An Awesome Author Visit

An Awesome Author Visit

For a bona fide book geek like your humble reviewer, very few
thrills can top real life author visits. My sustainability class was
very fortunate this week because Dr. Miriam Nelson came to UMaine to
talk to us. After giving a lecture, she was gracious enough to stay
for a spur-of-the-moment small group discussion.
Dr. Nelson is the author of a series of health and fitness books
for strong women. (Note to self--over Christmas break read and review
at least one!) She has accomplished a great deal more than seems (at
least to me) humanly possible. (She is also one of the nicest people
you could hope to meet.) She currently is the director of the
Sustainability Institute and deputy chief sustainability officer at
University of New Hampshire.
Dr. Nelson's talk, The Sustainable Plate, was based on her
serving on the 2010 and 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She gave insight
(some of which was quite scary) into the procedures that agency uses
and the thwarted attempt to get sustainability into the 2015 guidelines.
The concept of food security centers around people having
sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. Sustainability adds a mandate
for stewardship. Food must be produced in ways that allow for best
practices decades and centuries in the future. This will require
current far-from-best practices to be scrutinized and changed a lot.
Current unsustainable food production practices are responsible for
80% of deforestation, 70% of fresh water use, and 30% of greenhouse
gases. They are also the greatest cause of biodiversity loss. This
is not exactly something to be proud of.
Including sustainability in the guidelines would have would have
been a good way because of the sheer volume of people who participate
in school lunches, WIC, and SNAP. For awhile it looked like this
could actually happen. Eighty percent of public comment was
favorable. There was an unprecedented amount of press coverage.
Campaigns like My Plate, My Planet were popular. Then food industry
people (I suspect many were from the industry that would have a beef
with cutting down on red meat consumption) began discrediting
scientists, questioning science, and defecting issues. So they won out.
Dr. Nelson believes that food has become too cheap. We do not
value it. We pay nowhere near the cost of producing it. Rather than a
food utopia, this has created a race to the bottom and a rapidly
widening gap between haves and have nots. The cost cutting side has
led to many dubious, unsafe, and very unsustainable practices.
Perhaps the cruelest cost is the human one. The hands on laborers--
migrant farmers, butchers on speeded up cutting-up-huge-animals lines,
waitpeople, cashiers--are too often underpaid and made to endure
hazardous working conditions. Wholesome food is more expensive than
expensive stuff. How can a parent who can barely afford a generic box
of macaroni and cheese to feed the family give a child an apple? Food
deserts are legion and in many more places than one would suspect.
Veazie, where I reside, is, for the most part, a prosperous
municipality. Food establishments consist of a Tradewinds convenience
store, a pricey restaurant, and a gluten free bakery. For people
without cars, feeding a family would require multiple lengthy weekly
trips involving bus transfers and pedestrian unfriendly destinations--
daunting enough for able bodied, solo travellers, never mind those
with wheelchairs, walkers, or several young children.
There were three things in particular that I found inspiring in
what Dr. Nelson had to say.
The first was that, unlike so many people who preach to the
relatively privileged choir (Buy from farmers' markets), she takes all
the people, including many most of us don't think about, into
consideration. Front line food workers must have decent pay and safe
working conditions. All people must have a liveable wage that gives
them and their families food security.
The second was that we must acknowledge the complexity of humans
(including ourselves) in regard to food. We rely on and value
cultural customs. We operate on emotion as well as cognition. (Oreos
are nutritional disasters, but I enjoy them because they elicit warm
memories of sharing them with my children). Not acknowledging this
complexity limits our ability to understand and communicate with
others with differing perspectives.
The third was that sustainability will be challenging, but not
impossible to achieve. Dr. Nelson gave us some examples of how some
universities are doing some amazing work to meet high sustainablity
standards. There is so much the rest of us can learn from them.
Making our food system sustainable is one of the most important
challenges of the 21st century. I urge you, dear readers, to join me
in doing our part. Let's all be food warriors!
On a personal note, I am loving being back in school. I believe with
all my heart, now that my wonderful children are on their own, this is
where I belong. I have a lot to learn and a lot to offer.
A great big shout out goes out to all who are working to make our
plates and world more sustainable.
jules hathaway


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A Mother's Dream

A Mother's Dream

Picture book
David Packham Jr.'s A Mother's Dream is a dear, tender, set in
Maine story parents will love at least as much as children.
The day she and her husband bring their new baby girl from the
hospital a mother has a dream. She sees her as a dancer in a special
dress and is sure she has glimpsed her child's destiny. Despite her
husband's doubts she sews a very special dress.
Well you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice
and men (and women). A childhood illness that left young Jessie in
braces makes that career choice a no starter.
But the dress will be put to good use. You just have to read
the book to see what its fate will be.
On a personal note, yesterday saw quite a day! My friend Sandra baked
a lovely fluffy coconut cake, made a really cool big card for everyone
to sign, and gave me a really lovely pink journal that says
"Fearlessly Be Yourself" in a flowered treasure box that says "Live
Your Dream" and "Do What You Love". She said that was about grad
school. :)
That night was the last delivery of the year for community garden. We
made a really fine night of it. Our people were really happy with
their veggies and we had goodies to take home.
I think the common denominator here is how family goes well beyond
those linked by blood and legal documents. Family of the heart can
include those who really know you and love you, not who they think you
should be.
A great big shout out goes out to my writing class and community
garden clans.
jules hathaway


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Ahoy There, Mates

Ahoy There, Mates

Picture books
Are your kids avid fans of pirate stories? Do they and you find
David Shannon's over the top illustrations highly amusing? Well have
I got some books for you?
In Melinda Long's How I Became A Pirate Jeremy Jacob is at the
beach with his clueless parents and baby sister. A crew of
directionally challenged pirates invites him to help them bury their
treasure. He's sure mom and dad won't mind him going with them as
long as he's back in time for soccer practice. (See what I mean about
clueless?) He finds some aspects of the pirate life style appealing.
But when a big storm catches the crew home begins to look pretty good.
Pirates Don't Change Diapers is a most delightful sequel. The
pirate gang drops by Jeremy Jacob's house. They need his help
relocating the treasure. JJ has been instructed to keep his baby
sister amused if she wakes up. Needless to say, the crew's rowdiness
rouses her in no time flat. At first they contend that pirates do not
babysit. But if they want to see their treasure again they're going
to have to change their tune.
If your kids enjoy pirate stories maybe they would enjoy hiding
a treasure and making a map. You're sneaking in those academic skills
and maybe even getting them outside. Bwa ha ha!
On a personal note, yesterday was my birthday picnic. The weather was
perfect. We had it at the new and gorgeous Orono Village Green which
is behind the library and took a lot of work and fundraising to
achieve. (Now it can accomodate, walkers, outdoor diners, and concert
goers. If you have the good fortune of going to Orono check it out).
Katie and Jacob came all the way from Portland. Amber, Brian, and
Eugene were there too. Katie had made the most delicious cupcakes;
red velvet with cream cheese frosting and crushed Heath bars. We had
a wonderful time being together as a family. That is the most
beautiful present I received.
A great big shout out goes out to my amazing family.
jules hathaway


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Dear Ijeawele

Dear Ijeawele

Adult parenting/feminism
"When a couple of years ago a friend of mine from childhood,
who'd grown into a brilliant, strong, kind woman, asked me to tell her
how to raise her baby girl a feminist, my first thought was that I did
not know.
It felt like too huge a task."
Following a dinner and dance in honor of the visiting African
Scholars at UMaine I arrived home totally elated. This excitement and
a heavily muggy ambiance meant sleep was going to elude me at least
awhile. I reached for my go to remedy, the next book in my stack. By
great good fortune in the guise of coincidence it happened to be
written by a Nigerian woman.
Luckily Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reconsidered and decided the
task was manageable. Her Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in
Fifteen suggestions packs a wealth of wisdom into a deceptively slim
volume: sixty-three pages in all.
Each suggestion covers one aspect of feminist daughter raising.
The language is straightforward and the concepts are bold. Adichie is
not a fan of what she considers Feminism Light. The tone, though,
conveys the intimacy of a woman speaking to a treasured friend. This
particular voice is both compelling and touching.
This is a wonderful book to give a new mother. It's a good read
for people who interact with young girls in any capacity. When I
volunteer in the library, for example, I make sure to compliment the
story hour set in non gender biased ways.
On a personal note, I had the most amazing birthday. I saw so many
dear friends and heard from others. My friend Liv treated me to Sweet
Frog frozen yogurt. Eugene took me to Dennys for supper and gave me a
musical card and money. I talked to all three of my children on the
phone. Today is sunny enough for me to hang all the laundry outside.
So it's an at home work day. Tomorrow I get to leave church after the
choir sings our anthem to go to a family picnic to celebrate my
birthday. Katie and Jacob will come all the way from Portland! That
will be so much fun!
A great big shout out to the friends and family members who make my
life such a happy one.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Irrisistible

Irrisistible

YA/adult nonfiction
"A like on Facebook and Instagram strikes one of those notes, as
does the reward of completing a World of Warcraft mission, or seeing
one of your tweets shared by hundreds of Twitter users. The people
who create and refine tech, games, and interactive experiences are
very good at what they do. They run thousands of tests with millions
of users to learn which tweaks work and which ones don't--which
background colors, fonts, and audio tones maximize engagement and
minimize frustration. As an experience evolves, it becomes an
irrisistible, weaponized version of the experience it once was. In
2004, Facebook was fun; in 2016, it's addictive."
Awhile back my kids got on Facebook. At least in my neck of the
woods there was disagreement about whether parents should get their
own accounts. I read of parents who did so to monitor their offspring
like hawks--making sure they couldn't pull anything off. I personally
knew a few who said, I have a right to and if they don't like it,
tough. I had no reason to suspect my kids of being Internet
miscreants. Also, even though I suspected I was missing out on
something, it didn't seem worth the bother. I am so glad. I was
having trouble with lonliness. With my kids growing up I was missing
all the fun we'd had together without adult companionship to take its
place. I was isolated in conservative suburbia. If I'd found kindred
spirits in the virtual world (instead of burying myself in books) I
might very well have become hooked rather than seeking real world
friends. More recently a friend made me a page. In the two or three
years since I've peeked twice or three times. The first time it was
like a shiny new toy under the tree due to novelty. The next time it
was meh. Quickly it felt like a time suck. I'd developed a vibrant
real world social life that made its offerings seem pale in comparison.
In his Irrisistible: The Rise Of Addictive Technology And The
Business Of Keeping Us Hooked, Adam Alter gives the science behind my
epiphany and a number of other really cool observations. He uses an
intriguing blend of history, research, and personal narrative that is,
I gotta warn you, irrisistible once you turn to the first page. It's
extremely enlightening.
The part of the book I found most intriguing was Alter's
refution of the theory that some people are predisposed to behavioral
addiction (an inability to give up obsessive behaviors rather than
substances like drugs) and the rest of us are safe. One of the cases
he cites involves Vietnam vets. Not surprisingly, although the
soldiers arrived clean, the homesickness, stress, and easy
availability and strength of heroin made for a lot of addicts. A lot
of people cried foul when a researcher discovered 95% of the soldier
addicts kicking the habit as opposed to 5% who develop it in America.
What was going on? They were completely leaving the places and
situational triggers that started their habits instead of going from
jail or rehab into the same neighborhoods and relationships. The
emphasis on circumstances explains why in that gap between the joy of
parenting and finding a new joie de vivre I was uniquely vulnerable.
It also explains why many of our friends, despite frustration with the
amount of time behavioral addictions take up and the best of
intentions, find it difficult or impossible to cut down.
The most alarming part of the book for me was the implications
for the barely out of the womb generation. It has been proven time
and time again that babies and toddlers need real world interaction
with significant others and concrete objects. Manufacturers are
devising ways to get even the littlest people hooked on electronics.
And a lot of moms and dads plunk them down in order to pursue their
own addictions. We already have lots of kids and teens who are unable
or afraid to negotiate nonvirtual interactions. What are we setting
ourselves up for?
We don't live in a world where we can totally not use the
Internet. Even some of the most basic jobs, for example, require on
line applications. But Alter ends the book with ways in which we can
protect ourselves and our loved ones from the dangers and even make
use of some positive aspects. Even if you're not concerned about
anyone in your life, Irresistible provides an in depth look into how
our society morphed into what it is today. I plan to check out
Alter's earlier book: Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces
That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave.
I use my iPod touch to communicate via email with friends
(deleting most of what I get unread), look up information, and read a
few on line periodicals. When Facebook reminds me of a friend's
birthday I email or phone. Every few months I consider logging in (or
is it on) and don't bother. Friends send me info by alternate
routes. I'm out of the loop with extended family on my husband's
side, but as long as my kids keep in touch by email and phone I can
live with that.
In a sense books are addictive for me. I get a real rush out of
finding good ones. I don't go anywhere, not even in an elevator,
without at least one. But they don't prevent me from having a very
full and purposeful life. If anything, they give me more to discuss
with other bibliophiles, not to mention this blog. Plus all this
reading helps with my own writing. So it's beneficial at this point.
On a personal note, today is my happy birthday day!!! Joey cat has
sung me Happy Birthday. I've already started celebrating with friends
and will continue at least a few days. This afternoon I'm going to
Sweet Frog (a frozen yogurt place) with a friend. Sunday will be a
family birthday picnic. You, too, can celebrate. Treat today as the
special treasure it is. Cherish the special moments you might
otherwise rush by. Be present to your real world friends, family, and
animal companions. Use my birthday as a reason to give yourself a
sweet treat (unless it would send you into a diabetic coma!). Please
take some time away from social media to see what's being featured on
Mother Nature's infinity wide screen.
A great big shout out to the people and sweet cat companion who do so
much to make my life such a happy one.
jules hathaway


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The Only Road

The Only Road

Juvenile and up fiction
"The police in the village had called Miguel's death an
unfortunate accidente. Of course they would say that. Money meant
more than morals and justice to the force; whoever paid the most had
the power, and the Alphas could pay a lot. It also didn't help that
the police chief's drug habit funded many of the gang's operations.
Jaime removed his sketchbook from its perpetual nook underneath
his arm and pressed it against his head so he couldn't see, wouldn't
have to remember Miguel like that. Why Miguel? Why did being brave
had to end so badly? What was the point of being good if it turned
out bad?"
I started reading Alexandra Diaz's The Only Road after a family
picnic. Katie and her Jacob had come up for a wedding. The day after
they joined up with Amber and Brian and Eugene and me for a picnic at
Webster Park. The weather was perfect. It was a treasure to be with
two of my kids and their significant others. So the first chapters of
the book were almost too much to take. They brought me into a world
of parents and children being separated, maybe never to see each other
alive again.
Jaime's cousin Miguel was beatten to death for refusing a gang.
The Alphas attend the funeral. They send word that they expect Jaime
(12) and Miguel's sister, Angela, to join them in a week.
There is not enough money for the whole family to pay a coyote
to help them escape. Plus the journey from Guatemala to the United
States is much too arduous for a grandmother and new baby. Jaime and
Angela's parents have no choice. They must send them off on a lengthy
journey into the unknown full of dangers. Gangs rob, beat, and kill.
People lose limbs or life trying to board moving trains. There is no
guarantee of even water. People die of thirst in the desert.
Officials as well as gang members rape girls. And the feared la Migra
(immigration officials) have the power to return them to their place
of origin to start from the very beginning.
We're talking about youngsters already traumatized by the brutal
murder of a beloved family member.
What's worst is that, even though the characters are fictional,
the narrative is the lived experience of so many innocent families
every day.
The text is poignant and powerful. I do not recommend it for
more sensitive or anxious kids. I do recommend it for its target
demographic and well beyond. I wish I could make it required reading
for the Build A Wall crowd.
The people who face such dire dangers to just survive are as
deserving of better as we and our children are. We must not turn a
deaf ear to the plight.
How would you feel if this was your family?
On a personal note, this morning I went to a program on walkability in
communities. (This includes the ability to bike and use public
transport--anything but private cars). We discussed the many benefits
as well as all that must be done to achieve this laudable goal. This
kind of work must be consistent, persistent, and insistent all over
America. We've been too much a nation of fossil fuel guzzling,
parking lot requiring, out of shape car drivers since early car
companies bought up and shut down the trolley lines.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in, presented
at, and planned this very worthwhile event.
jules hathaway



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This Fight Is Our Fight

This Fight Is Our Fight

Adult nonfiction
"People who hire lobbyists and wield a lot of political clout
are often the same people who can pay for the finest private
preschools and the most exclusive prep schools for their own
children. Some of them don't get terribly alarmed when there are
forty-two kids in a sixth grade class and tiles are falling off the
walls in the kids' bathrooms, because those things don't happen at the
schools their children attend. And even if millions of kids have
fewer and fewer opportunities, they know their kids will be guarnateed
plenty of opportunities--all the opportunities money can buy. For
some people, the problems faced by everyone else's children seem very
far away."
In the above quote, excerpted from her This Fight Is Our Fight:
The Battle to Save America's Middle Class, Elizabeth Warren is
alluding to education. But her main point applies equally well to
just about every aspect of American life these days. The people who
make the rules don't have to live with the consequences. The people
who opine that the minimum wage should not be raised aren't the ones
struggling to raise families on it. The crowd whining about welfare
cheats don't experience the desperation of the growing number of
Americans who live at a poverty level usually associated with third
world countries. Polluted drinking water does not seem all that
urgent to those who can enjoy clean or sip the priciest of bottled
water.
For all Donald Trump's claims that he's making America great
(whatever that means) again, Warren asserts that he's dragging this
hostage nation in the exact wrong direction. She brings us back to a
time when although not perfect, this nation came a lot closer to
liberty and justice for all. It was right after the Great Depression
and World War II. America invested in schools, infrastructure,
research, colleges, and people. My father was able to go back to
school on the GI bill. Unions protected nonmembers as well as
members. There wasn't the obscene gap between earnings of workers and
bosses. Between 1935 and 1980 70% of income growth went to the bottom
90%; between 1980 and 2015 virtually all went to the top 10 %.
Now we're at a point where:
"•Nearly one in four Americans can't pay their bills on time.
•Nearly half of Americans would not be able to cover an unexpected
expense of $400.
•A lower proportion of Americans own their homes than at any time in
the past half century--63.5 percent.
•The typical man working full-time earns less today than his
counterpart did in 1972.
•Nearly one-third of the country's adult population--76 million
Americans--describe themselves as either 'struggling to get by' or
'just getting by.'"
Something to be proud of? Warren and I don't think so.
My parents raised Harriet and me in a country where kids could
very well do better that their moms and dads. Today most parents hope
and pray their kids won't slide too far down.
So what happened? The rich got greedy and clever. They got
lobbyists to work overtime peddling influence. They learned how to
grease palms in increasingly costly elections. America went from one
vote, one voice to money talks. Unions and other protective agencies
were attacked and stripped of power. Corporations and their lobbyist
shills got laws changed to favor them and screw everyone else. Under
the current presidency these ugly trends are on an even faster track.
The good news is that most people want to go back to justice and
fairness.
"• More than 70 percent of the American people believe that students
should have a chance at a debt free education.
•Nearly three-quarters of Americans support expanding Social Security.
•Two-thirds of all Americans support raising the federal minimum wage.
•Three-quarters of Americans want the federal government to increase
spending on infrastructure."
The bad news is we're the 21st century David. Goliath (big
bidness and corporate bedfellows) isn't willing to give an inch. In
fact he wants to screw us even more. We've got to find that slingshot
(I am not alluding here to a physical slingshot or any other weapon)
and put it to good use. In the words of Warren:
"The danger is real, and the time is short. But we understand
what we can do. We can build an America that works for all of us. We
know how; we just need to do it.
Our country's future is not determined by some law of physics.
It's not determined by some preordained path. It's not even
determined by Donald Trump. Our country's future is up to us. We can
let the great American promise die or we can fight back. Me? I'm
fighting back.
This fight is our fight."
Amen!!!!!!!
If you have any doubts about this book's relevance scan three
issues of your local newspaper. I am betting you will find at least
one story showing how important it is. In just today's edition I
found: an editorial on Capital Hill Republicans working to prevent the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from protecting consumers from
getting scammed and cheated by banks, lenders, and credit card
companies, opinion pieces on the stupidity of believing in trickle-
down tax cuts and the weakness of the US climate pledges, and a front
page story on the plight of rural schools caught in the double whammy
of poverty and property tax based school funding:
"I think that's the fundamental paradox in Maine. When you have
economic decline, you have a tax base that's eroded, which increases
in poverty, in need for all families and residents. Not just for young
people. And the ability to then take on the burden of school funding,
and the increased need for schools to get funding, becomes really
challenging. Even while the population has greater and greater needs
that have to be met."
If you care at all for a nation with liberty and justice read
the book mand join the battle. Future generations will thank you for
this.
On a personal note, Elizabeth Warren would have really enjoyed our
Ending Violence Together event in Bangor yesterday. The weather was
perfect. We had a great turn out. People were really into the tables
and the message behind the songs and speeches. I gave the last
speech. It was my op ed that was in the Bangor Daily News Monday. I
so enjoyed making eye contact and feeling the love as I spoke. After I
ad libbed by having people light imaginary candles and join me in
singing This Little Light Of Mine. It was such a perfect experience!
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated.
Only 3 more days til my birthday!
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod