March 2023 Book Report

I will be traveling over the weekend, so I decided to do my book report early.  In March, I read eight books, three nonfiction and five fiction.

 Nonfiction first:  I am still working my way through Winston Churchill’s history of World War II.  This month, I finished volumes 4 (The Hinge of Fate) and 5 (Closing the Ring).  One volume left to go!  The end is in sight.  It’s kind of a slog.  The casual racism just wears me down.  For example, in volume 4, he says:  “The rigidity of the Japanese planning and the tendency to abandon the object when their plans did not go according to schedule is thought to have been largely due to the cumbersome and imprecise nature of their language…” (p. 253).  In the same book, he also describes Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee as “two of the noblest men ever born on the American continent” (p. 796). 

 

It’s not all terrible.  In Closing the Ring, I learned this about U-boats:   “At the beginning of 1944, a gigantic effort was being made in Germany to develop a new type of U-boat which could move more quickly underwater and travel much farther.  At the same time many of the older boats were withdrawn so that they could be fitted with the ‘Schnorkel’ and work in British coastal waters.  This new device enabled them to recharge their batteries while submerged with only a small tube for the intake of air remaining above the surface” (p. 15).  Subs with snorkels!  Hah!  I was also interested in Churchill’s design of the rebuilt House of Commons, which doesn’t have enough seats for all the members and no assigned seating.  Finally, the man can turn a phrase.  He notes:  “Thought arising from factual experience may be a bridle or a spur” (p. 582).

 

The other nonfiction book I finished this month is Heavy:  An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon.  Wow.  It is, indeed heavy.  Laymon is a big black man and his life experience is both uplifting and depressing.  Systemic racism really needs to end.  Like now.  The book is beautifully written and heartbreaking.  Highly recommend.

 

While traveling, I treated myself to three more of Gail Carriger’s books, Poison or Protect, Defy or Defend, and Ambush or Adore.  I loved them all, but especially the last one.  I needed to read some funny, light, and affirming books and these are them.  Go read them, now.

 

I learned about José Asunción Silva in the year of Don Quijote, but I don’t remember the connection.  Silva was a Colombian modernista and his novel After-Dinner Conversations is the most emo thing I have ever read in my entire life.  If Coleridge at his most opium-addled were crossed with a fourteen year old girl, Silva is pretty much what you would get.  The novel is full of velvet, lesbians, longing, drugs, stabbing, and premature death.  Also, for no particular reason, a diatribe on the benefits of dictatorship.  I was entertained, but can’t exactly say that I would recommend the book.

 

Finally, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.  It is amazing.  Like go read it, now.  The book is a retelling of David Copperfield in an Appalachian setting, but no knowledge of the Dickens is required to enjoy.  And there is so much to enjoy.  Demon is a great character with a compelling story.  Again:  go read it.

 

March total:  8

Spring total to date:  29

Year to date:  29