The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Empathy, charity, and math! I read this because it was on Nebraska's Golden Sower list for middle grades and my son selected it to read. This was a good book about a student with a very different perspective of the world making friends with other very unique characters. The kids are also trying to change the world for the better so there are a lot of positive things in the book. And I love books about a love for math though admittedly I have not read enough of these. I will rectify that soon.

James's Review (age 9): 

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

 I loved this book! I thought all the things that happened to lightning girl because of the strike were so cool and creative. I liked how each character had a completely different personality. I loved relationships and conflict to characters. Spoiler Alert! I thought it was a fun plot twist when she fell in love with a dog named "Pi" as the math term, while doing her cougars care project. 

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Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is really good. Much like Stacey Abrams is a jack-of-all-trades this book cannot be fit into one neat category: it's part political memoir, of course, part self-help business book, part antiracism book, part you-should-just-read-it-okay? As I learned more and more about Abrams I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin. She's a renaissance woman! We're too often discouraged from this wide approach to knowledge and career to the detriment of current society, I think.

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“Never tell yourself no. Let someone else do it.”

“What’s not right is giving credence to bad actions, and thereby becoming complicit.”

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is more of a book about cleaning your own emotional house and doesn't really at all address structural inequality. It rejects the idea of persuasiveness and instead counts on readers who pick up this book being completely dedicated to the cause already, and so it might be effective for a pretty limited audience. I found some interesting new perspectives in it.

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Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely an enjoyable read. Focuses on the different perspectives of members of a fictional 70's bad, and I love the subtle ways the members contradict each other while still definitely living in the same reality. Instead of actually actively contradicting each other you start to sense that all the characters are right in their own way.

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Raising Trump by Ivana Trump

Raising Trump by Ivana Trump
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is more of an autobiography of Ivana Trump with a special focus on her children (and written contributions from Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric). She’s had an interesting life and her book is very readable. There’s barely a bad word about Donald Trump and that’s just as well, because despite picking this book, I am sick of reading about him. It was an accidental break from him.

I don’t buy it though. 1) She claims Donald wasn't particularly rich when she married him. Compared to what? He paid the tab for her entire table of models, right? And we all know he inherited all of his wealth from his father and made investments that only cost him money. 2) Also, hard work is nice, but what about all the hard-working employees Trump failed to pay? 3) I'm glad that she feels she worked hard at the family business but who was going to tell her otherwise if she was slacking? How would she have qualified for such a job in the first place if it wasn't the family business? 4) But okay, supposing she did work hard, if you happen to be at the intersection of hard work and good luck it’s easy to say that hard work got you where you are. But what about all the many people who work just as hard for their whole lives and don’t get a fraction of the pie? To overlook them or to purposely look away is to miss the entire story.

I don’t buy her biased view of her children, here they are supporting the worst administration in my lifetime so I snorted reading about her children’s charities when Donald Trump stole money from his and Eric resigned from his for reasons that are unclear to me from news stories.

It's my experience that people that struggle in communist regimes tend to over-value ambition and the accumulation of money precisely because their lack of political freedom was tied to a lack of economic freedom. I despise tyranny, and I am not advocating laziness, but I think the helping professions are of greater spiritual value than those in which the only focus is the accumulation of wealth. And when the accumulation of wealth results in active harm to employees (such as those Donald did not pay) it is an evil.

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After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was a cute story about a troubled marriage which makes no sense I guess but there you have it.

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Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an excruciatingly sad book and I seriously cried almost all the way through it. The strange part was that I still really liked it. Taylor Jenkins Reid really captured the pain and peculiar thoughts of grief.

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Melania and Me by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a good primer on what happens when you try to befriend the devil or the devil's "sweet" wife. But this doesn't just apply to the Trumps or evil people in politics more generally, I think it's a pretty good breakdown on how and why you can't expect to successfully deal with people who break rules, laws, take advantage of others, or lack basic empathy.

It's also an excellent reminder of why it's important not to sign non-disclosure agreements, though frankly, I have signed one myself. Often, when people are confronted with such agreements they are tied to money and the signee feels that they don't have a choice of whether or not to sign. But if you don't absolutely have to sign one, do not sign!

Also, I find am very suspicious of Maggie Haberman's journalism now.

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The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart

The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life by Julie Bogart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It had some good ideas and some good frames for thinking about motivating kids. But it felt a bit fluffy and a little disorganized/repetitive. I preferred some of the parenting advice over the actual homeschool advice though I was reading it to learn more about homeschooling (through Covid).

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Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Villette by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved it but I'm traumatized by the feeling that Charlotte Bronte does not like Lucy Snow. In contrast, I love Lucy Snow with all her little stiff curmudgeonly ways. So what does that say about me? And what does that say about whether I would like Charlotte Bronte, that I side with her fictional antihero over her?

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The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this story, just loved the magic and the sorrow and the hope-- it's strangely very 2020 despite being written some years ago. Beautiful writing about love. I recommend it for adults and children alike. And high praise- the story reminds me a bit of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series.

But (I am so harsh but) so much of the story depended on the old- no one told anyone anything trope.

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The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was tough getting into it because there were a lot of characters introduced in the first few pages, but once I got past the first few chapters it was a lovely story. The characters are unique and reasonably well-developed for a kid's book, and the story involved everything from following the rules, being polite, and kids recognizing that the adults are also complicated people.

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Cottontail Rabbits by Christina Leighton

Cottontail Rabbits by Christina Leighton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is very difficult to get but short and informative. I read it because James is doing a report in his 4th-grade class.

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The End of Everything by Katie Mack

The End of Everything by Katie Mack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I enjoyed this book though it was a bit uneven- slow and somewhat difficult in parts and very engaging in other parts . At times it felt like more of a philosophy book which is something I particularly enjoyed. Definitely not a good place to start if you haven't read layman physics books before. (I'd recommend starting with Brian Green and Stephen Hawkins.) But this is a nice addition of you have a general understanding of the basics.

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Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison

Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating by Christy Harrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the one hand, yes, (1) I see all her social justice points. Very well done. (2) I agree with the culture being a diet-culture complete mess. (3) I agree it helps the diet industry. (4) I agree it's a life-thief. I'm definitely glad I read the book.

On the other hand, (1) I'm not 100% convinced about the health benefits or drawbacks to her position. Even if I take her point that the research is unclear, well, it's still unclear. When I was pregnant with my first child I was very heavy and that was no fun at all. It was tough going up the stairs. I don't relish ever returning to that number on the scale because it had consequences even though I was "healthy" because my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing- growing a human life and building up fat to feed the baby. (2) My personal experience with long periods of intuitive eating is that I just gain and gain weight and never plateau. I don't think I'm alone in this. (3) My only periods of weight maintenance have been while I am dieting. And my current diet doesn't benefit the diet industry because while I don't deny myself any foods I do try to eat more fruits and veggies and eat in a certain time frame. It doesn't cost more money because eating less food and less food at restaurants is costing me less money. Finally, (4) let's not pretend that her position doesn't benefit the food industry. As a former employee of the food industry, this is the exact kind of book they would love to champion. For an obvious example, soda is trash food. Sure you can have it as an occasional treat; nothing really needs to be off the menu. But if you're having soda every day, I promise you that's harming your health. There are a million studies about this.

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HI1...

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Deadly Companions by Dorothy H. Crawford

Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History by Dorothy H. Crawford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good overview of all the big pandemics plus a bonus chapter about the potato blight in Ireland. This would be a good first book if you’re interested in this topic but if you’ve already read some on this topic you won’t find anything enlightening or entertaining in this one.

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The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack

The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because my book tastes have been adapting to the ridiculous number of books I consume, these days I'm surprised whenever I like a book that isn't literary. I liked it! It was fun! It was decently written! There were no ridiculous plot holes! It's even a book that might continue to interest me in a reread. This is a good start from Womack.

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Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this even though I typically don’t enjoy whatever genre this is: romance, women’s lit, whatever. I liked all the characters and their friendships and their little struggles. I also live in Nebraska and have become obsessed with local news this year, and the characters work at a local Nebraska newspaper.

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The Vagina Bible by Jennifer Gunter

The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth from the Medicine by Jennifer Gunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a reference book, not an interesting nonfiction book after the first third or so. It's a good reference book but I'm a little annoyed I read the whole thing.

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Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is mostly about the Trump family more than Donald Trump specifically. Definitely interesting and terribly sad- mostly for all the people the Trump family ripped off. Of course, saddest of all is the 160,000 dead Americans and counting.

The final section where she opines on the Trump presidency is skippable, as it just an obvious statement of what a complete failure and human tragedy his presidency has been.

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