June Booknotes

 

 Summer is the perfect time to sit back, relax, and learn to enjoy reading again. 

 

“I would never attempt to dissuade anyone from reading a book. But please, if you're reading something that's killing you, put it down and read something else ...All I know is that you can get very little from a book that is making you weep with the effort of reading it.” - ― Nick Hornby

 

Here are the books I read this past month, and not one of them “killed” me. 

 

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM NETFLIX AND ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR KATHRYN BIGELOW!

Aurora by David Koepp

A solar storm (CME) has knocked out power almost everywhere on the planet. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local. A riveting, eerily plausible thriller, in which a worldwide cataclysm plays out in the lives of one complicated Midwestern family.

 

 History!

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE:  The Dead Hand by David E. Hoffman

The first full account of how the Cold War arms race finally came to a close, this riveting narrative history sheds new light on the people who struggled to end this era of massive overkill, and examines the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today. This is the fascinating story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and a previously unknown collection of scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies changed the course of history.

*NOTE:  I read The Dead Hand because of a book I read last month,  Point of Impact by Kyla Stone, which is about a "dirty bomb" exploding in Miami.  Would such an attack even be possible in "real life?" ... I learned, unfortunately, yes.

 

 

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice: 

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang

In an effort to understand why people think building a "wall" is a good way to handle immigration, I read this book.   

Between 1905 and 1914 nearly 10 million immigrants entered our country. This set off the “racial paranoia” of the 1920s, marked by the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, and the surge in eugenics. Anti-immigration sentiment led to a restrictive 1924 law, which instituted a system of ethnic quotas so stringent that it choked off large-scale immigration for decades, sharply curtailing arrivals from southern and eastern Europe (Jews and Italians) and outright banning those from nearly all of Asia. In ensuing decades restrictions continued, with concerns over communist infiltration by immigrants growing more important than the desire to control the race and nationality of Americans. 

 

This book recounts how lawmakers, activists, and presidents from Truman through LBJ worked relentlessly to abolish the 1924 law.  The "new" 1965 law attempted to treat all nationalities fairly by imposing the first-ever limits on Western Hemisphere immigration, laying the groundwork for our current illegal immigration crisis. The bracero (temporary Mexican labor) was created during WW2 to address worker shortages. An average of 200,000 braceros crossed the border each year. The demand for cheap labor still continues but now, with the limits, braceros are considered illegal immigrants.  This set the stage for massive deportations and, sadly, human smuggling with deadly consequences.

 

 This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government – this book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?

*Complements the January 6th. Commission Hearings which are doing a great job of presenting information for the viewing public.*

 

THRILLER!

 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

Emily is in Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip. But one night she enters their hotel suite to find blood, broken glass and a dead backpacker on the floor. Kristen insists it was self defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip to Cambodia, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily and Kristen’s backpacking trips have deadly consequences in this “eerie psychological thriller . . . with alluring locales, Hitchcockian tension.”

 

Books by the Beach Book Club:

Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau (translated from French)

A novel about an old slave man running through the Great Woods in Martinique, not toward freedom: but toward the immense testimony of his bones. His run transforms, not only himself, but also those pursuing him - the huge Mastiff and his Master. “In this novel, language not only tells the story; it is the story, an enactment of the subversive action it describes.”

 

 Domestic Noir!

 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: The End of Her by Shari LaPena

Stephanie, recently married and the mother of twin girls, has her world turned upside down when a woman appears accusing Stephanie’s husband of murdering his first wife. Her husband insists it was an accident. Could the woman be telling the truth?

 

 

The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler

One evening Gemma returns home to discover her husband, Danny, is missing. She contacts the police. But the police are suspicious. Why has no one apart from Gemma heard from Danny in weeks? Why is there barely a trace of him in their new flat?  Why was a large amount of his blood found in their former flat? Is she telling them the truth, or is this marriage hiding some very dark secrets?

  

Personal Development:

The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World by Sophia Dembling

Through a combination of personal insights and psychology, this book helps and encourages introverts to embrace their nature, to respect traits they may have been ashamed of and re-frame them as assets.

 

 

A Walk in the Wood: Meditations on Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh by Dr. Joseph Parent, Nancy Parent

Simple stories with clearly stated goals and easy-to-follow exercises provide all the tools you'll need to take the first step, or continue on your journey, toward a quieter and calmer way of living. *Super, easy read!

 

 Repeat Reading of a book I read in high school:

 

The Population Bomb by Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich

 

“It's a great blessing if one can lose all sense of time, all worries, if only for a short time, in a book.”― Nella Last

The Population Bomb

 

During high school I read a book that directly impacted my life. An assignment in my American Problems class was to read a book and then report on a problem.  I was assigned the problem: Overpopulation. The book I read was The Population Bomb by Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of Stanford University and President of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology.

The Population Bomb predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. The concern then was that a population bomb would tip the world into famine and chaos. 

My report focused on the “What Needs to be Done” section of the book. The most memorable items suggested were:

• Income Tax Reversal – an additional amount per child would be added to a family’s taxable income from which taxes are calculated (vs. a tax deduction per child). This is to pay for the resources they use.
• Luxury Taxes – placed on baby items (cribs, diapers, etc.) and toys.
• Incentives – bonuses paid for …

using birth control;
postponing marriage until couples are both over the age of 25;
every 5 years of marriage without the birth of children;
voluntary vasectomy after having 2 children.

• Sex Education – expand the “birds & bees” curriculum to include the fact that reproduction is but one function of sex and one that can be controlled.

Our class discussion of these ideas, was, to say the least, very spirited!

Most notably, for me, was the author’s answer to the question, “What can I do to help?” His response, “Set an example – don’t have more than two children.”  As a high school student, I took that response to heart. After reading this book, I decided that if I ever had children, I would only have two – which I eventually did!

The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. As I reread it now, I would agree, it is not an optimistic book. But while not all of the Ehrlich’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, from 3.8 billion to 7.6 billion. And Ehrlich was right about one thing: The world’s population has continued to expand, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our climate. 

And yet, despite Ehrlich’s predictions, no devastating famine threatening humanity’s existence ever ensued. The reason is straightforward. Food production increased faster than the population. Today, the average person is healthier, wealthier and better fed than in 1968. Infant mortality has declined. Life expectancy has increased. Ironically, both Japan and Europe do have a population problem. But the problem is not the threat of famine due to too many mouths to feed. It’s that women are having too few children to maintain current population levels.

The first time I read The Population Bomb I was a young woman focused on how my life would be impacted. Now that I am past childbearing age, my rereading focused on how our world and its inhabitants are being impacted by the environmental problems outlined in the book. The book was the same, but my experience was different.

While Dr. Ehrlich’s forecasts of famine due to population growth did not come true, his book has left an unanswered question that is still with us today: How can the Earth continue to support an ever-increasing number of humans?