What I've Been Reading Recently

My friend Mike Denison has talked to me repeatedly about Larry McMurtry. He and his family went to Texas recently on vacation and they visited McMurtry's bookstores in Archer City. This is something I would like to do. It would greatly enhance my personal library to have a book purchased from Larry McMurtry.

So I've started reading Larry McMurtry in earnest (Oscar Wilde said it was important to be earnest). The most memorable sequence so far is his foursome from The Last Picture Show to the recently released When the Light Goes. If you've read the first three, which include Texasville and Duane's Depressed, and you like the character Duane Moore, and you want an update on the rest of the characters, you'll like When the Light Goes. I can relate to Duane because he is in my age category. In the end, this book is about moving on with your life through the ups and downs.

Dr. Paul Helminger, Department of Physics, Univ. of South Alabama, and I recently discussed David McCullough's 1776. Dr. Helminger likes the book. Even though I love David McCullough, I was underwhelmed by this book. Military history is not my thing.

Dr. Justin Sanders, also Department of Physics, Univ. of South Alabama, has been reading the Taylor Branch 3-volume history of the civil rights movement. He is into volume 2. I read volume 1 last year and was enthralled. Dr. Sanders has inspired me to get back to the series. Volume 3 has just come out in paperback.

This is the definite history of the modern civil rights movement. This is a great reading subject. All of us need to understand what went on in the 50's and 60's.

Julia Polk, Department of Mathematics, Okaloosa Walton Community College, recommended a book by suspense/mystery writer Lisa Gardner called Hide. I must admit that I do not as a rule like mysteries. But, to coin a phrase, rules are meant to be broken, and I loved this one! The story is carefully crafted and kept me guessing (not hard to do) till the end. It's a page-turner almost as if the pages turn themselves.

Jamie Rogers, who works at the Alabama Booksmith, the elite bookstore in the Birmingham area for discriminating readers, recommended Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Not knowing anything about Shirley Jackson except her chilling short story "The Lottery," I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's eerie, but it's also FUNNY. I was shocked and yet delighted at how much humor there is in the book. I'll say more about this book later.

Freddy Hudson II has taught To Kill a Mockingbird to his 9th graders at South Paulding High in Georgia. He and I discussed the novel recently. I was reminded of details that I had forgotten. The time will come come when I will visit with Harper Lee again.

As I write these words, I'm reading a biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson. More about that later.