Feldman's Faves: April 12, 2021 (Suzy's Faves)

Happy Monday everyone. Hoping these April showers bring May flowers…. This week we are very lucky to have our own Susan Garvie (aka SUZY G) take over – below are her recommendations for your reading and listening pleasure:

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I struggled to pick just one book by or about women who inspire me, so I have picked one and a few runner ups as well:

DARK MONEY by Jane Mayer – This is a non-fiction book written by an American investigative journalist after 5 years of research. Her book exposes the group of extremely wealthy right-wing Republicans (led by the Koch brothers) who have hijacked American democracy and how they have forwarded their agenda by financing think tanks and academic programs at Ivy League institutions, influencing governments, courts and news media outlets to essentially and successfully shift political ideology to the right in the US over the past 30 years or so. She reveals the dark money behind this movement, including the use of family foundations to avoid taxes and its impact on today’s politics and environmental and climate-change issues. This book really helped me understand how Trump was ever elected and how US politics have become so ideologically polarized and why and who is profiting by this power shift. Jane Mayer continues to pursue her passion on these current issues and here is a link to her recent March 29, 2021 article in the New Yorker about the Koch-backed effort to thwart election reform: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century.

First Runner-Up is AGENT SONYA by Ben Macintyre – I have read and would recommend each of The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends (this Kim Philby book was fantastic), Rogue Heroes, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and Double Cross. All of his non-fiction spy books read like fiction but Agent Sonya is his first book about a female spy and she is an engaging German heroine who was a passionate anti-Nazi and Communist who was both a wife and a mother (she had children by 3 separate fathers) as well as a top spymaster. Agent Sonya benefited from being underestimated by men in many countries enabling her to elude capture by the Chinese, German, British and American secret services as well as surviving the Stalin purges. Agent Sonja was Klaus Fuchs’ spymaster during the time he passed all of the secret information on the atom bomb to Russia during WWII. Interestingly, the only secret service officer who was highly suspicious of Agent Sonya was MI5 agent Milicent Bagot, whose suspicions in this matter (as well as Kim Philby and others) were disregarded and over-ruled (by her male colleagues). During the Cold War, Agent Sonya moved to East Germany before she could be apprehended and charged with espionage in England and she became an author writing “fictitious” best-selling books based on her life’s adventures. Link to great NYT book review: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/books/review/agent-sonya-ben-macintyre.html.

Honourable mentions – TOUGH LOVE: MY STORY OF THE THINGS WORTH FIGHTING FOR by Susan Rice, THE EDUCATION OF AN IDEALIST by Samantha Power and CATHERINE THE GREAT by Robert Massie. For fiction, try MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell which recounts the story of a lonely 15-year old girl who is groomed to engage in a sexual relationship with her English teacher. It is an interesting take on this issue and the audiobook version is read by Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter who acted in The Newsroom, Mr. Robot and American Horror Story).

My Podcast: This has to be THE GUILTY FEMINIST hosted by comedian Deborah Frances-White. This podcast explores women’s issues and the patriarchy in a hilarious way in a comedy show recorded in front of a live audience. In each episode the hosts and guest(s) discuss a theme such as inequality, pornography, the diet industry, toxic masculinity, the fun of make-up, rape fantasies, not having children, etc. Each episode opens with anecdotes starting with “I’m a feminist but …” followed by a confession with the hosts admitting to something they have thought or done that an ideal feminist would not have and exposing their insecurities, hypocrisies and fears underling their lofty principles in struggling for equality. Here are a few examples: “I’m a feminist but I love a costume change during a photoshoot”, “I’m a feminist but one time when I went on a women’s rights march, I popped into a department store to use the loo, got distracted trying out face cream, and when I came out the march was gone.”, “I’m a feminist but once when getting on a light aircraft from Boston to Cape Cod the pilot asked my weight in front of everyone in order to determine how much fuel to put in the plane to make a safe crossing, and I lied by 20lbs, endangering my life, that of the pilot, the other passengers and a Border Collie that was along for the ride.” and “I’m a feminist but I sometimes fantasize about being dominated by famous fictitious misogynist Don Draper from Mad Men. If only he met ME I would make him whole and heal his pain.” Then the episode moves on to a discussion of the weekly theme. Frances-White observes: “Every day of my life, I’ll wake up and not be perfect. I’ll always do and think less-than-feminist things until the day I die.” Frances-White sees the funny side of her feminist stumbles and misfires, and she wants other women to relax a little too but she is not afraid to have the tough conversations and to try to do better. Link to podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-guilty-feminist/id106894077

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Thank you Susan and thanks to all of you for your ongoing participation. If anyone else is interested in a making recommendations please be in touch.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon