Winning the Earthquake by Lorissa Rinehart

WINNING THE EARTHQUAKE by Lorissa Rinehart is about “How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress.” Rinehart, described as a women’s historian, author, speaker and regular Substack contributor, is clearly enthusiastic about Rankin and her accomplishments. The text presents Rankin in a very favorable light while providing details about her 1880’s childhood in rural Montana and her subsequent work with the poor in New York and San Francisco. Rinehart makes a convincing argument that Rankin’s “formative years in Montana taught her that society functioned best when men and women participated equally. Her work in San Francisco proved that women led the way when it came to grassroots enactment of Progressive reform. [And] Her education … underscored the necessity of government regulation in bringing about holistic change on a large scale.” I already knew that Rankin was a pacifist and had served in Congress, but I did not realize that she was first elected to Congress in 1916, four years before the right to vote was granted to women nationwide. I also did not realize that she had voted against US involvement in both World Wars (believing that “you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”) and that she was active (while in her nineties) in protesting the Vietnam War. This is a very accessible text brimming with details; with roughly a fourth of the book devoted to Notes. WINNING THE EARTHQUAKE received a starred review from Library Journal which said, “This superb biography of the first woman elected to Congress deserves a place on every public and academic library bookshelf.”

The Story of My Anger by Jasminne Mendez

The aptly titled THE STORY OF MY ANGER by Jasminne Mendez has been published just in time for Banned Book Week (Oct. 5 to 11, 2025). Mendez writes about Yuli, a Texas high school junior and young woman of color, who is struggling to be seen, to find her voice, and to use her anger in a constructive manner. She and her friends (Aleeyah, Ty, and Madison) have bonded over their love of theater and music despite not being cast for leading roles in the local school plays, like Our Town. (At one point, Yuli muses: … but if Black girls like me/are never given the chance/ to play the part of Emily/how are we ever expected to feel/like we're a part of this great/American story?) In addition to using poetry and verse, including haiku (It's not my skin that's/a problem, it's their lack of/imagination.), Mendez also employs stage directions and play structure to help set the scenes. In this way, readers learn that the friends value Mr. G and the way his Ethnic Studies class introduces them to a variety of authors (like Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, or Yuli’s favorite, Ntozake Shange) and viewpoints. The classmates are understandably upset and frustrated when the classroom library is removed by the administration, and they stage a protest and petition to get the books re-instated. Tensions escalate and emotions flare for Yuli, her activist brother, and supportive Mami. Based in part on events from 2012, THE STORY OF MY ANGER received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus (“A compelling drama with a firecracker protagonist that stuns with its strikingly beautiful writing”). Jasminne Mendez is Pura Belpré Honor Award recipient and a Dominican-American poet, playwright and author of several books for children and adults. The Spanish language edition of THE STORY OF MY ANGER will be available in mid-November. I read this very engaging story in a day. Highly recommended.

Hazel Says No by Jessica Berger Gross

HAZEL SAYS NO by Jessica Berger Gross is certainly a roller coaster of a read. Set in Riverburg Maine, the novel features a family transplanted from Brooklyn: high school senior Hazel Greenberg Blum; her middle school brother, Wolf, who loves to act; professor and frustrated writer Dad named Gus; and Claire, fashion designer Mom. Settling in over the summer, things seem to be going well, but during the first day of school Hazel is propositioned by the high school principal and that event sets off a cascade of reactions. There’s plenty of hate mail and self-questioning; shunning of both kids; parenting crises and career angst for Gus and Claire… and then (that roller coaster) … media interest, trips to New York, local support, and new friends. The audiobook, excellently narrated by Emma Galvin, captures the shock, the sadness, the anger, the self-doubt, the creativity, the joy, the relief… This debut novel deftly explores societal themes (#MeToo; white privilege, antisemitism, small town insularity) while telling a coming-of-age story – mostly for Hazel, but for her parents and younger brother, too, as they all mature and change. In fact, Berger Gross makes the point rather obviously: “it was Wolf’s big monologue [in Charlotte’s Web] and he remembered, he FELT every word: Whatever will happen, will happen. I may not live as long as I'd like, but I've lived very well. A good life is much more important than just having a long life. So starting now, I'm going to stop worrying about myself. There are more important things than just thinking about yourself all the time.” HAZEL SAYS NO could be triggering; it contains some difficult moments and sensitive content; this title received a starred review from Booklist. 

Hazel's reading list:  “Remembering how good reading made her feel - grounded and alive. She’d read as much as she could before college. Virginia Woolf and bell hooks. Jhumpa Lahiri and Lauren Groff. Celeste Ng and Lorrie Moore, Curtis Sittenfeld and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Elena Ferrante and Sheila Heti and Min Jin Lee and Jennifer Egan and more Zadie Smith.” 

The Ride by Kostya Kennedy

THE RIDE by Kostya Kennedy is subtitled “Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America,” but this book encompasses so much more. Kennedy, an award-winning author, writes about the others (William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, possibly Sybil Ludington) who rode that night and about the other rides which Revere undertook on behalf of the Sons of Liberty. This text is full of fascinating facts and additional insight into Revere’s character and motivation. For example, he describes Revere’s life as an adolescent and the friendships formed then (one of Revere’s sons is named for fellow Patriot Joseph Warren). Another interesting tangent is the discussion of the portrait by John Singleton Copley, saying “You step away from the portrait and you come back to it, and you recognize something of the irreverent. You get the strong feeling that Paul Revere is up to something.”. THE RIDE (which includes an extensive bibliography) received a starred review from Booklist and praise from other reviews like Library Journal (“An important book for readers seeking a deeper understanding of a crucial moment in American history. It will captivate history scholars, students, and enthusiasts from start to finish”). Definitely worth a read and reflection on America’s founding values.

The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior

As today is a National Day of Hands Off protest, I thought I would post about a new book from a prolific social commentator. She writes, “Lincoln warned in 1838 that if the United States of America died it would be by its own hand. But what we have is more like assisted suicide. It is easy to love your homeland and hate your government. I've done it all my life and consider myself in the company of patriots…. You love it like a child and you love it like a parent, with an irrational depth and the fiercest desire to protect it from harm. You mourn the lost leverage of the ordinary American -- of elections, of courts, of protest, of documentation. You remember when those things seemed to matter or at least when the powerful felt obligated to pretend they did.” THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP by Sarah Kendzior (The View from Flyover Country) is generally VERY well-written, but oh so sad as America experiences such an unnecessary demise.

Just a couple of weeks into the new administration, Publishers Weekly described this text as a “poignant portrait of life in the Trump era.” I read (and listened to) a preview of THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP a few months ago and found then that I had to do so in shorts bursts – partly to reflect on her emotional writing and partly because this book can be upsetting. Given the events of the past two months, Kendzior’s comments seem even more prescient (and distressing) now. Kendzior writes at length and with much affection about Missouri, Mark Twain, and her efforts to expose her own children to the American Heartland between 2016 and now, saying, “A lot has changed since we first hit the road. My daughter went from being a fourth grader to a twelfth grader. My son went from being a kindergartner to an eighth grader. And the United States went from being a flawed democracy to a burgeoning autocracy; we drove past the point of no return and kept on driving.” She writes so expressively; for example, “raising children in the world running out of time means contending with two clocks ticking at once: the moments you spend with them as they grew up and the years left for your country, for the planet, for everyone. The first clock is a marvel of memory. The second a countdown to doom. You cannot live your life by these clocks, only alongside them. You forge ahead regardless of the odds because that is your obligation as a parent.”

I could keep quoting from THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP for quite a while, but end with this reflection: “The people who want to destroy my country are banking on us not missing America. To miss America is to remember America. To remember America is to explore America. To explore America is to see the best and worst in everything -- to reconcile, to repent.” 

Banned Together compiled by Ashley Hope Pérez

It’s not often that one sees a title with starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, but a new book intended for high school students achieved just that. Dedicated to “brave readers everywhere who persist when cowards try to erase stories and communities from libraries,” BANNED TOGETHER is edited by Ashley Hope Pérez and illustrated by Debbie Fong. In order to chronicle “Our Fight for Readers' Rights,” Pérez has compiled contributions (essays, poetry, drawings) from sixteen authors like Ellen Hopkins, Kyle Lukoff, and Nikki Grimes whose work has been challenged or banned. Also included is a short graphic novel type story about The Vandegrift Banned Book Club in Leander, Texas. Booklist says, “this collection movingly reminds readers of the power they have against censorship.” Check out a copy today. 

Another tool for restricting information is to limit library funding as evidenced in a recent executive order intent on dismantling "the only federal agency dedicated to sustaining the entire museum and library ecosystem in the United States." Please see the American Libraries Association page of FAQs about the recent executive order impacting IMLS, The Institute of Museum and Library Services. The ALA suggests several actions to take now. More information is available through news stories such as those found at The Conversation, the Associated Press, and NPR or from other advocacy groups like EveryLibrary.

Seven Social Movements that Changed America

SEVEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA by Linda Gordon is a penetrating look at events and happenings during the twentieth century. Gordon, an author and historian who has won numerous prizes for her biography of Dorthea Lange, reflects on several movements that still reverberate today. For example, one is the early work on old age pensions, eventually included in the Social Security Act of 1935, and highlighting the elderly as an activist political force. Other chapters discuss the efforts to unionize farm workers, promote civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, and the subsequent women’s liberation movement. A more distressing example is the influence of the Ku Klux Klan (developed even further in Gordon’s 2017 text The Second Coming of the KKK) – and echoed, sadly, in the “very fine people on both sides” comments about the white nationalists protesting in Charlottesville. Gordon writes, “I am telling these stories [the seven social movements] in a way designed to reveal their commonalities as well as their distinctiveness.” Her tone is rather academic, and she argues that “‘followers’ often exerted vital but less often-recognized leadership.” Whether she is exploring early settlement houses and the fight against poverty, or efforts to establish job programs in the 1930s, her text offers researchers and scholars a thoughtful analysis and many details of value. At least a fourth of the book lists references and footnotes.

Resist by Rita Omokha

RESIST by Rita Omokha is subtitled “How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” The author is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In RESIST she traces people and events from the 1920s (time of Scottsboro Nine) through the Civil Rights Era (Brown v. Board and education) to protests over Trayvon Martin and George Floyd and beyond. In late 2020 Omokha traveled over 13,000 miles (thirty states in thirty-two days); she spoke with 127 people and several of their stories are included. Omokha calls herself a storyteller ("drawn to the unsung. To the disenfranchised. To those often relegated to the shadows.") and says it is "important for me to make history personal." Her eloquent writing is filled with emotion: “Today's youth have become a generation forced to witness, from infancy, the perpetuation of injustice and the normalization of othering and subjugation. But in recent years, when such injustices occur, these atrocities pop up on their screens nonstop.” I learned much from Omokha’s book and the social justice efforts of people like Ella Baker, the Bates Seven at NYU, and defenders of the Jena Six, students at a Louisiana high school. Plus, she highlights numerous new – to me – details about other, more famous, activists or events (e.g., Obama’s 1981 speech against apartheid in South Africa). Omokha has included extensive notes and a helpful index. RESIST received a starred review from Booklist (“both incredibly detailed and accessibly readable … an essential text”).

Banned Books Week 2024

Do not forget that it is Banned Books Week ... click on the banner below for links to all kinds of activities and downloads from the American Library Association and Unite Against Banned Books:

The Politics of Gen Z and Polarized by Degrees

THE POLITICS OF GEN Z by Melissa Deckman describes “How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy.” Deckman, political scientist and the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, looks at voters born between 1997 and 2012 and their growing political participation. She cites interviews and research supporting the increasingly left-leaning activism of women and those concerned with LGBTQ rights; and also notes that young men in this age cohort tend to be more conservative. An entire chapter looks at “gendered spaces” in relation to issues like gun violence, climate change, and income inequality. Almost half of the book is devoted to an Index, Notes section and an extensive Methodological Appendix which includes data, statistics, and numerous graphs. Deckman’s text is an academic one that uses surveys, focus groups, and social science research to argue “the gendered political revolution is underway. Its roots are deep…” For an excellent overview and summary of her arguments, here is an interview with Deckman from PBS NewsHour:

 

In POLARIZED BY DEGREES, Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins have focused on “How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics.” Grossmann, Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, and Hopkins, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College, assert that “a growing ‘diploma divide’ has rapidly reversed the traditional relationship between education and partisanship, now separating degree-holding white Democrats from degree-lacking white Republicans.” They note that the combination of trends like increased educational attainment and a leftward shift in American cultural norms “has also left whites without a college degree - who maintain relatively traditionalist predispositions, hold increasingly precarious economic positions, and perceive themselves as vulnerable to downward social mobility - open to populist appeals that promote resentment of, and mobilization against, members of the cultural elite like professional journalists, educators, scientists, and intellectuals.” I have included that excerpt both for content and as an example of the often-verbose style. Numerous scholars and students (see the acknowledgements) provided feedback and input for this text; researchers interested in this topic will find much to explore in the many Notes and detailed Index which together comprise about a third of the text. Recent political discussions do feel as though we do not have shared experiences or speak a common language so I just had to add the blurb for POLARIZED BY DEGREES from The New York Times’ Thomas Edsall: “essential reading for everyone trying to figure out what the hell is going on in American politics.”

What's Next by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack

WHAT'S NEXT by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack lives up to its subtitle: “A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service.” Fitzgerald played Carol on The West Wing and is known for her work as an actor, producer and social justice advocate (affiliated with organizations like Voices in Harmony and All Rise). McCormack, another actor, producer and activist, played Deputy National Security Advisor Kate Harper. Together they have compiled a series of stories and interviews which cover the inception of the show, the casting decisions, various episodes and the many, many service projects supported by the cast. The provocative and excellent Aaron Sorkin television series first aired twenty-five years ago (9/22/99) and still has impact today, as described, for example, in this recent New York Times opinion piece. True fans (“wing-nuts”) may already know much of what Fitzgerald and McCormack share, they will love purusing this book and the many memories it evokes. I began happily re-watching the first season – the pilot is still amazing.

The Movement by Clara Bingham

THE MOVEMENT by Clara Bingham is about “How Women's Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973.” Bingham (Witness to the Revolution) is an award-winning journalist and author. She has divided her latest text into sections that deal chronologically with events and people relevant to the women’s liberation movement. She has interviewed more than 100 women and consulted primary documents in order to write about topics like abortion, the formation of NOW, the role of Shirley Chisholm, and publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves. But there is so much more as Bingham once again cleverly utilizes contemporary voices to truly convey an important and tumultuous time in American history. THE MOVEMENT received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (“Readers will be electrified.”) and Booklist recommends it for teen researchers, saying “This provides a wealth of information for report writers presented in a uniquely accessible format.”

The Age Of Grievance by Frank Bruni

THE AGE OF GRIEVANCE by Frank Bruni is a new work of non-fiction which covers politics and of which his publisher says, “there’s a potentially devastating erosion of the civility, common ground, and compromise necessary for our democracy to survive. How did we get here?” Bruni points to numerous examples, some all the more relevant with the number of arrests in recent days on college campuses.  He does offer “The Antidote,” as his final chapter is titled: there, he describes humility, humility from political leaders, from journalists, from activists, and from ourselves.  Unfortunately, his text seems rather biased, condescending, even a bit whiny - all the things that he is urging readers to avoid. For example, he writes, “Not all grievances are created equal. … There is January 6, 2021, and there is everything else. Attempts by leaders on the right to minimize what happened that day and lump it together with protests on the left are as ludicrous as they are dangerous.” Despite the legitimacy of his point, it does not seem consistent with attempts to foster dialogue and toleration. Have a look and decide for yourself, but also spend some time with texts like The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee - a much more positive take on how we can come together. Bruni himself also provides an excellent list of roughly three dozen titles for “further reading.”

The Weight of Nature by Clayton Page Aldern

Since it is Earth Day it seemed appropriate to look at a couple of new climate related texts:

THE WEIGHT OF NATURE by Clayton Page Aldern is subtitled “How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains.” Aldern, a neuroscientist turned award-winning environmental journalist, looks at both the emotional and physical impacts on people from changes in nature. For example, he discusses PTSD triggered by more wildfires or the increased range for bats and mosquitoes (and the diseases they spread like rabies or Zika) due to higher temperatures. In addition to infection or trauma, the text explores memory, cognition, and behavior. Aldern stresses that hotter temperatures lead to more aggressiveness and make it harder to concentrate and focus. Other chapters which look at pain, sensing, and language are where he notes that “a changing climate also threatens our ability to notice some of the signals most relevant to our survival.” He describes examples of how water temperature and ocean acidification can impact crustacean olfactory systems or how pesticides “impair the homing abilities of honeybees.” Just reflect on the trees and plants in your neighborhood and how they seemed “confused” about when to bud or when to drop leaves, especially after periods of unusual cold or warmth or record-setting precipitation. Aldern documents his years of research in a section titled Notes and Further Reading which comprises roughly twenty percent of the text. Somewhat rambling in places, THE WEIGHT OF NATURE received a starred review from Kirkus (“a unique—and uniquely disturbing—addition to the literature”). 

BEFORE IT’S GONE by Jonathan Vigliotti, national correspondent for CBS News, is subtitled “Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America.” And Vigliotti does indeed write movingly about the devastation due to wildfire (and human errors) at Lahaina, Hawaii. In another section, he writes rather humorously about the “kamikaze iguanas” who in cold temperatures fall out of trees in South Florida. In short, this book is geographically and thematically all over the place. His preface (about Hawaii) and prologue (about climate change in Syria) raise some of his concerns but don’t really provide any guideposts for his readers. Then, BEFORE IT’S GONE is divided into four sections: Fire, Water, Air and Earth, although Vigliotti readily admits that “most if not all environmental disasters are fueled by more than just one element.” Yes, he introduces readers to local activists – one especially poignant section is about the increased suicide rate for farmers in Minnesota – but he does not clearly lay out a coherent argument, seemingly presenting more sensationalized (including some unnecessarily vulgar language) tales. His statistics are supported in a Notes section that is about fifteen pages. This is a widespread (“in 2021, 14.5 million American homes were affected by environmental disasters that figure works out to one in 10 homes in the country”) and expensive (“according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), between 2020 and 2023 the United States was hammered by more than eighty billion-dollar environmental disasters that destabilized highly developed communities”) issue. Perhaps attempting to personalize these trends will prompt action, but this text felt too disjointed and not focused enough on the small-town America referenced in its subtitle.