Sunday Salon -- Easter 2024

View from the condo where we are staying at Zion. We woke up to a wintery wonderland.

Weather: We are in Zion, Utah. It is snowing.

Easter Sunday Communion elements

Church on TV, legos for Jamie, coffee and jammies for us.

Easter: Happy Easter. We celebrated today by watching the live-feed from our home church service, which included communion. We had a bottle of wine open, so why not participate? The boys had a little egg hunt inside.

The view of the red rocks while we waited for our turn in the tunnel. The sky is giving us a warning of weather (snow) to come.

Zion National Park: We all drove through the park yesterday to get to our "cabin" (which is nicer than our house) but we didn't stop. We're here all week and will return to explore it up close. But we did take a few shots out the window.

Muggin' for the camera. I asked Ian to look up. I didn't mean look that far up.

Fun: We are vacationing with our whole family (seven of us) here in Zion. We also hope to visit Bryce Canyon National Park if the weather cooperates. Today, though, we stuck close to home and went on an adventure in the snow. The boys are delighted with the snow and love their hilarious wet weather suits.

Don and I and long-dead dinosaurs at the Utah Natural History Museum. We really enjoyed the special exhibit they are hosting right now about Jane Goodall.

Traveling in an EV: This is our first long trip in our EV. We are learning that we have to adjust travel time and be patient if we have to wait our turn to charge but by-in-large it has been a fun experience. While we charge we have listened to our audiobooks on our portable speaker so we aren't draining the battery while we are trying to charge it up. We spent one night at my sister's home in Boise (Thank you), two nights in Salt Lake City, where we went to an organ concert in the Mormon Tabernacle, and visited the Natural History Museum. What a lovely setting.

Books: We've finished two audiobooks: 

• The Fraud by Zadie Smith, the author's first historical fiction and not a personal favorite. 
• Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz, the second book in the Susan Ryland series. 

       I've also finished two print books: 

• Dark Testament: Black Poems by Crystal Simone Smith. The book is made up of erasure poems using the text from Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Very clever and moving.
• No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler. A moving memoir about her life after a cancer diagnosis.

       I'm currently reading:

• Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knightley. The book is organized by themes so I am bopping around trying to read up on the parks we hope to visit on this trip or ones we've recently visited. 
• When You Ask Me Where I'm Going by Jasmin Kaur. This book is a mixture of poems, essays, illustrations.

Smile Network: Biden's Greatest Achievements So Far Sometimes it seems like the news is only about the bad stuff politicians are doing. Read this if you want to feel good about what Biden has done so far.

And just for laughs:

Happy Easter. Have a good week!

-Anne

Review: THE VASTER WILDS

Title: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Book Beginnings quote: 

The moon hid itself behind the clouds. The wind spat an icy snow at angles. In the tall black wall of the palisade, through a slit too seeming thin for human passage, the girl climbed into the great and terrible wilderness.

Friday56 quote: 

The waves crashed and the wind screamed, and what noise there was outside was matched by the prayers and shouts within.

Summary: A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the middle of the night in the depth of winter. She is running from what is inside the settlement: famine, disease, and death. She is running toward something she hopes is better than where she was, but knows not where she is going or how far she needs to travel to get there. The Vaster Wilds is both an adventure story and a "penetrating fable about trying to find a way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism." It tells a story of America at the beginning of a hinge in history. Can the girl save herself? Is the life she is living worth saving?

Review: The Vaster Wilds was often mentioned as one of the best books of 2023 on end-of-the-year lists. That was enough of a temptation to make me want to read it but I really had no idea what it was about. Colonialism, imagined history, religion? I kept thinking Groff was writing about the lost colonial town of Jamestown, the first European settlement in America, though the James River was mentioned, the settlement remained unnamed in the telling.

Just imagine being forced, as a servant, to move to an unsettled land with your employer and then having to face all the unknowns ahead with little to guide you but your will to live, your imagination and ingenuity. Imagine also of doing this without the aid of the indigenous people of the land, who you fear more than is reasonable because of ignorance and supposed superiority.

I like the use of the word "fable" in the book's description, because the story does unfold like a fable, with a moral at its end. The girl, who has many names but it rarely called anything other than "she", survives for many weeks in the wilds, but to what ends? It is an adventure story but one that unfolds in a dreamlike sequence.

After finishing the book I immediately rated it with three stars, thinking it was too slow, plodding, dreamlike to be of any interest. I worried that our future book club discussion would be a flop with such a tale. But after sleeping on that rating for a night, and after returning to the book twice to reread the last few chapters several times, I am left with a strong impression this book will remain with me for a long, long time -- rattling around in my brain and making quite a bit of noise about its complex message about the horrors of colonialism and manifest destiny. It also brings up big questions about the role of religion and belief in God which I want to probe further. I've upgraded my rating to a 4.25. Who knows, by the end of the week, I may move it up to a five!

-Anne

TTT: Favorite books read the past 12 months

Top Ten Tuesday:

(Off-topic) My favorite books read the past 12 months, one per month.

I did a similar post in 2020 (Oh, That year!) I thought I would try it again . Some months I had a hard time picking my favorite since I liked a lot of the books I read that month. Other months I had to hold my nose and pick the best of the worst. 

I am off-topic today because I am terrible about keeping track of what miniseries I watch on TV and don't generally know if they originated as books.

March 2024 (so far)

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. Loved this book with a strong feminist message.

February 2024

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. This won't be most people's favorite book but I loved it and understand why it won the National Book Award.

January 2024

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I loved, loved, loved this epic story.

December 2023

Babel by R.F. Kuang. What a story! I have a crush on the author's brain. This book and the words, words, words.

November 2023

Accountable: The True Story of A Racist social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives Changed by Dashka Slater. This book represents the best of YA Nonfiction.

October 2023

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. This novella seems to be about the real old west.

September 2023

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. A super well-written nonfiction account about a disturbing topic -- poverty and Americans being left behind.

August 2023

The Art of Barbie by Craig Yoe. The only book I gave 5-stars to in August. I admit I was pretty obsessed with Barbie this month.

July 2023

Work Song by Ivan Doig. I love this author, this series, and the audiobook narrator for it.

June 2023

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. A very prescient story. It broke my heart.

May 2023

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai. An epic family story over seventy-five years of Vietnam's history. I got totally swept up in this story and realized how little I actually knew of Vietnam's history.

April 2023

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. This Pulitzer Prize winner has it all -- complex, unique, and historical plot; quirky characters; and comics!

March 2023

Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This book is so fun and so creative. I loved every minute of it except the realization that the author died of cancer before I found my way to her. Some of the internet links are still live and the book lives on.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- SPRING!

The family gathers to help Mom celebrate her 95th!

Weather: Spring has arrived but even though the trees are flowering, it is still cold and moist, read wet, outside.

95! Mom celebrated her 95th birthday with a goodly number of her family with her. So much love. So much laughter.

My younger sister, Grace, gave my grandsons books. They loved them.

Family love: We do enjoy being together. My sisters love my grandsons as I do. Our niece had a baby boy three months ago and we got to meet him finally. (They requested no photos.) A cousin's daughter just had her first baby. 

Palm Sunday: Today is Palm Sunday, the day in the church calendar when Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem kicks off the Holy Week before Easter. Our grandsons waved palm branches at the beginning of the service. Afterward the service we took a family photo. As you see Jamie was having none of it. Being three is hard work.

Ready. Set. Go: We head toward Utah on Tuesday where we will vacation with our immediate family for a week and try to take in all the National Parks that state has to offer. We are also packing lots of games and books.

Audiobook possibles: Don and I are driving, the kids are flying and then renting a car. We will meet up at a rental house near Zion National Park. We have at least 30 hours of driving time. You know what that means -- lots of time to listen to audiobooks. Here is a list of audiobooks I have queued up on my phone. We'll see which ones we actually listen to:

• The Fraud by Zadie Smith (We have three hours left to this book, so we will finish it first.)
• The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright (It is a Women's Prize longlisted book for 2024.)
• Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (A Pulitzer Prize winner from the 1970s.)
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (My One-Big-Book for 2024.)
• Symphonies of Secrets by Brendon Slocumb 
• The Great Divide by Christina Henriques
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

April is National Poetry Month: Since we will still be on the road during the early part of April, I have a pile of poetry books  which I will pick through before we leave to take along with me.

• All Souls: Poems by Saskia Hamilton
• Dark Testaments: Poems by Crystal Simone Smith
• The Kissing of Kissing: Poems by Hannah Emerson
• Serenity: Poems by F.S. Yousif
• Suddenly We by Emily Shockley
• How to Be Perfect by Ron Padgett

Pair of Pileated Woodpeckers: At our suet feeder. Imagine our surprise when we looked up and saw this big fellow chowing down at our feeder. His mate was hanging out on a fence nearby.

And the cats:

Fred can't decide if this is a pulpit, lectern, or barstool.

Fred and George are playing with Jamie's waffle-blocks setup.

Happy Spring.

-Anne

Review: THE EGG AND I

Title: The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald

Beginning quote: 

Along with teaching us that lamb be cooked with garlic and that a lady never scratches her head or spits, my mother taught my sisters and me that it is a wife's bounden duty to see that her husband is happy in his work.

Friday56 quote: 

When the garden were finished and the orchard had been cleared and plowed, we started on the big chicken house.

Summary: Betty MacDonald's first memoir about her life as a farmer's wife and his most important helper (she wrote several other memoirs.) After marrying, Betty and her new husband bought a run-down farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The goal was to have an operational chicken farm, mainly for eggs. But life on a rural farm with no running water or electricity, a rundown house, barns full of animals, and orchards and beds of vegetables, meant there was never a moment to spare in the author's life. Published in 1945, The Egg and I was about life in the early 1930s. It was an instant hit and a movie was made of it in 1947 starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

Review: I selected The Egg and I from among the library kit offerings at our public library because it is set in Washington State where we live. Many of the older women in the club exclaimed that they had read the book, seen the movie, or were aware of the book or author because their parents read it. I thought I'd made a good choice. Then I read the book and I was mortified by the blatant racism in the book toward Native Americans. I realize that people had different sensibilities in the 1940s and so probably no one at the time thought anything of the denigration of Indigenous people, but this is 2024. I was shocked and sickened by it.

I attended book club last night ready to do battle, if necessary. But before I left for the meeting I found this article about the author and discovered a few pieces of information that made me soften my stance a tiny bit. (Seattle Times, Sept. 4, 2016) Of interest to me was learning Betty MacDonald's husband was an abusive alcoholic. She left him and they divorced in 1937 in the height of the Depression. Never in the book did she bad mouth her husband or mention his drinking but knowing this may explain her antipathy toward the "drunk Indians" not so much because of their race, but more because these were men who drank with her husband. I'm guessing about this. I don't know this for sure. It wasn't until she was married to another man that Betty started writing so this memoir is a look back on her life. She was one of the most popular humorists of the time and she had a way of looking at the reality of her life from an absurd, funny angle. Her life was super hard, it was the Depression after all, but she didn't write about the horrors of it in a way that made reader feel sorry for her. "Part of MacDonald’s tough humor derived from her credence in her family’s much-repeated motto, 'Don’t be a saddo.”"

I left book club with a greater appreciation of the book, though I will never tell anyone to read it, I was glad that our book club discussion went well while we all chewed on the topic of whether a book should be laid to rest as societies move forward toward a more equal view of everyone.

-Anne

TTT: My Spring Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday: Spring Reading List. 

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

Spring reading list:

Book Club Selections:

1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer (April, Group #1)
2. West With Giraffes by Rutledge (April, Group #2)
3. Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro (May, Group #1)
   
4. The Vaster Wilds by Groff (May, Group #2)
5. Plainsong by Haruf (June, Group #1)
6. The River We Remember by Krueger (June, Group #2)

Challenge Books:

1. Classics Club Spin Book TBA from this list -- Possibly The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
   
2. A Past Pulitzer Prize winner from list --  hopefully The Known World by Jones
   
3. Printz Award winner or honor book from this list -- possibly The Collectors: Stories edited by A.S. King
4. My One Big Book Challenge book -- Wolf Hall by Mantel
5. April Poetry Month: -- possibly Mahogany by Erica Lewis

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

1. My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante
2. The Fraud by Zadie Smith
3. The Bee Sting by Murray
4. The Symphony of Secrets by Slocumb
5. Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot 
6. No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
7. Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright: Poems edited by Waters, et al

Update: How I did on my winter reading list.

Highlighted yellow: completed. 

Highlighted aqua: in progress or dnf

Highlighted green:  not completed

Winter reading list:

Book Club Selections:

1. The Bride Test by Huong (Jan, Group #1)
2.  The Covenant of Water by Verghese (Jan., Group #2)
3. The Huntress by Quinn (Feb., Group #1)
   
4. The Rabbit Hutch by Gunty (Feb, Group #2)
5. The Egg and I by MacDonald (Mar., Group #1)
6. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by See (Mar. Group #2)

Challenge Books:

1. Classics Club Spin Book TBA from this list -- Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
   
2. A Past Pulitzer Prize winner from list -- See above -- Old Man and the Sea
   
3. Printz Award winner or honor book from this list -- I did not read any of the Printz winners 
4. My One Big Book Challenge book -- Wolf Hall by Mantel, I'm scheduled to start this book on 3/28/24

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

1. My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante
2. The News of the World by Jiles
3. Babel by Kuang
4. The Land of Lost Things by Connolly
5. Tiny Habits by Fogg
6. Nonfiction books as part of Cybils 2nd round judge responsibility. I read all 17 books for my category.

Analysis: I've been in a bit of reading slump since I completed reading for the Cybils in mid-February. I hope that an upcoming trip will jolt me into a better reading space since we will be in the car for hours and hours which should be good audiobook listening time.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- St. Patrick's Day 2024

Hilarious photo of our grandson doubling as a leprechaun wearing his Christmas PJs hovering above the solo-stove. You are welcome! (Photo by D. Adams, stickered by C. Bennett)

Weather: Gorgeous and warm. The family is outside playing corn hole. Yesterday we went for our first drive of the year in our convertible. We pruned the hydrangeas the day before. Today we got seeds at a seed exchange at church. Spring here we come.

Our street trees: Flowering plums. Photo: A. Bennett, 3/15/24

It's been three weeks since my last post. What's been happening:

• Our youngest, Carly, bought a house and we've been helping her paint a few rooms and move in. She is still living here in our house with us until after our family vacation to Utah in a a few weeks. Yesterday we helped her hang pictures so it is really starting to feel like her home.
• Her cats, Fred and George, have become a fixture around here, reminding us how much we like cats. In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday earlier this month, we've been working on rhymes involving these ginger-colored brothers. Like: "Fred is on the bed." and "Nothing rhymes is George except forge and gorge. How do we make a rhyme out of that?"
• Don and I carried a picnic with us to enjoy at the end of our convertible ride. We stopped at Veterans' Park alongside South Prairie Creek and sat at a picnic table comfortably basking in the the end-of-winter weather.

Books, books, books: I am in a bit of a reading funk, but have managed to read and review a few books over the past three weeks:

• The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. A reread for me. Last read in 8th grade. I liked it but it isn't quite the story I remember. Read for Classics Club spin.
• The Rabbit Hutch by Gunty. A book club selection and a very quirky book, but I REALLY liked it. It is so well-written and thought provoking. We had a great discussion.
• The River We Remember by Krueger. Another book club selection for a future meeting. It is a mystery so it won't be the usual discussion, based on the fact we'll all know the ending.
• When Women Were Dragons by Barnhill. All women should read this book. Dragons are a metaphor for pent up feelings of anger for being treated as "less-than" for centuries.
• Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See. Historical fiction based on a real female doctor who lived in the 15th century in China. Wow. 
• Above Ground: Poems by Clint Smith. Smith, a new father, writes about parenthood, something we can all relate to even if we aren't parents. (Because we had parents!)
• The Egg and I by McDonald. A classic memoir published in 1945. Humorous, interesting, and cringe-worthy. I am one chapter away from completion. Print. 95% complete.
• The Vaster Wild by Groff. Alternative history. I started this book yesterday. Audio. 10% complete.

I had all these ideas of what to include in this post but the sunshine beckons. I'll leave off on a few funnies!

Time change got you? Give in to the urge to sleep in!

Skimble (left) and Sasha (right), our other ginger-colored grandcats, adjusting to the time change.

-Anne

Review: LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN

Title: Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

Book Beginning quote:

Friday56 quote:

“I wish I were a giant gingko tree hundreds of years old, with the deep roots it takes to stand strong against mighty winds. Instead, I feel like a sapling in a typhoon, desperately trying to hang on.”

Summary: This historical novel is inspired by the true story of a female physician living during the 15th century in China, Lady Tan Yunxian. She was born into an elite family, was trained to be a female doctor by her grandmother who was also a doctor for women, was married into another elite family at age 15 where her mother-in-law didn't want her to practice her craft. Her first days in her new home, as a young bride, Yunxian was tremendously lonely and bored. She wanted to work, yet she was expected to embroider foot slippers for bound feet, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay within the confines of the family compound, The Garden of Fragrant Delights. Eventually she is allowed to practice medicine, but only for women. In breaking with tradition, she goes on to treat women and girls from all walks of society, writes a book, and develops treatments which are still used today. "Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today" (Publisher).

Review: Lady Tan's Circle of Women is tremendously interesting and scrupulously researched. This is the third book I've read by Lisa See and I felt the same way about the other two books. I learned so much and had my eyes opened about aspects of history I knew nothing about.  The existence of women in the 15th century in China (and all around the world) was so bleak. They had few rights and were never thought of as equals with men. Yet, here is Lady Tan, an amazing woman and physician that defies all expectations and lives an important life, one that matters even today.

I can't even begin to tell you everything about this book, nor would I want to since I hope you will read it for yourself. But I want you to know about this incredible resource Lisa See has put together about the book Lady Tan's Circle of Women, Chinese medicine, foot-binding, and so much more. I think I could spend several days exploring all the resources she has put together for her readers. STEP INSIDE: THE WORLD OF LADY TAN . It is the best book resource I have ever encountered. Read the book. Visit the website. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. My one bummer, I will have to miss the book club where this book will be discussed.

-Anne