Miss America Kissed Caleb--#3 finished

This is a short story book by Billy Clark. It is about mountain people near a small town in northeast Kentucky. Most of the stories are from WWII or earlier. I think the author has done a great job in giving the reader a real look at life there. I seem to understand it and the people just from reading these stories. I am really impressed with the book and will probably add another book or two of his to my WL.

There is 1 WL for this book and I will be posting it sometime this weekend and passing it along. I am still reading The Hour I First Believed and also Paper Moon, Tatum O'Neal's autobiography. Not sure if I will get started on a 3rd right away or not tonight.

A Jaguar Smile--#2 finished

I had actually finished this book yesterday on Sunday but didn't get a chance to log it in till today. An interesting read of Salman Rushdie's trip to Nicaragua in the mid 1980s when Ortega and the Sandinistas were in control and Reagan was supporting the Contras against them. It seems like he is offering a pretty fair assessment of what was going on with both sides pointing fingers at the others blaming them for the problems. The book mostly does point to Reagan and the US for being in the wrong but the Sandinistas do enough wrong that it makes it hard for Rushdie and others on the fence to convince the public at large.

It was a very strange time, in that the Sandinistas were leftists and also looking for money & help so of course Cuba and the USSR were the ones to turn to. This pissed off the US, but I don't know if the US had stepped forward with help how that would have or even if it could have been accepted. Many in the Sandinistas were communists but many were also simply people wanting to end the authoritarian ways and oligarchic ways of the past.

Like I said and interesting read and certainly I will need to go back and re-read about what has happened in Nicaragua since then. I am sure what I remember is probably wrong in many ways. I hope Wikipedia has the info.

I have posted it on PBS. There was one WL for it but it was cancelled so it is now the only copy of this book on the system. I expect it will move shortly, probably within the month but could go a little longer too.

Modern Baptists--#1 finished

First day of the new year and I have finished my first book. I am certain this pace will not be maintained, although I could have another book finished later today or tomorrow. Modern Baptists is a kind of funny but also just kind of sad book. It is about simple Southern people and since the writer is probably one of them, laughing about this is okay but still sad to me. Screwed up town, screwed up people and if the people weren't so pathetic I might find the humor a little more to my taste. It is an older book, originally written in 1983 so the test of time stuff applies and is probably contributes to my being down on the book. In 1983 I am guessing, laughing at people was more common maybe??--I was either jr high or freshman in high school back then.

Well, I have already posted it on PBS and while there were zero copies ahead of it, it was also on no one's WL. Well it wasn't even a day later & I had a request for it, before I had even finished reading it. I will be mailing it off next week.

Happy New Year

I have probably posted something similar the last few years but I really need to think about what I want to accomplish with the blog. I will look to give it some thought but no promises about what will become.

Anyway for whomever stumbles along, Happy New Year for 2011.

They Went That-a-Way--#87 finished

An interesting read of how famous people died. It included 175 people from throughout history and had very interesting and sometimes mysterious or unsolved deaths. I good easy read. This was a good book to pickup and read 5 minutes here or there. I really only started pushing a little more the last few days to get it completed by the end of the year.

I have posted it on PBS, there are 4 copies a head of it. I think it will move at some point but might be a year or more before it does. I started reading Modern Baptists and already past 100 pages in, not sure if I will get it finished for this year or not. No movement on Jaguar and I pulled out The Hour I First Believed but haven't started it yet if I will at this time.

Into the Great Wide Open--#86 finished

A book about teenage angst. Two troubled teenagers with screwed up home lives meet and become boyfriend/girlfriend. Relationship really becomes a dependency for both of them to get away from their homes. Relationship basically ends with girl becoming pregnant and while leaving everything with boy suffers a miscarriage. This gives her a way out something he doesn't want but he has no real means to support or lead a normal life at this point. A good story and the writer did an excellent job of getting into the teenage mind.

I have another book by the same author that I have been wanting to read but wanted to read this one first. This was his first novel so I kind of wanted to see what it was like and to then do a little comparison later after finishing Everything, his new novel.

I have posted it on PBS, there is 1 copy ahead of it. No real idea when it will move could be a few weeks or a year but I am expecting it to move at some point. Still reading They Went That-A-Way, a book about how famous people died. I have also started The Jaguar Smile but it has been several days since I read any of it and have only gotten 13 pages into it. I am not sure if I will be continuing it or not right now. I will also be looking to start another book too.

I am guessing I will finish They Went... before the end of the year and an outside change Jaguar Smile could get finished also if I stick with it. That would give me 87 or 88 books--not too bad.

Our Souls to Keep--#85 finished

Our Souls to Keep: Black/White Relations in America is the full title, it gives you a better idea of what the book is actually about. I think the book was okay. The author continued to make points that I thought useful, that there is a difference between black middle class & black underclass. Also stressing the upbringing of the underclass is a large reason why it is hard to break out of there. The author was a student and worker and professor in the '60s & '70s so a lot of the upheaval at the time is reflected in the book. There were several places in the book that just didn't seem timely, more like a how things were. Now maybe there are still open racists in places besides white power meetings but generally speaking in work places & schools, I don't see it. Some of his examples just didn't reflect anything close to present times.

Overall not too bad, it does let me think about my relationships as well as children in school with my kids but not something really useful as a resource either. The book was published in 1999 so it is already over ten years old and like I said much of the book is from earlier than that. A more current book about now on this topic would be much more useful and interesting to know what are seem as current issues between the races.

I have posted it on PBS, there are no copies on the system and no WL for it. I have no idea how long it will take before it is requested but I would guess a couple months. Of course I can be wrong or surprised in each direction too. By the way Epilogue was requested hours after I posted it and it is already in the mail to someone.