Books

Learning To See

~ Martha B.

#17. Street Photography- Two photographers, Helen Levitt and Martha Cooper, took to the urban streets to capture kids at play. The photo (above) was taken by Levitt in 1939. The photo (below) was taken by Cooper in the late 1970s. Though the images are separated by forty years, the kids remained pretty much the same- roaming freely whole city blocks far from home and parents. They also made creative use of abandoned buildings and chain link fencing to test their courage and climbing skills. Interesting, too, that neither photographer bothered to tell the kids to get down.

On My Reading List

~ Martha B.

#23. Biography- ‘ Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life’ by Sally Bedell Smith, 2017

“…’Poor Charles’ was the constant refrain in my researches. It was spoken in despair by those who loved him, with sarcasm by those who resented him. Despite his gilded upbringing- the palaces and leafy retreats, the cosseting and automatic deference- his was a life of frustration. His every step along the way was inspected and analyzed: his promise, his awkwardness, his happiness, his suffering, his betrayals and embarrassments and mistakes, his loneliness, his successes- and especially his relentless search for meaning, approval, and love…”

On My Reading List

~ Martha B.

#22. ‘Hillbilly Elegy- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis‘ by J.D. Vance, 2016

” Like most small children, I learned my home address so that if I got lost, I could tell a grown-up where to take me. In kindergarten, when the teacher asked me where I lived, I could recite the address without skipping a beat, even though my mother changed addresses frequently, for reasons I never understood as a child. Still, I always distinguished ‘my address’ from ‘my home.’ My address was where I spent most of my time with my mother and sister, wherever that might be. But my home never changed: my great-grandmother’s house, in the holler, in Jackson, Kentucky…”