Tightrope

Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas D. Kristof take a look at America's problems today with jobs that don't pay well, drug difficulties, the lack of a safety net, and poverty, and they start in their own backyard, looking at people they know personally.

It's a careful look at the promise these people had as children and how these people fell off the tightrope that is today's America.

And then they do more—they look at places that offer solutions to these problems, and they offer these up to us.

Let's hope those who are in charge of the world read this book.

#2020ReadNonFic

This book is about 260 pgs. Within those pages, you're welcomed into the life of the Number 6 school bus kids and general ordinary people doing extraordinary things and the stories that surround them. This book covers most of the issues plaguing our society in one way or another and offers ways that you and I could help fix them. There is an obvious lean to the government intervention solutions, but the authors do leave room for the idea that ordinary people can do things to change our trajectory.

I found this book to be a good reminder of ideas I already support and issues that I was already aware of. I think this would be a great book for anyone who enjoyed Educated by Tara Westover, Hillbilly Elegy, and anyone who would like to know more about why the COVID-19 crisis is particularly distressing for a country, in many ways, already in many, many crises.

This was a really solid read, and as a former Yamhill County resident, it hit close to home. I thought the personal stories were the strongest part, and the connections drawn were good, but it felt like it tried to tackle too many topics in a single book. Overall strong reporting and relevant conclusions.