MightyWriters

With health care and Afghanistan dominating the news, ever wonder what the White House is thinking about education?

This recent back-to-school interview with Education Secretary Arne Duncan offers some genuine insight.

Consider the cool reads President Dude’s toting to Martha’s Vineyard. Hopefully they will help clear his mind of birthers and townhall wingnuts.

• Lush Life, by Richard Price
The author of “Clockers” (and former writer for “The Wire”) tells a compelling murder story set in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

• “Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” by Thomas Friedman
Considered one of the headiest journalists working today, Friedman lobbies for a green revolution.

• “John Adams,” by David McCullough
A political biography of estimable weight, “John Adams” quickly became the nonfiction darling of the political set and won a Pulitzer in 2002.

• “Plainsong,” by Kent Haruff
The NYT called this novel about the lives of the people in a fictional Colorado town “delicate and lovely.”

• “The Way Home,” by George Pelecanos
Known as a thinking person’s crime writer (Pelacanos, too, is a former writer for “The Wire”), the author not-so-discretely lobbies for juvenile justice reform in this thriller set in D.C.

“I tend to be a subscriber to the idea that you have everything you need by the time you’re 12-years-old to do interesting writing for most of the rest of your life—certainly by the time you’re 18.”

—Bruce Springsteen

News briefs from Mighty Writers World Headquarters:

• We’d like to draw your attention to a feature in the NYT today about a new graphic novel. It’s titled “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” and it tells the stories of seven Hurricane Katrina survivors. The book incorporates fantasy and superheroes, but also features non-fiction reportage by writer and illustrator Josh Neufeld. It’s a new mash-up medium, one we’re excited about, which is why copies of Neufeld’s work about New Orleans are now winging their way to Mighty Writers World Headquarters.

• Also, FYI, four recently-acquired comic/graphic titles currently on the shelf at MW:  ”Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?,” “Blood of Palomar,” “The Dreamwalker” and “Bone” (the full anthology).

• Finally, this bit of summertime sweetness, courtesy of Jaime Hunter, a MW poetry leader.

Girl Power!: A collection of Mighty poems.

Mighty Writers is proud to announce two debut publications.

“Girls Around the World” is a collection of poems authored by our extremely popular Sunday morning Girl Power Poetry class. Congratulations to all eight Girl Power poets, and to workshop leaders Jaime Hunter and Sheena Strawter-Anthony!

Mighty Times: All the news that fits!

Also, Mighty congratulations to Nathan Comp and the members of his newswriting class for producing the first edition of The Mighty Times. The Times is chuck full of news about what’s happening in our historic Christian Street neighborhood.

Both publications are available at MW Headquarters.

••••••••••••••••••

Also, a Mighty, MIGHTY thanks to Bartash Printing for donating the printing costs for the Mighty Times!

“You have to believe in your heart what
you know to be true about yourself. And
let that be that.”

—Mary J. Blige

1. “The Women’s Crusade,” by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
“… the global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century.”

2. “The Guns of August,” by Frank Rich
“… I have been writing about the simmering undertone of violence in our politics since October, when Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate of a major political party, said nothing to condemn Obama haters shrieking ‘Treason!,’ ‘Terrorist!’ and ‘Off with his head!’ at her rallies. As vacation beckons, I’d like to drop the subject, but the atmosphere keeps getting darker.”

3. “The Last Empress,” by Maureen Dowd
“… [Vogue Editor Anna Wintour] herself continues to resist egalitarian impulses. As Keith Kelly wrote in The New York Post, Condé Nast may be slashing costs, but Anna is not scaling back at the upcoming fall fashion shows in Europe. She’s keeping her suite at the Paris Ritz,

her chauffeured Mercedes sedans and her entourage of 10 that costs a quarter of a mill.”

4. “The Power of the Purse,” by Lisa Belkin
“… in general, women give differently than men. They are less likely to want their names on things and more likely to give as part of drives (large ones, like Women Moving Millions, and smaller ones, like living-room “giving circles”) that include other women. And they tend to spotlight different causes (women’s health, microfinancing of businesses owned by women)

•••••••••••••••

“[Women] are less likely to want their names on things.”

•••••••••••••••

and for different reasons. A study of more than 10,000 large donors by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University suggests that while men describe their giving as practical—filling in the gaps that government can’t or won’t—women describe theirs as emotional, an obligation to help those with less.”

5. “Labor Day’s Last-Minute Lures,” by Michelle Higgens
“… the recession has led to a glut of hotel inventory this year, forcing prices down in many vacation destinations. That’s making sales easy to find for a last ditch

Throwback prices: Vegas for 24 smacks a night.

summer fling. There are $24 rooms in downtown Las Vegas and $178 rates for new hotels in New York.”