Lots of good stuff from the past week ...
1. Michael Flynn, General Chaos - excellent piece from The New Yorker on Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump's National Security Advisory that had to resign amid various allegations. This piece, which includes a lot of reporting from discussions with Flynn before these events, give an interesting portrait of a man who may not have been very well known to many of us until his outspoken support for Trump during the presidential campaign. The piece is a great example of what good journalism does - makes you think, and then realize that most everything, and most everyone, is more complex than what we initially believe.
2. Europe's Child Refugee Crisis - another piece from The New Yorker that is, simply, excellent. Gives a reader an understanding of the personal stories involved in children who travel across continents to escape war, and combines it with reporting on the camps they live in, while presenting some info on the policy issues in host countries without judging, one way or the other. A personal, touching story, very much worth a read.
3. A pair of stories from The New Yorker and The Economist following President Trump's speech to Congress this week. They sum up my thoughts pretty well, and make me wonder about the various reports about how "well" the President did; almost as if the fact that the President was able to stay on script for an hour matters more than the content of what he actually said. A low standard.
4. A World Turned Upside Down - this, from The Economist, is just a terrific example of why I enjoy reading that magazine so much - it informs its readers on issues so that one understands policy issues are complicated, despite how often we talk about them in simple terms. The piece discusses the difficulty emerging with clean energy sources and potential lack of future investment, it points out that there is too much dependence on subsidies, and how those issues have to be resolved as we need clean energy to combat climate change.
5. More People Are Adopting Old Dogs - story from the Washington Post about the increase in adopting old dogs, even dogs in need of hospice care. Sentimental, but made me think of Jackie's dog when we got married, Toby, who we took care of when he went blind, then deaf, and couldn't walk for a period of months. Ever since, I've felt there's something special about taking care of old dogs, and reading this brought those feelings and thoughts back.
6. How I Read More Books - fluff piece about committing to read more books, but I'm always a sucker for these pieces. But the main thing I took away was his very first comment concerning cutting out "junk reading." Its something I've tried to embrace even more this year than last year, by cutting out consumption of Facebook last year and working on less Twitter this year, and more reading of quality (even though it may not always be books).
3. A pair of stories from The New Yorker and The Economist following President Trump's speech to Congress this week. They sum up my thoughts pretty well, and make me wonder about the various reports about how "well" the President did; almost as if the fact that the President was able to stay on script for an hour matters more than the content of what he actually said. A low standard.
4. A World Turned Upside Down - this, from The Economist, is just a terrific example of why I enjoy reading that magazine so much - it informs its readers on issues so that one understands policy issues are complicated, despite how often we talk about them in simple terms. The piece discusses the difficulty emerging with clean energy sources and potential lack of future investment, it points out that there is too much dependence on subsidies, and how those issues have to be resolved as we need clean energy to combat climate change.
5. More People Are Adopting Old Dogs - story from the Washington Post about the increase in adopting old dogs, even dogs in need of hospice care. Sentimental, but made me think of Jackie's dog when we got married, Toby, who we took care of when he went blind, then deaf, and couldn't walk for a period of months. Ever since, I've felt there's something special about taking care of old dogs, and reading this brought those feelings and thoughts back.
6. How I Read More Books - fluff piece about committing to read more books, but I'm always a sucker for these pieces. But the main thing I took away was his very first comment concerning cutting out "junk reading." Its something I've tried to embrace even more this year than last year, by cutting out consumption of Facebook last year and working on less Twitter this year, and more reading of quality (even though it may not always be books).
As for books, last weekend I read Salt to the Sea, an very good young-adult historical fiction involving the end of WWII, individuals in Germany, including some refugees, fleeing from an advancing Soviet army to the Baltic Sea, and the eventual sinking by the Soviets of the Wilhelm Gustloff, resulting in the deaths of several thousand individuals. Very quick read, but intense and inspired me to learn a little more about this history - the sinking of the ship in particular - of which I knew nothing.
I have also been reading Gideon's Trumpet this week, the story surrounding the legal case in the early 1960s that established the clear right indigent defendants have to legal counsel in criminal cases. I started The Nightingale, though I haven't got far enough in to know that much about it yet.
What are you reading?
What are you reading?
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