#52booksproject

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Book 50: Sea People

The random number generator created 99X (I forgot to put in the last number and can't remember what it was) which is History and Geography > Oceania and elsewhere. Two interesting books were available: Selkirk's Island about a real life Robinson Crusoe, or Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia. I went with Christina Thompson's Sea People.

Sea People explores the history of Polynesia and the mystery of how humans populated a triangle of ocean stretching from New Zealand to Hawaii to Easter Island with some islands thousands of miles from each other. It goes through the "discovery" of the islands by Europeans, the first written accounts of their history, through Polynesian oral traditions, scientific attempts to decipher the origins, attempts to recreate sailing to the islands, and finally modern science's input.

Yes, the Royal Society makes an appearance, in that they needed somewhere to study the Transit of Venus near the equator in 1769 and just as a ship returned telling of a wonderful island called Tahiti. There they were able to talk with the natives and learn a bit about them. Most importantly they met a learned man named Tupaia who agreed to go with them on their voyage home where they encountered other groups of islands like New Zealand where he was of immense help translating and advising on proper behavior. Most intriguingly he made a map of all the islands he had heard of, and it remains a mystery to this day how to interpret it. It's not strictly a Cartesian coordinate map and many people have tried to explain how the islands are arranged.

The book mentions Maui and his amazing fish hook, and a guy who humped a pile of sand to make humans (best origin story yet). Funnily enough, the best, most learned scholars of the 19th century thought that Polynesians were Aryan in origin. That's real Iranian Aryans- not phony baloney blonde Nazi Aryans. However science of the early 20th century tried to go by "race" for the origin by measuring facial features and using, I swear to god, a skin color chart like that Family Guy terrorist meme. Obviously that failed for so many reasons. Currents to Polynesia generally run East to West so a lot of people, including Thor Heyerdahl thought the people must have come from South America. Unfortunately for them, computer models show that Kon-Tiki only made it to Polynesia because it was towed out to a good current, and that natural rafts would not have made it that way. In fact it showed it was nearly impossible to drift to Hawaii or New Zealand and that meant the Polynesians who settled there must have been heading in a general direction of exploration to get there.

Spoiler alert modern DNA shows that Polynesians came from Taiwan via Melanesia to Polynesia though they're still working out the details of how long they stayed in Melanesia and when they settled various islands. And they're perfecting interesting techniques like looking at the rat DNA of the ubiquitous stow-aways from Polynesian settlement.

BEST LINE: "From the perspective of the twenty-first century , a lot of this work looks creepy, and for good reason."

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK:

I wish it had some maps of Polynesia and Melanesia and Micronesia so I could have had a better idea of keeping those straight, so look that up on wikipedia before you read, unless you already know, in which case kudos! But I do suggest reading the book. It's very interesting from a historical and science history perspective.

ART PROJECT:

The 20th century investigators took a lot of photographs of Polynesian natives and this is a drawing of one of them.

[52booksproject]

Book 40: A Black Woman's History of the United States

Since it was a mix of Black History Month and Women's History Month the book A Black Woman's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross seemed appropriate. Forgive me for sounding like a broken record, but the content of this book was hard to hear (Yes, I know, if hearing about it is bad try living it like millions of Black women have). Except for the first Black woman they could find a record of in the US, from a petition to get papers of protection from slavery and marriage (aka slavery back then) to join an expedition to Santa Fe, Black women were almost exclusively brought as slaves to the US. Up front [TRIGGER WARNING] sexual assault and violence are a huge part of this book, so the whole thing will be sensitive subjects until the end. Sir Frances Drake's expedition raided a Spanish ship and got a hold of a Black woman they raped, made pregnant, and then dropped off on a random island also with two Black men presumably to die, but who will ever know? Definitely one of the sickest stories in American history (that has no end of them) and paints Drake in a whole new light for me.

Then in 1619, the gaping asshole masterfully played by David Ogden Stiers in Disney's Pocahontas (I think it's the same guy) bought some slaves in Virginia and that began 250 years of Black slavery in America. The book defends the few Black women that owned slaves as just trying to escape slavery for their family, which *I* can't possibly judge these women for that. The only fun part of these chapters were the escapes. We barely know anything about these women historically except for the advertisements in escaped slave classifieds which almost always include descriptions of fine clothing they took with them to pass as free women. So the women were free and had nice clothing at least. There's also a daring raid during the Civil War where Harriet Tubman (hey mr. president, still waiting on that $20 bill, btw) took a river boat and helped a bunch of slaves escape and burned plantations along the way, so that was sweet. However, post-bellum and Jim Crow were hardly better for Black women. In fact, the book has to get to the incredible Shirley Freaking Chisholm before the stories start to take a real positive turn. In the last chapter they even mention Roxanne Shante's Roxanne's Revenge and and Lauryn Hill's the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as triumphs of Black culture, and having both I agree they are.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: Assuming you can handle reading the horrible things that happened, then, yes. Not many books are a broad sampling of primary sources to learn about Black women in US history.

ART PROJECT:

I already drew many of the women mentioned in the book, but my favorite part was hearing about Shirley Chisholm and I inexplicably missed her when I did my faces project last year, so I drew her.

[52booksproject]

Book 51: Ayesha at Last

Random letters UZ led to Uzma Jalaluddin. I decided to go with her first book Ayesha at Last, which is a Pride and Prejudice retelling with Indian Muslims in Canada. Quite the premise!

Ayesha is a poet trying to pursue teaching from a semi-poor family living partially off her rich uncle's generosity. Khalid is the son of a rich family who is so fundamentalist he won't touch a woman, even to shake hands in a business setting.

They meet and through a series of mishaps Khalid judges Ayesha to be not the kind of girl he'd like to associate with and Ayesha finds Khalid a stuck up fundamentalist. But they end up growing closer through another series of mishaps, and are a regular Lizzy and Mr. Darcy.

It's not a perfect parallel to P&P, as in it has its own personality, but it lampshades it from the very beginning and fits pretty well throughout. The best character is Masood, a life coach who courts first Ayesha's cousin Hafsa, then when rejected tries for Ayesha.

My only real problem with the book is Kahilid, Mr. Darcy, refusing to shake hands with women, but shaking hands with men. I get that he feels it's against his religion to touch a strange woman, but this is Canada. He should be shaking hands with *nobody* rather than just one gender. It reminded me of Mike Pence eating alone only with men. Both or neither is right, one but not another is wrong. I don't want to come across as Sheila, the token prejudiced asshole, but I think that's a fair solution. Also that and depicting a post-Roe (granted in Canada) abortion as dangerous.

BEST LINE: "An ice-cream truck slowly cruised the street, a Pied Piper parting children from their allowance money."

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: Do you need another Pride and Prejudice take in your life? Yes, you do. It's funny and clever.

ART PROJECT:

This is kinda what I pictured Khalid like in my head, minus a reference pic it looks uncanny valley, but there it is.

[52booksproject]

Book 44: The Map That Changed the World

RNG put me in the 500s, and I kinda forgot to go deeper so I ended up with general science books. There were a ton of all time greats, but I ended up with Simon Winchester's The Map That Changed the World.

This book was about William Smith (1769-1839) a groundbreaking geologist who started out as a surveyor/coal mine manager/canal builder/land drainer. He made the first large-scale geological map in existence. Even after listening to the book twice I'm not entirely sure what the rock he mapped out was, I mean, there are lots of layers of rocks under places, right? I guess it was the type of rock just under the surface of the ground? Anyway, it is considered by many to have birthed the science of geology and kickstarted investigations into the age of the Earth, etc.

William Smith himself had a hard life, his blacksmith father died when he was a child and his mother abandoned him to his cheapskate uncle who Smith had to borrow against his inheritance to get basic reference materials that would further his career as a surveyor. Eventually he ended up in debtors prison after some speculation went wrong and spending on making his extensive geological map. He was prevented from joining the prominent Geological Society by a rival who also made a rival map that stole from Smith's and cut into his sales which landed him in the debtor's prison (Wikipedia disputes this as the rival map came out after Smith landed in jail, but this book shows how anticipation of the rival map cut into his sales, not just when the map finally came out.) Smith's map was championed by our old friend Joseph Banks of the ever-present-in-these-books Royal Society.

Should you read this book: Sure, it's interesting and has lots of good facts about the life of William Smith and life and science in the 1700s-1800s. The author is a bit British, throwing around names like Boswell as if we all know him offhand here in America (I know him, just not offhand).

ART PROJECT: It was kind of impossible to not do the map, and I thought I'd laser burn it then hand color it, but it turns out I don't have the patience to hand color it like William Smith did. So here it is laser burned anyway.

[52booksproject]

Book 48: Guide to Frogs, Snakes, Bugs, and Slugs

Random Number generator gave me 592 Natural sciences and mathematics > Zoology > Invertebrates. The name John Himmelman came up as a good one, and his Basic Illustrated Guide to Frogs, Snakes, Bugs and Slugs half fit the bill. It's a guide to finding bugs and what the Japanese would classify as "mushi" 虫, or creepy crawlies.

This book feels pretty randomly set up and chosen, although I do get the feeling they're generally going up the complexity line of creatures in it. worms > bugs (both the layman and technical definitions) > amphibians > reptiles. There are some pretty good hints about finding these creatures around your neighborhood like roll over logs toward you so anything venomous can escape not toward your feet, and such. Or put a piece of meat on a string to attract planarians in water. It's geared toward kids, but you can still learn things as an adult.

Best Line: "Swimming through the water like a ribbon in the breeze, a leech can be seen as a graceful creature. Attached to your leg in a slimy lump as it sucks your blood, it loses that distinction."

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?: Sure. It's got neat tips about finding these guys if you ever need to in a pinch, and it has bits of information about all the wonderful things that live in your backyard (maybe).

ART PROJECT:

I drew a spider I came across in my home once and got a picture of as I was depositing it outside.

[52booksproject]

Book 46: The Borgias and Their Enemies

The all mighty RNG brought 945 History:Europe:Italy. So I chose Christopher Hibbert's The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431–1519. It essentially covers Rodrigo Borja's ascent to power to Lucretia Borgia's death with some context before and after.

The first chapter describes how Rome was a shithole even for the middle ages before popes returned to it (they had abandoned it for France for a while) and then there were three goddamned popes even, and finally things settled down and popes returned to Rome and they wanted a strong leader over a pious one necessarily, so they elected Rodrigo Borja, made a cardinal at a precipitously young age by his uncle Pope Calixtus III (Not uncommon, about every Pope of that age - even the more "honest" ones- promoted relatives and friends left and right). And let's be frank, Rodriogo- AKA Pope Alexander VI, was not one of the more "honest" ones.

He was the first Pope to admit to his children being his and not "nephews" as the phrase "nepotism" comes from. And I think that reflects his biggest downfall. His son, Cesare was a bastard in every sense of the word. He killed his brother and brother-in-law and a lot of other people and his dad still supported him and used simony increasingly heavily to fund his wars.

The Borgias (Italian for the Spanish Borja) are quite well known for poison so it was very disappointing to find out historically it seems only to be mentioned in Alexander VI's death, rumored as a poisoning attempt gone wrong, but quite possibly just some pedantic disease. Lucrezia Borgia in particular, aside from having an asshole dad and brother seems to be made out as all right if not a little into secular humor for the time. So, big whoop.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: Sure, if you want a rundown of Italian history in the 1400s-to early 1500s I'd give it a go. There's a who's who of that period of Italian history including Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, the guy who broke Michelangelo's nose (Pietro Torrigiano), Nicholo Machiavelli, etc. The only thing I'd suggest is getting a map of Italy of the time to figure out what the sam hill is so important about Naples, etc.

ART PROJECT:

In a family known for its licentiousness the Feast of the Chestnuts stands out as a particularly bawdy episode in which they gave an orgy in which courtesans groped naked on their hands and knees in cadlelight searching for roasted chestnuts. Sorry for the poor scale in this, as I had an artistic vision in mind and stuck to it.

[52booksproject]

Book 37: How to be an Antiracist

This week I chose How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. It was a tough book. There is just a ton of historical racist ideas and rhetoric presented as what we're fighting against and it made for very uncomfortable reading. My library's copy was an updated book that had annotations that fixed problematic terms and clarified points he had been criticized about.

Kendi's premise is that one cannot simply be a "not racist" person and the opposite of racism is antiracism. There are two kinds of racism - one that thinks some races are inferior and always will be and one that says some races are inferior, but not inherently because if they assimilate to the right (white) ideas they can become equals. He talks about the connection and intertwining of Capitalism and racism and the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality. Apparently modern Capitalism was born when Prince Henry the "Navigator" started Black slavery. Racism isn't necessarily about bad people hating other people for the color of their skin- it's more about self interest and using the concept that others are inferior to justify unfair policies.

Kendi is absolutely frank about his own history of internalized racist ideas and college era bigotry against white people. At one point he even believed whites were aliens that came to oppress Earthlings of color (his friend laughed him out of the room at that one and he soon dropped the idea).

Essentially to be an antiracist is to support policies that seek to eliminate racial injustice.

BEST QUOTE: We cannot be antiracist if we are homophobic or transphobic.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK? I give this one a resounding yes! It's an interesting premise and a great look into America's and the World's racism problem.

ART PROJECT:

Ok, I really couldn't think of anything to do for this that wasn't totally cheesy.

So I thought in the spirit of the self confession in the book that I would share my history of being racist. I started a few spaces ahead as my parents are antiracist oriented (nobody's perfect though), and and raised me as best they could in a racist society. I still held a lot of racist ideas and ignorance honestly. And though I was raised to be a gay ally, back when I was a kid I was pretty transphobic and would be until the trans movement gained better traction in the 2000s and I finally learned that trans men and women are in fact men and women. Unfortunately for me, I was in a very white area and the only substantial population of people of color were Latinix. That thankfully made most of my racist mistakes not targeted at actual individuals. I still struggle with racist ideas though I try very hard to be antiracist. All I can do is continue to chip away at my ignorance and be eternally vigilant.

[52booksproject]

Book 39: An Unkindness of Ghosts

I chose An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon off of a great books list my library curated. It's possible this was my hardest book to read yet. It flows fine, but there's a lot of hard content to read. It's Handmaid's Tale meets Afro Futurism meets MST3K movie Space Mutiny (not in a bad way, they're just both about space ships searching for a home). Essentially a white higher class lives above a middle class that lives above a Black lower class where a mysterious power drain has caused the white upper class to turn off their heat. It's really hard to read about people essentially living in slave conditions in the future.

The protagonist is Aster, a woman who, because she's the assistant to the ship's Surgeon General, has a modicum of privilege that she uses to help people. However, this also catches her in the jealous eye of the Surgeon General's powerful uncle. Bad things happen to the characters, and bad things happen, and bad things happen. One neat thing about the book is a handful of first chapters in parts are told from the perspective of another character besides Aster and that is very interesting too.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: I can't say that I found the payoff at the end exactly made up for all the horrible things that transpire throughout the book, but I can say I'd probably read it again (for the first time) knowing that. It's not for the faint of heart though.

ART PROJECT: There's a star chart hidden as a collection of molecule drawings in the book, so I thought I'd do that.