Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? by Tina Cassidy

Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy is a non-fiction book in which the subtitle is the entire description of the book. 

I've read Tina Cassidy before. Remember when I read Birth and it became my personality for a long time? Well, I'm publishing this on Thanksgiving Day because I am so grateful for Alice Paul and all she did for women in this country. I don't think there's been a conversation I've had in the last week that didn't start with "In the Alice Paul book..."

Where to start? Alice Paul was a Quaker. She was in England and heard Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst speak and became radicalized into the suffragette cause in England. During some protests and marches in England Paul was beaten by police and was arrested. She learned tactics of civil disobedience from the Pankhursts, including demanding to be treated as a political prisoner upon arrest, going on hunger strikes, and refusing to put on prisoner's clothing. Paul was force fed in a prison during this time and it led to lifelong health issues.

When Paul returned back to the United States, she became an active member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) who were pursuing a state by state strategy of obtaining the vote for women. She and Lucy Burns wanted a national amendment and the NAWSA folks did not like this. Paul eventually had to splinter off into her own group. 

Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson was born on a plantation and came of age during the Civil War and Reconstruction. He was racist and sexist. He earned a doctorate in political science (fun fact: Wilson is the only political scientist who went on to become president). He taught for a bit, particularly at Princeton where he denied Paul admission based on her sex. Then he was governor of New Jersey before he was elected as the 28th President of these United States.

When I was in middle or high school, I wrote a paper on Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, Woodrow Wilson's second wife. Wilson's first wife died while he was in the White House and he met Edith and married her before his first term was up. Men really move on quickly when their wives die, don't they? Anyway, I wrote this paper on her because she basically ran the White House when Wilson had a stroke and I thought their love story was swoony romantic when I was a tween/teen, but listening to this audiobook made me think her internalized misogyny and her adoration of Woodrow was the opposite of swoony romantic. 

This book walks you through Wilson and Paul butting heads. Wilson comes off like a jackass and Paul comes off like a bit of a cold fish, but eventually the 20th Amendment was passed and women could vote in the 1920 election. Suck it, NAWSA. Your strategy didn't work.

Look, this book made me feel so much better about our own world. There are leaders out there. And they can lead to real change in the world. Maybe I wouldn't want to have had dinner with Alice Paul, but I am definitely happy that she was around when she was. 5/5 stars

Things I looked up:

Wilson had the first press conference while president 

1913 Suffrage Procession sounds amazing 

The modern State of the Union began with Wilson - he delivered his before a joint session of Congress - before this, it had been a written report

The planting of cherry trees in Washington DC originated in 1912 as a gift of friendship to the People of the United States from the People of Japan.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

waving their hats, sticks, and handkerchiefs provocatively (Chapter 1)

wearing glasses and a hat  (Chapter 1)

plucked his hat from his head and pelted him with it (Chapter 1)

broad straw hats (Chapter 1)

"You know, no lady goes out without having a hat and a coat and gloves and so on." (Chapter 2) 

beaver tricorn hat (Chapter 2)

hat tipping hand gestures (Chapter 5)

silk top hat (Chapter 5)

dandy hat (Chapter 5)

Paul wore her hat and coat indoors (Chapter 5)

use their hat pins in self-defense (Chapter 6) - I listened to the audio, so I don't know if this was written as hatpins or hat pins

held hats across their hearts (Chapter 6)

high hats from the military, Congress, and several churches (Chapter 6)

pulled on a hat (Chapter 7)

fancy hats decorated with black, white, and iridescent feathers (Chapter 9)

coats, hats, and gloves (Chapter 13)

removed his hat (Chapter 13)

tipped his hat (Chapter 13 x 2)

dropped his hat (Chapter 14)

straw hats (Chapter 15)

broad brimmed hats (Chapter 16)

tipping his hat (Chapter 17)

took off his hat (Chapter 17)

put on their hats and left (Chapter 19)

removed his top hat in their honor (Chapter 20)

tip of his hat (Chapter 20)

yellow rose in her hat (Chapter 21)

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Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. What is something you are thankful for today?

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

I read Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup in an attempt to fill one of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge's prompt. To be more precise, I listened to the audiobook read by Louis Gossett, Jr. and it seemed to make a lot of sense to read it in the gloom of November. 

Northup was born free in New York. He was married with three children when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the southern United States. This memoir is the tale of his imprisonment for the next twelve years of his life. The story has been corroborated by documents Northrup cites, testimony from people who saw Northup on plantations he claimed to be enslaved at, and seems to be as true as possible.

It was certainly eye opening to read this book, but I have to admit to being a tiny bit disappointed. I feel like this kind of whitewashed the reality of slavery a bit with a lot of violence happening off page. I also feel like Northup is keeping the readers at a distance, but there were times I really wanted to know what he was thinking. When he left the plantation and other slaves who he had lived and worked with for years, how did he feel, knowing they'd continue on with their own plights? How did he feel when he saw his wife and children again? 

(I am hesitant to type this paragraph, but I'm going to be honest. I was talking about this book with my husband and I mumbled "he didn't make slavery seem that bad." I can see how these types of slave narratives were used by pro-slavery people who would make claims that slaves liked being slaves. Northrup never stopped fighting for his freedom and there were descriptions of abuse and belittlement, so I don't think someone reading this book would think he liked being a slave - far from it - but, to be honest, the whole experience didn't sound that bad. Clearly I'm the problem here.)

I'm glad I listened to this, but I did sort of want more from a slave narrative. Maybe that's just putting my own modern sensibilities on a book from the distant past and that's not fair. I don't know. It's certainly worth reading. 3.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

It was but a short time I closed my eyes that night. Thought was busy in my brain. Could it be possible that I was thousands of miles from home⁠—that I had been driven through the streets like a dumb beast⁠—that I had been chained and beaten without mercy⁠—that I was even then herded with a drove of slaves, a slave myself? Were the events of the last few weeks realities indeed?⁠—or was I passing only through the dismal phases of a long, protracted dream? It was no illusion. My cup of sorrow was full to overflowing. (Chapter 5)

Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear⁠—dogs, alligators or men! Chapter 10)

In the course of the forenoon, while sauntering about the gin-house, a tall, good-looking man came to me, and inquired if I was Tibeats’ boy, that youthful appellation being applied indiscriminately to slaves even though they may have passed the number of three score years and ten. (Chapter 11)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He wore a black frock coat and black hat, and said he resided either at Rochester or at Syracuse. The latter was a young man of fair complexion and light eyes, and, I should judge, had not passed the age of twenty-five. He was tall and slender, dressed in a snuff-colored coat, with glossy hat, and vest of elegant pattern. (Chapter 2)

It consisted in throwing balls, dancing on the rope, frying pancakes in a hat, causing invisible pigs to squeal, and other like feats of ventriloquism and legerdemain. (Chapter 2)

without coat or hat (Chapter 2) x2

They were all cleanly dressed⁠—the men with hats, the women with handkerchiefs tied about their heads. (Chapter 4)

The men had hat, coat, shirt, pants and shoes...(Chapter 6)

Taking off my hat...(Chapter 8)

I was without coat or hat, standing bareheaded, exposed to its burning blaze.  (Chapter 9)

I took off my hat...(Chapter 11)

he would forget where he left his hat, or his hoe, or his basket (Chapter 13)

uncle Abram had found his hat (Chapter 13)

new shoes and coats and hats (Chapter 14)

a rimless or a crownless hat (Chapter 15)

hat in hand (Chapter 18)

twitching off his hat (Chapter 21)

taking off my hat (Chapter 21)

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Have you read this book or any other slave narrative? 

August Lane by Regina Black

 August Lane by Regina Black is a second chance romance. When they were teens, August and Luke wrote a song together. When Luke hit it big with that song, he didn't give her any credit. Meanwhile, August stays at home to care for her grandmother while Luke and August's famous country star mother Jojo become famous. But since Jojo and Luke are black country musicians from the same hometown, eventually all three of them come back.  (Regina Black was an episode of Sarah's Bookshelves recently. Now that I've read the book, I might listen.)

I was sold on this because I heard it was part oral history. That's sort of true, in that there are occasional interviews of Jojo with a podcaster, but it's not the majority of the book. The book hits on things that are very much not my jam, including addiction, people talking about how hard it is to be rich and famous, and things that could be sorted out with a conversation. 

I do think some of the parts that are sort of Wikipedia entries spoken about black musicians in country music (it's not just Charley Pride and Darius Rucker!) were interesting, but maybe I would rather have read those parts in a non-fiction book. However, the author has something to say and I appreciate it when romance novels deal with an issue head-on instead of sugarcoating them. If you like your romances with a little bit of substance and lecture, this might work for you. 

Turns out that I don't have a lot to say about this book, now that I'm typing this. 3/5 stars

Line of note:

...her expression had shifted from mild irritation at Luke to a sour snarl when she spotted August, to a bland smile that was supposed to hide her anger but only made her look like a demonic American Girl doll. (page 94)

Here's what happened in my brain. Demonic American Girl doll? Wouldn't the whole Child's Play franchise have been funnier if instead of Chucky it was an American Girl? Which American Girl doll is the most wholesome? The easy way is to say Addy because she's the only black doll, but that seems like leaning into the black people are evil stereotype. What about Molly with her cute little wire rim glasses? Soon I'm laughing my head off and the line wasn't even that funny. 

Person I looked up:

Linda Martell - Martell is a country music singer (she's 84!). Martell was the first black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry and she was featured on two tracks on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album. She was blacklisted after she started performing better than white label mates and eventually left the industry. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

His cattleman hat, however, was pristine, blinding white against his ebony skin. (page 20)
He snatched the hat from his head...(page 21)
wide-brimmed hat (page 46)
wore cowboy hats and used to yodel in beauty pageants (page 96)
teal cowboy hat that matched her boots (page 100)
silly hats and lots of airplay (page 107)
There was a streak of bird shit on Jojo's hat. (page 107)
a photograph of a Black man in a bowler hat holding a harmonica (page 146)
"Bring a hat." (page 181)
tipped his hat (page 209)
He tugged his hat down over his ears. (page 288)

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Did you know who Linda Martell is? Do you know black country artists outside of Charley Pride and Darius Rucker?

The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier is translated from the French by Adrianna Hunter. Jenny wrote a very compelling review of the book, so I ordered it from the library immediately.

In this book, it's March 2021 and a plane encounters some turbulence. It lands and everyone's fine and then in June the exact plane lands again with the same passengers on it. We meet some of those passengers and how this event changes their lives. 

In general, I really liked this book. I liked that it raised interesting questions and I really liked the way it looked at how governments would react in this sort of emergent situation. But my biggest complaint about the book seems to be a common one: the first passenger we meet is the most interesting one and we don't hear from him very often throughout the book, even though he's what really got me into the book!

It's also sort of interesting because the book takes place in 2021, but the pandemic doesn't get a mention. That seemed weird to me. Oh, well. 

3.5/5 stars - I bet it would be an excellent book club read. There's lots to talk about!

Line of note:

He had hundreds of ginko trees planted all along the banks so that he can gaze at them and meditate. He's always been fascinated by these primitive trees. Their ancestors existed millions of years before even the dinosaurs appeared, and will outlive the human race. A plant version of memento mori. (page 241)

Things I looked up:

Annemasse (page 9) - a city in France on the Swiss border

Fields medal (page 106) - a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years

Gromov's non-prological theories (page 108) - non-squeezing theorem, also called Gromov's non-squeezing theorem, is one of the most important theorems in symplectic geometry. It was first proven in 1985 by Mikhail Gromov. The theorem states that one cannot embed a ball into a cylinder via a symplectic map unless the radius of the ball is less than or equal to the radius of the cylinder.

What's sympletic geometry, you ask? I don't know because the Wikipedia definition dares to use the term symplectic manifolds in its definition. I refused to do further research.

Markov chain (page 116) -  a process describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event

Kendall notations (page 116) - the standard system used to describe and classify a queueing node

Lebensraum (page 133) - the territory that a state or nation believes is needed for its natural development, especially associated with Nazi Germany

radome (page 146) - a plastic housing sheltering the antenna assembly of a radar set especially on an airplane

modafinil (page 162) - a prescription wakefulness-promoting agent used to treat excessive sleepiness caused by certain sleep disorders

Grothendieck's topoi (page 163) - categories that behave like sheaves on topological spaces

What does that mean? Search me. 

Abel prize (page 165) - a prize that recognizes pioneering scientific achievements in mathematics - it's  administered by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research and given out yearly

Romain Gary (page 324) - a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt (a prize in French literature) twice (once under a pseudonym)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He'll wear gloves, a hood, a hat, and glasses...(page 8)

There was a hi-hat on page 347, but it's not in the spirit of the thing. 

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Would you read a book about issues with flying? A science fiction book told in a contemporary world and time? 

Update #4: The Leg

Jenny asked, I answer.

Many years ago, I had a tib-fib fracture on my left leg. There was surgery, lots of screws and plates, and then I went on with my merry little life. But lately it's been causing me a lot of pain. It's also limiting my ability to do certain movements/exercises. And this is the thing that gets me more than the rest, which is unpredictable seizing up. I was in a fitness class and was happily skipping up and down the gym when my left ankle REFUSED TO BEND and I nearly fell over. This has also happened when I've been standing in front of a classroom, walking down stairs, and you know, just when I'm sitting around doing nothing. 

I went to PT and it helped with the pain, but I was essentially told that there's not much to be done about my range of motion. There are literal plates that hinder the angle at which my left ankle can bend. So this means running is not a great idea for me for exercise and there are various yoga poses I will never be able to do or, at the very least, not do without extreme discomfort. Because I tend to overuse my good leg, there is a definite difference in muscle tone between my left and right lower legs, so I have to be really careful when I'm doing bilateral work on my lower body to not do less with my left leg. Honestly, I have mostly switched to unilateral work so I can focus specifically on the left side. The x-rays show some arthritis, as was predicted when I first broke it, but not as much as they would have anticipated. 

I saw the local orthopedist and he gave me two options: surgery to undo the hardware and another surgery to replace the hardware (which would give me modern hardware, but no more mobility) or surgery to fuse the ankle in place (which is a great option for older people at times, but is the exact opposite of what I wanted). I gave myself the third option of PT. 

This same orthopedist is the one that "helped" my husband with his broken collarbone and literally lied in his documentation about a physical exam that he did not actually do on my husband - and charged insurance for this non-existent exam. The PT that I worked with gave me the names of other foot/ankle doctors who deal with complicated leg injuries like mine more often than the local ortho. (She did this sneakily and clearly felt some guilt while doing it, but also said that my repair is much more extensive than the average patient and the local ortho doesn't usually see anything like it. I like that she tried to defend him, but I'm over him.)

ANYWAY. 

I want to avoid surgery if possible. So for now I'm focusing on unilateral work. When I do too much and my leg hurts, I ice it and try to avoid doing those exercises again. I'm carrying around more weight than I should be and that's NOT helping. One of my goals will be to lose some of that weight in 2026, but I will be close-mouthed about that process here on the blog because there's nothing more boring than people talking about how restricting calories is hard. Don't get me started on the boringness of discussing macronutrients.

If, at the end of 2026, the combo of PT exercises, careful unilateral work to build up strength in my bad leg, and losing weight doesn't help with the pain, I'll make some phone calls to those other doctors.

But for now this is the plan. 

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Do you have any old nagging injuries? Have you ever done PT?

Update #3: The Yoga Bags

The brand is Magnilay. 

I now have TWO yoga mats and two yoga bags. Since I do yoga at the student union twice a week, I have a bag at work that includes two blocks, a strap, my mat, and leggings. The bag can fit a blanket, but it's really tight and hard to repack, so for now, there's no blanket. This has worked out well for me. I leave it at school most of the time, but if I am going to a yoga class somewhere else, I bring it home with me. 

Then I splurged and bought a new yoga mat for home so that I could leave the other bag at school. I have a blanket, bolster, and another set of blocks at home. I could probably use a strap for home use, but I mostly just use a tie or a PT resistance band. I had a different yoga mat at home, but it was not very good quality and was constantly shedding tiny pink pebbles everywhere. So now I have a good quality mat at home and the whole set up seems seamless. 

While I was buying my new mat, I bought a bag just for the mat. I take that with me to the community center when I go to my fitness classes and just throw some hand weights into a bag with my water to do those classes. This system is pretty new - I've only had the new mat for a couple of weeks - but so far this system is working for me!

My set up for fitness classes. It's a Manduka mat and bag. 

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Do you have an exercise bag? Were you choosy about picking it?

Update #2: The Silent Auction Wins

A few weeks ago we went to a fundraiser at the local community center. I think I've mentioned in the past that I have never actually paid to go to these fundraisers, but there's a board member who always pays for my tickets. Well, that happened AGAIN. Now that I not underemployed anymore, I can actually probably afford to pay for my own tickets, but this year I just forgot to buy them (I am overwhelmed by other things, as you can probably guess) and she emailed me that she put our names down for tickets. I am grateful to her, but I really need to start paying my own way.

ANYWAY, because of this, I felt obligated to actually donate money while I was there and one of the things I sort of went crazy on was the silent auction. 

I won two items. 

1) A monthly scone subscription! Every month I get three scones from a local bakery delivered to a small business just down the street. I get to choose the flavors and then just go pick them up. HOW FUN. My first order came in while I was in Michigan, so Dr. BB picked them up for me and I had a scone for breakfast for three days when I came back!

Blueberry lemon in November!

2) A decorative, handmade plate. Do I need this plate? No. Do I have any way to display this plate? No. Did I bid on it thinking someone would certainly outbid me? Yes. 

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Have you ever won a silent auction item? Did you ever win when you thought someone else would bid higher than you?