Year 4, week 24: Jack

This week's book:

Jack

By Marilynne Robinson

This week's book was the first book of the year for my book group. It happens to be about… well, I don't exactly know because I was lost the majority of the time. I tried really hard to get into it, but it's the fourth or fifth in the series and I haven't read any of the other books. The first book, Gilead, won a Pulitzer Prize. 

The books are based in Iowa, my family's favorite state, but I just struggled. There are two main characters who come from different backgrounds: the guy is an alcoholic and is white, and the woman is a teacher and black. The book is based in the 1950’s when racism was even worse than it is now. The characters are falling in love, but because of all the hatred about biracial couples, there is so much struggle. 

The fact that I don't know any of their backstories for the most part, made the struggle even harder for me to read. There are no chapters in the novel and I was just lost. I understand anyone would have been lost if they were jumping into a book series late to the game, but I was in a bind to read it for the book group. In an ideal world, I would have been able to read the rest of the series before I read this novel, but I didn’t. I think that most of the people in my book group have read other books in this series for this book group in the past, so it wasn't a big deal for them to read it. However, I haven't been in the group as long. 

I will say that the book imagery was very well written. I just wish I would have had the chance to know all the past stories before reading this one. If you have read the series I'm assuming you'll love Jack as well; as a stand alone book, it was hard to follow. 

Year 4, week 23: A Promised Land

This week's book

A Promised Land 

By Barack Obama

I have a confession, I actually read/listened to this book last month while I was sewing all the gifts I was making for the holidays, but I wanted to wait until President Biden was sworn in to post this. It's no secret that I have loved Barrack Obama for years. When everyone else in college was pulling for Hillary I was standing behind good old B-Rock. I even went to see him speak at my college, I got within five feet of him. Dreams of my Father (one of his other books) is amazing and one of the first political books I have ever been able to get through. When Michelle Obama's book came out recently, I devoured it and absolutely loved hearing about their marriage and early life. However, I should really start to talk about this book and not my love of of our former president. 

I'm really glad that I listened to this instead of trying to read this book because it's over seven hundred pages long. Unlike Dreams of my Father, which like I said earlier that I read in college, this book is a little dry. He gives some us some of his upbringing and early in his marriage/becoming a father, but for the most part the book is about his run for president and his first term in office. I was kind of bummed it only covered his first term, especially since, like I said, it was over seven hundred pages, but he said early in the book this would be only volume one of his story. That being said, it was still awesome to hear President Obama read his own story; he narrated the audiobook. I may have put the speed on double because he talks so slowly, but I always forget how much I love hearing him talk. 

If you would like to learn about being the leader of the free world, or just love Obama as much as I do, I would definitely recommend checking this book out.

Year 4, week 22: Ready Player Two

This week's book:
Ready Player Two
By Ernest Cline

Notes from the Hubby: I enjoyed the first book, even though the heavy handed pop culture references and main character's excessive nihilism were a bit grating at times. Sadly, this book appears to have cranked both of these up to 11, which of course is a reference to Nigel's amp from This is Spinal Tap (sorry, couldn't resist).

I wanted to like the second book. It had some interesting concepts, like a new scavenger hunt, and new technology that changed the OASIS from a VR simulation to a fully immersive brain link akin to The Matrix (and yes, the book makes that reference, too). But each step in this new scavenger hunt was way too drawn out, like the author wanted to show off pop culture trivia more than he wanted to tell a story. I mean, I like John Hughes movies as much as the next 80’s kid, but holy crap that part of the book went on forever.

I also didn’t care much for the ending or the character development in this sequel. I can’t dive too deep into these issues without spoiling the plot, but I was disappointed.

 

This is the sequel of Ready Player One, which came out a few years ago. It was made into a movie as well. The hubs and I read it when the original came out and really liked it, both the film and the book. It's the story of how the whole world lives in this simulated reality, where you can do or be whoever you want. There is this big scavenger hunt and it's filled with all these pop culture references, which make it so much fun! When I found out that the author wrote a second book, I added it to my next Book of the Month box. I gifted my hubby the book for Christmas and we dove right into it that night. 

I'm going to be honest, I just didn't enjoy this one as much as the first book. The first book was such a cool idea, but I thought the plot had pretty much been told which made me feel like the second book just fell flat for me. 

I would probably still recommend the book if you have read the first book, I was just disappointed in this one. 

Year 4, week 21: Pete and Chasten Buttigieg

Two books this week, from Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten:

I Have Something to Tell You

By Chasten Buttigieg

A while back I read Mayor Pete's first book. Pete Buttigieg was one of dozens of the people who were running for president last year. The difference with Mayor Pete is that he's about my age give or take about five years. He was the mayor of South Bend and he happens to be gay. This week's book is Pete's husband's book. I didn't know much about Chasten before I checked out this book from the library. I only knew he was a high school teacher and he was married to Pete. 

I actually finished the book in about a day and a half, thanks to our one year old not wanting to sleep this week. Where Pete is so accomplished and I am sure he will be president some day, like seriously l am 100% sure he will, Chasten is a bit more relatable. Chasten didn't know what he wanted to do with his life and so college was hard; he tried to be an actor, worked at Starbucks and had crippling student/medical debt. He had a hard time coming out to his family and was sexually assaulted later. Chasten also talks like a person next door. His memoir is very much more down to Earth and his vocabulary is more boy-next-door. In his own words, he humanizes his husband. 

I would highly recommend this book. 

Trust: America's Best Chance

By Pete Buttigieg

This is Pete Buttigieg's second book. The joke goes that while the rest of us were binging Netflix during the pandemic, Pete wrote a book. This book was a little more dry then his first book, which was more of a memoir of his life at the time. It took me a minute to get into this book; he talks quite a bit about how a lot of people are struggling to trust the people around them, and especially the people that are in charge. He talks about police brutality and the BLM movement, and how people are losing trust. He talks about how the people running the country lost a lot of trust with their actions over the last four years. 

I listened to the book as an audiobook and it helped me get even more fired up because he just has a presidential voice. He does talk about his run for president and that was interesting as well. The book ends with his concession speech when he announced he was suspending his run for president for the 2020 election. I had never heard/read the transcript before, and I was glad I had read Chasten's book first because Chasten had discussed his part of the speech in his book as well. This book ended up being very inspiring to what a person of substance can say. 

I would highly recommend it. 

Added note: my sweet husband and I have started calling Mayor Pete, "Secretary-Mayor Pete" and will keep adding his new tittle until he becomes President...Secretary-Mayor Pete someday. 

Year 4, week 20: This Time Next Year

This week's book:

This Time Next Year

Sophie Cousens

The first book of 2021 is a little romance about New Year's Day. This woman has always had bad luck on her birthday, January 1st. The day she was born, she barely missed being the first baby of the year, which would have brought her parents a cash prize. Funny enough, both my father-in-law and mom missed being the first babies of the year as well. She meets the guy that was the first baby of the year and they make "friends". The plot jumps around to their different birthdays and shows how their lives evolved. 

The plot is kind of like the film When Harry Met Sally meets the book One Day by David Nicholls. The book had been a option on my Book of the Month, but I was able to reserve it on audiobook from the library so I didn't end up buying it. I was listening to it for the last little while, but I wanted it to be finished it on New Year's Day and just finished this morning, what perfect timing! 

I would probably recommend it. It's cute and set in England so it was a fun little read.