Members of Democrats Abroad came out of confinement to celebrate Spring in Lyon, gathering at the Damn Fine Bookstore to share books, films and podcasts that have kept us going through the pandemic.
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Here are the reading, listening and viewing suggestions from Lyon:
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Attendee |
Title |
Author/Creator
|
Genre |
Comments |
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Diane Sklar |
You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers |
Amanda Frost |
Non-fiction book |
The US government has revoked citizenship to cast out its unwanted, suppress dissent, and deny civil rights to all considered un-American--whether due to race, ethnicity, marriage partner, or beliefs. This book was written in Lyon. |
|
Maintenance Phase |
Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon |
Podcast |
Wellness and weight loss, debunked and decoded. |
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WandaVision |
Disney + |
TV Series |
Sitcom nostalgia mixed with superhero adventure. VERY unusual. |
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Florence Bikard |
Me Talk Pretty One Day |
David Sedaris |
Book – essays, humor |
The title essay is about the author’s attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher in Paris. |
|
Lindsey Robrecht |
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness |
Austin Channing Brown |
Non-fiction. Racial justice |
Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. |
|
Steve Sklar |
A Promised Land |
Barack Obama |
Non-fiction book |
Personal account of history from Obama. As Steve said, it’s like having a conversation with the President. |
|
Betty Beeler |
The Hidden History of American Oligarchy |
Thom Hartmann |
Non-fiction book |
How American oligarchs have looted our nation's economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class. |
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Martha Benson |
American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation |
Jon Meacham |
Non-fiction book |
How the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. |
|
Dori Schwartz |
The Romance of American Communism |
Vivian Gornick |
Non-fiction book |
Profiles of American Communist Party members who were inspired by the party in the 1st half of the 20th century and left in disillusionment or went underground in the following decades. |
|
Hermione Gee |
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America |
Chris Hedges |
Non-fiction book |
Hedges is the son of a Presbyterian pastor who attacks the Christian right as someone steeped in Bible and Christian tradition. He exposes the Christian right’s burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. |
|
Dirt: Adventures, with Family, in the Kitchens of Lyon, Looking for the Origins of French Cooking |
Bill Buford |
Memoir |
Expansion of author’s article that appeared in the New Yorker. The author attends the Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon. |
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The Bulwark |
Charlie Sykes |
Podcast |
Charlie Sykes and guests discuss the latest news. Conservative, conscientious, and civil. |
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The Future is Now: America Confronts the New Genetics |
William Kristol |
Non-fiction book |
Are there moral limits to scientific progress and what life will look like in the genetic age? |
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Hacks on Tap |
David Axelrod and Mike Murphy |
Podcast |
What’s really going on behind the scenes of current events where strategic decisions are being made. Hosted by former campaign managers. |
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Leslie Rocher |
Lyndon Johnson Biography |
Robert A. Caro |
Biography |
Rise to power from poor young man in Texas to D.C. power broker. |
|
Kindred |
Octavia Butler |
Historical/ Science Fiction |
Cornerstone of black American literature. Combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction. |
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Servant of the Nation |
Starring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy |
TV series - Arte |
Ukrainian political satire created and produced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who stars as a high-school history teacher who is unexpectedly elected President of Ukraine after a viral video shows him making a profane rant against government corruption in his country. |
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While Justice Sleeps |
Stacey Abrams |
Fiction Legal Thriller |
Young law clerk for a legendary Justice is made legal guardian and has power of attorney for her boss when he slips into a coma. She discovers a conspiracy over a biotech merger. |
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Catherine Coolidge |
Leon the Lobster |
Charles Perez |
Children’s Fiction |
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The Family of Man |
Edward Steichen |
Photography |
Exhibition of photography, The Family of Man opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in January 1955. Catherine remembers having the book in her childhood home. |
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Interfeel |
Antonin Atger |
French novel |
Nathan and his friends are constantly connected to Interfeel, a social network that allows them to share their emotions. |
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Sam Cannarozzi |
Manhattan Transfer |
John Dos Passos |
Fiction |
Expressionistic picture of New York in the 1920s that reveals the lives of wealthy power brokers and struggling immigrants. |
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Trickster |
Lewis Hyde |
Non-fiction |
Comparisons of the old mythologies--Hermes in Greece, Eshu in West Africa, Krishna in India, Coyote in North America--and holds them up against the recent creators: Picasso, Duchamp, Ginsberg, John Cage, and Frederick Douglass |
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Freedom: The End of the Human Condition |
Jeremy Griffith |
Non-fiction |
breakthrough biological synthesis on the human condition by Australian biologist. Why we have entered the endgame where we appear to have lost the race between self-destruction and self-discovery |