Author: Lucinda West

This has been an epic autumn. The color is amazing in the northern part of America (including Canada). We are still traveling, and have been on the road since the last day of August (see my last blog for more on the trip). We crossed the Ohio border earlier today.

Our journey did shift a little, when we discovered we needed to take our Airstream to the Mothership to have service validate our floor stains are a warranty issue. If you aren’t following me on FaceBook, you may have missed the Spaghetti Sauce Surprise incident. Basically, our pantry had a faulty latch, which came loose. A jar of spaghetti sauce, as well as a number of canned goods, came out of the pantry. The lid popped off the jar (fortunately it didn’t break), and the cans had fun rolling back and forth throughout the rig, carrying the sauce with them. It was quite an unfortunate surprise when we opened the door at our next stop.

We tried many ways to clean it, and while it is lighter, there are permanent stains that have not come up in spite of all our multiple attempts. Our next course of action was to talk with the service manager in Jackson Center, who identified it as a warranty issue. So, we reached out to the Warranty department at Airstream, since our rig is only a few months old. That’s where we are heading today.

Now for that Book Review. My book club read The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett for our October meeting. I’m trying to keep up with the books even though I’m not going to be there, and I also send in a review each month. I will be there for the November meeting, and I look forward to it. I miss the in-person dialogue.

This is the first book I didn’t finish, in over a year. It started out promising, and I enjoyed reading the first 90-100 pages or so. The story was interesting, with the town of Mallard outside of New Orleans being something I have heard about but didn’t know much information about it. Basically, the black folks there try to “pass” as white, and they are light-skinned and easily passable. That part was intriguing. However, the author started introducing trans and drag queen characters in the second act. And it seemed to me like the author wanted her readers to believe that these relationships are not only normal, but easier to manage than one might experience in real life. She seemed to be comparing the passing from black to white with the passing to another sexual identity, but it is not a good comparison in my opinion.

I didn’t read the whole book, so I can’t fully talk about it intelligently, but I don’t recommend it. ( I did read a full summary of the book on spark notes, and it seems like the book didn’t get any better from there.) If I were rating the book based on the first 100 pages, I would give it a 2 or 3.

I took it with me every time we stopped at a cafe, park, or drove down the road during the month. I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages.

It seems like others in the group didn’t like this book either. Here’s the group review from our wonderful leader.

Seven of us gathered this afternoon to discuss The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett.  We all agreed that the book is all about identity and contrasts. That the book touched on a lot of topics and was a great read for discussion.  All of us had a hard time with the back and forth timelines but we all continued to read on because we wanted to know what happened to Stella.  We found the contrasts always were black and white, Desiree and Stella; Jude and Kennedy; white people vs black people; Desiree who was poor and Stella who was well off.  In our discussion, R. and K. described how skin color does vary in the African Americans and how being “Brighter” is something that is desired in dating, marrying and their offspring.  We also talked about how each of us has hidden an aspect of our identity.  

We rated the book 7.3.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

Today I’m reviewing the book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. We read it in my book club. It’s the first sci-fi book we have read since I joined the club, so it was a nice change of pace (although some of our club members didn’t like it for that reason). Spoiler Alerts!

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to get into, and it captured my attention from the beginning. The plot was so creative, with the idea of alien life as small as an amoeba, as well as all the challenges experienced along the journey. 

I loved Rocky. If a book has an alien, it’s nice to have one that isn’t the traditional green men. He had a sense of humor which made me laugh out loud several times. Comic relief was well done. I can’t imagine how an entire species can be so technologically advanced without any eyesight. I thought that was a bit of a stretch. I was trying to imagine what he might look like, so I look forward to seeing the movie that’s supposed to come out next year, and see how they imagine him. The difference in their atmosphere versus Earth was very interesting as well. 

I enjoyed the interjection of the backstory as Grace’s memory was coming back. How he went from a coward to one courageous dude. 

Several times in the book I predicted what was coming next. The what if’s… what if Taumoeba get into the fuel holder? And it happened. What if it happens to Rocky? Which of course it did. I did not predict, however, that Ryland would choose to stay on Erid in the end. It makes sense, though, as his one true friend lives there. I wanted to know what happened to earth, all those years later, so not knowing was a bit of a disappointment. Coming back after all that time had lapsed could have been interesting, but I understood why the author chose the ending he did.

I was glad they saved both planets. Whew, we can live another day. 

Also, what about Stratt? She was a very interesting character. I can’t imagine the world giving one person on Earth so much power. And the others who found a way to use the alien Astrophage to fuel the ship. Again, brilliant creativity. Our world unified to conquer a common threat…that’s a nice idea. Unity is certainly a nice idea. I wish our planet was more unified than it is.

I would have liked an answer to the question, How did Grace’s crew die?” We know how Rocky’s crew died, which is interesting in itself. Why not his? After all, he is the main character.

The drawing of the Hail Mary and his extensive description makes you feel like it could actually exist; however, the science talk was a bit much for me. I was impressed with the author’s knowledge about it all, though. I would probably read it again.

I rated it an 8.5. 

Here’s what my book club had to say about it.

“Seven of us gathered to discuss Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir this afternoon.  Several of us who do not like Sci-Fi were shocked at how much they liked the book.  Several did not care for all the science detail and skipped it or got bored with it.  But we all loved the friendship of Ryland and Rocky.  We all described what we thought Rocky, Ryland and also Stratt looked like while reading the book.  Pat shared with us how Rocky sounded on the audio book.  We had several good laughs regarding the 2 scientists and how they freely explained they were having sexual intercourse and how often.  Stratt bossing everyone around and getting everything she wants.  How Ryland is drugged to go on the mission.  How Rocky ate?  YUK!!!  And wondered how they will and if they’ll show it in the movie.  Rocky having Ryland watch him sleep.  Our discussion was a lot of fun with this book.  We appreciated how Ryland was so humble and yet brilliant.  We all agreed that it was a good ending and he would never go back to Earth.  Besides us seven, 2 other remotely rated the book and it was rated 8.9.”

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was an intriguing book about the blue people of Kentucky. I did a little research on this, as it seems so far-fetched. My family is from the hills of Kentucky, but I had not heard of it. History majors in my book club had never heard of these people, but indeed they do exist.

Apparently, it’s a very rare genetic condition which causes a white person’s skin to appear blue. Both parents must have the recessive gene. It started when a man from Paris France, who had the recessive gene, moved to rural Kentucky. As fate would have it, he fell in love with a woman who also had the recessive gene. Half of their children were blue, and the other half were white.

The blue-skinned people suffered much racism, and were treated as “colored” folks. It was hard for them to marry, as no one wanted to have children with blue skin. They didn’t have a good understanding of the cause until years later. The book focuses on a blue-skinned woman named “Cussy.” She lives in Troublesome Creek Kentucky. She is a strong female protagonist, and when her mother dies and her father becomes ill, she decides to become a mobile librarian to provide for herself. It came with many challenges, which I won’t give away, but she is an overcomer.

This is based on the true “book women” who would ride on horses or mules to carry books to the mountains where people could not reach a library. The book contains pictures from a historic society of the original book women, which were interesting to see as well. Quite an intriguing history lies behind the novel.

I enjoyed reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, and I learned some things about Kentucky culture that I didn’t already know. I admit it was a challenge to get into it the book at first. I didn’t finish it until after the book club met. I didn’t think I was going to make it to this group due to our Airstream vacation, but we came back early so I was able to go after all. That’s one thing I love about our book club. Even if you haven’t finished the book, you can still talk about it.

One of the other book club members agreed she had the same difficulty getting into the book. Their southern language was written into the dialogue, and it was sometimes hard to understand what the characters were trying to say. However, I enjoyed reading the story and found the character of Cussy to be an inspiration to other underdogs. I also appreciated the extents these book women traveled, as they delivered the books to the mountain people. They didn’t just deliver books. They read letters to the illiterate, taught people how to read, became life-long friends, and served their patrons in ways that were far beyond their expected role. I gave it an 8.5.

Our leader always sums up our discussion. Here’s what she sent us this month. Eight of us gathered on this hot afternoon to discuss The Book Women of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson.  All of us liked the book and most of us knew nothing of the Blue people of the Appalachian or Kentucky.  We all loved Cussy especially since she was such a strong woman and how miserable her life was in Troublesome Creek.  The prejudices, racial tensions even with her peers at the Kentucky Pack Horse Program.  We all thought that the program was so important and courageous and even to this day we discussed how important libraries and reading is to each of us.  We thought about our memories of Mobile Libraries, the smell and exhilaration of escaping in books, Reader’s Digest; Highlight magazines, etc.  Some of us had a hard time getting into it but then thought it was very well written. We rated the book an 8.7.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!