A New Literary History Of America—A Good Book To Read

Vanity compels me to tell you that I am reading the 1095 page A New Literary History Of America.

This egoism can’t surprise you as blogging itself is an act of vanity.

As you can see from the picture below, A Literary History is a larger book than Last Train To Memphis— The Rise Of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick, and the 2010 The New York Times Almanac.

A Literary History has been well- reviewed. I’d link to a review if I knew how to make links when blogging with my iPhone while my computer us busted.

A Literary History is a collection of essays. They range in time from the first point the word America appeared on a map–that was in 1507—up to Barack Obama’s election last year.

I’m on page 113 at the moment. The next essay is about John Adams defending the Constitution.

The essays tell the history of the nation by examining, among other things, books, poems, art, political essays and sermons.

These writings and comunucations are considered, and then are connected to some larger aspect of American history,or some larger characteristic or trait of the American makeup.

There are around 225 esays in the book. If one bores you it will end soon enough.

Nothing had bored me yet in A Literary History. The topics are eclectic and often creative while remaining relevant.

It may be that telling you I’m reading a 1095 page book is snobby, but the other side is that I believe people have a far greater capacity to understand complex things than they realize.

Go get yourself something new and interesting to read. Suggest to someone you value that they do the same. Life is too short not to learn and understand as much as we can in the time we have.

I’m Rolling The Dice For Annise Parker For Mayor Of Houston

Tuesday, November 3 is Election Day in Houston.

There are three credible candidates for Mayor of Houston on the ballot. No candidate is likely to win a majority on Election Day. This being the case, there will be a runoff election within the next few weeks.

Each of the three leading candidates is a Democrat. Each of the three has actively sought the support of Republican voters in Houston.

In doing this, each candidate has let down people who could use help in Houston. The Republican Party and it’s voters are so far away from the needs and aspirations of urban America that you can’t appeal to Republican core supporters without losing your way.

This said, elections are about the future. There has to be a better future. Houston labors under a long history of economic, racial, ethnic and environmental injustice. The candidates for Mayor of Houston did not make this history. We can’t simply resign ourselves to assuming that the future will be like the past.

My best bet for Mayor of Houston is City Controller Annise Parker.

Ms. Parker has worked to bring banking services to the poor in Houston. She had supported Houston janitors in efforts to gain better wages and benefits. She has a personal history of fighting for basic human rights in her efforts for the rights of gay folks in Houston.

I don’t harbor any illusion that Ms. Parker will find courage as Mayor that she has lacked as a candidate for Mayor. Houston’s history suggests she will pursue moderate progress at best while remaining silent about large-scale social wrongs.

Still–You never know. I’m going to roll the dice tomorrow and vote for Annise Parker for Mayor of Houston.