Spectacular. So many things to know about horse racing and the slaves who built the industry, and were then forced out of it in emancipation. Also, a true story about the horse Lexington. A masterpiece.

Didn‘t realize this was a collection of her essays. She‘s a terrific writer and I enjoy them in the Times, but not so interested in a book of previously published work.

Foster care, opioids, then a big political message at the end about hillbillies and the extraction economy. I thought it might be too much of a downer but it was laugh out loud funny sometimes (Jesus Christ on a stick) and almost exhilarating at the end. Glorious.

Gorgeous. Georgia after the Civil War, two freed brothers, gay soldiers…completely unexpected and a beautiful story.

Funnier than when I read it in college. What a classic.
Vardaman: My mother is a fish.

Another lovely and pointed story about rural Kentucky and a bachelor barber who makes a life. Is there time to read everything by Wendell Berry?

I loved this book. It was less about the extractive nature of the Plains than I imagined, but his story was compelling. “The American West is the playground for the country‘s obsession with exploitation and destruction, with most extractive economies near Native American reservations…Violent people who mimic the violence done to the land.”

Love this author. This one was fun, too—kind of fantasy but mostly a story about living your best life and finding love.

I thought I‘d enjoy this but found it tedious and depressing. Couldn‘t finish.

Another well-written, easy to read book by Liz Carlisle about food policy. Terrific.

Really fun. “The Kid” in this book is not Billy! Going to be a terrific movie, can‘t wait.

Timely and important, but I must remember I prefer fiction. Bailed.

This one was fun. Bored unhappy housewife becomes spy.

Terrific. Lots of space, but in an accessible way much like trees were in the Overstory. Sad ending but what else was going to happen? Loved it.

“Whenever I don‘t know what to do, I watch what I am doing.” (P 161)
It‘s starting to feel like I need to read all her books back-to-back because the characters keep returning and I can‘t remember them. Great story telling.

…and I tell them that it matters—to earn one‘s own living, to work hard, and to consider oneself an individual, with rights and privileges and responsibilities—the most vital of which is self-realization. (P 183)

I waited so long to read this. Loved reading the names of all the foods and the extraordinary mother. Sad.

Another great read by this author. The Dust Bowl was so awful and so were the Californians. It is so hard to see the humanity in others. Loved it.

Terrific story about a long-shot presidential campaign run by people who believe in something. Interesting and believable characters and the Las Vegas setting was a nice change of pace from the typical DC political story. Loved it.

Amazing, unforgettable, awful, how come they didn‘t teach us ANY of this? She‘s a magnificent author, makes me like nonfiction. Couldn‘t put it down

Maybe it was the wrong time, but I couldn‘t get into it. A talking cat, an orphaned boy, “saving” the books. Bailed.

Parallel story of a Cuban family—drug addict daughter, grandmother still in Cuba, unlikely unaccompanied minor tossed in. It was ok but I didn‘t feel like the characters connected in any meaningful way. Easy read so I finished it.

One of her best books in awhile. The books set in Chile, like this one, feel most authentic. Violeta tells the story of her life — and his birth — to her grandson, Camilo. The regular themes: strong, empowered female characters, passion, corruption, dictatorship. “Sometimes our fates take turns that we don‘t notice in the moment they occur, but if you live as long as I have they become clear in hindsight.” (P254) Delicious.

So fun, Steves book club book. Great set up as a series of “interviews.” I truly thought it was a real band. Loved it.

So charming and magical children and a phoenix and a gnome. Hated for it to end.

Maybe COVID brain kept me from being able to focus enough to enjoy this. Also I don‘t love books with only male characters where the women are only either whores or mistresses. Maybe The Feast of the Goat was the only Vargas Llosa book I really liked. Gave up at about page 50.

So fun and unusual-book club book #5 and the best so far. French girl makes a deal with the devil and lives forever, but no one remembers her. Terrific.

First fiction I have read about the military dictatorship. It was dark and partly imaginary, with several of the characters murdered in the war (which you figure out along the way). Didn‘t love it but skimmed all the way to the end.

Maybe the first Allende book I didn‘t finish. It‘s a feminist memoir but I need no convincing.

Well done, very compelling. Depressing. This is not going to end well.

Republican farmers in Montana getting out of big Ag and rebuilding their farms and communities. Love everything about it.

What a crazy book. And to think I thought this story about a hermaphrodite with Turkish roots was about a boring town in New jersey or something. Certainly deserves its Pulitzer Prize.

Did the whole trilogy, in order and back to back this time. Where to start? The biotech animals, the voting machine hacking, the world-wide pandemic. Margaret Atwood is a treasure.

Terrific story. I really like this author and her stories about people in the aftermath of the Civil War. This one about a young man from Kentucky, forcibly conscripted, who is intent on marrying an Irish girl who works for a malevolent Captain.

Lovely story of a “surplus woman” following WW1, who becomes a broderer. Great historical fiction, fun to read and another untold story of women in history.

Wow. I don‘t like nonfiction. This was amazing. I learned so much, don‘t even know where to begin. Page 377 (epilogue): even the longest lived of our species spends but a blink of time in the span of human history. How dare anyone cause harm to another soul, curtail their life or life‘s potential, when our lives are so short to begin with?

Really fun, I blew through it in 2 days! A failed journalist learns he has a daughter and tries to solve a mystery about what happened to her mother and why they‘re in hiding. Not my usual, but nice change of pace.

Spectacular. Of course I loved the story but also learned so much — there was no such thing as “organic” in the 1980s?! Helping me to put together my own narrative of what‘s gone wrong in our food system. Loved it.

This was an easy read but disappointing. I knew it was nothing like “Euphoria” but still expected something more than an improbable story of a down-on-her-luck aspiring novelist who makes it with her first book. This was book #4 of the Jason-Steve-Bev book club.

Terrific! And this from a person who doesn‘t like non-fiction. I read this for Diane Rehm‘s book club. Reads like a novel and I learned a lot. Beautiful.

Good book about Shanghai and the travails of a Chinese couple who return there from the US. The wife has always loved the husband‘s brother; the ayi of course is too good for the whole thing but for a girl from the country, it‘s a great job. I enjoyed it but glad I don‘t own it.

Very funny and clever book recommended by Kim. Lots of crazy characters and a cat whose body is inhabited by the dead husband. Can‘t wait for the movie.

Spectacular! Janina is kind of nutty, maybe, or just out for revenge. Love this Polish author-must read more of her work.

Wow. A British Pakistani family, dead jihadi father, the Home Secretary, the Islamic caliphate. Fascinating, relevant, gripping. So sad it‘s over. Make it a movie!

Story of a woman/teacher/professor with pretty serious depression and her obsession with an old friend. I found the characters a little annoying and got tired of the angst. Which is to say, glad it wasn‘t too long or I would have bailed.

Got a little behind, read this one a while ago. Hard to read, glad I did.

Crazy psychological thriller/mystery/botany bestseller. #2 in the Steve-Jason-Bev book club. Mushrooms! Fun to read, really different for me.

El Salvador, pre-war. It is hard even now, living where I do, to imagine the privation. Bless her for writing it.

Terrific, story of union organizers in Spokane around 1900.

Charming, sort-of-depressing but also funny story of a family in St Louis, revolving around the fictional Danforth University (aka Wash U) and the dad trying to get his adult kids to bail him out of his mortgage with the inheritance left by their mother. Pretty good.