Summary: Dr Platt, a well-established criminologist, outlines the history and current state of incarceration in the US. He covers topics such as how women and minorities as overly-impacted by the harsh sentences, the overpopulated prisons, and the enforced deportations of documented and undocumented immigrants. He warns us that past efforts at reforming the system have actually resulted in changes for the worse. He urges that change needs to happen from the top down, rather than from the bottom up – in other words, we need to change how the people at the top think about incarceration, and not focus only on punishing the people at the bottom (i.e. cops and prison guards) for the failures of the system. He suggests that if we punished white collar crimes (especially those that affect thousands of people) with the same ferocity as crimes of the poor, then reform would happen faster – since the people who have power to do something about the problem will witness the problem first hand.

My Thoughts: I admit, at first I didn’t think I was going to like this book. It started out slow – detail-heavy, with too many statistics listed in sentence after sentence. However, I started getting more into the narrative by the second or third chapter, when Platt started including more information on each event spoken about, instead of just listing events. By the end of the book, I was quite enjoying the educational aspects of the book. This is a topic that I have read a bit on, but not extensively, so I can say that it is a good book for a lay-person trying to educate herself on the history of incarceration in the US. Platt’s views on how we got where we are today, and some of his suggestions of how to look at reform differently (i.e. from the top down and by putting more white-collar people in prison) are definitely food for thought. This is a well-researched book, with lots of important information. It’s not fast reading, but it is worthwhile.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book. Their contribution did not affect the content of my review.

This last week went well. During the weekend, Aaron and I each spent special time with each kid without the baby around. Aaron took both kids (separately) to an inside amusement park. I took D to get a mani / pedi and bought her this gigantic cake at Buffalo Wild Wings. I have not had time to do something with M yet, but the plan is to go to that Spiderverse movie and dinner either tomorrow or Monday.

Because we found the owner of the cat my sister and J rescued, my dad decided he wanted a kitten as a mouser. So we procured a kitten for him. He asked mom multiple times what she wanted to name her, and mom answered “is she staying?” every time. So her name is now Is-she. I wanted to name her Mothra, but was voted down by dad. 🙂

I went out for New Year’s Eve with my friend Todd. I didn’t get a picture of him, but I got a selfie:

We were wearing all red and black. 🙂 Aaron was sweet enough to watch the kids for the evening, for which I’m really grateful. He, D, and M stayed up till midnight to watch the ball drop. So we were all tired in the morning.

We have decided to sign M up for chess lessons starting Sunday. He’s resistant to change, so I hope he doesn’t object too much. He loves chess and is good at it for a self-taught 6-year-old. (In the sense that he can almost beat me, not in the sense that he is a child prodigy.)

Reading this upcoming week

Mimesis and Greece in the Bronze Age are both long-term reads, which I’m sort of alternating through. But I’m in the mood to read just a chapter or so of each soon.

Completed this week

I pumped off a few books and one movie this week. I chose to listen to and watch Twelfth Night, but then looking at my schedule decided I would review it a little later in the comedy trimester (due to themes I’d like to set up). So the review will be upcoming, but not my first Shakespeare review. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Summary: Believe it or not, transhumanism (the alteration of humans using technology in order to improve upon the human in some way), is becoming more and more mainstream. In this well-researched book, journalist Mark O’Connell records his journeys through transhumanism conferences, meetings with rich, well-connected transhumanist individuals, and a crazy bus-ride with a person who was “running for president” and wanted to make people live forever.

My thoughts: Like the author, I am skeptical that transhumanism is really a great development for mankind. It feels a little – well – wrong to change one’s body to “improve upon it.” And I don’t want to live forever. However, I think the book was very interesting and expressed some interesting arguments in favor of transhumanism. Despite the author’s skepticism, he portrayed transhumanists in a positive light, and remained impartial. The book was well-researched, and I certainly feel more educated on the subject now. I would suggest this book to people who are interested in technology waves of the future with a dash of philosophy.

 

Cute but not very content-filled finger puppet book about a turkey celebrating the fall.

Rather silly book about a boy who is always being told “no” because of naughty behavior. But then he’s told he’s loved at the end. Awww.

Adorable book about a little owl who flies around and enjoys a night.

I loved this book. I actually cried. Of course, I’ve got weird post-partum hormones right now, but still. Very touching.

Cute, but a tad predictable.

A classic, of course. IL is too young for interactive books, but it’s still worth the read.

In the spirit of the 2019 Year of Shakespeare, I was thinking about why people bother reading plays and screenplays to begin with. Plays are written to be watched, not read. If the actors and director is good, you get more context out of watching a play than reading it, and altogether it is more enjoyable to me. However, people are not considered thoroughly well-read in the classics unless they have read at least some Shakespeare, as well as some of the Greek tragedies. Why? I admit, the way I am approaching 2019 Year of Shakespeare is that I will watch the play first, then I will listen to it as an audiobook, which I think (if well-acted) still gives more context than the written word. I do not plan on actually reading the hard copy. Is that cheating?

What do you think? Do you enjoy reading plays? Why?  

Well, 2019 has come and I am excited to be hosting The 2019 Year of Shakespeare with Erica at The Broken Spine. We will be covering:

January – April Comedies (hosted by me)

May – August Histories (hosted by me)

September – Dececember Tragedies (hosted by Erica)

This will be a very informal Shakespeare read. You can read (or watch) any Shakespeare play within the month’s category. Erica or I will post a intro post at the beginning of the trimester on which you can put links to your reviews in the comments. Please put your reviews in the comments section of THIS post. Have fun everyone!

Off the Blog

Well, I have more pictures of my family with the baby. Here is my nephew B with IL.

And my nephew J with IL.

A lot happened this week. First of all, IL was diagnosed as with hypothyroidism. We don’t know yet how bad the situation is, but we have to grind up some Thyroid Hormone replacement and put it in his formula. It has given him diarrhea and keeps him awake all night. 😦 However, we think the side effects are well worth saving him from the intellectual harm that could be caused by the hypothyroidism in the long run. Hopefully he’s catching up on sleep during the day (and we’re switching to giving the med during the day, so we can sleep at night). And hopefully the diarrhea is only a temporary problem. Here is a picture of Aaron and IL after a long night of staying awake.

On top of all that, my sister and nephew J “saved” a tame cat that had been out in the Minnesota cold on Christmas. Since they have two pitt bulls, I took the cat to my parent’s house, where they need a cat to scare off the mice. I put up a post in a few places, and found the owner, though, so my parents still don’t have a mouser. 🙂

Exercise and Weight Loss

This month I was told to take it easy with the exercise, so I have only been doing a little bit of mall walking with my mom. And a really small mall at that. I plan on doing a more rigorous exercise routine starting January. I am hoping to get down to 160 lbs before the end of this year, and down to 140 by the end of the following year. That may be asking too much, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Here’s a graph of my weight loss so far since the baby was born. The peak is, of course, my peak weight during the pregnancy:

Not too shabby, eh? Of course, most of that is the weight of the baby, plus some water, lol. I’ll keep you updated with a monthly graph of my progress – assuming there is progress!

Reading and Watching this Upcoming Week

Still working on The Vaccine Race, The Scarlet Letter, and moved on to Grave Peril – the third book in the Dresden Files (for my Dresden Files Group Read). In January for the 2019 Year of Shakespeare I’m going to read Twelfth Night. So I’ve decided to watch the movies available on Amazon. This is the first I started. 🙂

Completed This Week

Finished Fool Moon, the second book in the Dresden Files.

Acquired This Week

Here are my Christmas presents this year. I’m pretty excited about all of them.

Summary: When of Harry Dresden’s students asks him for help to build a magical circle to enclose a beast, he refuses because he is afraid she will hurt herself. However, he is soon entangled in a murder case involving his student and her circle. As he searches for the murderer, he discovers all sorts of Werewolves and he has to figure out which are good and which are bad.

My Thoughts: This book is just as good as the first Dresden book. Although I hear he becomes more kick-ass in each of the following books and he eventually gets so kick-ass that he has reached the peak of kick-assedness and can’t go any further. I’m looking forward to seeing how kick-ass he can get. In this book, he is certainly more kick-ass than the first book.

Because I feel silly reviewing every short book that I read, I’ve decided to begin a Thursday tradition of listing off the children’s books and graphic novels that I’ve read each week.

To IL, I’ve read:

A cute book about a little bunny that wants to run away from home, but is convinced by his mom that she’ll follow him anywhere.

A short but sweet night-night story for young children.

I had to suspend my disbelief for this book, but it was still pretty cute. 🙂 It was about a family of ducklings moving through Boston to get to a lovely new home.

Yet another classic. I loved this book as a child. Is it an allegory for voting? lol

Despite knowing who Thomas is and playing with his little toy friends, I had no idea Thomas was such a fussy little engine. It’s nice to see him develop in this set of stories.

Cute book about how much mommy loves her son.

Adorable book about a big hare and a little hare telling each other how much they love each other.

Also adorable. Story about snowmen partying at night.

I think everyone knows what this book is about. 🙂