Daniel Vogel
Entertaining. I read if for my book club and will be interested to hear others take on it. I love the mid-west locale. I like that it addresses issues around the end of life.
Too much fantasy.
Flat r characters who i could not believe in. The dire situations that the main character found himself in were uninteresting as I knew something would step in to save him.
Good historical period
I grew to like the characters. They are too one dimensional. The descriptions of the various scenes are too sparse. But what there is is very interesting. I was sorry to see the series end.
Another trip down memory lane
Loved these stories. I say from a simpler time but the second world war plays a part in several of them
Takes me back to a simpler time that wasn't as simple or timeless as one would think. People are people.
Great resource on how to do family history
In subfamily history just dates are too dry. Some are fortunate to have had stories past down but others for whatever reason lost those stories. This is one attempt to recapture them
Loved it.
So sad it couldn't go on. Such a short time filled with laughter, tears, and heart. Thanks for reminding me of the goodness in mankind.
Fifty years later and we are still screwed
Here is the history you don't get in the schools or press. America first last and always for the rich.
The title summarizes the book
The question of what we can do to get of our current situation is attempted to be answered in this book.
Great story. Kept me guessing with all the puzzles to solve. Much better than the movie. Your mind can always create an imaginary world much better than any movie.
James McBride always amuses me with his characters and the situations that they get themselves into and out of. The stories are sad and happy. I am also fascinated by his use of dialect and idiom.
Wife does it again
Another twist and turn using science and human nature. Short but a pleasure to inhabit this world of a future starting tomorrow
Wow!
What a difficult book for me to read. But so informative. I have tried to reduce my racism and I can see from this book how I have failed. I can also see a way to proceed forward. So many good ideas. But first recognizing that the problem with racism is my problem not theirs or those other people, you know who I'm talking about. I'm the one in control of myself.
For me to get a better understanding of what is going on, I shifted the problem to alcohol. Imagine you have a drink get in your car and hurt someone. Clearly you weren't drunk. You aren't one of those people, alcoholics. But you did hurt someone. Your reaction time is slowed by alcohol. So maybe you aren't legally responsible but if you were sober you would have been paying more attention to your driving, not getting into the song on the radio and could have avoided that accident. Now you are not a bad person but still what to you call someone who hurts someone else and doesn't try and correct their mistake? Just watch any TV and you can see lots of affirmations about the benefits of drinking. The media is responsible for how we see the world. If anyone was to suggest that your drinking led to the accident you would vehemently deny it. You were not drunk!
Similarly, we live in a world of white privilege. We run over people without thinking and will then feel distress once this is pointed out to us. It wasn't our intention to do harm. But it is not the responsibility of the pedestrian to comfort the driver who has just run them down. Maybe we should all take a “White” test before we are allowed to get behind the wheel in our current society. Since that is not possible, it behooves us to check the mirrors before we back over someone.
This book is a good instruction manual in how we drive through our life as a white person in a racially constructed society. Again a hard book to read but worth the effort.
As always Ellis Peters delivers a great thoughtful recreation of a time before the enlightenment when people were more concerned with practical matters and less with being seen as right.
I read this for my book club. Most people really loved this book and got a lot out of it. For me it was a little too forgiving of past presidents. I don't think we got were we are because of the current occupant. That being said I would have liked a more balance. Churchill was great for saving us from Hitler but really bad in dealing with the British Raj. I don't expect my leaders to be saints but when they rise above their own prejudices and do the right thing, I think showing that is a better story. This book is good showing the high points of leaders and the low points of others. I would it would have shown less hero worship and more recognition of the interior battles we all fight to attain to our better angels.
More Horror than SciFi
All the stories were excellent. It's just i was looking for more hard scifi. Only really one of them. Maybe I should broaden my reading to horror. It seems to be popular now. “Get Out” and “Us” as recent examples in the movies
I found some of the chapters very engaging. Some were self indulgent. But I think that is what the author was trying to convey. Reading this after the pandemic I wonder if I would have had a different opinion about world travel to desolate places. I loved her puncturing her own self opinion of herself as a graduate student. I cringe when I remember my own opinion of myself when I was younger. The book was worth the effort to read.
Very intriguing topic. Change the power structure so women are more powerful than men and what happens. Following the shift tracking the steps which leads to the flipping of society. Interesting framing it as a look back from 5,000 years in the future.
Wonderful story
People can be changed by the force of character. An old woman and a.middle-aged man bound over counting pigeons. Leading to a life changing experience for them and now me too.