December 2024 Reviews

 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Evening Edition and Books & Banter book clubs)

In the 1850's Lexington was the country's fastest racehorse - breaking records with ease. After his racing career (cut short by both fading eyesight and the Civil War) he went on to become one of the most sought after breeding studs of the time. In Horse, Geraldine Brooks gives us a unique look at Lexington's career and legacy. Told from three different time periods and by several points of view - Kentucky 1850's by Jarret, an enslaved horse groomer and trainer and Thomas Scott, an animal artist who became known for his racehorse portraits, New York City 1954 - Martha Jackson a gallery owner known for her support of radical, new artists, and Washington, DC 2019 - Jess (no last name given) who works for the Smithsonian and Theo Northam an art history student working on his PhD. These three time periods and unlikely characters fill in the story of Lexington the horse - how he was born, trained, raced, painted, and lived through the tumultuous time of the Civil War in the South, as well as, his impact on modern day culture.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like a book all about a racehorse but I absolutely LOVED this book. I could have done without the relationship between Jess and Theo - and seriously there is SO MUCH info about ALL the other characters and I could NOT find Jess's last name written out anywhere. I also read several reviews that accused Brooks of having a "woke agenda" because of aspects of the Theo/Jess relationship and chapters. While I think those chapters and their relationship was heavy handed, I think Brooks included it to highlight both the differences and similarities between Jarret's experience as an enslaved Black person in the South around the time of the Civil War and Theo's experience as a Black American who grew up aboard but was now back in the US. I could totally see why she did that but the ending with Theo and Jess especially felt forced and over the top. But I LOVED Jarret and Lexington and their bond. As soon as I finished the first chapter from Jarret's perspective I was hooked. Overall, this is another winner (no pun intended) from Geraldine Brooks!

The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland (Books & Banter book club)

On December 26, 1811 the Richmond, Virginia theater catches fire and quickly goes up in flames. Over 100 people die and many are injured. Rachel Beanland takes this real life tragedy and imagines what the fire and the aftermath would have been like through four characters. Jack works for the theater company putting on that evening's play, Sally attends the theater with her sister-in-law and brother-in-law and barely escapes, Cecily is an enslaved woman who accompanies her master's daughter and ends up using the fire to fake her death and escape North, and Gilbert an enslaved man who helps rescue women jumping from the second floor of the burning theater. All four of these characters have extremely different situations but the fire affects them all deeply. In the Author's Note, Beanland explains that all these characters were real people (some names and circumstances were changed) which makes the story more interesting. Rather than focusing on the actual fire, the story is more about who people reacted and how this tragedy showed people's true colors - for better or worse.

I did not love this book. I could have DEFINITELY done without Cecily's first chapter where she recounts every horrific way her master's son has been molesting and raping her since childhood. I did like the four main characters and I liked how Beanland showed various sides of the tragedy from their different perspectives. I agree with some reviews I read that it was too long and too detailed. Some of the storylines could have been cleaned up a little without losing any important parts of the story. I also hate a book that doesn't have chapter numbers and the chapters (each by one of the main characters) were too short. I would have rather had fewer chapters with more info from each character. It started out being a good example of human nature and how fear/death/tragedy can show who someone really is but it got too bogged down in details and the ending was lacking too. Overall, if not for book club I wouldn't have gotten past chapter 2.

A quote I did like:

"These men have no consciences. Not Elliot, not Mr. Price, not Archie or Tom or any of the other men she encountered in the theater. They pay lip service to the idea of civility, while doing whatever they want at all times. Even Robert, whom she has missed so terribly these last three years, was not a perfect man. She likes to believe that, were he in the theater, he'd have stayed with her until the end, but how can she be sure, after everything she's witnessed?" (p. 283)

What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery

Originally a chapter in Montgomery's 2010 book, Birdology, this book is all about What the Chicken Knows - which is a lot more than people think. If you've never interacted with chickens you might think the stories in this book sound made up. Sy Montgomery shows us just how smart chickens are especially when you take the time to hang out with them. We got chickens last year and initially I did not want them because of our area having a lot of predators (hawks, owls, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, etc.) but my husband persisted and eventually I gave in. They have definitely grown on me more than I thought they would for many of the reasons Montgomery discusses in this short book - they definitely have personalities and are resourceful and fun to watch with the bonus of fresh eggs. If you don't know much about chickens this book is the perfect opportunity to learn something new.

Land of My Sojourn by Mike Cosper

Mike Cosper was one of the founding pastors of Sojourn church in Louisville, KY. What started as a dream church with a group of like-minded young pastors turned into a toxic situation that eventually fired Cosper via a reorganization chart (he was left off - that's how he found out he was fired). So, how did he get there? What would he do without vocational ministry that had been his entire career to that point? Add into the mix the huge division within many churches and Christians over the 2016 election and Donald Trump and you have a recipe for being in the wilderness. In this book Cosper correlates some of his Christian wilderness experiences with physical places that were important in Scripture and re-examines some of those places through a wilderness lens.

I agree with some reviews I read that while he was trying to not name names in relation to the issues at Sojourn, it sometimes felt like a lot of necessary information was left out. You did get the general gist and saw his struggles when his ministry and church turned against him. While I did like aspects of the book, it felt a little incomplete. But if you've ever been burned by a church, then you can definitely relate to the overall message here. I can't say it's amazing or that I would highly recommend it though.

Some quotes I liked:

"The persecution narrative merely justifies the militarization of the faith. It turns out that everyone wants to be a martyr, but no one wants to die. We want a revolutionary. We want a fighter. We want a Savior with a sword, not a cross. A pastor with a bully pulpit. A president who will shoot his enemies in the middle of Fifth Avenue." (p. 65)

"The harder question for me, though, is why was what I experienced as deception toward the entire staff not enough to make me leave?" (p. 75)

"I looked back at the seventeen years leading up to that season. We had such a profound sense of community and purpose that guided us. It felt like it would last forever...But slowly, then all at once, the spell had broken. I felt a tiredness and brokenness that I cannot, even years later, put into words." (p. 92-93)

"But when Russell [Moore] began to surface and highlight problems with sexual abuse in the SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] in 2018, I saw a groundswell rise against him - something I don't think I'll ever understand. In the years that followed, survivor advocates like Moore and Rachel Denhollander - the whistleblower in the USA Gymnastics sexual-abuse scandal and an attorney and advocate herself - were branded enemies of the church. Somehow sexual abuse became a kind of partisan issue, and the dividing lines happened to match those that separated Trump supporters and never-Trumpers in the SBC. (That doesn't seem coincidental, given the allegations surrounding Donald Trump.)" (p. 102)

The Hawk's Way by Sy Montgomery

This is the second chapter from Sy Montgomery's book Birdology that has been republished as it's own short book. I've always been fascinated by hawks and owls so I thought this would be an interesting book. I also love Montgomery's writing. But I didn't like this one much. While Hawk's are interesting and there are lots of hawk facts and photos in the book, the main focus is on falconry. I guess after reading about how wild and instinctual these birds are it just seems wrong to keep them in captivity for hunting. They could just be in the wild hunting for themselves. There was also a lot of weird commentary from Montgomery about her vegetarian reactions to the hawks hunting and training (using cut up frozen chicks). Like The Hummingbird's Gift and What the Chicken Knows it's a very quick read - like an hour or less. I still love watching hawks and other birds of prey but I didn't enjoy this book much.

One quote I liked:

[On thinking about taking up falconry] "My concern is this: Could I in good conscience take a bird out of the wild?" (p. 54)

Between Two Trailers by J. Dana Trent

Dana Trent grew up in an extremely dysfunctional home. Her parents, (known as Lady and King) who met while they were both working in a mental hospital, were both mentally ill (her father had schizoaffective disorder and her mother had a personality disorder with narcissism), enjoyed partaking in and selling illegal drugs, and lived in squalor and poverty. When Dana was six-years-old her mother left King and Indiana to go back to North Carolina where she was from. Dana feels pulled between her two parents and her two identities as King's daughter in Indiana and the Southern Belle her mother wants her to be in North Carolina. While Dana understood something wasn't right with her father, it was much harder for her to see how emotionally abusive her mother was and how dysfunctional their relationship was. In college Dana ends up becoming addicted to pills, alcohol, and food as a way to cope with the dysfunction in her life. She also ends up going to the Duke Divinity school because her older half-brother went to Duke and her mother REALLY wanted both of her children to have gone to Duke so she could feel rich and important. Only when she meets her future husband and gets engaged does she start to realize how dysfunctional she's become because of her dysfunctional family. She is really only able to untangle herself from her parents after they both die. Then she's able to reconcile her two halves.

Despite her mother having her in various therapies since she was a child, no one seemed to understand or talk to her about just how dysfunctional her situation was. Her mother also spent her entire life chasing a diagnosis she liked, while trying and quitting every type of therapy and treatment under the sun. It doesn't seem like Dana was even trying to break away from her mother until shortly before her death.

I liked the book in the vein of dysfunctional family memoirs. Some reviews compared it to Educated but it was definitely no Educated. I found it really odd that she just went along with this Divinity degree because her mother wanted her to go to Duke. She did grow up going to church, but never seemed like a true believer. There is obviously a difference between getting a Divinity degree and being a professor and being a minister or pastor. It's not super clear but in her bio it lists both as her career. Overall, it was a good book and I liked it. I do wish her path to recognizing and working on her own dysfunction was a little more detailed - that seemed kind of glossed over at the end. But it was a great story of someone who reconciled their past with their present and learned to accept and love their family for who they really were and not who she wished they had been.

Some quotes I liked:

"For the next few hours, Dr. Yancy administered a variety of tests...It was the kind of intensive analysis that would determine if Lady's hypothesis about me was right. 'You may just be a sociopath like your father,' she'd said. 'I'm seeing the signs' But Dr. Yancy disagreed. He met with the Lady to review his findings, which were decidedly healthy but reflective of my home life. Though Mom was confident I had a personality disorder, in his paperwork he declared me a youngster 'operating at a superior level of intellectual functioning,' but with 'post-traumatic stress disorder' and 'present emotional resources insufficient to cope with current stressors.' According to him, the only intelligence area I didn't excel in was process-oriented tenacity. 'Lazy!' the Lady said. 'That's it! I knew it. Just like your father...' She smiled because something had been found." (p. 104)

"I realize now that the real danger of my drug-trafficking childhood wasn't the weapons or the fight training or the drug business. It wasn't King's schizophrenic psychosis or the Lady's personality disorder. The real danger was denying what happened between two trailers. The real danger was in not accepting my parents for who they were, mental illness and addiction and poverty and all. The real danger was in not realizing that they were doing the very best the could with what they had. The real danger was in hiding it all. Maybe King was right: You can't fix crazy. Or better yet, maybe you don't need to." (p. 227)

Rift: a memoir of breaking away from Christian patriarchy by Cait West

Caitlin West grew up in a fundamental Christian home that subscribed to an extremely patriarchal theology where women were only meant to be wives and mothers and daughters were expected to be "stay-at-home-daughters" until being married off to a man of her fathers choosing. West's family attended several different churches and even started home churches when they couldn't find a local church extreme enough in its beliefs. West learns quickly that it's better to be quiet and compliant than face her father's wrath for doing something wrong. But in her early 20's she realizes that any man who approaches her father about "courting" her is scrutinized to the point where he finds something wrong and a reason to end it. She begins to realize that maybe that's the point - he doesn't want her to leave his household where only he has authority and control. Eventually Caitlin secretly falls in love and makes plans to marry outside her father's control. But getting married and finally escaping her father doesn't immediately fix everything. It's just the beginning of unraveling the years of spiritual abuse she suffered growing up and figuring out who she really is outside of that. This is a moving memoir of one woman's story of escaping an abusive (and in my opinion, blatantly incorrect theology) Christian patriarchal religion/cult.

Some quotes I liked:

p. 25 a list of ads appearing in Patriarch magazine from 2000 to 2002.

"The girls who were picked by husbands became women and moved away or became too busy to talk anymore. They became pregnant on their honeymoons. They never went to college. They didn't share the secrets of the marriage bed with the rest of us or tell us whether they were happy or whether they regretted it. We thought marriage must be like dying and going to heaven." (p. 63)

"My [homeschool high school] graduation didn't mean transitioning into adulthood, or the next chapter in my life, or the stepping stone to college. It meant nothing. It meant less than nothing. It meant staying at home but not having homework to complete. It meant being a 'helpmeet' to my father as practice for being a wife one day. I did not understand that turning eighteen meant I had a right to leave. I had never been taught that I had individual rights at all." (p. 78)

"It occurred to me that stories like Pride and Prejudice were appealing because they mirrored my life in a way that modern-day books couldn't. Like the female characters in Austen's books, I was a woman in her father's home, waiting for marriage, waiting for destiny. I had no money, no education, no prospects. There was little I could do to change my life." (p. 82)

"He would scold me every week after Will went home, berating me until I retreated to the bathroom to cry in the shower. My tears were just one more sign that I was emotionally compromised. My father was asking the impossible of me: to think about if I wanted to marry Will, without having any affection for him...I felt like he wanted me to be like stone, emotionless. And I started to think he was wrong to ask this of me. I began to wonder what else he was wrong about." (p. 113)

"The system of patriarchy thrives when we [women] hold each other back." (p. 172)

"Patriarchy thrives anywhere men are praised for their will to dominate - and Christian patriarchy blesses this pursuit of earthly power by imagining it's a heavenly duty. Like abuse, Christian patriarchy, at its core, is about power and control - at any cost." (p. 212)

The Movement: how women's liberation transformed America 1963 - 1973 by Clara Bingham

The Movement is an epic oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement in the US. Clara Bingham spent two and a half years interviewing eye witnesses to some of the historic events that took place in the decade from 1963 - 1973. For me this made the book. It's one thing to read about a historical event and quite another to hear the people who were actually THERE tell their experiences. This book covers a LOT of information from a LOT of people - there is a helpful "cast of characters" section at the end of the book with a brief description of each person. There are also several photos included in the middle of the book. As someone born in 1979, it's hard to imagine living in the world these women lived in before the feminist movement when it was legal to fire a woman for being pregnant or tell a woman to their face that you would never consider hiring a woman. For women in college or law school to be told "you're taking a man's place here." I think the word revolution is often thrown around casually, but this decade was a revolution. Minorities and women were sick of being second class citizens and were determined to make society change - and many of those changes are discussed in this book. It's not a super easy read (although the oral history style makes it more readable in my opinion) but it's a very important read. Younger women need to see how things were before the women's movement and how quickly things can go back if we're not careful. This was a great book to end 2024 on!

There were a LOT of quotes I liked:

"A. Philip Randolph, the leader of the march, accepted an invitation to speak before the National Press Club, which at the time excluded all women reporters...If they were covering something, they had to do it from the balcony. When these women protested to [civil rights leader] Bayard Rustin about Mr. Randolph's accepting this invitation, he said, 'What's wrong with the balcony?' And they said, 'What's wrong with the back of the bus?'" (p. 10) [The struggles of Black women in the Civil Rights movement was eye-opening and sad to me.]

[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 added the term 'sex' to prevent racial and gender discrimination in hiring] "Various women arose to speak for the amendment, and with each argument advanced, the men in the House laughed harder. When [Martha Griffiths] arose, I began by saying, 'I presume that if there had been any necessity to point out that women were a second-class sex, the laughter would have proved it,' There was no further laughter...[and that addition to the amendment passed]" (p. 22)

"When doctors first organized as a group and founded the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847, the male doctors surveyed the landscape of reproductive care workers and phased out the existing community of female midwives and ob-gyn nurses. Most male doctors at the time did not have much expertise in pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion, which had been left to the female sphere. The AMA then began the process of criminalizing abortion and standardizing medical education, which essentially cut women practitioners out." (footnote on p. 43)

"Like most urban hospitals, Chicago's Cook County hospital devoted an entire ward to women suffering from medical complications caused by illegal abortions. By the mid-sixties, the hospital treated one hundred women with abortion-related medical emergencies every week." (footnote on p. 43)

[Marilyn Webb was working on her PhD at the University of Chicago and needed professors for her dissertation committee. Every professor she asked assumed that she would sleep with them in exchange. So she quit her program and moved away.] "Encouraged by the #MeToo movement, Marilyn Webb wrote the president of the University of Chicago in 2017, told her story, and asked the university to remedy her past injustice. After rewriting her previously published book to fit a dissertation committee's requirements, Webb was awarded her PhD at age seventy-six and walked in the graduation ceremony with the class of 2019." (footnote on p. 68)

"Involuntary and coerced sterilization of Black, Latina, Native American, and poor women in government-funded hospitals and clinics were prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century and expanded in the 1960s. Laws allowing involuntary sterilization existed in thirty-one states and were even more draconian in the South...Between 1964 and 1966, 64 percent of the women sterilized in North Carolina were African American. In 1961, when Fannie Lou Hamer needed medical attention for a uterine cyst, she was given a hysterectomy at a Mississippi hospital without her consent. Hamer...later testified against Mississippi's sterilization law, calling the procedure a 'Mississippi appendectomy.'" footnote on p. 156)

p. 254-255 The FBI stole a member of NYC NOW's wallet to have a meeting and offer her $750 a month to spy on the NYC chapter of NOW.

"I think that Ms. was seen as mainstream by radical feminists and seen as radical by most other people. Ms. had a foot in both worlds." (p. 354)

"The ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] was not considered that revolutionary. Richard Nixon supported it, and it was in the Republican platform right up to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Then the counterrevolution, led by Phyllis Schlafly, very successfully defeated the ERA. We did not see it coming." (p. 379)

November 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Baking in the American South by Anne Byrn

This cookbook is all about Southern baking. After and introduction and chapter on the author's baking pantry staples, the book is divided into chapters about specific types of Southern baking. You can't go wrong in my opinion when the first chapter is all about cornbread and the second is all about biscuits! There are other chapters on quick breads, rolls and yeast-raised cakes, puddings, pies, cakes, cookies, and frostings. Each chapter includes an introduction to that type of baked good and throughout the chapter there are other notes and tips. I was REALLY impressed with how thorough this cookbook is. Anne Byrn really did her homework here and showcases LOTS of classic recipes and variations in each chapter. There were lots of recipes I'd like to try and this is one I would consider purchasing because there is just so much great information and recipes here.

Salty Cheesy Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes by Jessie Sheehan

I was looking forward to this one because I love all things savory and cheesy. Sheehan organizes the recipes by type - muffins, breads, savory cookies and crackers, etc. There is also a chapter at the end called "the essential savory hacks" with tips for savory staple ingredients (dough, caramelized onions, etc.). While I love a good savory baked good, I guess I originally misread the title and thought it would include other savory snacks like dips, cheeseballs, etc. There were a few recipes I'd like to try but I was a little disappointed with this one.

Meateater's Wild & Whole by Danielle Prewett

When Danielle Prewett was in college her boyfriend, now husband, was a hunter and she started learning to cook wild game. Then she moved into hunting herself and started a blog about her wild game cooking that became this book. I really like that she has a few chapters in the beginning about eating consciously and how to source quality food several ways - local farmers/pastured animals, gardening, hunting, foraging, etc. This is REALLY good information. And while I'm a huge proponent of sourcing ethically raised, local meat, I haven't personally gotten into hunting or cooking much wild game. So this is not a cookbook for everyone, but I think it looks like a really good cookbook and I very much appreciate the author's personal food journey and highlighting the importance of sourcing good quality meat.

Southern Get Togethers by Kelsey Barnard Clark

I liked Clark's previous cookbook, Southern Grit, better than this one. I did know by the subtitle, "a guide to hosting unforgettable gatherings," that it was focused on entertaining but I still thought it would be more recipes that entertaining. There were a few recipes I'd like to try but the book was organized by type of entertaining event with menus. I don't have enough friends to have a fraction of the gatherings she has covered in this book. If entertaining is your jam, then this is the book for you. If you just love Southern food, check out her previous cookbook.

November 2024 Reviews

 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Books & Banter book club)

Martha Ballard is a midwife in Hallowell, Maine in 1789. On the way home from a birth, she is called to determine the cause of death of a man found frozen in the river. The man is Joshua Burgess and it's obvious he's been murdered and dumped in the river. Burgess is one of two men accused of rape earlier in the year. When a new resident of Hallowell, a Harvard educated doctor, contradicts Martha's cause of death, she is determined to find out what really happened. What ensues uncovers lots of small town drama and gossip, a plot by another resident to cheat people out of their properties, and a little vigilante justice.

This story definitely drew me in from the very beginning. Martha's role as midwife means she knows a LOT about the people in her town and she also has a little more freedom than the average woman. Her adversarial relationship with the new Harvard doctor highlights the beginning of the medicalization of childbirth and downplaying the role of midwives and their herbal remedies in the care of women. I also loved her husband, Ephraim, and their marriage and family life. I also felt like the rape case highlighted that some things don't always get better with history - a lot of the issues brought up in this story are still issues today. Although, today we do have DNA technology which helps, at least when rape kits are actually tested.

There were a few things I didn't love. 1) I hate a book with no chapter numbers. This one was divided in to sections so that did help. 2) Martha's character was overly modern for her time period. Her ideas were very current-day and ultra-modern especially for that time. I think in this book Martha's modern ideas were a little overdone. 3) There was a LOT going on in this book. Beside the main storyline, there were several rabbit trail storylines that at least some could have been cut out for length and just to have a few less characters to keep up with. 4) As the book went on, the storyline got more and more dramatic. It would have been just as powerful of a story without all the extra, over-the-top drama. 5) Finally, the end. Really. I won't give anything away but the ending was very over-the-top and would have NEVER happened. She also just drops one of the other storylines that had been a major part of the book and you get no answer on one major plotline.

Overall, I did like it. I wish it hadn't been as long and detailed and the author had reigned in some of the over-the-top drama. But I know my book club is going to LOVE it. I'll also note that in the Author's Note at the end of the book Lawhon gives a lot of historical information about the real Martha Ballard that the book is based on and that is really interesting to see how much of what was in the book was based on a real woman's life.

A quote I really liked:

"Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. That, I believe, is why so few women are taught to read and write. God only knows what they would do with the power of pen and ink at their disposal." (p. 39)

The Fury by Alex Michaelides (Evening Edition book club)

Lana Farrar is a reclusive movie star who takes a trip to her private Greek island with her husband, son, housekeeper, and two long-time friends. But at the end of the trip, Lana ends up dead. How and why is explained by Elliot Chase. The Fury comes across as an amalgamation of Agatha Christie, The Guest List, The Woman in the Window, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. But for me it fell flat. Elliot's character is an annoying narrator who speaks directly to the reader (which I don't like). I suspected him immediately, but like The Silent Patient we had to take several VERY odd turns to get to the weird point/finale. I did NOT like The Silent Patient at all, so I didn't have high hopes for this one. It wasn't a terrible read, but just way too many weird turns in the storyline that were just too over the top. I'll be curious to see what my book club thinks of this one.

Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver

Just when you thought you knew how evil Tyson Foods is, you read this book and find out even more reasons to hate them. Alice Driver spent four years interviewing current and former employees of Tyson meatpacking plants, specifically about the impact of COVID on these workers. You probably heard about high COVID rates in meatpacking plants during peak-COVID, and you probably also heard about the Trump administration's executive order to keep meatpacking plants open in spite of any state-level COVID restrictions. What you didn't hear about in the media was for the workers Driver interviewed, many of them had been working in a Tyson plant in 2011 when there was a chemical spill. That spill caused a lot of health issues for the workers most directly exposed, in particular lung issues. So when COVID came around, a lot of these workers who already had compromised health from the chemical spill almost immediately began dying of COVID. And Tyson, like any monopoly dependent on low-paid workers, first tried to ignore COVID, then later decided that every employee would be required to be vaccinated against the illness they had told their employees didn't exist. Many of the employees at these meatpacking plants are immigrants (some legal, some not) and many either don't speak much English and/or are illiterate. Tyson definitely preys on this demographic and preys on the fear of these workers to get them to comply and work in horrible conditions even before COVID came around. The book also covers a class action lawsuit that was brought against a specific plant in Arkansas - unfortunately, the case ends up being dismissed which was a downer of a way to end an already hard book. While this is not an easy read, it's an important read. THIS is the real cost of food. Anyone who buys chicken at the grocery store should be required to read this book. Is Tyson who you want to give your hard-earned money to? My suggestion is to find yourself a local farmer who's doing things on a smaller scale to support.

Some quotes that outraged me:

"Similarly, in addition to employing undocumented workers, Tyson also exploits vulnerable prison populations. For example, some nonviolent criminals facing jail time in Oklahoma are offered an alternative to prison...those who know the programs call them 'the Chicken Farm' as they require people to work at Tyson or other meatpacking companies, where they are paid little or nothing." (p. 13-14) [Maybe this could be a better deterrent than jail time]

"[Tyson] was at a loss for years about what to do with the gizzards since customers weren't fond of them. In the early 1990s, Tyson began to sell gizzard patties to prisons. Don Tyson, the company's chairman at the time, described imprisoned people as a 'captive market' for gizzard burgers." (p. 23) [Another deterrent for jail time]

"On March 3, 2020, Carlos Lynn, thirty-nine, was sanitizing a fifty-foot chicken chiller at a Tyson plant in Baker Hill, Alabama. Lynn, a Black man from Alabama, worked for Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., which paid formerly incarcerated men like him $12-$15/house to do dangerous sanitation work. [While cleaning, the machine was accidentally turned on decapitating Lynn.]...The following day...the plant required all workers to sign a legal document stating that they understood the risks of sanitizing the chicken chiller, and, if they were decapitated, they accepted responsibility for such an accident since they had been warned of the risk beforehand." (p. 29-30)

"'All the waste from the debone area, the skeleton, the skin, the neck, the hip bone - all of that is ground up to make nuggets which have almost no meat in them,' [Victor] said. Nuggets, a product Tyson created for McDonald's, helped transform Tyson from a small-town business into a global empire. The nugget recipe involved forty-pound frozen blocks of chicken parts: three blocks of chicken breast; two of ground skeleton mixed with blood, necks, and other bits; and one of chicken skin and fat." (p. 41) [Doesn't that sound appetizing...]

"In the 1970s, when more women were entering the workforce, and fast-food empires were growing, Don [Tyson] saw an opportunity to sell packaged chicken products. Under his watch, Tyson Foods invented McDonald's Chicken Nuggets and the Burger King chicken sandwich, among thousands of other prepared food items. At that time, chicken was unpopular, so the company had to convince restaurant chains that it could be packaged as a healthier option than hamburgers." (p. 47)

"In 2021, in OSHA needed to inspect all of the meatpacking facilities in the US, it would take them 165 years. And the average fine for a potentially life-threatening hazard that year was $3,700. It was cheaper to pay the occasional fine than to keep machinery, chemicals, and labor conditions safe for workers." (p. 53)

"He mentioned a program Tyson had recently launched called Helping Hands, which encouraged workers to donate part of their paycheck to help other Tyson workers affected by COVID...'It's as if they are making fun of us,' he added, noting that a company that makes billions of dollars should not ask workers to contribute to covering the cost of COVID infections." (p. 118)

"During the pandemic, Arkansas prisons and Tyson facilities shared a unique distinction - they were the sites with the most significant coronavirus outbreaks in the country...Despite the rapid spread of the virus and CDC recommendations, prisons and Tyson facilities lobbied to keep workers in the fields and in the factories. Tyson operates in four states that allow prisoners to be forced to labor without compensation: Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. Tyson employs prisoners via work release programs that place prisoners at various companies." (p. 184)

"While waiting for robotics to catch up with industry needs, Tyson Foods began to diversify, investing in meat products that were less labor intensive. In 2016 and 2017, Tyson Foods invested $34 million in the plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat. In 2022, Tyson announced that it would contribute to a $400 million investment in Upside Foods, a lab-grown meat company. Although many assumed that meatpacking companies would see lab-grown meat as a threat, the same profitable subsidies underpinning the meatpacking industry are flowing into lab-grown meat. The tech industry is selling lab-grown meat as if it were revolutionary, but it is simply an extension of the status quo in which the US continues to subsidize cheap and plentiful meat. Lab-grown meat is also a proprietary product, once again placing the food system in the hands of a few companies." (p. 204)

Long Haul: hunting the highway serial killers by Frank Figliuzzi

In 2004 a crime analyst with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation noticed a pattern of murders taking place along Oklahoma highways. She reached out to the FBI for help and eventually the Highway Serial Killer Initiative (HSK) was created to track both murder victims and serial killers who are using the nation's highways to find and dump victims. Most of these highway murders that have been solved are linked to long haul truck drivers. So, why are there so many truck driver serial killers? Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence with the FBI, sets out to try to answer that question in this book. Figliuzzi looks at both the victims and the perpetrators and what leads both to do what they do.

I was already familiar with HSK thanks to The Killing Season docu-series. Figliuzzi spends time with both a truck driver (riding along with him for a week) and people who are working to help women escape prostitution/human trafficking. While I liked his approach, the book was kind of unorganized and he would often segue into other related stories to the detriment of the initial story in a chapter. It seemed like his focus was much more on current trucking and why that job/life would or wouldn't encourage serial killers. There was not much at all about HSK or much about any of the serial killers caught. I agree with some other reviews that the subtitle (hunting the highway serial killers) is not really what the book is actually about. Overall, I did learn a few things but it wasn't amazing. I learned a lot more about the proliferation of serial killers by watching The Killing Season docu-series.

Figliuzzi did have some good suggestions/ideas in the epilogue - 1) human trafficking education should be a mandatory part of getting a CDL (commercial drivers license), 2) better health care and specifically mental health care for truckers, and 3) better pay and better vetting and hiring of truckers. I thought all those suggestions were very good and would be beneficial overall.

The Chair and the Valley: a memoir of trauma, healing, and the outdoors by Banning Lyon

When Banning Lyon was fifteen he was put into a psychiatric hospital for depression. It was supposed to be for two weeks and ended up being almost a year. The worst part? Banning wasn't clinically depressed or suicidal until AFTER being held in the hospital for a year. Prior to his hospitalization, he was somewhat depressed because he was dealing with the aftermath of his parents very messy divorce. Neither parent seemed to want him and the hospital seemed as good a place as any. If anything I think his mother could have benefited from some psychiatric care - which she never got. A few years after getting out of the hospital, Banning finds out there is a lawsuit with former patients suing the hospital - it was an insurance scam with doctors taking kickbacks for admitting patients who stayed until their insurance coverage ran out. Even after winning the lawsuit, Banning is struggling. Struggling to fit in, struggling with direction in his life, struggling with trusting people and abandonment issues. Eventually after a few more major crises he starts to reconnect with his Dad and also nature. His fondest memories were with his Dad exploring, hiking, and just being outside. Banning eventually starts working as a guide in Yosemite National Park and later working for REI's Outdoor Skills program. This reconnection with nature as a way for healing for himself and also to connect with people again is really what saves Banning's life. Similar to the Netflix series "The Program" this is an eye-opening look at a dark part of our culture that specifically targets teens. Banning is an amazing example of resilience and the power of both the human spirit and nature's healing ability.

*As a side note. Both his parents seemed AWFUL but wow his Mom was something else. I truly think she had some kind of undiagnosed mental illness.

Some quotes I liked:

"I'd been confined to my chair for weeks because I'd forgotten to close the door to my room. After I remembered to close my door, she said I had to keep sitting chair because I'd gotten test marks for slouching or laughing. Then, when I finally started cooperating, she said I was being too compliant and wasn't taking therapy seriously. None of it made any sense. Dr. Fisher said I was depressed, but she made me sit in a chair in the hallway. She said I had a hard time making friends, but she said I couldn't hug anyone or have any private conversations. Staff told us to share our feelings, but they tied kids to beds for raising their voices or getting upset. How was I supposed to take therapy seriously when it looked and felt like abuse?" (p. 53)

"...I came to understand why I'd been sent to Cassidy Place. The outside world wasn't my home anymore. I had been sent away to live with others like me, kids who lived in a strange land on the outskirts of the real world, like the Island of Misfit Toys. We had schools and jobs, but no home. We had no family, but we had one another. The halfway house wasn't meant to reintroduce us to the real world. It was designed to introduce us to a new one." (p. 98-99)

October 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Bravetart: iconic American desserts by Stella Parks

I can't remember now how I heard about this cookbook but it seemed really interesting. While there were a few recipes I want to try, a lot of the recipes had tedious amounts of work or odd ingredients. It didn't seem like it was really geared for the home baker, or at least a more advanced home baker. If you want to try to make your own at-home versions of popular snack cakes, cookies, or candy bars then this is definitely the cookbook for you. While I'm all about making things from scratch, sometimes it's OK to just buy a candy bar.

Spend With Pennies Everyday Comfort by Holly Nilsson

Holly Nilsson started her blog, Spend with Pennies, as a way to share her love of cooking with the world. Good, homemade food doesn't have to involve tons of ingredients or rare spices to be good. In this cookbook, Everyday Comfort she shares budget conscious meals that will satisfy your family. There were LOTS of recipes I'd like to try and this is one I might consider buying because there were just SO MANY recipes that looked simple, yet really good. The recipes are divided into several categories like weeknight meals, pasta, sheet pan dinners, etc. and I really liked that she had a separate chapter for recipes with ground beef, and one for chicken. Overall, I was really impressed with this cookbook. This is one I would definitely recommend.

October 2024 Reviews

 At the very beginning of October I REALLY hurt my back - like bedridden, going to the ER, missed 3 weeks of work level hurt. So, I only got 1 book read and that was after I was well enough to go back to work. 

That Librarian: the fight against book banning in America by Amanda Jones

Being a public librarian, I had heard about Amanda Jones and other public and school librarians who were being personally targeted for standing against censorship in libraries. I was excited to read this book and find out more about her story. Her story is pretty crazy in that she was targeted for something she did completely outside her job. She is a school librarian and went and spoke at a public library board meeting when she found out the "book content" was on the agenda. Her speech was not inflammatory in the least, yet the next day she found herself the target of vicious online attacks. After initially being shaken up and crying for an entire weekend, she started to get mad and decided to sue the main two people behind the attack campaign for slander. At the end of the book her case is still pending appeal.

While the description of the book is "part memoir, part manifesto," I could have done with a little less manifesto. I very much enjoyed the first few chapters even while I was enraged with her for what was happening. Then the book started to get pretty repetitive - LOTS of small town drama with local politicians and people who jumped on the bandwagon of defaming her, LOTS of repetition about how important it is for White, straight people to stand up for marginalized communities, and LOTS of repetition about how much this impacted her physical and mental health. I don't want to demean her story AT ALL but there was just a lot of repetition to the point I started skimming those sections.

Let me be 100% clear - as a librarian intellectual freedom is a hill I'm willing to die on. Even if I vehemently disagree with the content, I stand behind public libraries offering any and all viewpoints. If there is something I see that I don't want to read, I don't read it. I don't try to force other people to not read it though. There is definitely a huge rise in book challenges in both school and public libraries and online campaigns have a lot to do with it. This is something EVERYONE should be concerned about. As Jones says, if you have questions about book policies any librarian would be willing to explain their library policies with you. And if you hear about a "concerning" book - check it out from your local library and READ IT before you challenge it or post about it's dangers. While I didn't love every page of this book, it's still an important read. Amanda Jones is a hero and she is standing up to ignorance and censorship.

Some quotes I liked:

"At a recent Livingston Parish Public Library Board of Control meeting in my community, a board member suggested that we should not allow anyone under the age of eighteen in the library without a parent in case they go into the adult system...John Chrastka of EveryLibrary...pointed out that in Louisiana sixteen-year-olds can get married. I hadn't even thought of that. Sixteen-year-olds cna also have jobs. Wanting to ban a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old from entering the library without an adult when they can work and get married at that age is perverse to me." (p. 42-43)

"In 2022, the Office for Intellectual Freedom received a record 1,269 book challenges, the highest number of demands to ban books reported to ALA since the association began compiling data about censorship in libraries." (p. 46)

"When speaking about Utah, Peter Bromberg told Utah's KSL News-Radio, 'It's not school libraries that parents need to be concerned about. It's their phones. If we're really concerned about the deleterious effects of pornography on children's brains, that's where we should be focusing. Not on books or literature.'" (p. 52)

September 2024 Cookbook Reviews

 

Homemade-ish by Lauren McDuffie

I'm a big proponent of making things from scratch - it's often not as time consuming as you think and usually tastes better and is cheaper. That said, sometimes you don't have the time to make something from scratch but still want to eat well. So, I thought this cookbook might have some good recipes to check out. I liked that in the introduction she talks about her food philosophy being in "the middle" between everything from scratch and just buying takeout to eat. I also liked that she made sure all the recipes are made with ingredients that aren't hard to source and without lots of fancy kitchen appliances. But, I personally wasn't impressed with the recipes. There really wasn't much that looked good or that I wanted to try. I do agree with her food philosophy and I wish there were a few recipes I wanted to try. I wouldn't recommend this one.

The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple by Jenny Rosenstrach

I always liked Jenny Rosenstrach's blog, Dinner, a Love Story and have read two of her other cookbooks. I didn't realize that she had decided to be a "weekday vegetarian" but decided to still check out this cookbook. I'm definitely NOT a vegetarian but I do love vegetables and finding more vegetable forward meals isn't a bad thing. There were a few recipes I want to try but overall I felt like the majority of the recipes in here weren't enough food or protein to be the main course.

September 2024 Reviews

 

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (Books & Banter book club)

Tan Yunxian was born into an elite family of scholars. Her paternal grandparents are both doctors which was rare in that they worked together and that her grandmother was also a doctor from a family of generations of doctors. When Yunxian's mother dies when she is eight-years-old she goes to live with her grandparents because of her father's work travel. Her grandmother recognizes her sharp mind and starts to train her as a doctor. But when she is married off at fifteen, her mother-in-law forbids her to continue her training and also forbids her friendship with Meiling, the daughter of a local midwife. Yunxian's transition into her husband's family home is turbulent, yet Yunxian perseveres and is eventually able to resume her medical studies and even practice on the women in her husband's extended family. Based on a real female doctor in China during the 15th and 16th centuries, Lady Tan's Circle of Women imagines this trailblazer's story.

This is the fourth Lisa See book that I've read and I did not like it at all. If not for my book club reading it I would have quit. The writing was good and she obviously did a TON of research and while Tan Yunxian's story is amazing, the book was so overly detailed and there were SO MANY tangential characters that it bogged the whole book down. There was violence in all the books by See that I've read, but there was just SO MUCH graphic medical stuff in this book that I could have done without - the eunuchs and tapeworm especially. But there was also a LOT of detail about clothing, ceremonies, medical remedies, etc. I also hate in historical fiction books when so much of the storyline is about the petty dramas and backbiting of women - not to say it wasn't true but does it have to be so much of the focus. Especially when the title suggests that Yunxian will have a "circle of women" around her helping/supporting her. Also, for some reason in this book the focus on footbinding just made me angry. It was patriarchal torture that was framed as bettering the woman and a physical manifestation of class. And in this book she talked about another sexual component of it that was even more disgusting. I was hoping that the "woman doctor" would see how destructive the footbinding culture was and try to end it but that wasn't the case. It was also odd how often Yunxian referred to people with "big feet." This whole book's focus on footbinding just made me angry. Overall, I did like the character of Yunxian (less so when she insisted on purchasing concubines for her husband) but did not care for this book. I'll be curious to see what my book club members think of this one.

A Call to Farms by Jennifer Grayson

The average age of a farmer in the US is 58 and rising. While the cost of farmland (and housing in general) has skyrocketed. This situation makes it hard for older farmers to get out and young people interested in farming to get in. In A Call to Farms Jennifer Grayson looks at several different small farms that are finding ways to grow food and create business ventures for young farmers. While she doesn't directly address the issue of how current farmers could partner with young, hopeful farmers to preserve farm land, this book explores several very unique farms that show what you can do on a smaller property and/or with a unique business idea. She tends to throw in personal opinions quite a bit but it's not so much that it gets in the way of the farm stories. A few times she's a little disparaging to farmers who either "ghosted" her or canceled at the last minute. But it's not clear did they have a genuine emergency or were too busy to fit in an interview or if she jumped the gun by flying across the country too quickly. Other than that she does showcase some unique situations and I like her overall message that many smaller farms could definitely replace our current monoculture "go big or go home" agriculture. She also does a good job of highlighting more diverse farmers - women, people of color, and even an indigenous tribe working to grow food for their tribal community. These people are often left out of the current monoculture/big ag as well. Overall I liked it and I really liked the focus on smaller, regenerative farming as being the solution to our food systems failures.

Some quotes I liked:

"What we have right now is a precious spark of enthusiasm for reclaiming gardening wisdom. The National Gardening Association reported that more than 18.3 million Americans started gardening in 2021 alone. 'There's a huge resurgence of people who are really excited to provide for their needs and to feel empowered,' Natalie [Bogwalker of Wild Abundance] said. 'People are starving for it, and for good reason. I think COVID really allowed for that to blossom.' In other words, the pandemic was a collective initiatory experience - one that prompted so many of us to consider alternative paths for our very precious lives." (p. 53)

"What's also seldom noted is what really led to the rationing and food shortages that prompted the US government to propagandize World War II's Victory Gardens: the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, who until that moment constituted two-thirds of the West Coast's farmers (growing 40 percent of California's vegetables alone). This chapter in our nation's history was shameful even before the evidence emerged that internment was orchestrated by the US government as an agricultural land grab for corporate agribusiness. Victory Gardens were the decoy." (footnote on p. 54)

"But there was a more insidious reason it was easy to find farmland to rent in Connecticut, a state with some of the highest property taxes in the country. '[Property owners] want a tax break,' said Jonathan [Kirschner of Ambler Farm], glossing over a fact understood by every farmer and wealthy investor but unperceived by a general public that has romanticized the profession of farming: Farmland owners are privy not only to numerous tax exemptions and deductions but also a sizeable property tax discount in most states. In Connecticut, $15,000 in farm sales or expenses wins you a property tax abatement of up to 50 percent. Not surprisingly, Jonathan had recently been approached by folks in town who wanted their land farmed, with no lease payment necessary." (p. 73)

"If you, too, are an introvert, I think it's important to know: Yes, humans evolved for social connectivity; yes, many ancestral societies farmed communally, and that model has tremendous potential in the modern agricultural world. But if you're drawn to the happy hermit path of regenerative farming, Alex and Yoko [of Assawaga Farm] are a great example of how to be successful." (footnote on p. 103)

[On intentional farming communities that sound amazing but are VERY pricey] "Serenbe (i.e., the Nygren family) owns the land. The farm manager may be well compensated, but it's a hired position, one that changed hands several times even before I arrived. The farm's interns receive a $1,000 monthly stipend and free housing, but I'm guessing when their internship is over they won't stay in a community where a one-bedroom condo lists for $500,000 and most houses are over $1 million. Even Serenbe's farm animals, I realized, are superficial, reserved for a petting zoo while the farm grows only vegetables. This despite the fact that livestock integration would not only build soil but also a more diversified local diet for residents who, when I was there, shopped for meat, dairy, and staples at chain supermarkets in the outside suburbs...But as with Serenbe, the Kiawah River agrihood - replete with twenty miles of waterfront, an on-site Auberge hotel, and $1 million to $6 million homes - is likely not within the reach of most farmers." (p. 166-67)

While You Were Out: an intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence by Meg Kissinger

Meg Kissinger is the 4th of 8 children growing up outside Chicago, IL during the 1960s. While her family looked like the ideal family from the outside - living in a huge house, members of a country club, vacations, etc. on the inside they were struggling. Meg's mother suffered from severe depression and anxiety and her father had wild mood swings and would later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As her older siblings headed toward adulthood they also started exhibiting signs of mental illness. She would lose two siblings to suicide in a time when these kind of things weren't talked about and were a source of shame for the family. Each family member dealt with things in their own way and they NEVER talked about it all together. Meg's way of dealing was to become an investigative reporter who researched and wrote a lot about mental illness, including a few personal stories as well. Only later, after both of their parents had died, did Meg finally start seeing a therapist to deal with all the family trauma. Once she did she knew she had to write a much more personal story - this book.

This book reminded me a lot of Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. Both were large, Catholic families in a time when mental illness or any weakness was NOT discussed publicly. In both cases the parents were also mentally ill as well although again not fully known the extent by the children until after the parents were gone. I did think the siblings in Meg's family had better relationships. Maybe because it was 5 girls and 3 boys instead of 8 boys and 2 girls. There was chaos in Meg's home growing up but not the level of violence as in the Hidden Valley Road home. It was just the perfect storm of the time period, the Catholic, huge families, and mental illness in both cases. Meg does an incredible job of telling her family's story and including all her remaining siblings' versions as well. This is a heart-breaking story of how mental illness impacted the Kissinger family.

Some quotes I liked:

[When Jake visited his college counseling center because he was depressed and struggling] "Jake told the man how lonely he felt and how sluggish he'd become, how he'd toss and turn all night long. He was scared and frustrated as he began to fail one class after another. The counselor's solution? Join a fraternity. Get drunk. Have more fun. Jake didn't know how to have fun, and nothing he was trying was working." (p. 83)

[After their sister Nancy committed suicide they were worried the Catholic church wouldn't perform her funeral since she committed suicide. They did, then this happened.] "Just as the gathering was about to end, a busload of nuns from our high school showed up to say the rosary. One old nun, who taught us math, pulled Mary Kay aside, pointed at Nancy's casket, and whispered, She's going to hell you know." (p. 113)

[When Meg wrote a story for her newspaper about Nancy's suicide and the impact on her.] "I was terrified to go into the newsroom the day after the story ran, afraid everyone would be staring at me. Her sister jumped in front of a train! The elevator doors opened, and I slinked to my desk, trying to avoid eye contact. That was some story, said the medical reporter whose desk was next to mine. Good for you. Colleagues I had never really talked to before stopped by my desk to hug me and to thank me for sharing my story. A quiet man on the copy desk told me his son died like that, too." (p. 156)

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Evening Edition - but read early)

Tova Sullivan started working the night shift at the aquarium after her husband died. Keeping busy always helped her cope and she's had more than her share of bad things to cope with including losing her 18-year-old son Erik, her husband's recent death, and estrangement from her brother. But at the aquarium she can be alone and clean and not think about her son and husband. She develops a relationship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus after he escapes his tank and she helps untangle him from cords and get back to his tank. Marcellus is a Remarkably Bright Creature and can read the humans around him very well. He recognizes Tova's sadness and eventually helps her uncover the secrets around her son's death.

This storyline seems pretty implausible and it definitely is. I loved Marcellus's character - he definitely gave off Sad Cat Diary vibes in his "updates." Octopuses ARE Remarkably Bright Creatures but could one figure out the stuff Marcellus figures out about the humans around him? Doubtful. I did love his ending which I did not see coming. All the main characters are a little Island of Misfit Toys-esque and some like Tova and Ethan are very likable. But Cameron was pretty insufferable. I kept forgetting that he was a 30-year-old man and not an angsty teenager. A review I read said that the plot was pretty predictable but it took way too long to get there and I definitely agree. I also felt like the overall tone of the book was sad and depressing until close to the very end. I didn't hate it but I definitely didn't love it.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Books & Banter book club)

Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole into Wonderland where nothing is as it appears. Alice grows and shrinks by eating or drinking concoctions or sides of a mushroom. She gets advice from a 3-inch-tall smoking caterpillar and a disappearing Cheshire cat. She almost drowns in her own tears and tries to play croquet with flamingos for mallets and hedgehogs for balls with the King and Queen of Hearts. She attends a never ending tea party with a Mad Hatter, March Hare, and sleeping dormouse. All the while wondering how she'll ever get back home. And she does get back home when she wakes up and realizes Wonderland was all a curious dream.

I haven't read this since I was an older child/young teenager. For whatever reason I just LOVED this book and the follow up Through the Looking Glass. While it didn't have quite the same appeal as an adult, the story is definitely unique, creative, and entertaining. It's also much shorter than I remembered. I basically read it in a two sittings. I think for the time period this was written (1865) it was probably pretty ground breaking and it's still entertaining kids and adults today.

Favorite Cheshire Cat quotes:

"'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where-' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '-so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation. 'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'" (p. 49)

"'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 'Oh, you ca'n't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'" (p. 49)