Tag: 2025

Likeable Badass

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Fragale, Alison. Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve. Penguin Random House, 2024.

Reason read: just for the fun of it.

Here are my takeaways: Fragale talks about fixing a bad reputation or a misconception about yourself right away. Don’t let a bad opinion linger. What if you have no idea? What happens if you have no concept of what people think of you, good or bad? What if you believe one thing and the opposite is true so you are actually the one with the misconception? Confessional: I do not know how to read a room. I had this friend once who never gave me any indication she was pulling away. She just vanished. There were no signs to tell me what I did or didn’t do. Ironically, this same person falls in with another piece of advice from Fragale and the norm of reciprocity. I would have to say that sometimes does not work. I sent this friend (the one pulling away) a package of expensive crafting paper. I never received so much as a confirmation of delivery; never mind a thank you or a reciprocating gesture. Like I said, the crafting paper was of high quality and shipping to another country was not cheap. My mistake for sure.
Anyway, back to Fragale. Another takeaway from reading Likeable Badass was the collection of connections. Keeping important people close in case you need them later. I get that. That’s what LinkedIn is all about.

Music: “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi (featuring Daddy Yankee).

Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last

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Yung-Abu, Samson. The Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last: Healthy Growth is Achieved Through Consistent Flow. Publish Nation, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to review interesting books.

Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last is, by phone, a 425 page book divided into two parts. Part one is an examination of what it means to be consistent. Part two delves into cultivating healthy habits or breaking unhealthy habits while focusing primarily on exercise. The entire book is jam packed with good advice and common sense (be smart about your goals) as well as some oddball tips: sleep in your gym clothes, keep your dumbbells in the kitchen). It is also an autobiography of Yung-Abu’s fitness routines and goals.
I found the narrative to be verbose. Each element is described in several different ways. Take the subject of making exercise fun, for example. Yung-Abu states that fun is a key ingredient; fun is essential; you need to incorporate a touch of fun; fun transforms everything; you need to incorporate fun into the process; provide fun; make exercise fun-focused. The word fun was mentioned a few more time in the section, but you get the point.
Once I became comfortable with the wordiness of Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency…I started to appreciate the nuggets of knowledge. I found the connection between consistency and respect to be interesting. I also loved the idea of figuring out a workout sequence – which exercises flowed easily with others.
A fair amount of Yung-Abi’s information could be seen as common sense. Healthy habits are widely known to impact overall health and cognitive brain function. Not ever exercise book will give you an anatomical breakdown of the brain, though.

Head scratcher moment – Yung-Abu said microwaves are “fundamental to keeping us in the flow of not starving.” Weird way to put it, but what concerned me more was that Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency is supposed to be a book about healthy habits. In my opinion, cooking by microwave is not healthy, never mind fundamental. Some of the sentence structures and phrasings seemed off. It indicated that English is not Yung-Abi’s dominant language or that there was some AI assistance.

My personal connection to consistency is through Tommy Rivs. He is constantly talking about making small deposits in the bank of health. If you practice consistency you will see results.

Author fact: Yung-Abu has a law background.

Glamorous Powers

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Howatch, Susan. Glamorous Powers. Harper Collins Publishers, 1996.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Easter.

The world is teetering on the fringe of World War II. Abbot Jonathan Darrow experiences visions that tell him he must leave the Order. He has had the Glamorous Power of second sight since he was fourteen years old. (Readers will recognize Darrow as the pivotal spiritual advisor to Charles Ashworth in Glittering Images.) Despite his vision calling him to leave the Order, Darrow must undergo a thorough psychological analysis. Only Abbot-General Francis can grant his release and only after Francis determines it is in Darrow’s best interest to leave. The decision cannot be one borne out of spiritual crisis or impulse brought on by false visions. It is such a twist of fate from the pages of Glittering Images when it was Jonathan Darrow analyzing and healing Charles Ashworth’s psyche.
One of the delectable elements of the Stargate series is how soap opera dramatic the writing is. Emotions are turned up to eleven and events are earth-shattering. Words like terror, shock, harrowing, disastrous, horror, hostile, garish, rage, disturbed, diabolical, disgraceful, despair, doomed, menace, monster, disaster, tragedy, troubled, appalling, cruel, chaos, and crisis. Everyone trembles, feel faint or actually does faint, or gasps loudly in utter dismay. Some of Darrow’s angst is warranted. He experiences sensory overload while visiting his modern daughter. He is not used to the sharpness of the outside world. In time, Darrow discovers the work he is supposed to do on the outside. Glamorous Powers examines the sins of the father, handed down. Who will break the cycle?

Confessional: the miscommunications and assumptions Jonathan experiences with his wife filled me with anxiety. Their marriage was fraught with one misunderstanding after another and I constantly questioned if it would survive.

Lines I loved, “People always know when they’re not loved” (p 106). Indeed. Here’s another, “I’m busy learning how to kill people and I hope you are pleased” (p 267).
Two words I loved together, “emotionally dislocated” (p 235).

Author fact: Glamorous Powers is the thirteenth novel of Susan Howatch’s.

Book trivia: like Glittering Images, Howatch begins each chapter of Glamorous Powers with a quote from an individual who inspired the story. In this case, William Ralph Inge, an intellectual and Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London (1911-1934). She includes a brief biography of Inge at the end of Glamorous Powers.

Music: Straus

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: The Family of the Clergy” (p 87). Also from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 76).

In-Between World of Vikram Lall

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Vassanji, M.S.. The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Reason read: Vassanji’s birth month is May (30th).

During a retreat from the world, Vikram Lall, a self-professed corrupt man, wishes to tell his story from childhood. It is a tale full of violence and torture, political corruption and redemption, ethnic prejudice and long-standing tradition. His world is a clash of cultures from his earliest memories. Vikram’s childhood starts innocently enough with friends of various backgrounds and skin tones. Not black like his Kenyan friend, Njoroge, or white like his British friend, Bill. Vikram’s family settled in Kenya after Vikram’s grandfather arrived as a Indian railway worker along with his British overseers to lay tracks in Kenyan landscape. Kenya had been trying to break free from British rule ever since.
Vikram learns early on that one has to be careful of causing too much suspicion. No one wants to be accused of being involved with the guerilla group, Mau Mau. As Vikram grows up, he learns survival does not always mean being honest. It is better to cause the heartbreak than to endure it.

An absolutely brilliant line full of foreboding. Early on Vikram says, “But my times were exceptional and they would leave no one unscathed” (p 3). He is admitting his destruction of other people.

Confessional: in the beginning of The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, Vikram withholds the source of his infatuation. It is as if he wants her to stay shrouded in mystery for a little while. However, if the reader has been paying attention, her name has already been revealed.

Author fact: Vassanji also wrote The Book of Secrets. I plan to read that three years from now.

Book trivia: The In-Between World of Vikram Lall should be a movie.

Music: Bing Crosby, Talat Mahmood, “Onward Christian Soldiers”, “Che Sear, Sera”, Bach, Berlioz, “Never on a Sunday”, Hemant Kumar, “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperaree”, the Beatles, Elvis, “Wherever I Lay My Hat”, and “Dead Man’s Chest”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Africa: a Reader’s Itinerary” (p 2).

Imagine If…

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Vale, Lucien. Imagine If…Tupac Did Not Go To Vegas. Shattered Mythos Press, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing. I occasionally get to review interesting books and this was one of them.

The one thing to keep in mind when reading Lucien Vale’s Imagine If series is that it is pure fiction. You are imagining an alternate ending to a well-known story. Everyone knows Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas. Vale is simply flipping the script and imagining a scenario where Pac would decide against that fateful trip. Vale cleverly finds a real life story and imagines an alternate ending. I don’t really care if the events in New York City mirror fact or not. The whole idea is to ask what if? and to be entertained. The action of Imagine If is tightly wound and fast paced. It reads like a movie with exaggerated dialogue full of gangster lingo and drama. If entertainment was Vale’s goal, he succeeded.

Confessional: one of my favorite movies is Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow. It is the story of Helen’s two very different lives: the life she would lead if she had caught the train going home and the alternate where she misses it.

Author fact: Lucien Vale has also written an “Imagine” book about Bruce Lee.

Book trivia: Imagine If… is a very short 77 pages long.

Murder in the Museum of Man

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Alcorn, Alfred. Murder in the Museum of Man. Zoland Books, 1997.

Reason read: May is a traditional graduation month for colleges and universities. Read in honor of commencements everywhere.

Wainscott University is your typical institutional of higher education full of snobbery intellectuals, grant-fueled competition, and academic politics. Add crime to the list when Dean Cranston Fessing goes missing. When it is revealed that Fessing was not only murdered but cannibalized, Museum of Man (MOM) secretary Norman de Rateur turns amateur detective to solve the crime. Then another dean is decapitated. Murder in the Museum of Man turns to mayhem. Through de Ratuer’s journal we follow the action.
Norman is an interesting character. He pines for an old girlfriend who wrote him a Dear John letter while he was serving in the military decades earlier. And speaking of the girl, I won’t give it away, but the ending was my favorite.
Confessional: why is it that I have a lukewarm dislike of academic satires? The names of characters are always ridiculous and the snarkiness is at a level I cannot enjoy. Ethnopaleosiphonapterology? The study of fossil fleas? Really? Chimpanzees making sexual advances towards humans and drinking their beer? Really?

Author fact: According to Google, Alfred Alcorn is former director of travel at Harvard University’s Museum of Natural History. 

Book trivia: Murder in the Museum of Man is part of a series. I am only reading the one.

Setlist: Dvorak Piano Quintet in A, Brahms, and Schubert’s Die Unterscheidung.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academic Mysteries” (p 4).

I Lift, Therefore I Am

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Gezalyan, Manuel. I Lift, Therefore I Am. Identity Publications, 2025.

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

Part journal, part self-help fitness manual, I Lift, therefore I Am is an attempt tp bring spiritual fitness to the masses. Encompassing philosophy, psychology, and expertise along with personal experiences, Gezalyan maps out all the reasons for exercising. It goes beyond looking good. Lifting weights does something for the mental side of taking care of oneself.
Something to take with a grain of salt (whatever that means), many trainers will tell you different things. In I Lift, Therefore I Am, Gezalyan wants you to be able to push past pain barriers. Meanwhile, my running coach dislikes the phrase “no pain, no gain.” He thinks that working until there is pain is stupid and irresponsible. Instead, he says “no pain…no pain.” Speaking of the subject of pain, I found it curious that Gezalyan mentions pain a few times in the acknowledgments. The love of his life kills his pain and his parents experienced pain.
Pros: Gezalyan has written a book for anyone. The tone of I Lift, Therefore I Am is conversational and casual. I liked that Gezalyan gives you permission to read his book any which way you want. You are not restricted to any particular order of information.
Challenge: It would have been beneficial to have the workbook built into the text rather than forcing one to wait for the supplemental (read separate) journal to be published later.
I would also caution people from taking advice from nearly half a century ago (Gezalyan has a thing for Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Confessional: Part of I Lift, therefore I Am focused on the physical appearance and it got me thinking. Let’s say I am 5’2″ and 250lbs. I may not look physically fit. I probably would be perceived as stereotypically fat. But. But! But, let’s just say I can bench press three times my weight and I run ultra marathons every six months. Am I still fat because I don’t look the part?

Author fact: Gezalyan calls himself unusual and I immediate thought “in the Cyndi Lauper kind of way?” Forgive me. I am a child of the 80s.

Book trivia: I Lift, therefore I Am is not intended to get you into fitness. — is merely seeking to change the perception of fitness.

Black as Hell, Strong as Death, and as Sweet as Love

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Unger, Steven. Black as Hell, Strong as Death, and as Sweet as Love: a Coffee Travel Book. Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing and this is one of the coolest books I have had the pleasure of reviewing. I wish I knew someone who loved coffee enough to deserve this book as a gift.

First impression: for all that Unger promises in the introduction, the rest of the book seems way too brief. After all the introductions and foreword, it takes sixteen pages just to get to the first chapter and the entire book is only 166 pages long. Unger spent three years traveling specifically for this book; traveling to locations which traditionally (and obviously) have a strong relationship to coffee. He spent five years conducting additional research and probably drank countless cups of coffee in the process. Together, with the talented Ruth St. Steven as photographer, Unger has produced a stellar multi-genre (mostly travel and historical) book about one of the world’s most popular and symbolic drinks.
Beyond describing the best places to enjoy the brew, Unger outlines the correct customs for drinking coffee. The Arabic way is always with your right hand, for example. (As an aside, I am left handed like the author.) I appreciated his description of the way coffee is prepared in Ethiopia and the various ceremonies surrounding coffee. Unger also shared his opinion of where to get the best falafel in Paris, where to witness “relentless citrus-based combat” known as the Battle of the Oranges, how to swim with spinner dolphins, when to attend a voodoo festival in New Orleans, and how to hang out in the same places as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Unger delves into the importance of the traditional café as a place to socialize, argue, and create.
After finishing Black as Hell… readers might want to follow Unger on his coffee trail from Ethiopia to San Francisco, California (as a beer trail adjacent adventure?). Or. At the very least, make the recipes for dishes and drinks he generously supplies. All in all, Black as Hell… is one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Confessional: I was nervous about Unger’s web-related recommendations and contact information. I wondered if a year from now if the information would still be accurate. It was smart of him to say check the internet. I also appreciated the recommended reading if one wants to learn more. Hopefully, books will still be a thing in the future.
As you all know, I am not a fan of repeating information more than once. There is a little repetition to Black as Hell…: the roasting of green coffee beans with frankincense and served with sugared popcorn came up more than a couple of times.

Second confession: there was a time when I was addicted to a show called Castle. The description of adding spices to a brewing pot of coffee reminded me of a scene when Castle’s ex-wife prepared Castle’s coffee just the way he liked it, with a touch of nutmeg.

As an aside, I know someone who cannot stand even the smell of coffee. He will walk out of a room if someone has brewed a fresh pot or poured a cup of coffee. Interestingly enough, even though I have been drinking coffee since I was a teenager, my sister didn’t start enjoying the beverage until just a few years ago. It took her almost 50 years to try it… and like it.

As another aside: I know there is such a thing as a coffee snob. This person cannot stand coffee that is brewed at the wrong temperature, served out of the incorrect vessel, or brewed with stale beans…but is there such a thing as a coffee whore? Someone who will drink coffee reheated five times in a microwave? Someone who doesn’t mind Folgers from a can (especially if they have flavor crystals)? Someone who actually likes a cup of coffee gone cold?

Book trivia: there are a bunch of photographs included in Black as Hell… They are stunning.

Music: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by the Beatles, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Jim Morrison, Lenny Kravitz, Gloria Estafan, “Hey there” by Rosemary Clooney, “O Sole Mio”, John Lennon,

Children’s Bach

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Garner, Helen. The Children’s Bach. Pantheon Book, 1984.

Reason read: May is music month but there is not much in the way of music in this book.

Within less than two hundred pages Helen Garner has managed to condense a complete picture of the institution of marriage. Dexter and Athena Fox had a steady, quiet relationship. They went for long walks and coexisted in relative peace. That is, until along came Elizabeth, a former friend of Dexter’s from college. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but without warning Elizabeth started shaking up their lives with her rock musician boyfriend and his teenage daughter in tow. Suddenly, Athena was seeing the world through a different lens and started to wonder if she made the right choices early in life. Her marriage. Her lifestyle. Her future. It as if Athena experienced a mid-life crisis of epic proportions.

Quotes I had to acknowledge, “In this frame of mind, savage with homesickness and loneliness, she roamed the city, daring it to tackle her” (p 36). So beautiful. And this was, that made me laugh, “He was chucking a mental” (p 130).

Confessional: Gaps in the dialogue make the action jumpy. When did Dexter agree to give Elizabeth and Vicky a ride? One minute they are in the airport, the next they are traveling in a car.

Author fact: Garner published many of her journals. She also wrote Monkey Grip which is on my challenge list.

Book trivia: the foreword forewarned of the numerous characters. Indeed. Athena. Dexter. Arthur. Billy. Elizabeth. Vicky. Philip. Poppy. The fact that the book made Rumaan Alam want to go for a run is intriguing. Supposedly she hates to run.

Setlist: Ravel’s Bolero, La Traviata, Haydn, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”, “The Wild Colonial Boy”, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, Steve Winwood, Elvis Presley, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Mary Ford and Les Paul’s “How High the Moon”, Don Giovanni, “The Vicar of Bray”, “Jerusalem”, Mikrokosmos by Bela Bartok, Bach’s Small Preludes, Kabelevsky, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”.

Nancy said: Pearl admitted that The Children’s Bach was old and hard to get a copy of.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz: Fiction (p 26).

Where There’s a Will

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Stout, Rex. Where There’s a Will. Bantam Books, 1940.

Reason read: to continue the series started in November.

Unlike Nero Wolfe’s other mysteries to solve which usually involve death, Where There’s a Will starts with a potentially phony last will and testament. The family of Noel Hawthorne have hired Nero Wolfe to contest Hawthorne’s final wishes as they seem absurd and out of character. Who gives his mistress his entire estate while leaving his sisters each a peach, a pear, and an apple? True to form, Nero interviews a large cast of characters and uncovers corruption, illicit affairs, and even a few murders. Of course, Wolfe solves the case. Interestingly enough, it all came down to a flower.
The Crime Line Nero Wolfe series always includes an introduction by another author. Where There’s a Will was introduced by none other that Dean Koontz, an accomplished mystery author in his own right. Written in 1992, Koontz is funny and, dare I say, charming? As an aside, I have to wonder what he would say about our current administrative situation (he mentions #47 in his introduction).
The other fact about the Crime Line series is it boasts that not one word has been omitted from the original text.
Insult that had me scratching my head: “Go chase a snail” (p 21). Is that a roundabout way of saying someone is slow?

As an aside, Fred Durkin is a man after my own heart. He puts vinegar on things. So do I.

Author fact: Stout briefly attended the University of Kansas.

Book trivia: at the end of Where There’s a Will there are two recipes from Stout’s private collection: basic omelet and scrambled eggs. I will definitely try the omelet because I like the technique described.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Phoenix and the Carpet

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Nesbit, E. The Phoenix and the Carpet. Read by Anna Bentinick. Naxos Audio Books, 2005.

Reason read: May is Nesbit’s birth month. Read in her honor.

The Phoenix and the Carpet is the second book in the Psammead Trilogy. (Five Children and It and Story of the Amulet round out the series). The same five children as in the first book are back: Cyril (Squirrel), Anthea (Panther), Robert (Bobs), Jane (Pussy), and Lamb (Hilary). This time they discover an egg hidden in a carpet. It holds a beautiful talking phoenix. Like a genie from a bottle, once the phoenix is freed from the egg it explains that the carpet can grant three wishes a day. So the children’s adventures begin. The phoenix needs to often consult the Psammead to get the children out of various predicaments, but unlike Five Children and It, this time the Psammead is not the central character of the story.

Author fact: Edith Nesbit was a political activist in addition to being an author.

Book trivia: The Phoenix and the Carpet was first published in 1904. It became a British miniseries in 1997.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fantasy for Young and Old” (p 83).

1805

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Woodman, Richard. 1805. Sphere Books Limited. 1985.

Reason read: to finish the series started in February in honor of history month. 1805 is the last book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series that I am reading for the Challenge. There are many, many more books and I regret I will not be reading them. I have grown to like Nathaniel Drinkwater a great deal.

The Nathaniel Drinkwater series continues! Historically, in 1804, we are now on the verge of war. Napoleon Bonaparte is gearing up to invade England. His armies are growing bigger and stronger by the day. When we catch up to Nathaniel Drinkwater in Woodman’s 1805, he is now the captain of the HMH Antigone. His chief duty this time around is to protect the ports of the Channel coastline with the British navy.
Woodman does not waste any time bringing the excitement. 1805 opens with a dramatic scene of a fierce storm at sea. Nathaniel Drinkwater, as captain of the HMS Antigone must save the vessel while dealing with the wretched nuisance of most of his men being seasick. No wonder Drinkwater has started to talk to himself! During this time Drinkwater is charged with brining Captain Philip D’Auvergne back to his post at St. Helier as a small favor to the Channel Fleet. Meanwhile, archrival Santhonax is the in the employ of Bonaparte which makes him a stronger enemy.
As the series progresses we learn more about Nathaniel Drinkwater. This time it is revealed that Drinkwater has a brother who committed murder. Nathaniel is in debt to Lord Dungarth for hiding his brother in Russia. Readers also learn how Nathaniel deals with adversity when he is taken prisoner by the French.
Fans of the Drinkwater series will cheer to read that the character of Quilhampton, along with a few others including Roger, is back. As always, this installment of the Drinkwater series does not disappoint.

Author fact: if you ever Google Richard Woodman’s picture, he is the epitome of a seafaring captain.

Book trivia: 1805 is book number six in the Drinkwater saga. Another piece of trivia – I couldn’t find a copy of 1805 is any local library or in the ComCat system. I didn’t want to place an ILL for such a short book so I decided to read it on Internet Archive. By not reading The Corvette I missed out on Waller’s escape from hanging, thanks to Drinkwater’s clemency.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Sea Stories” (p 217).

Beyond Belief

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Naipaul, N. S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples. Random House, 1999.

Reason read: Beyond Belief is the sequel to Among the Believers. Read to finish the series.

In Beyond Belief Naipaul picks up the story of faith nineteen years after Among the Believers. He follows his own footsteps and traces over the memories with new and different observations. His connections to people are less interviews and more conversations, however just as probing. Naipaul meets with poets, publishers, lecturers, researchers, criminals, religious and political leaders, laborers, and Muslim intellectuals. The most common theme was in times of various regimes you had two choices – be revolutionary or reactionary. Naipaul met them both. My favorite part was when he addresses the sacredness of place; how the idea of what constitutes “sacred” can be different for each of us, depending on the connection we have to that place. Or think we have. I think of Monhegan and realize that there are only certain sections of the island I consider sacred even though I speak of the entire island in generalized terms. Those sacred spots are ones that I hardly visit, never talk about, and secretly dream about the most.
Afterthought: It must be difficult to appease something as intangible as a guardian spirit.

As an aside, I enjoyed meeting Imaduddin. Lecturer, electrical engineer, Islamic teacher, Indonesian, political prisoner (for fourteen months), once wealthy and famous. What a fascinating man.

Book trivia: there are no photographs at all in Beyond Belief. I would have liked to see the Indonesian landscapes, even if it was just pictures of the rice fields or Javanese puppetry.

Music: Beethoven

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Indicative of Indonesia” (p 103).

Gone with the Wind

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Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. Pocket, 1966.

Reason read: the Civil War started in April. The war is probably the best character in the book.

Who does not know the story of Scarlett O’Hara and her life at Tara plantation? Every person over the age of forty-five must have seen the movie at some point. My husband says it was a favorite of his grandmother’s. Mine preferred the Wizard of Oz and the Sound of Music.

Gone with the Wind stands as one of the greatest American Civil War sagas from the point of view of the Confederates. Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara is the protagonist readers just love to hate (or at least be annoyed by). We first meet Scarlett as a scrappy sixteen year old teenager, manipulative and naïve. She enjoys causing other people pain and thrives on their jealousies. Even at this tender age, she is beyond selfish and spoiled. Scarlett is not beneath marrying the first boy she could, just to make the true love of her young life jealous. Of course it backfires when her beloved Ashley marries Melanie Hamilton instead.
Even after losing her teenage husband to illness during the American Civil War, Scarlett continues to live a lie. At seventeen and a new mother, she is not in mourning for poor lost Charles. He did not even die a heroic death that she could brag about! Scarlett does not swell with patriotic pride for the Confederate cause, nor is she grateful for Melanie and her family’s generosity and friendship. Instead, she hold a steadfast and unrequited love for Ashley. Enter Rhett Butler, the dashing and controversial blockade runner. Scarlett’s life gets a whole lot more complicated and emotionally confusing when he shows up. They are bound together in unconventional ways. He knows her secret. Together, they share the same sarcastic opinion of the war; one they cannot voice. They both use people (even family) for the betterment of themselves. They both do not give a damn what others say.
While I (obviously) did not care for Scarlett, Mitchell’s writing is spectacular. She was the master of stylized descriptions. Take Melanie’s brown eyes, for a simple example. Mitchell describes them as “a forest pool of water in winter when brown leaves shine up through quiet water” (p 102). A word of warning. While Mitchell has a way with words, she is also an author true to the times. Some language may not be suitable for the easily offended.

Confessional: I have never been to the deep south. I’m talking about the real south. Not Baltimore touristy Harbor or a music festival in the middle of Atlanta, Georgia. I’m talking about Spanish moss dangling from every tree, accents so thick you need subtitles, and bowls of steaming greens, ham hocks, and grits. Are the manners still so painstakingly polite and proper? Does a woman still mourn in black with a veil down to her knees?

As an aside, we were watching a show about abandoned places and Butler Island in Georgia was featured. Rhett Island is just next door. Was it any wonder that Margaret Mitchell visited the area and wrote Gone with the Wind there?

Is it any wonder Gone with the Wind has been banned or challenged a couple of times? Derogatory language, incest, downplaying the atrocities of slavery, romanticizing deep southern culture.

Playlist: “Go Down, Moses”, “Peg in a Low-backed Car”, “The Wearin’ of the Green”, “If You Want a Good Time, Jine the Calvary”, “Jacket of Gray”, “Bonny Blue Flag”, “Lorena”, “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Dixie”, “When This Cruel War is Over”, “Lament for Robert Emmet”, “When the Dew is On the Blossom”,

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Civil War Fiction” (p 57).

Right Stuff

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Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. Picador Press, 1979.

Reason read: April is supposed to be National Astronomy month. Right Stuff is about that journey to the stars and beyond.

Having the Right Stuff was a matter to pride to military pilots in the early to mid 1950s. Having the Right Stuff implied a massive manly skillset, superhuman nerves of steel, sharp mental confidence, and never-ending physical stamina. In other words, the perfect male specimen. It helps to have a twinkle in the eye, an awe-shucks attitude, and a winning smile of pearly whites. Did the writers for the Top Gun screenplay use Wolfe’s description of a pilot’s overly cocky daredevil demeanor? I couldn’t get Tom Cruise out of my head.
The recruiters knew just what to say to recruit the perfect seven would-be space travelers. The first rocket mission was to be voluntary, but the elevator speech was that it definitely would be very dangerous. Most definitely anything dangerous appealed to the seven pilots because they were appalled to learn they wouldn’t actually be flying the rocket. The other carrot dangled before them was the opportunity to be the first seven American men in space. No red-blooded macho man wanted to miss out on being the first at anything, even if that meant being the first to urinate in a space suit once strapped into the Mercury capsule five hours before liftoff.
As each mission became more dangerous, Wolfe’s narrative became more exciting. Whether up in the capsule with John Glenn, or down on the ground with their wives Wolfe puts you in the center of the action.

Author fact: I have a total of three Wolfe books on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: I wanted photographs of the astronauts or at least the Mercury rocket. Alas, there were none to speak of.

Quote that filled me with fear, “…technological illiterates with influence” (p 54). Sound familiar? I’m not naming names, but we have a few influential people who have no idea how to harness their technology.

As an aside, Pete Conrad sounds like someone with whom I could share a beer. His sense of humor had me laughing out loud. Case in point: the blank white paper test. He was asked what do you see on this paper? It is a plain white piece of paper without a single mark. He stares at it for a minute and deadpans, “But it’s upside down.” If the psychologists were looking to brain squeegee Pete Conrad they had another thing coming.

Tomorrow some celebrity types are going up in space. They have the money and the influence and the inclination to hurtle through the stars. My mother is all agog about this and went on for nearly twenty minutes about the celebrities in the rocket.

Music: Cole Porter, “Horst Wessel Song”, “Sugar Blues”, “Moonlight in Vermont”, and “Drifting and Dreaming”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Moon’s My Destination” (p 157).