The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree--#99 finished

The author is from Kenya, a tribe there called Maasai.  A rural kind of nomadic tribe, they raise goats & cows mostly.  The author talks about her life and family.  Her dad was a kind of leader and someone that tried to modernize the tribe--he helped setup a sort of nature preserve where tourists would come and see local wild animals.  He also believed in education and wanted this for his kids.  Both her dad and then mom died while she was young and her relatives that raised her were not as open to this.  This was a very traditional culture where girls were married very young and basically were then tied to the home.  This tribe also practiced what they called the Cut, a severe form of Female Genital Mutilation FGM.  The author saw this done when she was very young and was scared from there of this happening.  When the uncle she was living with wanted this to happen to her, she hid in a tree and then at light ran away.  She ran away a couple times but eventually a grandfather let her avoid this.  For this reason she was kind of shunned at their villages but also was able to continue her education.  She continued on to get her college degree and then started working for a NGO and worked to end FGM in her tribe and became a spokes person for this worldwide.  A really good and uplifting story, glad I read this book.

There are 3 WL for this book on PBS but for now keeping it.  Maybe one of my kids would want to read it.

Our White Boy--#98 finished

An interesting story of a white college student in 1959 & 1960, when he came home from college played for a local team in West Texas Colored League, a semi-pro type league.  He was the only white player on the team and in the league.  The local team needed a pitcher & they had seen him pitch before even though he wasn't on a college team.  Segregation was still a major thing in Texas, schools, restaurants, colleges, sports, etc were all separated by race.  So for the author Jerry Craft to play for this team was a pretty big deal.  Jerry knew a couple players as they grew up in same town and played pickup games together as kids but that had ended around junior high/high school time.  Interesting to read about traveling to games & what they had to deal with getting there & then the types of fields and teams they were playing.  An interesting story about a time that is kind of hard to believe.

I had read some books about the Negro Leagues and this book brought back those memories.  With integration of major league baseball that spelled the eventual end of the Negro Leagues.  How the Negro League owners were not compensated for the players being signed away.  How with integration it was only for the players, no Negro League team or owners were brought over.  

There is one copy already on PBS system.  I will go ahead and post this one too.  Don't expect it to move very quick but you never know.  I picked it up to read now because the World Series/Playoffs were on. 

The Human Stain--#97 finished

I had this book for a while in my stacks and saw that it was one to read for the 21st century or something like that kind of list.  Figured now was as good a time as any for it.  An interesting read about a small college former Dean.  It goes back to him growing up as a light skinned African American in New Jersey.  He was able to pass himself as white when joining the army and continued with that.  He took one girlfriend back to meet his mom & siblings and after the visit, she basically freaked out & broke it off not realizing he was black--he didn't mention anything about it beforehand either.  So from then on, he broke off his life with his family & became a white Jewish professor and then Dean.  He married and had kids.  He stepped back to professor from Dean but then lost his job and life kinda went to hell.  A sort of narrator is telling the story, a writer that was doing a book on his life.  Sort of confusing and to me seemed to just go on and on about things.  Struggled to get through this book.

There is 1 WL for it on PBS but have enough credits right now so no hurry to post it but will probably do so at some point.

The Graybar Hotel: Stories--#96 finished

This is a short story book by Curtis Dawkins.  I didn't realize it at time I requested it or when it was sitting on my book piles for a few months that the Graybar Hotel is referring it prison or jail.  The author does have a MFA in fiction writing but these stories are while he is now in prison for a drug related homicide and it states has life sentence with no chance of parole.  Wow, this was shocking and sorry to read and hear about.  The proceeds of the book will go to his children's education fund.  These are fiction stories and some are interesting and others a little more out there.  I like short story books to breakup what I am reading and that is why I had ordered this book a year or so ago with a couple others.  Good read but still a little conflicted about supporting in a way a criminal without really also supporting the victims.

There are 6 WL for this book on PBS so I will probably post & send off at some point.  I am back to having plenty of credits again so no hurry to be getting more yet.

The Women Who Flew for Hitler--#95 finished

I am not sure where I picked up this book but it was a really interesting and informative read.  A lot of information about Germany and what was going on there during WWII as well as the 2 women the book is based around.  Hannah Reitsch is the younger of the two and had really bought into the Nazi party policies even if she didn't formally join the party.  She lived beyond WWII and into the 1970s so had time to rethink and change her mind but seems like she didn't.  She was an adventurous flyer, starting with gliders and then airplanes and even the first type of helicopter.  Near the end of the war she was advocating suicide missions with German pilots but thankfully this didn't come about.  The fear of losing the war brought her and others to that.  Looking at how East Germany was treated by USSR there was probably reason for that fear.

The 2nd woman was Melitta von Stauffenberg.  She married into a sort of old royal family of Germany the von Stauffenberg but before doing this was already an aerospace engineer and doing test flying.  She was older and more experienced than Hannah and was a lot more technical in her flying.  During the war she was working on developing planes and equipment to safeguard the German pilots.  Melitta's background forced her to work hard and maybe stay more in the shadows--her side of the family was half Jewish.  Hard work is what she did, doing an enormous number to test flights diving to simulate bombing runs.  Unfortunately, at end of war she was flying around trying to track down her husband and her plane was shot down & she was killed--sorry, I guess spoiler alert should have been said--lol.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS but right now this is a keeper.  I really enjoyed this book and the information it provided.  Just guessing but right now probably one of my top books read this year.

The Cabin at the End of the World--#94 finished

This is supposed to be a horror type book.  A family of 2 dads & their young adopted daughter are on a vacation maybe long weekend at this cabin on a lake where no one else is around and no nearby houses or cabins.  While daughter is playing outside a large man comes walking up & talks to her and then is joined by 3 more people.  She runs to her dads because the other 3 are carrying makeshift type weapons.  The dads try to keep them out but eventually they get in.  They have an end of the world and we have to save it thing going.  Saving it by sacrifices.  I thought this wasn't really scary but instead mostly stupid.  Some of the background in the dads and others was kind of interesting but to me the story just seemed unlikely & stupid.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS so I might post & see about mailing off but right now have enough credits so will wait on this.

Stalking Horse--#93 finished

The author Virvus Jones is a former St Louis politician and his daughter was just mayor for 4 years--losing her re-election bid in April.  If I remember right Virvus was convicted and did time for funneling money to a stalking horse candidate--someone he basically put on the ballot to syphon votes from another candidate.  In this book it was a person with the same last name as the candidate, in St Louis is usually was another African American or white candidate to syphon the votes away from the same.  This book is about politics in this city that sounds a lot like St Louis in the 1960s and 1970s and told from the perspective of the African Americans trying to break in glass ceiling at the time.  Not a great read but still interesting.

Since a local book, I figure I will keep it at this point.  There are no copies in PBS but not sure it would get requested anyway.  

The Best of Me--#92 finished

This is a group of David Sedaris essays & stories from his career.  Not sure if there were any new ones in here but many of these I had recognized from reading earlier.  I have several of his books & many I have read--a few need to get to at some point.  I like most of only a few pages so can read a little at a time or because they flow easily, can read many at a time.  A good read of his life.  There are also a couple fiction stories thrown in too so had to double check this in case these were weird stories of his life that just didn't fit--lol

There are 8 WL for the book but since I have kept his others will probably keep this one too.

Rubyfruit Jungle--#91 finished

This is a sort of fictional but also sounds like the author growing up.  Born in the 1950s and moving to Florida and then onto New York in the later 60s & 70s.  The story is about a girl that is gay and while at times not really hiding it but also at times not really open.  Given the time and what happens she is ostracized because of this--kicked out of college & then kicked out of her house by her mom.  She moves to New York and still struggles with fitting in.  Even with these struggles she is a confident and unapologetic about herself.  At times very funny and interesting characters throughout.  A good read and basically a classic book.

This copy has some minor staining so won't be posting on PBS, but probably wasn't going to anyway.  A good book to keep a copy of it on my shelf.