What I Read Summer, 2020: In the Good, Bad, Bad, Good Old Summertime Part I

Okay, I'm just going to put this under a summer reading umbrella. I'm determined to get caught up!

June 2020

Only two books this month.

Red At The Bone - Jacqueline Woodson. Novel. 

Oh my God, this novel. If you haven't read it yet, go out and find it. A short novel, almost novella-sized, but it packs a punch. Tiny and fierce. I'm now a Jacqueline Woodson fan. Next stop: Woodson's memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming.

Shirley - Susan Scarf Merrell. Novel. 

I first read this book in 2013 or 2014, I think. Reread it right after watching Shirley on Hulu. Elisabeth Moss was perfect as Shirley Jackson. Someone give this woman an Oscar, already. The actor who played her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, was also well-cast.

July 2020

Came roaring back with 8 books! Of course, many of them were Who Was...? books. I have a weakness for this series. It's like a childhood dream of mine come true.

Not Without Laughter - Langston Hughes. Novel.

 I didn't even know that Langston Hughes wrote anything but poetry! I happily filled this gap in my ignorance with his 1930 autobiographical novel of growing up in Kansas around the turn of the century. A nearly-forgotten classic. Go find it. 

Promise Unfulfilled: The Brief Life and Bizarre Death of Actor Robert Morris - Vernon Gravely. Nonfiction. 

Robert Morris (1935-1960) started to achieve recognition as an actor in the late 1950s, appearing in Naked City and other TV shows of the time. He was blond, muscular -- in looks, he was a cross between Steve McQueen and Jon Voigt. As an actor, the few examples suggest a young Bo Hopkins. Sadly, Morris's health began to fail at the end of the 1950s, and he died under mysterious circumstances that none of the contemporaries Vernon Gravely interviewed could agree on. 

Who Was Milton Hershey? - James Buckley, Jr. Nonfiction.

One of my great-grandmothers' maiden name was Hershey, so I've always wondered if we were somehow related to Milton Hershey. After reading this book, I wish we could be. What a guy! Hershey was an artist and scientist with chocolate, and he built a beautiful town for the people who worked in his famous chocolate factory.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man - Mary L. Trump, Ph.D. Memoir.

I thought this was going to mainly be a hatchet job, but surprisingly, Too Much and Never Enough is beautifully written. 

TO BE CONTINUED...