Review: HOUSE LESSONS: RENOVATING A LIFE (+Friday56 Sign-in)

Title: House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister 

Book Beginnings quote: 

Prologue -- The house stood at the top of the hill, ensnarled in vegetation looking out over the Victorian roofs of Port Townsend and beyond, to water and islands, and clouds.

Friday56 quote:

This is what I wanted in my marriage with Ben, I realized: a stone structure built over decades with hands of love; a warehouse that turns into a space of creativity; railroad tracks that become a path to adventure. (p. 48)

Summary:

In this mesmerizing memoir-in-essays, Erica Bauermeister renovates a trash-filled house in eccentric Port Townsend, Washington, and in the process takes readers on a journey to discover the ways our spaces subliminally affect us. A personal, accessible, and literary exploration of the psychology of architecture, as well as a loving tribute to the connections we forge with the homes we care for and live in, this book is designed for anyone who’s ever fallen head over heels for a house. It is also a story of a marriage, of family, and of the kind of roots that settle deep into your heart. Discover what happens when a house has its own lessons to teach in this moving and insightful memoir that ultimately shows us how to make our own homes (and lives) better.

Review: House Lessons was an unlikely book club 'best book.' We all had so much fun with our discussion over this half memoir, part house restoration, part history/information book! All of the ladies in the book commented on the writing and the organization. For example, in the chapter 'Architects and Builders' readers not only meet the professionals the Bauermeiter's hired for their house restoration project but we learn information about famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe and some of their famous projects. We also learned about why there are so many lovely, aging Victorian houses in Port Townsend, a small, artsy town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. In another chapter, Trash', we learn the house has to be mucked out due to so much stuff left behind. Then we learned about the psychological condition known as hoarding. For a book none of us had ever heard of before we were all pleasantly surprised by this little gem and I think to a woman we would recommend it to you.

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Novellas in November 2024

 

It’s hard to believe, the hosts are getting ready for the FIFTH year of Novellas in November, the month-long blogger/social media challenge celebrating the art of the short book, hosted by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck between 1 and 30 November.

 It is also hard to believe this will be my first year joining in the fun of reading short books with others during Novellas in November. For the past several years I've fill up my November reading schedule with nonfiction titles and/or Cybils nominated titles. This year I am taking a break from judging Cybils and don't have many nonfiction titles calling my name. So here I am giving a new challenge a try.

Today I placed several titles on hold at the library and I hope some of them make it my way before November 1st:

• Dept. of Speculation by Offill
• Snow Country by Kawabata
• The Strange Library by Murikami
• The Postman Always Rings Twice by Cain
• Foster by Keegan
• The Turn of the Screw by James
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy
• A Christmas Carol by Dickens
• and just today I added, Orbital by Harvey since it is the read-along. 

-Anne

TTT: Books I Read in School and What I Remember About Them

Top Ten Tuesday: 

Books I Was Assigned to Read in School and What I Remember About Them.

I honestly remember very few books I was required to read in school. I do remember reading three but the details are pretty fuzzy:

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. I am not sure I read this one very well since I had it in my mind until a recent reread (see below) that it was Daisy who died not Gatsby. (High School)

Animal Farm by Orwell. I have the vaguest recollection of mean animals marching around the farm bossing all the other animals around. (Junior High School)

Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. I remember liking this book and the details about the old man catching the huge fish but then the sharks eating it before he could get back home. I recently reread it and my memory was pretty accurate. (Junior High School)

When I became a high school librarian in 2005, I realized what a poor literary education I had. So I set about the task of reading all the required novels in our textbook room, which English teachers assigned to their students. I didn't finish the task but here are the books I did manage to read, trying to catch up with what I missed while in school myself:

A Brave New World by Huxley --- I was shocked at how much sex (or at least references to sex) this book contained and at all the racism toward indigenous man. Why is this book still assigned for classes? Not a favorite.

Lord of the Flies by Golding. --- Kids complained bitterly about this book, but I found it to hold such truth about the nature of man that I think about it often, even today. For example, the mob on January 6th that stormed the Capitol, were under the spell of group think. In the book the book the boys turn wild in short order. I've noticed how often this is true today, too. Glad I read it.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee. --- Can you believe I hadn't read this book until 2005? It is a favorite and now I've reread it several times. Love it!

Bless Me, Ultima by Anaya. --- One of my first introductions to magical realism. This book assignment caused a big ruckus by parents who didn't want their kids reading it. But I was transported by the prose and highly recommend it to you. Loved it.!

As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. --- One kid warned me off reading this book, telling me how awful it was. Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness makes for odd reading, for sure. I agree with the student. Yuck!

The Outsiders by Hinton. --- Kids were assigned to read this book in junior high so I wanted to read it to catch up. Powerful story written by S.E. Hinton when she was a teen. Very good.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain. --- I read an abridged version of this book when I was in elementary school. I had really fond memories of it. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of the whole book as an adult. This book, for all the obvious reasons, was rarely assigned by teachers for classes. I think it that is a pity. Twain is so witty and if taught right it has a powerful message. 

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. --- I have a lot of trouble reading plays. Then it dawned on me that I could listen it and let voice actors bring the story alive. They did and I loved it anew. This play was assigned to 9th graders. Every year students were expected to read something by Shakespeare (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream) but this is the only one I got to. Sigh.

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.--- Burning books. Oh my. Bradbury was looking both back and forward in this powerful book.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston. --- This is a good audiobook since Hurston wrote it in Black, Southern vernacular. It is difficult to read. I would tell the kids to read it out loud to themselves to help them understand it. The audiobook solved that problem for me and I enjoyed it.

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. --- When I finally got around to reading Gatsby as an adult I was shocked by it. I had so many details muddled in my brain. This is the novel that ushered in the Jazz Age and is also often sited as the number one book of all times. For those reasons alone, I recommend it.

Frankenstein by Shelley. --- I just read Frankenstein last year. It is another book I thought I knew better than I did. I had seen so many movies made from it. Not a favorite, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

Great Expectations by Dickens. --- Sometimes I am shocked by how much a book has influenced popular culture and language. This is one of those books. Another book I was glad I read FINALLY!

Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. --- I can't remember if this book was in our textbook room in class sets or not. It should have been if it's not. This story is like reading history and should be required to understand our past. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was required reading and was very popular with students. I think that had something to do with how short it was.

Things Fall Apart by Achebe. --- things certainly do fall apart when countries think they can transport their culture and impose it on another culture. This book contains a powerful message, if only we'd listen.

1984 by Orwell. --- Oh man. This book should be required reading for humans in 2024. It is so prescient. Doublethink: "Freedom is slavery"; "Ignorance is strength"; "War is peace." When Trump said in a speech he'd be a dictator on day one, believe him. He is taking his ideas straight from this dystopian novel. I hope teachers did a good job teaching this book at our school. But I never heard how students felt about it.

-Anne

Review: TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM (+Friday56 Sign-in)

Title: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Book Beginnings quote:

Whenever I think of my mother, I picture a queen-sized bed with her lying in it, a practiced stillness filling the room.

Friday56 quote:

Nana was the first miracle, the true miracle, and the glory of his birth cast a long shadow. I was born into the darkness that shadow left behind.

Summary:

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him using pain killers. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. 

Review:  Oh man, this book brought out the high school teacher in me. First I thought I'd want to assign this to my Health-class students so we could talk about many aspects about addiction. Then I thought it would be an excellent resource for my Sociology class so we could study the importance of friendship, what it is like being an immigrant in a foreign land, and the importance of community. Oh, and then it would work for a Psychology class to talk about depression and mental resilience. Lastly I thought it would probably be an excellent book club selection especially for my church-oriented club. There is so much about faith and spirituality in it. And since I am retired and no longer teach social sciences,  I will see if I can talk my book club into reading it. There is so much to discuss! 

Wow, what a story.

My rating: 5 stars

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: Bookish brags and confessions

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Brags and Confessions --- What I have and haven't read!

1. This summer the New York Times published a list of the Top 100 Books of the 21st Century, the list was curated by 504 literary luminaries. I counted and discovered I've only read 38 of the books on the list (two more than I said on the blogpost.) As a voracious reader this seemed like a very low number to me.

2. Then several weeks after the above list was published, the New York Times published a list of the Top 100 Favorite books of the 21st Century, as recommended by readers. This list I have read many more books, I think 73, which feels much better to me.

3. Reader's Digest recently published a list of the 100 best books. I've read 66 of them. Several of the titles are shocking to me, especially in their placement on the list. But it is a list to give me ideas what to read next.

4. Penguins Classics 100 Books Everyone Should Read. Oh, oh. Back to a lower number, only 40 read, many I haven't heard of before which is odd for the books being classics.

5. 20+ Books every high schooler should read before college. Whew. Better. I've read 16 of them, of course, I'm way past college age so I had a head start.

6. Time Magazine's 100 Best YA Books. I've read 66 which is both a brag and a confession. As a teen librarian I think I should have read more but I have been retired for seven years. 

7. Scholastic's 100 Must-Read Children's books. Hmm. The list didn't have pictures. I think I've only read 50 of these books but it may be more. I just didn't know for sure without a visual confirmation.

8. Werd.com Ten Best Sci-Fi novels. Unbelievably I've read 4 of them! I thought it would be just one.

9. The 22 books people brag about reading but they really haven't read them (In other words, lie about reading.). (Buzzfeed.) I really have read thirteen of these books. I'm not lying.

10. New York Times Top Ten Books of 2023. I've read 2 1/2. I didn't finished Bee Sting and only read two of the others. One I liked. The other I didn't. Ha! I'm ending on a confession.

-Anne

Review: SUFFERING IS NEVER FOR NOTHING (+Friday56 Sign-in)

Title: Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot

Book Beginnings quote:

When I was told that my first husband, Jim, was missing in Auca Indian country, the Lord brought to my mind some words from the Prophet Isaiah. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee" (Isa. 43:2 KJV). I prayed silently, Lord let not the waters overflow. And He heard me and He answered me.

Friday56 quote:

I need pain sometimes because God has something bigger in mind. It is never for nothing.

Summary:

Hard times come for all in life, with no real explanation. When we walk through suffering, it has the potential to devastate and destroy, or to be the gateway to gratitude and joy.

Elisabeth Elliot was no stranger to suffering. Her first husband, Jim, was murdered by the Waorani people in Ecuador moments after he arrived in hopes of sharing the gospel. Her second husband was lost to cancer. Yet, it was in her deepest suffering that she learned the deepest lessons about God.

Why doesn't God do something about suffering? He has, He did, He is, and He will.

Review: Almost exactly a year ago to this date, my siblings and I visited both Ecuador and Panama, wanting to retrace the footsteps of our paternal grandfather who made a monumental trip 100 years before, in 1923, down the Amazon river starting in Ecuador. He was the guide for men hoping to set up missionary outposts in the region. Whatever we all think of that type of evangelism, it was a tremendous trip, one where success wasn't assured. 

Prior to our trip, my sister loaned me a copy of another Elisabeth Elliot book, Made for the Journey, which was about the author's first year living as a missionary in Ecuador. We wanted to read the book to get a feeling for the types of situations our grandfather may have confronted on his trip. I appreciated her story even if I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to put themselves in that situation.

In Suffering is Never for Nothing, Elisabeth Elliot uses examples from her own life, like the death of two of her husbands, to share examples of how God uses suffering to draw believers closer to Him. She says the purpose of the speech (which led to this book) was to examine the subject of suffering. "I'm convinced that there are a good many things in life we can't do anything about, but that God wants us to do something with." I'd say that she does a nice job making her case in this book. Often her words and her examples were comforting to me. Other times I couldn't relate to points she was saying. That's okay. I know I don't have to agree with everything in books. Generally I'd say the message was one of hope and comfort.

Rating: 4 stars

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: Book I read because of the hype and what I thought of them

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read Because of the Hype... And What I Thought of Them

I am always scrutinizing book lists for my next reads. Sometimes the most popular books on the lists are fabulous and I am glad I paid attention. Other times I am surprised by how much I loved the books. Here are some recent examples of both:

1. Gather by Kenneth Cadow. A 2024 Printz Honor book. It seemed like I couldn't go anywhere on the Internet last year without someone raving about this book. I loved it, too. Thanks for the recommendation everyone!

2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I read Circe several years ago for book club and loved it, so I added this book to my reading list. In the meantime I couldn't help noticing how many people were recommending it to each other. I just finished the audiobook with my husband and we both thought it was so well done.

3. North Woods by Daniel Mason. This book ended up on a lot of end of year lists in 2023 as one of if not the best book of the year. It was also thought to be a possible Pulitzer Prize contestant. So much hype and guess what, it was that good or better!

4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Back in 2009/10 everyone in the bookish world was raving about this book. Everyone read it, except me. When I finally got around to it this year I was so disappointed. It wasn't terrible but it did not live up to the hype, in my mind anyway.

5. Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips. This book won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It came out of nowhere to win which I guess isn't a lot of hype but the award itself is big. Well anyway, I didn't particularly like the book and wish that North Woods (see above) had won instead.

6. The Fraud by Zadie Smith. Another book that got a lot of attention at the end of 2023 and placed on best-of lists. I disagreed with all of the people who were hyping this book. Ugh. I didn't like it.

7. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. When readers learned the author of Cutting for Stone was publishing a new book many, including myself, went into a sort of hyperdrive of expectation. And the book lived up to the hype big time.

8. The Wager by David Grann. This book got a lot of attention in 2023 for its excellent writing about a shipwreck in the 1700s. It seemed like everyone liked/loved this book except me and my family. We listened to the audiobook together. I liked it the best but gave it a rating of three.

9. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The hype about this book has been pretty constant for more than a year. I  liked it a lot but have had to defend my decision with many other readers.

10. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. So many blogging friends read and loved this book. That is the only reason I read it, without doing any other research. It was not for me. In fact, I honestly didn't like it at all.

I hope I didn't diss your favorite book. I realize that how I feel about books may very well be able how I feel.

-Anne

Review: THE GIRL I AM, WAS, AND NEVER WILL BE (+Friday56 Sign-in)

Title: The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Shannon Gibney

Book Beginnings quote:

Prologue

I WAS BORN January 30, 1975, in Ann Arbor, Michigan

     The name on my birth certificate is Shannon Gibney, and my parents are listed as Jim and Susan Gibney. These are my white adoptive parents, who raised me. They gave me the loafers I remember wearing almost forty years ago. The backyard woods where my imagination first grew roots was theirs.

     The woman who gave birth to me and subsequently relinquished me was named Patricia Powers. She was a white, working-class Irish American woman who had a short relationship with my African American birth father, Boisey Collins, Jr. My birth mother named me Erin Powers after I was born, but I didn't find that out until I was nineteen. I possess no childhood memories of either of them.

Friday56 quote:

IN THIS SPACE, in the space between the stories ... in the space between what really happened, what could have happened, what almost did happen to another girl with another mother who relinquished her and another absent Black father ... in this space is where we exist, we have always existed. Where truth is born and exiled.

Summary: 

Part memoir, part speculative fiction, The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee.

It is a book woven from the author's true story of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee and fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Shannon was given at birth, a child raised by a white, closeted lesbian.

At its core, the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds that story with reproductions of her own adoption documents, letters, family photographs, interviews, medical records, and brief essays on the surreal absurdities of the adoptee experience.

The end result is a remarkable portrait of an American experience rarely depicted in any form. (Publisher)

Review: As I was preparing myself to review The Girl I Am I ran into the word "surreal." That is exactly the right word to describe this book. Read the prologue and the book is obviously a memoir. Then comes the interlude starting with IN THIS SPACE (Friday56 quote) and the reader realizes that something other than a memoir is at hand. Let me correct that, some chapters titled "Shannon Gibney," are a memoir about what life was like growing up transracial in a white family, how Shannon found her birth mother, what that tenuous relationship was like, and how she discovered he father had died when she was six. Then there were wormholes, time travel, and alternate histories. Those chapters were titled "Erin Powers." Here the author is imagining a different life for herself but is somehow aware of her other life. Confusing. Surreal.

Interspersed throughout the two concurrent stories are actual documents and letters about Shannon's adoption and from her birth mother. There are family trees and stories about the alternate world other adoptees have had to deal with. I am not sure why this book was published as a YA title. Not only is it a YA  title it won a Printz Honor award this year. Perhaps the publisher thought it should be YA because the author is nineteen for a good portion of the action. Perhaps the publisher or the author thought that other teens need a book that covers the topic of transracial adoption and how confusing life can be, often is, for such kids. Whatever the reason, I had a hard time imagining any teen reading this book, or not setting this book aside because it is so confusing. Sigh. That said I made it to the end and was glad to see that Shannon Gibney was grateful to her adopted family and expressed love to her parents and brothers.

My Rating: 3 stars

 

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: My Fall Reading List (and how I did on my summer list)

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall Reading List. 

Below the line is how I did on my summer reading list.

 

Fall reading list: 

Book Club Selections:

1. House Lessons by Erica Bauermeister (October)
2. Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck (November)
3. The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (December)  

Challenge Books:

1. Classics Club Spin Book TBA from this list -- possibly A Christmas Carol by C. Dickens
2. A Past Pulitzer Prize winner from list -- possibly All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
3. Printz Award winner or honor book from this list -- The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be by S. Gibney
4. Past Women's Prize winner or finalist --  possibly Piranesi by S. Clarke
5. Two National Book Award titles (finalists/winners) -- finalists announced October 1st
1. -
2. -
6. Novella November -- I hope to read 2-4 novellas in November
1. - Possibly- Dept. of Speculation by Offill
2. - Possibly- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
    

Books I've already started, recently acquired, and/or have on-hold at the library:

1.  James by Percival Everett
2.  How to Be Both by Ali Smith
3.  The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
4. The Not-Quite-States of America: Dispatches From the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Doug Mack
5. Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
6. A Death in the Family by James Agee
7. Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
8. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie

 

 

 

Update: How I did on my summer reading list.

 Yellow: completed. 

Aqua: in progress

Green:  not completed, DNF, or currently reading

Light pink: Did not get to yet!

Summer reading list:

Book Club Selections:

1. Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler (July, Group #1)
2. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (August, Group #1)
3. Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (August, Group #2) 
4. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev (September, Group #1) 
   

Challenge Books:

1. Classics Club Spin Book TBA from this list -- A Bell for Adano by Hersey
2. A Past Pulitzer Prize winner from list -- The Known World by Edward P. Jones
3. Printz Award winner or honor book from this list -- Gather by Kenneth Cadow
4. My One Big Book Challenge book -- Wolf Hall by Mantel 
5. Big Book Summer Challenge -- The Women by Kristin Hannah
6. Women's Prize winner or finalist --  Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
    

Books I've already started, recently acquired, have on-hold at the library, or the remaining books on my 20 Books of Summer Challenge list:

1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
2.  Wandering Star by Tommy Orange
3.  North Woods by Daniel Mason
4.  The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
5.  The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
6.  Gather by Kenneth Cadow
7.  The Bee Sting by Paul Murray -DNF
8.  Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
9.  Symphony of Secrets Brendan Slocomb
10. Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot
11. Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro 
    

 

I inspected this list frequently during the summer to make sure I was reading all the books I'd placed on it. It became an obsession to finish the whole list and I almost made it. I read over 100 pages of The Bee Sting before I decided I would not finish it. It was too long and frustrating to read and I gave it the heave-ho.

 

-Anne

Sunday Salon--- A wonderful week

Weather: Lovely, mild temperatures and sunny, It is shaping up to be a nice Fall.

Jamie is four! We took him to the Washington State Fair on his birthday and had so much fun! See photo collage above. (Ah to be retired and to go to the fair on a Monday!)

This quote from an article written by a woman wishing she could say this to her children before she dies. I love it so much: 

"If I could, I would stay forever. I would listen, encourage and console. I would shade you like an oak tree on sweltering summer days. I would protect you like the fir tree against cold winds. I would offer blooms of spring to celebrate your dreams accomplished. I would burst with the colors of autumn to remind you that even as dark days come, so does hope." -By Virginia DeLuca

I choose joy. A few reasons I think Kamala Harris will win:

• Demographics have changed since 2016. Women aged 18 to 29 became significantly more liberal than the previous generation of young women. Today, around 40 percent identify as liberal, compared with just 19 percent who say they’re conservative. Men have stayed about the same. In a year where women's rights are on the ballot this may be enough to tip the balance for Harris. (NYT)
• The polls look good. There was a debate bounce. Trump and Harris were essentially tied before, but the new poll of 1,755 U.S. adults — one of the first conducted after the Sept. 10 debate — shows Harris (50%) surging to a five-point lead over Trump (45%) among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup. (Yahoo News)
• People like Harris. Her favorability is 50-44%, +6%; compared to Trump whose favorability is -20%. (AP)
• People are expecting Harris to win. As Noelle-Neumann showed decades ago, expectations of a win are a leading indicator of engagement and turn-out. (WaPo)
• Trump is hemorrhaging support. Republicans for Harris is expanding. Yesterday it was Republicans who worked for Reagan who signed on their support for Harris (Mother Jones).
• Kamala has the support of influential people. Did you see the event hosted by Oprah this week? If not, here is the link. Set aside an hour and half. You will be so happy you did. Unite for America.
• Tim Walz is a gem. Watch this short clip of Tim Walz doing service on his '79 International Harvester Scout. It will make you love him more! (And he gets in a good dig about Project 2025.)
• The Electoral College map seems to be expanding for Harris. North Carolina was moved from Toss Up to Lean Dem this week. (The Guardian)

My Vote Forward project table. Pretty stamps, colored pens, and addresses.

But don't get complacent-- DO SOMETHING! Since I live in a safely blue state I've been writing letters to folks in swing districts, in swing states through Vote Forward. In fact I had a few friends join me this week to help me write them. Follow the link if you'd like to write to potential voters. IF WE FIGHT WE WIN! After I finish up the last 30 letters I will write postcards to voters. It makes me feel like I am having an impact. If you live in a swing or red state and have energy, you might consider phone-banking or door-belling. Contact a Democratic office near you, go to Go.KamalaHarris.com or Women for Harris.

Books! Books! Books! I finished My 21st Century Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winners Challenge this week. It has taken me years but I am finished. Now I can read whatever Pulitzers I want without the pressure to read specific books! Whew. I also finished up all my blogging so the project is DONE!

• My 21st Century Pulitzer Prize Fiction Challenge Wrap-up. Link.
• The Known World review. The last book read for the project.
• Recap of the four winners which I read before becoming a book blogger. Link.
• I finished another project, years in the making, this week, too. I read the third book in the Justice Trilogy by Louise Erdrich and did a write up on the three books.

Baked Feta: This time of year is so wonderful with the temperatures down but the garden still growing. We still have an abundance of tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes, and basil. Tonight (Saturday) I made a baked feta which used both those items. I got the idea from my physical therapist when I gave her a bag of cherry toms and she told me what she was going to make with them. Yum!!! I still have good flavors in my mouth. This is the recipe I used.

Raise your hand if you agree! (Thanks Kathy, for sharing this with me.)

-Anne