Category: NonFiction

Reinvention Playbook

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Wozniak, Bruno. The Reinvention Playbook: Self Published, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program from LibraryThing every once in awhile I get to read interesting books.

In a nutshell, The Reinvention Playbook is about navigating the loss of a job and all that that end entails. It is about rebuilding a new identity outside of what the job made you. Is it possible to find meaningful employment and emotional connection after ending a self-defining career? Wozniak urges his readers to try, try, try. It is all about moving forward, one baby step at a time. At times I found the advice to be a little repetitious with emotional signatures: disorientation, low energy, aligned with the adverse of curiosity and confidence.
I appreciated his phrase “identity earthquake” for when a job ends, it truly is a restructuring of everything you knew about yourself. Think about it. You spend a solid eight hours a day as one entity. That is a good chunk of time. Routines are established; a rhythm solidified. You need to reconcile the inside voice with the outside noise. Do not let the fear of urgency create chaos before you have had a chance to heal. You have to let go of who you were before you lost the job and take note of what remains after the work is gone. The diagnostics are sometimes hard to decipher if you do not know how to read the emotional cues or cannot resist the urge to stay busy. Wozniak’s book enables you to navigate those efforts to rebuild.

Author fact: I instantly connected with Wozniak’s example of running. Without the analytics to “prove” the effort, is it worth it? Can you go for a run without tracking pace, distance, heart rate, route?

Book trivia: The Reinvention Playbook is best read after losing employment as a tool for grounding yourself in reality, but what happens if you read the book with one eye on the approaching cliff you just know you are going to fall from? Would you read the book differently if you were secure in your employment or foresaw no immediate danger?

Something Else

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Simko, Lukas. Something Else: Words that Remember, Stories that Awaken. Independent Publicist, 2025.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read books that sometimes move me. This is one of those books.

The fastest review I could write about Something Else is to say it is a memoir about an individual wanting to find true love. Lukas Simko’s story begins when he is a thirty-two year old graduate looking for work. He meets a girl who over time showed all the classic signs of an abuser. She was controlling and manipulative and I found myself wishing he would have seen the signs earlier. Right away I felt Simko is someone who has the potential to fall hard and fast for a romantic relationship. He believes in taking chances and embracing adventure wherever it may take him.
Then there was Macy. She was clear she did not an emotional relationship, but Lukas started to like her more and more “without permission.” Interesting choice of words. This time around Simko noticed the signs of a relationship dying as Macy started to distance herself from him.
Next came Jaya. Lukas felt an instant connection with her for they had a great deal in common and almost seemed to be soul mates. She even took him in as a roommate without really knowing him. Once again Lukas became involved with a woman who did not want to be tied down with anything emotional. To say Jaya was complicated is an understatement. She often sent mixed signals and seemed to be confused about what she really wanted from Simko. One minute she was communicating as if she cared deeply; the next she felt it necessary to block Simko on social media (twice).
In the end, Simko emerged a stronger person. He was able to see the beauty in each failed relationship. As an aside, I think of it as the particle theory. You get what you need from each relationship whether that relationship withstands the test of time or not.

Confessional: I did not understand Ireland’s employment situation. Lukas requested three weeks off under the guise of taking care of a grandmother. Instead, he was rewarded with 3 1/2 months off, but the kicker was he had to go on leave when they told him to. I thought he was working in a remote IT position.
A more personal confessional: Simko went four months without talking to Jaya. Try five years! That’s how long I went without speaking to someone who meant the world to me.

As an aside, I learned a new word, “craic.”

Music: “Misty Mountains” by Leyna Robinson-Stone.

Long Marriage

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Kumin, Maxine. The Long Marriage. W.W. Norton and Company, 2002.

Reason read: I read somewhere that January 26th is Marriage Day.

In The Long Marriage Maxine Kumin is keen to describe what she sees in the viewfinder of life. She stares down uncomfortable topics like suicide and crime with unflinching clarity. From the community of Grays Point to gardening to the struggle of rehabilitation after an accident. She even reflects on her own injuries from being thrown from a horse: punctured lung, eleven broken ribs, and a bruised liver…just to name a few. Her poems are life jumping off the page and, dare I say, into your heart.
Poems I enjoyed the most:

  • Skinny dipping with William Wordsworth – remembering her days as a Radcliffe student, studying Wordsworth. She paints a picture of a passionate youth and the aftermath of a romance long cooled by time and war.
  • Thinking of Gorki While Clearing a Trail – Who is Saturnine Gorki? 1929 International Congress of Atheists.
  • Imagining Marianne Moore in the Butterfly Garden – another beautiful tribute.
  • Capital Punishment – why are we allowed to see gruesome mutilations (the victims of Sierra Leone) and yet spared the benign execution of Benny Demps?
  • Rilke Revisited – another ode to a great writer.
  • Why There Will Always Be Thistle – I need to read this to my husband. He can’t stand thistles.
  • Pantoum, with Sawn – ode to Helen of Troy
  • Calling out of Gray’s Point – charming poem about Purvis, the phone repair man who has been trying to fix the line.
  • The Exchange – line I liked the best: “the neophyte animal psychic who visits my barn at midday”…okay.
  • Highway Hypothesis – imagining the neighbors.
  • Game of Nettles – confessional: while Kumin is remembering a childhood game of playing with nettles, I have a darker reminiscing. I can remember being five or six years and being whipped with nettles by the much older boys. Oh how they laughed.

Author fact: Maxine Kumin was friends with Anne Sexton.

Book trivia: there is a beautiful picture of the author and her husband and their dogs. Kumin’s dedication to Victor, “on the dark lake” is beautiful, too.

Natalie connections: In Miss Merchant’s song, “Sister Tilly” she talks about the kind of woman who reads Rilke poems. Kumin has a poem about Rilke.
Natalie was the first person to introduce me to the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Kumin quotes him in The Long Marriage.

Confessional: Peter Gabriel celebrated the album So by doing an anniversary tour. I could not think of the poet to whom he dedicated “—.” All I could remember was the line, “Anne with her father is out in the boat.” Kumin mentions Anne Sexton by name. Mystery solved…although I could have just looked at the liner notes.

Music: Pee Wee Russell, Jack Teagarden, Erroll Garner, and Glenn Miller.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Prose by Poets” (p 194).

Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

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Morris, Arthur Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Read by Mark Deakins.

Reason read: in honor of Roosevelt, the first American statesman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

When one thinks of Theodore Roosevelt, it is the big teeth, the massive mustache, the burly figure, and maybe the fact Roosevelt lost his wife and mother on the same day [Alice, of Bright’s disease and Mittie of typhoid fever, respectively]. In The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Morris covers Theodore Roosevelt’s complicated and robust life up until the presidency. He skillfully reminds his reader about Roosevelt the author who wrote over a dozen histories and biographies to supplement his salary as an Assemblyman; Roosevelt the candidate who lost the bid to be mayor of New York; Roosevelt the complicated man who adored the west and had his heart set on becoming a rancher in the Badlands; Roosevelt the Harvard graduate; Roosevelt the police commissioner; Roosevelt the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; Roosevelt the naturalist; Roosevelt the family man. While Alice was the love of his life he managed to remarry (Edith Carow) and go on to have a happy family of six children. Morris also painted Roosevelt as a contradiction in health. Doctors deemed the future president a sickly asthmatic who somehow was able to perform great feats of athleticism like climbing mountains, hunting for days and hiking long distances.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is thoroughly researched and highly entertaining. As an aside, I adored the ending.

As an aside, I would love to visit the Roosevelt mansion at 6 West 57th Street in Manhattan.

Author fact: Morris was born in Nairobi.

Book trivia: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt has a great collection of black and white photographs.

Music: “America,” Gilbert and Sullivan, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, “Marching Through Georgia,” “Star Spangled Banner,” “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” “The Union Forever,” “My Country Tis of Thee,” “The White Plume,” and “Hail to the Chief.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Presidential Biographies” (p 192).

Windows of Brimnes

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Holm, Bill. Windows of Brimnes: an American in Iceland. Milkweed Editions, 2008.

Reason read: Iceland won its independence in the month of December.

Author fact: Holm is known as a poet, musician, Minnesotan, and all-around curmudgeon.

I wanted Windows of Brimnes to be all about Iceland. The culture. The food. The people. The flora and fauna. The traditions. The weather. Holm does not keep his focus strictly on Brimnes. Instead he rails against America, television, and modern technologies like cell phones and computers. He has his two cents about September 11th, 2001 and the subject of Communism. He traces his early years in Minneota and life during the war. Every once in awhile he comes back to his beloved Brimnes. Admittedly, these parts are so beautiful Holm makes me want to visit.
Confessional: I was forewarned about Holm’s rants about America. I was even urged to skip those parts. Because I can be a b!tch I decided to make note of every disparaging thing Holm said about the country from which he tried to distance himself. Here are some of the things he said: the United States is too much. It has too much religion, too much news, too many weapons of mass destruction, too much entertainment, too much electricity, too vast an area. America has broken connections to its past. America is indifferent to nature if money is to be made and greed always wins. America is obsessed with security and loves war of any kind. America’s sense of civility has fallen into disrepair. “Americans are a nation of mentally drugged cattle” (p 133). Holm was tired of apologizing for being American. I wonder what he would think of the state of our country now.

Three degrees of Natalie Merchant: there is a YouTube (PBS) video that is nearly thirty minutes long about Bill Holm and his windows of Brimnes. In that video he mentions Walt Whitman who is a hero of Natalie’s. She wrote a song about Mr. Whitman called “Song of Himself.”

Lines I liked, “Introverts never deceive you just to cheer you up” (p 57) and “I’ve had sixty-three years’ experience at being spoiled, and I’m almost getting good at it” (p 110).
Here is an example of Holm’s snarkiness, “The shenanigans of Bill and Monica were the subject of several of my favorites” (p 195). No need to explain. Everyone knows to whom you are referring.

Author fact: I am sure Holm was going for this look when he chose the author photograph, but he is one grumpy looking dude.

Book trivia: there are no photographs whatsoever in this little book.

Music: Anna Sigga Halgadottir, Bach’s Fugue in B Minor, Prelude from Well-Tempered Clavier I and Christmas Oratori, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Britten, Chopin’s Nocturn, Couperin, Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” Dixie Chicks (twice), Dvorak, Faure, Franz Joseph Haydn’s Sonata no. 52 in E Flat Major, Hindemith, Fur Elise, Hall Bjorn Hjartason, Hindemith’s First Sonata, Leonard Bernstein, Mahler, Liszt, Loch Lomond, Mozart’s Turkish Rondo, Prokofiev’s Sonata #9 in C Major, Ravel’s “Pavane,” Rachmaninoff Prelude, Scarlatti, Scriabin, Schubert, Schumann, Swan Lake, Turkey in the Straw, Verdi, William Tell Overture, Wagner, “Waltzing Matilda,” and Wolf.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “Iceland” (p 99).

Piecework

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Shimshon-Santo, Amy. Piecework: Ethnographies of Place. Unsolicited Press, 2025

Reason read: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review Program I get to read really interesting books. This is one such book.

There are four themes to Piecework: the classroom, community, migrations, and conversations. In the beginning, Piecework is comprised of essays that encourage collective action as an extension of social justice, but by the end you have an intimate portrait of the author and her ancestry. For the first part of Piecework Shimshon-Santo provides a clear blueprint for how to bring key people together to form a productive interdisciplinary team to tackle common social problems. For example, the first she addresses is transportation. [As an aside, if anyone has seen Natalie Merchant’s storytellers show you will know that she called Los Angeles a “car culture” because of its massive highway systems. Walking around is out of the question for some parts of the metropolis.] Shimshon-Santo approaches a dilemma with creative innovation by viewing it through multiple lenses. She believes in compassionate leadership and the value of listening to children. By the end of Piecework the reader has a clear understanding of Shimshon-Santo thanks to a revealing essay about her grandmother and a couple of interviews in the conversation section.
It goes without saying that Piecework is thought provoking, but what I wasn’t expecting was the plethora of gorgeous photography. The entire book was exquisite to read.

Author fact: Shimshon-Santo has a background in dance. She also wrote Catastrophic Molting. I think she win a prize for the most interesting titles.

Music: Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Book trivia: the bonus to Piecework is the photography and poetry.

Seduced by the Beauty of the World

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Bloch, Donald and Iman Bijeveld. Seduced by the Beauty of the World. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2003.

Reason read: India

Masti (Sanscrit) meaning (loosely): “the quiet, ecstatic surrender to the beauty around us.”
A dawn full of fishing boats bring a sense of community among the early risers. People, old and young, come to bathe in the Ganges and give thanks for the purification the healing waters bring. Citizens go about their bustling and hustling business, tending to their young and elderly alike. A culture of selfcare radiates from everywhere. People practicing yoga, getting massages, weight lifting and wrestling. The industries of bakers, barbers, potters, fishermen, stone cutters, teachers, marigold flowers sellers, cotton and tanning industries abound. The entertainment of camel racing is explored. The broad Ganges brings bathers of clothes and body and mind. The wilderness of Yakama, the once capital of Sikkim, with its misty mountains filled with butterflies and singing birds is in fully glory. Nature hides in plain sight. Readers will become intimate with the gods and goddesses: Allah, Kalijai, Indra, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh, Parvati, Hanuman, Sarasvati, Surya, Jagannathan, Buddha, Yellamma, Menakshee, and Bahuchara. Bloch describes it all with stunning clarity and Bijeveld’s photography only adds to the beauty.
Edited to add: I forgot to make this comment. The last picture in the book tells a complicated story of struggle, defiance, and surrender. Heartbreaking and stunning in its complexity.

Lines I loved, “India is a land of ceremonies, rituals, processions, of bodies combining into crowds, crowds into masses” (p 13) and “This landscape needs no witness to exist” (p 103).

Author fact: the authors made four trips in ten years to India.

Book trivia: There are 152 color photographs that grace the pages of Seduced By the Beauty…

Music: one reference to Gershwin and another to Kishori Amonkar.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “India: a Reader’s Itinerary” (p 125).

Africa on Six Wheels

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Levitov, Betty. Africa on Six Wheels: A Semester on Safari. University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Reason read: Even though Betty and her students did not venture into Chad I chose to read Africa on Six Wheels to recognize Chad’s independence gained in December.

Betty Levitov took thirteen college students from Nebraska on a three month trek around the southern portion of Africa. By her own calculations they covered seven countries: Nambia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa. She wanted to transform the classroom into a “place of possibility” (p x). That in itself is an interesting topic for a book. Unfortunately, I found the continuity of Levitov’s story to be chaotic and sometimes hard to follow. At one point she is reliving her childhood, college years, and life with her husband. Without warning she switches to traveling with her students. Because she had taken several, shorter, trips with students there were times when I wasn’t sure which trip she was describing. There was the trip in 1998 (a semester in Zimbabwe) that she often contrasted with the 2022 trip. Plenty of flat tires and wrong turns!
As someone in the education field I appreciate Levitov’s focus on the curriculum and the attention afford to the learning outcomes. I just wonder what assessments she had in place to ensure success of the program.
As an aside, I learned a few things about Africa. For example, I never considered there would be a German population in Nambia or that there are specific names for the patterns of sand created by the wind in the dunes.

As an aside, one reviewer was pretty harsh about Africa on Six Wheels and said that the trip around Africa was not going to make Betty’s students into better people. Their trip was not going to change the world or have a profound impact on anyone.

Line I liked, “They owned their learning and claimed their territory” (p 180).

Book trivia: there are no photographs to this little short book. Too bad. Levitov mentioned Lonely Planet so many times that I wondered if their trip had been sponsored by the publisher.

Music: Beatles, Bob Marley, “Buffalo Soldier,” “Day O,” “Frere Jacques,” “Jambo,” “Jingle Bells,” John Denver’s “Country Roads,” and “My bonny Lies Over the Ocean.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Africa: the Greenest Continent” (p 7).

Life Among the Savages

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Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages. Narrated by Lesa Lockford. Dreamscape Media, 2015.
Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages. Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953.

Reason read: December is Jackson’s birth month. Read in her honor.

This is a delightful series of essays about being a mother and wife in a large family. Jackson has four children in a very chaotic home. She attacks each subject whether it be education, childbirth, failings of the furnace and automobile or life with a cat with wit, sarcasm, humor, and humility. This was a great way to pass a rainy afternoon. I look forward to her other nonfictions as well as the fiction on my list.
Confessional: There were times I wanted to strangle her children but refrained from throwing the book across the room when I realized there potentially could be a fair amount of exaggeration in Jackson’s descriptions.

Author fact: Pearl misfiled Life Among the Savages under ghost stories because Jackson also wrote the very creepy short story “the Lottery.”

Book trivia: try to find the version with Lesa Lockford as narrator. It is fantastic.

Music: “Joy to the world,” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the odd chapter called “Ghost Stories” (p 100). I say odd because Life Among Savages is not a ghost story. It is just mentioned because Jackson did write a scary story or two.

The Last Shepherd’s Dog…

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Sunderland, John. The Last Shepherd’s Dog and Other Stories From a Rural Spanish Village High and Hidden in the Costa Blanca Mountains. Shilka Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: for LibraryThing’s Early Review Program.

There is this phenomenon where AI can take every essay, short story, blog, personal letter, Christmas card, and term paper and turn it into a mishmash of a novel. I am not saying this is what happened with The Last Shepherd’s Dog and Other Stories From a Rural Spanish Village High and Hidden in the Costa Blanca Mountains, but I bet if you look hard enough you will find a blog or newspaper column with much of the same content. I sense it by the number of times Sunderland explains why he moved with his wife from New York City to Spain and from the rambling commentary. I sense it in the brevity and random subject matter of each of the chapters. They are entertaining stories in and of themselves, but they don’t convey life in Spain specifically. Sunderland writes about painting a portrait of a man so lifelike the deceased’s loved ones are moved to strong emotion. He writes another story about a perpetually closed grocery store that has him baffled. All in all it was a fun read.

Author fact: John Sunderland has been a writer, graphic designer, filmmaker, animator, and a museum designer. No wonder he was looking to retire somewhere far away and remote as possible.

Music: “New York, New York.”

Silence, Not for Sale

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Humphreys, April. Silence, Not for Sale. Publish Nation, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing. Every so often, I review a book that touches my heart. This is one such book.

Humphreys begins her story on a gray November day. The November sky outside my window matched hers when I sat down to read Silence, Not for Sale. Confessional: I had no idea that those details would not be the only similarities between us. It took me twice as long to read Silence, Not for Sale because of that fact.
Humphreys takes her reader back to December 1962, back when it all began in early childhood. For a victim of incest to come clean in such an honest and open way, Humphreys demonstrated courage in a way few people are capable. To relive childhood living nightmares is heroic. In addition to navigating a history of sexual abuse, Humphreys had to come to terms with a less than sympathetic mother and sister. Time and time again, Humphreys recalls stories of her mother’s callous and narcissistic nature. It is no secret that families are complicated, no matter their history. When family members refuse to recognize the trauma, or worse, accept their part in it, victims are slow to heal. Humphreys is no different, taking decades to sort out her grief. She had to make significant sacrifices in the name of self preservation. I applaud her courage.
Confessional: when Humphreys started to name all of the siblings of her parents and other family members I questioned if it was necessary to know all twenty-five of them?. Did I need to know them by name – Ernie, Betty, Brenna, Rose, Joan, Les, Lil, Alex, Jules, Sandra, Flo 1, Lily, Jack, Bob, Don, Flo 2, Pat, June, Bill, Elaine, Teddy, Jerry, Rose, Don, Larry, Tom, Troy, Richard, Sarah, Rachel, Grace, Nan, and Bet?

As an aside, did Humphreys want the reader to think she was crafting a suicide note? I certainly considered that until she said she had her husband print out copies of her letter to mail.

Confessional: my father was not around when I was born. When he was presented with a photograph of me soon after birth he commented that I resembled a shriveled prune. I call my partner my knight in shining armor, too. I did not learn to drive until I was twenty-five years old. There are other similarities that I will not get into here.

Music: “Long Haired Lover” by Jimmy Osmond, and “The Sunshine of Your Smile.”

Mystic Nomad

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Knopp, Annette. Mystic Nomad: A Woman’s Wild Journey to True Connection. Monkfish Book Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program I get to read interesting books.

Annette shares a similar story to Elizabeth Gilbert. The entire time I was reading Mystic Nomad I was reminded of Eat, Love, Pray. Knopp spent eighteen months in India, Nepal, and Thailand searching for a way to quiet her mind. From intense meditation in an ashram to hiking in the mountains and taking classes in sculpture, Knopp tried looking within for peace. She even went to Australia to work in an opal mine. From there Knopp traveled to Japan, the United States, Costa Rica, and Peru. At thirty-two years old, she needed to come to terms with the relationship she had with the woman she called mother and more disturbing, her dependence on a predatory spiritual advisor. Her devotion to him was crippling, even after he caused her great pain. [As an aside, Annette’s relationship with Brian reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Seven Years.” When asked what the song was about all Miss Merchant would say was it was about a spiritual advisor who let her down.] Knopp’s path to self discovery was haunting and beautiful, full of joy and sorrow. She conquered obstacles and challenges while taking the time to soak up her surroundings.

Author fact: Annette Knopp has her own website here.

Book trivia: My e-version of Mystic Nomad did not have any photographs.

Music: Arthur Rubinstein, Beethoven, Sibelius, and Mozart.

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

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Wrong, Michela. In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo. Harper Collins, 2001.

Reason read: Mobutu Sese Seko died in October. He was Zaire’s first president. Read in his memory.

More than a biography of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbedu wa za Banga, Michela Wrong set up to write a love letter to the Congo. Even though Mobutu was a dictator and the first and only president of Zaire, the history of his homeland is a tale that is just as interesting to tell. It is a story of great triumphs and devastating downfalls; a cautionary tale of corruption, greed and betrayal.
It is a small detail of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, but I appreciated knowing Mobutu’s origin story of his love of leopard print. I am sure it is exaggerated, but the story goes that Mobutu’s grandfather used to ridicule him for being afraid of leopards. After killing one its skin became Mobutu’s personal fashion plate for his hats. I like to think every time Mobutu wore a leopard print hat he was giving his grandfather the proverbial middle finger.
As an aside…Every time someone saw me with In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz in my hands they would murmur, “ah…Heart of Darkness…” followed by either “I hated that book” or “I loved that book.” No one ever said it was just okay.

Chilling quote, “Knowing nothing about the past, of course, frees a population from any sense of blame for the present” (p 59). Or future, I would add.

Author fact: Wrong was a correspondent. As an aside, I found her comment about the potential spread of AIDS to be somewhat naïve. She was describing a hospital where AIDS carriers and HIV negative patients were “indiscriminately mixed together, their narrow beds only inches apart” (p 138). Even if the mixed patients were holding hands the HIV negative person would not be infected unless they shared blood.

Book trivia: the title of the book comes from a character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Music: “As Time Goes By,” “Hotel California,” Koffi Olomide, Zaiko Langa, Papa Wemba, Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, Wenge Musica and its variations: Wenge Musica 4×4, Wenge Musica Maison Mere, Wenge Musica BCBG, Wenge Musica Kumbela, Wenge Musica Aile Paris, Tabuley Rochereau, Pepe Kalle, and Gregorian chants.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Africa: Today and Yesterday” (p 10).

Pagan Holiday

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Perrottet, Tony. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists. Random House, 2002.

Reason read: Tony Perrotte celebrates a birthday in October.

I don’t know which is more entertaining: Perrottet’s humor or his descriptions of traveling around ancient Rome and Naples. His denial about his wife’s pregnancy was funny (“…avoiding our impending parenthood situation” (p 127) as he called it. He certainly went to great lengths to see ancient Italy as a tourist would. Diving to see the lost town of Baiae with its spas, village, and lighthouse was interesting. Visiting the ancient hook-up spots and gladiator arenas. Imagining ancient day Ubers with stables for renting mule-pulled wagons. One’s status dictated how many mules pulled a customer around and whether or not he or she had a mule driver. Speaking of driving – what about chariot road rage as compared to modern day six lane highway antics? Or imagine soliciting a prostitute at their “office” better known as the local cemetery. Perrottet also visited Greece and Turkey hauling along his increasingly pregnant wife. Learning the sex of the child while on their journey brought them both one step closer to the reality of becoming parents, but it didn’t stop Perrottet from seeking out lost cities and crawling around pyramids.

As an aside, I would like to know if the Appian way is still lined with family vaults. That would be pretty interesting to see. I also want to know if Medusa’s head still graces with Arcadian Way.

Author fact: Tony Perrottet also authored Naked Olympics which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Pagan Holiday was originally published as Route 66 A.D.

Music: “O mio babbino caro,” Jim Morrison, George Michael, Ringo Starr, “Zorba,” the Beatles, “Frere Jacques,” U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For,” Cole Porter,

Natalie connection: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a pre-Raphaelite painter featured in Pagan Holiday. His daughter wrote a poem called “If No One Ever Marries Me” which Natalie set to music.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter “Dewey Deconstructed: 900s” (p 62). Also noted in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Where On Earth Do These Books Belong?” (p 261).

Mayor of Castro Street

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Shilts, Randy. Mayor of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk. St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2008.

Reason read: the “How Weird Festival” happens in October in San Francisco.

What a different (but same) time we live in. We have moved beyond having a Director of the Coors Beer Boycott and yet, yet, yet we still persecute (and prosecute) those different from us. Haven’t we learned anything? But I digress.
Shilts portrayed Harvey Milk as ambitious to a fault. Using a plethora of sources he was able to bring Milk to life, covering extensively both his political and private life. Milk would stoop to incredible lows to create controversy and promote his agenda in the name of the homosexual lifestyle. The betrayal of Bill Sipple’s privacy being just one example. What struck me the most was how Milk knew all along he would die by a bullet to the brain. His ambition was so great that even the fear of assassination couldn’t stop him from fighting for the underdog. He knew how to connect with his Castro Street constituents and collect lovers for a lifetime. Ever the consummate reporter, Shilts turned over every rock to find the detailed story of Milk’s life. Shilts interviewed over one hundred and forty people and poured over thousands of documents for his biography of Harvey Milk. He even sought the audience of Dan White and his attorneys to offer another perspective of the Castro Street Mayor’s tragic end. It is too bad he was unsuccessful.

As an aside, I had to do a deep dive into Bob’s Burgers. In Milk’s time it was a hangout spot on Polk Street in San Francisco. I wanted to know if the cartoon of the same name had anything to do with the restaurant. It does not appear so.
An ah-ha moment: discovering the muse behind Lou Reed’s “sugar plum fairy” in the song “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”

Author fact: Shilts also wrote And the Band Played On which was on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Mayor of Castro Street includes a smattering of photographs. I would have liked to see the Castro Street camera shop where Milk first set up a campaign office.

Setlist: “Theme from Rocky,” Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Joan Baez, Carmen, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Leslie Gore, Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” “Danny Boy,” “Notre Dame Fight Song,” “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” “Happy Birthday,” “Star Spangled Banner,” Moody Blues, Rolling Stones, Cher, “As Time Goes By,” Judy Garland, “Anchors Aweigh,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” Mahler, Strauss, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Wagner, Verdi, Bidu Sayao, Mills Brothers’ “Always,” Mick Jagger, Liza Minelli, Puccini’s Tosca, Meg Christian’s “The Rock Will Wear Away,” John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, David Bowie, Mahler, “God Save the Nelly Queens,” and “We Shall Overcome.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “San Francisco” (p 196).