Nobody But Us - Laure Van Rensburg

Nobody But Us is Laure Van Rensburg's newly released, debut novel. 

Ellie and Stephen are headed out for a weekend away at a secluded cabin. An unexpected snowstorm and loss of a cell signal seals them off even more.

The book begins with a prologue from a police perspective at the cabin. So, right from the first pages, we know right away that one of the two doesn't make it out. I wanted to know who and why.

The first thing that glared out at me was the age difference between Stephen and . And that Ellie is a student and he is a literature professor. I'll be honest - I immediately thought been there, read that. 

Van Rensburg tells her story from three points of view - Ellie, Steven and and that of an unknown character. That third perspective kept me curious. I have to applaud Van Rensburg for her depiction of Stephen. He was absolutely intolerable, so sure in his own mind and ego that he is a catch and that any female he takes note of should be thankful. My opinion of Ellie changed as the book moved forward. I can't say I really liked her either.

I can see the motive for one character's actions, but I didn't entirely buy into the plot. I think things could have been tightened up a bit, as the back and forth between the two started to feel repetitive. For me, this novel was a slow burn.

To be fair, Van Rensburg does put her own spin on things, but it still wasn't enough to lift this book from just okay for me, despite the descriptor of "a locked room high concept thriller". That being said - Van Rensburg's final 'why' is an important one. Gentle readers, there a number of triggers in this book.

Do Something for Nothing - Joshua Coombes

Joshua Coombes' new book, Do Something for Nothing: Seeing Beneath the Surface of Homelessness through the Simple Act of a Haircut, has just released. 

Preconceptions. We're all guilty of it to some degree I think. I've worked in a setting where I did serve the downtrodden, the poor, the mentally ill and the homeless. The best tools I used were common courtesies - looking at someone directly, saying hello with a smile. "When you’re on the fringes of society, being noticed can mean everything."

Joshua Coombes had some additional tools in his backpack - his hairstyling tools. He has travelled across many countries, seeking out the homeless and offering them a haircut, a conversation, a chance to be seen and heard - and friendship. This simple gesture has become - #DoSomethingForNothing -a movement that encourages people to connect their skills and time to those who need it.

In the book, we see a 'before' picture of someone living rough and then we meet the person, hear their story, their hopes, regrets, love, loss, joy and more. And at the end of the essay, a second photo with the haircut. The smiles at seeing such a change are priceless. Such a simple gesture boosts someone's mood, what they think of themselves - and what society thinks of them. And while the haircuts are of value, it is Coombes' interest, caring and friendship that are of greater value.

Hopefully, you can take inspiration from Coombes and this book to really 'see' someone, to hear them, to question what you could do for nothing... whatever that might be.

"Joshua Coombes is a British hairstylist and founder of #DoSomethingForNothing—a movement encouraging people to connect their skills and time to those who need it. When Coombes launched the project in 2015, his intention was to positively impact people’s lives by offering free haircuts to those experiencing homelessness. By posting transformative images on Instagram, his platform continues to grow as he amplifies the stories of many that go unheard. Coombes’s mission caught the attention of media outlets in Europe and has rippled worldwide. Coverage includes appearing in National Geographic’s new series The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman, released on Netflix internationally. Today, Coombes continues his efforts in new countries, humanizing this issue globally. He currently resides in London, UK. Do Something for Nothing is his latest work."                                         

The Second Chance Club - Jason Hardy

Fiction is my usual genre, but I also enjoy social science books - ones that ask the reader/listener to take a look at our world, society and the people within. I knew I wanted to listen to The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison by Jason Hardy.

Hardy was a high school English teacher, had a master's degree in creative writing, but was toiling away in a retail job when he applied to become a probation officer in New Orleans. Armed with a badge, a gun and good intentions, Hardy is handed his caseload - over 200 cases, double the national average. The department is understaffed and underfunded.  Here's a stat for you - over 4.5 million people are on probation or parole in the United States.

Hardy focuses on seven of his cases in The Second Chance Club. Drugs are present in each of these people's lives. Some of them truly want a way out to a better life. But, what does that encompass? A better life means something different for each person. Others are gaming the system. I found myself quite surprised by the breadth of Hardy's job. Maybe it's from reading all those fictional police procedurals - for me, a probation officer sat in an office, with clients checking in on a regular basis, told to get a job and have a drug test. Well, yes that happens, but there's much more to the job. Hardy and his co-workers regularly visit for home inspections (and yes, home includes homeless tent encampments), find shelters, detoxes, counselling, court help and so much more than I knew.

I quickly became invested in the story of those seven cases. What would happen to each of them? Would they escape the past, find a future or continue to live the life they know? Sadly, disaster prevention becomes a phrase heard more than once in this book.

It was impossible not to stop, turn off the player and think as I reflected upon the latest chapter. Hardy himself reflects that "Every hour on the job presented a new opportunity to reflect on my own privilege and the extent to which a person’s place of birth dictates his aspirations..."

The Second Chance Club gives us a real look at the inner workings of the criminal justice system - and suggestions for what needs to change. And change only comes with knowledge. An excellent book and most definitely recommended.

I chose to listen to The Second Chance Club. The reader was a favorite of mine and an excellent choice - Jacques Roy. He seems to take on the personality of the author and becomes the voice for the mental image I had created. It's calming and suited the subject matter. His voice is clear, easy to understand and pleasant to listen to. The speed of speaking is just right, allowing the listener to take it all in. He enunciates well. His voice rises and falls with the emotion/actions etc. Listen for yourself -  here's an audio excerpt of The Second Chance Club.

(And as an aside, American Prison is about prisons in Louisiana - a nice companion piece to The Second Chance Club)

Perception: A Photo Series - KC Adams

No matter what you think - you've done it, I've done it. Made a snap judgement about someone based on an initial look or meeting. And how many times have you been wrong?

KC Adams has just released Perception: A Photo Series - 'a project to combat racism and present First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in the way they see themselves.' This was initially a project in Winnipeg.

Two photos. First you see the one taken while hateful words are hurled at the sitter. And on the following page, the same person, but now thinking of joy and happiness. And the truth.

The result is powerful. I sat and pondered every face and then the flip side. And the difference is 'in your face', if you will. Truly eye opening. Perception should be in schools as a starting point for discussions that need to happen.

Short and Sweet #5 - Dopesick - Beth Macy

What? Well, time flies and sometimes I just seem to run out of it! So, Short and Sweet will be just that - some brief thoughts on books I've read or listened to. And when you see S and S, chances are I'm either busy, tired or on vacation!

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy.

From the publisher - Little, Brown and Company:

"An instant New York Times and indie bestseller, Dopesick is the only book to fully chart the devastating opioid crisis in America: “a harrowing, deeply compassionate dispatch from the heart of a national emergency” (New York Times) from a bestselling author and journalist who has lived through it.

In this masterful work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs; from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns; it’s a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.

Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother’s question-why her only son died-and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. In some of the same distressed communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death.

Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows, astonishingly, that the only thing that unites Americans across geographic and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But in a country unable to provide basic healthcare for all, Macy still finds reason to hope-and signs of the spirit and tenacity necessary in those facing addiction to build a better future for themselves and their families." Read an excerpt of Dopesick.

My Thoughts:

Another fantastic social commentary. Dopesick takes a look at the opioid epidemic that has swept across all lines - age, gender, economic status and more. Macy details the beginnings of the opioid crisis - the greed and push of BigPharma to saturate the populace with these highly addictive and massively destructive drugs. And at what cost? Macy includes stories of addicts and their families - their struggles and their losses. These are simply heartbreaking to read. I learned much from Macy's book. I have no answers, but do have a clearer understanding of what has happened and what is being done by those trying to turn the tide and those trying to  change their lives.

Short and Sweet #4 - American Prison - Shane Bauer

What? Well, time flies and sometimes I just seem to run out of it! So, Short and Sweet will be just that - some brief thoughts on books I've read or listened to. And when you see S and S, chances are I'm either busy, tired or on vacation!

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer.

From the publisher:

"A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country’s history.

In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can’t understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still.

The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison’s sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone.

A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America."

My Thoughts:

Oh this one was eye-opening -  and so very, very disturbing. Bauer used his own name when applying. If the references were checked they would have realized he was a senior reporter at Mother Jones.  Bauer lasted four months, recording conversations and taking photos surreptitiously. What goes on inside the walls of this for profit prison is simply outrageous and egregious. Rehabilitation? That's a joke. People die in these places. The treatment of ill inmates was sickening. Bauer weaves the history of prisons in the south in his narrative. And that explained a lot. Using prisoners for profit  is not a new idea. Hard to read, but this needs to be known by the public. An excellent exposé. Read an excerpt of American Prison.

Evicted - Matthew Desmond

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

When this title arrived at the library, I read the description and knew I had to listen to it.

Shelter is one of the first building blocks in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. And yet, so many struggle to keep a roof over their heads.

"Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge."

These are stories of real people, their struggle to feed themselves and their family after spending most of what they have each month on rent. Rent for substandard living conditions. On the flip side, Desmond interviews two landlords who rent out these rundown apartments, homes and trailers. This is how they make a living - they're not in it for charity. Eviction is the word, the threat, the reality.

Oh, my heart broke as I listened to these stories. Yes, it's very easy to say, just get a job and manage your money better. And many of these tenants are desperately trying to do that. But easier said than done in many cases. Despair drives people to self destructive behaviour sometimes. I got so angry at the callous nature of the landlords, not seeing their tenants as people, but as dollar signs.

Evicted is a microcosmic look at a bigger problem. Desmond immerses himself, collecting data, recording stories and proposing changes......this is an important book for everyone to read. We all need a safe place to call home.

Listen to an excerpt now. Dion Graham was the narrator and did an excellent job.