The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

 The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff 560 pages

 

In some ways, when I think of it, 9/11 could have happened a few months ago, the images are still that crystal clear in my mind. However, there is a whole generation, or more, to whom 9/11 is just another historical event, like Pearl Harbor is to most of us. But author Garrett M. Graff spent years compiling the one book that, I believe, should be required reading (or listening as the audiobook is approximately 16 hours) for all Americans.

 

The book tells the story of that day’s events from hundreds of people, in their own words—from air traffic controllers to people on the street to President George W. Bush. These are the people who witnessed the event, who were part of it, who were left behind. Readers are able to get a much fuller look at what was happening that the news teams were able to depict. The story of that day is told in snippets from many individuals, coalescing into one heartbreaking narrative.

 

It has been at least a month since I finished The Only Plane in the Sky, and there are several images that have not left me, much like the images of those planes hitting the Towers. Images like:

 

·       As a firefighter was exiting one of the Towers, he was startled by the number of women’s shoes that were lying on the ground. Hundreds of pairs in every shape and size. After commenting on how it looked like the floor of Macy’s after a big sale, the firefighter was told was had happened:  As women exited the buildings, the kicked off their shoes and ran.

 

·       After the buildings fell, a group of people were trapped in a pocket in a stairwell. They heard a ping, then another, then another. One of the firefighters who was with them told them that that meant that a firefighter and down and movement was undetected (much like a Life Alert necklace). Suddenly all they could hear was ping, ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping. 

    ·       I knew people had jumped from the Towers to avoid the flames. I had no idea how many there really were. Graff does an amazing job of making the reader hear every one of those bodies hitting the ground. 

·       The thickness of the ash and how survivors had to scrap it form their eyes and mouths.

The Only Plane in the Sky receives at least three thousand stars in Julie’s world, but I’m only allowed to give five.

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life

 Shirley J.                  Adult Non-Fiction                    Multiple Sclerosis, Alternative Healing.  How Giving to Others Brings Gifts Back to You

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker   226 pages

Cami Walker was a high-power executive working in an ad agency when things began to go a little off-center for her.   The hours were long, the stress off the charts but she loved what she did so she continued her 80 hur + weeks until her nerves became like the strings of a violin being plucked only nt in a beautiful concerto kind of way.  She began to become dependent on alternative ways of staying awake and keeping pace until she couldn't anymore.   She started attending addiction meetings and met her now husband at one.   They have for the most part done well and have stayed sober but two months after their wedding, Cami was in such pain and torment that when she went to the doctor she was diagnosed with Multiple Schlerosis,  which may have been brought on by the constant stress of her job taking its toll on her body.   She learned several other family members are troubled by auto-immune diseases of one kind or another.so with the stress and the hereditary tendencies there are many possible causes for it to hit her.   While suffering with the disease, when modern western medicine wasn't curing it, she went looking for other possible help in alternative medicines and therapies and found more relief but where her most relief came from was not medicine at all but through a friend from  South Africa who practiced ancestral divination.  Through her she learned spiritual lessons that turned the small things in life into major lessons and she learned how to give out of love and not obligation.    Her website is: www.29Gifts.org where she shares what she has learned through gifting and her followers blog their experiences, too.   A good book to aid in looking for the purity in giving without expecting to receive then finding the bounty that comes your way for doing unselfish things for others.   I recommend this to middle schoolers on up.     

Midnight in Chernobyl

 

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham  538 pages

Summary from Goodreads: April 25, 1986, in Chernobyl, was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.

Chernobyl was also a key event in the destruction of the Soviet Union, and, with it, the United States’ victory in the Cold War. For Moscow, it was a political and financial catastrophe as much as an environmental and scientific one. With a total cost of 18 billion rubles—at the time equivalent to $18 billion—Chernobyl bankrupted an already teetering economy and revealed to its population a state built upon a pillar of lies.

The full story of the events that started that night in the control room of Reactor No.4 of the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant has never been told—until now. Through two decades of reporting, new archival information, and firsthand interviews with witnesses, journalist Adam Higginbotham tells the full dramatic story, including Alexander Akimov and Anatoli Dyatlov, who represented the best and worst of Soviet life; denizens of a vanished world of secret policemen, internal passports, food lines, and heroic self-sacrifice for the Motherland. Midnight in Chernobyl, award-worthy nonfiction that reads like sci-fi, shows not only the final epic struggle of a dying empire but also the story of individual heroism and desperate, ingenious technical improvisation joining forces against a new kind of enemy. 

And here's what I thought: Maybe not an uplifting story, but definitely very interesting -- and scary. I remember when this accident happened and how the details really did not come out for a very, very long time. Which did not make it any less scary.

Understanding what the USSR was like at the time gives perspective here, and I liked that the author includes political details here, not just a step-by-step of what happened. The Soviet approach to everything really did impact what led up to the disaster and how it was handled, so it's important to give a full picture of that. 

This book is insightful and detailed, and includes the human element of the whole disaster, which really makes it clear just how horrifying the whole accident was. It's a scary book, but engrossing and interesting. 

Cavewomen Don't Get Fat

Shirley J.               Adult Non-Fiction                    Low Carbohydrates/High Protein Diet Info.

Cavewomen Don't Get Fat: The Paleo Chic Diet for Rapid Results by Esther Blum   304 pages

I have heard a lot about the Paleo diet and this book explains it from the get-go and more importantly goes over all of the benefits women can gleen from it.    While I was delighted to find it is basically the low carb/high protein diet that I am extremely familiar with Esther Blum also goes into several herbal and vitamin additions that aid in detoxifying the female body, balancing estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, yeah, ladies, we have a little of that, too, and how you can feel better, look better and do your body better healthwise by eating a diet heavy in protein like our cavelady ancestors ate and giving a nod to that hunter gatherer lifestyle gals back then had, she tells you how foraging the produce aisles at the grocery store/health food store can prove amazing on getting us lean in a short time with miniimal effort on our parts.   She recommends exercise but not nedesssarily hard core hit the gym 6 hours a day 7 days a week stuff.  no, do some form of exercise 20 to 30 minutes 3x a week while staying away from the processed food stuffs and revisiting our love of meat or other forms of protein, eating good for you fats and treating yourself to sweets of the fruit variety or natural think a bit of honey, after the first week will please that sweet tooth.  Taking a walk counts as big-time exercise so don't worry about   anything strenuous unless you want to go that route.   It is a good book with lots of good information in it and for a change recipes that not only taste good but aremade from stuff normal people buy not celebrity chefs.    I recommend this book to anyone yung r old who would like to drop pounds and learn how to love and live the life that will keep them off.

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

 Shirley J.       Adult Non-Fiction         How Reading Aloud can Improve the Quality of LIfe

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

 by Meghan Cox Gurdon    278 pages

The author discusses how she began reading to her children andcontinued into their early teens.   It became a family time with age appropriate books and there was lively discussions of the stories, some acting out of the story especially by her son, Paris who particularly loved treasure Islad and playing the part of the Pirates.    Her children preferred her using different voices and accents to portray multiple characters in the stories.   Through observation she noted this down time, just an hour a night relaxed the children and this became a part of their winding down process before bedtime.   She discussed it with friends and colleagues and when they tried it with their children  all were astonished at how gettig away from their tablets ipads, and phones to spen quality time with one another improved their children's vocabularies, helped them to be more socialized at school and in life.   They developed a comfort level with speaking to and also in front of others when she introduced allowing the children to read aloud too.   Her friends found that while babies would rampage during the pre-verbalizing stage, by the time they were two they had settled down and were picking their own stories to be read instead of chewing on the books.   She has also found that reading to Alzheier patients,  and the elderly in general is also a pacifying exercise enjoyable to all involved.  She found you never become too old to appreciate the sound of someone reading to yu.   She had been hesitant thinking older people wuld not go for it, but, to her delight found out they did enjoy it.   She experimented further while volunteering at an animal shelter finding that the animals that came in fearful and hyper would calm down when she sat down in front of their cages or on one to one times listening to her read to them soothed them, they would often come closer when they had at first stayed as far back in their cages as possible.   There have beren studies done proving that children who are read to perform better academically.   While realizing it is often not doable for families who work and may not have the time to indulge in an hour of reading but she suggests even a short book, or newspaper article or even reading the ingredients off of a cereal bos, cake mix, etc. as one woman told her that during the Second World War in England when there was little time and little access to storybooks, she would read the backs of food packages to her son to keep the idea of storytime going.   She said his favorite was reading the back of an ovaltine box.    So many delightful ways the spoken word helps improve the quality of life for every one man and beast.regardless of age.   I love audiobooks myself and I'm 65.   I remember when my Mom would read newspaper articles to me after dinner while we still sat at the table talking.   When I was little she was an avid reader and set the example for me to read, too, bringing me Little Golden Books to read.  Good times.   I recommend this book to parents, teachers, and all who love the written and spoken word.  

TED Talks: the Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

 Shirley J.                         Adult Non-Fiction                      Public Speaking,  TED Talks

TED Talks: the Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson   269 pages

The complete handbook for how to give a TED Talk, or really how to best present yourself while maintaining calm and keeping your audience interested from the time you walk out on the stage to when you wrap up and leave the stage.   Tried and true methods on what to do and what not to do when giving a speech, a presentation an informal talk.   The tips here are invaluable.  From talk about what you are passionate about and as if you are explaining it to your best friend.   What to do if your mind goes blank, you start to sweat and need a minute to find your place while standing in front of 10,000 people.   Chris Anderson shares tips on how to engage your audience and how not to begin your talk by boring them to death.   This is the best book on public speaking I have ever come across.   He cites many examples and gives names of some of the best speakers in the series and tells how to find their TED talks on YouTube.   So much good information here I recommend this to middle schoolers on up to senior citizens.  You can't start too early nor too late in learning how to speak comfortably in front of an audience.  Speakers, actors, politicians, teachers, preachers, students, everybody will benefit from reading this book.   I can't recommend it enough.   This is another of those books we all ought to be handed as guidebooks to life.  Excellent!

STL Scavenger

 Shirley J                         Adult Non-Fiction                  Scavenger Hunt/St. Louis

STL Scavenger: The Ultimate Search for St. Louis' Hidden Treasures by Dea Hoover  184 pages

All 366 clues in this book are written in rhyme they take you through 17 neighborhoods in St. Louis (Soulard, Beov, the Hill, Downtown, Forest Park, etc.)and to some of its surrounding cities, Ferguson, Edwardsville, St. Charles sharing clues to uniques sites in all of the areas covered to delight and surprise readers.   The bonus here is that the book is actually a real scavenger hunt and anyone solving all 366 of the clues can submit their findings to:  www.stlscavenger.com between May 1 and December 1, 2021.   All of the correct submissions will be put in a hat and a name will be drawn for the 1st prize - $500   2nd prize is a goodie bag from STL Made full of local fun stuff and 3rd prize will also be StL memorabilia.  So making a present of this book to someone is truly the gift that keeps on giving whether you win the prize or not you get the fun of  learning more about the area and seeing things you might never have known existed.   Kudos to Dea who is both a local tour guide, a state of Missouri tour guide and an international tour guide owning her own businesses scheduling each.  Kudos to Dea Hoover for making good use of her pandemic downtime! 

Handmade Wedding

 Shirley J                Adult Non-Fiction                               Wedding Crafts

Handmade Wedding: 35 Handcrafted Projects To Make Your Special Day Unique  by  CICO Books  260 pages

Tissue paper, craft knife, hot glue gun, you are in business!   These are some of the most easiest crafts that end up looking like yu put a ton of effort into them, but, the time and effort amount to a fun day in Art Class at school.   From paper brides to feathery butterflies to Huge Poms and Roses and hydrangea garlands to faerie light  flowers from coffee filters no less!  I love the bonbon hearts that look like these huge boxes of valentine candy to  tissue paper hearts hung from the ceiling so gorgeous this is the first one I'm going to make.   The stencil cutouts are so Pennsylvania Dutch looking, so intricate they look like a professional must have spent days or hurs on them, yet with the guides and instructions you will find her they are no more difficult to create than the valentine hearts we all cut out in gradeschool and covered our school windows with.  Amazing!   the invitations, the memory book, the favors for folks to take home with them fill decorated bags or create elaborate looking crackers lie you see at Christmas sometimes.  I really like the fun confetti heart shaped boxes and the confetti itself heart shaped, so cute.   There is such an easy to make china teacup and white rose table decoration in here that is just gorgeous and so simple to make.   I have always loved doing crafts and I especially like  things that are easy and turn out beautiful from simple supplies.   This is that book!   Table decorations and how to make your own invitations will save folks a bundle of cash when you want an amazing looking wedding but don't have a caviar budget.      Of course, I also use these ideas to create things for other occasions and the knowledge you glean here will bring joy in so many different venues once you learn how to make them.  What a blessing!   I recommend it to brides, to crafters to anyone wanting to make beautiful things without paying humongeous prices to do so.   Something that is fun to do will gain anyone putting the time in a lot of praise.  

Born On a Blue Day

 Shirley J.    Adult Non-Fiction              Autistism,  Savant

Born On a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

226 pages

Wow!  Daniel Tammet explains his thought processes in such a down to earth way that it is an intense and deeply personal visit inside the thought processes of an amazing mind.   Daniel explains that he sees things in his mental pictures as colors and numbers and he proceeds to break down just how that occurs.  It is an amazing story and he discusses his relationships with his family growing up, his school day and his life and work up to this day.   He is able to learn any language fluently within a week and how he does iit will astound you.   Things that are so far away from . most of us to grasp, Daniel is able to comprehend with ease, yet, simple concepts and behaviors are harder for him  to make sense of without really applying himself such as social behaviors, reactions and interactions that most people don't give a second thought to are ridiculously difficult for him and require much effort on his part.     A fascinating look into a beautiful mind.  He discovered his preference for men and after some dating over the years he is currently in a long term relationship with his partner who gives him the space he needs when he requires it and the affection and comfort of a supportive lover.  Daniel travels the world speaking on autism, being a savant and demonstrating his unique linguistic and mathematical abilities.  He is also a speaker in the TED Talk series.   

Wait, I'm Working With Who?!? the Essential Guide to Dealing With Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities

 Wait, I'm Working With Who?!?  The Essential Guide to Dealing With Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities by Peter Economy  206 pages

Summary from Goodreads: This is the go-to guide on working with anyone in your office—from the difficult or negative to the toxic and destructive—whether they are your manager, a team member, or someone who’s just waiting out the clock. Chock-full of useful advice that will make your workday happier and more productive. Who hasn’t had to deal with a jerk at work? Whether it’s a toxic team member who loves nothing more than to suck the life and excitement out of her colleagues, the difficult coworker who isn’t happy unless the office is filled with mayhem and drama, or a bad boss who causes his employees to constantly dream of telling him to “Take this job and shove it!”, we’ve all had to deal with people on the job we would rather not.

And here's what I thought:  It never hurts to read a book like this, even if you don't work with a lot of difficult people. Economy breaks things down into different types of people, and then some practical advice on how to work with them.  Note -- not befriend them, not change them -- work with them.  If you do work with someone you find difficult, this book may also help because you might be able to figure out what type of person they are, and then go from them.  Quick read, but helpful.

Wildflower

 Shirley J.                         Non-Fiction  Autobiography                     Drew Barrymore

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore  276 pages

Drew Barrymore has been one of my favorite in the moment people ever since I first saw her in

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.   She bares her soul in this story of her life and how becoming a Mom has given her a completely new perspective on life.   She shares many of her adventures in life from before the E.T. days being raised by hippies, both her mother and father, and how being raised in that environment she related more to adults than kids.   She talks about  just deciding to do a thing and then doing it - rent an R-V and go touring the countryside with her best gal pal leaving for L.A. headed to her friend's folks place in New Hampshire.   They just pulled off every where they wanted to along the way and had a blast, well there was that incident in New Orleans with misjudging the height of the dealie over the gas pumps where she ripped the top off the RV and they got help from a mysterious drag queen coming out of the dark.   Then the time where she read an article about a school in Africa. and ended up getting a free trip to go there and write an article about it, thanks to magazine, Marie Claire.   She decided to go to India one day, called her travel agent and went (must be nice!).  But when she met her current husband and the father of her children her take me as I am attitude relaxed to O. K. I see your point, too, and her frenzied life took on a new look.   Interesting look inside some of the stories that made headlines and Internet virals over the years    I would recommend this book to mature teens on up.

Finding It in Everything

 Shirley J              Adult Non-Fiction   Photography          Finding heart shapes everywhere you look

Finding It in Everything: Photographs by Drew Barrymore    96 pages

Drew Barrymore discussed her love of hearts in her book Wildflower which I just finished reading, she also discussed how she loves to take photographs and has often been surprised over the years how hearts jumped out from the photo some she saw and some shed didn't until she saw the actual photos.   She shared this happy hobby with her then father-in-law Ari Koppelman, who often found literal heart shapes in things.    Drew's phoos in this book find a heart appear on the back of a beloved dog when it curled up to relax and she took a photo of it, she has been blessed with heart showing up in her coffee and tea, soups, Japanese food, pancakes she lovingiy made for then husband will Koppelman. in the clouds in the sky, even a distorted hazy moon/sun shining dully in the sky, whose cloud cover offered another valentine in the upper atmosphere.   She finds a random tear in a tee-shirt is heart shaped and finds hearts appearing on sidewalks, tombstones, random wall and art designs, brick facades, etc.   To Drew these found hearts are inspirational and messages of love from the universe.   She loved the idea when she looked at the sky over head and saw a heart there that the man in the sky was sending a message of love to everyone below. A ten year collection of photos, some with captions that beg the reader to look for their own continuous lines forming herts to share a secret surprise of the love in the world that exists if we look for it..    Makes me want to go on a journey finding the hearts in life.   I recommend it to everyone of every age.

Broken (in the Best Possible Way)

 Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson 285 pages

Summary from Goodreads:  As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.

With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.

And here's what I thought: Typical for her books, Jenny Lawson makes me laugh until I'm crying and then with the next chapter, makes me get choked up. Mostly, I laugh until I'm ready to cry - which is why I cannot read her books when I'm in bed before I go to sleep . . . I get way too punchy and laugh too much.  She's a little like Allie Brosh -- I can't relate to all of her stories, but I can relate to some of them. And that's what makes Jenny Lawson pretty awesome --- she's not afraid to bare it all, even if it's something ugly or sad. And she's there for the journey and takes you along with her.

By the way - I also cannot listen to her audiobooks in the car. I tried her first book on audio and was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face . . . which I could tell alarmed the person stuck next to me in traffic.

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini

 Shirley J.         Adult Non-Fiction            Biography of Harry Houdini

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski     316 pages

The author's love for all things Houdini clearly shows throughout this new look at the life of Erich Weiss known as Harry Houdini.   Posnanski talks about his lifelong fascination with Houdini and his burning question, "why is Houdini remembered after all this time when so many other musicians are not?"  The answer he came up with was because Houdini kept reinventing himself.    He was a magician, an escape artist, an actor, a vaudeville showman, a comedian, a locksmith, a showman the list goes on.    Houdini wasn't only one thing, he was a myriad of talented acts.   He knew how to contact newspapers and sensationalize himself to get coverage in the papers of the times.  He and his wife performed clairvoyant acts, dabbled in spiritualist acts then denounced and exposed those who would try to defraud the public by pretending to call up the souls of their dearly departed.   People remember Houdini because he worked tirelessly to keep his name in the minds of his audience  in what ever way it took.   THe author discusses Houdini's wife's life after his death, which I had never heard about before and he tells the code the Houdinis had between them so that Bess would know that Harry had been able to cross the divide and contact her after death.   A very good book on Houdini by someone truly in love with his memory.   I recommend this book to all fans of Houdiini, fans of showbiz, fans of biorgraphies, and anyone looking for a well written read about a household name.   

Vintage Black Glamour

 Vintage Black Glamour by Nichelle Gainer  208 pages

Summary from Goodreads:The original, highly acclaimed, silk-covered edition of Vintage Black Glamour. Packed with rarely seen photographs of Black actors, models, writers and entertainers of the early part of the 20th century, many of whom have been sorely neglected—until now—it was judged by Oprah.com to be one of their top ten books to buy & keep.

Alongside profiles and the photographs of world-renowned Black stars such as Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge and Diana Ross are less-known but hugely important artists such as opera singer Margaret Tynes, Cotton Club star Margot Webb, pioneering model Ophelia De Vore, and many, many more.

And here's what I thought: I really liked this book and found the combination of writing and images to be interesting, and it made me want to learn more about some of these women. I had discovered this title when looking for something else in the catalog and I wasn't disappointed -- it's an interesting read. Not only it is a view into women's fashion, but into women's history. 

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

 You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar   215 pages

Summary from Goodreads: Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one's First Black Friend and everyone is, as she puts it, "stark raving normal." But Amber's sister Lacey? She's still living in their home state of Nebraska, and trust us, you'll never believe what happened to Lacey.

From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. She's the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think "I can say whatever I want to this woman." And now, Amber and Lacey share these entertainingly horrifying stories through their laugh-out-loud sisterly banter. Painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores), this book tackles modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity.

And here's what I thought: No, I can believe this. But I can't. Maybe I can, because I know first-hand how ignorant people can be ---- but seriously, it's hard to believe just how many people Lacey encounters who are like this. Disappointing, yes. Believable, yes. Funny, yes --- but also pretty sobering because these stories are funny because it's hard to believe people are that stupid. Definitely an eye-opening read and while this is written with a humorous tone, it's seriously not funny what some people say or do. Yikes.

Bad Feminist

 Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay  320 pages

Summary from Goodreads: In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better

And here's what I thought: I re-read this book for a book group discussion and like other comments I've made about collections of essays, I enjoyed some essays in this book more than others. I like Gay's writing style, both in fiction and nonfiction, and like Rebecca Solnit's collection, Men Explain Things to Me, there are some moments of wry humor in Gay's essays, even as some of her other essays are unflinching when addressing serious topics. I will admit, I absolutely love Gay's essay about playing in Scrabble tournaments -- every time I read this essay, I laugh out loud because it's not just the main essay, but also the little side notes, often snarky, that make it so funny. 

Men Explain Things to Me

 Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit   160 pages

Summary from Goodreads:  In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters.

She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!”

This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.

And here's what I thought:  Interestingly, I read this right after Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, so my reactions to it may have had something to do with that. I found some of the essays here to be more interesting than others, but I appreciated some of the author's take on many issues.  Her comments about misogyny and violence towards women seem to especially resonate in light of recent news events (shooting of several Asian women at spas in Georgia, the police attack on a woman at night in Britain).For example, she writes on page 33 "Of course, women are capable of all sorts of major unpleasantness, and there are violent crimes by women, but the so-called war of the sexes is extraordinarily lopsided when it comes to actual violence . . .  No female bus riders in India have ganged up to sexually assault a man so badly he dies of his injuries, nor are marauding packs of women terrorizing men in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and there's just no maternal equivalent to the 11 percent of rapes that are by fathers and stepfathers." While there is some wry humor in some essays, I appreciate that Solnit is unflinching in others.

Patently Female

 Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas by Ethlie Ann Vare, Greg Ptacek  220 pages

This book covers all kinds of inventions and patents, from automatic dishwashers, COBOL, drip coffeemakers, Kevlar and much more. Some of the entries are longer than others, but it makes for really interesting reading. And, it's easy to find more information on all of these women if you want to learn even more about them --- especially if you look up what their patent drawings look like.

Good Boss, Bad Boss

 Good Boss, Bad Boss by Robert Sutton  308 pages

Summary from Goodreads: f you are a boss who wants to do great work, what can you do about it? Good Boss, Bad Boss is devoted to answering that question. Stanford Professor Robert Sutton weaves together the best psychological and management research with compelling stories and cases to reveal the mindset and moves of the best (and worst) bosses. This book was inspired by the deluge of emails, research, phone calls, and conversations that Dr. Sutton experienced after publishing his blockbuster bestseller The No Asshole Rule. He realized that most of these stories and studies swirled around a central figure in every workplace: THE BOSS. These heart-breaking, inspiring, and sometimes funny stories taught Sutton that most bosses - and their followers - wanted a lot more than just a jerk-free workplace. They aspired to become (or work for) an all-around great boss, somebody with the skill and grit to inspire superior work, commitment, and dignity among their charges.

And here's what I thought: I found some really good things in this book and wound up marking a few pages with sticky notes to come back to later. While I felt there could have been more perspectives from female leaders, the no-nonsense advice here applies to any boss, at any level. Good book and something to maybe keep handy (depending on your job).