en-US Fri, 10 Jan 2025 12:36:24 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 17087896 178 David Rusk 1938027035 Katie 0 to-read 3.89 1993
author: David Rusk
name: Katie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1993
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]]> 305826
"In order for all women to have real choices all along the line," Adrienne Rich writes, "we need fully to understand the power and powerlessness embodied in motherhood in patriarchal culture." Rich's investigation, in this influential and landmark book, concerns both experience and institution. The experience is her own - as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother - but it is an experience determined by the institution, imposed in its many variations on all women everywhere. She draws on personal materials, history, research, and literature to create a document of universal importance.

One of our most distinguished poets, ADRIENNE RICH was born in Baltimore in 1929. Over the last forty years she has published more than seventeen volumes of poetry and five books of nonfiction prose, including Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations; On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Blood, Bread, and Poetry; and What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics. She has received numerous awards, including the Ruth Lilly Prize, the Lambda Book Award, the National Book Award, and the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in California.]]> 322 Adrienne Rich 0393312844 Katie 0 to-read 4.23
author: Adrienne Rich
name: Katie
average rating: 4.23
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]]> 14361179 We all find ourselves in situations similar to these, and too often resort to the same old patterns of behavior - defending our need to be right, refusing to really listen, speaking cruelly out of anger and frustration, or worse. But there is another way. Living Nonviolent Communication gives readers practical training in applying Dr. Marshall Rosenberg's renonwned process in the areas he has been most often asked for counsel.]]> 192 Marshall B. Rosenberg 1604077875 Katie 0 to-read 4.24 1999
author: Marshall B. Rosenberg
name: Katie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
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date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> 59366237
On the eve of Edafe Okporo’s twenty-sixth birthday, he was awoken by a violent mob outside his window in Abuja, Nigeria. The mob threatened his life after discovering the secret Edafe had been hiding for years—that he is a gay man. Left with no other choice, he purchased a one-way plane ticket to New York City and fled for his life. Though America had always been painted to him as a land of freedom and opportunity, it was anything but when he arrived just days before the tumultuous 2016 Presidential Election.

Edafe would go on to spend the next six months at an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. After navigating the confusing, often draconian, US immigration and legal system, he was finally granted asylum. But he would soon realize that America is exceptionally good at keeping people locked up but is seriously lacking in integrating freed refugees into society.

Asylum is Edafe’s “powerful, eye-opening�� (Dr. Eric Cervini, New York Times bestselling author of The Deviant’s War ) memoir and manifesto, which documents his experiences growing up gay in Nigeria, fleeing to America, navigating the immigration system, and making a life for himself as a Black, gay immigrant. Alongside his personal story is a blaring call to action—not only for immigration reform but for a just immigration system for refugees everywhere. This book imagines a future where immigrants and asylees are treated with fairness, transparency, and compassion. It aims to help us understand that home is not just where you feel safe and welcome but also how you can make it feel safe and welcome for others.]]> 224 Edafe Okporo 1982183748 Katie 0 to-read 4.28
author: Edafe Okporo
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]]> 146476106
Caitlin Flanagan’s two decades of celebrated reporting and commentary at The Atlantic span an array of subjects―from cancer to fraternities, abortion to scammers―but always return to one central What happens when we suppress our critical instincts and shut our ears to opposing opinions and competing facts? With poise, humor, and an analytical acumen unlike any other working journalist, this collection of deep reporting and cultural commentary encourages readers to dismantle their echo chambers―whether they be social media feeds or lecture halls―and embrace disagreement.]]> 160 Caitlin Flanagan 1638931402 Katie 0 to-read 3.72
author: Caitlin Flanagan
name: Katie
average rating: 3.72
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]]> 146476062
A collection of essays on musicians, celebrities, and aesthetic movements and moments that, taken together, characterize the often used, yet widely misunderstood term diva . With keen insight and genuine enthusiasm, On Divas offers readers an original understanding of an age-old phenomenon by drawing together figures as diverse as Beyoncé, Björk, and Donald Trump.]]> 144 Spencer Kornhaber 1638931135 Katie 0 to-read 3.65
author: Spencer Kornhaber
name: Katie
average rating: 3.65
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]]> 58667392
It’s an admission, she writes, that usually causes people’s pupils to dilate, their cheeks to flush, and their questions to start flowing. Ask people to name famous bisexual actors, politicians, writers, or scientists, and they draw a blank. Despite statistics that show bisexuality is more common than homosexuality, bisexuality is often invisible.

In BI: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw probes the science and culture of attraction beyond the binary. From the invention of heterosexuality to the history of the Kinsey scale, as well as asylum seekers trying to defend their bisexuality in a court of law, there is so much more to explore than most have ever realized. Drawing on her own original research—and her own experiences—this is a personal and scientific manifesto; it’s an exploration of the complexities of the human sexual experience and a declaration of love and respect for the nonconformists among us.]]> 240 Julia Shaw 1419744356 Katie 0 currently-reading 4.12 2022
author: Julia Shaw
name: Katie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
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]]> 91950 The Myth of Sisyphus transformed twentieth-century philosophy with its impassioned argument for the value of life in a world without religious meaning.]]> 192 Albert Camus 0141182008 Katie 0 currently-reading 4.25 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Katie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
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]]> 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band �� and meeting the man who would become her husband �� her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Katie 4 4.25 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Katie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/04
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]]> 127282474
What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and live their lives accordingly?

Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the shared “theology of struggle�� that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century—and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths

Ranging from ancient rabbis and Maimonides to contemporary revisers of the faith, from messianic expectations to the old teaching that there is no such thing as a “bad Jew,�� Feldman’s book offers a novel view of the rewards and dilemmas of contemporary Jewish life.]]> 416 Noah Feldman 0374298343 Katie 0 to-read 4.15
author: Noah Feldman
name: Katie
average rating: 4.15
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]]> 11038 Henry and June spans a single year in Nin's life when she discovers love and torment in one insatiable couple. From late 1931 to the end of 1932, Nin falls in love with Henry Miller's writing and his wife June's striking beauty. When June leaves Paris for New York, Henry and Anaïs begin a fiery affair that liberates her sexually and morally, but also undermines her marriage and eventually leads her into psychoanalysis. As she grapples with her own conscience, a single question dominates her thoughts: What will happen when June returns to Paris? An intimate account of one woman's sexual awakening, Henry and June exposes the pain and pleasure felt by a single person trapped between two loves.]]> 274 Anaïs Nin 015640057X Katie 0 to-read 3.97 1986
author: Anaïs Nin
name: Katie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1986
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]]> 126771423 216 Ashwini Bhatnagar 9354407579 Katie 0 to-read 4.33
author: Ashwini Bhatnagar
name: Katie
average rating: 4.33
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]]> 53241064
Luckily, Quique’s prospects are each intriguing in their own ways. There’s stoner-jock Tyler Montana, who might be just as interested in Fabiola as he is in Quique; straight-laced senior class president, Ziggy Jackson; and Manny Zuniga, who keeps looking at Quique like he’s carne asada fresh off the grill. With all these choices, Quique is sure to forget about Saleem in no time.

But as the summer heats up and his deep-seated fears and anxieties boil over, Quique soon realizes that getting over one guy by getting under a bunch of others may not have been the best laid plan and living his truth can come at a high cost.]]> 390 Aaron H. Aceves 1534485651 Katie 0 to-read 4.04 2022
author: Aaron H. Aceves
name: Katie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
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]]> 60097799 From a writer who is always "razor sharp and furiously good" (Zadie Smith), a darkly comic political parable braided with a Bildungsroman that takes us inside the heart of a divided country.

The Big Guy loves his family, money and country. Undone by the results of the 2008 presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American Dream. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family. His wife, Charlotte, grieves a life not lived, while his 18-year-old daughter, Meghan, begins to realize that her favorite subject--history--is not exactly what her father taught her.

In a story that is as much about the dynamics within a family as it is about the desire for those in power to remain in power, Homes presciently unpacks a dangerous rift in American identity, prompting a reconsideration of the definition of truth, freedom and democracy--and exploring the explosive consequences of what happens when the same words mean such different things to people living together under one roof.

In her first novel since the Women's Prize award-winning May We Be Forgiven, A.M. Homes delivers us back to ourselves in this stunning alternative history that is both terrifyingly prescient, deeply tender and devastatingly funny.
]]> 416 A.M. Homes 0735225354 Katie 0 to-read 3.32 2022
author: A.M. Homes
name: Katie
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 891671
Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: a traumatized veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old school friend Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game �� and surrounded by memories.

Meanwhile Sandy's girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged in a secret mission of her own �� to find her former lover Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the International Brigades, who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama.]]> 549 C.J. Sansom 0330411985 Katie 0 to-read 3.84 2006
author: C.J. Sansom
name: Katie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver Katie 0 to-read 4.46 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Katie
average rating: 4.46
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]]> 36885304 Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. Chopin’s heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller’s answer.

Here I am --
World in your head --
Your head in the world --
Syndrome --
Cabinet of curiosities --
Seeing is knowing --
Seven years of trips --
Guidance from Cioran --
Kunicki: water (I) --
Benedictus, quivenit]]> 416 Olga Tokarczuk 0525534199 Katie 0 to-read 3.73 2007
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: Katie
average rating: 3.73
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]]> 78130090 An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want

Kathleen Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl�� and “Double Dare Ya�� are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul­tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band�� in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful—and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.]]> 326 Kathleen Hanna 0062825232 Katie 0 to-read 4.40 2024
author: Kathleen Hanna
name: Katie
average rating: 4.40
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]]> 53237434 An NPR Best Book of the Year, exploring the impact of Latinos' new collective racial identity on the way Americans understand race, with a new afterword by the author

Latinos will comprise a third of the American population in just a matter of decades, but many Americans still struggle with two basic questions: Who are Latinos, and where do they fit in America's racial order? In this timely and important examination of Latinx identity Laura E. Gómez, a leading critical-race scholar, argues that it is only recently that Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans, and others are seeing themselves (and being seen by others) under the banner of a cohesive racial identity. And the catalyst for this emergent identity, she argues, has been the ferocity of anti-Latino racism.]]> 336 Laura E. Gómez 1595589171 Katie 0 to-read 4.18 2020
author: Laura E. Gómez
name: Katie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
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]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.�� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood�� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood�� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood�� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems�� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Katie 0 to-read 4.36 2024
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Katie
average rating: 4.36
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]]> 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Katie 0 to-read 3.94 2013
author: Donna Tartt
name: Katie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/19
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]]> 280412 496 Jeffrey Toobin 0684842785 Katie 0 to-read 4.21 1996
author: Jeffrey Toobin
name: Katie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/18
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]]> 41109404 A cybersecurity expert and former FBI "ghost" tells the thrilling story of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, the first Russian cyber spy.

"Both a real-life, tension-packed thriller and a persuasive argument for traditional intelligence work in the information age."--Bruce Schneier, New York Times bestselling author of Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Everybody

Eric O'Neill was only twenty-six when he was tapped for the case of a lifetime: a one-on-one undercover investigation of the FBI's top target, a man suspected of spying for the Russians for nearly two decades, giving up nuclear secrets, compromising intelligence, and betraying US assets. With zero training in face-to-face investigation, O'Neill found himself in a windowless, high-security office in the newly formed Information Assurance Section, tasked officially with helping the FBI secure its outdated computer system against hackers and spies--and unofficially with collecting evidence against his new boss, Robert Hanssen, an exacting and rage-prone veteran agent with a fondness for handguns. In the months that follow, O'Neill's self-esteem and young marriage unravel under the pressure of life in Room 9930, and he questions the very purpose of his mission. But as Hanssen outmaneuvers an intelligence community struggling to keep up with the new reality of cybersecurity, he also teaches O'Neill the game of spycraft. The student will just have to learn to outplay his teacher if he wants to win.

A tension-packed stew of power, paranoia, and psychological manipulation, Gray Day is also a cautionary tale of how the United States allowed Russia to become dominant in cyberespionage--and how we might begin to catch up.]]> 304 Eric O'Neill 0525573526 Katie 0 to-read 4.00 2019
author: Eric O'Neill
name: Katie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
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]]> 13552159
For over a decade, Chris held on to the only personal thing he had left from his late wife: the touching and sometimes painful memories of their very private bond. Now, for the first time, Chris opens up about their unbreakable friendship, forbidden relationship, and blossoming marriage, which were cut short by Selena’s unforgivable death.

Chris’s powerful story gives a rare glimpse into Selena’s sincerity and vulnerability when falling in love, strength and conviction when fighting for that love, and absolute resilience when finding peace and normalcy with her family’s acceptance of the only man she called her husband. While showcasing a side of Selena that has never been disclosed before and clarifying certain misconceptions about her life and death, To Selena, with Love is an everlasting love story that immortalizes the heart and soul of an extraordinary, unforgettable, and irreplaceable icon.]]> 304 Chris Pérez Katie 0 to-read 4.64 2012
author: Chris Pérez
name: Katie
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/17
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]]> 2705879 344 Larry M. Bartels 0691136637 Katie 0 to-read 3.89 2008
author: Larry M. Bartels
name: Katie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/17
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]]> 157981711 A manifesto on the gender politics of marriage (bad) and divorce (actually pretty good!) in America today, and an argument that the former needs a reboot

Studies show that nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women—women who are tired, fed up, exhausted, and unhappy. Journalist Lyz Lenz is one such woman whose life fell apart after she reached a breaking point in her twelve-year marriage. In this exuberant and unapologetic book, Lenz flips the script on that narrative and preaches the good gospel of the power of divorce.

The end of a marriage is often seen as the failure of the individual—most often the woman. We've all seen how media portray divorced women: sad, lonely, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of wine, desperate for a new man. It’s as though they did something wrong, so they’ve been cast out from society. Lenz sees divorce as a practical and powerful solution for women to take back the power they are owed, while examining why we call divorce a failure when it's heterosexual marriage that has been flawed all along. How can women succeed in marriage when most relationships are based on inequality?

This book weaves reportage with sociological research, literature with popular culture, and personal stories of coming together and breaking up to create a kaleidoscopic and poignant portrait of American marriage today. Lenz argues that the mechanisms of American power, justice, love, and gender equality remain deeply flawed, and that marriage, like any other cultural institution, is due for a reckoning. Unlike any other book about divorce, this raucous manifesto for acceptance, solidarity, and collective female refusal takes readers on a riveting ride—all while pointing us toward something a little freer.]]> 288 Lyz Lenz 0593241126 Katie 0 to-read 3.92 2024
author: Lyz Lenz
name: Katie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/14
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]]> 13642929 The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.

Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother. But it was when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized she must ultimately depend on herself. ��She would learn to give herself the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a path to a different life. With only television characters for her professional role models, and little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from valedictorian of her high school class to the highest honors at Princeton, Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney’s office, private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court before the age of forty. Along the way we see how she was shaped by her invaluable mentors, a failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has created from cherished friends and their children. Through her still-astonished eyes, America’s infinite possibilities are envisioned anew in this warm and honest book, destined to become a classic of self-invention and self-discovery.

]]> 302 Sonia Sotomayor 0307594882 Katie 0 to-read 4.06 2013
author: Sonia Sotomayor
name: Katie
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/12
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]]> 176443264 Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant�� first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.

“Magical thinking�� can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.

In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect�� cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy�� can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.]]> 259 Amanda Montell 1668007975 Katie 0 to-read 3.45 2024
author: Amanda Montell
name: Katie
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
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]]> 35099638 He was shot by mistake, and yet no one was willing to take responsibility for it. How do you pick up the pieces of your life as a young black man when society and the legal system let you down?
NO JUSTICE is the harrowing story of Robbie Tolan, who early on one New Year's Eve morning, found himself being rushed to the hospital. A white police officer had shot him in the chest after mistakenly accusing him of stealing his own car...while in his own driveway.
In a journey that took nearly a decade, Tolan and his family saw his case go before the United States Supreme Court in a groundbreaking decision, while Tolan struggled with how to put his life back together. Holding him together through this journey was the strength of his mother and father, his faith in God, and an impenetrable belief that he deserved justice like any other American who'd been wronged.
NO JUSTICE is the story about what happened after the cameras and social media protests went away. Robbie Tolan was left with the physical and mental devastation from having his body violated by someone who was supposed to serve and protect him. His story reminds us that police brutality is not a theoretical talking point in a larger nationwide argument. This story is about Robbie Tolan courageously picking up the pieces of his life, even as he fights for justice for all.]]> 272 Robbie Tolan 1478976659 Katie 0 to-read 4.11 2018
author: Robbie Tolan
name: Katie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/08
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]]> 57621445
The book draws on a variety of sources to explain how border issues intersect and how the current situation, while made worse under the Trump administration, is in fact the result of decades of prohibition, crackdowns, and wall building on the border. Davidson addresses subjects such as violence in Mexico, particularly against the press; cross-border gun smuggling and legal gun sales; the rise in migrant detentions, deportations, and deaths since the crackdown began; controversy over humanitarian aid in the desert; border patrol crimes and abuses; and the legal, ethical, and moral issues raised by increased police presence and militarization on the border. The book also looks at the environmental impact of wall building and construction of a planned copper mine near Tucson, especially on the jaguar and other endangered species.

Davidson shares the history of sanctuary and argues that this social movement and others that have originated on the border are vanguards of larger global movements against the mistreatment of migrant workers and refugees, police brutality, and other abuses of human and natural rights. She gives concrete examples of positive ways in which border people are promoting local culture and cross-border solidarity through health care, commerce, food, art, and music. While death and suffering continue to occur, The Beloved Border shows us how the U.S.-Mexico border could be, and in many ways already is, a model for peaceful coexistence worldwide.]]> 312 Miriam Davidson 0816542163 Katie 0 to-read 5.00
author: Miriam Davidson
name: Katie
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/03
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]]> 10111880 224 Kenneth L. Marcus 0521127459 Katie 0 to-read 3.50 2010
author: Kenneth L. Marcus
name: Katie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/25
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]]> 35396996 176 Iris Apfel 006240508X Katie 0 to-read 4.24 2018
author: Iris Apfel
name: Katie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/25
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]]> 35733982
Benjamin Netanyahu was born a year after Israel. His story in many ways embodies that of the ideological underdogs of the Zionist members of the right-wing Revisionist movement, the religious, the Mizrahi Jews who emigrated from Arab lands, the petit-bourgeoisie of the new towns and cities, who all were supposed to metamorphose into the new Israeli. It hasn't quite worked out that way.
�������� Netanyahu is also a child of America. He is in large part the product of the affluent East Coast Jewish community and of the generation that came of age in the Reagan era. He was formed as much by American Cold War conservatism as he was by his historian father's hardline right-wing Zionism.
�������� It is impossible to understand today's Israel without understanding this singular person's life. Netanyahu's Israel is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope, tribalism and globalism--like the man himself.
�������� In the face of animus at home and abroad, Netanyahu has survived political defeat and personal setback. For many in Israel and overseas, Netanyahu is an anathema, an embarrassment, even a precursor of Donald Trump. But he continues to dominate Israeli public life and the Jewish narrative of the twenty-first century. As Israel approaches the seventieth anniversary of its birth, this one man more than any other embodies the nation and directs its fate.]]> 286 Anshel Pfeffer 0771072953 Katie 0 to-read 4.13
author: Anshel Pfeffer
name: Katie
average rating: 4.13
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]]> 142350748
In the fevered battles over immigration, Democrats and Republicans alike agree on that migrants who have committed a crime have no place in this country. Yet time and again, it has been shown that targeting migrants because they have committed a crime is a short-sighted appeal to nativist fear. To predicate a migrant’s right to stay in the country on whether they are law-abiding and therefore deserving or “criminal�� and undeserving does little to improve public safety and has an especially devastating impact on low-income migrants of color. While César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández’s first book, Migrating to Prison , focuses on the explosion of migrant detention centers over the past decades, Welcome the Wretched tackles head-on what happens when a deeply flawed and racist criminal legal system and immigration system converge to senselessly cruel effect. Drawing on everything from history to legal analyses and philosophy, García Hernández counters the fundamental assumption that criminal activity has a rightful place in immigration matters, arguing that instead of using the criminal legal system to identify people to deport, the United States should place a reimagined sense of citizenship and solidarity at the center of immigration policy.]]> 288 1620977796 Katie 0 to-read 4.26
author: César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández
name: Katie
average rating: 4.26
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]]> 25596717
Contributors include economists Lee Reynis and Jim Peach, education policy expert Veronica García, health and health care specialist Nandini Pillai Kuehn, political scientists Gabriel Sánchez and Shannon Sánchez-Youngblood, Native American scholar Veronica Tiller, icon of New Mexico cultural affairs and the arts V. B. Price, authorities on water and the environment Laura Paskus and Adrian Oglesby, planning specialist Aaron Sussman, and inaugural Albuquerque poet laureate Hakim Bellamy.]]> 344 Fred Harris 0826355552 Katie 0 to-read 3.80 2015
author: Fred Harris
name: Katie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 18970691 312 Dede Feldman 0826354386 Katie 0 to-read 4.17 2014
author: Dede Feldman
name: Katie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 33509092 The first half of this (1) Explains the differences among introversion, shyness, and social anxiety and how each can manifest in the legal context. (2) Explores the impact on quiet individuals of the push toward extroversion in law school and law practice. (3) Highlights greatly valued proficiencies that quiet individuals offer the legal profession through nurturing instead of repressing innate strengths.
Further, to help quiet law students and lawyers become authentically powerful advocates, the second half of this book outlines a practical seven-step process to empower introverted, shy, and socially anxious individuals to amplify their voices without compromising their quiet assets. With increased self-awareness and a holistic approach, and buoyed by collaboratively compassionate and motivating professors and law office mentors, introverted, shy, and socially anxious law students and lawyers will transform the legal profession.]]> 304 Heidi K. Brown 1634257723 Katie 0 to-read 4.14 2017
author: Heidi K. Brown
name: Katie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 1145638 344 Matthew Frye Jacobson 0520233425 Katie 0 to-read 3.58 1995
author: Matthew Frye Jacobson
name: Katie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 106762 231 Vincent Barrett Price 0826330975 Katie 0 to-read 3.74 2003
author: Vincent Barrett Price
name: Katie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 7665 377 Michael Crichton 0060509058 Katie 0 to-read 3.94 1988
author: Michael Crichton
name: Katie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> 18723456
��Following a crushing defeat in World War II,��Japan rose like a phoenix from the literal ashes to become a model of modernity and success, for decades Asia’s premier economic giant. Yet it remains a nation hobbled by rigid gender roles, protectionist policies, and a defensive, inflexible corporate system that has helped bring about political and economic stagnation. The unique social cohesion that enabled Japan to cope with adversity and develop swiftly has also encouraged isolationism, given rise to an arrogant and inflexible bureaucracy, and prevented the country from addressing difficult issues. Its culture of hard work—in fact, overwork—is legendary, but a declining population and restrictions on opportunity threaten the nation’s future.
��
Keiko Hirata and Mark Warschauer have combined thoroughly researched deep analysis with engaging anecdotal material in this enlightening portrait of modern-day Japan, creating an honest and accessible critique that addresses issues from the economy and politics to immigration, education, and the increasing alienation of Japanese youth.��]]> 304 Keiko Hirata 030018607X Katie 0 to-read 3.95 2014
author: Keiko Hirata
name: Katie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2014
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]]> 119932 A story born out of the tensions between Jewish and Arab Israelis, the debut novel by twenty-eight-year-old Arab-Israeli Sayed Kashua has been praised around the world for its honesty, irony, humor, and its uniquely human portrayal of a young man who moves between two societies, becoming a stranger to both.

Kashua’s nameless antihero has big shoes to fill, having grown up with the myth of a grandfather who died fighting the Zionists in 1948, and with a father who was jailed for blowing up a school cafeteria in the name of freedom. When he is granted a scholarship to an elite Jewish boarding school, his family rejoices, dreaming that he will grow up to be the first Arab to build an atom bomb. But to their dismay, he turns out to be a coward devoid of any national pride; his only ambition is to fit in with his Jewish peers who reject him. He changes his clothes, his accent, his eating habits, and becomes an expert at faking identities, sliding between different cultures, different schools, different languages, and eventually a Jewish lover and an Arab wife.

With refreshing candor and self-deprecating wit, Kashua brings us a protagonist whose greatest accomplishment is his ability to disappear. In a land where personal and national identities are synonymous, Dancing Arabs brilliantly maps one man’s struggle to disentangle the two, only to tragically and inevitably forfeit both.]]> 224 Sayed Kashua 0802141269 Katie 0 to-read 3.64 2002
author: Sayed Kashua
name: Katie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2002
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]]> 43909241
Winner, 2020 Latino Book Awards Best Travel Book

Internationally renowned essayist and cultural commentator Ilan Stavans spent five years traveling from across a dozen countries in Latin America, in search of what defines the Jewish communities in the region, whose roots date back to Christopher Columbus’s arrival. In the tradition of V.S. Naipaul’s explorations of India, the Caribbean, and the Arab World, he came back with an extraordinarily vivid travelogue. Stavans talks to families of the desaparecidos in Buenos Aires, to “Indian Jews,�� and to people affiliated with neo-Nazi groups in Patagonia. He also visits Spain to understand the long-term effects of the Inquisition, the American Southwest habitat of “secret Jews,�� and Israel, where immigrants from Latin America have reshaped the Jewish state. Along the way, he looks for the proverbial “seventh heaven,�� which, according to the Talmud, out of proximity with the divine, the meaning of life in general, and Jewish life in particular, becomes clearer. The Seventh Heaven is a masterful work in Stavans’s ongoing quest to find a convergence between the personal and the historical.]]> 296 Ilan Stavans 0822945851 Katie 0 to-read 3.76 2019
author: Ilan Stavans
name: Katie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
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]]> 75496487 An overwhelmed Mom reveals the intersection between misogyny and American motherhood and tracks a path toward a more caring future.

Touched Out is a blend of memoir and cultural criticism that explores how the author's experiences with ambiguous forms of sexual assault come to resurface in early motherhood.

American women are encouraged to view marriage and motherhood as the pinnacle of success. Although Amanda Montei understood motherhood wouldn't lead automatically to fulfillment, even she found the narrative hard to resist. After giving birth--and even during pregnancy--Amanda struggled to adjust to the new demands on her physical body.

Structural conditions--the lack of paid leave, the childcare crisis, mothers as America's only social safety net--were depriving Amanda of her bodily autonomy, but without another outlet for rebellion, she found agency by rejecting intimacy with her children and husband. Amanda struggled with the physicality of caring for children, but even more with her growing awareness that the lack of bodily autonomy she felt in motherhood reiterated a feeling she had always had about her body; she had been taught to use it to please others, especially men, without necessarily considering whether she wanted to.

Amanda was not alone--she found a huge assortment of women online who described feeling "touched out" too. Women are supposed to care for and pleasure their husbands and children, and to do so by pushing their bodies to the limit, ignoring their own desires and needs. Motherhood, too, can feel like an assault. And just as we naturalize sexual violence against women, we have also come to normalize the suffering of mothers.

The author writes with a blend of emotion drawn from personal experience and power drawn from her academic background and a lifetime of engaging with feminist thinkers and writers from Chanel Miller and Kate Manne to bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Silvia Federici and Adrienne Rich. She draws a unique connection between rape culture and the bodily sacrifices women are expected to make for their children, making a powerful argument from a thoughtful and considered perspective.

Ultimately, Touched Out prescribes a path forward for caregivers to take back their bodies, pass on a language of consent, and write a new story about what it means to care in America.]]> 256 Amanda Montei 0807013277 Katie 0 to-read 4.16 2023
author: Amanda Montei
name: Katie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/26
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]]> 50646785 206 Pamela Dyson Katie 0 to-read 4.05
author: Pamela Dyson
name: Katie
average rating: 4.05
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rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> 63018248
From her struggles to unravel and leave behind the trauma of the past, Rena’s story reveals universal truths that will resound in the reader’s mind long after.]]> 282 Rena Lipiner Katz Katie 0 to-read 4.22
author: Rena Lipiner Katz
name: Katie
average rating: 4.22
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date added: 2023/09/02
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]]> 438211
A spellbinding journey between two worlds, this remarkable book describes surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord's struggles to bring modern medicine to the Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico—and to bring the values of her people to a medical care system in danger of losing its heart.

Dr. Alvord left a dusty reservation in New Mexico for Stanford University Medical School, becoming the first Navajo woman surgeon. Rising above the odds presented by her own culture and the male-dominated world of surgeons, she returned to the reservation to find a new challenge. In dramatic encounters, Dr. Alvord witnessed the power of belief to influence health, for good or for ill. She came to merge the latest breakthroughs of medical science with the ancient tribal paths to recovery and wellness, following the Navajo philosophy of a balanced and harmonious life, called Walking in Beauty. And now, in bringing these principles to the world of medicine, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear joins those few rare works, such as Healing and the Mind , whose ideas have changed medical practices-and our understanding of the world.]]> 205 Lori Arviso Alvord 0553378007 Katie 0 to-read 4.02 1999
author: Lori Arviso Alvord
name: Katie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/01
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]]> 11809246
In Bird on Fire , eminent social and cultural analyst Andrew Ross focuses on the prospects for sustainability in Phoenix--a city in the bull's eye of global warming--and also the obstacles that stand in the way. Most authors writing on sustainable cities look at places like Portland, Seattle, and New York that have excellent public transit systems and relatively high density. But Ross contends that if we can't change the game in fast-growing, low-density cities like Phoenix, the whole movement has a major problem. Drawing on interviews with 200 influential residents--from state legislators, urban planners, developers, and green business advocates to civil rights champions, energy lobbyists, solar entrepreneurs, and community activists--Ross argues that if Phoenix is ever to become sustainable, it will occur more through political and social change than through technological fixes. Ross explains how Arizona's increasingly xenophobic immigration laws, science-denying legislature, and
growth-at-all-costs business ethic have perpetuated social injustice and environmental degradation. But he also highlights the positive changes happening in Phoenix, in particular the Gila River Indian Community's successful struggle to win back its water rights, potentially shifting resources away from new housing developments to producing healthy local food for the people of the Phoenix Basin. Ross argues that this victory may serve as a new model for how green democracy can work, redressing the claims of those who have been aggrieved in a way that creates long-term benefits for all.

Bird on Fire offers a compelling take on one of the pressing issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability at a time when governments are dismally failing their responsibility to address climate change.]]> 312 Andrew Ross 0199828261 Katie 0 to-read 3.52 2011
author: Andrew Ross
name: Katie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2011
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]]> 60741785 A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home.

A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries, Kantika—“song�� in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way—a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge—her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old.

Exploring identity, place and exile, Kantika also reveals how the female body—in work, art and love—serves as a site of both suffering and joy. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel from Elizabeth Graver celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life.]]> 304 Elizabeth Graver 1250869846 Katie 0 to-read 3.96 2023
author: Elizabeth Graver
name: Katie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
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]]> 43319539 Do you feel all the feels��all the time? Are you fed up with the mainstream spiritual “love and light�� scene that calls for constant positivity, even in the face of true loss, trauma, and pain? If so, this book is for you.

I Don’t Want to Be an Empath Anymore is a gift for the jaded empath searching for authenticity in spirituality, and spirituality in being authentic—something beyond the clichéd, positive affirmations that seem to invalidate our anger, sadness, and pain. When we feel broken—and when real damage has been done, it’s not always helpful to ignore our feelings and tell ourselves that we are perfect and whole.

In this refreshingly honest guide, shamanic practitioner Ora North offers practical exercises to help you navigate your intuition and empathic sensitivities, create much-needed boundaries, and build confidence. You’ll also learn to balance your emotions and energy, and harness the strength of your shadow side to embrace your whole self and live your best life.

Like the Japanese craft known as Kintsugi—the art of repairing broken pottery using a lacquer dusted with powdered gold—the process of acknowledging and repairing our fragmented selves can make us even more beautiful than before, cracks and all. In this book, you won’t find platitudes or attempts to whitewash your experiences. What you will find are real, practical tools and guidance to help you make the most of your unique abilities.]]> 176 Ora North 1684034175 Katie 0 to-read 4.23
author: Ora North
name: Katie
average rating: 4.23
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date added: 2023/07/31
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]]> 8556291
Taking into account changing demographics and changing lifestyles, Gehl explains how to develop cities that are lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy.

The book is extensively illustrated with over 700 photos and drawings of examples from Gehl’s work around the globe.]]> 285 Jan Gehl Katie 0 to-read 4.34 2010
author: Jan Gehl
name: Katie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2010
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]]> 38474
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.]]> 448 James Baldwin 0141186372 Katie 0 to-read 4.32 1962
author: James Baldwin
name: Katie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/27
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]]> 1092698
Over the next thirty years, “Mrs. Judy�� (as she was known to the people she helped) publicly championed the cause of Syrian Jews as she secretly negotiated their escape–dealing with smugglers, bribing officials, haggling over travel documents, arranging medical aid, and funnelling money to those in need, even to those in prison.

The Rescuer is the intensely dramatic story of the heroic and deeply humanitarian actions of one seemingly ordinary woman, a compelling glimpse into the workings of one Islamic regime, and a testament to the difference that one individual’s actions can have on the lives of thousands.]]> 296 Harold Troper 0978176537 Katie 0 to-read 3.67 2007
author: Harold Troper
name: Katie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/26
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]]> 614198 What's wrong with being a people pleaser? Plenty!

People pleasers are not just nice people who go overboard trying to make everyone happy. Those who suffer from the Disease to Please are people who say "Yes" when they really want to say "No." For them, the uncontrollable need for the elusive approval of others is an addiction. Their debilitating fears of anger and confrontation force them to use "niceness" and "people-pleasing" as self-defense camouflage.

Featured on NBC's "Today," The Disease to Please explodes the dangerous myth that "people pleasing" is a benign problem. Best-selling author and frequent Oprah guest Dr. Harriet Braiker offers clear, positive, practical, and easily do-able steps toward recovery.

Begin with a simple but revealing quiz to discover what type of people-pleaser you are. Then learn how making even small changes to any single portion of the Disease to Please Triangle - involving your thoughts, feelings, and behavior - will cause a dramatic, positive and long-lasting change to the overall syndrome.

As a recovered peoplepleaser, you will finally see that a balanced way of living that takes others into consideration but puts the emphasis first on pleasing yourself and gaining your own approval is the clearest path to health and happiness.]]> 285 Harriet B. Braiker 0071385649 Katie 0 to-read 3.85 2000
author: Harriet B. Braiker
name: Katie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/06
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]]> 55338982
What makes “cults�� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.�� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,�� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish�� everywhere.]]> 309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Katie 0 to-read 3.82 2021
author: Amanda Montell
name: Katie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/03
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]]> 61685819 An acclaimed journalist tries to understand how she escaped her small-town in Arkansas while her brilliant friend could not, and, in the process, illuminates the unemployment, drug abuse, sexism and evangelicalism killing poor, rural white women all over America.

Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their declining town and tumultuous family lives--broken marriages, alcohol abuse, and shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their middle school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not.

Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had steeply declined--the sharpest such fall in a century. She returned to Clinton to report the story, trying to understand the societal factors driving the disturbing trends in the rural south. As she reconnects with Darci, she finds that her once talented and ambitious best friend is now a statistic: a single mother of two, addicted to meth and prescription drugs, jobless and nearly homeless. Painfully aware that Darci's fate could have been hers, she retraces the moments of decision and chance in each of their lives that led such similar women toward two such different destinies.]]> 258 Monica Potts 0525519912 Katie 0 to-read 3.85 2023
author: Monica Potts
name: Katie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/29
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]]> 45882
Writing in a lyrical mixture of Spanish and English that is her unique heritage, she meditates on the condition of Chicanos in Anglo culture, women in Hispanic culture, and lesbians in the straight world. Her essays and poems range over broad territory, moving from the plight of undocumented migrant workers to memories of her grandmother, from Aztec religion to the agony of writing.

Anzaldua is a rebellious and willful talent who recognizes that life on the border, "life in the shadows," is vital territory for both literature and civilization. Venting her anger on all oppressors of people who are culturally or sexually different, the author has produced a powerful document that belongs in all collections with emphasis on Hispanic American or feminist issues.]]> 260 Gloria E. Anzaldúa 1879960575 Katie 0 to-read 4.33 1987
author: Gloria E. Anzaldúa
name: Katie
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62068917
An immersive historical tale spanning the life stories of three women, The Woman Beyond the Sea traces the paths of a daughter, mother, and grandmother who lead entirely separate lives, until finally their stories and their hearts are joined together.

Eliya thinks that she’s finally found true love and passion with her charismatic and demanding husband, an aspiring novelist—until he ends their relationship in a Paris café, spurring her suicide attempt. Seeking to heal herself, Eliya is compelled to piece together the jagged shards of her life and history.

Eliya’s heart-wrenching journey leads her to a profound and unexpected love, renewed family ties, and a reconciliation with her orphaned mother, Lily. Together, the two women embark on a quest to discover the truth about themselves and Lily’s own origins…and the unknown woman who set their stories in motion one Christmas Eve.]]> 413 Sarit Yishai-Levi 1542037565 Katie 0 to-read 4.07 2019
author: Sarit Yishai-Levi
name: Katie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> 26114648 The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is a dazzling novel of mothers and daughters, stories told and untold, and the binds that tie four generations of women.

Gabriela's mother Luna is the most beautiful woman in all of Jerusalem, though her famed beauty and charm seem to be reserved for everyone but her daughter. Ever since Gabriela can remember, she and Luna have struggled to connect. But when tragedy strikes, Gabriela senses there's more to her mother than painted nails and lips.

Desperate to understand their relationship, Gabriela pieces together the stories of her family's previous generations—from Great-Grandmother Mercada the renowned healer, to Grandma Rosa who cleaned houses for the English, to Luna who had the nicest legs in Jerusalem. But as she uncovers shocking secrets, forbidden romances, and the family curse that links the women together, Gabriela must face a past and present far more complex than she ever imagined.

Set against the Golden Age of Hollywood, the dark days of World War II, and the swingin' '70s, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem follows generations of unforgettable women as they forge their own paths through times of dramatic change. With great humor and heart, Sarit Yishai-Levi has given us a powerful story of love and forgiveness—and the unexpected and enchanting places we find each.]]> 374 Sarit Yishai-Levi 1250078164 Katie 0 to-read 3.83 2013
author: Sarit Yishai-Levi
name: Katie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> 11812200 432 Daša Drndić 0857050222 Katie 0 to-read 4.15 2007
author: Daša Drndić
name: Katie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/12
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]]> 61897930
This is the mesmerizing story of an enigmatic life. When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse’s voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense—a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana (country, blues, folk, jazz, and gospel), the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
��
And then there was the bizarre legend about Connie Converse that had become the prevailing narrative of her life: that in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Could this have been true? Who was Connie Converse, really?
��
Supported by a dozen years of research, travel to everywhere she lived, and hundreds of extensive interviews, Fishman approaches Converse’s story as both a fan and a journalist, and expertly weaves a narrative of her life and music, and of how it has come to speak to him as both an artist and a person. Ultimately, he places her in the canon as a significant outsider artist, a missing link between a now old-fashioned kind of American music and the reflective, complex, arresting music that transformed the 1960s and music forever.����
��
But this is also a story of deeply secretive New England traditions, of a woman who fiercely strove for independence and success when the odds were against her; a story that includes suicide, mental illness, statistics, siblings, oil paintings, acoustic guitars, cross-country road trips, 1950s Greenwich Village, an America marching into the Cold War, questions about sexuality, and visionary, forward thinking about race, class, and conflict. It’s a story and subject that is by turn hopeful, inspiring, melancholy, and chilling.]]> 576 Howard Fishman 0593187369 Katie 0 to-read 4.29
author: Howard Fishman
name: Katie
average rating: 4.29
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]]> 60784732 Women We Buried, Women We Burned is her own story.

Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled from school and home at age 16. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually travelling the globe.

Survival became her reporter's beat. In places like India, Tibet, and Niger, she interviewed those who had been through the unimaginable. In Cambodia, where she lived for six years, she watched a country reckon with the horrors of its own recent history. When she returned to the States with a family of her own, it was with a new perspective on old family wounds, and a chance for healing from the most unexpected place.

A piercing account of Snyder's journey from teenage runaway to reporter on the global epidemic of domestic violence, Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a memoir that embodies the transformative power of resilience.]]> 272 Rachel Louise Snyder 1635579120 Katie 0 to-read 3.90 2023
author: Rachel Louise Snyder
name: Katie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/16
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]]> 33147763 103 Kenji Yoshino Katie 0 to-read 4.42
author: Kenji Yoshino
name: Katie
average rating: 4.42
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rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/14
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]]> 61272290 A Living Now Book Awards Gold Medalist, Social Activism/Charity

A practical, shame-free guide for navigating conversations across our differences at a time of rapid social change.

In the current period of social and political unrest, conversations about identity are becoming more frequent and more difficult. On subjects like critical race theory, gender equity in the workplace, and LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms, many of us are understandably fearful of saying the wrong thing. That fear can sometimes prevent us from speaking up at all, depriving people from marginalized groups of support and stalling progress toward a more just and inclusive society.

Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, are here to show potential allies that these conversations don’t have to be so overwhelming. Through stories drawn from contexts as varied as social media posts, dinner party conversations, and workplace disputes, they offer seven user-friendly principles that teach skills such as how to avoid common conversational pitfalls, engage in respectful disagreement, offer authentic apologies, and better support people in our lives who experience bias.

Research-backed, accessible, and uplifting, Say the Right Thing charts a pathway out of cancel culture toward more meaningful and empathetic dialogue on issues of identity. It also gives us the practical tools to do good in our spheres of influence. Whether managing diverse teams at work, navigating issues of inclusion at college, or challenging biased comments at a family barbecue, Yoshino and Glasgow help us move from unconsciously hurting people to consciously helping them.]]> 230 Kenji Yoshino 1982181400 Katie 0 to-read 4.29
author: Kenji Yoshino
name: Katie
average rating: 4.29
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]]> 255301
Everyone covers. To cover is to downplay a disfavored trait so as to blend into the mainstream. Because all of us possess stigmatized attributes, we all encounter pressure to cover in our daily lives. Given its pervasiveness, we may experience this pressure to be a simple fact of social life.
Against conventional understanding, Kenji Yoshino argues that the demand to cover can pose a hidden threat to our civil rights. Though we have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability, we still routinely deny equal treatment to people who refuse to downplay differences along these lines. Racial minorities are pressed to “act white�� by changing their names, languages, or cultural practices. Women are told to “play like men�� at work. Gays are asked not to engage in public displays of same-sex affection. The devout are instructed to minimize expressions of faith, and individuals with disabilities are urged to conceal the paraphernalia that permit them to function. In a wide-ranging analysis, Yoshino demonstrates that American civil rights law has generally ignored the threat posed by these covering demands. With passion and rigor, he shows that the work of civil rights will not be complete until it attends to the harms of coerced conformity.
At the same time, Yoshino is responsive to the American exasperation with identity politics, which often seems like an endless parade of groups asking for state and social solicitude. He observes that the ubiquity of the covering demand provides an opportunity to lift civil rights into a higher, more universal register. Since we all experience the covering demand, we can all make common cause around a new civil rights paradigm based on our desire for authenticity–a desire that brings us together rather than driving us apart.
Yoshino’s argument draws deeply on his personal experiences as a gay Asian American. He follows the Romantics in his belief that if a human life is described with enough particularity, the universal will speak through it. The result is a work that combines one of the most moving memoirs written in years with a landmark manifesto on the civil rights of the future.

“This brilliantly argued and engaging book does two things at once, and it does them both astonishingly well. First, it's a finely grained memoir of young man’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality, and second, it's a powerful argument for a whole new way of thinking about civil rights and how our society deals with difference. This book challenges us all to confront our own unacknowledged biases, and it demands that we take seriously the idea that there are many different ways to be human. Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.�� -Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

“Kenji Yoshino has not only given us an important, compelling new way to understand civil rights law, a major accomplishment in itself, but with great bravery and honesty, he has forged his argument from the cauldron of his own experience. In clear, lyrical prose, Covering quite literally brings the law to life. The result is a book about our
public and private selves as convincing to the spirit as it is to the
mind.�� -Adam Haslett, author of You Are Not A Stranger Here

“Kenji Yoshino's work is often moving and always clarifying. Covering elaborates an original, arresting account of identity and authenticity in American culture.��
-Anthony Appiah, author of The Ethics of Identity and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor Of Philosophy at Princeton University

“This stunning book introduces three faces of the remarkable Kenji Yoshino: a writer of poetic beauty; a soul of rare reflectivity and decency; and a brilliant lawyer and scholar, passionately committed to uncovering human rights. Like W.E.B. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, this book fearlessly blends gripping narrative with insightful analysis to further the cause of human emancipation. And like those classics, it should explode into America's consciousness.��
-Harold Hongju Koh Dean, Yale Law School and former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights

��Covering is a magnificent work - so eloquently and powerfully written I literally could not put it down. Sweeping in breadth, brilliantly argued, and filled with insight, humor, and erudition, it offers a fundamentally new perspective on civil rights and discrimination law. This extraordinary book is many things at once: an intensely moving personal memoir; a breathtaking historical and cultural synthesis of assimilation and American equality law; an explosive new paradigm for transcending the morass of identity politics; and in parts, pure poetry. No one interested in civil rights, sexuality, discrimination - or simply human flourishing - can afford to miss it.��
-Amy Chua, author of World on Fire

“In this stunning, original book, Kenji Yoshino demonstrates that the struggle for gay rights is not only a struggle to liberate gays---it is a struggle to free all of us, straight and gay, male and female, white and black, from the pressures and temptations to cover vital aspects of ourselves and deprive ourselves and others of our full humanity. Yoshino is both poet and lawyer, and by joining an exquisitely observed personal memoir with a historical analysis of civil rights, he shows why gay rights is so controversial at present,
why “covering�� is the issue of contention, and why the “covering demand,�� universal in application, is the civil rights issue of our time. This is a beautifully written, brilliant and hopeful book, offering a new understanding of what is at stake in our fight for
human rights.��
-Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice]]> 282 Kenji Yoshino 0375760210 Katie 0 to-read 4.12 2006
author: Kenji Yoshino
name: Katie
average rating: 4.12
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]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Katie 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Katie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/08
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]]> 125763207 156 Keren R. McGinity 1032430354 Katie 0 to-read 0.0
author: Keren R. McGinity
name: Katie
average rating: 0.0
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date added: 2023/05/08
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]]> 60827550 What is “woman�� if not “mother��?
Anything she wants to be.

Foregoing motherhood has traditionally marked a woman as “other.�� With no official place setting for her in our society, she has hovered on the sidelines: the quirky girl, the neurotic career obsessive, the “eccentric�� aunt. Instead of continuing to paint women without kids as sad, self-obsessed, or somehow dysfunctional, what if we saw them as boldly forging a first-in-a-civilization vision for a fully autonomous womankind? Or as journalist and thought leader Ruby Warrington asks, What if being a woman without kids were in fact its own kind of legacy?

Taking in themes from intergenerational healing to feminism to environmentalism, this personal look and anthropological dig into a stubbornly taboo topic is a timely and brave reframing of what it means not to be a mom. Our experiences and discourse around non-motherhood are central to women’s ongoing fight for gender equality. And whether we are childless by design or circumstance, we can live without regret, shame, or compromise.

Bold and tenderhearted, Women Without Kids seeks first and foremost to help valorize a path that is the natural consequence of women having more say about the choices we make and how our lives play out. Within this, it unites the unsung sisterhood of non-mothers―no longer pariahs or misfits, but as a vital part of our evolution and collective healing as women, as humans, and as a global family.]]> 225 Ruby Warrington 1683649273 Katie 0 to-read 3.80 2023
author: Ruby Warrington
name: Katie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/26
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]]> 58999194
A pioneer of cultural psychology argues that emotions are not innate, but made as we live our lives together. “How are you feeling today?�� We may think of emotions as universal responses, felt inside, but in Between Us , acclaimed psychologist Batja Mesquita asks us to reconsider them through the lens of what they do in our relationships, both one-on-one and within larger social networks. From an outside-in perspective, readers will understand why pride in a Dutch context does not translate well to the same emotion in North Carolina, or why one’s anger at a boss does not mean the same as your anger at a partner in a close relationship. By looking outward at relationships at work, school, and home, we can better judge how our emotions will be understood, how they might change a situation, and how they change us. Brilliantly synthesizing original psychological studies and stories from peoples across time and geography, Between Us skillfully argues that acknowledging differences in emotions allows us to find common ground, humanizing and humbling us all for the better. 10 figures]]> 304 Batja Mesquita 1324002441 Katie 0 to-read 3.88 2022
author: Batja Mesquita
name: Katie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/21
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]]> 60091374 320 Emily Tamkin 006307401X Katie 0 to-read 3.91 2022
author: Emily Tamkin
name: Katie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/07
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]]> 30833 The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.]]> 472 Jane Jacobs 0375508732 Katie 0 to-read 4.30 1961
author: Jane Jacobs
name: Katie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/07
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]]> 2905978 Beginning with an examination of the concept of identity as it figures in philosophical and political thought, Gibel Azoulay moves on to consider and compare the politics and traditions of the Black and Jewish experience in America. Her inquiry draws together such diverse subjects as Plessy v. Ferguson , the Leo Frank case, "passing," intermarriage, civil rights, and anti-Semitism. The paradoxical presence of being both Black and Jewish, she argues, leads questions of identity, identity politics, and diversity in a new direction as it challenges distinct notions of whiteness and blackness. Rising above familiar notions of identity crisis and cultural confrontation, she offers new insights into the discourse of race and multiculturalism as she suggests that identity can be a more encompassing concept than is usually thought. Gibel Azoulay adds her own personal history and interviews with eight other Black and Jewish individuals to reveal various ways in which interracial identities are being lived, experienced, and understood in contemporary America.]]> 232 Katya Gibel Azoulay 0822319713 Katie 0 to-read 4.20 1997
author: Katya Gibel Azoulay
name: Katie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/06
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]]> 60651296
'Extraordinary' - Ilan Pappe

‘Formidable and timely' - Mohammed El-Kurd

Under Narendra Modi, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with its trajectory towards authoritarianism and 'Hindutva' (Hindu Nationalism), little attention has been paid to the linkages between Modi's India and the governments from which it has drawn inspiration, as well as military and technical support.

India once called Zionism racism, but, as Azad Essa argues, the state of Israel has increasingly become a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy. Looking to replicate the 'ethnic state' in the image of Israel in policy and practice, the annexation of Kashmir increasingly resembles Israel's settler-colonial project of the occupied West Bank. The ideological and political linkages between the two states are alarming; their brands of ethnonationalism are deeply intertwined.

Hostile Homelands puts India's relationship with Israel in its historical context, looking at the origins of Zionism and Hindutva; India’s changing position on Palestine; and the countries' growing military-industrial relationship from the 1990s. Lucid and persuasive, Essa demonstrates that the India-Israel alliance spells significant consequences for democracy, the rule of law, and justice worldwide.]]> 240 Azad Essa 0745345018 Katie 0 to-read 4.53
author: Azad Essa
name: Katie
average rating: 4.53
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]]> 1924322
Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative,humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.]]> 320 Ashley Rhodes-Courter 1416948066 Katie 0 to-read 4.17 2008
author: Ashley Rhodes-Courter
name: Katie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/03
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]]> 20980651
Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them and her native Detroit for New York, where she struggled to find her true voice. It was not until 1967, when a white Jewish producer insisted she return to her gospel-soul roots, that fame and fortune finally came via "Respect" and a rapidfire string of hits. She continued to evolve for decades, amidst personal tragedy, surprise Grammy performances, and career reinventions.

Again and again, Aretha stubbornly found a way to triumph over troubles, even as they continued to build. Her hold on the crown was tenacious, and in Respect , David Ritz gives us the definitive life of one of the greatest talents in all American culture.
��]]> 528 David Ritz 0316196835 Katie 0 to-read 3.81 2014
author: David Ritz
name: Katie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/29
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]]> 63524055 Standing in the Forest of Being Alive is a memoir-in-poems that reckons with erotic love even as the narrator is diagnosed and treated for breast cancer at the age of thirty-six during a time of pandemic and political upheaval. With humor and honesty, the book portrays both the pleasures and the horrors of the lover, the citizen, and the medical subject. How can we find, in the midst of hell, what isn’t hell? And whom can we tell how much we want to live? An intimate, hilarious and devastating look into some of the most private moments of a life―even if they happen to occur in a medical office with six strangers looking on. This book is for anyone who's ever asked how to live in the face of suffering, and doesn't expect an easy answer. Standing in the Forest of Being Alive looks unflinchingly at painful realities, posing the question "What isn't hell?" and finds the answer in a powerful eros, letting a loved one pull laughter out of the narrator's reluctant mouth like a "redvioletcerulean handkerchief."]]> 50 Katie Farris 1948579324 Katie 0 to-read 4.27
author: Katie Farris
name: Katie
average rating: 4.27
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rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/28
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]]> 895664 ����������������
For the first time anywhere, Aretha tells her story--the glorious triumphs as well as the heartbreaking pain. With refreshing candor, Aretha tells it like it is, the way she sees it, the way she lived it.
����������������
A child prodigy of the golden age of gospel, the daughter of a world-famous preacher, Aretha was the anointed successor to Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. But her father had a broader vision and helped Aretha enter the field of pop and jazz. By age eighteen, she was under contract to Columbia Records. Six years later, after only a few minor hits, she switched to Atlantic, where she shook the musical world to its roots. Her song "Respect" became the anthem of an epoch, a touchstone for African Americans, for women, for all people struggling to be free. Aretha became the Queen of Soul, the genre's finest interpreter since Ray Charles.
����������������
In Aretha: From These Roots, the singer gets up-close and personal. In rich detail, she paints a vivid picture of a Detroit long gone: the storefront churches, the basement parties, the explosive R&B shows. She documents her life as a single teenage mother, working to balance home life with career, coping with two challenging marriages and, later, romantic relationships that were the source of both tremendous joy and unforeseen heartache.��������
����������������
Along the way, we meet the characters who lit up her life: her charismatic father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin, "the man with the million-dollar voice"; Sam Cooke, the man of her dreams; her singing sisters, Erma and Carolyn, and her manager-brother, Cecil; her famous colleagues--Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Luther Vandross, and Luciano Pavarotti--as well as some famous rivals.
����������������
Aretha emerges as a triumphant woman of rare wit, willing to share with us her passion for great music, great food, and great love affairs. Her book does more than illuminate some of the most exciting songs ever sung; it lets you into the heart and mind of the mesmerizing woman who sang them.����]]> 272 Aretha Franklin 0375500332 Katie 0 to-read 3.15
author: Aretha Franklin
name: Katie
average rating: 3.15
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]]> 86830 242 Jennifer Traig 031601074X Katie 0 to-read 3.59 2004
author: Jennifer Traig
name: Katie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/23
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]]> 43998497 344 Yair Wallach 1503610039 Katie 0 to-read 4.40
author: Yair Wallach
name: Katie
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60740409


But when she encountered Judaism on that same campus, a spark ignited within her and refused to be put out. Judaism felt obvious, familiar. After a falling out with her biological mother and two miscarriages, she found the courage to send the most important email of her life: she asked the local Jews by Choice program to accept her as a student.



Honest and unflinching, Shannon's story of coming home to Judaism encourages everyone-- Christian, atheist, Jewish, and anything in between-- to search relentlessly for the place where they belong.]]> 302 Shannon Gonyou Katie 5 4.64
author: Shannon Gonyou
name: Katie
average rating: 4.64
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/13
date added: 2023/03/13
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]]> 60462539 Set against a changing Singapore, a sweeping novel about one boy's unique gifts and the childhood love that will complicate the fate of his community and country

Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of twentieth-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He is a gentle boy who is not much interested in fishing, preferring to spend his days playing with the neighbor girl, Siok Mei. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility--something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has come to love.

By the time they are teens, Ah Boon and Siok Mei are caught in the tragic sweep of history: the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises, grief intrudes, and the future of the fishing village is in jeopardy. As the nation hurtles toward rebirth, the two friends, newly empowered, must decide who they want to be, and what they are willing to give up.

An aching love story and powerful coming-of-age that reckons with the legacy of British colonialism, the World War II Japanese occupation, and the pursuit of modernity, The Great Reclamation confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide, literally shifting the land beneath people's feet.]]> 464 Rachel Heng 059342011X Katie 0 to-read 3.99 2023
author: Rachel Heng
name: Katie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/26
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]]> 92644 336 Dara Horn 0393329062 Katie 0 to-read 3.87 2006
author: Dara Horn
name: Katie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 61737890


But when she encountered Judaism on that same campus, a spark ignited within her and refused to be put out. Judaism felt obvious, familiar. After a falling out with her biological mother and two miscarriages, she found the courage to send the most important email of her she asked the local Jews by Choice program to accept her as a student.



Honest and unflinching, Shannon's story of coming home to Judaism encourages everyone-- Christian, atheist, Jewish, and anything in between-- to search relentlessly for the place where they belong.]]> 304 Shannon Gonyou 1957354011 Katie 5 4.62
author: Shannon Gonyou
name: Katie
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/25
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves:
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A touching, true-to-life portrayal of what it's like to find your place and purpose in this world.
]]> 61783466 The remarkable true story of how one Peruvian carpenter led hundreds of Christians to Judaism, sparking a pilgrimage from the Andes to Israel and inspiring a wave of emerging Latin American Jewish communities

“If Gabriel García Márquez had written the Old Testament, it might read like Graciela Mochkofsky’s staggering true account of a humble Peruvian carpenter’s spiritual odyssey from a shack in the Andes, via the Amazon, to the Promised Land of Israel with a community of devoted followers.�� —Judith Thurman, award-winning author of Isak Dinesen

Segundo Villanueva was born in 1927 in a tiny farming village perched in the Andes; when he was seventeen, his father was murdered and Segundo was left with little more than a Bible as his inheritance. This Bible launched Segundo on a lifelong obsession to find the true message of God contained in its pages. He found himself looking for answers outside the Catholic Church, whose hierarchy and colonial roots embodied the gaping social and racial inequities of Peruvian society.

Over years of religious study, Segundo explored various Protestant sects and founded his own religious community in the Amazon jungle before discovering a version of Judaism he pieced together independently from his readings of the Old Testament. His makeshift synagogue began to draw in crowds of fervent believers, seeking a faith that truly served their needs. Then, in a series of extraordinary events, politically motivated Israeli rabbis converted the community to Orthodox Judaism and resettled them on the West Bank. Segundo’s incredible journey made him an unlikely pioneer for a new kind of Jewish faith, one that is now attracting masses of impoverished people across Latin America.

Through detailed reporting and a deep understanding of religious and cultural history, Graciela Mochkofsky documents this unprecedented and momentous chapter in the history of modern religion. This is a moving and fascinating story of faith and the search for dignity and meaning.]]> 288 Graciela Mochkofsky 1101875186 Katie 0 to-read 3.73
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]]> 60746706 488 Andreas E. Feldmann 0367626268 Katie 0 to-read 0.0
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]]> 60625964
Ukraine's most popular comedic actor was an unlikely president of his country. And now, even more improbably, Volodymyr Zelensky has become the world's most celebrated statesman. Who is he? How did he become the international hero of our time?

Zelensky: The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero Who Defied Putin and United the World is a compelling account of this fascinating, enigmatic leader. Covering Zelensky's childhood, family history, and astonishing transformation from TV celebrity to first Jewish president of Ukraine, this audiobook tells you what you need to know about the newest star of the world stage.

No one has been more surprised by Zelensky's power to inspire and mobilize his countrymen and the world than Vladimir Putin, who expected Russia's conquest of its beleaguered neighbor to be the work of an afternoon. Outfoxed and isolated, Putin is not the first person to have underestimated the former comedian with a spine of steel.]]> 192 Chris McLeod 1684513782 Katie 2 3.07
author: Chris McLeod
name: Katie
average rating: 3.07
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rating: 2
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Two stars because of the powerful story of Zelensky, but the writing was so pedestrian and journalism so shoddy that I couldn't finish it.
]]> 22551181 218 Sara Lavner 1499379455 Katie 0 to-read 4.50 2014
author: Sara Lavner
name: Katie
average rating: 4.50
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]]> 234067 Life with Picasso, her account of those extraordinary years, is filled with intimate and astonishing revelations about the man, his work, his thoughts and his friends - Matisse, Braque, Gertrude Stein and Giacometti, among others. Francois Gilot paints a compelling portrait of her turbulent life with the temperamental (and even abusive) genius that was Picasso. As one of the few intimate witnesses to Picasso as a human being and as an artist, her account of him is invaluable for assessing him on both counts.]]> 358 Françoise Gilot 1853812331 Katie 0 to-read 4.08 1964
author: Françoise Gilot
name: Katie
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1964
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]]> 987670 My Life was written in Moscow in 1921��1922, when Chagall was thirty-five years old. Although long out-of-print, it remains one of the most extraordinarily inventive and beautifully told of all autobiographies. The text is accompanied by twenty plates which Chagall prepared especially to illustrate his life story. Together, the words and pictures paint an incomparable portrait of one of the greatest painters of this century, and of the now vanished milieu which inspired him.]]> 224 Marc Chagall 0306805715 Katie 0 to-read 4.07 1923
author: Marc Chagall
name: Katie
average rating: 4.07
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]]> 3149226
Born into near poverty in Russia in 1887, the son of a Jewish herring merchant, Chagall fled the repressive “potato-colored�� tsarist empire in 1911 for Paris. There he worked alongside Modigliani and Léger in the tumbledown tenement called La Ruche, where “one either died or came out famous.�� But turmoil lay ahead—war and revolution; a period as an improbable artistic commissar in the young Soviet Union; a difficult existence in Weimar Germany, occupied France, and eventually the United States. Throughout, as Jackie Wullschlager makes plain in this groundbreaking biography, he never ceased giving form on canvas to his dreams, longings, and memories.

His subject, more often than not, was the shtetl life of his childhood, the wooden huts and synagogues, the goatherds, rabbis, and violinists—the whole lost world of Eastern European Jewry. Wullschlager brilliantly describes this world and evokes the characters who peopled Chagall’s passionate, energetic mother, Feiga-Ita; his eccentric fellow painter and teacher Bakst; his clever, intense first wife, Bella; their glamorous daughter, Ida; his tough-minded final companion and wife, Vava; and the colorful, tragic array of artist, actor, and writer friends who perished under the Stalinist regime.

Wullschlager explores in detail Chagall’s complex relationship with Russia and makes clear the Russian dimension he brought to Western modernism. She shows how, as André Breton put it, “under his sole impulse, metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting,�� and helped shape the new surrealist movement. As art critic of the Financial Times, she provides a breadth of knowledge on Chagall’s work, and at the same time as an experienced biographer she brings Chagall the man fully to life—ambitious, charming, suspicious, funny, contradictory, dependent, but above all obsessively determined to produce art of singular beauty and emotional depth.

Drawing upon hitherto unseen archival material, including numerous letters from the family collection in Paris, and illustrated with nearly two hundred paintings, drawings, and photographs, Chagall is a landmark biography to rank with Hilary Spurling’s Matisse and John Richardson’s Picasso.]]> 582 Jackie Wullschläger 037541455X Katie 0 to-read 4.01 2008
author: Jackie Wullschläger
name: Katie
average rating: 4.01
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]]> 685211 279 Jacob Baal-Teshuva 3822882712 Katie 0 to-read 4.22
author: Jacob Baal-Teshuva
name: Katie
average rating: 4.22
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]]> 41709971
Limonic begins by introducing the stories of Latino Jewish immigrants and laying out the important questions surrounding ethnic How do Latino Jews identify? Can they choose their identity or is it assigned to them? How is ethnicity strategic or instrumental? These larger questions are placed within the existing scholarly literature on immigrant integration, religion, and ethnic group construction. Limonic explains how groups can be constructed when there is a lack of a perfect host group and details the ways different factors influence ethnic identity and shape membership into ethnic groups. The book concludes that group construction is never static in the United States, and, in particular, how race, religion, and class are increasingly important mediating factors in defining ethnicity and ethnic identity.

As the Latino population continues to grow in the United States, so does the influence of millions of Latinos on U.S. culture, politics, economy, and social structure. Kugel and Frijoles offers new insight with which to understand the diversity of Latinos, the incorporation of contemporary Jewish immigrants, and the effect of U.S. ethno-racial structures for immigrant assimilation.]]> 216 Laura Limonic 0814345751 Katie 0 to-read 3.86
author: Laura Limonic
name: Katie
average rating: 3.86
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]]> 55742924 256 Alexander S. Vindman 0063079445 Katie 0 to-read 4.36 2021
author: Alexander S. Vindman
name: Katie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> 6798263 Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color...

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.]]> 112 Maggie Nelson 1933517409 Katie 0 to-read 4.09 2009
author: Maggie Nelson
name: Katie
average rating: 4.09
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]]> 23453099 So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all intents and purposes—a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to use his name for such a place feels appropriate. In a week, I would run away from home and never go back.

This is the story of how I disappeared.

The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys�� prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature. Ottessa Moshfegh is also the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Homesick for Another World: Stories, and McGlue.]]> 260 Ottessa Moshfegh 1594206627 Katie 0 to-read 3.57 2015
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Katie
average rating: 3.57
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]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Katie 0 to-read 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Katie
average rating: 3.62
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]]> 42139776
There was a time when being an “Arab�� didn’t mean you were necessarily Muslim. It was a time when Oscar Hayoun, a Jewish Arab, strode along the Nile in a fashionable suit after Shabbat services on his way to bring tobacco to his dying grandfather, long before Oscar and his father arrived at the port of Haifa to join the Zionist state only to find themselves first hosed down with DDT then left unemployed on the margins of society. In that time, Arabness was a mark of diverse cosmopolitanism, of intellectualism. Today, in the age of the Likud and ISIS, Massoud Hayoun, the Jewish Arab journalist that Oscar raised in Los Angeles, finds his voice by telling his family’s story.

To reclaim a cosmopolitan, nuanced Arab identity is, for Hayoun, part of the larger project to recall a world before ethnic identity was mangled for political ends. It is also a journey deep into a lost age of sophisticated innocence in the Arab world; an age that until now could be witnessed only in the films his family treasured but that are now nearly lost amid the flood of culture.

When We Were Arabs, a stunning debut that showcases the gorgeous prose of writer Massoud Hayoun, tells the stories of Oscar and Daida, bringing their worlds alive in vivid poetic prose, and in so doing shattering our contemporary understanding of what makes an Arab, what makes a Jew, and how we draw the lines between us over which we do battle.]]> 304 Massoud Hayoun 1620974169 Katie 0 to-read 4.15 2019
author: Massoud Hayoun
name: Katie
average rating: 4.15
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]]> 37938826 s Irene's Pappi fights to save his family during the Holocaust, Irene's childhood is lost. Play is restricted. Family and friends disappear. Finally, with the Dutch police at their door comes the reality that Irene's father has not moved his family far enough from Hitler's Germany.

By January 1945, the family is struggling to survive a death camp. Irene tends her ailing parents, cares for starving kids, and even helps bring clothes to her Amsterdam neighbor Anne Frank, before her family is offered a singular chance for freedom...providing the Nazi doctor says they are healthy enough. After two weeks of heart-lifting miracles and heart-breaking tragedies, Irene arrives in the Algerian desert to journey into redemption and womanhood, without her parents or brother.

Irene's first person memoir, Shores Beyond Shores, is an account of how the heart keeps its common humanity in the most inhumane and turbulent of times. Irene's hard-earned lessons are a timeless inspiration. ]]> 274 Irene Butter 1887043365 Katie 0 to-read 4.61 2018
author: Irene Butter
name: Katie
average rating: 4.61
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]]> 60407608
“A frank and often amusing tabulation of well-kept family secrets... a story of high-stakes melodrama and surreptitious relations, in which runaway brides, false marriages, lost children and other moral crises abound. But there is more here than mishegas .�� —Jake Nevins, New York Times

“The richness of Pogrebin’s stories, the complexity and beauty of her storytelling, and her devastatingly honest soul-baring make Shanda a powerfully stunning piece of life and art.��
—Mayim Bialik, actor, author, neuroscientist, and co-host of Jeopardy

The word “shanda�� is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda , tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense 20th-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public humiliation either drove their aspirations or crushed their spirit.

In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely-guarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family. Beginning with her own long-suppressed secret, the story spirals through the hidden lives of her parents and relatives—revealing the truth about their origins, personal traumas, marital misery, abandoned children, religious transgressions, sexual identity, radical politics, and supposedly embarrassing illnesses. While unmasking their charades and disguises, Pogrebin also showcases her family’s remarkable talent for reinvention in a narrative that is, by turns, touching, searing, and surprisingly universal.]]> 432 Letty Cottin Pogrebin 1637583966 Katie 0 to-read 3.78
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]]> 59665131 What is a Jew? A Jew is someone who argues with God whether he believes in Him or not.

The war was over long ago, but the Holocaust still lived in his family. It was the subtext of his life, the trauma that held him captive. His father the poet’s song about his birth haunted him from early on. He was named Menachem, consolation . . .
Above the peaks low clouds unfurl
Somber, gray, they spread
Like faces from my far-off land
Their call rings out
Bring forth new life, they clamor ��
To replace six million dead.How could he move on? Yet he knew he had to.

“Michael ‘Menachem�� Fox has been a dynamic force in the Yiddish Theater as a playwright, songwriter, and performer. His story, as told in this memoir, is a triumph of the spirit.��
—Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene

“Lyrically and poignantly written, Becoming Ordinary is no ordinary coming-of-age story. The author breaks the shackles of the trauma that was his legacy after the Holocaust.��
—Prof. Miriam Hoffman, Journalist, Author, Playwright



]]> 309 Michael Fox Katie 0 to-read 4.75
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]]>