Month: August 2026

The Last Picture Show: a classic from McMurtry

The Last Picture Show

By Larry McMurtry

Published 1966

Read May 2026

Having been enchanted by McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and knowing that The Last Picture Show had been developed into a 1971 films capturing 8 Academy Award nominations, two of which were awarded, it felt quite appropriate to this reader to read The Last Picture Show, McMurtry’s third novel written nearly twenty years before Lonesome Dove.

McMurtry set this story in the fictional dying small town, Thalia, Texas.   The thirty-year old author could speak with knowledge about such a town as he grew up in “nearby” Archer, Texas.  The story revolves around Sonny and Duane, seniors in high school and former football team mates on the wholly unsuccessful high school team which has just finished its season.  They have been sharing a room at a local rooming house and a pickup working various jobs to maintain their meager lifestyle.  They spend much of their time at the local pool hall/cafe and movie theater, both owned by Sam the Lion.  Duane dates Jacy Farow, daughter of Gene Farow a wealthy oilman and Lois Farow who drinks and apparently likes other men.  Early in the book Sonny breaks up with his long-term girlfriend as he has no real interest in her and vice versa.  

As the story progresses, Sonny’s life becomes complicated when he starts an affair with Ruth Popper, the lonely wife of the lazy basketball coach.     Coach Popper seems to have little interest in Ruth, who is likely being treated for breast cancer, and has Sonny take Ruth to her doctor’s appointments.   Duane has his own issues as he is determined to marry Jacy, although he knows her parents will not support the marriage, and Jacy has a variety of things on her mind as she seeks a path of growing up fast and defying her parents while wishing to remain in her (higher) societal class.  We follow the boys through these complications while getting a glimpse of the back story of various characters.  The book moves along rapidly but is never hurried.  The ending is appropriately unresolved as the various young characters have much living yet to do. 

This reader viewed the movie adaptation.  In contrast to most movie adaptations of novels, this reader highly recommends this one.  She was impressed by its trueness to the novel with respect to story and ambiance.  The setting and its scenery were much as this reader pictured it while reading the novel.  But the clincher is that the film is superb in depicting the angst the various characters are feeling as they wrestle their way in young adulthood.  There is nothing simple about the novel’s characters and this complexity is part of the fabric of the film.  McMurtry co-wrote the screen play with 31-year-old Peter Bogdanovich, who directed the film and was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award for the film.  The screenplay was also nominated for an Academy Award.   The actors portraying Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson) and Ruth (Cloris Leachman) won Academy Awards.   

As this book was published over fifty years ago, is still readily available for sale new and widely available used,  as well as in libraries, this reader classifies this as a Classic.  This reader gives a strong thumbs up to reading this well written book that provides a realistic glimpse into the small Texas town life after WWII and at the beginning of the Korean police action.   The movie is also recommended as a worthwhile watch. 

Breaking Through: My Life in Science: she is why we had Covid-19 vaccines

Breaking Through:  My Life in Science

By Katalin Kariko

Published 2023

Read Feb 2026

Katalin Kariko won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 with her collaborator Drew Weissman for their work on mRNA which was fundamental in enabling the COVID-19 vaccines and other human uses of mRNA technology.

This book was published prior to this recognition but after the COVID-19 vaccines had been produced and enabled stemming the human destruction caused the virus causing this disease. 

Kariko is a Hungarian scientist who overcame incredible challenges throughout her career.    She was born in 1955 to a butcher father and bookkeeper mother during a difficult period in Hungary.  She grew up in a home without running water but that always had some food due to her father’s decision to be a butcher.  Her laser focus on following her passion to learn enabled her to win scholarships to university, graduate school and a post-doctoral fellowship, all in Hungary. 

She came to the US with her husband and daughter in 1985 to accept a post-doctoral appointment at Temple University where new challenges faced her.   Her post-doctoral advisor decided she was too valuable to lose so told her he would have her deported if she left his lab.  She eventually was able to leave his laboratory and found her way to the University of Pennsylvania where she spent the rest of her academic career focused on mRNA for use in gene therapy and vaccines.  Unfortunately, the scientific community lost interest in mRNA, doubting its potential, and she was unable to gain the funding necessary to preserve her position.   In the meantime, her work with Drew Weissman solved the technological obstacles blocking the use of mRNA in therapy and vaccines and was patented, with UPenn owning the rights (a usual approach in academics and industry—the scientists’ names are on the patent, but their employer owns the rights).   She eventually took a position with BioTech RNA Pharmaceuticals which became Pfizer’s partner in designing and producing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. 

This is a very short synopsis of her career and some of the human obstacles that faced her.  Her scientific approach and results were not the issue; funding challenges and the politics of academic science were the issue.  As a female scientist with a PhD and some experience in the academic world, this reader found the descriptions of her challenges fully believable but surprisingly told with little rancor. 

I fully recommend reading this book to get her full story and to hear how she describes these human driven challenges.  She also includes exquisite and readily understood descriptions of the technological obstacles of using mRNA for vaccines and therapuetics and how they were overcome.  She also tells the exciting story of the creation and success of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. 

Since the audiobook was read by a Hungarian actress, this reader felt she was hearing the words delivered by the author herself which further enhanced this reader’s experience. 

The Magician’s Assistant: don’t miss this one

The Magician’s Assistant

By Ann Patchett

Published 1997           

Read March 2026      

This reader took much time to finally get around to reading this Patchett novel despite enjoying every Patchett book she previously read.  The title suggested the book would involve the business of magicians, which it did, but it’s not clear why that would be a bother.

Fortunately, this reader did finally read this book and was delighted to find that this novel, like other Patchett novels, had an engaging storyline, interesting characters, and universal themes, despite involving a magician. 

Sabine was the long-term assistant of a successful magician who has recently died.  She had also recently become his wife, although there is no need to think that she was involved in the death as a result.  Rather she had been in love with the magician for most of her adult life while she was his assistant despite knowing that kind of love wouldn’t be returned.  The magician married her to enable her financial security upon his death.  Enough background there—read the book to understand the relationship.

The book follows Sabine as she grieves his death.  His will includes bequeaths to his mother and two sisters, whom he had previously told Sabine were dead.  She agrees to a visit from these Nebraska residents to her in California where she and magician have lived throughout their career together. 

Much of the story centers on the developing relationship between Sabine and these family members as they each explore their desire to know the magician better as a large chunk of his life (before CA/post Iowa for Sabine and vice versa for his family).  It includes Sabine’s discussions with her dead husband’s lover’s ghost which are also undertaken to enable Sabine to know her husband better.  Sabine’s choices during the story are sometimes surprising to this reader but quite believable, as are the discussions with the ghost, leading the reader on a course not originally expected. 

So Patchett has found an intriguing story setting to explore grief, family relationships, and what it means to love. And this reader heartily recommends you read this book too.       

Saint Maybe: another Tyler winner

Saint Maybe

By Anne Tyler

Published 1991

Read June 2026

This reader adores Anne Tyler.  Anytime this reader needs a reliably durable book about universal themes, she seeks out an Anne Tyler book.  This one, as has been the case for several other Anne Tyler books, was found by this reader in a Little Library.  

Ian Bedloe is the youngest child of three, coming along as a surprise bonus baby.  The Bedloe family has enjoyed years of stability and has created traditions for various holidays that root them but don’t seem to strangle them.  Things begin changing when Ian’s older brother, Danny, brings home a woman, Lucy, and announces he will be marrying.  She isn’t from the area and seems a little older than Danny.  A couple of troubling aspects for the family are the very short time between meeting and marrying (mere weeks) and the presence of two children from a previous marriage, but the marriage moves forward.  Ian is pressed into babysitting the children which he usually enjoys but he begins to wonder what Lucy does while he is babysitting and he begins to think she is having an affair.  He also figures out that Lucy was pregnant when she married his brother as the calendar doesn’t work out that Danny could possibly be the father.  One fateful night Ian’s mother promises Lucy that Ian will babysit despite Ian’s plans otherwise.  Lucy doesn’t come home at the promised time and when Danny arrives home, Ian spits out his concerns about Lucy in anger. Danny proceeds to commit suicide.  Shortly thereafter Lucy dies of a sleeping pill overdose.  Ian’s parents take care of the children while they try to contact the father of the two (known) non-blood children.  Ian receives some spiritual guidance from the pastor of a small local church, with which he becomes a member, and he quits college to help his ailing parents and take care of the children.  The birth father is never found.  Ian becomes a loving father, his apprenticeship with a carpenter enables him to provide for the family, and he abandons his desire for a different life.  The book continues with what happens as the children grow up and launch, or not, into lives beyond the family nest.   

So the book adeptly considers the questions of moral responsibility, family obligation, self-sacrifice, dreams deferred, and more.  The characters are well developed and believable.  We understand Lucy’s actions but aren’t asked to condone them.  We understand Ian’s action but aren’t asked to condemn him for Danny’s death nor congratulate him for the actions he takes later.  Tyler just lays out the paths the various members of this family take and leaves to the reader to make any judgements.  This approach actually challenges the reader to be careful about making any judgement as some paths that one takes are sometimes driven by actions outside of ourselves. 

Kudos as usual to Anne Tyler for telling a complicated story in a simple but powerful way.  Once again.  This reader will continue to read Anne Tyler novels to experience her remarkable gift. 

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler: short but good

Three Days in June

By Anne Tyler

Published 2024

Read March 2026

This is a relatively short book (176 pages) but it covers only three days—the day before, of , and after the wedding of Gail Baine’s daughter.  But in true Tyler style, the author commits some of the pages to enough of their backstory in a very efficient manner so that the reader can better understand the actions of the various characters and she can cover some universal themes. 

Sixty-one-year-old divorcee Gail Baine is the center of our attention.  She’s not having a great time as the wedding of her daughter draws near.  She learns the day before the wedding that she’s being replaced in her job, she has been excluded from the spa day that the mother of the groom will be attending, her hair appointment doesn’t have the desired effect, and her ex-husband has stopped by with a rescued cat asking to stay with her as the groom’s allergies prevent him from staying with his daughter.    Then her daughter has inklings from her to-be-sister-in-law that her fiancée has cheated on her.

So some potential drivers of cliched big drama, but as usual, Tyler guides us through a picture of a marriage that was and a discussion of how to deal with the planned marriage to be in an efficient and non-judgmental way.  She even sets us up to decide whether we think Gail and her ex-husband could or should get back together and makes the reader wait until the very end to find out.

Once again, a book that covers universal themes in a non-dated manner that will be accessible and readable for years to come.  Enjoy!