First book of 2019!

It's been many years since I've read something by Susan Orlean, so when I heard about her newest book, The Library Book, and learned that it was about the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, I knew I had to become re-acquainted with her expert non-fiction writing.   As a lover of libraries, and a new resident of Los Angeles, this book seemed perfect for me to deepen my understanding of literary LA.  Since Orleans is also a book lover and an LA resident as well, her passion for the topic comes across very strongly.  

I learned a lot, indeed!  Orlean did an amazing job of weaving together the facts, the mysteries, the eccentrics, and the heartbreaks that all comprise the story of the largest library fire in United States history.  She interviews librarians and spends ample time at the library, thus becoming intimately familiar with the opportunities (providing information in a digital age, etc.), and challenges (how to make libraries welcoming to the homeless and the housed, etc.), typical issues libraries face (stolen books, etc.), a brief history of book burning, and a history of leadership at the LA Public Library.  

Facts I learned:

- The LA Public library has 73 branches
- More than one million books were burned in the fire, 400,000 were lost (value of $14 million)
- Damaged books were stored in ice lockers, then thawed, to varying degrees of success
- The library had been written up for fire code violations, but to this day it is still believed to have been an arson (arsonists have 99% chance of getting away with the crime)
- 700 new books arrive at the library every month
- Ray Bradbury couldn't afford to go to college so he spent 13 years at the library learning
- Book drops are often separated from the library because people used to put lit matches in them
- Dale Carnegie couldn't afford the $2 membership fee to libraries as a young child.  He committed the last third of his life to giving away his money, and built 1,700 libraries (six are in LA)
- There was, believe it or not, something called the Great Library War of Los Angeles
- A dead person who "looked like he didn't have a dime in the world" was found in the library with $20,000 cash in his pocket.  
- In the fjords of Norway, people receive books via a library boat.  

And, some quotes from Orleans that I can strongly relate to:  

...in the library I could have anything I wanted.

I wanted to have my books around me, forming a totem pole of the narratives I'd visited.  

LOL

I was probably one of the last people in modern society to figure out what "LOL" stands for.  I'm a perpetually late adopter, and had a flip phone until mid-2018.  But, now that I grasp the concept, I can say wholeheartedly that Sandra Tsing Loh's Depth Takes a Holiday, which is a series of essays about her life in "lesser" Los Angeles, is one of the funniest books I have read in recent years.  LOL funny.  Her self-deprecating, italic-using, LA stereotype affirming, 90s essence emanating tales were not just hilarious, they were filled with sharp social observations.  So many passages had me in splits (do people still say that?!).  Here are some of my favorites:

I spent the entire late eighties shouldering about Los Angeles  in a Hyundai Excel without air-conditioning, not caring who knew.  I was a dodger of student lans, devoid of dental insurance, a buyer of Payless shoes...Oh my god!  How had this happened?  

In college, for instance, I insisted on dating these lean, athletic Sierra Club types with Ph. Ds in organic chemistry, their can-do optimism leavened with little gristly strokes of passive aggression.  Weekends became All About Rock Climbing.  Metal carabiners were always being thrust at one; I was constantly being belayed, like a stricken head of beef cattle, against my will.  One day I slipped and fell down one thousand feet of scree on my tailbone.  

"Bagging peaks" was the obsession of one bachelor.  We'' call him Stan, because today I think he's actually head of some kind of multimillion-dollar particle accelerator.  I imagine he has some frightened little family by now ("Dad says, "Let's all climb Half Dome without ropes!""), and his blood pressure is up to a thousand or his pulse is down to forty or whatever.  

Roger is suddenly drawing sixty thousand dollars a year - perhaps four times what he's ever seen in his fort-odd years.  Job description?  "Imagineer."  Now, many of us have brilliant, idiosyncratic, cantankerous friends who we think do not quite fit into this world - and certainly not into this thing called Entertainment Industry.   They chain-smoke their way into angry girlfriends' homes in Reseda, reading Tolstoy while everyone else goes off to their day jobs.  

When the flop sweat of this desperate town becomes just too nauseating, you drive up to Big Sur in a taut silence.  

LA in Letters

As a relative new resident of Los Angeles, I'm starting to read more books with this city as a backdrop.  As I am also a lover of letters, I was excited to pick up Dear Los Angeles, which is a compilation of letters and diary entries ranging from 1542 to 2018.  The book contains a sweeping array of entries, from both many folks unknown to me, as well as famous writers and thinkers such as MFK Fisher, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Susan Sontag, Eleanor Roosevelt, Anais Nin, and WEB Du Bois.  

One common denominator I noticed is that love it or hate it, throughout the years people have had very strong opinions about this sprawling city!  I also was intrigued to see LA compared to such far flung locales as Egypt, Guatemala, Tehran, and Athens.  

it was also rather frustrating, as some of the passages were extremely short and no context was provided, and many seemed to be written in Los Angeles but were not distinctly about it.  The arrangement in the book in chronological order by day of the year (but not by year) was also disorienting and unsatisfying.  

Here are some passages that caught my eye  Admittedly I only wrote down the author of the statement if it was someone I was familiar with.  

It is unjust that there should be such beauty in such a childish hellhole. (1935)

P.S. You ought to see my rectum!  (1929)

I must say that the profusion of little flower marts along the streets add greatly to the charm of the city.  - Eleanor Roosevelt (1946)

It takes an afternoon to get to Hollywood to buy paper and a typewriter ribbon.  - Anais Nin (1957)

After five, six days, there probably won't be a single Japanese remaining in Los Angeles. -  Aoki Hisa (1942)

This is the most horrible, unreal place in the world, on a dreary curve of the coast, I have rheumatism dreadfully here, and never felt so down-and-out anywhere... - Willa Cather (1929)

If I ever get away, I'll never come within a thousand miles of the place again. (1929)

I can't understand L.A. - It's totally given up its public spaces to the car.  The only places left for meaningful interaction are private areas. - Aaron Paley (1976)

...the expanses of concrete, driving areas, parking lots are incredibly discouraging for the pedestrian. - Aaron Paley (1976)

The town is a horror of ugliness, flat as your hand and crawling with cars.  Nobody dreams of walking anywhere and shops and houses are miles apart.  (1952)

Though I don't remember any earthquakes as a child, just the biting smog, the smog that bit my face and eyes and made me plead not to go downtown.  (2014)

The beauty of the region is so incomparable that even such a hardboiled European as myself can only surrender to it.  (1941)

L.A. has a tendency to drift south and west, as if it was a clean recuperated 3rd world city...Cairo.  (1981)

Los Angeles is no paradise.  The color line is there and simply drawn. - WEB Du Bois (1913)

Baldwin: Bold, Bright, Brilliant

I re-read Baldwin's The Fire Next Time last year, and think it is an essential book that all Americans should read.  Baldwin wrote it in 1963, and now, over 50 years later, it remains more relevant than ever, and stands as one of the most important, lyrical, and searing books ever written about race relations in this country.

It seems Baldwin's words are resonating, as there is a resurgence of interest in his work, as evidenced by the recent release of the documentary I Am Not Your Negro.  I also recently watched another documentary about Baldwin, first aired in 1989, called The Price of the Ticket.  Both are powerful and important films (in my opinion, especially the latter), which depict Baldwin's courage, humanity, charisma, charm, poise, and passion for social justice. 

I recently read both  James Baldwin:  The Last Interview and Other Conversations published by Melivlle House, and Letter to Jimmy written by Alain Mabanckou, a Franco-Congolese writer.  Paired together, they provide a good range of information about Baldwin's life, both his early years and his last days.  The former includes Baldwin's own thoughts and reflections, while the latter provides Mabanckou's reflections on what shaped Baldwin's ideas.  They are both very good books, but I think the best place to start is with Baldwin himself.

How gritty are you?

I visit many schools, and I often hear or see the word "grit" as I walk through the halls and visit the classrooms.  It has become a buzzword in the education world.  What is grit and can we develop it within ourselves?  Angela Duckworth, a Harvard and University of Pennsylvania trained neurobiologist with a Ph.D. in Psychology explores the concept of grit in depth, in her book entitled Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.  Grit, Duckworth tells, us, is a combination of passion and perseverance which, lucky for us, is not fixed.  It is about "holding the same top level goal for a very long time." 

Duckworth points out that while our culture has a bias for those who are "naturals," we can actually become grittier and improve upon our potential as we get older.  Throughout her book, Duckworth shares interviews and findings with various "grit paragons" such as West Point graduates, athletes, and musicians.  Interestingly, grit paragons did not necessarily start with just one activity (say, baseball, for example), but typically had explored several interests before finding their passion.  Once they find their passion (or "interest"), the next step is practice in a deliberate way which includes clearly defining a stretch goal, engage with full concentration and effort, get immediate feedback, and repeat (with reflection and refinement).  After practice, comes purpose, as in, connecting whatever work you do to something greater than yourself.  Through the practice of "job crafting" Duckworth posits that you can change your mindset about your current position to increase its connection to your core values. 

Within the context of parenting, Duckworth points out that parenting to enhance grit is best achieved by finding a balance between being supportive and demanding.  Duckworth also touts the importance of growth mindset, which, as opposed to a fixed mindset, is one in which we perceive that the brain is a muscle and can grow, thus intelligence is not fixed.  She gives examples of statements that promote growth mindset, such as "great job, what's one thing you could do even better?"   Overall, it's an interesting read.
 

On incarceration

I recently read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, and Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete?  Combined, these provide an accessible and informational overview of the history of mass incarceration in the United States, and provides some potential solutions. For the purposes of this blog post, I have focused on M. Alexander's book. 

The New Jim Crow posits that in the history of the United States, there have been three forms of racialized social control - a racial caste sysetm based on exploitation (slavery), subordination (the Jim Crow laws) and marginalization (mass incarceration).  It took a war to end slavery, and a mass social movement to end Jim Crow.  Alexander suggests that it would require another mass social movement to end mass incarceration and its stigmatizing effects on communities of color.  She sets out to stimulate conversation on thought on the role of the criminal justice system in perpetuating a racial caste system. 
 

Alexander describes some of the discrimination that the formerly incarcerated face, which include but are not limited to tangible impacts such as housing, employment, exclusion from jury service, denial of public benefits, ineligibility for food stamps, inability to secure a drivers license.  Coupled with intangible effects such as the social stigma and a "racially segregated and subordinated existence," felons are permanently on the margins of society, excluded from full participation as a citizen.  Alexander states, Hundreds of years ago, our nation put those considered less than human in shackles; less than one hundred years ago, we relegated them to the other side of town; today we put them in cages."  She further states that, "A human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch."  

Alexander describes the history of the three racialized forms of social control, in particular mass incarceration, and describes its failure in actually preventing crime and that, in fact, it was not an increase in violent crime that accounted for the prison boom.  Rather, it stems largely from the war on drugs that was waged in poor black communities, as opposed to say, in white fraternity houses or wealthy white suburbs, that resulted in convictions for drug offenses.  The data shows that people of color are no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes than whites.  Due to a combination of "stop and frisk" policies, pretext stops (ex. being pulled over for a supposedly broken tail light as a pretext for a drug search), and cash incentives to police departments for drug law enforcement, drug convictions soared.  Simultaneously, with a decline of jobs in the inner cities, there was an increased incentives to sell drugs to keep food on the table. 

Here are some facts and ideas she mentions:

- No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities

- 1 in 3 young African Americans is under the control of the criminal justice system (where it be in prison, jail, probation, or parole)
- African Americans are six times as likely to be sentenced to prison for identical crimes, than whites (among youth never sent to juvenile prison before)
- The stigma of incarceration leads to silence and a "collective denial of lived experience" and leads many to embrace a stigmatized identity
- Potential solutions:  meaningful re-entry programs, the elimination of incentives to arrest poor black and brown people.  She points out that affirmative action has been positive in providing psychological benefits to people of color, but in doing so abandons a more radical social movement

 

Homage to National Parks

The last time I read Terry Tempest Williams, other than some of her shorter works in Orion Magazine, was over 15 years ago in my undergraduate course, American Essays of Place.  I was delighted to see that she recently published The Hour of Land, a memoir of her experiences at some of her favorite national parks and monuments.  Each chapter focuses on a different park, and is written in a unique tone.  In addition to sharing her own experiences, she infuses the history and founding of several of the parks, as well as discusses more recent political issues.  

In describing her childhood experience falling and getting 136 stitches by venturing out into nature, Williams reflected, "We learned early on we live by wild mercy."  She describes the national parks as our "public commons" that inspire humility.  

Williams starts in describing Grand Teton National Park, a park she and her family has visited every single year of her life.  She brings us to the scene of Civil War reenactments at Gettysburg National Military Park.  She tours Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota with a ranger dedicated to keeping encroaching oil fields at bay.  She interviews people affected by the BP oil spill along Gulf Islands National Seashore.  

We are taken into a scene in which she and her family came very close to being swallowed up by a wildfire at Glacier National Park.  Williams also describes the tension between the park system and the Native Americans who, in the case of Glacier, are demanding reinstatement of their treaty rights for access to the land to hunt, fish, and use cultural sites for spiritual practices.  One interesting fact I learned is that  25% of all firefighters working today on wildfires in public lands are Native American.

We are invited along to Alcatraz, to experience Ai Weiwei's (a dissident artist and prisoner in his own country) exhibit and discusses the Native American occupation of the island.  I learned that the prison was ultimately closed because it was too expensive to run and the structures were compromised by its location in the middle of the bay, in which wind, water, and salt corroded the buildings.  I thought this line particularly interesting given my recent work with the Prisoners Literature Project - "To receive mail in prison means you have not been forgotten.  A piece of your humanity is restored.  Isolation is momentarily suspended."'

We learn about the "cultural ecotones" of Acadia National Park, which she defines as border areas where two different landscapes meet (civilization/wilderness, forest/ocean, meadow/woods), and discusses the tensions, but also the bountiful wildlife, that live on these edges.  She discusses the convergence of lands around national parks (Native American, private, state owned, public, etc.), and how challenges can exist along these boundaries, by those fiercely wanting to protect the land, and by those who want to develop it.  

In her chapter on Big Bend National Park, she states, "Perhaps that is the nature of deserts - to break us open, wear us down to bedrock."  She also describes another one of my favorite writers, and a friend of hers, Edward Abbey, as "the ultimate misanthrope."  She advises the reader, "What I know as a naturalist is that if you want to see wildlife, get up before dawn."

Williams is passionate about the parks and takes us into the intimate battles that environmental activists fight to protect our land, sometimes at great personal costs.  Ultimately, my reading of this book ended with a feeling of hope, that despite threats to our beautiful national parks that have given me so much personal happiness over the last few years, that there are many people who care fiercely about the preservation of these majestic, humbling places.    

Onions in the Stew

Betty MacDonald's Onions in the Stew drew me in, as I related in an earlier post, when I stumbled upon the 818 section at the public library.  The title alone seemed intriguing.  This is a memoir published in 1954 that focuses on MacDonald's decision to move to Vashon Island with her husband and two daughters.  During the time she lived on the island, she was both a writer and housewife, and describes day to day life on the island in a witty (and sometimes even hilarious) tone.  Some of my favorite quotes/expressions:

One bleak morning toward the end of the siege, I was shuffling around the kitchen contemplating a salad of noodles, Puss'n Boots and candle stubs, when Don announced, "My God, we have run out of whisky!" and offered to mush up to Vashon and get some supplies.

Rather defiantly I ate all the mushrooms, even flouncing up and getting a second helping...I was drinking my second cup of coffee when suddenly without any warning everything went black.

Glackity adolescents

Tiger, the boxer, looks very large and powerful but he spent one evening sitting on my lap eating gumdrops, watching Mr. Peepers on television and proving that appearances are deceiving.

It was uncomfortable, like trying to play bridge while an old aunt is choking to death on a fishbone in the same room.

Native American female voices

I recently read Gloria Steinem's memoir My Life on the Road, and in this book, she discusses her friendship with Wilma Mankiller, who was the first female chief of the Cherokee nation, and herself a highly inspirational and courageous person.  Mankiller edited and compiled various contemporary indigenous women's voices in her book entitled Every Day is a Good Day.  She asked women from different Native American backgrounds to comment on a variety of core themes, such as spirituality, sovereignty, love, traditions, and governance.  From ranchers and doctors, lawyers and activists, professors and artists, Mankiller captures a breadth of voices and in doing so, certain themes become illuminated, such as the importance of cultural survival, the emphasis on maintaining knowledge to pass on to future generations, the oppression and silencing of Native American culture, and the importance of sovereignty within indigenous nations.  A fascinating and important book.  I have added more books on Mankiller, in addition to several of the books she lists in her bibliography at the end of Every Day is a Good Day, to my reading list! 

Dakota Dreamin'

I once heard someone say that when they go to the library, they will pick the book to the left or right of the book they were originally looking for, and just see what happens.  I found myself in the 900s section of the library the other day searching for a guide book for the Dakotas.  I noticed a book, aptly called, Dakota, a memoir by Kathleen Norris.  It's rare for me to start reading a book that I've heard nothing about, but there is something liberating about a literary whim!  

Being very fond of wide open plains, big sky, and rural landscapes, I've been dreaming of going to the Dakotas this year.  Norris had been living in New York City with her husband when they learned of the opportunity to live in the house built by her grandparents in an isolated town on the border of North and South Dakota, and decided to pursue small town life on the great plains.   She describes the push and pull of living in a small town, though she says, "I make no attempt in this book to resolve the tensions and contradictions I find in the Dakotas between hospitality and insularity, change and inertia, stability and instability, possibility and limitation, between hope and despair, between open hearts and closed minds."  While I felt the book lacked a clear structure and seemed thematically repetitive, there were many beautiful descriptions and passages that were illuminating for me as someone with little experience with small town rural life.  Here are some of my favorite passages:

"Magnificent old words like farrow, common English five hundred years ago, are still in use on the Plains."

"Plains speech, while nearly devoid of "-isms" and "ologies" tends toward the concrete and the personal"  the weather, the land, other people."

"Because it can't look outward, the town begins to turn in on itself, and a schismatic ultimately self-defeating dynamic takes hold."

 "Such outsiders can unwittingly pose a threat to the existing social order, and if their newcomers' enthusiasm doesn't wear off, if their standards don't fall to meet the town's, and especially if they keep on trying to share what they know, they have to be discouraged, put down, even cast out."

"Interlibrary loan is an unwelcome link to a larger world, forcing us to recognize that we're not as self-sufficient as we imagine ourselves to be."

"Hanging up wet clothes gives me time alone under the sky to think, to grieve, and gathering the clean clothes in, smelling the sunlight on them, is victory. "

"It seems a wonder to me that in our dull little town we can gather together to sing some great hymns, reflect on our lives, hear some astonishing scriptures (and maybe a boring sermon; you take your chances), offer some prayers and receive a blessing." 

Not Under Forty

Willa Cather's collection of essays, Not Under Forty, starts off with a caveat that the essays would likely not appeal to those "under forty."  Nonetheless, I took a stab at it. Enjoyable and interesting of course, but not as wonderful for me as Cather's fiction. There was one quote that resonated with me:

"The unique charm of Mrs. Fields' house was not that it was a place where one could hear about the past, but that it was a place where the past lived on - where it was protected and cherished, had sanctuary from the noisy push of the present."

This last sentiment captures why I love Willa Cather so much, because when I read her work, it is indeed a sanctuary for me, as her writing hearkens back to an earlier time stripped away of distracting modernities, and instead focuses on the essence of relationships with oneself, others, and the landscapes that define us.  

Words on War

I recently read Tobias Wolff's memoir In Pharoah's Army as well as Phil Klay's collection of short stories, Redeployment.  It's fascinating to read these books within the same few weeks, as they both illustrate the effects of war and have many commonalities.  Wolff writes of his decision to enter the army, his experience in Vietnam, his relationship with his father, and his adjustment to life as a civilian.  Klay writes about Iraq and Afghanistan, and his stories focus on both being in the thick of daily life in a war zone, as well as what people's lives are like after returning from war.  Both Klay's debut and Wolff's memoir are very well written and engaging, and provide a great deal of insight into the intimate challenges faced by soldiers.  Recommended!

To Russia We Go

Published in 1948, A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck, is his account of spending just over a month traveling in Russia at the beginning of the Cold War.  Steinbeck traveled with war photographer Robert Capa.  As Steinbeck explains in the book, his goal was to write about the lives of every day Russians, not to take a political or ideological stance, and ultimately has a very good experience there and enjoys his time with the generous and friendly Russian people he and Capa meet along the way.  In doing so, he reports about the various Russian cities and towns he visits, the food he eats, people's clothes and customs, and his experiencing traveling in planes, jeeps, etc. throughout the country.  The book captures Steinbeck's signature ability to write clearly to the heart of the matter, with no shortage of humor as well.  While this wasn't my favorite Steinbeck, it is an interesting one.  Some of my favorite passages:

"At last the plane took off, and as it did, a man sitting next to me opened his suitcase, cut off half a pound of raw bacon which was melting in the heat, and sat chewing it, the grease running down his chin.  He was a nice man, with merry eyes, and he offered me a piece, but I didn't feel like it at that moment."

"It was equipped with blades that were scissors, blades that were files, awls, saws, can-openers, beer-openers, corkscrews, tools for removing stones from a horse's foot, a blade for eating and a blade for murder, a screw driver and a chisel.  You could mend a watch with it, or repair the Panama Canal.  It was the most wonderful pocketknife anyone has ever seen, and we had it nearly two months, and the only thing we ever did with it was to cut sausages. But it must be admitted that the knife cut sausages very well."

"Our driver was, as usual, wonderful, an ex-cavalry man, and he had, of all things, a jeep.  The jeep does not bring out the best in anyone, and in a cavalry man it brings out the cowboy....He drove like a mad man, he was afraid of no one.  Again and again, in traffic, outraged drivers forced him to the curb, and there would be an exchange of violent Georgian language, and our man would smile and drive off.  He won all engagements.  We loved him."

Army Wives' Lives

No Man's War:  Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife is the debut book by Angela Ricketts, who has been part of the army culture for her whole life, first as an army brat as she calls herself, and then by way of marrying her husband, whom she met when he was an infantry lieutenant.  I learned of this book because of Terry Gross' interview with Ricketts on Fresh Air.  It struck me that the topic was something I know nothing about, as I don't know anyone in my life who is connected to the military in any way.  I was intrigued enough by the interview to read the book of which the main themes seemed to be the relationships (i.e. camaraderie, competitiveness, and hierarchy) among army wives, being without ones' partner for long stretches and the toll it can take on one's marriage and well being (Ricketts describes having a heart attack), raising children with your partner gone for long stretches, etc.  Ricketts describes the "buoyancy" of army wives as a key characteristic and common thread among highly divergent personalities. 

On the Road with McMurtry

I'm a huge fan of Larry McMurtry's non-fiction, even more so than his fiction.  I'm thinking of his memoir Books, and his essays on Texas, In a Narrow Grave.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from his book, Roads:

"It may be that the Midwest produces a distinct kind of disappointment, which, in some, becomes murderous resentment.  I think this disappointment has to do with glamour - or rather, with the lack of it."

"What would America, much less ldaho, be without waitresses named Kitty?"

Roads reminded me somewhat of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America, except that admittedly, without a Charley (or other side kick), it wasn't quite as entertaining.  However, I wrote down some of the routes that McMurtry recommends (highway 2, highway 83), and I can't wait to drive them someday!

Love Actually

In her unflinching and heartbreaking memoir First Comes Love, Marion Winik tackles one of the most intimate subjects - romantic love.  Winik recounts the story of falling in love with her husband Tony, a gay man.  Despite this challenge, their love is fierce, volatile, and deep.  After building a family together and having two sons, Tony passes away due to AIDS.  This book proves that love has no boundaries, and that it can be infinitely beautiful and equally devastating.  Very moving and emotional read. 

Deep in Detroit

LeDuff, a native Detroiter, blends personal history and journalism in Detroit: An American Autopsy.  With grit and unflinching detail, LeDuff highlights Detroit's challenges and characters, and gives us a glimpse of day to day life in what used to be one of America's most prosperous cities.  While this book won't give you all of the historical background, its more personal and storied approach to portraying life in this city is highly effective and readable.  One can only hope that over time, this city ravaged by unemployment, a failed school system, over 70,000 abandoned buildings, and political corruption can rise from its ashes. 

Capote Captures it All

Truman Capote is one of my favorite writers of all time, and his book The Dogs Bark:  Public People and Private Places, demonstrates his wit, sense of humor, and incredibly astute eye for detail.  He writes about many different people (Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Isak Dinesen, etc.) and places (New Orleans, Brooklyn, Russia, Japan, etc.).  Some of my favorite quotes:

From New Orleans:  Miss Y. does not believe in the world beyond N.O. ; at times her insularity results, as it did today, in rather chilling remarks.  I had mentioned a recent trip to New York, whereupon she, arching an eyebrow, replied gently, "Oh?  And how are things in country?"

From New York:  Could it be that the transition from innocence to wisdom happens in that moment when we discover not all the world loves us?

From Brooklyn:  I wanted to blow her up.  She's a stinking pig; she and Cook have it fixed up between them never to give me any chocolate sauce so she can gobble it all her big fat self.

From A Ride Through Spain:  In our compartment, the dark , dusty mother sat just as we had left her.  She had not seen fit to join the party.  She gave me a long, glittering look.  "Bandidos," she said, with a surly, unnecessary vigor.  

From Self Portrait:  Not long ago my doctor suggested that I adopt a hobby other than wine-tasting and fornication.  He asked if I could think of anything.  "Yes, murder."  He laughed, we both did, except I wasn't laughing.  Poor man, little did he know what a painful and perfect demise I'd planned for him when, after eight days abed with something closely resembling black cholera, he still refused to pay me a house call. 

And I truly loved Capote's account of a raven with clipped wings who he comes to care for,  named Lola. 

The Reason I Jump

The Reason I Jump is written by a thirteen year old Japanese boy with autism, and includes his frank and thoughtful answers to questions about people along the autism spectrum.  It was one of the most interesting accounts of autism I have read.  Here are some highlights from Naoki Higashida's responses:

"Every single time I'm talked down to, I end up feeling utterly miserable - as if I'm being given zero chance of a decent future."  
"The truth is, we'd love to be with other people.  But because things never, ever go right, we end up getting used to being alone, without even noticing this is happening."
""We can put up with our own hardships okay, but the though that our lives are the source of other people's unhappiness, that's plain unbearable."  

Naoki conveys the challenges of life with autism, but also conveys a sense for hope that with compassion, we can help people with autism and that those with autism can also help the rest of us understand how they think and move through the world. 

Solnit's San Francisco

Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, is a beautiful "coffee table" book that represents San Francisco in a variety of unique and compelling ways, and includes beautiful maps of the city.  The maps tend to focus on two seemingly dichotomous ideas, such as "death and beauty" which pinpoints the 99 murders in San Francisco in 2008 juxtaposed with the location of the city's cypress trees.  Another map, "poison/palate" highlights many of the "foodie" artisan gourmet food locations such as the Straus Family Creamery and the Alemany Farmers Market along with "poison sites" such as the Mount Diablo mercury mine and the Port of Oakland.  Overall, this is a refreshing and intriguing representation of San Francisco, and highlights its infinite nature.  The best part of book is by far the maps themselves.  I didn't get that much from the narratives accompanying the maps (with some notable exceptions, such as the narrative that discusses the effect of the Great Migration on San Francisco) and the photos did nothing for me.  Solnit has a new book out called Unfathomable City, her take on New Orleans.  Solnit is fascinated by and seems to have a deep understanding of urban landscapes.