Lightning Strike

 Have you read any of the many Cork O'Connor series by William Kent Kruger? Set in the northeastern Minnesota town of Aurora, this series is about a sheriff and his family. In Lightning Strike: A Novel, I read the prequel to the Cork O'Connor series. In this book, during the summer of 1963, Liam O'Connor is the sheriff and 12 year old Cork is his son. I am not a huge mystery fan but I do like William Kent Kruger's writing style. In this story Cork and his friend go to a sacred Native American site beside a lake where lightning struck a lumber camp and burned it down. Cork and his friend plan to camp overnight after walking three miles to get there. Once there they smell the body of a friend who his dead and hanging from a tree. Cork and his father solve the mystery of this apparent suicide. I do enjoy coming of age stories and stories that include camping and canoeing and historical fiction. This book has a lot going for it besides the mystery.

Truly Madly Guilty

Liane Moriarty is a famous author in Australia and I like her too. This time I read Truly Madly Guilty which is a novel about 3 couples and 3 children who attend a summer barbeque. Something happens at this barbeque. Every chapter talks about what happened at the barbeque. The author makes  you wait a long time to find out what happened at the barbeque which was annoying. The book is more than what happened at the barbeque. The story is about the people who were there. The barbeque takes place on a cul-de-sac neighborhood. At the end of the cul-de-sac is a crochety old man who lives alone. His name is Harry. He is rude to most neighbors. Harry is the kind of guy who would call the police if he thought your music was too loud. In the end though, this grumpy old guy is the hero of the story and I thought that was very clever of the author to do. 

A Book Of Hope

Jane Goodall and Douglas Carlton Adams wrote A Book Of Hope: A Survival Guide For Trying Times. Douglas Adams interviewed Jane Goodall five times and transcribed her opinions and remarks into a book. They met in Africa, Europe, California and once via zoom. Jane Goodall, world famous naturalist and studier of chimpanzees, has four reasons for hope which are the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of young people, and indomitable human spirit. Jane Goodall has hope for the future. Using stories of events through her life, she explains her philosophy and beliefs. I enjoyed reading her story. She has led an interesting life.

 

The Finishing School

 Joanna Goodman wrote The Finishing School, a story about the Lycee International Suisse school. This elite boarding school educates the children of the rich and famous. Kerstie, from Toronto, is a scholarship student from a family of limited means. Kerstie's mother went to this school. Her roommate, Cressida, is her roommate and friend from the moment they met in 9th grade. Just before graduation Cressida falls from a fourth floor balcony and has a severe head injury. Twenty years later Kerstie tries to investigate whether Cressida was pushed from the  balcony or if the fall was accidental. The story jumps back and forth 20 years in time. The story is about friendship but also a mystery with a dark ending.

The Sea House

 The Sea House is a fiction novel about a house on the Scottish island named Harris. In 1860 the house was occupied by a minister and his maid. A century later the house is bought by a young couple who are fixing it up to be a bed and breakfast. As the couple replaces floorboards, the body of a new born is found in a fox in the soil. The baby was born with fused legs. Elizabeth Gifford weaves the story between the centuries by telling the story by the minister, the maid, and the female owner in modern times. The minister was a science researcher as well as a cleric. He was especially interested in selkies because he was told he was a descendent of a selkie. A selkie is noted in Scottish and Irish stories about men who swim in the Atlantic with a seal skin covering their lower bodies. When selkie's want, they can shed the seal skin and walk with their legs. The minister believed the seal men were real. What I enjoyed most about this story was the description of the sea house and the island of Harris.

Viral

 I don't recommend you read Viral, the latest medical thriller by the prolific author Robin Cook. The virus in this story is eastern equine encephalitis which is spread by mosquitoes. In this story a family of three goes to Cape Cod. While picnicking on the beach a mosquito bites the wife. She comes down with flu like symptoms. The husband brings her to the hospital. The story is about the virus but also the huge hospital bills and the poor health insurance plans that refuse to pay for treatment. The dialogue is wooden. The story was melodramatic and predictable. I already knew that our health care system is broken and I didn't appreciate the author lecturing me on this point over and over again.

The Rum Diary

 The Rum Diary was written by Hunter Thompson in 1959 but published in 1998. The story is about a traveling journalist, Paul Kemp, as he moves from working at a newspaper in New York City to working at a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Paul, like the other staff at the newspaper, spends his evenings and some morning drinking beer and large quantities of rum with ice. Paul and his buddies lead a most unhealthful lifestyle. When Paul first arrives he appreciates some of the natural beauty of the island such as the sand dunes and the ocean. As time progresses the natural beauty of Puerto Rico fades with his growing malcontent.  Paul falls for the girlfriend of a coworker. With inhibitions lowered by the rum, lust and nudity and crazy behaviors happen. Things were different back in 1959 in San Juan.  

Of Women And Salt

 Gabriela Garcia wrote Of Women And Salt. This short novel is a story of five generations of women from one family and two generations of women from another family. The first four women in the five generation story were born in Cuba. The fifth woman, Jeannette, was born in Florida. Jeannette has addiction issues and she is very curious about her heritage because her mother won't tell her anything. Before she travels to Cuba to meet her grandmother, she impulsively takes in the 6 year old daughter of her neighbor when the neighbor is picked up by immigration officials and taken to a detention center. The deported El Salvador woman and her daughter make up the two generation chain of the story. From 19th century Cuban cigar factories to modern times, women are tenacious in the choices they make. I was most enchanted with the Cuban stories before Fidel Castro.

Wish You Were Here

I got lucky again at the library when I found a new book by one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. Wish You Were Here is a new release. The main character is Diana who is coming up on her 30th birthday. She works at Sotheby's, an art auction and is doing well at her job. She expects her boyfriend, Finn, will propose marriage on her birthday trip. Diana and Finn are going to the Galapagos Islands. On the night before they are to leave, the Covid 19 virus hits hard in New York City where Diana and Finn live. Finn is a surgeon at a nearby hospital and is needed at work. He tells Diana to go anyway. She is angry but she does go. Her luggage is lost. As she arrives on Isabella island, the island shuts down. Her hotel is closed. No more boats are allowed to come or go. A kind employee of the hotel allows Diana to use an empty apartment and shares food with her. Diana enjoys the scenery. I enjoyed reading about the scenery because I have been there too. When Diana walks to the volcanic crater, I remember my walk to that crater. When Diana sees a pond with flamingoes, I remember seeing flamingoes. I remembered the cactus forests right on the edge of the sea and the penguins and the blue footed boobies and the magnificent frigate birds and the Sally Lightfoot crabs and the marine iguanas. Reading this book was fun because it brought back good travel memories for me and because it was well written. If you are tired of hearing about Covid 19 though, this might not be the book for you.

 

Life Sciences

Joy Sorman wrote Life Sciences. This book was translated from French to English. The story is about a 15 year old girl named Ninon. Ninon's mother has entertained her daughter for years with tales of bizarre illness that run in her family. Since the middle ages women in her family have come down with odd illnesses including the dancing plague of Strasburg, blindness, deafness and epilepsy. Ninon was entertained by these family stories and grew up expecting something would happen to her. One morning she wakes up in terrible pain. The skin on her arms burns when touched by her sheets or her clothes or her fingers. She experiments. The pain extends to both arms from her shoulders to her wrists. Ninon goes to doctor after doctor after specialist after therapist after shaman after acupuncturist. She is told her condition will not kill her and may go away. She is obsessed with finding relief from her pain. Doctors listen to her story but they don't really hear her. What she has is called allodynia - an extreme sensitivity to touch. Ninon has it so bad she drops out of school and isolates herself at home. This odd little book is Ninon's story from age 15 to 20, proving that doctors don't have all the answers.

 

Spring Has Sprung!

Happy first day of spring!

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Years ago I read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and I loved it. I just finished his 2021 novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and I didn't like it as much as the other book. This story was about a Greek story. Characters from the 1500's, near Constantinople, 2021, in Idaho, and from the future, around 2200, in space all decipher and read the same Greek story. The Greek story is about a shepherd who is turned into a donkey, a fish, and finally a crow. Reading this story involves six points of view which can be confusing. Despite the confusion, I kept reading until the very end.

The Last Thing He Told Me

 Laurie Dave is the author of The Last Thing He Told Her, a domestic suspense novel that will be made into a tv series starring Jennifer Garner as Hannah. Hannah is an artist living in New York. Growing up with her grandfather Hannah learned the art of wood turning. Now she makes custom furniture and a successful business selling high-end furniture. She meets a man named Owen, falls in love, and gets married. Owen lives in a house boat in Sausalito with his 16 year old daughter, Bailey. Hannah buys a house nearby to continue her furniture business and moves onto the houseboat. Hannah and Bailey do not get along very well although Hannah tries. After a year of marriage, Owen doesn't come home. Hannah gets a note from him that says "Protect her."  Soon the U.S. Marshall and the FBI come knocking on their door. Together Hannah and Bailey try to figure out where Owen went and why he left. I thought the story became a tad unbelievable but I liked the way the relationship between Hannah and Bailey deepened as they figured out that Owen lied about who he was. Left alone, they had to trust each other.

The Sentence

 When I walked into my local library I noticed a shelf of books labelled "Best Sellars." I looked at the titles. In my head I said, "Score" when I found a new book by Louise Erdrich, one of my favorite authors. The Sentence takes place at the author's book store, Birchbark Books, in Minneapolis from Nov. 2, 2019 to Nov. 2, 2020. Nov. 2 is All Souls Day. The main character is Tookie, a native American woman who was incarcerated for doing a friend a favor. While in prison she survives by reading books ferociously. So it makes sense that she gets a job at a bookstore that specializes in Native American literature. A frequent customer at the book store is Flora. Flora claims to have native heritage but her story changes so often people don't believe her. Flora tries to win people over with gifts and charms. When Flora dies, her spirit haunts the bookshop. At first Tookie is the only person who notices her but as the months go by, other store workers are aware of her too. Also the city is transformed by the death of George Floyd. How Tookie and the other book store employees deal with all that is a story that I enjoyed reading.

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

Lori Gottlieb is a counselor and the author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone. She writes about a handful of her patients. One is Rita, a depressed senior citizen who is thinking about suicide. One is Julie, a 30 year old newly married woman with terminal cancer. One is Paul, a handsome and sometimes belligerent film director who wants to talk about all the idiots in his life. One is Chloe, a young woman who wants help looking for love. Lori, the author, also starts to go to therapy because her boyfriend dumped her unexpectantly but the real reason she goes to therapy are much more complicated than that. This book wasn't a novel as such. There was no plot. This was more of a journal that gives insight into the role of a mental health counselor.

Plants On The Edge

 Tonight I found my self in a classroom in the Humanities building at the University of MN in Duluth. A professor, Sarah Johnson, of botany at Northland college was speaking about her research on rare plants on Isle Royale and the 22 islands of the Apostle Islands. According to her, Devil's Island, one of the Apostle Islands, has the only boreal forest in the state of Wisconsin. I would love a job taking a boat to islands in Lake Superior and counting the rare plants. Her work was started by a different professor so she has data from 3 surveys since 2000 showing how the plants fared when the level of lake Superior was very low and also when very high. She plans to monitor the plants as Lake Superior gets warmer, has lower ice coverage, higher winds and more storms. She focused on some carnivorous plants such as English sundew and butterwort. She also talked about encrusted saxifrage which is a plant that grows on the rocky shores of islands. The encrusted saxifrage forms a rosette of leaves. Each leaf is encrusted with lime because the plant actually eats the rock which blows my mind. I have a lot to learn about botany.

No Way

Today the air temperature soared to 45. Winds were out of the south at 10 to 20 miles per hour from the south. I parked at the Rose Garden and walked down to the lift bridge and back. Along the way I saw people out on the ice. They were a good five minute walk from shore. Beyond them was more ice but beyond that is open, liquid water.

There is no way I would go out on the ice on a warm and windy day in March.

 

If I Could Tell You

If I Could Tell You is a novel written by Elizabeth Wilhide. The story is set in England in 1939. Julia is married to Richard and they have an 8 year old son, Peter. Peter is away at boarding school most of the time. Richard is a lawyer. They have a maid who cleans the house and does all the cooking. Julia is a trained pianist and she plays for hours every day. One day a film crew comes to town and Julia meets Dougie Birdsall, a film director. Even though both Julia and Dougie are married to other people, they have an affair. When Richard finds out he asks Julia to leave. Julia moves to London. She is completely unable to care for herself. She doesn't know how to cook or clean. She has never had a job. Now she is in London where the Germans are dropping bombs every night. How Julia copes with the consequences of her affair was interesting. The scenes describing the time in the bomb shelters and the experience of living in a city under attack were interesting. I had a hard time liking Julia because she put her lust for a guy named Dougie ahead of the interests of her son.

 

Conversations With Friends

Sally Rooney wrote Conversations With Friends. This novel is set in Dublin. A pair of college students/friends, Frances and Bobbi, meet a married couple. Frances and Bobbi do poetry readings together and Melissa has come to complete a photographic essay on their work. Melissa invites Bobbi and Frances to her home where they meet her friends and also her husband, Nick. The four of them become involved and go on vacation together in France. The writing was good and the dialogue was great but, honestly, I disliked Frances and Bobbi and Melissa and Nick. All of the characters in this story were selfish, self-absorbed, and, at times, mean. This novel is going to me presented as a television series on Hulu. I don't think I would like to watch it. 

Invisible Ellen

 Invisible Ellen is a novel written by Shari Shattuck. Ellen is the main character. She is basically a broken person due to abuse, neglect, and growing up in the foster care program. She tries to be invisible because she doesn't want interaction. Ellen is 23 and lives alone in an apartment building in a scary part of Baltimore. She observes her neighbors and keeps notes on their activities. Ellen works the overnight shift at a Costco on the cleaning crew. She has no friends, no family and no one to talk to. One morning she takes the bus home from work when a blind woman sits next to her on the bus. When Ellen observes two muggers about to take the blind woman's bag, Ellen intervenes and wins the friendship of Temerity. Temerity transforms Ellen's life. The story is poignant, funny, and sad. I enjoyed this quick story about the power of friendship.

The Magician

 The Magician is a historical novel about the life of the German author, Thomas Mann. He is called the magician by his six children because he entertains them with tricks at the dinner table. Other than doing magic tricks he leaves the rest of the parenting work to his wife. He ends up supporting his children financially well into their adult lives.  The author is Colm Toibin and he starts off when Thomas is 7 years old, living in Lubeck, Germany with his conservative father and his Brazilian mother. Thomas has an older brother, two younger sisters, and a little brother. He hides his homosexuality from his family. His older brother is a writer and that is what Thomas wants to do too. His parents insist he work for an accountant. Thomas purposely fails at the copying job he is given so that he will be fired and he can pursue his passion. Thomas Mann was a very successful author who went on to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He became interested in a Jewish family who befriended him. He eventually married Katia, one of the twins in that family. They have six children together. Eventually they have to flee Germany before World War Two. They move to Switzerland and eventually New Jersey before setting in California for many years. Mann was criticized for not speaking out against Hitler. He worried that if he did denounce Hitler, he would put his wife's family at risk and that Hitler would ban his books and take action against his publisher. This was an interesting story about a man who lived in very interesting times.

The Future For Curious People

Gregory Sherl wrote The Future For Curious People. Set in current times in Baltimore, there is a new service available for curious people. Envisionists will, for a fee, show you your future. You put on a paper gown, wear a virtual reality helmet, take a pill, and watch your future on a computer screen. Evelyn is a young librarian and she goes to Dr. Chin, an envisionist, to see how her future with her boyfriend, Adrian, looks like in ten years. While in the office she meets a young man named Godfrey. Both Evelyn and Godfrey are so curious, they keep returning to Doctor Chin's office for more sessions than are recommended. After all, life is a series of choices. Wouldn't you be curious to find out how your life would have went had you made different choices? I enjoyed this quirky story narrated by Evelyn and Godfrey.

 

Rosemary

 Kate Clifford Larson wrote Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter. The author tells the story of the eldest daughter of Joe and Rose Kennedy. Rosemary, named after her mother, was born at home in Brookline, Massachusetts. At the time of her birth the doctors were overwhelmed caring for patients of the flu pandemic. Rose Kennedy had a nurse in her home to help with the labor. The nurse knew how to deliver babies but wanted to wait until the doctor arrived. The nurse physically held the baby in the birth canal for two hours so the doctor could be there and collect his fee. As a result, Rosemary was born with intellectual difficulties and epilepsy. The Kennedy family was political and competitive. When Rosemary was young, she was slower to develop physically and mentally. She knew enough to know she wasn't able to do the things her siblings could do. As she got older, she fell further and further behind. Her mental ability stayed at a fourth grade level. Her father would tell her he was disappointed in her failure to keep up hoping it would motivate her to try harder. She was trying hard but unable to keep up. Gradually she grew more and more frustrated. She began to act out. That is when her father decided she needed brain surgery, a lobotomy.  The operation left Rosemary unable to talk, incontinent, and with the mental ability of a two year old. She spent the rest of her life in institutions isolated from her family. He didn't have to worry about her embarrassing the family and possibly harming the political futures of his sons. After her father died, her siblings were allowed to visit her. The book was good. Poor Rosemary, injured several times by the medical community, unable to please her parents, and unable to keep up with her siblings.

Como Conservatory

The spring flower show at the Como Conservatory is on. 

Reservations are required and are easy to obtain online.

The air in there is moist and warm and smells so good.

I love pansies.

The Como Conservatory is one of my happy places.

 

Mill City Museum

 

Here is the view of the Mississippi River from the 9th floor of the Mill City Museum. I came here 7 years ago and the exhibits were basically all the same. I enjoyed looking at the old mill equipment and the advertising from years ago. I am not particular about the flour I buy. Today I learned the difference between regular flour and unbleached flour. All flour would turn white if left to settle for a couple weeks before it is bagged. Since the manufacturers don't want to wait 3 weeks, they treat the flour with chemicals to turn it white. Chlorine was once used to bleach flour. Now other chemicals are used to speed up the natural process of bleaching. I am glad I always buy unbleached flour. 

State Of The Union

 State Of The Union was written by Nick Hornby, a British author and playwright. Each of the ten chapters is a conversation between a husband and wife while he has a beer and she has a glass of white wine before their marriage counseling appointment. I was surprised how much I could learn about a relationship in just snippets once a week. The book is slim and 90 per cent of it is witty banter between Tom and Louise. Sometimes they talk about the previous session or the  couple they see leaving the counselor's office before they enter. Sometimes they just bounce ideas back and forth like a ping pong ball. In listening to them talk to each other, I could feel the irritation and the loving respect they had between them.

There There

 Tommy Orange wrote There There, a literary novel that won the PEN/Hemingway award. In this book a series of 12 characters living in the Oakland, California area tell their story. At first I couldn't tell how the stories were connected but eventually I came to realize that each character was Native American and planned to attend a pow wow in Oakland. Some of the characters were related although they didn't all realize it yet. Each story is powerful and each person views the city of Oakland in a different light. I liked this book. I have never read anything quite like it before.

Amy and Isabelle

 Elizabeth Strout wrote Amy and Isabelle. She also wrote Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again which I loved very much. This story is set in a small town named Shirley Falls, a mill town in New England in the 1970's. Amy is 16 and Isabelle is her single mother. The summer when Amy turns 16, mother and daughter are together day and night because Amy is offered a summer position at the mill with her mother. Isabelle is a lonely, self conscious mother who isolates herself from her coworkers at the mill. Amy is awkward and shy and insecure which makes her the perfect target for a creepy substitute teacher. The relationship between Isabelle and Amy alternates love and loathing. As I read it I could picture the tense jaws and the eye rolls. The story was made into a film in 2001 and it would be fun to see how it differs from the novel.

Fox Squirrels

Today I went to the Arboretum in Chaska. My good friend has a membership. We hiked the paved trails. We chased four turkeys when we walked through the sculpture garden - not on purpose. The turkeys just wanted to avoid us. We visited the indoor gardens. I realized it is difficult to smell the spring flowers while wearing a mask. We stopped for a light lunch in the café. As we sat near the windows we watched the chickadees, cardinals, nuthatches and red polls feeding. We also saw some squirrels but these squirrels were larger than red and gray squirrels. These were fox squirrels. I don't think I ever recognized a fox squirrel before. Here is a picture of two of them. One is on the ground next to the feeder and the other one is clinging to the side of the bird feeding platform.

Here is a zoomed in picture of the fox squirrel. The arboretum is an interesting place to visit

 

Around The World In Eighty Days

This year I started watching the PBS drama series "Around The World In Eighty Days" starring David Tennant. I got caught up in the story of Phileaus Fogg trying to win a bet against his frenemy Bellamy. Fogg starts out with his valet, Passeportout on the jouney when they are joined by a journalist Abigail Fox. They travel by boat, train, stage coach, on foot and hot air balloon. The series just ended so I decided to read the Jules Verne Around The World In Eighty Days which was published in 1873. The drama series didn't stay true to the story in many ways except for the personality of Phileaus Fogg. He was a stoic, quiet, methodical fellow who kept his eye on the prize. Of course the outcome, whether or not he made the journey in 80 days, remained the same. The book was good and I wished I had read it first. The PBS drama was well done with great costumes and scenery and music. The series had some dramatic twists that are not in the book.

The Orphan Collector

 Ellen Marie Wiseman wrote a book about the 1918 pandemic set in Philadelphia named The Orphan Collector. Pia Lange is the main character. Pia is 13 and a German immigrant. Her father is serving in the war. She lives with her mother and twin baby brothers. Because of the anti-German sentiment in Philadelphia, her mother insists they go to the parade to celebrate the end of the war which is where her mother probably picked up the flu bug. When the mother dies, Pia is in charge. She takes care of her brothers as best she can until the food in the apartment runs out. She has to leave the kids to try and find some food. A neighbor, Bernice, just lost her baby to the flu. She sees Pia leave and while Pia is gone, she goes into the apartment and kidnaps the twin boys. Overall this was a sadly entertaining historical fiction novel but the author turns Bernice into an extravagant scoundrel. Bernice  goes around Philadelphia kidnapping children and breaking up families. She takes children from orphanages and sends them away on the orphan trains. The 1918 flu was a real event. The evil orphan collector is a work of fiction. Life in Philadelphia back then was tough enough. I can't understand why the author would make it worse by dreaming up Bernice. To be fair, there are also kind and generous characters in the story as well.