Elizabeth > Recent Status Updates

dunno what I expected (a sort of Best Of of scientific discoveries?) but this is very much a reaction to Covid. which is fine, of course, i trust al-khalili, it's just interesting!

a "special collection" means there's no new material; it's just a pick-n-mix from other lectures. some of which i've heard before! how lucky i am! what decadence!

but also: "schliemann was a treasure hunter. arguably the best thing he ever found was wilhelm dorpfeld, the actual archaeologist." sdfghjkl OKAY

The full majority of this book so far has been about Ghana and the Congo, which I was already familiar with, but it's good to recap and also I guess I'm glad the CIA hasn't fessed up to fucking with EVERY single African country. Yet, anyway.

You'd think I'd've learned my lesson about listening to a mary roach book over lunch, but here we are.

Library find! I know I said I didn't like travelogues, but there's a difference between travel books by writers and travel books by photographers, and "patterns through portugal" is such a feast for the eyes.

Modern travelogues mostly leave me cold, but tbh the fact that this one is set pre-2001 makes it feel like a historical artifact all on its own.

ah, yes. swooping is bad.

did you know that there's a luminescence test we can perform on sand particles that can determine the last time they were exposed to sunlight, thus dating them? i'm going to chew on my HAT, science is sO COOL

it's taking some time to work through this one. not the book's fault, it's tight and concise, i just ... shouldn't have started a book about lizzie borden around the anniversary of my own mother's death lol

Having a great time, but I did just have to physically stop and sit down after hearing the worst possible white-person-panicking way to pronounce "Liliuokalani". I didn't know you could get it that wrong. Guys.

genuinely laugh out loud funny in places, but the thing i appreciate the most is the author's commitment to assuming that anyone who leaves a 1-star review at a world heritage site has to be a dude.

The narrator is the same guy who read the Vorkosigan Saga audiobooks, so I keep nodding along like yes, yes, Hannibal, elephants, the Alps, and would probably keep nodding if spaceships appeared, no questions asked.

Library find! And obvs, first of all, we love a good botanical watercolor, but also: it's me, i'm the american fruit.

I am having a GRAND time. Each book I've read about the discovery of King Tut has had chunks of its assumptions AND assertions disqualified by the next. Net zero information gain. Well, no, MUCH information gain, net zero conclusions. isn't archaeology fun!

I was wondering if this would be a biology-focused history of papyrus sort of a la arathi prasad's 'silk,' but it's definitely more a wandering general history of literature lmao.

with a name like “seven rivers,” I kinda assumed it would be one important river per continent, with at least one doubling up bc, you know, antarctica. don’t know why I thought that lmao.

anyway, sad my girl the Amazon didn’t make the cut, but the Niger was an unexpected treat to learn about!

oh this is definitely ai generated. and I have a sinking suspicion the narrator is ai too; that was three different pronunciations of the same city name in the span of, like, ten minutes. which could still be a person, obvs, but if it is then the editing is VERY sloppy.

Mertz is always delightful to read, but I'm extra grateful for the addition to my lexicon of the word she's given those people who think the pyramids were built by mystics or aliens: pyramidiots.

Came in expecting to be all "I SUPPORT WOMEN'S WRONGS," but maybe with the exception of the procurer and the serial killer, I'm mostly sitting here like, "but :( she didn't :( do anything wrong? why are they executing her? :("

Genuinely fascinating look at the role geology, geography, and climate has had on nation-building.

Be warned there is a bit in the Middle East chapter where the author disappointingly just parrots the white Western line about Israel being a victim in the Palestine conflict. It is brief, but yikes.

i wasn't expecting to find a book in the library about the smurfette principle, much less one with 100 photographs from history that demonstrates it. it's not a thin book!

Picked this up because Delgado's expertise was mentioned in National Geographic's Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs, in connection with the wrecks of the Mary Rose and the Clotilda.

Ngl, the narrator of this one is v. dry, but they can't all be winners and the subject is still fascinating lol

I'm going to be honest, I did not expect Dominion voting machines to make an appearance. I am completely hooked.

oh this is going to be one of my favorites this year, I can already tell.

obvs the civilization being discussed here is very very narrow, but I do like Cahill's narration style enough to overlook that for the span of an audiobook lmao

Paused on this until my library hold on the physical copy comes through. Audiobook didn't come with a PDF and refers to pictures I can't see lol.

Deeply enjoying how many of these pieces are colorfully reef-themed. And beading really makes the sea creatures pop, who'd've guessed? My eyes enjoy all of it; I know just enough about beading to recognize the sheer amount of WORK involved.

This has been on my library hold list for awhile, and every time I saw it (all caps in the database,) I was unable to resist the urge to match the fervor. "WOMEN," I would agree.

I'm probably going to finish this in one sitting. WOMEN.

PAGE 3: "Kiyanna's use of thrifted items to express her creativity was so impressive and inspirational, not only was I hooked on thrifting, but I was hooked on her ... (blushes in gay)."

INSTANTLY CHARMED.

am learning a lot! could have done without the emotional whiplash of first learning that cardiac arrest is most common in the morning (my mother died at 8:10am,) and then only a few pages later reading the words "even bees can experience jet lag!"