Hi readers,
Let’s quickly acknowledge some books I’ve allowed to sit for too long on my ‘reading review to-do list’.
Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit (April 2019)
Solnit’s collection covers a wide range of themes that will be familiar to any of her longtime readers (or perhaps, to my readers, who have suffered through my reading reviews of her work). The basic idea with this book is the importance of naming things correctly as part of a larger process for resolving chronic or systemic issues.
I should also note that in a year where I wrote more about pronouns than anyone could have anticipated, this book’s title played a role in one of my underlying beliefs – rather than worry about pronouns, better to be pro-noun, and call things by their names.
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue (May 2019)
O’Donohue writes about thresholds as a way to think about passing from one stage of life to the next. It was one of my favorite books from one of my favorite writers. As always, he introduces painful topics to the reader with a superior sense of grace, empathy, and care. The last note I wrote from this book perhaps summarizes the main lesson – when a force within leaves us uneasy about the status quo, it is time for a change.
In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu (June 2019)
Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, takes a closer examination at his role in bringing down Confederate statues in this wonderful memoir. Symbols, he writes, are important because they demonstrate how we tell the truth about the past. If we all keep this lesson in mind, I think we can collectively respond better the next time someone challenges our assumptions about the way we acknowledge the past in our public spaces.
Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin (July 2019)
Salatin writes about his experiences running a small farm (as in, not a mega-factory farm). The main premise is hinted in the title – bureaucracy designed for oversight of massive operations does nothing for smaller operations except strangle their innovation and place endless pressure on their financial stability. This was a fascinating read, most likely due to my complete lack of experience or understanding about Salatin’s lifestyle and the way it influences his worldview.
