I just finished what was probably my most delightful read in 2018 (and since I am retired, I'm at 26 and counting!)
I'm speaking of Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison. (If there are any Phish fans here, you will understand that it was the title that caught my attention).
It was a thoroughly quirky coming-of-age novel about a Mexican-American young man in contemporary USA. It was irreverent, insightful and profound while being completely entertaining. Michael Munoz has won a place in my heart as one of my favorite characters of fiction.
“A blackman in a free State is worth just two-fifths more than a black man in a slaveState, as a basis of political power under the Constitution.Therefore, instead of encouragingslavery, the Constitution encourages freedom by giving an increase of‘two-fifths’ of political power to free over slave States . . . taking it atits worst, it still leans to freedom, not to slavery,” ~ Frederick Douglass, 1860 Speech
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
I'm about half way through Column of Fire. So far it is in the 1500's England with the conflicts between France, England and Spain and mostly about the powers of the Catholic church and the rise of protestant "radicals". I don't think it is quite as enjoyable as the other books in the series, but still good and an easy way to pick up a little bit of interesting history.
I am reading Dianne Fanning book about Michael Peterson case, since I just watched the Staircase on Netflix, which was really interesting, btw.
The Fanning book makes him sound quite guilty.
I just can't figure out how you could fall down the stairs and get broken larynx cartilage (usually result of strangulation) and seven blows on the back of the head.
And all that blood--my God. And presence of red neurons, which show long period of de-oxygenated dying. And the blood being dried. And fact they owed all that money, and she was insured. And according to the book, he stole money from their friends--stole a female friend's atm card and stole a thousand dollars, years earlier in Germany. And he lied about war injuries--the documentary really tried to make him look good, but the blood at the scene, the way the body was, all the stuff left out of the documentary about the circumstances of the death, the fact the blood was dried when he made the 911 call--he seems a lot guiltier in the book, but even the documentary had a hard time explaining the scene that greeted the EMT's.
The woman who died in first stairway, mother of the two adopted girls--was a family friend and not his wife. She left him money, too. She also had head wounds when they dug her up and did an autopsy, all those years later.
I thought a couple of things with the kids in the movie were very disquieting--when the one son said h e used to bang their heads together as punishment--that is so abnormal for a parent to do that; kids' heads are fragile, you spend your life protecting them from head injury. did you notice that?
I dont remember that, the head banging.
Look, I think he is guilty. He is a weird, unreliable dude. I dont have much doubt based on the evidence presented in the documentary.
But I keep in mind that we didnt see the court presented evidence, we saw a film with a decided point of view to show him as guilty.
Peterson was said to have done something heinous to one of the family dogs--resulting in death, I believe--mercifully, I don't remember the details. That would have been enough for me. The owl theory is ludicrous. The cheerful male prostitute who stood him up was the star of the trial, which I watched. Of course he did it.
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