Books and Travel

On Wednesday, Gerlinde, Bonnie and I had lunch together at Silo's on Austin Highway.  Few things are more invigorating than spending a couple of hours talking travel and books with two kindred spirit friends who love both....

On Travel:

Gerlinde and her husband Tim have taken several Road Scholar trips all over the world.  I always perk up when she shows me pictures or tells stories of her travels, but until yesterday, I thought I wasn't a cruise person.  These trips, however, are not your usual cruises.  The more I heard, the more I thought: this is something I have to do this year!  

For one thing, they are more educational than entertaining kinds of trips.  I'm just beginning to research Road Scholar online--will write more about these tours as I learn more.

On Books: 

Gerlinde recommended a book I've long been meaning to read: The Warmth of Other Suns.  Bonnie suggested Just Mercy.  When I popped on Amazon this morning, they happened to be right next to each other, one of those synchroniticies that made me order both.  (I'd planned to go get them from the library today, but it's pouring rain this morning--and besides, these are the kinds of books I'll want to write in and share with friends afterwards.)

The Warmth of Other Suns by Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Isabel Wilkerson, "chronicles the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life."

About Just Mercy, A Story of Justice and Redemption, the prize-winning book by Bryan Stevenson,
Amazon says: "A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time."

"Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever."