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.