Caturday ~ with the cat

It's like this, see, I'm going to help Bonnie review books occasionally. Always on Caturdays. And sometimes I may have to say a few things about what she's reading. I don't know why she reads so many books without pictures. Boring. Today I'm posting my favorite portraits of myself.  Bonnie keeps sneaking up on me and taking pictures when I'm asleep or watching birds or whatever.  These, however, make me look regal, as a proud cat ought to look. Which of these two should be my profile photo, if I had a blog of my own?

Ciao, for now,
Kiki

Teaser ~ Secret Daughter

Kavita has a daughter and, in a culture that favors sons, her husband Jasu takes away the baby before Evita has even stopped bleeding. When the second baby is also a girl, Kavita saves her life by giving her away. Her third baby is a son:

"They have showered on her all the traditional gifts, as if this is her first baby, their first child. ... But no one acknowledges this, not even Jasu.  Only Kavita has an aching cavity in her heart for what she's lost. ... She prays she will be a good mother to her son, prays she has enough maternal love left in her heart for him, prays it didn't die along with her daughters" (p. 65).

I'm reading Secret Daughter, a 2010 novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda.  I can hardly wait to see what happens to the daughter who is adopted by a couple in America and to both mothers, the one who gives her up and the one who raises her.

Ms. Flamboyant

I wonder if my granddaughter Cady is now too old to help me review books?  Here's Ms. Flamboyant on the first day of fifth grade.  (See Cady's review of Kersplatypus, by clicking the blue link.)

Five senses? Six? Seven?

Today Nicky (at Absolute Vanilla) wrote about Six Senses.  After reading her insightful post, I began to analyze her "six" senses, since "sixth sense" to me means sensing something that can't be recognized by our five senses -- or else the movie Sixth Sense ("I see dead people").

Nicky's six are "I can see, I can hear, I can feel, I can touch, I can smell, I can taste."  I think feel and touch mean the same thing, so the list contains the five senses of see, hear, touch, smell, and taste.  To confirm my own list, I googled "senses" and got this illustration:

But I came up with another "sixth" sense.  Someone said that, in addition to these five senses, "our inner ear senses our body's orientation in space."  We know when we are upside down, and we know when we are tilted to one side or the other.  I'd call that balance or equilibrium.  Hmm, and maybe it could be what Nicky called "feeling," that awareness of something touching me, maybe even gravity that tells my inner ear which way is up.

I've already strayed far from Nicky's original intention, which was to calm ourselves through meditation on our senses.  This kind of thinking is a lesson in mindfulness.  Okay, Nicky, I'll do that now.

I can see
... my maid-mother-crone art piece, hanging on the wall beside my desk.
... the sun shining on the green grass outside my window.

I can hear
... a car driving past my house.
... Kiki meowing for me to come clean her litter box.

I can touch (something outside myself)
... the beads of moisture on my glass of iced tea.
... the keyboard with flying fingers.

I can feel (something touching me)
... the desk chair firm beneath me.
... hunger.

I can smell
... lunch warming in the oven.
... the new book on the stack beside me.

I can taste
... the goodness of warm bread.
... the crispy salad.

Reading ruminations ~ it's Monday

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme from Sheila of Book Journey.  It's all about sharing what we're reading.  Sheila offers a weekly prize, so go to her blog (after you read this post, of course) and join the fun.

Sheila's the reason I'm reading this first book.  When she wrote about Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook (2010), I knew I wanted to read it and put it on hold at my library.  Yes, the book looked interesting, but what really got me was Sheila's imitation of the book's cover:

Who could resist?  Maybe we should vote for "best cover" here! I kinda like Sheila's version because she is holding a copy of the book and put hearts around it.  She is not, however, at the beach -- and a major theme of the book is traveling with girlfriends to exotic places.  If you missed it, read yesterday's short teaser about one of the characters in the book.

Two more books found their way to my house this week:

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (2007) is from my friend Donna, who handed me the book this week, saying I'll like it.  (We exchange books regularly.)  I know nothing about it beyond what's in the publisher's synopsis and what's in this video.

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore was published this week (2010).  I told you already that I attended a book signing by the author.  Donna has already finished reading this one and says it's good.  I reviewed Gilmore's first novel last year:  Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

Have you read any of these books?
What are you reading these days?

(Thank you for reading to the end of this post. Now you have my permission to go to Sheila's blog.)

Seven Year Switch ~ here's a teaser for ya!

I'll be writing about this book in my very next post (tomorrow), but here is a humorous teaser I want to share from page 126 of Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook, 2010:

"Hey, girlfriend," Cynthia yelled from about three feet away.

I jumped.  "Geez," I said.  "I didn't even see you."

"I know.  I could have knocked you over with a fender."

That is not a typo.  This Cynthia character is constantly challenging me to see the world with new eyes as she comes up with one malapropism after another.  (The word malapropism comes from a character in Sheridan's 1775 book, The Rivals -- Mrs. Malaprop was noted for her misapplication of words.)  Here's another malapropism from Cynthia in Seven Year Switch, page 12:

"God, you never seem to amaze me."

Groundbreaking news

Two days short of a year after the church went up in flames caused by old wiring, St. Elmo United Methodist Church had a groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon.  At the appointed time, some of the crowd went forward to pick up the gold shovels:  the pastor, the district superintendent, our city councilman, and other men of the church.  Someone in the crowd shouted, "There aren't any girls."  After much laughter, because this is a sensitive and inclusive church, people chose Betty Ann Case to go join the men.

That's the shell of the old building behind them.  The pastor, the Rev. Mark Dowell, is wearing all black.  To his left is Betty Ann Case and to his right is Scott Medley, the organist.  One of the girls standing near me said, "They should have let us do that; we're the young people."  Yes, they are the future of the church.  I told her go pick up a shovel.  She hesitated until I asked Brenda Dowell, the pastor's wife, who told the kids to go ahead and do it.  Three of them are shorter than the shovels they tried to wield.

The church celebrated by holding a party at the park down the street, inviting the whole St. Elmo community for food, games, puppets, and music.  Click the blue links to see pictures taken after last year's fire, recent pictures of progress, the plans for the new building, and additional photos of the groundbreaking party.

Kiki napping

Naps are what older cats do best, except for eating.

Whatcha got at your house? My answer.......

Stacks and stacks of books.  Yes, but this isn't from my house.  My house has real stacks, tall stacks, enormous stacks, even stacks of boxes of books.  Below is one very small stack of mine, ahem, stood upright.  Whatcha got at your house?

Susan's second novel ~ The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove

I met Susan Gregg Gilmore last August when she spoke to the Southern Lit Book Club about her first novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.  This evening I went to a book signing for her second novel, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove, which was published Tuesday.  Susan graciously posed for a photo with me (in the middle) and my friend Donna (on the right), a couple of hours ago.  You should have seen the line of people waiting for her to sign their copies!

I'm sure I'll like getting to know Bezellia Grove, who lives in Nashville, as much as I enjoyed knowing Catherine Grace Cline, who lives in the little town of Ringgold, just south of Chattanooga. (Okay, so they live in a fictional Nashville and a fictional Ringgold. When you read the books, you'll see how REAL her characters are!)

Read more about Susan's books on her web site: http://www.susangregggilmore.com/

My students

Some of the college students I teach

• don't wear wristwatches
• think email is too slow
• don't know how to write in cursive

Yes, it's true!  I get lots of printed answers when I give in-class exams; their pages full of words are printed letter by letter by letter ... t ... h ... e.  In their world they type ... or text.  And most have never used phones with cords (or "only at my grandparents' house," as one teen said).  Teachers need to be aware of the cultural shift, so the Mindset List from Beloit College tells teachers what cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992.

On a similar note and even more eye-opening for me, while I was writing notes on my tablet at adjunct orientation Tuesday evening, the woman on my left and the man on my right were both taking notes on their Blackberry phones.  I'm behind the times!  (Or maybe they were texting friends, as one of my grandsons was doing on Christmas Day?)

Latest book arrival

Okay, so your eyes just glazed over when you saw this title. Uh-huh, I recognized that look!  But I'm excited.  Tuesday evening the college provided  a meal for adjunct teachers during this year's orientation, and when we went into our break-out groups, we who will be teaching developmental writing got this book and the textbook (which I got and wrote about weeks ago).

This second edition "includes revised chapters on technology and the writing process and focuses on topics relevant to non-native speakers of English in the developmental writing course. Classic scholars from the field such as Mina Shaughnessy and June Jordan, along with several new voices, offer practical, sound insight for instructors both in and outside the classroom."

I have a degree in English and have taught writing classes, but I've never had occasion to read a book like this -- and I look forward to it.  The fall semester starts in a week and a half, and I'm fired up and ready to go.  Tonight I'll start reading this 464-page book on Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings, by Susan Naomi Bernstein, 2004.  (No, I'm not racing to finish every article before classes start.)

What?  Not your idea of bedtime reading?

The Birchbark House ~ a teaser question

In reading The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (1999), I learned a lot about the Anishinabe, the original name for the Ojibwa or Chippewa people, who live mainly in the northern North American woodlands.  Here's one little tidbit I picked up:

"Over his shoulder Fishtail carried a blanket, meaning that he had much to say and planned to spend the night" (p. 193).

Okay, now I have a question for you, my readers:  If I show up at your house with a blanket over my shoulder, will you allow me to talk late and then stay overnight?

The Glass Castle ~ a teaser

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (2005) is a memoir.  I think this quote should get a prize for most gripping opening sentence.  Who could fail to keep reading?

"I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening. when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster" (p. 3).

Ginnie's birthday party last night

 

Ginnie at sunset with fog in the valley

 

Ellen at sunset

 

Blowing out sparklers on her cake

Perception

The Situation

In Washington, D.C., at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces.  During that hour, approximately 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After about 3 minutes
A middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

At 4 minutes
The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes
A 3-year-old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent -- without exception -- forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes
The musician played continuously.  Only six people stopped and listened for a short while.  About twenty gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour
He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Three days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. "His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?" This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made, how many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

"At the beginning," Bell says, "I was just concentrating on playing the music. I wasn't really watching what was happening around me . . . It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . ." The word doesn't come easily. ". . . ignoring me."

Watch and listen to 35 seconds of his playing by going to the video in the article Pearls Before Breakfast in The Washington Post.  (I do hope you caught the "pearls before swine" allusion.)  But as the article also says, "Context matters."  Later in the article, you can watch 58 seconds of the first person to stop and listen, at the 6-minute mark above.  The reporter caught up with some of the people and asked them about their experience, and I really enjoyed reading their responses.  Altogether, there are four short videos of people's reactions to the musician, along with their stories.

What do you think?  Would you have stopped to listen?

Cat sanctuary

Craig Grant bought a tree farm far from the city and turned it into a sanctuary for cats he had rescued.  He lives at Caboodle Ranch (a non-profit rescue center) with the cats in order to provide lots of love, care, and companionship.  You can read updates at A Day at the Ranch.

What presidents read

American Presidential Book Club
Click on the graphic (or the link below it) to make it big enough to read.  I found it on Sheila's Book Journey blog this morning.

Obama

The Way Home ~ by George Pelecanos
Lush Life ~ by Richard Price
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America ~ by Tom Friedman
John Adams ~ by David McCullough
Plainsong ~ by Kent Haruf
The Post American World ~ by Fareed Zakaria
Netherland ~ by Joseph O'Neill
Huzur (Confort) ~ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
A Mind at Peace ~ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
Haritada bir bakta ~ by Sait Faik Abasiyanik
Gilead ~ by Marilynne Robinson
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Invisible Man ~ by Ralph Ellison
Moby-Dick ~ by Herman Melville
Song of Solomon ~ by Toni Morrison
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Golden Notebook ~ by Doris Lessing
FDR ~ by Anthony J. Badger
Native Son ~ by Richard Wright
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln ~ by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Irony of American History ~ by Reinhold Niebuhr
Collected Poems 1948-1984 ~ by Derek Walcott

Bush

John Adams ~ by David McCullough
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of Whaleship Essex ~ by Edvard Radzinsky
Salt: A World History ~ by Mark Kurfansky
Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar ~ by Edvard Radzinsky
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power ~ by Richard Carwardine
Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural ~ by Ronald C. White Jr.
Lush Life ~ by Richard Price
Polio: An American Story ~ by David Oshinsky
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth ~ by Leigh Movi
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero ~ by David Maraniss
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women ~ by Geraldine Brooks
Mao: The Unknown Story ~ by June Chang and Jon Halliday

Clinton
Brave Companions ~ by David McCullough
Goodnight, Irene ~ by Jan Burke
The Culture of Disbelief ~ by Stephen L. Carter
Living History ~ by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lincoln ~ by David Herbert Donald
The Four Quartets ~ by T. S. Eliot
Invisible Man ~ by Ralph Ellison
Meditations ~ by Marcus Aurelius
The Denial of Death ~ by Ernest Becker
One Hundred Years of Solitude ~ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Imitation of Christ ~ by Thomas a Kempis
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ~ by Maya Angelou
The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the 21st Century ~ by David Fromkin
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 ~ by Taylor Branch

Rubik's Cube

. . .
I used to love puzzles. I was visiting my next-door neighbor, back in the 1960s, when she said, "Be right back; I need to put clothes in the dryer." To keep me busy while she moved a load of clothes from one machine to the other, she knocked apart the new Soma Puzzle that was sitting on her kitchen table. A Soma Puzzle is a 3x3 cube, which is "cut up" into seven pieces of different shapes (see above). Anyway, I followed my friend Robin into her laundry room, and we chatted while she got the dryer started. Then she turned to me and said, "I thought you were going to work on that puzzle." She looked a bit odd when I said, "I did." When we went back into the kitchen and she saw the completed puzzle, she confessed, "I've been trying for two days and cannot get that thing back into its cube shape. I have to wait for my sons to come home from school and solve it." I had done it in less than a minute, roughly.

Am I bragging? No, I think some people are born with the ability to "see" things spatially. Others are not. Take my friend Donna, for example. She knows she can't place things in space, including herself. We hadn't known each other long when she warned me, "If I ever insist we should go to the right, go LEFT." I should have listened to her. Once we met in a town halfway between our cities and spent a couple of days getting acquainted. We were on our way back to the motel after dinner in my car when she said, helpfully, "Turn right," and I did. We entered a divided highway and had to drive miles and miles before we could exit and turn back. The way we should have gone, of course, was left.

I'm not sure the Rubik's cube is quite the same as the Soma, even though both (in the original Rubik's version, anyway) are 3x3 cubes. I was part of the Rubik's craze back when it first came out in 1974. I needed help to understand a couple of basic things, but after that, the puzzle wasn't that difficult for me.

One day I noticed a cute keychain my teenage son had in his hand. When he let me see it, I was fascinated that it was a working model of Rubik's that was tiny. Tiny! I asked him about it and he said, "I ran across this and got it to give to whoever I find that can solve Rubik's cube the fastest."

Oh, ho! This was a challenge, of course, and what puzzler can ignore a challenge? The teensy tiny Rubik's cube was stiff and not easy to twist, so I got my own regular-sized version. Did you know that using vaseline makes the parts twist and spin easily? True. So I said, "Time me!" and started working the cube that my son had diligently messed up as thoroughly as he could. Flip, flip, spin, turn, and wham! All done, in 37 seconds flat. Loved that look on my son's face when he said, "Here, Mom," and handed me my new Rubik's keychain.

Today I read about a study that has used computers to figure out every possible Rubik's Cube solution.

"An international team of researchers using computer time lent to them by Google has found every way the popular Rubik's Cube puzzle can be solved, and showed it can always be solved in 20 moves or less."

Oooookie dokie, I can't do that.  Also, according to the article, my time is way off from the best puzzlers.

"The current world record holder is Dutch Erik Akkersdijk who successfully solved the puzzle in just 7.08 seconds."

I used to amuse myself by making patterns on every side of the Rubik's Cube, like putting a contrasting square of color in the center of each side, using the color from the opposite side.  It's been years since I picked up my Rubik's Cube, and I discovered I no longer remember how to do it.  I wonder if this is the usual memory loss of old age or if the anesthesia from my heart surgery erased some of my memory.  Maybe if I had continued to practice solving the Cube every day for the past thirty-odd years it would still be in my memory bank.  What do you think?

Louise Erdrich ~ children's books

After reading and reviewing the adult novel Four Souls by Louise Erdrich a couple of days ago, I put a bunch of her children's books on hold at the library.  These are the books I brought home today.

The Range Eternal (2002) is about the woodburning stove at the heart of a family's little cabin home in the Turtle Mountains of South Dakota.

Grandmother's Pigeon (1996) is about raising three birds of an extinct species -- passenger pigeons!

The Birchbark House (1999) seems to be the first in a series of books about Omakayas (Oh-MAH-kay-ahs).  The story is set on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.  From the dust jacket:

For as long as Omakayas can remember, she and her family have lived on the land her people call the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker.  Although the chimookoman, white people, encroach more and more on their land, life continues much as it always has.  Every summer the family builds a new birchbark house; every fall they go to ricing camp to harvest and feast; they move to the cedar log house before the first snows arrive, and celebrate the end of the long, cold winters at maple-sugaring camp.  In between, Omakayas fights with her annoying little brother Pinch, plays with the adorable baby, Neewo, and tries to be grown-up like her beautiful older sister, Angeline.  But the satisfying rhythms of their lives are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever.

The Game of Silence (2005) is a sequel to The Birchbark House. From the dust jacket:

Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop, and she lives on an island in Lake Superior. It is 1850 and the lives of the Ojibwe have returned to a familiar rhythm: they build their birchbark houses in the summer, go to the ricing camps in the fall to harvest and feast, and move to their cozy cedar log cabins near the town of LaPointe before the first snows.

Satisfying routines of Omakayas's days are interrupted by a surprise visit from a group of desperate and mysterious people. From them, she learns that all their lives may drastically change. The chimookomanag, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island in Lake Superior and move farther west. Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, is in danger: Her home. Her way of life.

The Porcupine Year (2008) has already helped me -- I happened to flip it open to the glossary and learned that n'dawnis means "my daughter." The word was used several times in Four Souls, but if there was a definition, I had forgotten it by the next time I ran across the word. From the dust jacket:

Here follows the story of a most extraordinary year in the life of an Ojibwe family and of a girl named "Omakayas," or Little Frog, who lived a year of flight and adventure, pain and joy, in 1852.

When Omakayas is twelve winters old, she and her family set off on a harrowing journey. They travel by canoe westward from the shores of Lake Superior along the rivers of northern Minnesota, in search of a new home. While the family has prepared well, unexpected danger, enemies, and hardships will push them to the brink of survival. Omakayas continues to learn from the land and the spirits around her, and she discovers that no matter where she is, or how she is living, she has the one thing she needs to carry her through.

Now I discover this: "The Porcupine Year continues Louise Erdrich's celebrated series, which began with The Birchbark House, a National Book Award finalist, and continued with The Game of Silence, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction."

I think I'll start with the two picture books.  Don't they look interesting?  I love the look of wonder in the child's face, but also the herd of buffalos in the clouds on the other one.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

My friend Dana B., an attorney, said:

"There has never been an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. Currently only 35 of the required 38 votes have been garnered. A little insulting when we are busy passing laws to ensure that women's health choices with respect to abortion are radically curtailed; when women still earn less than men for the same job; when women make up more than half the work force, yet we have no meaningful childcare, healthcare, or dependent care measures. Yet, despite this, women are not marching on Washington, burning bras, carrying signs, picketing corporations. . . why?"

Back in the 1970s when Second Wave feminists were trying to get the ERA passed, another group of women filled a bus going to Texas to protest.  My former husband, who had come to pick up our children for the weekend, thought he could get my goat by saying he was proud of those Texas-bound women for standing up for what was right.  He thought it was ridiculous that anyone would want to insist on women and men using the same rest rooms, women being drafted, and all that.  I asked him, "Do you know the actual words of the amendment?"  He didn't, of course.  I happened to have a little card about the size of a business card with all 24 words on it.  "Only 24 words?"  He didn't believe me.  I told him to wait a minute while I ran inside to grab the little card, which I have in hand as I type this blog post.  Here's what it says:

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

"Oh," he said, "this is it?"  Yep, it doesn't ask for those other things he had heard.  Just equal rights.  After learning what H.J. Res. 208 REALLY said, he admitted he saw nothing wrong with it.  Learn more, here: EqualRightsAmendment.org