Taking your own advice

Dear Debbie ~ by Freida McFadden, 2026, psychological thriller, 336 pages, 7/10

Sometimes, enough is enough.  Debbie Mullen is losing it.  For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice.  Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands, and Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction.   Or at least, she did.

These days, Debbie's life seems to be spiraling out of control.  She just lost her job, something strange is happening with her teenage daughters, and (according to the tracking app she installed on her husband's phone) he is keeping secrets.

Now, Debbie's done being the bigger person.  She's done being reasonable and practical.  It's time to take her own advice and time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.  What happens when women finally choose to take justice into their own hands?  Get YOUR hands on a copy of this book and find out for yourself.

Musing about quotes

On Thursday, I wrote about Isabel Allede's book The Soul of a Woman, HERE.  I'm still musing about the words I bookmarked:

Page 102

In the past, adulthood arrived at twenty, middle age at forty, and old age at fifty.  Today adolescence lasts until past thirty or forty, maturity comes around sixty, and old age starts at eighty.  This is the baby boomers' achievement.

Page 107

I would like to have Sophia Loren's full breasts and long legs, but if given a choice, I prefer the gifts of several good witches I know:  purpose, compassion, and good humor.  (*Note:  I especially like compassion being in the list.)

 Page 111

The key to contentment is forgiveness of others and of ourselves.

 Page 123

Grace is in a residence for older people because she needs assistance; she is by far the youngest person there.  The help she gets is not much, just five minutes in the morning to dress her, five minutes in the evening to put her to bed, and two showers a week.  For her, the greatest pleasure is that shower.  She says that every drop of water on her skin is a blessing; she enjoys the soap and shampoo foam in her hair.  I often think of Grace when I shower; I don't want to take that privilege for granted.

Page 130

This is what women want:  to be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved.

 Pages 164-165

There's a difference between immigrants and refugees.  The former decide to move somewhere else to improve their lives.  They are usually young and healthy (the elderly stay behind), they try to adapt as soon as possible, they look to the future, and they want to plant roots in the new place.  The latter are running for their lives; they are escaping military conflict, persecution, crime, and extreme poverty.  Refugees are desperate, they have had to leave behind everything that is familiar to them and seek asylum in another country where they are likely to confront hostility.  Helf of the seventy million refugees in 2018 were women and children, a figure that has been increasing yearly.

Pages 167-168 

In less developed regions, mothers typically spend their income on the family, while men spend on themselves, either for entertainment or for something that gives them status, like a cellphone or a bike.

Page 208

We have a lot of work to do ... First of all, we need to end the patriarchy, an ancient institution that exalts masculine values (and flaws) and represses the famale half of humanity.  We have to question everything, from religion and laws to science and cultural mores.  We are going to get really angry, so angry that our fury will smash the foundations that support this civilization.  Docility, praisedd as a feminine virtue, is our worst enemy; it has never served us well, it is only convenient for men.

Recommended by a friend I've known over 70 years

Theo of Golden ~ by Allen Levi, 2025, literary fiction, 400 pages

One spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden.  He doesn’t explain much about where he came from or why he’s there — but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the walls, he begins purchasing them, one at a time, and giving each portrait to the person depicted.  In exchange, he asks only for the person’s story.  

And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered.  This is a story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen,  Theo of Golden is an unforgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the miracles that happen quietly when we choose kindness and wonder.

The power of imagined experiences

Having been a life-long reader (I'm 86 years old now), I was fascinated by a recent article from Reader's Digest entitled "Here's the Scientific Reason We're Drawn to Certain Books — And What Each Genre Does to Your Brain" (found HERE).  So what exactly does each genre do to your brain?  (I read all four of their categories.)  Here what the article claims:

Mystery and Thriller

• Stimulates regions involved in tracking clues and predicting outcomes.
• Forces the brain to build theories, test them, and impose order on uncertainty.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi

• Activates the sensory and motor cortices to simulate unreal worlds and actions.
• Provides heavy escapism, triggering dopamine and serotonin to soothe anxious thoughts.

Literary Fiction

• Exercises the brain's default mode network, boosting theory-of-mind and social cognition.
• Enhances your ability to understand complex human perspectives and internal reflections.

Nonfiction and History

• Strengthens analytical thinking, logical pattern recognition, and memory retention.
• Slows long-term cognitive decline by building rigid semantic and factual networks.

Musing about time and science fiction

Beyond Time ~ edited by Sandra Ley, 1976, science fiction, xv + 268 pages

The back cover of this book (that I bought in August of 1968) says that all twenty stories speculate on the fascinating question, "What if?"  They ponder how the world might be staggeringly different if only one event or person had been changed.  The stories include:

1. “The Cliometricon” by George Zebrowski
2. "The Rise of the Sun" by Gordon Eklund
3. "Jupiter Laughs" by Edmund Cooper
4. "Worlds Enough" by Don Thompson
5. "Assault on Fat Mountain" by R. A. Lafferty
6. “O Brave Old World!” by Avram Davidson
7. "Hail to the Chief" by Lucy Cores
8. "Soy la Libertad' by Robert Coulson
9. "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sky" by Robert Chilson
10. “A Class with Dr. Chang” by Ward Moore
11. "Unscheduled Flight" by Juanita Coulson
12. "Alternate Universe I, II, III by Tom Disch
13. “Polonaise” by Alan Dean Foster
14. "U-Genie SX-1--Human Entrepreneur: Naturally Rapacious Yankee" by Dimitri V. Gat
15. "Letter from America" by H. R. Percy
16. "The Napoleonic Wars" by Felix C. Gotschalk
17. "Checkmate in Six Moves" by Olga Lay
18. "Many Rubicons" by Michael Orgill
19. “The Fellini Beggar” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
20. "All Possible Worlds" by Laurence M. Janifer

(By the way, the original price on this book from 50 years ago was $1.95.)

Two kinds of people

"There are two kinds of people in the world — those who walk into a room and say 'There you are' and those who say, 'Here I am!'" ~ a quote from Abigail van Buren

Monday morning misery

My phone woke me at 6:43 a.m.  It was a friend, but nobody was on the line when I answered.  Not a good way for a retired elderly person to wake up on a Monday morning.  Was it a case of butt dialing?  AI quotes Wikipedia with this definition:

"Butt dialing (also called pocket dialing) is the accidental phone call made when a mobile phone in a pocket or bag is pressed by body movement."

When I answered, ready to talk to her, no one was there.  Maybe the phone call was an accident, but not the text from my cardiologist's office 28 minutes later, wanting me to confirm my appointment for next week.

Come on, people!  Retired folks, especially now that I'm 86, don't bounce out of bed that early to get ready for the workday.  I had read until after midnight and would have gotten a full night's sleep without those notifications.  I guess I'll go to bed early tonight.

Musing about a runaway

Runaway ~ by Alice Munro, 2004, stories, 352 pages

The runaway of the title story is a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband.  In “Passion,” a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers a single moment of stunning insight and the limits and lies of that mysterious emotion.

Three stories, the inspiration for the award–winning movie 'Julieta,' are about a woman named Juliet — in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls’ school into a wild and irresistible love match.  In the second she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose life and marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her child, caught, she mistakenly thinks, in the grip of a religious cult, vanishes into an unexplained and profound silence.  In the final story, “Powers,” a young woman with the ability to read the future sets off a chain of events that involves her husband-to-be and a friend in a lifelong pursuit of what such a gift really means, and who really has it.

 

In Alice Munro’s hands, the people she writes about — women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children — become as vivid as our own neighbors.  It is her gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own.

Musing about a library book

Illuminated Prayers ~ by Marianne Williamson, illustrated by Claudia Karabaic Sargent, 1997, spirituality, 103 pages, 10/10

"I think of prayer as a spiritual lifeline back to where I most want to be," Marianne Williamson writes in this book of universal prayers.  Prayer is a powerful force that can lift spirits, guide journeys, and heal the heart.  Illunimanted Prayers is a small volume of spiritual wisdom to bring the power of prayer into our daily lives.

Illustrated in the manner of an illuminated manuscript, Illuminated Prayers offers a treasured keepsake of the power and enduring relevance of Williamson's message:  Prayer illuminates our souls, and with prayer we can change the world.

Short stories about cats

The Private Life of the Cat Who . . . (Tales of Koko and Yum Yum, Book 3 of 3 of Cat Who Short Stories) ~ by Lilian Jackson Braun, 2003, cozy animal mysteries, 144 pages, rated 5 stars (out of 5) by 71% of reviewers on Amazon

James Mackintosh Qwilleran is a journalist who wrote for metropolitan newspapers from coast to coast before relocating to Pickax, four hundred miles north of everywhere.  These excerpts from his journal include memories, thoughts and ideas from the "Qwill Pen" column — altogether a drama starring two feline celebrities.  So there are 22 short stories about cats "by" the journalist-character in this book for us to enjoy.

How I got my hands on this book is another story.  I left our Circle@Crown Café and went to our library to shelve books.  Another resident got off their elevator, saw me, and said, "I've got something for you."  Reaching into the bag on her Rollator, she pulled out a gift-wrapped object that looked suspiciously like a book.  Of course, it was a book!  After opening it, I asked her specifically if she meant it's for me personally or for me to add to the library collection.  No, she said she knew I liked cats and wanted me to have this book.  Thank you, Alice.

Jodi Picoult recommends a book

Yesteryear ~ by Caro Claire Burke, 2026, satirical novel, 400 pages

This book is about a popular "tradwife" influencer, Natalie Heller Mills, who wakes up in 1855, forced to confront the harsh reality of the pioneer life she romanticized online.  And this authentic 19th-century version of her homestead is brutal.  The book explores themes of tradition, fame, and the performance of womanhood through the eyes of Natalie, its narcissistic but compelling protagonist, as she navigates a world that is both a nightmarish reality and a potential hoax or reality show.  It's a critique of modern online culture.

This is considered a major book of 2026 and has been picked as a Good Morning America Book Club selection.  Jodi Picoult is my favorite novelist, so I plan to read this book, even though 400 pages is more than I like in a book.

I relate to this book, having lived through examples the author shares

You Just Don't Understand ~ by Deborah Tannen, 1990, interpersonal relations / social sciences, 330 pages

Women and men live in different worlds ... made of different words.  Spending nearly four years on the New York Times bestseller list, including eight months at number one, You Just Don't Understand is a true cultural and intellectual phenomenon.  This book points out gender differences in ways of speaking.  With a combination of humorous writing and scientific insight, Tannen shows why women and men can walk away from the same conversation with very different impressions of what was said.

Filled with entertaining examples of real conversations, this book gives us the tools to understand what went wrong — and to find a common language in which to strengthen relationships at work and at home.  A classic in the field of interpersonal relations, this book will change forever the way you approach conversations.  And I think both men and women ought to read it.

ENJOY your books, everybody!

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

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.

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.)

If you want a BIG book, here it is

Things We Never Got Over (Book 1 of 3 in the Knockemout series) ~ by Lucy Score, 2022, romantic comedy, 570 pages

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding.  She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way … with fists and beer.  Usually in that order.

Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all.  After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected.  The niece Naomi didn’t know she had.  Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.

There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones.  But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam.  And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.  At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.

. . . and to another book that was recently

added to our Crown Center library collection.

AI Overview tells me about this phrase

"Divorce: The End of an Error" is a popular, witty phrase frequently

used on greeting cards, party banners, and custom cakes to celebrate,

with humor, a fresh start after a marriage ends. It frames the dissolution

of a marriage not merely as a loss, but as the conclusion of

a mistake, often marking a transition into a new chapter.

Grocery shopping

I went grocery shopping this afternoon.  My store isn't far from my home.

It was warm enough for me to walk there today, so I went.

I was really tired by the time I got home, but exhilirated

because I now have fresh fruits and things I was out of.

Go ahead and borrow that book

The Surrogate Mother ~ by Freida McFadden, 2025, literary fiction, 320 pages

She was promised a miracle.  She got more than she bargained for.  Abby wants a baby more than anything.  But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future.  That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer to serve as a surrogate.  It's an offer that will make all of Abby's dreams come true.  But soon, strange things start happening, and it turns out Monica isn't who she says she is.  The woman now carrying Abby's child has an unspeakable secret.  And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

My note:  Seeing this in the library, I had to have it, even though I have not yet finished the book I'm reading.  I went ahead and got it.  (Amazon calls this literary fiction, suspense thriller, and psychological thriller.  So which is it?)

Book lovers at the grand opening of the renovated Crown Center library

Today I'm musing about the Grand Reopening of our

Crown Center library, after it was renovated.

I wore my sweatshirt that says "I can't.  I'm booked."

They gave out bookmarks which say:

Book  Lover,  n.

A    person   known    for

traveling     to      distant

worlds  without  leaving

their seat, forming deep

emotional   bonds   with

fictional characters, and

saying   "just   one   more

chapter"    until     3 a.m.

Often    spotted   with    a

book  in  hand,  a  cup  of

coffee   nearby,   and   an 

ever-growing  to-be-read

pile they swear they'll get

to  someday. For  a  book

lover,    bookmarks    are

essential,    spoilers    are

crimes,  and  the  phrase

"t o o    m a n y    b o o k s"

simply      doesn't     exist.

At the end of the celebration, we all had refreshments.

Some of us sat around and talked for another hour or so.