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. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Lincoln's Last Trial by Dan Abrams. I was going to read this during covid lockdown. While I went through 47 books in 2021, this was not among them. I'm not sure why, but now Dan and Abe get their moment with me.

 

Dan Abrams does this: he chooses long-past trials with well-known lawyers or litigants and weaves them into easy-to-follow tales, relying as much on court transcripts as the recollections of participants. Since these books focus more on the trials than the crimes themselves, we're left to decide whether justice was done.

 

This time Mr. Lincoln takes center stage. He was well on his way to becoming a national figure when he chose to defend a Springfield boy named Peachy Quinn, accused of killing Greek Crafton, another Springfield native. Both were known to Lincoln and, in fact, to most folks in town. Springfield was divided. Either Peachy was unjustly accused of murder when he was just defending himself against a much larger man, or Greek had been viciously slashed by a man who could easily have just walked away but instead brandished a weapon.

 

Yeah, I know how this ends. What I'm enjoying is the journey this book is taking me on. I've been to Springfield many times and have visited the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office. I've walked where Abe walked, from his office to the courthouse, or home, or to the Globe Tavern.

 

Abrams and his co-author Fisher are showing me Abe as he ends one chapter of his life and gets ready to embark on another. It's emotionally resonant because as I go through this story I know something Abe doesn't – he is about to leave Springfield and the law forever and he has only 7 years to live. I'm looking at a man on the brink of immortality, and I'm fascinated by how his mind works.

 

2. What did you recently finish reading?  In Pieces by Sally Field. This book was not at all what I expected. Not at all! (Even though Country Dew tried to warn me.) Yes, she covers off on her major roles and I enjoyed those parts. Her romance with Burt Reynolds gets a lot of space, too. But mostly this book is about her family – the one she was born into and the one she created. She's an actor, a dedicated one and her craft/passion saved her life, but she's also a daughter, a sister, a mother and a granddaughter.

 

There is little joy in this book because Sally Field had a far more complicated life than I realized. It's not an easy read. But it's well written and authentic and it touched me. Sally's relationship with her mother reminded me so much of my mom and me that it was disturbing.

 

I recommend this book because it had an impact on me. But be warned.

3. What will you read next? Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden. It's time for some chills and thrills.

 

  

 

 

 

Let go, let Bertha

I'm happy that my oldest friend is finally back in therapy. She telehealthes with Bertha weekly. Bertha is a license clinical social worker, and that makes me even happier because it means she doesn't have a prescription pad. My friend believes, I feel, too strongly in living better through chemistry.

At first I saw real progress in her attitude and approach to the challenges in her life. She actually admitted that when she left Chicagoland, it was really not because (as she repeatedly complained) it snows and it's flat and it gets dark too early. No, it was because she was disappointed in love (again) and depressed and, instead of looking within, she ran away. Way to go, Bertha! Now if only she could apply that sound logic to her repeated desire to move back here. The problem is not her location, obviously, it's the way she approaches her life.

Saturday night we (my friend and I, not Bertha and I) talked for a couple hours. I was less positive than I'd been. My friend isn't feeling well and she still hasn't ironed out her healthcare because it's too hard to deal with the bureaucracy. Since she can't afford insulin she's taking someone else's and guessing at the dosage. She started to talk about her on-again-off-again relationship with her landlord, but stopped herself, saying, "You'll just yell at me again." I asked her if she was still consulting Bertha regularly and she gave me an enthusiastic yes.

I was relieved. Bertha is licensed. She has 20 years experience. Therapy is a process, not an event, and both my friend and Bertha understand this.

I've known my friend since Kindergarten. Her life began to go off the rails 15 years old and I'm tired. Exhausted with trying to keep up with the mood swings and the self-destruction. But I don't have to anymore.

We have Bertha, and I'm so very grateful.

Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash