Book Break is meeting outdoors for the time being to comply with safe practices for gatherings. For our June meeting, we opted to sit under the tree on the south side of the library. It was shady and there was only a slight breeze. Perfect. There were 4 of us, and we sat at a distance. All have been and are well.
Here are the books that we discussed:
6th Target by James Patterson
Was found to be disappointing.
Standoff by Sandra Brown
This book was better, but led to a discussion of why the dialog is so bad in some books. What books have we read that were written recently that have good dialog? Is it a lost art? Don’t people still converse? All participated.
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
This was about the flu epidemic in 1947 and bioresearch. What does civilization do afterwards? Does Man change the environment or does the environment change Man? What are the effects of both? Will there ever be an acceptance of either view? What makes society work? There are many, many attitudes.
Pandemic & Geome by A. G. Riddle
These two books were written in 2017. The first opens in a small village in Africa with a flu. It is first worried that it may be Ebola again and WHO and the CDC immediately jump into emergency mode. This part of the book is fascinating. The whole object is to isolate whatever it is, so it will not spread worldwide, then find the cause. The cause was suspected to be bats. (Is this book a premonition?) However, two weeks later it is affecting people worldwide. How did it spread with the isolation? The plot includes a group of intellectuals who are rich and form a group for world peace. They ‘manufacture’ the virus and the antidote. When it succeeds in the small village, they release it world wide two weeks later. Their idea is they will then offer the antidote and save the world, if the countries agree to its terms of world peace. Of course, there is always one in a group that has other ideas. HE wants to take over the world. The second book goes into how you get rid of the creep. It gave a good accounting of how WHO and the CDC works, or should work. Comparing it to what happened in 2019 you wonder what he knew.
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
A book written in 1998 about the 1900 Hurricane that demolished Galveston, Texas. It is non-fiction. They did not name hurricanes at that time. It explains how the weather forms hurricanes. The warm gulf stream is perfect breeding grounds. The warning system was in its infancy and even then it broke down. It describes the area and how people built down to the beach, many on stilts. When the storm surge came there was no protection and everything was demolished. The book gives blow by blow descriptions by survivors. No one knows for sure how many perished. Were they washed out to sea? Left the area never to return? Or had no contacts in the area? Communications were gone. How could they contact people, when they had no idea of where they were IF they survived.
Our next Book Break is Tuesday, July 14 at Ramona Garden Park (next to the library.) Bring a chair!
The subject is Readers’ Choice, but also bring your favorite magazine (online magazines acceptable).
– Submitted by Fran Strauser