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geshertzarmeod · 3 years

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Favorite Books of 2020

I wanted to put together a list! I read 74 new books this year, and I keep track of that on Goodreads - feel free to add or follow me if you want to see everything! I’m going to focus on the highlights, and the books that stuck with me personally in one way or another, in approximate order. Also, all but two of them (#5 and #7 on the honorable mention list) are queer/trans in some way. Links are to Goodreads, but if you’re looking to get the books, I suggest your library, the Libby app using your library, your local bookstore, or Bookshop.

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell, illus. by Ned Asta (originally published 1977). I had a hard beginning of the year and was in a work environment where my queerness was just not welcomed or wanted. I read this in the middle of all of that, and it helped me so much. I took this book with me everywhere. I read it on planes. I read it on the bus, and on trains, and at shul. I showed it to friends... sometimes at shul, or professional development conferences. It healed my soul. Now I can’t find it and might get a new copy. When I reviewed it, in February, I wrote: “I think we all need this book right now, but I really needed this book right now. Wow. This book is magic, and brings back a sense of magic and beauty to my relationship with the world.” Also I bought my copy last July, in a gay bookstore on Castro St. in SF, and that in itself is just beautiful to me. (Here’s a post I made with some excerpts)

Once & Future duology, especially the sequel, Sword in the Stars, by A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy. Cis pansexual female King Arthur Ari Helix (she's the 42nd reincarnation and the first female one) in futuristic space with Arab ancestry (but like, from a planet where people from that area of earth migrated to because, futuristic space) works to end Future Evil Amazon.com Space Empire with her found family with a token straight cis man and token white person. Merlin is backwards-aging so he's a gay teenager with a crush and thousands of years of baggage. The book’s entire basis is found family, and it's got King Arthur in space. And the sequel hijacks the original myth and says “fuck you pop culture, it was whitewashed and straightwashed, there were queer and trans people of color and strong women there the whole time.” Which is like, my favorite thing to find in media, and a big part of why I love Xena so much. It’s like revisionist history to make it better except it’s actually probably true in ways. Anyway please read these books but also be prepared for an absolutely absurd and wild ride. Full disclosure though, I didn’t love the first book so much, it’s worth it for the sequel!

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum. This book hurt. It still hurts. But it was so good. It took me on a whole journey, and brought me to my destination just like it intended the whole time. The author’s note at the end made me cry! The sheer NEED from this book, the way the main relationship develops and shifts, and how you PERCEIVE the main relationship develops and shifts. I’m in awe of Ancrum’s writing. If you like your ships feral and needy and desperate and wanting and D/S vibes and lowkey super unhealthy but with the potential, with work, to become healthy and beautiful and right, read this book. This might be another one to check trigger warnings for though.

The Entirety of The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. I hadn’t heard of this series until this year, when a good friend recommended it to me. It filled the black hole in me left by Harry Potter. The political and mystical/fantasy world building is just *chef’s kiss* - the complexity! The morally grey, everyone’s-done-awful-things-but-some-people-are-still-trying-to-do-good tapestry! The ROMANCE oh my GOD the romance. If I’m absolutely fully invested in a heterosexual romance you know a book is good, but also this book had background (and then later less background) queer characters! And the DRAMA!!! The third book went in a direction that felt a little out of nowhere but honestly I loved the ride. I stayed up until 6am multiple times reading this series and I’d do it again.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. I loved this book so much that it’s the only book I reviewed on my basically abandoned attempt at a book blog. This book is haunting, horrifying, disturbing, dark, but so, so good. The character's voices were so specific and clear, the relationships so clearly affected by circumstance and yet loving in the ways they could be. This is my favorite portrayal of gender maybe ever, it’s just... I don’t even have the words but I saw a post @audible-smiles made about it that’s been rattling in my head since. And, “you gender-malcontent. You otherling,” as tender pillow talk??? Be still my heart. Be ready, though, this book has all the triggers.. it’s a .

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. This book called me out on my perspective on love. Also, it made me cry a lot. And it has two different interesting well-written romance storylines. And a realistic coming-into-identity narrative about a Black trans demiboy. And a nuanced discussion of college plans and what one might do after college. And some big beautiful romcom moments. I wish I had it in high school. I’m so glad I have it now! (trigger warning for transphobia & outing, but the people responsible are held accountable by the end, always treated as not okay by the narrative, and the MC’s friends, and like... this is ownvoices and it’s GOOD.)

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. My Goodreads review says, “I have no idea what happened, and I loved it.” That’s not wrong, but to delve deeper, this book has an ethereal feeling that you get wrapped up in while reading. Nothing makes sense but that’s just as it should be. You’re hooked. It is so atmospheric, so meta, so fascinating. I’ve seen so many people say they interpreted this character or that part or the ending in all different ways and it all makes sense. And it’s all of this with a gay main character and romance and the central theme, the central pillar being a love of and devotion to stories. Of course I was going to love it.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom. “Because maybe what really matters isn’t whether something is true, or false. Maybe what matters is the story itself; what kinds of doors it opens, what kinds of dreams it brings.” This book was so good and paradigm shifting. It reminded me of #1 on this list in the way it turns real life experience and hard, tragic ones at that (in this case, of being a trans girl of color who leaves home and tries to make a life for herself in the city, with its violence), into a beautiful, haunting fable. Once upon a time.

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. I need to reread this book, as I read it during my most tranceful time of 2020 and didn’t write a review, so I forgot a lot. What I do remember is beautiful and important nonbinary representation, a really cute romance, an interesting parental and familial/sibling dynamic that was both heartbreaking and hopeful, and an on-page therapy storyline. Also Mason Deaver just left twitter but was an absolutely hilarious troll on it before leaving and I appreciate that (and they just published a Christmas novella that I have but haven’t read yet!)

The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos. It took a long time to trust this book but I’m so glad I did. It’s raw and real and full of grief and trauma (trigger warnings, that I remember, for grief, death (before beginning of book), and gun violence). The protagonist is flawed and gets to grow over the course of the book, and find her own place, and learn from the people around her, while they also learn to understand her and where she’s coming from. It’s got a gritty, harsh, and important portrayal of found family, messy queerness, and some breathtaking quotes. When I was 82% through this book I posted this update: “This book has addressed almost all of my initial hesitations, and managed to complicate itself beautifully.”

Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro. I wasn’t actually in the best mental health place to read this book when I did (didn’t quite understand what it was) but it definitely reminded me of what there is to fight against and to fight for, and broke my heart, and nudged me a bit closer to hope. The naturally diverse cast of characters was one of the best parts of this book. The romance is so sweet and tender and then so painful. This book is important and well-written but read it with caution and trigger warnings - it’s about grief and trauma and racism and police brutality, but also about love and community.

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. This is a sci-fi/fantasy/specfic mashup that takes place in near-future South Africa and has world-building myths with gods and demigoddesses and a trip to the world of the dead but also a genetically altered hallucinogenic drug that turns people into giant animals and a robot uprising and a political campaign and a transgender pop star and a m/m couple and all of them are connected. It’s bonkers. Like, so, so absolutely mind-breaking weird. And I loved it.

Crier’s War and Iron Heart by Nina Varela. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVED the amount of folktales they told each other with queer romances as integral to those stories, especially in Iron Heart. A conversation between the two leads where Crier says she wants to read Ayla like a book, and Ayla says she’s not a book, and Crier explains all the different ways she wants to know Ayla, like a person, and wants to deserve to know her like a person, made me weak. It lives in my head rent-free.

Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston @ekjohnston . I listened to this book on Libby and then immediately listened to it at least one more time, maybe twice, before my borrow time ran out. I love Padmé, and just always wish that female Star Wars characters got more focus and attention and this book gave me that!! And queer handmaidens! And the implication that Sabé is in love with Padmé and that’s just something that will always be true and she will always be devoted and also will make her own life anyway. And the Star Wars audiobooks being recorded the way they are with background sounds and music means it feels like watching a really long detailed beautiful Star Wars movie just about Padmé and her handmaidens.

Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia. I needed to read this. The way Tobia talks about their experience of gender within the contexts of college, college leadership, and career, hit home. I kept trying to highlight several pages in a row on my kindle so I could go back and read them after it got returned to the library (sadly it didn’t work - it cuts off highlights after a certain number of characters). The way they talk about TOKENISM they way they talk about the responsibilities of the interviewer when an interviewee holds marginalized identities especially when no one else in the room does!!! Ahhhh!!!

Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie. Disclaimer for this one that the author was rightfully criticized for writing a Black main character as a white author (and how the story ended up playing into some fucked up stuff that I can’t really unpack without spoiling). But also, the author has been working to move forward knowing she can’t change the past, has donated her proceeds, and this book is really good? It has all the fanfic tropes, so much delicious tension, a totally unexpected plot twist that had me immediately rereading the book. This book was super fun and also kind of just really really good Star Wars fanfiction.

How To Be a Normal Person by T.J. Klune. This book was so sweet, and cute, and hopeful, and both ridiculous and so real. I had some trouble getting used to Gus’ voice and internal monologue, but I got into it and then loved every bit after. The ace rep is something I’ve never seen like this before (and have barely read any ace books but still this was so fleshed out and well rounded and not just like, ‘they’re obsessed with swords not sex’ - looking at you, Once & Future - and leaving it there.) This all felt like a slice of life and I feel like I learned about people while reading it. Some of the moments are so, so funny, some are vaguely devastating. I have been personally victimized by TJ Klune for how he ends this book (a joke, you will know once you read it) but it also reminds me of the end of the “You Are There” episode of Xena and we all know what the answer to that question was.... and I choose to believe the answer here was similar.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson. I wish I had this book when I was in high school. I honestly have complicated feelings about prom and haven’t really been seeking out contemporary YA so I was hesitant to read this but it was so good and so well-written, and had a lot of depth to it. The movie (and Broadway show) “The Prom” wants what this book has.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. I never read horror books, so this was a new thing for me. I loved the feeling of this book, the way I felt fully immersed. I loved how entirely queer it was. I was interested in the characters and the relationships, even though we didn’t have a full chance to go super deep into any one person but rather saw the connections between everyone and the way the stories matched up with each other. I just wanted a bit of a more satisfying ending.

Honorable Mention: reread in 2020 but read for the first time pre-2020

Red White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I couldn’t make this post without mentioning this book. It got me through this year. I love this book so much; I think of this book all the time. This book made me want to find love for myself. You’ve all heard about it enough but if you haven’t read this book what are you DOING.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan @sarahreesbrennan . I reread this one over and over too, both as text and as an audiobook. I went for walks when I had lost my earbuds and had Elliott screaming about an elf brothel loudly playing and got weird looks from someone walking their dog. I love this book so much. It’s just so fun, and so healing to read a book reminiscent of all the fantasies I read as a kid, but with a bi main character and a deconstruction of patriarchy and making fun of the genre a bit. Also, idiots to lovers is a great trope and it’s definitely in this book.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book is forever so important to me. I am always drawn in by how tenderly Sáenz portrays his characters. These boys. These boys and their parents. I love them. I love them so much. This is another one where I don’t even know what to say. I have more than 30 pages in my tag for this book. I have “arda” set as a keyboard shortcut on my phone and laptop to turn into the full title. This book saved my life.

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book hurts to read - it’s a story about trauma, about working through that trauma, healing enough to be ready to hold the worst memories, healing enough to move through the pain and start to make a life. It’s about found family and love and pain and I love it. It’s cathartic. And it’s a little bit quietly queer in a beautiful way, but that’s not the focus. Look up trigger warnings (they kind of are spoilery so I won’t say them here but if you have the potential to be triggered please look them up or ask me before reading)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. When asked what my all time favorite book is, it’s usually this one. Gail Carson Levine has been doing live readings at 11am since the beginning of the pandemic shut down in the US, and the first book she read was Ella Enchanted. I’ve been slowly reading it to @mssarahpearl and am just so glad still that it has the ability to draw me in and calm me down and feels like home after all this time. This book is about agency. I love it.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman @chronicintrovert . I’ve had this on my all-time-faves list since I read it a few years ago and ended up rereading it this year before sending a gift copy to a friend, so I could write little notes in it. It felt a little different reading it this time - as I get further away from being a teenager myself, the character voice this book is written in takes a little longer to get used to, but it’s so authentic and earnest and I love it. I absolutely adore this book about platonic love and found family and fandom and mental illness and abuse and ace identity and queerness and self-determination, especially around college and career choices. Ahhh. Thank you Alice Oseman!!!

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray @claudiagray . I have this one on audible and reread it several times this year. I love the fleshing out of Leia’s story before the original trilogy, I love her having had a relationship before Han, and the way it would have affected her perspective. I also am intrigued by the way it analyses the choices the early rebellion had to make... I just, I love all the female focused new Star Wars content and the complexity being brought to the rebellion.

#red white and royal blue #aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe #osemanverse #star wars #queer books #lgbtq books #books #alice oseman #miri personal #wow this took so long but was so worth it!#long post #book recs #PS: if you've read any of these or have questions about any of these books #this is your formal invitation to talk to me about them!!!! even if i don't know you at all!#even if i don't follow you and even if you don't follow me!#my ask box is open anon is on!#original content

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benandcoblog · 6 years

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Product Design at the Boeing Company w/ Liz Juhnke

The first airplane successfully flown 115-years-ago by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina has always inspired me. To this day, inventors and engineers are still pushing aerodynamics to the limit with modern aircraft that ultimately provide safe transport from airport to airport. Not all landings go smoothly; I witnessed some terrifying landings in Germany due to crosswinds. How do pilots combat that? Integrated but complex interface systems and user/computer experience.

“Boeing has some of the most complex systems in the world. And for a good reason—hundreds of thousands of human lives are in our hands every day.”

— Liz Juhnke, Data Scientist & Product Designer, Boeing

Today, I have the absolute pleasure of chatting with Liz Juhnke, the Senior Product Designer and Data Scientist for The Boeing Company.

Ben Libby: You absolutely love what you do. How did you get started? How long have you been doing it? Were you a nerd in high school?

Liz Juhnke: I’ve always loved computers. In high school, I was the co-editor-in-chief for the yearbook, and I digitally cut all the music for my drill team (upgrading us from cassettes). I went into college intent on studying oncology, but chemistry quickly weeded me out. Next, I tried computer science. I understood the concepts but didn’t quite feel like I fit in. Then, I tried Informatics. As luck would have it, I found my people. We are the extroverted engineers.

I was attracted to the technology aspect and how Informatics focuses on people and how they think. While I’ve learned over 10 different programming languages, I don’t particularly love coding. I would rather be talking with real people about their problems and needs, and visually validating solutions.

Ben: Data science and designer infographics go really well together. Have you ever given data science to a graphic designer so he/she could build/design an infographic?

Liz: Hmmm, well, Data Science and User Centered Design (UCD) skills do go hand in hand. I’ve been uniquely fortunate to study both. UCD skills help build context around a user population and a problem. Assuming that you have access to related data, the data science methods help you more quickly come to insights and/or recommendations about something. However, it’s only worth spending the time and money if you’re going to take action on the results.

If I were on a business operations team, it would definitely be good to work with someone who has an eye for design to make sure the business information I was providing was coming across as accurate, easy to read, and unbiased. The value of combining the two disciplines is more about what the data is saying and that it’s easily understood.

In my line of work, I work closely with data scientists to develop features. Consider the Amazon “recommended items for you” feature. Data Science works on figuring out what items are related to the product you’re looking at. It’s my job to figure out how you would best recognize and understand those recommendations, and how you could most easily take action (purchase!).

Ben: Human Computer Interaction (HCI)—do you think there are two different sides of this, such as one part being the psychology behind the interface and the other visuals that stimulate the brain?

Liz: Essentially! Psychology is the study of the mind—how humans understand and interact with the world. The mind dictates user behavior, motivation, emotion, reaction, perception, and on and on! HCI takes this study and applies it to all things technology. The user’s mental models are shaped by the user's past experiences and learning. All of these fascinating user characteristics is what UX professionals seek to understand! When I put a design in front of you, I'm using a visual to validate my assumptions about your expectations. I am seeking to learn your problems, needs, and triggers for action. I am seeking to understand what will motivate you to choose my particular call to action. Visuals are more than just pretty pictures that stimulate the brain. Visuals are a huge part of this quest because they bring teams to a shared understanding of a solution. Prototypes are so powerful because we are talking about something concrete, and iterating on it together based on our own ideas instead of talking at each other abstractly.

Ben: What’s one insanely complicated design challenge you faced (that’s not confidential), how did you approach it, and what were the results?

Liz: Boeing has some of the most complex systems in the world. And for a good reason—hundreds of thousands of human lives are in our hands every day. I am fortunate to be able to sink my teeth into some really high visibility engineering challenges with the best folks. It’s been an awesomely diverse range of projects too, from standard web apps to RFID scanners and HoloLens concepts.

A recent design challenge was for the safety of our mechanics at the Delivery Centers, where finishing touches are put on our beautiful planes, and loose ends are tied. This means they could be working on literally any system. They are also working in one of the most hazardous environments in the world—a powered plane. If you imagine what it would take to replace the garbage disposal in your house by yourself, you have an idea of what our mechanics might be tasked with day-to-day.

I was asked to help evaluate the safety of our Lock Out Tag Out Try Out (LOTO) program. This rigorous process ensures that the plane can be fully powered so that some mechanics can work/test in one area of the plane, while other systems are “de-energized” so other mechanics can work on other areas safely. Needless to say, it’s complicated! I gave a paper at MIT last year on our evaluation process using STPA. All rigorous processes come with cognitive friction, so I set out with my team to discover what was causing the friction and how we could minimize it.

Observation is king. Step one is always to understand your end user’s environment, tasks, and concerns. I brought a user-centered aspect to the safety analysis. During the research study, I was also tasked with hosting monthly check-ins with the LOTO focals. This ended up being an excellent forum for focals to bring up concerns in a safe place. This feedback ultimately helped me build trust with the mechanics that would later evolve into user adoption of the prototype we built for them to manage production operations better!

Ben: You’ve been with Boeing for a long time, have you picked out your favorite airplane they’ve produced over the years? (I’m totally going with the B-2 Stealth Bomber, I want a ride someday.) When you retire, do you think Boeing will let you take home one of their airplanes (if you had room in your garage)?

Liz: Haha. Yes, eight years has really flown by! I love summers in Seattle, and during Seafair, the Blue Angels always put on an amazing show. Top Gun is also one of my favorite movies. So naturally, the F-18 is one of my favorite products. I hate to “choose sides” amongst our commercial fleet because they are all amazing planes, but I really love the 787. The Hazardous Energy project allowed me to spend a lot of quality time with the mechanics and the planes. On the 787, almost all of the circuit breakers are digital—accessed from the flight deck with computer-like, multi-function displays. 787s are also really impressive with electronically dimmable windows.

Ben: For those wanting to get into Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience, what would your advice be? Any great books that you have on your shelf?

Liz: The Bible for the Boeing Product Design practice right now is Lean UX. During the past year, we’ve put an extra focus on lean design and doing just the right amount of design and research. It’s been a challenge for me being classically trained in whole systems design. However, it’s helping me to laser focus on listening to users and making sure that the feedback and ideas are coming from their side of the screen. Other books we love: Communicating the UX Vision, Just Enough Research, Don’t Make Me Think, Start with Why, Creative Confidence (also David Kelley's TED talk is amazing).

If you’re just starting college and think this might be a possible career, check out the Informatics program at UW or a similar school. If you like computers and people, telling stories, drawing and communicating visually; if you are fascinated with how the mind works, how people interact with technology and how you might be able to make people’s lives easier—this might be the career for you. Alternatively, some aspects of the job, which David Kelley mentions in Creative Confidence, are scary: working in the messy unknown, talking to strangers, losing control of what you want in favor of what end users need, public speaking, being artistic, creative, and sharing incomplete work. If these are situations where you would not run out the door screaming, you might be able to thrive in this job!

Things I’m doing to build my design career—engaging with my peers on the Seattle Designers Slack channel, following a lot of companies and colleagues who post great articles on LinkedIn, and attending local meetups (my favorite is the Design Thinking Seattle Meetup)

So many great opportunities for Product Designers are out there right now. If you are seeking that dream job, make sure to verify that it aligns with your core design values. For me, right now, a fulfilling job looks like making end users more productive, faster, smarter and happier through productivity tools. I believe my fulfillment comes from building great relationships and delighting users. Delight is a Zen state that few designers stick around long enough to achieve—delight is a state far past useful and usable that most product managers fail to prioritize because those features are not “must haves.” We are advocates for the end users. No one else will advocate for delight.

Thank you for encouraging my behavior.

Connect with Liz on LinkedIn or at a Design Thinking Meetup!

Liz Juhnke is a recognized thought leader in human-computer interaction and mobile design. Her specialty is making interfaces invisible, deciphering user expectations and managing emotions. At present, Liz is focusing on growing the user experience capability at Boeing by pairing with product designers from around the company to collaborate on designs in their new Digital Transformation Environment. She also leads the Boeing User Experience Community of Excellence, hosting monthly learnings and community usability consultations. She has delivered numerous web and mobile productivity tools and facilitated many “Design Thinking Workshops” for teams across major Boeing programs, including Commercial Aircraft, Manufacturing and Quality, Regulatory Administration, IT, and Rotorcraft.

#boeing #productdesign #interview #blogging #article

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