What book are you reading?

[southwest88]

Forget the Alamo : the rise and fall of an American myth / Bryan Burrough, 1961; Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford, c2021, Penguin Press, 976.403 BURR.

Subjects
Slavery -- Texas -- History -- 19th century.
Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.) -- History.
Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Folklore.
Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Siege, 1836.

Summary
"Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos, Texans of Mexican origin who fought alongside the Anglo rebels, scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows us how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late 19th and early 20th century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the last forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark"-- Provided by publisher.

Length
xxvii, 386 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :


An important myth to evaluate, especially as the US Southwest & Texas in particular, become more & more multiethnic & multiracial.

[Mayvenne]

I read Florence Adler Swims Forever and it was definitely a good read. A bit of a different story but so well done. When I mentioned it on another forum I frequent, I was surprised that several people commented that they had read it and really liked it. Somehow I think it was off my radar.
After that, I read The Offing which someone had raved about. I had to request my library purchase it as it is from the UK and not very known here. (written in 2019). It was outstanding. It took me a little bit to get into it because it's so very descriptive but the writing is amazingly beautiful and the story was so well told. It became a page turner for me and I couldn't put it down.
So 2 for 2 highly recommended books.

[txwriter]

Reading a couple of books right now.

In the fiction category, Bernard Cornwell's "War Lord," which is the 13th and supposedly final book in the Saxon Series, later renamed the Last Kingdom series. So this looks to be Uhtred's last hurrah as he hopes to hold onto his ancestral castle while the kings of England and Scotland press down on his territory.

In the non-fiction category, I am reading Golda Meir's memoir, "My Life." She was definitely one of most memorable female leaders and personalities of the 20th Century.

[farm108]

- "The Enchanted April" by Von Arnim;
- "The Better Brain" by Kaplan and Rucklidge.

[Ceece]

"Bad News" by Batya Ungar-Sargon, an editor at Newsweek. The tagline is "How the woke media is undermining Democracy".

You asked...lol

[Wintergirl80]

I am re-reading an older book by: Ronald H. Balson "Once We Were Brothers" it's very good. WWII related with a modern story. Ronald is a lawyer and author on the side, his books are well written.

[Mayvenne]

Originally Posted by farm fatale

- "The Enchanted April" by Von Arnim;
- "The Better Brain" by Kaplan and Rucklidge.

I read The Enchanted April a year or two ago and thought it was delightful.
Someone had recommended it and I was so glad because I never would have stumbled on it otherwise.

I have started The Golem and the Jinni
which also came very very highly recommended. I kept putting it off because 1- it's a bit longer than I usually read, and 2-it didnt sound like my type of book even though supposed to be good.
Well, it is a really good read, but it is long. I have been reading it for a few days now and am at about 25%.
It definitely is a good one. Of course I will update more when I finish.

[farm108]

Yes, I love it. The Enchanted April. You really have to see the movie, it was made in '94 I think.

[ClaraC]

For those who love short stories, The Pre-War House and other Stories by Alison Moore is excellent. Fabulous writing, if a little . . . creepy is too strong a word.

One of the reviews in the jacket said "Showcases the evolution of a writer who refuses to dilute her stories with artificial light or sentimentality to make them more palatable. There's really no need, when she knows how to make bleakness so thrillingly readable".

[jbgusa]

I just finished reading John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father by Peggy Noonan. I had reading a book about Pope John Paul II on my "to do" list for a long time. Earlier I had read her book What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era. Both books left me somewhat cold for similar reasons. Frankly, when she exceeds essay or article length, she becomes disorganized and loses focus. I expected better this time and was again disappointed.

Pope John Paul II was a historical great. He was unusually courageous during the Holocaust in maintaining close friends among Jewish people. As Pope, on behalf of the Vatican he recognized the State of Israel. Noon diluted the greatness of her subject with personal meanderings. Indeed, a few times she said, in the book, "now, let's return to John Paul." Nowhere was there discussion of the sheer bravery in befriending Jews during Holocaust-era Poland, the country with the highest ratio of its Jews murdered. The book did admirably cover the Church's pedophilia scandals. The book also gave a surprisingly good overview of Europe's manic self-immolation in the course of two world wars.

The timing of my reading the Peggy Noonan book was the completion of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, by James Carroll. Constantine's Sword was a powerful history of the Roman Catholic Church. About the only thing it didn't mention was the pedophilia scandals and the high-living lifestyle of some of the Archbishops and Cardinals. Both of those were discussed by Peggy Noonan, so I have to give the book a "three" on Goodreads. I will say I almost put the book down until the chapter on the pedophilia scandals, called "The Great Shame." The shame of the book is I still feel that I don't know as much about John Paul as I wanted to.