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By the VOMB squad
Although we skipped a cherished tradition in 2023, we just had to revive the “Books We Loved” for 2024.
While social media has brought many distractions — and our national drama only adds to said distractions — there are thousands of books yet to be discovered, their pages offering solace and alternative ways of looking at the world that are desperately needed in this day and age. We humbly offer our mini-reviews of seven of them – one both in English and Spanish – loosely grouped by books that force us to look at our current reality, those that offer alternative ways to interpret it, and those that simply exist because written ideas have to continue if we are to survive as species, because resistance is existence.
The Coming of the Third Reich
by Robert J. Evans
Penguin Books, 2003.
Yeah, I know. Bad idea. I picked up “The Coming of the Third Reich” a week after the Nov. 5 election, thinking it might serve as an instructive guidebook for what lies ahead during the coming national shitshow.
I wasn’t wrong.
There’s nothing more horrifying than reading an historical account that describes a malevolent ascendant movement of wretched despotic nationalists while simultaneously watching TFG fill his cabinet with malevolent nationalist cock knockers.
I’m not naturally a paranoid fellow, so did I really need a preview of the national nightmare that awaits? What could I have possibly gained from this foreboding insight, other than to validate the prevailing dread? Did I really need to be reminded about how swiftly and submissively the “good” people of Germany surrendered to vicious tyranny?
If nothing else, reading Robert J. Evans’ immersive account, the first of his Third Reich trilogy, has given me pause to ponder how I might react when the bad shit rains down. What will I do when the red-hatted MAGA jackboots start pulling neighbors, school teachers and civil servants out of their homes for the crime of simply existing? Will I resist the forces of evil? Or will I keep my head down and my mouth shut, like millions of “good” Germans did in the 1930s?
How will you react?
— Joe Livernois
1984
By George Orwell
Signet Classic, 1961
George Orwell’s masterpiece, “1984” was published on June 8, 1949, during the Cold War and after World War II. Orwell’s message relates to the dangers of totalitarian regimes during that time in Europe. The message remains relevant to this day.
I first read 1984 for a school assignment when I was 13. I didn’t understand it well then, but I found the book among my belongings this summer, and thought that perhaps the material would make more sense after two semesters at Hartnell College under my belt. I was right. The story describes Winston Smith, a middle-aged man who works in the Ministry of Truth writing and rewriting local history according to the government’s version. In this dystopian world, the government is controlled by Big Brother who is always present in an omniscient way and rules what people should do, listen to and say by watching them constantly. Every resident must belong to the English Socialist Party with the only deviation in the highest social classes. The people who belong to the party are bombed with propaganda. Winston is eventually fed up with the government’s control and starts to organize a secret rebellion, writing down his deep secrets in a diary.
Orwell’s dystopia does not feel very imaginary, since there are governments today that control what information their residents get, a powerful way to rule. Propaganda such as the kind described in the book that emphasizes the greatness of the country, is reportedly a powerful tool in Russia and other countries around the world. Buying people’s thoughts and actions by controlling basic products such as food, water, furniture, housing, and even jobs and education to keep joy in the population is another powerful form of control. In this atmosphere, freedom of speech, of thought, and decision-making have a high cost.
The cost is the people’s free will in decision-taking, a free press and freedom of speech.
However, not only governments place information as a tool of control over the people. Some religious cults, such as the Palmarian Church of the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face in Spain, use religious faith as a tool to control information.
Tragically, those who rebel against government or religious control are often severely punished with jail or even killed, a fate that’s reserved not just for the culprits themselves but also family members. The totalitarian regime described in 1984 seems alive and well in other regions of the world, and many fear the United States could be heading that way with the incoming administration. The next four years should be interesting.
— Isaac González Díaz
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture
By Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté
Vermilion, 2022
This highly technical and yet digestible book offered an important light that guided me throughout 2024 — a must-read for anyone who deals with humans on a daily basis. Maté, a renowned Canadian physician and expert on treating addiction and its linkage to trauma, penned an important treatise on the topic that’s worth its 576 pages. He co-wrote the book with his son Daniel.
Maté’s basic premise, backed by a life-long career dealing with people with addictions, is that childhood trauma leads to all sorts of addictions, not just to drugs or alcohol, but even to activities that are celebrated in society such as work. Yes, workaholics are addicts whose behavior happens to be celebrated by society, even if their “habits” are damaging to their families. Maté should know. His candidness when discussing his work addiction and his habit of buying classical music come hell or high water are important moments of self-reflection that, when linked to Maté’s own childhood trauma, lead to lots of ‘aha’ moments.
Other authors such as Bessel van der Kolk and his revolutionary “How the Body Keeps the Score” have written about childhood trauma, but what’s different about Maté’s book is his claim that our entire Western society is designed for toxicity and trauma. Example: Instead of OBGYNs promoting vaginal births, which would allow for the mother’s natural systems to be ready for the child and allow the baby to be ready biologically for the world, thousands of women are practically forced to give birth via cesarean section — which is more expensive and offers more risk to the mother. Likely because it’s more convenient for the doctors and hospitals. This practice could potentially have devastating consequences on the health of the newborn and the mother, and it’s one of the several examples Maté offers as proof of the “toxic” society we now live in.
Maté admits that it’s easier to point to what’s wrong in society than to propose solutions, but he does offer some: he advocates for creativity, hope, optimism, resilience. In other words: to change the status quo, we must point to what’s wrong and seek alternatives for improvement. If we want to live in a better world, we must imagine it first. It may sound like a tall order in this day and age of division, but what’s the alternative? There can’t be any other.
— Claudia Meléndez Salinas
The Comfort Crisis:
Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Healthy, Happy Self
By Michael Easter
Rodale Books, 2021
Journalist Michael Easter has made a manifesto of sorts about why it’s better for us to not feel comfortable all the time (cue the current political climate for many… but he’s talking about physical discomfort).
I got this book — the audio version, speaking of laziness — because I’ve been living part-time in a minivan camper with large chocolate Lab the past few years, and thought I could relate, what with the lack of a temperature-controlled space, the discomfort of camp cooking and cleaning and the near-constant rearranging and awkward stretching just to grasp any old thing in a minivan with a 75-pound dog.
But Easter takes discomfort much further. Besides his research and discussions of why we’re too damn cozy most of the time, the book takes him — and us — through an excruciating month-long elk hunt in wild Alaska that ends with him lugging out a hundred pounds or so of frozen meat on his back.
Compared to our temperature-controlled modern lives, it’s easy to see how a challenge like that changes you. The idea, Easter writes, is a riff off a Japanese Shinto purification ritual called misogi. Easter’s rules for taking on this challenge are simple: 1) Make it really hard; and 2) Don’t die.
I can’t say I’m ready to push my own discomfort to such limits, but I do get the point. Since listening to this book, I’ve come to call the extreme, often comical physical positions I get into reaching for something inside the camper as “Van Yoga.” It transforms annoying and painful moments into something virtuous. I’ve also come to actually enjoy quite a few minor irritations — carrying heavy objects, cleaning out the garage, waiting in lines or trying to loosen stuck bolts.
Once these were the grunty, sweaty annoyances I’d rush through to get to the good, i.e. comfortable parts of my life. Now they are character-building accomplishments. For that alone, I recommend listening to The Comfort Crisis. Or maybe even actually reading it.
— Julie Reynolds
En agosto nos vemos
Por Gabriel García Márquez
Penguin Random House, 2024
Leer “En agosto nos vemos”, de Gabriel García Márquez ha sido una delicia. Gabo les dijo a sus hijos que el último de sus libros, escrito cuando ya le fallaba la memoria, era malo y debían destruirlo. Los hijos lo publicaron. Fue criticado en algunas reseñas como un libro “inconcluso”, pero bueno, creo que García Márquez a esa altura de su vida ya escribía obras de arte hasta sin memoria y a la novela no le falta nada. He visto a Keith Richards tocar los acordes de “Honky Tonk Women” mientras discute el sentido de la vida con Mick Jagger. Y no le falla nada. Así García Márquez.
“En agosto nos vemos” es una obra similar a los “Árboles de la Vida” que los artesanos mexicanos elaboran, colocando con precisión cada pieza donde debería de estar. Así Gabo, coloca cada palabra en su lugar. Hace de su protagonista una ávida lectora de “Drácula” de Bram Stoker, “Las Crónicas Marcianas” de Ray Bradbury y la obra de Daniel Defoe, lo que sumerge la novela en sí en un aura literaria.
Ana Magdalena Bach, la protagonista, es un personaje entrañable. “En agosto nos vemos” es una historia de amor, como casi toda la obra de García Márquez. Ana Magdalena lleva cada año flores a la tumba de su madre y emerge la oportunidad de desempolvar el amor que yace bajo la cotidianidad. La magia narrativa de García Márquez exuda sensualidad envuelta en las notas musicales de Los Panchos y Elena Burke; y baila bajo el Claro de Luna de Debussy. Una joya literaria.
— Víctor Almazán
Until August
By Gabriel García Márquez
Penguin Random House, 2024
Reading “En agosto nos vemos” (Until August) by Gabriel García Márquez has been a delight. Gabo (as García Márquez was affectionately known) told his children that the last of his books, written when his memory was failing, was awful and they should destroy it. They published it. It was criticized in some reviews as an “unfinished” book, but I think that García Márquez at that point in his life was still writing works of art, even with his failing memory. The novel lacks nothing. I have seen Keith Richards play the chords of “Honky Tonk Women” while discussing the meaning of life with Mick Jagger. And he plays perfectly. Just like García Márquez writes.
Until August resembles the “trees of life” made by Mexican artisans, placing each piece precisely where it should be. That’s how Gabo puts each word in its place. He makes his protagonist an avid reader of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” Ray Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” and the works of Daniel Defoe, which immerses the novel itself in a literary aura.
Ana Magdalena Bach, the protagonist, is an endearing character. “Until August” is a love story, like almost all of García Márquez’s work. Ana Magdalena brings flowers to her mother’s grave every year and the opportunity to dust off the love that lies beneath the everyday emerges. García Márquez’s narrative magic exudes sensuality wrapped in the musical notes of Los Panchos and Elena Burke, and dances under Debussy’s Clair de Lune. A literary gem.
— Víctor Almazán
Somos Xicanas
Edited by Luz Schweig
Riot of Roses Publishing House, 2024.
We are not improvised people. Latino, Mexican-American, Chicano culture has been in the making for thousands of years. Somos Xicanas is not just proof of that lineage, it’s an important link in the chain.
This book was not published until Dec. 14, but it lived with me for the better part of the year. I submitted five of my poems for this anthology in late 2023, and many of my friends and fellow poets were notified that their work would be in the anthology in the spring. More waiting. Then, the happy announcement arrived in the summer. Knowing that my poems would be in the company of Lorna Dee Cervantes, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón — along with 75 other accomplished poets — felt like living in an alternative reality.
And what a collection it is: 80 poets and essayists poured their hearts and souls into vignettes that explore the meaning of being “Xicana,” a term that was born out of the civil rights movement and continues to evolve. In a world where having Mexican or any Latino background or simply being a woman of color often means erasure, holding a book that contains complex narratives of ancestry and belonging is beyond validating.
True to the Chicano/Xicanx tradition, the authors draw on the deep well of ancestral presence in this continent to re-create an alternative identity that feels fuller, more complete. Dahlia Aguilar writes about the origin of her name in Acocoxochitl, the name Mexicas gave to the flower they cultivated and is now named after Anders Dahl, a Swedish botanist who probably never even saw the flower since he died two years before it was brought to Europe. Attempts by European colonizers to undermine and even erase our indigenous past are met with the righteous anger and passion of these talented Xicanas to form an explosive tapestry, a complex picture of what a Xicana identity means.
— Claudia Meléndez Salinas
I Was Better Last Night
By Harvey Fierstein
Penguin Random House, 2022
It has been such a sweet surprise to read Harvey Fierstein’s 2022 memoir, “I Was Better Last Night,” as my final book of 2024. It’s a touching and entertaining first-hand account of the decades-long career of the actor, playwright and gay rights champion who is deeply woven into the history of theater, human rights, movies and culture in the United States.
As a child of the 80s and 90s, I knew of Fierstein from his distinct presence and voice in movies like “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Independence Day,” but I was not aware of his superbly creative and bold approach to life and work. Fierstein writes about growing up in Brooklyn while performing in drag as a teen, living in the center of New York gay culture in the 70s, and experimental theater with Andy Warhol. He also discusses the heartbreaking AIDS epidemic of the 80s (several of his friends were buried in his yard), and how he fiercely pushed back on homophobia time after time and in decisions big and small. Once he overheard another entertainer, who he long adored, saying she didn’t want to be near him when he was introduced onstage just in case he had AIDS (he didn’t); he promptly burst into her dressing room, gave her a big kiss on her cheek, and paid her a compliment before she said thank you and asked his name.
This book provides readers with insight into a time of monumental change for a segment of our nation’s community, and I feel fortunate Fierstein has shared this with us. It was fascinating to read how he has navigated life’s challenges while steadfastly finding unique ways to express himself in creative projects. At times it’s a hilarious or touching recap of his interactions with people like Madonna, Jon Stewart, Ed Norton, Bill Maher and Robin Williams.
It’s raunchy, funny, chaotic, sensitive, and told with a beautiful degree of openness about his own journey through life’s valleys and peaks. It’s refreshing to read about someone who has been brave enough to live their life as true to himself as Harvey Fierstein has. It serves as a reminder of how I’d like to live my life as we enter 2025.
— Chelcey Adami
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