Pat Taub
While many of us have been reading more during the lockdown, if you’re like me, you always welcome book recommendations. Here are some of my favorite recent reads. They range from the serious to the spellbinding to the hilarious, with a cookbook thrown in for good measure.
Race Relations in the US:
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Wilkerson documents how American society has always been defined by a hidden caste system, comparable to India’s caste system, where like the Indian Dalits, African Americans, are socially conditioned from birth to remain in the lower caste. A sweeping history that examines how racist behavior, from lynching parties to Dylann Roof’s massacre of Black parishioners, is a response to Black advancement. To quote a friend, “This is a must read.”
Just Us by Claudia Rankine
Rankine wrote the best seller, Citizen, a collection of poetic responses to American racial injustice. Just Us is a continuation of Rankin’s exploration of Black-White relations, where she shares with the reader her internal dialogues as a Black women facing discrimination and discomfort when flying first class, at academic conferences and at a dinner party. Rankine’s candor gave me a deeper understanding of the everyday struggles Black women face.
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Sadiya Hartman
This book is the result of Hartman’s scholarly research into the lives of young Black women who fled the South for better lives in New York and Philadelphia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Hartman spins her research into imagining women who flouted convention by living with their lovers, often of both genders, sassing the cops and frequenting speakeasies. They lived boldly and fully.
Memoir
Circle in the Darkness by Diana Johnstone
Johnstone has written a fully absorbing account of her adventures as a globe-trotting journalist over 60 years. She covered the anti-war movement in the US, and, after moving to Paris, she wrote about Western Europe, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Israel. Johnstone landed interviews with the key players of the day, which provided her with an intimate window into world affairs. In her last chapter she expresses her fears that America’s unchecked militarism will lead to a nuclear war—a concern shared by Noam Chomsky.
Diana Johnstone in her Paris apartment, where she’s lived for over 30 years.
Books that Make Time Stop
The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
A great thriller and a true page-turner. Its pandemic plot makes it prescient. Lots of plot twists to challenge your Miss Marple brain.
No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July
An hilarious read, which should come with a full refund to any reader who doesn’t double over with belly laughs. July is quirky and highly imaginative, creating off-the-wall plots, like the story of the young woman who gives swimming lessons in her apartment to three octogenarians. No, they don’t take to the bathtub. I can’t divulge more . . .
My Home is Far Away by Dawn Powell
This book was first published in 1944. It’s the story of a family barely scraping by in 1900’s Ohio. The story centers on three young girls who, after their mother’s untimely death, are shipped from one relative to another. The sisters are dirt poor, but survive through their rich imaginations and resourcefulness. A New York Times review described the book as “a permanent masterpiece of childhood.”
The Journal I Did Not Keep: New and Selected Writings by Lore Segal
This is the latest collection of short stories by Segal, a long time writer for the New Yorker. I especially liked “Ladies Lunch,’ about 5 older women who have been meeting for lunch for 30 years. The women are funny, irritating, and endearing, all at once. At 92, Segal is still churning out stories.
A recent photo of Lore Segal
Cooking
Modern Comfort Food by Ina Garten
Garten answers the call of Covid cooks who want to expand their comfort foods beyond mac and cheese. I can vouch for the tomato bisque and roasted broccolini and cheddar.
