It's Trevor Noah Born a Crime

I read Born a Crime, Trevor Noah's memoir a couple of years ago. Noah just released a young adult version of the book which doesn't remove any of the violence of apartheid or hardship he faced but rather all the swear words. Sonia and I are reading this book together and reading it with her is a very different experience. 

He introduces each chapter explaining one of the legal structures or consequences of apartheid then the chapter shows how that structure affected his life. It is tremendously sad. He doesn't spend any time in this book explaining how he becomes famous so when it ends you can't even imagine how he got from there to here. Maybe he'll write another book?

Night Thoughts

Night Thoughts is a collection of essays by Wallace Shawn. I listened to Shawn read his essays and it's hard not to think of his character from the Princess Bride. Shawn is also well-known as a playwright but I have never seen any of his plays. Ryan is a big fan and he found these essays.

I love anything that challenges the dominant capitalist / neoliberal narrative that seems to cause enormous suffering for many, many people on this planet. Shawn apparently identifies as a socialist and that makes sense. In one of the essays, he imagines the housekeeper of a wealthy friend smashing his friend's head into a marble dinner table until the friend is dead. 

Interesting stuff.

Educated

I read this book last year but when my book group selected it, I decided to read it again. It's even better the second time. I don't have the language to explain the many ways this book made an impact on me. Like all great books, it seems to be about all the philosophical issues relevant to human existence.

I watched a few videos with Tara Westover. She was interviewed by Bill Gates and Ellen DeGeneres among many other interesting people. Bill Gates wanted to talk to her about her views on education, Ellen wanted to discuss how she overcame her abusive relationship with her brother and her family's rejection. I suspect that Westover never thought about the fact that her very personal experiences were going to be dissected in front of millions of people. 

Here is an exchange between Westover and Oprah that I found which captures one of the most important themes of the book.

From Oprah's podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tara-westover-educated/id1264843400?i=1000437295457
(43 minutes and 8 seconds into this podcast.  )

OPRAH: So often in the book you write about the thoughts in your head about actions, decisions you struggle with because they were against your father's teaching. You say that you knew your learning was unnatural.

Oprah reads from the book: This knowledge like so much of my self knowledge had come from me in the voice of people I knew and people that I love. All through the years that voice has been with me whispering, wondering, worrying that I was not right, that my dreams were perversions. That voice had many tempers and many tones. So often it was my father's voice but more often it was my own.

OPRAH: so in your everyday life do you still hear those teachings in your father's voice?

TARA: I think we all do, and that's what's deceptive about the ideas we get from other people. We feel like they're our ideas. My dad's version of history didn't feel like history I learned, it felt like history.

Westover is so extraordinary because she transcended the dominant narrative of her family and culture to find who she really was.

Snow!

On February 5 a snowstorm started and basically closed school for two weeks. While this isn't travel or reading, it was extraordinary. One reason I keep this blog is to remember what happened and when.

My kids spent almost every day playing outside with all the kids in the neighborhood. No one could go anywhere. It was two weeks of a '70's childhood. I worked and hobbled around on my hurt knee.  Fun all around.

The first video is taken by my neighbor:

Sonia joined a ski team. Here she is at her first race:

Gran Hotel

I do not have a Spanish tutor right now so I decided to re-watch a telenovela from Spain called Gran Hotel. People call it Spanish Downtown Abbey. It is so much better than Downtown Abbey. I watch the show with Spanish subtitles as I can't keep up just listening. In a sense, this is what I am reading right now. I am on Season 3.. so much intrigue! I hear from friends it's also enjoyable with the English subtitles.

Hunger Games 1, 2& 3

Sonia wanted to listen to the Hunger Games. Since it's a young adult book and she is not a young adult, we listened to it together.

The first Hunger Games is excellent. It's an exciting, well-told dystopian struggle for survival. The hero is a girl and she has a lot of not-stereotypically girl attributes - she is a warrior and rather cold-hearted and calculating.

The second Hunger Games was less exciting but still interesting.

The third Hunger Games was terrible, and it made no sense. We listened to the bitter end when everything was wrapped in a dumb, predicable bow.

Becoming

I cannot decide which memoir was the best I've ever read -- either Trevor Noah's Born a Crime or Becoming by Michelle Obama. Born a Crime is very funny but also very sad at times. Becoming is oddly suspenseful and really honest. Both are stories of extraordinary lives. They are both so great.

I listened to Becoming when Seattle was buried in snow for two weeks. I had hurt my knee skiing and could do very little physical activity. Listening to the book was often the highlight of my day. Everyone should read it.