Random Post-Pi-Day Fiction & Non-Fiction

Day 34 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project.

Well, yesterday was Pi Day, and I hope you all had some pie.

I didn't, but I would have been happy for some hot blueberry pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Which reminds me, I have heard twice recently about the gag reflex in response to blueberries! Who else suffers from this? What a shame! Blueberries are so good, and so good for you!!

Speaking of π, Fred is reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, another of the Robert Langdon thrillers involving decoding of symbols, mysteries, and secrets to lead on to new wisdom.

And speaking of math, Diana was reading Algebra when I first asked this question! I don't know which book, exactly, and I've got to admire anyone reading algebra for any reason when not in school! (Sigh....I am math-challenged, but I can count M&Ms.)

She was also reading Nutrition and You by Joan Salge Blake, which has a yummy-looking sandwich on the cover (I would like a side of blueberries with that!), and Grab a Broom Lord, There's Dust Everywhere by Karon Phillips Goodman, which is widely available online for less than a penny, plus shipping.

Carolyn is reading The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging, by Billy Bragg, a politically active musician. It's a response to a very troubling event in his home town, violence erupting in the "immigrant community" there, and an inquiry into his own British identity and roots.

I have friends who are politically active artists, musicians, actors, writers, etc., and other friends who pooh-pooh politically active artists when they speak up at public events (like the Academy Awards). What a dilemma. If you are very good at something but you also want to do good in the world, or use your own visibility to make a good cause more visible, you are always going to have people telling you to shut up and just act, or shut up and just sing, play the guitar, paint, etc.

Of course, we do have the special problem of actors turned politicians here in the United States... I like Glenda Jackson, who seems to have done a good job both at acting and being a politician in Britain, but I don't know much about the latter.

Did I mention earlier that Bob Jude was reading Lords of Finance--the Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed? If so, I didn't say much about it, and won't now. (See above. I will shut up and write poetry.) Anyway, anything any of us can read to better understand economics and economic collapse may indeed be a good idea. I will mention that when I watched The Way We Live Now, mini-series based on the book by Anthony Trollope, I thought, "Hey, that is the way we live...now," alas, caught up in money-making schemes that have little to do with a good product or service, and a lot to do with making money for nothing.

And now that I've offended people who make money, study economics, know algebra, hate blueberries or Dan Brown, and are or aren't politically active artists, I will depart for the bookstore...!