Welcome to Litsy!

Lawrence brings so much context.
Fascinating!

Very interesting period in American history. Good read.

Saturday night in. Glass 1 with a few chapters of this, glass 2 with a couple episodes of Bridgerton and then I‘m going to sleep!

If you scroll through my Litsy feed, two posts ago I said I wasn‘t going book shopping for a while. Just call me a liar, I guess! #bookhaul #mysterybook

4.5/5 for being fascinating, though extremely frustrating

I was born in 1968, a week after Bobby Kennedy was killed, making me blissfully unaware of the chaos surrounding the election. This book makes me grateful for that.

“Richard Nixon was in a makeup chair when he met Roger Ailes.”

This is a fascinating book about the election in 1968 and how it ended up as it did. I‘m learning a lot from it.

@ShyBookOwl #FirstLineFridays

Reading one book while knitting a pattern from another. It takes more coordination than I sometimes have.

#knittersoflitsy #harrypotter

This is between a pick and a so-so. The information is fascinating and well written. However, there is a lot of detail and it often feels rushed when he mentions people and actions that weren‘t made the major players.

1. Blue, especially cobalt or periwinkle
2. Westworld season 2
3. Recent history / politics send me to Google
4. Mayo mostly plus tomato and lettuce
5. Memorial service for a dear friend, bday party for other friends, family dinner or two, booooks b/c Mr. B is going away
#friyayintro

This is an intense political history, focused on events of the 1968 US Presidential election. It covers a dozen people, from candidates to the sitting President. There are two assassinations, multiple protests, and one terrible, unwinnable war. Not exactly light reading. But O‘Donnell weaves the stories together into a compelling account. I‘m glad I read it, even though it took a long time.

Full review at www.TheBibliophage.com

The top quote is Bobby Kennedy‘s impromptu speech in Indiana on the night MLK was killed. I was just reading about it yesterday, and the news piece about the 50th anniversary of MLK‘s last speech dropped in my email. Sometimes #readingsynchronicity is surreal. This book is going slowly, but it‘s good. 1968 was a pivotal year in U. S. history.

Show this to anyone who says high school kids can‘t make change. Those Parkland students paid attention to 1960s history in class! Or they‘re just THAT fed up with political establishment figures, just like the Senator‘s daughter mentioned above. #marchforourlives

All of my politically-related library holds came in at once. So I‘m on to this book from another TV political commentator. Unlike The Messy Truth (from Van Jones), this one is historical. I‘m just about 30 pages in, and I‘m learning a lot already.

#nonfictionchallenge2018 #politicalhistory #vietnamera

On the strength of my review of Lawrence O'Donnell's new book, Playing with Fire, I was asked to review this. I said yes because I believe the overall message that America isn't broken.

Some notes: 1) LBJ undermined his own party by secretly giving candidate Nixon info about the Vietnam War; 2) candidate Nixon actively worked to undermine peace talks in the Vietnam War — and should have been persecuted for those illegal acts; 3) the US govt and LBJ knew —and had proof— of Nixon‘s perfidy *BEFORE* the 1968 election; 4) LBJ let Nixon off the hook for the “good of the country” - Any of this sound familiar?

This is super interesting— I‘m learning a lot about Vietnam, George Wallace, the Kennedys, MLK, Reagan, LBJ, Nixon... and being reminded that our current president is not merely an outlier or a lone wolf, but the most recent and very flamboyant example of a politician pandering to fear, taking advantage of opportunities to enrich himself and others, and whose competence and sanity are questionable. #CurrentlyListening

I have such a crush on Lawrence O'Donnell, and this book only served to amplify it. If you have any interest in politics or 1960s American history, read this book! O'Donnell is a great writer, and 1968 was such a consequential year. So much of modern politics is imprinted with the legacy of this one election, and O'Donnell brilliantly connects the dots.

Lawrence O'Donnell once retweeted a tweet of mine, but that's not why I picked up this book. I have historical crushes on both Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, which is why this piqued my interest. And so far it's great!

O'Donnell brings to life this period in American politics without becoming dry and boring. Well researched and relevant in thinking about today's political climate. You don't have to be a political science major to understand and enjoy the backstories on all the candidates. Their motivations, challenges and strategic moves were explained in detail on both sides of the aisle. Excellent read for those interested in politics or the 1960's.

O'Donnell embodies the history in a way I've never encountered in nonfiction. I've always been a little obsessed with Kennedys and overwhelmingly so with the 60s & 70s...having not lived it I had no idea of the true chaos that existed in national politics so long before 2016.

12/10 would recommend. I'm pissed off and proud to be. If you've been riled up for the last 2+ years, pick this one up. I learned so much and remained engaged throughout.

Words to remember and live by:

"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

NBC reporter Douglas Kiker observed while covering the campaign, "It was as if somewhere, sometime, Wallace had been awakened by a vision: they all hate black people. They're all afraid."

Wallace voters who agreed to be interviewed sounded like Trump supporters in 2016. Most of them denied race had anything to do with their choice of candidate. They said they supported Wallace because he told it like was and wasn't afraid to speak his mind. ??

"What we need in the US is not division; what we need is not hatred; what we need is not violence and lawlessness but love, wisdom and compassion toward one another whether they be white or black. So I shall ask you tonight-say a prayer for the family of MLK, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our country, which all of us love- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke."
~RFK, April 4, 1968

????

Loving this even more than I expected to! ?

"He challenged the powerful incumbent president of his own party and 'won'. He put war and peace on the ballot, life and death, and he won. The insurgent won, and that changed Dem. party politics forever. Every nominating season since the Dems have gone looking for the inspiring insurgent who will recreate the feeling of NH in 1968...
'The young people have brought the country back into the system!'"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL 🦃🍽🍻😋💜

I'm stuffed!! Now settling in with a pup.

I've got goosebumps. ? O'Donnell is a great storyteller!

"Bobby was a realist first, a politician second, and a dreamer third. When he heard his audiences urging him to run for president he knew he was hearing dreamers. Their dream was not so much another Kennedy presidency as it was a restoration of the first Kennedy presidency. They wanted to put their shattered dreams back together."

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my library? I do. I LOVE the library. 📚📚📚📚 #bookhaul

Got a bunch of non-fictions for #nonfictionnovember and the new Hallberg which I am SO excited about!! I love text + image 😄

Cracking this one open on my lunch break. It's almost intimidating in length (400 pages of non-fiction is outside my comfort zone) but the chapters are short so I'll break it up into a lot of sittings.

Just started listening. Boy, the stuff we didn't know back in the late 60s!

After a great event tonight with Lawrence O‘Donnell, I‘ve completed my MSNBC prime time line up! #signedbooks #liberallibrary

More audiobooking to keep me company while I tackle the most boring of all tasks: removing mail from envelopes, sorting it, and shredding most of it. Thankfully it‘s an interesting book, and I love Lawrence O‘Donnell.