By Pooja Makhijani | Jan 08, 2021
What was once considered the archetypical American household a mom and dad of the same racial or ethnic background and in their first marriage, providing care and stability for their 2.2 offspring is now far from the norm. Life choices that decades ago would have been scandalous or illegal, such as divorce, or interracial or same-sex marriage, are now more acceptable and also protected by law. Women, queer people, and others with marginalized identities, especially, have benefitted from these shifts. This is all to say: as family structures have changed, so too has parenting, and so have books for caregivers and about caregiving.
Last year, Lydia Kiesling and her husband decided they couldn’t afford to live in San Francisco anymore. Her husband made a steady income, and Kiesling knew she could bring in a certain amount of money every month as a freelance writer, but housing in San Francisco is notoriously expensive. Just as expensive were preschool and childcare for their two daughters: At one point Kiesling and her husband were paying $3,145 a month for this care, what Kiesling told me would be considered “cheap” for San Francisco prices.
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Kiesling’s husband began a job search that eventually landed their family in Portland, Oregon, where preschool was slightly cheaper, but still a significant chunk of a family’s income. It was also where a years-long campaign for free universal preschool was beginning to ramp up for the 2020 election, led in part by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. After hearing about the campaign from another writer, Kiesling logged onto the Port
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THE CAPITALS CHOKE – AGAIN! “For Caps, just another ‘bad bounce’ for a pantheon filling up fast with them,” by Barry Svrluga in Pittsburgh: “It’s a terrible state of existence when every odd bounce that works against you has to be woven into the tapestry as part of some generations-long drama and a depressing one at that. But it is the very existence of the Washington Capitals, and who knows when or if that will change. Welcome, then, Dmitry Orlov and his right skate to this disaster. They’re part of the story now, like it or not. This is what you need to know:
Travel from the comfort of home with these 11 books
Updated Dec 19, 2020;
Posted Dec 19, 2020
A passenger with a protective face mask and gloves reads a book on March 25, 2020, at Duesseldorf s airport in western Germany. Books used to be a travel accessory; now they re the safest means of travel.Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images
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If you usually take a holiday trip during the last two weeks of the year, you may be feeling bereft this year.
That’s where books can come in handy, offering a chance to escape mentally. Of course, reading about a place isn’t as good as actually being there, but right now reading at home is safer than hitting the road. So, on that note, here are 11 ideas for traveling by book, courtesy of local authors.