Chick Lit et al (Book Reviews)

I recently read Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. It’s a story about a woman who grew up with an abusive father. He dies, leaves her an inheritance, she opens a florists shop, and she meets a man ‘with issues’, marries him, he’s abusive, and she has to make a decision. That’s the gist.

I read the book because it was published several years ago, was featured on ‘Book Tok,” and became a best seller. In fact, all of Hoover’s books are now best sellers, partially because of BookTok and word of mouth.

I was out and picked up a student newspaper where a student reviewer gave the book a ‘Don’t bother to read’ review. She felt it wasn’t realistic. sShe says she read the book in four hours. Yes, the antagonist is a medical student with a brilliant career ahead of him. There are lots of books about abusers who are handsome and have good jobs and women who make excuses for the guy they love. But the fact that she couldn’t put the book down said a lot to me.

If you read a several hundred page book in four hours, it’s a compelling read—realistic or not. I’ve started to read so many books, gotten 20 pages in, and decided either the book is going nowhere, or it’s a waste of time. I’ve read two of Susan Choi’s books, and boy, she uses a lot of words to tell a story—whether believable or not. I don’t like books that I have to read a sentence two or three times to figure out what the writer is saying—but for many, that’s ‘literary fiction’. Like Murakani’s “Wind Up Bird Chronicle’. Did it really have to be that many words with that many tangents?

Nobody wants to read a book about the girls who allowed themselves to be picked up in a bar, or linked up with a friend-of-a-friend, who left them pregnant, and the girl and kid have to struggle. Our own lives have enough angst.

Last year, I reviewed “Inappropriate Men“, by Stacey Ballis (https://wordpress.com/post/disparateinterests.wordpress.com/4998). I’m sure you can still get it on Amazon. The main character, who describes herself as a fat girl, has a torrid affair with her father’s business partner who she knows won’t leave his wife, then a series of other inappropriate men who aren’t suitable long term partners for other reasons. I found this funny and accurate. I’m sure many women have dated men and at some point realized the relationship was going nowhere, they really weren’t that attracted to the guy, or were settling because they wanted to be married.

I picked up “One to Watch” by Kate Stayman-London partly because of the back cover blurb; Bea is a large size fashion blogger with a following, who is asked to be on a show based on The Bachelor. She’d hesitant for good reason, and of course, most of the men are dogs. If you live in the USA and haven’t seen The Bachelor, you’re living in a cave. All the girls they pick are always a size 6 or smaller, long haired, none wear glasses, and all are fashion forward. The men are all good looking and shallow. In any case, this book does have a happy ending, and it also addresses the issues most of us face when looking for a partner. I’d give this book to teenage girls.

And Then There Were None: What Happened to Miniature Schnauzers—& many Pure Breeds You Used to See All Over

I hope that you’ll click on these links :https://zwerg-schnauzer.info/dog.php?screen=1&userif=1&id=6896 This dog is Ch. Helarry’s Dark Victory, shown by Larry Downey. He was born in 1958. Lovely dog. Notice the furnishing on his legs.

I googled Barclay Square—a bloodline developed by Dale Miller who bred dogs for over 60 years . Some of her dogs’ pedigrees show up , but no photos of her dogs. I also Googled Blythewood, Joan Huber’s commercial kennel. Joan was accused of practicing veterinary medicine without a license and her dogs were confiscated by a government pound until the accusation was sorted out. Yes, she cropped her dogs’ ears. Her first husband was a veterinarian, and many breeders paid her to ‘do ears’ because she wouldn’t butcher them. Unfortunately, she had the audacity to do it in front of recently hired kennel help , girls who were out to get her because she did, indeed, breed pets as livestock. The difference was, she bred good dogs, had an excellent reputation among her fellow Miniature Schnauzer breeders, and would take a dog back if it didn’t work out. Everyone knew this.

Well, what got the breed really, in the end, is that they went from having coats like Ch. Helarry’s Dark Victory to having way too much undercoat, having a coat you could not ‘roll’, and being almost impossible to get into show coat for more than 10 weeks at a time, You don’t see Min. Schnauzers winning best in shows these days, Not because they aren’t good, but because too few fanciers can afford to campaign a dog, and again, the coat.

You hardly ever see a Rough Collie (“Lassie”) anymore. Besides shedding a lot, genetic issues and backyard breeders have done them in. St. Bernards? Well, how many people can afford to feed a dog that large? Plus, eye problems, genetic deafness, hip dysplasia. Most people who want a giant breed go for Great Danes (which also have so many genetic issues). Cocker Spaniels: eye, ear, skin, and other genetic health issues. Even the so-called ‘well-bred’ ones. The breeders are in denial. It’s no mystery how Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have become more popular.

Why aren’t purebred Poodles more popular? They wer the number 1 breed in the 1960s. Oh sure: paying for grooming. the people who use them to breed Doodles are liars and claim they don’t shed. Well, if you keep them shaved short enough, they probably don’t. But if you don’t want your Poodle to be in a traditional trim, TELL YOUR DOG GROOMER! I’m sure many people who buy Doodles would really rather have a Purebred Poodle, or Portuguese or Spanish Water Dog—-but the breeders of those breeds are pickier about who they sell to.

It’s expensive to raise good, healthy dogs, and the older hobby breeders are dying, Their kids want nothing to do with it. That means fewer dogs of pure brees, and smaller gene pools. If you don’t think that’s a problem… just wait.

Okera City

The reason I have a degree in urban planning is that I got offered an assistantship to grad school because of my hands on experience with recycling, microbusiness, and community organizing. My undergraduate degree was no accident. I chose anthropology because (well, at the time I didn’t know I had Asperger’s) I wanted to know how humans made decisions. One of my grad school classmates also had an undergraduate degree in anthropology, and he told me he chose planning because he felt he could do a better job than what he had experienced around him.

I think a lot of planners really have a utopian vision. I was heavily influenced by what I learned about the Oneida community: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community . it was a unique social experiment, and they supported themselves by manufacturing most of what they needed themselves—and by developing a silverware company which still exists. The commune dissolved for a variety of reasons.

I started thinking about this because Ojoko Okello, an urban planner from Kampala, Uganda, came to talk about the community he is helping to develop in Uganda, where his father was born: Okera City:https://www.okerecity.org/ Check out their website. they’ve done some amazing things in a very short period of time. Also, although the USA gives aid to Uganda…this community developed on their own & receives no aid, but is looking for investors.

https://www.projectredwood.org/zambian-childrens-fund/ i learned about ZCF just about when they started. An American woman managed to get foundation support for building a campus and school just north of Lusaka, for AIDS orphans. They slowly managed to develop income generating projects. Again, Zamia receives foreign aid from the USA, but ZCF gets none.

https://malawichildrensvillage.org/about-us/ This project was also started for AIDS orphans. A bunch of ‘do-gooder peace Corps Volunteers had ideas 9as we Americans do), but we asked the community what they wanted. They wanted to keep children with their extended families if possible, but they wanted help with an irrigation system, a school, digging wells, and a health center. They are just outside Mangochi on lake Malawi. It has not been smooth sailing for MCV. first AIDS, then so many environmental disasters, and COVID. yet for any child that graduates secondary school, there is assistance with college or starting businesses. They built a hospital/nursery for AIDS orphans. Malawi gets foreign aid from the USA, but none goes to MCV.

I’m sure there are other community based projects. If you’re going to the continent, bring world maps, first aid stuff, science education stuff…Google the country you’re visiting and see if there are any model villages. You can also contact Peace Corps in country (or Volunteers Overseas Service: https://www.vsointernational.org/ ) and possibly, volunteer, or assist (hey—Christian church members—an opportunity without proselytizing).

If you can’t go, but still want to ‘do something’:https://www.africanlibraryproject.org/ sends books and helps build libraries. Please don’t send your old trade paperbacks.They need science books, technical ‘how to’, medical books, nonfiction. They receive no government support.

I keep wondering where our aid goes. I know it goes to weapons for dictators and gets frittered away because USAID is dismal at accounting,. so another thing you can do if you really want to make a difference is ask your elected officials why nobody on their staffs can read a budget, and they keep voting to overfund out military AND ‘foreign aid’—& yet always argue about the debt s ceiling and the budget. Tell them then appear to not be very competent.

Zambian Childrens Fund

If we Pretend Racism Was Never a Problem, Then it Didn’t Happen

Essay:  Forget ‘Critical Race Theory:  It’s Time we Updated American History Curriculum

In Chicago, we had an election for mayor. We had a political machine for a very long time, and Lori Lightfoot broke the machine. It came down to a run-off, and she didn’t make the cut.  I wonder if it was her lack of progress on police reform, on crime, or if it had something to do with her being a black, gay woman…or all three.

One guy who did make the cut was Paul Vallas. He was our superintendent of Chicago Public Schools over a decade ago. In fact, he championed private education:  charter schools. They also have a mixed record in Chicago. He did nothing to improve tests scores or graduation rates, and when he was fired, he left town.

He continued to work in managing school districts, and his record did NOT improve anywhere. There is some speculation that he may not even live in Chicago (his wife doesn’t), but he was the white guy in the race. The challenger, Brandon Johnson, who won,was a school teacher, active in the teachers’ union, and had recently been serving on the county board.

Although both men consider themselves to be progressives, it’s clear:  Vallas is more than a conservative when it comes to economics.  He knows he is where he is due to support of the business community.

Vallas’ response to improving or updating curriculum, which has become synonymous with ‘Critical Race Theory’? He actually believes revising school curriculum to be inclusive and FACTUAL is a bad thing… because…” (it)further undermines the relationship of children to parents…for white parents, I mean, how are you going to discipline your child when your child comes home and has basically been told that their …parents have discriminated against others and they have somehow victimized another person’s race?” is what he said, and it’s on tape.

 Disciplining children who’ve found out they were lied to? How does that work?

Vallas’ position is…. if we don’t address past legalized racism, it didn’t happen. There were no ‘white’ and ‘colored’ drinking fountains or bathrooms? People were not served in stores & restaurants because of their race? We didn’t have ‘separate but equal’? People aren’t racist?

I’m white. I remember being in high school in 1969, and reading in American Heritage magazine about the Yoruba of West Africa. I’ll never forget the moment the light bulb went on in my head. You mean…what they taught us about Africans having no languages or cultures was a lie? Being taught that the (white) Christians did the Africans a favor by enslaving them and bringing them Christianity was a good thing? That’s what we were taught.

There were so many lies back then: that women should not be given credit in their own names (let alone non-white people), the Viet Nam war was about fighting communism, marijuana use led to harder drugs.

Do white people really believe that if we don’t start teaching young kids real history, they’ll never discover it?

I was a teenager back then, so it’s hard to say if that discovery—that my parents were racists—made me disrespect them.  I did learn to question everything I was told.