Sam > Recent Status Updates

I find the author’s choice to refer to married women by their husbands names… curious. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt? Is this Alva or Anne? Whichever it is - they are more than who they married and I dislike the reduction of them to some man’s wife. Especially jarring in a book about women being “set free” and women’s independence.

It’s interesting reading the introduction of this after just finishing Manifesta as Parker does exactly what those authors complained of. Parker looks at the work of a feminist artist and says you aren’t kind of feminist, you are too famous, you aren’t political enough and you owe your success to us. And I think this introduction was written in 2010.

I... am having trouble getting into this. Tbh, I did have to start the first collection several times before it took. But once I got into it - I really liked it... so I'm going to keep at it. I guess.

"A woman had offered him a puree of the bean, one of his early experiences with the delightful, salty mortar known as hummus."

Mortar? Hmmmm, how did the author arrive at this incorrect term?
Mix to paste (mixture before baking) to paste (glue) to mortar (plaster)?

"Fairchild’s vertiginous fascination with the birds came partly from the coca leaves he had chewed—a remedy to distract the brain from reduced oxygen high above the sea."

Vertiginous: causing or tending to cause dizziness.
I feel like the author was looking for synonyms of giddy (excited) and picked the fanciest sounding one without checking the definition.
And well, awkward sentence anyways.

"To Lathrop, such a fate was worse than being eaten by a walrus."

Um, ok?

Gotta figure out how to work this phrase into conversation so I can watch people's reactions.

"Stretching some three thousand miles from coast to coast, from the cold winters of upland Maine to the sweltering summers along the Rio Grande, the United States enjoyed more climatic diversity than anywhere else on the planet."
Sounds like propaganda to me. Come on, the US has more "climactic diversity" than China? Not sure I believe that.

The writing in this book is ridiculously choppy.

“You know what I mean,” Lively shot back, rolling his eyes. “Disgusting biological bits aside, [woman are] seen as lesser, as targets, by too many of the males. Our people deserve to ride predators, not prey.”<\i>

Yes, this is a villain speaking. But still, was this REALLY necessary?

Um ok. Koch’s crew is STILL calling Dairy Ululenia’s virgin.
Really?!

Well, Dairy still refers to his boyfriend as Mister Dragon. 🤦‍♂️ If he doesn’t start using less formal terms soon imma gonna have a problem (a bigger problem, that is).

Well, let's see how this goes. The intro was definitely more scholarly and dry then I was expecting based on the title and cover. Although maybe it's the contrast to the book I just finished.
I really hope it isn't this dry throughout.

My kindle books keep setting themselves to "Read" when I'm still reading them...

Ok, that was definitely the best chapter in the book.

Hehehe, I’m so excited for this book. I am forcing myself not to just read all of Mary Roach’s books one after another but the spread them out as treats between other less amusing non-fiction books.

Over halfway through. And less than 150 pages until the appendices. It’s a good thing a lot of those pages aren’t full of text because I’m getting bored of this book.

“How can a monotheist adhere to such a dualistic belief (which, by the way, is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament)?”

The dualistic belief in this instance is the existence of Satan in Christianity. Er, book of Job? Pretty sure that’s part of the OT. I get it, there’s opinions on Satan in the OT but the author misrepresents his opinion as fact. Again.

The first monotheist religion known to us appeared in Egypt, c. 1350 BC, when Pharaoh Akhenaten declared that... the god Aten, was, in fact, the supreme power ruling the universe.

Er, what about Judaism and Zoroastrianism?

“What do you like to draw?”
“Oh, um.” And suddenly everything I’ve ever drawn just vanishes from my brain.

Me whenever someone asks me what I like to read.

Well, that was a really quick 92 pages.

Entire fields of knowledge, such as physics and engineering, have already lost almost all touch with the spoken human language, and are maintained solely by mathematical script.

As an engineer, I definitely disagree with this statement.

...puppies throughout the world have the rules for rough-and-tumble play hard-wired into their genes.

Um yeah, this is a statement that should really be backed up with a citation. I’m just a Wee Bit skeptical.

Well, reached the part of the book I’ve been looking forward to, where the layout gets creative and I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had so many highlights in a book before.

workplace flirting may be under threat from puritanical influences imported from America, where flirting has been officially banned in many offices and other workplaces (an ‘unsustainable’ move on the part of the political-correctness lobby
Excuse me, protecting workers from sexual harassment is puritanical? Flirting creates a positive playful atmosphere? Right. Sure.

Started this book based on recommendations from three+ co-workers and an acquaintance met in a bar in China. They all said basically the same thing: “It’s a fascinating read that really makes you think, but I don’t agree with everything the author posits.” The book kept coming up in conversation so here I am.

This book is soooo long. And has definitely turned into a bit of a drag. The themes are definitely getting repetitive and the chapters excessively wordy and chatty. This was amusing at first - but not so much now.