Sacred Selections: Weekend Reader

Sacred Selections
by Julie, Jarad, and Morty




Here are some of the things the chickens believe you should spend your time reading this weekend.

Julie chose a short story collection that features a small town haunted, both by ghosts and by its racist past. Given the current climate, it tends to feel less like we're haunted by racism and more like it never died in the first place. 

Jarad has two things to recommend this week: The first is the book about the Chimpanzees of Gombe, and Dr. Goodall's extraordinary work done there. The second is a Politico article explaining the White House Press Secretary, and how she manages and attempts to put out the ever present fires at the White House 

Morty recommends a movie that shines a light on poverty in a county near Disneyworld and those that live in the shadows of the happiest place on earth.. 

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Julie recommends Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due

Why?  Many of the stories in this collection take place in a small Southern town, Gracetown, haunted by actual ghosts and its racist past.  Each story is frightening due compelling and suspenseful storytelling and because it reaches into the human heart and finds the monstrous in all of us.

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 Through a Window chronicles Dr. Goodall's experience and observation of the chimpanzees of Gombe over a thirty year period. Though it reads like a novel, none of it is fictionalized.the book teaches about the value of the natural world around us, and how much we can learn from it, which is more valuable than any man-made product that we could devise. 

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Furthermore, you can find the Politico article I mentioned earlier here.  It gives a history and background on the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and how she is uniquely qualified to obscure the truth. 

Morty recommends a movie this time. The Florida Project.  Why? 

The beautiful pastel colored underbelly of Kissimmee, Florida where many people live firmly outside the boundaries of the dreams of Disney World and Universal studios.  It's a story about poverty without condescension, a juxtaposition of innocence and reality that bites and heals at once.  Even an old dead guy like me got emotions from this thing.  Just watch it.  I'm dead serious. 

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