non-fiction | NancyElin.blog

Nov

#Non-fiction Fallen

Title: Fallen
Author: Lucie Morris-Marr
Genre: non-fiction
Published: 2019
#NonficNov
#AWW2020 @AustralianWomenWriters
Trivia: Walkley Award

Introduction:

Lucie Morris-Marr is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist
…who has covered the entire Pell case.
The long-anticipated decision of the jury…what did they decide?
Did Pell win the appeal?
Did the verdict trigger a storm of feelings
…among advocates and survivors?

Conclusion:

I read Cardinal published by Louise Milligan in 2017.
Ms Milligan peeled back the layers of George Pell’s life to reveal in detail:
G. Pell’s youth
the building of the case against…the cardinal from historical documents
the cover-up by the Catholic Church concerning alleged child abuse by G. Pell.
It was an impressive book and won
..The Walkley Book of the Year 2017.

Why is Ms Lucie Morris-Maar’s book different?

Ms Morris-Marr continues the narrative where Cardinal ended
…the inside story of the Pell trial.
The “Cathedral Trial” started nearly 14 months after the cardinal
was first charged for multiple allegations of child sexual abuse.
A choirboy may have been a small, powerless adolescent soprano
but his voice will resonate for years to come.

Last thoughts:

Strong point:
Ms Morris-Marr revealed her personal struggle (mentally and physically)
while writing this book.
Ms Milligan on the other hand… remained outside the narrative of Cardinal.
Weak point: it is difficult to make a trial procedure exciting
…only Helen Garner can do that!
Personally, I enjoyed Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell
more than I did Fallen.
Ms Miligan’s book made my whole body go cold….
Ms Morris-Marr’s book is seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary
…a trial procedure: questioning witnesses, jury deliberation, mistrial and retrial.
Weak point: Fallen – Ms Morris-Marr connects the dots of research.
…but does not give me much emotion about the trial.
Strong point: Cardinal – Ms Milligan creates with the help of
research, observation, description and reflection
an intense book…full blast… drama.!
So, I don’t think Fallen will win The Walkley Award 2020
….my advice read Cardinal ….the winner of The Walkley 2017!

UPDATE: 10.11.2020

Today an unprecedented report
about Cardinal McCarrick of the United States
who was defrocked of his red hat and
…dismissed from the clerical state for
sexual abuse and harassment was released
in 2017 by Pope Francis I.
Why so important?
For the first time the Vatican is willing to confront
the MISTAKE made by a pope and now saint, John Paul II
in appointing Theodore McCarrick as Archbishop of Washington DC in
2000…and a cardinal the following year.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Timeline:

29 June 2017 – Victoria Police announced they were charging Pell with a series of sexual assault offences with several counts and several victims.
1 May 2018 – Pell was committed to stand trial on several historical sexual offence charges.
August 2018 – The Cathedral Trial …for the allegations of misconduct in St Patrick’s Cathedral.
13 March 2019 – sentencing Pell to serve 6 years in jail Pell was also registered as a sex offender.
21 August 2019 – the Court of Appeal issued its ruling, which upheld the conviction.
January 2020 – special leave to appeal Pell’s conviction should be overturned.
7 April 2020 – the High Court unanimously granted leave to appeal, quashing Pell’s convictions.
14 April 2020 – it was reported that Pell was under a secret investigation by Victorian police regarding a separate allegation of child sexual abuse committed in Ballarat in the 1970s.
October 2020 – allegations that €700,000 had been transferred from Vatican accounts to a witness against Pell. (Pay-Off??).
“Vatican categorically [denied]” interference in the trial of Pell.
Hmmm, I wonder….

Nov

#Non-fiction Hazelwood

Morwell, Australia

Author: Tom Doig
Title: Hazelwood
Published: 2019
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
#NonFicNov
Trivia: Longlist Walkely Award 2020
Cross reading: QLD 2019 Book of the year
Adani: Following Its Dirty Footprint by Lindsay Simpson

Introduction:

Coalmine in Aussie town was on fire for almost
three weeks after an arsonist lit bushfire that spread.
Firefighters were concerned about landslides
due to the amount of water being poured into pit.
Morwell was engulfed in smoke and authorities
…said say fire could take months to extinguish.
14,000 residents were exposed to health risks from smoke inhalation.
Was there a chance to consider
…a class action against the mine’s owners??

Conclusion:

This was a riveting read about a
unprecedented environmental disaster
…that affected nearby town of Morwell Australia
with asbestos ash and smoked.
Tom Doig captures the human cost via
the stories of people who suffered through it.
The author gathered information
from 2014-2019 with in-depth interviews and
…follow-up fact checking.
The operators of the coal mine, Hazelwood Pacific Pty Ltd
were found guilty in …November 2019 of polluting
….the atmosphere so as to make it harmful to health.
The book was a page turner
.…and made me think of the many pollution
disasters the have taken place in the world.
…that we never read about.
#MustRead

Oct

#Non-fiction The Influence of Soros

Author: Emily Tamkin
Title: The Influence of George Soros
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2020
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan

Who is George Soros?

Soros has been a punching bag for authoritarians,
anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists around the world since 1992,
when he became famous as
“The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” by making more
than US$1 billion by “shorting” the British pound.

Born in Budapest in 1930, Soros barely survived the destruction
of European Jewry by the Nazis. Living in
New York City since 1956, he has combined a long career
as a successful capitalist while doing philanthropy
under the banner of his Open Society Foundations.

Chapters 1

Birth of a Myth
The book begins with a quickscan Hungray WW I – WWII
and the impact on Soros and his family.
Soros has been a frequent target of anti-Semetic and right-wing groups.
In 1945, Soros survived the Siege of Budapest.
In 1947, Soros moved to England and
became a student at the London School of Economics.
The war and the way George Soros survived it was a formative experience.
Living as a victim changed Soros’s sense of empathy.

Chapter 2

1984
George Soros opens a foundation in Hungary,
which would eventually lead to the establishment
…of the Open Society Foundations network.

Chapter 3:

Breaking the Banks
Soros is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England”
because of his short sale of US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling
…which made him a profit of $1 billion in 1992.
This action made George Soros a ‘player’ on the financial world stage.
Black Wednesday UK currency crisis

Chapter 4:

The Humanitarian Exception
Soros’s humanitarian work duringThe Bosnian War.
This was an international armed conflict that took place in
Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.

Chapter 5:

Rocking the Vote
The prime minister of Slovakia and aspiring authoritarian
Vladimír Mečiar was later ousted by a mass voter mobilization
in 1998, those involved in the efforts described to
me how state-backed media implied that Soros was behind it.

Chapter: 6

Baltimore
Soros’ work with his foundation
….Open Society Institute-Baltimore focuses on the root causes
of three intertwined problems in our city and state:
drug addiction, an over-reliance on incarceration, and
obstacles that impede youth in succeeding inside and out of the classroom.

Chapter 7:

The Elections of 2004 G.W. Bush vs John Kerry

George Soros has launched a nationwide speaking tour and
advertising blitz in an attempt to deliver the Bush defeat.
Mr Soros, America’s 24th richest person, is expected to spend up to $3m.
Soros: “If I could contribute to repudiating the Bush policies
I think it would be the greatest good deed I could do for the world,”
Soros railed at the president’s claim that “either you are with us,
…or you are with the terrorists.
Soros said Bush was “undermining the civilized discourse
that is the foundation of our democracy”.

Chapter 8:

United We Fall
Absolutely fascinating….just read this!

Chapter 9:

Closed Society
Now I understand the world and why some leaders
…want greater national purity Viktor Orban (Hungary)
Bibi Netanyahu (Israel), Donald Trump (USA).
Each side uses the other as a smoke screen
to cover up ugly realities of immigration.
All these men attack Soros. Why?
Soros reflects back onto a country what it most hates.

TRIVIA: dd. 01.10.2020
The Trump administration has
…steadily slashed the number of refugees admitted into the
United States over the last few years.
2017 – capping the number of refugees at 45,000
2018 – reduced that number to 30,000
2019 – further cutting it to 18,000
2020 -Trump proposes capping refugee admissions at 15,000 in historic low
Obama: in his final year in office capped the
…number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to 116,000

NOTE: August 2020 Soros is all in for Joe Biden

Soros has been open about his disdain for Trump in the past,
calling him a “dictator”, a slander he has directed at
other leaders he disagrees with,
including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
If anyone takes a closer look at where all the
Democratic money is flowing from, they will see
that Soros is funding a huge part of the whole operation.

NOTE:

I just read about Bryan Stevenson’s nonprofit, Equal Justice Initiative
in his book Just Mercy!
The New York Times published an interview with
Open Society Foundation announced that it intends to
“double down” on funding black-led justice organizations.
Black Voters Matter
Circle for Justice Innovations
Repairers of the Breach and the
Equal Justice Initiative

Last thoughts:
George Soros the financial genius, then the ambitious philanthropist and finally
Gerge Soros the world’s bogey man.
If you search Washington Post or The New York Times
…you will see George Soros is everywhere.
….behind the scenes donating major $$
…to promote open and democratic societies.
The Guardian dd. January 2020:
Soros gives $1bn to fund universities and stop drift towards authoritarianism
It is about time to stop and learn more about
this amazing and generous billionaire!
I read it as an AUDIO book (7 hrs 57 min)
…and it was just the best way to absorb all the facts.
While I listen..I often look up facts, names, places etc on Wikipedia.
#MustRead

Sep

#Non-fiction Heavy

Author: Keise Laymon (1974)
Title: Heavy
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2018
Trivia: Winner Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence non-fiction 2019
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
My list of books about black lives

Read: 28.09.2020
Genre: memoir
Rating: A+++++++++++++++

Heavy is about Keisa Laymon’s childhood in Mississippi and is
written in the form of a letter to his single mother.
She is an academic, who loved him but also beat him ruthlessly.
She feared what white America would do to him if he wasn’t perfect.

This was a staggering introspection.
Strong point: Laymon transports the reader to a place
where we see the unraveling of the said and unsaid
between mother and son.

What a talented writer….
Kiesa Laymon, professor of English and Creative writing at
U. of Mississippi, writes a memoir we can easily accept.
Who does not want to read a book in the form of a letter to his mother?
Their relationship was difficult…but love, love oozes from the pages.
Best read via AUDIO book (6 hrs 18 min) b/c you hear
the intensity in Laymon’s voice,
This almost ‘hip/hop-rap’ delivery and it will mesmerize you.

Life in USA is difficult if you are black and especially in Alabama.
Heart-wrenching at times…but oh,
the perseverance of his mother to make her
boy the best he can be gave me goosebumps.
Yes, she used abusive methods (…beat him with a belt)
…but you have to see…her heart was in the right place. I
It is not easy being an African American single mother in Alabama
….and trying to keep her son from falling off the tracks.

Last thoughts:

Tip: this book is best as an AUDIO book.
You hear the urgency in Laymon’s narration…
….with A ‘rap’ tempo.
I am still a bit numb….but
I’m so glad I found this book!
#MustRead

Sep

#Non-fiction Just Mercy

Author: Bryan Stevenson (1959)
Title: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2014 (film version: 2019)
Trivia: Time Magazine – 10 Best Books Nonfiction 2014
Trivia: The New York Times -100 Notable Book 2014
Trivia: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2015
Trivia: Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction 2015
Trivia: B. Stevenson had founded a nonprofit, Equal Justice Initiative.
Stevenson has advocated for the release of over
140 prisoners facing capital punishment.
Trivia: HBO documentary film True Justice wins 2019 Emmy Award.
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
My list of books about black lives

Introduction:

How did I discover this book?

Author was interviewed on CNN this year.

What is the book about in a nutshell?

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer.
One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian.
He was sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit.
Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and
…political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter.
This is a coming of age story for this young litigator.
It is a look at the lives of those he defended.
It is an inspiring argument for compassion in pursuit of true justice.

Core message:

Bryan Stevenson argues that slavery morphed into lynch law
which then morphed into segregation and
today, into mass incarceration
…all of which reflect a desire to control and subjugate black people physically.
Simply avoiding subjects because they are hard
…leaves injustice to fester.
USA: let’s just not talk about the past
…let’s not talk about race.

Introduction:

Higher Ground
– Stevenson visited death row for the first time, he met Henry.
The gospel Henry sang after meeting Bryan Stevenson
for the first time: I’m pressing on the Upward Way.
…was so impressive!
I immediately listened to it on Spotify!
LISTEN…so beautiful.

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

Chapter 1:

Mockingbird Players:
– backstory about Walter McMillian, the man on death row.
Walter was victim of…
1. white paranoia about interracial relations,
2. the scapegoating of an innocent black man,
3. a hasty conviction that flew in the face of evidence and common sense, and
4. town authorities bent on execution.
5. On November 1, 1986, the body of 18-year-old part-time
6. clerk Ronda Morrison was found under a
7. rack of clothing at Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama.
8. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned,
9. strangled and shot three times. About $35 was missing.
10. Walter was charged for the crime.

Chapter 2:

Stand
– backstory about Bryan Stevenson as an attorney
in Atlanta Georgia.
The title of this chapter refers to the great song by Sly and the Family Stone
LISTEN…this really brings the reader in
the mood for the theme of this book: struggle for justice!

Snippets of the lyrics….written in 1969 but still applicable in 2020!

There’s a cross for you to bear
Things to go through if you’re going anywhere

For the things you know are right
It’s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight

You’ve been sitting much too long
There’s a permanent crease in your right and wrong

They will try to make you crawl
And they know what you’re saying makes sense and all

Don’t you know that you are free
Well at least in your mind if you want to be

Chapter 3:

Trials and Tribulation
– backstory of Walter McMillian’s arrest June 7, 1987.
details about McMillian’s trial and experiences on death row.

Chapter 4:

The Old Rugged Cross
– hymn requested for Herbert Richardson’s execution….LISTEN
– backstory starting new nonprofit law center in 1987, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
– backstory of the clients the center tried to help
Horace Dunkins…Herbert Richardson in 1989.
Desperate men calling EJI looking for hope after hearing of their execution date.
In this chapter…it was difficult to read about the last hour
…before an execution on Herbert Richardson.
Now I can appreciate how difficult it must be
…trying to help men on death row.
Strong point: In debates about the death penalty
…quote: ” I couldn’t stop thinking that we don’t spend
much time contemplating the details of
…what killing someone actually involves.”

The Team in 2020: Equal Justice Initiative
…a nonprofit that works toward ending excessive punishment,
…including mass incarceration
…with author Bryan Stevenson in the front row.

Chapter 5:

Of the Coming of John
Title: refers to chapter 13 in W.E.B du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk
Du Bois relates the story of John….needless to say it has a sad ending
…that relates to Walter’s situation:
The story symbolizes Du Bois’s belief that all
…African Americans are doomed to be lynched
whether literally or metaphorically in 19th- and early 20-century U.S. society.
In this way,
…John (…or Walter McMillian) can never be free in life
—his only path to freedom is through death.

– Stevenson (lawyer) visits Walter McMillian’s in prison and his family.
Stevenson develops trust necessary to deal with
…the litigation and stress of execution.
We must realize how much a lawyer’s support means for these families
The family doesn’t have much but they give into Stevenson’s care
Walter….someone they deeply love.

Chapter 6:

Surely Doomed
– this is such a sad story
…highlights the case of a 14 year old boy named Charlie.
5 feet tall, 85 pounds and now in jail
…with adult prisoners who abused him.
Stevenson did manage to get him to a juvenile facility
…and a chance to survive.
You don’t read about these cases in the newspaper
…but I shudder to think how often people ignore evidence
…logic and common sense to convict someone
…even a 14 year old boy.

Chapter 7:

Justice Denied
– Walter McMillian’s appeal is denied.
Stevenson would have to figure out who really
…killed Ronda Morrison to win Walter’s release.
Lawyer …..becomes detective!

Chapter 8:

All God’s Children
– this entire chapter was very hard to read
about juveniles in adult prison
…Trina, Ian and Antonio.
Trina:
1976: for a tragic crime committed at 14 years old
…Trina was condemned to life in prison.
2014: now 52 years old…she is one of 500 people
in Pennsylvania, condemned to life without parole for crimes
they were accused of committing
…when they were between 13-17 years old.
I don’t know how lawyers sleep at night
…when confronted with US justice system.
They feel helpless…but keep fighting for justice.

Chapter 9:

I’m Here….refers to McMillian’s elderly mother announcing
…she takes her seat in the court room!
“I may be poor, I may be black, but I’m here,”
– Stevenson presents NEW evidence to prove McMillian is innocence.
Finally…On February 23, 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
reversed McMillian’s conviction and ordered a new trial.
On March 2, 1993, prosecutors
dismissed charges against McMillian and he was released.

Chapters 10-16 (investigate the last chapters yourself….)

Mitigation
I’ll Fly Away
Mother, Mother
Recovery
Cruel and Unusal
Broken –> this chapter….is SO POWERFUL!!
The Stonecatcher‘s Song of Sorrow
Epilogue

Conclusion:

This is a stunning…and at times shocking book.
I know there are many people wrongly convicted and sent to jail.
But to read just these few cases Bryan Stevenson presents is
…so difficult to comprehend how often justice is denied in the USA.
His nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative has
…helped so many innocent victims of the justice/prison system.
EJI was awarded the Olof Palme International Human Rights Award 2000
…and deservedly so.
#MustRead
PS: …I would NEVER move to Alabama!

Last thoughts:

Reading this book was like drinking fortified wine.
It was heavy and sweet and bitter and swirled in my head long
after I put it down.
And I put it down often, consuming it in slow sips.

Honest and eye opening…
the world needs this raw honest truth.

“…It’s when mercy is least expected
that it’s most potent, strong enough to break
the cycle of victimization victim hood and suffering.”
(Bryan Stevenson, page 294 chapter 15 ‘Broken’)

16 September 2000

Bryan Stevenson
who has for many years worked intensively, in his daily actions, for the abolition of the death penalty. Bryan Stevenson is a courageous representative of all the individuals, women and men from the entire world, who have maintained tirelessly that the right to life cannot be controverted, that the death penalty is an ultimate form of torture, and that the state does not have the right to kill its citizens.

Sep

#Essays Just Us

Author: Claudia Rankine (1963)
Title: Just Us
Genre: essays, poems
Published: September 2020
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
My list of books about black lives
Trivia: Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University

Conclusion:

A book of essays, poems and images that confront White privilege and White silence.
Just Us: An American Conversation….explores whiteness and white supremacy in a series of everyday conversations, at the airport, dinner party, theatre and voting booth.
Truly…a #MustRead

TITLE: very subtle : Just Us = (…justice)

What if (poem) – needed to read this a few times…I even typed sections on paper for another perspective….a different layout that I hoped would help me understand the poem’s message.

Liminal spaces i – firstly I looked up what ‘liminal spaces means. Then searched the table of contents and see that 2 other essays are named: Liminal spaces ii and Liminal spaces iii (last chapter). So I hope after I finish the book I will discover the importance using these 3 chapters …perhaps as way to divide the book.

Evolution – short essay that no real impact on me. Quote about white people:
“…their socialization in a culture that is set up to keep them ignorant of their ignorance of violence committed against people of color.”

Lemonade
Title: reference to Beyoncé’s album
this is a very short essay. Ms Rankine reveals her battle with breast cancer and her struggles within an interracial marriage.
Strong point: quote that made me think….
“The threat of imminent death had built a mansion in my mind where before there existed only a motel for passing fears.”

Outstretched – EXCELLENT!!
Title: refers to British photographer’s photo “Woman with Arms Outstretched” (Memphis, Tenn)
Photo of the woman is veiled by a white haze due to overexposuring the image…she is difficult to see. This veil is the ‘white gaze’ confronting a black figure. Seeing but not seeing….Graham forces us to squint into racial politics.
Quote: Ms Rankine includes a message from Graham: “…you have to choose to overcome your own blindness.”

Daughter:
Title: describes Ms Rankine’s thoughts while attending a parent-teacher
meeting with her husband at her daughter’s predominantly white high-school.

Notes on the state of whiteness:
Title: …with a wink to Notes on the State of Virginia: by T. Jefferson
…his vigorous argument about the nature of a good society.

Tiki Torches: refers to torch-lit Unite the Right rally Charlottesville march in 2017)
Title: …recalling a cross-burning 1981 the fall before Ms Rankine arrived a college.

Study on white male privilege: ….short observation.
Title: Is this phrase ‘white male privilege’ extremely offensive police Capt. Arendt?
Quote:”…Surely, police Capt. Arndt must understand himself as white and male,
…so perhaps it’s the noun ‘privilege’ that enrages him?

Tall: 1 page…narrative method that attempts “to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind of Ms Rankine.
Title: TALL refers to a conversation the author has with a man in a hallway. He thinks his height is greatest privilege….Ms Rankine does not agree. “I think your whiteness is your greatest privilege.
The conversation continues…..

Social contract: …what is the proper etiquette?
Title: To create discomfort by pointing out the facts….is seen as socially UNacceptable.
Quote: “A white woman ends the conversation…turning her gaze to a silver tray of brownies. Hers is the fey gesture…..by a white woman. It’s so blatant a redirect.
I can’t help myself and ask ALOUD the most obvious question:
Am I being silenced?”
WOW!….don’t underestimate Claudia Rankine!!

Violent: interview with Ms Rankine’s friend about
how whiteness is talked about in her home.
(Ms Rankine is writing about this topic for her work)
Title: Child is told he ‘ruined’ Goldilocks and 3 Bears…by colouring her with brown skin.
Ms Rankine includes interesting notes on the text….don’t forget to read them!

Sound and Fury ( poem)
Title: Knowing that this is a portrait of the Trump voter as a cast-aside worker
helps the reader interpret the poem.
Quote: “…harden into fury” “…white’s right to righteous rage.”

Big Little Lies: EXCELLENT !!
Title: Touching analysis of a 30 year long friendship between college friends: Ms Rankine and unnamed girl coming from northeast USA with wealth going back the Mayflower.
Quote: “Her kind of security is atmospheric and therefore not transferable. It’s what reigns behind the term white.”
“How do we keep the differences on the table and still call that friendship?”

Ethical Loneliness
Title: another analysis of a friendship….so good.

Liminal Spaces ii
Title: The term “liminal spaces” refers to places between destinations that aren’t meant to be existed in as much as passed through.
Think of an airport….or a train station along the railroad tracks!
Quote: “ To converse is to risk the unraveling of the said and the unsaid.
“To converse is to risk the performance of what’s held by the silence.”

José Martí (…one of the longest essays)
…..this essay started out so well…..then I just lost interest. Sorry.
Title: Oh this essay is filled with so many insights about race, racism, whiteness.
Quote: “How can white Democratic and Independent candidates have black people’s humanity in mind on a policy level…..when they themselves exhibit or condone racism with whatever apologetic language comes to mind?”

Boys Will Be Boys
Title: expression “boys will be boys” attempts to explain away aggressive behaviors that a small number of children exhibit.
It creates an easy excuse to fall back on so adults don’t have to examine other reasons for such aggressive behaviours.
Ms Rankine comments on two situations: verbally abusive man towards his wife in line at the airport
Brett Kavanaugh hearings in Washington D.C.
Quote: “Something feels lost…something with a beating heart.”

Complicit Freedoms – long essay…worth the reading time, and photos hair (blond)
by John Lucas (Ms Rankine’s husband)
Title: Modern hair-coloring technology has allowed people to dye their hair virtually any shade. So why is one hue in particular so popular?
Quote: Not in the essay….but I cannot get this out of my head: “…Only her hairdresser knows for sure.”

Whitening
Title: An interesting look at skin-whitening an why it is valued.
Quote: Naomi Osaka’s Japanese mother was estranged from her parents for 15 years because
of her love for a Haitian man.” Grandparents met Naomi when she was 11 years old. How sad is that…..to turn your back on a daughter, a granddaughter just for the color of a man’s skin.

Liminal Spaces iii
Title: A liminal spaces/experience is the feeling of transition. They may be brief.
Think of a ‘coming of age’ story…passing from teen to adulthood
Think of divorce or a job transition
Quote: “Why aren’t all people actively involved into our present American struggle against a nationalist regime?
Have so many become so vulnerable to white dominance that the pathways to imagined changed are wiped out or our brains….”
“Is it possible to live E pluribus unum?

COVER:
Photographer John Lucas (husband) and writer Claudia Rankine (wife) have collaboratively captured photographs of dyed blonde hair, as seen on the heads of strangers and acquaintances.

COVER
John Lucas reveals photographs of people of all races who bleach their hair. If white supremacy and anti-black racism continues to govern by blondness…might this be our most passive modes of complicity?

This photo is framed as still image and also transposed onto real postage stamps. The stamp, a form of currency with inherent mobility, becomes a metaphor for questioning: What do we attribute to blondness? Where do we think it will take us?

Sep

#Non-fiction Rage

Author: Bob Woodward
Title: Rage
Published: 2020 September
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
Score: 5 ++++++

Finished: 19.09.2020
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A+++++++

Conclusion:

As ex-pat living in Europe I often tell myself
USA politics: “Not my circus, not my monkeys”.
But no matter how often I say this
I cannot get “this monkey” off my back.
This is my 10th book about Donald J. Trump in 2020
….and it will be my last.
I’m done with Trump…done with this monkey.
Bob Woodward has given me the ‘gold standard’ about Trump
Now it is up to the voters to decide the future of the USA.
I agree with Woodward’s assessment:
“Trump is the wrong man for the job.”
#MustRead

Last thoughts:

I always read Trump’s tweets with a grain of salt.
Tweet: dd. 18 September 2020 (…3 days after publication)
“Bob Woodward’s book is very boring & totally obsolete
Didn’t even talk about the recent Middle East deal. Just another
tired, washed up, Trump Hater, who can’t stand that I have done so much,
so quickly.”
Trump is in constant attack mode.
PPS: 14 August Trump called Woodward to ask if the ME Deal would be in the book
…but Woodward explained the manuscript was already sent to the publisher.

Sep

#Non-fiction Compromised

Author: Peter Strzok
Title: Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump
Published: 2020 September
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
Score: 5 ++++++

Finished: 16.09.2020
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A+++++

Conclusion:

1. Impressive!
Russian government’s goal is to weaken the USA
…to diminish America’s global role
…to neutralize a perceived USA threat to Russian interests.

2. Right now Russian security services and their proxies have
geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election.
— Trump’s attempt to cause chaos by telling his supporters to vote twice
— Trump’s attempt to sabotage the post office to prevent mail-in voting
— Trump’s attempt to discredit mail in voting, a long-standing and reliable method.

3. Peter Strzok’s experiences with the Trump Administration
makes it clear whose side Trump is on!

Last Thoughts:

1. Trump ruined Strzok’s career as an FBI counterintelligence operative
….for purely domestic political purposes.
It is hard to read….and I’m sure even harder for
Strzok to accept the injustice he has incurred.

2. Strzok’s book is a warning to us all…
If the president or anyone else impedes or subverts the national
security of the United States in order to further domestic,
political or personal interests
…that is more than worthy of your attention.
#MustRead

Sep

# Non-fiction Donald Trump v. The United States

Author: Michael Schmidt (Pulitzer Prize winning reporter @nytimes)
Title: Donald Trump v The United States
Published: 2020 July
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
Score: 5 ++++++

Finished: 11.09.2020
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A+++++

Conclusion:

Giving Trump presidential powers is so alarming
…according to M. Schmidt…that advisors and staff were
trying to STOP the president causing permanent damage to US
democracy.

Trump in the White House

…it is the political equivalent of

…lending your fragile vintage convertible
to the red-eyed, rager-throwing seventeen-year-old down the block.

#AccidentWaitingToHappen

Last Thoughts:

Excellent….I stayed up until 0200 am to finish the book last night.
I could not put this ‘political thriller’ down!!

Sep

#Non-fiction White Too Long

Author: Robert P. Jones
Title: White Too Long
Published: 2020 July 7 chapters, 320 pages
List of Challenges 2020
Monthly reading plan
My list of books about black lives
Score: 5 ++++++
#20BooksOfSummer20

Introduction:

Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience,
Robert P. Jones delivers an examination of the
relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy.

What is white supremacy?
It is not hooded men running around burning crosses.
It is a set of practices informed by the belief that
white people are valued more than others.

White Too Long is about R. Jones’s journey of gradual personal awakenings
to these realities.

What is on the line in the election 2020…in simple terms?
People are worried(white Christianity) about
— the changing face of America
— longing for a time when white Protestantism was the undisputed cultural power.

What is the current situation 2020 in a nutshell?
There are “…ripples signaling a deeper current.”
….racism, Anti-semitism, Islamophobia and tribalism politics.

Like water rushing through a failing dam…this energy represents
the cumulative claims for justice that have been held back
by the sheer dominance of white Christian America.

What is the core message?
This book…
— ILLUSTRATES how the white christian beliefs and practices
are dependent on the UNACKNOWLEDGED African American presence.
— DOCUMENTS the centuries-long commitment to white supremacy within White Christianity
— CALLS FOR an honest reckoning with this complicated-painful-shameful past.

Moment of humor….had to laugh!
Page 101
“…Jesus had to be white.
No proper white christian would let a brown man into their hearts
….or submit themselves to be a disciple of a swarthy Semite.”

GOOD INSIGHT: last paragraph at the end of chapter 3
see page 105!! (..read the book!)

Chapter 4: I learned about
— the pseudo-historical negationist ideology “Lost Cause” (course in basic white supremacy 101)
— UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy)
— they placed 780 Confederate statues/plaques/Tiffany stained glass windows in churches in local communities (….100 removed in 2015 after massacre in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church and many more removed after George Floyd’s murder on 25 May 2020)
— history, design and deeper symbolism of the Confederate flag
— support for slavery, white supremacy and new meanings for its use today (21st century)
— I was clueless about this powerful symbol!

Strong point: up-to-date (…including G. Floyd’s murder, Trump’s assimilation with a white supremacy base)

Strong point: golden opportunity for the reader to confront a violent and unflattering past in US history

Weak point…IMO: discussion about the historical role prominent white Christians (Rev. Basil Manly Sr. chapter 3), churches and seminaries had in creating and sustaining white supremacy. It was a part of the book that did not interest me. Advice? …skim through these pages but don’t give up on the book. It gets better!

Strong point: Chapter 5
R. Jones dares to approach some very delicate questions!!
How prevalent are racist and white supremacist attitudes among white Christians today? Interesting and complex statistics are explained at a level that every reader can grasp. You’ll be surprised by the results!

Strong point: Chapter 6
Robert Jones takes the reader on a visit to inspiring new museums and memorials.
If I lived closer to Mississippi and Alabama I would love to visit
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Macon Mississippi
The National Memorial for Peace And Justice, and
The Legacy Museum both in Montgomery Alabama (see Google for more info)

Strong point: Chapter 7
The author ends the book with a very good analysis about responsibility, repair.
He uses the Bible reference of the curse of Cain to indicate
who really bears the responsibility for reckoning the past.

Page 231: ‘good quote’
“The challenge for white Americans today
…especially white Christians is whether
and how we are going to answer the questions:
“Where is your brother?”
“What have you done?”

Trivia: title “White Too Long”
This is a reference to James Baldwin’s New York Times Op-Ed
The Price May Be Too High February 2, 1969

Baldwin says:
“ …this country’s white population impressed me….
they have been white, if I may put it so, too long;
they have been marked to white supremacy too long….”

Conclusion:
This book is absolutely stunning
…in its honesty, analysis and writing skills of Robert Jones

I happened to watch CNN interview with Christine Amanpour and Mr. Jones.
I was swept away by the author’s blunt assessment of white supremacy
which is based on his stellar theological credentials:
PhD in Religion from Emory College
MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

I’ve read several “tell-all” books this year about Trump and his Administration.
But this book towers above them all….

White Too Long speaks to the problems
we are facing now with all this racial injustice in our headlines these days!
Forget Trump…he supports white supremacy, you and I both know that.
Educate yourselves….as to what we all can do to cure this cancer eating away
…at our Society.

Posts from the ‘non-fiction’ Category

#Non-fiction Fallen

#Non-fiction Hazelwood

#Non-fiction The Influence of Soros

#Non-fiction Heavy

#Non-fiction Just Mercy

#Essays Just Us

#Non-fiction Rage

#Non-fiction Compromised

# Non-fiction Donald Trump v. The United States

#Non-fiction White Too Long

Pages

Posts

Archives

About

Pages

Search

Posts from the ‘non-fiction’ Category

Subscribe

Pages

Posts

Archives

About

Pages

Search