Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

In 1927, an 86-year-old ex-slave living near Mobile AL tells his life story to interviewer Zora Neale Hurston. His words are recorded as heard, in local southern dialect. Cudjo Lewis was born Kossula in West Africa; captured and sold into slavery, and transported across the ocean in the famous ship Clotilde. Yes, America had abolished the slave trade decades before; this was all done hush-hush. Kossula lived over 5 years as a slave; then freed by the Civil War he built a house, and lived with a beloved wife and six children – all of whom predeceased him, each parting more tragic than the last. While this is undeniably a painful tale to read, the fascination of hearing first-hand the experiences of a black American of that time period who was African-born and can remember and relate his childhood experiences, his capture, his transport, his time enslaved, and his experiences since, makes the read a powerful and moving experience and more than just a sad slog. ( )

Cosy by Laura Weir

A cosy [sic] little book of all things comforting – British style. This is not to be confused with hygge, which is Danish style, and way too concerned with interior decorating. I like Weir’s definition of cosy – how you live when nobody is looking. A celebration of grilled cheese, warm jumpers, hot tea, a crackling fire, and a fabulous little read like this to curl up with before winter disappears. ( )

Hate, Inc. by Matt Taibbi

This is one of those rare books that changes my thinking, and for more than just the length of time it takes to read.

The title and the cover are unfortunate, and not because Rachel Maddow is shown (Taibbi feels he needs an entire appendix to justify why). “HATE, INC.” and a picture of two political talk show hosts, angry mouths agape, makes it sound like one of those “why we’re polarized” books. But it’s not about why we’re polarized, although some theories are obvious by book’s end; it’s about the media.

The main point is this, caps his: THE NEWS IS A CONSUMER PRODUCT.

Other important points:
YOU DON’T NEED TO WATCH THAT MUCH NEWS.

And:
[THE MEDIA] ARE NOT INFORMING YOU. [THEY] CAN’T, ACTUALLY because the world is COMPLEX, and the news by definition is, like, everything in the world.

Highly recommended.  ( )

My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum

If you read a favorite author deeply enough, and if she’s written enough books, you will eventually hit a dud. These are dated essays which don’t hang together well. I already know about what Daum is trying to share here, through her other, better books and essay collections. ( )

Vacation means books.  (And being at home means books too, but vacation means backlogs of book reviews.)

If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now by Christopher Ingraham

Ingraham manages to write “how we traded the DC suburbs for a remote county in Minnesota” without a) making me hate him or any member of his family, b) talking down to, or dismissively around, any Minnesotan, or c) treating it all like some kind of miracle. That’s an achievement!

I’ll recap the plot here, because it is such a great story: Ingraham crunches data and writes gee-whiz pieces for WaPo. He finds some data about the most pleasant counties to live in across the US, in terms of geographic features, weather, and things like that. Since every county in the country is ranked, not only are some places best, but some are inevitably the “worst” places to live – where were those places? Well, bottom of the list turned out to be Red Lake County, Minnesota. After Ingraham points this out in his article, he gets some hate mail – Minnesota style, which means understated and not very vitriolic – and invitations to come out and see their “ugly” county for himself. Which he does. And he likes it.

And he moves there!

Very interesting to me on a personal level is that Ingraham contrasts Red Lake County not just with the Baltimore/DC area, but with other places he and his wife have lived as well – including my county in Vermont. And Vermont doesn’t come off very well. Vermonters aren’t as welcoming as the Minnesotans; the Ingrahams made some friends, but never felt part of a community like they do in Red Lake County. I believe it. We’re pretty standoffish round these parts.

“If there is one thing – one sole, solitary piece of information – that I can convey to you about rural America it’s this: rural America is not a nation apart. The people here are just as complex and fallible as people anywhere else. They consume the same media, cheer for the same sports teams, fight over the same political issues, and have the same dreams for their kids.” I like that. ( )