ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: August 2019

Thursday

8

August 2019

0

COMMENTS

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Five Stars

Finished: 2 August 2019

BINGO:
Summer Read

Best for:
Fans of the Liane Moriarty school or interwoven stories with a serious mystery at the center.

In a nutshell:
Sarah and Eddie spent an amazing week together before he left for a quick holiday. She hasn’t heard from him since, even though they basically declared their love for each other. Is he just a jerk, or is there something else going on?

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
Wandered into a bookshop looking for Nine Perfect Strangers, but it’s still in hardback so way too big for travel. This cover reminded me of Moriarty’s style, then I read the back and thought ‘yup, this is perfect to read on the lake this summer.’

Review:

Whew, after two serious non-fiction books in a row I needed this. It isn’t exactly light reading, but it was quick and enthralling and I quite literally did not want to put it down. (Seriously, I was annoyed when I had to set it aside so I could shower this morning.) I started it yesterday late in the day and finished it over lunch today. I wanted to know how it ended, but I also enjoyed the path author Walsh took to get us there.

The book is broken into three parts, and most of it is told from the perspective of our protagonist Sarah. We learn early on that she’s lost her sister at a young age, and she carries that loss with her into adulthood, where it factors into major life choices like leaving the UK for the US and her career path. She meets Eddie on a visit home to the UK but doesn’t yet tell him the details of her childhood.

Then, he’s gone. They promise to meet up after his trip to Spain but she doesn’t hear from him again after they part ways. He doesn’t respond to texts or voicemail and hasn’t checked in on social media (but also hasn’t blocked her), leading Sarah to think, given how intense their week together was, that something has gone horribly wrong.

To tell you anything more would take away from your enjoyment of this book. But please trust me when I say that there are some turns you see coming and some turns you don’t. And I’ll be honest in that the ending wasn’t the one I would have picked but I think it still works well (hence the five star review).

Really my biggest issue with the whole book is the part where Sarah realizes she didn’t ask Eddie how he was going to vote on the Brexit Referendum (the book starts in the summer of 2016). If there was any chance he was going to vote Leave, I’d say that ghosting was really a blessing.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it – leaving it at this lake house so the next guests can enjoy it.

Thursday

8

August 2019

0

COMMENTS

Working the Phones by Jamie Woodcock

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Finished: 1 August 2019

BINGO:
Award Winner: 2016 Labor History Best Book

Best for:
Those who enjoy a good case study / ethnography and are interested in the state of organizing today.

In a nutshell:
Academic Jamie Woodcock is interested in labour organizing and, as his PhD dissertation spent time in a call center to learn more about the work — and the resistance — taking place there.

Worth quoting:
“‘There were all sorts of rules.’ For example, ‘hanging coats on the back of your chair was banned, little things like that.’ These were things that did not affect the productivity of workers directly. This suggests the rules were more about power.”

“The advent of computer surveillance means the fiction of the ever-watching supervisor could become reality. Even if they were to miss something at the time, the records can be scoured for transgressions after the fact.”

Why I chose it:
I know the author through my partner. We were at his flat for dinner, and I noticed the book on the shelf and asked if I could read it.

Review:

As mentioned above, I have met the author.

Right up front, to be clear: this is an academic book. Some people who write particularly interesting dissertations on topics that might be of interest to the general public are able to convert their dissertation into a book, as Woodcock has done here. And it generally works quite well. Yes, there are some sections that are a little hard to follow as I don’t have a strong background in labor writing (I’ve yet to read any Marx, for example), but at no point was I confused as to the general points the author was making.

The book looks at call centers in the UK and how organizing might be able to take hold there. In order to better understand the work, Woodcock didn’t just research it, he performed it, getting hired at a sales call center that peddled insurance. From that vantage point he was able to better understand the pressures and stresses in the center (sales targets looming large overhead, bonuses that management push as simple to obtain but that few ever get) and experience the little ways that the workers resist management attempts at exerting power over the workers.

Call center work sounds horrible in general — no one getting a sales call is happy to get one, though some folks might listen long enough to become interested in the product. But the working conditions are so stressful, and management puts in place little rules (like needing to wear business casual clothes even though no customer sees them) designed to remind workers that they are at the mercy of management. They are also on zero-hour contracts and can be fired at will. It’s not great.

But can it be better? I mean, other than eliminating the industry altogether, what options exist for those who do need this work, at least as a stopgap? That is what Woodcock looks at in relation to his time there — what can those who can be fired mid-shift do collectively to get better working conditions or pay? Are unions still relevant, and if they are, are they set up to support this type of work?

As I said upfront, this is an academic book, but it was an easy read, and I felt I learned a lot about labor studies, labor history, and organising.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Pass to a Friend — my partner

Thursday

8

August 2019

0

COMMENTS

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

BINGO:
Science

Best for:
Those looking for specific clear descriptions of what the earth may look like at different levels of warming.

In a nutshell:
Science writer Wallace-Wells looks at what has happened so far, what is likely to happen, and what the greater implicates will be as related to climate change.

Worth quoting:
“Almost regardless of your politics or your consumption choices, the wealthier you are, the larger your carbon footprints.”

“More than 140 million people in just three regions of the world will be made climate migrants by 2050.”

“Every round-trip plane ticket from New York to London, keep in mind, costs the Arctic three more square meters of ice.”

Why I chose it:
The author spoke with Chris Hayes on his ‘Why is This Happening?’ podcast. I’ve not yet listened to the episode but will now that I’ve read the book

Review:

This book is great if you are interested in having more information on specifically what we are looking at when it comes to climate change. In addition to everything we’ve seen recently (more storms, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK and other parts of Europe, fires raging above the arctic circle), Wallace-Wells dives deeply into the specific horrors we can expect to see, including: loss of crops, increased deaths in hot temperatures, areas becoming unlivable, oceans dying, air becoming more polluted, and climate conflict, among others. It is bleak.

It’s even more distressing when you consider, as he does, that we’ve known there are issues for years an we continue to do nothing. If we’d started cutting back on our emissions when we learned about these issues we would have been able to make slight cuts annually; now we need to make huge changes, which means altering every aspect of our lives, starting at the government and corporate levels (sorry, but the ableist straw bans so many people pushed for over the last year won’t do much of anything to slow global warming; in fact our plastic use apparently has very little direct impact on climate change in general).

The book is an interesting and well-researched read, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions. ‘Reduce emissions everywhere, everyone’ may in fact be the reality we need to fact, but there’s nothing here that offers ideas for a path forward. At times it feels almost fatalistic, even though the author repeatedly points out that the future is not written and we can still make changes. By describing the problem and talking a bit about what it means philosophically should humanity essentially go extinct, the author keeps himself in a very specific lane.

I would have perhaps enjoyed instead a book that included all of this science writing and then, with a second author and a second part, laid out the specific steps we need to take. We need action in the form of huge, sweeping changes, which starts with voting in the leaders who will take those actions. But also … I’d like to see what are the actions that have been proposed and are feasible? And what does feasibility look like when we’re talking about something as dire as this? I included that quote about flights at the top of my review because, despite all I’m doing to reduce my footprint (not eating meat, not having children, not owning a car), I’m writing this on family vacation in New England, having flown in from London a week ago. I fly to the US at least twice a year, and in that I’m causing a huge problem. Should air travel stop? What would that mean for other aspects of life? Movement of goods? Movement of mail? Do those of us who live far from family just say goodbye?

I guess my point here is that I’m already sold on the problems, though it is good to have specific areas to point to. I’m interested now in learning about the different solutions and having the conversation about what it means to implement those solutions.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it