Reading in the Garden

 The Glass Menagerie  by Tennessee Williams. This is a tragic, classic play that I had to read in high school. Yet the only thing I remembered about it was that the daughter Laura was shy and introverted and was comforted by her collection of glass animals. But as I reread it as an adult I now see and feel so much more than I did through the eyes of a teenager. I see how impossibly trapped all three characters were.   The 23-year-old daughter, Laura, is “ crippled,” not just in having one shorter leg than the other and having to wear a brace, but because she's emotionally crippled with an inferiority complex. She's terrified of everything—even of going to business school.    The mother is trapped in a life where she has no resources. She was taught to be a housewife with no outside job, only to serve the family, completely dependent on her husband for financial support—just like Project 2025 is trying to bring us back to. The play takes place in the 1930s and he...

 The Glutton by AK Blakemore. This is an unusual historical fiction set around the French revolution, a dire and punishing time of great social divides. A near-death incident alters a man's physical constitution where he remains hungry no matter how much he eats. He gorges himself at street performances eating not just large quantities of food but also devouring unthinkable things from corks and belts to a trough of entrails and more unimaginable things.   Blakemore's writing is bewitching sophistication with a glut of extravagant words co-mingled with crude phraseology. Words crowned with an air of pretension glide next to vulgar expressive jargon - the his and hers set of “C” words make repeated appearances.   If you're adverse to violence, squeamish when someone eats a dead rat or worse, or offended by foul language, this may not be the book for you, yet it just may be the perfect read for someone coloring outside the lines.   While I did like the book, some thing...

 Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth. This is such a sweet and tender tale about a highly successful JK-Rowling type author of a fantasy kids series who gets early onset dementia and needs help completing the last book in the series. When Libby puts out a plea to a superfan to hear the stories she proposes for the Following children's fate, 11-year-old peanut bursts into her life like a whirling ray of sunshine. Peanut is a fearless, can-do ball of energy, who doesn't always get things right yet plows forward despite her own set of curveballs life has thrown at her. Heartbreak is something Libby and Peanut have in common, but their unlikely collaboration is hopeful, humorous, and full of magical charm. I loved getting swept away in their personal stories as they work to finish the children's story. Happy Reading! Annette