Articles on PR for People

Book Review: Stony The Road We Trod, Volume One and Volume Two

Stony The Road We Trod is a family saga spread across two volumes that are inextricably linked and essential reading to acquire an understanding of the joys, triumphs and struggles borne by the Grimke family. A former slave-holding family in Charleston, South Carolina, the Grimke lineage spans across race ethnicity, religion, and cultural norms. Greater than the usual fare of historical fiction, Stony The Road We Trod is the quintessential American story.  

 


The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn

A great painting has many meanings. The oil painting of The Threatened Swan by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn was created around 1650. The swan appears to be threatened by a dog rearing its ugly head. Some claim the swan is mute. The swan could be protecting its cygnets, as they often ride on their mother’s back, although none are seen. 


NOTES FROM THE WORKING CLASS: Belle’s Big Burden

Belle Burden was given the opportunity to write a big book about divorce. Burden’s book, Stranger: A Memoir of Marriage, is a tell-all about nothing at all. It could be perceived as revenge porn, but the characters never take off their clothes to have hot sex.


NOTES FROM THE ROAD: Krystal and the Deep Blue Sea

Krystal is my Uber driver who picks me up in Solana Beach to take me to the airport. She drives a shiny new red Tesla. As I get into the Tesla, I immediately see the entire roof is plastered with hundreds of stickers of Elon Musk. A large heart-shaped pink sticker stuck on her console says: “I love Elon Musk.” No other stickers dot the car’s interior. No political messages or advocacy for special interest groups. The entire car is a shrine to Elon Musk. I  want to know why this woman who works hard for her money loves Elon Musk. 


Book Review: Gender Outlaw

The first edition of Gender Outlaw, by author and performance artist Kate Bornstein, was published in 1994. A later edition of Gender Outlaw (the one I read) was published in 2016. I have no doubt that another edition might one day emerge. Gender Outlaw is a timeless classic that fills a much needed void. Kate Bornstein has said she wrote the book she had once wished someone had written for her.


Book Review: The Blue Girl

The Blue Girl is a delicious romp through fairy madness, as told through the first person perspective of three teens: two girls, both alive, and one teen-boy ghost. 


The Good Gift

This past Thanksgiving marked the two-year anniversary of when I was shot. The weapon was a Smith & Wesson high performance revolver, loaded with eight .357 Magnum bullets. The perpetrator fired all eight rounds. I was struck three times. Miraculously, my injuries were nominal: three cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. I lost a lot of blood. It could have been worse. One bullet, “a thru and thru,” passed close to my spine. 


The Writing On The Wall: On Reading, Writing and The Decline of the Novel

Novels enrich our lives because we touch the fragile threads of the diverse fabrics that weave us together. We begin to see the connections in things and become spellbound by the certainty that no one person is on this earth alone. All of us are slogging through the muck and the mire, navigating the joy, the sorrow, the grief, and the pratfalls that throw us haphazardly off course only to be consumed by a reckless wind. A good novel teaches us that it is noble to be a human being. 


Book Review: Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson

A wealthy young man known as “Abel” flees the revolution in Venezuela around 1840 and embarks on an adventure in the wild, uncharted jungles of Guyana. The jungles are inhabited by lush forests, mountains and rivers that are pristine, untouched. Wild animals never before seen appear within the infinite walls of the “green mansions.” The most magnificent being of all is the beautiful and wild Rima, a young woman who speaks in a strange, lilting language only known to birds and her lost tribe. While Abel’s journey is fraught with peril: gold hunting, warring bands of native tribes, petty rivalries, superstition, and magic, he becomes forever smitten with Rima.

 


Climate Change is Real

Warnings about climate change are not new. In the late 19th century, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would create a greenhouse effect, altering the surface temperature of the earth. By 1938, the English engineer and inventor Guy Callendar noted that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere would cause global warming.