I hope you folks have had a good holiday. Now we aim toward New Year's Eve. So fun filler posts for now.
Magic!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas
Peace and love
My heart does go out to the tornado victims/towns/families, etc who are suffering from such terrible destruction. I realize I am posting this under a wine meme, but that is the vast weirdness of the season. I admit when watching the news, I thought of so many eagerly awaiting Christmas with houses decorated, presents bought, and plans for celebration. And boom - it's all gone and lives are lost.
That is humbling.
Peace to all
At age fifteen, I began to work. I wanted my OWN money to spend or save as I pleased. At seventeen, I couldn't wait to turn eighteen so I could work as summer help at Greene Tweed (where my father worked and they hired college kids) and earn union wages. Damn! I was raking in the bucks.
At twenty-one, I moved to Texas fresh out of college, so green, eager to be all corporate. Oh yeah - I had the padded shoulder power suits. Evenings, studied and got my MBA. Ready for my career!
Pretty soon, I realized I wanted to do a good job and I did. BUT, I did not want to work a zillion hours, kiss butt, or play the game that hard. So I settled into the regular rat race. Changed jobs a few times. Earned decent money.
Now after fifteen years at Omega Research, I retired as of Friday 12/17/21.
It is Monday December 20th and I can throw away the clock. No 6 am alarm (unless I'm up to catch a plane to an exotic location). No gulping lunch in fifteen to thirty minutes. Time is on my side now baby. I am in control.
I can take a walk, take a nap, sweep the patio, sit on the patio, do nothing, dream of everything.
Look out world - another young senior is loose.
I love this man's writing, and now he's written a hilarious novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s. (cover blurb)
Great opening line Ray Carney was only slightly bent even when it came to being crooked...
Ray sells furniture, makes a decent living, loves his family. But few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his facade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. (cover blurb)
Ray gets pulled into a deal with his ne-er do well cousin Freddie. He senses this is going to blow up, and yet he could use some cash. Ray the striver versus Ray the crook. It's a double life and you are going along for the ride uptown and downtown, as Ray maneuvers between shady cops, local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and a Harlem backdrop.
Great writing. Rich characters. Humor. Hubris. Harlem. Colson Whitehead with Harlem Shuffle has pulled off another winner. p. 244 One thing I've learned in my job is that life is cheap, and when things start getting expensive, it gets cheaper still.
I love stories that take place with a book backdrop. Throw in Australia as a setting. I am hooked.
The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman is a gorgeously written, gentle spirited, and wise novel that reminds each of us that love, literature, and forgiveness have the power to transform our lives, and - if we dare allow them - to mend our broken hearts. (back blurb)
1968, rural Australia. Tom Hope was dumped and divorced by what he thought was a true love. Forlorn, he meets Hannah Babel, a Hungarian immigrant who's determined to open a bookshop and get folks to read. Tom builds shelves for her but is wary of her intellect and energy. She's a force of nature with some dark secrets and a past that had her in Auschwitz. Love finds a way with these two opposites.
You will love how this book unfolds. You'll bask in the glow of happy times. You'll root for these two during dark times. I highly recommend The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted.
cover blurb This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.
I enjoyed reading this book and indeed, Will Smith, is loyal to his family, friends, and his work and goals. The book gets a bit preachy, a bit full of itself, but I could take it with a grain of salt. Will Smith likes Will Smith - hey, he has every right to brag. Even when he's being humble, even when he's at the bottom, he is still Will Smith. It's easy to judge from this chair. I don't know the man and have not lived his life under the microscope of public scrutiny. It can't be easy.
But his memoir is a glimpse into a megastar's life. He's not lazy and he's a man with plans. We'll see how they turn out.
Take care and do take a moment for yourselves during this holiday season - take a walk, sit on a bench, have a break. Enjoy the little things.
Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards
The galleries were filled with watercolors, prints, oils, and photography. So many talented people. I appreciated this touring exhibition. I may have to go to my library to actually take the time to read and peruse these children's books.
However, third book's a charm. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney kept me interested and engaged. Alice, a novelist; Felix, a warehouse worker; Eileen, an editor; and Simon, a handsome lawyer; are a mix of new and old friends with complicated histories. These folks have some depth to them. Back blurb - They are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the world they live in.
p.18 Alice: I'm feeling a little loose and dissociative. It's April and the leaves aren't drifting.
p.95 Alice: If novelists wrote honestly about their own lives, no one would read novels.
p.162 Eileen: On writing notes in a daily diary - There was something delicate about living like that - like I was an instrument, and the world touched me and reverberated inside me.
The characters felt very real and raw. They were concerned about today's world and yet not sure what to do about it. They were seeking stronger roots, perhaps even starting families.
Back blurb: Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Words to ponder as we read our news, continue our lives, and worry about the future. Solid novel Ms. Rooney.
This book reads like he is hanging out on your patio, drinking a beer (or two or many) and just chatting. It goes back and forth from childhood to present day, as he recounts his life in music. Drumming was in his bones - even when he was beating on a pillow. He memorized music and played along to beats in his head. Never great at school, a pivotal life choice was dropping out and joining the band Scream on tour. From there he never looked back, except when he was starving and tired and questioning himself.
Dave Grohl oozes honesty in this tale of music and his life. He doesn't back down from questionable decisions or reflect on some stuff that could have gone differently. He is a family man now and his heart is on his sleeve when it comes to his mother (he's very close), his wife and girls. He basks in his luck and is in awe of some choices he made, some people he met, and the sheer drama that is life.
Cool dude, that's all I can say. Great sense of humor. He's a Foo Fighter, a husband, and a man who loves life. I highly recommend his book, Dave Grohl, The Storyteller.
back blurb: Drawing on the voices of the women who lived it- women who are now in their eighties and nineties - The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women, their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage.
I had no idea what all went into the building of the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. This book is fascinating as it truly goes behind the scenes and gives snippets of the action. It also shows how women and men from all walks of life truly worked together for the sake of America. Loose lips could sink ships, as the saying goes back then. Oak Ridge, TN was an amazing hub for history. Excellent, eye-opening book.
