Beginning ~ with rage

Beginning

I lay with my cheek pressed to the floor, the cement cool against my spent rage.  I'd screamed.  I'd bitten and scratched.  Now I was paying for it, but I didn't care.  I'd do it again.

The Girls with No Names ~ by Serena Burdick, 2020, fiction

Growing up in New York City in the 1910s, Luella and Effie Tildon realize that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits.  But when the sisters discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen elder sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases.

Her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone.  Effie suspects her father has sent Luella to the House of Mercy and comes up with a plan to get herself committed to save her sister.  But she miscalculated and, with no one to believe her story, Effie’s own escape seems impossible — unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable.  As their fates entwine, Mable and Effie must rely on their tenuous friendship to survive.  A tale of hope, courage, and sisterhood — inspired by the real House of Mercy and the girls confined there for daring to break the rules.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Palindrome Day

December 1st through December 9th are each five-digit palindrome dates:

• 12/1/21
• 12/2/21
• 12/3/21
• 12/4/21
• 12/5/21
• 12/6/21
• 12/7/21
• 12/8/21
• 12/9/21

December 2nd is unique with 12/02/2021 serving as an eight-digit palindrome.

Word of the Day

pal·in·drome /ˈpalənˌdrōm/ noun = a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward, e.g., madam or nurses run.

Ambigram?  I have never seen this word before.  Wow!

Word of the Day #2 added at 2:22 pm

am·​bi·​gram /ˈam-bə-ˌgram / plural ambigrams = something (such as an image of a written word or phrase) that can be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading.  When flipped upside down, it can create the same image or may form a new image entirely.  A very basic ambigram is the word "MOM" which can be flipped to say "WOW." — Hat tip to Jean Millner for this new-to-me word (posted on Facebook).

Do Good December 2021

The Do Good December 2021 calendar from the folks at Action for Happiness has daily actions to help us be kind to each other.  They say, "This month, we're encouraging you to carry out small acts of kindness.  This has been another difficult year of uncertainty and ups and downs for many of us.  Kindness is contagious, and helping others has been proven to make us feel better too!  Let's try to focus on being generous with our time and attention rather than money.  It's free and better for everyone, as well as our planet!"

1 ~ Spread kindness, and share the December calendar with others.

2 ~ Contact someone you can't be with to see how they are.

3 ~ Offer to help someone who is facing difficulties at the moment.

4 ~ Support a charity, cause, or campaign you really care about.

5 ~ Give a gift to someone who is homeless or feeling lonely.

6 ~ Leave a positive message for someone else to find.

7 ~ Give kind comments to as many people as possible today.

8 ~ Do something helpful for a friend or family member.

9 ~ Notice when you're hard on yourself or others, and be kind instead.

10 ~ Listen wholeheartedly to others without judging them.

11 ~ Buy an extra item, and donate it to a local food bank.

12 ~ Be generous.  Feed someone with food, love, or kindness today.

13 ~ See how many different people you can smile at today.

14 ~ Share a happy memory or inspiring thought with a loved one.

15 ~ Contact an older neighbor, and brighten up their day.

16 ~ Look for something positive to say to everyone you speak to.

17 ~ Give thanks.  List the kind things others have done for you.

18 ~ Ask for help, and let someone else discover the joy of giving.

19 ~ Contact someone who may be alone or feeling isolated.

20 ~ Help others by giving away something that you don't need.

21 ~ Appreciate kindness, and thank people who do things for you.

22 ~ Congratulate someone for an achievement that may go unnoticed.

23 ~ Choose to give or receive the gift of forgiveness.

24 ~ Bring joy to others.  Share something which made you laugh.

25 ~ Treat everyone with kindness today, including yourself!

26 ~ Get outside.  Pick up litter, or do something kind for nature.

27 ~ Call a relative who is far away to say hello and have a chat.

28 ~ Be kind to the planet.  Eat less meat, and use less energy.

29 ~ Turn off digital devices, and really listen to people.

30 ~ Let someone know how much you appreciate them and why.

31 ~ Plan some new acts of kindness to do in 2022.

Two new books ~ by Marion Kummerow

A Light in the Window (Margarete's Journey Book 1) ~ by Marion Kummerow, 2021, historical fiction (Germany)

Berlin, 1941:  Margarete stumbles out of the bombed-out house, the dust settling around her like snow.  Mistaking her for the dead officer’s daughter, a guard rushes over to gently ask her if she is all right and whether there’s anything he can do to help her.  She glances down at where the hated yellow star had once been and, with barely a pause, she replies "Yes."

Margarete Rosenbaum is working as a housemaid for a senior Nazi officer when his house is bombed, leaving her the only survivor.  But when she’s mistaken for his daughter in the aftermath of the blast, Margarete knows she can make a bid for freedom.  Issued with temporary papers — and with the freedom of not being seen as Jewish — a few hours are all she needs to escape to relative safety.  That is, until her former employer’s son, SS officer Wilhelm Huber, tracks her down.

Strangely he doesn’t reveal her true identity right away.  Instead he insists she comes and lives with him in Paris, and seems determined to keep her hidden.  His only condition:  she must continue to pretend to be his sister.  Because whoever would suspect a Nazi girl of secretly being a Jew?  His plan seems impossible, and Margarete is terrified they might be found out, not to mention worried about what Wilhelm might want in return.  But as the Nazis start rounding up Jews in Paris and the Résistance steps up its activities, putting everyone who opposes the regime in peril, she realizes staying hidden in plain sight may be her only chance of survival.  Can Margarete trust a Nazi officer with the only things she has left though — her safety, her life, even her heart?

From the Dark We Rise (Margarete's Journey Book 2) ~ by Marion Kummerow, 2021, historical fiction (Germany)

1942, Germany:  "Please, let me help.  I won’t tell anyone."  It was madness to help an escaped prisoner in Nazi Germany, but how could she not?  If it weren’t for a lucky strike of fate, she might be the woman on the ground shivering with fear.  A light of hope entered the prisoner’s eyes.

When a young woman calling herself Annegret Huber unexpectedly inherits a huge fortune, including a house and factory just outside Berlin, her first thought is to try to see out the war quietly, avoiding the Gestapo and SS as best she can.  No one needs to know her dark secret.  She must focus on staying hidden, because she can’t risk being exposed for who she truly is.  She's not really Annegret, but a girl living a secret life — a girl who was once called Margarete.

An encounter with an escaped prisoner changes everything, as Margarete discovers what is happening at the factory and its attached labor camp.  Witnessing first-hand the suffering of prisoners — shivering, with faces gaunt from hunger, as they work in brutal and cruel conditions — she realizes she must act.  If she can save just one life, she knows she has to, because the truth is that Margarete resembles the prisoners in the camp in ways she dare not admit.  On the other side of the fence, she has seen a face that is achingly familiar.

The truth about Santa Claus

Son:  "Dad, I think I'm old enough now.  Is there a Santa Claus?"

Dad:  "Ok, I agree that you're old enough.  But before I tell you, I have a question for you.  You see, the “truth” is a dangerous gift.  Once you know something, you can't unknow it.  Once you know the truth about Santa Claus, you will never again understand and relate to him as you do now.  So my question is:  Are you sure you want to know?"  Brief pause.

Son:  "Yes, I want to know."

Dad:  "Ok, I'll tell you.  Yes, there is a Santa Claus."

Son:  "Really?"

Dad:  "Yes, really, but he's not an old man with a beard in a red suit.  That's just what we tell kids.  You see, kids are too young to understand the true nature of Santa Claus, so we explain it to them in a way that they can understand.  The truth about Santa Claus is that he's not a person at all; he's an idea.  Think of all those presents Santa gave you over the years.  I actually bought those myself.  I watched you open them.  And did it bother me that you didn't thank me?  Of course not!  In fact it gave me great pleasure.  You see, Santa Claus is THE IDEA OF GIVING FOR THE SAKE OF GIVING, without thought of thanks or acknowledgement.  I saw that woman collapse on the subway last week and called for help, I knew that she'd never know that it was me that summoned the ambulance.  I was being Santa Claus when I did that."

Son:  "Oh."

Dad:  "So now that you know, you're part of it.  You have to be Santa Claus, too, now.  That means you can never tell a young kid the secret, and you have to help us select Santa presents for them, and most important, you have to look for opportunities to help people.  Got it?"

Help each other, and be kind.

Nonfiction November ~ Week 5: Additions to my TBR

Week 5 of Nonfiction November (November 29-December 3) — New additions to my TBR with Jaymi at The OC Bookgirl:  It’s been a month full of amazing books.  Which ones have made it onto your TBR?  Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book.

Except for the blogs I already read, like Helen's Book Blog, I have no idea what bloggers are posting because they post links on Twitter or Instagram or whatever.  Anyway, I'm not on those and am not trying to add to my TBR list anyway.  I also regularly read nonfiction that interests me, without needing help to "find" nonfiction that someone has convinced me is worth taking my time to read.  Who ARE these people anyway?  I may not bother doing Nonfiction November again.  I confess that I've read more fiction than nonfiction this November.  The best nonfiction I did read was If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans by John Pavlovitz (2021, social issues, 233 pages), which I rated 10 of 10.  I've written about it here and here.

Sunday Salon ~ Donna's jar and other good things

I've finished reading the notes Donna put in her Good Things jar every week during 2019.  Three of her weekly "good things" reports for herself surprised me when I pulled them out on Friday.

(1)  The very last one I opened turned out to be HER very first one.  How weird is that?  "I had a fun-filled time at the Crown Center Resident Council New Year's Eve party — wonderful dinner, great music, and sharing laughter w / friends," she wrote on Week 1.  She drew smiley faces between her paragraphs.

(2)  I was shocked when I saw what she wrote on Week 31:  "No blessings this week — too many mass murders!  Sad times!"  And that's all she wrote that week.

(3)  Several of us were mentioned in Week 8:  "On Sunday afternoon last week, Bonnie went to the store for me because my arthritis was acting up in my back and hips.  She is a life-saver!"  Her next paragraph says:  "On Saturday night, Dora took me to Powell Hall to see this year's Black History concert."  They ran into some other Crown Center folks there, and Donna added:  "A good time was had by all (I hope).  I certainly enjoyed it."

It's been a long time since I shared the WindowSwap link, so we could "go" places around the world without leaving home.  Yesterday I visited someone's backyard in Canada and saw a cat in an open window overlooking rolling hills in Taiwan.  It was snowing outside a window in New York and a few other places.  Blue waves washed ashore in Cancun, Mexico (see photo).  Click the link, and see where it takes you. 

Books I'm reading

It's still the weekend, so I'm on the third book I had planned, as I shared on Wednesday:

• What Child Is This (a 2018 Kindle fiction story by Rhys Bowen) ~ I finished this one that I'd already been reading.
• The Girls with No Names (a 2020 novel by Serena Burdick) ~ I read this from beginning to end, finishing last night.
• Catch You Later, Traitor (a 2015 novel by Avi) ~ I'm reading this library book now.  Which cover do you like better?

Good Thing #1

Good friends I know in person.

Good Thing #2

Good friends I know only online.

Good Thing #3

Blogging, especially book blogging.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon, a place for us to link up and share what we have been reading and doing during the week.