Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

John wrote: "It is almost surreal this weather. We are so thirsty here for even a little rain, but it is dry as a bone. The pine trees seem to be shedding, the Bermuda grass is brown, and drought restrictions a..."

It is very rare in NC to be so dry so near to the coast. We've had enough rain up here in Northern Virginia, but a dry spell really seems to be settling in ... along with some heat. That's never a good combination.

Ron, I love your personal statement about your identity. Very thoughtful.

The heat has arrived in the DC area … but rainfall has been sufficient in recent weeks so that our water supply is fine. This heat wave seems to have settled in. We’ll see how long it lasts.

John wrote: "I was looking through Colwin’s books and added one of her food and cooking books to my list. I enjoy that kind of book. A few years ago I read this one and it was excellent:

[book:Bound to the Fir..."

Colonial Williamsburg has greatly improved in recent years about having giving more respect to the black interpreters in the roles of cooks, etc. My own ancestry includes an indentured servant, Richard Mynatt, who served as a cook at Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee's ancestral home. When his period of indenture ended, Lee's uncle refused to recognize it. My ancestor was the first indentured servant in America to take his case to a court and win his freedom from his indentured status. SOURCE: https://medium.com/@stellersjay/richa...

When we visited Stratford Hall, the docent mentioned Richard Mynatt and what a good cook he was but said that they didn't know what happened to him. My wife and I were the only visitors that morning with the docent. So I spoke up and explained that I knew exactly what happened to him. And I told her. I'm not sure that they included my explanation with the standard tour from then on ... I doubt it. The dishonor of the Lee family was probably not a topic that they wanted to dwell on ... or to share with visitors.

John wrote: "Sometimes I am amazed with the volume of fiction being published these days. I receive regular updates from Barnes & Noble and other outlets like Penguin Books, Vintage, The Strand Bookstore, Powel..."

I go back to older fiction as often as I read the newer stuff. I just finished Laurie Colwin's Another Marvelous Thing, which is a collection of short stories about an affair between a younger woman (an economic historian) and an older man (an economic consultant). I think that most of the stories were published in The New Yorker and collected and published in this book in 1988. Her writing is fabulous. I had mainly read her short pieces on food and cooking. She had a monthly column in the defunct magazine, GOURMET. Getting back to her fiction, her dialogue just leave me speechless. And her depiction of urban NYC is another plus. Laurie Colwin was taken from us far too ealry, dying of an aortic aneurysm when she was only 48. But the work that she left behind, the fiction and the nonfiction, is superb.

I do want to add one thing. Whoever wrote the following GoodReads review certainly didn't read the book. These two people never get married. And their respective spouses are important if minor characters in the stories.

"Another Marvelous Thing is perfect for anyone who knows firsthand that opposites actually do attract. These spare and unsentimental stories display how two very different people -- a tough-minded and tenderhearted woman and an urbane, old-fashioned older man -- fall in love despite their differences, get married, and give birth to a child."

I’ll second others on this, John. You are excellent at making informed decisions. I envy your freedom at times. But medical reasons (including a need to stay close to our excellent doctors) and family keeps us tied close to where we have been living and where we will be moving to. That said, all is good … and we are more than happy..

I have a friend who retired from USDA and moved to Albuquerque about 20 years ago. Very inexpensive housing market, which I think is still true, but with a crime problem that has gotten worse over the years. It’s mainly drug related.

Carol wrote: "As usual Brian Bilston writes an interesting and clever poem, using the mundane to hint at the storming of the beaches by the Allies.
I hadn't realised until looking it up after watching the commemoration that Omaha Beach, stormed by the Americans, was very heavily defended, unlike the two beaches taken by the British, and there seems to have been inadequate Intelligence regarding this. ..."

Altogether five beaches were assaulted. The Americans landed on Omaha and Utah, the British on Gold and Sword, and the Canadians and others had Juno. On the same day, 13,000 American paratroopers landed at various locations on Normandy. If Rommel had been in Normandy, the German reaction would have been better coordinated. It took about a week before the forces landing at the different beaches had linked up. My father who was never in the European Theater only spoke of the importance of the weather forecasts in the decision to make the landings on D-Day.

Brian Bilston's poem recalls the Normandy beaches of D-Day ...

Queueing for an Ice Cream

although he didn't smoke, grandad never went anywhere without the old tobacco tin in his pocket

one day me and my brother asked him what he kept in it some sand, grandad said

why do you keep some sand in a tobacco tin, we asked where else would I keep it, he said

but why keep sand at all, we asked it's special sand, grandad said, it's come all the way from France

we peered into his tin and stared for a while French sand didn't look very special, it looked like ordinary sand to us

why's it so special, we asked each grain represents an old friend of mine, he said

grandad must have had a lot of friends, we thought did you go to the beach with them when you were a boy, we asked

yes, something like that, grandad said, snapping the lid shut, asking the man for three 99s, two with red sauce

Brian Bilston

Eileen wrote: "Larry wrote: ""Let’s say it while there’s still time: Jorie Graham is our most important living poet. “Our” being readers of American English; the time being late, inexorably approaching an end; “i... Her most recent book, Runaway: New Poems, was certainly well received. "

Thanks for mentioning that, Eileen. I just bought a copy.

"Let’s say it while there’s still time: Jorie Graham is our most important living poet. “Our” being readers of American English; the time being late, inexorably approaching an end; “important” being as much a measure of the aim as the attainment. The judgment would be a little ambivalent even among her devoted admirers. Graham is an indulgent artist, and this indulgence has led away from easy pleasure. On the page, what Graham has wanted Graham has got. She denies herself no unlovely line break, no syntax clipped or extended beyond the ear’s sympathy, no recourse to abstraction or knotty elaboration natural only to its maker."

SOURCE: https://thepointmag.com/criticism/doo...

William wrote: "My favorite author (I worked for the A's when he wrote Moneyball) and have read this already."

William, I read it when it first was published and plan to read it again. Lewis has the ability to cover a lot of different topics. To be honest, even though I've enjoyed all of his books that I've read, I really liked the sports books the best. I also should confess that even though I have a Ph.D. in Economics, there were parts of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine that I had a hard time understanding. I think that may have been because no one really understood what was in the financial instruments that grouped together hundreds of mortgages ... and not because of any failings on Lewis's part.

Cynda wrote: "Okay August then. . . .Maybe others will join us . . . .I will set up the thread now."

Thanks, Cynda.

The Fifth Risk is a paen to the Civil Service of the United States of America and explains what happens when a President and his Administration doesn't understand the value of that part of our government. Yeah, it's more political than most of the books that I choose ... but I believe it's accurate and appropriate.

From the GoodReads review: "Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative of the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed. The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives, from ensuring the safety of our food and medications and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black- market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences of what happens when the people given control over our government have no idea how it works."

John wrote: "Greetings all. I am rereading some of my Malcolm Gladwell books. I must say, he makes things fascinating. Here is one.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Kno..."</i>

I pulled that book out to read it again ... and the first story told about a traffic stop that ends in a tragic death three days later caused me to look for and find this book again, [book:You Have the Right to Remain Innocent. It's a great book and explains what to say and how to say it if stopped by the police. Of course, you should always remain calm and polite, but the author (a professor of Constitutional Law) explains how to respond when asked for information that the police don;t really have a right to ask for. Surprisingly, it's almost NEVER to assert your Fifth Amendment rights ... but it's to assert your Sixth Amendment rights ... your right to an attorney. He explains how in a few cases the assertion of your Fifth Amendment rights can get you in trouble. Just as important, he explains why if visited by a federal law enforcement officer (and there are many federal law enforcement officers beyond FBI agents), you should ask them to put their question in writing and reply that you will answer all of these questions in writing yourself.

John wrote: "Just checking in, Larry. Hope things are going well. It sounds like you’re close to settlement and then perhaps more time for reading until you move in July.

My reading has been very up and down. ..."

It was a very hard six weeks or so ... I guess I'm thankful for imaging technology ... but we have seen CT scans for my wife, three kinds of imaging for myself (ultrasound, X-ray, MRI), three MRIs fro my youngest granddaughter (and then a terrible neorologist than my son and daughter-in-law had to deal with) and then X-rays and visits to specialists for my son's dog. It sounds like a joke almost, but it wasn't. We're all alive and doing pretty much okay. Books and reading help ... as does music.

Sarah and Valerie, Book Valkyrie will read and discuss The Wager together here. Others may join.

From the GoodReads review: "From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire."

I'll set that up right away. Feel free to decide on what length of time you want to use for reading it together ... and when you want to start.

Sounds great, Ron! Your reading interests continue to amaze me. Just great!

That thread is now set up.