Kidzdoc Strives for Insanity in 2024 (3)

I think we're past the need for introductions, right? If not, please refer to one of my previous 2024 threads.

Currently reading:

    

Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid
James by Percival Everett
Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver, and the Human Brain by Dasha Kiper
Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate by Jor-El Caraballo, LMHC

January:
1. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
2. The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter
3. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi

February:

March:
4. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison

April:
5. Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for You & Your Loved Ones, 4th Edition by Francis Mark Mondimore, MD
6. The Details by Ia Genberg
7. What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma
8. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieria Junior

May:
9. The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris by Marc Petitjean
10. Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriott
11. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

The African Diaspora: Fiction and Poetry

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieria Junior
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

The African Diaspora: Nonfiction

Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriott
The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter

2024 International Booker Prize Longlist:

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieria Junior
The Details by Ia Genberg
What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma

2024 Booker Prize Longlist: TBA

Dignidad Literaria: Literature and Nonfiction by Authentic Latinx Writers

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieria Junior

Medicine, Illness, Public Health and Science

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for You & Your Loved Ones, 4th Edition by Francis Mark Mondimore, MD

Politics & Current Affairs

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi

This thread is open for business!

Book #6: The Details by Ia Genberg, translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson

  

My rating:

Up until that evening I'd always maintained that humans are basically rational, that behavior in general is motivated by calculations, whether simple or complex, conscious or misguided or inscrutable, but calculations nevertheless, and that there's some kind of intention in there about reaping, or advantage, about happiness, pleasure, joy maybe; that there's a kind of will humans are pretty much set to follow since they are basically wise, since they seek the best for themselves and sometimes also others. But when I knocked on that door, regarding my own knuckles—which were dried and chapped from the fall weather but warm from the night—next to the handwritten sign saying backstage + crew, I realized I'd been wrong, that it is only after the fact that we attach these calculations to our impulses, to the mad wild dogs that actually run our lives.

The unnamed narrator of this novel is a middle aged woman who is experiencing an illness with high fevers and fatigue, which confines her to bed for several days. In the midst of her illness she recalls and revisits Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, which was given to her by Johanna, a lover from her past who has found fame as a well known radio broadcaster. The book consists of four characters who have been integral to the life of the narrator: Niki, her roommate in college, who the narrator attempted to befriend while being repeatedly ignored and pushed away; Alejandro, a lover who was a member of a local rock band; and Birgitte, her mother, who had to overcome her own demons after the birth of her children. Each character is somewhat inscrutable in her or his own way, although the narrator’s life was greatly impacted by each of them.

I found The Details to be a lovely novel to read, but its ethereal nature and structure means that it neither it nor its characters will stay with me long, and I would be very surprised if it wins the International Booker Prize.

Re this year’s International Booker shortlist - I can’t get enthusiastic about this year’s selections.i’ve read Kairos and I think it’ll win. But none of the others on the shortlist are available on audio, except The Details which doesn’t interest me. Looking forward though to your reviews.

>11 kjuliff: I just finished my review of The Details in >10 kidzdoc:. I'm halfway through What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, and I'm enjoying it considerably more. Next up will be Kairos, which I have on my Kindle.

>12 kidzdoc: Kairos is good. My bet is that it will win as Erpenbeck is due for an IB. Though I don’t think Kairos is her best. I don’t think I want to buy The Details as it sounds a but mediocre. None of the LT member reviews - yes I read yours - alter my impression.

I look forward to your Kairos review.

Happy new thread, Darryl. Nice review of The Details.

Happy new one, Darryl. Thanks for the review of The Details, but it's not drawing me in. Hope your day is a good one. : )

Happy new thread, Darryl

Happy new thread, Darryl!

I just got What I'd Rather Not Think About from the library. I hope to read it later this month. Reading is rather slow at the moment, so it might have to wait until early May.

Happy new thread, Darryl!

>13 kjuliff: I wouldn't recommend purchasing The Details, Kate; I knocked down my rating to 3 stars. I've decided to wait on reading Kairos for the moment, and I started Let Us Descend by Jasmyn Ward as my fictional read, alongside Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot, and Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate by Jor-El Caraballo, LMHC.

I finished What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma this morning, which was a much better read than The Details, IMO. I'll review it shortly, so that I can return it, The Details, and The House on Via Gemito to my nearest branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm still waiting for the print copy of Crooked Plow that I had requested, along with the electronic edition of Mater 2-10.

>14 labfs39:, >15 Berly:, >16 jessibud2:, >17 FAMeulstee:, >18 bell7: Thanks, Lisa, Kim, Shelley, Anita, and Mary!

>19 kidzdoc: Yes, I’m not going to purchase The Details. I’ve read a couple of very good books lately and am having difficulty concentrating on anything that doesn’t measure up. I barely managed to finish The Kitchen after having read The Trees and We Die Alone which were both excellent and kept me enthralled. I think you will enjoy Kairos.

>20 kjuliff: Sounds good, Kate. I'm looking forward to Kairos, as I loved two of her earlier novels, Visitation, and Go, Went, Gone.

Book #7: What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated from the Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey

 

Shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize

My rating:

Apologies in advance, but I found these three quotes to be particularly touching and poignant, especially the first one:

I thought about all the love we have inside us and how only a shred of that reaches the people we care about.

My brother believed that all misery began with hope. Or maybe not all misery, he said, but certainly a lot of it. You shouldn't believe that things will get better. As a child you have to make do with what you have, parents who are never around and a sister that is always there, whining.

My brother's life was a series of poor 'Survivor' decisions but the stupidest thing he did was break his alliance with the only other contestant he could trust, the one who would have given him her last grains of rice, who would have carried him on her back to the finish line if it came to that.

This short novel is narrated by an unnamed young woman who has a twin sibling born 45 minutes before she was, but treats her as a younger sister, who he casually refers to as Two. Both twins suffered from a difficult childhood, due to emotionally distant parents that provided for them financially but not spiritually, and that combined with the older twin's difficulty fitting in throughout his school years and his early adulthood led him to have frequent thoughts of suicide, while pushing away his sister, the only person who loved him unconditionally and completely. His sister bore her own emotional trauma from her childhood years, but she wanted nothing more than her brother to live, and to be happy doing so, but her brother found her repeated efforts to help him to be suffocating and crippling.

Each of the twins had unusual fascinations, with the reality television show Survivor, with the infamous Nazi physician Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" who performed experiments on the first born of pairs of twins, and survivors of concentration camps, even though none of their relatives were even in any.

The novel consists of very short snapshots, some as short as a sentence or two, which provide a glimpse into each twin in a nonlinear fashion, both during the childhood and young adulthood, his suicide, and how deeply his sister's life was affected, years after her brother died of suicide.

What I'd Rather Not Think About is a tragic story, in which the superhuman efforts of one sibling to save the life of another proves fruitless, but it is also filled with small segments of wry humor that keep it from being a morbidly depressing one. Unlike The Details I found this novel to be a worthy choice for this year's International Booker Prize.

I think that if any book stands a chance against Kairos, it will be Crooked Plow—not that I’ve read any others on the Short List (lol). At 2/3 of the way thru, though, I’m so impressed by Crooked Plow that I’ll be rooting for it. I’d like to find What I’d Rather not Think About and I have a copy of The Details, but based on your reviews, think I’ll be better off reading Posthuma and/or Erpenbeck. What about Not a River?

>23 dianelouise100: From what I can tell, Not a River won't be published in the US until May 7th, at least that's what Amazon says.

Happy new thread Darryl! Two books read - that's cause for celebration! I'm also not especially excited by this year's IB list, so I will wait for more reviews from readers I trust like yourself before I purchase any.

Happy new thread! I have Kairos on my kindle, but haven't been able to settle into it.
Thanks for the reviews.

>25 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. Three books in half a month is the best I've done in quite some time, and I hope that it's a reflection of a much better reading year to come.

I just say that the copy of Crooked Plow I requested from the Free Library of Philadelphia is now available, so I'll fetch it sometime tomorrow.

>26 tangledthread: Thanks, tangledthread. I'll wait to start Kairos until after I read Let Us Descend and Crooked Plow.

I loved Crooked Plow, will be interested to see what you think. And thanks for reviewing The Details and What I’d Rather Not Think About.
I have access to both, and expect to read The Details last of the SL—but your review makes me think it is worth reading.

>28 dianelouise100: I finally finished Crooked Plow this afternoon, and I thought that it was superb. I'll give it 4½ stars, and rank it just ahead of What I'd Rather Not Think About in my rank order of this year's International Booker Prize shortlist:

1. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior
2. What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma
3. The Details by Ia Genberg

It's certainly possible that I could finish the shortlist by April 21st, the date of the prize announcement. I have Kairos on my Kindle, I'm waiting for the copy of Mater 2-10 I requested from the Free Library of Philadelphia to become available, and I'll likely purchase the Kindle edition of Not a River.

>29 kidzdoc: I’ve finished What I’d Rather Not Think About and didn’t read the Details. I’ve started Mater 2-10, which you certainly have to credit for its unique set-up. I’m not far enough into it to really have a feel for it. Agreeing with you on the rankings.

>30 dianelouise100: Sounds good, Diane. It doesn't seem as though I'll get to Mater 2-10 before the winner is announced on the 21st unless I purchase it, as the copy in the Free Library of Philadelphia is already checked out, and there is one person who'll get it before I do. I may decide to postpone reading it unless it does win.

I'm mainly reading The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris by Marc Petitjean, a book I bought in The Met Store in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in late March, which covers the period in early 1939 in which she was encouraged by André Breton and her husband, Diego Rivera, to travel abroad, for slightly different reasons: Breton thought that she was the epitome of surrealism, and wanted her art to be displayed in Europe; Rivera also thought it was a good idea to gain exposure abroad, after a very successful solo exhibition in the Julien Levy gallery in NYC, but he was also having an affair with Frida's sister Cristina and wanted to do so without guilt, while openly contemplating whether he should divorce her or not. It's quite good so far, and I'll probably finish it this weekend. Frida Kahlo is easily in my list of top 5 favorite artists, along with Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Juan Gris (yeah, there is clearly a common theme here...).

Having said that, Frida Kahlo is, IMO, the most interesting artist of the 20th century, along with one of the most interesting people, period.

>31 kidzdoc: I read about 100 pages of Mater 2-10 (I bought the Kindle edition) and laid it aside. It just didn’t grab me, though I may try it again at some point. I’d be surprised if it were the winner, which I realize is presumptuous to say based on only 20% of the book.

>31 kidzdoc: Since you're a fan of surrealism, take a look a Remedios Varo. I had never heard of her until the Art Institute did an exhibition of her work and I fell in love with her weird outlook.

PS NOLA was amazing. I put a few pictures up on my thread.

>31 kidzdoc: As you know, I'm homeschooling my nieces, and two of the artists we studied last year were Frida Kahlo and Joan Miró. I hadn't known much about their art before then. I am learning so much while purportedly teaching them!

>33 RidgewayGirl: I saw the Remedios Varo exhibit when I was in Chicago this fall and also LOVED it. Really striking and memorable.

>33 RidgewayGirl: I love Varo, and was soooo tempted to try and come to Chicago for the exhibition. But it wasn't really feasible to come from London. I will travel to mainland Europe for exhibitions, but the US is a bit too far! I also love Leonora Carrington (who also had a very interesting life) and Leonor Fini.

>36 Sakerfalcon: Leonora Carrington fan here too Claire. As well as Frieda.

>32 dianelouise100: Yeah, I have a feeling that I won't be getting to Mater 2-10 unless it wins the International Booker Prize, as I'm trying to avoid purchasing books that I don't want in my library. I'll definitely read Kairos and Not a River, though.

>33 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for recommending Remedios Varo to me, Kay! I had not heard of her, and I see that there is an exhibition of her work this month at the Adler Beatty gallery in NYC from May 8 through June 1. With any luck either my cousin can visit us that month, or I can take a train into the city for a quick visit on a day that I send my mother to the adult daycare center.

ArtNet: Long Overlooked Surrealist Remedios Varo Gets Her First New York Show in Four Decades

CNN: Why Remedios Varo, one of the ‘three witches’ of surrealism, continues to fascinate

Okay, I'm curious: who are the 'three witches' of surrealism? Varo, presumably Kahlo, who else? No, it's actually Varo, fellow painter Leonora Carrington, and photographer Kati Horna. None of them seemed to win much recognition, especially since Kahlo or Carrington, as they each died at relatively young ages.

>34 labfs39: That's great, Lisa! There was a fabulous exhibition of Frida Kahlo's work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008, which is where I learned more about her. I've visited the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona at least three times and seen his work in modern art museums in the United States and Europe other times since then.

>35 japaul22: Thanks for mentioning that, Jennifer. The few paintings by Varo I've seen just now are striking and inspiring. I'll have to go back through photos I've taken from art museums I've visited to see if there are any which feature her work. I don't take a lot of photos, only the ones that move me the most, but I do take pictures of the cards that list the name of the artist and the work, for future reference.

>36 Sakerfalcon:, >37 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Claire and Caroline. I'm sure that I've seen some of Leonora Carrington's work, especially in Tate Modern and MoMA, but I'll look for her works in my phone's gallery as well.

I also like Joan Miro's work. Seven years ago I was attending a local art festival and ran across a potter who had lots of designs "in the style of" Miro. I fell in love with them. I splurged and purchased a long narrow platter and a bowl. I used that platter so much that the next year I looked for that potter but didn't find him until late on the last day. He had not had a good show and didn't want to pack up all his stuff. He offered me another bowl, platter, and a shallow boat shaped bowl for $120.00. I didn't haggle with him and purchased all of them. I use them regularly and each time I do they make me smile. The long narrow platters are perfect for rice based dishes and salads so they get used over and over.

The ceramic clay the potter used is black and the glazes are white, a bluish tinted grey and black for the underside of the vessels. Each one is decorated with a combination of red and yellow dots and black lines on the white background glaze. They are just so happy looking. They are one of the best purchases I ever made.

I have never seen a Miro work in real life but when I am able I intend to hunt them down in art museum's and study them. I hope to go to Barcelona someday and see them in their home environment.

I went out of my comfort zone today and went to a huge Mexican market/grocery in the south part of Birmingham. (suburb named Pelham.) They have a grocery items and an cold drinks bar, bakery, and a buffet for lunch and supper. I spent about an hour looking at all the fruit and vegetables in the produce section then looked closely at the butcher shop items. I purchased some baked goods and then ate at the buffet. It was great fun and I do have to say that I have not seen as large of a selection of peppers, dried and fresh, since I did my grocery shopping in Dodge City, KS. The place was a bit crowded and I suspect that was because many people were doing their shopping for parties and such for tomorrow. I purchased and ate one of those wonderful Mexican popsicles before I left. This is a store I will go back to at some point.

One thing my parents did that I'll be forever thankful for was to expose me to a lot of art and literature early, and Miró was probably my favorite artist when I was... four? Five? If you think of it, his work is so suited to little kids and the way they can get lost in images, light against dark, etc. I remember having a big jigsaw puzzle of one of his works that I liked to do. I was a funny little kid.

Also a fan of Carrington and Varo, and of course Kahlo. A few years back New York Botanical Garden recreated parts of her Casa Azul—with, of course, all the native plant life, which was spectacular. That was a great exhibit, and made me want to travel to Mexico to see the original.

>41 lisapeet: I agree that Miró is accessible for kids. My nieces (then aged 3 and 6) and I studied some of his works and then created our own pieces in his style. Very fun. We hung them up in our "gallery", alongside those of other artists we had studied.

>39 benitastrnad: Well done on supporting that ceramic artist, Benita. Miró's best works also make me smile and lift my spirits, and after going at least three times to the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, the museum that is dedicated to his work and subsequent artists who were influenced by him, I have a greater understanding and appreciation of the parti cular elements of his paintings. He was a prolific artist, so hopefully you'll be able to see at least one of his works in a major museum; the Museum of Modern Art definitely has a couple of his paintings, but IIRC the Metropolitan Museum of Art does as well.

"Ciphers and Constellations in Love with a Woman" is one of my favorites:



Yes, do go to Barcelona! There are several great museums there; my favorites, in addition to the Fundació Joan Miró, are the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, the national art museum of Catalunya (Catalonia); the Museu Picasso, which focuses on his works towards the beginning (pre-Cubist) and end of his career; the Museu d'Art Contemporani, the contemporary art museum; and the Museu d'Història de Barcelona, which is specifically about Barcelona. The architecture there is absolutely stunning, and the highlight in 2026 will be the expected completion of La Sagrada Família, on the 100th anniversary of the death of the famed architect Antoni Gaudí. I want to see it, having visited the church twice, but I probably won't go before 2027.

>40 benitastrnad: I love going to markets and stores that cater to different ethnic groups, so I'm glad that you had a good experience in that mercado.

>41 lisapeet: That was great that your parents exposed you to Miró and other artists at a young age, Lisa! There were plenty of kids who were enjoying the art whenever I visited the Fundació Joan Miró, and I seem to remember several of them enjoying Picasso's sculptures during a recent exhibition of them at either MoMA or Tate Modern.

Ooh, that re-creation of Casa Azul must have been amazing...

>42 labfs39: That's a great project, Lisa!

Book #8: Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz



My rating:

This novel, which is currently on this year's International Booker Prize shortlist and has won several awards in Brasil and Portugal, is set in the interior of the state of Bahia, several generations after the freedom of slaves from Africa in 1888. The former slaves are generally "employed" as tenant farmers, who are allowed to build flimsy mud shacks on the properties of the plantation owners, but are not allowed to own property or build sturdier brick homes. They harvest their own plots, but much of the best harvest is taken from them by the owners and their White overseers, as they deem that the harvest belongs to them, and the farmers are forced to purchase goods from the owners at exorbitant prices. (Hmm, does this sound familiar?)

The story opens with two young sisters, Bibiana and Belonísia, who have discovered a stunning ivory handled knife in the suitcase of their grandmother Donana, which is wrapped in an old rag. The sisters are each fascinated by the knife and want to taste it immediately. Each pulls on the knife, and in doing so suffer extreme cuts to their tongue, with a complete amputation of one of the organs and a serious injury to the other one. Because of their impoverished status and distance from major cities neither is able to receive adequate medical care. The sister with the least grevious injury is eventually able to regain speech, and the two remain close and able to communicate to each other.

The sisters form the basis of this intriguing and often tragic tale about the hard lives of these quilombolas, descendants of Afro-Brasilian slaves who, like their African American counterparts, suffered from extreme racism and violence if they dared stand up for their rights as Brasilian citizens. The women suffer the most, at the hands of unfaithful and often violent men who exert their frustrations on them. The novel is filled with great beauty, though, with magical realism sprinkled throughout, and as their conditions improve, their hopes for better lives do as well.

I greatly enjoyed Crooked Plow, which so far is my favorite of the three books I’ve read from this year’s International Booker Prize shortlist. The author, Itamar Vieira Junior, is of Afro-Brasilian descent with a doctorate in Ethnic and African Studies and has studied the quilombola communities extensively, so he is quite knowledgeable about the people he writes about.

Book #9: The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris by Marc Petitjean, translated by Adriana Hunter

 

My rating:

Jacqueline describes an animated private viewing, but with an isolated Frida, alone in a corner. "She was not the sort of artist who was anxious to exhibit or discuss her paintings. She was very detached from her work." When Frida came to the private viewing, it was to say: Look at who I am; I am in pain and I want to live, and I paint my pain. I make it visible.

The year 1939 was a difficult one for Frida Kahlo. Her unfaithful husband, Diego Rivera, publicly announced that he planned to divorce her, while at the same time having an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. Frida had, until the previous year, been little more than Diego’s wife, but an exhibition at the Julien Levy in NYC brought her attention outside of Mexico. Diego encouraged her to display her art in Paris, to gain her greater exposure in the modern art capital of the world but also so he could more freely continue his relationship with Cristina. That year André Breton, the father of surrealism, and his wife Jacqueline Lamba spent several months with Frida and Diego in their famed Casa Azul, and since Breton considered Frida as the embodiment of surrealism itself he invited Frida to stay with them while he made preparations to have her work displayed there. (Of note, Frida rejected the surrealist label, and found Breton and most of the surrealists to be pompous asses.)

Fascism was progressively taking over western Europe in early 1939, as the Republicans were about to lose power to the Francisco Franco and the Nationalists, aided by fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Portugal, Czechoslovakia and Poland would soon fall to Hitler, and the Nazis were in the process of invading France, which was deeply upsetting to Frida and those closest to her.

Frida was also in her constant pain, due mainly to the bus-trolley accident in 1926 that nearly claimed her life and horribly pierced her body. She did consult multiple specialists in New York and Paris and underwent multiple operations, without much improvement.

Marc Petitjean, the author of this book, and the son of Michel Petitjean, one of Frida’s lovers, and this relationship provides an often interesting but somewhat uneven account of an important period in Frida Kahlo’s life. Frida’s painting The Heart was a gift to Michel, and one that was constantly on view in the Petitjean home throughout Marc’s life. In it, Frida portrays a dress from her youth, an image of her with a rod piercing her heart, presumably the one from the trolley that impaled her, but that rod went through her pelvis, and a traditional dress that helped to hide the misshaped legs that resulted from an episode of paralytic polio she suffered at the age of six.

Marc, Michel’s father, was approached by a researcher in Mexico who wanted to review whatever letters and other communication that Michel had about his father, and since Marc was interested in Michel, and his relationship to Frida, he readily agreed. This book is a compilation of what information he obtained from different sources in Paris and France, along with information that Oscar shared with him. Michel’s life is far more banal than Frida’s, and Marc puts his father on a lofty pedestal, especially in comparison to Breton and the other surrealists, and there seem to be occasional embellishments and likely inaccuracies, particularly when he portrays the lovers engaged in an intimate conversation, when the author states earlier in the book that his father spoke little useful English and Frida spoke hardly any French.

I would recommend The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris to anyone who wishes to learn more about this great artist’s life in detail, but I would take it with a large pinch of salt, and look for other sources about the time she spent in Paris that year to the casual reader.

>45 kidzdoc: Really enjoyed that review, Darryl. I learnt a lot and you piqued my interest in Kahlo.

>44 kidzdoc: Enticing review! I think either Crooked Plow or Kairos will take the prize. I haven’t been able to read Crooked Plow but from LT reviews I expect it will win. I was disappointed in Kairos which is not one of Erpenbeck’s best, but it seems to have been liked by readers who have not read her other novels.

>45 kidzdoc: A wonderful and detailed review, this seems like an interesting book - although I note your warnings about taking it with a pinch of salt.

>46 AlisonY: Thanks, Alison! I want to learn more about Frida Kahlo, both from books written about her, and from recent movies and documentaries about her.

>47 kjuliff: Thanks, Kate. I'll read Kairos relatively soon, but I would like to get to Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward and James this month first, and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride in June for the Literary Fiction by People of Color group in Goodreads, which is the group's book of the month.

>48 rv1988: Thanks, Rasdhar. I don't recall reading any books especially about Frida Kahlo, so I don't have anything other than The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris to compare them to. I would assume that other books are more historically accurate, though.

>44 kidzdoc: Crooked Plow has been in my wishlist for some time, but your review really made me want to read it sooner rather than later!

>50 Dilara86: Thanks, Dilara!

>49 kidzdoc:
I keep trying to get a recorded version of Heaven& Earth Grocery Store from the library to listen to on one of my frequent trips home and it is always checked out. I do want to read this one because I like the other books my James McBride that I have read.

>49 kidzdoc: Our book group discussed Heaven & Earth Grocery Store a week ago. We talked about it for 2 hours and could have gone longer. Everyone had their own favorite characters, scenes, and plot devices.
Hope your experience is as enriching.

>52 benitastrnad: To my great surprise I have not read anything by James McBride! I started reading The Color of Water many years ago but never finished it. Apparently The Free Library of Philadelphia has over a dozen print copies of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, so I'll plan to request a copy during the last week of this month, as I want to finish Let Us Descend and James first.

>53 tangledthread: That sounds great, tangledthread! This will be the first time I participate in a group read on Goodreads, so hopefully it will go well.

>54 kidzdoc: I loved The Color of Water and have Heaven & Earth Grocery Store on my read-next bookcase.

ETA: PS the audiobook of CoW is excellent.

Hi Darryl - One of my in person bookclubs will be reading Heaven & Earth Grocery Store this year. I have also not read anything by James McBride. The titles are so familiar, but I have just not taken that next step :) .

>55 labfs39: Thank you for commenting on the audiobook of CoW. I enjoy audiobooks in my car as it is an hour's drive to the nearest largish town.

>55 labfs39: - I agree that The Colour of Water on audio is excellent! Narrated by the late great Andre Braugher.

>55 labfs39: Sounds good, Lisa. Since The Color of Water was published in 1995 I assume that I tried to read it when I was a medical student or pediatric resident, periods of time when I hardly read anything for pleasure, due to my busy schedules.

Do you ?still subscribe to Archipelago Books? I was pleased to receive a copy of The Joyful Song of the Partridge by Paulina Chiziane, the first Mozambican female author to have a book published. I enjoyed her first novel The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy, and the description of this book sounds even better. I also received a copy of A Question of Belonging, a collection of chronicles by the Argentinian author Hebe Uhart, which looks good as well.

>56 streamsong: I'm not sure why I haven't read anything by James McBride, Janet. I've read good comments and reviews about Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, but I simply haven't gotten to them yet. My reading output took a nose drive a year or two before the pandemic, and it remains far below what it was before then, when I had no problem finishing 75 books in a year. I'm doing a bit better this year, but it will be a struggle to finish 50 books by year's end.

>57 jessibud2: Oh, that's interesting, as my audio version was narrated by JD Jackson and Susan Denaker. I thought it worked well having a man read the chapters from James' POV, and a woman for the chapters from his mother's. Both were exceptional. Good to know that other narrators did an equally good job. Perhaps a sign of the quality of the writing too?

>58 kidzdoc: I don't subscribe to AP, but I do place orders periodically. There are still many titles in their back catalogs that I would like to read. I love the physical quality of Archipelago books, as well as the quality of the translations. I support them as often as I can.

I read The First Wife last year and enjoyed it quite a bit as well. I would definitely read more by her.

>59 labfs39: - I would listen to Andre Braugher read the phone book, lol! His voice was such that I didn't want to get out of my car!! (I used to listen to audiobooks in my car on my commute to and from work).

>57 jessibud2: I had forgotten that Andre Braugher died, or maybe I didn't know. Either way that is a great loss.

>59 labfs39: Ah. I thought it was you who had a subscription to Archipelago Books, but maybe it's someone else in Club Read.

>60 jessibud2: I'm with you, Shelley!

Definitely adding Crooked Plow to my to-read list.

I read The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris a couple years ago, with much the same reaction to yours. Some interesting parts but a fair bit from the author that also had my saying Hmm, not sure about that, or thinking about his personal motivations.

>62 mabith: Right, Meredith. Marc Petitjean's account was a very biased one, IMO, and he and the book would have been better served by a more critical set of eyes. I'm not sorry that I read it, though.

I have been busy packing for the last month. I haven't been working too hard on it and am concentrating on packing my books. I packed 12 boxes in the last two weeks and got them all entered into librarything and my data base so that I know what books are where. I will be headed to Kansas on Sunday with a carload. I got my upholstered chair into the Outback and now I will have to put my suitcase in the passenger seat. I am also taking some of my smaller kitchen appliances - my mixer, blender, and small food processor. I will be there two weeks then back here to Alabama where the book packing and clothes culling will continue. I plan on moving out of Alabama sometime between October 10 - 15. My landlord called this week and I gave her those dates as being firm. I hate the work but I do have to say that I am looking forward to moving back to Kansas. There is lots of moving and cleaning to do in Kansas and I will devote the month of July to that. I am going to take a vacation in September and then wait for the moving truck for the rest of the moving chores.

>64 benitastrnad: I like your slow but steady approach of moving from Alabama to Kansas, Benita!