Malorie stands in the kitchen, thinking. Her hands are damp. She is trembling. She taps her toe nervously on the cracked tile floor. It is early; the sun is probably only peeking above the horizon. She watches its meager light turn the heavy window drapes a softer color of black and thinks, That was a fog.
Friday56 quote (from Chapter 5):
Online they are calling it "the Problem". There exists the widespread communal belief that whatever "the Problem" is, it definitely begins when a person sees something.
Summary: Something is out there. No one who has seen it has lived to tell what "it" is. But it is known that if a person "sees it" they will instantly go violently and suicidally insane. Only a few survivors remain, scattered and disjointed, including Malorie and her two four-year-old children. Now that they are old enough, she has decided to attempt a trip down the river to find other survivors. But can they do it blind-folded?
Review: My book club usually reads books selected by a librarian and placed into a book kit convenient for club use. The kits are usually literary fiction or narrative nonfiction. We've rarely selected fantasy or Sci-Fi, so this thriller was a shock to our sensibilities. Here is a bunch of old church ladies reading a book about an apocalypse and post-apocalypse time and all the horrors that are contained within. I worried that no one would like it, but everyone found it thrilling. And thrilling it was. The writing wasn't especially strong but the pulse and beat was undeniable. Even when writing about mundane things like inventorying the food, the background thrumped with menace. After reading the book, my husband and I found and viewed the movie with Sandra Bullock in the lead. As with most book to movie adaptations, the book was better and the movie more compressed. I liked them both.
Book club discussion questions include spoilers, so only look after you've finished the book: Grand Rapids Library.
Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from current book. The Friday56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Find a quote from page 56 to share. Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.
Top Ten Tuesdays: Favorite novels with extra-long titles.
1. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Owning Making by Catherynne M. Valente. All the books in this series, of which this is the first, have deliciously long titles. I absolutely love this one. Say it out loud. It rolls off the tongue in an amazing way.
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I think this is very clever. It gets the reader past the starting spot in a hurry.
3. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonnasson. The book is nearly as silly as the title and I laughed my way through it.
4. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman. I just finished this gem. What a fun and unique book. Its subtitle helps set the stage.
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Maybe not as long as some but a title worth repeating for the brilliance of the book.
6. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. The heart and soul of this book is as big as the title is long.
7. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by D.C. Pierson. The title once again gets the readers off to a good start.
8. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. I was always trying to get students to read this hilarious book and never had much luck at it. Do you think it was the title that did it in?
9. The Girl Who Fell Below Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente. I decided that I loved the first title so much I should share the title of the second book in the series.
10. A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. A book as fun as its title.
Note: as I perused by reading list I noticed it is usually nonfiction titles with long subtitles that were the likely subjects of today's TTT. I decided to stick with YA and Adult fiction titles only. Hence I don't have any of those big, long, wraparound things that you find on nonfiction books.
Weather: The weather is definitely fall-ish. The rain has arrived with wind and colder temperatures.
Family News: This week I went to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (all animals native to the Pacific Northwest) with my daughter and grandsons. We had such a good time and saw so many animals going about their active lives: a porcupine that was very interested in talking my grandson into letting him out of his confines; two badgers digging away; two bears playing in the water; a skunk who couldn't decide if he wanted to be in or out of his den; and two river otters playing. The park has a wonderful play area for kids. Ian loved the slide. The park was decorated for Halloween, so Ian found a lot of other things to distract him, like the circle of ghosts that invited him to dance with them. It was a perfect way to spend a fall day.
Books:
Finished this week:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. What a fun and joyful book.
A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Rucker and Leonnig. Wow, just wow. The authors write for the Washington Post and have done meticulous research for this book which gives such a full picture of his biggest anti-hits.
Currently reading:
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. A memoir of growing up in South Africa. Audiobook, 24%.
Everybody Looking by Candace Iloh. A young adult book about an African American girl who wants to embrace her own culture and make her own way in the world. E-book, 12%.
How to Fly: in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons by Barbara Kingsolver. Poetry by a beloved author. Print, 58%.
Good News: (Very random news this week. The polling for Biden gets better every week. It seems like people are definitely locking in Biden. Yet...eek! I am afraid to take my eyes off the news for fear that I will miss the thing that turns things upside down.)
1. Time in Trumpville, where we all live now, seems to move at warp speed. Therefore it seems like this event happened several years ago but it was actually this past week that Joe Biden gave the speech of his lifetime considered the 2020 Gettysburg Address. Listen to the whole thing. It is worth the time and will make you feel hopeful again. (PBS)
2. Pope Francis's new message could sway Catholics over to the Biden side. (The Guardian)
In this weekend’s document he [The Pope] makes it clear that populism and
nationalism – of the kind Trump typifies – are damaging, warning that “a
concept of popular and national unity influenced by various ideologies
is creating new forms of selfishness and a loss of the social sense
under the guise of defending national interests”.
3. I guarantee you will shed at least one tear over this sweet exchange...
4. My mom's cousin is from Norway, where they are having quite a bit of success keeping the coronavirus at bay. He sent us an interesting article about the one word that explains why---"dugnad." (Noteworthy)
Dugnad (pronounced doog-nahd); a Norwegian cultural tradition where
community members work together towards a common goal, for the greater
good for all.
Imagine how wonderful it would be if Americans would be willing to work together towards a common goal.
5. My hubby and I attended a Zoom meeting with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Hillary Clinton this week. During their discussion Jay mentioned that Washington is ranked as the best state for teachers in the whole nation. That was news to me and it made me feel quite proud. I told you to expect random good news! (Ranking of best states for teachers.)
6. Republicans know they need to make it as hard as possible to vote if they have a chance at winning. Therefore, they have been busy all year thinking up schemes to make voting more difficult. When challenged in the courts, though, their schemes rarely hold up. On Friday night a judge blocked an order from the governor of Texas to limit ballot drop boxes in each county to one, saying it placed an unacceptable burden on the elderly and disabled to turn in their ballots. (Statesman) In this campaign video, Samuel L. Jackson tells us to vote, not because he wants us to, but because Trump doesn't want us to. (I Will Vote)
7. Forbes Magazine has an excellent article about early voting and how it compares to what happened in 2016. As of 3 PM Saturday over 9 million people have already voted in the thirty states that are reporting these stats.(Forbes)
"And then there was a fly" and other funny stuff.
1. With the Vice-Presidential debate well underway, I was tempted to turn off the TV and do something, anything else. Then a fly landed on Pence's head and stayed there for over two minutes. It seems I was not the only one to be mesmerized. Social media exploded with "fly" related memes. Below is the photo I took of the TV screen. I thought adding the "Fly" poem by Ogden Nash was a snappy choice but not very political.
2. The Biden campaign picked up on the fly right away. Some guy had this cartoon up before the debate was over. Ha-ha, I never thought I'd be in league with flies.
3. Within a few hours the campaign made 35,000 Biden/Harris flyswatters available for $10 each. They sold out quickly."Truth over flies." (Get it?...Truth over lies.)
4. Other people said it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg who sent the fly. Smart fly!
5. For years I've been warning people that things fall apart quickly when bad people are in charge. I use Lord of the Flies as my proof. Read the themes of this classic book and think about our country and our elected officials. Don't you agree with me now?
6. The Tweet of God, the funniest spot on Twitter for its irreverence, posted this--
Enough about the fly? Here are a few other funny things---
7. Quite often I am left scratching my head at the "logic" of some Republicans. This makes no sense.
8. Twitter users take over #Proudboys hashtag with photos of LGBTQ love. (CNN) While we are at it, let's call that terrorist group what they really are: Nazis.
9. It is such a shame that schools can't be open or can only to be open in some hybrid arrangement so kids can't experience the full school vibe. (Sent to me by my daughter, a middle school teacher.) Maybe, in the long run, it will work out for them. I can still recall traumatic experiences when I was in junior high.
10. It sure seems like a year's worth of events happen in only a week during 2020. On the other hand, I hardly do anything personally except watch the Internet for each day's train wreck.
I really appreciate it when you leave me a comment below or on Facebook. Thanks so much for visiting. I hope this good news helps brighten your day.
After George Floyd was murdered by police while the world viewed the horrifying 8:46 minutes on live TV, I said to myself 'enough is enough.' I needed to find a way help however I could so that this never happens again. My first inclination was to get out and protest and march on the streets of Tacoma or Seattle. But my concerns about the coronavirus kept me indoors. Instead I opted to create a list of books I can recommend on the topic of black lives matter, or books I thought would at least advance the discussion. (See that list here.)
In addition, I started reading furiously to educate myself.
First our church book club had to scramble to find a book to read for the month since the library book kits weren't available. We opted to read Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. (I hyperlinked the title. Please visit my review of that book by clicking it.) The book was an eye-opening experience for me. It was written by Saad as an Instagram 28-day challenge and then consolidated into a book with each chapter being one day of the challenge. I had to read it faster than was recommended because I didn't have enough time to digest it slowly before the next club meet. But the book certainly started me on my goal of educating myself to become a better anti-racist. I recommend you read this book, but give yourself longer than a month to read it and find a support group to discuss it as you move through the material.
A few weeks later my husband and I also joined a small book group at our church, one designed to start a conversation about how our congregation can move in a positive direction toward anti-racism and supporting equal justice in our community. Our group met once a week on Zoom with a facilitator and seven other participants to discuss the book, Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliationby LaTasha Morrison and the topics it proposed. In a lot of ways this book piggy-backed on my learnings and insights gained from the first book, Me and White Supremacy, but the material was written toward a Christian audience (or perhaps, a congregation of any faith.) It was organized into nine or ten chapters, each concluding with discussion questions which made us dig into the topic-of-the-week deeper and had us reflecting on ways we could apply what were were learning to our own congregation. When I read Me and White Supremacy I felt like I was being jabbed in the stomach with a sharp stick, this book caused a much milder visceral reaction but I still felt extremely challenged to pick up the mantle and to become a "better ancestor" through my readings and discussions. The biggest difference and value of this book over the first was the small group discussion and camaraderie that we formed with the other participants. To a person we all decided that the book provided a good jumping off spot but we needed more and hope that the church will continue to support and organize groups on this topic in the future. For me personally, I also enjoyed being in a small group discussing a book with my husband. He had a lot to offer to the discussion since he has helped organize group discussions on racial sensitivity at this place of employment and had insights from those experiences to share. It isn't often that I get to be a "student" with him and I enjoyed this shared experience.
One of the first nonfiction books I read on the topic was This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell. (I guess I am reviewing them in reverse order.) Prior to George Floyd's murder this book came to my attention as an excellent nonfiction title for young adults, so I ordered a copy for myself thinking I would donate it to a high school library after I read it. Oddly I wasn't quite finished reading it before I started the other two books, so the information is a bit jumbled in my head. What this book has going for it that the other two don't is cool graphics and colorful pages and illustrations to attract its target audience: teenagers. Each chapter is assigned to a section like WAKING UP: UNDERSTANDING AND GROWING INTO MY IDENTITIES, with four sections in all. At the end of each chapter the reader is given permission to journal their thoughts and feelings. It is less about answering questions and more about personal reflections. I started off completing the daily reflections but didn't find them to be very applicable since I am well beyond teenage years. Occasionally I would simply skip that step as I moved to the next chapter. I personally found this book to be the least challenging to me but if I were a young adult, I am sure I would have the opposite point of view. If you are a high school librarian and you don't have a copy of this book in your library, order one today! You need it in your collection. Or, if you have a teenager at your home, buy them a copy.
Several poetry collections caught my attention on topics related to Black Lives Matter. I especially found the National Book Award poetry winner Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine moving. This is what I said in my review of this astonishing volume---"Of all the books I've read so far, Citizen has brought me the
furthest at the fastest pace. By page two I was seething, and cringing,
and crying, and praying 'God help us find another way.'" I highly recommend it, even if you aren't a big poetry reader. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith contains some very volatile poems where blacks speak from the grave about the issues that killed them. I had a harder time understanding this poems, though I certainly felt the anger and frustration that the poet was expressing.
Lastly, I want to direct you to a middle grade, graphic novel that won the Newbery Medal last year, New Kid by Jerry Craft. The author/illustrator said he creates books he wishes he had when he was a kid. Jordan, the book's protagonist, is not only in middle school, which is hard enough, but he is the new kid in the school and one of only a handful of black students. All the awkward moments of middle school and puberty are compounded by his race. One teacher keeps calling him by the name of another black boy at the school. When he corrects her, she is defensive or dismissive but never apologetic. It is not surprising that she calls him the wrong name over and over with similar non-apologies. Other teachers and students assume that Jordan is good at sports but have low expectations for the academics, another racial stereotype. Actually Jordan likes to draw and carries his drawing journal with him everywhere. In it he draws his interactions with others at his school. When he leaves the journal behind at his desk one day. The next day the teacher who retrieved it, gets angry with how he characterized her. (Yes, she looked inside his private journal!) The very point he was making with the characterization, that she can't get past her own racial blind spots to be able to see him as an individual, is what she is angry about. I was completely convicted by this book. As a teacher I would sometimes make assumptions about students or call them by the name of another student of the same race. How mortifying for my students. Ugh. I hate to think about what that must be like to go through a lifetime of that sort of behavior. I am so, so sorry. I resolve to do and be better.
I haven't read the book White Fragility by DiAngelo, but I have become familiar with the term and what it means. Since we live in a largely segregated society, whites are often insulated from racial discomfort, so that they fall to pieces at the first
application of stress. Like the teacher in the book getting angry with the kid for calling him the wrong name. "Mostly unconsciously white
people feel that they are entitled to peace and deference, so they lack the 'racial stamina' to engage in difficult conversations. This leads them
to respond to 'racial triggers'.” I resolve to be more conscious of myself and my feelings around racial topics and to stop myself when I start to feel fragile. One (all?) of the above books spoke about the determination for folks to become a better ancestor. I like that. I am not perfect but I am determined to do better and be better every day toward my goal of becoming anti-racist.
Leavenworth, Washington and the Wenatchee River, October 2020
Weather: We spent two days in Leavenworth, Washington in the Cascades. The daytime temperature was hot and the skies were clear. On our way home, after cresting the mountains we entered a completely different weather climate. The skies here are smokey or low cloud layers, the mornings have been foggy.
Jamie, growing in body and in our hearts
Family news:
My hubby and I joined my sister and brother-in-law for a short vacation in Leavenworth, which is a cute Bavarian-themed town in the mountains of Washington State. We shopped for German-made products, ate bratwurst, sauerkraut, and yummy pretzels. The four of us were in Germany together a year ago. We considered this our anniversary trip.
Jamie is getting more darling by the day.
Books:
I didn't complete any books this week. Wonder why?
Currently reading
Princess Bride by William Goldman. Loving it. (E-book, 80%)
A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Rucker and Leonnig. So well-written with so much evidence why Trump is not qualified to be President. (Audiobook, 75%)
How to Fly: In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons: Poems by Barbara Kingsolver. Found this gem at the bookstore in Leavenworth. (Print, 40%)
The weird, bad news: The president and first lady have COVID-19. This whole post was nearly ready to publish before this news hit on Thursday night (PDT). I thought about scrapping my post and starting over but finally decided to move forward. I'm sure you have found news sources about this topic. Here is one which lists all the people infected by this super-spreader set of events. (Intelligencer)
Good News:
1. Tax returns. The New York Times got copies of Trump's tax returns. That is the good news. The bad news, as we suspected, he doesn't pay much/any and has many shady deductions. See "18 Revelations from a Trove of Trump's Tax Records." (NYT)
2. Steve Schmidt, an former Republican strategist, has a masterful take down of Trump after the debate Tuesday night. (YouTube)
3. Joe Biden has five essential qualities that will make him the exact right president for these times. (For a list of 75 more great qualities of Joe Biden, follow the link. DKos.)
First, he is a decent, honorable, and honest man.
Second, he knows how to get things done.
Third, he has a history of fighting for the American people.
Fourth, he has great plans for his presidency.
Fifth, he has qualities that fit the particular demands of this unique moment in American history.
4. By contrast, the President refused to condemn white supremacy during the debate. He was given several opportunities to do so.
— Jordon Brown Snarker of Tweets First of His Name (@THEJordonBrown) September 30, 2020
5. David Frum, another Never Trumper, writing in the Atlantic had a lot to say about the debate (none of it was good.) I recommend you read the whole article. (The Atlantic) This was the best quote from it:
6. At least there was one good thing about the debate... (from Politico)
From 9 p.m. to midnight, the Biden campaign brought in nearly $10
million from 215,000 donors, including more than 60,000 new
contributors.
Nearly 100,000 signed up to volunteer for the Biden campaign during the debate.
'I Will Vote' — a voting registration and education website,
funded by the Democratic National Committee — also saw its highest
traffic in its decade-long history, with users from Pennsylvania,
Florida and North Carolina among the most represented. Nearly 24,000
people submitted new voter registrations
7. I believe women will deliver the election for Biden. Polling shows that the gender gap is huge between candidates. (Cision) As a tribute to Helen Reddy who died this week, listen to, "I am woman, hear me roar."
8. A new super-enzyme has been found that eats/destroys plastic six-times faster. It may be available for recycling efforts within two years. This is very good news indeed. (Guardian)
On the lighter side:
1. Just for grins. (Thank you Andy Groh for this.)
2. Weird Al Yankovic's "Doomed" hit the airwaves the day after the debate. I love this guy. Timely! (YouTube)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. (Brought to my attention by my sister, a Pre-K teacher) Very true.
8. Jamie Harrison, running for senate against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, showed up for their debate with his own plexiglass shield/divider. Good idea!
9. SNL does it again...
Good advice:
I love to hear from you. So please leave me a comment below or on Facebook. Thank you.
In an attempt to catch up on past book reviews, here are a few short ones:
For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More by Graham Tarrant (Skyhorse, 2019, 240 pages)
As the title does more than suggest, this book is full of stories about authors with each chapter fulfilling information on a theme. For example one chapter was about feuding authors while another was about literary felons. Ultimately For the Love of Books is a book about books—and the inside stories about the people who write them.
I found the book completely compelling, at least most of it---I just skipped those stories I didn't care about and felt no guilt whatsoever in doing so. I found myself reading aloud little snippets to my poor husband who was trying to do something other than engage with me on the topic of books and authors. Nothing earth-shattering happened and my life wasn't changed because of it, but I sure enjoyed it and found it to be a perfect indulgence in the age of pandemics when one has nothing much to do except read. My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. (Print source from public library.)
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore (Flatiron Books, 2020, 339 pages)
Oona wakes up on New Year's Day in 1982, the day of her 19th birthday, and she is thirty-two years into her future. She is still Oona. Her mother is still her mother. She is just a lot older and she doesn't remember anything from her past except her first eighteen years. Every New Year's Day the same thing happens and Oona doesn't know ahead of time where she will land on her timeline. Who will she be next year? A philanthropist? A young, hip twenty-something? A wife to a man she doesn't know? As we learn Oona's story so does she.
It seemed like the whole of blogdom was talking about this book earlier this year, so I had to read it. Now it doesn't seem like anyone is talking about it and I wonder why I did. Let's put it this way. The book provided a diversion to my small, pandemic-centic life but I wouldn't put it on any favorites lists. I didn't particularly like Oona or even feel much sympathy for her, at least in the early chapters. That was probably the problem. Anyway, the book is different than any I've ever read, and it was fun (odd) to wonder about living my own life out of order. I doubt I'd cope very well either. My rating: 3 out of 5. (Audiobook e-source available from the library.)
Finders Keepers by Stephen King (Scribner, 2015, 434 pages)
I am never sure how much of a summary readers want for mysteries. Because, um, won't summaries wreck the mysteries? Instead of telling you very much, here is a tiny little teaser... Finders Keepers is the second book in the Bill Hodges Trilogy. Bill Hodges is a retired cop who works on solving situations with an oddball assortment of colleagues---Holly Gibney, an OCD computer genius with few people skills, and Jerome Robinson, a now college freshman with lots of enthusiasm. Their company is called "Finders Keepers." In the first half of the book none of these characters make an appearance all. Instead we meet an author who is very popular but hasn't published anything for years, the man who commits a crime against him, and, many years later, a boy who unwittingly steps into the mystery. It is this boy who needs the help of Bill Hodges and friends.
My daughter and I listened to the audiobook on a long, hot drive from California to Washington State. We were pretty distracted by our drive and the uncomfortable conditions (no air-conditioning) so our judgment of the book is tainted. The book was authored by Stephen King, so immediately one knows there will be some really gory parts, and there were. Even though there were plenty of dragon's teeth along the way, enough so we had the mystery figured out before the climax, the tension of that climax was palpable. We were driving as fast as conditions allowed us and the action was happening at the same break-neck speed. Start with the first book in the series, Mercedes Man, because this book makes references to the action and characters in that book. My rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars. (Audiobook obtained e-sources through public library.)
Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press, 2009, 192 pages)
An old man lays dying, surrounded by his family in the home where he has lived most of his life. As he drifts in and out of consciousness his memories seem to intertwine with those of his father, an itinerant peddler, and his grandfather, a minister beset by madness. His life as a clock repairman serves the reader with the symbolism of time running out.
I selected this read because it was the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner for literature. Unfortunately that was the best thing it had going for it. The shifts in focus from man to parent to grandparent and back were completely confusing. It was impossible to like or even root for any of the characters because they were held so far at arms length away. Goodreads reviewers who liked the book speak of the writing as ethereal, other-worldly. Here is a quote from someone's review: "Tinkers often reads more like a poem than a novel, holding extended passages
describing nature or recollection in huge, meandering sentences that
carry meaning and feeling like a swollen river delivers silt. It is not
an easy read." The only thing I would agree with this reviewer about is the last sentence: it is not an easy read. Every once in a while I would get the feeling that I knew what the author was doing--reminding us that the process of dying a dislodging of us from the present. For that, I suspect, the author won the big prize. But the book is too confusing to recommend to anyone. My rating: 2 out of 5 stars. (Print book that I own.)
