I finished Jill Lepore’s These Truths in bed this morning in the early hours. God bless ebooks. If you are interested in American history, I think it’s a must read. If you are bewildered, confused, and upset about where we are as a country right now, I recommend reading the last chapter in this book. Lepore is brilliant as she describes and reports on the state of our nation. The title of the chapter is America, Disrupted and she cites the responsibility of both left and right factions. Very helpful to me.
So now I have finished two books I wanted to get read this summer. Lepore and Pale Fire by Nabokov. I have snail mailed two books I want to read next sort of in line with these two.
My next non-fiction, hopefully, will be Adam Gopnik’s A Thousand Small Sanities.
Next in line in the fiction category, is Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Lepore will be my area in November. I’m planning to attend and take some books for her to sign.
In October, Kevin Young will be in my area. I will want to attend this and take books for him to sign.
The whole series seems pretty interesting. (Thanks to my friend, Rhonda for pointing this series out to me!)
I now have six weeks of choral anthems and hymns chosen beginning with September 8. We have two new staff people at church and Jen wants me to meet with them and her weekly for the next few weeks. We are also working on Hispanic ministry. The assistant priest, Jim Steem, wants me to work with them some as well. I am intent on limiting my hours for this gig and the same time fulfilling all that i think it needs from a part time dude. Jen is sympathetic so it’s mostly up to me to limit myself. I probably won’t do any more planning until next Wednesday so that I can have time off between now and then.
Jen was very receptive to me taking more time off to go to China to see the fam there. That’s a relief. There’s nothing like asking for more time off your first meeting back after having most of the summer off. Like I say, it’s a good gig staffed with excellent people.