The Next Book On My List

Beloved by Toni Morrison                 Beloved. That’s what the pinkish headstone said. Beloved was what Sethe put on the headstone of her little girl. The little ghost that haunted 124 causing ruckus in its need to be loved. The woman came 18 years after Sethe’s daughter was put in the ground. Sethe, Denver and Paul D. found her laying outside the house when they came home from the carnival. She was looking for Sethe. Sethe was the one she loved the most. Denver was the one who loved her most. Paul D. was the one who feared her most. She said her name was Beloved.                 I am not going to lie. Beloved may be the one novel I was most apprehensive about reading as part of my theme this year. I guess I was scared from the movie version of the film. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I started this with a somewhat open mi...

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom                 For years I had no idea that Forrest Gump was a novel. I just assumed that it was an amazing movie and left it at that. So imagine my surprise, when researching this year’s theme of reading a book from every year I have been alive, that this was indeed a book published in 1986. Sweet. Let the reading begin. Forrest Gump is the story of a man named Forrest Gump who honestly refers to himself as an idiot because of his low IQ score. He has struggled with the most basic things his entire life and yet he would eventually be a college football star, go to space, get arrested a few times, run a successful business and fall in love. It is more than a coming of age story. It’s a life story told in a simple way by a simple man.                 I went in to reading this novel knowing full...

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel Pieces of a giant mechanical being, thousands of years old, are buried around the world. The pieces are slowly being discovered and pieced together. The technology is light years ahead of what humans are capable of. There is one man behind seemingly every decision. He is almost omnipresent throughout the story and yet no one even knows his name. There is a woman who has been affected by the presence of these giants since she was a child and is now the scientist heading the operation. There is a hotheaded pilot whose helicopter was brought down by one of the pieces. She is now inexplicably tied to the project. Then there’s the linguist brought in to solve the code. What does any of this mean and where will it all lead?                 I am so torn when it comes to this novel. I found the whole concept of extraterrestrials possibly burying objects that would be discover...

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter                 The Civil War is over. The Union has won. The slaves are free. President Lincoln was shot but survived. The Washington Monument is under way in Washington City and there is a trial underway to impeach President Lincoln. The Senate is trying to impeach on four separate counts. It is believed that the Radicals in Lincoln’s own Republican Party are behind the proceedings. Not enough has been done to the curb the attitude of the southerners. The Ku Klux runs wild and unchecked. The radicals believe that even though the President supports the Civil Rights Act, enforcing it is entirely different issue that he is failing at. Abigail Canner is the new clerk hired by Dennard and McShane, the law firm representing Mr. Lincoln. She is a young black graduate from Oberlin hoping to one day be a lawyer. She is part of a family that has been free f...

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins                 Carolyn and the other eleven librarians have been living with Father since they were children. All orphaned with nowhere to go after a tragic event, Father brought them into his home and assigned them each a catalog. They would become masters of their catalog and were not allowed to study anyone else’s. War, languages, medicine, animals, the ways of the world would be theirs. Two decades later Father goes missing and none of the librarians can enter the library. They’re stuck in America a world they no longer know and they have to find Father, who they believe may be God, and get back into the library.                 Well, this was just all around a good time. Carolyn has committed a murder. Father is missing. Steve is being framed. David is running around in a tutu. ...

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry                 The best way I can describe this book is to call it an epic journey. I don’t have much practice reading Westerns but this book was pretty damn good. It was published in 1985 and won the Pulitzer in 1986. I honestly can’t say I would have come anywhere near it if it hadn’t been for this year’s theme of reading a book from each year since I’ve been alive. (I was born in 1986 so this will serve as the introduction into my journey!) While researching I found the blurb about the novel to be extremely vague and depended mostly upon the opinions of other reviewers when deciding to pick this up. I thought to myself why not give it a try if this is supposed to be one of the best Westerns ever written. This was well worth the read for the journey back to a time when cowboys still dreamed of distant lands.          ...

Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr Let’s have an honest conversation about race. Let’s talk about those things that make us uncomfortable. Let’s talk about white privilege and Black Lives Matter. Let’s talk about Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights movement and Barack Obama. But be honest. Be uncomfortable. Only by being honest and uncomfortable will be able to have an honest conversation about what life in America has been and continues to be. Glaude’s Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul is a step in the right direction because it is one man’s honest opinion about how his life has been and those experiences shared within the black community. He is a Princeton professor who knows through life experiences and through study the experiences of black people in America. He may not speak for everybody but his opinion speaks volumes to what life is like in the U.S. and it will resonate with a majority of people...