Chapter One Hundred Fifty: Career of Evil

Career of Evil follows The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm in the mystery series J.K. Rowling writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.  I enjoyed this (grizzly) read at least as much as the first two, though it probably is not for the faint of heart (it starts with a severed leg and the brutal crimes continue).  The mystery certainly kept me guessing, and it is interesting to see how the personal lives of detective Cormoran Strike (our hero) and his assistant Robin Ellacott (also our hero) continue to evolve throughout the series.  The end left me eager for the next installment, and I can only hope it will follow the pattern of a book each year and be published in 2016.

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Nine: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

This memoir by Jenny Lawson is actually her second book, and I definitely plan on reading her earlier memoir (Let's Pretend This Never Happened) at some point in the near future.  When I saw the taxidermied raccoon dancing in golden glitter on the front cover of Furiously Happy, I simply couldn't resist.  (Also one of my trusty co-workers had started reading the book and was regaling us with hilarious anecdotes from it.)  Lawson provides a humorous account of her daily life and her serious, sometimes debilitating struggles with various mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety.  This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in a first-hand account of one person's experience of living with mental illness or for people who enjoy contemporary memoirs.

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight: Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

After seeing a Google Doodle featuring Hedy Lamarr, I was inspired to learn about this pioneering woman who helped invent spread-spectrum radio transmission, a technology key to the later development of the internet and mobile phones.  I looked up biographies of her, and found this one by Richard Rhodes, a well-respected non-fiction author, which also happened to be available at my local library!  Because this was such a busy semester for me, it took me some time to read it, but I did find it really interesting.  Hedy Lamarr led a fascinating life: not only was she a hobbyist inventor, but she was also a famous early Hollywood actress and a person of Jewish descent who fled a pro-Nazi arms-manufacturing husband in her native Austria.  This book also includes information on the life and times of George Antheil (her co-inventor of spread-spectrum radio transmission), an avant-garde American composer who made a living by writing news articles and scoring Hollywood films.  This book chronicles how these two became unlikely inventing partners and how their invention, after years of neglect and obscurity, came to be the unsung technology that makes so much of our modern life possible.  If you want a bit of interesting inventing information or heady Hollywood history, Hedy's Folly is the book for you!

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven: Lonely: A Memoir

Lonely: A Memoir is basically what it sounds like: a memoir of chronic loneliness, with a healthy helping of the author's research into international studies on loneliness.  Author Emily White, a Canadian ex-lawyer, intersperses accounts of her own periods of loneliness throughout her life with the interviews she conducted with self-identified lonely people from around the world whom she met online when she started a (now-defunct) blog about loneliness and her research into more clinical studies of loneliness--its causes and its effects, mental, physical, and social.  Along the way, she addresses stereotypes about loneliness and lonely people as well as her own efforts--successful and otherwise--to combat loneliness.  As someone who has experienced loneliness at times, I found this to be an engaging and fascinating book, and I think it would be valuable for everyone to read, even if they have only experienced situational (rather than chronic) loneliness.  As White notes, chronic loneliness is a social issue that affects everyone, whether they experience chronic loneliness or know people who do, yet few people discuss loneliness and there is so much shame associated with loneliness.  Her book is an excellent introduction to the subject of loneliness and I highly recommend it.