Reported by Garry
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is a
groundbreaking 1961 non-fiction book recounting the author’s journey through
the Deep South of America during segregation.
Griffin, who was a white Texan, underwent medical treatment to darken
his skin so he could pass as Black. He
then travelled through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia,
documenting his experiences. According
to our reader, Griffin was treated better in New Orleans than elsewhere in the
South, but event that is a relative term, as he was still routinely at the receiving
end of “hate stares” from white people, and was not able to use restrooms,
public transportation or be seated at restaurants. Our reader was saddened and shocked by the
lack of progress that our society has made since Griffin undertook his journey
in 1959, but very highly recommends this book for its historical
perspective. CD
An Elderly Lady is Up To
No Good by Helene Tursten is the
first in her Elderly Lady series. Maud
is an 88 year old grump with no family, few friends, and even fewer qualms
about offing those she deems need it.
Maud lives by herself (which is the way she likes it) in her family’s
apartment in Gothenburg, spending her time traveling the world and surfing the
net, and dabbling in murder, which she not only easily justifies, but gets away
with – after all, who would suspect a little old lady of being a cold-blooded
murderer? Our reader loves this book for
its quirky irascible leading lady, and her darkly humorous, matter-of-fact ways
of deciding who should live and who should be disposed of. SC
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore. New Year’s Eve, 1982 - Oona Lockhart will
turn 19 at the stroke of midnight, and embark on her adult life. As the clock counts down, Oona faints and
wakes up 32 years in the future, in a now 51 year old body, in a house she is
told that she owns, and to the news that every year on the strike of New Year
she will jump at random to another time in her body. Where in her life will she jump to next and
who will she be? Our reader really loved
this book and noted that even though Oona may be “old” on the outside, she is
still 19 in her mind, a state that many of the Nevermores echoed is the case
for them right now. MH
Other books mentioned:
Southwest Saga: The Way It Really Was by William C. McGaw
The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor
Emily’s House by Amy Belding Brown
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Marmee by Sarah Miller
Mad at the World: A Life
of John Steinbeck by William Souder
Three Visitors to Early
Plymouth by Emmanuel Altham
They Knew: How a Culture
of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent by
Sarah Kendzior
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Theft of an Idol by Dana Stabenow
How it Went by Wendell Berry
Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire’s Wife, and
the Murder of the Century by Roseanne Montillo
Defending Alice: A Novel of Love and Race in the Roaring
Twenties by Richard Stratton
War by Sebastian Junger
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