Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I heard about this book and I wasn't initially excited to read it. I figured that I had already read The Glass Castle, Hillbilly Elegy, even Etched in Sand. I picked it up anyway, and I was fascinated by every single chapter.

Part of what's remarkable about this book is that even though Westover's upbringing was extreme, I can see analogous threads in various religions and in current political movements. I particularly enjoyed how she took us on the educational journey with her- her first times learning about slavery, the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, and feminism. I wish more ordinary people would "come out of the hills" on these subjects.

So many people are eager to discount the veracity of Westover's account in part because her transformation seems so extreme. (Other people discount her story because the life she describes in Idaho seems mundane and normal to them! Some people even make both somewhat contradictory points!) She credits many people for helping her achieve a remarkable education: her brother Tyler, her friends at BYU, a Bishop at BYU, a professor a Cambridge. Moreover, the world is, and always has been, filled with remarkable people. There is no more extreme story of transformation than that of Frederick Douglass or such remarkable thinkers as Benjamin Franklin. Why then are people so eager to discount Westover's accomplishments and life story?

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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a memoir only of Trevor Noah's childhood in South Africa during and immediately after apartheid. Really interesting to read a personal account of living under apartheid by a person uniquely situated inside the insanity and hypocrisy of it all.

He stops before his comedy career and that was really disappointing. There wasn't even a mention of how his career began.

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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful story about first love. The characters are wonderful and perfectly imperfect. I enjoyed every minute of reading this book. In addition to the romance story, I appreciated the serious way the book dealt with the issue of poverty and abuse.

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was funny, irreverent, and interesting. There was a lot of children's humor in the book, but I don't think it's a children's book- there was a lot of strange inappropriate things in it- more Young Adult.

Some things bothered me. Some of the language was offensive. There was a lot of inconsistency about how Junior looked and how unhealthy or healthy he was. Small spoiler: it especially bothered me that so many characters died and that Junior experienced his grief sort of in the middle of those deaths- so it gave the effect that the last death didn't affect him as much.

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The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book reminds me of both Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis and Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island, except it is exceptionally well-written. Seems that the Etched in Sand author suffered even more than Jeanette Walls (not that it is a competition) and Hillbilly Elegy is the not-so-subtly political, so it might be an interesting comparison for readers interested in the experience of poverty, which is the experience of most of the world. (Specifically, 10% worldwide live in extreme poverty which is less than $1.90 a day, and 80% live on less than $10 a day, according to the World Bank.)

The story in The Glass Castle is pretty compelling and picks up speed in the last one-third of the book.

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Pandemic by Sonia Shah

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the more interesting science books I've read in a long time, and one of the most important. I strongly recommend it to everyone. I'm also going to try some of the books recommended below.

The author does spend too much time on cholera history in the middle of the book- interesting but not the only focus of the book so it feels belabored. Power through it, it's worth it.

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Evicted by Matthew Desmond

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish the author had put the "About This Project" at the beginning of the book, and I recommend that if you read this book you start with that section. When I began the book I had the expectation that the book would have a lot of history, politics, policy, with some personal examples, as many nonfiction books focusing on a particular legal or policy issue typically do. This book is not like that, it's an ethnography. It is more of a biography of several people going through evictions - and the one landlord that was willing to participate. The distance between my expectations of the book and the actual substance of it made it made it difficult to finish. Another thing that made it very difficult to finish the book was how deeply depressing the subject is (granted it's important that it feel depressing but it makes it very difficult). That said, I am very glad I finished it, despite- or because of- all the tears.

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Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This just didn't need to be 600 pages long. 100-200 would have been sufficiently long to convey all the major plot points and good sentences. I gave it an extra star for social commentary/ defense of the poor. All theatrical productions of Oliver are superior to the lengthy book.

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Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, it starts out simply- you think it's just a little country story- then there are some serious highs and lows. I'm impressed by Wharton's use of pace. Didn't put it down until I finished it.

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Freefall by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Please, if you live in the United States, I beg you to read this book. The author is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and he makes the information he's conveying very clear to the non-economist. I realize it's a little old now and would benefit from a little updating, but it's still so valuable to understanding modern economic theory and how political decisions are affecting the economy. New favorite!

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just reread this, and I'm impressed by how nearly perfect it is. It's amazing that I read this for the first time as a teen and that it's also perfect to read as an adult.

It's upsetting that we haven't come further than we have in 50 years. Progress is too slow.

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Etched in Sand by Regina Calcaterra

Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island by Regina Calcaterra
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The beginning of this was particularly good and I think it could have been a better memoir with tighter editing. Part of the issue is the main story of her abuse and overcoming the abuse to build a good life is over way before the memoir is over. It could have ended with her first job, quickly summarized her adult life- possibly with a focus on her role as a leader in Long Island.

I was particularly confused about the lengthy section about her paternity test suit, even though as an attorney myself I understood what she explained about the case itself. I understand why the lawsuit may be important to her, but that's different than what's likely to be important to a reader. In any case, I think she sounds like a remarkable person who views her past in a self-aware and rational manner.

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The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fergeson tried to present a history of currency and monetary policy but he got mired in the history of it, and it seemed to lose focus. Some sort of point or thesis would have given this shape. He ended up tackling a lot of topics and I learned a few things here and there but not as much as if he'd given some direction to his sometimes conservative and sometimes liberal points.

Also, because he was focusing on the "history" aspect of his book it was organized at first in a chronological order by category of "innovation" but then the chronology fell apart with Chapter 6. This was just a little disorientating in an already thesisless tome.

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My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very short, beautiful, and somewhat sad book. It's about a protagonist Lucy, her family, and a few people that make an impression on her. It's about love-and-hurt. It's about poverty. War. Psychological trauma in the lower case.

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Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book ties in really well Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo. I think having a familiarity with the case studies in developing countries is a really good background before reading this book. One of the points it tries to make is that the case studies clear up the difference between ideologically believing in something as a liberal or conservative or whatever, and actually TESTING the proposed solutions on the ground. That's one of the reasons this book emphasizes the success of local people or at least foreign people that are present locally in dealing with these issues as superior to just blinding sending money-- though money is also needed obviously.

There's a ton of research that the authors used on a wide range of issues to move their argument forward that change is achievable and necessary for both the volunteers and the victims. This is a carefully thought out book, and the authors do not limit themselves by what is typically considered "politically correct" or of a particular ideology, but rather limit themselves to what is backed by the research and studies.

I don't consider myself closed off to the general suffering in the world. I read the newspaper and pay attention to international news. While I was familiar with a lot of the issues covered in the book, I was surprised and horrified to see them linked so closely. I was especially saddened and horrified by the opening chapters on modern day sex slavery. I think the authors did their job really well which is that I feel motivated to make some positive change though I need to think about how to get more involved.

PS. I read a lot of the criticisms of this book before writing my review and I'm honestly puzzled. A lot of the criticisms appear to just be a mischaracterization of something that Kristoff and WuDunn said in the book. Some of the other criticisms boil down to a reader not agreeing with something or other the author stated, which is not typically a reason I would lower my rating of a book. I'm seeking to take in other perspectives when I read. I want to expand my own understanding of different views of problems and solutions. If I only wanted to know what I think about an issue I could talk to myself and my little group of like-minded friends, though the reality is that Kristoff and WuDunn and the many people they interviewed and the authors they read for this book have a lot more experience in the international development arena than negative commenters or me.

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When I Was a Child I Read Books Marilynne Robinson

When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays by Marilynne Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This collection of essays by Robinson on religion, politics, patriotism, and science is extremely moving. I think every American should read it. The collection is front-loaded and the best essays are at the beginning, but those are so remarkable. Robinson has read and studied widely, and the depth of her understanding is inspiring. Her genius with expressing her thoughts in writing is even more awe-inspiring, and almost every paragraph in the early essays made my heart leap.

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Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Lila by Marilynne Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read and loved Gilead, and this is book is also wonderful in the ways Gilead was wonderful. This book was also very romantic and full of love. It's hard to review the novels you love more than ordinary novels. I don't feel up to the task of reviewing what is clearly the work of a genius. There's not much to be said about it other than it approaches perfection. It allows us to inhabit a person a time that is not our own. It also allows us to try to grasp what Marilyn Robinson understands and believes about religion which is ... a lot. Beautiful novel. Please read it.

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Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was really entertaining. I didn't laugh out loud but it definitely cheered me up. I actually really enjoyed the chapter on her drug adventures in high school. A lot of the rest of it was so strange on its own that it seemed over the top to discuss it with so much silliness. Like too much frosting on an already really sweet dessert.

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Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I actually took an edX course about this topic and read the book as part of the course, but most of the lectures are covered in this book. Although this book is primarily about solving problems in developing countries, and all of the examples deal with India specifically, the way of analyzing problems and testing solutions really changed the way I think about social and political problems in this country. We need to stop philosophizing, guessing, and bickering and just do case studies of possible solutions.

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Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The thing that drove me crazy about this book is that she got mouthy with her employers and lazy at work. She's hardly the best representative of the poorest people.

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