stormkeeper_lovedoris

Somehow this book report has two books taking place in the same small African country!

Black Livingstone by Pagan Kennedy – A work of nonfiction describing the life of William Sheppard, a Black man in the 19^th century. He was a rarity: something of an explorer and missionary, spending years in the Congo. I was most interested in hearing glimpses of life in the Congo at this time since I knew very little about it. Its people suffered under colonialism but it also contained kingdoms hidden deep in the jungles that hadn’t been plundered yet by Europe, and which had their own fascinating traditions. I also liked that this work uncovered someone who has been lost to history. The book itself was alright, but not captivating or particularly fast-paced. I do object to the title (from a white author, no less). She calls Sheppard a “Black Livingstone”, after the famous white explorer. Really? If a white person fights for human rights, do we call them “White Martin Luther King”?? I kinda feel the author means no harm but still – wtf. Book was published in 2002, and I’d sure like to think that a better title would’ve been created had it been published more recently. Maybe. Grade: 4

My Greatest Save by Briana Scurry – Loved this memoir. So, I don’t follow sports and had never heard of the author, but apparently she is an Olympic gold medal winning soccer goalie. She’s also Black in a white-leaning sport, and has been openly lesbian for most of her career. The memoir is amazing because she hits absolute rock bottom when she sustains a brain injury and can’t make ends meet, and even eventually pawns her Olympic medals. And then a friend and an encounter turn her life around. LOVED it! Grade: 8

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender – A young adult novel. Felix is Black, trans, and feeling left out because he’s never had a romantic relationship. Then there’s a transphobic incident at school. I wanted to love it but it just moved too slowly for me. I was bored. Also, I recognize that writing teenager-dialog is hard but here it reaches cringe levels. Grade: 3

Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna – Memoir by the musician known for the Riot Grrrl movement and for fronting Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. I don’t recall exactly how I first heard of Bikini Kill, but I bought a few of their CDs back in the 90s and loved them. (Also after my first-ever kiss, I was through the moon. I remember dancing in my room afterwards, to a Bikini Kill CD). Riot Grrrl was a movement I wanted to be part of but it wasn’t exactly happening in the suburb I was in. Anyway, this memoir is fantastic. I could not put it down. A few years ago, I read Moby’s memoir and even though it was like 400 pages, it was never boring and I wanted more – that’s how Hanna’s is too. And I connected with it too because some of the moments Hanna talks about, I remember from my own very distant POV. But it’s not nostalgia. Every struggle Hanna talks about – sexism, SA, illness, miscarriage – it’s all so relatable. Grade: 8

Facing the Congo by Jeffrey Tayler – Another acquisition from a Little Free Library, and another book taking place in The Congo. The author is an explorer. In the 1990s he decides to recreate another explorer’s route, on a dugout canoe. The Congo has all sorts of challenges like corruption, no real functioning government, widespread poverty and widespread disease. Well, I love a recap of a compelling trip, and this one is never boring. Interesting side note: This is not the first book I've read by a white explorer going to a land of BIPOC folks where the explorer later feels some regret about how they treated their guide. Grade: 7

Been a month and a half since my last book report, but it's pretty normal for me to scale way back on reading when I am fandom-obsessed. So here's a book report. Though I'll add quickly that I am moving a lot of my fandom-obsess stuff to Tumblr since I realize it's gotta be a bit tedious for my friends here to read about. I mean, I know y'all care but I think I will keep this place here more for me to reflect on what's going on inside my head as it relates to being fandom-obsessed, as opposed to events.

Book report:

What White People Can Do Next by Emma Dabiri – A book about racism and what to do about it (especially if you’re white). I like that the book pushes you in unexpected ways and never loses sight of the big picture. It doesn’t let capitalism or identity politics off the hook. Love the section called “recognize that this shit is killing you too”. It was very relevant to today and I thought of it when reading the news - like about the white Canadian who did nothing wrong and spent 2 weeks in an ICE gulag. The prison industrial system was built to genocide Black and brown people, and now we have this monster that “is killing you too”. Grade: 8

The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley – Novel taking place in modern times, about a young lawyer whose new boyfriend leads her into a world of survivalists. I read the whole thing but idk I just didn’t get into it or see the point. It was decent enough to keep me reading though. Grade: 5

May B by Caroline Starr Rose – A sweet, short book of historical fiction. A girl living on the Kansas prairie a couple centuries ago is sent by her parents to work as a maid in another family’s desolate house. Tragedy then strikes and May is alone for months on end. Enjoyable, nothing amazing. Grade: 6

Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt – A remarkable tale of something that was almost lost to history. In the 1890s, a Norwegian-American mother and daughter walked across America, determined to win prize money offered to women who could accomplish such a feat. Their goal? To save their family farm. I love a little tidbit of history like this—one that highlights women’s resilience and strength. Grade: 7

Bits and Pieces by Whoopi Goldberg – E-book that I read on my recent plane trip, and it was the perfect book for that. The book’s tone was introspective but not heavy, with just enough good anecdotes and substance. Whoopi recently lost both her mother and her brother, and the three of them had been very close. She reminisces about her childhood, and their unit of three and how they grew and evolved together as she became famous. Grade: 7

Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley – This book is the type that makes me – STILL – ask why some memoirs are so much better than others, why some people can write out their life story in such a compelling way. I still don’t know, but Crosley nails it. She describes a time in her life when two terrible things happened to her, and the aftermath of them. Sometimes “truth is stranger than fiction”. She’s also a very witty writer. Grade: 8

The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris – A memoir by an NPR journalist. She gives us deep dives into the lives of her parents, and their struggles. Her father, a Black veteran of World War II, faced racism as horrible as ever when he returned from the war, unable to even vote. The memoir itself isn’t that enthralling though. Grade: 5

Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru – I read this novel in only a few days. It takes place when the pandemic is new, and the main character Jay is living out of his car, delivering groceries to try to make ends meet when he runs into his ex, Alice. They used to be artists and their futures got entangled with a narcissist named Rob. In truth, I wanted to read more of Jay’s life in the margins and of everyone struggling during a pandemic, as opposed to all the flashbacks of the history between Jay, Alice, and Rob. Still, the book is good and the writing top-tier. Grade: 7

The Price of Stones by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with Susan Urbanek Linville – I got this at a Little Free Library, and I notice the publication date of the book was about 15 years ago, but sadly it is so, so relevant now. Kaguri grows up in a small town in Uganda, and it is filled with “AIDS orphans”. So he decides to do something about it. He fundraises and builds a school to give the children a shot at a better life. He helps the school grow and he continuously fundraises for it. As you can see, this is not the “white savior complex” since Kaguri is a Ugandan. My heart hurts reading this book now, knowing that our evil president’s work to cut off funding means that literally children will die. (My god, how foul can one administration be?) Kaguri himself reflects in the book about one of the students who died (drugs that prevent mother-to-child transmission are too expensive for this village) and he says that he refuses to dwell in tragedy and he will keep focusing on what he can do. I guess that is all we can do. I want to fall into despair for the state of the world, but Kaguri doesn’t. Oh, as for the book as a book, it is very readable and never boring. Grade: 8

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker – Listened to it on audio – picked it up on a whim, since of course the audio options from the library are much fewer than the paper options. The book is all about planning good gatherings, whether they are business meetings or dinner parties. What I loved is that it is NOT written from the standpoint of the logistics of the meeting; it’s not telling you how to serve the best food or find the best room. It’s about the emotional, human connection aspect. How do your guests walk away feeling special? How does the business meeting move us forward? It was completely enjoyable. Grade: 7

I just did a book report, but two of the books on this one are short, and a third was a page-turner. (Plus let's just admit that I read a lot!)

Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice by David S Tatel – Memoir by the now-retired federal judge who is blind. He was born with decent eyesight but due to a mutation, he gradually lost it and was legally blind by the time he turned 30. What is even more impressive is that Tatel has been a fighter for civil rights his whole life. Man, reading this memoir….so many things in this country have backslid. Schools are just as segregated now as they were when he began his work, only this time all three branches of government seem to SUPPORT segregation. Tatel also talks about how at one time, he made less money working in corporate law than he had for a nonprofit, and how his wife made more as a public school teacher. That was back in the 60s. Looks like we really backslid there too. And Tatel also describes how he was nominated to a federal bench by Clinton and his confirmation hearing lasted 1 hour and it sailed through. He said now he’d be lucky to get a handful of Republican votes. There’s also a section on how right-wingers have a whole pipeline where they seek out clerks who lean their way and groom them, and work only with them. (Tatel would look for clerks from a variety of backgrounds, and he welcomed open and honest debate). The book is not all political doom and gloom. I loved reading the practical aspects of how Tatel navigated life as a blind judge. It was never boring. Grade: 7

Between Breaths by Elizabeth Vargas – Listened to this on audio. I need to watch TV news someday because apparently the author is a famous TV anchor but I’d never heard of her. Anyway, in her memoir she describes her struggles with anxiety and alcoholism. One might think ‘another celebrity goes to rehab’ book, but honestly? I loved it. I loved the rawness of her story, and I was never remotely bored. Grade: 7

The Rest is Memory by Lily Tuck – The author saw the photograph of a 10 year old Polish girl who was taken to a concentration camp, and she decided to write a novella based on her life. This story is stark, vivid, and painful. Sidenote: maybe don’t read this when literal fascists are taking over your own country. I won’t give the book a rating other than to say Tuck is a renowned writer and of course the book is a heartbreak.

The Life Impossible by Matthew Haig – Listened to this novel on audio, and the voice actor was sublime. The story itself was just meh. A 72 year old woman describes her life, and how a chance encounter decades ago led her to Ibiza and an adventure she never would have imagined. Grade: 6 (largely due to the voice actor!)

Into the Planet by Jill Heinerth – This is non-fiction at its finest! Heinerth is a cave-diver. She explores underwater caves. She has been around the globe, including Antarctica. Her memoir here is perfect. She takes you right on her journies with her, she keeps it action-packed, she includes “just enough” personal stuff, and I read the whole thing in 2 days. Grade: 8

Followed By the Lark by Helen Humphreys – The legendary Helen Humphreys has a new novel! She is on my “favorite novelists” list. This one is about….Henry David Thoreau. Of Walden Pond fame. Maybe not a subject I’d be eager to read about but Humphreys made every page intriguing. It was like being enchanted, going to a special place, and coming to see the world with the curiosity and wonder that Thoreau embodied. Each evening I looked forward to snuggling in bed with this book and treating myself to 10 minutes of reading it. Grade: 8

Playing with Myself by Randy Rainbow – I think I might be the last person in the world who hasn’t watched many of Randy’s videos. My mom even messaged me one or two of his parody works. In any case, this is his memoir. He seems like a lovely person, and he’s had an incredible journey from awkward kid in South Florida to someone who makes his living as an entertainer and performs with legends. The book is a light and fun read, and his jokes land. He does have a section on the time he was “cancelled” for stuff he tweeted when he was in character 10 years ago, and that section was so relevant…like the crazy ways we’re so eager to pile on to people. (As the author of one of the below books said, “Yes, go strong on your principles but go gentle on people.”) Sidenote: Randy Rainbow is indeed his real name, the one he was born with. Grade: 7

I, Parrott by Deb Olin Unferth – Graphic novel; I read a “regular” novel by the same author and enjoyed it so I wanted to check this one out. It tells of Daphne who is struggling to make ends meet and takes on a house sitting job which includes taking care of dozens of rare and expensive birds. In the meantime, Daphne has lost custody of her son and is not sure the guy she’s with is the right one. Book was enjoyable enough, and it’s short so I think I read it in two sittings. Grade: 5

Anti-Racism As Daily Practice by Jennifer Harvey – Book on working to end racism, written by a white author who has spent decades in this space. Btw, is it wrong to include on my reports books that I haven’t read every word of? There is a lot of wisdom in this book, but it’s so bogged down awkward writing and endless personal anecdotes. The personal anecdotes do relate to the subject of the book but there are just. So. Many. Of. Them. It gets to the point where they weigh the book down. Yet I also went through the book and made notes of the educational parts, because there is a lot of hard-won insight in here. One such point I noted above, in my review of Randy Rainbow’s book. There are other points about white fragility and how we tend to be fragile because we’ve never shown up against racism so it’s a vicious cycle. Or how family gatherings and multiple, gentle conversations in person do tend to move the needle. Harvey’s insights are really important; I just wish the book had been more read-able. (No grade, for reasons above)

Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace – A series of essays by the queer Black writer. Some of them are biographical, but they all are beautifully written and contain Wallace’s thoughts on the wonder of life despite its harshness. His writing style is top-notch and even poetic at times, but I have to also say that I believe a year from now, I might not remember this book. Grade: 5

Dang, am I mean and judgy regarding the first and last books on here? :) Maybe I am.

Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu – I listened to this novel on audio. Why did I do it? Well, the setup was good: a young woman named Mona growing up in Communist Romania in the 1980s wants to escape. But the book was so long, dragged down by boring recaps of Mona’s dreams. Mona reminded me of some Eastern Europeans I’ve known, a mixture of stupid naivete and being butthurt constantly, and if she uses the phrase “making love” one more time, I am going to projectile vomit. Grade: 2

Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson – Memoir by the Supreme Court justice. What a remarkable person! She’s packed so much into her life. I was worried that this long book would drag, but it doesn’t. I found the most intriguing part to be when she and her husband are new parents, their baby is neuro-diverse (they don’t know it yet), and they are juggling two very taxing jobs. Jackson also talks about the trade-offs she and her family has had to make to pursue their dreams. (They just move into a house they love when Jackson is told she might get a federal appointment – but it means they have to pack up and move to DC). Grade: 8

50 Years of Ms. Edited and with commentary by Katherine Spillar and the editors of Ms – I had to get this book. I’ve subscribed to “Ms” since the 90s, seen it decline along with the entire magazine industry, seen it loose quality and depth, but I don’t think I’ll ever break up with it since it is something of a chronicle of the women’s movement. This book is a large sampling of 50 years of its articles. I like that the editors included poetry and letters to the editor as well. Most impactful articles in here? They include one from the 1990s, where the author is shocked at and fearful of this new thing known as hate radio – and as the editors point out, right wing propaganda has only gotten worse and taken on multiple formats since then. There is also an excellent, recent article on calling out; how activists tend to over-police each other in a desperate bid for control, and how it doesn’t help advance our goals. I would’ve loved a few more blurbs at the end of articles with follow-ups, especially since some of the articles are half a century old. Still, this “trip down memory lane” was worth it and felt all too relevant today. Grade: 8

The Glassmaker by Tracey Chevalier – Another fantastic book of historical fiction from Tracey Chevalier. This one traces a family of glassmakers on an island near Venice. The book spans centuries and handles the passage of time really well, never losing focus and always keeping it interesting. The characters and their world have remained with me. Side note: I did some googling, and I think the author is still best-known for The Girl with the Pearl Earring which she published a quarter century ago, but I believe almost everything she’s done since then has been better. Grade: 8

Impossible People by Julia Wertz – A graphic memoir, a long one and a good one. It details the author’s fight against alcoholism. It really gave a fascinating look at someone’s life and world, over a decent span of time. But I have to compare it to “Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations” by Mira Jacob. Wertz doesn’t seem to care much about what’s going on in the world or the country. Whereas Mira Jacob’s memoir is often rooted in national events like Obama winning or Clinton losing to Trump, Wertz doesn’t write about any of that. I can’t fault her for not being a political writer; I guess I’m just jealous as I’d sure love to go through life without fear of what MAGA nutjobs will do next hanging over my head. Wertz’s life seems to be her inner world and those close to her, and that’s all. She's not losing any sleep over the state of the world or the country. I guess felt something was lacking here. Grade: 6

Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough – A series of essays by a remarkable woman who was raised in The Family (horrible patriarchal sex cult), joined the Air Force and was kicked out, survived on low-wage jobs, did a stint in jail, had mental health issues, and is a lesbian. Her writing is riveting. As one reviewer said, “fiercely honest, funny, brazen, brilliant.” I quoted a piece of her writing on my FB, just because it seemed very trenchant when thinking about US voters: “We (Americans) fetishize poverty, as though it makes you a better person. The truth is all it does is make you mean. The constant stress of it. The never-ending f** shame of it. It makes you angry and hateful. You’re not jealous of those who have more. You’re just exhausted by the *** humiliation they will not hesitate to throw at you. There’s a world of opportunity you’ll never reach. College. Jobs. A network of contacts ..” Grade: 8

There is No Ethan by Anna Akbari – Wow. I could not put this book down. It’s a real-life account of three women who uncovered and unmasked a catfisher. Truth really is stranger than fiction, and I had to keep reading to see what would happen. (I even did some googling after finishing the book to see if there was any follow-up). Grade: 8

Loot by Tania James – This is a very interesting novel. Set in 18^th century India, it tells the story of young Abbas who is a master woodworker, and who comes to the attention of the sultan. It’s one of those books that is well-written and engaging enough, but I suspect that in a year or so, I won’t remember it. Grade: 6

Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make – and Keep – Friends by Marisa G Franco – Solid, well-researched book about the importance of friendship. There’s nothing surprising in here but it’s a good reminder. Friends are just as important as romantic partners! Full disclosure: the topic was awesome but the book wasn’t always that compelling and I may have skimmed a few parts. Grade: 6

Rest in Power by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin – This book is written by the parents of Trayvon Martin and is about their struggle for justice after his murder. I got it from a Little Free Library. I think I will write more about my reactions to the book than the book itself. First, racism and police brutality are still as bad as ever. “Stand Your Ground” is still law in Florida, and in fact it was changed several years after Trayvon’s murder to make it even easier for the shooter to justify his actions. (wtf) Trayvon’s killer is still free, and according to Wikipedia he is making shittons of money selling crappy confederate “art”. A racist is set to take the highest office in the land, in January. What the hell is it all for? Yet the book seems to suggest that the fight for justice is still the right thing to do, even if it seems like justice is never attained. While reading this book, I did do a post on FB asking for ideas. My post basically said: I’ve read a lot of books about racism but how do I do more?? Me reading books doesn’t feel like it changes anything. I asked the AI at work for ideas. First it listed more books to read. I said that I already read most of them and I wanted to take more action. So then it gave me a bunch of ideas on conversing with people on the topic. But that poses some problems too, such as the fact that most of us live in bubbles and rarely interact with a diverse range of people. (As I said on FB, come on I have 3 friends, and all of them feel the way I do on this topic). So then the AI gave me ideas on how to get out and socialize more. Which I can do, but again I live in a big city and you won’t find many folks here saying that Stand Your Ground is a great law or copping to purchasing confederate “artwork”. I feel like I landed back at square one in terms of my activism goals: keep canvassing and campaigning for candidates who support racial justice. (Again, apologies that this review is more about my reactions and actions, but I am assuming that anyone reading this report already knows at least a bit about Trayvon and the events surrounding his murder. Grade: 8)

Another one already? Well, I read the first book in like 2 days, and then the next two were fairly short...

Coming Home by Brittney Griner – Memoir by the famous athlete who spent 292 days in the Russian prison system before being allowed home in a prisoner swap. Griner had forgotten to remove some vapes from her bag when she headed to Russia; apparently the combined amount of what was left in the vapes wouldn’t have gotten a person high, but it didn’t matter. There was no due process, nothing that could’ve been considered fair or reasonable with the way Russia treated her. Imagine being imprisoned by a scary, confusing, inconsistent, cruel system. With no way of knowing how long you will actually be there. (At one point, she has to constantly tell herself she’ll serve her entire 9 year sentence, as it’s the only way she can keep from breaking down. The conditions in the places where she was kept were all terrible). The book was a page-turner. Grade: 8

Dusk Night Dawn by Anne Lamott – Got this book from a Little Free Library in Wisconsin, and I am never letting it go! It is a series of essays that was published a few years ago, and every word completely resonates, especially now. Lamott writes about living in challenging times and struggling to find hope and joy. The book is like a gentle hand in the pitch dark, making you feel that at least you are not alone. I am struck that this book came into my life right at the time of this horrific election result. Grade: 8

Trans Like Me: Conversations for All of Us by CS Lester – I listened to this on audio, and it is read by the author who has a very mellifluous voice. Lester gives the basics of being trans and they easily refute the usual anti-trans arguments. As one reviewer said, the book is thoughtful, intelligent, and approachable. It’s also short, so anyone who drives and wants to listen to something should really check this out. Grade: 7

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross - Apparently for centuries there were rumors that a female Pope existed in the 9^th century, and that for a long time this was even taken as fact until the Catholic Church began a concerted effort to erase her existence. (The author admits there is no way to know for sure whether or not there ever was a female Pope, as the 9^th century is one of the most poorly-documented centuries). This is a well-researched novelization of her life. It was fairly compelling, though like not super well-written. There are mid-scene shifts in point-of-view, there’s info-dumping, and the last third feels like a rushed outline rather than a novel where events unfold and we get a chance to feel it and react. There are also too many tangents focusing on Joan’s nemesis, and these sections were boring – like, why pull the focus away like that? Still, it held my interest. Grade: 5

The Wind At My Back by Misty Copeland – This is the famous ballerina’s tribute to another pioneering ballerina, Raven Wilkinson. Wilkinson danced with major ballet companies in the 1950s, virtually unheard-of for a Black woman at the time. It’s a quick, easy read and a good one. I learned that when Wilkinson’s ballet company’s bus reached the south, KKK members blockaded the road because they learned there was a Black ballerina on it. Perhaps it was too much to expect that 70 years later this country would elect a Black woman as president. Grade: 7

The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimaki – This is quite an interesting concept. The author lays awake at night thinking about women throughout history who threw aside conventional notions of acceptable spheres for women. The ones who decided to be explorers, adventures, and artists. Some of the women are better-known such as Nelly Bly or Artemesia Gentileschi, and others are nearly lost to history such as Isabella Bird or Mary Kingsley. (Kankimaki’s choices are very European-centric though, with just one Asian woman). Kankimaki travels the world, retraces some of their steps, and shares their stories. The book never gets boring. Grade: 7

We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian - The case made national news; even I had heard of it. Two white moms drove their SUV off a cliff, killing themselves and their six Black adopted children. One of the moms had been very active online, posting pictures of her son hugging a police officer at a BLM protest, advocating for good causes, though often sounding like she had “white savior complex”. And then the details started to come out. This wasn’t an accident, and evidence that the children had been abused was mounting. Asgarian is not drawn in by the psychological problems of the mothers; instead she seeks out the parts of the story that were made invisible: the children themselves and the system that seemed hellbent on taking them from their families and adopting them out, heedless of their own needs. And clearly what we see is a miasma of racism and a system that doesn’t really care about children or abuse. The children’s stories shook me to the bone. I read the book in two days, and this is an impeccable work of investigative journalism. Grade: 8

Boyfriend Materials by Alexis Hall – Contemporary novel where there’s a “fake dating that turns real” thing going on. Oh, and it’s two men. Cute and fun but it moved too slowly – especially given the genre here, I mean come on this is not “War and Peace - and wasn’t that engaging. Grade: 3

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob – Well the timing for me reading this graphic memoir was painfully right. I read it the day after election day. Jacob begins the memoir with her young son asking questions about race and racism. Jacob is Southeast Asian, her husband is Jewish, and her son is trying to make sense of prejudice. During the memoir we see micro-aggressions, 911, Obama’s election night, and the 2016 election night (including the fact that Jacob’s in-laws voted for Trump). Like I said, the timing was fitting….like I mourn for this country while also hoping Jacob’s son might be ok and maybe even help make this country a better place. Grade: 8

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian – I listened to this on audio. Alexis goes on a biking tour through Vietnam, with her boyfriend Austin. He goes missing, and Alexis soon learns there is far more going on with Austin than she’d dreamed. It held my interest. It won’t change your life. Which probably describes most of Bohjalian’s stories. J Grade: 6

Passport by Sophia Glock – Graphic memoir. Glock grew up in Latin America though her family was from the US, and she grew up under a shroud of secrecy concerning her parents’ jobs. The illustrations were perfectly-done and I was eager to learn the truth of her parents’ jobs, but otherwise the narrative just didn’t have much to it or much to offer. Grade: 5

Victory. Stand! By Tommy Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile – Two graphic memoirs in a row; I didn’t plan it, I swear. This one is Tommy Smith’s story. He won Olympic gold in 1968 and was excoriated for standing on the dais with his fist raised, in protest of the US’s racism. Before he got to that point, he raised in a family of impoverished sharecroppers. His story is brilliant and compelling, and the illustrations are pristine. The memoir talks about the backlash he faced for years, for taking this stand against racism. In the final panel, he says he would do it all over again – and I legit got tears in my eyes. Grade: 8

Madam Speaker by Susan Page - An 11 CD audiobook on Nancy Pelosi, and yet…it’s good? In fact, I am amazed at all that Pelosi has done, and her skill at doing it. I was interested to learn that Pelosi never actually had political aspirations though she came from a political family. Her father was a multiple-term mayor of Baltimore and the family grew up talking and understanding politics, but Pelosi herself had always planned to stay in the background, supporting candidates from the sidelines. She married and had 5 children in 6 years. But her trajectory changed when a dying Congresswoman told her to run to replace her. What a tenure she has had! She was (is) a master fundraiser, master strategist, she is tireless and fearless. If it was not for her, we wouldn’t have Obamacare (which should be called Pelosicare) nor would we have had the measures that saved us from a Depression after the crash in ’08. The book is filled with some of the strategies she used. She didn’t allow “exit ramps” when working with Obama and Emmanuel on Obamacare. She calls in favors. She figures out who will influence a given Congressman and gets them on the phone with him. Obama was like this brilliant Harvard professor but he didn’t know how to play politics and get votes like Pelosi did. She always knows her numbers before she calls a vote. She filibustered once for 8 hours. Which meant she had to stand and talk the entire time, no breaks other than to sip water. She was 77 years old and she was wearing 4 inch heels. Why did she do it? To protect the Dreamers and DACA. She is progressive and yet practical too. And Pelosi is supportive of LGBTQ rights; she fought endlessly to get the AIDS memorial quilt on display in DC when all the organizers were hearing was ‘no’. She found a way to get them to say yes. I could go on and on but she is clearly one of the most effective Speakers ever. And I don’t know what will happen in the presidential election but….if Harris wins, it’ll largely be due to Pelosi making the final call that Biden had to step aside. Grade: 8 (I should add that parts of the book are a bit boring and I did skip thru a few tracks!)

Ten Lessons For a Post-Pandemic World by Zareed Zakaria – I started this report with two graphic memoirs in a row, and now here are two audiobooks in a row. (I spent much of October driving around Wisconsin, so that means – audiobooks!). This short book could have been painfully dry. And it starts out that way. Ugh, the guy is talking global geo-politics, diplomacy, China vs US, economics, and such. But at times it’s really interesting? Like when he’s talking about AI or the rise of cities or even the divides like rural/urban or educated/non-educated which are even more salient with the upcoming election. I’d say if someone has time to listen to audio and wants to learn a little bit more about the world on a big scale, this is a good book. Grade: 7

The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper – This is the third in the trilogy I’ve been reading, which centers around a young woman in ancient Rome who is enslaved when our story starts. What an ending to this trilogy! I couldn’t put the book down. It is fascinating, just like the first two books. Someone needs to make this into a TV series! The plot twists are expertly done. And such beautiful writing. The author has done her homework on ancient Rome. She describes it all with just the right amount of detail, tossing in a lovely metaphor here and there but never overdoing it. Grade: 9

Not Too Late by Gwendolyn Bounds – Picked this one up at the local indie bookstore (the one that is CLOSING!! So sad) and decided to give it a try. The author is a corporate exec who turns 45 and feels an itch to do more and decides to start training for lots of really hard physical stuff like Spartan races, which sound like grueling torture. She faces lots of setbacks and health scares but she keeps going, entering race after race and often coming in top 3. (She also happens to have a wife, which I didn’t know when I picked up the book). Even though I think that training to run races in a desert at age 51 is somewhat insane, this was a very engaging read. Grade: 8

Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult by Michelle Dowd – Listened to it on audio. The author was raised in a cult; not The Family but kinda similar to it, called The Field. Right-wing Christian shit where the females are abused and taught to be submissive, though this one has the cool extra twist that they live on a mountain (in Northern CA I think) and the author’s mom teaches her all sorts useful things about foraging and surviving on a mountain. And the same mom looks the other way as horrific abuse happens, and doesn’t visit her daughter when she has to stay in a hospital for months. Please can stupid idiots who join cults and who don’t want to love their children please just stop having fucking children?? Well, a review says this is a “fierce and empowering coming of age story”, and I agree. Grade: 8

These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere – Oh how I wanted to enjoy this novel! Taking place in modern Cameroon, the book’s main character is a lesbian who has to live in the closet and who has lost the love of her life. There’s a great storyline in here but it all unfolds slowly and I had to force myself to pick the book up. Grade: 3

The House With the Golden Door by Elodie Harper – Book two of a trilogy taking place in ancient Rome, starring a (formerly) enslaved woman named Amara who is just trying to survive. I don’t think anyone reading this report will ever read these books, but I’ll still avoid spoilers. This is SUCH GOOD historical fiction! It’s a page-turner and it’s well-researched, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the third book. Grade: 8

Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood – A long memoir that I read in a few days. The author’s parents decided, when she was 7 years old, to sail around the world. So Suzanne spent 10 years on her parents’ boat. They mostly sailed around the South Pacific, her dad did stupid things and lost money, her mom was a cold-hearted jerk who viewed Suzanne as a servant. I was infuriated reading this: the parents had no interest in their kids’ schooling or social lives or anything. The mom in particular was horrible and needs to be tossed over the side of a boat. In any case the story is absolutely enthralling, and at least it has a happy ending though Suzanne had to fight tooth and nail to even get to somewhere where she could occasionally mail her correspondence courses. Grade: 8

Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko - It’s not the kind of book you read cover to cover but I will include it here because it’s good. It’s a workbook with tons and tons of ideas on creativity, especially as it applies to work problems that you want to find a solution to. The book is dated (one section references using “a computer with a modem” lol) but there are so many suggestions and things to try when you need to problem-solve or need a dose of creativity, and I actually pulled a few for an actual work project, and….they worked! So I am keeping it. We do need to employ more creative problem-solving techniques in the business world – that’s for sure. Grade: 8

A very good group here!

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris – Although I read this years ago, I got the audio from my library to give it another listen. Obviously politicians write their memoirs to shine the best possible light on themselves, but I gotta say that Kamala is awesome. From the program she founded “Back on Track” (it helps non-violent offenders get their lives back on track instead of just sending them to prison) to her fight for victims of assault to her grilling of Brett Kavanaugh and a hundred other things, Harris really has been fighting the good fight. My only complaint about the book is that it gets into “long and boring” territory when it comes to policy stuff. But I think that’s kinda required for memoirs by people running for office. Grade: 8

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper – I got this from a Little Free Library and it was great! A tale of ancient Rome, told by one who is enslaved. There is female friendship and brutality and intrigue, and it’s a page-turner. And there’s a sequel! Grade: 8

Diary of a Misfit by Casey Parks – The author is a lesbian journalist who grew up in rural Louisiana and has a complicated relationship with her mother. During a visit home, her grandmother tells her about Roy, someone who lived nearby all his life, was kind of a loner, and appears to have been a trans man though he might never have used those words to describe himself so we don’t know for sure. Parks commutes back and forth from Portland to rural Louisiana to uncover what she can about Roy’s life, speaking with people who knew him and trying to track down the journals he reportedly kept. All the while Parks dissects her own complicated family backstory. Although the book started to run out of steam somewhere after the midpoint, it’s still pretty good. Grade: 7

The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux – A novel that I listened to on audio, and it’s based on a true story. A young man in North Korea gets his hands on a role-playing fantasy game guide that a tourist leaves behind. With the help of a teacher, he learns how to play it and he eventually brings the game to his friends, but it gets him in trouble. Loved this book all the way, and was really on the edge of my seat during the last CD. Read by the author, and he has a truly lovely voice. Grade: 8

I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt by Madeline Pendleton – Years of book reports and I still don’t know what makes one book bingeable and another book a chore. I craved this book and finished it off in three days, though it’s not short. And I’m not even sure why I loved it so much. Pendleton’s story is much like others that I read: she grows up poor or poorish with parents who are okay but not particularly skilled at parenting and definitely not at financial matters. She struggles financially, somehow juggling college, full-time work much of it gig work, commuting in terrible cars, couch-surfing and staying in crappy apartments with multiple roommates, and starting her own business. Pendleton is never alone, and it’s clear she and her friends find ways to help each other even as they are all living paycheck to paycheck. The book starts with her boyfriend taking his own life because he feels bad that he can’t keep up with the bills. From that opening, Pendleton grounds her book squarely in the evils that capitalism is inflicting on society, and she offers some practical solutions. And….she triumphs. Her business eventually takes off, she has like a dozen employees, they all INCLUDING HER make the same wage and she helps them buy cars and houses, and they all put in just a 4 day workweek. Damn. I loved this book. Grade: 8

Finding Me by Viola Davis – A memoir by the famous actress. She has not had it easy, as she grew up in a very challenging situation. Her mother was violently abused by her father, they often had no heat or running water or food or clean clothing, as one of the few Black families in their Rhode Island town they were often subject to racism, and much more. As a teenager, Davis finds a program that exposes her to the arts, and she gets a lifeline out of there. I was struck also by Davis reminding us that 95% of actors do not work and less than 1% make more than 50K per year. I must say that Davis is a much better soul than I am. Her father abused her mother over and over again, nearly killing her more than once. Yet Davis ensures that when he is terminal, he is taken care of and when he dies, he gets a send-off worthy of a king. Like seriously, am I a monster? If this man were my dad, I wouldn’t care at all. Maybe I’ve been reading too much about patriarchy lately. In any case, I give the book a grade of 7. It was never boring though it didn’t thrill me either.

README.txt by Chelsea Manning – This has been on my “to read” list since it was published two years ago, and I’m finally glad I got a chance to read Manning’s memoir. Wow. She has been through hell and back. Terrible, abusive parents. Being trans in a world that hates trans people. Enlisting and experience the hell that is the military plus the hell that is a war that everyone knows we will never “win”, of seeing civilians including children killed and no one caring. And then of her seven years in in prison, some of which was in absolutely horrific conditions. In terms of this book, I give her full credit. Likely it could’ve been 500 pages but she keeps it to a crisp, fast-moving 250. I think I read it in two days. Grade: 8

The Lost Queen by Signe Pike – Two reviews on the book’s jacket compare it to The Mists of Avalon, which is one of my all-time favorites. I’d say this book was beautifully written and it mostly held my interest, but it really lacked the intrigue and depths and passion of Mists. It’s the story of a woman nearly lost to history, an ancient queen of what is now Scotland. Grade: 6

Nevada by Imogen Binney – Published about 15 years ago, this is the tale of a trans woman named Maria who breaks up with her girlfriend, drinks too much, goes on a roadtrip, and meets someone working in a Wal-Mart and who may or may not be trans. Since it was published, it sounds like it has been viewed as a milestone of contemporary trans lit. I don’t know; as a novel it just wasn’t very good. I’ll probably forget about it in a few months. Grade: 4

Beyond Power by Marilyn French – Wow, this is a long review. Well, it’s a long book. I have to start with a bit of my history here. Throughout most of my life, I’ve been a feminist but the internet wasn’t a thing until I was about 21 or so. Before that, I read a lot of books and one of them was this opus. Published in 1985, it’s more than 500 pages (BIG pages with small font) long, not counting the notes pages. It’s a little-known but exhaustive history of patriarchy and how it works, the structure of power and what it looks like on a large scale throughout many different societies. A few months ago when Trump’s victory looked all but guaranteed, I decided to re-read this book, hoping to place this moment in the context of history, hoping get some insights on why it appears our cultures are always ready to self-destruct. I won’t even attempt to rehash everything in this book (the history of patriarchy isn’t a fun topic) or dissect it (given when it was published, you can be sure that doesn’t delve anywhere near enough into racism or into identities beyond the gender binary. The book is not particularly informed by the works or thoughts of Black women, though I think the writer kinda tried? I also won’t nitpick – like why are the words “nutritive” {yuck} and “felicity” in here like dozens of times, ugh come on, editor do your job!??). I should add that I read the whole book back in the day, but this go-around, I skimmed many sections. So, what did I think? Well, there’s plenty of good stuff in here. The section on ancient history is the best, and the author lays out well-reasoned thoughts on how, when, and why society moved from a more egalitarian place to patriarchy. She writes movingly about men’s experiences under patriarchy, how many of them are emotionally stunted and also constantly stymied at work, one of the few things they’ve been taught that can define them but which is also built on an oppressive foundation. The section on corporate power and corporate control over the world is more salient now than ever. It was nice to read something that took such a broad and deep look at history and culture. I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve done so. There are fascinating tidbits too. One example: cultures with the more extreme forms of patriarchy do not survive. (Like weirdly as bad as the ancient Greeks were, they were less patriarchal than the Aztecs who self-immolated much faster especially since they had so many enemies and had created their culture to be one of self-destruction. Of course now all we need is one dominating culture like North Korea or Russia or the US if Trump wins to nuke the whole world). It is always sad to read about what the human race has lost when we fell into patriarchy. (Another book I read recently, about women in the old West, talked about the Native American peoples, and how one tribe took in two white girls because they cared about people and hated to see them suffer, even when they looked like their enemies. Oh, what this planet has lost and how this species has suffered and caused suffering to other species! It’s sad also that this book itself is pretty much already in the dustbin of history even though it’s “only” 40 years old. On the other hand, I would argue that many of its ideas have survived. A lot of current books I read have an underlying understanding of patriarchy even if they don’t always use the term). Was the book useful to me in understanding why we keep trying to destroy ourselves? I guess so. In any case, things look much more hopeful now than when I first began reading the book. Sorry for the rambling review. Grade: 9

Yours For the Taking by Gabrielle Korn – I’d describe this novel as post-apocalyptic with a bit of sci fi, a look into life in the US just a few decades from now when things have collapsed. I loved that it had a queer-focused lens and realistic characters, along with a good storyline. (An ultra- wealthy woman has created a refuge called The Inside, but there is of course more than meets the eye to it). The ending felt awfully rushed. Excellent beginning and middle though, and the book was never boring. Grade: 7

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir – What is it about the Tudors that has kept people fascinated for half a millennium? I’m not sure but I’ve enjoyed many a novel about a Tudor. Growing up I read non-fiction about them and I remember Queen Jane, who was queen for 9 days. This is a novelization of her life. Definitely worth a read, though it is kind of slow-going at first. Still, I was interested even though I knew going in what her fate would be. Grade: 6 (Side note: By coincidence, days after I finished reading this book, I started watching Prime’s My Lady Jane which is like a historical fantasy/comedy/romance based on this very Jane. Uh, very very loosely based.)

Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones - Memoir from the comedian Leslie Jones. She is amazing. And she has been through hell and back. She has worked her ass off. She’s been misunderstood and has lived through shit: both parents and only sibling all dying young, getting doxed and slammed on Twitter for Ghostbusters, getting her identity stolen on a regular basis, catfished, nudes leaked, bad health problems including hemorrhoids so severe that she had to have surgery. I love that she has made it her fight to always be true to herself. Also I went on YouTube to watch some of her Daily Show performances, and she is both hilarious and spot-on. Grade: 7

Body Work by Melissa Febos – Full disclosure: I read this book on a 5:40am flight out of Ontario, California. (Actually, why does the city and state matter? It was a 5:40 AM FLIGHT!) I don’t know how much of it my brain actually absorbed. A reviewer said it’s both a “memoir and master class”. Febos has published several memoirs, and this book isn’t a how-to but it does contain lessons she’s learned in writing and publishing memoir. I think it was good? (Maybe I won’t give it a grade since I’m basically admitting I couldn’t fully take it in).

Brave Hearted: The Dramatic Story of the Women of the American West by Katie Hickman – I’ve had an interest in the American West for a while. Never an obsessive interest, but an interest. It was good to read a whole book about the women of the west. And even better that this is NOT just the white women’s story, but the story of Black and Indigenous women too. (And a little about the women brought over from China, but not a lot). The author gives us so many windows into these women’s lives, and the book is never dull. Grade: 7

You Just Need to Lose Weight by Aubrey Gordon – I am going to do what I try to not do: quote from someone else’s review. “In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,” Aubrey Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them.” (Back to me now). This was really good. I’ve read a lot on the topic over the years but nothing lately, it seems. I have a BFF who is fat. Hell, everyone who is not fat has a loved one who is. People need to read this to get an idea of the crap that our loved ones go through! Grade: 8

Nobody Needs to Know by Pidgeon Pagonis – This intersex author tells their story, starting from the lies that doctors told them via their uninformed parents. Pagonis is told as a child that she was born with cancer in their ovaries and they had to be removed when they were a baby. Only later would they learn that they never had ovaries, and what were removed were undescended testes. (or testicles? I forget). Several surgeries were done on Pagonis as a child without her consent and without her mother really understanding. This is a great story not just about coming of age but also fighting back! Pagonis becomes an activist, pressuring the hospital (Lurie Children’s) that mutilates children’s bodies for no reason other than conformity. I listened to this on audio. An extra layer of interest was provided in the fact that the author grew up near where I live now; they have lived their life in Chicagoland. Grade: 7

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger – Wow, this is so good! It’s a not-too-distant future novel where much of society has broken down. But it’s not all horrible either, and our protagonist Rainy and his wife have found a community and a good enough life. Then something bad happens, and Rainy goes on a journey by boat. I don’t want to spoil anything. I could hardly put the book down, it was so good. Grade: 8

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton – This memoir is scary, funny, weird, and moving. Bilton’s mother is a larger-than-life figure who does everything from dream up successful business schemes (only to lose them and go broke a few years later) to hanging with celebs like Warren Beatty. She’s a lesbian (in the 1970s), she’s single, she wants to have a baby. Not an easy thing given the times, but she finds a guy to donate sperm. Despite her wishes, he goes on to donate sperm hundreds more times to other women. Bilton’s memoir is a madcap rollercoaster ride. Never a dull moment. Grade: 8

A Life In Light by Mary Pipher – I’ve been reading a lot of books by this author in the past couple of years. I feel like she and I are on the same wavelength. I think I once described her as a wise and interesting aunt. In any case, this book is her latest and it’s a memoir. Despite having read bits and pieces of Pipher’s life before, I was engaged the whole time. I liked hearing of what she has been through and her thoughts and feelings. There’s something about Mary. (Sorry, movie title pun). She’s devastated when her daughter and son-in-law move with her grandkids to Canada, and I really felt it for her. Does her last chapter or two AGAIN feel more suited to a Dreamwidth post? Yeah. Does the book at times feel like a replay of Mary Pipher’s Greatest Hits? Yeah. But, hey, it’s a good album and one worth listening to again. Grade: 7

Reality-Based Leadership by Cy Wakeman – Recommended by someone at work. Solid advice on leading at work and making the job more tolerable for everyone. It takes you through how to do things like not ignoring reality, greeting change, depersonalizing feedback, and more. Grade: 6

Be a Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo – This is one of the better books I’ve read lately on fighting racism. It has concrete ideas for action. None of them are ‘easy’ or simple; this book goes quite a bit deeper than ‘don’t laugh at racist jokes!’ It goes into the roots and the structures, and yet still gives good advice. And the book is intersectional (do we still use that word? I don’t know) as it also covers racism and disability, racism and queerphobia, etc. Grade: 8

Revelations by Mary Sharratt – Historical fiction at its best by one of my favorite writers! It spins the tale of an historical figure, Margery Kempe whose autobiography is the first known English language autobiography (of anyone, male or female). It was discovered in the 1930s, written in the 1400s, and it explodes every preconception of the life of a woman in Medieval Europe. As a reviewer said, Sharratt’s book is “full of surprises and delights”. It had me on the edge of my seat, especially the last few chapters where I was completely unsure what was going to happen to Margery. Grade: 8

Becoming Ms Burton by Susan Burton with Cari Lynn – Found this in a Little Free Library! Susan Burton’s life sadly illustrates the racism and the prison industrial complex combined with the war on drugs. It’s an horrific companion to Ijeoma Oluo’s book above because she has suffered deeply under so many of the injustices covered in the earlier book. Burton was caught up in the CIA’s “hook ‘em and book ‘em” strategy where they sent crack and other drugs into mostly-Black communities and then went on sprees where they threw people into prison so their lives got caught up in the trap of prison plus not being able to meet their parole requirements. What a terrible, racist mess. Burton had another heartbreak too where her young son was hit and killed by a speeding cop car. Burton of course never receives any compensation or even an apology. After years in the system, Burton hears from a white prisoner about drug treatment programs, and then later on she is determined to help women exiting the prison system. The book is never boring, but combined with Oluo’s book it just makes you want to scream. Grade: 8

A Bigger Picture by Vanessa Nakate – Books about climate change are depressing. No way around that. But I read this one. Nakate is Ugandan. She talks about how difficult and lonely it is to protest climate change in Uganda, and yet she found ways and persisted. She talks about gaining some international renown for her work, and attending conferences about climate change – and being one of the only Black voices in the room, despite the horrific effects already taking place in Africa. Nakate also covers the time she was cropped out of a photo by the AP, though she was the only Black person in the pic. And she covers the online abuse she’s suffered. Nakate ends the book with practical things you can do. It’s a good read. Whether it’s climate change or Project 2025 or the Supreme Court GET ACTIVE!! Grade: 7

Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You by Becky Holmes – I read it in one day. I laughed, I was horrified, I was enlightened. This is a look at the scary world of online romance fraud. Holmes had me dying as she pasted her interactions with would-be scammers (you know the ones. They are instantly in love with you. They want money. So she tells them she is getting a plane right now to go meet them. Suddenly they don’t want to meet yet.). She is always brilliantly funny in her replies to them, and throughout the book. In addition to the hilarity, Holmes takes a deep dive as to who these scammers are and what to do about the problem. There’s some scary shit here. Just as some young women are lured into the sex industry, it would appear there are scanner hubs where young folks are lured into jobs and then held at these hubs as they are forced to scam people all day (it seems most of the hubs are in Malaysia, Nigeria and Ghana). She even tracked down parts of a training manual which was chock full of icky stereotypes on how to lure women and “homosexuals”. I also liked Holmes’ exploration of the victims; people like to think they are all gullible idiots, but that is not the case. Each of their stories is enthralling. I will re-read this book. Wish I’d saved it for a boring plane ride, but I don’t have any plane trips coming up! I might just re-read it next plane trip. Grade: 9

The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg – This is one of the early novels by a writer who I like a lot. Though I tend to prefer historical fiction, she writes modern stuff and it’s usually incisive and witty and fast-paced. This one wasn’t quite as spot-on but I still enjoyed it. It’s about a woman in NY, married to an artist who has been in a coma for years, and then she finds some shocking revelations. Grade: 5

My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez – An excellent memoir. Gutierrez was born in the US, and her parents legally stayed in the country because they had visas. But their requests to renew their visas were denied, with no reasons given. Gutierrez and her family agreed that she will stay in the US because of greater opportunity and less violence than in Mexico. Thus separated from her parents as a teenager, Gutierrez sleeps on the sofa and is treated as a nuisance by the family that takes her in. She works her butt off though too. This is not just a ‘bootstraps’ story – Gutierrez lays out the ridiculous policies and racism that she struggled with. I was fascinated reading how she makes it all (finishing high school, going onto college, going into a very unfriendly corporate world) work. Grade: 7

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King – A novel taking place in ancient Rome! Very appreciated since I’ve written fanfics using this setting. (My three highest kudo-ed fics are set in ancient Rome). This is a tale based on some historical truth, centering around an enslaved man who becomes a renowned master chef; some of the recipes in the books that his enslaver published still survive today. It was a nice, fast read with a driving storyline. The title doesn’t quite fit though? The main character has a great life for a Roman slave! Grade: 8

Lessons from the Edge by Marie Yovanonvich – Listened to this on audio, and it was 14 CDs long. Marie Yovanonvich has had a long, distinguished career in foreign service. But Trump was president when Yovanonvich was ambassador to Ukraine, and Rudy Guiliani saw her as standing in the way of deals he wanted to make with corrupt Ukrainians. And so – despite the fact that she had done nothing wrong, he begins an ultimately successful campaign to remove her. He was Trump’s personal attorney, he served in no official capacity that included any foreign relations duties – but hey, so what? This memoir starts with what happened, then goes back through Yovanonvich’s life and how she came to be a FSO (foreign service officer), and then concludes with the Trump/Guliani mess and her life afterwards. It starts out very, very interesting. Yovanonvic was told that most folks have no idea what it’s like to be a FSO and I loved hearing how she got started in her career, and her first posting which was in 1980s Somalia. But by the 7^th CD or so, it starts to really get boring. There is way too much detail about her time as US Ambassador to a small, former-Soviet country and then to Armenia. I hated to do it but I skipped some of the tracks on the CD. (I’m sorry, Ambassador Yovanonvich but I don’t think anyone apart from the current president of Kyrgyzstan cares this much about the corruption in Kyrgyzstan 25 years ago). The book picks up again around the 10^th or 11^th CD. The book is also read by the author and her voice is like okay but not like super-pleasant to listen to. Overall, despite my skipping some tracks, the book is good. It also shows what a right-wing witchhunt can do to a ‘normal’ person. Like here is a principled person doing their job and here’s how a disinformation campaign is mobilized against them. It brings the insanity of the Trump years to life. This is the second book I’ve read by someone who had to get therapy to deal with attacks by right-wingers. How many more lives will these people try to destroy? Grade: 8

Queer Intentions: A Personal Journey Through LGBTQ+ Culture by Amelia Abraham – The book is exactly what it says. The author travels around Europe and North America to try to get a sense of LGBTQ+ culture, and she does a good job pulling in folks who are trans and NB and POC. It’s never boring and in fact, I think it’s really useful; I often feel I have a very hard time grasping LGBTQ+ culture or even what it means to be queer. It’s like, we’re all so different, what even binds us? So the book is more than an interesting travelogue; it’s also something to get conversations started and brains churning. Grade: 8

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters – A novel centering around three women: one is trans, another is her ex and is also trans but has detransitioned and is living as a man even though she knows she’s a woman, and the third is cis and is pregnant (with sperm from the second). They decide to make a family. I agree with the reviewer who said: “Plenty of books are good; this book is alive.” I would also add, though, that by the time I was about 60% through the book, it was really losing steam. Like the newness of the setup and the writer’s crisp descriptions weren’t enough to keep this train running. Grade: 5

Nujeen: One Girl’s Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair by Nujeen Mustafa with Christina Lake – Just as the subtitle says, Nujeen and her sister left war-torn Syria, and they made a daunting trek through multiple countries. They went on a dangerous boat, they went over land, they used taxis and busses, they often went days without eating and with barely any water, sleeping on beaches or in shelters that had the bare minimum of amenities. One advantage they did have: two older brothers who’d left Syria long before them were able to use apps to send money to help finance this. In any case, it is heartbreaking to think of how many people on this planet are refugees fleeing war and climate catastrophe. They did nothing wrong, and they are hated in so many places they go to. At least Nujeen’s story has a happy ending as she and her family have settled in Germany. However, her parents and one brother are still stuck in Syria; the parents were not up for the trek, understandably. Grade: 7

Practical Optimism by Sue Varma – I’ve been reading a lot of books like this lately. It’s full of no-nonsense ways you can make your life better. Change your outlook, change your habits, set realistic goals. It uses research and composite case studies. It’s good. I think almost anyone could benefit from reading or even skimming it. Grade: 7

Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg – We were given copies of this book at work to read before a meeting. And like the above book, it’s good. We can all use more tips on how to communicate better. Like, the first section makes the point that good communication is really about connecting, so you need to learn how to do that. It also guides you to figure out what sort of conversation is going on (practical? emotional?) so you can adjust accordingly. I like when he talks about how some of us might prepare for communicating with loved one by thinking about what point we want to get across – but we don’t usually think about what we want to ask them or learn from them. I’d definitely re-read segments of this before a difficult commiunication. One negative about the book. Apropos of nothing and for no reason, Duhigg makes a comment bashing vegans. Wtf. I even emailed him about it. Grade: 6 (You know why the grade is not higher) J

Sorry that my ratings are again pretty uniform....

100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul – This is exactly what the title says and it is awesome. And a quick read that you can do in a few days. Along with each item that we lost is a page or two about it. Not all are things we’re sad to see go, such as boredom and the rolodex. Also, I don’t agree with Paul’s entire list; I still have plenty of solitude when I want it and I am as productive as ever. But there are some real losses in here that Paul lays out well: private humiliation (seems all humiliation is public now), magazines (RIP Bitch and Utne and Ms when it was good and more like a ‘magazine-book’ instead of a flimsy shadow of itself), asking politely, and a lot more. Grade: 8

Good Power by Ginni Rometty - The author was the CEO of IBM. She had an incredible journey. Grew up poor after her dad walked out on the family, loved to learn, excelled at school, got a scholarship from GM, always worked hard and learned a lot. After sharing her own story, Rometty talks about how business can improve both for business’ sake and to improve the world. I enjoyed it a lot. Grade: 7

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad – I began this novel with the idea that it told a relatively simple story: a boy flees an unnamed Middle Eastern country (perhaps Syria) and washes ashore on an unnamed (Greek?) island where he must evade the authorities with the help of his new friend. Then came the ending. It stunned. At first I thought it was a plot twist. Then I googled and saw that it left lots of people scratching their heads. Then I understood that something much deeper had gone down and that this is much more than a simple tale. And yeah, it’s much more literary and more ‘deep’ – but accessible – than my usual fare. Grade: 8

The Impossible Will Take A Little While edited by Paul Rogat Loeb – Published 20 years ago, this is a series of essays about hope during dark times. I read it, sadly reflecting that things like climate crisis and erosion of democracy have only gotten worse since. And the book is not a fluff piece; it doesn’t give any trite reasons for optimism. There were many nuggets of wisdom in here which made the book a good read – and it stands the test of time. Grade: 7

Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty – I think any book that helps make Buddhism accessible and do-able in the modern world is a good thing. Jay Shetty – a former monk – accomplishes that here. There are a lot of solid ideas to try, subtle ways to change your mindset. Definitely one of the better books I’ve read on “training your mind for peace and purpose every day” (as the book’s subtitle says). Grade: 8

Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – Loved this memoir! I first heard of Misty Copeland years ago when she became the first Black principal dancer at….some big ballet company. Her memoir has been on my “to read” list for ages. I’d put it in the category of page-turner and never boring. Her life is very interesting, from growing up when her mother “went from man to man” and Misty and her siblings constantly changed homes, to dancing in school then finding ballet at the Boys and Girls Club to being recognized as a prodigy and so on. I guess it’s natural to love to read about a success story, and I did love it. I appreciated that Copeland was open about discussing the racism she faced along the way. Grade: 7

Wayward by Dana Spiotta – This novel is a weird and yet compelling read. Sam is 50-something, she’s estranged from her daughter, she wants out of her marriage, her beloved mother has a mysterious illness, and after the 2016 election she wants to get involved in social change. The book’s tone is cynical and bemused. It probably wouldn’t have been my thing if not for the tie-in with current events, but like I said – it’s odd yet compelling. Grade: 6

The Clergyman’s Wife by Molly Greeley – A Pride and Prejudice novel! I was never actually a huge fan of the original but I’ve seen at least one movie based off of it. I had remembered that the main character had a friend, Charlotte, who didn’t have Elizabeth’s looks and had no dowry. And so Charlotte marries the bumbling, pompous-yet-obsequious William Collins in order to simply give herself a home and stability. This is Charlotte’s story. I listened to it on audio and it was excellent. Made me look forward to getting in my car and driving to work. Picking up a few years after Charlotte’s wedding, the author made all of it fascinating - Charlotte’s life, her choices, a dilemma she faces. Greeley’s prose is lovely too. Grade: 8

Things I Learned From Falling by Claire Nelson – A memoir that’s a page-turner. The author went hiking solo in California desert. She falls, shatters her pelvis, and her phone has no service. (Nelson admits that not having a plan to check-in at regular points was a bad idea. In her defense, she was an experienced hiker and the trail was rated as moderate). I won’t spoil anything other than to say that without the ability to walk or phone anyone, she’s in trouble – and she fell on a Tuesday, one of the area’s least popular days to hike. And soon after her fall, she realizes that she had accidentally ventured off the trail itself so she’s unlikely to see anyone else. Nelson did a great job of keeping this moving and not bogging the memoir down with too much of her past and backstory. This would’ve been a great book to read on a plane. Grade: 8

All The White Friends I Couldn’t Keep by Andre Henry – As the subtitle says “Hope – and hard pills to swallow – about fighting for Black lives”. The author shares his story in fighting racism, along with some conversations he had with white friends, which ranged from annoying to infuriating. He provides his thoughts on how to make progress in the fight for the world we want to see. Two things really stood out for me. One had to do with the fact that Henry has roots in Jamaica and he finally spends time there. He’s amazed to be able to walk into a shop and not be followed, he’s glad to be away from anti-vaxxers, police brutality, Trump talking about not leaving office even if he loses in 2020, and mass shootings. (Sometimes I think we’re all in denial about how awful the US is). Also, not long ago I read another anti-racism book and the author slammed the practice of Blacks dating and marrying non-Blacks. At the time I’d thought that was maybe a bit close-minded or a bit narrow. Henry talks about it here too, and how much better he finds it since he has focused on partnering with Black women. As bad as it sounds to say ‘only date within your race if you’re Black!’ I at least could see his point. No exhausting discussions with your partner’s relatives, someone to share the struggle with, etc. Grade: 8

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