Hello, reader…
*Note to first time readers: the following is a summary of a discussion by friends who gather monthly in a virtual space called Second Life. Reading notes are lightly edited reflections shared in real time via text chat.
Mornings on Horseback – by David McCullough
FireWoman shared that this is an easily readable and extremely well researched biography on the life of Theodore Roosevelt from a 10-years old sickly child to owning a ranch in The Badlands of the Dakotas to the time of his coming into his own as the world would come to know him.
Three Souls by Janie Chang
A most excellently written book set in the 1920s-1930s China. The story unfolds as the ghost of Leiyin watches her own funeral with her three souls looking on as well. Leiyin has to figure out why she and her souls didn’t move into the afterlife. FireWoman had this book in her ‘to read’ pile either from one of our coffee hour group telling us about it, or she heard her interviewed on NPR.
The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire by Henry Gee
Sierra picked this up in one of her local bookstores because it looked really intriguing. Henry Gee is an editor at Nature and also wrote A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth. What Gee does in Decline and Fall is a short telling human history inclusive of various hominid cousins. His argument – and she’s only partway into the book so she hasn’t gotten to the meat of this really – is that the human species is doomed to extinction. Well, maybe not doomed…there may be some ways out.
Gee writes well…with wit and fun footnotes. Sierra is finding all sorts of cool little observations that she feels like she wants to highlight. It’s a fun read.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Sierra is also rereading the Murderbot Diaries series since it just started on AppleTV. The character SecUnit is one of the most endearing fictional characters she’s read in a long time.
Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero
A young girl feeds stray cats. A young man sees her and leaves notes thanking her. And 3 other people are brought into the story too, because of the cat. The cat’s thoughts are part of the story. Veyot said that everything turns out happy in this book – especially good if you’re going through a tough time.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Veyot also read this book about slaves escaping from cruel masters. She had tried it once before but quit when she found out that the railroad in the book was not historically accurate, because it was really underground. But then based on the group’s conversation about magical realism, she gave it another try.
The main character is young Cora, whose mother abandoned her when she escaped from the plantation. Cora plans her own escape and keeps traveling on the underground railroad to three different states, hiding from the slave trackers who are hunting for her. There is absolutely no magic in the cruel way the slaves are treated in the book, and the underground railroad part could have used more magical drama. But it was interesting, and she recommends it.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
A widow lives with her deceased husbands very wealthy but eccentric great-uncle and she takes care of him. The book begins when he passes, and leaves her everything.
Which, his family is SUPER pissed about, so they lock her in a room and try to get her to marry one of them, so they can essentially steal the fortune. She finds a sword on the wall while trying to, erm… ‘escape’, deciding death is preferable to another marriage. Well, when she pulls the sword, a man appears in her room and he’s the spirit of the sword, sworn to protect whoever draws him.
It’s quite a bit of humor, with some romance thrown in. He’s centuries old, but only exists when the sword is drawn and if he’s killed in battle, he returns to the sword to heal before he can be drawn again. So he’s basically cursed. Well, cursed and immortal. And she’s a sassy, mid-30’s widow who’s had it with people overlooking her.
KitKat thought that this was a super adorable fantasy read overall.
Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod
A memoir about the author’s 300-mile walk through ancient Japanese pilgrimage routes. He’s originally from Connecticut – an impoverished area. And he moved to Jpaan to become a “new person”. Shed his old skin, sort of thing.
But, through this walk, he ended up seeing his childhood and some of his trauma through new eyes. And felt that by running away, he realized that you can never truly run away from yourself.
Many of the towns that he walked through were also impoverished. So it was interesting to read his translations of conversations that seemed different from what we typically see of Japanese conversations in the media?
The book is also a kind of letter to a childhood friend who never “got out” and died in his twenties. Zoe really enjoyed this book.
Our next gathering is on June 8 at 1pm SLT.
SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45
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