Let Us March On by Shara Moon brings up the story of a heroine I had never heard of. . .with all the history I have been taught, classes and classLet Us March On by Shara Moon brings up the story of a heroine I had never heard of. . .with all the history I have been taught, classes and classes of it. Readings aplenty on this very topic in which I'm interested. . .until Shara Moon put her book on the shelf. . .I learned about Elizabeth "Lizzie" McDuffie.
Her husband, Mac, was FDR's valet, and in time she joined him at the White House starting out as a maid (and always stayed one). Eventually other tasks were added to her plate, not the least of which was campaigning for FDR in her community of color. She was good at it, and genuine as well, making sure to connect those she could with the President, First Lady or other important gatekeepers. She also found time to eventually tell her story, which readers like me are only just now finding as bit by bit the blinders of our narrow, curated histories are being overcome.
Lizzie's story is a good one, and Ms. Moon does a persuasive job of presenting it, setting it properly within the context of FDR's time in office. She allows the obstacles and challenges to show the difficulties faced by people of color at that particular time - and the bitter battle of politics that so many generations later still remains.
*A sincere thank you to Shara Moon, William Morrow, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently. #LetUsMarchOn #NetGalley 25|52:52e...more
The author focuses on that evolving tool created by Marty Goddard who disappeared and got very little credit for her helpful game-changing kit giving The author focuses on that evolving tool created by Marty Goddard who disappeared and got very little credit for her helpful game-changing kit giving victims more incentive to report violence imposed upon their bodies - the Rape Kit.
Using this tool, those just suffering from such attacks have all the parts and pieces to gather evidence needed to document the crimes in their own safe spaces rather than having to go through the humiliation, judgment and skeptical processes of medical and law enforcement establishments in the days before Marty's big idea. Why it took until 1972 is a mind-blowing question - women have been subjected to this kind of treatment since Eve.
Pagan Kennedy discusses the history of what did and didn't happen with kits when they were turned into police departments and how outrage over time changed processes, finding more guilty perpetrators and releasing the ones that were not perpetrators - a sorry twisted justice untangled mostly. She tells her own story, also difficult, and provides Marty's concluding saga of sadness.
This book tells a difficult, uncomfortable tale, as true as true gets but it needs to be read and pondered upon for the sake of all our children and grand-kids ahead, all our mothers and grandmothers in years past. For our siblings, cousins, friends and besties, and even those that are not our favorite - no one deserves what a rape communicates and destroys, and every rapist should be pulled out of their hidey holes and their crimes made part of the public record, so a true evaluation of their character is available for the communities in which they live (or hide). Rape Kits help make this so.
Kudos to the author for educating us on the bravery, sorrows and lost battles of Marty Goddard during her time in our company. We need more Martys to stand with us. She needed us, and we weren't there for all the reasons there are. . .but times, they have changed and so must we. All the stars for that change. . .
*A sincere thank you to Pagan Kennedy, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Vintage, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #The SecretHistoryoftheRapeKit #NetGalley...more
I absolutely loved this book! Better than - waaay better than Animal Farm.
Recommended it to all my grands, BUT the unasked question for readers is wheI absolutely loved this book! Better than - waaay better than Animal Farm.
Recommended it to all my grands, BUT the unasked question for readers is whether this is a book for young folk, or all folk, and my answer is unequivocally B.
What happens when we've mostly offed the world, and the question remains - what to do with the few remaining bits of our species? and that decision rests in the paws & claws of a few?
Mmm. I loved this book. Will read again. And again. It may be time to live with a cat again.
Francesca Loftfeld's part of the story in this 3-fer, is set in the 1960's and it is her voice a reader hears the most. She is an outsider to Santa ChFrancesca Loftfeld's part of the story in this 3-fer, is set in the 1960's and it is her voice a reader hears the most. She is an outsider to Santa Chionia a fictional village isolated and tightly bound by ancient dna and political/local infrastructure that predates nations, it seems. She has a mission based on facts of an earlier generation that she works through rather clumsily, at high cost to some.
There are many mysteries within the tales this village offers up to visitors, and the read is twisty. Descriptions of the countryside are transporting, but for this reader the limitations build up to a calculation of nothing less than claustrophobic creating its own kind of tension.
What is the third part? a romance of course. . .fun to follow, but it never clears away the story's overarching dark clouds of distrust.
*A sincere thank you to Juliet Grames, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #TheLostBoyofSantaChionia #NetGalley 25| 52:43a...more
One of our book club reads this year, and one that hit my heart with all the suffering of the indigenous peoples at the hands of invaders. Many of my One of our book club reads this year, and one that hit my heart with all the suffering of the indigenous peoples at the hands of invaders. Many of my very own ancestors are those invaders. Guilt and confusion often wring their hands in my head as I read these types of books. What to do with all they did, that we didn't know we'd benefited by, which was exactly why they did what they did - such a complex tone to read through. . .
That said, this story does an apt job of laying out the question and answering it: what was the REAL purpose of Indian Schools? was it a generous service to assist the native peoples to assimilate, to give them a "hand up"? Not even. It was an isolating factor, a way to further Other / Name / Label a population that troubled early settlers. It was a way to instill the absolute power structure Whites wanted the Native Peoples to understand - it was brutal and there was nothing generous about it.
Truly, there never is and never has been overlap between the earth and sky - it's either one or the other....more
A read well worth the time spent learning of "unsung" Americans the author exuberantly provides as her examples of small and might service to the furtA read well worth the time spent learning of "unsung" Americans the author exuberantly provides as her examples of small and might service to the furtherance of the American nation and national causes. She recognizes those causes were/are in conflict with others and doesn't hesitate to so acknowledge, but goes on to discuss her main subjects:
Clara Brown; Virginia Randolph; Katherine Lee Bates; Inez Milholland; Rebecca Brown Mitchell; Anna Thomas Jeanes; Julius Rosenwald; Booker T. Washington; Daniel Inouye; Norman Mineta; Claudette Colvin; and Septima Clark.
Our BookBuddy discussion group was invigorated and lively as these all were considered. As I listened only to this read (no e-book or physical copy) my response to the author's narration was not a positive one. As soon as I realized this I should have found a copy to read instead of listen to and my experience would have been far less distracted. That said, the author's message is a great one, and worth the extra effort on engagement.
Judge, jury, support staff throughout, and those others. . .poor Lila is truly at sea in this tale, and I stayed with her to the very end. We discoverJudge, jury, support staff throughout, and those others. . .poor Lila is truly at sea in this tale, and I stayed with her to the very end. We discovered, uncovered, recovered, and covered. . .and sadly, I'm still at sea. This tale confused me completely. Refreshing, different, but for me a map in another language.
L. J. Shepherd's writing is sharp and crisp, and the court work she sets the story in held me as its a world I know, and in which I have spent a lot of time, so that was very comforting to at least have a handle on those parts. It was the twisty-turny, repeatedly circling back narrative that had me seasick in a readerly way. Yet there are so many much hardier than me.
Don't let my bamboozlement hold you back - I toss this in the review basket in case there is someone else out there suffering from the same malady. AND that said, I'll make another run at it in a different season to see if I can clamber back onboard for proper closure.
All that said, I'll welcome another work of L J Shepherd to follow up on this one. . .
*A sincere thank you to L. J. Shepherd, Poisoned Pen Press, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #trialsofliladalton #NetGalley 24/52:42...more
Eleventh in the Vera Stanhope series, The Dark Wives had me with the standing stones. . .said to be gossiping women turned to stone as a cautionarEleventh in the Vera Stanhope series, The Dark Wives had me with the standing stones. . .said to be gossiping women turned to stone as a cautionary measure/landmark for loose-lipped community members. . .there's your first clue, MacDuff.
This was my first Ann Cleeves book (as far as I can recall). . .and I truly enjoyed Vera, although I'm surprised someone hasn't talked to her about her constant "petting." I'm of two minds about it and haven't yet come to a conclusion. A twisty tale that started slow, came to a rapid solve, and settled to a promise of more to come from the Stanhope team.
A just-right autumn-into-winter read.
*A sincere thank you to Ann Cleeves, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*...more
This story is a head-on collision of cultures, the healing of which will leave Mr. and Mrs. Craig forever changed.
Mrs. Craig, who is the Annabel of thThis story is a head-on collision of cultures, the healing of which will leave Mr. and Mrs. Craig forever changed.
Mrs. Craig, who is the Annabel of the book title was raised Christian with a capital "C." Scriptures are present in these pages, pulled from the life and memories of Annabel. Arming her for life with religion's protective gear of safety harness, vest, shield and slingshot through the everyday teachings of purposeful worship, her family set her feet firmly on the Path. She was afforded this by the upraising she had at the loving and earnest hands of her parents, as well as their supportive and wary community.
Mr. Craig, George, to his friends was an anxious ambitious attorney who has a Plan A so big that a Plan B is superfluous. He's also a Ham Radio operator. (This odd fact stuck to the tumbleweeds of interest in my head as my father was a world champion amateur radio ham - I was raised in the dot.dot.dash of morse code.) George Craig's worldview is wide-ranging, and open- handed. He's not tied to deity nor accountability to the unseen. He's very interested in battle and all of its strategies.
Lisa Grunwald's story leans in on their marriage - and the cracks that happen in the heat of community turmoil when in their town of Dayton, Tennessee, teacher John Scopes begins introducing Darwin's theory of evolution to the school children of Dayton, many of whom are parented by Christian congregants of the Earth-in-7-Days doctrine. Legal efforts are engaged, a lawsuit is brought and soon celebrity lawyers (Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan) join the battle from both sides of the fight. What Mr. and Mrs. Craig didn't expect is that they would find themselves on opposite sides.
That's as far as I take you, Reader, as the story is a good one, and worth your time. It is particularly well-researched and the backs-and-forths of the trial are an education in an of themselves, that is not much scrutinized these days. Out of this read the heat of the conflict was felt and helped this reader, with the benefit of time and hindsight, to realize the consequential outcomes of that particular struggle in ways participants in the moment may have only begun to consider. One of those long wonders that has now stretched out over a century.
*A sincere thank you to Lisa Grunwald, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*...more
Mornings in Jenin came to my attention as a buddy-read - in other words, a book I might have missed completely without the readers who bring new tMornings in Jenin came to my attention as a buddy-read - in other words, a book I might have missed completely without the readers who bring new topics into my view. Palestine, woeful and fierce by turns is one of these.
This historical fiction novel stretches over 1941 through 2003 and the story is told from the points of view of members of a Palestinian family who lived in Ein Hod for many generations. The story told was haunting - and haunts me yet, many months later - and I had to keep reminding myself that this was a fictional account. Yet this narrative is written around real happenings that started in the 1940's and continue to this day in the conflicts of Palestine and Israel. The author, Susan Abulhawa weaves in the life-shaking events that swept Palestinians out of their homes and lands, and newly created Israelis into those same homes and lands. With her words she captures the boiling-over-outrage and continued struggle that anyone paying attention feels rising out of that sore spot on Earth's battered skin.
The story of the Yehya's family is a compelling one, haunting and full of the devastating consequences at their cost resulting from the liberties and privileges gained by others. What to do with that realization is the making of each of us. To make matters even more fraught, the stories that turn into family histories, national histories, and History Itself is only the remnant of stories told, retold, and never told.
I can't imagine there is anyone who, reading this to its conclusion, won't be moved to rather deep thinking in uncomfortable realms. Still, I encourage bravery: read on. ...more
Outrageous. Nauseating. Should be required reading by all those public servants who wield the power discussed in these convictions. And those who voteOutrageous. Nauseating. Should be required reading by all those public servants who wield the power discussed in these convictions. And those who vote for such laws.
Seriously upsetting, and a very difficult read. The message is clear and needs to be accepted - those to whom we afford the power of life and death need more oversight than they are given. Kudos to Centurion Ministries, Innocence Project, Innocence Network and other organizations who advocate on behalf of those who are wrongfully convinced. Kudos to all who don't accept what we now have in place and continue to strive for a criminal legal system that is just, and to impose accountability on those whose work rests the questionable power of granting life or death.
We need a better system, and in this book is found a loud call to arms x 10. Thank you to Authors Grisham and McCloskey for their raised voices, flags and call to action. All the stars for awareness and changed minds.
*A sincere thank you to John Grisham and Jim McCloskey, Doubleday Books, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #Framed #NetGalley 25|52:45a...more
Kate Thompson sent me off to the Channel Islands to be with Grace and Bea during the German occupation of that community. I learned about the powerfulKate Thompson sent me off to the Channel Islands to be with Grace and Bea during the German occupation of that community. I learned about the powerful undercurrents of rebellion woven with ancient languages and hidden books. Every chapter is headed up with a book banned by the Third Reich. . .just makes one want to find a copy immediately to celebrate reading as an act of rebellion.
While the greater part of the story has its bright and shining moments, it is a somber tale of true events wrapped in fictional reimaginings, mixing fictional characters with actual ones. In places it is an uncomfortable read of traumatic happenings that left scars on bodies, hearts and minds, as well as lands and nations. It is the least we can do to acknowledge and remember.
Bonus: end notes, book lists, non-fictional heroes of WWII Jersey, and author's report on her journey writing this book. An added delight.
All the stars!
*A sincere thank you to Kate Thompson, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*...more
The subject of this biography was a man that I knew much more about, and trusted more deeply than any president I'd ever pledged allegiance to up to .The subject of this biography was a man that I knew much more about, and trusted more deeply than any president I'd ever pledged allegiance to up to . . . .?Carter? Obama? maybe. . .a rather clumsy way of saying Walter Cronkite was a trusted presence in the home I grew up in, and until cable took away "regular" TV, he continued in that role in the home I moved away into on my own two feet. Now so many years and technologies later, news in my world is not watched, nor since 2016 is it listened to in my home. . .News went away with Walter, and analog TV really.
Thanks to Douglas Brinkley, who has provided this biography of Walter Cronkite, we get to have some of his backstory and his career before we got to see him occupy his desk as if it was a protective satellite watching over us all, and today's latest happenings brought to us with a sober yet neutral Good Evening, this is the CBS Evening News. He'd give us what our government wouldn't, and often what our local authorities wouldn't either. . .what was REALLY happening out there. Then his sign off given in the same way from 1962 to his very last one: And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good Night.
Brinkley has provided a very thorough narrative of Cronkite's life, but he does pick and choose on the dicey bits. WC was known to be sensitive and have issues with some of the journalists he worked with. Brinkley acknowledges but doesn't explore or go further - and frankly, I didn't mind. It's not my area of interest and my indifference might be replaced with a deeper curiosity if that interest leaned in different directions.
Walter Cronkite was a family member to me in a way. . .as he probably is with many of a certain age. My own children and grands? Sadly there is no one even slightly like WC in their lives. No one voice helping to focus the world's daily happenings into an evening together in the living room. Their lives are informed by a million voices from the apps on their phones in their hands in their rooms or wherever they are. We learn of things immediately rather than at the usual TV news time or news breaking headlines in emergencies. The many voices dilute, shatter and disseminate messages that may or may not be true. . .but then, that has always been the case, I suppose I'm missing the "trusted voice" aspect of Walter Cronkite....more
Having enjoyed Audrey Blake's previous books, I was excited to see this new offering from the talented author. . . .and I wasn't disappointed.
Set in tHaving enjoyed Audrey Blake's previous books, I was excited to see this new offering from the talented author. . . .and I wasn't disappointed.
Set in the middle of the horrors of WWII in Britain - a country hanging on by the skins of its people, Yvonne Rudellat (based on an actual woman) had given up. Her family circle had moved away and left her abandoned. Her thoughts were dark and suicidal, when she turned on her heel and presented herself for duty. As a spy. One that would most likely - 99% likely - not survive. It fit her desired trajectory - and if she could save someone, something on the way, and prove to the world she wasn't just a little old throw-away lady - she was 110% in.
This is a story well-told, and the thoughtful reader feels the foundation of all those unknown, unnamed women (and men) whose sacrifices we'll never uncover (yet upon whose gifts of life we walk every day) through the threads of the story and adventures shared. There is an underlying urge to read on, to acknowledge the debt owed to those like Yvonne. Lives lived, deaths offered, torturous prices paid for the years we've enjoyed the freedoms they made possible.
Another great book from Ms. Blake. Looking forward to the next one!
*A sincere thank you to Audrey Blake, RB Media, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #TheWomanwithNoName #NetGalley...more
I must admit my bias. I'm a Frances Perkins fan. I try every Labor day to read a book by her, about her, or something related to her causes.
There is nI must admit my bias. I'm a Frances Perkins fan. I try every Labor day to read a book by her, about her, or something related to her causes.
There is not one citizen in America whose life has not been significantly shaped by her ideas. Not one. Yet most couldn't tell you who she was or what she did. It's clear we DON'T have enough books about her. . . .Ruth Cashin Monsell's book is well written and well-aimed at the YA group. It is accessible reading, although working up an interest in worker's rights among children who never had to work in factories, or youth who see education as a have-to imposed by elders. . .is well, a challenge. Still, that's a lovely problem to have. All those hard-won privileges moved into the expectation category.
Kudos to the writer, publishers and to dear Frances herself. Read about her. Libraries and schools - make sure there are books about this woman in YOUR library - and this one here? Would be a great place to start. The issues discussed in this book are not all fixed. They are with us today, being updated with new needs and we need the Franceses of today to think their big thoughts and hoist their flags.
*A sincere thank you to Ruth Cashin Monsell, Independent Publishers Group and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*...more
One of my favorite reads this year! Couldn't stop picking it up to find out what happened next. . .work be damned! to hell with the laundry!
ShelterOne of my favorite reads this year! Couldn't stop picking it up to find out what happened next. . .work be damned! to hell with the laundry!
Shelterwood weaves the life stories of Olive Radley, a fiesty 11-year old (1909) and a park ranger looking for new experiences Valerie Boren-Odell. Both stories swirl around the Horsethief Springs Trail National Park, where one traverses Cedar Lake environs, including the atmospheric Winding Stair Mountain. The story stuck to my heart a little more every time I read.
I'm a family history sort of girl, and soon it came to me why this was feeling uncomfortably close to my sensitivities. . .my gr-gr-grandfather, born in MO, ran in that race for homesteads on the land that would become Oklahoma, and was a person of some means and authority a very close 51 miles from the Winding Stair Mountain. This read had just become personal, and it still is.
The author's notes at the books end pointed me in the direction of Angie Debo books for further information, which I've now been gathering - was delighted to find I've read a few of them in my youth.
All the stars for Shelterwood, and Lisa Wingate!
*A sincere thank you to Lisa Wingate, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #Shelterwood #NetGalley...more
Astounding. Exactly as the NY Times stated - The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a brilliant, painful and important book.
What carried the deepest iAstounding. Exactly as the NY Times stated - The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a brilliant, painful and important book.
What carried the deepest import to me was the resounding testimony of his time, his experience, his witness of all that happened in his life and those of his ancestors - all that weighty black history that never made it to a page in a white world. He is making sure and certain that the truths he carries forward DO make it to ears that will hear and hearts that are open. He WILL be heard.
And, he did it with courage and the sure knowledge that he'd be giving his life for that truth-telling.
I will be thinking of this testimony for the rest of my days, and forever wondering what part of my privileges, liberties and freedoms were bought at the cost of his. From there the sorrow and confusion flow with the ponder on how that answer turns into remediation. . .somehow.
This wide-ranging tale covers many miles and is set in many places. . .Jeanne Cooper hails from Chicago, and John aka Jack McGrath also of Chicago, seThis wide-ranging tale covers many miles and is set in many places. . .Jeanne Cooper hails from Chicago, and John aka Jack McGrath also of Chicago, settles in Los Angeles for a time, to finally land in Italy. For me this was a love story with a big dose of politics, journalism and the international collaboration that resulted in the state of Israel.
It was enough to put in to a couple of books, but the part that had me was the persistence of the love between the two main characters - which was a surprise to me, as romance is rarely my first focus. In my choice of this read, my interest was in the Palestinian / Israel historical treatment, but soon lost my way through those parts, coming to firmer ground (the universality of love) at the end.
*A sincere thank you to Scott Lord, Greenleaf Book Group, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*...more
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