According to Goodreads I started this series in 2017. I generally don’t love history, but also I felt there were holes in my knowledge from my lackluster public education in the 70’s. Someone on the AO recommended this series to me because it would fill in some of the gaps, especially post WW2. I decided to take a chapter or an hour at a time bc I don’t love history. Ultimately I think I got more out of it by taking it slow than if I had rushed through it.
But now? I have less than 6 hours left and it feels like it’s time to finish the task.
Read A Familiar Sight by Brianna Labuskes. Told from alternating perspectives, most of the flashbacks from one perspective, and the current from another perspective. Sociopath investigating murder by psychopath. I had to flip back a couple times to see what time something was being talked about, but that note is below the chapter header always, making it easy to do so.
Dead Famous, by Greg Jenner (not related to those other Jenners) – history of celebrity, which goes back in a modern sense about a few hundred years (because it requires mass media of a sort, even if only newspapers)
I finished Sharp Objects and thought it was kind of meh. First, it’s yet another damaged woman drinking a lot book, although I guess it fit this book much better than some of the others. Second, was that I thought it was obvious very early on who committed the crimes,
Summary
where the teeth were (it was obvious well before any mention of the ivory floor), and that the mom had killed the daughter. And despite it being obvious who was behind the crimes, it seemed fairly implausible that in two crimes committed by four reckless kids, there was no evidence.
For the first time in forever I’m between books and feeling meh about the next one. Spent the weekend listening to a podcast series called In Plain Sight about Lady Bird’s involvement and memories from his presidency. It was cool bc the book basically stopped with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and this started with the assassination of JFK and went through the presidency of LBJ.
I downloaded Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with JFK, and I may start that tonight. I like to alternate fiction with nonfiction but although I have several in my library there’s nothing that appeals.
I have 8 hours of driving over the next 2 days and at least a couple hours (?) of waiting while my dad has cataract surgery, so I actually have time.
I do have a Kindle book that will serve during the waiting time.
I’ve been working my way through I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. We watched the series, but my wife suggested reading the book. It’s enjoyable. The series was very faithful to the book, with some things left out for I’m assuming time constraints.
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
This is the one that has her interviews with Arthur Schlesinger that were put in a vault until after her death. The audio is difficult because the volume has a lot of variation. But you also hear 3yo John John come in from time to time.
In fiction I’m listening to The Mighty Miss Malone, a Newberry winner (aka children’s book). I think it must have been on my list bc I love the narrator and the little girl on the cover is cute.
Just read Michael Lewis’ pandemic book The Premonition. Good synopsis of our (lack of) response to covid and why we failed so spectacularly. Frustrating read but lots of interesting anecdotes in there.
Just downloaded the audiobook The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith. I’m looking for something entertaining but don’t need to think that hard.
I just finished Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. It’s the best “new” fantasy novel I’ve read in ages. It’s a fairy tale, set in the woods of Russia, in the age of the tzar, with fairies and demons. But it’s also a nicely crafted book.
It’s a long, slow book. I was on vacation and savored it, but the pace isn’t going to be for everyone. It has several point-of-view characters, which again, i enjoyed, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea. An added bonus for me was that the principal pov character is a young Jewish women.