That Woman--#49 finished

This is about Wallis Simpson who became the Duchess of Windsor, not the Queen of England.  She was the already twice married American woman that King Edward VIII gave up the throne of England so he could marry her.  Other than hearing about this in school when growing up, I knew nothing about this.  Was an interesting read with good info about both Wallis & Edward and their lives.  I didn't know about the bitterness within his family to him marrying Wallis, figuring he gave up the crown & stepped back but the family never accepted her and the lived a basically estranged life from the royals.

There are still 11 WL for this book so will be mailing off in PBS at some point too.

Young Jane Young--#48 finished

I really enjoyed this book.  A young woman in college takes a volunteer position with the local congressman with several others.  Her family knows the congressman from before, they were neighbors but didn't really seem to get along, so Levin the congressman recognizes her & puts her on projects.  She is inspired to do well & helps in the office and eventually leads to an affair.  Her name becomes Monica Lewinsky like but 9/11 happens & she sort of falls away in the news.  But when applying to graduate schools or other jobs, her name & the scandal comes up on all the searches & she is stuck not finding anything.  They sort of jump ahead & she has changed her name & moved to Maine & is a single mother now.  Her daughter is old enough to start piecing things together.  A lot going on here & author doesn't answer everything, some you just have to guess.

There are still 26 WL for this book so will post it on PBS at some point & send off to the next.

Leisureville--#47 finished

Author takes an interesting look at retirement villages in Florida & Arizona mostly and their history and a look forward.  The neighbors across the street that his family was just getting to know, had decided to sell their New England home & move to the huge Villages complex in central Florida.  This interested him and he eventually joined them for a month to get to know what this was like.  Lots of interesting characters and I thought he provided good points on both sides for why to live here & why living & developing these villages is probably not such a good idea either.  I don't think I would ever want to live in a place like this but I do hate winters & being in Florida or Arizona for a few months each year could be appealing.  Being in mid country though winters aren't as tough as farther north--I just don't understand why be there & I guess that is why when retiring some get out.  Lots of interesting things in the book--things about the people, developers, history, etc that keep maybe not the most exciting topic very readable.

I have already posted it on PBS, there was 1 WL for it & it is already accepted so should be mailing it off tomorrow.

Sao Tome--#46 finished

I am playing catch up for July today.  I finished the one before & now this one about a week ago but finally logging them in today.  This is a book that I had gotten from PBS in Sept of 2010--yes I had to look it up, so it has been on my bookshelf for a long time.  Finally got around to reading it & it was a good read but a tough subject.  It is fiction but based on facts--Jewish children from Portugal were forcibly taken & shipped to island off Africa of Sao Tome to work in sugar fields and basically populate the island.  The island lost many people every year from diseases.  So the Portuguese needing workers were already getting African slaves but also started getting the Jewish children too--the Inquisition was going on & this was a way to rid the countries of the kids & force them to become Catholics.  That is the history the fictional story is wove around.  An interesting story but tough because life there was so fleeting.

The books a little wore & the spine is starting to crack.  There is no WL for the book but there are also no copies either.  At this point I will maybe keep or put in my donate pile, not really sure yet.

I Just Want to Pee Alone--#45 finished

A book of several mom bloggers that wrote short bits about being a mom.  Most with young children and funny things and just all the stuff that moms do that sort of just get seen as getting done but really  seem to be driving the moms crazy on the inside.  These moms get it out there on their blogs.  There are 2 more books of this too, it was that successful.  I saw it when ordering off the PBS wishlist multiples posting and thought it would be a fun quick read and that it was.  Not sure I will bother with the other 2.  Mentioned it to my wife & she might read this too at some point.

There are I think 18 WL for the book yet but will wait to see if wife reads it first before mailing it off to someone else in PBS land.