First Lines: July 2026 edition

Art for everyone, everywhere, every day.
Annapolis, Maryland
June 2026

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in July.  Another slow reading month.  If it weren’t for two 5-hour flights, this list would be even shorter.  More later on where we went and what we saw.

 

 

Book 1

Let Us Begin, Again

Day six arrived.  I scrolled through the “just checking in” texts, appreciative but also slightly irritated with everyone who thought they were more anxious than me for the moment we were waiting for.

 

 

Book 2

The week before the 2016 presidential election, Donald J. Trump took a break from campaigning to attend the ceremonial opening of his new hotel a few blocks from the White House.

 

Here is that very hotel.
In 2017, I defiantly spat on the ground on this spot.

 

Book 3

“For tonight’s debate, I will prove that the pen is mightier than the sword.  For it is the poets… the artists… who provide us with a language of resistance, the ability to see the future, to dream of a better world.  History has shown that brute force may be able to occupy a land, but the minds of the people will remain free.  It is poetry which reminds us of our innate freedom.  That is why tyrants always fear the artist… as they should!”

 

Dreaming of a better world

 

Book 4

Chapter One: A Very Rude Person

It is useful, people generally agree, for a wife to wake up before her husband.

 

Book 5

A Child of Air

Reema Baladi

Amal calls it “the thing” too, but I hear she’s getting rid of hers. 

 

 

Did Not Finish

Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur–a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a Professional Builder of Worlds–and for most of his youth, he was Sam, S.A.M. on the hall of fame of his grandfather’s Donkey Kong machine, but mainly Sam.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us

By Anna Malaika Tubbs

384 pages • first pub 2025

nonfiction gender sociology

If you haven’t read anything about patriarchy or fascism or intersectionality, this could be a good place to start.

The book’s premise is that patriarchy in the US is more than just men having undue power; rather it’s the whole system of hierarchy that the current ruling white men want to enforce.  The author hammers on this point - telling us about intersectionality without ever using the word.  And in fact, the whole book is about fascist ideology, but she never uses that word.  For leaving out those two words, this book might be very effective for some readers.

I found the book rather repetitive, and I was already familiar with most of the concepts and examples. (but I needed to hear them again).  One exception was the super-hero she highlights – someone I had never heard of and won’t give away the name now.  

 

Identity
by Emma Amos
on exhibit at the
Allen Memorial Art Museum
Oberlin, Ohio

Book 2

Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success

Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig

519 pages (the text is 450 pages) • first pub 2024

nonfiction, biography, politics, true crime.

I love that Storygraph classifies this book as true crime.  Just about everything that man has done is truly a crime.

While the subject matter was disgusting to me, I kept reading because of a sort of macabre fascination with the crimes and the hubris.  I found the book easy to understand, not a trivial feat for the authors, tackling the arcane subjects of real estate, high finance, and tax law.  They did a great job.

In this book, there are 676 uses of the world “million” and 74 uses of the word “billion.”  As in dollars.  The $millions and $billions are just flying around in this book like swarms of wasps.  Or maybe flies swarming around a pile of excrement - that’s a better metaphor. 

The way the book tells it, the family fortune was amassed by the patriarch who was a tax cheat and a skinflint, but who was actually careful about protecting the fortune.  The favored son followed his father’s example on the first two counts, but showed little prudence or care about either the fortune or other people.  He’s consistent in one thing - he flings around our tax dollars just as he did the wealth he has raked in from his various shady endeavors.  Come to think of it, he tosses human beings around in the same way.  He has no notion of kindness or love for others.  Everything is a transaction or a grievance.

This book has not a single mention of that particular friend of the family who had an island, so I mark the book down half a point.  That relationship needs to be mentioned every time we read about this loser.

 

 

Book 3

Mrs. Orwell

Text by Andrea Chalupa, art by Brahm Revel

224 pages • first pub 2026

fiction, biography, graphic novel, historical

Suggested by L.R.

read in physical format from library

The artwork and characters are compelling.  I appreciated learning about Eileen O’Shaughnessy Blair and Eric Blair (nom de plume George Orwell).  They were both fiery, strong-willed characters.  But the story was hard for me to follow in some parts because it relies entirely on the frames, with no words, and it was hard for me to distinguish just from the drawings which character was which, and exactly what was happening.  Nevertheless, I believe I got the gist of what happened to these two extraordinary people.

The Afterword is well worth reading.  Andrea Chalupa is a hero – I remember listening to her podcast in early 2017, in which she warned that the Orange Menace was deeply connected to Vlad & Co.  I concluded that Chalupa was absolutely right but her podcast was too intense for me at the time. 

“In Mrs Orwell, I tried to give voice to the woman who helped shape one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, and to remind us that truth still matters, especially when it’s under siege.  Eileen’s life teaches us that even in times of fear, betrayal and chaos, it’s still possible to fight for beauty, for integrity, and for a future worth believing in.”  

– Andrea Chalupa.

 

Book 4

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)

By Alexander McCall Smith

213 pages • first pub 2007

fiction mystery

Second read, for the start of my vacation.  Finished it on the plane to the faraway destination.  These books are the literary equivalent of a long lovely bubble bath, notwithstanding the implied sexism of that opening line.  There is a bit of role reversal in this book.

 

 

Book 5

Behind You Is the Sea

Susan Muaddi Darraj

246 pages • first pub 2024

fiction literary

Not really a novel but short stories woven together, about characters in the Palestinian American community in my childhood hometown of Baltimore.  I appreciated the characters but - content warning - there is a good deal of nastiness, domestic violence, foul language, and cheating they dish out to each other.  

In the first line I quoted above, “the thing” is pregnancy.  The extended family does not deal well with that character having an abortion.

 

Did Not Finish

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin

416 pages • first pub 2022

fiction contemporary literary

This is one of those books that everyone else seems to like, but I don’t.  It was for book club, so I gave it a valiant try, but stopped when the abuse of one character became too much for me to read about.

- - - - - - -

Your turn - what sort of book do you like to read on vacation?  What book did everyone else like but you?

Hope.  March 2017.

It's just a bunch of stuff that happened - Part 3: Empty Nest Again

How it started:

In June, Younger Daughter was offered a job.  !!! Teaching anatomy at a community college.  She moved back home, in transition to her new job which is in a small town about two hours’ drive away.

YD will be following in a long family line of
educators.  Here's my mother (YD's 
grandmother) teaching science educators
in Panama.  The Common Household Husband
(YD's father) is an educator.  My father's
mother (YD's great grandmother)
was an educator.

How it’s going:

Younger Daughter arrived here in late June, after a very difficult time moving - the container didn’t show up on the appointed day, which meant she lost money on the moving crew and her plane ticket home, which was supposed to be the next day.  And YD had packed up all her stuff, meaning she had to live in sparse conditions.  Eventually the things were packed and moved and she flew here, beleaguered, a week later.  This included her rescheduled flight being cancelled, for no apparent reason.

In exchange for room and board here, she paid for one large bevy of groceries, and did most of the dinner cooking.  YAAAAAAY for someone to do the dinner cooking!  She is a good cook.  We had paella, spinach enchiladas, broiled salmon, sausages with rice and peas, and more.

We baked So Much (recounted in this post). 

As expected when progeny moves home to the ancestral abode, there have been testy moments, but overall it was marvelous having YD here.  We sang at the piano, we baked, we chatted, we shopped for her new apartment, we watched a weird movie.

Last Friday morning, during the second day of monstrously unhealthy air quality, the Common Household Husband drove YD two hours southeast to her new town.  He drove back that same day, exhausted.  Without YD (as planned).  Sob.  

First impressions of the town.

Also last Friday morning, the house sewer pipe backed up, making our world stinky both inside and out.  Oh, 2026, please stop your mischief!  But CHH and YD left on schedule, leaving me to deal with physical therapy, the exterminator (did I mention we also had ants in the house?) and the plumber.  Those all happened on schedule, with good (so far) outcomes.

Ew,

Ewwwww.

That evening, given the tension of the day, we asked each other dolefully, “Do you think YD is doing okay?”  But we did not text or call.

The next morning, we asked each other, “Do you think YD is doing okay?”  and “Is the sewer line still clear?” But we did not text or call, O Best Beloved.  Miraculously, of her own accord, YD texted us joyfully that the Pod (the container with all her furniture in it) had arrived at the appointed time (unlike the previous time).  And, get this, she has met some of the neighbors!  In the 21st century, that hardly happens any more.  The neighbor who was being evicted for bad behavior has already left.  

Container delivered.  Whew.

We miss YD a lot.  We do have a political campaign staffer living with us – she is charming and I have grown quite fond of her.  But we count this as a return to being empty nesters.  Hooray!

And now, off to new adventures!  If you can call them that, in 2026!

Part 1: Peaches Deliver Joy

Part 2: Chairs and Gardens

It's just a bunch of stuff that happened - Part 2: Chairs and Gardens

Friend's greenhouse on July 7th
teeny cucumbers (or zucchini?)

How it started:

In early May, we volunteered to water a friend’s greenhouse plants for seven weeks in June and July.   And then in late May I got severe sciatica.

How it’s going:

I started physical therapy in late June.  The first thing the physical therapist advised me is:  get a new office chair.  Then, do these 20 exercises/stretches at home.  Don’t do yoga.  Don't do weeding. Whenever you think of it, pull in your belly button to engage your abs.

My Black-eyed Susans on July 3rd. 
The one in the back (storebought) is prissy
 and also a favored snack of the
local wildlife. I doubt it's gonna make it.
The ones in the front are a gift
from the neighbor.

I bought a used high-end office chair.  This required crossing the Ohio River, four times, I tell you.  (There are three major rivers in this county.  Crossing any river is something people here don’t like to do.)  The local office stores had nothing suitable.  I bought from a humongous office furniture warehouse, in a warehousey section of the little river town, all the while astonished they would even entertain selling one small chair to me.   The actual chair and its price are quite comfortable for me.

This is only half of the used chairs they had.

P.T. is SOOOO time consuming.  But also beneficial.  P.T. meant less time for driving (15 minutes each way) to water plants–for a total of at least 45 minutes each time.  I had hoped to make it three times a week, but that dwindled to one or two times.  Some of the plants are thriving, but some are barely making it.  

A lovely 5-inch cucumber.
Large enough to please the Secretary of 
Defense, so I harvested it.

It’s been hellishly hot, and it doesn’t rain inside the greenhouse, so it needs a lot of water.  But not too much, because fungus can grow in the hot and moist greenhouse mini-climate (and so it has). 

I decimated the mushrooms with
the force of hose water.  I do
not think for one moment that
they are actually gone.

Then a huge sinkhole opened up in front of the hospital near where we live, adding 5 minutes to the greenhouse trip.  

Let’s do a short tally of some of the terrifying things so far this month:  

- hellishly hot, due to climate change

- sinkhole (thank God the federal government is not in charge of this one)

- cyclospora parasite infection, nationwide, due to CDC cuts

- screwworm parasite in livestock and pets, surging back, due to DOGE cuts

- dangerous smoke in the air, with AQIs above 400, due to climate change

- sciatica, due to my own stupidity + aging

And this is small potatoes compared to what some human beings are suffering because of current policies. Oh, 2026, why are you doing this?!

Those zucchini/cuke tendrils are
biologically amazing and are spreading
everywhere.  A successful species.

The tomato plants have not produced many flowers, while the cucumbers (or maybe zucchini) are threatening to take over the whole place, as squash do.  Our friend suggested I spread fertilizer and pluck some lower stems off but I simply don’t have time to do actual gardening like that, which makes me sad.

On the bright side, we have harvested some delicious lettuce, 3 beautiful little cucumbers, and 7 green beans.  This is produce that is safe from the evil parasite that the cuts to the CDC have brought us.  Yay!  It's a balm in the face of it all.

The second harvest.

Dear Reader, have you harvested anything from anywhere lately?

Part 1: Peaches Deliver Joy

Part 3 (final in this series): Empty Nest Again

It's just a bunch of stuff that happened - Part 1: Peaches Deliver Joy

How it started:

In April, I ordered 12 pounds of peaches from The Peach Truck, on a whim. Because the four Peach Truck peaches someone shared with me last year were astoundingly delicious.

The Peach Truck lived up to its
slogan: Delivering Joy.

How it’s going:

I picked up the peaches on July 2nd, getting in the end of a huge line in the dangerous sun and heat.  I feared getting sunburned, but The Peach Truck operates efficiently.  The precious cargo and my skin were home within the hour.

Twelve pounds of peaches,
minus two which we ate out of hand.

The Peach Truck said to spread them out on a table for a few days.  I did, but it was a good thing I did not wait more than a day. These gems were ready for baking.  I spent the next two days making pies, perhaps the most intense pie production of my life.  

One recipe said chunks are better than 
slices.  Slices are hard to cut,
but chunks are way harder.
As for the outcome, further
research is required.

Cutting peaches for pie is not as easy as cutting apples for pie.  These peaches were oh, so lusciously juicy, which made them ultra slippery when skinless, as most of us would be.  

First pie, with hearts and triangles.
For Thanksgiving.  

On Independence Day I made two of the pies and six tarts. For the tarts I cheated by using store-bought graham cracker crusts.  Thank you, Keebler Elves! 

On Independence Day, my favorite season
is still the fall of the patriarchy.

As I was endangering my fingers by slicing peaches for the second pie, I listened to Heather Cox Richardson read the Declaration of Independence out loud, with commentary.  I had not been keen to recognize this holiday, but with peach juice dripping off my hands, I hit my stride and was glad to have my own little celebration, just me and HCR and peaches and pie crust.  Suitably American.

Second pie, with diamonds. 
 Planned for my birthday.

While peach pie is one of my favorites, I haven’t made it all that often.  I experimented with several different cooking methods– those might appear in another post, much much later.  Or not.

Third pie (raw; those are supposed to
be clubs cut into the crust).
And tarts.

We ate the third pie for July 4th dinner.  It was rather soupy – dammit, I will have to try again.  I think it was because the top crust needed more openings.  Through additional rigorous scientific testing (n=6), we discovered that graham cracker crusts become soggy after just a day or so, but the filling was not soupy. 

We stored two pies in the Common Household Son’s freezer – one for my birthday and one for Thanksgiving (if it makes it that long).  We did eat some of the peaches fresh.  Oh, glory!

Part 2: Chairs and Gardens
Part 3: Empty Nest Again (final in this series of posts)

Doors of Annapolis

 My two friends and I spent three days in mid-June in the old historic part of Annapolis, where the streets are paved with brick.  I will not forget the sound the loose bricks made as we stood on the sidewalk when a car drove past.  

There were plenty of interesting doors, with many houses officially designated as historic sites. Sadly, I didn’t get a photo at one house where a plaque said, “Nothing important happened here.”

Annapolis is home of the US Naval Academy, so the
anchor door knocker is appropriate.

An artist spent some time embellishing the wall around this door.

The main door to the Maryland State House
is behind that tree.  On the tower, below the flags,
there is a gilded acorn, which represents
strength, or wisdom, or squirrels, or something.

Lion door knocker guarding the front
door of the Maryland State House.

We didn't quite know what to make of the Maryland motto on the state seal:

    Fatti maschii, parole femine

which supposedly means "strong deeds, gentle words" but literally translated

is "manly deeds, womanly words".  Is it enshrining patriarchy? 

Not sure.  Never looked up the Latin on the outer circle of the state seal.

This seal stands watch at
the front door.

Doorway into the House Chamber.

While we are here in the House Chamber,
I have to show you that yellow
duck-rabbit that someone left
to amuse us tourists.  Or is it 
a secret sign?  And in keeping
with my theme, there is a door at the
far end of the room for lobbyists to
sneak in and out.

The Maryland State House is of huge historic significance for the whole nation because it is where George Washington resigned his commission from the Continental Army in December 1783.  His action set a precedent, a door, if you will, to enter the country into civilian control of the military in the US.  That is, No Kings.  No Napoleon. At least so far.  

Mauve door with goose in pink bikini.

Gotta love a brick-red door with a 
patriotic door mat.

American History - nonfiction suggestions

American history possible reads.  In no particular order.

(see the end of the previous post for my friend's fiction suggestions)

Nonfiction

Vision: a Memoir of Blindness and Justice, by

David S. Tatel

352 pages • first pub 2024.  Nonfiction. Memoir.  Includes reflections on more recent US historical events.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard.   339 pages.  Published 2011.  

- the non-fiction book about President Garfield’s assassination.  

Despite the subject, I really enjoyed reading it and learned a lot.  It’s very well told.  I would sum it up this way:  Hubris impedes humanity’s progress, especially the hubris of men seeking power and men who are medical doctors.  Still applicable today!

Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

By Robert B. Reich

461 pages. first pub 2025 

nonfiction economics memoir politics

I usually appreciate Reich’s point of view on policy issues, and even more than that, his sincerity on those issues, so I appreciated this book going into it.  This memoir adds his personal history, which informs those policy stances.  The world is better off because we have Robert Reich in it, and I am better off having read his memoir.

First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, by Thomas E. Ricks.  416 pages.  Published 2020.

An interesting overview of the first four US presidents' relationship to classical (Greek, Roman) thought, and how that relationship contributed to the formation of the Constitution.  You'd think it would be a stodgy, slow read, but I found it quite engaging and easy to read.  At the end, Ricks put a 10-point list of “what to do now”. 

Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild  320 pages • first pub 2020.  Biography

The book starts out with a public violation of the Comstock Act, a law originally passed in the 1870s which outlawed the dissemination of contraception or information about contraception. 

As our (bad) luck would have it, the Comstock Act is rearing its ugly head in 2024.  Pay close attention.  The powers that seek to control and oppress are strong.

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

284 pages • first pub 2023.  The main text is 190 pages; the footnotes take up about 40% of the book. 

The premise of this book is that poverty in the US is intentional, caused by policies that most of us approve of; most of us benefit from the existence of poverty.  It is, for sure, an uncomfortable thesis.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann.  316 pages • first pub 2017.

An excellent telling of a huge sad injustice in our country.  Recommend you read this book.  I am told it is much better than the movie.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.  

464 pages (main text is about 400 pages) • first pub 1990.  Pulitzer Prize winner in 1991 in the History category.

This is a historical treatise, meaning that the author examines a primary source, the diary of a midwife in what would become the state of Maine, in the late 1700s-early 1800s.  Thatcher Ulrich, the historian, is able to take the terse diary entries and weave them into an interesting history of the time.  The historian maintains the variable spellings of the original text, which makes for slower reading, but at least I didn’t have to try to read 18th century handwriting.  That said, it’s a dense history.  Not for everyone.

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

By Heather Cox Richardson

304 pages • first pub 2023

Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor

By Steven Greenhouse

416 pages • first pub 2019

This book gives a really good overview about unions and labor in the US.  Not a comprehensive history, but selections from throughout our history, and delving deep enough to get a decent understanding.

Lady Justice:  Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, by Dahlia Lithwick.  Published 2022.  284 pages (text).  With endnotes 369 pages.  Heartrending accounts of lawyers battling against the cruelties brought to us by the Trump presidency during and after that man and his cronies’ time in the highest office of the land.   What was most fascinating to me was how the author involved her son in some of the events.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, 592 pages • first pub 2016.

A few adjectives for this book: all-encompassing, challenging, necessary, damning, and in the end, hopeful.  The author makes his excellent and difficult point repeatedly, but repetition is necessary, because his thesis upends just about every way I have had of thinking about the role of racist ideas in our history.  The book examines major figures who spoke and acted on racial justice, diving in to where each famous figure exhibits antiracist and racist thinking.  It’s mind-blowing to read about how W.E.B. Du Bois was antiracist at this point, but incorporated racist ideas at another point. 

March: (volumes 1, 2 and 3), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, art by Nate Powell.  Graphic books.  Volume one is 121 pages. Published 2013, 2015...

An Alternative History of Pittsburgh by Ed Simon, 176 pages.  Published 2021.

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, by Clint Smith.  Published 2021.  The text ends at 288 pages.  With endnotes 353 pages.

I highly recommend this thoughtful book.  The author traveled during 2017-2020 to various places and interviews with fascinating people, to examine the effects slavery in the US still has on our society.  The author takes us to New Orleans, Louisiana; Monticello Plantation – Jefferson’s estate in Virginia; The Whitney Plantation, a museum in Louisiana; Angola Prison. Louisiana; Blandford Cemetery, Virginia; Galveston Island, Texas; New York City; Goree Island, Senegal; and an interview of his grandfather and his grandmother.

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff.  2021.  336 pages. 

I am the least likely person to read a book about comedians.  However, the author of this book kept me interested.  The last few chapters were especially relevant.  The text of the book is far less than 336 pages.  At the end of the chapters there are many photos, followed by notes and an index.

Eleanor by David Michaelis,  © 2020.

536 pages of text; including footnotes, index: 698 pages.

A biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, an amazing person.  While she grew up in a rich family, it was by no means a happy childhood.  She ended up being a spokesperson and activist for peace, human rights, civil rights, and dignity.  This book tells her story in an engaging way.

The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP , by Alex Tresniowski.  © 2021. 335 pages.

This book is written as a thriller, interweaving the story of the murder of a young girl and the story of Ida B. Wells.  A black man becomes the prime suspect in the murder, putting him at risk of being lynched.  The book’s focus is partly on how the detective on the case “roped” in the murderer with a complex scheme.  The book also tells the story of Ida B. Wells in her actions against lynching of Blacks, extra-judicial murders often accomplished by hanging the victim – the rope.  And there are numerous accountings of lynchings, including ones that occurred in Northern states.  We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that racism only occurs in the southern United States.  The book includes a conversation which I find it hard to forgive Susan B. Anthony for.  Perhaps it is good to be reminded that our national heroes are/were not perfect.   I read it for a book discussion in an Anti-Racist facebook group. Well worth the read.

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.  © 2020.   272 pages.

Glaude offers us an overview of Baldwin’s evolving outlook on humanity, and Glaude’s own deep insights.  I recommend this book.

The Warmth of Other Suns:  The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson.  © 2010.  622 pages.

Read for TOS book club.  An astonishing, enlightening, horrifying tale well told.  At 622 pages, it is not a quick read.  But the tales are so well written, the reading of this book flows easily.  It reveals much that I did not know about the history of our country.  For the parts that I was already aware of, the way the author tells the stories makes them come alive, in ways that we can feel deeply.  I highly recommend this book.

(Personally I think “The Warmth of Other Suns” is a better read than “Caste” but maybe that’s just me.) 

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. 496 pages. © 2020.

A powerful book.  It begins with a metaphor. And then another metaphor, followed by a third metaphor.   The most workable one for me is the “old house” metaphor.  “With an old house, the work is never done, and you don’t expect it to be.  America is an old house. … The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away.  Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protect from the consequences of inaction.”  I think the book would be stronger with just one metaphor at the start. 

These Truths:  A History of the United States, by Jill Lepore. © 2018.  955 pages.

I first started reading this in late 2018. It took me 2 years to finish, but finish I did!  This book is 900+ pages.  It was not until I got near the end that I found out that fully 35% of the book is footnotes and bibliography!

The main points I took from this book are: 

a) White supremacy screwed our nation up from the beginning and even though it officially ended, the effects are with us still. 

b) It’s the fault of greedy folks and competent lobbyists that we didn’t get universal health care in the 20th century. 

c) As I suspected, income inequality is a huge threat to democracy.

d) political polling is bad for us.  The internet has made our inequality worse.

 

 

The Line Becomes a River, by Francisco Cantu.  © 2018.   256 pages. The author served as a border guard from 2008 to 2012.  He left to get an advanced degree.  While working on his degree, he encountered an undocumented man who had lived in the US for most of his life.  The man returned from US to Mexico to attend to his dying mother.  When he tried to reenter the US, he was detained for unlawful entry into the US.  The author works to help the undocumented man.

Einstein watches fireworks, 2014.

Children/YA lit

Pink and Say By Patricia Polacco.  1994.  Picture book (children’s lit).

Angel of Greenwood

By Randi Pink

296 pages • first pub 2021

fiction historical Y.A. lit

I thought this book was excellent. It was proposed for the 9th grade curriculum at a local school district, but rejected by the ultra-conservative school board there.  About the Tulsa OK massacre.

Fiction

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich  455 pages • first pub 2020.

 (Pulitzer prize winner) Love the characters and the occasional magical realism of this book.  It also taught me about a piece of US history I did not know.

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi.  © 2016.  320 pages.

A historical novel, following two parallel stories of a family through history – one branch in “Gold Coast” (Ghana), Africa, the other branch in America. Each chapter is a vignette from a generation. In Homegoing, the stories of each generation are well-told.

  

2018