WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.  

1. What are you currently reading? The Reagans: Portrait of a Marriage by Anne Edwards. I recently watched, and enjoyed, a Ronald Reagan movie on TCM and it occurred to me I know very little about the man. Oh, I know about his Presidency and I admit his worldview left me cold. Today I'm curious about Ronald Reagan, the person, not the politician.

So I picked up this book by Anne Edwards. Ms. Edwards writes highly readable biographies. This is another. It's moving along at a brisk pace and yes, so far I'm getting an idea of the man behind The Reagan Revolution. I admit I like the old boy. An interesting combination of spiritual, optimistic and remote. That ability to withdraw, to keep a part of himself to himself, seems to be the coping mechanism of a preternaturally upbeat man who grew up loving his disappointing alcoholic father. 

Nancy is even more complicated. She loved her husband sincerely and put him first. Ahead of all else, all the time. This made her a deficient mother, stepmother and employer. The book attempts to explain this by sharing Nancy's childhood -- her father abandoned the family, so her mother left two-year-old Nancy with grandma when she traveled with a theater group and just swooped in and out of the girl's life for years, then Nancy's adored stepfather was reluctant to adopt her and give her his name. This left Nancy insecure, and caused her to cling to "Ronnie" desperately. OK, that's an explanation but not an excuse for how she treated her household. You would think that a woman who longed for her own stepfather's love and approval would have been more sensitive to Reagan's children by his first marriage. I guess this is a real-life example of how toxic family cycles come to be.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Someone We Know by Shari Lapena.  Plot synopsis from 40,000 feet: Raleigh is a typical teenager with a penchant for computers and a bad habit: he breaks into neighbor's homes, and their laptops. Not to steal! Just for kicks and to make a little mischief. When one of the neighbors is murdered, the fun goes out of Raleigh's "game." The community has to face that fact that "someone we know killed someone we know."

 

This is really about much more than that. What's really going on? With your neighbors ... in your marriage ... with your kid ... Does anyone truly know anyone else and what they're capable of?

 

This paranoid little yarn has many twists and turns, but I was able to follow each one and never felt deceived. The plotting is that good. Shari Lapena has a new fan.

3. What will read next? I don't know.