TIME FLIES · PRINT ENDURES
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“Janesville: An American Story”
A storybook American factory town suddenly loses its factory— the lifeblood and livelihood of the community. Janesville, Wisconsin is a quintessential American industrial city with a proud 90+ year history as an auto manufacturing center. The city of 63,000 had a renowned auto plant, an enviously capable workforce, a thriving middle class, and a well-earned sense of community pride. Then in 2008, a confluence of shifting economic tides led General Motors to shutdown the massive Janesville auto plant. In an instant, the future of the city’s economy— and thousands of families whose livelihoods depended on the plant— were thrown into…
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“The Library Book”
It’s every librarian’s nightmare. A devastating loss to a vibrant city’s collective culture and memory. In 1986, the same week as the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown crisis in Russia, the Los Angeles Central Library was set ablaze by an arsonist. The fire spread quickly through the old building and incinerated everything in its path, reaching temperatures of 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. Hundreds of thousands of books and priceless archival items were reduced to ash. Hundreds of thousands more were irreversibly damaged or severely threatened by water and smoke damage. The next day, thousands of volunteers converged on the building and formed a…
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“Evicted”
Housing is a basic human need. It irrevocably shapes our lives and our destinies. It also can be a lucrative and, at times, cruel and devastating business. This landmark nonfiction work tells eight stories of families who were swept up in the process of eviction. Along the way, the book sheds new light on the myriad social currents, large and small, that have brought American society to the brink of an alarming housing crisis. The people whose stories are told within— tenants and landlords alike— are expertly brought to life though the author’s masterfully descriptive and empathetic writing. I’m completely…
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“Dark Matter”
Nothing is real, but nothing to get hung about, goes the classic song. Who among us hasn’t wished to travel back in time and try the door not opened? I’m halfway through this sci-fi / suspense mashup that uses pop science as a vehicle to explore this notion— with a twist, naturally. And I’m hooked. Plenty of dialogue and screen-ready descriptions (the author has written several television series) render this book a quick and engaging read. Perfect for a wet winter Sunday by the fire. “Dark Matter,” by Blake Crouch
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“Darwin Comes to Town”
Nature adapts and evolves in response to changes in the environment. Cities have their own ecosystems, and many species have developed unique adaptions to survive and thrive in the urban environment. From sewers to the rooftops and everything in between, this book explores the many urban worlds where nature unexpectedly thrives. Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution, by Menno Schilthuizen
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“World without mind: the existential threat of big tech”
Brace for a deep dive into the dangers tech leviathans Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon pose to human freedom and self-determination. The year 2012 was a time when clickbait was ascendant and few people understood (or cared about) the extent of personal data collection taking place. 🤔📖 Bouncing around the various reviews of World Without Mind, the book finds defenders and detractors, pro and con, like wading through a contentious Facebook comment thread. Author Franklin Foer is the former editor of the liberal magazine New Republic. He was hired in that role shortly after the magazine was bought by Facebook…
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“Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design”
I’m looking forward to diving in to this analysis of the many ways that design decisions can inadvertently exclude users from a design’s benefits if they are not included in the design process, and how inclusion can result in better design for all users. “Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design,” by Kat Holmes.
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“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”
There are too many things to love about this timeless classic book written in 1935. The story of three American adventurers who hunt for gold in the mountains of Mexico. Source of memorable quotes such as this one: It isn’t the gold that changes man, it is the power which gold gives to man that changes the soul of man. This power, though, is only imaginary. If not recognized by other men, it does not exist. The book sold millions of copies and has been translated into many languages. It was made into the brilliant film by John Huston starring…
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“Becoming”
Like the woman herself, this memoir is likeable, accessible, smart, insightful, humble and confident in perfect balance. The most interesting facet of the book’s first pages for me is her story of growing up watching her father’s advancing multiple sclerosis. Watch for her subtle yet skillful descriptions of the coping mechanisms employed by each of her family members to adapt to the stark yet slow-motion debilitation of the patriarch’s physical mobility. I like this book very much and can’t wait to read the rest of it. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
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“Killers of the Flower Moon”
Black gold. Texas tea. So goes the old “Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom rhyme. In this case, the tea is underground in Oklahoma, in the early days of American oil exploitation. Years before, the Osage native American tribe had been invaded and driven out of their ancestral lands into a remote corner of Oklahoma which was thought to be mostly barren of natural resources. When a vast reservoir of oil was discovered under their reservation, the impoverished Osage tribe became wildly, fabulously wealthy overnight. But this was during an era of profound inequity, racism, ignorance, cruelty, and apartheid across the United States.…
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1960s library pamphlet: “Opportunity beckons”
My wife found this pristine California library pamphlet from the 1960s in a box of memorabilia from the old barn. The pamphlet is folded in a way that offers a sneak peek of the illustrations within. A hand beckons from behind a door of “opportunity.” Unfolding the sheet reveals that the owner of the hand is a literal book-head. Venturing further unfurls a starburst of enthusiastic exclamations about the library’s many virtues: It’s free! It brings returns! It’s here to use! Among the benefits that are “Yours for the asking”: As if that isn’t amazing enough, the pamphlet’s back cover…
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“Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles”
The extraordinary tale of old-school “primitivist” Marshal South. In the 1930s and 40s, he and his wife Tanya made the monumental decision to move to a hand-made home on a rocky outcropping in California’s desolate, yet eerily beautiful Anza Borrego desert. They started a family and lived there entirely “off the grid” for 19 years. South documented his family’s experiences in a long series of popular articles published by The Desert Magazine. The stories are accompanied by incredible photos that speak volumes about the Souths’ family life. What must it have been like, scratching out a living in the middle…
