What I'm reading this week (8/6/18)

Last week I finished:

You all know I'm a fan of any book by or about a Kennedy, so I was excited to begin Edward (Ted) Kennedy's True Compass. It was published in 2009, the year he passed, but it's surprisingly current. Ted Kennedy was the youngest of the nine Kennedy children, and after the death of the eldest in World War II and the assassinations of Jack and Bobby (and the incapacitation of his father due to stroke), he was the patriarch for more than 40 years. He ran for the presidency in 1980 against the incumbent, President Jimmy Carter, but came up short of the nomination. He served for 47 years in the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Massachusetts. He was passionate about civil rights, health care, and gun control, platform issues in the democratic party to this day. He was known for his ability and willingness to work "across the aisle," and seemed to carry no grudges and hold little animus to members of the opposing party. Although he does touch briefly and prickly on the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in the Chappaquiddick incident, where he drove them off a bridge into the water where she drowned, it is clear he is not interested in talking about certain things. He does not address his own drinking, womanizing, and marital issues with his first wife, Joan. Enough has been said about each over the years, and he just didn't go there. Regardless of these omissions, the book does not seem particularly whitewashed nor slanted. It's personable, charming, and quite fair. He calls out some of his shortcomings and shows himself a real man with foibles. We get to choose what we talk about in our memoirs, and he chose mostly his life as a Kennedy and his life in politics and left the rest alone. It was fascinating just how much of American history the man was a witness to, very much on the front lines because of his last name but also his career in the Senate. He knew all the presidents as well as the movers and shakers in both political parties. It was fascinating. I really did love this book, and even though I generally disagree with him politically, I respect the amount of passion and commitment he had for the governance and future of America. I "met" Ted Kennedy when he was campaigning for Al Gore in 2000. He had a strong handshake and a gorgeous shock of white hair. He had Caroline Kennedy with him, who was reserved and did not engage the crowd. She seemed very, very frail. That is my only brush with the Kennedy dynasty. Well, that and the dozens of books I've read about them. I highly recommend this one for those who adore books about the Kennedys, but also for anyone interested in recent American history.  My rating: 4.5 stars.

I'm always on the lookout for fiction to listen to on audio, and I love a good mystery/thriller, so I put a hold on Tangerine many weeks ago and was finally able to listen to is last week. It's a tale of suspense set in Tangier, Morocco. Lucy shows up in Tangier to surprise her old friend, Alice. But things spiral out of control shortly thereafter, and Alice's husband shows up dead. It's obvious that one of the women is mentally unstable, but which one? This was a pretty good book. I have no issues with the writing. The characters are fine. But it was a little too overwhelmingly...dire. There was a constant desperation that was relentless and turned me off after awhile. This may be because I listened to it instead of read the book. One of the two audio voices may have made the story more dramatic than the paper experience might have been. Still, I like some subtlety in my stories, and this one lacked it. It definitely wasn't as bad as some others in the same genre I've listened to this year (huh hem), but it wasn't much above average, either. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I could have used more story (I loved the feeling that I was in Morocco and would have loved more of this) and less strife. I'd recommend this one for someone looking for moody escapist literature. My rating: 3 stars.

This week I'll begin:

I'm really looking forward to this one.

Last week I started:

 

I'm about halfway through Give Your Child the World on Kindle. It's basically a big list of books for children about other parts of the world. Quite good.

I'm loving Collected Poems of Jane Kenyon.

And I'm loving the eye candy that is House Beautiful Style Secrets. Not much text and lots of beautiful photos.

 

 

My audiobook:

The next to last in the series. Sigh.