Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi
I don’t read a lot of novels, except historical ones occasionally. Over two days earlier this month I read a really good one based on the recommendation of several friends. The genre is listed variously as Women’s Fiction, Southern Fiction, Coming of Age, Family Life, and Survival! Probably all of those apply to “Where the Crawdads […]
Are you familiar with the Enneagram Personality Test? I was not until I read a book by Richard Rohr. He referred to the Enneagram in his book “Falling Upward” and it raised my curiosity so I researched it further. https://crookedcreek.live/2021/02/01/falling-upward/ The Enneagram presents nine personality types with some overlapping. The book I just read, “What’s […]
Albert Woodfox was a teenager when he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The Louisiana prison was called Angola and those incarcerated there were treated like animals. They were strip-searched sometimes multiple times a day and were made to work for two cents per hour. Woodfox tells the story of his more […]
“East of Eden” by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck is a journal about several families and two in particular that become close in a dark way. One of the families, the Trasks, is similar to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck’s characters are fascinating in many realms, such as love, mystery and murder. […]
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Cicero I believe this quote is true. I cannot imagine life without books or a room without books. As you’ve noticed I have blogged a lot of book reviews over the past several months. I cannot imagine a pandemic without books! This past year […]
“A Promised Land” is an autobiography by Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. It is a long, thorough account of the former President’s administration. Obama is honest and forthcoming about the trials, triumphs and failures of his time in office. He is very good at giving credit to those who worked with […]
“A Pledge of Silence” by Flora J. Solomon This novel is not my usual read, but it has much to recommend it. The story is about a nurse who joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1941. She was happy to be assigned to a base in Manila and for a while all went well there. […]
“Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand This true story follows the life of Louis Zamperini (1917-2014) from his grade school years until his death at the age of ninety-seven. His was a life well worth the effort of reading this riveting, best selling book. In fact I have […]
A Book Review by Dianne Bynum “Dead Wake The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” Erik Larsen has become one of my favorite writers of historical novels. I really enjoyed, and learned a lot, from “The Devil in the White City.” Both novels are about events I knew very little about. I knew that the sinking […]
Robin DiAngelo is an antiracist educator with years of experience. Her book, “White Fragility,” is thought-provoking on many levels but her main thesis is that all white people are racist. That is an explosive statement but throughout her writing, she gives examples of how the white race has maintained a culture of supporting racism as […]
“The Longest Ride” by Nicholas Sparks is sweet, tear-jerking, and readily forgotten. If you have read even one book by this author you know what you are in for. For this reason, I can only blame myself for recently listening to the audible version of “The Longest Ride.” I have a trove of books on my Kindle that […]
From the Civil War to today, “White Rage” by Carol Anderson Ph.D. defines the powerful forces opposed to black progress in the United States. Anderson wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in response to talk of black rage. She proposed that the problem was instead white rage that brought about the unrest in this country at that time, 2014. […]
Solomon Northup, a black man, was born free in 1808. He lived in New York State with his wife and three children. He worked and supported his family and loved playing the violin. One day he was kidnapped and following being sold multiple times he ended up spending twelve years as a slave on a […]
We all know, or at least have heard of, individuals who spent the last part of their lives in long-term facilities without any quality of life while eating up all of one’s lifetime savings. Medical costs at the end of life are a huge portion of one’s lifetime medical expenses. There are others who have […]
Like most of you, I have read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee more than once. And, of course, I’ve seen the movie based upon this extraordinary book multiple times. I decided to listen to the audio version while riding my Beast. I’m sure you remember this contraption but in case you do not […]
Like most of you, I imagine, I read “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London years ago. I remembered the short book to be about a sweet dog who returned to the wild and lived happily ever after. This week, while riding the Beast, a.k.a. my Cardio Strider, I decided to listen to the […]
“Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr This book attempts to explain the spiritual life during two halves. The author sees this as young adulthood where life’s priorities are strict, organized and goal driven, but a time of making many mistakes. He sees the second half of life, beginning at approximately the fifties, as being more stable, […]
“The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck, published in 1931, is a story of hardship, love, riches and death set in China in the early Twentieth Century. Buck grew up in China, the daughter of US missionaries and then moved back there after college. She knew the culture of that era and after reading this […]
“Land of the Lost Souls, My Life on the Streets” by Cadillac Man This book was originally written by Cadillac Man in spiral notebooks over a period of sixteen years. He covers the perils, freedoms and uncertainties of a man living on the streets of New York City. No matter how many homeless people you’ve […]
“The Second Grave” by Carl Wedekind Attorney Wedekind writes about violence in Kentucky’s history beginning in 1742 and through the end of the twentieth century. His purpose is to demonstrate that as the state has transitioned from the days of lynchings, duels and family feuds abolishing capital punishment should naturally follow. The reasons most often […]
“The Sun Does Shine, How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row” by Anthony Ray Hinton – with Lara Love Hardin In 1985 “Ray” Hinton was a twenty-nine year old man living with his beloved Mother and working a full time job within the community. He wasn’t perfect. He had written a few bad […]
This New York Times bestseller, “Separated – Inside an American Tragedy,” was published in July of this year. The author, Jacob Soboroff, is a TV journalist who won the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the HIllman Prize for Broadcast Journalism that same year. Soboroff witnessed firsthand in Texas, […]
MONDAY BOOK REVIEW “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), has been called America’s Mandela and after reading this book I think that is fitting. The book has been awarded many honors and is a #1 New York Times bestseller. Stevenson, a lawyer, has spent his entire professional […]
MONDAY BOOK REVIEW “Paradise” by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer winning author and “Paradise” is one of her many bestselling books. That being said, it is not an easy book to read, especially at first. Each chapter is named for a different woman who is a pivotal character in this […]
Book Review Monday “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren is a book that covers it all and does it brilliantly. Jahren is a serious scientist whose excitement about her work is infectious. She studies soil, seeds, plants, and especially trees and it is hard for the reader to not become involved in her work in the […]
BOOK REVIEW MONDAY “Across That Bridge” by John Lewis John Lewis was a United States Congressman and Civil Rights leader. While peacefully demonstrating he was beaten and arrested forty times and this books draws on these experiences. Throughout this autobiography Lewis, who died earlier this year, stresses how the US protests and demonstrations of the […]
Monday Book Review “The Jane Austen Book Club” by Karen Joy Fowler Another older book that won the New York Times bestseller prize. Another book made into a movie, this one by Sony Pictures. The author has written five other books, none that I had heard of before picking up this one. This review will […]
Monday Book Review “Late Migrations” by Margaret Renkl This is another book borrowed from a friend, that I would not have chosen to buy, but which I thoroughly enjoyed. I keep wanting to call this a “feel good” book, but then I recall that it contained some painful stories of disappointment and loss. Somehow the […]
Monday Book Review “The Accidental Tourist” by Anne Tyler This is an old book that I borrowed from a friend. It was published in 1985 and made into a movie with A List actors. It’s a New York Times bestseller, so it has to be good, right? Actually it was a pretty good read. It […]
Another Book Review There are many books out about the current President of the United States. One, written by President Trump’s niece, was reviewed a couple of days ago and it seems this is a good time to follow up with another bestseller. “Rage” is written by the well-known and respected writer, Bob Woodard, who […]
Book Review Monday “Too Much and Never Enough – How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” by Mary Trump, PhD Mary Trump is the niece of the President of the United States. In this book she writes about her family in detail and claims to know what makes Donald J. Trump the kind […]
Book Review Monday “Reforesting Faith” by Matthew Sleeth, MD This book was a gift from my sister-in-law. When I first saw it I wondered if it was about religion or about saving the trees. It turns out that it is about both. I have read the Bible my whole life, but I never read it […]
Book Review Monday “The Daughter’s Tale” by Armando Lucas Correa An eighty year-old woman in New York City in 2015 receives a box of letters from long ago and seven decades of secrets spill forth. The shock of learning about her past was devastating both physically and emotionally. At this point the story switches to […]
Book Review Monday “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi I’ve wanted to read this New York Times bestseller since I first heard Kendi interviewed on TV. I have now read it and I am disappointed. I had hoped to learn specific actions that I could take as an antiracist in more than name […]
“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi If you have questions about life and/or death this book is a must-read. Paul Kalanithi, MD was a brilliant neurosurgeon and scientist who strove to meet his patients’ needs emotionally as well as physically. He had many questions about death while he held the life of his patients […]
Dianne Bynum is the most prolific reader I know currently. I like to include some of her book reviews to give you a look at different genres. She reads a wide variety of books and I think you will enjoy hearing from her from time to time. Here’s the latest: “Carter Beats the Devil” by […]
“A Woman of No Importance” by Sonia Purnell This book is about Virginia Hall, a woman of great importance who rarely received recognition for her accomplishments as an American Spy. She was born of privilege but spent her entire adult life fighting for peace during World War II and the years that followed. In 1942 […]
“THE BODY – A Guide for Occupants” by Bill Bryson The size of this big book might be off-putting but if you are interested in how your body works I suggest you read it. Being a Registered Nurse I wondered if this would be of interest to me since I expected it to be just […]
Here’s a book that I recommend for all citizens of a democracy. It’s cheap, it’s small but it is loaded with information that we need. “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder In the twentieth century, many Europeans saw their democracies yield to fascism, communism, or Nazism. Twenty years into the twenty-first century we have the advantage […]
“The Travelling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa When I borrowed this book I was expecting a silly cat story. Boy was I wrong! This is truly a chronicle of a cat who traveled. In fact he traveled all over Japan. The cat is the narrator and he is very funny and wise. His relationship with […]
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch I just read this book for the second time and still found it very interesting and uplifting. Professors often give a “last lecture” at the end of their illustrious careers. Randy Pausch, a tenured professor at Carnegie-Mellon, gave his when he was in his late forties and dying with […]
A Book Review by Dianne Bynum So much fun, a great escape…It’s April of 2020 and the world is in the throes of a pandemic. I’ve been sick for a month with a virus that no one fully understands. I needed a book like The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. When my fever broke […]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey I cannot explain why this book has such a hold on me, but I have read it four times. It was copyrighted in 1962. I was introduced to it by my psychiatric nursing instructor in the early 70s. I saw the movie and re-read the book […]
A Book Review: “The Bright Hour” by Nina Riggs People tease me about being too interested in death and I do see the subject as something to be explored. After all, it is the last and greatest mystery of all time. We won’t know what it’s like until it’s our death and then we won’t […]
A Book Review by Dianne Bynum I’m struggling with the rating for this book. It was fun and I enjoyed the characters but the writing really got it the way. I’ve read the expression, “This book could have used a good editor.” and I’ve never understood it until now. The plot was imaginative and interesting, […]
I’ve just finished reading a book that was very informative and inspiring. The title is “The book of Gutsy Women” by mother and daughter Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. When I first heard of the book I wondered how they would mesh their writing but it worked very well. Each take turns discussing the women they […]
“The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” This book was a fun surprise. My friend got me interested in this book when she asked me if I’d ever heard about the Blue people of Kentucky. I had, of course, I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life. We’re known for moonshine, young brides and horse racing. The […]
“A Gentleman In Moscow” by Amor Towles I recently read this book and found it very interesting. I will remember this as one of my favorite historical novels. Here is an excellent review from Goodreads by Dianne Bynum: There is value in examining a life well led. The hero of our story leads a full […]
Book Review My close friends, family and regular readers know I have a fascination with death which includes careful reading of obituaries. I don’t see it as morbid. I see it as a window into life, but be that as it may, it is no surprise that I received the book “Mobituaries” for Christmas this […]
“One Hundred Years Of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This is a difficult book for me to review. As so many of my favorites I’ve read it twice and still cannot say that I fully understand it. In 417 pages Garcia Marquez has presented one hundred years in the life of a prolific family living […]
Toni Morrison wrote her first book, “The Bluest Eye” in 1970. It was controversial and poorly accepted at first but later became a National Bestseller. Morrison was an American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. In 1988, she won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her book “Beloved.” “The […]
“You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down” This book by Alice Walker is made up of fifteen short stories. The stories vary in content from pornography to the civil rights movement in the sixties. Her stories are about the poor as well as the successful, such as artists and academics. The main focus of each, […]
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) Written in 1937 by Hurston, an anthropologist, this book has become an enduring part of American literature. I have read it twice and enjoyed it each time. The novel is about a beautiful young fair-skinned black woman and follows her life through three marriages, each […]
“OUR CRIME WAS BEING JEWISH” BY Anthony S. Pitch Followers of this blog have probably figured out I read a lot of books about the Holocaust and World War II. This book which I have read twice is among the most impactful for me. The author, Anthony S. Pitch has assembled the testimonies of Holocaust […]
“Amelia’s Story: A Childhood Lost” by D. G. Torrens This book is a true story about a child brought up in the welfare system in Great Britain. It covers the little girl’s life for sixteen years in and out of foster homes and abusive situations. While the story is heartbreaking and is told fairly well […]
“All My Love, Detrick” by Roberta Kagan Most of my reading about the Holocaust is factual but I decided to try this best-selling novel and I’m glad I did. As the title indicates it is a love story. Detrick, an Aryan, falls in love with Leah, a Jewish girl, and their struggles to be together […]
This is not so much a book review as a book discussion. I am unqualified to interpret the intricacies of “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Published in 1954 this book has been compared to the works of Orwell, Salinger, Shakespeare, and others. It has been explained as portraying psychology, religion, politics, and morality. […]
“DRIVING MR. ALBERT – A trip across America with Einstein’s Brain” By Michael Paterniti If you wonder what this book could possibly be about, read the title again. The author tells his tale of driving coast to coast with Albert Einstein’s brain in the trunk. I first read this book in 2000 and thought surely […]
Bill Bryson, a native Iowan, is a proliferative and award-winning writer of travel books. In “The Road to Little Dribbling” he writes of his travels from the south end of Great Britain to the north end along a route he calls The Bryson Line. There is no real place called Little Dribbling, but it is […]
“The Sunflower – On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness” by Simon Wiesenthal Mr. Wiesenthal, a Jew, was a prisoner in concentration camps during WWII. He was treated inhumanely and saw this family killed or starved to death. One day a dying SS soldier who had murdered Jewish families asked him for forgiveness. It seems […]
“Decades Behind Bars – A 20 Year Conversation with Men in America’s Prisons” by Gaye D. Holman This book is written by a professor of Sociology who spent decades teaching college-level courses to prisoners in Kentucky. She also teaches a “Corrections” course at Bellarmine College through the Veritas program. This is where I met Holman, […]
“All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr This book has it all. It is filled with science and technology, mystery and poetry. It is a story of survival and love. “All the Light We Cannot See” won a Pulitzer Prize in 2015 and the author has received other awards too numerous to list. […]
Elie Wiesel Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) authored 57 books. He was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and recipient of numerous other awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After his time in concentration camps, he received asylum in France where he completed his education. His career included being a journalist and later a professor […]
Over the past five posts, we have reviewed some ways to achieve longevity. I have had some fun with the topic of “Staying Alive.” It seemed fitting that since I discuss death so frequently I owed you these tips on survival. Some of the content has been tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn’t mean the advice isn’t […]
“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak A few years ago someone told me about a movie entitled “The Book Thief” (released 2013). At the time I pictured a professional thief stealing valuable books from museums and universities. This Christmas I was given the book by the same name (published 2005). I was so surprised to learn […]
Book Review If you love comedian Trevor Noah you will like his autobiography. Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, was born in 1984 in Johannesburg. In his book, “Born A Crime” he tells what it was like to grow up in South Africa during and immediately following Apartheid. It was particularly difficult […]
The Half Has Never Been Told Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist This is not a book to be undertaken lightly. It is a hard read, or at least it was for me. It covers not only slavery, which I thought I knew a lot about but war, politics, economics […]
I always have a wish list for Christmas which includes books. This past Christmas I received four. I just finished the second. “Under Fire” April Ryan is a White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Network. She is also a political analyst on CNN. Ryan has spent two decades in this correspondent position under […]
Inspiring Story Over this past weekend, I read a book recommended to me by a fellow blogger, Christine Goodnough. You might want to check out her blog. https://christinegoodnough.com We’ve never met, but I enjoy the posts of this prolific writer in Canada. The book, written by Beth Day, was published in 1955 and is entitled “The […]
A Good Read Would you like an entertaining, easy-reading book? If you have an interest in medicine and if you love the Smokey Mountains, you’ll definitely enjoy “Medicine Men” by Carolyn Jourdan. Ms. Jourdan is a sophisticated Wall Street Journal bestselling author, who apparently never forgot her mountain roots. Her father was an “extreme Appalachian” […]
So much has been written about the subject of death since Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s seminal work was published in 1969. Kubler-Ross was a Swiss psychiatrist who worked with the terminally ill at the University of Chicago. She wrote “On Death and Dying” which presented the “five stages of death,” more accurately the five stages of grief. Thus […]
I Believe I believe my Mother’s essence is in many objects that I have in my home. Not so much in the antique dishes or her personal jewelry, but in the things she infused with her love. I believe that her soul speaks to me through the stitches she loving put into place over the […]
Soul Discussion Not surprisingly this subject struck a chord with readers. We will not answer the questions posed in the last post. That is not the purpose of this series, but regardless it would be impossible. There is no way that we can know what the soul is or where it resides if it does […]
Beauty Four Fairy tales can come true? It could happen to you. . . Please don’t let it be true! Beauty and the Beast In spite of learning so much more about Beauty and the Beast, I still suspect that Beauty and many other females in […]
Food for Thought from “Beauty 2” Quotes https://wordpress.com/post/crookedcreek.live/3480 I have thought about those quotes from well-known men and my thoughts follow each in red: “A beautiful woman with a brain is like a beautiful woman with a club foot.” Bernard Cornfeld This crook millionaire is dead now. “The highest prize in the world of […]
“So many books, so little time.” Frank Zappa Do you have a book inside yourself? Many, if not most, readers feel they could write a book. I bet that you have considered it or attempted it. One of my daughters has encouraged me to write for so many years that I am surprised that she […]
Reader Feedback First Book Memories, Favorite Books and Authors So many of us remember our reader, Dick and Jane from first grade! Nancy Drew mysteries are another favorite among Crooked Creek readers. This chart lists your first memories and your favorites according to comments made regarding the past three posts: 1st Book Memory “A Tree […]
Favorite Book and Favorite Author For the avid reader, this can be a difficult question to answer. This asks one to consider everything from the classics to beach reading, fiction, and non-fiction, history, poetry, and prose. Rather than doing a detailed evaluation of your reading over the past, let’s make this easy. Which author comes […]
First Book Memory? What is the first book that you remember? For this exercise, the Holy Books such as the Bible or Qur’an do not count. Many children are read these sacred books at home and/or in religious classes. Such books contain many stories suitable for young children and they may actually be the first […]
Do You Still Read Books? Do you have books or do you use a Kindle or other eReader? Do you read or listen to electronic books? Since all the information in the world is available on the Internet, do we even need books anymore? If you still have real paper books where do […]
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 