Living in Boston, I often hear about how it was. Huge changes have come to many neighborhoods over the last 30 years. He's shooting during the bus rio...moreLiving in Boston, I often hear about how it was. Huge changes have come to many neighborhoods over the last 30 years. He's shooting during the bus riots in Boston as integration began or forced upon the population depending on who you talk to. Pretty amazing seeing a KKK presence in enlightened Boston. One of the best documentary photographers who's very humble and unassuming without any inflated sense of purpose or effect.(less)
Lukas deals with a huge subject here overlooking all of Boston for 10 years before and during the forced busing integration of the city. It shows just...moreLukas deals with a huge subject here overlooking all of Boston for 10 years before and during the forced busing integration of the city. It shows just how gray real life can be. There's race, class, politics, culture, and the intersection of them all. Most interesting is how well he shows where ideals meet up with reality what happens. What's done to improve a situation often turns out counterproductive... going to help someone can do more harm than good.
An amazing book, written very well by a man with unbelievable access to the Irish McGoff family in Charlestown, black Twymons in Roxbury, and the white Divers living in the South End. You beign to feel you can relate on some level to each family's situation. Along the way he examines Boston figures of the time including Mayor White, Cardinal Medieros, Louise Day Hicks, and Globe Editor Tom Winship. There's also a very detailed description of events leading up to the James Brown concert in the Boston Garden just after MLK was assassinated and then James Brown's efforts to keep order which worked not only in the Garden but by and large around the city.(less)
It seems our goal in international relations in the last 50+ years is very similar to the goal of credit companies and lately housing trends. Lock peo...moreIt seems our goal in international relations in the last 50+ years is very similar to the goal of credit companies and lately housing trends. Lock people into debts they cannot repay and to hell with the consequences. Perkind describes history and personal experiences in countries like Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
He traces the State's journey from Republic fighting an Empire to an Empire unto itself. He discusses the attack order of the economic hitman, the jackal (assassin), and then war. There are awful ironies such as us repeatedly overthrowing a brave leader trying to help his people like Arbenz in Guatemala and sometimes killing them such as Torrijos in Panama. The hypocrisy is rife when George H. Bush accuses Iraq of an illegal invasion of Kuwait when not even a year earlier he had invaded Panama killing many innocents and turning Noriega into the only POW in the US in 1989. Perkins goes to far as to question if the pursuit of money and contracts was more important to this administration than actually fighting terrorism.
All along, Perkins shows you his own transformation as he comes to grips with and sees the consequences of his work. This book is an attempt to share and inform and to come clean.(less)
The book is testament to what humans can endure emotionally and turn into good. Michael Patrick MacDonald lost numerous siblings in childhood and punk...moreThe book is testament to what humans can endure emotionally and turn into good. Michael Patrick MacDonald lost numerous siblings in childhood and punk music helped him start to break out of South Boston's projects' mold of drugs and crime.
There's a punk education along with street smarts. You do have to wonder if an underground is even possible anymore. His new found adventurous attitude led him to Europe and then at his grandfather's insistence to Ireland for the first time.
When he was there in the 80s, Ireland was quite a small place where everyone knew everyone and meals to strangers were the norm. The funniest part in the book was when he called home collect and his mom in accepting the charges starts talking to the operator instead of him. In the 45 minutes of their talk, they learn they're distant cousins and catch up on acquaintances. His mom asks the operator how Michael's looking which he, and I, thought was ridiculous. But the operator knew about him and had heard he looked "good" through the Irish grapevine. Mom hangs up without ever talking to him.
He grows to love his ancestral country and becomes obsessed in learning its history and looking for similarities between Ireland and South Boston and the residents of both. His life experiences lead him to work in the South Boston community and elsewhere to help mothers who have lost children and to try and stop rampant drugs use.(less)
An interesting story of an Indian family living in America and their first generation son coming to grips with his identity and name. I enjoyed how In...moreAn interesting story of an Indian family living in America and their first generation son coming to grips with his identity and name. I enjoyed how Indian culture gave a "good" name for the world to use and a familiar name for close ties. It revealed a beauty in the culture that could be easy to dismiss at first. (less)
Terrific book. Robert Campbell is a opinionated and holds strong convictions. And he really humanizes buildings sometimes even comparing them to peopl...moreTerrific book. Robert Campbell is a opinionated and holds strong convictions. And he really humanizes buildings sometimes even comparing them to people. Vanderwarker does a terrific job keeping the photos from getting too formulaic. It is absolutely fascinating learning the history behind what has changed culturally between the two photos of each location.
Things Campbell believes: 1. A building should fill the block it is on... and if it is on a corner, it should fill it like the Flat Iron. 2. We sacrificed our cities to cars starting in the 50's although possibly this was necessary. 3. Being social was easier in the past as it was simply part of life... but innovations like the car, mobile phones, and malls warp healthy social interaction. 4. Cities are "interesting," have less per capita impact on the environment, and healthier to our humanity than suburbs. 5. Likes it when buildings are re-used, especially when the use it one it was not originally designed for.
Some favorite quotes from the book: "The greater the speed of travel in a given society, the greater will be the portion of the average citizen's life that is spent in getting from one place to another. Believe it." "All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity." - John Ruskin "It exemplifies conceptualistic innuendo pyramided upon spatial forebearance and altogether tokenish of tactile cosmological luminous volumentality" Description of the Carpenter Center at Harbard in a tourist pamphlet. "When the mind dies it exudes rich critical prose" - John Berryman "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people" - H.L. Mencken "No American lives where he was born or believes what he was taught" - George Santayana(less)
Pretty amazing what people can rationalize doing in the name of money and power. At times it felt like "The Wire" but even crazier with one brother a...morePretty amazing what people can rationalize doing in the name of money and power. At times it felt like "The Wire" but even crazier with one brother a mobster and the other the State Senate President. Found it funny the newspapers photographers didn't want credit when they took pictures of Jimmy the Bear Flemmi.(less)
Very enjoyable book. Lehane does a good job of putting fictional characters in the historical setting of Boston in 1919. There's a heavy dose of Bosto...moreVery enjoyable book. Lehane does a good job of putting fictional characters in the historical setting of Boston in 1919. There's a heavy dose of Boston geography and characters. One of the main historical threads is the Boston Police strike of 1919 and seeing the main character Danny become one of its leaders to his own surprise. The fights / issues between management and workers can make it feel we haven't come very far although there are less physical altercations these days.(less)
This was an intimidating read. Learning about Dr. Paul Farmer made you wonder about how much you could do in your own life if you applied yourself as...moreThis was an intimidating read. Learning about Dr. Paul Farmer made you wonder about how much you could do in your own life if you applied yourself as he does. Then again, he is nearly superhuman in his endeavors and goals. Matching his intelligence and skill as a doctor is his compassion that the world's most poor still deserve medical attention and in the end to be treated as human beings. He heads through his organization Partners In Health a clinic in remote Haiti. He also travels constantly between his doctor position in Boston, to Haiti, to Russia, to Africa. I practically felt guilty to be saving for my retirement reading this book (I'm still doing it though). Farmers made it seem the less you think about money, the more you put it towards what's important to you, it will come back to you in forms much better than money.
The thing I remember the most though is when Farmer remarks it's all a "long defeat." Everything he's doing and has done he describes as a long defeat. I didn't take this as pessimistic and jaded. Just an acknowledgment that in the end we'll all lose. Lose people we love, lose our health, etc. But, we can do good deeds while we're here, live for others, and in small ways make improvements. Fighting the good fight in the long defeat.(less)
Terrific book on if we can change and become better people or if we are unable to overcome our origins and ourselves. Very honest, painful at times. D...moreTerrific book on if we can change and become better people or if we are unable to overcome our origins and ourselves. Very honest, painful at times. Dubus' parents divorce when he is young and he grows up poor with his mother while maintaining a relationship with his father. His father is a talented writer but maddeningly irresponsible often and out of touch with the lives his children are living on the other side of the tracks. III begins to run with a rough crowd and much of the book is his grappling with violence - something he became good at with his boxing skills. He starts to write and begins to look at it as a way to express himself and maybe save himself from shameful and disappointing paths he had already toed. There's ample family trauma and dynamics for everyone to deal with.
III biggest turn comes when he is able to talk to a British thug rather than fight him. Able to relate to him as a human wanting the respect and love that III wanted as well. His relationship with his father sweetens with time, especially when he is wheelchair bound after an accident for noble reasons. They freely share a love that wasn't shared between his father as a child and his grandfather. Ultimately, it is a story of acceptance and forgiveness of yourself, your family, and other people and the love and gratitude that it can bring.
I love the line his dad left him on his phone "This is your father, who art in Haverhill [MA]."(less)
"In the United States a man builds a house in which to spend his old age, and he sells it before the roof is on [in the] bootless chase of hte complet...more"In the United States a man builds a house in which to spend his old age, and he sells it before the roof is on [in the] bootless chase of hte complete felicity which forever escapes him."
Can be very dry and times but delves in history in great detail. Very interesting watching the whale oil market come together by the early 1700s, go t...moreCan be very dry and times but delves in history in great detail. Very interesting watching the whale oil market come together by the early 1700s, go through the Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century, and then soon realize after the Civil War the numbers would never add up in competition with oil and other luminant / lubricants.
It's striking how much man can simply ignore the harm he does in the name of profit. The only thing that saved the whales was the innovation of new oils chiefly petroleum. In the name of profit, man is also blinded to protecting the precious thing he has: his own life. Average whaling was nuts enough but going into the Arctic and ever farther to find the thinning numbers of whales was truly impressive and at the same time, well, nuts.(less)
Set in New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s and centered on the friendship of John Wheelwright and Owen Meany, this book explores many themes. The main id...moreSet in New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s and centered on the friendship of John Wheelwright and Owen Meany, this book explores many themes. The main idea centers on faith and doubt and subsequently courage and cowardice. All these elements course through all of us - to me this is a large part of the human condition hinging on how we handle our fear and the unknown. Is life nothing more than a random series of events we keep reacting to or are there higher meanings and purposes for us all if only we had the faith and courage to follow them?... to not over intellectualize our lives but to live them.
The book is long but Irving needs this space to take Owen and John from young children to young men. Along the way, they must face tragedy, try to unravel family mysteries, and forge their way through conformist schools and society. Owen confronts his fate head on and John searches for his place in the world which Owen helps him find.
Vietnam serves as a major backdrop for the second half of the book. It's heart wrenching watching as the country intellectualizes murder and chaos in the name of supposed democracy. I think Owen will always stand as reminder of how hard it is to stand on our own, to accept the the results and responsibilities of our own convictions while sticking to them, to not just drop into line, and to think for (and have faith in) ourselves.
I did love the line of the three ways to get Americans attention: Kill them, tax them, and draft them (and the dangers of taking away a draft = wars without the self interest of the broad populace to stay out of them).(less)
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