What I've Been Reading - August 2019

So.  I haven't been reading much this past month, I admit.  I have instead been planning school and preparing for that and also knitting a sweater.  So there hasn't been much spare time around here.

However...here goes

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Troost makes me think of those guys who post a lot of stuff on the Lonely Planet forums about the obscure hill tribe they lived with on March break.  You know what I mean?  His long-suffering wife, who appears to hold a prestigious careers and also keep the home together whilst her husband wanders around China under the guise of 'seeing if they should move there' must be a veritable saint.  Also all his talk about air pollution made my lungs hurt.

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I have an intense love of graphic novel memoirs, and this one is great on so many levels.  Chast gives us glimpses of her structured, rigid, somewhat cold upbringing and her anxious reality dealing with two ill, co-dependent parents who refuse to throw anything away or let their bank books out of their sight or give even a little on such essentials as 'not balancing on chairs' or 'going to the hospital when you cannot get out of bed'.  If you are also living in that reality - the slow progression of aging parents and increased concern for them - you should read this.  It will make you sad but also feel not alone.

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Complete and total fluff!  Sometimes you need that.  Dirk Pitt is honestly a laughable character, as is almost everyone else, but he's...I mean at one point he ACTUALLY emerges from the rubble of partially destroyed Havana leading a line of orphans he rescued from a huge wave.  There is nothing he cannot do!  He is all knowing!  The women are in love!  The waves!  The waves are rising but Dirk will save us!  He pulls back a blimp from hitting a hotel!