Book Review: Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Arlie Russell Hochschild opens the doors of my liberal bubble and bursts its walls in Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. She’s a professor of sociology at University of California in Berkeley, and this does have an instructional...Book Review: Blowout by Rachel Maddow
When I finished Blowout by Rachel Maddow, I had to wash all the residual oil slick off my skin. The book is just that immersive in the oil industry. Not to mention a different kind of Kremlin-based, Putin-esque oiliness. Wow, this book contains nothing less than a...Book Review: How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi covers a lot of ground in How to be an Anti-Racist. I believe we all are his intended audience, no matter our race, color, sexual or gender identities, political affiliation, or any other segmentation you might consider. He makes it clear that this...Book Review: Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
Johann Hari did so much more than enlighten me in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. I met all the players in this war, from the government officials to the cartels and dealers, to those on the global leading edge of...Book Review: When We Were Arabs by Massoud Hayoun
Massoud Hayoun combines two shorter books into one with his debut nonfiction, When We Were Arabs. It’s a family memoir, a political history, and a commentary. He uses his own family’s experience, primarily that of his maternal grandparents, to illustrate a wide...Book Review: White Rage by Carol Anderson, Ph. D.
Carol Anderson, Ph.D tells a lot of hard truths in White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. I believe her one hundred percent, partly because a solid half of this book is scholarly footnotes. And partly because of all the other social justice reading I’ve...Book Review: The DNA of Democracy by Richard C. Lyons
Richard C. Lyons takes on an ambitious project in his history book, The DNA of Democracy. It begins with Egyptian Pharaohs and ends in the early 20th century. And at just over 375 pages, it’s impossible for the author to provide extensive detail on any one time period...Book Review: The Threat by Andrew McCabe
Andrew McCabe tells the story of his FBI career in The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. And the last two main elements of the title are the salient points in his story. First, he fills us in on the way the FBI changed in order to...Book Review: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Alan Weisman considers a conundrum in his book The World Without Us. Can we look at the past in order to see the future? And what if that future didn’t include humans? What would the earth and its revised balance of organisms look and act like?To do this, Weisman...Book Review: Proof of Collusion by Seth Abramson
I confess. It wasn’t easy to read this Seth Abramson book. I spent a lot of it feeling down, depressed, and angry. But what we need is clarity, and Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America is absolutely crystal clear.It explains exactly how Trump has been...Book Review: Where We Go From Here by Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders writes and publishes unabashedly campaign-related books. Where We Go From Here is definitely that, although it was published before he officially entered the 2020 Presidential race. Essentially, it discusses his activities from the time of the 2016...Book Review: The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye
In The Paragon Hotel, Lyndsay Faye brings us a character nicknamed Nobody. She’s actually Alice James, but is skilled at disappearing into the corner of a room or a street. She uses some disguise, but mostly changes voices and attitudes to blend in. It’s a skill she...Book Review: Unmentionable by Therese Oneill
Apparently, I get easily depressed these days. I thought Therese Oneill’s book, Unmentionable, was funny. Until it was just overwhelmingly sad and depressing. Sometimes history can be like that, though. And this book focuses on various parts of women’s lives in the...Book Review: We Are The Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama
E.J. Dionne and Joy-Ann Reid edited this volume of selected speeches by President Barack Obama. The 27 speeches date from 2002 to 2017, and include some well-known and some more obscure moments. Each speech has an introduction from the editors that puts in context,...Book Review: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, edited by Bandy X. Lee
I purchased this group of essays, edited by Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M. Div., in 2017. However, this month was the perfect time to read them. The issue of President Donald Trump’s psychological makeup has been making more headlines and tweets than ever. In fact, it was his...Purchase My Book
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