BOOKS

I am getting ready to leave for my vacation on Saturday. I fly to Chicago and catch the train there on Sunday, August 17th. I will be home on the 31st after spending a couple of days with Mari in Denver.

I had hoped to learn how to include pictures in the blog - but cannot figure out how that works.

I am listening to nonfiction mostly biographies as I quilt and sometime knit. Last month I listened to Joyce Kearns Goodwin's biography NO ORDINARY TIMES about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt personal life during WW II.  I think it is more about Eleanor Roosevelt and her involvement and influence on America's development than Roosevelt and Churchill during that time.  Several things were a surprise to me about the effects of bigotry in the 40's.  She may have done more than anyone to promote fairness toward blacks and later the Japanese. It does show a picture of Franklin's personality and his decision-making. Last but not least their marriage becomes understandable.

Now I am listening to David McCullough's TRUMAN. Already I can see how his personality from childhood on made him the leader he became. Each book gives me more of a feeling for our history.

I am reading CALL THE MIDWIFE by Jennifer Worth. It is set in England just about WW II and is the best picture of people coping with poverty and hardship - but making a life. The TV show on PBS is based on this story and since I watched it for two seasons, I was afraid I might not enjoy the book. Not the case at all.