Two by two

Prayers for the Dead ~ by Faye Kellerman, 1996, thriller, 406 pages

The brutal murder of Dr. Azor Sparks in an alley behind a restaurant is greeted with public outrage and a demand for swift, sure justice.  But the investigation into the well-known surgeon's death is raising too many questions and providing too few answers for homicide detective Lieutenant Peter Decker.  Why, for example, would the family of a man so beloved respond to his slaying with more surprise than grief?  And what linked a celebrated doctor with strict fundamentalist beliefs to a gang of outlaw bikers?  But the most unsettling connection of all is the one that ties the tormented Sparks family to Peter Decker's own and the secrets shared by a renegade Catholic priest and Decker's wife, Rina Lazarus.

Serpent's Tooth ~ by Faye Kellerman, 1997, thriller, 425 pages

A man walks into a trendy Los Angeles restaurant a disgruntled ex-employee with an automatic weapon and seconds later, thirteen people are dead and thirty-two more have been wounded.  It is a heinous act of mass slaughter that haunts Homicide Detective Peter Decker.  But, though eyewitnesses saw only the lone gunman who apparently took his own life after his bloody work was done —  evidence suggests more than one weapon was fired.  It is a disturbing inconsistency that sends Decker racing headlong into a sordid, labyrinthine world of Southern California money and power, on an investigation that threatens to destroy his reputation and his career.

The Confessor ~ by Daniel Silva, 2003, thriller, 400 pages

In Munich, a Jewish scholar is assassinated.  In Venice, Mossad agent and art restorer Gabriel Allon receives the news, puts down his brushes, and leaves immediately.  And at the Vatican, the new pope vows to uncover the truth about the church’s response to the Holocaust — while a powerful cardinal plots his next move.  Now, as Allon follows a trail of secrets and unthinkable deeds, the lives of millions are changed forever — and the life of one man becomes expendable

The Unlikely Spy ~ by Daniel Silva, 1996, thriller, 752 pages

"In wartime," Winston Churchill wrote, "truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."  For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable — a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor.  The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent.  Catherine Blake is the beautiful widow of a war hero, a hospital volunteer — and a Nazi spy under direct orders from Hitler: uncover the Allied plans for D-Day.

Two books each by two authors

I picked up her library book delivery for a friend:  two thrillers by Faye Kellerman and two thrillers by Daniel Silva.  Do you think she was thrilled with her library loot?

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy ~ the little women

Meg's Story: Portraits of Little Women ~ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 1997, children's, 112 pages

Meg March is the perfect young lady.  Her gracious manners and sweet personality make her very popular at school.  And when she is invited to Mary Howe's fancy picnic, she wants to go badly.  Nothing her tomboy sister, Jo, says against snobby Mary Howe changes Meg's mind.  Meg claims Jo is just jealous that she wasn't invited too.  But on the big day, the March parents are visiting friends, and the housekeeper is called away on an emergency.  Meg knows she should stay home to watch over her younger sisters — even if it means not going to the picnic.  Still, she doesn't want to miss the fun.  And forgetting her manners, Meg does something that turns the picnic into an unforgettable afternoon.

Jo's Story: Portraits of Little Women ~ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 1997, children's, 112 pages

Tomboy Jo March would rather die than spend time with wealthy, proper Aunt March.  She'd much rather race against the boys at school or star in all the swashbuckling plays she writes.  But when Aunt March offers to adopt one of the March sisters to help ease the family money problems, Jo decides to make the ultimate sacrifice.  She'll tear herself away from her sisters and parents — the family she dearly loves — if it means they'll have a better life.   She's determined to become the perfect lady.  Now Jo has to convince her family that she's sincere about her decision by taking on a role that may be too difficult to act.

Beth's Story: Portraits of Little Women ~ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 1997, children's, 112 pages

Painfully shy Beth March is excited to be visiting New York City with her parents.  The theater, opera, symphony, museums — Beth loves every minute of her adventure.  She even meets Abraham Lincoln, and has the courage to tell him that women deserve the right to vote.

But once she's back home in Massachusetts, none of Beth's schoolmates believe that she really spoke to Mr.  Lincoln or that she even met him.  They know Beth is shy — too shy to speak to a man running for President of the United States.  Even Beth's younger sister, Amy, thinks she's lying.  Now Beth wishes she'd never been to New York — until she's surprised by an unexpected visitor.

Amy's Story: Portraits of Little Women ~ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 1997, children's, 112 pages

Beautiful Amy March, the youngest March sister, is a talented artist.  Everyone praises her lifelike portraits.  The one person she can't draw is herself.  So when a photographer's studio opens in town, Amy is thrilled.  Now her pretty blond curls and piercing blue eyes can be captured forever in a photograph.

A photograph costs quite a bit of money — more than she has, and more than her parents can give her.  Amy thinks of a clever way to come up with the money, and soon she has enough.  But she decides to spend her savings on a gift for her father — a gift that will warm his heart when he's far away from home and that ultimately gives Amy an unexpected gift in return.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

How did YOU spend lockdown?

Lucy by the Sea ~ by Elizabeth Strout, 2022, fiction (Maine), 291 pages

A divorced couple are stuck together during lockdown.  As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton (the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton) is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by William, who is her ex-husband and sometimes her friend.  For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea.  The novel captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire.  At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart, like the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering and the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one.  I've enjoyed other books by this author, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Do animals make plans for the future?

Beginning

One early November morning, while the days were getting colder, I noticed that Franje, a female chimpanzee, was gathering all the straw from her bedroom.  She took it under her arm out onto the large island at the Burgers' Zoo, in the Dutch city of Arnhem.  Her behavior took me by surprise.  First of all, Franje had never done this before, nor had we ever seen other chimps drag straw outside.

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? ~ by Frans de Waal, 2016, nonfiction, 352 pages

This book explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition ― in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos ― to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long.  Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame?  Reading this book will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal ― and human ― intelligence.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A classic worth reading ~ library loot

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ~ by Thornton Wilder, 1927, fiction (Peru), 192 pages

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below."  This immortal sentence opens The Bridge of San Luis Rey, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim.  It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, was the best-selling work of fiction that year, and is still read throughout the world.  Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, witnesses the tragic event.  Deeply moved, he embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention, not chance, that led to the deaths of the five people crossing the bridge that day.  His search leads to a timeless investigation into the nature of fate and love, and the meaning of the human condition.

Library Loot ~ the latest book by Jodi Picoult

Mad Honey ~ by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, 2022, fiction (New Hampshire), 455 pages

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over.  Her picture-perfect life — living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher — was upended when her husband revealed a darker side.  She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

 

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too.  When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.  And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need.  Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too.  With Ash, she feels happy for the first time.  Yet at times, she wonders if she can trust him completely.

 

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police.  Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent.  But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash.  As the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.  Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Donna and I met Jodi Picoult in September of 2019, when Jodi spoke at the St. Louis County Library.  Donna's on the left, and I'm on the right.  Jodi is my favorite writer, so I put this book on reserve at my library.  And now it's my turn to read her latest book, published in October 2022.

My latest library book

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot ~ by Marianne Cronin, 2021, fiction, 352 pages

Determined to leave a mark on the world even though they are in the hospital and their days are dwindling, unlikely friends Lenni (age 17) and Margot (age 83) devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived.

Seventeen-year-old Lenni lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Though the teenager has been told she’s dying, she still has plenty of living to do. Joining the hospital’s arts and crafts class, she meets the magnificent Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel, who transforms Lenni in ways she never imagined.

As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni’s doting palliative care nurse and Father Arthur, the hospital’s patient chaplain, Lenni and Margot devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived—stories of love and loss, of courage and kindness, of unexpected tenderness and pure joy.

Library Loot and Sunday Salon

One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories ~ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jhumpa Lahiri, and 21 other authors, 2009, short stories, 192 pages

This book is made up of twenty-three stories, each from a different author from across the globe.  All belong to one world, united in their diversity and ethnicity. And together they have one aim: to involve and move the reader.  The range of authors takes in such literary greats as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri.  The members of the collective are:

1. Elaine Chiew (Malaysia)
2. Molara Wood (Nigeria)
3. Jhumpa Lahiri (United States)
4. Martin A Ramos (Puerto Rico)
5. Lauri Kubutsile (Botswana)
6. Chika Unigwe (Nigeria)
7. Ravi Mangla (United States)
8. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
9. Skye Brannon (United States)
10. Jude Dibia (Nigeria)
11. Shabnam Nadiya (Bangladesh)
12. Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
13. Ivan Gabirel Reborek (Australia)
14. Vanessa Gebbie (Britain)
15. Emmanual Dipita Kwa (Cameroon)
16. Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa)
17. Lucinda Nelson Dhavan (India)
18. Adetokunbo Abiola (Nigeria)
19. Wadzanai Mhute (Zimbabwe)
20. Konstantinos Tzikas (Greece)
21. Ken Kamoche (Kenya)
22. Sequoia Nagamatsu (United States)
23. Ovo Adagha (Nigeria)

The concept of One World is often a multi-colored tapestry into which sundry, if not contending patterns can be woven.  For those of us who worked on this project, ‘One World’ goes beyond the everyday notion of the globe as a physical geographic entity.  Rather, we understand it as a universal idea, one that transcends national boundaries to comment on the most prevailing aspects of the human condition. This attempt to redefine the borders of the world we live in through the short story recognizes the many conflicting issues of race, language, economy, gender and ethnicity, which separate and limit us.  We readily acknowledge, however, that regardless of our differences or the disparities in our stories, we are united by our humanity.  We invite the reader on a personal journey across continents, countries, cultures and landscapes, to reflect on these beautiful, at times chaotic, renditions on the human experience.  We hope the reach of this path will transcend the borders of each story, and perhaps function as an agent of change.

I look forward to reading Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent," since I really enjoyed her novel The Namesake — which was the very first book I wrote about when I started blogging on January 30, 2007.  Click HERE or on the title to read that post.  Want some irony?  Lahiri may have been the FIRST author on this blog, but she's the LAST author in this book of short stories.  Saving the best for last, maybe?  The picture (photo credit to The Economic Times) shows Obama presenting her the National Humanities medal in 2014.  I found this book in the Crown Center's library.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Graphic novel series

InvestiGators (InvestiGators, 1) ~ by John Patrick Green, 2020, graphic novel, 208 pages, 7/10

John Patrick Green's graphic novel series follows the super spy alligator duo the InvestiGators as they travel through the sewers and fight the forces of evil.

InvestiGators: Take the Plunge (InvestiGators, 2) ~ by John Patrick Green, 2020, graphic novel, 208 pages, 7/10

Sewer-loving secret agents Mango and Brash are plunged into a new mystery ― and a BIG mess.  S.U.I.T. headquarters is under attack, and Mango and Brash are going undercover and underground disguised as city sewer workers to unclog a sticky situation.  But when their search for the criminal Crackerdile backfires, the toilets they travel through back up ― and the InvestiGators take the blame for it!

InvestiGators: Off the Hook (InvestiGators, 3) by John Patrick Green, 2021, graphic novel, 208 pages, 7/10

InvestiGators Mango and Brash don their fanciest vests as they fight for the GATOR good.  But not even their hi-tech training programs can prepare them for the return of their greatest nemesis, Crackerdile, in a shocking new form.  Even worse, he’s creating a team of super villains.  Faced with the choice between saving themselves or catching the crooks, can Mango and Brash make sure the gator good prevails?

Apparently, children love these.  I managed to read three of the six in this series, but it's not my thing.  I must be too old, but I don't know how children ages 6-9 even understand wordplay like this:

"He forced me to develop a new type of dough.  A super dough.  A hybrid of cracker, cake, cookie, and bread.  A HYBREAD" (Book 1, p.181).

I also ran across this "comic book" quote at least twice, maybe in all three books that I read:  "Oh, please.  No one's going to believe THAT.  It sounds like something straight out of a comic book!" (Book 3, p. 177).  I rated these books 7/10.

Library Loot is co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader

and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers

to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

A cat and two bunnies for Caturday

A Garden of Creatures ~ by Sheila Heti, illustrated by Esmé Shapiro, 2022, children's picture book, 40 pages, 6/10

Two bunnies and a cat live happily together in a beautiful garden.  But when the big bunny passes away, the little bunny is unsure how to fill the void she left behind.  A strange dream prompts her to begin asking questions:  Why do the creatures we love have to die, and where do we go when we die?  How come life works this way?  With the wisdom of the cat to guide her, the little bunny learns that missing someone is a way of keeping them close.  And together they discover that the big bunny is a part of everything around them — the grass, the air, the leaves — for the world is a garden of creatures.

I can't say the cat looks much like any cat I've ever seen, and I can't say that the big round thing holding the cat and long-eared bunny on the cover looks at all like a big bunny, either.  I wouldn't buy the book, though the ideas about death were somewhat interesting to contemplate.

Library loot ~ and writing that novel

Rick the Rock of Room 214 ~ by Julie Falatko and illustrated by Ruth Chan, 2022, children's picture book, 40 pages

Even rocks have big dreams in this sweet and wacky picture book about a display rock who longs to explore the great outdoors!  Rick is a rock.  For as long as he can remember, he’s lived on the Nature Finds shelf in Room 214 alongside an acorn, some moss, and a piece of bark.  One day, the teacher shows the class what rocks do outdoors, and Rick is captivated.  Exploding out of volcanos?  Plunging off cliffs?  Now Rick’s determined to get outside — after all, he’s a rock, and rocks are made for adventure.  When Rick does make his way into the great outdoors, he finds it’s not quite what he imagined and sometimes the greatest adventure of all is being a friend.

Thanks to Deb Nance, who mentioned this book on her blog.  I collected rocks when I was a child.  Once, my mother was quietly gathering up our clothes after we children were asleep.  BLAM!  A huge rock fell out of the pocket of my jeans onto the floor and startled my mother.  It didn't wake me, though; I was always a sound sleeper.

When I read this short children's book, I discovered it is dedicated to ME!  Yes, me!  The illustrator dedicated it to "all of us who love looking at, collecting, and treasuring rocks."  That's me, isn't it?  I collected rocks as a child.  I still pick up interesting pebbles I see, and I do look at the rocks between the covered walkway into my building and the wall of windows next to it.  If you ever collected pretty pebbles, this book is for you.  It made me smile.

Once again, my novel

Here's what I've come up with:  Betsy and Diane are a couple of book bloggers who go on a road trip together, after Betsy retired at 62.  The two had met in a group of people who discussed books online.  Their little group had started calling itself Book Buddies.  Driving to visit a few of their book friends in other states, they laughed at the idea that people once had that it's dangerous to meet with strangers you have only "met" online.  You know, that stranger could be an axe murderer!  At least, that's what people thought a quarter of a century ago.  (See illustration above.)  They laughed at the absurdity, since each of them thought the other seemed absolutely okay.  They'd known each other a couple of years online, but had just met in person yesterday, when Diane traveled to Betsy's town so they could go on this adventure together in one car.  The book's title could be:  Happenstance: The Case of the Axe Murderer.

What the two didn't notice as they drove along was that they were being followed by a man one was involved with, a man who was still very afraid of strangers met online.  When the man saw them pull off the road and get out of the car with one of them holding ... gasp! ... an axe, he pulled up behind the car, sprang into action, shoved the two apart, and wrestled the axe away from the "would-be murderer."  The other woman fell and hit her head on a rock.  Ironically, the one who fell was his girlfriend.  She wound up in a coma, in the hospital and totally unaware for most of the novel.  And that means, she was not able to say, "Wait a minute!  That's not the way it was at all!"  Now, which woman is in a coma, and who is on trial for attempted murder?  And why did one of them have an axe in the car in the first place?  I guess that means I need to decide whose car they were driving on this trip to visit their online friends.

That's the background, leading up to a trial for attempted murder.  The novel itself could be told through documents, like emails and instant messages and newspaper articles about the case.  Hmm, I'm not sure whether Clawdia will still fit in this novel or not.  Sorry, Clawdia, but you may have to stay at home for the whole novel.  Or were you in the car when all this happened?  And whose cat ARE you, anyway?  Betsy's or Diane's?

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

In the United States, National Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15th and lasts until October 15th.  During this month-long observance, we take time to honor the contributions, history, and culture of Americans whose ancestors are from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.  One way to celebrate is to read some books by Latine and Hispanic authors and illustrators.  Here are a few I plan to read from this list:

My Name Is Maria Isabel ~ by Alma Flor Ada, illustrated by K. Dyble Thompson, translated by Ana M. Cerro, 1993, children's fiction, 64 pages, 10/10

For María Isabel Salazar López, the hardest thing about being the new girl in school is that the teacher doesn't call her by her real name.  "We already have two Marías in this class," says her teacher.  "Why don't we call you Mary instead?"  But María Isabel has been named for her Papá's mother and for Chabela, her beloved Puerto Rican grandmother.  Can she find a way to make her teacher see that if she loses her name, she's lost the most important part of herself?

Xochitl and the Flowers ~ by Jorge Argueta, illustrated by Carl Angel, 2003, children's, 32 pages, 8/10

When Xochitl’s family moves from El Salvador to the United States, she misses the garden and flower shop they left behind.  But as they start to grow and sell flowers in their new neighborhood, Xochitl and her family find a real sense of community and home in San Francisco by creating a beautiful plant nursery in place of the garbage heap behind their apartment.  This book is multicultural, with English on the left page and Spanish on the right.  The illustrations span both pages.

Tomás and the Library Lady ~ by Pat Mora, illustrated by Raul Colón, 1997, children's (Texas and Iowa), 40 pages, 9/10

Tomás, a son of migrant workers, loves the stories his grandfather tells.  Then, his grandfather introduces him to the library, where the “library lady” shows him a whole world of even more stories.  A true story of Mexican-American author and educator Tomás Rivera.  While helping his family in their work as migrant laborers far from their home, Tomas finds an entire world to explore in the books at the local public library.

Impossible dreams? No, not at all

I'm Possible: A Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream ~ by Richard Antoine White, 2021, memoir, 248 pages

A musician shares his remarkable story in this book, an inspiring memoir of both perseverance and possibility.  Young Richard Antoine White and his mother don't have a key to a room or a house.  Sometimes they have shelter, but they never have a place to call home.  Still, they have each other, and Richard believes he can look after her, even as his mother struggles with alcoholism and sometimes disappears, sending Richard into loops of visiting familiar spots until he finds her again.  And he always does — until one night, when he almost dies searching for her in the snow and is taken in by his adoptive grandparents.

Living with his grandparents is an adjustment with rules and routines, but when Richard joins a band for something to do, he unexpectedly discovers a talent and a sense of purpose.  Taking up the tuba feels like something he can do that belongs to him, and playing music is like a light going on in the dark. 

Soon Richard gains acceptance to the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, and he continues thriving in his musical studies at the Peabody Conservatory and beyond, even as he navigates racial and socioeconomic disparities as one of few Black students in his programs.  He pushes forward with fierce determination, eventually securing a coveted spot in a symphony orchestra and becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate in music for tuba performance.  A professor, mentor, and motivational speaker, Richard now shares his extraordinary story — of dreaming big, impossible dreams and making them come true.

I put this book on reserve at my library when my friend Madge recommended it, and it came in today's library delivery.

National Hispanic Heritage Month ~ two more books

Breathe and Count Back from Ten ~ by Natalia Sylvester, 2022, fiction (Florida), 346 pages

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability.  The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.  Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks, and Verónica wants to audition.  But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it.  And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.  She decides it's time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her parents have been hiding the truth from her — the truth about her own body.

Waiting for the Biblioburro ~ by Monica Brown, illustrated by John Parra, 2011, children's (Columbia), 32 pages

Ana, who loves stories, is thrilled when a traveling library comes to her village.  This book is based on the true story of Luis Soriano’s work establishing the Biblioburro program for kids in rural Colombia.

(These are two more books I put on reserve at my library for National Hispanic Heritage Month (click this link) that I recently told you about.

Library Loot ~ two more books

Around the World in 80 Books ~ by David Damrosch, 2021, world history in literature, 432 pages

Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe.  Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel Prize-winners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world and the ways in which the world bleeds into literature.
 

To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds:  the world of their personal experience and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives.  In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we’re entering.  Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on enduring problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat, as well as the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books’ heroines have to struggle — from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today.

The Report Card ~ by Andrew Clements, 2004, children's fiction, 173 pages, 10/10

I first read this book in 2010 when I rated it 9 of 10.  I ran across the title recently and decided to re-read the book.  A fifth-grade genius turns the spotlight on grades — good and bad — in this novel from the author of Frindle.  Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don't tell anyone.  She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way.  But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point.  Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out.  And that's when things start to get really complicated.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.  Sharlene has the Mr. Linky this week (June 8-14).

Two books from the library ~ by Anna Quindlen

How Reading Changed My Life ~ by Anna Quindlen, 1998, memoir, 96 pages

From the Inside Flap — THE LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT is a groundbreaking series where America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackle today's most provocative, fascinating, and relevant issues. Striking and daring, creative and important, these original voices on matters political, social, economic, and cultural, will enlighten, comfort, entertain, enrage, and ignite healthy debate across the country.

I like this quote from Anna Quindlen, who is one of my favorite authors.  I like reading her books so much that I disregarded my own intent to "read books from my own shelves" for awhile — and requested How Reading Changed My Life from my library, because it was mentioned in something I was reading.  While I was at it, I went ahead and reserved another of her books.  So here's my second "library loot" of the day:

Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2019, memoir, 175 pages

I like a comment someone left online about this book:  "She [Quindlen] is able to zoom in on the wonder of her first grandchild, while also zooming out to see him — and herself — as part of a family chain that stretches forward and backward."  The two commandments for being a grandparent, according to Anna Quindlen, are to love your grandchild and keep your mouth shut.  That sounds about right to me.

Bits of Bonnie ~ Sunday Salon

"Great conversation starter," it says in the fine print above.  So let's start a conversation about book titles.  "If there was a book about you, what would the title be?"  I like the question because I already have an answer.  The title for a book about me would be Bits of Bonnie.  As a matter of fact, here's what I've already written about such a book:

"I keep a journal, sort of, in the sense that I collect my thoughts and memories in notebooks like this one.  If I ever write a memoir, I'll call it Bits of Bonnie."

Sprinkle before ironing

Do you know what this empty Coke bottle was used for back in the olden days?  I remember!  It was filled with water to sprinkle on clothes before ironing them.  There's been a discussion on Facebook about clothes sprinkled with water, then rolled up and put into the fridge before ironing them.  One woman on FB asked why anyone would dampen clothes and put them in the fridge.  The last time I looked, there were 6,885 replies to her question!  Yikes!  No, I didn't even try to read them all.

I'm so old that I know the answer, as did several others who may be close to my age.  (I'll be 82 in April.)  When I was young, we didn't have a steam iron and there was no such thing as polyester or permanent press.  Our cotton clothing came out of the washer very, very wrinkled, needing to be ironed.  Damp cotton clothes — especially cold, damp clothes — smoothed out nicely once we ironed them.  Someone on FB remembered a "sprinkler thingy," so I shared this photo.  It made sense back then, and it worked.

Wish You Were Here ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2021, fiction (New York and Galápagos), 325 pages

Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track.  She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world.  She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client.  She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos — days before her thirtieth birthday.  Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news:  It’s all hands on deck at the hospital.  He has to stay behind.  You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste.  And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry.  Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic.  In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen.  Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone.  Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

In the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself — and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

Library Loot ~ I've been waiting for this new book from Jodi Picoult, and finally it was my turn on the waiting list at my library.  I got it on Thursday.  Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire of The Captive Reader and Sharlene of Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

Today's PUN-ishment

You've heard of Murphy's Law, but do you know what Cole's Law is?  Oh, come on!  Surely you remember.  It's made of chopped cabbage.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon,

a place for us to link up and share what

we have read and done during this week.