Wednesday, April 5, 2017

What's Up?

This month I have several quilts hanging in the Blair Memorial Library:

Regency Redwork, my original story book quilt based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.




Cranes in Winter, made with fusible applique, machine quilted, hand beaded. The image is from a National Geographic photo of Japanese cranes in winter. I tried to show the effect of the snow using a sparkly tulle overlay.


Morning Glory Flower Fairy is based on an image from Anna O. Scott's A Year With the Fairies. It is crayon tinted, embroidered, embellished with beading and appliqued silk flowers, machine quilted, and has a tulle overlay. In 2015 I started each month with a post including illustrations and the poetry from Scott's book.


Other quilts this month include this yo-yo quilt from Bev Olson,



 Coffee or Tea from Betty Carpenter,


and another from Betty, Daffodils.



The display case is dear to my heart--Breyer horses, which I collected as a girl back when I was 'horse crazy.'


Including one of my favorite children's books as a girl, Brighty of the Grand Canyon!



And at the circulation desk is Peter Rabbit wishing us all a HAPPY SPRING!


Make your own Peter Rabbit and friends craft with Stitching with Beatrix Potter!

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman.

When She Writes Press asked if I would be interested in reviewing To The Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman I recalled seeing the book on NetGalley and thinking it was interesting, so I agreed.

When I started reading the novel I was delighted to discover it was not only about the building of Carnegie libraries in Kansas but also about an art quilter--and it includes a genealogical mystery.

My blog subtitle is "Books. Quilts. What I Love." And 'what I love' includes genealogy. It's as if the book had been written just for me!
*****
The empowerment of women to impact their community, the use of art for healing, and a belief in the power of books are the themes behind the stories of three women.

A tornado has destroyed the Kansas town of Prairie Hill. Gayle has lost everything and she and her husband are weighing rebuilding or relocation. The Prairie Hill women mourn their losses, including antique heirloom quilts.

"If only someone could stitch together the few remaining pieces of my tattered life into something whole and new and beautiful." - Gayle

Bibliophile Angelina is pushing forty and trying to finally finish her dissertation on the Carnegie libraries, particularly the one her grandmother helped to build in New Hope, Kansas--population 2,975. She leaves her disapproving mother and Philadelphia behind, gambling on the dissertation to bring a career and independence.

Traci is a twenty-six-year-old self-taught artist from the streets of New York City. An unwanted baby raised by a dysfunctional foster family, she feels bitter and unloved. She was hired, under false credentials, to be the artist in residence for the New Hope art center located in the old Carnegie library. Her art quilts embellished with 'trash' had garnered her an NYC gallery show.

"Great. I've swapped bed bugs for tornadoes." --Traci

Angelina arrives in New Hope for material and to find her grandmother's legendary journal which holds important documentation on how women built the library she loved to visit as a girl. Along the way, Angelina discovers more than history; she finds family, acceptance, love, and a career.

Traci is dismayed by the plebeian work the local quilters turn out.

"I see these women are all great seamstresses but their choices of fabric are dismal: American flags, spiders, and cats. It's amazing how they can put so much time and energy into such crap."
She encourages the No Guilt Quilters to use quilting for self-expression, expanding their techniques to include surface design and the repurposing of textiles and trash for embellishment. She is able to prod them past local gossip and partisan divides (there is antagonism between Prairie Hill and New Hope) so that they become a force for community change.

"You've got to throw all your pain into your creativity. Believe me, it's the best therapy."

Traci has a rough start with the teenagers sent to the art center as punishment after being kicked out of school band. They resent their conservative and parochial community. "We're runners," one explains. "Ran away from home, and if we run away from the foster family, we'll end up in juvvy." Their first project does not go over with the locals, but the teens are empowered and find their voices in art.

Along the way, readers learn about robber baron Andrew Carnegie's charitable donations and orphan trains.

Having lived in Philadelphia, with a husband who worked in New York City, and having afterward having lived in several small towns, I appreciated the East Coast ladies' adjustments. The small town's inability to agree on a paint color for the library recalled our small town church that got pretty riled up over deciding what color to paint the sanctuary. I also enjoyed Traci remarking, "where I come from, there are never so many white women in one place." I had an adjustment coming from a diverse neighborhood to a county with one family of color out of 40,000 people.

But don't think there is an East Coast bias to the book. In the end, Traci and Angelina discover "there's no place like home," and that home is in New Hope, Kansas.

I don't need a happy, tied up ending to a book, but for readers who do, this one offers a wish-fulfillment ending for all. Online questions for book clubs are available at http://www.romalyn.com/resources

I received a free ebook from She Writes Press through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

*****
I asked the author to talk about several topics.

Nancy: I wondered what Romalyn's experience with the NEA brought to her understanding of how the arts is important to community building. Also, with the current administration's desire to ax the NEA from Federal support, what will be lost?

Romalyn: I was lucky to start my career in Kansas, thanks to an NEA grant. I was hired to work with communities interested in creating cultural opportunities. I met the most dedicated, creative, smart, and hard-working volunteers who were determined to provide arts classes and performances and exhibits. Many of them, with grit and gumption, managed to find the resources to create an arts center, even in one-stoplight-towns. And, yes, the entire community was proud. I thought each town had its own self-esteem, and sometimes that self-esteem had been threatened by the consolidation of schools or the new highway bypassing town. Like individuals do, those towns could regain their self-esteem through focus and new goals.

One summer a storyteller toured to 90 towns, all with populations of under 3,000. We also toured an exhibit of Kansas quilts that would rival those displayed in the world’s most prestigious museums. We had quilts from the early 19th century and those finished days before yesterday.

Many people think the NEA funds only NPR and the Metropolitan Opera, but, in fact, it provides seed money for artistic endeavors across the country, in rural mining and farming communities and in inner city schools; each taxpayer contributing 47 cents, less than the price of a postage stamp.

It’s through the arts that we tell our stories, and stories deserve to be told no matter from whence they come. It’s through the arts that we develop our creativity, and the world can certainly use creative thinkers, in and out of artistic professions. Artists will work, with or without NEA support, but they will have less time to create and there will be less incentive to spread the arts to places without wealthy patrons. We will lose stories and we will lose creativity, beyond the significant arts contribution to the GNP.

Nancy: I would like to know what quilter/s  inspired Traci and her art. It was exciting to read about surface design and embellishment in a novel.

Romalyn: Traci is not based on one person, but is more a composite of the many textile artists I know. I had fun in imagining her as a self-taught artist.

Traci was found in a trashcan on Times Square shortly after her birth, adopted into a troubled family, and pretty much raised herself. She is both savvy and scrappy. Her education came through the New York Public Library and free days at museums, where she saw the works of great artists and the power of self-expression. Using found objects from the streets, she begins to make quilts, like the collages she sees in galleries. She might have seen a show of Amish or African-American quilts at the Folk Art Museum, giving her the courage to use rich and deep colors. Or the prints of Faith Ringgold at the Guggenheim.

It’s not until she gets to Kansas that she begins to hone her techniques, sees the virtue in perfect seams and tight knots. Quickly, she figures out she’s learning as much as she’s teaching, but takes great delight in seeing the Kansas women stretch their creative muscles, by making heart stamps out of apples or polka dots with the tips of erasers.


To The Stars Through Difficulties
Romalyn Tighman
She Writes Press
Publication Date April 4, 2017
$16.95 paperback
ISBN:9781631522338



Sunday, April 2, 2017

Stitching with Beatrix Potter by Michele Hill

Before my son was born my Mother bought a set of Beatrix Potter's little books, all in a slip case. Since 1902 these books have been nursery staples. A self-taught artist, amateur scientist and farmer, Beatrix Potter's legacy has enriched generations of readers.


Beatrix Potter's illustrations have also inspired generations of crafters who adopted her art for needlework, stuffed animals, embroidery, quilts, knitting patterns, fabric lines, and coloring books. To celebrate 150 years sine the birth of Beatrix Potter, The 2016 Tokyo Quilt Festival included The World of Beatrix Potter, amazing quilts from Yoko Saito and ten other quilters.

William Morris aficionado Michele Hill already loved Beatrix Potter when she learned that Beatrix and Morris shared connections. Beatrix sent her early stories to Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris's business partner and friend, and her photographer father was hired by Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais.

Beatrix Potter applique baby quilt by Michele Hill
Hill's new book Stitching with Beatrix Potter offers ten projects inspired by Beatrix's life and art. Her wonderful characters appear in embroidered and appliqued projects, floral applique with a Morris flair, pieced quilts in various sizes, a Hexie quilt pattern, and a pattern to reproduce Beatrix's heirloom quilt from 1863.

Iron cover by Michele Hill
A brief biography of Beatrix Potter is illustrated with photographs from her Hill Top farm.
Embroidered Hexie table topper by Michele Hill
Hill was amazed to see the rarely displayed Potter heirloom quilt dated 1863, bearing her parent's initials. Her version is appliqued, as seen below.
Appliqued 1863 reproduction quilt by Michele Hill
Patterns include

  • P is for Pinwheels, appliqued and embroidered coasters
  • Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle iron cover, just adorable
  • Bubbles and Bunting baby quilt featuring popular Potter characters in applique
  • Let's Play wool felt ball
  • Handmade Hexies lap quilt icluding embroidered character hexies
  • Floral Frieze wall appliqued hanging with a William Morris flare
  • Cherry Twist Cushion featuring an appliqued bouquet
  • Hill Top wool felt box with handles
  • 1863- A Wedding Quilt, 78" x 95"
  • Serendipity quilt, 55 1/2" x 55 1/2", with embroidered characters

Floral Frieze by Michele Hill
General instructions includes machine applique tips, binding, hand embroidery, all well illustrated with photographs.
Hill Top box by Michele Hill
My quilt group friends are all excited about this book! I am too.

Read my book review of Over the Hill and Far Away:The Life of Beatrix Potter by Matthew Dennison here.

Read an excerpt from the book at http://www.ctpub.com/blog/excerpt-from-stitching-with-beatrix-potter/

Learn about Hill's William Morris Applique book at http://www.ctpub.com/more-william-morris-applique/

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Stitching with Beatrix Potter
Michele Hill
C&T Publishing
64 pages + pattern pull out
$22.95 paperback, $15.99 ebook
ISBN: 978-1-61745-610-7

Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter's "little books" are much beloved, and her paintings of little animals in human clothing are universally known.

Matthew Dennison's book Over the Hills and Far Away is not a typical biography; its focus is on how Potter's life is revealed through her stories and illustrations. Some aspects of her life are just hinted at, such as her endeavor to publish her study of fungi. Dennison identifies the inspiration for Potter's characters and landscapes. She was a stickler for realism, painting from life.

Potter was born on July 28, 1866, to a gentile, conformist, Unitarian London family. She hated London but adored the countryside visits to her grandparents and the family's summer homes.

Beatrix grew up lonely and found solace in reading and in the companionship of the small, wild animals who inspired her early art. An intelligent girl, she was often bored in London and came alive when roaming the countryside with her brother.

Her parents were content for Beatrix to remain a child. They did nothing to promote her marriageability nor did they support her interests and talents. She became nervous and unhappy and was often ill, which suited her mother. Her claustrophobic, limited life is a sad example of how fettered women were in the late 19thc. She remained a dependent, lonely, and unhappy child well into adulthood.

Publishing her books offered Potter a sense of accomplishment, identity, and independence. At age thirty-eight she was still living at home with her mice and walking her rabbit on a leash. But she had improved in health, had a personal income, and even fell in love with her publisher. Sadly, he died of lymphatic leukemia before they married.

Potter bought Hill Top farm three months later. She had no experience farming or gardening or in home ownership but loved the challenge. She still had to care for her aging parents and did not live at the farm full time. The cottage served as backgrounds to some of her tales.

In 1913 she did marry; William Heelis shared her interests in sheep breeding and farming. Potter was now wealthy and happily married. Her eyesight was poor and she kept finding excuses to write another book.  Potter died in 1943, and William in 1945. She left over 4,000 acres to the National Trust including 15 farms and 5,000 pounds.

Over the Hills and Far Away style is cozy and conversational, offering stories as they are related as opposed to following a strict timeline. The book offers an understanding of Potter's emotional life and how her life influenced her art.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Learn more about Beatrix Potter at
http://beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/about-beatrix/
http://www.peterrabbit.com

Read about a new quilt and project book, Stitching with Beatrix Potter by Michele Hill, here

Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter
Mathew Dennison
Publication April 4, 2017




Saturday, April 1, 2017

The Music I Grew Up With, 1966-1972

It was the music of Simon and Garfunkel that brought me to admit I liked popular/rock music. Sounds of Silence wasn't silly and it wasn't about love. I have no idea what it is about. But it seemed deep. Sounds of Silence was the first 45 record I ever bought and the album was one of the first albums I ever bought.

I soon was buying records with most of my allowance. I bought record boxs at K-Mart to store them in and wrote all the records on the index card provided.
I had record boxes like these

Index cards with the records I bought
Some were great records; others have been long forgotten.

Missing from my collection were the songs so often played I didn't need to buy them, especially The Beatles, and living in Metro Detroit, Motown.
Sheet music cover For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder
Here are the records I bought between January 1966 and 1972. I have links for the songs that are not as well known.

1967
  • Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel. Simon says he was inspired by Bob Dylan.
  • Michelle, Billy Vaughn's cover of the Beatles hit.
  • Lightnin' Strikes, Lou Christie.
  • Flowers on the Wall, the Statler Brothers. My mom liked this one.
  • Ebb Tide/I Love You for Sentimental Reasons, the Righteous Brothers.
  • Elusive Butterfly, Bob Lind. Learn more about it here.
  • Can't Grow Peaches on a Cherry Tree, Just Us. Very folk-rock.
  • The Ballad of the Green Berets, St. Barry Sadler. The patriotic hit just before the anti-war movement.
  • Homeward Bound/Leaves that are Green, Simon and Garfunkel. I still sing both of these.
  • What Now My Love, Tijuana Brass. Mom was a big Herb Alpert fan. We had all the records and Mom bought me the piano music to learn.
My music book of Herb Alpert

Sheet Music cover of Bang, Bang
  • Bang, Bang, Sonny and Cher. Mom liked this one.
  •  Message to Michael, Dionne Warwick. What a voice!
  • Sloop John B, The Beach Boys. Still singing this one. Love it.
  • Norwegian Wood, George Edwards. Folksy with an ethnic flair.
  • Monday, Monday, the Mamas and the Papas. I loved their harmonic singing.
  • Sweet Talkin' Guy, The Chiffons. Upbeat girl band song.
  • I Am A Rock, Simon and Garfunkel. I told you I was a fan. This song is my antithesis.
  • Strangers in the Night, Frank Sinatra. So sweet I didn't realize it was about getting laid.
  • Paint it Black, The Rolling Stones. I was getting edgy in my music taste.
  • Rainy Day Women, Bob Dylan. And getting edgier!
  • You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, Dusty Springfield. Schmaltz for sure.
  • He, The Righteous Brothers. The girl who bought this also bought Rainy Day Women?
  • Red Rubber Ball, The Cyrkles. Bubble Gum Music.
  • Little Red Ridding Hood, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Warning girls about boys.
  • Tar and Cement, Verdelle Smith. Loss of country beauty.
  • Sweet Dreams, Tommy McLain. Rockified Country.
  • The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky came free from Puffed Rice.
  • Out of this World, Chiffons. Another upbeat song from the girl band.
  •  Reach Out, I'll Be There, The Four Tops. So good. That driving beat.
  • The Dangling Conversation, Simon and Garfunkel. Love the poetry.
  •  I've Got You Under My Skin, The Four Seasons. I love this so much. "So deep in my heart, you're really a part of me...I've got you under my skin." Those bells. "Never win." That pause before the coda. Sigh.
  • Hazy Shade of Winter, Simon and Garfunkel. Remains one of my favorites; I sing it every November.
  • I Who Have Nothing, Terry Knight and the Pack. Written by Ben E. King. Performed by a local DJ. Overwrought.
Sheet music cover for Born Free with Roger Williams
Sheet music cover of Stand By Me, Ben E. King

Sheet Music cover of Easy to Be Hard from Hair

1968
Sheet music cover for Witchita Lineman by Glen Gampbell

Sheet music cover of Don't Let Me Down by the Beatles

1969
Sheet music cover for theme from Love Story
Sheet music cover El Condo Paso, Simon and Garfunkel
1970
  • Indiana Wants Me, R. Dean Taylor. Man murders to protect his woman's honor.
  • Peace Will Come, Melanie. Hippie folk rock from Woodstock.
  • El Condor Paso, Simon and Garfunkle
  • Fire and Rain, James Taylor
  • Ticket to Ride, The Beatles. An old one I found somewhere.
  • If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot. Lovely.
  • Deja Vu, Crosby, Sills, and Nash
Sheet music cover for Leaving on a Jet Plane
performed by Peter, Paul and Mary
written by John Denver

Sheet music from Carly Simon

Albums were expensive. But I bought quite a few, there were lost by accidental water damage. Here are the ones I remember:
  • Happy Together by the Turtles
  • Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
  • Rubber Soul by the Beatles
  • Beach Boys album--but I forget which one
  • Procol Harem. A Whiter Shade of Pale, Reid said, is 'evocative,' not about sex or drugs.
  • Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967)
  • Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • Songs of Leonard Cohen. I loved Suzanne.
  • Realization by Johnny Rivers. It had a great sound.
  • Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones. Sympathy for the Devil.
  • Remember the Wind and the Rain by folk singer Jamie Brockett
  • Abby Lane by the Beatles. Everyone was so excited when it came out.
  • Candles in the Rain by Melanie
  • Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel
  • Crosby, Sills and Nash. It was so fresh.
  • Chicago, the big Chicago band sound was all the rage at college that September, blaring out of the dormitory windows.
  • Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
  • Tommy, The Who
  • Jesus Christ Superstar
Sheet music cover of Colour My World, Chicago
Some of my piano sheet music didn't make it through 14 moves, including Sounds of Silence and Yesterday by the Beatles, but they were easy piano versions. I started collecting sheet music in the late 1970s and the photos in this post are from my collection of over 1,000.

Some recordings have grown on me over the years. Like Unchained Melody. That longing. Sigh.
I heard a college friend sing The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel and I've loved it ever since.
"In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains"
Much later I bought CDs of music I grew up with, including The Temptations. I sang, "Sugar pie honey bunch/You know that I love you/I can't help myself/I love you and nobody else" to my baby son. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album also ended up on my shelf. I also bought piano music books of many artists, including Paul Simon.

I met my husband at Adrian College. We both loved classical music and choral singing. He also liked folk rock including The Kingston Trio, The Irish Rovers, and Peter, Paul and Mary. We became John Denver fans in the early 70s and saw him in concert several times. In 1978 we attended the Philadelphia Folk Fest and discovered many wonderful artists, including Stan Rogers, Priscilla Herdman, Roberts and Barrand, Eugene O'Donnell, and Jean Redpath. By this time the Disco/Philadelphia Sound was big and I wasn't keeping up with popular music.

For a long time, I avoided classic rock because the memories associated with the music was so strong, and too often so sad. I didn't want to think about those tortured teen years or the painful memories of the social and political upheaval of the '60s.

But to this day, when I hear a classic rock song on the radio I can tell you what year it came out and what was going on in my life at that time. It was, after all, the music I grew up with, interwoven in my life.

What music is part of your story?




Thursday, March 30, 2017

River of Ink by Paul M. M. Cooper: Resistance in 13th c. Sri Lanka

Writers and artists employ powerful tools that can shape how a society views itself, its past, and how it envisions its future. They are often the front line of resistance.

River of Ink by Paul M. M. Cooper came to my attention when the author followed me on Twitter. I downloaded a sample of his book and enjoyed his writing and bought a copy of River of Ink. (Yes, I bought a book, this was not a free review galley!)

The novel is fiction but the downfall of Sri Lanka under a destructive military takeover is history. It was fascinating to read about a time and place so foreign and unfamiliar.

"Do you remember the mynah birds that used to live in the courtyard outside your room? On the day the city fell, they were all twittering louder than I'd ever heard them, and flying from tree to tree in a flock. The noise was tremendous...You must remember this. You were sitting right there beside me, your back straight and your forehead furrowed, murmuring the letters to yourself as you cut them." from River Of Ink chapter one

Asanka is the court poet in the diverse, international Sri Lanka of the 13th c. He enjoys a pampered and luxurious life. He writes love poems for men wishing to please the women they love. His own love life is murky; his wife disdains him for he has a mistress, a palace servant, Sarasi. He is teaching her how to write.

The ink is mixed of charcoal and oil. A metal stylus cuts the palm leaf paper into sinuous shapes.

Life in Polonnaruwa changes in an instant when Kalinga Magha comes from the mainland with his army and elephants, intent on destroying the Sri Lankan civilization, looting and murdering his way to the capital. He murders Asanka's king, forces the queen into marriage, and demands that Asanka translate his favorite Hindu sacred text into Tamil, the language of the working class. Magha intends to enlighten the Buddhists with a story of dharma, the battle between lord Krishna and Shishepal over the girl they both love. Magha demands the burning of books as part of his cultural takeover. And finally, Magha decides to take Asanka's love for his own queen.

The downfall of a society, a city, a culture is a horrible thing to read about, and I was very aware that it has happened over and over again throughout the ages. Powerful men believe they bring a better religion or government to justify their motives. And the ordinary people are trampled and murdered, and yes, resistance groups rise up. In the story of the particular lies the story of human history.

In his acknowledgments, Cooper finishes by saying "Finally this book goes out to all the translators, artists and writers around the world who continue to create beauty and freedom from beneath the heel of oppression. Today you are more necessary and powerful than you could possibly imagine."

River of Ink is an impressive book that both entertains, enlightens, and inspires.

River of Ink
Paul M. M. Cooper
Bloomsbury



Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman: Imagining a Better World

We have lost our vision, Rutger Bregman writes, mired in old paradigms and blind to the possibilities we should be imagining. We could be realizing the world predicted by 20th c thinkers.

Subtitled "How We Can Build The Ideal World," Utopia for Realists is an international best seller, first published in the Netherlands where it ignited a debate and inspired a movement.

Bregman begins by reminding us of how recently life was a "vale of tears," "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," as philosophers wrote in the 16th c. With the explosion of new technology and prosperity over the last two hundred years, humanity has achieved a standard of living that Medieval folk would consider Utopia; indoor heat and cooling, flush toilets and clean water alone would make them marvel. So would obesity from an overabundance of easily obtained food, the magical ability to protect ourselves from smallpox and polio, and paved roads we travel at 70 mph--without fear of highwaymen robberies.

Have we reached Utopia? Or is there something we can do to make life even better? How can we solve the problems that remain: fearfulness, unemployment, quality of life, poverty.

The welfare state 'from a bygone era' doesn't work today. Globalization and the cost of higher education have impacted the stability of the Middle Class. Upward mobility for the poor no longer happens.

Bregman wants to "fling open the windows of our minds" to discover "a new lodestar." He presents studies and experiments about how we treat the homeless and the poor and challenges our traditional mindset that people are to be blamed for their own poverty--they just have to work hard and save. We have created welfare programs for those in need, which are costly and do not solve the basic problem. What happened to the expectation of the 15-hour workweek? Why are we spending more time working, impacting our health and our families?

Bregman wants us to dream new dreams and embrace ideas that can change the world for the better. Thinking outside the box has made a difference: abolition, universal voting rights, and same-sex marriage, he reminds, were all once considered impossible. All it takes is "a single opposing voice.

The basis of Bregman's new Utopia is a guaranteed basic income. He presents studies that demonstrate the success of such programs. In 1967 universal basic income was supported by 80% of Americans and President Nixon submitted a bill to eradicate poverty.

Other changes he offers include shorter work hours, proven to increase productivity, reconsidering the importance of the Gross Domestic Product as our economic standard of success, improving quality of life, open borders, taxing capital instead of labor, and adjusting salary to a job's societal value. At a time when productivity is a record levels, there are fewer jobs and lower salaries. "We have to devise a system to ensure that everybody benefits," he writes.

There is an old saying: Insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. Instead of holding more tightly to the old ways we need to envision innovation. Perhaps books like this will spur discussions and reevaluations.

One can only hope.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Bregman's TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIL_Y9g7Tg0

Utopia for Realists
Rutger Bregman
Little, Brown & Co.
$27 hardcover
ISBN:9780316471893