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Posts from the ‘non-fiction’ Category

7
Dec

#AWW 2019 Nine Lives: Women Writers

  • Author:  Susan Sheridan
  • Title: Nine Lives: Postwar Women Writers Making Their Mark
  • Published: 2011
  • Genre: non-fiction
  • Rating: A
  • Trivia:  This book has been sitting on my TBR for two years!
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan
  • #AWW2019   @AusWomenWriters

 

NOTE:

  1. Trying to get back to books with
  2. …’one’ very good eye after cataract surgery
  3. …the the other eye ready for correction in 2 weeks.
  4. #NeedCoffee

 

Introduction:

  1. Why did I wait so long to read this wonderful book?
  2. I think the  bland bookcover did not catch my eye.
  3. Ms Sheridan should have used thumbnail photos of te
  4. …talented Australian writers she was about  to introduce to this reader!

 

  1. This books contains
  2. nine condensed, compact biographies of Australian Women writers
  3. Sheridan highlights a generation of women writers
  4. overlooked in the Australian contemporary literary scene.
  5. These women writers who were born between 1915-1930:
  6. Judith Wright
    Thea Astley
    Dorothy Hewett
    Rosemary Dobson
    Dorothy Aucherlonie Green
    Gwen Harwood
    Jessica Anderson
    Amy Witting
    Elizabeth Jolley

 

  1. All had children...
  2. J. Wright and D. Green were the sole support of their families.
  3. The nine women were versatile writers
  4. poet, playwright, novelist, short stories,
  5. non-fiction (autobiography), literary critic and editor.
  6. T. Astely won Miles Franklin Award 4x, Jessica Anderson 2x and E. Jolley 1x.
  7. All shared a sense of urgency…
  8. their vocation, their ‘need’ to be a writer
  9. that would not let them rest.

 

 

  1. Judith Wright – was an important name in the emerging postwar literature.
  2. She was one of the few Australian poets to achieve international recognition.
  3. Ms Wright is the author of of several collections of poetry,
  4. including The Moving Image, Woman to
  5. Man, The Gateway, The Two Fires, Birds,
  6. The Other Half, Magpies, Shadow, Hunting Snake, among others.
  7. Her work is noted for a keen focus on the Australian environment.

 

 

  1. Thea Astley –  I am a huge fan of this writer.
  2. I did learn more tidbits of info about this woman.
  3. Critics were not always kind to Thea Astely.
  4. The ending of  The Slow Natives
  5. …was  “…too sentimental and melodramatic.
  6. I didn’t think so!
  7. Even Patrick White was harsh.
  8. Criticism should be like rain
  9. …gentle enough to nourish growth without
  10. …destroying the roots.
  11. White’s  fault finding ended their friendship.
  12. Thea Astley won Miles Franklin Award four times!

 

  1. Dorothy Hewett – After reading Ms Hewett’s short biography in this book the
  2. only thing that suited this woman is the song: Born to be Wild  !!
  3. Once I read about the tumultuous life of Dorothy Hewett I knew
  4. I had to read her books.
  5. I ordered Baker’s Dozen ( 13 short stories)…
  6. …cannot wait to read it!

 

 

  1. Rosemary Dobson – She was fully established as a poet by the age of 35.
  2. She published 14 collections of poems.
  3. The Judges of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 1996
  4. described her significance as follows:
  5. “The level of originality and strength of
  6. Rosemary’s poetry cannot be underestimated…”

 

  1. Dorothy Auchterlonie Green –  She saw herself primarily as a scholar.
  2. Ms Green felt overworked and
  3. under-recognized, trapped by circumstances of her life and unsure of her capacity as a poet.
  4. She won widespread admiration for her poetry, literary scholarship
  5. her reviews and social criticism and inspirational teaching.

 

  1. Gwen Harwood – She was sick of the way poetry
  2. editors (Meanjin) treated her…no accepting her work.
  3. Ms Harwoon created several nom de plume: Geyer , Lehmann and Stone.
  4. Geyer and Lehmann were regularly invited to meet editors for lunch next time they were in Sydney
  5. or Melbourne. Geyer was evern invited to read at the Adelaide Festival.
  6. ….he respectively declined.
  7.  Awards

 

  1. Jessica Anderson – She was in a male-dominated and
  2. Anglocentric publishing world.
  3. How did she survive?
  4. She cultivated the qualities of character and
  5. strategies of survival necessary to
  6. sustain enough belief in herself to go on writing.
  7. She won the Miles Franklin Award twice…1978 and 1980.

  1. Amy Witting – For many years Amy Witting was invisible in the literary world.
  2. She won the Patrick White Award 1993
  3. for writers who have not received adequate recognition.
  4. I am waiting for her book of short stories to arrive…Marriages
  5. …I’m sure Amy Witting will have much to tell about this institution!

 

  1. Elizabeth Jolley – In a single year she received 39 rejection slips
  2. …yet she persisted.
  3. She won Miles Franklin Award 1986.

6
Oct

#AWW 2019 Gabbie Stroud “Teacher”

 

Introduction:

  1. Gabrielle Stroud was a primary school teacher from 1999 to 2015.
  2. In 2014, Gabrielle Stroud was a very dedicated teacher.
  3. Months later, she resigned in frustration and despair.
  4. She realized that the Naplan-test education model
  5. …was stopping her from teaching individual children
  6. …according to their needs and talents.
  7. Gabrielle tells the full story:
  8. how she came to teaching…
  9. what makes a great teacher…
  10. what our kids need from their teachers…
  11. and what it was that finally broke her.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book is a good effort of a teacher moving
  2. from the classroom into a writing career.
  3. I’m sure we will be hearing more from Gabbie Stroud
  4. and I hope her writing skills will be even better.
  5. I have seen many reviews on Goodreads and I
  6. cannot agree:  this is not a 5 star book.
  7. It is enjoyable but not profound.
  8. In my opinion...less is more:
  9. less family backround
  10. — mother, sisters, boyfriend, chit-chat with daughters
  11. even more reflections about teaching
  12. — chapter 16 a teaching adventure at a Heritage School
  13. in Canada was wrapped up in less than a chapter!
  14. I’m sure there must be more to tell.
  15. Writing style: this all comes down to the reader’s
  16. own preferences.
  17. I felt that Stroud could improve her writing by
  18. less use of clichés...
  19. Ch 8:
  20. “I felt older, fatigued but the cup was still half full….”
  21. Ch 26:
  22. “…the glass is half full…but the water didn’t taste right.”
  23. Ch 30:
  24. “We all fall down Gab, our true measure is how we rise up.”
  25. Ch 30
  26. ” I did’t leave teaching….teaching left me.”
  27. Dialogue: is conversational, simple.
  28. Pathos: There were very few experiences
  29. …that stirred up my emotions of pity, sympathy, and sorrow.
  30. Problems were mentioned..but in a light, fluffy tone.
  31. I was not swept away by Stroud’s story
  32. …as I was  with the personal essays of written
  33. Ashleigh Young in “Can You Tolerate This?“
  34. This is the type of depth in the writing I hoped
  35. Stroud would tell me about….the teaching profession.

 

  1. What finally broke Stroud? (..in my opinion)
  2. Teaching was changing too fast
  3. …and Stroud’s adaptation was too slow.
  4. Jack Welch…CEO of General Electric Company 1981-2001
  5. phrased it perfectly.
  6. ..and we all can learn from it:
  7. “When the rate of change on the outside
  8. …exceeds the rate of change on the inside
  9. …then the end is near.”

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. There was one spark in chapter 5 that
  2. I thought would ignite the book:
  3. Core message…
  4. ” You showed me how to teach
  5. …now show me how to be a teacher.”
  6. Unfortunately this memoir/biography…fizzled out. 
  7. I hate flat soda.

 

26
Sep

#RIP XIV The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe

 

Structure:

The Man That Was Used Up: Poe’s Place in American Literature

  1. Reading time 1 hr 15 min
  2. Discussion: about Poe’s character by biographers in the the late 19th C
  3. his alcoholism, inability to sympathize, fickleness, ugly humor, ill- tempered
  4. Paradox: Poe was unappreciated, rejected….but
  5. …this aura of mystery was good for business (bookselling)
  6. Why is Poe considered the most characteristic American poet?
  7. — he was beaten down by American materialism
  8. — he did not copy the English literary tradition
  9. — he explored the pathological side of American temperament
  10. — he was curious, interest toward the most strange and odd mysteries
  11. Conclusion: Poe was torn to pieces by many biographers but in
  12. 20th C  he has been rebuilt into an ever more fascinating public figure

 

 

A Dream Within a Dream: Poe and  Psychoanalysis

  1. Reading time 1 hr 15 min
  2. Discussion: Psychoanalysis could inspire new,
  3. inventive ways of reading Poe.
  4. Helicopter view…
  5. of several writers who have psychoanalyzed
  6. Poe’s writing:
  7. L. Purette, D.H. Lawrence, Marie Bonaparte, J. Robertson, J. Krutch
  8. …J. Lacan and many more.
  9. …looking at the anatomy of Poe’s unconscious.
  10. Conclusion:
  11. Basically this essay is about  ‘What made Poe tick?‘
  12. Some insights made by Bonaparte sounded a bit
  13. far-tetched “…when Poe was tempted by living women, drink
  14. cleared the way for ‘flight’ and kept him faithful to his dead mother.”
  15. Honestly, this essay was more about the analysts
  16. ….pages and pages about Lacan,
  17. …then Poe himself!

 

Out of Space, Out of Time: From Early Formalism to Deconstruction

  1. Reading time 1 hr 02 min
  2. Discussion: is about 1950s New Criticism
  3. ….the deficiencies and limitations of Poe’s work.
  4. Not every critic feel Poe’s works  should
  5. allowed into the temple of high literary art.
  6. Critics Brooks and Warren state:
  7. “…when you learn to read more carefully you’ll see
  8. that he’s (Poe) only a little better than pulp fiction
  9. …you read for pleasure.”
  10. Emerson had famously called Poe “the Jingle Man”
  11. because his poems sounded jingly, gimmicky!
  12. Conclusion: The critics want to teach me how to
  13. read Poe….I wish they would just let me enjoy his
  14. writing instead of  trying to dissect Poe with structuralism,
  15. Post structuralism, and Deconstructism mumbo jumbo.
  16. The essay was filled with themes and philosophical issues.
  17. #Challenge

 

The Man of the Crowd: The Socio-Historical Poe

  1. Reading time 1 hr
  2. Discussion: In 1980s placing Poe’s text 
  3. in question to other texts in the
  4. same period with emphasis on
  5. representations of race, gender and class.
  6. Conclusion: Again critics who insinuate the
  7. The Black Cat is  figure for the abused slave
  8. …seems far-fetched.
  9. #IAmNotBuyingIt

 

Lionizing: Poe as Cultural Signifier

  1. Reading time 50  min
  2. Discussion: The pop-culture Poe
  3. Why has Poe proved so resilient over
  4. …150 years after his death?
  5. Peeples reviews books, plays, films and comics
  6. …entertainment derived from
  7. …Poe and his works.
  8. Conclusion:  readable

 

Conclusion:

  1. We all know the uses of research material is
  2. a vital component to writing.
  3. Scott Peeples has cited  about 350 works to
  4. create these essays.
  5. That feels a bit excessive
  6. for 5 essays with reading times of 1 hour 15 min.
  7. Great thoughts yes, but there is  much
  8. ….cutting an pasting of direct quotes throughout the essays.
  9. This results in a confusion of voices and disrupts
  10. the flow of information.
  11. The writer must do more than parrot information!
  12. I did cherry pick some good insights about Poe and
  13. his writing but it was a laborious task.
  14. #NotWorthMyReadingTime
  15. …but you may enjoy this book!

 

26
Aug

#Non-fiction A Time of Gifts

 

 

Conclusion:

  1. If you are looking for a nice rambling
  2. …colorful travelogue this is not the book for you.
  3. The travel diaries (1933) have been combed through
  4. and embellished to create this book in 1976.
  5. The narrative lacks a spark of spontaneity because
  6. Fermor’s travel thoughts have been resting for many years
  7. and the book suffers from many rewrites before it was
  8. …finally published.
  9. In all fairness, the book was received with
  10. tremendous enthusiasm (1976).
  11. It won:
  12. Thomas Cook Travel Award
  13. International PEN/Time Life Silver Pen Award
  14. W.H. Smith Prize (1978)
  15. So…you may still like this book
  16. …but I did not.

 

Strong point:

  1. Nicest passages are during Fermor’s walks
  2. through the countryside from village to village.
  3. No history, no hangovers, no libraries, no castles with
  4. moat and polished wood floors
  5. …just nature.

 

Strong point:

  1. Book oozes a special kind of personalized disorder!
  2. Fermor blends history, literature, biography, myth
  3. with his visits to cathedrals, libraries, pubs  with or
  4. without a hangover!

 

Strong point:   ‘The Hook”…that kept me reading

  1. Ch 1: Low Countries: good…
  2. Vivid images of boat leaving the estuary of the Thames River
  3. …describing Dutch landscape and interiors with comparisons
  4. of great paintings Brueghelish
  5. ….skaters, hunters in the snow.
  6. Fermor keeps his writing centered on his travels
  7. …no long daydreams or history.

 

Weak point:

  1. Up the Rhine:
  2. The book does not flow
  3. ….gets bogged down
  4. in Fermor’s musings:
  5. Fermor interjects the travel narrative
  6. ….with memories, historical trivia:
  7. …going back fourteen years  (pg 43)
  8. …memories of school learning  (pg 82)
  9. …theater for so much history  (pg 92)
  10. …landsknechts in time of Emperor Max I  (pg 96-101)

 

  1. Winterreise:
  2. Fermor admits it himself
  3. …slowing the narrative down!
  4. “…I must try to convey, even if it slows things
  5. up for a couple of pages.” (pg 123-133)

 

  1. The Danube: Seasons and Castles
  2. Brooding over one’s ignorance of painting (pg 147-156)
  3. …again slowing down.
  4. The Danube: Approach to a Kaiserstadt
  5. …let us run quickly through
  6. ..the relevant part of the story (The Tempest)
  7. …again slowing down (pg 170-171)

 

Fermor fills Vienna (3 week visit)

  1. …with anecdotes
  2. …not much wandering around the town.
  3. Hangover after last days of Carnival
  4. …visit to Akademie Library…
  5. …more musings about history and maps.

 

The Edge of the Slav World = …all history

 

Prague

  1. Cathedrals are always important part of the narrative
  2. (Cologne, Vienna, Prague)
  3. …but we end up with …another hangover
  4. …another library in The Old University
  5. …more history.

 

Slovakia: A Step Forward at Last

  1. Sorry, my eyes glazed over during this chapter
  2. ??

 

Marches of Hungary

  1. Fermor …cites direct long passages of  his diary
  2. …perhaps he was too tired ( as I am now) to elucidate
  3. on this chapter.

 

Book ends…

  1. As a young man, the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor
  2. walked from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34.
  3. A Time of Gifts (vol 1) ends on the
  4. Maria Valeria Bridge in Slovakia.
  5. Fermor has difficulty leaving Slovakia
  6. and plunging into Hungry
  7. …but he must move on.

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. I’ve really lost interest (57%)
  2. I kept up with Fermor from
  3. December 1933 …leaving England
  4. and just lost interest in February 1934
  5. in the little village of Maidling Im Tal, Austria
  6. Just skimming to finish the book.
  7. The BEST travel book I’ve read  was
  8. Deep South (2015)  by Paul Theroux!
  9. Now, that was an excellent book
  10. …worth your reading time!

 

 

 

 

 

25
Aug

#Non-Fiction America’s War

 

Structure: 480 pages
Part 1 – The Preliminaries ch 1-7
Part 2 – Entr’acte (“between the acts”) ch 8 – 11
Part 3 – Main Card ch 12-18

 

My Notes:

 

USA fights wars:

…1776 for independence
…1861 for slavery
…1980 US embarks upon a war for oil

 

Central irony:  

  1. For America’s War for the Greater Middle East
  2. US’s tendency to focus on solving one problem,
  3. to exacerbate a second and plant the seeds of a third.”
  4. See: Wikipedia ‘Operation Cyclone”

 

Trivia:

  1. I noticed in chapter 1
  2. sound bites used in 1980s that
  3. …are now used by Trump!
  4. US didn’t want a distressed angel (Carter)
  5. ….passing judgement on their failings.
  6. The US wanted a president who would fix things!  (MAGA)
  7. Carter viewed himself as “an agent of the Lord’
  8. Trump referred to himself as ‘the chosen one’
  9. …while speaking
  10. on his role in the ongoing trade war
  11. between the US and China. (21 Aug 2019)

 

Note: Ch 6:

  1. Especially interesting was the conscious
  2. effort by the US in 1982
  3. ….to open a secret channel
  4. ….to provide Baghdad with sensitive intel,
  5. satellite images, PC’s  hell’s  and heavy trucks etc.

 

What was USA’s plan….long term?

  1. US needed Saddam…..
  2. ….and with this non-military help
  3. it enabled Iraq to avoid outright defeat in Iraq-Iran war.
  4. But why?  
  5. “…US had a compelling interest in positioning Iraq as a
  6. counterweight to a dangerous Islamic Republic.”

 

Note: Ch 7:

  1. The book comes alive for me with the
  2. US to hunkering down in Saudi Arabia and
  3. preparing to remove Saddam from Kuwait.
  4. My favorite no nonsense General
  5. “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf jr.
  6. He planned and led Operation Desert Storm—
  7. which defeated the Iraqi Army and liberated Kuwait
  8. Pg 117 this would be:
  9. “…Vietnam done right,
  10. …with a decisive victory the result.
  11. No shilly-shallying allowed.”

 

Conclusion:

  1. Don’t worry about memorizing all the names, dates, etc
  2. focus on the big picture…the important stuff will stick.
  3. This book is a wonderful re-cap of
  4. the history of the War for the Greater Middle East.
  5. Strong point: Bacevich makes non-fiction read like a novel!
  6. Great read…for history buffs!
  7. I was very impressed with Bacevich
  8. …his writing is crisp insight and info that is not in news articles.
  9. I enjoyed his comments about Gaddafi
  10. “…erratic buffoon less a serious
  11. …menace than a perennial pain in the behind!”
  12. …and I learned what ‘gunboat diplomacy is’.
  13. Part 3…you could probably easily skim this
  14. picking nuggets of info but most has
  15. been recently in the news (Obama, Osama Bin Laden).
  16. Loved to see names popping up who were in headlines
  17. …and now have faded away.
  18. Remember L. Paul Bremer, diplomat
  19. running the show in The Green Zone Baghdad?
  20. ….he earns extra cash now as a ski-instructor!
  21. Huh?

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. What was the MOST important thing I learned?
  2. …the 4 reasons why USA is still waging the
  3. War for the Greater Middle East.
  4. War has the seal of approval of Republicans and Democrats
  5. Aspiring Presidential candidates find it expedient to ‘support the troops’ (war)
  6. Individuals/institutions benefit from a long conflict (military industrial complex)
  7. MOST importantly…
  8. …Americans appear oblivious to what is occurring.
  9. All the more reason
  10. ….to read this book!

Bacevich is a West Point graduate. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998

24
Aug

#Essays Best American Essays 2017

 

Conclusion:

  1. I’ve reviewed the first 5 essays
  2. …and will let you discover the rest.
  3. The BEST essay was by Rachel Ghansah.
  4. “The Weight”
  5. Try to read anything by this Pulitzer Prize winner
  6. ….you won’t be disappointed.

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. Personally I was  NOT impressed with the selected essays.
  2. They lacked creativity, insight and
  3. there were too many long personal essays.
  4. I’m not interested with your family relationships!
  5. I’ve read other collections that are WELL worth your reading time:
  6. Zadie Smith – Feel Free

  1. Ashleigh Young – Can You Tolerate This?

  1. Fiona Wright – Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger

  1. Best Australian Essays 2016

  1. Best Australian Science Writing 2018

 

My notes:

  1. Two Shallow Graves  C+
  2. Jason Arment…
  3. served in Operation Iraqi Freedom
  4. as a Machine Gunner in the USMC.
  5. He’s earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction
  6. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
  7. Arment is a warrior as witness who writes down things we don’t want to know.
  8. Reading time: 22 minutes
  9. Conclusion:
  10. This is not an essay
  11. …it is probably a chapter from
  12. Arment’s published book in 2017  Musalaheen (memoir)
  13. Arment writes vividly
  14. …but I’m not interested in war literature.

 

  1. The Weight  A++++++
  2. Rachel K. Ghansah…
  3. is an American award-winning essayist.
  4. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2018 for her profile of
  5. white supremacist and mass murderer Dylann Roof
  6. who killed nine black people at a church in South Carolina.
  7. Gahnsah writes about her past reluctance
  8. to revere James Baldwin in this essay.
  9. She wants to provide a model others can build upon so that they
  10. …do not buckle under “The Weight” of Baldwin’s legacy.
  11. The man can finally rest in peace.
  12. Reading time: 38 minutes
  13. Conclusion:
  14. This essay is absolutely stunning!
  15. I suggest you read anything you can find
  16. by Rachel K. Ghansah!

 

  1. White Horse     D- 
  2. Elise Goldbach...
  3. She writes  a courageous personal essay about  a
  4. campus sexual attack and its aftermath.
  5. After 6 minutes I realize this is not the
  6. …essay I want to spend time reading.
  7. Reading time:   — minutes
  8. Conclusion:
  9. This essay is difficult to read….so DNF!

 

  1. The City That Bleeds  D-
  2. Lawrence Jackson…
  3. is a professor of English and history at
  4. Johns Hopkins University.
  5. He is a  literary critic and compelling biographer.
  6. Essay starts out as a description of police officers
  7. on trial for brutality…and suddenly is a essay about
  8. L. Jackson’s ancestors in Baltimore.
  9. Reading time:  15 minutes
  10. Conclusion:
  11. This essay is makes valid points on
  12. the state affairs in Baltimore
  13. …the city that bleeds
  14. …but it did not hold my interest.
  15. It felt like Jackson shifts words here and there
  16. and tells me things I read in the news.
  17. The essay lacks depth.

 

  1. We Are Orphans Here   C+
  2. Rachel Kushner…
  3. is an author of several novels
  4. The Flamethrowers (2013) and The Mars Room (2018)
  5. Ms Kushner spends a weekend in the Shuafat Refugee
  6. Camp in East Jerusalem.
  7. The essay is probably not simply about a place or a journey,
  8. but rather is about what she may discover
  9. about people, life on that journey and in that place.
  10. Reading time:  15 minutes
  11. Conclusion:
  12. This essay is travel essay
  13. The hard part was trying to find
  14. Kushner’s quest…
  15. …the reason for writing this essay.
  16. I think she wanted to confront the image
  17. that the international media uses to depict
  18. Shuafat Camp…
  19. ” …as the most dangerous place in Jerusalem”
  20. with her personal experience pg 66
  21. “…how wonderful it was in Shuafat Camp…how safe I felt.”
  22. The essay was….average.
  23. Unfortunately, it did not appeal to me
23
Jun

#Non-fiction The Coddling of the American Mind

  • Author: G. Lukianhoff, J. Haidt
  • Ttile: The Coddling of the American Mind
  • Published: 2018  (352 pg)
  • Trivia: 2018 shortlist National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly reading plan
  • #TBR 2019   5/43

 

Introduction:

  1. This is a book for anyone who is confused by
  2. what is happening on college campuses today,
  3. ….or is concerned about the growing inability of
  4. Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

 

Topics:

  1. Rising political polarization (harassment by off campus right wing groups)
  2. Rise of teen depression and anxiety (especially women)
  3. Helicopter parenting (overprotective)
  4. Decline of free play (now…play is alone with computers, gaming)
  5. Rise of campus bureaucracy (eliminate courses from syllabus to avoid complaints)
  6. Rising passion for justice after major national events (campus politically engaged)

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book details some problems of progress (list of topics).
  2. I was very impressed by
  3. Part 3: How did we Get Here?
  4. Just because we feel offended does not automatically
  5. mean the other person is an aggressor/bad person.
  6. While reading this chapter I kept in mind the
  7. political climate in USA.
  8. I know the presidential campaigns 2020 will probably
  9. be very nasty…now I know what to look for!
  10. #MustRead

 

USA:

  1. Regardless of political persuasion,
  2. Americans today are deeply susceptible to a renunciation of reason
  3. …and celebration of ignorance.  (ouch!)
  4. They know what they know without reading,
  5. …discussing or engaging those who might disagree with them.

 

TRUMP BASE

  1. They reject calm logic, eager to embrace the
  2. alternative news that supports their prejudices.
  3. SVP: Read: Strangers in Their Own Land (A. Hochschild)
  4. Americans must relearn how to engage civilly with one another,
  5. something hard to do with a bullying president as a role model.

 

SAD BUT TRUE…

  1. Gone are the days of moving speeches and well referenced debate.
  2. We have no Vidal and Buckley exchanges.
  3. Where are the Adlai Stevenson’s, the Dirkesens’s and Kennedy’s.
  4. A few hundred characters  (tweet) or a
  5. ten second sound bite is what we get…
  6. shutting down the other side
  7. instead … of defeating with logic and reason.

 

TRENDS

  1. American politics is driven LESS by hope
  2. and more by the untruth of “US vs THEM”.
  3. THEY must be stopped at all costs.

 

CONGRESS:

  1. Norms for civility and bipartisanship
  2. between the two parties (Rep-Dem)
  3. …have nearly disappeared.

 

VOTERS:

  1. Years before this stark polarization
  2. voters rushed to the polls to choose
  3. their favorite candidate of their beloved political party.
  4. Today….it is the hostility towards the OUT party that
  5. make people more inclined to vote.
  6. In other words….
  7. Americans are motivated to get off their couches
  8. and get involved in political action
  9. not by LOVE for their party’s candidate
  10. but by HATRED for the other party’s candidate.

 

2010s

  1. Via Twitter and Facebook voters
  2. …encase themselves in an echo chamber.
  3. Filter bubbles are search engines
  4. …and You Tube algorithms
  5. designed to give you more
  6. …of what you seemed be interested in.
  7. This leads conservatives and liberals
  8. into disconnected ‘moral network’ backed up by
  9. contradictory informational worlds.

 

ISOLATION

  1. Physical and electronic isolation
  2. …from people we disagree with
  3. allows the forces of…
  4. bias
  5. group think
  6. tribalism
  7. …to push us further apart.

 

 

Political Map 1960 – Presidential race JFK vs Nixon

 

Prognose of political map 2020

 

 

17
Jun

#Non-fiction biography James Tiptree jr.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Literary tastes were changing in the 1960s.
  2. Women were searching for new books
  3. …they were tired of romances, doctors and stories about horses.
  4. Fantasy and SF introduced some very talented writers.
  5. James Tiptree Jr. was born…nom de plume Alice Sheldon.
  6. Tiptree  burst onto the science fiction scene
  7. ….in the 1970s with a series of hard-edged, provocative short stories.
  8. Tiptree was hailed as a brilliant masculine writer.
  9. Ms Sheldon kept her JT persona very secret:
  10. no photo’s, no public appearances and
  11. most confusing was “his” strong
  12. feminist slant in his tales.
  13. For example The Women Men Don’t See.
  14. Women characters felt so alienated and powerless in society they
  15. choose to board a space ship with aliens rather than remain on earth!
  16. Strong point: This fascinating biography by Julie Phillips
  17. was ten years in the making.
  18. Julie Phillips takes us behind the scenes to learn the
  19. of the privileged yet troubled life of Alice Sheldon.
  20. With this information Sheldon’s short stories take on a new cachet.
  21. This book is considered one of the best biographies about a SF writer.

 

 

15
Jun

#Non-fiction Stamped From the Beginning

 

Introduction:

  1. Stamped From the Beginning is a magnificent book!
  2. Winner National Book Award 2016 for Non-fiction.
  3. Part 1 on is 1600s…get through it because in
  4. Part 2 with the introduction of Jefferson the book starts to sparkle!
  5. Part 3 Abolitionists…again get through is because
  6. Part 4 will take you from W.E. Du Bois up to Obama…riveting!

 

Conclusion:

  1. If you’ve never read anything about racism in USA…
  2. ..this probably would  be the best place to start!
  3. The book is a #MustRead for
  4. …anyone interested in understanding
  5. contemporary issues in America.
  6. Ibram X. Kendi is stunningly clear and straightforward.
  7. The book reads much like a conversation….
  8. from from pre-colonial times to the present
  9. …from the slave trade boat to Obama.

 

  1. This is an excellent book that all Americans should read.
  2. …especially in the light of the
  3. …approaching presidential election 2020.
  4. It is a long book….requires some commitment.
  5. I learned that the tactics may have changed but the goal
  6. …has remained depressingly the same:
  7. “Do not let them vote!”
  8. “…If you can find a way to stop them,
  9. ….stop them!” (black Americans)
  10. This resulted in  2000 Bush winning Florida by 537 votes
  11. …and being  elected president!
  12. This book certainly has made me reflect
  13. …on and rethink my own views about race.
  14. I wonder what will happen in elections 2020 to prevent
  15. …black Americans voicing their choice.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This is a very informative and educational  read.
  2. This book should be on every high-school reading list!
  3. It is interesting to compare and
  4. …note the similarities of racism in 19th and 20th C
  5. …that continue to exist  even in the 21st century.

 

  • Interview with Ibram X. Kendi
  • …..explaining the title of the book

11
Jun

#Non-fiction Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

 

Conclusion:

Ch 1-16 Exposition…

  1. Childhood, slave work, escape
  2. from Maryland  to the North, New York.
  3. Douglass was a renowned orator.
  4. He spent years on speaking tours
  5. in US and Europe against slavery.


Ch 17- 21  the book begins to sparkle…

  1. Douglass asks the question
  2. we are still asking…more than 150 years later:
  3. Why deprive the right to vote for black Americans?
  4. …what is the world afraid of?

 

Douglass meets Lincoln in the White House.

  1. Lincoln – the emancipator
  2. …the elegant restraint of a statesman
  3. …spoke with an eye on legality and public opinion
  4. Douglass – the national evangelist
  5. …with the fiery tones of a prophet.

 

Ch 22 – 31 Reconstruction….

  1. Douglass made no distinction between
  2. Andrew Johnson’s white supremacy and slavery itself…
  3. ….as long as Johnson controlled
  4. reconstruction the war was not over.
  5. Douglass speaking about President Andrew Johnson is an
  6. “…unmitigated calamity and a
  7. disgrace the country must stagger under.”
  8. Frederick Douglass was a
  9. frightening black man with brains
  10. …President Andrew Johnson’s basic nightmare!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This is the best way to learn history…read biography.
  2. We read that progress has been made
  3. …but still America is polarized on the color line.
  4. The routine suppression of black voters
  5. is far-reaching and  has devastating consequences.
  6. We cannot be silent about it.

 

Best quote….and worth thinking about

  1. There is NO negro problem.
  2. The problem is whether the American people have
  3. honesty enough, loyalty enough, patriotism enough
  4. to  live up to their Constitution.

 

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