October Booknotes

October ... the perfect time to fall into reading!

Non-fiction: Dystopia, History, Politics

Apocalypse Any Day Now: Deep Underground with America's Doomsday Preppers by Tea Krulos

I was expecting this to be a guide to preparing for the end of the world but, instead, this is a “travelogue."

When anyone says “preppers”, I automatically think of the people (often portrayed as very conservative, maybe paranoid, heavily into online conspiracies) who collect food, guns, and military surplus to survive the end of the world. And, yes, Krulos does explore some of this culture, interviewing preppers in Wisconsin and New York but there was so much more to this book. He not only explores this more “famous” prepper culture, but also some of the different prepper sub-cultures that have cropped up. There are the members of Zombie Squad, an international group of preppers that use a hypothetical zombie apocalypse as a springboard not only for prepping, but for outreach, volunteering, and blood drives. Then there are the homesteaders who try to recreate and relearn the skills our ancestors had to live off the land, prepare food, and lead a simpler life. Krulos also visits a 15-story condo built in a decommissioned Kansas missile silo. Here we learn about a culture willing to pay BIG bucks to buy a small, apartment-sized, windowless space in the complex. The condo culture believes they made a wise decision. Also, Krulos camps with CreekStewart, the host of survival television shows, and visits Wasteland, a Mad Max-like party where participants do battle and drive steampunk vehicles.

All I can say about Apocalypse Any Day Now is that it is interesting. To his credit, Krulos interviews and immerses himself in several different “prepper” groups, providing an inside look into the varieties of prepping culture. At best he gives the reader pause to ask - am I ready? Maybe not to survive the end of the world, but if a serious weather event or natural disaster happened, could you survive for 3 days without access to food, electricity, and all the modern comforts we enjoy?

Non-fiction: Philosophy, Politics

Arguing for a Better World: How Philosophy Can Help Us Fight for Social Justice by Arianne Shahvisi

I do not like the title. I think it should be: Unexamined Assumptions: How Philosophy can Help Us Identify, Question and Work Through Moral Questions. The words “arguing” and “fight” bring to mind people yelling at each other and not listening. Also, I find asking people why they believe/think something tends to put them on the defensive and then they usually answer with a thought-terminating response – “Find out for yourself. It’s not my job to educate you!” - which doesn’t answer the question.

In essence, this book demonstrates the relevance of philosophy to our everyday lives. I found myself pausing while reading to contemplate assumptions I have about political, racial, and cultural issues. I have no intention of actively pursuing “arguments” or “fighting” with anyone who can not answer why they believe as they do. I want to be able to answer the question for myself.

After reading Arguing for a Better World, I have an even greater appreciation for context, especially the historical and cultural context of moral issues. An example that stands out for me is how people responded to Black Lives Matter. The context of this social movement is key. In this case there were specific historical events and one current event (the killing of George Floyd) that pushed the issue front-and-center. The context is essential to understanding why Black Lives Matter (BLM) became a wide-spread social movement. How did people respond?

• The “color-blind” response – “We should move beyond racial categories.” They maintain that everyone should be treated equally and that we are beyond racism. Sounds good, except “color-blind” believers are ignoring the context and not listening to the participants’ concerns. How can we move beyond something we deny exists?

• The “whataboutery” response – “What about the lives of other people? Don’t they matter, too?” They maintain that there is plenty of injustice in the world so why should Blacks be given any more attention than anyone else? Sounds maybe-kind- of-sort -of- perhaps good, except “whataboutery” believers (again) ignore the context. BLM is not saying this is the only issue that matters but rather this issue is morally troubling within this context of events.

• The “white supremacist” response – “Black Lives Matter is now everywhere, and that’s a sign of a world in which whiteness is under threat.” That sounds HORRIBLE! White supremacists view BLM as a threat and interpret it as only Black lives matter. Once again, they ignore current and historical context. Think about how a banner reading “White Lives Matter” within our country’s current and historical context would be interpreted? White supremacists believe in a zero-sum world where only one group can be “favored.” They forget that when Civil Rights legislation was enacted it was targeted for Whites. Blacks already knew they were human beings, American citizens and had the right to go into any public place. But the Whites didn’t. It was the Whites that had to be told how to treat their fellow citizens through our laws. CONTEXT MATTERS!!!

With an index and 46 pages of bibliographic citations, there is a lot to consider in this book. This is one book that I will need to revisit in order to process it all. Here are just some of the chapter titles:

• Can You Be Racist to a White Person?

• Has “Political Correctness” Gone to Far?

• Who Should We Believe?

• Who Is Canceling Whom?

When someone supports a morally troubling position by saying: “He is only saying what everyone else is thinking.” or “I was only joking,” I will continue to ask, “Why do you think/believe that?” But the author also suggested simply saying “I don’t get it.” or “What are you saying?” Sometimes feigning misunderstanding makes the person really think … or not. The important point is that I have asked myself the same questions and examined assumptions I have made. And while I have no desire to argue or debate with anyone, this book has helped me to identify, question and work through moral questions in my life.

Non-fiction: Evolutionary Biology, History

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon

Cat Bohannon, who has Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she studied the evolution of narrative and cognition, begins the story of Eve in the Jurassic era and moves through human evolutionary history into the current day, exploring everything from why menstruation happens to why female humans are more likely to get Alzheimer's disease. Eve places females smack dab in the middle of the story and introduces us to research supporting a more complete view of how female evolution might have happened. From the beginning of this story, we learn about some of the defining characteristics of women, like milk production to placental development and how important it is to study these key biological differences, along with biological commonalities in the study of the female species.

Eve describes the catalysts behind the great shifts in human development - from bipedal locomotion to language and tool use - and in a narrative that starts with the first tiny mammal that coexisted with the dinosaurs and traces that story up to today. Bohannon has assembled a fascinating, comprehensive, and entertaining study of what is usually left out of the story of “us” — all while making a forceful case for why focusing on the history of the female body matters for the future of all of humanity.

Eve is stuffed with interesting facts — I did not know that a stress hormone is released in women when they hear a baby crying (while the top frequencies of a crying baby are cut off in the male hearing range) or that reducing the number of girls married before they are eighteen by even 10 percent can reduce a country’s maternal mortality by 70 percent. All these facts are supported by pages of footnotes and citations of authoritative and reliable research.

But Bohannon’s main thesis seems to be that, despite nearly dying off a couple of times, our species has been able to thrive and populate the entire planet primarily because we mastered gynecology; learning to have the right number of babies, raised at the right time, according to the resources of their mothers’ community.

Eve is scholarly, engaging and necessary. This should be read alongside the popular male-focused history Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (even though it left out the fact that the first cities were made possible by wet nurses!). While Eve is a lengthy book, it is worthwhile reading and, in the end, I am more appreciative of my female body.

Fiction: Mystery

Halloween Party by Agatha Christie

At a Halloween party held in Woodleigh Common, thirteen-year-old Joyce Reynolds tells everyone attending she had once seen a murder, but had not realized it was a murder until later. When the party ends, Joyce is found dead, having been drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Ariadne Oliver, a detective writer, attended the party and calls on Hercule Poirot to investigate the murder and Joyce's claim. Will Poirot identify the murderer?

This is not Christie’s finest work. Halloween Party is the thirty-eighth Poirot novel and the sixth of seven, in which his partner in the murder investigation is the detective writer, Ariadne Oliver. Aside from the lively beginning (in the spirit of P.G. Wodehouse, to whom the book is dedicated), the book descends for more than a 100 pages into a dull side story about a forged codicil to a will.

However, even with this flaw, Halloween Party is still an okay mystery. (“Okay” for Christie is would be “very good” for other authors). Poirot delves into the past to find out who, and why, a murderer would kill a child. This makes it, when compared to Christie’s earlier mysteries, more “modern.” Written in 1969, there are several references to young men with loud “rock-and-roll” voices and “piles of unruly hair.” (I don’t think Dame Christie and the sixties were a good match!) Poirot is constantly told by characters that many unbalanced people abound in Woodleigh Commons. They emphasize that because of the permissive society and the fact there is no longer a death penalty, the world seems a more dangerous place. All of this makes Halloween Party an interesting novel for Poirot fans, as it provides a glimpse of how Poirot viewed the “modern” world. 

Fiction: Science fiction, Fantasy

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

This book consists of a series of stories between loosely connected characters in the not-too-distant future and then goes deeper, and further into a world still recognizable, yet utterly changed.

It begins in 2030 when scientists discover a 30,000 year old settlement in the melting permafrost of Siberia. They inadvertently release an ancient virus (The Arctic Plague) from the melting permafrost which, along with climate disasters, haunts humanity for generations. Each story is told by a different character but all of the characters are aiming to navigate the reality of mass death, fear, and grieving.

👉“It’s strange how the discovery of an ancient girl in Siberia and viruses we’ve never encountered before can both redefine what we know about being human and at the same time threaten our humanity”

Obviously, there is a lot of death in How High We Go in the Dark, and it also includes some insane ideas like talking pigs and roller coaster euthanasia machines for virus-doomed children. But it’s also an unexpectedly tender novel. While fear, loss, and destruction sweep the world, the characters navigate troubled families, grieve, fall in love, and create art. The connections between each story and some of the characters are imaginative. The narrative comes full circle and never loses its focus on people. The end is unexpected but satisfying. I found this to be a very immersive, mesmerizing book.

👉“What is laughter but a moment of release where pain and memory are washed away? When we laugh, we are stronger. When we laugh, we heal the world.” 

International Fiction: Book Club Selection

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (First Nations Canada)

It's been a while since a book made me cry, but this one did. Saul Indian Horse, a young adult in an alcohol treatment program, is writing an autobiography as part of his therapy. He begins by opening a window into his life with his loving Ojibwe family. As a boy, Saul is immersed in their connections with nature, cultural traditions, and spirituality. His parents and, specifically his grandmother, try to keep him from being forced into a residential school. Both his parents were traumatized by their residential school experience and Saul’s older brother has escaped from a residential school where he was infected with tuberculosis. The family goes to a remote camp on a lake shore to protect Saul from the same fate. But a disaster strikes, and he ends up being placed in St. Jerome, a residential Catholic school for First Nations children.

Despite the cruel and unloving atmosphere of St. Jerome, Saul finds a passion in ice hockey. Father Leboutilier gives Saul books about hockey and allows him to watch hockey games on his television. Saul discovers that hockey gives his life meaning and purpose. The St. Jerome team begins to win most games with other First Nations schools. Then, with the help the priest, Saul gets a chance to leave the school, live with a supportive foster family and play for a team in the First Nations league. He is so successful that he advances to the minor leagues on a path to earn a spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I couldn’t help but hope that success in hockey was going to sustain him. But the crushing racism of the white world finally undermines Saul’s simple love of the sport. The overt violence that he is subjected to begins to corrupt his spirit. We know from the beginning Saul has fallen into alcoholism somewhere along the line and his past continues to haunt him. Finally, Saul realizes he can’t move forward until he faces the tragic past – even the parts of his past that he has hidden. Only then can he reclaim himself, his love of the sport, and be at one with nature again. 

"The Scream" by Kent Monkman (2017)

Indian Horse takes place in the 1960s and represents just a slice of history. In this case the Canadian Government, through the Catholic Church, thought it was a good and necessary to take First Nations children from their parents and wipe out their culture and enforce Christianity. In these schools literally tens of thousands children died from physical and sexual abuse, starvation, and treatable disease with the full awareness of the Canadian government. Besides the residential schools, there also was a policy called the “Sixties Scoop” where First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and placed into foster homes by child welfare agencies. Who knew that this could happen in a “civilized” society?

Wagamese is a rare author who can write beautiful prose about ugly, evil things, and bring to life a character who transcends the destruction of his culture – a character I care about. Indian Horse is a quick read which tells a tale both heartbreaking and uplifting. Instead of trying to imagine yourself in Saul’s situation, it is so much better to listen to Saul tell his story. Listen as he works to find peace in his heart for the harsh realities that life has dealt him. If you are listening, your heart will swell and tears will flow.

Non-fiction: Aging, Sociology

The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life by M.T. Connolly

The author is a lawyer and she entered the field of aging while working at the Department of Justice (DOJ) when she was asked to see what the DOJ could do to address substandard care in skilled nursing facilities. Connolly worked with the facts and laws that were available, seeking to improve the care for the most vulnerable of adults.

The Measure of Our Age explains the origin of elder care issues and what has been tried to improve the system. Every law, rule, service, benefit, or intervention was initiated for a reason. She then explores the weaknesses, failures, and criticisms of a wide spectrum of efforts to improve the experience of aging and the tragedy of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. If you have ever wondered about the origins of programs like Adult Protective Services or skilled nursing facilities dominating long-term care, this book will help you understand.

There were two important points that stood out for me. First, the difference between life expectancy and good health expectancy. There will be 6 to 8 years on average during a life span when many of us face the greatest health challenges of our life. Many books about aging are in search of the fountain of youth or are simply in denial about the reality of aging. Few of us are fortunate to die easily in perfect health. The Measure of Our Age confronts our inevitable decline straight on without any “sugar-coating” – it is inevitable.

Secondly, programs, services, benefits, and interventions for aging adults are critically underfunded. Aging has always been underfunded. Connolly explores some of the reasons why elder care is harder to fund and some of the failed approaches to seeking funding. Funding is hard to get without data and data is difficult to get without funding. Finally, the limited funding that is often available is often insufficient to fund both the intervention and a meaningful assessment of the intervention.

Connolly includes many first-person accounts, her own experience, and shocking investigative reporting as she exposes a reality that has long been hidden and sometimes actively covered up. The incidences of elder abuse – physical, mental, and financial - by family members are especially hard to read. But her investigation also reveals reasons for hope within everyone’s grasp. The Measure of Our Age, which includes strategies and action plans for navigating the many challenges of aging, will appeal to a wide range of readers - adult children caring for aging parents; policymakers trying to do the right thing; and, should we be so lucky as to live to old age, all of us. This book is for anyone who wishes to improve the experience of aging for a loved one, in their family, in their community, and, ultimately, for themselves.

Non-fiction: American History, Economics

Night Comes To The Cumberlands: A Biography Of A Depressed Area by Harry M. Caudill

I learned about this book from C-Span’s series Lectures in History, The Great Society and the Welfare State. Night Comes To The Cumberlands was mentioned as one of the books that influenced policy makers in the early 1960s. It drew attention to the poverty in Appalachia, specifically eastern Kentucky and coal mining communities. This book caused quite a “stir” when it was published in 1962. Specifically, it caused an uproar with the coal companies in the region. There were even attempts to have it banned in many areas of Appalachia. However, influenced by Night Comes To The Cumberlands, President John F. Kennedy appointed a commission to investigate conditions in the region and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, made Appalachia a keystone of his War on Poverty.

Wallins Creek Coal Co., Harlan, KY (My husband's Great-Grandfather worked here.)

Caudill begins Night Comes To The Cumberlands with an introduction which lays out the issues which he saw before him: “A million Americans in the Southern Appalachians live in conditions of squalor, ignorance and ill health which could scarcely be equaled in Europe or Japan or, perhaps, in parts of mainland Asia.”

He then traces the history of region, from its first settlements by former European indentured servants through to the Civil War, the feuds that erupted between violent neighbors, the emerging lumber trade and the advent of the coal industry, before uncovering the devastation of the Depression, the effects of massive environmental damage and the ever continuing decline into poverty and despair for many of the inhabitants.

👉"The mountaineer has become depressingly defeatist in attitude. Company domination and paternalism and two decades of uninspired Welfarism have induced the belief that control of his destiny is in other hands."

The solution Caudill promoted was to find a way to give as much personal responsibility back to the citizens as possible. He wanted to stop telling people, “We’ve got a great program for you.” Instead, he and other policy makers, wanted community members to discuss what they thought they needed and how they could help themselves with little governmental assistance.

Night Comes To The Cumberlands is credited with influencing the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 which was passed by Congress and became law in August 1964. The act created the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), which provided funds for vocational training, created Job Corps to train youths in conservation camps and urban centers, and established VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), a domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps, and Head Start, an early-education program for children of poor families, among other programs. The War on Poverty was ultimately limited in its effectiveness by the economic resources consumed by the country’s increasing involvement in the Vietnam War. 

Harlan, KY

This is an important and very well-written book although some of the language is a bit dated. Caudill uses some cringe-worthy words like “squaw” and “savages.” But, even with some cringe-worthy words, Night Comes To The Cumberlands is still a very interesting history of the Cumberland Plateau and the people who inhabit it. It was difficult to read about the decades of land mismanagement, corporate greed and waste, and overall lack of good schools, roads, and government integrity. Kentucky has certainly endured more than her fair share of hardship, mostly caused by government’s ties to the coal industry. Today, despite much research into the area and its many problems, the Cumberland Plateau itself remains largely unchanged. But there is hope!

Fiction: Memoir

Up Home: One Girl's Journey by Ruth J. Simmons

This is an inspirational memoir about someone who is not “famous”, yet has had an extraordinary life. Ruth Simmons is the president of Prairie View A&M University, Texas' oldest HBCU, but she has also been the president of Brown University, president of Smith College as well as vice provost of Princeton. Simmons was the first African-American president of an Ivy League institution.

Simmons was born in Texas, the twelfth and final child in an impoverished sharecropping family descended from slaves. During her 1950s childhood, she worked alongside her siblings and parents in the fields. Simmons recounts the teachers and experiences which widened her horizons beyond Texas and a future of domestic work. From an early age, she set her ambitions high. Through a combination of hard work, diligence, luck, and most importantly, the support of her public school teachers, Simmons was able to go to college where she studied Romance languages. In the early 1960s she studied Spanish in Mexico, was an exchange student to Wellesley College (a private, “white” institution) and studied in France. Had Simmons been born 5-10 years earlier to the same family, she would not have had the same opportunities.

👉Simmons says that her teachers’ "enthusiasm convinced me that learning was supremely important, thoroughly enjoyable, and immensely expansive."

Simmons does not soften the conditions in which she grew up. Her family lived in the farm owner-provided housing that "had there been any government housing codes, would have missed the required safety standards by a wide margin." She describes the hollow feeling in her family's stomachs when they ran out of the numerous things their mother had canned, especially after "phantom meals," which consisted of her mother's biscuits with either homemade sugar syrup or gravy. While not an expert seamstress, Simmons' mother lovingly made the family's clothes from old burlap or cotton flour sacks.

Despite the difficult conditions she endured, Simmons repeatedly states how happy her childhood was.

Up Home is an uplifting book, written by an excellent role model who is passionate about education. She overcame many adversities and worked tirelessly to educate herself, which she did in an outstanding fashion. Ruth J. Simmons is an extraordinary woman!

Non-fiction: True Crime, Memoir

What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara Butcher

The author is regarded as a renowned expert in medicolegal death investigation, having spent 23 years at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Butcher was Chief of Staff and Director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

In a strange twist of fate, an AA meeting led Butcher to her career in death investigation. She worked in New York City during the 1980s through early 2000s including 9/11. Butcher was in charge of examining any unexplained deaths including suicides, murders and unattended deaths at home. She recounts a number of deaths that have stuck with her over the years, for different reasons, including the 9/11 attacks, “angry” suicides and those who die alone. Some of the details are “gruesome” but important and Butcher (and other “death” professionals) used a dark sense of humor to lessen the pain of the situation. It's the personal part of each death that stayed with me as I read, especially those who died alone. Butcher, too, had a hard time, even though she loved her job, dealing with death repeatedly.

The investigative facts are here - and I learned quite a bit – but it is her personal story that is riveting. Butcher is highly intelligent, driven and successful. In addition to her job, Butcher worked additionally as a speaker, professor, consultant and providing details for mystery writers. Eventually life caught up and sent Butcher spiraling in depression. Then she temporarily “lost her mind” and sought help in a mental hospital. There she found the help she needed to find a new calling, aiding her will to survive. Butcher then reinvented herself, becoming an actress and writer.

What makes this book standout is Butcher herself. She shies away from nothing, exposing her own life for all to see. Addiction and mental health issues are part of her story. Her truthfulness in regards to her thoughts, feelings, and even her mental state throughout the years as a death investigator, in my opinion, help to bring an awareness to both the stigma associated with mental illness and the realities of life.