So Terrible a Storm: A Tale of Fury on Lake Superior

I just finished reading So Terrible a Storm by Curt Brown. This November 27, 1905 storm on Lake Superior sank the Madeira off of Split Rock and inspired the building of Split Rock lighthouse. Many other ships sank or were damaged severely and the loss of life was horrific. The ship Mataafa ran into the canals in Duluth and 9 men die while the residents onshore were only 700 yards from the ship but unable to do anything in the tremendous surf to rescue the surviving sailors until the next day.

This book fascinated me because, as a child, I used to play on the remains of one of these shipwrecks, the Amboy, located on the North Shore beach where my father grew up.  The fishermen of Thomasville (no longer in existence) rescued the sailors from the Amboy and also the Spencer. I believe those rescuers were my great-grandparents who helped found Thomasville. Later, in 1935, my grandfather and great Uncle also drowned on Lake Superior when a sudden Nor'easter came up while they were out picking fishing nets. My father was only 2 years old at the time.

For anyone interested in the North Shore of Lake Superior, the book offers lots of photos, some of Duluth, MN, in the late 1800s and early 1900s as well a lot of history of the area and the development of the shipping industry on the Great Lakes.

Parnassus Books--An Independent Bookstore

Below is a link to an Atlantic Magazine article about Ann Patchett starting the Nashville independent bookstore: Parnassus Books. I hope the support she is offering will inspire the growth of independent bookstores everywhere once again.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-bookstore-strikes-back/309164/

November Reading

I actually finished Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal in late October. This is an adoption memoir by Jeannette Winterson. She is an adoptee, feminist, author, and lesbian. The book club read two of her books many years ago; she refers to one of them – Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – numerous times in this book.

Winterson recounts aspects of her childhood as the adopted daughter of Mrs. Winterson, who is abusive and unbalanced. In the end, the author searches for and finds her biological mother, but decides to not form a lasting relationship with her. That last part is something that we rarely hear about in the reunion stories of popular press. Her reasons are tied up in her own complex history and are interesting to me as I reflect on my relationships (or lack thereof) with certain members of my own biological family.

The book reads like an extended essay, side-tracking as she re-examines memories and incidents from her youth and what they mean for her today. I enjoyed the book immensely and the story of her search touched me deeply.

Two other books that I read simultaneously and finished within days of each other: There But For The by Ali Smith was a fairly humorous and at times interesting look at loneliness in the midst of crowds and a plethora of social media. When I first finished, I thought “that was OK.” My feelings about at as the days go by are improving.

The other book was The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. The author’s name is about all you need to know – it is a well-constructed, well-paced murder mystery (not a Harry Bosch novel).

Cards from Holiday Exchanges Past

As we begin to think about our holiday gathering and our homemade card exchange, I thought I would post pictures of some of the cards I have received over the years. This one is from 2000 and recaps the books we read. No offence to the creator of this card (or a couple of the others pictured here), I totally spaced out writing down who they were from.

 



The card from 2005 (I think it was 2005, the postmark was a bit faint) unnecessarily encouraged me to celebrate. Oh! With books, of course.

 

In 2006 I received this illustrated book featuring ME from Debbie. It was just too unique for me not to remember the sender. Debbie usually sets a pretty high bar for creativity and execution in these cards. Shown here are the center two pages.

 

 

 



This is a montage of images and quotes about books that I received in 2007.

Do you know who Debbie meant in 2009? Batman!!!! Look at the cover again, you can see the bottom of his cape as he goes up the chimney. Inside the card was a pop-up Batman. I love Batman and that's what made this card so memorable.

 

In 2011, I whined in a email that our holiday get together was fast approaching and I hadn't received my card yet. Little did I know I was putting extra pressure on my giver, Judy, as she was furiously knitting these adorable booties. While the booties are amazing, the card is, once again, all about me. Note the bottle of wine on the mantle and the cat in front of the fireplace. And, although the book titles aren't readable here, they also related to me and the year in books.

 

Finally, over the years I've also received a number of original poems, puzzles, a bookmark and a sachet of aromatic tea. These things don't photograph well, but are still welcome and enjoyable surprises when they arrive in the mail after the glitter of the holidays and when the cold begins to settle in.

I always dread coming up with an idea and then hope it will turn out as I envisioned it. In the end each year, I'm always glad I got into the exchange. I hope you'll join me this year.

 



The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. There was so much to this book: history of medicine, medical ethics, the science of tissue culture, racism, family history and dynamics, and friendship. Rebecca Skloot does a great job of weaving this all together, presenting technical information and history just when it’s needed, while weaving this fascinating story of HeLa cells. HeLa cells were cells taken from a cancerous tumor from Henrietta Lacks in the 1950s. Those cells continued to reproduce, were critical to the discovery of numerous medical advances, and are still being used today for research.

The story/history of HeLa cells that was never completely shared with Lacks’ family. That obfuscation impacted family members in various ways, most of them negative. Skloot honors their anger and their pain as she also tells their story.

My favorite thing about the book is the friendship that develops between the author and Deborah (Henrietta’s daughter) as they do their detective work (research). The relationship starts out as wary cooperation and develops into a close friendship – not magically, but through persistence and patience.

I recommend this book and have it in print to share if you would like to read it. I think it would make for a good book club discussion as well.

 

This is a first book for Rebecca Skloot, a science writer who has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Prevention, and NOVA ScienceNOW.

Read the NY Times review of this book.

Visit Rebecca Skloot's website.

Necromancy

That is the subject of Paul Elwork's first novel The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead, set in 1925. Early in the story, Emily discovers that she can make a knocking sound by moving something in her ankle without appearing to move it. Shortly after this discovery, she and her brother begin to hold performances for their friends. During the performance, Emily contacts the spirit of an ancestor, and those in attendance can ask the spirit questions. Answers come in the form of one knock for “no” and two knocks for “yes.” It’s not long before word gets around, however, and soon some adults are interested in her talent for contacting spirits.  

The author acknowledges from the first that his novel is loosely based on the story of the Fox sisters, who enjoyed some fame as mediums in the late 1800s. In reading reviews of Elwork’s novel, I saw a reference to Captivity, a historical novel about the Fox sisters by Deborah Noyes.

I think one or the other of these novels would make for an interesting discussion. Why do some people want/need to believe in mediums, fortune tellers, etc.? If you could contact a deceased person, who would it be? What questions would you ask?

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

I found this book by way of a circuitous route. A Facebook friend “liked” a blog post by the author. I started reading that blog, then I went to her website, then I found her book.

So, the book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A MostlyTrue Memoir) is by Jenny Lawson. It’s quirky and funny and reminds me a little of David Sedaris. Her over-arching message is to embrace the weird stuff about yourself; it’s what makes you you. It isn’t raucously funny, but it’s funny. What I liked most about it is her very original voice.

She recounts a few arguments with her husband – some of them carried on in Post-It notes. On one of them she writes “I poisoned something in the refrigerator. Good luck with that.” I suppose that sounds a bit mean, but in the context of the story she is telling, it’s funny.

I also have this book in print and am willing to share!

• Read the Washington Post review of this book
• Visit Jenny’s Lawson’s blog: The Bloggess

Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher tells the story of Hannah Baker’s suicide. She has recorded cassette tapes to be delivered from person to person (a total of 13), telling the story of what brought her to commit suicide. The story is narrated by Clay Jensen (person #9) as we listen with him to the tapes. This is a young adult novel about how careless and sometimes cruel high school students can be.

I liked the way the book was structured by weaving the narrator’s story with that in the tapes. I sometimes got confused early on, because the tape transcript is in italics – that’s the only indication that you’re hearing Hannah’s voice and not Clay’s. It was a compelling read, but the timing was wrong for me – I needed something more uplifting.

Some of you might enjoy the book; I’ll bring it with me on Monday. (Yes! It’s a print book!)

Read a review from The Guardian

Good Summer Read

For another can’t-put-it-down book, try Gone Girl by GillianFlynn. It’s the story of a wife gone missing and is told in alternating chapters. We get the husband’s perspective as each day of the disappearance ticks by and he, of course, is the prime suspect. We also get to read entries from the wife’s diary starting from five years prior to her disappearance. There are a number of twists and turns – enough to make you want to stay up late reading. In the end (perhaps the last 10%), however, it felt a little like a horror film where the character you thought was dead just keeps lunging out of closets. But, that last little bit doesn’t preclude me from recommending it as a fast, fun, summer read.

Read the NY Times review of this book

Reese Witherspoon will produce the movie

Guernica by Dave Boling

If you've ever wondered about the story behind Picasso's famous painting -- Guernica -- and also like historical fiction, I recommend this book. I never knew too much about the Spanish Civil War, (although I vaguely remember reading one other novel set in that time period and place), but the story of several Basque families in this book brought that war to life in a way both moving and horribly memorable. If you study the painting after reading this book, you will understand all the images you see in a new way.

American Boy II

I was just looking through the list of authors who will be participating in the Chippewa Valley Book Festival. Larry Watson will be presenting at the LEPMPL on Saturday, October 20 at 1:00 pm. His book Montana 1948 was a book club selection way back in 1995 (!). And I just finished and blogged about his book, American Boy (see May 14 posting).

Find out more about the Chippewa Valley Book Festival or Larry Watson online.

A Summer Hummer hmmm

Another successful Summer Hummer on Monday night, but you have to wonder about our two annual get togethers. In response to the survey question “Any other comments/suggestions,” Mary said “we should wear name tags.” I thought that was funny, but Jeanne said it wasn’t a bad idea. The other Mary said “I was having trouble with names too, but someone told me ‘don’t worry, after you go to the first party, the names will stick.’”

Your Suggestions for this Fall

Here are the four suggestions I have from you so far (all descriptions are from Amazon.com). Looks like we have some good reading ahead of us!

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar (A Book Festival Author) (368 pgs, Kindle, paperback, audio)Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes.

American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (176 pgs, Kindle, paperback, audio, 2011 Man Booker Prize)A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.

This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

The Summer Son by Craig Lancaster (322 pgs, Kindle, paperback, audio)When Mitch Quillen’s life begins to unravel, he fears there is no escape. His marriage and his career are both failing, and his relationship with his father has been a disaster for decades. Approaching forty, Mitch doesn’t want to become a middle-aged statistic. When his estranged father, Jim, suddenly calls, Mitch’s wife urges him to respond. Ready for a change, Mitch heads to Montana and a showdown that will alter the course of his life. Amid a backdrop of rugged peaks and valleys, the story unfolds: a violent episode that triggered the rift, thirty years of miscommunication, and the possibility of misplaced blame. In Craig Lancaster’s powerful novel, The Summer Son, readers are invited into a family where conflict and secrets prevail, and where hope for healing and redemption is possible.

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol, Agnete Friis (313 pgs,Kindle, paperback, audio, translated from Danish)Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

New book on my nightstand

I’ve just started reading The List by Martin Fletcher. Yes, that Martin Fletcher of NBC Middle East reporting fame. He has three books to his credit and The List is his latest issue and first novel. The story is set in England during the period immediately following WWII and encompasses the run up to the 1948 Israeli war.  The story is about a small group of refugees who make it to England before the war ends and their attempt to make a new life.  The characters, all in their early twenties,  live in an England still suffering from the privations of war and rife with anti-Semitic attitudes and the violent policies of the Zionist movement.  It is against this backdrop that these survivors are left to the heartbreaking task of checking lists for the names of family members left behind in Europe. 

While I am not far into the book, it isn’t capturing me as Sarah’s Key did.  I wonder if the reason is because this is a first novel. Certainly, we know the author can write and make sense out of historical events, but can he tell a story and create characters you care about? I am not sure.

American Boy

I just finished American Boy by Larry Watson. If that author’s name sounds familiar to some of you, it is because our book group read his Montana 1948. This story, American Boy, is also about a young man (17), a doctor, and coming of age. It is set in western Minnesota in 1962. For the same reasons that I liked Montana 1948, I liked this book: plain strong writing, vivid characters, and the author’s ability to imagine the world through the eyes of a different age.

While Watson was born in North Dakota, he is, and has been for some time, a Wisconsin author. He taught at UW-Steven Point for 25 years. Currently he lives in Milwaukee and teaches at Marquette University.

Read the Denver Post review of this book.

Perfect Book for a Super Moon

Just finished The Last Werewolf. I loved it! It’s not the light-hearted undead of Sookie Stackhouse. This is gory and brutal. But, the main character, Jake, is a werewolf with a conscience (at times). He ponders morality, immortality, good vs. evil, etc. The book chews on these questions as well as could we/would we want to live without love? What would it mean to be the last of a species? What drives the people who say they are dedicated to eliminating evil in the world? Did I mention that I liked this book a lot?

Read the NY Times review of The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

Once Upon a River

One Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell takes place in Michigan in the 1970s. I like that the main character, Margo, is a young woman. She is resourceful, but not especially independent. Lots of people have ideas about what Margo should do and how she should live; as a reader I was drawn into this as well. In the end, Margo makes her own choices.

It is a story about choices, consequences, and constraints. Margo’s a character I wanted to shake some sense into, then perhaps give up on, but one that I won’t forget soon. The story is told with detail that helps you see, hear, and smell the places, animals, and people. I liked this book a lot!

For more info, read the NY Times Review of this book by Jane Smiley

Plant swap

Are we having a plant exchange at the next bookclub meeting?

Acoustic Cafe Book Swap Books

My motto about this late post: Better late than never! Besides enjoying the good company at our book swap, I came home with "Bel Canto," "Angela's Ashes," and "We Were the Mulvaneys." Looking forward to reading them all.

Perhaps a Book Club Selection

Beyond the Beautiful Forevers reads like a novel with little hint that the author is a long established reporter. In this book of narrative non-fiction, the author weaves the story of families living in the Annawadi slum (located in the shadow of the Mumbai airport) and their interactions with each other, various branches of the local government, and their hopes for the future.

I listened to the book and was unaware of the author’s note at the end and almost missed it. She (Katherine Boo) explains how she came to the subject and what her methodology was for flushing out remembered conversations and emotions suppressed by culture and personality. Listening to her explain how she acquired the story provided, for me, an added level of interest in the story.

The Book Swap was fun!

I went home with three new books that I am anxious to read: the coveted "The Elegant Gathering of White Snows" by Kris Radish (a Wisconsin author), "Wild Fire" by Nelson DeMille, and "The Duke is Mine" by Eloisa James. Kathy has already indicated that she wants to read "The Elegant Gathering of White Snows" so I will be passing that one on to her as soon as I am done reading. There were several books I would like to read but especially "Sherlock Holmes

I'd like to tip my hat to who ever recommended Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. It was just what I needed in the middle of tax season... a good read that allowed me to giggle and smile my way through the book. As a former North Carolinian, I recognized a number of familiar characters. Hope you all find it as entertaining I did.

Book Swap Books

It was fun to see everyone at the book swap. Although, it may be a while before I can find time to sit down with my new Laurie R. King book Touchstone, Shizuko Natsuki’s novel Death from the Clouds or Faye Kellerman’s The Burnt House. The web has many positive comments regarding Shizuko Natsuki, so I am looking forward to reading her book. I’ve read both the other authors which means Natsuki is the only unknown quantity in the group. No risk taker here!

The Book Swap was fun as usual

Susan, Kathy K., Vicki, Jackie, Mary A., Kathy T., and I met at Acoustic for the Book Swap! As usual an interesting mix of books changed hands. One title, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows, was especially coveted.

I went home with Six Easy Pieces by Walter Mosley, Scarlet and Black by Stendhal, and the Blood Spilt by Asa Larsson. I'd eventually like to read Bel Canto.

I liked Swamplandia! after all

 I mentioned the book Swamplandia! at our book club meeting last night. I was torn as to whether I liked the book. I certainly liked the writing, especially the description. At my age, I feel foolish when I have to have a book explained to me. Perhaps ‘explained to me’ isn’t quite right; I need help to like it. So, this morning I went online to read a review of the book. And, I was reminded of the many aspects of the book I did like.

I learned something about geography. “We learn the Everglades’ history of governmental mishandling (the seeds of invasive melaleuca trees were sprinkled from airplanes in the 1940s) and environmental disaster.”

The description of people and places was lush: “Her first-person narration is not a transcription of a 13-year-old voice, but an evocation, in adult language, of a barely adolescent mind-set. This allows for a dazzling level of linguistic invention.”

I agonized with and loved the character of Kiwi: “The central joke is that his home-schooled erudition has left him as ill equipped for mainland life as some time traveler. ‘Telling your fellow workers that you were going to Harvard was a request to have your testicles compared to honey-roasted peanuts and your status as a virgin confirmed, your virginity suddenly as radiant and evident to all as a wad of toilet paper that was stuck to your shoe.’

OK, <blushes> I liked the book and I recommend it. “The plot of “Swamplandia!” is nothing special — dysfunctional family pull apart, then pull together — but the execution is. If the gothic whimsy of this novel is sometimes too self-conscious, the pleasures it offers are unforced.”

BTW, I saw online that a writer is being sought to transform this into an HBO movie. It’s one I would see.

All quotes from the NY Times book review 2011, Feb 3.

book for consideration later this year: Let the Great World Spin

I read this last year and found it intriguing. I think it would make for interesting discussion.

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal

Brain research

Just finished Left Neglected. I liked this book a lot! I liked the way she described the difficulties/symptoms of Sarah’s condition without being clinical. I loved her sense of humor. I was amazed at the amount of research involved in writing the book and way she went about it.

So, I’m very excited to attend tonight’s UWEC Forum: V.S. Ramachandran. Here’s small blurb from the UWEC news release:

Ramachandran is known as a storyteller who is able to concretely and simply describe the most complicated inner workings of the brain. He is fascinated by patients who have unusual abilities or defects in the way they perceive the world. These include such puzzling phenomena as the phantom pain experienced in a missing limb, the inability to recognize a familiar face following a stroke, and the belief that one is actually dead. Ramachandran investigated many of these strange cases in his acclaimed book, "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind" (1998)

On Canaan's Side

I chose to read On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Berry based on an NPR blurb about 2011’s best books – best in that they stuck with the reviewer. I remember this one being described as ‘haunting’. On finishing the book, I decided I liked it quite a bit, but didn’t think it lived up to that description. Until a couple weeks passed and I find myself still thinking about it. I still can’t put my finger on why.

Here’s some information from The Guardian on it:

In his fifth novel, Sebastian Barry takes up the story of another of the Dunnes, the family whose members have appeared in Annie Dunne and A Long, Long Way and in his play The Steward of Christendom. Eighty-nine-year-old Lilly Bere recounts the events of her life as though mesmerised by the vivid incompleteness of a remembered dream

By anybody's reckoning, Lilly's life is a traumatic one, encompassing multiple bereavements and separations, material hardship, numerous upheavals and unrelieved exile from an oppressed and divided homeland. Her indomitability […] derives in part from the very invisibility and stoicism that she has had to cultivate and for the joy in small reliefs and pleasures to which that has led.

This concentration on isolating tiny fragments of experience and apprehension makes for an intense and immersive read, one in which brutal events are cast in a diffuse light that gives them an almost mythic quality. But the narrative's dreamlike qualities do not eclipse Barry's determination to scrutinise the less travelled byways of history and to give a voice to their buffeted, battered but nonetheless enduring victims.

Sherlock Holmes

I thought I would share this quote to our discussion about Sherlock Holmes from last night:

"Sherlock Holmes is, said Sherlockian scholar Edgar W. Smith, 'the personification of something in us that we have lost, or never had. For it is not Sherlock Holmes who sits in Baker Street, comfortable, competent and self-assured; it is ourselves who are there, full of a tremendous capacity for wisdom, complacent in the presence of our humble Watson, conscious of a warm well-being and a timeless, imperishable content. The easy chair in the room is drawn up to the hearthstone of our very hearts. [...] And the time and place and all the great events are near and dear to us not because our memories call them forth in pure nostalgia, but because they are a part of us today.
" 'That is the Sherlock Holmes we love--the Holmes implicit and eternal in ourselves."
--The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury

Silver Sparrow

I just finished Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. It’s the story of a man with two wives. The first half of the story is told from the perspective of Dana, the daughter whom he told “You are a secret.” She and her mother know about his other family. Her mother says “knowledge is power.” The two of them keep tabs on all that goes on in the lives of the other family. You can sympathize with the feeling of being second best.

The second half of the book is told from Chaurisse’s perspective. She’s the acknowledged daughter. She and her mother know nothing about the other family. Or, perhaps the mother has some idea, but denies it. You learn the beginnings of this family and what binds them together and you like them.

So, what happens when the girls become friends? When the hidden family shows itself? It’s complicated and the author doesn’t try to offer a simple, tied-up ending. I found it to be a very satisfying read.

Feminist Writings

Feeling guilty about some of the  fluffier books I read last year, I Googled ‘best feminist books’. Sister Outsider was on the list. Audre Lourde (1934 – 1992), in her own words, was a "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." She writes about all these things and more in this powerful and readable collection of 15 essays and speeches mostly from the 1970s and 80s. Her thoughts on racism stood out for me and made me wonder how far, really, have we come?

I think I did it!

I hope I did the set up correctly as I look forward to participating in this blog. It is a new experience for me, but one I look forward to. Happy Reading!

I think I'm finally a blog contributor... we'll see!

Thank you!

Thank you for welcoming me to your group! I think I will really enjoy getting to know you and to "expanding my literary horizons!"

Holiday Cards

The card exchange was delightful, as usual. Here are some (most) of them in photos. I apologize for the quality - the lighting makes it difficult to get a good, quick shot. I also don't remember who the owner and/or who the giver are on all of these.

I believe this was Susan's card, which without our glasses, looked like it was covered with bunnies. Turns out they're Santas:

Here is my card from Susan. Martinis, poetry, and a word search. What's not to love?

This is Debbie's card, which she thought was from Kathy - because of the frog. Supposed to be FOG.

This is the Bookwoman doll and poem I gave to Jackie.

Debbie created a holiday party popper - which contained the requisite hat, joke, and prize. Wow! Here's Kathy modeling the hat.

Finally, Judy did lots of sleuthing to figure out that Jackie put together a puzzle of bookmarks for her.

Kathy T. got a word search and missed the final word, which was the clue "Judy." Unfortunately that photo was WAY over exposed.

I'm always amazed at our individual and collective creativity when it comes to this exchange. Thanks to everyone for  making it so much fun once again.