HOW SURVIVALISTS and ANARCHISTS BROUGHT ME TO THREE BOOKS

It’s really hard to avoid the news. Sometimes I want it and other times it overwhelms me. When I see how divided our country is and how it is affecting us, I wonder if foreign interference into our elections is turning these groups, along with the disenfranchised, who already feel deprived of being heard, into a rallying cry and a call to action.

I must not be the only reader interested in this phenomenon because three of the first four books on my list of popular audiobooks on my Libby app suggested HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, by Delis Owens, and EDUCATED by Tara Westover, which all cover aspects of this subject.

We have heard of how the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer-especially the top one percent-but I want to know more about the mindset of those who feel they have no hope, and are excluded from the promise of an America where ambitions and dreams are supposed to be attainable. And what causes some to mistrust the government institutions formerly loved and depended upon by so many.

These three books are tremendous reads, taught me so much about these unique challenges, and in the three examples, how persons CAN succeed against all odds.