What are you reading the week of July 6, 2024?

About half way through Mirrored Heavens.

Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair
Lucy Knisley
3/5 stars
Lucy Knisley writes and draws about her beloved cat Linney. Very short but very sweet!
Books Off My Neverending Reading List

>1 Shrike58: Nice linking! Thank you for keeping this thread going!

I'm reading The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones for my book club. Very good so far.
I'm thinking about taking a break to read Jaws by Peter Benchley this weekend. This year is the 50th anniversary of the book being published.

Slogging through Gentleman Jurist: The Life of Ralph G. Thompson. Judge Thompson was a federal judge in Oklahoma's Western District whose career spanned some pivotal cases and events in Oklahoma history from the 1980s on, including the Oklahoma City bombing.

Being an Oklahoma lawyer, much of the book is personal history to me, so I thought it would be a fascinating read. It was at first, but about halfway through it has turned into nothing but a series of quotes from famous and infamous people praising Judge Thompson as if he were a saint.

So far, I have been most disappointed in the sterile depiction of the Oklahoma City bombing. The authors use words to describe Judge Thompson's observations, but there is a total lack of emotion to the words in their depictions.

I will finish the book, but only because it is my policy to always finish a book unless it totally devolves into something repugnant.

Started this audio via Libby ~

The Secret Keeper (Home to Hickory Hollow, #4)
by Beverly Lewis
(Amish tale/a woman decides to become Amish)

>1 Shrike58: Thank you for starting us off!

This week I gave up reading two books. I was listening to The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, and it was causing me to become extremely paranoid. I've never felt like that with a book before. Yes, Stephen King has frightened me, and caused me to sleep with the light on, but this was different....it felt like I was slowly going insane. I love Bradbury, but this was just too much.

I also gave up on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I know it's supposed to be a masterpiece, but I was terribly bored and did not feel like plowing through anymore.

I'm now reading The Stars My Destination and I am really enjoying it. I have a long-standing plan to slowly read all the science-fiction classics as I was not permitted to read science fiction as a child/teen.

I'm listening to Jude the Obscure but am considering putting it aside for a point in time when I'm feeling more cheerful. My current mood and tragedy are not a great mix.

My pleasure all.

Having finished up Mirrored Heavens, which sadly left me a little underwhelmed (Roanhorse was a little too invested in the "shipping" at the expense of political drama), I have a string of short non-fiction books lined up: White Lies, The Hardhat Riot, Space Craze, and Always at War.

>1 Shrike58: Adding my thanks for starting us off.

I'm interested in light and fun reading these days so I started Clare Pooley's latest, How to Age Disgracefully. It seems to fit the bill.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

From the library: A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry Thomas
New and #8 in the Lady Sherlock Series.

>1 Shrike58: Thanks for continuing this weekly thread!

Fredbacon: Thank you for all your work for this weekly thread and take all the time you need for a break.

I just finished a fun mystery read — Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O’Connor. But I’m also reading Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. I can only read bits of it at a time because of some of the parallels I see with its fiction and real life in the post pandemic world. It’s a good story but unleashes a few fears about humankind. So…I can handle it a bit at a time.

Take My Hand – Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Digital audiobook narrated by Lauren J Daggett.
4****

In 2016, Dr Civil Townsend, reflects on her time three decades previously when she worked with Montgomery (Alabama) Family Planning. In 1973, she was a nurse and hoping to help women take some control over their destinies. She was particularly involved with the Williams family, and horrified at how the two young daughters were treated.

Perkins-Valdez took inspiration from a shameful episode in America’s history, when poor, Black people were used as subjects for medical studies without their informed consent.

Additionally, Perkins-Valdez looks at the class distinctions between poor, rural Blacks and the wealthier professional Blacks. Civil belongs to this latter social class and she has to make a conscious effort to hide her judgment of the way her patients live. She behaves compassionately towards them and even risks her career to fight on their behalf, but she has never encountered these conditions and it is difficult for her to hide her reaction.

I was certainly aware of the syphilis study done at Tuskegee, but I was not aware of the studies and policies on birth control and sterilization perpetrated against women of color. Kudos to Perkins-Valdez for shining a light on these policies in our history.

Lauren J Daggett does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I did get confused a few times when the storyline jumped from 2016 to 1973 and back again. But context usually made it clear in which era the story was taking place.

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder – Valerie Burns
3***

Book one in a new cozy mystery series. Maddy Montgomery’s great aunt Octavia has left her a lakefront house and a bakery … in New Bison, Michigan. Maddy is used to a higher-end living situation, what with her “Jimmy shoes” and huge social media presence. But the conditions of Octavia’s will are that Maddy must reside in New Bison for at least a year … oh, and take care of Baby, an English mastiff. She’s surprised by how nice the house is, and that the bakery has a dedicated staff. But she’s barely in town for 24 hours when a murder occurs IN the bakery. Now she has to figure out who’s behind this, and whether Octavia was also murdered.

This was cute and enjoyable. I’m not into social media the way Maddy is, but I found her hashtags and tweets entertaining. The plot was a bit thin and there’s a bit of a cliff-hanger ending (one of my pet peeves). Still, I liked the residents of the town, especially Sheriff April Johnson and local veterinarian Michael Portman. Maddy seems to be in over her head, in terms of running a bakery (she can’t cook or bake), but she’s intelligent and self-reliant. A few recipes are included at the end.

And Baby … what an adorable dog!

This week's thread here