February 21, 2020 GOIN' BY THE BOOK

Spent some time at one of my favorite bookstores this week--R J Julia in Madison. Pretty sure I was meant for the place. The atmosphere was incredible and the BOOK SELLERS REALLY KNEW BOOKS. I can SO picture myself working there and talking BOOKS ALL DAY LONG. I had this great conversation with one of the book sellers. It went something like this.---I told her that I needed a book to get me through February and March. I went on to specify that it had to be as good as A Gentleman In Moscow--with a touch of Dickens--and the romance of--The Art of Healing Heartbeats. Sounds CRAZY RIGHT? But not to her. She understood exactly what I wanted because she's a book aficionado. Came home with a few new books that I can't wait to read. FYI---found out that R J Julia is hosting a book talk with Erik Larson--author of Dead Wake and Devil In The White City in March. He will be discussing his new book The Splendid and the Vile. Check out their website for more details. Spent the last week reading as semi- dense historical novel about the American West in the late 19th century called Inland by Tea Obreht. 
Set in the brutal Arizona Territory, this novel is told from two perspectives. Nora, is a frontierswoman and mother of four, haunted by the death of her daughter. After spending twenty years trying to build a life in this unforgiving land, she questions whether it was really worth the effort. She's lonely, isolated, and most of all thirsty as their water supply has all but dried up. She's also been left  to manage the children, a niece and mother-in-law while her husband  searches for water. After two of her sons go missing, and he husband's return is delayed, she is forced to make many difficult choices. Lurie, the other narrator, is an immigrant who can see the dead. Orphaned at a young age, he becomes an outlaw wanted for murder. He later joins the U.S. Army Camel Corps with a band of colorful characters and travels with the army as they build roads and  settle the West. Lurie and his camel, Burke, are eventually forced to leave the corp because a Marshal is on his tail. These two separate stories become one by the end of the book. The landscape of the West is as much a character in this book as the main characters. I will admit that it took me a while to get into this book, but I did enjoy it and the writing is worth the effort.  It's about 375 pages or a 5 mile run that will leave you rethinking everything you learned in a history book.