Summertime books and the larger world picture

 

No blog last night partly because it was one of those “I have nothing to say” days, but also because I started a new and charming cozy mystery and let it hold my attention. Murder in G Major, by Alexia Gordon, is first in a series of four Gethsemane Brown Mysteries. Gethsemane is an African-American classical musician stranded in Ireland by lost luggage and a lost job opportunity. To earn enough to get back home, she accept the challenge of shepherding a rowdy boys school orchestra to a championship. A cliffside cottage is offered, and she moves in, unaware that it is inhabited by the ghost of a composer she has always much admired. He wants her to clear his name of the murder of his wife and his own suicide. The Irish setting is fun, Gethsemane is a compelling character, and the ghost is a pure delight. The covers to all four books are gorgeous.

But that’s a digression because my real announcement today is that Finding Florence is now available from Amazon Books in trade paper or as an ebook. Finding Florence: An Irene in Chicago Culinary Mystery - Kindle edition by Alter, Judy. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. This is Irene’s third adventure, and Henny definitely has mixed emotions about having her back in town. Irene’s friend, Florence, has died, but when Irene asks about a service, etc., it turns out that Florence’s body is missing. Irene is obsessed, and Henny’s life is a mess, torn between helping Florence and struggling to keep her job as a TV chef. The character that surprised me in this novel is Irene’s lover, the mysterious billionaire Chance Charpentier, also the father of Irene’s twenty-year old daughter, but that’s another story from a previous book. Chance turns out to be a perfectly charming, take-charge kind of a guy. Who knew? I’m so excited about this that I’m already planning Irene’s next adventure in my head—she’ll visit Texas, though she despises Texas food. Which reminds me, the new book has both recipes from Irene, French of course, and Texas recipes from Henny’s mother’s kitchen.

This morning I woke up thinking there is not a thing in the world I have to worry about today. I’ve planned an easy chicken salad for supper, I have leftover meatloaf for lunch, Sophie is well and happy (no chicken bone problems), I know what I have to do with the project on my desk. Of course, I forgot about the heat—but since I’m not out running around it doesn’t bother me.

But what I forgot about big time was America as it is today, with a rogue court handing out disastrous decisions and a Republican Party determined to cling to authority at the cost of democracy. All that hit me as soon as I booted up my computer and checked the news. Do you read, “Wake Up to Politics”? It’s an online column by Gabe Fleisher, a college sophomore in D.C., Georgetown U. He’s been writing this bipartisan column since 2011 (which makes him pretty young when he started it). Today he ran down a list of potential 2024 challengers to both President Biden and trump, and I have to say everyone on the Republican list, from Ron DeSantis to Ted Cruz, scared the heck out of me. Check it out if you’re so minded.

Jordan comes home this evening after a few days in Key Largo, with several girlfriends at the family home of one of the girls. (That's Jordan in front with green glasses, and no, those aren't MAGA hats!) Good get-away for her and some needed relaxation. And Jacob is still at camp, but Christian and I seem to have survived nicely. I’ve cooked quite a bit, got lots of work done, had plenty of visitors. My world does look good—now if we could just do something about the bigger picture.

Some reading I find powerful

 

Gabe Fleisher, a sophomore at George Mason University in D.C., writes a column five days a week titled, “Wake Up to Politics!” He’s celebrating the twelfth anniversary of the column, which means he started it at ten or eleven. He has established such a reputation that he is respected by people liked historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. I truly recommend his newsletter—it’s bipartisan to the extent that I frequently hope he’s wrong, but it is always fair.

Today he ran a link to an excerpt from the new memoir coming next week from Valerie Biden Owens, Joe Biden’s sister. I sat at my desk reading, with tears streaming down my face. The excerpt chronicled the night his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a horrendous automobile wreck, his two boys left badly injured. And then it follows with the days in the hospital, the uncertainty about continuing his newly won seat as a senator from Delaware. Not only is it heartbreaking stuff, it will convince you, should you have any doubt, that, as Lindsay Graham once said, “God never made a finer man than Joe Biden.” (We don’t know what changed Graham, but that’s another story.) Here’s a link to Gabe’s column, and you’ll find the link to the excerpt at the end: Wake Up To Politics  I want you to know Gabe, and I want  you to know Joe Biden and the kind of man he is—bright, dedicated, kind, compassionate. Not the picture the right would have you believe of a demented, senile, corrupt man who is at the bidding of Barack Obama and George Soros. Please!

I’ve been thinking a lot about President Biden lately. In a tragic accident, highly respected columnist Eric Boehlert was killed last week. His last column was about why the press is against Biden. He put the finger on something that bothers me. There are two general assumptions gaining currency for all the wrong reasons.

The first is that Democrats will lose the House and the Senate at mid-terms. History supports this, except in a couple of instances, but history has not seen a situation like this where daily we learn more about the corruption of the “former guy” and his followers and cohorts. They clearly tried to stage a coup, to overthrow a democratically elected leader. Trump is under investigation by several branches of authority. So far he has dodged charges, but there is no way this man is innocent. But in the face of that Biden has low favorability ratings, in large part to media skewering the message. Hunter Biden’s laptop is falsely big news; Donald Trump Jr.’s infamous memo to Mark Meadows fades quickly from the public eye.

History has not seen either such a worldwide battle between democracy and autocracy. It’s not just in our country, but my take on it is that so many in this country are wide awake (okay, that awful word “woke”) to the dangers facing us. I’m counting on them to turn out from the county to state to national level.

The other myth that the press promotes is that Democrats are incapable and inefficient. You constantly read lines like, “The Democrats need to get their act together,” or “Democrats better learn to play politics,” or similar things that reinforce the image of a bunch of doddering old men led by a senile man who hides in his basement. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s like celebrities—those who lead ordinary, responsible lives are not news. But let a salacious story come up about an affair or a drug overdose or Will Smith’s slap to the Chris Rock’s face, and the press is all over it endlessly. Democrats don’t make good copy because they are hard-working, honest, determined; Republicans make terrific copy because they lie a lot, they are outrageous, and they play to people’s fears.

So that brings me to another column I’d like you to read if you don’t already: Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson. Richardson is a historian at Boston University, and her daily column often traces the history of political developments, how the history impacts us today. Her column this morning is particularly meaningful: it lists Joe Biden’s accomplishments as president, and contrasts the failures of the “former guy.” It is a revelation,

There, you have your reading assignments. I wish I could make all those who claim Biden is ruining democracy and America and trump was great and accomplished so much read these works. But I’ll start with you, my friends.