I know, I know, I know this book was written as political propaganda because she was running for president and wanted to get her message out. But, I still really liked it.  Ten years older than me, I saw a lot of myself in her story, particularly the decision to work within a system in order to effectuate change.  I appreciate that she stayed as a prosecutor until she had enough power to implement some policies that at the time were cutting edge and innovative. I like that she admits that some of these did not work and might-have been -- or actually were --  bad ideas.  I also appreciate that she tried things, things that were often politically unpopular at the time.  I found her straightforward storytelling approach refreshing and easy to read.  Most of the book is about policy, strategy, and programs, rather than the typical political memoir which tries to make the person seem likable.  I continue to hope that this will be our first woman president and this book did not dissuade me from that.

Recommend.

Click here to purchase this book and support My 50 Bookish Friends blog project.

I got interested in reading this book when one of my kids had to read it for work. I was hoping for something fresh and radical, something to convince me that smarter people who have thought more about dismantling the prison-industrial complex have a plan for what to do next.  In that respect, this book did not exactly live up. 

I didn't dislike this book, but I also did not love it. Although there were a couple of chapters, particularly the one about sexual assault and the balance between supporting survivors and advocating for the abolition of incarceration, that were worth reading and provided interesting fodder for thought, a lot of the material here has been pretty well covered in other, better written books.  There is a lot to like about the program she worked with in Chicago called BYP100 and while she talks briefly about what is problematic about dismantling and getting rid of prisons in order to funnel money and services to other programs, such a education, jobs, and direct aid, there continues to be a practical transition plan, even while she acknowledges the inherent problem of what to do about domestic and sexual violence in the interim.  She doesn't address child sex abuse at all, but I assume that the idea is that is there were funding for prevention services, we wouldn't need incarceration as a tool for incapacitation. 

​For the most part, this is an update of the same material Angela Davis has been writing about for 20 years. It is a melding of Are Prisons Obsolete? and Women, Race, & Class,with a little Queer Theory thrown in.  If you haven't read a lot about race in the context of feminist and Queer theory or if you haven't read anything since Davis' early works, then this is probably a pretty good read.  Otherwise, I'm not to go with Not Not Recommended.

I liked this book, left over in my queue from being assigned to one of the kids a few years ago, but that I somehow didn't get to until just now.  It is typical of the summer reading assignments for high school that try to get stem kids engaged by having a book about something related to science and math.  In this case, the novel incorporates the philosophy, spirituality, and beauty of math into an endearing story that weaves themes about the value women's labor, the politics of unmarried mothers, and the heartbreak of memory loss.  I kept thinking it was going to turn into a love story and the fact that it didn't added to its charm.

​Recommend.

This is a collection of long stories in The Outlander universe.  Some of the stories are in other collections or had been released as novellas and I had read them before.  If I weren't already drawn into the Outlander storyline, I don't think these would have had any interest at all.  To some extent, she admits that she had gone down some rabbit hole or other while researching for main Outlander books, but couldn't fit those pieces of history into her main story, so she wrote some of these.  Some of them are complete standalones and add nothing to Outlander world, but there are a couple that add interesting backstory or, more fun in my mind. give us more information about the magic involved with time travel.  If you are sucked into The Outlanders, it is worth reading, but otherwise, definitely skip it. That puts it in the Not Not Recommended list, I guess.

Audible had a free download of this on stage storytelling performance by Dan Rather.  I really liked it, much better than I expected.  Short and his articulation is so good that you can speed it way up and still follow everything he say.  

Stories about JFK's death, Medgar Evars, & Richard Nixon stood out for me, as well as his stories about reporting about issues across racial lines at a time that was not only not popular, but dangerous.  All this in his soothing cadence. 

​Recommend.

Should I like a "book" (which is more like a one-person show) just because it is about a little-known, but fabulous historical figure who happens to also be a kick ass lawyer back when being a lawyer and a woman was a rarity?  No, I don't think I do need to, but it did make me wish that there were a biography of Bella Abzug in audio format because I was definitely intrigued.  

Not recommended.

This is a series of short stories written since COVID. The first one, about of group of old-time type mobsters trying to engage in organized crime during the stay-at-home order was really good. Not the story-line so much as just the humor of the situation and the characters trying to navigate working in an organized crime ring from home.  The other two also had great character development and story telling, but in both I found the endings ... not sure how to describe it without giving them away, so let's go with I found the endings bad.

​Not recommended.

Having continued done the free "only from audible" rabbit hole, I was somewhat skeptical of what seemed like it was going to be sci fi-ish children's book without any depth, but was pleasantly surprised with the twists and scope of the philosophical questions this book presented.  What is a family? Does a brain in a vat have a meaningful existence? Is that existence more or less valuable if they know they are a brain in a vat? 

Added bonus: There may or may not be an actual hero in the form of a social worker willing to put herself on the line for a kid who needs help, which may or may not be kind of cool.

​Recommend.