Tag: unfollow

A Non-Fiction Book Rec Post

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nonfiction

I undoubtedly read more fiction than non-fiction, but I’m trying to improve that. I read a lot of non-fiction for my studies, but not enough on other subjects. Sometimes there’s just not enough time to read all the books! I’m currently in the midst of two right now, Gold Rush Manliness: Race and Gender on the Pacific Slope and Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, which I just started. One I’m reading paperback, the other I’m listening to on audio.

 

Here is a list of the nonfiction books I definitely, definitely recommend everyone check out for themselves.  (This list is not exhaustive.)

*order is random, not a rank of how awesome these are

  1. Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham. This book is utterly gut-wrenching but I could not recommend it more. The details still give me chills and I’m in awe of the depth of Higginbotham’s reporting.
  2. Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope by Megan Phelps-Roper. I wrote a review for this book here.
  3. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin M. Kruse. AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING. If you aren’t following Kruse on Twitter, allow me to point the way. He’s constantly giving mini-history lessons online and he’s a wonderful political commentator. This book kept me company on my last archive trip and I thoroughly recommend it.
  4. Columbine by Dave Cullen. Cullen has such a wonderful approach to reporting and truly respects those he interviews. He’s become a frequent commentator on gun control in the States and he also wrote a book on Parkland.
  5. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I quite liked the film when it came out, but wanted to delve more into the topic and understand Christopher McCandless. Krakauer’s writing is wonderful and the story really broke my heart. I think reading the book paints a better picture of McCandless than the film, although Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack remains one of the greatest of all time.
  6. Facing the Rising Sun: African Americans, Japan, and the Rise of Afro-Asian Solidarity by Gerald Horne. This is a topic I didn’t know much about and I’m so glad I picked up this book.
  7. Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell. Orwell’s works are always good and this one can be read in less than an hour, but it’s chock-full of perspective on nationalism.
  8. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson. Too few people know about the Lavender Scare and I cannot recommend this enough.
  9. The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings. Cumings is my favourite Korean War historian. I strongly recommend this one.
  10. Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow. I followed Farrow’s reporting for the New Yorker when this story first broke, and hearing him recite the tale in book form added a new level of horror to the topic. I haven’t fully finished it yet, but it’s amazing.

Books I’m looking forward to getting to at some point:

  1. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
  2. Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World by David Vine. I’ve read Vine’s reporting, but haven’t yet been able to pick up the book.
  3. History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier by Deborah E. Lipstadt
  4. Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen. His reporting on Columbine absolutely blew my mind, so I’m definitely reading this one.
  5. How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
  6. No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald. I’ve read Greenwald’s articles and reports on this, but never the full book, so I definitely want to read this at some point.
  7. The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman
  8. Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew. I’m partway through this one and really wowed by the amount of research, but I put it aside as the subject matter is quite hard to get through en bulk.
  9. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
  10. Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn
  11. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
  12. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. I’ve started this one, but put it on hold temporarily because it’s a very heartbreaking subject matter and I think I need to get through it in smaller doses.
  13. The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants by Adam Goodman
  14. They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
  15. Unbelievable by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
  16. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, Harmony Becker
  17. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
  18. Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars by Stephen Bourne
  19. War on Peace by Ronan Farrow. I’ve started this one and of course got sidetracked, but I want to finish it soon! I adore Farrow’s work and have nothing but the highest respect for him.

 

What’s your favourite nonfiction book? Any subject matter really interest you? Feel free to recommend books in the comments. 🙂

April Books 2020

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mini review (1)

April was a pretty good month for reading, largely because I’m inside all the time with the lockdown. I’ve been reading a lot of short stories and listening to audiobooks, which I’m really enjoying! Trying to blend genres, too.

Additionally, I’ve started teaching myself Korean, which I’m loving! I’m trying to do a bit of Korean everyday and so far so good. I’ve been looking into workbooks for beginners and English-Korean dictionaries. I got this one! If anyone has any recommendations, please do share! 🙂 

April’s covers:

How’s everyone getting on with their reading? Any recommendations from the last month? What’s everyone doing to stay busy during these crazy times?

Book Review: Unfollow (2019)

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book review 2

Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope by Megan Phelps-Roper

… that open discourse and dialectic is the most effective enabler of the evolution of individuals and societies. That the answer to bad ideas is to publicly reason against them. To advocate for and propagate better ones. And that it is dangerous to vest any central authority with broad powers to limit the bounds of acceptable discussion. Because these powers lend themselves to authoritarian abuse, the creation of echo chambers, and the marginalisation of ideas that are true but unpopular. In short, the principles underlying the freedom of speech recognise that all of us are susceptible to cognitive deficiencies and groupthink.

I first heard about the Westboro Baptist Church when the documentary by Louis Theroux first aired: BBC’s The Most Hated Family in America. The group is probably most famous for picketing funerals of soldiers and their homophobic signs. Megan’s story follows her mounting disillusionment with the group, questions she had as a child that went unanswered, and her growing role in the church even as she wondered about the rights and wrongs of it all. Eventually she becomes the most well-known spokesperson for the group and runs the online social media platforms. It’s there that she starts to engage with others’ perspectives and eventually changes her own. She starts to see the damage hatred and unkindness can do.

It is disconcerting – shamefully, unimaginably so – to look back and accept that my fellow church members and I were collectively engaging in the most egregious display of logical blindness that I have ever witnessed.

I have great sympathy for those born into cults. It’s utterly heartbreaking. Her memories about the abuse she and her siblings suffered is gut-wrenching. More than once I cried listening to her story. Little moments really stand out: she admits that she didn’t know what her signs meant when she first held them; the letter she signed and sent to a newspaper as a child was actually written by her aunt.

That she broke free at all is commendable, but to see how far she’s come is just brilliant. Also, her Twitter pic now reads GOD LOVES GAYS. What a wonderful, wonderful turn around. :’)