What are you reading the week of August 5, 2023?

I read Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home, Monday the Rabbi Took Off and I'm now about halfway through Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red. All were written in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's amazing how much the world has changed in that time. Appalling sexism and casual racism.

Currently alternating between Memories of the Bear and Italian Heavy Cruisers. The next book after those will probably be The Black Prince. The next novel is Three Miles Down.

starting this eBook via hoopla ~
Pink Lemonade Cake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery, #29)
by Joanne Fluke

and starting this audio via Libby ~
Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence (Sunny Randall)
by Alison Gaylin

I'm about halfway through the introduction to my Norton edition of The Decameron. After the introduction, only 800 pages to go! In fact, I'm quite looking forward to diving in.

I just started reading The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson for book club. I'm looking forward to reading more about the lives of the people introduced so far.

>5 PaperbackPirate: I won't say "enjoy" The Warmth of Other Suns, but following along with the lives of the people she introduces is thoroughly compelling.

I finshed Joe Ide's IQ which was a fun read and am now reading Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce.

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles.

Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
Jonathan Eig
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about the life of baseball star Lou Gehrig. I highly recommend this for anyone to read. I also had read Eig's book The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution and loved that book. Looking forward to reading more of his books.

Eden Close – Anita Shreve
3.5***

When his mother dies, Andrew, an advertising exec in New York City, returns to the family’s upstate New York farm for the funeral. Intending to stay only a few days, he gets caught up in memories of his childhood, of the girl next door, and of the tragic event that changed all their lives.

Eden was a foundling, left in a box near the Close farm’s driveway. Unable to have children of their own, Jim and Edith Close immediately decided to keep her and filed all the legal paperwork to adopt Eden. Her father had always wanted children and he doted on the girl. But Edith was decidedly less welcoming. The frostiness between mother and daughter grew more pronounced as Eden achieved puberty and began the transformation from a tomboy to a stunning beauty.

Andrew having grown up with Eden, treated her like a younger sister. He was somewhat uncomfortable when one of his friends began dating Eden. And then one summer night when Eden was fifteen, Andrew and his parents were awakened by screams and the sound of at least one gunshot. Mr Close was dead, and Eden was wounded. And the boy everyone thought responsible was dead before the police could question him.

The novel is told mostly from Andrew’s point of view. We learn of his marriage, and his pending divorce. We see him at a loose ends, the trip home having unmoored him. He cannot seem to make a decision about selling the house or returning to work. Rather he becomes more and more fixated on Eden Close and what happened to her.

There is some mystery to unravel here regarding that long-ago summer night. Andrew has always been a person who doesn’t really see things, even when they are right in front of him, and he will have to open his eyes to the truth before he can move forward. And Eden will have to learn to forgive herself and believe she is worthy of more.

I started these last month but I'm finally getting back to them. Got too distracted playing FFXIV.

Poeira Lunar
Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

Secrets of a Summer Night– Lisa Kleypas
Digital audiobook performed by Rosalyn Landor
3***

This is the first in the “wallflower” series featuring four young women of marriageable age but who are at risk of becoming spinsters if they don’t find a suitable mate. The first book introduces us to the four: Annabelle Payton (at 24, this is her last season of debutante balls), Evangeline Jenner (known as Evie), and the two American heiresses and sisters, Lillian and Daisy Bowman. The four form a pact to help one another snag a husband, and they decide to focus first on Annabelle as she is the oldest and most in need of help.

This is a typical regency romance with plenty of heaving bosoms, devastatingly handsome men, one or two scoundrels, and a clash between the classes. The plot may be predictable, but it’s still great fun to read. A lovely escape from a wintry blizzard!

I’ve read two other books in this series previously, and one really doesn’t need to read them in order to enjoy them.

Rosalyn Landor does a fine job of performing the audio. I really liked how she voiced the four young women, and the object of Annabelle’s attention, Simon Hunt.

That's Not All Folks!
Mel Blanc
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about Mel Blanc! He writes about his time voicing cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and many others, also his life on radio, films and on television! He also talks about his wife and son and also how show business affected his life. Highly recommended!
Books About Film and Television

I finished The Sportswriter. This is the self absorbed ramblings of a lost man searching for meaning while championing all of his mechanisms to avoid any depth or meaning in his life. Despite that, the book does engage and provide some thought provoking ideas.

The new thread is up over here.