Love Warrior

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle
2017
Weight: 9.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Left in a hotel in London

I went to a Leadercast Women Conference where there were a multitude of excellent speakers, but Glennon Doyle had the entire auditorium laughing. She was incredible. She brought honesty, feminism, love, motherhood, lesbianism to the stage and it seemed like almost everyone could relate in some way. I had to buy her book. So, I did. I was hoping to buy the book that I now realize is the ,yet to be released, Untamed.  

I am not going to lie. I was waiting for her to fall in love with her wife, Rapinoe, the whole time, since I knew that would happen from the talk she gave. So, I was disappointed when that didn’t happen! I have still another one of her books to catch up on before Untamed. Love Warrior was not hilarious in the way her talk was, but it was good. I was glad to read it, but it was also a little surreal hearing her trying to figure out her life and knowing how some things would pan out down the way, though in the book she did not.

I leave this by saying that if you ever get the chance to see Glennon Doyle do it. Don’t miss out. She’s so much fun.

Rocks and Rain, Reason and Romance

Rocks and Rain, Reason and Romance By David Howe
2019
Weight: 8 oz
Method of disposal: Lending Library

I purchased this book the last time Harriet and I went to England.  Not only do I find the place where Harriet grew up in beautiful,  but there is also a sort of magic in thinking about us both growing up on either side of the ocean, living such different lives. Learning about the Lakes and Northern England just feels like one more way to help me understand my wife and, if that’s not true, then maybe it will give me a snippet of information to impress her mom with on some random day! So, win win, really.

The author tries to pack a lot in a small book, but I appreciate it. He seems to ultimately be primarily interested in the literature from and about the Lake District, but he also discusses science, geology, conservation, etc. Here are some things I have learned:

-It has some of the highest rainfall of all the UK.

-A mere is, indeed, a lake.

-There are assorted, ancient, stone circles dotted throughout England, including Castlerigg Stone Circle.

-There are 16 recognized lakes in the Lake District and some decent sized tarns (pools).

Ok, I realize that I’m impressing no one right about now. Let me try again.

-The lakes get as deep as 250 feet (Wastwater).

-I have a need to go see Blea Water in the High Street Fells.

-More than I know how to relay here on the authors; Wordsworth, Radcliffe, Ruskin, Coleridge, Potter, Ransome, and Martineau.

-It was only 7,500 years ago that Britons really began to inhabit the coast and lower valleys of the Lake District. 

-The Lake District was particularly important in the Stone Age and beyond for the production of axes due to tbd unique stone found there.  From greenstone to bronze to Iron.

-“many...major invasions of Britain have left very little genetic trace.  We see little genetic evidence of the Roman conquest, nor of the Danish Viking control of large parts of England from the 9th Century...Nor of the Norman Conquest.  These invasions have had a major impact on our history and culture, but not on our gene pool. The inference is clear. In each case there must have been control by a ruling elite, backed by superior military power, but not large-scale settlement...” Professor Peter Donnelly 

-Water flows from the Lakes all the way to Manchester via gravity (no pumps!). It takes a day and a half for water to get from Thirlmere go Manchester around 80 miles away.

-There are two villages now underwater. One of them being Mardale, which is currently emerging. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2766498/Lake-District-s-Atlantis-revealed-A-village-drowned-1930s-reappears-driest-September-half-century.html

Okay, I will stop boring you to death but, the point is, there is a lot of history, art, philosophy, geography I need to catch up on and this was a great starter. Now, it is much to late, and Harriet has been asleep for hours. I guess that it is time for me to go lay beside her and just enjoy the closeness until tomorrow when I bore her, like I have you, with details of her homeland.

Poisonwood Bible

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
1998
Weight: 3.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

I finally got back around to the Poisonwood Bible.  I always swore I would, but I always picked up something else.  Reading The Bean Trees is what did me in.  I got a little addicted to that book, and I wanted to feel that way again.  Not to mention, you always hear about The Poisonwood Bible.  People love it, and it is likely Kingsolver's best known book. 

It did not give me the same feeling as The Bean Trees!  I am sure that is sacrilegious and says nothing good about me.  I know the other is the first in a series, and I have not yet read the others.  It is not as well rated.  I had never heard anyone talk about it.  I know. I know.  I just loved the characters. 

I was less in love with the character development in this one, but it was not because it was bad.  I loved how it developed, but it was slower and matured as the characters grew up.  Poisonwood spanned a longer period of time.  It allowed you to see the characters as a silhouette of themselves or a stereotype and then you grew to know them deeper over time without you even really noticing it at first.  You hated them, but then you understood them.  You maybe pitied them or grew to worry about them.  At some point, some of them even became likable.  With The Bean Trees, the character development almost whacks you in the face.  Here is your lead girl!  Isn't she strong?Isn't she rough and tumble?  What is she going to do?  No, really, what is she going to do??  Not to mention, now is the time to talk about immigration.  Just like it was all those years ago when Kingsolver wrote the book.

I suppose that now is also the time to talk about Evangelists--that scourge on humanity.  Oh, the world is a devolving and darkening place.  Sometimes it seems like we are all evolving and getting better together and sometimes it seems like we will never stop repeating our mistakes until we force ourselves into a position where we do not get the chance to try again.  That irrevocable line we cannot cross but are always getting closer to, according to The Scientists.  And when I say THE scientists, I mean the vast majority that see Global Warming happening all around us but are at a loss as to how to stop it.  That line.  There is a line in The Poisonwood Bible too--a different line.  You know from the start it is coming and there are times when you think it has arrived and you are wrong.  The tension builds and builds. 

If you have not read it, give it a shot.  I would love to know what you think.

This Woman's Work

This Woman's Work by Julie Delporte
2019
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Giving Away

I also got this graphic novel at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur.  I love a good graphic novel, but I find the real gems that speak to me few and far between.  This was not particularly my cup of tea, but that is not to say it will not be yours.  I did so appreciate, "I thought to myself that's me, the unicorn-whale, the gentle feminist.  But you know what?  Female narwhals don't have horns."

The author and artist seems to be very smart, talented, and honest.  She is searching herself and her medium. I think it will be powerful to many in that she captures the memorable moments that occur when something happens to you or you experience something powerful.  Those moments are not always obvious to people who do not live that experience. I think many women will be able to relate.  This is another book worth sharing that may find even more strength with a new owner.

Southern Lady Code

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
2019
Weight: 16 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

I have been feeling under the weather since Thursday.  I looked up a Southern way to say that and was reminded that "under the weather" IS a Southern way to say that.  As is, "Sick as a dawg."   One I apparently felt the need to use with animal rescue folk.  There were times when I considered, "On death's door"or "I'd have to feel better to die," but death gets closer each year and no longer seems like something to through out flippantly, though I can tell you I thought a lot about death.  Not, in that I thought I would die, but thinking of those we love and their deaths.  What is the most painful it gets?  Will I have to know?  Will my loved ones?  Do any of us mean anything in the continuum?  There are twenty year olds who die of the flu.  Thirty year olds that wake up next to a deceased spouse.  It is unbearable to dwell on and so we try not to.  I try not to, but for how long?

Anywho, that is enough of that dreariness for now.  I am sure it will return.  Today, I am giving away Southern Lady Code, which I bought at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA (which I love).  I have a love/hate thing for all things Southern, which is really the only way to love the South reasonably, I think.  We have a dark, sad history, but we also have a lot of really strong, amazing people that have overcome, fought peacefully and hard, worked hard, shown bright.  There is a lot to love.  Fried okra, Flannery O'Connor, Angela Davis, Y'all, peaches, waterfalls.  

Helen Ellis and I had a very different experience growing up in the South, but I could see elements in there.  She was from Alabama and ended up in New York.  I was in Georgia and ended up in Georgia.  It did not bring me all the joy I had hoped for, but I know there are many ladies out there (many of them that I went to college with at Agnes Scott) that would find much to laugh about and relate to here.  I hand it off and hope it finds one of them.  

Far From the Madding Crowd

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Weight: 16 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

My honey's mother bought me this book on her last visit.  I had read and loved Tess of the D'Urbervilles in college, but I have had lingering concern about being in a classroom of women who did not think Tess was raped.  I guess that later in my college career, I would be judged by my same peers in the same way.  I did not know that at the time.

We had been discussing what books I enjoyed reading, and she was asking me about British authors.  She agreed that Tess was incredibly sad, which is why she did not like it.  A few days later, before she left, she handed my Far From the Madding Crowd because I had not read it before.  She said it was not nearly as sad, and I guess it wasn't maybe.

As I read Thomas Hardy, I find myself believing that Mr. Hardy was a sympathizer of women, and that he saw the unfairness of their situation.  Sometimes, I wonder if he really, truly saw it or if he just wrote it how it was and still, all these years, later the truth shines through and now it is at a time where we can better see it.

Bathsheba was at times a frustrating character and made some dumb decisions that stood in stark contrast of her better ones, but she always just seemed young and not vicious.  I guess we are to be happy that Gabriel and Bathsheba ended up together, but I almost am not sure it was the true ending to this book.  I thought it was misery watching this young woman get pressured and misguided by two persistent men in her life.  I am surprised that by the time she had matured enough to be with a man she still liked a man at all.  And why did she seem like such a good business woman sometimes--she had to be to be a woman in that position--and the worst business woman ever--reacting to everything like a teenage girl? 

Any who, I love my honey's mom, and I love that she thinks of me and gives me such thoughtful gifts.  She is truly an artist.  She will just tell you that she is teaching me about the greatness of the Brits and maybe she is.

Affinity

Affinity by Sarah Waters
2002
Weight: 13.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving to a friend

My coworker brought me a book about lesbian women in history and demanded a book in return.  I brought her The Line Becomes a River book because, if you read that post, you will know I was deeply moved by it.  I also gave her Affinity because she was recently chatting on about Gentleman Jack and lesbian period pieces, and I could not help but wonder if she would get into Sarah Waters.  I am interested to know what she thinks, though I am second guessing if giving her Affinity was the best place to start.

It is one of her more dark, depressing, no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel novels.  I anxiously await her news.  Let's hope she has more time to read than I do!

The Line Becomes a River

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú

2018
Weight: 9.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving to a Friend

I found this book on display at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA.  For Better or for worse, I always justify buying a new book or two when I am around an independent bookstore.  There are just so few bookstores left, and I love them!  I made this trip to Little Shop to buy a gift for both my mom and dad.  If you have not seen Cicada by Shaun Tan you should check it out.  I thought it would be the perfect small gift for a retirement party.  Tok tok tok.

This book was amazing.  It was terrible, and it was hard to read, but the author is open and speaks with such sincerity and emotion that it is impossible to look away.  It is a book that is "easy" to read in that I was hooked on every word but also challenging because of the darkness and desperation that will permeate you to your core.  It was emotional and important.  Cantú ensures that you will see the humanity of those crossing the border and those working for the United States Border Patrol, but you will also see people who do terrible things and you will read about deep suffering. 

It is important that you read The Line Becomes a River right now and do not wait because people are dying every day, dreams are being dismantled every day, and the natures of people are changing with each death, drug bust, deportation, detainment.  Our countries (the US and Mexico) are changing and the violence is increasing.  No matter what you believe, this cannot be the way forward.  This is not how we treat our neighbors or how we should be treating our own citizens.  One thing that will come through clearly is that this is a complicated and deep-rooted issue but, for me, it really made me think about who I want to be and what I want to do with my life.  It is challenging to go on each day, acting like there is not a major problem in this country and that our stance on immigration is actively obliterating people's lives.  Of course, it is easy for me to say all of this and not offer a solution.  I understand that, and I hate it.  I wish I knew what we needed to do.  I wish Francisco Cantú knew what to do but, just because we do not have all the answers, does not mean we should not search for them.  It does not mean we cannot be better.

Dear Martin

Dear Martin by Nic Stone
2018
Weight: 6. 4 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in Lending Library

Harriet bought me Dear Martin as a surprise, and I am glad she did.  It is a young adult book about racism, being a teenager, being a black teenager among white teenagers, and police shootings.  It is important that we have books like these for young adults.  Young people are seeing young black men being killed by police in the news.  Black teenagers are in between being kids and adults, but they are so often seen as adults by authority figures and not just adults, but also as a threat just by being in a random place (their home/the sidewalk/the train station/the car/etc) at the wrong time (a time where someone with power is feeling scared or angry). 

Today, I watched "When They See Us."  I think I have written about the Central Park Five here before.  It is a story that never gets less heartbreaking and, honestly, just gets worse the more you know.  The people who made this series did a great job.  For any white people who cannot see black teenagers as children, you should watch this and do not look away.  I do not even have children but, if you do, can we please all just open our hearts to what it would feel like to be the parents of these boys?  For everyone else, the siblings, friends, girlfriends.  Whiteness has been constructed.  There is no going back.  We can only go forward. We do not want to keep ruining lives and embracing an embarrassing and incredibly cruel history or acting like it did not happen.  That helps no one.  We have got to do the hard work.

Unhinged

Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House by Omarosa Manigault Newman
2018
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating to Goodwill

You are not always glad to have someone "on your side."  I was dog sitting for my mom and started reading this while at her house.  I was not done by the time she got back, but I was not that bothered.  I put it back on her coffee table and told her I was not impressed.  She said she wasn't either.  My grandmother had given it her after trying to read it.  Everyone just kept passing it on to the next person with the warning, "you may not want to waste your time..."  So, here I am passing it on with that same warning.

Where The Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
2018
Weight: 1.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating to Goodwill

A volunteer brought me this book.  The last book I blogged about was from a different volunteer.  I am loving this trend that has started where people pass on their books to me.  There are at least four volunteers who are giving me books now.  Harriet is not as keen.  Truly, I cannot keep up, but I love it nonetheless. 

This book is not one I would have picked up on my own, but I got hooked on it fast.  It reads quickly and it would be challenging not to care about the main character.  A strong-willed and passionate young woman living in a marsh off the coast of North Carolina.  The end wraps up a little too cleanly for me, but I l enjoyed it overall.  Reading it was almost like listening to a song about a South that is so different than the one I grew up in.

We Were the Lucky Ones

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
2017
Weight: 16 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating to Goodwill

It is no surprise that when you pick up a book about the Holocaust you will leave that book with a deep, dark, gut wrenching sickness.  It is impossible to truly grasp or imagine that many people being starved, tortured, and brutally murdered by their neighbors.  It is devastating and, no matter how much is written about it, makes no sense.  I have read the research and the studies showing that people everywhere are capable of this, and I believe it, but it just does not make sense.  The world is changing in so many scary ways.  There are countries all over the world going more conservative and being led by angry, shouting, womanizing leaders who have disgust for entire groups of people.  You never want to demean what people went through in World War II by comparing modern day situations to what happened then arbitrarily, but sometimes the mirrored experiences are frightening.  It is hard not to think of one when reading about the other. 

As a child, we were taught about the Holocaust with the idea that if we could learn about it we could ensure it would never happen again.  In college, my eyes were opened to other genocides happening in other countries.  I struggled to know what I could do as an American about Rawanda.  About Darfur.  Now, I am hearing the horror stories coming out of immigration detainment centers, and there has been an explosion of gun violence aimed at all people, but pointedly at the Jewish, the LGBTQ latina community, black people in their own churches.  Hatred is bubbling up in these very explosive and loud ways.  Meanwhile, our President is coming up with travel bans, transgender bans, insulting the disabled publicly, talking about sexually assaulting women openly.  We have placed yet another man accused of sexual assault in the highest court in our land. 

The very title of this book digs into your psyche.  You follow a whole family through the Holocaust, predominantly in Poland, and you get attached to them quickly.  They see terrible things and suffer in a variety of ways.  You see the woman digging a grave for herself and being told to dig one for her child as well.  The mother who cannot account for all her grown children and their children.  The grandfather who worked hard to build a life for himself and those he loves just to have it all stripped from him.  And yet, many of them make it out alive, and they are truly "the lucky ones."  Thinking of them as lucky is soul crushing in and of itself. 

This is a novel based on a real family, and it is reader friendly in that it is character driven and not bogged down with details.  I think that the style the author uses has made it to where people of varying ages and temperaments could pick it up, read it, and find themselves moved.  One thing I wonder when I read all of these books is when do you get out?  When is it too late?  There is a lot of talk about staying and fighting, but would you do that if you had a crystal ball and could see how bad it would get?

Black Ice

Black Ice by Lorene Cary
2010
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

I have no idea where I got this book.  Another lending library?  I am glad I grabbed it from wherever I did.  It is an autobiography about a woman I knew nothing about before reading it, but I cared about her right away.  She is a bright and motivated young girl that grew up in Philadelphia and went to an elite school in New Hampshire in the 70's.  The school was predominantly white, but it had begun accepting black students before she attended.  She got there and was tokenized but also taught and encouraged.  She found close friends and attempted to find herself.  Ultimately, she would become a teacher at that same school.  She clearly has conflicting emotions and feelings about her time there, understandably.  A teenager would anyway, but with being transplanted from one city and experience to another city and experience, while feeling the pressure to perform above average as a black teenage girl on a scholarship, it would have been overwhelming.  Lorene strives and succeeds and then she allows us into her private thoughts during that time.  It is great all around.























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Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather by Lorin Linder
2018
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

A volunteer at the shelter left this in our lending library and, knowing very little about birds, I decided to take a peek.  I also was invested in the story of the soldiers that work with the birds (and later wolves as it turns out).  The book read very quickly and was enlightening.  My heart breaks every time I see someone with a bird in a cage in their house now, and I worry when I walk through the city and see a parrot on someone's shoulder.  I am ashamed to admit that I try to gauge if the owner could outlive the bird even if they never fell ill or had an accident.

It was interesting when the author wrote about the soldiers that had suffered PTSD for so long and had not opened up to anyone but would slowly open up to a bird.  She said that birds were not like dogs that would just give you love without question.  You had to work for it, and they would bond to certain people and not others.  That was comforting to some of the men.

Any who, it was interesting, and I learned some basic information about birds and the work the author did.  More importantly, I was able to read about another woman who just knew she could help and was going to help no matter how challenging it was to get to where she was today.  That is always inspiring. 

Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
2018
Weight: 1.8 lbs
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

Harriet bought me this book for Christmas along with a stack of other (very politically motivated) books, and I was excited to read it.  It was the first one I picked up.  It took me forever to finish it, not because it was bad, but because I have really struggled to find time to read or write since becoming a manager five or so years ago.  It has been a long time since I have written here!  Once I was halfway through, I kept trying to make the time to read it.  Michele and Barack were falling in love, and it felt like a fairy tale, but between two incredibly intelligent and motivated people. 

I was consistently in awe of the Obama family as a whole. and I did see another side of the story from Michelle's point of view.  It really came across clearly how much they had to sacrifice as a family for Obama to lead us for eight years and the true pressure that was on them to be perfect.  There could not have been a better family for it.

I was really tempted to keep this book, particularly in our current political climate.  It is almost like a safety blanket, something to hold on to.  But, then I realized, that is more the reason to share it so I will send it out into the world.