OvercommuniKate > Recent Status Updates

The author is purposely playing dumb. The stuff about her being scared of research when she's a professor who used to work at HUD in DC has me rolling my eyes. This is told like a podcast which I'm surprisingly okay with.

I find the information not included to be odd (eg women couldn't open a bank account until 2016). I thought the hypothetical of the 15 year old girl's ancestors to be powerful but also tasteless. Also, if he'd described soldier payment and the diamond trade history, this later section would make more sense. Trafficking, forced labor, and funding terrorism been part of DRC soldier and mercenary work for a long time.

I feel like if this more chronological you could see Leopold's hiding behind business org in parallel to govt hiding behind these mining orgs but with the structure it sounds like the Belgians left and it's just the Chinese but that's not accurate. Also, the interview with 3 college students about their President isn't really hard hitting journalism compared to his other interviews.

Okay we finally got a mention of Umicore's involvement in the civil war at 14% but then he leaves off with a stinger about the possible murder of Dag Hammarskjold (w/o mention by name) before getting into the fauna on his trip out there to the mines. Also we keep flip flopping between his time when Joseph or Felix as president which is confusing. WHY IS THIS ORGANIZED LIKE THIS. Why not chronological?

Author keeps mentioning the Paris Agreement but I'm not sure this is the accelerator he says it is.

Okay we get a touch of a reference to Umicore but not by name. It's still really early but I'm finding it frustrating we're not going chronologically from the mining history of cobalt which has been mined in Katagna since 1914. I guess this is a question of expose v history.

Ya, in further reflection I wish this was more history focused because IMO the Congo crisis can be traced to Union Minière du Haut-Katanga moving for civil war and they MINED COBALT and still exist as Umicore. Okay. Maybe we will discuss this, I've got a bunch of book left. But why not start at the beginning?

"Lumumba's vision, conspired to assassinate him, and propped up a violent dictator, Joseph Mobutu, in his place." Shady way to phrase that. Yes, the USA did conspire to kill L but didn't. JFK won so the CIA didn't go through with the poisoning but also didn't warn L that he was walking into a trap. I think the more important part is the Belgians drove L to the Soviets by supporting Katanga, fueling civil war.

I'm hopeful we're going to circle back to why these human right coalitions are just PR. Felt like we breezed through some of this stuff, assuming b/c first chapter.

Book club spoilers





The main character says transwomen can't make art. Okay. Whatever. I would definitely have DNF'd this already.

Bookclub spoilers don't look.






I immediately hate this. I'm not even 10 minutes in and the main character is comparing getting HIV to getting pregnant. The "high" they're chasing isn't only pregnancy, there's also the risk of HPV which men and trans women can die from too (when it causes cancer), among other things. This feels like breeding erotica with an asshole main character.

I'm sorry, they're eating in a library????







Mild spoilers


P&p hand flex babyyyyyy

If this doesn't go full Hallmark with the Prince of Christmas learning the true spirit of Xmas, then the author failed.


Also mild spoilers







Interesting there's such a gap in the love interest appearing in the story.

'reinforce whatever story is being spun for the Holiday press, a surface-level façade to salvage our reputation among the other Holidays and their people" lolololololo

Lol "cozy fantasy" what. This is giving "Boyfriend Material" by Alexis Hall

Oh nooooo I hate this prologue so much I returned the audiobook. I will try again in ebook but this time, skipping the beginning

"I went back to sleep and tried to stay outside my dream" ughhh I love how Hemingway writes

I was willing to give the kiss slap scene a pass because this is WW1 sex politics, but the Italian friend talking about having sex with underage girls and the difference between girls and women was GROSS

"Their skins glowing with health insurance"

What I aspire for

Oh wow! Seismograph studies have indicated Windsor Castle could be sitting on a perfect geologic formation to hold oil or natural gas! I had no idea. I really like this idea of QEII holding up in Windsor and flaming zombies ｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

What's bookclubs thoughts on Quizzlings?

"they need it big-time" ooof Brooks got the cadence of Trump down as a President in 2006. Granted, going from Bush to Trump isn't that big of a leap for an imaginative author since Bush also had poor vocab.

I liked the Kuwait to Israel story.

"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature. I don't blame anyone for not believing. I don't claim to be any smarter or better than them."

Ewww Fernando Oliveira is a horrible person. I don't like that he lives.

Question for bookclub - is the narrator a narcissist whose lampshading her narcissism with over sharing as something that is helpful?

First group we get a mention of is "Heartbouncers" which I think the author has changed the name for because I don't think that's real. Also I'm feeling a AA group takedown in the future. Also wow this lady has a long list of voice acting and real estate in California is expensive (⁠´⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠ω⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠｀⁠)

I really liked the first chapter but the author is glossing over how much Islamic conversion happened at the end of a sword. Sure economic pressure was there too, but I'm side eyeing the waving away of violent conversions during the glory time of the first caliphate.

I want bookclub to know I guessed the plot/twist since the moment we got "replicate the walk"

I thought we would be in the store longer than 15%. Now the mystery really starts?