Welcome to Litsy!

Another month, another full @AardvarkBookClub box! Their picks were so much better than BOTM (which I skipped) this month. So excited for all of these. I love that #aardvark doesn‘t shy away from darker books!

I ended up picking 5 books between April's Book of the Month and Aardvark. 😍

#botm #aardvarkbookclub

Many in the western PNW are very aware of the Cascadia event, and this book brings it to life, specifically as a major earthquake hitting Portland. We follow a woman in late pregnancy, in IKEA when the quake hits, then through the rest of the day as she traverses town. For me, this was hard-hitting and visceral; really well done.

This book was respectful, beautifully written, exhaustively researched storytelling at its finest. Even though I knew how things were going to end up, this was still a nail-biter. I caught myself thinking, wow, I really really really hope they call off this launch… It might not seem like a glowing recommendation to say, “Read this! It gave me nightmares!” but it really is one of the best nonfiction books I‘ve ever read.

#CoverStories #Waves @Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Day: 25

MFA fiction about existential fears and the pervasive anxieties of continuing to live as the world falls apart.

Honestly, writing that out it feels like this would have been for me but it just wasn't. I don't feel that Pattee did enough with her narrative. Beyond the voicing of these fears, what is she trying to express here?

Sunday morning read

Powerful and compelling. I‘ve seen a few reviews complaining that it felt like too much NASA history rather than focusing only on the Challenger itself, but I truly believe the historical context is necessary to explain some decision-making down the line that seems inexplicable on its own. There was a lot I didn‘t know about the Rogers Commission findings (I was only 10, ok) and I knew nothing about Thiokol‘s warnings about the O-rings. ✨5 stars✨

In a book with so many sad, heartbreaking moments, this sentence has to be the saddest.

“The Columbia Accident Investigation Board delivered its report on August 26, 2003, and concluded that many of the lessons of the Challenger disaster had gone unheeded.”

This an exceptionally deep dive into the NASA shuttle program, culminating in the devastating - and tragically preventable - explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. Gives me a new respect for the bravery of the astronauts. But it was a great disappointment to learn how NASA was run and the disservice done in failing to protect the lives of those willing to risk their lives to venture into space.