Musing about book covers

Home ~ by Toni Morrison, 2012, literary fiction, 149 pages

When Frank Money joined the army to escape his too-small world, he left behind his cherished and fragile little sister, Cee. After the war, he journeys to his native Georgia with a renewed sense of purpose in search of his sister, but it becomes clear that their troubles began well before their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown of Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed and where Frank learns at last what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and — above all — what it means to come home.

When I started to write about this book (that I am currently still reading), I found two entirely different covers.  The first one makes me think of the old saying, "Home is where you hang our hat."  The other cover makes me think of ... nothing related to home.  Yet that's the version I found in our Crown Center library.

Musing:  When I write about a book on this book blog, is it ethical to show a cover that is not the version I have in hand?  Hmmm, I have to think about that.  I mean, I really must MUSE about that a bit more.  What do you think?

Friendly February? Let's do it!

Life is happier when we're connected to others.  When the world feels divided, we can all help by spreading more friendship and togetherness.  Today's thought (above) says, "Ask a friend how they've been feeling recently."  Click to enlarge the calendar, so you can read each day's suggestion.

The Piano Lesson ~ by August Wilson, 1990, drama, 144 pages

In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned perhaps his most haunting and dramatic work.  At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano.  It is the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, which has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home.  When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future.  But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy.  This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.

Another kind of lesson for us:

DEI may be in the news right now, but what does it mean?  DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

• Diversity is all the ways in which people differ.
• Equity is about fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people.
• Inclusion means that everybody has a say in what happens.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I was thinking about music, HERE.
2. My subject was advice from two grandmothers on TWOsday, HERE.
3. Wednesday's word was "oomf," posted HERE.
4. On Thursday, I had "no regrets" about reading a book with "regrets" in the title, HERE.
5. Friday's book beginnings was from a book about black equity, HERE.
6. On Satuday, the first day of February, I pointed out that it's Black History Month, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

February is Black History Month

In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month as an important time to honor the accomplishments of Black Americans.

Beginning ~ with a suggestion

Beginning

When I first mentioned to acquaintances in one of my online groups that I was thinking of writing a book, my friend Erin B. jokingly stated, "Please call your book 'My Black Friend,' so every white person can say, 'well, my black friend says...' and sound progressive."

My Black Friend Says...: Lessons in Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural Competency ~ by Heather S. Fleming, 2019, racism, 154 pages

This  is written as a series of short essays with pauses for reflection and journaling.  It explores the issue of race from a position of knowledge to give readers the ability to tackle race issues.  It teaches readers about the ways in which we develop biases, how to tackle those biases and associated emotions, and how to move forward without shame or fear.

Each essay addresses an individual issue related to inclusion and diversity in our society.  The combined knowledge allows us to see the nuances of racism, discrimination, and advocacy in America. With an appendix of suggested reading materials, study topics, and terms to know, this book provides all you need to begin your journey towards being a catalyst for change.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

No regrets!

The Collected Regrets of Clover ~ by Mikki Brammer, 2023, psychological fiction (New York), 317 pages, 10/10

I'm so glad I read this book!  No regrets, as I titled this post.  I decided to "collect" the words I singled out, the words that made me think or smile or compare to my own life.  I hope you enjoy them, too.  I need to return this book to the library today, but I want to continue thinking about the insights I tagged about Clover, a death doula in New York City.  That means she had dedicated her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process, as I posted HERE.  By the way, she was raised by her grandfather because her parents died in a freak accident was she was little. 

1.  "I stood in front of bookshelves ... three dilapidated notebooks stood out ... On the first, REGRETS, the second, ADVICE, the third, CONFESSIONS.  Aside from my pets, these were the things I'd save in a fire" (p.6).  [These were people's last words.]

2.  "When I first started working as a death doula, I'd naively tried to get people to focus on all the positive things about their life –– all the things they should be grateful for.  But when someone has spent their years angry at the world, death just feels like one final cruel blow. Eventually, I realized that it wasn't my job to help them gloss over that reality if they didn't want to; it was to sit with them, listen, and bear witness.  Even if they were unhappy right up until their final exhale, at least they weren't alone" (p. 7).

3.  "I got on the F train toward Midtown, headed to the only kind of social gathering I ever really frequented:  a death café" (p. 23).

[I had never heard of a death café, so I googled it and learned it is a scheduled non-profit get-together to talk about death over food and drink, usually tea and cake.  The idea originates with the Swiss sociologist and anthropologist Bernard Crettaz, who organized the first café mortel in 2004.  Jon Underwood, a UK web developer, was inspired by Crettaz's work, introduced the death cafe to London in 2011, and launched the Death Cafe website. They have since been held in many countries.]

4.  [Clover and Grandpa would always go out for breakfast at a diner each weekend, then to a bookstore for one book each.]  "Grandpa and I walked back to the apartment with our chosen books under our arms –– him with a thick biography of the scientist Louis Pasteur, me with a comprehensive guide to a mystical village of gnomes.  I knew exactly how we'd be spending the rest of the afternoon. Grandpa would sit in his courduroy armchair, I'd settle into a beanbag at his feet, and togehter we'd escape to different worlds in the pages of our books" (p. 43).

5.  "Have you ever wondered if we all have a specific time we're meant to die?  Kind of like a set fate?  You know when you hear those stories of people who escape death, like in a plane crash or a building collapse, and then they die in a freak accident a few months later?  It's like death has their number and they can't escape it" (p. 62).

6."If you could know the date of your death in advance, would you want to?" (p. 62).

7.  [As they sat at the diner one weekend, Grandpa said,] "Intelligence will only get you so far in life ... And the same can be said for wit and charm.  But two things will serve you better than any others. ... Infinite curiosity and a keen sense of observation" (p. 75).

8.  "If you want something you don't have," he'd said, "you have to do something you've never done" (p. 114).

9.  "The two of them, lost in a world of their own.  And me, alone in mine" (p. 198).

10.  Claudia, a dying patient, said to her:  "I've been dying to see you, Clover –– pun absolutely intended, because what's the point of being close to death if you can't make use of wordplay?" (p. 261.)

11.  "Don't let the best parts of life pass you by because you're too scared of the unknown" (p. 288).

A new word for me = oomf

On Monday afternoon, I was reading online when I ran across a new word (and then another).  Wait, let's do this one word at a time.  I found "oomf" first, HERE.  It's a word from Gen Z.  Oh, you want to know what it means?  It's supposed to be all lower-case, and it means "one of my followers."  I am already behind the times, since it has apparently been "out there" since 2015 (at least among folks a lot younger than I am).

Here's a quote from that article, and it has another word that's new to me:

Jessica Rett, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor in linguistics, said that every generation innovates language, and they do it for roughly two reasons: to obfuscate and to innovate.  "They don’t want us to know what they’re talking about," Rett said. "And it’s really just a way of sort of setting themselves apart from old people like me."  Rett explained that "one of my friends" is also a pseudo-partitive that eliminates "the possible presupposition that there’s only one friend that you’ve got," which may be particularly important for younger people to signal.

Okay, what is a "partitive"?  Wikipedia has the answer for me, HERE.  For example:

Partitive = "three of my friends"

Pseudo-partitive = "three friends of mine"

 

On a book blog, maybe I should use books as the subject (it's also the second example on Wikipedia):

Partitive = "many of those books"

Pseudo-partitive = "many books"

I'll never say "pseudo-partitive" in real life!

My notes and quotes about Lucy and Viola, the author's two grandmothers

Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers ~ by Adriana Trigiani, 2010, memoir, xiii + 204 pages, 8/10

NOTES

When I read this book, I thought, "What about singing happy birthday over a cake?"  While composing today's blog post, I happened upon this cover of the book, which is different from the version I got from the library (see other mention HERE).

QUOTES

"My grandmother went to the library weekly, and took her children along, which is where my mom's addiction to books began; eventually she and her twin sister Irma became librarians." ~ p. 33

"I asked Viola on her eighty-fifth birthday, which birthday she dreaded the most.  'Stupid question," she said.  'I only know it's downhill after eighty-five.'" ~ p. 107

"As I write this book, the U.S. government just released a report that 41 percet of the babies born in our country in 2008 were born to single mothers." ~ p. 125

"Self-respect is the most important respect of all." ~ p. 125

"They both posessed the take-charge attitude of the firstborn, and both worked all their lives as diligent businesswomen, who never officially retired.  They both had an uncanny ability to lead large families, to end arguments, and to encourage good behavior." ~ page 150

"Lucy went to the library regularly, until she could no longer walk there." ~ p. 168

"When you can, walk." ~ p. 169

"When I visited her, she wanted me to get out and do things.  She didn't want me to sit around with her — she wanted me to go and see things and come back and tell her about them.  When I did, she would light up, relishing in every detail of my day.  In a broader sense, this is what it has meant to be a writer.  I go out, experience the world through characters and conversation, hopefully fetching the good stuff, the details that surprise and bind us, then bring all of it to the page.  Lucy encouraged me to do the same for her." ~ p. 17r

"This is my first work of nonfiction." ~ p. 199

Listen to the music!

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession ~ by Daniel J. Levitin, 2007, music and science, 322 pages

This is an eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.  Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music — its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it — and the human brain.  Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin says that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language.  Drawing on research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, he reveals:

• How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world.

• Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre.

• That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise.

• How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head.

Writing a novel ~ what a novel idea!

No Plot? No Problem! ~ by Chris Baty, 2006, writing, 44 pages

I was given a novel-writing kit by someone who no longer wanted it, and inside is this little book by Chris Baty.  Hey, I remember that name!  He's the one who came up with National Novel Writing Month, better known by using the first syllable of each word:  NaNoWriMo.  I also remember that November is NaNoWriMo month, so I suggested it as an activity for Crown Center residents.

The last time I took part in NaNoWriMo was a few years ago, but I decided to look at my notes to myself.  I'm not bashful, so I'm sure you already know my notes are also posted online for all to see (first posted HERE)

My novel

Here's what I've come up with:  Betsy and Diane are a couple of book bloggers who go on a road trip together, after Betsy retired.  The two had met in a group of people who discussed books online.  Their little group had started calling itself Book Buddies.  Driving to visit a few of their book friends in other states, they laughed at the idea that people once thought it's dangerous to meet with strangers you have only "met" online.  You know, that stranger could be an axe murderer!  At least, that's what people thought a quarter of a century ago.  (See illustration.)

They laughed at the absurdity, since each of them thought the other seemed absolutely okay.  They'd known each other a couple of years online, but had just met in person yesterday, when Diane traveled to Betsy's town so they could go on this adventure together in one car.  The book's title could be:  Happenstance: The Case of the Axe Murderer.

What the two didn't notice as they drove along was that they were being followed by a man one was involved with, a man who was still very afraid of strangers met online.  When the man saw them pull off the road and get out of the car with one of them holding ... gasp! ... an axe, he pulled up behind the car, sprang into action, shoved the two apart, and wrestled the axe away from the "would-be murderer."  The other woman fell and hit her head on a rock.

Ironically, the one who fell was his girlfriend.  She wound up in a coma, in the hospital and totally unaware for most of the novel.  And that means, she was not able to say, "Wait a minute!  That's not the way it was at all!"  Now, which woman is in a coma, and who is on trial for attempted murder?  And why did one of them have an axe in the car in the first place?  I guess that means I need to decide whose car they were driving on this trip to visit their online friends.

That's the background, leading up to a trial for attempted murder.  The novel itself could be told through documents, like emails and instant messages and newspaper articles about the case.

You know you are a bookie ... if bookstore owners smile

when they see you come in the door.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. Monday was MLK Day, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I posted about Adam's first wife (and eating pizzas), HERE.
3. Irregular verbs were the words I discussed on my Wednesday Words post, HERE.
4. Thursday Thoughts were about a novel about slaves in the American South, HERE.
5. I shared the beginning lines of an Ann Patchett book, HERE.
6. On Saturday, I played Bingo and wrote about it, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Today was games

Bingo scorecards have 25 randomly numbered squares on them, with the word "BINGO" written across the top.   Your goal is to cover 5 of those squares in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row.  In standard Bingo, there are 75 different letter-number combinations.

Why am I telling you this?  I haven't played Bingo since I was a child.  Well, maybe not since I taught my children how to play when they were little.  But today, my friend Jane came to the Crown Center, and we played with they group here that regularly does this on Saturday mornings.

One person said she plays Bingo to keep her mind active.  My way of using my mind, though, is by playing with words by blogging or playing Bananagrams or doing crossword puzzles.  As I tell people, I'm a wordsmith.

Beginning ~ sounds like a cliché to me

Beginning

A girl walked into the bar.  I was hunched over, trying to open a box of Dewar's without my knife.

Taft ~ by Ann Patchett, 1994, literary fiction (Tennessee), 273 pages

When John Nickel's lover takes away his son, Nickel is left only with his Beale Street bar in Memphis.  He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy.  Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl's dead father — Taft — obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met.  This story reminds us that our deepest instinct is to protect the people we love.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking about another library book I checked out

Let Us Descend ~ by Jesmyn Ward, 2023, literary fiction, 320 pages

This story describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.  Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide.  As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother.  Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits:

• of earth and water, 
• of myth and history,
• who nurture and give,
• who manipulate and take.

While Annis leads readers through the descent, hers is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.  This novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land — the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South.

Was I in elementary school when I first learned about irregular verbs?

Irregular verbs are verbs that do not form the past simple tense and the past participle by adding -ed to the base form.  There are three main groups of irregular verbs in English.  So, students, is it correct to say, "I've thunk about it long enough?"  Actually, I haven't.  You know I'm a "wordie" and will sit here going through each word listed above, saying to myself:  "I see, I saw, I have seen."  Okay, join me now, "I get, I got..."

Lilith, Adam's first wife

Once upon a time in the city of Tunis, a flirtatious young girl was drawn into Lilith's dangerous web by glancing repeatedly at herself in the mirror.  It seems that a demon daughter of the legendary Lilith had made her home in the mirror and would soon completely possess the unsuspecting girl.  Such tales of terror and the supernatural occupy an honored position in the Jewish folkloric tradition.

Howard Schwartz has translated and retold fifty of the best of these folktales, now collected into one volume.  Gathered from countless sources ranging from the ancient Middle East to twelfth-century Germany and later Eastern European oral tradition, these captivating stories include Jewish variants of the Pandora and Persephone myths and of such famous folktales as "The Fisherman and His Wife," "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and "Bluebeard," as well as several tales from the Middle Ages that have never before been published.

Focusing on crucial turning points in life — birth, marriage, and death — the tales feature wandering spirits, marriage with demons, werewolves, speaking heads, possession by dybbuks (souls of the dead who enter the bodies of the living), and every other kind of supernatural adversary.  Readers will encounter a carpenter who is haunted when he makes a violin from the wood of a coffin; a wife who saves herself from the demoness her husband has inadvertently married by agreeing to share him for an hour each day; and the age-old tale of Lilith, Adam's first wife, who refused to submit to him and instead banished herself from the Garden of Eden to give birth to the demons of the world.

Drawn from Rabbinic sources, medieval Jewish folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral tradition, these stories will entrance readers of Jewish literature and those with an affection for fantasy and the supernatural.

TWO, my second item for this TWOsday post, are the two small cheese pizzas my friend Alyssa and I had for lunch in the Cafe today.  Believe it or not, we each took home half of it for later.  I asked her what she knew about Lilith and mentioned my library book.

Today we remember Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the

United States observed on the third Monday of January

each year.  MLK was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent

activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial

discrimination in federal and state law and civil society.

This year, the holiday falls on January 20, 2025.

Another book from our Crown Center library

First Snow in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy ~ by Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick, 2007, children's, 48 pages, 10/10

The nights were growing longer.  The winds blew colder.  It was a time of changing seasons.  "Have you gathered your nuts yet, Spotty?" the chipmunk asked the fawn as he scurried through the woods burying nuts here and there.  "I heard it from the rabbit, who heard it from the owl ... winter's coming early this year, you better get ready!"  But was he ready?  Was he paying attention to his heartsong?  Wonderful photos for animal lovers, old folks as well as children.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. For Book Beginnings on Friday, I wrote about a book of fiction that takes place in St. Louis, HERE.  You can see the Gateway Arch of the book's cover (on the right), as a character runs up the steps from the Mississippi River.
2. I mused HERE about the history of a local cemetery and the book I got from the library about it.
3. I wrote about TWO library books on TWOsday, HERE.
4. We had World Logic Day on the 14th, HERE.
5. I wrote about our piles of snow HERE, after we got almost 11-inches of the white stuff.  Then I mentioned signing off to attend a Resident Council meeting.  Fun footnote (at least for me):  We each got a ticket stub on entering, with a drawing held at the end of the meeting.  I was a winner!  I won a box of goodies, including bags of edible stuff like snickerdoodle cookies and caramel popcorn.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with a better idea?

Book Beginning

"I have a better idea.  Let's have him killed."

Bad Trust (An Attorney Rachel Gold Mystery) ~ by Michael A. Kahn, 2020, mystery (St. Louis), 232 pages

St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold and her colleagues use their wits, legal skills, and a dash of chutzpah to defend both a slander case and a woman accused of murdering her rather nasty brother.  An ugly trust fund dispute among siblings turns deadly when Isaiah, CEO of the family firm he stole from their father, is murdered in his office.

Jewish lawyer Rachel Gold, hired to bring suit against Isaiah on behalf of his sisters, must now defend one against the charge of fratricide.  But playing at detective for her legal case means getting entrenched in the complex dynamics of the Jewish family.

As Rachel and her team seek essential evidence, the widowed Rachel struggles with family issues of her own, including relationships with her young son Sam and her boyfriend Abe. The jury is still out on whether or not Rachel can create the work-life balance she is seeking.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking about piles of snow

These piles of snow from our recent snow storm that were pushed into huge piles in the parking lot by the snow plow are beginning to melt, but they have only shrunk a little bit.  People are still having to use shovels to get out of their spots.

This afternoon, I walked across the street to Walgreen's and literally couldn't see to get home across the street.  Okay, I was going west, toward the setting sun, but even using my clip-on sunglasses, I was having trouble and needed to hold my hand up to shade my face, like the brim of a baseball cap.  Next time, if I go around that time of day, I'll wear a cap with a brim!

Hmm, I just noticed that photo above was taken after sunset, so it doesn't look like the blinding snow I faced today.  Gotta go now and comb my hair before going downstairs for our Resident Council meeting.

Let's be logical

I just learned about this when I got online, so this TWOsday gets an extra post.  Let's be logical, okay?  Let's think about it, like the famous "thinker" in this photo and on the cover of this small book on critical thinking that I have.

The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools (Eighth Edition) ~ by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2020, philosophy, 48 pages

This powerful book introduces core critical thinking concepts and principles as an empowering problem-solving framework for every profession, course of study, and indeed every area of life. It distills the groundbreaking work of Richard Paul and Linda Elder, targeting how to deconstruct thinking through the elements of reasoning and how to assess the quality of our thinking.

The eighth edition of this guide further details the foundations of critical thinking and how they can be applied in instruction to improve teaching and learning at all levels; it also reveals how we can learn to identify and avoid egocentric and sociocentric thought, which lead to close-mindedness, self-deception, arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, selfishness, herd mentality, prejudice, and the like.

With more than half a million copies sold, Richard Paul and Linda Elder’s bestselling book in the Thinker’s Guide Library is used in secondary and higher education courses and professional development seminars across the globe. In a world of conflicting information and clashing ideologies, this guide clears a path for advancing fairminded critical societies.

I remember fitting together shapes like this little wooden puzzle.  Did you?  I thought of it because of that picture at the top, with the shapes being almost pushed together.