What I'm Reading 

Just started reading this book, which I got for my birthday last year. I am Cuban-American , so looking forward to learning more about my birth country. So far, loving the author's narrative style.

Written by a Russian journalist in exile, this book is super informative and readable. It covers a long historic timeframe, so retention is challenging, because I don't have prior knowledge to assimilate all its content. (And it doesn't help that all Russian names seem so similar.) I finished it last year (2024) but keep coming back to it these days, to get context on current news about this region. And I got a kick learning that some ancient Russian historian convinced his readers way back when that  Russian people are direct descendants of Adam, the Bible's Adam. Maybe Putin still believes that.

This book not only tells the heroic saga of Oswaldo Paya and his attempt to force the Cuban regime, legally, to carry out elections, but also gives a historical account of Cuba's early attempts at democracy, up to the Castro dictatorship. This is a fabulous book for anyone who wants to know more about Cuba and its sad political history. It should be translated to Spanish.

Just finished this novel, all 397 pages. My nieces and daughter raved about it, and it was a NYT bestseller. I found its characters compelling, and enjoyed learning about gaming culture and industry.  But it could have been at least 100 pages shorter.

I finished this novel about two years ago, and I'm still raving about it to anyone who will listen. I had never read historical fiction, and this book couldn't have been a better introduction. It immersed me in the lives and times of colonial United States history and its Founding Fathers, as told by Eliza Schuyler, who was Alexander Hamilton's wife, his political partner, mother of his eight children, and a patriot and activist in her own right.  What can I say? If you want to know what really went down, ask a woman who was there. She sure was, and the authors deliver her voice masterfully.