Chain Letter & Recent Reads

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is described as a 'lively and entertaining' look at the world of literature. Required summer reading for a grand daughter I sometimes go through her 'must reads' along with her and then have a 'lively and entertaining' discussion about what we have read. The author is so excited about world literature and very well-read. We all know, for example, that the original tale for the modern musical West Side Story is stolen, excuse me 'borrowed', from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It seems that not much is new under the sun. Would I recommend it? Only if you are a high school senior, a lit major at university or a very supportive grand mother. I would tell you the author but I forget...and you are not going to read it anyway now, are you?

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride is a lovely memoir encouraging us to listen to the story of our elders, even if we have to pry it out of them and even if it turns out to be dark and unpleasant.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horton centers on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and his long-time affair with Mamah Cheney. The story is tragic on so many levels. It is well-written; Horton's first published novel.

Remember the chain mail letters of the 50s? I received an update on that idea when a friend sent one recently concerning a book exchange. There was a name and address on the back of the letter. The sender (not the one on the back of the letter) enclosed six of her own address labels for me to affix to six new copies of the letter. I was to send a pre-read paper-back book to the name on the back of my letter, copy the letter six times and affix one of the sender's address labels to the back of each and mail them off to six friends along with six of my own address labels (36 labels in all). My friends, all six of them, would then copy the letter, put one of my address labels on the back of each, enclose six of their own labels and send the letters off to six of their friends. Each of my six would also send one book to the person listed on the back of the letter I sent. Ideally one would receive 36 books in a matter of weeks.

Having difficulty following the above paragraph?

If you answered yes, then you are probably of the male gender. I tried to explain the process to my husband and he finally turned to me and said, "Honey, all I'm hearing is 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'."

And that's what I'm thinking about.