Two things on my agenda today

I had only TWO things on my TWOsday agenda:  a discussion group and an appreciation program with singers and snacks:

1.  Short Story discussion in the early afternoon that met in the small art studio was to study a short story.

Two discussion leaders (Esther and Christie) took turns reading Guy de Maupassant's short story entitled "The Necklace."  A couple of us knew about the story, me and another participant.  It had been part of my English studies (in high school, I think, though it may have been in college for my first degree).  If you are not familiar with the story, you can read it HERE.  I am a visual person, so I would have preferred to have a copy of the story so I could read along.  I don't retain as much by simply listening, and that's why I came home, looked it up (for myself and also for you blog readers), and thought about it on my own after our discussion.

2.  Volunteer Appreciation program in our large community room in the evening.

People who volunteer to greet visitors at the Welcome Desk were included, as were the residents and non-residents who prepare meals to be delivered to the community and Crown Center residents.  I was invited because I volunteer to work in the library, reshelving books and magazines, and preparing donations to be shelved.  I also cull books that have been there long enough and make room for newer books to go on our shelves.  I've been doing it since I moved here in 2014, along with other residents, like my friends Donna and Risé.  Donna, who had a Master's degree in library science, set up our library as in this photo when she first moved here.  The room was recently renovated, but I will share those changes another time.

Reader's Digest ~ four books condensed in one volume

The Lion's Game ~ by Nelson DeMille, 2000, suspense, pages 7-185

With the young terrorist known only as "The Lion" on the prowl and out for revenge, detective John Corey is pushed to his limit as the lives of American pilots are on the line, and Corey is caught in a deadly race with no room for error.  Detective John Corey, last seen in Plum Island, now faces his toughest assignment yet: the pursuit and capture of the world's most dangerous terrorist — a young Arab known as "The Lion" who has baffled a federal task force and shows no sign of stopping in his quest for revenge against the American pilots who bombed Libya and killed his family.  Filled with unrelenting suspense and surprising plot twists at every terrifying turn, The Lion's Game is a heartstopping race against time and one of Nelson DeMille's most riveting thrillers.

Handyman ~ by Linda Nichols, 2000, romance novel, pages 186-289

An accidental therapy session is the catalyst for change in Linda Nichols's winsome, witty, irresistible debut novel — a love story about two people who don't realize they're made for each other until it's almost too late.

Sweet, struggling Maggie Ivey is a twenty-six-year-old single mom trying to keep it all together, burdened by a lecherous boss, a dead-end job, and a worried mother who just wants her to move back home to Georgia.  Maggie's prospects look dim, until her friend Gina signs her up for the famous Dr. Jason Golding's 21-Day Overhaul.

Maggie's first session seems to go perfectly.  Dr. Golding is warm, sensitive, and a terrific listener.  There's only one problem:  The handsome man in Dr. Golding's chair isn't Dr. Golding.  In fact, he's not even a therapist; he's Jake Cooper, a contractor hired to remodel the office.  But all Maggie knows is that talking to him helps her feel better.  And Jake doesn't quite know how to let Maggie in on the secret.  Will he eventually confess to his ruse?  Will she discover the truth on her own?  And the most important question of all:  Can a handyman fix a broken heart?

Set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and featuring a cast of characters impossible to resist, Handyman is a fresh new look at the oldest story of all and just what the doctor ordered for anyone with a case of the blues.

The Patient - Michael Palmer, 2000, medical thriller, pages 290-441

Dr. Jessie Copeland is exactly where she wants to be:  A respected neurosurgeon at Eastern Mass Medical Center, she spends her days waging life-and-death battles in the OR and her spare time holed up in a lab, spearheading the development of a tiny robot that could revolutionize brain surgery.

ARTIE — Assisted Robotic Tissue Incision and Extraction — is an exciting fusion of biomechanics and radiology that, when perfected, will be able to excise tumors now considered inoperable.  But it could be months before ARTIE is ready for use on human beings — or so Jessie thinks, until her ambitious department head jumps the gun and uses the robot in a high-profile case that nets immediate worldwide attention.

Suddenly the hospital is swarming with media, vying for a multimillion-dollar grant, and fielding calls from patients desperate for this lifesaving technology.  But what no one at the medical center realizes is that the publicity has also reached one of the most malevolent men on earth.

Claude Malloche is brilliant, secretive, remorseless, and without regard for human life— a mercenary willing to bring down a world leader or a jetliner filled with people if the price is right.  He is also ill with a life-threatening brain tumor that is exactly the sort ARTIE was invented to treat.  Now Malloche must come into the open, and he has set his sights on the hospital that has burst to the forefront of neurosurgery:  Eastern Mass Medical Center.

For those caught on the neurosurgical floor, the nightmare has just begun ... and no one is more aware of the stakes than Jessie Copeland.  In brain surgery there are no guarantees.  But that's exactly what Claude Malloche demands, leaving Jessie to face the most harrowing case of her life.  Disaster is just a cut away.  And the price of failure may be thousands of lives.

Claude Malloche is a master assassin, more rumor than man, for whom murder is an art.  No one can identify his face.  Now Malloche has a deadly brain tumor, and he intends to have the best neurosurgeon in the world operate on it.

To ensure Jessie's cooperation, Malloche has devised a plan of intimidation that puts at risk her life and the lives of hundreds of innocent people.  Neurosurgery requires nerves of steel, but in coming up with a scheme to fulfill her oath as a doctor yet thwart a diabolical killer, Jessie will be performing the most complex surgery of her career — on a knife-edge of terror.

Round Robin - Jennifer Chiaverini, 2000, fiction, pages 442-575

The Elm Creek Quilters have begun a round robin, a quilt created by sewing concentric patchwork to a central block as it is passed around a circle of friends.  Led by Sarah McClure, who came to Waterford, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Matt, a few years ago, the project is to be their gift to their beloved fellow quilter Sylvia Compson.  But like the most delicate cross-stitch, their lives are held together by the most tenuous threads of happiness ... and they can unravel.

As each woman confronts a personal crisis, a painful truth, or a life-changing choice, the quilt serves as a symbol of the complex and enduring bonds between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends. In weaving together the harmonious, disparate pieces of their crazy-quilt lives, the Elm Creek Quilters come to realize that friendship is one of the most precious gifts we can give each other, and that love can strengthen understanding, lead to new beginnings, and illuminate our lives.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I announced it's National Library Week, HERE.
• Then Wednesday was Earth Day, and I suggested ways we could celebrate, HERE.
• Eleanor Roosevelt was the subject of the book I shared on Thursday, HERE.
• My book beginning on Friday was from an epistolary novel, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ in 1962

Beginning

Dear Mrs. Fortier, I hope this letter finds you well.  For that matter, I hope it finds you, since I am sending it to Northwest Home & Life magazine, where I so enjoyed your recent tale about digging for clams.

Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love (Book 1 of 2 in the Love & Saffron Series) ~ by Kim Fay, 2022, epistolary fiction (California and Washington States), 240 pages

Creamy risotto alla Milanese.  Mussels in a hot, buttery broth.  Chicken spiced with cinnamon and cloves.  Joan Bergstrom and Imogen Fortier understand the key to a savored life — delicious food.  Young Joan is just discovering herself as a foodwriter in bustling Los Angeles, while experienced columnist Imogen is settled in her decades-long marriage on Camano Island outside Seattle.  When Joan sends a fan letter to Imogen with an enclosed packet of saffron and a recipe, their journey of culinary exploration and soul-deep friendship begins.  A long-lost flavor surfaces buried memories, and a quest to make carne asada opens the doors of a sheltered life.  Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of their friendship, and of their belief that food and love can sustain us during our darkest hours.

Note:  I've already read Book 2 and gave it a 10/10.  That's why I put this first book in the series on reserve at my library.  See what I wrote about Book 2 by clicking HERE.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt (Book 4 of 12) ~ by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Gary Kelley, 2009, children's biography, 48 pages, 9/10

Eleanor Roosevelt was raised in a privileged but stern Victorian household, with an affectionate but mostly absent father and a critical mother who made fun of her daughter's looks.  Alone and lonely for much of her childhood, Eleanor found solace in books and in the life of her lively and independent mind.  Her intellectual gifts and compassionate heart won her the admiration of many friends — and the love of her future husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

While other young women of her class were spending time at dances and parties, Eleanor devoted her energies to teaching children in New York City's poorest neighborhoods.  Later, she became the most socially and politically active — and controversial — First Lady America had ever seen.  Ambassador, activist, and champion of civil rights, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the soul of America forever.

I wrote about this book years ago, HERE, and got it from the library to read again.  Click the yellow link for a story that you may like.  Be sure to read the comments, too.

Today is Earth Day

How to Celebrate and Participate:

• Reduce/Reuse/Recycle:  Use sustainable, reusable products and cut down on disposable plastic use.
• Participate in Cleanups:  Join local efforts to pick up plastic waste in communities.
• Conservation:  Plant trees, conserve water, and use energy-efficient appliances.
• Education:  Attend local environmental "teach-ins" and learn about local eco-systems.
• Use Public Transportation:  In some areas, public transportation may be free on Earth Day to promote lower emissions.

Earth Day occurs on the same day every year.

This year, April 22 happens to be on a Wednesday.

ENJOY your books, everybody!

Let's celebrate this week by reading another book or two or three.

An excellent book

Family Lore ~ by Elizabeth Acevedo, 2023, literary fiction, 384 pages

Flor has a gift:  she can predict, to the day, when someone will die.  So when she decides she wants a living wake — a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led — her sisters are surprised.  Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s?  Does she have other motives?  She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.  But Flor isn’t the only person with secrets:  her sisters are hiding things, too.  And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.

Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City.  This is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces — one family’s journey through their history.

NOTE:  Since I'm the librarian for our little Crown Center, I was about to reshelve this book yesterday when I read what it was about.  I went back to the notebook where we sign our own book choices in and out, using our names and apartment numbers, and the date when we took it and when we returned it.  Seeing that a neighbor I know had just read it, I signed it out and when I ran into Linda walking her dog later, I asked what she thought.  Her answer was short and sweet:  "Excellent!"

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about the 10/10 book I had just read, HERE.  And that's it for the week, my slowest reading and writing week that I can remember ever.  This is another reason I'm so ready to crack open this book and get immersed in the story of the lives of these sisters.
• 
  is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Old friends

March 16th was the 86th birthday of my friend Shirley.  We've been friends since 6th grade.  Years ago, she sent me a letter with this old B/W photo of the two of us.  I just learned last night that she died two days after her birthday last month.  I started thinking of other friends and realized Ginny in Florida is now the friend I have had the longest, though we didn't meet until we were in high school.  She was a year ahead of me in school (and in age), but we keep in touch even though neither of us now lives in our hometown.

Epistolary fiction

 

Kate & Frida (Book 2 of 2 in the Love & Saffron Series) ~ by Kim Fay, 2025, epistolary fiction (Paris, Seattle, Sarajevo), 320 pages, 10/10

Sometimes a book can change your life . . . Twentysomething Frida Rodriguez arrives in Paris in 1991, relishing the city's butter-soaked cuisine and seeking her future as a war correspondent (hoping to go to Sarajevo).  But then she writes to a bookshop in Seattle, and receives more than just the book she requests.  A friendship begins that will redefine the person she wants to become.

Seattle bookseller Kate Fair is transformed by Frida's free spirit and is spurred to believe in herself as a writer, to kiss her handsome coworker, and to find beauty even in loss.  Through the most tumultuous years of their young lives — both personally and globally — Kate and Frida sustain and nourish each other as they learn the necessity of embracing joy, especially through our darkest hours.

This novel is a love letter to bookshops and booksellers, to the passion we bring to life in our twenties, and to the last years before the internet changed everything.

________________________________________________________________

* I read the large print edition of this novel (the white one above) and loved it, even though I haven't read the first in the series.  Now I want to get that one.

My neighbor handed me this book

The Correspondent ~ by Virginia Evans, 2025, epistolary fiction, 304 pages

This is the life story of Sybil Van Antwerp, a prickly, retired lawyer in her 70s, through her letters and emails to friends, family, and even famous authors like Joan Didion and Ann Patchett.  The book explores themes of aging, regret, forgiveness, and connection as Sybil confronts her past, including the loss of a child and her adoption, through her correspondence.  It's praised for its realistic and memorable character, its celebration of the written word, and its poignant look at a life unfolding through communication.

When Betty handed me this book, she motioned "zipping her mouth closed," saying she wasn't going to tell me her opinion.  However, she had texted to ask if I wanted this book.  She doesn't usually do that unless she enjoyed reading it.  If you've read it, you can tell me whether it's good or bad, if you like.  I'll still read it either way.

Week in Review

• For Monday Musing, I mused about a book that will probably take me forever to read, HERE.
• On Twosday, I wrote about the words SWiss and SWeet, HERE.
• I wrote about the number of steps in my Wednesday's workout, HERE, after walking to the grocery store.
• On Saturday, I learned that my daughter's father-in-law died, so I looked up all the times I've blogged about dying, HERE.  I didn't think to ask how old he was.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Food and a shopping list

Today was a good day, so I was able to walk to the grocery store to buy what I needed, including stuff from the deli counter, like cole slaw and ham salad.  Another plus is that I got in 4,000 steps by simply going to the store.  I also walked in the halls in my building this afternoon and evening.  That means I have more than doubled that number (8,303 steps), and it's not even bedtime yet.

Today's healthy lunch

When I ate lunch today, I noticed a word connection.  I was still hungry after eating a Swiss cheese sandwich (no, I didn't melt it), and I noticed leftover sweet potato yams in the fridge.  You know me.  Yes, I noticed SWiss and SWeet in the names of those foods.

While looking for an illustration for my blog post, I found this:  "Swiss cheese is widely considered one of the healthiest cheese options."  That is when I realized that today is TWOsday, so here are two things I ate for my healthy lunch today.

What are you reading?

I am sure I will still be reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King for many more days.  It is about John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his wife both surviving an "attempted" assassination in Dallas in 1963 because someone went back in time to change history as we know it.  I am still reading, so I do not yet know how the author makes it happen.  (Read what I have already posted about the thick 880-page book HERE.)

It's time to get active!

Click on this Active April calendar from Action for Happiness to enlarge it.

My way of being active is to keep walking, walking, walking.  I walk in the hallways of my senior living facility if the weather outside is too hot, too cold, too wet, too icy, too much for an old lady.  Hey, that's pretty much what the calendar above says for April 12th:  "Move as much as possible, even if you're stuck inside."  I'm sure we can all find a way, if we are really motivated.

This is something that makes me happy.  It's one of the trees flowering along our Crown Center fence.  Isn't it beautiful?  And I was able to walk outside yesterday to take this picture.

Week in Review

• For Monday Musing, I wrote about a BIG book, HERE.  (Friday's book is even bigger.)
• On Twosday, I wrote about historical fiction, HERE.
• Wednesday's Words were not what they seem to be, HERE.
• My Thursday Thoughts, HERE, were about April foolishness.
• Book Beginnings on Friday was for a book about a different result on 11/22/63,  which we know as the day JFK was assassinated, HERE.
• On Saturday, I wrote about fun and joy, HERE.
  
  

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Fun and joy

Get organized?  Impossible, so let's move on to the next item.  Hmm, have fun sounds good, but what shall I do to have fun today?  There is always reading, for a "bookie" like me.  Or walking somewhere interesting, before we have any more bad weather.  That means weather that is not too cold or too muggy or too icy or too wet.  Here are some more ideas for having fun:

• 
  Think of three things I'm grateful for (thinking, thinking, thinking).
• Find joy in music today:  listen and maybe sing along.
• Take a photo of something that brings me joy.
• Say positive things in my conversations with others.
• Appreciate the beauty of nature and the trees "springing" into bloom along our parking lot.  Here are some of them.

When I run into my friends, I'll try to remember to ask them what they feel grateful for today.  The "fun-est" thing so far was ordering a children's book for my next library delivery in the middle of this month.  The library in our subdivision makes monthly deliveries to the elderly people in my senior-living facility.  Not all of us have cars or drive anymore, so this is a great way to get books, especially since only a few hundred books are available in our tiny library, which is made up of donated books from some of us living here, as well as donations from good folks in the community.

Beginning ~ with "JFK ESCAPES ASSASSINATION."

Beginning

I have never been what you'd call a cryig man.  My ex-wife said that my "nonexistent emotional gradient" was the main reason she was leaving me (as if the guy she met in her AA meetings was beside the point).

11/22/63 ~ by Stephen King, 2012, historical fantasy, 880 pages

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed.  What if you could change it back?  In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King — who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer — takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, whose life is upended when his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret:  his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958.  And the dying Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession — to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in the world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere and to the small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love.  Every turn leads eventually to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore.  Time-travel has never been so believable.  Or so terrifying.

My thoughts so far

I have never, ever tried to read a book this long before, but the idea intrigued me.  The front cover inside the front cover (yes, read that again) has a different headline that the one above.  It says:  "JFK ESCAPES ASSASSINATION."  So I brought it home and have read several chapters so far.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Being foolish

We're into April now.  Yesterday, the first day of the month, is widely known as April Fool's Day, when children play pranks on each other.  I remember doing it as a school girl.  One year, when I attended summer camp, a fun event was for each of us to dress up to represent something about the month we were born.  I no longer remember what anyone else did, but I do recall dressing as an April Fool.  What I remember is wearing my jeans and shirt turned wrong-side out, so that the tags were on the outside.  By acting "foolish," I won the contest.

These words are not what they seem to be

Abbreviation ~ is 12 letters long.

Monosyllable ~ is definitely not.

Non-hyphenated ~ has a hyphen in it.

Thesaurus~ does not itself have a synonym.

So these are not at all what they seem to be,

and I think that's funny.  I have started the list.

Can you think of some other examples to share?