Beginning ~ with Midwestern honesty

Beginning of the Foreword

It might surprise a nation that knows St. Louis best for its smoky music, cold beer, and winning sports teams to learn that we have always cared as much or more for other things.  Of course, we are proud of our contributions to Americas vices and other recreations, but our Midwestern honesty requires us to note that St. Louis has also produced proudly more bricks and books than most other cities.

Under the Arch: St. Louis Stories ~ edited by Paul Thiel, Foreward by Francis G. Slay, Mayor of St. Louis, 2004, stories, 242 pages

When I read the first sentence, I was caught up in the book.  I was on page 12 before I stopped reading and came back to composing this blog post.  Do you see the sub-sub-title at the bottom of the cover?  It says, "Glimpses of Life in the Gateway City."  The place is known around here (and in its advertising) as the place folks gathered when people living in the eastern part of the United States started moving into the "wild, wild West."  They often went through St. Louis, which was a sort of jumping-off point, a point from which to start their journey to a new life, a new place.  The Arch represents that point or gateway.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Reflecting on our Café Conversations

On Monday, I had an annual doctor's appointment.  No big deal, but it takes up time in the middle of the day.  On Tuesday, however, I had invited about 20 people to come to the second meeting of Café Conversations.  A few told me ahead of time that:

• they had other plans or doctor appointments.
• she would be out of town.
• she would put it on her calendar.
• she would be delivering meals at that time.
• she would see me Tuesday, followed later by "oops, can't come."
• she "was assisting a friend in Hospice."
• another said, "Maybe." 
• one said simply, "Thank you" with a smiley face.

Most, however, never replied one way or the other.  So I had no idea how many people would be there or how many tables of people we might fill.  At our mid-August gathering, we had squeezed seven of us around one big table.

Well, here's my report about this month.  See that photo at the top?  We had only five of us on Tuesday, so we moved to one side to let Andrew take this photo of us, sitting over in our corner of the Café:  Myrna, Betty, Bev, Bonnie, and Sue.  We talked a couple of hours.  Risé had desk duty and had to miss it this time.  We are still trying to find the best day and time to have our Café Conversations.

Thoughts about a book and a debate

All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way ~ by Fred C. Trump III, 2024, memoir/biography, 352 pages

With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name.

For the record, Fred Trump never asked for any of this.  The divisive politics.  The endless headlines.  A hijacked last name.  The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real estate scion to gossip column fixture to The Apprentice host to President of the United States.  Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career.  But a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto a center stage that he had never wanted.  And now, at a crucial point for our nation, he is stepping forward again.

In this book, Fred delves into his journey to become a "different kind of Trump," detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family.  From the Trump house to the White House, Fred comes to terms with his own complex legacy and faces some demons head-on.  It’s a story of power, love, money, cruelty, and the unshakable bonds of family, played out underneath a glaring media spotlight.  All in the Family is the inside story, as it’s never been told before.

I loved the look on Kamala's face during the debate on Tuesday, especially after one of Trump's claims.  Fact check:  "There is no state in this country where it’s legal to kill a baby after it’s born."  Wow, that statement floored me!

The next day, a friend met me for lunch in the Café and let me borrow Fred Trump's book (above) that she had gotten from the library and had already finished reading.  I have two weeks to read it before the due date.  She says that it's a quick read.

Family Lore

Family Lore ~ by Elizabeth Acevedo, 2023, literary fiction (Santo Domingo and New York), 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.

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, this novel traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo, and New York City.  This is a portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces — one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.

Word of the Day

lore /lôr/ noun = a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.

How can he dance?

Musing:  I'm not into romance novels, but I'm curious about this guy trying to dance, even though he normally uses a walker.

How to Dance ~ by Jason B. Dutton, 2024, romance, 345 pages

Nick Freeman works hard as the star of the weekly karaoke night at his bar, hoping his singing talent, quick wit, and winning smile will distract from his cerebral palsy.  But one night at the bar, watching a professional dancer light up the dance floor with her boyfriend, he realizes that entertaining strangers will never give him a fraction of the joy he sees in this woman’s eyes.  When Hayley Burke notices Nick’s reaction to her dancing, she urges him to acknowledge his passion and try a few moves himself — only to be mortified when she realizes Nick can only walk with the aid of a metal walker.

As Nick and Hayley fumble through misunderstanding into friendship, Hayley begins to enjoy Nick’s company more than that of her self-centered boyfriend.  Nick tries to fight his attraction to Hayley, believing she deserves a dance partner who can move like her boyfriend does — but as Hayley and Nick continue to find their rhythm together, she shows him that “dancing” is about so much more than moving your feet.  Two lost souls learn that neither physical disability nor emotional scars disqualify us from finding beauty, validation, and love amidst the chaos of being human.

This "particular" place is my place now

Particular Place and People: Story and Truth ~ by Linda Fine Hunt, 2023, historical fiction, 146 pages

This story spans 1954 to 1966.  During this time, Linda lives in a neighborhood of 100 houses in University City, known as the Gates of Opportunity.  She knows the names of all the homeowners.  Just about everyone is Jewish, so they share a common culture and history.  She is the first vegetarian in her neighbor-hood at age five and becomes known as a quirky individualist, who questions everything.  She admires Louisa May Alcott and plans to be a writer herself, despite her mother's plans for her to be a secretary and marry a lawyer.  Her home life is topsy-turvy at times, and she goes exploring to get away.

She is intrigued by a old stone mansion she can see from her front lawn and ventures there to explore a different place and culture.  With the help of a librarian, she discovers several cultures and prominent people lived in that mansion over the last 100 years.  She wants to understand the history and what happens when a culture replaces another.  In other words, why do current residents move when a new culture starts to occupy the land?

I decided to get a copy of this book because it is about University City, where I live.  I learned about it when I read an email from the UCity Public Library (yes, people here shorten "University City" to "UCity"):

"Our second author visit will take place just a few days later, on Friday, Sept. 13 at 11 a.m.  Former University City resident Linda Fine Hunt will read from and discuss her book, Particular Place and People, a fictionalized version of her life growing up in University City in the 1950s and '60s."

I've only lived here for just over a decade, but I am curious to see what she writes about this part of town.

Nightwoods ~ by Charles Frazier, 2011, literary fiction (North Carolina), 272 pages

In a small town in North Carolina in the early 1960s, a young woman named Luce inherits her murdered sister's troubled twins.  She had been content to live apart from the small community around her, but the children cracked open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, and dangerous ways.  I got both of these books recently.

Sunday Salon is hosted by

Deb at Readerbuzz.

Saturday stuff ~ walking

I've been doing a lot of walking.  I use a Rollator like the one on the right, but many people I know use walkers like the one on the left.  Either way, it is important to stand up straight like these two people.  I see many learning over, some even with their forearms resting on the handles as they slowly move along.

I make a point to walk upright, even when I'm going slowly.  I've about doubled my step count since last year, doing 1.8 miles a day.  I carry my iPhone in my pocket, so it counts my steps.  This week, I've averaged 7,000 steps a day.

Beginning ~ with a death

Beginning

The night I watch Athena Liu die, we're celebrating her TV deal with Netflix.

Yellowface ~ by R. F Kuang, 2023, literary fiction, 336 pages

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars.  But Athena’s a literary darling.  June Hayward is literally nobody.  Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse:  she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work?  So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song — complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo?  Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller?  That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her.  As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.  Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the alienation of social media.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.