The art of memoir by Mary Karr

This is a good book. I meet people who ask you how to pick books. This one has a huge reading list at the end that I am temped to upload. But she also helps me to understand Nabokov so I am better able to appreciate him and why I would want to read him and his limits.

There are some memoirs she writes about I feel compelled to read. I want to read Nabokov and Hong Kingston so far.

Some of them I've read.

Some I'm not as interested.

I think my first draft is all tell and no show, this is about my 5th try at writing my memoir. I'm going to try and finish it, and then I can rewrite it to death.

This is a rich book, and I particularly liked Chapter 14 about false voicing and finding her own voice. She usually has short chapters, like Chapter 16 "The Road to hell is paved with exaggeration." I believe that. When I was supervisor in child welfare, and had to edit workers writing, I always crossed out the "very". There is also good editing and knowing when to stop.

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Manet and Degas

Brilliant video explaining the exhibit. Go to the Met and see the exhibit! It's really quite special. In the last gallery the painting this sketch is based off of, of the execution of a Mexican president. The painting has been cut into sections, and the surviving Degas has reassembled them. NY Times review

The case for Harris

Motley Kamuka Blog endorses Kamala Harris. In general, Trump just wants to lower taxes on the rich, and do nothing, sell whatever influence he can to line his pockets. Apparently the emoluments clause in the constitution has no teeth. Harris has a set of ideas about policy that are fairly middle of the road. In most countries she's would be seen as a centrist. Spin about her radical agendas are exaggerated. I'm not sure how he got past " grab them by the pussy ", but he did and here we are. Women: Obviously the idea of giving women pregnancy tests at the borders of the state, and then if they come back and don't have a baby, they go to jail, isn't really what most women want. Pick Harris. I understand if you think abortion is murder, maybe you've been told that by the Catholic church, which has the same ideal of Buddhism that you don't kill--so follow your religion for yourself. Not everyone is Christian or Buddhist or even has a religion. Women are ...

AOC

Dark Brandon meet Dark Alex. I see her advising the republicans to stick to their guns and never compromise. They don’t want to do anything, only obstruct. So they don’t actually need to be unified. Chaos isn’t organized. This is fine. Read all about it from Heather Cox Richardson , a historian who covers current events. "As their policies threatened to lose voters by concentrating wealth upward and hollowing out the middle class, Republicans increasingly warned that minority voters wanted socialism and were destroying the nation to get it. Trump rode that narrative to power, and now tearing down the current government is the idea that drives the Republican base." While we're at it, here's another funny photo from the Onion: And then: I listened to the Times podcast about George Santos . He basically lied about, I don't know, 80% of his resume, and has a mysterious $700k in his "corporation" which has no clients. So he's a Russian or Chinese plant, o...

Motley Kamuka

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