Book Review: That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

Surveillance in the Stacks This is a nonfiction account by a Louisiana-based librarian who became an advocate against book banning. The book captures her personal experiences as she faced condemnation and legal threats for opposing efforts to remove certain books from public libraries. She explores the importance of protecting access to books dealing with topics like race, gender, and sexual orientation. Her discussion focuses on the rise in book challenges, the political and social forces behind them, and her journey as an activist for access to LGBTQ+ information, emphasizing the courage to stand up against groups advocating for censorship. She addresses the legal battles she endured, including being sued for defamation, and the harassment she faced online and in person. This book is a one-sided testament despite the fact that her stand could be harmful to kids. The author refers to the books that are challenged for removal from libraries due to the inappropriate content. The American Library Association (ALA) annually publishes lists of the most challenged books based on reports from schools and libraries. According to ALA, the challenges for removal are due to: LGBTQ+ content; books addressing queer identities and relationships; race and racism books; and political and social criticism of societal norms and historical narratives. Some of the recently challenged (banned) books are: "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe, for LGBTQ+ themes, sexual content, and illustrations; "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson, for LGBTQ+ content, and sexually explicit material; "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, for sexual content, explicit language, and racial themes; "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, for profanity, violence, and anti-police themes; and "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez, for explicit sexual content, and depictions of racism. Book bans or challenges to book has been on the rise in the U.S. in recent years because of political polarization, cultural debates over issues like race, gender, sexual orientation, and LGBTQ+ rights. Conservative groups have led efforts to remove books they deem inappropriate, while progressive groups often push back against those bans. Several organized groups such as “Moms for Liberty” and other parent-led and political organizations have been vocal about removing books from libraries because they are harmful to kids. One state often highlighted for book bans is Florida, which has passed several laws that significantly impact the availability of certain books in public schools and libraries. One of the most notable is House Bill 1467, signed into law in 2022. The restrictions are justified by proponents as efforts to protect children from "inappropriate" or "obscene" materials. In 2023, West Virginia Senate Bill 252 was enacted which aimed to restrict access to "obscene" or "sexually explicit" materials for minors in public and school libraries. The law builds upon existing obscenity statutes in the state but broadens the scope of potential criminal liability for those responsible for providing these materials to minors. Provisions of the law include the prosecution of librarians who provide materials deemed inappropriate for minors. The book focuses only one side of the issue, the side of LGBTQ+ and gender identity activists who are pushing to the extremes by aligning themselves with socialists, liberals, and democrats. For example, a California law SB 107 (Trans Refuge Law) signed in 2022 that allow minors to seek gender-affirming care. It prohibits state agencies from complying with out-of-state subpoenas, warrants, or legal actions related to providing gender-affirming care. This law effectively takes away the parental control of their children. The author does not discuss LGBTQ+ and gender-identity activists who are promoting drag performances in gatherings that include families and children, performances that include cross-dressers/transgender performers prominently exhibiting the private parts, and of course the story-reading for kids in public libraries. They have dominated the political, social, and economic structures by aligning with progressive democrats to effectively diminishing the parental decisions.

Book Reviewed: In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by Sebastian Junger

Near-death visions This is a personal account of the author's near-death experience and exploration of afterlife. A ruptured pancreatic artery sent him into a life-threatening crisis. As he hovered between life and death, Junger experienced a spiritual encounter that challenged his beliefs about existence. He explores scientific theories and philosophical musings. This work is reflective of his thoughts. During his final moments of life, he sees his deceased father who reassure him, and invites him to go with him, and tells him not to be scared and he will take care of him. The author is confused about his father’s visit at deathbed. In fact, he expresses his anger at his father for his invitation to join him and claims he didn’t want to do anything with him. Advances in physiology and medicine found people to "come back from the dead;' as it were and reported extraordinary visions and experiences from their trip to the other side. It is a subjective experience of dying that included seeing Jesus, an old white man with grey hair wearing a robe, seeing the dead members of the family like parents and grandparents, being ushered through a tunnel of light, existing outside of their bodies, etc. Much of these experiences may be due to low oxygen supply to brain that results in distortions of experience, hallucinations, visions, disembodied voices, premonitions that have no provable basis in reality. The author discusses several studies about how the brain deprived of oxygen is known to cause cognitive distortions, tunnel vision, and loss of consciousness. He even makes speculative claims of physical reality. The title of this book is derived from a gospel song by Blind Willie Johnson. The title line, closing each stanza of the song refers to a deathbed wish and was inspired by a passage in the Bible from Psalms 41:3 "The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness". Numerous artists have recorded variations of this song including Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. The author does not make references to Jesus, or Bible but gets spiritual and philosophical. Some of his deathbed visions could be explained by physiology and neurobiology.

Book reviewed: The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul C.W. Davies

Does the information processing explain the order of a living cell This book discusses how entropy, once viewed purely in terms of thermodynamics and physical systems, evolved to explain the structural complexity and orderly functions of a living cell. This book also makes it relevant that in biology coupling between processes on many scales of size and complexity occurs, and the biological causation operates both ways in a living system, bottom-up from genes to organisms, and top-down, from organisms to genes. The author discusses how the Maxwell’s “Demon” of the second law of thermodynamics appears to defy a thermodynamic process by reducing entropy internally in a physical system also applies to biological cells that maintain order by reducing entropy internally. The title of the book refers to James Maxwell’s "Demon," a thought experiment about the second law of thermodynamics. It is a hypothetical entity that violates this law by sorting particles between two compartments separated by a transparent wall of a simple physical system. Consideration of information gathered by the demon during the categorization of the particles requires energy and thus the total entropy of the system actually increases. The interplay between thermodynamics and information theory is challenging and helpful in advancing scientific thought. This book discusses how the concept of cellular entropy connects with the storage and processing of information in biological processes. The book is very engaging, and author Paul Davies describes physics, biology, and evolution with ease. But it is unlikely to be a complete explanation. The complexity of life requires a multifaceted approach that considers factors such as self-organization, evolution, the role of energy and information processing in biological processes. This book does not explain how life (a living cell) emerged from non-life (matter).

Book Reviewed: The Great New York Fire of 1776, a Lost Story of the American Revolution by Benjamin L. Carp.

The Great Fire of New York The Great Fire of New York was a significant event during the early stages of the American Revolution. It occurred on the night of September 21, 1776, just a few weeks after the British forces captured the city of New York. The fire destroyed over 500 to 1,000 buildings. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but many British soldiers and Loyalists suspected that American patriots deliberately set the fire to prevent the British from using the city as a base. There were also stories about the British soldiers were responsible for the fire to destroy the spirits of the American patriots. The fire destroyed approximately one-third of New York City, which at the time was a small but densely populated area mostly located at the southern tip of Manhattan. Despite the damage, New York remained under British control for the remainder of the war and became a key base of operations for the British Army. The fire started near Whitehall Slip and spread rapidly, consuming buildings from the East River to the Hudson River. Today, it's part of the Battery Park City development and the area between Whitehall Street and Battery Park Place, and the region near Trinity Church (at Wall Street and Broadway). Trinity Church, one of the most prominent landmarks was destroyed in the fire, though St. Paul's Chapel, just a short distance away, survived. Many of the residential areas near the waterfront and within the area that today includes parts of the Financial District were also severely damaged. The story that St. Paul's Chapel was spared by a bucket brigade during the Great Fire of 1776 is more legend than fact, but it illustrates the importance of community efforts in times of crisis. Despite its proximity to the blaze, St. Paul’s Chapel survived the inferno. The precise reasons for its survival are not entirely clear, and the idea that a "bucket brigade"—a line of people passing buckets of water to extinguish fires may be a romanticized story. Several factors might have contributed to the chapel's survival including the wind direction and the construction materials: St. Paul’s Chapel is made largely of stone, which might have been more fire-resistant than many of the wooden structures including the Trinity Church at Wall Street and Broadway. George Washington worshipped at St. Paul’s Chapel. After his inauguration as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789, in New York City, which was the nation's capital at the time, Washington attended services regularly from 1789 to 1790. The chapel was close to the Federal Hall on Wall Street where the first Congress and Washington's executive offices were based. Washington would walk from Federal Hall to St. Paul’s for Sunday services. As with many historical events, the Great New York Fire of 1776 became the subject of art and literature over the years.. Paintings and writings helped romanticize and mythologize the fire. Stories about the fire spread through word of mouth were altered and exaggerated. There are no comprehensive lists of the eyewitnesses to the fire, but several prominent figures provided accounts of the event, civilians, soldiers, firefighters, government officials and civic leaders. There were the official records of the British military and the Continental Army. British General William Howe and Loyalist William Smith wrote about the fire, while other British soldiers and American prisoners who were in the city at the time also reported their observations. Unfortunately, many individual eyewitness names have not been preserved in historical records. After the New York fire, George Washington wrote to Congress expressing his thoughts on the situation, though he did not claim responsibility for or fully explain the origins of the fire. It seemed to have started in multiple places, which led to speculation that it may have been set intentionally. Washington’s tone reflected his uncertainty about the fire's origins, his main focus remained on military strategy rather than the fire itself. The author writes about the eyewitness accounts, but these accounts have not been corroborated and hence unreliable. It must be pointed out that British did set fire to several locations during the revolutionary war: Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, to prevent it from being used by the Continental Army. British also burned several other towns and settlements, including Norfolk, Virginia in 1776 as part of their military campaign to suppress the rebellion. These acts were part of their strategy to undermine American morale and disrupt supply lines.