March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 Frances Boyd

Special Books For Special Interests

Reading Lists

I am aware that the books I often feature are Women’s Literary Fiction or Historical Fiction. I am not apologizing at all. I realize, however, that I could broaden the scope of the blog. This entry, therefore, will cite four new non-fictions that you probably only want to read if you want to know more about: The Bible, Baseball, Ballet or the Civil War. Actually, I think all four of the books will be interesting. So many books. So little time!

CIVIL WAR– Let’s start with a book by an author we all know–Erik Larson. Some people think his books are very absorbing. Other people tell me they can’t finish the first chapter. As for myself, I liked The Splendid and the Vile and several of his other books. If you did, also, maybe you should try The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War. This book will not come out until the end of April, but I mention it now so we won’t forget about it.

BALLET–The Swans of Harlem was written by Karen Valby about five black ballerinas who performed with the Dance Theater of Harlem around the time of our nation’s Civil Rights Movement. These five women have basically been forgotten or written out of history, but they were very important to the genre. They opened a career in ballet to minorities and paved the way for ballerinas like Misty Copeland. In addition, the real life ballerinas were extremely talented and totally devoted to one another. That’s how they perservered in a field the wasn’t alway accepting of their abilities.

THE BIBLE–Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson is a book for people who loved Sunday School and the stories they learned there. Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist. I have not read any of her books although I probably should. She writes on a wide variety of topics with ‘faith’ being a recurring theme. Perhaps her best known book is Gilead, published in 2004. In Reading Genesis, you will read all the old familiar stories but not the scrubbed up versions we heard as children. Robinson delves into what she sees as the fundamental issues in Genesis and possibly in the entire Bible.

SPORTS–Many writers have tackled Pete Rose, figuratively, of course. After all, he was one of the greatest baseball players that ever lived. He was also a tragic hero in true Greek fashion. Polorazing yet charismatic, Rose cannot by forgotten, and Keith O’Brien writes an unforgettable account of his life, career and the entire history of baseball in America in the second half of the twentieth century. The Wall Street Journal calls Charlie Hustle “Comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific.”