Ah, I’ve been tagged for the 161 meme by Lori of Smokey Mountain Family History.
To play, open the book you are currently reading, and turn to page 161. Type the sixth sentence from the top of the page.
I’m currently reading Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven by Susan Richards Shreve. It is a memoir of Miss. Richards’ time spent in Warm Springs, Georgia, undergoing treatments for her polio in 1952. In the paragraph before the optimistic thought which follows, she is about to have another surgery to add muscles to her afflicted leg. In the Girl’s Ward the beds are situated with the latest entry into the ward at one end facing the next for surgery on the opposite side, across from her. As one goes into surgery the beds are moved down and around until they face their turn at the end of the rectangle room, hence, “Tomorrow could always be a social improvement on today.” p161
Other passages from the book I have enjoyed…
“I liked the idea of God, not an angry God or even a benevolent one, but a God like the wind, with sufficient force to lift a small girl into the air until she was weightless.” p60
“A reason, maybe the real reason, I never made an effort to be in touch with these people, who were so central to me for an important period of my growing up, is part of the reason I wanted to write this book in the first place. Not so much to discover anyone I’d lost, but to understand why I had wanted to lose them.” p64
Speaking of her parents, “I knew above all that I wanted their admiration, and that seemed difficult to earn as a sick child with a reputation for causing trouble.” p66
7 comments:
I like her observations, some on the sly side.
Page 161 is about 50 pages ahead of where I am in "The Winter Queen" by Boris Akunin, a detective story set in late 19th century Moscow. Fandorin in a young police clerk who begins investigating the mysterious suicide of a wealthy young man - who kills himself playing "American Roulette":
"Oh, I think, Fandorin's shot her, the hothead."
Maggie,
Thanks for the Warm Springs by Shreve recommendation. It is funny how well that ties in with Splendid Solution by Kluger. I have the book and I hope to get to it in a few days.
Rick
I really enjoyed this book, WW100! My second grade teacher had polio and I've been curious as to how she contracted and dealt with the disease. This book gave me a front seat pass. :)
Okay,Diane, what is American Roulette?!? Love the passage and thanks for playing. :)
Oh, I do hope you enjoy it, Rick! I think about you often as you obviously are reading and writing for the bio genre book. I do wish I could do it, but I just don't think I can get that much reading into my days. I did coauthor an article which will appear in the next Mississippi Libraries! Pretty exciting stuff! :D
thqt book sounds good--The 6th sentence on page 161 in Sailing the Inland Sea (A book about writing, literature and Land--the midwest): The sun was still good for an hour of supreme splendour and across the shining folds of country the low profile of the city barely fretted the skyline--indistinctexpect for the dome of St. Peters, bluish grey like the flattere top of the great ballown, just a flash of copper light on the soft metallic surface. She was quoting a passage from Willa Cather
I love it Sage! I was about to say that sounded more like fiction than nonfiction writing and then you throw out the Cather. Thanks for playing. :)
maggie - that is what the Russians in the book called "russian roulette"!
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