Rambling Caper: It is a new day in the USA

Friday, November 7, 2008

It is a new day in the USA

As an outsider, a Canadian who has lived in the USA full time for the past 13+ years, I can truthfully say that I have not felt as welcome here in the past 8 years, as I do today. To the majority of US citizens who voted for Mr. Obama, I doff my chapeau to you. You. Are. Awesome. I was tickled to reside in your country as you chose this articulate, talented man, who happens to have a drop or two of "black blood", as your leader.

Snippet: So, I'm watching the recording of last night's Steven Colbert show, and he was interviewing the adorable and learned Rachel Maddow of MSNBC when I find out ... Holy Mackerel (or possibly Holy Cod...) Rachel Maddow's Mum is from Newfoundland!! How cool is that?

Just one little picky thing: if he would just start pronouncing her name properly: Maddow as in rhymes with shadow, not Maddow as in Dow-Jones. But they are both just as great as a Hello Heather square on your first day back in Cape Breton, so I'm not really complaining. Glad he had her on and acknowledged her grooviness.

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What are you reading, what do you recommend? Here are some books I'm reading or have recently read.

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill This book is titled "Someone Knows My Name" in the US, Australia and New Zealand
Aaron Lansky's Outwitting History. "The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books" From the back: "As a twenty-three-year-old graduate student, Aaron Lansky set out to save the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Today, twenty-five years and one and a half million books later, he has accomplished what has been called "the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history." In Outwitting History, Lansky shares his adventures as well as the poignant and often laugh-out-loud stories he heared as he traveled the country collecting books. Introducing us to a dazzling array of writers, he shows us how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between te old world and the future - and how the written word can unite everyone who believes in the power of great literature."
Really interesting, and probably even more acute now than when it was written several years ago: Nickle and Dimed "On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenrich. "Nickle and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity - a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategems for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor."
Death Benefits, by Jeanne Safer. It sounds like a mystery book, but is actually a book on dealing with grief. "How losing a parent can change an adult's life - for the better." I carry it around in my purse and read it when I get a few minutes here or there. I usually have an aversion to writing in books, but I keep a pen close by, and underline to my heart's content.
Finished, it was most satisfying: Elizabeth George's Careless in Red. I love E George's mysteries, and this her latest, so its my first read of it. So I'm ekeing it out. I'm sad to say, although excited from a plot resolution point, I'm sorry to say that I'm almost finished reading it. Then have to wait another couple of years before cracking open a new one.