Currently Reading:
- William S McFeely – Grant: A Biography
- John J Reardon – Edmund Randolph: A Biography
- William A Link – North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State
- Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome – North Carolina: The History of a Southern State
- Alexander McCall Smith – The Sunday Philosophy Club
- Thomas L Friedman – Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America
So not only did I not finish a book this week, but I added more to my stack of books I’m reading! The little flimsy bookstand beside the bed is straining under the weight, but here we are. These things just seem to happen sometimes. Luckily, I’m nearing completion with one.
Alexander McCall Smith’s The Sunday Philosophy Club is going faster after I got through the first forty pages. I have to admit that initially it took me a bit to warm up to it. Isabel Dalhousie is no Mma Ramotswe. However, after page 40 or so, that became a good thing. It seems to me as if Smith himself was getting used to the new character at the beginning, but once she came to life, she became an interesting character. Strange thing, though. Less than a hundred pages to go, and no Club yet. It has been a fun read, though, of which I was in need.
The Friedman book is for work. That’s my justification with adding that one. The fact that I just finished another Friedman book is simply a coincidence…at least it would have been if not for the fact that I picked the book to read for Professional Development credit because I had read the other Friedman book. In any event, this is the book preceding That Used to be Us, so it’s interesting to see Friedman begin some themes that he picks up in the book I’ve already read. It’s good thus far, though rather overwhelming in outlining the challenges of the 21st century.
In my reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the title character, Tom, has reached a city I know all too well — New Orleans. Stowe’s writing style is fascinating in how she introduces new characters. She pauses the story to give some backstory and speaks directly to the reader while doing so. It’s a rather more intimate writing style than usual, and I wonder if she deliberately did it to invoke a personal touch to bring to heart her message of the inhumanity of slavery.
As mentioned before, the Link is for my North Carolina history class. We’re currently up to the early colonial period, just past the Tuscarora War. I haven’t read in the Lefler/Newsome yet for this week, but I’m sure that will be coming at some point this weekend. I also have not read any more in the Reardon. Hopefully I can get back to it soon if I can get through some of the others.
The McFeely is going really well. I’m past the Civil War and up to Grant’s involvement in the Johnson administration. What a crazy time in American history the Johnson administration was. So much political intrigue and power grabs in a time that the nation was supposed to be working towards coming back together. Meanwhile, Grant was trying to walk the middle line and stay above the fray. It must have worked well enough for him to be elected the next president, so I’m interested to read how he managed that one.
I promise to be done with at least one of the seven books I’m reading by next week, though I’ll have to add at least one more to the list — Coetzee’s Disgrace, which is waiting for me at the library. A member of the book club said that it was a quick read. We’ll see how quick it goes when added to six other books!
