writesdave's Reviews (364)

America Is Not the Heart

Elaine Castillo

4.25

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

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

Roger Bennett

3.75

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

Jeff Mapes

4.0

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

The Other Americans

Laila Lalami

4.5

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: Complicated

Clowning Through Baseball

Al Schacht

3.75

funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Jane Jacobs

4.0

challenging informative slow-paced

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.