Dear Great Book Guru, Every year people gather at Clifton Park to search the skies for constellations, planets, and shooting stars accompanied by the magnificent music of the Milky Ways aka Heidi Hunt and Joe Hughes.  Starry Starry Night will be on Sunday, October 14 at 6:30pm.  This Sea Cliff Civic Association event is a favorite of mine but I will have time early on to read a good book. Anything worthwhile to recommend? 

Sea Cliff Star Gazer

Dear Sea Cliff Star Gazer, I just read a very important, very disturbing bestseller: ONE PERSON-NO VOTE by Carol Anderson.  In this short (220 pages) book, Anderson tells the story of how voter suppression is destroying our democracy.  Tracing the history of voting from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to 2018, she sees a chilling turn in state governments’ approach to voting laws.  With photo ID requirements, poll closures, legal intimidation, faulty ballots, confusing directives, and lies about voter fraud, huge segments of the black and Hispanic populations are being prevented from voting.  It was the Civil Rights Movement that finally forced Congress and the White House under LBJ to pass fair voting rights which prevailed from 1965 until 2013 when the stark reality of changing demographics demanded these new voters of color be courted or…. not counted. The choice was easy and thirty-one states quickly passed  laws that today prevent millions from exercising their right to vote.  A must read!