Good evening, all. No new book review this week, and a small list of new releases as the Spring publishing season winds down. I’m also passing along two of the many stories of books being banned in classrooms and libraries.
Wednesday evening I’ll be hosting Bookchat, and hope to see you there.
My Literate Lizard website design is going slowly, as it’s hard to find the time. But in the end, it will allow me to act as a book resource much better geared to my interests and passions. Here are a couple screenshots that will give an idea of what to expect. The home page will feature lists of featured new titles similar to the current webpage, but will also have various modules which will take you to curated lists on such topics as current affairs, regional titles from around the globe, books geared towards different generations, and more. One of the nice features embedded in the new design is that a brief description of each book will pop up when you hover over it, so you don’t have to click through unless you want more in-depth information. I’m still hoping to have it up by the end of the month, but we shall see.
BOOK NEWS
Oh, the poor babies…
The lesson asked students to analyze Coates' arguments in "Between the World and Me," specifically around systemic racism in America — but students complained that videos they watched before reading the book made them "uncomfortable," according to the documents, The State said.
"I actually felt ashamed to be Caucasian," one student said to the school board, The State reported. "These videos portrayed an inaccurate description of life from past centuries that she is trying to resurface. I don't feel as though it is right because these videos showed antiquated history. I understand in AP Lang, we are learning to develop an argument and have evidence to support it, yet this topic is too heavy to discuss."
From the Washington Post (link should be free for all to read: As more schools target ‘Maus,’ Art Speigelman’s fears are deepening.
What alarms Spiegelman about the targeting of “Maus” on specious grounds, he told me, is that its “fable” form was able to reach a broad audience with a story “about dehumanizing people” and “othering.” Spiegelman suggested those looking to restrict books are seeking to limit school curriculums with their own acts of othering.
“Those others can include Asians, Indigenous Americans, Black people, Muslims — not to mention LGBTQ and beyond,” Spiegelman said. The book-removal frenzy, he noted, is “about squelching what’s supposed to happen in school, which is an education that allows people to become one country that can talk to each other with a base of knowledge.”
THIS WEEK’S NEW NOTABLE NONFICTION
- Rich White Men: What It Takes to Uproot the Old Boys' Club and Transform America, by Garrett Neiman. It’s no secret that our country has a serious problem when it comes to wealth inequality – and systemic racism and patriarchy have only exacerbated the advantages of wealthy white men. Over the past three decades, America’s richest white men have only become richer, while those suffering in poverty have only gotten poorer. The divide may seem too great to bridge, but Rich White Men exposes the hidden and insidious ways that white male elites inherit, increase, and preserve their status—and, in this book, we get clear on how to uproot their monopoly on power.
- By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy, by Michael G. Vickers. A vivid insider's account of a life in intelligence, special operations, and strategy from the Cold War to the war with al-Qa’ida by the man who has served multiple roles in the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, most recently as undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President Barack Obama.
- Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad, by Tamara J. Walker. Part historical exploration, part travel memoir, Beyond the Shores reveals poignant histories of a diverse group of African Americans who have left the United States over the course of the past century. Together, the interwoven stories highlight African Americans’ complicated relationship to the United States and the world at large. Drawing on years of research, Dr. Tamara J. Walker chronicles their experiences in atmospheric detail, taking readers from well-known capital cities to more unusual destinations like Yangiyul, Uzbekistan, and Kabondo, Kenya. She follows Florence Mills, the would-be Josephine Baker of her day, in Paris, and Richard Wright, the author turned actor and filmmaker, in Buenos Aires. She relays tender stories of adventurous travelers, including a group of gifted Black crop scientists in the 1930s, a housewife searching for purpose in the 1950s, a Peace Corps volunteer discovering his identity in the 1970s, and her own grandfather, who, after losing his eye fighting in World War II and returning to a country that showed no signs of honoring his sacrifice, set out with his wife and children on a circuitous journey that sent them back and forth across the Atlantic.
- Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration, by Alejandra Oliva. In this powerful and deeply felt memoir of translation, storytelling, and borders, Alejandra Oliva, a Mexican-American translator and immigrant justice activist, offers a powerful chronicle of her experience interpreting at the US-Mexico border. With lush prose and perceptive insight, Oliva encourages readers to approach the painful questions that this crisis poses with equal parts critique and compassion. By which metrics are we measuring who “deserves” American citizenship? What is the point of humanitarian systems that distribute aid conditionally? What do we owe to our most disenfranchised?
- Through the Groves: A Memoir, by Anne Hull. The author grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father’s family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. “Look now,” her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. “It will all be gone.” But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter. As her sexual identity took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape. Here, Hull captures it all—the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of life, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed family, the casual racism of the rural South in the 1960s, and the suffocating expectations placed on girls and women.
- National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home, by Anya von Bremzen. In this engrossing and timely journey to the crossroads of food and identity award-winning writer Anya von Bremzen explores six of the world’s most fascinating and iconic culinary cultures—France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey—brilliantly weaving cuisine, history, and politics into a work of scintillating connoisseurship and charm.
All book links in this diary are to my online bookstore The Literate Lizard. If you already have a favorite indie bookstore, please keep supporting them. If you’re able to throw a little business my way, that would be appreciated. Use the coupon code DAILYKOS for 15% off your order, in gratitude for your support (an ever-changing smattering of new releases are already discounted 15% each week). We also partner Libro.fm for audiobooks. Libro.fm is similar to Amazon’s Audible, with a la carte audiobooks, or a $14.99 monthly membership which includes the audiobook of your choice and 20% off subsequent purchases during the month.
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