A special thanks to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle for the idea of a “cure” for our very gray Northwest afternoons. After being snowbound for a few days, husband went back to work today, and I went in search of COLOR! I went to the right place, that’s for sure. As those of you who live in the Seattle area already know, the place for color at any time of year, but especially during the holiday season, is Molbaks. It’s an institution here in the Seattle area, and a delight to visit, especially when craving color.
It must be my age, my time of life, but this is a time of reconnections. It used to be that when you lost contact with someone, there was very little you could do to find them again. Now, in the age of the internet, reconnecting is literally big business. But the actual happenstance of reconnecting with someone you cared about long ago is powerfully emotional, and it puts you back in touch with yourself — that person you used to be, and still are, but with changes. That’s an amazing process!
In the last few years, I have reconnected with some very important people from my life long ago. Last January, I wrote a post about some friends I hadn’t seen for 38 years, and what a joy it was to meet them again. I’ve mentioned my exchange student “sister” from Argentina, whom I’d lost contact with and haven’t seen since 1968! She found me a few years ago via the internet, and it’s been delightful having her back in my life. And I’ve been searching for another Argentine friend for many years, and through the miracle of internet connections, I was able to find her two weeks ago, living here in the U.S., and we are becoming reacquainted by phone for now…and how interesting that the voice and the sense of humor is still the same after all these years!
My return to the book blogging world after taking a 4-month break is another interesting reconnection for me, and I’m touched by the warm welcome-back messages I’ve received from blogging friends. This recent detour in my reading journey is due mostly to new duties at work which consume so much of my reading/writing time and energy. So I am trying to reconnect with my reading self, to make more time to get back to my books. And in terms of writing and blogging about books, I am not yet sure which new road this detour has put me on, or where I’m headed. But that’s okay, because for me, my reading journey has always been an adventure.
Posted in Blogging, book friends, on reading | 5 Comments »
There is such an empty feeling when I’ve finished a book and am at a loss to know what to pick up next. That’s especially true if the book has been long- suffering and/or violent. Driving home from an errand, I realized the little book sitting on the seat beside me may be the very novel to read next. And it turns out I was so right.
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Scott Chessman, is a little book Robin gave me several years ago. I’ve had it with me in the car to enjoy when I have a few minutes to wait. Oh, such a contrast from the long mystery I had just finished!
A gentle read… Tender moments between the Cassatt sisters, Mary, the painter, and Lydia, her model. Lovely paintings to enjoy along with the story. Susan Vreeland, author of The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, says it beautifully: ”Laying down each sentence with exquisite delicacy, Harriet Chessman makes palpable the fragility and futility of desire in the face of monster mortality. For me it achieves the sublime.”
I picked up the mystery and took it from the room. In it’s place is Lydia Cassat Reading the Morning Newspaper, a novel to enjoy any number of times. A delightful read!
Lois
Posted in Guest posts from Mom | 6 Comments »
A brief break from blogging at the beginning of my summer turned into a 4 month silence. I’m not sure where or how to begin again, except to say that I missed you and missed writing about books, and so I am returning to dust off this neglected blog. Blogging breaks are important, and after blogging incessantly for 3-1/2 years, it must have been time for some quiet reflection.
All is well. There was just a lot of life that happened that continues to keep me very busy. This 25th year of teaching has been the busiest of my career, with the District adding an unbelievable amount of change (new math curriculum, new grading system, new style of conferences, etc. etc.). So those new demands have eaten up my usual reading time and energy, and I am just now reaching an equilibrium with it all and getting back to my books.
So what happens to a book blogger when silence reigns? Reading does continue (at least it did during the summer!). My favorite read of the summer was a beautiful little book by Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer — a fictional account of the childhood of poet Pablo Neruda. She captured the spirit of poetry in telling the story of his difficult childhood, and I loved the illustrations by Peter Sis. Not wanting to leave that dreamlike world of poetry she created, I spent much of my summer time with Neruda’s poems themselves. The last stanza of his poem, “We Are Many,” seems fitting for my return from silence to voice:
While I am writing, I am far away;
and when I come back, I have already left.
I should like to see if the same thing happens
to other people as it does to me,
to see if as many people are as I am,
and if they seem the same way to themselves.
When this problem has been thoroughly explored,
I am going to school myself so well in things
that, when I try to explain my problems,
I shall speak, not of self, but of geography.
Posted in Blogging | 12 Comments »
As those of you who live in the Northwest know, it’s been a very cool and wet spring and we’re not convinced that Summer has actually arrived yet. I just returned from spending some time with my mother in Salt Lake City, where it really WAS summer, including 96+ degree temperatures! The temperature in Seattle, when I returned home yesterday, was a full 30 degrees cooler! It was a lovely trip and I enjoyed my mother, the sunshine, and the gorgeous summer flowers everywhere.
Books were very much a part of this visit, too. Mom bought 3 books while I was there and has already started reading The Hemingses of Monticello, by Annette Gordon-Reed. While I was there, I read The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. Discussing books over dinner, my sister-in-law recommended Life Class, by Pat Barker, and Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, so I downloaded them onto my Kindle. My cousin (whom I hadn’t seen in 25 years!) told me she is looking for a copy of a book she’d heard about called, Abraham Lincoln, God’s Humble Instrument, by Ron L. Anderson. Sidney Poitier’s book, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, was sitting on the nightstand in my mother’s guest room. I wished I’d had time to read it. Wild Swans, by Jung Chang; The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson; and Visual Basic, by James Foxall, were books being read by the people sitting nearby on the airplane during my return flight. So it’s safe to say that everyone seems to be enjoying their summer reading! I hope you are, too!
Posted in Life, Mom, on reading | 20 Comments »



























