Beginning ~ on 9-11 with reservations in the Tower

"On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was having breakfast atop the Park Lane hotel with my parents on Central Park South, looking out over the green trees and lawns of Central Park.  It was a stunning, clear blue day.  We had reservations for breakfast at Windows on the World on the top of the Second World Trade Center Tower for that morning, but a few days before, my parents changed their mind to be closer to where I lived, in a community of prients on the Upper West Side, right on Broadway."

They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change ~ by John Dear, 2018, ethics

In the Beatitudes, Jesus says of the meek, "they will inherit the earth."  Meekness, John Dear argues, is the biblical word for nonviolence.  He makes the connection Jesus makes at the start of his Sermon on the Mount between our practice of nonviolence and our unity with creation, that our rejection of nonviolence is inevitably linked to the catastrophic effects of climate change and environmental ruin.  Drawing on personal stories of his life in the desert of New Mexico, his time as a chaplain at Yosemite, his friendship with indigenous and environmental leaders, his experience at the Standing Rock protests, as well as his work with the Vatican on a new stance on nonviolence, John Dear invites us to return to nonviolence as a way of life and a living solidarity with Mother Earth and her creatures.

I wrote about this book on Sunday.  Now that I've started reading it, I'm really glad Sheila handed me the book.  The chapters range from violence in the city (the Towers) to catastrophic climate change to taking a stand at Standing Rock.  "And more," as people like to add, without saying what else.  It's a short book (160 pages), but powerful.  Does that persuade you?

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Browse today's Linky to find interesting books for your own reading list.

Thirteen years ago

My first ever blog post was thirteen years ago, when I wrote about The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri.  I have posted 2,571 posts (before this one), with four more already scheduled to post in the next few days.  If you've been reading my blog for a long time, do you remember any subject in particular that caught your attention?

A lot of my book blogging friends from those early days have given up blogging, so why am I still here?  I'll have to think about it, but part of the reason is that this is like a journal for me.  It makes me pay more attention to the things I do, like why they matter to me.  It's also like a memory jogger, helping me remember books and little "unimportant" events that make me smile years later.  If you blog, tell me why.  What do you get out of it?

Meditating on a year's worth of good memories

In December 2018, my friend Donna and I each bought a jar with a lid because we had found the suggestion above, which says:

"This January, start the year with an empty jar.  Each week add a note with a good thing that happened.  On New Year's Eve empty the jar and read about the amazing year you had."

Donna followed through; I didn't.  I printed the picture to put in that jar, but I never took the time to meditate on the good things happening in 2019.  I asked Donna if she had read her notes on New Year's Eve this year, as planned.  She said she read them within a couple of days of New Year's Eve.  Donna recommends being regular, if you decide to do something like this.  She wrote on Sundays every week, and she put the date on each note.  She isn't planning to continue writing the notes this year.  Neither am I, even though I still have that empty jar with a printout of the illustrated directions still in it.

And yet ... and yet ... I saved this note from a Kindle book I've already read this year:  Ten Keys to Happier Living: A Practical Science-Based Handbook for Happiness ~ by Vanessa King, 2016, self-help, rated 9/10.

"Spending a few moments each day or each week writing things down we've appreciated, enjoyed and were grateful for can have a powerful impact. ... When we write, whether by hand or electronically, we engage more of our senses and focus more" (loc. 4377, 4382).

One of those ten keys to happier living is AWARENESS.  Spending a whole year looking for the GOOD things in your life is surely a good way to focus your awareness and become more positive.  And happier.

Here are all ten keys to happier living, for those who want to know:

1. Giving
2. Relating
3. Exercising
4. Awareness
5. Trying Out
6. Direction
7. Resilience
8. Emotions
9. Acceptance
10. Meaning

You know, it's not too late to start noticing the good things that happen.  Start today, and end a year from now.  That would work.  You don't need a new year or a new day to start over.  You only need a new mindset.

Wednesday Words ~ digs

Birds of a Feather (Book 2) ~ by Maisie Dobbs, 2004, mystery (England), 9/10

I ran across "digs" twice in this book and felt it was a later slang word, not from 1930.  Here are those two quotes, followed by the definition I found online:

(p. 71) ~ "The Square was busy when she closed the outer door behind her. There were people wandering across to visit friends, art students from the Slade returning to their digs, and a few people going in and out of the corner grocery shop where Mrs. Clark and her daughter, Phoebe, would be running back and forth to find even the most obscure items that the eclectic mix of customers in Fitzroy Square requested, despite the fact that the country was in the midst of a depression."

(p. 271) ~ "I'm on duty until seven, then I go back to my digs."

Definition:  "In British usage, to be in digs is to live in a room in a house with shared facilities, frequently with meals supplied by the landlady.  It's typically a lodging for students or young unmarried men and women.  It's short for 'diggings,' which is the older word for the same idea."

I thought it meant something like "the place where I live," but I seem to be wrong that it originated later.  Let's see what Merriam-Webster says:

"Digs is derived from the earlier term diggings, which shares the same meaning of 'living quarters' or 'lodging.'  This sense of diggings goes back to the 19th century."

Whoo-hoo!  It appears I had the right definition, and it isn't limited to a place where I "share facilities."  It's okay to say "my digs" when speaking of my apartment in a 10-story building.

Two drawings by John Audubon ~ on TWOsday

You can now download all 435 reproductions of John Audubon’s work for free via the Audubon Society’s website.   I love the hummingbirds among the pink flowers (above) and the puffins (below) in their very different environment.

Exercising ~ for bones and muscles

How to modify the tree pose

"Yoga for Strong Bones"

"You know that walking and strength training each hold keys to a strong skeleton.  But emerging research shows that yoga — yes, the mind-calming, tension-relieving, flexibility-defying practice — helps build strong bones too.  In fact, just 12 minutes of daily yoga helped improve bone mineral density in older adults with osteoporosis, according to a study ... And while you’re building your bones, you’re also strengthening the muscles that shore up your skeleton. "

How to modify the plank

This article shows how to do six yoga poses, including how to make each of them easier if you can't get down on the floor.  I looked for some pictures online to show the modifications, which I've used here today.

"The best yoga poses for bone strength include balance and strengthening moves, and any pose that encourages you to sit or stand tall, as opposed to flexing the spine and rounding forward ... Balance and strengthening poses help prevent falls."

How to modify downward-facing dog

I signed up for the Gentle Chair Yoga group again, meeting each week until March 4th.  In other words, counting last Wednesday, we'll have a total of seven sessions in our Fitness Center downstairs.  In the first session, we worked on breathing properly.  I wonder if we'll do any of these modified poses.

Nonviolence, Maisie Dobbs, polio, and coincidences

Documentary

On Friday, I attended a viewing of "Not in Our Town" with other Crown Center residents, a documentary about stopping hate and violence in a community.  We were supposed to see the one about Billings, Montana, the first in the series (I think), but we got one about a different town.  The one we watched was also about hate in a community that rose up against it.  Patrice O'Neill, producer and director of those films, is the daughter of our Crown Center neighbor Gert.

BOOKS FINISHED since my last report

12.  Birds of a Feather (Book 2) ~ by Jacqueline Winspear, 2004, mystery (England), 9/10

"Well then, let's stand by the window. ... Maurice had taught her:  Always take the person to be questioned to a place where there's space, or where they can see few boundaries.  Space broadens the mind and gives the voice room to be heard" (pp. 21-22).

"And what did Dr. Blanche say about it then?"
"That coincidence is a messenger sent by truth.  That there are no accidents of fate" (p. 50).

Maurice's maxim:  "To solve a problem, take it for a walk" (p. 106).

Blanche smiled ... "As I have said many times, my dear, each case has a way of shining a light on something we need to know about ourselves" (p. 194).

"Let the ideas come to us instead of chasing them."
"Exactly" (p. 238).

Maurice:  "In learning about the mysths and legends of old, we learn something of ourselves.  Stories, Maisie, are never just stories.  They contain fundamental truths about the human condition" (p. 264).

"That's one more thing that I detest about war.  It's not over when it ends" (p. 266).

"May I not sit in judgment.  May I be open to hearing and accepting the truth of what I am told.  May my decisions be for the good of all concerned.  May my work bring peace" (p. 272).

"Move the body, Maisie, and you will move the mind" (p. 282).

"Resentment must give way to possibility, anger to acceptance, grief to compassion, disdain to respect — on both sides" (p. 299).

13.  Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio ~ by Peg Kehret, 1996, memoir, 9.5/10

"Why were you out of bed?" ...
"I was doing the hula," I said. ...
"The hula?"
"Alice didn't know what the hula is," explained Renée.
"So Peg was going to show her," Dorothy added.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Willie helped me into bed and warned me to stay there.  "In all my years of nursing," she said, "I've never had a polio patient try to dance the hula" (p. 102).

"Peg Schulze became Peg Kehret when I married Carl Kehret.  We have two children, Anne and Bob, and I wept for joy the day they got their first polio vaccinations" (p. 172).

Reading Now

Pardonable Lies (Book 3) ~ by Winspear, 2005, mystery (England)

"I must dash.  I've got a new patient this morning, a youngster crippled with polio, I'm afraid.  See you Saturday" (p. 45).

Did you notice a "coincidence" here?  I read in the previous Maisie Dobbs book (above) that her mentor Maurice said "coincidence is a messenger sent by truth," and the memoir is about a polio patient.  Compare all three yellow highlights in this post, and you'll see that this quote ties together these three books.  Hmm, what's going on?  Is there something I should be aware of?  I don't know, but I noticed this coincidence.  I have NEVER before read about polio in any book I remember, and yet here are two in a row!

Borrowed Book

They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change ~ by John Dear, 2018, ethics

In the Beatitudes, Jesus says of the meek, "they will inherit the earth."  Meekness, John Dear argues, is the biblical word for nonviolence.  He makes the connection Jesus makes at the start of his Sermon on the Mount between our practice of nonviolence and our unity with creation:  our rejection of nonviolence is inevitably linked to the catastrophic effects of climate change and environmental ruin.  Drawing on personal stories of his life in the desert of New Mexico, his time as a chaplain at Yosemite, his friendship with indigenous and environmental leaders, his experience at the Standing Rock protests, as well as his work with the Vatican on a new stance on nonviolence, John Dear invites us to return to nonviolence as a way of life and a living solidarity with Mother Earth and her creatures.

Sheila Garcia gave me her copy to read.  I have a stack of my own books I had planned to read this year, partly to get rid of the stacks of books in my apartment, but there are only 160 pages in this little book.  What would you do?  Oh, wait!  Is this another coincidence?  Look again at the documentary on violence at the top of this post.  Maybe I'm supposed to read the book Sheila shared with me.  What do you think?

Bloggers gather in The Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Beginning ~ with a soulless room

"The young policewoman stood in the corner of the room.  Plain whitewashed walls, a heavy door, a wooden table with two chairs, and one small window with frosted glass rendered the room soulless."

Pardonable Lies ~ by Jacqueline Winspear, 2005, mystery (England)

In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death.  A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.  As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.  In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche.  The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war ― one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.

Yes, I'll keep reading.  There are (so far) fifteen books in this series, which can be read separately as stand-alone novels.  This is the third, and all of the series are on the shelf in our little Crown Center library.

Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on?  If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Gilion at Rose City Reader.  Browse today's Linky to find interesting books for your own reading list.

Thursday Thoughts

"I wanted to explore the journey of those young women who lost the men they might have married.  They were an extraordinary generation who had to redesign — if you will — the notion of what it meant to be a woman on her own — a spinster."

Those men were lost in the Great War of 1914-1918 in Europe.  This quote is from page 4 of a "conversation" with the author at the back of Jacqueline Winspear's 2004 novel Birds of a Feather.

Winspear's books are bringing back memories from my own life as I read about life between the First and Second World Wars.  This line makes me think of my Aunt Bonnie, whom I'm named for.  She was a "spinster," born in 1904, and thus at the exact age Winspear is talking about.  In 1930, when this book is set, she would have been 26 years old.  I remember hearing Mother telling someone that her sister had turned down a fellow who asked Bonnie to marry him, not knowing he'd be the last to propose to her.  The reason she rejected him?  He didn't have indoor plumbing.

I realized, on reading that line above, that she didn't have as many options as I did, or even my mother, who was 13 years younger than her sister.  The photo shows Mother's family:  father, mother, six brothers, and two sisters.  Their parents are on the left, my mother is the girl on the front row, and Bonnie is behind her.  Mother was 12 when her father died in an auto accident in 1930, so this photo has to be earlier than that, obviously.  Bonnie went on to work (and support herself) by working for Mark, the brother on the far right in this picture, who owned a coal company on Main Street near Ridgedale.  She ran the office and dispatched the trucks delivering coal to their customers.

By the way, they are standing in front of the house I wrote about yesterday, the house on Fifth Avenue where I lived from 1943 to 1949.

Write with me ~ about memories

Write a list that begins "I remember."

(Why a list?  Why not just write about a memory?

Okay, do whatever you like about "I remember,"
and maybe write a paragraph in the comments?)

I remember the stove in the living room of our house when I was a little girl.  My experiences with that coal stove came to mind when I read this line on page 204 of Jacqueline Winspear's novel Birds of a Feather (2004):

"Maisie prepared her bath, opened the door to the fire and settled down to soak before embarking on the rest of her day."

When I was three years old, my mother's mother died and my family moved into her house with my Aunt Bonnie Reynolds.  The coal-burning stove sat in front of the closed-in fireplace, where the stove pipe vented.  It looked something like this one I found online, but our fireplace was still there behind the stove.  Our stove wasn't as boxy as this, but had more rounded corners.  Beside it was the coal shuttle, shaped like this one.

That little stove was the only heat for the whole house (not counting the kitchen's oven), and I'd run to the living room on cold mornings to warm myself — front and back — at the open door of the stove.  Maisie, in the novel, opened the door of her stove for the fire's warmth, just as we did.  Both bedrooms, where I lived, opened onto the living room, the one where I slept with Auntie at the front of the house and the one where my parents slept at the back of the house.  Between the bedrooms was a connecting bathroom, with a clawfooted tub and a big closet.  I probably would have welcomed a warm stove near my bathtub, as Maisie did.

Modern technology enabled me to "visit" that house again by googling the first address I ever memorized; I lived on Fifth Avenue in East Lake.  The open lots on each side are still there, but the big tree in front of the house is gone, replaced by a smaller tree on the other side of our front yard.  Grandma's two beautiful crepe myrtle trees are missing from the side yard.  Ah, well, everything changes, doesn't it?

I googled that address for a 2013 post, where I also mentioned the changes wrought by the decades since I lived there.

Teaser ~ a memoir I recommend

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio ~ by Peg Kehret, 1996, memoir, 9.5/10

"Why were you out of bed?" ...
"I was doing the hula," I said. ...
"The hula?"
"Alice didn't know what the hula is," explained Renée.
"So Peg was going to show her," Dorothy added.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Willie helped me into bed and warned me to stay there.  "In all my years of nursing," she said, "I've never had a polio patient try to dance the hula" (p. 102).

Peg Schulze became Peg Kehret when I married Carl Kehret.  We have two children, Anne and Bob, and I wept for joy the day they got their first polio vaccinations" (p. 172).

I saw this on Donna's shelf, borrowed it, read it straight through in one sitting, and have already returned it to Donna.  Here's what the book is about:

In a riveting story of courage and hope, Peg Kehret writes about months spent in a hospital when she was twelve, first struggling to survive a severe case of polio, then slowly learning to walk again.

Monday Punday

Dancing the snow away

The offices closed early, along with the Café and dining program.  We are expecting snow and icy road conditions this afternoon, so people were sent home from work and schools.  Some of us continued to sit around and talk after we ate, and Toni came in with "Alexa" and plugged "her" in near our table.  Drenda and I got up to dance to the music, as you can see in this photo.  Gotta get this posted quickly, so I can get down to our Fitness Center in time for our group to exercise together at 3:00 p.m.  It's really great that we don't have to leave the building to do our thing, whether dancing or working out.

Craziest books I've ever seen

Bathroom Guest Book: Please Sign In While Sitting Down ~ by Knock Knock, (no date), humor

No ordinary guest book, Knock Knock's throne-room tome offers provocative prompts and ample doodle space to help your guests express themselves for posterity.  Unique housewarming gift becomes a one-of-a-kind keepsake.  Amazon has a video showing possible doodles.

Here are some of the pages, just for laughs.  Click to enlarge pages for easier reading.

Oh, my!  When I looked up this book on Amazon, I learned that people who buy this book also have bought others like it.  Really?  And I never knew such books existed?

The Bathroom Guest Book ~ by Jack Kreismer, humor, 2000

This one has "Privia" to read, like this:  "The Scott Paper Company, makers of the toilet tissue, once conducted a survey which concluded that more than two-thirds of people holding master's degrees or doctorates read in the bathroom."

Our Restroom Guest Book: Something to Do While You Do What You Do ~ humor, 2012

Each page includes hilarious checkboxes including  things like:  favorite name of bathroom, rate your experience, and check all that apply.  I like the "How do you hang yours?" question about toilet paper:  Over, Under, or Lazy.

Do I plan to buy any of these?  No, but they are good for a laugh today.

Books that count ~ books that don't

Books I've completed so far this year:

1.  Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice ~ by Michelle Obama, 2019, journal, 9/10
2.  Paws for a Moment with God: Devotions Best Enjoyed in the Company of a Cat ~ compiled by Patricia Mitchell, 2010, reflections, 7/10
3.  Good Dog. Stay. ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2007, memoir, 9/10
4.  Cat Tales: A Catty Concoction of Quotes, Poems and "Dear Tabby" Advice ~ edited by Suzanne Beilenson, 1992, quotations, 7/10
5.  What Cats Teach Us ... Life's Lessons Learned from Our Feline Friends ~ by Glenn Dromgoole, 2000, gift book, 7/10
6.  Why Religion? : A Personal Story ~ by Elaine Pagels, 2018, memoir, 9/10
7.  Have a Little Faith: A True Story ~ by Mitch Albom, 2009, memoir, 9/10
8.  Making Toast: A Family Story ~ by Roger Rosenblatt, 2010, memoir (Maryland), 9/10
9.  Ten Keys to Happier Living: A Practical Science-Based Handbook for Happiness ~ by Vanessa King, 2016, self-help, 9/10
10.  Allah: A Christian Response ~ by Miroslav Volf, 2011, religion, 8/10
11.  Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life ~ by Julia Cameron, 1999, meditations, 

Books in that list that do NOT count toward the Mount TBR Reading Challenge:

6.  Why Religion? : A Personal Story ~ by Elaine Pagels, 2018, memoir, 9/10

This one was a library book.  I've read 10 of the 48 books from my own shelves that I hope to read this year.  Not bad, seeing as this is only two weeks into January.  Two of them were books I'd already started before last year ended and some were short books, so (nope) I didn't exactly read eleven big books in two weeks.

Beginning ~ with a lost tooth

Making Toast: A Family Story ~ by Roger Rosenblatt, 2010, memoir (Maryland)

The trick when foraging for a tooth lost in coffee grounds is not to be misled by the clumps.

His granddaughter lost a tooth, which he had wrapped in a napkin for safekeeping.  You see what's going to happen, don't you?  It did, so now he and his wife have been searching through the kitchen trash can for twenty minutes.  My friend Jane left this book out for me to read while I was staying at her house in November.  I glanced at the first page and didn't stop until page eight.  I think it will be good, in spite of the sad events that led up to the grandparents being there in the first place.

When Roger's daughter, Amy — a gifted doctor, mother, and wife — collapses and dies from an asymptomatic heart condition at age thirty-eight, Roger and his wife, Ginny, leave their home on the South Shore of Long Island to move in with their son-in-law, Harris, and their three young grandchildren:  six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and one-year-old James, known as Bubbies.

Long past the years of diapers, homework, and recitals, Roger and Ginny — Boppo and Mimi to the kids — quickly reaccustom themselves to the world of small children:  bedtime stories, talking toys, play-dates, nonstop questions, and nonsequential thought.

Though reeling from Amy's death, they carry on, reconstructing a family, sustaining one another, and guiding three lively, alert, and tenderhearted children through the pains and confusions of grief.  As he marvels at the strength of his son-in-law and the tenacity and skill of his wife, a former kindergarten teacher, Roger attends each day to "the one household duty I have mastered" — preparing the morning toast perfectly to each child's liking.

Now let me tell you "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey used to say.  It was November of 2011 when I stayed at Jane's house to take care of her cat while she was traveling.  Yes, eight years ago.  I can't find any indication I ever finished the book (not on my list of books read that year or the next), so I must have left it at Jane's and never picked up a copy for myself.  That is, until more recently.

Jane died a couple of years after that, and I moved to St. Louis in 2014.  Yet I have a copy of the paperback edition in my apartment.  When did I acquire it?  I have no idea.  Why didn't I recognize it?  Look at the cover above and the cover of the hardback that I wrote for Book Beginnings in 2011.  I suddenly made the connection when I read Sue Jackson's review last week; she had the audio book.  I recognized the cover picture she used (this one), and suddenly I realized it was the book I had on my shelf.  Same book, different cover.  I searched my blog and found the old post from 2011.  Mystery solved.  Sort of.  I must not have read beyond those eight pages (mentioned above), yet I remembered this earlier cover that was on the hardback edition.  Since I own the book, I can count it for the Mount TBR Challenge, where I'm reading books from my own shelves.



Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on?  If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Gilion at Rose City Reader.  Browse today's Linky to find interesting books for your own reading list.

I don't want to talk yet

"I turned to Mark, then one and a half, and asked, 'Mark, why don't you talk yet?'  As we expected, he said nothing.  But later that evening, while I was giving him a bath, and he was maneuvering plastic boats and small floating dinosaurs, he suddenly stopped, looked at me, and said, 'I don't want to talk yet.'  Astonished, since I'd never heard him speak a complete sentence, I burst out laughing, then sang him a song from the Mikado, about a bird that didn't want to talk" (p. 73).

Why Religion? : A Personal Story ~ by Elaine Pagels, 2018, memoir

Why does religion still exist in the twenty-first century?  Why do so many continue to argue about the questions it raises?  What purpose does it serve in our lives?  In the wake of great personal tragedy, Pagels reflects on the persistence and nature of belief and why religion matters.

I'm "teasing" you with a bit of a paragraph from the book I'm reading.  Her little boy has a mind of his own!

Journals ~ Maisie's, Michelle's, and Bonnie's

Bits of Bonnie ~ by Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs, 2020 portion

As I start this year's journaling, using the two books below, I have decisions to make.  Shall I write in those actual books?  Or shall I use quotes like those below to jump-start "journal" posts on my blog?  Or shall I continue to use Microsoft Word and print it out bit by bit as I've always done, punching holes in each page to put in a notebook that goes on the shelf?  Working on it here allows me to edit, add to, correct, and polish what I write.  Once I apply pen to paper that's bound into a book, it's there forever — unless I rip out the page.  Leave a comment, and tell me what you think.

==============================================================

What Would Maisie Do?: Inspiration from the Pages of Maisie Dobbs ~ by Jacqueline Winspear, 2019, illustrated journal

"There is no need to fill the page with your response at once, nor is there a requirement to work through the journaling part of What Would Maisie Do? in a linear fashion" (p. 8).

"I wanted her to embody the qualities of endurance, resiliance, empathy, kindness, and perspective" (p. 9).

"Stay with the question.  The more it troubles you, the more it has to teach you.  In time, Maisie, you will find that the larger questions in life share such behavior.  ~ Maisie Dobbs" (p. 10).

"Coincidence is a messenger sent by truth. ~ Maisie Dobbs" (p. 48)

"Maurice had taught her that silencing the mind was a greater task than stilling the body. ~ Maisie Dobbs" (p. 66).

"With an enthusiastic flourish, yards of vibrant purples, yellows, pinks, and reds of Indian silk were pulled out, to be rubbed between finger and thumb, and held against her face in front of the mirror. . . . Thus a day that had seen so many tears ended in the midst of a rainbow. ~ Maisie Dobbs" (p. 84).

Maisie's journal is based on the author's series of books about Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.  So far, I've read the first book (see a couple of quotes below) and picked up the second in the series from the Crown Center library.  Donna bought the whole series and has donated the ones she has already completed.
==============================================================
Maisie Dobbs (2003, Book 1)

"The library was silent and pitch black as Maisie entered.  Quickly closing the door behind her, she lit the lamps and made her way to the section that held philosophy books.  This was where she would start.  She wasn't quite sure which text to start with, but felt that if she just started somewhere, a plan would develop as she went along" (p. 87).

"And what will you study, Maisie?"
"I am interested in the moral sciences, sir.  When you told me about the different subjects — psychology, ethics, philosophy, logic — that's what I most wanted to study.  I've already done lots of assignments in those subjects, and I like the work.  It's not so — well — definite, is it?  Sometimes it's like a maze, with no answers, only more questions" (p. 124).

==============================================================
Birds of a Feather (2004, Book 2)
Pardonable Lies (2005, Book 3)
Messenger of Truth (2006, Book 4)
An Incomplete Revenge (2008, Book 5)
Among the Mad (2009, Book 6)
The Mapping of Love and Death (2010, Book 7)
A Lesson in Secrets (2011, Book 8)
Elegy for Eddie (2012, Book 9)
Leaving Everything Most Loved (2013, Book 10)
A Dangerous Place (2015, Book 11)
Journey to Munich (2017, Book 12)
In This Grave Hour (2018, Book 13)
To Die But Once (2018, Book 14)
The American Agent (2019, Book 15)
==============================================================

Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice ~ by Michelle Obama, 2019, journal (unpaged)

"Describe your childhood home.  What are some of the details that stand out the most?  What made your home different from your friends' homes?"

"If you could have a conversation with a loved one who has passed away, what would you ask him or her?"

Where did your name come from and how has it influenced the person you've become?"

"What role has education — whether formal or informal — played in your life?"

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Becoming ~ by Michelle Obama, 2018, memoir

"My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word.  My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice.  Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, they helped me see the value in our story, in my story, in the larger story of our country" (pp. x-xi).

"Your story is what you have, what you will always have.  It is something to own" (p. xi).

"I was about four when I decided I wanted to learn piano" (p. 8).

"Encyclopedia Britannica ... Any time we had a question about a word, or a concept, or some piece of history, they directed us toward those books.  Dandy, too, was an influence, meticulously correcting our grammar or admonishing us to enunciate our words when we went over for dinner.  The idea was we were to transcend, to get ourselves further.  They'd planned for it.  They encouraged it.  We were expected not just to be smart but to own our smartness — to inhabit it with pride — and this filtered down to how we spoke" (p. 40).

"My mother ... lobbying for the creation of a special multigrade classroom that catered to higher-performing students. ... Dr. Lavizzo ... had studied a new trend in grouping students by ability rather than by age — in essence, putting the brighter kids together so they could learn at a faster pace" (p. 44).

"I liked most of my teachers.  I wasn't afraid to raise my hand in class.  At Whitney Young, it was safe to be smart.  The assumption was that everyone was working toward college, which meant that you never hid your intelligence for fear of someone saying you talked like a white girl" (p. 58).

"I tried not to feel intimidated when classroom conversation was dominated by male students, which it often was.  Hearing them, I realized that they weren't at all smarter than the rest of us.  They were simply emboldened, floating on an ancient tide of sureriority, buoyed by the fact that history had never told them anything different" (p. 78).

"At this point, I thought of myself basically as tri-lingual.  I knew the relaxed patois of the South Side and the high-minded diction of the Ivy League, and now on top of that I spoke Lawyer, too" (p. 94).

"Anytime a stranger commented that she looked exactly like Michelle Obama's mother, she'd just give a polite shrug and say, 'Yeah, I get that a lot,' before carrying on with her business.  As she always had, my mother did things her own way" (p. 296).

"We were the forty-fourth First Family and only the eleventh family to spend two full terms in the White House.  We were, and would always be, the first black one" (p. 412).

"Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done" (p. 419).

"There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice.   And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others.  This, for me, is how we become" (p. 421).

Books to pass along

Here are some books I'm ready to pass along for others to read, starting with a couple that are very appropriate for Caturday.  I'm purging stacks of my books by reading a bunch of them for the Mount TBR Challenge.

1.  Cat Tales: A Catty Concoction of Quotes, Poems and "Dear Tabby" Advice ~ edited by Suzanne Beilenson, 1992

I have several "catty" friends who might like this.  Here's a quote from page 11:
Dear Tabby,
I'm a mother of 16, and expecting yet another kitty litter.  I love my babies, but I am tuckered out.  There just doesn't seem to be time enough in the day to feed them all, clean them all, and take them all to the park.  I catnap whenever I can, but it doesn't seem to help.  What can I do?

Signed, On My Last Paw

Dear On My Last Paw,
What you need, my dear, is a vaCATion.  So drop the kits at your mother's or hire a sitter.  There are lots of great places to relax and unwind.  Might I suggest a few?  The Catskills, Catalina Island, St. Kitts . . .

2.  Paws for a Moment With God: Devotions Best Enjoyed in the Company of a Cat ~ compiled by Patricia Mitchell, 2010

I gave this book to Marie, yesterday.  She may also be interested in Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates, since she noticed the strange title when I posted it the other day and asked about it.

3.  Two by Two ~ by Nicholas Sparks, 2016

This novel goes to the Crown Center's library.

4.  Good Dog.  Stay. ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2007

I think Nancy, a dog lover who has been taking care of Faye's dog, should have a book that "honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend" (from the dustjacket) and has lots of photos of dogs, including one of a dog who seems to be howling at a snowman.

5.  Carpool Diem ~ by Nancy Star, 2008

Another novel to donate to the Crown Center's library.

Beginning ~ with a new client

"Maisie Dobbs shuffled the papers on her desk into a neat pile and placed them in a plain manila folder.  She took up green marble-patterned W. H. Smith fountain pen and inscribed the cover with the name of her new clients:  Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Johnson, who were concerned that their son's fiancee might have misled them regarding her past."

Birds of a Feather ~ by Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs, Book 2), 2004, mystery (England)

Maisie Dobbs is on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London "between the wars."  It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress.  But what seems a simple case at the outset soon becomes increasingly complicated when three of the heiress’s old friends are found dead.  Is there a connection between the woman’s mysterious disappearance and the murders?  Who would want to kill three seemingly respectable young women?  As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.

Well, I'm off and running on the second book in the Maisie Dobbs series, even though I've never (before) been one to choose book after book about the same protagonist.  We'll see how it goes.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for more book beginnings.