As the summer winds down, now is the perfect time to catch up on any last-minute summer reading. Read on to see what I’ve got on my plate.
John Boehner – On the House
I guess one might ask why a leftist blogger is reading the memoir of a GOP House Speaker. But, whatever. I read plenty of material from people I disagree with. On the whole, Boehner comes off like a pretty typical person who ends up as a Republican. He didn’t grow up extremely wealthy, but his claim to be ‘working class‘ is misleading, at best. His dad owned a bar.
Boehner doesn’t focus a great deal on the substance of his (or anyone else’s) politics. Rather, he tells the story of his life. And it’s an enjoyable enough story.
James S.A. Corey – Tiamat’s Wrath
I delayed reading the 8th book in The Expanse series for some time. Since the 9th and final book hasn’t been released yet, I didn’t want too much of a gap between reading it and the first 8. Now that we finally have a release date for the final book, it was time to read this one.
Of course, I won’t give away any plot details. Let’s just say that this book very effectively sets up the final conflict between humanity and whichever alien force is trying to destroy it. Holden and (what’s left of the) crew are old now, but they’re still ready to go.
Michael Honey – Black Workers Remember
Here we have an oral history project, where the author interviewed black manufacturing workers in Memphis. His interviews – conducted in the 1980s and 1990s – cover the period from the 1930s to the 1970s. A brief summary: a lot happened during this period! We go from the height of CIO organizing through the civil rights movement and finally to the breakdown of unions and U.S. manufacturing.
Most of all I think Honey’s interviews show the importance of organizing the unorganized and building connections between workers and the community. The union leaders and black workers who succeeded in their organizing efforts saw civil rights as an integral part of what they did. And many of their opponents – the people they had to fight to achieve gains – were white workers the company played against them.
One final part that stands out to me was the visceral violence and hostility black workers face. It’s one thing to know about it. But it’s quite another to read testimony of it.
The workers lived through the major CIO organizing campaigns of the 30s, and they have some lessons for younger organizers. Their work showed the best results when they also organized the unorganized and when they combined with the community on, e.g., civil rights. The workers saw civil rights as a key part of their work. And much of what blocked their gains was resistance from white workers that companies exploited. The descriptions of the violence and hostility black workers faced is particularly compelling – it gets one well past a merely intellectual understanding of this phenomenon.
Kass Morgan – Light Years/Supernova
Some readers might be familiar with Kass Morgan as the author of The 100 – a not particularly good young sci-fi series that the CW turned into a much better TV show. Unfortunately, the TV show improved on the books largely by discarding their plot.
Much like The 100 books, Morgan’s Light Years series starts with an interesting premise – four young students join the military to save themselves, their families, and their solar system – and then turns it into far less than the sum of its parts. I can forgive a lot in young adult lit, but nothing much adds up or makes sense here.
