finished reading

Listening to Dr. Jill Biden’s memoir felt like sitting down for a long, honest conversation. Going into the book, I didn’t know much about the former First Lady beyond her dedication to education. Having spent my own career in the classroom, I immediately connected with her love of teaching and her determination to continue doing the work she loved.

I really enjoyed getting a peek behind the curtain at the whirlwind of life in the East Wing. She was balancing a full-time teaching career with official duties, public expectations, and family life. Throughout the book, she comes across as warm, funny, practical, and very human. I found her surprisingly relatable.

For me, though, the most powerful parts of the book come near the end, when she writes openly about some incredibly difficult moments for her family. Her reflections on Hunter’s legal troubles, the painful aftermath of the presidential debate, and the difficult decisions surrounding President Biden’s decision to leave the race give the reader a very personal look at history. These are events most of us watched unfold in the news, but she experienced them as a wife and a mother.

Ultimately, this felt less like a political memoir to me and more like a book about family, resilience, service, and trying to hold onto the people and things you love while living a very public life. I came away feeling like I knew Jill Biden much better than I did when I started, and I’m glad I read it.

From the publisher:

Jill Biden became First Lady at a complicated moment in US history, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the shadow of the January 6 insurrection. These were the circumstances under which she set up office in the East Wing, where she hit the ground running. Throughout her husband’s presidency, Jill remained a tireless advocate for her causes, including women’s health, military families, vaccine awareness, cancer initiatives, and education. She made history as the first-ever First Lady to hold an outside job while her husband was in office, continuing to work as a professor at a nearby community college. Yet all the while, she saw herself as an ordinary woman living an extraordinary life.

In View from the East Wing, Jill shares her White House experiences for the first time, in her own words. She reflects on the Biden presidency and its impact on her family. She brings you behind the scenes, from Camp David to Air Force One, from grading papers in the Rose Garden to witnessing the abrupt end of her husband’s bid for reelection. This is the story of a woman dedicated to her roles as a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher—and First Lady of the United States.

sunday stealing

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True or False

1. I'm married.  False

2. I'm raising a teenager. True--actually, I'm raising 113 this year.

3. I recently vacationed in California. False, it was Virginia.

4. I have traveled to Asia. False

5. I have a dog. False, sadly.

6. I received money from a class action settlement. False.

7. I've been in the waiting room when a family member had surgery. True.

8. I have attended a convention. True.

9. I subscribe to my local newspaper (either print or online). False.

10. I recently had work done to the exterior of my home. False.

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.

saturday 9

Devil in the Bottle

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

1) This song begins with T. G. Sheppard taking off his shoes to slip into the house with disturbing his sleeping wife. Are you wearing shoes as you answer these questions? no

2) His wife hears him anyway. Are you a light sleeper? yes

 

3) This is the first of 22 consecutive #1 hits for T. G. Sheppard. Not bad for a high school dropout. What's the last year of education that you completed? I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education with a concentration in Social Studies; however, I have 30 years of teaching experience + credentials for teaching College Board courses and am considered adjunct faculty at the local university

 

4) He was born William Browder and chose the stage name T. G. Sheppard just because he liked the sound of it. He says "T. G." doesn't stand for anything, and he gets a kick out of fans who insist there's some secret meaning behind the initials. Since most of us didn't choose our names: Is there a story behind your name? Did your parents tell you why they chose it? (If you did choose your name, share what influenced your decision.) my first name is after my maternal grandmother and my middle name is after my paternal grandfather (and I love my name)

 

5) It was after hours at a Memphis roller rink when he first met Elvis and his entourage. As T. G. was leaving, Elvis was entering and asked if he wanted to stay and skate longer. T. G. was confused because he knew the place was closing for the night. "Not for me," Elvis replied and T. G. skated with Elvis and his buddies until dawn. Are you good on roller skates? noooooo

6) T. G. loves NASCAR and was an associate sponsor of the Folgers Chevrolet. He enjoyed the collaboration with the coffee company and has performed the familiar jingle – "the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup" – in concert. Are you loyal to a particular coffee brand? not especially

 

7) T. G. understands the lifestyle of his fans. That's why he named his live country music venue Guitars and Cadillacs. If you were going to name a business after two of your favorite things, what would you call it? books and yarn

 

8) In 1974, when this week's song was on the country charts, Linda Ronstadt was getting a lot of radio airplay with "You're No Good." That song is about a real cad. Let's turn that around: Who is the nicest person you know? oh gosh--that's a hard question to answer!  I only know nice people.

 

9) Random question: Have you ever had your palm read? yes, but it was in Spanish and no hablo español

finished reading

Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for this book. Based on the synopsis, I was expecting a glorious, messy meltdown, but instead, it felt more like a slow wallow in self-doubt and self-pity. To be fair, the characters were very well developed. I just found the central friend group deeply self-indulgent and unlikable. I kept waiting for higher stakes: I wanted way more drama between Caroline Lash and her author mother, and I definitely wanted more angsty rants from Van to shake things up.  Maybe I wanted campy romps through the almost incestuous relationships.

From the publisher:

When Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, Massachusetts, she falls head-over-heels for Van Whittaker, a fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast with long, floppy hair and the personality of a Border collie. Born and raised in this picturesque coastal village, Van runs with the same crowd he did as a His ex-girlfriend, Bailey, a beautiful girl who attracts men like moths to a flame; Augusta, old money, horsey, and snobbish; and Fran, surrounded by brothers and sons, too fed up with boys to ever consider marrying one.

Together, the group runs wild through the marshes, beaches, and bars of Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, spending long afternoons sunbathing with their children, and playing games the way they always have. But when Bailey discovers that she is pregnant with Van’s baby, the delicate balance of the group’s friendship is thrown off. Soon Caroline is cast out of the circle and what she does next—in a potent mix of fury and heartbreak—exposes long-held secrets and works the entire town of Greenhead into a lather. Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, the dawn of midlife, and a group of old friends finally growing up despite all their best efforts to the contrary.

school ties

 September 11, 2001 shattered my sense of how safe and predictable the world was. But amid the horror, I wanted my students to understand that when the world feels frightening, we can still choose connection. We wrote letters of friendship and support to schools near the attacks, and every school wrote back. Twenty-five years later, I still remember that lesson: we may be powerless to stop tragedy, but we are never powerless to reach toward one another.

sunday stealing

 

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Labor Day Questions

1) What’s something you want to do before summer slips away? I would like to join the Turtle group for a hike (they're the slower-paced, pretty flat-surfaced hikers)

2) What book are you currently reading? The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

3) What have you been listening to?  one of my nieces creates Spotify playlists for me and I'm listening to one of the first ones she made--a blast from the past

4) What shows or movies have you been watching? Taskmaster UK, which is absolutely outrageous; Big Brother season 28, and Ludwig

saturday 9

Workin' In The Coal Mine

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

1) In this song, Lee Dorsey sings that at 5:00 he's already on the job. What were you doing this morning at 5:00 AM? Saturday morning I was asleep at 5 o'clock--but then I went on a weekend getaway to Southern Maine!

2) He's worked so hard all week that he's too tired to enjoy his weekend. What are you doing for fun this holiday weekend? visiting with friends in Southern Maine 

3) Lee Dorsey was raised in Portland Oregon, home of the Portland Trailblazers. The NBA season kicks off next month. Do you have a favorite basketball team? the team at the school where I teach

 

4) This song was written by Allen Toussaint, who had a long career as a composer and producer. He produced Fats Domino in the late 1950s and worked with Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney into the new millennium. What job have you held the longest? this is my 29th year at my current position--and also my final!

 

5) In 1966, the year this song was popular, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey was born. Are you a good cook? passable but enthusiastic

6) 1966 was the year when more Americans purchased color TVs and black and white sets. When you were a kid, did your family have a black and white TV? we did--in the basement which was really the "girls' playroom"

7) Labor Day is a big weekend for mattress sales. Do you plan on buying a new mattress before the year is out? no, my mattress is relatively new

8) Though kids go back to class earlier these days, store aisles are still full of school supplies. When she was a little girl, Sam was crazy about her big box of 96 Crayola Crayons with a sharpener in the back. Share one of your back-to-school memories. oh--the new notebooks to decorate were the best!

9) Labor Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of fall. Have you had any pumpkin spice yet? yes!  We were shopping at the outlets in Freeport on Sunday, and I got some Pumpkin Spice Lindor Truffles after having a sample

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.

finished reading

I’ll be honest: this was almost a DNF for me. The pacing was uneven; at times dragging on endlessly, only to pick up for a brief stretch before slowing down again.

Despite the sluggish plot, the character work keeps it grounded. It's a coming-of-age story set in 1970s Yorkshire, England, against the dark backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders. The protagonist, Miv, is delightful as she navigates the transition from childhood to adolescence. Her self-consciousness, curiosity, and naivety are richly developed. Driven to help find the killer, Miv starts a "List of Suspicious Things": a project that turns a sharp eye on her neighbors and gradually unravels community secrets.

If the pacing were tighter, I would have loved this book. Still, it deserves credit for how delicately it handles heavy themes, including domestic abuse, systemic racism, prejudice, and mental health.

From the publisher:

'What if we decided to try and find him?'

'What on earth are you on about?' she said. 'How are we going to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, when the police haven't even managed to?'

I sighed. Her questioning my ideas was a recent and unwelcome element to our friendship. But it was a valid point. How would we catch him? We needed some sort of plan, a way of gathering clues and putting them into order.

I thought about what the policeman had said about structure, and then about Aunty Jean and her notebook, and the idea I had hardened like toffee. I knew exactly what we needed to do.

'We'll make a list,' I said. 'A list of the people and things we see that are suspicious.

And then . . . And then we'll investigate them.'

The List of Suspicious Things is a tender and moving coming of age story about family, friendship and community. Sometimes the strongest connections are found in the most unlikely of places.

three on thursday

 

Thing 1:  I finally finished the book I wasn't enjoying.  The pacing was off, but it definitely picked up during the last third!

Thing 2:  today is my Friday for school.  I have another eye treatment tomorrow, so I took the day.  I'm usually so uncomfortable that all I can do is rest after the injection.

Thing 3:  this is going to be a very fun-filled weekend!  I'm staying with my dearest friend, Sue, and her family.  And Sunday, we'll be going to Chebeague Island to visit another dear friend, Piper.  It will be a whirlwind!

currently

I am...

Reading: I just realized that I am not enjoying the book I'm currently reading.  So, why not DNF it?  I've invested so much time in it already; I may as well finish.

Listening to: the ringing in my ears

Thinking:  about nothing in particular

Feeling:  happy tired

Celebrating:  today was a very good day

Grateful for: getting back into the groove of school

Enjoying:  I felt comfortable in my outfit today

Weather:  65° and sunny

A quote I want to share: 

happy day 31

8/31: Today I am happy.  I woke up happy; the weather is perfect; I had meaningful conversations while on morning duty; classes went well; and I'm home on my comfy couch.

More importantly--where did the month go?