I drafted this post in March, but never published it to the website.  Not quite sure how that happened.  Here it is:

Seven weeks since my last post, and I’m surprised and dismayed that I have read so few books and have so little to write about.

Thanks Carol!

My friend Carol suggested I read Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks, this month’s selection for the Center for Creative Retirement’s book group.  I bought the book for my Kindle on March 1, and finished it in time for the book group’s meeting on March 6.  This is a beautifully written, highly enjoyable book, and the group members had a great discussion about it.  Caleb’s Crossing is set in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts, and the characters, language and style of the book feel just right for the time and place.  I read another book, March, by Geraldine Brooks a couple of years ago, and didn’t like it.  Now I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.

Geraldine Brooks is married to Tony Horwitz, one of my favorite non-fiction writers; I read his latest book Midnight Rising not long ago.

Where did the time go?

In my last post, I outlined my plan to reread Lord of the Rings, and compare the books with the movies.  So far, I’ve read The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I and II) and the first part of The Two Towers (Book III).  And these are pretty much the only books I had read since my last post until I started Caleb’s Crossing on March 1.  I resolved to read the whole trilogy in order, no skimming, no page flipping, and it is amazingly slow going.  Wonderful books, as good or better than I remember; I guess I’m savoring every word.

I did pull a mystery anthology off the shelf to take a break from Tolkien from time to time.  It’s a pretty good one:  The Night Awakens, edited by Mary Higgins Clark.  Some well-done stories by good writers; most of the authors are actually better at writing than Mary Higgins Clark, in my opinion.  Her plots are fine, but her writing can get kind of clunky.  Nice choices for the anthology though.

Did I at least try to read anything else?  Yes, I started The World is My Home, by James Michener.  It should be subtitled: and I’m the Most Interesting Person In It.  It is a long book with all of Michener’s most irritating writing habits: rambling, tangential, overly detailed, lots of padding.  You don’t have to tell me how awesome you are in such excruciating detail, James, it’s boring.  I’ve given up; it’s back on the shelf for now.

I also reread some of the most interesting parts of Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden’s detailed account of the American hostages’ experiences in Tehran.  After I saw Argo, I took the book off the shelf to see what Bowden had to say about the six Americans sheltered by the Canadians - not very much, just a passing reference.  His focus is on the hostages who had to deal with the horrors of Iranian captivity, and the planning and tragic outcome of the attempt to rescue them.  Excellent book, with intense, gripping interviews with many of the hostages.

I just started reading Fatherland, the first novel by one of my favorite authors, Robert Harris.  Harris imagines a police detective’s investigation of a murder in 1964 Berlin, in a German Empire ruled by Adolf Hitler, who won World War II.  I’m already halfway through, terrific suspenseful writing.

So where did the time go?  Reading too much online news and commentary about fake budget crises, other worldwide miseries, and the dingbats who cause them.  I’m trying to go cold turkey on Internet news, and read more interesting stuff that’s better for my frame of mind.