He did it again

Send Down The Rain by Charles Martin; 2018; $25.99; 338 pages; Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN; 978-0-7180-8474-5; purchased at Rainbow West Book & Bible; 7/21/2020-7/22/2020

PTSD, Vietnam,Secrecy, Congress, miscommunication, abuse Unrequited Love and more figure in this story that covers a lot of time and space.  There is so much going on here, with so many people trying to deal with the past here and now.  Charles Martin again made me cry as I read this.  

10/10

He was only there one day

In the Shadow of Statues, A White Southerner Confronts History, by Mitch Landrieu; 2018; $25.00; 227 pages; Viking, New York, NY; 978-0-525-55944-3; checked out from Multnomah County Library, Midland; 7/17/2020-7/21/2020

You might think Mitch Landrieu is running for higher office with this treatise.  He doesn't get to the part about the statues until almost the end.  He lays the groundwork for while he was willing to fight this battle.  He was the mayor of New Orleans when the battle.  I only had a few quibbles with his reasoning, one he equates the Holocaust with slavery and I agree with this reasoning.  I felt that he ignored the United States  own record of genocide when they wiped out millions of indigenous people.  He also spoke of the benefits received by WWII in using the GI Bill, without addressing the difficulties that African-American veterans had using the problem.

One of the statutes that was removed was General Robert E. Lee.  His only connection to New Orleans was that he had visited for just one day.  I enjoyed the read and his account of growing up progressive in a time that was not looked on favorably in the southern states.

10/10

An exciting new voice

Avery Colt is a Snake. A Thief. A Liar by Ron Austin; 2019; $18.00; 157 pages; Southeast Missouri State University Press, Cape Giradeau, MO; 978-1-7320399-1-9; checked out from the Multnomah County Library, Woodstock; 7/12/2020-7/16/2020

A series of stories of a young man from the hood about growing up. Stories about relationships, with parents, grandparents, siblings and the gangs and others in the neighborhood.  It was really good book.

10/10

genocide

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; 2014; $27.95; 296 pages; Beacon Press, Boston, MA; 978-0-80700040-3; purchased from the Multnomah County Library's Title Wave Used Bookstore; 7/2/2020-7/10/2020

In boiling down the history of the United States of America's history to just a few words they would be, genocide, lies and failure.  The settlers of the new world and the government of the United States used genocide as a start to "settle" the country.  Then the government  lied to the Indigenous People, over and over again.  The government  have failed to live up to any treaty ever signed.  When physical genocide didn't work they turned to psychological genocide and tried to turn then into white people.  Even today the government does not treat the indigenous people well.

10/10

It's all an illusion

A Reasonable Doubt, A Robin Lockwood Novel by Phillip Margolin; 2020; $27.99; 292 pages; Minotaur Books, New York, NY; 978-1-250-11754-0; checked out from Multnomah County Library, St. Johns; 6/30/2020-7/1/2020

Just a quibble, Phillip Margolin, the morgue isn't in that building any more.  It's a dermatology clinic now.  

I was introduced to Robin Lockwood in The Perfect Alibi she is still bad ass, but now we know even more about her.  A magician performs an illusion at the Oregon Coast and disappears for several years.  There is plenty of riveting backstory before we get there.  When he reappears he hires Robin Lockwood and invites him to a return performance and his illusion goes deathly wrong.  Robin then has to figure out how the illusion was done and why it went wrong.

10/10

Not de facto, but de jure

The Color of Law, A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein; 2017; $17.95; 342 pages; Liveright Publishing Company, New York, NY; 978-1-63149-453-6; purchased from Thriftbooks.com;6/23/2020-6/30/2020

I knew about the government encouraging redlining, what I didn't know was not government agencies were acting unconstitutionally.  The FHA and other agencies involved in housing went against the constitution in refusing mortgage insurance to developers who wanted to build integrated housing developments.  The VA did the same thing in refusing to allow Black veterans to buy home in white or integrated neighborhoods.   This  is a thoroughly researched look at how the United States government was complicit in keeping Blacks and whites segregated in residential settings, which made sure that schools were segregated also.  The government acting against the best interest of its' own citizens.  Excuse me, but what a f**kin' suprise.  Note the use of the sarcasm font.  

10/10

Between the Joists

Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg; 2019; $24.95; 226 pages; Thomas & Mercer, Seattle, WA; 978-1542093804; checked out from Multnomah County Library, Central; 6/22/2020-6/23/2020

A policewoman takes down a well known male action star in a video that goes viral and all of sudden she is the face of the department and a newly minted detective. One of her first cases involves a home with large amounts of blood in all the rooms but no corpses.  With time running out due to inter-agency squabbles, over eager supervisors and a fast moving wildfire she must solve the case and save a life.

10/10