ASK Musings

Five Stars

Best for:
People who want essays that critically explore politics and pop culture while making you laugh your ass off.

In a nutshell:
Author Lindy West follows up her Bestseller (and TV show!) Shrill with this book of essays exploring the Trump era, the Me Too movement, and many other aspects of political and pop culture.

Worth quoting:
“We need to start calling things by their real names: racism is racism, sexism is sexism, mistakes are mistakes, and they can be rectified if we do the work.”
“Watching otherwise rational human beings rhapsodize about [Ted] Bundy’s ‘charm’ and ‘brilliance’ while furrowing their brows over Elizabeth Warren’s dubious ‘likability’ creates a particularly American kind of whiplash.”
“Both sides, inasmuch as there are two ‘sides,’ are not equally stupid or equally bad. The notion that they are is human-extinction-level dangerous.”
“…if you are a person who is unable to access abortion for any reason, your state is total disenfranchisement and your right to life has been stripped from you.”

Why I chose it:
West is a fantastic author.

Review:
There’s something wonderful (dare I say magical?) about the way Lindy West writes. She can cut to the chase quickly while also providing hilarious analogies and examples to illustrate her points. She shares parts of herself that she doesn’t owe to anyone as a way to personalize stories. She takes a critical eye to things that maybe one has been thinking about and nails down the exact components one should be taking away from them. And she writes like a person might actually talk! Her asides are hilarious, and I can definitely picture her saying many parts of these essays in conversation with her friends.

The first essay of the book is the inspiration for the title – the US president’s insistence that he is the subject of a witch hunt. West explains why that is absurd, but turns the concept around, claiming that we are witches, and we are the ones doing the hunting. Hunting down horrible, dangerous political leaders, manipulative and rapey Hollywood figures, the patriarchy.

I love it.

The essays range in topic from her love of the movie Clue, to a critical exploration of Adam Sandler’s films and what they say about what white men aspire to / get away with, abortion access, the ridiculousness of South Park’s ‘both sides are equally bad’ rhetoric, and so much more.

She even went to one of GOOP’s events!

I think my favorite is the one where she explains why she left Twitter. It sums up so much of what is deeply wrong with that social media platform (among others) while also acknowledging the ways it can be so important to different groups. I also enjoyed her takes on other pop culture folks I grew up exposed to, such as Adam Corolla and Joan Rivers – they were genuinely different and interesting to read.

I did not know this was coming out – I saw it mentioned in passing somewhere and immediately purchased it. There were only four copies available on Amazon UK, so I’m thinking maybe it doesn’t have a distributor here yet? Anyways, if you’re overseas, keep checking, and maybe ask your indie booksellers if they’re planning / able to carry it.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
As with Shrill, which made the trip across the ocean when I moved here from Seattle, I will Keep it. And also buy copies for friends. Maybe give it as Christmas gifts.

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Four Stars

Best for:
Anyone looking for some practical advice to help make meaningful policy change.

In a nutshell:
One of the Living Wage Campaigners and the Executive director of Citizens UK offers tips on building targeted social movements based on the success – and failure – he has experienced as a community organizer.

Worth quoting:
“Be intentional about what kind of change it’s worth our while putting your time into: what’s achievable, and how you could influence those decisions.”

Why I chose it:
A work colleague had some extra copies from what she’d ordered for an event.

Review:
I love a good, practical book. Especially when it’s a book that can help bring about change.

Author Matthew Bolton knows about making change. He’s helped organize successful campaigns to get companies — and Parliament — to adopt the Living Wage so people can actually survive by working just one job (imagine that!). He recognizes that there are many things we as citizens may want to change, but he is also pragmatic. A big protest is a great show of force, but to make change you have to be intentional and pick very specific actions that you want your elected officials or company leaders to make. It’s not enough to protest about, say, global warming (though that kind of disruption obviously has its place); to be effective it helps to have specific policy proposals as well as a collection of individuals who we can call upon to lend their support.

This is an easy read, with case studies illustrating how the suggestions play out in practice. It includes step-by-step processes, and tips for making sure you take care of yourself along the way. It’s a small book and only 150 pages, so its accessible. I look forward to putting what I’ve learned into action.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it

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Three Stars

Best for:
People looking for another guide to organizing their lives.

In a nutshell:
Author Newton offers detailed suggestions for organizing one’s life.

Worth quoting:
Not quotes per se, but there are definition a bunch of suggestions that I’ve underlined and will be incorporating into my life.

Why I chose it:
I’m a sucker for a organizational book, especially one that’s visually attractive.

Review:
I do love me a good home and life organizing book. As I’ve probably said before, at this point its usually good not for wholesale overhauls of how I run my work and home life, but I always get some interesting tips. I’ve been reading enough of these books to have my own opinions about suggestions that may or may not work (and at this point I pretty much always skip money/budget sections — YNAB or GTFO). Usually there are also whole sections about organizing related to children or pets, but the author has neither, is open about that, and so doesn’t venture into that area.

I enjoyed Newton’s conversational style – the overall tone was less user manual and more blog, and I mean that in the best way possible. Organizational books can lean too far into dry tips, or conversely feel overly familiar or even emotional. Newton strikes a good balance there. I don’t think there was anything life-changing (no immediate Marie Kondo-ing my house), but lots of little things that might help improve the daily business of living.

I have to end with the first thing I said when I picked up this book and started flipping through it. It has fairly tiny type, is a tall book, and runs over 250 pages. “An edited life? Maybe start with an edited book.” It’s a dad joke but it applies. It’s pretty to look at, but I did at times have a hard time actually reading the book, because there is color text, and that color is pale blue. That is not easy on the eyes; by the end there were whole sections that I just couldn’t read without straining, so I just skimmed.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it

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4 Stars

Best for:
Those who have read (or watched) The Handmaid’s Tale.

In a nutshell:
We know that Gilead eventually fell. But how?

Worth quoting:
“The truth can cause a lot of trouble for those who are not supposed to know it.”
“Another girl’s disgrace could rub off on you if you got too close to it.”
“They said calm things like ‘You need to be strong.’ They were trying to make things better. But it can put a lot of pressure on a person to be told they need to be strong.”

Why I chose it:
I read The Handmaid’s Tale a few years ago, and have watched two seasons of the show (I live in the UK and can’t figure out how to watch season three).

Review:
This book is told from the perspective of three people: Aunt Lydia; a daughter of a Commander (Agnes); and a teenager living in Canada (Daisy). Each have different experiences of Gilead – Aunt Lydia helped create the way women experience it, Agnes is being raised to become a child bride to a Commander and is fully steeped in the Gilead belief system, and Daisy has parents who are helping fight Gilead from afar.

Aunt Lydia’s section includes the story of how she became involved in Gilead, and I found her sections the most interest to ponder from an ethics perspective. What would each of us do in those situations? Some will fight to survive so they eventually fix things, some will fight to survive so they can acquire some power in the new word; others will see no possible option except to fight until their own death.

I also found Agnes’s sections fascinating. We don’t get the perspectives of the children in the first book (that I can recall), so I appreciated learning a bit about how it all worked in practice. Daisy’s story was the least interesting to me, but her chapter were still compelling.

The writing in this is excellent as expected (the Schlafly Cafe made me lol), and while I think this is a satisfying book and even a necessary one, it didn’t quite match my hopes. But my hopes were quite high.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it.

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Five Stars

Best for:
People who generally trust Barack Obama’s judgment on books.

In a nutshell:
Tara Westover was raised in a devout Mormon household, with an overbearing father who wouldn’t allow her to go to school. She finds a way to college, and learns about so much that has been hidden from her before.

Worth quoting:
I listened to this one, so nothing stands out, but the writing is great so I’m sure there are many choice phrases.

Why I chose it:
This book seems to be everywhere. I’ve picked it up and put it down at least a dozen times; I finally got the audio book to listen to while running. Good choice.

Review:
I don’t think I was expecting a book this intense and dramatic. Tara Westover is one of seven (I think) kids, raised in Idaho by her parents: a faith healer and a scrapper / contractor. The family believes in a very devout form of Mormonism, though Westover makes it very clear up front that she does not attribute her family’s action to being religious. This isn’t a book about religion being good or bad; it’s about how the decisions parents make affect their children. How withholding education and creating a bubble can cause so much harm.

Westover doesn’t have a birth certificate. She spends her entire youth being homeschooled, except she isn’t really taught anything that doesn’t come from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or her mother’s holistic ‘healing.’ She’s not vaccinated, and she doesn’t take an ibuprofen until she’s in her late teens. She works around heavy machinery. But she also has interests and desire outside of the mountain that is her home.

I appreciate that the book isn’t about a need to get a college education – it’s about needing the opportunity to learn about the world from more than one person. We don’t all need college degrees, but we do need to be exposed to different ideas, to be able to form opinions about the world and our place in it. I also appreciate how Westover explores the traumas of her youth. She has a physically abusive brother and parents who refuse to intervene, and she has to wrestle with what that means for her and her continued relationship with her family.

It’s a deeply personal, intense, and interesting story, and despite the specifics being things I doubt many of us can relate to, there’s still something in there that we can all take away.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
If I’d bought a physical copy I’d pass it to a friend.

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4 Stars

Best for:
Fans of Liane Moriarty, fans of mysteries that unfold in unexpected ways, and fans of books that go a little deeper than you might expect.

In a nutshell:
Alice and Jack Munro abandoned their baby girl – named Enigma – 70 years ago. She’s now a grandmother, and one of the sisters who rescued her has died, leaving behind some unfinished business.

Worth quoting:
“If her back had ever hurt like this when she was twenty she would have been hysterical, demanding painkillers and cups of tea in bed, but she has found that nobody is especially surprised to hear you’re in pain when you’re in your eighties. You might find it astonishing, but nobody else does.”

Why I chose it:
I realized after finishing her latest book that I hadn’t read all of them, so I remedied that quickly.

Review:
I liked this one a lot. I have a vivid picture of the fictional island where most of the book takes place. I can picture the characters, and while I don’t think I relate directly to any of them, I appreciate how they are mostly well-thought-out and well built characters. They aren’t one note.

The book starts after the death of Connie, who is in her 90s and was one of two sisters who discovered baby Enigma after her parents vanished from their home on the island. Connie has left her home to her great-nephew’s ex girlfriend Sophia, so that’s weird. Much of the book focuses on Sophia, but also on Grace, who is struggling deeply with post-partum depression. I was not expecting that but I think it’s handed interestingly (though I would defer to those who have actually experienced it). In broader terms the book looks at what family means, what secrets can do to and for a family, and how we often don’t really know our partners and family.

I also like that we get the perspectives of older people in the book – people in their 70s and 90s. Rarely do we have those points of view, and as I’ve mentioned before, I appreciate exploring those experiences.

I think What Alice Forgot is still my favorite of Moriarty’s books, but this one might be a close second.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it

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