Okay team, I’m on writing retreat. And as much as I had good intentions of putting up a Monday book anyway, we can all see that I didn’t.
So bear with me, gentle readers. In fact, cover for me. Comment here and tell us all what YOU have been reading, and how you’re liking it
. What’s your Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday book this week?
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 
I just finished reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. As a matter of fact, I finished it Sunday morning at 3:30 a.m. It’s been years since I’ve been unable to put down a book to go to sleep, but this was had me hook, line, and sinker. I finished it in two days.
I’m reading Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner. The inside flap says it’s a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your seat adventure. I wouldn’t go that far but it is a pretty good story with likable characters. I recommend it.
Well who among us readers isn’t passionately ready, willing, and able to expound on whatever they are reading? Gauntlet thrown down and picked up. I saw the movie Hidden Figures and loved it. It is about NASA and the black women who worked there as “computers” during segregation. I am now reading the book by Margot Lee Shetterly. It is much more detailed and technical but I am still enjoying it. Last year I saw the movie The Martian. Loved it and read the book by Andy Weir. Also more detailed and technical but funny as heck in parts.
I was wondering if that movie got any Oscar nods. We’ve been sequestered writing and trying to stay away from news.
Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Oh good!!!!!!
I’m reading (and loving) The Girls Of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War ll….the story of women (and men) recruited to work in TN on a very special part of The Manhattan Project. Their grit, determination, and sacrifice are an inspiration. The author even interviewed (now elderly) ladies who were there.
I’m currently reading The Seed Savers by Barbara Pleasant, a seed saver–and gardener–herself. Pleasant writes for Mother Earth News an other magazines and has written a number of gardening books, but this is her first published work of fiction. It’s well written and I’m really enjoying it (though I wish she’d gotten somebody to go through it with a fine-tooth comb to find the inevitable typos). The story line so far: some local farmers in need of money have allowed a crooked sheriff’s deputy, who’s in league with some pretty bad dudes himself, to let him grow marijuana plants mixed among their corn crops. Trouble is brewing in this small Tennessee community. That’s all I can tell you until I read some more. By the way, she lives in southwest Virginia–and has cats.
I am reading missionaries letters from Kolkata and poems about women finding freedom from prostitution via being able to work for a living making garments, covers for books, bags etc and being able to return home from whence they were sold.
Just finished a mystery, The Paris Librarian by Mark Pryor, and am now reading the marvelous Connie Willis book Crosstalk. Set in the near future, adoring couples can get an enhancement to allow them to feel the emotions of their beloved. What could possibly go wrong? Like a gentler version of Terry Prachett, Willis likes to make social commentary, in this case about the constant barrage of communication, in a light and fun way.
It sounds like a black mirror plot.
I am currently reading “Strangers in their own land, anger and mourning on the American right” by Arlie Russell Hochschild as I am really trying to understand how/why people voted for Trump. Also started rereading 1984 by Orwell as I keep hearing echos of that novel. Next in line will be Handmaids Tale by Atwood. Again wondering what kind of future are we headed for…..
Let me know if it offers any insight? I was just writing about Handmaid’s Tale
Wendy, I have finished Strangers in their own land and find myself even more puzzled by the thought process of the American Right. Hochschild focused on the state of Louisiana and did detailed interviews of a variety of people in different occupations who all identify as Republican and quite a few as Tea Party supporters over the course of 5 years. (this book was published in 2017) Despite many of the interviewees facing catastrophic life and health impairing events brought on by the big industries that have been allowed to pollute to an extraordinary extent, the people she interviewed still supported less restrictions and government regulations on those industries. That and other thoughts and feelings from her interviewees creates a huge paradox that the author herself can not understand. (I call this: Dont confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.) The people she interviewed expressed frustration at: loss of jobs, undeserving people getting government welfare, changing mores, changing ways of life… all the things that were brought up during the election but seem to be reacting with the changes in the US with fear, prejudice, self righteousness, greed and personal ambition. Her research shows that when big, unregulated industry does get mega incentives to come into a state that the jobs “leak” out of the state, that most of the building of the plants and factories goes to immigrant workers brought in by the companies, that when built few local jobs are available and often need specialized training and education, and that the profits leave the state and go to shareholders and CEO’s and owners that most often live out of the state or overseas. Precious little remains in the state while huge tax incentives and other bonus are given to the companies at the expensive of the communities that they are built in. She backs up her facts with multiple studies and research. From her research she states that the US has done better overall, (jobs, economy, Natl debt, etc) under Democratic presidents than under Republican pres going back to Kennedy. Why these kind of facts and research results were not used by the Democrats in our recent elections baffles me. Her book is very well written, well researched and worth reading. I dont think I will ever want to live in Louisiana however.
Best,
Morning Waters
PS. I see 1984 is being republished due to the high degree of interest in rereading it. I think we all need to remain extremely vigilant to make sure the US does not move in a fascist, totalitarian direction.
Hmm…..
I decided to indulge in some escapist British murder mysteries, so I’m currently reading Deborah Crombie’s The Sound Of Broken Glass. It’s one of a series, and I just read two others. She does a great job of keeping each book independent, so that you don’t have to read them in order to enjoy them or understand the characters.
Rxcellent
Just finished, for the last time I expect, Sam Keen’s “Hymns to an Unknown God.” Review should appear tomorrow on my Blogspot.
Since that’s going to be a tepid review, can I pick a *good* book? Yes…I acquired a lot of Solzhenitsyn from the Kingsport library book sale, and am glad I did. Review of the collected short stories should appear on Blogspot next week; reviews of two novels are already there.
Love him!
Just started “Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy,” by Stephen Carter, published in 1998. Our community of Rockford, Illinois, has just proposed a civility pledge, and I’m finding all sorts of questions and opinions flying around my head right now. I’ve also just dug out a novel from my book catacombs, “Norma Jean the Termite Queen,” by Sheila Ballantyne, which I first read and fell in love with more than thirty years ago. As a young mother struggling with balancing everything and finding time for reading, it probably saved my life, sanity and my marriage.
Let us know how the civility pledge works out?
While I try to remain hopeful, I’m not terribly optimistic. Nearly twenty years, ago an anti-racism pledge was distributed, but it seemed to fizzle out quickly and was soon forgotten. About three years ago, the movers and shakers of the city launched an initiative called “Transform Rockford”, with the goal of making the city a Top 25 community by 2025. For Decades now, Rockford has typically been on several perennially produced “worst” lists, including crime, poverty, unemployment, educational outcomes, etc. In conjunction with the Transformation goals, our local daily newspaper recently undertook a year of events to once again combat racism. We’re not very far from where the movie “Groundhog Day” was filmed; maybe we were the inspiration for it. Maybe a community bookstore would help. We have nothing like that here, despite being a city of around 150,000 and metro area of more than a quarter million.
Maybe you should start one? A co-op book exchange or salon?
Just finished Jennifer Weiner’s “Hungry Heart”. Amazing, honest story of her life, whether or not you like her books. She also writes eloquently about being overweight and how this reflects on our society. And if anyone thinks their own family is dysfunctional, wait until you read about her parents.
Sounds Interesting
Catching up on history. Reading “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield. Most amazing, gripping description of battle of Thermopylae.
Friends and I were just discussing Thermophyle recently – a statement that should not be taken out of context. :]