Bookish Thoughts

Like most of the nation, I heard Amanda Gorman read this poem at Biden's inauguration. I was inspired and moved hopeful for the future. When I saw this book at the used book store, I had to grab it. It's a quick read, but it remains an inspiring and healing one. And I'm glad to have it on my shelf so I can revisit it whenever I feel the need.

Rebecca Solnit always makes me feel better about the world at large. Her essays deal with heavy, depressing subjects. These latest are all about various crimes that seem baked into the very DNA of America. But she's also always able to pinpoint how things are getting better, and give me hope that things will continue to get better. The crimes Solnit discusses in this book aren't the sort that are traditionally talked about as crimes. The longest essay by far is called "Death by Gentrification" and it uses a case study to dive in to the ways the historic neighborhoods are being broken up and becoming more dangerous for the minorities who have always lived there, because of a perceived threat on the part of the new, white, wealthy residents and the system that backs them up. She also looks at the ways various voices have been silenced over America's history, the things we choose to celebrate and memorialize. And of course it all comes back to Trump and the backw...

This book was rough to read. And it's rough to revisit now and talk about. Which is probably why I've been putting this off for so long. Like Fire and Fury , this book dives deep into the Trump administration. Woodward interviewed countless people to get a sense of everything that's going on in the White House. Unlike that book, Woodward tries hard to remain neutral. More facts and less salacious gossip-mongering. Of course, with this administration, things still get horrific and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor a number of times. I think I'm glad I read it. If nothing else it's good to be reminded of the myriad things I should be paying attention to but that keep slipping off the radar. As I saw someone say on the internet today "this is less a 24-hour news cycle and more like that episode of Battlestar Gallactica where the cylons keep showing up every 33 minutes". Fatigue sets in, and it's hard to keep all the details straight. Recaps like t...

I wasn't going to read this book. It was barely a blip on my radar. But then my mother in law bought it to boost sales and piss Trump off. Since our Amazon accounts are linked, I have access to all her books, so when I went to look for my next phone book, it was just sitting there waiting for me. I was curious enough to open it, and then I couldn't quite look away. I spent most this book oscillating between terror and schadenfreude. No one wishes Clinton had won the election more than Trump, and his misery is a tiny silver lining in all of this. But his incompetence inspires fury and horror far more often than it inspires pleasure. Though it is nice when he ties himself in knots and fails to push through some of his more horrifying ideas. Wolff quickly establishes the three factions vying for influence and attention: Steve Bannon, Jared and Ivanka, and Reince Priebus. Then he shows how their constant warring and undermining combined with Trump's pathological desire to b...

It's not often that I run out and get a book right after it's released. I prefer paperbacks, and I buy most of my books used. Which means that I tend to be at least three years behind. But there are times that I have to get my hands on a book right away. In this case, the subject matter was too immediately relevant to the world for me to wait until the book made it's way to the used-book scene. Or even to wait until the paperback came out. What Happened  is Clinton's version of the election. She goes through it step by step, trying to work out what went wrong, what she could have done differently, what she misunderstood or underestimated. Her analysis, while obviously biased, is keen and interesting. She's not one to simplify issues. Rather she illuminates all the different variables, showing how they created a complex series of events that led to President Trump. I cried a lot while I was reading this book. Sometimes it hurt, taking me right back to the days fo...