The Dreamers (not about immigrants) and The Radleys, part of my fiction spree.
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The Dreamers (not about immigrants) and The Radleys, part of my fiction spree.
You don't have to say you love me: A Memoir, By Sherman Alexie
I thought Witch Elm was very good, but not quite excellent. It was a gradually unfolding story line rather than some sort of thriller or page burner, which is not necessarily bad. Fun characters and a mystery that was not too far out and kept me guessing. I'm glad I read it, but was not really inspired to read other things by the author.
Lost Girls.
Finished When Breath Becomes Air last night - very sad but good insight into what doctors (and terminally ill) go through. Darn that we all have to die one way or another:(
Just started Deep Creek/Finding Hope in the High Country - thoughts from a writer who lives on a ranch in the CO mountains.
As always, piles of new cookbooks from the library.
From the Ground Up - Howard Schultz of Starbucks fame. Interesting read. I like reading about successful people and their road to leadership.
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo. Nice gal, not sure I am sold on her touchy feely approach to de-cluttering. I know it would be a cold day in hell my wife would yard out all her clothing and pile on the bed and start going through it and checking for sparks of joy. I pretty much have decluttered my possessions, but nevertheless I am a de-clutter junkie so I bought the book.
Whole - T. Colin Campbell. Another interesting read - I find it fascinating how food effects our health.
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.
The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks.
Two fiction books for a change - Radium Girls (sad!) and The Woman in the Window
I love Russell Banks.
Radium Girls sounds good. I enjoyed The Woman in the Window and found it a fast read.
I am currently reading and enjoying the old classic, True Grit.
I had mentioned in a the Frugals thread that I cancelled a purchase of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, and put it on my birthday wish list instead, and my DD bought me a used copy.
It's amazing! Definitely a keeper.
A group of us are enjoying "The Music Shop" by Rachel Joyce with today's gathering enjoying the music of different compositions referred to. They re quite diverse so I am looking forward to hearing the different artists and composers.
I'm reading Cheryl Strayed's Wild, her recounting of a hike of the Pacific Coast Trail. I'm about 40% through with it, and not impressed. But it's an easy read, so I might finish it and find out if she falls into bed with a fellow hiker or picks up her heroin habit again. Yawn.
In addition, I'm reading Amy Berger's The Alzheimer's Antidote, a guide to heading off dementia. So far, it doesn't provide much information that is new to me; she advocates a low-carbohydrate diet and intermittent fasting, among other interventions.
And I'm starting Crazy for You, a true crime tale that fascinated me when it happened. It recounts the murder of Rusty Sneiderman at the hands of Hemy Neuman. How Neuman, a seemingly rational man, became so besotted by the charmless Andrea Sneiderman that he threw away his life and that of another man in pursuit of her baffles me. That she was complicit isn't in much doubt. I'm looking forward to seeing if the book provides clues.
The Invisible Bridge. The timing is early WW2 in Hungary with parts in Paris. It is a very good read. I'm 2/3 of the way through it.
My book club has me reading fiction again after years of non-fiction only. Reading now We Are Not Ourselves about a fairly normal family wherein the father in his 50s begins acting strangely and is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and how that changes the trajectory of their lives.
I'm halfway through The Mueller Report and, to lighten things up, just started The Five, the untold story of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.
Unwinding of a Miracle. Just finished it. Incredible read of a woman's pathway from birth through a cancer death. Epilogue written by her husband.
I highly recommend this book. Next up? Educated!
Slightly Out of Focus by WW2 photographer Robert Capa.
I just finished Need to Know by Karen Cleveland. I could NOT put it down and kept telling my husband about it! Also read the middle grade book Because of the Rabbit by Cynthia Lord which was also hard to put down. I've had a lot of duds lately so am happy to have a book I can't put down!
NSWEF: I just ordered both of these books, so thanks for the recommendations. Need to Know sounds like something my MIL would really like, and Because of the Rabbit sounds like something my mom would love. I decided I would buy them so I could share around. I got good prices on eBay.
Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. A riveting autobiography of a girl growing up in Tehran during the late 70's/early 80's before and after the Islamic Revolution.
I finished "Educated" on Saturday. A phenomenal true story of a girl who finds her way from a nominal home school education through a PhD and the religous and family dynamics along the way.
I'm now reading the Challenger story. Who else remembers Jan 1986? Ugh.
Just finished "Becoming" by Michelle Obama and loved it. She is absolutely correct in that both of them conducted themselves in a gracious manner throughout their time at the White House and that is how they appeared on the international stage as well.
Quite remarkable how strong family support, an opportunity at good schools and a strong personal drive can make a human being bloom.
Julia Enders' Gut: the inside story of our body's most underrated organ. Good so far; fascinating subject.
Max Lucado's You'll Get Through This - Hope and Help for Turbulent Times. He uses the story of Joseph (he of the Technicolor Dream Coat) in the Bible to provide inspiration on getting through tough times.
Autobiography of a Face.
I am reading Is Marriage For White People.
The book is about how marriage has declined and continues to decline in the African American community. It also describes all sorts of social and lifestyle problems that come with this marriage decline. Very eye-opening and disconcerting!
But quite a compelling read.
I hope that the author suggests some paths forward to remedy the problems. But I am only halfway through.
It isn’t so much marriage itself that is tied to stable family institutions. It is the fact that serial monogamy in the United States is much more short-lived then in those European countries we love to emulate. Their marriage rate is lower but parents stay together for longer periods.
This is one of the truths illustrated in that book you talked about here a couple years ago called Promises I Can Keep. I really like that book and I even bought a Kindle copy. I dip into it now and then when I’m in my one of my “kids these days! Get off my lawn! Society is going to hell in a handbasket! “ phases. Use it to beef up my confirmation bias. Haha.
This book discusses the Swedes, and others in European nations, where while they don't marry, they do stay together to parent.
But this is a book that is very complex and it often points out how it seems like the crises of the black community eventually become the crises of the white community.
The book is written by a black man who is married to a black woman and they are raising their three sons together.
I haven't yet read either of the books mentioned but often wish it weren't so easy to make babies. I just read today that a great deal of current mental illness is caused by traumatic events (or neglect) during the first three years of life. I have seen some really bad parenting lately and it makes me sad for their children and their future who don't have any other role models.
Pinkytoe I guess it depends on how you define mental illness. Knowing people who suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and addiction to me it is a biological brain disorder with a genetic component. PTSD may be another story.
Too many great parents are blamed for their children's medical conditions. In Biblical days people were with illnesses were blamed. For example, in John 9 the disciples ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?".
2000 years later and people are still looking to point the finger at someone. At least we no longer say people with epilepsy are devil possessed.
Anyways, I am currently reading Just Kids about Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.
So I finished Is Marriage For White People.
It had a very peculiar thesis.
The thrust of his idea for a solution is for black women to marry white or Asian men as a way to pay it forward for future black women. The thought being that if black women start marrying Asian and white men then black men will have to get their acts together, then future black women won't have to marry Asian or white men; they can go back to marrying black men.
I am obviously radically boiling it down and simplifying it just a smidgen but really, this is the thesis.
The Immortal Irishman.
I was not aware how cruel the English government was to the Irish.