Book Report

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina – Really interesting stuff. Ian Urbina is an investigative journalist, and it looks to me like he is one of the highest order. He spent years looking at life at sea for lots of different people, and the fact that so much of what happens on the oceans is completely unregulated. He looks at men from Vietnam and other countries who are basically enslaved on fishing boats (after reading his look at their lives, I swear I should never complain about anything in my life, ever), cruise ships, activist organizations like Women on Waves (providing reproductive health care to women in places where abortion is illegal), The Sea Shepherd (they fight illegal whaling – it is incredibly hard to catch or prosecute those doing illegal whaling or fishing), Greenpeace and more. I could hardly put the book down – this guy knows how to give you just the right amount of info and it’s never boring. All I could say was wow. There’s like this whole world and whole economy out there that most of us never touch. Grade: 8

 

Trans Power by Juno Roche – Essays and interviews by the trans activist Juno Roche. I enjoyed reading their take on a range of issues regarding trans life, bodies, and experiences. Grade: 6

 

The Ex-Girlfriend of my Ex-Girlfriend is my Girlfriend by Maddy Court – I love a good advice book. This is a great advice book aimed at queer women. I didn’t have many epiphanies while reading it but it was still a ton of fun, with solid advice. Grade: 7

 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – I kinda feel like I needed this novel. It’s been too long since I’ve just been engrossed in a novel and eagerly turning its pages, and this story just fit the bill of what I needed. It’s historical fiction. The protagonist Elsa is born to a wealthy family in 1896, Texas. But she’s not pretty and not cool and her family treats her like a pariah. Her life goes on to take many turns, and when the Great Depression hits, she is tested in all sorts of new ways. Grade: 8

 

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer – A YA novel about the collapse of the world as we know it, brought on by an asteroid crashing into the moon. Worldwide tidal waves and volcanic eruptions soon follow, and we watch it unfold through the eyes of young Miranda, who lives with her mom and brothers. The postal service still works for some reason though - clearly Louis DeJoy is not head postmaster in the apocalypse. So in all seriousness, there are far better novels about society collapsing (like “Into the Forest” and “Station Eleven”). But I did end up turning the pages on this one too, and I went on to request the sequel from my library. Even though an actual review on the back cover of the book said:   “It was kind of like a car crash I couldn’t stop looking at.” Grade: 6

Comments

[nytshd3]

"clearly Louis DeJoy is not head postmaster in the apocalypse" - this made me lol

I did some reading about the economy around the ocean before and it's fascinating (and horrifying). So much crazy lack of regulation and so many taking advantage of 'international waters' to do all kinds of crazy stuff, not to mention how impossible it is to police every part of the damn ocean!

There's something so satisfying about a good advice book (or even just a good advice story).

Sometimes when I think about what would happen if the world as we knew it collapsed. Once my mom was all worked up about some dumb youtube video she watched that said that the government was secretly switching us to "world money" on a certain date and the US dollar would be no good anymore and she was freaking out. ANd I was like mom, even if this was true, which is definitely is not, if there was THAT level of the US dollar becoming worthless, there's not a damn thing you could have that would 'protect' you. It's interesting and terrifying to think about.

Thanks for sharing as always!

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Thank you for loling at my joke! :) And I do totally get that it's hard to write exactly how society might collapse and what institutions might hang on for a bit. I wish your mom would be able to take stuff with a grain of salt and not get so worked up....man, YouTube is often not a good thing. :(

You said it! Advice books and stories can just be satisfying. Maybe I love them because they just help life make sense a bit.