This Is Beautiful: Thanksgiving Food

 I know it's become like cool and trendy to dunk on Thanksgiving food, but I am honestly really into it. I think it's because I never get this food the rest of the year, and we always know what we're getting for Thanksgiving, so it really hypes it up. It is really just a ton of comfort food that you can eat so much of and then look forward to leftovers! This was also the first year in a while that I was with my grandparents and finally got Grandma's cooking again! There's really nothing like it.

“The Ship of the Dead” by Rick Riordan

This is the final book in Riordan’s series focusing on the gods of Asgard from Norse mythology. I wrote about the first two earlier (links to first book and second book). It is only a three book series, so relatively short.

The book starts with Magnus Chase learning how to jump off of the mast of a ship into the water from Percy Jackson (hey it’s a crossover!). From there Magnus has to get his friends together and sail off on a bright yellow boat to stop Loki and his ship of nails (as in like, fingernails). On the way they get almost eaten by a giant, end up in England fighting another giant, and steal some mead. The mead is to make Magnus more eloquent so that he can challenge and beat Loki in a flyting (like a battle of insults). Once they get to the land of ice, they find Loki, and Magnus wins the flyting by talking up his friends instead of talking down Loki. With him defeated, they rejoin the gods who reinstate Loki’s punishment since nothing can change. Meanwhile, Magnus and Alex face their feelings for each other and set up Magnus’ uncle’s old place as a homeless youth shelter. (It also alludes to Annabeth and Percy getting some bad news, I think Jason’s death?)

Anyways this book is fairly straightforward. They figure out early on what the plan is and go forward with it. I did like that there’s more adventures with Magnus’ hallmates who haven’t had a huge role to play so far. We get to hear about TJ’s backstory, and find out who Mallory’s mother is. It adds more depth to these characters who so far have been enjoyable but not super well defined.

It did strike me as I was reading that the romance is dealt with much more subtly than the Percy Jackson series. Magnus never addresses his feelings for Alex until practically the very end, but he’s thinking about him all the time and is always happy to see her. Which makes it clear what’s going on, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. Speaking of, there’s also a part at the end where Magnus is kissing Alex as a boy and bypasses the whole “I’m kissing a boy” to focus on “I’m kissing Alex” which I thought was a really nice way to handle it. Focuses less on labels and more on the individuals.

I was also intrigued by the way the story deals with fate. The whole idea is that your fate doesn’t change, but we can alter the details. We are all destined to die at Ragnarök, but we can take charge of what we can. What makes this interesting is the gods refusing to do anything else. They have to chain Loki back up in essentially the same manner. What fascinates me about this is that it’s a clear choice on their part. They know what is supposed to happen and what will happen and are ensuring that it stays that way. Versus the mortals don’t know their fate exactly, they are flying blind and trying to do what they can. It’s an interesting contrast between the two, but it makes me think that the gods could do other things if they wanted. The reason Loki gets mad is because of his punishment after all. But maybe this is a universe that abides by the rule that changing your fate only makes it approach faster. Hard to tell, since the mortals still don’t know.

This is the end of my readthrough of Riordan’s works, for now. He’s started a new series focusing on Percy Jackson characters, and I’ll likely pick that up eventually when it’s more accessible for me. On to the next book! I think I’ll keep the rereading going on and instead swap to the Young Wizards series. We’ll see!

This Is Beautiful: Sleeping

 Last week was rough, one of the online groups that I'm a part of totally blew up and people were fighting all over the place. I was trying to stay up and monitor things, and I was so stressed over the whole thing. On Sunday though, we closed the place to make some changes. It's just so nice to take a bit of a break and get some sleep, I honestly haven't had any in a bit.

“The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On” by Franny Choi

This is another book that I picked up from the Dark NoiseCollective slam poetry event. (I wrote about a different book from thatevent earlier.) Back for more poetry!

Again, to speak briefly about the event, I absolutely adored seeing Franny Choi read her poems. Since this was a group event, she selected poems that mentioned the other members of the Dark Noise Collective. Which was really sweet and cute. There was one poem where she mentions going to the funeral of a friend’s grandmother that made my partner cry (surprise, it’s even in this book).

This was a really incredible and insightful work. The poems relate to the end of the world, but the little ends of the worlds that surround you every day. Especially how the world ends all the time for women and racial/ethnic minorities and queer people. And we somehow find a way to go on. The poems span a huge time frame from comfort women used by armies during World War II up until the present day and even into the future. A lot of them are incredibly personal and are about a partner Choi lost a while ago.

The sum total is that the work is personal while expansive and encompasses many different identities and experiences. I think if I go back and read this years from now I’ll pick up on different aspects, and resonate with different poems. A really incredible work.

This Is Beautiful: DEI Session

 This past week I had colleagues and friends lead a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) session for my lab group. We were supposed to have it at the end of the summer, but it got postponed due to scheduling conflicts. We finally had it last Friday and it was awesome! I particularly enjoyed not being the presenter for once and could just enjoy the event. 

I wish we had more events like this in science! It's just so much better when people are aware of these issues and making a more welcoming environment.

“Homie” by Danez Smith

I got this book recently at a slam poetry event. The group Dark Noise Collective was invited to share their work. It was absolutely incredible and so much fun! I ended up buying two books afterwards, both this one and a different one that I’ll post about next week.

Homie is by Danez Smith. I can’t really separate the book from the performance, so I’ll just add that Smith is a Black queer man and super owns it. I can’t remember seeing that much confidence and just love for their fellow artists on stage before. They just exuded positivity and warmth and made you want to hang out with them.

Reading this book was really more of the same. So much of it is unapologetically Black and queer, and just filled with love for other humans. Even the poem about getting beat up is somehow about love! Smith also has a really beautiful way of writing, where they’ll never directly address what the poem is about but you feel it before you put two and two together.

This was a really lovely read, I’ve been trying to get back into reading poetry and I super enjoyed the energy coming from this one. Pick it up if you get the chance!

This Is Beautiful: Cities with Public Transit

 I'm SURE I've talked about this before but my week in DC still has me reeling. Cities with good public transit are amazing. It was incredible, we were able to get from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to everywhere else. What a concept, I need to get away from all of these cars, they're destroying me slowly.

“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach

I had this book on my list for a while, literally years, and I finally managed to get my hands on a copy. It’s a little older now, from the early 2000s, but since there’s so little writing on death and how we deal with it I think it holds up pretty well. The idea is that Roach follows up on what happens with dead bodies. This starts with anatomy medical school programs and goes to research on how bodies decompose or how morticians dress bodies or cremation or becoming compost.

Very clearly Roach has done her research. She frequently talks directly with the people doing this work and follows up for their thoughts on different topics. In one chapter she travels to China to follow up on an article alluding to a crematorium that apparently sliced off buttocks to make into food. (The article turned out to be bogus, but that’s one hell of a trip.) There’s so much work that went into this, it’s kind of incredible.

Roach also has a great sense of humor. She is frequently making jokes or sharing the silly questions that she’s asked people about bodies. In a way it is needed for this book, since it’s about death she has to find some way to lighten it up. It creates a very distinctive voice though that makes the whole experience very unique.

At the end of the book, Roach turns it back on herself and what she’ll do with her body after she dies. And she recognizes that it’s the living that have to carry out your wishes, and really they should only have to do what they are comfortable with. Of course, her husband doesn’t like to think about it, and as it turns out she has decided to only dedicate her body if he goes first. Which is a really just kind note to end on. It acknowledges how it impacts the people around you and who are affected by your choices.

This was a fascinating read, I would highly recommend it to anyone. It might seem depressing, but I thought it was uplifting by the end to see all of the ways we can give back after death. Try reading some of it if you are on the fence!

This Is Beautiful: Taking a Break

 Finally having a quick vacation while traveling for a conference! I didn't sleep much last week so this is very much needed. Anyways, not spending more time than necessary on this. Suffice to say that I'm trying to milk this break for all it's worth.