What We Are Reading Today: Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss

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Updated 22 January 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss

Author: Juliet Hooker

In democracies, citizens must accept loss; we can’t always be on the winning side. But in the United States, the fundamental civic capacity of being able to lose is not distributed equally.

Propped up by white supremacy, whites (as a group) are accustomed to winning; they have generally been able to exercise political rule without having to accept sharing it. 

Black citizens, on the other hand, are expected to be political heroes whose civic suffering enables progress toward racial justice. 


What We Are Reading Today: Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn

Updated 18 December 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn

‘Family of Spies’ is a gripping family memoir and nonfiction account that uncovers one family’s shocking role as spies aiding Japan in the lead-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“An amazing and gripping tale, full of suspenseful twists and cinematic details,” said a review in The New York Times.
Author Christine Kuehn chronicles the fruits of her decades-long research, revealing her grandparents’ secret espionage activities in pre-World War II Germany and their life in Hawaii, where they gathered intelligence.

Interweaving historical detail with personal narrative, Kuehn shares her own harrowing journey of discovery — sparked by a mysterious letter from a screenwriter — and the emotional toll of confronting this buried past. 
She draws extensively on conversations with her father, Eberhard, who had long remained taciturn about his family’s history, shielding her from questions growing up.