What are you reading the week of June 26, 2021?

I've started The Storm is Upon Us: How Qanon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory. I'm not sure what I hope to gain by reading this beyond a deeper sense of despair.

I will add that Selling Hitler: Propaganda and the Nazi Brand by Nicholas O'Shaughnessy is the most enlightening book about propaganda and the modern predicament that I've read in the last few years. My copy has so many passages marked with those little post-it flags that it seems to be sprouting hair. My favorite quote is, "Propaganda gives people permission to say what they already believe."

>1 fredbacon: It is the duty of the historian to look unflinchingly on the abyss; then you pour yourself a stiff drink.

As for myself I knocked off Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front, which basically deals with the seeds of the Cold War while talking about the American effort to mount bombing raids out of the USSR. I'm in various stages of completion of The Right Wrong Man, Yankee Warhorse and British Aircraft Carriers.

Finished A Dog's Way Home, which met expectations (and they weren't high). It was an okay book, but pretty predictable.

Next up is Last Days of Night, which is kind of a historical mystery novel about the feud between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, the outcome of which will largely determine the way America uses electricity. I'll admit I picked it up because Nikola Tesla is one of the supporting characters. (Tesla has long fascinated me, and I wish my sweetie would finish his Father's Day gift, which is a Tesla biography, so I can read it!)

still reading The Mists of Avalon, Neuromancer, and The Soldiers of Fear.

Finished reading the very good Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Next up for reading is Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

>7 hemlokgang: I loved Homegoing.

I finished The Warmth Of Other Suns which was great. I wanted to read something a little lighter and picked up Early Morning Riser which is fitting the bill.

>7 hemlokgang: >8 Copperskye: I loved Homegoing too! What did you think hemlokgang?

I'm reading A Pure Heart by Rajia Hassib for my book club. It's really good so far.

>7 hemlokgang: >8 Copperskye: >9 PaperbackPirate:

Homegoing is my favourite book so far this year. I loaned it to my brother, who really liked it as well.

I've had no time to read as I've been taking care of my mum this week. I have managed 17 pages of Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue and so far it's very enjoyable. The story is about a Cameroonian immigrant family finding opportunities in New York City.

I've been trying to finish Brideshead Revisited for a week now. He's a good writer, but these characters are not particularly sympathetic. I'm determined to finish it, but am disappointed. Such a popular book, with many re-releases, and I was ready to be entertained. Sniffle.

The Search For Anne Perry
Joanne Drayton
3/5 stars
This is the biography of Anne Perry, prolific writer of mysteries. However, Anne Perry is not her original name but she was actually born as Juliet Hulme. Her name change came about after she was imprisoned for the death of a young girl and became an author. Drayton covers her life but mostly her writing career and offers samples of Anne’s writings from her books throughout the biography. I enjoyed the book but I thought that the book summaries interrupted the flow of the book and the discussion of her life was not linear. The death of the girl was not discussed till later in the book and contained few details about it.

Finding Dorothy – Elizabeth Letts
Book on CD read by Ann Marie Lee
3.5***

Letts mines history to go “behind the scenes” on the making of the 1938 movie that launched Judy Garland’s star - The Wizard of Oz - and, more importantly, the story of how L Frank Baum came to write the series that captured the imaginations of millions of readers.

As has become common in historical fiction, Letts uses a bifurcated time line: 1938, during the filming of the movie; and the late 19th century as Maud Gage, college student, meets and falls in love with actor / impresario Frank Baum. Few authors manage this literary device well, but Letts does a fine job, showing how events in the Baum’s lives were incorporated into the book (and in some cases into the movie without making it into the books at all).

I was engaged and interested from the beginning and felt that I learned much about both the making of the movie and about the people Maud and Frank Baum were. I admit to having never read the original book, and now I feel I may have to remedy that. Although, I, like many children of my generation, was obsessed with the annual showing of the movie, and my mother was about 10 or 11 years old when the movie was originally released and she shared her memories of going to see it in the theater with me.

Ann Marie Lee does a marvelous job of voicing the audiobook. I was never confused when the time frame shifted from 1938 to 1880 and back again.

>13 BookConcierge: Have added Finding Dorothy to my list of books to read; thanks for the review. I do have a Audible subscription and may listen to it instead of reading the text.

I just finished Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue. It was about a husband and wife from Cameroon: recent immigrants trying to find their footing in New York City. It was a gloomy book, filled with misdeeds, the Wall Street Crash, suicide, marital problems, and failure, and it left me feeling that sad-story hangover of lingering despond. It was engaging reading; the characters were very well drawn, but I'm left disappointed by the misogyny and the abuses of spouses and laws that pepper this book.

Next up: been a hard week although it's only Monday; I'm going to read Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop to cheer myself up.

>13 BookConcierge: I liked that book and gave it 4/5 stars!

Just finished The Last Days of Night, and found it very well done. There were a few sections that dragged a bit, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention there are three very explicit scenes involving death by electrocution (including the first attempt to use the electric chair for capital punishment). Edison's reputation takes a few whacks here, but so does that of Westinghouse.

Next up is Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God, which I've been wanting to read for some time.

Should have plenty of reading time this week, as local temps continue to set records (118 predicted today) and I'm not doing much but hanging around in front of the air conditioning duct!

Just finished reading the book TRAVELLING TO INFINITY by JANE HAWKING.

.

I finished Where the Wild Ladies Are, a collection of related stories in which ghosts play a major part, existing and prodding the living to challenge social norms (particularly male/female roles) and be more true to themselves..

Starting this OverDrive audio ~

Christmas Shopaholic
by Sophie Kinsella
(book #9/a Christmas-in-July selection!)

So I fell off my pace a little this week. Other stuff needed my attention. So...

Plays, all Shakespeare this week:
Henry IV part I - poking away at it. Love that Hal.
Twelfth Night - not done yet
Romeo and Juliet - I had a callback audition yesterday for Capulet, Juliet's father. It went very well. If cast, I'll be reading this one over and over. Sad but true... I really don't like this play! Poetry is lovely, BUT I don't care a damn about those kids! I like what I did though, and would just be so excited to do a summer outdoor show.
They liked my interpretation of Capulet. I gave them an original reading instead of the same old takes.
Hope that is a benefit.

Also:
The Quick and the Dead - Louis L'Amour
I pick it up when I get a chance to just relax.
I love his stuff.

...found a bookclub to join on Meetup.com in #HamOnt and it brought me to Trevor Noah's 'Born a Crime' which is pretty good so far - a reminder of what happened with the collapse of apartheid in S. Africa from the perspective of a very young boy.

Off-topic, but I'm here every day, so.....

Quick - point me toward something light! It's been two weeks since I read anything with even a glimmer of humor in it, and I need a break.

Usually, I fall back on a Stephanie Plum novel, but I'm all caught up on those. My TBR stack seems to be full of Serious Literature at the moment. It's summer. It's hot. I don't want to Think Deep Thoughts. I need the literary equivalent of a cherry slush.

>22 LyndaInOregon: Have you read Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn? It's a mystery but a light one and pretty funny.

>22 LyndaInOregon: I just finished Early Morning Riser which was light without being silly. The Thursday Murder Club is great fun, too.

I’m currently reading Maigret’s Childhood Friend and it’s a good one!

Just about done with A Master of Djinn, and am enjoying it greatly.

The Accidental Tourist – Anne Tyler
4****

Macon Leary makes his living writing travel guides for “accidental tourists,” i.e. business travelers who are forced to leave the comforts of home and find themselves in unfamiliar territory. He gives advice on how to minimize the disturbance to one’s routine, in effect, carrying home with you so you never are lost.

But Macon is seriously lost even at home. He and his wife, Sarah, are unable to come together to process the death of their only child. Macon’s approach is to “keep everything like before” when it can’t possibly be that. Sarah can’t seem to find a way to push him off his home base, and winds up leaving.

But most of this has happened before the novel begins. The catalyst for Macon’s change is their dog, Edward, who has begun to bite and snarl. And so he finds himself at the Meow and Bow and meets the charmingly eccentric Muriel Pritchett, who offers her services as a dog trainer. Slowly, but surely, Muriel inserts herself into Macon’s life, and he slowly awakens, faces his pain and his mistakes, and begins to live again (or maybe for the first time).

Tyler excels at writing character-driven works that give us a glimpse of their lives in all their messy complexity and banal ordinariness. I love the scenes she creates that reveal so much of family dynamics; the Thanksgiving dinner is priceless, as is Rose’s wedding, and Christmas at Muriel’s mother’s house.

I saw the movie back in the late ‘80s, but never read the book. I’m glad I finally got around to it. Tyler has become one of my favorite authors.

In response to questions of what I thought of Homegoing......https://www.librarything.com/work/16843667/edit/173145406

Finished listening to the deliciously melodramatic Mexican Gothic.

Next up for listening is On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed.

Finished Future Home of the Living God, and I was one of its many readers who thought Erdrich just didn't quite manage to pull this off. There were a lot of fascinating ideas in it, but the background (which played a major role in the actions of the characters) remained vague and often contradictory.

Don't know where I'm going next. I have a Jodi Picoult novel on top of the TBR stack, but I may dig down and pull out Fanny Flagg's The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion, which is supposed to be light.

Finished listening to the very good collection of essays, On Juneteenth.

Next up for listening is Notes On Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The new thread is up over here.