RAE’S READS
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It is not yet Sunday, but I am going to do my Sunday(Evening) Post early. Last week I skipped it, giving an update on how I was doing on the Alphabet Challenge instead. This past week…
I finished :
Dying for Space by author and blogger, S.J. Higbee, which I will review during the coming week.
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie, a collection of poems by Maya Angelou, which counts for the letter “J” in my Alphabet Challenge.
Continued:
Book VII of the “Dark Tower Series”
Began:
Kiss Her Goodbye (Letter “K” in my Alphabet Challenge) by Wendy Corsi Staub
This was an extremely busy week. It reminded me when my mother was alive and living in a retirement home. She had so many activities to choose from she’d wear herself out at the end of the day and be too tired to sleep at night. I would tell her, “One big thing a day, Mother. One big thing a day.” I am learning to tell myself the same thing, and indeed, I had a big thing every day this past week. Monday I met three students at the Cheesecake Factory in Houston and helped them with an upcoming paper. Tuesday there was a doctor’s appointment in Friendswood first thing. Wednesday is my teaching day at the university, and on the way I stopped and saw a friend in the hospital. Thursday our Bible Support Group met here and we shared a lunch together. Friday brought another doctor’s appointment, this time in Houston , and today my AAUW group met here for brunch and to fill toiletry bags for the local women’s shelter. Tomorrow I teach fifth graders in Sunday School. I hope to rest and read tomorrow afternoon as well as finish up some school plans and schoolwork.
Hopefully next week will not be quite as demanding, and I’ll have more books read by the next time I do a Sunday (Evening) Post.
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Walker Percy has described this strange 1980 publication of Robinson’s first novel as a “haunting dream of a story.” The characters are strange; the plot is strange; and the ending is strange, open to more than one interpretation. Even the characters are strange enough to wonder if they are sane or not. Ruth, the older of two sisters has never fit in, nor never wanted to. Her younger sister, Lucille is just the opposite, desiring to be popular and to lead a “normal” life. Eventually, the sisters come under the care of their mother’s sister, Sylvia Fisher, the strangest of characters I’ve ever read. She is described as “eccentric” and “remote,” a definite understatement.
Underlying the story is the river and the railroad that crossed the river once, sending a whole train and all its passengers into the glacial waters so deep no one ever found the train or any traces of it. The girls’ grandfather was killed in the accident. There are no chapters in this book, to speak of ; one section just flows into another, pulling the reader along as the river pulls along the things and people who fall into it. Thematically, the novel deals with the transience and impermanence of things and of life, The Great Depression, insanity, death, and suicide. In places it is depressing, but, throughout, it is beautifully written. There are even some spots of dark humor.
Years ago I had read and loved Gilead, Home, and Lila, Robinson’s outstanding trilogy, and came to her debut novel late, expecting something that was not present. The novel left me impressed with the writing, intrigued and a bit puzzled by the ending. I could not rate this novel if I wanted to and kept the copy I ordered rather than passing it along because I am sure I will, at some point, read it again.
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Chrysalis body
Housing the wings yet to be
Butterfly magic
©2018 Annette Rochelle Aben
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There are no cat puns in this poem,
No feline phrases flowing.Don’t have kittens with anxiety:
That would be a cat-astrophe
This poem is far from purr-fect -
I have often read cozy mysteries (where there is a murder, but there are no gory, graphic details or scenes, and the person killed is someone you “love to hate”), but I would describe Christine Nolfi’s 2012 novel, first book in the Liberty Series, as a “cozy romance.”
There are all the elements required for coziness: a handsome, rugged man who works with his hands, a mechanic named Anthony; a female protagonist, in this case Mary Chance, who is a doctor, but has inherited from her eccentric Aunt Meg a cafe and grill in a small town, Liberty, Ohio; a leukemia-striken kid, Blossom, Anthony’s daughter ;and the combination of these elements makes for a fine, inspiring novel.
The book begins with the disastrous opening day of the Second Chance Grill. (Get the connection? Mary Chance is the second “Chance”, after Meg, to run the grill.) Nothing goes right, and the cook nearly runs off the entire town. Mary really gets off on the wrong foot. Blossom decides from first sight that Mary is perfect for her widowed father’s second wife. What she doesn’t know is that Mary is only taking a break from doctoring to escape from the extreme grief she feels over the sudden death of her closest friend, and she intends to take over the deceased girl’s father’s practice just as soon as she meets her obligation to her aunt to get the grill up, running, and making a profit.
Of course, Blossom nearly dies, and the reader meets Anthony’s zany family who immediately agree with Blossom’s pick for her stepmother. So many miscommunications and plot twists happen that the reader never loses interest or becomes bored. There are thirty-one short chapters that keep the reader swimming in cliffhangers. It is the perfect escape read, something all of us need from time to time. The next book will be titled Treasure Me, which probably involves the many antiques that make up the decor of the grill.
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April is National Poetry Month. Inspired by Luanne at Writer Site, who listed her poetry-related goals for the month, I have composed a few of my own.
- Subscribe to “Poem a Day” on my email. I did this some time back, and during April, I will be faithful about reading each poem each day, not binge reading them on weekends.
- At each of the four class sessions of my Advanced Writing classes, I will open the class with something poetic in nature, either read and discuss a poem or have the students write a poem. They have already written one poem (or at least had that option, which most of them chose; some wrote an essay instead) this semester.
- Hone my limerick writing skills to be able to write a limerick for any occasion/situation. I have been working on this for a couple of weeks and am having fun!
- To…
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I can’t believe Sunday is here again already. Its rapid arrival gives a whole new insight into the old saw, “My, how time flies”! The highlights of this past week were teaching my own class Wednesday where we began our blogging, teaching my grandson’s classes on Thursday, and Easter Sunday. Overall it was a good week and one in which I actually did some reading.
Finished this past week:
Holes, a YA novel by Louis Sacher, which I’m sure starts many conversations among kids who have read it
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Wasn’t) by Brene Brown, a researcher and social work lecturer at UH Main Campus, part of the UH system for which I teach. The research and the book deal with shame, the definition, the concepts and all its many ins and outs. She specifically introduces her terms “Shame Web” and “Shame Resilience,” helpful tools for exploring women and shame and how to deal with it. She examines the quest for perfection women take upon themselves and well as the social expectations our culture and society lay upon women, especially. The cover subtitle is, “Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough,” a journey she assists readers with quite well. Seven years of research and hundreds of interviews went into the book, and it shows.
I Thought It Was Just Me has been described as having the potential “to turn lives around (Harriet Lerner, PhD author of The Dance of Anger). The insights and even the strategies offered are not only helpful but workable for most women. She gives women specific things to say to prevent saying, “I wish I had said something” after an incident where they, or another person was shamed by a group of women, The feeling the reader has at the end of the book is, “We are all in this together, and Brown offers a group solution.
Continuing to read:
Dying for Space by blogging friend and author S.J. Higbee, an excellent, action-packed, fast-paced sequel to her outstanding Running Out of Space. I am not necessarily a fan of Space Opera novels, but this one contains all the elements of any good novel and also has “keeps-you-reading-writing.”
I did not have time to start either of the “I-Can”t-Wait-To-Begin selections” I purchased at Half-Priced Books last week. I still have those to look forward to. Also, the Brene Brown book completed the “I” requirement of my Alphabet Challenge (aka known as “The Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge” from Lori Coswell at the blog, “Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book.”
I have a wonderful book for “J,” and since it is a book of poems, I have high hopes of finishing it by next Sunday evening’s post. I plan to KEEP READING and trust you’ll do the same.
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I read a friend’s replies to the This and That tag he answered and wanted to answer the questions as well, so here goes. James J Cudney of This Is My Truth Now blog gave some excellent answers you may want to check out on his blog, and now, if YOU want to answer them, please do so in the comments section. Do not worry about how much space it takes! My answers appear next to each question. Let’s compare answers!
Do you like the read in bed or on the couch? I like to read in either place and also in my rocker/glider in the living room IF I can steal that place from Lena, my cat.
Do you prefer a male main character or a female one? I like both if the book is well written. I also like books that give several different characters’ “takes” on the same incident. There is a Japanese term for that–anyone know what it is?
Trilogies or quartets? I like series books, and I’m not picky about how many are in the series. I LOVE stand-alones as well.
Do you prefer 1st person point-of-view or 3rd person point-of-view? Either
As you read would you rather eat sweet snacks or salty ones? Definitely salty. I stock up on snack crackers, popcorn, pretzels, etc. when getting ready for Dewey’s.
Do you prefer libraries or bookstores? I love spending time in both and have recently promised myself I will “treat myself” to time spent in a bookstore. Unfortunately, there are none in our town! (inexcusable in a town, population 24,000).
Do you like books that make you laugh or ones that make you cry? Either!
Do you go for the black covers or the white covers. Definitely the black ones. Dark covers attract me immediately and are more likely to come home with me than white covers. I couldn’t tell you why.
Character-driven or plot-driven? Definitely character-driven.
Give these questions a whirl and we’ll see how alike or different we are!
powerfulwomenreaders 