FTWBooks2024

This David Baldacci book is actually two books.  The date is 1968.  It tells the story of Jack Lee, a white lawyer in Southern Virginia, who is talked into representing  Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly, wealthy white couple for whom he worked .    Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth and a judge who is a former member of the KKK. In addition to the actual story of investigating the murder charges, this book shows how terrible life is for Black residents in the area.  At one point, DuBose goes into a Catholic church to pray and is ordered out by the monsignor because no n_____ can enter his church.  Both attorneys face threats to their lives, Jack's office is burned down.  If you thi...

 I have been a fan of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, pretty much since she started her TV show on The Food Network.  I love watching her make food, so simple and easy and, apparently, delicious. Now she has written a memoir and it's delightful.  I got it as soon as it was released and read it pretty much non stop until I finished it. My goodness, what a life she has led!  Coming from a family with a rate-a-holic father who would pull her around the floor by her hair when he was angry with her, and a mother who was incapable of showing any affection whatsoever, from a childhood where she was told she was worthless, that nobody would like her, that she would never find anyone who wanted to marry her, she has accomplished such an amazing number of things and has the marriage that everyone would dream of. After working at many jobs in many fields, she was working at a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, DC and hating it, when she saw a tiny ad for the sale of a sp...

While watching Miriam and Alan Lost in Scotland  I was quite taken by Miriam Margolyes and when I found out she had written an autobiography, I had to read it. I would give this five stars, except that it is written for a British audience.  She tells her entire professional history, naming perhaps hundreds of people with whom she has worked, but even though I am a theater person, I only recognized the names of a handful of them, until she got to the USA and started making movies.  There is also a lot about her feelings about British politics that it's difficult to follow. That said, this is an otherwise delightful book and it got me checking out movies she has made ( James and the Giant Peach is just plain weird !) and the wonderful 3 part documentary she made to learn about Australia, after she became a citizen of that country.  (I was disappointed that she never went to Western Australia and in 3 hours of material, we never see one single kangaroo!) As I said, I wo...

  After the horrible experience of reading "Annie's Rainbow," Jeri and I took on this Kristen Hannah book, which was wonderful.  This is a family story, featuring Angie, who has always wanted a baby, but can't bring a pregnancy to fruition.  After her father's death, she decides to return home and see if she can't help the family restaurant, which is failing. At the same time, there is Lauren, a high school student with an alcoholic mother, who is trying to raise money to pay the rent on their apartment. Angie and Lauren become friends.  Lauren goes to work in the restaurant and becomes part of Angie's family, especially after her mother leaves her.   Lauren has some serious problems which tear her away from the family, but she and Angie manage to work things out in a way that is satisfactory for both of them. This was such a fun read!

I didn't finish this book....too ridiculous.    Jeri and I finished "The Elephant Keeper" and are now reading "Annie's Rainbow" by Fern Michaels.   I told Jeri  I'd read a Fern Michaels book and it was really good, so I  thought I'd get another?  I just checked my book reports and it wasn't Fern Michaels, it was  Freida McFadden, which may explain why we're having such a problem with this book.  We haven't decided if we are going to finish it or not. Here is a bit of a summary of the things we're having problems with.  Two friends in Boston are going to move to North Carolina to start a business.  In Boston, they take a walk around the grounds of Boston College...which has no grounds to walk around (Jeri tells me).   Before they move, there is a bank robbery of half a million dollars in small bills that can't be traced, all stuck in a satchel which nobody can find after  the robbery.  Then Annie finds the satchel...

This is a somewhat strange story, set in the mid 1700s, of two young elephants and the boy (Tom) who saves  their lives and becomes their keeper.  The first part of this book was fascinating.   Since it is set in the 18th century, nothing whatever is known of elephants, and as Tom begins to learn about his elephants and write about them, he gives a detailed analysis of what elephants are, how they feel (physically), how they react ... things that in the 21st century we think we know, but it's nice to have it all written out. Tom gives the elephants names -- Timothy (named for Tom's father), and Jenny, though nobody else knows their names.  When Timothy starts to age and goes into his first musth and becomes volatile, Tom has to keep him tied to a tree until he returns to normal. Because of his musth periods, which nobody understands, Timothy is ultimately sold to someone else, and Tom and Jenny become best friends.  As the book progresses, their "conversati...