My Head Is Full of Books: Sunday Salon -- A lot going on!

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Sunday Salon -- A lot going on!

Weather: Beautiful. The temperature today is suppose to make 80 degrees. Fall weather is still acting very summerish.

Three weeks: My last Sunday Salon was three weeks ago. We've had a lot going on and 'doing' trumps 'writing about doing.' So here I am trying to consolidate down three weeks worth of doings!

Cybils Judge: I've been selected as a Round 1 judge for the Poetry panel. We begin our work mid October after all the books are nominated. I visited all the web pages for the other Round 1 judges and it appears I'm the only secondary education expert in the group, so that will be my niche. (Cybils Poetry Panel) I've judged the Nonfiction categories the past five years, so this will be a different experience for me. If you follow me on Goodreads you will start noticing a lot of children's poetry books on my 'read' list soon. (Goodreads.)

Wedding: We've driven up and down the freeway several times in the last three weeks. On one trip we went to the wedding of a friend's daughter. It was the first Jewish wedding either of us have ever attended and it was so beautiful, meaningful, and fun. The groom's brother led the service and created a helpful guide so we could understand what was going on throughout. My favorite parts were a. Sheva Brachot, the seven blessings; b. Birkat Kohanim, the priestly benediction; c. The Hora, a lively dance accompanied by the singing of Hava Nagila, and the chair dance.

Anne Marie, the bride's mother, and I have been best friends since college, each being the other's maid of honor when we got married. The lovely collage, above, is highlighting items in Anne Marie's lovely yard where she hosted a brunch the day after the wedding. It has been a long time since I've spent any time with Anne Marie's family and it was wonderful to rub elbows with her husband, father, sisters (and spouses), cousins, and children.

Blogging: I have been busy on my blog even if I haven't created Sunday Salon posts. Posts from the three weeks:

Top Ten Tuesday posts:

Reviews

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
Woke: A Young Poet's Call for Justice by Mahogany L. Browne, Elisabeth Acevedo, Olivia Gatwood
These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson by Martha Ackmann
Four Short Book Reviews for
Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh (RHS Gals books club selection for September)
Complications by Atul Gawande
Break Shot by James Taylor
Inheritance: A Visual Poem by Elisabeth Acevedo
We Are Called to Be a Movement by Dr. Rev. William Barber III

Other topics

Classics Club Spin #31 -- I'll be reading As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Banned Books Week
Random Thoughts (This post might be the most fun for you to read, since my thoughts are truly random and not necessarily related to books and reading.)
2022 Banned Books Week Wrap-up

Books I've completed in the past three weeks but haven't reviewed yet

Alone With the Stars by David Gillman
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (SOTH Gals Book Club selection for September)
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
I'm Nobody. Who Are You? by Emily Dickinson

Currently reading

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Audio, 60%)
Cross Purposes by Bob Welch (Print, 25 %, a future SOTH book club selection)
Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Essays, Anecdotes A-Z by Irene Latham (E-book, 50%)
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok (Print, 5%, SOTH book club for October)

Football: We made another trip to Eugene for our first football game which was last weekend. After the game we zoomed up the freeway in order to get Kathy, my sister, to the Sea-Tac airport in time for her flight to Cambodia, where she is now visiting an orphanage and sight-seeing. Don's comment to me as we sat in Autzen Stadium watching the UO Ducks play the BYU Cougars, "This is my happy place." 😄

Visitors from Canada: Finally the borders are open so a high school friend, Jean, and her partner, Chrissy, were able to visit us after a long hiatus. After they left us, they took the long way home and vacationed in several places in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. I am not sure exactly where they were staying when Jean snapped this spectacular photo. Where ever it is, I want to go there!

Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada! Photo credit: J. Darnell

Politics: A lot has happened in the world concerning politics in the past three weeks. These are a few highlights/lowlights:

1. It's Time For for Congress to Seat the Cherokee Nation Delegate as promised in the 1835 treaty. I recommend that you watch the video for more on this topic.

2. On a related note, Congress reaches historic representation with the swearing in of Rep. Mary Peltola from Alaska this past week. "With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, an Alaska Native and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States' Indigenous people for the first time" (NPR). There are currently six Indigenous Americans in Congress.

3. TFG (The former guy) is in trouble:

4. TFG's request for a Special Master for the documents' dispute at Mar-a-Largo is turning into a train wreck for him. "It was an immensely satisfying hearing for informed lawyers, reporters and onlookers who felt as though Cannon was gaslighting the country by entertaining Trump’s utterly groundless claims. For once, Trump did not get treated with kid gloves. Dearie affirmed that Trump is not entitled to special treatment because he was once president; this is how the rule of law is supposed to work." (WaPo)

5. Migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard have filed a class-action suit against DeSantis (R- Florida). (Axios) And, by the way, the stunt that DeSantis pulled to gain attention among MAGA republicans who "hate" all immigrants, has backfired spectacularly. Now DeSantis trails Charlie Crist (D) in a new poll taken since the migrant flight. At one point DeSantis polled 6 points over his challenger, now Crist polls a half a point ahead of DeSantis. (Newsweek)

6. Roe reversal has prompted many women to register to vote, hoping to save women's healthcare issues. Will it be the difference maker in November? I hope so! (The Guardian)

7. Book bans are an attack on the freedom to read, teach, learn. " We cannot build a future together if we are not willing to honestly face the truth about our past and our present." (Chicago Sun-Times)

Okay, enough of that. Let's take a mental health break, shall we? I've been thinking about these brownies ever since I watched all ten minutes of this video: 100-hour fudgy brownies. I know I will never make them, but I may watch the video of them being made again. 😁

Birthday Boys: Both of our grandsons have September birthdays. Their mom, our daughter, had a very stressful month with lots of responsibilities due to the beginning of the school year (she's a teacher), a teacher's strike, building a new house, and the care and feeding of a young family. We stepped in to help by hosting a family party for Jamie, the now two-year old. Our younger daughter and I created the Construction cake for it. Earlier we'd taken Ian to the Puyallup Fair for his birthday gift. He's old enough to know that the funnest part of the fair is the rides. We forced him to do some other things like watching the Mr. Science show (He loved it), a walk through the dinosaur exhibit (Not as great as any of us had hoped), a look at the animals in the petting zoo and the mama pig with brood of piglets ("I've seen the pigs, Grandpa, let's go to the rides.")

Ian is five. We happened to babysit him on his big day as his school district was on strike, postponing his first day of kindergarten.

Fortunately this T-Rex didn't swallow Ian whole. (See Ian in there?)

Jamie loved his cake, er I mean, loved the toy trucks, the lit candles, and all the candy. Unfortunately, Jamie broke his leg a few days before his birthday so the poor boy didn't get to romp around the yard with his brother and cousins.

Kindergarten: Ian is now officially a kindergartener. After the strike ended, Ian met with his new teacher and started school last Wednesday. His mom said that he was doing great on his first day, but she was not. It is an emotional milestone.