Three for Thee: From the Road

My laptop is earning its name — perched on my lap in the passenger’s seat — as we barrel through interstate highways and meander through mountainous roads. We are on our way to join other volunteers in Phoenix, AZ, in a program initiated by our church: SOOP.

Visiting my sister Linda in Green Valley, AZ, on the way to Phoenix.

Trips are actually a wonderful time to sample stories. We drove through Alilene, TX, while listening to the Robert Karo book The Path to Power, about LBJ, as an audio book. We also visited the Bush Family Home.  We are fascinated by the connection between the natural landscape and history of a place as demonstrated by the leaders who emerged from that place. For Texans that rule seems to apply in triplicate! Having watched Ken Burns’ The West before we left home, and having spent four years, 1972-1976, in Austin getting our doctoral degrees, we feel attached to this place, in imagination at least.

So what about the offer I made in my last post to highlight a book, a film, and a podcast for you every week? Since it has been more than two weeks, I have at least two recommendations in each category this time.

 Book(s)

In my last post, a reader new to me suggested the book Foster, by Claire Keegan. I immediately requested it from my local public library and was able to read the whole book in one sitting, since it is novella-sized. What a beautiful depiction of a child’s experience of deprivation and her discovery of familial love! The book inverts our expectation that foster families are less loving than biological ones. My favorite blurb for the book was this four-word one from author David Mitchell: “As good as Chekhov!”
The author, Claire Keegan, is Irish, and the story is set in the rural County Wexford, Ireland, in the summer of 1981. Since the main character is about the age our son was at the time, I could identify with the mothers in the story, but the deepest emotions and characterizations lie with the fathers. The conclusion will touch you deeply, especially if you called your own father, “Daddy,” as I did.

Since this book is so short, I will take the opportunity to advocate for a second book: The Correspondent, which I am still waiting for in the public library. However, I used my last monthly credit in Audible and ordered the book here. I identified so much with the main character Sybil, a successful lawyer who finds herself drawn to different people and new mysteries in the last quarter of her life. An epistolary novel involving numerous characters with different plot lines that intersect, this audio book was voiced by many audio artists, enriching the sensory experience. Outstanding.

Movie/Series

I enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. 

Light entertainment, but good characterizations. Fun to challenge yourself to see where the plot might be going.

If you feel up to  something heavier, try Nuremberg.

Oh, and one more! I just heard a rave review for this one below  on Fresh Air: American Classic. You will have to subscribe to MGM+, but they evidently allow you to have seven days free as a trial. I haven’t watched it yet, but this trailer intrigues me.

Podcast(s)

I subscribe to Chip Conley’s Mid-Life Chrysalis podcast. Chip founded the Modern Elder Academy which is creating a network of people in their 40s-80s, with most of them being in their 50s and 60s. Last July I attended a workshop with Krista Tippett as the teacher. I made wonderful friends there. At least one other classmate, Valerie Black, does her own podcast called Becoming Power. Isn’t her voice silky? When I listened to the intro in the link above, I described it this way: