First Lines: April 2021 edition

 

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in April 2021. 

 

 

Book 1

Thinking with Jimmy

I arrived in Heidelberg, Germany, on a hot Saturday morning the day after leaving Newark, New Jersey.  This was the beginning of my stay at Heidelberg University as the 2018 recipient of the James W.C. Pennington Award.  

 

Book 2

Biblical commentaries by their nature tend to concentrate on the meaning and significance of individual sections.  However, it is important that we also see what are essentially close-up or limited-range pictures in their wider context.

Along with

There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

 

Book 3

The first time our father brought Andrea to the Dutch House, Sandy, our housekeeper came to my sister’s room and told us to come downstairs. “Your father has a friend he wants you to meet,” she said.

 

Book 4

Part One: 1939

Chapter I : February 22nd

The moment that Miss Morrison woke up she felt that something pleasant was going to happen to-day.

 

Book 5

“Why can’t we have nice things?”

Perhaps there’s been a time when you’ve pondered exactly this question.  And by nice things, you weren’t thinking about hovercraft or laundry that does itself.  You were thinking about more basic aspects of a high-functioning society, like adequately funded schools or reliable infrastructure, wages that keep workers out of poverty or a public health system to handle pandemics.

 

Book 6

Lacey used to have these Black history checks. Each check had a different Black hero on it. MLK, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass. So Lacey was at a store chatting with the cashier and they’re having fun. After she’s all rung up, Lacey handed the young white cashier a check with a picture of Harriet Tubman on it and the cashier said, “Wow! You have checks with your picture on ’em?” 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

 

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.  © 2020.   272 pages.

Glaude offers us an overview of Baldwin’s evolving outlook on humanity, and Glaude’s own deep insights.  I recommend this book.

 

Book 2

I finished the 1 Samuel part of  1 & 2 Samuel (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series) by Mary J. Evans  © 2000.

Alongside, I read the biblical book of 1 Samuel, probably first written in the period 630–540 BCE, about events and people ~500-600 years before that.

King Saul is a tragic figure.  God decides that government under the “judges” system is unworkable, but also is not enthusiastically for the inherited monarchy form of government.  King Saul gets caught in the middle of it all. Democracy is not mentioned.

 

Book 3

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett.  © 2019.  337 pages.  Whip-smart kids in financially rich but spiritually poor family circumstances.  Good writing, and very interesting portrayal of sibling relationship. Read for book club.

 

  

Book 4

 Nothing to Report, by Carola Oman.  © 1940.  222 pages

This is on a list of books that the publisher has labeled “Furrowed Middlebrow” books.  I liked this one a little less than the first Furrowed Middlebrow book I read. 

A couple quotes I like:

At Willows, Westbury-on-the-Green, for instance, it was absolutely impossible to say or do anything in the parlour that was not thrillingly audible in the bedroom exactly above.

“I have told Rose that there will be a chauffer for dinner,” she ended, frowning slightly at the cannibalistic sound of her sentence.

 

Book 5

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee.  © 2021.  395 pages.  A revealing book.  All of us incur a cost from racism.

 

 

Book 6

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar © 2021.  240 pages. A comedian and her sister write about racist incidents they have experienced.  When learning about racism, many tend to focus on the truly horrific events that result in killings or beatings.  This book shows us the everyday occurrences of racism in our society.

Not finished

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (© 2019.  352 pages).   Read for book club.  Did not finish.  But did get 50% of the way through.  This is a horror novel, not a genre I can usually read even in the best of times.

Committed to Cake

My mother was a woman of commitment.  When she married my father in December 1955, she promised her life to him (and he to hers) and they lived out that commitment.  Together with my Dad she committed to work in the civil rights movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s.  She committed to do her best to raise her family.  She committed to be the best teacher she could, and fulfilled that commitment by teaching science and by pushing for education for gifted students in the city public schools.  She lengthened her commitment by teaching thinking skills to new teachers.  

One of the things she was committed to was home baking.  She did not insist on special ingredients - no expensive butter nor particular type of flour for her.  But don’t you dare bring a manufactured pie crust or store-bought cake into her presence.    

Mom was famous for her pound cake.  It was actually Joyce Hatch’s Pound Cake, since Mom got the recipe from the pastor’s wife when we lived in Columbus, Mississippi for a year.  Thank you, Joyce Hatch, for giving our family the enduring tradition of this cake. 

When I decided yesterday to recreate her pound cake, I found out just what level of commitment is required - this cake takes 1 ½ hours baking time, and that’s not including the mixing of the ingredients.  I cancelled my plans for the morning.

It also requires a heavy investment of sugar.  After Mom’s online funeral, we the family distributed some of her recipes to those who attended.  One person said there must be a typo in the pound cake recipe - does it really call for 3 cups of sugar?!  

I was astonished that it calls for 1 tablespoon of vanilla.  My husband likes vanilla everything, so he is pleased with this discovery.  

My father called it “Joyce Hatch’s ½ pound cake,” because the recipe calls for only half a pound of butter (two sticks).  Let’s not neglect the 1 cup of sour cream, 6 eggs, and 3 cups of flour that also contribute to its heft.  When it’s all put together, I think it weighs 3 or 4 pounds.  It is a substantial cake, a cake of commitment.  

My Mom’s recipe is missing a key detail, which the baker is just automatically supposed to know - bake this cake in a tube pan, buttered and floured.

Mom’s birthday was last Friday; she would have been 89 years old.  

Mom, I made your signature cake in your memory.  I miss you.  Thank you for being a woman of commitment.

Joyce Hatch’s Pound Cake 

 

½ pound butter                 

3 cups sugar                              

6 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

 

Cream butter and sugar well.  Add eggs, one at a time. Alternate dry ingredients and sour cream.  Bake 1 ½ hours at 325 degrees.

Only 8 ingredients!

1.5 hours later, the cake is done.

Delicious with fresh fruit, or 
juicy strawberries (like
for shortcake) or with ice cream

And we turned it into emergency cake!
16 slices being stored in a 
freezer in an undisclosed location.

History of These United States, the month of May

Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900. 

From the month of May

May 7, 1955

In Belzoni, Mississippi NAACP member Rev. George Lee is fatally shot after angering local white people by attempting to register to vote.

May 8, 2009

Members of the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross in an African American neighborhood in Ozark, Alabama, to intimidate Black residents.  (One of the people convicted of this crime broke his parole.)

May 15, 1916 - note - multiple trigger warnings on this history

Mob of 15,000 burns alive African American teenager Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas.

May 18, 1980

After four Miami police officers are acquitted in brutal beating death of Arthur McDuffie, violent protests erupt, leaving 23 dead and hundreds injured. Here is a long article from 1980 (which I admit I have not read all of) about this incident, which seems horrifyingly familiar in today's news stories.

May 24, 2013

Federal judge rules Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, illegally targeted Latinos during raids and traffic stops based on their race

2009 article: (ACLU) Lawsuit Charging Sheriff Arpaio Illegally Targeted Latinos In Maricopa County Can Go Forward

2011 article: U.S. Finds Pervasive Bias Against Latinos by Arizona Sheriff

2016 article: Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Accused of Targeting Latinos, Is Charged With Contempt

2017 article: What you need to know about former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s record on illegal immigration

2017 article:  Trump pardons Arpaio

May 25, 2020

A white Minneapolis police officer kills George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by pinning his neck to the ground and choking him, sparking global protests against police brutality.

First Lines: March 2021 edition

Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in March.  

 

Book 1

November 1910

Asbury Park, New Jersey

For Thomas Williams, it was better to be no one than someone in Asbury Park.  

Williams lived in a city that was not meant for him.  It was designed as a haven for godly and wealthy white people.  

 

 

Book 2

1.  The River Bank

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.  First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms.  Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

 

 

Book 3

The promise of liberty is not written in blood or engraved in stone; it’s embroidered into the fabric of our nation. And so is Alexander Hamilton. My husband. My hero. My betrayer.

 

Book 4

Part 1: Germination

When it comes to the streets, there’s rules.

         They ain’t written down, and you won’t find them in a book.  It’s natural stuff you know the moment your momma let you out the house.  Kinda like how you know how to breathe without somebody telling you.

Book 5

On her fortieth birthday Alison Penny woke, after a night of torrential wind and rain, to a world of stillness washed in pale sunshine.

 

Book 6

Chapter 1: Up the Mountain to Alm-Uncle

From the old and pleasantly situated village of Mayenfeld, a footpath winds through green and shady meadows to the foot of the mountains, which on this side look down from their stern and lofty heights upon the valley below.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP , by Alex Tresniowski.  © 2021.   335 pages.

This book is written as a thriller, interweaving the story of the murder of a young girl and the story of Ida B. Wells.  A Black man becomes the prime suspect in the murder, putting him at risk of being lynched.  The book’s focus is partly on how the detective on the case “roped in" the true murderer with a complex scheme.  

The book also tells the story of Ida B. Wells in her actions against lynching of Blacks, extra-judicial murders often accomplished by hanging the victim – the rope.  And there are numerous accountings of lynchings, including ones that occurred in Northern states.  We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that racism only occurs in the southern United States.  

The book includes a conversation which I find it hard to forgive Susan B. Anthony for.  Perhaps it is good to be reminded that our national heroes are/were not perfect.   I read it for a book discussion in an anti-racist group. Well worth the read, with plenty to discuss.

 

Book 2

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame © 1908. Audio version (unabridged, 6 hours 35 minutes) narrated by Shelly Frasier. Children’s lit.

256 pages (that’s for the hardcover version with illustrations).   

Two words to describe this book:  wistful calm. Which is not to say there is not peril.  The language is poetic.  This is children’s lit, with complex vocabulary and sentence structure, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Book 3

My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie.  © 2018.  621 pages. 

The writing style of the first half of this book irked me, but it improved as the book went on, and I enjoyed reading the latter half.  The story is written from the point of view of Eliza Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s wife.  She was an amazing woman in her own right, with many lasting accomplishments, as well as in the part she played at the side of her husband in politics. 

I have not seen nor heard the musical Hamilton, so I was not very familiar with the story of The Family Hamilton.  Their lives held both tragedy and triumph. As portrayed in this novel, among the American Revolutionary men, the only man who is not a total jerk is a foreigner, a non-American.  

The way politics is described, not much has changed in 200+ years. Eliza Hamilton sides with the Federalists, and fears if the party of Jefferson wins office, the nascent union will collapse, with guillotines everywhere. I was left with the unanswered question -- how did we go from the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton to the Federalist Society of today? 

I read this book for book club.  We had a great in-person discussion, outside, with face masks, on a chilly afternoon. We gathered around a fire, a scene related only faintly to General Washington’s Continental Army at Valley Forge.

Book 4

Concrete Rose, by Angie Thomas.  © 2021.  368 pages

This is the prequel to the book The Hate U Give by the same author, a Y.A. book about a black youth shot by cops and the aftermath of that violence.  As far as I can tell, this book does an excellent job of portraying the challenges, dangers, and horrors that young Black men faced in the 1990s (and to a great extent, still face today).  I read it for book club, and there was plenty to discuss.  

Book 5

Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith.  © 1959.   214 pages.  Recommended by Aileen of the blog The Small House in Charlottesville.

A most enjoyable tale about an unexpected houseguest, along with a plentiful amount of tea drinking.  This book was available on Kindle for less than $5.00.  I was delighted to discover at the end of this edition a long list of books under the title “Furrowed Middlebrow,” a collection of publisher Dean Street Press. 

 

Book 6

Heidi, by Johanna Spyri, published 1881.

Audio book published 2006(?), read by Johanna Ward.  Translator not named -- and that bothers me.  The translator is important.

I loved this book as a child.  I see now that I had a propensity to love books with overly sunny characters. I also loved the story of Pollyanna, although that love derived partially from my fascination-horror of the notion of taking calf’s foot jelly to an ill person as a gift.  This audio book version of Heidi was well narrated, and as a whole was useful to me as a sleep aid.  There is an element of classism in the story, as well as a facile theology that might be okay for little kids but doesn’t cut it in today’s world.

History of These United States, the month of April

 History of These United States, the month of April

Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900.   

The last item (April 22; McCleskey v. Kemp) is for a court case that some have deemed the death penalty's Dred Scott ruling, that is, one of the greatest failures of the Supreme Court. I had never heard of this court case.

From the month of April

April 4, 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 5, 1921

Murder trial begins against white Georgia planter accused of killing 11 Black sharecroppers; he is convicted.  (A more detailed account is here.)

April 11, 1913

President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet begins government-wide segregation of workplaces, restrooms, and lunchrooms.

April 13, 1947

Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin is arrested for sitting with a white man on a public bus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and spends 22 days on a prison chain gang.

April 19, 1989

Five Black and Latino teens are arrested for raping a jogger in New York City’s Central Park and spend more than a decade in prison before being exonerated.

April 22. 1987

U.S. Supreme Court upholds death penalty in McCleskey v. Kemp despite proof it is racially biased, reasoning that racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is “inevitable.”

History of These United States, the month of March since 1950

Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1950.   The last item (March 28, 1951) is well worth reading the story at the link.

From the month of March

March 3, 1991

Los Angeles police beating of Black motorist Rodney King is caught on tape.

March 7, 1965

Police use tear gas, whips, and clubs to attack supporters of Black voting rights marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; dozens are hospitalized on “Bloody Sunday.”

March 11, 1965

Reverend James Reeb, a white supporter of Black voting rights, dies two days after he is beaten by angry white people in Selma, Alabama.

March 13, 2020

Louisville, Kentucky, police fatally shoot Breonna Taylor, an emergency room technician, in her home while executing a no-knock warrant.

March 16, 1995

Mississippi legislature votes to ratify Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, after having rejected it in 1865.

March 28, 1951

Four white men abduct a 27-year-old Black man, Melvin Womack, from his home in Oakland, Florida, beat him, shoot him, and leave him to die days later from his injuries.

First Lines: February 2021 edition

  

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in February.   February was a long month, filled with handwriting cards to voters, dealing with winter, amassing tax documents, studying covid data, getting candidate petitions signed, note taking at church meetings, and attending political meetings.  I finished three books, of which one was an audio Y.A. book. 

 

 

Book 1

List

Sean Geoghehan; Kimberly Gummer; Kimberly Brewer, Kimberly Brewer’s mother and uncle; Britt-Anne Conover; Jeremy Haskill; two of the younger DiPaolantonio boys;

 

Book 2

The butler, recognizing her ladyship’s only surviving brother at a glance, as he afterwards informed his less percipient subordinates, favoured Sir Horace with a low bow, and took it upon himself to say that my lady, although not at home to less nearly-connected persons, would be happy to see him.

 

Book 3

The first Wednesday in every month was a perfectly awful day, a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage, and forgotten with haste.  Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle.   Ninety-seven squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned into freshly starched ginghams, and all 97 reminded of their manners and told to say “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” whenever a trustee spoke.

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Long Bright River by Liz Moore.  © 2020.  492 pages

This book is excellent on plot and (as far as I can tell) an authentic portrayal of the subject matter.  This book was hard for me to read at first because of the description of a person in addiction and withdrawal. I found the characters and story compelling. The author has that rare quality of creating sympathy in the reader for characters who make agonizingly bad decisions.  There are lots of twists and turns in the plot.  A very good read.  Barack Obama liked it, too.  I read it for book club.

 

 

Book 2

The Grand Sophy (Regency Romances Book 10) by Georgette Heyer.  © 1950.  346 pages.

An amusing tale, set in 1816 England.  This was on a list of “light novels to lift your spirits,” a list we still need today.   Before Cousin Sophy comes to visit, all the wrong people are betrothed to each other.  Sophy arrives, with gifts including a live monkey for the children. Nineteenth-century silliness ensues, and in the end all the couples are paired up according to true love.  Horses, with and without carriages, are featured.  A lady must not gallop in Hyde Park.

 

Book 3

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster © 1912. Audio book, narrated by Julia Whelan (audio produced 2011).  Young Adult lit.

An epistolary coming-of-age story about a teenaged orphan whose college education is sponsored by a mysterious benefactor.  In 1912, age was come upon a few years later in life, at around age 20, than it is today.  This was a predictable yet enjoyable story, although the epistolary format is not my favorite.