Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon

I read Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon to complete the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt about a character who runs a marathon.

Quill is out for a run on the reservation where she lives in Minnesota one day when she hears a scream. She reports the scream to the police, who do a half-assed investigation and when she returns to the scene of the scream the next day, she finds an earring and tire tracks. From this point on, Quill sinks deeper and deeper into the mystery of women going missing. 

This novel draws attention to the plight of murdered and missing indigenous women in the United States and Canada. Women in indigenous communities go missing at a higher rate than other communities, as well as face higher levels of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and murder. Quill's experience here shows the ripple effects it has on all women, including those who are in stable, healthy relationships with safe homes. Quill is herself in danger when she starts investigating the disappearance of her friends, she has to change her running plans and routes because of the danger, and at one point, she's in danger of losing her children. And Quill has done nothing wrong, but because she lives on a reservation and is a woman, her life is impacted. If you then imagine what it's like for women who might lead riskier lifestyles, it all compounds in a messy stew of danger. 

I really feel like Rendon does a great job of weaving in details about Quill's daily life - what she cooks, wears, and chores she completes that are sometimes quite different from what my life - without this becoming a preachy book that veers off course from what is, at its heart, a thriller. 

It was an interesting setting and an interesting topic. There wasn't too much about running, but just enough so that you know it's important to Quill. I liked the female relationships Quill had with her friends and relatives. Sometimes it's nice to know that there are women out there who like other women, you know? 

It is a thriller and there are descriptions of violence against women, so if that's a dealbreaker for you, be forewarned. 

4/5 stars

Lines of note:

After running Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, she set her sights on the Boston Marathon. (page 25)

Justification for using this book in this PSRC prompt.

Quinn put Cheerios, water, an apple, and gummy fruit snacks into a bag. Living in northern Minnesota meant you never left home for a drive in the winter without extra food, blankets, and good winter boots. (page 41)

I had a colleague who had a flat tire once on a major interstate (I-39/I-90 for the locals) on his morning commute on a cold, slushy day. He got frostbite ON HIS KNEES. There's always a blanket or towel in our car and if I'm wearing dressy clothes to get to work in the winter, I throw my boots and snowpants in the back, too. I never have to pack food because I always have food with me. I honestly can't imagine living somewhere where you don't have to take these things into consideration. 

Quill struggled to tell one white guy from another. (page 67)

Preach it, yo. Cross-racial identification is challenging. 

Things I looked up:

Strong Women's Song - an anthem for Indigenous women's empowerment and strength, and signal the distinct challenges Indigenous women face. It was composed in the 1990s by some of the inmates in the Prison for Women (often referred to as P4W) in Kingston, Ontario, as a means of communicating among and offering support to one other while they were in their cells (they tapped on pipes and metals bars with the drum beat and sang aloud). (source - I have university credentials and downloaded the full article. If anyone wants the article, let me know)

On the third round, the women, who were carrying their kookum scarves or had them tied on their wrists, counted coup on the door like they did on the pickup trucks and big SUVs...(page 205, emphasis mine)

Among the Plains Indians of North America, counting coup (coup is French for 'blow' or 'shock') is the warrior tradition of winning prestige against an enemy in battle. It is one of the traditional ways of showing bravery in the face of an enemy and involves intimidating him, and, it is hoped, persuading him to admit defeat, without having to kill him. Historically, any blow struck against the enemy counted as a coup, but the most prestigious acts included touching an enemy warrior with a hand, bow, or coup stick and escaping unharmed, and without harming the enemy, except for the enemy's wounded pride.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

No hat. (page 73)

wearing a hat (page 91)

duckbill hats (page 118)

beaded top hat (page 147)

passed the hat (page 200)

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Do you stock your car differently during different seasons? I always have a snack with me and it's generally trail mix or a granola bar. What are your go to snacks to have when you're leaving the house? 

The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack

I think it should be clear to all my regular readers that right now I am relistening to all the episodes of You're the Expert, a comedy panel show where comedians talk to an expert. I may be the only person listening to these episodes from ten years ago, but there's something sort of nostalgic about listening to these shows in a pre-COVID world. If you ask me about anything right now, I'll tie it back to YTE. Anyway, Colin Jerolmack was on the show talking about his book The Global Pigeon and I was immediately intrigued (here's the episode link). 

I am a political scientist. And I stand by my feeling that it's super important. If you don't think it's important, I suggest you take a closer look at the world around you right now. BUT. I also think the sociologists and anthropologists have a claim to important things. And their methodology is SO MUCH FUN. Participant observation is my absolute favorite academic thing to read. Richard Fenno's Home Style is a classic. Fenno was a political scientist, but he embedded himself with eighteen members of the House of Representatives and wrote a book that's literal theory is that there are nested circles of constituencies, which makes me laugh because why did you need to spend YEARS to figure that out. ANYWAY.  I love that book. Did anyone else read Gang Leader for a Day and then wonder why they didn't become a sociologist? OH! What about the ethical debacle that is Carolyn Ellis who embedded herself into a community, wrote a condemning book about them, and then lots of other people wrote about how unethical Carolyn Ellis was? SOCIOLOGY, MAN. SO GOOD. 

Okay, I need to get back on track. So when Jerolmack was on this podcast talking about how he's an anthropologist, but he studies pigeons, I almost peed myself laughing. By definition, anthropology is the holistic, scientific study of humanity. And he opens with PIGEONS. I want you know that I had to pause the podcast because I was laughing so hard. Is this funny to anyone else? Anyway, it's not really about pigeons. He is really interested in what role these animals play in modern urban life, so it does end up being about humans, but I still insisted on calling this book the pigeon book as I was reading it. 

And boy did I like this book. Friends, I was riveted. Basically, the author noticed that people interacted with pigeons in a park, embedded himself with people who race pigeons (like rooftop racing) in New York City, then traveled to Berlin to embed with some Turkish immigrants who raise tumblers, a type of pigeon that tumbles acrobatically and dramatically in flight. Then he spent some time at the end of the book going to a crazy pigeon race where the prizes are literally millions of dollars. THERE ARE PHOTOS. RIVETING. 

And Jerolmack is a sociologist, so he's really interested in human-animal relations and all roads lead back to that. I think it's interesting that this is such a male-dominated hobby. I think it's interesting that pigeon racing hasn't really caught on outside of a few major cities. I think it's interesting that it's such a communal hobby, even though it appears to be very much a solitary endeavor at first glance. I think it's SUPER interesting how pigeons are treated in different cities and countries. Are they a nuisance who cause a lot of damage? Are they part of a long cultural heritage that should be respected? ARE THEY BOTH?

If any of this is interesting to you (seriously, at least watch the video of the tumbling pigeons!), read this. Sure, it's an academic book, but it's readable and surprisingly accessible for ethnography. 5/5 stars  

Lines of note:

In public places, strangers are often expected to - at most - briefly acknowledge one another and then divert their attention elsewhere. Although strangers may wish to engage in sidewalk interactions, rules of civility dictate that they need an excuse to do so. Erving Goffman observed that dogs are a "classic bridging device" between strangers in public, and studies of urban parks confirm that dogs "facilitate encounters among the previously unacquainted." In public places like Father Demo Square, pigeons too may act as a sort of interactional prop among strangers - in addition to focusing the attention of those already associated. (page 31) 

Because pigeon flying was historically the domain of working-class white men who passed on the practice, and their coops, to their sons, the number of flyers declined precipitously over the second half of the 20th century as many upwardly mobile whites migrated from New York's outer boroughs to the suburbs. But pigeon flying is not dead yet, and by making the four-mile trip to Joey's pet shop, Carmine got to socialize with other elderly and middle-aged Italians who commuted in from more genteel neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Bensonhurst. Carmine also mixed with young and middle-aged Hispanic and black men who flew pigeons in the immediate vicinity of the pet shop. These men reflected a newer cohort of flyers that picked up the hobby from ethnic whites as kids when they moved into neighborhoods in transition such as Bushwick and Easy New York. (page 80)

Rather than sitting idle or passively having their life structured by television, these retired men provided their own structure and narrative to their life - the birds and coops required their constant labor and attention. Interestingly, they work of keeping pigeons (e.g., feeding, bathing, and raising them) also has clear parallels to the kind of domestic "care work" that is traditionally coded as feminine. Though none of the flyers framed it this way, pigeons seemed to provide an opportunity for men to perform care work without it posing a threat to their masculinity. (page 102-103)

Most flyers were fascinated by pigeon biology, genetics, reproduction, the homing instinct, and so on. Yet when I asked them if they felt an affinity to nature, I was usually met with a blank look that followed a simple "no" or "not really." I saw no evidence that pigeon keeping was part of, or led to, a more general connect to nonhumans...The men were thus attached to the birds not primarily because they were ambassadors of the wild but because they were products of the men's own hands. (page 105)

...spoke to Ahmet Dede, a pudgy, boyish-looking man in his early 30s from Istanbul, he lamented, "This leisure activity is actually a waste of time. You don't earn money by doing this. I would be happier, for example, if I studied - if I was in your place and interviewed you instead of you interviewing me. I would be a happier person if I studied instead of taking care of pigeons, working in . . . the imbiss, and I don't want my child to pay too much attention to pigeons." (page 126)

This was brought home in the common occurrence of curious Germans, including dog walkers, who happened upon the coops and marveled at the frantic tumbles of the pigeons. Such chance encounters usually resulted in amicable interactions between the Turkish men and ethnic Germans, but in each instance the Germans asked why the men kept pigeons. Every answer the men gave highlighted the origins of the bird or the animal practice. Such discussions were never had about people's pet dogs, as keep dogs is taken-for-granted animal practice. (page 130)

...Turkish caretakers gained satisfaction in their mundane interactions with the birds, through raising them and through the simple aesthetic appreciation of watching them in flight. Some kissed the birds, and Turan tenderly spoke to a sick baby pigeon as he fed it special food through a funnel....Some of the men referred to caring for pigeons as an "escape."...The escape that the tumblers afforded was not a flight from society altogether, but rather a temporary respite from tedious routines and the estrangement of living in a foreign city. (page 130-131)

Things I looked up:

Coca-Cola spelled out its logo in pigeons (page 50) - I mean, I don't think it really looks like the logo, but what do I know? 

Gary Player (page 196) - a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. Also, he was a supporter of apartheid, so you decide what to do with that information. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He regularly wore fingerless gloves, a thick gold chain with a medallion, and a bicycle hat (one said "Brooklyn" on the brim while another was emblazoned with "USA"). (page 91)

Five for Friday, Edition #40: The Random Photo Edition

1) The cat is queen of the house. Have we discussed how Zelda has taken over poor Hannah's kennel? 

2) I'm going to get a new office chair! I was actually given a new office chair (see below), but it turns out they sent the wrong chairs and I'm actually going to get one that's fancier than this one, so now you know just as much about the chairs as I do. I had the use of this one for one entire working day (Wednesday). 

3) Library books! As of Saturday, I only had four library books and I was freaking out because that's the number I had when the library closed because of the pandemic and I'm NEVER going to be unprepared for a library shutdown ever again. I immediately ordered more books from the library than I could ever read. 

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon - currently reading

We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler - I have started this one twice, but it doesn't hold much interest. It gets one more shot and then I'm returning it. 

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda - IRL book club pick. 

 

The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch: How the Canceled Sitcom Became the Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today by Kimberly Potts - I borrowed this to fulfill a Pop Sugar Reading Challenge Prompt, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to really read it.

Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi - This sounds depressing as hell. It might not be a great fit for this time of year.

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler - Mindless YA? I don't mind if I do.

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum and translated by Shanna Tanj - Cozy Japanese Korean literature? YES! (Thanks to the Anonymous commenter who pointed out this error. I'm sorry. It's not a great mistake to make.)

Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg - It will not surprise anyone that Pepperberg was on an episode of the You're the Expert podcast, would it? 

Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn't Built for Us by Alison Mariella Désir - For a Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt. I usually despise running/athlete memoirs, but this has a 4.55 Goodreads rating. Surely it's good? (I suspect I will not read this one, either.)

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz - This book was cited in Humor Me, so I ordered it immediately. 

By the Sword (Valdemar saga) by Mercedes Lackey - I enjoyed the last installment of Valdemar so much I ordered the next one. 

The next couple of photos are brought to you by me trying to document things that make me laugh.

4) Ted and the Giant Carrot - In this sequel to James and the Giant Peach, we try to figure out why the carrots at our grocery store are the size of melons.

Look at those carrots!

5) This dog. If you are ever driving around my town and you see this dog in the terrace rolling around, just know that she is loved and cared for. I mean, look how clean those teeth are. I laughed so hard at her.

Have you read any of those books? What's on your to-read list next? If you had to pick one of my books to read next, what would you read? 

In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard

I listened to In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard because it fulfilled the prompt for a book about teen angst in the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. 

In this book, we have a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in Zanesville, Illinois. We never learn her name, but she shares the name of one of the girls in Little Women and I deduce it is Jo, like the author, but that's me making a lot of assumptions. ANYWAY, this girl and her best friend Felicia (Flea) go on adventures in Zanesville. There's a babysitting fiasco that involves the fire department, sick kittens they're hiding from their parents, and lots of drama about boys. 

I found this book to be funny, particularly the opening babysitting scene. There are concerning parts, mainly centered around our main character's alcoholic father, but nothing particularly violent happened on page. I thought the observational writing was sharp and witty and I found myself nodding in agreement to so much of what it was like to be a young teen. It has a Mary Jane feel to it, although maybe that's just because there are teenage girls in the 1970s and babysitting. 

Oh, I wanted to talk about the narration. Beard reads the audiobook herself and I have to admit that it made me happy. The way she says water (werter) and how it sounds like her tongue gets tangled up in her mouth when she says the word cereal. And how sometimes I just had no idea what she was saying (see my note below on whether it was wide or white). Just such a great representation of how people from southern Illionois speak. Seriously. The narration was perfection. 

I'd recommend it. 4/5 stars

(If you don't want to read this, but want to read a powerfully sad article about a failing marriage, a dying dog, and an event at work that none of us would ever want to live through, click on this link. Jo Ann Beard writes beautifully.)

Lines of note:

I have an affinity for anything that has peeled off fur or looks terminal, or, for that matter, for anything that seems to notice me. (timestamp 57:20)

Ha! I was exactly like this as a young person. Sick bird? Let me at it. A rando boy gives me the time of day? Obviously I'm in love. 

Mr. Wilton, the teacher, pays attention only to the first chair musicians and the percussionists, a gang of unruly thick-waisted boys wielding drumsticks, gongs, and triangles. (timestamp 1:41:59) 

YES!! This was band. My band teacher was Mr. Wilson, though. This is hilarious. I didn't know the band class experience was so ubiquitous. 

I'd like to be the kind of person who does something weird and not become weird because of it, but that's out of reach for me. I am what I do at this point and if I do this, I'm done for. Once I march in their parade, I will be in it forever... (timestamp 1:49:45)

I think I am just a weird person. 

One of the more memorable things I ever read back here were the Cliff's Notes for Moby-Dick, which I found in a box of old comic books my mother brought home. It was a gripping story, but also sickening. Mostly what I took from it was that nobody on a whaling ship has much sympathy for a whale. (timestamp 5:05:50) 

Moby-Dick is everywhere!!!!

Hat mentions (why hats?):

little hat I wore in kindergarten that had yarn pigtails and a girl's face embroidered on the back of the head (timestamp 1:09:52)

the hats are hard blue cylinders with a short white brim (timestamp 1:39:14) - I honestly can't tell from accent if it's white or wide, so if I got it wrong, I apologize

First problem: the hat is resting on my ears (timestamp 1:39:34)

The hats are at least eight inches tall (timestamp 1:39:59)

In the hat, she looks at tall as the Empire State Building (timestamp 1:49:27)

our instruments and our hats (timestamp 1:52:14)

under their hats (timestamp 1:55:58)

What about when I was a kindergartner and had on my favorite little hat with yarn pigtails and a face embroidered on the back and a sixth grade boy who I was enchanted with started teasing me by speaking only to my hat?  (timestamp 2:09:47)

paper hat askew (timestamp 2:33:09)

man's grey hat (timestamp 3:15:28)

fishing hat (timestamp 3:23:37)

vinyl Carnaby Street hat (timestamp 4:04:10) 

birthday hats (timestamp 5:07:37)

Easter hat (timestamp 6:19:19)

grey hat (timestamp 6:57:10)

taking his hat out of his pocket (timestamp 7:28:15)

eyeliner and a hat like the one they tried on me (timestamp 8:14:14)

fishing hats (timestamp 8:27:58)

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Does anyone have a disastrous babysitting story from their youth? Did you ever have to call the police or fire department? Do you say the word cereal as if your tongue is all tangled up?

Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy by Chris Duffy

I did a self-reflection and realized it is March, which is smack dab in the middle of the February - March - April run that is, in my humble opinion, the absolute nadir of the calendar year. We're still in winter. Despite the increase in sunlight in the evenings, I'm still mostly outside in the dark. I am exhausted. There is no end in sight. In January, I am still running high on the holiday season and am confident I can persevere through winter. By February, I can tell myself that spring is around the corner. But by March, I have to admit that spring is still months away, I am cold and will never be warm again, and I hate spring anyway because it's unpredictable and muddy and not that warm anyway. For those of you who do not suffer from season affective disorder, I am eternally jealous. 

Anyway, friends, I'm doing all the things. I'm exercising. I'm initiating intimacy. I'm finding gratitude. I'm going outside. I'm putting my cell phone in the other room at meals. I'm meditating. 

But I still can't be bothered to do anything besides what I absolutely have to do. Respond to personal emails? That's not 100% necessary. Vacuum the rugs? They'll still be covered in fur next week. Wash my hair? Surely that can wait for another day. 

So I was relistening to episodes of You're the Expert, an excellent, now-defunct podcast hosted by Chris Duffy, a man who I think is hilarious, and one of the inserted ads in the podcast was for his new book, Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy. I decided that I needed something to help me get through this slog of seasonally dependent ennui. And if Chris Duffy can tell me what that something is, I'm on board. 

This book is about developing your own personal sense of humor and using it to get through difficult times. He has three pillars - be present, laugh at yourself, and take social risks. In this book, he walks through those three pillars and gives a list of homework at the end of each chapter to practice. 

This book was joyful and fun and made me feel like I can conquer the winter blues. 

I'm not going to tell you about all the homework he gave you, but here are three things I'm implementing immediately in the hopes that it will help me make it through May. 

1) Embrace a new bathroom state of mind: In your own bathroom, you know what's there and how it's set-up and you just sort of take it for granted. But when  you go to a new bathroom, you notice all the things. Oh, these towels are so soft. This toilet paper is great! Look at how pretty that sink is. I like how they have a 3D printed cat toothpaste dispenser. Have this same state of mind with your ordinary life.  Look at your bathroom with new eyes. Try to notice something on your everyday commute. 

2) Notice what you think is funny. Track it. I have started just jotting down in my notes app on my phone when I laugh during the day. What made me laugh on Friday, you ask?

• Getting a rejection email for a job I applied to in 2023
• Hannah getting very tangled up in her leash while attempting to chew a stick and roll around in the grass
• Mentions of Uncle Kracker and tall bikes, things I hadn't thought about in years
• These funny Stuf of Doom Oreos at the grocery store

3) Talk to strangers. I mean, I already do talk to strangers pretty frequently. But now I'm making more of an effort to. 

If this goes well, maybe I'll have an occasionally blog series in which I write about things that make me laugh. 

Anyway, I found this book hopeful and full of joy. I hope Chris Duffy knows he's doing good work that is keeping this Midwestern lady going. 5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Seeking out humor in a situation doesn't mean denying the uncomfortable or unfunny aspects of reality. Far from it. This is where humor differs crucially from so-called toxic positivity, the pressure to put on a happy face no matter the circumstances. It isn't about finding the silver lining in every cloud. It's about acknowledging the clouds. "I cannot believe how many fucking clouds there are! It's like the sky is JUST CLOUDS!" Humor is a way of addressing reality while shifting our relationship to it. It reverse-engineers despair into hope. (page 10-11)

I like that Duffy addressed toxic positivity. I worry a lot that if I focus on the good and being grateful, etc., I will come off as one of those people who is in denial about (gestures dramatically) the world of 2026. 

Researchers discovered that when you're willing to laugh at your flaws, other people view those flaws as less important than if you'd addressed them more dryly. The study found that "job candidates who revealed their limited math ability in a humorous manner ('I can add and subtract, but geometry is where I draw the line') were perceived as better able to do math than those who disclosed the information in a serious manner ('I can add and subtract, but I struggle with geometry'). (page 52)

STORY TIME!!

We are currently interviewing people for a position on campus and I'm on the hiring committee. I'm being purposefully vague because the form you have to sign literally says "the search committee's findings must be held confidential for eternity," which seems crazy and like it might not hold up in court, but I'm not going to give any confidential information away.

Our first round was a screening round via Webex and it's so stiff and weird and formal and the candidates are so nervous. There was this one woman I was rooting for (I cannot tell you why until the end of eternity), but the start of her interview was rocky. I was supposed to introduce myself and ask the second question, but I sort of forgot the "introduce myself" part until I was halfway through the question! So I stopped and said, "oh no! you don't know me yet!" and introduced myself and everyone on the call started laughing, including the candidate. Then I asked the question and we moved on. And everyone FUCKING RELAXED A LITTLE. 

So I started making snarky comments before I asked my question and it helped the candidates a little bit because they could see I was on their side. I mean, interviewing is so stressful and it sucks and I was just trying to get them to loosen up. My boss mentioned that it was fun having me on the calls for these interviews and I took that as a huge compliment. 

In one hilarious experiment, [Timothy] Wilson asked study subjects to sit alone in a room with their thoughts for fifteen minutes. "The team left participants alone in a lab room in which they could push a button and shock themselves if they wanted to. The results were startling: Even though all participants had previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict it on themselves rather than just sit there quietly and think." (page 60)

Who are you people who wouldn't take fifteen minutes for a nap?!?! MORE THAN HALF OF THE PEOPLE SHOCKED THEMSELVES. Dude. You could just do some yoga or sleep? I found this SHOCKING (ha ha ha - pun absolutely intended) and it was almost as dumbfounding to me as Donald Trump winning a second term. 

A ton of behavioral science backs up the idea that taking social risks leads to positive results. Among the many studies, hardly any make people quite as skeptical as the one that found talking to a stranger on the train or bus would improve the quality of their day. A typical reaction goes something like "Maybe that works for some people, but not on the buses I take."

In fact, the University of Chicago team that conducted the study found that "those who talked to strangers reported a significantly happier ride than those who kept to themselves - even though a survey of a separate group of commuters predicted the opposite." (page 74)

Okay, but I think we can all agree that talking to people on planes is crazy, right?

Hat mentions (why hats?):

If you're at the mall, a nine-year-old might try on the largest hat she can find. (page 83)

...wore a big cowboy hat to school every day? (page 114)

...put on a fun hat and take a self of us. (page 133)

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What is something that made you laugh out loud recently? 

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Young-sook is a young Korean girl living on the island of Jeju. Jeju is a matrifocal society, where women are in charge of finances and the direction of the family. Young-sook is the daughter of the chief of the divers, women who dive deep into the sea to feed their families. Mi-ja is Young-sook's best friend, but they are from different families and backgrounds and soon those differences will tear them apart. We follow these women through World War II, through the Korean War, and way into the present when the atrocities they witnessed are finally acknowledged. 

Here's the thing. I hate the flash forwarding thing. I was invested in these women in the past and hated every time we moved forward to present time. It was fascinating to hear about how the women learned to dive and how knowledge flowed from one generation to the next. I was very invested in hearing about how much everyone hated the Japanese and then hated the Americans. The historical details were woven in to the story seamlessly. It is another example of how world events do eventually come to change the day to day lives of average people.

It was heartbreaking to hear about how such a stable society was undermined by events and factors entirely outside of their control. It was depressing to read about war crimes and acts of violence against civilians knowing that there weren't really any consequences. 

But man did I hate the modern day scenes. It was like being yanked of a perfectly good dream to have to empty the clothes washer. 

(I was thinking of Before We Were Yours as I was reading this. Why do authors insist on taking a super interesting piece of history and contaminating it with a contemporary storyline that detracts from the rest of the novel?)

Anyway. I learned a lot in this book, but I'm not sure I'd wholeheartedly endorse you reading it. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

Oh, I understood life and death, but I didn’t yet have a true comprehension of all that could happen between your first and last breaths. (location 2053)

This is such a good line. It's true, right? When I was young, I thought I understood life, but I certainly could not have predicted the twists and turns that make up a person's history.

Things I looked up:

McCune-Reischauer system of romanization (location 52) - a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer.  Through the Korean War it became the foundation for most current Romanizations of Korean place names. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently used as the official system in North Korea. Another variant is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America. On the other hand, South Korea formerly used yet another variant as its official system from 1984 to 2000, but replaced it with the Revised Romanization of Korean in 2000.

Jeju is her home, an island known for Three Abundances: wind, stones, and women. (location 61) - 

Jeju is a big character in this book and I wanted to know more, particularly about its geography.

Jeju Island is South Korea's largest island, covering an area of 1,833.2 km2 (707.8 sq mi), which is 1.83% of the total area of the country. The island lies in the Korea Strait, 82.8 km (51.4 mi) south of the nearest point on the Korean Peninsula. The Jeju people are indigenous to the island, and it has been populated by modern humans since the early Neolithic period. The Jeju language is considered critically endangered by UNESCO. It is also one of the regions of Korea where Shamanism is most intact.

Jeju Island has an oval shape and is 73 km (45 mi) east–west and 31 km (19 mi) north–south, with a gentle slope around Hallasan in the center. The length of the main road is 181 km (112 mi) and the coastline is 258 km (160 mi). O

April Third Incident (4.3 Incident) (location 92) - The Jeju uprising (in South Korea, the Jeju April 3 incident) was an insurrection on Jeju Island, South Korea from April 1948 to May 1949. Egads! Was it an insurrection? What does that language tell us? 

A year prior to its start, residents of Jeju had begun protesting elections scheduled by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) to be held in the United States-occupied half of Korea, which they believed would entrench the division of the country. A general strike was later organized by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948. The WPSK launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking police and Northwest Youth League members stationed on Jeju who had been mobilized to suppress the protests by force. (eek! this feels gross to be typing and not editorializing. I mean...seems like the police might have shot the first shot, you know?)

 The First Republic of Korea under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising from August 1948, declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against rebel forces in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. This resulting campaign has led to the event being called the Jeju massacre. 

Between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan. Other estimates reach as high as 80,000 dead. Atrocities and war crimes were committed by both sides. (egads, again) 

bulteoks (page 213) - a traditional, open-air, circular stone shelter used by Jeju Island's haenyeo (women divers) to change clothes, warm themselves by a fire, and socialize. Located along the coast, these, sometimes called "bonfire" spots, served as crucial community spaces for resting, sharing diving knowledge, and, historically, enforcing hierarchy within the group

sumbisori (page 351) - the distinct, high-pitched whistling exhale of haenyeo (female divers) in Jeju, South Korea, produced upon surfacing after holding their breath for over a minute in deep dives.

They sank the Kowamaru (location 2240) - ship sunk by a U.S. submarine

There are those who say no one survived the Bukchon massacre. Others say that only one person lived. (location 3359) - Bukchon is the site of the worst indiscriminate mass killing during the Jeju Uprising. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

The wife wears the same polka-dot T-shirt, but otherwise every bit of her skin is protected from the sun by long pants, sleeve guards, gloves, hat, and a cloth mask. (location 70)

his favorite dog-fur hat pulled down over his ears (location 167)

...showed her how to do chores and taught her the songs for grinding millet, knitting horsehair hats, netting anchovies, gathering pig excrement for our fields, and plowing, planting, and pulling weeds... (location 624)

Mi-ja, the Kangs, and I peeled off our coats, scarves, and hats. (location 1272)

One man, wearing a different hat than the other sailors, gestured for us to come closer. (location 1312)

The man with the special hat (location 1315 and 1316)

matching coats, hats, and mittens (location 1355)

bowler hats (location 1802)

small hats pinned to their heads (location 1804)

wearing a skirt, a little jacket, and a hat with a veil that came down over her eyes (location 2019)

a Western-style dress and a hat (location 2481)

big straw hats (location 2515)

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Had you ever heard of the Jeju uprising? How much have you read about the Korean War? Are you as annoyed by the contemporary elements of some historical fiction as I am?

Five for Friday #39: We're Falling Apart Over Here

1) Update to my husband's rhabdo situation: You guys, it's not good.  His CK levels were high after he helped me carry in groceries! They can't figure it out and it's very frustrating. I started to write about it, but I just want everyone to know that an otherwise healthy man in his 40s who cannot carry a 24-pack of fizzy water without causing literal muscle breakdown is NOT COOL. 

2) Now he has a man cold, too. He is not a good patient. I love him dearly, but if he doesn't figure out a way to deal with his congestion in a manner that is not snapping at me whenever I so much as breathe, I might have to murder him. 

3) In Birchie's most recent post, she wrote, "I'm taking a beat to think about my fitness life.  It feels like it is a constant cycle of hard work and exhaustion with no clear end game." I wrote a small novel in her comment section about how I am exhausted/tired ALL THE DAMN TIME. Like...this has been my entire adult life. I graduated from college and became exhausted. 

I wake up thinking about how I can take a nap or get to bed early. I nearly fall asleep in every yoga class. I daydream about my bed. By Friday evenings, I am literally agape at people going to the bars downtown as I'm walking the dog. Who has energy for that after working all week? 

And here I am learning that it's not like this for everybody?! 

4) On the bright side, my pap smear results came back fine so everyone I can quit worrying about having to go through torture again. (And then get charged $700. America, fuck yeah.)

5) On even brighter side, my nephew is not happy with his already good ACT score. He asked me to help him improve it! Yay! I was in test prep for twenty years and I'm very good at standardized tests (*brag* I was a National Merit Scholar and got a fellowship for grad school based on my GRE scores *not so brag* this has not meant actual success in grad school or life), and I've been waiting EIGHTEEN YEARS for one of my niblings to ask me to help. 

I ordered books, set up a Webex meeting, and we had a grand old time discussing parts of speech and comma usage on the ACT. By the end of the meeting I had him saying things like "the ACT doesn't like commas, so I bet the answer is F" and "well, you can't separate two complete ideas with a comma." I AM WINNING AT AUNTING. 

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Anyone else having a spouse who isn't a good patient? How do you prevent yourself from committing a crime? 

Anyone else chronically just want to go back to bed?