Sharon McMahon's "The Small and the Mighty" is having a big moment right now. Rightly so as she highlights "twelve unsung Americans who changed the coSharon McMahon's "The Small and the Mighty" is having a big moment right now. Rightly so as she highlights "twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history" with the goal of reminding us that our own individual, hopeful actions can create change. Many, many readers are saying that this is the best book they have ever read and exclaim how it has filled them with hope. If there were ever a moment for "tell me you've never read history before without telling me you've never read history before", this is it. I have some mixed feelings about this book. McMahon has put together an engaging sequence of mini-biographies of notable Americans who have, in small and big ways, altered the course of our history, but it is not the best history book ever, and for some of the people she spoke about, I was not clear exactly what their contribution was or why their actions should make me feel hopeful (sorry!). Also, one of the "unsung" heroes is Rosa Parks, probably one of the least unsung heroes there is. There are many parts of Rosa Parks' life that are unsung-- like how instrumental she was in the pre-planning of the bus boycott (it was not as spontaneous as it is repeatedly told) and how she was an investigator and advocate for women who were raped. She was not a meek, tired, old lady; she was tough. McMahon briefly gets into this other side of Parks, but the majority of her discussion is about her choice to not give up her seat. The fact that this is the main story she chooses tell, rather than how the Black women of Montgomery organized everything and chose MLK, Jr. as the face of the movement, made me a little disappointed and made the book feel like "history-lite". The lack of organization in this book made it very hard to discern who our twelve unsung heroes are. Many people, including Mon Cherie, the WWI pigeon, were discussed. Were we supposed to choose our twelve favorite from the book?
This is probably me being picky (I know, I know), but historical works should be written to stand the test of time. This book felt very "now". McMahon writes this in a very conversational tone, peppering it with slang, and even references Ross from "Friends". I get it, she has a podcast and an audience, and she is being and making history relatable to them as "America's History Teacher". For a podcast, this is great; for a book, it's unserious and diminished the tone. I also listened to the audiobook, and at times she would lower her voice to highlight the seriousness of a point but to such a degree that I couldn't hear. However, there are some things that I really appreciate. She did a good job describing our country's racist past, especially in discussing how slow schools were to integrate after Brown v. Board of Education. I also value her drive to explain how people are a product of their times, and how people who did so much to help others also can have some pretty horrible qualities. And if the goal is to expose more people to our country's past, she is successful in doing that. While I did enjoy learning more about our history, this book didn't quite land for me....more
I have been kind of "anti-people" lately, more so than normal, and Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" kept popping up in my lifI have been kind of "anti-people" lately, more so than normal, and Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" kept popping up in my life. It seemed like a good time to listen to it and maybe give myself a reset. Yes, it's dated and a bit hokey, but Carnegie's lessons about how to work with others to achieve our means is probably even more relevant to today's divisive world. It's pretty basic stuff he shares: how to make others feel important, how to consider other's needs, how to listen and ask questions, how to let others save face, how to encourage and be positive. The hard part about this, and I feel this to be especially true in today's mememe age, is having the willingness to set aside our ego and the need to be right and self-important. Today we are barraged with messages on getting rid of things that do not serve us, and in one case, I saw a reel where the speaker dismissed the "Golden Rule" by saying that if others wanted to be treated better, then they would have treated us better. However, we cannot reach the high road by stooping to other's levels. Some have claimed that Carnegie's advice is manipulative, but all of his tips are geared to create mutually beneficial results for both parties, and much of it is common sense. His advice creates beneficial relationships and makes you into someone that others want to be around and do business with-- someone who looks out for others' interests as much as your own. Listening to it didn’t make me feel less anti-peopley, but it did help adjust my mind in how I deal with them....more
One might not think that a book about the effects of childhood stress would be inspiring, but here we are. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris' "The Deepest Well:One might not think that a book about the effects of childhood stress would be inspiring, but here we are. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris' "The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity" is deeply inspiring as she lays out the groundwork of how to combat and mitigate the effects of toxic stress in children and paving the way to a happier and healthier world. That statement might sound like a moonshot, and for a long time it was and in many ways it still is, but Harris' own journey of learning about the impacts early childhood adversity on our health as children and as adults and how to successfully treat it, demonstrates that it is very well in the realm of possibility. Working as a physician in a high-poverty and high-crime community in the Bay Area, she quickly realized how prolonged exposure to toxic stress not only impacted children mentally, but physically. This prompted her to dive into the research of the myriad ways that stress impacts our bodies and alters our genetic code and drove her to figure out how to effectively diagnose and treat toxic stress in her patients. With her team, they created the "ACES": the Adverse Childhood Experiences Score and created a multi-pronged approach to treatment that includes social workers, nutritionists, therapists, educators, and more. Propelled by the success she witnessed in her patients, she has worked tirelessly to make the ACES a routine medical practice, like screening children for hearing and eyesight. The problems she faced were multitude: many conditions like obesity, diabetes, and addiction stem from ACEs, and the public and medical professionals would rather see them as results of personal failings rather than get into the nitty-gritty uncomfortable conversations about trauma. Others were resistant because they thought it would target and label communities of color and poverty. Others were just plain resistant. Harris writes of how she overcame these obstacles-- getting an ACE score without conversations about trauma and establishing how toxic stress impacts ALL communities-- and got the practice out to medical professionals to create positive change. I listened to this book, but it is very readable. She is down-to-earth, explains the science so that even I can understand it, and has many stories about her patients, her community, and her family to show how toxic stress in childhood plays out. She is also very realistic in her approach and shares her losses as well as her wins. I found myself wanting to call her up and asking how I could help.
Part of me was frustrated while listening to her book. There is still a long way to go to making ACE screening routine. I don't think I have ever had a doctor ask me about my ACES, and I really wish they would. It became apparent to me how ACE impacted my life and my dad's health. I also thought of the upcoming election and how one party (not the one I am voting for) would really like to keep all of us in needless toxic stress because it is politically expedient for them. But as HARRIS reminds us, we all have the capacity to work to the greater good and create positive change....more
Anybody seeing my face on my drive to and from work this past week would have seen my horrified countenance; if they were in the car with me, they wouAnybody seeing my face on my drive to and from work this past week would have seen my horrified countenance; if they were in the car with me, they would have heard the reason why: listening to David Grann's "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder". Grann brings the ill-fated 1741 expedition of the HMS Wager that was wrecked on a remote Patagonian island vividly to life, and I was struck with the same feeling I had when I read the equally horrifying "River of Doubt" by Candice Millard-- happy to be a reader, not a participant. There were a lot of similarities between them: treacherous and dangerous locales, competing egos, everyone on the brink of sanity, "order" rendered arbitrary, death. In 1741, the Wager was sent out in a larger expedition to plunder Spanish ships of their plunder from the "new world", but the boat was plagued with troubles before it even set sail. Lack of a crew meant that men who were sick and ailing were pulled from their sickbeds and sailors who just returned home, eager to see their families after years away, were pulled from their boats. The weather didn't cooperate, and once on sea, more problems prevailed. Somehow they made it around South America's cape, so close to their target, only to be wrecked on a desolate island that provided little sustenance on land or by sea. The captain, a decent leader when times were easy, could not lead when times are hard. And they were hard and led to the mutiny and murder parts. This tale is enthralling. And gross, with scurvy topping the list. It's incredible that anyone survived and made their way back to England. The fact that all of the key players made it back at different times and promoted their versions of the story to the public amid a court marshal is beyond belief. But that's what people do: survive. This is not as strong as "The Killers of the Flower Moon", but these are both very different stories with different endings; however, it is an engaging facet of history that makes one grateful for living in the modern era and not having to live a sea-faring life....more
It's unsurprising that a book called "The Bookshop Woman" would call out to me as I entered the Kew Bookshop (the "Kew-test" bookstore near the famousIt's unsurprising that a book called "The Bookshop Woman" would call out to me as I entered the Kew Bookshop (the "Kew-test" bookstore near the famous gardens), and it is equally unsurprising that I left the little shop with it. Nanako Hanada's memoir about how she moved on from her separation from her husband is unlike anything I have read before. Before and during her marriage, Hanada's life was quite small; she saw herself as a quiet, quirky woman who worked at bookshop, but separation and homelessness prompted her to take more chances by joining an online matching site that allows people to meet and talk to strangers for thirty minutes. This act of putting herself out there and meeting others, who all have their own quirks and goals and vulnerabilities, opens her world in new and surprising ways. It makes her question how she has always seen herself, why she holds onto the beliefs about work and society, and gives her the freedom to transform her life.
What I appreciate about this book is that it also serves as a "how-to" guide for putting yourself out there. She reflects on what she learns about other people, what she learns about herself, and the experiences she has in a very logical way. She works through her anxiety and feelings of vulnerability, and as I read it thought it would be a great book for someone with social anxiety. This book is a good hand-holder for someone wanting to expand their circle. It's also a good reminder that the beliefs that we have about ourselves are not always true: we have the capacity to be more than we think. I docked it a point because the writing is pretty basic and almost too clinical (but that may be because it's a translation).
What would it be like to be born into a world where just about everyone thinks you are dangerous? What would it be like to struggle to feel any emotioWhat would it be like to be born into a world where just about everyone thinks you are dangerous? What would it be like to struggle to feel any emotion and concurrently be judged for your lack of emotional response? What would it be like to find love and acceptance even though you are diagnosed as a sociopath? Patric Gagne, in her memoir, Sociopath, details the struggles of growing up without the full range of emotions and boundaries, and it is a hard road. This book is insightful, challenging, and infuriating as she humanizes sociopathy and the challenge to be accepted for who she is. She realizes early on that she is different from everyone else and has the perception of her personality type, but as a child she lacked the language and meaning to explain how she felt to others, especially her family. Alone, she strives to control and understand her violent and reckless impulses, changing herself to conform what society expects her to be. It is an exhausting life, never living for oneself. This book is ultimately about the power of self-acceptance, and while she originally wrote it to be provide help for other sociopaths, there is a lot here to learn for everyone else, too. Highly recommend!...more
Lawrence Durrell hails Freya Stark's "The Valleys of the Assassins" as the best work of travel writing he has ever read. While it is not quite the besLawrence Durrell hails Freya Stark's "The Valleys of the Assassins" as the best work of travel writing he has ever read. While it is not quite the best work I have ever read (Eric Newby's Love and War in the Appenines hits the top of my list), Freya Stark is who I want to be when I grow up. Her book recounts her adventures traveling as a woman traveling through the Middle East alone with a local guide or two in the 1930's. This alone is kickass, but she often sought places that were just rumors on a map, relying on local's lore and information to find her way. Besides her being an adventurer and a writer, there are many other reasons why I want to be Freya Stark:
1. She explores the world for fun. She is interested in Middle Eastern cultures and learns Arabic and goes off to see these places because she unapologetically wants to. She goes on treasure hunts amongst the brigands and sleeps outside in her sleep sack wearing satin pajamas. She states that "a woman who insists on explaining her motives" as one of "the most wearying objects in creation" (106).
2. She is completely without pretension. She is not there to judge or proselytize but rather to learn and experience. If she finds an artifact or two, she sends them to that country's national museums.
3. She is confident and self-assured. She remains unfazed and holds her own throughout as village leaders, the police, and even her guides try to cow her. She uses respect and her knowledge of their culture to bend them to her will (mostly).
4. She takes accountability for her actions. When she makes a mistake or breaks cultural norms, she owns up to it. While these trips are her expeditions, she tempers her goals when the safety or reputation of her guides is at risk.
5. She is helpful and gives back to the communities she visits. In WWI she gained experience as a nurse and used this training to help the ill and ailing along her way-- even when she knows that it will have a minimal effect.
But mostly it's her interest in people and how it's the connections we make with others that propel our travels: "If I were to enumerate the pleasures of travel , this would be one of the greatest among them--that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature, and seeing it so by surprise and often with the most improbable background, you come, with a sense of pleasant thankfulness, to realize how widely scattered in the world are goodness and courtesy and the love of immaterial things, fair blossoms found in every climate, on every soil" (327). The most engaging parts of her book are when she interacts with others and gets a glimpse into family dramas and shares experiences with others-- to see how people who live very much the same way as they have for thousands of years are still more similar to us than different....more
Adding to the list of dead people I wish I had known is Lawrence Durrell. If you watch The Durrells of Corfu-- that Lawrence Durrell. While the show hAdding to the list of dead people I wish I had known is Lawrence Durrell. If you watch The Durrells of Corfu-- that Lawrence Durrell. While the show has taken great liberties with his character--portraying him as a snobbish intellectual-- he is anything but. Like any good traveler, he has the capacity to let himself get swept along in the adventure, giving himself over to the forces of place. This collection of his travel essays from Corfu, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, and Delphi that make up "The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader" spans forty years of his life, displaying the optimism of his youth to a reflection on people and places one cannot return to and a life well-lived that demands it remain so. His desire to be a good guest and friend beckons a welcome in every port. As he visits ancient ruins and thinks about how the ancients' lives are similar to our own, his travels presage ours today. When he returns to Corfu after many years away, he is disheartened to learn that his writings about the place have made it a popular destination as tourists flock to his favorite beaches and buy tickets to visit his house. In another, he writes about taking a tour around Sicily in the little red bus, capturing the frenzied state of "on-the-bus-off-the-bus" travel and the variety of other travelers one meets. If you have ever taken a group tour, you will know that they have not changed much over the years. His essay "How to Buy a House" is one of the funniest pieces of writing I have read in a long time. When you want to be an armchair traveler, let Lawrence Durrell be your guide....more
Antonia Hylton's "Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum" is more than just a history of Maryland's Crownsville Hospital, originally called tAntonia Hylton's "Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum" is more than just a history of Maryland's Crownsville Hospital, originally called the Hospital for the Negro Insane; it is about our country's long history of racism and inequality, its ownership of Black bodies whether enslaved or free, and its blatant disregard of those who suffer from mental illness regardless of color. Weaving together her own's family's struggles with racism, inequality, and mental illness and expert, in-depth research of Crownsville's history, Hylton shows how much mental illness and anguish is caused by the gross inequities of our country's past and present-- how the exploitation of and negligence towards Black citizens tears apart families and communities. It's a compelling, clear-sighted, and important read. I highly recommend it....more
I wish I could say that I was drawn to Henry Winkler's "Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond" because I cared about the Fonz. Instead it was a review sI wish I could say that I was drawn to Henry Winkler's "Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond" because I cared about the Fonz. Instead it was a review stating that he gives really good advice for combatting negative self-talk. In the grip of a mental crisis of my own making, I really wanted to hear what advice the Fonz offered. Listening to Henry Winkler recount his life-- growing up with his hypercritical parents who escaped Nazi Germany, struggling with undiagnosed severe dyslexia, finding his path as an actor, catapulting to fame on "Happy Days", discovering many paths away from his titular role as as the Fonz, working in the both forgiving and unforgiving Hollywood, and marrying and raising a family-- is quite the tonic. He is very open and matter-of-fact about his struggles and how growing up unable to read in a house that demanded intellectualism made him feel "less than" all of his life and how this feeling did not dissipate despite being one of the most famous TV icons in the 1970s and 80s.
Winkler does give good advice regarding negative self-talk, and the biggest takeaway from it is go to therapy. But what I appreciate about his story is how he didn't let his feelings of not being enough stop him from doing anything; he just told himself to shut up and do it. This lead him to a wide career of actor, producer, director, speaker, and author. He seems ready to do anything at least once. So many people struggle with feeling like they are not enough, and unfortunately, this feeling dictates their lives. I want them to hear Henry's story about embarking on his career that relies so heavily on reading while not being able to read. People should just try for the possibility. I also enjoyed listening to him talk about his wife, children, and his friends. He takes an absolute delight in others and holds those in his circle (and it's a big one) in high esteem. I came away with the feeling that if you were his friend, he would never let you forget it.
Winkler's book belongs next to Michael J. Fox's books to listen to when you need a soul boost. Highly recommend....more
For the longest time I have felt that Paris, with it revolutions and rebuilding, is the most interesting city in the world. But if I cast my sight easFor the longest time I have felt that Paris, with it revolutions and rebuilding, is the most interesting city in the world. But if I cast my sight east, I land on Istanbul, a city that makes Paris looks like child's play. While Paris might straddle the Seine, Istanbul straddles two continents. Despite its revolving door of governments and being razed and reimagined by Napoleon III, Paris has always been decidedly French. Istanbul, in contrast, has a long history of Romans, Greeks, Jews, and Muslims and was under Ottoman rule that collectively managed this hodgepodge of cultures for hundreds of years. Turkey's one great revolution at the hands of Mustafa Kemal irrevocably altered the demographics and way of life for everyone-- mostly to devastating effects as it resulted in genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced relocation.
This shift from empire to nation state is brilliantly recounted in Charles King's "Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul". In a deft 378 pages, King explains the death of the Ottoman Empire and how Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) raised forces against Western occupiers to create a new, modern nation. To bring the country out of the past and into the present, everything was overhauled from changing the calendar, providing equal rights to women, and a forced homogenization of the population. At the center of this historical narrative is the Pera Palace Hotel, built in the late 19th century and home to political intrigue in the first half of the 20th. In a combination of social and political history, King draws upon a wide range of research to make this an informative, entertaining, and at times, heartbreaking, read of a nation that completely reimagines itself and the city at the heart of it all....more
A few years ago one of my friends and I had a year-long book club of reading and discussing works about WWI, so when she recently recommended Lindsey A few years ago one of my friends and I had a year-long book club of reading and discussing works about WWI, so when she recently recommended Lindsey Fitzharris' "The Facemaker" about Harold Gillies, a surgeon who helped pioneer the fields of facial reconstruction and plastic surgery during that war, I had to listen to it. It is fascinating. Today we take plastic surgery for granted, but in the past, changing one's looks was taboo. People believed that one's looks correlated to their character and their morals, and to change one's aspect was seen as duplicitous, hiding their true selves from others. This changed in the carnage of WWI as hundreds of thousands of young men had parts of their faces blown off while fighting for their country. A soldier returning home with a lost limb was seen as heroic and noble; a man without a face, monstrous. Young surgeon Harold Gillies quickly realized the despair these men were in as they faced lives of shame and loneliness and began devising ways to reconstruct their faces. While some variations of plastic surgery have been around since ancient times, WWI was the first time in history that doctors had both the time and a large, continuous stream of patients to develop the craft. There was no shortage of "guinea pigs". Gillies is one of those men who was in the right place at the right time; he not only had the skill and the imagination to take on this task, but he had the compassion and empathy to understand one's need for dignity and a fulfilling life. This continued after the war when he performed the first female-to-male transgender surgery.
I highly recommend this book. You will learn about a lesser-known event in history and so much more. I also recommend her book, "The Butchering Art"....more
Would you believe that the second greatest art heist after the Nazis' pillaging of Europe was committed by an unemployed man who still lived with his Would you believe that the second greatest art heist after the Nazis' pillaging of Europe was committed by an unemployed man who still lived with his mother? Michael Finkel recounts this tale of truth being stranger than fiction in his book, "The Art Thief", about Stéphane Breitwieser, who stole over 200 pieces of art in broad daylight throughout Europe. Breitweiser, who collected unemployment insurance and who mooched off his mother and grandparents, loved Renaissance art, and with the help of his girlfriend, relieved many small museums, auction houses, and churches of priceless treasures to keep in his attic room. Motivated by a desire to be surrounded by beauty and the delusion that only he could really appreciate art, unlike the unwashed masses, he got a thrill adding to his collection, even walking out with up to ten pieces during one visit. Eventually, the authorities caught up to him, but even jail time and the ruination of his mother and girlfriend's lives was not enough to stop him from quitting. Finkel provides a detailed and compelling look into Breitweiser's actions, but ultimately seems a little too in awe of him. He provides various psychological reasons to explain his thefts and states how his actions harm museums, but he is reluctant to make any definitive statement about his actions. As a lover of museums, I wanted more pro-museum stance from Finkel in the way of how damaging this is to culture, the public's access to historical artifacts, and how such thefts can ruin the museum experience for all, with higher entry fees, more security, and more barriers to art. On a personal and picky note, I was very annoyed with Finkel for discussing the 1990 theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and not once mentioning that a Vermeer was stolen, now lost forever. He seemed more upset about the Rembrandts.
This is an interesting story, but I didn't get a big "So What?" from it. If you are interested in art crime, then I recommend it....more
War fascinates me-- not in the commanders, arsenal, and battles-- but in how everyday people respond to their challenging times. Don and Petie KladstrWar fascinates me-- not in the commanders, arsenal, and battles-- but in how everyday people respond to their challenging times. Don and Petie Kladstrup's "Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure" explores how the vignerons (winegrowers) worked to save their wine, their vineyards, and their country from the Nazis. Focusing on families from the main wine regions, the Kladstrups pack a lot into their 248 page book. This makes for a disjointed read with many people to remember. At first, it was frustrating, but once I reminded myself that no one was going to quiz me at the end, I enjoyed it much more. And sometimes which is more important: the who, what, and wheres or the lessons we can take away from someone's experience? Here the lessons are about resistance and survival. As the Nazis invaded and occupied France, the vignerons knew they needed to outsmart them to save their heritage and livelihoods. Germany requisitioned the land and the wines and demanded an enormous supply for the top brass, including Ribbentrop, Goring, Himmler, and Hitler (who didn't even like wine). The winegrowers were expected to produce despite war, poor weather, and a lack of supplies from workers, horses, fertilizer, and copper sulfate. This led to small acts of resistance in the beginning until the war dragged on and German aggression grew worse, and they joined the actual Resistance. Many winegrowers ended up in POW or labor camps, and their heritage of wine kept them sane with a sliver of hope during their ordeal. One prisoner managed to throw a wine party that turned into an all-out extravaganza while another wrote a book about French wines. Both events kept them and their fellow prisoners occupied and distracted from the horrors surrounding them. The biggest lesson is about the global community. The Nazi command created the role of the "weinfuhrer", men in command of French wines during the war. The men selected were those who were already in the wine trade and had deep personal ties to communities in France, some of whom joined the Nazi Party under duress. These men toed the line between fulfilling their orders and protecting the vignerons. Yes, they were playing the long post-war game, but their own acts of defiance against their regime saved many families, vineyards, and Bordeaux and Paris.
This book is an interesting read, and I would pair it with Eric Newby's memoir, "Love and War in the Apennines," about his survival as a released POW in Italy....more
In March 2022, I took a trip to Egypt, touring with a group of four other travelers and our guide. We saw both Coptic and Muslim sites in Cairo, the EIn March 2022, I took a trip to Egypt, touring with a group of four other travelers and our guide. We saw both Coptic and Muslim sites in Cairo, the Egyptian Museum with its thousands of year old mummies, the Pyramids at Giza, the Valley of the Kings, Kom Ombo, Luxor, Karnak, Memphis, and Saqqara. The highlight of that already remarkable trip was our trip to Aswan, a city 600 miles to the south of Cairo. Everything from our overnight train where we drank peppermint tea from paper cups in the dining car full of men and cigarette smoke, feeling like we were in an Agatha Christie novel, to our boat ride to Philae and the Nubian village on Elephantine Island where we had dinner with a local family, to our early morning departure deep into the golden desert, almost to the Sudanese border, to be swept up in awe by Abu Simbel, to our day on a felucca leisurely criss-crossing the Nile and watching a full moon rise brightly above the mountains. This whole adventure was made possible for us and millions of others by a five-foot tall French woman and leading Egyptologist, Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt (CDN).
Historian Lynne Olson, who brings to the fore-front those who are often overlooked by history, turns her eye to this force-of-nature in her new book, "Empress of the Nile: Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction". It is quite a read for quite a person. It always strikes me how some people are born to meet the moment. CDN is no exception. Born into a life a privilege in Paris, her forward thinking parents encouraged her to pursue an education and live her own life. Fascinated by Egypt as a young child, she embarked on a sky-rocketing educational career crowded with men, most not happy to have her around. A trait that served her well throughout her life is that she did not care very much about what they thought. Her career spanned over fifty years-- encompassing everything from working for the French Resistance, acting as a leading Egyptologist at the Louvre, teaching, wiring, working in the field, and inspiring the love of Egyptology in others. Her biggest achievement was rallying world leaders in the midst of a Cold War to save the monuments, temples, and tombs from the flooding that would result from Nasser's building of the Aswan High Dam. This meant convincing people to care about culture, art, and history in a place where most of them would never visit, and convincing world leaders to work together for a purely cultural endeavor. It is, to say the least, mind-blowing what she accomplished.
Olson's accomplishment with this book is also a feat. She not only details CDN's life, but distills so much information from various parts of history to bring this story and the geopolitical issues to life. It's a fine balance between providing too little or too much, and she gets it perfectly. She also sheds light on the other women, one being Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who strongly advocated behind the scenes for these treasures to be saved. I really enjoyed reading this book, not just because I have been to the locations in it, but because it highlights how one person can make a difference. CDN had a big, bolder than bold, audacious idea that very few people believed could be done, but through education, relationships, and communication, she inspired a world-wide community to work together to make it happen. In today's world where there is so much division and where we have our fill of fractious leaders, this is a reminder of what can be accomplished. Olson repeatedly points out that CDN's success as an Egyptologist in the field also stems from how she treated everyone she worked with; she was inclusive, friendly, collaborative, and cared about everyone. Everyone was her peer. She also had not problem calling out people for bad behavior. Her accomplishments created a ripple-effect into our everyday lives and changed how the world viewed art, culture, history, and historical preservation. Her story is not a relic of the past, but one that remains forthrightly present.
Read this book to be inspired and learn a lot! Highly, highly recommend....more
With so many states limiting LGBTQ+ rights and promoting discrimination, Casey Parks' "Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery" should be required rWith so many states limiting LGBTQ+ rights and promoting discrimination, Casey Parks' "Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery" should be required reading to understand the devastating effects of such policies and beliefs. Growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal home in Louisiana, Casey grappled with the fact that she was gay; she knew the risks after having witnessed families be shunned from her church and community for having family member come out. Her memoir is about coming out and into one's own as she comes to terms with her sexuality, her tenuous relationship with her mother, and discovering who she is in this world. After coming out, she learns about Roy Hudgins, a woman in town who had lived as a man, and the mystery of, the now deceased, Roy's life becomes a ten-year saga as Casey tries to find out what his life was like. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Parks, and it is gripping, sad, and frustrating, but ultimately, affirming.
At first the memoir had the exploitive ick-factor of Michael Finkel's "The Stranger in the Woods" as Casey looks up records, interviews townspeople, and tries to get the Kings, a family who took care of Roy in his old age, to give up his diaries. It becomes less exploitive as Casey makes the case for how Roy wanted people to know about his life, wanted people to know he mattered. Casey and Roy's lives combined show the different impacts that discrimination, hate, and the sense of not belonging have on people. Casey needed to put distance between her and Louisiana for Portland and New York, and Roy kept his distance from his community in the narrow confines of his home. Through the unraveling of both of their paths, Casey demonstrates how much human potential is lost through bullying and non-acceptance.
I LOVED Paul Strathern's "The Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance". I learned so much about art, philosophy, and politics from it, so I was excitedI LOVED Paul Strathern's "The Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance". I learned so much about art, philosophy, and politics from it, so I was excited to read his work, "The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped." It is about how all three men's lives intersected in 1502 when Cesare Borgia took over the Romagna region of Italy and how that convergence shaped Western history. Borgia taking over the Romagna is nowhere near as interesting as Lorenzo de Medici spearheading the Italian Renaissance; it is, in fact, rather bloody. And maybe this is heresy, but I think Michelangelo is way more interesting than Leonardo da Vinci (blame Irving Stone's "The Agony and the Ecstasy" for that). But Machiavelli, I like. He always seems to be portrayed as the Uriah Heep of the Renaissance--disliked and endlessly plotting-- but instead he was popular and ribald with a deep interest in human nature: what makes humans tick?
But my fascination with Machiavelli is not strong enough to get me to the end of this book. Strathern conducts some impeccable research, but the telling of it is dry, and being two-thirds of the way through it, I am not convinced the pay-off is worth it. I have the feeling that the big reveal of how this moment in time shaped history is that Machiavelli wrote "The Prince", putting this book on par with watching "Titanic". The connection between Borgia and Machiavelli is real and obvious, but it felt like Strathern shoe-horned da Vinci into the narrative. Much of the relations between da Vinci and Machiavelli in the Romagna is speculative and circumstantial, and da Vinci's takeaway from his time with Borgia is that he really does not like war. Once back in Florence, he returns to making frescoes, imagining flying machines, and attempting to square the circle; he is no longer interested in making weapons. This is a perfectly natural response after having spent time with any Borgia. Even Machiavelli was horrified, and he got along with Cesare. It felt like Strathern was capitalizing on the fact that these three dynamic and influential men all happened to be together during this one moment of time but making more of it than what is actually there.
If you are really interested in this time period, I recommend it....more
Ingrid Rojas Contreras' "The Man Who Could Move Clouds" was a challenging book to listen to on my commute because I kept wanting to pull my car over aIngrid Rojas Contreras' "The Man Who Could Move Clouds" was a challenging book to listen to on my commute because I kept wanting to pull my car over and write down its wisdom. Contreras has crafted a memoir unlike any I have "read" before. In it she recounts not only her curanderos/as lineage, but also that of Columbia's-- a country beset by the trauma of European colonization and whiteness that sought to erase its native and indigenous peoples and traditions and then later of the Terrors caused by drug cartels. She examines what it means to come from a line of healers who commune with ghosts and spirits and who inhabit the world of dreams. I feel like I need to physically read it in order to take in its scope. The most interesting character is Contreras' Mami-- a powerful, fearless, and headstrong woman with an unflinching belief in her abilities. She dispenses the most wisdom, especially in how storytelling provides a path to healing; many people are telling themselves the wrong stories or need to seek new ones.
If you are at home with writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, and Jose Saramago, this book will resonate with you. Highly recommend....more
Not really, but I will anyway. I had the distinct pleasure of sharing my commute with this actor, writer, director, andStanley Tucci. Need I say more?
Not really, but I will anyway. I had the distinct pleasure of sharing my commute with this actor, writer, director, and consummate food-lover as he shares stories from his life centered around food. Lots and lots of food. Wry, witty, and urbane, Tucci regales us with his life experiences in the kitchen, on set, and on the road in search of a good meal. His love of just good food and family make his experiences accessible to all as he reminds us that food is what connects us all. What I appreciate about his memoir is that while he has had sad and heartbreaking events in his life, he writes about them in a matter-of-fact, need-to-know way, avoiding the trap of trauma porn that some memoirs fall into. What shines through instead is a lot of love and a love of life. Highly recommend.
Although, he did leave me with one question: Why am I not drinking more martinis?...more
Listening to Michelle Obama narrate her new book "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times" was like having coffee with a trusted friend-- onListening to Michelle Obama narrate her new book "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times" was like having coffee with a trusted friend-- one who dispenses compassionate, common-sensical, and practical advice. Geared more towards those of us who have become more disenchanted and cynical in the last six years, her book would also make a good graduation gift for those embarking on their new lives. In it she discusses the tools of how to make meaningful change and how to make decisions that allow us to keep up the energy to act. She reminds us that change is slow and messy, and even when we feel defeated, we must continue to do the the work. She also reflects on the challenges people face when they are an "only" in a group and the pressures placed on "onlies" to prove their worth and belonging.
Her advice is not earth-shattering or revelatory (to me), but they are good reminders for when you need reminding. I think for many, especially young people, her words might provide a grounding effect. I particularly valued her words on not being reactionary, but cultivating a mindful response, and how activism isn't liking a post or reposting, but actual feet-on-the-ground action. As always her message is imbued with decency, integrity, and class. Highly recommend....more
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