Back to LES MIS...

Hugo ended the last section with the rebellion of 1832 and the building of the barricades on major Paris streets.  He starts this section off track again as he described the barricades of 1848 as being much larger and better able to be defended.

As he described them, my mind slid back to the last time I visited Oaxaca.  It was (and probably is) a beautiful city with a pretty and relaxing zocolo, bordered by shops and restaurants, with a gazebo in the middle, trees and benches.  Vendors were everywhere with crafts, balloons, and toys. Just a lovely central park.

But this last time, there had been a teacher's strike.  A teacher of more than twenty years at the time, I was inclined to sympathize with the strike, but, it seems other people all over the city had joined the demonstrations, and we arrived in the city as the same time as the forces sent out from Mexico City.  I had flown down alone and the taxi from the airport stopped at a restaurant outside the central part of the city (just a little hole in the wall place, but at least it was open.)  The driver refused to drive any further.  The owners of the small restaurant were scrambling to find places to put people up (blankets on tables) and I was fairly sure I didn't want to stay there (especially being alone) since my accommodations downtown were already paid for.  A few of us went outside to attempt to hail another taxi.  An enterprising young man showed up after awhile and told us that he and two other drivers were still going downtown and he could hail them on his radio.  He picked up the people ahead of me and said to the four of us still left that his buddy would be along soon.

Soon was about an hour, but this man took us all to the door of our hotels and was lovely about it.  I hope those three young men made a fortune that evening.  They certainly deserved it.  My friends, Peggy and Ruth, were already at the hotel, having arrived earlier that day, but I learned they had walked about twenty blocks, with their luggage after being unable to get a taxi.

The next day, we saw why.  Burned out city busses were in all of the approaches to the Zocolo where the demonstrators had barricaded themselves and now the troops from Mexico City were camped in the Zocolo.  There was no danger to us--looking very much like the tourists we were.  The troops were even most helpful in pointing us to the very few restaurants still open.  With the exception of the troops, the city seemed deserted...

Down near a church not far from the Zocolo we found a nest of activity--shrines to the movement, the lives lost in the strike/rebellion and pamphlets explaining their demands.  Of course the pamphlets were in Spanish, so I never did know what the demands had been...  Some people tried to convert us to their way of thinking, but we just said we were teachers and were already converted....  without really understanding what their way of thinking was...

Overall, it was a sad visit.  The beautiful city had lost its spirit and its beauty.  Burned out busses and unhappy people and troops with big guns....  I probably will never get back, but I hope it has gotten its mojo back.

Finished A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Of course I knew a story about women set in Afghanistan in modern times is not going to be all merry and bright, but Hosseini manages to maintain an optimistic spirit as do his characters.  If anything he celebrates the strength of the human spirit with each new paragraph.  The book kept me glued to my chair, as, usually, only thrillers do.

And now I turn back to Les Miserables, of which I have just one last section to read.

Finished A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET

As Madeleine L'Engle's character describes his writing style, I realized it was exactly the style the author was using--not really sci-fi, but fantasy mixed with sci-fi.  Time travel mixes with a unicorn and telepathy to save the world.  A sweet and strangely Christian story.

I have now started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Kosseini, the author of The Kite Runner.  The latter was so well written and the world so foreign/ intriguing to me, I felt the need to read more of his books.  This one will be about women living in the shadow of the Afghanistan conflicts.

Finished PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER

Great characters.  Very satisfying ending.  I do enjoy these books by the Gears.

Have just started A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the third book in the A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'Engle.  Meg is now married to Calvin and pregnant with her first child.  The twins are in college and Charles Wallace is fifteen.  A petty dictator in a tiny South American country has decided he wants to nuke the world.  Charles Wallace is charged with stopping this by going back in time and helping people make better decisions.  Whew!  Big job!

Finished Mount Vernon Love Story

It was really quite a lovely read, especially if you like historical romance.  This was written early in her career and was well researched.  You need to understand that the copyright date was 1968, though. an be aware that the story nearly ignores the elephant in the room--slavery.  The word "slave" is mentioned twice.  Every other time they are "servants." and are, as was typical in that time (and before), portrayed as devoted and happy.  Read it for the romance---

I have now started People of the Thunder, by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear.  The is the second half of the story started in the last of their books I read, People of the Weeping Eye.  It starts right where it left off, and gives enough exposition to help me remember the last book.  This story may included some of their most fascinating characters yet.

Finished SKIN GAME

Stayed up late last night finishing this.  Page 1 through page 600 non-stop action.  Whew!  I slept until 10:00 this morning.  This 15th book in the series may be the best so far.  LOVE this series.

I'll be picking up a new book from the top of my Mary Higgins Clark pile tonight.  Out of the frying pan into the fire.  ⤗

Well, not frying pan to fire after all.  The next book on my Mary Higgins Clark pile is Mount Vernon Love Story, a biographical story of George Washington's relationship with Martha (known by her loved ones as Patsy.)  Turns out they were not as stiff or perfect as the legend says.  The technique she is using to tell the story keeps it moving and emphasizes how amazing our first peaceful turnover of leadership was.

Finished PICTURE MISS SEETON

Very British--vocabulary.  So that takes some work as does the author's tendency to report dreams, musings, and gossip in the same font as the action and without quotation marks.  Add to that the copyright date of 1969, and you just have to take some time to get used to the style.  Once you have, it is hysterical (in the very funny sense) as well as being both plot and character driven.  Loved it.

I am now about to start the 15th book in the Dresden series by Jim Butcher, Skin Game.  Harry Dresden was the only practicing wizard in the Chicago phone book (or maybe listed on line for Chicago to bring it up to date.)  Now he is the Winter Knight (subject to Mab) and has a demon growing in his head that will break out in three days killing him.  Mab will cure him, but only after he has completed an impossible mission with some of the worst beings in the universe....