Yu sees room for improvement in publishing

Despite this, Yu did not decide to open an Asian American bookstore.

When she designed her small business, she dreamed of a space that would reflect the rich diversity of her community. She envisioned a place dedicated to stories written by immigrants and people of color — which included Asian American authors.

The space always reflects his vision. But perhaps because of Yu’s own Asian American identity, perhaps because of the historic location of his bookstore, or perhaps because of Asian Americans’ thirst for authentic representations of their communities, Yu and Me Books has since become a go-to for Asian American readers hoping to find their experiences reflected on its shelves.

“It was really interesting to see how I was kind of pushed down the Asian American bookstore route,” she said. “I think if I wasn’t Asian American, maybe I wouldn’t have had to put myself in that bracket.”

As Yu stuck to her mission to shine a light on stories of immigrants and people of color more broadly, she leaned into customer demand for books by Asian American authors. Most of its inventory is now geared towards Asian American books, she said, making Yu and Me Books a rare and special place.

“As someone who is thinking about my own identity and also a business owner, I want to be able to support anyone who wants to come in and find books that represent themselves,” she said. “But I love that there’s a lot of love and desire for Asian American books and representation.”

Yet Yu makes it a point to challenge and delight visitors to his store.

“One of my favorite things I hear when customers walk into the store (is) ‘I’ve never heard of this title before’ or ‘I’ve never seen 40% of this inventory before’ “, said Yu. “It makes me so happy because you can connect to a story that is not necessarily pushed by editors.

While Yu and Me Books celebrates and showcases the breadth of work that Asian American writers have produced over the decades, Yu also encourages its visitors to keep an open mind.

“I also try to remind readers as much as possible that outside of the Asian American experience, there are so many books written by other immigrants that we can relate to,” she said. added.

Since Yu and Me Books opened, Yu said he has seen positive changes in the publishing industry. She sees more diversity among authors who are published, but those authors are often called upon to be “educators of our experience,” Yu said. As exciting as it may be to see those experiences authentically represented, she hopes that the industry will reach a point where authors can transcend their identity.

“I want authors of color to write only about unicorns or cupcakes — whatever they want to write about,” she added.

Consider this: In 2021, 596 migrants at the US-Mexico border died or went missing, according to the Missing Migrants Project – and this year so far the number is 252. Due to the recent SCOTUS ruling on the reproductive rights, Americans are currently traveling to Mexico or ordering drugs from Mexico in order to access abortions. Meanwhile, this year there have been at least 356 mass shootings in the United States (and that’s just August); at least 21 trans people have been murdered; climate change continues apace; the most common variant of COVID-19 in recent times is more resistant to vaccines than previous ones; and monkeypox has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Do you feel nihilistic enough? Good. That’s exactly what you want to be when you read Gabino Iglesias’ captivating new novel, The devil bring you home a black barrio that invites readers to consider the depths of darkness in this world, its material effects, and the cycles of violence we enter into willingly and by force.

At the start of the novel, Mario, the narrator, and his wife Melisa have just learned that their daughter Anita has been diagnosed with leukemia. A few weeks later, Mario is fired from his job after taking too long to care for her. Bills, medical and otherwise, pile up, and in desperation Mario reaches out to Brian, a former colleague who once told him “Call if the damn noose of poverty gets too tight, yeah?” Before long, Brian gives Mario a gun, a mark, and the promise of $6,000. Mario shoots the stranger he is accused of killing and, despite having fought with himself beforehand, he admits: “I didn’t feel bad. I felt good. scared a little and I couldn’t breathe, but it was like energy running through my veins…He deserved it. He was as guilty of Anita’s illness as everyone else.”

When Anita dies and Melisa leaves (it’s early enough in the book not to be considered a spoiler, I promise), Mario is left with nothing but grief, rage, and hunting down collection agencies. When Brian offers Mario to join him and a man called Juanca on a two-day job that will earn them $200,000 each, Mario – both of whom are fully aware of what he is doing and desperately hoping the money l will somehow help get Melisa back. , accept.

The devil bring you home is written in both English and Spanish – the former takes precedence over the latter, and any Spanish dialogue too much for plot or mood is translated – and takes readers on a journey to hell and back. Whether the hell is American racism, the Mexican cartel industry, Mario’s grief and growing comfort with violence, or all of the above, it works; as Juanca says, “the devil is everywhere”.

According to Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York and one of the editors of The best American black of the centurydark fiction (often confused with hard crime fiction) is about lost characters “who are caught in the inescapable prisons of their own construction, forever trapped by their isolation from their own souls, as well as from society and the moral restrictions that allow him to be considered civilized.”

Iglesias, who is the author of several books including Zero Saints and coyote songs as well as a book reviewer (for NPR, among others), certainly draws inspiration from these elements of noir. But he has a broader definition of barrio noir, which “is any writing that wanders between languages, borders and cultures [and] which occupies a plethora of interstitial spaces and is not afraid to engage with all religions and superstitions as well as bring supernatural elements.”

The mixture of religious, superstitious and supernatural elements adds a dimension to the novel that accentuates its horror, but also its social commentary. Mario, whose mother used drugs, always said he had angels watching over him, and he had waking visions all his life; At the beginning of the book, a neighbor from Mario’s time in Puerto Rico as a child, who may not even be alive anymore, shows up to give him a warning. Increasingly over the course of the book, however, Mario’s visions become the least of his problems, as gods and demons are called upon to bless a series of gruesome deeds that make no sense. But as Mario knows, “stuff that doesn’t make sense happens all the time.” Things like Mario, being bilingual, college-educated, and smart, being denied jobs because of his race; things like racist white men getting a cut of the Mexican cartel money because they can so easily buy guns in Texas; things like priests who need to come to terms with the violence around them in order to continue caring for their communities; things like doctors calling a dying child a “fascinating case.”

The devil bring you home may not be a joyous book, but it still allows for glimpses of love, moments of connection, and glimmers of beauty. Even if these cannot save us, they point to what, with a little effort and luck, just might.

Ilana Masad is a fiction writer, book reviewer and novel author All my mother’s lovers.

Akshaya Mukul has named the full biography which summarizes various facets of Agyeya’s life as Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya. The book was published by Vintage, part of the Penguin Group. The book is huge not only because it tells a factual and contextual story of the many lives of a faithful writer; it is also huge in size with a total of 565 biography pages and an additional 200 or more pages of reference material.

I believe this is the most documented biography ever written of a Hindi writer. In fact, rarely has a writer been the subject of a biography of such epic magnitude in Indian literature at large. Mukul spent several years writing the book and scoured all possible sources around the world for authentic facts and references.

Such refinement and perseverance are rare in Hindi. Very few biographies meet the standard in terms of authenticity, detail, and due diligence to facts and data. Penguin will soon publish the Hindi translation of this colossal biography. For nearly four decades, Agyeya was a dominant figure in modern Hindi literature. He was the most controversial Hindi writer of his lifetime. Countless rumors spread about his personal life. Akshaya Mukul must have known them too. But he told Agyeya’s life story in a very objective way based on references and documents. Its narrative flows like an articulate novel and there’s almost no room for boredom or oddities.

Another little-known love affair between Agyeya and Kripa Sen is probably finding Akshaya and hence Agyeya was rightly referred to as a lover in the title of the book. Besides, Agyeya also wrote poignant love poems.

The book contains a detailed account of Agyeya’s early life, his life in prison, and his own defense of the court case. The arguments and facts presented by Agyeya in his defense gave a glimpse of his future: it was clear that he would defy social and political norms.

To those who continually accuse Agyeya of being an aristocrat and staying aloof from the masses, the biography details how the writer had a close association with, for example, the peasant movement. Later, with Renu, he continuously covered the plight of farmers and failures of administration during the Bihar famine.

Agyeya was almost always strapped for money as he took up writing as a profession at a time when most writers of Hindi literature received very little or no pay. Popular novels like Shekhar earned him a tiny sum in royalties from Saraswati Press. Therefore, Agyeya’s insistence on being paid for his lectures later in his career makes sense.

It should also be noted that when he started receiving money from, say, the Jnanpith Prize, he ventured to form a trust with twice the prize money and spent it on d other writers. Agyeya was probably the first Hindi writer to do so.

Agyeya’s association with the Congress for Cultural Liberty was at the center of another controversy. Although the affiliation is a fact, it is also true that many world famous writers at the time had such connections. Previously, Agyeya had organized a major conference with progressive writers against fascism. Freedom and self-respect were values ​​on which he never compromised. This biography attests to this notion.

Agyeya’s literature, thought and ideological pursuit do not prove his pro-Americanism. Moreover, if it was justified to receive financial assistance from the then Soviet Union to publish books at low cost and to receive the price of Soviet land, then any American aid would also have to be justified. Ironically, both sides were unaware of the Soviet genocide at the time and the United States’ involvement in the subsequent wars and genocide in Vietnam and Korea.

The biography also reminds me of a personal incident that I had almost forgotten. My correspondence and communication with Agyeya started when I was 18 years old. During one of these correspondences, when he was not even 50 years old, Agyeya once expressed his desire to stop writing.

I registered my protest against such a desire and wrote to him that it would be unfortunate and a great loss. I even suggested that Agyeya publish a new collection of poems and include a long essay on his poetic experiences, the problems faced by contemporary poets and “Nai Kavita” or modern poetry.

I even dared to write that Nirmal Verma and Raghuveer Sahay were the most authentic representatives of modern fiction (nai kahani) and modern poetry of the time. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Agyeya kept this correspondence while I lost the letters I had received from him.

Another aspect of Agyeya emerges from this biography: his connection and interaction with many active members across generations in his time. He also supported many writers in due time. There have also been controversies regarding the writers’ camps organized by Vatsal Nidhi. Akshay Mukul carefully considered them in context and studied the discussions held.

For decades, many left-leaning writers have condemned the Faithful as right-wing, anti-people, etc. This biography makes it clear that unlike most leftists, Agyeya spent three years in prison for participating in the liberation movement. It remained associated with minor movements thereafter. He never took a pro-government or anti-popular position when he was editor of Dinaman and Nav Bharat Hours. On the contrary, he was a democrat and a critic of the government and supported Jayaprakash Narayan in his massive and decisive mass movement.

He shared long dialogues with Muktibodh and in Naya Prateek had even condemned the attack on Harishankar Parsai by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh henchmen.

If one reads this biography with a broad perspective, one gets an intimate glimpse of Agyeya’s life struggle, his self-respect and dignity as an author, and his authentic, if somewhat obscure, existence.

The beginning and the end

Here are the opening lines of the famous award-winning novel by Geetanjali Shree Ret Samadhi (The sand tomb):

“A story is being told. It can be complete, but also incomplete, as all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you have women and a border, a story can be written. Even single women are enough. The women are stories unto themselves, full of quivers and whispers that float on the wind, bend to every blade of grass. The setting sun gathers fragments of tales and shapes them into luminous lanterns hanging from the clouds. These too will join our story. The path of the story unfolds without knowing where it will end, weaving right and left, twisting and turning, allowing everything and nothing to join the narrative.

And the last lines:

“But there is no shortage of stories in life, and maybe one day I too will be in the middle of one. There is the moon in the sky which sheds supernatural light. What a beautiful night it is. The gentle breeze blows softly whistling. It is a night full of shadows and sparkling moonlight. The stories go by, where will they cast their net?

I stand outside the window, filled with longing. As if it were no longer a window, but a corner of a canvas that has yet to be filled with color, a place where a plethora of new stories and characters await the moment they will take shape.

Ashok Vajpeyi is a well-known Hindi poet-critic and art lover.

Originally published in Hindi, this article was translated by Nausheen.

Sometimes all you need from a book recommendation is a trusted word from a good friend who knows what you like. We would like to be the next best thing. While we may not be IRL friends, we’re internet friends at this point, and there’s nothing RUSSH Publishers love more than talking about books. Boiling things down in a top three is a daunting task for those who flip through the books faster than the new iPhone battery drains, but alas, we’re sharing our own here. From coming-of-age winners to philosophical musings on the very fabric of monogamy, these are the three best books each of RUSSH Publishers read this year.

Ella O’Keeffe
Fashion & Brand Features Editor

QueenCandice Carty-Williams

When Queenie, a 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman, finds herself on a “breakup” with her longtime boyfriend, she is faced with many questions that she must answer to move forward. As she navigates her post-breakup grief, she finds comfort in the arms of men who aren’t necessarily good for her, struggles with her purpose in a predominantly white workplace, and accepts questions about life. self-esteem, belonging and friendship. . Queenie shrewdly and humorously delves into the life of Messines in their mid-twenties, while articulating issues of race and colorism that are key for all readers. I read this book over the summer and it made me feel so attached and grateful for this period of life in all its complexity and mess, alongside the teaching moments for white people that Carty -Williams offers so generously in his prose.

Sex at dawnChristopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha

An investigation into the origins of monogamy and sexuality dating back to the time of Darwin. I read Sex at Dawn while working on an article for our 100th issue on the rise of consensual non-monogamy, and found this book essential to understanding the concept of monogamy and why we are so attached to it.

The wide, Caleb Azuma Nelson

A beautiful, poignant and cerebral love story that follows the entanglement of two black British artists – he a photographer and she a dancer – as they reflect on their integration into a city that is both diverse and exclusive. With words so lyrical and flowing you feel like you can swim in them, Open Water was one of those novels that makes you want to write and appreciate those who donate their words to the world.

Megane Nolan
Head of Digital Operations

Love & VirtueDiana Reid

If you’re a Sally Rooney fan, this one’s for you. It follows the story of two young women who become friends at the residential college of a prestigious Australian university. Intellectually refreshing and complex, this isn’t your typical coming-of-age.
Rooted in feminism, sexuality, and social discovery, this is a novel I plan to read at least once a year.

Trick Mirror: Thoughts on Self-DelusionJia Tolentino

I’m very late to this party, but I’m about halfway through Tolentino’s nine-essay series, and I’ve already mentioned this book to nearly every one of my friends.

By discussing her own experiences and revelations on topics such as the internet’s social revolution and the female experience with society’s expectations of beauty, Tolentino offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the topics that plague women in the world. the modern world.

Where the Crawdads singDelia Owens

Even though I haven’t seen the movie yet, I can say that I loved this book. Following the story of Kya, a wild, barefoot “Marsh Girl,” it’s part murder mystery and part coming-of-age, while also providing an exquisite ode to the natural world.

Thought-provoking, wise and deeply moving, Owens’ novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us.

Sonia Blair
Content producer

SunbathBeech Isobel

If you’re a loyal RUSSH reader, you’ll know that I, along with our digital writer Jasmine, talk a lot about this book. Sunbathing has marked me since I read it a few months ago. Set in Italy with the underlying theme of grief permeating the text, it takes the reader on an undulating journey about dealing with loss and the power of friendship to guide us through life’s ups and downs. It’s a debut novel that left me hungry for more that Isobel Beech might publish in the future.

The cost of laborNatalie Kon-yu

The idea of ​​giving birth to a child is something I still don’t fully agree with. Take care of the child himself? A little manageable. The idea of ​​wearing them for nine months in my body? In short, it terrifies me. In The Cost of Labor, Natalie Kon-yu unpacks the literal stress on a woman’s body throughout pregnancy, how the healthcare system in Australia can often undermine women’s agency over their own bodies during this time. and how the disproportionate share of childcare expected of a woman is often overlooked as normal and expected. Necessary reading for everyone, whether you are planning to be pregnant at some point in their life or not.

Notes on loveAnnie Lord

I like to read about love in all its forms. Happy stories are great, but raw, unfiltered, bare-bones accounts of real-life relationships are what I deeply resent. Annie Lord has that same talent, it seems all contemporary British female writers have to be incredibly candid and direct, with Notes on Heartbreak a vivid picture of a relationship ending unexpectedly, but gradually realizing that it was can – be for the best. Towards the second half of the book, there’s a page where Lord gets lyrical about what love really is, saying it’s “doing things even if they don’t notice” and “doing a fucking thing.” ‘huge business about their birthdays’ among other tasks. It’s a manifesto that I try to live up to in my own relationships, and that I’ve never read so succinctly.

Jasmine Pirovic

digital writer

SunbathBeech Isobel

Rationally, I know most of us won’t be going to Europe this year. We just went through a pandemic for Pete’s sake. But still, I have a huge fomo, so I turned to Isobel Beech’s debut novel for an escape. What I found in the pages is much more nourishing. It’s deeply contemplative, about death yes – the narrator recently lost her father to suicide – but also about social networks, influencers and feminism. It’s soft, introspective and sparse, reminding me of One Month in Siena by Hisham Matar.

the other half of youMichael Mohammed Ahmad

Mohammed is one of the most original voices in Australian literature today, and through the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, he nurtures new talent with equally unique perspectives. The Other Half of You is the third and final installment in his semi-autobiographical series, centered on Bani Adam. Torn between family and cultural expectations and his own desires, Bani must forge a new path, even if it means isolating his loved ones.

people personCandice Carty-Williams

After driving through Queenie while on vacation in Bali in 2019, I pre-ordered my copy of Candice Carty-Williams’ second novel as soon as I could after it was announced. People Person opens with the devious Cyril Pennington driving his golden Jeep through the streets of Brixton to pick up his five children – Dimple, Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce – born to four different women. Carty-Williams sets the stage for Dimple’s story to shine through. She’s 30, has a violent ex, an influencing career in between, and like all her siblings, is riddled with abandonment issues from her absent father. If you liked Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, then this is the one for you.

She took a dim view of conductors and writers who didn’t do the same, and her criticism could be scathing. “They didn’t do the trip and the research that I did,” she told Saveur. “None of them, not one. I’ve been wandering around this country, wandering — that’s why I’m not rich! — and taking time, and no one else has. another only saw a certain pepper at a certain stage in a market in Chilapa, then came back six months later and saw other peppers.

Ms Kennedy moved permanently to Mexico in 1976, living first in Mexico City and then in an adobe house she built near Zitácuaro, about 100 miles to the west, where she gave intensive cooking lessons .

Information about survivors was not immediately available.

She went on to write essential cookbooks such as “Recipes From the Regional Cooks of Mexico” (1978), “The Art of Mexican Cooking” (1989), “From My Mexican Kitchen – Techniques and Ingredients” (2003) and “Oaxaca al Gusto”. : An Infinite Gastronomy” (2010).

In a culinary memoir, “Nothing Fancy: Recipes and Recollections of Soul-Satisfying Food” (1984), she interspersed with decidedly un-Mexican dishes like cold jellied tongue, Iranian grilled lamb, and crumpets.

In 2020, she was the subject of a documentary, “Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy”, directed by Elizabeth Carroll, which followed her as she cooked and taught in her solar-powered home. The New York Times called it “a vivid, uncritical portrait of a woman as passionate about composting as chilaquiles, a woman who will throw a tantrum if you put garlic in your guacamole.”

In her later years, Ms. Kennedy worked with the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, known by its Spanish acronym Conabio, to record and digitize her collection of recipes, drawings and cooking notes. Mexican food and the country’s native edible plants. .

In 2010, she gave the Chicago Tribune a terse assessment of her work. “I’m tenacious,” she said. “And I love to eat.”

Christine Chung contributed reporting.

Book editor Catherine Woulfe presents a slice of new books to love.

Welcome, welcome, come shelter from the rain, sit down for this fifth edition of The Spinoff Book Report. Everything is very easy and discreet: these are books that I have read recently and that I have adored, those that I intend to push to my friends, those that I recommend to you without reservation.

There is accidentally a theme happening this time: a green, growing, outdoor theme. I hope that reassures you.

Notes on femininity by Sarah Jane Barnett (Otago University Press, $30)

A sharp and intelligent memoir. Pieces will make you wince. Barnett remembers lying on a bed with an excited high school boyfriend as he pinched her stomach. In one place: “Pretty good”. Another: “No, you have fat here.” She remembers one night in her third year of art school. “I don’t usually sleep with fat girls,” says the guy she just slept with. “It wasn’t so bad.”

But the phrase that sticks with me appears in a chapter on wandering around with other women. “We feel a bit dangerous, like we are indulging in something taboo. In a way we are: to be absent from our families and our duties is to be selfish. And women are not selfish.

I’m off on my mop as soon as I shake off this damn covid-asthma.

Regenesis: Feeding the world without devouring the planet by George Monbiot (Allen Lane, $37)

A book about soil and shit, trees and rivers and erosion, people and how we feed them. For George Monbiot, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner, it’s not free-range farming or organic farming, but basic math that’s important: he wants us to understand how much land we use – and thus damage and disable critical regenerative processes. like rewilding – by farming.

We do not come out of this equation in style. “The most land-hungry nation in the world is New Zealand,” he wrote. “If everyone ate the average New Zealander’s diet, which contains lots of free-range lamb and beef, another planet almost the size of Earth would be needed to sustain us.”

He also wants us to see that there are better ways. There’s a burgeoning section about a farmer who figured out how to grow gorgeous piles of vegetables on a small patch of land without fertilizers or herbicides; another about a man preparing protein-rich bacteria in large vats. Monbiot is a stunning writer, and it’s science that reads like hope.

Kohine by Colleen Maria Lenihan (Huia Publishers, $25)

This collection of short stories twirls between Japan and Aotearoa, between generations and between apartments. I love how intertwined the stories are and also how much wiggle room there is in the prose. There’s a detachment, an airy titillation, a rhythm – and a feeling, always, that the ground might come loose beneath you. Suicide is everywhere, as are spirits, sex and grief. Energy, flicking and zapping and buzzing. “It just goes to show, mate, that everyone is hanging by a thread,” says a brother writing on the other side. “Do whatever you wanna do, buddy. Live your dreams and all that shiz! Fuck!

Better blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster, $35)

A surprisingly lush and textured debut album, set in Tāmaki Makaurau and centered on the intergenerational trauma of colonization. A thriller. Not a missed note, pace as hell. Lots of bush and sea. Two main characters, both Maori: a female cop who does her job very well but risks being destroyed; a young man who sets out to honor his tipuna and becomes terribly, presumably twisted.

Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is probably best known for his involvement in Teina Pora’s long fight for justice – six years ago he won an Ngaio Marsh Award for his non-fiction book about the case , In Dark Places, and he also made an award-winning documentary The Confessions of Prisoner T, which helped bring crucial evidence to light.

Bennett says he wrote this novel as a “Trojan horse bearing great complex and difficult themes”. We will publish an essay by him when the book comes out on August 10.

Pesticides and health: how New Zealand is failing when it comes to environmental protection by Neil Pearce (BWB Texts, $15)

I grew up in an orchard and once in a while dad had to apply a spray that mom called “a real nasty”. She picked up the laundry off the line and kept us kids inside while it was happening.

But Dad would be out there on the tractor for hours, up and down the rows, the spray cloud billowing and blowing behind him. He was wearing his astronaut suit but I wondered when he was diagnosed with dementia at 55 if those sprays had anything to do with it. At the same time I thought, nah, surely if the spray was this dangerous, we wouldn’t have been allowed to use it?

Neil Pearce has completely dispelled this sense of security. He is an international expert on villains and their fallout and his argument is that New Zealand is totally failing to protect workers and others at risk. Our system sucks.

The book is a call to action, but in places it reads like a professional memoir – keeping it taut and dry, measured, compassionate, Pearce tells gripping stories about Agent Orange and the New Plymouth plant who helped produce it, and on small town sawmills. where workers spent their days soaked in dioxins. “Putting the story to press is quite cathartic, and I think it’s important to do so,” Pearce writes. “Some things have happened that are just not acceptable, and if nobody documents them, they are more likely to continue to happen… My main motivation is that very little has changed and it needs to change. These are not just historical issues.

Galatea: a short story by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $12.99)

You know Miller via his novels The Song of Achilles and Circe, both of which reign supreme and resurrect – 10 years after publication, in the case of the former – because BookTok love their. Now, new fodder: a short story lovingly wrapped in an exceptionally beautiful little hardback book. “A small piece, but nonetheless very dear to me,” Miller wrote in an afterword. “Galatea was a response, almost uniquely, to Ovid’s version of the Pygmalion myth in the Metamorphoses.” In short, Pygmalion (he would call himself an incel these days, Miller notes) is so disgusted with real women that he carves one out of ivory, falls in love with her, and brings her to life. Happy until the end of time? No.

Fans of Circe, in particular, are invited to join in.

No Other Place to Stand: An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry edited by Jordan Hamel, Rebecca Hawkes, Erik Kennedy and Essa Ranapiri (Auckland University Press, $29.99)

This is the kind of book you pick up knowing it will take you about 20 minutes to tip. And yes, those poems crushed me in a puddle on the floor. Some that I had read before, but with so many clicks together, they landed differently, stronger. Some lines have stretched their elbows. And there were so many poems I hadn’t read before, and read with a start: Victor Billot ripping out tapes of Scott Morrison; Dadon Rowell, weeping in the dust of the bushfires; Cindy Botha and her fucking haunting hammerhead shark, who

“Falls in the seabed wave – it’s dying

corner of gray and shy fins sliced ​​and discarded

on the ice with 100 million others. It took him an hour to touch

at the bottom, flowing red ribbons as a Valentine’s Day gift.

At the end, I felt a bit like that shark but I also felt a profound shift in perspective, as if I had been taken out of the center of things and was with all these poets, on the fringes, together, shouting stop.

Alright, that’s me – I’m going to bed with the new Emily Writes book. Requires adult supervision, it’s hot pink and I love it and it comes out in late August.

Surely the world has heard of the Genocide, but no words can convey a clear picture of what happened at the technical school in Murambi, a town in Nyamagabe District, Southern Province.

A few have nevertheless tried to tell this story. One of them is Boubacar Boris Diop, a Senegalese novelist, who came to Rwanda four years after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi as part of the “Writing by duty of memory” project which brought together 10 writers from all over Africa. .

Diop became interested in what was then a memorial center for the more than 50,000 Tutsi killed in the genocide that he decided to return there twice after his first visit.

“As a novelist, I was interested in the difference between Murambi and other places where the killers were doing their infamous ‘work’ very quickly. They arrived completely drunk, shouting obscenities at their victims and a few hours later hardly anyone was alive.

“In Murambi, there was a relatively long face to face between the perpetrators and the victims. I also noticed the duplicity of a “man of God”, Augustin Misago, the important role of the masterminds of the genocide like Aloys Simba, Bucyibaruta and the presence of French foreign troops via Operation Turquoise. For me, Murambi was a microcosm of the whole Rwandan tragedy,” Diop said.

He ended up publishing a book in 2000; “Murambi, the book of bones”, a name he already knew how to give him from his first visit in September 1998.

“In Murambi, the corpses seemed almost alive to me. I could see their last gesture to protect their faces from machetes and I really felt like they were telling their personal story, what they had been through at the very moment they were killed,” Diop added. .

This book, originally in French, played a vital role in informing people about the Genocide. He was also awarded the 2021 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a prestigious literature award from the University of Oklahoma.

However, until this year, the first and second publishers of this novel, based in France, only had a total of 500 copies available for readers in Africa. Not only was it insufficient for the continent, but it was also not enough for the Rwandan public.

Flore-Agnès Zoa, the founder of La CENE Littéraire (the Circle of Friends of Committed Black Writers) which aims to promote and defend the literature produced by African and Afro-descendant writers, has purchased the reissue rights to Diop’s novel on Murambi.

Zoa’s main intention was to make the novel available to African audiences, and she says it was not easy for her legally and financially.

“That’s when I printed 8,000 copies for Africa and donated 1,000 to Rwanda, free of charge, to distribute to high school and university students,” Zoa told The New Times. .

She also noted that some readers in the 10 countries where the books have been distributed have started reading and discussing them in book clubs. Some of them include Cameroon, Senegal, DRC and Benin.

Furthermore, the preface to the republished edition was written by a Rwandan scholar, Jean Pierre Karegeye, who is also the founder of the Interdisciplinary Center for Genocide Studies (IGSC).

The plan to republish and distribute this book is something Diop’s team sees as their “small” contribution to informing young people about the Genocide.

“To be frank, I doubted very strongly at first that a book could be useful in any way in the fight against genocide ideology. But if you and I are having this conversation today, almost thirty years after the genocide of the Tutsi, it is partly because this book was published in March 2000. So the novel itself can be a pretext for meet people, especially young people, all over the world. world to make them aware of what happened in Rwanda between April and July 1994 and even before that date,” Diop said.

Karegeye, who led the book presentation project in Rwanda, paraphrased Diop who once said that a history book shares facts, while literature helps us understand what happened.

“Any human being can say ‘this is our story’. Rwandan history is made universal and the reader will understand that what happened in Rwanda can happen to them,” Karegeye said.

During their trip to Rwanda, this team had three major events; Connect with Publishers, where they met writers with manuscripts and authors who wish to be published, read and sign Murambi, the Book of Bones, and a workshop for writers, publishers and librarians on challenges and writing and publishing solutions in Africa.

The team is also ready to work together to start a new center in Kigali, the African Bridging Center (ABC), which should connect Rwandans with foreign publishers, researchers and institutions, organize writing workshops and bridging academic research with African social issues.

Rwandan scholar Jean Pierre Karegeye, founder of the Interdisciplinary Center for Genocide Studies, speaks during the book signing at Norrsken House in Kigali on July 15.

Boubacar Boris Diop signs books at Norrsken House in Kigali on July 15.

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END HOLLYWOOD: Harvey Weinstein and the culture of silence

Author: Ken Aulette

Editor: Penguin

Price: $30

pages: 466

As you’d expect, there aren’t many laughs in Hollywood end, the new biography of Ken Auletta from the cradle to prison of Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul convicted of third-degree rape and another sex crime in New York and awaiting trial on other charges in California. When Auletta calls Weinstein’s relationship with his brother Bob “Shakespeare worthy,” he puts the story squarely in the tragedy column of the ledger.

But then Broadway star Nathan Lane makes a brief appearance, like Puck doing cartwheels on the set of Coriolanus.

The year was 2000, and Weinstein’s cultural capital was perhaps at its peak. He still ran Miramax, the prestigious studio he and Bob launched in 1979, though now under the incongruous but lucrative watch of Disney. He had recently founded Talk magazine with editor Tina Brown, then New York’s most agile puppeteer on high and low culture. He dated politicians, co-hosted a lavish birthday party, and raised money for then-senator Hillary Clinton at the Roseland Ballroom. And he didn’t like some of the jokes that Lane, everyone’s dream MC, had written for the occasion.

“I’m going to ruin your career,” threatened Weinstein, in Auletta’s account.

“You can’t hurt me,” Lane retorted. “I don’t have a film career.”

On stage, Lane said in a smirking tone, “I’m going to do all the jokes that Harvey Weinstein wanted me to cut.”

It wasn’t the last time that theater somehow trumped the producer’s favorite medium. Auletta attended every day of Weinstein’s trial in 2020, recounting the experience here in four chapters. “The essays are not movies, shot under controlled conditions and subject to editing in the editing room,” he wrote. “These are live productions, dependent on the chemistry of their participants, and not a bit of luck.”

The books, which Weinstein is obviously fond of — his media mini-empire included an editorial imprint — can look like movies. Auletta effectively, if perhaps a bit too elegiacly, frames this one in the long shadow of Citizen Kane. Auletta is, of course, Jerry Thompson, the reporter searching for his anti-hero’s rosebud: the mysterious missing object or influence that will explain his personality. But he is also Citizen Ken, magnanimous and avuncular when he encourages his New Yorker boss, David Remnick, to publish young journalist Ronan Farrow’s investigation into Weinstein’s misdeeds. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times announced the story five days before Farrow’s article was published.

The well-connected Auletta draws on the work of these reporters and his own interviews with major players, including many surely fascinating hours with beleaguered brother Bob. As for Harvey, he emails terse responses to questions, and his reps haggle over possible interview terms before ghosting his biographer — but Hollywood end also pulls out a detailed profile that Auletta wrote of him 20 years ago, and his results. At that time, he had heard of Weinstein’s sex crimes, an open secret for years, but was unable to register any victims, and so focused on bullying and prodigious appetites. of his subject.

Weinstein’s reputation for sexual intrusion had begun early, when he was a concert promoter in Buffalo. As he got older, his influence waned — the whole movie industry waned — just as he sought younger prey, from a cohort who “increasingly spent their free time on social media like Facebook,” Auletta recalls. , “rather than going to the movies.”

After the producer, then in his 60s, rushed from his office couch to Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a 22-year-old Miss Italy finalist, in 2015, she did what many previous women who had been in her shoes , frightened by Weinstein’s towering power, had shied away from doing: She called the police. The fourth wave of feminism had come with a big splash, dragging Weinstein and his ilk into the backwash.

And yet the male jury foreman who convicted Weinstein, Auletta points out, cited the testimony and demeanor of male witnesses, not female victims — “suggesting,” Auletta writes, “that ‘believing women’ can do facing a steep climb.” Instead, he suggests “listening to women”; but the voice of a key woman is overwhelming.

As there was a roving “fifth Beatle”, so there was a series of Miramax executives dubbed the “third brother” – loyalists who helped enable bad behavior – and, chillingly, a kind of “system ferry to funnel women” to Weinstein’s hotel suites. If you’re not interested in NC-17 and the often disgusting details of what happened in those sequels, or the jaw-dropping convolutions of nondisclosure agreements, you might prefer one of the recommendations. of the disgraced protagonist of the finer era he adored, Elia Kazan’s autobiography, A Life, or a book Weinstein was often seen carrying while preparing for trial: The Brothers Mankiewicz, from Sydney Ladensohn Stern. Herman Mankiewicz is credited with the screenplay of Citizen Kane; his brother, Joe, wrote All About Eve.

Remembering those great films, and even some of Miramax’s glory days in the 1990s, is daunting, as the pictures keep getting smaller. Participating in Weinstein’s slow rise and fall, even with the capable Auletta by his side, can feel even more daunting, like riding one of those creaking roller coasters on a faded municipal playground.

©2022TheNewYorkTimesNewsService

There’s always something new to spend on technology. Here’s a secret these companies don’t want you to know: there’s a lot you can get without spending a dime.

Take photo storage. Are you using the free space you can get from Apple, Google, and Amazon? Tap or click here for the best ways to store photos and videos on your phone.

Speaking of money, I hear people wanting to cut Netflix, Hulu, and other expensive streaming services all the time. Here is a list of 15 sites where you can find movies to watch for free. Some services include ads, but you won’t encounter any illegal downloads or malware.

Storage and movies aren’t the only things you can get for free. Here are 15 gifts you can thank me for later:

1. Photo editing software

Photoshop is the program synonymous with photo editing, but the subscription to the software is expensive. Here are some free ways to crop, brighten, and adjust your photos:

• Cloth: This user-friendly, browser-based and app-based editing software is ideal for creating presentations, social media graphics, marketing materials, posters, and anything else you can imagine.

• Pixel X: This tool runs in your browser; no download is required. It has advanced features like photo filters and drawing options, but it really shines with easy-to-use cropping and resizing tools.

• GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program: This professional-grade photo editor works the same way as Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, GIMP is free to download.

Tap or click here for a detailed breakdown of the pros and cons of each option.

Photoshop is also testing a free, browser-based version of its photo editing software. At this time, you need an Adobe account to access it. Tap or click here for more details and a direct link to try it out.

2. Video editing software

It’s one of those things you don’t need until you really need it. Maybe you’ve been commissioned to edit a video for a wedding or a class reunion, or you finally want to start a YouTube channel.

The most reliable video editing programs cost an arm and a leg. Notice I said the most. When it comes to free options, DaVinci Resolve takes the cake. Tap or click here to see how it makes editing easier.

If you have a Mac or an iPhone, you’ll be happy to know that Apple iMovie is a surprisingly good video editor. Tap or click to see how to turn your clips and photos into a masterpiece with iMovie.

3. Word processing software

When it comes to productivity software, Microsoft Office is the gold standard. Of course, it’s expensive. I’ve been recommending LibreOffice for years. It is an open source software suite that works much like Microsoft Office applications.

It also saves new files in Office formats, so you don’t have to worry about file conversions. Tap or click here for a step-by-step guide to downloading LibreOffice.

Already using Google Docs? Tap or click for a simple trick that makes starting a new document easier.

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Blocking your credit is free. If you’re ever asked to pay, you’re on the wrong site, clicked on a dodgy ad, or talked to a scammer.

The trick is knowing where to freeze your credit. It’s not just one place. Tap or click for the steps you need to follow. This page is worth bookmarking for the next time you receive an alert that your personal information has been exposed in a data breach.

5. Engraver email addresses

Do you want a promo code but not the spam emails that come with it? Use an engraver’s email address.

You can use a free disposable email service like 10-Minute Mail. It’s easy to create a temporary email address to keep you safe, so you don’t have to divulge your personal and work email addresses.

Using an iPhone? Hide My Email is powerful, easy to use, and requires no additional downloads. Tap or click for an easy way to protect your inbox privacy.

6. Brush up on your university Spanish

Duolingo is a top-notch language learning app and for good reason. It’s easy to use, engaging, and surprisingly easy.

Duolingo offers 37 languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Latin, Korean, Scottish Gaelic, Ukrainian, Italian, and Chinese. Having trouble staying engaged? Duolingo offers daily reminders that keep you accountable every day.

Tap or click here to download for iPhone. Tap or click here to download for Android.

7. E-books for your summer vacation

eBooks can add up, especially if you’re a voracious reader. OpenLibrary.org lets you browse thousands of books to find your next favorite. Sign up, verify your email address, and you’re good to go. You can start browsing in minutes.

Tap or click here for even more ways to get free eBooks.

Are you trying to start a side business or a freelance career? I have a new e-book you should read to maximize your profits: “Guide to Online Freelancing Success”.

8. Audiobooks to listen to on your walks

Prefer to listen to your playlist? Audiobooks can make chores like yard work and cooking that much more interesting and brighten up long walks or road trips.

Tap or click for eight ways to get free audiobooks.

9. Internet Speed ​​Tests

Free internet speed tests can help you determine if you are actually getting the advertised rates. Speedtest.net is one of the most reliable free speed tests. This site will measure various statistics such as ping time, upload speed, and upload speed of your internet connection.

If you’re a video streaming enthusiast, try Netflix’s free internet speed test, Fast.com.

If your internet speed turns out to be slower than expected, there are ways to improve it. Tap or click for tips on boosting your Wi-Fi speeds.

10. Cheap or Free Internet

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program provides up to $50 per month for broadband service. To qualify, you must meet one of five criteria, one of which is an income at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines.

Tap or click to learn about other ways to get free Internet access and how to sign up.

12. Shipping material

Here’s some good news for small business owners who work from home. In fact, this freebie is useful for anyone who wants to stop spending so much money on their mail. Through the US Postal Service, you can mark free envelopes and boxes.

It’s not just one or two either. You can get a pack of 50 Priority Mail Express parcels for free. You can get medium boxes, shoe boxes and more.

Tap or click for a direct link to get free shipping supplies.

13. Update your passport photo

Don’t wait long for someone to take your photo for your passport. Just go to ePassportPhoto.com and follow a few steps to take the perfect photo. It’s pretty easy, and the site tells you exactly what to do.

14. Magazines to read on the beach

Do you have an Amazon Prime account? You can access a rotating library of popular magazines for free for 30 days. Discover them here. The Prime Reading benefit is a great way to save money that you would otherwise spend on expensive monthly subscriptions.

Titles include Wired, Popular Science, Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home and more.

15. Weekend Project Ideas for You and the Kids

If you or someone you know enjoys sewing, check out FreeNeedle. It includes step-by-step tutorials, sewing and crochet patterns, and helpful articles.

Instructables.com has a stellar library of projects for all ages and skill levels for those more into crafting and woodworking. There is something for every taste. Here are some of my favorites:

• Make a 3D printed lamp

• Make a university loft bed

• Learn astrophotography

• Build a chicken coop in the shape of a spaceship

• Design a custom fighting game controller

16. Free bonus

I’ve been helping countless millions of people use technology for over twenty years. I’ve collected hidden tricks and handy features you won’t find in a user manual as a free downloadable guide. Whether you use Windows or Mac, you’ll definitely learn a few that you’ll use again and again.

Here is a short list of what you will learn in my free guides:

• Search tips to find your files and programs at a glance

• Keyboard shortcuts to boost your productivity and show off a little

• Quick photo editing without downloading additional programs

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PODCAST CHOICE: Rent your kitchen, get $20 from Amazon, the Google Meet betrayal

Bad news: Google Meet will now notify you if you’re late for a meeting. On the bright side, Google Workspace lets you work offline with Microsoft Office files. Plus an easy way to get $20 from Amazon. Time is running out, so listen now to get free money in about 60 seconds.

Check out my “Kim Komando Today” podcast on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for my last name, “Komando”.

Discover all the latest technology on the Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For his daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit his website at Komando.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

EXCLUSIVE: The story of how the BBC got Prince Andrew’s explosive interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is to become a movie called Scoop, and Hugh Grant is one of the unconfirmed names in the frame to portray the disgraced royal, Deadline has learned.

Acclaimed Your Honor screenwriter Peter Moffat is writing the Scoop screenplay for production company The Lighthouse Film & TV, which was launched two years ago by Hilary Salmon, Radford Neville and Nick Betts, as well as British independent television Voltage TV.

The news will likely be met with little amusement by Andrew’s mother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and other members of the Royal Family. Buckingham Palace had hoped that when it came to the wandering royal, the less he was seen and heard of, the better.

The car crash interview had such an impact that the Duke of York was banned from royal duties. He was notably absent during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee festivities last month.

Both Moffat and Salmon confirmed the news today, telling Deadline that production will be set up soon. They plan to start filming in November. A director has yet to be named, and casting has yet to begin, although introductions have been made to selected agents. “The reaction is always the same, ‘Oh, wow,'” Salmon said.

When pushed to cast, Salmon said “we, of course, have thoughts,” but stressed that “no one is attached,” and she didn’t comment on reports that Grant is in the cast. cut.

Moffat explained that Scoop is “about how the BBC Newsnight the crew got the scoop and then the actual filming,” adding, “The other thing is, ‘why did he agree to do this?’.

“How come he decided it was a good idea to do a really long interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC?” Moffat asked in disbelief, as he pondered the arrogance, the the Duke’s ignorance and charm, which he said “quite often covers up the wrong things, or so I think.

Scoop will be based on Scoops: Behind the scenes of the BBC’s most shocking interviews by Sam McAlister, a former Newsnight producer, whom Salmon said he chose almost immediately.

Filled with juicy, jaw-dropping detail, McAlister shares how she, Maitlis, Esme Wren, former Newsnight editor, now with Channel 4, and Stewart Maclean, then deputy editor at Newsnightnow its editor, secured the Duke of York interview which aired in November 2019, two months after Epstein was found dead in his prison cell.

Salmon and Moffat have previously collaborated on Sheltered, silk, criminal justice and on the current AMC show 61st street, which stars Courtney B. Vance, Aunjanue Ellis and Tosin Cole. A second season is over.

Maitlis, then Newsnight, examined forensically the duke’s relationship with Epstein and his mistress Ghislaine Maxwell, who last year was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offences. During the interview, the prince said he regretted continuing to associate with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from minors in 2008. However, the fact that he offered no apology to Epstein’s victims caused an outcry and made global headlines. “Life in a bubble,” Salmon said.

The story Moffat wants to tell is how “Sam and these two amazing women, Emily and Esme, made the interview happen under real stress and pressure, because once it was agreed, it’s “passed in secret. Hardly anyone inside the BBC could have known about it for fear of it leaking,” he said.

He added: “What Andrew was going to say was going to be hugely relevant in court later…a real liability, especially for Epstein’s female victims. It was our only chance to watch what Andrew had to say about Epstein. The seriousness with which Emily, Esme and Sam took him, of course, was right.

Admitting that “it sounds a bit rude”, Moffat observed that behind-the-scenes activities involving the BBC team and members of the Duke’s household, his private secretary Amanda Thirsk and his daughter Princess Beatrice, who accompanied her father in a meeting with BBC producers, “made a very exciting drama”.

Salmon noted how sections of McAlister’s book, which caused a stir when it was serialized in the Daily mail, and is released today, July 14, shows just how out of touch the Duke was. “All the opportunities Emily gave him to say the right things to justify his friendship with Epstein, to say how sorry he was,” were wasted opportunities on the Duke’s part.

Moffat added that he later learned that once the cameras had stopped rolling, Maitlis repeated his offer to him to return to the cameras. ”NewIt couldn’t have been fairer to him,” he said.

The Duke was oblivious to how his performance had gone in the room. “He thought it went extremely well,” Salmon said.

The problem with the Duke is that “everyone laughs at his jokes all the time,” added Moffat, who went on to say: “I don’t think anyone ever interrupts him when he’s talking and I think those two things give you a level of eligibility; he always feels in control of the time and space around him.

McAlister cites one such example in his book. When the interview was set up in a state room at Buckingham Palace, the Duke gave sound engineers advice on how they should wire everything up.

“He’s a sixty-year-old man who’s just used to it all,” Moffat said.

Pieces of Newsnight the interview will be recreated for Scoop but no actual BBC footage will be used.

Moffat said McAlister “has been a huge help.”

But when asked if any courtiers at Buckingham Palace had been involved in Moffat’s research, Salmon cautiously replied: “We have contacted a wide variety of people involved behind the scenes in the interview and we are still in that process. .”

Sam McAlister’s book balls is published by Oneworld Productions. McAlister is represented by Jen Thomas at United Agents who negotiated the film rights.

At the beginning of June, I met Natalya with her husband and daughter-in-law in downtown Kyiv. The family had arrived the day before from Dnipro but were living in Mariupol, which had by then been destroyed and occupied by Russian forces, and were spending a few days in the capital before heading to western Ukraine, where they had been promised jobs. and a new life. She had made contact after reading some of my stories about the Mariupol evacuees, and we had planned a day together in Kyiv before they continued their journey.

The previous weeks had been a catalog of horrors for Natalya. His hometown had been subjected to endless bombardment; his apartment had been destroyed by bombardments; his 21-year-old son had, along with 1 million other Ukrainians, been forcibly taken to Russia; his elderly mother was taken to territory occupied by Russia and its proxies; she had seen her friends and neighbors die of starvation, dehydration or brutal cold, or be shot by Russian snipers.

So when I met them in Place Sainte-Sophie, I expected to see deeply traumatized people. Instead, they were calm, happy, even, seeming to be ordinary tourists. Natalya wore a sundress; when she saw me she smiled and gave me a hug. We talked about life in Mariupol, but quickly moved on to our itinerary for the day. The family was particularly keen to see Kyiv’s Glass Bridge, a tourist attraction that opened three years ago with a transparent floor.

As we moved forward, we passed Mykhailivska Square, where the authorities had held a display of destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles that had been commandeered by Ukrainian forces near the capital, hoping to remind us all – as if a recall was necessary. – that the Russians may have been held back in their assault on Kyiv, but the war was still raging.

Natalya froze for a moment. Then she reached into her purse, pulled out her lipstick, and rushed to the nearest vehicle, a mobile missile launcher. Burn, Russia, as you burned my Mariupolshe writes in red.

Nobody, including me, tried to stop him.

Over the past few months, since Russian forces launched their last invasion of Ukraine, we have tried to remain human, to be better than our enemy. On that day, all of us in Mykhailivska Square knew that it was wrong to wish for a whole country to burn. But Natalya’s words spoke for us. We cannot remain the perfect victim – liberal, indulgent, kind. Secretly, we yearn for revenge. Well, maybe not so secretly now.

More than ever, I find myself angry and hateful. I am angry that Russia, the aggressor, can get away with what it did to Ukraine. I am angry that my friends, loved ones and I are in constant danger. But I have no way to release this emotion, and so my anger and hatred increase.

Some 53% of my compatriots feel anger, rage and hatred following the invasion, according to a May poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Only 2% of Ukrainians have positive feelings towards Russia, compared to 34% before the invasion.

None of this is shocking. Vladimir Putin’s forces have invaded our land, killed our compatriots and seized our territory. Russia justified its invasion by claiming that Ukrainians hate everything Russian. It wasn’t true, until Putin did it with this invasion. In fact, that’s still not the case: we don’t hate Russian culture or the Russian language – we’ve avoided both because we hope it will protect us.

We are also angry with the rest of the world. We are of course grateful for Western military and economic support, which still allows us to fight Russia. But why are so many countries, including Westerners, still buying Russian oil and gas, providing money that the Kremlin then uses to finance the destruction of Ukraine? Why are Western commentators asking Ukraine, not Russia, to stop fighting and make concessions, to cede our land to those who invaded it? Why is Ukraine’s economic and food crisis – not to mention our quest for justice – less important than inflation or Western welfare?

I get angry when I see journalists or politicians seizing on the narrative of “good Russians” – that not all Russians are bad, that the state and its people are different things, that ordinary citizens in Russia suffer because of Western sanctions. We should, we are told, congratulate Russians who protest Kremlin policies, who openly criticize Putin. Take Marina Ovsyannikova, the television journalist who held up a poster on Russian state television criticizing the government, or theater director Kirill Serebrennikov, who has long spoken out. These people were praised, described as courageous. Still, Ovsyannikova called for the sanctions to be lifted, arguing that Russians are as much victims of Putin’s actions as Ukrainians, and Serebrennikov called for aid to be directed to the families of Russian soldiers forced to fight.

I look at this thirst for “good Russians” and I feel like shouting out my window: “They are killing us! They are plundering our land! They are torturing our people! Putin may have ordered this invasion, but he’s not the one killing Ukrainians with his own hands, that’s what ordinary Russians do. They came here to kill our loved ones, burn our books and destroy our heritage. (And don’t tell me those Russians had no choice. We were the ones who had no choice. All they had to do was disobey orders and refuse to participate in “the Putin’s special military operation. ”)

Before the invasion, I had never hated anyone, but now my anger is eating me up inside. I don’t know how to live with this. I don’t even know how I would behave with Russians if I met any. Until this year, even though their troops had annexed Crimea and Putin’s proxies had taken over parts of Donbass, I didn’t hate Russians as people. But now I avoid chatting with them on social media. I cannot even fully appreciate the sacrifices made by genuinely good Russians, people who have defected to Ukraine and are fighting alongside our soldiers, or others who stand with us.

I recognize how bad this attitude is – for me, for my loved ones, for my country. A Russian journalist living in Ukraine who has published remarkable articles analyzing the changes in the war told me that he regularly receives emails from readers who say, as I might say, that there are no good Russians. “A person might write to me that my work helps them continue to believe in the victory of Ukraine,” said this journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities of his work “and after that, immediately say that all Russians must go to hell.” I would not want to become effectively my enemy, to become a target of hatred for ordinary Russians because of the chance of my nationality and my consequent desire to live outside of Putin’s empire.

To some extent, what my compatriots and I are feeling is normal given the circumstances. “The Russians violated not only our geographical borders but also our mental borders in an extremely violent way,” Andriy Kozinchuk, a military psychologist, told me. “What you described as hatred towards the enemy is in fact a desire to restore our borders.” Kozinchuk recounted how some of his patients admitted to finding comfort in looking at photographs of dead Russian soldiers, feeling a sense of security in the notion that the invaders had failed.

Where many of us struggle, he said, is not having release. Seeking therapy is increasingly common among Ukrainians but remains taboo overall. And few actions are available to those of us who aren’t fighting on the front line.

Natalya found her release in lipstick graffiti scrawled on a destroyed Russian war machine. After coming back to me with her back to the tank, she admitted that for the first time in months she felt fine.

“You might think I’m crazy,” she told me, “but I feel like I’ve finally fought back.”

Weinstein’s reputation for sexual intrusion had begun early, when he was a concert promoter in Buffalo. As he got older, his influence waned – the entire movie industry dwindled – just as he sought out younger prey, from a cohort that “increasingly spent their free time on social media like Facebook,” Auletta recalls, “rather than going to the movies.”

After the producer, then in his 60s, rushed from his office sofa to Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a 22-year-old Miss Italy finalist, in 2015 – “when he reached for her breasts as if he was at an all-you-can-eat buffet,” as Auletta puts it — she did what many previous women who had been in her position, frightened by Weinstein’s towering power, had shied away from doing: she called the police A publicist’s attempt to discredit Gutierrez was met with outraged cries that she was ‘bitch-shamed’ The fourth wave of feminism had arrived with a big splash, dragging Weinstein and his ilk into the surf.

And yet the male jury foreman who convicted Weinstein, Auletta points out, cited the testimony and behavior of male witnesses, not female victims — “suggesting,” Auletta writes, “that ‘believing women’ can do facing a steep climb.” Instead, he suggests “listening to women”; but the voice of a key woman is overwhelming.

In search of Rosebud, Auletta lands, for lack of a better explanation, on the Weinstein brothers’ fiery-haired and seemingly fiery-tempered mother, Miriam (from whom their company was named, along with their sweeter father, Max , a diamond cutter who died of a heart attack at age 52). A childhood friend told Auletta that Harvey called Miriam “Momma Portnoy,” after the shrill character in Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint.”

Bob, who has somehow avoided becoming a “beast” as Harvey is repeatedly described here, admits the possibility of Miriam’s frustration with the limitations of her life. “She could have been Sheryl Sandberg or one of those corporate CEOs. She had that kind of intelligence,” he told Auletta. Instead, she proudly brought rugelach to headquarters of his sons, and had an epitaph worthy of Dorothy Parker: “I don’t like the atmosphere or the crowd.”

As there was a roving “fifth Beatle”, so there was a series of Miramax executives dubbed the “third brother” – loyalists who helped enable bad behavior – and, chillingly, a kind of “system ferry to funnel women” to Weinstein’s hotel suites. If you’re not interested in NC-17 and the often disgusting details of what happened in those sequels, or the jaw-dropping convolutions of nondisclosure agreements, you might prefer one of the recommendations. of the disgraced protagonist of the finer era he adored, Elia Kazan’s autobiography, “A Life,” or a book Weinstein was often seen carrying while preparing for trial: “The Mankiewicz Brothers by Sydney Ladensohn Stern. Herman Mankiewicz is credited with the screenplay of “Citizen Kane”; his brother, Joe, wrote “All About Eve”.

Remembering those great films, and even some of Miramax’s glory days of the 90s, is daunting, as the pictures, to paraphrase “Sunset Boulevard,” continue to dwindle. Accompanying Weinstein’s slow rise and fall, even with the capable Auletta by his side, can feel even more daunting, like riding one of those creaking roller coasters in a faded municipal playground.

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For the editor:
If you invested $100 in the S&P 500 in 1928, just before the worst crash ever, and held it until 2021, you would have $761,710.83 (“Best Income Investments,” Cover Story, July 1). Equities have largely outperformed all other asset classes for those with a long-term horizon. I’m going to ditch bonds and stick to stocks.

Chris Bentsen, On Barrons.com

Journalist Richard Rein’s book ’69 chronicles Whyte’s impact

William H. “Holly” Whyte ’39—journalist, author, urban anthropologist, and champion of pedestrian-friendly nooks in big cities—began his books with no-nonsense declarative sentences. His 1956 bestseller, The organization man, begins: “This book is about the organization man.” His preface to The Explosive Metropolis begins: “This is a book written by people who love cities.” At the Time Inc. business magazine where he first rose to prominence, he began an internal missive: “This memo is about Fortune; where he is and where he is going. He coined the word “groupthink” in the pages of this magazine and, with Sloan Wilson’s novel The man in the gray flannel suit, provided an enduring label for the conformists who nestled in the suburbs and cozy corporate niches of the 1950s. Yet he insisted he never meant “the man of the ‘organization’ as a pejorative but as a reminder that the vitality of any large entity – corporations, universities, churches, etc. – depends on individuals thinking for themselves.

American Urban Planner: How the Unconventional Wisdom of William H. Whyte Reshaped Public Life (Island Press), by Richard K. Rein ’69, traces the life and remarkable career of this secular urban critic once dismissed by sociologist C. Wright Mills as “a serious and optimistic scout.” Rein, an elder Daily Princetonian president who began his own career as a journalist in Time and founded United States 1a weekly covering business and community life in Princeton and along the Highway 1 corridor, first heard Whyte’s name invoked in President Robert Goheen’s welcome address ’40*48 at the chapel from the university in September 1965. Goheen quoted a church talk on Fortune the editor gave in 1953: “Every great progress has happened, and always will happen, because someone has been frustrated with the status quo, because someone has exercised skepticism, questioning and kind of curiosity which, to borrow an expression, blows the lid off everything.” Rein was drawn to the chronicle of Whyte’s life from an interest in urban blight and an encounter with an architect who converted an alley in Princeton into an art space. “Holly Whyte is my hero,” the architect tells Rein, a first-time book author who deftly weaves together the strands of Whyte’s personal and public life while immersing readers in post-America. -Second World War.

Whyte started out as an organization man himself, first in a ruthless sales training program peddling Vicks VapoRub, then as a leather lieutenant leading Marines into battle on Guadalcanal, and finally for more than a few years. a decade in Henry Luce’s Time Inc. empire – up to Whyte, so The wealth deputy editor, left after being pushed out of the top job.

His life’s work had only just begun. He worked with boss Laurance Rockefeller ’32 to keep spaces open and preserve the environment, then embarked on creating more livable cities, in particular his three favorites – “New York, New York and New York” . Throughout its downward spiral in the 1970s, it continued to try to make the city more hospitable to residents and office workers. He dedicated 10 years to his Street Life project, setting up movie cameras on rooftops and deploying interns to determine which squares attracted the most people, and produced a newsreel-style book and film on “The Social Life of small urban spaces”. Meticulously, he prescribed that stalls should be no more than 3 feet above or below the street sidewalk, and stairs should be at least 11 inches wide. He championed street musicians and a bagpiper hounded by ticket writers and had a soft spot for street people (“kooks and screwballs”), who he believed added spice to city life. He revived the once crime-ridden Bryant Park by insisting on moveable chairs instead of benches so people could huddle together or be left alone. (Rein writes that Whyte and Rockefeller tried to convince Princeton to put chairs in the plazas outside Firestone Library and around the fountain at the School of Public and International Affairs, but were told that too many chairs had been stolen. Today, there are chairs and tables in Firestone Plaza. .) He offered advice on a 1980s expansion of Palmer Square and the development of the Carnegie Center on Route 1.

He championed street musicians and a bagpiper hounded by ticket writers and had a soft spot for street people (“kooks and screwballs”), who he believed added spice to city life. It birthed the rebirth of the once crime-infested Bryant Park.

Raised prosperously in West Chester, Pennsylvania — another small college town that, like Princeton, would stave off suburban competition — Whyte was admitted to Princeton with three Ds, a D+ in English and a B in Sacred Studies. The principal of St. Andrew’s, a fledgling prep school in Delaware, wrote an extraordinary letter of recommendation for the “bright, versatile boy” too busy with extracurricular activities to do “a fine academic performance” but who had “made a contribution special at school on the funds of his particular genius.

Whyte rowed at Princeton, wrote short stories for The Nassau Literary Review, and wrote a play staged at the Théâtre Intime. The prep school kid showed courage in the jungles of Guadalcanal, but also honed his ability to make sense of the confusing information of battles and became an intelligence officer. Analytical sound Marine Corps Gazette press clippings helped him get the job at Fortune, the luxury monthly that has given writers months to decipher corporate management and discern societal trends. A 1952 article on groupthink spawned The organization manand a 1958 series on town planning led to The Explosive Metropolis. Whyte was editor and champion of then-little-known Jane Jacobs, who expanded her ‘Downtown is for People’ chapter into the classic The Death and Life of America’s Big Cities.

Poor health slowed Whyte during his final decade and he died in 1999 aged 81. He told his wife, fashion designer Jenny Bell, that he fears his work will be forgotten. His influence resonates today with “new urban planners” and architects, including Andres Duany ’71 and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk ’72. This “wonderful” biography, as New York Times critic called it, will surely win new Whyte followers.

Editor’s note: Photographer Richard Cahan spent Election Day photographing and listening to some of the people who volunteered their time and talents to ensure the vote went smoothly, the count was accurate, and our democratic right fundamental to vote is guaranteed. The Round Table thanks not only those who are in this story, but all those who have worked as electoral judges. For full coverage of who won and lost, please read here. For an article on voter turnout, please read here.

At a time when election judges in parts of the country have been falsely accused of ballot tampering, citizens are still stepping in to ensure votes are cast and counted. We visited five polling stations on Election Day and spoke to five election judges. These are edited excerpts from our conversations.

Alexandra Ware-Reed
Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center