WWW.WEDNESDAY

This meme is no more. And yet I persist in answering the three questions it asked each week. Stubborn, ain't I?

• What are you currently reading? The Cracker Factory by Joyce Rebeta-Burditt. I first read this novel more than a decade ago, and I literally stumbled upon it when going through a carton of stuff in my bedroom. I'm enjoying it. Cassie is an alcoholic who keeps finding herself in a sanitarium, or "Cracker Factory." She's funny, but not that funny. In a way, that makes the book more credible. When characters crack too wise, are too clever, they seem more like refugees from a Neil Simon play than real people. Cassie's struggles seem kind of dated now, but women had a more limited view of themselves and their options in the 1970s, when this book is set. It's sobering (pardon the pun) to remember what the women who went a bit before me faced.

On a side note, the well worn paperback has claw marks on the cover. I suspect my late, lamented girlcat Charlotte "autographed" it for me. I like carrying that reminder of her around in my purse.

 

• What did you recently finish reading? Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s by Tom Doyle. As one who reads obsessively about Sir Paul, I was surprised to learn anything I didn't know, and yet this was filled with much I didn't know. For example, this detailed how he got out of that Japanese prison, explaining how desperately the authorities wanted his drug bust to go away. If you, or anyone on your gift list, is a Beatle fan, I recommend this one.

• What will you read next? I dunno.