July 2019 Books

This was my book club's July pick, based on her excellent third novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, which I had just read last month, and the fact that it won a National Book Award and. While the writing was excellent, and the story riveting, it was just about the worst book for four dog lovers to read. One of the main characters (Skeet) has a pit bull (China), which gives birth to a litter of puppies about 10 days before Hurricane Katrina hits the Southern Mississippi town where they live. Everything that can go wrong with the family and the litter of puppies does, and while none of the humans die, I can't say the same for the puppies. I think I would have loved this book if the author had simply eliminated everything about the dogs. The rest of the story was a heart-wrenching story of a family that sticks together through every type of adversity: losing their mother, hunger, poverty, an alcoholic father, etc. They try to prepare for Katrina, and go through hell when their house is flooded and begins to float off of its foundation. But the saga of the pit bull and her puppies ruined the book for me. I found myself hating Skeet when he decides to enter China into a fight just a week after giving birth; I was actually shocked at the animosity that I felt when I read those passages. While there is some judgment shown in the book about the cruelty of dog fighting, it was primarily in the form of disapproval of fighting China so soon after having puppies. Otherwise, it was presented with no value judgment at all. I have a hard time accepting that someone can show the love and affection they feel for a dog, and then voluntarily put it into a situation where it is likely to be seriously injured or killed. I don't know why this plot element was necessary at all; it would have been a great book otherwise.

 I enjoyed this collection of poems collected by the U.S. Poet Laureate. The most interesting to me was "38" by Layli Long Soldier, which tells the story of the Dakota 38, a group of Native Americans who were executed in 1862 for attacking and killing settlers and traders. After losing their land, they couldn't hunt; payments for the land weren't distributed; they were starving, and the traders wouldn't extend credit to them to purchase food. According to the poem, this is the largest "legal" mass execution in U.S. history.

This is a heartwarming story of the friendship between Arthur, whose wife has died, and Maddie, whose mother died soon after she was born. Picked on at school and with no friends, Maddie hides out in the cemetery during school lunch hour, where Arthur visits his wife's grave everyday. Soon they begin to rely on one another, and with the addition of Arthur's lonely neighbor Lucille, they learn that you can create your own family from the people you love.

Great collection by funny cartoonist Scott Hilburn. Reminds me of the quirky The Far Side comics.

This was the most ludicrous plot I've ever read. I picked it up at the 2019 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, as an advance reader's copy; it won't be published until later this year. I thought it would be a good distraction from my pre-vacation stress (trying to get too much done in too little time), and I was right, but it's really nuts. Also, I wasn't very impressed with the underlying religious proselytizing.

June 2019 books

This was our June book club pick; not our usual fare, but a lot of fun.

This is a collection of Robert Darnton's articles about books and libraries, published in 2009. Organized in three sections (Future, Present, Past), chapters include: Google and the future of books, The information landscape, The future of libraries, Lost and found in cyberspace, E-books and old books, Gutenberg-e, Open access, A paean to paper, The importance of being bibliographical, The mysteries of reading, What is the history of books. Very interesting reading.

This was an excellent look at how the algorithms that run common computer applications contains many faults that can have long-lasting and detrimental impacts on people.

 This was a beautiful novel, well-written and moving.

This incisive look at Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will give you a lot to think about. The author has done extensive research into the formation and management of these four companies. His insights will have you questioning their predominance in society and raises concerns about their impact on the economy and modern life.

This is the story of parents Jacob and Eidel, and their children Max and Lydia. Framed by Max's recollections of their times in Auschwitz, the novel alternates between narratives focusing on Jacob and Eidel and their varying experiences in the camp. Losing Lydia early on leads Jacob to gamble on a way to help Max survive. Very sobering.

Coming out in September 2019, this is a funny and heartfelt memoir by comedian and writer Josh Gondelman. I thoroughly enjoyed this book by one of the writers on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Desus & Mero.

This is a fascinating deep dive into the history of the Oxford English Dictionary, and some of the many people who were responsible for leading the project over he 68 years that it took to complete the first edition. And I thought editing a special issue of a journal was challenging!

June 2019 films and series

 RBG. Great documentary!

Ready Player One. Having just read the book, I was surprised at how much of the plot was changed and how much was completely left out.

The Bookshop. Disappointing. Not nearly as charming as the previews implied!

The Last Waltz. Directed by Martin Scorsese. A good concert documentary of the last performance of The Band in 1976.

Billions (season 4). Riveting, as usual. Can't wait for next season!

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Interesting film about reprehensible people; but very good acting.

The Little Stranger. Very suspenseful story about a man's obsession with a home where his mother worked as a maid when he was a child.

Murder on the Orient Express. Star-studded remake of the Agatha Christie classic. Fun, but a tad on the slow side.

Studio 54. This was an interesting documentary about the spectacular rise and fall of the NY nightclub.

Luther (season 5). I wish this series was longer; this season was only four episodes long. It ended in a cliffhanger, so I'm expecting another season to wrap up the story line. Idris Elba is wonderful in this, as are Ruth Wilson and Wunmi Mosaku.

Molly's Game. It was just a coincidence that we ended up watching another film with Idris Elba. He sports an American accent in this one and pulls it off with ease. The film was good, if a bit long.

May 2019 Films and Series

Won't you be my neighbor?













Game of thrones (season 6).

Game of thrones (season 7).

A star is born (2018).

Game of thrones (season 8).

May 2019 Books

I was looking for something more personal than this book, which was billed as a memoir but mainly addressed Macron's political platform. Nevertheless, I did find it interesting and informative, and it was clearly written and engaging. I'm still looking for something more biographical, but may have to wait until he's out of office.

Although I'm not very interested in interactive online games, I really enjoyed this novel set in the future about a world where much of the action takes place in a virtual reality environment called the OASIS.

I have mixed feelings about this novel that is made up of three distinct sections: two longer novellas and a shorter interview segment. The first novella tells the story of a 27 year old assistant editor who's in a relationship with a much older, well-known author. The second novella is about an Iraqi-American trying to travel to Baghdad through London who is not permitted to enter London during his two-day layover. The third, shorter, section is an interview of the author from the first section

I've been a long-time fan of John Irving, and I've read most of his novels; however, I never picked up this collection until now. It has three parts: the first contains three short memoirs; the second contains six short stories; and the third contains three essays about Dickens and Gunter Grass. Each work has a short essay that follows, with Irving's musings about it from a distance of years. I found this to be quite a hodgepodge. The title essay explains how Irving decided to become a writer. Another describes his dinner at the White House with Ronald Reagan, and the third memoir describes in excruciating detail his interest in wrestling. I'm not a big fan of short stories to begin with, and I didn't find these particularly good. And the three essays about Dickens and Grass were only mildly interesting. Overall, I think this was a little self-indulgent, and wouldn't recommend the book. Stick with Irving's novels.

I enjoyed this memoir by John Baxter, an author, screenwriter, book dealer, and collector. 

April 2019 Films and Series

The Old Man & the Gun.

Game of Thrones (season 2)

 Moonlight.

Papillon (2017).

Game of thrones (season 3).

Operation finale.

Game of thrones (season 4).

Leave no trace.

Game of thrones (season 5)

April 2019 Books

I absolutely loved this book. Divided into sections that address her childhood and education, meeting Barack and starting a family, and their time in the White House, it's well written and fascinating. She doesn't dwell on the negatives, but she doesn't shy away from them either. Mostly, this is an inspiring look at her as a person and what she tried to accomplish before and during her time in the spotlight. Wonderful! (And a great antidote to the daily news!)

I loved the writing in this novel about young George Washington Black (Wash), a slave who escapes from Barbados in the 1830s with Christopher Wilde (Titch), an explorer and scientist who's determined to create a flying vehicle. They end up crashing into a ship at sea, then making their way to the arctic to find Titch's father. At that point Wash is abandoned by Titch, and he makes his way to Nova Scotia, where he makes new friends who lead him to further adventures abroad.

This is the only book (so far) that I've read by Truman Capote. I enjoyed the prose in this short novella. It has some charming characters, (and some less that charming who exhibit the kind of casual racism and bigotry that was prevalent in the South mid-century). It tells the story of a teenage boy, Collin, taken in by his elderly aunts Verena and Dolly after the deaths of his parents. The aunts live together in relative harmony until a business proposition tears them apart, leading his Aunt Dolly, her friend Catherine, and Collin to move out to a tree house in the nearby forest, causing a scandal in their town. At only 124 pages, this is a fun and enjoyable read.

I have to admit that I didn't like this book very much when I first started it. The characters didn't seem believable, and the plot is ridiculous. I found the dialog unrealistic as well. But it grew on me, and although I can't say that I liked this book, it was at least interesting. I don't think it's up to the standard set by his earlier fiction and wonder if he rushed this book out to take advantage of the post-election anxiety so many of us feel.

This is an excellent exploration of the impact that humans have had on the flora and fauna on earth. Evidence shows that there is a catastrophic extinction event happening right now that is caused by a combination of human activity and climate change.

Based on a true story, this is a well-written mystery about the abduction and murder of two young children and the unfair prosecution of their mother.

This heavily illustrated short story is about a young man adjusting to life after his father dies of a heart attack. He creates a fantasy alter ego (the Savage) who carries out his fantasies and defends him from bullies. Great art, good story.

This is the story of Phaeton, told in novella form. Phaeton wanted to meet his father Apollo, to confirm that he was indeed his father. Apollo offered Phaeton a gift, anything he wanted in the world, and Phaeton asked to drive Apollo's chariot for one day. He loses control of the horses, and wreaks havoc across the world. It only ends when Jupiter kills him with a bolt of lightning, and Phaeton falls dying to the earth. As his mother and sisters mourn him on the banks of the river where he dies, they turn into linden trees. Written for children, this is an excellent retelling of a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses.