redbird: full bookshelves and table in a library (books)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-07-02 04:46 pm

Wednesday reading

Boston's Orange Line, by Andrew Elder and Jeremy C. Fox. This is a collection of black-and-white photos, going back to the start of the old elevated orange line, with captions. This was for the "explore Boston history" square on the BPL summer reading bingo. If I'd noticed the "images of rail" series title, I wouldn't have borrowed this book. The captions are just about enough to confirm that there's more than enough to be said on the subject to make a book, but this isn't. This has a disjointed discussion of the lengthy "realigmnent" of the orange line to its current route, and a couple of paragraphs on the decision not to run an 8-lane interstate through the middle of Boston and Cambridge, and no suggestion that anything similar had happened elsewhere. Ah, well.

There are suggestions on the library website for some of the squares (including "with a green cover"), but not this one. Searching the catalog for "Boston histpry" got me this, along with, among other things, a book about the Big Dig, a book about the Great Molasses Flood (which is at least mentioned in this, with a picture of damage to the orange line), and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
anne: (Default)

[personal profile] anne 2025-07-02 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Dark Tide is really good.
magid: (Default)

[personal profile] magid 2025-07-03 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
Seconding!
(from a random person reading her network page)

If you haven’t found a book with a green cover that you like, I love Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris, a book of essays about book owning and language.
magid: (Default)

Re: hello, random person

[personal profile] magid 2025-07-03 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
I’ve been considering re-reads for some summer reading bingo squares for the Cambridge version of this (how would I know if a book “brings me hope” unless I’ve read it already?).
Edited 2025-07-03 10:27 (UTC)
magid: (Default)

Re: hello, random person

[personal profile] magid 2025-07-03 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, Cambridge has one card for adults (19+; there are different cards for 0-5, 6-12, and 13-18), and it’s a mix of things, many tying to the theme “Color Our World”, so color of cover, color in the title, color in the author’s name, but also book about an artist, book about music while listening to music, make something inspired by a book, etc.

Two bingo cards seems like a bounty of suggestions!
anne: (Default)

[personal profile] anne 2025-07-03 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, sounds like fun! I was looking for one of those too
magid: (Default)

[personal profile] magid 2025-07-03 10:28 am (UTC)(link)
If you end up reading this one, I hope you like it! (I mean, I hope you like reading whatever green book you choose, but in this case, hope it’s a rec that works :-).)