The Whispers

 Ashley Audrain is the author of a dark family drama novel called The Whispers. The story is about four families who live near each other. Each chapter is narrated by a mother in one of those five families. One family is the Loverly family. They have a party for the neighborhood. In the midst of the party Whitney, the mother, can be heard yelling at her 10 year old son, Xavier. The Loverly's best friends, the Parks, have a ten year old daughter who is friends with Xavier. The Goldsmith's are a childless couple and the wife is a ER doctor. An elderly couple lives next door and are ignored by the younger families. One night Xavier falls out of his bedroom window. He is brought to the ER and treated by Dr. Goldsmith. As he lies in a coma, each family is considering their role in this accident. Each family has some crazy suspicious about the other families. The book was interesting and I am glad not to live in that neighborhood.

The Rent Collector

 I just finished a terrific novel called The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. Set in Cambodia, Sang Li and Ki Lim are a young married couple with a sickly 18 month old baby. They make a living as trash pickers as a municipal dump called Stung Meanchey. They live in a makeshift shack within the confines of the dump. A rent collector comes every month and angrily demands the rent. One day Ki Lim brings his wife a gift of a book. When the rent collector comes Sang Li notices the rent collector can read. Sang Li asks the rent collector for reading lessons. Sang Li is sure that knowing how to read will better her life and the life of her son. As it turns out, literacy does improve the lives of Sang Li, Ki Lim and their son.

Walking In Sunshine

Today I went for a walk around Lake Winona. The weather was perfect. This walk took a couple of hours.

I think this is a northern map turtle.

 

The School For German Brides

Aimie K. Runyan is the author of the historical fiction novel called The School For German Brides. The story begins in 1939 when a young German woman named Hannah is sent to live in Berlin with her aunt and uncle after her mother died. Her aunt and uncle are eager to get Hannah engaged to a successful Nazi military man to enhance their own social standing. Hannah's mother was a midwife and a healer using herbal remedies. Hannah would like to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her aunt and uncle forbid this. Her Nazi suitor sends her to the school for German brides. There she learns how to indoctrinate Nazi principles into her children. Each chapter is narrated alternately by Hannah and Tilde. Tilde is a young Jewish German seamstress. Tilde is pregnant and her husband is missing. Tilde ends up on the grounds of the German School For Brides as she gives birth in an abandoned caretaker's cottage. Hannah was a customer of Tilde's business. This fascinating novel showed what it was like to be a woman in Germany during the war. 

Rules Of Civility

 George Washington wrote a list of rules of civility and his list is at the end of this book called Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. The year is 1937. A 25 year old woman named Katey Kontent (pronounced like the good feeling with the accent on the last syllable) goes to a jazz club. She meets a man called Tinker Grey. Katey lives in a boarding house and works as a typist during the day. This chance meeting has a big effect on Katey. For the next year  she socializes with the upper class in New York City. Tinker Grey is the fellow who follows the rules of civility. I found it interesting to learn more about the levels of society in the Big Apple.

I, Robot

 Isaac Asimov is the author of the classic science fiction book, I Robot. This is a collection of short stories that were published in the 1940's. The book was published in 1950. The stories are told by journalists who interview Dr. Susan Calvin, a world famous robopsychologist who works for a large robot manufacturer. All stories involve humans, robots, and moral decisions. Some of it gets a bit philosophical. I was pleasantly surprised to see the world expert on robot psychology be a woman. This collection of 9 short stories has been made into a television series and several films.

Our Man In Havana

 Written in 1959 by Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana is classic literature about espionage or perhaps, lack of espionage. The story revolves around a vacuum cleaner store owner in Havana named Wormwood. London's M16 recruits him, against his will, to spy and send information back to London in a code based on a book called Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb. Wormwood has a daughter whom he adores. She is 16 and has expensive tastes. She really wants a horse for her 17th birthday so Wormwood starts making fictitious reports. One thing leads to another and the whole situation becomes satirical and hilarious. I never thought I would enjoy a book about espionage as much as I enjoyed this one.

Bitch

 I don't like the word bitch but I did enjoy a book recommended to me by another master naturalist. Bitch: On The Females Of The Species was written by Lucy Cooke who is a zoologist. According to the much revered Charles Darwin, the males of the species are active, dominating, and interesting. The females are passive and boring. According to Lucy Cooke, his interpretation of the role of the sexes in completely wrong. Some females are dominant and promiscuous.  Also, it is not so easy to tell males and females apart. Early in the book the author states that except for the human species, the genders of male and female don't scientifically apply. But then she writes the rest of the book applying genders. Towards the end of the book she writes about species of fish and lizards that can change their gender. Generally only females can change to male and once they do they remain as males. One species of fish could change genders up to 20 times in a 24 hour period. Some parts were dry but overall it was an interesting book. 

MIA

Today was a rainy day here in Minneapolis so I headed over to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Admission is free. Parking costs ten dollars. They had an Asian exhibit. Check out this pair of Japanese bridal .

Here is a sea scape by Claude Monet.

Olive trees by Vincent Van Gogh.

A portrait of George Washington.

 

Defending Jacob

I read (listened to) another crime/thriller novel. This one was Defending Jacob by William Landay. The plot involves Andy Barber, his wife, Laurie, and his 14 year old son, Jacob. Andy is a respected assistant district attorney in a suburb in Massachusetts. When another 14 year old boy in his town is found murdered, he leads the investigation. After a few days evidence is found that makes his son, Jacob, a suspect so he is taken off the case. How long can a parent believe in the innocence of their child? How much evidence will it take to make them admit the truth? Andy is a kind and loyal father to Jacob. This novel is being converted to a mini-series on Apple TV. This is  the kind of book that is made for a mini-series.

 

Never Lie

 Freida McFadden is the author of the novel Never Lie which was published in 2022. This is a thriller/crime novel. Newlyweds, Tricia and Ethan are checking out a real estate listing out in the country. They expect to meet their realtor on a Friday evening. A snow storm comes and they barely make it to the house. The realtor is not there. The newlyweds find a key and enter the house since their car is stuck in the driveway and there is no escaping the storm. The home was owned by a female psychiatrist who has been missing for 3 years. The newlyweds find food and shelter. They explore the house. Tricia finds a secret room with clues to the psychiatrist's patients. The plot unfolds like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Some phrasing was repetitive and I wondered why the author kept hammering on the same point. Otherwise the character development was good and the scenery descriptions were compelling.

Phew!

Today I went to Como Park conservatory to view the corpse flower that is about to bloom.

Years ago, possibly 20 years ago, I was in Washington, D.C. when a corpse flower was about to bloom. That one was not as close to bloom as this one is and it had no smell. So first I went through the fern room at the conservatory. The sunken garden is next. Personally I don't care for a pink, red and purple display. Then I went through the bonsai area.

Then I came to the north room. Despite every window on both sides of this room being completely wide open, the smell was very strong. I smelled filthy feet. The flower is awesome but the smell was pretty bad.

 

Bird Song

On Saturday night in conjunction with the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds, we listened to Don Kroodsma speak about bird song. This retired professor has studied bird song for years. He records bird song and then studies the sonograms of the sounds they make. He figured out that a brown thrasher has more than 1,000 songs to sing. He also figured out that birds have two voice boxes, one on the left and one on the right. They can use both voice boxes simultaneously. Birds sing a variety of songs at sun rise that they do not repeat until the next sunrise. Time flew by as this speaker blew our minds with his fun facts.

 

Hallaway

I have only been to Maplewood State Park once before. The time of the year was autumn and we thought we could snag a campsite. Wrong. Despite the rainy weather we waited 30 minutes in a line of cars full of people determined to enjoy the fall colors. There was no empty parking spaces so we could not stop to hike. We drove the 5 mile wildlife loop and left. Today I got to enjoy the park. This is our view from the top of Hallaway Hill. On our hike we saw yellow warblers, golden winged warblers (a first for me), turkey vultures, a bald eagle, American Robins, and chestnut sided warblers. We also saw a dog tick perched on a leaf of grass below a park bench waiting for a human to come close. Dog ticks wear either a necklace (female) or suspenders (male). Both male and female ticks bite. I knew females had to bite to reproduce but I guess I just never thought about what the male ticks would feast on. Maplewood State Park is on the edge of the prairie biome and the big woods biome so it is possible to hear a Eastern Meadowlark and an Indigo bunting at the same time. We took the wildlife loop. At the end of our trip we visited the sugar shack. This park, with assistance from the "Friends of Maplewood State Park" group, collect maple sap and process it into syrup for the local school kids to participate. Each kid gets a bowl of ice cream with maple syrup on top. Any left over maple syrup is packaged by local professional syrup processors and sold in small bottles in the fall at the leaf day celebrations.

 

Fair Hills

The MN Master Naturalist convention is partnering with the Detroit Lakes bird festival this year so we all met at the Fair Hills Resort on Pelican Lake which is 6 square miles and up to 55 feet deep. They are just opening up for the season so when I got to my room it was about 90 degrees in there. The electric baseboard heat was going full blast. I opened all the windows but it was still hot. A friend had the same thing happen to her so she explained the knob on the baseboard functions as an on/off switch. This is a beautiful place with tennis courts, pickleball courts, boats and kayaks to borrow, shuffleboard and a small golf course.

Th

After dinner (wild rice hotdish) Al Batt spoke. He was born in southern MN on a dairy farm. He likes to watch birds too. He was so funny everyone in the room was cracking up. This is his 5th time coming to the Detroit Lakes birding festival. I wish I could be so funny.

 

The Beach At Summerly

Beatriz Williams is the author of the historical fiction novel called The Beach At Summerly. The story takes place on Winthrop Island. The story is told by the teenaged Emilia Winthrop, a descendent of the original settlers but now the daughter of a caretaker on an estate owned by others. Emilia is a year round resident while the estate owners on the island are only there for the summer. She is enthralled by the single young mother of three who is related to the estate owners. Emilia babysits for Olive Ransford who has lived in many countries and has had many experiences. Olive encourages Emilia to go to college, to travel, and most importantly, leave Winthrop Island. Emilia hesitates because she wants to care for her mother who has had a stroke and to help her father and younger sister. Emilia and Olive's lives become intertwined. Eight years later, when Emilia is a professor at Wellesley college, their lives become intertwined again in a surprising ending. This was a very entertaining story to read.  

Miesville Ravine Park

 

Today I was driving north from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, and decided to take a midday walk at the Miesville Ravine Park near Cannon Falls. I hoped to see a cerulean warbler. I was disappointed not to see or hear a cerulean warbler but I did see Rose-breasted grossbeaks, black and white warbler, American red starts, a yellow billed cuckoo, red bellied woodpeckers, and a gray catbird.

I Was Told There Would Be Cake

Sloane Crosby is the author of I Was Told There Would Be Cake. This book is a collection of her essays about her life living in New York and her family, her roommates, and her friends. One story I found to be particularly funny was about a friend from high school to whom Sloane had not talked to in over 15 years. The friend calls her up, announces she is engaged, and invites Sloane to be a bridesmaid. Sloane reluctantly agrees even though she dislikes weddings. The bride to be starts calling every day taking up too much time and making more and more crazy requests that Sloane has a hard time refusing. The author is funny. She is not "David Sedaris" funny but she is funny.

 

Prairie Du Chien

Prairie Du Chien is a surprisingly flat town surrounded by dolomite cliffs. Here is a building on Saint Feriole Island. This island has great walking paths and biking paths. Two bridges come over the west branch of the Mississippi River. Lots of people were fishing today. Previously mussel shells were collected here for pearl buttons. Mussels were taken until the mussel population failed and plastic buttons were invented in the 1940's.

Like Hollywood, they even have their name up on the hill only it's  not the full name, just the initials.

Lots of nice parks in this town. Little flags on the street posts in the park bear the name and picture of each 2024 Prairie Du Chien high school graduate.

 

The Soulmate Equation

I listened to a silly romance book called The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren. In this story Jess is a single Mom raising her daughter by herself. Jess was raised by her grandparents because her Mom has addiction issues and her Dad bowed out of the relationship. Through her best friend she hears about a company called GeneticAlly. This new business is setting up a genetic database hoping to match single people with their soul mate. Jess, in a moment of utter frustration, sends in a spit sample only to find herself matched with the CEO of the company. She is asked to help with publicity on this match by dating the CEO and getting paid $3000 a month to do it. This was an entertaining story. Life would be so much simpler if we could find out soul mates scientifically. 

Effigy Mounds National Park

I am staying in Prairie Du Chien in Iowa but today I traveled only 4 miles to get to Effigy Mounds National Park. This is an ancient cemetery and a spiritual place. This mound is shaped like a little bear.

These are the first ones I saw as I walked up the steep hill. I heard a wood thrush, a red bellied woodpecker, rose breasted grossbeak, American redstart and a red eyed vireo.

This was a bigger bear mound.

I was so excited to see a pair of Baltimore orioles. Five seconds later I see a pair of scarlet tanagers. Bingo! This is my lucky day.

I walked as far as the twin views. I was sitting on a bench, all alone, minding my own business, when a tree between this view and the other view came crashing down and fell off the cliff. There wasn't a lick of wind and it was very startling to hear such a crash.

This is the other twin view. A little south of here, closer to the level of the water, is a group of bear shaped mounds in a row called marching bears.

 

Dubuque

Today I was driving northwest from Clinton, Illinois. I got to Dubuque in the early afternoon. I thought I would pull over and explore this beautiful town on the Mississippi. I parked and started walking around when I saw the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. I decided to pay a visit. Lucky me, I got a ten dollar discount on admission because I am a Mom. I visited the aquarium with fresh water and salt water animals. They had an outdoor area with a kestrel, red tailed hawk, bald eagle and a barn owl. They had a history section about the river and the people who lived on the river.

My ticket is good for two days so I could go back but I don't think I will as I am staying an hour north of Dubuque.

 

The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid

 Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid is a story of his life growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. He was born in 1951. He had an active imagination and thought of himself as a super-hero who could fry people with his thunderbolt looks. He had friends who were good influences and other friends who were bad influences. Dropping items on diners at at the shopping mall was done by Bryson and one of his friends who was a bad influence. He writes a hilarious book.

Then We Came To The End

 Joshua Ferris is the author of Then We Came To The End. The novel is about working at an advertising agency or rather the characters who worked there. Like all offices there are characters, romances, and office pranks. Reading this book reminded me of watching the TV series, The Office. One guy is sure he will  be fired for taking the chair of a coworker soon after they left. The chair haunts him. In truth no one knew he took the chair and no one cares but he doesn't know that. People always gather in the cubicle of the office story teller (gossiper). One of the employees dies of a heart attack. He leaves something in his will to one of his coworkers who wasn't expecting it. He has no idea why the guy left him a totem pole. He visits the totem pole at the guy's house until it is sold. Then he puts the totem pole in a storage facility. This was a very entertaining book to read. The head honcho at the agency appears to have it all together but behind the scenes she is the most conflicted person unable to act in her own best interests.

Wright

This afternoon I drove to Dayton, Ohio to visit the Wright Aviation Center. I got a tour of Orville and Wilbur's bicycle store. This was their fourth of their five bike stores. They always rented their stores. The height of the biking craze peaked in 1902 and the Wright Brothers made good money. At the time their safety bicycles cost $100. Translated into to the economy of today, that bike would cost $1400.

The Wright brothers also had a printing press. They published several newspapers but none of them stayed solvent very long. Orville went to school with Paul Laurence Dunbar. Together the Wright Brothers and Dunbar published a newspaper focused on the black neighborhood in Dayton. That newspaper only lasted 3 editions. Dunbar went on to become a prominent poet, short story writer and novelist. On the second floor they had a parachute museum.

This is one of the $100 bicycle.

 

Hopewell

Yesterday I left Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and drove west. I went through Maryland and stayed for the night in West Virginia, right next to the border of Ohio. This morning I drove two hours to Chillicothe to visit the the Hopewell Culture National Historic Site. Here is one of a grouping of burial grounds in Ohio. Inside these burial grounds they have found shells from the Gulf of Mexico, grizzly bear teeth from Montana, copper from Michigan, silver from Canada, shark teeth from Maine and mica from North Carolina. I walked around the grounds imagining the people who were buried here. This felt like a very spiritual place.

 

Beyond The Door Of No Return

David Diop is the author of Beyond The Door Of No Return. The translator is Sam Taylor. The historical fiction novel starts out in Paris in 1806. A botanist, Michael Adanson, lies on his deathbed trying to figure out a way to let his daughter, Aglae, know of his life in Senegal. He once pursued the daughter of a Senegalese leader after she returned from three years of slavery in the United States. He found the daughter, the beautiful woman, and he writes to his daughter about her. The story is told by the Europeans, not the Africans and it reads like an adventure story. I have never read a book anything like this before. I enjoyed the scenery and the botany and the adventure.

Tom Lake

 Ann Patchett wrote Tom Lake in 2023. This is a family novel. Three daughters want to know about their mother's life prior to her marriage to her father. In her earlier years, before she had three daughters. Lara was an actress in a summer theater group in northern Michigan called Tom Lake. She starred in the play, Our Town. The person who played her father in the play went on to become a famous movie star. Their father was the director of the play so he knew both Lara and the famous movie star. The daughters are begging for details as they pick cherries on their farm in Michigan. Patchett is a talented writer and I totally enjoyed this family drama.

The Girl With No Name

 Marina Chapman, with the assistance of ghostwriter Lynne Barrett-Lee, is the author of The Girl With No Name; The Incredible True Story Of A Child Raised by Monkeys. This true story starts at age 4 when a girl in Colombia is kidnapped, taken out to the jungle, and abandoned. She is four years old and wearing a dress and panties. The year is 1954. She cries alone in the forest, hungry and lonely. After a week or so she notices the monkeys foraging for food. She decides to copy their behavior to keep herself from starving. Soon she figures out how to get up into the canopy. Over time the monkeys come to accept her. One monkey cares for her when she gets sick from eating the wrong kind of nuts. He takes her to a waterfall and has her drink water until she vomits up the poisonous nuts. Over time she becomes feral. She forgets how to speak. She walks on all fours. She is a survivor. Now she is married and living in London. Some of the proceeds of her book go to help combat child slavery and human trafficking in Colombia.

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

I completed a couple of manicures today.

 

Crow Mary

 Kathleen Grissom is the author of Crow Mary, a book inspired by a indigenous woman named Goes First who married a white man named Abe Farrell in 1872. At the time she was 16. Since she was from the Crow Tribe and white people called women Mary, she became Crow Mary. Her story, her life, her loves, her successes and her failures make for great reading. Crow Mary lives with her family in Canada and Montana, often traveling great distances to seek a better life. In some ways Abe is a brave and kind man. At other times he is selfish and cruel. Crow Mary is the dependable steady rock of a woman upon whom her children rely. This was a very interesting story. Some parts are very sad. The forward to this incredibly moving story is written by Crow Mary's great granddaughter.

The Motion Picture Teller

 Colin Cotterill is the author of the novel The Motion Picture Teller. This story is set in 1996 and  mostly in Bangkok. Two bachelors hang out together in the evenings. One is a postal worker. One works in a video rental/mini-market. Together they enjoy films together. They watch Thai films and foreign films. They seem to have a great friendship. Through a local man they come across a new (to them) film called Bangkok 2010. Both men love the film and decide to do research on the actors and why the film was never released. As it turns out there is a group of people who do not want the movie released. When the former postal worker figures this out, he starts a new career as a motion picture teller. He describes films in detail and keep the village people entertained for hours. I enjoyed reading this humorous book about the friendship of two men in Bangkok.

One Puzzling Afternoon

 Emily Critchley is the author of One Puzzling Afternoon, a mystery historical fiction novel set in a small town in the British Isles. Edie is 84 now but in the book she is a schoolgirl living with her mother and father in the same house she lives in when she was 84. Her mother tells fortunes which both embarrasses and scares Edie. Sometimes her mother really is able to tell a fortune. Edie becomes friends with one of the wealthy, popular girls at her school. Her friend disappears at age 15. At age 84, Edie is determined to find out what happened to her friend all those years ago. This book was interesting because the narrator, Edie, has dementia. Sometimes she knows she has dementia. Other times she is highly offended when people treat her as forgetful. I thought the book was beautifully written.