But as I said, that meant lots of time to read, so I finally finished up a couple sticky ones that I'd been trying to push through. Not that they weren't good reads, but just that I haven't been doing all that much reading this spring - due to three main things: increasing activity outdoors, online streaming, and my ever-growing obsession with audio drama podcasts. So without further ado, here's the reading round-up since my last book dump here!
The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper - a past couchsurfer who is on my Boxing Day Letter email list told me about this book when we did our annual email exchange at the turn of the year. I was intrigued enough to add it to the list. Jack and I listened to this one on audio book and it was a little bit of a slog. But also quite fascinating. The main idea is that the fall of the Roman Empire was just as much to do with plagues and climate change as anything else. This book was written well before the current pandemic, and I was really fascinated with the ways it tied into thoughts and reactions today. But also, as someone currently taking antibiotics, it made me very grateful for the modern medicine advances that we have at present!
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson - my mom read this one and told me about it. It was a fascinating (and somewhat hard-hitting) historical fiction that followed the daily life of a pack horse librarian in rural Appalachia during the New Deal Era. The author definitely did a ton of research into the program, the lives of folks in rural Appalachia at that time, and what sort of things would get people excited. The only part I questioned was with regards to the main character being one of the blue people and getting treated the same as African Americans for that. I wasn't sure how accurate that was, or if it was just a tool to show the difficulties of someone who wasn't white in that era and place without writing from the perspective of an African American (which the author is not). Overall it was a good book, but I agreed with my mom that the ending felt very unsatisfying. If you decide to pick this one up, you'll have to let me know how you found the conclusion.
Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol by Iain Gately - this one was a Christmas present from my mother-in-law and it was quite a tome! Nearly 500 pages with small print and narrow margins! But it was SOOOO well written, you just didn't even notice the time passing by. That being said, it took me the better part of January thru June to read it. Gately writes from a British perspective, but he makes stops all around the world and all the way from ancient archaeology to the present day. It was most interesting to see the different rules that various cultures and times had regarding alcohol consumption. Some people felt you could give it to babies, others felt that you could only imbibe after the age of 50 or 70 (and then, as much as you could desire), yet another held that if you were born under a certain portent you were destined to be a drunkard and should have access to it whenever you wanted it, while all your fellow countrymen were not allowed! The development of the various beverages throughout time was also a very interesting timeline to follow. Overall, I found the book captivating to the last drop!
Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing by Olga Mecking - this one caught my eye on a visit to Powell's and I found it on Hoopla to listen to. I'm not really one for self-help books, but what interested me about this was that it was a focus on Dutch culture and I wanted to see what of Dutch culture existed in my Dutch American life and what didn't. In that regard, I found this book very fascinating and it allowed for reflections on myself, my family, and our culture. A love of the outdoors, of bicycles, and a tendency towards a more free-rein parenting all seemed to fit the Dutch norm in my Dutch American family. But somehow I feel like we skipped out of that "speaking your mind to the point of being almost rude" part. Another aspect of Dutch culture that I certainly took to heart growing up is the idea of not bragging about what you've done or are capable of doing. The brand of humility Mecking described as quintessentially Dutch gave me a lot to chew on. In America there is a tendency, especially for folks in this online, self-promotion day and age, to lead with all your accomplishments and try to stand out. Mecking reminded me that this is not a better or worse way to be, but rather just a cultural norm, which I don't have to feel obligated to join in on. I prefer to quietly do what I do and keep it more special and intimate when I step into the spotlight. It's how I was raised and the opposite just seems a bit rude to me. Needless to say, I found the cultural reflection in this book to be worth my while, though I don't think that was what the author was hoping I would get out of it.
The Yellow House by Sarah M Broom - not sure where I picked this one up (probably NPR?) but it was towards the top of the list, so it had been there awhile. Note the author, because there are multiple books with this same title. This book is a geographical history of the author's family (including her very large nuclear family!) in an area known as New Orleans East. (Part of New Orleans the same way that Tujunga is part of L.A., from what I can tell.) It follows the development of the area, the dreams for it and the ways in which that dream was deferred - through zoning, through finances, through family tragedy, through lack of opportunity, and through Hurricane Katrina. But also on the lives of her family, the loves that they had, the goofy adventures, the fun times, the accomplishments, and the mundane, too. The book was beautifully written! And throughout, I couldn't help but wish that they had offered one of the geographical history courses that were in the catalog when I was doing my masters because I find the power of place as both character and backdrop, mover and moved, in a narrative history to be so powerful.
Pretty slim pickings this go-around (again), but each of these was a sizeable, in-depth read (or listen)... except for Niksen, I suppose - I listened to 2/3 of that one while I was on a hike training for my upcoming backpack trip. Because even though I've been under the weather, I've still been trying to get my body trained up for the 20+ mile hike into Jack's backcountry camp this summer.
As summer begins, I'm gravitating towards more lighter reads. I hope to be getting back into a better swing of things with my reading progress... especially because the list managed to get up into the 90s again...
Until next time!
