ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Daily Archive: 23/11/2018

Friday

23

November 2018

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – November 23, 2018

Written by , Posted in What I'm Reading

Note: I’m out of town this weekend, so posting this early.

International News

“Airbnb said it had made the decision because settlements were “at the core” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The move, which affects 200 listings, has been widely praised by Palestinians and their supporters.” Airbnb: Israeli uproar as firm bars West Bank settlements (BBC)

“An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from acute malnutrition in three years of war in Yemen, a leading charity says. The number is equivalent to the entire under-five population in the UK’s second largest city of Birmingham, Save the Children adds. The UN warned last month that up to 14m Yemenis are on the brink of famine.” Yemen crisis: 85,000 children ‘dead from malnutrition’ (BBC)

Reproductive Rights

“A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked a Mississippi Republican law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks’ pregnancy, declaring the measure “unequivocally” unconstitutional. As a result of Tuesday’s decision, a nearly identical 15-week ban passed by Republican lawmakers in Louisiana will not go into effect. That law’s effective date depended on the outcome of the lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s 15-week ban.” Judge Blocks Mississippi’s 15-Week Abortion Ban, Rips State’s GOP Legislature (by Jessica Mason Pieklo for Rewire)

Transphobia

“HRC has tracked 128 transgender victims of fatal violence since January 2013; at least 110 of these were transgender people of color. There were 29 known victims of fatal anti-transgender violence in 2017, the highest number since HRC began tracking. Although each case is unique, the epidemic disproportionately affects trans women of color, who make up 80 percent of all anti-transgender homicides, the report notes. Many of of the victims’ identities were denied by their families, and many were misgendered by police and media. Some were chased down by authorities or killed by a partner, while some were victims of outright hate crimes.” New Report Shows the Scope of Anti-Trans Violence in the US (by Auditi Guha for Rewire)

Friday

23

November 2018

0

COMMENTS

Rupture by Ragnar Jónasson

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Best for: People looking for a bit of mystery set in an interesting place.

In a nutshell: Police officer Ari Thor is stuck in his town during a quarantine situation and looking into a 50-year-old mystery, while two seemingly unrelated crimes are looked into by journalist Isrun.

Why I chose it: After I read the first, I ordered all four others in the series. No regrets.

Review:
A baby is kidnapped. A recovered substance abuser is hit by a car. A man’s wife was beaten to death. A nephew is wondering if his aunt died by suicide or was murdered. Some of these stories might be related. How we find that out is interesting.

Ari Thor is less of an ass in this one. He’s a bit of a … blowhard? At one point he’s telling a story that affects someone else’s life and he chooses to stretch out the storytelling while that person is clearly distressed. I know the readers need to learn the story, but I feel that the author could have found a different way to do this. Unless, as I do suspect, the author doesn’t particularly like his protagonist.

I was excited to see that the same journalist from the second book has a big role to play. Her background and way of being is just more interesting to me, and I appreciate how she is woven into these stories.

When the twists of this particular story were revealed, I appreciated that while I didn’t figure them out, they weren’t entirely impossible to have sorted out. I don’t read these books in the hopes that I’ll sort out what’s happened; I just like reading stories set in interesting places. So far the outcomes are never totally outside the realm of possibility, but are surprising enough to be fun.