THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING A Book Review

This Changes Everything: Capitalism VS the Climate by Naomi Klein offers a look at how capitalism is fueling environmental destruction. This book offers real life examples of this as well as offers solutions. The book is split into 3 parts.

Part 1 takes an in depth look at the issues related to capitalism and environmental disasters such as super storm sandy. It mostly comes down to greed in the oil/coal industry has lead to people being willing to overlook glaring evidence of climate change. Who would be willing to support something that would cause their own business to cease to exist? Politicians are not willing to support scientific evidence when their reelection depends on these business succeeding enough to donate to their campaign.

Part two takes a look at what has happened in the past when business that destroy the environment claim to donate to environmental efforts. The reality is that after a company is done paying their employees as well as themselves there is not much left for environmental issues. She takes a look at at The Virgin Earth Challenge that offered a large amount of money for whoever could find a way to remove carbon dioxide from the air and discussed the problems related to geoengineering in general. Geoengineering is generally trying to find a way to removed carbon from the air, and this is not always as drastic as large fans sucking carbon out of the air but also includes re-forestry. However, the method discussed is one that mimics volcanic eruptions by spraying sulfur into the air in order to minimize the amount of sunlight making it down to earth. The issues with trying to diffuse sunlight is that it will effect precipitation and could cause further warming to occur if we were to stop once started. It would essentially be creating a greenhouse.

Part three looks at why we should still strive to make a difference when things seem to be pointing towards disaster. This section focuses a lot on environmental justice type issues.;' We look at examples of communities fighting against companies like Chevron that are polluting their areas. Anti tar sands has had a large movement behind it that speaks out about the destruction it causes. These activists speak about how these situations are effecting their communities and this is gaining support.
We look at the "war on science" and how experts are being silenced in order for governments to spread misinformation about everything being fine.

If you are interested in any of these ideas, I highly recommend you check out this book. Naomi Klien does a fabulous job of presenting scientific fact in an easy to digest and relatable way, even stating at one point that she herself was a climate change denier.

The Reading Rush Quarantine Edition!

I am very excited for this! I know I am currently doing the O.W.L.s this month, but I think this will really get me through that! I am going to try to make the books for these prompts also fit for those prompts so I can multitask.

 

Some things to address: These were the original prompts that were stated by the hosts of this readathon on their Twitter and Instagram accounts. There were a number of people who were upset by the bonus challenge and by the desert island book challenge. So Ariel and Raeleen decided to change the prompts. I do not think this was the correct decision to make and this is why: 

 1. The prompts for these readathons are always optional and people do not need to follow them if they do not want to/feel uncomfortable/do not like them. 

2. The prompt about reading about a pandemic or isolation book was the bonus prompt, meaning that it was not a requirement.

3. These two prompts were the most creative and the ones I was most excited about following. In order to meet the needs of others, they shut out those who were joining in specifically because of those prompts in particular. I know I am not the only one. 

Here are the new prompts. As you can see the desert island book and bonus prompt have been removed. And instead, read a book that will make you smile has been added. This is so upsetting to me and honestly feels like a cop out to try to make everyone happy. By trying to make everyone happy, they have upset a different group of people instead. I don't think that is fair either.

I will be using the books I picked for the original prompts for the new "make you smile challenge" even though I preffered the old prompts.

A book with a house on the cover: There's Somebody Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

Read a book in the same room the whole time: This one will most likely be Iron to Iron by Ryan Graudin because it is the shortest book. Although, I am in a fairly small apartment, so the likelihood of reading a book in the same room the entire time is pretty high anyway!

Read a book set somewhere you wish you could go: For this one I am going to use Clockwork Prince and/or Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. These books are set in London which is somewhere I definitely want to see.

Read a book that will make you smile: World War Z by Max Brooks

***

I will be posting daily updates here:

April 16, 2020:
I listened to the remaining 127 pages of Melissa Explains It All by Melissa Joan Hart that I had left to read. I know this wasn't part of my TBR for this specifically but I was already reading it as part of the O.W.L.s and wanted to finish. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. I've been really enjoying celebrity memoirs this year for some reason.
My TBR is completely out the window at this point and it's only day one hahaha. I read about 50 pages of You Are An Artist by Sarah Urist Green. I wasn't originally planning on reading this but I just got it the day it came out and was too excited to check it out to wait. It looks at art complexly and offers prompts to get your creativity going as well.

April 17, 2020:
I started listening to Clockwork Prince which is actually a book on my TBR! Yay! This is kind of a long one so fingers crossed I can get through it int he next 2 days. Can I also count this as my book with a house on the cover? That might be a bit of a stretch.
I also finally started Iron to Iron and read 29 pages of that. It's really good. I didn't realize it was going to take place before the first book, for some reason I had it in my head that it took place between the first and second books.
Also listened to about 75 pages of Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson that my Boyfriend and I started listening to together a while ago. We ended up visiting my boyfriend's mom for a while and listened on the way there. 


April 18, 2020:
Listened to Hello Neighbor 1: Missing Pieces. I can only recommend for middle grade readers. Didn't enjoy this that much, but wanted something quick for the book with a house on it read rather than my original choice.

April 19, 2020:
I managed to complete all the challenges by finishing Clockwork Prince! I'm totally double counting things, but that's allowed with this readathon so it's all good! Can't wait to add the badges to my Reading Rush Profile once I can! I ordered the limited edition book marks and I'm so excited! I've been around since the very first Booktubeathon and I am always so thrilled to see how far this readathon has come!

Spending by Birthday in Quarentine

Today was my 24th birthday and what a way to spend it. I've been finding blogging to be a lot of fun again lately with all the craziness of the world and I'm treating this a little bit like a diary entry. It'll be interesting to look back on later in life.

My day started in the normal way it would. I made coffee and scrolled through my social medias for a bit. I also enjoyed some tea. My boyfriend and I found this green tea kombucha flavor from Yogi the last time we did a big grocery trip. I think it tastes good, but I'm not sure how they can claim that there's kombucha in it. Isn't kombucha just fermented tea? Maybe I'm wrong. This tea tastes different than normal green tea though and the message today was "May this day bring you peace, tranquility and harmony," all of which was welcomed today.

I decided that today I would not do any school work, which has felt strange. Doing an online program means that there are no weekend breaks, I have things due every Sunday and am usually doing at least part of an assignment every single day of the week. It's not so crazy busy that one day will be hard to make up though, so I decided to give myself a day off in this strange time of being constantly at home.

I decided I was going to go full on spa day routine to treat myself at home. I touched up the dye in my hair, exfoliated, shaved, and plan on doing a face mask tonight. I find that for the most part I don't feel like anything is wrong until I go out and see what the world is really like, then you see the one way signs in the grocery store and people wearing masks everywhere. That's when my anxiety kicks in a little bit and starts screaming, this isn't normal!

I decided to make myself some cookies this afternoon following Liz Mace's recipe that she posted on Instagram. It was really easy and didn't use any flour! Just 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 tsp baking powder, some salt, 1 large egg, and 1/2 a cup chocolate chips (but I added extra in mine). Then just bake at 350 for about 10 minutes depending on size. Mine had to be in a few minutes longer. They are delicious! And since flour is hard to find, this might be a good one to try if you have the stuff for it.

I was able to play my Animal Crossing New Horizons game where Billy the goat, Hans the gorilla, and Apple the hamster threw me a surprise party complete with a pinata! They K.K. Slider did a special Birthday performance for me with messages that the animal villagers and friends who had visited my Island had written for me. Honestly made my day. This was a nice way to celebrate without being able to see friends in real life. And I love this game so much. Animal Crossing has been a favorite of mine since 5th grade when my friend bought me Wild World as a birthday present.

My boyfriend went to the store to pick up some groceries and when he came back told me to look out the window because he had gotten me another present (he gave me a Germanikure nail kit earlier in the day, which I am super excited to use!). It was toilet paper! I caught the clip on camera but won't be sharing due to the fact that it would give away exactly where I live, but I'm glad I have that to look back on too! He made me a great steak dinner with broccoli and mashed potatoes. He also got me an Oreo ice cream cake.

I finished my day by trying out a face mask from Patchology. This was one of their hydrating ones. I really liked it and will have to keep my eye out for when this company is having sales. Overall it was a good day. Being in quarantine wasn't so bad. I even ordered myself a commemorative T-shirt: My 24th Birthday The One Where I Was Quarantined 2020.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time.
<3 Rebecca

Dear Pop, I Can't Believe it's Been 10 Years

Dear Pop,

It's been 10 years since you passed away. I almost forgot as I was going about my day today the significance of this date. Back then, I didn't think I could ever do that. I didn't think I would go through a single day without thinking about you. It was the day before my 14th birthday and I will never forget those who told me "Happy birthday, sorry to hear about Pop." I thought I would never be the same, and in some ways that is true and in others it is not.

I still think about you often and especially every time I go to Meme's house. She's doing okay without you there, she's brave about staying home alone but enjoys everyone's company. We all miss you. Today was Easter and the world is in a dark place. There is a virus that has everyone in quarantine and I wish you were here to talk to. We all spent Easter separate which I don't think you would like to have seen, but we were all able to video chat yesterday which was nice. I would love to hear some stories about when you were growing up. Meme says in her 85 years she's never seen anything like this before. That scares me a little. I'll be 24 tomorrow and I feel like I've seen so much sadness in the world.

I wish I could share with you everything I've accomplished. I'm almost 24 now. I graduated high school and college without you there. But it snowed my college graduation, so maybe it was better that way. I was really sick for a while, and that is something I'm glad you didn't have to see. I went to Costa Rica, I am working on my Master's of Science, and I have an amazing boyfriend who I really wish you could meet. I wish I could talk to you about how discouraged I've been lately with school and the lack of job opportunities. You would encourage me to try my best and keep going. You always said I would make something of myself and I really need to for you.

I used to think that it wasn't fair that Jessica had 10 more years with you than I got. Now I understand better that it doesn't matter how much time, it's the quality of that time that is most important. I'm lucky I got that with you.

Rest in peace Pop, we all love you.

Quarantine Routine

I think it's important, especially in this time of uncertainty, to make sure we have some sense of normality going on. Here is my ideal routine I would like to be following during this time starting with a few goals I've been trying to do.

Daily goals:
Drink 1 32oz water bottle per day
Workout/Stretches
Get 1 Chore Done (dishes, laundry, etc...)
Read
Check my Animal Crossing town

8:00AM-9:00AM:
Wake up
Make Coffee
Take Pills
Get Dressed

9:00AM-12:00PM:
Eat Breakfast
Fill up water bottle for the day
Sign in to school
FOCUS

12:00PM-2:00PM:
Lunch
Chore for the day
Any other necessary chores (Pay bills, finish assignments I didn't do this morning, etc...)
Relax

2:00PM-5:00PM:
Workout
Shower
Put PJs on
Relaxation time (Read, Animal Crossing, etc...)

5:00PM-6:00PM
Start making dinner

6:00PM-til I fall asleep
Dinner
Relaxation time