Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

It's fitting that I just finished this book this week as  this time period marks 40 years since the fall of Saigon .  PBS has a few programs this week , which I plan to watch and will probably report on later. I saw the adapted version of this book on the stage back in the 1990's, and it really spoke to me even before I had delved into my self-education of the Vietnam War.  The stories are so haunting that I had to walk away from the book at times and take breaks from my reading.  Most of the women sharing their stories were nurses (as you would expect) but there are quite a few that were members of the Red Cross, USO and various other specialty services that would have been needed at the time including a commercial flight attendant that only flew in and around Vietnam and Southeast Asia. I was most interested in what made the women choose to go and what their lives were like upon returning home.  The stories in this book were compiled in the early 1980's ...

I can't believe it took me these many years to read Cold Mountain .  I think I was put off it because of the movie, which I did see when it first came out.  I remember being haunted by the scene in which Natalie Portman has to leave her crying baby on the ground at the demand of the search parties looking for outliers.  I didn't want to read the book after I saw the movie because, frankly, I didn't like it so much.  I'm thinking now that the movie was all wrong because for one its casting was terrible (Nicole Kidman and Jude Law) and it focused too much on the love story.  The book, luckily, focuses more on survival of the Civil War both by the men fighting it and the people trying to live through it.  It really gives you something to think about when you realize so many of the men that were fighting in the war that had no belief in it whatsoever, and if that's the case, how easy it would be to walk away from it.  I also remember at the ti...

My god the Vietnam War is the gift that keeps on giving......even a few generations later.  But somehow this novel manages to bring a little humility and humor to the story of a man still being tripped up by his time there decades later.  How a book can be so full of heartbreak and still make me laugh out loud, I'm still not sure.  But it is one of the best books I've read lately.  And it has it all: father/son issues, father/daughter issues, alcoholism, narcotic addiction, war, abandonment, and a healthy hatred for The Eagles and Frank Sinatra.  Did I mention that this book manages to be funny?  I guess because we all experience it at one time or another, the picture of human frailty is one we can all relate to.  We all want to know we're not alone and maybe sometimes we want to know we're not as bad as that other guy.  

Little Boy is in bed and The Boyfriend is out. And me? The gentle woman that I am? I'm watching First Blood, the iconic 1982 Sylvester Stallone pic. I'm not quite sure why I have always loved this movie. Maybe it's the whole struggle of One Man against The Man with only his wits and strength. Maybe it's the whole Vietnam Vet subplot which was so dominant but rarely talked about in our culture at that time. Or maybe it's just Sly and I'm a child of the 80's. I can't help it! Tune in! It's "Rambo Week" on AMC! Enjoy!

I made a long overdue realization today.  Of course, it looks like the world is falling in.  Of course, it all looks desperate.  We never had a magnifying glass like the Internet before to show us just how bad it is.  Network news?  Please.  Dan Rather was in combat situations in Vietnam.  Many reporters have been embedded with troops in various parts of the Middle East since 9/11.  But the Internet shows all the gritty truth: angry disenfranchisement, angry privilege, angry youth, anger everywhere. And god knows I don't want to hurt the feelings of the younger generation.  They're so sensitive.  I was once too.  But I think many of them were either too young or not born to remember the Reagan Administration or even the Bush I and Bush II Administrations.  Those were real times too, people.  Scary times.  It wasn't that bad then, you say.  Oh, I don't know about that.  There was war, th...

I saw this film years ago and have always been intrigued by the life and story of Ron Kovic.  The book was good, but I was sad and not surprised to see that Oliver Stone really Hollywooded the story up quite a bit.  I guess seeing awful things in Vietnam and then being debilitated for life wasn't interesting enough to make people want to buy tickets.  Tom Cruise really had to suffer to make it screen worthy?  Anyhow, the memoir was good and only fueled the fire I've always had against a war that still makes no sense even all these decades later. 

This was a fantastic film on so many levels.  For one, it's good to see the truth continuing to be told about the Vietnam War.  It's also good to know (reassuring, maybe) that Trump isn't the first awful President this country has had.  And it's beautiful to see Meryl Streep playing Katharine Graham coming into her power as the first woman publisher of an American newspaper.  Her doubts and humility along with her strength and brilliance were so inspiring.  And the scene where she is walking out of the Supreme Court building with women and girls looking up to her as she walks by......well.....let's just say I didn't try to hide my tears. 

This is my current first read of the year, while I wait for many more books to arrive! :) E-Roc is a big fan of Anthony Bourdain, and I can see why. It's not just the fact that he's a tremendous chef with a long reputation of knowing exactly what's he's talking about. It's also that.....he's, well....cool. His writing, his shows.....he's just so real. He'll tell you the best place to have noodles in Vietnam, the best place to have a beer in the tropics and the best place to score crack in NYC! And I must admit I love the visceral, sexual quality he uses to not only describe food but the experience of eating itself. I feel like I can taste, touch, see everything as it drips into his mouth. But aside from his travel and food books, his first memoir Kitchen Confidential , is a must-read for anyone who has ever worked in or been somehow associated with a restaurant. That's what drew E-Roc in......reading this guy and knowing that he knew . I...

  This book is so sweet, so girly and so 1970's.  It was the perfect antidote to having spent a good bit of time reading about Vietnam and the racial unrest of the 1960's.  This was my favorite diary entry as the writer describes watching her father play with her newborn sister: I love watching Daddy play with Sara.  I remember exactly how it felt to hold Daddy's hand when I was little.  You could show me the hands of a thousand men and I could pick out my Daddy's, no problem.  In a world full unsettling ugly, sometimes the simple diary scribblings of an innocent young girl can take us all to a good place.   

Reading Tales of the City made me realize I'd had too long of a life without Armistead Maupin in it.  And while I can relate to absolutely none of his privileged North Carolina upbringing, I did enjoy the picture he paints of a state that has changed a lot since his youth.  (Or has it?) His takes on Jesse Helms, Vietnam, the young and fiery John Kerry, the old and gross Nixon and the brave new world of 1970's San Francisco are all educational and delightful.  Could dear Armistead be nearly as charming as he seems?  If so, I want to sign up to be his adorable niece and he to be my jolly old uncle immediately if not sooner. I also really appreciated his witness-to-history activism and name-dropping of all the valuable players of that time.  I've done my share of reading, so that was downright exciting. His coming to terms with his upbringing and his family held something for me too, and the obvious love of his well-meaning but sometimes delusional parents ...

For such a recent time in our history, it is very hard to find very many books about the Vietnam War.  I've always been interested because when I was growing up so many of my friends' fathers served in this war.  I was always grateful my father wasn't there.  And as I read this book, I still am.

With every book I finish, E-Roc has started asking "which war are you gonna read about now?" Well, smartie, I will have you know that Whiteout has nothing to do with war......unless you are considering biological terrorism war, in which case, you win. But The Company You Keep is right in step with my current interest in the Vietnam War .  So maybe next I'll read about Korea....or the War of 1812.....who knows! Oh, wait.  I'm still waiting on Winter of the World to come out .......WWII here I come!

The Unknown Soldier The Doors 1968 (protest song released during the height of the Vietnam War)   Wait until the war is over And we're both a little older The unknown soldier Breakfast where the news is read Television children fed Unborn living, living, dead Bullet strikes the helmet's head And it's all over For the unknown soldier It's all over For the unknown soldier   Make a grave for the unknown soldier Nestled in your hollow shoulder The unknown soldier Breakfast where the news is read Television children fed Bullet strikes the helmet's head And, it's all over The war is over It's all over The war is over Well, all over, baby All over, baby Oh, over, yeah All over, baby Wooooo, hah-hah All over   (This blog honors all soldiers and veterans but does not celebrate war.  This song, to me, is as relevant today as it was nearly 50 years ago when it was written.) 

 There is a meme, and a general question in the air these days......what radicalized you? It has become a joke, but for some of us, it's a very real question and one we have actually spent time on.  I'll gladly share my list from as early back as I can remember.  I first want to say how much I appreciate that my parents, local Charlotte radio and my elementary school and junior high school librarians didn't censor me. It was reading James Baldwin, a gay man born in Harlem in the 1920's, before I was even 13.  Before I was even old enough to know what all of those qualities might mean.  It was not reading Richard Wright and Nikki Giovanni until I took an African American Lit class in my 30's with Dr. Alicia McCollough.  It was not until Barack was inaugurated.  It was not until Bernie stepped away from the podium for BLM speakers.  It was not until George Floyd.  It was not until Sonya Massey.   It was reading Slaughterhouse-Five at ...