Year One, Of Blood and Bone, The Rise of Magicks by Nora Roberts

Year One, Of Blood and Bone, and The Rise of Magicks

2/5. Apocalyptic fantasy about the special girl born as disease wipes out billions. She will lead us all out of darkness using really terrible rhyming couplets and magicks (never magic, always magicks, that's how you know it's extra serious).

Nora Roberts is not good at fantasy, you guys. Parts of this are unintentionally hilarious – magic sparkly pregnancy test, anyone? – but parts are just cringey – see the poetry. Don't get me wrong, I read all of this, but it is probably relevant to note that my excellent sleeper baby is having a rough few days, snoozle-wise, so. Take that as you will.

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine

Delusions of Gender

4/5. Brisk but thorough takedown of the assorted "evidence" for a gender difference in capacity or performance or skill. Excellent and easily readable. I always somewhat maliciously enjoy books that tear apart poorly done or biased experiments. I've known too many scientists disdainful of psychology not to find that pleasurable. But more broadly, this book really goes after that idea that there must be some inherent gender differences because we're, like, woke now, and yet our girl babies still want dolls. Ha. Perhaps my favorite point of hers was one she made in passing, though, when she noted that of course men's and women's brains on average differ on certain chemical measures: they also differ in size, which has a tremendous influence on function, meaning that they would need to chemically operate differently to perform the same tasks. What a useful insight.