Author: sun김선sailor

December Reads [books 66-72/72!]

Books | Completed Reads

WE DID IT!

Month Goal: 7/7

Year Goal: 72/72

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67
68
69
70
71
72
December Reads*—

The Immortal Game by David Shenk

The Elephant’s Secret Sense: The hidden lives of the wild herds of Africa by Caitlin O’Connell

Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton

Elephant Don: The politics of a pachyderm posse by Caitlin O’Connell

How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Around the World in 80 Plants by Jonathan Drori

Carry On: Reflections for a new generation by John Lewis

*re the photos … yes, there are two pics that are not of the quality that i would like to post to the interewebs, however, there’s nothing to be done about it as my eyesight is poorer than i’d like it to be, and so, ever so often, images make it to a final copy before having been seen on a larger screen, etc. Oh well, life goes on … re the posting of this post … it snowed here the first heavy snow of this winter season, and the bodybuddy/lifemate and i ride our bikes into our 0500 jobs three days a week, and so, the beginning of this year made for an eventful few days, but i am doing this thing now, and so, i am grateful to be doing it at all

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November Reads [books 58-65/72]

Books | Completed Reads

Month Goal: 8/10

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59
60
61
62
63
64
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58. On Being A Bear: Face to Face With Our Wild Sibling by Rémy Marion

59. Seeing Serena by Gerald Marzorati

60. Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain At Any Age by Sanjay Gupta, MD

61. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch by Rivka Galchen

62. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

63. The Rumi Prescription: How an ancient mystic poet changed my modern manic life by Melody Moezzi

64. Credible: Why we doubt accusers and protect abusers by Deborah Tuerkheimer

65. The Scapegoat by Sara Davis

October Reads [Books 51-57/72]

Books | Completed Reads

Monthly Goal: 7/7

  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57

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51. Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection by Marissa King

52. Spite: the upside to your dark side by Simon McCarthy-Jones

53. The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe by Clifford V. Johnson

54. Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Edith Widder, Ph D.

55. Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo Koy

56. Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

57. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Notes & Errata re the photography—I found that I had a very difficult time with this particular setup for this month’s book pics. I’m not entirely sure what was so difficult about capturing this scene, but it took the entirety of the month to “get it right the first time.” Book No. 57 was the only book that I shot once and captured “correctly” [in this singular instance] in that single shot. Most months I can find my stride by book two, no later than book three, and it’s nearly unheard of to take seven books to “get there.” #inremembrance

[find more writing at Lady Polarity, also on wordpress]

September Reads [books 45-50/72]

Books | Completed Reads
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Books 45-50/72

45. Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States by Jonathan Levy
*this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book is a large 700-page tome roughly the same height as the vase … the cover of the book is the color of old parchment and a small two-line border outlines the cover … in the middle of the book reads the text “A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES” in an all-caps blue, double-line, sans serif typeface … around the four corners of the centered text are four small depictions (beginning from the top left, working clockwise) of an old wooden ship, locomotive, prefab house, and modest-sized skyscraper … and at the top and bottom of the cover sits the title, “AGES OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM” and author, “JONATHAN LEVY,” in tall, thinnish, all-caps, sans serif, red typeface, with “Capitalism” and “Jonathan Levy” being in the same point size and “Ages of American” sitting slightly smaller.    

46. Year Book by Seth Rogan
**this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the cover of the book is a bright blue with the title, “YEAR BOOK,” centered near the top of the cover in a sans serif blue with red shadowed thick, square, all-caps typeface, where “Year” sits atop “Book” … in the center of the cover is a cut out to the hardcover of the book itself … through the small, vertically rectangular cutout, you can see the image of Seth Rogan in a cartoonish drawing of Rogan in a red hoodie with orange t-shirt underneath, full beard and fluffy hair, blue-lensed “Wayfarers” and a background made of yellow behind the hair, a thin pink horizon line above the sunglasses, where the blue begins and completes the background of the small drawn yearbook photo … centered beneath the cutout and depiction sits the author’s name, “Seth Rogan,” in the same typeface as the title and the same positioning of “Seth” above “Rogan.” 

47. There Plant Eyes: A Personal And Cultural HIstory of Blindness by M. Leona Godin
***this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book’s cover is a faded purple that begins in a blush pink on the right side of the cover that blends into a light purple that fades into white … the color changes hues and shades from the right edge toward the left spine … the title, “There Plant Eyes,” sits atop the cover, left justified, with “There” placed above “Plant Eyes” in a black, serif-style typeface, while the subtitle reads, “A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness,” in the same typeface as the title but in italics and a faded dark grey, with the text reading, per line, “A Personal” then “and Cultural” followed by “History” and finally “of Blindness” … below the subtitle, the author’s name, “M. Leona Godin,” sits in the same typeface as the title in an even further faded, lighter grey, with “M. Leona” atop “Godin” … underneath each line of text for the sighted is the embossed (assumedly as I do not know how to read braille) title, subtitle and author of the book in braille. 

48. Trouble The Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson
^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book cover is a dark navy designed in an art deco style of thin, tall lines … the cover has a red-lined border of thin lines that also border the centered title … across the middle, in an all-caps, san-serif, white, thin, tall typeface sits the title, “TROUBLE THE SAINTS” (“the” in a much small point)  in a shallow upward diagonal from left to right, where “A NOVEL” is set in a small point in the rightmost acute angle formed by the title’s diagonal reaching the vertical of the cover’s border edge … the title’s diagonal serves as a mirror-like horizon line between the two highly stylized depictions of a woman above and below the title text as if reflecting on herself … the upper image being of a woman, cigarette in her right hand, in a red dress and fancy earrings, while a small asterisk-like symbol made of three crossed knives sits just above the tip of her cigarette, while the woman, depicted upside-down, is adorned in what looks to be maid’s attire of blue shirt, white bibbed apron, headscarf and duster in her right hand while the same asterisk-like symbol sits just above the duster … at the top of the cover, above the red-lined border in not all-caps, reads a quote in praise of the novel, “‘Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story … In a word: awesome,’ —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season” … and at the bottom of the cover, beneath the red-lined border sits the author’s name in a smaller version of the same all-caps typeface of the title, “ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON”. 

49. In The Company Of Men by Véronique Tadjo
^^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the book’s cover looks to be a hand-drawn depiction of a large tree with large, above-ground roots, thick trunk, many variegated branches and sage-green bushy leaf, with a small group of tiny people in and around the tree, one person leading  a packed camel on the right side of the tree, and in the distance the look of another tree and the shadow horizon of small mountains or large hill in the background … in the center of the cover reads the title, “IN THE COMPANY OF MEN” in a semi-thick, all-caps, red sans serif typeface, neatly fitted into a white circle outlined in a thick black outline placed directly over the center of the drawing of the tree as if the title were under the drawing and the circle serves as a window onto the text … “IN THE” sits atop “COMPANY” that sits atop “OF MEN” that sits atop a very small “A NOVEL” in a black version of the same typeface …  and near the bottom, the author’s name “VÉRONIQUE TADJO” is in a white version of the title typeface.

50. Josephin Baker by Catel & Bocquet
^^^this is a photograph of a book sitting on a white-painted window sill of a window that is covered in a light muslin, and behind the book sits a tall white, glass vase with a heart-shaped leafy vine growing out the top of the open vase full of water … other details of the window, like the lock mechanisms are seen, as well as the wall within which the window assumedly exists … the cover of the book is simple in that the background is a solid blue-grey with the title “JOSEPHINE BAKER” splashed across the very top, nearly from edge to edge where “Josephine” sits atop “Baker” with “Baker” indented so that the “B” aligns with “O” in a chunky, sans serif, all-caps typeface in white … a hand-drawn drawing of “Josephine” in motion sprawls across the center of the cover with “Josephine” in a profile position, facing the right side of the cover, balancing on her left leg, right knee lifted waited high, back arched, face looking upward, eyes closed, right arm stretched down, left arm reaching upward toward two o’clock, while adorned in a flouncy lime-green grass skirt and four strands of lime-green beads that cover nothing more than her crotch and nipples, respectively … directly to the right of  the demi-pointed toe upon which the drawing of “Josephine” stands, the names of the authors “CATEL & BOCQUET” are placed in a smaller, beige-khaki version of the title font, with “CATEL” above “& BOCQUET” where “& BOCQUET” shares the same horizontal plane as the toe on which “Josephine” stands, where the indented “&” sits centered below the “C” and “A” in “CATEL”. 

[all photographs are edited in a warm, brown tint of faded light effects and a light grainy film effect]