Time for Easy Reading

This morning I finished reading the next book for our reading group. If you remember, we decided to go into hiatus two months ago. Well, several of us have been meeting virtually each Tuesday for cocktails and just general comradery. We talk about things, and books do come up, just not like in our meetings. Anyhow, we decided to resume in June, but again virtually. So I resumed my reading of "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin", by David Quammen. The book overall was very interesting, basically being a life of Darwin after his return from his 5-year voyage on the HMS Beagle. The only real difficulty I had was when I got to the last three chapters; that was where all the science lay in wait. It took a while, but I got through it. It should be a very interesting discussion in June.

The other book I just finished this last Saturday - 2 days ago - was another science/history book. This was on the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920.

I had read John Barry's bestseller over 15 years ago. Laura Spinney's "Pale Rider" is not strictly chronological, yet covered many various aspects of the pandemic. It was interesting to note that people were told in 1918 that to keep the spread of the flu was 1) avoid large gatherings, and 2) wear a mask! 

But reading these two heavily ladened science books was too much for me. My next NF book was to be a science/nature book about crows. I just couldn't bring myself to read it right now. So I am switching to some easy reads. 

My fiction is about a 16th Century Dutch painter as he travels and paints his way through Antwerp and Brussels, and then to Rome. The book has several of his paintings in B&W. My nonfiction selections are about fly fishing adventures, lives of five 19th Century Victorian couples, and a book of essays by a favorite author. More about them as I read them. 

For now, I'm going to relax my brain. See you later.