Port City Notebook

News, views and random observations around Alexandria

Archive for January 2016

Five Favorite Books of 2015

This year’s list is heavy on nonfiction. Even though I read a few novels that I enjoyed, most of them weren’t superb enough to make my top five for 2015. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates This winner of the 2015 National Book Award for nonfiction is the most important book that I read this year. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes so elegantly and lyrically that this slim volume reads […]

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Time to Rotate School Board Leadership

On January 7, the new school board, consisting of four incumbents and five newly-elected members, will be sworn in. The first vote that the board will cast is to select its leadership—chair and vice-chair. The current chair, Karen Graf, has served since she was first elected to the board three years ago. Clearly, it is the board’s prerogative to choose its own chair and vice-chair. However, I believe that this […]

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