Recommended to me, but isn't 656 pages too long?

Beginning with the Prologue

September 1933 ... Downtown Drugstore had a bell on the door that made a single tink sound when you opened it.  Oxford Pharmacy had two bells on its door so it was more of a ta-tink, though nothing to startle over.   But the Gathright-Reed Drug Co. door bore a foot-long strip of brass sleigh bells on its knob, which, when turned, sent metal balls clanging to announce somebody's coming in the dang store so you better turn around and look see who it is.  And if you did, you'd see me.

The Calamity Club ~ by Kathryn Stockett, 2026, historical fiction (Mississippi), 656 pages

Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one.  Now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.  Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind.  But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.

Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose.  When their fates — and Meg’s — converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives.  But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.  The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer — an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings.  This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious — the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

The library's book bike returned to Crown Center

The University City Library's Book Bike came to the Crown Center again yesterday, so I searched online for an illustration.  Surprise!  The very first one that came up (above) is from an earlier visit, and I'm in the photo:  Kevin (left) rode the bike from the library, Bonnie is seated in the doorway, and Melvin is standing.  On one side of the book bike are free books for us that are no longer in circulation or donations not needed, and on the other side are books to check out using our library cards.  Yesterday, Kevin parked the Book Bike just inside our lobby door, rather than in that corner.  After people took the books they wanted yesterday, Kevin let me take four for the Crown Center library.

The Secret Life of Cats

The Secret Life of Cats: Out of the Wild and Into Our Homes ~ by Carrie Arnold, 2026 (reissue), 96 pages, animals, 9/10

Cats use the same five senses as humans, but they view the world differently.  Scientists are just beginning to understand the rich complexity of what it means to be feline.  For thousands of years humankind has been intrigued, perplexed, and enamored by cats. This book celebrates the bond we have with our feline friends. 

When I took in my latest cat, a neighbor let me borrow this paperback from National Geographic about cats.  It includes information about how cats communicate, information about cats throughout history, and how to crack the code of cat emotions.

Another book by my favorite author

Hollow Bones ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2026, literary fiction, 464 pages

On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home.  Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn't have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters.  Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes.  She and her husband, Jesse — a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis — have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world.  But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.  Moving between past and present, Hollow Bones is an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves as we write the narratives of our lives, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Musing about quotes

On Thursday, I wrote about Isabel Allede's book The Soul of a Woman, HERE.  I'm still musing about the words I bookmarked:

Page 102

In the past, adulthood arrived at twenty, middle age at forty, and old age at fifty.  Today adolescence lasts until past thirty or forty, maturity comes around sixty, and old age starts at eighty.  This is the baby boomers' achievement.

Page 107

I would like to have Sophia Loren's full breasts and long legs, but if given a choice, I prefer the gifts of several good witches I know:  purpose, compassion, and good humor.  (*Note:  I especially like compassion being in the list.)

 Page 111

The key to contentment is forgiveness of others and of ourselves.

 Page 123

Grace is in a residence for older people because she needs assistance; she is by far the youngest person there.  The help she gets is not much, just five minutes in the morning to dress her, five minutes in the evening to put her to bed, and two showers a week.  For her, the greatest pleasure is that shower.  She says that every drop of water on her skin is a blessing; she enjoys the soap and shampoo foam in her hair.  I often think of Grace when I shower; I don't want to take that privilege for granted.

Page 130

This is what women want:  to be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved.

 Pages 164-165

There's a difference between immigrants and refugees.  The former decide to move somewhere else to improve their lives.  They are usually young and healthy (the elderly stay behind), they try to adapt as soon as possible, they look to the future, and they want to plant roots in the new place.  The latter are running for their lives; they are escaping military conflict, persecution, crime, and extreme poverty.  Refugees are desperate, they have had to leave behind everything that is familiar to them and seek asylum in another country where they are likely to confront hostility.  Helf of the seventy million refugees in 2018 were women and children, a figure that has been increasing yearly.

Pages 167-168 

In less developed regions, mothers typically spend their income on the family, while men spend on themselves, either for entertainment or for something that gives them status, like a cellphone or a bike.

Page 208

We have a lot of work to do ... First of all, we need to end the patriarchy, an ancient institution that exalts masculine values (and flaws) and represses the famale half of humanity.  We have to question everything, from religion and laws to science and cultural mores.  We are going to get really angry, so angry that our fury will smash the foundations that support this civilization.  Docility, praisedd as a feminine virtue, is our worst enemy; it has never served us well, it is only convenient for men.

Stephen Hawking's ideas fascinate me

On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory ~ by Thomas Hertog, 2023, cosmology, xxiv + 313 pages

Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created condi-tions so perfectly hospitable to life.  In order to solve this mystery, Hawking studied the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs pro-ducing a multiverse — countless different universes, most of which would be far too bizarre to ​harbor life.

Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked on this problem for twenty years, developing a new theory of the cosmos that could account for the emergence of life.  Peering into the extreme quantum physics of cosmic holograms and ven-turing far back in time to our deepest roots, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws them-selves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away.  This discovery led them to a revolutionary idea:  The laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape.  As Hawking’s final days drew near, the two collaborators published their theory, which proposed a radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe.

On the Origin of Time offers a striking new vision of the universe’s birth that will profoundly transform the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove to be Hawking’s greatest legacy.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about a book recommended by an old friend, HERE.
• My Thursday Thoughts, HERE, were about Isabel Allende's memoir.
• Friday's Book Beginning was from Book #18 in the Maisie Dobbs Series, HERE.
• Caturday's post was about curiosity, HERE.

Hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

"Curiosity killed the cat"

When I was trying to look at the pills Bonnie was dividing into days of the week, she said to me, "Curiosity killed the cat."  And she tried to make me get away.  I just wanted to see what those little things were.  They were in those little plastic bottles.  I'm sure I would have figured out what they were, if she hadn't stopped me from tasting a few of them.  But, no, she kept pushing me away and finally put me in the other room.  I am sure you will agree with me that I just wanted to know what they were.  What's the harm in that, huh?