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What am reading?

I just finished Born a Crime, Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. It is one of my favorite books, ever. Noah is a great storyteller, and he cracks open his life growing up in South Africa; I am pretty sure he said is was about eight when Mandela was released from prison. I think his context is interesting, but oh so relevant in the United States today. He opens discussions about poverty, education, violence, crime, and most important of all, race and growing up as a bi-racial child in a highly restricted society.

In October, 2017, I read the Sixth Extinction, an Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert which was one of Villanova University's One Book selections. Kolbert paints a picture that is truly scary; species of flora and fauna are dying off at an extremely troubling rate and there is not a lot we can do to stem the tide. The science she writes about is grounded on the Beagle as Charles Darwin opens a new approach to earth sciences.

During the spring of 2017, I read J.D.Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The book surprised by opening the window to my family and the family systems that were in conflict as family members married across socioeconomic lines.

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