Thursday, March 28, 2024

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen books I've read this year. (I've read more than 13, but this is Thursday Thirteen.) I read a variety of things, from young adult to mystery to science fiction. I'm a little behind on my fantasy so far.


1. A Wolf Called Wander, by Rosanne Parry. A story told from the wolf's perspective as it flees its home and searches for another. It reminded me of Pax.

2. The Pecan Man, by Cassie Dandridge Selleck. A story about race, along the lines of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Very intriguing and timely story.

3. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert. A book set in the 1940s in New York, about the theater and women.

4. Murder at the Taffy Shop, by Maddie Day. A mystery. I must not have been overly impressed because I don't remember much about the book.

5. This is How You Lose the Time War, by Max Gladstone. This was a great SF novella about two time-travelers who work for opposing forces to keep their versions of the timeline in play so that they have the outcome they want.

6. The End of Her, by Shari LaPena. A couple has new children, their lives are sort of perfect, in walks a stranger. Perfect no more.

7. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. A family splits apart; some of the children have to live part time in Virginia and part-time in California. Covers decades. Patchett is one of those authors I am supposed to adore, like Barbara Kingsolver, and I keep reading her waiting for that to happen.

8. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. This was a sweet story about a little China toy and how it is lost and found again.

9. Educated, by Tara Westover. Probably one of my top reads so far this year. This memoir relays how a woman was homeschooled and how she overcame certain things to obtain her Ph.D.

10. The Girl in the Castle, by James Patterson & Emily Raymond. This book surprised me. It was about a young woman who seemingly time traveled in her mind while her body stayed put. It was actually about mental illness. Very well done. I wasn't expecting much out of it, but it has stuck with me.

11. Dirty Thirty, by Janet Evanovich. Will she or won't she? Stephanie Plum gets involved in one of the better plots in this series and has a cliffhanger at the end involving her relationships with Morelli and Ranger. No spoiler!

12. Talking to My Angels, by Melissa Etheridge. This is Melissa Etheridge's second book. The first half is a rehash, for the most part, about her childhood (and I don't care what she says in the book, she isn't over that like she thinks she is). The latter part is about her search for Spirit and briefly, the death of her son during Covid. This is one of the few times I've read a book by someone I thought I liked and/or admired and found that I didn't like her as much after I finished. I am not sure why that was.

13. The People We Keep, by Allison Larkin. This book is about a young girl who is tossed away by her family, and her efforts to live by her art (music) and maintain some sort of sanity. It was very well done, and I highly recommend it. It made me tear up at the end and I don't normally do that.

______________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 853rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Hawk, the Squirrel, the Fox, and the Deer

I was on the phone when I glanced out the window and watched a hawk land on a tree across the way. Next thing I knew, the hawk was chasing a squirrel, its wings flapping, head bobbing as the bird tried to grab the furry little thing in its talons. The squirrel ran in circles around the tree, it's fluffy tail wagging behind it like a flag. It raced to the back of the tree, and I lost sight of it.

So did the hawk. With its prey gone, it flew off, and I turned my attention back to my conversation.

Then I looked out the window again and saw a fox trotting across the pasture, not far from where the hawk had just been defeated by the squirrel. A mother fox with kits, I guessed, since she was out in the middle of the day. She didn't look rabid or anything. She was just going about her business, doing fox things in a fox way. 

I had to tell the person on the phone what I was seeing, because I don't see foxes very often and this was rather exciting. Fortunately, my caller is a nature lover, too, and understood my enthusiasm. But not enough for me to hang up the phone and find a camera. The fox would have been long gone, anyway.

Not long after the fox went by, I saw a small herd of deer wandering up from the creek, heading into the same pasture the fox has just vacated.

The deer were in no hurry, and I watched them simply flop down beneath the oak trees, sunning themselves in the warmth of the day.

They were still there when I ended my call. I grabbed the camera. They weren't a fox or a hawk, but they remained, still resting and soaking in the sun, and the other animals had vanished.

This is what I love about my life. Where else could I have such a view, and see such things on a warm spring day?


Deer just hanging out in the sunshine.


Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Local Author Signing

On Saturday, March 23, I went to the Fincastle Library to hear a local author talk about her book, West of Santillane.

The book is about Julia Hancock Clark, who is from here, and in 1807 or thereabouts married William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

The author is about my age, and she teaches music at Greenfield. Her book uses the pen name of Brook Allen.

She talked about Santillane, which I wrote articles about when I worked for the paper, and about Julia Hancock and her relationship to William. She has fictionalized the story, and it sounds interesting. She did a lot of research to get the history correct, including going to St. Louis to the Lewis and Clark Museum there.

An old photo I took of Santillane, around 2006, maybe?

The meeting room at the library was packed, and I sat at the back where the door was cracked open. The local historical society sponsored the event, so there were a lot of those folks in attendance.

The room reeked of perfume and cologne, and at one point I thought I might have an asthma attack from it. Fortunately, about that time a nice breeze blew in and the fresh air saved me.

I'm looking forward to reading the book. I thought about writing fiction about Julia Clark once, but I was going to make her a vampire hunter!



People lined up before and after the lecture to get a signed copy of the book.

The executive director of the local historical society (right), introduced
the author (left) and gave a glowing account of her efforts.

 

Monday, March 25, 2024

Local Book Authors Sale

On March 16, my husband and I went to Salem to visit a sale of local book authors. I knew several of them and I like to support the local writers.

The event did not look to me to be well attended by the general public. Mostly I saw the authors standing around talking to one another. The event only ran for two hours, from 11 to 1, which I thought were strange hours anyway.

I didn't take a camera, but I did snap a few cellphone photos. (I still have an iPhone 5 (SE). Still works, I don't care if it's old.)


This is Dan Smith. He sold me a book called, "News,"
which is about a news reporter.

This is Bill, who teaches journalism at Radford, and a woman who 
writes true crime. You may have seen her on shows like 20/20 that
delve into these true crime things. I don't read true crime.

The author on the left, Jane Fenton, has a best-selling novel on Amazon called Repo Girl,
which I didn't buy there but I did purchase a copy for my Kindle. The woman on the
right had a book called, "42 Things to Do Before You Go," which is sort of
a bucket list of things to attempt before you off yourself. I bought that book.

Ken Conklin lives not far from me and wrote a book called "Norvel," which is about
a Black Olympic Medal winner from our county.

I didn't speak to this person, I don't know why. I just had the phone out
snapping pictures and this was one of them.

This is Ken Conklin and Amanda Cockrell. Amanda was one of my professors
at Hollins University when I was working on my masters degree. We have
been friends on Facebook a long time, too. She recognized me but I didn't
think she remembered much about me. That made me a little sad. But it has
been 10 years since I saw her, so that's ok.

 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Sunday Stealing



1. If you could witness any event from history, what would it be?

A. I would like see Queen Victoria take the throne.

2. What do you think about conspiracy theories?

A. Everyone is out to get me! How dare you ask such questions! Don't you know the government sees everything? I think they're silly and sad at the same time. This meme sums it up fairly well:


3. Do you like cartoons? Do you have /had a favorite one?

A. I used to like cartoons, but I haven't watched any in a long time. I liked Bugs Bunny when I was a youngster. What's up, Doc?

4. What did you most dislike in school?

A. I disliked the cliques that formed in the schools. Seems to be the way social groups evolve, though.

5. What sounds are in your opinion relaxing? The sound of the sea? Traffic? Vacuum cleaner? Combine harvester on the field? Some kind of music? Birds singing?

A. Music is more relaxing than most of those. Bird song can be relaxing sometimes, unless it's a murder of crows cawing. I sleep with white noise - the hum of an air purifier - because I hear the refrigerator and other appliances turning off and on if I don't. 

6. What was the last thing you read?

A. The last thing I read, besides these questions, was an article about the GOP budget proposal that would raise the retirement age to 69 and it would gut Medicare, too. It also makes it federal law that life begins at conception and does away with IVF. So, if you want to work until you drop dead and not be able to pay for your medical care while you're doing that, and you want your granddaughter with fertility issues to never have a baby, vote Republican.

7. What is one thing that has stumped you so hard you won't ever forget it?

A. How Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016.

8. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

A. Local government. The real local government, not the craziness that some people are trying to pass off as the local government.

9. What’s something you really resent paying for?

A. Electricity. I don't mind paying something for it, but it has bloomed in price in the last 10 years and nothing I do seems to bring the usage down. I think it should not be shareholder owned, as that runs up the prices. They worry more about paying their shareholders than keeping the trees cut back so you don't have outages. 

10. If you could choose a different time period and place to be born, when and where would it be?

A. I am happy with where I am now, although if I get to come back in the future, that's ok, too.

11. What's one question you would ask Superman?

A. If he has to use deodorant. I don't know if Kreptonians sweat while they're on Earth.

12. What's your favorite smell? What's your least favorite smell?

A. My favorite smell is my husband's chest after he has had a shower. My least favorite smell is a skunk.

13. How do you feel about cars becoming fully autonomous and having no steering wheel, breaks, or accelerators?

A. I don't think I will be driving one. I do not like the idea of something without a human mind behind it driving me around.

14. What are your favorite books and authors?

A. I read all sorts of things, so I don't really have favorites. Looking back over my "books I have read" list, which I started in 2006, I see a lot of Janet Evanovich, Debbie Macomber, Sue Grafton, Stuart Woods, David Sedaris, Neil Gaiman, Nora Roberts, David Baldacci, Louise Penny, Fanny Flagg, Naomi Novik, Kate DiCamillo, Juliet Marillier, Richard Paul Evans, Lois McMaster Bujold, Tamora Pierce, etc. Tolkien's books are the only ones I reread, although I have put Heather Cox Richardson's book back in my "to read" pile to reread because I think it deserves a second look.

15. Have you had a reading or palm reading done?

A. Yes. But it was a long time ago.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.