No.373: My Latest Reads // March 2020

#16. GHOST: MY THIRTY YEARS AS AN FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo || ★★★☆☆
I love a good undercover memoir!  This wasn’t as good as American Radical, but still interesting and entertaining.  Heads up: it was a little crass at times and had lots of language.

#17. I LET YOU GO by Clare Mackintosh || ★★☆☆☆
Well, this thriller was a wild ride!  It turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be, which was both a good and a bad thing.  Definitely a page turner, but the main parts (death of a child by vehicular negligence, domestic abuse) were a little too icky for me.

#18. NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenreich || ★★☆☆☆
I really wanted to like this book about the difficulties of the working poor.  Unfortunately, while there were some thought-provoking parts, I just couldn’t get past the author’s condescending tone.  It felt like she would start to defend her coworkers, only to bash them in the next sentence.

#19. PRINCE CASPIAN by C.S. Lewis || ★★★☆☆
Our third read aloud from the Chronicles of Narnia series!

#20. DEAR EDWARD by Ann Napolitano || ★★★★☆
Thank you Shelly for sharing this book with me!  I enjoyed this story of survival and grief and healing. It was melancholy in tone, but I didn’t find it depressing.  Another reminder to treat everyone you meet with kindness because you never know the crosses they bear.

#21. MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite || ★★★☆☆
A short, unique story with dark humor.

#22. THE LATIN MASS EXPLAINED by Msgr. George J. Mooreman || ★★★★★
My sister-in-law gave me this book last year and while I’ve browsed through parts of it, this was the first time I read it cover to cover!  WOW.  So so good and gives me a whole new love for the Mass and the Eucharist.

#23. THE CHILDREN’S BLIZZARD by David Laskin || ★★★☆☆

It’s hard to find vocabulary for weather this cold. The senses become first sharp and then dulled. Objects etch themselves with hyperclarity on the dense air, but it’s hard to keep your eyes open to look at them steadily. When you first step outside from a heated space, the blast of 46-below-zero air clears the mind like a ringing slap. After a breath or two, ice builds up on the hairs lining your nasal passages and the clear film bathing your eyeballs thickens. If the wind is calm and if your body, head, and hands are covered, you feel preternaturally alert and focused. At first. A dozen paces from the door, your throat begins to feel raw, your lips dry and crack, tears sting the corners of your eyes. The cold becomes at once a knife and, paradoxically, a flame, cutting and scorching exposed skin. (20%)

This was a random pick from the library!  It’s about a huge blizzard in 1888 that came out of nowhere and was absolutely devastating.  The storm is sometimes called “The Children’s Blizzard” because of the numerous children that were killed on their way home from school.  A sad but interesting part of history and I learned a lot about hypothermia and meteorology too.

#24. STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS by Michael O’Brien || ★★★☆☆
This is an epic story about one woman’s life in British Columbia and her search for truth and faith and love.  The story is a slow burn, but I enjoyed it.  There were a few parts that veered into magical realism and a few parts that I’m sure when straight over my head (clearly, I’m not as well educated!) but overall, a lot of beautiful writing and much to think about.  3.5 stars.  (This was also my 1997 pick for the 20th Century Reading Challenge.)