Hungry Heart

 I read Jennifer Weiner (it's pronounced Why-ner)'s book Hungry Heart. In a series of essays she tells about her family, her upbringing, her education, her career, her love life, her children, her successes and her failures. I had not actually heard of her before but she is a famous writer and one of her books was made into a movie (In Her Shoes).  Her first book was titled Good In Bed. As I read the pages I was suddenly glad there are no writers in my immediate family because she is painfully honest about hers. Jennifer is a complicated person. As loudly as she advocates that women should accept and love their own bodies, she goes into a dark place when she is criticized for hers. She is very sensitive yet she continues to put herself out there hoping to be a voice for women who can't or won't talk about these things.  Jennifer is definitely a feminist yet she devotes an entire, painful, chapter to the television show, The Bachelor which is not a feminist show at all. That chapter was the worst. Sometimes she is downright funny. Her essay on how male writers are taken more seriously than female writers was very good. She is definitely a dog lover and I can relate with that.  I liked the book except for the chapter about The Bachelor. I have never watched that show and I don't intend to.

The Pileateds Come For Suet

 This morning Mr. Pileated Woodpecker visited my suet. You might be able to see that he has a red mustache in the photo which marks him as male. An hour later Ms. Pileated Woodpecker came by too. The females don't have the red mustache. She didn't want her picture taken though. Most of the birds on the suet have been hungry black capped chickadees. The chickadees take such a small amount they hardly make a dent in the suet. Hairy woodpeckers have also come by but not as often as the chickadees.

The Bright Side Sanctuary For Animals

 Becky Mandelbaum wrote The Bright Side Sanctuary For Animals. The story is about Mona and Ariel Siskin, mother and daughter. They live in western Kansas at an animal sanctuary with dogs, cats, horses and pigs. This is a no-kill shelter which Mona runs. Mona puts all her strength and energy into caring for these animals and finding homes for them. Mona neglects herself, she neglects her house, and she neglects Ariel. When Ariel graduates from high school and earns a full scholarship to attend college on the eastern end of Kansas, Mona says no. Mona says Ariel should live at home and attend community college. This causes a rift so large mother and daughter do not talk to each other for six years. Ariel goes to college. One day Ariel sees that a vandal started a fire at the sanctuary. Two horses perished in the fire. In her head, Ariel thinks this might be her fault so she heads home. I don't want to give away the story of two hard-headed women meeting again after a six year separation but this made for a very interesting story.

Snow Buntings

 I walked to my local post office to drop off a letter to a relative. The air was cold and my hands were cold inside my gloves. My cheeks were red with the cold despite my coat, mittens and scarf. I was glad I had my wind pants on over my jeans. I was crossing the parking lot when I saw a small group of birds hopping around on the asphalt. Snow buntings! Seriously? In the parking lot? I have looked for snow buntings for years and only saw them twice. Both times I was in a vehicle moving down the highway. And here they are right by my feet! Snow buntings are the only songbird that nests as far north. Snow buntings are hardy little birds and it was a real treat for me to see one.

The Spectator Bird

 I read another of Wallace Stegner's novels. The Spectator Bird won the national book award for fiction in 1976. The story is about Joe and his wife Ruth who are around 70 and have retired to a home in northern California. Joe has arthritis and is a bit cranky and it seems that he and Ruth are a happy couple. On the surface Joe seems curmudgeonly but inside he is a deep thinker and a kind man. Joe gets the idea that he acts like a spectator in his own life instead of the major character. One day he gets a postcard from Astrid, a countess that he and Ruth met 20 years earlier when they traveled to Denmark. Joe and Ruth rented some rooms from Astrid and their lives became intertwined during the months they spent with her. Joe eventually brings out three books of a diary that he kept while they were in Denmark and he reads them to his wife before they go to sleep at night. As I read I got caught up in the story and sometimes the words made me laugh out loud. I very much enjoyed reading The Spectator Bird.

Bats

Today I attended a Zoom meeting of the local master naturalists. Our speaker is a senior at the U of M in Duluth studying environmental outdoor education. Her favorite animal is the bat. Her research project was at the Boulder Lake Management Area which has a nature center which is about 22 miles north of where I live. Using a device that recorded bat sounds and identified the species, she found all seven of the Minnesota bats staying in the bat houses at Boulder Lake. She also walked three paths at Boulder Lake to find other bats. She is designing a citizen science project for people who might help her with the research. A local boy scout group made 70 more bat houses so she could use some help in monitoring those within the Boulder Lake Management Area. I have done frog surveys and owl surveys and bird surveys and secretive marsh bird surveys but never a bat survey. This could be a fun activity to do after sunset on summer nights with another person. I don't think I want to do a bat survey in the dark alone. 

 

Extraordinary, Ordinary People

 I just finished reading Condoleezza Rice's autobiography Extraordinary, Ordinary People;  Memoir of Family. Condoleezza writes about her parents and grandparents growing up in Birmingham, Alabama where segregation existed.  The Governor, George Wallace, said "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."  To cope the black families tried to stay separate. Rather than ride in the back of buses they walked or drove cars. Rather than use public toilets for blacks only they waited until they found a better one or went home. Her parents were college graduates. Her mother taught school and her father was a preacher. Later in life he went on to be a college administrator. Condoleezza grew up playing the piano at parties and church events. Eventually the family moved to Colorado for her father's job and that is where she went to high school. She also took ice skating lessons. Eventually she figured out she was not going to make a career of ice skating nor the piano. She wasn't sure which major to choose in college until she met Josef Korbel (who happened to be the father of Madeline Albright). He influenced her to go into political science and focus on Russia. Eventually she went to graduate school at Notre Dame and Stanford. Her parents sacrificed for her education. All their savings went to their daughter. She eventually became a tenured professor at Stanford and later the Provost of Stanford. I was hoping to read about her years at the White House but the book ends just as George W. Bush was elected. I enjoyed reading her book.