“Just to sit for a moment, herself, no one claiming her time or her thoughts or the product of her mind and hands. What other word to call that if not freedom?” Josephine Bell lives on the Bell Creek Plantation in 1852; she cares for her ailing Missus, Lu Anne Bell, in relative comfort (for a slave) but her cruel Master drives her need to escape before the Missus dies. In New York City in 2004 Lina Sparrow has been assigned to a slavery reparations case […]
The Man that Brought Down a Presidency
Well I am unintentionally reviewing two books about the going-ons in the White House back to back. Inside the Residence, which did share some secret insights to the inner workings of the men who run our nation, has nothing on the information Alexander Butterfield shares from his three years in the Nixon inner circle. The Last of the President’s Men is Butterfield’s side of the well known Nixon story; it is handled with care by Nixon aficionado Bob Woodward. My biggest complaint would be the jump between […]
Like *so many* of our presidents hang around naked…
Other title considered “Not a Doomsday Review”. Inside the Residence is one of the few books devoted to the people behind the scenes at the White House. The resident staff maintain the six-floor mansion’s 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases, and prepare everything from hors d’oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Andersen Bower interviews former resident workers (only one current staffer agreed to be interviewed) about their time at the White House. The more expansive […]
Day After Day
I read David Levithan’s Every Day on a family vacation in 2014; Every Day is told from the body jumping teen A’s perspective and the sequel (ish), Another Day, shows the same events through Rhiannon’s eyes. “One last song. One last turn. One last street. no matter how hard you try to keep hold of a day, it’s going to leave you” Rhiannon goes to school one day and her typically distant boyfriend, Justin, is much warmer, happier and he uncharacteristically takes her on a […]
Remembering the Forgotten 500
SOS… SOS… One hundred fifty members of American crew have been waiting for rescue… There are many sick and wounded… Call back… SOS… SOS While I’ve read numerous fiction and non-fiction book set in the traditional European landscape of World War II (England, Germany, France) I have only recently begun broadening my horizons to the other parts of the world affected by the second World War. The Forgotten 500 focuses on Yugoslavia, specifically the town of Pranjane where hundreds of downed airmen congregated under the […]
I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.
Between the World and Me has quickly become required reading for many people and I can see why, particularly in today’s troubling world. Under the advice of my sister I got a copy of the audiobook so I could fully live Coates’ words. Written as a letter to his fifteen year son, following the Michael Brown verdict, Between the World and Me is pure poetry. Short, passionate and beautiful. “My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you […]
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