Weekly Wrap-Up: May 30, 2026

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hi, my name is Pat and this is my channel Book Chat with Pat and I'm glad that you're here. Today I'm going to be doing my weekly wrap-up for the week ending Saturday, May 30th. I've been wrapping up a bunch of my May reading events this week. I finished three books and I'm continuing to read another which will go into into June and I just thought I would talk about those things today and then a few things that will be starting up on June 1st.

[00:00:33]First of all, our Pig in Whistle Clifford D. Simak reading group is going to be meeting today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Scott Danielson's channel where we're going to be talking about our May read which is They Walked Like Men.

[00:00:57]We've been continuing this group since we lost Sean D. Steadfast in in the winter. We're continuing to read a Clifford D. Simak novel each month in in Sean's memory and Scott Danielson is graciously leading our group and we have a live stream each month to talk about what we've read that month over on Scott's channel. So, later today we'll be talking about They Walked Like Men and I'll um I'll also put a link to the live stream you know, after after we finish you know, I'll put the recording of it up so that you can you can catch that if if you're interested and not able to make it to to the live.

[00:01:53]>> [snorts] >> This is a novel about shape-shifting aliens who come to Earth and begin buying up all of the real estate on Earth that they can, including homes, stores, businesses, and they they tear them down and they leave human beings basically with with no place to go. Our hero is a reporter, Parker Graves.

[00:02:21]Clifford D. Simak was a newspaper reporter as well. Parker Graves is assisted by another reporter named Joy, who also becomes his his his love interest. So, more about this in our discussion >> [clears throat] >> a little bit later today. Next up for the Simak group for the month of June is Why Call Them Back from Heaven?

[00:02:52]So, you'll be hearing about this as as we get that started in in the month of of June.

[00:03:00]Additionally, I finished this week my reread of John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany.

[00:03:12]We have a discussion group that's been talking about this on Voxer, and we will continue to discuss this into the first week of of June.

[00:03:28]As I've said on several occasions, this is my favorite John Irving novel.

[00:03:36]This novel is narrated by John Wheelwright in two different time frames.

[00:03:45]The present tense of the novel is 1987, uh, where John is an expatriate. He's living in Canada, uh, and and he makes commentary on his [snorts] past, but also on the present of the United States, including the Iran-Contra affair and Ronald Reagan's presidency.

[00:04:16]Um, the [clears throat] past narrative of the novel takes place during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. And and this deals with John Wheelwright's growing up in New Hampshire and his relationship with his best friend, Owen Meany. And we go through their growing up together, uh, through the '50s and '60s, um, and right into the Vietnam War in in the 1970s.

[00:04:53]This was John Irving's seventh novel.

[00:04:57]Uh, I think he was at the absolute peak of his career when when he wrote this one, um, and and it has just been an absolute delight for me to revisit this book, which I actually have read several times because I used to teach it as well. Um, it's just been a delight to revisit this one, uh, this this past month. Um, I also finished this week the fifth book in our Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish cycle, uh, reading.

[00:05:34]Um, and that is, uh, that was organized by Gareth at Books, Songs, and Other Magic. And we've been talking about all of the books in the Hainish cycle, um, in a boxer chat that Gareth has has organized.

[00:05:52]This month we read the word for world is forest which I read primarily in this edition.

[00:06:03]This is volume two of the Library of America box set of Le Guin's Hainish novels and stories.

[00:06:18]Many of my fellow Le Guin readers have said that that this one the word for world is forest which is really a novella. Many have said that this was actually their introduction to Ursula K.

[00:06:35]Le Guin when they were teens but this was my first time reading it.

[00:06:43]Le Guin originally wrote this novella in 1968 and the events that were going on in 1968 in the United States and with the Vietnam war are were definitely influenced her her writing of of this this novella. She adamantly opposed the US involvement in in the Vietnam war. The novella was first published in 1972 though written in 1968. It was published in 1972 in Harlan Ellison's anthology again dangerous visions and then it was eventually reissued as a standalone novel in 1976.

[00:07:40]Le Guin said of this book, "I never wrote a story more easily, fluently, surely, and with less pleasure."

[00:07:53]That also kind of describes my reading experience of this one. I sometimes feel quite lost in in LeGuin's novels. I don't get my bearings right away, and it takes me a while to figure out where we are and and who the main characters are and, you know, what this world is is all about. That was not the case for me in this one in uh The Word for World is is Forest. Um I found the narrative to be incredibly fluent and direct. Um I uh I I found its messages, its themes to be very clear and and in fact the anti-colonial message was unmistakable and and and just crystal clear. We clearly see the exploitation and the ecological destruction um of of the natives and and their planet by the invading humans uh who have come from from Earth. We also clearly witness the militaristic violence of the humans against um an innately nonviolent native population.

[00:09:26]Um >> [snorts] >> and and what happens to them as as a result of their exposure to uh the violent and destructive uh humans. Some have criticized this novella, uh for being a little too in your face, a little too preachy.

[00:09:47]Um I I didn't find it to be that way. I found it to be really, really thought-provoking, um and still kind of hauntingly relevant, uh for for our times, uh today. And I'm really looking forward to hearing what the rest of our group, uh thought about this. We have a live stream every month, as well, where we talk about the book that we've read that month. This one hasn't been scheduled yet, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about that soon, and I will certainly keep you posted, um here, as as well.

[00:10:29]Um and then our next reading for the Le Guin group, in of of the Hainish Cycle, is The Dispossessed. I don't have an individual copy of this. I may end up having to get one, but right now I have it in, um the Library of America. Uh it's in the volume one of of the box set.

[00:10:53]Um I've also just made a dent. I've just started reading my real life, uh in-person book group's reading for this month, and that is Susan Choi's Flashlight. We are reading this, um we'll be meeting in the middle of June to talk about this. So, I've I've just started this one, um uh this this week. Um >> [clears throat] >> This is currently, this was a finalist for the Booker, uh Prize last year. It is currently a finalist for the Women's Prize.

[00:11:37]Um this is the story of a multi-generational um mixed family of a Korean-American family. Uh the novel opens with the Korean father and his 10-year-old daughter uh walking on the shore at at dusk. Uh and when they don't return home, uh people go out looking for them and the daughter, Louise, is found alive um on on the shore, but the father is not found. Now, at the beginning of the novel, we presume that he, man who couldn't swim, that he has drowned, uh but we don't know that for for a a fact.

[00:12:30]Uh and then we find out about several generations of of this family um leading up to to this this moment. So, more about this one to come in the future.

[00:12:45]Certainly, I'll review the novel after my uh after I've finished it and after my group has had a chance to uh meet to to talk about it. Um I have a lot coming up in June. I did a video earlier this week on some of the possibilities for June. I'm just going to to talk uh a little bit about a few things that are coming up right away.

[00:13:12]First of all, um Angelia at Read and Reread and Debs at Rainer Reads Stuff and I will be having our sixth episode of our Women of Words live stream discussion.

[00:13:30]>> [clears throat] >> Excuse me.

[00:13:31]Um we're meeting on Tuesday, June 2nd, uh at 1:00 p.m.

[00:13:39]uh Central Standard Time, 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 7:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. Our topic for this sixth episode is summer reading. And among other things, we will be talking about some of the summer events that we're participating in, including Joy Reading June, Big Books of Summer, June on the Range, and Pride Month. Um [snorts] we're meeting here on my channel this this time.

[00:14:17]Uh I hope that you can join us, but if you're not able to join us for the live, the recording of course will be posted immediately following. And and if you are able to join us, please bring some of your summer reading picks for the chat um as as well.

[00:14:37]Um I have many things that I'm going to be participating in in June, many things that I'm going to be reading. I'm just going to mention right now uh two things that are coming up right away, that are starting on on June 1st. The first is Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

[00:15:01]I'm going to be reading this in a small group, and we have a small group Voxer chat. Um I'm reading this with Roz at Skelly Dangling About the Books, Hannah at Hannah's Books, and Angelia at Read and Reread. Um this one is going to count for June on the range and it's also going to count for big books of summer.

[00:15:30]Additionally, starting on June 1st, I will be reading with Lecten from Reading from the Depths and Alan from Alan's Reads.

[00:15:43]Uh, we will be starting Stephen King's The Shining.

[00:15:50]Now, this is a reread for Lecten and for Alan. It's a first-time read for me.

[00:16:00]Though, I did see the film when it first came out, um, a lifetime ago. So, first-time read for me. I'm getting a little braver in in my my uh, my my horror reading. Um, wish me luck.

[00:16:17]Uh, so I will have more to say about all of these things and a few other things as well. Let me know in the comments if you're reading any of the things that I'm reading. Are you participating in any of these events? Or what are you participating in and what are you going to be reading? You know that I always love to hear from you.

[00:16:37]Um, so, you know, if you want to leave me a message in the comments, I I um, I I'd love to know what your June is going to uh, going to hold.

[00:16:47]So, anyway, that's it for now. Um, as always, I thank you for watching. I hope that you're doing well. I'll speak with you again soon. Take care.