Reading Update

The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines is an autobiographical narrative of the couple’s story: a little bit about their childhood, meeting and marriage, and early business life. They’re certainly a high energy pair gifted in entrepreneurship. This was a quick read that reinforced the sense of authenticity the couple project in their television show.

Capital Gaines (Chip Gaines) is an audiobook I got for my husband and listened to myself as well. It goes into more detail about the businesses the couple created, the story of the television show, and some of Gaines’s personal philosophy. He’s a likable guy, though I find him a tad egotistical. The best parts were about, as the subtitle says, the “smart things he learned doing stupid stuff.”

A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Mchael Allen has taken me awhile to work through with the assistance of the Audible version. Originally I intended it to be a right-leaning counterpart to A People’s History of the United States (Howard Zinn), but the two books are not really comparable. They are both interpretations of U.S. history, but where Zinn’s book makes no effort at being either objective or comprehensive, this one is quite a bit more detailed. For that reason I found it to be by far the better book, and by providing a more complete picture it casts many of Zinn’s conclusions into doubt.

The summer is busier than I like, and I struggle to maintain focus in my reading life. Emily Wilson’s Odyssey fell by the wayside. In the background are C.S. Lewis’s collection of excerpts from George MacDonald; Elizabeth Goudge’s Gentian Hill; Anthony Trollope’s The American Senator; Arthur Conan Doyle’s The White Company. I pick these up and read in them by turns, not making much progress. One of these days I’ll stumble across “the” book — the absorbing, transforming story I need!