Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel - Sam...

Charles Dickens is having financial problems. His last book did not sell well. His publishers are threatening to deduct money from his royalties for their loss. They tell him he must write a Christmas story with less than two months before Christmas. He has lost his muse. At home, his wife is having baby number six. She is obsessed with their Christmas party. His children are obsessed with what they want for Christmas. Charles has lost his way and his good cheer for Christmas. He is fighting with everyone. He does not want to write a Christmas story but needs the money. Can he find his muse? Can he find the spirit of Christmas?

I loved this story. I felt like I was in Dickens' London. I love the nods to his other works, words, and characters. The characters of Dickens, his family, his friends, and his rivals were wonderful. I felt like I knew them and loved or hated them. I liked how he had to go back to the beginning to find his story. I enjoyed his interactions with Eleanor who points out what he feels, what he's missing, and what he needs. She is so spot on.

This book resonated with me. I will tell you to keep the tissue handy. You will need it. These people were so real to me. I hated leaving them. This is a keeper. Maybe not one I can read every Christmas season but one that needs a re-read and someone else to discuss it with each reading. There is so much there. So much wisdom, so much delight.

My annual reading of A Christmas Carol. I always enjoy watching Scrooge change his ways. This time I picked up some new things that Scrooge says and does. Didn't expect that after all these years of reading it. Worth reading. The Christmas season would not be complete without reading this.

The thrust of this easy to read and highly informative book is that power structures in America and disenfranchised whites have one thing that bind them together, a determination to prevent African-American success. The chapters take us from the end of the civil war and the reconstruction through to the first black president in the US, Obama. It studies the gymnastics, sleight of hand, and frequently extremely violent terrorist acts involved in maintaining segregation after in was legally outlawed in the 1960s, and how a coup in Nicaragua was tied into criminalising black communities in the US. The more left-wing of us might wonder at the restraint of African-Americans at times, and this book delves into the history of that and how every act of resistance in the last 350 years has been met with disproportionate, murderous punishment in order to protect white communities against even the discomfort of black success. It's a great book if you're wondering how we arrived at the BLM movement today.

It's Juneteenth, the day the last enslaved person was told the war was over and they were free. Yesterday, I attended (via Zoom) a panel discussion organized by Next Gen Climate Action Committee, a political action group my friend works for, on Celebrating Juneteenth and Ensuring Black Voices in Progressive Spaces. It was a great discussion and I am glad my friend invited me, considering I live in Kansas and the group works in VA on VA matters/policies. Rep Don Scott really spoke to my head and heart and he was on for just a few minutes. 

It's rainy and much cooler here, so no poolside reading today. I've got a beef soup simmering in the slow cooker for dinner; just have to whip up some cornbread to go with it and I am good to go. Spending the day reading and tonight I am going to watch Soledad O'Brien's documentary on the early days of COVID-19 in the US (it is airing on Hearst stations, so I am hoping to catch it streaming online).

Tomorrow is Litha/Summer Solstice and I have plans: including a hamburger picnic (using a plant-based "ground beef") and making Lemon-Ginger-Raspberry Zinger sun tea, while reading in the sunshine. Sunday is Father's Day, so I making a special easy breakfast for the hubby to enjoy, followed by pool time and a nice dinner. 

I'm finishing up Birth of the Butterfly for BL-opoly, then taking the weekend off from the game; right after that I want to knock out finally Proper English by KJ Charles. For COYER #BLM RAT, I am reading The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole and New Year, Same Trash by Samantha Irby. That's my weekend. 

Next week I will be working my way through Beneath a Ruthless Sun and One Person, No Vote for the library's adult SRP prompts. I swapped out Once Upon a Wedding anthology (that first story is a slog and I am still not done with it) with Love by the Letters anthology which I should get done by the end of the week (it is only 3 stories). I might just skip to the Sonali Dev's and Pricilla Oliveras' stories in the Wedding anthology and call it good - those were the reasons for picking up the anthology in the first place. And then whatever the BL game goddesses decide for me to read. 

Happy Juneteenth! Happy Father's Day! Happy Reading!

My local library has re-opened for business. The Summer Reading Program (SRP) is still virtual; story time is on FB Live once a week and then you can grab a craft to do at home at the library's lobby. You log your reading and activities via Beanstack.org. There is also a story walk around the playground across the side street from the library; the story is changed out weekly. Computer Lab is still closed as well as the rooms to rent and the bathrooms. 

Honestly, I am glad the library is re-opened but I am taking precautions (the kids and I wearing masks, using the self-checkout kiosk rather than the front desk, 6ft distancing, etc). Our OverDrive is starting to be a PITA because everyone was borrowing so many books that I wanted that the wait times for some books was 6 weeks or more. And those books I need for the adult version of SRP - it's not how much (in minutes) reading you do, it is reading for the prompts given. And the SRP ends July 31st.

I picked up two books for two prompts: for true crime, Beneath A Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King; for the graphic novel prompt, The Dressmaker by Jen Wang. I picked up One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson from the #BLM and Social Justice lists going around. Finally, just because I am a weirdo, another disease book - The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steve Johnson.