Holiday reading

I had a pretty busy Christmas holiday with my family, but I managed to finish three books while I was there, before the end of 2019!

I started reading "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America"
by David Cay Johnston a few days before we headed west.  Published in January 2018, one year after Trump took office, it's a meticulous look at the political "termites" (as Johnston calls them) who have infested the U.S. government under Trump administration, and are hollowing it out from the inside, and the profound negative impact they are having on America and Americans. (And that was after just one year... how much worse have things gotten since then??)  Each chapter deals with a different aspect of Trump's impact on the U.S. government and public policy, including the infamous wall on the U.S./Mexico border, climate change, education, kleptocracy, and much more.

Johnston is an investigative journalist who has been writing about Trump since 1988.  The book is well organized and well documented, clearly written and easy to follow.  I gave it four stars on Goodreads. (Your opinion will likely differ if you are a fan of the current president.)

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I enjoy Amanda Carpenter's commentary as a talking head on CNN.  Her politics are very different than mine -- she's a Republican who worked for both Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz (!) -- but when it comes to Donald Trump, we are in total agreement.

Thus I was compelled to find & read her book "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us."

Carpenter demonstrates that, while some of his opponents continue to expect Trump's outrageous lies, fabrications and conspiracy theories to bring him down, they are instead propelling his success. She's not the first to describe Trump's strategy as "gaslighting" -- a type of psychological manipulation commonly used by sociopaths and narcissists, designed to confuse and destabilize, which leads victims to question their own perceptions of reality. (Do you feel like Trump is driving you crazy?  That's the point, Carpenter says.)

Impressively, however, Carpenter has analyzed Trump's gaslighting and identified the five steps he consistently uses to do it.  She then provides ample examples of how he's successfully used this formula, both as a candidate and as president, to sideline his opponents, control the narrative and advance his agenda. Trump isn't the first president to use gaslighting as a strategy -- both Richard Nixon & Bill Clinton employed it, Carpenter says -- but Trump has taken it to a whole new level.

The steps are:

1.  Stake a claim:  Trump stakes out political territory -- an issue or action -- that no one else is willing to occupy (and that will ensure a media frenzy), and takes over the news cycle. (Example:  "President Obama was not born in the United States.")

2. Advance and deny:  Trump casts the issue into the public realm and advances the story, but denies responsibility for doing so. He does this by talking about what other people are (supposedly) saying or thinking. If pressed for sources, he'll point to YouTube videos, tabloids, tweets and unverifiable Internet news stories. ("People are saying...").

3.  Create suspense:  Trump creates suspense by announcing to the media that more information is coming soon. (It never does.)  ("We'll see..." and "In two weeks" are frequent Trump catchphrases.)

4. Discredit the opponent:  Trump attacks the motives and/or personal character of anyone who challenges him, often by using demeaning nicknames ("Lyin' Ted,"  "Little Marco,"  etc.).

5.  Declare victory -- under any circumstances, whether or not he's actually successful.  By doing this, he effectively buries the issue.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Depressingly (but realistically), Carpenter says we're stuck with Trump and his gaslighting.

Doesn't matter if he's impeached, if he's censured, or if he loses his 2020 re-election in a landslide;  he's not going to go away. 

Don't believe me? Close your eyes and try picturing Donald Trump going gently into retired life to spend the rest of his days quietly playing golf and enjoying his two scoops of ice cream after dinner at the country club each night. Ha! I couldn't even write that without laughing. Trump has never been content to fade into the background. There is no way, short of a straitjacket, ball gag, and padded room, that Trump is giving up the power and influence he has gained since becoming president. (pp. 185-186) 

But she concludes with some welcome advice and tips on what we can do to cope (and stay sane).  Just recognizing what Trump is doing (by reading this book, of course...!) is a good start.

The book is less impressive/more annoying when Carpenter's partisan colours are on display -- when she's singing the praises of Ted Cruz, for example (!), or showing her disdain for Hillary Clinton & the Democrats.

Nevertheless, this is still a worthwhile read. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

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I remember reading a very positive newspaper article about
"Out of Grief, Singing: A Memoir of Motherhood and Loss" by Charlene Diehl. It seemed to me like it wasn't that long ago, but when I checked, this book was published back in 2010! -- parts of it appeared earlier in the journal Prairie Fire.  I had forgotten about it until it popped up on a list of suggestions for my Kobo e-reader recently, at a very reasonable price.

It's not a long book. I started reading it shortly after buckling my seatbelt on the plane that was taking me back to Toronto after spending Christmas in Manitoba with my family.  I read 90% of it on the 2+ hour flight, and finished it later that evening back at our condo.

A bit of Googling revealed that Diehl is the same age I am, and a fellow Manitoban. (I wonder whether we have any friends in common...!) The place names laced through her story -- Winnipeg, Brandon, Boissevain (as well as Waterloo and McMaster Hospital in Hamilton, in Ontario) -- and her evocative descriptions of the Prairie landscapes I know & love so well -- connected me further to her story -- which is, of course, similar to mine in many ways (albeit different in others).

The book (as the subtitle suggests) is about how Diehl came to terms with the loss (in November 1995) of her daughter, Chloe, who was born by emergency C-section at 28 weeks after Diehl was diagnosed with pre-ecclampsia, and died six days later in a NICU.  Diehl continued to struggle with high blood pressure and after effects of her epidural for some time afterward, and then had to have surgery for gallstones (!), all while mourning the loss of her daughter.

It is absolutely beautifully written. There is something about Diehl's lyrical prose (the use of the present tense, possibly? or perhaps the strong sense of place?) that reminded me of Jackie Shannon Hollis's book, "This Particular Happiness" (read & reviewed here).  And, of course, the subject matter was all too familiar to me, bringing back many memories, as well as NICU stories from the parents who attended our pregnancy & infant loss support group. Reading about how Diehl's mother flew to her side in the Ontario hospital -- just as mine did, less than three years later (and having just left her & my father behind, earlier that morning) -- had me quietly sobbing and wiping tears away, and the tears continued to roll down my face as I read further into the book. (I'm sure the woman sitting beside me thought I was nuts.)

It's a beautiful book, and I recommend it highly for anyone who has experienced such a loss, or who wants to understand more about it. Five stars on Goodreads.

These were books #48, #49 and #50 that I read in 2019, bringing me to 208% (!!) of my 2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 24 books.  I completed my challenge for the year in July, read 26 books beyond my goal (more than double) -- and surpassed my reading total for 2018 by 23 books.  :)  On to 2020!!  My new Goodreads Challenge goal for this year will be 30 books (2.5 per month).