Lisa is late to the 2024 reading party!

Well, it's Groundhog Day and I am finally creating a category challenge thread. I am hoping to read a lot more this year than I have in the last few years across a broad range of categories which I haven't even picked yet, lol.

I will be spending the next little while perusing the pinned topics to get some inspiration to help plan and drive my reading this year.

Happy to join you all!

Posting the BingoDOG card here:



2. featuring twins - The Thirteenth Tale
5. less than 100 copies on LT (34) - Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story
6. short story collection - The Devastating Boys
13. read a CAT - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
14. person's name in title - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
15. epistolary or diary - Possession
16. featuring water - Magic in the Wind
19. written in another cultural tradition - The Windup Girl
20. about friendship - Watership Down
21. book from LT similar library (Leseratte2)
22. set in multiple countries - When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
23. POC author - The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
25. paper-based item in plot - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

After having a good look through the CATs, KITs and BingoDOG, I think my categories will mainly just reflect them - an easy out given I haven't put any thought into any other themes.

I'll list all the CATs and KITs as categories here although I may not read much in some of them. BingoDOG will be a category also. I'll also have categories for 1001 books and Virago Modern Classics. And a misc category in the off chance that something doesn't fit anywhere else.

Gotta have a couple of tickers:

AlphaKIT

1. Possession by A. S. Byatt - January A & Y
2. Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story by Janina Bauman - February E & F
3. We Are Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - February E & F
4. The Devastating Boys by Elizabeth Taylor - February E&F
5. When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe - February E & F
6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - March H & R
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams - March H & R
8. Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts - April U & O
9. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones - April U & O

PrizeCAT

1. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - February - A Prize From Your Own Country (2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
2. The Thirteenth Tale - February - A Prize From Your Own Country (2007 Alex Award)
3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - March - A Prize That's New to You (2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize)
4. Watership Down - March - A Prize That's New to You (1975 Finalist for the Mythopoeic Award)

RandomKIT

1. Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story - February - Escape or Rescue
2. Watership Down - March - World Wildlife Day
3. Jewels of the Sun - April - Enchanting Garden Visitors

CalendarCAT

1. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, who was born on Feb 7, for Feb CalendarCAT
2. Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist, about Barabbas, for whom Jesus was crucified in his place, for March CalendarCAt (Easter)
3. Watership Down by Richard Adams for March CalendarCAT (World Wildlife Day)
4. Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts - April - diamonds
5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - - April - Vonnegut died on April 11th

HistoryCAT

1. The Immortal Life of Henretta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - March - Science and Medicine
2. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story - April - Riots, Revolution and Mayhem

MysteryKIT

SFFKIT

1. The Windup Girl - February - Critters and Creatures
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - April - Time Travel

ScaredyKIT

1. The Thirteenth Tale - February - Gothic Novels
2. Magic in the Wind - April - Witches, Evil Spirits and Black Magic

1001 Books to Read Before You Die

1. Possession - January
2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - February
3. Barabbas - March
4. The Talented Mr. Ripley - April
5. Slaughterhouse-Five - April

Virago Modern Classics

1. Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story - February
2. The Devastating Boys - February
3. The Talented Mr. Ripley - April

Miscellaneous

1. The Book Lovers' Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey

1. Possession by A. S. Byatt
557 pages
categories: AlphaKIT and 1001
BingoDOG: epistolary or diary
Female author
Acquired in 2017
3.5*

This was a difficult read but I'm glad I made it through. I would characterize it as a literary romantic mystery. Two literature scholars work together to determine if two Victorian poets had an otherwise unknown romance, using letters, journals and poems to discover the truth. Some of what made it difficult for me included the poems (many quite long, covering multiple pages), which included some clues (and to be completely honest I did not completely read every poem...) and also the fact that while the scholars lived in the 80's, the way they talked made me think they were also from the Victorian era.

The mystery was worth it though, and the author managed to include some suspense by arranging a bit of UK/US competition over the rights to the discovery.

Good luck with your 2024 reading. You are never too late for this party!

Welcome back, Lisa. Have fun with your reading and your challenge!

Welcome back, Lisa! Have fun with your challenge and enjoy the party! :D

Good luck with your 2024 reading.

Nice to see you here, Lisa. Hope you have a good reading year. I have a few A.S. Byatt books in my TBR pile. I really should get to reading them.,

>17 Tess_W: Thank you Tess!

>18 DeltaQueen50: Thanks Judy!

>19 rabbitprincess: Thanks RP!

>20 lowelibrary: Thank you!

>21 dudes22: Thanks! I have two more on my pile. I'm glad I finally read one. Was sad to hear she passed away in November.

Currently reading:

When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
The Devastating Boys
Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story

Planning to read:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Windup Girl
The Thirteenth Tale

Planning to start:
The 1619 Project

2. Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto - A Young Girl's Story by Janina Bauman
289 pages
categories: AlphaKIT and RandomKIT
BingoDOG: less than 100 copies on LT
Female author
Acquired in 2015
4*

This was a very quick read - as much as the story was disturbing, it was written in a very engaging way, and even though I knew the author eventually escaped the Warsaw Ghetto, it was a page-turner to find out how she managed to slip from the grasp of the Nazis time and again. The bulk of the book covers the time period of 1937 to 1945 and then there are 23 pages covering her life after the war up to when this version was published in 2006. This part of the book was tough also because the next 60 years were not that easy for her, first living in Poland, forced to leave and living in Israel for a few years, and then finally settling in Leeds. She starts this last chapter by saying she has had a turbulent life, full of bitter disappointments and loss, but still a happy life, that she would not exchange for any other.

I was touched by the book and by her last message to her readers: You do not have to belong to be happy.

3. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
310 pages
categories: AlphaKIT, PrizeCAT, CalendarCAT
BingoDOG: paper-based item in plot
Female author
Acquired in 2014
Gift
5*

Rosemary tells the story of growing up in her family with her brother, sister, imaginary twin sister, and parents. Her father is a professor of behavioral psychology. She starts the story in the middle, jumps around a bit, and eventually makes it through the beginning and the end. The most important milestone in her life is when her sister leaves.

This novel pulled at my heartstrings. It was funny, sad and a page-turner all at the same time. And I learned a lot.

4. The Devastating Boys by Elizabeth Taylor
204 pages
categories: AlphaKIT, VMC
BingoDOG: short story collection
Female author
Acquired in 2011
Gift
4*

I finished The Devastating Boys last night. Overall, I give it 4 stars - my favorites were Flesh, about two people at a seaside resort who decide to have a fling, and Sisters, about a widow who gets a visit from an author asking about her sister. I enjoyed my time with Elizabeth Taylor in this collection.

5. When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe
287 pages
categories: AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: set in multiple countries
Acquired in 2023
Gift
4*

A Christmas gift from a friend in the UK, I immediately picked this book up to read. My most recent work assignment had me working with McKinsey. I don't know why I hadn't heard about McKinsey in the news before - what an illuminating book!

The book goes through case after case of how McKinsey works. My friend and I agreed that we would never want to work for this company. It was disgusting.

Here's one of the worst things I learned:

Mckinsey suggested to Purdue Pharma, the now bankrupt pharmaceutical company responsible for OxyContin, that it pay distributors of OxyContin a rebate for every OxyContin overdose attributable to pills they sold.

I also learned how they were involved in analyzing social media data collected by Cambridge Analytica identifying those critical of Saudi government policies ('sentiment analysis'). Omar Abdulaziz (a Saudi national living in Canada) was identified on one of McKinsey's slides. Shortly thereafter, Saudi emissaries were sent to Canada to urge him to return home; he declined and then his two brothers were jailed. Abdulaziz was working with Jamal Khashoggi on a project to counter Mohammed bin Salman's army of internet trolls. And we all know what happened to Khashoggi.

And the list goes on:

- Playing both sides - pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, cigarette and vape manufacturers and the FDA, regulators and the regulated all over the world

- Involved with corruption in South Africa

- Supporting China in activities that go against US national interests

- With ICE in the US during the Trump presidency, when they were separating children from their parents and putting them in cages (here's the quote from McKinsey - "We do execution, not policy")

- Advising insurance company executives that they were paying too much for claims, which had created a corporate culture of claimants expecting to be paid for claims (...what???)

You can read about McKinsey's purpose, mission, values and code of conduct on their website; unfortunately, some of this stuff naturally conflicts:

Purpose: To help create positive, enduring change in the world.

Values include: put client interests ahead of our firm’s

What if a client's interest does not help create positive, enduring change in the world?

Well worth reading.

Books I'm thinking about for March:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for the HistoryCAT and AlphKIT
Watership Down for the RandomKIT, CalendarCAT, PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT
Excession for the SFFKIT
Unfinished Tales for the CalendarCAT
Killers of the Flower Moon for the ScaredyKIT

Still contemplating a 1001 and VMC book for March.

So many good books here--taking a couple of BB's.

>34 LisaMorr: I loved Watership Down and Killers of the Flower Moon so I hope you enjoy them as well. Looking forward to hearing about your reads as well.

>35 Tess_W: and >36 DeltaQueen50: Thanks for stopping by!

6. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
182 pages
categories: 1001
BingoDOG: person's name in title
Acquired prior to 2008
5*

I finished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn yesterday. I ran across it while doing some book organizing and in light of Navalny's death, thought it would be a good time to finally read it. The 182 pages pack a powerful punch, and the book does exactly what it says on the tin - describes what it's like from when he wakes up to when he puts his head down after a long day of surviving in a Siberian hard-labor prison camp. I felt the cold, I felt the hunger, I felt the pleasure of a job well done after bricklaying, the pleasure of an extra serving of bread, the last smoke from the gift of a dying cigarette.

>32 LisaMorr: I love the VMC cover! I've yet to read anything by Elizabeth Taylor, but I picked up VMC editions of A Game of Hide and Seek and The Soul of Kindness at a book sale recently.

>39 mathgirl40: I've only read one other book by her (The Wedding Group) - but I've got 11 more on my TBR. I love the VMC editions! I have both of the ones you mention also. I'll be interested to know what you think of them when you get to them.

I was catching up on Last Week Tonight shows that we had on the DVR and saw the one featuring McKinsey last night. One of the authors of the book I read was briefly included and I learned about even more disturbing stuff that they were involved in - ugh!

7. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
456 pages
categories: ScaredyKIT, CalendarCAT, PrizeCAT
BingoDOG: featuring twins
Acquired in 2013
Gift
5*

Finished The Thirteenth Tale yesterday - sooooo good! A lot going on in this book which is on the most basic level about a booklover, who works in her father's bookshop and pens a few short biographies, being contacted out of the blue by one of the most famous authors in the land to write the author's biography.

The story gets quite layered when it turns out no one really knows who the author is - she's told many a story to interviewers over the years; also interesting that the biographer she contacts has never actually read any of her books. The biographer travels to meet the author and find out her story - find out who she is, find out about the author's family, and while doing so, find out more about herself.

>38 LisaMorr: I use this one in my Western Civ II course.

>43 Tess_W: Such a great book and definitely great to include!

8. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
359 pages
categories: SFFKit
BingoDOG: written in another cultural tradition
Acquired in 2010
4*

Set in a future Thailand where rising sea levels due to climate change and plagues caused by bioengineered crops and mutated pests ravage the world, Bangkok holds on with levees and water pumps to keep the city from succumbing to the sea and isolationism and the Environment Ministry to ward off plagues and control by the biotech companies and their sterile seeds. It tells the story of a biotech company employee trying to get his hands on Thailand's seed bank to exploit it along with the windup girl, the only one in Bangkok, and how their lives intersect. Really interesting book.

January and February Summary

Since I didn't do a summary for January (only finished 1 book!), I'll combine the first two months here.

Books read - 8
Pages read - 2644
Books by women - 5
Non-fiction - 2
Gifts - 2
BBs taken: 16! (this is what LT does to me, lol!)
Bingo squares - 8, no bingos yet
Favorite book: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - this was a tough choice because I had three 5-star reads this month!
Least favorite: Possession, which at 3.5 stars wasn't bad by any means, it was just that it took me a long time to read, and I had a tough time getting through all the long poetry.

March Reading Plans

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for the HistoryCAT and AlphaKIT
Watership Down for the RandomKIT, CalendarCAT, PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT
Excession for the SFFKIT
Unfinished Tales for the CalendarCAT
Killers of the Flower Moon for the ScaredyKIT
The 1619 Project, which I started for Black History Month in February, I plan to finish in March and will fit the CalendarCAT

VMC: The Talented Mr. Ripley which will also fit the AlphaKIT and is a 1001 book.

1001 books:
I pulled up a bunch of shorter 1001 books and all of these fit some CATs or KITs - we'll see how many I finish:
Barabbas - CalendarCAT
Sexing the Cherry - CalendarCAT
The Sorrows of Young Werther - CalendarCAT
An Artist of the Floating World - PrizeCAT

And I need to make some more progress with BFBs, so I have dragged the following out:
Arabian Nights
Gargantua and Pantagruel

9. Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist
180 pages
categories: CalendarCAT, 1001
BingoDOG: book from LT similar library (Leseratte2 - we share 268 books)
Acquired in 2019
3.5*

I finished Barabbas, a book by Nobel prize winner Par Lagerkvist, about the man who was to be crucified and Jesus took his place. It's told mainly in the POV of Barabbas, from when he witnessed Jesus' crucifixion until his own crucifixion many years later. We also see the POV from a few other people that Barabbas encounters. Barabbas is very curious about the young rabbi, Jesus, and asks a lot of questions of Jesus' followers. He is not a believer, but he says he wants to believe. A short book that made me think.

10. The Book Lovers' Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey
128 pages
categories: Miscellaneous
BingoDOG: none
Acquired in 2019
3*

Finished this short book of book trivia today. It's the first book of the year that has to go in the miscellaneous category, lol. I was doing some book organizing and cataloguing and it grabbed my attention. Filled with book trivia, but I found it's organization (or lack thereof) a bit off-putting - it's not organized alphabetically or chronologically. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but when there is an entry in the front that talks about an aspect of book-making that refers to a section later on, I would've thought that the later section would have been included first, rather than referring to a future section.

There were a lot of interesting sections on subjects like pen names, the history of making books, world book capitals and book towns, the history of book copyright law, youngest and oldest famous debut authors, prolific writers, famous opening and closing lines, etc., etc.

A decent book of book trivia.

11. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
381 pages
categories: HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT, PrizeCAT
BingoDOG: Read a CAT
Acquired in 2015
4*

I've had this one since 2015. I remember specifically when I first heard about this book - I was getting my annual mammogram, and I had a book with me while I was waiting, and the mammography technologist asked me about it and so we got to talking about books of course, and she asked me if I had heard of this book and told me a little bit about it.

Of course I've been meaning to read it all this time, but I always need a little extra push to jump into non-fiction. I'm sorry I waited so long! I really liked how the book was set up, alternating chapter by chapter, one about Henrietta Lacks and her family, and one about the medical/research and ethical side of how Henrietta's cells (the Hela cells) were collected and were the first human cells to be grown in the lab. The personal side of it was very well-researched and the author was a part of it in terms of how she engaged with the family in order to tell the whole story.

12. Watership Down by Richard Adams
478 pages
categories: RandomKIT, CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, PrizeCAT
BingoDOG: About friendship
Acquired prior to 2009, probably 1975
4*

I joined LT in 2008 and I started tagging my books with the year I acquired them in 2009, so everything in my library before then I've had since 2008 or earlier. I could probably make some estimations on when I got certain books, but I've decided it's pretty much not worth the effort, lol. So, this book definitely falls in the category of 2008 or earlier - I'm going to make a good guess though based on my signature in the book that I've had this paperback since it was new, in 1975.

So, I've had it forever - and probably I had this book when my family raised rabbits in the backyard when I was a kid - I guess I always thought that a book about rabbits would be boring.

Well, it's not. What a book! I can't really say enough good things about it; if you haven't read it yet, you should! It's about a group of rabbits who decide to leave their warren based on a bad feeling one of them has - we then follow along with this group of rabbits, as they make their way through many perils, to find a new warren to call home.

March Summary

Books read - 4 (only 4 in March, but 7 in Feb, how did that happen?)
Pages read - 1167
Books by women - 2 of 4
Non-fiction - 2 of 4
Gifts - 0
BBs taken: 12
Bingo squares - 3, no bingos yet
Favorite book: Watership Down
Least favorite: The Book Lovers' Miscellany

April Reading Plans:

PrizeCAT - Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (also a 1001 book)
CalendarCAT - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (also a 1001 book)
HistoryCAT - The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story (leftover from Feb and March!) (also AlphaKIT)

RandomKIT - Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts (also AlphaKIT)
SFFKIT - Slaughterhouse Five, maybe Kindred by Octavia Butler
ScaredyKIT - The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, maybe Magic in the Wind by Christine Feehan
MysteryKIT - Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
VMC - finish The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, also either Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy or Breakfast with the Nikolides, both by Rumer Godden

>51 LisaMorr: One of my favorite childhood books. I am going to plan a re-read soon. I saw the 1978 animated movie when it came out and this prompted me to read the book. I would have been 10 or 11.

>54 lowelibrary: I'm so glad I finally read it!

13. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
271 pages
categories: 1001, VMC
BingoDOG: none
Acquired in 2024
4*

I read this for the March 2024 Virago Reading Project, and it's also a 1001 book, so two birds with this one. I came into the book with little or no expectations - I hadn't seen the movie adaptations, and the only thing I thought I knew about the book was that Ripley was a conman. While that was true, otherwise I was completely surprised. I got hints of Ripley's mental illness right away - how he became very uncomfortable with Dickie's father - and how could he not be affected in some way by how his Aunt Dottie treated him. I felt the same stress Tom did as he thought everything was closing in on him. Very well done.

>48 LisaMorr: Since that is a 1001 book, I'll take a BB for that!

>57 Tess_W: It's an interesting read that made me think - and a short one by 1001 standards! I hope you find it interesting as well.

14. Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts
347 pages
categories: RandomKIT, AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: none
Acquired in 2024
2.5*

I was at a dance event recently and was seated with some great folks who love to read, and they both lent me a bunch of their books - Lynne a bunch of Nora Roberts books and Denise and Rodney a bunch of Ruth Ware books. One of the Nora Roberts' books fit in with one of the April categories.

It was a light contemporary romance about an American woman who goes to Ireland to live in her great-aunt's cottage, ostensibly to write a paper on the psychological underpinnings of Irish myths and legends, but really to clear her head after she was on the way to a nervous breakdown. She meets all the lovely people of the village, including the handsome owner of the local pub, and then we know what happens from there! The link to the RandomKIT is that Carrick, king of the faeries, appears to Jude multiple times while she was putting flowers on her great-aunt's grave.

It was ok, a cute, light book; I haven't read a romance novel in a while, and I'm sure there are better ones out there lol; it was a little annoying the conflict between the handsome pub owner and Jude, but all resolved in the end.

15. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
275 pages
categories: SFFKit, CalendarCAT
BingoDOG: none
Acquired in 2019
3*

This was one of those books that I thought I might've read way back when, but I didn't take credit for it until making sure. So, now I'm pretty sure I hadn't read this book before! I have to say it was a bit underwhelming; I thought it was a bit too precious to start with, but I did warm up to it by the end. After reading it, I read a bit more about Kurt Vonnegut and saw that there was at least some autobiographical material in the book (Vonnegut was taken prisoner in WWII, held captive in a slaughterhouse in Dresden, and survived the firebombing of Dresden in an underground meat locker), which was very interesting. I do understand its importance as an anti-war novel, I just thought the first half of it was kind of silly.

Since today is Independent Bookstore Day, I went out and discovered a new indie bookstore near me, the Little Green Bookstore in Zelienople, PA. And I supported them by bringing home these beauties:
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, a BB from LittleTaiko
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, a BB from lkernagh
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae

And I got to pick a free one from some boxes on the floor on my way out; without spending too much time (there were lots of books in lots of boxes), I saw True Evil by Greg Iles on the top of one box and grabbed it.

June 30th, 2024 will be my last day! Happy retirement to me!

>62 LisaMorr: Woo hoo!!! Congrats!!

>62 LisaMorr: Congrats!

>63 rabbitprincess: Thank you RP!
>64 MissWatson: Thank you Birgit!

16. Magic in the Wind by Christine Feehan
103 pages
categories: ScaredyKIT, AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: featuring water
Acquired in 2008
1.5*

This is the first Christine Feehan book I've read, and for some reason I collected quite a few of her books... I'm hoping they get better, lol! This is the first book in the Drake Sisters series - there are seven Drake sisters and they all have different magical abilities. This book (really just a novella) focused on Sarah, the oldest sister, and Damon Wilder, a man who comes to town to retire (and to hide); I guess it could be described as a witch-romance. I found the romance to be unbelievable, and while the different abilities and interactions between the sisters was somewhat interesting, it just wasn't enough. Also, too much sex - I don't mind sex, but with a romance that is not believable.

Since I have so many more Feehan novels (including 4 more of the Drake Sisters books!), I will try the next one in the series, before deep-sixing all of them.

17. The 1619 Project Project: A New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones
624 pages
categories: HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
BingoDOG: POC author
Acquired in 2021
3.5*

I started this one in February with the intention of finishing then for Black History Month; didn't make that deadline so then I thought I could finish it in March for International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and I still couldn't finish!

I finally finished it in April, and it works for the HistoryCAT as well as the AlphaKIT. It was good, and I learned a lot - however it was a bit uneven, which I think is to be expected with a project like this - different chapters written by different authors. The chapters were organized around different issues like citizenship, self-defense, inheritance. Prior to each chapter there was a short historical snippet and a poem or short fiction piece.

It took me a while to read because there is a lot of painful history here and honestly not a lot of hope for change. I'm glad I read it and I have a lot more reading to do in this area.

>62 LisaMorr: Congratulations!

>68 pamelad: Thank you Pam!

How exciting! Welcome to the world of retirement.

Congratulations, Lisa! Happy retirement.

>60 LisaMorr: Silly is how I felt about the book. I felt I was reading something written by a teen or somebody spaced out!

>70 DeltaQueen50: Thank you Judy!
>71 VivienneR: Thank you Vivienne!

>72 Tess_W: I am a bit surprised that it's considered such an important book.