May & June 2021 in Review
Books
I finished three books in May and June:
Still Lives by Maria Hummel (Counterpoint, 2018)
I think Naomi may have picked this book up from a Little Lending Library in one of the neighborhoods where we’ve lived? In the midst for our move to Washington, I wanted to keep one novel behind to read along the way and picked this, having never ready it. I really enjoyed it, it was mildly page-turning murder mystery with some thoughts along the way about the meaning of art and professional journeys. Available at various retailers via Hummel's website.
For the Good of the Game by Bud Selig (HarperCollins, 2019)
Baseball is by far my favorite sport to follow, but oddly I haven’t read much of the volumes that have been written of player biographies and explorations of different historical and contemporary aspects of the game. But I found this title mentioned on a list somewhere this spring and it was the first book I checked out with my new Arlington Public Library card. Selig traces his career and explains the conversations and rationale behind each major development in baseball in which he was involved through various roles. A unique contribution to the historical record not just of baseball but also of the last half-century of U.S. history. Available at Amazon.
Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh (Alfred Knopf, 2014)
I had been wanting to read a full Bonhoeffer biography for a while now and glad I found this one. Really appreciated that Marsh weaved excerpts from Bonhoeffer's extensive writings — letters, essays, sermons — into the narrative. The story of course ends in tragedy as he was executed in April 1945, just two weeks before the Allies liberated the Nazi concentration camp where he was imprisoned, but his legacy of writings and reflections survives to encourage, challenge, and inspire us today. Available at Amazon.
Travel
Mid-May found Naomi and me, with Weasley along for the ride, on a road trip from Miami to our new home in Arlington, Virginia. We stayed at several hotels, as well as one night with Naomi’s cousin in North Carolina, along the way. One of the hotels I want to highlight is the Andaz Savannah, part of the Hyatt portfolio. It was my first time at an Andaz property and it was just what we needed for a restful night between long drives. Great staff, a comfortable (upgraded!) room, and convenient to many local restaurants to choose from for our dinner. I’m also quite pleased that the timing and our need for hotel nights fell during very lucrative promotions Hyatt was running, so we came out of it with a lot of points to use toward our next vacation!
