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juushikaTwo throwbacks to painting the main room, seven calendar years ago; the last is from painting the breakfast nook Carrot Stick by Benjamin Moore and, y'all, I cannot tell you how much joy is in this color! Was it a pain to do, yes, although an appropriately-tinted primer helped a lot. But I wanted an orange, no, like a bright orange breakfast nook, and this looks so good with the white trim and warm floors and touches of black (that last helps me plan furniture for the space). What I don't know is what to do in the kitchen, but I have another project lined up first so there's time to decide.
These first two are very good.
Title: Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder
Author: Mikita Brottman
Narrator: Christina Delaine
Published: Macmillan Audio, 2021
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 405,050
Text Number: 1524
Read Because: more true crime on audio while painting, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In 1992, at age 22, Brian Bechtold experienced a psychotic break and murdered his abusive parents. Ruled "not criminally responsible," he was committed to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center—indefinitely: as of writing, he still has not been released. This capitalizes on the interest in true crime in order to explore the aftermath: a long life after crime, what it means to be institutionalized at the state's discretion, and particularly the flaws that exist in these mental health systems and their (lack of) oversight. This is the most rage-inducing, triggering, and pointedly unsatisfying book I've ever read, because there still is no resolution for Bechtold. I'm terrified of institutionalization, and honestly for good reason! because the system is unregulated and broken: a patient can suffer mental illness, require treatment, and not be given it; psychiatrists will pathologize any behavior to fit preexisting diagnoses; and once in the system, patients have no recourse. So if Brottman's biography feels a bit biased, it's nonetheless a productive counterpoint to the dominant narrative. I hated reading this, but I'm grateful for it.
Title: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Author: Adam Higginbotham
Narrator: Jacques Roy
Published: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 550
Total Page Count: 405,600
Text Number: 1525
Read Because: "I should take a break from true crime," I thought, "and check out some scientific non-fiction instead," and then stumbled into something somehow even more morbid than usual! (this is not a complaint); audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An exhaustive but thoroughly readable overview of the Chernobyl disaster—which means that this is as much about the Soviet Union as it is about nuclear reactors: how to run a society such that a catastrophic event is, effectively, inevitable. I don't have a deep take, here; this is just everything I could have asked for: comprehensive, humanized, offering a lot of valuable Ukrainian history, and somehow able to make me even more afraid of acute radiation syndrome than I already was (which was a lot!).
Title: The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century
Author: Harold Schechter
Narrator: Sean Runnette
Published: Tantor Audio, 2017 (2007)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 505
Total Page Count: 406,215
Text Number: 1527
Read Because: more true crime while paining, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Turn of the century America; Roland Molineux is suspected of sending poisoned gifts two of his rivals. Schechter assumes Molineux's guilt, and the circumstantial case is strong; so this is an interesting court case that didn't end of a conviction, that says a lot about the judicial process of the period.
But boy howdy is this a, shall we say, "stylized" read. Schechter will criticize his sources as prejudiced, salacious, or sentimental, and then gleefully reiterate the same content and tone—a trend so consistent it's almost charming. In the historical context as the (first) "crime of the century," this is a pulpy, even stereotypical read: big turn-of-the-century vibes, all chauvinism and sexism and homophobia, yellow journalism and the poisoning craze. Fun, but not good, although the flaws are more in style than content.
These first two are very good.
Title: Couple Found Slain: After a Family Murder
Author: Mikita Brottman
Narrator: Christina Delaine
Published: Macmillan Audio, 2021
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 405,050
Text Number: 1524
Read Because: more true crime on audio while painting, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In 1992, at age 22, Brian Bechtold experienced a psychotic break and murdered his abusive parents. Ruled "not criminally responsible," he was committed to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center—indefinitely: as of writing, he still has not been released. This capitalizes on the interest in true crime in order to explore the aftermath: a long life after crime, what it means to be institutionalized at the state's discretion, and particularly the flaws that exist in these mental health systems and their (lack of) oversight. This is the most rage-inducing, triggering, and pointedly unsatisfying book I've ever read, because there still is no resolution for Bechtold. I'm terrified of institutionalization, and honestly for good reason! because the system is unregulated and broken: a patient can suffer mental illness, require treatment, and not be given it; psychiatrists will pathologize any behavior to fit preexisting diagnoses; and once in the system, patients have no recourse. So if Brottman's biography feels a bit biased, it's nonetheless a productive counterpoint to the dominant narrative. I hated reading this, but I'm grateful for it.
Title: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Author: Adam Higginbotham
Narrator: Jacques Roy
Published: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 550
Total Page Count: 405,600
Text Number: 1525
Read Because: "I should take a break from true crime," I thought, "and check out some scientific non-fiction instead," and then stumbled into something somehow even more morbid than usual! (this is not a complaint); audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An exhaustive but thoroughly readable overview of the Chernobyl disaster—which means that this is as much about the Soviet Union as it is about nuclear reactors: how to run a society such that a catastrophic event is, effectively, inevitable. I don't have a deep take, here; this is just everything I could have asked for: comprehensive, humanized, offering a lot of valuable Ukrainian history, and somehow able to make me even more afraid of acute radiation syndrome than I already was (which was a lot!).
Title: The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century
Author: Harold Schechter
Narrator: Sean Runnette
Published: Tantor Audio, 2017 (2007)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 505
Total Page Count: 406,215
Text Number: 1527
Read Because: more true crime while paining, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Turn of the century America; Roland Molineux is suspected of sending poisoned gifts two of his rivals. Schechter assumes Molineux's guilt, and the circumstantial case is strong; so this is an interesting court case that didn't end of a conviction, that says a lot about the judicial process of the period.
But boy howdy is this a, shall we say, "stylized" read. Schechter will criticize his sources as prejudiced, salacious, or sentimental, and then gleefully reiterate the same content and tone—a trend so consistent it's almost charming. In the historical context as the (first) "crime of the century," this is a pulpy, even stereotypical read: big turn-of-the-century vibes, all chauvinism and sexism and homophobia, yellow journalism and the poisoning craze. Fun, but not good, although the flaws are more in style than content.
