Peachy Reads

Train stations are the cathedrals of the modern age. And there is no better example than Grand Central in New York City. Enter through the stone portals from the bustling sidewalks of 42nd Street to the main concourse and you can’t help but be awed-- your gaze will be pulled to the celestial heavens, which in the case of Grand Central are reproduced in cerulean blue on the vaulted ceiling. February 2013 marks one hundred years since the beaux arts train temple in the middle of Park Avenue emerged as an elegant gateway to Midtown Manhattan (the present edifice replaced earlier buildings). The evolution of Grand Central reflects the history of the modern city itself. At one time an open gash of dangerous rails traveled by smoke-belching locomotives burned through NYC from 125th to 42nd Street, and pedestrians and other traffic risked life and limb to cross from one side of Manhattan to the other. Nearby inhabitants inhaled the fumes of the coal-powered machines and endured the noise

I had been intending to read this novel for a bit.  I think I've read everything by Barbara Kingsolver, but I kept postponing reading this 500 pager.  It came out in 2009, but it was the opening of the new exhibit  Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting  across the street at the High Museum of Art that finally motivated me to buckle down and read it. I'm sorry I waited so long.  The history was fascinating, not only of the portrayal of the Kahlo-Rivera household at the time of their greatest fame, but of Trotsky's Mexican exile and eventual assassination, the Bonus Army riots of Washington D.C., and the Red Scare in the United States after the end of the war.  Plus there was all the cultural geography of Xochimilco, Teotihuacan, and Chichen Itza.  After reading about it, I wanted to plan a visit to Mexico City to visit the Bauhaus inspired Kahlo-Rivera house and see Rivera's murals at the Palacio Nacional.  The narrative revolves around the character of