The Postcard by Anne Berest

May their memories be a blessing. This is s story that swings between the time before the Nazi's, the time of the Nazi's and more modern times. The take home message, besides these were horrible people who committed horrible acts through out the war, even when no one was looking, is to demonstrate generational trauma, how it happens, what it consists of, and how to work on confronting it and getting over it. The book opens on a snowy Paris morning in 2003. The protagonist is Anna and her mother, Léila, steps outside for her first cigarette of the day, only to find a mysterious postcard in the mailbox. On it are four names: Ephraim, Emma, Noémie, Jacques. Her grandfather, grandmother, aunt and uncle – all killed at Auschwitz. No signature, no explanation. For Léila, the postcard is a threat, a provocation. For Anne, it poses a question: why does she know so little about those ancestors? Her quest to find the sender will open rifts between mother and daughter; it will also unearth the family’s origin story. Their early years of wandering; their fate under Vichy France and the Nazis; the risks her grandparents undertook in the Resistance. And then afterwards, the pain of survival; the long reach of the Holocaust through the generations. Two things I liked about this book--one is the nomadic existence of many European Jews before the war and the other is the perspective looking back from the 21st century. We are undergoing another round of "othering" in the United States, and it is more important now than ever to remember how frightful that was for all involved, bot the perpetrators and the victims. Nobody wins, it is just ugly.

The Othering of America

It is unacceptable. Our neighbors are being taken and we don't know where they are being taken. As we start our 249th year as a country, we are in the midst of a movement of "othering" black and brown people in general and immigrants specifically. ICE agents, wearing masks, tactile gear, semi-automatic weapons, and dark glasses, operating without badges or warrents are very similar to kidnappers. The "process of othering" involves categorizing people into groups and emphasizing differences to create a distinction between an "us" and a "them," often leading to the marginalization and stigmatization of the "them". This process frequently involves assigning negative stereotypes and reinforcing power imbalances. Here's a breakdown of the process: 1. Categorization: . Individuals or groups are categorized based on perceived differences, such as ethnicity, religion, gender, or other characteristics. 2. Othering: . This categorized group is then positioned as fundamentally different from the "in-group" or "us". 3. Dehumanization: . In extreme cases, this can lead to dehumanization, where the "othered" group is seen as less than human, potentially justifying discrimination, abuse, or even violence. 4. Reinforcement of Identity: . The process of othering helps solidify the identity of the "in-group" by defining itself in opposition to the "out-group". Othering can have serious consequences, including human rights violations, prejudice, and social exclusion. It is a common tactic used to justify conflict, discrimination, and violence. Understanding the mechanisms of othering is crucial for promoting inclusivity and challenging these harmful practices. Having just watched "I'm Still Here" about the disappeance of people the government wanted to silence in Brazil, I am struck by how many times history has repeated itself. The Nazi playbook holds a lot of appeal for the Republican party. It is time to do what they do, which is othering those who do not agree with them, calling them by labels that largely don't fit--as a twist on their playbook, just be truthful. Their policies are racist. They are White Supremacists. They are fascists. They disregard the Rule of Law. They are terrorists. Call your congress people and ask them to do their jobs, but know who they are. Morally bankrupt. There is no healing this, there is only protesting for the country that my ancestors founded.

Black in Blues by Imani Perry

This is such an unusual way to approach race and racism, and I would be even more surprised than I am if I hadn't read her last book. She won the 2022 National Book Award for South to America, in which she meditates on the history of racism in the South as she is traveling through the South as a black woman in 21st century America, and how it reveals the very character of the nation. If you haven't read that, I recommend it. This book, which meditates on the color blue and what it means to black people, is breath taking. It is a series of stories, and they span from the days of colonialism right up to the present, highlighting the work of contemporary artists like vanessa german, Lorna Simpson and Firelei Báez, who all use blue dye and blue objects in their work. And, of course, there is a discussion of the blues, as both a musical genre and an ineffable sound that resurfaces again and again in Black music. She weaves this tapestry of Black life across five centuries, moving seamlessly among historical records and the diaries of white explorers to enslaved peoples’ testimonies, close readings of African American fiction and vignettes from he own family's relationship with the color. The sheer breadth and depth of this mosaic telling speaks to the power of Perry’s craft as both scholar and storyteller, illustrating the beauty of the very culture about which she writes. The near closing line sticks with me: "May we haunt the past to change the present and claim the future."

Paddington in Peru (2025)

Unlike the very enjoyable movie The Marching Band, which I also watched on a long haul flight (and when my bar for enjoyment is at an all time low--I like almost everything in that situation) this was very disappointing. My chagrin is based not so much of the Paddington books and how they have been translated to the big screen, but rather on just how much I loved Paddington 2 and how I hoped the same for what is essentially Paddington 3. No such luck. And it has a new director, which may explain the discrepency. The quest at hand takes Paddington to Peru, where he hopes to find his beloved Aunt Lucy. Lucy was living at a Home for Retired Bears when she began behaving oddly. A letter from the establishment alarms Paddington into deciding to visit her. Paddington’a adoptive family The Browns accompany him in solidarity and off they go, with one after another misadventure befalling them, but none quite so charming as those that occurered in previous films. This is not awful, it just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi about it.

Einstein: His Life and The Universe by Walter Isaacson

I admit, tackling the life and science of Albert Einstein is a gargantuan undertaking. Conveying the magnitude of Einstein’s scientific achievements is tough enough, but that’s just the start. His geopolitics, faith, cultural impact, philosophy of science, amorous affairs, powers of abstraction and superstar reputation are all part of this subject. While the science was hard for me to follow completely and a lot of the personal details were less than fully divulged, overall I would say this is a satisfactory biography, elevated in my rating based on the degree of difficulty in handing the subject matter. The book is heavy on the science, maybe 1/3 of the 700+ pages detail Einstein's life as a scientist and what he contributed to our understanding of how the universe works. If you are interested only in the personal side, I would suggest a different source. The fascinating thing for me was how much what he discovered came from him alone, and came about mostly through thinking it through rather than pouring over the math or grueling laboratory experiments. He was a force to be reckoned with, who was not 100% correct, but whose papers propelled his field forward almost at the speed of light. I wondered how a biographer could have such a knowledge of the science, and found that he leaned heavily on physicist Brian Greene in explicating the series of revelations Einstein brought forth in his wonder year, 1905, and the subsequent problems with quantum theory and uncertainty that would bedevil him. He was at the time working in the patent office in Switzerland, a job that provided him with enough income to live on and enough time to think. The personal aspects of Einstein's life are less interesting to me--he was a flirt, chronically unfaithful, twice married, and an inconstant parent. He was charming and unpredictable socially, at least as portrayed here. His political views shifted across his lifetime, and are also of little interest to me, but Isaacson does a good job of following them and Einstein shifted from a pacifist to a supporter of the war against Hitler and Nazis. Overall I would recommend this, although it takes some time and energy to get through.

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada Day! It seems especially important to state the obvious, that I respect Canada's sovereignty. It is a great big beautiful country that is all it's own, and nothing like the United States. While it wasn't always so, they embrace their French past, and bilingual signs are seen coast to coast. You do not see that in the United States, not even in the seven states that were part of Mexico until 1848. We get why you are boycotting us. I would too. I am on a commerce diet altogether, in fact. My personal spending on goods is down. My confidence in the economy is at an all time low. The Guardian reported that 64% of Canadians now hold unfavourable views of the US, and nearly 40% say they hold very unfavourable views of their neighbour, up from 15% who felt that way last year. Sixty-four percent of Canadians now hold unfavourable views of the US, and nearly 40% say they hold very unfavourable views of their neighbour, up from 15% who felt that way last year. Only one-third of Canadians (34%) think positively of their southern neighbour today, compared with 54% last year. Canadian wariness towards the US is also reflected in new travel data from Statistics Canada, which found return trips by air fell nearly 25% in May 2025 compared with the same month in 2024. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped by nearly 40% – the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. It is amazing how quickly your brand can be damaged when you try mess with sovereignty. So celebrate your day, and according to the Pew Research Center, 74% of Americans have a favorable view of you.

Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City by James Gardner

I discovered this book when I was doing some last minute preparation for a trip that I did not plan, so knew very little about the places we were going as a result. I had been to Buenos Aires over two decades before, on a trip with my parents, who neither speak Spanish nor were much interested in Latin American history, which is to say that I did not plan that trip either, and therefore did not get as much out of it as I might have. I did not read the book until I had gotten back, but the city was quite fascinating to visit and I came home wanting to know more--this book is a great antidote to that desire, because it takes you step by step through the long history of a resilient city. Buenos Aires was settled early in the Spanish colonization of the New World and like a number of South American cities, it played a secondary role to Potosi, the Bolivian mountain city out of which enough silver came to build a bridge from there to Spain. The story of how it began and then changed over time is pretty fascinating and also unique--the history of South America is one that I am less familiar with, and this is a good story well told.

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

My spouse got this book out of the library as an e-book and it came up in his search of murder mysteries. It does chronicle a murder, but it is by no means a book that I would put in that genre--it is more like historical fiction. He thought I would like it more than he, but in the end, it went the other way around. The book centers on a place that really did exist. Founded by a group of elite Quaker women, the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers opened its doors in 1876 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Amidst the glitz of the Gilded Age Twin Cities, the Bethany Home provided unmarried and outcast women and mothers with food, shelter, work, and a second chance at life. This book tells the story of three women within the walls of the Bethany Home in 1894: the real-life Bethany Home treasurer Abby Mendenhall, the naive and lovestruck resident May, and the mysterious and mesmerizing new resident Faith. As these women each fight to overcome the hardships dealt to them, they must also learn to survive perhaps the gravest danger of all: what is right in front of our eyes. Underlying their individual struggles there is a gruesome, bone-chilling, and immensely puzzling murder that overlays all that happens in the book.

Marching Band (2024)

I did not watch a lot of great movies on my long haul trips so far this year, but this is the winner. French film-maker Emmanuel Courcol has a nice touch with this dramedy. Benjamin Lavernhe plays Thibaut, a distinguished and sensitive orchestra conductor who collapses mid-rehearsal in Paris and is told he has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant donor. Thibaut is adopted and this means tracking down his biological brother out in the boondocks: factory worker Jimmy, played by the formidable Pierre Lottin, whose gift for deadpan comedy really only gets free rein at the very beginning of the film. Thibaut has the tricky task of asking someone who is a total stranger if he wouldn’t mind donating his bone marrow. But this fraught situation reveals – a little programmatically, perhaps – that Jimmy has a real musical talent, like him, plays trombone in the raucous factory band and nurses a passion for jazz on vinyl. Thibault sees in Jimmy a vision of what his own life could have been without his adoptive mother’s comfortable middle-class background, and sees Jimmy and himself through the lens of class, politics and society, and not the supposed destiny of pure talent. It is a great story well told, and it has the subtext of what the affirmative action of class provledge affords those who are born into it.

Food For Thought by Alton Brown

I liked this but I did not love it. That also sums up my feelings about Good Eats, which was a show that my family--five men--liked more than I did. I think the science of cooking was a great hook for them and it did almost nothing for me, although I did not find him annoying, which is not a given for this sort of show. Same can also be said about this book, which really is a collection of ruminations and expositions on a wide range of topics mixed in that mostly adds up to a bit of a memoir. There is a fair amount about what it was like to be him as a child, growing up in the South and largely without a father, how he really struggled in a traditional classroom and he repeatedly tells us this, that he barely got out of high school, but never seems to realize that the way he learns is not the way others learn, and that is where public education failed him. He strikes me as a kinesthetic learner--maybe he has since figured it out. There are a few details about his current life, and the story about what they did during COVID and what he learned about his wife and himself is charmingly told. Then in between there is the part about how he came to be known by all of us, how he more or less stumbled in to what he is now widely known for. This is a better book once I reflect on it, because the story telling is non-linear, but at the end you do emerge with a sense of things about him. If you like food memoirs, this isn't really that, but it is food adjacent and enjoyable with that lens.