To preface, my wife and I are involved in the organization that the authors helped to found in Nashville, Tennessee, but what this essay lacks in objectivity, I hope to regain in honest intimacy. This memoir relates the story of how Hartley’s family escaped the “Brentwood Bubble” (Brentwood is a well-to-do suburb of Nashville) while encountering the Mwizerwas. Having fled the genocide in Rwanda during the 1990s, the Mwizerwas became refugees in Nashville and rebuilt…
The author Maya Washington’s father is Gene Washington. (In order not to confuse, I will refer to them in this review by their first names.) Gene was among the first black football players on nationally prominent college and NFL/AFL teams in the 1960s. He grew up in Jim Crow Texas, but played football for Michigan State University. Not only did he help to integrate the sport; he also laid the groundwork for football becoming so…
A pioneer of radioactivity and radiation therapy, Marie Curie has an assured place in scientific history. Untold numbers have benefitted from her discovery – especially cancer patients. Further accolades upon accolades follow her name: two-time winner of a Nobel Prize (jointly in physics and alone in chemistry), first female Nobel laureate, wife and daughter of two other Nobel laureates, tireless supporter of her country in World War I, first female professor at Paris’ elite Sorbonne,…
It’s hard to describe this memoir. The hardships survived by Klimt are clearly difficult, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the depths of struggle she has endured thus far in her life. I finished this book in about five hours across two days – a testament to the intrigue built by the author’s story. She’s had everything thrown at her – from chronic pain to cancer to repetitive bad romantic relationships to difficult parental situations…
Wine as a topic can intimidate and make even sophisticated people feel like novices. I, for one, fully admit that I more frequently make jokes involving wine than actually imbibe a glass. Nonetheless, I appreciate the significance of the ancient drink. Mirassou, whose family helped bring European wine to California six generations ago, writes about his experiences making wine in the state’s Livermore Valley. This place is more famous for its tech industry (Sandia and…
Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) and Winston Churchill both remain among some of the most towering figures in twentieth-century history. Without them, democracy might only be a relic of history. Without them, the lingua franca of the world might be German instead of English. Rather, their friendship, forged by need and trial, led to an end to great European wars and to the blossoming of hopes of world peace. It also cemented the Anglo-American alliance as a…
For four years, Coates served as a federal prosecutor for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in the District of Columbia. This gave her an up-front view on social ills plaguing America. As the title reveals, she, herself black, wrestles at length in this book with the dynamics of race and justice in the legal system. Her analysis does not provide easy answers. Someone surely is not guilty just because he/she is black, but neither…
A close friend of mine was recently diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). It’s a disease of the nerves (a neuropathy) that especially affects the distal parts of legs and arms. I’ve had a longtime curiosity about how diseases affect life, and I like to read. Therefore, I bought this book to empathize with his experience more. Here, Johnson describes her lifelong experiences on a particularly difficult life journey with CMT. She does so with the…
After 70 years, Eisenhower remains a respected president with a mostly positive influence. Not only did he lead the Allies to victory in World War II, but as president, he also organized the world for a lasting peace. He continued to develop the American economy so that over time, America would win the Cold War against communism while not annihilating the world in the process. Newton analyzes these issues in careful detail, but he tends…
The Great Depression and World War II precipitated much change in the world around America and in America itself. These times witnessed America’s transition from a inwardly struggling economy into an international leader for human rights. Coal-mining towns transitioned from being operated by companies into independent villages responsible for their own self-government. As described in Biederman’s biography, the forgotten but strong figure Dr. Elizabeth Hayes led the way in pushing for modernization of these coal…