Bits, Bobs and Books!

The absence of reviews on this blog might lead you to believe that I am NOT reading. Tsk, tsk, tsk. How could you think such a thing?

Among all the other bits and bobs of my life, books are a constant. It is true that I can go a full day without opening a book but then the shakes set in. So here is what I have been reading.

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series! If you are fan of British mystery writers who penned their stories in the late twenties through the early 60s, you might enjoy this series. Miss Silver spent most of her working life as a governess before she became a private detective.  She has such a comforting, yet authoritative, manner that people tell her all sorts of revealing things. 

Wentworth adds a lot of fashion and society details to help define her characters. Readers visit country manors and town homes of upper society. I have only read four of the 32 novels but I suspect Miss Silver deals with middle and lower class suspects and victims as well.  THIRTY TWO NOVELS. 

The mysteries can be a bit histrionic. There is always romance involved. And Miss Silver's powers of deduction can appear miraculous. Read this series for the ambience, the puzzles and the relationships of young people who use repartee to cleverly dance around their feelings.

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat. In an alternate Thailand, Pong is an orphan born in prison. When he turns 13, the tattoo that identifies him as a prisoner will be changed so that he can join society in the city. Pong, like everyone in the city, idolizes the Governor. After the Great Fire that destroyed everything years ago, the Governor arrived and with his gift of Light, he restored the City and outlawed fire. But when the Governor visits Pong's prison, everything changes for Pong, his best friend Somkit and the warden's daughter, Nok.

The jacket flap compares this book to Les Miserables. Pong escapes the prison and Nok is obsessed with finding him. She follows him to a mountain monastery and then into the city slums, uncovering secrets of her own family and of the Governor, himself.  LOVED THIS BOOK. The Governor's magical power, the old monk that helps Pong, Somkit's inventions, and Soontornvat's writing add up to a lovely adventure.

The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate. YAY! Bob, the stray dog, gets his own book. The story of how a dog who claims to be all about "numero uno" becomes a HUGE hero and reunites with characters he lost long ago is charming, a quick read, and continues the story of Ivan, the gorilla, and Ruby, the elephant calf from The One and Only Ivan. I see a pattern emerging. Let's see if I'm right. The One and Only Ruby may be next.

Bob lives with George, a zoo keeper, Sara, and their daughter, Julia. Bob loves to visit his best mate, Ivan, and the adorably enthusiastic Ruby at the zoo. When a huge storm hits, Bob must help save his friends and hunt down the familiar bark of one of his litter mates. It's a page turner.

Did I tell you about the graphic novel, Lightfall by Tim Probert? The artwork is lovely!  Beatrice must find Grandfather Pig and she must keep the Fire, (a flame in a glass globe), burning. Something ominous is stirring in the land of Irrpa! Beatrice meets a Galdurian - perhaps the last of his kind - who offers to help her. Because he has survived for hundreds of years, his help can be bit confusing. And, of course, the book ends with a cliff hanger. It's awesome.

The Bits and Bobs of this post's title refers to all the things I do to keep myself sane in these trying times. Here is a list:

1. Computer games. I downloaded an Advent Calendar from an online greeting card company. As I wait for December 1st, I play the games collected in the "living room" of the calendar. I WASTE SO MUCH TIME playing these games but, hey! I am not a fan of housework and I can't go many places.

2. Crochet. Crochet. crochet. and more crochet.

3. Poetry. I don't write as much as I'd like but I have been writing more during this time of solitude.

4. Walks. I should take one NOW. I especially like walking with my nonagenarian mother. I am so lucky to still have her in my life.

5. Storytelling! WOW! Here is a link to my latest venture with members of Patchwork, the Storytelling Guild. (Scroll down to the video.) This was our show for Tellabration, the International Weekend Celebration of Storytelling. I am the last teller of the performance. There are so many great stories here.

6. Planning Holiday events for my worship community - well, one event. I am planning a Zoom carol sing on December 6th. This may be a recipe for disaster because Zoom is not made for group singing or recitation. A carol sing is spontaneous and Zoom is not designed for spontaneity either. There are a lot of details to work out. I don't have an accompanist who can jump in and play any carol. WHAT AM I THINKING??? Pray for me, and for the intrepid singers.  

Luckily, the Christmas Eve Meeting (planned by other Friends) is NOT spontaneous and the music will be carefully recorded and presented. 

7. Watching TV shows from France and Italy. My husband "owns" the TV and he found a streaming service that offers TV shows from around the world. It's hard to crochet and watch these shows, since we have to read the subtitles. But the series that we watch are fun!

8. Music. Listening and singing. My granddaughter asks me if I have to sing a song about everything I do. The answer is, "Doesn't everyone?" 

And here is a lovely video from the One Voice Children's Choir.

Stay safe, friends.

 

Thanksgiving dilemma

 He asked again today. "Are we making a turkey on Tuesday to share with A & L & D when they pick D up after work?"  

Me: (Blank stare)

Him: Or, what?

Me: (Frowny face and helpless shrug)

Him: Should I get a small turkey at the store?

Me: Uh, um, I don't know.

Him: What are we doing for Thanksgiving?

Me: (Drops head to the table.)

My latest coping strategy is to wait until it is too late to do anything and do nothing. That can NOT happen with Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. We open the house to our son, our daughter-in law, our granddaughter and our daughter-in-law's family and to my mother and sometimes to one or more of my siblings. Dinner is followed by a walk and card games, silliness and chatter - and football on TV.  It is a day to just be together.  Also, FOOD!!!

When family can't attend (last year, they planned to be out of the country) we invite friends. No matter who we host, it is always the same. Food, conversation, laughter, football, games.

Um, not this year. 

I already texted the usual suspects and cancelled a large gathering.  However, I can't let go of the idea of pies and roasted Fall veggies and stuffing.  Should I bake pies and drop them off, masked and socially distant - set them on the doorstep, ring the bell and run away?  I can easily peel and slice enough vegetables for all of us and deliver them on Wednesday.

Should we take a chance and invite my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to a short celebration? We see them twice a week anyway. (We see the parents for five to fifteen minutes at a time. And D for the afternoon. That doesn't count as "residing" with them, I guess.)

WHAT SHOULD WE DO??? I. DON'T. KNOW.

Kim and Penn Holderness made their decision to stay home. And then they made a video about it. Check out that Grammy's dance moves. 

I have a lot to be thankful for, anxiety aside. So far, my closest circle is COVID-19 free. I have a roof, the Internet, a sister who works at a yarn store if I run out of yarn (!!!), books, enough money, lots of food, a nice husband. What else could I need?

I need hugs, lots of hugs, to and from everyone I love. So, I WILL bake pies and peel veggies. I will fill those pies with hugs and drop them off with the ones I love. We will Zoom or Skype or Facetime our meal and NEXT YEAR we will all be together.

Stay safe, everyone.  Happy Thanksgiving.

 

WAITING!!!

I. AM. SO. TIRED. OF. WAITING. How about you? It's funny how, even though we have spent several months holding our breath, the world continues in its rounds, undisturbed.

Today the wind is brisk, the sky is crystal blue. The air is tinted with cold. My sweatshirt is not warm enough. We waited for the end of the summer's heat and, whoops, it is really and truly gone. Today, a walk will feel bracing and even a bit exciting. Hold on to your hats and your children. This wind might steal them away.

The leaves parade down the center of the street, a colorful substitute for the parades that we had to cancel this season. Trees that held tight to their dying leaves so far will have to give them up. Get our your rakes. Leaf peeping and raking and jumping time is here.

Tomorrow is a biggie and although Election Day will come and go, the waiting won't end in 24 hours. No, we will have to "wait and see" if a transition will happen and how it will all turn out.

2020 turned into the Year of Waiting - waiting for a cure for COVUD-19, waiting for a return to sanity, waiting for people to learn to get along - while keeping their distance,  - waiting for peace, justice and "the American way" or what we hope the "American way" is. 

While we wait, let's take the time:

 to reach out to our loved ones, 

help a neighbor bring in her recycling bins, 

smile with our eyes since our mouths are hidden,

write an email to a friend,

thank the postal workers for struggling on,

take some food to the food bank,

give a warm coat to a shelter,

bake a loaf of bread,

have a cup of tea,

and give thanks that we have things in our lives worth waiting for.

 

Scraps and other blessings

 Think of all the things that are better than their components. 

Soups and stews are more than a bit of this and that. 

We prize quilts stitched from left over pieces.

Choirs sound lavish and deep when individual voices may be just a bit thin.

Last night, I made a new rule for myself. Before I can sleep I must write something that I made up. Journal notes on the day don't count.  Once I made that rule I wrote down the word "soup". Here is what followed.

Soup gathers together the scraps and the drippings

And warms them and stirs them and turns them to gold.

And soup made of gold can build up your spirit

And wrap you in sunshine to keep out the cold.

A life made of gathers of other one's leavings

Might seem like a poor life or one filled with tears

But a quilt made of tatters is warm in the winter.

A house patched with love can last many years.

So do not discard the riches life gives you

Just because those gifts do not match your desire.

Patch sadness with love and worry with laughter.

Add your small voice to the galactic choir.

                                                            Karen Maurer, 10/26/2020

Go well, friends. I have missed you.

Confession

I killed a cricket. It was an accident, I swear!!

You see it happened like this.

A cricket got into the small room where I hoard my craft supplies. 

Now, it's easy to tell if a cricket is inside or outside. Outside crickets sound gentle, like water in a stream or waves on a shore - except much higher pitched. 

Inside crickets sound like alarms or a high creaking call of HELP! HELP! HELPHELPHELP! or some other very urgent noise.

HOWEVER, if the cricket is right outside an open window, one might mistake it for a cricket inside the house.

So I decided to close the craft room window - just in case the cricket was really outside,

Which knocked over a large potted amaryllis...And that spilled dirt all over the floor and the shelf below the window...and the stool next to the shelf that held a tool box...and the box on the floor full of craft supplies...and the plastic jar of marbles also fell.

The cricket shut up.

 I cleaned up.

The next night, I heard the cricket in the dining room, right at the bottom of the stairs.

So I went downstairs to find the poor little fellow, trap him under a cup or something and return him to the wild.

When I turned on the light, the cricket stopped chirping. I got a flashlight.

That little bug sounded like he was right under my feet but I could not see him at all. So I moved chairs, a bench, the pretty painted box I keep under the bench.

Bill came along to see what was up and we turned on the light and there - lying splayed on the floor -  was a sad dead cricket.

I have heard that a cricket on the hearth is GOOD luck. I have heard that crickets' chirps foretell rain or a change in the weather or tell us the temperature.

Now, I worry that this cricket has a mate somewhere in my house who will chew holes in all my stockings and socks.

Or even worse, that someone I love will meet an early demise.

Luckily, it was NOT a Sunday. Killing a cricket in your house is bad luck but it is REALLY bad luck if you kill a cricket on a Sunday.

But, it was an accident. I didn't know the poor little bug was there. He probably (it was a guy because according to the Internet, only guy crickets chirp.) fell off the box and I dropped the box on him.  

Since I killed this poor tunesmith, I feel unsettled, anxious, even unworthy - as if I cursed myself by being careless with one of my fellow earthlings. 

How do I regain my equilibrium? I can't replace a cricket.

There are a hundred thousand crickets outside our house. All singing or munching or mating or hopping. Why should I feel bad about the one cricket life that I snuffed out by being a big clumsy human?

There are millions of trees in this country. And millions of them are on fire. Hey! It was an accident. it is always an accident.

There are billions of people in this world. 900,000 have died from a novel virus. No one wanted them to die. No one got them sick on purpose. 

Does it make sense to draw a parallel between my accidental killing of a bug to the death of hundreds of thousands of people? Probably not.

Yet, if I had been a little more careful, less clumsy, the crickets outside would have one more singer.

If we took better care of our earth, the conditions in the West might not be so ripe for fire. 

If... well, if we had paid attention five months ago, perhaps some of those dead people would be with us today.

I killed a cricket. Forgive me. 

WHY Would You Say That?

President Certainpersonio (I stole that name from Charles Dickens) continues to fill the airwaves with "diverting" comments.  Don't ask what these comments are - check your favorite news site, unless it is Fox. What we might ask is "why?" And that is the theme of today's post.

Honestly, why do we say half the things we say?  Since we have been confined to our quarters, I have discovered that I speak without rhyme or reason much of the time. I am a talker. I am not alone. Still, a lot of what I say does not need to be said.

Some of these comments are observations on life. My audience of one has heard them all many times before so what purpose can repeating them have?

Then there are the times when I interrupt a conversation because
a) a grammar mistake has been made
b) I heard a mispronunciation
c) I am sure I know more about the subject than the speaker does
d) that reminds me of a story that has nothing to do with the conversation at hand
e) I have no interest in the subject
f) I don't agree with the ideas expressed
g) I want to change the subject altogether
i) I take the subject personally and it pisses me off

Yep. I inflict all of these tortures on my husband who is confined with me. He deserves your sympathy.

We ALL do that. We do it ALL the time. Most of us want to be the Talker in Chief. In normal conversation, where the discussion is really a way to socialize and connect, these practices are annoying if overdone but they are pretty harmless.

HOWEVER, when we want to instruct or talk about important actions or ideas, or even discuss our feelings, these habits can be used for all kinds of reasons.

We grab a tangential idea in order to take control of the conversation.

We correct the speaker as a way to undermine his or her authority.

We want to distract from events or behaviors to protect our own standing or to protect others from the repercussions of their behavior.

We want to sabotage the purpose of the conversation - coming to an agreement, for example, or moving forward with a policy.

We want to turn the tables, especially when our behavior has been below par.

We hope that nothing gets decided so we don't have more work to do.

I could go on and on and on and on...

You and I can not control what all the Certainpersonios in the world say.  We can keep a watch on our own tongues.  Before we enter the fray, or throw something into the conversational pile, we should probably ask ourselves why.

 When a discussion becomes emotional, then we really have to consider our comments.

People can not un-hear things once we say them.  Consider why before you speak. You could save yourself untold grief.

Don't be a Certainpersonio!

Words to Avoid When Reviewing Books - M-Z

I am feeling judge-y these days and have already embarrassed myself with late night scolding texts to a young friend - why am I even telling you this? Confession is good for the soul!!??

So I will be judgmental with words.

The final installment of over-used or unnecessary positive adjectives.

M
magical - (Bonk, bonk, bonk - head bonking)
magnificent - I actually like this word but the subject needs to be larger than life to make this adjective fit.
memorable
momentous - Quotes are momentous; events are momentous, It is a very rare book that is momentous;  - "Origin of Species" might be one.
mystical

N
nice - Nice is a nice word and is great for every day conversation. But books do not want to be called "nice", anymore than your blind date does.
nefarious - Just don't use this word unless you use it tongue in cheek. It's not even a positive adjective.
nutty- One person's "nutty" is another person's annoyingly frantic.

O
overwhelming - I have never seen this word used in a review but I can imagine how someone might think it is a compliment.  In pandemic times, we need less overwhelming-ness, all around.
O is not the best letter for compliments. I must resist the urge to type in any "O" adjective that comes to mind - olfactory? old-fashioned?
obvious   DON'T call a book obvious without just cause - obviously.


P
perky - Unless the book is running for Junior Miss or Mister, skip this adjective.
pretty - No, no, no, no...
popular - See "perky"



Q
quintessential - It rolls off the tongue, right? Don't use it.
quixotic - I always use this incorrectly. Its main meaning is "wildly idealistic". A secondary meaning is "capricious". The root of the word is the foolishly idealistic character, Don Quixote. BUT I always think of quicksilver or mercury, hence hard to pin down. Words are amazing.

Q words are few. That's why the letter gets ten points in Scrabble. (I get points every time I work Scrabble into a post.) (Not really.) (But I do love that game.)

R
rip roaring - Please, just don't
rootin' tootin' - Even dropping the apostrophes and putting back the "g"s will not make this combo acceptable
righteous - This word's time has passed.

S
So very many "s" words!
startling It's a new favorite. Think carefully before using it.
scary? Hmm, sometimes "scary" is all one can say.

A lot of "s" adjectives sound like they belong in a reference letter that you might write for a former student or an old co-worker. Are you reviewing the book or recommending it for a position? You decide.

T
terrific
tremendous
tree-mendous - I am not a big fan of puns.

U
unusual -  Calling something unusual is not helpful.


V
valuable 
victorious - I have seen this! Is the book a new word spewing champion?


W
warm - Use this as a verb, please. Verbs have more power.
whimsical - How does this word weary me? Let me count the ways.



X
If you find an "x" adjective, use it freely.

Y
youthful - Here is an exception to avoiding this word. If I ever publish a book, please mention the author's "youthful" voice or outlook or approach. I am feeling old these days.
yummy - No, not even for a cook book


Z
zany - See "nutty"