I'm just finishing Underground Airlines, which I listened to, and it is so good I am sorry to be on the last 17 minutes, in which surprises are still crackling. The premise of this book is that it is the U.S., but an alternate one, in which the Constitution was amended in 1860 to permanently enshrine slavery and the fugitive slave law. Our narrator, who is African American, is undercover hunting an escaped slave. Don't miss this book, which very uncomfortably demonstrates how far the real U.S. still has to go.

The Sellout, by Paul Beaty. A comic novel about a Black man who is accused of violating the 13th amendment because: he owns a slave.

The Girls, by Emma Cline. It's about a 14-year-old girl who gets involved in a Manson-style cult in the late 1960s.

I've read a lot about the Manson family, and Emma Cline clearly has too - there are many similarities in what happened in reality and what happens in the story. This is particularly so in relation to Manson's failed musical career, and his manipulation of the girls.

I found it to be a well-written book, both from the perspective of the protagonist as a child and as the older narrator, looking back on what happened.

"Why Presidents Fail" - book on how failing to grasp and properly utilize the federal government will doom a President to failure. Case studies from both parties.

In keeping with my silent film obsession, I'm reading a biography of Buster Keaton. Amazing guy.

Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Refugees. A collection of short stories that would be worth the price for the first story alone.

Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series. A very good book and especially good if you have ever been involved in the Canadian stage scene. If you like Atwood's dry dark humor you will like this. If you don't get her humor you might not like it.

She rapped from the book when I saw her last fall.