This is the second book I've read in the last few months that's categorized as "thriller", a genre I never read but have enjoyed. The story, which is set in London, starts with a woman returning to work after a nine month maternity leave, only to find out later in the day that a hostage situation all over the news involves her husband. He's the suspect. It's a crime with more questions than answers, a hostage negotiator who can't let it go, and a wife who desperately wants to know her husband's motive. I learned about this novel from
.
8:48, Funny how things look different depending on what you know to be true.
Ghosted: An American Story, written by Nancy French
This memoir, which I heard about from someone in a reading group I'm part of, is about a woman who found herself abandoned both personally and professionally because of her opinion about a candidate in the political party she was deeply involved with. While the book obviously deals with that particular situation, most of it is about the life experiences leading up to that point, which explain why she couldn't support the candidate, as well as her meaningful work after the abandonment. I found her story horrifying, encouraging, and interesting.
p. 116 (speaking with her four year old son) "What's a patriot?"
My friends were amused by our conversation, but I wasn't sure how to answer. It was a tough question, but I finally settled on a suitable answer. "Someone who loves America so much that he does something about it."
p. 130, Instead of pointing out my inadequacies, they showed me love.
p. 158 (speaking of people laughing at the mockery of someone else), My fellow churchgoers were passing around the red Solo cup of bitterness and contempt, laughing, and eventually the cup stopped in front of me. But I'd paid attention to a lifetime of Sunday school lesson. I would not drink out of that cup.
p. 204, Idols have a way of gaining power over their acolytes, and they always demand sacrifice - often women and children.
Grace Notes, written by Naomi Shihab Nye
I have no recollection of how I ended up putting this book of poetry on hold at the library, but I enjoyed it. Many of the poems were about her mom or their relationship with each other, starting with her younger years and progressing to after her mom's death.
p. 20 - My Mom, Miriam Naomi,
At twelve I discovered
NAOMI backward was I MOAN.
This helped everybody.
p. 147 - Years Later (speaking of depression),
I understand why "press" is in that word,
it's a pressure clamping from all sides,
floating in air, can't find its source
or brush it away. It's the armor we
never liked at the museum,
heavy and clanky.
So much energy spent
trying to solve it.
What did we do wrong?
p. 150 - Taj Mahal (speaking of when her mom missed an opportunity to see the Taj Mahal because an American president was visiting and demanded all roads be closed for 24 hours),
As she drifted off to sleep,
she wondered out loud,
But what does it feel like to be so hated
no one else may enter a whole city
on the day that you do?
The Last Holiday Concert, written by Andrew Clements and narrated by Fred Berman
A school music teacher is about to be laid off because of budget cuts when a popular student gets in trouble with him. In the chaos that ensues, the student ends up being in charge of the sixth grade chorus' performance at the holiday concert. While entertaining, it also has more serious things to ponder like school budget cuts (everyone takes a slight decrease and everyone keeps their jobs or most people keep their salary and some people get laid off), the value of music and art classes, setting and staying focused on goals, teamwork, leadership, and so on. Tyler and I listened to this short middle grade novel together.
The Last Lecture, written by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow and narrated by Erik Singer
I learned about this book from
reading The End of Your Life Book Club, written by Will Schwalbe, back in April. The author, a computer science professor, was given an opportunity to present "The Last Lecture," a common occurrence for professors to share what would matter most to them if they knew they were dying. The catch for Pausch was that he actually was dying. The one hour speech, which can be found online and I haven't watched, was the catalyst for this book. It's filled with life lessons, personal stories, and thoughts about both living and dying.
1:44, No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. At the same time, it is often within your power to make them better.
2:14, When they talk of building self-esteem they often resort to empty flattery rather than character-building honesty. I've heard so many people talk of a downward spiral in our educational system and I think one key factor is that there's too much stroking and too little real feedback.
Borrowed from the library because I've enjoyed some of Meissner's other books, this novel, which is set at the end of 1956, has three main characters. One woman is a Polish maid who'd come to America as a Displaced Person because of war. One woman is a Hollywood actress who's been blacklisted because of perceived ties to communist supporters. One is a widow caring for her famous brother-in-law. While I liked the story, it did feel far-fetched, even for fiction, to have these women's lives all intersect in the manner that they did. On the other hand, I always love a story about women's friendships and intergenerational friendships. So, a decent read, but not my favorite of hers.
p. 35, Maybe it was time to gauge her resilience. How did a person know how strong they were if their strength was never tested?
p. 289, "It was a million little things, I guess," June finally said. "Or ... or maybe for no reason at all. It as the same with Frank. I can't list reasons why I loved either one of them. I don't think true love is like that."
"Of course it is. Those reasons are how we know it's love."
June shook her head slowly. "No, I don't think so. Reasons might explain why you're attracted to someone or enjoy being with them or why you like them. But love is ... it's deeper than that. Higher. Elwood had fallen in love with Ruthie just because she was Ruthie."
p. 322, Sometimes life was so hard you could barely breathe.
And sometimes it was so sweet you couldn't wait to take your next breath ...
Poverty, By America, written by Matthew Desmond and narrated by Dion GrahamI learned about this book from Kendra Adachi's The Latest Lazy Letter back in April 2024 and snagged it from Libby's "skip the line" options. As he did in Evicted, which I read and enjoyed in early 2019, Desmond looks at an issue from a variety of angles. He describes the vicious cycle of poverty, compares how the results of America's choices surrounding the topic compare statistically to those of other equally advanced countries (and sometimes American cities or states compared to other American cities or states), and presents a variety of ways poverty could be abolished, or at least reduced. Perhaps most importantly, and definitely most uncomfortably, he defends his stance that poverty persists simply because everyone else benefits from it, which means the best way to eradicate it is to change our personal mindsets and behaviors. I think it's a worthwhile read (and I feel the same about Evicted), regardless of one's own experiences, beliefs, or political stance.
4:48, Doing the right thing is often a highly inconvenient, time-consuming, even costly process. I know. I try, fail, and try again. But that's the price of our restored humanity.
4:51, When affluents live, work, play, and worship mainly along fellow affluents, they can grow insular, quite literally forgetting the poor. It brings out the worst in us, feeding our prejudices and spreading moral decay. Engaging with one another in integrated communities allows us to recognize our blind spots, de-siloing our lives, and causing families well above the poverty line to become bothered by problems that affect those below it.
The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life, written by A.J. Jacobs
Included in
8 Wonderful Books for Word Nerds, a Modern Mrs. Darcy post from last month, this book intrigued me because I enjoyed another book by the author The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, way back in 2011. As expected, this book was entertaining (I think he's funny) and interesting (he did tons of research), dedicating each of 18 chapters to a different type of puzzle. Jacobs shares the history of various puzzle forms, talks with their creators and expert solvers, and describes his experience trying each kind himself. Each chapter ends with puzzles for the reader to solve, there are more puzzles at the end of the book, and the ending puzzles hold clues to an original puzzle hunt created just for the book, a metapuzzle grand finale.
p. xv, If we see the world as a series of puzzles instead of a series of battles, we will come up with more and better solutions, and we need solutions more than ever.
p. 21, Side note: Has there ever been a more brilliantly designed punctuation than the question mark and the exclamation point? The question mark is all twists and turns and mystery. The exclamation point - so assertive and aggressive and final!
p. 103 (speaking of problems a corn maze owner deals with), Petty thieves who steal ears of corn. "The thing is, this is feed corn," says Mike. This type of corn is meant for pigs, not humans. "I've been told it's a laxative. So when I see people walking out with their pockets stuffed with corn, I'm like, 'You got me! You got one over one my, buddy!'"
p. 207, I try to remind myself that some amount of frustration is good for me. I need to eat my mental broccoli.
p. 218, During the webinar, the psychologist gave the following advice: "Don't get furious. Get curious."
I don't think a phrase is automatically true just because it rhymes. For instance, if the glove doesn't fit, you don't have to acquit. But this particular rhyming phrase seems both wise and true.
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading, written by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann and narrated by Tom Force, Nancy Peterson, Jenn Lee, Jennifer Pickens, Amy Jensen, Deanna Anthony, Jane Oppenheimer, Susan Hanfield, Marni Penning, Daniel Henning, and Rob Reider
This was a random Libby discovery and I have mixed feelings about it. On the positive side, a book about books always makes me happy and I love learning about people's personal stories. Hearing how all these professional book people came to the positions they're in, what they love about their work, the experiences they've had in the communities they serve (schools, prison, cities, etc.), and so on was interesting. In audiobook format, I love that it had a full cast of narrators. With the huge number of people represented in the book, it made it so much better to listen to than it would have been with a single narrator.
On the downside, it felt like there was a lot of name dropping. James Patterson has made substantial contributions to independent book stores, which is amazing and relevant to many of the stories in the book, but feels a little awkward, maybe self-serving, since his name's on the cover. A lot of the stories also felt so similar that it leaned toward redundancy. That being said, I enjoyed the book.
p. 14 (quoting Lorrie Roussin), Encouraging kids to read give them tools to safely navigate the real world, and to protect themselves. Reading helps them think critically - and it give them the opportunity to learn about themselves and others, to create empathy and compassion. Students need to be able to see themselves in books, but also to be exposed to and experience somebody else's life through book. Books are supposed to trigger conversations.
