[Magdalen] What are we reading?

[Charles Wohlers]

Just finished reading "Hillbilly Elegy" by JD Vance, which has been on the 
bestseller list for a long time now. It was $5 on Kindle, and, since my 
mother's family were also "hillbillies", I got it. It was pretty good, and 
describes the plight of those who voted for Trump quite well. However, his 
description of his family from Kentucky sounded nothing like my mother's 
family from West Virginia. Possibly because Vance's family was Scots-Irish 
and my mother's was Welsh/German/English - everything but Scots-Irish. OTOH, 
there is a story of the brother of one of my ancestors chasing an Indian 
who'd been harassing his family and scalping him - and a friend made him a 
pouch out of it. All of which sounds like Vance's family, but that incident 
was over 200 years ago. So its get mixed reviews from me.

I'm following that with another Elizabeth George mystery - much lighter 
reading.
Also have "Out on a Limb" by Ben Kilham, who gave a talk here in Woodbury a 
couple of weeks ago. It's all about the social life of black bears and, if 
it's anything like his talk, it should be fascinating.
And there are still more - not to mention too much to do in the garden, 
hiking, etc., this summer.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com