BExtraordinaire Reads
Have you read it?I recently finished Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. The main character Olive Kitteridge is a force to be reckoned with. She is a 64 year old retired math teacher who lives in a small town in Maine. She is one of those people, (we all know one) who has no filters and blurts out whatever she is thinking. She intimidates most the people in her small town without even knowing. In this town, everyone has problems and Olive arrives on the scene to help. The book is funny, smart and depressing at times. Her husband once described kissing Olive was like kissing a "barnacled whale." He meant that in a good way.
HBO has a mini-series based on the novels. I have only seen a snippet but it is a riot. Here is the link to when Olive (Frances McDormand) meets Jack (Bill Murray). |
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
I am reading this now. American Spy is a spy thriller about a black woman, Marie Mitchell who joins the FBI and becomes a spy. The book is based on a true story of Thomas Sankara, militant and former President of Burkina Faso. This story is told by Marie mostly through letters to her young children to be read after her death. Read a review from WP. This is a debut novel for Lauren Wilkinson. Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
A friend recommended this book to me and it's making it way up to the top of the stack. This book is next after I finish Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham, a fascinating read about the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster. Read the review from the Wall Street Journal. The Worse Case Scenario by By
Jeremy Bernstein Updated Feb. 8, 2019 5:23 pm ET Ok, I couldn't resist. I read the first page of Something in the Water.. Wow, what an opener. The first sentence: "Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave?" |
