Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

Book Reviews

Midnight in Chernobyl

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By Adam Higginbotham

Yikes! What else is Russian not telling us? They cut corners in building nuclear plants in the 1970’s and never told anyone about the problems they had. When Three Mile Island had their accident, Russia had already had a number of accidents, but no one knew about it.

Chernobyl was scary how bad it was and how many people had been contaminated, but even scarier in that the government tried to hide the issues over and over and over. Even when responsible Russians who worked on the project raised issues, no one wanted to talk about it. Then it blew up.

This book is filled with inside information and details on what happened. If you are remotely interested in understanding how nuclear power works and, in some cases, does not work, this book is for you.

Just Mercy: Story of Justice and Redemption

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By Bryan Stevenson

Bryan is an attorney who has devoted his life to helping people of color, the poor, and children who are caught up in the justice (injustice) system. This book pissed me off at times knowing that white, privileged people took advantage of their privilege and biases, and locked up innocent people many, many times. Too often, these privileged white people were judges and police officers. It makes me angry just typing this.

Attorney Stevenson created the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery Alabama whose mission initially was representing people on death row whose trials were flawed and at times, totally dishonest. Note: At the time of this book in 2014 there were 152 people who were sentenced to death who ultimately were deemed innocent. With that many problems, we should not be killing anyone anymore, ever again.

EJI also took on the challenge of representing children who have been imprisoned for life. Yes, as young as 13 and 14 years old! Many times, non-homicidal convictions. These young teens are just beginning to mature and are typically a few years away from being able to make adult decisions. This age group, especially males, loves risk-taking and adventure, and at times, yes they do illegal things. I did too at that age. But if I had been locked up with adults, my life would have been lost. And the trauma of being a 13-year-old in prison with adults was horrible. In nearly every case he shared with us, these kids were sexually abused numerous times. It is disgusting what our criminal justice (injustice) system does.

Death row should be stopped. If they have found 152 innocent people by 2014, how many others are there? People need to be held accountable for their actions, I get it. But it needs to be fairly done with hope for the people to recover and possibly live their lives. I am sure some people should be locked up for life, but not children. Because of the work of EJI, they got the Supreme Court to agree that children should be tried as children and given a chance. But it took years to get this done.

Everyone should read this book to understand how the system has worked for years.

If you want to learn more about working with Justice-Involved clients, check out the EJI.org website and consider taking this seminar, Career Readiness for Justice-Involved Citizens taught by Dr. Bret Anderson.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

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Loved this book with all the character development of a family of sisters in the Chicago area. The lesson here for me is that people are not always what they appear. The author does a great job of showing us the different sisters and William who ends up marrying into the family and that their actions do not always reflect what is going on inside them.

The pain and struggles within the family come out throughout the book, often in unexpected ways. My heart went out to each person’s struggles in a different way as the family grew apart over the years. There were times I cried just thinking about how difficult it must have been for them individually.

There is so much more I’d like to say but I don’t want to give away any of the surprise twists and turns throughout this book. Let me just say, this is a wonderful book and I hope you enjoy reading it someday.

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

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By Heather Cox Richardson

Whew…America is in a dark place right now with money running politics and so much power in the hands of a few extremely rich people (oligarchy). The author does a great job at giving us a historical view of our situation from the beginning of our country and what our founding fathers wanted to happen (and not happen) to the late 1800’s – early 1900’s when a small group of very rich men (think oligarchy again) were running our country. Their goal was to keep the power with rich white men and keep people of color and women in their place. (sound familiar?)

I appreciate Richardson’s ability to explain our current situation in this broader context and also bring insight to the people who are trying to destroy democracy today. It continues to amaze me how so many people can be following one person over the cliff of democracy and not see Trump for who he is. But its not just Trump, it is a wide range of people that really began to come together with Ronald Reagan and their belief of “trickle down economy” that gives more money to the rich few white men with the false belief they will share it with the common people. This theory has never proven right….except that the rich get richer.

And look at our country now with the wage gap so high between the middle class and the few extremely wealthy population.

Our country was founded on the tension of democracy and that we would never welcome an autocrat. George Washington left office when he could have easily stayed for many years, but he wanted this country to never have a “king” or an autocrat. We are at a turning point in our country now. If Trump is reelected he has already stated he is a Putin supporter and we already witnessed how he threw out past protocol and he put in only supporters. If they wavered, they were fired and replaced with bigger supporters. That was his kingdom and he wants it back.

I want our democracy. I hope Richardson is correct in that our democracy is awakening.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

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By David Grann

The atrocities committed against the Osage Native Americans in the early 1900’s are horrible. I had no idea this happened in our history and I am so glad to see history saved here.

The Osage Tribe owned the land and the mine rights below it. Even when the land was sold, the mining rights remained with the Osage. Once oil was found, they were millionaires. Per capita they were the richest people in the USA at that time.

But the white American’s saw an opportunity to swindle the money out of them, by marrying into the headlights, and by killing 100’s of Osage. The is a horrific documentation of the some of the deaths and the terrible people behind them.

I want to watch the movie now to see how they portray the characters. This should be taught in the schools and never forgotten.

Bald Eagles, Bear Cubs and Hermit Bill. Memories of a Maine Wildlife Biologist

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By Ron Joseph

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ron as he shared so many wonderful stories about Maine wildlife and much history of the State of Maine. I loved his stories about being in a logging camp with mostly Quebecois loggers and how he nearly lost his life falling through the ice.

He takes the reader on a walk through the woods and back in time with his life as a biologist sharing when he helped tag some bear cubs, helping to save the bald eagle in Maine from DDT, and a number of people stories to bring his life and love of the outdoors alive.

I met Ron Joseph through a number of mutual friends in the Waterville area where I live and have always wanted to sit with him and learn more about the backwoods of Maine which I love so much. I have not had the chance to sit with him and hear his stories, but this book is a great replacement until I do.