Another month, and again feeling like there was not enough read.
This, to quote The Mandalorian, is the way.
Here’s how it broke down:
Read
Why We Get Sick: The hidden epidemic at the root of most chronic diseases — and how to fight it – Benjamin Bikman, PhD
Started and stopped
The Carlin Home Companion – Kelly Carlin
Reading
Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: A step-by-step guide to computer security and privacy for non-techies, Fifth Ed. – Carey Parker
Why We Get Sick was one of those rare books that struck a chord with me hard enough that I’ve changed myself because of it. Here’s my detailed insight on what it covers. Bottom line: I’m eating better and am more mindful of when I do. Highly recommended, if only for what I believe is a unique outlook on what’s happening in increasingly ailing regions all around the world.
I’d mentioned last month that the Kelly Carlin book was really good to that point and I was looking forward to reading the rest of it. But it turned out, as I got past the maybe half-way point of it, that it was a little too well written. Kelly had explained her bittersweet relationship with her mother, and then got to the point of her mother’s long decline and final passing, and… it hurt.
I’m lucky enough to still have both parents, but that’s not the issue. While I’m generally quiet about it, I’m at times very empathic; even if I don’t feel anything personally for a situation, my sometime-connection with someone — even a total stranger whose work I’m reading — makes me feel some of what they feel in that situation. At times, deeply, acutely feel it. And Kelly’s writing was engrossing enough, well written enough, that it frankly hurt too much reading about what she was feeling at the loss of her mother. That alone was enough to give me pause about continuing the book. But I of course knew that it was only the prelude to losing her dad later on, who she had long been far closer to.
So yeah, I had to put that one down. But if you want to read a solid autobiography offering a formerly unknown viewpoint on what it was like to grow up in a household with one of the most iconic comedians in history, it’s something you should check out.
And Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons is something I’ll certainly be posting about shortly as a Read this book feature. Carey Parker is a digital security and privacy expert who has a podcast, a blog, and publishes regularly updated books about how non-techies can do more to inform and protect themselves in an age where unparalleled volumes of data are being produced by an increasingly online population and how that data is exploited by bad actors as well as legit companies around the world. It’s not short, but so far it’s very insightful and, as advertised, is well written for people who aren’t techies.
Hoping to get to more stuff in March.
Onward.