What I'm reading this week (5/6/19)

My goodness am I having trouble settling into a book. Spring has finally sprung here, and my brain is flitting around and very finicky. I hope things settle down a bit and I find something that engages me cover to cover, because this is very disconcerting.

Last week I finished:

I am not a runner. In fact, I know very little about running, especially marathon running. But I do love a good memoir by a person who has accomplished spectacular things. When I ran across Meb Keflezighi's memoir 26 Marathons, I was intrigued. Meb, for those of you like myself in the dark about such things, was a marathon runner, a phenom who is the only person to have won the Boston and New York marathons and an Olympic medal. He won the Boston marathon the year after the horrific terrorist bombings there, the first American man to have won in 31 years. He ran a total of 26 marathons over 15 years, and he details each in his book (one per chapter), along with what he learned in each race. The book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and I believe it was meant more for the fellow runner than the casual reader. I was hoping for details on training, diet, etc., and there is little of that. He talks about training only in the broadest terms, never detailing what he does to prepare for those 26-mile competitions. I enjoyed the tone of the book, frank yet gracious. Even though it's geared toward the competitive runner, there's still plenty here for the novice or interested reader. I had a good time. My rating: 4 stars.

I love books about the founding fathers. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than reading a biography about a revolutionist or one of our first presidents and thinking again about the terrific sacrifice they made to build this country--and then to keep it together. By signing the Declaration of Independence, these men, in essence, were signing their death warrant. Disloyalty to the crown and the loss of the Revolutionary War would very well end in death for all. Last year I listened to Jon Meacham's wonderful biography of George H. W. Bush, Destiny of Power, and it was one of my favorite books of the year, so I added a couple more of his presidential biographies to my TBR. I finished his Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power last week, and although I didn't love it as much as Destiny and Power, I still found it very good. Meacham is one of the best historical biographers I've come across because he has the gravitas to remain neutral in his telling the story of a man's life. He gives a well-rounded picture of the man, his strengths and foibles, and lets the reader form her own opinions. I find it a very weak biography indeed that has an agenda, but Meacham's only agenda is to get out of the way and let his subject's words and actions speak for himself. This was an all-encompassing look at Thomas Jefferson the man, the husband and father, the revolutionary, the statesman, and the president. His low points and high points are laid bare. I did find the middle part of the book, focusing on governmental policy, a bit of a slog. I'm always more interested in the makeup of the man than policy, so during that part, I was glad to be listening instead of reading, so I could tune out and rejoin the discussion when it picked up a bit. Overall, this was a good portrait of the third president, and I'm glad I read it. My rating: 4 stars. 

Last week I abandoned:

The English Patient was too oddly written. It felt like a creative writing assignment. I didn't hate it, but I was annoyed enough to quit the book.

The Casual Vacancy was too dark. None of the characters were happy or hopeful, and there was just too much talk of sexual organs and nastiness.

Bowlaway was just weird. The characters were weird; the dialogue was weird; the writing was weird. It wasn't awful, but I'd had enough after a bit.

And I decided to switch from paper to audio for this one:

I was making such slow progress through Tiger Woods that I decided to switch to audio to finish it.

And I've settled on this one, I think:

Please, let this one hit the spot....

At night I'm reading:

I'm enjoying all of my nightly reads, which is a blessing considering what's going on with me and my daily reads and audiobooks.