Catching Up: October Events

My head has become sort of tricky for short-term memory, but here are a few things that have happened this month:
Jed and I explored Tannehill State Park and iron works on Wednesday (Oct. 18, I think). My favorite was the mill. But the whole thing was fascinating. The mill's dam and stream were beautiful. Jed took a bunch of great photos and put them on my Facebook site. I transferred them to my pictures album, but had to save them as documents and can't get them to go anywhere else.






On Saturday (10/28) we went to the ASPS meeting at the Pell City library, and were glad to see old friends and make new acquaintances. I won a third place prize in one of the contests.
On Thursday of this week, the Leeds Arts Council will host Jim and Liz Reed's Birmingham Arts Journal staff.
Of course I've enjoyed at least two grass-mowing days and two house-cleaning days this month, one furnace/AC inspection, two or three grocery deliveries, and I don't know what-all. It has been a busy month. ---  Every time I hit the enter key for a new paragraph, something crazy happens. I have tried to correct it but can't.

Hero of the Empire, by Candice Millard*****

This is a very good book about part of Winston S. Churchill's life, the part during the Boer War. I had never quite understood about the Boers. Very tough hombres. They were originally Europeans who had settled in South Africa. There were actually two Boer Wars; Winston was a newspaper correspondent in the second one (1899-1902).One of the best books I've read about him.

America's First Daughter****

This is a well-written but disturbing book, especially for someone with a great-grandmother who was a Randolph. I read it during October, but don't remember the date. It's  sort of biographical fiction.

The Headmaster's Darlings

Sister Ramey brought me this book last night, and I sat down and read it because book club meets tomorrow. I was sure I wouldn't like it, but it was reviewed,  blurbed and foreworded by Pat Conroy, and I wanted to see why. Once started, I had to finish it. It wasn't at all bad, except for semantic and grammatical lapses. "He thrust his hands on the arms of his chair," et al. However, it was the author's first novel,  published in 2015, and reviews say that she has written three more since, with the same setting, and published by the same South Carolina firm of which Pat Conroy is editor. Maybe, in the brief intervals, she learned that the objective case of who is whom, and a few other details.

I hate to be snarky and sarcastic. But in my opinion, this is a semi-good book. I'm probably influenced by my attitude towards the city of its setting. Too good to be a part of my birth city, Birmingham, Alabama.