Nonfiction

Review: GRIT: THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE by Angela Duckworth
|

Review: GRIT: THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE by Angela Duckworth

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Angela Duckworth   Scribner, May 2016 354 pp, $28 Buy: hardcover | eBook Reviewed by Aaron Sommers There’s a new teacher’s pet in class. It’s not the newest, most scientific standardized test to measure student achievement. It has nothing to do with the allure of technology in classrooms,…

Review: TAKING BULLETS: TERRORISM AND BLACK LIFE IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA by Haki R. Madhubuti
|

Review: TAKING BULLETS: TERRORISM AND BLACK LIFE IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA by Haki R. Madhubuti

The waning months of President Obama’s presidency coupled with the populist ascendancy of Donald Trump has seemingly expedited feelings of fear, loathing, and endless uncertainty among many. To some, Obama’s ascendancy was supposed to usher in a post-racial democracy that would rescue, resuscitate, and render the American dream (or pieces of it, at least) reachable to the average American citizen. Unfortunately, Trump’s nativist rhetoric and crypto-fascism synched with the durability of racism, generational poverty, and American empire-building has imposed newer and more serious life-challenges into the lives of Black Americans and poor and working class people from all walks of life.

Review: GRUNT: THE CURIOUS SCIENCE OF HUMANS AT WAR by Mary Roach
|

Review: GRUNT: THE CURIOUS SCIENCE OF HUMANS AT WAR by Mary Roach

Those in the business of National Security classify diarrhea as a clear and present danger. It’s particularly hazardous for members of the U.S. Special forces, because diarrhea is an enemy from within that can attack without warning. I know this because I’ve read Mary Roach’s GRUNT: THE CURIOUS SCIENCE OF HUMANS AT WAR, specifically, chapter eight (“Leaky SEALs”).

Review: LABOR OF LOVE: THE INVENTION OF DATING by Moira Weigel
|

Review: LABOR OF LOVE: THE INVENTION OF DATING by Moira Weigel

Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating Moira Weigel Farrar, Strass and Giroux, 2016 304 pp; $26 Buy: hardcover | eBook Reviewed by Andrew McKernan What are you doing tonight? We should Netflix and chill. Even without receiving that exact text, one knows the purpose, and the posture. Why those words, that pitched, disinterested tone?…

vintage viginia map
| | | | |

Notes on the State of Virginia: Journey to the Center of an American Document, Queries VII, VIII, and IX

In these three queries, Jefferson attempts to distill the complex meteorological, demographic, and military features of Virginia into a series of data points. His prose—supplemented by graphical tables tracking everything from rainfall to carriage wheels—draws a fine grid over the natural and human activities of the Commonwealth.

map of Virginia.
| | | |

Notes on the State of Virginia: Journey to the Center of an American Document, Query VI

This is the fourth installment of a year-long journey through Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. You can read previous installments here, here and here. ** Query VI: “Productions mineral, vegetable and animal” A notice of the mines and other subterraneous riches; its trees, plants, fruits, &c. At root, Jefferson’s Notes on the…