Read and Weep/Laugh/Hope
Owning a bookstore (which actually owns me) doesn't get any better than the advanced reader shelf. Oh wait, it does get better. Talking to all of you readers who come in to find the book you will love -- that gets better. But the advanced reader shelf where the copies to be published are stashed -- it is VERY good. When Killers of the Flower Moon came in, I noticed that it was by David Grann who wrote The Lost City of Z. That made the book promising. The demi-title "The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" gave me a start. I knew about the murders of the oil rich Osage but the connection to the birth of the FBI -- that was a new slant. Turns out I didn't know much, really, about what happened to Osage people in the early 1920's. This book, written as detective fiction by a master of the genre, was impossible to put down. All I can say is get it now and read it now. I still think about Killers of the Flower Moon and I still see the beautiful faces in the photographs that Grann includes. Given the political climate in which Tribal Nations are going to be pressed even harder to give up energy resources to greedy corporations, in the light of Standing Rock, of Line 3, and Rick Nolan trying to reverse the sulfide ban and endanger the boundary waters, this book is as timely as it is shocking. And as distressing as it is compassionately told. And yet, please let me remind you, this is a read you will not put down.
Shifting gears -- there is Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. I hardly ever laugh out loud when I am reading, so I was very surprised to hear laughter in the room. Yes, it was me, and the book is clever and full of heart and joy and origami. A couple of perfectly mismatched human beings try to love their heart winning Asberger's son (an origami prodigy) as they try to stay married and deal with a constant barrage of absurd guests.
Back to extraordinary tragedy -- and unbearable strength. A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea is the journey of Doaa Al Zamel (as told to Melissa Fleming). I can't begin to describe the fury that captured me after reading this book. It helped me understand what happened in Syria, and put a deeply human face upon one desperate family trying to save one another. Please read this book and pass it on to others. Help more people understand why the immorality and cruelty of the Trump administration's Anti Muslim and Anti Immigrant actions are intolerable and shame our country.
