Disappearance In Fiji

 Nilima Rao is the author of Disappearance In Fiji. The author was born in Fiji. At age three her family moved to Australia. Her grandparents were born in India and came to Fiji as indentured servants to work on the sugar cane plantations. In this story a 25 year old police constable in sent to work in Fiji after he made a professional mistake working in Hong Kong. He was born in India and his family still lives there. The year is 1914 Akal Singh is miserable and grumpy. He does not like Fiji. He is sent to investigate the disappearance of an female indentured servant on a plantation a day away by horseback. Once there he is appalled at how the indentured workers are treated. They don't get enough food. They are forced to work long hours. Some of the females are sexually assaulted by the European farm managers or owners. Akal is a kind and honest man with a strict moral code.  I can see how writing this would help the author explore her past and her identity. This is an excellent story.

We All Want Impossible Things

 Catherine Newman is the author of We All Want Impossible Things. This fiction novel is about the friendship of Edi and Ash who met in preschool when they were 3 years old. Now, 40 years later, Edi is in the process of dying in hospice while Ash takes care of her. No one knows Ash better than Edie. Ash thinks Edie is like the back up hard drive memory for hers. This story is about friendship, family, and wringing every last bit of joy out of life before it ends.

This Must Be The Place

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of This Must Be The Place, a fiction novel set in England, Ireland, New York City and southern California. The story is about the marriage of Daniel and Claudette. Before meeting Claudette Daniel had a family and two children in California. His ex-wife denied him visiting rights. He met Claudette and her son, Ari, on the side of the road in Ireland while they were bird watching. He notices Ari has a stutter. He gives Ari advice on how to get around the stutter. He isn't s speech pathologist but only a linguist. Still, he helps Ari more than anyone else he has seen. Claudette asks him to stay and work with Ari. Eventually they marry and have three more children. Claudette is a former film star who escaped to the wild country of Ireland to get away from fame. The life Daniel and Claudette have carefully constructed changes as does their marriage. This book is an intimate portrayal of the marriage of Claudette and Daniel and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Girls In White Dresses

Do you know that song about a few of my favorite things? Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes is one line of the song. Girls In White Dresses is a fiction novel written by Jennifer Close. The story is about three female friends, Isabella, Mary and Lauren. They live in New York and are at the age where they are asked, over and over again, to be a bridesmaid. They go to wedding showers, weddings, baby showers and birthday parties for children. The stories were great but overall I felt this novel was missing a plot.

Arborateum

 Today I met a good friend.  Since she is a member we hided around the arboretum in Chanhassen. The sun was out and the wind was low so even though it was cold out, we were find on our hike. At one point we were walking by a hillside. To the right of the path was a hill going up forty feet or so. We could see through this oak forest. We saw one guy up there with a camera with a long lens. We were curious about what he was photographing. He was kind to point out the barred owl sitting 3/4 of the way up a pine tree relaxing in the sun and the quiet. The photographer said he is very familiar with this owl as he sees her often. After two hours of hiking we went to the cafe to have some broccoli cheese soup for lunch. I could have taken a photograph if I hadn't left my phone in my car.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Looking For Jane

Looking For Jane is a fiction novel inspired by true events and written by Heather Marshall. The story is set in Toronto, Canada. Two girls meet at the Saint Agnes Home For Wayward Girls which is run by a Catholic church. The nuns are in charge of the inmates. Pregnant girls come here to live before their babies are born. They work in the kitchen and the laundry and do housekeeping. The food is skimpy and the rooms are cold. When labor begins they are taken to a local hospital where they are forced to sign an agreement to let their baby be adopted. Once the babies are taken away, the girls go back to St. Agnes and work in the postpartum dorm for three months to pay off their cost of care. The girls didn't know the babies were sold to support the church. In 1972 one of the young women writes a note detailing the conditions which include physical beatings from some of the nuns and the fact that the babies are sold. The woman made sure her letter would get to police before she commits suicide. An investigation reveals the abusive conditions and Saint Agnes home is closed. The friend of the girl who committed suicide leaves the home and delivers the letter. Later she grows up to become a physician. Once she opens her private practice, she also starts giving abortions to women in need. During the 1970 and early 1980's abortion is illegal. Police raid doctor offices and try to arrest people who complete abortions. The "Jane" network is set up. If a female needs an abortion, she calls gynecologists and ask for Jane. Some gynecologists will hang up on her. Others give her another number to call. Arranging for the abortion is done in secret and no records are kept. This novel is not all about abortion. This novel is about motherhood. I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel. 

Lady Clementine

I read a book about Clementine Churchill called Lady Clementine. The author is Marie Benedict. Clementine was an ambitious and intelligent woman. She married Winston in 1908.  They enjoyed a long honeymoon in Italy which is where the eldest of their five children was conceived. During World War One she organized canteens for munitions workers in London. During World War Two she visited bomb shelters around London. She was appalled by the conditions in these bomb shelters. The floors were wet. There were two buckets for human waste and it reeked in there. With her assistance the conditions in the bomb shelters improved. She provided political advice to her husband. She helped him edit his speeches. If the author of this book is correct, she and Winston had a loving relationship and she called him Pug. Being the wife of Winston Churchill was demanding. Several times the work she did for him and the work of running the household and caring for five children became too much and she had to take weeks off to recover her strength and mental fortitude. I did not know much about her and reading this book was engrossing. 

Testamony

I read another book by Anita Shreeve called Testimony. This novel is about a scandal at a boarding school in Avery, Massachusetts. Sexual acts between students are caught on videotape and shared. When the videotapes are revealed, the headmaster of the school makes an error of judgement. As the responses to the scandal roll in from other students, the involved students, the parents of the students, the towns people, the story keeps a steady pace. Lawyers and police officers offer their opinions. The story is about how one act of recklessness can snowball and impact a large group of people. I enjoyed the book very much.

Light On Snow

I am on an Anita Shreve book pattern lately and this time I read Light On Snow. Nicky, who is thirty, tells her story beginning at age 12. At age 12, it has been two years since her mother and baby sister were killed in a car accident. Nicky and her Dad left New York City to escape the memories and now live in a secluded area in New Hampshire. Nicky goes to school and her Dad makes furniture. One winter day after school, Nicky and her Dad take their evening walk on their acres of property wearing their snow shoes. They hear strange sounds. Following the sounds they come upon a newborn baby girl lying in a towel inside a sleeping bag deep in the snow. They take the baby to the hospital. Nicky wants to keep the baby but her father says no. The baby survives but looses one finger to frost bite. This is a lovely story about family and love and grief. 

The Indigo Girl

I read a terrific historical fiction novel called The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd. The story is based on a real woman named Eliza Lucas who is 16 years old in the year 1739. Her father owns three plantations in South Carolina. He is about to embark to a Caribbean island to pursue his military career. He leaves Eliza in charge of his estates including his slaves. Her father is using the money from the estates to further his career and they are in danger of loosing ownership. Eliza gets the idea to grow indigo to increase their finances. The book was written based on letters she wrote. South Carolina became one of the biggest exporters of indigo. When she died in 1793, George Washington volunteered to be a pall bearer.  

The Girls In The Stilt House

 Kelly Mustian is the author of The Girls In The Stilt House. The story is set in the 1920's in Alabama and is about two teenaged girls. Ada, living with her abusive father, has run away to Baton Rouge with a musician. Now the musician is moving home to Texas. Even though she vowed not to return to her father, she has no other choice than to live in the stilt house again. Down the road, Matilda is the daughter of a poor share cropper. She would love to move to Ohio with the family of her former neighbors because they can make more money in a week than she can make all year. She decides to wait until her mother gives birth this fall. Her father is share cropping for a morally corrupt man who is using him to run home made liquor up to Chicago. Ada and Matilda form an unlikely bond that helps them survive when others don't The story is well told and the characters are fully developed.

Where'd You Go Bernadette

I wasn't aware that where'd is a word. Maria Semple is the author of Where'd You Go Bernadette. She also writes in Hollywood on comedy shows such as Ellen and Arrested Development. Bernadette is a married woman. She grew up on the east coast and became an architect and won a grant for building a home out of an eyeglass factory using materials sourced no more than twenty miles from the home. Now they live in an old academy in Seattle. Her husband works for Microsoft. Their 15 year old daughter, Bee, goes to a Montessori style school and she is very bright. Bernadette does go missing for awhile. The love and faith of her daughter is what reunites this zany family and brings them together again. This book was entertaining and sometimes hilarious.

Cook County ICU

Doctor Cory Feldman, director of intensive care services at the Cook County hospital in Chicago is the author of Cook County ICU: Thirty years of  Unforgettable Patients And Odd Cases. This is a book for people in the health care industry and for people, like me, interested in the health care industry. The author's father also worked as a doctor in this hospital so I would have to say he knows this hospital well.  These stories happened mostly between the 1970's and the 1990's which includes the beginning of the Aids epidemic. Dr. Feldman treated some of those early Aids patients who came in with Karposi's sarcomas. He successfully treated one persson with ricin poisoning. The author has a sense of humor and isn't afraid to poke fun at his own mistakes. Sometimes doctors can be cruel and haze the new doctors who are just starting out. Sometimes he had to treat angry, intimidating gang members. He learned not to look at them in the eyes. I enjoyed reading this book.

The Stars Are Fire

 Anita Shreve is the author of the historical fiction called The Stars Are Fire. Set in Maine in 1947, a drought has impacted the area. A young mother named Grace is five months pregnant and caring for her two young children. She lives next door to Rosie who also has two small children. A wildfire breaks out. Grace's and Rose's husbands volunteer to fight the fire. As the fire approaches their home, Grace instructs Rose to head to the beach. They watch their homes go up in flames. They lay on the beach on their stomachs and the legs in the water. They put wet blankets over their bodies and ride out the fire. In the morning they are rescued and taken to the hospital where Grace looses her baby. Now homeless and penniless, Grace must figure out a way to keep her family together while she awaits word from her husband. This is a great book that kept me interested until the end.

Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

The teacher of my class on bison mentioned that the Estee Lauder family is one of the five richest families in this country. Estee Lauder has nothing to do with bison and that is probably why I didn't appreciate this teacher's rambling method. But Estee Lauder is the topic of the book, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl, written by Renee Rosen. The story starts out in New York City in 1938. Gloria Downing, once a rich socialite, has to start working for a living because her father went to jail due to his Ponzi scheme. She changes her last name to Downing and goes into a beauty shop to change the color of her hair. She doesn't want to be recognized as the daughter of a criminal. While there the towel girl looses her job for taking too many breaks. Gloria gets the job as a towel girl. At this shop is where she meets Estee Lauder who is selling her homemade face creams in the corner of the beauty shop. The two become friends. Although they have their arguments they come to rely on each other for advice. While working in the beauty shop Gloria, who is used to being pampered and waited on, develops a good work ethic. Eventually she gets a job at Saks on Fifth Avenue. Ten years later, after much work and sacrifice, Estee gets her products into Saks. This is an interesting story about Estee Lauder who was a woman who clearly had a goal, knew what she wanted, and worked hard to succeed.

 

Olga Lakela

Olga Lakela was born in Finland in 1890. She emigrated to the United States at the age of 16. She got a doctorate in botany at the U of M. She founded the herbarium at UMD and worked there from 1935 to 1958. She worked at another herbarium in Florida from 1960 until 1972. Today some members of the Arrowhead Region Native Plant Explorers mounted the plants we obtained from the Sax Zim bog for her herbarium. Most of the samples were taken this year in May but I mounted one from our trip in 2022 when my right boot punched through the bog and I almost lost my boot.

We blued on the printed information plus a little envelope in case any pieces of the plant came loose.

We used judicious amounts of Elmers Glue.

We had tea and snacks. I enjoyed working on this project with a dozen other adults.

 

Grandma Gatewood's Walk

 Ben Montgomery wrote a book about a woman called Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Story Of The Woman Who Saved The Appalachian Trail. At age 67 she left her home in Ohio with a bag and about two hundred dollars and went to Georgia to start her hike. She had no tent, no sleeping bag, no hiking boots, and no phone. The year was 1955 and only one person, a friend, knew where she was. She was born on a farm. She married an abusive man and had ten children by him. Now her children were grown and on their own so she thought she would hike the trail after reading about it in a magazine at the doctor's office. She had some difficulties. A porcupine tried to crawl on her one night. A rattlesnake bit at her but didn't make it through her dungarees. A hurricane flooded the mountain sides in Maine and two Navy men helped her cross the stream by tying a rope around her and themselves. She actually hiked the trail three times. Her success caught the attention of local newspapers. Sometimes she complained about the downed trees and the poor condition of the trail. People listened to her and worked to upgrade the Appalachian trail. When that was done she decided to hike the Lewis and Clark Trail to Oregon. She became quite famous and was featured in parades. She was interviewed on television by Groucho Marx. After all that she stayed in Ohio and worked to improve a local trail to a cave. I liked her story. Like her I also have bunions and I have no desire to sleep on a trail at night without a tent.

Waste Water Treatment

One of my classes at UMD is about treating waste water at WLSSD (Western Lake Superior Sanitary District). This district runs from the Black Bear Casino in Cloquet up past the Lester River. The treatment plant is in the Lincoln Park area which has an arts district, fancy restaurants, and several breweries.

Most of the water comes with gravity down the hills of Duluth. Water from Cloquet has to be pumped up hill with augers. The water is strained with metal bars and a comb comes up and collects the baby wipes, menstrual products, condoms and other trash that gets taken to the landfill. The treatment plant does not want to offend their neighbors in Lincoln Park so the smelly air is pipes to this area. You can see the far ends of the pipe at the end of the wood chips. The pipes has holes so the smells are released under a six foot bed of wood chips that cleans the air. I could detect some odor but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.

Here is the lab where they can test the waste water. Bacteria does most of the cleaning so they must make sure the pH is suitable. They also test the cleaned water to make sure it meets standards before it returns to the St. Louis River. In the summer, when the river is being used recreationally, bleach is added to the water. In the winter the water is released without bleach.

This is the grit station. Sand, small pebbles and soil filter to the bottom and taken away. 

We all had to wear hard hats, safety glasses, and receivers with one head phone so we could hear our guide talking. This tour guide is a joker. Why was the toilet paper afraid to cross the road? The toilet paper was afraid it would get stuck in the crack.

I don't think you can see it but water is leaving the grit tank under this walkway.

In this tank they are piping in bubbles of ambient air to clear out the excess carbon dioxide.

This is where they store the solid wastes. For 12 to 14 days the water temperature is at 140 degrees to kill the viruses. For another 12 to 14 days the water temperature is kept around 100 degrees. By the end of this the product looks like manure. Farmers request that this get spread on their fields. To qualify for this product the farmer must have land that is mostly flat, not very sandy, and will grow grass or corn to be fed to animals. If, for example, a farmer wanted to fertilize his strawberries, he or she would have to wait eight years before harvesting the berries for human consumption. During this process, methane is removed. The methane is burned in heaters at the plant. Soon they will burn methane to create electricity. Electricity is the second most expensive thing here second only to labor costs. I really enjoyed this tour.

 

Karpeles

Yesterday in my genetics class a man was talking about the Karpeles museum. He said right now they have on display the handwritten notes of Charles Darwin.

Here is a note he wrote while onboard the HMS Beagle for five years. They had another twenty pages of his notes on display.

The docent said this was the 100th anniversary of the start of the company. These are original drawings.

The Karpeles museum also has some ships on display.

Lastly here is some music that Mozart wrote. They also had music from Wagner but I didn't take a picture of that. In my class on Ukraine and the Cossacks, I learned that Hitler loved Wagner. And the Wagner group that wages war for Russia in the Ukraine, Syria, Africa and Venezuela is named for the composer.

 

One More Thing

 As I read One More Thing by B.J. Novak I had no idea he is the actor who play Ryan Howard in "The Office" television show. I think if I had known that I would have read it differently. This is a collection of short stories on random topics. One story was about the hare wanting a rematch race with the tortoise. Some stories built on each other. One story was about a guy who always wore a red t-shirt with a pocket. In the next story is about a woman has a romantic encounter and in the last line of the chapter she mentions he wore a red t-shirt with a pocket. One story is about the author John Grisham getting up in the morning, making coffee, reading the newspaper, and realizing there is a typo in his new novel. This was an amusing book if you like short stories like I do.

Between Shades Of Gray

 A couple of weeks ago I watched a movie called Ashes In The Snow. The movie was an adaptation of a book called Between Shades Of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  So I reserved the book and just read it today. The story is about Joseph Stalin's attack on Lithuania. The story is told through the eyes of Lina who is 15 years old in 1941. Russian soldiers come into their home. Lina, her mother, and her younger brother become separated from her father. They are put into trains and sent to Siberia to work digging beets and potatoes out of the fields. The conditions are terrible. The Lithuanians are accused of crimes against Russia. Lina is an artist and drawing helps her cope with her situation. Art completed by the Lithuanians is responsible for their story ever getting out. Some prisoners buried their art in cans. In the 1970's someone found the art and started an investigation. The book and the movie had a few minor discrepancies.  This was an excellent book about strong Lithuanians.

All Creatures Great And Small

 James Herriot is the pen name for the veterinarian who wrote All Creatures Great And Small. I think I did read this before probably forty years ago and I liked it then and I like it now. His descriptions of the landscape, of the people who worked the farms, and the animals themselves let me know that this author has an attitude of gratitude. Sometimes he would stop and sit in the fields and just appreciate the sights, the sounds, and the smells. Being a veterinarian in the country means giving up regular sleep and consistent hours. Since he enjoyed his work he didn't really mind the middle of the night calls. Sometimes he was called over to check on Mrs. Pumphrey's Pekinese Tricky Woo. The only problem with Tricky Woo was his diet which was a blend of expensive treats and cakes. I liked the way he described the friction between his boss, Siegfried and Siegfried's brother Tristan. Siegfried could be so condescending and pompous. Tristan could be work avoidant and fun-loving. This excellent book is semi-autobiographical.

Mad Honey

 Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan are the authors of Mad Honey. Like all books written by Picoult, this one has a trial. At the trial Asher is charged with the murder of Lily, his girlfriend of 3 months who had just moved to the small town in New Hampshire four months ago to attend her senior year of high school.  Ash is a popular student in the school and is captain of the hockey team. Lily, new to town, plays the cello. She meets Maya who plays the oboe. Maya introduces Lily to Ash. Ash's mother, Olivia, is a single mother. She lives in her family's farm house. She takes care of the apiary that her father started. She sells honey and honey products at the farmers market. Throughout the novel the focus turns away from Lily and Ash and onto the care of bees and the life of bees. This is a wonderful novel. There is a plot twist that comes up late in the trial and changes the trajectory of the tale to one more complicated.

Greenwich Park

 Katherine Faulkner is the author of the mystery novel called Greenwich Park. Set in England a young wife named Helen is due to give birth soon. She has a handsome architect husband and they live in a beautiful Victorian home. Going to pre-natal classes in the neighborhood she meets another pregnant woman Rachel. Rachel is not the typical mother in class. She drinks alcohol and smokes cigarettes and doesn't seem interested in children at all. Since Helen is off of work because of her pregnancy and seems to keep running into Rachel, they end up hanging out together. As it turns out Helen's husband is keeping secrets, her brother and his wife are keeping secrets and Rachels presence is about to unleash all those secrets. This was an interesting book. I enjoyed the dialogue but really didn't enjoy the mystery.

Snow Bunting

Yesterday I was down at the Lakewalk doing my phenology volunteer route with the app called Nature's Notebook. On my way back to my car a spotted a flock of 8 little birds flying around the rocks that line the path. Turns out they were snow buntings. This is an adult female.

 

The Mother-In-Law

Sally Hepworth is the author of the fiction novel called The Mother-In-Law. The story is about a mother-in-law, Diana, and her relationships with her son's wife Lucy. Diana also has a daughter and son-in-law. Diane and her recently deceased husband have an abundance of wealth. Diana feels very strongly that the kids should make it on their own without financial assistance. Her husband was more generous. This led to family conflict. Diana's passion is helping refugees make their new lives in the country which, by the way, is Australia as the family lives near Melbourne. This was an interesting story about a family, their relationships, and their assets. I did not see that ending coming.