Sallylou's ROOT reading in 2020

I am reducing my goal this year (2020) since I plan to count only books acquired by December 31, 2019, and "required books" (i.e. reading for book clubs, classes, and LT early reviewers). In 2019 I included any books I owned, even those acquired during the year.




1. Needville by Sara M. Robinson -- acquired in October 2019 -- finished reading Jan 9th.
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway -- acquired in January 2019 --- finished reading Jan. 14th, 2020.
3. Malnourished: A Memoir of Sisterhood and Hunger by Cinthia Ritchie, a LT ER book -- acquired Jan. 19th, finished reading Jan. 20th.
4. So Big by Edna Ferber -- Secret Santa gift in December 2019 -- finished reading Feb. 8th.
5. Classified as Murder by Miranda James -- Christmas gift in 2018 -- finished reading Feb. 12th.
6. The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman -- purchased in December 2019 -- finished reading Feb. 18th for an adult education class.
7. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly-- purchased in December 2019 -- finished reading Mar. 1st for an adult education class.
8. Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon -- purchased in December 2019 -- finished reading Mar. 9th for an adult education class.
9. Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert -- purchased in December 2019 -- finished reading Mar. 14th for an adult education class which has just been canceled because of coronavirus pandemic
10. Mac on a Hot Tin Roof by Melinda Metz -- received for Christmas 2019 -- finished reading Mar. 29th.
11. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie --Secret Santa gift in December 2018 -- finished reading Apr. 10th
12. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams -- purchased Sept. 2018 -- finished reading Apr. 15th
13. The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown -- purchased in Feb. 2020 for CFM Friendly Big Read -- finished reading Apr. 18th (to be discussed Apr. 19th)
14. Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars by Katherine J. Parkin -- purchased at Thanksgiving time in 2019 -- finished reading Apr. 19th.
15. Lost Roses by Martha Hill Kelly -- acquired Sept. 2019 -- finished reading Apr. 22nd.
16. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep -- acquired in September 2019 -- finished reading Apr. 25th.
17. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin -- acquired July 2016 -- finished reading May 4th.
18. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See -- acquired in March 2019 -- finished reading May 11th.
19. On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman Suffrage Movement edited by Bettina Friedl -- acquired before joining LT in 2007 -- finished reading May 21st.
20. Pleasantville by Attica Locke -- acquired March 2018 -- finished reading May 25th.
21. Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber -- acquired in June 2019 -- finished reading June 1, 2020.
22. Selma's Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Rights, and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Robert A. Pratt -- acquired in March 2017 -- finished reading June 9th.
23. Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman -- acquired March 2017 -- finished reading June 26th.
24. Cop Town by Karin Slaughter -- acquired March 2015 -- finished reading June 30th.
25. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver -- acquired early 2020 -- finished reading July 13th for a book club meeting.
26. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline, a LT ER book -- received July 13th -- finished reading July 28th.
27. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan -- received in summer 2016 -- finished reading Aug. 8th.
28. The Real Patsy Cline by Doug Hall -- purchased prior to joining LT in Nov. 2007 -- finished reading Aug. 15th.
29. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks --received as gift prior to joining LT in Nov. 2007 -- finished reading Aug. 18th.
30. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales -- Margaret Atwood -- recd as Secret Santa gift 2018 --finished reading Aug. 28th.
31. Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore by Ed Griffin-Nolan, a LT ER book -- acquired September 9th -- finished reading Sept. 23rd
32. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett -- read for book group -- finished reading Sept. 28th but did not write up until Oct and counting in that month
33. A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor -- acquired in 2012 -- finished reading Oct. 8th
34. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, Northside Library book club -- finished listening to/reading Oct. 21st but counting in Nov.
35. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner -- New Dominion book club and retirement home lit seminar -- finished reading Nov. 5th.
36. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday -- Northside Library book club -- finished reading Nov. 18th
37. The Puzzles of Amish Life by Donald B. Kraybill -- purchased on May 2016, finished reading Dec. 7th.

Hi Allison. Happy to see you here. Happy ROOTing in 2020.

>2 connie53: Thanks.

Happy reading from me too! Have a great year!

Happy reading in 2020!

Welcome back and have a great reading year!

Wishing you a happy year of ROOTing in 2020! :)

Happy ROOTing!

>4 Jackie_K:, >5 Sace:, >6 rabbitprincess:, >7 This-n-That:,>8 MissWatson: . Thanks.

First ROOT for January and first for the year: Needville by Sara M. Robinson.

This book is a collection of poetry published by Cedar Creek Publishing, "A Virginia Publisher of Virginia Books" (title page verso). Sara is a friend of mine who leads a poetry group at our retirement community although she does not reside there. I heard Sara read from this collection at a book signing party at a local bookstore last year. I enjoyed listening to her read much more than reading this book myself. She told some background about various poems which made them more meaningful. Before she retired, Sara was involved as a technical writer/researcher in the mining industry. Needville, which features poems about poverty and the mining industry (and its decline/death) in Appalachia often uses names of elements, etc., with which I am not familiar.

Second ROOT for January and second for the year: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This is the first long novel which I have read by him although I've read several of his short stories and his novella The Old Man and the Sea. This novel was a difficult read for me because I do not particularly like his writing, and I felt the novel dragged on and on. At the beginning, I just knew it was about the Spanish Civil War; I understood the situation much better after reading about the novel in Wikipedia. I was interested in seeing how Hemingway treated the two female characters in the book; they were both important characters for some reason. Although he generally expected the women to obey the men, he did have Pilar in a leadership role. There was a lot of talking or thinking in the book, both about war and about death. The novel showed the brutality of war during a four-day span in a specific place. The protagonist had one specific job to do: to blow up a specific bridge at a specific time in battle.

Third ROOT for January and third for the year: Malnourished: A Memoir of Sisterhood and Hunger by Cinthia Ritchie, a LT ER book.

This was a difficult book to read because of the subject: a wretched family life, which included an indifferent stepfather who never showed the proper attention or love to the four sisters, but instead sexually abused them, and a mother who was too weak to stand up for her daughters. The sisters hungered for love and recognition, for a normal family life. They were close in age and tried to take care of each other. The author and one sister, Deena, experienced severe eating problems; when she was an adult, Deena died of anorexia. Before getting married, the author slept with many men; she had a son with a man she barely knew. She describes being a mother to her son.

The style of writing of this memoir is hard to follow since the author jumps around giving snatches of the story of the lives of her sisters, particularly Deena, and herself. She can be very good at describing a particular scene including the atmosphere and her feeling and supposes what Deena's feeling would be. Often she uses phrases instead of sentences. Sometimes she says that she lies, and it is hard to tell how much of the story she is telling is a lie. Also, particularly near the beginning, there is some swearing. However, the difficulty of the author's life is clearly shown; the abusive childhood had lasting effects.

The author uses first names and terms such as mother, grandmother in the book. No surnames are given; the names of the sisters are not their real names.

First ROOT for February and fourth for the year: So Big by Edna Ferber.
I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book which featured Selina Peake De Jong, who, after being orphaned as a teenager, leaves Chicago to teach in a farm community. She ends up marrying a man without much ambition, who runs a failing farm. After the death of her husband which leaves her with a young son, she runs the farm herself working hard to support herself and her son; she makes the farm highly productive. In doing so, she does not follow the norms of a turn-of-the-20th century woman. The last half of the book is more about her son, Dirk, nicknamed "So Big" as a baby. He is primarily interested in getting rich instead of fulfilling his dreams of being an architect. In the end, when he falls in love with a woman having his mother's values, he realizes, probably too late, how unfulfilled his life has been. I got rather tired of the emphasis on riches and of Dirk's disregard for the women working in his office.

Second ROOT for February and fifth for the year: Classified as Murder by Miranda James.
I enjoyed the mystery but was able to guess the murderer before the end of the story. I was disappointed in the roles of the pets, cat and dog, in the solving of the mystery. The cat's role was just accidental, and the dog did nothing. The animals did not talk and show their theories of how the solution was progressing as they do in Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series.

Third ROOT for February and sixth for the year: The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.
I read this book for an OLLI adult education class. The class title is "Mystery Novels: Windows on Society and Culture." In our reading and discussion of the novels we are concentrating on what the novels show about these two topics. For example, this novel strongly portrays antisemitism and to a much smaller extent extremely negative views toward blacks, especially as viewed by teenage thugs. The reader learns a lot about Jewish culture and how some of its beliefs hamper the police in their investigation of rapes and murder. It also touches on adoption and intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles. Two groups in particular, the police and the thugs, use derogatory slang to a considerable extent.

First ROOT for March and seventh for the year: The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
This novel featured Mickey Haller, a defense lawyer who used his car (a Lincoln) as his office. One of my problems with him was that, especially in the first part of the book, he often mentioned how much money he expected to be paid; he advertised on the internet. He had two ex-wives and a young daughter; part of his struggles were with his first ex who was a prosecutor who exhibited her dislike for defense lawyers. Mr. Haller got caught up in a situation in which he was representing a very wealthy man for a large sum of money, who often lied to Haller; Haller realized that this client was actually responsible for a murder for which a former client of his was convicted and sent to prison. He felt he had a conflict of interest. The trial scene was very interesting, especially concerning the way it played out. Besides the rape case for which Haller was representing the rich guy, there was the murder of Haller's investigator and an attack on Haller himself. The solution of these crimes was not whom I expected although I had felt hints ahead of time.

Second ROOT for March and eighth for the year: Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon.
One of my friends really enjoys reading books by this author. However, this was my least favorite book of the four which I read for my mystery novels class. I had never read Leon before, and am not that knowledgable about Venetian culture including its governance and police system. I had difficulty following the story. Our class discussion was centered on justice. Among the topics covered in the book we discussed the police in Venice and higher up police coming into the situation, illegal adoption of a baby by a doctor, falsifying of official records, and the doctor as a vigilante.

In class, our instructor gave us a sheet identifying the characters and giving a short synopsis of the book. I was sorry not to have had the list of characters before reading the novel.

Third ROOT for March and ninth for the year: Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert.

This novel features China Bayles, a female former lawyer, now living in a small town, who, with the help of her friend Ruby, tries to solve multiple deaths, all of which she believes are murders although the first was ruled as a suicide by the police. Among the illegal things she does is try to apprehend a suspected criminal by herself (accompanied by Ruby) instead of involving the police, and destroying evidence which could be connected with a death.

Good job, Allison! You have been reading more ROOTs in march than I have.

>19 connie53:. Recently, I've been reading more new books than ones in my tbr collection.

>20 sallylou61: I do that too. Just switching from ROOTs to new to ROOTs again.

4th ROOT for March and tenth for the year: Mac on a Hot Tin Roof by Melinda Metz. Mac is a cat.

I have never read anything by Ms. Metz before, and do not know what audience she was writing this book for. There was not as much about Mac as I expected, and the story was set in Hollywood, not a place I read about often. It was partly a mystery of solving what human stole three pieces of jewelry from three different addresses, partly a romance, and partly chick lit.

1st ROOT for April and 11th for the year: The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie.

This is a collection of 12 short stories by Ms. Adichie, a well-known Nigerian author of novels, short stories, and nonfiction. This excellent collection of stories is primarily set in Nigeria although a few are set in the United States and feature women trying to adjust to life here. All of the stories have very different plots although they feature strong women characters and show the lives of Nigerians and the relationships between men and women.

2nd ROOT for April and 12th for the year: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams.

Although I saw the movie of this play many years ago, I have never seen it performed on the stage as I have for A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, both of which I enjoyed more than this play. I remembered that this play had a lot of drinking, especially in the first act, and that Brick is on crutches. I was really struck by the homosexuality, especially in the second act. I found it interesting that the first act primarily featured Brick and Margaret (Maggie the Cat) and the second Brick and his father Big Daddy. Most of the characters appeared in the third and final act. The edition I read included an introduction by Edward Albee, an essay at the end by Brian Parker followed by an essay, "Author and Director: A Delicate Situation" by Tennessee Williams, and a chronology of Williams' life.

3rd ROOT for April and 13th for year: The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown

This is the second straight year that our Friends Meeting Library Committee has sponsored a Meeting-wide "Big Read" program in which adults and teenagers have been encouraged to read the same young adult book for a discussion during our national library week. With the pandemic this year, we will be having the discussion via Zoom, and the author is expected to be present. I was a bit disappointed with this book. It is a coming-of-age story about a young girl, Alice, and deals with some important issues including family relationships, racial sensitivity, aging, and end of life. However, there is a lack of communication between Alice and her father, which results in secrets; in some ways Alice needs to rear herself.

4th ROOT for April and 14th for year: Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars by Katherine J. Parkin.

Although this was a relatively short book (less than 200 pages of text), it seemed to take forever to read it. The very best feature of the book is the photographs, which are primarily ads concerning cars and women. Reading the ads with the accompanying text and comments by the author pretty much make the text of the book, which gets very repetitious superfluous. The text covers the history of cars from the early cars through the present day, trying to negate the stereotypes of women as poor drivers who do not know anything about how cars work. The author's writing continually relies on ads to show how women have not overcome the stereotype. Generally, men, although many are poor drivers whose accidents are more serious and deadly than women's accidents, are considered better drivers, who know more about cars. Cars are portrayed as females, and some car models appeal sexually to men, at least as advertisements describe them. "Taking a gendered lens to cars also illuminates the long-standing power of patriarchy. ... The power of cars is a largely heretofore unexamined force that has contributed to a polarizing of gender roles and the imbalance of power between women and men" (p. 180).

5th ROOT for April and 15th for the year: Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly

This is historical fiction taking place during the Russian Revolution and World War I. Although much of the story is set in Russia, part of the action takes place in France and in the United States. It is a prequel to the author's Lilac Girls; the central American character is the mother of the central American character in the earlier novel, both of whom were real people. Lost Roses primarily features three women -- Eliza, a wealthy American; Sofya, a formerly wealthy Russian whose family lost their wealth during the Russian Revolution; and Varinka, a poor Russian woman --- although their families are heavily involved.

The chapters are short, and the novel keeps switching from being narrated by these three women, a chapter at a time. Most chapters end with something exciting or particularly interesting which makes the reader want to learn more about what is happening. However, the various stories are pulled together at the end.

6th ROOT for April and 16th for the year: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep.

Furious Hours is is divided into three sections: the stories of (1) the Rev. Willie Maxwell who took out numerous life insurance policies on five of his neighbors/relatives and then murdered them and tried to collect on the policies, (2) Maxwell's lawyer and Democratic politician in Alabama Tom Radney who defended Rev. Maxwell in his trials until Maxwell himself was killed and then represented Robert Burns, Maxwell's murderer and (3) Harper Lee who attended the trial of Burns, and carefully researched the life and death of Maxwell planning to write a nonfiction book about it. Almost half of the book is devoted to Harper Lee, discussing her writing, her relationship to and research for Truman Capote for his In Cold Blood, and why she did not write another book after To Kill a Mockingbird. I found the section on Harper Lee particularly interesting although I was already aware of her friendship/relationship, both as a child and then as an adult with Capote.

I bought both Last Roses and Furious Hours last year in hardback and saw them already out in paperback before reading them. This is unusual for me since I usually buy paperbacks.

First ROOT in May and 17th for the year: Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin.

I had to go back to the beginning of the first chapter to realize that the first and last chapters referred to the same day, the fourteenth birthday of John, the stepson of a cruel minister named Gabriel. The middle three chapters, which are the major portions of the book, feature Florence, Gabriel's sister; Gabriel; and Elizabeth, Gabriel's wife and John's mother. These chapters give the background of the novel, showing the relationships between the characters. The novel stresses fundamental religion, and being either good or bad -- following God or the Devil.

Hi Allison. Just popping in to see what you are reading and ask how you are doing in these times of Corona. I hope you are fine. Keep safe.

Thanks, >30 connie53:. I'm doing well but living in a retirement community where we have not been allowed to leave the campus for the last month or so, and it looks as if this will be the case for quite a while longer. We also may not visit in each other's apartments or cottages, and our meals and groceries are brought to us by the staff. However, we may take walks outside, maintaining distance. Our community garden area is more like a park with the residents visiting each other there.

Hope your families are still well, and that you are able to visit with your cute granddaughters and their parents.

2nd Root for May and 18th overall: The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.

Last year Ms. See gave an excellent talk at the literary luncheon of the Virginia Festival of the Book about her research for the book and the life of the women sea divers on Jeju, a Korean island. The story is one of a matrifocal society in which the women, the sea divers, are the workers who dangerously dive into the sea to gather sea products to sell and to eat. The men do the cooking and childcare. This is a story of female relationships, a changing culture and adapting or not adapting to it, and forgiveness or the lack of forgiveness. The story takes place between 1938 and 2004 so that it covers the impact of WWII, the Korean War, and industrializing society on Jeju, where the remaining haenyeo (women divers) are vanishing; most of them are over 70 years old whereas 55 used to be the retirement age. There is considerable violence with war and with underwater accidents of the haenyeo.

>31 sallylou61:. We only see Lonne. She is my sons daughter and just last month turned 2. They come to visit sometimes, but it's hard for her to keep the distance. She wants me to read to her and that is a bit difficult now, sharing a picture book. Fiene and Marie live in another town and we don't go there now. So we see each other on face-time. But we are all well and doing fine so that's the important part. My kids decided to not visit us because we are 'elderly' people. And visiting is highly discouraged.

>33 connie53:. I'm glad you can at least see one granddaughter even if it is only at a distance. It must be hard not to be able to hold her. My sister and brother-in-law have a granddaughter born last November, and have only been able to see her at a distance, no holding, etc. I know that is hard for them.

>32 sallylou61:

I've read several articles about these women on CNN and such. I've added the book to my wishlist.

>35 lilisin: Hope you enjoy it.

Third ROOT for May and 19th overall: On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman Suffrage Movement edited by Bettina Friedl, which I've had on by tbr shelf since before I joined LT in 2007.

This is a collection of 20 short, usually one-act plays used in the American suffrage campaign. Several of the plays turned anti-suffrage arguments into arguments for suffrage. Some dealt with social issues showing how women needed the vote. Two used the issue of pure milk, which was a concern since the wealthy were able to obtain pure milk while the poor only could get substandard milk which led to sickness and death. The issue of marriage and the use mistaken identity appeared in some of the plays. As with many collections, I found the quality of the plays uneven. The background and importance of each play was discussed in the introduction to the plays; I think it would have been more useful to have each play's introduction immediately precede the play.

4th ROOT for May and 20th overall: Pleasantville by Attica Locke, which I acquired in March 2018.
I had enjoyed hearing Ms. Locke's presentation at the 2018 Virginia Festival of the Book. Pleasantville is the name of a neighborhood in Houston. This complicated plot involves trying to solve the murders of three young women, and whether the same killer killed all three. The third victim had not been found in the same place as the first two, and the third one had put of a fight whereas the first two apparently had not. This novel involves the solving of these murders during a campaign run-off for the two highest vote-getters in the race to be mayor of Houston. One of the candidate's campaigns appears to target the campaign manager of the other candidate, having him accused and tried for the murders. The lawyer for the defendant has his office broken into and is injured twice. The plot gets a bit too complicated for my taste. There are too many characters to keep straight. This turns out to be the second book in a series featuring lawyer Jay Porter; it might have been beneficial to read the earlier book before this one.

1st ROOT for June and 21st overall: Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber.

I've read a few Debbie Macomber books, mainly for quick reads when I'm on a cruise. Last summer I selected her Cottage by the Sea as a reward in our public library's summer reading program. I just read it for a light read. However, this was not as light reading as most of her other novels; it started out very depressingly with a young woman, Annie Marlowe, losing her entire nuclear family in a mudslide. She decided to move back to Oceanside, a small community which her family visited in the summers during her childhood, to find peace and begin life again. Most of the other featured characters in the novel are dealing with issues mainly caused by domestic abuse, which Annie becomes involved in trying to fix. There is a lot of lack of communication or miscommunication. In the end the characters find solutions to their problems in new living arrangements -- romance, divorcing an abusive husband, and adopting a baby. Once I got past the first chapter or so, I enjoyed the book.

2nd ROOT for June and 22nd overall: Selma's Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Rights, and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Robert A. Pratt.

Although the title of the book is Selma's Bloody Sunday, it is actually the review of events in the Civil Rights movement leading up to Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, an account of Bloody Sunday midway through the book, and the struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I found the review of the earlier history and particularly the Bloody Sunday march very interesting. Bloody Sunday occurred when a mass of Alabama state troopers and policemen on horses badly beat a group of approximately 600 peaceful marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge leaving Selma on a march to Montgomery. In addition to the beatings and riding horses through the crowd, teargas was used making it difficult for the marchers to see and retreat.

Bloody Sunday was followed later that month by a 5 day march from Selma to Montgomery for which the marchers had protection from the federal government. Mr. Pratt also describes this march, which was peaceful although the marchers from around the country had to leave Montgomery the day they arrived there.

Bloody Sunday was an impetus for passing civil rights legislation. The story of the effort to pass this legislation has been discussed in other books, and was a let-down after the marches. In the epilogue, Mr. Pratt discusses the effect of the legislation on the South.

The book includes a number of very effective black and white photographs which help to tell the story before and through the marches. Also includes bibliographical references and index.

3rd ROOT for June and 23rd overall: Wilde Lake, a murder mystery by Laura Lippman.
This was the first book I have read by Ms. Lippman, and I was disappointed although I found her writing smooth. Wilde Lake had an overly complicated plot, and there is a lot of shifting around in time. The father in the story was dishonest with his family. There were secrets, which several characters held for many years, which had tragic consequences.

4th ROOT for June and 24th overall: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter.
This a book which I purchased at the 2015 Virginia Festival of the Book. I had really enjoyed Ms. Slaughter's talk at the Mystery books brunch. However, this was just not my type of book. It covered the first four days of work for a rookie policewoman in Atlanta in 1974, but it was filled with violence, hatred of women, homosexuals, and Jews, and included a couple of vivid sexual scenes. The hatred displayed by the "old guard" police toward these groups of people was appalling; it definitely showed that police brutality was nothing new. Even the two main experienced policewomen were unnecessarily rough toward people.

1st ROOT in July and 25th overall: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver.

This novel contains the stories of two families who lived in a falling down house on the same property in Vineland, NJ -- one in the 1870s and the other in the 21st century. (The house was rebuilt after the first story takes place.) I found the 19th century story about a school teacher who is not allowed to teach about Darwin and who becomes a professional friend of a female scientist much more interesting that the 21st century family; I did not like the 21st century characters. The chapters alternated between the two stories, and the book was overly long in my opinion.

Hi Allison, you are almost there with ROOTs. Good job.

How are you doing? I hope you are still good. We are doing fine over here. We can see the grandkids again and that is a happy thing for us. We enjoy what we can and I'm reading all the time and staying home, just going out for groceries.

>44 connie53: Thanks, Connie. I'm glad that you are able to see your adult children and grandchildren again.

Both my husband and I are fine. We're glad that we are now allowed to leave our retirement community campus without going into isolation upon returning.

I will probably not be reading a many TBR books the rest of the year. Since our public library was not open for many months (and now just for borrowing/returning books), I bought a lot of the books I wanted to read for various challenges, etc.

2nd ROOT in July and 26th overall: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline, a LT ER book.
The story richly describes the horrendous life of women in the notorious Newgate Prison in London in the nineteenth century and the conditions of their lives on ships carrying prisoners from Great Britain to Australia, which was largely colonized by prisoners. Two of the main characters, Angelina and Hazel, who had both been imprisoned for stealing, met on the ship, Medea, going to Australia. Angelina had had a very unfair trial in which only her accusers were allowed to say anything about her. On board the ship the female prisoners were at the mercy of the male crew and male prisoners. Life was not much if any better for the women once they got to Australia and were imprisoned there. Violent males, some of whom were murderers, were let out in the same communities. Relatively little of the story actually occurs in Australia.

The British colonists were very cruel to the indigenous population of Australia. Mathinna, the third main female character, had been stolen as a young child from her village on an Australian island by the British governor and his wife. She was also an exile since she was taken to a place she had never known and was treated as if she was an inferior being, and displayed as an object. After she refused to adapt to the British ways, the governor’s family abandoned her.

1st ROOT for August and 27th overall: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
This novel is about the love affair of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright as told from the viewpoint of Mamah. Both Mrs. Cheney and Mr. Wright left their spouses and children to live together in Europe and then back in Wisconsin in Taliesin, the house Frank built for Mamah. Ms. Horan did a considerable amount of research, but not much is actually known about the feelings of Mamah, a feminist who translated some of the writings of the Swedish feminist, Ellen Key, into English and who had an influence on the architecture of her lover, Wright. Mr. Wright was not able to get a divorce from his first wife so that he and Mamah never got married; their life together in the early twentieth century was considered scandalous. Both Frank and Mamah are portrayed as very selfish people. According to reviews of this book, people who do not know the basic story of Frank and Mamah are shocked by the ending.

2nd ROOT for August and 28th overall: The Real Patsy Cline by Doug Hall.

I enjoyed most of this short book about Patsy Cline; I'm familiar with some of her music, and enjoyed reading about her choosing and singing it. Also, the lyrics to some of her most popular songs were included in the text. Much of the description of Patsy's career was told by those who worked with her, but Mr. Hall wove these memories together seamlessly. I did find the comments after Patsy's untimely death to be hagiographic. The book included sections briefly identifying all the people who commented on Patsy, a timeline of her life, and a chronological listing of her records. Numerous photographs were also included.

Purchased in Winchester, Patsy's home town, before I joined LT (joined in Nov. 2007).

3rd ROOT for August and 29th overall: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks.
The plague described here is in a small English town, Eyam, during 1665-1666. Although there are many characters, there are three main ones: Rector Michael Mompellion, his wife, Elinor, and Anna Frith, a young widowed housemaid who works for them. Anna is the narrator of the story; it is told from her point of view. Our book group was interested in examining what the village people, strongly led by Rector Mompeilion, did to try to conquer the plague. They isolated themselves in their village, and, as the plague spread and more and more people died met outside of their church instead of in the building. Some of the miners took things into their own hands and murdered two women, who were midwives and healers with herbs, as witches whom they blamed for the disease. Also, although many of the people helped each other, Anna's father and stepmother with whom she had very little contact and poor relations, tried to make money off the poor, helpless people. Several of us in the book group were disappointed with how the story ended.

Reread from many years ago. Received as gift before I joined LT in Nov. 2007.

4th ROOT for August and 30th overall out of 30: Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood.
The subtitle on the cover is Nine Wicked Tales. The first three stories in the collection were interconnected since they featured some of the same characters, but could be read separately. Several of the stories ended with the reader uncertain what would happen next. The last story, "Torching the Dusties," about people in an old folks' home ends in horror.

Reading this book completes the number I need for this challenge. I'm planning to read more, but do not know how many. In the last several months I have purchased a lot of books, many of which I am reading soon after buying -- which would not qualify for this challenge.

Congratulations on meeting your goal!

I keep picking up Stone Mattress at the library and not getting around to it, but it sounds great.

Congrats on meeting you goal, Allison

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>51 rabbitprincess: Do read it, RP! It's a great book.

Congrats on reaching your goal!

>51 rabbitprincess:, >52 connie53:, >53 MissWatson:. Thank you.

I haven't been around the ROOT section much this month since unfortunately I received another concussion* early this month, and have been trying to spend very little time on the computer. Fortunately, recently, I've been able to do more reading in print books which do not require a screen. One was too new to be counted as a ROOT.

*first concussion was approximately 18 months ago. Both times I hit my head on a solid object -- such as a closed freezer door and a desk top. I've ordered a helmet to wear in the kitchen.

First ROOT in September and first over goal: Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore by Ed Griffin-Nolan, a LT ER book.

Ed Griffin-Nolan hitchhiked across the United States with a friend in 1978. He decided to make another trip hitchhiking across the country forty years later -- this time alone. Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore is his story of these travels. Although the book focuses on the later trip, Mr. Griffin-Nolan is constantly comparing that trip to the one he made forty years earlier. The stories of his adventures are interesting, but can get rather frustrating. The reader only knows that the trip took eighteen days since he says so in the Epilogue. I particularly liked the first part of the book where the author said what he did the first day. Unfortunately, Mr. Griffin-Nolan did not number his days on the road; sometimes he said he was somewhere three days, but not how many days had passed before then. He told amusing stories of his rides with various drivers, but very little about his visits with friends or relatives along the way. Moreover, a map showing his overall trip was not in this advanced reader copy of the book.

>54 sallylou61: I hope you are feeling better after such a nasty hit?

>54 sallylou61: Ahh, painful. I hope you are doing better.

>56 MissWatson:, >57 connie53:. Thank you. I'm getting much better but still trying not to spend too much time on the computer.

First ROOT counted for October although finished reading in September: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

Read for a book club: Our leader seems to like Ann Patchett's writing; this is the second book by her which we have read in the last couple of years. In some ways this book was hard to read because of the cruelty in it. Danny, the narrator, and his sister Maeve did not have any real parent who acted in their best interest when they were growing up. I disliked both the mother who left them and the stepmother who was continually nasty to them and eventually kicked them out of the house in which they had grown up. Their father was weak, and would/could not stand up for his children to their stepmother, his second wife. Several times in the book, a character would do something that directly impacted another character without consulting with the person first. Also, the story, as with several books I've read recently, goes back and forth in time instead of being told chronologically.

I really enjoyed our book club discussion.

Second ROOT for October and third over goal: A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. Included in an appendix is "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison" by Paul Jennings, the first White House memoir.

Mr. Jennings was a very bright person who learned to read and write, probably being with Dolley Madison's son when he was being taught. Born in 1799, Mr. Jennings was a young male slave, who worked as a footman when the Madisons lived in the White House. His duties included being a messenger, dining room servant, and assistant to the coachman. After Madison's presidency, Mr. Jennings became his personal manservant and thus was with Madison much of the time. Both when he was a dining room servant at the White House and as Madison's personal manservant, Mr. Jennings was able to listen to numerous conversations and meetings.
The first half of the book is about life at the White House and then Montpelier up through Mr. Madison's death.

The second half is about Mr. Jennings' life after James Madison's death. Mr. Jennings was very disappointed that he was not given his freedom following Mr. Madison's death. Dolley Madison ignored the part of her husband's will about freeing slaves, and, because of being in financial difficulties sold many of the slaves, often separating families. Mr. Jennings, having met many important people, was able to ask Daniel Webster to buy him and let him earn his freedom. Mr. Jennings spent most of the rest of his life as a free man in Washington, D.C., where he held a low government position. Life in Washington was difficult since his wife and children were slaves on a neighboring plantation to Montpellier in Orange County, VA. Eventually, after his wife's death, he was able to buy his sons and daughters. Near the end of the book, Ms. Taylor writes about other former slaves of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison who lived in the same part of Washington as did Mr. Jennings, a section which I thought got rather tedious.

Acquired in March 2012.

Third ROOT for October but reporting at end of November: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

This book has two story lines which are intermingled throughout the book. One is the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and especially the building of the site (including the architecture of the buildings, which ended up all being painted white since no other color could be agreed upon and the time of preparation was very short); the other is about a serial killer near the fair site who preyed particularly but not exclusively on young single women. I had read this book for another book club many years ago shortly after it had been published. This time I found the story of the architecture especially interesting since I knew more about some of the architects than previously, and did not remember as much about the architecture from my first reading. The architecture included the landscape architecture for the fair with Frederick Law Olmsted in charge. The painting of the buildings was under the direction of Francis Millet, who developed and used spray painting. I was not aware that type of painting was used so early.

The serial killer was an attractive young doctor who had a building built near the fair which he used for his killing. He had a soundproof closet in which he could pipe gas although he did not use that room for all of his killings. Unfortunately, so much was going on with the fair and in Chicago that the women were not immediately missed.

First ROOT for November and 35th ROOT for year : Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.

Although I read this novel only once at the beginning of the month, I read it for two occasions: a book club and my retirement community short stories seminar for which we decided to read a novel instead of short stories. I was surprised how different the "discussions" were. At our book club zoom meeting early this month we talked about the different characters and what we thought about them as people and why they did some of the things they did. We agreed that some of the characters were complex, and that some of us did not like all of them. At our retirement community "seminar," our leader, an elderly former professor at a small college, dominated the discussion. He thought all the characters were nice people although Charity behaved very cruelly toward her husband Sid at the end. I found this very interesting since our leader has shown definite views about our readings; I have wondered about his interpretation of some of the stories, but in this case, I disagreed with his assessment that all of the characters were nice. I feel that Charity had a very controlling personality; although she could be kind, she definitely wanted her own way and others to do what she wanted. Moreover, both couples were parents, and we hear very little about their parenting.

This is the third work by Stegner which I have read, having already read his novel, The Big Rock Candy Mountain and his book of essays, which includes considerable biographical information, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs. Of these books, I like Crossing to Safety least. This probably is because the book is not what I expected; it was advertised as tracing the lives of two couples through time. Although the story jumps around in time with the beginning being about the end of Charity's life, most of the story is about their early relationships (first three years or so) of Sid and Charity Lang and Larry and Sally Morgan and the end of the story is a much fuller description of their reunion at the time Charity's dying, a large part of their lives are briefly mentioned but not really discussed.

I will be reading this book again next summer for another book club I'm in. It will be interesting to see how my view of the novel changes on second reading, and how our discussion will go then.

Second ROOT for November and 36th ROOT for the year (6th over goal): House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday, a Native American.

We read this novel, a Pulitzer prize winner "widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream" for our virtual public library book club. (quote from wikipedia.). Many of us found this a difficult novel to read since it jumps around in time, and most of us, unfortunately, are not that familiar with Native American culture. The story is about Abel, a young Native American, who has just come home from serving in World War II. After the war, he has trouble fitting in on his reservation, where he was raised by his grandfather after the death of his mother; he never knew his father. Abel goes to Los Angeles where he finds some other Native Americans. However, he does not adjust to life there either, and after becoming a habitual drunkard, is sent by friends with whom he was living, back to his reservation where he takes care of his dying grandfather. The story contains many Native American myths. It also contains vivid sex scenes with two women -- much more descriptive than any we have read since I joined the book club approximately ten years ago.

We were sorry that we did not have anyone with a Native American background at our meeting. A number of years ago when we read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a middle-aged black man who had a teenage son attended. His participation telling how true to life the book is was invaluable. He described how he was stopped by the police since one of his taillights was dimmer than the other and how he modeled to his son what to do in that kind of situation.

1st ROOT for December and 37th ROOT for the year: The Puzzles of Amish Life by Donald B. Kraybill.

This book is much more substantial than it sounds; Dr. Kraybill answers 18 different questions (puzzles) in explaining Amish culture and life as practiced by the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one of the oldest and largest Amish communities. Sample questions include: "Why do a religious people spurn religious symbols and church buildings?" and "Why is ownership of cars objectionable but not their use?" The Amish have had to adapt to many changes, particularly during the 20th century. This book might be a little out of date having been published in 1998, but it answers a lot of questions I have had over the years since my father was an "expert" on the Amish in the 1950s and 60s.

Happy Holidays!

Thanks Connie. Happy Holidays to you too. Did you get to see your children and grandchildren for Christmas and/or will you see them on New Year's Day?

It will be nice to have 2020 over with! Best wishes for 2021!

Yes, I did get to see them. Yesterday my daughter came for a visit with her boyfriend and Fiene and Marie. Today my son Jeroen came over with his girlfriend and Lonne. That was very lovely. I enjoyed that very much. The kids were instructed not to give cuddles and kisses. So we touched elbows and blew hand-kisses to each other. Marie is to young to understand but she was a bit shy and stayed with Eveline and Cyrille for the first half hour, then she was brave enough to venture into the room and build towers with blocks. Fiene and Lonne did their best to keep distance, but forgot now and then.

I don't know about new year's day yet. We will spend new year's eve alone and maybe visit Jeroen, who lives about 15 minutes away on a bicycle, on New years day (We sold the car because Peet had several minor and one major collisions and we thought it was no longer acceptable for him to drive and I do not have a license.)