Documentary - Lifting The Veil

The last few weeks I have been going through my book marks,  both on my MacBookPro and my Mac Mini, and saving the links that are still good to my Pinterest account.  I have been making boards and organizing the links in order to make it easier to find them.  In doing this,  I ran across a video that someone had asked me to take the time to watch.  I had book marked it and forgot about it.  Since I re-discovered it,  last week I took the time to watch it.  I am not able to post the video here on my blog due to copy write issues but to go watch the video click HERE.    It is far left stuff.  I am left of center in most of my opinions but cross party lines on some issues.   Even after watching the video, I am an Obama supporter.  Of course,  I do not agree with every choice our president  has made but I realize I am not going to agree on everything that anyone says.  This video has re-emphaisized to me that President Obama is a moderate.   As I watched the video,  it became clear to me once again that most of Americans are moderate.  Therefore any president elected is probably going to be a moderate.  I remember from my college level American History that our three branches of government are designed to be opposing forces to prevent our country from going too far off in any one direction.  Since the  president determines the Supreme Court,  it will be a mix of democratic or republican ideologies, depending upon when the nomination of the individual  occurs.   That leaves our House and Senate to be the place we can put people who are more in keeping with our particular side of the various issues.  In my opinion,  it is unfortunate that the more conservative voters have accomplished this while the more liberal voters have not stepped up to the plate.  We need to change our emphasis.   I am not saying the president doesn't matter,  but it is an office that will be by nature in the middle while the house and senate can be more one extreme to the other.  While I am sure I will most likely continue to vote democrat in the presidential election,  I intend to look more closely at where the various congressmen/women and senators stand on various issues.   But then,  maybe eery one else has already figured that out.

Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between The World and Me

by

Ta-Nehisi Coates

This book never would have come into my range of vision had I not been invited to join in with a group on Face Book called The Interracial Book Club.  I am kind of a sucker for book groups.  I miss the one I was in before I moved from NE Indiana to SW Ohio.  It was a library book group and when I arrived at  my new home I immediately attended the library book group here.  I went several times and it was nice, but before I could develop  friendships to the degree I had in my prior home, my work schedule changed and I could no longer attend the group.  So when asked to attend an online one I was glad to join in.  I am used to books in book groups causing me to stretch and read things that I would not have picked out to read otherwise.  But this is the first group that will be choosing more than one selection of the same topic so I am not sure how long I will participate.   Never the less,  they sure picked a good one to start out so it may be something I participate in longer than I first would have guessed.  And that brings me to the book in question:  Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

This is a short book.  I listened to it on audio and while it was meaningful because it was read by the author, to really do justice to the discussion I should have chosen to read it on my kindle.   There is so much to think about that the book brings up that it is hard to keep one's mind on the book.  Images and memories kept crowding in.  This is a letter,  written to the author's son when the son was upset after the grand jury returned no indictment for the officer involved in the Michael Brown shooting.  This is not a book I feel comfortable in making any judgement about the content or conclusions drawn by the author for while as having the experience of being a single mom,  I can understand some of what it is like to to have children who are in the high risk group of becoming a statistic,  my experience is dwarfed in comparison.  And as I woman,  I can understand what it feels like to have obstacles between me and the world that men live in,  my experience is dwarfed in comparison.   What I can do as a review of this book is to say that it made me realize how ignorant I am in this particular current issue.  Reading it has made clear to me the need for cameras on our police officers, to not only protect them so that their judgement in situations be clear in investigations,  but to provide transparency to the citizens they are protecting.

Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  Please feel free to ask to join in on the book discussion of this book on Facebook.   And please take time to read the book.  It is only 160 pages long and involves a subject we need to dialog about in the United States right now.

The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook by Tom Bernardin

The Ellis Island

Immigrant Cookbook

by

Tom Bernardin

Historical cookbooks are a fascination for me.  One recent purchase I made was The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook by Tom Bernardin.  It is divided into nationalities and has six sections of  various areas of the world and each contains  recipes from the perspective  area. Following the chapters with recipes are sections of  information on Ellis Island itself and stories of memories of the immigrants.  In each  recipes units are memories of the immigrants descendants of the food they ate cooked by the immigrant in their family.  The recipe I chose to make from the book was very tasty.  It is on page 102 and is a  soup from Yugoslavia.  It is called Jechmik Soup.    I found it time consuming to prepare but very much worth it.  For those interested in family history and how our ancestors lived upon arriving in our country this book would be very much of interest.   Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows which is of the author of the cookbook giving a tour at Ellis Island.

The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome by Dr Tony Attwood

The Complete Guide To

Aspergers Syndrome

by

Dr Tony Attwood

As I finished up this book on my Kindle Friday night,  what struck me was the amount of information it contains.  I now have a much greater understanding of Aspergers Syndrome than I did prior to reading the book.  Even those that only have some of the traits and not a full diagnosis of Aspergers would gain insight from this handbook.  Dr Attwood is a British doctor who currently lives in Australia.  His expertise is in Aspergers Syndrome and he is not only knowledgeable,  he is able to explain the subject in a way that is easily understood by everyday people.  I highly recommend this book to not only people in the field of education and medical community but also to parents and spouses of people that are wondering about their loved one.  It is likely that this syndrome is more prevalent than is diagnosed.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the interview with Dr Attwood in the video below.

Wagons West - Oregon by Dana Fuller Ross

Wagons West: Oregon!

by

Dana Fuller Ross

Friday night I finished listening to the fourth book of the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross.  It is the one called Oregon where they arrive in Oregon and set up their community.  It has been an enjoyable series and thought it goes on for many more books,  I am done reading it.  I would call them fluff books.  They are not particularly  historically accurate and the story line begins to get repetitive.  Never the less,  they are fun books and for someone who doesn't read to challenge their mind I am sure the stories would relax them.  Please follow the links by clicking on the high lighted words above.  The following link is to  a video that was filmed at the End Of Trail Interpretive Center by a man named Bradley Haertling.  I visited this center this summer in July and it was fun for me to watch the video and see the things I saw while there.  

Wagons West: Wyoming by Dana Fuller Ross

Wagons West:

Wyoming

by

Dana Fuller Ross

The third novel of Wagons West by Dana Fuller Ross is Wyoming.  I have been listening to this series  while driving for the last few weeks.  It is an enjoyable light reading type series.  I would categorize them as fluff books more than historical novels because the author takes a lot of liberties.  But they are fun books as long as not taken seriously.  Through out most of this book the wagon train is wintering over in a valley of the Rocky Mountains.  The pioneers not only have a doctor in their midst but he is a very progressive one.  There were some scientists that had ideas that there might be germs at the time this wagon train was traveling but Joseph Lister was only a child and he is the one that came up with the principles of cleanliness we are now familiar with in medicine.  But this wagon train doc cleans everything with antiseptic.  As long as one does not worry about the parts of the book that do not match with how things were then the story line is one to be enjoyed.  I will listen to one more book in the series before I move on to something else as they will get to Oregon in the next book.  Please click on the links above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the following video of some Wyoming Wagon Train Ruts that I saw on my vacation earlier in the summer.

 

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

The Mirror

by

Marlys Millhiser

Several months ago, one of my cousins on FB mentioned she was re-reading a book she had enjoyed in the past entitled The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser.  I looked it up and promptly added it to my Amazon Smile wish list so that I could download it to my kindle at a later date.   About a week ago I decided that day had come and I downloaded and began to read the novel.  Talk about a page turner!  This book is one of those "just one more chapter"  books that can keep you up too late at night.  It may well be considered young adult fiction.  It was written in 1978 so strikes a chord with me since I graduated from high school in 1975.   The book is divided into three parts.  The first part is about a young woman on the night before her wedding night who,  looking into an antique  mirror that has been in the family for generations,  is suddenly transported back to  her grandmother's time and into her grandmother's body the night before her grandmother's wedding.  The second part is about the mother of the girl in present times and the daughter of the grandmother in the early 1900s.  The third part of the book is about the grandmother who ends up in the grand daughter's body and time during the night before the weddings switch.  Each woman makes the best of the cards dealt to her and it is a book about what life styles women have dealt with through out the 20th Century.  I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it as good chick lit.  Please click on the title and author's name above to follow links to more information.  And  enjoy the video that follows which is about the town in Colorado that the grandmother in the story lives most of her adult life in.