FDL Reads: How the Word is Passed
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Genre: Contemporary Nonfiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What Is The Book About? Author Clint Smith details his exploration of how several monuments and landmarks connected to America’s chattel slavery past portray and communicate (or fail to communicate) an authentic depiction of what slavery was like, and how it shaped this country into what we see around us today. This is a thoroughly researched and clear-eyed examination of places such as historic plantations, a Confederate cemetery, a maximum-security prison, the Statue of Liberty, the House of Slaves on an island off the coast of Senegal, and more. Examining our existing monuments can reveal unexpected things about what they are actually saying about our country’s past.
My Review: I listened to the audiobook on CD read by the author and was thoroughly impressed with not only the in-depth research, but also the author’s keen insight into how our current society has been influenced by slavery’s deep imprint on our country. His detailed descriptions of people he talked to and the placed he visited were vivid and dramatic. Many of the places Smith visited are ones that I had not realized were in existence. That saddens me, because I know I’m not the only one who is unaware. This is a must-read for anyone who is looking to understand why slavery is still a topic of discussion more than 150 years after the Civil War. Whether you grew up with textbooks that called it the “War of Northern Aggression” or not, so much of what we know about our country’s past has been obscured by time and the by people who were allowed to tell the story. I feel that broadening the depth to which each American comes to terms with our past, can help us make informed decisions about tomorrow.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Perceptive, Astute, Thought-Provoking
Give This a Try if You Like… Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi, Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers
Rating: 5/5
Flash Fiction Writing Contest
This spring, Fondulac District Library is holding a Flash Fiction Writing Contest for adults! With our wonderful panel of judges, the submissions will be narrowed to three winning authors. All entries must be 1,000 words (or less) and a work of original fiction. All entries must be emailed to jeremy@fondulaclibrary.org by May 31.
Prizes
First Place – $50 Gift Card
Second Place – $30 Gift Card
Third Place – Swag Bag
Submission Guidelines
- Only original material may be entered.
- All entries must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and in 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
- If emailing, please write in the subject area: “SPRING FLASH FICTION CONTEST” and include your name and phone number in the message section. Attach the manuscript’s file to the email.
- Entries must be in good taste and refrain from profanity.
- On the last page of your story, below the ending write: “THE END”
- Limited one entry per person.
- Submissions are open from now, until the deadline on May 31.
Writing Prompts (You don’t have to use them, but they might be fun!)
- Write a story that takes place at the library.
- Write a story about the greatest April Fool’s joke.
- Write about two lovebirds who can only see each other in Spring.
FDL Reads: Cultish
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Nonfiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the book about?: Cultish examines the power of language and how it’s wielded by certain leaders and organizations to draw in followers and retain their loyalty and reverence. It provides examples from well-knowns like Scientology and Heaven’s Gate, drawing connections between their mantras, codes, buzzwords, and tactics to those of more seemingly benign groups like SoulCycle and MLMs to illustrate the continuum of cultish control and manipulation beneath the slick branding. The author also explores how normal people can succumb to these tactics when seeking to belong to an exclusive community, as well as the sometimes insidious influences of social media, marketing, and pop culture. Using interesting anecdotes, survivor interviews, and personal experiences to present her theories, Mantell offers a broad view of how language can drive or effect our behavior and the culty elements surrounding us every day.
My Review: I was so hyped for a book exploring two of my favorite things (language + cults!) that while I enjoyed it overall, I was disappointed in how extremely light the book is in terms of actual linguistics and research. I love that she connects the smarmy toxicity of fitness clubs, wellness gurus, and corporate culture to the exploitation foundational to almost every nefarious cult, but this is by no means a deep dive into anything… (and so little QAnon, with no mention of incels and Proud Boys?) The author makes no attempt at objectivity and her rather white/female/privileged viewpoint permeates the writing. She also takes a weirdly strong stance (borrowed from another author) that brainwashing does not exist, ignoring the entirely metaphorical use of the term to refer to recognized tactics of manipulation and coercive persuasion (I don’t think anyone uses that word literally or scientifically). She discusses some of the Protestant roots of cultish language but barely acknowledges the culty elements of established religions, the western bastardization of many Asian traditions, or the harm that respectable groups like AA can cause. She also keeps insisting that anyone – intelligent, successful people! – can fall prey to cultish groups without discussing factors like emotional intelligence, past abuse, or co-dependent personalities. Despite all of this and some questionably glossy summaries of the circumstances of cases like Waco, I did enjoy the book, I swear. (I probably wouldn’t take issue with any of the above if the author didn’t repeatedly describe herself as a linguist with “cutting original research.”) It just honestly felt more like a pop culture podcast or an ambitious Salon article than anything earth shattering or solidly based in scholarly linguistics or social science. Lucky for me, Montell is savvy enough to cohost a coordinating podcast called Sounds Like a Cult, which is funny and super enjoyable in its self-aware, snackable format.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Ambitious, Entertaining, Diet Coke
Give This a Try if You Like… Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell, The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control by Steven Hassan, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch
Rating: 3.5/5
#FDL: Books for Women’s History Month
In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women—Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more—who were the vanguard of women’s rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals. Now revised to discuss the election of Vice President Kamala Harris and the vital contributions of Black women in the 2020 elections, Vanguard is essential reading for anyone who cares about the past and future of American democracy.
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall
Women warriors planned and led revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history. Wake tells the “riveting” (Angela Y. Davis) story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain’s logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the “negro burying ground” uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere.
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of “ordinary” womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician. Exploring the sisters’ allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights―or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, “a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now.”
Women in the Picture: What Culture Does With Female Bodies by Catherine McCormack
Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives. Venus, maiden, wife, mother, monster―women have been bound so long by these restrictive roles, codified by patriarchal culture, that we scarcely see them. Catherine McCormack illuminates the assumptions behind these stereotypes whether writ large or subtly hidden. She ranges through Western art―think Titian, Botticelli, and Millais―and the image-saturated world of fashion photographs, advertisements, and social media, and boldly counters these depictions by turning to the work of women artists like Morisot, Ringgold, Lacy, and Walker, who offer alternative images for exploring women’s identity, sexuality, race, and power in more complex ways.
Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America by Julie DiCaro
In a society that is digging deep into the misogyny underlying our traditions and media, the world of sports is especially fertile ground. From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women’s pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, this area of our culture is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us—whether or not our work and leisure time revolve around what happens on the field. Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women’s teams fighting for equal pay and treatment, and looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America—and the power in fighting back.
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke.
From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the “me too” movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words—me too—and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history. Tarana didn’t always have the courage to say “me too.” As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not as a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work…until it didn’t. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured self, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves.
*Annotations from the publishers
Posted by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: The Rose Code
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Reviewed by: Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant
Genre: Historical fiction
Suggested Age: Teens, Adults
What this book is about: Cryptanalysts during World War II in Great Britain decrypted all the messages from the Axis powers that were able to be intercepted and changed the outcome of the war for an Allied victory over Hitler. These analysts were often young women who had never held jobs before this time and men who were unable to serve in the active military. The Rose Code is their story. It is the story of Osla, a beautiful debutante, Mab from London’s impoverished East End and Beth, a spinster daughter abused by her demanding mother. These three and many others come together at a secret decoding facility known as Bletchley Park and help to win the war while discovering their true potentials.
My Review: I enjoyed this book. Quinn told the story of behind-the-scenes heroines and heroes, the codebreakers of World War II using characters with whom the reader can connect. Osla, Mab and Beth unite in a powerful friendship that fortunately continues after the war is concluded. Quinn has used both the war and the Royal Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip as the background for sharing truths about changes in society, the role of women, and political intrigue generated by World War II. The story is told in multiple settings, the war years and 1947, at the time of the wedding. This technique creates a dramatic tension for the reader as the two stories come together into one exciting conclusion.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Intriguing, Informational, Absorbing
Give This a Try If You Like: The Alice Network and The Huntress by Kate Quinn
Rating: 5/5
Star Wars Week 2022
Are you ready to find the Force at FDL? Join us April 3-9, 2022, as we celebrate one of the most beloved sagas of all time with programs, activities, and crafts for all ages throughout the week! Featuring a screening of Star Wars: A New Hope, team trivia night hosted by Joe Roderick, story time with Kylo Ren, Jedi training, a cosplay meet & greet, and MORE surprises – there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Register for programs and watch our social media pages for more announcements!
Star Wars Film Screening
Monday, April 4 • 5:30-7:30 p.m. • All Ages
Grab a pillow, a blanket, and your favorite galactic PJs and come watch Star Wars: A New Hope on the big screen to kick off a week of Star Wars activities at FDL! Drop In
3D Printing: Star Wars Snowflakes – Zoom
Tuesday, April 5 • 4 p.m. • Ages 8+
Learn how to design a Star Wars snowflake on Tinkercad. Finished designs will be printed on the library’s 3D printer to pick up on a later date. Register
Constellation String Art
Wednesday, April 6 • 5 p.m. • Ages 8-14
Use a galaxy not-so-far away as inspiration for this stellar craft! Choose a favorite constellation or create your own design, then use string to make it come alive for a unique piece of art. Register
Star Wars Trivia Night
Thursday, April 7 • 6-7:30 p.m. • Ages 13+
Grab your friends and test your Star Wars knowledge at trivia night, hosted by Joe Roderick! Register in teams of 4-8 for the chance to win awesome prizes or a fun door prize. Register
Story Time with Kylo Ren
Friday, April 8 • 10 a.m. • Ages 2-6
Kylo Ren is visiting the library for a special story time! We’ll read a book with one of the galaxy’s favorite characters and make a craft inspired by the Dark Side. Drop In
DIY Kyber Crystal Necklace
Friday, April 8 • 4 p.m. • Ages 13+
In the Star Wars universe, kyber crystals are rare and powerful. Choose the light side or the dark side and create your own kyber crystal necklace using a quartz crystal point and a simple wire wrapping technique. Register
Jedi Training
Saturday, April 9 • 10-11:15 a.m. & 1-2:15 p.m. • Ages 5-19
Create your own custom lightsaber – a Jedi’s most trusted tool. Then our Jedi trainer will help you find the Force and sharpen your Jedi skills before you test them against a powerful Sith! Register
Cosplay Meet & Greet
Saturday, April 9 • 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. • All Ages
Wear your favorite Star Wars gear and get your photos taken with members of the 501st Legion and other local Star Wars cosplay groups. Get a snack from the Friends of FDL and check out all the activities in the library between Jedi training sessions! Drop In
Plus, visit the library for Take & Make crafts for all ages, a scavenger hunt, a Star Wars basket drawing from the Friends of FDL, a StoryWalk in the Reading Garden, and more surprises throughout the week!