The Migrant Chef by Laura Tillman

This is a welcome break from the chef-hero book (which is not my favorite, I will admit right off the bat--I prefer the grittier versions of a rags to fame stories)--Lalo Garcia is a great story of who crosses the US-Mexico border and why. The author originally wanted to learn more about the experiences of the cooks, servers, and dishwashers who served Mexico’s elite amid the nation’s widening wealth gap at Máximo Bistrot, a fine dining restaurant in Mexico City. But when chef Lalo García came to the phone, he offered her something else: his experiences of midnight border crossings, migrant field work, imprisonment, deportation, and an unprecedented rise from being a dishwasher in Atlanta to becoming one of Mexico’s most respected culinary talents. And it is just that wild a ride. García’s grandfather began migrant work under the Bracero Program, which permitted Mexican men to work in the U.S. on short-term contracts. Years later, after Bracero ended, García’s father, Lupe, started migrant farm work and was eventually able to earn a green card under President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty for agricultural workers. García was still a boy when he joined his father on the trail from rural Mexico to work on farms between Florida and Michigan, gathering fruit as the seasons flowed from April to November. As a teenager, after his family had settled in Georgia, García turned to restaurant work. His dexterity and speed honed in the fields shone while washing dishes and prepping food, earning accolades from cooks and gradually securing his place on the line. He earned enough money to buy fashionable clothes and a brand-new Mustang. But in a moment of youthful impetuosity, he drove the getaway car for a robbery and was caught. After serving a prison sentence, he was deported to his grandparents’ home in Mexico. He does return to the US when his father is dying but he realizes that the future is much brighter for him in Mexico. He has a lot of foibles, he is bad boyfriend material, but he is a talented chef and someone who treats his staff with respect. This story is worth knowing, and it made me want to spend a week eating in Mexico City before too long.

Still (2023)

This is a lovely look back at Micheal J. Fox' career, with the perspective of his Parkinson's disease diagnosis, is his attempt to say that he is full of life, funny, and resilient. On the evidence presented here – a dazzling collage of interviews, dramatisations, snappily chosen film and TV clips, family footage and narrated biography – it’s hard to disagree. Obviously, he’s found it tough, yet the 61-year-old’s sparkiness and dry humour shine through. Having achieved stardom in his early 20s, Fox found himself in his 30s hiding from, and then publicly facing up to, a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease – a condition that he believed (as many do) only affected older people. As a child, he was always on the move, constitutionally unable to sit still. It was partly that kinetic quality that landed him teenage roles in TV shows. He became the star of Family Ties thanks to his electrifying comic timing – a scene-stealing ability to make the softest of gags land with a bang, a quality that launched him into his fabled movie career. The real revelations, however, lie in the depiction of Fox’s family life, most notably his marriage to actor Tracy Pollan, who first won his heart by calling him “a complete fucking asshole”, and whose unswerving love leaves him all but speechless when he’s asked what she means to him, save for one word: “Clarity”. When the narrator asks him “How’s Tracy?” in one unguarded moment, he replies “Married to me,” before adding with perfect timing: “… still.”

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

The author is basically saying that he liked being in the world and the time of Harlem Shuffle that he had to keep writing about it. Who can blame him? After watching Summer of Soul, I , too, wanted to be in Harlem in the late 1960's and early 1970's to experience it--it probably would not have gone as well as I might hope, but I loved the music and the vibe so much. So here we have round 2 with Ray Carney. Ray is a hustler of stolen goods who threads his way through New York's yesteryear in a sometimes heroic, sometimes tragicomic attempt to figure out life, fatherhood, and identity. What is changing from one book to the next? A generational shift is afoot, and it's not just happening to Ray. Black culture, socioeconomic hardship, institutional racism, and New York City itself are morphing rapidly. Staying on top of it is like tiptoeing on quicksand. In true Ray fashion, he makes an ill-advised request of Munson, a less-than-up-and-up cop, who agrees to help Ray get some concert tickets; It's a desperate, unforced error done for the noblest impulses, which has long been one of Ray's biggest charms and biggest flaws. Naturally, he gets sucked into a web of capers, coincidences and catastrophes that would be funny if they weren't so deadly. If you liked Harlem Shuffle (and yes, you should read that first), you will undoubtedly enjoy this.

Urbina Bay, Isabela Island, Galápagos, Ecuador

Giant tortoises! The giant tortoise is an iconic species from the Galápagos and is only found on these islands. They are the largest living tortoise in the world. It used to be four islands. On June 24, 2012, the world-famous giant tortoise affectionately known as “Lonesome George” passed away. He was the last surviving land tortoise from Pinta Island, one of the northern islands in the Galápagos. Thought to be 100 years old, Lonesome George lived at the Charles Darwin Research Station since he was found in 1971. For more than three decades, the Galápagos National Park tried to save the Pinta subspecies by finding George a mate. Unfortunately they did not succeed. Sadly with Lonesome George’s passing, there will be no more Pinta Island tortoises.

Urbina Bay is one of the youngest features in the Galápagos. It was mainly formed in 1954, when a sudden uplift of the land raised the seabed by over 5 metres, and pushed the coastline over 1 km further away. This has resulted in the astonishing site of heads of coral stranded far from the water. Exposed to the air and elements, the coral heads are rapidly deteriorating and are one of the sights of the Galápagos that won't be around for much longer.

Live To See The Day by Nikhil Goyal

This is a tale of how brown skinned children end up being more handicapped than white children are; a story in three parts. This is the tale of three different children--Ryan, Corem and Giancarlos--with three different sets of circumstances and three different bad breaks. They are all from Kensington, and babies born with an address in Kensington aren’t expected to live beyond their 71st birthday — a staggering 17 years less than children born to families in Society Hill, less than four miles away. A chunk of the book is spent world-building so readers can grasp the muddy terrain these children navigate, and Goyal does so by layering social systems atop one another so readers can draw connections. As Goyal explains it, underfunded public schools are at the heart of the issue. Schools are governed by racist educational policies that push students into the criminal system through the use of metal detectors, zero-tolerance rules and temperamental resource officers. Children leave the schoolyard and return home to families drowning because of crippling poverty, food insecurity, chronic joblessness, inequitable access to physical and mental health care, domestic violence, evictions, and addiction.

The Holdovers (2023)

This is a modest movie--my spouse commented on that fact. He loved it, but wondered if it was too small in scope for a Best Picture nod, but with the expansion of that category from 5 to 10 films allows for movies like this to be in contention. It is about people who don’t share their feelings easily, so when it does decide to wallop its viewer with emotion, it can really catch you off guard. This is a role made to fit for Paul Giamatti, allowing him to use all the physical comedy that he has at his disposal. He plays Paul Hunham, a notorious hardass of a history adjunct at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school where the sons of the wealthy and powerful are fed and exercised until they’re old enough to be sent off to the prestigious colleges their parents have been lavishing with donations. Paul is a Barton man himself, albeit one who attended on a scholarship, and while he claims to be a true believer in how the school aims to shape its young men, the truth is that these days he seems to genuinely loathe everyone who troops through his classroom. They, in turn, can’t stand him, though, over the course of the film, Paul charms the hell out of the audience by revealing the vulnerabilities, as well as the compassion, beneath that irascible exterior. Do not miss this!

Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdoul Mahmoud

This is a short, not too sweet but very believable and relatable memoir of a man who emigrated to Canada from Sudan. Going from being one of thousands if not millions who look like you to entering a country where you stand out in every crowd you are ever in is a huge shock. He says that it was the first time he realized he was black--previously he had just thought he was a person, that the color of his skin was unremarkable. The same with being a Muslim--again, when you don't know anyone who is not a Muslim you don't realize how it might define you to someone else. This is all told with a hint of humor rather than the resentment one might feel and it would be a great cultural viewpoint book for a middle school diversity training, and any of us who could use the opportunity walk in someone else's shoes for the course of a book.

Tagus Cove and Elizabeth Bay, Isabela Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Tagus Cove is located on the Northwestern coast of Isabela. It is a historical site visited by Charles Darwin in 1835, where graffiti has been carved into the rock walls by visitors over the past centuries; this happened just before the Galapagos National Park was established in 1959-1960. This cove was a hideout for whalers and pirates, as it is protected by the surf and is also a perfect place to anchor. The name of the site dates back to 1814 when it was visited by a British ship, The Tagus, which had anchored there in search of giant tortoises to be used as food supply on the boat.

he Galapagos penguin is one of the smallest penguins in the world and is endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It is the most northerly occurring penguin species, nesting entirely in the tropics, with some colonies living on the northern tip of Isabela north of the equator. They are closely related to the African, Humboldt and Magellanic penguins, all of which are burrow-dwelling. As there is no soft peat in which to burrow on the Galapagos Islands, Galapagos penguins instead live in caves and crevices in the coastal lava. They, like all penguins, are adorable to watch and you can occasionally swim along side them.

Here we have the full view of the flightless cormorant! It is not only the heaviest cormorant species, but also the only one out of 29 species which cannot fly. They are therefore confined to the lava shoreline and beaches of Isabela and Fernandina. They have stunted wings that are one third the size of the wingspan they would require to fly.

War and Punishment by Mikhail Zygar

This is an exploration of why Russia invaded Ukraine and why now. It explores Russian attitudes to Ukraine over the past 350 years – a tale of big brother chauvinism and oppression, and the colonial ideas continue to shape how most Russians think about Kyiv, with Moscow cast not as aggressor but victim. In summer 2021 Russia’s president published an essay setting out a manifesto for war: that Ukraine was never a state, people, or community. Instead, he claimed that Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were part of an ancient spiritual and cultural space, with their joint origins in the ninth-century princedom of Kyivan Rus. Putin hatched his plan during the pandemic, and truly, it was personal. Putin never forgave Zelenskiy after the comedian did a TV sketch poking fun at Alina Kabaeva, a gymnast and Putin’s alleged mistress. Zelenskiy’s extraordinary career: from student performer to celebrity entertainer and Uranian leader--to be sure, it was a long shot, and entirely improbable and unexpected. After playing Ukraine’s president in the show Servant of the People, Zelenskiy decided to become the real president – a joke that turned serious. Putin hoped to cut him off at the knees, embarrass him on a world stage, and that clearly backfired. Instead he is a globally admired man, while Putin is reviled. This is a well written read, going through the history of the area, the faulty thinking, a play to wipe out a culture and a leader that has gone horribly wrong, even if they prevail in the end.

Oppenheimer (2023)

This is a stand out because despite the fact that this is a solid three hour movie, for once I did not feel that the same story could have been told in a considerably shorter time frame. Once of the reasons it runs long is because it is not just telling the story of Oppenheimer's life or how was came to create the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also about the politics of war. Oppenheimer is depicted as a driven man who saw physical principles in his head, while dreaming and awake. He was not an all round physcicist--he was clumsy in the lab, his math was not up to snuff, but his ability to take the information that was known and create a theory around it and move forward was unparalleled. He was also Jewish and had studied in Eurpoe leading up to the war, and he knew that it was his people that Hitler was targeting, so he was passionate about beating the Germans to developing the atomic bomb. As a person he was complicated at a time when sublety was unappreciated, and he came under fire time and again for Communist ties. Both his wife and his former lover were card carrying members of the Communist Party, as was his brother, so the scrutiny was not unwarrented, and while the film doesn't go too far into this, in J. Edgar Hoover's America being Jewish meant you were suspect, even without the Communist ties, and after the war, people that Oppenheimer had offended plotted to get even with them, including Lewis Strauss (played brilliantly by Robert Downey, Jr.), who was particularly bent out of shape about him, but it is easy to see how it happened--Oppenheimer, as portrayed here, cared little about what people thought of him personally, and struggled with not pissing people off. This is well worth watching.