Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

While this book sheds light on a system that discriminates against those who can't get government assistance, it was a bit of a slog listening to 8 families living in poverty in Milwaukee. While I like narrative nonfiction and the research was extensive, I thought the stories got repetitive and confusing as the author liked interweaving their stories switching from one to the other in the middle of chapters. The audio book was not a good choice for me.

The vicious cycle of drugs, bad laws, slumlords, discrimination, health issues, and a host of problems bombards the listener. Only one of the eight individuals followed by the author breaks out of poverty and finds a stable job, but he had a professional job before succumbing to drugs; I thought his chance of finding stability was higher than the others. The other families and individuals seemed to have more obstacles to overcome from violent upbringings, low-wage jobs that weren't stable, physical disabilities, and mental issues. All of the families had multiple evictions and the majority tossed out of their homes were women and children.

A common stereotype is that people in poverty have only themselves to blame: they spend too much money, they are uneducated, they lack skills or intelligence to break out of the cycle, etc. Matthew Desmond hypothesizes that the problem with poverty is that it is profitable. The owner of a trailer park, that was barely habitable for tenants, makes $400,000 a year in profits. Another landlord drives her sports car and travels to Jamaica making a good profit on her tenants. Desmond shows the injustice of a system that denies people the right to live in a house and the social costs to communities. He argues that it is destructive and more costly to society in the long run than if a home and a stable community is established for those in need. He is not opinionated but lets the facts speak for themselves. This book reminds me of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo who looks at those who profit from the slums of India.

This book is better read than listened too. The abundance of details can derail the casual listener. I kept shoving the earbuds deeper into my head so I could drown out the usual background gym noise. But some things stand out. While black men are ending up in jail as revealed in The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, this book shows how black women are being evicted at extremely high rates. One out of five black women is evicted, as opposed to one in twelve white women. Desmond shows time and again how the main thing holding poor people back is rent. He also shows how government funding programs meant to help the poor end up in the pockets of the landlord. At the end, he argues for more public housing vouchers as one way to address the issue. This is an important dialogue and while it made for dense (and sometimes confusing) listening, it was worth the effort.

5 Smileys

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Joe Rantz is an unlikely hero in this nonfiction tale about nine boys that went to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The son of a tinkerer who had many jobs, Joe was kicked out of his family home during the Depression because they were not able to feed him and his stepmom didn't want him around. He had to fend for himself as a ten-year-old and later as a teenager as hard times hit. This upbringing made the college-age Joe that went out for the rowing team, much different than a kid of growing up privileged. Rowing requires mental and physical toughness that tests athletes in extreme ways. Joe had the right makeup, but he also needed to learn to trust his fellow teammates. The author shows how Joe matures along with the other nine rowers in a way that make them stronger as one unit versus individually. This inspirational book was hard for me to put down.

Daniel James Brown learned about Joe's rowing career directly from him and other family members and it sure-as-heck shows in the plot. Brown's intimate details on Joe's feelings make it read like a narration, brimming with drama and suspense. The story is rounded out with historical details on the Depression and the war as German Nazi's rose to power. The details of foliage, trees, and animals from the Northwest create a strong setting and it is easy to get lost in the story as it unfolds.

The details of rowing do not bog down the plot as it is balanced by the emotional, human story of Joe Rantz's strange upbringing. Brown juggles the story elements well and uses tension in competition, The Depression, and Nazi Germany to ratchet the drama up several notches. The cheating that was done to try to win the race does paint the Germans as one-dimensional villains, but Brown also shows Germany's attempt to be equal with other world powers. The Ministry of Propaganda was a ruthless way to push a glorified image of Germany that hid its dark intolerant and superior side.

This tale reminded me of "Unbroken," because it is a story of triumph and survival in difficult times. Brown's research is impressive as he tackles the intricacies of rowing along with giving a historical overview of the tough times facing people in the 1930s. He dramatizes the slumps the rowers go through during different seasons and builds to an exciting climax. My husband and I just moved to Seattle and are going to trek to the University of Washington's Conibear Shellhouse to see the "Husky Clipper" rowboat that was used in the 1936 games. I can't wait. Don't miss this one.

5 Smileys

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

I take for granted growing up in a culture as a middle class kid who got a public education that gave me access to college. College meant a career. A career meant a roof over my head. A roof meant food on my plate each day. I have been taking college courses most of my life and that's because my public education gave me the foundation to go there. What if education in a public school was so bad I could never pass a college entrance exam? What if the justice system was so corrupt I could get falsely accused by others and become a victim because a neighbor was jealous I was making more money than her or him? What if my family was starving and I had to work instead of going to school? Linda Sue Park's "A Long Walk to Water" explains how African children collect water daily for survival spending hours walking to a watering hole. Going to school meant no water for the family. In this terrific narrative nonfiction, Katherine Boo shows life in India, specifically the Annawadi slum, where the public education system is so corrupt that teachers don't teach, where hospitals don't dispense medicine, where the police are brutal, where justice in the courts exists around bribes and lies. While life appears hopeless, it is not.

The cast or caste of characters is manyfold from the abused Meena, who dreads her arranged marriage and wants more from life but doesn't know how to get it resulting in her swallowing rat poison, to Abdul, who is falsely accused of beating a woman who commits suicide by setting herself on fire. Even though hundreds of witnesses saw that Abdul didn't commit the crime, he ends up in the legal system for years resulting in the loss of a good business and savings. The message of women having so few options in their culture and the abuse heaped on many in a patriarchal society is one that results in many choosing suicide. The recent international hoopla over rape cases in India is just another indicator of harmful societal norms toward women, although Boo doesn't show rape happening in the slum but prostitution as a way to earn money.

Boo's account could have become preachy, but she sticks with letting the story speak for itself in an understated tone that adds more power and depth than if she had cried foul at the injustices that happen over and over and over again in her story. She avoids stereotypes of poor people and creates a community where people cling to the hope of a better life and opportunity to break out of a system bent on holding them down in poverty. Don't expect any in-depth economical explanation of what put these people where they are and economic trends that have fostered slums in India. Don't expect point-of-views from police, government, teachers, or hospital personnel. This story focuses on the dramatic situation of human conditions in the Annawadi slum, but does not manipulate the reader's emotions by being overly sentimental.

Around the corner of the slum where Asha and her children live is a one-legged woman named Fatima who died after setting herself on fire. Fatima's character is portrayed not as a one-dimensional villain, but a complex human who acts out of frustrations born of living in a slum and being labeled as a cripple. We understand her fury at being defined by a physical deformity. We feel her bottomless pit of wanting to matter to others to the point that she will prostitute herself, even set herself on fire in an attempt to manipulate those around her. She has been victimized her whole life so it is not surprising when she victimizes her neighbors, the Husains, in a fit of jealousy and anger. Why someone would set themself on fire because their neighbor was renovating a wall seems so absurd until you step into the community of Annawadi where survival is cutthroat and violent. Did Fatima know she'd go to a hospital where she would get no care? We don't know. Probably. We do know that she liked the attention she got there. Did Fatima know she would die? I don't think so. I don't think she knew her extreme actions for attention and bringing down her neighbors would kill her in the end. I don't think she knew that she could die from her burns which makes her story all the more tragic.

Fatima concocts her lie because Adul, the Husain's son has a profitable business selling recyclables and garbage as five-star luxury hotels keep building around the slum and dumping more refuse; a reflection of India's rapid growth in a global economy. The Husain's have a T.V., are tiling their floor, have money for an extra plot, and are remodeling their kitchen. They look like they just might make it out of the Annawadi slum life for something better. Fatima wants to bring them down. When Abdul, his sister, and his father are falsely accused of causing her suicide, the corruption of the police, justice system, and complex bribing that occurs shows an unfair society that destroys any chance the Husain's had of leaving the slum. On the outset, life would seem hopeless, but Boo portrays the resiliency and ingenuity of the tenants that shows hope.

Asha's character is particularly interesting because of how far she will go to get ahead in the slum. She is willing to work the corruption of the system in a way that allows her to not only send her daughter to school, but put her through college. Her daughter, Manju, tries to be good and moral, but maintaining standards in a society where they don't exist seems impossible. Manju is judgmental of her mother at first, but later realizes that she would not have had the opportunities she had if her mother hadn't worked the system. She knows that the value of life is not held in high regard in the slum. People are murdered and no one is punished. A man is run over by a taxi and people walk by him all day. His cries for help go unanswered. It isn't until he is dead that his body is carted off. A young man is brutally murdered by the police and the morgue reported his death as sickness. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" made me think of the dystopian picture book "Ship Breaker," by Paolo Bacigalupi, that shows a society ruled by scavenging for waste and full of corruption and drugs.

The drug of choice in the slum is Erazex, a type of whiteout fluid for correcting mistakes on paper that can be found in large quantities at the dump. When sniffed the fluid not only gives the person a high but takes the edge off hunger pains. This alternative food source can be addicting and Boo describes the skeletal looks of one person who was hooked on it. This wasn't the majority of people and most tried to avoid addiction. While the slum had some explosive problems, it also had a daily life that hummed with some normalcy from the public toilet where teenage girls would gossip and hang-out with friends, to the boys that entertained each other with stories, and the families enjoying their children. It was not all doom and gloom or portrayed with complete hopelessness. This book made me think about what opportunities low-income people have or have not in structured societies all over the world. The theme and symbol of waste and garbage in a global society where people survive is one that touches all of us, especially in wasteful industrial societies. This glimpse into the structure or life style of people in poor communities is the strength of this story for it makes me look at the wrongs in my own culture and wonder what I can do to make it right. The best stories are ones that inspire change and this one does just that.

Adult
5 Smileys

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

When the Red River crested in 1997 the water was filling up the streets like a bathtub and moving so fast I couldn't get sandbags piled around our house quick enough. My husband was working and I was chiseling ice off the grass so the water wouldn't seep under the sandbags. I knew it was a losing battle and plugged desperately away lugging 40 pound bags in a semicircle as the water inched closer. When a college student popped around the house saying loudly, "Hey, you need some help?" I thought an angel had dropped from the sky. Then another angel showed up. And another. And another. They didn't stop coming and before I knew it more kids than I could count were whipping up a sandbag wall. Exhaustion and gratitude made me just about sit on a sandbag and cry. The three local colleges released students that day and told them to help residents in one of the worst floods of the century. Students had a choice. They could have enjoyed a free day or they could help others. They chose to give and the students not only saved my house, they saved many other homes and businesses from flooding. It was an amazing experience for adults and students. Kids make a difference and it might mean saving a town from a natural disaster or in the case of the Birmingham Children's March portrayed in this book, forcing desegregation and influencing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed acts of discrimination.

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most racially divided cities in the country. The government and police force were corrupt with supremacists and many blacks were murdered or abused; fear oozed in the town making everyone victims of oppression. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) wanted to change the subhuman treatment of blacks and integrate public places. They first staged boycotts and later sit-ins, but the police brutality made it difficult for them to get enough numbers to be effective. Their goal was to use nonviolent direct action protests to draw national media attention, shut down the city, and fill up the jails with more people than it could contain. Even with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. the adults could not get enough recruits to implement the plan and their civil rights movement looked like it would stall.

When a 24-year-old preacher joined their cause, he came up with the idea of using children to fill the Birmingham jails since there were not enough adult volunteers. Students went to mass meetings and workshops that simulated not retaliating when someone was jeering or hurting them. The nonfiction narrative is told through the voices of Audrey, Wash, James, and Arnetta. The four represent different economic statuses that gives a well-rounded retelling of this time period from different perspectives. The wealthy black's experience was not quite the same as the one living in poverty.

The courage it took for thousands of kids to demonstrate against a corrupt government and racist people is nothing short of amazing. The police were brutal. The kids knew this. They knew they were risking their lives and injury by marching on the town in protest of segregation, but they did it anyway. They did it for freedom. For a future. They succeeded but not without deaths and injury. The first march had the police releasing dogs on the kids and hitting them with water from fire hoses. The water pressure was great enough to throw kids and adults in the air tumbling them into buildings and other objects. The next march was met with police resistance where they doubled the fire hose power and the force was so powerful it sheared the hair off the side of one kid's head when it hit her. But the kids succeeded in their goal. They got national attention and the city desegregated. It was ugly and didn't happen overnight, but it eventually came to pass.

The black and white photos mirror the black and white attitudes with the facts on the side enriching the text. The photos added to the setting and showed the violence but not in a disturbingly graphic way. The photo of the black girl holding the sign, "Can a man love God and hate his brother," while a white policeman confiscates it is particularly powerful. My favorite subtext of facts is on the first page that explains derogatory names blacks were called by whites and the history of how black people referred to themselves and why today they settled on African American. My Taiwanese-born library assistants like to call kids, "boy or girl." I had to explain that they can't get students attention by saying, "Hey boy," because of it's derogatory meaning that started with white slave owners putting down blacks to keep them in servitude and bondage.

The start of this story is wrought with tension that doesn't let up through its entire 150 pages. Audrey is 9 years old and announces to her parents, "'I want to go to jail.' ...Since Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick's thought that was a good idea, they helped her get ready." What a great lead to pull the reader into the story. Black history tends to be tense with the emotionally charged injustices that happen, but the tension was even more heightened for me because these were children and I'm not sure they all understood what they were actually going up against. James point of view shows just that - he didn't think jail would be as bad and inhumane as it was in reality. The writing is well-done and I particularly liked the author's articulation of civil disobedience and prejudices: "People breathe in the prejudices in their culture without any understanding of what they're taking in," "there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression [Martin Luther King Jr.]" and "Sobered by racism. Angry about violence. Determined to gain civil rights." These child protestors had to face a "mighty enemy" with no fear and their courage is an inspiration for all.
Reading Level 7.1
5 Smileys

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

When Harry Gold heard FBI agents knocking on his door, he scrambled to flush evidence of his treasonous actions down the toilet, but when they examined his office, and the map spilled on the floor, he knew the spy game was up. Thus begins this true story of the building of the atomic bomb. Stop right there. Time out. Imagine ear-piercing weather sirens giving you a split second warning before your body gets sucked (hands first) into the inky black vortex of an oncoming tornado. Don't say I didn't warn you! Books like these make me walk and read at the same time; falling down steps, walking into trees, and burning every meal that requires a flip of a burner switch. A tornado could come and I wouldn't even know it - nada, zippo, zilch.

Nothing like a bit of melodrama to jack up a review, don't you know. Not that this book is melodramatic. Shoot we are dealing with physicists. Oppenheimer is such a dippo that he goes on a date with a girl, parks the car with her, tells her he is going for a walk and completely forgets her in his car. She calls the police thinking something has happened to him and they find Oppie asleep in his bed at home. He explains that he forgot about her while contemplating theoretical physics. Uff da, and I thought my brain was scattered. Trust me, this is just one of many delicious details you'll eat up in this nonfiction story.

My journalism side admires Steve Sheinkin's creative use of quotations mixed with descriptive writing to create a strong sense of suspense and characterization. The description of Carl Eifler gives a clear picture of the character, "The thirty-seven-year-old Eifler already had a reputation for reckless bravery. Wounded by flying metal scraps earlier in the war, he'd pull out his pockektnife and dug the steel from his thigh. His idea of fun was to shoot cigarettes out of his friends' mouths." On his way to the CIA headquarters, Eifler spots a lawyer who once criticized him in a report and he "seized him by his jacket, lifted him off the floor, and smacked his back into the wall. Eifler leaned in close, glaring in the man's eyes. 'Listen, you son of a bitch,' he growled. 'If you ever interfere in my activities again, I'll kill you.' Eifler set the lawyer down, turned, and walked to his meeting. Eifler is then given the assignment to kidnap a top German physicist and escape to Switzerland. He asks the CIA officer what his orders are if the Swiss police capture him and the German. "'Very simple, Colonel,' said Buxton [CIA]. 'You are to deny Germany the use of his brain.' 'The only way to do that is to kill him,' said Eifler. 'So I kill him, and the Swiss police arrest me - what then?' 'Then we've never heard of you.'" Chalk this up as one of many "Mission Impossibles" planted in this nonfiction text that hit me like typhoon debris. Shucks, Sheinkin has such an extensive list of source quotes in the appendixes (this came from the book, "The Deadliest Colonel," by Thomas Moon and Carl Eifler) that I wanted to scream, "Ahhhh...stop it!" Stop giving me more books to add to my already bottomless book list that itches like an irritated mosquito bite.

The intertwined plot shows the Germans, Americans, and Soviets racing to build the bomb. Subplots such as the heavy water needed by the Germans to build the bomb and the Russians as tentative allies who like to steal from the Americans, are just a few elements that help build uncertainty and suspense. Bomb-making is not in my knowledge database and the author makes the fare anything but boring. The suspenseful description of scientists creating a chemical chain reaction with uranium on a cold day in a stadium, reveals the danger and tension as the silent crowd listens to the clickety-clack of the neutron counter hoping they can stop the reaction and not blow up Chicago. The chapter ends on the suspenseful question of one scientist thinking to herself, "When do we get as scared as we ought to?" These fictional elements elevate this book from what could be a dry expository text to a narrative, fast-paced read. Add to that the author's clarity in explaining the physics of building an atomic bomb and not once did my eyes cross or get glossy.

While reading I did have questions that came up. I wondered if the Germans did anything to Knut Haukelid's tough mother, how the radiation affected people on the project and those living around the town, what Oppenheimer did after being forced out, how does the gun assembly work, how did the absent-minded Oppenheimer find a wife and have an affair, and more. I don't see this as a flaw. It is good to have more questions and Sheinkin cannot possibly answer them all. Plus, it would sidetrack the book and would have steered it toward an older audience. Sheinkin wisely sticks to his overall message of the moral issues and political intrigue. Is it right to build a weapon that can destroy the human species? He shows that even the physicists who worked on bomb questioned what they had done at the end. Oppenheimer, in particular, had horrible doubts about this weapon of mass destruction. Even the double-agents who could easily have been one-dimensional villains are multifaceted. I was surprised to feel sympathy for the physicists and double-agents, even though I didn't agree with their actions. This type of character development is not one I expect in a nonfiction book and I appreciated Sheinkin's attempt to create such well-rounded characters. Not to mention the sober punch in the arm ending that details how many countries now have nuclear weapons and how easily humans can destroy the planet if a nuclear war breaks out.

A little two year old is torpedoing through the library yelling, "Jie Jie! JieJie!" over and over in Chinese causing a ruckus. Mom is a short distance behind but she can't seem to catch the little roadrunner. It sounds like "Gee Gee" and the celebratory ring suits my mood after reading this book. I have half a mind to join her sprint chanting, "Read! Read!"

5 Smileys
Young Adult

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery

The first time I heard the fireworks go off at the Chinese temple next to school, the deafening noise made me cover my ears and flee to the quiet indoors. It sounded like the start of World War III. When Temple Grandin hears noises they are amplified; a ringing school bell can sound like the Chinese fireworks did to me. She has autism and describes the pain loud sounds cause her. Autism can cause a super sensitivity not only to sound but light, touch and other senses. For Temple the touch of clothes hurts her skin. Temple compares her nervous system to an animals. She explains how this allows her to think and feel like an animal; plus she sees images in her head instead of words which is how animals process the world around them. Her autism is what makes her unique and has led to her inventing world-class facilities designed for livestock being slaughtered that are cruelty-free and humane. Her story explains how she has become one of the most influential people in the treatment of livestock today.

This biography traces Temple's life from a young girl to successful professor with a powerful narrative that allows the reader to see more closely what it is like for an autistic person dealing with hypersensitivity to the world around her, as well as, having difficulties understanding other people's thoughts and expressions. The author addresses misconceptions about autism and explains that the causes of it come from the brain growing too fast at the wrong time which creates problems in the cortex. Temple is also painted as a person who doesn't care what others think, does not give up, and works hard.

Honestly, I didn't think I would like this book so much. But I did. Much of this is due to excellent writing. The narrative of the story shows how Temple made friends and was teased when growing up. The author's voice is not preachy or even apparent, at least to this reader. The emotional punch comes from the story itself and the seamless intertwining of facts with the narration make for a fast and fascinating read.

I've read a quite a few great books recently with covers that have adult-appeal, not kid-appeal. Crow. No Crystal Stair. Now this one. How the heck am I supposed to sell a book with that kind of cover to a 10-year old? Cows? Come on... really? I hate it when I have a great book but know that I'm going to have to book talk and gush about it ad nauseum to get any kid to read it. Too bad they don't use the Internet and survey kids with different covers getting their input on what makes an attractive book. I know that my adult perspective is quite different than theirs and find it fascinating when I solicit them. That might make a fun lesson. Have students say what they like about covers of books and write a persuasive essay to a publisher on what makes a good cover. Ummmm, I'm drifting off topic, aren't I? Anyhoo, read this book. Temple is quite a firecracker. Har. Har.

5 out of 5 Smileys