My first exposure to Jason Reynolds was reading a review of this book in Entertainment Weekly, it was coming soon. He sounded like an author my 12 year old social justice warrior son and I could both read and talk about....But while we waited I bought him all american boys for his birthday.
I started and finished Long Way Down in a few hours. It was moving. Powerful. Thought provoking. And left you wondering and hoping and I imagine in a good way...though I guess the opposite view is possible. I am choosing to find the hope....
The style of the writing is poetry, spoken word poetry, so there isn't always a lot of words on each page, but don't let that fool you, I was most ripped by two different pages each with one word on them.....The story takes place in about a minute...while Will is on his way down in the elevator a short time after his brother is shot in the street...Will has a gun in his waist band and is sure he should follow the neighborhood "RULES," Don't Cry, Don't Snitch, and Avenge the dead (kill the killer). He has mastered the crying and hasn't snitched...during the ride down in the elevator with his brother's gun he is faced with the facts of what the cycle has done to those that have come before him...He contemplates his pain and life and death....And the elevator reaches the lobby where Will.....
Jason Reynolds is amazing (check out his appearance on The Daily Show from January 24, 2018)
(Finished January 28, 2018)
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown
I read the first three books of the series (which at the time I thought was going to be a trilogy) last year at the recommendation of my friend Danielle. Besides the great story telling she used as a selling point the fact that all of the books in the trilogy were out and I wouldn't have to wait. I read Book 1, Red Rising, and ran out right away to get Book 2, Golden Son, and Book 3....then I finished Book 3, Morning Star, only to find out that there was now going to be more books and it would be about a year until the next part of the story was out....Well now it is out and I am done and I am anxiously awaiting the next book later this year.
Iron Gold picks up 10 years after the ending of Morning Star. War has been raging and it has worn on everyone, especially Darrow and his family. The big question....how does one end a war when there have been missteps and mistakes and are so many hurt and disillusioned people to try and please and make peace in the name of?
Something I find Brown does really well is using multiple first person voices to tell a story from different points of view. Darrow is flawed and stuck in a cycle of war and trying to find and make peace. But along the way deals were made, some good, some bad, some seemed good at the time they were made and turned out to be bad, and the price paid has worn out and worn thin the humanity left in many, including Darrow. Those who seemed to have been awful and without morality turned around their thoughts and actions and tried in their own way to make amends...Even our heroes are flawed and even our villains may not be what we think they are.....
Action packed, gory at times (hey, it's war it has to be gory at times), heartfelt, exciting, heartbreaking...The only thing I would say against the book, is that it WEIGHS a lot, coming in at 596 pages, so if you have an eReader I would say get it on that. If I had one back when I started the series I would have done that but as I have this about having books in a series in as close to the same format as possible (paper vs ereader, paperback or hardcover etc...hey I even made sure to get all of the first 4 Game of Thrones book in the over some paperback because book 5 was coming out in hardcover and I wanted to have them be similar in size only shelf)...
(Finished January 28, 2018)
Iron Gold picks up 10 years after the ending of Morning Star. War has been raging and it has worn on everyone, especially Darrow and his family. The big question....how does one end a war when there have been missteps and mistakes and are so many hurt and disillusioned people to try and please and make peace in the name of?
Something I find Brown does really well is using multiple first person voices to tell a story from different points of view. Darrow is flawed and stuck in a cycle of war and trying to find and make peace. But along the way deals were made, some good, some bad, some seemed good at the time they were made and turned out to be bad, and the price paid has worn out and worn thin the humanity left in many, including Darrow. Those who seemed to have been awful and without morality turned around their thoughts and actions and tried in their own way to make amends...Even our heroes are flawed and even our villains may not be what we think they are.....
Action packed, gory at times (hey, it's war it has to be gory at times), heartfelt, exciting, heartbreaking...The only thing I would say against the book, is that it WEIGHS a lot, coming in at 596 pages, so if you have an eReader I would say get it on that. If I had one back when I started the series I would have done that but as I have this about having books in a series in as close to the same format as possible (paper vs ereader, paperback or hardcover etc...hey I even made sure to get all of the first 4 Game of Thrones book in the over some paperback because book 5 was coming out in hardcover and I wanted to have them be similar in size only shelf)...
(Finished January 28, 2018)
Friday, January 19, 2018
I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by Matt Taibbi
The timing of reading this so close to the time I finished The New Jim Crow was perfect, this is more proof for the points made in it.
I hope reminding you who Eric Garner was isn't necessary but just in case, he was a man, a father, a friend, a fixture in his community, and he was Black. He was a human who was killed by a police officer who, not surprisingly, has a history of bad acts, and also not surprising, that were covered up by, ignored by, or not a bother to the NYPD.
Was he an angel or innocent of anything ever? No. But that is besides the point. He didn't ever do anything to make killing him a valid option, yet he cried out that he couldn't breathe as the life was choked out him for...doing nothing...but accused of selling untaxed contraband cigarettes. Not a crime anyone would ever get a death penalty sentence for.
Matt Taibbi set out to write about the case, the lengths went to by the NYPD and the NY criminal justice system went to in order to protect not the victims but the perpetrator who was not black or brown and lived behind a blue wall.
Look, I know there are many many great and honorable police officers serving all over the country. But I also know that pointing out the problems with a systematic racism and the police officers who are mistreating or worse, killing unarmed people of color does not even for a second mean all police are doing it or take away from the fact that there are good police officers trying to clean up the mess from inside. But we can't ignore the problem because it isn't 100% of the officers or justice system employees.
The more I educate myself the more I am painfully aware of the privilege my skin affords me and the more I desire to be part of enacting change.
Read this book as part of your self-education and then share it and speak out....be willing to give up the protection of your skin color, ask questions (respectfully) of people of color about their experiences and truly listen to the answers. It is the start of how you can help be the change we need.
(Finished January 19, 2018)
I hope reminding you who Eric Garner was isn't necessary but just in case, he was a man, a father, a friend, a fixture in his community, and he was Black. He was a human who was killed by a police officer who, not surprisingly, has a history of bad acts, and also not surprising, that were covered up by, ignored by, or not a bother to the NYPD.
Was he an angel or innocent of anything ever? No. But that is besides the point. He didn't ever do anything to make killing him a valid option, yet he cried out that he couldn't breathe as the life was choked out him for...doing nothing...but accused of selling untaxed contraband cigarettes. Not a crime anyone would ever get a death penalty sentence for.
Matt Taibbi set out to write about the case, the lengths went to by the NYPD and the NY criminal justice system went to in order to protect not the victims but the perpetrator who was not black or brown and lived behind a blue wall.
Look, I know there are many many great and honorable police officers serving all over the country. But I also know that pointing out the problems with a systematic racism and the police officers who are mistreating or worse, killing unarmed people of color does not even for a second mean all police are doing it or take away from the fact that there are good police officers trying to clean up the mess from inside. But we can't ignore the problem because it isn't 100% of the officers or justice system employees.
The more I educate myself the more I am painfully aware of the privilege my skin affords me and the more I desire to be part of enacting change.
Read this book as part of your self-education and then share it and speak out....be willing to give up the protection of your skin color, ask questions (respectfully) of people of color about their experiences and truly listen to the answers. It is the start of how you can help be the change we need.
(Finished January 19, 2018)
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests by Chris Smith
I love The Daily Show, yes even now with Trevor Noah. While it will never be the same without Jon Stewart, it is still a place that lives to point out the crazy, hypocrisy, lies, hate, and other issues with politics and news coverage on both sides of the political spectrum. It is hardly the fault of the show that most of it comes from Fox News and the political right.
The Daily Show (The Book) is a fascinating and raw look into the Jon Stewart years as told by him and the people who have been part of the journey either as staff or guest or target. It is unflinchingly honest about some of the not-so-pretty times and interactions (Stewart and Wyatt Cenac for example). The transition from the show as it lived with Kilborn to Stewart's show was filled with growing pains but it aren't we all lucky it became what it did? I say yes!
This isn't a trashy tell-all meant to hurt or embarrass anyone so if that is the kind of book you were hoping for you will be sadly disappointed. If what you are looking for is an inside look at what is arguably the most influential "news" source for many young and not so young people for the past 16+ years then you will be glad you grabbed this. Plus it weighs a shit-ton and could be used to kill bugs or throw at annoying conservatives.
PS interesting fact about new host Trevor Noah- he speaks 8 languages.
(Finished January 16, 2018)
Saturday, January 13, 2018
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
This book is such an important read and it should piss you off while reading it.
Alexander lays out well sourced proof showing that mass incarceration and the "WAR" on drugs is a modern day Jim Crow system.
She gives words to answer those who will deny this by pointing out the lack of explicitly race based language in the laws.
While she doesn't offer "the" solution she ends her book by truing to lay out idea for how to move forward and undo the New Jim Crow.
It should boggle the mind when you read the number of black men caught in the never ending cycle of the criminal justice system. It should make you angry when you read the statistics for the number of white men who commit the same crimes or worse and don't get brought into the system at any level. And it should break your heart and make you angry and spark you to action when you read how even the most minor of offenses impact the rest of the life of those labeled criminal.
Just some of the long term consequences: no longer able to get a job (check the box), a home (public housing doesn't allow anyone with a felony no matter the level of said felony), any kind of assistance (food, housing, medical), barred from jury duty, and no longer able to vote.
What we have in this country is a system of segregation that traps people of color in depressed financial areas where jobs and hope are in short supply, they are treated more harshly by the "war" on drugs and pay with their lives. And it is cyclical.
I had to step away and catch my breath while reading this one, I was so heartsick and angry. But it is a must read for anyone who cares about the injustice being heaped on one segment of our fellow humans, but especially if you are a white person. White people need to wake up and throw off the privilege that isn't earned but is given by an accident of birth with a specific skin color. These statistics should help slap us out of our place of lazy comfort and complacency.
As my dear friend Ann said "Silence is compliance."
(Finished January 12, 2018)
Alexander lays out well sourced proof showing that mass incarceration and the "WAR" on drugs is a modern day Jim Crow system.
She gives words to answer those who will deny this by pointing out the lack of explicitly race based language in the laws.
While she doesn't offer "the" solution she ends her book by truing to lay out idea for how to move forward and undo the New Jim Crow.
It should boggle the mind when you read the number of black men caught in the never ending cycle of the criminal justice system. It should make you angry when you read the statistics for the number of white men who commit the same crimes or worse and don't get brought into the system at any level. And it should break your heart and make you angry and spark you to action when you read how even the most minor of offenses impact the rest of the life of those labeled criminal.
Just some of the long term consequences: no longer able to get a job (check the box), a home (public housing doesn't allow anyone with a felony no matter the level of said felony), any kind of assistance (food, housing, medical), barred from jury duty, and no longer able to vote.
What we have in this country is a system of segregation that traps people of color in depressed financial areas where jobs and hope are in short supply, they are treated more harshly by the "war" on drugs and pay with their lives. And it is cyclical.
I had to step away and catch my breath while reading this one, I was so heartsick and angry. But it is a must read for anyone who cares about the injustice being heaped on one segment of our fellow humans, but especially if you are a white person. White people need to wake up and throw off the privilege that isn't earned but is given by an accident of birth with a specific skin color. These statistics should help slap us out of our place of lazy comfort and complacency.
As my dear friend Ann said "Silence is compliance."
(Finished January 12, 2018)
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
I don't even know where to begin with this one. Everything I thought I would think about right and wrong, this book twisted on its head.
But then again maybe not. I am not one of those people who believe that our upbringings and the things our parents do to us should be shucked aside once we are adults and that people should "just get over it and move on."
What has happened to us in our most formative years, what we witness and what we go through, these things shape us. Some people will repeat the mistakes and continue the cycle of what ever it is, others will be moved to do and be better but will make the conscious effort to do so. And I am sure there are other options, but those are the two most vivid.
Wavy has seen and been through more than any child should ever witness and experience. Her mother is a drug addict married to a meth producer. Wavy and her brother mostly grow up in this environment. She does get some reprieve in the time she spends with her Grandmother but for the most part she lives on farm where her father has his "business" he has girlfriends and her mother knows it and hates it. Wavy is profoundly shaped by her mother's voice in her head telling her the rules. It makes eating and touching and speaking so very difficult for wavy. But she is so smart and has such a full and loving heart. But it takes her little bother and her friendship with Kellen to crack her shell.
And it is the friendship with Kellen that presents the moral challenge I faced in reading this. He is an adult, at least age wise. He might have some developmental delays and is surely shaped by his abusive upbringing. But he is in his early 20's or just about 20 when he meets Wavy. He works for her father as a mechanic, courier, and occasionally a reluctant strong man. But he is gentle and kind and takes care of Wavy and her bother Donal. He makes sure she goes to school, even paying her registration fees. He makes sure she is safe and that she eats. But he falls in love with her and she with he. Even though at the time she is barely a teen. He is aware of the moral issue and doesn't want to feel what he does. Is it wrong? Should they be together? Is it ever ok for a man in his early 20's to marry and be with a 14 year old? When she turns 14 they could get married with her father's consent which he has given and Kellen is surprising Wavy with the new of when a tragedy sidetracks the plan and the next many years of their lives.
Their story is disturbing and wrong but beautiful and right. And I am left conflicted with having found myself pulling for them.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is the perfect title because it is ugly and wonderful. The writing is really well done and the feels...I had them..many of them...
(Finished January 9, 2018)
But then again maybe not. I am not one of those people who believe that our upbringings and the things our parents do to us should be shucked aside once we are adults and that people should "just get over it and move on."
What has happened to us in our most formative years, what we witness and what we go through, these things shape us. Some people will repeat the mistakes and continue the cycle of what ever it is, others will be moved to do and be better but will make the conscious effort to do so. And I am sure there are other options, but those are the two most vivid.
Wavy has seen and been through more than any child should ever witness and experience. Her mother is a drug addict married to a meth producer. Wavy and her brother mostly grow up in this environment. She does get some reprieve in the time she spends with her Grandmother but for the most part she lives on farm where her father has his "business" he has girlfriends and her mother knows it and hates it. Wavy is profoundly shaped by her mother's voice in her head telling her the rules. It makes eating and touching and speaking so very difficult for wavy. But she is so smart and has such a full and loving heart. But it takes her little bother and her friendship with Kellen to crack her shell.
And it is the friendship with Kellen that presents the moral challenge I faced in reading this. He is an adult, at least age wise. He might have some developmental delays and is surely shaped by his abusive upbringing. But he is in his early 20's or just about 20 when he meets Wavy. He works for her father as a mechanic, courier, and occasionally a reluctant strong man. But he is gentle and kind and takes care of Wavy and her bother Donal. He makes sure she goes to school, even paying her registration fees. He makes sure she is safe and that she eats. But he falls in love with her and she with he. Even though at the time she is barely a teen. He is aware of the moral issue and doesn't want to feel what he does. Is it wrong? Should they be together? Is it ever ok for a man in his early 20's to marry and be with a 14 year old? When she turns 14 they could get married with her father's consent which he has given and Kellen is surprising Wavy with the new of when a tragedy sidetracks the plan and the next many years of their lives.
Their story is disturbing and wrong but beautiful and right. And I am left conflicted with having found myself pulling for them.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is the perfect title because it is ugly and wonderful. The writing is really well done and the feels...I had them..many of them...
(Finished January 9, 2018)
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff
If you know me even a little you KNOW there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to miss out on this one!!!
Excerpts were published, it was all over the news...and idiot-baby-man Trump couldn't resist and tweeted angrily about it and like wildfire talk and pre-orders soared. And then the publisher moved the release date to Friday Jan 5 up from Tuesday January 9. I ran to Barnes and Noble as soon as they opened and they didn't have copies out yet. By 3:30pm they still hadn't unloaded their truck and put them out but the website had updated and the Nook version was now available and so, since I have rejoined the world of e-reader owners (I got a Nook just after Christmas) I downloaded it, no longer able to wait for a hard copy....and every moment I have been awake and not working I have been reading it...I just finished and HOLY SHIT this was one crazy read!!!
Do I think every word is true or unbiased? No, of course not, I am not an idiot. But I have been following the news coverage and I have yet to hear any full throated denials by anyone quoted in the book. I have not heard anyone say that Wolff wasn't there and didn't or couldn't have heard what he says he heard. And he insists he has tape and notes to back up his reporting. So I am going to assume the majority of what he writes is at least close enough to exact quotes to make this non-fiction. And that is the crazy and scary part of this. If even of a small fraction of what Wolff says others said or told him they thought or told others in Wolff's hearing then we have more trouble in the Oval Office than we all (or mostly all) suspected....
Some highlights- or low lights depending on how you look at it-
Holy hell the poor fact checker from New Yorker who had to make that call to Bannon regarding what Scaramucci told the reporter at the magazine....
The moniker "Jarvanka"
In bed at 6:30 with a cheeseburger
How the hell did the people around tRump allow Wolff such unfettered access?
The idiotic way these dummies created extra trouble for themselves, like the Air Force One meeting and how the outing of Don Jr's meeting with the Russians IN TRUMP TOWER was handled.
Clearly Bannon was tRump's puppet master for quite some time.
I actually started to feel bad for Spicer.
My anger at the way Morning Joe's hosts aided and abetted the campaign and played some part in the normalization of tRump was so spot on and I am glad it gets mentioned.
And the New Yorker fact checker deserve a second mention because holy shit how do you ask that question to someone..."I am just calling to ask your comment on and if it is true that you..."
As a side note there is one thing I need to vent about, I am irked as a read by typos in published books...when there is an extra "a" or a missing word, it annoys me and I wonder how the many editors who comb over books looking for these kinds of things miss them..that being said...it is just a smallish pet peeve of mine and I needed to mention it, and I am curious if anyone else feels this way too....
(Finished January 7, 2018)
Excerpts were published, it was all over the news...and idiot-baby-man Trump couldn't resist and tweeted angrily about it and like wildfire talk and pre-orders soared. And then the publisher moved the release date to Friday Jan 5 up from Tuesday January 9. I ran to Barnes and Noble as soon as they opened and they didn't have copies out yet. By 3:30pm they still hadn't unloaded their truck and put them out but the website had updated and the Nook version was now available and so, since I have rejoined the world of e-reader owners (I got a Nook just after Christmas) I downloaded it, no longer able to wait for a hard copy....and every moment I have been awake and not working I have been reading it...I just finished and HOLY SHIT this was one crazy read!!!
Do I think every word is true or unbiased? No, of course not, I am not an idiot. But I have been following the news coverage and I have yet to hear any full throated denials by anyone quoted in the book. I have not heard anyone say that Wolff wasn't there and didn't or couldn't have heard what he says he heard. And he insists he has tape and notes to back up his reporting. So I am going to assume the majority of what he writes is at least close enough to exact quotes to make this non-fiction. And that is the crazy and scary part of this. If even of a small fraction of what Wolff says others said or told him they thought or told others in Wolff's hearing then we have more trouble in the Oval Office than we all (or mostly all) suspected....
Some highlights- or low lights depending on how you look at it-
Holy hell the poor fact checker from New Yorker who had to make that call to Bannon regarding what Scaramucci told the reporter at the magazine....
The moniker "Jarvanka"
In bed at 6:30 with a cheeseburger
How the hell did the people around tRump allow Wolff such unfettered access?
The idiotic way these dummies created extra trouble for themselves, like the Air Force One meeting and how the outing of Don Jr's meeting with the Russians IN TRUMP TOWER was handled.
Clearly Bannon was tRump's puppet master for quite some time.
I actually started to feel bad for Spicer.
My anger at the way Morning Joe's hosts aided and abetted the campaign and played some part in the normalization of tRump was so spot on and I am glad it gets mentioned.
And the New Yorker fact checker deserve a second mention because holy shit how do you ask that question to someone..."I am just calling to ask your comment on and if it is true that you..."
As a side note there is one thing I need to vent about, I am irked as a read by typos in published books...when there is an extra "a" or a missing word, it annoys me and I wonder how the many editors who comb over books looking for these kinds of things miss them..that being said...it is just a smallish pet peeve of mine and I needed to mention it, and I am curious if anyone else feels this way too....
(Finished January 7, 2018)
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah is at once a love story, a coming of age tale, a commentary on race in the US, and a story about going home or finding home or figuring out what home means.
The best parts are Ifemelu's blog posts about race in America because they are so timely and important, and feel so real and not part of a novel. But the story of how growing up in one place and trying to make a life in another can be so fraught with suffering and joy, with scary difference and happiness and belonging. But it also explores how belonging isn't more than a mile wide and an inch deep and sometimes where you left is where you belonged all along.
The characters aren't perfect people, they are flawed and sometimes make good choices and sometimes make poor choices. But isn't that what we all so? It is what makes these characters so well written, they feel like they are reflections of real people and not perfect paper people.
The prose is so beautiful and descriptive even when it is telling us something ugly.
This was a great way to start off my new year of reading adventure.
(Finished January 3, 2018)
The best parts are Ifemelu's blog posts about race in America because they are so timely and important, and feel so real and not part of a novel. But the story of how growing up in one place and trying to make a life in another can be so fraught with suffering and joy, with scary difference and happiness and belonging. But it also explores how belonging isn't more than a mile wide and an inch deep and sometimes where you left is where you belonged all along.
The characters aren't perfect people, they are flawed and sometimes make good choices and sometimes make poor choices. But isn't that what we all so? It is what makes these characters so well written, they feel like they are reflections of real people and not perfect paper people.
The prose is so beautiful and descriptive even when it is telling us something ugly.
This was a great way to start off my new year of reading adventure.
(Finished January 3, 2018)
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