Naomi Shulman: Be Kind: You Can Make the World a Happier Place!

Be Kind: You Can Make the World a Happier Place! 125 Kind Things to Say & Do – Naomi Shulman – Illustrated by Hsinping Pan – Storey Publishing – 9781635861549 – Hardcover – $12.99 – June 25, 2019 – ebooks available at lower prices.

I learned about Naomi Shulman because of something she wrote a few years ago that has circulated widely. What she said resonated with my own thinking about our responsibilities as citizens:

“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.”

So I went in search of Naomi Shulman online, feeling like this would be someone I’d be really interested in talking to. I discovered she has also written this wonderful kids’ book, Be Kind, and was very happy to set up a chance to talk with her about this book and her thinking about the world. One thing we did address is the big difference between being nice and being kind.

Kindness seems like such a simple thing. But it really isn’t. Kindness requires empathy, connection with others, and being genuinely other directed. Kindness is something we all appreciate but recognize as not being generally practiced by so many of our fellow human beings and planetary citizens. Kindness is not passive either, as Naomi points out.

Be Kind helps parents and children aged 5 and up learn some simple, action-oriented things they can do in their daily lives to help them become active practitioners of kindness and love.

Naomi teaches kids that kindness is much more than being “nice,” to others. Some of the things she demonstrates include standing up for someone or something, engaging in a community, showing compassion toward others (beings as well as humans), and expressing gratitude. The illustrations by Hsinping Pan are absolutely perfect, as is Naomi’s writing. Though it’s small book, there are 125 concrete activities kids and their families can pick and choose from and act out. You can be the first person to say good morning to a friend, or pay someone a compliment, help elderly neighbors with chores, maybe just learning to say hello to an immigrant in their own language, or just sending a card to someone for no particular occasion.

Be Kind empowers kids to make the world a better, kinder place, and that is nothing but a good thing. I talked to Naomi about the book, her philosophy of living and teaching, and all sorts of things relating to politics and culture. It was a fun conversation for me, and I hope one that will help all of us during this particularly challenging time.

Being kind will help us get through the difficulties of daily life. And that includes being kind to ourselves.

Be Kind was a 2019 Mom’s Choice Award Gold Winner

“Be Kind is a lovely reminder that every moment can be filled with a thoughtful act of kindness. This beautifully illustrated book gives fresh and meaningful ways that each child — and adult — can make our world a happier place and prove that KINDNESS MATTERS!” — Jill McManigal, cofounder & executive director, Kids for Peace and The Great Kindness Challenge

Naomi Shulman lives with her daughters in Northampton, Massachusetts. She’s now a writer and editor, formerly having worked in book publishing at St. Martin’s Press, and was the research editor at Wondertime, a Disney parenting magazine. As a freelancer, she has worked in memoir, fantasy, literary fiction, mysteries, sci-fi and children’s books.

You can support local bookselling, which needs your support, by purchasing Be Kind from RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut. They fill online orders quickly – click here to order.

More of Naomi’s work can be found here.

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David J. Silverman: This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving – David J. Silverman – Bloomsbury – Hardcover – 9781632869241- 528 pages – $32.00 – November 5, 2019 – ebook versions available at lower prices

There have been a number of books I have read recently (and another I am reading now) that both challenge and retell the founding myths that power America’s beliefs about itself. In particular, I find books like David Silverman’s extraordinary work of historical storytelling, grounded in deep research and a new perspective so powerful, because they make us question and rethink stories and beliefs about ourselves we have come to take for granted.

Every culture tells its creation myths, establishing core values through historical story telling, that help shape the shared belief systems of the people who make up that culture. American creation myths tell stories that train our citizens to believe in the essential rightness of European settlement of the “virgin” territory now known as the United States to overlook not only the invasion and displacement of indigenous peoples, but to justify the way those peoples have been cast and treated subsequently by the dominant culture.

One of the most powerful of all historical American myths is that of the Pilgrims’ arrival in what is now called Plymouth, Massachusetts. The people who then lived along the eastern coast of America were primarily the loosely confederated Wampanoags, a tribal group that controlled most of what is now coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

That creation story suggests that the Pilgrims were the first white people the Wampanoags met, and greeted them with open arms and friendship. In fact, by the time the Pilgrims landed on their shores, the Wampanoags had over 100 years’ experience with Europeans, including fishermen and explorers, and they had just gone through a horrendous five year period wracked by European diseases against which they had no anti-bodies, and their population and culture had been devastated. The Wampanoags, led by their sachem, Ousamequin (Massasoit), greeted this new group of visitors with a deep knowledge and understanding of who these newcomers were and what they might want. And they also had an extremely clear idea of how the Europeans could be positioned to help the Wampanoags in their ongoing territorial struggles with neighboring Massachusetts peoples, and other more distant tribes who frequently attacked them. Europeans came with guns and tools they would reasonably expect to trade with indigenous people in return for food and furs.

In March 1621, Ousamequin and the Plymouth colony’s governor, John Carver, agreed on their friendship and made an active commitment to mutual defense. That fall, the English, with the help of the Wampanoag, made their first successful harvest in their “New World.” When Ousamequin and some of his tribe visited Plymouth, they also helped create the “First Thanksgiving.” And the treaty made between the Wampanoags and the English remained functional, despite much friction and miscommunication between the two cultures, for more than fifty years, until King Philip’s War in 1675, when peace ended, and Wampanoags lost most of their power and land.

The relationship between Wampanoags and Europeans, then Americans, did not end, however, in the seventeenth century. The Wampanoags survived and have retained their culture against tremendous odds. In this book, historian David J. Silverman illuminates this long, fraught, and difficult relationship, even to modern times, from the perspective of the indigenous people, providing us with a powerfully different view of our history than we typically experience.

The story of the Wampanoags, who were among the earliest tribes in conflict with the European invaders, is one that was repeated many times across hundreds of years, with other tribes elsewhere across the North American continent. What the Wampanoags experienced through the last several centuries is a story that can help us all understand a truer picture of our country’s history, one we should all aim to better comprehend. And with a different perspective about our past, perhaps we will be able to create a better present for us all.

“David Silverman has crafted a gripping Native-centered narrative of the English invasion of New England. Finally, there is a book that vividly contextualizes the fabled first Thanksgiving, placing Native diplomacy and actions at the very center of the story, along with the warfare, dispossession, and struggle for sovereignty that was very much part of the longer aftermath of first contact. It is a story that continues into the present and a must read for every American.” – Linford Fisher, author of THE INDIAN GREAT AWAKENING

David J. Silverman is a professor at George Washington University, where he specializes in Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history. He is the author of Thundersticks, Red Brethren, Ninigret, and Faith and Boundaries. His essays have won major awards from the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the New York Academy of History.

It was my great pleasure to speak with David Silverman about This Land is Their Land.

You can buy the book from RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut – they will deliver! Click here to purchase.

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Stanley Flink: Due Diligence and the News

Due Diligence and the News: Searching for a Moral Compass in the Digital Age – Stanley Flink – Center for Media and Journalism Studies at Indian River State College – paperback – 978-0-578-60291-2 – 214 pages – $19.95 – 12/7/2019 – ebook editions available at lower prices.

I was recently introduced to Stan Flink by a mutual friend. I’d known of him for many years as he was a Yalie of some renown, a journalist for many years who later became the editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine and taught journalism at Yale and at other institutions of higher learning.

With his long experience, as a reporter, editor and lecturer, Stan knows and understands the importance of the news media to the functioning of American democracy. Still active at 95 years of age, Stan has worked as a journalist and editor for many years, in many different venues and platforms.

Flink recognizes that democracy has no life without truth. In fact, democracy is predicated on there being an educated and active citizenry, that tries to know as much as possible the truth and nature of events and human affairs. In Due Diligence and the News, Stan reviews, succinctly and gracefully, the relationship between the press and American civic life from colonial days to the digital age. In a series of interlocked essays, he demonstrates succinctly and clearly that while opinions may differ, facts are not optional. He discusses the important question of how it can be possible to assure publication based on verifiable facts without curtailing differing opinions. This is a central issue for us all to face – understanding and resolving the difference between fact and opinion. We need both elements to have equal weight in our political discourse, and we cannot dismiss either.

Some of the questions he raises include:

How can the media restore the trust of the reading/listening public?

Is it ever possible for the news media to create mechanisms, like the Hutchins Commission, that can make workable rules of self-governance and professional standards for itself?

Can government—international, national, state or local—serve as a watchdog on the media without violating the Constitution?

Can the news media, assuming it is truthful, do less than full due diligence in commenting on a public official?

These questions are addressed thoughtfully throughout this well-written book, but no one, not even Stan, can answer them conclusively and for all situations. Ultimately, as Stan takes a look forward into the digital age, the age of learned intelligence, he poses what may be as yet unanswerable questions about the future of the press in our fast-changing society. I think we have alot to learn from this book and the questions that Stan provides are ones we should be discussing far and wide as we try to heighten the importance of truth among our fellow citizens.

STANLEY FLINK grew up in a New Jersey. He entered Yale University a few months after Pearl Harbor and soon after enlisted in the Army. After service in the Pacific, he returned to Yale to continue his education. He graduated in 1948 and became a correspondent for Time, Inc. in New York and then in California, where he reported on such people as William Randolph Hearst, Richard Nixon, and the first appearances of Marilyn Monroe.

In 1958 he transferred to television news at NBC and later CBS. In 1962 he took up a series of assignments in London where he lived for eight years. In 1972 he returned to Yale to become the founding director of the Office of Public Information. From 1980 to 2010 he taught an undergraduate seminar called “Ethics and the Media.” In 1994 he was awarded the Yale Medal.

Stanley Flink is the author of many articles and profiles, and among his books are a novel called But Will They Get It In Des Moines? about television, published by Simon & Schuster; and Sentinel Under Siege, an historical analysis of freedom of the press in America, published by Harper Collins.

Mr. Flink and his second wife (of 45 years) Joy, live in a retirement community in North Branford, Connecticut, where he still lectures on the media. Through it all, he has never lost his deep affection for golden retrievers. He celebrated his 95th birthday in May, 2019.

Watch this video of Stan talking about the ethics of journalism here.

Support independent bookselling by buying the book online from our friends at R.J. Julia Booksellers.

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Kevin Baker: The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence

The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence – Kevin Baker (foreword by James Howard Kunstler) – 9781947951143 – City Point Press/Harper’s Magazine – Hardcover – 176 pages – October 8, 2019 – eBook editions available at lower prices.

Kevin Baker has been one of my favorite writers for many years. He authored a wonderful baseball novel, Sometimes You See It Coming, based loosely on the life of Ty Cobb, but set in the modern day. I have read that book at least twice. Later, I was fortunate to work with Kevin on a project for the History Channel, and I have long appreciated his nonfiction history writing as well. When I read his essay in the July, 2018 issue of Harper’s Magazine, where Kevin often publishes on current affairs, called The Death of a Once Great City, I felt strongly that this story needed to be read as widely as possible. Kevin’s perceptive observations about New York City and its modern real estate-based problems, resonated with my own experience of the direction that modern American culture is moving. His piece seemed to me important enough to be made into a book.

Harper’s John MacArthur and Lynn Carlson agreed with my thinking, and together with Kevin, we worked out an arrangement for publication of an expanded and enhanced version of Kevin’s original essay to be published in book form by my imprint, City Point Press. I am very pleased to have been able to work with Kevin and Harper’s on what is now called The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence.

This is the story of what is happening today in New York City and in many other cities across America. It is about how the crisis of affluence is now driving out everything we love most about cities: small shops, decent restaurants, public space, street life, affordable apartments, responsive government, beauty, idiosyncrasy, each other. This is the story of how we came to lose so much—how the places we love most were turned over to land bankers, billionaires, the worst people in the world, and criminal landlords—and how we can – and must – begin to take them back.

I think this is an important story and hope my listeners will agree. I do not usually talk to writers about books I have published myself for Writerscast, as I do not want this podcast to be about the books I publish rather than the books I read. But in this case, since I came to this book through the original essay that I did read, I think it is meaningful to present my conversation with Kevin for your listening enjoyment.

Kevin is a terrific writer, and this book presents a strong case for rethinking our approach to modern urban life. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and many other cities are all suffering through the same sorts of real estate crises. I was not alone in being moved by Kevin’s piece in Harper’s – the magazine has reported that the original essay was one of the most read of all pieces it has ever published and has “gone viral” online to reach a vast audience.

This story affects us all and challenges us to rethink how we approach the public good.

Kevin Baker grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1980, and since then has earned his living as a writer and editor. Dreamland, part of Baker’s New York‚ City of Fire trilogy was published in 1999, Paradise Alley issued in 2002, and the third and final volume of the trilogy, Strivers Row, was published in 2006. Kevin was the chief historical researcher on Harold Evans’ best–selling history, The American Century, published in 1999. He wrote the monthly “In the News” column for American Heritage magazine from 1998-2007, and has been published in the New York Times, the New Republic, Politico.com, New York magazine, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and of course, Harper’s magazine, among other publications. He is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow for nonfiction. Kevin is married and lives in New York City.

You can purchase books featured on Writerscast from indie bookseller, RJ Julia. Buy The Fall of a Great American City here.

Visit Kevin Baker’s website here.

Visit City Point Press here.

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Christina Thompson: Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia – Christina Thompson – 9780062060877 – Harper – Hardcover – 384 pages – $29.99 – March 12, 2019 – ebook editions also available at lower prices, varying by outlet.

“I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world.”
– Dava Sobel, bestselling author of Longitude and The Glass Universe

I completely agree with Dava Sobel. This is an incredible book, probably the best introduction to the ancient and modern world of the Polynesian people of the Pacific islands you could ever read. She starts with an anecdote of modern Polynesia that aptly sets the scene for the entire story. Thompson is married to a Maori (her first book, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You, tells the history of the Maori people of New Zealand, who are among the many groups of Polynesians). When she and her husband are in Hawaii about to rent a kayak, the Hawaiian managing the concession tells them it rents for “thirty dollars….but twenty for you, brother.” It’s a striking moment, giving Thompson the opportunity to explain the entire outline and genesis of the book. Polynesians all over the Pacific from New Zealand to Hawaii to the Easter Islands are related to one another. They all instantly recognize the cultural connection, and while many of the lifeways and life skills that existed hundreds or a thousand years ago have disappeared, and European and Asian influences have spread throughout the region, the ocean environment is what it always was. The mystery is, of course, how did the Polynesians navigate the open ocean for over 1000 years to populate the vast majority of the Pacific Ocean? Sea People tells that story brilliantly.

Through the course of this deftly written book, Thompson tells us how the earliest identifiable Polynesians settled this vast region. She explores what was once called the “Problem of Polynesian Origins” that fascinated the thinking of many European scientists during the late nineteenth century and into the modern era, where a variety of theories have competed to explain who the Polynesians are and how they got there (from the east or from the west, for example.)

This book is a comprehensive telling of history, geography, anthropology, and includes a great deal about the science of navigation. It’s a completely engrossing and riveting read, making it one of the more satisfying nonfiction books I have read in a long time.

Christina is a great person to talk to, so knowledgeable and comfortable with her material and never dry or pedantic in her approach to communicating so much of what she knows. It was a pleasure to speak with her for Writerscast.

My interview with Christina Thompson about her (wonderful) previous book, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All can be found here on Writerscast, (originally posted in December, 2011.)

Christina’s author website is here.

The book is available for purchase from independent bookseller RJ Julia here.

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Publishing Talks: David Wilk interviews Brian Birnbaum of Dead Rabbits

Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. As every media business continues to experience disruption and change, I’ve spent time talking with some of the people involved in our industry about how publishing might evolve as it is affected by technology and the larger context of culture and economics.

Some time back, this interview series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors and publishers who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past and the present, and continue to explore the ebb and flow of writing, books, and publishing in all sorts of forms and formats, as change continues to be the one constant we can count on.

There are many reasons to establish an independent literary venture, but usually the urge is based in the most basic impulse to publish, i.e. make public, work that matters, either to an individual, or a group of writers clustered around a particular geography or literary pursuit. Dead Rabbits is one such new venture. Its founders began by creating a poetry reading in a place that was underserved. The Dead Rabbits Reading Series was founded in 2014 by Devin Kelly (Sarah Lawrence MFA ’15), Katie Longofono (Sarah Lawrence MFA ’14), and Katie Rainey (Sarah Lawrence MFA ’14) as a way of providing a place for an emerging young New York City literary scene to exist and thrive in Upper Manhattan.

Out of that extremely successful undertaking – with a long list of readers with whom I confess I was not familiar – Katie Rainey, Jonathan Lee Kay and Brian Birnbaum subsequently founded Dead Rabbits Books (“Books that Matter”). Their first publication is Brian Birnbaum’s novel, Emerald City, with several more books planned and ambitions to establish a long term self sustaining publishing venture.

I’ve talked to many folks in publishing who have spent years at their work and thought it would be a useful counterpoint to talk to someone new, on the other end of the spectrum, is just beginning the struggle to publish and reach readers in new ways that have continued to emerge over the past few years.

Dead Rabbits is emblematic of a new generation of writers and editors that is in many ways wrestling with the same challenges that have faced every generation before them, but the current environment is also very different than it has been at any time in the past. Social media creates unmatched opportunities for communication and at the same time a vast array of issues for any new enterprise trying to be discovered. It seems there are more poets and independent presses than ever, all competing for an audience of readers for whom poetry is yet another option for consumption alongside every other media form. Which makes this a very interesting time indeed. Good luck to Dead Rabbits, (in all their various literary ventures) – this is a group of young literary adventurers who seem to have some very good ideas as well as access to some very good writing. Anyone interested in the current literary scene should listen to this podcast.

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Christopher Ingraham: If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now

If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie – Christopher Ingraham – 9780062861474 – Harper Collins – Hardcover – 288 pages – $24.99 – September 10, 2019 – ebook version available at lower prices.

Despite both having good jobs, Chris Ingraham, a data reporter at the Washington Post, and his wife Briana, an administrator at a Social Security office, were having trouble with the mechanics of raising twin boys in the expensive metro area suburbs. One day, Chris wrote an article that would change his life. It was based on a USDA ranking of America’s 3,000+ counties from ugliest to most scenic. Chris found Red Lake County, Minnesota at the bottom of the list and without thinking about the people who lived there, called it “The absolute worst place to live in America.” In the quiet of an end of summer news cycle, his seemingly innocuous story went viral with a vengeance.

And unsurprisingly, some of the strongest reactions came from residents of Red Lake County. In their “Minnesota Nice” way, they asked him to think outside the numbers, and actually visit their community, and Chris, perhaps against his better judgement, agreed to fly to this isolated area of northwestern Minnesota to see for himself. He was surprised by the people he found there, not just because they were nice, but because the small towns and rural areas of northern Minnesota – miles from the nearest Whole Foods and Starbucks – turned out to be more than nice, but warm, familial and interesting.

But the big twist in the story turns out to be that after realizing how hard it was for them to live happily where they were, Chris and Briana and their kids decided to pick up stakes and move to the same Minnesota community his article had dissed in the first place.

If You Lived Here You’d Be Home by Now is ultimately, then about what happens when you make a momentous life decision that changes your life and challenges everything you think you know about yourselves and your country. In Red Lake County, the Ingraham family experience the travails of small-town gossip, learn how to deal with “real” winters in a place where temperatures commonly reach forty below zero, try to understand new activities like hunting and hockey, and how to relate to nearby neighbors who know everything about your daily comings and goings. But they also learn the joys and pleasures of life in a small community, where what you do can make a huge difference. Ingraham has a great sense of humor and is a natural storyteller. And while not everything that happens to them is either uplifting or transcendent, there is a lot here for all of us to learn about the truths and myths of small town life in America.

Ingraham has the benefit of being able to work remotely for the Washington Post, so he at least does not have to struggle with the difficulty of finding work in a small town, something that is a huge problem for many Americans who do want to stay in their hometowns. And not everyone who chooses to live in small town America is either some sort of hero or a victim of bad judgment; life is much more complex than that. The story of Chris and Briana and their kids making a massive life change is a great reminder, however, that there is so much experience in rural areas that is worthy of celebrating and preserving, before our entire country becomes a giant suburban mall.

“Thank you, Christopher Ingraham for venturing out of the bubble of stereotyping and misunderstanding that often confines American urbanites who never leave the city and smugly judge rural Americans from their leather couches. I love Mr. Ingraham for his open mind and reporter’s grasp of detail and complicated truth. He captures the charm of a small town entertainingly, without sentimentality or the canned platitudes of those who drop in for a day and count themselves expert analysts after lunchtime. Good work!”
– George Hodgman, NY Times bestselling author of Bettyville

I am pleased to announce a new enhancement to Writerscast — all the books we feature are available for purchase from our friends at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut.

You can buy a copy of If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home by Now, and know that by doing so, you are supporting independent bookselling. Click on this link to visit the RJ Julia bookstore site.

A fun PBS story about Chris, family, Minnesota and the book is here.

 

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Karl Marlantes: Deep River, a Novel

Deep River – Karl Marlantes – 978-0-8021-2538-5 – Atlantic Monthly Press – Hardcover – 736 pages – $30 – July 2, 2019 – ebook version widely available at lower prices.

“Deep River seems a work born from Willa Cather by way of Upton Sinclair. But this new book is its own animal, and it’s something of a masterpiece… In Deep River, [Aino] takes her place beside Antonia Shimerda as one of the great heroines of literature.”—BookPage (starred review)

Several years ago I discovered Karl Marlantes’ first novel, Matterhorn, which is a loosely autobiographical novel about the Vietnam War, in which Karl served as a Marine lieutenant. I think that is one of the best war novels I have ever read and was pleased to interview Karl about that book.

That book was followed by a nonfiction book called What it is Like to Go to War, which I also read and was affected by. What I said in 2011 still holds true: this book is a deeply thoughtful and moving work of nonfiction about the nature and meaning of war, and what it means to the individual warriors who participate who fight, as well as to the society that gives them that responsibility.

It took Marlantes almost thirty years to write and rewrite Matterhorn. Almost ten years after he completed that book, he has now turned in a completely different book, an historical novel set in the early 1900s, starting in Russian occupied Finland and moving to the Pacific Northwest. The three Koski siblings, Ilmari, Matti, and the politically radical young Aino, flee Russian oppression and come to the United States.

They join a community of other Finns in the logging area in southern Washington, during a time when massive trees of the old growth forest are being harvested by hard working men and dangerous technology. It is fertile ground for the establishment of radical labor movements like the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies). The two Koski brothers build their lives in this environment amid danger and many challenges, while Aino, just one of the book’s many also hard working independent women, works to build a union in an environment where organized labor is not welcomed by the logging industry or the power structures of the day.

Karl has built this novel following the structure and characters of the great stories of the Finnish oral tradition, written down in the nineteenth century as the Kalevala. It is a truly magisterial novel that weaves together so many strands of American and immigrant cultures, documents the struggles of the early twentieth century in the great forests of the Pacific Northwest, and shows us how human beings find a way to make meaningful lives despite the harshest challenges. Nothing comes easy for the Koskis their friends and families, but everything about them is redemptive and strong. It’s impossible to read this book and not be moved.

Reading Deep River is a commitment – it’s a long book – and there are inevitably times when it becomes difficult to keep track of the whole story and the many compelling characters in the book. That is not a criticism. The book is gripping, and well worth the time and attention of the reader. And it is impossible not to read it in the context of our current political circumstance. Reading about the sacrifices made by workers in the early twentieth century, to make advances for labor that are now taken for granted, and imagining their struggles as evidenced by the characters in this book, who are so thoroughly human in their differences and outlooks, personalities and beliefs, brings forth a range of thoughts about what has become of America today. We live in a world that others made great sacrifices for, and have somehow managed to avoid making sacrifices of our own. The people of Deep River as imagined by Karl Marlantes, deserve better from us.

I had the great pleasure to interview Karl in New Haven in a building on the Yale campus, where he was visiting during his book tour.

Karl Marlantes graduated from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, before serving as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He is the author of the novel, Matterhorn and a work of nonfiction, What It Is Like to Go to War. He lives now in Washington State.

Buy Deep River from RJ Julia here.

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Publishing Talks: David Wilk interviews writer and entrepreneur Rachel Lehmann-Haupt

Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. As every media business continues to experience disruption and change, I’ve been talking with some of the people involved in our industry about how publishing might evolve as it is affected by technology and the larger context of culture and economics.

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt is best known for being an expert on the future of family life, career timing, and the influence of science and technology on fertility, pregnancy and family.

She is the author of In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family. Her articles have been featured in a wide range of magazines and websites.

Rachel graduated with a degree in English literature from Kenyon College, and has a Masters in Journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. At UC Berkeley, she apprenticed under Clay Felker, the founder of New York Magazine. She has spoken on numerous panels at bookstores, hospitals and corporate events, and has delivered keynotes at universities.

Rachel’s newest venture, StoryMade Studios, a content development and editorial production studio was what introduced me to her work and caused me to want to talk to her for this Publishing Talks podcast series.

Much like my own work with content creators, and similar to the way movie studios work, Rachel builds teams that include writers, designers, developers, and video producers, and then manages the creation and editing of all the elements of a digital media story. StoryMade Studios focuses on health, parenting, advanced reproductive technology, neuroscience, women, sustainability, and food.

In recent years, Rachel has been a senior content strategist and strategic advisor for a number of technology start-ups, media properties, and non-profits including TED Books, The Dwell Store, Wired Magazine, BabyCenter.com, The Women 2.0 Conference, Code for America, Bridge Housing, Shebooks, and Dr. Dean Ornish/Healthways.

It was a pleasure to spend some time with her for a lengthy and wide ranging conversation when she was recently in New York City for a visit. I wanted to talk to her about her work as a writer and as a facilitator of book and other content projects, but in particular, I thought it would be really interesting to talk to Rachel about what it was like to have grown up as the child of two writers in the hothouse environment of New York City literary culture and how it influenced her own professional and personal life.

Thank you Rachel for a great conversation!

You can buy her book from RJ Julia here.

Visit Rachel’s own website here. Read about her book,In Her Own Sweet Time. 

And about Story Made Studio here.

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Thom Hartmann: The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America

The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America – Thom Hartmann – ISBN 9781523085941 – Berrett-Koehler Publishers – Paperback – 192 pages – $15.00 – October 1, 2019 – ebook versions available at lower prices

“Hartmann delivers a full-throated indictment of the U.S. Supreme Court in this punchy polemic.” —Publishers Weekly

This is a really important (and very short) book – so you have no excuse not to read it – no matter how busy you are.

Thom Hartmann has been a popular progressive radio host for years. In this book, he carefully and succinctly explains how the Supreme Court has gone far beyond its actual Constitutionally derived powers and provides some cogent guidance on how we can change it.

In the beginning, and until 1803, the Supreme Court was simply viewed as the final court of appeals in the judicial system, the branch of government with the least power of the three set forth in the Constitution. So we have to find out how did the concept of judicial review start, and as Hartmann points out, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, with the now well-known case known as Marbury v. Madison.

It is Hartmann’s view, and he argues persuasively, that it is not the role of the Supreme Court to decide what the law is, but rather the duty of the people through the legislative branch. He summarizes the history of the Supreme Court, giving some important examples of cases where the Supreme Court appears to have overstepped its constitutional authority.

So much of our history and beliefs about this country are mystified by a sort of glorification of a romanticized and suspect view of the Constitution and the powers of our branches of government. The Supreme Court today reflects the concerted effort of a small segment of society to control and reduce democratic principles and practices that would harm their interests. Hartmann’s book is an essential and very handy guide for anyone who would like to explore what we can do to rein in the power of the courts and increase democracy in our country. If you read Nancy McLean’s Democracy Unchained, as I hope you have, or if you are simply interested in both protecting and expanding democracy in our country, then reading this book is essential.

Buy the book from RJ Julia bookstore here.

Thom Hartmann is a progressive syndicated talk show host whose shows are available in over a half-billion homes worldwide. He’s the New York Times bestselling, 4-times Project Censored Award-winning author of 24 books in print. His radio show is syndicated on for-profit FM and AM radio stations nationally, on non-profit and community stations nationwide by Pacifica, across the entire North American continent on SiriusXM Satellite radio, on cable systems nationwide by Cable Radio Network (CRN), via subscription audio podcasts, worldwide through the US Armed Forces Network, and through the Thom Hartmann iOS and Android apps. Visit Thom’s own website to learn more about his work and many useful books.

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