After Annie, by Anna Quindlen

"L" and I both tried to get thru this book.

I got to page 50, then skimmed to 83. 

L was a little further along. We both stopped.

It begins with the mom (Annie) of 4 kids, ages 6 to 15, collapsing in her kitchen, she died of an aneurysm. Annie's lifelong bestie (Annemarie) experiences a different kind of grief than the now-widower/now-single dad of four (Bill Brown). The only daughter, Ali Brown, 13, grows up in an instant.

The hype for this book was "family, forgiveness, working through grief". 

We both like Quindlen's writing - just not this book. 

We stopped reading; it hit too many soft nerves.

Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver

This is a sequel to Bean Trees.

First, Kingsolver's prose is beautiful, but in this book, I increasingly skimmed the avid details of trees, roads, houses. In Bean Trees, her prose is beautiful AND concise.

Second, it was nice reading more about Turtle. Hearing her talk. Seeing how a 3 yr old moves past abuse. Abuse left its mark on her for sure, but in this sequel, we hear the strength she begins to feel because she's surrounded by love (Taylor, Jax, LuAnn & her boy Dwayne Ray).

Third, and most important, it's good to glimpse history of the Cherokee Nation. The average American believes in the "savage beast" history...and that "Natives" are people of the past. They aren't. They live among us. More often, closer to big cities.

TITLE: it's a tad hard to unravel the title. We hear the Cherokee myth of the Six Pigs as a star constellation (six boys who wouldn't listen to their moms.. won't do chores...the great spirit says, Moms know best, turns them into pigs, they run so fast, they spin up into sky). The underlying message of that myth is "Do right by your people, or else..." The word, Heaven, in the title refers to the sky in the myth...then we hear about Heaven, Oklahoma. No spoilers here... I just don't want to work that hard unraveling a book's title.

The book was too long. What I love about Bean Trees is its concise narrative combined with beautiful prose, but in this sequel, we got wayyyyy tooooo much detail.

Also, and this is important, it's been a very long time since the movement began to educate people about the hurt inflicted by using the word, "retarded." It has *always* been used, in my memory, as a slur. I'm talking the 70s. If a writer is going to treat a topic with respect, they *must* do the heavy lifting. There's zero evidence that Kingsolver wanted to jar her readers with the use of this word...but it's a jarring word for sure.

This book needed fewer characters to keep track of. E.g., she writes, "the woman who married Letty's husband's brother." -- I did a doubletake on that one. Too often, it was hard to keep track, causing me to double back to earlier passages in the book. 

3 out of 5 stars. Its worth is in its glimpse into Cherokee history (the boarding school era... thru 1970s), and the present (what reservations look like today, family life, etc.).

Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow

This was a 36 hour audiobook. Quite the undertaking, and I'm very glad I read it ("L" did not). After first falling in love with Lin Miranda's musical, based on this book, and listening to the musical soundtrack about 100 times, I decided to read (listen to) Chernow's book. Wow, I learned a lot. 

Born in the West Indies to a mother who had left her husband, whom she hated, and later divorced by her husband in shame (her ex claimed she had affairs, which it seems she did) and a father whose Scottish lineage tracked to some Scot high-brow-ness (not a word... can't remember the title, maybe a Laird?). Anyway, dad runs off, and mom left poor because her ex-spouse denied her anything. When Alexander and his brother were still young, the mom gets sick and dies. Fast forward to Alexander's fellow community members raising money so he could go to America and get an education. 

He made his mark. Brilliant beyond words, it's his financial system that got America out of its predicament with post-Revol War debt. He also instituted a tax system (which brought hate from many) to fuel the government. His excise tax on alcohol led to the Whiskey Rebellion. Hamilton saw the future downfall of the Union as a possibility due to the "masses" if they would not abide by the rule of law. He always warned of mobs overtaking the government. This was, of course, as the French decapitated Louis XVI...thus, mobs taking down their leaders was on everyone's minds.

Hamilton's accomplishments are beyond comparison. The first Secretary of the Treasury. Founder of a central bank for the US. Created the Customs Houses (for collection of import taxes), which necessitated creation of the Coast Guard. He called for a strong federal army - versus just state militias. There's more, much more. 

His dark sides were there too. Vain. A philanderer. His sweet wife, Eliza (nee Schuyler, dau of Philip) suffered humiliation over Hamilton's affair with Mariah Reynolds, and the way it became known to all in the newspaper. And of course, they lost a son, age 19, to a duel. Senseless stupid custom that was considered "gallant" at the time. 

Hamilton did not care for Aaron Burr's lack of conviction on topics of the day. They were friends, but when it came to politics, they clashed. That would spell Hamilton's demise - in a duel with Burr. Weehawken NJ, the same place where his eldest child, Philip Hamilton, died in a duel with George Eeker. 

This book is a summary of America's birth, and the framers who acted as doulas/midwives. There was much drama, suffering, heroism, infighting, and this country wouldn't have really "launched" if not for Alexander Hamilton. Considered an illegitimate child, basically orphaned young, destitute, living in squalor and watching the worst of humanity (West Indies) at tender ages. Even so, he loved being part of the formation of the US. And he seemed to love being a husband and father, even as he cheated on his wife. He was right hand man to General (later Pres) Washington. But he wasn't a god. Not perfect. Even so, Americans owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his hard work (the man worked! Never taking vacations), and his striving for moralistic behavior (eg, he never took what wasn't his, etc). 

All of this said, there were times when I wished the author had not gone into such great detail. But for such a great man, it was necessary. 

Highly recommend the audio version.