With politics still on our minds, I am moved to recommend two books that shed light on the current situation. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis tells his story of being raised in Frank McCourt-style poverty in Appalachia. He makes his way to Yale Law School without ever losing his love and empathy for the people he never left behind.
In Listen, Liberal, or What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, Thomas Frank presciently spells out the Democratic Party’s focus on corporate and cultural elitism and where it led. These authors come from different ends of the political spectrum on many issues, but together helped me understand what brought us to this point in our political history.
Neither book is an academic tome, and both are incisive, insightful, and thought-provoking.
If you’re more in the mood for a diversion, I can enthusiastically recommend the guilty pleasure of John Grisham’s latest novel, The Whistler.
–Mary, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR
Whether you’re aim is to be informed or to be distracted, your local bookstore is there for you.