3/5/2019
Recently finished Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan which is a fascinating retelling of her descent into madness and misdiagnoses. She suffered from a rare autoimmune disorder that attacked her brain. After several doctors had examined her and came up with several different diagnoses, a doctor from Syria was able to pinpoint the cause. She was the 217th person ever diagnosed with the disorder, but only one year later over 1000 had. The symptoms often appear to be what many would consider demon possession and the inflammation of the brain explains it. Fortunately for Susannah, her family and boyfriend stood by her and she completely recovered because of a timely diagnosis. It was an interesting and terrifying read.
2/21/2019
I have several books going on at once. I have a discussion group that is reading Cast of Characters by Max Lucado, 2 chapters per week. Max writes in a very gentle and sentimental style that is insightful. I have another discussion group that is reading Simply Good News by N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright is a theological that is not my usual read as he is an Anglican from Great Britain. But he is clear and simple enough for anyone to understand. I am enjoying looking at the gospel from a lens slightly different than the perspective I am used to.
Just finished After Anna by Lisa Scottoline. I have not read her before. It is a fast paced story going back and forth between a murder trial from the accused's perspective (a step father) and the history of what led up to it from the mother's perspective. I was intrigued and kept wondering whether or not he did it. It took a surprising turn at the end that had me glued!
2/18/2019
The Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel. This book is broken down into 3 parts. As I neared the end I was very curious as to how he would tie the 3 stories together and was expecting something epic. Did not deliver. Laid away an hour after I finished reading trying to figure out what symbolism was there I failed to understand. Story 2 reminded me of Flannery O'Conner with its weirdness that was totally discombobulating. Part 3 left me with a feeling of, "what just happened?". Let's just say I am not a fan.
2/4/2019
Educated by Tara Westover is one of the best books I have ever read. It was a stressful read and I had to quit reading it before bedtime. It is the true story of a girl raised by Mormon extremists preppers in Idaho who was never sent to school or to doctors. Her father owned a junk yard and he became bipolar. Her childhood was very traumatic and stressful. An older brother was interested in education, encouraged her to learn and expand beyond her family compound. She taught herself math, passed her ACT, and went to BYU. She also got scholarships to Cambridge and Oxford. She continually struggles with what obligations do we have to our family and ourselves. Such a great story.
2/1/2019
Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About it by Larry Olmstead This was not what I was expecting but I thought it an interesting read. The first chapter was about olive oil. It compared what we get in our grocery store with what true fresh pressed olive oil tastes like close to the source. I skimmed the chapter on wine. He states most of the fish we buy is mislabeled. The scariest part was on meat. That has caused me to look for grass fed and grass finished, organic beef.
1/23/2019
Ben Gurion, Prophet of Fire, by Dan Kurzman. I have been fascinated for a long time by the history of modern day Israel. This is the biography of the man considered the Father of Modern Israel. David Ben Gurion was a leader in the Zionist movement, first prime minister, the one who announced independence in 1948, and led the nation till in his 80's.
1/12/2019
The Great War of Our Time, The CIA's fight against terrorism from Al Qa'ida to ISIS by Michael Morell. I have watched Michael Morell as a commentator/analyst of CBS News. He always seems to be so level headed and knowledgeable. He spent 35 years working at the CIA as an analyst, presidential daily briefer, and acting head. He worked under 5 presidents and was with George Bush on September 11. He tells compelling stories of the hunt for terrorists, presidents and their demeanor, how his job affected his family. One story was of his wife considering divorce because he said there was no way he could attend his daughter's senior choir program. He could not tell her the raid on Bin Laden was happening. He just had to stay at work. Later he called and told her to turn on the news, the President was about to make an announcement. Only as she saw Obama address the nation and tell that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a raid did she understand. He speaks generously of every president he served from both parties. It is an interesting read.
1/5/2019
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Her book, The Nightingale was one of the best books I have ever read. The Great Alone was a stressful read for me. There were times I wanted to stop reading but was drawn to "what is going to happen". The story of a girl taken by her parents to Alaska. Her father is a Vietnam former POW who has severe PTSD. It is a compelling story, but did leave me stressed over what is going to happen next to these people and this girl.
3-8-2018
Wow, this has been a busy time with helping kids to move and visiting aging parents (which involves cooking, cleaning, and doing projects they have in mind for me to do for them).
I finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a Spaniard while still in Colorado. He calls it a fable, but it is a delightful story of following your dreams. It is a quick read and I give it 5 stars. It leaves you with things to think about.
I have also finished the entire Chronicles of Narnia series that I began in the fall. I read extensively to my children when they lived at home, even up through high school, but somehow failed to read this series to them. We owned it and my husband read it to our youngest when he was in elementary school. I enjoyed them. But The Last Battle took me by surprise.
Currently I am reading Hissing Cousins by Marc Peyser and Timother Dwyer, subtitled, The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Having previously read 2 of Edmund Morris's books about Theodore Roosevelt and The River of Doubt by Candace Millard ( a terrific biographer) I was intrigued to learn more about Alice, his first daughter by the dead wife he never spoke of again after her death shortly after childbirth.
2-19-2018
While driving the 13+ hours from Casa Grande, Arizona to Arvada, Colorado following a yellow Penske truck, I listened to Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I had thoroughly enjoyed his novel, A Man Called Ove. Beartown is totally different than Ove. It begins with the tension of a scene of one teenager pulling the trigger of a gun against the head of another teenager. Then goes on to say, this is the story of how this came to be. Wow! I had several guesses along the way and proved to be incorrect in several of my guesses. Fredik Backman seems to have great insight into people and what makes them tick, whether children, teenagers, parents, older people, male, female, victim or perpetrators, the whole gamut. I would give Ove a 5 star rating for its lovablility. I would give Beartown a 4.5 star.
While going through some pictures I had taken in Key West, Florida I found one I had taken at Ernest Hemingway's home to remind me of a book I was interested in investigating. It was written by his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, titled Travels with Myself and Another. While searching the library, I did not find that book, but another written about the same time period. Martha and Ernest went to China after World War 2 had started in Europe but before Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Martha was a correspondent with Collier's and she talked her new husband into going with her to China. He did not want to go as he was exhausted from just finishing For Whom the Bell Tolls. He did go and their marriage did not fare well or last long after. Almost 40 years later she wrote a memoir about the trip, but refused to use her former husband's name, hence the title Travels with Myself and Another. My library did not have that book but one titled Hemingway on the China Front: His World War 2 Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn by Peter Moreira. I really know very little about Hemingway but wanted to know more after visiting his home. I found this book mildly interesting. There were some Chinese historic names I was familiar with, but did not know much about them. So I did learn some things. Maybe later I will look for a more encompassing biography of Hemingway. I finished Peter's book on Feb. 8.
A fascinating book I read was Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller. She was raised by parents who were hoarders. She dearly loved her parents, and did not realize at first they were different than other families. She shares her struggles of growing up and feeling like the garbage she had been surrounded by. It is a transparent and open memoir of her life and how this "secret" affected her personality, relationships, and life choices today. I highly recommend this book.
While living in Holland, Michigan I went to an event titled "An Evening with Author Lynn Austin". Lynn had recently moved to the Holland area and shared with us how she became a published author. She writes historical fiction for the Christian book market. I had enjoyed several of her books while living in Holland. She recently finished one about the immigrants who founded Holland, Michigan and the Dutch towns around there titled Waves of Mercy. I enjoyed it since I had enjoyed the Dutch influence and many Dutch friends while living there. It was good to learn more about the original settlers and their struggles even though this was fiction. I often get on an author kick, so I read another of hers right after titled Let the Waters Roar. It is a novel that resembles the great Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania. I finished the second while on a flight from Atlanta to Phoenix on Jan. 31.
As an Amazon prime member, there is a free book each month from a list of new books about to be released. On January 17, I finished A River in Darkness, One Man's Escape from North Korea by Ishikawa Masaji. It is a sad tale of his childhood in Japan where he is treated with discrimination because his father is Korean and was brought to Japan during the war as were many Koreans to do the lowly jobs Japan needed done during the war. They hear stories of the paradise in North Korea and are repatriated there. In North Korea he also faces severe discrimination for being half Japanese. The story of poverty, hunger, corruption, and desperation are horrific. When he finally escapes to Japan as an adult, it is still not a happy ending.
I finished a self published book available on Amazon titled Kingdoms of Broken Stone: Boy Of Dreams by Nathan Van Hoff. I have known Nathan all his life and did not expect much from a first novel that was self published. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a fantasy story of wizards, good and evil, who come to help and hurt men. The book has a very egalitarian outlook with women being just as likely as men to be wizards of magic and warriors. It is available for only $9.99 digital edition on Amazon.
1-9-2018 Just finished Agatha Christie's The Orient Express. I was on the library waiting list for several weeks. The new movie made lots of people want to read the book. Since the movie was fresh on my mind, I noticed the liberties the producer/director/screen writer took. Changes from a book usually irritate me, but I enjoyed both the book and the newest movie version.
I began listening to the book Fortune's Children, the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II after visiting Biltmore House in December. I listened to this as I made the hexagon mermaid quilt. It is an interesting account of how Cornelius Vanderbilt became the richest man in the world, his son doubled the money in 8 years after his father's death, and how the heirs squandered it by the time of his great grandchildren. George Vanderbilt who had the Biltmore House built was the grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, the first tycoon. He managed to go through most of his money so that after his death, his wife was left to sell off and to pay their expenses. She and her daughter moved to a small section of the house and closed the rest.
While making the pink and gray herringbone baby quilt, I listened to the classic, Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis.
While making the doggie pillow, I listened to Voyage of the Dawn Treader, also by CS Lewis.
My DSM (dear sweet man) purchased Younger Next Year, so that has been my bedtime reading. Finished 1-1-2018! This book's supposition is that years 60-80 can function like a 50 year old IF you do serious cardio 4 times per week (60 minutes with high heart rate), strength training 2 times per week, stop eating crap (their words), be connected to others, and care. Sounds kinda like a lot of other opinions for preventing all kinds of age related disorders, except that they up the exercise more than the 10,000 steps or 30 minutes per day.
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