Somewhere Sisters by Erika Hayasaki

Subtitle: "A story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family".   In 1998, twin girls were born in Vietnam. Their mother knew she could not raise them herself. One, named Ha, was sent to live with an aunt in a village with little electricity but a close family. The other, Isabella, was adopted by a familly and very comfortably raised in the Chicago area. Years later, the adoptive mother learns that Isabella has a twin sister and goes to great lengths to reunite these two. She even offers Ha a chance at the same comfortable life her sister has always known. Is that a good offer? What makes a good life? How much of our identity is tied up in where we were born and how much in how we were raised? Who is family? All questions explored in this true story.

 

susan,linda,nina, & cokie by Lisa Napoli

 As an NPR fanatic, I was excited to get a glimpse of these women working together, blazing trails. Unfortunately you had to tease those moments out of a "too much information" text.  The amount of research was impressive but there was no genuine feeling of the importance of their group effort - no story - just a journalistic report.  What was behind their nickname, the "Fallopian Jungle"? Would that have been acceptable now? They certainly supported each other but did they really like what seemed to be an assigned lane? I am sure journalism is a competitive business but I wanted to see that somehow this was different. Lots of interesting NPR history which seemed to interrupt their story. Glad I read it but wanted a different perspective. Wonder what the 3 women who are still alive thought of the book?

Kill Switch by Adam Jentleson

 Subtitle: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.

 Simply put, the Kill Switch references Rule 22 which was devised to bring a filibuster to an end. Back in the day when being a Senator carried with it a responsibility to reasonably debate and debate and debate..., it kept the southern group from blocking Civil Rights legislation through the filibuster. It comes with a need for a super majority (currently 60) to end the filibuster. In a ferociously divided Senate, whose job it seems to be just to keep the other side from getting what it wants, it means that just a small few can keep something from even being voted on - even if the country has made it clear that they want something done. It is what  kept universal background checks from being passed after the Newtown shootings. 55 Senators wanted to vote yes but not 60 - not enough to stop the filibuster.  It never came to a vote.  There is a lot of fascinating history about the Senate and disturbing revelations about the current cast of bad actors. It is frightening but Jentleson does offer some hope for a fundamental change.

Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King

 This sat on my shelf for years but watching The Medici series on Netflix finally inspired me to read it.  I am sure that King simplified the math and engineering, which is the book's focus, but still it mystifies me that with so few tools such magnificent architecture was possible. AND why now, with access to machinery even the genius Brunelleschi couldn't imagine, we build such sterile boxes (yeah I know energy, efficiency, inability to terrorize the masses to pay for things...).  This is a great slice of Renaissance history that celebrates the best minds of the time and gives hope that intelligence is still a human quality.

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper

 In the 1928 Olympics, Betty Robinson won a gold medal in the 100m race. It was the first time women could compete and there were many who thought this was a fluke and women should not be competing in such a demanding sport.  Inspired by her win, women continued to find ways to race.  This is the story of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. While the light shone brightest on Jesse Owens that Olympic year and on the rise of Nazi Germany for many years after, there were women who also felt they had something to prove.  This story focuses on three of the women.  Helen Stephens, a farm girl from Iowa; Louise Stokes, a young Black woman from the Boston area; and Betty.  Through their stories we learn about the racism, sexism and homophobia these women had to struggle against to compete and how the power of team work helped them overcome the obstacles in their paths and lead to a golden moment.  Enlightening and inspiring, it is not a surprising that we didn't know about these women - just sad that it took so long.

Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. Slaght

 Slaght's love of the Russian far east wilderness began as a young boy when his father was part of the USA diplomatic corps in Russia.  Then as a Peace Corps volunteer he began to zero in on giant owls of the same area.  Eventually his focus was on the endanged Blakiston's fish owl.  For a good part of every year, Slaght followed these owls through frozen rivers and rugged terrain.  The quirky characters that join him create another story.  The conditions went beyond challenging straight to horrible.  Got to admire his commitment - this would be a no way situation for me.

10 Books the Screwed up the World by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D

A discussion about the placement of Mein Kampf in bookstores and on library shelves led me to this book. He begins with the writings of the philosophers Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes and  Rousseau and then examines The Communist Manifesto. Utilitarianism, Descent of Man, Mein Kampf, Coming of Age in Samoa, and the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan among others.  Unfortunately he uses a very narrow lens to examine these works.  He identifies all the authors as atheists and it is this failure to believe in the  rewards of heaven or the punishment of hell that let them to imagine these dangerous worlds of free love, personal choice, and the preference for power.  It was kind of a disappointment but might be a good discussion starter.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

 Subtitle: the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need.  At some point way too late in the game, this very bright man realized a climate connection to all his efforts on world health and education and began doing the reading and research.  Kudos to the simple clear presentation of all that.  His solution to the problem - more R&D to find a way to remove the carbon we must continue to release if society is to continue to progress.  He does acknowledge that his lifestyle creates a large carbon footprint which he then hopes to balance with large offset donations to these projects.  Offsets always feels like the logic of indulgences in the early church - not really a solution.  I wish it were more hopeful.  

Salvador by Joan Didion

 If you were a grown-up in the 70's, you remember the Civil War in El Salvador - a bunch of bad minded military driven groups with initials that it was difficult to keep straight.  And then there was the USA with their noses  and weapons where they probably shouldn't have been.  Didion is the master at putting a clarifying lens to significant events and issues in history.  War is always about greed and power with the greatest loss coming to the people who never have anything to gain by the war in the first place.   The war ended in 1992 and this was written in 1994.  Enough time to provide perspective?  Recovery is yet to come.  The book is short but nothing sweet about it.

Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump

The best thing I can say is that it fed my rage.  Multiple levels of dysfunctional family behavior polished by an undeserved sense of entitlement. At some points, it could be perceived that Mary Trump was supplying an excuse for his atrocious behavior.  At some points, she seems bent on blaming the Trump family for her own father's unhappily tragic life.  It would have had to be much better written to be convincing on either count. Glad this horror is closer to being over.

Syria's Secret Library by Mike Thomson

The city of Daraya, Syria was bombed endlessly in the years around 2011.  Feared to be a rebel stronghold, residents lived under a government controlled siege until 2014 when anyone who remained in the city was rounded up, forced unto green buses and moved into refugee camps in the northern part of the country.  During those years of destruction and hunger, a group of young people searched the bombed and abandoned buildings for books.  In a secret underground room they created a library.  The "head librarian" was fourteen.
Why?  In various ways, those young people who risked both the gathering and the reading of books were saying, "You can destroy my home. You can starve my body.  But you cannot own my mind.  You cannot limit my thoughts. You cannot keep me from being the most of me I can be."  The war in Syria has been a travesty against humanity.  The evil that makes war happen always is.  But just as certain are the heroic few who push back against that evil - sometimes with powerful protests and sometime with hidden libraries.
Thomson is a journalist for the BBC who covered the war in Syria and personally knew the individuals and the war in this story.  It deserved telling.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone

In 1916, Elizebeth Smith is hired by the eccentric George Fabyan to prove that Francis Bacon was responsible for the work assigned to William Shakespeare.  At Fabyan's Riverbank compound she meets William Freidman.  While she searches through the absurd clues to the Bacon/Shakespeare conundrum, she reveals herself to be a talented puzzle solver much like William.  Otherwise an unlikely pair, they fall in love and for the next 50 years, become the most significant code breakers in America.  WWll, the Enigma, the Cold War, the beginnings of the NSA, Hoover - name the event or the individual connected with espionage from WWl to the 1960's and they were somehow connected.  The auditorium at Fort Meade was named after William but Elizebeth's contribution has been largely ignored.  This well researched book corrects that situation.  Intriguing history and a worthy subject but I wish it was clearer how they did it. Still classified?

The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Who doesn't love dinosaurs? Well maybe others stopped when they were 5 but I am still fascinated by these fantastical creatures.   While attending a meeting where books were being discussed, one of the presenters shared that she had read 200 books in the first 5 months of the year and this was the best. Of course I had to read it.  The subtitle of the book is: A New History of a Lost World.  If Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote about dinosaurs and the people who study them, this would be the book.  Accessible science, surprising history, fascinating details.  Dinosaurs millions of years older than the giants we are familiar with.  Dinosaurs with feathers.  Dinosaurs of many colors.  A pierced, tattooed, rocking out young woman in China who is part of a team making many of these discoveries.  Great stuff.

Louisa by Louisa Thomas

The subtitle of this book is "The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams" - that would be John Quincey Adams, third President of the United States.  Her life was indeed extraordinary.  She was British marrying an American from a founding American family.  She lived in Paris and Russia while JQ served in various diplomatic capacities as representative of a country that much of Europe still did not know existed.  She had four live births after multiple pregnancies and only one child out lived her.  She wrote three autobiographies that don't always square with the historical record. There was much to make an exciting story but this book is not that.  There were many interesting historical side trips that were enlightening but seemed impersonal.  I think Thomas missed the boat.  This would have been great historical fiction. Use all that historical research to make Louisa an inside observer to our early, clumsy history. Flesh out the complicated relationship between her and JQ.  She had opinions about the great question of slavery and women's rights so early on.  Historical fiction would have allowed revealing conversations between Louisa and the Grimke sisters or Jefferson or Abigail Adams or even JQ.  Yea - she missed the boat on this one.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

On April 29, 1986, a fire raged through the main Los Angeles Library.  Million of books were lost and arson was suspected but no one paid much attention because at about the same time Chernobyl and a stock market crash took up all of the media space. Finally Oleans takes a look.  She does explore the life of the suspected arsonist but those anticipating a crime mystery will be disappointed.  This is a total homage to libraries and librarians.  It is also a fascinating look as the library as a social institution from preservers of rare histories to a shelter for the cities poorest residents.  If you love libraries - you will love this book.

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

The Fifth Risk - after North Korea, Iran, etc - is project management. The Federal Government is complex and the starting point for many things we rely on and may believe are local or even private.  Michael Lewis explores the transition or lack thereof of the Obama administration to the Trump administration.  By law, members of the outgoing administration - all gazillion of them - secretaries and undersecretaries - department heads and those many pay grades below - are required to compose notebooks with all the information needed for the new administration to pick up the ball.  Between the November election and the January inauguration, the new team meets with the old team to ensure a smooth transition.  So what happens when no one shows up?  Lewis deep dives into the Departments of Energy, Agriculture and Commerce.  I am not a student of government and much of what I learned surprised me. I would love someone to read this book and convince me - with facts and data, not emotional ranting - that this is not true.  Warning: reading this may make your head explode.

The River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

In 1914, following a failed attempt to get back into the Presidency, Theodore Roosevelt decided to explore an uncharted tributary of the Amazon - the River of Doubt.  He and his entourage, which included his son, encountered unfriendly natives and unnavigable rapids. They battled malaria and near starvation.  It was an amazing journey.  But another part of the story was the strength and character of Roosevelt himself.  Whatever you think of his politics, there is much to be admired about him in this epic tale.

Ruthless Tide by Al Roker

In the 1880's a group of steel industry millionaires decided to build a dam just upriver from the industrial city of Johnstown.  They wanted to create a summer recreational area for the proud creators of the Gilded Age.  Known as the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, membership was limited to the likes of Carnegie, Frick and Mellon.  They could have made sure the dam had a means to release water should the need arise.  They could have provided a working spillway.  They did neither.  So on May 31, 1889, following days of torrential rains, the earthen dam gave way devastating the towns below.  Thousands died.  Thousands more lost everything.  Roker draws heavily on the stories left by a core of survivors and other books about the Johnstown flood.  Like many of the other books, there is an emphasis placed on the refusal of the club or its members to accept any responsibility.  The Johnstown Flood was a pivotal event in the way the public and eventually history viewed the wealthy industrialists.  Surprisingly well written, I still think the David McCullough version is my favorite.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

This title should keep going to say...people in a hurry but still willing to ponder and puzzle through some pretty challenging ideas - it is still astrophysics.  The best thing is that Tyson makes feeling like such a dummy so much fun.  In the end, it is all so amazing  and wonder worthy - certainly reason enough for both star gazing and traveling long distances just to see an eclipse.

White Trash by Nancy Isenberg

One more title to add to my never ending effort to understand how in the world the 2016 election happened.  This one is subtitled "The 400-year Untold History of Class in America".  This is not the history I studied - ever.  Clearly the publishers of my history text books stuck to identifying the "winners" and playing to America the Beautiful.  To quote the author, "If this book accomplishes anything it will be to have exposed a number of myths about the American dream, to have disabused readers of the notion that upward mobility is a function of the founders' ingenious plan or the Jacksonian democracy was liberating, or that the Confederacy was about states' rights rather than preserving class and racial distinctions."  I those 400 years there were so many voices that spoke up for change, urging people to pay attention to an unpleasant reality instead of a comforting myth - voices that never made it into the history books.  England used its colonies to empty its poor - even America.  We used Eugenics, Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism to keep the classes alive.  We have to admit to the problem before we can fix it.  Now what?