Going Over Home: a search for rural justice in an unsettled land by Charles D. Thompson, Jr.
There used to be hundreds or thousands of small, family farms dotting rural areas all around the United States. But, over time these family farms are lost either to development or larger, industrial farms. In Going Over Home Charles Thompson discusses both his personal connection to family farms and his advocacy work with rural, low-income areas in Virginia and North Carolina. Thompson grew up in Virginia - initially on a family farm, then in more suburban areas as his parents moved away for jobs. But, he always loved his grandparent's 150 acre farm. As an adult he began to realize that his family members who moved off the farm didn't always do so because they didn't want to farm - they left because farming wasn't a financial option any longer. That's what sparked his advocacy work - Thompson wanted to try to help rural families hang onto their land and make it viable to pass down to interested generations. Eventually Thompson is able to buy his own small farm outside of Carrboro, NC, but like so many other he eventually sold it because it became too much work and didn't generate enough income. While I found the book very interesting, especially his thoughts on the emotional ties to land, it was a depressing read overall. Most of his advocacy work had short-term benefits, but nothing seemed to keep going and continuing to make positive changes. I also liked that he addressed racial issues related to land ownership and loss that are unfortunately still on-going issues today. Overall, it was interesting and I learned a lot, but it was very depressing and not much hope or happiness at the end. I was hoping it would show some kind of hope or ideas on ways to make smaller farms profitable - for more on that read Joel Salatin and Forrest Pritchard.
Some quotes I liked:
"I had tried to hold on to agriculture by exploring ways of going back to the land, but instead of finding answers I witnessed poor people living in isolation in the aftermath of the loss of rural communities. I now knew 'the land' was not the source of utopia it had once seemed. Instead I started to grasp that everything about rural life in America was interconnected with politics controlled elsewhere. So I reformulated my goals into a commitment to give back to rural areas in some general way, and in the long run to work to change society. Hence, my budding decision to work in the field that I came to call 'rural justice' grew directly from our family losing its farm." (p. 78)
"The 1980s, in addition to being known as the decade of the American Farm Crisis, became an era of maneuvering for greater dominance by the industrial giants of agriculture...As the industry grew our own North Carolina Senate agriculture chairman, Wendell Murphy, led the NC legislature in 1991 to outlaw any zoning restrictions for contract-style [CAFOs - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] arrangements in any community statewide. This meant that huge hog operations started by swine-farming giant Murphy Farms could move into the rural communities of their choosing, which often meant low-income communities of color, without penalty. Later Murphy would sell his company to Smithfield Foods, but he would retain a strong financial stake in the company..." (p. 170)
Some quotes I liked:
"I had tried to hold on to agriculture by exploring ways of going back to the land, but instead of finding answers I witnessed poor people living in isolation in the aftermath of the loss of rural communities. I now knew 'the land' was not the source of utopia it had once seemed. Instead I started to grasp that everything about rural life in America was interconnected with politics controlled elsewhere. So I reformulated my goals into a commitment to give back to rural areas in some general way, and in the long run to work to change society. Hence, my budding decision to work in the field that I came to call 'rural justice' grew directly from our family losing its farm." (p. 78)
"The 1980s, in addition to being known as the decade of the American Farm Crisis, became an era of maneuvering for greater dominance by the industrial giants of agriculture...As the industry grew our own North Carolina Senate agriculture chairman, Wendell Murphy, led the NC legislature in 1991 to outlaw any zoning restrictions for contract-style [CAFOs - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] arrangements in any community statewide. This meant that huge hog operations started by swine-farming giant Murphy Farms could move into the rural communities of their choosing, which often meant low-income communities of color, without penalty. Later Murphy would sell his company to Smithfield Foods, but he would retain a strong financial stake in the company..." (p. 170)
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom (Books & Banter book club)
The Yellow House is the story of the house Sarah Broom grew up in in New Orleans East. Sarah was the youngest and twelfth child of her parents Ivory Mae and Simon Broom. Ivory was able to buy the house after her first husband was killed in the military. At the time New Orleans East was an up and coming area and it was a great investment for her as a widow with two young children. But, houses need upkeep and Simon had a lot of great ideas for the house, but not a lot of follow through. He died when Sarah was just 6 months old. After his death it was a struggle for Ivory to keep everything going and the house continued to deteriorate. Until it was completely destroyed in Hurricane Katrina or "the Water" as the author's family calls it.
This book was described as a memoir of a home and family, but it was really all over the place. There was SO MUCH detail about every neighbor, friend, etc. that it was hard to keep up with everyone. Plus, the author's family was huge too. It was obvious the house had been in disrepair for a long time, but no real explanation of why. The author went to private school for all of high school, but her mother wasn't paying the property taxes on the house. So, why was she paying tuition but not repairing the house? There was no talk about money or financial struggles, but there had to be with raising 12 children! I just felt like it was a very rambling memoir that would really only make sense to the author and her family. I do understand the importance of home ownership and how a sense of place is tied to a sense of family, but this book didn't really portray that in my opinion. I did like the chapters on how each family member survived Katrina, but overall it was sad and depressing without much of an overall message. I would not recommend this one.
This book was described as a memoir of a home and family, but it was really all over the place. There was SO MUCH detail about every neighbor, friend, etc. that it was hard to keep up with everyone. Plus, the author's family was huge too. It was obvious the house had been in disrepair for a long time, but no real explanation of why. The author went to private school for all of high school, but her mother wasn't paying the property taxes on the house. So, why was she paying tuition but not repairing the house? There was no talk about money or financial struggles, but there had to be with raising 12 children! I just felt like it was a very rambling memoir that would really only make sense to the author and her family. I do understand the importance of home ownership and how a sense of place is tied to a sense of family, but this book didn't really portray that in my opinion. I did like the chapters on how each family member survived Katrina, but overall it was sad and depressing without much of an overall message. I would not recommend this one.
Think Like a Feminist: the philosophy behind the revolution by Carol Hay
Today the word "feminist" can mean something different to 100 different people. In Think Like a Feminist Carol Hay attempts to boil down over two hundred years of feminist thought into one book. The first two chapters give an overall history, as well as, the stereotypes of feminism and give four metaphors for understanding oppression. These two chapters are AMAZING - they are very readable and really break down the various waves of feminism and explain what was achieved (or not) in each wave. The next two chapters focus on the social construction of gender and sex. In my opinion these two chapters were a little more academic and not as easily readable for someone not super interested in this topic. There is also a chapter on sexual violence and then just when you're feeling like all hope is lost, the last chapter focuses on things you can do every day to try to continue to move the feminism movement forward.
I felt like the author did a great job overall with explaining different aspects of feminism and also being honest about how some factions of feminists work against each other or don't include all women (often women of color). The only reason I didn't rate it higher was because I felt like a lot of readers would get bogged down in chapters 3 & 4 and quit reading or get overwhelmed. But, if you're new to this issue or trying to have easy ways to explain some of the ideas to someone else this book is a great resource.
Here are some quotes I liked:
"Having spent a very long time playing Whac-A-Mole with people's misconceptions of feminism - in the classroom, on social media, at the Thanksgiving dinner table - I've ended up with a whole bag full o' tricks to get the skeptics' guard down and get them to listen to what feminism is really about. This book is the collection of this hard-won repertoire." (p. xvi)
"Honestly, if you were to ask ten feminists to define feminism you'd probably get eleven different answers. There are a few core things that we do agree about, though. First, feminists agree that women have been, and continue to be, disadvantaged relative to men...Second, feminists agree that these disadvantages are bad things that can and should be changed. And third, we agree that these disadvantages are interrelated, that they're the result of mutually supporting systems of privilege and deprivation that are structurally embedded in virtually every aspect of society and that systematically function to screw women over." (p. 1-2)
"'Many women,' speculates the radical feminist activist Andrea Dworkin, 'resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships.'" (p. 17)
"As we'll see, de Beauvoir and those in her wake are almost always less interested in passing judgement on what individual women choose to do with their lives than in taking on the social structures that constrain women's options in the first place. But skeptics fasten onto the image of the Angry Feminist as a sanctimonious shrew who should mind her own business because it's less unsettling to muster outrage over her ungrounded right to criticize what you've done with the hand you've been dealt than it is to sit with the possibility that she might be right when she claims that the deck's been stacked." (p. 19)
"This kinder, gentler [Girl Power] feminism talks the talk of championing women's empowement, but it does so without ruffling feathers, reassuring everyone that the status quo won't be interrupted in any significant way. It's no coincidence that the statue that faced down the bull on Wall Street is a Fearless Girl, not a Fearless Grown Woman. Strength in girls is unthreatening precisely because they're still too little to actually do anything with it; strength in women is off-putting as hell." (p. 25-26)
"Most of the time, oppression's structures chug along in the background, subtly constraining what's possible for people without most of us even noticing what's going on. This means that oppression has a tendency to fly beneath our collective radar." (p. 43)
"Let these words sink in: the mind shapes itself to the body. The concern here isn't just that the beauty and frivolity and femininity required of girls and women is a waste of time, or that it's not as lofty as the pursuits open to boys and men. The worry is that what's permissible or required for girls and women to do with and to their bodies determines what's possible for them to do with their minds." (p. 51)
"The explanation for this bizarre response, Catharine MacKinnon suggests, is that we don't want to believe the empirical facts about what it's like to be a woman, despite the clear statistical evidence, because we're clinging to the collective belief that men and women really are equal. 'This,' she says, 'is equality for us': a world in which 1 in 6 women will experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. The statistics for men are strikingly different: 1 in 33 men will experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. Hardly equality. Rape is no less tragic for male victims than it is for female victims, obviously, but we shouldn't pretend that the risks are the same for both sexes. They're not." (p. 132-33)
I felt like the author did a great job overall with explaining different aspects of feminism and also being honest about how some factions of feminists work against each other or don't include all women (often women of color). The only reason I didn't rate it higher was because I felt like a lot of readers would get bogged down in chapters 3 & 4 and quit reading or get overwhelmed. But, if you're new to this issue or trying to have easy ways to explain some of the ideas to someone else this book is a great resource.
Here are some quotes I liked:
"Having spent a very long time playing Whac-A-Mole with people's misconceptions of feminism - in the classroom, on social media, at the Thanksgiving dinner table - I've ended up with a whole bag full o' tricks to get the skeptics' guard down and get them to listen to what feminism is really about. This book is the collection of this hard-won repertoire." (p. xvi)
"Honestly, if you were to ask ten feminists to define feminism you'd probably get eleven different answers. There are a few core things that we do agree about, though. First, feminists agree that women have been, and continue to be, disadvantaged relative to men...Second, feminists agree that these disadvantages are bad things that can and should be changed. And third, we agree that these disadvantages are interrelated, that they're the result of mutually supporting systems of privilege and deprivation that are structurally embedded in virtually every aspect of society and that systematically function to screw women over." (p. 1-2)
"'Many women,' speculates the radical feminist activist Andrea Dworkin, 'resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships.'" (p. 17)
"As we'll see, de Beauvoir and those in her wake are almost always less interested in passing judgement on what individual women choose to do with their lives than in taking on the social structures that constrain women's options in the first place. But skeptics fasten onto the image of the Angry Feminist as a sanctimonious shrew who should mind her own business because it's less unsettling to muster outrage over her ungrounded right to criticize what you've done with the hand you've been dealt than it is to sit with the possibility that she might be right when she claims that the deck's been stacked." (p. 19)
"This kinder, gentler [Girl Power] feminism talks the talk of championing women's empowement, but it does so without ruffling feathers, reassuring everyone that the status quo won't be interrupted in any significant way. It's no coincidence that the statue that faced down the bull on Wall Street is a Fearless Girl, not a Fearless Grown Woman. Strength in girls is unthreatening precisely because they're still too little to actually do anything with it; strength in women is off-putting as hell." (p. 25-26)
"Most of the time, oppression's structures chug along in the background, subtly constraining what's possible for people without most of us even noticing what's going on. This means that oppression has a tendency to fly beneath our collective radar." (p. 43)
"Let these words sink in: the mind shapes itself to the body. The concern here isn't just that the beauty and frivolity and femininity required of girls and women is a waste of time, or that it's not as lofty as the pursuits open to boys and men. The worry is that what's permissible or required for girls and women to do with and to their bodies determines what's possible for them to do with their minds." (p. 51)
"The explanation for this bizarre response, Catharine MacKinnon suggests, is that we don't want to believe the empirical facts about what it's like to be a woman, despite the clear statistical evidence, because we're clinging to the collective belief that men and women really are equal. 'This,' she says, 'is equality for us': a world in which 1 in 6 women will experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. The statistics for men are strikingly different: 1 in 33 men will experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. Hardly equality. Rape is no less tragic for male victims than it is for female victims, obviously, but we shouldn't pretend that the risks are the same for both sexes. They're not." (p. 132-33)
Bread Therapy: the mindful art of baking bread by Pauline Beaumont
This is a really unique book. Part mindfulness/meditation how-to and part cookbook/inspiration for baking your own bread. Beaumont combines baking bread with mindfulness and self care. She explores tenants of mindfulness/self care through aspects of baking bread. Each chapter explores a topic and then ends with a recipe. As a gardener, canner, and home cook I do feel like it's empowering to grow and make your own food from scratch. We're often told we don't "have time" for things like that, but as Beaumont perfectly illustrates with this book these same things are often very important and healing. Overall, a really unique book that has definitely inspired me to work on my bread game.
A quote I really liked:
"However, it does seem that the more that digital and remote ways of interacting dominate our lives, the more we appreciate the opposite; the benefits of a return to basics, the natural, the handmade, and the real. We recognize the merits of walking, even though we could get to our destination more quickly by car; we relish the joys of growing our own vegetables, despite the labors involved; and we might sometimes spend days knitting a sweater, rather than buying one from a shop. This book is about the value of making bread by hand, from choice rather than necessity, and the benefits that can result for our health and well-being." (p. 4)
A quote I really liked:
"However, it does seem that the more that digital and remote ways of interacting dominate our lives, the more we appreciate the opposite; the benefits of a return to basics, the natural, the handmade, and the real. We recognize the merits of walking, even though we could get to our destination more quickly by car; we relish the joys of growing our own vegetables, despite the labors involved; and we might sometimes spend days knitting a sweater, rather than buying one from a shop. This book is about the value of making bread by hand, from choice rather than necessity, and the benefits that can result for our health and well-being." (p. 4)
Women on Food by Charlotte Druckman
This is a really unique book that highlights women's voices related to food. Comprised of essays, interviews, and short Q&A's topics from food memories, the #metoo movement, and how women writers and chefs are treated differently than their male counterparts are all covered in some way and sometimes in many ways throughout this book. At first it felt choppy and slow, but for me it picked up steam along the way. I'll be honest the majority of the people represented were people I wasn't familiar with, but there were several that I did know of and either way I enjoyed the majority of the book. There were a few essays or interviews I didn't care for or ended up skimming, but overall I really liked it and while eye-opening, it's still sad that in this day and age women are still being under-paid, under-represented, and seen as sexual objects while working. If feminism and cooking are two of your favorite things then this book is a must read.
Some quotes I liked:
[answering the question "do you think there are certain genres of food writing...that are consistently assigned to women?"] "Has any 'How to get a quick and easy meal on your table' story ever been pitched or written by a man? Or is it solely to the working or stay-at-home moms?" - Jasmine Moy (p. 32)
"By the 1920s, an American housewife on a modest income might have access to a gas oven, a technology that is surely one of the greatest advances in the history of cooking. After centuries of building a life around the smoke and inconvenience of a fire, cooks could now switch the flame on or off at will. Yet, as [Ruth Schwartz] Cowan observes, the truly labor-saving technology would have been effective birth control. 'When there are eight or nine mouths to feed (or even five or six), cooking is a difficult enterprise, even if it can be done at a gas range.'" (p. 260)
"Perhaps the real problem with the concept of 'labor-saving' in the kitchen is that it tries to answer the wrong question. Instead of asking, 'How can we cancel out this work?' we could instead try to ask, 'How can we reward and recognize this work, and the person who does it?' Cooks have never been given anything like their full due." (p. 263)
"During the last installment of the argument that my husband and I have on-and-off about housework, he told me I had to find a way to start doing less. He didn't, of course, mean that we should hire someone to help us with shopping or cooking or laundry or organization; he meant I should start caring less about what we eat and what our house looks like: the bagged-salad approach. It echoed something I read years earlier in an essay by a feminist writer whose name I can't remember about the wages-for-housework movement. The author wrote that she'd conditioned herself to accept untidiness in order to stop herself from using housework as a way to procrastinate and keep herself from doing her important work...I'm up against it either way; it is my problem, because I'm the one who cares. And I think, fuck you!!" (p. 271)
[answering the question "What are some questions you really hate being asked?"] "How I juggle it all. How I handle being away from my kids when I go on a book tour. Men never get asked this. Nobody asks a man on a business trip if he's sad to be away from his kids. How I cook with kids underfoot (because I work from home, everyone assumes I'm a stay-at-home mom, no matter how consistently I've said this is not the case)." - Deb Perelman (p. 318)
Some quotes I liked:
[answering the question "do you think there are certain genres of food writing...that are consistently assigned to women?"] "Has any 'How to get a quick and easy meal on your table' story ever been pitched or written by a man? Or is it solely to the working or stay-at-home moms?" - Jasmine Moy (p. 32)
"By the 1920s, an American housewife on a modest income might have access to a gas oven, a technology that is surely one of the greatest advances in the history of cooking. After centuries of building a life around the smoke and inconvenience of a fire, cooks could now switch the flame on or off at will. Yet, as [Ruth Schwartz] Cowan observes, the truly labor-saving technology would have been effective birth control. 'When there are eight or nine mouths to feed (or even five or six), cooking is a difficult enterprise, even if it can be done at a gas range.'" (p. 260)
"Perhaps the real problem with the concept of 'labor-saving' in the kitchen is that it tries to answer the wrong question. Instead of asking, 'How can we cancel out this work?' we could instead try to ask, 'How can we reward and recognize this work, and the person who does it?' Cooks have never been given anything like their full due." (p. 263)
"During the last installment of the argument that my husband and I have on-and-off about housework, he told me I had to find a way to start doing less. He didn't, of course, mean that we should hire someone to help us with shopping or cooking or laundry or organization; he meant I should start caring less about what we eat and what our house looks like: the bagged-salad approach. It echoed something I read years earlier in an essay by a feminist writer whose name I can't remember about the wages-for-housework movement. The author wrote that she'd conditioned herself to accept untidiness in order to stop herself from using housework as a way to procrastinate and keep herself from doing her important work...I'm up against it either way; it is my problem, because I'm the one who cares. And I think, fuck you!!" (p. 271)
[answering the question "What are some questions you really hate being asked?"] "How I juggle it all. How I handle being away from my kids when I go on a book tour. Men never get asked this. Nobody asks a man on a business trip if he's sad to be away from his kids. How I cook with kids underfoot (because I work from home, everyone assumes I'm a stay-at-home mom, no matter how consistently I've said this is not the case)." - Deb Perelman (p. 318)
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