by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 5, 2022 | RESIST: Politics, RESIST: Social Justice
The essays in The 1619 Project, created and edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine, are more vital reading than ever. This week’s events at the Supreme Court have proven that. We’re watching the dismantling of privacy and human rights here in...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 28, 2022 | RESIST: Politics, RESIST: Social Justice
Lily Geismer covers tremendous political, social, and historical ground in Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality. Starting with mindset changes in the post-Carter, Reagan-era Democratic Party, Geismer works through fifty years of policies....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 16, 2022 | RESIST: Politics
Jonathan M. Metzl began researching his 2019 book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed. As a physician, he wondered why people who benefited from the insurance and health...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 8, 2022 | RESIST: Politics
Bakari Sellers addresses a few themes in his memoir, My Vanishing Country. Primarily, he talks about being a young black man in rural South Carolina. But his family is also intricately tied to the Civil Rights movement, so this connection influences him daily. He also...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 19, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Wendy Pearlman gathers an oral history in We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria. This focuses on the time period around Arab Spring when in 2011 the Syrian people rose up and protested. As a result, many individuals and families suffered greatly. And...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 12, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Hyeonseo Lee tells her harrowing story in The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story. Growing up in the Northern region of her country, the Chinese border was quite close. Her mother had connections there, and her father had some family. One day, Lee...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 27, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir, RESIST: Politics
Azedah Moaveni writes part memoir and part political discussion in her 2005 book, Lipstick Jihad: Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran. Although the events in this book are over 20 years old, as I read it in 2021 the topics and issues felt relevant....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 2, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Tom Nichols is a credentialed expert discussing The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters in his 2017 book. No irony here. This is a serious subject that relates directly to today’s world. If you’ve spent any time discussing...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 20, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
In 2018 I saw Carol Anderson speak about One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy. I’d just spent my first campaign season knocking doors to canvass for candidates I cared about. Anderson’s talk convinced me that voter suppression is the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 9, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Richard Engel breaks down decades of newsworthy events in his 2016 book, And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East. As a veteran foreign correspondent for various new organizations, he should know. Yes, it’s fascinating. But I also found it...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 27, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Anne Applebaum isn’t an author I’d normally read. But, on the recommendation of a friend, I picked up her book Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism from the library. It’s short but presents a variety of anti-democratic and authoritarian...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 23, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump from Michiko Kakutani sat on my shelf for years, since being published to great acclaim in 2018. Other books related to the political situation during the Trump Administration felt more relevant. After reading...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 29, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Doris Kearns Goodwin creates a behemoth of early twentieth century history in The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. I confess to knowing very little beyond the basics about Roosevelt. Before reading this book, I...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 20, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
John O. Brennan does everything you’d expect in his 2019 memoir Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad. He lived a CIA life. But this isn’t all clandestine stuff, like watching a season of Homeland. While there are some parallels, Brennan...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 2, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
I spent 30 hours listening to Barack Obama in November. Hint: It was the audiobook of his recently released memoir, A Promised Land. I consider it time well spent, as well as an enjoyable listen. And even though I was alive and politically aware during the events of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 18, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
Watching real-life strongman moves while reading Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present from Ruth Ben-Ghiat is both surreal and chilling. But given that the book’s publication date was also the U.S. Election Day, comparisons are inevitable. At least to one of the...
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