What Am I Reading?

Single in Buenos Aires by Roxana Valea

“Forty-one-year-old polo player Roxy arrives in Argentina with a to-do list that includes healing from a polo injury and falling in love with a handsome Argentine. From polo boots to tango shoes, the adrenaline of riding horses to glamorous after-game parties, Roxy learns to navigate this unfamiliar landscape with the help of new friends who teach her to take life as it comes. But will she find true love? Over three months in Buenos Aires, nothing goes according to plan, and yet, all the items on her list mysteriously get ticked off in the end. Just not the way she had imagined.”

I’m reading this for a book tour.  That’s always worrisome for me.  I’m so picky that I don’t know if I’m going to like something or not.  But I started this on Sunday and so far so good.

I’m still listening to this one.  I think it is about 19 hours long.  I need to take breaks with it.  It is the kind of audiobook where I know I’m going to love it when I start listening but sometimes it is hard to make myself push play.  It is deep and rich and textured and has many, many things going on.  Sometimes I just want my brain to have a break while driving.  I absolutely recommend it though.  I’m about halfway through and things are starting to come together – maybe?

December 2019 Wrap Up

I read 13 books  in December.

The books I read were:

•  I didn’t finish any audiobooks
  
• Set in the U.S., England, and India
  

What was my favorite?

This whole series was good.  All of the women are involved in something scandalous. 

Sign-up info

I did it!  I finished the challenge.  I didn’t finish the books that I thought I would but I made it with room to spare.

What I’ve read so far in 2019:

• Righteous by Joe Ide
• Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
• The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero
• North by Scott and Jenny Jurek
• Internment by Samira Ahmed
• Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
• Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
• Bury What We Cannot Take by Jean Kwok
• Instant Indian by Rinku Bhattacharya
• The True Queen by Zen Cho
• Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
• A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
• Spices and Seasons by Rinku Bhattacharya
• Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
• A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai
• Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung
• What the Eyes Don’t See by Mona Hanna-Attisha
• Proof of Seduction by Courtney Milan
• Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan
• The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

I was aiming for 21-30 books to be at the tapir level.  22/21!

From My Shelf

I’m adding a section to encourage me to read books that I’ve had sitting around for a long time.

This just came out so it hasn’t been sitting around for a long time.  But, I preordered it and it came and I didn’t pick it up immediately.  That tends to be the kiss of death and means I never get around to reading it.  So I made sure to read this one this month.  

My goal book for this was Pachinko.  I tried. I really did. I’m probably about 90% done but it is a slog.

Reading All Around the World challenge from Howling Frog Books

• Read a nonfiction book about the country – or
• Read fiction written by a native of the country or someone living for a long time in the country.

Nothing new this month

What Am I Reading?

I’ve been on an all romance all the time reading spree.  I always find those hard to read about especially when I’m reading series. “Yep, same author. Nope, can’t talk plot because it is spoilers for the last 5 books.”

Here are my current non romance reads.

“Known in health care circles for his ability to turn around ailing hospitals, Dr. David Shulkin was originally brought into government by President Obama to save the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs. When President Trump appointed him as secretary of the VA, Shulkin was as shocked as anyone.
Yet this surprise was trivial compared to what Shulkin encountered as secretary: a team of political appointees devoted to stopping anyone — including the secretary himself — who stood in the way of privatizing the agency and implementing their political agenda. In this uninhibited memoir, Shulkin opens up about why the government has long struggled to provide good medical care to military veterans and the plan he had to solve these problems. This is a book about the commitment we make to the men and women who risk their lives fighting for our country, how the VA was finally beginning to live up to it, and why the new administration may now be taking us in the wrong direction.”

I bought this book for my husband since he has a lot of opinions on the VA.  He finished it and I’m going to read it before we talk about it.

I’m not going to put the blurb about this audiobook. I went into it blind. I knew I loved The Night Circus so I just decided to trust the author and listen. I think that was the right choice. I’m not all the far in but I’m loving the confusion that came from starting with no idea what was going on.

What Am I Reading?

I’m at a bit of a loss right now for what to read after Nonfiction November.  That gives such structure to my reading life.  Now it is a free-for-all again!

I do have a few books to read to finish up my Asian authors challenge.  I want to read Pachinko and The Queen of the Night this month.  Can you believe that I got Pachinko as an ARC before it blew up all over the book world and I still haven’t read it?

“In the bestselling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.”

Bill Bryson is an autobuy author for me. I’m currently listening to The Body. I started it and then left it for a bit because it was a little too basic in the beginning.  I guess I have to expect that since I’ve been to doctor school.  But once it started to get into a bit more detail he is throwing in fun facts that are new to me.  I also always love the way he choses to phrases things. 

I think this is a good book for people who don’t have a lot of medical knowledge.  I’m always amazed at how much people don’t know.  I’ll be trying to talk to people about their animals and have to slow down to discuss very basic things about how bodies work before I can get into what’s gone wrong.  Just the fact that I have a standard “Boys have nipples” speech that I have given to many men and women says it all.

November 2019 Wrap Up

I read  15 books  in November.  It was Nonfiction November so here are the nonfiction books I read.

Towards the end of the month some fiction started slipping in there too.

The books I read were:

•  2 audiobooks
  
• Set in the U.S., England, and China
  

What were my favorites?

Sign-up info

Despite believing it all the way through the book, Adharanand Finn is not an Indian man.  He is the child of white British hippies who gave their kids Sanskrit names.  I was listening to the audiobook and was quite confused when I saw a picture of a white guy when I logged it on Goodreads.  

What I’ve read so far in 2019:

• Righteous by Joe Ide
• Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
• The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero
• North by Scott and Jenny Jurek
• Internment by Samira Ahmed
• Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder
• Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
• Bury What We Cannot Take by Jean Kwok
• Instant Indian by Rinku Bhattacharya
• The True Queen by Zen Cho
• Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
• A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
• Spices and Seasons by Rinku Bhattacharya
• Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
• A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai
• Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung
• What the Eyes Don’t See by Mona Hanna-Attisha

I’m aiming for 21-30 books to be at the tapir level.  19/21 so far.  Only 1 month left.  I can do this!

Reading All Around the World challenge from Howling Frog Books

• Read a nonfiction book about the country – or
• Read fiction written by a native of the country or someone living for a long time in the country.

Nothing new this month

Nonfiction November – Be the Expert

Week 3: (Nov. 11 to 15) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Katie at Doing Dewey): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert)

This week I’m recommending memoirs of people with disabilities. I’ve learned a lot about what needs to be done to make the world more accessible for everyone by reading these books.

If at Birth You Don’t Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny by Zach Anner

“Comedian Zach Anner opens his frank and devilishly funny book, If at Birth You Don’t Succeed, with an admission: he botched his own birth. Two months early, underweight and under-prepared for life, he entered the world with cerebral palsy and an uncertain future. So how did this hairless mole-rat of a boy blossom into a viral internet sensation who’s hosted two travel shows, impressed Oprah, driven the Mars Rover, and inspired a John Mayer song? (It wasn’t Your Body is a Wonderland.)

Zach lives by the mantra: when life gives you wheelchair, make lemonade. Whether recounting a valiant childhood attempt to woo Cindy Crawford, encounters with zealous faith healers, or the time he crapped his pants mere feet from Dr. Phil, Zach shares his fumbles with unflinching honesty and characteristic charm. By his thirtieth birthday, Zach had grown into an adult with a career in entertainment, millions of fans, a loving family, and friends who would literally carry him up mountains.”

I loved this book. I absolutely recommend it on audiobook which is read by the author.

To get an idea of Zach’s personality and see why this is such a fun book, watch my favorite video of his: The Quest for the Rainbow Bagel

My review

Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey with an Exceptional Labrador by Stephen Kuusisto

“At the age of thirty-eight, Stephen Kuusisto—who has managed his whole life without one—gets his first guide dog, a beautiful yellow labrador named Corky. Theirs is a partnership of movement, mutual self-interest, and wanderlust. Walking with Corky in Manhattan for the first time, Steve discovers he’s “living the chaos of joy—you’re in love with your surroundings, loving a barefoot mind, wild to go anyplace.”

Have Dog, Will Travel is the inside story of how a person establishes trust with a dog, how a guide dog is trained. Corky absolutely transforms Steve’s life and his way of being in the world. Profound and deeply moving, theirs is a spiritual journey, during which Steve discovers that joy with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind. Guaranteed to make you laugh—and cry—this beautiful reflection on the highs, lows, and everyday details that make up life with a guide dog provides a profound exploration of Stephen’s lifelong struggle with disability, identity, and the midlife events that lead to self-acceptance.”

The thing that amazed me about this book is that the author was raised believing that he needed to hide the fact that he was blind. He traveled, graduated from college, and became a professor without ever really acknowledging it. People around him thought his level of visual impairment was on the level of “needs very thick glasses” when it really was “legally blind so I really, really shouldn’t be driving this motorbike right now.” Deciding to live openly as a blind person was a major life adjustment for him. His family was not supportive. This book explains a lot about learning cane skills in order to navigate and how you need mastery of those skills in order to work with a dog.

My review

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

“Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn’t see, and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents’ harrowing experiences during Eritrea’s thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. She explored numerous fascinating places, including Mali, where she helped build a school under the scorching Saharan sun. Her many adventures over the years range from the hair-raising to the hilarious.

Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.”

This is another book that highlights what is possible with technology, a supportive community, and a determined attitude.

My review

Do you have any other recommendations for books I should read?

Nonfiction November – Book Pairing

Week 2: (Nov. 4 to 8) –  Sarah’s Bookshelves is back to host – Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

If you loved:

“Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts, into space. Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War and the women’s rights movement, ‘Hidden Figures’ interweaves a rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.”

I think by this time most people are familiar with the story from either the book or the movie. (The book is totally better of course!) If you haven’t read it yet, you really should.

Then read this fiction series where the computers fight to go to space:

“On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.”

Elma is a Jewish woman who is just as qualified, if not more so, than the men who are signing up to become astronauts. She was a math prodigy who is assigned to work as a computer to do the calculations for space flight. She starts to push for the inclusion of women in the space program. They have to go if there are going to be colonies in space. This doesn’t sit well with some of the male powers-that-be.

Elma has her own blind spots too. One of the strengths of the series is that they are confronted. She routinely forgets about African-American female pilots who are also as qualified. She is pushed ahead of Asian and Latina pilots in order to project the image that the U.S. space program wants. The books do a good job of creating a world of the 1950s and 60s where necessity pushed technological advancement forward but racial and social justice stayed static.

“The Fated Sky continued the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon. Elma York, the noted Lady Astronaut, is working on rotation, flying shuttles on the moon and returning regularly to Earth.
But humanity must get a foothold on Mars. The first exploratory mission is being planned, and none of the women astronauts is on the crew list. The international Aerospace Coalition has grave reservations about sending their “Lady Astronauts” on such a dangerous mission. The problem with that is the need for midjourney navigation calculations. The new electronic computation machines are not reliable and not easily programmed. It might be okay for a backup, but there will have to be a human computer on board. And all the computers are women.”