4 Stars

Best for:
Folks who are interested in how man-made disasters come about, and how governments and individual people respond to them.

In a nutshell:
During a test of the cooling system, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, explodes, leading to some immediate deaths, some short-term deaths, many longer-term deaths, and the complete abandonment of an entire city.

Worth quoting:
“We have to be seen to be doing something.”

Why I chose it:
I watched the recent miniseries and given my previous work in emergency management found it an interesting topic.

Review:
This book was fascinating. Because I’d watched the miniseries, I did have a sense of the broad outlines and beats of the event, but for crying out loud. It’s amazing how mistakes multiply, and how unwilling some people are to admit that something serious is happening.

I have very vague memories of this happening. I was six, and I recall my mother talking about fears about purchasing milk, because of radiation from the particles that were caught in the wind and distributed over the earth.

As I mentioned above, I chose this and listened to it partially from the perspective of a human who just cannot imagine who scary that must have been for everyone, and partially from the perspective of someone who used to think about how to respond to public health emergencies.

So much went wrong, partially because of just people not believing how bad it could be, and partially due to lack of preparation.

The book does a great job of keeping the topic engaging, telling the story from multiple perspectives. Higginbotham shares stories about the people in the reactor, the first responders, the people in the town, the government, from before the reactor was even built, until after trials seeking to determine and apportion blame for the disaster.

The only big quibble I have is that Higginbotham takes a few opportunities to hit out at communism, suggesting pretty heavily that this is why the disaster happened. I’ve got to say, a whole lot of horrible disasters happen regularly in capitalist nations, and I don’t think a capitalist nation would have handled this any better just by virtue of its economic system.

What’s next for this book:
I’d recommend it to anyone with similar interests.

2 Stars

Best for:
I can’t really recommend this book. It’s fine, but not something I’d recommend even to those who have a curiosity about such things.

In a nutshell:
The author claims he worked as a hit man, and details how he came into that world, and how he eventually got out.

Worth quoting:
Nothing.

Why I chose it:
Wanted an audio book to read while running and as someone who finds details and specifics fascinating, I was interested in HOW contract killing actually worked.

Review:
The hitman had a weird childhood with an unforgiving father. He also, if we are to believe him, left his baby sister alone and she died, leading to his mother taking her own life. He then traveled to his mother’s homeland of Brazil (which is I’m assuming a stand-in for another country since the author claims all the details have been changed) to meet his grandfather, and some of his relatives. Then mentioned a handsy priest who his grandfather had killed. Then he returned home, went to fancy boarding school, and joined the French Foreign Legion.

Is that were everyone who eventually claims to have been a spy / mercenary / hit man does their training?

The hitman serves with a guy he calls H, and H maybe sets the hitman up to kill a child in Lebanon while also killing someone else? I don’t quite get this part. But the hitman eventually feels indebted to H, and they go into business together. H gets the contracts, the hitman does the killing.

H details his jobs, while also sharing the toll this takes on his marriage (his wife suspects an affair, not a secret vocation). It’s all very clinical, which is fine – I wasn’t looking for salacious, because ew. But it’s very nonchalant. Only a couple of times does it seem like the hitman has any real concerns about the work he’s doing, or even about really getting caught. But most frustrating – and maybe this is where I’d prefer to have read H’s book – I still don’t get from this exactly how all of this comes about. How the people know to approach H, how the money is laundered, how anyone trusts that anyone will do the job and not just go to the cops.

Also, given the author is still alive, they would have had to change like all of the details of the jobs to avoid being caught, so this book is essentially a work of fiction.

As I said, not one I’d recommend, and not one I’m thrilled to have read.

What’s next for this book:
Write the review, return the book, forget I read it.

4 Stars

Best for:
Those who enjoy a bit of mystery, a bit of revenge, and some history.

In a nutshell:
Two parallel stories: In the late 1700s, Nella runs a secret apothecary in London to assist women who need freeing from abusive men. In the current day, Caroline has come to London to celebrate her 10th anniversary, only just before leaving the US for the trip, she found out her husband had been having an affair.

Worth quoting:
N/A – Audio book

Why I chose it:
Given the outcomes of the election in the US last week, and the world’s general turn backwards in terms of women’s rights and respect, I felt this book was a good reminder of women will do when they don’t have other options to be safe. Also I just got my library card here and this is my first borrowed audio book!

Review:
This book has some of my favorite things – multiple perspectives, stories that interact but take place in different time.

Nella runs an apothecary, taken over from her mother. She runs a special service from a hidden room, where she assists women who need freeing from abusive men, One day, a 12-year-old named Eliza comes on behalf of the woman she works for.

Meanwhile, Caroline ends up mudlarking while in London trying to sort out what to do next about her marriage. She finds a vial with a tiny bear etched on it, and decides to research where it came from.

Without giving away any major plot points, I appreciate how the author weaves in ideas of loss, of childhood and ignorance, of how life can get away from us and our dreams and goals. A large, looming aspect is how people will take back power when power is either taken from them or withheld. I also appreciate how each of the two women and the girl were written – we get point of view chapters from all of them, and especially for Nella and Eliza, we see how different events might be understood differently depending on the life experiences one has.

I would definitely read more by this author. The only real issue I had was with the audiobook performance choice. Caroline is from the US, but the person who read her chapters read them with an English accent. When the character was talking to others, the actor used a US accent, but that was rare. As someone from the US, it was odd to hear an English accent for someone from the US, and was at times confusing as her not being English was somewhat relevant to the plot.

What’s next for this book:
Return it to the library, recommend to a friend,

Three Stars

Best for:
Anyone interested in the overall topic of climate footprints; those who are looking for some ideas on how they can reduce their own.

In a nutshell:
Author Berners-Lee explores the literal carbon cost of pretty much everything.

Worth quoting:
“Cryptocurrencies have to be one of the most fundamentally pointless ways of using energy. … Blockchain…adds even more to the energy use and the carbon footprint.”

Why I chose it:
I was looking for a book to leave at work and read when I had time during my lunch breaks. So nothing with a strong narrative or where I’d have to remember things. Good thing I picked this for that purpose; it took me 2.5 years to finish.

Review:
I’m not sure a book like this could get a much higher review, just because of its style. It’s not a narrative book – though each little entry has some personality and story to it. It’s literally just a study of how large the carbon footprint is of all sorts of things, from apples and bananas up through war. (I hope the next iteration includes AI, because that shit is sucking the life out of the world.)

I learned some interesting things (especially related to consumer purchasing and banking, and to travel), and had some of my beliefs reinforced (eating basically no meat, and not having children, are doing good things for the climate). It reminded me that my love of dairy is not helping things, and that my membership in a car-sharing club is a better choice than owning my own car.

One of the challenges of a book like this – and one the author does address at the end – is how individualistic it is. It’s talking about a large-scale, community problem, but for the most part is focused on all the little (and big) things we as individuals do that contribute to the climate emergency. That doesn’t mean I think we should order a bunch of shit online while driving an SUV around and eating beef burgers all day long. However, I think that collectively the focus should be on the major polluters and companies that create the items we consume without having to shoulder the burden of the climate crisis.

And at the same time, I do see value in knowing and thinking through our choices as they relate to environmental impact. Some things seem sort of obvious to me, but that might not be the case for others. And some things that were light bulb moment for me are probably super obvious to other people. There are some changes I’m already taking based on what I read in this book – the next question (and one that the author does try to address in the last chapter) is how can we get those in power to make the more critical changes?

What’s next for this book:
Might keep on a shelf for reference.

Four Stars

Best for:
Those who have been going through some things and are looking for some sweet advice delivered by a lovely writer.

In a nutshell:
Writer and actor Hart updates her story by sharing her struggles with chronic illness, and what she’s found to be helpful in not just facing those challenges but in thriving as a person.

Worth quoting:
There’s a lot of wisdom in this book, and I wish I had a physical copy to follow along, but alas I didn’t write down any quotes while reading.

Why I chose it:
I somewhat enjoyed her previous book, and had heard this one was interesting. I didn’t quite know it wouldn’t be as traditional a memoir as expected, but I still enjoyed it.

Review:
Finishing this on the day the 45th US President was re-elected, Grover Cleveland-style, seemed appropriate. I didn’t know how soon I’d need her suggestions and positivity (the not-toxic kind).

Hart is an actress folks would know from her show Miranda, or from her role as Chummy on Call the Midwife, or most likely, from her role as Melissa McCarthy’s coworker ‘Amber Valentine’ in the movie Spy. You might have wondered why she seemed to disappear after such a successful role, and she answers that here.

For pretty much her entire adult life, Hart has had health issues, at times not being able to leave her home. She eventually shares her diagnosis, but the focus is on the things she’s learned and sought out to help deal with the frustration and exhaustion that came with her illness. For the book, she calls these her ten ‘treasures,’ and they are sort of what you might expect to find in a self-help book, but she shares them in a relateable way, with her trademark kind sense of humor.

There are a lot of great nuggets of wisdom she shares, pulled from lots of her own reading of a whole lot of ‘ists’ (like psychologists, therapists, etc.). One that really stuck out for me is something I am so often guilty of doing – going out for plans that I don’t want to do, and thinking ‘I’ll just pop in for a few then leave.’ And I love the way she frames that – about how unkind it is to treat spending time with others that way. Either go enthusiastically, or be honest that you don’t have the energy and don’t go. That might not work for others, but it really hit home for me.

There are lots of little bits that I think a lot of folks would benefit from hearing. It’s not groundbreaking, but its shared in a really accessible. Frankly, the book feels like a warm hug.

What’s next for this book:
I might purchase a physical copy to read over again and take some notes in.