Reading and Watching This Week

I reread There, There by Tommy Orange, which I originally reviewed in 2018 (link)
I am now reading the newly-published sequel. My recent visit to the Museum of the American Indian
included an exhibit about broken treaties between the US and the Native Americans. Totally relevant here!

A Beautiful Bird Book

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz, who reviewed this last week, I bought a copy —

there was a great price on amazon.com.

I’m reading this wonderful book a little at a time. It’s very packed with information about birds.
The large format enables images of many birds at their full size.

The details of each bird’s capabilities illustrate the general way that birds are adapted to life on earth.

New on Streaming

I have only watched a few of the episodes from the first 12 seasons of Vera, but now started the new one.

Finally Read

Finished this book on my second attempt. 

Colson Whitehead is a brilliant writer. During the last few years, I’ve read four of his literary and historical novels which are fantastic. Zone One was published in 2011 — a very different type of book. It’s about an apocalyptic future where a plague is turning humans into living skeletons that eat not-yet-turned humans. “There were hours when every last person on Earth thought they were the last person on Earth.” (p. 108)

The book is centered around one character who goes by the name Mark Spitz (because he can’t swim). He is a very average American, but somehow a survivor. Whitehead  shows Mark Spitz’s consciousness of the apocalyptic scene that has replaced a recognizable America — especially New York. There are wonderful observations of middle-class people who had a comfortable life until faced with disaster. Food descriptions help to set the horrifying atmosphere in a nightmare world: Whitehead is a wizard with working food descriptions into the narrative to make it come alive. I marked many passages; here’s one about Mark Spitz:

“On impulse he purchased a deluxe combo juice at the café on the way out and decided not to say anything when the pimply skel dropped a banana slice into the blender. He hated banana. He drank it anyway, blowing into the striped straw to dislodge a plug of pulp, and stepped out to the sidewalk into the rush-hour stream of the dead on their way home, the paralegals, mohels, resigned temps, bike messengers, and slump-shouldered massage therapists, the panoply of citizens in the throes of their slow decay. The plague was a meticulous craftsman, dabbing effects with deliberation.” (p. 133)

Mark Spitz works with others to try to restore humanity by destroying the living skeletons and disposing of the corpses — anyone can see that they are zombies, but Whitehead is such a clever writer that the word never appears in his text. A search of the Kindle edition turns up only one use of the word which is on the copyright page as a keyword for library searches!

I’m really happy that Whitehead turned his fantastic gifts to creating novels that I’m more enthusiastic about. I think he’s one of the best authors writing now.

Strange Weather We’re Having!

Tuesday, February 27: Record High. Detroit was 73°

Wednesday, February 28: More than 35 degrees colder!

Temperature dropped as low as 19° F by Thursday morning.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Readerbuzz and Eileen’s Critters.