Other Women's Stories: What I'm reading this week (4/22/19)

Last week I finished:

Ever since I discovered Clint Hill's wonderful books about being a Secret Service agent (check out Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Presidents), I've had a deep respect and fondness for the US Secret Service. 20 Years in the Secret Service by Rufus Youngblood is another in the tradition of the wonderful Clint Hill books. Originally published in 1973, it was rereleased in 2018 by his family. Youngblood was a contemporary of Hill's, both of them serving in the Secret Service on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Youngblood was serving Vice President Johnson's detail, while Hill was serving Mrs. Kennedy's. The events of that day are discussed as well as his reflections on his career serving presents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. He spends the most time discussing his assignment serving the irascible President Johnson. It's a wonderful book, and I'm so glad the family rereleased it or it would be lost forever to someone like me who'd never heard of it. At only a little over 200 pages (not including many pages of photographs), it's concise, honest, and respectable toward those it discusses. I learned a couple things that I didn't know (and I've read a lot of books about Nov. 22, 1963). It was a wonderful book, and I recommend it (along with Agent Hill's books) to all. My rating: 4.5 stars.

Well, it's official, the Penderwicks series is finished, and so am I. I think I was saving this fifth and final book in the series, The Penderwicks at Last, to prolong letting them go. This is a series in which I definitely have favorites and least favorites. I especially liked the second and fourth books, and the third, and, unfortunately, this one, are my least favorites. I have way too many strong feelings about this book considering it's children's literature and I'm generally not that invested. Perhaps I was in the wrong mood or read this at the wrong time, but I was disappointed. First, I had an oddly difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that the kids are about eight years older than they were in the last book. Lydia, the baby, is in fifth grade, and the older girls are getting married. I guess I have the books stalled in my head where Batty is four-years-old, so seeing her as a young woman in college is just too weird. Second, the book introduces new characters, which felt so strange to me. These characters got a lot of space in the story. The series is ending, why the new characters? I didn't want more characters to miss. Third, the wedding/s, why the Penderwicks were all back at Arundel, were never described. There was all this build up and preparation, then it was all over, everyone was going home, and the book ended. I guess overall, I wanted a grander sendoff to the Penderwicks. This just didn't satisfy me. My rating: 3 stars.

I love the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and book seven, Blue Shoes and Happiness, was as good as the first six. In this installment, Mma Ramotswe solves cases involving blackmail, Mma Makutsi is concerned her engagement is over when she reveals to her fiancé that she's a feminist, and the other characters are doing their thing. There is something so satisfying about this series. They're simple stories, morals are discussed and tradition is upheld, and Mma Ramotswe revels in the small joys that bring satisfaction in life. There are wonderful moments when Alexander McCall Smith pokes gentle fun at Mma Ramotswe, that I love. I listen to these on audio because the narrator is so wonderful. My rating: 4 stars.

Years and years ago I ran onto the poem "Under One Small Star" from Wislawa Szymborska's View with a Grain of Sand, and I fell in love so hard I bought the book and read it immediately. I'm finally returning to it all these years later. I don't remember my impression of the collection the last time I read it. I think it was enough that one of my favorite poems was in the book. This time through, I still found "Under One Small Star" the star of the book. While I marked a couple of other poems I liked, overall, it was underwhelming to me. I've read lots of poems by Wislawa Szymborska in the years since that I've liked more than what's in this collection. Her poems have a depth I enjoy, and she can often be wonderfully lighthearted and droll, but often I don't quite know what she's writing about. I doubt that it's a translation problem, instead I think what she writes about often isn't something I know about or have heard of. That makes for difficult reading. Still, it did as well as most any other collection I've read recently. My rating: 3 stars.

Every spring, I find myself nesting, thinking about my home more than my reading (shocking!) and looking for new inspiration for my decorating everywhere. This is the time of year I want to read all the decorating books and look at all the magazines. I think it has something to do with spending so many cold months looking at nothing but a white canvas of snow. I have no idea how folks in other parts of the country encounter spring. (Is spring fever even a thing in Florida?) So, knowing my need for spring nesting material, I recently made a list of new decorating books available through my public library, and I plan to work my way down the list. First up was Modern Farmhouse Style by Country Home magazine. This was a book of 250+ pictures from their magazine with little descriptions of each. This isn't my favorite way of presenting rooms. The pictures are too small to see the detail, and you lose context seeing just a bit of a room or a single vignette. There were a few inspiring pictures, perhaps nothing I'd incorporate into my own home, but things that stoked my imagination nonetheless. The descriptions, though, were insipid and sometimes incorrect, listing pieces of furniture incorrectly, and the like. This one was good enough, but I'd suggest a book with full-page photos for anyone working on country style décor. For inspiration sparks, though, it served. My rating: 3 stars.

What I'm re-reading this week: