"There is no frigate like a book . . ."

Since 2019 began, I have been reading a lot - and posting very little!  For one thing, I read the entire series of Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny - all 14 of them! (actually I read the last 6 in 2019 - the first 8 in 2018) I will not review them separately, but I will say that they make a lovely list of books to have at your bedside! (Literally or figuratively!)  Everyone I have recommended them to has loved them - and I have discovered that many, many other people have discovered them without me! A big thank you to Phoebe for persisting in encouraging me to read them!

I picked up Under the Wide and Starry Sky at the Book Rack in the dollar bin.  The woman wrote Loving Frank, a fictionalized bio of Frank Lloyd Wright, and I thought this might be a good way to learn about Robert Louis Stevenson. And it was. But like Loving Frank, it is not great literature, and even drags in places.

 

One of my home/hospital students needs to read this, so I read it too. I didn't think I read it, but passages seemed very familiar - perhaps they have been quotes somewhere. 

It is a compelling piece of holocaust writing - but very spare. Seems like a good place to start - thus it seems appropriate for students.

 

Hannah recommended this - and it is excellent! I would like to see this book become compulsory reading for high school students - everyone needs to know the true story of slavery in America - and this book goes a long way towards achieving such a goal.

 

Found this in the dollar bin too - and thought that maybe short stories would be good for our book group to tackle - and these were enjoyable but not exceptional - and would need to be discussed as a body - thus it wouldn't be a shorter assignment.

There are a good example of female, Southern, regional fiction - in case you cared.

Also read The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz - a pretty good murder mystery, but I am actually a little tired of murder mysteries. The author has written the screenplays for the BBC production Endeavor - which I love!

Also read Unshattered by Carole Decker - about a woman who contracts sepsis after an emergency c-section and loses her lower legs, her left hand and her vision! It is a good read.

So now I'm caught up. 

And I need to choose a book for book group for next month.