The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is the last book that I read in 2020, and it was wonderful. I had heard a lot about this book for a while and I’m glad that I finally had the chance to read it. The Radium Girls covers the stories of the young women who worked as …
In You are an Artist, Sarah Urist Green writes about different artists, and gives an art assignment based on each of them. I’m a longtime Vlogbrothers fan (I started watching their videos in 2007, which was roughly half my lifetime ago. In other news, I am elderly.) and Sarah Urist Green is married to John …
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi focuses on defining racism and naming a variety of the different ways racism shows up in our society. “Human-made environmental catastrophes disproportionately harming bodies of color are not unusual; for instance, nearly four thousand U.S. areas—mostly poor and non-White—have higher lead poisoning rates than Flint, Michigan.” …
White Rage by Carol Anderson is an examination of racism in America through the perspective of the racist policies that were enacted by white Americans to keep Black Americans oppressed. So often when white people talk about racism, they will say racism=bad, and even oppose specific racist policies, without acknowledging who has been enacting and …
Every Monday Matters was not for me. The author starts out by explaining his story – he spent his whole life chasing a Western ideal of success, but that made him anxious and depressed, and now he travels around the country speaking and inspiring people with his message. “I believe that we humans are all …
When I was in TFA, they had us do a sort of self-care plan based on The Happiness Project – pick a thing that will make you happier every month, and then do that thing. I read The Happiness Project that year as well, and I liked it. I also enjoy Gretchen Rubin’s podcast, Happier …
I’ve been following Melissa Urban on Instagram for a while now. Five years, at least. Honestly, the Melissa Urban who exists on Instagram today seems like a whole departure from “It Starts with Food.” I read one of her other books, “Food Freedom Forever,” a few years ago, and that seems much more aligned with …
Angela Davis is a genius. I was reading this book on my Kindle, and highlighting every sentence that made me feel like “Wow, that is so profound” and then I had to stop myself, because it is not useful to highlight every line of the book. But really, just about every line of this book …
2020 has involved a lot of being alone for many of us, so I picked up this book, which has been on my bookshelf for a while. The only way I can think to describe “The Lonely City” by Olivia Laing is as an art history memoir. And, given that 2020 is the year when …
I was in charge of buying new books to restock our classroom libraries this summer, and it was a lot of fun. I don’t normally buy a lot of books, so this was like getting to go on a book-buying spree for my kids. One of the books I ordered for school was “When Stars …