I Know Who You Are - Barbara Rae-Venter

Sub-title: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever

Being involved in Investigative Genetic Genealogy this was a required read. The author was the genetic genealogist that identified the Golden State Killer. Unlike the thoughtfully written The Forever Witness, this book is written in the true crime style, appealing to those who like to read the gory details of a crime.  The author speaks from a personal perspective and shares her own process and opinions on IGG.  She advocates building and documenting thorough trees.  She confesses and justifies having used DNA databases before terms of service restricted the use of IGG specifically.  She explains her unique way of thinking and perseverance as significant factors in her success as well as her "angels" that provide unexplained fortuitous events.  Some may come away with the impression that she invented the technique and is its premier user as she doesn't mention the work of others in the field.  

Notes:

p. 39 She describes how she used a Kinship Report (RootsMagic has one) in descendant format to visualize all the relatives of a target individual.

p. 152 Doubling the shared DNA of a person and assigning the value to their parent and using in a WATO tree.

p.211 "The tree you build has to be perfect."

p. 230 [on ethics] "The truth is that, from the very beginning, I have never had any doubt that what I was doing was the right thing to do."

Published: 2023 Read: March 2023 Genre: True Crime

The Forever Witness - Edward Humes

 Sub-title: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder

This is the story of the first cold case solved and prosecuted at trial with investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that develops a lead for law enforcement .  The story was well-written, presenting a detailed background on the field while telling a true crime story without the schmaltz and phony drama.  It was an engrossing read that I finished in two nights.  I discovered how the company, Parabon NanoLabs, began its phenotyping method to tackle terrorism for the federal government. I understood the overlapping timelines of the Cuylenborg/Cook case crime that was the focus of the book, and the more highly publicized Golden State Killer case.  It's a history of the evolution of using DNA in violent criminal cases.

The author tells the of the lives of Jay and Tanya and their families and friends, making their murders a loss to us as well.  The detectives devotion to the case and the determination to try the new technique as it was emerging was compelling.  Highly recommended.

Published: 2022  Read: March 2023  Genre: Science, Non-fiction

Published:  2022  Read: March 2023  Genre: Non-fiction, genealogy

The Aftermath - Philip Bump

Sub-title: The last days of the baby boom and the future of power in America

This was a fascinating read for me as I've been tracking the impact of the baby boom on our society ever since I studied Gerontology back in the 90s.  The author defines the generation and walks us through its impact on everything from baby carriages to cemetery plots.  My takeaway is that the 76 million babies born in the U.S. from 1946 through 1955 created a unique society that thinks it is the norm while it may actually never be repeated.

The book illustrates the facts discussed with charts, almost every couple of pages, reinforcing visually the information about this mass "pig in the python" moving through society and now seeing its ebb.  After examining the impacts to date, the author shares the predictions for the future on how the fading of this generation will be superseded by the millenials.  He draws no definitive conclusions, rather, speculating with input from demographers, historians and political analysts on what the future may look like.  An interesting read.

Published: 2023  Read:  March 2023  Genre: History

Elizabeth Finch - Julian Barnes

 This was quirky.  It speaks to the impact a teacher can have on us for the rest of our lives.  A 30ish man attends a class taught by Elizabeth Finch.  She challenges her students to think and her lessons stick with him.  They become friends and we she passes he seeks to find out more about her.  There were many noteworthy quotes that made it enjoyable but not a particularly satisfying story; rather a comment on what we can do with our lives.

Quotes:

"We must certainly consider, not just in this class, but outside it, in our own turbulent and fretful lives, the element of chance.  The number of people we deeply meet is strangely few.  Passion may mislead us furiously.  Reason may mislead us just as much.  Our genetic inheritance might hamstring us.  So might previous events in our lives.  It is not just soldiers in the field who later suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.  It is often the inevitable consequence of a seemingly normal sublunary existence."

"I have quite as many friends as I need.  They do not, on the whole, interconnect.  Which makes some of them imagine that they are more central to my life that they are.  Others, the opposite."

[After she is slandered in the rag newspapers] "They choose to understand nothing.  It was kind of you to be upset on my behalf, but unnecessary.  They choose to understand nothing."

[on the quote she repeated from the Handbook of Epictetus] Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us.  The things that are up to us are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things that are not up to us are weak, enslaved, hindred, not our own.  You can only be free and happy if you recognise this essential difference between what you can change and what you can't.  Among the things not up to us are our bodies, our possessions, our reputations and our public offices."

"Does civilization progress? Elizabeth Finch like to ask us that question.  Undoubtedly it does in terms of medicine, science, technology.  But in human, moral terms?  In terms of philosophy?  In terms of seriousness?"

"[I] ...turn my life into a story.  We all do it.  EF wasn't like that.  She'd give you the conclusion but not the narrative.  Why?  The obvious, normal reason would be a sense of privacy, of discretion.  But I decided that it was also perhaps something bigger: a sense that a life, much as we would like it to be, does not amount to a narrative---or not a narrative such as we understand and expect".

Published: 2022  Read: March 2023  Genre: Philosophy