Other Women's Stories: What I'm reading this week (6/24/19)

Last week I finished:

I am an unapologetic word nerd and grammar geek. I read grammar guides like most folks read novels. I spent a lot of time in technical writing classes in college, and it's in my blood. So when I bought a copy of Dreyer's English for the library, I decided to be the one to give it a test run. Reading this book has been one of my favorite reading experiences of the year. It's a wonderfully comprehensive, thoughtful, engaging, and humorous guide to English, and it certainly can be read cover to cover. Dreyer, copy chief at Random House, delivers a concise yet thorough collection of dos and don'ts, facts and fictions, and rules and preferences pertaining to grammar, punctuation, usage, redundancy, capitalization, and more. He also presents lengthy sections on commonly misspelled words and commonly confused words (which, frankly, made me concerned to ever write again). I loved every minute of this book, and I learned so much. Much of it was refresher, but I did learn: a blonde is a female only (a male who is blond is a blond--it's a French thing), to love something "to no end" really means to love something without avail (to love without ceasing is to "love no end"), and I probably will never properly learn when to use lay, laid, lain, etc. I learned that there is a lot of leeway in usage, and I learned just how the language evolves through common usage. There were some things in the book that, if I started using properly, would make people wonder who the oddball is; in that way, common usage can often trump rules to save face. I've read so many of these grammar/usage/punctuation books over the years, but this one is my favorite, hands down. If you're a word nerd or a grammar geek, give it a try. It will be on my best books list at the end of the year. It's simply wonderful. My rating: 5 stars.

I love engaging war stories. I have such tremendous respect and awe for the people who wear our military uniform, how they've faced things civilians cannot imagine, how they find the best in themselves in ways most folks never do in a lifetime, how they can be terribly wounded and still want to return to finish their mission. I can't get enough of their stories. Admiral William McRaven, retired, author of Make Your Bed (my review here), returns with a book of stories from his life in the military. His tales begin with a young McRaven in France where his father is stationed, move on the an elementary-aged scamp who, with his buddies, tries to break into an ammunition storage facility on base, and on through his years training as a Navy Seal and commanding Navy Seal teams. McRaven was on the front line of history, commanding missions to capture Saddam Hussein, rescue Captain Phillips (yes, the guy played by Tom Hanks in the movie), and the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. The stories are told with frankness, humor, and warmth. It struck me so strongly that while these missions were serious military maneuvers, they were done by humans. A warrior never ceases to be human. And neither does a "target." He told the stories with great respect for the larger issues at play, and I was impressed by his humility. This is a wonderful book. I really enjoyed listening to it, especially (it's narrated by the author), and while I did have trouble sometimes with all the military speak and acronyms--they ABC everything, I could always find the narrative thread again. When I finished this one, I told my husband I was so disappointed that I couldn't give it to my father for Father's Day. As a Navy man, he would have loved these stories. My rating: 4 stars.

I finally, finally got around to listening to President Obama's Dreams from My Father. This was published in 1995, but it didn't really become popular until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, at which point, it was reissued. And basically, everyone who has any desire to read the book already has, so I don't have much to add by way of review. In the book, Obama talks about growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, and visiting his father's family in Kenya. And as the subtitle suggests, it's a book about inheritance and race. I found it beautifully written, and I enjoyed hearing it read by the president. I love books about identity, especially honest books about straddling racial lines. Lest we forget, Obama is half black and half white, and this must have been a difficult and confusing identity as a child and young man. At times, race necessarily became a choice to him in that in order to belong to one group, the other often needed to be denied. While I seldom agreed with the president's political stance, I have great respect for all the man accomplished and what it must have taken to become the first half-black president in America. It's a fascinating journey. My rating: 4 stars.

I'm almost done with: