Not finished yet, but I am also glad McCurdy's mom died. Also, it troubles me that parents can pocket 90% percent of a child's earning19 January, 2023
Not finished yet, but I am also glad McCurdy's mom died. Also, it troubles me that parents can pocket 90% percent of a child's earnings. Either 100% goes into trust or let's admit that child actors (models, athletes, etc.) are being trafficked by their parents for our entertainment. How is it the agent should earn more than the child who has lost an educatio, their health, and the less tangible qualities of childhood? It disturbs me that there are still children supporting their families, despite how badly this ever turns out. Just as I am disturbed by what a breathtakingly poor job we do looking after minors as a society.
***
21 January 2023
McCurdy is a damn good writer: funny, compelling, insightful. Her backstory is horrible, but she pulled herself out of that train wreck, and made good art from it. The best I can wish for her is that the rest of her life is good. She's earned it.
#65 in my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their ow#65 in my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.
This would have been an excellent biography/science breakthrough book. Early life, interests, how she ended up getting her degree when the country needed women to fill jobs at home so men could go off and fight. There's the long struggle, the setbacks, and finally a great leap forward. And eventually she even got some credit.
But the author devoted two pages to superstition and sailors as if Tharp was kept off the research vessel for 16 years because women were bad luck on boats.
It's one thing to gloss over uncomfortable truths. You want to elide some issues that are tangential to the story you're telling, I get that. But two pages rationalizing sexism seems like a poor way to encourage girls to become women in STEM. Marie Tharp deserved better than that.
#64 in my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their ow#64 in my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.
Manages to hint at how hard American racism made Bessie's life, and how amazing she had to be to overcome so much active hostility and harassment, but also gives a suggestion that she must have been pretty cool and fun to hang with. Good emphasis on what she did and how. Well done!
#47 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and multi-year effort to get Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to fix the Top Readers, etc. lists. For a fuller explanation see my review f#47 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and multi-year effort to get Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to fix the Top Readers, etc. lists. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.
Whereas the Rosa Parks disappointed me, I liked this one much more. Possibly because I didn't really know anything about Nureyev except that he was a notable ballet dancer. Not knowing better, I can't be disappointed over what is left out.
The books themselves are appealing: I strongly approve of the design and the art.
#45 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and multi-year effort to get Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to fix the Top Readers, etc. lists. For a fuller explanation see my review f#45 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and multi-year effort to get Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to fix the Top Readers, etc. lists. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.
There are a lot of nonfiction picture books that are pretty much designed to give kindergartners the opportunity to look at several books and prepare a powerpoint presentation for their classmates in the way that primitive peoples once supposedly gave book reports. I don't recall ever doing that, but it seems ubiquitous in depictions of children's lives, so maybe I just forgot? Anyway, it it is an historical/biographical sort of series, Rosa Parks is my go to for evaluation. Very few people tell her story the way I like best. Rosa Parks as a hard-working and dignified woman of color who refused to give up her seat is pretty common. And I don't deny that Parks was brave: she knew full and damn well she was pulling a whole load of trouble down upon herself. She knew because it was a deliberate and considered act on her part. She knew because Claudette Colvin had already been there and done that, nine months earlier. Colvin was braver in one way because she was 15, pregnant, and unmarried when she refused to give up her seat, and she did it knowing just how little respect the world had for her. Rosa was brave in a different way. She was lighter-skinned, she was a grown-up woman who wore glasses and looked demure. She worked for the NAACP. and she refused to give up her seat specifically to challenge the law with a more sympathetic plaintiff. I don't necessarily approve of the decision to back a "better" plaintiff, but I cannot argue that it worked.
So, yeah, this book presents the good plaintiff as if she had no forethought, no strategy. I prefer my heroines to be less modest and more cunning. More importantly, I think it's a really good idea to teach how to be civilly disobedient. That it is a choice we can make, and that it is a better choice than say, getting a mob together on Facebook to storm the Capital.
Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II - Robert Matzen Biographies are not usually my thing, and biographies of celebrities even less so. Most peDutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II - Robert Matzen Biographies are not usually my thing, and biographies of celebrities even less so. Most peoples lives are terribly interesting, and the risk of learning something truly off-putting is high. So for the most part I'm a enjoy their art or athleticism or moment in history and move on, unknowing.Like much of humanity who's seen her movies, I like Audrey Hepburn: so lovely, so stylish, willing to use her fame and popularity on behalf of the world's most desperate children. But I knew pretty much nothing about her life. Until recently I didn't know she was from the Kingdom of the Netherlands or that she had been associated with the Resistance during the war. Audrey Hepburn: Girl Spy sounds great but it rather overstates the case. Matzen doesn't oversell it. He's quite clear that she spent most of the war shy, lonely, and only interested in dance.What her wartime experiences illustrate isn't tales of great daring and glamour, but the quiet day to day heroism of people under occupation, trying to carry on with their lives despite deprivations and ever-present danger. There are interesting similarities between this and A Castle in Wartime. The Nazis were keen on holding hostages. Hepburn's family was not rich, but her mother was a Baroness and a fool. She was very keen on fascism and Nazis and Hitler's great charm right up until the Netherlands were invaded and people she cared for started dying. Hepburn's mother had rather a bad time of it after liberation when her earlier warmth to the occupiers was closely examined. While it is morally important to prosecute war criminals I'm not sure that it is any sort of deterrent and certainly shaming women for attention received from the occupiers is just mean and vindictive.War is hell. It is particularly hell for the women and children starving and freezing in bombed-out cities like Arnhem or Aleppo. It's not surprising the Hepburn would become an ambassador for children for UNICEF. She never forgot what she had lived through and what it meant to her to receive aid at a most desperate time. In her honor I am donating to UNICEF today on behalf of all the children who have been refused a home or help when they needed it to survive. Donations made today will be tripled.Library copy...more
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold I'm not finished yet, but this is pretty amazing. Rubenhold has gThe Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold I'm not finished yet, but this is pretty amazing. Rubenhold has gone to primary and secondary period sources to discover a great deal about the women who have existed merely as "murdered prostitute" all these years. The scholarship is impressive, as is the imagination to start over, virtually from scratch. Given how very much has been written about their murders since 1888 it's kind of amazing how little we ever knew about the victims, when there was so much available.There is a bit much speculation on the mundane presented as fact: there is a great deal that can be inferred with high probability, but the construction "she would have" grates on me. There is also a rather constant refrain of how the women were assumed by the police of the time to be prostitutes in the absence of any positive evidence that they were. But that is a welcome reminder not to accept stereotype as proven fact. Everybody lies, including the police.Dec 20, 2019***Now that I am finished my opinion certainly hasn't gone down at all. Although I knew generally how constrained the lives of Victorian women were, and how tenuous their survival, I didn't have a lot of specifics. It's kind of staggering how little progress we've made in the past 130 years. Forensics have improved but little else has. Dec 23, 2019...more
All of the World Book Day titles get me excited every year, but this one was already on my radar as one I wanted to read, so this is the one I'm most All of the World Book Day titles get me excited every year, but this one was already on my radar as one I wanted to read, so this is the one I'm most eager to start.
Someday I will go back and shelve all the former World Book Day titles so that I can find them, too.
But yay! Nine diverse reads to fatten up my Kindle!
***
Biography isn't usually my cuppa. I don't think that, to pick an example at random, Hitler's life story tells us how to prevent the rise of duly-elected monsters who hold themselves above the law and who marginalize and demonize groups of people, and for whom scapegoating and incitement to violence is a substitute for productive governance. What we need to know is how to prevent 53% of the voters from legitimizing that kind of bullshit.
But this book isn't like that. This is the story of a woman who managed to live through very interesting times indeed. And who, despite enduring considerable losses, had the resilience to keep starting over. Charmingly, Allene Tew who was raised from being a poor relation to a very wealthy woman by her pretty face went on to be a fairy godmother to others, becoming a literal godmother to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Highly recommended as just a fascinating swathe of history.
A marvelous introduction to transgender equality issues (and equality issues in general in public schools). The Maines family have to be thanked for tA marvelous introduction to transgender equality issues (and equality issues in general in public schools). The Maines family have to be thanked for their education, advocacy, and their admirable frankness. It can't be easy for anyone to fight for the rights their children deserve, or to balance such a fight against the needs of the family for privacy and "a normal childhood". Nutt shows the struggle for rights and the costs of that struggle, with no obvious efforts at myth making.
I cried pretty much every time someone chose to be kind, and every time something good happened, which was thankfully often. When my own state is being gratuitously cruel, Maine comes off as a great place.
Dear Pamela Paul, There was only one aspect of your book I was disappointed with: despite teasing the reader with Bob you only ever show the one page, Dear Pamela Paul, There was only one aspect of your book I was disappointed with: despite teasing the reader with Bob you only ever show the one page, nor do you provide a convenient index to titles, nor an online searchable list. Of course, print is your thing, but it seems like a natural desire to me, to see the whole list.
Anyway, here is my Bob. I hope you enjoy it, even though we've never met.
***
While nowhere near as consistent over time as Paul, I can't help but feel an affinity: I have been keeping track of books read and to read since 87 or so. The blank books got messy and weren't searchable, but the Access dataset and the backup disk became obsolete when I wasn't paying attention, and my first book forum changed formats before shuttering and then Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ deleted stuff...keeping track has been hard.
Which reminds me, I need to see if there's any way to do a bulk upload to Google Books which includes one of the most important features to me, one that GR has dropped: the ability to order and more importantly, re-order my to-read list.
Paul chose to read Brave New World, 1984, and A Clockwork Orange for her honours thesis in high school. I read them all (and 1985, too) in high school because I heard of them somewhere (maybe they were required at my old school?) and they weren't going to be used in any of my classes. Is there any age at which dystopias are more apropos? Thus, I was primed to love Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Yeah, probably I'm going to end up writing a paragraph a page, because this is the sort of book I had always imagined I would write. Not that I would have done it this well if I had ever made the effort, which is the only hard part about writing. But it isn't possible to read a memoir of reading and not think, "oh, me too" or "huh, that's different." When she describes having Wired taken away from her, I remember the only time either of my parents ever questioned a book I was reading: Wifey by Judy Bloom, the 79 Pocket edition, showing a naked woman's torso as she takes off her wedding band. It was on the bedside table, cover facing up. Maybe I hadn't yet started reading it that night, or maybe I put it down when my father came in to tell me goodnight, but he glanced at it, and asked if my mother knew I was reading it. I'm in high school, but young, 13 or 14. I said "yeah" because she was probably there when I picked it up at the drug store or by the grocery store cash register, which is where I got most of my books those days. As far as I recall he didn't say anything else about it, although he probably did say something about not staying up too late, or about the cat being in the wrong place: routine and ongoing concerns of his. He really loved having lots of pets, mostly so he could complain about them, or yell at them for being in the wrong place according to his schedule.
"Mumblenyms" is brilliant. I consistently misread Narnia as Narinia the first time through, but I don't think I had ever said it aloud. I'm still bitter about "albeit" which I thought was a German borrowing pronounced ahl-bite. Of course, once I heard someone else say all be it, it made sense.
***
There's a huge middle section that was entertaining to read but didn't strike many chords. Yes, Spaulding Gray's work was a revelation, but that may be the only shared author for years. Paul was off backpacking and seeking adventures, and reading serious works and I ... wasn't. But now our paths have reconverged with maternity, and the discovery that breastfeeding is perfect reading time.
Now comes the disappointment of your kids not choosing "your" books, not being attracted to the ones you once loved, or to the newer ones you've gifted. Given the option of choosing for oneself, whether it be clothes, or books, or hobbies, those choices will often disappoint both others and oneself. The unspoken dream of parenthood is that by taking advantage of our experience, our kids will have an easier, better life, avoiding our pitfalls. The reality is that everyone needs to make their own choices: we have to make wrong choices in order to recognize good ones. It's no use saying "you'll hate having bangs, they will be annoying, they'll never look right, they'll never do right and then you have to endure ages while they grow out." You might be right, or it may turn out that is only true for you, or it may turn out you were right about bangs when the child is four, but not when the child is twenty.
Regardless, it's hard to let go of the dream. It's hard reading aloud a bad book, let alone an endless series of bad books. On the other hand, reading aloud is way more fun than I ever suspected....more
It is terribly important that the most trusted figures in American politics right now are comedians: Al Franken, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert. It is iIt is terribly important that the most trusted figures in American politics right now are comedians: Al Franken, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert. It is important that our newest president has only ever actually been professionally successful as a television character.
Don't get me wrong: I don't think actors, performers, and certainly not writers are somehow less valid as elected officials. While the primary business of senators and congress people is lawmaking, I recognize that they themselves don't (possibly ever anymore) write the laws; federal laws are written by interested parties, think tanks, and congressional staff. So it isn't necessary to be a lawyer in order to shape laws. What is necessary: I think a broad, general interest is good; literacy is useful; the ability to listen is huge; one has to judge sources, because I'm sure there's never less than two sides to any issue, and all of them purport to have data backing them up, of which some must be less valid or useful than others; a willingness to admit ignorance and to learn is key, because no one is an expert in everything, and hastily-formed judgements are unlikely to result in successful solutions to complex problems. And of course, one has to be able to work with many difficult people, but that's true of all work, isn't it? That list of qualities leaves previous work experience pretty open.
It's important that our emperor is naked, and that as many people as possible are pointing at the bare ass he's waggling at us, and laughing. It's not possible to bring him down by arguing with him or fact-checking him: he's a shameless liar, he just makes shit up, most of his shtick is just childish insults. You can't argue with him. He doesn't believe in the idea of a fair fight. But you can point and laugh: he has no defense against mockery.
Franken is a mensch. I would give that man an organ I can't spare, secure in the knowledge that he would use it only for good. He is everything one could hope for in an elected representative, just once I would like to vote for someone who was so progressive and also so pragmatic. Harvard has gone up in my esteem by being Franken's alma mater. If you've never read any of Franken's political books you're in for a treat.
Short form: this book is awesome and every home and classroom should have a copy.
Long form: This was a whim. I just picked it up because it had a fu Short form: this book is awesome and every home and classroom should have a copy.
Long form: This was a whim. I just picked it up because it had a fun cover and title, but once I started reading it I couldn’t bear to put it down. The introduction is amusing, the art is spot on, and the stories are delightful. Well, many of them have violence and heinous cruelty, or just plain gore, but Porath forewarns the reader with some very specific codes. And when he’s writing about the evil that is lynching he doesn’t shrink from sharing the horror. But also, whenever there is a specific named villain in the piece, he comes up with some amusing expletives. Somehow he manages to hit a sweet spot between maintaining a light tone and historical accuracy, and he manages to do it in both the text and the art. Even when he gives these women enormous Disney eyes he makes sure to get the period details right: you know he isn’t mocking these women, he’s taking them seriously but not striving for an imagined objectivity. And then there are art notes on many of the illustrations, which explain details one might miss and their significance. Dude has found his calling and I hope he sells beaucoup books and can continue to devote his time and energy to the project. I love this like I haven’t loved any history since Lies My Teacher Told Me.
It only just hit me that the reason I loved this book so much was that I really needed to read about kick-ass women who got shit done and had fun and/or really improved their world.
Audrey and Givenchy: A Fashion Love Affair - Cindy De La Hoz Beautiful photographs of a lovely model in exquisite clothes, clothes designed just for hAudrey and Givenchy: A Fashion Love Affair - Cindy De La Hoz Beautiful photographs of a lovely model in exquisite clothes, clothes designed just for her by a man whose talent and vision merge so well with the model’s style and appearance. Gorgeous. The text is rightfully focused on the relationship between model and designer, and on the gorgeous clothes. Ìý Library copy...more
I admire the hell out of Hillary Rodham (Clinton), but this was the most tactfully dull autobiography I ever attempted. It's not so much that I was loI admire the hell out of Hillary Rodham (Clinton), but this was the most tactfully dull autobiography I ever attempted. It's not so much that I was looking for anything bizarre: she's on the Wonk end of the political spectrum, which gets shit done, but tends to avoid amazing soundbites. What I miss is her sense of humor. Her first job our of school was working to impeach Nixon. Let's revel in that irony.
[If you find a copy nearby, do check out the photographs. There's a really funny one of her on the back of an elephant, where the driver looks freakishly tiny.]
As much as I enjoy reading in general, this business of presidential candidates putting out books doesn't impress me much. Some of them are well written, but the only candidate's books I've ever really enjoyed were those of Al Franken, and he was definitely a writer first. By way of contrast, check out Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader GinsburgThe Notorious RBG. Now there's a book that evokes personality and determination and so forth. Two stories about lawyers who focused their professional lives on achieving legal equality and improved conditions for women, children, and men. Only one of those books sets the reader into full-on fandom.
Hamilton: The Revolution - Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter ÌýRather the Annotated Hamilton, in form, with the libretto to one side of each page, anHamilton: The Revolution - Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter ÌýRather the Annotated Hamilton, in form, with the libretto to one side of each page, and extensive sidenotes on the other, pointing out puns and allusions (so many of both). There are also lovely photos, and a lot of information about how the show came together, with cast and music and costuming and stage design and direction. And there's a lot, too about the art of playwriting, and what kind of song needs to go where, and what one needs to share with the audience when. Very cool, and not only to fans of the show.Library copy...more
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Irin Carmon,Shana Knizhnik No doubt there are people who will disagree with me on this, butNotorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Irin Carmon,Shana Knizhnik No doubt there are people who will disagree with me on this, but I quite like the books I've seen that started as blogs or Tumblrs or similar. The editor has a fine opportunity to see what the audience is, and a good idea of what a finished product would contain. And all that I have read so far managed to take what was a good idea and make it richer, deeper, more fleshed out.As, for example, here. Because Bader Ginsberg has been awesome all her life. It was fascinating to see the trajectory of her career, and the progression of legal challenges to laws restricting women's rights. This isn't a traditional biography, but it certainly manages to hit a lot of high spots. And it also gives a wonderful insight into the ACLU and the directed plan to increase civil rights. I'd never thought about it before, but now that I know I love the idea of a career based on observing and fighting injustice. She has style, she has flair (those marvelous collars), and she has a keen sense of justice. The Notorious RBG was an entertaining and uplifting book. Every expansion in human rights is treated as something the privileged class just decided one day that it had to go. History classes (back when I took them) rarely or never portrayed the hard work, the organization, the PR, the constant ongoing struggle to achieve what has been denied. So seeing that presented in a zippy way with fan art, that is just a fabulous hook. I hope every young woman reads this and considers what she wants to fight for, and how, as well as how to accessorize her judge's robes. (oh, yeah, it feels a little Legally Blonde in a good way)Not only was there a clamor at the house to read this first, but there was widespread interest among the librarians and patrons who saw the book. I can't fault any thing that gets people thinking about how to make the world better. Ìý Library copy...more
I read this because Hamilton has been on repeat in my car for a year or something now, and he *is* my favorite fighting Frenchman after D'Artagnan andI read this because Hamilton has been on repeat in my car for a year or something now, and he *is* my favorite fighting Frenchman after D'Artagnan and before General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. I enjoyed learning about his family of military bigwigs and how desperate he was to get over here and fight.
Lafayette, a descendent of Christian warriors stretching back to the Crusade, cheerfully belly flopped into the bloodbath.
And later, on his farewell tour of the US, it's easy to imagine him in a sort of Dickensian popular tour. Because this is a book about how Vowell feels about things she reads and places she goes and What History Means to Me, there is no pretense of reporting, no effort to be fairhanded. There is humor; there's snark: especially every time he manages to impregnate his wife before running off for several more years. It all works because it makes us think about what history means to us, and some of it is funny and some of it is rage-inducing, and all the best bits were never included in our text books.
So, on the one hand you have accurate historical background on Babbage and Lovelace and the work they did together.
And then there are the fantastical So, on the one hand you have accurate historical background on Babbage and Lovelace and the work they did together.
And then there are the fantastical steampunk adventures they might have had if only they'd gotten around to making the first computer. The adventures are as heavily footnoted as the real history, so one can learn a great deal about the historical figures, the process of digging through history for evidence, and more. Great fun for all ages, although the really young would need an advanced reader to help....more
Turns out Poehler has accomplished so much in her life (so far) by working her ass off and never sleeping. She reveals a little about her life, but noTurns out Poehler has accomplished so much in her life (so far) by working her ass off and never sleeping. She reveals a little about her life, but not so much as to be embarrassing, mostly giving an overview of different aspects. The chapter on Parks & Rec gives a look into how such a thing is done and says nothing but the best about everyone involved. There are some jokes, some anecdotes about the kids, a lot about improv, atop a firm feminist stance.The lack of picture captions bugged me though.
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