qebo's 2022 books (1)

I'm Katherine, a computer programmer for a small medical imaging company in Pennsylvania. I've been around LibraryThing for over a decade, switched from 75 Books to Club Read several years ago, started the usual thread in 2019 but fizzled out, and since then I've been only sporadically lurking. No particular reason initially, just diminishing mental energy to both read and keep up with the commentary. Since mid 2020, I've been occupied with elderly parent decline. The brief summary is that my father had a stroke four days before his 90th birthday, it was immediately apparent that my mother could not manage on her own, I and two brothers (all local) went into emergency mode in the midst of COVID, my father died in early 2021, my mother is now in skilled care with poor eyesight, poor balance, poor memory, and cancer. It has been a year and a half of housing transitions, medical consultations, financial arrangements, a bazillion phone calls and emails and appointments. Ongoing, but at significantly lower intensity than at this point last year.

Can't say I'm super optimistic about 2022, but I miss LibraryThing and its denizens so we'll see how this goes...

January
#01: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates -- (Jan 9)
#02: Exodus, Revisited by Deborah Feldman -- (Jan 23)
#03: The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy -- (Jan 23)
#04: The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams -- (Jan 25)
#05: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir -- (Jan 29)

February
#06: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson -- (Feb 13)
#07: The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs -- (Feb 15)
#08: Summerwater by Sarah Moss -- (Feb 19)
#09: The Distant Echo by Val McDermid -- (Feb 26)

March
#10: Grandma Lisa's Humming, Buzzing, Chirping Garden by Lisa Doseff -- (Mar 7)
#11: The New Climate War by Michael Mann -- (Mar 12)
#12: Remember by Lisa Genova -- (Mar 15)

April
#13: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin -- (Apr 10)
#14: The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines -- (Apr 24)

May
#15 : Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit -- (May 10)
#16 : Overboard by Sarah Paretsky -- (May ?)

June
#17 : Phosphorescence by Julia Baird -- (Jun 21)

July
#18 : The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak -- (Jul 9)
#19 : Flight of the Diamond Smugglers by Matthew Gavin Frank -- (Jul 19)
#20 : The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh -- (Jul 23)

August
#21 : The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett -- (Aug 6)

October

November
#22 : The Family Roe by Joshua Prager -- (Nov 16)

December
#23 : Corrections in Ink by Keri Blakinger -- (Dec 15)

>1 qebo: Hi, wlecome back! I had an eerily similar year, it's a rough transition.

Glad you had some family support during the last year. It's a tough road to walk. Hope this year will be less intense and will include some good reading.

Starred!

I missed you. 2021 was a miserable year in most respects, and I see it hit you hard as well. I’m so sorry to hear you lost your dad and your mom is experiencing physical decline. I hope this year will be on a more even keel for you.

I understand about not having the mental energy to immerse yourself in reading and LT as we both once did with vigor. The past two years were so hard.

I hope 2022 is kinder to all of us. Wishing you well in the New Year. Hoping to stay in touch. Even better, hoping to see you whenever all of this covid mess is over.

I'm so glad you decided to start a thread in Club Read this year. I missed you when I rejoined LT last January after a couple of years away. I'm glad we've been able to reconnect. I hope LT can be a source of support as well as a forum for book talk. Echoing Madeline that I hope 2022 is kinder to all of us.

I'm glad you're back! I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I hope 2022 will be a better year.

Hi Katherine. I'm glad you are back. I can empathize with what you are going through. We just had to put my mother, 91 with COPD into assisted living in December. My sisters who live near her took the lead on that. But for past three years I have been dealing with medical issues for my husband who first had cancer, and then a bone marrow transplant two years ago. Since then there have been ongoing medical issues--nothing particularly life-threatening, but very time-consuming. Being his caregiver is almost like a full-time job. Of course it's a lot better than the alternative.
Anyway, I hope you will visit and let us know what you are reading and how it is going when you can. You used to do a lot of gardening, didn't you? Have you been able to keep that up?

>11 arubabookwoman: You used to do a lot of gardening, didn't you? Have you been able to keep that up?

Somewhat, and it's a welcome respite. Master Gardener activities shut down entirely in 2020 and partially resumed in 2021; the program is under the auspices of Penn State so at the mercy of one-size-fits-all decisions. The neighborhood community garden has been in high demand with so many people off work and/or unable to travel and seeking outdoor activities for the summer.

>11 arubabookwoman: almost like a full-time job

We have it comparatively easy because my parents attempted to plan ahead; 15 years ago they bought into a retirement community with graduated care, consolidated the finances into one place with local administrators, set up power of attorney and end-of-life directives. So many decisions were already made, and my brothers and I are in essential agreement and cooperate in divvying up the tasks. Still, we all have full time jobs, and juggling the details is mentally draining.

Nice to see you here Katherine. I'm really sorry about the loss of your father and about the difficulties with your mother. I wish you a good year.

I'm glad that you're back with us, Katherine, although I'm very sorry that you're also dealing with the loss and decline of your elderly parents. Now that I'm back in Pennsylvania I may ask for your advice at some point, and hopefully we can get together in Philadelphia or elsewhere in SE PA later this year.

>15 kidzdoc: Me, too! I want to see Katherine again. I miss her! She used to come and stay with me, but times have changed since the pandemic has been around. :(

Nice to find you here, Katherine.

I do hope that 2022 is a little kinder to all of us than the beast that preceded it.

Happy New Year, Katherine!

Welcome back! Let's hope that 2022 is indeed a better year.

#01: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates -- (Jan 9)

why now: A group of neighbors began a climate change initiative last year. Events have included a series of films over the summer, a climate change fair in the fall, discussion of several books. This is the third book.

This book was written post-pandemic and pre-divorce, i.e. shortly before reputation tarnishing. Some reviews fault it for bypassing politics, but I found this aspect refreshing. It's a geeky and pragmatic overview of existing and aspirational technology in five broad categories of greenhouse gas emissions: electricity generation, construction, agriculture, transportation, heating/cooling. Things we can do now. Things we know how to do but at significant expense. Things we don't know how to do. And government policies that would support the supply and demand of innovation.

>20 qebo: sounds like a really good first book. (Not sure if you're aware of the Greenhouse thread in CR, but this book fits in that theme.)

>21 dchaikin: Not sure if you're aware of the Greenhouse thread in CR
I am and I have it starred. Perhaps I should compose a sentence there...

The threads are running significantly faster than I am... I do aspire to make the rounds. Appreciate all who have dropped by.

After a week off at the end of the year, back to work; I've taken a lot of time off to deal with pressing & emergency family stuff this past year and a half, so my bank account could use a fullish time income. Then the saga of the hearing aids, which is now onto the next step but involved an assessment and multiple phone calls. And my mother's skilled care unit has a COVID outbreak, which may have begun with someone recently returned from the hospital. One person died. Everyone else who tested positive has a range of zero to mild symptoms. A nurse told me that "nearly all" are vaxxed and boosted, but they don't give specifics about who's who. My mother is vaxxed and boosted, tested positive, has no symptoms but still it is worrying. We can't visit and she can't leave her room, so she is bored, but as has been exasperatingly typical she rejects anything unfamiliar; she would rather be bored than anxious. She can't read large print books as of about six months ago, but she doesn't want an e-reader or a radio or a music player. She has a TV but it is always tuned to MSNBC which does not exactly uplift the spirit and she refuses to change the channel because she might lose it. The activities facilitator whose father is blind persuaded her over several months to let him submit an application to the Carnegie Library for the Blind which would give her an audio reader and a supply of books on tape, so that is in progress but not happening quickly. After a year of stalling she was willing to go through an intake consultation with a local non-profit that provides support for the blind, but her immediate impulse was to reject most of what they have to offer also. She let them send her a calendar. My brothers and I just have to roll our eyes and practice patience; she is much as she has always been, but the salient features are 1000% more so.

Anyway, the result is that my head is mired in mundane concerns and I don't seem able to construct a coherent sentence about anything at a higher level of abstraction.

:( Any chance to provide your mother with audio-books outside of the Carnegie library option (public library, Audible and so on)?

Hang in there! Life is supposed to occasionally throw you a nice line :)

>24 AnnieMod: Alas, no. We've been trying that route for a year. She has gotten comfortable with the activities guy, who talks often about his blind father, and has eased her into the idea of a device that he is familiar with and can help her with. So it has to be exactly that thing, not something similar.

Among the many issues with the hearing aids is that she insisted on an instruction manual which (a) she can't see and (b) she wouldn't be able to follow anyway, but in her previous life which existed until a year and a half ago she would've read it cover to cover before doing anything, and she doesn't understand why almost nobody else on earth operates this way and can cope well enough by trial and error and kinda knowing how stuff works. She's not going to be abandoned to figure it out on her own, but she fears so. A very helpful admin staff is the go-to hearing aid troubleshooter, and calls the hearing aid company if there's a problem, so I was unconcerned. I did establish though that the hearing aids indeed come with an instruction manual, so my mother was satisfied.

My mother in her prime managed a university library department, and was known for her organizational skills. But while she is not diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia and actually doesn't do too badly on cognitive tests, her information processing capabilities are nowhere near what they used to be, which is understandably causing enormous anxiety.

>25 qebo: Ah, that moment when one's pride (or shame maybe?) doesn't allow them to admit that they need help. :( And I cannot imagine someone who used to read and enjoyed it to get into a position where they cannot.

Hopefully something will work out - and once she is comfortable with these tapes, maybe something else will also be introduce-able. I'll keep my fingers crossed that something does work at the end.

PS: Find some time to take care of yourself as well while dealing with all that!

Wow. What a time you've been having. I'm so sorry to hear about the Covid outbreak at your mom's skilled care unit. I'm glad she is asymptomatic. That's great that she's receptive to the idea of an audio reader. My bachelor uncle went nearly blind towards the end of his life. He had been a schoolteacher and had a large home library complete with stacks. Although I didn't live nearby, I tried to get him set up with a reader, but he needed constant help which I was not able to provide. He was the kind of person who would get frustrated and just start punching keys wildly, messing everything up. Fortunately he did enjoy listening to baseball games and had two tvs going at the same time when competing games were on. I hope your mom finds things she can enjoy too. It sounds like she may be slowly warming up to some ideas?

>27 labfs39: punching keys wildly
My mother is the opposite; she freezes with anxiety and won't touch anything.

>33 qebo: Are they actually still on tape?

>29 dianeham: Ha, I've wondered the same thing. The activities guy called them "books on tape" but his father has been a client for decades.

I still catch myself saying books on tape sometimes

I'm glad you've made a thread and going to make an attempt here. As others have noted you have had difficult times. Will stop in from time to time to see what you are reading.

#02: Exodus, Revisited by Deborah Feldman -- (Jan 23)

why now: Low-hanging fruit. I'd read about ¾ last year then set it aside for reasons I don't recall.

I'd already seen Unorthodox the mini-series when Unorthodox the book was selected in my RL book group so I read with interest. The style of Unorthodox the book is raw and immersive, re-living events, and corresponds recognizably with the backstory of Unorthodox the mini-series, and then it ends. So I was curious whether the continuation also corresponds. The answer is no, aside from relocating to Berlin which happened immediately in the mini-series and over years in real life, without music. The style is different, more contemplative. The most compelling sections to me were tracing her ancestry through travel and government documents.

I wanted to watch that miniseries, but I'm not sure I knew about the books. Do you recommend them?

>34 dchaikin: Well, that'd depend on what sorts of things are of interest to you, but they're all well done. The mini-series is partly based on fact and partly not without distinguishing which is which but as a drama it's compelling. The first book is exiting a world that is both sheltered and traumatic and all the associated inner turmoil. The second book book is probably not so meaningful on its own, and the difficulties are more subtle so it's more watching her settle into place.

#03: The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy -- (Jan 23)

why now: For a local native plant gardening club that began a bit over five years ago. January is down time for gardening in this part of the world, so instead we read and discuss a book. Alas via Zoom this year and last, though most of us live within walking distance of each other.

A short book about oak trees, but not just about oak trees. The author is an entomologist primarily concerned with ecosystem interactions, so the emphasis is on buggy lifecycles with birds here and there. Each chapter focuses on a month in sequence, but is fairly self-sufficient.

I have the paper book, but opted for the audio book instead. It is narrated, not by the author, as if it is a nature documentary, subdued background to visual action, without the visual. Doug Tallamy is an engaging speaker (he lives about 50 miles from here and pre-pandemic was a frequent feature of local events) with an ample supply of photos. So the voice I was hearing did not match the voice I was imagining. However, the deadline is tomorrow and I can't read while walking so this got the job done.

>35 qebo: mini-series is partly based on fact and partly not without distinguishing which is which

I was thinking about watching Unorthodox, but think I would find the blurring of fact and fiction irritating. Maybe I'll hold out until I read the book.

>36 qebo: I envy your walks and listening to an audiobook. I used to take my niece out in the stroller almost every day, but it's been so cold (wind chill of -27 F) that we've been housebound. I did take her to the garage and let her ride her trike around for a bit, but even that is very cold (though no wind). Once she has all her paraphernalia on, she is less coordinated because of the bulk too, so it complicates her ability to play. I blew bubbles for her and they froze on the ground, which was kind of cool. At first she stepped on them, but then lay down and rolled over them. Makes you wonder what goes through their little minds. Once this summer she was playing in a puddle and bent over into an a-frame shape so she could dunk her hair in the water. Finally she lay in it until she had sopped up all the water. She ends up going home absolutely filthy more often than not, but my sister's cool with it.

>37 labfs39: blew bubbles for her and they froze on the ground
That is quite cool, but -27F is utterly brutal. Seems your niece can make her own entertainment, which is an excellent quality.

>35 qebo: thanks. I think I might want to watch the series first, knowing it's fictionalized, and see how interested I am in the learning the story through her more directly.

Welcome back! That book on oaks looks good (have popped it on my list). We have quite a few big oaks on our property here; it might be nice to get to know them more intimately.

#04: The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams -- (Jan 25)

why now: January selection for the mostly non-fiction RL book group. We were seeking something uplifting to start the year.

This book is really a lengthy interview of Jane Goodall, not written by Jane Goodall, which makes a difference in the tone; it feels indirect. Jane Goodall is approaching 90 and remarkably active considering, or even not considering, but she is presumably mortal and aware of the fact. This book is something of a legacy wrap-up; it describes Jane Goodall Institute and Roots and Shoots, but focuses on abstract reasons to be hopeful about a future where she will not be. The conversation is arranged into sections titled "The Amazing Human Intellect", "The Resilience of Nature", "The Power of Young People", "The Indomitable Human Spirit". Jane Goodall has put significant tangible work into harnessing positive forces, so these aren't just effusive words for her.

It's not really the sort of thing that grabs me, I would've rather read about chimpanzees, but YMMV.

>41 qebo: I would've rather read about chimpanzees LOL. I think I would have had a similar reaction.

#05: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir -- (Jan 29)

why now: A break from obligations.

Ryland Grace wakes from a medically induced coma in unfamiliar surroundings. Quickly he realizes that he is on a spaceship orbiting a star, and he is the lone survivor of three. How did he get here? What is he expected to do? The spaceship is lacking basic orientation. The backstory alternates with the present as he recovers snippets of memory.

A microorganism dubbed astrophage is dimming the sun, and will cause a catastrophic ice age on Earth if it is not stopped. A loop of astrophage has formed between the sun and Venus, and the pattern can be seen elsewhere too, with astrophage migrating between a star and a planet with the carbon dioxide atmosphere necessary for reproduction. The only star that has been spared is Tau Ceti, 12 light years from Earth. Why is it different? Remarkably cooperative international governments have put one person in charge of fixing this situation, and she recruits middle school science teacher Ryland Grace because years before he wrote a controversial academic paper that is suddenly relevant. He is supposed to be a science consultant, but when a spaceship is sent to Tau Ceti he somehow ends up on board.

As he is getting his bearings post-coma, he notices another spaceship shadowing his. On it is another lone survivor from another planet in danger. Together Ryland Grace and Rocky establish communication, set up a system of pathways to share space while keeping their mutually toxic atmospheres separate, and collaborate on experiments and engineering to save both planets. All this cooperation and collaboration is kind of nice; aside from a few annoying bureaucrats there's no villain, just the astrophage going about its life cycle inadvertently wreaking havoc. If you read The Martian, the protagonist and the style will be familiar, a series of set-up problems and clever solutions and geeky expositions and wisecracking commentary.

Quite entertaining... if you can shrug off the many contrivances that get Ryland Grace where he needs to be for the part of the plot that the author cares about, and don't wonder too much whether Earth is just sitting there waiting 25 years for information from this absurdly fragile expedition.

>43 qebo: I have this one on my radar. I love the Martian and thought Artemis was okay. I liked the main character, but thought the plot was a bit slow. Did you read that one?

>45 qebo: Artemis
Yes, I read it and... don't remember much except that it was something of a letdown after The Martian.

>45 qebo: Exactly. The protagonist was a snarky young woman with street smarts whom I enjoyed, but the story was meh.

#07: The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs -- (Feb 15)

why now: Local book group selection.

Berdis (Jones) Baldwin and Alberta (Williams) King and Louise (Langdon) Little were the mothers of James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X respectively. The book is organized around common events and circumstances of their lives, so each chapter embeds all three in the historical and cultural context of an era, spanning the 20th century.

Christine King: "Every now and then, I have to chuckle as I realize there are people who actually believe ML just appeared. They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world. Take it from his big sister, that's simply not the case. We are the products of a long line of activists and ministers. We come from a family of incredible men and women who served as leaders in their time and place, long before ML was ever thought of."

Wilfred Little: "What people don't understand was that Malcolm was part of a whole, that he was part of a particular experience, part of a tradition, part of a family that resisted the corner into which America tried to push them."

#08: Summerwater by Sarah Moss -- (Feb 19)

why now: Already in hand and short.

One rainy day in a cabin park in Scotland, seen through the interior thoughts of its residents, in all but the one cabin. Bleak. Creepy.

Out of order; another review is taking awhile and I have other things to do today. February is when all the gardening groups kick into gear and I'm behind the scenes updating web sites and such.

>47 qebo: Three Mothers sounds interesting. Keeping that one in mind.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around gardening. We still have a foot of snow/ice after two days of rain and above freezing temps. Now that it's cold again, who knows how long it will stick around.

>50 labfs39: It's not that great here either; yesterday I didn't set foot outside because the wind was scary intense. It's all prep at this stage. But the botanical society published its newsletter of spring meetings and field trips, the neighborhood tree committee met (virtually, sadly, though a 15 minute walk would pass by all of our houses) to discuss an order of bare root trees from the conservation district, the community garden opens on March 1 which is still too early for significant outdoor activity but we need to know who's returning and thus which plots will be available by April 1 so the bureaucracy has to be in place.

#09: The Distant Echo by Val McDermid -- (Feb 26)

why now: Too brain dead to read anything of substance.

In 1978 four young men, university students who became friends as teenagers in a nearby town, are returning home from a party on foot through a cemetery and stumble across a young woman in the snow, apparently raped and obviously stabbed. They know who she is. They summon a patrolling policeman for help, but the woman has died by the time he arrives. They are questioned as if suspects, and never cleared because nobody is formally accused of the murder. 25 years later, with more sophisticated tools available, the police department reopens a number of cold cases including this one, though the DNA evidence has gone missing after multiple relocations of storage boxes. The four friends, now in their mid 40s, have drifted apart emotionally and geographically to varying degrees, and are drawn back in.

I like cold cases, something about the psychology of viewing from a distance events that once mattered intensely, and the distortions and burdens of secrets. This one had too much contrived drama for my taste, and an annoying wrap-up.

The brain-deadness is a combo of February dreariness, a work project on deadline, a pileup of nuisance tasks for various organizations that I volunteered to do way back when and now wish I could skip this year, the continuing >23 qebo: saga of the hearing aids which my mother HATES three weeks after the initial fitting so I've been making phone calls to skilled care staff and audiologist in an effort to disentangle fixable problems from her anxiety with the unfamiliar and declaration of catastrophe. I am now seeing why hearing aids cost so much; the audiologist has been extremely patient with her and with me.

>53 qebo: My parents have struggled some with their hearing aids too. My dad's get dirty (he works outside a lot), and he always to take them in to be cleaned. My mom's get tangled with her glasses and mask. Both see the value of them, but have found them a hassle so don't always wear them.

>54 labfs39: My mother's hearing aids reached the end of their lifespan, had to be sent out for repairs several times, and she was always having issues with batteries, so when she had to get replacements we decided on the rechargeable style. This was after consulting with the audiologist, and skilled care staff, and my mother. Staff manage the recharging as a matter of routine, which is helpful as my mother becomes less able to keep track of daily tasks, but she gets all confused and frustrated with the external component; tangled with glasses is her experience also. We are within the window of opportunity to switch back to the battery style, but that'd mean another several weeks of waiting, and another series of appointments for fitting and programming, and a return of her anxiety about batteries, and they'd still be new and she'd still be losing dexterity so we're unconvinced this would be a satisfactory resolution. I don't want to make the decision unilaterally, thus the many phone calls to assess the scope of options before I talk to her.

>55 qebo: My parents both have the rechargeable kind. Good luck figuring it all out. Keep breathing.

>47 qebo: Is The Three Mothers as good as it sounds?

Wish you well with hearing aids and other stressful stuff.

>57 dchaikin: It is researched and organized and engaging. It was someone else's choice and I was kinda meh going in, but I learned things, and the perspective is thought-provoking. If the author had split it into three biographies, details would've been necessarily sketchy and it wouldn't've had the same impact.

>58 qebo: ok. Thank you for the extra description.

#06: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson -- (Feb 13)

why now: Had it around for awhile, was in a science fiction frame of mind.

Over 100 pages in I was wondering is there a plot? 578 pages with 106 numbered but otherwise untitled chapters, global in scope, sketchy in particulars, takes awhile to see who is recurring and who is transitory and to distinguish similar voices (this was an e-book; the audio book has different readers which I'd expect to be helpful).

In the early 2020s, the Ministry for the Future emerged from the Paris Agreement on climate change, with a mission to advocate for future generations, but limited resources and limited authority. It is located in Zurich and directed by Mary Murphy. In 2025 a heat wave kills millions of people in India. NGO aid worker Frank May barely survives, and is traumatized for years afterward. He travels to cold places in a futile attempt to avoid triggers and to hot places in a futile attempt to desensitize, then returns to the scene of the crime in India, where he is rejected as a foreigner by the Children of Kali, an eco-terrorist organization formed in response to the heat wave. If he wants to do something useful, do it elsewhere and carry their message. He travels to Zurich, where he gets a low profile job in a refugee camp, and concocts a plan. He takes Mary hostage and rants that bureaucracy is inadequate, the Ministry needs a black wing to accelerate change. Mary, released unharmed, recounts the ordeal to her chief of staff, who mildly replies we could already have a black wing, you'd be the last to know because you'd need plausible deniability. Mary seems to exist so men can explain things to her, though she does eventually become more of a person.

Ministry staff and anonymous narrators explain economic theories and policies, with ample opinionation. There are conferences. There are round robin meetings with status reports. There are expository conversations. All of this backdrop is real; KSR has done his homework and offers a steady stream of clever critique and searchable buzzwords.

About three decades go by, as judged from occasional dates and durations and ages, not from clarity of presentation. Zurich and Antarctica and geoengineering and wildlife are described in detail, but India transforms in a chapter, actually two chapters; the second is mostly a repeat of the first with more name dropping. Other nations undergo unrest and upheaval in an "international zeitgeist", with millions homeless and jobless, but at an abstract distance; Mary and Frank in Zurich are not directly affected in their daily lives. Also millions of refugees which is a somewhat more developed theme. The general direction of transformations is toward government control rather than corporate control, and an expansion of cooperative systems. Ubiquitous blockchain eliminates corruption and increases trust, its carbon footprint ignored. A small town in Montana is depopulated for the Half Earth project, and its residents are sad but accepting; this is happening all over the world.

Coordinated attacks by drone swarms destroy the airline industry and it is noted that the terrorists took care to kill more business travelers than civilians. Coordinated attacks by drone torpedoes destroy the shipping industry and it is noted that ships went down where they could form a foundation for coral reefs. Coordinated attacks by drone darts injecting mad cow disease destroy the beef industry and it is noted this doesn't matter so much in India. The book was written pre-COVID so international travel to those essential conferences continues, via military jets for the elite, and via carbon-negative sailing ships and dirigibles in a slower pace of life ("where had this obsession with speed come from"?); this includes some interesting descriptions of the technology.

The Ministry somehow becomes remarkably influential. It persuades central banks to issue carbon coins which shift both corporate and individual efforts toward carbon mitigation. It develops YourLock which replaces the entirety of social media with a single web site of open source code that attracts billions of users and is apparently self-organizing with no physical infrastructure, and becomes the forum for a post-capitalist banking system and planetary consciousness. It devises plan a for refugees based on the Nansen passport that is accepted worldwide. It produces a template for a shadow government in case the world falls apart, merging ideas from various smaller scale cooperative systems, as if people will simply slot themselves into place.

So what did I think of the book? A combination of intrigued googling, and eyerolling. There is little character development, and it's difficult to care about individual people with so many pontificating interruptions. The informational verbiage occurs at too rapid a clip to absorb and consider (though this could be my own limitation). The writing style of incomplete sentences seems sometimes deliberate (e.g. meeting notes), but other times a rough draft that was never reviewed with an editorial eye. KSR seems compelled to include every idea encountered (at a milestone conference there is a hallway of unresolved problems, which stunningly still exist even with climate change reasonably under control, so must be mentioned). I would've preferred a few core ideas more carefully explored.

Phew! I've had an array of browser tabs up for two weeks and I want to move on.

>61 qebo: Ha! Now they are open in my browser!

>60 qebo: great review. So many thought-provoking things.

#10: Grandma Lisa's Humming, Buzzing, Chirping Garden by Lisa Doseff -- (Mar 7)

why now: Written by a local gardener friend-ish, published last year but I dug out the promotional postcard from a stack of papers while organizing my desk recently and was reminded to order it.

A book for kids about native plants supporting wildlife. Rhyming not so much to my taste but YMMV, attractively illustrated, authentic. It's been interesting watching it progress over a few years, getting support from Doug Tallamy and wending through publication by Heather Holm.

>64 qebo: Attractive cover.

The saga of the hearing aids is nearing conclusion. My mother was all set to reject the rechargeable hearing aids, and I was gearing up to advocate on her behalf with the audiologist though I disagreed. Then in conversation the weekend before the appointment, I reminded her that the alternative was batteries which had been a constant anxiety. And she decided to keep the rechargeable despite her frustration, though I crossed my fingers and prepared for sabotage until we actually met with the audiologist. It is now a done deal. I expect further complaints, but she is getting more comfortable with the routine, and better able to prevent tangling. I'd asked the social worker to set up sessions with an occupational therapist, which has helped. Seems that it's a combination of dexterity and muscle memory, both of which are deteriorating.

BUT! We are now embarking on another saga. The skilled care doctor has speculated that my mother's deteriorating memory and episodes of confusion may be caused by a brain tumor, a metastasizing of the eye tumor that was removed six months ago. He passed this speculation on to a nurse who called the cancer center, and received a reply in the form of a comment posted to my mother's medical account, which fell through the cracks and was discovered two weeks later by the medical records manager after another nurse mentioned this speculation to me. The comment was to the effect that it's chemo or hospice, which is what the chemo doctor told us last summer. At the time, my mother rejected chemo and the skilled care doctor said hospice has a protocol and she's not yet eligible. So we have another appointment with the chemo doctor, who will say the same thing a third time, but now we know that he can't just casually recommend hospice, action needs to be taken. The cancer center is compartmentalized between chemo and radiation, and radiation and its array of scans would seem more suitable to the question of a brain tumor, but radiation is not the official entry point, it has to be a referral, so maybe it'll be a next step. Is the brain tumor speculation merely idle curiosity, or an educated assessment of the pattern of deterioration? We have no idea. The nurses don't know, and the skilled care doctor is inaccessible; he is not actually stationed in the skilled care unit, does something administrative at a medical center and has layers of protection from the riffraff.

>66 qebo: Oh, no! As if the prospect of another tumor is not bad enough, you also have to deal with the tangled web of doctors, specialists, insurance, etc again. I'm sorry, qebo. Hang in there.

>66 qebo: OMG. What a nightmare. I'm sorry that you and your mother are going through that, Katherine.

>67 labfs39:, >68 kidzdoc: Today I got a call from the acting medical records manager, who has another administrative job but is filling in until a replacement is found for the medical records manager who departed for another job at the end of last week. She had gotten a call from the cancer center questioning the appointment with the chemo doctor if my mother is still refusing treatment. I summarized the saga of >66 qebo:; essentially we also are questioning the appointment but it has seemed the only permitted route through the medical maze. She is going to contact the skilled care doctor to ask what he is thinking and whether he can't just order a CT scan or some such and bypass the cancer center. I'd guess she feels comfortable doing this because her main job is at a higher level of administration. Crossing my fingers for a sensible outcome.

>69 qebo: Oh, I hope so. Someone with the ability/authority to make sensible decisions.

>69 qebo: Great news. Someone with common sense and the ability to act on a patient's behalf is essential in Kafkaesque situations such as this one.

I can really sympathise with your problems getting your mother to accept her hearing aid. We have been going through the same problems for years. My mother (who is 100) is very deaf indeed. After several years of persuasion I finally got her to let me take her to the doctors about her hearing, she did actually go to get her hearing aid but then decided it didn’t fit properly. Nothing we have been able to say to her has convinced her to go to have it adjusted, and to be honest we have really given up the battle on that topic as now we have more important ones to fight. As you might guess (being as she is 100) she has some mobility issues and she was assessed by the occupational therapist to see what mobility aids she might need in the home. Various aids were proposed and she refused all of them. After I had a long discussion with her, emphasising the fact that it was all free and she wouldn’t have to pay a penny, she agreed to have the mechanised bath chair installed. When the people came to install it she said she didn’t like the look of it and sent them away again! I could have hit my head on a brick wall at that point.

She really always was pretty stubborn and has just got more so in her old age. And we live over four hours drive from her and it’s not easy to provide support.

>72 SandDune: Oh my, that sounds exasperating. My mother is in a skilled care facility three miles from me and my two brothers, so we have it comparatively easy, but I can completely empathize with all your efforts to help getting rejected!

#11: The New Climate War by Michael Mann -- (Mar 12)

why now: Another neighborhood climate change group selection. Michael Mann is a climatologist currently at Penn State but soon moving to University of Pennsylvania, i.e. close to home.

Michael Mann is famous as co-author of the "hockey stick" graph of 1999 and for his role in Climategate of 2009, so he's been caught up in the wars for some time. The thesis of this book is that as the impacts of climate change become more obvious, outright "deniers" are being replaced by "downplayers, deflectors, dividers, delayers, and doomers". Chapters elaborate on what these things look like and who is behind the various "inactivist" efforts, stressing all through both the urgency of the problem and the agency of humanity to solve it. A useful perspective, and relatively optimistic.

>74 qebo: highlighting his d’s for reference

>60 qebo: The fellow in my reading group whose turn it was to pick the next book at today's meeting just selected the Robinson, so it's in my immediate future. I'll try to keep an open mind!

>76 rocketjk: I'll be interested in your review.

>74 qebo: "Another neighborhood climate change group selection."

On the outside chance that your group is looking for recommendations, here's a book I found compelling and informative, in a connect the dots sort of way: Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security by Todd Miller.

>60 qebo: "I would've preferred a few core ideas more carefully explored."

But then that won't be KSR :)

>78 rocketjk: The book reading component of the group has dwindled to four people so I doubt there'll be another for awhile. From your review, the book sounds bleak though unsurprising. Can't say I'm eager to absorb the full scope of details at the moment, but I've added it to my wishlist.

>79 AnnieMod: Useful to know. I haven't read anything else by him.

>80 qebo: Ah. Did not realize that. KSR is one of my favorite authors -- but it is not because of his characters development (it ranges from abysmal to really really abysmal in most of his books) or because of his exploration on single topics. He is a big ideas author - throw things at the readers, point them into the direction and... let them explore. Which is why a lot of people cannot read him and why he is not the darling of the awards world. But his style works (for me anyway) and I always enjoy his books.

As I said in my review of 2312: "The part that does not work (as almost always with Kim Stanley Robinson) is his portrayal of the people that are supposed to be the main characters - some of his secondary ones are a lot more believable and interesting than Swan who is supposed to be the leading character. The dialog does not really work for most of the book (no real surprises there and thankfully there is not too much of it), Pauline's conversations occasionally get tedious (although they are quite entertaining for the most part), the "love" affair is predictable, expected and almost feel like a caricature and the main "solution" of all the mysteries is visible from halfway through the book.

And despite this, the novel works. It is a powerful glimpse in what could be - both in the Solar system and in the development of the human race and society."

Which can be said about most of his books - just swap the names with the relevant ones and tweak the end of that first paragraph...

I need to find where the Ministry book is hiding and read it (as I like him, his books are always bought and kept for rainy days and... I read them late - which is kinda counterproductive).

>81 AnnieMod: throw things at the readers, point them into the direction and... let them explore
In this he succeeds, per my summary before the comma: "A combination of intrigued googling, and eyerolling." So I'm glad I read it. OTOH, the part after the comma makes me hesitant to take on another doorstopper.

#12: Remember by Lisa Genova -- (Mar 15)

why now: March selection for the mostly non-fiction RL book group. My suggestion. Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist who has written several novels about neurological diseases. I've read all of them, and was pleased to see her first non-fiction book published last year.

As I was walking into the restaurant where the book group met, I was momentarily alarmed because I was drawing a blank on the last name of the person who'd made the reservation, someone I've known for years. Which apparently is completely normal. About the only time I see her last name is in email correspondence, so the context was all wrong. By the time I reached the front desk, I'd managed to trigger the relevant neural chain of connections.

This is not a deeply technical book; it is more of a casual overview. So it was mostly somewhat familiar stuff, but still useful for its organization and reassuring tone; the author is frequently asked about memory glitches by the worried public, and makes a point of distinguishing between what is normal and what is a sign of dementia.

#13: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin -- (Apr 10)

why now: April selection for the mostly fiction RL book group.

It's a classic but I hadn't previously read it. Written in over 50 years ago but didn't feel notably dated. I appreciated the careful detail, and intend to read more of the series.

#14: The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines -- (Apr 24)

why now: April selection for the mostly non-fiction RL book group.

This was fascinating. The author lives in Alabama and knows the Mobile-Tensaw Delta well (he runs boat tours and has written another book from an environmental perspective). When he learned of the sunken ship Clotilda, he set to locating it. In the process, he researched the history of the ship and Africatown founded after the Civil War, interviewed descendants of slaveholders and enslaved (among them Cudjo Lewis whose story is recorded in Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston), and traveled to Benin to see the port of Oidah/Whydah in the former Kingdom of Dahomey.

#15: Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit -- (May 10)

why now: May selection for the mostly fiction RL book group. My suggestion.

A Plymouth Colony murder that actually happened, fictionalized primarily through the voices of two women: Eleanor (wife of the murderer John Billington) and Alice (second wife of William Bradford, whose first wife fell/jumped from the Mayflower and drowned), revealing tensions within the colony over class and religion and power and land. As a novel, good enough though not gripping, but made me more aware of the reality behind sanitized history.

#16: Overboard by Sarah Paretsky -- (May ?)

why now: The most recent in a series I've been reading for going on 40 years.

#17: Phosphorescence by Julia Baird -- (Jun 21)

why now: June selection for the mostly non-fiction RL book group.

I actually didn't finish this one. It's billed as a memoir, and I was intrigued by the biological anecdotes, but it's disjoined and wooish.

#18: The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak -- (Jul 9)

why now: July selection for the mostly fiction RL book group. My suggestion, based on LT reviews.

I liked the fig tree and the botanical anecdotes, but I wasn't wild about the book; too sentimental and mystical for my taste. One person in the book group was rapturous.

#19: Flight of the Diamond Smugglers by Matthew Gavin Frank -- (Jul 19)

why now: July selection for the mostly non-fiction RL book group.

Bleak. A brutal industry observed in dying towns by a grieving man. The author and his wife were traveling the coastline of South Africa on the way to visiting her family after a series of miscarriages.

Yeah, I'm still around. March is when Master Gardener and community garden obligations kick in. Today is heading to 95 degrees so I don't expect to be outside much.

>83 qebo: Hi Katherine!

I liked Remember by Lisa Genova. The author's writing style is so easy to read. I'm been reading more about dementia lately because of my forgetting things (hopefully not the onset of dementia), but also because a few of my friends have parents suffering this decline.

Having said that, I read a devastating new novel recently about dementia. Probably you should skip it since you are dealing with this in your family, but it was so well written. It was The Swimmers by Julia Otsuka. I got her book from the public library without knowing anything about it because I've liked past novels by this author.

A few weeks ago, @_Zoe_ and @radicarian came to visit me. Only YOU were missing! It was such a..normal...visit! I love seeing people without masks! We did take precautions as Mark wanted to meet outside, but I said we could meet inside, open the windows, and turn on the whole house fan. I guess that worked because as far as I know we have all remained free from covid. :D

>92 SqueakyChu: The Swimmers looks interesting. Oddly, my mother has not been diagnosed with dementia. She scores well on the quarterly cognitive test, though staff are aware of her deteriorating abilities. To my brothers and me, her decline has been dramatic; she can't find words, and she is perpetually confused, more so when she is anxious so it becomes a vicious circle.

I miss the DC meetups! I took an overnight trip to a wedding in May, felt risky and the event with maybe 100 attendees got switched from the beach to indoors because of weather, but no reports of COVID. Otherwise, I've been nowhere. :-( My brother resumed traveling for business a few months ago, got COVID on his second trip and passed it onto his wife, both vaxxed and boosted with mild cases and now recovered, but not exactly encouraging especially with a new and apparently more devious variant swirling around.

Hi qebo! Interesting book selections. I still haven't read the fig tree book. Maybe someday. Memory looks interesting. If I remember, haha, I'm look for it at the library.

My daughter flew out to Seattle and then down to California last month. A combination of "had to" and "want to." First time either of us had travelled since moving to Maine 2.5 years ago. I want to travel, but so far have just stuck my toes in the water.

Mark and I have also been using Enovid, a nasal spray that we order from Israel—it's completed Stage 3 trials in India, and they're underway in Canada, so we think it's worth it.

Still, I'm pessimistic about the conference I'll be attending in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks, especially since there's still been no movement on second boosters. We're arriving a day or two early and will try to plan any meetups for before the conference starts, to reduce the chance of cancellations due to Covid. And I hope we can continue to avoid indoor dining throughout.

I'm keeping an eye on the National Book Festival for this year, but so far they have not announced any kind of vaccine and/or mask requirement so I'm not inclined to attend. I even got an email from the Library of Congress asking for volunteers, with still no information about vaccines or masks. How can they ask people to volunteer at an indoor event with thousands of people and not provide any information about vaccines or masks?

>96 norabelle414: Not something I'll be willing to do either this year. I do miss our old meetups. though. :(

>95 _Zoe_: Enovid
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/anti-viral-nasal-spray-effective-against-co...
https://www.israelpharm.com/online-pharmacy/enovid/
Huh. I hadn't been aware of this.

Philadelphia
So I've seen. MathFest?

>96 norabelle414: National Book Festival
https://www.loc.gov/events/2022-national-book-festival/festival-information/freq...
Hmm, that's... vague and not reassuring. But they're searching bags for weapons so you probably wouldn't get shot.

>98 qebo: I find the Enovid reassuring, in the absence of any recent booster. Of course there's always some uncertainty in ordering medical products internationally.

Yes, MathFest! Somehow we're leaving tomorrow and I haven't yet made plans for any meetups. Are you free at all, either on Tuesday/Wednesday or Saturday?

A LibraryThing meetup happened yesterday! @_Zoe_ and @kidzdoc arranged a bookstore (https://www.headhousebooks.com/) and a restaurant (https://www.gabriellasasian.com/) and looped me in... as iffy because I hadn't taken the train to Philadelphia since pre-COVID, and I was worried that the predicted rain would force me indoors with high exposure or I'd arrive at the meetup sopping wet. A storm on Friday night seems to have wrung out the air, and by Saturday morning the weather was looking not exactly pleasant but not a sufficient excuse to wimp out. So I went to Philadelphia and took a meandering walk to the bookstore with pauses in parks to read and people-watch (plus a tempting plant sale in Rittenhouse Square). Darryl had a car, and after the restaurant generously detoured to drop me off at 30th Street station before returning Zoë & Mark to their hotel. Thus I was able to avoid the subway, which has some nostalgic appeal (I used to live in Philadelphia) but was one of the confined indoor spaces of concern. We remembered to take the obligatory photos of the group and the books, but they're not on my phone so I'll link when they're posted.

Now I wait to see whether Amtrak gave me COVID...

>100 qebo: How wonderful! I would love to attend a meetup. I still have covid anxiety and haven't traveled anywhere. I'm so glad you were able to overcome the difficulties. Darryl is a dear. (I don't know Zoe) I hope you stay well. You will be my litmus test!

>100 qebo: I am so glad you had such a wonderful time. Sorry we couldn't make it.

I am also going through mass transportation anxiety as I have an Israeli cousin coming to visit me for three days, and I want to be able to visit places with her, but I am so scared of traveling on the Metro into DC. DC is notorious for no parking spaces as well. My younger son says traveling on the Metro is no big deal. People do it every day, and there has been no "Metro Train COVID outbreak"! That's easy for him to say.

I actually did my first COVID rapid test yesterday because I've not been feeling well (fatigued and intermittent vague upper abdominal discomfort). I can't attribute these symptoms to anything so I figured I might as well learn to do the rapid test (which came out negative). Today we're going to a birthday picnic for my daughter hosted by my son-in-law's parents, but it will be outdoors, and the brother who is not vaccinated (!!) and his girlfriend will be asked to eat at a distance from the rest of us. He already contracted COVID once! COVID transmission here in Montgomery County moved to HIGH a few days ago. A friend of mine (with whom I've not been in personal contact) in my neighborhood just tested positive a few days ago. It's definitely not going away...and I don't think people are taking it seriously enough. In situations where masks are optional, almost no one wears them. I think people are just tired of masks. Plus they are hard to wear when it's over 90 degrees every day.

Hoping for better times so we can meet up again soon. Take care, Katherine. I miss seeing you.

>102 SqueakyChu: Sorry you couldn't be there! Hopefully someday...

A friend in CA who attended a conference in MA developed symptoms and tested positive for COVID the day after returning home, which was two days before the meetup. So yeah, not going away.

I HATE that COVID is STILL a major consideration. So exhausting. I work at home and family is local, so I can shrink my world fairly easily and not notice the impact on a daily basis, but then I feel massive anxiety about what should be a routine day trip and realize how much it has shrunk.

SEPTA requires masks for employees but not passengers sez its web site. Maybe 1/10 people on the train and in the stations at both ends were wearing masks. OTOH the trains were sparsely populated so I had the seat to myself and a buffer all around (but still kept the mask on). The Lyft drivers to and from the Lancaster station were not wearing masks. (I live about 2.5 miles from the station and often walk it, but yesterday was approaching 90 degrees and humid, and the route is dubious at night. Once several years ago I nearly missed a train because I couldn't find a parking spot, so I've been traumatized forever though I'm sure parking is more available now.)

>103 qebo: Daily life to me continues to be anxiety-provoking. I have really changed personally since before the pandemic. I liked our old life better. :(

>100 qebo: I'm glad that you decided to join us on Saturday, Katherine! It was a great outing, especially since this was my first LT meet up in nearly three years, and because this is the first time I got together with anyone other than local friends and relatives since my father's death in December.

Fingers crossed that your SARS-CoV-2 test is negative.

ETA: >101 labfs39: Aww...thanks, Lisa! I miss seeing you.

Meetup photos! Also posted on:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/338103#7903354
https://www.librarything.com/topic/343289#7903421


Photo taken by Mark.


Photo taken by Zoë.


Not the best, but alas the only, photo of Zoë and Mark. Zoë was trying to hold a smile while Mark was oblivious.

So nice! Thank you for sharing. Good book haul too.

>100 qebo: 9 days out, no COVID from Amtrak or Philadelphia.

OTOH, I just heard from friends (vaxxed, boosted, N95 masked) who risked a vacation in Europe this summer, developed COVID symptoms (mild) between countries, and had to quarantine in England for 10 days before they could return home.

>108 qebo: I'm glad you dodged the bullet, qebo. Sorry your friends didn't. My sister and I just had a long talk about our plan for the fall/winter with my nieces. It seems like someone at their daycare is always testing positive, sending us into a frenzy every time one of the kids sniffles. We know we need to lean into it a bit more, but it's hard. Collective trauma.

>108 qebo: It's hard to know what to do to stay safe. I had an Israeli cousin stay with us for a few days, but then I opted out of taking her sightseeing by Metro and to indoor venues. That I left for my younger son. We just agreed to go to the beach with our older son in October, but we'll be renting our own house...and our family has been our covid bubble. So many of my friends have been coming down with covid recently. Just yesterday, eight more of our closest friends (all within one family) contracted it with mild symptoms. I'm afraid of the long covid and what it might harbor in our bodies, although I know we'll all get it one or more times sooner or later. I'd just as soon it be later. Other friends of mine who traveled to Spain with a group this summer all developed covid and had to quarantine in Europe before returning home. *sigh* My county is now rated HIGH in covid transmission. :(

My mother's eyesight has been deteriorating for some years, and a bit over a year ago she gave up reading, just after I'd bought several large print books for her. The skilled care "life enrichment" coordinator set up an audio reader (which he was familiar with because his father is blind), but it sat unused for several months despite his efforts to help her get comfortable with its basic features; it's about the simplest machine imaginable, forward/backward/stop, but she was afraid to press a button on her own, and eventually told him to return it because its presence made her anxious. There are volunteers who read to residents (my father did this for years), but she turned down the opportunity because socializing with strangers makes her anxious. Recently she asked whether I would read to her, and expressed a preference for history or mystery, which is exactly what the large print books are, but her mental capabilities have declined notably since then so I wasn't sure how this would go. Sunday evening I took in three of the large print books, expecting her to reject them all because she rejects 90% of what is offered, but she was actively interested in two and chose one. So we've begun reading Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule, a Virginian, retired brigadier general, and West Point history professor who grew up with the Lost Cause mythology and painfully discarded what he now considers lies.

For context, my mother's grandmother was a (distantly related) Lee, and was born in Virginia during the Civil War, but married a northerner who took her to New York. Their son, my mother's father, lived most of his life in New York, the city and north of, was encouraged by his doctor to move to a warmer climate for health reasons after retirement, but ended up in a Philadelphia suburb because he refused to settle south of the Mason-Dixon line. I know next to nothing about family lore; my mother's grandmother died before she was born, my mother's father died before I was born, and ties to the Virginia contingent were apparently broken generations ago. However, I've always been aware of the connection, so there's a bit of a but-for-the-grace-of-God element; a different toss of the dice and I'd have a whole 'nother belief system.

Anyway, this sure beats spending the evening reassuring my mother through repetitive agitations about routine tasks, or decluttering her already sparse possessions.

>111 qebo: I'm so glad you have found something that both you and your mother can enjoy. Perhaps this will be a first step toward her feeling more at ease with being read to. How often will you be able to meet and read?

>85 qebo: This comment is a bit late, but do you know the wonderful song, Clotilda's on Fire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJh-eq3WGuc

>113 wandering_star: No, I wasn't aware of it. Thanks!