Bandage, Sort, and Hustle, Josh Seim

 

Bandage, Sort, and Hustle: Ambulance crews on the front lines of urban suffering by Josh Seim is a book I picked up better to understand my youngest's work.

Started: 11/11/2022
Completed: 1/29/2023
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By:  I cannot remember

Review:

This book did not really help me understand my youngest's work any better.  I've been on ride-alongs and I had a sense of what it was like, but this book did not enrich that.  Instead, it provided a perspective on how ambulances fit in the multi-tiered safety net that the United States has tried to create.  This was eye opening to me as I haven't really pursued a study of how the safety net is "designed."  Recognizing that safety net leverages existing functionality as much as possible, the ambulance does have an odd role.  I know from my youngest's experience that in our county an ambulance has a lot less proactive capabilities then I had assigned it.  Back in the old days, an ambulance could do more, but those roles have been restricted to people with higher training (not just EMTs, but paramedics).  I'm sure that there is a good reason for this.  In addition, there are now tiers of ambulances (Basic Life Service vs. Advanced Life Service vs. Critical Care) that offer progressively more services.  

So, this book does help explain some of the actions of ambulance crews as a response to their environment.  It also helps explain the fee for service model of modern ambulance crews which is new to me (I simply did not know it existed).  This puts a new pressure on ambulance crews to be making money which may explain faster dispatch to more wealthy areas, although that is only obliquely addressed in this book.  All-in-all, this was a worthwhile read, but not what I had expected.

The Obsidian Tower, Melissa Caruso

The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso is the first book in the Rooks and Ruin trilogy

Started: 1/21/2023
Completed: 1/26/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody in particular, but I think I first saw this on Kobo

Review:

I enjoyed the pace and character development in this novel.  The idea that the protagonist can kill someone with a touch isn't so novel, but that someone can be killed simply by touching her is a much more creative angle.  The loneliness of being surrounded by people with whom one cannot interact is well defined here and the meaning of family (who can touch by virtue of their own magical power only) is dramatically augmented.  This is also a save-the-world book, but it is done cleverly and that cleverness explains why a trilogy is possible.  Caruso did a good job of making an alien world come alive and carefully develops concepts so that the reader can reasonably anticipate how things are going to go and be rewarded when the alien environment behaves as expected.  A few things did not go as expected, but those are mostly nits and do not necessarily take away from the book.  One thing that did not go as expected--SPOILER--is that the protagonist did not solve her problems through marriage (every time I thought Caruso would play that card, she didn't).  It was nice, refreshing, and though it was hard to have a main character who suffered so much in so many ways, it was great to enjoy seeing how iron will had to deal with unforgiving reality.  Looking forward to the next one!

Uncounted, Gilda R. Daniels

 

Uncounted:  The crisis of voter suppression in America by Gilda R. Daniels

Started: 1/15/2023
Completed: 1/21/2023
Recommendation: Not Recommended (unless you are unfamiliar with the Jim Crow era)
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a long-form legal brief.  Arguments are repeated ad nauseum.  If one is unfamiliar with the history of voter suppression, particularly in the Jim Crow era, this book has a lot of information.  If one is familiar with it, well, this book has a lot of the information you already know.  I truly do not think that this book identifies a "crisis."  It may, but the argument was not clear.  I think it strongly builds the argument that America was build on voter suppression and it is on-going.  I do not think it builds a case that there is a particular crisis right now.  Maybe the "wrongness" of voter suppression might have been more accurate or "contrary to Chief Justice Roberts' assertion, voter suppression continues."  There really isn't anything new here, there is no real plan to address voter suppression (except to encourage people to come up with creative ideas).  I cannot recommend this book (unless you are wholly unfamiliar with the Jim Crow era).

The Betrayal, Ira Shapiro

 

The Betrayal:  How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans abandoned America by Ira Shaprio

Started: 1/11/2023
Completed: 1/15/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My Wife

Review:

In fairness, this book contains entirely information I already knew.  It is collected, however, in terms of Mitch McConnell.  Shapiro argues eloquently that what is wrong with America is embodied by McConnell.  I agree with him.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Dennis E. Taylor

 

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor is the first book in the Bobiverse Series.

Started: 9/10/2022
Completed: 1/12/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Saw this book in the comments on another book, thought it might be a funny read

Review:

I really enjoyed this book.  It had a good mix of adventure and humor.  Taylor also took on a serious sci-fi issue--what if your brain was put into a computer.  How would that work?  How would you deal with the time loss?  How would you not go insane knowing that everything was truly just a phantom of something that once actually was.  Taylor also went after the Von Neumann approach to interstellar space exploration which I truly love.  There is so much to recommend in this book and I cannot encourage anyone enough to get the audio version where you get to hear all the different voices of Bob.  Really enjoyed it.

Thistlefoot, GennaRose Nethercott

 

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Started: 1/7/2023
Completed: 1/11/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Goodreads

Review:

This is a nice modernization of the Baba Yaga stories.  It sort of provides a way for Baba Yaga to come to the future, but not permanently.  It does raise some good questions for the Yaga clan as a whole.  In addition it introduced the concept of a dybbuk which was new to me and an interesting addition.  I enjoyed the book which amounted to a coming of age story while also trying to be a modern fairy tale.  I have to admit that I found the end unsatisfactory, but that is a me problem, not a Nethercott problem.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women, Carolyn Huynh

 

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh

Started: 1/3/2022
Completed: 1/7/2022
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: A best book of 2022 list

Review:

This was a mildly interesting book to me which follows several generations of Vietnamese women who all live under a curse.  I listened to this book and found the accurate pronunciation of the names very jarring as the names often ended "up" in tone which made the name sound like a question to an English speaker.  A few also had very abrupt and guttural endings which made them sound like the end of a sentence when it was not.  I don't think I ever got used to it.  Many of the women also had several names by which they were referred which always took me a few minutes to resolve and sometimes caused me to pause the book while I tried to figure out which woman it was.  That did resolve over time.  In the end, however, this was a book about changing character.  The changes seemed abrupt and decisive which I actually find sort of comforting.  Several characters reach a tipping point (independently) and their characters literally metamorphosed from that point forward.  This makes sense to me and I kind of enjoyed trying to figure out who was going to make the change next.  It is a good characteristic of Huynh that it was not the same thing for each one and she deftly handled the transitions independently of the plot transitions so there were little highs and lows as the overall plat worked its way to a climax.  In the end, however, I did not find the intertwined love lives compelling and it felt like Huynh had so many characters that it was difficult to understand any particular couple except in so far as they tacked into the overall plot.

Hester, Laurie Lico Albanese

 

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese is a look at the Scarlet Letter from the point of view of Hester.  I seem to have found quite a few books looking at well known stories from the woman's perspective and I have to admit that they shed new and useful lights on the stories.

Started: 1/1/2022
Completed: 1/3/2022
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Albanese starts with the concept of synesthesia making others believe a person was a witch.  This is an interesting premise given that it is six times more common in women.  I really like the premise and I think it has merit.  OK, so, cool, apply that to 19th century Massachusetts and the era of Nathanial Hawthorne who effectively ties a letter ("A") to scarlet.  Very interesting.  This book, however, is not the Scarlett Letter from Hester's perspective.  It is about a "real life" person who, in turn, inspired the character of Hester.  Is your head spinning?  Mine was.

Working on this basis...we tap into the life of a young embroiderer on the Scottish coast (make more sense now?).  She has synesthesia which allows her to put her colors together beautifully and, in time, to reflect the person for whom the work is made (some people have green speech or purple speech, etc.)  Of course, however, having this ability must be kept secret, 'cause all the female relatives have been killed for being witches.

Fast forward to America.  Where?  Salem, Massachusetts.  Yeah, super witchy area.  This is where Hawthorne lives (stained by one of his ancestors who was a judge in the trials) and into which our new red headed Scottish synesthetic embroiderer, Isobel, comes married but left by her husband while he literally pursues drugs.  Scotts are not well liked at the time (one run above black folk) so she is on the edge of town.  So, the stage is set and we are only half way through the book.

Over time, Hawthorne shows himself to be a coward and also a tad randy.  Isobel, manages to find her way forward "using the needle" and it was not clear to me how Hawthorne came to make Isobel into Hester.  Maybe it is through lies upon lies as a web he uses to protect himself and both gratify himself, but I think I am stretching.  I'm not looking to reprise the book, but I think that the effort Albanese makes is to try to get the reader to figure out how Isobel becomes a model for Hester Prinn while at the same time writing a novel that has plot and pace.  It is a very tall order and I have to say that Albanese pulls it off by the thinnest of margins.  I enjoyed the book, but, obviously, I don't know how I would explain it to anyone.

All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankham Mathews

 

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

Started: 12/29/2022
Completed: 1/1/2022
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Several Best Book of the Year lists

Review:

The characters, in general, seemed flat to me.  <SPOILERS> Sneha opens up, eventually, to some about her life, but cannot find a lasting intimate relationship because she refuses to be vulnerable.  When finally given a chance to build a lasting relationship, it seems like she does her best to put her "Jersey girl" love interest into a "fish-out-of-water" scenario that dooms what is left.  I ended the book thinking that Sneha had learned nothing over the course of the book.  Similarly, her friend Tig (who marries, has children, and enters into relationships with two others as part of an open marriage) seems like a frenetic ball of energy, just like when  they started.  Another friend, Tom, starts out rejecting his parents' lifestyle and ends....you guessed it...rejecting his parents' lifestyle.  This book takes place over years with huge changes for the characters and yet none of them seem to be affected by the ocean of change occurring underneath them. Maybe it is a generational thing (this is a coming of age story for twenty-somethings in aughts).  There is no talk about these kids reflecting on years of shooter drills in school, some about gay bashing, and some about immigrants being left on the outside.  It feels like a narrow, insular, book (think the preppie coming of age books in the 50s).  Not a reflection of an entire generation--the diversity of background features in this book, but not the diversity of thought.