Adapted from an online discussion.
Washington
The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (March 17)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles
This month’s books take us from pre-Civil War America to the modern-day politics, the rise of Silicon Valley, and the future of the planet.
For 140 years, people have been reading, praising and condemning “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Well, get ready to see Mark Twain’s classic in a strikingly different light.
Percival Everett, the author of “Erasure” (the novel that inspired the Academy Award-winning film “American Fiction”), has just published a new book called “James” (Doubleday).
It retells “Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Huck’s enslaved friend, Jim. And believe me, that one change changes everything.
With this comic, sometimes terrifying story, Everett delivers a sharp satire of racism, and more than one shocking surprise.
READ AN EXCERPT: “James” by Percival Everett
“James” by Percival Everett (Doubleday), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Also by Percival Everett: “Dr. No” (Book excerpt)
“Great Expectations” – no, not that one – is a new novel by Vinson Cunningham, a theater critic for The New Yorker. Inspired by his own experiences, it tells the story of a young man who gets a job as a fundraiser for the presidential campaign of a Black senator from Illinois. Now, the candidate is never named, but you’ll figure it out from Cunningham’s pitch-perfect descriptions.
The real subject, though, is this thoughtful narrator, raised in a Pentecostal church, looking at the candidate and his wealthy donors, and trying to figure out what kind of man he’ll become in a nation woven from money and faith.
READ AN EXCERPT: “Great Expectations” by Vinson Cunningham
“Great Expectations” by Vinson Cunningham (Hogarth), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Vinson Cunningham at The New Yorker
Téa Obreht has written magical tales involving tigers in the Balkans and camels in the Arizona Territory. Her new novel, “The Morningside” (Random House), is set in a future ravaged by climate change.
An 11-year-old girl named Silvia has immigrated with her mother to an island city that will remind you of New York. There they live with Silvia’s aunt who’s in charge of a once-grand high-rise apartment building.
But unable to go to school, Silvia turns her curious mind to her strange neighbors – particularly one woman who owns three unusual dogs that may turn into men during the day.
READ AN EXCERPT: “The Morningside” by Téa Obreht
“The Morningside” by Téa Obreht (Random House), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
teaobreht.com
Kara Swisher has been chronicling the wonders and shenanigans of Silicon Valley since people were dialing up AOL to hear “You’ve got mail.”
Now, in her new memoir, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” (Simon & Schuster), Swisher takes us through her journey as a reporter who not only covered the rise of the Web, but became one of its leading voices – even as she became increasingly disillusioned with the arrogance of Internet billionaires and their reckless empires.
All the usual suspects are here – Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and others – along with Swisher’s signature bravado and insightful criticism.
READ AN EXCERPT: “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” by Kara Swisher
“Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” by Kara Swisher (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Kara Swisher, host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher and co-host of Pivot
For more suggestions on what to read, contact your librarian or local bookseller.
That’s it for the Book Report. I’m Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!
For more info:
For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles:
Produced by Robin Sanders and Roman Feeser.
Washington
Advice | Carolyn Hax: Fiancé secretly tracks ‘gold digger’s’ contribution to shared home
We have been working like mad on fixing the house up to get it ready for our wedding. Neither of us is very experienced with DIY, so it’s been a difficult, stressful process and caused some tension between us. We were discussing what kind of flooring to get for the front hall, and I wanted the more expensive but easier-to-work-with stuff. We got into a fight that escalated to the point of him accusing me of being a gold digger who was after his money. I was in shock and asked him why he would think that, and he said, “Because you told me about how you grew up poor,” and he’s had the thought in the back of his head since we bought the house. He told me he has a spreadsheet where he keeps track of how much he’s spent on me versus how much I’ve spent on him and he has spent thousands more on me, not even counting the money his parents gave us.
I told him that didn’t sound right since we split all costs 50/50, and he admitted it included my engagement ring. It is a family heirloom his great-aunt gave him, but he was counting the value of it.
Later he apologized, but I’m still hurt and angry. I feel paranoid that maybe his family said something. I’m really sad that all this time I’ve been loving him and thinking he was wonderful, and he’s been thinking this way about me and even documenting it so he could throw it in my face.
He’s said the spreadsheet is just an “anxiety thing” and he loves me and wants us to work on fixing things. I think I do, too, but then I think of what he said and I get overwhelmed. How can I get over this?
“Gold Digger”: Whoo. I don’t know. I don’t know that I could.
He not only has kept the thought in the back of his mind for months? years? that you have poor values and ulterior motives and can’t be trusted, but kept records in the event he needs to prove it.
I wish I had a more hopeful answer for you. But he either lashed out impulsively and didn’t mean it, or accidentally told the truth — those are the only two choices — and the first is a stretch when there’s a spreadsheet as evidence of the second.
Plus, the first is so vicious in its own right.
He says he loves you, okay. But trusts? Respects? Believes in?
Does he feel lucky every day to be the person you chose?
Best case, “just an ‘anxiety thing,’” still casts you as a threat to be controlled. So the “work on fixing things” doesn’t sound like DIY, but instead couples counseling at the least.
The family paranoia, by the way, is wasted stress — each of you stands on your own authority in choosing your partner, 100 percent, or you’re not ready to be anyone’s partner. If he’s that susceptible to their influence, then the problem is still between the two of you, so that’s where your attention belongs.
Washington
Trump ally who denies 2020 election results threatens law enforcement
The “Cyber Crisis: Saving Tina Peters” event was aimed at rallying support for the former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., who faces charges accusing her of tampering with election equipment three years ago. Peters has pleaded not guilty, and her case goes to trial next week.
Byrne called out law enforcement and prosecutors during the forum, saying they would face violence if they did not drop the case.
“If you have any brains at all, which I’m not sure they do, they should be throwing in the towel and just surrendering and dropping this case against Tina because those who don’t are going to end up facing a piano wire and a blowtorch before this is over if I have anything to do with it,” Byrne said. “So I know that’s probably another felony, but f— it — threatening them like that — but there we are.”
Byrne, who said he was participating in the event from Azerbaijan, accused law enforcement of committing treason and claimed he had been hacking Venezuela’s government for two years.
“I don’t care how many felonies I’ve committed, and I don’t care that I’m committing felonies by threatening you,” he said of law enforcement. “You folks do your job or when this is over, the folks who are part of this are going to be facing, you know, piano wire and blowtorches before this is over. So you start doing your job and stop worrying about me.”
Byrne said Friday that his comments were “obviously a metaphor.”
“Please be aware that my turns of phrase like that are metaphoric expressions,” he said by text message. “There’s been no one more committed to peaceful resolution of this than I.”
He said his views on peace do not extend to people like former ambassador Manuel Rocha, who pleaded guilty this year to serving as a secret agent for Cuba for decades. “The only exception to peaceful resolution will be for any who turn out of Cuba and Venezuela, such as ambassador Rocha,” Byrne said by text message.
Byrne noted it was 4 a.m. in Azerbaijan when he participated in the event on X, and he may not have spoken as carefully as he otherwise would.
Spokespeople for the Colorado attorney general’s office and Mesa County district attorney’s office did not immediately comment Friday.
Byrne’s comments come three-and-a-half months ahead of the presidential election, as scholars, law enforcement agencies and election administrators raise alarms about the risk of political violence. Election officials have faced an onslaught of threats and harassment since the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob chanting about Donald Trump’s false election claims.
Two weeks ago, Trump was injured during an assassination attempt that left one of his supporters dead at a rally in Butler, Pa. The violence fueled new warnings of the risk to public officials and ordinary Americans, regardless of their political views.
Before today’s combustible political environment, the phrases Byrne used might have prompted outreach by authorities to advise against using such language, said Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney under President George W. Bush. These days, state and federal officials tend to take such talk more seriously. Byrne’s language, he said, “sounds not only like a threat but a confession and an acknowledgment that it could be a felony to make such a threat.”
Words alone can be sufficient to prosecute threats against public officials if authorities can show proof of intent to do harm, he said.
“That is an instance in which, in my mind, it is very much worth law enforcement’s attention,” Charlton said.
Byrne’s repeated references to the Peters trial — and the prosecutors involved in it — are important aspects of his overall comments, said Carol Lam, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California who was also appointed by Bush.
“Because he references a specific trial and he’s talking about the people who are bringing the case, that should be very troubling to law enforcement,” she said. Even if he said he was speaking metaphorically, she added, “What does that matter if someone went out and bought piano wire at his suggestion?”
Two hours after The Washington Post contacted Byrne, he posted a statement on X that reiterated what he told a reporter about meaning his comments metaphorically. He said he wanted people to remain peaceful, but added information would come out that would “test our ability to remain peaceful and my ability to contribute to that cause.”
Byrne used this week’s online forum to argue for dropping the charges against Peters, who is accused of participating in a scheme to allow a purported data expert to secretly copy files from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in 2021. She faces seven felonies and three misdemeanors in a case that is scheduled to go to trial on Wednesday.
He has long championed Peters and others who have questioned the results of the 2020 election. Four days after members of the electoral college voted to give Biden a victory in December 2020, Byrne joined other Trump allies in the Oval Office to argue Trump could use the National Guard to seize voting machines. Also in the meeting were Trump-aligned attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
In the years since, Byrne has used his fortune and his nonprofit America Project to bankroll efforts meant to uncover problems with how elections are run, including a partisan review of the 2020 election in Arizona. Byrne and the America Project have helped fund groups like We the People Ariz. Alliance, an Arizona-based political action committee whose co-founder in March said she would “lynch” a Republican official who helps oversee elections in the state’s largest county. She later said her comment was a joke.
Courts and independent agencies have found no evidence of widespread election fraud.
Byrne led Overstock for two decades. He resigned in 2019 after it came to light that he had been romantically involved with Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate conservative politics in the United States. She was deported after serving a 15-month prison sentence. Byrne published a memoir this year that included a preface by Butina.
Dominion, the voting machine company, filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Byrne in 2021. The case is ongoing. Dominion won settlements of $787.5 million with Fox News and $243 million with Newsmax and is seeking $1 billion or more from Giuliani, Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.
Washington
Video. Protesters rally in Washington during Biden's meeting with Netanyahu
Updated:
Gaza war protesters took to the streets outside of the White House in Washington DC, where President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Gaza war protesters took to the streets outside of the White House in Washington DC, where President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Chanting “Arrest Netanyahu,” the protestors brought in an effigy of the Israeli leader wearing an orange jumpsuit with blood on its hands.
A label on the jumpsuit read: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
Protesters poured red liquid from jugs onto the street across from nearby Lafayette Park. A speaker said it “symbolised the blood of the Palestinians.” Holding up blood smeared hands, they yelled: “Shame!” and chanted: “You are stealing Gaza’s blood!”
A small number of counter-protesters wore Israeli flags around their shoulders.
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