What are you reading the week of April 2, 2022?

I finished up Anne Applebaum's Red Famine, a history of Ukraine from the end of WWI to the Great Famine of 1932-33. Horrifying is an inadequate word to describe the famine. Too much has been made of the collectivization efforts, and not enough has been made of dekulakization. Removing the most experienced and effective farmers and replacing them with bureaucratic and incompetent novice farmers as heads of the collective farms lead to diminished production. Given time, productivity would have improved, but Stalin refused to accept that the harvests wouldn't meet his desired goals. Instead, he stripped the land of grain and other food stuffs to meet his export goals. Those exports were needed to pay for his industrialization drive, leaving the remaining peasants to starve. Applebaum builds a strong case that he intended the resulting famine as a punitive attack on the Ukrainian peasants for their anti-soviet nationalist aspirations and anti-Russian attitude. Ninety years later, we're seeing a repeat of the same brutal anti-Ukrainian sentiment at play.

I also finish Georges Simenon's The Cellars of the Majestic, and this evening I'm starting The Judge's House.

March roundup: Ten reads and a couple of DNFs this month, with nothing that was a real standout. D.J. Herda’s biography Wilma Mankiller, which I read as an LTER, probably edged out the Tyson biography The Long Trail and Claire Lombardo’s family drama The Most Fun We Ever Had for the top spot.

Just finished Hissy Fit, which is now officially an April book, and set to begin Such a Fun Age either tonight or tomorrow.

The Warmth Of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson
Book on CD read by Robin Miles
4****

Subtitle: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

I had heard of Wilkerson’s masterful social history, but had just never gotten around to reading it. Thanks to my F2F book club, however, the time is now.

One thing I really appreciate about this work is how Wilkerson focuses on three individuals: Ida Mae Gladney who moved north to Chicago in 1937; George Starling who went from Florida to Harlem in 1945; and Robert Foster who settled in Los Angeles in 1953 to pursue the kind of medical practice unavailable to him in Louisiana.

Using these three personal stories made the book much more interesting and accessible, even though she did include much of the academic, sociological reports that these stories illustrated. I was interested and engaged from beginning to end. And I look forward to our book club discussion. The whole concept of the Great Migration was not new to me, but I still learned some things and have much more to consider.

Robin Miles does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She had a large book with much detail to relate and she kept it interesting and informative. This kind of nonfiction is a little easier to listen to than a strictly academic report, and I thank the author for that style of writing.

I do wish that the text had included some photos, but the 1st edition hardcover I took out of the library did not.

I am nursing and loving Ava's Man by Rick Bragg this will be a to keep book.

Starting April with this audio via hoopla ~

The Last Grand Duchess: A Novel of Olga Romanov, Imperial Russia, and Revolution
by Bryn Turnbull

I'm around 3/4 of the way through the interesting Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

I'm reading the inclusive and diverse Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse for book club. Interesting story!

Swapping back and forth between Operation Don's Left Wing and The Last Graduate. Will probably get going with The Next Civil War by the middle of the week.

After a brief reading respite, I'm back to reading The Kaiju Preservation Society and Memory's Legion.

I've gotten involved in an old biography of the actor David Niven by Sheridan Morley called The Other Side of the Moon. A bit silly but also touching and sad.

In traditional book form I'm reading Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End by Leif G.W. Persson, a Swedish writer who is also an instructor at Sweden's National Police Board. He writes really well and his stories are always captivating and full of well-formed, interesting characters. Enjoying this book so far although it's early days yet.

I'm also reading one essay daily from Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss.

In the world of audiobooks, I'm listening to Broken Faith: Inside the Words of Faith Fellowship by Mitch Weiss. It is a fascinating story about the North Carolina cult, but also very hard to take; I've had to take some breaks from it because it's dreadfully upsetting in parts, and I think it should come with a whole host of trigger warnings. Still, I'm continuing. I want these people in jail - the leaders, that is.

I’m rereading Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries. It’s been over 25 years since I first read (and loved) it.

Precious And Grace – Alexander McCall Smith
Digital audiobook performed by Lisette Lecat
3***

Book # 17 in the hugely popular “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, has Mma Precious Ramotswe and her “co-director” Mma Grace Makutsi at loggerheads once again over updating office practices vs relying on tried and true methods. This time their cases include a Canadian woman, originally raised in Botswana, who wants to reconnect with her nanny, and a closer-to-home case involving a Ponzi scheme. Then there’s the stray dog than Fanwell has brought to the agency.

I love this series. I enjoy spending time with these people, though I rather missed Mr J L B Matekoni who barely appears in this episode. Mma Ramotswe can always be relied upon to consider carefully the underlying motives and various options for dealing with any problem. While Mma Makutsi is frequently the one to rush forward, perhaps jumping to the wrong conclusion, or arriving at the right answer but for the wrong reason!

Lisette Lecat does a marvelous job of performing the audio books. She brings these characters to life. 5* for her performance!

Finished The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Fun read. Enjoyed it muchly. Next in the mix is In the Name of Truth by Viveca Sten.

Alexander Hamilton A Life
Willard Sterne Randall
4/5 stars
I knew little about Hamilton’s life before reading this book but Randall paints a portrait of a very smart and interesting man who was willing to become involved in the building a nation. Highly recommended!

Finished listening to the absolutely excellent Defenestrate.

Next up for listening is Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato.

>16 hemlokgang: That sounds really interesting!

I've picked up Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King for a reread.

I finished Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. This is a somewhat flawed but mostly well-written and interesting bit of reportage about how Joe Biden managed to navigate the turbulent currents of a wild Democratic Party primary season and batten down the hatches during the general election to prevail as the Democratic nominee and defeat Donald Trump to become President of the United States. This is a mostly "inside baseball" report. That is, a lot of time is spent on describing the political machinations and the processes from inside the various campaigns, and those sections are often quite fascinating, though we learn a lot more about, for example, the rivalries and personal conflicts within the Biden, Sanders and Trump campaigns than we do about the candidates themselves. Nevertheless, it's interesting to learn that sort of history, the undercurrents of the election season that were mostly not on view to the general public. According to this narrative, Biden believed that his name recognition, the body of work he'd turned in over his decades-long political career, his association with Barak Obama via his two terms of Obama's vice president would serve to make his case to the country that he was experienced enough, well meaning enough and calm enough to serve as the antidote to Donald Trump and get him elected president. What America wanted, went Biden's theory, as a compassionate, non-controversial figure. Especially during the primary season, the attraction would be to nominate someone capable of projecting the kind of calm needed to defeat Trump. Also, and very importantly, Biden was help in high regard by many in the African American community and was thought of as the candidate who could attract high vote totals from people of color in general. In other words, he was at the same time the Anti-Trump and the Anti-Sanders. This book is, basically, the narrative of how this theory in the event played out successfully, though, as the title tells us, not without huge dollops of good luck at just the right times. I've included a more detailed account of the book on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me, courtesy of my monthly reading group, is the doorstop Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's not a book I'm likely have ever read on my own, which I guess is one major point of reading groups. Wish me luck.

Just finished Such a Fun Age, and found it shallow, overhyped, and utterly dependent on a coincidence of Dickensian proportions to drive the plot.

Next up is my F2F group's read for the month, The Healing of Natalie Curtis, by Jane Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick has written several books set in central and eastern Oregon, which makes her a "local" author of sorts, though this one is set in the American southwest, I believe.

enjoying this hoopla audiobook ~

Traces of Guilt (Evie Blackwell Cold Case, #1)
by Dee Henderson
(Christian suspense-romance tale)

Helter Skelter- The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
4/5 stars
This is the fascinating and horrible story of the Manson murder spree when 5 people were killed in an attack masterminded by Charles Manson that occurred in August 1969 near Hollywood. Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. was a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and the lead prosecutor in the trials and this book was written by him. I thought this was a well written, detailed account of the crimes and the trials of the people involved in the crimes.
I was curious to see who was still alive of the people involved and found this article from March 2022. https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/manson-family-guide-where-they-are-now

Finished reading the very good short story collection, Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-Nan.

Next up for reading is Naomi by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki.

Finished: The Tsarina's Daughter: A Novel by Ellen Alpsten
Sequel/follow up to Tsarina. Elizabeth "tells" her story about her rise to the imperial Russian throne.

Next up: The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull
The story of Olga, eldest daughter of Nicholas II and Alexandra

Stones For Ibarra> – Harriet Doerr
3.5***

At the outset of the novel Richard and Sara Everton arrive in the remote mountain of Ibarra, Mexico. The state is never specified but I believe this fictitious town is in the state of Michoacan. They have sold their home in California and most of their belongings to move to Ibarra so that they can reopen the Malaguena mine that Richard’s grandfather abandoned some fifty years previously.

What were they thinking? This is not a quaint, lovely town, it’s a dusty, dying village with impoverished and little-educated residents, and little to no infrastructure. Yes, they have plumbing and electricity, such as it is. But they must travel several hours to a larger city to place a phone call. At least they speak Spanish … sort of.

But the Evertons are committed to this plan. They work hard to re-establish the mine, hire a housekeeper, cook, gardener, and security for the front gate. Begin to hire and train workers for the mine, buy local furnishings for the house, and make a life here. They don’t really understand the local culture, but they are at least open to learning.

I found this very atmospheric. I loved the descriptions of the various festivals and local traditions, the unique blend of native religious beliefs with Catholicism, and of herbal medicine administered by a curandera vs “modern” treatments by a university-educated physician.

There are several subplots involving the residents of the town, including a love-triangle between two brothers and a fetching young girl, a procession of young priests brought in to assist the resident pastor, and a series of doctors, mostly fresh out of school, whose life’s ambitions were clearly NOT to live in remote Ibarra.

The book was made into a TV movie in 1988, starring Glenn Close and Keith Carradine as Sarah and Richard Everton. I’ve never seen it.

Enjoying this hoopla audio this weekend ~

A Late Frost: An Orchard Mystery
by Sheila Connolly

The new thread is up over here.