August '25 Books

 Another ten books month....

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel is about the men and woman who worked to retrieve and save the European artworks stolen and hidden by Hitler during WWII. George L. Stout, an Iowan from Winterset, was extremely instrumental in their successes.  

Mean Streak, Low Pressure, and Blood Moon by Sandra Brown are three more of her books that I've been reading. These pretty much all follow the same formulaic - romantic suspense, action, intrigue - eye candy for the mind.

The Listeners is the first book I've read by Maggie Stiefvater. It is based on true happenings during WWII. I never knew that diplomats from Germany, Italy and Japan who were in the US when war was declared with those countries, were confined to large luxury hotels until they could be exchanged with the U.S. diplomats in their respective countries. As I've said before, I really enjoy novels based on true historical events.

South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver is the latest in his Colter Shaw series. It is a race against the clock to save a flooding town from total disaster when the protecting levee begins failing. 

The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters is the first book I've read by this author and the first YA book I've read for some time. The setting is San Diego in the middle of the 1918 influenza epidemic. 

The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas takes place in a small Colorado mining town in 1880. It follows a respected midwife as she cares for mothers and their babies until she is accused of murdering one of the newborns. I have always liked books set in previous times. The surprise for me in this one was that I thought I had read all of the Sandra Dallas books at my library. Now I have.

Zero Days by Ruth Ware is about a husband and wife team who are hired by companies to test their security systems. When the wife finds her husband murdered, she is the prime suspect. Before she can be arrrested she works to stay ahead of the law while trying to find the real killer. I didn't care for the first book I read by this author, The Woman In Cabin 10, but I did like this one.

We Are All Guilty Here is by one of my favorite authors - Karin Slaughter. This is the first new book of her's that my library has gotten since 2020 and the first in her new North Falls series. Set in a small town where everyone knows everyone until two teenage girls are murdered and they realize they didn't know their neighbors at all. As much as I enjoyed her Will Trent series, I think this new series might be even better. 

Until next month, wishing you all a Happy Labor Day.

Perseids Meteor Showers

Did you catch any falling stars during the Perseids meteor showers earlier this week? Perhaps - if you are a night owl and younger than I am. It's been a long time since I put down a blanket, laid back and watched for the annual show. But there is this:

Nocturne II By W.S. Merwin

August arrives in the dark

we are not even asleep and it is here
with a gust of rain rustling before it
how can it be so late all at once
somewhere the Perseids are falling
toward us already at a speed that would
burn us alive if we could believe it
but in the stillness after the rain ends
nothing is to be heard but the drops falling
one at a time from the tips of the leaves
into the night and I lie in the dark
listening to what I remember
while the night flies on with us into itself

The Details You Learn From Reading

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good

She was very very good,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

My mother used to recite as well as sing this little poem to my sister and me. She could have changed it to boy if she wasn't concerned about it rhyming, as both my brothers had curlier hair than Betty and I. 

The amazing, to me, fact is that this wasn't just a little ditty made up in the 30's or 40's, it was a poem written by none other than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And I didn't know that, would probably have never known that, had it not been for the book I am currently reading. 

Being able to read, enjoying doing so, unimaginable what my life would have been without those.

From KRNT to KCCI - A 70th Anniversary Celebration

From the time I moved to Des Moines in 1968 until moving back to SW Iowa in 1995, I was a staunch Channel 8 viewer. So this week I have been enjoying the "Where Are They Now?" clips of former KCCI staffers as they come back to help celebrate the station's 70th anniversary. 

This morning I watched part of Eric Hanson's "This is Iowa" 60-minute special featuring clips from the past and interviews from then and now. 

Dolph Pulliam hasn't changed much but I did not recognize Mary Brubaker in this picture. I attended many Drake basketball games in '68-'69 where Pulliam helped lead his team to the Final Four. Later I watched him as a broadcaster on KCCI.

I also watched The Mary Brubaker show where she interviewed local and national celebrities and featured medical, political, home improvement, and fashion news as well as cooking segments.

I was once a very nervous guest on her show but for the life of me I can't remember why. I certainly was not any kind of celebrity and I wasn't a good cook with some new recipe. I vaguely remember wearing a jumpsuit on the program. They were popular at the time and I had sewn several for myself. Or was it for a makeover or a new hairdo? Maybe some day I will recall the reason. In the meantime, I'm going to watch the rest of Eric Hanson's special. 

July '25 Books

 Ten books read in July.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is the first book I've read by this author and a Reese's Book Club pick. I don't think of myself as an Anglophile, but it does seem that English movies, books and TV programs are smarter - better story telling than American fare. This was my favorite fiction read of the month.

All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett is also a Reese's Book Club choice.  A Smith College scholarship graduate from a working class background moves to London to pursue a master's in literature. She falls in with the upper class. Billed as a Jane Austen inspired 'coming of age' book

Sting and Overkill are two more of the books by Sandra Brown that I'm reading my way through.

We All Live Here is the newest novel by Jojo Moyes. When I saw my first book by her, I didn't think it would have much substance. I realize I was basing that entirely on her first name. I'm so glad I read that book anyway and many more since. She is a great writer. The 'all' living in a house that is in need of much repair includes her two daughters and her step-father - then her wayward, absent for thirty-five years, father shows up. This is such a fun, serious, thoughtful read about what it means to be family.

Isola is by Allegra Goodman a new author for me. Not only a Reese's Book Club pick, it was one Bud picked that he thought I would like - based entirely on the cover - a woman standing high upon a cliff. It was a good read, inspired by the real life of a sixteenth century woman.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is by another new author for me, V.E. Schwab. It tells the stories of three young women living in different centuries. It is not a book I would have read had I not been so far into it before realizing it was about vampires. However, it was well written and interesting and I hate to give up on a book once I've started it.

Friction is another of the many Sandra Brown books I've been reading.

Remember Us by Robert M. Edsel begins with Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands May 10, 1940 and follows the lives of twelve main characters over a six-year span mostly set in the small rural province of Limburg. This is my favorite non-fiction book this month barely edging out....  

Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto - a book of The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America. Also non-fiction, but not quite as well written as the previously mentioned one. 

What totally got my attention on the first page was the footnote: *There are many names for the Indigenous people native to the region, including Lenape, Munsee, Munsee Lenape, Lennie Lenape, Delaware.

Lennie Lenape - that was the name of the tribe my 7x great-grandfather was a chieftan of - which made the book even more interesting. And there he was on page 94 - Lenape chief Lapowinsa - the same photo, but in black and white, as the one I pictured on my April 27, 2024 blog "Meet My Native American 7xGreat-Grandfather".  This book was more about the Dutch and English than the native tribes but just finding this familial link made it more interesting to me. 

Incidentally, Bud picked these last two books for me, too, which reminds me - I should listen to him more often and I should be reading more non-fiction. 

It is time to head back to the library. I wonder what my August books read list will look like. 😉

Place to Be

How quickly July has passed - one more poem before August arrives:

Place to Be By Robert Creeley

Days the weather sits
in the endless sky,
the clouds drifting by

The winter's snow,
summer's heat,
same street.

Nothing changes
but the faces, the people,
all the things they do

'spite of heaven and hell
or city hall—
Nothing's wiser than a moment.

No one's chance
is simply changed by wishing,
right or wrong.

What you do is how you get along.
What you did is all it ever means.

Iowa's "Blind Pig Soap"

This morning a Facebook page about Iowa towns and their histories, which I follow, shared an old 1898 newspaper advertisement for Pearline Soap. I don't remember that laundry soap, but.....

.... it did prickle a memory of this soap, a bar of which was left behind on the basement shelves of the rental house we moved into near Des Moines in 1969.

I never used it, but knew the P and G stood for Proctor and Gamble - which led me to a 1917 ad for "P and G the White Naptha Soap" and an article that included part of a song written by Newfoundland folk singer.

Oh, you women folks of Newfoundland,
attend to what I say,
I mean to make it easy for you on washing day;
And when you use your washing soap,
I want you all to see,
When you’re taking off the wrapper
that it’s stamped with a “P G” 

The Proctor and Gamble Company was based in Cincinnati. In 1920 a resident there had just returned from a trip to Iowa. He reported that: "In Iowa, grocers say they sell more 'P-G' soap than any other kind. Iowa citizens call it Blind Pig Soap." Mystified as to why such a strange name would be given to the soap that made Cincinnati famous .... "because P-G soap has no I (eye)."

This 'Blind Pig Soap' story was new to me. It is the kind of factoid that I find informational and get a kick out of. 

It is also somewhat ironic - the first pig I raised after moving back home in '78 was Rupert. He really was blind.

Family Before Fireworks

We have two great-grandsons whose birthdays are June 30, Greyson, 10, and July 1, Ayden, 11, which makes them both ten years old for one day. 

Because their birthdays are close to the 4th of July celebrating them and Independence Day is usually combined.

It is always such a joy to see the little ones and mark how they have changed. Great-grandson, Henri, here with his mother, Kathryn, is the whose growth is most apparent. Last time we saw him he wasn't walking, now he is. And he just gets cuter and more personable each time we see him.

Henri's big brother, Louis, and his Dad, Travis, were enjoying some age appropriate fireworks.

Louis not only showed me his 'poppers', he shared one with me.

They didn't have to be lit, only thrown on pavement to POP.

Ten year old Greyson, always ready with a smile and hug.

 Ayden and Greyson playing in the water.

Louis and Henri doing the same thing. The slip and slide was new and they were all making the most of it.

The high temperatures and sunshine were perfect for their play.

Then Aunt Dominique got in on it.

I think she had as much fun - or more - than the boys did.

While all the fun was going on outside, Dominique's husband Ian was working away installing new ceiling tiles in his in-law's dining room.

I don't think there is much this guy can't do, and he does it willingly.

I think the young ones were going to move the fun to a pool, but it was time for the old folks to go home.

We live close enough to McKinley Lake/Park to see the fireworks from our deck.

Neither of us are big fireworks fans, see a few and that's enough. 

I took this picture through the window. 

Another birthday and 4th of July celebration in the books. 

Using Water To Make Pudding

I planned to take a couple of salads to the family 4th of July gathering tomorrow - my cauliflower and pea salad and lemon jello with crushed pineapple and mandarin oranges. Monday I bought what I needed. Yesterday I put together the pea salad except for the cheese because that doesn't get added until shortly before eating.

This morning I made the jello so it could partially set before adding the fruit.

While the water was heating, two boxes of jello went into a large bowl. I poured in two cups of boiling water and began stirring.

That's funny, the jello is already beginning to thicken.

 

That was when I realized I had purchased lemon pudding and pie filling, not gelatin.

At least I hadn't opened the cans of pineapple and oranges yet. 

Yes, I could have gone back to the store and gotten Jello gelatin, but didn't. I had said I would bring a salad or two. So one it is. Sorry kids.

In the meantime, I tasted the pudding mixture made with water instead of milk. It wasn't bad at all; edible in fact. Good to know in case I want pudding sometime and am out of milk.

I've known for some time now that I need to check and then double check everything I do before doing it. But really, those boxes look much alike, don't they? 

Hope you have a happy and safe 4th. For certain no one will be putting me in charge of the fireworks!   🎆🎇

The Path

 

The Path Through Dune and Memory (Kevin McManus)

The wind does not forget this place—

a whispering tongue in brittle grass,

where footsteps fade but never vanish,

etched in the lean of withered dune.

She walks the crooked, salt-blown path

as if returning from a dream,

the hem of night clinging to her coat,

hair swept like smoke toward forgotten skies.

Above, the crows rise in a scattered psalm,

a black benediction cast in flight.

They do not mourn, not truly—

only echo what has passed beneath.

No names are spoken here aloud,

only thought, half-formed and frail

like the bones of sea-washed driftwood

that line the trail with silent grace.

And still she walks—

not forward, not quite back,

but into that thin, wind-worn space

where the dead speak softest

and the living listen best

Kevin McManus is an Irish poet.

The photo is one I took on South Padre Island.

June '25 Books

 Only six books read this month.

Tell Me by Lisa Jackson is a book I picked up at a garage sale. It was an okay murder mystery, but not great.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is a warm, witty, and wise story about second chances. Tyler's books are always great. 

The World's Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini is the latest novel in her Elm Creek Quilts series. The story alternates between present day and the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Sisters Sylvia and Claudia Bergstrom decide to enter a quilt in the Sears National Quilt Contest which is part of the Worlds' Fair.

I have only read some of the Elm Creek Quilts series preferring Chiaverini's historical novels, but I did enjoy this book. I totally understood the rivalry between the two sisters. It reminded me of my own with my sister.

Thick As Thieves and ricochet are two more of the Sandra Brown mysteries I've been working my way through. 

Yesterday was the 125th anniversary of  the birth of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry which prompted me to reread The Little Prince - this one the 50th anniversary edition gifted me by my daughter on my 50th birthday. It has been years since my last reading - I had forgotten a lot. 

Summer is definitely upon us. I hope you are enjoying your summer days. 😊

The Ceremonies Of Our Passage

 "The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince)

Today is the quasquicentennial (125th) anniversary of the birth of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince - a book high on the list of my favorites but the only one of his books I've read. I had not realized he also wrote poetry - until today....

Generation To Generation

In a house which becomes a home,

one hands down and another takes up

the heritage of mind and heart,

laughter and tears, musings and deeds.

Love, like a carefully loaded ship,

crosses the gulf between the generations.

Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies

of our passage: when we wed, when we die,

and when we are blessed with a child;

When we depart and when we return;

When we plant and when we harvest.

Let us bring up our children. It is not

the place of some official to hand to them

their heritage.

If others impart to our children our knowledge

and ideals, they will lose all of us that is

wordless and full of wonder.

Let us build memories in our children,

lest they drag out joyless lives,

lest they allow treasures to be lost because

they have not been given the keys.

We live, not by things, but by the meanings

of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords

from generation to generation.

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

My first copy of The Little Prince looked like this:

I got it in the 1970's and hope I still have it somewhere though I can't put my hands on it right now. It is, I hope, in one of my boxes of books around here.

In 1993 this 50th anniversary edition of The Little Prince was released and I received a copy of it from my daughter because .....

....it was also the 50th anniversary of my birth.

And now, more than 80 years later, his warning rings truer, and louder, than ever. If you've never read The Little Prince, read it.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Why I Always Keep Ginger Ale on Hand

I'm posting this in case there are others who have the same problem I have, which is swallowing food - mostly meat, bread and raw carrots. It may or may not run in families, but my Mother had it and so does one of my great-grandsons, so it is not just an age related problem, though it seems mine didn't get really bad until I was older.

About a year ago I was eating a carrot and it got stuck on the way down. I tried to drink water, but could not even swallow that. I tried doing the finger down the throat to bring it back up and that didn't work. I wasn't choking, I just could not swallow. 

This went on for several hours. All I could do as the saliva built up was spit it out. I had just about decided I had to go to the ER and hope they could help me when Bud thought about seeing what the internet might suggest. Whether it said soda, carbonation or Ginger Ale, he suggested I try the Ginger Ale I had to see if I could swallow that. It worked! What was stuck went down. I was so relieved. 😌

How it works or why it works, I don't know and don't care - it just does! A sandwich is still what gives me the most problem, but all I have to do is drink some Ginger Ale and I'm fine.

This may seem like a strange thing to blog about, but if it helps even one other person, it is worth it. 😌

Everly Jane Is Growing Up

Our youngest great-grandchild was a month old the last time we saw her. So when grandson Devin said they would like to come down to see us this weekend, I was happily surprised.

I had seen photos and videos of her online, but that's not the same as seeing her in person. 

What a cute, happy little girl she is.

So much personality.

Me, grandson Devin, his wife Jessica and Everly.

The little ones grow and change so fast. I can't play with them as I did with my grandchildren, but I do love being around the great-grands.

This picture was going to be the "meeting of the minds" -  Everly and great-grandpa Bud with the two of them looking at each other and touching foreheads, but I didn't take the photo fast enough. 

While we were eating lunch, Everly crawled under the table.

It was something of a full circle moment for me. I remember playing under Grandpa & Grandma Lynam's table when I was about five or six. 

More than three-quarters of a century later, there was another little girl doing the same thing under the same table.

Youngest grandchild and youngest great-grandchild.  It was so nice to spend time with them. 

The Last of the Peasant Skirts

I missed out on the hippie peasant skirts during the 1960's (though I did wear bell-bottomed jeans) - instead I went all in on mini skirts.

I had a 3 pc. suit like this one - only mine was sunshine yellow. The first time I wore it to work Mom saw me walking toward the post office. She was appalled by the shortness of the skirt - then doubly dismayed when she realized it was her daughter wearing it. 

But I loved that suit as well as all my other mini skirts. Twenty some years later and the skirt lengths had moved to below the knee - more mid-calf and longer. I liked those lengths, too. Perhaps because I was older, but the long skirts really were my all time favorites. So much so that you can still find several of them hanging in my closet - though I seldom wear them. 

Denim was my favored fabric. I had a denim dress and several denim skirts. Yep, they're still in my closet too. The nostalgia for those times keep me from donating them.

Then there were my peasant skirts. I had so many of them - all prints except for two single color - one black and one bottle green. I liked their softness and the swishy feel of them. They were casual and laid back. Those I have donated, except for this one.  Other than to a wedding or two, I only wear slacks or jeans now, keeping a few skirts just in case.

The last time I wore my peasant skirt was to Xmas in July in 2018. Almost all my children, spouses, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there. We had a great time.

Here I am pictured with my step-son's partner, Juliet, and my daughter Kari.

There was one final family Christmas in July the following year - a pool party at Grandaughter Katrina's. 

Then Covid changed everything.

May '25 Books

Only seven books read this month. Too much time and money spent on plants? 😍

Fat Tuesday, Chill Factor and Blind Tiger are all by Sandra Brown an author I decided to read my way through.

The Shell Collector is a book of short stories by Anthony Doerr. This book is from my own collection, but one I hadn't read for years. Doerr is one of the most impressive authors I've read. His prose is beautifully exquisite.

The Girl on the Cliff and The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley are both books I read several years ago - long enough that they were almost new to me. Both worthy of a second read.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak is a classic. With the impression the 1965 movie made upon me and the fact my love of the story has never diminished, you would think that I might have read this book before now. Had I? I wasn't even sure, but I had not. 

In February I read Lara Prescott's novel, The Secrets We Kept, about smuggling Pasternak's manuscript out of Russia and into print. That was the impetus I needed to finally read Dr. Zhivago. The hardest part was keeping all the Russian names straight. Almost always, I like the book better than the movie. In this case, the impressions the movie made on a younger me cannot top the book. 

I've yet to compile a list of the books I want to read in June, but I have a few a mind. Happy summertime reading to all.  😎 🌞

Decoration Day

For the first time, that I remember, we only made it to three cemeteries this year - Lenox, Prairie Rose and Quincy. Even when we lived in WDM, I always 'came home' on Memorial weekend. First to take my Mom and Grandma Delphia to the cemeteries and then, when they were gone, to decorate their graves, too. Grandma once said: "I know you will decorate my grave, but who will decorate yours?" ((I'm sorry, Grandma, but I didn't make it to your's and Grandpa Joe's this year.) 

With the increase in prices and the dearth of artificial flowers (probably caused by Trump's tariffs), there was very little decorating done. 

I only had two artificial bouquets - the white one behind my parents' stone and a smaller version between sister's and nephew's gravestones.

There was one other couple nearby while we were there. Surprisingly, I recognized the woman even though she was wearing sunglasses and I hadn't seen her in 45 years. Tentatively I said, "Marcia"? I told her my name then we had a nice 'catching up' visit. Our families had both been part of the Fairview Church neighborhood in the 1950's. 

At Quincy, I left some cut peonies on Grandma & Grandpa Lynam's grave and those of their two daughters, Evelyn and Leona. I can guess who placed the sunflowers. Grandma's grandniece recently retired and moved back to Corning. I'm sure it was her. She thought the world of 'Aunt Bessie'.

Even though it was a comparatively short journey and I was glad to be back home, it would not have felt right if I'd missed Decoration Day. 🌼🌻🌺

April '25 Books

It seems as though the months spin around so fast. The middle two weeks of April found us both incapacitated with extreme fatigue and a persistent cough. I didn't feel like doing anything else, but at least I could read. Ten books read this month.

Rainwater by Sandra Brown is the first book of her's that I've read. Early on I got her confused with Sandra Dallas whose books I loved and quickly read my way through. For some reason that put me off trying any of the Sandra Brown books - but I am now.

First Lie Wins is Ashley Elston's first adult novel - also one of Reese's Book Club picks.

Society of Lies is Lauren Ling Brown's debut novel and also one of Reese's Book Club picks. Seeing a pattern here?

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is, you guessed it, another Reese's pick. You may recall I said I was going to read my way through her book club picks. 

To Die For is by David Baldacci - one of my favorite authors. He is so popular it is several months before I get a chance to read his newest book. The library got it in November, so it was six months I waited - but so worth it!

The Testaments was the last Margaret Atwood book I had yet to read. It is a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, which was my least favorite Atwood read. I only read the sequel because Atwood is such a good writer.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith was her first novel written in 1948. It is a book from my own shelves and had been years since I first read it. I had not realized she also wrote The Hundred and One Dalmations.

The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose is the first book of her's I've read. This was a very good suspense story with lots of twists and turns.

Michael Connelly is another of my favorite authors. The Waiting is his sixth Harry Bosch and Renée Ballard novel.

All The Colors Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker is the second book of his that I've read. It is a mystery, a thriller and a love story.  It, along with the Baldacci and Connelly books were my favorites this month.

April is ending on a high note - catkins on the birches, willows and oaks, green, green, green everywhere, three Canada geese couples with goslings around the pond with one more still nesting and birds, birds, birds everywhere, including a pair of robins intent upon building their nest on top of our front door light. I haven't seen it yet, but I heard a wren and am on the lookout for our first hummingbird.

Tomorrow - May Day. Do the kids still leave May baskets, ring the door bell and run away, hoping, or fearing, to be caught and kissed?