Forgive me
for ranting for a few sentences before I get to the book portion of this post. It is Monday.
It is not just any Monday, however.
It is the Monday after Halloween so everyone is carefully avoiding the
candy in the staff room. It is the Monday
after the end of Daylight Savings so everyone is already cranky anticipating
the drive home in the dark. Also, for
me, it is the day to retrieve the October statistics, download the bank
statement, and check the bills to be paid.
This is too much pressure for one day – especially Monday. On a positive note, I have just finished
reading three really, really good books.
Does this qualify as a trifecta, Triple Crown, hat trick, or bases
loaded? Or, is it just good luck?
When I first
saw the title of The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks I thought of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and, of course, had to find a recording. The secret chord in the title is the same
secret chord that “… David played and it
pleased the Lord.” The narrator is
Natan, David’s prophet and confidant. The
story, from David’s youth through the end of his reign, is filled with family,
battles, power, betrayal, love, loss, music, more battles, and spiritual
visions. As David’s biographer, Natan
sees David as both a great king and a flawed man. Geraldine Brooks has also written Year of Wonders and People of the Book. She
remains in my top five favorite list.
Loretta
Young will be remembered as the epitome of beauty, elegance, and grace. Adriana Trigiani captures the glamour, as well
as the dark side, of the Hollywood studios by following the fictionalized career
of Loretta Young. All the Stars in the Heavens tells the story of how movies were
made before special effects and animation.
She gossips about famous and infamous love affairs. Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and David Niven
appear, disappear and re-appear throughout Miss Young’s life. Her career takes her from Hollywood movies to
success on the radio to the still early days of television. Her story is not always happy and several of
her decisions must be viewed in the context of a different time in this country
and very different standards of how movie stars were expected to behave. I raced through this book.
Sarah Vowell, in Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, describes herself as a “…
historian-adjacent, narrative nonfiction wise guy.” How true!
I recommended this book to a friend by saying that the author’s attitude
is flippant and occasionally borders on being disrespectful to the Founding
Fathers. I love it! I am reviewing history that I had forgotten
and receiving a much more comprehensive overview of the participants in the
Revolutionary War. I’m glad that I know
the ending in advance or I would be seriously nervous about the outcome. Comparisons to the current political
situation are timely and, at times, too accurate to be funny. I am looking forward to reading Vowell’s
earlier books.
- S. Bakos
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