Nine books for the month of May:
1. The vanishing museum on the rue Mistral (2021) by M.L. Longworth. I came across this Canadian expat author who lives in France, and somehow got confused about the order of her books, and read her latest novel in a series first, instead of reading her first novel first!! Oops. Well it was very interesting--the entire contents of the museum disappear over night! Who would do that and why? and HOW could they do it without there being any witnesses?
2. Dungeons and Drama (2024) by Kristy Boyce. I just happened upon this book in the children's section, and thought why not read it? A different twist to D&D! Dungeons & Dragons dude meets musical theatre chick and results in...this book, which was a cute, fun read.
3. I learned that a new detective show called Department Q will be starting on Netflix soon, and that they are based on books, so I found the first book in the Department Q series, The Keeper of Lost Causes (2011) by Jussi Adler-Olsen, and it was a good thriller with interesting characters trying to solve a 5 year old cold case of possible suicide or murder or kidnapping. Nobody thinks they will solve it, but they do.
4. And they also solve their second case, The absent one (2012)--also of course by Jussi Adler-Olsen--and this one is a 20 year old case. It is a lot more muchness than the first one, and since I would like to watch the series, I hope that it is not as visually gory as this case seemed to me to be. Very interesting case, though.
5. The Inner City Mother Goose by Eve Merriam was written in 1969, revised in 1982, and the edition I read was published in 1996. I ordered it through ILL because of looking into the musicals, and then I wanted to read the poems she wrote. This was a very much banned book in its time--2nd most challenged book in the 70s. But has survived! Inner City was the 1971 musical, and then it was revised and became Street Dreams and can still be rented through Concord Theatricals.
6. Before you knew my name (2022) by Jacqueline Bublitz was a hauntingly beautiful book narrated by a dead girl. Alice is alive and not thriving, and then she lands on her feet with Noah's help in NYC, and just as things are looking up for her, suddenly and very unkindly she is dead. Ruby, taking a 6 month hiatus from her normal life in Australia, is taking an early morning run in NYC and is the jogger who discovers the body. They never meet and yet they have a powerful connection, and the reader gets to see how that unfolds as they both want the murderer brought to justice.
7. The Anxious Generation (2024) by Dr. Jonathan Haidt of NYU is an excellent book and I think a lot of people should read it. Fortunately, a lot of people think so too, so it is on short-term loan in our library. His four main points: 1. No smart phones before high school. 2. No social media before 16. 3. Phone-free schools. 4. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. Very interesting discussion of brain development and the psychology and truths of human development behind his conclusions. I liked this book a lot. Here is a little quote from Buddha which he shared (bottom of page 211):
In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate. This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
You too shall pass away.
Knowing this, how can you quarrel?
8. Sipsworth (2024) by Simon van Booy was another really great book. Even though Sipsworth is a mouse, and I am not a big fan of mice, I am so glad I got past my revulsion because this was a lovely story. Helen has returned to her homeland of England after spending most of her adulthood in Australia. But her husband and son both died, and dying is what she wants to do because she has no-one anymore, but she goes "home" to do it, back to her hometown, where she finds many reasons to live and people to live for, all starting with a little mouse.
9. Stupid and contagious (2006) by Caprice Crane. I wanted to read a book by Caprice Crane because she is the daughter of Tina Louise (Ginger on Gilligan's Island) and I just thought it would be fun. The book had a bit too much of sex and swearing in it for me, but what delightful characters she created! She is a screenwriter known for comedies, and this book has plenty of comedy. So it was a fun read.
A Baby:
Jonah graduated, and Josie and I went to the evening dinner to honor that occasion. The highlight for us, though, was our first time to meet baby Shiloh in for reals. Here are some fun pictures:
Some[thing] knocking at our door
Josie was downstairs, laying on her couch, surrounded by three cats, when they were all started by a knocking on the back sliding glass door. The cats were scared and started showing it. Josie thought it was me, because sometimes I am in the back yard, and I knock to say "Can the kitties come out to play?"
But it was not me. It was...
A turtle!
A couple of weeks ago, a neighbor came and asked Bruce if we had seen a turtle in our back yard, because they had lost a turtle. We had not seen one.
And then I mowed part of the back lawn on Wednesday, and this morning mowed the other half. I was relentless in my mowing--pushed the mower way under the rhubarb plant; mowed down the lilies because they have stopped blooming and are dying. I am apparently very lucky not to have mowed the turtle because it has apparently been hanging out back there all this time.
The cats have gone out to play a few times, too, but nobody has seen a turtle.
Josie identifies it as a red-eared slider, which is not native to Utah. We found the owner--the owner isn't sure she wants it back at this point because she already got one to replace it, and her tank is too small for four turtles. Josie's friend Julie might want it. Failing that, she thought her naturalist photographer cousin Jimmy might take it.
For now, it is hanging out in the extra cat cage (that the cats hate) on the front porch.
It is hopefully happy to have access to water, which it hasn't really had in the back yard. It had been rainy for a few days when it first was missing, I think, but then it got hot and dry.
Hopefully we can send it to a home soon, because we really don't want to add an animal to our menagerie.
Sunday edit: It is back home with its owner. I hope she can handle four turtles! (She had already given up on finding it, and had gotten another one.)
