Review: Red Star Sister : Between Madness and Utopia

Red Star Sister : Between Madness and Utopia by Leslie Brody
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leslie Brody’s book is an autobiography about her life as a hippie teenager in the late sixties-early seventies. In 1965 at the age of 13 her mother died which drastically changed her life. At the time she was very engaged in music, being one of those screaming girls for the Beatles. But as she grew up the Vietnam War and the anti-war protests become her central focus.

During high school Brody joined school newspapers and tried to get her poetry or other feminist articles published in underground papers. She worked as staff at one paper, but was more a secretary and the boys never seemed to want to publish her writings. Also, during her high school years she attended the Woodstock music festival, although her experience was nothing like what I would have expected. She was on the fringes and spent the rainy days inside a car.

After high school she wanted to roam more and be more of a pollical agent and by fluke, picked up while hitch-hiking, joined The White Panthers. This was the first I’ve heard of this group, of course knowing about the Black Panthers. The White Panthers completely supported the Black Panthers while their agendas may have differed slightly as the White Panthers were very involved in trying to end the Vietnam War.

Instead of going to college, essentially phoning home to say Dad I’m not going, Leslie continues to be an activist. Eventually she goes to Europe and becomes a backpacker. She had a plan to go to Paris and talk to the Vietnam delegation about ending the war. However, before going to Paris she spent a lot of time in Amsterdam and very slowly traveled to France.

Eventually she ended up in the hospital with sores all over her body and spent a lot of time recovering. Perhaps her madness was the expectations of what she could accomplish with ending a war, but her efforts seemed haphazard.

The descriptions of her experiences of anti-war efforts and working with underground newspapers were very detailed. Brody had nearly continuously kept journals at the time, which helped serve as her memory along with some other artifacts she kept. A few times she writes about her recollections differing from what she wrote, which she ponders briefly upon. At times she uses unexpected words which made for better reading.


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Review: Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations

Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a great read about how everything is interconnected. The detailed explorations in symbiosis becomes a bit astounding and yet makes perfect sense when you think deeply on the subject.

The author Hooper discusses Darwin and his theories quite a bit with how he got some of it wrong with competition being the driving force, when cooperation in nature is much more prevalent.

Fascinating book really. It was a bit dense at times but written in a fairly approachable manner overall.



Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.



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Review: O America: Discovery in a New Land

O America: Discovery in a New Land by William Least Heat-Moon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first book by the author although I do have a couple others of his, his non-fiction travel books. This book, of course, is fictional being set during a few months in 1848.

An English doctor, Nathaniel Trennant, travels to America to see this land and get a sense of it. He was granted free travel overseas by the ship captain who believed there were unicorns and wanted the doctor to prove it one way or other. Of course, the "unicorn" horn turns out to be from a narwal. But the doctor earned his keep by treating the immigrant passengers, which gave him a first glance into who populates this new America. This book is essentially his log books of his travels.

Once docked the doctor finds himself in a slave market and is astonished at this business. Soon after he discovers an escaped slave whom he helps as he abhors the slavery business and so he gains a companion, although now they need to run from the slave catchers. They spend a few weeks with a religious community that shelters them, but soon they must leave. They travel on, mostly by waterways on paddleboats and meet various people and assumptions. They are hunted by a slave catcher throughout most of the book.

In the later part of the book, they befriend an Osage elder. He provides even more philosophy about the country, how it was and now has become. They all experience many adventures during the travelog

I listened to the audiobook version, but it was not the best way to read this book. The narrator had a very sing-song type way of speaking that was fairly distracting. I tried several different speeds, but it didn’t help much. After a while I got somewhat used to it but was happy it was finished.


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Review 742: Superluminal

Superluminal by Vonda N. McIntyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is one of those that sat on my bookshelves for several decades. I used to be drawn to science fiction more than I am these days. The other day I decided to try the book, see what I make of the beginning at least. Well, the story drew me in and ended up reading the book in about 24 hours.

The story starts out about a newly made pilot, Laenea Trevelyan, a brash woman. To be a pilot the doctors take out your heart and replace it with a machine which you need to control. This is done since people cannot stay awake during transit, which is faster than light travel. As crew you must be put into sleep pods. Laenea has a hard time sticking to the doctor’s orders, staying in the hospital even. When she ventures out, she goes to see her friends who are all crew, but they no longer want to talk to her. There becomes a hierarchy with pilots being looked up to and revered.

Later we meet Radu Dracul who Laenea becomes very friendly with, despite him being crew. Radu is new to earth, being raised on the planet Twilight. He doesn’t know the rules or at least how people are socially. They discover one reason why crew and pilots aren’t friends.

A third person becomes important to the story, Orca whose family has changed their DNA to become more similar to water mammals. They at least speak a common language.

There were some corny bits here and there, perhaps my rating is a bit high, but the story sustained me and I fairly enjoyed it. The book was published in 1983 during a time when there were fewer women writers of science fiction.

Review 741: Billy Sunday and Other Poems

Billy Sunday and Other Poems by Carl Sandburg
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars



This book of poetry is organized into twelve parts. Nearly all of the included poems were previously unpublished. The title poem was one published before in 1916, but in a revised version and without naming the preacher. Most of the poems were written between 1910 to early 1930s.

The poems are generally easy to read, straightforward without a lot of abstraction. Sandburg wrote so the common person would be able to understand his meaning. And his meaning comes through clearly. He is one of the downtrodden, the working class, the poor. He is a socialist.

His words paint portraits of people. A few describe atrocities, such as WWI and the sinking of the steamship Eastland which resulted in the drowning of hundreds of people, workers and family on their way to a company picnic. There is a section of love poems as well, which are mostly tender or passionate.

I bought this book many years ago, before taking poetry classes in college. I do not remember what brought me to purchase this book of poetry, perhaps it was what just a random purchase of poetry as I did back then. And hard to say why I never picked it up until recently.