Yawn...why did this win the Pulitzer Prize? I found it boring, directionless, and who cares? A writer about to turn 50 goes on an around-the-world trip to avoid attending the wedding of his last boyfriend. It read more like an excuse for the author to tout his far flung travels. Sigh, I'm probably not "hip" enough to get it.
Published: 2017 Read: October 2020 Genre: Fiction
I am really liking my local librarian! When I pick up books I've put on hold she/he offers to give me some others I might like to read. This memoir was one picked out for me. It was a touching story, hard scrabbling, straight talk and family survival. A good read about a real woman.
Published: 2018 Read: October 2020 Genre: Memoir
Quote by Carl Jung:
"Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent".
I think I've read all of Oliver Sacks' books over time; Uncle Tungsten, Hallucinations, The Mind's Eye, and Musicophilia are in my blog list. This volume was published posthumously and is described as based on an outline he created two weeks before his death. It's a series of thoughts on our minds and thoughts and demonstrates Sacks' ability to link disparate topics in new ways. I miss him.
Quotes:
[In a chapter on Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science]
"It was first necessary to seize on an 'anomaly,' a phenomenon contrary to the accepted frame of reference, and, by according in attention, to enlarge and revolutionize that frame of reference."
"Scotoma [technically, a partial loss of vision or blind spot in an otherwise normal visual field] surprisingly common in all fields of science, involves more than prematurity, it involves a loss of knowledge, a forgetting of insights that once seemed clearly established, and sometimes a regression to less perceptive explanations. What makes an observation or a new idea acceptable, discussable, memorable? What may prevent it from being so, despite its clear importance and value?"
I marked this passage because it made be wonder what in genetic genealogy is ahead of its time, an anomaly that will be revealed?
Published: 2017 Read: October 2020 Genre: Essays
I thoroughly enjoy David's writing and NPR shows and this book was an equal delight and a poignant revelation of how family shapes our outlook on life.
Quote: [speaking about a peer from his youth whose life took a different path]
"At what point had I realized that class couldn't save you, that addiction or mental illness didn't care whether you'd taken piano lessons or spent a summer in Europe."
Published: 2018 Read: October 2020 Genre: Memoir
