I'm reading a terrible book. It's really boring. I keep putting it down & turning to something else because I am so bored. It's Verity by Collen Hoover. Supposed to be a page turner full of mystery & sexual intrigue. But for me it's a big yawn, so trite. If this is what is supposed to be exciting, the human race would die out. A big nothing burger. I'm reading it for book club, that's why I haven't given up on it. Who knows what I'll say about it during the meeting.
I really don’t like to get involved with books that are boring. It’s odd though I am stuck with investing so much time reading and even hoping the story would improve. Becoming so curious about the end result many times it’s a bust.
I just completed "All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard - Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy" Incredible bio of Eigene Bullard, born in Georgia in the 1890s, escaped attempted lynching of his father, ran away, as a teenager snuck aboard a freighter to Scotland. Became a boxer. Always wanted to move to France, and did so. Fought in WWI, became the first Black warplane pilot, after the war worked in, then owned a club in Paris. Met Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes.. Wound up spying for the French Resistance during WW2, returned to US. Was awarded a medal by Charles Degaulle. Amazing story. Now midway through "Warlords of Ancient Mexico: How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years" Also Toltecs. Fascinating. I didn't know that so much was known. The histories are as varied as those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome. There was a lot of intrigue, spying, Machiavellian maneuvering, and brutality but also courage and wisdom. Very interesting. The names and places in Mayan and Nahuatl languages are so poetic and musical, too.
We have been reading 180 degrees by Feargus O'Conner Greenwood.... unlearn the lies you've been taught to believe. Such an eye opener!
I am reading Lincoln and his Generals. Lincoln had to go through a lot of generals before he found one who was willing to fight--Grant. None of the previous generals didn't understand that war was not a question of supply lines, reinforcements, and strategy. Grant understood that facing the enemy and forcing him back, or whipping him, was the way a war was won. Next on my to-read list is Lee and his Generals. Should be an interesting comparison.
Friend gave me "Not Without Peril" it's stories throughout history of the presidental mountain range in New Hampshire. Have not had a chance to read it yet.
I'm reading Profiles in Folly, History's Greatest Mistakes. It seems the Little Big Horn battle (Custer's last stand) was brought on by Custer's jumping the gun and charging in without any information. The Spanish-American war was brought about by yellow journalism, stirring up the public to sell newspapers. You don't want to know about NASA's Challenger debacle. Makes you want to move to another planet . . . .
I'm reading Michele Obama 's new book, The Light We Carry. I'm enjoying it, I find her inspirational. However I think the book is more oriented to readers in their 20-40's in terms of the advice given. Interesting view into her life post White House & also somewhat of her life pre-White House. The chapter on her mother (Grandma in the White House ) was great!
I'm reading The Potting Shed Mysteries. It's a about a woman from Texas who wants to live and work in gardening in Britain because her mother was British and she has always wanted to find her relatives there. Right away she gets a job rehabbing a garden and finds a dead man in the potting Shed !! I got it on my kindle for the first book and liked it so much that I got the rest of the series on Audible so I can listen, which is always prefferable to reading for me.
Who has time to read… winter is a good time. One of my fav books I read was One River by Wade Davis. Summary of the book is true adventure of gathering , storing new plants from the amazon and bringing them to the US. & Much more. In 1941, Professor Richard Evan Schultes took a leave from Harvard and disappeared into the Amazon, where he spent the next twelve years mapping uncharted rivers and living among dozens of Indian tribes. In the 1970s, he sent two prize students, Tim Plowman and Wade Davis, to follow in his footsteps and unveil the botanical secrets hidden in the Amazon Forrest’s. A stunning account of adventure and discovery, betrayal and destruction, One River is a story of two generations of explorers drawn together by the transcendent knowledge of Indian peoples, the visionary realms of the shaman, and the extraordinary plants that sustain all life in a forest that once stood immense and inviolable. The story of rubbber tree plantations by the US grown during the war to make tires and so much more. A delightful read.
I'm reading the handbook for my Honda Jazz Crosstar. It's longer than "War and Peace." I may sit in it for a while today and programme the Sat/Nav.
I'm reading Catching Fire by Suzzane Collins by reading I mean Listening, like the above post said, multitask as you listen!
