Killers Amidst Killers by Billy Jensen
In Killers Amidst Killers Billy Jensen explores the cases of dozens of missing and murdered women in Ohio. In all the cases he looks at the women were dealing with drug addiction and often prostituting themselves for drugs and/or money for drugs. This type of person makes the perfect victim because often they are estranged from their families and if/when they are found dead the police don't investigate as hard once it's obvious they were a drug addict and/or prostitute. But these women were still people - daughters, often mothers as well, sisters, etc. who didn't deserve to be murdered. Jensen highlights both the women's struggles and the lackluster efforts of police. Can we really be sure these women were murdered though? Both hard drugs and prostitution create a wide variety of ways someone could die. Could serial killers be seeking out these kind of victims? Yes. But do we know that for sure in all the cases he highlights? No. I do think he does a good job of highlighting the very real issues of opioid addiction and unsolved cases of missing/murdered women.
Jensen also interjects his own story into the book discussing his parents addiction issues and how that seemed to be a factor in both of their early deaths. He also discusses his own issues with alcohol and in the acknowledgements at the end talks about how after this book was written he went into rehab and now has 2 years sober. Obviously, he's known for his true crime work but I think he also has a personal connection to addiction issues and that could be why he was drawn to tell these stories. Overall, I like Jensen and really enjoyed this book and his previous book Chase Darkness With Me.
Some quotes I liked:
"In fact, in St. Louis right now, Tom [Hargrove] tells me the lifetime odds of being a murder victim are 1 in 25. In Chicago, they're currently about 1 in 61. 'These would be wonderful odds if you were playing the Powerball; these are awful odds if you want to stay alive.'" (p. 36)
"If you rank your serial killers based on body counts, the collective serial killers of the pill industry blow Gacy, Dahmer, and Bundy away." (p. 123)
"At the end of 2019, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study analyzing 112 American car manufacturing counties. They search from 1999 to 2017 and charted the communities that lost at least one car manufacturing plant. Then they analyzed the rates of opioid deaths in those communities versus the areas where plants didn't close. In the five years following a plant closure, the death rate from opioids in adults in those counties rose a staggering 85 percent. People had lost their sense of where they belonged. People disconnected from each other, from meaningful work, from financial security." (p. 153)
Jensen also interjects his own story into the book discussing his parents addiction issues and how that seemed to be a factor in both of their early deaths. He also discusses his own issues with alcohol and in the acknowledgements at the end talks about how after this book was written he went into rehab and now has 2 years sober. Obviously, he's known for his true crime work but I think he also has a personal connection to addiction issues and that could be why he was drawn to tell these stories. Overall, I like Jensen and really enjoyed this book and his previous book Chase Darkness With Me.
Some quotes I liked:
"In fact, in St. Louis right now, Tom [Hargrove] tells me the lifetime odds of being a murder victim are 1 in 25. In Chicago, they're currently about 1 in 61. 'These would be wonderful odds if you were playing the Powerball; these are awful odds if you want to stay alive.'" (p. 36)
"If you rank your serial killers based on body counts, the collective serial killers of the pill industry blow Gacy, Dahmer, and Bundy away." (p. 123)
"At the end of 2019, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study analyzing 112 American car manufacturing counties. They search from 1999 to 2017 and charted the communities that lost at least one car manufacturing plant. Then they analyzed the rates of opioid deaths in those communities versus the areas where plants didn't close. In the five years following a plant closure, the death rate from opioids in adults in those counties rose a staggering 85 percent. People had lost their sense of where they belonged. People disconnected from each other, from meaningful work, from financial security." (p. 153)
How to Train Your Human: a Cat's Guide by Babas
This is a cute "manual" written as though from a cat on how to manage and deal with humans. It's a quick read that you could probably finish in one sitting. In between chapters are black and white paintings of cats. Any cat owner will recognize their own cat(s) in the pages depending on how well trained you are. A cute book for any cat lover.
Some quotes I liked:
"Beds - one of the most indisputable wonders so expertly created by humans for their world - deserve a separate chapter. Cushions, blankets, chairs, couches: the primate's den is a comfort paradise. The bed of all beds is the king-size bed, a large, stuffed area furnished with soft layers into which humans slide to sleep." (p. 48)
"Noteworthy makeshift beds also include stacks of clean, ironed laundry, always pleasant and fragrant, and the coats and handbags of guests, preferably those allergic to cats." (p. 51)
"There are rumors of a prime example - that of Koko, a gorilla raised in captivity to whom Francine, a human, taught sign language. Even though the two had spent time together for many years, Koko never managed to teach Francine gorilla language - which proves once again how poorly equipped these loquacious animals are to listen. But let us not digress. What we wish to bring to your attention is that when Francine, using sign language, asked Koko what her greatest wish was, she replied, 'A cat.' And there are numerous reports about the friendship that bound Koko, throughout her long life, to various cats." (p. 118-19)
Some quotes I liked:
"Beds - one of the most indisputable wonders so expertly created by humans for their world - deserve a separate chapter. Cushions, blankets, chairs, couches: the primate's den is a comfort paradise. The bed of all beds is the king-size bed, a large, stuffed area furnished with soft layers into which humans slide to sleep." (p. 48)
"Noteworthy makeshift beds also include stacks of clean, ironed laundry, always pleasant and fragrant, and the coats and handbags of guests, preferably those allergic to cats." (p. 51)
"There are rumors of a prime example - that of Koko, a gorilla raised in captivity to whom Francine, a human, taught sign language. Even though the two had spent time together for many years, Koko never managed to teach Francine gorilla language - which proves once again how poorly equipped these loquacious animals are to listen. But let us not digress. What we wish to bring to your attention is that when Francine, using sign language, asked Koko what her greatest wish was, she replied, 'A cat.' And there are numerous reports about the friendship that bound Koko, throughout her long life, to various cats." (p. 118-19)
Magic Pill by Johann Hari
Johann Hari always struggled with his weight. After the COVID pandemic, where he had put on even more extra weight, he was at a party and realized everyone else was VERY thin despite the stressors of the pandemic. A friend pulled him aside and clued him in that everyone else hadn't taken up a rigorous exercise routine, they were using Ozempic - the newest weight loss Magic Pill. Hari decides to look into it and ends up going to his doctor and getting a prescription. But the whole time he's conflicted about taking it. In Magic Pill he explores all aspects of this medication - the pros, cons, concerns, and unknowns. He is also using himself as somewhat of a guinea pig too. In the end, he decides that for himself he feels like the benefits outweigh the risks and decides to keep taking it. I felt like he did a great job of really exploring this medication, how our food has changed, the obesity epidemic, and more with a very open mind and really showing all sides. I was also impressed with how candid he was with his own weight and food struggles. In reading about his home life it was almost guaranteed that he would end up with an eating disorder and/or serious food issues. But I was also somewhat surprised that he made it to 44 years old without understanding that fast food and processed food is NOT as good for you as meat and vegetables and it DOES have a huge impact on your weight and health. Overall, I had no idea what to expect with this book but I really liked it. I will likely check out some of his other books as well.
Some quotes I liked:
"We built a food system that poisons us - and then, to keep us away from the avalanche of bad food, we decided to inject ourselves with a different potential poison, one that puts us off all food." (p. xiv)
"The first way that ultra-processed food undermines our satiety is strangely simple. You chew it less. It is, Tim explained, 'generally very soft...It is adult baby food.' When you eat, your body gradually registers that food is coming in and sends you the signal that you've had enough. If you have to chew your food and it takes longer to eat it, the signal to stop kicks in at the right time, when you are sated. But when you don't have to chew - when it all just slips down your gullet with disarming ease - you don't get the signal to stop until you've gone too far and gorged yourself. Chewing, Tim said, is a necessary brake on overeating, and processed food has tampered with the brakes." (p. 39-40)
"If you deliberately want to make an animal fat, you take away what its ancestors ate and give it an ultra-processed and artificially sweetened replica instead. In other words - Big Agriculture does to animals precisely what the processed food industry is going to us and our children every day." (p. 47)
"Something is wrong, he believes, 'any time a society has a problem that everyone acknowledges is heavily based on the environment, and turns increasingly to treating it in a medical way.' It leads us to neglect what is causing the problem in the first place." (p. 49)
"[Dr.] Max [Pemberton] said the effects of diabetes are so severe, even when it is treated well, that he has personally reached a conclusion that if he had a choice, he would rather be diagnosed as HIV-positive than diabetic. He knows that sounds shocking, but urged me to look at the facts. 'This is from a purely medical point of view. At the moment, people with HIV [who receive treatment] are living as long as somebody without. Someone with diabetes? You lose fifteen years of your life on average,' if you get it as a young adult. And it's not just that you die much earlier. You are far more likely to live with terrible complications, often for years." (p. 61-2)
"Most of the people I knew who were taking these new weight-loss drugs told me that their pleasure in food had plummeted, or even vanished. Food felt, to them, joyless and ulititarian - they ate just because they had to, not because they liked it. Many experts are worried about this. Jerold Mande, the Harvard nutritionist, said...'But the real human pleasure is eating, because you need to make sure you eat every day. So the body had to create a system of pleasure where you would eat every day and not get tired of it...the relationship between food and pleasure is fundamental.' Taking that away is hugely risky, he believes." (p. 137-38)
"When Ozempic pushed me toward eating in a healthier way, I experienced it not as a joyful liberation, but as a frightening and slightly shameful deprivation. I felt like I was being deprived not just of junk food, but of love. I felt, in fact, like I was being punished." (p. 146)
Some quotes I liked:
"We built a food system that poisons us - and then, to keep us away from the avalanche of bad food, we decided to inject ourselves with a different potential poison, one that puts us off all food." (p. xiv)
"The first way that ultra-processed food undermines our satiety is strangely simple. You chew it less. It is, Tim explained, 'generally very soft...It is adult baby food.' When you eat, your body gradually registers that food is coming in and sends you the signal that you've had enough. If you have to chew your food and it takes longer to eat it, the signal to stop kicks in at the right time, when you are sated. But when you don't have to chew - when it all just slips down your gullet with disarming ease - you don't get the signal to stop until you've gone too far and gorged yourself. Chewing, Tim said, is a necessary brake on overeating, and processed food has tampered with the brakes." (p. 39-40)
"If you deliberately want to make an animal fat, you take away what its ancestors ate and give it an ultra-processed and artificially sweetened replica instead. In other words - Big Agriculture does to animals precisely what the processed food industry is going to us and our children every day." (p. 47)
"Something is wrong, he believes, 'any time a society has a problem that everyone acknowledges is heavily based on the environment, and turns increasingly to treating it in a medical way.' It leads us to neglect what is causing the problem in the first place." (p. 49)
"[Dr.] Max [Pemberton] said the effects of diabetes are so severe, even when it is treated well, that he has personally reached a conclusion that if he had a choice, he would rather be diagnosed as HIV-positive than diabetic. He knows that sounds shocking, but urged me to look at the facts. 'This is from a purely medical point of view. At the moment, people with HIV [who receive treatment] are living as long as somebody without. Someone with diabetes? You lose fifteen years of your life on average,' if you get it as a young adult. And it's not just that you die much earlier. You are far more likely to live with terrible complications, often for years." (p. 61-2)
"Most of the people I knew who were taking these new weight-loss drugs told me that their pleasure in food had plummeted, or even vanished. Food felt, to them, joyless and ulititarian - they ate just because they had to, not because they liked it. Many experts are worried about this. Jerold Mande, the Harvard nutritionist, said...'But the real human pleasure is eating, because you need to make sure you eat every day. So the body had to create a system of pleasure where you would eat every day and not get tired of it...the relationship between food and pleasure is fundamental.' Taking that away is hugely risky, he believes." (p. 137-38)
"When Ozempic pushed me toward eating in a healthier way, I experienced it not as a joyful liberation, but as a frightening and slightly shameful deprivation. I felt like I was being deprived not just of junk food, but of love. I felt, in fact, like I was being punished." (p. 146)
The Hummingbird's Gift by Sy Montgomery
Sy Montgomery had the opportunity to help Brenda Sherburn rehabilitate/rescue two baby hummingbirds. Montgomery flew out to Brenda's home in California where Brenda is a dedicated hummingbird rehabilitator. Rescuing baby hummingbirds is a LOT of work they have to be fed every 20 minutes and need a mixture of crushed fruit flies (preferably fresh) and nectar. Brenda has dedicated a number of years to helping hummingbirds both rescuing them and creating a habitat for them on her property. Interspersed with Montgomery's story of helping Brenda with the orphaned baby hummingbirds are facts about hummingbirds. These birds are incredibly fragile but also the most acrobatic birds in existence. There are also some photographs included - both of the orphaned babies Montgomery helps with and other varieties of hummingbirds. It's noted that this book was a chapter in a previous book but I didn't realize that when I checked this one out. I just love Montgomery's writing and realized this was one I hadn't read. I basically read it a day and it probably could have been one sitting. But it a short, sweet story of two baby hummingbirds that were rescued and went on to be released back into the wild.
Soundtrack of Silence: love, loss, and a playlist for life by Matt Hay
I picked up this book because like Matt I grew up in the 80's and have a HUGE love for music. Losing my hearing and never being able to hear live music again is a real fear. So, I was curious about his story. He is a good writer and there is a lot of humor despite the hard situations but sometimes it was hard to read about all the surgeries and botched procedures trying to fix side effects of the surgeries, etc. He admits it but his wife is a SAINT. When they had 3 small kids and both are working and he decides NOW is the time to train for the Ironman triathlon I was like, REALLY?! He does own that that was not his best decision but still. I also can't imagine wanting to add kids to the mix when he was still so limited physically. I guess because I never wanted kids I never felt that huge pull to have them but it was still surprising because that was even MORE work his wife took on. Overall, the book was well written and shined a light on a rare condition that I had never heard of before. But I didn't love it and it was hard reading about so much bad stuff happening to one family.
Some quotes I liked:
"Concerts ranked just below rent and food on our monthly budgets. Whether or not we realized it at the time, we drank in each show with a sense of urgency. These weren't casual live-music experiences. We were imprinting memories onto our collective psyche, moments we could fall back on when the silence finally came." (p. 86)
"Remember that rich kid in first grade who came to school with the giant box of Crayola crayons, all sixty-four colors, with names like burnt sienna and sky blue?...the box of crayons was perfect, a full panoply of everything you could want - mountain meadow, cadet blue, atomic tangerine, neon carrot - the box even had a built-in sharpener. That kid with his crayons is a person with normal hearing. Those of us with NF2 who get an implant have the three-pack of crayons you get with the kids' menu at Applebee's." (p. 153)
The French Ingredient by Jane Bertch
Jane Bertch is working for a bank in London when she has the opportunity to transfer to a position in Paris. She immediately jumps on the opportunity but transitioning to life in Paris is much harder than life in London. Parisians are much more closed off socially and don't like to mix work and personal lives so becoming friends with coworkers isn't really a thing. Jane also has language (she knows French but is not fluent) and cultural barriers of overcome. Thankfully her boss helps her understand French culture and over time she does excel in her job. After losing a close friend and her grandmother Jane starts thinking about leaving banking and doing something completely different. She decides to open a cooking school with classes in both French and English and catered more to tourists who want to do more on their Paris vacation. Opening a business in another country is a huge challenge but La Cuisine defies the odds and becomes successful - surviving several calamities like the Iceland volcano eruption of 2010, a terrorist attack on Paris, and COVID. Jane does a great job throughout the book of explaining all the cultural differences between American and French culture and how she managed to navigate all that in both her personal and professional life.
While I did mostly like the book there were several issues I noticed. How did she quit her job and manage to open this business?! She's not a French citizen so I assume she had a work visa that would have ended when she quit her job. Also, the money. I don't need detailed chapters on the finances but I doubt any of this was cheap. She and Olivier start out dating and seem to open La Cuisine together but that's not super clear either and then their break up is just briefly mentioned but he's still her business partner. Did he quit his job when she did? I have a lot of questions about that. I also could have done without 3 chapters on COVID at the end. Overall, I liked the first half to two-thirds better than the end. I feel like there was important stuff left out and too much COVID in the last third of the book.
While I did mostly like the book there were several issues I noticed. How did she quit her job and manage to open this business?! She's not a French citizen so I assume she had a work visa that would have ended when she quit her job. Also, the money. I don't need detailed chapters on the finances but I doubt any of this was cheap. She and Olivier start out dating and seem to open La Cuisine together but that's not super clear either and then their break up is just briefly mentioned but he's still her business partner. Did he quit his job when she did? I have a lot of questions about that. I also could have done without 3 chapters on COVID at the end. Overall, I liked the first half to two-thirds better than the end. I feel like there was important stuff left out and too much COVID in the last third of the book.
