What good book have you read lately? (New or old)

[CellarDweller115]

10 New(ish) Books for Black History Month

So, you've already read the classics — Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston. But what's next? Here are 10 nonfiction books, all published in the past five years, that can help you expand your understanding of African American history and culture.

https://people.com/books/ten-newish-books-for-black-history-month/

[CellarDweller115]

Arts Escape Virtual Book Club on Wednesday, February 15

Arts Escape is now accepting registrations for their Virtual Book Club in February. This class will be held online through Zoom.

For this month, facilitator Cathy Capuano will lead AE’s Book Club in reading Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. The book club meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 15 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons--and the unpredictable forces of nature and society--he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.

https://news.hamlethub.com/southbury/events/6098-arts-escape-virtual-book-club-february-2023

[tfferg]

I wanted to read David Santos Donaldson's novel Greenland (2021) when it was advertised as telling the story of the relationship between E M Forster and Mohammed el-Adl, the young Black Egyptian tram conductor he fell in love with in British-ruled Alexandria during World War I, from Mohammed's point of view.

David Santos Donaldson is a queer Black writer who grew up and was educated in The Bahamas under British rule.

Greenland is an intricately multifaceted novel within a novel that blends fact with fiction. It is narrated by Kipling Starling, a queer Black Bahamian aspiring writer who lives in Brooklyn with his white husband. He struggles for years to write and have a novel published about Forster and Mohammed el-Adl. Finally an editor tells him that his novel could only be publishable if it were written from Mohammed's viewpoint.

Kip searches desperately for material, but he has only the limits of Mohammed's letters to draw on before he died so young until "strange things" happen and the long dead Mohammed speaks to him from the past.

The novel insightfully explores the challenges of romanic relationships between whites and Black or colonised partners.

Recent social and political developments in many countries make it a timely book.

[ingmarnicebbmt]

[janiebbmart]

Hi. I'm posting a link to a BBC adaptation of Madeline Miller's "Song of Achilles" which comes in fifteen minute episodes.  It's beautifully read by Tom Hollander and covers the story of Achilles and Patroclus leading up to and during the Trojan War.  I loved the original book and am really enjoying this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m001vsfx

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am finally reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams. I've always felt a sort of affinity for Adams, I guess you would say, because I've felt he hasn't necessarily gotten the recognition he deserves. You hear/read a lot about Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton, but as far as I know, not so much about Adams.

What's really remarkable, I think, is the role his wife, Abigail, played in his life, Abigail Adams may best be known for urging her husband "to remember the ladies." McCullough says she was actually at least partly teasing her husband when she wrote that, but in any case it's clear from their correspondence that Adams treated his wife as an equal partner in their marriage. He never condescended or spoke down to her because she was a woman, and he respected her judgment. Their marriage really was a partnership as well as a love story.

(I love that name, Abigail. If I'd had a daughter, that's what I would have wanted to name her.)

[Lyle (Mooska)]

There's a new horror film called Abigail!

John Adams is portrayed in the Franklin series I watched this past summer.

Wondering, have you ever seen the 7 episode mini-series about John Adams? He was portrayed by Paul Giamatti.
I believe Laura Linney played Abigail. I have never seen it. I should look to see if it's available anywhere. I first really
learned a lot about John Adams from the 1776 musical. ("He's obnoxious and disliked, did you know that?")

Pins,
Abigail

Saltpetre,
John


I recently heard that Ken Burns has a series about the American Revolution ready to premier at some point.
Should be excellent.

[Jeff Wrangler]

There's a new horror film called Abigail!

John Adams is portrayed in the Franklin series I watched this past summer.

Wondering, have you ever seen the 7 episode mini-series about John Adams? He was portrayed by Paul Giamatti.
I believe Laura Linney played Abigail. I have never seen it. I should look to see if it's available anywhere. I first really
learned a lot about John Adams from the 1776 musical. ("He's obnoxious and disliked, did you know that?")

Pins,
Abigail

Saltpetre,
John


I recently heard that Ken Burns has a series about the American Revolution ready to premier at some point.
Should be excellent.

Now that you mention it I remember learning from somewhere that there was a series about Adams with Giamatti, but I haven't seen it.

Don't judge Adams by the fictionalized version of him in 1776. He was not obnoxious and disliked; he was well respected and appointed to numerous important committees. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania may not have liked him very much (Dickinson was opposed to declaring independence).

Believe it or not, there is actually an index entry in the bio for pins! Because they were among items in short supply in Massachusetts because of the fighting, Abigail wanted them in bulk to sell for hard money or use in barter. There is no evidence that he asked her to send saltpetre (needed for making gunpowder). Adams did make a to-do list for the colonies which included erecting powder mills and making saltpetre, but at least that early in the war, it appears the colonies were being quite well supplied with gunpowder being brought in from the Dutch West Indies.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am finally reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams.

John and Abigail's correspondence is famous and of course plays a large role in the biography, but McCullough doesn't go into something that I have begun to wonder about: How did their letters reach each other? With John in Philadelphia attending the Continental Congress, and Abigail at home in Braintree, Massachusetts, and a British army occupying New York City, how did their letters get through?

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Don't judge Adams by the fictionalized version of him in 1776. He was not obnoxious and disliked; he was well respected and appointed to numerous important committees.

I'd say you could be both of those things, no? (Like Gore Vidal, heh!) Adams actually described himself as "obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular" in a letter he wrote when he was 87 years old. The Franklin series is based on Stacy Schiff's 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America.

A little more info I've learned about Ken Burns' documentary:

Ken Burns is working on a six-part, 12-hour series about the American Revolution called The American Revolution. The series is scheduled for release in fall 2025. The series will explore the Revolutionary generation's humanity, the crisis they faced, and the men and women who fought in the war. Burns aims to counter myths about the American Revolution by presenting a more nuanced portrait of the diverse group of people who fought in the war.

I'm definitely in.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

How did their letters reach each other?

I spent a few minutes trying to search this question. I got scant information like this:

John and Abigail Adams used a variety of methods to send their letters, including:
Trustworthy messengers: They used trustworthy messengers to send their letters.
Careful wording: They were careful not to say too much in their letters because mail could be intercepted.

One of their letters was intercepted and published in a newspaper.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'd say you could be both of those things, no? (Like Gore Vidal, heh!) Adams actually described himself as "obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular" in a letter he wrote when he was 87 years old. The Franklin series is based on Stacy Schiff's 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America.

You can also be those things at different times in your life, too. I was specifically thinking of that song in 1776 (I think it has to do with who will write the Declaration of Independence) where Adams sings, "I'm obnoxious and disliked, you know that's true."

According to McCullough, during the Second Continental Congress, he was not obnoxious and disliked.

On the other hand, during his years in Paris, the men he worked with didn't like him very much. Again according to McCullough, Franklin  basically stabbed him in the back, and Jefferson had some pretty nasty things to say about him, too (though they became the best of friends.

Schiff is a good writer. I recommend her book on the Salem witch trials. I won't go into that in case anyone actually wants to read it.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Thanks, Jeff!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I know I said I wasn't going to say anymore about Schiff's book about the Salem trials, but here I will mention that one thing I like about the book is that she goes into the lives of the people involved both before and after the Salem trials. For example, two of the teenage girls who were among the "afflicted" were refugees from the warfare then going on in Maine between the English settlers on the one hand and the French and their Native American allies on the other. Who knew? What effect might that have had on their mental and emotional state when the witchcraft accusations were first made?

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Interesting, Jeff.