Makayla > Recent Status Updates

Hestor is a bit to jokey/sardonic for my tastes, but I might warm to it.

I love in books when feminine witches/sorcerers *literally* create their children (grow them from a garden, mold them from earth, sculpt them from bone, etc.). Not sure why…gets me every time though.

Complaint: why is mother/ suddenly informing about sorcery to Cordelia suddenly? Cordelia’s internal monologue seems surprised that her mother is a sorcerer, that sorcerers are a thing, that her horse is a familiar, etc. But her mom is saying everything like it’s normal conversation. Why?
Impressed:
The opening was disturbing AF.

“I think my relationship with death was far more natural in my childhood. Perhaps because we had been told that the father of my cousin, who was like a twin brother to me, died in an accident before either of us were born.”

lol I might be the problem. I spent forever trying to understand how the dead uncle was possibly “like a twin brother” to her.

Sometimes this book is very immersive and readable. I don’t always mind the lack of dialogue notation.

Not loving it. *Some* beautiful, haunting, and/or atmospheric writing. But the overall structure of the book is challenging for me, and I don’t love the punctuation choices.

The lack of quotation marks or any specific indicator of dialogue is throwing me.

One thing still hard to grasp: *why* was eugenics so convincing/taken up so enthusiastically by women’s suffrage organizations?

Interesting the the ideal qualities of womanhood are based on white women from wealthy families, applied to/expected of ALL women, but are also in some ways explicitly bared from non-white women (socially enforced, but also economically through domestic labor & nannying work).

On Susan B. Anthony and AB’s approach (or lack thereof) to fighting for the rights of black people and black women over the overturning of the 1875 Civil Rights act & the Wilmington massacre: “[Anthony] might have realized that that a non-committal stance on racism implied that lynchings and mass murder by the thousands could be considered a neutral issue”.

The crystal merchant is my favorite worldview vessel/character thus far. I enjoy the conflicting worldviews of the Engishman and the Boy. They can both take different conclusions from the same things (alchemy book, life of the caravan).

Still unsure wtf this book considers “beginner’s luck’ or an “omen”.

VO2 max is highly dependent on genetics (~50% heritable, plus factors like sex, weight, height, etc.).
Interactions of biomechanics, oxygen &fat metabolism, and running economy are intriguing but under-explored in this particular chapter.

Longer and thinner “calf” muscles and Achilles tendon and “calf” muscles that are higher/closer to the knee are associated with faster running (better running economy during swing phase?).

Dose dependence differs for mortality reduction vs running performance (moderate activity maximizing mortality reduction, although “sitting is the worst thing you can do in terms of living longer”).
Realized at this point that the subtitle is about “Endurance and performance “. Why did I think it was just about overuse injuries? Oops. Still a good book, but I’m less interested in the latter half.

Really interesting chapter. I don’t really run, and I wouldn’t have thought to include stomach issues in a book about running injuries, but it makes sense in hindsight and I’m findings it informative/intriguing. I definitely would be interested in learning more about intestinal physio and exercise.

I like the crystal merchant as a character.

I’m impressed by how different the writing of each POV is without feeling forced or gimmicky. Word choice, sentence structure, different use of commas, parentheses, etc. really help evoke the different characters.

International journal of sports physical therapy
Speed vs distance running overuse injuries.
Calf, patelofemoral, it band, Achilles tendon.