Justice for women

The official color of International Women’s Day is purple to symbolize justice.  Hmm, I notice that not a single one of the women in this illustration that I found online happens to be wearing purple, but I'm wearing it anyway.

Beginning ~ with "I don't know why"

Beginning (Prologue)

I don't know why I'm writing this.

That's not true.  Maybe I do know and just don't want to admit it to myself.

Beginning (Chapter 1)

Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband.

The Silent Patient ~ by Alex Michaelides, 2019, psychological thriller, 357 pages

This is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband ― and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.  Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect.  A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas.  One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety.  The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia.  His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations ― a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

What's your story?

Everyone has a story.  When I go to lunch with a friend, I hear stories.  Stories about what happened yesterday, about their lives, about what they should be doing, about what they tried to accomplish, about their aches and pains, about their grandchildren, about all sorts of things.

Hmm, I wonder what stories inanimate things would have.  "Before I was a table, I was a piece of wood.  But before that, I was part of a very tall tree and could see far away things."  If I asked about its youth, would that tree say, "I used to be small, just a sapling, but I kept extending my roots and growing and growing until I was almost higher than the trees around me.  There was this one tree that enjoyed calling me 'little tree,' but lightning hit it and left me the tallest tree in our part of the forest."

I did not grow up in a forest, but as the first child, I definitely was the tallest.  That is, until my brother (2-1/2 years younger) passed me and grew to over six feet tall.  Unlike that tree, though, my aim was not to be tall, but to expand my knowledge by reading books.  Hmm, book pages come from trees, don't they?  So now I have books and pages from trees on my wooden bookshelves.

Some of those books are textbooks from college and graduate school.  And they just keep accumulating, as I keep reading, even in retirement.  I like to learn.  I like to think about possibilities (and about talking trees).  What's your story?

Being a bit nutty today about some nutty words

Nuts are a healthy food to eat, though some are better for us than others.  Being the weird word person you readers know I am, I thought of one I'm sure would NOT make the healthy food list except in extreme moderation:  It is a donut!  Okay, so you know I like to play with words.

Word of the Day

nut·ty /ˈnədē / adjective = 

1.  tasting like nuts.  Example:  "Wild rice has a very nutty flavor."

2.  (informal) mad; crazy.  "I think of some nutty stuff, don't I?"

 

Two thoughts for TWOsday

First thought

I have now signed up for a class on the Death Positive Movement that I wrote about (HERE), when I was wondering whether I was curious enough to actually pay money to learn more.  Nobody commented, but I did sign up.  The idea is to eliminate silence and anxiety by encouraging people to talk openly about death.

Second thought

Jewish Reflections on Death ~ edited by Jack Riemer, 1974, religion and spirituality, 184 pages

I noticed this book on a shelf across the room from the comfortable armchair where I read.  It fits today's theme perfectly, doesn't it?  It's strange that I wrote about this book three times in August 2024, while I was reading it:  HERE, HERE, and HERE.  But I never did finish it, but maybe I can do it before the class on Friday.

Still reading books related to Black History Month

Jacob Lawrence: American Scenes, American Struggles ~ by Nancy Shroyer Howard, 1996, children's literature (grades 2-3), 48 pages, 7/10

Take a closer look at the American scene through the eyes of a talented artist.  Page after page of original artwork fills the mind with portraits, trials, and tribulations of American life from the early 1900s to the present day.  Visualize the struggles of African-Americans — and of the United States as a whole — from the days of slavery to celebrations of today.  Included are different types of activities for exploring paintings to spark creativity and imagination.

Another library book

The Great Migration: An American Story ~ by Jacob Lawrence (author and illustrator), 1995, children's social studies (ages 4-8), 48 pages, 9/10

After World War I, large numbers of African Americans began leaving their homes in the rural South in search of employment, and a better life, in the industrial cities of the North, like Chicago and Pittsburgh.  Jacob Lawrence chronicled their journey of hope in his sixty-panel Migration Series, a flowing narrative sequence of paintings that can now be found divided between the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection.

In this picture book, Lawrence brings all those landmark paintings together and pairs them with poetic text that further explores the experience of those enduring this mass exodus.  From dealing with poor working conditions and competition for living space to widespread prejudice and racism, this is the story of strength, courage, and hope of the more than six million African Americans who were trying to build better lives for themselves and their families.

This book has an introduction by Lawrence — whose family was part of this great migration — about its personal significance as well as a poem by Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I wrote about Pinocchio, HERE.
2. Tuesday's subject was a couple of books by the same author, HERE.
3. Wednesday's topic was idioms, HERE.
4. On Thursday, I was thinking about the Death Positive Movement, HERE.
5. Friday's subject was a book about time travel, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with peaches

Beginning

Peaches, Michael Rosario thought.  That's what we need.

His mother loved peaches.

If the world came to a standstill at midnight on January 1, 2000, at least she would have two things she cherished:  peaches and Michael.

First State of Being ~ by Erin Entrada Kelly, 2024, children's time travel, 272 pages

When twelve-year-old Michael Rosario meets a mysterious boy from the future, his life is changed forever.  It's August 1999.  For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever — except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his sixteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby.  But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.

It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be.  Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn’t where he belongs.  When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious.  As Ridge immerses himself in 1999 — fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls — Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else:  focused determination. Michael wants — no, needs — to get his hands on that book.  How else can he prepare for the future?  But how far is he willing to go to get it?

(For those of you too young to remember, "Y2K" stands for "Year 2000.")

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

I'm dying to know more about this (LOL)

In our Café on Tuesday, a couple of us were talking about a class being offered in the latest Oasis course catalog about the "Death Positive Movement."  I had never heard of such a thing, so I got on my laptop and read more about it HERE.

Later that same day, I happened across a woman's theory (HERE) that we never really die.  Death again?  Anyway, the woman says that, instead of dying, our consciousness goes into an alternate reality.  "If the quantum immortality theory is correct, you’re just going to wake up in a parallel universe with no memory of the fact that you just survived an apocalyptic event."  I have heard about parallel universes, but this is interesting, isn't it?

Now for the kicker, one more detail.  The friend I was with in the Café read one more detail.  It seems the location for the Death Positive Movement class will be the Crown Center, the senior facility where I live.  Hmmm, now I have to decide whether I am curious enough to actually pay money to learn more about this stuff.  Whaddya think I should do?

If you can't read the small print on the headstone, it says:  "Because nobody gets out of life alive!"

Idioms

Our English idioms and words don't always make sense, if you didn't grow up hearing them.  Does anyone really think buttons are cute?  Here are a few more idioms:

• "A piece of cake" means that something is easy.  For example, "That test was a piece of cake."
• "Under the weather" means to not feel well.  For example, "He's under the weather and can't go to work today."
• "It costs an arm and a leg" means that something is expensive.  For example, "That new toy costs an arm and a leg." 
• "Break a leg" means you are wishing someone good luck.  For example, "Break a leg, friend.  I'm sure you'll do great." 
• "To beat around the bush" means you're trying to avoid a difficult conversation.  For example, "Quit beating around the bush and just tell me."
• "Once in a blue moon" means something doesn't happen often.  For example, "I only call my family once in a blue moon." 
• To "spill the beans" means to accidentally tell a secret.  For example, "She accidentally spilled the beans about Jim's surprise party."
• To say "the ball is in your court" means it's your turn to make a move.

Can you explain any of these idioms (or share an example or two)?

Two books by Nunez

Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag ~ by Sigrid Nunez, 2014, memoir, 128 pages

Sigrid Nunez was an aspiring writer when she first met Susan Sontag, already a legendary figure known for her polemical essays, blinding intelligence, and edgy personal style.  Sontag introduced Nunez to her son, the writer David Rieff, and the two began dating.  Soon Nunez moved into the apartment that Rieff and Sontag shared.  As Sontag told Nunez, “Who says we have to live like everyone else?”

Sontag’s influence on Nunez, who went on to become a successful novelist, would be profound.  Described by Nunez as “a natural mentor” who saw educating others as both a moral obligation and a source of endless pleasure, Sontag inevitably infected those around her with her many cultural and intellectual passions.  In this poignant, intimate memoir, Nunez speaks of her gratitude for having had, as an early model, “someone who held such an exalted, unironic view of the writer’s vocation.”

Published more than six years after Sontag’s death, Sempre Susan is a startlingly truthful portrait of this outsized personality, who made being an intellectual a glamorous occupation.

What Are You Going Through ~ by Sigrid Nunez, 2021, literary fiction, 224 pages

A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life:  an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer.  In each of these people the woman finds a common need:  the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences.  The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.

In this novel, Nunez brings wisdom, humor, and insight about human connection and the changing nature of relationships in our times.  It's a surprising story about empathy and the unusual ways one person can help another through hardship.

I missed it!

National Pinocchio Day is celebrated on February 23rd each year.  It marks the anniversary of the release of Disney's Pinocchio in 1940.  That's the year I was born, and I loved the story of Pinocchio!  I'll think about Pinocchio today, even if it is not officially his day.  Do you want some details?

Walt Disney's film was released in theaters on February 23, 1940 (thus the day to celebrate).  It's a story about a wooden puppet who comes to life.  In the story, Pinocchio accidentally kills a cricket, falls asleep on a stove, and is hanged by a cat and fox.  Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father transforms him into a real boy.  The name Pinocchio comes from the Italian words pino (pine) and occhio (eye).

Let's go back a bit more into the past.  Pinocchio is a hero of the 1883 children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian author Carlo Collodi.  Pinocchio, an animated puppet, is punished for each lie that he tells by undergoing further growth of his nose.

The muffin man

I spoke to the "muffin man" at the Circle@Crown Cafe Thursday as he was leaving to go home for the day.  He's the one who makes our orders back in the kitchen, so I sang in a childish voice, "You're a very good Muffin Man, Muffin Man, Muffin Man..."  I grinned, and he said, "I try."  Earlier, I had bought a blueberry muffin and was still savoring the taste.  I have no idea why I thought of the children's tune from decades ago in MY life, but I think he enjoyed my silly singing.  You can hear children singing that song, HERE.

Farmer Boy (Little House, 2) ~ by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1933, illustrated by Garth Williams, 1953, children's classics, 375 pages

While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State.  Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest.  In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored.  Almanzo wishes for just one thing — his very own horse — but he must prove that he is ready for such a big responsibility.  Based on the childhood of Laura’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, this is the second book in the award-winning Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers with its depiction of life on the American frontier.

Here's what I have posted this week:

1. On Monday, I wrote about the ice storm bringing down trees, HERE.
2. On Tuesday, I saved a couple of quotes from a book, HERE.
3. Wednesday's subject was the phrase "shrinking violet," HERE.
4. On Thursday, I wrote about the whale that's been in the news, about JOY (my fav word), and about walking, HERE.
5. Friday's book beginning was from a book about a young black woman with very dark skin who was born and raised by a single mother in a white community, HERE.
6. On Saturday, I wrote about seeing the movie "Barry," which is about Barack Obama's college days.  I had noticed one of his college text books and got carried away with its title, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I'm exploring words again

I joined other residents on Friday as we watched our weekly movie.  This week, it was a documentary entitles "Barry."  That's the name Barack Obama was called when he was in college, and I noticed that one of his books was entitled Epistemology.  I am 100% sure no one else picked up on that title, but I took a class in epistemology in college.  So I grinned and jotted down "epistemology" to remind myself to write about it here.  (Yes, I take notes even though I'm retired).  I searched this blog to see if I'd written about epistemology before and found this information (HERE).  That's a bust of Plato in the photo:

Epistemology

1. Knowledge and Reason ~ Plato and the Ancient Greeks

2.  Theories of Knowledge ~ Plato and Aristotle

3.  Faith and Reason ~ Augustine

Word of the Day #1

e·pis·te·mol·o·gy / əˌpistəˈmäləjē,eˌpistəˈmäləjē / noun, philosophy = the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope.  Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.  Example:  "He grappled with metaphysics and epistemology in his writings."

Word of the Day #2

metaphysics = the study of the most general features of reality, including existence, objects and their properties, possibility and necessity, space and time, change, causation, and the relation between matter and mind.  It is one of the oldest branches of philosophy.  Example:  "They would regard the question of the initial conditions for the universe as belonging to the realm of metaphysics."

Can you tell that Philosophy was part of my double major for my first college degree?  Okay, I guess I really will have to re-read this tiny book that I reminded myself in January (HERE) that I wanted to re-read.

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind ~ by Richard Maurice Bucke, 1900, consciousness, 121 pages

Bucke explores cosmic consciousness, which he defines as "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary [person]."

Beginning ~ with a curse

Beginning (from Part 1)

More acutely than ever before Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complextion was some what of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse.

The Blacker the Berry ~ by Wallace Thurman, 1929, psychological fiction, 221 pages

This novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin who was born and raised by a single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho.  She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she is. 

She believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life.  Because she wants a better life for herself, she goes to college at the University of Southern California, hoping to find people who will accept her.  While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin. 

After college, her search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her.  My edition has a 1996 introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A whale of a tale

Colleen mentioned me on her Thirteen Thursday blog (#6 HERE).  She was reflecting on the whale spitting out the kayaker that I had posted on Sunday (HERE).  It's a whale of a tale, isn't it?

"Joy Is Like the Rain" being sung by children.  I love the happy little additions tinkling between the phrases.  If this video quits working, watch it on YouTube.  By the way, I first posted this in 2017, HERE, and just ran across it again.  Did you notice my favorite word?  Yeah, that first word:  JOY.

Walking, walking, walking — "Michelle English, a licensed clinical social worker at Healthy Life Recovery, tells Yahoo Life (HERE):  'Long walks, unlike short bursts, allow you to enter a meditative state where the repetitive motion and rhythm can help quiet the mind,' she explains."  I (Bonnie) walk thousands of steps daily, like these two, using my rollator.  Since we have been under a winter weather advisory, I walk in the halls here or in our big exercise center.  Often, when people encounter me, they say, "Getting in your steps?" or "I see you are still walking."  I usually respond in a sing-song voice, "Yep, walking, walking, walking!"

I'm no shrinking violet

I don't remember why I said "I'm no shrinking violet" to a friend, but she was not familiar with that phrase.  So I decided then and there to write about it here on my blog.  What's that phrase mean?  It's "a person who is very shy or modest and does not like to attract attention."  Here's an example:  "She's no shrinking violet when it comes to expressing her views."

Saving a couple of quotes

Both of these quotes, as you can see, are playing with words, but that's what I do.  Below is the book these quotes are from, which I wrote about HERE:

1. "Don't go anywhere," he teased.  "The only place I might go," I said, "is to sleep" (p. 91).
2. "I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know when I point out that, wherever you go, there you are" (p. 163).

A Clowder of Cats: A Joy Forest Mystery ~ by Blythe Ayne, 2022, cozy animal mystery, 208 pages

Dr. Joy Forest's Sri Lanka research is disrupted when a beautiful woman with violet eyes breaches the security of her home by paranormal means and insists Joy look for her missing cat.  Although Joy agrees to, she does so for the sake of the cat, rather than for the strange woman.

As Joy searches for the missing Booji, she finds several other cats, unearthing the mysteries of the people they belong to along the way.  It's an intriguing journey of mystical places and unusual creatures, with a dash of romance.

The story takes place in the Cascade foothills of Washington state, in the near-future world of 2032, a world of eccentric small-town people and peculiar small town events.  You'll discover that although the times are somewhat different, people are ever the same — lovable or loathsome, truthful or deceitful, generous or selfish, courageous or timid, loyal or treacherous, but always a mystery!

The ice storm is bringing down trees

This photo of the storm putting an icy frosting on top of snow was taken by Colleen Redman in Virginia, but I was amazed at how much it looks like the ice storm I remember on Signal Mountain outside Chattanooga, Tennessee.  That was decades ago, but it's almost like I already have this picture (above) in my mind from my own experience.  Check out Colleen's blog, HERE, to see her photos of the ice storm's major damage to the trees.