Read about 100 exceptional African Americans — including "the real McCoy" on p. 19

100 African Americans Who Shaped American History ~ by Chrisanne Beckner, 2022, social science, 128 pages

Discover the inspiring stories of 100 legendary Black Americans.  From artists and inventors to civil rights leaders, you'll meet extraordinary individuals whose talents, ideas, and contributions have guided the country for hundreds of years.

Ordered chronologically, these brief biographies offer an engaging look at the challenges and achievements of some of the most influetial African Americans.  From well-known icons like abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, to lesser-known figures like aviator Bessie Coleman and singer Marian Anderson.

1. On Monday, I posted about the St. Louis Rams, HERE.
2. On Wednesday, I shared a book, HERE, that my neighbor said she couldn't put down.  I couldn't get into it, myself.
3. My Thursday Thoughts, HERE, were about how reading a novel can help us see the world from a new and different perspective than simply our own lives.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

These notes from a book show one reason I read

A Short History of Myth ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2005, history, 176 pages, 8/10

"Yet the experience of reading a novel ... can be seen as a form of  meditation. ... It projects them into another world, parallel to but apart from their ordinary lives" (p. 147).

"A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self-interest" (p. 149).

My neighbor says she couldn't put this one down

The Appeal ~ by Janice Hallett, 2021, murder mystery, 432 pages

This international bestseller follows a community rallying around a sick child — but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.  The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star.  Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.

But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy — nor of the good intentions of those involved.  Things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal.  The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made.  In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material — emails, messages, letters — with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight.  The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.

NOTE:  Since my neighbor Betty needed another book to read, she called me, offered me this book, and I gave her "Nice" Jewish Girls by Julie Merberg that I read in October and rated 10/10.  Read about it, HERE.

St. Louis Rams

The St. Louis Rams 

were a professional 

American football 

team that played in 

St. Louis, Missouri, 

from 1995 to 2015 

before relocating back 

to Los Angeles.  The 

franchise, which played 

in the NFL, won Super 

Bowl XXXIV during 

their time in St. Louis.

My friend Donna Carey

was a big fan of the St. 

Louis Rams.

Being sick is not fun at all

The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick ~ by Gene Stone, 2010, health and fitness, 212 pages

Who does not want to be healthier?  The author wanted to find out what might actually prevent him from getting sick himself.  This book tells the stories of twenty-five people who each possess a different secret of excellent health — a secret that makes sense and that Stone discovered has a scientific underpinning.  There are:

1. food secrets — take garlic and vitamin C, eat more probiotics, become a vegan, drink a tonic of brewer’s yeast.
2. exercise secrets — the benefits of lifting weights, the power of stretching.
3. environmental secrets — living in a Blue Zone, understanding the value of germs.
4. emotional secrets — seek out and stay in touch with friends, cultivate your spirituality.
5. physical secrets — nap more, take cold showers in the morning.

There's a lot more, as you can see from this photo of the contents pages.  The stories make it personal, the research makes it real, and the do-it-yourself information shows how to integrate each secret into your own life and become the next person who never gets sick.

1. The topic of my Monday Musing post was a Mozart Concerto, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I posted two photos my two daughters sent while traveling to visit me, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was "parasocial," HERE, pre-posted long before my daughters came to visit.
4. I didn't post while my daughters were here, so that's it for my blogging week.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Parasocial?

I have never even heard the word "parasocial," but it is Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year.  Okay, the article says parasocial relates to "a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence."  Since I've never "adored" a celebrity, I guess that could explain why I've never heard the word.

Dark skies ~ sun rays later

My twin daughters are taking their time coming to visit me, partly because of the weather where they are driving right now.  They sent me this photo of dark skies.  Later, they sent the one below.  Two daughters, two views of the sky.

Mozart's Bassoon Concerto

At lunch today, a couple of residents who sat down at my table started talking about their favorite music, sort of singing a bit of a song they liked.  But they both looked rather blank when I said my favorite is Mozart's Bassoon Concerto.  (Click on the labels below, if you want to hear a version of it that I have shared before about bassoons and Mozart.)  I'm not sure my two friends even know what a bassoon is, but it's what I used to play years ago  When I came back to my apartment, I called my friend Ginny in Tallahassee.  We played together in high school, and she now plays clarinet in the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra.

The ethical consequences of AI

Culpability ~ by Bruce Holsinger, 2025, psychological thriller, 380 pages

This is a suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence — and Oprah's Book Club pick after it was published in July, 2025.

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun.  In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work.  Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash.  Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future.  Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive.  And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident — suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal.  When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

1. My Monday Musing post was about a book by Margaret Atwood, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I posted about the second book in a trilogy, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was MaddAddam and the conclusion of that trilogy, HERE.
4. My subject on Thursday was four science fiction novellas in one book, HERE.
5. Friday's Book Beginning was about Alexei Navalny's 2024 memoir, HERE.
6. On CATurday, I wrote about cats again, HERE.  It's a big, heavy cat book!

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A cat book for Caturday

The Life and Love of Cats ~ by Lewis Blackwell, 2012, photography, 216 pages

The Life and Love of Cats takes us on an unforgettable journey; we travel from the homes of middle-America today, back to the demonized creatures hiding in the alleys of medieval Europe; from wild cousins on the plains of Africa to rare hybrid domestic breeds like the Savannah; and from fashionable show breeds to shelter cats lovingly rescued by volunteers.  Starting with the earliest records of domestic cats 9,000 years ago in Africa and the Mediterranean and moving to the present, the author weaves stories of one of humankind’s closest companions with a collection of more than 100 unforgettable images.  It's a beautiful book for cat lovers.

Someone on Amazon said, "It makes a statement on the coffee table."  I agree.  Because it is so heavy (4.9 pounds!), you could read it by leaning over the coffe table and turning the pages.  The pages are huge, so it isn't like you must hold this book up close to see the beautiful pictures.

(This picture is NOT from the book, but I like it.)

Beginning ~ with dying in an airplane

Beginning (page 5)

Dying didn't really hurt.  If I hadn't been breathing my last, I would never have stretched out on the floor next to the plane's toilet.  As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly clean.

I was flying to Moscow from Tomsk, in Siberia, and feeling very pleased.  Regional elections were going to be held in two weeks in several Siberian cities, and my colleagues from the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) and I had every intention of inflecting defeat on the ruling United Russian party.  That would deliver an important message that Vladimir Putin, even after twenty years in power, was not omnipotent, or even particularly liked in that part of Russia — even though large numbers of people there would watch talking heads sing the praises of the nation's leader on television 24/7.

Patriot ~ by Alexei Navalny, 2024, memoir, 496 pages

This is a posthumous non-fiction book authored by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2024.  A self-described memoir, Patriot is Navalny's second book, following Opposing Forces.  Patriot details Navalny's life and career.

Alexei Navalny began writing Patriot shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020.  It is the full story of his life:  his youth in the U.S.S.R., his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted — and will come.

In vivid, page-turning detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime.

Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world:  a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking about reading . . .

The Shores Beneath ~ by Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, John T. Sladek, and Roger Zelazny, 1971, science fiction novellas, 192 pages

Here are four trips to four uncharted lands.

1. Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones is the Hugo-Award sinning revelation of the other side of deja-vu.
2. The Graveyard Heart leads a man into immortality, for better and for worse. 
3. Masterson and the Clerks considers a man's absorption into a comfortable, orderly society which doesn't like him much when it's got him.
4. The Asian Shore is a man's harrowing journey through a decadent world of counterfeit selves — where his own identity undergoes an insidious change.

The third book in this week's trilogy

MaddAddam: Book 3 of The MaddAddam Trilogy ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2013, literary fiction, 416 pages

This final volume of the internationally celebrated MaddAddam trilogy "has brought the previous two books together in a fitting and joyous conclusion that’s an epic not only of an imagined future but of our own past" (The New York Times Book Review).

The Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of the population.  Toby is part of a small band of survivors, along with the Children of Crake: the gentle, bioengineered quasi-human species who will inherit this new earth.

As Toby explains their origins to the curious Crakers, her tales cohere into a luminous oral history that sets down humanity’s past — and points toward its future.  Blending action, humor, romance, and an imagination that is inventive yet grounded in a recognizable world.

The second book of a trilogy ~ for TWOsday

The Year of the Flood: Book 2 of The MaddAddam Trilogy ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2009, literary fiction, 448 pages

The long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Okay, I'm curious about that "waterless flood."  I'm sharing all three books of this trilogy in three days this week, but I haven't gotten to this one yet.

Musing about a trilogy this week ~ Book 1

Oryx and Crake: Book 1 of The MaddAddam Trilogy ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2003, literary fiction, 389 pages

This novel is a love story and a vision of the future by the author of The Handmaid's Tale.  Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved.  In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey — with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake — through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride.  Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

When a friend moved away recently, she gave me some of her books, including this boxed trilogy.  The Handmaid's Tale was one of my favorite stories, so I look forward to reading these books.  All three were bestsellers.

This is a chunky book!

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity ~ by David Graeber and David Wengrow, 2021, social science, 704 pages

This donation to our Crown Center's little library is a New York Times bestseller.  Amazon's reviewers have given it a 4.5/5, which is my 9/10.  So I've decided to read it.  I'm sure I will read it in bits and pieces, and want to share it now.  From the dust jacket:

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike ― either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike.  Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts.  David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals.  Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there.  If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time?  If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society.  This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.  (It also includes a few maps along with 63 pages of notes, 58 pages of bibliography, and an index.  I'm ready to dive in.)

1. In my Monday Musing post, I mused about a book by Gail Godwin, HERE.
2. My subject on Thursday was being "over the hill," HERE. 
3. Friday's Book Beginning was about the first book in a series, HERE.
4. On Saturday, I wrote about getting two inoculations in the same arm, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Innoculations

Thursday, I got a flu shot and the latest Covid shot.  Trying to decide whether to get both shots in one arm or one in each arm, I did an online search and found (HERE) that it doesn't matter:

"You can save time and money by getting two vaccinations at the same time, and new research finds that it doesn’t really matter which arm or arms the jab goes in."

So I thought about it and asked the person giving me the two shots.  She also said it doesn't matter, so I got both in my left arm (like the person above), hoping to keep my dominant arm pain-free for the next few days.  So far, so good.  It was still hurting yesterday morning, but got better during the day, and I went out to eat with my friend Jane at First Watch and had enough left over for another meal today.

Beginning ~ on Tuesday, October eighth

Beginning

It's a widely known fact that most moms are ready to kill someone by eight thirty A.M. on any given morning.  On the particular mor-ning of Tuesday, October eighth, I was ready by seven forty-five.

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Book 1 of 6 in The Finlay Donovan Series) ~ by Elle Cosimano, 2022, humorous fiction, 376 pages

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not.  She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist.  Finlay’s life is in chaos:  the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet.  Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moments, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.  (I already have the next two books in this series.)

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thinking about four lines in a book I read

Over What Hill? (notes from the pasture) ~ by Effie Leland Wilder, 1996, fiction (South Carolina), 180 pages, 9/10

"Senescence begins

And middle age ends

The day your descendants

Outnumber your friends" (p. 93).

Oh, my goodness!  I'm there.  Counting:  3 children + 7 grandchildren + 6 great-grandchildren (so far) = 16.  Yikes, do I have 16 friends left?  Okay, so I keep making friends, but can I actually name sixteen of them right now?  Hmmm, Shirley from 6th grade . . . Oh, wait!  I'm 85, so I'm long past "middle age."  Also, I still have friends (new as well as old friends), so I'll take a deep breath and smile now.

Musing about death

Getting to Know Death: A Meditation ~ by Gail Godwin, 2024, memoir, 192 pages, 8/10

Ingmar Bergman once said that an artist should always have one work between himself and death.  When renowned author Gail Godwin tripped and broke her neck while watering the dogwood tree in her garden at age eighty-five, a lifetime of writing and publishing behind her and a half-finished novel in tow, Bergman's idea quickly unfurled in front of her, forcing her to confront a creative life interrupted.  In this book, Godwin shares what spoke to her while in a desperate place.  Remembering those she has loved and survived, including a brother and father lost to suicide, and finding meaning in the encounters she has with other patients as she heals, she takes stock of a life toward the end of its long graceful arc, finding her path through the words she has written and the people she has loved.

I read this book, straight through.  My neighbor Betty left it in my box Saturday evening with a note saying, "This starts out great but devolves — wandering and repetition."  Before going to bed in the wee hours of the morning, I'd finished the book and put it back in Betty's box across the hall from me.  I agree with Betty's assessment that it wanders.  It's like she wrote it for herself, and I could not keep track of who's who.  It's too bad, since Gail Godwin has been one of my favorite authors.

A book about forests and my wooden flute

The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth ~ by Ben Rawlence, 2022, environmental science, 320 pages

For the last fifty years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north.  Rawlence takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, Canada to Sweden to meet the scientists, residents and trees confronting huge geological changes.  Only the hardiest species survive at these latitudes including the ice-loving Dahurian larch of Siberia, the antiseptic Spruce that purifies our atmosphere, the Downy birch conquering Scandinavia, the healing Balsam poplar that Native Americans use as a cure-all, and the Scots Pine that lives longer when surrounded by its family.

It is a journey of wonder and awe at the incredible creativity and resilience of these species and the mysterious workings of the forest upon which we rely for the air we breathe.  This is a story of what might soon be the last forest left and what that means for the future of all life on earth.

November is designated as Native American Heritage Month to honor the culture, history, and contributions of indigenous peoples.  The month serves as an opportunity for public education and celebration, with events, exhibits, and educational programs taking place across the nation.  The official designation was established by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and the celebration is also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.

Decades ago, I bought this 6-hole cedar flute in Cherokee, North Carolina.  I'm the one who added the beaded feathers to the green felt bag, but the leather strap to hold the "bird" in place over the hole to adjust the sound was there when I first bought it.  The indigenous people who made it are the Cherokee, of course.

I noticed how Google is celebrating this month, and that reminded me to mention it on this blog.  I'm smiling because Google also used wooden flutes, and the brown one through the second "G" looks like mine.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

November is NaNoWriMo Month ~ updated to say, "Oh, no!"

Back in October of 2007, I posted on this blog that I was going to spend the month of November writing a novel, HERE.  Did I finish a novel?  Nope.

Eight reasons to do NaNoWriMo

1. LEARN ~ Learn what you can truly achieve
2. PROGRESS ~ Make real, structured progress
3. BUILD HABITS ~ Chunk tasks into wins and repeat
4. CONNECT ~ Meet others with the same goals
5. ACCOUNT ~ Answer to milestone targets
6. REALIZE ~ Learn how you work best
7. IMPROVE ~ Improve with more practice
8. PREPARE ~ Train to write your next book

No Plot? No Problem!  Novel-Writing Kit ~ by Chris Baty (founder of National Novel Writing Month), 2006, writing, 44 pages

Chris Baty, instigator of a wildly successful writing revolution, spells out the secrets of writing and finishing a novel.  Every fall, thousands of people sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which Baty founded, determined to (a) write that novel or (b) finish that novel in — I kid you not — 30 days.  Now Baty puts pen to paper himself to share the secrets of success.  With week-specific overviews, pep "talks," and essential survival tips for today's word warriors, this results-oriented, quick-fix strategy is perfect for people who want to nurture their inner artist and then hit print.  Anecdotes and success stories from NaNoWriMo winners will inspire writers from the heralding you-can-do-it trumpet blasts of day one to the champagne toasts of day thirty.  Whether it's a resource for those taking part in the official NaNo WriMo event, or a handbook for writing to come, No Plot? No Problem! is the ultimate guide for would-be writers (or those with writer's block) to cultivate their creative selves.

No, Snoopy!  Don't give up yet.  November is just starting, and you can do it!  Just say, "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it."  Now keep typing.  Should I let you borrow my laptop?  No, I'm afraid it won't balance on your dog house quite as well as your typewriter.  And besides, I may use it a lot this month.

UPDATE:  "Oh, no!"  I've had this set for ages to start my month writing a novel.  I even published an idea recently, HERE.  It's early afternoon, and I just happened to learn that . . .

"NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is not happening in 2025 as the organization shut down in April 2025.  However, there are new alternatives for the 50,000-word challenge, such as the relaunch of the event under a new name, Novel November, by ProWritingAid.  Many other online and in-person groups are also organizing their own writing challenges to maintain the community and momentum of the original event."