Tag: Nonfiction Review

Books, NonFiction

To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas

RaeAnna

Read YESSS!!!
Length 352
Quick Review A snapshot into the hearts of America. Oh my goodness. I cried so much. Filled with real letters from real Americans with real joys, worries, sorrows, and more. It’s hard not to be affected by it.  

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Reading To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

Up until reading To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas, I had never even thought of writing to the president. I always was under the impression of “what’s the point?” Up until President Obama, there probably wasn’t much of a point. There was no system.

When Obama walked into the White House, he made sure the mail was a priority. It was a way for him to connect to his people. The mail room was a mess. He decided he wanted to read ten letters a day, which became known as 10LAD. Over time, everyone in the White House was reading the mail, and if they weren’t, they wanted to be. A system was quickly put in place to read and reply to the mail. Occasionally, Obama would reply to a letter writer himself. The letters people sent in would be read and would even affect policy.

The people in the mail room were important, and their job was not easy. They were on the receiving end of every feeling America was having. Their job was not only to process the mail but to process American emotions. They read, they filed, they reported, they responded, they bonded. The workers became close because their experience was a unique one. I wish I could describe it to you, but you should just read To Obama.

There are samples of letters throughout the book. They are so moving. They express feelings and opinions on all sides of the political spectrum. What you believed didn’t matter; what did matter was that Obama believed each and every person mattered. That was the driving force behind the mail room: you matter. It was evident. To Obama was a mantra for so many people. Small children wrote in asking for help on their homework. Partners wrote in expressing their gratitude for the ability to finally marry. Conservatives wrote with disgust. Democrats wrote out of disappointment. Families from 9/11 wrote out of exhaustion. People wrote for so many reasons. Why? Because they felt like they mattered. 

Laskas focused on several letter writers from various backgrounds who wrote for different reasons. This cemented the mission of the mail room in reality, in how it touched people’s lives, in the ways it helped people. Laskas also focused on the people who ran the mail room because they were the ones who kept it going.

It was so well written. I rarely cry over books. I pretty much cried the entirety of To Obama. There is so much pain and happiness and success and failure within the pages. It takes snapshots of American flowing with so much raw emotions. It’s hard not to be overwhelmed taking it all in. I ended up having to read for an hour at a time, so I could take in what I just read. I’m an empath, as so many bookworms are, and it’s an intense read. Considering the outcome of the election, this was an interesting book to take in.

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Memorable Quotes
“Little hard data exists about constituent mail from previous administrations.”
“little by little, voice by voice, the mail could drive actual policy decisions.”

Title: To Obama, With love, joy, anger, and hope
Author: Jeanne Marie Laskas
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525509387

Books, NonFiction

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 400
Quick Review Harari looks into the future that could be with the evolution of technology.

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Reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari in the Heights. 

Yuval Noah Harari is the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Sapiens, he returns with his latest work 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. The future is an unknown, but Harari uses his knowledge of history to look into the possibilities of tomorrow.

I am a person who is always on the brink of an existential crisis. This was a hard book to read because so much of it ran along the lines of humans may become irrelevant. Among all the other topics Harari discusses, there was a lot of pausing of the reading to collect my thoughts, have a cup of tea, and remind myself anarchy would be worse… probably.

 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a really interesting read. I can’t speak on the accuracy of everything because, well, I was battling my existential tendencies too much to research the things I don’t know. Technology, biotech, and the foundations of our society are the main concepts the book revolves around. Through these, Harari explores the meaning of how we as a civilization functions today, and how that will change as technology evolves and becomes ever more important in our daily lives, careers, medicine, government, and more.

Harari discusses everything from the job crisis to the algorithm taking over free will to the importance of AI and so much more. He uses historical references from many different cultures and times to support his opinion. Irrelevance and inequality kept cropping up throughout the text. The writing is very engaging and interesting. He writes clearly. Many books by scholars can get muddled with complicated text and references. Harari doesn’t fall into that trap. His writing appeals to the masses with a strong voice, clear message, and enough backstory to his references that they make sense.

There is a sense of humor to Harari’s writing. It usually has a dark twist, which I personally appreciate. The book is split into five parts with several chapters each. The chapters have several sections. I really enjoyed the names of these sections; they were quippy like “Germans and Gorillas” and “Artificial Intelligence and Natural Stupidity.”

I have a feeling this is going to be another highly talked about book, when 21 Lessons for the 21st Century comes out on September 4, 2018. You should definitely check it out, unless you’re hyper prone to existential crisis, then limit yourself to a few pages a day.

Buy on Amazon.com

Memorable Quotes
“It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.”

Title: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (Random House)
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525512172

Books

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 304
Overview A fabulous memoir about a newly 40, childless, single woman in New York learning to struggle, be proud of, regret, love, question, and live the life she has.

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No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol is a new release having hit bookstore shelves barely a month ago. I jumped at the opportunity to read this, and I absolutely love it.

I’m single, childless, and getting older every day. As a woman of a certain age, I hear “when are you getting married?” “when are you going to have babies?” and “you’ve still got time.” more than often. I’m not searching these things out. We live in a time where I am not forced into a one-way path of female adulthood; I can choose, support, and live almost anyway I desire. This is revolutionary even though it’s not completely unusual. There is a serious lack of variation in female role models. Every path is beautiful and fulfilling and difficult as long as we are able to choose the path we live.

Glynnis MacNicol shares her fortieth year story as she figures out if she’s happy with the life she’s accidentally, purposely chosen. No kids. Single. Her mother’s health is failing from Parkinson’s. Her friends are getting married and having babies. She hasn’t found anyone. Does she even want babies? She spends the year she turned 40 figuring out if she wants to keep going down that path.

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I don’t want to tell you too much, but the book is amazing. MacNicol is incredibly honest with the good and the bad. She taps in to her inner voice in an incredibly sincere way. She can be sad and funny in the same moment. There are incredibly touching moments, which will resonate deeply for women of all backgrounds and lives about finding happiness and being true to oneself.

The group of friends MacNicol describes is amazing. I hope to have a support group as deep, loyal, and wonderful as the one she describes. I also love how she often goes off on tangents describing her life in terms of “if my life were a rom-com.” She has no fear in tapping into the hilariously ludicrous inner voice we all have but would probably not want thousands of people knowing.        

I highly suggest you add this book to the top of your reading list. It’s perfect for any woman and should be read by men too.

Memorable Quotes
“Women alone always seemed to be seen as an advertisement: open space, please fill.”
“What cultural markers were there for women other than weddings and babies?”
“Women my age were always being accused of getting tell serious too quickly, but in my experience, men were just as guilty of it, maybe even more so.”
“People leave, but they also come back.”

Title: No One Tells You This
Author: Glynnis Macnicol
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781501163135
Books

My Life on the Road

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 276
Quick Review Steinem is a feminist icon having dedicated her life to activism, which kept her on the road. She finally put pen to paper to document her journey.

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This book was an adventure in and of itself because my dog took a bite out of the middle. After the ingestion of ten pages, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gloria Steinem’s My Life on the Road.

As a woman who spends a great deal of time traveling, I enjoyed Steinem’s stories immensely because I identify with her narrative on so many levels. A lone woman on the road, wariness is a familiar companion. Steinem repeatedly found herself in uneasy scenarios only to be pleasantly surprised by the kindness and complexity of humanity. This has become one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Steinem’s nomadic life began with her father’s wandering ways. As a child without four walls to call her own, she lusted after a normal life only to realize the road was her normal. After college, she decided to go to India for two years where her love of traveling and being apart of the people began shaping her future. She talks about her stories with people, shared experiences, feeling of isolation, and how people would recross her path in the most unusual ways.

Steinem is known for her fierce activism for women’s rights, and one of the most powerful moments in the book is when she stated simply: “When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses.” Her entire life on the road was for the purpose of leveling the playing field for all people regardless of gender, orientation, or ethnicity. As a traveler, she often dealt with feelings of isolation, which parallels the isolation many feminists deal with, “those of us, women and men, who identify with feminism are still made to feel isolated, wrong, out of step.” One of the most enlightening parts of My Life on the Road is when she discusses the Houston Women’s Convention in 1977. I never knew it existed, and she was there a leader and part of the movement.

A constant traveler herself, Steinem often found comrades in those who traveled for a living. She learned about the community cross-country truckers have, and the dangers and obstacles female drivers face. She learned of the struggle and marginalization of “stewardesses” in airlines as they fought for rights and equality to be known as flight attendants. Steinem could connect with people because she was always with people.

Steinem isn’t only serious, she’s incredibly funny with gems like: “It was like riding in a placenta with Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, or Chaka Khan.” She is funny, smart, and in touch. I can’t recommend it enough.

Memorable Quotes
“Perhaps our need to escape into media is a misplaced desire for the journey.”
“Also I’d, never thought about the racist reasons for controlling women’s bodies.”
“We might have known sooner that the most reliable predictor of whether a country is violent within itself – or will use military violence against another country – is not poverty, natural resources, religion, or even degree of democracy; it’s violence against females. It normalizes all other violence.”
“Altogether, I can’t imagine technology replacing bookstores completely…”
“If you travel long enough, every story becomes a novel.”
“… the presence of any woman devalued the masculine domain.”
“the power to make people laugh is also a power, so women have been kept out of comedy.”

Title: My Life on the Road
Author: Gloria Steinem
Publisher: Random House (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9780679456209

 

Books

Risk! by Kevin Allison

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 380
Quick Review Kevin Allison compiles incredibly touching stories in Risk! People from different backgrounds some of their most trying experiences. 

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Risk by Kevin Allison

Kevin Allison is the creator of the podcast and live show Risk! Over the years, he has heard people famous and not tell their stories they never thought they would tell. He has compiled some of the most memorable stories into a book, which comes out on July 17, 2018.

Everyone has a story to tell. Allison tells his own story alongside a multitude of others, but the pages are filled with real experiences people never thought they would tell. The stories range from the hilarious, bizarre, unbelievable, to completely heartbreaking. At the heart of each story is the essence of being human and finding meaning in even the most difficult situations.

Risk! is divided into sections based on the content of the story. Stories range from two pages to ten or so pages long. They all usually have a humorous aspect to them, but most have a serious theme. After each story, is a brief Question & Answer with the storyteller about how it affected their life or healing process; some are a question or two and others longer. Part of me really enjoyed reading this part, but the other part of me really prefers for the story to stand on its own.

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All in all, Risk! Is a really beautiful book full of insight into moments in people’s lives from a large variety of backgrounds and ethnicities tackling subjects from child sexual abuse to life in a drug cartel to prostitution to kinky sex. Laugh out loud moments kept me going through the tear jerkers. I really enjoyed this, and it’s a great book to take on vacations, commute, or in your busy stop-and-start life.

Buy on Amazon || Buy on Book Depository

Memorable Quotes
“This kid grew up poor with no hope and no support, and that is a very different kind of poverty – an emotional poverty.”
“I married my child when he was still a man.”
“…the thing about money is that it buys you comfort, but comfort is numbness.”

Title Risk! True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare to Share
Editor Kevin Allison
Publisher Hachette Book Group
Copyright 2018
ISBN 9780316478281

Books

The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review Phiona Mutesi is from one of the worst slums in the world in a country left behind. Overcoming every impossibility, she is one of the most promising young women in chess.

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Phiona Mutesi should not be a name I know; it should not be a name anyone knows. She is from Katwe a slum of Kampala in Uganda. It has some of the worst living conditions in the world. She was born poorer than poor. Through what can only be explained as divine intervention, she found chess and success and a place in a world she didn’t even know existed.

Tim Crothers published The Queen of Katwe in 2012. A Disney movie of the same name was released in 2016 starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo. I saw the movie before I knew about the book. Obviously, the book is better, but the movie was pretty damn good. Tim Crothers happened upon Phiona’s story as a sports journalist. His attention was captured, and this book became the product.

Crothers spends more time describing Katwe, conditions, Uganda, and people than he does Phiona. At the time of publication, Phiona was maybe 14. Her life just beginning. He does this because it is necessary to set the scene in which Phiona was born into. It would be impossible to understand the magnitude of the miracle without understanding the devastation of her reality.

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Katwe has a sad history. People from rural areas left for a better life in Kampala, but with no skills suited to city-life they found refuge in a place they could go without notice. Katwe grew from a swamp to a sprawling slum. As Uganda went through regime changes and rebellions Katwe saw the worst of it. The citizens are often flooded out of their homes or ravaged by disease. Tragedy and death is their reality. So much death that Uganda is the youngest country in the world with an average age of 14. No one is certain of their birth year simply guessing how old they are. Surviving is the driving force. A need to eat and lack of funds and opportunity requires children to work. Without education a cycle has formed of dependency, poverty, ignorance, and children having babies.

Robert Katende grew up in slums, but was lucky enough to have an education. Without contacts, he had little prospect. Through his faith, he made a contact that would change so many lives. He brought sports to Katwe. Giving the children who had no hope a bright spot in their day. Katende spread his faith through soccer and eventually chess as well as one meal a day. Sometimes the only meal the children would have. Phiona Mutesi followed her brother to chess club one day. Maybe it was the promise of a meal or a diversion from reality, she kept returning. She took to the game quickly.

Phiona had no understanding of the world outside her slum when she bordered a plane for the first time. Chess opened up her world in a way nothing else could have. Through her natural talent, her hard work, her drive, the tireless support of Katende and all the others, Phiona has traveled the world competing at the highest tiers of chess competitions, and she has won.

As I read, I was constantly on the verge of tears. It is an impressive account of overcoming every impossibility. Crother’s includes so many accounts of Ugandans overcoming and succeeding and Ugandans who are just surviving in Katwe. It is impossible to read this without being moved on an intensely deep level. There is one passage towards the end of the book, which summed up every emotion I had:

“Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog. To be African is to be an underdog in the world. To be Ugandan is to be an underdog in Africa. To be from Katwe is to be an underdog in Uganda. To be a girl is to be an underdog in Katwe.”

It is an intensely moving passage. Crother’s spends the whole book demonstrating the truth of this statement. Phiona is an underdog. She’s an underdog who has continued to overcome.

The Queen of Katwe isn’t just Phiona’s story. It is the story of every person who helped her. By helping her succeed, they were paving a path for Uganda to gain respect in a world that has largely forgotten it. She’s a young woman with the weight of a country on her shoulders.   

*The Queen of Katwe was published in 2012. There is a new postscript for the paperback edition, which updates the reader about Phiona’s circumstances. I, of course, had to research more because I want this underdog to succeed. She is a Woman Candidate Master in chess with a FIDE score of 1628. She received a scholarship and is a part of the chess team at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, which she started attending in 2017. She is still succeeding and creating her story!!!  

Memorable Quotes
“What name Phiona come back day after day were the beautiful pieces that attracted her in the first place.”
“…positive reinforcement being an unfamiliar but powerful incentive to a slum child.”
“Phiona was like a boy, but because she was not a boy, her opportunity to advance quickly in the game was mind-boggling.”
“The shriek of a dismissed girl from a dismissed world finally making herself be heard.”

Title: The Queen of Katwe
Author: Tim Crothers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781501127182