels by around 2030 for a likely chance of [not exceeding] 1.5°C" of global average temperature rise (p. 206), and, in doing so, "make space for the poorest 50 per cent of people in the world to realize their essential consumption needs." (p. 331) In replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, governments must, at the same time, "protect and help those who are collateral damage in the energy transition." (p. 227) 

The climate crisis is, at its core, a worldwide equity issue. Heat-related health issues are more likely to affect vulnerable populations such as "the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with chronic conditions" (p. 138), and vector-borne diseases (such as malaria and dengue, whose prevalence depends in part on the climate) "are disproportionately linked to poverty." (p. 143) "The fact that 3 billion people use less energy, on an annual per capita basis, than a standard American refrigerator gives you an idea of how far away from global equity and climate justice we currently are. " (p. 154) As Nicki Becker writes in essay 5.17 "What Does Equity Mean to You?", "Climate justice is not only about preventing climate catastrophe, it is about building a world that is just and equal. We do not want to 'conserve' the world as it is now but to create a fairer one." (p. 396)

So why are we still not treating the climate as the emergency that it is? Thunberg writes, "We have solid unequivocal scientific evidence of the need for change. The problem is, all that evidence puts the current best available science on a collision course with our current economic system." (p. 21) She quotes a WHO executive director who said that "economic growth... [is] becoming a malignancy... driving unsustainable practices." (p. 133) "The key is to scale down less necessary forms of production and organize the economy around human well-being rather than capital accumulation. This is known as degrowth." (p. 312) We need to immediately prioritize people over profits and implement climate-saving solutions even when there is no money to be made, with one author urging that "climate change must be averted at any price because its ultimate cost can be neither imagined nor calculated." (p. 193) We need to be implementing solutions like "rapidly expanding public transport, developing a massive programme of electrification, changing town planning, rolling out e-bikes in cities" (p. 209), regardless of any lack of financial gain.

So how do we make these changes happen? According to Thunberg, "the most effective way for us to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves and others... [T]he moment we do go into full crisis mode we will consider every possible individual detail... [W]e as individuals should use our voices, and whatever platforms we have, to become activists and communicate the urgency of the situation to those around us... and hold the people in power accountable for their actions, and their inactions." (p. 326-327) Thunberg's writing is direct and unapologetic, and she doesn't mince words. To media and TV producers who have the power to inform and shape public perceptions, she says straight up, "unless the reason you became whatever you are today was to silently support the destruction of the living planet, then I suggest you start doing your job." (p. 435)

I appreciate that this book makes clear that yes, our individual lifestyle choices do matter. In essay 5.2 "Individual Action, Social Transformation", Stuart Capstick and Lorraine Whitmarsh write: "There is a troubling mismatch between the enormity of climate change and the smallness of the response asked of individuals... If this is a disheartening viewpoint, the good news is that it also represents a false dichotomy. Focusing attention at the two extremes - the individual versus the systemic - overlooks the vast territory in between... One way in which our actions matter... is through providing cues and examples to others... Many studies have shown that the extent to which people make environmentally friendly choices is affected by their assessment of what others are doing... Personal action... has the ability to spark wider transformations of the contexts that underpin our everyday choices, including by influencing business activity and shifting the sense of what represents a normal or desirable way of life... [I]ndividual action... is the vital building block from which social transformation is made possible." (p. 328-330) 

One final point I found enlightening. After graduating college, I had a career-oriented job for a while, then ultimately decided to stay home after having kids. When my kids were little, I spent an inordinate amount of time feeling guilty and conflicted for not having a "real job". In essay 5.16 "A Just Transition", Naomi Klein writes that "teaching and caring for kids doesn't burn a lot of carbon... In a just transition, we would recognize this labour as green and prioritize it because it makes our lives better." (p. 392) The principle is called "care work is climate work" and indeed, looking back, it is easy to see how the things I considered a financial wash (the savings I brought to the household were balanced out by not having an income) were also compatible with that "1.5°C lifestyle", e.g., I didn't have a daily commute and I didn't need to maintain a work wardrobe. Anyway, it's all good and fine for me to find peace with my decisions, but the point is, this overhaul to make our societies more sustainable is an opportunity to "invest in more care-sector jobs and... ensure that women's labour is fully recognized and appreciated in the next economy." (p. 392)

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong

★★★★

This book is a "must read" not in a page-turning-I-couldn't-put-it-down kind of way, but rather, because everyone should be exposed to the ideas in these essays.

As someone just beginning to learn about disability justice, I picked up the book after hearing about the editor, but all the writers were new to me. Pro Tip: There's an "About the Contributors" section towards the end of the book with a paragraph-long blurb on each author. I also found myself researching some of the writers online, to learn even more about who they are and what they do.

Some essays include "content notes" at the start of the piece, essentially a "content/trigger warning", so the reader is prepared to confront topics like sexual assault or suicide.

Was it uncomfortable reading personal stories about people's disabilities? Yep. But it was the kind of uncomfortable that everyone needs to sit with. These are people! These are their lives! There's the incarcerated deaf man who is punished as recalcitrant when he's handcuffed and unable to sign or write, and is denied an interpreter when his deafness is even acknowledged. The amputee with a prosthetic leg who needs to make sure she walks an "average" (p. 74) number of steps a day, recorded by the leg's technology, in case her insurance company tries to deny her the leg on the grounds she doesn't use it enough. All people deserve dignity and to be included in our definitions of humanity and society. People with disabilities deserve more than survival; they deserve to have access to all the opportunities and spaces abled people have, with whatever assistance they need, without feeling like a burden to others.

What's most striking about this collection is how intersectional the essays are. This book is not just about disabilities in themselves, but about being a disabled black woman, or making a significant contribution to science as a blind astronomer. Authors offer their perspectives on disability and parenting, or disability and sexuality. There's an essay about having to reconcile being disabled and Muslim during Ramadan, when those with medical conditions are exempt from fasting; a fashion manifesto about disabled queer clothing; a piece about navigating disability as an Asian American in an immigrant family with a culture that stigmatized disabilities. Some of the authors are born with disabilities, some are disabled by new onset medical conditions or injuries. Some accept their disabilities as part of their identity while others may hope for a cure or recovery. The essays drive home the point that "the presence or absence of a disability doesn't predict quality of life." (p. 9) 

Since learning about disability activism, I've been increasingly frustrated at how DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) leaders and organizations routinely ignore disability. They rightly fight for so many marginalized groups but somehow stop short of recognizing that "disability rights are civil rights" (p. xvii). According to an essay by the Harriet Tubman Collective, "60 to 80 percent of the people murdered by police are... Disabled and/or Deaf people." (p. 237) When the Movement for Black Lives completely omitted any mention of disability from their 6-point platform released in 2016, the Harriet Tubman Collective said, "It is disingenuous, at best, and violently irresponsible at worst, to claim to want justice for those who have died at the hands of police, and neither name disability nor advance disability justice." (p. 240) It looks like the Movement got the message, because their website does now mention disability and ableism. This awareness still needs work at the local level, where I have yet to see any DEI initiatives address disability. (Notably, in these covid times, widespread masking would allow people at higher risk for severe illness to more safely enter public spaces, yet masking as a disability accessibility issue is widely disregarded.) 

On a personal note, I don't consider myself disabled, but having had cancer, and having gone through related surgeries and chemo and other treatments - some that have left me with permanent, uncomfortable-but-not-disabling side effects - I understand plainly that anyone can become disabled at any time, and I feel I've existed, perhaps sometimes still exist, temporarily, within the disability world. Some aspects of disability resonate with me and, in particular, an essay by Ellen Samuels struck me like an epiphany. (One of the many things I learned in this book is that the disabled community is reclaiming the word "crip", slang for "cripple"; I would not use the term myself, but I am including it below as part of the original quote.)

"Crip time is time travel. Disability and illness have the power to extract us from linear, progressive time with its normative life stages and cast us into a wormhole... Some of us contend with the impairments of old age while still young... we rage silently--or not so silently--at the calm straightforwardness of those who live in the sheltered space of normative time... Crip time is grief time... What I have found much harder to let go is the memory of my healthier self. With each new symptom... I grieve again for the lost time, the lost years that are now not yet to come... crip time is broken time. It requires us to break in our bodies and minds to new rhythms... It forces us to take breaks, even when we don't want to... It insists that we listen to our bodyminds so closely, so attentively, in a culture that tells us to... push the body away from us while also pushing it beyond its limit... crip time is vampire time... we live out of time, watching others' lives continue like clockwork while we lurk in the shadows." (p. 190-192, 195-196)

Rememberings by Sinéad O'Connor

★★★★

I regret that it was Sinéad O'Connor's death that finally spurred me to read her book. I was a fan of her music in high school and college, but I admit I didn't much follow her personal life.

This is the second memoir in a row that I've read by someone who died shortly after the book was written, which adds a certain amount of gravitas to the book. It was heartbreaking to read her plans for her future: "So this is only my first memoir. My intention is to live a long life and keep diaries this time so I won't forget." (p. xii) Towards the end, she described her next album, which was never released.

I think Sinéad O'Connor is a good storyteller. Her prose was sometimes lyrical, sometimes cheeky. She wrote as if she were speaking, so the text is dotted with "ain't" and "dunno" and "gonna". Each chapter is a short vignette, most just a few pages long. Black-and-white photos are interspersed. The book is mostly in chronological order, but sometimes it jumps around in order to follow the full thread of a theme or person. I read the book with a certain amount of apprehension, knowing unpleasant things would be revealed.

She is honest and vulnerable, child-like and God-loving, especially in the first two parts that describe her childhood and early adulthood, yearning for love and being drawn to gentleness. The whole book is a reminder to have grace for others, and to treat others kindly, because you really don't know what they may be going through.

In the last part of the book, she wrote of her adulthood and later albums. Fans will appreciate that she explained the story behind many of her songs. She mostly provided only a glimpse of her personal life at that point, and in the chapter called "The Wizard of Oz," she explained that after she had finished writing up to and including the Saturday Night Live Pope photo-ripping incident, she "had an open-surgery radical hysterectomy... followed by a total breakdown... and by the time I'd recovered, I was unable to remember anything much that took place before it." (p. 267)

(An aside: As someone who has also gone through surgical menopause due to ovary removal, though my experience was not nearly as extreme as hers, I welcome any opportunity to raise awareness of women's health and GYN procedures. If you have a uterus and ovaries, please make sure you have a GYN doctor you trust, and if something unexpected should arise, be open with other women in your life; very likely someone knows something about what you're going through and can offer information, insight, or support.)

What is abundantly clear throughout the book is that through all her life's ups and downs, she had music. She genuinely conveys her deep, abiding, life-long love for music and singing.

Her rock-n-roll lifestyle may be shocking to some readers, but despite the way music executives tried to market her, she was always "a punk, not a pop star." (p. 149) She lived her life true to her lyrics in "The Emperor's New Clothes" - Whatever it may bring / I will live by my own policies / I will sleep with a clear conscience / I will sleep in peace. I was really struck by how principled she was: "To the great consternation of many, I refused all the awards I was personally offered for my second album. Because I knew... that I wasn't getting awards because of anything I stood for. Rather, I was getting awards because I'd... sold a lot of records. Commercial success outranked artistic merit. I made a lot of money for a lot of men who couldn't actually have cared less what the songs were about. And in fact would prefer I told no one." (p. 149) Those rich men did a good job enforcing their preference, because even when she tore up the Pope's picture on Saturday Night Live, I clearly remember how it was a big scandal and everyone was all up in arms about it, but as a young teen at the time, I had no idea she did it to protest child abuse within the Catholic church. I feel a bit guilty now for having been a part of the commercialization of her music, one of those people who enjoyed her songs without understanding how intensely personal they were, without really seeing her.

I was also profoundly moved by her account of how she was booed at a Bob Dylan celebration concert a couple weeks later. I searched up the video of this performance on YouTube, and it's incredible: As she walks onto the stage, you can see in her face how happy she is to be a part of an event in honor of one of her personal heroes. She's supposed to sing a beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You" (one of my favorite songs to listen to around Christmas), but then, you see the realization dawn on her face as she processes the booing. You can see the wheels turning in her head, she makes an on-the-spot decision to change her song, and she belts out "War" by Bob Marley - the same song she sang on SNL just before tearing up the photo - and you can see she is all anger and defiance and hurt. She was truly an extraordinary woman, standing up for abused children when no one else would even acknowledge the problem.

Quite remarkably (since there is so little reference to the covid-19 pandemic in contemporary culture), the epilogue was written in the spring of 2020; she described the state of the pandemic, and America, at the time, and was hopeful. Again, she had plans.

Reading her book, it felt like she was alive again. When I finally put the book down upon finishing it, the reality of her death was such a weight of sadness.

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

★★★★★

A nostalgic, heartfelt tribute to a bygone era, made all the more poignant knowing that the author apparently mailed the final manuscript to his publisher the day before he and his wife died by suicide.

I think it's remarkable how much this book illustrated Mark Twain's quote: "History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes." In the Foreword, Zweig wrote that his generation, which lived through two world wars, carried "a heavier burden of fate than almost any other in the course of history." (p. xi) I certainly don't mean to take anything away from the Lost Generation, but I can't help but wonder if maybe Generation Z might have a similarly heavy burden, as young people today are facing the climate crisis, backsliding democracy, a resurgence of white nationalism, gun violence, loss of bodily autonomy for women, etc. The author seems to tap right into the fears and worries of Gen Z when he writes, "Only those who could look forward with confidence to the future enjoyed the present with an easy mind." (p. 24) I wouldn't be surprised if Gen Z-ers find this book surprisingly relatable.

It's heartbreaking that Zweig didn't live to see his beloved Europe, and especially Austria, rise from their war-torn ashes and thrive again. Still, the book gave me hope; as desperate and impossible as things may be, humanity has faced down potential ruin and survived before, so maybe it can do so again.

For the rest of this "review", I'm just going to highlight my favorite parts and quotes that I found especially meaningful, insightful, or just plain fascinating.

Early in the book, Zweig thanked his father for instilling in him his "one secure possession: [his] sense of inner freedom." (p. 31) It wasn't until the end of the book, however, after I learned of all that the author had lost through two world wars, that I understood the full weight of that statement.

The way the author compared pre-WWI Austria to WWII times felt very much like something Americans might say today: "Hatred between... the occupants of one table and those of another, did not yet leap to the eye daily from the newspaper, it did not divide human beings from other human beings... The herd instinct of the mob was not yet as offensively powerful in public life as it is today; freedom in what you did or did not do in private life was something taken for granted - which is hardly imaginable now." (p. 46)

It was really interesting how something published in 1942 about a politician from around 1900 (Dr. Karl Lueger) could just as easily apply to modern populist politics (Trumpism) and the scapegoating of immigrants and people of color as a distraction from wealth inequity: "A clever and popular leader... exploited this discontent and anxiety and... united the discontented lower middle class, whose envy of those more prosperous than themselves was considerably lesser than their fear of sinking from bourgeois status into the proletariat... [He used] anti-Semitic slogans, thus showing the disgruntled lower middle classes a visible enemy and at the same time imperceptibly diverting their hatred from the great landowners and feudal wealth." (p. 83) 

Seeing the similarities between students then and now was entertaining, though the object of students' interests have changed quite a bit. In Stefan Zweig's day, disinterested students surreptitiously read off-curriculum poetry in class and competed to be the most knowledgeable about theater and literature. "Discovering and being right up to date with the very latest, most recent, most extravagant and unusual subject... was our passion." (p. 62) It's almost refreshing to know that youth today are the same as they have always been, except pop culture now centers around YouTube, memes, and video games instead of newspapers, journals, and books.

Stefan Zweig was a true intellectual, and he lived in a time when being an intellectual was not only a thing, but an admired thing. He "couldn't swim, dance or play tennis... and in [his] general knowledge of sport any ten-year-old puts [him] to shame" (p. 79), yet he never regretted his "passion for the things of the mind" because he believed "the mind can be trained only in those crucial years of development to rise to its full powers of comprehension, and only someone who has learnt to spread his intellectual wings early will be able to form an idea of the world as a whole later." (p. 80) In his later years, he felt that "even in the darkest days [of WWII] a conversation with an intellectual man of the highest moral standards can bring immeasurable comfort and strength to the mind." (p. 445)

I was intrigued by the author's account of his peers in Paris with "discreet sinecures for poets and writers who did not earn large sums from their work... What these writers wanted from their modest posts, sought without professional ambition, was only a modicum of security in everyday life that would guarantee them independence in their true work." (p. 157-158) I had to look up the definition of "sinecures", and I was struck by how attitudes have changed so that it's more common today to see people trying to monetize their "true work", making it their actual work with all sorts of professional ambitions.

Just a few pages later, times again seemed not so different after all when he wrote of "our new way of life, which chases people out of their own peace of mind like animals running from a forest fire... ours, of all times, is one that allows no quiet moments even to the purest and most private minds, none of the stillness to help them wait, mature, meditate and collect their thoughts." (p. 162-163)

Without giving away any spoilers, I'll say I was floored at the bizarre series of events related on pages 190-199, about Zweig's first foray into dramatic playwrighting. As it turned out, Stefan Zweig would have a surprising role in, or at least a connection to, a number of publicly significant events. There was a great deal of name-dropping - of writers and politicians and various public figures - and I will sheepishly admit that I am not much of a student of European history or literature, so even with the helpful footnotes, oftentimes it wasn't until after I researched someone that I realized how impressive the dropped name was.

In fact, it wasn't just names, but whole swaths of European history that I didn't know much about. I kept putting the book down to do online research to better understand the bigger context of the book's narrative. I definitely learned a lot.

I appreciated the author's candor - which I read with a touch of humor - describing his predicament when World War I broke out: "All the committees examining men for military service had declared me unfit for it... My own nature, as I am not ashamed to confess frankly, is unheroic. My natural reaction to all dangerous situations has been to keep well out of their way... it was unthinkable for a relatively young man to wait until he was unearthed from his hiding place and sent to some place unsuited to him. So I looked around for something I could do without being involved in any violent activity." (p. 251)

At one point, when Zweig described being the only anti-war person even among his friends, his words felt oddly relevant to being a lone covid-aware person in a covid-minimizing world. He wrote that his isolation "made me doubt whether I myself was mad among all these clever heads, or perhaps was the only person to be shockingly sober amidst their intoxication". (p. 275) He goes on to meet a fellow believer in peace through reconciliation, whom he quotes: "We have suffered over a million dead. We have done and sacrificed enough! Not one more human life, not a single one, should be thrown away in the cause of German world-domination!" (p. 284) Again, to me, by replacing "German world-domination" with "saving the economy" or "returning to perceived normalcy", the words could just as well apply to the ongoing covid pandemic. In perhaps a related "history rhyming" vein, it's noteworthy that the book did not mention in any way whatsoever the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.

There's a lot more I could mention but I've gone on long enough!

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

★★★★★

I'm a big fan of Ed Yong (for his reporting on COVID-19, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting), and I picked up this book just to read more of his work.

The topic is fascinating. I have heard of probiotics and the gut bacteria that may be linked to everything from food allergies to Parkinson's Disease. I feel like every person who pushes probiotics should have to read this book. It presents a sweeping history of microbes and discusses both the bacteria that live in and on other animals as well as human microbiomes and the vast universe of microbes that live symbiotically all over and inside our bodies.

In accordance with the book's subtitle, I certainly did gain a much grander view of life. For me, the rest of the title seemed like a bit of a misdirection because I was expecting to read mostly about the bacteria inside of humans, but actually, a lot of the book covers all kinds of bacteria out in the world and in other animals. The way the information was presented made sense - Yong described the history of microbial discoveries and explained all the very many characteristics of bacteria as seen in other animals, and then applied that knowledge to better understand the research on bacteria that affect humans - but I have to admit, the book had a bit of a slow start for me; it was mostly when the subject turned to human microbiomes that I became hooked.

The footnotes were inconveniently located at the back of the book, instead of on the bottom of the page on which they are referenced, which made for a lot of flipping back and forth. While some footnotes simply listed a source, others provided additional context, or a "behind the scenes" anecdote, or just a fascinating or entertaining tidbit; I think it's worth the minor trouble of using a second bookmark to keep your place in the Notes section. (Incidentally, the footnotes in Chapter 3 in my edition were messed up, which made for a bit of confusion.)

I enjoyed the photos included towards the end of the book, but they were not printed in the order of reference in the book's text, which made for a less than ideal experience trying to match up photos with their corresponding section in the text.