Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Tag: books

The Mysterious Process

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There is apparently a very secret world that I knew little about even though I am part of the community. What community am I talking about? The uterus-having community. I read Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy to see if there were any secrets that I could uncover. Although, in all seriousness, I did learn a lot about a process that happens to me. I did grow up in an “I don’t want to hear about it” household. Now that I’m older, I’ve taken the position of “it’s something that happens to about 50% of the population, so get over yourself.” Even with that perspective, I never took the time to learn about it until now.

This book takes the story of menstruation from a cultural perspective. It was interesting to hear about cultures where periods are something to revere rather than a shameful action and how that view has shaped gynecology. Next, the book covers the biology of why. Humans are one of the very few species that menstruate, so it’s interesting to listen to the theories of how humans have evolved. Another interesting thing I learned was that the “normal period” isn’t quite normal. People are placed into boxes that never made sense to begin with and can move in and out of said boxes. For anyone interested in the topic, I highly recommend this book.

Also, because I am an equal-opportunity reader, I would also love to read a book on male reproduction. I spent my doctorate studying parts of it, but I genuinely believe I could always learn more. Period was suggested to me as a good read, so it went on my list.

How Does It Hold Up: Nancy Drew

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One of my goals in life is the read the entirety of the Nancy Drew series. All 175 books. Why was this a goal in my life? I have no clue. Anyway, I have finally got to the end of my library’s catalog of Nancy Drew books, I figure now is a better time than any. To start, the original books were initially published in 1930. That becomes super important as you continue with these books. Payphones. What are those? Strange words that you look up that end up being considered slurs now? It’s just the time.

That stuff out of the way, I’ve been enjoying myself reading the books. Some times I’m flipping through past chapters trying to figure out if there was something I missed. Others, I pretty confident in who the criminal is from the first couple of chapters, but unsure as to how we are going to get our evidence. Whelp, no need to hard proof when everyone confesses, so I guess we can move on. One the the things that got me every time was Nancy not calling someone to tell her where she was going. Excuse me, shouldn’t you be calling your dad? Oh, there’s literally no phone around. Could you leave a message, at least? Oh, no answering machines. The only thing that made this better was that after the initial publications, I once read, that they turned Nancy into an eighteen year old instead of the thirteen year old she was originally published as. I think I would have more problems had she not been a legal adult. Also, the boyfriend plot lines would have been even more awkward. Yes, that becomes an entire thing, but at least boyfriends are just the help and not the main sleuth.

Unfortunately, I have yet to read of the books, and I still feel the need to questions all of these characters questionable life choices while trying to figure out the criminal before anyone else. (I mean, what else am I supposed to do.) If anyone can find me more sources to find the books, I would be eternally gratefully. It shouldn’t be this hard to get my children’s mystery fix.

Let Me Teach You How to Lie

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Well, lie is a really strong word for what I’m going to discuss. A better word would be to deceive with facts and logic. I recently read How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. This book goes into all of the ways in which a glorified “statistic” can be used to sway and mislead the people who see it. With fun illustrations, we are taught how exactly looking at different axes and altering study design, you can get some really interesting conclusions, whether justly or not. At the end, we are at least taught who to dig deeper into what we are seeing to draw our own conclusions that may be different from the conclusions we are being led to.

One of the funny things about this book is how money works. Being that this book was written in 1954 and read by me in 2025, let’s just say that inflation has not hit these numbers. Having super “wealthy” Yale graduates making an annual salary of $25,000 or the outrage of the price of bread doubling to a single dollar was hilarious. If only the author knew and could update these numbers for the modern day. Hilarity aside, this book is a great way to learn how people may inadvertently lie to you, because they are 95 percent of the time*.

* Source: Because I said so…

An Entirely New World Pt 6

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I’m almost done with the Chronicles of Narnia: a series I technically started when I was a child. I don’t even remember when the first movie came out, but that was how long it has been. This time, because I’m reading in publication order, I read The Magician’s Nephew, and what a wild ride it was.

If you didn’t understand that Aslan is an allegory for Jesus yet, there is so much Christian imagery in this iteration. It was a bit funny how I could guess the next plot point because I grew up in the church. I was in fact internally giggling. No matter how predictable the plot was, I was surprised by how good it was. If you read the last couple of my reviews, you know that I felt like I was dragging my way through the content. Insert random characters I didn’t care about. Insert literally nothing happening as we just listen to people talk. Insert absolutely no imagery, of which I could barely imagine what was going on, even with the included illustrations.

No, this story engaged me, and I practically read it from beginning to end in one sitting. There was just so much happening and so many questions I had as I reading. There was an entire chapter of which a landscape was being described, and I loved every second of it. The imagery was vivid and drew me further into the world of Narnia, something the few previous books had not done. This was a journey to Narnia that was unforgettable and should be read again and again.

Just Off the Railroad Tracks

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If you can, people-watching while riding along the train can be fun. Honestly, half the time, it’s too dark to see and go through the woods, but if you’re going through a town, people-watching is fun. Honestly, that’s what I thought this book was from the first couple of pages: a people-watching simulator. I was quickly proven wrong as I got deeper into The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

I honestly didn’t know much about this book except the movie trailer made it sound like a thriller. Because of that, it went straight on my to-read list, only to be read now. Now, in the end, I loved the book. It kept me engaged the entire time. There was a bit of mental whiplash from the changing points of view. I was just wrapping my head around all the new information that was thrown at me, trying to fit all of the puzzle pieces together. It was also interesting in the fact that I’m pretty sure that you are not supposed to like any of the characters. As soon as I think I might like them, they would do something I would deem to be completely shady, but I suppose that was to keep you on your toes. And on my toes, I was up until the final moments.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves thrillers and mysteries. Some serious topics do come up, but I think it fleshes out the characters and makes them more well-rounded. No one in this book is perfect and flaws are thoroughly on display. Just make sure to get really cozy while watching everything unravel.

Along That Yellow Brick Road Pt 8

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I’m back again to the fairytale land of Oz, and once again am wondering why. Why did I want to read all of the books of this series? Why did I make this a goal in my life? I don’t know, but I’m still going. This time I read Tik-Tok of Oz to read a story that I swear that I read before. A random girl and animal fall into the land of Oz, meets a bunch of random people and creatures, and then tries to defeat a great evil. Yeah, there is nothing new about this book. Except the random animal is a mule and the great evil is the exact same great evil from Book 3. The only thing useful in this book is the slightly more fleshed out nature of Oz, but half the time I feel that it is once again they author trying to make money off of his child audience who would have been obsessed with this series. Luckily for me, all these books are in the public domain, so I’ve paid nothing for them, or I would have gotten them from the library. I forget what book I said that you could have stopped at before, but there is no reason the read this book unless you are a completionist like me. Nothing interesting here.

Dismantling the Everything

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My original thought was to title this post “Dismantling the Patriarchy,” but let’s all be honest: we need to dismantle everything and just start over. Yes, I’m being hyperbolic and extreme, but I’m sometime just tired. I recently read the heavy anthology Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, after her online project by the same name.

While the book was originally published in 2014, there were times reading this book where I could swear that the stories from the many others on the pages where from a month ago, if not for the fact that the sacred bird Twitter logo was on the pages. Also, in 2014, I was still in high school, if anyone was here back in those days, so I wasn’t very in the know of many of the journal articles discussed. I was too busy watching magical girl anime and procedural cop dramas and trying to survive high school. Super busy, as you can see. Even though at this point the stories are over a decade old, it was still as horrifying as if I would have opening the newspaper that morning.

Through the headache and tears, it should be a reminder of everything we have to do. No matter what you identify as, this book throws in your face things that even I try to ignore just to get through life, but it should be recognized. If you are able, and have the mental capacity to go through this heartache, I would. Figure out a way that you can make the world a little bit brighter for everyone today.

I Will Teach…

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Well, it this post, I will not be teaching you anything in this post. Look out for another post of which I may teach you something. In this post however, I will be telling you to get your finances in order. I am in my last year of graduate school, so I need to make sure I’m ready to really start adulting. I’m mean guys, I’m been on the job search grind and trying to teach myself new skills to make myself look more useful. It’s been stressful. However, since I’m getting ready to get a pay raise off of a student break, I figured it’s really time to learn to handle my money by reading I will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

First, a couple of disclaimers. I have previously listened to his podcasts while being on of those people who never read his books, after watching the Netflix docuseries about how other people spend their money. What can I say other than I’m sure nosy. I have been learning a lot about personal finance in the last couple of years, so while there wasn’t much “new” information for me to learn, it was interesting to learn about some to the systems that others put in the place. It was also very comforting for someone to tell me that my system can be “good enough” as a recovering perfectionist. Yes, there is probably more that I could do, but do I have to? No.

I will also admit that I don’t get Ramit’s difference between a budget and a conscious spending plan. I’ve heard him describe it a couple of times, and I just don’t get it. I’ll continue to not get it as something that works for some people since “budget” is often seen as an ugly word. Either way you look at it, you should also get your finances it order, and remember that just because the holiday season is upon us, doesn’t mean its the perfect time to get into debt.

An Entirely New World pt 5

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So……….

I’m at the fifth book of the series, with two more left to go, I think. It was struggle to get through this book. Something I mentioned in the last review, may have been slightly incorrect, as I need to consider that I’m reading the books in publication order instead of chronological order. Anyway, we do hear from a couple of our familiar characters as The Horse and His Boy takes place during the decades-long hiatus that took place during The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. However, that does not make up for the lack of anything happening.

We spend the entire time moving around Narnia as our two protagonists travel the desert and we are supposed to be convinced that they actually like each other. That, and maybe their two horses, who are want to go back to the land of which they are from since they are the only talking horses in the journey’s starting point. Honestly, I was bored the entire time, and there was no reason for this book to exist, in my current opinion, unless something happens in the next couple of books that requires what happened in this one. We can only wait and see.

The Grad School Decision

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Every year, I get the opportunity to mentor undergraduate students and lead them through a summer research project to introduce what grad school could be like. I find this rewarding and an informative decision, given that I would love to teach at a university and mentor students in the context of my own lab. During this program, I also give a presentation about my complicated route that led me to my current position as a graduate research assistant. During this talk, I usually give tips and a list of things to consider. Recently, a new book was released called _Is Grad School For Me?: Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students_ by Yvette C. and Miroslava Chávez-García. Of course, I am never one to either recommend or denounce a book without even trying to read it.

For full context, I have listened to Dra. Martínez-Vu’s podcast, “Grad School Femtoring,” and I was aware that she was in the process of writing a book based on the graduate school application process. I do enjoy her podcast content; however, I was worried that someone not from a scientific field may not understand that specific process of giving a scientific application. I’ve seen this sometimes where the disciplines just do not translate. I did not need to be worried, as I felt that this was a great book that gave enough specifics and generalized information to be useful. There were also example statements from different fields to give an idea of what different applicants said in terms of their different fields of study. Also, there was a lot of informational content that surrounded all of the material presented. I anecdotally noticed some of the aspects of being an underrepresented student, but I would always shake it off as it “just being me” or that “I’m reading too much into the situation.” It was very validating that it was not just me and that there is actual research into this field.

I think this is an amazing book whether you think that further going for higher education is for you or you are trying to help someone make that decision. I’m just upset that this book was not written soon as this would have been a relieving experience to read before making this step in my overall education journey.