Beginning ~ with light everywhere

Beginning

First, he was aware of light ― so white and sharp it seemed to come from everywhere, to be everywhere, above and below, cutting through him as a sunbeam cuts through a windowpane, and emanating from within, from the place where the physical substance that had once made him had once existed.

The Stars and Their Light ~ by Olivia Hawker, 2025, historical fiction (Roswell, New Mexico), 381 pages

In Roswell, New Mexico, the mystery of the unknown grips a sheltered novitiate in a haunting historical novel about fate, faith, and agency.  It’s 1947 when Sister Mary Agnes arrives in New Mexico.  Her mission is to establish a monastery in the town of Roswell, where weeks before rumors of the crash landing of an unidentified craft have triggered a crisis of faith.  Residents are drifting away from the divine, awed no longer by the heavens, but rather the stars.

In service to the frightened and confused, Sister Mary Agnes soon befriends Betty Campbell, a teenager marked both physically and psychically by the inexplicable event.  Mary Agnes is also drawn to Harvey, a handyman refurbishing the monastery ― and a firsthand witness to the crash.  But as Mary Agnes tries to guide her wayward friends back to the church, it’s the fantastic and the forbidden that begin to loom large in her imagination.

Thrown into her own crisis of doubt, Mary Agnes must choose whether to uphold the order in which she came of age or embrace the truth she feels in her heart, despite its terrifying complexity.

An online reviewer wrote:  "Underneath the 'cover story' of UFO's, the book also deals with themes of fear, alienation, loss of faith in institutions, adolescence, and bullying."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Paris, anyone?

Lunch in Paris A Love Story with Recipes ~ by Elizabeth Bard, 2011, memoir, 352 pages

In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman — and never went home again.  Was it love at first sight?  Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce?

Lunch in Paris is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs -- one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine.  Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales.  She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé), and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon).  Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate.  French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese — there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.

Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, this is a story of falling in love, redefining success, and discovering what it truly means to be at home.

Thursday Thoughts:  I'm wearing a Snoopy tee-shirt today and will attend a class on the importance of balance for older folks.  Falls can really mess up the lives of older people, you know.  So around here, we have exercise classes designed specifically for us.  I am 85, but I walked 7,083 steps yesterday and 10,446 steps the day before, according to my step counter.  It helps my balance and strength.

A cat lover let me borrow this book

Catland: Louis Wain and the Great Cat Mania ~ by Kathryn Hughes, 2024, history, 402 pages

How cat mania exploded in the early twentieth century, transforming cats from pests into beloved pets.

In 1900, Britain and America were in the grip of a cat craze. An animal that had for centuries been seen as a household servant or urban nuisance had now become an object of pride and deep affection. From presidential and royal families who imported exotic breeds to working-class men competing for cash prizes for the fattest tabby, people became enthralled to the once-humble cat. Multiple industries sprang up to feed this new obsession, selling everything from veterinary services to leather bootees via dedicated cat magazines. Cats themselves were now traded for increasingly large sums of money, bolstered by elaborate pedigrees that claimed noble ancestry and promised aesthetic distinction.

In Catland , Kathryn Hughes chronicles the cat craze of the early twentieth century through the life and career of Louis Wain. Wain's anthropomorphic drawings of cats in top hats falling in love, sipping champagne, golfing, driving cars, and piloting planes are some of the most instantly recognizable images from the era. His round-faced fluffy characters established the prototype for the modern cat, which cat "fanciers" were busily trying to achieve using their newfound knowledge of the latest scientific breeding techniques. Despite being a household name, Wain endured multiple bankruptcies and mental breakdowns, spending his last fifteen years in an asylum, drawing abstract and multicolored felines. But it was his ubiquitous anthropomorphic cats that helped usher the formerly reviled creatures into homes across Europe.

Illustrated and based on new archival findings about Wain's life, the wider cat fancy, and the media frenzy it created, Catland chronicles the history of how the modern cat emerged.

The importance of compassion and nonviolent solutions

The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness ~ by The Dalai Lama, compiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, 1990, nonfiction, 150 pages

This book offers a comprehensive view of the Dalai Lama, both his personal life and his thoughts on issues of global concern.  An engaging picture emerges of a man whose goodwill, understanding, and practicality have brought him respect from world leaders and the accalim of millions around the world.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. On Monday, I wrote about tornado damage in St. Louis, HERE.
2. It seemed like a long week, but I didn't get anything else posted until Friday, when I featured a book about twins, HERE.
3. On Saturday, I once again took part in the Book Blogger Hop, sharing what a song's title would probably be, HERE, if someone composed a song about my love for books.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

I'm a bookie!

The Question of the week is:   A songwriter composes a song about your love for books.  What would the song's title be?  (This question was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer).

My response:  I tell my friends I read a lot because I'm a "bookie."  That is very different, of course, from the way my dictionary defines that word.  But it works for me.  The song would be titled "She's a Bookie."  That's a photo of me reading to one of my great-grandchildren.  Books were always my choice of gifts for birthdays and Christmas.

Here's another of my great-grandchildren, reading a picture book I'd given him.

Her twin sister is missing

Beginning in 1971

People still search the woods for the remains fo lost children.

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook ~ by Ellen Marie Wiseman, 2022, fiction, 370 pages

Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different even though they were identical twins.  They loved the same things and shared a deep understanding, but Rosemary — awake to every emotion, easily moved to joy or tears — seemed to need more protection from the world.

Six years after Rosemary’s death from pneumonia, Sage, now sixteen, still misses her deeply.  Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted.  Yet despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret:  Rosemary didn’t die.  She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing.

Sage knows little about Willowbrook.  It’s always been a place shrouded by rumor and mystery.  A place local parents threaten to send misbehaving kids.  With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary.  What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could imagined.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Tornado damage

Tornadoes hit around me in University City and Clayton on Friday, but I was hunkered down in my bathroom with doors closed between me and big things whomping against my windows:  SLAM-BANG-BAM!  My friend Nova took this photo of a damaged building with parts of the walls torn off.  That is less than four miles frrom where Nova and I live at the Crown Center.  (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

My friend in Florida texted on Friday afternoon to see if I was okay.  She said that they lost two tree tops a few weeks ago, when a tornado went through a mile from her house.  On Saturday, a friend in Pennsylvania called to check on me, and my son in Tennessee texted to see if I was okay.  On Sunday, a friend in Canada emailed because she'd heard about the tornadoes.  A friend in middle-Tennessee sent an email saying, "Your area and places north and a bit east of me in KY seem to have had the worst of it."

For those of you relying on new posts showing up on this blog to tell you how I am doing, I hate to tell you that I frequently pre-post things for certain dates.  So it is quite possible that posts will continue to appear long after I die, whether of old age (I'm 85, after all) or tornadoes.

The MIND diet

I read that we should "eat a healthy, varied diet, like the MIND diet" to avoid Alzheimer's and noticed I already had "What's on the Mind Diet?" among my illustrations.  I find it puzzling that the diet recommends drinking wine daily with an alternative of grape juice. 

My dad was an alcoholic and wine goes down too easily when I drink it.  Since I do NOT want to become an alcoholic, I prefer that alternative (scribbled off to the side, above).  Anyway, I went looking for more information and found these five components that make up that diet:

I seem to be doing okay so far, but I always want to eat healthy food.  So I'm posting these charts where I can refer to them.  I can see that I eat more cheese than this plan says I should.  (I like the Cheesy Tuna Melt from our Café, but I don't get it that often.)  Some fiber that I eat regularly:  beans, lentils, fresh fruits (like strawberries, blueberries, and pears), avocados, barley.  Everybody around here knows I walk and walk and walk every day, through both of our buildings when the weather is bad and outside when it's good.

The Woman Who Lost Her Names : Selected Writings by American Jewish Women ~ edited by Julia Wolf Mazow, 1980, 222 pages

This anthology has short stories, autobiographical sketches, and excerpts from novels, which are accompanied by the editor's commentary and biographical notes on each contributor.  This compilation brings together many unpublished pieces by unknown writers along with important works by established authors that have, in  a cases, been unavailable to the general reader.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. On Monday, I was pondering both words and music, HERE.
2. I pondered a strange conversation and a tee shirt I was wearing on Tuesday, HERE.
3. On Wednesday, I wrote about an owl hooting off to the east of where I was walking, HERE.
4. On Thursday, I attended an exercise class where we talked about Endurance, Strangth, Balance, and Flexibility.  Then I came home and wrote about it, HERE.
5. On Friday, I shared a book, HERE, that I have re-read more than once. 
6. Saturday's post was about smiles, HERE.  Are smiles contagious?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Smile ~ it's Saturday!

I read somewhere that greeting someone with a big smile is a universally under-stood gesture of friendliness and can create a more positive and welcoming atmosphere.  Why?  Because a smile signals warmth, makes people feel comfortable, and encourages positive interactions.  I also read on BuzzFeed a few days ago that we should smile even it's fake, because most people will mirror it.

Do you ever re-read books?

Book Blogger Hop gives bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers.  It is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  Here is the question for this week:  May 16th - 22nd - What are some of your favorite books to re-read? (This question was submitted by Nicole, whose blog cannot be accessed.)  I'm re-reading this one right now:

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End ~ by Atul Gawande, 2014, social science, 304 pages, 10/10

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Atul Gawande tackles the challenge of how medicine can not only improve life, but also the process of its ending.  Medicine has transformed birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable.  But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit:

• Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs.
• Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot.
• Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families.  He offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.  This book asserts that medicine can comfort us and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life, but also a good end.

This quote is from page 259.

Thursday Thoughts

This morning, I attended a class where we talked about Endurance, Strangth, Balance, and Flexibility.  Afterwords, a couple of us went to lunch in our Cafe, and I learned a lot about Joanne.  She was in the field of IT (Information Technology) before retirement.  I really enjoyed learning about her life while we were eating together.  Today I'm thinking of ways to move.

I heard an owl

I was walking in my neighborhood yesterday and parked my Rollator in the shade of a tree to rest a bit while sitting across the street from a child day care center, and I heard an owl calling what I described in a text to a friend as "Who-wee? Hoo-hoo-hoo?"  I have no idea what kind of owl makes that particular sound, but it was repeated over and over, maybe five or six times while I took a break from walking.  Then it was gone.  I googled "owls in Saint Louis MO" and got this picture of a barred owl.  Maybe it was a bird like this illustration I found.

Two things to ponder today

Everyone stops to speak to me, because I get to know everyone around me, even those who come into our Circle@Crown Café from the neighborhoods around here.  A man who was teaching a lawyer how to play chess had moved away years ago (to Portland, Oregon, he told me).  Anyway, I was sitting at the table nearest the door, waiting for another resident who would be coming to join me in a few minutes.  The guy I had spoken to only a few times is in town visiting and came over to tell me that bagpipes used to be considered weapons of war.

Well, that certainly felt like it came out of nowhere.  Does he think I'm Scottish because my name is Bonnie?  Well, I am actually part Scottish.  I'm descended from the Campbells of Argyll, whose kilt is this blue-and-green color pattern with a little yellow and white and black thrown in.  I've never worn a kilt or talked to that man about them.

Anyway, he went back to a couple of people at his table playing (or maybe learning from him how to play) chess, and my friend joined me.  When I got home a couple of hours later, I did look up that "fact" he shared with me and learned that "until 1996, the British government considered bagpipes to be a bona fide weapon of war."  Check out the info HERE.  But still, what a weird "fact" for him to share.

Make Waves at Your Library

Today, I'm wearing a blue tee shirt that has this slogan across the top, with waves breaking across the top like a blue ocean with white waves.  Since I live in the middle of a big country (in St. Louis), this is the only "ocean" I'll see today.

M is for Monday, so choose the right words

It's Monday, and most folks are mindlessly going through their mundane lives.  When I saw this illustration, I smiled and saved it to use here.  So today, look for something meaningful in your day, maybe even something so marvelous that it becomes memorable.  Magical seems a bit extreme, but who knows?  Maybe this will be your best Monday ever.  Try to do something you'll enjoy.  I have plans, which include both lunch with a friend and reading a good book.

"Music" is another word that starts with a W, so here's my favorite music for you (and me) to enjoy this morning.  My favorite piece of music is Mozart's Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, so HERE is Aligi Voltan playing the bassoon.  You can also hear it on YouTube.

A busy week and a borrowed book

Most of my friends here are readers.  I loaned a book to one who doesn't read a lot, and he returned it in the box beside my door recently.  He'd had the book for weeks.  Actually, months, I think.  You want to know which book.  This one:

We'll Prescribe You a Cat ~ by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, 2024, literary fiction, 304 pages

I told you all about it HERE, so I won't repeat myself.  Click that link to read all about the book.  My non-reader neighbor left me a note, saying, "B — Thanks so much for sharing this sweet book!  It brought lots of sweet memories + smiles."  Then he drew a cat's face, with ears and whiskers.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. On Tuesday, I wrote about a neighbor who took me out to lunch for my birthday.  She wrapped up four big boxes of tissue as my gift because of my "post nasal drip."  When I told her that I have a runny nose because of my spring allergies, she doubled down and insisted that I have post nasal drip.  I use tissue to wipe my runny nose, but I do NOT cough it out of my mouth.  Sorry, if that's too much information, but her insistence made me blog about the difference between having a runny nose and having post-nasal drip, HERE.
2. On Wednesdays, I often write about words and phrases, so "glitch in the matrix" was the subject that day, HERE.
3. On Thursday, I attended the first of eight classes on fall prevention, and I smiled when the instructor mentioned "endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility."  That was the focus in the classes I led here several years ago, using free booklets from Go4Life.  That class was my focus on Thursday, HERE.
4. Friday's subject was a book on National Parks in North America, HERE.
5. On Saturday, I wrote about a children's picture book someone (probably visiting an elderly relative here at my facility for senior living) had left in our library, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A book for children

I Am a Pilot ~ by Christopher Nicolas, illustrated by Alan Bateson, 2016, children's picture book, 24 pages, 9/10

Meet Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and all the daring pilots from the epic Star Wars space saga.  This Little Golden Book features illustrations that should appeal to children ages 3 to 6.  Someone must have left it behind while visiting grandma or great-grandma, since I saw it on a table in our Crown Center library and read it in minutes.  It's cute, and I think little children might like it.

Beginning ~ with some parks history

Beginning

Since medieval times, parks — in one form or another — have been an essential part of man's (sic) existence.  As early as 1079, William the Conqueror set aside The New Forest in southwestern Hampshire, England.  In those days, parks functioned as private hunting reserves and consequently were preserved in their natural state so that wildlife could flourish, albeit to be hunted.

Pictorial Atlas of North American National Parks ~ edited by Marie Cahill and W. J. Yenne, 1991, atlas, 256 pages

        Today, national parks exist from the Everglades in southern Florida to the far north reaches of Ellesmere Island in the Arctic, and from the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean to Newfoundland's eastern shore.

        The only reviewer on Amazon said, "This is a well researched book and contained all the major parks in North America, very interesting to read and look thru."  He gave it 4 of 5 stars.  I just got it from the library and haven't read it yet.  It's big and heavy (4.6 pounds), but it is mostly large beautiful photos with not a lot of words on each page, relatively speaking.  So it probably won't take me long to read it and maybe share more about it here on my blog.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

This morning, I attended the first of eight classes

A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls is an evidence-based fall prevention program designed to reduce the fear of falling and increase activity levels among older adults. The program helps participants learn to view falls as controllable, set goals to increase activity, make changes to reduce fall risk at home, and exercise to improve strength and balance.  The illustration above shows the cover of our Participant Workbook.  Ours was revisted in 2022.

Our leader asked how many of us had already fallen and which of us were afraid of falling, so I'll ask you readers to respond to those questions, as well.  She also mentioned endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility.  I have focused on these four things for years, and we will focus on them in this class.

A glitch in the matrix

The phrase "glitch in the matrix" gained popularity from the 1999 film "The Matrix," which depicts a world where humans are living in a simulated reality created by machines.

Meaning:  In the context of the movie, a glitch is an anomaly in the simulated world, suggesting that the simulation is not perfect and can have errors or breaks. 

Real-life Application:  People have used the phrase to describe strange or inexplicable events they experience in real life, often questioning their perception of reality.  For example, common "glitches" described include objects suddenly appearing or disappearing, time distortions, and déjà vu experiences. 

Simulation Theory:  The idea of "glitches in the matrix" is often linked to the simulation theory, which posits that our reality could be a computer simulation created by an advanced civilization.

Perceptual Glitches:  The most fundamental glitch can be one's own subjectivity, as our perceptions are filtered through our unique minds and sensory experiences.