Wine, Ballerinas, and First Ladies: Books Read 8/16/2019

Jeff and I recently took a trip to Las Vegas, and believe it or not - not much reading was done!  But, I have finished a few diverse and interesting books in the last couple of weeks:

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker
This book will make you want to drink lots of wine, namely expensive and/or obscure wine.  This created a bit of a problem for me, as right now my resources allow for a Dark Horse Cabernet on a Friday night (or perhaps an especially tough Tuesday).  But - Christmas is coming up, so I may have to refer back to Cork Dork and add a few bottles to the wish list.  
As I was reading, I saw some similarities to a book I recently read with my book club, Moonwalking with Einstein, in the sense that the author was like, I'm going to become amazing at this relatively random thing and then they were awesome (I guess that many other would-be authors decide that they were going to try something and then failed and thus did not write the book.)  
Similar to Einstein, the author met a lot of fun and crazy people on her path to becoming a sommelier.  She also drank tons of wine.  I'm jealous.  I'm really wanting the kind of experience with wine that she's now had - something other than "that's good wine" - something that is just AMAZING.  Have you ever had this, and if so - what was the wine?  I want some!
I recommend this, although non-wine drinkers may find some of the detail tedious.  

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The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Trippy book!  I was almost finished when I realized a fun trick that the author was playing.  I won't disclose it here, but I will say that you get to know Kate Crane so well that you will have a complex relationship with this character and it becomes like a real life relationship you might have with someone who self-medicates with dangerous substances.  
Grab this book about two ballerina sisters who deal with sisterhood, success, jealousy and stress while trying not to lose their minds.  It's dark and hilarious and kinda creepy.  

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​ Upstairs at the White House:  My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West and Mary Lynn Kotz
This is the best book I've read in a while.  I absolutely loved it!  The other day I started telling my mom about it and she stopped me and shared that she read it before I was born (and loved it too!).  
I'm not a history buff, and I'm not especially interested in politicians, but what J.B. West chose to share and how he presented this information was just incredible.  I stayed up an extra half hour with Jax one night because I couldn't stop reading.  I feel like I now have some weird close relationship with the Presidents and First Ladies of Roosevelt through Nixon.  
This was also a great book to read right before going back to work, as it was full of examples of someone just kicking major butt at their job.  J.B. West pulled out all the stops for the First Families, and had such an impressive career.  It was very much like the gratifying feeling we have during the portion of The Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway becomes a superhuman employee, except West never sucked and he was always impressively dressed.

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Feel Free - Zadie Smith (abandoned at 8%)
I'm interested in the opinions of others.  I'm interested in the political and moral opinions of others, no matter where they stand on issues.  But I decided to abandon this one because I wasn't really following her rants and - especially in regards to stuff happening in other countries like Brexit - I haven't read up enough on the issues for her opinions to make much sense to me.  I can log on to social media any old time to read various political opinions and arguments.  I only have so much time to read and right now, this doesn't appeal to me.  I have another of her books, On Beauty, that I might take a stab at in the future.

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