I wish I had more hours to read.

I am behind on my fiction reading (50 years behind); my business book reading; my general nonfiction reading.  I’m just behind!

But here are two books on my reading list.  I just bought Tomatoland:  How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Eastabrook for my Kindle app (it was “on sale” {I guess} for $2.69), and I have downloaded the free sample pages for Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick.

Tomatoland is all about how tomatoes are grown; how they have lost their “tomato” taste;  and, how big agribusiness conducts it business.  I’ve read just enough to be fascinated…

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth and Hazel are about the two famous people in that very memorable photograph taken at Little Rock Central High School on September 4, 1957.  Here’s the picture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Margolick found them both, and told the story of their encounter, and the ways their lives took shape in the years that followed. You can read about the book (including an adaptations/excerpts, both by the author of the book) in this article from Vanity Fair

Through a Lens, Darkly:  During the historic 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, 26-year-old journalist Will Counts took a photograph that gave an iconic face to the passions at the center of the civil-rights movement—two faces, actually: those of 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford on her first day of school, and her most recognizable tormentor, Hazel Bryan. The story of how these two women struggled to reconcile and move on from the event is a remarkable journey through the last half-century of race relations in America.

 

 

And in Slate.com,

The Many Lives of Hazel Bryan:  In the most famous photo of the Civil Rights era, she was the face of white bigotry. You’ll never believe what she did with the rest of her life.

I suspect that I will present a synopsis of Elizabeth and Hazel next year at the Urban Engagement Book Club.

These are just two books on my ever-so-large “I wish I had time to read these now” list of books.