March 2020 Reviews

 

Martha Stewart's Organizing by Martha Stewart

I'm always a little leery of Martha Stewart stuff because she can come across as condescending and elitist, but I did enjoy this book. It's divided into three categories - organize your year, organize your home, and organize your routine. Organize your year helps organize your calendar with tips and ideas for each month. Each month includes any holiday that falls that month, but also some cooking/baking ideas, and housekeeping tasks like cleaning all your windows, or deep cleaning your oven. I liked this section the best and actually wrote down some of the ideas for each month to try incorporate more seasonal cleaning/household type things into my calendar. Organize your home goes room by room with tips for organization, cleaning, storage, etc. Organize your routine gives tips on how to better accomplish everyday/regular tasks like laundry, cleaning, yard work, cooking, etc. There are a LOT of good ideas and lots of beautiful photos as well. Overall, a unique look at organizing beyond just "stuff" and more of organizing aspects of your life.

The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton

When Axton Betz-Hamilton was eleven-years-old her parents identity was stolen. This was before the internet made this type of fraud easier, so they had little help from the authorities. They did what they could by getting a PO Box to make it harder for someone to steal their mail, but anxiety and money troubles plagued all three of them. Axton grew up learning not to ask for much because it would result in an argument between her parents about money. Because they didn't know who the identity theft was they cut off almost everyone from their lives. When Axton went to college she found out that she too has also been a victim of the identity theif and had tens of thousands of dollars of debt already in her name. Because of this she ended up going all the way to a PhD with her dissertation being about childhood victims of identity theft and becoming an expert in the newly emerging field of identity theft. After her mother passed away the identity of the identity theft is revealed and it completely rocks Axton's world. Then she's on a mission to find out everything she can about the thief hoping it will help her understand why all this happened. Meanwhile she and her father are still trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on after her mother's death. A fast-paced story that reads more like a whodunit novel than non-fiction, this is a heart-breaking, but hopeful read about how to move beyond a painful childhood even when you don't have all the answers.

There were a lot of mixed reviews of this book, but I LOVED it. Without giving anything away, I felt like it was pretty obvious who the identity thief was from the beginning, but even more secrets are uncovered at the end. Some of the complaints in reviews were that this book should have been less about identity theft and more about mental illness, but I disagree. The book is from Axton's perspective and it wasn't until she uncovered who the thief was that she began to see how abnormal her childhood was and how mental illness came into play. And identity theft became Axton's career because of what happened in her childhood, so to me it makes sense that that was the focus of the book.

Some quotes I liked:

"'The less people know about us, the better' was my mother's refrain. My father parroted it often. This wasn't a completely new phenomenon...In the years prior to the identity theft, when we still used to go to parties at their friends' houses, Mom would instruct me to 'act like you belong here.' Belonging somewhere in rural Indiana meant being a happy family with a pristine farm. And so the hayfields on the south side of the house were neatly manicured, and when mowing the grass became by responsibility, Dad used to walk me around the yard afterward to personally demonstrate all the spots I had missed...Even during the full onslaught of the crimes committed against us, I was coached to report how great everything was going...All of it was an elaborate illusion, a magic trick we never stopped perfecting. On the outside, our lives looked solid and well put together, but on the inside, everything was falling apart. Everything including me." (p. 83-85)

"This obsession with appearances ran deep and began well before the identity theft. My mother had struggled with her weight as long as I could remember. Once, when I was in first or second grade, I came home crying because the kids at school had called me fat. Instead of comforting me, or telling me that I wasn't fat (and in fact, quite scrawny), she said that, unfortunately, there was little to be done about it. 'Eventually you will be,' she declared, 'big like me.' After years of watching my mom try diets and take Dexatrim and argue with my father over her eating habits, this proclamation terrified me." (p. 85)

"Sometimes when I think about what I have lost, I rage against the unfairness of it all. In many ways the financial impact of my family's identity theft was the least of the damage. You can rebuild your credit; you cannot rebuild your childhood." (p. 301)

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Books & Banter book club)

Leonie is a drug addict who has two children with her boyfriend Michael. Michael is currently in prison, but when he finds out he is getting out Leonie decides to take their two children (and her friend Misty who she gets high with) to meet him. Their epic road trip turns out to be full of ghosts, illness, almost-overdoses, and drama. At Parchman, the prison where Michael was, the ghost of Richie (who has ties to Leonie's father, River) comes back with them hoping to find peace with River. The story is narrated by Jojo, Leonie's thirteen-year-old son, Leonie, and Richie. And while all this is going on Leonie's mother, who has basically been raising her grandchildren their whole lives, is dying of cancer. So, this is real uplifting, good-time story, right?!

This book has won so many awards, but I honestly have no idea why. Many of the reviews I read talked about how beautifully it was written, but I didn't see that AT ALL. I don't mind reading hard books like The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, but even in those there was some semblance of hope. I didn't love Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, but it WAS beautifully written even if I didn't love the characters or storyline. But, I don't get anything remotely positive or beautiful about this book's writing, characters, or storyline. It's like a bad TV movie version of Intervention, but without the actual intervention or hopeful ending. Ugh. At least this one was short and a quick, but deeply depressing read.

The Way Through the Woods: overcoming grief through nature by Long Litt Woon

When Long Litt Woon's husband, Eiolf, unexpectedly passed away she worked through her grief in an unusual way - she became a mushroom forager. She took a mushrooms for beginners course that was offered in Oslo and after that first class she found herself inexplicably drawn to the world of mushrooms and foraging. Such was her interest that she ended up taking an exam to become a mushroom inspector, something only Norway offers its citizens. She also travels all over the world to mushroom festivals and conferences and even organizes a sensory panel to try to more thoroughly describe the smells of various mushrooms to make it easier for novices to identify their finds. Throughout her mushroom journey Long finds that it gives her both a purpose and a distraction from her husband's death. Each chapter describes part of her mushroom journey and also a few sections about coping with her grief. My only (small) complaint is that the descriptions of her grief often seemed just kind of stuck in the chapters, but maybe it feels that way since it was translated and not originally written in English. But, overall I did appreciate her story and all of the information about mushrooms and foraging was fascinating.

A quote I liked:

"Slowly but surely, as time went on, the pattern of my days began to change. This new life gradually began to blossom. Mushroom outings gave me the push I needed to get out of the house and take part in life, instead of staying immersed in grief within its four walls. They also allowed me to get to know people in the mushroom community, who made me feel welcome on their outings...There are so many hours in the day that have to be filled when someone very close to us passes away. No wonder people talk about a vacuum after someone dies. For me, these forays into the fungi kingdom became a way of spending this unwelcome spare time." (p. 62-3)

News of the World by Paulette Jiles (Evening Edition book club, re-read)

After the Civil War Captain Jefferson Kidd rides from small town to small town reading the News of the World from various newspapers. He's lived through three wars, is widowed, and enjoys the freedom of not being tied down in his old age. While at one of his stops he is offered a fifty-dollar gold piece to bring a rescued white child back to her family. Johanna Leonberger's parents and younger sister were killed by Kiowa raiders and she was kidnapped and lived with them for 4 years. She is now 10 years old, does not speak English, and doesn't want to leave her Kiowa family. The Captain agrees to take her against his better judgement, but while traveling across the wild Texas territory the two form a unique bond. Once they reach her extended family outside San Antonio the Captain has to make a terrible choice that will ultimately change both he and Johanna's lives forever. This is a short, but fantastic book with two very memorable characters and would make a great movie! Definitely worth reading!

Updated review after 2nd reading:

Re-reading this book was even more enjoyable the second time. There were scenes I didn't remember, but overall I was able to read it a little more slowly because I knew the ending so I wasn't rushing to find out what happens. I still got choked up at the very end. I just LOVE Captain Kidd and Johanna and now to find out there will be a movie later this year is even better!

Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood 

Ann Hood grew up in an Italian-American household where her grandmother lived with them and cooked all their meals. Her parents cooked some as well, but somehow in a family that loved food and cooking Ann never learned to cook until she was an adult. Once on her own she cooked for comfort or in celebration or as a way to show love to her friends and family. Once she had children she made sure they were with her in the kitchen helping and learning like she didn't get to in her own childhood. In this collection of essays Hood writes about all the ways food has shaped her life. Each essay ends with a recipe (or 3) that were discussed in that essay. Hood is an excellent writer and having read some of her books in the past I remembered how much I enjoy reading her. This collection of essays will definitely inspire you to get into your own kitchen and either try something new or re-create a family favorite.

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

Emmaline lives an idyllic childhood with her father on a remote island. They forage for food, grow a garden, chop wood, and enjoy exploring together. Emmaline's father has a huge wall of drawers where he keeps glass jars of scents that he makes with a scent capturing machine. But, as Emmaline gets older she has more questions that he father won't answer - where is her mother? how did they get to this island? why are the boxes that wash up on shore always full of exactly what they need? When Emmaline starts to find out some of the truth behind her questions she unintentionally betrays her father and is suddenly out in "the real world" away from her childhood island. Now she must dig deep to find out the answers to more of her questions and along the way she starts to discover who she really is and how she can still honor her father's work.

When I first started this book I was really hoping it wasn't going to go the Orphan Island route because it seemed kind of a bizarre premise. But, in the second section you definitely get more answers and it starts to make a little more (realistic) sense. I did feel like the ending was pretty lacking. I would have at least liked an afterward or something. I also was almost certain that Emmaline was going to end up pregnant in the second section and how she didn't is some magical realism right there. Overall, the story was fast-paced and I wanted to know what happened. But, I didn't love it and unless the author is setting us up for a sequel I would have liked more from the ending.

Smarter Living: work, invest, nest, relate, thrive by Karen Barrow, Tim Herrera, Karron Skog and The New York Times

Smarter Living is the advice section of The New York Times and this book is a collection of those articles divided into five sections - Work, Nest, Invest, Relate, and Thrive. Each article within the sections is relatively short and covers a specific topic. Regardless of your job or stage of life you should be able to find several articles that are helpful. There were several articles in each section that I learned something or got something out of it. But, there was one article in the Nest section that I very much disagreed with. The article is "Eight, Cheap, Landlord-Friendly Ways to Upgrade Your Rental." As a landlord I would be VERY unhappy if any of my tenants did some of the suggested things - install new cabinet handles, upgrade the lighting, swap out the faucet, replace the toilet (WTF why would you do that?!). We had a tenant change out light fixtures without asking and while she did put back our original lighting when she moved out that is something that could cause an electrical fire if not done properly. Same with changing a toilet if you don't know what you're doing you could really do some damage. I understand you might not like every detail of a rental, but maybe let that motivate you to save up for your own place instead of making huge changes to a house that is not yours. I was so mad after I read that article! Overall though I did like this book. It's a quick read with lots of great tips and ideas that could make your life better.

On the Clock: what low-wage work did to me and how it drives American insane by Emily Guendelsberger

When the newspaper Emily Guendelsberger worked for closed she decided to work on a book about low-wage work and decided to do it through her own experience. She worked at an Amazon fulfillment center in Louisville, Kentucky, Convergys, a call-center in Hickory, North Carolina, and a McDonald's in San Francisco, California. In each position Emily is worked to her absolute physical, mental, and emotional limit. The book alternates between her personal experiences in each job and the history of employment in the United States and how employees have gone from being the most expensive element of production to the cheapest (and most replaceable). She also covers how working these kinds of jobs take such a heavy toll on a person and how often people cope in very unhealthy ways. On the Clock is kind of a modern Nickel and Dimed with the focus more on the toll this kind of work takes on the worker and not quite as much on how impossible it is to support yourself and a family in one of these jobs. Emily does an amazing job with this book and gives an insiders look at some of the most common jobs around today. And I'll be honest after reading this book and Nomadland it's making me rethink using Amazon. I would highly recommend this one.

There were a LOT of quotes I liked:

"I did plenty of research beforehand, and I'd heard crazy things about how stressful each job would be - each in its own special way, like Tolstoy's unhappy families. But at each of them, technology made it impossible to escape the weeds. And every time, my thorough research totally failed to prepare me for how dehumanizing the job felt. (p. 11)

"Actually, Amazon's early supply-chain and warehousing systems were designed by a former Walmart executive - one of so many high-level execs Amazon poached that Walmart sued, demanding that Amazon 'stop targeting Wal-Mart associates and vendors in an effort to duplicate proprietary business systems.'" (p. 24)

"Nearly every drop of 'brain work' has been wrung out of this job, like so many others. Cashiers used to have to be able to do math in their heads to give people change; today, many registers automatically dispense the appropriate coins. Call-center workers rely on elaborate scripts instead of understanding the systems they work within. London's taxi drivers, who once had to study for years to pass the Knowledge, are being displaced by Uber drivers with GPS maps. As more and more skill is stripped out of a job, the cost of turnover falls; eventually, training an ever-churning influx of new unskilled workers becomes less expensive than incentivizing people to stay by improving the experience of work or paying more." (p. 76-77)

"A good rule of thumb: the more interest management take in workers' use of the bathroom, the more that job is going to suck. And I could easily fill the next twenty pages with unbelievable stories just about call-center bathrooms." (p. 123)

"There's a lot of talk about the decline of the American family in certain circles, and I don't think it's unfounded. Family is powerful: it motivates us, and it ties us down. It's the strongest force in most people's lives. But a lot of this talk blames the decline of family on weird stuff - gay marriage, women in the workplace, video games, Frozen, sluts, lizard people, Miley Cyrus. After my experiences in the low-wage sector, I have no doubt whatsoever: the way we work in America is crippling family life. So, so many working parents I met in the course of writing this book sacrificed their relationships with each other for the sake of their kids [often purposely working opposite shifts so someone was home with the kids]." (p. 193)

Henry Ford quote about the repetitive labor of his assembly line jobs, "Repetitive labour - the doing of one thing over and over again and always in the same way - is a terrifying prospect to a certain kind of mind. It is terrifying to me. I could not possibly do the same thing day in and day out, but to other minds, perhaps I might say to the majority of minds, repetitive operations hold no terrors." (p. 200)

"The entrance to the nearby BART stop is crowded with a dozen homeless people, so many that it's actually hard to get down the stairs. None of them bothers to ask me for money, because, as I've been fascinated to discover, my McDonald's uniform is like an invisibility cloak when it comes to panhandlers. The whole time I work here, exactly one guy hits me up while I'm in uniform - and I don't really count him, because his 'Hey, spare a cheeseburger?' was clearly meant to make me laugh." (p. 254)

[In dealing with rude customers who often throw food or condiments at staff] "So I wise up. I become less sympathetic and more skeptical about customer problems - and it works. I get better at shaking off unpleasant customers like Mustard Lady. I get harder and more pragmatic, like my coworkers...Like a robot. But empathy is a two-sided coin. The shield protects me from screamers, but it also appears to filter out any satisfaction I used to get from making people happy. Without that, and without much opportunity to form friendships with coworkers, my shifts become hour after hour of mechanical movement at top speed, saying the same words and performing the same motions over and over and over. I start really dreading my shifts." (p. 278)

"But trauma isn't the best method of creating a model of depression. All you have to do is remove control and predictability - the exact things low-wage workers have been forced to sacrifice in the name of corporate efficiency and flexibility. Is it any surprise that it feels like the country's losing its collective mind? It would be more surprising if we weren't. (p. 281)

"In the 1970's, Japan coined a new word - karoshi, meaning death by overwork - after businessmen in their thirties and forties started dropping dead from strokes, heart attacks, and suicide after working twenty-hour days for months at a time. Giving the phenomenon a name, starting to measure it, and imposing a nontrivial punishment on the companies driving it were the first steps in keeping karoshi from getting out of hand. There's now words for karoshi in Mandarin, Korean, and other Asian languages, though today they're mostly applied to blue-collar factory workers, not well-paid businessmen. But there's still no word for it in English, even as stress-related illnesses become an even bigger health crisis than cigarettes. Until we recognize this, name it, measure it, and talk about it, things aren't going to get better." (p. 310-11)

Girl on the Block by Jessica Wragg

When Jessica Wragg was 16 she got a job in a local farm store. While she was hired to work the register in the butcher area, she became interested in learning to work as a butcher after seeing the butchers at work. Because she was young and a woman she had a hard time getting the butchers to teach her anything, but eventually she did learn how to do some actual butchering. In college she worked part time at a more well-known butcher shop in London and eventually went on to work in marketing for an up-and-coming butcher shop. While parts of her story were interesting, there was a LOT of sexual harassment and really terrible work environments literally everywhere she worked in this book. I know it's often harder for women to be taken seriously in commercial kitchens and in butcher shops, but her experiences make me wonder why she even kept going in that field. The last chapter was more about drama with her boyfriend than anything else. She did give some information about meat and butchery between chapters, but overall it was just OK. Thankfully it was a pretty quick read.

A quote I did like:

"On average, one pound of industrially farmed chicken costs two dollars, while free-range cost five dollars. One pound of ground beef from intensive farms cost five dollars, while free-range costs almost nine dollars. As consumers, what we see first is the price. And it's easy to understand why we would opt for the cheaper and more convenient option, neatly packaged and ready for us to simply pick up and put in our basket. What we don't see are the larger ethical and environmental implications that go hand in hand with choosing to buy meat that has been reared quickly in a confined space and on a mass scale." (p. 80)

Grow Food for Free by Huw Richards

Even though I'm a semi-experienced gardener I still like to read any new gardening books because you can ALWAYS learn more and will never know everything there is to know about gardening. In Huw Richards book he shows that you don't have to invest a lot of money into creating a successful vegetable garden. He gives a lot of good tips on how to source materials for your garden or even using someone else's yard/garden. He has an entire chapter devoted to creating compost, which is great, but I do wish he would have talked a little more about cheaper ways to get good dirt to start your garden. When we first started our garden we ended up getting not great soil, but have amended it over time with our own compost, but I think that is one of the most challenging things with getting started. He talks about perennial and annual vegetables and herbs. He gives tips on dealing with common pests, how to best invest in your garden as you progress and I really like that the last chapter is Huw's Journal that shows one year of him creating a garden and growing food. Overall, this is a good book to help you get started growing your own food without breaking the bank.

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: one introvert's year of saying yes by Jessica Pan

Jessica Pan is a self-described shintrovert (a shy introvert) who realized that she needed more friends and more real connections in her life. She had friends, but several had moved away and she didn't have anyone local to call for a last minute coffee or event. So, she challenged herself to spend a year saying yes and doing things WAY outside her comfort zone - like stand up comedy and improv. During the year some things work out really well, while others still don't, but she does make several new friend connections that are real and continue after the year of extroversion.

As someone who is also an introvert and would also like to make more friends, I thought I would relate to Pan's story more. But, somehow I just couldn't connect with her. I know she was really trying to push herself, but I don't think you have to do stand up comedy in order to get outside your comfort zone. There were parts that I really liked, but overall it just sort of fell a little flat for me.