January 2022 Reviews

 January did not start off great for me - my husband and I both got COVID and because of that I didn't read ANYTHING for two weeks. So, my 2022 reading took a hit right away! Here's to the rest of the year being better.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Evening Edition book club)

The premise of this book sounded so good, but it was a huge flop in my opinion. The writing was just awful with so many weird sexual things/descriptions and just really odd ways of describing things. I would have quit reading after the first chapter if this wasn't for book club. And you never find out what actually happened - I think that's worse than all the weird writing. Just give me an afterword or one chapter about what the catastrophe/attack/plague was! As one review I saw perfectly summed it up: Leave This Book Behind.

Nomadland: surviving American in the Twenty-first century by Jessica Bruder (Books & Banter book club, re-read)

Nomadland explores a unique segment of the US population - retirement age people who are essentially homeless, living in old RVs, vans or cars and traveling all over the US doing seasonal work and meeting up as a community of "vandwellers." While many people saw media coverage of the tent cities that popped up around the country during the 2008-9 recession full of out of work people who had been foreclosed on or evicted and were now homeless. While some of the vandwellers enjoy their lifestyle, most if not all were forced into this lifestyle and are now trying to make the best of it. Jessica Bruder buys a van to live out of for months at a time so she can truly get to know the vandweller culture and experience this lifestyle. Bruder interviews many people, but mainly follows Linda May, a woman in her late sixties who worked a variety of jobs in her lifetime, but yet couldn't seem to make ends meet paying rent, utilities, etc. but with no rent and much lower expenses she can work toward her dream of buying land and building an Earthship house one day. The most eye-opening part of this book for me was how many seasonal jobs are geared toward older adults as extra retirement income, but the reality is these people depend on these jobs and will probably never really be able to retire. Amazon is a huge recruiter of "camperforce," older people who have RVs/campers/vans to live out of and will travel to Amazon's huge warehouses as seasonal workers during the holiday rush between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is extremely physical and demanding work that is needed round the clock. I also didn't know that many National Parks advertise for "campground hosts" who help rangers keep campsites clean, clean public showers and restrooms, and check in campers. While there's nothing wrong with either of these jobs, it just felt sad that many of these people can't find any other full-time work because of their age. It also felt somewhat predatory and while that shouldn't surprise me about a huge corporation like Amazon I guess it still does. This is a unique story about a hidden part of our population, but there is also just an undercurrent of sadness too. These people do have a genuine community and help each other, but there are many that fall through the cracks when they have a health crisis. Definitely a book I'll be thinking about for a long time.

Some quotes I really liked:

"Amazon had recruited these workers as part of a program it calls CamperForce: a labor unit made up of nomads who work as seasonal employees at several of its warehouses, which the company calls 'fulfillment centers,' or FCs. Along with thousands of traditional temps, they're hired to meet the heavy shipping demands of 'peak season,' the consumer bonanza that spans the three to four months before Christmas. Amazon doesn't disclose precise staffing numbers to the press, but when I casually asked a CamperForce manager at an Amazon recruiting booth in Arizona about the size of the program, her estimate was some two thousand workers [that was 2014]...The workers' shifts last ten hours or longer, during which some walk more than fifteen miles on concrete floors, stooping, squatting, reaching, and climbing stairs as they scan, sort, and box merchandise. When the holiday rush ends, Amazon no longer needs CamperForce and terminates the program's workers. They drive away in what managers cheerfully call a 'taillight parade.'" (p. 45)

[Talking about how physically demanding the Amazon temp work is on anyone, but especially older bodies] "Many of the RVs I entered [in CamperForce] were stocked like mobile apothecaries, with Icy Hot Pain Relieving Gel, tubs for soaking tired feet, Epsom salts, and bottles of Aleve and Advil. If the workers ran out of pills, that wasn't a problem - Amazon had wall-mounted dispensers offering free over-the-counter painkillers in the warehouse." (p. 55-6)

"Along with many of the wayfarers he came to inspire, Bob [Wells who created CheapRVLiving.com] saw things differently. He envisioned a future where economic and environmental upheavals had become the new American normal. For this reason, he didn't package nomadic living as a quick fix, something to tide folks over until society had stabilized, at which point they could reintegrate with the mainstream. Rather he aspired to create a wandering tribe whose members could operate outside of - or even transcend - the fraying social order: a parallel world on wheels." (p. 78-9)

Update to re-reading for book club:

While I wasn't as shocking reading the book for a second time, it's still hard to believe there are so many industries that target older people for hard seasonal work. It makes me very thankful for the pension I still have through my work and my affordable home. Re-reading this book also makes me want to NOT shop with Amazon anymore, but it's almost required since there are so few mom-and-pop type retail stores anymore. Is Target any better than Amazon? Probably not. I'm curious to see how the discussion goes since the majority of my book club members are older women who are retired. Still a great book that shines a light on a dark corner of US society.

Some new quotes I liked:

"The folks who run CamperForce reiterate the belief that older workers bring a good work ethic...[Kelly Calmes a CamperForce administrator says] 'The benefit to our workamping population being, for the most part, a little bit older is that you guys have put in a lifetime of work. You understand what work is,. You put your mind to the work, and we know that it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. It's kind of like The Tortoise and the Hare.'...Beyond that, Amazon reaps federal tax credits - ranging from 25 to 40 percent of wages - for hiring disadvantaged workers in several categories." (p. 59)

"Meanwhile, Amazon's treatment of warehouse workers had been making headlines since 2011. That's when an investigation by the Allentown Morning Call newspaper revealed what were - quite literally - sweatshop conditions. When summer temperatures exceeded 100 degrees inside the company's Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, warehouse, managers wouldn't open the loading bay doors for fear of theft. Instead, they hired paramedics to wait outside in ambulances, ready to extract heat-stricken employees on stretchers and in wheelchairs, the investigation found." (p. 98-99)

"(A few years later, Amazon created a webpage for CamperForce applicants called 'Winterizing Your Rig' that advised covering windows in shrink-film and putting reflective insulators over vents. Links were provided so readers could purchase both materials at - where else? - Amazon.com.)" (p. 110)

Nowhere Girl: a memoir of a fugitive childhood by Cheryl Diamond

Cheryl Diamond grew up in an extremely unusual family. They were a white family, but practiced the Sikh religion (typically an Indian religion - Cheryl was originally named Harbhajan), were vegetarians, and they were also fugitives on the run. They never lived in one place long and all three children (Cheryl being the youngest) were expected to know their current cover story and identities at all times. None of the children even knew their parents real names or where the family documents were hidden. Yet, oddly to me, their father encouraged all three children to compete in sports - even driving them to try out for the Olympics. That seemed so odd for a family on the run to get attention and be involved in sports/activities. Cheryl is especially driven in whatever she does, never wanting to disappoint her father. But, as she gets older Cheryl begins to see more and more how domineering and abusive her father and family are. But where else can they go? They have no IDs, no history, and don't even know their own parents real names. Eventually the older two children run away or are pushed out of the family and it's just Cheryl and her parents. By this point she has begun modeling which is a whole new world of abuse. While modeling Cheryl begins to get sick and is eventually diagnosed with Crohn's Disease - an autoimmune disease that can be brought on by extreme tension or post-traumatic stress - yet she can't tell the doctors of her whole life of trauma and stress so she continues to hide everything inside. Eventually Cheryl and her mother leave her father and go back to Cheryl's grandparents. There Cheryl starts to come to terms with her life, her father, and everything from her past. She finally starts to heal and create her final identity as Cheryl Diamond.

This was really a roller-coaster of a book that again highlights the old saying that the truth is stranger than fiction. Cheryl had an insane childhood and so much trauma it's hard to even imagine there could be more as you keep reading. I think the absolutely worst part for me was when Cheryl's brother who she absolutely adored started molesting her. She felt like she couldn't tell her parents because Frank would have nowhere to go. And her father was something else. I don't want to give away the reason they were running, but by the end it really seemed like he just enjoyed the chase and feeling like he was outsmarting everyone. Definitely a huge narcissist who thought he was smarter and better than everyone. This is definitely one to add to the super dysfunctional family memoir list!

Some quotes I liked:

"Watching Mom work steadily, I frown. Dad is always so strong and daring in his decisions, but it's actually Mom who seems to pull it all together. I hadn't noticed it before...I guess you rarely notice the person doing most of the work, because they're always busy and the other one has more time to talk." (p. 38)

"Adults are always saying that kids don't know enough to appreciate their youth. But I disagree. My siblings and I feel the magic of this summer. After moving around constantly, these endless days, the smell of chlorine and sunblock lingering on our skin, are special. For the rest, there will always be next summer, next year. For us, everything we are tasting may be for the last time." (p. 53-54)

"I can't stand feelings. They are messy and frightening, trying to cling to me like slime. I brush that shit off. But here, in secret, it feels so, so good to cry. Huge gulping sobs, my head buried in her shoulder. For a moment, I can still be a desperate child, as she lies and tells me it's going to be all right." (p. 171)

"When Frank called me the strong one, that day on the phone, I was flattered. But hearing it again now, I see the words for what they are. Not a compliment, or a fact, but an excuse. A way to leave me to sort everything out on my own. I've never broken down, because I thought they wouldn't be able to handle the extra stress. But now I wonder - are they coming apart because they know I never will?" (p. 209)

"There is something people rarely tell you about war, and that is how another battle begins when it is over. I thought I was brave when I felt nothing, when I forced myself to be numb, but what's really scary is peacetime. I want so desperately to be normal, or at least some version of it, but the past, these emotions rushing back, are far more confusing and unsettling than numbness ever was. It would be much simpler to keep parts of myself forever locked away. Because to truly feel would mean opening myself up to being hurt again. War is simple. Perhaps it's the aftermath that requires real courage." (p. 293-94)

"Life will unfold in its own way, in its own time; we have little say in the adventure. We only have power over what we learn from our story, what we decide to make of it. The difference between heaven and hell is simple: It's not what happens to us, it's not what other people do - it's what we choose to hold on to." (p. 306-7)

What the Amish Teach Us by Donald B. Kraybill

This is a small, short book that is packed with really interesting information. Donald Kraybill grew up in a Mennonite home, which is somewhat similar to the Amish but the Mennonites allow more technology in their lives (electricity, cars, etc.). In college he decided to study Amish culture and the question of how do the Amish who spurn modern-day technology and advances still thrive in such a modern, technological world. This book is a collection of what he's learned over the years studying the Amish and their world. These 22 areas highlight some of the Amish traditions and how in many ways they are ahead of their old-world time - for example creating rideshares long before Uber. The main theme of the book is how the Amish negotiate with modernity - they don't just out right spurn all new advances or technology - they look at how something will affect their community and decide what aspects of a new technology could help and what could hurt. I think this is definitely something missing in our non-Amish society. Whatever the newest thing is everyone just HAS TO HAVE IT with no thought about how it's affecting us - smartphones being the perfect example. I found the book to be very interesting and thought-provoking, but it's also so foreign to think about living not as an individual, but as a representation of your community. I will definitely be thinking about this one for awhile.

Some quotes I liked:

"For me, Amish ways disturb and disrupt. They disturb some assumptions that I take for granted. They disrupt my old habits, my predispositions, and my fixed understandings of how I think the world works. They certainly uproot my a priori assumptions about progress and prod me to question why I do what I do. In this sense, the Amish are silent social critics - offering a critique of modern culture that is intellectually provocative yet always practical." (p. x)

"It was just three words: bigness ruins everything. A cute throwaway quip? Not this one. It had intellectual depth and breadth. I never forgot it, and I soon came to realize that it's writ large across Amish life." (p. 23)

"Hackers exemplify how a culture of restraint, ironically, spurs innovation and invention." (p. 84) [Not hacking in the traditional computer sense, but rather figuring out ways to make things work within the confines of the Amish rules around technology]

"Nature, enthused one Amish person, is like a window into heaven." (p. 109)

Freedom Farmers: agricultural resistance and the black freedom movement by Monica M. White

Freedom Farmers explores the often overlooked or ignored history of black farmers and farming/food cooperatives that were formed in the time of the civil rights movement in order to help black families survive and thrive in the South. Monica White starts by showing how three influential black men started this agricultural freedom movement - Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Then she goes into the history of cooperative farming movements giving another three examples - Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative, North Bolivar County Farm Cooperative, and The Federation of Southern Cooperatives (the only one still in operation at the time of publication). The last chapter focuses on the history and current urban farming movement in Detroit, Michigan. The whole book shows the importance of food freedom. When you are not starving and have access to healthy, quality food you can then focus on other issues. The book also highlights some of the shameful historical parts of the South where white people worked overtime to keep black people "in their place." I was shocked to read about white, Southern government officials purposely stopping federal funding to some of these cooperative agencies - funding that was specifically for poverty issues. That's why books like this are important so we can see how those parts of history have shaped the way things are today. I will say my only complaint with this book was that the tone was very scholarly. It was not a super-easy read even though it's only 147 pages. I saw a few reviews that said they wished she had included more personal stories from people in the cooperatives and I would have liked that as well. I think more personal stories would have made it more readable as well. But, overall and important book about food and freedom.

Some quotes I liked:

"[George Washington Carver] was what today would be called a permaculturist, one who believes in the value of developing 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre, and energy for provision of local food needs.' Carver's work used sustainable products from organic, natural sources...In an era when few appreciated its significance, Carver waxed eloquent about composting..." (p. 46-47)

"One measure of the respect Carver's inventions gained in their day is that Henry Ford asked him to assist with the development of peanuts and soybeans to create fuel, paint, and plastics for the burgeoning automobile industry. Thomas Edison also offered Carver a six-figure salary to move to New Jersey to work in his labs. In a demonstration of his dedication to his work with black farmers, Carver refused, preferring to stay at Tuskegee." (p. 49)

"Down where we are, food is used as a political weapon. But if you have a pig in your backyard, if you have some vegetables in your garden, you can feed yourself and your family, and nobody can push you around. If we have something like some pigs and some gardens and a few things like that, even if we have no jobs, we can eat and we can look after our families. - Fannie Lou Hamer" (p. 65)

"While it is important to analyze the problems that ultimately led to the demise of the [Freedom Farm Cooperative] in 1975, we should not undervalue its successes. Given its time, scope, intention, and liberatory vision, as well as the fact that this vision was enacted within a pervasively oppressive and racially hostile environment, the movement - while relatively short lived - was a manifestation of self-reliance and the capacity of a community to come together for the provision of food, housing, shelter, education, health care, and employment. This radical experiment constituted an important chapter in the black freedom movement." (p. 87)

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi (Books & Banter book club)

Lakshmi escapes an abusive marriage and leaves her small, rural village for the larger city of Jaipur. In Jaipur Lakshmi works hard to establish a life for herself and creates a very successful henna business. Just at the point where she is finally building a house for herself and realizing her success her estranged husband tracks her down - and he's not alone, he brings her sister along. A sister she didn't know existed. Lakshmi's sister Radha completely upends her ordered life in Jaipur in several ways. Eventually a chain of events starts that ends Lakshmi's henna business, but opens a new opportunity for her as well. Set in India in the 1950's, this is a well-written story of a young Indian woman who decides to make her own way in a time and place where that just wasn't the norm.

This is not at all the type of book I would normally read, but it was highly recommended and one of my book clubs selected it. I will admit I was really enjoying it until Radha arrives. I'm not an expert on Indian culture in the 1950's, but her character did not seem to match someone with her history/background. She was incredibly selfish and ungrateful to her sister and was basically a spoiled brat. The ending also seemed pretty far fetched as well, but I was happy to see Lakshmi find a new business opportunity and possibly a new romantic opportunity as well. I did want to see what happened, but I wasn't as invested in the story once the sister showed up and derailed things. Overall, I mostly liked it, but it went in a direction I wasn't expecting and didn't love.