Sunday Salon -- Love

Weather: Clear and spring-like.

Consolidating a few thoughts: (I've been thinking about these ideas for the past few weeks and decided I wanted to write them down. Feel free to skip ahead. These are mainly for me but I welcome your thoughts, too.) 

     This past week during my women's bible study group, we talked about why we often don't recognize answers to prayers. One gal reminded us that God's timing isn't our timing and answers are a long time coming because sometimes we (separately or collectively) need to learn a lesson. Using an example from the Old Testament, the Israelites were captured by Babylon for 70 years before being restored to their homeland (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). This was a time for correction and for healing the land. Several of us mused if our time in "Babylon" would soon come to an end? If God was doing something in us collectively?  

     Since the early 1980s Christian Nationalism has been gaining strength. Here in the U.S. evangelical churches grew in attendance while mainstream congregations were shrinking. Evangelicals yoked themselves to Republican politics and seemed to choose politics and power over the core precepts of Jesus Christ -- love and kindness. For years, progressive Christians kept their mouths shut, often preferring to not speak publicly about their faith for fear of being lumped together with the Christian Nationalists and their legalistic rules and judgmental, unloving attitudes.

     Ten years ago when Trump was coming into power and the evangelical Christian Nationalists turned their allegiance over to him, it felt like their priorities were askew -- placing Trump/Republican politics above following Jesus. Don and I were insulated, to some degree, by our small church community and by the fact that most of our family members were not Trump followers. But we were still frustrated and sad to witness the impact of the MAGA message on Jesus's witness in the world. I often wondered how many people were repelled by their hate-filled messages and therefore were not open to hearing the real good news of the gospel...where followers are asked to love their neighbors as themselves, to feed the poor, to work for justice, to help the widow and those in need.

     When Trump regained power last year and seemed hellbent to inflict as much harm on as many of those same people that Jesus asks his followers to help through the actions of ICE and cutting services for the poor, my heart was almost numb. Then I started noticing something new, something I haven't heard or seen since the 1960s -- messages of love and hope starting to break through and beginning to regain a foothold. When ICE raids were intentionally set up to terrorize Portland, the people showed up in frog costumes to protest the ICE presence. Suddenly the right-wing talking-point that left-leaning protesters were terrorists themselves fell flat when those folks didn't throw stones but danced around in inflatable costumes. Who were the aggressors? Certainly not the frogs! 

     When ICE descended on Minneapolis by the thousands, instead of starting riots the residents of Minnesota gathered in big churches and learned songs to sing together. Then they headed out to sing while they marched, standing up for their immigrant neighbors. Martial law couldn't be imposed when the people weren't behaving violently. They were singing. Once again, the public could see the real aggressors and they weren't the protestors. (Singing resistance)

     Around this time I started seeing more messages of love popping up in my social media feeds. And these messages weren't always coming from places one would usually expect. In his State of the State Address on Feb. 18th, Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker spent over four minutes talking about love and the way Illinoisans have shown love to their immigrant neighbors. (This is a very inspiring speech!) Mayor Zohran Mamdani of NYC talks about how we need to love the stranger. He speaks about how all religions call us to be good to the strangers. And he promises to protect all New Yorkers from ICE. "If anything can turn back the tide of evil it is a united front from people of all faiths. Let us love the stranger among us because we are them, they are us!" (Another inspiring speech!) A few people on my feeds are starting to talk about ways to help MAGA people leave the cult they've fallen into, and it doesn't involve shame! (Cults) Others are standing up to Christian Nationalists by reminding them to focus on the words in the Bible written in red ("I Never Said That -- Red Words") -- which some editions use to highlight the words spoken by Jesus. One scripture repeatedly quoted is Matthew 25:35-40:

I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.'  The righteous will then answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you? ’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!’

The Presbyterian Church supports the Matthew 25 movement devoted to healing and restoration of relationships, systems, and societies that reflect God’s justice and love.

     Christians, genuine Christ-followers, are coming out of their stupors. They are waking up and starting to stand up -- against cruelty committed in Christ's name, against cruelty committed by our own government in the name of all Americans. Don't get me wrong. I think we still are in "Babylon" but there is something happening and we may be able to find our way back home soon. As Bad Bunny reminded us with his background banner at the Super Bowl, "The only thing more powerful than hate is love." Remember in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe after the witch thinks she has won? Suddenly spring starts to break through the endless winter and the rumor spreads that Aslan is on the move. That's the way I'm starting to feel right now. It is still winter but Aslan is on the move. Let it be so!

This Lenten season I am choosing to focus on good news (and the Good News!)

Focusing on happy things:

• A good place to start: 5 Top Dogs of the Week. (We Rate Dogs)
• To honor Neil Sedaka, who died this week, Sandra Boynton reissued this song which Sedaka sang, "Your Nose". Enjoy!

• Special planetary parade tonight (Saturday, Feb. 28) Should be visible everywhere on earth right after sunset, weather permitting, of course. If you miss it there is a blood moon eclipse on Tuesday. Geeking out.

BBC

• Artsy Us. I've been playing around with photo editor. A.I. gave an assist and made us look skinnier and younger than we are. Ha!

Books: 

• Recently completed (last two weeks):
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy -- Set on an isolated island near Antarctica where a seed bank needs to be abandoned due to rising sea levels. It is a mystery and a family drama.
• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler -- A retelling of Shakespeare's A Taming of the Shrew. Kate is neurodivergent and her love interest may be, too. Quirky, lovable characters.
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters -- lots of versions of motherhood I'd never thought of before. Most characters are trans and there is a lot of sex, which made me squirm. Not a favorite.
• Currently reading/listening to:
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov -- This is my Classics Club Spin selection and I am doing a combo reading/audiobook listening. So far I haven't gotten into the story, which is completely confusing. 18% complete.
• The Vigil by George Saunders -- Audiobook -- A man is dying and his guide is trying to ease his transition but keeps being distracted by ghosts (for lack of a better word) who are laying out the case against this man for the choices he made in his life. 41% complete.
• Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres -- Don is listening to this book for the first time. Since he listens while he is driving around, I am often with him. I read the book in 1995 and loved it. I am enjoying re-listening to it with Don, even if I sometimes have to skip ahead if he listened without me. 41% complete.
• We Need No Wings by Ann Davila Cardinal -- E-Book -- a book club selection. I'm just getting started on this one.
• Blog posts:
• Sunday Salon --Mexico
• TTT: Books for Armchair Travelers
• Review: Wild Dark Shore
• TTT: Quotes from Books I Read in 2025
• Review: Vinegar Girl
• Classic review: A Passage to India

Shown at the Super Bowl Bad Bunny halftime show!

Amen!

-Anne

Classic Review: A PASSAGE TO INDIA

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster was written in 1924 just as cracks in the British Empire were starting to occur. The story is set in a fictional city on the Ganges River, Chandrapore, and the nearby Marabar Caves, which are also fictional but based on the Barabar Caves in another part of India. The author may have visited these mysterious caves while visiting the country in the early 1920s. In the book, the characters can see from the colonial club the Marabar Hills, "a group of fists and fingers...thrust up through the soil." It is here, in the Marabar Caves, the climax of the story occurs. But I get a head of myself.

The story begins in the courtyard of a mosque when Mrs. Moore, newly arrived in India from Great Britain, meets Dr. Aziz, an Indian doctor who works at a local clinic. His warning that women are not allowed in the mosque offends the lady but causes the two to sit down together and have a conversation. This is the first conversation Mrs. Moore has had with an actual Indian and it sparks an interest for her to discover the real India, not just the colonial idea of India. 

Mrs. Moore journeyed to India as an chaperone for Adela Quested, a possible fiance for her son, Ronny, the city magistrate in Chandrapore. She was appalled by the way the British treated Indians, like they were second class citizens of lower intelligence. In their quests to see and know India a tea party, with actual Indians was arranged for the women. But even in this event the separation between the two cultures was very clear. So a trip to the Marabar Caves was arranged and who better to go with them than Dr. Aziz, now a friend of Mrs. Moore.

"[…] We're out here to do justice and keep the peace. Them's my sentiments. India isn't a drawing-room."

"Your sentiments are those of a god," [Mrs. Moore] said quietly, but it was his manner rather than his sentiments that annoyed her.

Trying to recover his temper, [Ronny] said, "India likes gods."

"And Englishmen like posing as gods." 

The journey to the caves is not easy and it requires a train trip to a nearby station and then a ride upon a elephant caravan to reach the caves. (See book cover, upper right.) Once there they find a series of caves which all look the same from the outside. Once inside the caves there is no light but the echo of any noise is deafening and terrifying. Later Mrs. Moore describes the echo as "boum." After exiting she insists she cannot/will not go into another cave, so Adela, Dr. Aziz, and the guide go on together. The three get separated for a few moments, lost in the maze of caves. When they emerge, Adela accuses Dr. Aziz of rape.

Shmoop summarizes it this way, "so, a girl walks into a cave...and an empire trembles." Indeed the rape trial and its after effects are felt throughout the country. Forster seemed to realize that India was a sitting on a powder keg and was getting ready to blow. By the 1920s the idea of independence was gaining momentum. In 1918 the Rowlatt Act was put in place which took away some key liberties from Indians, and in 1919 peaceful demonstrators were fired upon by the British and 500 people were killed. Forster taps into this tension, by upping the profile. He has a powerful attorney from Calcutta brought in to represent Dr. Aziz, a man unable to pay for such high powered representation. (The country is watching!) When Adela crumpled on the witness stand and recanted her accusation, the whole country erupted.

I have to admit I was pretty shocked by A Passage to India. I had expected a novel about colonization but I didn't expect a novel about the dark side of it. Whenever I read a classic novel which I know is/was often read in high school English classes, I always ask myself "why?" With A Passage to India I have a clear answer. It is an excellent novel to dissect all the horrors of colonization and the right of people to be governed themselves as they see fit. There are so many themes which can be explored: justice, racial tension, religion, colonializations, power, individual autonomy, friendships, even weather.

I made the collage of book covers because each one of the covers tell a story worth exploring. I couldn't pick a favorite. The cover to the left, is the cover of the book I read, published in 1952, a reprinting from the original by Harcourt, Brace, and World. I found this antique copy in an old, dusty, used bookshop in Eastern Oregon, where my husband grew up. Inside the front cover was a name plate and Don, being Don, did a little exploration and thinks the original owner of the book was chiropractor from Portland. Inside was a newspaper clipping from The Wall Street Journal dated 2/3/88, about the Barabar Caves that served as the inspiration for the Marabar Caves in A Passage from India. The article was very interesting and led me to watch a documentary about a guy who visited the Barabar caves in India. I'd say based on both the article and documentary, don't make a trip to India to visit these caves. In addition, the book's first owner was a prolific underliner, adding some little notes written in the margins, all in pencil. I always find it fascinating to contemplate what others think is important in a book. And this actual volume was a treasure trove for me.

I rated the book with 4 stars, citing some confusing aspects of the plot as my reasons for not giving it highest marks. But it has aged well in my mind and I certainly understand why this book is considered a classic and why it is still recommended for all of us to read sometime before we die!

-Anne

Review: VINEGAR GIRL (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler 

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

Kate Battista was gardening out back when she heard the telephone ring in the kitchen. She straightened up and listened.

Friday56 quote:

She [Kate] didn't have the slightest idea what Mrs. Darling wanted to see her about. But then, she seldom did. The etiquette in this place was so mysterious! Or the customs, or conventions, or whatever ...Like, not showing strangers the soles of your feet or something.

Summary: Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, Vinegar Girl is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. It is a "screwball comedy of manners that actually channels Jane Austen more than Shakespeare. It is clear that Tyler had fun with Vinegar Girl, and readers will too...A fizzy cocktail of a romantic comedy, far more sweet than acidic, about finding a mate who appreciates your idiosyncratic, principled self-- no taming necessary" (NPR).

Review: I hadn't heard of the Hogarth Shakespeare series until I selected Vinegar Girl from a list of choices for a Goodreads challenge. I made the choice for two reasons: 1. the book is short (237 pages) and 2. I usually like Anne Tyler's books. Not exactly solid reasons to make a choice, but so be it. 

I am not that familiar with The Taming of the Shrew. Back when I was in college I took a term of classes in London, taught by American professors. In addition to typical college classes, we often attended cultural programs and one evening the whole class went to see The Taming of the Shrew performed by the Royal Shakespeare company in the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End. I remember little of the storyline other than Katerina (Kate) was a fiesty, confident woman who was broken by a man. By evening's end I was hopping mad and one of the boys in my class made fun of me. You know how memories are...anyway, that memory is not much to go on. 

In Vinegar Girl, Kate is neurodivergent, never quite fitting in or understanding social conventions. (See quotes above.) Her father sets her up with his lab assistant, Pyotr, in hopes that the two will get married so Pyotr can get a green card and stay in the country, as his old visa is running out. (This storyline hasn't aged well the past ten years! Ahem.) Pyotr is also awkward and hard to understand. The two are a matched set, or so Kate's father thinks. Mostly comedy (and a little romance) ensues. It was a very silly story, actually, but I enjoyed it. Like most of Tyler's books Vinegar Girl is full of flawed, quirky, yet likeable characters -- my favorite kinds. A reviewer writing for Shelf Awareness assures us that "readers unfamiliar with The Taming of the Shrew will have no problem enjoying this novel, which is funny, fun-loving, and uplifting. Those who know the original will be intrigued by Tyler's rifts." 

Now I'm ready to tackle another Hogarth Shakespeare novel. Should I read Atwood's version of The Tempest or Jo Nesbo's Macbeth first? 

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: Quotes from Books I Read in 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Quotes from Books I Read in 2025

____________________________________________

“All of history is one giant misunderstanding after another in a cacophony of voices, with the primary language, violence.”
― Daniel Nayeri, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story

“You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.”
― Lily King, Heart the Lover

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“A pretty sight, a lady with a book.”
― Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“Words cast spells. You should know this as a writer. That's why it's called spelling, Labas.”
― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

“I came here to pray to God,” Ania screamed at me. “You pray to Money. You beg Money to grant you Land. You pray to Land to grant you Money. You are a convert to the gods of this country.”
― Karen Russell, The Antidote

“Grief is such a—oh, it is such a solitary thing; this is the terror of it, I think. It is like sliding down the outside of a really long glass building while nobody sees you.”
― Elizabeth Strout, Oh William!

“It seems very American to expect grief to change something. Like a token you cash in. A formula. Grieve x amount, receive y amount of comfort. Work a day in the grief mines and get paid in tickets to the company store.”
― Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

“I’ve heard grief described as love with nowhere to go.”
― Catherine Newman, Sandwich

“Books won't solve my problems, Harriet.'
'No, but they give your problems perspective. They allow your problems to breathe.”
― Monica Wood, How to Read a Book

-Anne

Review: WILD DARK SHORE (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Wild Dark Shore: a Novel by Charlotte McConaghy

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

Rowan. 

I have hated my mother for most of my life but it is her face I see as I drown.

Friday56 quote (page 68):

Dominic. 

I am conflicted as I turn off the bike and help Rowan climb off. Half of me despises her. For existing. For being here. For being any part of a stunt which might harm my children.

Summary: Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. The island is home to the world's largest seed bank, and was once full of researchers. But now the sea levels are rising and the Salts are the final inhabitants. Until, during a terrible storm, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. As the family helps nurse the woman back to health they discover she is keeping secrets from them. But that is okay since they are keeping secrets from her, too.

Review: Wild Dark Shore has a lot going on. Let's see if I can begin to explain the complexity of this story.

First, there is the message of climate change and a rising sea level. Shearwater Island, an imaginary place patterned after an actual Australian research spot, Macquarie Island, is home to the world's seed bank. Saving seeds in case we need them in the future due to rising temperatures and other catastrophic climate events. But now Shearwater is becoming a victim of what researchers were using the island to research. Soon the island will be under the sea and the seeds, if they can be saved, will need to be relocated elsewhere.

Secondly, there is the Salt family -- Dominic, the father, and his three children: Raff, Fen, and Orly. Dominic is the caretaker of the island and has lived on it for eight years, moving in soon after the death of his wife to cancer. The family is set to leave the island in six weeks and had hoped to help the last of the researchers pack up the seeds, preparing them for transport, but none of the researchers survived and someone cut the radio and any communication systems the island had to communicate with the outside world.

A mysterious woman, Rowan, washes ashore which throws everything into turmoil. How did she get to the island and why? It is an out of the way place, one would have to be aiming for the island to find it. Since communications are down, she is forced to live with the family and wait to be rescued along with the Salts. But in the meantime, she start snooping around to see if she can find her husband, a lead researcher on the island. Where did the researchers go? Who is buried in the newly dug graves? And why do the Salts all seems to be tangled up in some emotional mess, possibly connected to ghosts? As Rowan draws close to the family, and they to her, there seems to be a possible moment where a new family could be formed.

The mysteries of the island don't seem willing to unlock themselves until the last twenty pages or so of the text and then everything comes rushing out in a gush. I had to put the book down. It was too much to take in all at once. Wow. What an impactful book.

I have to admit I was a little frustrated with the book. There were so many mysteries one almost felt like they had to juggle all the details and be careful not to drop a ball along the way. The story is dribbled out by the five narrators. Each chapter narrated by one person. Both Dominic's and Rowan's chapters were told in first person (note the excerpts above). Talk about confusing. The other three narrators got their point of view expressed in third person, which wasn't as confusing. My favorite narrator was Oly, the nine-year-old boy, who had lived nearly his whole life on the island, and had spent his time soaking in all he could about science from hanging around the researchers. He knew so much about the seeds and where they were from and what kind of plants they grew. I found his chapters fascinating.

I think the book asks some really hard questions. Among them, the age old one: How then shall we live? The Salts were really struggling with decisions about the future. After Shearwater, with its rugged, pristine isolation, where would they fit in the world? I imagine many people will ask themselves this same question in our near future. Where will they fit when their homeland is no longer habitable?

Lots of questions. Few answers.

My rating: 4.25 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: Books for Armchair Travelers

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travelers

No time or funds for exotic trips? No worries. 

Here are some books which will take you to those spots free of charge!

Italy:

 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (Cinqueterre) 

 The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (Venice)

Spain:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Barcelona)

 To the Field of Stars: A Pilgrim's Journey to Santiago de Compostela by Kevin Codd (The Camino)

India and Sri Lanka:

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Malabar Coast of Southern India, in the state of Kerala)

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Old Delhi and Kashmir) 

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Jaffna in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka)

The continent of Africa:

 The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (Nigeria)

West With the Night by Beryl Markham (Kenya)

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

East Asia:

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Vietnam)

Pachinko by Min Lin Lee (South Korea)

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (Cambodia)

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (Kamchatka, Eastern Russia)

Australia and New Zealand

Island Home by Tim Winton (Western Australia)

Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump (New Zealand)

The Americas

In Darkness by Nick Lake (Haiti)

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (Chile)

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede (Newfoundland, Canada)

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton (USA)

I could go on but will stop. I will also be taking notes on your lists to give me idea of good books to read about your reading around-the-world experiences.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- ¡Mexico!

¡Mexico!

Weather: In Xcaret, Q.Roo, Mexico: 80 degrees and sunny yesterday. Here: 45 degrees and sunny today.

We just got back from a week-long vacation to Mexico on the Yucatán Peninsula near Cancún. Here are a few highlights of our week:

• Top left: We met up with two of my siblings, Tony and Kathy, and their spouses. In the photo we are finishing our meal in the Asian restaurant at the resort. In addition to two buffets on site, there were several specialty-themed restaurants (Mexican, Asian, Italian, Fish, etc.) which required reservations. I've never been to an all-inclusive resort before. I liked it a lot for the ease and convenience. During the days couples would split up and do whatever they wanted and then every evening we would get together for dinner and sometimes drinks and games afterwards. On Sunday, Feb. 7th, we all gathered at the Sports Bar on the resort site and watched the Superbowl together. They switched the audio to English but it didn't matter since it was so loud in the bar. There were a lot of noisy fans cheering for their favorite team. Since we are all from the West Coast of the US, we all cheered for the Seahawks. 
• Top center: This is the view from my lounge chair on many days as I laid under the palm trees near the sea. My husband preferred to lounge on the curtained beds next to my chair. I ended up reading almost a whole, big book (over 400 pages.) The temperatures in the shade were usually in the low 80s with a nice ocean breeze. Often we could see the adventurous souls who ventured out for parasailing, as they sailed by being pulled by boats. Books completed this week: The Guardian and a Thief by Marjan Kamali and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. I'm still currently reading the Wild Dark Shore by McConaghy. I'm listening to Vinegar Girl by Tyler.
• Top right: One afternoon we went to a nearby cenote, The Garden of Eden Cenote, for a refreshing outing. A cenote is a natural, water-filled sinkhole formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, revealing an underlying, crystal-clear groundwater system. Derived from the Mayan word ts’ono’ot ("well"), these pools are predominantly found in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and were historically considered sacred, representing entrances to the underworld. In the photo you see me and Don sitting on a mossy rock watching little fish nibble at the dead skin on our feet and legs. This was my favorite activity of the trip...the cenote, not the fish.
• Middle left: I did a lot of bird watching. Pictured is the Great Kiskadee. Other new birds to me: the Great-tailed Grackle; a group of Ocellated Turkeys; several Tropical Mockingbirds; Yucatán Jays, they were everywhere around the cenote; the Common Squirrel-Cuckoo; I heard the Altamira Oriole and saw its woven, upside-down nest; Brown Pelicans; Black vultures. I also met the Harris Hawk who was working the resort with a handler to keep down the number of grackles who would harass us otherwise. Two other birds seen around the cenote which I've seen before -- an Anhinga pair and a Green Heron working the edges of the sinkhole.
• Center: Sunrise over the Caribbean Sea.
• Middle right: Ruins at Tulum, one of the last cities built and inhabited by Mayans, prominent during the 13th to 15th centuries. (Wiki)
• Bottom left: Nohuch Mul pyramid is the tallest structure in the Mayan ruins at Coba. My sister joined Don and I one day to explore the ruins at Coba and Tulum. Coba is very spread out so our guide (a beautiful Mayan woman) and Don rode bikes between sights, while Kathy and I were escorted around by pedicab. The Spaniards never found this location so it is more intact than many of the other Mayan settlements because it was abandoned about 1100 CE and the jungle had grown over it before the Europeans arrived. We could have climbed the pyramid, behind us in the photo, but that didn't sound fun to Kathy and I so Don didn't push it. (Wiki)
• Bottom middle: Spider monkeys. Signs everywhere at the resort implored people to not feed the animals, but the monkeys were opportunistic little thieves. If someone left their sliding glass door open even for a minute, they would race in and steal from the complimentary fruit bowl. The resort also had a bunch of coatimundis running around. They are raccoon-like. Agoutis, rodents which are like little capybaras. White-tailed deer and iguanas were everywhere.

  

  Here is one stealing our last apple.

  
  
• Bottom right: Don and I grabbed a last hour of sun before we left our Mexico resort and made our way home to Washington State.
• Thank you, Tony and Becky for making our Mexico trip possible!

Look who missed their grandparents and greeted us today:

The grandkids were excited by the kit we gave them to create an axolotl, in the Mexican art style, Alebrijes -- Alebrijes (ah-leh-bree-hehs) are the brightly colored, fantastical Mexican folk art creatures, often featuring mixed animal parts, carved from wood or made from papier-mâché. Originating in Mexico City in the 1930s by Pedro Linares, they are now iconic, intricately painted, whimsical figures primarily produced in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Happy Valentine's Day to the love of my life!

Now. Time to get to the laundry and plan a trip to the grocery store.

-Anne

Review: ATMOSPHERE: A LOVE STORY (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Atmosphere: a Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:

Dec. 29, 1984                                                                                                                            Joan Goodwin gets to the Kennedy Space Center well before nine, and Houston is already airless and muggy.

Friday56 quote: 

Happiness is so hard to come by. I don't understand why anyone would begrudge anyway else for managing to find some of it.

Summary: 

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars. (Publisher)

Review: I loved Daisy Jones and the Six and disliked Malibu Rising both by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Though one would never know how I felt about the books by my ratings. I gave both of these books a rating of 4 stars. Ha! Therefore, I decided to read Atmosphere: a Love Story with a little trepidation. Would I love or dislike this one? Well, I'm happy to report, I loved this one.

Back in 1979, Joan Goodwin and Vanessa Ford are in the second class of potential female astronauts with NASA. They work hard and build a strong bond with the other members of their initiation class. Both of these women were tapped for their special skills -- Joan, astrophysics; Vanessa, for mechanics. The two form a strong bond and eventually fall in love. But during this time period being involved in a gay love affair would be a sure way to get fired, especially from such a organization as NASA. For this reason Joan and Vanessa have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone including their friends and family. When there is an accident in space the reality of their relationship verses the need to remain astronauts comes into focus.

When I sat with this story for a while after finishing the book, I determined that it advised me on an emotional level the validity of same-sex marriage. Everyone deserves to be loved and no one should dictate who others love. It was a powerful experience for me.

My rating: 4.5 stars

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