By Any Other Nerd

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones My rating: 5 of 5 stars The old adage that history is written by the victors while not always true definitely has enough truth to it that one should always be concerned and critical of histories that reinforce a largely harmonious, homogeneous, and heartening history.  This is why The 1619 Project is so refreshing and powerful because it amply challenges the conventional history told in schools and popular media that centers white men's striving for more freedom (which often translates into wealth and power for everyone but is still concentrated among white men).  In its place, the writers center the enslavement of black people as the economic, intellectual, social,  medical, cultural, and legal center of the U.S.'s history. It does this effectively, drawing amply on substantial and wide-ranging established historians and primary sources to illustrate this picture. ...

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education by Jay Timothy Dolmage My rating: 4 of 5 stars Dolmage explores the structural and institutional aspects of ableism that permeate throughout higher education's present and past. Simply put, the academy does little to include people with disabilities. At the core of this exploration, he illustrates how some bodies are upheld by these aspects and therefore, granted the means to study and pursue knowledge while other bodies are devalued and meant to be the objects of study, often with an insistence to dismiss or cure.  It's a brilliant critique that first discusses how the rhetoric of institution spaces highlight the ways institutions create and maintain their spaces as spaces that are not accessible or made accessible through measures that draw attention to those in need of accessible measures (rather than a natural part of structures through practices like universal design).  He pivots ...

Reading, Writing, and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom by Bree Picower My rating: 4 of 5 stars At a time when pundits rage about critical race theory being taught in K-12 with no real understanding of what that is, nevermind its near-utter absence from K-12 teaching and learning, Picower's book is both a breath of fresh air and a call to teachers, parents, and most critically important, teacher-education programs.  The book highlights the framework of racism through institutional, interpersonal, internalized, and ideological approaches.  From there, she highlights the presence of these different racist approaches embedded within the curriculum, classroom practices, and mindsets by educators.  In this first section, she draws upon example upon example of how blatant acts of racism are present throughout the curriculum or show because people have caught and challenged them.  These examples...

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez My rating: 4 of 5 stars If one ever sought to understand the particular recipe of religious fervor, politicking, and hypocrisy that represents much of Evangelical Christianity in the United States over the past 100 years, they would do well to read this book.  Kobes Du Mez illustrates how evangelicals in the 20th century embraced a particular mixture of traits including dominance-informed masculinity, advocacy for wars of assertion and profit, a xenophobic and religiously bigoted disregard for others, and political maneuvering that forfeited their believes and practices in the name of power. She also shows how evangelicals used radio, television, and social media over the decades to offer up a version of Christianity that was somehow always on the cusp of being destroyed in the US (despite overwhelming evidence otherwise) while sim...

Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo My rating: 4 of 5 stars There are a lot of ways one can tackle this book and I'm sure there are myriads out--I've even read a few. Some clearly come from a disposition that they would immediately dismiss anything that DiAngelo says from the start. They often do so because they are blatantly racist (white supremacists like those who participated in the march in Charlottesville, Virginia), they buy into the idea that those seeking racial and social justice are "the problem" (folks who drink up unquestioningly their information from Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Fox News, The Blaze and the like), or those who are deeply involved in owning the game of internecine battles around racial progress and equity (Bill Maher, John McWorter, and Matt Taibbi to name a few). It's strange to see so much ire for this book because the intended audience is larg...

Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success by Andratesha Fritzgerald My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fritzgerald proposes a tall order in tackling both antiracism and universal design for learning in one book--at least that might be the initial reaction for readers. But in truth, the two are a strong overlapping Venn Diagram when to comes to thinking about teaching, learning, engagement, and inclusion in our classes. Using a mixture of personal experiences, classroom situations, analogies, and reflection prompts, Fritzgerald moves through the primary pieces of universal design for learning to illustrate how each is mapped onto ideas and practices of anti-racism. Her book is not a polemic or a how-to with lots of supporting materials or exercises (for classes) per se.  Rather, she provides an earnest, well-grounded, and genuinely caring exploration of why thinking of UDL and anti-racism in tandem is so central to the success of...

Writing for Audio by Katie O Connor My rating: 2 of 5 stars This was a quick and dirty exploration of the topic that doesn't go into a lot of depth. It felt like a throw-away work for Audible ultimately that could have a lot more potential but seemed to just be put out to be put out.  Is it worth the listen?  Sure, there are a few tips and insights to consider if you are looking to write for a listening audience (or even if writing text but anticipating an audio adaptation of some sort). Some of it is to be mindful of the speaking tags (he said, she said) or think about how to make the sound more evident in your writing or how actions, personalities, etc can be translated into sound.  O'Connor interviews a handful of authors who have written Audible Originals, sharing brief snippets with each and while entertaining, I feel like it served more as a teaser than getting into a deeper conversation amongst the different writers about ...

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam M. Grant My rating: 4 of 5 stars Grant takes a deep dive into the disconnect between human confidence and human knowledge; particularly how humans grapple with the Dunning-Krueger effect.  This dynamic, found in many founds, leaves us to be way more confident about what we know about something, especially, if we have only a basic understanding of it. In many circumstances, we assume we know more than we do and we live in a society that often encourages that. Thus, many of us believe we're all above average on a variety of things, but have no real basis to come to that standpoint.  So Grant explores how this happens in individuals and in groups, while then identifying ways of undoing the potential harm such views can have on us as individuals and throughout society. His goal is not to prove any individual or group wrong but to give them the tools and mechanisms to check to s...

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nesteroff challenges the stereotypical depiction of Native Americans in the US and Canada as being stoic and serious with this history of comedy among Native Americans over the last few hundred years.  The book proves this fascinating slice of history, humor, and cultural exploration that many will find interesting.  Nesteroff works hard to draw the parallels of Native Americans and other marginalized groups that have leveraged humor to navigate their trauma and also re-introduce it to larger audiences, including the Black and Jewish experiences in North America. In particular, he draws out the mixture of violence, theft, and cultural destruction that US and Canadian governments and companies have exerted on Native Americans while simultaneously, considering how such things both influence many Native Amer...

Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars I'm a bit surprised that it took me this long to pick up this book.  Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the book that turned me into an audiobook listener and I have read almost all of his work (ok, Last Chance to See, still doesn't grab me).  He was the first author death that I really felt and was sad about--and all that was before I even started enjoying Neil Gaiman.  A biography of Douglas Adams by Neil Gaiman should have been a book I read a long time ago and well, since "time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so," I finally got around to listening to this and I am overall, happy with what I heard. It's not a particularly deep biography but Gaiman does bring a share of insights and connections about Adams' work that I enjoyed.  Starting with his early life in school and t...