Looking for a Good Summer Read?

Well kids, look no further than First Partner’s Summer Book Club.  Yeah!  Governor Gavin Newsom's wife, (er, California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom) is here to steer your kids towards some real bangers!  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Looking for a good summer read.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Just to ask California's first partner, it's one more thing.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
I'm strong Andy. There's a new book coming out in August.
I just listened to a podcast with the author the
other day. I'm going to try to read it. It's
about I don't even know if I can explain what
it's about. Complex. Well, the simple thing is what is life?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, that's got to be quite a book.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Which has never been answered. Nobody knows. There's no good
did you know? I didn't even know this. There's no
good definition for what life is as opposed to something
that's not alive. Nobody has any idea why life started,
how it started, what it is, how to define it anyway.
This new book is supposed to get closer to that
or trapped in the matrix, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Exactly, Well that's true. Yeah, I remember having it to
find in college, but people find it. There's unsatisfactor.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
There's not an agreed upon definition because every definition you
can come up with has all kinds of flaws. Then
you would say, okay, well then why isn't this life
or why isn't that life? Or you know that sort
of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
So well, says you Life's a bitch. I learned that
long ago. There's your definition, like.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
You to say when I was in high school, life's
a bitch, and then you die and life's a party.
That's me My definition, life is a highway.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
I got a question for you, guys, Yes, do you
consider working to be life? And the reason I'm asking
this is I knew somebody that they were retiring. I asked,
why are you retiring? He said, so I can finally
do something, I can finally live.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Well, they must have hated their job a lot. It's funny.
We're in a special circumstance. This is fun to me. True,
I do always have to remember that I have a
job I really enjoy doing and get tremendous satisfaction out of.
But uh, I also know a guy real recently. I
talked to him last Friday who retired from a job
he hated like six months ago, and he's more miserable
now than when he worked his job.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Oh yeah, it's you know, work is a lot of
your life. It's a lot of who you are.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, there's just no question that you cross that bridge
and some people land on that new shore quite comfortably
goes great. I have friends like that. I play golf
with them and some it's a lot of trouble and
they struggle.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Just who knows.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Anyway, back to the question of a beatree jack as
Summer read Alert listener Alnonymous, good old friend of the
Armstrong and Getty Show and of me personally sent this along.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
The first Partner's Summer.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Book Club from the gov dot CA dot gov website.
The first Partner's Summer Book Club California for All Kids,
launched in partnership with the California State Library. The first partner,
that's Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is a far left neo
Marxist activist loon her book.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
I'm offended by the mere idea of the governor's wife
putting out a reading list that anybody would look at
to come up with what they want to read or
what they want their kids to read. That just the
idea of it offends me. Really, if that's where you're
going to get your reading information from a politician's spouse,

(03:27):
all right, who's a far.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well known far left activist.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, when we read with our children early and off,
and it encourages young readers blah blah blah, which is
absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I agree with that. But here's here's your book list.
Let's start with preschoolers.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Here's what the first partner recommends preschoolers read or have
read to them.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Nana the Great goes camping. Okay, in our garden.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Millie has recently moved to a new city from a
place more than an ocean away. She misses her garden
used to grow food. Amara's far Mamara hosting a pot
luck for friends on her farm. She needs help finding
her pumpkins. Blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
All our neighbors.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
When a new family moves in, the whole neighborhood comes
together to celebrate their diverse community and the tree in me.
Through poetic text and exquisite illustrations of children reveling in nature,
this book explores various ways we as human beings are strong, creative,
and connected. That sounds just fine. Okay, that's your preschoolers's
let's move on.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Diverse is more than I wanted, but isn't not into
the I'm angry territory yet.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, you're gonna see certain patterns emerging here. K through
two Just Like Me, a collection of poetry filled with
engaging mini stories about girls of all kinds. Girls who
feel happy said, don't love their.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Bed and brunette or different kinds.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Water Day a joyful picture book about a young girl
in her community celebrating the arrival of something in water.
I Am Enough, a gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who
you are, respecting others, being kind to one another. She
Persisted in sports. In the third She Persistent book, Chelsea
Clinton introduces the readers to women who have excelled in
their sports.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
The pattern I'm supposed to pick up on here is
are all girl oriented?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Finding my dance?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Follow along is Rhea Thundercloud shares her dance journey from
blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Grades three through five.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Plant Cookieat discover how plant seeds and patio containers, blah
blah blah, food harvest, Just ask.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Be different, be brave, be you.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sottomoyor shares her blah blah blah.
The Oldest Student, How Mary Walker learned to read Mexic Kid,
The Trip of a Lifetime. Along the way, Pedro finally
connects with zab willdo and learns what it And then
Arelli is a Dreamer, A story about Aurelli Morales a
DACA recipient, So you got to be a chick or

(05:47):
an immigrant. Otherwise your story is bullshit. Nobody wants to
hear it. All right, you can be a chick or
an immigrant.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
So no. Uh, two boys like the Hardy Boys. One
of the reasons boys like the Hardy Boys so much
as those boys doing boys stuff. Popular book series from
when we were young. Yeah, Mexicans can't be Irish, lad
I've got ages eleven through fourteen. Here it's teens who

(06:18):
are in the autism spectrum. Obviously I have no problem
with that. Let's see, here's another immigrant who's swimming at
a swimming pool. Apparently than the Blackbird Girls, Brown Girl Dreaming,
Rebel Girls Celebrate Pride, twenty five Tales of Self Love,
Community Inspiring Tales Chicks only from the LGB t q

(06:41):
I ab CD Barbecue Community Women in Art. Let's skip
to the grades nine through twelve. Brave Plucky Eliza deals
with lung lingering trauma. Or You're a girl on Earthed
and I Am not your perfect Mexican daughter rounds out
the choices. I know we talk about it, but at

(07:02):
some point it's got to reach national consensus that Okay,
we went, We went plenty far and making sure girls
are getting an education and have an opportunity to go
to college, and blah blah blah. We kind of left
boys out of it somewhere along the way, and we
better turn our attention to that, because well, the reading

(07:24):
list and all kinds there's all kinds of stats out there.
I got two boys. All the girls are super into
learning and straight a students. A lot of the boys
are kind of meh about school, and I think that's
because of the way it's structured. It's structured. It's very
girl centered focused, designed for your personality and interests.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
I never talk about politicians' children and never will in
any substantive way. I happen to know the nwsoms have
a couple of sons, and I have a sick feeling
in my stomach, which I hope is wrong. I'm sure
they love their sons very much and want the best
for them. But to grow with with a mom who

(08:10):
is so openly disdainful of males that her reading list
includes not a single boys adventure unless they're an immigrant.
That just that it's my Angelou's When people try to
show you or tell you who they are, believe them.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, no, book about two guys building a fort and
climbing a mountain and you know whatever, fishing or eavingly.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Right, No, she's openly disdainful of that.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
That's interesting. Yeah, but don't get your reading lists for
your kids from politicians anyway. Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Unless your dearest dream is that your child become a
little Marxist, then this list is perfect for them.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Join us next time for California Lieutenant Governor's list of
helpful maps and Almanax. Don't travel until you've heard it. Well,
I guess that's it.