Ted Rall’s “Bernie”

Of all the major party candidates in my lifetime, there has been none who have come as close to my politics as he has. I voted for him in my state’s primary. But I’m not passionate for him. I guess it’s the thing of having to be pragmatic and running in the two-party system that makes me mad. The electoral system is so rotten that even a sitting senator has to run within the party system to get media coverage and that weird circular legitimacy. Where you’re not important if you don’t have coverage and you can’t get coverage if you’re not important.

And I like Ted Rall’s work, so this book is right up my alley. Most of it is a biography of Bernard, but it starts out with a long gloss on the history of politics for the last 40 years or so. Rall’s trying to make the case towards someone like me, who is sympathetic but has doubts. Like I said, I voted for Bernie, but I haven’t volunteered or give him any money. Maybe I’m just being too cynical.  Maybe this will start a movement, or maybe the Republicans will win with Ted in the fall and the Democratic insiders will make the argument that the party needs more pre-surrenders on policy positons preferred by the far left.

Books to Pass Along: On Jenny Lawson

Specifically, this is about "Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)"

I had never heard of Jenny Lawson, but I read her new book in 2016 after reading the reviews on Amazon and thinking that I should read her work. So I bought that one and read it quickly, and I laughed and laughed much much more than I normally do for books, even humor books.

So of course I had to buy her other book that predated that one. And so I did, and I read it and I laughed and laughed, but not quite as much as I did with the other one. I’m not sure if that is chalked up to laughing fatigue or if the newer one is really better.

I think it comes down to a couple of things. This one is more real. Where Furiousley Happy is a bit more light-hearted, this speaks directly to the author’s mental illness(s), and it makes it a bit harder to laugh with/at her. The second is that there is a good chance that she found her voice and is more confident with it.

Neither of which is to denigrate this book. It is still funny and fun to read and I am going to pass it on to my friends. But when I do, I’ll just have to say how much the other one is better when they give this back to me with a smile on their face.

Bill Griffith's "Invisible Ink": Compelling Story Well Told

I have moved around a lot, but there was only a little bit of time in my life when I came across zippy the Pinhead. I never really liked it. Maybe I came around to it too late or too soon in my life. But that doesn’t matter. This book isn’t about that character. It’s about another character, this a different comic artist who I had never heard of.

It’s actually a compelling story, and well told by Griffith. I mean, If I were to write a whole book about my mom stepping out on my dad for years and years, I’d want to makes sure I did it really well. Because that’s the thing. The impetus for this book is that the artist’s mom had an longstanding affair with the cartoonist and the cartoonist of the book is writing about it. And I just realied how Oedipal that is. Ew ew ew ew.