What I'm reading this week (1/23/17)

I spent the weekend watching six hours of DVR'd inauguration coverage, plus the live coverage of the balls Friday night. What a wonderful thing is democracy, history, freedom, and God's omnipotence. I deny the animosity, the protests, and those who turn to hate instead of God, and pray for all of us to realize who we are as Americans and children of the Almighty.

Last week I finished:

Much like Madam President, the book I read immediately before it, The President Is a Sick Man is the true story of presidential cover-up. In Madam President, President Wilson's stroke, and subsequent state of health, is kept from the American people. In The President Is a Sick Man, President Cleveland endures a secret dental surgery aboard a yacht. In the years when the word "cancer" was not spoken aloud, and at a time of extreme financial crisis (the depression of 1893), the president found it necessary to conceal the surgery from the public for fear of further panic and loss of confidence in their leader. But the truth was leaked to a newsman who suffered for daring to bring it to light. Not all believed his claims--many folks believed the story that Cleveland had a couple of  teeth pulled and was spending some time fishing. Vindication comes many years later. Matthew Algeo tells a great story here, though I don't know that he'll ever top Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, one of my favorite backlist reads of 2016. My rating: 3.5 stars.

 

I read Will Schwalbe's The End of Your Life Book Club when it came out years ago, and although I didn't know most of the titles he discussed at that time, I remember enjoying it. His new book, Books for Living, was good, too. He relates books he's read (Stuart Little, The Girl on the Train, David Copperfield, Bird by Bird, Rebecca, Song of Solomon, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Wonder, etc.) to what he learned about hugging, boredom, praying, friendship, being sensitive, etc. It's a well-written set of essays, and even if you haven't read the book he's writing about, it doesn't matter. If you like books about books, I think you'll enjoy it. My rating: 4 stars.

This week I continue with:

 

Still loving Mario Batali's Big American Cookbook--but "big" is right. This is a massive cookbook.

Loving Wonder more and more as the story goes along. Wow.

I didn't pick up And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer last week. Being a novella, I think it might be best read in one sitting rather than a few pages here and there. I've been waiting for a good time to sit down with it and give it my undivided attention.

 

 

And my audio:

I wouldn't be surprised if Carrying Albert Home ends up on my top ten list of 2017. I'm enjoying it that much. Unfortunately, I'll finish it this week.