Where the blue begins

some of what I read in the last month

I ended my John Adams theme with American Dialog by Joseph Ellis. It's a look at 4 Founding Fathers and how things they wrote and dealt with are playing out today. It's easy to read - 4 segments each in two parts. Race has Jefferson, Equality = Adams Law - James Madison Abroad - Washington. I found it well worth reading because each chapter topic is still in current debate, and a lot of that debate goes back to the founding.

I had just heard of the Murderbot Diaries, the last novella was just published, and I needed a break from history, so I read them all one after another. I loved them, and am waiting for the novel that is promised. The only way I can think of to describe it is the coming of age of an A.I. The world is interesting too, with robots at all levels running a lot of the systems.

I did a lot of flipping and dipping through books. I did finish Lockstep by Karl Schroeder. This involved cold sleep, and an empire maintained for millennia by hibernation. People travel for years while sleeping and the wake for weeks in new places. A lot of it makes little sense to me, and it really is a YA novel, but I finished it. I read bits and pieces of No Ordinary Time; Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt; the home front in world war II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I knew a lot less than I thought I did about these people and this time. I would like to be able to talk with my parents, who lived through it, but that is no longer possible.

I am now reading The Gate Keeper, the latest Charles Todd mystery. I seem to be reading about the past or the future; the present is too stressful to contemplate.