It's Monday 2/7! What Are You Reading?

Book history organizer

Our eldest son is coming to visit! We didn't spend much time with him after Thanksgiving. The car he was driving crashed on his way home for Thanksgiving and had to stay in a random (broken) garage on the side of the highway in New Jersey. She and my husband finally picked it up on Saturday; The engine was changed (yes, the whole engine!) I came home and saw that the electric steering was broken. Apparently, the mechanic did not install it properly, so all the liquid came out. Oh, when he was sitting in the poor garage for two months, a rat came and ate a huge hole in the back seat and in the trunk! This weekend is a lot of fun with the car. So my husband set up a mouse trap (fu) and today they took the car to a repair shop for repairs and thorough research ... but we believe in a local repair shop!

Thanksgiving photos of the four of us

On the other hand, we spent a little more time with the guy! We had a great steak dinner with the whole family last night, took our favorite TV show with him (he was with us for a very long time) and it was great to have a quick break. Not a big holiday together.

I'm trying to keep my blog and YouTube videos here I uploaded two new videos last week:

• Read 2021: The Best Book of the Year!
• Friday Lecture 2-4-22 A brief update on what I read last week.

And what we read this week:

I decided to focus my February lecture on Black History Month, focusing on black writers and characters. My first choice was Harlem Shaffel from Colson Whitehead, which my husband gave me for Christmas and I wanted to read it! Incredibly so far, in the early 1960s, a man named Ray Carney followed in the footsteps of a legitimate furniture business he set out to pursue, earning extra money through criminal activity as his wife and children and the rest of his family. So far so good!

I also read Alina Chow's mid-level graphic novel Jeffrey and Jordan (in my time!). Jordan is a high school student in Indonesia and a basketball player until he was forced to sit in a wheelchair due to an accident. He finds a wounded elephant baby named Jeffrey (whose mother is a veterinarian who treats his wounds) and, despite many problems, begins to look for a new target on the water polo team. I like the positive image of the disabled girl in high school and the beautiful depiction of the environment as she struggles with disability and naturalness.

Last week, I listened to a short audio recording of Deborah Will's book for teenagers, Kent State . I really liked Wils' novel The Revolution , written in the summer of 1964 for schoolchildren about the right to vote. This time, he writes about the tragic killing of four Kent students on May 4, 1970, by National Guard soldiers. It is a great, powerful book, and the word is touching and good. It is read by several narrators, each providing a first-person perspective on the events of the day: Kent State students learned about the dead, villagers panicked at student protests, the National Guard and a black student neighbor living there. Ohio. . Everyone has a different perspective on what happened and how people feel, and they are all portrayed as real people who remember and discuss memories. So very strong - a must listen for all students (and adults!).

I now return to another perfect audio for Black Month , Black History Month, by Richard Wright, a memoir first published in 1945. Author Jim Crow talks about childhood, poverty, hunger, and racism in rural Mississippi. , Humiliation and fear. The sound is amazing and the first-person listener is impressive and powerful.

Why my husband finished reading Stephen Erickson's Moon Garden, the first book in the Malajan Fall Book series is the fantastic novel our son suggested. It is a long, hard book that takes a lot of time to read. He said it was really hard and difficult to understand at first, but in the end he liked it.

 

After reading this challenge, why not enjoy the fun with his favorite Jack Reacher series and read Lee Child and Lee's younger brother Andrew Child's new book (# 26) Better to Die . I give it to him for Christmas (every year!) And he looks forward to it. He and I started watching Richard's new program on Amazon Prime , and we both (one book-loving, the other unread) still enjoy it.

 

Our 27-year-old son read Glenn Cook's Chronicles of the Black Gang . He said he wanted to read the series year after year and saw it at our local second-hand bookstore last year.

 

Last week's blog post:

Fiction Review: Luis Erdrich's sentences are great , especially in words!

A Review of Non-Fiction: Catherine Iba's False Glass - A Wonderful Study of the General Scandal

Fiction Review: Aminatta Forn's Happiness is a warm and pure novel about two different people whose lives intersect.

Katherine presents what you read on Monday in book history, so check it out, check out her blog, and join the fun on Monday! You can also participate in the child / teen / teen version offered by Unleashing Readers .

You can follow me on Twitter @SueBookByBook or on my blog page on Facebook.

What did you and your family read this week?