Beginning ~ with a writing style

Beginning

You will criticize me, reader, for writing in a style six hundred years removed from the events I describe, but you came to me for explanation of those days of tranformation which left your world the world it is, and since it was the philosophy of the Eighteenth Century, heavy with optimism and ambition, whose abrupt revival birthed the recent revolution, so it is only in the language of the Enlightenment, rich with opinion and sentiment, that those days can be described.

                    

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, Book 1 of 4) ~ by Ada Palmer, 2016, science fiction, 448 pages

Mycroft Canner is a convict.  For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets.  Carlyle Foster is a sensayer — a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.

The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s.  It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labelling all public writing and speech.  What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations.  And most of the world's population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety.  To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell.  To them, it seems like normal life.

And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destabilize the system:  the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true.  Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thursday Thoughts ~ walking, walking, walking

What I've been thinking about includes technology (see my word for Wednesday HERE), but also walking.  My iPhone tells me that I'm walking about twice as many steps this year as I did last year.  Yesterday, I came across an article about "the right number of steps to walk" (found HERE).  Yeah, right.  I think that number varies with age and health and a lot of other variables.

My neighbor in the apartment next to mine called me one day to talk about walking and to saunter up and down our hall with me one evening.  She's starting off slowly, which I think is the right way to do it.  We all have our own aches and pains ... and our limits.

Oh, are you waiting for me to give you the "right number" promised above?  Here's one part of that article:  "Results showed that walking 3,867 steps daily was enough to begin reducing the risk of dying from any cause — and that just 2,337 steps per day could help reduce the risk of dying from heart disease.  The benefits were similar for men and women as well..."

The writer went on to say "the study found that essentially the more you walk, the better – every extra 1,000 steps was associated with a 15% decreased risk of dying from any cause, and a mere extra 500 daily steps was associated with a 7% decrease in dying from heart disease."  I have gradually increased my steps per day since last year.  I think I am doing it right for me, an 84-year-old woman.

Word of the Day ~ technology

The technology I'm thinking about right now is my phone.  Yesterday evening, I noticed a voicemail from my friend Joan in Montana, so I listened to it.  I heard her voice and "call me."  Even stranger, there was no indication in "Recent" that I'd had any call at all.  So I called her.  Well, I mean, I tried to call her, but didn't get through to her.  So I tried to listen to the message again, and it wasn't there!  You may be thinking, "Oh, she probably butt-dialed it and then erased it."  I mean, she must have deleted it remotely.  But my phone still shows that I got a voicemail from her.  And I noticed the call hours after I supposedly received it (without ever hearing any ring).  None of this makes any sense to me.

Musing about a new book

The Unbreakable Brain ~ by Dr. Will Mitchell, 2015, nonfiction, 121 pages, 8/10

Is it possible to prevent dementia?  Or reverse it?  The answer is yes.  While the brain may still hold some mysteries, there is a lot we do know about getting and keeping it healthy and reversing the damage that might already be there.  Your brain is the interface between your mind and spirit in this world, but it is also a physical organ that, like all organs, has nutritional needs and chemical stresses.  Just like keeping a body physically fit requires exercise and nutritious food, a brain needs to be fed and exercised to stay strong or get stronger.

Musing:  I went over to our little library to read and think about this short book, but people kept coming through and wanting to talk to me.  So instead, I got in a few more steps by walking in the neighborhood, rather than reading.  Then I came home to finish the 121 pages.  Was it worth reading?  Yeah, I thought so.

My mother had Altzheimer's, and I'm starting to have trouble finding the word I'm looking for.  So when I ran across this short book in my reading, I decided to order a copy.

Socks, buttons, and looking ahead to a week for readers and bloggers

Recently, I saw a different pair of socks with "read your socks off" on them, so I got online and found this illustration.  I love the idea, though I probably won't buy any for me.

A friend had a "Let Freedom Read" button on her bag, which I admired when we were having lunch one day.  The next time I saw her, she gave me a button just like it and another that says, "I Read Banned Books."  Thanks, Cindy!  I'm posting this early so all my book friends will have time to find a button (or two) in time to celebrate in Septemer.  I especially hope my book blogger friends are aware that week is coming up next month, so they can blog about it.

In March of 2024, the American Library Association reported (see HERE) that a record number of unique book titles had been challenged in 2023.

Sunday Salon is hosted

by Deb at Readerbuzz

Beginning ~ at the end

Beginning

The last months of Bree's life were, absurdly, full of hope.  Hope like a burst of yellow; the vivid dash of goldenrod, daffodils, yarrow; a sudden splash of spring color in the monochrome of the wintery cancer ward.

Someone Else's Bucket List ~ by Amy T. Matthews, 2023, fiction, 387 pages

Jodie Boyd is a shy and anxious twenty-something, completely unsure what to do with her life.  Her older sister, Bree, is an adventurous, globe-trotting, hugely successful Instagram influencer with more than a million followers.  She’s the most alive person Jodie knows — up until Bree’s unfathomable, untimely death from Leukemia.  The Boyds are devastated, not to mention overwhelmed with medical debt.  But Bree thought of everything — and soon, Jodie is shocked by a new post on her sister’s Instagram feed.

The first of many Bree recorded in secret, the post foretells a jaw-dropping challenge for Jodie:  to complete Bree’s very public bucket list.  From "Fly over Antarctica" to "Perform a walk-on cameo in a Broadway musical," if Jodie does it — and keeps all Bree’s followers — a corporate sponsor will pay off the staggering medical debt.  If she gains followers, the Boyds won’t be the only ones to benefit.  It’s crazy.  It’s terrifying.  It’s impossible, immoral even, to refuse.  So, despite the whole world watching, Jodie plunges in, never imagining that in death, her sister will teach her how to live, and that the last item on the list — "Fall in love" — may just prove to be the easiest.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Another coincidence

Tisha B'Av, or "the ninth of Av" in Hebrew, is an annual fast day in Judaism.  It is a day of mourning that commemorates a series of tragedies in Jewish history and is considered the saddest day of the Jewish calendar.  It's a time for Jews to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem by the Second Babylonian Empire and the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago.

The date this year was Tuesday, August 13th.  The Crown Center had a notice on the monitors telling us the Café would be closed that day.  The coincidence is that I was reading Jewish Reflections on Death (HERE) just after I had seen the announcement and got to page 29, which says:  "On the Sabbath following Tisha-b'Ab, many Hasidim came to him..."

It was the first time I had ever heard of that particular Jewish holiday, and then I read about it in my book?  That's a weird coincidence!  The photo shows the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Wailing Wall.  Now I know why.

Wednesday Word

Jenn, her husband Don, and their son Drew dropped by to meet me in 2010 on their trip home to St. Louis from Atlanta or Florida or somewhere in the South.  You are probably wondering why I am remembering their short visit now.  Well, because I butt-dialed Jenn yesterday.  (Sorry, Jenn.)  Oh, sorry if any readers are offended by that word.  It's now officially in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  Here's their definition:

Verb:  place an unintended call to (someone) from a mobile phone (as by sitting on a phone placed in a back pocket) when the phone is not in use.

*Note:  I'm the one who lives in St. Louis now, and Jenn has moved to Arizona.

Two quotes from Old Turtle

Old Turtle: Questions of the Heart ~ by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Greg Ruth, 2017, children's picture book, 56 pages, 9/10

"It has been said that what we call evil is simply live turned backward upon itself," she murmured.  "For evil is the opposite of life, the stunting and twisting of life to dark and bitter ends."  (Pages are unnumbered.)

"These trees that brush the clouds did not come from nothing, nor do the clouds themselves, neither the rose nor the stone, the river or the raindrop.  All the things that are come from something and someplace else that is.  There is no great nothingness to claim us.  Rather, in death we merely return to the source of our life."

Think about these "rules"

I've seen several versions of this list of "Seven Rules of Life," and I kind of like this one.  It's something we can muse about today, if you'd like to join me.

1. Let it go.  Make peace with your past, so it won't screw up your present.
2. Ignore them.  What others think of you is none of your business.
3. Give it time.  Time heals almost everything.
4. Don't compare.  You have no idea what another's journey is all about.
5. Never give up.  It always seems impossible until it is done.
6. It's on you.  Only you are in charge of your happiness.
7. Smile.  Life is short.  Enjoy it while you have it.

Meow? How did it happen?

Meow Means Murder ~ by Jinty James, 2019, cozy mystery, 242 pages

A gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat, a cat café, a food critic, and … murder.  The small town of Gold Leaf Valley is aflutter with a food critic’s arrival.  His online column has made him famous in this part of Northern California, but not everyone is pleased he’s in town.  When café owners Lauren Crenshaw and Annie, her silver-gray tabby, stumble across his body, what should they do?  Investigate the crime themselves?  Or … leave it to the police?  Is Lauren under suspicion for delivering pastries to the dead man’s motel room?  Or did his intern bump him off in order to gain a promotion?  Lauren’s cousin Zoe is keen to help investigate the crime.  But are there too many red herrings in this case to uncover the truth?  Zoe is also busy turning knitting club into knitting/crochet club and teasing Lauren about her budding romance with attractive Detective Mitch Denman.  Can the trio uncover the truth about the food critic’s death – before the killer strikes again?

Sunday Salon is hosted

by Deb at Readerbuzz

Cats, dogs, birds, horses ~ all of them heroes

Pet Heroes ~ by Nicole Corse, 2010, children's (ages 6-8), 32 pages, 10/10

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, especially when they are animals.  This book features 14 stories of pet heroes who either helped or rescued their owners or other animals.  Kids will love reading about these extraordinary pets, from service dogs to pot-bellied pigs.  (I see a cat at the top, so this works for a Caturday post.)

The lost city of the Incas?

Beginning

As the man dressed head to toe in Khaki turned the corner and began racewalking uphill in my direction, I had to wonder: had we met before?

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time ~ by Mark Adams, 2011, history (Peru), 333 pages

In 1911, the explorer Hiram Bingham III found the spectacular stone ruins of Machu Picchu.  This discovery raised some tantalizing questions.  Why had the ancient Incas built this citadel high in the misty mountains of Peru?  How had it remained hidden for centuries?  Was Bingham — as many suspected — the real inspiration for Indiana Jones?  Had Bingham actually lied about the achievement that catapulted him to world fame?  Mark Adams decided to search for some answers by retracing Bingham's original route.  But before long, things began to get a little weird.

Added later:  Because I searched for a photo and info about this book online, Google apparently decided I wanted to see lots of articles about Peru, including THIS ONE about archaeologists finding a lost temple in Peru.  It's interesting.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Okay, I ponder odd things, don't I?

I'm fascinated by this idea of atmospheric perspective on page 19 of my new book:  Big Ideas, Little Pictures: Explaining the World One Sketch at a Time by Jono Hey (2024).  The opposite page adds:  "On a blue sky day, the objects take on a bluer tone, ultimately blending into the color of the sky in the distance" (p. 8).

I smiled at the cat and dog "story" (pp. 98-99).  The left page shows a drawing of a sleeping cat and says, "The cat sat on a mat" is not a story.  The right page shows an unhappy-looking dog coming through a door; it says, "The cat sat on the DOG'S mat" is a story.  The words are attributed to John Le Carré.  The photo I found makes it an even bigger story, with the huge difference in their sizes.  I could build a story from this photo; that dog does NOT look happy.

This is not the illustration in the book (I couldn't find it online), but this idea is explored on pages 158-159.  The moon seems bigger when on the horizon and seems smaller when up in the sky.  One explanation is that on the horizon, we are comparing the moon with things like buildings.  But when it's higher in the sky, we can only compare it to the vastness of space.

TWOsday books

This Book Is Literally Just Pictures of Cute Animals That Will Make You Feel Better ~ edited by Smith Street Books, 2019, children and young adults, 96 pages, 8/10

I haven't been reading as much as usual. I'm not sure why not, but my reading is way down this year.  Reading this "picture book" seems like cheating, since it really is all pictures.  Well, except for .....

1. those words on the cover,
2. the same words (almost) on the back (which say, "This is the back of a book that is literally just pictures of cute animals that will make you feel better"),
3. the title page (literally the cover words, again, but on a yellow background),
4. and the copyright page.

That's all the words in the whole book, so I guess you could say you have "read" this book now.  There are, however, lots of cute animals that you would miss.  I especially love the sleeping yellow cat inside the front cover.  All in all, I have to say it was a very good book.

Jewish Reflections on Death ~ edited by Jack Riemer, 1974, religion and spirituality, 192 pages

This is the other book I'm currently reading.  I told you about it when I shared my Book Beginnings HERE on Friday.  It's giving me a lot to think about.

Added later:  I just learned that today is International Left-Handers Day.

Today is a day to celebrate the uniqueness and differences of left-handed individuals.  According to the Left-Handers Day website, the day is meant to "increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed."  The unofficial holiday was launched in 1992 by the Left-Handers Club in the United Kingdom.  Are you left-handed?  As you can see in this photo, my friend Dora is left-handed.  It's your day, Dora!

Monday Musing

I was reading a book and decided to "muse" about it here, but it was so awful that I erased all I had said here and don't even want to share the title on this blog.  That is a first for me, but I really do NOT want to give that book any publicity whatsoever.  If you ask me to quietly share the title, I cannot tell you because I have already forgotten it.  Now let's talk about good books, okay?  So please share the title of the best book you've read lately.

Have you read this book?

The Ministry of Time ~ by Kaliane Bradley, 2024, time travel, 352 pages

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on.  A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible — for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a "bridge":  living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as "1847" or Commander Graham Gore.  As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as "washing machines," "Spotify," and "the collapse of the British Empire."  But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper.  By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.  Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how — and whether she believes — what she does next can change the future.

My neighbor Betty was reading this recently, and I'm thinking about getting myself a copy.  If you've read this book, let me know in the comments what you thought of it.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Bookstore cat

I went to Left Bank Books with Risé last Saturday (I mean Caturday, of course) and took a picture of this black cat in the window.  The cat was named by a child, I was told, so that why the poor cat is stuck with this LONG name:  Orleans Tennessee Maple.  I asked the employee to spell it, to be sure I had heard her correctly, so she spelled "Orleans" and said, "I'm not sure how to spell Tennessee."  Uh, not a problem, since that's where I'm from.  She was surprised, to say the least.

Caturday is the day between Friday and Sunday, a day for cats on this blog.

Beginning ~ with a Foreword by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Beginning

Years have passed since I have seen Maidanek, one of the many concentration camps in Europe.  I grew up in Switzerland — an island of peace surrounded by the holocaust of World War II and the rumor, later the knowledge, that concentration camps did indeed exist!  The day the war was over I set out on a long journey to do relief work throughout devasted Europe.  The ruined cities, the hungry children, the lonely widows were only a part of the memory that I shall carry with me for the rest of my life.

Jewish Reflections on Death ~ edited by Jack Riemer, 1974, religion and spirituality, 192 pages

Rabbi Riemer selected a variety of essays that portray the historical development of the Jewish way of death, a system rich with ritual and symbolism.  I bought this in 1991 and apparently never finished reading it.  I'm ready to read it now.  All of it.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Cats are having their day today

Today is International Cat Day.  More than 25% of households have a pet cat.  Some cats might seem aloof, but these furry felines are often loving and affectionate companions.  What better way to honor them than with a special day?  Most of them think every day should be about them, so today's a good day for us to do it.

A book I found today in the Crown Center's library

Simple Remedies for Seniors: The Guidebook to Natural Healing Secrets to Prevent and Reverse Disease ~ by The Editors of FC&A Medical Publishing, 2008, guidebook, 384 pages

Learn natural ways to help your body repair and protect itself, including specific foods, nutrients, exercises, and savvy tips.  This well-organized book reveals healing alternatives for everything from bee stings to weight gain that don’t require drugs, doctors, or lab tests.  Discover the miracle foods that are proven to contain nutrients perfect for fighting high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and more.  You’ll also learn the truth behind those “old wives’ tales” — some are right on target, but others are downright dicey.  It’s time to step away from the medicine cabinet and run to the pantry.

Books two friends read

The Shooting at Château Rock: A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel (Book 13 of 17) ~ by Martin Walker, 2020, mystery (France), 322 pages

It’s summer in the Dordogne and heirs of a modest Périgordian sheep farmer learn that they have been disinherited.  Their father’s estate has been sold to an insurance company in return for a policy that will place him in a five-star retirement home for the rest of his life.  But the farmer dies before he can move in.  Was it a natural death?  Or was there foul play?

Chief of Police Bruno Courrèges is soon on the case, embarking on an investigation that will lead him to several shadowy insurance companies owned by a Russian oligarch with a Cypriot passport.  The companies are based in Cyprus, Malta, and Luxembourg.  But Bruno finds a weak spot in France:  the Russian's France-based notaire and insurance agent.  As Bruno is pursuing this lead, the oligarch's daughter turns up in the Périgord, and complications ensue, eventually bringing the action to the château of an aging rock star.  But Bruno makes time for lunch amid it all.

My friend Joan in Montana is in the middle of reading this one and told me because I asked.  The second book was recommended by my friend Cindy when she joined me for lunch recently in the Circle@Crown Café:

Lucky ~ by Jane Smiley, 2024, psychological literary fiction (Missouri), 561 pages

Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky — and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side.  Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then — through a combination of hard work and serendipity — she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again.  Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell.  Yet it feels like something is missing.  Could it be true love?  Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?  It's a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.

Musing ~ about three new books

The Mindfulness Coloring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People ~ by Emma Farrarons, 2015, stress management, 112 pages

On Saturday, Risé and I went to Left Bank Books, and I came home with three books.  Well, two books and a coloring book, but that's a "book," right?  I put it first for that reason.  Mindful coloring is a simple practice that combines meditation with the growing popularity of adult coloring books, and shows that any activity, done right, can be an exercise in mindfulness.  Illustrator Emma Farrarons presents 70 intricate patterns to color your way to tranquility:  flowers, leaves, butterflies, birds, rolling waves, and kaleidoscopic designs.

This Book Is Literally Just Pictures of Cute Animals That Will Make You Feel Better ~ edited by Smith Street Books, 2019, children and young adults, 96 pages

This book features eighty pictures of excessively cute animals, and that's it.  The only words are on the title page and the copyright page.  There are cats flaunting fabulous wigs, sloths dangling casually, and otters holding hands (something that actually occurs in nature).

Big Ideas, Little Pictures: Explaining the World One Sketch at a Time ~ by Jono Hey, 2024, trivia, 288 pages

Have you ever wondered what makes autumn leaves change color, why more choice makes you less happy, or how to win at Monopoly?  Or maybe you'd like to learn how to find your way using the stars or why we need to worry less about what others think of us than you might expect.  Hey, look!  The boater on the cover is musing about the shape of that wave.  I wonder if it was a Monday.  Okay, so you know I'm weird and muse about odd things.