Reading

I’ve never been a fast reader…it takes me a while to read a book…and that book has to capture me…books like those written by Erik Larson…he writes history like a novel…Devil in the White City…introduced Ferris to us…the man who invented the ferris wheel…Devil in the White City is about a serial killer and the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition which took place in Chicago in 1893…the White City was the buildings, all white, built on the Exposition grounds…the only building still standing was the Palace of Fine Arts, showing art works of course, it is now the Museum of Science and Industry…part of the story of Devil in the White City is about the story of World’s Fair architect Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes, a criminal figure widely considered the first serial killer in the United States….it was a wonderful read…as was Larson’s In the Garden of the Beasts…about the Ambassador to Germany during the time of Hitler’s rise to power…and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania…the German u-boats sank the Lusitania during WW I…history like a can’t put down novel…I also like the books of Amor Towles…A Gentleman in Moscow…and The Lincoln Highway…he also wrote The Rules of Civility which I have not read…the film, Driving Madeleine, as the taxi drives her through Paris we see their Ferris Wheel…similar to the one in London…Ferris invented the Ferris Wheel to rival the Eiffel Tower which had just been built in Paris…Elissa is a avid reader, I asked her to recommend a book to me when I was flying to California twice in October and November…she recommended Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus…Julia downloaded it onto her Kindle for me…and true to form…I read it on the plane but didn’t finish it…Julia let me keep her kindle until she needed it for her trip to Japan in March…I went to the library and took it out from there…the first time is got it from the Library, I didn’t read it at all…the second time I did read it…but the day I was to return it was today, April 27…so, this afternoon I got myself together and went to the Library…sat down and finished reading it…then returned it…Elissa, I really liked the book…thank you for recommending it to me…it reminds me of Doris, who read avidly also…she was always reading…and she gave her books to Keith to read… which he loved…their own little book group…it takes me a long time to read a book…when I was walking through the Barnes and Noble in the Neshaminy Mall…I came across and intriguing book titled The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, not sure what it was about but it was set in Pottstown, PA…I looked around the new books but didn’t see it…not remembering the title but I would have recognized the jacket…so as I was leaving the Library, I asked the woman if they had the book but “I couldn’t remember the title but it was about a grocery store set in Pottstown”…she immediately knew the book…The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store…”they have five copies… it’s very popular…I could be put on the list and they would notify me when it was my turn…I’m 332nd in line for one of the five books…so I was looking around…came across the book by Rick Wilson…Everything trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever…I’ve quoted Rick Wilson’s title many times and I thought I should read his book…it was on sale for $3.00…I bought it…now to read it…it will probably take me a year…hahaha…maybe I’ll have read it by the time The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is available…Pam gets all her books from the Library…like Daughter, like Father…hahaha…I left the Library at around 5:00….I had silenced my phone while in the Library…I was about to call Elissa when I noticed she had called me and left me a message…she was out and about…and maybe she and Jed would go to the movies…but we’d have to wait and see…Jed had a horrible headache…I was to call back in 45 minutes…the movie, Challengers with Zendaya was at 7:25 at the Ambler…I went home to get my jacket…I’m always cold in the theater…I called her and going to the movies was not in the cards for her…she was flat on her back with the heating pad and poor Jed still had the headache…so I went by myself…from Wikipedia: “Challengers is a 2024 American romantic sports drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The plot follows a professional tennis champion (Mike Faist) who plots a comeback with the help of his wife (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who retired after an injury, as he goes up against another player (Josh O’Connor), who also happens to be his former best friend and wife’s former lover.

After being delayed from its initial September 2023 release date and pulled out from its slot as the opening film of the 80th Venice International Film Festival due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Challengers premiered in Sydney, Australia, on March 26, 2024, and it was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios on April 26, 2024.”…the film is a bit confusing…many flashbacks from now to many thens…and I was confused with the ending…but it’s good…an interesting story…especially if you like tennis…and Luca Guadagnino’s films, the highly successful Call Me By Your Name, “are characterized by their emotional complexity, eroticism, and sumptuous visuals”…

today was a day without politics…except for me buying Rick Wilson’s book…haha…and I found a penny…but I did come across this cartoon by Ivan Ehlers from The New Yorker: we’re in big trouble with this Supreme Court…

“We’re not giving him a free pass to do whatever he wants—we’re buying him time so he can get elected and then do whatever he wants.”…Cartoon by Ivan Ehlers