October was nice here in Ohio. We didn’t get a hard frost until very late in the month, so I was able to enjoy the garden a bit longer than usual. I found myself wanting to read mostly fiction this month, but did read a bit on Antifa, crypto and military bombing strategy … Here’s what I read in October:
Sunflower Sisters, goes back in time to the Civil War, to cover the Woolsey family. They are abolitionists living in New York. Within the seven sisters and two who train to be nurses in the Civil War. The story also follows the life of a young slave girl, Jemma, and how she strives to figure out a way to freedom from Anne-May, her owner. Anne-May’s husband goes to fight for the Union, but her brother joins the Confederate Army. When her brother is killed in action, she has no qualms helping spy for the Confederacy. This book also deals with the hard themes of its day and doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war surgery and slavery.
What exactly is Antifa in the United States and how did it get here? Antifa covers not only what Antifa is doing in America, but its history in creating havoc in many countries throughout the years. While I had hoped this book would focus more on current events and what Posobiec learned by crossing the lines into some Antifa groups, it was good to read this history of the group. It’s a good book to learn more about what the group really is and what it wants.
In a support group for teenagers who have fought or have cancer, Hazel catches Augustus’ eye. While he is in remission, Hazel is still fighting the effects of cancer on her lungs. As they fall in love, they share books they love. Augustus plots to have Hazel get some questions answered by her favorite author and it takes them down a path neither one expected in The Fault in Our Stars.
The Bomber Mafia examines how the U.S. Air Force came to deal with how to strategize bombing campaigns. When the U.S. military started realizing that airplanes could drop bombs during wartime, different strategies were mulled over. Two main schools of thought emerged – bombing to create broad destruction or bombing to pinpoint specific targets. Most military thinkers leaned toward pinpointed attacks and that led to the creation of the Norden Bombsight. However, the Germans used the broad attacks and that seemed to work somewhat against their enemies. Two generals used these two different tactics in WW2 – Curtis LeMay and Haywood Hansell. Gladwell examines their successes and failures in The Bomber Mafia.
How much would a dream impact you? One night, Dannie has a dream that shows her what her life is like for one night five years in the future. The dream is so real that she can’t shake it, especially since it shows her with a ring on her finger and sleeping with someone who isn’t her current boyfriend. She goes to counseling, but the only thing that helps is to make herself determined to do everything to not make the dream come true in In Five Years.
The Guest List goes back and forth between many different characters and switches from the present day, where someone has been murdered at the reception, to going back to the previous day, earlier that day or even further back in time. Each character reveals a bit more of his or her own secret that leads the reader to try and guess who has been murdered and who the murderer might be.
I wanted to learn more about crypto since it seems to be everywhere nowadays. Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies was a good start. I read the first half and skimmed the last half but learned about blockchain and what “mining” is, which is very helpful. I plan to read some more in-depth books, but I feel like I can finally talk a bit about crypto after reading this book.
Mackenzie didn’t have a family of her own until she married her husband and started working at his family’s vineyard. Her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law are her world until her husband decides he wants a divorce in The Vineyard at Painted Moon. There hasn’t been a spark between them for years, but leaving him means leaving her family and her job. Forced to go out and find her own way, she decides to start her own vineyard and make wines without having to follow any of her mother-in-law’s parameters. However, her mother-in-law doesn’t want to let her go so easily and looks to thwart her every move.
Kate Bowler studied the Prosperity Gospel academically, but her own faith is tested when she gets a diagnosis that is out of the blue – stage 4 cancer. The wisdom she finds through her trial of facing death every few months as a young mother stands in stark contrast to all the things that were said to her by well-meaning people along the way. “Everything happens for a reason” makes it seem like everything can be tied up in a bow, but why would God see fit for her to leave her son at a point where he wouldn’t be able to remember her? Kate bares her soul about her journey on facing trials while holding on to a faith that made sense to her.
What did you read last month? Share your favorites in the comments!
