Book of June

 I only read one book in June because I started a 700 page novel and I'm not finished yet.  But I did read The Measure.  Imagine this:  On your doorstep one March morning you find a small wooden box with your name on it and the words "The measure of your life lies within."  You soon learn that every adult in the world has found a similar box.  What's inside?  A string.  The strings are varied only in length.  The length of your string tells how long you will live  The novel follows eight characters and how they react to their strings.  I enjoyed this, not necessarily for the writing, but for the premise.  What would you do if you received such a box?  Open it or not? How would you lead the rest of your life?  And what will happen to society when people divide themselves into long stringers and short stringers?  Interesting book.  

My New Favorite Book

 Yes, it's a picture book, but the main character's name is Thelma, so why not.  It's a story in rhyme, perfect to read with pre-k. kids to second graders.  And it's great because it has a lesson and it should lead to discussion afterward.  Enjoy (even if your name isn't Thelma).

Recommendations for Summer Reads

S

 Some of these are recent reads; some I've enjoyed in the past. ]

A Marriage Portrait by Maggie O' Farrell, inspired by the poem "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning.

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro Two families; one night.  A constellation of lives changed forever.

i'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid   A weird story that begins with a strange phone call.

The Thursday Murder Club  by Richard Osman  A group of senior citizens solves murders

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf  A widow knocks on a widowed neighbor's door with an unusual request.  Or you can watch the movie with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford

The Choice by Edith Eger  An inspiring memoir by an Auschwitz survivor

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou  The story of Elizabeth Holmes and her infamous company, Theranos

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe  The story of the Sackler family's pharmaceutical company and how their greed started the opioid epidemic

To read to little ones:

Big Dog Little Dog by P.D. Eastman

For elementary schoolers

Freckle Juice by Judy Blume  A second grader wants freckles.  Will this recipe work?

CDB by William Steig Can your kids translate these letters into real words?  This one becomes See the Bee

For older elementary schoolers

Bridge to Terabithia by Kathleen Paterson  An award winning story of a friendship between young neighbors

Are You There, God?  It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume  The Iconic Story of a Girl on the Cusp of Adolescence

                                                Happy Reading!

We'll Always Have 

 

Memorial Day Quotes

 

                                                                            

                                                                             

Birthday May 23, 2023 and Others I Remember

A Birthday Present from My Daughter

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Birthday.  May 23, the day I of my birth.  I imagine Mother's relief as I slip from her womb and she hears my first cry.  Her first pregnancy ended in a stillbirth.

Birthday party.  Pinatas and presents and ice cream and cake.  The year I am four, a friend gets sick and has to cancel her birthday party.  Oh no, I think.  Without a party, she won't get any older.

Birthday.  The warmth of spring.  May 23 is the first day each year that I'm allowed to go barefoot outside, feel the prickly grass on my feet and smell the magnolias blooming in our yard.

Birthday.  May 22,  the day my baby sister is born, ripped from Mother's belly by Caesarian section.  While Mother is in the hospital, a bird flies down our chimney and swoops around our living room, resulting in my lifelong fear of birds.

Birthday.  The year I am 20, when I should be celebrating the transition from teenager to adult, but I am lying flat on my stomach in the women's burn ward at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, awaiting the next skin graft.

Birthday.  August 28, the day ny daughter is born, an exhilarating and day when I become responsible for another human being, who would teach me how to be a mother.

Birthday, April 9, the day my son is born, all 9 lb. 13 1/2 oz. of him.  Hard to believe he just turned 60.

Birthday.  November 26, Thanksgiving, the day my granddaughter is born and I watch her dash into the world.

Birthday.  My 70th, spent alone while my husband is in the hospital, slowly dying from leukemia.  This is my worst birthday.

Birthday 2023.  I hope to enjoy all the birthdays I have left.

Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret

 This is the perfect mother/daughter movie.  Perfect for a middle schooler, older teen or even a daughter of a "certain age."  Long ago, we both read Judy Blume's classic novel about a seventh grade girl whose family moves to New Jersey.  There she is immediately befriended by a neighbor girl and invited to join a secret club.  At their weekly meetings the four girls discuss...what else?  Boys, bras, and their periods. Who will get hers first?  Who will be first to "become a woman?"  On her own, Margaret pours our her concerns about religion to God.  Her parents have an interfaith marriage, Margaret doesn't know which religion to choose.  Her search for religion and her preteen/early teen angst make a delightful movie.  My daughter and I chuckled throughout and remembered our own thoughts and concerns at Margaret's age.  

Will this book be allowed in schools today, given its themes on development and on religion?  What do you think?

Leaving Your Legacy

I discovered the importance of legacy letters, once called ethical wills, from a sidebar in the AARP magazine.  These are documents you write in your own words, often to leave to your family to be read after you're gone.  Or they can be letters to someone on a special occasion--to a newborn, to a new graduate, to a couple on their wedding.  Maybe you've always thought that someday you are going to do this, but somehow you've never gotten around to it.  Don't wait!  

I have been giving Legacy Letter workshops for the past several years, and they never fail to inspire.  In June, I'll be doing one for the West University Senior Center.  If you're around, I hope you'll come.

Here is an example of my favorite legacy letter of all the many I've read.  It was written by Sam Levinson, a former high school math teacher who became a beloved stand-up comic:

     To my children and children everywhere:

I leave you my unpaid debts.  Everything I own, I owe:

To America I owe the opportunity to be free and to be me.

To my parents I owe America.  They gave it to me and I leave it to you.  Take good care of it.

To the biblical tradition I owe the belief that man does not live by bread alone, nor does he live alone at all.  This is also the democratic tradition.  Preserve it.

To the six million of my people and the thirty million other humans who died because of man's inhumanity to man, I owe a vow that it must never happen again.

I leave you not everything I never had but everything I had in my lifetime:  a good family, respect for learning, compassion for my fellow man and some four letter words for all occasions: words like help, give, care, feel and love.

The Best Author Talk Ever!

 Monday, Leila Motley, author of Nightcrawling, the youngest Booker Prize finalist ever, captivated the sold-out Alley theater audience with a reading from Nightcrawling, her debut novel about a young, impoverished woman caught up in a sexual abuse scandal involving officers from the Oakland police department.  She gave a short reading but what was really impressive was her own background story. She has lived every writer's dream. Writing from "as soon as I learned to write," probably around seven years old, she sold Nightcrawling when she was 18. When she was enrolled in a literature class at Smith College, she mentioned to her professor, acclaimed author Ruth Ozeki, that she'd written a novel.  Ozeki asked to see it and when she read the manuscipt, referred Motley to her own agent. 13 editors clamored to buy it and at the book auction, Oprah appeared.  She'd read the manuscript and wanted to feature this teenager's book on her show.  Can you believe this is real?  The book came out last year, became an instant best seller and was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize. What was equally amazing was this young woman's poise during the interview after her reading.  She pointed out that at many events, she's too young to join the other presenters at a bar.  She says she's not too worried about the proverbial "sophomore slump" that many authors experience when their second books don't live up to the promise of the first.  Nightcrawling is raw and gritty and at times almost painful to read, but who cares?  It's one in a million.  What will Leila Motley accomplish in the next five or ten years, I'm expecting great things. 

INPRINT SENIOR MEMBER WORKSHOP CELEBRATION: A READING

                              You're invited to a reading at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center 

                                                     5601 S. Braeswood, Board Room, 1st Floor

                                                                Sunday, April 23 at 3:00 pm

                                                    Tickets are free but reservations required

Join us to celebrate the stories of the senior memoir class as we give readings of our work, sharing pieces                                   about our lives, families, communities and neighborhoods.

Cathing Up

 Where have I been these last few months?  Sick most of January (not COVID, an infection), working on a writing project in February and on taxes in March,  But now it's April and I am ready to catch up.

First, Happy 60th birthday to my son Michael.  He checked and it's the only time in his whole life that his birthday has been on Easter.  But it's always on Passover.  We're having a family luncheon to celebrate next Saturday.

Between bouts of illness and writing and taxes, I watched the Oscars--disappointing. Everything, or Anywhere or Whatever made no sense to me.  I watched March Madness--disappointing.  The Houston Cougars bombed out and so did the Texas Longhorns.

I have been streaming Yellowjackets (spoiler alert--they feasted on their friend) and Succession (another spoiler alert--Logan Roy is dead)  I've read a great non-fiction book, Underlands.  It's beautifully written but you have to be interested in what lies under the earth and the oceans and cities and bridges.  I loved it!  I read just one novel--Kane and Abel, about two men whose paths cross throughout their lifetimes.  

My memoir class is doing a reading at the JCC on April 23 at 3:00.  My essay is House of Memories.

Holiday Wishes

Kwanza

Christmas

                                                                  Chanukah
 Whichever holiday you celebrate, may you find peace and joy on these sacred days and may you enjoy a happy, healthy stress-free 2023.

Books of November

 Signal Fires. An emotional family story about an unspoken secret that affects the lives of each famly member.  Highly recommended.

Spelling Bee for Grown-ups

West University Senior Spelling Bee, November 23, 2022

As soon as my daughter saw this event on the West U schedule, she called and offered to sign me up.  I said okay. I figured I was a shoo-in.  After all, I've been writing for years and I can spell any word included in Harlequin romance novels.

 The contest was scheduled at 12:30 on the day before Thanksgiving.  I imagine this was because seniors leave the cooking to their children, so they aren't very busy and this gives us something to do while everyone else is preparing the next day's meal.

Alas, I bombed out on my first word:  "bouillon."  Who knows how to spell that?

Luckily, there were two more rounds and I won the second with such words as 
?hiatus," "pneumonia," "cliche" (Any romance writer would know that one.) and "municipality." Not to brag, but I could spell everyone else's words, too.\

If I knew how to transfer a picture from my phone to my computer, I would include the one of the sash and crown I received as well as a prize--a book of stamps.  

The bee was great fun and after it was over, I took my daughter to lunch.  I plan to compete again next year.

I think a spelling bee at Brazos Towers would be a good idea for 2023.

Kindness (Coninued)

Two more examples of kindness:

I recently received a message from a parent whose son I worked with some years ago, letting me know how well he was doing in school.  She said she wasn't sure I'd remember him, but I did.  (I remember almost all of the children I saw for speech therapy...and that's a lot of kids.)O
 

I am often asked to visit with speech pathology majors or recent graduates.  I'm always happy to meet with them.  Occasionally I'm also asked to talk to aspiring writers, and I enjoy doing that as well.

Books of October

 The Marriage Portrait.  My favorite book so far this year.  Inspired by Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" and bolstered by extensive research, Maggie O'Farrell, author of Hamnet, has created a story about the young duchess married to a ruthless duke, who only wants a wife to give birth to an heir.

Hidden Pictures.  A recovering addict is given a chance a redemption when she gets a job a nanny to five-year-old Teddy who loves to draw.  When his pictures become frightening, she wonders if his drawings are inspired by the ghost of a woman who died in the guest house where the nanny is living.  You would really have to suspend your disbelief to "get" this story.  C+

Kindness Project (continued)

Two more examples of kindness I have experienced:

Gayle, who managed our office at Associated Speech and Language Services was one of the kindest people I've known..  She always made clients and their kids feel welcome and became friends with many of the parents.  She was willing to listen, both to clients and to me.  Whenever a deadline of some sort came up, she'd always say gently, "I'm reminding you that..."  She drove me home once when I had an attack of diverticulitis and even made a trip back to the office late one evening from her home near Galveston to return my car keys she'd accidentally picked up.  I always enjoyed our birthday dinners at the Saltgrass Steakhouse and miss her now that she's moved back home to Seattle.

A few weeks ago I was at the checkout counter at Kroger's paying for a 14 pound box of cat litter when the woman behind me said that she and her daughters would be happy to help me load my groceries into my car.  Not only that, but they offered to follow me home and carry the groceries inside.  What a good deed!
 

Kindness Project (continued)

 Continuation of acts of kindness I have received, given or observed:

After my husband died, Michelle Lynn, a speech pathologist colleague, sent me a book titled "Healing After Loss"  that contained daily readings to comfort someone grieving a loss.  I read each day's entry and found it so comforting that I've sent copies of the book to family or friends who have suffered a loss of someone dear.  I will never forget Michelle's act of kindness.

Coffee ice cream is my comfort food.  When I mentioned to my doctor during the pandemic that HEB was out of it and of course, I couldn't go out to other stores to look for any, she stopped by on her way to run errands with two pints of Hagen Daz coffee.  That made my day!

The Kindness Project continued

 As I wrote several weeks ago, the Kindness Project pairs seniors with college freshman.  We are asked to think of ten examples of kindness we have received, given or observed--one each week of the project.  

 I met Marilyn at a romance writers' meeting.  We both became part of a critique group composed of six aspiring romance writers.  Soon Marilyn and I became close friends.   Here  are two of her many acts of kindness toward met:

Several days before my husband died, he had to have his will notarized--I can't recall why he hadn't done so before.  The notary from my attorney's office came to the hospital and explained to Ralph what was needed.  Marilyn had just stepped into the room for a brief visit before she and I were to go to dinner.  Ralph was woozy and weak when the notary handed him the document.  Marilyn, an  occupational therapist, noticed his difficulty with the pen and said, "Here, Ralph, let me position your hand."  She essentially guided him through his signature.  I have never forgotten this act of kindness.

Two years ago, I had major surgery. Marilyn heard about my operation through a mutual friend.  By then she had moved to Portland, Oregon, but she called and offered to come to Houston to take care of me.  Although I was getting along well, I am forever grateful for her offer.

Books of September

 The Things We Cannot Say:  This story alternates between the past and the present.  Alina, a young girl in war-torn Poland, and her fiance Thomaz, yearn to escape their country but circumstances intefere.  Eventually, Alina is able to make her way across the Russian border, but she must leave her lover behind.  In present day America, Alina, now known as Hannah, is dying but she begs her granddaughter Alice to go to Poland and find Thomaz.  Alice has her own problems, a shaky marriage, a non-verbal autistic son and an academically advanced daughter, but she makes it her mission to travel to Poland, and there she uncovers the story of her grandmother's early life.  In turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, this is a memorable story.

Carrie Soto is Back:  I am a tennis fan, so when I saw a book about a former tennis star making a comeback, trying to break her own winning Grand Slam record, I thought, "This is a book for me."  Alas, no.  The main character is unlikeable, and we are treated to every move, every thought in every tennis match in the story.  If you lke to read the details of every ball toss, every serve, lob, volley, down-the-line or cross court return, you might like this book.  I love watching tennis, but reading about every point bored me out of my mind.  Does Carrie win another Grand Slam?  Who cares?

We Remember Them

Monday evening is the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.  It is a time to ask forgiveness for our sins and also a time to remember those loved ones who are no longer with us.  This poem encapsulates our feelings for those who were with us in life and whom we remember in death.

In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them.

         In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.

       In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember them.

       In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.

      In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember them.

     In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember them.

     When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember them.

     When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember them.

     When we have joys we yearn to share, we remember them.

     So long as we live, they too shall live for they are now a part of us, as we 

           remember them.