Bookshelf Newness: Dodsworth, Radio Girls, Nikki Giovanni

New additions (and book smells) to the family...

Dodsworth, by Sinclair Lewis

File under: seen the film, never read the book.

Prior to purchasing Dodsworth, I re-watched the film starring Walter Huston, Mary Astor, and Ruth Chatterton on FilmStruck (aka one of the best streaming channels ever), and it felt more 'now' for me than it did years ago. Possibly due to how Sam Dodsworth's retirement mirrors my father's recent induction in the club of leisure, well, minus the fact that my father isn't an uber-rich auto mogul, he is widowed instead of dealing with a conceited wife, and he's much more content catching up on his reading instead of traipsing around the world on an ocean liner. Still, the emotional impact of a drastic life change that is more than meets the smiling happy faces on the retirement brochures is on par. Lewis, known for his more satirical works, seems to arrow straight to the human condition on Dodsworth, choosing to refrain from taking jabs at middle-age grumps like Babbit, and Bible thumping charlatans like Elmer Gantry, and taking a tender realist focus on a couple in flux --- or so the movie tells me...

Most of Lewis' works I tend to not get past a few chapters (Main Street, Elmer Gantry, Babbitt) or even a few pages (It Can't Happen Here), so here's hoping that Dodsworth will be the one to break the cycle.

Radio Girls, by Sarah Jane Stratford

I'm a sucker for historical fiction that focuses on a "girl squad" ---- think Call The Midwife, Bomb Girls, The Bletchley Circle, hell even add GLOW to the list --- thus the simplistic title was a draw. Also it being based in the 1920s (just look at that art deco cover) and being about the early days of British radio through the eyes of one American expat in England, bought and sold me. The reviews for this are positive, so this has a great chance of charming me.

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (1968 - 1998), by Nikki Giovanni

For the longest Nikki Giovanni was a just literary shout out in Teena Marie's 1981 classic "Square Biz". I knew she was a premier poet, knew of her being involved in the civil rights fight, and knew about how she challenged Bill Cosby and his grossly elitist "Poundcake" speech with the greatest of linguistic ease, but since poetry wasn't my bag I never read a word Ms. Giovanni put to paper.

Sacrilege, I know.

Flash forward to last year where I decided once and for all that I needed to give poetry a second chance and allow it to become a part of my regular reading life. 1978's Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day was my first foray into Giovanni's work, and I'm not looking back. I obtained Giovanni's 2003 collection in Kindle form, but realized that reading poetry on the Kindle feels almost...impersonal. You can't write notes in the margins, highlighting it kind of a pain, and sometimes the formatting of an e-book kills the flow of the prose --- and the rhythm of a poem is its most essential element. When I saw this nice hardback lying in a clearance section (score!) at the Half Price Books I love to frequent I couldn't resist grabbing it, knowing that I can write and highlight to heart's content, and digest Giovanni's words in the manner that they should be.