Random Connect Points:
Reba's Stories

Summer means the return of my Blink Book Review series . In the summer of 2022, I vowed to get off my screens and back to books. My accountability was writing short book reviews that can be read in a blink (thus the name Blink Book Reviews). I’m back at it again this year with the added impetus of participating in a friend’s family summer reading challenge. “Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days that Changed America's Politics Forever” by Chris Wallace caught my eye on the sale table at one of my favorite local bookstores because of the year in the title. I was born in 1960 the day after this presidential election. I never really thought much about that fact until I picked up this book and read the dust cover description. That short snippet pulled me in to learn more about the countdown to the Nixon/Kennedy election. As a self-avowed political nerd, I was intrigued to learn more about the face-off between the surly policy wonk that Nixon was perceived...

If it’s summer, that means it’s time to gear up for summer reading. Remember those summer reading clubs from childhood? In my family, we would go to the Cooper Branch Library to sign up the first day school was out. We’d get a fancy paper brochure where we’d painstakingly keep up with all the books we’d read over the summer. While I don’t really remember the prizes we got, I do remember the deep feeling of satisfaction from knowing I’d met a goal … and enjoyed doing it! My adult version of summer reading the past several years grew from a 2022 commitment to get off the screen and back to books for the summer. My accountability was a series of short book reviews I called “Blink Book Reviews” – so short they could be read in a blink (that means 300-ish or less words). Blink Book Review Rules I have only a few rules for myself. 1 – During the summer, I don’t finish books I’m not enjoying. Thus all the reviews are positive. 2 – I try to mix up genres a bit, but you’ll find a l...

Like many people, I decided to do no more reading about, listening to or watching anything about the Murdaugh case once the trial ended in March 2022. I had no interest in what podcasters, movies, tv series, books, blogs or news hounds had to say once the sentencing was over. That was until I saw that Valerie Bauerlein had written a book about the trial. I’d crossed work paths with Valerie back in her early career when she worked at The State newspaper in Columbia. I continued to follow her writing through her Wall Street Journal work. I knew this book would not be the sensational, rumor-ridden, speculative narrative that so many writers, podcasters, movie producers and news people had resorted to post-trial. I wasn’t disappointed. Valerie’s direct news writing style intersecting with the narrative skill of an empathetic storyteller makes this book engaging, interesting, easy to follow, and a pleasure to read. One of my favorite sentences of the book comes on page 23 with the descr...

A young friend recently asked me to choose my favorite dog book. I had to think really hard on that one. I’ve read a whole lot of them. I believe in the power of a dog. And there’s a special place in the universe for writers who can script a good dog story – whether it’s through poetry, fiction, personal essay, photo captions or a good dog obit. At the time I got this question, I had just started "The Speckled Beauty ... A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg.  “All Over but the Shoutin’” was Rick’s first book that pulled me into h is writing many years ago. I’ve long admired his spot-on southern-isms that completely avoid the “fingers on the chalkboard” of writers who try to fake knowing the real south and how it sounds, feels, smells and tastes. In this book, Rick tells the stories of Speck, a bad-boy mixed breed (or mutt as he would have been called before that term lost favor). Sixteen essays lay out various episodes of Speck’s egregious behavior woven in with stories of Rick’s si...

My normal reading habits lean toward the elements of a well-balanced diet. I like to have several books going at once wanting each to supply me with something different. I like to have one book that teaches me something, one that entertains, and one that’s just “junk food” reading. But recently I found myself with three “teachable” books going at once (stay tuned for reviews of the other two). It was unintentional, but so interesting to find these three books were perfectly aligned to read in tandem. They all pointed me strongly toward similar types of practices carried out in different ways to increase my capacity to be present to the wonder of my daily world. Roger Hutchison ’s recently released book “ The Art of Calm ” is the perfect mix of thought-provoking, easy reading, insightful and practical helping bring new awareness to our daily lives. Roger is a former Columbia resident, and I knew him many years ago when he was on the staff at Trinity Cathedral in Columbia. He and his...

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. That’s one of the many reasons I walked out of Square Books in Oxford, MS , recently with writer and illustrator Maira Kalman’s newest book,“Women Holding Things. ” I knew her of art only because one of her paintings depicting a soulful basset hound graced the cover of Strunk and White’s latest edition of “The Elements of Style.” That dog enticed me to upgrade my college-issued version of this grammar book several years ago. After picking up the display copy of "Women Holding Things" on the bookstore table, I was immediately intrigued by this book’s title and cover art. I flipped the book over to look for the typical reviews or author bio. To my delight, I found only the following quote: Nothing on the dustcover or the book flaps gives the reader any intel about the author, the artwork or the contents of the book. As I flipped through the pages with sparse words and expressive paintings, I found myself holding this book close with...

Is there anything that we take for granted more than the power of our five senses? Gretchen Rubin’s new book, “ Life in Five Senses, How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World ,” stunned me out of complacency. It reminded me about the riches we overlook daily because we fail to pay full attention to what we are seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing. Gretchen studies the five senses through the lens of connectivity to the world around us – a simple premise – but likely something most people easily forget to appreciate. By overlaying art, literature, food, science, family and the natural world, Gretchen chronicles her personal sensory exploration. A reader can choose to ride along on her journey or use her journey to plot their own path. I did a little of both. The author responds to a potentially life-changing medical issue as a jolt to examine the power of her own senses. Her research includes enough scientific data to be credible, but not boring, f...

It's summer and isn’t everyone looking for a good book to read? As much as I used to love snuggling in for a Sunday afternoon with the Washington Post Book Review, today I’m more interested in a quick blink of a review to grab the basics of whether the book will interest me. I was at the beach over the holiday weekend with friends who have a summer reading challenge for their family. While I didn’t dare get tangled up in their debate over whether an audio book gets the same credit as a hard copy book, I was inspired to read more this summer. I have fond memories of the library summer reading club when I was a kid, so I’m offering up my own version this summer – a quick series of what I’m calling “blink book reviews.” As anyone who writes for a living knows, writing short is much harder than writing long. So I’m challenging myself to write 300-ish words about these books. Stay tuned this summer and get a blink of (what I hope will be) a dozen or so books.  Join our ...

My dream has long been to quit life and join the band. While I’ve taken up music lessons in recent years (see photo at the end), this book allowed me to vicariously live out that dream without the messiness, madness and complexities of doing it in real life. My fascination with the behind-the-scenes intrigues of being in a band played out in every chapter of this book. “ Daisy Jones and the Six ” (2018) by Taylor Jenkins Reid chronicles the rise and fall of a successful ‘70s rock band, The Six, and its lead singer, Daisy Jones. Written in a format that could be called an “oral history,” each chapter is narrated in first person from the various characters’ perspectives. The narrative feels more like an interview than traditional prose. Daisy is a strikingly beautiful and hugely talented young singer who makes her way to the stage in a band called “The Six.” The story weaves through the drama, successes, secrets, failures and personal demons of these seven people, their families and...

This summer’s reading list has included books beyond the best-seller fiction I usually favor. Ann Patchett’ s “ These Precious Days ” is one of those. This collection of 24 essays hits on topics ranging from Snoopy’s influence in her life and her three fathers to how she selects a book cover and why knitting saved her life. Ann’s fiction has graced the top of the NYT lists for years. “Commonwealth,” “The Dutch House” and “Bel Canto” are just a few. But it’s her non-fiction that really gets my pages turning. Normally, I like to invest time in a book, get to know characters, dig into a plot. So typically, essays and short stories aren’t really my gig. Reading this book started slowly for me. Finally, over the July 4 holiday I picked it up again. And couldn’t put it down. Initially, the cover drew me in when I saw it on the shelf at Litchfield Books (yes, I occasionally judge a book by its cover). The bright colored painting turns out to be Ann’s beloved dog, Sparky , with eyes that...

“The Personal Librarian” by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray was such a delightful surprise. Historical fiction isn’t normally my top reading choice, but to stay true to one of my summer reading goals, I’m trying out new genres and new writers. This one was spot on. The book follows the life of a young woman in the early 1900s who is hired by the mega-wealthy financier JP Morgan to be the personal librarian for his extensive manuscript and art collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City. While this was a perfectly acceptable type of position for an unmarried young white woman of the time, the intriguing story line of the book is based around the fact that Belle da Costa Greene is actually Belle Marion Greener, a Black woman. The book builds from Belle’s family story that includes her father, Richard Greener, the first Black Harvard graduate who spent his life as an activist for equal rights. Belle’s father leaves the family over the fact that her mother...

Memoirs can often fall into two categories – hugely self-aggrandizing or humbly honest. Jim Sonefeld’s recently released book, “ Swimming with the Blowfish: Hootie, Healing and One Hell of a Ride ,” falls squarely in the humbly honest category. As a gifted songwriter and the Hootie and the Blowfish drummer, Jim had seemingly found it all very young with the band’s ascension from a local frat attraction to hyper-international fame. However, “Swimming with the Blowfish” is more than just a first-person account of the band’s partying life on the road (although those stories are fun to read). It’s also a deeply personal account of Jim’s journey from childhood with four siblings and soccer aspirations to early band days and his personal reckoning with addiction. Jim writes with humor, self-awareness, and raw honesty about his faith, his recovery community, and most importantly, his family. He lays bare the jagged edges behind the addictions that followed him alongside the band’s fame wh...

When traveling light, I still indulge in the luxury of carrying a hard copy book with me. For a recent vacation trip, I chose Cathy Rigg’s just-released “That Which Binds Us.” Cathy is a Columbia-based, first-time author with roots in the Virginia mountains. The book weaves a story around five beautifully written characters living through the horrors of the Civil War in southwest Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. I will admit that historical fiction isn’t usually my top reading genre choice. But between the fact I know Cathy and her talent, plus I’d just gotten my signed copy at her book launch party, I couldn’t wait to get started. From the first chapter (which Cathy read aloud at the book launch event), the writing kept me engaged with the characters’ individual narratives that she skillfully connects through their intersecting stories. What really brought this book alive for me is the dialects, the spoken cadence and the language that Cathy hones to perfection. Each chapter is...

I’ve long been a collector of travel guides. There’s a stack on my bookshelf of books about Spain, Mexico, Italy, Thailand, France, England, Scotland, Israel and Egypt among others. Then I stopped buying travel guides somewhere in the mid-2010s when the internet put travel planning at my fingertips in real time. In today’s digital world, old fashioned travel books may seem to be obsolete. Who wants to travel with a 300-page book when the same info is available right on your phone? Not to mention, so much of the info in a hard-copy travel guide is outdated the day it’s published. For recent post-covid travel, however, I’ve become a fan of travel guides again. I enjoy going to the library and checking out a stack of books about my travel destination. I vicariously pre-travel to my destination running fingers over the colorful maps, pondering the adventures to be had in various parts of a new city. Then I pick my favorite book of the bunch and buy a copy at the local bookstore (my lat...

  “ Our Best Intentions ” by Vibhuti Jain revolves around an Indian immigrant family living in a small, well-to-do New York suburb. The father, Barbur Singh, is raising his teen-aged daughter, Angela, alone after his wife abandons the family when Angela is a young child. With a singleness of focus and a remarkable innocence about the ways of the world, Barbur attempts balancing the grueling schedule of his small business with ensuring Angie has what she needs to succeed in her highly competitive high school swimming career. During summer vacation, Angela stumbles upon a fellow high school student who has been stabbed on the school’s football field. This discovery drops Barbur and Angela squarely into an unfamiliar world of the community’s upper crust shattering their innocence about what’s right and wrong. The book has all the elements of a well-told story. The characters are developed with plenty of subtleties that ultimately converge at the end. Jain touches on many aspect...

Stories of local folks who’ve found national acclaim always interest me. And if they’re in the world of journalism or politics even more so. That’s part of the reason I picked up Craig Melvin’s book, "Pops," on a recent trip to the Richland Library. While I don’t know Craig personally, we’ve got enough mutual friends that I feel a little kinship with his story. While this book focuses on Craig's path to the Today show set, it’s more than just his professional story. This book explores his journey to understand and accept an unaccountable father who battled alcoholism and who wasn’t very present in Craig’s growing up years. The timing of the book lines up with Craig’s own journey as a father to his young children, Delano and Sybil. Craig’s storytelling skills from years in television translate nicely to the page with a writing style that’s conversational and descriptive without sugarcoating the challenges his family faced. He deftly balances facing down the demons he d...

The books I enjoy the most typically sit unfinished with one chapter remaining. They deliciously hang out in my reading stack or on my audiobook list the same way the last bite of my favorite chocolate cookie sits wrapped up on the counter. I savor the thought of it. I visit it occasionally. I conjure up visions of slowly consuming that last morsel. “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs” is one of those books. It sat unfinished in my audiobook app for five days. I just didn’t want it to end. This book is the memoir of NPR anchor Mary Louise Kelly ’s “year of no do-overs” as her 18-year-old son entered his senior year in high school. Her job as the anchor of NPR’s afternoon news show, “All Things Considered,” meant she went on air every weekday at 4 p.m.   - the exact time of her sons’ weekly Monday soccer games. (Her younger son was a high school sophomore at the time and also a soccer player). Every year, Kelly had told herself, this would be the year that she wou...

"Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Scottish writer Gail Honeyman caught my eye at the library on a book display for Mental Health Awareness Month. The cover and the title drew me in (although I ended up “reading” as an audiobook on a driving trip – the accent of the Scottish main character is spot-on). At the beginning of the book, Eleanor appears to be an eccentric young woman with a one-dimensional, rigid, and highly judgmental world view. She seems to take every experience and interaction so literally that she can’t fathom why a barista would need to know her name when ordering coffee. She's baffled at why anyone would have reason to eat in a restaurant where food is more expensive and more likely to have been touched by unclean hands. I felt the book started slow, but, as it progressed, I realized the tempo was probably part of the author’s scene-setting to lay out Eleanor’s narrow world perspective. Bit by bit, Honeyman brings the reader into the story of ...