On recommendations from several trusted reader-friends, I picked up Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. This is the memoir of a self-proclaimed hillbilly, who went on to graduate from Ohio State and Yale Law School, rising up from a desperate childhood. It has also been described as a book that explains, in some part, why Trump was elected. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I have read much more compelling memoirs (The Glass Castle, for one). In addition, I didn’t really feel like I learned anything new or surprising about Americans and our “culture in crisis.” It’s a good read, just, for me, not a great one.