The Library

[ginny]

The Library Our library  is open 24/7; the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

[ginny]

Frybabe, you hit the nail on the head with CLOTHES!!

Now that we're  used to ....what would you call them....."comfy" clothes?  As  we're not "appearing"  anywhere, I find I don't like my former clothes and don't want to go back to them but the fall is approaching and one has to "dress" for the occasion, but...

Is there a "new normal" in clothes, too, and why are the new ones so ugly?

[ginny]

 Frybabe, as I recall, though, you did like Relic?

I thought of this, strangely enough, when we read or tried to read A Room of One's Own. You must have a room (a woman does) and money to write fiction.

And I thought of Steven King's own book on writing which is really good and somewhat consists  of the thought that if you want to be a writer, write. All the time.  Discipline yourself sit down and write. I think his subject matter makes him very underrated, but he really can grip one in his nightmares.

(I agree on Misery, can't read that type of hostage, torture  thing/ Couldn't finish it.)

One of my sons gave me when it first came out,  The Stand, so I have an original first edition, I guess, which I understand now is worth thousands of dollars,  and I didn't really know who  Steven King was, and didn't like the cover as I recall, something about pointed heads and/ or birds. So I didn't read it and now that I have time, I thought  I might, and I thought I'd see if anybody else had.  There are a lot of references to it.

Steven King has written some incredible books, such imagination, they are almost modern myths and cautionary tales. That one in the collection of stories about a father and son who go to the grocery....just unforgettable, Thinner, The Shining,  but I guess they ARE horror, I really didn't know the difference in them and Si Fi, which also has horror,  really, at least to me. For instance  the movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I loved and have watched both versions more than I would admit, is it horror or Sci Fi?

I am not sure what horror is, but now there appears to be a whole new version of horror, torture, chain saws, etc., I don't want any of that, at all.

[Frybabe]

Oh, you are right, Ginny. How could I forget Preston and Child's Pendergast series. I read Reliquary and Cabinet of Curiosities, too. The Wheel of Darkness is sitting on the shelf and has been for years waiting for me to get the four books between Curiosities and it.  Somehow I got side tracked and never got back to the series. I also read The Ice Limit by Preston which I liked a lot. I think I started his Tyrannosaur Canyon, but didn't care for it. Nor did I like Lincoln Child's Devil in the White City. Not sure I finished that one.

I shouldn't be such a snob. I read more books in genres I say I don't like than I think I do.
 
I just remembered that I also watched The Langoliers which Tom Holland wrote and directed. It is based on a novella from Stephen King's Four Past Midnight anthology.

[Frybabe]

I was saddened to here that Eric Carle, writer of children's books, and a favorite at our library branch, passed away on May 23. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/86516-obituary-eric-carle.html

[Frybabe]

Correction: Devil in the White City is by Erik Larson, not Lincoln Child. AND, The Ice Limit is Child's, not Preston. Also read Child's Deep Storm; that was pretty darn good as I recall. It has been a while since I read any of these authors. My brain is getting fuzzy.

[PatH]

Thanks for the link, Frybabe.   I don't think anyone who came across The Very Hungry Caterpillar will ever forget it.

Ginny, I read The Stand a long time ago.  I had a lot of issues with it, but it sucked me into reading it.  Don't know if that's a recommendation or not, but since it deals with an accidentally escaped laboratory-made variant of influenza that kills almost everybody, it's not a very good reading choice just now.

Dana, you will be pleased to know that I finally did get a new copy of The Lord of the Rings to replace my fallen-apart old one.  This is in one volume, swill probably fall apart faster.

[Dana]

Pat, I got a nice three volume replacement a good few years ago ....but I have never read it.....what a waste.....!!

Am now completely into Game of Thrones...Tolkein would ....well, I don't know what he would do/think....totally incomprehensible,outside his worldview...the violence and the sex....but, leaving those aside (difficult!!)....there are some parallels....

[Frybabe]

Yesterday I spent most of the day reading two new e-books. My borrowed book is A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin. It is a novel about a daughter who is investigating the life of her father, a master spy of China, and in doing so, discovers she has half-siblings born to her Dad's first wife in China. As with most of the Chinese and Chinese-American authors, I am enjoying this one very much. There are two others of his in my library wish list.

Ha Jin (pen name of Xuefei Jin), is a Chinese-American poet and novelist. Here is The Poetry Foundations page on him with links to some of his poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ha-jin

The other book is titled Night of the Moths by Italian author Riccardo Bruni. It is a psychological thriller. I am not too far into it yet. It is the second of his books to be translated into English.

I also restarted an audiobook from Michael J. Sullivan's fantasy series because it seems to have lost where I stopped, not too far in fortunately.

Pat, I admit to loving the artwork that accompanies Carle's books. There was not a day went by that I was not picking, shelving and re-shelving his books, which filled several cubicles.

[ginny]

It's amazing when you get caught up in something, isn't it?

I've read something by Ha Jin, but now I can't recall what.

I think the Pandemic has changed my recreational reading habits as well as qutie a few other things and I think it's interesting particularly what people choose to read or watch TV as a result.

Thank you Pat H for that explanation of The Stand. Paradoxically, I think that sounds like exactly what I'd like to read. hahaha I will see if I can dig it out, my shelves are triple shelved at this point but I know the general location of it.

I've watched more movies and TV since the Pandemic started than I have in my  life I think. I am not sure why.

Somebody at Furman made an interesting point with me a month or two ago. She said that she thought some of  the changes the Pandemic made were long overdue and might continue in the "new normal" for the good. I thought that was interesting, and after reflection,  I think she's right.

Are there any changes in your own life you think you might keep as a result of our experience with the Pandemic?

Happy Memorial Day, and thank you, Jane, for that wonderful banner on it on the site.

[Fran]

Frybabe, Your post on Ha Jin caught my attention.Our library has book “ A Map of Betrayal” in large print also , so I ordered it and hopefully won’t have to wait too long to receive it. The novel sounds very interesting.

[BarbStAubrey]

Pat how is the damage in your house going - have they started any repairs?

[PatH]

No, alas.  Still in the process of getting contractor assessment, while I cower in Portland with my daughters.

[BarbStAubrey]

Ouch and with the cost of Lumber these days and few contractors, if Pat the house can be secured you might just be better off waiting till this building frenzy dies down - however that will probably not be for another year... what a dilemma - here, since the builders cannot give a sales price till the house is built therefore it makes no sense to write a contract for a to-be-built - the builders are simply building as fast as they can establishing final sales price upon completion - with building costs accelerating so fast and so much building taking place, workers are not taking on repair jobs when they can earn top dollar working for a builder.

[ginny]

Is anybody reading anything new? Can't find The Stand so far.  One of the casualties of the Quarantine is my fiction  reading, I guess. I just can't get into anything, it seems. I do keep trying, however. Nothing seems to suit. I wonder why. I used to love to sink into a good book.

I really can't understand it.  I looked at a link of the Books You Must Read This Summer. About 2/3rds are a Bildungsroman: coming of age novels. Not interested. The rest are on books about terrible, searing subjects of man's inhumanity to man. Can't take that either right now.

The grocery store, however, has become most interesting. I still am wearing a mask, and so are quite a few of the rest of us but yesterday this man, about 60+ with no mask, upon seeing me, stopped dead and appeared to be trying to get away? He actually backed up. And upon encountering him on the next aisle (too bad you can now  see facial reactions since he did not have one on) he appeared....frightened or dismayed or something. What on earth now?  WAY too many people here are not vaccinated, and I am not taking a chance. The store staff is wearing them.

Are we now turning against those with masks?

[BarbStAubrey]

Been organizing and clearing out my books - finding books that I read years ago and are really not keepers - found this one on money and life that I cannot even remember reading - and decided to read it before I put in the pile for Half Price - and found this tid bit - thought it was interesting way to look at how we actually fill up our lives and homes.

"The Ecological Footprint, a metric distributed by the Global Footprint Network, measures everything we buy— from cars to sofas— in terms of how much of the earth’s resources are embodied in that purchase...

Every year, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, the Global Footprint Network announces Earth Overshoot Day, the annual date when we’ve collectively used up the resources our planet can renew in a single year before going into ecological debt.

In 1971, Earth Overshoot Day fell on December 21. Ten years later it was November 12. Then October 11 in 1991. In 2001 it fell on September 23. On and on, earlier and earlier. In 2016 it was August 3. Check it out. What is it now?

The earth’s stores are Mother Nature’s cupboard. How long before an essential ingredient in the recipe for life as we know it is no longer available? When we go into personal debt, we might lose our car, our house, or our ability to borrow at all, but as long as we are alive we can start filling the coffers again. With ecological debt, that doesn’t work. We have only one planet."

Along those lines I thought back to the 1970s and tried to compare what we thought were basics and basic expenses compared to today... Phone was the means of communication where as today our phone costs are quadruple what they were in the 70s with the addition of the web and the ability to take photos and then upload them on the web - going out to eat was not an everyday or for most of us not even an every week occasion - we cooked and most of what we cooked was grown within a couple of hundred miles of where we lived.

Most folks in the north did not have an AC and many in the South still had a water cooler with whole house AC in newly built homes. Newly built homes did have 2 baths but they were not as large and spacious as is expected today. The average home was under 3000 sq. ft even if it had 2 living rooms. 

The wife in most average middle class families sewed, the men in those families mowed their own lawn and made repairs to their homes and it was common for families to grow their own tomatoes along with a few other veggies -

Men were still the prime money earner and neighbors often car pooled to work taking turns leaving the one family car for the at-home mom to run errands. Seldom were kids driven to school, the school bus was typical - One expense then that is not typical today are greeting cards mailed with a stamp that then cost ten cents however, vacations were road trips rather than an annual flight to a far off international destination or winter ski trips. 

I know inflation has made prices appear higher however, there are so many more products and services we take for granted that were just not part of our life back in the 70s

I am also wondering after we have been sequestered for over a year if there will be less raiding our natural resources - many are choosing to continue working from home and many women are looking at fewer hours because the like being available to their kids - of course once the kids are back full time in school that may change. But fewer trips in the car, more cooking at home along with more home entertainment - what has increased is technology which uses resources like minerals, metals and plastic that is made from oil - it will be interesting to see the Global Footprint for 2020 compared to 2019.

 

[BarbStAubrey]

No actual rain but dense cloud cover - probably should be glad since it keeps down the heat although the AC is on to help with the high humidity - and so no clearing out today and back to reading - I've got 5 novels going - get a bit in each that explains away the scene and I want to jump to the next book - I keep saying if I would stay with one and finish it but I feel like I'm caught in a net reading in this fashion and then on top of it I could not resist and added another that I downloaded on my Kindle last night.

Last night's download is The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn - I loved her book The Salt Path and this is furthering their story of returning to nature as he is dying from Cancer but is still functioning quite well - their story is full of life, back to the basics rather than hanging onto despair. 

Seems like I am caught up in stories that deal with pending death or post death as those who knew them extol the character and delight of the one who has passed. That is essential to the story of a young boy in The One-in-a-Million Boy who doing community service with his Scout Troop helps a women almost 90 with odds and ends as well as cutting her lawn - their conversations give her a renewed spirit. He is an unusual boy that few others in his age range take to - He is an encyclopedia keeping a notebook with lists of 10 facts on everything he encounters e.g. Birds: The fastest bird, the smallest bird, the highest flying bird, the bird with the most feathers, least feathers, longest bill, nicest, longest flight, slowest flying -

He also does this list making on the oldest people, where they live, included on the list is the oldest person to apply for and receive a drivers license - he gets a driving handbook so she brushes up and renews her driving license and now does her own grocery shopping and he behooves her to eat healthy to become the oldest living person as he tracks the deaths and the fakes on the list.

Of course she flourishes but then his father shows up to take on the tasks and she learns he had an incurable disease and had died. The father had been estranged and is fulfilling the promise made by his son for the number of weeks left - he is coming under her magic and learning about his son.

The story is magical and is written without pathos - another story full of hope and renewal living your best life.

Then I'm caught reading The Man with No Borders - this time an older but not really elder man having been told he is terminal - he is living in Switzerland and is Spanish, a fisherman with beautiful descriptions of the land and rivers and his experiences with fish - thought he would end it all and under his feet in the lake is an ancient fish thought to be extinct followed by communing with his dead mother who says he is making a bad choice not seeing it out - loving American wife but estranged from 3 sons who he expected would follow the family work in the family owned a bank - the story is largely an interior dialogue and the writing is superb.

Then just for fun is one of Charlotte English's Wonder Tales Faerie Fruit - whimsical and silly as all fairy tales for adults can be - a curse that a male fairy breaks bringing fruit back to the trees gone barren for centuries - all those who believe see and their health benefits from the fruit but she and her lover, both with years behind them, are hold outs so she is constantly pelted with fruit - Over the course of the story half the town disappears - lots of witty language and instances - enough for a laugh or two and then, I want to read something else - and so this is an on-going read started in March would you believe.

And then the two delights - The one, The Matchmaker of Perigord: A Novel by Julia Stuart is such a unique storyline - if it is a story line - Yes, the title is a give-away - small French town - the main character is a delight having been a barber but his clients are aging with little hair left to wash, cut, trim just so, lift, invigorate hair and scalp - and now he decides on a new career hoping to solve the loneliness of his clients - each story event accompanies a description of food served or a picnic that is really a competition over menus between friends - menus and recipes are included as part of the story - His meticulous approach to life brings a smile to my face - this story is full of the unexpected describing small village life that I find enchanting - I don't want it to end and so, I take small bites savoring every page. 

The other delight has me laughing out-loud - both the premise and the dialogue - oh oh oh - Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel by Calvin Trillin - a middle age man in NYC who is obsessed with finding parking spots that give him the most time for his buck or if he can time the parking to off hours when there are no charges - it is a game as he drives around the couple of blocks near his apartment looking for just the perfect spot - over the years meals have been delayed - guests have all but gone - grown children visit and to see him must drive around looking for him because - I laugh so hard - once he finds the spot he sits in his vehicle reading the newspaper so that others wait just to the rear of his vehicle thinking he is leaving and then when they finally pull up to ask he either ignores them or has a snarky comment - in recent years he even has a paid for spot in a local parking garage but he still plays the vehicle parking game - talk about witty - the dialogue that is his thoughts are a comedy routine in logic - it is just a hoot but again, after each incident I want to click to another book for some reason.

On top of all this I am reading a couple of non-fiction books and so my book reading is going on for hours at a time and seems more varied then an evening watching TV. 

 

[ginny]

That  Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel by Calvin Trillin sounds wonderful, Barbara, sounds like what I need right now. I'll look it up.

How do you FIND all these books to read at once? How did you hear about this one?

I'm hooked again on the old film Upstairs, Downstairs, free on Amazon Prime which is absolutely NOTHING like i remember it. It's more about the trials of the  Downstairs staff, we've had one pregnancy and dismissal, one suicide, one leaving in disgust and the upstairs are not as we have always pictured them. As everybody knows, the actress playing "Rose," is one of the authors of the piece and  speaks with authority as her mother was "in service" and she knows the real "Downstairs."

It's a fascinating somewhat unflinching  critical look at the "Upstairs" society. But in watching IT you need a break, too, and there was a short documentary  offered on "The Rat Pack."  I've never really understood "The Rat Pack," and never liked Frank Sinatra, so I watched it and heard in it that Dean Martin in filming a movie not only knew his lines, he knew everybody else's too, unlike some of the other Rat Pack members. That was new information to me, contrary to his cultivated image, and I thought I'd like to know more.

There haven't been in the past many books on Dean Martin, and the ones I have read are very poor, and fairly unbelievable,  but there seem to be more now and after reading all the reviews I'm now reading one called Martini Man which so far is well written and is supplying information I did not know. There has to be more substance to the man than what is thought.

[BarbStAubrey]

On Amazon when you click on a book to check it out below the review on the page is always a couple of - I do not know what to call them - lists I guess - the books are in a horizontal row that when you click the row continues, sometimes as many as 49 groups of 5 small icon book covers with the title, author, price and if it is a kindle or not - I sometimes then click on the cover photo and up of course pops the review etc.

And then on the very bottom of the page is my history of books looked into and under each book cover there is the option to review more books similar to that book - well I review and if I do not like the suggested books I get rid of the book on my history and sometimes i see a book recommended that I want to know more about and so between checking recommendations from my history and the books recommended on those lists directly under a book reviewed I find all sorts of books and authors who are new to me...

Ginny seems to me there is a good bio on Dean Martin written by his daughter - I notice there are now even a few books on Frank Sinatra using today's knowledge of therapy and today's vernacular to describe his lifestyle.   

[ginny]

Oh, OK, thank you.

 I did read the reviews of the Dean Martin books including that of his daughter which I thought might also be good, but I read the one star reviews when I read reviews.  i want to see what irritated the readers the most and if you read the one star reviews of her book  you'll see why I did not buy it.

The one I have is  something else.

[ginny]

An interesting article today (free) in the Guardian online about the pleasures of long walks with friends.  Bill Bryson-ish, these 5 men meet and take long walks, and have for years. This time they walked in one day 12 miles total, got the train if I understand it, out and back and had a wonderful time. At the end the writer noted he had walked 42,000+ steps. It's a paean to walking with friends, even when you are no longer young.

I thought about that a minute and realized that I doubt sincerely I could walk 42,000 steps in one day.  They would enjoy putting me on an ambulance stretcher. When the kids come on Sunday my DIL somehow gets me out walking after lunch with her and my grandson, how she does it I have no idea, I've tried many excuses, hahaha,  but we do, and I am beginning to realize how much I have let that slip during our Quarantine times.

Considering after you recover, the next day  once the minor aches and pains go away, you feel much more energetic, I think I need to start back on a very modest beginning. 

Have you all continued any kind of exercise in this Pandemic?

[BarbStAubrey]

No and I kept thinking I would - I was really feeling accomplished clearing out till the holidays when I was conflicted about keeping the clearing going or stopping to celebrate Christmas - I stopped and never could get going again - this year seems to be one thing after the other - It's been raining almost daily for a month and a half and when it is not raining the humidity is so high the AC is pulling out of the air in the house house buckets of water. I'm not getting anymore clearing done - at least I am reading -

Finished reading two of my 5 books and I've decided to give up on the Faerie Fruit - just one happening after the other that has no connection to reality- people disappearing, houses replaced with a meadow, people from past generations long since dead show up, trees getting so large and so full of fruit falling to the ground they are a hazard walking on a road - all to what end I cannot fathom - it is like a liar's contest, who can come up with the best whopper and I am half way in... Although I am beginning to wonder if that is more true to life than all the stories told that have some similarity to reality - Here of late it appears that the more that changes the more it stays the same with one outlandish happening after the other... Seeing the G7 participants all covert around with no masks, no social distancing unless a formal picture and hugging on each other and now learning that kept from us was the medicines that actually work and pooh poohed, not made easily available and then to learn Covid was in the Italian water system makes the past 16 months more of a nightmare filed with trolls rather than fairy land even if battling an over-abundance of fruit.

Really enjoying The Matchmaker of Perigord: A Novel by Julia Stuart - now it is one character after the other to laugh with - One women has the opportunity to buy the castle she grew up in that needs more work than most have the means or who are willing to renovate - hilarious, tourists stop by - she has a sign out that encourages them - as they notice things like frescoes in the castle she makes up these outlandish stories as to what they are depicting or how they item came about - they then tip her extra they have enjoyed themselves so much - to her it appears all the world is as stage or at least her world so why not tell a story that grabs you.  And the main character, a barber now matchmaker is making his first match for the local Dentist. The back story on these characters and why they chose the life they are living is its own crazy but not really illogical thinking. It's more like living in 'who' land or a town filled with people whose life is like the nursery rhyme the house that Jack built.

[Frybabe]

Last night I started listening to This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxxWoTly0_A

Meanwhile, I am still reading, ever so slowly, Ha Jin's A Map of Betrayal. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/books/review/a-map-of-betrayal-by-ha-jin.html Not sure what to make of the narrator of the story.

No, I haven't given up on SciFi. The other book I am reading, when the other tablet needs charged, is a SciFi investigative novel.

[ginny]

I think you should feel good about that cleaning out, Barbara! That's a monumental task. Sometimes I think my hidden stuff will ultimately drown me. THAT would make a good horror novel.   I have decided THIS is the summer to make real inroads. You can't  SEE it, but even invisible clutter weighs one down.  It's mostly in one former child's catch all room but THIS summer it goes.

My Hidden Hoards are stranger than Si Fi, Frybabe, without the redeeming parts. How do  you like the Ha Jin now that you are into it. Do you recommend it?

I see a new book on Frank Sinatra is out. The Dean Martin book is interesting, I've always felt there must have been more to him than meets the eye, and there is, but it's not all the stuff of inspiration. The Jerry Lewis partnership is quite interesting.

It seems the world is turning into Si Fi as well, note the Delta flight from CA  the other day with the horrendous footage of what appeared to be a madman having to be subdued by many passengers. I was glad to hear the pilot call for strong men to come forward. I hope that sends a message to the next person who thinks of trying something like that.

There are no words except great horror and  sorrow  for the grocery store shooting of an  18 month old and his brave grandmother in Florida. Something must be done!! Apparently we now need armed guards in grocery stores.

[Frybabe]

Well, I don't know, Ginny. I like the book well enough, but there is something "off" about it. The narrator's emotions seem a little too flat to me.  What the book points out to me is the lengths a person can go to rationalize questionable actions, duties, beliefs, and obvious and suspected lies by authority figures. It is a little disturbing, actually. I saw in one of the reviews about the book that the character of Gary Shang, was based on a real spy, Larry Chin. Both he and the character in the book professed to love both countries and by spying on the US were trying to bring both countries closer together. This is a mini-bio of Larry Chin from PBS's Frontlines: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/spies/four.html I do not remember a thing about this.

[BarbStAubrey]

frybabe the Ha Jin sounds interesting - I'm putting on my list - from what I read it may be a more common happening than any of us imagined.

Ginny I got about half way and then became stuck - the difficult part is there is so much I will never get to, like tons of needlepoint supplies but no one is doing needlepoint anymore so you cannot even give the stuff away - most of my 'stuff' is basic material for various kinds of handwork, from calligraphy to rug hooking and then all the cooking supplies and really good french and Swedish pots that I will never use any longer and no one in the family likes to cook - hate to jut give it to Good Will but attempting to sell online is a pain with packing and mailing - on and on - I think the issue is more of lack of energy and even though I stopped watching TV news there are the stories like you have included that are everywhere - mind and emotional sapping - everyone appears out for themselves with no concern for others even their lives... everyday you wonder what next and when will the next unthinkable happen.

Good luck and happy clearing this summer - as my son keeps telling me - it is one box and one pile at a time...

[Fran]

Hi, I got almost to the end of “Amal of betrayals” when my e-mail went crazy- had Tech from geek squadov check it out.Felt it wasn’t hacked or bugged. He said this sometimes happens.I was getting 500-1000 emails daily.Not much help. Now getting no more than 300 or less. Not too long ago I read “Deep Under Cover-my secret life by Jack Barsky a KGB spy who lived a double life. That was easier reading for me than A Map of Betrayal.Hope to get back and finish novel nevertheless.

[Fran]

Well I’m happy to report that all seems back to normal, e-mail is as before I recognize all that is coming in.Technicians at Best Buy state many others and they themselves have experienced this at one time in the past. Now I can enjoy my reading again.
   As to how much exercise I am doing.At present I use my treadmill at home and will be joining our senior center and take a couple of Phyisical fitness classes there.

[Frybabe]

I haven't run across your problem yet Fran. What I get, occasionally, is that emails I know I trashed all of a sudden end up back in my in-box.  It seems to be a Comcast thing, so I think when they have to do maintenance or reboot their e-mail server, the back-up is a few days behind.

[ginny]

Fran!! How on earth could that happen, 500-1000 emails daily! Who is your email provider? I think I would delete that account and make a new one.

On AT&T  you can go into their server where it shows your email account and mark this or that one as SPAM and you never see it again. Those Spammers, if not stopped, can flood any email box  in a second. I hope you don't have to continue to weed through 300 letters a day. I bet you 3/4ths of them are from the same people over and over.

I wish I had some kind of physical fitness center or gym near here.  I could use some core strengthening although there are plenty of videos on youtube about it and on the TV, even chair aerobics. Lots of videos of people dancing and really enjoying themselves. I need to get out and walk but the temperatures is  totally daunting. As much as I admire those with the 6 am  exercise walks, I have to accept I'm  not one of them. Right now am dragging hoses and watering plants but that's not enough.

Barbara, I would settle for (and be proud of)  half way in the Room o Horror, it would be better than my current no way. After this week I hope to have some time to start, next week's the charm,  but I hate the thought.

[BarbStAubrey]

Fran do you live in a community where there is a rec center or exercise area?

Ginny as long as I felt it was a daunting task I got no where - what helped me was to start on something easy that actually had little to do with the main cleanouts - If I remember I sorted out my spices in the kitchen and then sorted out all the pencils in containers and drawers and then sorted out all the readers and packed most of them up for the lions Club who collect old eyeglasses - then frankly it took me weeks to get them over to the nearby oculist where a member from the lions club picks them up -

I listed on a word page each task as I completed it - with every little area I completed I felt good about it and piling up times of feeling good seemed to wipe out all my rational to put off - my confidence was soaring - I had 35 unrelated small tasks completed before I actually wanted to tackle the various closets and rooms that were where my big clean out was needed - I listed all the aspects of each room's clearout and then as I completed each part of the room I added that to my list of accomplishments - I ended up with 170 some odd tasks completed - I realize now what I have done that has me feeling stuck - thought i could pick up where I left off and it never occurred to me I would have to start small again with things unrelated to my main cleanout list 

I also know that all this mask wearing made me feel boxed in - I was always having to make sure I had the mask and did not want to risk shopping so that gradually I've become so isolated in the house it is an effort to get out - I've lost my sense of freedom of just doing which, if it meant dropping things off at Good Will I just did it without a second thought - hoping and thinking it will all come back once I get started - I also am at the point where decisions are more difficult - family stuff that no one in the family wants - do I hold on longer or get rid of it now which will break my heart but its either me or it will be trashed when the family arranges a cleanout - in the meantime I'm spending my energy and time taking care of these things. 

[ginny]

I do understand a monumental job!!!  My case is a little different but quite overwhelming as well. Still, it MUST be done. I would be thrilled with 170 things discarded, I think I'll start with that as a goal and work up. I am in a "throwaway" mood and need to act on it while I can and at LAST I have the opportunity to start without interruption so I'm going to take it.

I'm of a completely different mindset on the mask. I love it, feel protected in it, and will hate to see it go. I keep the new ones in my purse so that they are always with me, and I have a set in the car. I now understand why one sees so many Japanese tourists in them everywhere on earth.

I have not had a cold or a sore throat from the pollen since this all started and I think it's because of the mask. Nor do I have that pesky recurring red the dermatologist is always wanting to freeze off  on my face. Yesterday I was in the presence of a person with such a deep and ropy  cough in close quarters in a waiting room that  the entire room should have run screaming. But we all had masks on, thank goodness because  she did not and we were trapped.

I think you'll find that nobody is wearing them much and you can go about your errands safely.

I came IN to say that I am reading again!!! Yes. I did not have the ipad to catch up on the news last night when I went to bed  or play a game on so I had to look through the drawers of the bedside table to see what lay hidden within and there were several but there was The Two Mrs. Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne and since I just saw that documentary of him on youtube I started in (having read it before) and found it just marvelous. I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to sink into a good book!!

He does so have a way with words. I may read all of his again. Am very much enjoying this fictionalized true account of a society murder, in which he plays himself with all his faults. Love it.

What's everybody reading?

[Frybabe]

I have about five more hours of listening to This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. It is excellent. Also, now that I have finished A Map of Betrayal, I am reading the newest Jack Campbell novel which begins a new segment of his Lost Fleet extended series.

[Frybabe]

Where is everyone?

I finished listening to This Tender Land yesterday. The story is so very compelling. I love how Krueger was able to seamlessly weave in all kinds of issues from child abuse and pedophilia to alcoholism, prostitution, the belief in miracles, and the steadfast belief in God through all hardships to those who feel God has let everyone down and more. While the narrator ended the book telling what became of the other three children through the years, he didn't really say what he did, unless I missed it, other than marrying his sweetheart. I know he mentioned several times he was a storyteller, but didn't specifically say he was a writer, and I wonder about his harmonica. Did he continue playing? He was in WWII. What did he do, where was he stationed? Fodder for another tale, I think. Oh, and I was pleased that Krueger actually visited some of the areas he wrote about and actually took to the rivers he had his runaways travel down.

I haven't settled on a new audio book yet and am picking around at different reads. My usual dilemma when I am in between books. 

[PatH]

I'm not being very imaginative, just rereading The Lord of the Rings, the brand new copy I bought.  Since it's about a thousand pages, it'll last a while.  If you like this kind of thing, you can reread the trilogy again every few years, and it's different each time.  If you don't like it, it would drive you nuts to read it even once.  I only like it when it's done as well as Tolkien can do it, a rare feat.

Frybabe, how is the Campbell? Is it up to standard?

[Frybabe]

It got better as it went along, Pat. The beginning had me thinking at first that I missed the last book, but then it came back to me. This one has lots of attempted sabotage and several assassination attempts, a family reunion, but only one major battle. This new series offshoot has them going back to Dancer and Enigma territory escorting an ambassadorial and scientific mission. In this first book they make it as far as Midway. When Campbell finally ends this series, I wonder if he will have Admiral Geary and Captain Desjani travel out into the unknown to found new colony like his  ancestors did. 

I just started listening to a book of short stories, or so it seems, that are part of Michael J. Sullivan's Elan Universe. It looks like I am settling in on reading another Galaxy's Edge book. Book 1 of Season 2 continuing the original series. The authors are letting others write either alone or collaboration with them some of the offshoots. Some are good, others are only just okay.

Audible had their annual everything on sale week, ending tonight. I guess I don't need to tell you I couldn't resist adding to my collection.  I also signed up for the latest Kindle unlimited trial. I honestly can't make up my mind whether to stick with Audible or switch to Unlimited. A number of the series I liked to read with Amazon Lending Library were switched to Unlimited on me.

Amazon's latest program updates are not welcome. They've reorganized both Ebooks and Audio books.  For example, they decided to  organize my series books their own folders. Well, they are missing  some. Also, I already have a folder system by genre or general subject matter.  The tablets are undergoing some changes in how apps, etc. are accessed. Since then, I have had some slowdowns and hangups, not to mention frustration with the new organization which I don't much like.

[Frybabe]

What a surprise I had  this morning. I am reading something called The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay. In the it  is mentioned that The Life of Pi is based on a true legal case involving cannibalism.  Huh? Whatt? Well, I looked it up. The legal case was an inspiration, along with a several Richard Parkers from history who were cannibalized. All three cited in Wikipedia were ships crew or shipwrecked. The author was struck by these historical coincidences enough to name the Tiger in his novel Richard Parker.  That information sure adds to the strangeness of the story.

[Fran]

Hi Frybabe, I agree with you regarding Amazon updates. My books in the library section of my iPad are a mess. It seems every time soft ware is updated someone decides to rearrange everything to their liking. It seems there is nothing one can do.

[Frybabe]

Yeah, Fran, mine are too. But they didn't stop with the books. They messed with the way they display all the apps, on the tablets. I can't just click on the corner X to close an app anymore. They removed the X and now I have to side swipe to close the app. If you opened more than one app, you can't click on an individual app to close it, the close button closes them all. Annoying if you want to keep one open. I can't help but think that all these "improvements" are taking up more memory, leaving less for the important stuff, like downloaded books. Of course, there is the ongoing battle of the batteries. I use my tablets a lot. It doesn't take too long before I start noticing I have to charge them more often with no way to put in a new battery, thus necessitating the purchase of a newer model. That seems wasteful to me.

Oh, BTW, you all may have heard that Windows is coming out with Windows 11 soon. Don't download it until you have read up on it. There are a setting or two in the control panel that you may have to change for it to download. Also, it appears that machines older than four years may not be compatible with it. Windows 10 will be supported until 2025. After that, if you want to upgrade, it is likely that you will have to buy a whole new computer. Check out one of the videos on YouTube showing the new desktop environment. Microsoft is integrating more Linux programing into their Windows product. The desktop looks more like a Linux environment which I like. I am not sure when they will be officially releasing 11.

[Frybabe]

Yesterday I finished The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay, and today I will start The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. Wonder of wonders, neither one is a SciFi.

The Little Printed Bookshop is kind of a self-help tale where three women are given a list of books to read. Some are non-fiction, some are novels. Each, read in order, points to ways of re-examining one's life, making amends for past missteps, self forgiveness, asking for forgiveness, etc. At the end the author relists the books specifically mentioned and those that are alluded to without giving the title. I enjoyed it. Has anyone else read it? What did you think of the book lists? I didn't really delve into why these particular books were chosen.