Book Recommendations: The Titles I Read this Fall
by Tim O’Hara
Last year I wrote a short article about the books that I read while visiting my family last fall in the United States. I received a handful of positive responses after we posted it to the Ranch’s blog and as a result I thought that I’d go ahead and repeat the exercise this year. The books below are in the order that I read them. I would recommend and learned something important from all of them. A few of them impacted me profoundly. I will try to incorporate the lessons that I learned in many of these books into my personal and work life.
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez
This book evoked Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States of America and Eduardo Galeano’s The Open Veins of Latin America. It’s an enlightening look at latino history from the perspective of the oppressed and highlights their role, courage and sacrifice in modern American history. If you’re interested in obtaining a more balanced look at Latin American history, add this one to your collection.
The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows by Kent Newburn
Rich Esposito, a former visitor to the Ranch, gifted me and the Ranch both this book and The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo: A Child, an Elder, and the Light from an Ancient Sky (see below). They are books 2 and 3 in Kent Nerbern’s trilogy about the author’s time spent with a Lakota elder named Dan and some of his closest friends. All 3 books affected me deeply. I can highly recommend them all. I think that it would be beneficial if they were required reading in public high schools throughout the US. If more people read stories like this, their impact might bring us closer, faster to the type of society that I aspire to live in. Ceremony, slowing down, deep listening, honor and respect are themes that seem to have less and less room in our modern, high-paced, sometimes dysfunctional society. I will be doubling down on my commitment to these lessons as I try to improve myself and dedicate my work to creating an alternative model to the broken communities that many of us live in.
Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers
This book was recommended to me by a visitor to the Ranch in August. I picked it up as soon as we arrived to the States. It read much like a Barbara Kingsolver novel. Mr. Powers weaves together the lives of a disparate collection of people around the theme of the power and importance of trees. Wow. If you’re a tree lover, get your hands on this book. If you believe in the power of trees, buy this book. If you want to better understand the critical role that trees play in our ecosystem, borrow this book from your local library. If this book were required reading for everyone we might become better stewards of the magical, rooted beings that gift us life.
The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future by Andrew Yang
After getting sucked back into the US political scene this fall, I decided, based on Brian “Sparky” O’Rourke’s suggestion, to pick up and read 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang’s book about his thoughts on Universal Basic Income (UBI), the state of academia, and the changing landscape of the US economy and how it’s being revolutionized by automation. It was a pretty quick read and one full of provocative and compelling snippets that got me thinking differently about what our future may hold. I like Mr. Yang’s straightforward and compassionate style and it seems as if many people in the US electorate agree as I’ve watched his poll numbers creep upwards ever since he’s walked onto the national stage.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This book, loaned to us from 2019 Apprentice Abby Kuchar, is a must-read. The author, based in Upstate NY not far from where I grew up, takes both a scientific and spiritual look at plants and their critical importance to the human species. The book is beautifully written and touches on difficult subjects in a way that feels both profound and accessible. This book should arguably have a place in everyone’s library. My sense is that if you read this book every year that you’d continue to glean something life-changing from it with each read. It’s a perspective changer in the best way. Ms. Kimmerer has a way of bringing together the gifts of indigenous cultures and the practicalities of science to show us a path on how we can live on this planet in a way that might be necessary if Homo sapiens are to stick around much longer.
The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo: A Child, an Elder, and the Light from an Ancient Sky by Kent Newburn
I read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down. I think that everyone that reads this book, especially white people born in the United States, will benefit from the lessons herein and the important stories that take a candid look at American Indian life. Be prepared to shed tears of both joy and anguish. This was my favorite book of the trilogy (outlined above). I didn’t want it to end. These stories seem critical to share. I want to shout from the top of lungs, “read this book!”. I would like to buy a copy for every high school English classroom and everyone I’ve every met. Mr. Nerburn has a gift for sharing the stories of American Indians in a way that is consequential and educational to non-Indians.
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes
Mary’s straightforward and matter-of-fact storytelling shares the story of the plight of the modern American Indian from the oftentimes unheard woman’s perspective. This is an intimate, candid, first-hand look at the tragedy and beauty of American Indian life. This important story includes first hand accounts of the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building in Washington D.C. in 1972 and the protests and incident at Wounded Knee in 1973. Mary’s a courageous woman who has inspired a generation of American Indian women to be proud of their heritage and fight for the rights of this land’s original stewards.
Trees of Power: Ten Essential Arboreal Allies by Akiva Silver
Akiva Silver, the founder of Twisted Tree Farm in Spencer, NY not far from my mom’s home in Binghamton, NY, is an agroforestry innovator, farmer and nursery manager who’s having a profound impact in this region of the United States and beyond. I love his philosophy and dedication to spreading the gospel of temperate perennial tree producers. The book is inspirational and practical with the second half of the book focusing on 10 agroforestry species that with large scale plantings could get humans thinking differently about food production and how to feed the world. Akiva and his family are doing important work in this part of the world. If you’re in the Northeast, check out his farm and nursery and if you’re looking for trees to plant on your farm, in your yard, or throughout your community, Twisted Tree should be at the top of your list to check out.
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides
This book was recommended to me by my sister-in-law Tracy. It’s about the life of frontiersman Kit Carson and the conquest of the the American West by the U.S. government. It’s a tragic recount of the continuous wars between Britain, Spain, Mexico and various American Indian tribes and the fledgling United States. The common thread that runs through this story is one of deception, broken promises and treaties, massacre and murder. I felt that Mr. Sides did a reasonable job in presenting a somewhat objective history of the horrors of how the country of my birth realized its “manifest destiny” through the eyes of one of its most well-known adventurers and pioneers.
Happy reading to you all. I’m always looking for book recommendations so let me know if there’s anything in your library that you think that I would enjoy and/or learn from.
Abrazos,
Tim
