Looking Back - Wait Till Next Year

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Memoir
1998 Simon & Schuster
Finished in August 1998
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Wait Till Next Year is the story of a young girl growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, when owning a single-family home on a tree-lined street meant the realization of dreams, when everyone knew everyone else on the block, and the children gathered in the streets to play from sunup to sundown. The neighborhood was equally divided among Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans, and the corner stores were the scenes of fierce and affectionate rivalries. We meet the people who influenced Goodwin's early life: her father, who emerged from a traumatic childhood without a trace of self-pity or rancor and who taught his daughter early on that she should say whatever she thought and should bring her voice into any conversation at any time; her mother, whose heart problems left her with the arteries of a 70-year-old when she was only in her 30s and whose love of books allowed her to break the boundaries of the narrow world to which she was confined by her chronic illness; her two older sisters; her friends on the block; the local storekeepers; her school friends and teachers. This is also the story of a girlhood in which the great religious festivals of the Catholic church and the seasonal imperatives of baseball combined to produce a passionate love of history, ceremony, and ritual. It is the story of growing up in what seemed on the surface a more innocent era until one recalls the terror of polio, the paranoia of McCarthyism reflected even in the children's games, the obsession with A-bomb drills in school, and the ugly face of racial prejudice. It was a time whose relative tranquility contained the seeds of the turbulent decade of the 60s. Shortly after the Dodgers left, Goodwin's mother died, and the family moved from the old neighborhood to an apartment on the other side of town. This move coincided with the move of several other families on the block and with the decline of the corner store as the supermarket began to take over. It was the end.


My Original Notes (1998):

Excellent memoir! I loved it. Very entertaining. You don't need to be a baseball fan to enjoy it, either. I think it's a beautifully written cultural history of growing up in the 50s. Playing outside until dark. Walking home from school for lunch. Owning the first TV on the block. First Communion. Howdy Doody. The Mickey Mouse Club. Polio. The Cold War. Air raid drills. McCarthyism. The Rosenbergs. James Dean. And, of course, the Brooklyn Dodgers! Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider. After reading so many books about dysfunctional and abusive families, I found this very refreshing.

My Current Thoughts:

I can't believe I no longer own a copy of this book! After reading my original notes, I thought I'd like to read the book again, but I can't find my copy. I either loaned it to someone or decided not to keep it when we were packing for our move to Oregon. Rats!

Bury Your Dead

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #6
Mystery
2010 Minotaur Books
Finished on June 9, 2019
Rating: 5/5 (Excellent!)

Publisher's Blurb:

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society--where an obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly four hundred years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Meanwhile, Gamache is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. "It doesn't make sense," Olivier's partner writes every day. "He didn't do it, you know."

As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive a terrible event from his own past before he can begin to bury his dead.

Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Morrin Centre

Literary and Historical Society of Quebec

Yes, this is her best yet! I loved learning about the history of Quebec as well as diving into another mystery with Gamache. I so enjoy the way Penny teases out the details of the mystery (and the terrible event from Gamache's recent past), ratcheting up the tension so that I had no choice but to read well into the early morning hours. The main cast of characters are so fully realized that I felt as though I was experiencing their pain and emotional suffering just as I would with any good friend or relative. I rarely give a mystery or thriller a perfect 5-star rating, but this one is deserving of at least that. Bravo! I'm so glad there are so many more in this series yet for me to read and to think I was ready to give up after A Fatal Grace (#2)!

Few writers in any genre can match Penny's ability to combine heartbreak and hope in the same scene. (Publishers Weekly)

Hunted on the Fens

Hunted on the Fens (DI Nikki Galena, #3) by Joy Ellis
Mystery
2017 Tantor Audio
Read by Henrietta Meire
Finished on June 8, 2019
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A vicious criminal is targeting DI Nikki Galena and her team. One by one he will hunt them down and destroy their lives, unless she can stop him first.

DI Nikki Galena faces her toughest challenge yet. Can she save her team and herself from a cruel and determined adversary who will stop at nothing to harm Nikki and her colleagues? First she must work out who wants revenge against her or one of her detectives. Full of twists and turns, this is a crime novel that will have you turning the pages until the stunning ending.

And what is the connection between the series of attacks on the police and the mystery of woman found dead in a seemingly impregnable locked room? Find out in this tense and exciting detective thriller.

THE DETECTIVE DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she’s seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She’s got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her.

HER PARTNER DS Joseph Easter is the squeaky-clean new member of the team. But his nickname “Holy Joe” belies his former life as a soldier. He has an estranged daughter who blames him for everything that went wrong with their family.

THE SETTING The Lincolnshire Fens: great open skies brood over marshes, farmland, and nature reserves. It is not easy terrain for the Fenland Constabulary to police, due to the distances between some of the remote Fen villages, the dangerous and often misty lanes, and the poor telephone coverage. There are still villages where the oldest residents have never set foot outside their own farmland and a visit to the nearest town is a major event. But it has a strange airy beauty to it, and above it all are the biggest skies you’ve ever seen.

I enjoyed listening to the previous two books in Joy Ellis' Nikki Galena series, but this installment took me over a month to finish and while I enjoyed it, I didn't think it was great. That may have something to do with the fact that I was also reading a Louise Penny mystery, which held my interest much better than this book. Also, the reader for this series has begun to sound flat and monotone when she read the men's dialogue, which I found very annoying. If I continue with the series, I will switch to the printed books rather than listen to the audios. 

Looking Back - What We Keep

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
Fiction
1998 Random House
Finished in August 1998
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Do you ever really know your mother, your daughter, the people in your family? In this rich and rewarding new novel by the beloved bestselling author of Talk Before Sleep and The Pull of the Moon, a reunion between two sisters and their mother reveals how the secrets and complexities of the past have shaped the lives of the women in a family.

Ginny Young is on a plane, en route to see her mother, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to for thirty-five years. She thinks back to the summer of 1958, when she and her sister, Sharla, were young girls. At that time, a series of dramatic events--beginning with the arrival of a mysterious and sensual next-door neighbor--divided the family, separating the sisters from their mother. Moving back and forth in time between the girl she once was and the woman she's become, Ginny at last confronts painful choices that occur in almost any woman's life, and learns surprising truths about the people she thought she knew best.

Emotional honesty and a true understanding of people and relationships are combined in this moving and deeply satisfying new book by the novelist who "writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems" (Andre Dubus).


My Original Notes (1998):

Heartbreaking story with a happy ending. Very, very good! I read it in a couple of days - couldn't put it down, yet didn't want it to end.

A modern day version of The Awakening?

My Current Thoughts:

I still have a copy of this on my shelf and will probably read it again someday. 

A Month in Summary - May 2019

Point Hudson Marina and RV Park

Port Townsend, Washington

April 2019

Another fun-filled month! I got in quite a bit of reading and enjoyed all four books, but two in particular were exceptionally good. We had a wonderful visit with my brother and sister-in-law over Mother's Day weekend and are looking forward to another brother and his family who are due to arrive later this afternoon. There were also lots of great Mahjong games, pickleball and yoga, although I was hit hard with a four-day bout of BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) and was pretty miserable. I've only had it once in the past (and it only lasted a couple of hours), but this time it was much worse. After performing the Epley maneuver, I was finally able to get those little crystals back where they belong. I'm hoping this doesn't become an ongoing problem, as it is for a few of my friends. We're getting ready for another trip in the RV and I don't want to be dealing with this while we're away!

Books Read in May (click on titles for my review):

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder


First Lines:

Marsh is not a swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky. Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace--as though not built to fly--against the roar of a thousand snow geese. (Where the Crawdads Sing)

The Center squatted on the corner of Juniper and Montfort behind a wrought-iron gate, like an old bulldog used to guarding its territory. At one point, there had been many like it in Mississippi--nondescript, unassuming buildings where services were provided and needs were met. Then came the restrictions that were designed to make these places go away: The halls had to be wide enough to accommodate two passing gurneys; any clinic where that wasn't the case had to shut down or spend thousands on reconstruction. The doctors had to have admitting privileges at local hospitals--even though most were from out of state and couldn't secure them--or the clinics where they practiced risked closing, too. One by one the clinics shuttered their windows and boarded up their doors. Now, the Center was unicorn--a small rectangle of a structure painted a fluorescent, flagrant orange, like a flag to those who had traveled hundreds of miles to find it. It was the color of safety; the color of warning. It said: I'm here if you need me. It said, Do what you want to me; I'm not going. (A Spark of Light)

We are the unwitting carriers of our parents' secrets, the ripples made by stones we never saw thrown. If I close my eyes and breathe, I can still smell the sparkling, brittle moment my father broke my trust, and with it his heart. I can smell the honey of my mother's promises. (The Scent Keeper)

He left the coffee-scented warmth of the Main Street Grill and stood for a moment under the green awning. 

The honest cold of an early mountain spring stung him sharply.

He often noted the minor miracle of passing through a door into a completely different world, with different smells and attractions. It helped to be aware of the little things in life, he told himself, and he often exhorted his congregation to do the same. (At Home in Mitford)

In Drayton, North Dakota, a former San Francisco cabdriver, sixty-seven, labors at the annual sugar beet harvest. He works from sunrise until after sunset in temperatures that dip below freezing, helping trucks that roll in from the fields disgorge multi-ton loads of beets. At night he sleeps in the van that has been his home ever since Uber squeezed him out of the taxi industry and making the rent became impossible. (Nomadland)


Movies and TV Series:

House, MD - Season 7 - Ready to be finished with this show. Ugh. House. You are an idiot.

Game of Thrones - Season 2 - Can't wait to watch Season 3! Trying to avoid all spoilers for the series finale!

Vice - Great performances. Depressing subject matter.

Puzzlemania:

This one took about a week.

Visitors:

My brother and sister-in-law surprised my mom for Mother's Day! Always fun to have them here. We played A LOT of Mah Jong!

I also got to help teach my neighbor's 8-year-old granddaughter how to play. What a delightful girl! We had such fun.

Engagement Photos:

Click here to see more!

(Photo Credit: Arielle Levy)

Less than four months until the big day! I've been on the quest for the dress (Mother-of-the-Bride dress) and have narrowed my choices. Stay tuned!

Nomadland

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
Nonfiction - Sociology
2017 W. W. Norton & Company
Finished on May 28, 2019
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that Social Security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves "workampers."

In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subject more intimately. Accompanying her irrepressible protagonist, Linda May, and others, from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy--one that foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build her own sustainable "Earthship" home, they have not given up hope.

When my husband and I first started talking about our retirement plans, traveling around the United States in an RV was high on our list of things we hoped to do. We bought a 19 foot travel trailer shortly after we moved to Oregon and took several trips, learning the ins-and-outs of RV camping, while enjoying the beautiful forests and coastlines of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. We both follow several RV blogs and YouTube channels (my favorites are Less Junk More Journey, Long Long Honeymoon and Gone with the Wynns) and the more we read and watched, the more we began to consider someday living full-time in an RV. We decided to sell our trailer and buy something with a little more space and wound up with our 26 foot Four Winds Class C RV. After just two years and well over 10,000 miles on the road, we are still in love with RV travel. 

There have always been itinerants, drifters, hobos, restless souls. But now, in the second millennium, a new kind of wandering tribe is emerging. People who never imagined being nomads are hitting the road. They’re giving up traditional houses and apartments to live in what some call “wheel estate”—vans, secondhand RVs, school buses, pickup campers, travel trailers, and plain old sedans. They are driving away from the impossible choices that face what used to be the middle class. Decisions like: Would you rather have food or dental work? Pay your mortgage or your electric bill? Make a car payment or buy medicine? Cover rent or student loans? Purchase warm clothes or gas for your commute? For many the answer seemed radical at first. You can’t give yourself a raise, but what about cutting your biggest expense? Trading a stick-and-brick domicile for life on wheels?

When my book group chose Nomadland for our June selection, I was eager to read about the other side of RV living. The folks who make up the bulk of Bruder's highly readable narrative are not out on the road in RVs, enjoying their retirement, but rather living hand-to-mouth in campers, vans, utility trucks, converted school buses, and even a Prius! They move about the country earning a meager living, working at Amazon fulfillment centers, acting as camp hosts in state and national parks, harvesting beets in Colorado, North Dakota and Minnesota, as well as many other minimum wage and temporary positions. Many boondock on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land or stealth camp (legally and illegally) in towns and cities across the United States. Rod and I have boondocked at Walmart, Cracker Barrel and on forest roads, but only as an overnight stay on our way to a more desirable campground. What these folks are doing in Bruder's engrossing book is not a glamorous or even comfortable retirement and the more I read, the more sad and depressing these lives sounded. 

I was sucked in from the opening pages, but began to grow tired of the repetitive nature of the anecdotes. Bruder has previously written articles about this subject for Wired and Harper's (which can be found here) and I would have been happy reading those rather than an entire book focusing on the life of the workamper society. Actually, Nomadland reads like several articles pulled together in a somewhat disjointed manner. I'm anxious to hear what the members of my book group think of the book and I wonder if any of them will be interested in seeing the movie (starring Frances McDormand and David Strathairn), which is still in production. I love both actors, so I know I'll be watching. I also now know I have no desire to ever work at an Amazon fulfillment center!

Looking Back - A Cup of Tea

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917 by Amy Ephron 
Fiction
1998 Ballantine Books
Finished in August 1998
Rating: 1/5 (Poor)

Publisher's Blurb:

Amy Ephron gives us a delightful tale of romance, set against the backdrop of New York society during the uncertain days of World War I. Rosemary Fell was born to privilege - her only real hardship having been the loss of her mother some years earlier. She has friends and she has a great deal of money, and now she is about to marry Phillip Alsop, who owns a shipping concern and is of her social circle, though not of her wealth. Finally, she will have everything she wants. It is then, in a moment of beneficence, that she invites Eleanor Smith, a penniless young woman she sees under a streetlamp in the rain, to come to her home for a cup of tea and to warm herself by the fire. While there, Rosemary sees Eleanor exchange an unmistakable look with Phillip, and suddenly everything in Rosemary's carefully sculptured life changes. Rosemary sends Eleanor on her way, but she cannot undo this chance encounter that puts into play a tempestuous and all-consuming triangle. As the war builds in Europe, Phillip is sent to fight abroad, throwing all of their lives off balance.

My Original Notes (1998):

So-so to dull. I'm glad I didn't buy this book. Not my cuppa tea.


My Current Thoughts:

I wonder if I chose this because I loved Nora Ephron's (Amy's sister) Sleepless in Seattle. I'm pretty sure I haven't read anything else by her (or her sister, Delia) since this one.

Van Horn, TX to Faywood, NM (City of Rocks)

Friday, October 5, 2018
Van Horn, Texas to Faywood, New Mexico
City of Rocks State Park
Distance: 233 miles
Cost: $14 per night
Duration: 2 nights
Weather: Sunny & hot (80s)

We were up very early and on the road before 9:00, thanks to the sound of train whistles blowing as they passed by our RV park. Back on I-10, heading west, we survived driving through El Paso without incident. There was a lot of traffic, but it wasn't nearly as stressful as driving through Reno and Albuquerque. I'm not sure if it was because it was earlier in the day or that I didn't have to merge onto another freeway, but it was definitely easier to navigate through El Paso. We didn't have any problems with wind gusts until the last hour on I-10 and also on the highway heading to Faywood.

Sunrise at Desert Willow RV Park.

Note how close the railroad track is to the RV park.

City of Rocks State Park is about 30 miles from the exit off of I-10. Not knowing where we were going and relying on our GPS, it felt like we were driving out into the middle of nowhere. I kept thinking maybe we had messed up somehow and would have to turn around, but we eventually made it to the park and found our site.

From the website:

City of Rocks gets its name from the incredible volcanic rock formations found here. The park encompasses a one square mile area in the scenic Chihuahuan desert region of southwestern New Mexico at an elevation of 5,200 feet. The “city” is a geologic formation made up of large, sculptured rock columns, or pinnacles, rising as high as 40 feet and separated by paths or lanes resembling city streets. These rocks were formed about 34.9 million years ago when a very large volcano erupted. Then, erosion over millions of years slowly formed the sculptured columns seen today, creating a stunning, otherworldly landscape.

Cool, huh?!

The "city" is off to the left.

Our view for the next few days.

Nestled between the towering rocks.

The huge rock formations are the result of a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. The lava cooled and froze and eventually split into these large rocks.

No neighbors!

Table Mountain

The rocks provide some shade, as well as a windbreak.

Amazing how that one rock is just perched up there. 

Such a beautiful evening.

City of Rocks State Park offers nine reservable sites with water and electric hookups (showers are available in the nearby visitor center), but we opted for the primitive camping area (no water or electricity) in order to enjoy a more private setting for our two-night stay. The expansive views and dark night sky were almost otherwordly. The evenings were so peaceful and the stars were amazing! Great place to spend a few days. We loved it.

Looking Back - At Home in Mitford

Update

Finished on May 22, 2019
New Rating: 3.5/5

After sharing my recent post about At Home in Mitford (below), I decided it would be fun to start re-reading this series. I read a chapter or two, picking it up here and there between other books, taking my time and not rushing to finish it too quickly. I enjoyed revisiting Mitford and all the quirky characters, but I may not have liked it quite as much as I did 20 years ago. At times, I found myself a little bored with the story, but the second half picked up and while I may not have loved it, I'm glad I read it again. 

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
Mitford Series #1
Fiction
1994 Penguin Books
Finished in February 1998
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It's easy to feel at home in Mitford. In these high, green hills, the air is pure, the village is charming, and the people are generally lovable.

Yet, Father Tim, the bachelor rector, wants something more. Enter a dog the size of a sofa who moves in and won't go away. Add an attractive neighbor who begins wearing a path through the hedge. Now, stir in a lovable but unloved boy, a mystifying jewel theft, and a secret that's sixty years old

Suddenly, Father Tim gets more than he bargained for. And readers get a rich, provincial comedy in which mysteries and miracles abound.

My Original Notes (1998):

Awesome novel! Not a great work of literature, but simply a wonderful slice-of-life story. The characters are so lovable. Puny and Doolie are so funny and I love the romance between Fr. Tim and Cynthia. I'm such a sucker for a romance. I hope they get married!

My Current Thoughts:

I've read several books in this series and I think this first installment was probably the best. I remember laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband. I still own quite a few of the books and have decided to give this one a re-read sometime this year. I'm curious to see if it stands the test of time.

Fort Stockton & Van Horn, TX

Thursday, October 4, 2018
Fort Stockton to Van Horn, Texas
Desert Willow RV Park
Distance: 125 miles
Cost: $14
Duration: 1 night
Weather: Sunny and hot (80s)

We had an uneventful drive along I-10 with (thankfully!) no wind to speak of. We didn't have a very long drive, but it would have been too far to go all the way to our next destination, so we opted to stop for the night in Van Horn.

Beautiful clouds over the mountains.

Very basic park. Full hook-ups, but 

no picnic table or trees for shade (or privacy).

A hitching post for your horse?

Trying desperately to keep the RV cool!

No noisy neighbors, but the train tracks are right

behind those buildings and we heard them all night.

I suppose they can't all be gorgeous RV parks with pools, pickleball courts and curbside trash pick-up. At $14 a night (using our Passport America membership), this no-frills park was clean and tidy and for one night, we really can't complain. Easy access from I-10 and a very friendly manager, whom we probably should have asked for lunch recommendations rather than trying Chuy's without checking the online reviews. I can't remember the last time I had such a terrible meal. The beer was even flat!

It appears that the park is under new management and is now called Wild West RV Park. I wonder if they have any plans to plant some trees or shrubs. Or, maybe they'll just add a few tumbleweeds between sites. ;)

Looking Back -Summer Sisters

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Fiction
1998 Delacorte Press
Finished in August 1998
Rating: 4/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard's world changed forever—when Caitlin Somers chose her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomed Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha's Vineyard, a magical, wind-blown island where two friends became summer sisters...

Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin has begged Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—for the friend whose casual betrayals she remembers all too well. Because Vix wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart...

My Original Notes (1998):

Very good! Entertaining. A little predictable, but it didn't bother me. I enjoyed watching how the two friends' relationship evolved over the years.

My Current Thoughts:

Nope. No memory of this at all. It may be one that I read with an online book group.