The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack

I think it should be clear to all my regular readers that right now I am relistening to all the episodes of You're the Expert, a comedy panel show where comedians talk to an expert. I may be the only person listening to these episodes from ten years ago, but there's something sort of nostalgic about listening to these shows in a pre-COVID world. If you ask me about anything right now, I'll tie it back to YTE. Anyway, Colin Jerolmack was on the show talking about his book The Global Pigeon and I was immediately intrigued (here's the episode link). 

I am a political scientist. And I stand by my feeling that it's super important. If you don't think it's important, I suggest you take a closer look at the world around you right now. BUT. I also think the sociologists and anthropologists have a claim to important things. And their methodology is SO MUCH FUN. Participant observation is my absolute favorite academic thing to read. Richard Fenno's Home Style is a classic. Fenno was a political scientist, but he embedded himself with eighteen members of the House of Representatives and wrote a book that's literal theory is that there are nested circles of constituencies, which makes me laugh because why did you need to spend YEARS to figure that out. ANYWAY.  I love that book. Did anyone else read Gang Leader for a Day and then wonder why they didn't become a sociologist? OH! What about the ethical debacle that is Carolyn Ellis who embedded herself into a community, wrote a condemning book about them, and then lots of other people wrote about how unethical Carolyn Ellis was? SOCIOLOGY, MAN. SO GOOD. 

Okay, I need to get back on track. So when Jerolmack was on this podcast talking about how he's an anthropologist, but he studies pigeons, I almost peed myself laughing. By definition, anthropology is the holistic, scientific study of humanity. And he opens with PIGEONS. I want you know that I had to pause the podcast because I was laughing so hard. Is this funny to anyone else? Anyway, it's not really about pigeons. He is really interested in what role these animals play in modern urban life, so it does end up being about humans, but I still insisted on calling this book the pigeon book as I was reading it. 

And boy did I like this book. Friends, I was riveted. Basically, the author noticed that people interacted with pigeons in a park, embedded himself with people who race pigeons (like rooftop racing) in New York City, then traveled to Berlin to embed with some Turkish immigrants who raise tumblers, a type of pigeon that tumbles acrobatically and dramatically in flight. Then he spent some time at the end of the book going to a crazy pigeon race where the prizes are literally millions of dollars. THERE ARE PHOTOS. RIVETING. 

And Jerolmack is a sociologist, so he's really interested in human-animal relations and all roads lead back to that. I think it's interesting that this is such a male-dominated hobby. I think it's interesting that pigeon racing hasn't really caught on outside of a few major cities. I think it's interesting that it's such a communal hobby, even though it appears to be very much a solitary endeavor at first glance. I think it's SUPER interesting how pigeons are treated in different cities and countries. Are they a nuisance who cause a lot of damage? Are they part of a long cultural heritage that should be respected? ARE THEY BOTH?

If any of this is interesting to you (seriously, at least watch the video of the tumbling pigeons!), read this. Sure, it's an academic book, but it's readable and surprisingly accessible for ethnography. 5/5 stars  

Lines of note:

In public places, strangers are often expected to - at most - briefly acknowledge one another and then divert their attention elsewhere. Although strangers may wish to engage in sidewalk interactions, rules of civility dictate that they need an excuse to do so. Erving Goffman observed that dogs are a "classic bridging device" between strangers in public, and studies of urban parks confirm that dogs "facilitate encounters among the previously unacquainted." In public places like Father Demo Square, pigeons too may act as a sort of interactional prop among strangers - in addition to focusing the attention of those already associated. (page 31) 

Because pigeon flying was historically the domain of working-class white men who passed on the practice, and their coops, to their sons, the number of flyers declined precipitously over the second half of the 20th century as many upwardly mobile whites migrated from New York's outer boroughs to the suburbs. But pigeon flying is not dead yet, and by making the four-mile trip to Joey's pet shop, Carmine got to socialize with other elderly and middle-aged Italians who commuted in from more genteel neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Bensonhurst. Carmine also mixed with young and middle-aged Hispanic and black men who flew pigeons in the immediate vicinity of the pet shop. These men reflected a newer cohort of flyers that picked up the hobby from ethnic whites as kids when they moved into neighborhoods in transition such as Bushwick and Easy New York. (page 80)

Rather than sitting idle or passively having their life structured by television, these retired men provided their own structure and narrative to their life - the birds and coops required their constant labor and attention. Interestingly, they work of keeping pigeons (e.g., feeding, bathing, and raising them) also has clear parallels to the kind of domestic "care work" that is traditionally coded as feminine. Though none of the flyers framed it this way, pigeons seemed to provide an opportunity for men to perform care work without it posing a threat to their masculinity. (page 102-103)

Most flyers were fascinated by pigeon biology, genetics, reproduction, the homing instinct, and so on. Yet when I asked them if they felt an affinity to nature, I was usually met with a blank look that followed a simple "no" or "not really." I saw no evidence that pigeon keeping was part of, or led to, a more general connect to nonhumans...The men were thus attached to the birds not primarily because they were ambassadors of the wild but because they were products of the men's own hands. (page 105)

...spoke to Ahmet Dede, a pudgy, boyish-looking man in his early 30s from Istanbul, he lamented, "This leisure activity is actually a waste of time. You don't earn money by doing this. I would be happier, for example, if I studied - if I was in your place and interviewed you instead of you interviewing me. I would be a happier person if I studied instead of taking care of pigeons, working in . . . the imbiss, and I don't want my child to pay too much attention to pigeons." (page 126)

This was brought home in the common occurrence of curious Germans, including dog walkers, who happened upon the coops and marveled at the frantic tumbles of the pigeons. Such chance encounters usually resulted in amicable interactions between the Turkish men and ethnic Germans, but in each instance the Germans asked why the men kept pigeons. Every answer the men gave highlighted the origins of the bird or the animal practice. Such discussions were never had about people's pet dogs, as keep dogs is taken-for-granted animal practice. (page 130)

...Turkish caretakers gained satisfaction in their mundane interactions with the birds, through raising them and through the simple aesthetic appreciation of watching them in flight. Some kissed the birds, and Turan tenderly spoke to a sick baby pigeon as he fed it special food through a funnel....Some of the men referred to caring for pigeons as an "escape."...The escape that the tumblers afforded was not a flight from society altogether, but rather a temporary respite from tedious routines and the estrangement of living in a foreign city. (page 130-131)

Things I looked up:

Coca-Cola spelled out its logo in pigeons (page 50) - I mean, I don't think it really looks like the logo, but what do I know? 

Gary Player (page 196) - a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. Also, he was a supporter of apartheid, so you decide what to do with that information. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He regularly wore fingerless gloves, a thick gold chain with a medallion, and a bicycle hat (one said "Brooklyn" on the brim while another was emblazoned with "USA"). (page 91)

Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy by Chris Duffy

I did a self-reflection and realized it is March, which is smack dab in the middle of the February - March - April run that is, in my humble opinion, the absolute nadir of the calendar year. We're still in winter. Despite the increase in sunlight in the evenings, I'm still mostly outside in the dark. I am exhausted. There is no end in sight. In January, I am still running high on the holiday season and am confident I can persevere through winter. By February, I can tell myself that spring is around the corner. But by March, I have to admit that spring is still months away, I am cold and will never be warm again, and I hate spring anyway because it's unpredictable and muddy and not that warm anyway. For those of you who do not suffer from season affective disorder, I am eternally jealous. 

Anyway, friends, I'm doing all the things. I'm exercising. I'm initiating intimacy. I'm finding gratitude. I'm going outside. I'm putting my cell phone in the other room at meals. I'm meditating. 

But I still can't be bothered to do anything besides what I absolutely have to do. Respond to personal emails? That's not 100% necessary. Vacuum the rugs? They'll still be covered in fur next week. Wash my hair? Surely that can wait for another day. 

So I was relistening to episodes of You're the Expert, an excellent, now-defunct podcast hosted by Chris Duffy, a man who I think is hilarious, and one of the inserted ads in the podcast was for his new book, Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy. I decided that I needed something to help me get through this slog of seasonally dependent ennui. And if Chris Duffy can tell me what that something is, I'm on board. 

This book is about developing your own personal sense of humor and using it to get through difficult times. He has three pillars - be present, laugh at yourself, and take social risks. In this book, he walks through those three pillars and gives a list of homework at the end of each chapter to practice. 

This book was joyful and fun and made me feel like I can conquer the winter blues. 

I'm not going to tell you about all the homework he gave you, but here are three things I'm implementing immediately in the hopes that it will help me make it through May. 

1) Embrace a new bathroom state of mind: In your own bathroom, you know what's there and how it's set-up and you just sort of take it for granted. But when  you go to a new bathroom, you notice all the things. Oh, these towels are so soft. This toilet paper is great! Look at how pretty that sink is. I like how they have a 3D printed cat toothpaste dispenser. Have this same state of mind with your ordinary life.  Look at your bathroom with new eyes. Try to notice something on your everyday commute. 

2) Notice what you think is funny. Track it. I have started just jotting down in my notes app on my phone when I laugh during the day. What made me laugh on Friday, you ask?

• Getting a rejection email for a job I applied to in 2023
• Hannah getting very tangled up in her leash while attempting to chew a stick and roll around in the grass
• Mentions of Uncle Kracker and tall bikes, things I hadn't thought about in years
• These funny Stuf of Doom Oreos at the grocery store

3) Talk to strangers. I mean, I already do talk to strangers pretty frequently. But now I'm making more of an effort to. 

If this goes well, maybe I'll have an occasionally blog series in which I write about things that make me laugh. 

Anyway, I found this book hopeful and full of joy. I hope Chris Duffy knows he's doing good work that is keeping this Midwestern lady going. 5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Seeking out humor in a situation doesn't mean denying the uncomfortable or unfunny aspects of reality. Far from it. This is where humor differs crucially from so-called toxic positivity, the pressure to put on a happy face no matter the circumstances. It isn't about finding the silver lining in every cloud. It's about acknowledging the clouds. "I cannot believe how many fucking clouds there are! It's like the sky is JUST CLOUDS!" Humor is a way of addressing reality while shifting our relationship to it. It reverse-engineers despair into hope. (page 10-11)

I like that Duffy addressed toxic positivity. I worry a lot that if I focus on the good and being grateful, etc., I will come off as one of those people who is in denial about (gestures dramatically) the world of 2026. 

Researchers discovered that when you're willing to laugh at your flaws, other people view those flaws as less important than if you'd addressed them more dryly. The study found that "job candidates who revealed their limited math ability in a humorous manner ('I can add and subtract, but geometry is where I draw the line') were perceived as better able to do math than those who disclosed the information in a serious manner ('I can add and subtract, but I struggle with geometry'). (page 52)

STORY TIME!!

We are currently interviewing people for a position on campus and I'm on the hiring committee. I'm being purposefully vague because the form you have to sign literally says "the search committee's findings must be held confidential for eternity," which seems crazy and like it might not hold up in court, but I'm not going to give any confidential information away.

Our first round was a screening round via Webex and it's so stiff and weird and formal and the candidates are so nervous. There was this one woman I was rooting for (I cannot tell you why until the end of eternity), but the start of her interview was rocky. I was supposed to introduce myself and ask the second question, but I sort of forgot the "introduce myself" part until I was halfway through the question! So I stopped and said, "oh no! you don't know me yet!" and introduced myself and everyone on the call started laughing, including the candidate. Then I asked the question and we moved on. And everyone FUCKING RELAXED A LITTLE. 

So I started making snarky comments before I asked my question and it helped the candidates a little bit because they could see I was on their side. I mean, interviewing is so stressful and it sucks and I was just trying to get them to loosen up. My boss mentioned that it was fun having me on the calls for these interviews and I took that as a huge compliment. 

In one hilarious experiment, [Timothy] Wilson asked study subjects to sit alone in a room with their thoughts for fifteen minutes. "The team left participants alone in a lab room in which they could push a button and shock themselves if they wanted to. The results were startling: Even though all participants had previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict it on themselves rather than just sit there quietly and think." (page 60)

Who are you people who wouldn't take fifteen minutes for a nap?!?! MORE THAN HALF OF THE PEOPLE SHOCKED THEMSELVES. Dude. You could just do some yoga or sleep? I found this SHOCKING (ha ha ha - pun absolutely intended) and it was almost as dumbfounding to me as Donald Trump winning a second term. 

A ton of behavioral science backs up the idea that taking social risks leads to positive results. Among the many studies, hardly any make people quite as skeptical as the one that found talking to a stranger on the train or bus would improve the quality of their day. A typical reaction goes something like "Maybe that works for some people, but not on the buses I take."

In fact, the University of Chicago team that conducted the study found that "those who talked to strangers reported a significantly happier ride than those who kept to themselves - even though a survey of a separate group of commuters predicted the opposite." (page 74)

Okay, but I think we can all agree that talking to people on planes is crazy, right?

Hat mentions (why hats?):

If you're at the mall, a nine-year-old might try on the largest hat she can find. (page 83)

...wore a big cowboy hat to school every day? (page 114)

...put on a fun hat and take a self of us. (page 133)

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What is something that made you laugh out loud recently? 

Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum

Stephany recommended Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum almost a year ago and I just got around to reading it. I mean, I do eventually circle around to my TBR.

Like Stephany, if you had asked me about the origins of reality television, I would have said it all started with The Real World on MTV (RIP MTV). Of course I would think it was The Real World because man did I eat that up when I was a teenager (This is the true story…of seven strangers…picked to live in a house…and have their lives taped…to find out what happens…when people stop being polite…and start getting real), but Nussbaum goes back in time and talks about Candid Camera and The Dating Game and goes into the deep history of the genre. 

And then things get darker as modern reality tv shows pop up. The way contestants and crew were treated on shows like Survivor and The Bachelor was atrocious and Nussbaum discusses living and working conditions and brings receipts with interviews with people who had been on set (or, in the case of Survivor, on island where in the first season they didn't have places for the crew to sleep). She discusses the evolution of contestants from Julie's naive presence on The Real World to contestants who see these types of shows as a way to jumpstart their own influencer status. 

And then things get even darker with The Apprentice and I will say no more than that. It was incredibly hard to read. 

What I like about this is that Nussbaum is clearly a fan of the genre. She doesn't pretend that she wasn't watching the live feed of the first season of Big Brother 24/7. She doesn't shy away from her eagerness to see the next episode of The Bachelor. But she also knows there are definite issues with reality television, with the exploitation of labor, including cast and crew, with the long-term psychological damage, with the way it sends contestants off into the world of pseudo-celebrity without any support (or money), with the way it edits and cuts to create stories that weren't there, and with the way it distorts what reality is. And that's not to mention the gender and racial inequities.  

I appreciate when books take pop culture seriously (more on why I take it seriously is here). What is shown on television and in the movies moves the needle in the world. The needle is often sociopolitical - think of Mr. Rogers dipping his feet into a pool with a black man, Dawson's Creek showing two men kissing, or Pedro Zamora showing everyone the reality of life of a gay man with HIV (more on him below). I think Nussbaum carves the perfect middle point of discussing why we enjoy reality with the critical lens of why we maybe shouldn't. 

Even if you aren't a reality television person, this book is worth reading. I mean, look what's happening to the American politick if nothing else. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

It was the reality paradox that would, in later years, became [sic] endemic: They were superstars, but without the paycheck or social protection that usually accompanied mind-blowing celebrity. Each cast member had earned $2,600, with the first half paid weekly to cover expenses. (page 138-139)

But he did find it irresponsible that MTV hadn't offered the cast any counseling. Part of the problem with reality fame was having trusted the producers in the first place, absorbing their praise, he pointed out: If you hated your portrayal, you had to confront the fact that maybe your "puppet masters" hadn't cared about you, after all. (page 140)

That was the catch-22 of the reality genre: The savvier its subjects became, the more self-aware about their roles, the less authentic the footage was - but, arguably, the more ethical. (page 141)

The European reality phenomenon has its own complicated history, involving a separate set of pioneers, many of them easily as shameless and piratical as any Hollywood Hustler. (page 172) 

He didn't dislike the cast, he told me; it was hard not to feel some tenderness for people you watched all day. But being in the control room felt like being a prison guard - it was tempting to use your power. (page 259)

When Trump was elected president, some of the people who had worked on The Apprentice felt responsible, even (and based on my interviews, especially) those low on the call sheet. Camera operator Sarah Levy lamented that they had "created this false view of him." Former audio technician Richard Velazquez told me, "It kills me, because we created this jerk. We assisted him with his plans. It's our fault." (page 383)

For Mike Fleiss, the creator of The Bachelor, Trump's rise felt like an indelible stain on the genre, exposing something existentially rotten in the industry. "All that talk about the decline of Western civilization and the sign of the apocalypse? It turned out to be true," he said. (page 386)

Things I looked up:

Pedro Zamora (xvii) - He was after my time watching The Real World. Pedro Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality. As one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media, Zamora brought international attention to HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ issues and prejudices through his appearance on MTV's reality television series The Real World: San Francisco. 

Zamora's romantic relationship with Sean Sasser was also documented on the show; their relationship was later nominated by MTV viewers for "Favorite Love Story" award, and the broadcast of their commitment ceremony in 1994, in which they exchanged vows, was the first such same-sex ceremony in television history, and is considered a landmark in the history of the medium. He died shortly after the finale of his season of The Real World aired at age 22. 

Baudrillard (xix) - Sean Baudrillard was a French sociologist and philosopher with an interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised I didn't know this name. 

Stanley Kowalski (page 24) - a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. Do I have to read this play now?

1985 music video "Stop the Madness" (page 94) - Insane anti-drug video starring, among others, Whitney Houston (woof)

1951 "Bloody Christmas" scandal (page 99) - Bloody Christmas was the severe beating of seven civilians by members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on December 25, 1951. The attacks, which left five Mexican American and two white young men with broken bones and ruptured organs, were only properly investigated after lobbying from the Mexican American community. The internal inquiry by Los Angeles Chief of Police William H. Parker resulted in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 suspended.

sub-rosa (page 168) - a Latin phrase which denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy. Its opposite term is sub vino, meaning "under [the grape]vine", referring to being loose-lipped whilst under the influence of alcohol.

palapa (page 327) - ambiguous in the book - could be a thatched roof made of palm tree leaves, common in Central America and Mexico OR a Filipino condiment originating from the Maranao people

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

...they all removed their hats. (page 21)

...as Funt breaks eggs into his expensive hat. (page 23)

Cracking a few eggs into a hat no longer felt especially transgressive...(page 27)

"Chuck would put a hat on me and make me his chauffeur, then have me drive to the dentist." (page 39)

He tugged his hat down over his eyes...(page 42)

...revealing a smirking drug dealer in a Panama hat...(page 94)

...lounge around their SoHo loft wearing clown hats and cowrie beads...(page 136)

"My hats are off to the people who created it..." (page 151)

Indiana Jones-esque Akubra hat (page 172)

a hat tip to the slavery miniseries Roots (page 244)

...wore only a red cowboy hat and a gun belt. (page 288)

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Did you click on the link to the "Stop the Madness" video? How batshit were the 1980s?

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

My friend Eric suggested I read The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald because I'm from Michigan. He didn't even know I'm obsessed with shipwreck stories (should I list them? In the Heart of the Sea, The Wager, Moby-Dick)!

(Parenthetical tangent for other listeners of the podcast Sarah's Bookshelves: I had a moment when Chrissie called The Wager "boring" and neither she nor Sarah could name the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sarah, if you need someone to come on to your show to be an expert on maritime disaster books, consider me your lady.)

So, it turns out that not everyone knows the Edmund Fitzgerald? This is crazy to me. When she was launched, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and she was delightful and lovely and fancier than many other ships. 

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At every level in the chain of command, from the captain to the deckhands, the engineers to the oilers, each crew member could be certain that no one at their rank had better accommodations on the Great Lakes. The purpose of all this was not to indulge employees, but to attract the very best crewmen at every position. (location 1164)

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Okay, but before we get to the Fitz, let's talk about the Great Lakes more broadly. For those of you not from (gestures wildly about as if you can see me encompassing the entire Great Lakes region) here, let me give you some facts.

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...hold more than 80 percent of North America’s freshwater, and more than 20 percent of the world’s. If you could empty the Great Lakes over North and South America, you would flood the land in a foot of standing water. (location 226)

From outer space the Great Lakes are North America’s most visible topographical feature. (location 239)

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When people say things like "the only beaches that matter are ocean beaches," I dare them to go to a Lake Michigan beach and think that's somehow worse than Jersey City. *rant kind of over*

Sailors on the Great Lakes are called "lakers" and those who go on the ocean are called "salties." This fact amuses me greatly. And guess what? The Great Lakes are not to be fucked with.

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On the Great Lakes there’s no salt to hold down the waves, so they rise more sharply and travel closer together, like jagged mountains of water coming at you in rapid succession. (location 248)

“When the salty captains first come on the Great Lakes they say, ’How hard can it be?’ ” Rick Barthuli grins, then turns serious. “How hard can it be? Ask thirty thousand men on the bottom of the Great Lakes. That’s how hard. But once the ocean sailors actually sail on the Great Lakes, they stop asking that question.” (location 334)

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So, why do lakers take chances when there have been so many shipwrecks?

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When it comes to hauling goods, trains are roughly twice as efficient as trucks, but ships are almost three times more efficient than trains and six times more efficient than trucks. The difference between ships and trucks, therefore, is not 6 percent or 60 percent—margins any corporation would covet—but 600 percent, an astronomical savings. (location 794)

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So, let's talk about November on the Great Lakes. November is a tricky month. Sometimes it's beautiful - 70 and sunny. Sometimes there's a storm of the century. In the twentieth century, there were two of these storms of the century on November 10. November 10 is the deadliest day on the Great Lakes.

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They then listed other Great Lakes tragedies that occurred on the same deadly day, November 10: the storm of 1913, which killed 254 people; another in 1930, when 67 drowned; and finally the Edmund Fitzgerald, whose twenty-nine-man crew “vanished without a trace in a nighttime torrent of slashing winds and waves on Lake Superior,” Gaines writes. (location 4894)

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The 1913 storm is called the White Hurricane (here's a book to read if that sound interesting to you - Ohio folks, you wouldn't be wrong to go with it) and I was somewhat obsessed with it when I was in high school. It was called the Storm of the Century and then 1975 came around.

In The Gales of November, Bacon walks us through the history of each of the 29 crewmembers on the Edmund Fitzgerald on that fateful November day, from the veteran captain Ernest M. McSorley who was set to retire upon docking the Fitz at the end of this voyage all the way down to the newbie David Weiss, a cadet on board. We then learn about that trip that was going to end the Fitzgerald's shipping season, a trip from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, carrying a full cargo of taconite ore pellets. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, she was caught the next day in a severe storm with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. 

There was another freighter nearby some 15-20 miles away, the Arthur M. Anderson, and it was in contact as the Fitzgerald as they both headed straight into a deadly storm. Until they weren't in contact anymore. 

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Anderson mate: By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problem? 

McSorley: We are holding our own. 

Anderson mate: Okay, fine. I’ll be talking to you later. (location 4427)

McSorley’s simple, stoic statement, “We are holding our own,” are the last known words from the Edmund Fitzgerald. (location 4434)

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Then the book goes through the theories about how and why the ship sank. Outside of the fact that there was no real-time weather updates on the ship, there were still a lot of questions. Was it the construction of the ship that was made to be flexible and move with the waves? Was it that the load line had been lowered and lowered? Was it that the bulkheads leaked and added water to the taconite iron ore, making the vessel heavier and heavier? Was it that the Fitz had run aground on Six Fathom Shoal because McSorley was using outdated navigational maps? Was it complacency (similar to the Titanic, the Fitzgerald had a rep as a ship that couldn't sink and had a decade and a half of weathering Great Lakes storms to prove it)? 

We don't know. The ship was located on the bottom of Lake Superior, split in two. It is now an official gravesite.

The wreck changed things on the Great Lakes and many reforms were put into place after the ship sank, including changes to weather updates, navigation policies, load lines, and changes to late-season Coast Guard inspections. 

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“The Fitzgerald was a very tragic thing,” former GLMA superintendent John Tanner says. “But the safety reforms that were triggered by that accident were incredible.” (location 5426)

In the half century since the Edmund Fitzgerald went under, not one commercial ship has sunk on the Great Lakes, by far the longest run of safe trips since the French fur traders started traversing the same waters four hundred years ago. (location 5459)

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If you know of the Edmund Fitzgerald, it's probably because of the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." I don't have much to say about that song, but it's haunting and sad and doesn't have a chorus. How it became a #2 Billboard hit is a mystery. 

Look, this book was rad. 4/5 stars

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Lines of note:

Wading through countless books, documentaries, and articles about the Fitz and conducting hundreds of interviews confirmed two things: there remains a great deal of interest in the subject, and there is little everyone agrees on beyond the fact that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975. (location 127)

On May 31, 1889, an epic rainstorm broke an earthen dam in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 2,208 people. The following year President Benjamin Harrison approved the creation of the United States Weather Bureau, forerunner to today’s National Weather Service. (location 382)

They say history is written by the victors. On the Great Lakes, it’s written by the survivors. (location 513)

Tom enrolled at Bowling Green University in Ohio and two brothers went straight to work, while the youngest brother went to college to become an accountant. (location 1414)

I just included this because of the BGSU mention. Someone wrote for the BG News, too, which got a shoutout. (Go Falcons! is implied.)

The Navy’s research on motion fatigue (as opposed to motion sickness) has found the effects so tangible that they can accurately predict the percentage of crewmen who will become effectively dysfunctional after each hour of turbulent seas. “After too many waves,” Michigan Tech professor Guy Meadows says, “anyone can become useless, like being drunk.” (location 4043)

“When the storm was at its worst,” Schwab says, “the Edmund Fitzgerald got to the worst possible place, at the worst possible time.” (location 4406)

Things I looked up:

Rockford, MN (location 3488) - Rockford is a city in Wright and Hennepin counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 4,500 at the 2020 census. While Rockford is mainly located within Wright County, a small part of the city extends into Hennepin County. It is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan statistical area. (I legitimately thought the author was confused with Rockford, IL.)

When the duo reached the Mackinac Bridge just before dawn on November 11, Hillery saw something that made him grab his camera, jump out of the car, and start shooting: Truck driver Ivan Wilder and his eleven-year-old son had made it across three-quarters of the bridge when the wind picked up their trailer and smashed it down onto the trunk of a car driving alongside them. (location 4825) - I can't find this photo. Maybe it's better that way.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

In the 1800s, at the peak of the fur trade when beaver hats were all the rage in Europe, traders sold millions of beaver pelts every year, until the original beaver population, estimated between 200 and 400 million, was almost extinct. (location 581)

He didn’t have much need for a barber himself, with his receding hairline, but he’d tell his patrons not to wear hats or they’d go bald, too. (location 1767)

A few years ago, retired engineer John Hayes recalls, a couple twenty-somethings thought the request didn’t apply to them, and stubbornly kept their baseball hats on. (location 1800)

...rakish-looking man photographed in dirty overalls and a hat at a jaunty angle, with a cigarette in his hand and a sly grin suggesting pending mischief, “Handsome Ransom” spent three months working in the copper mines before escaping to a freighter. (location 2588)

Weiss wore a full beard, big brown sunglasses, and a white cowboy hat, thus earning him the nickname “Cowboy” Weiss—an unusual moniker for a Jewish kid from LA. (location 2936)

young man in a cowboy hat parked in a yellow muscle car (location 2950)

GLMA professor John Tanner spotted Weiss in his trademark cowboy hat standing on the side of the road in Acme, just outside of Traverse City, where M-31 meets M-72. (location 2981)

Dad got a big cowboy hat for himself—and he’s the one who always said, ’Don’t wear hats because they make you bald!’ (location 3492)

“Right before Dad got on the ship,” Marilynn says, “he gave his new cowboy hat to us and told us to keep it in good hands. And then we said goodbye.” (location 3514)

Church, fifty-five in 1975, wearing the hat, had left his job at Reserve Mining in Silver Bay just a few years earlier to pursue his dream of working as a porter—a very rare move. (location 5754)

*******************

Have you heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald? When's the last time you were on a boat? 

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)

****************

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)

********************

Have you read this book or any other slave narrative? 

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

One of the prompts for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge this year is to read a book about a running club. There is no way I'm going to finish that challenge this year, but I'm still plodding around, thinking maybe I can do most of it. I decided I'd read Haruki Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running for this, although if I'm being 100% accurate, it's not really about a running club. Close enough for me. 

I know that this is a beloved memoir and everything I am about to say is going to be blasphemy to a lot of you. 

I didn't like this.

It talks a lot about body image and body shaming. It talks a lot about running.

What, you ask me, did you expect? 

I guess I expected this to be about writing with a little bit about running. Instead it was about running with a little bit about writing. If that's your jam, go ahead and read it. It was not my jam, although I listened to the audiobook and the narrator made it all go down easy. 

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

In every interview I'm asked what's the most important quality a novelist has to have? It's pretty obvious - talent. No matter how much enthusiasm and effort you put into writing, if you totally lack literary talent, you can forget about being a novelist. This is more of a prerequisite than a necessary quality. If you don't have any fuel, even the best car won't run. (timestamp 1:53:18)

What a pep talk. *eyeroll*

Most of what I know about writing I've learned through running every day. These are practical, physical lessons. How much can I push myself? How much rest is appropriate and how much is too much? How far can I take something and still keep it decent and consistent? When does it become narrowminded and inflexible? How much should I be aware of the world outside and how much should I focus on my inner world? To what extent should I be confident in my abilities and when should I start doubting myself? (timestamp 2:01:49)

This was an interesting passage and I wish he'd talked a lot more about these parallels. Unfortunately, this was the meat of it. 

Once when I had a chance to talk with a sales rep from Mizuno he admitted, "our shoes are kind of plain and don't stand out. We stand by our quality but they aren't that attractive." I know what he's trying to say - they have no gimmicks, no sense of style, no catchy slogan, so to the average consumer they have little appeal - the Subaru of the shoe world, in other words. (timestamp 2:16:51)

I have to admit having laughed pretty hard at this. One of the cars that is on our list of potential cars is a Subaru. No one over here is IN LOVE with it, though. It's fine. 

Still the most significant fallout from running the ultramarathon wasn't physical, but mental. What I ended up with was a sense of lethargy and before I knew it, I felt covered by a thin film, something I've since dubbed runner's blues, although the actual feeling of it was closer to a milky white. (timestamp 2:53:18)

WTF does this mean? Milky white? 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

..take off my hat, which I had on to keep the sun off me. I'd worn the hat to keep my head warm... (timestamp 2:38:41)

***************

Anyone else read this? Think less of Murakami now that they've read it? I've obliquely mentioned our car search a couple of times in this space - would anyone be interested in a full-length post on our endless search? 

How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

It is possible I have some serious imposter syndrome re: leading a book club. I have absolutely no qualifications for doing so except for the fact that I read a lot. But am I reading correctly? I feel this way about doing a lot of things "correctly," to be fair. Is this how one successfully exercises? Is this how you make a bed? Is this how you do laundry? But there are legitimate experts on reading, I thought to myself. Instead of wishing I'd taken more literature classes in college, how about I consult some of the experts who I work with every day?

So I marched myself down to the chair of the literature department's office and laid my plight bare. Blog. Book club. Imposter. Hats. He was a bit shocked by the blog (which is okay because I recently learned he TEACHES YOGA and he had never told me that), but eventually suggested How To Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Understanding Literature, From The Great Gatsby to The Hate U Give by Thomas C. Foster. It was originally published in 2003, but I got a copy of the most recent, third edition, which was published in 2024. 

Foster is an actual professor at the University of Michigan - Flint. In this book he sets forth a list of dictums, things that you should look out for, when you are reading. Here are a handful:

The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge. (page 3)
Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion. (page 10)
Ghosts and vampires are hardly ever only about ghosts and vampires. (page 20)
There's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature. (page 27)
There's only one story. (page 30)
It's never just rain. (page 72)
Characters are not people. (page 89)
Writers do not create fantasy worlds in order for us to criticize or long for worlds that have never existed. (page 114)
Flight is freedom. (page 134)

"The Indiana Jones Principle" - If you want your audience to know something important about your character (or the work at large), introduce it early, before you need it. (page 201-202)

There were lots of helpful hints in this book and if I were teaching a literature class to students in high school (or maybe even college), I could think of any number of assignments based on these dictums. But I liked his little pep talks, too. 

If we don't see the reference, it means nothing, right? So the worst thing that occurs is we're still reading the same story as if the literary precursors weren't there. (page 31)

Every reader's experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features of the text to become more or less pronounced. We bring an individual history to our reading, a mix of previous readings, to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement, and philosophical inclination. These factors will inevitably influence what we understand in our reading, and nowhere is this individuality clearer than in the matter of symbolism. (page 113)

This, of course, is the great and troubling question of literary analysis: How do we ever know that we're right, that we're accurate, that we're justified? (page 266)

Often, too often, I find students apologizing for the way they see a work: "It's only my opinion, but" or "I'm probably wrong, but" or some other iteration of this weak act of contrition. Stop apologizing!...Be intelligent, be bold, be assertive, be self-confident in your reading. It is your opinion (but not "just") and you might be wrong, although that's less likely than more students think. So here's my final piece of advice: Own the books you read. (page 269-270)

I feel better after reading these words of encouragement. There isn't a right way to understand or think about a story. Even if you're just reading a story at the most superficial level (the cat in The Cat in the Hat is a terrible role model, no?), that's a fair reading. But if you want to delve in more deeply (the cat character as a representation of a lot of chaos characters in children's literature and is in sharp contrast to the parental figures represented by the fish; maybe the cat character is a bit of minstrelsy?), you can and you're probably not wrong. I'm probably not harming anyone by consistently talking about hats in my reading or by asking questions like "which character represents what you are like the most?" even if they might be ridiculous to some of you. That's okay. We each get our own reading. 

Lines of note:

That's how it is with minor characters. Just because they don't get the full treatment of main characters doesn't mean they don't suffer and die on their behalf. Not really fair, is it?

You see, literary works are not democracies. We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. We may, but the country of Novels, Etc., doesn't. In that faraway place, no character is created equal. One or two get all the breaks; the rest exist to get them to finish line. (page 92-93)

Poor Neville in Harry Potter, right? Imagine Neville Longbottom and the Goblet of Fire? 

Here's the problem with symbols: people expect them to mean something. Not just any something, but one something in particular. Exactly. Maximum. You know what? It doesn't work like that. Oh, sure, there are some symbols that work straightforwardly: a white flag means "I give up, don't shoot." Or it means, "We come in peace." See? Even in a fairly clear-cut case we can't pin down a single meaning, although they're pretty close. So some symbols do have a relatively limited range of meanings, but in general a symbol can't be reduced to standing for only one thing. (page 109)

Whew. I guess I should start to pay attention to some of these symbols more, though. 

It's simply impossible to write or direct in a vacuum. (page 180)

Context always matters. 

We all read through our own filters, biases, and expectations, and that's normal. We expect a certain amount of verisimilitude, of faithfulness to the world we know, in what we watch and what we read. (page 206)

I find myself feeling bolstered by having read this right before I start up a new CBBC. We will all be coming at this book with our own background and ideas and all of us can look at this new book with our own lens. And that's the best thing about stories.

4.5/5 stars - Definitely a recommend if you run a book club that you're not sure you should be running.

****************

Things I looked up:

Judith Guest's Ordinary People - Guest's 1976 debut novel.  It tells the story of a year in the life of the Jarretts, an affluent suburban family trying to cope with the aftermath of two traumatic events. Lake Michigan plays an important role in this book, which is one reason I had to look it up.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Towards the end of the book, Foster includes the short story "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield as a way for the readers to apply what they have learned while reading his book. All of the hat mentions are from this story and analyses of the story and a hat plays an integral symbolic role, so there are quite a few.

brushing their hats (page 336)

sweet hat (x2) (page 237)

new hat (page 244)

big hat (page 244)

carrying the hat (page 245)

"My child!" said her mother, "the hat is yours." (page 245)

her black hat trimmed with gold daisies (page 245)

"What an absolute topping hat!" (page 246)

And the big hat with the velvet streamers - if only it was another hat! (page 249)

"Forgive my hat," she said. (page 251)

a gift of a new hat (page 255)

I'm not done with that hat. (page 259)

It's a black hat with black velvet ribbons and gold daisies...(page 259)

accept the hat (page 259)

a mother's hat (page 259)

Because the hat has come from...(page 259)

...gold daisies on her hat. (page 261)

****************

Is there anything that you choose to do on a regular basis that you're not sure you're actually qualified to do? I actually feel this way about so many things in my life. Please tell me I'm not alone. 

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green is the current It Book of the Interwebz. 

Green became interested in tuberculosis on a trip to Sierra Leone, where he was apparently doing a project on maternal mortality, but then he went to a TB hospital and it changed his whole life. 

He met a young boy with TB and it sent him off on years of research about the disease. If you had asked me before I read this book, I would have said that I thought TB was a disease of the past, a disease of Romantic poets and the Brontës. But, as we find out in the first five pages of this book, that could not be further from the truth. 

Still, over a million people died of tuberculosis in 2023. That year, in fact, more people died of TB than died of malaria, typhoid, and war combined. (page 4)

Today, we understand tuberculosis as an infection caused by bacteria. TB is airborne - it spreads from person to person through small particles contained in coughs, sneezes, or exhalations. Anyone can get tuberculosis - in fact, between one-quarter and one-third of all living humans have been infected with it. In most people, the infection will lie dormant for a lifetime. But up to 10 percent of the infected will eventually become sick, a phenomenon we call "active TB." (page 5-6)

There is a cure for TB - antibiotics - but, as you can imagine, the distribution of antibiotics across the globe is unequal and countries that are poorer and/or have poor infrastructure for transporting medicines have citizens who suffer rates of TB at higher rates than more well-developed nations. This books tells the story of how this came to be. 

And it's super interesting. It's really important - I think drawing attention to the fact that literal millions of people are dying because of TB is an interesting thing for Green to do with his platform. I hope it brings more money to getting medicines to the populations in most need. 

But I find John Green's writing tic of inserting himself into every story to be...annoying? distracting? self-absorbed? Why do I have to know he has OCD? Why do I have to know about his brother's cancer? It's not relevant, but Green obviously can't resist but making every story about himself. He doesn't have TB and if he had, it would have been treated quickly in the US with the proper medication. This has a 4.55/5 stars on Goodreads, so I'm obviously in the minority her because I wish this book had been written by a different author. 

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

The United States of America, Charles Dickens once noted, was "a nation of spitters." People spit on trolleys and on sidewalks, on restaurant floors and even in the home. (page 98)

"How many would die if everyone could access good healthcare?" he asked me, as if he seemed confused by my question.
"Yes," I said.
"None. Zero. Zero people should die of TB."
It is difficult to imagine eliminating tuberculosis entirely. The disease has many animal reservoirs, and because a quarter of all people living are infected with it, the total elimination of TB is a distant dream. But we could live in a world where no one dies of TB. (page 181)

Things I looked up:

multidimensionally poor (page 25) - A person who is poor can suffer multiple disadvantages at the same time – for example they may have poor health or malnutrition, a lack of clean water or electricity, poor quality of work or little schooling. Focusing on one factor alone, such as income, is not enough to capture the true reality of poverty.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

"Did you know tuberculosis helped give us the cowboy hat?" (page 14)

Regaining his health over the next few years, John noticed something different about the West: The hats sucked. Fur traders of European descent often wore bug-infested, brimless coonskin caps. Folks who made their way to Missouri from Texas and Mexico, meanwhile, tended to wear wide-brimmed straw hats that protected from the sun but leaked in the rain. So after returning to the northeast with his consumption under control, John B. Stetson created a new sort of hat, which in time came to be known as the cowboy hat. (page 16)

Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence

Nicole recommended this book as a light book! A librarian writing about books! And she was RIGHT. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is Annie Spence writing about her favorite books and who doesn't want to read that? I mean, that's all I want to read, if you want to know the truth. I enjoyed Spence's humor, her takes on books (even when I don't agree), and have a huge list of books I want to read now.

I don't actually have a great review here. We have a librarian who grew up in small town Michigan (!) and writes about books. She never mentions A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Black Beauty, so there are some real failings in this book, but I appreciated the insider's view of the workings of a public library - she seems to really love libraries and understand the important role libraries play in American society - and enjoyed all of the time I spent with Annie. 4/5 stars

Lines of notes:

My husband buys series in mass-market paperbacks. And our books don't really "go" together. If someone were to judge who lives in our house based on our bookshefl, they would probably guess we were socialist botanists, equally obsessed with the Beatles and the best clothes for our body types, a couple who collects classic novels from Dumpsters and owns a dog that occasionally gnaws the corners of our already-shabby collection. And that's simply not true. We have a cat. (page 37)

This felt too real. 

Pages 66-67 about The Hobbit. I agree so much with this assessment. More hobbits! Less wandering!

The rest of you will be going in a box in the breezeway with a TAKE ME HOME! sign on you. I'm not going to lie. It's no picnic in there either. You'll be rifled through and thrown into haphazard piles by folks who can remember each of the eight hundred Harlequin titles they've read but forget every Friday that we close at 5:00. EVERY Friday, dammit. (page 107)

Ha ha ha!!! You know these women, right? The Harlequin women are legion and wonderful. So can one of those women tell me the title of the Harlequin romance novel I read when I was twelve with two twin women named Mary Margaret and Margaret Mary that was set in Boston?  There was a scene in that book where the hero did a meditation exercise with one of the women (lololol) and I literally used that strategy for going to sleep for years. I'd love to reread it. 

This John Waters quote (page 205) reminded me of a conversation Stephany and I had in the comments section of her AMA in which I said a non-reader would be a dealbreaker for me in a relationship. 

Things I looked up:

American Libraries "Read" posters (page 168) - School librarians across this land are upset that I didn't know these are STILL IN PRODUCTION.  I might have gone down a big rabbit hole here and I'm not afraid to share. I start with new ones, but then things get vintage.

ergodic literature (page 214) - a term coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his 1997 book Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Sinister hats. (page 169) - You guys, that's the full sentence. Imagine my joy. 

Here at the beach, I look like the unassuming reader in the one-piece, cloaked in multiple layers of SPF 70 a big brimmed hat. (page 123)

Books I want to read now:

Big Stone Gap series by Adriana Trigiani

Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim

The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Was She Pretty? by Leanne Shapton

In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians edited by Michael Cart

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski 

Amy Falls Down (Amy Gallup #2) by Jincy Willett - Would I have to read the first book in the series?

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

****************

Do you remember the READ posters? If you were able to get one, which one would you want?

Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels by Hannah Ross

Friends! Today is publication day for The Memory Palace: True Stories of the Past by the one and only Nate DiMeo. Just a reminder in case anyone wanted to get it from their library. 

My husband gave me Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels by Hannah Ross as a gift because he really wants me to become a cyclist, but the truth is that I mostly see riding my bicycle as a means of transportation and so I don't romanticize it the way he does. But I also really love that feeling when you haven't been on your bike in a while and then you get on it and you're super tall and you can go really fast and it makes you feel powerful, so maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite. ANYWAY. It took me years to read this book and I don't know why.

This book chronicles the rise of the bicycle in the late 1800s and how it was linked to women's rights, particularly women's suffrage and how the bicycle continues to have immeasurable impact on the lives of women today. From suffragettes who used bicycles to flee from arson crimes to Victorian ladies who chronicled their cycling adventures in best-selling travelogues to women competing in races today, this book covers the entire gamut of cycling history through a feminist lens. 

And that's what is stopping this book from being amazing. It's trying to cover too much! It's a bit disorganized to my eyes. It's not chronological, but keeps flipping back and forth in time. I sort of wish it had just really focused on cycling in the late 1800s and early 1900s and then she should have written a second book with the modern issues of women in cycling. There's certainly plenty of material for two books.

But I learned so much from this book and I honestly had no idea how important an invention the bicycle was! 

4/5 stars

Lines of note:

Sociologists now credit the bicycle with a decrease in genetic faults associated with inbreeding in the U.K., and as early as the 1900s, the U.S. Census Office identified the invention as a game-changer: "Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle." (page 18-19)

Egads!! I never even thought about it, but what an important step towards travel more than a few miles away from your home. 

She held up cycling as pivotal in helping the cause of dress reform...(page 49)

This is what I really thought was interesting. "Rational" dressing to make women's clothing safer and easier to wear was around before bicycles, but it didn't really take off until the impetus of dressing to ride became more widespread. 

In the 1850s, Amelia [Jenks Bloomer], alongside fellow feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Elizabeth Smith Miller, started wearing billowy Turkish-style trousers which came to the ankle and a knee-length skirt or dress over the top. it was named the "freedom dress," much as Susan B. Anthony later referred to the bicycle as a "freedom-machine" - both represented independence and autonomy through freedom of movement. (page 49)

I'm going to start calling my bike my "freedom-machine."

A 2019 survey carried out in San Francisco showed that only 13 percent of cyclists in the city are women of color, with Asian and Hispanic women the least represented - a low figure when you consider that 34 percent of the population of the city are women of color. Many of those interviewed said that "women like me" don't bike, that they saw it as a predominantly young, white, male activity. As ever, representation matters. The problem isn't isolated to San Francisco, but an issues across the county and elsewhere.*

* This is far from a problem just in the United States. In London, for instance, black, Asian and minority ethnic groups- across both genders - account for only around 15 percent of the city's cycle trips despite making up 41 percent of the city's population. (page 91)

Now that I read this, it makes so much sense. Most cyclists I see are white men. *sigh*

Freedom, mobility, autonomy and fearlessness are core the group's [the Ovarian Psycos Bicycle Brigade - a cycling group for "womxn" of color] ethos, something Xela [de la X, a musician and community activist] felt she was acutely lacking when she was growing up. While her brothers were free to roam, she was largely confined indoors - take up space in the streets with her cycling sisters is an act of defiance. Some of the other members say they also weren't encouraged to ride as children, because their parents' generations didn't' think it was something girls should do; others said that they rode as children but gave up when they got older due to harassment or disapproval. (page 94) 

Sad. Parents, let's try to keep those girls riding those bikes for as long as we can!

While she [Elizabeth Robins Pennell, cycling memoirist of the 1880s and 1890s] may be a bit of a snob, she's often witty and acerbic, such as her observation that the tour groups who had once "wept over the sublimities of nature which they could not see for their tears," now barely glance at the landscape and "let their feelings loose upon illustrated postcards" instead. I dread to think what she would have made of twenty-first-century selfie culture. (page 160)

This entire paragraph made me chortle. 

When I type "women solo travel" into Google, "Is solo female travel safe?" is one of the first things that comes up under the "People also ask" section. Yet the idea of men going it alone in the wilderness has always been accepted and celebrated as a masculine rite of passage, the rugged frozen-beard archetypes who resort to eating their dogs as they cross Antarctica or the intrepid adventurers getting lost in the Amazon and living with an undiscovered tribe. Their stories are embedded in our history, with accounts by women who've done similar journeys often forgotten and overlooked. The writer Kate Harris, who has cycled the length of the Silk Road, observed that women explorers are too often bracketed as making such journeys as a way to "find themselves," in response to an emotional crisis of some kind. Such an outlook restricts female adventuring to an Eat Pray Love self-discovery narrative, and a way of feminizing their experiencer. They aren't seen as exploring for the sake of adventure, but rather fleeing from something. 

It's also true that while men are free to be rugged, fearless and independent explorers, women who want to do the same regularly complain that they are subjected to interrogations about their plans, a list of risks they could encounters and moral judgments if they have children. (page 191-192)

Yeah, I have to admit that Ross spent a great deal of time chronicling Annie Londonderry's ride around the world in 1894-1895 and all I really wanted Ross to tell me was who was taking care of her children back home. I know full well it wasn't her husband, so who was sacrificing her life (you know it was a woman) so that Londonderry could ride around unencumbered for a year. 

And it felt shitty, but I was judging Londonderry hard-core throughout the entire story. I am 100% positive I would not have judged a man. 

Things I looked up:

fin-de-siècle (page 18) - a French term meaning 'end of century'; without context, the term is typically used to refer to the end of the 19th century

soigneur (page 223) - a non-riding member of a racing team whose role is to provide support (such as massages, supplies, and transportation) for the cyclists.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Maria [Ward] is in the center wearing what looks like rationals, with the other women mostly in long skirts, puff-sleeved blouses and fancy hats, while the men wear knee-length breeches, long socks and straw boaters. (page 69)

Mary [Kingsley] wasn't so keen to be labeled a "New Woman," however, deeming the question of women's suffrage of minor importance and making her way through the jungle in the traditional nineteenth-century English attire of long dress, hat and umbrella. (page 161)

One pictures shows Elsa [von Blumen] wearing buttoned-up leather ankle boots, a peaked hat, and neatly fitting bloomers and jacket, with a little fringed skirt over the top; no female high-wheeler would have risked a long skirt. (page 228)

Maud Watson, winner of the first ever Wimbledon ladies' singles title, did so wearing an all-white ensemble of woolen ankle-length skirt complete with small bustle, long-sleeved silk blouse and sailor hat. (page 232)