Michael Klaas

TL;DR: Accountability is key to maintaining a free society. Its absence explains today's politics and inequities.

This is a nice quick read from a music icon who has always stood up for the dignity of humankind.

Heather Cox Richardson argues that the forces behind the Confederacy were oligarchic ones and that, through the wedge of racism, those oligarchic powers were never truly defeated. The aborted effort of Reconstruction has lead us to our present travails, and has allowed rich elites to again and again threaten our liberty and democracy.

I think this is a compelling narrative and one that integrates class-consciousness into the standard story of racism and slavery. I recommend this book!

Rebecca Solnit's voice is one of my favorites in this hard and confusing time. She holds the center when everything is spinning. I highly recommend all of her work.

Maybe it's fantasy with faeries and the like. Maybe you see it as magical realism. Or maybe for you it's as grounded as any work of contemporary literature. In any case, it's definitely *about* magic. ...and coming of age, and finding one's bliss, and going where you're accepted, and overcoming trauma.

This book is very much what you take from it. Will it speak to you as a child who felt othered and estranged? As someone who LOVES stories and gleans meaning from them in ways that reverberate through your life? Maybe as someone who feels a strong sense of place and connection to your landscape?

It's not a traditional fantasy story, but I love it so much. I read it with my karass. I hope you're able to as well.

What an amazing exploration of grief, and suffering, and the persistence of love, and the trap that is hate and regret.