Lots of Reading

I have done quite a bit of reading in the past month. One book was on loan from my sister-in-law, one I found through a link on a blog that led to a free read of 15 minutes length of newer books, and the third book was one that was recently donated to the Grace Village library.

That free read hooked me on Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit.

I found the book at the public library. As it turned out, the early chapters of the book were the more interesting. When he attempted to apply what we know about habits to the way companies market and influence us, it was not as convincing.

More than 40% of our daily actions are done out of habit. We are not making a conscious choice anymore. This is better for our brains as they can conserve energy and process important things more efficiently if they are not constantly having to make decisions. The problem arises when the habits are not conducive to our well-being. Habits are established through cues (time, place, people, etc.) which initiate the act (routine) which provides some kind of reward. He has some good questions to ask to help us identify these cues and rewards so we can change habits.

A Gentleman in Moscow was a delightful though long novel. My sister-in-law loaned Amor Towles book to my husband and subsequently I also read it. In post-revolutionary Russia, Count Rostov is put under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, though not in his comfortable suite but in a cramped room in the attic. This is preferable to execution, but it is a disruption to the pleasant life and routines he had established. The Count is a charmer, and he learns to adjust with the help of a young girl named Nina and the staff of the hotel. Still, as the years roll by, he sees little purpose in his life, until a surprise development rising out of his former relationship with Nina changes his life forever. Character development is the strong suit of the book. Mr. Towles demonstrates how the human spirit can transcend the ugliness and nastiness of despotic and bureaucratic governments.

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years exposed me to black middle-class America after the Civil War, through the Jim Crow years, into the Harlem Renaissance, and into modern culture.

Sadie (104 years old) and Bessie (102 years old) were a hoot. A look at the family's ancestry made it clear there was probably as much "white blood" as black running through their veins, but they were judged and treated in the same way as all blacks in the United States. Some of their forefathers loved but could not marry their black sweethearts; however they produced offspring. Their mother was a free black whose light skin made people think she was white, but she never tried to pass as white according to the sisters.

Their father who was born to slaves was just a boy when Emancipation came. His parents had served in the house and been taught how to read and write, and he saw how that made a difference in the opportunities available when they were freed. He sought education, becoming the first black bishop of the Episcopal church. He raised his family in Raleigh, North Carolina.

His 10 children were all directed to attain higher education which eventually led most of them to move to Harlem, New York. Bessie and Sadie graduated from Columbia University while working jobs to support themselves and pay tuition. They rubbed shoulders with famous blacks in New York City.

Neither married. They lived together most of their lives (a brief interlude as young adults pursuing employment). Sadie was the easy-going sister; Bessie the feisty protester, but they both lived by the values their parents imparted of helping others, especially other blacks, and being godly moral examples.

In the book, they both speculate about whether/when the United States would have a black president. Bessie was doubtful, but thought a black woman president would be best. Sadie felt strongly that there would be a black president but probably not in her lifetime. The book was published in 1993. How tickled they would have been to see Barack Obama elected. Bessie died in 1995, Sadie in 1999 at 107 years old, so neither saw that momentous occasion.

They were outspoken about the injustices they felt and saw, but they loved the United States dearly. They present from an interesting perspective life in a racist society, yet they were proud to be Americans.