WUFU3

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

March 2021

Three of the books I read this month were birthday gifts. Most months I celebrate birthdays with a group of friends and books are common gifts. I told them years ago that I didn’t want them to buy gifts for me. Just go to your book shelves and select ones you think I would like or should read. Some years I get as many as thirty books. It’s always interesting to see what they choose for me. Fortunately, they aren’t the type to underline passages or I would think it was meant for me. I confess these three were given to me three years ago, so I have been behind in my gift book reading.

Olive Kitteridge (2008)                                                        by Elizabeth Strout

This book has no beginning or end. It could go on forever with tales of one troubled relationship after another. Take your pick---spouse, children, parents, co-worker, neighbor, in-laws, even friends. Like the lives of any community, the names changes, but the stories continue and could go on forever. There are a lot more cold prickly lines than warm fuzzies in the thirteen vignettes that Olive Kitteridge either observes or experiences. To be fair, don’t each of us have our warts and cracks in relationships? I hope you don’t want to read about mine.

The Other Einstein (2016)                                                 by Marie Benedict

We seldom get the back story on famous people like Albert Einstein. Reading about his relationship with his first wife (now three’s a clue!) made me feel sad, proud, empathetic, and finally respectful. It was painful reading about repeated experiences of unrewarded contributions and sacrifice. It was uplifting to learn of her professional skills that equaled or maybe exceeded her husband’s. Yet, through repeated deceptions, her contributions were stolen and unrecognized. As her marriage dissolved, she first lost her scientific partner, then her husband. This was my Book-of-the-Month runner-up.

 Book of the Month

The Queen’s Promise (2019)                                          by Brenda Vantrease Rickman

This Nashville author has coached me with some of my writing and publishing pursuits, so I may be prejudiced in naming this my Book-of-the-Month. If you like seventeenth century historical novels, I predict you will name this your Book-of-the-Month without prejudice. Brenda delicately places shards of history from her deep research and makes you think every word is from her eyewitness account. She places imaginary characters alongside historical figures in a Forest Gump way, but more believable. Only two years of King Charles reign is covered, so she can get a lot more books out of the English monarchies and does in the Broken Kingdom series.

The Blue Kingfisher (2018)                                               by Erica Wright

When you have known an author for thirty years, it’s easy to imagine that a character’s words have come out of her mouth, even if the novel doesn’t even closely resemble an autobiography. We usually write from what’s in us, so if Erica lived there, it will become a story setting. I’m just glad I’ve never shown up as inspiration for one of the characters, at least I don’t think I have. Usually, I want murder mysteries to get to the big reveal. I wanted the intrigue of this one to keep going and never get solved. I guess that’s what makes this Kate Stone series a success and leaves me waiting for the next edition. Maybe it will feature Knoxville.