The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson



I am finally getting around to reading two books that were sent to me by a very good friend..........

It's been interesting reading about a time period in Chicago's past that I was unfamiliar with. I am not usually a history buff but I must say this book is holding my attention and I'm enjoying.

Our Souls At Night
(Kent Haruf, 2015).



A good friend to me recommended seeing the movie, which is adapted from the book, last summer and they just sent the book to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, so now I'm going to read this book.

Here's an link to am NY Times book review from last June:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/0...ww.google.com/

Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas.




This book really sheds light on things that were done to not only dis-credit Anita Hill, but others who came to her defense as well!

This is being turned into a TV Series. I'm thinking it's Starz but not positive! The previews I've seen, look WAY better than the book!

This was an outstanding book and story!

Cricket thank you so much for posting this! I've just ordered a used copy of Britt-Marie Was Here by this same author!

I just finished FLEDGLING by Octavia Butler and started THE LATHE OF HEAVEN by Ursula LeGuin and am listening to HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance

The once and future liberal : after identity politics / Mark Lilla.
 

American liberalism fell under the spell of identity politics, with disastrous consequences. Driven originally by a sincere desire to protect the most vulnerable Americans, the left has now unwittingly balkanized the electorate, encouraged self-absorption rather than solidarity, and invested its energies in social movements rather than in party politics. Lilla goes to show how the left's identity-focused individualism insidiously conspired with the amoral economic individualism of the Reaganite right to shape an electorate with little sense of a shared future and near-contempt for the idea of the common good. In the contest for the American imagination, liberals have abdicated.

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This book is fascinating from both a historical and a behavioral standpoint.

If you are curious as to why intersectionalism is problematic in both interpersonal movements and political ways, he explains it well.

Just finished Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas.

This really shed light on how the "good old boy" network stuck together to get him confirmed at almost any cost.

It makes me sad to think Joe Biden was a part of this and that he wasn't a stand up guy!

Hm, this sounds interesting. I might look at this since this new wave has foregone the collective in favor of the individual, which is worrying.

Is it anti-intersectional or does it examine the issues this new generation is having?

I’m just reading academic stuff, but I hope to start a Coetzee novel soon.

This was OK BUT it was no A Man Called Ove that's for damn sure!

Just got and just started Jacque Barzin's From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present

What Happened - Hillary Clinton (audio book read by the author)

I’m glad to be listening to this book as read by Hillary, because it adds a depth of understanding about her as a person through her own voice and her own words that I don’t think I would have gotten otherwise.

Why liberalism failed / Patrick J. Deneen
 

"Of the three dominant ideologies of the twentieth century--fascism, communism, and liberalism--only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism's proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history.Here, Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success is generating its own failure."

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Have no clue where this guy is going with this but my brain is intrigued.

I’m re-reading God on a Harley again for personal reasons.

The past week or so, I've been reading from 3 books, which I've nearly finished all three: Strange Justice (it's a dry read, bit there's fascinating information concerning key players in the Anita Hill story which covered little known facts about her case against Clarence Thomas), The Girl Who Wrote in Silk (it's is an fairly good read), and of course, Love in the Time of Cholera, which I like this book so very much. I'd recommend LITTOC as an very good book to read!).

Today, I got a couple of articles in the mail from a good friend which one else article was a book review on two books: 1) Celeste Ng --- Little Fires Everywhere, and 2) The Italian Teacher, by Tom Rachman. Both look like good stories to read. I'm particularly interested in the Rachman book for its take on redemption (family relational issues). Also, they clipped am great news article from The Seattle Times on foods that lower blood sugars, so that was very interesting and gave me some great alternative ideas for meals (breakfast, lunch and supper).

I might find myself taking a break from reading new books and just read from an big collection of books I've got here at home, if I feel led to read from a good book I've enjoyed before.

This week I had an serious spinal exam, so I'll be waiting to read the test results from three different doctor's specializing in Orthopedic medicine and Neurology. I've got my fingers crossed for the best outcome possible.

Violet to Vita........
 

by Mitchell Leaska & John Phillips

After just posting in one of the many movie threads about a movie being released concerning the affair between Woolf and Vita I came across this book. I've just started it and although it was hard getting through the lengthy introduction, once the letters start they are fascinating!


More than a decade before her love affair with Virginia Woolf, English author Vita Sackville-West fell in love with another woman, the writer and socialite Violet Keppel. The two embarked upon one of the most intense and turbulent affairs in literary history. The exquisite epistolary records of their relationship, which was later fictionalized in Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking novel Orlando, span more than a decade and are captured in Violet to Vita. The letters are preserved at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. They bare some of the most urgently, breathtakingly passionate uses of the English language.

I'm reading Song Yet Sung by James McBride. It's a book for school but I have previously enjoyed a book by the same author, The Color of Water. That book was more auto biographical, and it has been my experience that a great biographer isn't necessarily a great author. Mr. McBride very adeptly leaves my theory in the dust.

synopsis:

In the days before the Civil War, a runaway slave named Liz Spocott breaks free from her captors and escapes into the labyrinthine swamps of Maryland’s eastern shore, setting loose a drama of violence and hope among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz is near death, wracked by disturbing visions of the future, and armed with “the Code,” a fiercely guarded cryptic means of communication for slaves on the run. Liz’s flight and her dreams of tomorrow will thrust all those near her toward a mysterious, redemptive fate.

Filled with rich, true details—much of the story is drawn from historical events—and told in McBride’s signature lyrical style, Song Yet Sung is a story of tragic triumph, violent decisions, and unexpected kindness.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage
By Bill Bryson


First, I enjoy Bill Bryson’s writing style, storytelling ability, and how he draws humor out of massive amounts of information (I.e. A Short History of Nearly Everything).

Second, as a theatre nerd, fact or fiction or anything in debate about Shakespeare draws my attention.

This fun little romp of a book does not disappoint. :-)

The common good / Robert B. Reich
 

Former U.S. secretary of labor (1993-97) Reich examines what he sees as a divided America. His takeoff point is the call made 50 years ago by President John F. Kennedy for Americans to contribute individually for the common good. Reich despairs that instead Americans have become increasingly selfish. He harshly criticizes the freebooting of CEOs, the self-first philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the divisive presidency of Donald Trump. He chronicles societal changes that he says have resulted in national disunity, distrust, and hopelessness. Reich concludes that pulling together as a society is the only strategy for longterm mutual prosperity and that leaders must act as trustees for the common good. That those who do the right thing should be honored, and those who gain by underhanded means shamed, that fact-based truth must be demanded, and citizens must be both educated and engaged. Very timely with discussion of the sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood and NFL kneeling protests, Reich's work is an important call for reform that should appeal to a wide audience disaffected with the status quo.