Southern Bookman

Brian Kemp ties Georgia's economic future to Rivian's electric vehicle dreams

Exuberant Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp might be excused for his hyperbole about Rivian's massive electric truck factory coming to a rural outpost east of Atlanta.

Kemp called the $5 billion Rivian plant "the largest single economic development project in the state's history." 

Georgians hearing the news might ask "what's Rivian?" and wonder why the startup company's plant will be bigger than the Atlanta Airport, the Savannah Port, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, and so on.

The governor's jubilation at the Georgia State Capitol festivities is not misplaced: Rivian said the plant will employ 7,500 workers and turn out up to 400,000 vehicles a year. The state gave economic incentives estimated at around $400 million to attract the Irvine, Calif.-based company, which also reportedly considered a site near Fort Worth, Texas.  

Rivan raised nearly $12 billion in its initial public offering last month and is valued at $90 billion, more than Ford and General Motors.

Begun in 2009, the electric vehicle company has orders for 71,000 of its electric vehicles.

On the negative side, it's falling behind production at its initial plant in Bloomington-Normal, Ill., where fewer than 3,000 vehicles will be made this year, and lost $2.2 billion for the year through September.

As Neil Sedaka would say, ramping up is hard to do.

Founded by CEO R.J. Scaringe, Rivian is vying to take a major share of the transformation to electric vehicles, despite intense competition from Tesla, GM, Ford and Japanese and European automakers. The company has attracted an impressive lineup of investors, such as Cox Enterprises, Ford and Amazon, which has ordered a fleet of vans from the company.

Operations will begin in 2024 at the nearly 2,000-acre site between the small communities of Social Circle and Rutledge, which haven't experienced such a disruption since Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's army came through. Work beginning in 2022 will bring an end to the rural way of life treasured by longtime residents.

Global operations upon which Rivian's ambitions depend will also bring severe environmental costs. As electric vehicle manufacturing increases, the need for essential materials will rise, causing devastation from lithium mining in Bolivia and cobalt mining in Africa's Congo, according to recent investigative articles in The New York Times.

Rivian has received glowing reviews for the small number of trucks produced so far. But Rivian will be challenged to garner a major slice of the market from Ford's new electric F-150, GM pickups and vehicles from Toyota and Tesla.

While Kemp's Republican Party denies climate change, his deal with Rivian marks Georgia's second major investment in electric vehicles, considered essential in reducing carbon emissions. SK Battery is completing an electric battery factory in Commerce, Ga., for which the company received massive state incentives, although apparently less than Rivian's. 

Kemp, who will make the factory announcement a main component of his re-election effort, has linked Georgia's future to Rivian's. Perhaps one day the electric truck company will define the Peach State as much as Coca-Cola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Shirley McBay, distinguished champion of black achievement in math, sceince

Shirley McBay heroically fought for black students' excelling in math, science and technology.

The first black to receive a doctorate from the University of Georgia, the esteemed educator died Nov. 27 at age 86 at her home in Los Angeles.

During her academic career, Dr. McBay developed a stellar science program at Atlanta's Spelman College, developed and led a minority education project at the National Science Foundation and raised opportunities for black students as dean of student affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as leader of the university's Quality Education for Minorities Network.

A native of Bainbridge, Ga., where she showed a proficiency for math at an early age, Dr. McBay entered the University of Georgia's PhD program in mathematics in 1964, three years after the university's desegregation, according to The New York Times. She received her doctorate in 1966, the university's first awarded to a black student. She was also the first woman to receive a mathematics doctorate from the school.

She'd already received master's degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University, when she entered UGA. Turning down an offer from UGA, she taught for nine years at Spelman, the noted historically black women's college. She created Spelman's Division of Natural Sciences, which dispelled myths that blacks, and women, can't achieve in science and math. More black women with science and engineering doctorates have undergraduate degrees from Spelman than any other institution, according to the Times.

As dean at MIT, she sought to bring more minority students into science, technology, engineering and math, not only at MIT but throughout higher education.

After a study into why black students weren't better represented in science studies, she concluded that "educational opportunities for most minority youth, and hence their educational attainments, lag behind the chances, choices and performance of the nonminority," the Times reported. "The present system of education learning in a mass education for mass production model is inadequate to the demands the 21st century will place on the nation."

As black and Latino students fall further behind in math and science education, Dr. McBay's achievements are a model for the nation to follow. 

 

Catching up with Antonioni's "Blowup," after Godard's "Breathless"

Continuing my tour of the TCM Classics collection on HBO Max, I saw another 1960s avant garde masterpiece I'd somehow missed through the years: Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blowup."

Ironically, I'd recently read Rex Reed's barbed interview with Antonioni conducted before the release of the 1966 film that starred David Hemmings and a young and impossibly thin Vanessa Redgrave exchanging cryptic non sequiturs in mod-era swinging London.

The Antonioni interview, in which the Italian director expresses his contempt for famous actors and filming in Rome, is the first piece in Reed's New Journalism collection, "Do You Sleep in the Nude," which also includes Reed's famous profile of Ava Gardner. Antonioni in the interview does have a good word for Jeanne Moreau.

As the cryptic, ultracool photographer Thomas, Hemmings in "Blowup" spends a lot of time cruising around a suprisingly sedate London in a Rolls convertible equipped with a two-way radio in which he talks to a mysterious switchboard operator.

After a pointless encounter at an antiques shop, the film's key moment takes place in a London park, which Antonioni had painted a brighter shade of green.

Thomas discovers Redgrave's Jane beginning a tryst with a lover, and takes voyeuristic photos of the couple. When Jane notices Thomas, he flees, and she pursues him, somehow abandoning her paramour. She demands the photos, which Thomas refuses to give her. In a subsequent illogical sequence, Jane comes to Thomas' maze-like studio, and they have a flirtatious encounter, in which they smoke marijuana and she bares her breasts.

After she leaves with a different roll of film, he develops the park photos and discovers that her lover had been murdered. The rest of the film details his moral failure to report the crime to police and whether it was real or imagined.

The movie closes with Thomas observing, and getting involved with, an imaginary tennis game enacted by members of a mime troupe. The game reflects his insubstantial life.

I'd preceded "Blowup" with Jean-Luc Godard's  1960 counterculture classic"Breathless." Set in Paris and  starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, "Breathless" set the stage for "Blowup." The films' mirror-image dreamlike plots feature amoral heroes who react impulsively to events with a nihilistic existentialism. Godard's influence over Antonioni is apparent, although "Blowup's" scenes are more composed and the narrative more compelling.

Although I'd never seen "Blowup," I did see Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point" when it came out in 1970. Keeping with his disdain for well-known actors, the director cast unknowns Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin for the lead roles, along with the B-list star Rod Taylor.

"Zabriskie Point,"  a surrealistic look at the already waning student protest movement in the United States, was a box-office disaster. The outlandish plot eviscerated American capitalism. Despite its absurd situations, the movie with its visual imagery and stunning landscapes left an impression on me - I still remember the desert love scenes between Frechette and Halprin. Critics now laud the film as a cinematic landmark.

Both Frechette and Halprin were members of Mel Lyman's Fort Hill Coummunity in Boston's Roxbury, one of the several fascinating stories in Ryan H. Walsh's  study of Boston's counterculture, "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968."

After an ill-fated bank robbery attempt, Frechette died at age 27 in a Masschusetts prison, while Halprin married Dennis Hopper, with whom she had a child. At 72, she remains active as an arts therapist.

As with "Breathless, " Antonioni's films are marred by fatuous moments that expose the 1960s' fraudulence. The films also display the era's cinematic freedom.

 

 

 

Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand bring Christmas greetings with "The Tragedy of Macbeth."

For a Christmas movie, "The Tragedy of Macbeth?"

Doesn't sound like "It's a Wonderful Life."

Denzel Washington stars as the Scottish king lured into murder by Lady Macbeth, portrayed by Frances McDormand. The film, directed by Joel Coen in his first solo offering separated from his brother, Ethan, opens in theaters Dec. 25, with Apple TV streaming beginning Jan. 14.

Early reviews, and Maureen Dowd's compelling profile of Washington in The New York Times Sunday Styles section recently, indicate that Coen's film is a somber, faithful rendition of Shakespeare's grim tragedy. Even the witches sound authentic.

McDormand, who's married to Joel Coen, has been playing increasingly desperate characters. Lady Macbeth is in line with her recent performances. Presumably, she won't resort to that Minnesota accent she used in the Coen Brothers' "Fargo."

Washington is known for bringing authenticity to a variety of characters, and he'll likely discover new depths in the famous role. A veteran Shakespearean actor,  he'll deliver a memorable MacBeth. But will even his most steadfast fans who loved him as a high school football coach and honest Pittsburgh sanitation worker accept him as a homicidal villain?

A comedy like "As You Like It" or "12th Night" would appear more appealing as a holiday film. No matter how well-acted, "The Tragedy of Macbeth" matches our pandemic-haunted, politically volatile time all too well. A Hallmark TV movie anyone?

 

Christmas spirit flows at festive Atlanta gatherings on Peachtree

Decked out with glowing giant Christmas trees, Peachtree Road looked like one of the world's great streets Sunday evening.

Traffic surged through midtown Atlanta, its soaring buildings emblazoned with signs for King and Spalding, Alston and Bird and Jones Day. Those proclamations of American commerce towered above holiday lights and a festive spirit in the air.

We headed to the bustling Woodruff Arts Center to hear a long-awaited performance by Wynnton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. A Christmas gift from our daughter in 2019, the concert was originally scheduled for March 2020. Before covid halted the Marsalis show, we'd gone to Symphony Hall on Valentine's Day 2020 to hear Tony Bennett, our last pre-Covid event.

On Saturday before the rescheduled Marsalis concert, we'd enjoyed another return to a joyful gathering, the Mercer University Press literary luncheon at bit farther north up Peachtree at the Intercontinental Hotel. As a heavy rain raged outside, friends of the press greeted each other as if at a homecoming.

Southern author Rick Bragg, poet Billy Collins and best-selling writer Malcolm Gladwell gave entertaining and inspiring readings. An impressive lineup of Mercer authors signed books, and an eclectic selection of Mercer titles were on sale.

On Sunday night, the bustling Woodruff Center lobby also buzzed with joy at normal life returning.

Along with the Marsalis Orchestra performance, the audience was arriving for the Alliance Theater's "A Christmas Carol," an Atlanta holiday tradition.

The Woodruff required proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test to enter the performances, and mask wearing was strictly enforced.

In honor of Marsalis' late father, Ellis, an early Covid victim, I wore my Louisiana mask. The Marsalises are one of New Orleans' prominent musical families.

During the concert, Marsalis' rolicking New Orleans accent gave me a sense of home. While giving the spotlight to other accomplished musicians in the orchestra, he introduced the songs and gave genial commentary, mainly playing a supporting role along with a couple of masterful trumpet solos.

The musicians gave a high-level jazz polish to a light-hearted selection of songs. Young vocalist Alita Moses gamely swung through chestnuts like "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" and Louis Armstrong's novelty "Zat You Santa Claus?," as the orchestra took musical flights. Moses' gorgeous voice made me wish that she’d performed more substantial holiday numbers like "Winter Wonderland" or Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"

Moses showed the potential of those absent classics with a rousing bluesy performance of the spiritual "Mary Had a Baby."  Orchestra leader Marcus Printip's orginal song "I'm Still Here for Christmas" sounded like a classic in her rendition.

Along with warm tributes to Armstrong and John Coltrane, Marsalis mildly castigated the big band leader Percy Faith for sentimentalizing jazz by replacing vibrant brass progressions with lush string arrangements. But the orchestra's rendition of Faith's "Brazilian Sleigh Bells," arranged by bass player Carlos Henriquez, was a highlight.

The group also memorably evoked Coltrane with a stunning performance of "A Few of My Favorite Things."  Arranged by sax player Ted Nash, the performance encompassing five soprano saxophones echoed Coltrane's genius.

In introducing the number, Marsalis playfully referenced jazz purists lambasting Coltrane's playing soprano saxophone in his rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein confection from "The Sound of Music." To further stir up the critics, he said Nash decided to showcase five of the discounted instruments.

Looking at those gathered at the Mercer Luncheon and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performance, I wanted to shout "God Bless Us, Every One."

 

MSNBC's Brian Williams says farewell to "11th Hour"

Brian Williams left MSNBC's "11th Hour" Thursday night with a dire warning.

"I'm not a liberal or a conservative. I'm an institutionalist," Williams said before his final signoff at midnight, ending a 28-year career at NBC.

"I believe in this place and in my love of country. I yield to no one. But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to main roads." Williams said. "Grown men and women who swore an oath to our constitution, elected by their constituents … have decided to join the mob and become something they are not." 

"That should scare you to no end."

The 62-year-old Williams recently announced he'd leave the network after hosting the 11 p.m.-midnight show for six years, a soothing nightcap during the turbulent Trump political era.

Before establishing "The 11th Hour" as an essential news show, he held the anchor chair of the network's 6 p.m. newscast for 11 years, losing the prestigious position because of exaggerated claims about his coverage of volatile news events.

He salvaged his career and received widespread acclaim for "The 11th Hour" and his solid performance as MSNBC's anchor for the 2016 presidential election and other events.

As he emphasized during his farewell, the urbane and witty Williams focused on conversations with reporters, historians, political leaders, cultural personalities and writers rather than his opinions. His collegial style was a refreshing contrast to the shrill rants of MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes earlier in the evening.

After Hayes’ and Maddow's broadsides, the "11th Hour’s” calm colloquy followed the less volatile partisanship of Lawrence O'Donnell's "The Last Word," the title made obsolete by Williams' show.

While subtly skewering Donald Trump and the GOP's increasing political violence, Williams brought a journalistic objectivity all too rare in cable TV. His erudite yet colloquial style reminded me of 1960s talk-show host Jack Paar.

Like "Washington Week in Review" and the Sunday talk shows, Williams' "11th Hour" was essential for political watchers. He mixed sophistication with a common-sense, next-door neighbor practicality.

Outside of politics, he also featured writers and cultural celebrities. A clip Thursday night showed a past appearance by fellow New Jersey native Steve Van Zandt.

Williams sought to keep his final show focused on politics. But after MSNBC host Nicole Wallace, Williams' close friend, broke away for a tribute, Williams received accolades from Washingon Post White House reporter Phil Rucker, Post columnist Gene Robinson, political consultant James Carville and presidential historians Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham. 

Still, the show had substantial analysis of the House committee's investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection, especially from Rucker and Robinson, whose column I now religiously read after first seeing him on Williams' show.

Carville, wearing an LSU Christmas cap, forcefully called upon Democrats to acclaim the accomplishments of the Biden administration and better inform voters about the Build-Back Better legislation. (A zippier name would be a start,)  Carville also castigated rabid GOP House members Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.

Expressing thanks to his viewers, Williams at the end of the show expressed hope for a new chapter.

"I'll show myself out until we meet again,"  he said.

Farewell, Angela Merkel, Germany's frugal grandma

I felt unexpected sadness at Angela Merkel's farewell.

Germany's chancellor for 16 years, dating back to the George W. Bush administration, Merkel gave up the post Wednesday to someone named Olaf Scholz. A Social Democrat, he's a bit further left than Merkel, a Christian Democrat.

Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany before the collapse of the Soviet Union, gave me confidence that Germany would remain stable. She was like a practical, dowdy grandmother, who dominated Europe with tough love. She was overly harsh on dissolute Mediterranean countries like Greece, Spain and Italy, forcing them to accept rigid Euro rules. In the long run, their economies seemed to benefit from her frugal policies.

France tried to gain equal power over Europe, but Macron was like a silly teenager compared with Germany's steely mama. 

Softer than Margaret Thatcher, but also an iron lady when she needed to be, Merkel shrugged off Brexit, which made Germany stronger and England weaker. Merkel's a serious global strategist, while Boris Johnson's a clown.

With Merkel gone, Europe is left with a serious leadership deficit. She was a bright light of democracy as populist authoritarianism advances in Hungary, Poland, India and the United States.

The sometimes jovial former chemist kept Putin in check, while making deals with him. In the days before Merkel's exit, Putin built up his invasion force on the Ukraine border. Putin will shrug at Biden's threats of economic sanctions. The throwback Russian czar would have heeded Merkel, who apparently reminded him of his mother.

Her compassion to refugees was a model of human decency. She should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

While a covid resurgence has shaken Germany and Europe recently, Merkel leaves her country an economic powerhouse committed to ending carbon emissions and alleviating climate change.

Angela Merkel's gone. I never realized how much I'll miss her.

 

 

 

 

 

Wall Street Journal blasts David Perdue's GOP civil war against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp

A Wall Street Journal editorial rebuked Republican David Perdue for his scorched-earth campaign against incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

The newspaper lambasted Perdue's claim that he lost his U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff because Kemp rejected Donald Trump's efforts to overturn Joe Biden's victory in Georgia's presidential election. The editorial pointed out that the Republicans' Senate losses in Georgia came in runoffs following the presidential election.

Disputing Perdue, the WSJ blamed Trump for the GOP’s losing Georgia’s Senate races. Trump's false accusations of a fraudulent presidential election discouraged Republicans from voting in the runoff, causing Perdue's loss and the defeat of GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler to Democrat Raphael Warnock, the newspaper said. The Georgia victories gave Democrats a narrow and precarious Senate majority.

Perdue's fealty to Trump also cost him suburban voters, and he ran a 'lackluster" campaign, the editorial said. Both Perdue and Loeffler were first-term Senators whose lack of accomplishments and relentless negative campaigns alienated voters, especially in the suburbs.

In launching his gubernatorial campaign, Perdue accused Kemp of dividing the Republican Party and delivering certain victory to Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp four years ago without a runoff. Instead, Perdue's race will divide Republicans, boosting Abrams' campaign, the newspaper said.

The  WSJ praised Kemp for keeping the Georgia economy open during the pandemic, not mentioning the state's high death toll and low vaccination rates. Kemp has united the Georgia GOP,  the newspaper asserted, lowering unemployment and signing what it called election reform laws.

Abrams, a leader in expanding voter registration in the state, calls the laws a return to Jim Crow era voter suppression. The voting laws will be a major campaign issue, no matter who wins the Republican nomination.

Reprising the losing alarmist refrain from his U.S. Senate re-election debacle, Perdue claimed that Abrams would bring a socialist agenda to Georgia, making it like California and New York. I suppose that means Abrams' support of expanding Medicaid in Georgia, long opposed by the GOP, increasing affordable housing and boosting economic development to reduce poverty.

Perhaps Perdue wants to cripple Georgia's burgeoning movie industry, and halt the rush of high-tech firms to Atlanta. He destroyed the textile company PillowTex and was CEO of Dollar General, his idea of an economic bellwether. One thing for certain: Perdue would name his cousin Sonny Perdue, a former Georgia governor and one of Trump's cabinet henchmen, chancellor of the University of Georgia, a disastrous move.

During his single Senate term, Perdue was charged with insider stock trading. An investigation exonerated him, but the probe will surface as a campaign issue, the WSJ predicted.

Most gubernatorial candidates offer a positive platform, promising more jobs, education improvements, better roads and so on.

But Perdue's campaign is entirely negative, seeking only to defeat Kemp and Abrams and boost Trump's agenda to safeguard his plan to seize the presidency in 2024. Perdue’s attack upon Kemp advances Trump’s GOP coup. Atlantic magazine writer Barton Gellman in a disturbing article details the GOP’s increasing support of Trump’s plot to take over the government even if he loses the election.

In winning the Virginia governor's race, Republican Glenn Youngkin sought to downplay his ties to Trump, seeing the defeated president as a liability in the state's suburbs. Perdue is taking a radically different course, along with U.S. Sen. candidate Herschel Walker, of carrying Trump's authoritarian mantle.

Although Kemp's reviled by Trump for not seeking to illegally overturn Biden's victory, Kemp can depend upon strong fund-raising, business community support and an incumbent governor's political power. The Georgia governor controls the state budget, approves construction projects, boosts educational funding and carries out state programs.

Perdue apparently has no plan for what he wants to accomplish, while Kemp has increased salaries for teachers, upheld university funding, attracted new businesses and generally carried out a traditional GOP conservative agenda.

Georgia Republicans claim to stand for state rights and local control. Perdue's fealty to Trump goes against those principles.

 

Godard's "Breathless" no longer so revolutionary, but Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg remain charismatic

I'd been wanting to see Jean-Paul Belmondo's breakthrough film "Breathless" ever since reading accolades to the French actor when he died in September at age 88.

Jean-Claude Godard's 1960 film in which Belmondo plays the amoral criminal Michel is frequently cited as a masterpiece of the French "New Wave."

Written by fellow French auteur Francois Truffaut, Godard's black-and-white film depicts a dreary Paris still stifled by World War II deprivations.  Godard's jump cuts and pictorially composed scenes achieve a thrilling visual beauty.

Along with Belmondo, the film stars the elfin American actress Jean Seberg as Michel's mercurial girlfriend, Patricia, a freelance writer for the still vital New York Herald Tribune, which she also peddles on the Paris streets. The scene of Belmondo in fedora, jacket and tie and Seberg in a Herald Tribune T-shirt walking down a Paris boulevard is seen as the essence of the city's romantic spirit.

At last viewing the film, found in the TCM Classics offerings on HBO Max, I found Michel's nihilistic existential philosophy more ridiculous than disturbing. His posturing and pseudo poetic pronouncements sounded like an old Mad magazine parody. Yet, Belmondo's craggy face, reminding me of John Cassavetes, and physical grace vibrated with screen charisma.

Goddard's cinematic effects seemed familiar and threadbare, likely because I'd seen them so many times in films influenced by "Breathless." However, many scenes dazzled me with their painterly quality and apparent randomness.

Seberg with her boyish haircut, fresh beauty and deceptive innocence gives a haunting performance. Her portrayal of Patricia's personality shifts rises above misogynistic cliches. She brings grace and beauty to the gray scenes of her and Belmondo's sordid lovemaking in a grimy apartment, busy Paris streets and the Herald Tribune's newspaper offices. As she glides through the film, Paris' glamour shines through.

Watching her, I was saddened that her life was cut short by FBI persecution. She was one of the most tragic martyrs of the 1960s.

"Breathless" no longer appears revolutionary, because so many of Godard's innovative techniques have been stolen by other film-makers. Watching the film, I wished that I was back in 1960, discovering it for the first time.

A bounty of new books at Buckhead's Northside Library

I missed the old Northside Library.

The small branch just off Buckhead's prosperous West Paces Ferry Road closed for several years for renovation. Then covid struck.

When the Northside Branch reopened, I was happy to make the drive from Habersham to West Paces Perry, passing once again the Georgia Governor's Mansion, Anne-Cox Chambers' former estate across the street, Pace Academy and the landmark Pink House.

After the stately Buckhead homes, the landscape shifts to shopping centers, gas stations and restaurants, growing increasingly commercial around the turn to Northside Parkway at the OK Cafe. The library sits in a tangled area of highway intersections, shops and businesses, schools and a Covid testing site.

Unlike my appreciation of the renovated Sandy Springs library, I was disappointed by the Northside Library work. A once bustling place was now antiseptic, like a forbidding museum. The shiny new shelves, pristine meeting rooms and high-tech self-checkout machines had come with a loss of soul.

Through the years, I loved  to wander through the old library's shelves, browsing through the different sections. I knew most of the books and where they sat. I also liked to sit at one of the nice wooden tables to read new magazines, as students doing homework huddled with their tutors and fellow aging readers nodded off. The library was a vibrant community gathering spot.

Several other visits added to my belief that the library renovation was a mistake. While the old library was always crowded, the new institutional layout received few visitors. One day, when a librarian told a mother to leave with her crying toddler, I decided not to go back. 

But weary of driving through the construction-snarled Roswell Road to the well-renovated Sandy Springs Library, I decided to return to the Northside Branch. It was a splendid afternoon; climate change has brought beautiful weather to Atlanta's once dreary late autumns.

A cheerful greeting from a young librarian warmed my spirits. And, much to my surprise, I found a bounty of new books.

Tempted by Jill Lepore's "If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" and George Packer's "The Last Best Hope," I was thrilled to discover on the bottom shelves John Feinstein's "Raise a Fist, Take a Knee: Race and the Illusion of Progress in Modern Sports,"  Claire Tomalin's "The Young H.G. Wells: Changing the World," and "Woke Up This Morning, the Definitive Oral History of 'The Sopranos,'" by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, with Philip Lerman.

After a series of disappointing books, I was set for joyous holiday reading.