writesdave's reviews
357 reviews

Baja Oklahoma by Dan Jenkins

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I Don't Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life by B. Brian Foster

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

Professor Brian Foster takes to task the notion of musical tourism, specifically the development of blues tourism in Clarksdale, Mississippi, his hometown and arguably the cradle of American blues music. 

The thesis posits that such economic development centered around music leaves behind the community that created the music, and Foster provides plenty of evidence, both anecdotal and data, to back it up. He doesn't provide a solution because he doesn't need to — when creating tourism opportunities centered around any artform, you had better consult and include the communities that created the art or you will have problems of authenticity. And that has nothing to do with economics, which is the issue at the heart of such cultural tourism. 

Interestingly, at no point in the book did I read the phrase "cultural appropriation," which has kicked around in my head for a few years. Where is the line between appropriation and appreciation? Who knows? But the idea is at least top of mind in the crux of the book.

Like a good academic, Foster provides more than 100 pages of notes, methodologies, tables and index, so you know he did the research.

An essential read for travelers who love the arts and want to consider paying proper tribute to the people and places seminal in those arts, the entire experience of reading this felt like a personal attack, because I am guilty of going on musically related tourism, from finding geographic locations namechecked in song lyrics to... driving to Clarksdale to see the Crossroads. This book will inform my travles going forward, as I dig in to the myths and realities of music in the south.

The Summer Game by Roger Angell

emotional informative lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

Fun stroll through a golden era of baseball with the golden prose of Roger Angell as our guide. It was fascinating to read about the machinations of expansion through a 2022 lens. Indeed, Angell takes on baseball as Galeano wrote soccer—a fan with no real rooting interest, just a fiend for a good game. Enjoyable for any baseball fan.

America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A brilliant entry in the immigrant experience canon, "Not the Heart" focuses on the Filipino community in the South Bay of Northern California, a place few of us outside that community have likely considered. It has romance, politics, violence, medicine and culture, but also a wide-ranging definition of family, which is the story's strongest point. The protagonist, Hero, lives with blood relatives but discovers over time blood does not strictly define family, something always worthy of a reminder.

Castillo's prose is choppy and deliberate, like non-native English speakers wrapping the language around their own speech patterns — exactly as it should be in a book set in an immigrant community. That just adds to the authenticity of the narrative, as do the cool descriptions of non-descript suburbia; Castillo could make anyplace seem beautiful, I wager.

Thoroughly enjoyable, at times difficult to read, nonetheless engaging — I felt all of these things while reading "Not the Heart." 

Reborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home by Roger Bennett

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.75

Solid 3.75-star read. I wish he'd devoted more space to his time in the states and how his experiences over the past nearly three decades squared with his expectations and ideals. For all the ink spilled over his coming of age in a prep school setting clearly inspired and informed by "Lord of the Flies," the book is shot through with all-too-infrequent beautiful moments. Nonetheless, it stands as a perfectly lovely message for those of us worn away by cynicism over our country.

Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities by Jeff Mapes

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Clowning Through Baseball by Al Schacht

funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.75

Fun romp through a long-gone era of the game with a good-humored guide.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

I'm writing my review before I've finished because it. is. a. slog. I am not an urban planner, just a dude dwelling on the ecotone of country and suburbia curious about how cities change over time and become more and less than what people need, simultaneously.

The book came out in 1961, which points out two things—some of the terminology is, uh, dated; and the book makes scant mention of racial discrimination and how it influenced city planning. The word "redlining" doesn't appear once, leading me to believe the concept became clear only recently. Again, I'm not an urban planner, just a curious party. But I understand how cities still require their planners to read this book, because so little has changed in the study of cities. Maybe someday I'll live in one and see the thesis borne out before me.

Some years ago I added this book because some list said I needed to read it. Truly it's an important read for anyone who cares about how our cities serve their residents and visitors, but beware the pace and content load. I feel like I took the 100 level course as an elective and then got assigned the 500 level as a graduation requirement just for the amusement of the administration.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25