Books: Waste and Kamala Harris

Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret is a quick book (around two hundred pages) by someone who specializes on concern about failure of local communities in the U.S. to properly dispose of waste, particularly a poor community in Alabama. She deals with some really famous people (starting with black leaders as a child), but continues to come off as a down to earth woman you might meet in town or church somewhere.

The first half is more autobiographical about her overall road to advocacy, including her family and time as a teacher. Her husband disappears suddenly and we learn she has a daughter (at least) but she too is barely mentioned (suddenly the author is a grandmother!). Not sure why she did that since her personal biography is important and I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering. Personable account of an important subject and it is interesting how as a black woman who naturally would be a liberal gets some support from conservatives, including Jeff Sessions!

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Kamala Harris: I also checked out Kamala Harris' (campaign) biography, also listening to a bit of it on tape before she was elected. It is fine enough -- I skimmed it a bit, including meeting her husband. I noted that the main biography out there of her lacks some personal details. That one has more about her early career (including an older somewhat controversial boyfriend/mentor, who she understandably skips over) though her campaign biography has a bit more about her early life and parents. We still get little on her dad after the divorce.

Neither really gives you a totally complete picture of her. Also, is she unique about that laugh/joy of life thing? Did she get that from her mom? Is her sister like that too? The sister seems a bit more all business, but I say that without having too much to go on. It just seems from what I can tell that her sister -- who is her biggest fan and ally and one wonders what she's doing now -- might be an enforcer type. The sister was a teen mom, which happens, but that's another bit of detail that could be interesting.