Erin Reed‘s latest piece is an extremely important read. Subscribe to her substack, follow her on her socials. Link to this article: https://open.substack.com/pub/erininthemorn/p/nazis-burned-trans-books-to-usher?...

I just discovered this podcast very recently and am enjoying it. I thought you all might like it too. Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/velshi-banned-book-club/id1702778436

Bettina Makalintal shares 5 titles in the food world she‘s looking forward to this spring!

Link: https://link.eater.com/view/61436a397b51b35caf6ba15en1ufg.18rq/74e2f7c9

Interview with the author on this podcast episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heres-where-it-gets-interesting/id15762666...

Update on his attempted murder: Hadi Matar has been found guilty.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/21/salman-rushdie-stabbing-trial?CMP=...

The author mentioned this website as a resource to show librarians some love.

Link: https://wethelibrarians.org/

I knew I wanted to read this as soon as I heard about it. There is nothing I‘m more passionate about than books. My local librarians know me well. Each time I walk in their doors, I wonder what kind of battles they are facing, near and far—from book banning fascists. This book is just one experience. On July 19, 2022, Amanda Jones gave a short, direct, and professional speech at her library board, which was open to the public. Her goal:⬇️

The self-righteous scream judgements against others to hide the noise of skeletons dancing in their own closets.

—John Mark Green

It‘s not indoctrination to acknowledge that historically certain groups have had less power and were systematically persecuted over decades and centuries. It is called historical fact.

—Amanda Jones

The current wave of book banning sweeping the country has created a chilling effect on our education system and the purchasing of books in our libraries, the effects of which will be seen for decades even if we somehow get it under control in the next year. This is a huge movement that has been in the works for a while. It is well funded and well coordinated. It is about marginalizing and erasing cultures and groups of people, it is about⬇️

Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person‘s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore. The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.

-Deborah Caldwell-Stone

I loved ‘Behind Her Eyes‘ and was excited to read this one, but I didn‘t like the ending. I give it 3 stars. Key point to remember: it‘s easy to manipulate the sleep deprived.

I love Vietnamese food, and this book is fantastic! Dặc Biệt means: extra special.  So if you order a Banh Mi, and you ask for it to be a Dặc Biệt Banh Mi...it just means you are getting all the good stuff on it! I took some pictures of a few recipes from the pages…everything looks so good.

Two websites listed in the book for missing and un-ID‘s persons:
1. https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/%3Cfront%3E
2. https://www.doenetwork.org/

The Doe Network was created by a friend of the author and is entirely run by volunteers, unlike Name Us, which is government.

This book reminded me a lot of Octavia Butler‘s Kindred. We quickly‘descend‘ on a journey with Annie, a young enslaved woman, straight into hell. After being ripped away from her mother, who is sold to another enslaver, she is forced to walk in a long procession to New Orleans, to labor on a sugarcane plantation. Her mother‘s memory, her stories, and her spirits keep her alive to fight another day, clinging to a chance to find freedom. A ⬇️

Couldn‘t resist checking out these three this morning at the library. The only one I didn‘t know about was ‘Burn‘. Hot list…appropriate for these times.

This was a horrific and depressing memoir. Shin was born in Camp 14 in North Korea and lived in a hellish nightmare for 23 years. He was taught to use violence and be an informer at all costs. He was tortured, starved, beaten, used, and he watched his mother hang, watched his brother be shot. He knew nothing about ways of life outside of the camp. Had it not been for another older imprisoned man showing him kindness, Shin might still be⬇️

Now listening! Podcast episode link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-splendid-table-conversations-recipes-f.... The conversation with Crystal begins at about 25min in.

This was basically my response this morning when a co-worker asked me why I read some of the books that I do. It‘s vital that we continue to do this in these troubling times.

When there are too many victims from a county, or city, years and months are assigned: Los Angeles County John Doe 1980. Los Angeles County John Doe 1999.

A quick read touching on Texas history that you may not know surrounding Indigenous and enslaved people. The author reminds us how important it is to know our history, and that you can both love and criticize something at the same time. This is an ongoing and important lesson to remember in these frightening times.

Sometimes when you look at a photo of someone that is ‘missing‘, you just know they‘re gone. Something within you knows it. I had this feeling when seeing Jacob Grey‘s photo in the beginning of this book. The book largely focuses on his disappearance, but mentions other missing people throughout the chapters. The author spent a lot of time with different people, and mentions that there is a belief that the paranormal or the supernatural ⬇️

163 pages of words and pain from the deep. What if when enslaved, pregnant Black women who were thrown into the sea by colonizers on the Middle Passage survived, becoming merfolk? The Wajinru are these descendants, and none of them remember their story—except one. Yetu retains each painful memory of trauma and joy, and it is her responsibility to pass their history down. But, the pain of it is too much to bare. When she returns to the human ⬇️

…there are legacies of triumph for every legacy of trauma. Everything is always changing, which means nothing can ever be hopeless. The battering rush of tides shapes and smooth rock, carves out new lands.

The inclination to believe in the fantastic may strike some as a failure in logic, or gullibility, but it‘s really a gift. A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not. 

—Chris Van Allsburg

Checked out these today! I just listened to a podcast episode about lunar new year food traditions, so this is good timing for the bottom book!
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-splendid-table-conversations-recipes-f...

Such a beautiful little book, in words and art. It‘s small, but very impactful. In love with the artwork! https://www.ekuaholmes.com/shop

It felt like a good time to read this book. Few people dedicate their time to study the stolen books in Europe, returning them to the families that remain, of those they once belonged to before the Nazis ripped them away. Book bans are nothing new, but they never lead to anything good. What we are seeing in America right now is a repeat of the not so distant past. Did we learn nothing? Take away books, destroy thinking minds, destroy a people.

We never get to hear the stories of the five women murdered by the mysterious Jack the Ripper. We‘re only told they were the undesirables, the whores of Whitechapel. Here, the author gives us a look into each of their lives, and the systemic pains that led up to their last moments. These women deserved love and a chance at happiness. Instead, they were murdered horrifically in darkness, while at their most vulnerable, painful moments. We may⬇️

This book is a heartbreaking, infuriating and powerful memoir of one man‘s time on death row in AL for thirty years. Thirty years of his life that were stolen from him, for crimes he did not commit. It‘s an up close look at poverty, racism, and a deeply broken system that was never right from the start. Bryan Stevenson of EJI fought like hell to get Anthony‘s freedom, against all odds and with no cooperation or care from the state. Had it not⬇️

I carry scars that only Lester and Bryan really see. I document every day of my life. I get receipts. I purposefully walk in front of security cameras. I don‘t like to stay home for too long without calling a few people to tell them what I‘m doing. I always call someone and say goodnight. It‘s not that I‘m lonely or that I‘m afraid to be alone. In many ways, I prefer to be alone. I create an alibi for every single day of my life. ⬇️

I was at work. I didn‘t try to rob and kill anyone. I was at work where a guard had to clock me in and clock me out. They told me it didn‘t matter that it wasn‘t me. They told me that a white man was going to say that I did it and that‘s all it would take. I was going to be guilty because I was going to have a white jury and a white judge and a white prosecutor. My defense attorney wasn‘t paid nothing. He couldn‘t get money for an expert.⬇️

My check outs today. I donated 6 bags of dvds and had to look at the shelves. I still have to get through 9 other titles…😬😬😬

The loss of these five…lives is a tragedy…You may view with some distaste the lifestyles of those involved…whatever drugs they took, whatever the work they did, no-one is entitled to do these women any harm, let alone kill them. —Mr. Justice Gross, R v. Steven Gerald James Wright (the “Suffolk Strangler”), 2008

When I started looking into the history of these books and went onto the Internet to search for the names I found written inside them, the search results kept indicating Auschwitz. Every time the trail led to Auschwitz. We can‘t give people their lives back, but maybe we can give them something else. A book, and maybe a memory.

These are her footprints in the snow…where did she go? To the woods, and the Dewey box of course!

I can‘t even begin to say how much I loved this book. The author provides recipes along with stories of her family in each chapter. She goes deep into the lives of her ancestors, never shying away from the brutal reality of enslavement and the lingering effects it still has on communities today. She describes beautifully, the way she cooks while her matriarchs observe and speak to her, guiding her through the recipes, never leaving her side. ⬇️

This book falls in line with The Blue Zones; much of the content was familiar to me. The Japanese people of Okinawa have a very simple way of life, and it turns out to really pay off for them. The keys to aging well are the same, from everything I‘ve read: nutrition, fitness, mind, and social. These are also good tools for countering cognitive decline. I‘m adding this book to the books helpful to discuss at death cafes. We already know what⬇️

Found in the YA section at my local library, even though this book is for YA, I knew I wanted to read it; there is always another voice I need to hear, another lens I need to look through. This book through story telling, aims to guide you through showing up and how to be better; everyone can benefit from reading it.

This book features a collection of strange and many ridiculous laws. A quick and interesting read that will have you shaking your head and asking, wait—what? There is no shortage of senseless laws today. Just look at what local legislators and Congress are doing with their time and our taxes. They aren‘t creating and passing laws to improve quality of life.

In the south, we are experiencing a rare, historic snow. Perfect weather for reading, and cemetery strolls! 🥶🌨️❄️

These lights in my dermatologist office look like they would be in the donut restaurant in this book. They remind me of UFOs and donuts! 🍩 🛸👽

This book is about my foremothers, my kitchen ghosts, about the ways in which the foodways of the hills were passed primarily down through the women in my family, to me, and how I will pass them to my generations. The concept of the kitchen ghosts came to me years ago when I realized that my ancestors are always with me and that the women are most present while I‘m chopping or stirring or standing at the stove. The art of cooking and engaging ⬇️

The fact that trees communicate with each other wasn‘t new to me, but the name for it was. This book is a memoir of one woman‘s journey from logger, to activist sounding the alarm. While performing experiments in the forest, she discovered the secrets of the vast, intimate mycorrhizal network beneath and between the trees. She discovered that older trees protect all the other plants and trees around it, even as it is dying. She called these⬇️

I love horror movies, I always have. I‘ll choose the horror genre over others every time. This book was a new perspective, a Black lens I needed to look through. This book goes deeper than what we all know: the Black character dies first, or is sacrificed in other ways—not necessarily a physical death. Cinema still has a long way to go, and we must continue to demand it do better. This looks like inclusion, representation, ending racist⬇️

On the day I left my experiment, I stopped to absorb the forest‘s wisdom. I walked up to an elder birch along the Eagle River where I had collected the soil for transferring to the planting holes. Running my hands across the papery bark stretched across its wide, sturdy girth, I whispered the tree thanks for showing me some of its secrets. For saving my experiment. Then I made it a promise. A promise to learn how trees sense and signal⬇️

My finds today at a little local library book sale. I grabbed a bread machine cookbook for my mother in law too, she just got her first (machine)!

I checked out a small stack tonight from the library…and I still have 2 other stacks to get through first😬

Bigfoot/Sasquatch isn‘t something I‘ve had much interest in, or a solid belief. I‘ve watched some personal stories about it lately though, and I find it interesting. The author travels to British Columbia to hear these kinds of stories from the locals. He gets indigenous wisdom and many stories; he learns the many names of this mysterious being; he meets other scientists who ask, if we know this creature exists, why the stigma? The book is⬇️

This book focuses on the little known fact that slavery was not just used by white people, nor was it confined to the South. The reasons varied from attempts to keep families together, to purchasing the ‘freedom‘ of their loved ones for them, to capital. Various laws were passed in SC from 1800-1859 that made emancipation very hard, and for many, impossible. This is an old text that I would like to see updated with new information. An ⬇️