SqueakyChu's reading in 2021 blooms anew! - Quarter 1

Hi, folks, and welcome to my 2021 thread!

Here's hoping for a better year than 2020. Looking toward renewal, I'm going to make the theme of my thread flowers. I love nature and all living things. Flower blossoms bring forth the best of plants, and I want 2021 to be for the best of humanity. It's a big wish, but we need big wishes after this past year which has been so dark and gloomy in so many ways.

I'm going to try to read 75 books this year. Ha! That might necessitate me to stop doom-scrolling and casually pick up more books. Here's hoping!



Total pages: Total pages: 1,496

January:

Photo by Swaminathan - Flickr, CC-A

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. BookCrossing meetup via Zoom - Completed! It was fun, We had visitors from Florida, Californiam and Toronto.

COMPLETED:
1. Blond China Doll : A Shanghai Interlude, 1939-1953 - Hannelore Heinemann Headley - TIOLI #9: Read a book someone else picked out for you (friends who are the brother and sister-in-law of the author) - 224 pages
2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - TIOLI #7: Read a book with a word meaning new in the title or about someone starting or starting over (new) - 311 pages

February:

Photo by Mark Turnauckas - Flickr-CC-A

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. BookCrossing meetup via Zoom - That was fun. I was happy to discover that @jessibud2 came to our meetup!

COMPLETED:
3. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi - TIOLI #11: Mardi Gras rolling challenge (A) - 167/225 pages

MARCH:


BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. Two BookCrossing meetups via Zoom - one from Toronto; the other from BCinDC

COMPLETED
4. Come On Up - Jordi Nopca - TIOLI #1: Read a book of short stories (fiction) originally written in a language other than your native language (Catalan) - 211 pages
5. Notes From the Dry Country - Ellen Aronofsky Cole - TIOLI #15: Read a book whose page numbers are anywhere but above the text (at bottom) - 87 pages
6. The Great Migration - Jacob Lawrence - TIOLI #5: Read a book where the author’s first name begins with the letter ‘J - 47 pages
7. The Mask of Sanity - Jacob M. Appel - TIOLI #5: Read a book where the author’s first name begins with the letter ‘J’ - 256 pages
8. Blessing the Boats - Lucille Clifton - TIOLI #15: Read a book whose page numbers are anywhere but above the text (at the bottom) - 132 pages

Happy new thread, Madeline! And here's to a much lighter and happier 2021!

>6 SqueakyChu: Thanks, Shelley! I am so ready for a brand new year!

Welcome back!

Welcome back, Madeline. I'm looking forward to another great year of TIOLI reading.

>8 lindapanzo: Thanks! Me, too...excerpt that i hope to be able to get more books read this year. Reading pleasure is starting to come back to me now.

>9 SqueakyChu: to help boost my enthusiasm, I started my annual category challenge on Christmas Eve and I've already finished two books. While I'm unlikely to keep up the pace, mentally, I'm lining up my books again, which I haven't done in a long time.

>10 lindapanzo: Sounds great! I like your enthusiasm! :D

At the rate I was going, I might even finish a second book today. Aha, but I've discovered January TIOLI is up.

>12 lindapanzo: LOLOLOL! No more reading for the next hour!

Great to see you back, Madeline. It wouldn't be the same without you and the wonderful TIOLI -even though I am a very unreliable participant.

>14 PaulCranswick: This coming year will be a better year, Paul, so you can jump right in whenever that feeling hits you. I wish you and your loved ones a healthy and happy 2021.

I do want to try and see how my reads will fit the TIOLIs this year and make the occasional challenge myself.

>16 PaulCranswick: Hooray! We look forward to your presence! :D

Happy new thread!

>18 quondame: Hi Susan! Have a wonderful new year...and keep on reading those books!

Happy New Year! Thanks for keeping up the TIOLIs in such a difficult year. It was a bright spot of normality in a strange and stressful year.

>20 cbl_tn: Happy New Year, Carrie.

Things like TIOLI have kept me grounded on days when I felt so anxious I was unable to do most anything else. At least now that hope is on the horizon for many things, I can actually start reading again.

Happy new thread!

>22 EllaTim: Thank you! Wishing you all the best for 2021.

Welcome back! Hope you enjoy your reading in 2021!

>24 thornton37814:. Thanks, Lori. I plan to read a lot more in the new year than I did this past year. That’s for sure!

Hoping to follow along on your reading adventures in 2021.

Welcome back Madeline! Ha, the dreaded doom scrolling! I seem to scroll but never looked at it as doom. Hoping this coming year is better than this past year!

>26 Helenliz: Ha! I hope there will be a few more books on my COMPLETED list this year!

>27 crazy4reading: Me, too! I am so
Looking forward to days of less tension and anxiety. Wishing you a good 2021.

Best wishes for a better 2021!

>29 DianaNL: Thank you. Hoping 2021 is good to you and your loved ones.

Happy reading in 2021, Madeline!

>31 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita! Wishing you and your loved ones a healthy and happy 2021.

And keep up with my friends here, Madeline. Have a great 2021.

Happy new year!

>33 PaulCranswick: Happy New Year, Paul. I’m sorry to report that most hugs are not permitted here yet. :(

>34 quondame: Happy New Year, Susan!

Blond China Doll : A Shanghai Interlude, 1939-1953 - Hannelore Heinemann Headley


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TIOLI #9: Read a book someone else picked out for you (friends who are the brother and sister-in-law of the author)
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Hannelore Heinemann Headley’s story of surviving the Holocaust is both moving and heart-breaking. Her memoirs start with her parents leaving Berlin, Germany, at the time of Kristalnacht and their escape to live in Shanghai. The author was three years old at the time. She constructed her story from what she remembered and what she was told by others who were with her then.

I was especially interested in the documents that were pictured in this book. I realized from seeing the picture of Hannelore’s mother’s travel pass from Germany that what she had, and also what my own father had, was not a passport at all, for both had been stripped of their German citizenship at that time because they were Jews. Rather, each had carried a “travel pass” with a name, identification number, date of exit from Germany and stamped with a “J” to indicate that they were Jewish.

I was deeply interested in learning about life for Jews in Shanghai during and after WWII. This was so new to me as I had only learned in the past about Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe escaping to the Western Hemisphere and never about those who were saved from certain death by being allowed to emigrate to Shanghai. What an amazing story!

I was horrified that in their lifetime, Hannelore and her family had to escape from two countries, each of which they had expected to be their homeland forever. As an American citizen reading this book as 2020 turned into 2021, it made me deeply nervous. One can never predict one’s own safety or that of one’s family for the future. It is wise to keep a close eye on the political situation in the country in which one lives and to have some safety factors in place for any sudden, untoward and perhaps dangerous changes. The ending of this book had me crying with relief and gave me a new sense of the word “freedom”.

I really, really loved this book. I adored the main character, Hannelore, who was inquisitive and opinionated about everything. I would have loved to have met her in real life. Fortunately and happily, I do know her brother Stephen and her sister-in-law Fran so I feel very privileged in that respect. When visiting this couple at The Write Bookshop, a store located in St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada, and once belonging to the author, they presented me with a copy of this book.

Rating - 5 stars

Though Hitler and his cohorts perpetrated the Holocaust, all those countries that turned a blind eye towards the European Jews were also guilty.

Congrats on already finishing #1!! And a 5-star, too! Wishing you a better, brighter, bookier 2021.

>37 Berly: Thanks, Kim. May 2021 be good to you!

Hi, Madeline! Best wishes for the new reading year, and congratulations on getting #1 under your belt. :)

The flowers are lovely!

>36 SqueakyChu: - I am going to see if my library has this in their system, Madeline. So interesting.

>39 lyzard: Thanks, Liz. Wishing you a good 2021.

>40 jessibud2: If it's not in their system, could you request they order it? My library takes book suggestions, although I don't remember having actually submitted any!

>41 SqueakyChu: - They often do and have, for me, in the past but since covid, customer requests for ordering is on hold. I have already asked, earlier. :-) But I will make a note of it so I don't forget, for the time when things get back to normal.

>42 jessibud2: If they can't get it, I could perhaps order it to be shipped to you from Fran's bookstore! I'm not sure if I can order it online though. I'll have to find out. Let me know if I should do that at some point. It wouldn't be costly to ship since it would be coming from Ontario and going to Ontario.

Happy New year Madeline. Last year I read a good YA historical fiction about the European Jews in Shanghai during WW2 - Someday we will fly by Rachel DeWoskin. The author had lived in Shanghai so knew the locations and had researched the subject well.

>44 avatiakh: Happy New Year! I think with tRump soon to be gone and covid vaccines soon to be available, this year might actually turn out better!

I'll have to look for the book you mentioned to see if there are parallels in the story about Jewish life in Shanghai. It was so interesting to read about. i can't wait to travel back to Canada when things are better and talk to the author's brother about life in Shanghai, now that I've read the book. Of course he was very little (about four years old) when he left there so I'm not sure how much he remembers. His whole family life is so interesting. I never knew this about him because his wife Fran (a second marriage for her) was my friend. I never knew that this husband had such an interesting family history! :)

>45 SqueakyChu: Hoping your prediction for a better 2021 turns out to be right!! Happy Thursday.

>46 Berly: Thank you, Kim. Here's wishing you a safe and good 2021.

2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley


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TIOLI #7: Read a book with a word meaning new in the title or about someone starting or starting over (new)
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Wow! This was a depressing book. Looking into the Brave New World of the future, we see all people happy, being born artificially into castes in which they spend their whole lives doing the same work as assigned to them and being numbed into forced happiness with a pill called Soma. Enter Bernard Marx, a man who is not quite up to his caste’s level. He tries to save himself by starting an experiment with an outcaste, a man named John but referred to as the Savage, in order to further understand people outside of civilized society.

When I first started reading this book, I really disliked it because of the caste system and the haughty entitled people at its top. That made for very disagreeable reading. These days fiction is too much like nonfiction. However, I forced myself to read more as now is indeed a time of dystopia for me in real life. I wanted to see what the message of this book was as I have recently read a few other classic dystopian novels.

I found it sad that the world controllers in this novel wanted everyone to be the same, as well as categorized into haves (world controllers) and have-nots (all the others). Is that where our real world is headed? Death of diversity?

My reading this novel in its entirety was the correct call although it was deeply frightening having just experienced an administration in my own federal government which denied truth and science. So prescient was Aldous Huxley in writing this novel that I found reading it particularly chilling.

Rating - 4.5 stars

But truth’s a menace, science is a public danger.

>48 SqueakyChu: It is such a long time since I read this one that a reread must be on the horizon. I remember thinking it an important book 35 years ago when I read it.

>49 PaulCranswick: You know, Paul, I never liked either science fiction books or dystopian books before. However, I now feel compelled to read such works because they are based on situations that seem outlandish but could really happen some day.

After my own government almost being taken over by real nut cases, nothing is beyond belief any more. As a grandchild of a couple who died in Auschwitz, nothing is impossible to believe. I would really love a gentler, more humane world.

>48 SqueakyChu: Oof! Such a heavy read when elements mix with reality these days. It's hard to read for escapism when fiction is hitting too close to home! I'm glad it was worth sticking with despite the chilling experience.

>51 dk_phoenix: I'm glad i stuck with it through to the end although it was so depressing. I hate wasting time on books that disappoint me after I've given them lots of time.

Hej Madeline, well, it took some time to find your thread. I was busy putting up memorials in findagrave and didn't read so much. I also did some corrections of other Swiss memorials. We often use our Allianznamen (alliance names), we add the wife's name after our name. So my wife was Suki Stalder-Kim, officially Stalder only, but I also often use my Allianzname. In the late 1990s there was a change of law so that women can chose their name: either take on the husband's name, take their maiden name along hyphenated or put their maiden name first and add the husband's name unhyphenated. So Suki could have chosen between Suki Stalder, Suki Stalder-Kim or Suki Kim Stalder (one oif the variant would then be used in the official documents. That confuses many non-Europeans. When I come across a grave stone of a young woman who probably married in the late 1990s or 2000s and it reads Esther Stalder Studer, the entry would be 'Stalder Studer' (Stalder being the former maiden name and now being the first part of her present surname). Explain that to findagrave! They use the maiden name as middle name, which is wrong over here.

I think, I share your feelings about dystopian novels. I feel similar sometimes about historical works about Jews in Europe or Korea during the Japanese occupation etc. I want to read them, but it is so depressing.

Hope you have a good start into the new week

>53 paulstalder: Oh, how confusing about the grave names!! I'm used to the double surnames because in Spanish names the mother's surname is added after the father's surname. I love my middle name, Teresa, as that was the name of my maternal grandmother who died in the Holocaust. However, on Facebook I use my maiden name as a middle name so that people who used to know me by my maiden name can find me on Facebook. It actually works.

Now that the second impeachment of the former US president is over, I can move forward into a better week, although my district Congressman, Jamie Raskin, did a brilliant job along with other managers of the prosecution. Our Senate is still filled by many corrupt individuals so the former president was sadly not convicted. I'll try to put that issue behind me now and just be glad we have a Biden and Harris leading my government now and hope to move through the next two years with the least trauma possible, although the pandemic does not help.

3. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi


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TIOLI #11: Mardi Gras rolling challenge (A)
--------------------------------------------
This is such a sad story. It's hard enough to be aware of a diagnosis of lung cancer in oneself, but when the patient is a young doctor just starting a career in the field of neurosurgery and research, it's doubly horrific.

Our author, Paul Kalanithi, also loved to write. He decided early on to document the story of his life as a dying man. After all, he was alive and had a lot to share before he would actually die. Most of his story was told in facts about the decisons he made, who helped him with these decisions, and why he made them. However, toward the end of his life, the decisions were harder for him to make and often he had to defer to others in this regard.

I was devastated reading about his death although I knew from the beginning this was the story of a dying man. He was so brave. He was also kind to share his story with others who may be living through the same kind of hell. He did look for the bright spots during his terminal illness and always opted after them, even if it took a little pushing from his own physician.

Should you read this story? Definitely, yes. It gives increased meaning to Kalanithi's life and career as a doctor and a writer that you now take the time to learn what he had to say.

Rating - 4.5 stars

I had learned something, something not found in Hippocrates, Maimonides, or Osler: the physician’s duty is not to stave off death or return patients to their old lives, but to take into our arms a patient and family whose lives have disintegrated and work until they can stand back up and face, and make sense of, their own existence.

Hi Madeline. I'm stopping by to say hello and to see what you are reading. All good wishes for a good weekend.

>56 Whisper1: Hi Linda! So nice of you to stop by. I hope all is going well with you. I’m not doing much traveling around LT these days. Thanks for your good wishes.

>55 SqueakyChu: This book has been on my mental list for a long time, but I've been skirting around it for the very reason you cite, that it will be very sad. But it stays on the list. Beautiful title, isn't it?

>58 ffortsa:. Yeah. This was not a great time time to read it because of all the sadness attached to the pandemic and all the anxiety related to the political scene of the outgoing administration, but I grabbed it quickly from a neighbor who donated it to my Little Free Library because I heard it was a very good read. Anyhow, it added to my list of reasons to feel sad. Life can at times be so unfair.

hej Madeline, some greetings from Switzerland

>60 paulstalder: Nice frog! Greetings to you in Swtzerland from Rockville, Maryland, USA!

4. Come On Up - Jordi Nopca



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TIOLI #1: Read a book of short stories (fiction) originally written in a language other than your native language (Catalan)
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This was a really good book! It was a surprisingly fresh and delightful collection of short stories with characters who stood out in a quirky sort of way. All in all, a fun read.

Nopca is a good writer. I like his descriptive style. It’s particularly nice for me that the stories are based in Barcelona, a city in Spain I grew to love after my visit there.

The stories have just the right balance of humor and pathos to make me eager to read more by this author, but so far none of his novels have yet been published in English. I hope that will change.

I liked the last story the best because, in my mind, everyone has some abandoned musical instrument consigned to a dusty corner of the house! Mine is a ukelele in my bedroom closet. "Robes and Candles" is the story of a college student's dad who decides to learn to play the tenor saxophone, while the grandparents are concerned about neighbors of theirs whom they've observed doing a strange ritual involving robes and candles.

Rating - 4.5 stars

There aren’t a lot of successful saxophone players who started playing after sixty.

>62 SqueakyChu: I would imagine that it is indeed difficult to pick up an instrument late in life and especially something that needs some puff like the saxophone.

>62 SqueakyChu:, >63 PaulCranswick: Maybe not sax, but that uke is pretty easy to learn! (Speaking from later in life experience...)

>63 PaulCranswick: Paul, my older son played the tenor sax back in his high school days. He probably still has it in one of his closets at his house. He enjoyed playing it then, but he hated being in the Marching Band. He said his uniform (school colors of black and gold) made him look like a bumble bee! LOL!!

>64 drneutron: Jim, I took up playing the uke about two years ago. For some reason, I stuck it in my closet and didn’t play it at all during the pandemic. I do agree that it’s a fun instrument and one that is easy to learn to play. It has great versatility as well. I will definitely go back to playing it...one of these days.

>55 SqueakyChu: >59 SqueakyChu: sad
Does this help?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/two-dying-memoirists-wrote-be...

Just read: Küss mich Frosch


:)

<67 ...and just in time for Passover! :D The plague of frogs, you know!

>68 SqueakyChu: now imagine: in order to stop the plague you would have to kiss each frog till you find the right one who will stop the plague ...

I am just reading Rabbi Klein which reminds me of Rabbi Small. I guess Bodenheimer modelled his Rabbi a bit like Small (not just the name). There are also some biblical and talmudic references, like 'Why does the Torah start with the 2nd and not the first letter of the alephbet? Well, it's the same with coffee: the second cup is always better'. --- I guess in my case, the 2nd cup is better because then I am awake which does not apply to my first cup :) So, I go and make my second cup of coffee now ...

>69 paulstalder: I cannot tell you how many frogs we have at oiur Passover seders. The tradition started when I thought it would be cute to give each family a frog. When we had kids, I started giving the kids frogs. Now we're on grandkids and the frogs have mounted up over the years. One of my friends whose family hosts one of our two seders (in non-pandemic times) has become the official frog keeper. Each year she brings her frogs and places them EVERYWHERE. It has become a tradition that always makes us laugh...beside their simply being cute!

>70 paulstalder: I never read the Rabbi Small series, usually not being a fan of mysteries. Sometimes I break down, though. For example. I'm now reading The Mask of Sanity by Jacob M. Appel. Jeremy Balint is a serial killer who just happens to be a Jewish cardiologist--not your usual serial killer profile. The book is extremely well written, sometimes with a line that makes me laugh out loud, so I'm throughly enjoying this book in a genre I usually don't favor.

One cup of coffee for me each day (as opposed to my husband's four (two cups in one thermos twice daily). I now order coffee by mail from my favorite roastery--which I'm sure I've mentioned before (mayorgaorganics.com).

One day,. I'll have to start studying the Talmud. Such interesting discussions among those rabbis!

>66 qebo: I'm not ignoring your reply. I just don't have my WaPo password at hand, and the site is not letting me in, thinking me a non-subscriber!

>72 SqueakyChu: Hmm, I thought it allowed a few freebies, but I have a subscription so I'm not in a position to test. (My local newspaper allows no freebies whatsoever, which is seriously annoying.)

5. Notes From the Dry Country - Ellen Aronofsky Cole


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TIOLI #15: Read a book whose page numbers are anywhere but above the text (at bottom)
---------------------------------------------
Wow! This was a book of brave poetry from a local poet who tackled being a cancer patient and other difficult topics with talent and aplomb. It brought me back mentally to the days I myself was a cancer patient as well as the years I spent in nursing working on two different cancer units. This was a very emotional read for me.

The poems in this collection were excellent. They were a window into the life and soul of the author who shares pictures, but only with words, of her family and moments of anguish in her life. Many images within the poems of this book were hauntingly familiar to me (burning house, White Album, kiss the Torah, cicadas, Celtic ballads, Wellbutrin, ICU, Rosh Hashanah, cutting, Baltimore, hearing aid, marched for peace, Suburban Hospital, Starbucks coffee, mimosa trees, DC). Had this poet been in and out of my own life? It felt that way. It was this eerie familiarity which made me dig deep into each poem of this special collection. I was at the edge of tears at times. Sometimes, my tears fell.

More interesting. How did this book get to me? Was it dropped into my Little Free Library by the poet herself who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland? I’ll never know.

I’d so love to save this book, but more than that, I would like others to read this poetry. It is so moving and beautiful.

Rating - 5 stars

Only the nurses kept me company at night.
The long window on my left was a black funnel
sucking heat out of the room, dumping it into
Baltimore. The nurses appeared in my room masked,

wore paper robes to protect me from germs.
The cold shook me in my bed. I begged them to stay
and talk, for heat packs to warm my chest. Neela
offered to assist me to the commode, then vanished.

on her rounds. I told Tonia I couldn’t stop thinking
about what might happen to me next. She said
she’d ask the Attending to prescribe a tranquilizer,
maybe Ativan, then she too disappeared...

Sounds very powerful. Madeline.

>75 jessibud2: It was really a great book. I don't often like to read *books* of poetry, but this one seemed to have lots of poems that called out to me.

I used to write poetry when I was younger. I recently wrote the first poem I"ve writeen in over thirty years. Poetry sort of writes itself. It's not something that I can just sit down and do, It pours forth from one's soul.

6. The Great Migration - Jacob Lawrence


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TIOLI #5: Read a book where the author’s first name begins with the letter ‘J
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I selected this book to read, even though it appeared to be a children's book, from a Little Free Library because I had just learned about the Great Migration in a recent African American History course. Yes, I was aware of freed black slaves escaping to the north in what I learned as a child in American History courses, but I'm not sure that I ever knew the full extent of this migration. I became interested in learning more about Black history following the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

I didn't just read this book. I read it aloud to my hisband while we both looked at the pictures, which are beautiful. What especially appealed to me about the pictures were their simplicity, their color palatte, and the story they told. The pictures were all paintings in a series done by the author, himself an artist. These paintings are now in a divided collection between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. I do not recall seeing any of these paintings before even though I did visit the Phillips art museum in the past. I have now become more acutely aware of how much I still need to know about my fellow African Americans.

There is a poem at the end of this book by author Walter Dean Myers, a well known children's author. The poem was called "Migration". Yes, it did make me cry. I, being a child of Holocaust survivors from Europe, and my husband, being an immigrant from El Salvador, are only too aware of how much parents do to ensure better lives for their children.

This is a beautiful book in so many ways. It's informative and quick to read. Don't miss it.

Rating - 5 stars

Theirs is a story of African-American strength and courage. I share it now as my parents told it to me, because their struggles and triumphs ring true today. People all over the world are still on the move, trying to build better lives for themselves and their families.

7. The Mask of Sanity - Jacob M. Appel


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TIOLI #5: Read a book where the author’s first name begins with the letter ‘J’
------------------------------------------
This is a cunningly crafted novel about your not-so-typical serial murderer, a successful Jewish cardiologist. As the story unfolds, the reader begins to sense and feel dismay at the lack of empathy in Dr. Jeremy Balint, who can best be described as a sociopath. A bizarre part of this novel was when this murderer was asked by his rabbi to do a mitzvah (a good deed). Begrudgingly, the doctor did so. The hypocrisy of this doctor’s life increases as the story moves forward. This serial murderer is continually being lauded for his ethics. Come on!

An unusual novel in a genre I usually either can’t follow or don’t enjoy, this story was unusually engaging to me. However, there was one small part of this book that I felt was a bit cringe-worthy. It was Balint’s reactions to work he was doing on behalf of medical clinics for poor blacks. At one point, he made a black-face joke. Although it was in part of a conversation in the book and nothing I heard aloud, I had a very knee-jerk upset reaction to it. It made me angry, actually. I wish it hadn’t been part of this book although I’m aware I’m reading fiction.

This book was published in 2017. The prologue to this book was spot on. The author had no idea how prescient his words would be. You’ll have to read what he wrote and ponder it before proceeding to read this novel.

A prescient line from this book was “by this time next year, we’ll be sitting in this office, watching that Choker fellow on live television”. As I write these words, live television is presenting (although I’m not watching) the trial of the police officer involved in the death of George Floyd. What a sad coincidence.

In all, I enjoyed the experience of reading this book. The segments were just the right size. The characters were obnoxious enough to be believable. The hypocrisy of the the protagonist’s life was a tale unto itself. The Jewish references either made me cringe or laugh (“Boker tov!”). The story itself was direct and fast-moving, allowing me to proceed through the story without being bored at any point. The story is carefully constructed. All of Jeremy’s detailed plans are laid out in a way that the reader is made to feel a part of the whole plan!

I think my husband would also like this story so I’m saving this book for him to read next.

Rating - 4.5 stars

Too often, literature encourages us to imagine these amoral villains as dwelling along the margins of society, clinging to the lowest rungs of the economic ladder...Only recently...has the public become aware that many amoral individuals lurk in the highest echelons of power, be it business, law, and even in medicine. They are all around us, smiling and perpetrating evil.

8. Blessing the Boats - Lucille Clifton



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TIOLI #15: Read a book whose page numbers are anywhere but above the text (at the bottom)
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I thought I'd like this book at first glance. I saw it had been written by an African American woman, and it was the winner of the National Book Award.

I was wrong. I read the poems aloud, but I got very little out of most of them. They sounded fine, but seemed to be way over my head. There were but a mere few that appealed to me. Those were Sorrow Song (the eyes of children), Photograph (black boys twirling), and (the best one) Wishes for Sons (a hex on men).

This is not the kind of poetry I like. I am curious, though, as to what is so appealling about most these poems to others?

Rating - 2 stars

universe
keep them turning turning
black blurs against the window
of the world
for they are beautiful
and there is trouble coming
round and round and round

Next thread continues here.