BookOwl

4/5 stars *Spoilers warning!* “Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable because it requires us to surrender to uncertainty. We have to ask questions, admit to not knowing, risk being told that we shouldn't be asking, and, sometimes, make discoveries that lead to discomfort.” Atlas of the Heart is a 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards winner in the category of nonfiction. Upon it winning the category, I was curious as to why it had received the most votes, and now I know why! In a time of climate crisis, ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and economic woes, society has made talking about mental health somewhat mainstream. Although much stigma remains for those who suffer mental health conditions, I think perhaps that we might be in a time where we want to explore the domains of emotional and mental health. As in, I think we all want to rediscover how to connect with people, after a few years of being physically isolated from one another. "I want this book to be an ...

As 2022 comes to a close, I wanted to reflect on my reading journey this year. I am an active Goodreads user, so I will be using a snapshot of my reading year on the date 12/28/2022 (I will exclude any books I finish between now and New Year's for our purposes). I set a reading goal of 70 books this year. As I tend to do, I overdid it a bit! I ended up reading 135 books . (Granted, graphic novels really helped me out, but those aren't the majority of the reading I do. Not saying that graphic novels are any less valuable or engaging than their non-illustrated, print counterparts, but they are definitely quicker reads.) See below for a visual look at my 2022. Continue below the visuals for a highlights analysis.  *Spoilers warning for the discussion below. You've been warned!*

    *Spoilers warning!* 4/5 stars This book was both difficult to read, but a necessary read at that.  Britt Wray is a researcher who works at the intersection between climate change and mental health. She tackles the very big elephant in the room of climate change, but also that elephant's less-noticed twin, mental health.  As someone who has survived a once-in-a-generation pandemic and is witnessing an ongoing climate crisis, Wray gave words to the complicated feelings of existential dread, anxiety, depression, and grief I had (have) watching all this unfold: eco-anxiety. (Although there are many alternative clinical names for "eco-anxiety," for clarity, I will stick with "eco-anxiety.") "Coping with eco-anxiety is an ongoing process; we toggle between distress over difficult information and states of resilience." In 2020 more than ever, I mourned the loss of "normal" life due to COVID-19 and what appeared to be a future of ...

It is time...for BookOwl to recommend books about owls! (Books and owls: always a winning combination!) Here are my reading recommendations, both fiction and nonfiction, featuring this fascinating bird of prey.  Wesley the Owl  by Stacy O'Brien Wesley the Owl  is a humorous and poignant story of Caltech biologist Stacey O'Brien taking in a baby barn owl with nerve damage in one wing. Thus begins a two-decade chronicle of Stacey raising the barn owl chick, Wesley, from baby to full-grown adult. It offers not only a moving personal journey from the caretaker's perspective, but an interesting look into barn owl development and the complications of taking on the responsibility of raising an owl that can't survive in the wild. Wesley has his own unique personality, and it was a treat as the reader to get to know this owl and follow his story from beginning to end. I'll admit, this one you need to read with a box of tissues. Owls of the Eastern Ice  by Jonathan C. Slaght ...

  For those who need to make lemonade out of life's many lemons, here are some books that will keep you sane in a crazy world.  Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson Jenny Lawson has become my favorite humor writer. In Let's Pretend This Never Happened , one of her first memoirs, she highlights the comedy found in everyday life moments. Chronicling her unusual upbringing in rural Texas, in particular, her fascination with the taxidermy work of her father, Lawson's book is for anyone with an odd sense of humor. Just be warned that this book is peppered with swear words and does meander a bit back and forth in time. For me, that ride was definitely worth it! Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh Allie Brosh is one of my favorite go-to authors if I need a laugh. Also poking fun at her own life, Allie Brosh's graphic novel memoir-of-sorts has a unique art style that contributes to her impeccable dramedic timing. Some of my favorite moments come as Allie deals...

  *Spoilers ahead!* 4.5/5 stars "The enduring lesson of the Trump years and beyond is that the law is a fragile arrangement of norms, suggestions, and rules. It is not, we learned, self-enforcing." Legal journalist Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate , and host of the Amicus  podcast, has authored an outstanding book looking at women from all corners of the law uniting during the Trump administration to fight injustices of all kinds.  This is one of those books you need to fight back a sense of demotivating despair and nihilism when it feels like the world has become unhinged and chaotic. Especially after the Dobbs decision, which eviscerated whatever was left of Roe and handed it to the states to make their own decisions on how to regulate women's bodies. (I'll admit I felt extremely discouraged.) To my great shame, the only woman profiled in the book that I had previously heard about was Sally Yates, the interim Attorney General between the Obama and Trump ad...

*Spoilers ahead!* 4.5/5 stars "Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they'd never do if they were really thinking about it." This pretty much sums up the adventures of Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante so far in "The Expanse" series. (Here, I am covering book three .) It would have been extra wonderful if Holden himself had said that, but alas, it is still a great quote.  In book three, Abaddon's Gate (2013), a coalition of military and science ships from Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) go to investigate the new anomaly at the edge of the solar system the protomolecule left at the end of the previous book. Termed the "Ring," it has claimed the life of one unfortunate teenage adrenaline junky, who tried to pass his ship incredibly close by the ring going at ridiculous speeds. However, the Ring shut that down pretty fast... How does Holden & company get involved? A famous documentary crew hires the Rocinante...

* As always, beware of spoilers!* 4/5 stars Cibola Burn  is the fourth book in "The Expanse" series, and it is another romping, fast-paced adventure! Humanity has come to the first planet on the other side of the "Ring," the alien gateway now home to an orbiting human outpost known as Medina Station. There are thousands of potentially habitable worlds out there, but Cibola Burn takes readers to the planet Ilus (or New Terra). Refugees fleeing from the disaster on Ganymede have settled here to make a new home. New start, new home, all that. They christen their new settlement "First Landing." However, according to the United Nations (UN) and Royal Charter Energy (RCE), an Earth-based corporation looking to capitalize on Ilus's significant lithium deposits, the refugees are illegally squatting. RCE has a UN charter that basically gave it the whole planet for exploration and exploitation.  When RCE sent personnel to the planet's surface to set up an R...

  *Spoilers warning!* 4/5 stars Eyes of the Void , the second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's "The Final Architecture" series, manages to avoid many of the typical pitfalls of sequel books.  Readers are thrust immediately into the action of an ever-shifting galactic political landscape, rival factions at each other's throats when the larger threat of the Architects becomes as salient as it had during the first conflict. A conflict where humanity was almost wiped out, along with its alien allies.  Except this time, the Architects, moon-sized entities that use gravity to annihilate whole planets, have managed to circumvent the protection of Originator artifacts that spooked them in the last war. (The Originators are an elder race presumed to have left behind their artifacts when they disappeared, along with the Throughways, shortcuts through space that many species use to get to far away destinations quickly.) You'd think humanity and its alien allies would seek a unif...