currently

I am...

Reading:  Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer

Listening to: a Heated Rivalry Spotify playlist

Thinking:  I need to get organized for school this week

Feeling:  sleepy

Celebrating: a very good day back from vacation

Grateful for: preparing everything for today in advance

Enjoying: Heated Rivalry on HBO

Weather:  20° and light snow

A quote I want to share: 

finished reading

This was a quick read--and quite a thrill ride.  As a fan of the Housewives franchises, I was instantly drawn into the bitchfest of this wealthy world.  Once I was familiar with the five different narrative points of view, I figured out the tangle of relationships.  The women of Buckhead are scrabbling over pecking order and prestige.  And then there are the husbands: portrayed as dim-witted and devious.  It's a fun way that the whole story weaves together, though.  Not high literature but a great romp.

From the publisher:

Opulence. Sex. Betrayal … Sometimes friendship can be deadly.

Meet the women of Buckhead—a place of expensive cars, huge houses, and competitive friendships.

Shannon was once the queen bee of Buckhead. But she’s been unceremoniously dumped by Bryce, her politician husband. When Bryce replaces her with a much younger woman, Shannon sets out to take revenge …

Crystal has stepped into Shannon’s old shoes. A young, innocent Texan girl, she simply has no idea what she’s up against …

Olivia has waited years to take Shannon’s crown as the unofficial queen of Buckhead. Finally, her moment has come. But to take her rightful place, she will need to use every backstabbing, manipulative, underhand trick in the book …

Jenny owns Glow, the most exclusive salon in town. Jenny knows all her clients’ secrets and darkest desires. But will she ever tell?

Who amongst these women will be clever enough to survive Buckhead—and who will wind up dead? They say that friendships can be complex, but no one said it could ever be this deadly. 

postsecret

 

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I like to post one that speaks to me each week.

sunday stealing

 

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I say, you think...

Word Association. Share what comes to mind when you hear the word ...

1. Biscuit: the first thing I thought of was flaky layered biscuits.  Then I thought of Biscoff--a favorite!

2. Crayon: when my sisters and I were young, we thought we were quite glamorous pretending to smoke with crayons (it was the early '70s)

3. Warmth: ahh--sitting in sun puddles, especially during winter

4. Flip: I keep a prank coin in my desk at school, so when my students want options, I'll flip it and ultimately get my way (heads we work on the assignment, tails we have a free day)

5. Slush: winter in Maine

6. Wing: my first thought was Farrah Fawcett's hair and Aqua Net hairspray

7. Candle: I'm very disappointed that my lease doesn't allow candle burning--wax melts just aren't the same

8. Cinnamon:  Cinnamon & Gunpowder by Eli Brown

finished reading

An acquaintance recommended I read this. This debut novel tells many stories.  There is a particular style of storytelling here: a meandering, multi-layered indigenous style.  Set in Maine, along the Penobscot River, the setting is a character in itself.  

The story centers on two families: the Ames and the Creel families. But there are other narrative threads with other sorts of secondary characters, I'll admit, and sometimes I got lost on who was doing what.  

From the publisher:

An emotionally powerful saga, set in 1980s Maine, that explores family love, the power of myths and storytelling, survival and environmental exploitation, and the ties between cultural identity and the land we live on

If you paid attention, you could see the entire unfolding of human history in a story . . .

Growing up, David Almerin Ames and his brothers, Link and Simon, believed the wild patch of Maine where they lived along the Penobscot River belonged to them. Running down the state like a spine, the river shared its name with the people of the Penobscot Nation, whose ancestral territory included the entire Penobscot watershed--the land upon which the Ames family eventually made their home.

The brothers' affinity for the natural world derives from their iconoclastic parents, Arnoux, a romantic artist and Vietnam War deserter who builds boats by hand, and Falon, an activist journalist who runs The Lowering Days, a community newspaper which gives equal voice to indigenous and white issues.

But the boys' childhood reverie is shattered when a bankrupt paper mill, once the Penobscot Valley's largest employer, is burned to the ground on the eve of potentially reopening. As the community grapples with the scope of the devastation, Falon receives a letter from a Penobscot teenager confessing to the crime--an act of justice for a sacred river under centuries of assault.

For the residents of the Penobscot Valley, the fire reveals a stark truth. For many, the mill is a lifeline, providing working class jobs they need to survive. Within the Penobscot Nation, the mill is a bringer of death, spewing toxic chemicals and wastewater products that poison the river's fish and plants.

As the divide within the community widens, the building anger and resentment explodes in tragedy, wrecking the lives of David and those around him.

Evocative and atmospheric, pulsating with the rhythms of the natural world, The Lowering Days is a meditation on the flow and weight of history, the power and fragility of love, the dangerous fault lines underlying families, and the enduring land where stories are created and told.

saturday 9

With or Without You

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 

1) "With or Without You" is about the pain of love. What song reminds you of an old romance? Is it about the joy of love or the pain? "Change the World" by Eric Clapton reminds me of the joy of love

 

2) U2 lead singer Bono has admitted that, when the group recorded this song in the 1980s, he was wrestling with his real-life commitment issues. He was trying to resolve the responsibilities of being a husband with the demands of his career. He worked it through, and decades later both his marriage and his career are still going strong. Do you feel you have been more successful in your personal or professional relationships? until 2023, I would have said professional, but my "work husband" retired, and now there's no cohesion in our department (try as I might to build it), so my answer now is personal

 

3) Bono credits his wife Ali with helping him through a tough period of writer's block, saying she put the pen in his hand each morning. What time of day finds you the most energized, productive or creative? morning--specifically 8-10 am

 

4) Bono likes to pedal around town when he's not onstage. What do you do for exercise? uh... I don't

 

5) Bono is U2's lead singer, backed by three very talented bandmates: The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton. Bruce Springsteen is a big fan of U2's concert performances. If Saturday 9 were to bestow upon you a free ticket to any see any band or performer live, who would you choose? since U2 is my favorite band and I have yet to see them in concert, I will go see them!

 

6) U2 got together 50 years ago, when they were school boys in Dublin. Have you ever visited Ireland? If not, would you like to go? Ireland is the home of my heart--I lived there in 1987 and it truly was the time of my life

 
7) In 1987, the year this song was popular, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her most famous line was, "Snap out of it!" Without looking it up, can you name the movie that made her an Oscar winner? Moonstruck--one of my all-time favorites!

 

8) Also in 1987, the first Starbucks opened. What's your standard Starbucks order? there are no Starbucks nearby (I know!  Can you believe it??) so I don't have a standard order

 

9) Random question – Which self-help book would you be more likely to pick up, the one designed to improve your body or your mind? my mind--I would highly recommend the Self-Care Prescription by Robyn Gobin

finished reading

I could not stop this book--I did not want to pause for any reason!  I was heavily invested in Sally Diamond.  Sally is one of the most complicated, complex characters I've ever read.  The slow revelations about how her early life shaped her into the woman she became were compelling and bleak.  Sally's willingness to confront her history and isolation made me root for her.  And as dark and difficult as some parts of this book were, there is some humor in Sally making sense of the world around her.  Secrets start to be revealed about halfway through the book; the narrative shifts between narrators, and suspense builds with each piece of the story.  The author explores how early childhood experiences shape us--with reverberating consequences.

As I read, I was caught up in sympathy, compassion, disbelief, and anger.  There were times I had to repeat sections to make sure I was getting it.  Like, what the actual...?  

From the publisher:

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.

But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged . . .

three on thursday

Thing one:  staycation is flying by!  I've had little puttery projects every day, so I'm accomplishing tasks and don't feel like I've wasted the time off, but I haven't done much.

Thing two: this has been a rather social break, too, which is how I know my seasonal funk has been very mild this year:  I'm making plans, going out, and socializing!

Thing three: this morning, I caught up with a very dear friend in Southern Maine via FaceTime--we had coffee together and talked for over an hour and a half!

finished reading

This is masterful storytelling.  Charles Lamosway deals with secrets, lies, and identity throughout this story.  Actually, the secondary characters do, too.  Having hopes and dreams crumble around him is really a theme of Charles's life, and in a lot of stories it would have made Charles a sadsack, but this story is almost hopeful.  It was a fascinating look at indigenous reservation life--and I wish there had been a little more background on the Penobscot struggles to regain and retain tribal authority.   I connected with this story, and I felt the sense of place and atmosphere.  And it's like I was sitting in a coffee shop with Charles, listening to his life story.

From the publisher:

Does she remember this day? Does she remember it at all? Does she know this history―this story―her body holds secret from her?

From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. On the far bank, he caught brief moments of Roger and Mary raising their only child, Elizabeth―from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from this family and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.

Now it’s been weeks since he’s seen Elizabeth and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on and care for what he can: his home and property, his alcoholic, quick-tempered and big-hearted friend Bobby, and his mother, Louise, who is slipping ever-deeper into dementia―he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, in a hunting accident―a death that he and Louise cannot agree where to lay the blame―Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is it his secret to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth?

From award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty’s debut novel, Fire Exit, is a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another.

currently

I am...

Reading:  Fire Exit by Morgan Talty

Listening to: a Spotify playlist

Thinking:  organizing what I would like to accomplish this week

Feeling:  accomplished!  I swept and washed the floors, vacuumed, dusted, watered the plants, scrubbed the bathroom, went to the laundromat, put all the clothes away, and made the bed with freshly laundered sheets!

Celebrating: I have completed a year of therapy--it's bittersweet to finish the program.

Grateful for: vacation week!

Enjoying: my feeling of motivation

Weather:  26° and mostly cloudy

A quote I want to share: 

finished re-reading

My niece and I are having another buddy-read, well, re-read for me, because we want to watch the Netflix movie.  Since it's a re-read for me, I'll post my original thoughts... I have no new insights to add...

There is surprising depth to this chick-lit.  At first, I wasn't sure about the narrative structure of flashbacks alternating with "this summer," but it worked.  The characters are well-developed although sometimes the main character-narrator Poppy annoyed me.  She's self-centered and slightly dishonest, but her character evolves by the end of the book.  I liked the will-they-or-won't-they, opposites attract, friends to lovers tropes.  I especially loved the inside jokes that Poppy and Alex maintain on their travel adventures.  Lots of witty banter.

From the publisher:

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

sunday stealing

 

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Things I Love Beginning with S

1.  Summer.  As a teacher, it's my time to recharge.

2. Snuggling. I loved snuggling with my dog, Mopsie, or with Dad's dog, Maggie.

3. Songs.  This week, I've been listening to "silly love songs" in honor of Valentine's Day.  A lot of classic music that my students had never heard before.

4.  Studying.  I love learning.  Thinking about thinking.  Creating lesson plans.

5. Sisters.  My three older sisters.  And the friends who are sisters of my heart.

6. Sunday Stealing, of course! 

postsecret

 

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I like to post one that speaks to me each week.