Friday Finds (2/6/15)

Hosted by MizB. Click on the picture to link up!

 

 

Do you know? Have you heard? A "sequel" to To Kill a Mockingbird will be released in July! Although there is some contention that Harper Lee was strongarmed into the release, it would appear she legitimately approved the book. The title is Go Set a Watchman, and it is the "original" TKAM. Apparently, and I find this geekishly fascinating, Lee's editor looked at this original manuscript and told her the real story was in the flashbacks to Scout's childhood. Lee expounded on those to create the beloved bestseller. But the original manuscript of a grown-up Scout was recently found (shortly, and suspiciously, some say, after her sister and protector's death) and will be published this year with an original print run of two million copies. I. AM. ECSTATIC.

 

 

I added two more intriguing upcoming nonfiction books this week. American Ghost is about a journalist who is determined to get to the bottom of her family's legend of a her grandmother's ghost haunting a hotel in New Mexico. I'm not really a ghost story kind of gal, but I like investigative reporting, so if the writing is good, I'm in.

 

Hammer Head is the memoir of a female carpenter. Sounds like a good read.

 

Both are due out in March.

 

 

I love my Fox News ladies, and I adore Dana Perino, who was former press secretary to President George W. Bush. I also like Gretchen Carlson who is a former Miss America. The memoirs are due out in April and June, respectively.

 

Last week I added a collection of Ogden Nash's poetry to my TBR, and I think I'm swapping it for a biography instead. Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse will hopefully give me insight into what makes this witty man tick.

 

I've also added about the only book of Sharon Olds' poetry I don't know, Strike Sparks, which is a collection covering 1980 to 2002. Olds is one of my favorite poets. Her poetry focuses on home and family, but it's not frou-frou. She recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Stag's Leap. 

 

I love books about decluttering and organizing, so I'm adding The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up to my book list. This one might drive me nuts because the author seems even more ardent than most, but I think I'll try it anyway. Maybe it will help me get rid of more books to make room for these titles!

 

What have you added to your TBR this week?

 

 

I Love You, Ronnie, Nancy Reagan

I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan

Nancy Reagan

Category: Marriage & Romance; Presidents

Synopsis: Nancy Reagan shares some of the letters President Reagan gave to her over the years of their marriage.

Date finished: 18 December 2014

Rating: ****

Comments:

This is a sweet book. Sweeter, even, if you adore Ronald Reagan like I do. He reminds me so much of my grandpa that I’ve always had a soft spot for him. Plus, he accomplished some amazing things during his presidency. His diplomacy and knack for interacting with people is something you can’t teach a president. Some have it, some don’t.

This book is a slim, quick read. Nancy Reagan tells the story of their marriage, and interspersed she includes letters, notes, cards, and cute little doodles the president sent her over the years. He was a very articulate man (much more so than Nancy), and his letters are sweet, poignant, playful, and funny. The correspondence takes you through their courtship days, early marriage, his years as the governor of California, their White House years, and beyond. Mrs. Reagan wrote the book in 2000, four years before the president’s death, when we was in the grip of Alzheimer’s disease. Such a tragic end to such an active mind.

(That last bit makes it sound like a downer of a book, but that’s not the case at all. It’s a charming book about a sweet love story.)

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Yes.

You might also enjoy:

An American Life

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Barbara Leaming

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story

Barbara Leaming

Category: Nonfiction: Biography; Politics & Washington, D.C.; Death & Grief

Synopsis: Leaming gives an account of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’s life, focusing on her suffering from PTSD.

Date finished: 28 November 2014

Rating: ****

Comments:

Even a couple weeks after finishing this book, I’m unsure what I think of it. I have no quibbles with the writing, but the voice was a little too distant, perhaps too analytical, and the information included, and especially, what was excluded, was a little surprising. I left the book with a very unsettled feeling, and I wonder if perhaps the author put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Leaming’s thesis seemed to be that Jacqueline Kennedy suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that the assassination of President Kennedy was something she never recovered from. While this may in fact be true, the hypothesis definitely colors the book overall. It was a somber, dark, depressing picture of the First Lady.

Leaming covers all aspects of Jackie’s life from her privileged upbringing and coming out days, to her White House years, to her puzzling second marriage to Aristotle Onassis, to her career in book publishing. Only one chapter was devoted to the assassination that changed her life. Hardly any mention was made at all of Jackie as a mother. Likewise, Jackie’s feelings about JFK’s adultery were not discussed. It’s hard to believe their marriage had as little going for it as Leaming would have us believe.

I was struck by just how long it took for Jackie to process her grief at Jack’s passing—if, in fact, she ever did. It went on so long that the American public turned on her. With our troops suffering and dying in Vietnam, how could she still be carrying around the grief as if the assassination just happened, they demanded. And when she tried to prevent a book (written by an author she’d hand-picked) about JFK from being published, Americans lay into her unmercifully. Her pain wasn’t the only pain. She wasn’t that special.

I was also struck by Bobby Kennedy’s treatment of her from the moment she became a widow to the moment he died. Was his watchfulness protection or manipulation? Was it nothing more than convenient political posturing as he honed in on the presidency? Was she a beloved family member or a prop?

I came away from this in-depth study without a clear sense of who Jackie was—other than a shattered woman who held her dying husband in her lap in the backseat of a car in Dallas, 1963. Although I learned a great deal about various aspects of Jackie’s life, I don’t feel like this book gives a fully-fleshed portrait of her.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Well, I think there might be more balanced books out there than this.

You might also enjoy:

Killing Kennedy
Mrs. Kennedy and Me

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (2/2/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

 

Last week I finished three books: Americans' Favorite Poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, and Yes Please. I enjoyed the first two very much. Yes Please left me wanting. I think I'll save it for my review, but I pretty much got out of it what I expected. It was fine, but suffice it to say Amy Poehler and I have nothing in common.

 

This week I'm reading Charlotte's Web. I haven't thought about this book since it was read to me in elementary school. I seem to remember that either Wilbur or Charlotte dies, and I remember being crushed. I can feel myself not wanting to give over to the story because I don't want to experience the sadness, but White is a good storyteller, and I'm reluctantly being sucked in.

 

I started In Cold Blood this weekend because I just couldn't wait. And I'm loving it so far. Capote is a master at setting the scene. I'm not much for true crime, but I figured I should read this classic. Is this the original "true crime" book, I wonder?

 

I also started the audio of Middlemarch this weekend. This one's going to take a little getting used to. Not only am I not very used to audiobooks, but the writing in Middlemarch is quite dense and verbose.

 

When I finish Charlotte's Web and In Cold Blood, I'll likely start Nora Webster.

 

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

January 2015 Recap

 

What a great start to the year! I read nine books in January (about what I read in January and February combined last year), and I've had a blast doing it. Three were from my TBR, two were poetry, one chunkster, two for kids, one favorite re-read, and one read just because everyone else is.

 

I started out the year with a list of books I hoped to read in January and February. I chose a little bit of everything and most of it fit into my reading goals for the year. I don't usually do this kind of mapping, but it worked very well for January. I always knew what was coming next, and there's a certain amount of comfort for me in that.

 

One word reviews provided for each.

 

Exhaustive

 

Entertaining

Homey

Uneven

 

Sideshow

Generous

 [made me feel] Connected

Lovely 

Edgy

 

 

Going into February, I'm reading:

Other (hopeful) February reads include:

 

How is your 2015 reading going?

Friday Finds (1/30/15)

Hosted by MizB. Click on the picture to link up!

 

Sister Mother Husband Dog has been on my radar for awhile now. I know next to nothing about the Ephron sisters other than I've enjoyed a bunch of their movies. This sounds like a nice, light collection of essays that a lot of women have enjoyed.

 

Jen Lancaster. What can I say? I've only read one of her books, but I enjoy her humor very much. Her new book, I Regret Nothing will be out May 5, and I'm looking forward to it.

 

I've seen The Other Wes Moore all over, and I finally looked into it and decided I might really like it. It's the true story of two boys from the same area named Wes Moore. One, the author, made a good life for himself, and the other ended up in prison. The book examines their lives, choices, and friendship.

 

 

Having read The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio recently, I was reminded of Ogden Nash's witty little poems. I don't know that I'll ever read The Best of Ogden Nash, that much Nash might burn me out, but I'd like to read more of him.

 

I read I Am Malala a year or so ago, and now they've released the book in a young reader's version. I'm interested in how the YA book differs from the "adult" version.

 

I've been considering The Romanov Sisters for awhile now, and so many folks have said it's an intimate book that I think I'll reconsider it.

 

 

What have you added to your TBR this week?

15 Picture Books for 2015

Last year I read 80 picture books, but I still didn't get to everything on my list. And recently, I took on the responsibility of children's book selection for at the library. So, the list runneth over! (Because who wouldn't buy the books and authors she enjoys, right?) I've put together a list of 15 of the books I'm looking forward to reading the most in 2015. Most are relatively recent releases, but some are books that got missed along the way.

 

 

 

Do you have any recent picture book favorites?