Books read in December and year end

 I managed to read six books this month. I thought I might finish book seven, but it will be waiting until tomorrow, so it is a wrap with six books. The total for the year = 93. (Last year's total was 108, so 15 fewer.)

1. A Few Right-Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill. Interesting author--born in Sri Lanka, raised in Zambia and Australia. An astrophysicist. A lawyer. And now, a stay at home farmer/artist/mother/author. This was her first book, and she has followed this book up with nine others in the Rowland Sinclair series--plus more, as you will see later on this list. The trouble with a few right-thinking men, is that the opinion of what exactly right-thinking means can vary, can't it? And when a few right-thinking men try to force their "right" ideas on others whose perspective is different--unpleasant things can happen. Very well researched book set in 1930s Australia! I was impressed.

2. Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley. The second novel by Alex Bradley. The second and LAST novel by Alex Bradley. I liked his 24 Girls in 7 Days better (that I read last month) but this one was also good and well-written and it was easy to get invested in the characters and their experience in the school cafeteria kitchen. I wonder why Alex Bradley AKA Jeremy Jackson didn't write more books like these, using his Alex Bradley persona? They were both really good YA books, I thought. He literally only wrote two YA books under each of his names. One of his Jeremy Jackson novels was made into a movie--not just optioned, but with follow-through. I am so mystified. He also wrote a number of cookbooks. But nothing recent, I don't think. It is a mystery to me.

3. It suddenly occurred to me that I had not read any Ian Hamilton books recently! He is a Canadian journalist/civil servant/businessman turned writer. I started reading his Ava Lee books in 2014, and when I checked my lists, I realized that I last read an Ava Lee book in 2018, so I had to see where I left off, because I had been reading them in order. This time I read book # 10 of, so far, 15. The Couturier of Milan. It was good, but I miss Uncle, the character who got old and died. Apparently others missed that character, too, because Hamilton has started a new series, The Uncle Chow Tung series, a prequel to the Ava Lee series.

4. The woman in the library by Sulari Gentill. Oh my goodness! This was a very good book!! Hannah is writing a novel set in Boston, though she lives in Australia. Her pen pal, Leo, does live in New England. Freddie is the main character in the book that Hannah is writing, set in the Boston Public Library. She lives in an apartment building where her neighbor is Leo. Oh, the layers in this book. It was amazing. 

5. Every Good Boy Does Fine: A love story in music lessons by Jeremy Denk. Memoirs are probably my favorite genre, and this one did not disappoint. I don't know if a non-musician would be as invested in the book as a musician would be, but I really liked it. Also, since I work with musicians in the classical world, I wondered if anyone I know would turn up in the book, and two people did. One of my viola friends, Atar Arad, who still teaches at Indiana, was there during Jeremy's time at Indiana. And Jane Gottlieb, who is, to me, a legendary music librarian (at Juilliard) was there with advice for Jeremy as a doctoral student at Juilliard. I honestly wonder if I have met Jeremy as a collaborative pianist before he built his solo career. He looks familiar, and I have met a lot of collaborative pianists at viola congresses over the years!

6. Betrayal (Svek) by Karin Alvtegen. After I read Missing, I wanted to read more of Alvtegen's books. Only four have been translated into English. (The Swedish titles of most of her books start with an S, for a small piece of trivia that is n'importe quoi.) I put an ILL request in for Betrayal, and the lending library sent a nonfiction book called On Betrayal by someone else. I was confused, but finally figured out what happened! So they sent the right book, and I read it, but oh my! This one was a bit too thrillerish for me! Like, it was still good, and well-told, but guys, the bad guy wins! All of the good or even just not plain evil people did not win at all. That was hard for me.

And that is it! Six books for this month.

It turned into a sad day for me, because the wife, Margaret, of a dear viola friend, Dwight, is dying. I do not think she will live to see tomorrow. Her husband was planning to come to Provo for David Dalton's funeral, which is a week from today. He was to give the eulogy. Instead, their family will also be planning a funeral. Perhaps they will be on the same day. Our other viola friends won't know which funeral to attend!! Dwight's email to me this evening:

"Margaret is down to only a few hours to live. She is comfortable, lucid, and at peace. She said to me only today that she had wondered how David had decided to let everything go…and then she said, “Now I know.” Such a beautiful moment and a testament to our friendship with David and Donna that she would mention him and his experience in her waning hours.

I love the poster idea and in memory of David Dalton. On a small piece of paper, could you write “Also in memory of Margaret Pounds?” Subtle, non-intrusive—just lying around someplace.

Our plates are full but we all are managing, with God’s Grace.

Shalom."

These people are so wonderful! The best people. Southerners full of grace and charm and faith. David and Dwight (and therefore also Donna and Margaret) have been friends for over 60 years. David and Dwight met as students at Indiana, where Dwight was getting his master's at the same time David was getting his PhD. They have been viola friends through thick and thin. They are not the same religion, but they are both men of faith and devotion to God. Their wives are the BEST. Margaret has had many close calls with death in recent years. I am glad she is at peace, but I will miss her. (I HAVE been missing her--she had needed to stop attending viola events. The last international viola event I attended in person, in Poland a few years ago, only Dwight was there of that foursome. Dwight and I hung out together a lot.) I am sad to see old friends dying. I keep thinking "We're next..." (Meaning me and people my age!)

Christmas passed

 Another Christmas is over. Phew. I always dread Christmas--the entire month of December honestly. Only a few more days to January! Already I feel better because A) it is getting lighter each day again! and B) Christmas is over! 

We enjoyed a Christmas get-together with Kelli and Allen on Dec. 17. Just five of us, which is a good number of people. We could chat together, and everyone got a chance to talk. Kelli and Allen brought a meatloaf and several candies they had made that were all gluten-free. We made mashed potatoes and vegetables. We roasted carrots and broccoli, but K and A were delayed due to an accident on the freeway that added 25 minutes to their travel time. Those veggies were very, very roasted. So I did more for the others to eat, and Josie and I shared the burned ones, and they were delicious. If you like the flavour of burnt, and I do!

As in most Decembers, I knew many people who had cause to mourn in this season. My cousin Marion's grandson, and my second cousin Darel both passed away early in the month. Marion's grandson was young, and had been making self-destructive choices for a long time. She had to mourn not only his death, but the loss of potential to change that the entire family had hoped for. Darel, on the other hand, was 85, and had lived well. Still, his family mourned him. One of Patrick's former roommates died, perhaps of causes incident to his Type 1 diabetes. In the beginning, his family were not even sure when he died, since he died alone in his home. Just in his early thirties, so that was sad.

Closer to Christmas, clustered right around Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve, my longtime friend Dr. David Dalton passed away. It was expected, but still sad to happen so close to Christmas. My cousin Eric died of pancreatic cancer on Christmas Eve, another victim of our family's BRCA2 gene mutation. So his death was expected--but not quite that soon! They had barely discovered the cause of his long illness this year was cancer, and then he was gone. A blessing, because he was not going to get better, but again, difficult timing. And a sweet lady from my old ward died, too. Also elderly, but much loved and missed by her family. I feel like I might be missing one, but that is at least six families whose December was clouded by grief. No to mention all of those who were going through their first Christmas without somebody who they lost earlier in the year. Those firsts are hard.

It is hard for me to be giddy with joy when other people are hurting. And also--Christmas is just hard. So many expectations; so much stress.

In better news, my friend Inna and her daughter Milana were stranded at the airport in Edmonton for days as the weather in Canada turned very frightful. I knew they were stranded at AN airport, trying to get home to Burnaby, BC, but I didn't know which one. Josie messaged me to say it was in Edmonton. Didn't we know someone who could help them? (Due to the bad traveling weather, all the hotels were full, so they were just hanging out in the airport.) I messaged my cousin Janae, who would have loved to help herself, but they were all sick and didn't want to share illness with anybody. But Janae found a friend who lived close to the Edmonton airport who was willing and able to help. Another friend in Edmonton also responded with willingness to assist them. But before either of them could, through the LDS network, Inna connected with an old friend from Ukraine who had moved to Edmonton, and he and his bishop DROVE them home to Burnaby!!!! That is a 12.5 hour drive!!! I am just so amazed and touched by those good people in Edmonton. 

This and That

 Just two pictures:

1. Our beautiful snow! Shoveling almost every day last week, and Josie caught a neighbor on our new camera shoveling for us on Thursday while we were at work. Here is our great big "cake" in our back yard:

Our patio table collected inches and inches of snow!

2. Josie and I went to visit Rosie and Irie today. We had a lovely time chatting. Irie is growing up and is busy, busy, busy, getting into lots of things and learning and growing!

Breaking = A ; Entering = F

Sorry, bad guys, whoever you were. Last night, while you scored so well in Breaking, you failed to place in Entering. Earning a poor score on average. And thank goodness for that!

I have felt very safe in our new home. We are in a very nice area. Our neighbors are people like semi-famous composers and university professors and even a university president; and many of our neighbors are no longer young. We have only one adolescent living on our block and he lives with his grandparents. It is a safe neighborhood.

So imagine our shock last night, when our peace and security was assailed with a great big, indescribable noise. So that all three of us reacted with "What was that?!"

Let me backtrack a bit. It was the night of Bruce's work Christmas party. I have been sick all week, fighting off this stupid cold that I caught from Bruce, but which he only had maybe 2-3 bad days with, but it has been my constant companion for an entire week. But I said I would go with him, wearing a mask so as not to share with anybody else.

I picked Josie up from work; we drove home. Within ten minutes, Bruce and I were out the door again, on our way to the party which was supposed to start at 6 pm. I had left on the front porch light because I figured that Josie would be calling Uber Eats or something since she would want some dinner, and not making it herself might be her choice.

While at the party, I got a text from Josie to tell me that the front porch light was burned out, and she couldn't figure out how to replace the bulb. I was like, "But it was on..." And she was like, "But it is off." So, in the meantime, she turned on the inside lights, so the house was bright. Her Uber Eats delivery came; she ate. She went downstairs.

We came home at about 8:15-8:25, somewhere in there. I asked Josie if she was finished with those lights, she said she was. Around 8:30, Bruce said he was super tired and so was going to sleep. He went in the front bedroom, and soon the lights were out. The other front lights were out. I was in the back bedroom with the light on. Cleo was in the cage in the kitchen, with the light over the sink on--some light, but not a lot. So--two lights were on upstairs.

Josie was downstairs with Maizy and Cinnamon, and she had lights on, but was physically in the office, so on the north side.

I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with the night, and so was playing a game of Sherlock on my phone. When I was one minute and 37 seconds into the game, this noise, like a noise I have never heard before happened. Bruce was the first to cry out "What was that?" And I jumped up and ran out and said, "What was that? Josie are you alright?" (Because I knew where Bruce was and what he was doing--I didn't know that about her. I didn't know where she was in the basement or what she was doing.) Josie also called out "What was that?"  We were all alarmed.

Bruce was in bed--he heard a car drive away. And was getting his clothes back on. I ran towards the kitchen, because I thought the sound came from that direction. I ran through the living room about the same time Bruce came out of the bedroom, and I said, "It was this. It was our DOOR." Well, the door itself was fine, but the side of the door where the dead bolt goes into the wall was not fine. It looked like this:

Bits of hardware and screws were scattered all over the rocky floor, from this side to the wall on the east. And the door was now unable to close.

Bruce called the police and made a report, but then he needed to head over to Home Depot to get a sheet of wood (he got a sheet of particle board) to block the entrance, because we now had no way to keep the door closed, let alone locked. 

The police came. We had young Officer Guffey. He took statements from Josie and I. He said this was the weirdest call he had gotten this night, because it made no sense. Why would someone break our door and not try to enter? (Which--thank goodness for that!) He asked Josie those questions that you hear on police procedural dramas--any recent changes or disagreements with anyone? Any enemies? We are pretty quiet people--we had no clue.

The second policeman was outside looking for evidence and examining the door. He found what looked like a fresh kick place.

But Officer Guffey said the physics of that kick would not work with the damage on the door, but maybe a shoulder shove would. So maybe two people, one kicking and one shoving at the same time?

Well, we will probably never know. Unless we had a ring camera, which we don't, but which I anticipate that we will be getting now.

They went door to door to see if the close neighbors happened to have cameras--they don't. Meanwhile, our next door neighbor to the south, Sam Harris, called our RS president about it. And I texted Diana across the street, who had already been visited by the police.

So, by the time Bruce got back from Home Depot, Cory S. and Clark N. were both here to help Bruce put the piece of wood over our door.

We closed the door, and put a heavy piece of furniture in front of the door to hold it closed, and eventually we all went to bed.

This morning I emailed our Insurance agent, but will not be talking to her until Monday. And then we will need to figure out what to do.

I am kind of scared in retrospect, at how flimsy the protection this front door has been. It really was easy to impeach!! All the nights I have locked it and laid down to sleep feeling safe! The few times we have all been gone--not many, because usually someone is ALWAYS HOME at our house. Since we have dayworkers and a night worker, our house actually is not a very good choice to be a target at all.

But we did some experimenting. Josie went outside, and we tried various lighting configurations. She confirmed our suspicions that, from the outside, when the two lights are on upstairs that were on last night, and any light is on downstairs, but not the one over the stairs, from outside on the east side, the house looks all dark. You cannot tell that lights are on.

So our assumption is that our breaking people thought that nobody was home. What a surprise for them, then, to hear our immediate and loud reactions to their assault on our door.

November 2022 Books

 After two months of not being much of a reader, I was back to normal with eight books read in November!

1. Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt was a selection, once again, from OPL's freebies--me once again choosing from large print, thinking there was a good chance it would be a good book. And this book was okay. Lucy and Charlotte are sisters, orphaned at a young age and raised by an older relative, Iris, who becomes their adoptive mother. Lucy runs off with one of her high school teachers in this novel set in 1969 (but written in 2016.) It was good but a bit mind-boggling in places. The math didn't always sit right with me--I was always having to figure out this year minus that year, and sometimes...I dunno. Spoiler alert: Iris is really their half-SISTER even though she is 60+ years older than they are. The math around their father's age was the most frustrating to me. Also, the high school teacher was just creepy. Handsome, but creepy.

2. Missing (Saknad in the original Swedish) by Karin Alvtegen - I found this one while walking in the library, since it was the last book on a shelf. The author is Astrid Lindgren's great-niece--Pippi Longstocking, for those who don't remember who Astrid Lindgren is. Like her great-aunt, Karin Alvtegen knows how to tell compelling stories! Sibylla is living rough although she was born into a family of privilege. Occasionally, when she wants to treat herself, she will con a susceptible man into treating her to a night in a hotel, leading him to believe he might get something out of the deal, but really just so she can have a shower and a nice bed alone. This time things go awry when the man she conned turns up dead. The only person who trusts Sibylla and who Sibylla trusts is a high school boy. When the murderer, who the police suspect is the unknown woman--Sibylla--strikes again and again, it is up to Sibylla and her ally to solve the mystery and clear Sibylla. Very well told! I am excited to read more books by Alvtegen.

3. Do-Over by Niki Burnham. On the OPL "take me I'm free!" cart. YA fluff about an American girl Valerie and her prince charming in a fictional European country, Prince Georg (#3 in a series called Royally Jacked) It was an easy read, but not compelling. I am not going to track down the rest of the series.

4. Forsaking all Others by LaVyrle Spencer. Also free from OPL. Since this woman is an NYT best-selling author, it's gotta be good, right? Hmmm. Not so much. When I was a teen, I would read Harlequin Romances passed to my sister and I by our Auntie Beulah (much to my mother's horror--she thought they were trash) and this book was WORSE. Graphic descriptions of intimate moments, and not much plot. 

5. East Winds: A Global Quest to Reckon with Marriage by Rachel Rueckert. Another book that Andrew worked on with BCC Press, this book was wonderful. I really enjoyed it! Rachel reluctantly agrees to marry Austin conditional on a year-long honeymoon that takes them around the world. South America, the Amazon, Thailand, India, the camino in Spain, and home again. "Step by step, choice by choice." I love memoirs, and I enjoyed growing with Rachel through her experiences.

6. 24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley (which is an alias for Jeremy Jackson.) Jack Grammar's friends create a personal ad so he can find a date for senior prom. This was one of the funniest YA books I have read in awhile. Great characters, fun situations. It was a pleasure to read.

7. The dignity of difference: How to avoid the clash of civilizations by Jonathan Sacks. This book was selected by BYU's Kennedy Center, and I got a postcard about it, so I decided to request and read this book. It. Was. So. Good. I took several pages of notes. I need to reread it. I will share just a few quotes:

"God no more wants all faiths and cultures to be the same than a loving parent wants his or her children to be the same. That is the conceptual link between love, creation and difference. We serve God, author of diversity, by respecting diversity." (p.56)

“The Hebrew Bible makes the same point early on—though in a way systematically missed in translation. God says about the first human, ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’ He then creates the first woman, and the man, walking and seeing her, says: ‘This is now flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone; she shall be called woman [ishah] because she was taken from man [ish].’ What is lost in translation is that Biblical Hebrew has two words for man, adam and ish. Adam (meaning taken from the earth, adamah) signifies man, the biological species. Ish means roughly the same as the English person. The subtle point of the biblical text is that this verse is the first in which ish appears. Adam must pronounce the name of his wife before he can pronounce his own. He must say ‘Thou’ before he can say ‘I.’ It is this conception of personal identity that lies behind the concept of covenant.” (p.150-151)

“Hope is a human virtue, but one with religious underpinnings. As its ultimate, it is the belief not that God has written the script of history, that He will intervene to save us from the error of our ways or protect us from the worst consequences of evil, but simply that He is mindful of our aspirations, with us in our fumbling efforts, that he has given us the means to save us from ourselves; that we are not wrong to dream, wish and work for a better world.” (p.207)

If you read nothing else in this book, read the concluding pages of chapter nine! So good.

8. Girl, Unstrung by Claire Handscombe was a book I really wanted to like, about a young girl who is determined to become a professional violist. And I really liked the book for ten chapters. And then--I did not like how much the author introduced sex into the book, when the main character is only fourteen years old. Sigh. It was on its way to being a good story without that. Really diminished my respect for the book and the author.