So, it’s been a minute since I’ve written about books! The Boozy Book Club continues to meet, but it’s been a heckuva year for me, so I haven’t read all the books, and I stopped making cocktail flights for the books for now. So far this year my mother, my aunt, and my dog have all died. I’ve had RSV, the flu and Covid, and I was in a car accident in May that resulted in a totaled car AND a broken arm, for which I have only just completed physical therapy. My father-in-law has been in the hospital multiple times and is now in hospice, and I have been trying to spend time with my father, who is still grieving the loss of my mother and coping with his own challenges. And, I’m still working full-time plus and running my small business Maybe I’ll write about some of that, we’ll see.

Suffice to say, there have been many cocktails in my world this year, but not as many books as I would have liked. I surely hope things are calming down now, and that I’ll be able to get back to reading more regularly.

AUGUST READ: Snow in August by Pete Hamill

For August, we read Snow in August by Pete Hamill. I listened to it rather than reading it, and it was slow at the start while the story got going. I loved the main characters, and much of this book was truly wonderful. It felt authentic, and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. And, I learned some new-to-me folklore and history. Yet I was frustrated by what happened to the main characters, and that no one would do anything to stop the thugs terrorizing the neighborhood. Witnesses wouldn’t speak up, police were not trusted and not able to stop things, clergy wouldn’t intervene, etc. The main characters wouldn’t “rat” on the perpetrators of horrendous violence, and without anyone speaking up, the police were powerless to stop it. I struggled with the pervasive view that “squealing” or “ratting out” is shameful, while understanding that it is often based on lived experiences in other places where the police and government most certainly cannot be trusted.

It’s a vicious cycle that repeats regularly today in many communities where gangs and crime are a problem – a lack of trust in the authorities and whether they can (will) protect you, as well as a realistic fear that speaking out will put your loved ones (and yourself) in greater danger. When you can’t just pick up and move away, it’s a much tougher decision to speak up about what happens.

Great Discussion

We had a very interesting conversation about the book last night, and a few points were made that I hadn’t considered. The one that stuck out most was, did it really snow in August? Was the ending a fantasy, was Michael dead, or did it really happen? Did everything actually get fixed, or did something else (or nothing else) actually happen? Hmmm.