Now that summer is here we’ll all have a few extra minutes to read that book or listen to that book on tape in the car. Erika Krouse has written one I’m looking forward to
Now that summer is here we’ll all have a few extra minutes to read that book or listen to that book on tape in the car. Erika Krouse has written one I’m looking forward to. Mae West made quite a pair of impression on Central City when she played the Opera house here. “Come Up and See Me Sometime” was Mae’s motto and Erika has used it as her title. She promises to tell us about women who follow Mae’s motto. Mae West stayed in the Teller house one memorable summer and my sources tell me that more than one gentleman took her up on her offer. On her birthday Mae insisted on a private dinner served only by handsome young men. A few of them “got lucky”. Erika Krouse invites us to read the stories of women who say, “I used to be Snow White, but Oh how I drifted.” This might be your kind of summer diversion—reading about it that is.
If you’re into wondering what would have happened if you’d actually married your school sweet heart, you wont want to miss Anne Tyler’s latest novel. As usual she deals with a more or less ordinary family in Baltimore. Some of the characters and neighborhoods are familiar by now. Her latest is Back When We Were Grownups, a quick summer read.
In it we learn more about Rebecca, she who keeps the Davitch family together. As can happen in summer, Rebecca, (at 53) decides she doesn’t like the person she’s turned into. She’s certainly not the person she thought she might be back in college. What if she did meet her old school heart throb again? What if?
I think mountain folks like to watch the drama of America unfold more than most in our U.S.A. When the Supreme Court selected George Bush as President last Dec. 12 we history buffs looked forward to the books about this astonishing event and they’re here. This summer you can pick up the responses of two of the best legal writers out there: Alan Dershowitz and Richard Posner. I’d suggest skimming them on line, then getting on the Gilpin Library list if you’re a dedicated history buff. Dershowitz makes the case that the court majority is corrupt in a way we haven’t seen in supreme courts since the 19th century. Dershowitz speaks for the majority in the legal profession who think the court should have stayed out of the case. He thinks the high court inflicted wounds on itself, and on the rule of law, that won’t heal easily. Getting to Posner’s response on behalf of the court is a bit tricky, but it’s there at barnesennoble.com. Posner defends the court on a pragmatic basis. In his view American democracy has never been a pure democracy, but has always been instituted to support “commercial values”. The court had to step in to avoid commercial damage and keep the country stable. If the lofty tomes of Dershowitz and Posner start to bore you, then turn to a fire brand writer like Vincent Bugliosi. His “Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President” is a quick and surprisingly well researched read. Bugliosi calls the justices of the majority “criminals” and dismisses comments by Rehnquist and Thomas (who keep saying to school kid court visitors that politics played no part in their Presidential selection). “Well, at least we know they can lie as well as they can steal”. American history in the making here.
We’re all in our cars more in summer, so why not listen as you drive? Gilpin library tempts us with some classic books now read on tape. Many times I’ve been tempted to pick up Mary Renault’s classic re-telling of the Greek Myth of Theseus The King. But it’s a little like picking up War and Peace. It’s tough to really pick up a big book on a summer day. Well, you can do it on tape in about a weeks driving. The Bull From the Sea, Mary Renault’s classic is just the thing for summer drives.
If Greek mythology is too much even for driving, why not pick up a few sci. fi.. tapes? My favorites are the old timers. Mystery Theater is still as good as when you pulled the covers over your head (and your radio) and told Mom you really were sleeping. Orson Wells will still scare you a little with The War of the Worlds. Apparently when Wells first played that on Mercury theater the cops were called out in New Jersey to deal with the panic!
Summertime is nice for trying something new to read. Manuel Rivas is a best seller in Spain. His tender new novel The Carpenter’s Pencil, is a hammock read. Or if you want to take a funny look into the Irish underground try Irish Wine by Dick Wimmer. Who else but the Irish could put a hero on a train track getting ready to suicide when he’s distracted by a murder, a pub special, and a decision to find his lost love. It’s Irish funny. I’ll get it back to the Gilpin Library before you read this, I promise.
Many of us have been saying all winter that once summer comes we’ll have a little more time to read. Things will slow down a little. Get a good summer read or tape and make it a slower summer. You owe it to yourself.