Don’t Like What’s Happening in Our Country? Run for Local Office

Nonfiction When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DO ITWhy Cursing at the News Won’t Save the Nation, but Your Name on a Local Ballot Can By Adrienne Martini Adrienne Martini’s “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” is 50 percent memoir, 50 percent advice manual and 100 percent heart. Gutted by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential win, unsatisfied after knitting “an ocean of pussyhats,” Martini — a theater major turned journalist whose first two memoirs were about depression and tackling the Holy Grail of sweater patterns — found herself campaigning for the District 12 seat on the Otsego County Board in upstate New York. When she won, she joined 14 delegates overseeing a budget of $130 million, covering social services, mental health services, road maintenance, law enforcement, emergency services, waste disposal, code enforcement and legal services, among other necessities.

(“Oh, and we’d like to keep our green spaces green and our watersheds blue. We’d also like not to have our elderly and infirm residents starve or freeze. ”) A book aimed at incentivizing people to run for local office could read the way sawdust tastes, but Martini spices up her subject with pithy humor, wry backhands directed at the patriarchy and (most important) clear advice on how to follow her lead. She admits that she used to observe politics from the sidelines — “ I’d built a comfortable bench, complete with Orla Kiely cushions and a Starbucks skinny white chocolate mocha” — then shows readers exactly how she walked onto the field.

This is not your standard focus-group-approved politician fare; it’s an honest, in-the-moment, firsthand account of a disappointed mother’s foray into local politics. When her opponent and/or his volunteers plant his lawn signs directly in front of hers, Martini complains to her husband, wondering if she should “go all Lebowski-y” before deciding that she’s already invested enough time in lawn sign logistics. Martini tells it like it is, doling out levelheaded instruction while condemning Trump enablers with fiery scorn. (“Yes, yes, I find Trump himself distasteful, but it’s the grifters around him who really burn my biscuits.

”) As she navigates the costs of print fliers and public service, Martini acknowledges the comfortable lifestyle that allows her to overcome political roadblocks with relative success and ease. Only in the wake of Trump’s presidency does Martini realize the fallacy of America’s equal playing field; she admits she has been “slow on the uptake” and she’s sorry about that. (“Truly I am. But I’ve got the memo now.