Tell It to the World: an Indigenous Memoir

Tell It to the World: an Indigenous Memoir by Stan Grant

Pages: 255 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A CNN correspondent shares the story of how he grew up in Australia and how even though he is now successful, growing up an Aboriginal Australian effected him. Grant shares his personal experiences with racism as a child through his adulthood. He found a route to self-worth through reading the writings of James Baldwin. He compares Australia's treatment of the Aborigines to America's treatment of Native Americans and blacks. 

I was unaware of this part of Australia's history. I knew that there were several Aboriginal tribes already living in Australia when Great Britain first sent settlers and then prisoners to live there. However, I did not know how the Aboriginals had been treated from the very beginning and how they are viewed as other, still today. 

He shares how the ongoing racism in Australia and the world continues to cause hardship, anger, and shame for him as an indigenous man. He argues that the effects of early colonialism and oppression are now everyday realties that have shaped countries and governments and we all have to realize this to change it. 

The Rig Veda (Penguin Classics)

One of the oldest sacred texts in the world, it was very interesting to see a glimpse of ancient Indian culture, as well as the mythological foundation of much of the Western world-for example, Indra, king of the gods, has many of the same qualities/abilities as the Greek Zeus, and the name of Varuna the sky god of order is a cognate of Ouranos (Uranus). The descriptions of ritual and stories of the gods were most interesting (sooo many cows!) I was looking forward to the chapter on women, until I read the introduction: "The Rig Veda is a text written by men, for men, about men". Oh... Oh no. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds, and so crude! *disappointed, but not surprised*

352 pages

Learn Something New

The Year of Cozy by Adrianna Adarme

This is a very cute book, and the images are beautiful. My biggest issue with it is some of the recipes and crafts use obscure ingredients and materials you would probably need to order online. The contents also seem to be thrown together helter-skelter. It was fun to read through though. 

259 pages

From Freezer to Table by Polly Conner & Rachel Tiemeyer

Although I thought their second book was better than their first, this one still has some great ideas on how to prep meals in advance for easy healthy weekday cooking. I love the idea of setting up a freezer club, where each person contributes a few meals and they all swap. Probably not a good idea for right now, but it's still something to keep in mind for the future!

233 pages 

Body Reading by Sasha Fenton

This short and sweet guide reviews how humans have traditionally attributed meaning to different parts of the body. The author goes through the reading of heads, hands, eyes, feet, even moles and itches.The chapter on phrenology was especially interesting. Does any of this actually reflect someone's personality and fate? No, but it sure is fascinating to read about what people thought and believed in the past. 

144 pages

The Witch's Book of Self-Care by Ann Murphy-Hiscock

This is a great collection of self-care techniques, meditations, recipes, and activities. I love how simple and clear the instructions are. They are all very doable with little need for materials. Self-Care is a huge focus for me right now, and this book is just what I needed. I may end up buying my own copy. 

224 pages

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good look at poverty and violence, and the struggle it is to grow up inside them and to then try to make a life outside of them. It's a lot about class, community culture, and the persistent trauma of growing up inside a culture of constant stress and drama. Honestly, this hits very close to home, even in Missouri, and I know many people who grew up in such a way or are still trapped and impacted by similar childhoods.

My brother said this was a boring book, because it's everything he already knows about the impacts of growing up in poverty and despair. In fact, his exact words were, "I thought it was boring and not that good, but we grew up in a poor area, so it wasn't anything groundbreaking."

This had me thinking about why my brother would expect a book about a culture in crisis to be groundbreaking. Does he feel as if there is some kind of reason or solution to poverty and violence that he does not yet know about? And why doesn't he want to see the reality of some of our life experiences reflected back in his literature?

My mother said, "It is suited to those who have always had advantages and money and don't understand those who haven't."

Now, on some level, I understand her comment, because she's suggesting that the value of the book may be in its shock value for all of those who haven't grown up in or surrounded by some level of poverty and hardship. But who in the world are these people? And what world do they live in that I don't? How many

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance

J.D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of the Ohio State University and Yale Law School. In this memoir, he gives an insider's analysis of a culture in crisis. He talks about the struggles of white, working-class American's, as seen through the prism of his own family.

His grandparents moved north from Appalachia to escape the poverty that permeated their existence, and provide a better opportunity for their children to move up into the middle class. That worked for them with employment in the steel mills of Ohio. Yet the family struggled with the demands of the middle-class, and Vance chronicles how social and class decline feels like when you grow up in it.

A lot is being written these days on the decline of this segment of the population, and the abuse, poverty, and drug and alcohol abuse so prevalent among this culture. No one has written it in such stark terms, from the viewpoint of one who has lived it and escaped it, albeit with the scars to prove it.


272 pages

Kansas City Style: A Social and Cultural History of Kansas City as Seen Through Its Lost Architecture by Dory DeAngelo and Jane Fifield Flynn

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Quality Hill neighborhood for 20 years was the most prestigious.  Kansas City Stockyards started from a small beginning 'til by 1886 more than 100,000 were processed through their yards.  Many individuals and  organizations contributed information and photos for this book.  The Grillett Special Plate cost 40 cents at Wolferman's Store.  232 pages.

Food in Missouri, a Cultural Stew by Madeline Matson

 I am converting some older Missouri Heritage Readers from analog to digital, and this is one of them. I got interested in it (I didn’t read it the first time around – I let the volunteers handle it), but I read it this time. It was quite interesting.

It was written by Madeline Matson, who worked in the State Library for many years.  This isn’t a cookbook; it is a history of this state's food, from the hunting and farming methods of the area's earliest inhabitants. Beginning with Native Americans, she proceeds to the early settlers, which include the French, Spanish, German and English. She includes African-American influences, and addresses how food was produced, marketed, transported, and by whom it was consumed.

Tracing the history of food preparation, preservation, and marketing, while highlighting the cultural traditions that engendered each change, Matson shows how advances in farming methods, the invention of the electric range, the development of cookbooks, and three waves of immigration have profoundly influenced what Missourians eat today. Along the way, she highlights some of the key people, places, and institutions in Missouri's food history.

168 pages