My semi annual actual blog post

To all those book groups who read IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, well, it IS happening here. I have to acknowledge that right away. So now, in addition to reading and discussing books, members of our group are also engaging politically in a variety of ways.

But back to books. I suggested we read WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA, which was on a NYTIMES list of suggested books to read about Cuba. (The list was published after Fedel Castro's death.) I was inspired to read several memoirs and novels about Cuba, to do some research about Cuba's history, and to watch Oliver Stone's Looking for Fedel. I'm fascinated by it all, and have more multimedia research lined up for the months ahead. [I guess at heart I always will be a student, planning my own assignments even when not in school.]

WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA is a memoir about Eire's idyllic childhood in Havana, the changes in Cuba during the first three years after the revolution, and finally, his immigrant experience as a mere 11-year old in the USA, where he was sent with his brother. His mother could not get a visa to join them for another three years, and Carlos never saw his father again. Searingly poetic and passionate.