The Nickel Boys

 The Nickel Boys is the second Pulitzer Prize that Colson Whitehead won. His first is called The Underground Railroad. This book is set in Florida in the 1960's. The story is about a black youth named Elwood. Elwood lives with his grandmother who is very strict. She won't let him listen to music nor the radio. He can listen to speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. Elwood is a good kid and a great student. He is admitted entrance to college classes while still in high school. Just before he is to enter his college classes he hitches a ride to another city in Florida. He and the driver are pulled over by police because they are driving a Plymouth. The officer believes no one with their skin color can afford a Plymouth so it must be stolen. Elwood ends up at the Nickel Academy which is a reform school full of corruption and cruelty. This captivating story is based on a real reform school in Florida.

 

 

Flappers And Philosophers

I listened to F. Scott Fitzgerald's collection of short stories called Flappers And Philosophers. These stories were published individually in magazines before being collected into a book. The first four stories were about flappers. I noticed each flapper had long legs, blond hair and was about 19 years old. In his lifetime, Fitzgerald was known for his short stories in magazines and not for novels. The second story involves a flapper from the deep south. The story is called the Ice Palace.  She comes to Saint Paul with her fiancee to meet his family. She has never seen snow and is captivated. She wants to try all the winter sports which her fiancee reluctantly goes along with until she realizes that these sports are for kids, not young ladies. At the end of the story they visit an ice palace with a large group of friends at the end of the day. She becomes separated. Thinking the ice palace is empty, the organizers turn off all the lights. She is trapped in an ice palace thinking she will freeze to death. This is a great story. The rest of the book is about young men at the beginning of their careers full of idealistic ideas that fade away as they mature. I am so glad I found this book.

 

  

The Audition

 Katie Kitamura is the author of the award winning book called The Audition. Some people find this book to be fascinating. I found it to be confusing. The first half of the book is about an actress who lives with her husband in New York City. She walks to the theater every day to rehearse or perform. She meets a young man who is an assistant on the production. This young man thinks she is his birth mother. The actress did not ever give birth so she knows it's not true. In the second half of the book she admits she is his mother. Confusing much? This book might be too highbrow for me.

 

 

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Although it sounds like I am writing about a color wheel, Cyan Magenta Yellow Black is actually a book written by Kevin Fenton. The author grew up in Rollingstone and Winona, MN before moving to Saint Paul is his 20's. He wrote about a character named Duane who had a job at an ad agency. He was fired and had to sign a 12 month non-compete agreement. A year is a long time to be out of your career. As the story starts Duane is walking down Grand Avenue in Saint Paul to attend his support group. Duane is in a 12 step program. This is a fascinating story about a man putting his life back together. 

 

 

Chances Are

 I am a big fan of the author Richard Russo. I loved Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool. I also loved a book by him that I had never seen before. This one is called Chances Are. The story involves three guys who were friends in college. Now they are 66 years old and have gathered together for a weekend on Martha's Vineyard to reminisce about college days. One is a real estate broker in Arizona, one is a musician in Massachusetts, and one is a small publisher in the Midwest. The book goes back and forth in time. In one poignant chapter the three guys are together as they learn their draft numbers for the Vietnam war. Together they try to figure out what happened to their mutual friend, Jacy, who disappeared after being with them at this very house the weekend after their college graduation. The story was riveting.

 

 

BRRRRRR!

 

Creation Lake

 Rachel Kushner is the author of Creation Lake. The story is about a spy for hire. She is an American spying against the socialists in France. She takes up the identity of a woman named Sadie. Sadie is not a likeable character. All of her friendliness is a charade. She is a spy 24 hours a day and does not give a rip about the people she lives with. I don't think I have ever read a book about a less likeable character.

 

 

How The Penguins Saved Veronica

 I was walking around the library on the Navy base in Sasebo. I had about 45 minutes to spend. Unlike most libraries, this one had no newspapers to read. I picked up an interesting book called How The Penguins Saved Veronica written by Hazel Prior. I always enjoyed the book Mr. Popper's Penguins so I thought I would like this one too. At the end of the 45 minutes the book was checked out and put in the library book bag with the other book my grandchildren borrowed and I didn't see it for a week. Luckily we were going back to the library and I did have time to finish the book. This book has a sequel so I will look for that too. I enjoyed this story about a curmudgeonly grandmother named Veronica who visited the South Pole and impacted penguin research.

 

 

On My Head

Today, on my way back home after a funeral, I stopped by Como Park Observatory to breathe in some fragrant humid air and look at the plants. My first stop was in the tropical room. This is the room where you can see a sloth in a tree before the exit. I went in and walked over to the tank where three turtles were swimming. I looked up and saw three yellow birds in the tree above my head. Then I noticed the tiles below my feet were dotted with bird droppings. Before I could look up again I felt something wet land on my head. I looked at a young mother and her two year old daughter and asked, "Did I just get pooped on?" The mother couldn't see anything but when I pulled my hand through my hair I found some brown residue. Disgusting. I walked away from that exhibit and on to the next. Before I left I thought I would visit the statue at the center of the observatory and rest on a bench. As I got up to leave I recognized a woman standing at the next bench. I said hello. We used to work together 15 years ago. After that pleasant exchange I drove home to shampoo my hair. 

 

 

The Teller Of Small Fortunes

 Julie Leong is the author of The Teller Of Good Fortunes. This tale starts out with Tao who travels from city to city with her trusty mule. Tao only tells small fortunes such as it will rain next week or when the cow will calve. The book is set in the 17th century in an unnamed country. She meets a couple of men. One of them is an ex-mercenary and the other is a reformed thief. They wander together. Tao feels the need to move quickly after reading fortunes because the townsfolk might become angry with how their fortunes turned out or start demanding more important fortunes. Eventually they meet a baker and soon the four of them travel together. Tao finally has the family she has always longed for. This sweet tale was a delight to read.

 

 

Without Merit

Colleen Hoover is the author of Without Merit. This book is a coming-of-age story about Merit Voss. Merit lives in a former church with her father, step-mother, elder siblings, and six year old half brother. Her mother lives in the basement having developed agoraphobia after treatment for cancer. Merit decides to drop out of high school and no one seems to notice. She has an older (identical twin) sister who appears to have a preference to date boys who are terminally ill. She meets Sagan at a thrift store. He thinks she is Merit's older sister and he gives Merit a kiss. The plot line develops slowly at first but then takes off which makes this book a good read. 

 

 

Wayward Girls

 Wayward Girls, a novel written by Susan Wiggs and based in Buffalo, New York, is based on several true stories. The story is set in the 1960's and is about the life girls experienced at the Good Shepherd, an organization run by the Sisters Of Charity nuns. The story revolves around six teenage girls. Marin is sent to the Good Shepherd because her new step-father was going to molest her if she stayed home. Plus her mother attended an organization much like this when she was a teenager in Ireland. Angela was sent because she preferred girls over boys. Helen was the daughter of Chinese intellectuals who left her to stay there while they visited China. The Chinese government refused to let them return to pick her up. Odessa was sentenced to the Good Shepherd after a racial incident. Denise was sent for brawling in a foster home. Janice's back story was not revealed but she took great care over Kay who had an intellectual disability. This story about Good Shepherd is dark but I liked it because it emphasizes the resilience of young females. 

 

 

January 7th was a long day for me. I got up at 5:30 a.m. At 7 I walked to the bus stop with my family and waved goodby to the grandgirls on their way to school. Then I rode in my daughter-in-law's car to the bus center in Sasebo. From 8 until 10 a.m. I rode in a high way bus to the airport in Fukuoka.  I got my three airline tickets and checked my bag.  At nearly 1 p.m. I flew from Fukuoka to Tokyo. I took a free shuttle bus to the second terminal. I waited four hours for my flight from Tokyo to Chicago which took almost 15 hours. I arrived in Chicago at 2 p.m., still on January 7th, and waited another four hours for my flight to Minneapolis. I arrived in Minneapolis at 10 p.m. and was at Offspring #2's house by 11. At 11:55 p.m. on January 7th I laid down flat to go to sleep. L o n g e s t    d a y    e v e r .

Dream State

 Eric Puchner is the author of Dream State, a fiction novel that takes place in the mountains of Montana. The novel is about 3 friends whose lives intertwine. CeCe is in love and is planning to marry Charlie at his parent's estate in Montana. Charlie is an up and coming young doctor. Charlie asks Garrett to be his best man. Garrett is an airport baggage handler who is haunted by events in his and Charlie's past. The book chronicles the lives of CeCe, Charlie, and Garrett for 50 years; until the three main characters are in their 70's. I enjoyed this story about three characters who are complex. They are neither good nor evil.

 

 

What I Don't Hear

While in Japan I saw many dogs. I saw small dogs, toy sized dogs, and medium dogs. What I didn't hear is barking. Even when two dogs with separate owners are waiting together at a cross walk I heard no barking. The Japanese people train their dogs not to bark. We spent quite a bit of time on the road in the last three weeks. Not once did I hear a car horn blare. I heard motorcycles and scooters go by but I never heard the loud pipes that annoy me. I heard peddlers crying out advertising their business. In the US I hear that at baseball games (Peanuts! Get your peanuts here!) but seldom elsewhere. Traffic signals in Japan have sounds for the blind which I don't hear in the United States. The frequency of bird songs seems about the same.

 

 

The Kitchen Front

 I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel set in World War Two called The Kitchen Front. The author if Jennifer Ryan. Two years into the war with Nazi Germany, there are food shortages in Britain. A radio host sponsors a cooking contest over a three month span of time. Each month features a different course (salad, entree, dessert). Four woman compete. One is wealthy and wants to win to get rid of an increasingly hostile husband. One is a servant who wants to graduate out of servitude. One is a chef trying to gain attention in a predominantly male vocation. One is trying to keep her family of four going after her husband was killed in action.  All of the contestants use substitutes for foods that are scarce (sugar, meat, fat). All this makes for a great story including recipes. 

 

 

Kujukushima Cruising

Today four of us took the 11 o'clock cruise around the 99 islands. Actually there are 218 islands but 99 is the Japanese way of saying a big number of islands. Our ship was called the Pearl Queen. A womanly figure adorns the bow wearing long hair and holding what appears to be a bowling ball but might represent a very large pearl.

The cruise is about an hour long. The boat holds 200 people. Some of the islands had fishing nets strewn about. One island harvests pearls from oysters. All these islands are part of a national park. Two islands have people living on them.

Sometimes the boat had to slow down to avoid the rocks under the water. Wind and weather have worn down the vegetation and topsoil.

The weather was fine but we got cold standing outside in the wind.

We had a nice day for a cruise.

 

 

 

New Years Festival

Today we drove to an Inari shrine. This one is for prosperity, family fortune, a good catch and traffic safety. Three million people visit every year. The drive from Sasebo to Kashima took an hour. When we got there we realized there was a New Years Festival going on. Food stands sold hot potatoes, tea, cotton candy, crepes, octopus, chicken, meat balls, noodles, candied fruit, toys, swords, sandals and tea pots. The place was crowded. Ahead is a temple up on the hill. To reach the temple was about 150 steps. We went beyond that to other temples.

This is the Yutoku Inari Shrine. People observed religious traditions here including ringing of bells and washing hands and offering coins.

This is the view from the temple down the hill.

 

Famous Last Words

Gillian McAllister is the author of the book called Famous Last Words.  This is a mystery thriller about a family and is set in London. Camilla is a young wife and mother. On June 21st, the longest day of the year, she is about to drop off her daughter at day care for the first time in her life. She works as a literary agent. Her husband, Luke, will pick up the baby after he finishes his work. When Camilla comes home Luke is not there  and neither is her daughter. After picking her daughter up from day care she finds a note. Later, on the news, there is a hostage situation at a warehouse. To Camilla's surprise, Luke is the man with the gun who has taken the hostages. How Camilla's mild mannered, kind husband came to be a gunman is the meat of the book which I will not reveal. The author did a good job revealing bits and pieces at a time until the whole story came together at the end. 

 

 

Talking Machines

In Japan machines talk. When the car starts up a voice makes announcements. I don't know what the announcement said. On Christmas Day the car said Merry Christmas. Watching shows on the screen is possible in a Toyota van that can hold 7 people. Riding back from the volcano I watched part of a magic show and a reality show. The steering wheel is on the right and that is very hard for me to get used to. I am not allowed to drive here as I do not have an international driver's license but several times I mistakenly got into the driver's seat. Getting out of the passenger seat I reach for the wheel to boost myself up and it's not there. People in Japan keep their cars very clean. The streets do not have names. Highways have numbers but the streets are nameless. To find an address the occupant will give you the city, the neighborhood and the house number within that neighborhood. Or they might send you a Google pin to find their house. Loudspeakers in neighborhoods give announcements but I don't know what they said. Music plays on the loudspeaker at noon and again at 5 p.m. The houses do not have central heat nor central air conditioning. Each occupied room has a heater/air conditioner mounted on the wall near the ceiling. For example, if I want to go to bed, I turn on my heater and within five minutes the room is cozy if I keep my door shut. When I leave my bedroom for the day I turn the heater off. The heater in the dining room/living room/kitchen speaks when it is turned on in the morning. Lately we have had some cold weather. Typical temperatures for this time of year are in the 40's and 50's. When the temperatures get around freezing the bathroom heater starts to talk advising us that the water in the pipes is cold and running the tub is advisable. Another unique thing about Japan that I did not notice before (I was here 5 years ago) is that everybody (yes, everybody) pulls into parking spaces back end first and ready to make a quick get-away. There are few public trash cans and recycling cans. We are expected to take our trash home and dispose of it there. All recycling must be rinsed out and clean of food. The parks are nice. Lots of Japanese kids seem to practice jumping rope.

This statue is at Nimitz park which is in between the Navy base and downtown Sasebo. Here is plenty of playground equipment for the kids.

This park is within walking distance and on the way to the grocery store. This park has playground equipment and exercise equipment for the adults.