Shuggie Bain

 This is a novel that takes place in Glasgow, Scotland during the 1980's. Shuggie Bain was written by Douglas Stuart who also grew up in Scotland. The story is about Shuggie, the third and youngest child of Agnes Bain. Shuggie's older siblings have left home to avoid living with Agnes who is an alcoholic. They live in poverty. Agnes tries sobriety several times. She goes to AA meetings. One time she was sober for over a year and working nights at a gas station. Her boyfriend wants her to have one glass of wine with dinner and bingo, she is back to being an alcoholic again. Rather than playing with his friends of the neighborhood, Shuggie is making tea for his mother or cleaning her. This is a heart breaking story. Some of the Scottish slang was impossible for me to understand.

 

 

The River Is Waiting

Wally Lamb is the author of The River Is Waiting. This is an Oprah book club book and like all the books Oprah likes it is full of broken people and tragedy. Corby Ledbetter is the protagonist in this book. He is young, married, and the father of twins. He makes a huge mistake. Is his mistake unforgivable? Corby pays the price that it is unforgivable. In the meantime he tries to be a good person. He tries to help others who are in need. He tries to stay clean and sober. I liked the book but towards the end I was overwhelmed by tragedy piled upon tragedy. The author didn't have to make the story this tragic. It was over the top. 

 

 

Haralsons

I got lucky today. I already have 4 apples in the fridge. No matter, I found a bag of Haralson apples at the local supermarket and I bought it. These Haralson apples were local from the Eckart orchard in Trempeleau, Wisconsin. I like Haralson apples because we had some Haralson trees in my back yard when I was a kid. The Haralson apples are medium sized which I like a lot better than some of the giant apples I normally find in the stores. Haralson apples are not as sweet as many of the apples. Now, let me think. Should I make a pie? Apple crisp? Apple sauce?

 

 

1965

 Today I went to a lecture at the history center about the flood in 1965 that took place in Winona. The east side of town (where I live) was hit hard. My street was under water but two blocks away from the river from my house was not underwater. The flood crested at 20.77 feet on April 19th. Lake City and Wabasha also crested that day. People had to be evacuated. The mayor hired young men and high school boys to build dikes and fill sand bags for $1.50 per hour which was good pay in those days. The dikes were made of piles of dirt lined with plastic and covered with sand bags. People walked the top of the dikes to make sure they didn't fail. The mayor hired girls and older people to make sandwiches. Several people in the audience remember the flood and did help with the dikes and the sandwiches. The sandwiches were baloney or spam. The sewer system was so inundated with river water that manhole covers were flying into the air followed by a stream of water. They solved this problem in two ways. They build pipes in the road that went 12 feet into the air. The excess water could go up that pipe and stay contained until the river level decreased. The other way was to take large rubber bags, fill them with water, the plug the man holes from below. If the dikes had failed Winona would not continue to be an island city. Winona would have been a two island city. The lecture was interesting. Having audience members who were actually there share their memories was very nice.

 

 

Kin

Tayari Jones is the author of Kin. This is a story about two girls who grew up together in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. Both girls are motherless. Vernice's mother was killed by her father in a murder/suicide before she was six months old. Her Aunt returned from Ohio to raise her. Annie's mother abandoned her soon after birth. She was raised by her grandmother. Annie left high school early to find her mother in Atlanta. Vernice left after graduating high school to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Both girls struggled to be without parents but in different ways. This book, published in 2026, gave an interesting outlook on what it is like to be young, abandoned, black, and poor in the deep south. 

 

 

Let's Call Her Barbie

Renee Rosen is the author of Let's Call Her Barbie. The book is about a woman named Ruth Handler. Along with her husband she founded a toy company called Mattel. She was an inventor and a business magnate. She excelled in selling. While on a trip to Europe with her son, she came across a doll in Switzerland named Bild Lilli. At the time all the dolls were babies. Bild Lilli was an adult doll with adult features. After that, Ruth's passion was the Barbie doll (named after her daughter). She neglected her children and spent all her waking hours at work. Ruth was the only person who believed Barbie would become a hit toy. Together with another inventor named Jack and several clothing designers they made a fortune on the Barbie doll. Later came the Ken doll (named after her son). She suffered sexual discrimination from bankers and investors along the way. Later, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she stopped paying close attention to what was happening at Mattel. Someone mishandled money and Ruth was charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She paid her fines. Later she invented a prosthesis for mastectomy patients. I enjoyed reading about such a strong woman. 

 

 

Ms. Mebel Goes Back To The Chopping Block

Jesse Q. Sutanto is the author of Ms. Mebel Goes Back To The Chopping Block. This is a humorous fiction book about an insuppressible Ms. Mebel. Ms. Mebel is a wife and mother living in Indonesia. She and her husband are of Chinese/Indonesian descent. They have a son, a daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. One day Ms. Mebel's husband comes home from work to announce he is seeking a divorce and is going to marry the cook Ms. Mebel hired to please her husband. Ms. Mebel's whole life was in helping her husband and her son. Now she is lost. Ms. Mebel has no filter. She says things that are rude. She has a tendency to invade personal boundaries. She is concerned what other people in her society will think once she is divorced. At first she copes with the divorce by spending money on designer clothes, shoes and hand bags. Then she copes by signing up for French cooking lessons. She thinks if she can cook French food well enough her husband will take her back. She ends up at a culinary school in rural England. As the weeks pass by the things that were important to her (social standing, designer clothes, her husband) become less important. New things become important such as friendships, good tasting food, and having a skill. When I first started reading this book her character was so over the top I thought the entire book would be silly. By the end of the book I changed my mind and I now think this is a book worth reading.