An American Summer Sadly Like Every Other American Summer

although this one seems worse.  Or maybe I am finally more aware.  An American Summer:  Love and Death in Chicago is written by the brilliant Alex Kotlowitz.  And if one hasn't read There are No Children Here, it should be read today.  And then this one. 
And we have to do something, right?  But what do we do?  How do we make things right?  How do we, especially those of us who claim to follow the example of Jesus, and try to be Christ in the world, live out of faith so that we will live in a world where Black Lives will Matter?

SO GLAD

That I read New Family Values by Andrew Solomon.  I had tried him before but couldn't get into the book, but man, this was just so good.  So good.  It was an audible original and he talks about it being a series.  Will it be a podcast?  Will it be one of those channels on audible?  I just really thought that this was an important, powerful and well done look into the American family and how family is defined.  There are SO many different kinds of families.  And when will we ALL understand that God is far more concerned THAT we love than WHOM we love and that families come in all shapes and sizes.  A great, great book. 

India

I don't know much about India.  All I really know is from Mother Teresa and the Indians who live here in the US that I know.  Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity was eye-opening and heart-breaking.  Katherine Boo came to Pittsburgh and I didn't see her but my friends did.  The title refers to a billboard that hides Annawadi and reminded me of the ways in which Chicago's housing projects were hidden from view from the parkway.  I had read that in There Are No Children Here:  the Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America and it has haunted me ever since.  Annawadi is referred to as a slum of Mumbai everywhere online but here in the book's title is it called an "undercity" and while I can figure out what that means, I can't seem to find a formal definition or history of the word.
I think this is a very good book and certainly, Boo is an esteemed writer.  For me I had a hard time paying attention at times and I am not sure why.  I do love this kind of nonfiction, not being an intellectual, I love the nonfiction that reads like fiction and this does, but I don't know.  I will certainly recommend this book, and I am glad I read it but it was not read that I read thinking, "I can't wait to get back to the book," but rather "I will be glad when I am done."

Trump Country

What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia was eye-opening for me in some ways.  In other ways it was affirming because I have often questioned a lot of the "Trump Country" rhetoric  and well, I am a suspicious person!  Elizabeth Catte has done an excellent job of addressing the book Hillbilly Elegy.  After reading this I was tempted to go back and rate HE much lower, but then I figured that wasn't fair.  But I just don't know.  How can I give five stars to that one and five stars to this one?  But the thing is, at the time, I didn't have this information and the information I researched independently after reading this.  So at the time, I gave HE the best rating I could with the information I had at the time. 
This is a very important book.  Especially for people who think that racism doesn't exist any more. 

I didn't realize

that The Culture Code:  the secrets of highly successful groups was a business book, a how-to, leadership kind of book.  I enjoy those books and don't read them as much as I should, probably, but I don't know if I would have read this one had I know what it was.  I thought it was more of a study of culture and group behavior, with a pop-sociology pop-cultural anthropology bent, rather than a business POV.  And it definitely is more than a business/leadership book, so it did satisfy what I was looking for from that end, and more than satisfy, I really, really enjoyed this book.  It made me once again take tine to reflect upon how lucky I have been to work where I have worked.  I have been the "leaders" in two jobs and I have been THE LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD because the people I "lead" have been UNREAL, INCREDIBLE people.  It was so hard to leave my first leadership role job, and I even got the names of the ladies with whom I worked tattooed on my arm!   I have never regretted that.  They are always in my heart and now always on my body!
I put "lead" in quotes because while I take full responsibility, and know that the buck stops with me, I feel like I learn something from them every day. 
I have just been so so so so lucky.  And so when I read this book about succesful groups it was really cool because it was like Daniel Coyle could have done a chapter on the Youth Services Department of the Bethel Park Library and the Youth Services Department of the Shaler North Hills Library because they have created groups where we all feel the three key things that Coyle believes a successful team will feel:  we are connected, we are safe, we share a future.
I really want to read The Talent Code:  greatness is not born, it's grown, next.   Great stories about work life at Pixar and Zappos.  I don't know much about the NBA but learning about Gregg Popvich was truly inspiring to me. 

Screams

My dear friend texted me about Scream:  Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear and I bought it right away on audible.com.  It really is a topic right up my alley.  I am big fan of haunted attractions and have spent seasons visiting more than 30 of them in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.  I have written about fear a lot on here, and wondered why we like to be scared.  I had hoped that this book would have some answers and it did.  This was a good book, by a local gal, Margee Kerr who has had article published in the New York Times, and The Atlantic, among many other places about her studies of fear.
She has worked with a local haunt here in the North Hills, The Scarehouse in Etna, which I have been to, but not in a few years.  This book made me vow to go back this year.  And to be very brave and try the infamous Basement.  I have to admit that I never found The Scarehouse to be the scariest attraction, that does to Rich's Fright Farm, hands down.  But again, I have yet to try the Basement and I haven't been to Scarehouse in at least two years.  This fall I hope to visit RFF and Scarehouse and see how they compare.

Just because you are paranoid...

doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.  -Joseph Heller
That is also our family motto.
After reading The Sociopath Next Door, I feel even more paranoid!
The only consolation was that according to the author, Martha Stout, sociopath will often target people of whom they are jealous. And while I am very, very, very, richly, richly, richly blessed, I am not exactly going to incite a lot of envy.  Especially from people who crave power.
Then I read a review of the book on goodreads and I don't know HTML well enough (hardly at all) to link to the specific review, but look for 1 star reviews and a reviewer named John.  His review made me feel so much better!
It was a very interesting, if scary, book to listen to and I did give it 3 stars, not 1.