She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sara Smarsh

Who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? I mean, she can sing, has fabulous costumes, has an amusement park and still gives back to her roots. So it’s no surprise that Dolly has a few books written in her honor.

Smarsh’s book is part autobipgraphy, part music analysis and part memoir as she relates her and her grandmother’s rural experience to Dolly’s and what she represents to other demographics.

Dolly’s story is relatable yet aspirational in how she grew up poor but rose to great prominance by navigating the music indutry and gaining confidence to manage her image.

And it may sound overused but you can tell Dolly is authentic in the way she writes and the way she speaks. The big takeaway is that she knows her mind, she knows she has talent and that her heart is what matters more than her appearance. Although she sidesteps it by keeping her philanthropic efforts out of the press and poking fun at her enhanced body and hair.

This relates to her background in a big way as everyone knows that Dolly is not overtly political. Not because she doesn’t care but as an extension of her rural upbringing, she doesn’t have the fancy, Oxford definitions academics and others use to define their ideologies and speeches. Rather she lets her actions and classiness demonstrate that.

If there are three words to describe this book, it’s music, sex and God, and that’s not a bad way to live one’s life.

Unlikely Animal Friendships: 37 Stories of Canine Compassion and Courage by Jennifer S. Holland

The book delivers what it says on the cover. 37 heartwarming tales filled with adorable pictures of man’s best friend.

Some highlights include Popeye the mastiff who saved 17 horses.

Naki’o the bionic dog who lost two front libs but thanks to a donation by OrthoPets can walk and represent the disabled community.

New Zealand has two greater Keepers in Middle Island. Two Maremma dogs who protect the penguins from the fox population.

The Don’t Throw Us Away project pairs prisoners like Candido with dogs like Sam in order to teach empathy, and real life skills for when they get out.

The Bent menangerie in England includes Oreo the Racoon (a familiar face to Guardians of the Galaxy fans) and their dogs, Poppy and Peggy with meerkats, and pigs.

Finally, the Working Dogs for Conservation in Montana help count animals in populated areas, find evasive species and poacher traps in US and other countries like Zambia.

This Side of Home by Renee Watson

Watson brings a nuanced look into the gentrification of Maya’s predominantly black neighborhood. Not so much anymore as longtime neighbors and friends move out of their crumbling buildings only for it to be dozed and replaced by gleaming white and expensive stores.

It doesn’t seem fair. Erasing the history, and pushing out residents when the city and the builders can’t use money to improve the infrastructure.
It’s not much better at school when the new principle is committed to diversity in name only. Rather he is pushing the school to be more attractive to white parents and erasing the blackness of the student body so it’s not “ghetto.”

As Watson does in her other novels, she deftly balances related contemporary issues like misogynoir, interracial dating, classism and colorism while she creates a distinct voice out of Maya.

Plus she introduced me to a really cool woman who should be mentioned more in the history books-Ethel Payne, a black journalist who reported on lynchings, Little Rock 9, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and so many other important events.

Books I read this month

(Little House in Brookefield, Little Town at the Crossroads, On Top of Concord Hill and Across the Rolling River by Celia Wilkins, Mouseford Academy #9-17 by Thea Stilton, The Baby Book of Willy Bob the Squirrel by Libby, Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby, Whales are Amazing. . . Just Like You, Toger the Monarch Butterfly that Couldn’t Fly, The Shenanigans of Slim Pickins and Mister Gull Meets Lady Lobster by Tony Vieham, Parachutes by Kelly Yang, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, This Side of Home by Renee Watson, Tommy and the Wishing Stone, Mother West Wind’s Animal Friends, Mother West Wind’s Neighbors and Mother West Wind’s Children by Edgar Thorton Burgess, Groundbreaking Guys by Stephanie True Peters, The Anathology of Amazing Women by Sandra Lawrence, The Tale of Peter Rabit, Squirrel Nutkin, Gloucester, Benjamin Bunny, Two Bad Mice, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Tom Kitten, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Flopsy Bunnies, Mrs. Tittlemouse, Timmy TipToes, Johnny Town-Mouse, Mr. Tod, Pigling Bland, Samuel Whiskers, The Pie and the Patty-Pan, Ginger and Pickles, Little Pig Robinson, A Fierce Bad Rabbit, Miss Moppet, Apple Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes, and Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter, Ben’s First Chanukah by Jane Baskin, Magic Attic Club Specials #1-4 by Sheri Cooper Sinkin, Disney Girls #1-12 by Gabrielle Charbonnet, BSC in the U.S.A by Ann Martin, Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne, Return to the Hundred Acre Woods by David Benedictus, Roller Girl, All Faire’s in Middle School and When Stars are Scattered (with Omar Mohamed) by Victoria Jamieson, Stupid Cupid trilogy by Rhonda Stapleton, Ariel and the Curse of the Sea Witches, Mulan and the Palace of Secrets and Anna and the Mystery Mountains by Rhona Cleary, Pink & Green trilogy by Lisa Greenwald, The Rescuerers, Miss Bianca and Miss Bianca in the Antartic by Margery Sharp, If Wishes were Horses by Sibley Miller, 11 Birthdays, Finally, 13 Gifts, The Last Present and Graceful by Wendy Mass, Wellspring of Magic by Jan Fields, Jacob, I Have Loved by Katherine Peterson, Pizza Face by Rex Ogle, Gravity Falls: Lost Legends by Alex Hirsch, My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger, Suddenly Super by Jen Calonita, Star Power #1-6 by Catherine Hapka, Rejected Princess and Tough Mothers by Jason Porath, and Girls Who Green by Diane Knapp)

Betty and Veronica Annual comics digest magazine #1

Betty and Veronica comics digest magazine #10

Betty and Veronica Double Digest #19

Archie Andrews Where Are You #24

Archie Comics Digest Magazine #84

Mad House Comics Digest #2-3