#48 [2024/CBR16] Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

I'd already read Evicted by Matthew Desmond, and I was very impressed with the depth of Demond's writing. So, it's no surprise that I picked up Poverty, by America (2023)--especially after Obama recommended it.

In Poverty, by America, Desmond pushes back hard against the stereotype that poor people are lazy, maybe stupid, and could get out of their circumstances if they just tried harder. He delves into how much the poor have stacked against them, and how these circumstances help the ones who already have more than enough. This includes moneylending with usurious interest rates and fees, and substandard housing that still costs a majority of one's income. 

The United States is the richest country on Earth, but it has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. We can try to blame it on immigrants, lack of spending, welfare fraud, and any number of other scapegoats. But Desmond argues that we can and should be doing more to help this disparity. (Desmond also shows that the poverty level has not been affected by different levels of immigration). There are people suffering right under our noses, and we are turning away. The work of some of these poor is what we rely on for our comfortable lives (deliveries, cheap products, food, etc.), and yet we do not concern ourselves with whether they make a living wage or not.

In addition, instead of using our laws to alleviate poverty, the laws are set up to help those who are already well off. For instance, people complain endlessly about wasting tax payer's dollars on "people who refuse to work", but we don't think twice about all the tax breaks that are designed to benefit the wealthy. These include the tax break on mortgage interest for homeowners, which is a great boon for the wealthy. And the more expensive a house you can afford, the more money you don't have to pay. At the same time, banks often won't even lend money to purchase small, cheaper homes in poorer neighborhoods. This forces people to spend more money on rent than a mortgage would have been, they can not build up equity, and do not enjoy a similar (although much smaller) tax break. (I also just bought a plug-in hybrid vehicle and received a tax break, which is only available to those who have the means to buy a brand new, electric car).

One issue that really struck me was when Desmond talked about housing. He said that after redlining became illegal--zoning slid right in there to take its spot. Now zoning keeps the price of single family homes high, while legally keeping many minorities and poor people out of the nicer neighborhoods. Children that grow up in the nicer neighborhoods--even though they are poor--fare better than children growing up in poor neighborhoods. 

On the whole, I thought Poverty, by America was informative and eye-opening. It definitely made me think hard about my prejudices and privileges. However, I did think Evicted was more compelling and easier to read than Poverty, by America. Evicted focused a lot on specific people, which really personalized the issues. However, in Poverty, Desmond focuses more on facts and numbers than on people, which I sometimes found less powerful. However, I still recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

#4 [2024/CBR16] The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell

I generally avoid books on climate change because they scare the shit out of me. There's nothing like reading for hours about how we're mindlessly ruining our only planet to bring out maximum anxiety and helplessness. I'm always left with a deep urge to do something, and feeling that it's all out of my hands anyway. But I also don't like to be ignorant, so when I saw The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet (2023) by Jeff Goodell on NPR's "Books we Love" list, I figured it was time for me to face the mess we've made of this planet.

I listened to this on Audiobook, and I found it both interesting and informative. It wasn't exactly what I expected. There was plenty of information on climate change, how much we need to change our habits, and how late we are to the game in terms of actually making a difference. However, it did not go too much detail on fossil fuels, how much we are burning, and how badly we need to stop; that's more of a given. Instead, there are a lot of in-depth stories of people suffering from the heat we already have, and even personal stories of the author's travel near the Arctic. 

The book begins with the tragic deaths of a couple, their toddler, and their dog from heat exposure while on a hike in California. I remembered reading about this in the news because it was initially a mystery as to what killed them. Goodell goes into great detail of the family's plans for the day and what happened to them. And even though these deaths may or may not have been specifically caused by climate change, it does viscerally show how quickly heat can turn a fun, active day into an unexpected disaster. The author even details how he overheated while hiking in South America. It came on so fast, and he didn't realize how serious it was until it was over. It's a scary and dangerous thing.

In a long section on air conditioning, Goodell delves into the history of air conditioning, where it began, how it spread, and how it changed building styles. As we deal with higher and higher temperatures, more air conditioning just compounds the greenhouse gas problem as we burn more fuels to stay cooler. And because many buildings today were made for air conditioning, they are especially bad about using shade and breezes to naturally cool down.

Air conditioning is a nice segue into the problem with cities. Cities get significantly hotter than surrounding rural areas because of all the asphalt and lack of trees. Goodell discusses the heat wave in France that killed thousands of people. Paris was a city that was built in cooler temperatures, and the zinc, uninsulated roofs, make the upper apartments near death traps during heat waves. But all cities will have to deal with the heat. More trees, painting roofs and streets white, and other solutions have started being implemented in some cities, but you need money and political capital for that kind of thing.

One interesting discussion was about a woman who has created a model that can take natural disasters that occur now, and see if they were more likely to have occurred because of climate change. It is a way to more clearly see the effects of climate change and possibly even point a finger at those who are responsible.

This book mentions again and again how it is the poor who will suffer the most from climate change. The ones with means will be able to move, will be able to cool themselves, and be able to afford the higher cost of food and other essentials. The Heat Will Kill You First has accepted that we are now dealing with climate change, and is now focused on living with it.

So, did this book scare the shit out of me? Yes. But it was interspersed with a lot of detail and stories that occasionally took me out of "panic" mode. The author himself ends the book on a relatively positive note--saying that he has been inspired by all the smart, talented people working on this problem.

#38 [2022/CBR14] The Family Roe by Joshua Prager

There's been a lot of discussion of abortion lately--for obvious reasons. Full disclosure: I feel very strongly that the government should not force women to have unwanted children or butt into their healthcare decisions, so I was very angry about the recent Supreme Court decision. Right about that time I noticed The Family Roe: An American Story (2021) on NPR's Best Books List. I detest the machinations of politics, and will avoid most political tomes. However, besides being familiar with the Roe v. Wade opinion (I did go to law school, after all), I realized that I knew nothing about the people behind the case. I think I'd heard that the plaintiff Roe had come to regret her decision, but that's about it. The Family Roe seemed to talk more about the people involved with Roe v. Wade than the politics of it, so I figured I would give it a try.

For the most part, I found this book both informative and interesting. I guess a fair bit of politics is inevitable with this topic, but it was only really painful for me when Prager went into detail about all the restrictions put on abortion since Roe v. Wade. This book was published before the overturning of Roe v. Wade (the infuriating Supreme Court decision that shall not be named), but Prager could see where things were going, and it was depressing reading about it.

Prager details how Roe v. Wade came about as well as the lives of the people involved with the case. Being fairly ignorant of all these details, I learned a lot. In addition, Prager focuses on two people involved with the abortion rights struggle--one doctor adamantly crusading against abortions, and one who has performed countless abortions, beginning before they were legal. I did not think this book was trying to change anyone's mind. I imagine that people who already have their opinions will not be swayed in either direction by its contents.

The majority of the book focuses on the plaintiff of one of the most famous cases in America: Jane Roe. Jane Roe is actually Norma McCorvey. She was born in Louisiana and moved to Texas. She was the third generation in her family to deal with unwanted, teenage pregnancy; the inability to take care of her children; or grandparents/aunts pretending to be parents. Norma Rae had two children before she became pregnant with the child that would give us Roe v. Wade. She asked the lawyer who had helped to adopt out her second child if she could get an abortion in Texas (where it wasn't legal), and he hooked her up with Linda Coffee. Coffee was a brilliant attorney who was interested in challenging Texas's abortion ban. She was working with Sarah Weddington, a more charismatic attorney who would argue the case in front of the Supreme Court. Coffee and Weddington apparently told Norma that the court process was too slow to help her get a legal abortion, but there is some question of whether they could have helped her get an abortion out of state. However, that would make their court case moot. In any case, by the time Roe v. Wade was decided, Norma had already given birth on June 2, 1970 to the baby who would become Shelley Thornton.

Norma was a very difficult person with some definite mental health issues. She would tell a lot of stories about herself, many of which weren't true. Sarah Weddington later said, "I wish I had picked someone else." Reading the book, it was sometimes hard to keep track of Norma's relationships--as well as the lives of her three children and their subsequent relationships. It was clear that Norma was used for political points--first by the liberal, pro-choice faction. But when she was about 48, Norma became a born-again Christian, and the right went along and did the same thing. Even more problematic was that Norma was a lesbian and in a serious relationship with a woman--something that the extreme right-wing hated almost as much as abortions.

Two other prominent characters in the book were Mildred Fay Jefferson and Curtis Boyd--both doctors. Curtis saw a high school crush of his get pregnant in high school, and it ruined her life. Since then, he was always willing to help women end unwanted pregnancies--even before they were legal in Texas. Eventually, he expanded his practice to include abortions in any term of pregnancy--although the vast majority were still in the first twelve weeks. 

Mildred Fay Jefferson was an idealistic young Black woman. She was very impressive and the first Black woman to go to Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately, the combination of racism and sexism stalled her career. She turned to focusing on pro-life causes. Mildred Jefferson was a very useful and pithy mouthpiece for pro-life causes. It was Mildred's television discussion that made Ronald Reagan pro-life. Sadly, the older she got, the more off-kilter and extreme she became. She was a hoarder who couldn't pay her bills. When her husband left her she told him that "filing for divorce 'violated the rights of the children we might have had.'"

This book gave me interesting insight into the people and events surrounding Roe v. Wade. Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in the topic.

Below are some interesting things I read that don't quite fit in the review, but I didn't want to leave out:

-Linda Coffee tried to get a job at the DA's office after law school, but women lawyers faced severe discrimination at the time. "The DA then interviewed Coffee and told her that she'd impressed him, too. But the only job he had for a woman, he said, was collecting child support from delinquent dads." (71)

-Wade--the Dallas DA named in Roe v. Wade was actually a closet, moderate liberal who was pro-choice.

-Hyde Amendment - 1 in 4 women who would have had abortions funded by Medicaid gave birth instead. (149)

-Gloria Allred used Norma McCorvey for her own interests. I did not realize that Lisa Bloom is Gloria Allred's daughter. Lisa Bloom represented Weinstein, attacking his victims, so I consider that worse.

-"Enforced motherhood is the most complete denial of a woman's right to life and liberty." Margaret Sanger 1914 (323)

-Norma talking about being on the pro-life side. "It's really a lot harder on this side because you gotta act like you care." (422)

-2/3 of abortions occur by the eighth week of pregnancy. (480)

-1/2 of the women in America who have abortions live below the federal poverty level (451) and 60% are already mothers

-Nearly all women who have abortions are glad they did.

-Single-issue politics can "lead to the election of a moron who holds the right view on abortion." (459)

Finally, I wanted to link to my favorite Youtube ObGyn discussing the overturning of Roe v. Wade because I think she is thoughtful and informative. 

#16 [2021/CBR13] Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

I first saw Undocumented Americans (2020) by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio on NPR's Best Books of 2020 List. I found it in one of my favorite subsections of NPR's list: eye-opening reads. I love finding a book that changes my perspective or teaches me something, and that's what I was hoping for with this book. I was also impressed that it was a National Book Award Finalist. I was happy to be able to get it from my library.

Villavicencio came to the United States as a child, became a Dreamer, and graduated from Harvard. Shortly after the 2016 election, she decided to report on immigrants around the United States--apparently using her real name for the first time. Although her focus is on the struggle of others, she sometimes falls into her own experiences, including the constant fear of losing her parents as she grew up and the pressure she feels now to be successful and provide for them.

The book begins on Staten island, the most Republican and anti-immigrant borough in New York City. Villavicencio spends some time with migrant workers and day laborers on the island. Many of the migrant workers are older men who are lonely, alone, and depressed. Others are trying to navigate wages with no English. They are all at the mercy of being mistreated and underpaid. After Hurricane Sandy, migrant workers were one of the first on the scene to help with clean up. Many volunteered their time because it was needed, and many suffered ill effects from dealing with the mold and dirty water. 

Villavicencio moved on to Manhattan and 9/11. She talked about the many people who were not counted among the dead: the undocumented cleaners and food delivery people that were working that morning and never came home. There were also many undocumented workers who helped clean up after 9/11 and are suffering from the same debilitating diseases and cancers that the first responders suffer from.

The next stop was Miami. Villavicencio explored alternatives to traditional healthcare that is sometimes required for undocumented immigrants without the ability to pay. I found this section especially interesting, but I wished for a little more information on the details. One subject was able to get open heart surgery, but was declined for help with his brain cancer. How does this work? I know emergency rooms take anyone, but there is definitely a limit to what they'll do and how helpful they can be. I really would like a better understanding of the healthcare system, those who are left out of it, and how we can do better.

After visiting Flint, and seeing how the burden of the water crisis could fall on the undocumented, Villavicencio told the story of a father being deported, leaving his family back in the United States. It seemed unnecessary and brutal. At the same time in New Haven, another man was taking sanctuary in a church in order to avoid being deported. He'd been living in the church for months, unable to work and only seeing his family when they came to visit as they worked on his case.

This short rendering of the main stops of Villavicencio's book does not do justice to the whole. Although I sometimes wanted more detail, both about her life and the details of her reporting, she brought a proud and angry perspective to the discussion of immigrants. Recommended.

#6 [2021/CBR13] The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

My boyfriend read The Warmth of Other Suns (2010) by Isabel Wilkerson and suggested that I read it. I trust his judgment, but it didn't hurt that it was named the best book of the year by a ton of publications. It also just sounded interesting.

The Warmth of Other Suns is a non-fiction book about The Great Migration that occurred from 1915-1970. Coming into this novel, I was vaguely aware that a large number of Black Americans had moved up North after slavery ended, but that was about the limit of my knowledge. Wilkerson goes into much more detail about the numbers, the reasons, and the effects of this huge population shift on both the northern destination cities as well as the South and the people left behind. 

Wilkerson interviewed thousands of people in writing this book. One of my favorite aspects of this book was that she followed the stories of three different people who moved out of the South. They moved at different times, arrived at different places, and came from various locations and social strata. But their personal stories humanized the enormous numbers involved in the migration. Wilkerson also included enough big picture information that you could understand the context of the individual stories.

Ida Mae Gladney was probably my favorite person in the book. She left Mississippi with her husband and two kids, pregnant with a third, in the fall of 1937. They were sharecroppers under a relatively fair (for the time) white farmer, but they decided to leave after Ida Mae was threatened and a cousin was badly beaten by some white men because they thought (wrongly) that he'd stolen some turkeys. They didn't want to live under that violence and fear anymore. Ida Mae was a hard-working, sweet woman who cared deeply about her family. She met Barack Obama when he was a state senator and came and spoke to her Chicago neighborhood. I wish she had been alive to see him become President.

George Starling lived in Florida. He'd wanted to graduate from college, but his father wouldn't pay for more than one year. George found himself picking fruit in the plentiful Florida groves. But he wasn't satisfied with the bad working conditions and measly pay--especially during the war when workers were scarce and fruit prices were high. Starling and two of his friends helped to organize the pickers and request higher wages. Some days this worked, but it was dangerous to defy white people in Florida. Starling heard that men were planning on killing him, and he fled to New York City in 1945.

Robert Pershing Foster grew up in the tiny town of Monroe Alabama. His father was principal of the local school, and his mother was a teacher. His brother went on to become a doctor and Robert faced similar expectations for himself. Robert went on to marry the daughter of the President of Morehouse College, putting himself in the middle of Black high society in Atlanta. Robert felt a great need to live up to his father-in-law's expectations. Robert also could not face the constant disregard and disdain he faced in the Jim Crow South. In 1953, Robert drove across the country to Los Angeles, California to start his medical practice. Eventually he became very successful, bringing his wife and daughters to come live with him and becoming very prosperous. Ray Charles was one of his patients. Robert definitely had his demons, though. He cared very much about image, controlling his wife and nephew down to what they should wear. And he was big into gambling. I would have liked to know more about what was going on inside his head.

Wilkerson presents the migrants almost as immigrants from another country--giving up almost everything for a chance at a better life. In some ways life was better up North. They didn't have to "sir" and "ma'am" all the white people or step off the sidewalk. They also voted, and were encouraged to vote. However, there was still plenty of racism. Black people were forced to live in a very small area of the city. If they tried to live in a "white" neighborhood, they faced incredible opposition and violence. Thus, housing in Black neighborhoods was significantly more expensive and of lesser quality. 

The Warmth of Other Suns is pretty long and goes into a lot of detail, both about the individual stories of Ida Mae, George, Robert, and other migrants, as well as conditions and circumstances of the time. It is impossible to even mention everything covered in this book or do justice to it in a book review. It is much better just to read it for yourself. Highly recommended.

#49 [2020/CBR12] "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow

I learned from watching an interview with Lin Manuel Miranda that he was inspired to create the musical Hamilton after reading Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton (2004) while on vacation. I had been sucked into all the hype surrounding the new musical and was looking into reading the book myself. Then I saw how long it was and changed my mind. However, a couple of things made me reconsider. First, the movie of the stage production of Hamilton came out on Disney+ so I was able to see it all for the first time. Second, Cannonball Bingo happened, and I decided that Alexander Hamilton would be perfect for my white whale square. (And it would have been if I'd only read it faster.)

Alexander Hamilton is certainly full of dense history and politics, but I enjoyed imagining the actors from the musical as I read. It's also very well written. Chernow makes sense of the myriad details and did well at humanizing his subjects--getting inside their heads as much as possible with the information he had. Chernow detailed all of the amazing aspects of Hamilton's life that I'd learned from the movie, including: Hamilton's illegitimate birth, his mother's death, his amazing deliverance to New York, his role in the Revolutionary War and his work with George Washington, his affair with Maria Reynolds, his son's death at a duel, and then Hamilton's own death in a duel at the hands of the Vice President of the United States.

Chernow was also able to go into significantly more detail about the politics of the time, Hamilton and Jefferson's constant political fighting, and Hamilton's amazing contributions to building the country up from nothing. Hamilton's ability to work hard and plan and execute his ideas was incredible. It was almost a running joke that Hamilton could simply stand up and orate off the top of his head for over six hours. I had also had no idea that Hamilton was so instrumental in the National Bank, our understanding of the Constitution today (especially the implied powers), the stock market, and even our military academies. Hamilton did seem to do best when he worked under the calming influence of Washington. Left to his own devices, Hamilton was too honest, outspoken, and driven to not make significant political enemies

There is no way to talk about everything in this book, so I will stick with only a couple things that struck me as I read. First, was how much I could relate all the political drama of starting a country to politics now. The brand new United States fell quickly and dramatically into partisan fighting. The leaders of the country were doing everything they could to sabotage one another, and the papers printed every hysterical accusation they could come up with. Hamilton apparently wanted the U.S. to become a British colony again, he was stealing money from the Treasury, and the world would fall apart if the Federalists retained power. It was actually reassuring to see that the U.S. had made it through circumstances very similar, or even worse, than today.

Secondly, I had a deep interest in the women in this book. Chernow does a relatively good job of discussing them, considering this is a book on Alexander Hamilton and that there is almost no information on the women in his life. But his mother, his wife, and his mistress are all fascinating figures. I'd like to think that circumstantial evidence points to Hamilton getting his brain from his mother. It's just sad that she was not able to realize her full potential. Pushed into marriage at a young age, her very unlikable husband wasted away the small amount of money she had and actually put her in jail when she tried to leave him--thinking this would make her appreciate him. Yet she was able to leave him and go into business for herself--something pretty unheard of for women at that time. Because her first husband refused to divorce her, her relationship with Hamilton's father could never be legally realized.

Eliza Hamilton is also a strong, captivating figure. She stood by Hamilton's side for years--through the public humiliation of the first sex scandal in the United States, and through her dedication to his legacy for years after his death. Because she did not save her own letters, we are missing a lot of her life. I was incredibly frustrated reading about the duel, and the position she was unknowingly put into. Hamilton headed off to the duel with Aaron Burr without telling her. She had no idea that her husband was risking his life, possibly leaving her with seven children, significant debt, and no income. And after he was mortally injured, they only told her that he was having spasms until she arrived and saw the damage herself. In pretending to "protect" Eliza by keeping information from her, they kept her from having any sort of control over her own life. Also, Eliza was more than strong enough to know the truth. She had to deal with losing her mother, father, son, and husband within the span of four years, and she went on to do incredible work on her own.

Finally, Mariah Reynolds was the woman who tempted Hamilton into political ruin. It is unclear whether her initial intentions were to use the relationship for political or monetary bribery or if she actually liked him. But even Mariah was forced into marriage at only fifteen years old to a husband who used her as a prostitute.

There is so much fascinating history in this book, with so many interesting figures, I feel like I could go on forever. Although I'll read a dense history book every once in awhile, I would not have read Alexander Hamilton if not for the musical and the movie. But I'm glad I read it, and I would recommend it to anyone who has a lot of time to read.

#17 [2020/CBR12] "Nomadland" by Jessica Bruder

"Despite a lack of hard numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests the ranks of American itinerants started to boom after the housing collapse and have kept growing." (50)

I'm not sure how I first stumbled on the Youtube videos, but I love camping and traveling. I was intrigued and excited when a video showed me how to build a plywood bed so I could comfortably sleep in my Rav4 (with storage underneath!). It's amazing to see the creativity and ingenuity of how people have turned their vehicles into adventure mobiles or homes: whether it's a Prius, a tricked-out Sprinter van, or a luxurious fifth wheel.

It wasn't long before I found Bob Wells's Youtube channel, CheapRVliving. Wells has a collection of helpful videos showcasing people's homes on wheels and giving helpful hints for the road, including bathing, solar power, and bathrooms. I've seen many older women on his videos showing off their car, van, or trailer from which they've been living. Some of them have only a scant social security or disability check for all their expenses, and they're making it work with as little as $600 per month. They often say that they are much happier seeing the country and living primarily on public lands than spending all their money on a dingy apartment.

So, when I saw Nomadland (2017) by Jessica Bruder, I was already pretty familiar with many aspects of this nomadic lifestyle. However, I was interested to see whether she had a broader perspective. Bruder primarily focuses on Linda May and her dog Coco as she sets out to work nomadic jobs around the country and live in her trailer, which she calls "The Squeeze Inn." Linda May had been living on her children's couch, but they were having their own problems and Linda May was desperate for her own space.

What was most disheartening was seeing what kind of work Linda May and other retired-age workers were doing to get money for their lives and travels. Common jobs often include campsite hosts, Amazon warehouse workers, and beet harvesters. It is very physical and demanding. And because they are temporary workers, they have no health care or protection. One woman slipped and fell, hitting her head at an Amazon warehouse. She was sent home without pay and went back to work the next day because she needed the money.

Bruder also discussed the RTR. Short for the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous, this is a gathering in the middle of winter in Arizona. It is organized by Bob Wells from CheapRVliving and has grown exponentially in popularity in recent years. Since many of Wells's videos are filmed at various RTR's, I was already very familiar with these gatherings. Bruder uses them to show the camaraderie and assistance that this group of people provides for each other.

On the whole, I found this book interesting. I'd seen many women like Linda May on Bob Wells's videos, and it was helpful to understand a little better where she came from and what challenges she faced. I was familiar with many of the work camping jobs, but I did not realize so many older people were doing such hard physical labor to make ends meet. (Amazon apparently gets a tax break for hiring older people). However, I did find Bruder's attempts at working these various jobs somewhat off putting. She didn't have to work there, and she would quit after only a week or two at each job. It definitely allowed her to describe the jobs in a more detailed and personal manner. However, choosing to do something difficult or unpleasant for a week is very different from having to do something for months to survive. It reminded me a little of "Common People" by Pulp.

It should be mentioned that this cheap RV living phenomenon and this book is almost exclusively about older, white people. It is probably not surprising that many minorities would not feel comfortable living out of their vehicles as they traveled through the small communities that surround public lands. Bruder mentions the lack of diversity but does not examine it closely. It would be interesting to see how some older minorities in similar financial straits are dealing with their lack of a safety net as they age.

#16 [2020/CBR12] "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado Perez

A friend of mine recommended Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019) by Caroline Criado Perez to me, and it sounded like something I would find interesting. I've read a number of feminist books that have been pretty eye opening. In fact, going into this book, I suspected there wouldn't be much that would surprise me. I was wrong. Criado Perez hits a wide variety of topics, some familiarly irritating and some astonishing.

Because I've been trying to read more with limited time, I've been listening to more audio books. Audio books tend to work best for me with straight forward stories and interesting non-fiction. I did not have a hard time paying attention to Criado Perez's reading, but I sometimes wished I could have the page to look at when comparing the thousands of statistics that pop up in this book. I'm naturally a little skeptical of statistics without a lot of context because they can be skewed to make a number of different points. I think they would have been easier for me to absorb if I could have looked at them on the page.

Criado Perez begins the book with the unlikely effect of snow removal policy in Sweden on different genders. After it snowed, the policy was to plow the main streets first, and follow that up with the sidewalks and side streets. It seems like a reasonable plan. However, they plow the main streets in order to clear them for going to work. Because there are still gender differences in who is going to work and how they get there, men benefit more than women by having their way to work cleared immediately. Women are more likely to have to deal with getting children to school or daycare, or taking care of older relatives. Even if/when they work, they are often taking care of these chores as well. This means they are more likely to be using the sidewalks and side roads. While cars can generally push through a couple inches of snow, walking or pushing strollers can be much more difficult. What's interesting is that when they switched their policy and hit the sidewalks first, the number of injuries and visits to the emergency room from falls and accidents decreased significantly. It was an interesting example of how government policies can affect genders differently.

Criado Perez continues with a number of different examples from around the world. The unifying theme is that the people creating laws and policies will focus on issues and people they are familiar with. When we have no women making these decisions, women and their needs are often left out of the equation. So policies, products, and laws are created that take men and their needs into account but often ignore or forget women. Criado Perez hits a large number of examples in her book, which is both a strength and weakness. Jumping from country to country with numerous statistics sometimes made the book feel a little scattered. On the other hand, there were a lot of examples, and I found myself thinking differently about the world after I finished this book.

Although Criado Perez focused on maternity policy, representation in government, refugee and aid programs, technology development, technology jobs, and many others, her discussion of car safety standards and drug testing stuck with me the most. Women are more likely to die or be seriously injured in car crashes. Unfortunately, I can't remember all the details now, but car safety standards are formed and tested around the average male body. If they use "female" bodies, they are simply a scaled-down version of the men's and this only started after 2010. Criado Perez used an example of a car that had a five-star safety rating, but when they finally used the female test dummy in the driver's seat, the rating was significantly lower. Half of the population is driving around in vehicles that were designed to keep men safe, and it makes a difference.

In addition, I'd already heard some vague discussion on the news how simply decreasing the dosage of drugs tested on men doesn't work well for women. But this problem isn't going away. Men have higher metabolisms and they react to drugs differently. In addition, women have very different hormones and cycles of hormones than men. Drug companies have decided that men are "simpler" to use as subjects (even though they have their own cycles of hormones). There have been some pushes to include more women in clinical trials and separate out data by sex, but it sounds like it has been largely unsuccessful. When women are consistently left out of medical trials, not only are we unsure exactly how this medication affects women, but they also miss out on the benefits of discovering unintended side effects. I was shocked to learn that men were used for a clinical study on "female viagra." Seriously?

I found this book both interesting and eye opening. The only thing is that this book sometimes felt one-sided. Criado Perez is certainly out to prove a point, which I think she does in a compelling manner. However, she often didn't go into enough detail on each specific subject for me to be convinced that I was hearing the whole story. I sometimes wondered if there was a counterpoint to some of her arguments. On the whole, though, I would recommend this book. Criado Perez hit a number of topics that I'd never thought about. It made me think about the world in a different way.

#14 [2020/CBR12] "The Great Believers" by Rebecca Makkai

I first saw The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai on NPR's Best Books of 2018 List. I was convinced that it was worth reading by the glowing reviews and the many awards--it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award finalist. However, I wasn't sure this was a book I would enjoy reading. The cover and the title don't give much away. The blurb just said it was about 1980's Chicago during the AIDS epidemic and the art scene in Paris in 2015. None of those topics really grab me. I was too young to really know about or understand what was happening with AIDS in the 1980's, and I thought reading about it now would be depressing. I was afraid this would be one of those well-written books that is a struggle for me to read. So that's why it took me until 2020 to finally get around to it.

And I am so glad I did. I was not expecting to get so sucked into the characters and their lives. I think this may turn out to be one of my favorite books of the year. The book begins with Yale and his boyfriend Charlie heading to a memorial for their friend, Nico, who has just died of AIDS. Nico's partner and gay friends were not welcome at his funeral, even though they were his support system and his chosen family. So, instead they were celebrating his life at a friend's house, Richard Campo.

The chapters alternate between Chicago in the 1980's and 2015. In 2015, Fiona, Nico's sister is on a plane to Paris in an attempt to find her daughter, Claire. It takes most of the book to learn why Claire is in Paris, why Fiona knows she's in Paris, and why Fiona is desperate to find her. Fiona is staying with her old friend, Richard Campo, who is now a famous, successful photographer living in Paris.

This book doesn't really follow an expected narrative. There are many characters, and like in our lives, some big ones fall out, while other peripheral characters become more important. Yale, however, is a man we follow throughout the book. He and Charlie are lucky enough to have recently tested negative. Charlie is an outspoken editor of a gay Chicago weekly while Yale works for Northwestern in development for a new Art Gallery. I was unexpectedly drawn into Yale's life when Fiona's great aunt wants to donate some famous never-before-seen art that she obtained when she was a model in Paris right after the war. Fiona's son doesn't even understand how much it's worth, but he detests Yale and wants to keep the art for himself. It was definitely some good family drama as well as a love story from the past.

I don't want to get into any more plot details, but I will say I was at first more interested in the 1980's story than the 2015 Paris story. I don't think that ever really changed, but I appreciated what was happening in 2015 and how it connected to the past the more I read. This jumping around in time and seeing Fiona at two very different points in her life reminded me of A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Seeing Fiona as the rebellious 20-year-old young woman, angrily shunning her parents and taking care of her tribe, and then seeing her as the 50-year-old woman looking for her daughter was striking. She was so different, but still obviously shaped by the events in her past. 

This book was a wonderful surprise. I felt like I was back in Chicago, living through the fear and devastation with the characters. I loved it. Highly recommended.

***SPOILERS***

Yale and Fiona do eventually become the main characters of this novel. Fiona is the one who stays and the one who survives, taking on the burden of everyone else's suffering and death. It affects her ability to love later in life. But I think Yale's story made me even sadder. He's busy living his life, safe in the knowledge of his negative test, focused on obtaining the art from Fiona's great aunt when his whole life is turned upside down. It turns out that Charlie was cheating on him, exposing him to AIDS, even though he was the poster boy for using condoms. Makkai gives hints of this in the beginning of the book, so I saw it coming, but it was still devastating.

But Yale's life continues in unexpected ways. Yale doesn't make it in the end, but when he knows he's dying he makes the sweetest and romantic connection to Asher, a lawyer friend of his. They only kiss once and hold hands walking down the street, but knowing what could have been is both unbearably sweet and heartbreaking. And even their one moment together on the street, already overshadowed by their sickness and impending separation, is battered by a homophobe yelling at them. Asher refuses to let go of Yale's hand, and they pretend they don't hear him.

***END SPOILERS***

"[B]ut Yale was busy wondering if this was the governing factor of his life: the fear of getting his heart broken. Or rather, the need to protect the remaining scraps of his heart, the ones torn smaller by every breakup, every failure, every funeral, every day on earth." (52)

"Julian turned and gave him a sad, beautiful smile. 'Can you imagine the party? When they cure it?'" (104)

"This disease has magnified all our mistakes. Some stupid thing you did when you were nineteen, and the one time you weren't careful. And it turns out that was the most important day of your life." (196)

"She was struck by the selfish thought that this was not fair to her. That she'd been in the middle of a different story, one that had nothing to do with this." (317)

"It's always a matter, isn't it, of waiting for the world to come unraveled? When things hold together, it's always only temporary." (318)

"I think that's the saddest thing in the world, the failure of love. Not hatred, but the failure of love." (353)

"If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it's not." (401)

"Legislation of health care is still based on subconscious (or even conscious) prejudices about who deserves to live and who doesn't." (Readers Guide 421)

#7 [2020/CBR12] "She Said" by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Wow, I did not think I was going to delve into this topic as much as I have. I recently picked up and read Catch and Kill on a whim when I saw it at the library. Even though I already knew Weinstein was an asshole, I could not stop reading it. So, when I finished, I decided to read She Said (2019) by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. I figured it was only fair to read the book by the reporters who were first to break the story. I didn't want to discount them just because they don't have a famous name. And I was very impressed. Both books were very interesting and enlightening, and I would definitely recommend reading both of them.

Because I read She Said after Catch and Kill, I could not help but compare the two books. Obviously, they are both about the investigation into the long lasting sexual harassment and assault perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein. All of the reporters had issues with getting sources to trust them and go on the record. All of the reporters dealt with the power and influence of Weinstein as they tried to find and tell the story. However, the focus of the books is surprisingly different. It's fascinating to see how the same basic story came about in such different ways.

Farrow's book is more personal. He talks a lot about how stressful it was for him to have people following him and his bosses working against him. Much of his story is the fight at NBC to get the story and get it published. In addition, he discusses how his sister's experiences and opinion influenced him as he worked. He even mentioned that Weinstein called Woody Allen (Farrow's father) for advise on how to deal with "these kinds of allegations." It boggles the mind.

Kantor and Twohey don't bring as much of their personal life into it, but it was especially fascinating to see the striking difference between the editors at NBC and The New York Times. While Farrow was running into a brick wall everywhere he turned, there was absolutely nothing like that at The Times. Weinstein tried to contact and influence the NYT editor, and he simply did not take Weinstein's calls. It was refreshing and made me proud of my subscription to The New York Times. It also made NBC look even worse. I'm looking at you, Noah Oppenheim.

Another difference is that She Said took a slightly more broad approach. Kantor and Twohey put Weinstein into perspective and discussed it's influence on the #MeToo movement. They begin the book with the allegations against Trump before the election, and they end the book with Christine Blasey Ford's allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. In the last chapter, the reporters invite a number of women they've reported on to get together and discuss their experiences.

Farrow's book started with Ambra Gutierrez and the case the NYPD had against Weinstein. He spent a lot of time trying to get the audio tape, and he goes into a lot of detail to explain how Weinstein eventually silenced Gutierrez. On the other side, Kantor and Twohey looked into Gutierrez but were told by a very unreliable source (Linda Farstein--who sold her soul to Weinstein) that there was no case there, and they didn't look into it further. Instead, their story began with Hollywood insiders like Gwyneth Paltrow and Lena Dunham giving the reporters tips and contact information.

Like Catch and Kill, there were a number of people--besides Weinstein, of course--who really irritated me. Lisa Bloom comes across very poorly in both books. A number of other people on Weinstein's payroll put money over morality, including Weinstein's attorney, David Boies. Linda Farstein was a former Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor who helped Weinstein get away with sexual assault and then didn't tell Kantor and Twohey that she worked for him.

I am very glad I stumbled upon Catch and Kill, which then led me to She Said. After not having much interest in a subject I thought I knew, I've learned so much. I would definitely recommend both of these books.

"Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed." (260)

#1 [2020/CBR12] "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe

"Claude Lévi-Strauss once observed that, 'for the majority of the human species, and for tens of thousands of years, the idea that humanity includes every human being on the face of the earth does not exist at all. The designation stops at the border of each tribe, or linguistic.'"

I was quite lucky to read Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (2019) as my first book of 2020. My book club chose it as our next book, so I was already reading it when I discovered that it was also one of Obama's 2019 book recommendations. This book was a well-written mix of murder/mystery and some history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The mystery is all about finding out what happened to Jean McConville in 1972. It's hard to get a more sympathetic victim. She was a recently widowed, mother of ten children, and only 38 years old. She was taken from her apartment in front of her children at gunpoint and was never seen or heard from again. It was assumed it was the work of the Provos, a more violent faction of the IRA. McConville's children were left orphans, separated, and sent to government institutions and orphanages. Many of them faced deplorable conditions and abuse.

In order to understand the circumstances surrounding McConville's disappearance, Keefe writes a lot about the years of The Troubles in Ireland. It is embarrassing how little I knew about The Troubles going into this book, so I learned a lot while reading this. While the Republic of Ireland is majority Catholic, Northern Ireland is a British territory and majority Protestant. A sizable Catholic minority in Northern Ireland faced severe discrimination. Many were nationalists who wanted the British out and to be reunited with the Republic of Ireland. Many of the Protestants were unionists interested in staying under Britian's rule.

In elaborating on The Troubles and the work of the Provos and Catholic Nationalists, Keefe focused on four people heavily involved at the height of the violence. Dolours Price and her sister Marian initially preferred non-violent means for change. But after being attacked while marching for peaceful change, Dolours changed her mind and joined the Provos. Dolours and Marian rose quickly in the ranks and became part of a secret group of leaders. Dolours came up with and masterminded a plan to deploy car bombs in London.

Dolours was a fascinating character: bright, charismatic, and likable. She was also a woman who defied gender roles, which I found rather inspiring. At the same time, she was very young and Keefe portrayed her as probably caught up in the excitement of the operations without truly understanding the consequences--certainly the long-term consequences.

There was violence and hypocrisy on both sides of this conflict, but because Keefe focused on the Provos, that's where it was really obvious. I was very irritated reading about how Dolours and other Provos righteously argued that any violence they perpetrated was justified. Or when they blew up a bomb near Harrod's in London close to Christmas, and then said they weren't trying to kill civilians. When reading with hindsight and the objectivity of not being personally involved, the violence seems wholly unnecessary and detrimental.

Besides the Price sisters, Keefe also wrote a lot about Brendan Hughes and Gerry Adams. Adams was a great one for hypocrisy. As one of the leaders of the Provos, he always kept himself out of the fighting, only directing the action. As the years went by, Adams found himself gaining more power by focusing on politics. When he did this, he continuously denied ever being a part of the IRA, even though it was a ridiculous lie. As unlikable as he was, though, he was also instrumental in finally obtaining some peace in Northern Ireland.

There was a lot going on in this book, and I found it both educational and fascinating. Not only do we see the violent actions of the youthful Provos in the late 60's and 70's, but we also see what became of those fighters as they aged and the world changed. I would definitely recommend this book.

***SPOILERS***
As the book continues, we learn that Jean McConville was one of about twenty people that the IRA "disappeared" during The Troubles. It sounds like McConville was murdered and secretly buried on the direct orders of Gerry Adams--the Gerry Adams who denied being in the IRA and later met with McConville's family, sympathetically telling them that he hoped they would find their mother's body. We also discover who likely shot the gun that was responsible for Jean McConville's death.

However, I felt slightly unsatisfied with the conclusion. Dolours later says that McConville was killed by the IRA because she was a spy for the British. But Keefe argues how unlikely that would be, and I agree. What I wanted to know was why the IRA thought McConville was a spy. Sure, I now know who pulled the trigger, but it was this misinformation that led to McConville's death. Hughes and Dolours had different, but specific, stories of how McConville had worked with the British. If they weren't true, where did they come from? I guess it's just another theme of the book that history is dependent on memories and the willingness to talk, and sometimes you just can't get both.

#54 [2019/CBR11] "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond

I cannot believe it took me this long to read Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2017) by Matthew Desmond. Years ago, my book club read this book, but for some reason I didn't get around to it before the meeting. I was always planning on reading it anyway. It won the Pulitzer Prize, it's on NPR's Best Books of 2016 List, and even Obama recommended it. But there were always other books to read, and I was afraid it might be tedious.

And then I finally sat down to read it. This book tells the personal stories of a number of people living in the poorest sections of Milwaukee in 2008 and 2009. They deal with multiple evictions and fight to stay afloat. Many of them also struggle with addiction, mental illness, and past physical and sexual abuse. Although this book is often difficult to get through, it was not tedious at any point. At times I was racing through this book because the discomfort of their lives weighed on me so heavily. I was desperate for some kind of closure. Unfortunately, what starts out badly, usually also ends badly. Desmond makes some calls for reform at the end of the book, including expanding the voucher program. He has shown that it is desperately needed.

Desmond focuses on two areas in Milwaukee. The first is a run-down trailer park in the South (white) part of the city. It is there that we meet Scott, the opiate-addicted former nurse, Larraine, and Pam. Pam is pregnant when she is evicted from the trailer park. She had just handed over her EITC check to the landlord, but it is not enough. He takes it and evicts her. She is desperately searching for a home before the new baby comes, but she and her boyfriend have a history of evictions and arrests. They also have children, which statistically make it harder to find a place and easier to get evicted.

Desmond also goes to the North Side, the part of the city that is predominantly black. We meet Sherrena, a landlord that owns dozens of properties in the poorest part of the city. She works hard, and spends a lot of time collecting rent and dealing with her properties. She also spends a lot of time on evictions. Her tenants include Lamar, Doreen, Arleen, and Crystal. We later meet Vanetta when she and Crystal become friends at a homeless shelter.

Every single one of their stories is both difficult and tragic. Arleen is evicted from her place after her son throws a snowball at a passing car and the man kicks down their door. The rest of the book, she is racing, trying to find another place to stay, and trying to stay ahead of the bills. She is evicted from another place when she gets behind in rent after her sister dies and she helps pay for the funeral. The number of moves is difficult to track, and her kids suffer for it. With so much instability, they are also constantly moving schools. I cannot imagine what that kind of childhood would feel like.

Everyone is so desperate to find a place to live that they can't be picky about having appliances that work, toilets that flush, sinks that don't leak, or windows that aren't broken. The neighborhoods are often dangerous.

Crystal is only eighteen, and she meets Arleen when Sherrena shows her the apartment that Arleen is about to be evicted from. Crystal allows Arleen and her boys to stay. Crystal was abused as a child, and then put in a long list of foster homes. At eighteen and on her own, she has an IQ of about 70. It is not surprising with her upbringing that she suffers from PTSD, bi-polar disorder, and a host of other mental health issues. Crystal has a hard time keeping friends because she tends to blow up at them. But she is passionate about church, and it seems to make her feel happy. Crystal loses her SSI check when she becomes an adult. She becomes homeless and starts prostituting herself.

The tragedies that occur in this book are too numerous to account in any detail. There is the house fire, and there is Vanetta, who was making things work until her hours were cut down at The Country Buffet. I thought some of Desmond's best writing occurred at the end of Vanetta's story.

There were a couple of points Desmond made in this book that really took me by surprise. The first was that rents in the inner city and/or in really bad neighborhoods were only marginally cheaper than rents in better neighborhoods and fixed-up apartment buildings. If the demand is there, and people have no power to negotiate, then that's what happens. What makes this worse, was that many of the people Desmond was following were relying on SSI checks to survive. These checks were often between $600-$800. Rent was often at least $600. Tenants had to make the choice between paying rent and buying food. Or paying rent and paying the power bill. I cannot imagine such a high percentage of my income going to housing. I cannot imagine the stress of trying to survive.

Another point that surprised and angered me was the Milwaukee nuisance law that Desmond describes. If 911 is called to an address three times in 30 days, it is labeled a nuisance property. The landlord is contacted and required to take action or face pretty severe consequences. Most of the time, the landlord's plan of action was an eviction. These plans had to be approved by the police, and the eviction plan was always looked upon favorably. What's really bad about this law, though, is that domestic violence was labeled a nuisance. Desmond found a long list of crimes against women that often resulted in those women being evicted because they called the police. At this time in the state of Wisconsin, one victim per week was murdered by a current or former romantic partner or relative. The police chief wondered why women didn't call for help earlier! Because they didn't want to get evicted! I can see noise complaints or an argument being a nuisance, but when a woman gets bleach thrown in her face that is a crime with a victim. And forcing that woman out of her home does not help her situation.

Racism is tied into this, too. Similar calls are more likely to be labeled "nuisance calls" in Black neighborhoods. If you are Black, you are often restricted to certain neighborhoods to look for housing. Black women have to deal with the most evictions--even when other factors are taken into account. Perhaps I am a little naive, but I was a little surprised at the virulent racism from many of the tenants in the trailer park. I was also surprised to find out that Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the United States.

At the end of the book, Desmond said that seeing all of this pain and lost hope was very difficult for him, and it stayed with him for years. "It leaves an impression, this kind of work. Now imagine it's your life." His book made an impression on me, and I was much more removed from the situations than he was. I am left grateful at my safe and steady life, and convinced that we need to do more.

#40 [2019/CBR11] "American Prison" by Shane Bauer

Like many of the books I read this year, I found American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer on NPR's Best Books of 2018 list. I love NPR's list. There are so many books and genres to choose from, and most of them have been very interesting and readable. I'm eagerly awaiting their 2019 list, but I haven't seen it yet. I really hope they haven't discontinued it. In addition, American Prison was one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2018.

Shane Bauer is a reporter for Mother Jones. In 2014, Bauer went "undercover" as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. He was paid $9 an hour. Undercover is in quotes because Bauer used his real name and did not lie on his resume. Very little if any kind of background check was done, and Bauer was hired immediately.

American Prison alternates between Bauer's four months spent as a prison guard, and the history of for-profit prisons in the United States--primarily the South. Jumping back and forth between the present and past, as well as the prison history in so many different states could sometimes be confusing. However, I found Bauer personable and relatable. He seemed very honest about his experiences, and it was a glimpse into a world that I know very little about.

Bauer goes into great detail about his experiences, from his training to his days spent with the prisoners. Most days, he has a pen with a microphone, so he is able to recount conversations word for word. He often hears guards speaking callously about the prisoners, which honestly did not surprise me. Jailing people is a way of dehumanizing them, and the guards could probably not continue to do their job without putting up some pretty strong emotional barriers.

However, a number of other aspects of American Prison did surprise me. I'd known generally about the imprisonment of black men after the Civil War as something of a continuation of slavery. However, I did not know the details. When Bauer writes about the history of for-profit prisons, he discusses the brutality that surrounded these prisons. Men and boys (some white, but mostly black) were picked up for a wide variety of crimes--some as meaningless as getting off the train in the wrong town. Then they were worked, often until death, brutally beaten if they did not perform to expectations. I don't remember the statistics exactly, but the death rate at these places could be as high as fifty percent, significantly more than slavery. In addition to the big picture, Bauer tells a number of specific, heartbreaking stories of people who suffered cruelly.

Another surprise for me was how bad the working conditions were for the guards at the prison. The guards are put in very dangerous and difficult situations, and they're paid $9 and hour! WalMart was paying similar wages, and I would work there in a second over a prison. In addition, the guards are very short staffed and very much outnumbered. I was surprised to learn that the guards were often afraid of enforcing the rules because they were afraid of physical retribution from the inmates. Bauer was often balancing the responsibilities of his position, and what he was in a position to enforce.

One of the sadder stories in Bauer's prison was a man who committed suicide. He had obvious mental health issues and stated that he needed help and was going to kill himself. I know that sometimes you can't help people no matter how hard you try, but in this case the prison did not have the resources to put him on suicide watch. They ignored his pleas, and he killed himself.

I learned a lot while reading this book. Bauer's personal experiences were honest and thorough, and they added a new perspective to this topic. In addition, the history of private prisons brought some context and showed what can happen when profit is put above people.

#27 [2019/CBR11] "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

I've decided that Michelle Obama is on the top of my list of people I'd like to sit next to on an airplane. Chris Hadfield is also on that list, and Barack Obama as well--although Michelle comes out on top. I'd obviously heard about Michelle Obama's book Becoming (2018) when it first came out, but it took me awhile to get around to it. I already had a long reading list, and I do tend to avoid political books. I picked up this one because Obama is so likable, and I knew just enough about her life to be intrigued.

And I loved Becoming. I came out of it with a better idea of Obama's life, her career, the work she did at the White House, and the way she views the world. I found her book relatable, inspiring, interesting, and optimistic. It was written well, with clear explanations and themes, but it was Obama's personality and her unique experiences that made this book so good.

Obama begins at the beginning, with her childhood and growing up on the South side of Chicago. Her parents rented the upper story of her great aunt's house, where she lived along with her older brother. I've read a lot of autobiographies by women, and they've all been really good. However, they almost always contain harrowing stories of neglect, abuse, rape, and other traumas that the author managed to persevere through. These stories are enlightening and inspiring, but they now have me expecting the worst. I didn't realize how tense I was until Obama safely made it to adulthood, and I could let out a sigh of relief. Obama didn't have a lot of money growing up, but she had a stable, loving home with parents who were good role models and ensured that she and her brother had opportunities and a good education. If only all children could be so lucky.

I perhaps related most to Obama during her time at college and law school. She was driven, and worked hard to succeed. It sounds like she went to law school because it was yet another checkbox  of success. And like me, she decided that the law may not be her calling. So, she moved on to jobs that involved working with the community. I thought Obama was incredibly brave to give up her safe, law firm job and go after something with much less security and direction. It was a learning experience to see Obama go into job interviews confidently requesting her required salary and negotiating flexibility so she could take care of her girls. I'm usually just happy to get hired at all, and any kind of salary is a bonus.

I enjoyed reading about Barack Obama through Michelle's eyes. I am even more impressed with him now. The story of them meeting and their subsequent relationship is interesting and sweet. And when Barack decided to get into politics, I could relate to Michelle's disinterest in the whole thing. I admired Obama's honesty about the stress in their marriage when their kids were young and how therapy helped them.

Finally, Obama discusses what it was like to move into the White House for eight years and live with the constant scrutiny of the public as well as the secret service following your every move. I'm pretty sure that would be my worst nightmare, but Obama handled it with strength and grace--focusing on what she could do to help others and make sure her girls had a semi-normal life.

Michelle Obama is a unique combination of a relatable everywoman and a superstar. I kept thinking I could be friends with her, and then I would remember that I am not Beyonce. Highly recommended.

#15 [2019/CBR11] "Our Bodies, Ourselves" by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective

The last book I read from my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 was Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves first came about in the late 1960s. Since then numerous editions and expansions have been written, with the latest edition published in 2011. The latest version is an 825 text book on women's health and sexuality in the United States. Because of the length and subject, I bought this book months ago and read it in small chunks so I wouldn't tire of it.

When I first noticed Our Bodies, Ourselves on the list of books I had decided to read, I wasn't too excited. Text books aren't always thrilling, and I did not know it had been rewritten throughout the years. I thought I'd be reading a health text from the 1970s. Fortunately, I was wrong on a number of points. 

Although I can't necessarily recommend picking up this book and reading it cover to cover, I really admire what the authors are doing with this project. This is a book written for women, by women. It covers topics including: puberty, child birth, birth control, abortion, menopause, relationships, violence against women, sexually transmitted infections, health care, as well as common diseases and cancers. The book is written in a non-judgmental, informative style that feels inclusive. Small blurbs from women describing their varying experiences make the book feel more personal. These blurbs show the wide array of what women have encountered and their responses. The idea is that knowledge is power, and the more women know about their health and bodies, the better off they will be. 

Although this book is defiantly feminist and progressive, it seeks to inform choices rather than dictate. Each type of birth control described clearly states how effective it is (both when used correctly and real world numbers), side effects, positives, and negatives. Then the choice is left up to you depending on your health, your needs, and your personal priorities. I have to admit that I thought I was pretty well-informed and would not learn much from this book. However, even the first chapter describing the anatomy of women's sex organs was sometimes illuminating. In addition, it was nice to get some concrete, side-by-side numbers on the newer birth control options. 

With a book covering this vast amount of information, it is, by necessity, pretty general. The book quite often includes links, websites, and other places to go for more help and information. Occasionally, there would be a sidebar describing efforts to make informative books and pamphlets for women in different countries around the world--written and presented by women in those countries. The book felt like a very unifying project that seeks to help women get the most out of their lives.

I can see Our Bodies, Ourselves being a helpful reference book to keep on your shelf as a clear, informative guide when questions pop up regarding health and sexuality. If all teenage girls could somehow know all the information in this book, I think women, on the whole, would be so much better off.

Finally, I have to admit that I have decided to read only 49 out of the 50 books before I turn 40. I began reading The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir with very good intentions. Beauvoir is a remarkable, impressive woman. However, about thirty pages into it, I realized I had another 830 very dense pages to go, and I just couldn't do it. It was such a relief to give up on it, and now I'm back to reading whatever I want.

#3 [2019/CBR11] "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende

I've read a number of books by Isabel Allende, and I'm sure I'll read more. However, I didn't know about The House of the Spirits (1982) until I saw it on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. As Allende's first novel, it seems quite personal in nature. Apparently, Allende began writing it as a letter to her 100-year-old grandfather when she heard he was dying. There are some parallels with her real life.

The House of the Spirits is pretty dense and comes in at almost 500 pages. There is so much going on in this story that it's difficult to summarize, but I'll try. Allende tells the history of four generations of the del Valle/Trueba family in an unnamed country that closely resembles Chile. There is a maternal connection between the four generations of women in the family, beginning with Nivea del Valle, her daughter Clara (who marries Esteban Trueba), Clara's daughter Blanca, and Blanca's daughter Alba. Besides these mother/daughter relationships always being close and meaningful, Allende makes all of their names mean light or white. There is always tension between the Conservative, hard-line stances of their husband/father/grandfather, Esteban Trueba and the effort these women go to in order to help the poor and downtrodden. There is a third-person narrator for most of the story. The only two characters who get a little time from their own perspective are Esteban Trueba and his granddaughter Alba.

Nivea del Valle and her husband Severo are a well-to-do family with some political connections. Clara is their youngest daughter, and Clara has some paranormal powers. She is able to move objects around the room, sometimes tell the future, and see auras.

Esteban Trueba comes from a fine family name, but his father ruined the estate and the family is living in poverty. He is engaged to Clara's sister, Rosa, a woman of unearthly beauty, and he goes out to the mines to earn a fortune worthy of her. When Rosa dies accidentally from poisoning meant for her political father, Trueba is devastated. He leaves the city, heading for his family's ruined estate of Tres Marias. With a lot of hard work and the help of bullied peasants, he brings the estate back to its former glory. However, Trueba is burdened with an extreme temper and arrogance. He only sees the good that he does for the peasants on his estate. He does not care that he pays them in scrip that is only good at his store, effectively imprisoning them on his land. No matter how hard they work and how prosperous he becomes, the peasants are stuck in the same position. Also, Trueba has no qualms about raping any of the peasant women (and girls) that were unfortunate enough to be in his power or come to his attention. He is not even aware enough to care about all the damage he is doing.

With his success, he comes back to the del Valle family and offers marriage to Clara, who accepts him. The two live in a large house in the city and have three children, including Blanca. Trueba passionately loves Clara , but Clara lives in the clouds. Trueba is obsessed by his inability to truly possess her. Clara's daughter, Blanca grows up with summers at Tres Marias, where she meets the son of the foreman, Pedro Tercero Garcia. They have a true connection throughout childhood and grow to love each other. Pedro Tercero Garcia becomes an agitator for change in the landed estates and is banned from Tres Marias by Trueba. Pedro Tercero defies this ban, and he consistently returns for secret trysts with Blanca.

All hell breaks out when Trueba discovers what's occurred. And when Blanca turns out to be pregnant (with Alba), he forces her to marry a French Count for the sake of propriety. The marriage does not work out and Blanca ends up at the Trueba's city home right before she gives birth. Alba is a sweet child and perhaps one of the only people who humanizes her grandfather. He loves her, despite their disparate views on the country.

When the conservatives finally lose the latest election, Trueba thinks the communists are going to take over and he encourages a military coup. When it occurs, the brutal, murderous result is more than what he expected. Alba is caught up as she tries to help those who are in danger get out of the country, thinking that being the granddaughter of Esteban Trueba will keep her safe. In the end, what started as rape and mistreatment by Esteban Trueba comes full circle back into his life "...and so on down through the centuries in an unending tale of sorrow, blood, and love." (480)

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. There was a lot going on and it consistently kept my attention. However, there was something in the way it was written that kept me from feeling too connected to the characters. Between the magical realism and paranormal elements as well as four generations of drama, I always felt a step apart from what was happening. It wasn't until the end with Alba that I felt viscerally what was happening to her. Allende may have done that on purpose, I'm not sure.

What really struck me about this book was the push and pull between the political right and left, especially within the Trueba family. Esteban Trueba is a character that I wanted to hate, and he represented everything about the rich, conservative class that is abhorrent. But Alba loved him. And it was obvious that he had no clue what he was doing when he tried so hard to possess and control everyone and everything around him. Esteban Trueba lived a life of sad desperation.

Being a very rational and practical person, I didn't really understand the paranormal elements in this novel. I had a hard time reconciling them with the political realities in the book. However, this was a powerful, nuanced novel, and I'm glad I read it.

#1 [2019/CBR11] "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

I vaguely remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee in school, but I'm glad I decided to reread it when I saw it on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. I can't remember how old I was when I first picked it up, but as I reread this book I realized that I'd forgotten many of the details of the story. In addition, my perspective has changed dramatically. When I first read the book, I wholly identified with Scout. There also must have been some parts of the story that went over my head. Now that I'm an adult with some legal training and much more awareness of race and injustice, I both appreciated this book more and had some quiet problems with it.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an undeniable classic. It won a Pulitzer Prize, is on all kinds of lists, and is widely read by schoolchildren and adults alike. I was impressed by the impact of both the writing and the story.

The book begins when the precocious, tomboy Jean Louise "Scout" Finch is only six years old. An adult Jean Louise is looking back at the events that led up to the summer when her brother Jem broke his arm. Jem is four years older than Scout, and the book covers the two summers leading up to Jem's injury. Jem and Scout live with their widowed father, Atticus, and their housekeeper/nanny Calpurnia. Jem and Scout are content to spend their summer days carousing the neighborhood with their friend, Dill. They are a little obsessed with their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley, who has not left his house since he was a young man, and they get into some trouble trying to discover him.

It takes a little while for the news to filter down to Scout, and even longer for her to understand, that her father was appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a local "negro" on the charges of rape of a poor, young woman, Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson is assumed guilty and Atticus and his kids are judged for his defense of him. Atticus feels that Tom Robinson deserves a solid defense even though he has little to no chance of being found innocent. In a small, Southern town characterized by incredible systemic racism and before black men (or women) could even be on juries, Atticus's defense of Tom Robinson was isolating, dangerous, and brave. When Robinson is transferred to the local jail for the trial, Atticus takes it upon himself to ensure his safety from a possible lynch mob.

Scout is a unique and memorable character. Her description of school and her resistance to conform to what was expected of her as a lady was fun to read. In addition, seeing the drama of lynch mobs, trials, and injustice from the eyes of a child is a different and affecting way to tell this story. I think it has a lot of good things to say about injustice and treating people equally and with kindness. Atticus Finch is almost too perfect and honorable to be true. He is always patient, wise, and never afraid. He stands up for what is right no matter the consequences. However, since we are seeing him through Scout's eyes, it's very possible she misses some of his inner turmoil.

Reading this book as an adult, I realized that I focused more on Tom Robinson than Scout--after all his story is the most tragic and unjust. I've read a number of books about racism and oppression as seen through the eyes of white people (The Power of One, The Help) and this one is very similar. The white person is the hero, and the book is all about how the racism affects them. The injustice of Tom Robinson's story is enraging and heartbreaking, and it seems too easily put away in the end with Ewell's death. I would like a writer (a really, really good writer who wouldn't ruin it) to tell this story from Tom Robinson's point of view.

As the only person in town willing and brave enough to defend a black man, Atticus is a hero. But something still rubbed me the wrong way. Atticus knows that everything he's doing will not make any difference. Although Atticus says that he is hopeful that the conviction will be overturned on appeal, he never says what those grounds might be. There are questions of fact, which are for the jury to decide. The jury heard conflicting testimony and decided they believed the Ewell family. I don't see how the appellate court, even if they are sympathetic to a young, black man in Alabama in the 1930's (unlikely) could possibly overturn the conviction. So Atticus has become a willing participant in a charade of justice. I realize he is doing everything he can and certainly going above and beyond, but I was so angry at what was happening that I was angry at Atticus for even being involved. What good is he actually doing? Realistically, I don't know what else Atticus could have done, and it is a testament to the book that the story makes me feel so strongly.

#60 [2018/CBR10] "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan has been on my radar for years as a classic feminist tome that I should probably read. However, I was always intimidated by the length. I was also afraid that it would be dated and difficult to read. It wasn't until I saw it on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List that I had the motivation I needed to pick it up. It's easy for me to take the opportunities I have today for granted. Books like The Feminine Mystique remind me of a very different society where the limits and expectations put on women were much more restrictive. I was impressed by Friedan's writing, and I found large sections of the book to be fascinating and eyeopening. Even though other sections felt a little repetitive and dated, I am glad I read it.

I had heard the story in history class that women had stepped up to work in the factories during WWII but then returned to the home when the soldiers returned and displaced them. What I did not learn about was the incredible pressure put on women to fulfill the "feminine" role of wife and mother. I'd always thought of women's progression as relatively linear throughout history, but Friedan compares the decades before the war with the decades after and reveals a giant step backwards for women.

Friedan states in her book that forcing smart, educated women into such a limited role as "housewife" makes them unhappy, hinders their development, and also makes their families unhappy. Women were forced to stifle their ambition and goals. They were going directly from being wholly dependent on their fathers to wholly dependent on their husbands. Their only goals were to get married and have babies. In this way, they could not fully mature and grow into adulthood. So women invested their lives into that of their husbands and children, overly involving themselves in both. And when their children grew up, the women had nothing left. In the years after WWII, women were marrying earlier and having more children than before the war. After gaining educational opportunities, women were dropping out or refusing opportunities in further education because it would make it more difficult to find a husband.

One of the influences on the feminine mystique that I found fascinating were the articles in women's magazines. Before the war, there were stories of women working, flying planes, and finding their own destinies. If men were involved at all, they were not the central point. After the war, almost all the stories involved women looking for men and married women trying to make their relationships better. Friedan used to write for these magazines and she said the male editors would refuse any content that did not directly relate to homemaking. Thus, there were no articles about the rest of the world.

Another influence that specifically surprised me was education. Institutions of higher education were under some pressure because education was being blamed for making women unfeminine and unsuitable housewives. Some colleges instituted required "Homemaker" courses for female students. These courses often hammered the opinion that women could be a celibate scholar or a happy mother with a home but certainly not both.

Friedan spends one whole chapter on advertising and how the feminine mystique was purposefully manipulated to sell products to housewives by pretending that these products would give women's lives more meaning. With some insider memos regarding advertising strategy, it is clear how advertisers viewed and used women.

In addition to these pressures, women who were unhappy or simply wanted more were accused by doctors and psychologists of being unfeminine or neurotic. Real, feminine women were wholly fulfilled by their roles as mothers and wives.

Friedan is a good writer with a strong and meaningful message, and I liked most of her book. However, it is certainly not perfect. Her chapters on psychoanalysis and therapists felt dated and hard to read. I realize that Friedan was fighting against a storm of "professional opinions" on the value of the feminine mystique, but all her talk of Freud as well as housewives causing Schizophrenia and homosexuality was a little much. Although I found Friedan convincing, I often wished for more statistics and less anecdotal evidence. In addition, Friedan has been fairly criticized in the past for ignoring poor and minority women. There is no doubt that this book is a personal discussion of herself and her contemporaries. Although many women can probably relate to it, it was not written for all women.