Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Read July 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

This was a very good book - but a hard story to read about.  Just another reminder of the systemic racism this nation was built on.  These are stories that need to be told... white people don't know these stories and there are, sadly, so many.  My reading circle group read this book the same month as The Day the World Came to Town.  We reflected that those two books showed the best of humanity and the worst of humanity.  Thank goodness there are good people with courage and wisdom and curiosity to follow through...   

Killers of the Flower Moon tells about a time and place in history that I really knew nothing about.  In the 1920's the members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were the richest people, per capita, in the world.  The US had relegated the people of the Osage Nation to what was considered worthless land, but when it became incredibly valuable with the discovery of oil, nearby townspeople literally killed to take it over.  A former Texas ranger named Tom White came to the area to investigate and was able to expose, and arrest, many of those responsible for the heinous crimes.  But oh, the damage that was done.  

Quote from the book...

I don't know a single Osage family which didn't lose at least one family member because of the head rights. 

Killers of the Flower Moon - book trailer

Reign of Terror - Murder and Mayhem in the Osage Hills - OETP

Killers of the Flower Moon author David Grann answers your questions - PBS Newshour

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

Read July 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

Oh my goodness, I loved this book!  It was so fascinating to 'meet' all the people - both the locals from Gander and the 'plane people' who ended up there.  This is the kind of book that restores your faith in humanity.  It was inspiring to read and pulled at me to 'do better'.  It also makes me really want to travel to Gander!  :)  Reading this book brought me right back to 9/11.  We all have our story and our memories of that day and those events.  It is hard to believe that is over 20 years ago... I remember it all so vividly.  This book tells the true story of how the small Canadian town of Gander welcomed 6,132 passengers, plus the crew members, from 38 flights from across the world on the spur of the moment when airspace over the United States was shut down.  All those planes were forced to land quickly and this small town had a large enough airfield, left over from WW2 years, to accommodate them.  However, once the 'plane people' landed, they nearly outnumbered the residents of Gander - and yet were their guests for several days until the planes could all take off again.  What a story of hope, community, love & loss, and the power of hospitality to bring good to the world.  Everyone should read this!  And then follow up by watching the Broadway musical Come From Away that airs on AppleTV and is based on this same event.  You won't be sorry!

Quotes from the book...

The passengers weren't treated like refugees, but like long-lost relatives, and the more he thought about it, the more it moved him. 

Nevertheless, given all those human frailties, what happened in Gander is still remarkable.  And perhaps the lesson isn't that these acts of kindness occurred because Gander is a magical place, but rather that these people came together in a time of crisis regardless of their own personal shortcoming.  And if that's the case, then it offers hope that all of us have that ability within us.  

An Oasis of Kindness on 9/11 - USA Today article

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/09/08/gander-newfoundland-september-11-terror-attacks-kindess-come-from-away/631329001/

A reflection article 20 years later - 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/09/07/sept11-newfoundland-gander-canada

An article about the wonderful true-life story of Nick and Diane

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/nick-diane-marson-come-from-away-chance-encounters/index.html

On 9/11 this Canadian town welcomed in stranded passengers

Full documentary - Gander's ripple effect: How a small towns kindness opened on Broadway

Come From Away - Meet the Real People

Lab Girl

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Read May 2021 - Well Read Book Club

I didn't quite finish this book... a lot happened in May 2021.  But I enjoyed the parts I did read.  I was interested in the author's childhood in small town Iowa and how we shared similarities and yet great differences in our upbringing.  She had a scientist father who worked at colleges, but her family was cold and her small town was not comforting.  The book had a lot of good information about science, and particularly women in science.  But personally, the author annoyed me a bit.  :)  I was intrigued by her relationship with Bill, but never finished the book so know that I missed a lot.  

Quotes from the book...

The more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world - Helen Keller

(this reminded me so much of Maverick)

We had long since established the habit of not speaking as we walked the two miles home; silent togetherness is what Scandinavian families do naturally, and it may be what they do best. 

People slice up tree trunks, nail the pieces together into boxy shapes, and then go inside to sleep. 

From Bad to Wurst: A Passport to Peril Mystery

From Bad to Wurst: A Passport to Peril Mystery by Maddy Hunter

Read May 2021

I followed up #9 in the series with this one, #10 in the Passport to Peril series.  A cheesy, easy, cozy mystery.  I do enjoy this author although I realize they are not the best written books in the world.  But I like them.  :)  This time Emily takes the Iowa senior citizens, including her own parents, to travel through Germany.  This author does make me laugh out loud and she definitely has small town midwestern humor.  In this book I realized I have more 'in common' with Emily's Mom, than Emily... which provided me with a few cringe inducing moments.  (see quote below)   :D  I guess I really am 'that woman' and definitely am getting older.  ugh.  

Quote from the book...

Mom was practicing her people skills by giving everyone in the room a big squishy hug.  She could have limited it to band members only, but to her way of thinking, overkill was a much less grievous sin than discrimination.  

Fleur de Lies: A Passport to Peril Mystery

Fleur de Lies: A Passport to Peril Mystery by Maddy Hunter

Read April 2021

I needed something light to balance out Caste.  This is the 9th book in an old cozy mystery series that I have enjoyed over the years.  I am seeing now that the last 6 volumes are mighty hard to come by.  That is a shame.  They are all clever little mysteries and are all pretty dog-gone funny!  The stories all revolve around travel company owner, Emily, who leads a group of senior citizens (including her very own Grandmother) from their small town in Iowa on trips to various exotic locales.  Trouble is, there is always murder included on these trips!  This one takes place in France on a cruise down the Seine River.  I would actually like to do that!  Reminds me of the Nile cruise I was on - very nice to have a home base (the boat) but be able to visit different towns and sites.  This is a humor packed mystery series that I have thoroughly enjoyed. 

Quote from the book...

She smiled impishly.  "Do you know why the French have become such great connoisseurs of wine?"  "Superb vineyards?"  "American tourists!"

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson

Read April 2021 - Well Read Book Club

What a powerful book.  So hard to read (for the content) but so important to read.  This book connected so many dots for me under the thesis of caste.  The US having a caste system sine our very beginning makes sense.  Whiteness is the thing that must be preserved at all costs (in this thesis) including if it goes against personal interests (economic, health, etc).  There have been three caste systems in world history - India (ongoing), US (ongoing) and Nazism (12 years).  Horrifying.  As mentioned in the book, this statement got me... Africans say they don't 'become black' until they come to the United States.  Everywhere else they are Nigerian, Ghanan, etc.  But 'black' in the US is the bottom rung no matter what else exists.  Also, Europeans become 'white' in the US - so can be a way to 'rise up'.  Wow.  So much.  Such an important book.  I also note that it is so important to read this book all the way to the very end.  There is so much horror in the book but at the end the author helps us by providing us with tangible ways of moving forward... things we can actually do.  To read the book and not get to that part would leave you with a weight far too heavy.  

The Prodigal Summer

The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Read April 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

Okay, so who knew this book would be like ecology porn??  How very strange!  I'll admit I was a bit startled by how much sex was in this book - I did not expect that!  I suppose it was partly making a point about how all species are basically the same - procreate, eat, survive, die.  I kept at this book even though in other circumstances I probably would have stopped.  I also disliked most of the characters.  However, by about ⅔ through I was more into the stories and interested in outcomes.  By the end of the book I even sort of enjoyed the story and liked the characters a bit more.  But I still had several 'ewwww' moments (like Lusa and her nephew???).  Overall it was an interesting book - and it has left an impression on me about living things - cycles, interconnectedness, predators, etc.  It was just kind of a strange book.  

Quote from the book...

Everything alive is connected to every other thing by fine, invisible threads.  Things you don't see can help you plenty, and things you try to control will often rear back and bite you, and that's the moral of the story. 

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Read April 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

This book had true 'laugh out loud' parts.  It was hard to read when I was holding a sleeping baby!  :D  I truly enjoyed this book although I have a sneaking suspicion I might get annoyed with the author in real life.  Some of the people he mocks really remind me of myself!!  :)  I enjoyed the relationship between him and Katz and was fascinated by both their adventures and experiences alone the trail and the historic and scientific background information.  I would be interested in a follow up on more recent times about the trail, forest service, national parks and etc.  So in some ways it did feel dated (written in 1998).  One interesting note - since I read this book the same month as The Prodigal Summer, all the talk about the chestnut trees and the horrible blight that killed them definitely connected those two reads.  I really wish I could have seen those magnificent trees.  And this book adds to the grave concern about climate change, extinction of species, and mismanagement of lands and nature.  

Quote from the book...

In America, alas, beauty has become something you drive to, and nature and either/or proposition - either you ruthlessly subjugate it, as at Tocks Dam and a million other places, or you deify it, treat it as something holy and remote, a thing apart, as along the Appalachian Trail.  Seldom would it occur to anyone on either side that people and nature could coexist to their mutual benefit - that, say, a more graceful bridge across the Delaware river might actually set off the grandeur around it, or that the AT might be more interesting and rewarding if it wasn't all wilderness, if from time to time it purposely took you past grazing cows and tilled fields. 

Reader's Digest interviews Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods - official movie trailer

A Walk in the Woods - Hike with the cast featurette