Wishing every Monday was a Monday holiday right now, after a too-short weekend! Part of it was spent with our daughter who lives in New York — We managed to fit in a game night on Friday and a matinee on Saturday around the family visiting.
We saw Air, a movie based on the story of Nike’s development of the Air Jordan basketball shoe line. Three generations, one sports fan…and we all loved it! It stars hometown Boston favorites Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but Viola Davis steals the show as Michael Jordan’s mother.
Currently Reading
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
Back to my usual reading — Literary fiction that is usually somewhat depressing but feeds my brain in a good way, too. Poetry and nonfiction, I usually need a challenge to impel me to pick up!
The Librarianist is an advance reading copy from NetGalley; the book isn’t coming out until July. Of course, the title appealed to me! More next week, but I really like it so far.
(The Librarianist is also part of a private challenge with myself, though – to keep up with my review copies.)
An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel
The Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist “explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system” – Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books
An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel contains so much scientific information about the human body’s immune system(s), some of the sections (i.e. everything but the personal case studies) have been slow going for me, as I’m trying to absorb at least the basics into my unscientific brain. The author does very well at putting the complexities of immunology research into understandable language, but since there’s only so much simplification you can do before you get too far from the actual science, the book is taking me a while to read.
Recently Read
A Good Cry by Nikki Giovanni
As energetic and relevant as ever, Nikki now offers us an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. In A Good Cry, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents’ marriage and her early life. She pays homage to the people who have given her life meaning and joy: her grandparents, who took her in and saved her life; the poets and thinkers who have influenced her; and the students who have surrounded her. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou’s death in 2014. — From the publisher
The MassBook Reading Challenge was to read a book of poetry for National Poetry Month and I read A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni. It’s also available on audiobook together with the poetry collection, Love Songs, read by the author herself.
Love Songs and a Good Cry (Harper Audio, 2017)
Recently Listened To
Currently Listening To
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I thought Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid was a great story with several provocative and important themes. It was also an excellent audio production! But there is controversy about this novel because Taylor Jenkins Reid is a successful white author who is writing about people of color as main characters in Carrie Soto Is Back.
Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin
Richly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear. — From the Publisher
Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin was also recommended a while ago by at least one book blogger I follow, but I didn’t make a note of who it was at the time. I’ve been postponing delivery from the library to listen to other things, but I’m glad I finally started it. Great narration by Ell Potter!
Maud is an irascible eighty-eight-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and . . . no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss Investigation series, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home. — From the publisher
This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!
Intriguing assortment of books. I seldom read nonfiction and tend to avoid literary fiction but these look tempting. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I could definitely get used to regular long weekends!
That immun esystem book sounds fascinating…
I liked Carrie Soto is back but also understand the race issue. I don’t know the “right” answer. I am glad to hear you all enjoyed AIR as it looks like a movie I want to see.