This Is Beautiful: Travel

 I haven't taken a vacation in a while, but I just traveled for my first in person interview for a job. I tried to treat it like a mini vacation, get some rest in and some me time. And it's honestly really nice traveling by myself. I get to do what I want, eat more quickly in restaurants, and have a nice time. I love solo travel so much. And it isn't that long of a trip so I get home and back to it rather quickly. It's a nice mini-break which is what I need.

"Come Tumbling Down" by Seanan McGuire

 This is the fifth book of the Wayward Children series (others can be found on this blog, the first, second, third, and fourth are all here). I was really pleased that this book is a return to previous characters that I love, while I was frustrated about its length primarily. I felt that this was the first book in the series that really suffered from being a novella and could have used up many more pages.

The book starts with Christopher in his room after the events of Beneath a Sugar Sky when lightning strikes the floor. And keeps striking. A door appears and Alexis, carrying Jack, emerges. Cora, Sumi, and Kade are all there by that point. Sumi wakes Jack up and it's revealed that Jack was forced to body swap with Jill so that Jill can become a vampire in Jack's body (which has never died). Jack is slowly falling apart being in Jill's body, so they all head to the Moors to attack the vampires before that can happen. Once there, Cora is called into the sea and disappears. The others head to the church of the Drowned God to ask for help. Kade falls on the way, but Cora then reappears with Kade, speaks for the Drowned God, and then recovers. They head to the castle, body swap Jack back into her body, and kill Jill. Then the others head back to the school.

Alright well, first of all I saw that this was another book about Jack and Jill and I sure was pleased that it wasn't another stand alone. Having Christopher, Cora, Sumi, and Kade all there helped a lot to lighten the mood of the Moors. And they were happy to be reunited with Jack which was cute.

Beyond that though, there wasn't a lot dedicated to this quest. Cora mysteriously returns with Kade, so there didn't seem to be a point in all that. We could have at least gotten something from Kade or Cora's point of view for that time. And Jack does worry about killing her sister, but there isn't anything to speak to her mental status after this. It seems like a done deal from the beginning. Everything in general from the Moors onward just felt rushed, like we could take our time and talk to these characters more. Since the book is primarily about this quest, I would want some details about it.

Anyways, still love this series, I hope that there's more books continuing this story specifically rather than one offs. I can't wait for the next one.

This Is Beautiful: Warm Weather

 I forget this every year, but it makes such a difference when it starts to warm up outside. I get to drive with the windows down, not bundle up every time I lead the house, and just soak up some sun. It fixes like the vast majority of my brain chemistry haha. Anyways we have had a few false springs, and I think we are actually in the clear now. It's so nice out!

Struggling with "Ducks, Newburyport"

 I don't really have a real post this week, primarily because getting through Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann has been such a struggle for me. The book is long, but that doesn't usually intimidate me. What is more frustrating is that most of the book is written as a giant sentence stringing together stream of consciousness thoughts from our protagonist. 

It is a cool idea, and as a recent book dealing with the first Trump administration and the world, it is an interesting concept. But I am not getting into it. The stream of consciousness means that I have no idea what is happening as there's so much being thought at the same time, and I don't really know who the characters are or care about them. You'd probably think that we get a very intimate look at our protagonist, but I don't feel that way. I feel like she's behind this wall of thoughts where I only get a brief look at what she's thinking or feeling at any time. It's just impossible for me to parse and make sense of and make a connection through.

There's also places interspersed with traditional narration of a mother lion. These bits make more sense. Yet I am not sure how they connect, except that both point of view characters are mothers I suppose. It is just hard to figure out what has meaning here, there's so much being thrown at me that I'm skimming most of it and it just takes energy.

I'm really not sure if I'm going to finish this. It is a long book to get through if you don't enjoy it. I'm trying for now, but this is certainly the least I've enjoyed a book in a very long time.

This Is Beautiful: Done with lab work!

 Alright so I thought I was done with experiments, and then we heard back from the journal, and then I was back to doing experiments for the past month. The unfortunate part is that I didn't have my undergrads that I trained to help me so I was doing everything entirely on my own. But I wrapped it up last Friday and I'm done again! And it's far too close to me leaving for me to pick up more things on this project. So that's exciting! I can finally check this off of my to-do list for graduate school!

“Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe

This book has been on my to read list for a while, and I didn’t know until I picked it up that the author also had written Empire of Pain, a book my partner really enjoyed. So I was excited to pick it up. I think there are some issues with the framing of the story, but overall this was a really intriguing and impressive look at the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The book opens with detectives heading to Boston College to investigate a murder. From there it jumps back twenty or so years and starts telling us about the night Jean McConville was abducted from her home of ten children. It jumps again and starts telling us the history of the Troubles. Some characters of note are the Price sisters, Dolores and Miriam; the McConville children of course; and a few other IRA members. The focus jumps around a little bit to update us on everyone as the Troubles progress, up to the car bombs in London and the jailing of Dolores and Miriam and all the hunger strikers, including Bobby Sands and nine others that died in jail. We then get to Gerry Adams going into politics and orchestrating the Good Friday Agreement that ended the violence.

In the aftermath, a former IRA member Mackers starts setting up oral histories of the IRA with members, under the agreement that it wouldn’t be released until the members died. However, investigations into the handful of folks disappeared by the IRA jumps the gun and soon oral histories are being requested to investigate the murder of Jean McConville. There’s a whole back and forth about whether to hand the tapes over and Boston College capitulates. Unfortunately though, not many folks talked about her death. It’s Keefe himself who takes it on himself to put together the pieces, and through a few fragments he manages to place Miriam Price at the location of the murder and likely the person who pulled the fatal trigger. The book ends with this narrative about the author and reflection on the writing process of this book and memories of the IRA.

It did take me a while to get into the book, I was primarily interested in the murder and the book departs from that narrative for the majority of the text. It felt a bit clickbait-y, the way it opens with the murder and intrigue and then departs to give a whole history of an entire movement first. Once the second half comes though with the discussion of the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and the debate around these tapes I was more absorbed. I feel like there was a framing that could be worked out that makes this more a history of the Troubles, but I do understand if Keefe is interested in publishing his theory of the murder that this framing would make sense to him. So hard to say which would be better for the work as a whole.

I was also extremely impressed with the depth of the work. Keefe explicitly talks about memory and tries to corroborate accounts when possible, and make use of direct quotes. He was able to talk to a lot of folks, like the McConville children, and the folks making the oral history. Many other also refused to talk to him, but the depth is so impressive. Multiple characters are detailed out, and I felt like I could keep them all straight, which is a feat in and of itself. It really speaks to the strengths of the writing that during the book I didn’t get confused or have to flip back to remind myself who someone was.

The book is excellent, so well written and such a thorough account of a relatively recent and heated topic in history. My only minor quip is the framing, but it does pay off by the end of the work. I should check out Empire of Pain next, I could read more of this writing style.

This Is Beautiful: Interviews

 So I haven't had much, but I've now had 2 virtual interviews, and one of those is now leading to an in person interview for a teaching position! I just got the details this week for that, and it's really exciting that I'm at least getting a few nibbles on my applications! I will get out of here and get a job haha.