Mama Kat Thursday: Book Review!

-

    The Mama Kat question I'm doing is: Book Review! What is your best (or worse read)?

      I joined a Book Club last year. We meet once a month at a local restaurant that allows us to come in at 10 am to discuss our book, then we order lunch. Everyone is 60 or older, I think--who else has free time to do a Book Club at 10 am?
     I joined for 2 reasons:
    1) Social Interaction. It gets me out of the house and around other people.
    2) To Try Out New Books to Read. I'm fairly particular about what I read and the club is reasonably conservative in book choices.
     Frankly, not every book choice has been fantastic, but I have two I consider the "Best Reads" this year. The 1st is non-fiction based on a historical event and the 2nd is fiction based on a historical event. I happen to like history, so I probably enjoyed them more then most of the other ladies, but I highly recommend both:


Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman
It's the year 1889 and two single female journalists, each representing a different news agency, propose to travel around the globe in 79 days or less and beat the record of Jules Verne's fictional character, Phileas Fogg. One goes East and one West, both sending telegraphs reporting their progress periodically back for their publisher's for their readers to follow. The chapters alternate between the two women's adventure and also tells you what happened to them afterwards.
It was a significant event for it's era, one I never heard about in history class, and interesting, too, how these 2 ladies got themselves hired as journalists at a time when women invading men's world of work was a new thing.





  Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
This fiction story alternates between following a modern marine archeologist, still reeling from the death of a close friend, as she researches the fatal 1838 sinking of a luxury paddle steam-ship off the coast of Georgia as well as following the passengers fighting for their lives to survive on the floating wreckage, which actually happened.
Both grim and fascinating, this tragic sinking in it's era has been compared to being "the Titanic of the South."
Another crisis in history I never heard about in history class. 






Comments

Abby said…
Both sound like interesting books. I think book clubs are good ideas for the reasons you mention, although I've never joined one.
Nov 18, 2023, 10:31:00 AM

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Good Eating Monday: Peach Cobbler Dump Cake!

-
Image
Yes, I tried another new Pinterest recipe and this one is a winner! The primary dictionary definition of a "Dump Cake," is an easily made cobbler in which cake mix is dumped over canned fruit or pie filling.  This recipe was pinned from Del Monte, which means it's been a recipe that's been created & tested in a corporate test kitchen. That's one benefit of all those label, can & box recipes provided by manufacturers on their product packaging. You can even buy cookbooks featuring nothing, but package & label recipes of which many are vintage. The only changes I'd suggest is add one more 15 oz can of fruit. It can be more peaches, cherry fruit cocktail, regular fruit cocktail or whatever you want. (So, I've noted 4 cans of peaches in the recipe.)   It just needs a little more volume on the fruit quantity.  And stir a teaspoon or two of cinnamon into the fruit! Otherwise, this is an excellent, quick dessert you can serve hot with v
Read more

Friday Finds: Crystal River, Florida!

-
Image
Todays "find" is a few photos I took in Crystal River, Florida. We recently drove down to Homosassa Springs, Florida to visit Hubby's half brothers & sisters, though our motel was in the adjacent hamlet called Crystal River.   The Days Inn there was a Denny's attached, so it was a great place to stay! We live on the Panhandle and Crystal River/Homosassa Springs are on the western side of the Peninsula south of Gainesville, but north of Clearwater about a 7 hour drive away. The area is small town America, both towns situated around  two large rivers that pour into a delta on the Gulf and are surrounded by State and National wildlife preserves and parks. I took this shot below off a pier looking across the wide expanse of river at boats and residences on the opposite side: This next shot is across a river bayou is typical of the scenery in the area: lots of Live Oak trees draped in Spanish Moss: Here's a view down one street in
Read more

Thursday Writers Prompt: Radio Memories

-
Image
I grew up in the late 60's and early 70's, graduating in 1975 and back then, if you wanted to listen to music, you either bought records or listened to radio. Then, radio was as vital as cellphones are today for staying in touch with news or music. Everyone had one or more at home, and, if out and about, they could carry hand-size portable radios. Of course, everyone had radio in their cars. In was around 1972 that my Dad gave me a used radio he'd repaired. (Fixing electronics was his profession.) It had a boxy shape and played AM and FM. I was coming into my teenage years and started being more interested in listening to popular radio music.  They're rock classics nowadays, but Top 40 Hits of 1972 I remember well include:  Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress by the Raspberries Knights in White Satin by The Moody Blues A Horse With No Name by America If Lovin' You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right by Puttin' Game Down American Pie
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: The Big Win

-
Image
The Mama Kat writing prompt today is, "You won an award sometime in your life...what was it for?" After the military I went to a two-year college to study Commercial Art.  During the course of that study, our instructor presented us with an class project for the Indiana State Fair. They wanted to decorate their Pioneer Building on the State Fair Grounds in Indianapolis with 6 symbolic logos representing topics like Agriculture, Industry, Hoosier Travel and so on. It was a class contest and the State Fair committee would select the winning design. Indiana State Fair Grounds Now the Indiana State Fair is a massive affair. It's huge.  It has two sides with a horse track in the middle. This photo shows the main side that includes the Coliseum, numerous permanent barns for livestock and horses plus the permanent exhibit halls that showcase exhibits, like 4-H projects from clubs all over the state. The other side of the grounds was called the  "Pioneer
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: The Fennel Seed Caper

-
Image
Today's Mama Kat topic is to share, "A Mistake I Made in the Kitchen." I had to ask Hubby to help me remember a cooking mistake. I actually haven't made that many. He recalled a mistake I'll call the "The Fennel Seed Caper." It was 1983, the first year of our marriage. We were living in Maryland in our first apartment. Hubby was still in the Air Force. One of our wedding gifts had been a nice wood spice rack that included a dozen bottles of various spices. Most of them were common ones like Basil, Oregano, Celery Seed, Thyme and so on, that I knew what to do with. But there was one I had no idea what to do with: Fennel seed. I wanted to try using it, so one day, I searched my Joy of Cooking cookbook to see if I could find a recipe that called for Fennel seed.. I found just one. It was called "Romanian Noodle & Pork Casserole." It called for 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Fennel seed. So I made it. It was the worst tasting thing either o
Read more