A Life on Our Planet

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough

Read September 2021 - Well Read Book Club

I am so glad I read this book!  This is one of those books that I recommend you read (the book is chockfull of photos from throughout David Attenborough's life and career) and also listen to as he is the narrator of his story.  The book is laid out over the course of his own lifetime.  He includes snippets of information showing how much forest is left at each point in his life (going down with each year) and how many extinctions of animals and plants (going up with each year).  Those little snippets at the start of each chapter are powerful in their own right.  He outlines the effects of climate change in ways that are obvious and not so obvious.  It feels like a heavy weight... but he doesn't leave us there.  He gives good hopeful suggestions for how nations are addressing the issues effectively and how individual people can also participate in turning things around, or at least slowing the decline.  If only we would all listen to him.  

Quotes from the book...

By the end of the twentieth century, mankind had removed 90% of the large fish from all the oceans of the world. 

To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed.  It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created.  We must rewild the world. 

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - official trailer for the Netflix documentary

News of the World

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Read September 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd performs live readings of newspapers throughout small northern Texas towns.  After one reading he is offered money to deliver a young girl to her relatives near San Antonio and he accepts.  The girl, Johanna, was kidnapped by Kiowa raiders 4 years earlier after he family was killed and she no longer remembers that life. She is determined to escape and return to the only people she has ever known, the Kiowa.  But throughout the treacherous journey south the Captain and the girl, Johanna, eventually bond as they escape dangers of all kinds.  The 71 year old Captain is determined to get the 10 year old girl safely to her long lost relatives, but there will be more decisions for him to make when they reach their destination.  Throughout my reading of this book I saw and heard Captain Kidd as Tom Hanks (the movie had been released, although I have yet to see it.)

Quotes from book...

More than ever knowing in his fragile bones that it was the duty of men who aspired to the condition of humanity to protect children and kill for them if necessary. 

Life was not safe and nothing could make it so, neither fashionable dresses nor bank accounts.  The baseline of human life was courage. 

Book Trailer - News of the World by Paulette Jiles

News of the World movie trailer

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Read September 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

Wow!  This book sort of horrified me, to be honest!  It reminded me of that movie Jennifer and I watched called Seeking a Friend For the End of the World where, when it was over, we were horrified that the world ended!   ha!  

And Then There Were None is fast paced and has more than one shiver-inducing scene.  Agatha Christie truly was the master of mystery and her descriptions of location and her fleshing out of character is unmatched.  How she was able to create such a huge cast of characters that stand out and are easy to remember, is astonishing.  I never got anyone mixed up.  There are so many twists and turns right up to the very end.  

And Then There Were None - 2015 AcornTV movie trailer (but I believe this movie diverges from the book a fair amount?)

There is a truly interesting series of videos called The Essence of Agatha Christie - featuring her grandson sharing personal glimpses into her life and work.  Click the link below to see the full playlist. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBDCoRkrxbNIxEcScX7mbE9vh3kHMtMV

A Fatal Grace

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

Read August 2021 

I am sooooo hooked on this series!  Everyone gushing over it is correct.  It is so well written.  The characters are strong, the mystery is solid (although I did figure this one out pretty early), and I love, LOVE Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.  He stays with you!  Like a real person that you feel you know.  I'm trying to schedule out the books to enjoy a year or two of reading them, but I could totally just binge them all right now.  :)  

Book 2 finds Inspector Gamache called back to Three Pines to investigate the death of a lady no one in town really liked.  She was killed in front of the entire village during a curling tournament on the frozen lake, so everyone is a suspect.  Except for the per capita murder rate in Three Pines being so high (reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Cabot Cove!) I love everything about this quaint little town and its quirky inhabitants. 

Quotes from the book...

Clara saw good.  Which was itself pretty scary.  So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior.  But good?  No, only really remarkable people see the good in others. 

She had been crying and Clara knew why.  At Christmas homes were full of the people there and the people not there.    

Living in the wreckage of her future sure took the joy out of the present.  The only comfort was that almost none of her fears had come true. 

This Tender Land

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Read August 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

A wonderful book.  Kind of a mix of Huckleberry Finn and The Odyssey with some Dickensian elements thrown in for good measure.  :)  A story of a journey of 4 children, escaping evil and hardship and heading toward a brighter future (they hope).  They canoe down the Mississippi River intending to get to family in St. Louis.  They encounter many people along the way - some good and some not - and some a very strange mix.  What a fascinating story and journey.  It was also a good book to read after The Beekeeper of Aleppo - not quite as intense.  However, both books follow people on perilous journeys toward what they hope will be a better life.  I now want to read more books by William Kent Krueger. 

Quotes from the book...

I've always thought of her the way I think of a precious gem: the beauty isn't in the jewel itself, but in the way the light shines through it. 

Of all that we're asked to give others in this life, the most difficult to offer may be forgiveness. 

But I believe if you tell a story, it's like sending a nightingale into the air with the hope that its song will never be forgotten. 

From author William Kent Krueger's website - photos that inspired the story

https://williamkentkrueger.com/standalone/this-tender-land/#photos

Why do Native people disappear from textbooks after the 1890's? - Edweek article 

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-why-do-native-people-disappear-from-textbooks-after-the-1890s/2021/08

This Tender Land - book trailer

The Tragedy of Native American Boarding Schools - William Kent Krueger

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Read August 2021- Zoom Reading Circle

This was a powerful book.  I read it very quickly and yet it has stuck with me.  It was not an easy read and at first I disliked the main character, Nuri, because of his attitude toward his wife, Afra.  But as the book goes on and traces their journey, you gain an understanding of 'why'.  This book brought into focus the horrors of the Syrian war, highlighting the dire situation of refugees from Syria (and anywhere, really).  It is a well written story by a woman who has worked in the refugee camps in Athens and whose own parents were refugees.  This book just touched me deeply.  It made me feel for the characters and truly feel their pain - and their joy.  A moving, and ultimately hopeful, book.  I am very glad I read it. 

Quotes from the book...

In Syria there is a saying, "Inside the person you know, there is a person you don't know."

Oh Allah, keep me alive as long as is good for me, and when death is better for me, take me.  

But love was people's way out of the darkness.  I could see this clearly. 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo wins 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/16/835950317/the-beekeeper-of-aleppo-wins-2020-aspen-words-literary-prize

Aleppo before and after the battle - BBC News

In England, a buzzing business for Syrian refugee beekeeper

Documentary 'For Sama' finds love and loss amid Syrian war

Travel as a Political Act

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves

Read July 2021 - Well Read Book Club

What an informative book.  This is not your standard tour guide of destinations... this is a book designed to open our eyes and our hearts to other countries and cultures.  And to have a better awareness of what travel can offer us beyond just having a good experience in an exotic locale.  Rick Steves has been a travel expert for years and I have used his books in my own travels abroad.  But in this book he opens up our minds to the ways that we can be changed by our travels - we can gain empathy for people and recognize connections we have with people we perhaps thought we never could.  Traveling with an open mind (and heart) is truly a way toward peace.  We could all do well to travel more - outside of the United States.  And this book is a great guide toward that endeavor.   

Quote from book...

Mark Twain wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness."

Thoughtful travelers do it to have enlightening experiences, to meet inspirational people, to be stimulated, to learn, and to grow. 

Rick Steves Travel as a Political Act

Rick Steves: Why We Travel

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