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UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED (audiobook) by Sarah Gailey

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  Published in 2020 by Tantor Audio. Read by Romy Nordlinger Duration: 3 hours, 52 minutes. Unabridged. A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist A 2021 Locus Award Finalist A 2020 ALA Booklist Top 10 SF/F Pick A  Booklist  Editor's Choice Pick Book Riot's  Best Books of 2020 So Far Named a Best of 2020 Pick for  NPR  |  NYPL  |  Booklist  |  Bustle | Den of Geek I have a weakness for dystopian literature. I don't do too much of it because so much of it is repetitive - usually it is World War III caused by a nuclear or bio-warfare attack by the Iranians, the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, or the Americans. But, I do enjoy seeing where the author thinks we will break down and how we might recover and rebuild. This audiobook fit the bill - a future world in which the western United States has devolved back into a Wild West environment ruled by iron-fisted sheriffs that enforce a strict moral code. Their rules include a death penalty for sexual crimes, such as homosexuality and le

ELECTRIFY: AN OPTIMIST'S PLAYBOOK for OUR CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE (audiobook) by Saul Griffith

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  Published by Tantor Audio in November of 2021. Read by David Marantz. Duration: 7 hours, 13 minutes. Unabridged. Saul Griffith makes a convincing argument that the clean energy future to prevent excessive global warming (No carbon) only comes from making everything, and I mean everything, electric (with the exception of air travel) - electric cars, electric boats, electric trains, electric heat pumps to heat homes, electric stoves, electric ovens, electric water heaters, and electric clothes dryers.  I mostly picked up this book as a reaction to the fact that so many people in my social media feed keep re-posting anti-electric car memes that they did not create. Someone is really pushing back hard against the concept. I saw this book and began to wonder if this concept were even possible. According to Griffith, it is very possible and with almost no "and then we come up with magic technology" moments baked into his plan. Based on what is already being done in Australia and

IF GOD IS LOVE, DON'T BE a JERK: FINDING a FAITH THAT MAKES US BETTER (audiobook) by John Pavlovitz

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  Published by eChristian in November of 2021. Read by the author, John Pavlovitz Duration: 6 hours, 19 minutes Unabridged. John Pavlovitz is a minister who has done a lot of thinking about how Jesus told us to act and how formal "name brand" Christianity often acts to those that it deems as "less". We all know that thinking of people as "less" is not really a thing Christ endorses, but it is still an all too often sad reality. Who are the less that have been in the news lately? Immigrants, LGTBQ people, Muslims...and more.  Pavlovitz asks: "If God is love and if you're emulating that God, then you should be loving. If you claim a religious worldview or have spiritual aspirations, those should yield more compassion, not less; more decency, not less; more generosity, not less. If not, what's the point of having them?" Great question. What's the point? I've had these thoughts more than once in the last 6 years, coinciding with the c

BETRAYAL: THE FINAL ACT of the TRUMP SHOW (audiobook) by Jonathan Karl

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  Published in November of 2021 by Penguin Audio. Read by the author, Jonathan Karl. Duration: 10 hours, 32 minutes. Unabridged. In 2020, ABC White House reporter Jonathan Karl wrote a book about his experiences covering Donald Trump's run for President in 2016 and the first three years of his Presidency. It is called Front Row at the Trump Show . Karl follows up with this book of the last year of the Trump Administration and the first few months of his post-Presidency.  Karl meticulously names his sources and plays actual audio tracks as he tells this sordid story of misinformation, deceit, outright lies and a botched attack on the Capitol building in an attempt to thwart the results of an election. If the previous paragraph upsets you and you think it is full of lies then you do not want to read this book unless you enjoy being upset.  If that paragraph sounds about right to you, I highly recommend this book as a primer to what you are likely to hear from the January 6 Commission

THE 1619 PROJECT: A NEW ORIGIN STORY by Nikole Hannah-Jones and others.

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    Published in November of 2021 by Random House Audio. Multicast Performance Duration: 18 hours, 57 minutes. Unabridged. I have developed a new hobby as of late - I read books that politicians tell people they should not read. The former governor of Indiana (and current President of Purdue University) tried to prohibit Indiana University (or anyone else) to use a well-known history book to teach anyone anywhere. I read it. The Lt. Governor of Texas cancelled a book reading about the Alamo because it was not a hero worship book. There's a politician in Texas that  posted a list of 850 books  that he wants to ban across the state that has provided a lot of potential reading.  But, in the last couple of years nothing, absolutely nothing, has compared to the  1619 Project and the controversy it has generated. If you have not heard of the original 1619 Project , you have not been paying attention to America's culture wars. President Trump hated it so much he created a commission

THE BRIDGE of SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder

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  Originally published in 1927. Winner of the 1928 Pulitzer Prize. This book has been on my To-Be-Read list since I was in high school. One of my English teachers back in high school used to talk about this book quite a lot and I finally got around to reading it. Synopsis: The setting is Peru, back when Spain held it as a colony. Outside of Lima in the Andes Mountains there is a magnificent rope bridge for pedestrians. Baggage and animals take a long trail they take down to the river below and they cross a traditional bridge that takes a lot longer. One day the rope bridge breaks and several people fall to their deaths.  A monk is approaching the rope bridge and sees it break and everyone fall to their deaths. He decides to investigate the lives of each person who fell. He wants to see if there is something in common - perhaps they were all adulterers or thieves or the like? What follows are elaborate character sketches for each of the victims all ending with them walking across the br