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). |
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
I am reading this now. The Library Book is a wonderful book about libraries and how they work. It also tells the story of the disastrous fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Public Library on April 28, 1986. The devastating fire did not get much press because it happened the same time as the Chernobyl Nuclear meltdown.
Literature and library lovers, this is a must read novel. My first and favorite job was a library page. This book takes me back. One of activities was to re-shelve the returned books. I recall sitting between the rows taking more books off the shelves than putting back on the shelves. I counted 30 books in the backseat of my car one day after work. All these years later, I am still a book lover. Bookies, remember reading The Orchid Thief a few years back by Susan Orleans? We loved it! 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?" |
