A Tale of Three Books

Since the pandemic lockdown started, I've been doing a lot more reading and watching movies.  That's probably the same as many of you.  The last three books I've read all stuck with me but for vastly different reasons.  I thought I'd mention them.

A Very Stable Genius is of course all about you know who.  It was a difficult read, not because of the excellent writing but because reliving all the political upheavals, vindictive behaviors and borderline treasonous actions just compounds the misery we've had to live through these last few weeks.  I do think it was interesting to learn what went on behind-the-scenes around each ire-inducing event.  The amount of red-faced temper tantrums that go on every day in the White House makes it seem more like a day-care center than the home of the leader of the free world.

After finishing the above book, I wanted to read something much lighter and more entertaining.  I grabbed a copy of one of Sophie Hannah's revivals of Agatha Christie.  The book is called Closed Casket and it followed the standard Christie playbook making it vastly entertaining.  There was one line in the book spoken by a main character, that jumped off the page at me.  It reads: "You see, in the normal run of things, people who lie as easily as they breathe never admit it.  They have an endless capacity to invent new lies to explain the old ones.  It is not a moral problem, in my opinion, so much as a mental illness."  I bet you can guess why that jumped out at me.  It's an almost perfect description of the guy written about in the first book I listed.

The third book I just finished is called The Dreamers.  The funny thing about this book is that I just picked it off of my 'need-to-read' stack without giving it much thought beforehand.  When I started reading it, I thought to myself "this might not be the best book to read at this time" but it was too late.  I was hooked.  It was published before this pandemic arrived but it pretty much describes everything we are going through right now, mysterious virus, everyone in masks, quarantining, closing of businesses, makeshift hospitals, conspiracy theories, people rebelling and so on.  It's all there.  I wonder if Ms. Walker had some kind of premonition that led her to write this book.

Three vastly different books all linked together by the events of today.  I think I'll look for something much lighter to read next.  After all, just reading the newspaper these days raises the blood pressure!