Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Randy Bragg receives a telegram from his older brother ending with the words "Alas, Babylon," he knows disaster is near. The two words were Randy and Mark's code for impending disaster. In this case, Mark, an Air Force Intelligence officer, wants to meet up to explain his fears that World War III is imminent.

Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank (pen name of Harry Hart Frank), one of the "first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age" describes life in the fictional town of Fort Repose, Florida immediately following a full-scale nuclear strike on the United States. The people in Fort Repose must learn to come to grips with their new reality: store shelves that are soon empty, no gas for the cars, meds for diabetes (and later, typhoid fever), and a government breakdown, where each person, each town is an island.

A year after the devastation, the residents of River Road in Fort Repose are visited an Air Force helicopter, carrying family friend Paul Hart - now a colonel - along with his crew, bringing news from the outside. As Paul gets ready to leave, Randy asks the question on everyone's mind: "'Paul, there's one thing more. Who won the war?'

"Paul put his fists on his hips and his eyes narrowed. 'You're kidding! You mean you really don't know?...We won it. We really clobbered 'em!' Hear's eyes covered and his arms drooped. He said, 'Not that it matters.'

"The engine started and Randy turned away to face the thousand-year night."

Although Alas, Babylon was published in 1959, it is still every bit as relevant as it was when it was published, and well worth the read.

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Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott

Plan B by Lamott, Anne [Paperback] by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a time when life can be tough, how does one find a little bit of spiritual peace?

One good way, as far as books, can be found in Anne Lamott's book Plan B Further Toughts on Faith. A follow-up to Anne's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott, Plan B is full of essays about real life: dealing with hitting her fiftieth birthday while raising her teenage son; her mother's Alzheimer's; her unhappiness with the then-George W. Bush presidency; friends' and family's life and death.

In the first essay, Ham of God, Anne tells how on her forty-ninth birthday, she was dismayed about Bush's presidency, mentions that she plans to get arrested in an upcoming protest, and then, at the grocery store that day, discovers that she has won a ham. She ends up waiting for ten minutes for the bagger to get the ham (or, as she likens "that f#*king ham" to a big, salty eraser), then gives it to a friend of her's who she runs into in the parking lot.

In another essay, she mentions that sometimes her house gets crowded: There's Sam (her son), "Phil" (Sam, on his difficult adolescent days), her (Anne), and the "Menopausal Death Crone". (Can any of us relate? I know I can!)

If you're looking for a book to help you through rough times, that inject's a bit of Anne's signature humor, then Plan B Further Toughts on Faith by Anne Lamott just might be what you're looking for, especially if you've read Plan B Further Toughts on Faith.

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