Snash's Reading for 2021

76 in 2019, 60 in 2020. We'll what I manage in 2021.

1) The Library Book by Susan Orleans
2) Middlemarch by George Eliot
3) Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide
4) Amerika by Franz Kafka
5) Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles
6) Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
7) Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
8) Archaeology at the Site of the Museum of the American Revolution by Rebecca Yamin
9) I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
10) How Fast Can You Run by Harriet Levin Millan
11) Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor by Louella Bryant
12) Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now by Maya Angelou
13) Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
14) American Nations by Colin Woodward
15) Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlanski
16) Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
17) A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
18) The Immune Mystery by Anita Kass
19) The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski
20) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
21) A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
22) When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
23) The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
24) Leonardo DaVinci by Walter Isaacson
25) Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
26) The Last Great Walk by Wayne Curtis
27) Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoka Matsuda
28) Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
29) Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
30) The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
31) The Miners' Lament by Judy Dodge Cummings
32) Vineyards Can be Murder by Tammy Wunsch
33) Rabbit, Run by John Updike
34) Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel
35) Real Philly History, Real Fast by Jim Murphy
36) The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
37)Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
38) The End of Bias by Jessica Nordell
39) Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico by Susan Shelby Magoffin
40) The Great Starvation Experiment by Todd Tucker
41) Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven
42) The Reluctant King by K'wan
43) Knowing Is a Branching Trail by Alison Hicks
44) Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
45) Distant Fathers by Marina Jarre
46) Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen
47) Lost Children Archive by Vareria Luiselli
48) The Uncommon Appeal of Cloud. s by Alexander McCall Smith
49) The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters by Julie Klam
50) Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
51) Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli
52) Three Men In a Boat Jerome K. Jerome
53) The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
54) Earth System History by Steven M. Stanley
55) The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
56) The Last Professional by Ed Davis

Happy reading in 2021!

Welcome back!

Enjoy your 2021 reading!

And keep up with my friends here, Snash. Have a great 2021.

The Library Book was the story of the LA Central Library, history, people, building, and investigation of a devastating fire. Lots of interesting information and great descriptions of places and characters. 4 stars

Middlemarch was a rambling look at a community of people in provincial England in the 1830's with a sharp eye to the nature and motivations of people. It also managed to get its digs into religion, class, money, marriage, etc. 5 stars

Creatures of Passage was a suspenseful, other worldly, and intensely moving portrayal of the travails of man and his encounter with death. 4 stars

Amerika described the collapse of an earnest youth surrounded by a cast of despicable characters. 2.5 stars

Simon the Fiddler was a fun, although sometimes scary, tale set in Texas immediately after the civil war. The trials of the main characters are made more difficult by the chaos of the times. The culture, history, and landscape are vividly presented as the backdrop for a musical band of intriguing characters and a love story. 4 stars

>10 snash: Oh, I keep forgetting that I want to read this one - thanks for the reminder!

Under This Unbroken Sky about a Russian immigrant family homesteading in western Canada in the 1930's. It was very well written with good character development. a sense of impending inevitable disaster loomed throughout. 4.0 stars

Unsheltered was tale of two families, 140 years apart, living on the same plot of land dealing with a collapsing house. The characters were well drawn and had impressive integrity. In both tales, besides their falling down house, they were dealing with a collapsing world view with some championing the new and most hanging on tenaciously to the old 4.5 stars

Archaeology at the Site of the Museum of the American Revolution was a short but thorough and engaging look at the archeological investigation of a site in Philadelphia which uncovered artifacts from the early 1700's up to the mid 1900's. Emphasis was placed on what the artifacts along with research in the written record revealed about the people living and working at the site through the ages. 4 stars

I Served the King of England is a Czech farce set against the history of the mid 1900's. It mirrors life in that it's fairly silly and pointless in the beginning but much more serious and contemplative towards the end. 4 stars

How Fast Can You Run is a compelling tale of the trials, trauma, and triumph of one of South Sudan's Lost Boys. While being presented as fiction, it is very closely based upon the life of the main character. 4 stars

Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor -- An ancestral family history, a memoir, a researched history of moonshine, throw in a bit of national history and recipes.
It's all there giving one a loosely put together rambling discourse which is nonetheless entertaining. 3.5 stars

Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now is a series of very short rules to live by. The few that are more observations are enlightening but most are so often routed that they're almost cliches. Doesn't mean they're not true but merely too obvious to be inspiring. 3 stars

Black Girl/White Girl was a study of unrequited love, of a dysfunctional family, of racial distance, and politics. It was good but somehow the Meade family and the Swift family seemed over the top, or unbelievable. 3.5 stars

Stopping by, to say hello -- I'm thinking I saw an exhibit at some point about the finds from those excavations in Philadelphia. Was living there (more or less) at the time and Philly history is a perpetual draw.

Glad you loved Middlemarch!

>20 sibylline: I think at least some of those finds are displayed in the Museum of the American Revolution. Philly's history is many layered and deep. It would be nice if the city would honor it more beyond the National park. They let too many things be destroyed for new construction.

American Nations is a fine tuning and expansion of Albion's Seed about the 11 cultural nations created upon their inception and holding firm through time, expansion of influence, and immigrant influxes. A very fascinating and revealing way to understand the hegemony of the Americas. 4.5 stars

Salt: A World History is an intriguing look at the history of salt production and use throughout the world over time. It seemed to jump around a lot and felt repetitious as it described the process from place to place. 3 stars

Anxious People is a story about the anxieties, and motivating past that plague us all, which we find so hard to communicate to others, all done with a bit of humor and suspense . The coincidences may be more than believable but the story's message doesn't suffer for it. 4 stars

A Bend in the River is a book about displaced people; people living in foreign lands, villagers living in urban areas with no retrievable past or conceivable future and all the futility and frenzy that creates. 4 stars

The Immune Mystery is partly a memoir and partly an account of a scientific investigation. The science is described in a manner easily understood by the non-scientist using analogies. It's engaging and interesting. At the end of the book is a listing with a brief description of many autoimmune diseases. 4 stars

The Five Invitations is an inspiring invitation to embrace life at the moment, its beauty and ugliness without judgement. A book that will come back off the shelf to help guide me and give me courage when I feel too fearful, too disconnected, or too lonely. 5 stars

The conceit of jumping through time and various versions of the same life, I found more irritating than illuminating in the book Life After Life . I did allow the author to present what life was like in both England and Germany from 1910 to about 1950. I suppose it was also an attempt to illustrate how differently a life would play out with just one small variation in events. 3 stars

A Game of Hide and Seek told the story of a woman obsessed with her childhood beau despite her having married an older successful lawyer. 3 stars

When All Is Said tells a life in toasts to the most important people in an old man's life. The reader feels as though they're sitting next to him in the bar. Engaging and touching. 4 stars

The Signature of All Things was a totally engaging story of an amazing woman of science and also an exploration of the place of man in evolution, a juxtaposition of science and mysticism. The winner of the battle seen by me as science but might easily be seen as mysticism by another. 4 stars

Leonardo Da Vinci was an exploration of the life, art, and genius of Da Vinci using his copious notebooks as the primary source. It is accessible, inspiring, and awe inspiring while also exposing some imperfections. 4 stars

Call the Midwife was a memoir about midwifery in 1950 slums of London. While describing distressing living conditions the book has a live affirming tone to it. It's easy to see why it was made into a TV series. 4 stars

The Last Great Walk claims to be an account of a 1909 walk by a 70 year old man from NYC to San Francisco and that is true, but a major focus of the book is about walking in general, from evolution, to health and mind benefits, to the battle in city design between autos and walkers. 4 stars

Where the Wild Ladies Are is a collection of related stories in which ghosts play a major part, existing and prodding the living to challenge social norms (particularly male/female roles) and be more true to themselves.. 3.5 stars

Transcendent Kingdom, a novel written as a memoir, exploring the conflict between religion and science, or between emotion and reason. A difficult struggle. 4 stars

Us Against You is a broad story about a game, a town, and the people in it. At first I had some trouble keeping track of so many characters, but in the end, I was fully immersed in the town and the struggles of each character and how they impacted each other. 4.5 stars

The Death of Vivek Oji was a story of the tragedy of being gay in a repressive society, the secrets and pain of hiding and the difficulties of family coping with what they don't understand when they discover the truth. 4 stars

The Miners' Lament is a short book that brings an event of history to life with its fictionalized story of a young Mexican girl involved in the 1951-2 strike against the Empire Zinc Mine. It is well done and would be particularly appropriate for a young girl. 4 stars

Vineyards Can Be Murder is a mystery centered around a vineyard as the title implies. Seemed to start out slowly but did build up suspense and mystery as it progressed. 3.5 stars

Rabbit Run was a well written description of a young lost man trying to find meaning in life, becoming overwhelmed by his sense of emptiness and running away repeatedly. 3.5 stars

Like Water for Chocolate is a story told with recipes and magical realism of a forbidden love. 3 stars

Real Philly History, Real Fast presents 51 sites of interest in Philadelphia. Other than 4 of them, they are all in Center City, east of Broad. Each is presented with a quick overview of its historical and/or architectural significance. Living in the City, the book did not add to my knowledge significantly but it did provide a few new places to check out. 3.5 stars

Big Friendship was part memoir, part treatise on friendship, its importance and joys. It's primary point is that any close friendship will go through rough patches that will have to be addressed for the friendship to last. 3.5 stars

The End of Bias was an excellent presentation of the ubiquitous nature of bias, the damage that it causes, and a look at various experiments to diminish it. The methods to overcome bias are admitted to be a beginning and range from structural changes to personal ones. It is well thought out recognizing the advantages and pitfalls of various approaches. It also acknowledges the painful nature of self growth. 4.5 stars

Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico is a first hand account of travel on the Santa Fe Trail and then down into Mexico in 1846 and 7 and presents many good descriptions of the life and customs of traders, soldiers, Indians, and Mexicans of that time. Since this trip coincided with various battles against the Mexicans, military maneuvers and rumors dominate much of the account. 3.5 stars

The Great Starvation Experiment is the description of an experiment of starvation and rehabilitation done on 36 CO's towards the end of WWII. It was intriguing in terms of the effects immediate and long term of starvation but also for the portraits of many of the people involved. 4 stars

Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship was a very fresh look at the relationship between man and nature, particularly wilderness. In observing and interacting with nature, particularly a fox, the author discovers many truths about mankind, nature, animals, and herself, all presented in poetic language. 4.5 stars

The Reluctant King was a depiction of a gangster family containing more violence and sex than I normally read but did also present surprising plot twists and portraits of the various characters. 3.5 stars

Knowing Is a Branching Trail is a book of poems which pull universal truths and longings out of the ordinary. Numerous were excellent, a few left me confused. 4 stars

Art and Fear puts into words the battles of artists with themselves to continue to create despite self doubt and lack of approval from the world, exploring the question of why artists quit. 4.5 stars

Distant Fathers was a very self involved memoir, which churned over the author's relationship with her mother while stepping away from all the other traumas of her life. Given the singular repetitive obsession, the book wore thin with time and it was difficult to develop an empathy with the author. 3 stars

Most of Alternate Side felt like it was setting up for the real story, which was at the end and was that life goes on and changes occur without disaster. There were, however, good description of NYC life and human situations. 3.5 stars

Lost Children Archive was and excellent, thought provoking book about lost children, Apache, Guatemalan refugees, and children of a dissolving marriage. All the stories are told in an overlapping manner including allusions to dreams, illusions, communion with the environment, loyalty, memories, documenting the echos, all presented in beautiful language. 5 stars

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is an entertaining light book, as intriguing for the philosophical musings as for the mystery. 3.5 stars

The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters was the story of an investigation into the lives of 4 strong willed sisters during which numerous family legends were debunked and although some of the truth was found, most remained unearthed. 3.0 stars

Braiding Sweetgrass is beautifully written using the metaphors of the stories of indigenous peoples, and the workings of nature to illustrate the error of viewing the earth as a resource rather than a gift to which we need to reciprocate. It tries to be hopeful and positive but upon reading it, it often feels too late and hopeless. By robbing the earth we've expanded the human population such that I fear returning to a caring approach to the earth can not sustain the population. 5 stars

Sidewalks was a collection of musings and thoughts provoked by travels and locations were thought provoking and delightful, more morose than joyous but always honest. 5 stars

A Thanksgiving to Friends (Lighting the Way)

In difficult times
a friend is there to light the way
to lighten the load,
to show the path,
to smooth the road

At the darkest hour
a friend, with a word of truth
points to light
and the encroaching dawn
is in the plainest sight.

To a friend in books and more this Thanksgiving

Three Men In a Boat was written in the 1800's as a travel guide but is now presented as humor. I found the humor rather like some British TV Comedy (for example 'Faulty Towers') somewhat predictable and over the top. I grew tired of it before it was done. 3 stars

The Hundred Secret Senses was a story taking place between China and US full of ghosts and multiple reincarnations with an attempt at the end to equate all this to the life of memories of people. 3.5 stars

Earth System History I didn't have the most up to date version but surely lots of information that I didn't know. Read in small bits over 4 months. Did not assimilate all of it and won't remember much that I did, but I did gain a general idea of the earth and the life upon it and how they impact each other. 3 stars

The Master and His Emissary was a very thought provoking view of the workings of the human brain. He uses neuroscience, philosophy, and art to ascribe differing ways of looking at the world to the two hemispheres of the brain and then to view the progression of Western thought from this perspective. His thesis that modern Western society has been absconded by the left brain. My primary difficulty with the book was that in making his point he seemed to repeat himself many times. 4 stars

I quite enjoyed The Last Professional and can understand the comparison to Steinbeck. I found the character development and plot well done. As for the topic, the fact that the lifestyle is vastly different from mine was part of its appeal. 4 stars