August's Books

I grew up in Milwaukee and worked in housing enforcement for some years, so this book, Evicted,  drew my interest. It is an ethnography of eight families—some living in a predominately black, poor neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side, and the others in a trailer park on the edge of the city’s south side, an area that is historically white. Some of the people that are central to the book are Arleen, an African-American single mother of two boys; Scott, a nurse and heroin addict; Lamarr, who lost both his legs to frostbite; and Venetta, who participates in a holdup after her hours are cut at work. The only people who profit from the renters’ hardships are the landlords—Sherrena, a former teacher turned slumlord, and Tobin, the out of state trailer park owner. The author, a Harvard associate professor and winner of a MacArthur genius grant, advocates for a universal housing voucher program, so that tenants don’t have to spend most of their income on substandard housing.

 

Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbol
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
I Shot the Buddha by Colin Cotterill
Slayground by Richard Stark
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Evicted: poverty and profit in the American city by Matthew Desmond
This Old Murder by Valerie Wolzien
December Dread by Jess Lourey