Chase Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen
Billy Jensen was always interesting in crime stories and ended up becoming a journalist writing about unsolved crimes. After the unexpected death of his friend Michelle McNamara (author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark) he decided to change his focus and started working to solve crimes himself. He used social media to send targeted posts to areas where the crimes occurred with photos and video of the suspects. He was able to solve several cold cases this way. He also helped finish McNamara's book on the Golden State Killer after her death and the final chapter of his book covers the night he found out the Golden State Killer had been arrested by police - the perfect way to end this book. Jensen is a great writer and once I started reading this book I did not want to put it down. While he covers a LOT of cases and information, the book still flows and reads well. I will definitely be on the lookout for more by him - he should start working on a book about Terry Rasmussen (one of the cases he covers here) who could be linked to dozens of unsolved murders. If you're a true crime fan, this is a must read!
Where I Come From: life lessons from a Latino chef by Aaron Sanchez
I was familiar with Aaron Sanchez from seeing him as a judge on Chopped, but I didn't realize his history with both cooking and on television. Sanchez's mother was a pioneering Mexican chef who made a name for herself in New York City long before most people were familiar with Mexican food. Early on Sanchez realized food was his calling and he started in the cooking world pretty young. He worked in several restaurants and several different cuisines before opening his own restaurants. He gives a timeline of his restaurant experience and how hard it can be to open your own restaurant. I felt bad for his short-lived marriage and that he didn't get to be with his son all the time, especially since that was his own experience with his dad too. I really appreciated the last chapter of the book about the #metoo movement and how that has impacted the restaurant industry. I also appreciated his openness about his depression and how he did get help - that is something that needs to be talked about more openly as well. There are recipes included throughout the book as well. Overall, I liked it, but didn't love it. But, I do want to see if I can find the episode of Iron Chef America where he tied with Morimoto!
Yale Needs Women: how the first group of girls rewrote the rules of an ivy league giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins
In 1969 Yale University opened it's doors to women students for the first time. Yale was known for it's dedication to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year, so admitting women was a huge step forward in women's equality in education. But, the first group of women admitted had a very different experience from the men - they were isolated, vastly outnumbered by men, seen as sexual objects and oddities, and barred from many of Yale's extracurricular activities. But, these first women at Yale were determined to change Yale from the inside out and make a place for themselves. By the time the freshmen enrolled in Yale in 1969 graduated in 1973 more significant strides had been made, but there was still a long way to go for women to be seen as equals on college campuses, workplaces, and the world. As the author points out today we hear the sanitized version of equality like it happened overnight, but as this book shows the first women at Yale had a very hard struggle, but they knew it was worth fighting for and Yale Needs Women shares their stories.
This book was AMAZING! Reading a book like this from today's perspective it's crazy to me to see just how blatant sexual harassment and assaults were and how the women were just used it - not happy, but used to it. Despite their struggles, it was so uplifting to hear the stories of how these women made huge changes to the culture of Yale just by their persistence. Yet another book of trailblazers and pioneers of feminism and women in America.
Some quotes I liked:
"The Film Society's decision to hold the porn fest at the same time as the Free Women Conference, just like the timing of its previous porn fest on the first day of Coeducation Week, was intended as a hilarious joke. Women's lib conference? We'll show them.." (p. 132)
"Despite all the challenges the women students faced, they had outperformed their male classmates...Women sophomores and juniors received Honors, Yale's highest grade, in 31 percent of their classes, compared with 23 percent of the men. Freshmen women got 22 percent Honors, on par with freshmen men, but outflanked men 49 percent to 41 percent in High Pass, the second-highest mark." (p. 142)
"But one power that Brewster [Yale's President] did not mention was perhaps the most important of all: the power to do nothing. As Kit McClure wrote in her diary after the Corporation's March 1970 vote to leave Yale's gender quota unchanged, 'The campaign for full coeducation has been stopped by the Yale Corporation's decision to ignore it.' If the goal is protecting the status quo, the best move by those in power is no move at all." (p. 188)
"The work of leading coeducation at Yale carried with it a terrible sameness. Wasserman had to battle for each inch forward, and sometimes she even lost ground. But Elga Wasserman was a fighter, and even if the title at the bottom of her memos had not changed since 1969, she had increased her power at Yale and beyond...At a time when most Yale women employees were assigned invisible roles as secretaries and dining hall workers, Wasserman showed women an alternative. 'She was a female leader in a place where there were few of them,' said Linden Havemeyer. 'We were proud of her and glad she was there.'" (p. 249)
"And on June 23, 1972, Congresswomen Patsy Mink and Edith Green got the victory they had long worked for. In one simple sentence, Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments to the Civil Right Act prohibited the gender discrimination that was rampant in U.S. colleges and universities when the first women undergraduates came to Yale: 'No person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program receiving Federal financial assistance.' No one paid much attention to Title IX at the time it was passed. Few yet understood the extent of gender bias against women in America's colleges and universities. But in the decades that followed, Title IX would halt the gender quotas in admissions that had robbed women of their place in the nation's top schools." (p. 251)
"Title IX began with its one elegant sentence, but then it included a list of institutions that were exempt from its provisions...But the very first exemption went as follows: 'In regard to admissions to educational institutions, this section shall apply only to...public institutions of undergraduate higher education.' In other words, private institutions of undergraduate higher education - Yale, for example, were exempt from Title IX's prohibition of discriminatory admissions policies...'Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard...were able to get a narrowly worded exemption for private undergraduate admissions.' The letters to Congress from these four powerful institutions, written in the fall of 1971 during the initial stages of the legislation's development, had succeeded...by the time Title IX passed in 1972, Congress had deferred to Yale's outrage over Edith Green's call for sex-blind admissions, and the final version of the law exempted Yale and the others from that one provision. The exemption still stands today." (p. 251-52)
"On December 9, the Yale Corporation voted to abolish the gender quota that had shaped the first four years of coeducation at Yale. The announcement came with a simple statement: 'We believe that the gender of the applicant should not be the deciding factor in a candidate's admission.' Within five years, the percentage of women at Yale more than doubled to 46 percent. Other battles, both at Yale and beyond, still remained. But all through that year, 1972, the mountains had moved. Someday, they would do so again." (p. 263)
"Two months after the Yale Corporation adopted sex-blind admissions, [Elga Wasserman] learned that she no longer had a job at Yale. Brewster terminated her special assistant position and gave all four of the new jobs she expressed interest in to other. Wasserman was left with nothing...Yet once again, Wasserman proved resilient. She enrolled at Yale Law School and received her law degree in 1976 at age fifty-two. Wasserman practiced family law in New Haven for the rest of her career and in 2000 wrote her first book, The Door in the Dream: Conversations With Eminent Women in Science. She died in 2014." (p. 274)
This book was AMAZING! Reading a book like this from today's perspective it's crazy to me to see just how blatant sexual harassment and assaults were and how the women were just used it - not happy, but used to it. Despite their struggles, it was so uplifting to hear the stories of how these women made huge changes to the culture of Yale just by their persistence. Yet another book of trailblazers and pioneers of feminism and women in America.
Some quotes I liked:
"The Film Society's decision to hold the porn fest at the same time as the Free Women Conference, just like the timing of its previous porn fest on the first day of Coeducation Week, was intended as a hilarious joke. Women's lib conference? We'll show them.." (p. 132)
"Despite all the challenges the women students faced, they had outperformed their male classmates...Women sophomores and juniors received Honors, Yale's highest grade, in 31 percent of their classes, compared with 23 percent of the men. Freshmen women got 22 percent Honors, on par with freshmen men, but outflanked men 49 percent to 41 percent in High Pass, the second-highest mark." (p. 142)
"But one power that Brewster [Yale's President] did not mention was perhaps the most important of all: the power to do nothing. As Kit McClure wrote in her diary after the Corporation's March 1970 vote to leave Yale's gender quota unchanged, 'The campaign for full coeducation has been stopped by the Yale Corporation's decision to ignore it.' If the goal is protecting the status quo, the best move by those in power is no move at all." (p. 188)
"The work of leading coeducation at Yale carried with it a terrible sameness. Wasserman had to battle for each inch forward, and sometimes she even lost ground. But Elga Wasserman was a fighter, and even if the title at the bottom of her memos had not changed since 1969, she had increased her power at Yale and beyond...At a time when most Yale women employees were assigned invisible roles as secretaries and dining hall workers, Wasserman showed women an alternative. 'She was a female leader in a place where there were few of them,' said Linden Havemeyer. 'We were proud of her and glad she was there.'" (p. 249)
"And on June 23, 1972, Congresswomen Patsy Mink and Edith Green got the victory they had long worked for. In one simple sentence, Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments to the Civil Right Act prohibited the gender discrimination that was rampant in U.S. colleges and universities when the first women undergraduates came to Yale: 'No person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program receiving Federal financial assistance.' No one paid much attention to Title IX at the time it was passed. Few yet understood the extent of gender bias against women in America's colleges and universities. But in the decades that followed, Title IX would halt the gender quotas in admissions that had robbed women of their place in the nation's top schools." (p. 251)
"Title IX began with its one elegant sentence, but then it included a list of institutions that were exempt from its provisions...But the very first exemption went as follows: 'In regard to admissions to educational institutions, this section shall apply only to...public institutions of undergraduate higher education.' In other words, private institutions of undergraduate higher education - Yale, for example, were exempt from Title IX's prohibition of discriminatory admissions policies...'Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard...were able to get a narrowly worded exemption for private undergraduate admissions.' The letters to Congress from these four powerful institutions, written in the fall of 1971 during the initial stages of the legislation's development, had succeeded...by the time Title IX passed in 1972, Congress had deferred to Yale's outrage over Edith Green's call for sex-blind admissions, and the final version of the law exempted Yale and the others from that one provision. The exemption still stands today." (p. 251-52)
"On December 9, the Yale Corporation voted to abolish the gender quota that had shaped the first four years of coeducation at Yale. The announcement came with a simple statement: 'We believe that the gender of the applicant should not be the deciding factor in a candidate's admission.' Within five years, the percentage of women at Yale more than doubled to 46 percent. Other battles, both at Yale and beyond, still remained. But all through that year, 1972, the mountains had moved. Someday, they would do so again." (p. 263)
"Two months after the Yale Corporation adopted sex-blind admissions, [Elga Wasserman] learned that she no longer had a job at Yale. Brewster terminated her special assistant position and gave all four of the new jobs she expressed interest in to other. Wasserman was left with nothing...Yet once again, Wasserman proved resilient. She enrolled at Yale Law School and received her law degree in 1976 at age fifty-two. Wasserman practiced family law in New Haven for the rest of her career and in 2000 wrote her first book, The Door in the Dream: Conversations With Eminent Women in Science. She died in 2014." (p. 274)
The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina heritage food through the year by Georgann Eubanks
Georgann Eubanks fondly remembers knowing it was September when her grandfather took her out to pick scuppernong grapes. Food, memory, and season are linked in our minds and in this book Eubanks explores 12 seasonal North Carolina foods that were highly anticipated and available only for a short season. Today it can be hard to remember that all food is not available all year round thanks to shipping produce around the world. But, anticipating a favorite seasonal food and savoring it while it's around is an experience more people should have. Many of the foods Eubanks highlights are too fragile to ship around the world, so they become part of the region's history and culture. Eubanks travels all over North Carolina to sample these seasonal foods and talk to experts and people who are working to keep these North Carolina food traditions alive. I definitely learned a lot and it makes me want to explore more of my home state than I already have. In the Acknowledgments Eubanks explains that she was inspired to write this book after listening to the audiobook of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I wish that she had explained that in the beginning of the book because I think that would resonate with her readers as probably anyone interested in this book has probably read Kingsolver's too. Overall, as a native North Carolinian, I thought this was a great book that highlights part of our state's native food culture.
Some quotes I liked:
"Willy Phillips was four years old when he first saw battalions of small fiddler crabs coming out of the salt marsh and marching toward his childhood home on Hewlett's Creek in New Hanover County. Those crabs were not responding to the moon, however. They began climbing the exterior walls of his parents' house to find purchase on the roof. In that fall of 1954, long before Doppler radar and sophisticated weather prediction was possible, the surge of crustacean refugees was the only sign the Phillips family had that Hurricane Hazel was barreling toward Wilmington." (p. 114)
"Evans says he is one of the last farmers in the area to hire local folks exclusively for the weeding and hand-harvesting of his melons. He does not want all the paperwork and regulations that come with hiring migrant workers. He is proud of providing jobs for his neighbors. 'Everybody in this area at one time or another has worked in the fields. It's a rite of passage,' he says. Lifting melons, especially watermelons, is backbreaking labor. 'One thing about it,' Evans says, 'whatever job a young person gets after doing this work is going to seem like a breeze.'" (p. 166)
Some quotes I liked:
"Willy Phillips was four years old when he first saw battalions of small fiddler crabs coming out of the salt marsh and marching toward his childhood home on Hewlett's Creek in New Hanover County. Those crabs were not responding to the moon, however. They began climbing the exterior walls of his parents' house to find purchase on the roof. In that fall of 1954, long before Doppler radar and sophisticated weather prediction was possible, the surge of crustacean refugees was the only sign the Phillips family had that Hurricane Hazel was barreling toward Wilmington." (p. 114)
"Evans says he is one of the last farmers in the area to hire local folks exclusively for the weeding and hand-harvesting of his melons. He does not want all the paperwork and regulations that come with hiring migrant workers. He is proud of providing jobs for his neighbors. 'Everybody in this area at one time or another has worked in the fields. It's a rite of passage,' he says. Lifting melons, especially watermelons, is backbreaking labor. 'One thing about it,' Evans says, 'whatever job a young person gets after doing this work is going to seem like a breeze.'" (p. 166)
Golden Girls Forever: an unauthorized look behind the lanai by Jim Colucci
I'm so glad I hadn't read this book until now. It was the perfect book to read during the COVID-19 quarantine time because Golden Girls is such a comforting show. I watched The Golden Girls on TV when I was a kid and most of their jokes went right over my head, but I still loved it. As an adult it's really my comfort show that I watch when I'm upset or home sick or just to have a comforting, familiar show on. This book really gives you a lot of background about the show, the actresses, guest stars, and lots of other fun facts. The only thing I wish had been included was a listing of all the episodes by season. Chapter 5 covers all 7 seasons, but only highlights some of the episodes, usually ones with guest stars or something unique. I wish there had been just a few pages of episodes by season given. The last chapter showed the lasting impact of the show, not just on other TV shows, but just in people's lives. The show is still being shown on TV in reruns and still gaining new fans which is really rare in television. If you are a fan of The Golden Girls this book is a must-own!
Some quotes I liked:
"Having popularized the Golden Rule of Four, The Golden Girls is the thematic ancestor of many shows that followed. Only one year after the Girl's premier, along came the Southern version (Designing Women), followed in the 1990s by the black version (Living Single) and the urban version (Sex and the City)." (p. 24)
"Richard Vaczy: Shortly before this episode [177 &178], my hometown of Sayville, Long Island, had experienced a series of arson fires that had burned down half of Main Street. So to help the town rebuild, we auctioned off a walk-on part on The Golden Girls, with airfare and hotel. And in the end, the man who played the prom king paid twenty-four thousand dollars for that experience." (p. 311)
[Which of the Girls is Your Favorite?] "Dorothy - Because she did more with one eyebrow than most people can do with an entire script. - Maile Falangan, Actor." (p. 347)
"By the summer of 2006 - fourteen years after The Golden Girls ended its original run - the show was still drawing eleven million viewers per week and thirty million per month on the Lifetime cable network, its home from 1997 - 2009. Although up against much newer sitcom competition, any given one of the show's seven daily airings still ranked among the top three 'off-network' sitcoms shown by Lifetime, and among the top seven on any cable channel. 'There aren't too many shows from 1985 which hold up like that,' notes television historian Tim Brooks...Tim explains that the steady viewership of The Golden Girls, barely changed from 1997 to that point in 2006, was very unusual...'But The Golden Girls has turned out to be a long-distance runner.'" (p. 348-49)
"Right from the beginning, young people liked the show. I thought and thought about why and I finally realized it is because the show may have been about older ladies, but it was still very antiestablishment. - Bea Arthur" (p. 363)
Some quotes I liked:
"Having popularized the Golden Rule of Four, The Golden Girls is the thematic ancestor of many shows that followed. Only one year after the Girl's premier, along came the Southern version (Designing Women), followed in the 1990s by the black version (Living Single) and the urban version (Sex and the City)." (p. 24)
"Richard Vaczy: Shortly before this episode [177 &178], my hometown of Sayville, Long Island, had experienced a series of arson fires that had burned down half of Main Street. So to help the town rebuild, we auctioned off a walk-on part on The Golden Girls, with airfare and hotel. And in the end, the man who played the prom king paid twenty-four thousand dollars for that experience." (p. 311)
[Which of the Girls is Your Favorite?] "Dorothy - Because she did more with one eyebrow than most people can do with an entire script. - Maile Falangan, Actor." (p. 347)
"By the summer of 2006 - fourteen years after The Golden Girls ended its original run - the show was still drawing eleven million viewers per week and thirty million per month on the Lifetime cable network, its home from 1997 - 2009. Although up against much newer sitcom competition, any given one of the show's seven daily airings still ranked among the top three 'off-network' sitcoms shown by Lifetime, and among the top seven on any cable channel. 'There aren't too many shows from 1985 which hold up like that,' notes television historian Tim Brooks...Tim explains that the steady viewership of The Golden Girls, barely changed from 1997 to that point in 2006, was very unusual...'But The Golden Girls has turned out to be a long-distance runner.'" (p. 348-49)
"Right from the beginning, young people liked the show. I thought and thought about why and I finally realized it is because the show may have been about older ladies, but it was still very antiestablishment. - Bea Arthur" (p. 363)
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