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.
1
Nov
#AusReadingMonth2020 Sign-Up
- I cannot wait to start #AUSReadingMonth2020!
- @Bornasbooks
- This day has been circled on my calendar for two reasons:
- enjoying reading Australian writers
- enjoying being physically fit living in my ‘covid’ bubble!
Introduction:
- I am going to follow Brona’s lead ….and use her template for a sign-up post.
- I am just too exhausted…
- …following USA election coverage 24/7) to create something different.
- Brona has put time an effort into organizing this challenge and
- …inspiring me yet again to read AUSSIE!
- Many thanks, Brona!
- This year I was blown off course by the covid tsunami
- ..and lost many reading weeks.
- I did write ‘Lockdown Journals’ and review a few books.
- I just could not concentrate and
- keep my focus on fiction while reality was in my face!
- I did manage to read a few books….but not many Australian writers.
- I hope to make up lost time during #AusReadingMonth2020.
For AusReading Month I plan to finish and review:
- I thought to shake a few things up…I’m doing a bingo card
- …concentrating on a single genre.
- I am trying to do a POETRY bingo card!
- Reading poetry…
- …takes more concentration and research than a novel!
- The up-side….the books are between 60-80 pages!
- QLD – Comfort Food – Ellen van Neerven
- FREE SPACE – Argosy – Bella Li
- TAS – Another Love, Another Life – Graeme Hetherington,
- SA – Ruby Moonlight – Ali Cobby Eckermann
- NT – Dew and Broken Glass – Penny Drysdale
- ACT –Things I’ve Thought To Tell You Since I Saw You Last – Penelope Layland
- NSW – Waiting for the Past – Les Murray
- VIC – Empirical – Lisa Gorton
- WA – Nganajungu Yagu – Charmaine Papertalk Green – READING
For AusReading Month I plan to finish and review:
- I going to try to complete a 2nd bingo card!
- I told Brona…I’m going ‘whole hog’ and then some!
- My bingo card genre will be non-ficton.
- These books will double as options for Non-Fiction November
- I will try to read the Walkley Award 2020 longlist.
- The winner will be announced
- …Walkley website (walkleys.com) from 7pm AEDT on Friday, November 20.
The longlisted titles are:
- NSW – After the Count (Stephanie Convery)
- VIC – City On Fire (Antony Dapiran)
- VIC – Hazelwood (Tom Doig)
- VIC – Buckley’s Chance (Garry Linnell, Michael Joseph)
- QLD – Body Count (Paddy Manning)
- FREE SPACE – We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know (Sophie McNeill)
- VIC – Fallen (Lucie Morris-Marr) – READING
- SA – Penny Wong (Margaret Simons)
- NSW – The Altar Boys (Suzanne Smit).
For AusReading Month I plan to finish and review:
- Depending on my energy level in November
- I may start…a 3rd bingo card!
- My bingo card genre will be fiction.
- I may not finish this card….I will plan a few books:
- QLD – An Item From the Late News (Thea Astley) – READING
- FREE SPACE – Pearly Gates (Owen Marshall) – New Zealand
- Who am I?
- Nancy Burns
- Where do I live?
- The Netherlands
1
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
28
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
27
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…
- white paranoia about interracial relations,
- the scapegoating of an innocent black man,
- a hasty conviction that flew in the face of evidence and common sense, and
- town authorities bent on execution.
- On November 1, 1986, the body of 18-year-old part-time
- clerk Ronda Morrison was found under a
- rack of clothing at Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama.
- Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned,
- strangled and shot three times. About $35 was missing.
- 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’)
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.
26
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?
21
Sep
#Essays The Fire This Time
- Editor: Jesmyn Ward (1977)
- Title: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
- Published: 2016
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly reading plan
- My list of books about black lives
- Trivia: The acclaimed novelist Jesmyn Ward
- lost her beloved husband
- as COVID-19 swept across the country.
- She writes through their story, and her grief.
- I just had to add her essay for you to read.
- ESSAY:
- On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic
Introduction: Jesmyn Ward
- Ms Ward tells us James Baldwin inspired her as a wise father.
- His essay Fire Next Time is the basis of the title of this book.
- Baldwin was the widest read African American writer of his time.
- Baldwin’s essay The Fire Next Time sold more than a million copies in 1963.
- The staying power of this essay, even after 57 years
- ….is his writing style.
- He personalized the large conflicts which made it a fascinating read.
- Not preachy…but straight from the heart!
- If you haven’t read this essay, please do.
- ….I’m sure you will not forget it.
Kima Jones (1982)
- Homegoing, AD (poem, prose)
- Title is taken from an old African-American belief that
- death allowed an enslaved person’s spirit to travel back to Africa.
- I loved the humorous observation that
- …indicates
- “Here’s the down south story we didn’t tell you…”
- “When did everybody stop eating pork
- “…when all women become Nefertiti bangles and headwraps
- …and all us named like Muslims.”
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah (1982)
- Essay The Weight is about James Baldwin.
- Ghansah writes of her decision to visit James Baldwin’s
- …former home in the south of France.
- She is one of the most brilliant essayists writing in America today.
- Take the time to READ her Pulitzer Prize winning essay for feature writing:
- The Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof
Wendy S. Walters (??)
- Lonely in America (essay)
- Ms Walters remarks on how little she considers the reality of slavery.
- Her avoidance, in fact, comes from denial of slavery’s ugly truths
- …and its existence throughout America,
- Ms Walters ends the essay with her investigation of an African
- burial ground recently found in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
- There is a sharp sting in her words….
Isabel Wilkerson (1961)
- Where Do We Go From Here?
- This is a very short piece of prose…not even an essay.
- Wilkerson describes the “continuing feedback loop”
- ….that sees progress for civil rights, followed by
- …a great downtrend, and repetition of these trends.
- It feels like no matter where African Americans live….
- geography could not save them.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (1967)
- The Dear Pledges of Our Love: A Defense of Phillis Wheatley’s Husband
- This essay describes Ms Jeffers research.
- This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution (letter form)
- …this is Older’s letter to his wife (Natassian) and future child.
- Natassian wants Older to explain to their unborn children why he writes
- Theories of Time and Space
- The speaker begins with the expression, “You can get there from here”
- but warns that the journey will always take the reader to unfamiliar places.
- This idiom is used by persons being asked for directions
- …to a location that cannot be accessed without complicated directions.
- Message to my Daughters
- Edwidge Danticat’s essay begins with her trip to Haiti.
- Danticat and her friends survey the dusty refugee camps.
- She reconsiders this idea of refugee
- …in light of a housing project in her Brooklyn neighborhood.
- That residence and the school she attended,
- …operated like a refugee camp by treating people as temporary.
- Black and Blue
- This was so interesting!
- As a preteen, Cadogan developed his after-dark walking habit
- and sometimes stayed out until sunrise, to his mother’s dismay.
- He describes walks in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica
- …his college town on New Orleans.
- Know Your Rights – essay on urban murals
- After the Charleston shooting in 2015 Ms Roboteau
- ...takes her children to see the recently reopened
- …High Bridge in New York City.
- The bridge connects the Bronx with Harlem
- …and was closed for over forty years.
- She tell her kids to notice and enjoy the
- ….world around them when they leave home.
- Da art of Storytellin‘
- Laymon has one of the best ‘hooks’ in all these essays:
- Kiese Laymon’s essay begins by describing Catherine, his grandmother,
- enacting her morning routine before
- …working as a “buttonhole slicer at a chicken plant”.
- Laymon wants to find his ‘voice’ in his writing.
- Composite Pops
- This hits the reader ‘right between the eyes’.
- Jackson’s essay begins by asking how boys without fathers
- …spell the word father.
Clint Smith (1988)
- Queries of Unrest
- Picture this…I’m walking in the morning sun
- …taking photos and minding my own business.
- When this one sentence stopped me in my tracks:
- “Maybe that’s because when I was a kid
- a white boy told me I was marginalized
- and all I could think of was the edge of a sheet of paper
- …how empty it is –“
- Wow, what an observation…what a gut punch.
- I immediately looked up ‘Clint Smith’ and Audible.com
- I had book credits to burn.
- His collection of poems “Counting Descent” is just 1 hr 2 min.
- But once I heard his voice….so intense.
- I knew I had to have this book and take Clint with me on my walks.
- Blacker Than Thou about Rachel Dolezal‘s blackface.
- …this is a hilarious essay
Conclusion:
- This book is an excellent introduction to so many
- young African American writers
- writing themselves into the world and
- into the future and being committed to a future.
- Ms Ward explains why she edited this book.
- Highlights a few of the selections and
- ….hopes with her book
- “…a reader might see those like me anew.”
- Ms Ward:
- “All these essays give me hope. I believe there is power in words. .
- Maybe someone who didn’t perceive
- ….us as human will think differently after reading this book.”
Last Thoughts:
- I listened to the audio book
- but felt I was missing so much
- …of these excellent essays.
- I ordered the Kindle book….and that is the best way
- ….to savour these talented writers.
- #MustRead….you won’t regret it!
19
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.
19
Sep
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: RIP
- 6 km done – (06:20-08:00 hr)
- I was awake at 5:40
- ….checked twitter and my heart sank.
- Justice Ruth Ginsburg dies weeks before election.
- Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.
- I don’t know whether to grieve or fight.
- It has been 84 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was
- nominated and confirmed in an election year.
- This is a tradition I am afraid Mitch McConnell and Trump want desperately to break.
- I’ve decided…fighting is winning out.
- We can grieve when it’s over.
- I hope out of the deepest fiber of my being that the USA makes the right choice.
- Will Republican Senators break ranks and refuse to vote for a justice before 03 November?
- This is their opportunity to show us that they do have a soul.
- Sorry for my political rant so early in the morning but this
- …feels like the book “Alexander and the…Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day“.
- But the children’s book leaves the reader with a hopeful message:
- …every bad day comes to an end, eventually.
- I leave you with a hopeful sunrise!
- Leeuwarden, The Netherlands Foto: 07:14
Rest in Peace (1933-2020)
16
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
11
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!!
NancyElin.blog 