Kim > Recent Status Updates

It's really frustrating to know/sense that there is more to the world than what you are told and forced to survive with, and no one really listens.

This is a hard read because it's unimaginable as to how people can hang on with bullets being the bulwark against being invaded.

It should'n't, but it still amazes me that people in charge think more about their clout and the lowest bidder versus doing the job right; you know, serve the people you are empowered to serve?

I like the combination of the individual stories of passengers with the history and politics of the New York City Transit Authority, which all make the City's transportational livelihood sad, interesting and scary all at the same time.

How the stepmother (Margherite) and her daughters Ruth and Iris flee from England to France to find a new life after Margherite's husband is killed. There is always another side of the popular story!

The Book of Lucius and the Book of Wisdom basically reiterate the intended relationship between God and Mankind is, until man decided that his senses were more important than his birthright; to be like God, but on a spiritual level, not of hierarchal (need for power) intent. The Book of Gleaning goes into the intended relationship, with the consequential fall from that relationship, in greater detail.

At first, I thought McWilliams' example of smoking being consensual was off, in light of what we now know about second-hand smoke. However, McWilliams makes a very compelling, and humorous case as to how consensual crimes jam up the criminal justice and social system(s)! The footnotes are worth reading!

In the introduction of this voluminous book. I like the premise; there is something to be said about using cigarettes as an example, given what we now know.

Refreshing to see the contemporary interviews; these are more familiar to me. Yet, the resilience factor encountered with the previous intereviewees remain.

It's kind of a complicated read; many of the peoples are not recognizable contemporarily. Like the biblical references too. Still, the Phoenicians being quiet socially, yet so socially skilled.

I love the premise of this book! Gives us all a lot to think about and pretty much continues where his previous book "Evicted" left off!

I love reading about the aspirations despite the odds and perceptions of elders at tbe times of the interviewees' lives. There is a tenacity in each of the interviewees that is poignant, yet inspirational.

Entering the 'modern' age of Bronx tales. Love the Palmenteri story of Little Italy. I miss that place too.

Like the fact that Alexander the Great considers (as any general would) the motive of his opponent before attacking; a skill lost to many nowadays. Anyway, I also appreciate learning the Phoenicians are a sea-faring people; not tied to the land, with the logic behind this.

Up to Part III: Still, more interesting short stories/biographies from 'before my time.' Still, the familiar haunts and what kids did even back in that day is similar to what we did in our own time. I liked Al Pacino's and Valerie Simpson's the best so far.

The Celtic tale of Gwinthera in light of the unintentional tragedy she is foretold to create is interesting: how does one escape fate?

From Bird's finding his mother to her recount of the Crisis (which how can you describe it as you lived it?), to what happens to Bird and his mother now, is just mind-blowing!

The intent of PACT -"to keep people safe" against, who gets to decide what material one can access, with the backdrop of who the (targeted) enemy is, ultimately does not make anyone safer. Moreover, the question of who is indoctrinated due to too much or lack of information, with the driving curiosity of the human heart is always, for good or ill, demonstrative of how laws like PACT can backfire.

Sad to read about the incest victim, particularly with her consideration of not being taken seriously at the time and to endure it for so (and too) long.
Also enjoyed the memories about the Kingsbridge Armory with the resilience of the interviewees in growing up in the Bronx.

Amazed with the hopes, fears and aspirations of the interviewees in this book. Again, I really like being familiar with the neighborhood haunts, though still, so far, the views are before my time.

I am enjoying this. So far, the interviewees are 'before my time.' Still, it's refreshing and fascinating to read their narratives with places I am familiar with.

Enter when Kansas went from 'liberal' to 'conservative.'

At the point in the book where a prominent Kansasian basically votes his freedom and perks away in exchange for something better only to find that it was a Devil's bargain. Sad!

It's hard to not put in my 21st-century mind in reading this book! I really feel for Jurvis, but by now, I would think he'd be more wary insofar as the company he keeps and his propensity to by now, find other means to better himself, for his own sake! There comes a point where one has to come out of the immigrant mind and become more street-smart in the face of what he's encountered and learned.

Lewis is as timely with this one as the subject is scary - and sadly, not new.
Windrip outlines (in detail) what he is going to do when elected. Yet, people feel "it can't happen here" ... until it does! Topsy-turvey; what will the "American People:" those 'included', those excluded DO now?

Introduction of main characters and with the direction each feels America can go domestically, and where it would never go, against the backdrop of Hitler's rise, and European sentiment.

While there is enough 'blame' between tenant(s) and landlord(s), what is sad in this book is the heart of the problem: having and maintaining affordable and decent (habitable) housing. Maintaining same costs money, but the drive seems to be to do the bare minimum, if anything at all with tenants not paying their rents.

Prologue was compelling enough; the start of the book already starts out as to how hard eviction is on both (landlord and tenant) sides.

The breaking point with the press for Harry, with the spillover from William's attacking Harry, possibly stemming from same. The obvious, yet ignored enemy still is: When does the harassment/libel (putting it mildly) stop, with what has to happen in order for it to stop?