Welcome to Litsy!

Inspired by Dr. Heather Cox Richard's words from yesterday's speech at the Old North Church in Boston shared in her "Letters from an American." She spoke at the celebration of the lighting of the lanterns ("two if by sea") 250 years ago when Paul Revere, the Sons of Liberty, & supporters rejected the dominance of a king and began the creation of a new nation. Pix from today's rally in front of the courthouse, trying to do "the next right thing."

I didn‘t go to Dublin(!) like a friend of mine did, but I‘m in Williamsburg and, more importantly, away from the DC vibe, as well as the faux news that will no doubt be blaring out of the other room at home. Today I plan to check out a couple bookstores and a local park, and try to avoid the siren call of news and social media.

Meanwhile, here are some suggestions from the Red Wine and Blue webinar I watched last night.

Read in 2024. One of my favorites of 2024, it part made me feel a little more hopeful post election. I think it helped me to remember what the US has endured during its history. It made me realize that Democrats are constantly being handed a Sisophyian task of trying to be the party that is helping everyone & making a more equal society. The hard part of our country is of course Democracy looks different to everyone. Democracy takes woke but worth

I didn‘t read every word and turned it back to Libby because 3 people were waiting for it. I will keep reading her letters, but overall? Right now it is too stressful to focus on right now. #Vote 🗳️🇺🇸

#Oct2024 Book95

There wasn‘t much new info and it was somewhat stressful to go through all of the Trump mayhem again.

I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it (some I‘ve had so long I don‘t even remember why!). Feel free to join in!

#ABookADay2024

This is a great read as the US elections get underway. This book brings to light the foundations America was built on and how we got to where we are today. It was like a crash course in government. Curious what parts of this my book club will want to bring up to discuss next week. 😬

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was excellent . I expected it to be sort of “rah rah—if we all get out the vote it will all be fine” but instead it was a history of our uniquely American history and flirtations with and reactions to facism. I was familiar with a lot of the discrete bits of history but she connected things in ways I hadn‘t before. Highly recommend.

If you follow HCR‘s Letters from an American a lot of this will be familiar, and the last 1/4 or so repeats some of the first half (as well as some of HCR‘s previous book, tagged below); but this is still an amazing book and everyone should read it. How we got into this political mess and why it all matters.

Starting this today (or trying to) while #DannyBoy wants very much to have ALL THE SNUGGLES and kiddo fights off a cold. I‘ve fallen behind on reviews again, and will get around to them…eventually.

Re-posting my book+sock pic because I like it so much—and because I forgot to take a picture before the book went back to the library.😆

I‘m conflicted about how to rate this. I went in with super-high expectations because of how much I get out of HCR‘s daily “Letters from an American.” But because I‘ve been following those daily letters, the content here—especially the middle section focusing on the Trump years—didn‘t have much that was new.⤵️

Just realized how on-point my sock + book combo is tonight. 😂

HCR speed signing books after flight delays had her rushing to her talk at the LBJ Library in Austin tonight. My friend and I really enjoyed the event.

I picked this up from the library yesterday and am really excited to dive in. Heather Cox Richardson‘s daily “Letters from an American” have been providing a much needed dose of sanity, clarity, and hope for me (and so many others!) over the past few years. She takes current news and places it in perspective, using historical context. I‘m really looking forward to reading her take on the present and future state of our nation.

It‘s here! Today‘s #bookmail is making me very excited. BRB, gotta adjust my reading plans for October.

HCR just announced the mid-September release of her new book! I‘ve had her previous book for…um, a while…and will definitely get to it one of these days, but I‘m even more excited about this one. She says it is about how the last years have made her reconceive the meaning of history.