Watergate hearings open in Congress, May 17, 1973: an investigation into the criminal wrongdoings of a president who was fueled by deceit and paranoia and the conviction that an election (1960) had been stolen from him. Revealed is a tortuous sequence of criminal acts, firings, bombshell journalistic revelations, whimpering Republican cowardice and simpering GOP loyalty.

The more things change with the GOP, the more they stay the same.

Namaste on the couch and read my book. 📚🧘🏻

Literally the story of my life. 😖😬

When you inadvertently color-coordinate your reading material with your volunteer job at the polls on primary Election Day. #Democracy #Vote

Very sad to hear about the death of David McCullough today. He was my favorite historian and a must-buy anytime he published a new book. Posting this photo in his memory. I met him in 2015 when he was giving a presentation at Yale University (which he attended). I work at Yale New Haven Hospital around the block, bumped into him on the street and followed him into the lecture. He was warm and gracious and a wonderful speaker. RIP, Mr. McCullough.

Easy like Sunday morning. 🌞🌻🫖☕️📚

@alexus_sb Alexus, thank you so much for the bookmarks! They are absolutely adorable and I love them all. 😍

#summerbookmarkswap

📖 Yes. I feel out of sorts if I don‘t read SOMETHING every day.
📖 I commute an hour each way to work — usually on the train. That gives me lots of reading time! Plus I read every night before bed.
📖 Hmm. Maybe a cozy mystery? I usually just reach for whatever I‘m currently reading. Because the act of reading itself brings me comfort more than any specific genre.

Thanks for the tag, @GinaKButler !

#wondrouswednesday
@Eggs

Excellent nonfiction account of the 1986 Challenger disaster is my #LetterB entry for the #AlphabetGame

Thanks for the tag, @GinaKButler !

Tagging @Ddzmini @marleed @DogMomIrene

Persistence gets you to the last page every time! Great job, Caroline! This chunkster looks really good.

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@caroline2

A classic for #LetterA in the #AlphabetGame

Thanks for the tag, @CoverToCoverGirl !

@allureofbeauty Thank you, Andrea, for the adorable bookmarks! I especially love the kitten on the stack of books. 😻

And thank you for hosting, @cwarnier ! I love this annual swap.

#summerbookmarkswap

This is 100% correct.

The Baxley family has a rare and fatal neurological condition called GSS. All have a 50/50 chance of inheriting it. This book traces the research into the discovery of GSS and how family members used scientific breakthroughs in genetic counseling and fertility treatments to test and screen for it so as to avoid passing it down. Very readable and interesting. But who is the saint? Why, science— of course!

#Nonfiction2022
Prompt: I‘m a Saint

“Pandemics don‘t approach like wars, with the distant thud of artillery growing louder every day and flashes of bombs on the horizon. They arrive in retrospect, essentially. It‘s disorienting. The pandemic is far away and then it‘s all around you, with seemingly no intermediate step.”

This book. My God. 😳

Dialogue from a scene set in 2203. It‘s very depressing to think that 200 years from now women would still be questioned and judged for having a job while raising children. Ugh. 😖

Well, that was one hell of a ride. I spent most of it trying to decide who should play each character in the movie. (There‘s gotta be a movie in the works, right?) I know Buddy Lee was described as a Sam Elliott lookalike, but I envisioned Matthew McConaughey (a la the seedier Rust Cohle in “True Detectives). For Ike, my immediate thought was Samuel L. Jackson, but I think he might be too old. So maybe Morris Chestnut…? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nope. No regrets. 🤷🏻‍♀️

An account of the earthquake that hit Alaska in 1964, when the ground “rocked and rolled” for nearly 5 minutes. The narrative centers on Genie Chance, a reporter at KENI radio station in Anchorage, who stayed on the air for more than 50 hours as the city grappled with rescue and recovery efforts. Interesting glimpse at the early days of Alaska‘s statehood and the misogyny she faced as a female reporter.

#Nonfiction2022
Prompt: I‘m Rock ‘n Roll

Three cheers on crossing the finish line, Tina! This is one of my all-time favorite books. Hope you loved it as well! :)

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@BookNerd9906

Have Libby library app on my iPad, will wait for my flight from Seattle to Boston. And wait. And wait. 😖

This made me laugh out loud. Poor Greg. 😄

Congratulations on completing #ChunksterChallenge2022, Jill! It feels so good to reach that last page, doesn't it? :)

@bookwormjillk

This made me laugh out loud. I grew up in New England in the 1970s and ‘80s, and Carvel ice cream stores were everywhere. Cookiepuss and Fudgie the Whale cakes were a BIG DEAL. My husband is from Chicago and has never experienced Fudgie - in fact, he always sort of suspected I was making it up. Are there any other Fudgie the Whale fans out there? Anyone else remember Fudgie?

This book started off with promise, but I started to flag around 400 pages in. The storylines were uneven, and the ending was very abrupt. Plus it didn‘t appear as though the main character learned anything or grew as a person at all along the way—she was literally in the same life space after 661 pages. I wanted to like it. But … meh. That‘s all I can say. 🤷🏻‍♀️

In the NYT today: “What to say about New York? As both a place and an idea, it‘s too big to be summed up or even fully known. But that hasn‘t stopped countless writers from trying, often via fiction... the NYC novel has become its own literary category...“
Here's a list of the 25 most influential New York novels published between 1921 and 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/t-magazine/new-york-city-novels-books.html?se...

I had high expectations for this book based on the rave reviews. When I first started reading, however, I thought it was a bit twee. It did get better, I‘m happy to report. But some of the stereotypes grated on my nerves. A pick for a breezy quick summer read, but I‘m not going to remember the plot in a few months. And the cat wasn‘t impressed. (Not that she ever is. 😀)
#catsoflitsy

A strong start that started to lose its way in the second half, IMO. However, the use of the second person was intriguing and effective. I gave it 3/5 stars (which means I liked it but I won‘t be giving it out for Christmas presents).

I‘m conflicted. I love Towles and his previous works, and dove eagerly into this one. And it‘s well written. I‘m not a person who needs all the characters to be lovely humans. But I just disliked one specific character so much that it impacted my reading experience. Every time I came to a chapter with his POV, I put the book down and couldn‘t bear to pick it up again. It took me nearly 2 months to get through this. It should have taken me a week.

1. Yes. There are lots of jobs for writers: journalism, editing, marketing, public relations, communications, HR, etc. Authors are writers who write books.

2. I‘ve been a writer for my entire professional career—at a newspaper, at a university and now at a hospital (where I write marketing and communications materials all day, every day). I‘m not an author. And I don‘t aspire to be one. I like being a reader. 🙂

#Two4Tuesday

Saw this on Facebook and it made me laugh. Because it‘s SO TRUE. 😀

A soft pick. This is a memoir by Ann Hood about her 8 years as a flight attendant after college, and how the experience changed her. It‘s just about the right length —any longer and I may have lost interest. But still a nostalgic look back at the airline industry before deregulation and the ghosts of now-defunct airlines such as TWA and Pan Am.

Congratulations, Helen! Great job persevering to the end. (I agree with your assessment: the peace parts were better than the war parts, ;) )

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@squirrelbrain

Congratulations, Sarah! Super effort on plugging through for several months to complete this chunkster!

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@thearomaofbooks

At 12, Amy McGrath decided to become a Marine F/A-18 pilot — even though women weren‘t allowed to serve in combat roles at the time. She worked hard to achieve her dream, including going through Navy flight school TWICE (once as a “back-seater” and again as a pilot). In 2020 she had another dream: Run for Senate against Mitch McConnell. She didn‘t win, sadly. Our country would be a better place if she had.

#Nonfiction2022
Prompt: I‘m a Dream

Seriously, why isn‘t this a thing??

@GinaKButler @CoverToCoverGirl Another one to add to future #ChunksterChallenge lists! It‘s 900+ pages.

#Accurate 🙄😬😀

I just finished this book, and now I‘m sad. It‘s the last book in Mary Lawson‘s backlist and now I have to wait (years? Decades?) for her to write another one. Each book has been a tremendous reading experience and I urge everyone I know to read them all. (But do it slowly, to delay the inevitable sadness that you‘ll feel when you too get to the end.)

I‘m embarrassed to admit that I was woefully unaware of the atrocities of the Armenian genocide. This book educated me about events and people I probably should have known. Thanks to #AuthoraMonth for pushing me to read it!

As a longtime amateur genealogist, I wanted to love this book. Alas, I did not. It did have some interesting parts, but they were interspersed with long dry stretches that dragged. It was a bit of a struggle for me to finish it.

A reporter by trade, the author took on a series of low-wage service jobs: an Amazon warehouse, an AT&T call center and McDonald‘s. Her account of her experience is interspersed with commentary on the sociological, physical and emotional implications of such jobs. Throughout, the author kept herself going by reminding herself that “I can leave.” So many of those who work in these jobs can‘t. Excellent read.

#Nonfiction2022
Prompt: I‘m an Escapee

Visited The Morgan Library in NYC today. It was the library of J. Pierpont Morgan and includes illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints. To this core collection, he added the earliest evidence of writing as manifested in ancient seals, tablets, and papyrus fragments from Egypt and the Near East. Morgan also collected manuscripts and printed materials significant to American history.

Whenever we‘re in New York City, I usually make a pilgrimage to the Strand Bookstore. Today, however, my husband, son and I discovered 192 Books, an adorable independent bookstore on Tenth Avenue at 21st Street. It‘s small but has a surprisingly wide selection.

Six years? Time flies when you‘re reading with friends. Thanks, everyone! ❤️

Admittedly, as a 55-year-old woman who doesn‘t drink or smoke and has never taken any drug stronger than an epidural (and gave birth once without even that), I am likely not the target audience for this essay collection that does a deep dive into Rogen‘s fondness for using various drugs. A few of the essays were amusing. This might have been better on audio in Rogen‘s own voice. In the end, my review: “Meh.”

#Nonfiction2022
Prompt: I‘m a Sinner

This started with a laugh and I was amused for 100 pages. It bogged down in the middle and I wondered what all the fuss was about. The last 70 pages were a rush and left me in tears by the end. That‘s a roller coaster ride of emotions to pack into only 320 pages.

Currently bouncing back and forth between a nonfiction book of essays (“Yearbook” by Seth Rogen) and a work of fiction (“Hell of a Book” by Jason Mott) —and within minutes I find a reference to Nicolas Cage in both of them. Odd coincidence? Some urgent message from the universe that I need to decode? 🤷🏻‍♀️

When you go to the library to pick up the one book you had on hold and you come home with five. 🤭

Way to go, Caroline! I love that you used Serial Reader to help you conquer this chunkster. Well done! :)

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@Caroline2