The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language Gretchen McCullough, 2019 Premise: A linguist examines the way language is affected by the internet and affects online behavior. Somewhat ironically, I read this book in hard copy and was constantly annoyed that I couldn't highlight passages to reference easily later. I enjoyed reading it a lot, but I kept getting interrupted (and interrupted for longer - days sometimes - than I usually am when reading a book on my phone or Kindle). So I think I'd need to read it again to really absorb it. Each chapter focuses on one language aspect of the modern internet - for example, how when and why a person started going online affects how they use language online. Or how the definition of meme continues to shift and change over time as what memes themselves communicate shifts. Each topic is fascinating internally, and together the book creates a patchwork picture of the complexity of online communication. I especially li...

Becoming Us: Travelers on the Jimmy Come Lately Road Judy Bordeaux, 2019 Premise: This gentle memoir traces three generations making their way in America. Judy Bordeaux passed away in 2018. She was a fantastic storyteller. I knew her briefly because we sang with the same chorus. The introduction to this book explains how it was completed posthumously. I expected this to be well written and entertaining, but it also has a quiet depth that I really enjoyed. The book tells the story of her family through parallel struggles and situations faced by her grandparents, her parents, and herself. Some of the vignettes chronicle significant events, others the small adventures of life. Around the edges of many of the stories lurks the racism faced by her Japanese grandfather and half-Japanese father. The author uses her ancestors' stories to color her own experiences. Between the focus on the immigrant experience and the setting here in Washington state, this is a strongly Americ...