the 2 libraries (#20859) are identical in design but vary in sizing. there's a daddy one with…read morefiction and nonfiction books and a baby one with children's books. read: "The Old Man and the Sea" (Ernest Hemingway) -short novel of old Cuban fisherman Santiago who didn't catch any fish for 84 days. on the 85th day, he decided to go further out to sea. -he finally got a big one but couldn't reel the 1500 pound fish in. instead, the marlin pull him for almost 2 days out to sea. -finally the marlin surfaced, was harpooned, was fastened to skiff's side. a small dolphin was also caught, sliced up for food. -after 3 shark attacks, the big fish was mostly eaten. all the old man had left when he returned to port was the skeletal remains of the marlin. *the year after the release of this novel, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature.

this blue planter topped brown library has a small selection of children's, fiction & nonfiction…read morebooks. reads: "Catwings" (Ursula K. Le Guin) with illustrations, a Schloastic book a typical disneyese fairy tale about winged cats for beginning readers -4 young cats (roger, thelma, james, & harriet) have developed wings, are learning to fly, upsetting birds and small animals alike. -an owl decides to give an hoot, injures James by damaging his wings. -the cats aren't very successful at flying nor finding food. they decide to hide during the day to avoid the owl that's threatening them. -the cats are befriended by kids hank & susan who leaves them fresh food. -the kids agree not to tell anyone & to feed the cats if they would live with them. -the cats all purred and every one lived happily ever after. end of tale.

this tall blue library (#57406) has the usual fiction, children's and nonfiction books. it's height…read moreindicates it's not the usual mail order model. reads: "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness"(Michell Alexander) *slavery in South, then Jim Crow laws, now morphed to mass incarceration -caste system in US has always existed. it's a "free" labor source in the South. now "race neutral" drug laws creates mass incarceration, i.e. "free" labor. -War on drugs disproportionately affects black & brown communities *rock cocaine convictions prison time are 100X times harsher than for powder cocaine. black communities use rock, white society uses powder. *police have no oversight in "stop & frisk" arrests in minority communities. white communities have no "stop & frisk" arrests unless minorities enter majority white communities. courts routinely approve convictions from searches without cause. *asset forfeiture from "drug arrests" funds police departments. *fed. authorities furnishes police dept. with SWAT equipment, armor vehicles, extra funding for each drug arrests, even if searches were "illegal". -arrested drug offenders have no legal counsel. they do not understand consequences of pleading guilty to minor crimes, even with no prison time -80-90% of minor drug arrestees are African Americans -convicted drug offenders tainted for life-not eligible for public assistance, loses right to vote, can't find legit employment. -"Where have all the black men gone?" ? never answered. Answer: Prison. -collective denial re: mass incarceration in general populace. no "innocent" defendants so allies like civil rights attorneys focus on affirmative action progress instead. similarity of Jim crow laws to mass incarceration: -detracts working class whites' attention away from economic issues to scapegoating African Americans for mutual poverty. -racially segregates people into 2 worlds -depends on legal and political disenfranchisement to survive.

this brown library (#20933) has fiction, nonfiction books…read more read: "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)"-David Cay Johnston *an overview of various techniques used by the 1% for enriching themselves. -eminent domain by governments to acquire land which is sold cheaply to developers, corporations. -giving US sports team subsidies as well as a monopoly, free to raise prices.. i.e. G.W. Bush got land acquired by city government on which he & partners later build a baseball stadium. ...Rudy Guilliani gave away public land to G. Steinbreunner to build a new Yankees stadium with 60 luxury boxes. -80% of title insurance on property sold is rebated to the real estate agent -nonprofit health companies transformed to for profit HMO's. --for profit HMO's routinely denies costly surgery. -deregulation of utilities, airlines, telecoms led to higher, not lower prices railroads find it cheaper to pay fines than do maintenance work on rails. Amtrak (US taxpayers) end up paying. -corporations ala WalMart get big $$ from municipalities to build their stores, allowed to keep the sales tax, allowed to pay low wages, no health benefits. --causing many small businesses, mom & pop operations to close. -government "earmarks" are legislation designed for one corporate sponsor who lobbied for it with $$. -alarm companies get free $. most costs paid by taxpayers to the police who are called to respond to usually false alarms. -student loans have unregulated above market interest rates charged by the credit industry. -Bush's drug plan forbade the government from negotiating for lower drug prices when buying in bulk -tax cuts went to the top 1%, the middle class and poor paid more taxes. -backdating stock options were illegal but widely done. gave extra $$ to executives, took $$ from shareholders.

this long squat brown library (#108134) has an healthy selection of children's and a sprinkling of…read morenonfiction, fiction books. reads: "The Sympathizer: A Novel" (Viet Thanh Nguyen) -a adventure filled fiction in a similar genre as Forest Gump. the narrative is fictional but the scenarios depicted are from actual events. -narrator is a North Vietnamese spy embedded in South Vietnam's military. when Saigon was captured by the Viet Cong. he fled to America with his superior, the General with the help of he CIA. -narrator's task in America was to report on anti-communist activities of the refugees to the North Vietnamese . being part French, narrator shares his European, American, and Vietnamese perspective. -in an attempt to save his blood brother Bon, narrator kills an old acquaintance and partakes in an unsuccessful invasion of his former homeland. -at his court martial, The Commisar asked the narrator: "What is more important than independence and freedom?" Narrator answer: "Nothing" -the commisar was satisfied with the answer. he released the narrator and Bon. after the hearing, the narrator discovered the commisar was also his blood brother as well as his North Vietnamese pen pal.

this lite green & white library (#112646) is full of fiction and nonfiction books…read more there's some pamphlet and a few children's books reads: "Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets" (Dav Pilkey) *George and Harold are 2 elementary boys who loved to prank people. they were punished for it. they found other ways ala sabotaging other students' exhibits at the science fair. -to avoid further trouble, they instead began writing about their favorite superhero: Captain Underpants who is the alter ego of their principal-Mr. Krupp. he was triggered to transform to an hero at a snap of a finger. -the tale is funny, has random mayhem, is totally illogical which appeals to young people (mainly boys?) with an active imagination. -there are many "books" in this series distributed by scholastic books. -hearsay there are cartoons or some form of video featuring Captain Underpants.

this yellow, light green, orange library (#43842) has a small number of nonfiction and fiction…read morebooks. reads: "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax Systems To Benefit the Super Rich-and Cheat Everybody Else" (David Cay Johnston) *a look at techniques used by people and corporations not to pay taxes. -taxes are not paid by the super rich, just the middle class and the poor -high income individuals can defer their income for decades.same income will be taxed at lower tates. -the minimum wage has stagnated for decades. CEO's get pay raises every year(extra $$ deferred, -stock options income can be deferred for years/decades. no taxation came occur till options exercised. -executives get perks (free charter plane usuage) that shareholders & taxpayers pay for. same planes charged at pennies per mile, not real rate. -the estate tax (death tax) item Bush campaigned against isn't real . none were found. the estate is be taxed only upon it's transfer. items within never taxed during it's existence. -tax evaders citing section 861 seldom get pursued by IRS, lack of funds? -social security taxes subsidize the rich (who pay less, free to invest extra $) -taxes aren't levied against the rich, lack of IRS funding hinders IRS actions. -congress doesn't hire enough agents IRS to find tax cheaters, fraudulent tax shelters nor does it fund new computers/agents to analyze new tax regs. -insurance is a loophole the rich use to pass $ untaxed to children -corporations & people use tax havens (Bermuda) to avoid paying fair share of taxes - " uses foreign taxes as tax credit to avoid US taxes. -only the rich gets an IRS predetermined approved letter to for a new tax shelter recreated to fit within a tax loophole. -union members must hold stocks for years in sep's, ceo's can sell any time. associates can not sell before stock shares collapse ala Enron. Global Crossing. -iRS superiors sometimes stop irs inquiries. resulting in no fines or a negotiated fine. this helps tax cheats who have political influence in congress. -tax shelters can be busted if the IRs have the agents, machinery and $ to do it. -irs agents can quit anytime & go join the other side.

this turquoise framed, wooden library (#7983) has a selection of fiction & nonfiction books…read more reads: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" (Dee Brown) *this novel changed the way Americans viewed the experience of Native Americans. resource materials: "..lst hand statements by Indians are the records of treaty councils and other formal meetings with civilian and military representatives of the US gov't". -each chapter tells a tale of an Indian tribe who eventually is moved from it's own land, forced to sell same to the government who made promises of $, provisions, annuities, and being able to live in the new land in perpetuity. methods US used: starvation, coercion by military force, mass killings of tribal people. -Native American tribes moved because their land were desired by settlers, speculators, miners et al. promises made by the US in treaties were not later honored, promises not met. -"friendly" tribes who never warred with the US were removed as well as "hostile" tribes who resisted militarily against settlers and US soldiers. -negotiated treaty terms weren't communicated accurately to Native chiefs by US translators. language in treaties passed by US Congress differed with actual deals negotiated between Native Tribes & US agents. -overall Native Americans wanted peace. they only went to war to protect their land after miners, settlers, and the US military began random, unprovoked killings of their peoples.

this turquoise library (#45409) has the usual fiction and nonfiction books…read more reads: "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" (James W. Loewen) *author read nearly 20 standard history textbooks. common themes found: -the process of hero-making i.e. Woodrow Wilson not identified as a racist, H. Keller not i.d. as a radical socialist, only as blind & deaf. -why Christopher Columbus was important not the first explorer to the Americas, just the lst European. -truth about the lst Thanksgiving in 1620 spanish already on the west coast in 1500's, English settlers already went to New England years earlier, leaving an epidemic that wiped out natives. Plymouth was already cleared of forest, had a corn corp the Pilgrims "borrowed" when they arrived. -Native Americans seldom mentioned in history, especially for their resistance to genocide and colonization. -"Gone with the Wind": racism is invisible -invisibility of anti-racism in history textbooks -"land of opportunity" (for people with capital, not workers) -history shown thru actions of American presidents -no mention of Vietnam war -no coverage of recent past (Iraq War) why history is written wrong-follows guidelines suggested by American Legion -inspire children with patriotism -tell truth optimistically -"must dwell on failure only for it's value as a moral lesson, ...must speak chiefly of success" wrong history deters disappeared people from learning, especially social studies. author believes history can be used to train students how to think. conversely, there are political groups who don't want students who can think, only want to train students to obey laws.