The End of Men - Christina Sweeney-Baird

Written in 2018 and finalized in 2019 this story imagines a future where a virus only affects males - and is 90% fatal, leaving the world with only 10% of the males due to an X-chromosome mutation.  Told in first-person by a slate of female characters from different walks of life; a doctor, a scientist, politician, teacher, anthropologist. They have different reactions and experiences to the extreme loss of males; their husbands, sons, brothers, co-workers, friends.  The profound grief is explored with each character and then...the adjustments they make as individuals and as a society that changes so drastically.  Feminism and males as a minority is explored.  Re-populating the human race made me wonder what it would be like if only 10% of the males in the world were eventually the ancestors of all the subsequent generations.  The world eventually goes on. 

I thought there were so many other perspectives the author could have detailed and was disappointed there wasn't more depth to the story.  Many of the changes were to me "oh, yes, that would change." Not enough pilots or surgeons or engineers or mechanics.  I suspect the book was pushed to release when the coronavirus became a reality.  Despite those shortcomings, it would a rich source of discussion.  

Quotes

"Gynarchy is the word we use for the takeover by women of the world, depriving men from taking their rightful places in society."

"I stand in the hallway breathing heavily for a a few seconds before breaking into a smile.  I have never felt so powerful.  This must be what men used to feel like.  My mere physical presence is enough to terrify someone into running.  No wonder they used to get drunk on it."

Published: 2021  Read: October 2021  Genre: Fiction 

Kiss Myself Goodbye - Ferdinand Mount

Sub-title: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca

My love of genealogy is really a love for a good story.  Family lends itself to telling stories and genealogy helps reveal those that might have been lost had I not sought them out.  In this story about his aunt, the author uses his considerable writing and research skills to charmingly peel back the curtain on the life of his flamboyant, daring, larger than life aunt.  

Munca was the name she insisted he call her, rather than Aunt something.  After Munca died, a cousin had encouraged him to search for the real story of his aunt's life.  What a life it was! What fascinated me was how he used the same records that we would collect as genealogist to track her path through the world.  He wove her residence, marriage, divorce and other finds into his quest to unravel the truth of the stories she had told him.  Mount was the editor of the Times Literary Supplement so he knows how to engage a reader.  

Another appeal of the book is that the writer is English - through and through.  He writes for those who known England and it was a challenge to immerse myself in the language, locations and lifestyle of the upper class British elite of the time. I chuckled at the term "Paternal Discrepancy" that genealogist term a non-parental event or NPE, which the author claims may account for no less than 3.7% of all births.

 A great read highly recommended, genealogist or not!

Quotes

"How fragile it all is, how brief anyone's hold on property, or money, or life itself."

"What you don't know can sting the heart worse than the worst thing you do know.  And go on stinging, because while knowledge brings some sort of ending, not knowing never ends."

"How seductive it is, this idea that you do not need parents to make you happy, or to make the best of yourself.  On the contrary, to be a heroine, it is better to be free of these nagging, fretting figures in charge of you, and to forge on through life unencumbered.  Far from orphanhood/adoption being any sort of handicap, it's actually a launch-pad."

Published: 2020  Read: October 2021  Genre: Biography

Infinite Country : A Novel - Patricia Engel

 A family facing poverty, hopelessness and danger in their home in Columbia immigrate to the U.S. in secret.  A child is born in the U.S., the father is deported during a round-up and the eldest daughter returns to Columbia to help him care for her grandmother. They spend years trying to stay a family.  

The story is told over time from the lives of those in Columbia and the U.S.  The struggles they bear felt very real and gave me a different perspective on those wanting a better life.  Good read.

Published: 2021  Read: October 2021  Genre: Fiction

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore - Matthew Sullivan

 I ordered this for a new book club I'm in and it's a good starter!  A young woman who suffered a traumatic experience as a child ignores her past and immerses herself in her job at a library modeled after the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado.  A cast of quirky characters help her solve the mysterious suicide of one of the stores patrons while revealing a link to her past.  Fun read.

Published:  2017  Read: October 2021  Genre: Mystery

Fuzz - Mary Roach

 Sub-title: What Happens When Nature Breaks the Law

I have really enjoyed Mary's previous books Gulp (about digestive tract) and Stiff (2008, about cadavers).  This one addresses ways humans deal with animals and plants that clash with us when we or they cross each other's paths.  She covers efforts like sterilizing monkeys in India, the military's attempts to eradicate gulls on Marshall Island (the gulls won) and efforts to control elephants, leopards and even trees.  A fun read from an author who delivers well-researched details with a sense of humor.

Notes:

Xcluder Rodent and Pest Defense makes "cut-and-stuff" stainless steel fiber products to block rodents.

term: kronism: the eating of one's offspring

Published: 2021  Read: October 2021  Genre: Non-fiction, Science

Kindred - Octavia E Butler

 I'd found out about this book when I read it was a classic of African American fiction that illuminated the horrors of slavery and the impact of racism.  The author uses time travel to have her main character, Dana, pulled back into 1815 to protect the son of a white slaveowner who will become her great-great-grandfather.  The tie in with genealogy (sort of) was intriguing and I checked it out.  The book is a great read, so much so I finished it in one day (about 6 hours!).  

Dana finds herself blacking out in the present day (1970s) and waking up in the South in 1815, prior to the Civil War and in the heart of slavery.  As a black woman she has to struggle to survive and when fearing for her life, is propelled back to the present.  The story explores the experience of living during slavery and the grinding into submission and acceptance of its victims.   An insightful and moving work.

Published: 1977 Read: October 2021  Genre: Fiction, science fiction

Preventable - Andy Slavitt

 Sub-title: The inside story of how leadership failures, politics, and selfishness doomed the U.S. coronavirus response

I've avoided reading books from policy makers and government participants as it can be just too much and particularly too one-sided, not to mention not always very well written or edit.  This book does a good job of sharing an insider's view of the response in the US to the covid-19 pandemic up through March 2021.  I think it would be worth re-reading a few years from now too.  The author, Andy Slavitt, worked in the Obama administration on the ACA launch, was a former acting administrator of CMS and with the Biden administration on the response to the pandemic.  He started a twitter feed at the beginning of the pandemic and launched a podcast, "In the Bubble" where he interviews those responsible for aspects of the U.S. response.

Reading the book made me aware of how different an education is provided in advanced (he went to Wharton and Harvard) institutions.  Implicit in his analysis is the strategic, global, problem-solving approaches I've read and studied but never was particularly good at myself - I was the worker bee who executed the strategies and reported on the results.  

The book is, of course, focused mostly on the faults of the administration though it does try to point out the bigger issues in America as a whole.  The suggested remedies are documented as an appendix that is specific yet not necessarily actionable or time-bound.  Interesting read.

Quotes:

"We were like people who had never seen fire before and who wouldn't believe it was dangerous without sticking our hands in the flames first."

"History would judge us on two things....how many people did we lose? and what did I do to help during the difficult times?"

"Save the next life."

"There are a set of personality traits required to face a crisis - separate yourself from the problem, continually weight choices based on current information; focus on the bad news and look skeptically at good news; empathy for people who aren't right in front of you; a willingness to make tough decisions that forgo short-term gains in favor of solutions that work; the ability to communicated that brings people together."

"We were novices who considered ourselves experts.  This is part and parcel of the feeling of American exceptionalism.  Th US doesn't have the humility to follow.  We think we must always lead.  We keep telling ourselves we're the best even when evidence suggests we are not.  Our mentality suggest we would rather risk being last than come in second or third."

"We don't need to solve all of society's ills to respond better to a pandemic, but we will have to do more than invest in a better first line of defense--we will need to break our pattern of indifference."

Published: 2021  Read: October 2021  Genre: Non-fiction, history

On the Move - A Life - Oliver Sacks

 I've read lot of Oliver Sacks writings and enjoyed them and I looked forward to reading his auto-biography that was published posthumously.  I had a completely different impression of him from his non-fiction writing and it didn't fit the description of his personal life.  It was a good read and made me sad that we lost his talent.

Quote:

"..During prohibition, a very strong extraction of Jamaica ginger or "jake" was freely available as a "nerve tonic" but was used as a substitute for alcohol. It was doctored with TOCP which turned out to be a nerve poison which gave people the "jake walk" and eventually led to death."

"..Bates's Naturalist on the River Amazons, [a 19th century book, Henry Walter Bates]

Published: 2015  Read: October 2021  Genre: Auto-biography