16. The Mountain Between Us

For the Book Group

This is the reason some people don't like going to the movies with me.
1) The FAA really is pretty strict about keeping people with "bum tickers" from piloting.
2)  I'm pretty sure a doctor wouldn't keep referring to his pregnant wife's stomach containing their unborn children.  Doctors know where babies come from.
Why didn't the editors catch those things?

It's not the sort of book I'm drawn to anyway, but it will be interesting to see if the other readers are less critical. I thought it was lame.  Maybe the adventure part was better in the movie because actors can do a lot, but the story lines about the father and the wife needed more than a little work, as in edited out. I don't get it-- Penguin is a real publisher, but there's something fishy about the story line with the wife lining up with the Christian-Right-Which-Is-Neither point of view. They operate kind of like the Mafia.

It might be time for me to bail from the book group. The ladies are nice, but half the books are disappointing. 

15. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America

This book is in my stash and possibly over my head. It is nearly a thousand pages long, but maybe two hundred or so would be from the footnotes.

Albion is an early name of the island of England.  The author says that of the complex regions of England, there were four basic areas that settled four different parts of colonial America, across different times. The values and "folkways" of the English regions have had great impact in the American regions and across what is now the United States.

The groups in America are the Puritans, Southerners, Quakers, and Back Country folks. I thought it was insightful.  For my own family and background, there isn't much of the Puritans, but a lot of each of the other three. (Plus for me there are some people from other lands as well as the natives.) The Quaker values seem to have the most positive impact on our national ethics.
 
Politically, it's a little depressing from my point of view. Those who started out ahead have just continued to widen the gap. There has never been an equal footing.  In Appalachia in particular, most early settlers weren't able to own land, it went largely to absentee landlords, even as far away as England. He traces the back country settlers' ways back to the time of Macbeth.

Anyway, for me this book was worth plowing through, with my phone standing by to look up words.

The Puritans come off to me as fairly wacko.  I made faces about the Southern aristocracy and their total lack of respect for others out of their group. The Quakers would be the group I think I could live with, if I had to choose. Then reading about the back country settlers from the border of England and Scotland plus part of Ireland maybe possibly made more sense of the gun totin'  [name deleted] supporters. In some ways I am more like that group than others, and in some ways the least like them.

14. The Four Tendencies, by Gretchen Rubin

I thought this was an interesting idea when I read her last book.  It is okay, a quick read.  I don't necessarily buy some of the things she postulates, but maybe it could lead to some understanding of people's differences. 

I'm seeing myself as an obliger in her classification system, but possibly I have less desire to be so obliging at this time in my life. 

(no number) A Man Called Ove

My book group that I like is reading this one, but I can't quite bring myself to read it for a couple of reasons.

First, it was reviewed maybe a year ago in that series that I usually love, and the reviewer told the whole dang story!  I think he didn't quite get the point of a review.  It was like hearing,   "And then, Pip realized that it wasn't Miss Havisham who was funding his education after all, it was the criminal that he had helped years ago."  You know, sometimes it is better to find out for yourself.



And then second, I was afraid it would be a tear-jerker.  Maybe that isn't fair, I haven't read it.  But I remember a friend and me watching Grand Torino (another crusty old man gets attached to the neighbors story) and both of us crying a lot.  I just didn't want to go there.  So I'm skipping this one, despite the fact that I usually look forward to the book group. 

13. Dreamland Burning, by Jennifer Latham

I forgot to record this when I read it.  It is about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.  I'm not sure of that date. Written for a teen reader, it is still appealing for us who are older.  I really enjoyed the review of it.  Maybe this book isn't perfect in all ways, but I would recommend it anyway.  Sometimes fiction is a good way to get in touch with history.

One thing I disagree strongly with is her protagonist's description of North Tulsa, which is unduly harsh. She's supposed to be a privileged rich kid, who might indeed have those notions, but the author should not have left it at that, in my opinion.

I want a couple of young readers that I know to read it and then talk to me about it.