The Fifth Tuesday of August 2021

A Special Report for Book Lovers

Greetings! It is my habit to post a new slice-of-life blog on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. When there is a fifth Tuesday, it’s time for a book bonanza as I share the top five book reviews from the Book Blog section of my website.

Today I offer a bonus. If you are in a social group that looks for enjoyable programs, I’ll give you an idea for one when I tell you about my Temple group. Along with that discussion, I’ll mention five more books!

That said, here are the books I enjoyed most since my last 5^th Tuesday Report. If you click the link, you will go to the Book Blog section of my website.

• Eternal Life – Rachel makes a deal with God. If He will save her sick child, she agrees to live forever. Now, 2000 years later, she’s still among the living.

NOTE: In the last Fifth Tuesday report I wrote about The Invisible Life of Adie Larue. If you read it and liked it, you might want to try this one too. Both books deal with immortality though one experience came about via a deal with the devil and the other via a deal with God.

• Tiny Beautiful Things – Best-selling author, Cheryl Strayed, stars as “Sugar,” an advice columnist who uses the often-raw stories of her life to drive home the points she makes.

If you don’t know Cheryl Strayed’s name, perhaps you will recognize her most famous book: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a part of Oprah’s Book Club.

• Better Luck Next Time – A divorce was easy to get in Reno in 1938. It just took six weeks to establish Nevada residency. A dude ranch offered fun during the wait.                                           
• Good Company + The Photograph – Two books in which a found object becomes the proof of a marital infidelity, and thereby rewrites the history of the marriage. In each book, a second couple is impacted by the shocking find.

By the way, if you would like to read new Book Blogs as I post them, follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest and watch for new posts on Tuesdays. 

*****

And now, here’s the idea for your social group + 5 book suggestions:

I am in a social group at my Temple. A dozen couples and a handful of single folks get together every six-ish weeks for a pot luck dinner and program. I was tasked with creating a presentation for the group.

Knowing that a lot of us are readers, I asked everyone to bring one book to recommend to the group. BUT, I know that people are shy and don’t want to be in the lime light. I also know they are pushed for time and unable to write a book report. So I just asked them to show a book and talk off the cuff about it for three minutes. If fifteen people brought books and talked for three minutes, we’d have a forty-five-minute program! That’s exactly how the evening played out. We all loved the event and will do it again in the future.

Of the books I learned about that night, here are five that are on my radar for “someday” reading. The link will take you to Amazon if you want to learn more.

• In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson – The story of America’s Ambassador to Nazi Germany.
• Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – A fictional tale about the Dust Bowl. (I long ago read a Newberry Award winning kids’ book on this topic that was wonderful, hence I would read more now. The kids’ book? Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. It is a group of poems that read like a novel!)
• The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel – A woman in France during WWII uses her artistic skills to forge documents to get people out of France.
• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – The story of a not-very-likeable author who has one success under his belt. A student tells him an amazing plot idea but then the student dies before writing the book. So, guess who writes the book? There are evidently three definitions for the word, plot, (perhaps to plan something in secret, the main events of a novel, and a cemetery plot?) and all three become important in the story.
• Empire of Pain – a nonfiction work by Patrick Radden Keefe about the Sackler family and opiates. I am told the author is a master storyteller who writes like a detective.

*****

Allow me to end with a CALL TO ACTION:

As you cozy up with a good book, make your experience even warmer with a Corn Cushion! Please visit my Etsy shop to learn more about these corn heating pads.

Thank you!

Lorie