When I posted the last Chapter I was in my own apartment and on my own. Well, not completely on my own - I was still dependent on my ex-wife to drive me to appointments and stores. I could walk to a couple of local places but everything else was too far away. That changed when the Physical Therapist and Visiting Nurse signed off and I could drive again. Of course, there are very few places open so I still had a lot of time on my own and I spent a good amount of it reading. The books I finished this month I had read before but I did have to order 2 of them because I couldn't find my copies.
Miscellaneous
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson ($4.99/$3.99, published 1883, 298 pages, Trade Paperback)
Who doesn't know this story? Jim Hawkins works at his family's Inn. An old seaman, Billy Bones, has taken up residence there and winds up dying unexpectedly. Jim finds an old map in Bones' chest that reveals the location of the notorious pirate Captain Flint's treasure. With the help of Dr. Livesay and Squire Trelawney he sets out aboard the Hispaniola to find the treasure. What follows is a rousing tale that runs the gamut between humor and drama. Stevenson knows how to tell a story and includes some interesting twists. His characters are all well defined specifically my favorite - Long John Silver, ship's cook and chief plotter. I don't remember when I first read this but I do remember seeing the movie on TV. I enjoyed it.
Non-Fiction
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote ($$14.00/$4.29, copyright 1965, 343 pages, Trade Paperback)
I first read this many years ago probably after the movie with Robert Blake came out in 1967. It centers on the brutal murders of the Cutter family in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. When Capote heard about the crime, he decided to travel to Kansas with his good friend Harper Lee (author of "To Kill a Mockingbird") and write about it. He interviewed everyone and followed the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the two young killers - Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock. The extensive notes he took resulted in his publishing the book 6 years later. Capote is meticulous and spends a lot of time describing and developing the family, investigators, and particularly the killers. Over the years, it has become a classic in the "True Crime" genre. I have to admit that it did get tiresome at times and I would have to put it down but, in the end, I liked it.
Off The Shelf
The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene ($1.65/$1.00, copyright 1940, 301 pages, Paperback)
I'm pretty sure that I first read this in the mid-60's when I'd just started High School. It was a Catholic school and I was still an Altar Server in the parish so I was attracted to the title since it's from the "Our Father". This is not an easy book to read. It's set in Mexico back in the early 1900's when there was a heavy anti-clerical element running the country. Church lands were being seized, public worship outside of church was banned, and the clergy was persecuted. In some cases, priests were hunted down by the police and executed summarily. Greene gives us here an unnamed priest on the run, being chased by the Lieutenant and his men. He's not a good priest being more interested in his wine then his flock and yet, everywhere he goes, the locals want him to perform religious rites. He tries to ignore them and the poverty and despair that they live with but for how long can he? After all, he is a priest and a human being. That, I think, is Greene's message. He has created some really memorable characters here and his descriptions of the country that the priest flees through is stark and realistic. Again, not an easy book to read but worth it. I liked it.
That's it for now. I'm in the middle of several other books which I hope to tell you about next month. Some, liket hese, I've read before and some I haven't. I'm not sure what September has in store but all we can do is wha twe're doing. Wash our hands, wear our masks, stay home when possible, practice social distancing, and ...
Keep Reading.
