Arts & Culture

Book Reviews: August 2019

The latest from Dan Rodricks and Shawna Potter.

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Father’s Day Creek: Flying Fishing, Fatherhood and the Last Best Place on Earth

Dan Rodricks (Apprentice House Press)

Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks’ writing seems particularly at ease in this collection of anecdotes on years spent fly fishing at a creek in Pennsylvania. It’s a place he calls his “spirit- home,” and he insists that everyone should have one. Rodricks provides spectacular notes on the art of fly fishing, the devastation and regeneration of natural waterways, as well as the complexity of fatherhood. It’s a tribute to the simple yet sacred moments in life, and his honest, laid-back style of storytelling evokes the feeling of a day spent in the woods, casting a line into the water.

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Making Spaces Safer: A Guide to Giving Harassment the Boot Wherever You Work, Play, and Gather

Shawna Potter (AK Press)

Consider this a primer on how to make any public space safer. While on Warped Tour with her hardcore band War on Women, Baltimore’s Shawna Potter began conducting workshops that resulted in this book. Here, you’ll find step-by-step tactics for reducing harassment and handling it should it arise, whether you’re a manager, patron, or artist. As Potter puts it, if our goal is a better, nonviolent society, don’t we need better, nonviolent solutions? She offers them here.