Books read June 2024

 Wow! I read 12 books this month!! How did I even do that?!! For me, ten books is about the most I finish in a month, but this month, somehow I surpassed that. And since I have a piano now, and I am playing at least a half hour every day, and sometimes have played an hour a day--how did this not use up all my extra time? My house is clean, the laundry is kept up with, the yard is decent, I have been more social than normal for me (Judy's gathering, Bruce's birthday, my book group meeting, our meet-up at the park on Thursday) I have been keeping my tomato plant and radish plants alive...how could I have so much time to read? (Have I been slacking on sleeping? Maybe...)

So these books have enlightened my mind this month of June:

1. Amed Aziz's Epic Year (2021) by Nina Hamza. Amed's family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota to be near a better hospital for his father's cancer treatments, and also near his father's family for support during this hard time. Ahmed is going to school in his father's old school and learning things about his family that he never realized, but especially he is learning things about himself that he never realized. And that is a great--no, epic--thing!

2. Hymns of Silence (2023) by Charles Inouye. This memoir of growing up in rural Utah (Gunnison) was written by the uncle of Melissa Inouye, whose memoir I read last month. This was also good. Here is a quote: Living in that quiet landscape, we enjoyed few distractions. There was only the silence and the voice in our heads asking, “Why are you alive?” Charles explores this in five vignettes.

3. Sure Signs of Crazy (2013) by Karen Harrington. In this tale which tackles a deep topic for a middle-grade book, Sarah is looking for signs of craziness in herself? Why? Her mother is an inmate in a mental institution, where she has been for many years, since murdering her twins. Only Sarah (almost 12) survived her own murder, and is growing up in the aftermath of that tragedy. I felt like the author told a good story about this difficult situation.

4. If looks could kill (2002) by Kate White. Bailey is a true-crime writer for Gloss magazine, and her friend Cat is her boss. Cat calls her, frantic, because of her nanny's nonresponsiveness. Bailey therefore becomes the one to discover the nanny's dead body. Was the nanny the intended victim? Or was it really meant to be Cat? And who did it? Bailey's investigative reporter skills are put to the test.

5. Tender Leaves of Hope (2022) by Meghan Decker. Okay, so I read this because I am acquainted with Meghan. I can't really say I "know" her, but I hoped that by reading her book, I would come to "know" her better. Meghan is a lesbian and likes everyone to know it, and I hoped that I might understand what it is like to be her, and honestly, after reading her book, I was even more confused. 

6. The child (2017) by Fiona Barton. A baby's body is found on a construction site. Kate Waters, an investigative reporter, wonders if this is the missing baby who disappeared from a hospital decades earlier. Dating is unclear--the baby's body is of older vintage than the blanket the body is buried in. DNA testing reveals that the baby is related to Angela, so they think it is Angela's baby, but then Emma comes forward and insists it is her baby. There is only one body, but two missing babies?

7. All my knotted up life: a memoir (2023) by Beth Moore.I had never heard of Beth Moore before, but if I were from the south, I might have. She was a rather prominent evangelist of the Southern Baptist vintage, when she just couldn't do it anymore. Too many things happening that she felt were contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Now she is still a prominent evangelist, but of the Anglican vintage.

8. My plain Jane (2018) brought to you by the Janies, a writing team consisting of Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows. Jane is plain to all the people at the terrible girls' school at which she teaches, constantly accompanied by her best (ghost) friend Helen, who died of the graveyard disease some years hence. But to many ghosts, Jane is beautiful! She is very attractive to them. When the Jane Eyre story is all bound up with ghost catching, this is the story you get. 

9. Lydia Longley: The First American Nun (1958) by Helen A. McCarthy. I read this because in the Hancock Hummer, Nancy told the story of Lydia Longley--not our direct ancestor, but our Lydia Longley's niece Lydia Longley, the daughter of her brother William. Lydia is one of three Longley children kidnapped by natives, taken to New France, and sold there. (This way at least two of them got to live. The rest of the family perished. And do not disparage the natives: this took place as a part of an ongoing war; it was not so random as it appears.) Puritan Lydia becomes Catholic Lydia, and takes her vows in Ville Marie (Montreal) where she remains for her entire life. So an American nun because she was born in America, but she never was a nun in America: her nunning all took place in Ville Marie.

10. A broken people's playlist: stories from songs (2020) by Chimeka Garrick. I really enjoyed this collection of stories. Garrick was going through a stage of writer's block, but found that listening to music would inspire him. Certain songs on his playlist evoked ideas that turned into these stories about interconnected people who live in Port Harcourt, the city in Nigeria where Garrick did much of his growing up.

11. The Exvangelicals: Loving, living, and leaving the Evangelical Church (2024) by Sarah McCammon. I think I found this book because of Beth Moore's book? I can't remember, but I did like this book. Sarah also becomes disillusioned with evangelicalism, mostly because of "differences over COVID vaccines, racial injustice, and partisan politics." (p.223) Like Beth Moore, Sarah finds a new church home as an Episcopalian. And marries a Jewish man, so embraces both faith traditions to some extent.  Let me quote from her: "If God has given us the tools...then I've come to believe that we're responsible to carry out the tasks suited to those tools...We've been given minds that can reason and inquire, but that can only understand so much. We have hearts that can feel compassion and empathy but are always constrained by the limitations of our own experiences and observations...I don't have the answers, but I'm not sure I'm meant to." (p.266-267) Her premise is to learn God's will for you, then follow promptings and live in faith. 

12. Forfeit (1969) by Dick Francis. This is the book club book for next month. Well, this author is what was chosen. We are each to read our chosen book by this author, and then we will all tell about our choice. I chose this book because it was an Edgar award winner, and because much of the story is bound up with the protagonist's wife, Elizabeth, who is a polio survivor, but just barely. The dedication to Elizabeth that James Tyrone has is admirable!! She can only live for 15 minutes without her take-home version of the iron lung. When Elizabeth's life is threatened in a blackmail operation, Ty's efforts on her behalf are nothing short of amazing. Enough to forgive him for his sometimes adultery. 

Meet the Robinsons

Always happy to meet up with the Robinsons! Tonight we met up at Quail Orchard Park, because Michelle's children had enjoyed it on the chilly day in November...and I guess they did play there for a while when I was picking Josie up from work, but I did not see it with my own eyes. They just hung out at the pavilion with all the grown-ups. It was neat that the kids still remembered us from November and were happy to see us, and not shy! 

I had a tight schedule for myself--leave the house at 5:30, head to CVS to get garbage bags, and then next door to Papa John's to pick up my pizza order, and get to Quail Orchard Park by 6:00. And I did it! Amazing! I had quizzed the internet on how much pizza I would need for 15 people, and it told me 6 pizzas. I also ordered some little--things--with cheese and bacon and pickle, and I think those really pushed me into the "too much food" category! Because I had three entire pizzas left over, which my freezer is happy to save for a later date. I also took some store-bought cookies, and Judy brought a fruit platter. She does this cool thing--she cuts all the fruit into smaller pieces, and it really does go further that way, and there isn't waste because people just take small bits at a time.

So, when I got there at 6, Bruce my husband was there, staking out a pavilion. (I could not reserve one, because you have to do it ten days in advance, and I only had 6 or 7 days notice, so we took our chances that on a Thursday night, we would be able to get one. And honestly, we could have had our pick.) Soon after, Bruce my brother arrived, and the two Bruces, and Ash who arrived next, helped with carrying and set up, and then I roared off to pick Josie up from work.

When we returned, everyone was there, except for Carlie, whose plans imploded, as plans sometimes do...and she had the furthest to come, too--so there were 13 of us instead of the 15 I planned for. (So two more people would, theoretically, have eaten 3 entire pizzas?! I don't think so!) Carlie felt bad for missing out, but I sent her pictures. And we missed her, too!

So here are pictures of us eating and talking and eating and talking.

Rachael, Judy, Alice, with Michelle and Josie behind, and Andy and Leon crashed on the grass.

Ash and Bruce, giving me their camera faces of happiness. Leon and Andy relaxing on the grass.

Bruce and Wally wearing their movie star sun glasses. (It was a little bright out, but fortunately, only in the 80s and not the 90s, which was wonderful!)

Poor Michelle! I kept taking pictures of her holding her plate, and she would have rather set it down. Andy with Leon and Benny is doing something! (Even I got Andy to look. He is also rocking the sun glasses fashion statement.)

Alice, Michelle, Josie, and Benny and Michelle's plate in front. (Sorry, Michelle!) Finally, she got to put her plate down while Josie made sure that I was in a picture.

Here are me and Michelle with the lovely trees and mountains and sky behind us.

And finally, the entire group. Josie volunteered to take the picture, and that was okay, because she was in another picture, so you know that she was there.

You will notice that Michelle's Matthew was not there. They had just come from a Robinson family reunion, and Matthew gets an extra weekend with his cousin. Matthew and Alice will be attending FSY at BYU next week, so they are staying in town and then flying back home with their Grandma Robinson after. Michelle, Andy, and the three youngest fly home on Saturday.

Bruce my brother and Josie left first, Bruce my husband and Wally and I put a few of the things, like the left over pizza and the garbage and extra waters in his van, and then he left. Then Ash left.

Wally and I cleaned up around everyone else while they were visiting, and then we all hugged each other and said our goodbyes.  

I really appreciated the help of all the men!! They were all so helpful!! And thus ended another opportunity for the family to get together. 

June 6 Birthday Lunch

 I will start with Sunday--Judy had invited us to a gathering, because all of her daughters were here. Apparently, I was supposed to invite some of our cousins, but I did not realize this until Judy said, "Are any of Mary's family coming?" and I was all "I dunno," and Judy was all "You didn't invite them?" 

No. I did not. Oops. I totally did not get that take-away from our conversation! Well, even though there were not so many of us there, we had a good time together. Here are all the attendees except for Allen, who was taking the picture. Then Heather "took a picture" with Allen in it, but instead she had the camera settings wrong and didn't actually take a picture. Oops. (I was not the only Oops-ter!)

Back: Maddie, me, Bridget, Kali, Abby, Theresa, Wally. Front: Josie, Heather, Bruce, Elizabeth, Carlie holding Renira, Mindy, Dallin, Judy, Kelline. (Also, Mike P. was there, but he snuck out at some point.)

Bruce my brother mentioned he was having lunch at the Cannon Center on Thursday for his birthday, and Mindy asked if I was invited, too, and he said yes. And then, since it was Mary's birthday, too, she and Don were invited. (I was texting Mary at Judy's behest because she was still hoping that Mary could come on Sunday afternoon. But Mary doesn't drive much anymore, and Debby was in Arizona, and she often drives her parents.)

But then Mary texted me something like that our cousin David was on hospice. To Canadians, hospice means you are imminently dying. But here, apparently, it doesn't quite mean the same thing. So I messaged Lavon to say "Mary said this. How is your brother?" And she said that she, Dennis, and Helen were leaving on Monday to see David. Helen is 83 and not so healthy herself, so they were going to take two days to drive, two days to be here, and two days to drive back. (Lavon said that David (age 87) seemed pretty good to her, but also that just talking really tires him out, so she could see that it was good they came to see him in June, and not September--their other plan--because she can see that he might be much worse by then.)

So I said we were meeting up on Thursday and did they want to come? And she said they would have to wait until they saw David. Then she texted and asked did I want to meet for lunch on Friday? So I asked my brother about that, but before we could really respond, Lavon texted to say that Thursday would work for them.  Mary said Thursday would work for them, and that Debby would drive them and Marianne would come along.

So we ended up having a big birthday crowd! I think we did a pretty good job at mixing and mingling, too!.

Here we are at the two tables we commandeered:

Starting with Dennis: Dennis, Lavon, Helen, Carlie, Mindy, Abby. Across from Abby: Don, Marianne, Debby, Mary, Pat. (I was sitting by Pat and across from Dennis. But taking the picture.)

Starting with Judy: Judy, Wally, Ash, Bridget, Elizabeth, then across to Bruce and Kali.

Then we all started to move around and mix it up.

Back: Carlie, Kali, Ash, Bridget, Elizabeth, Mindy, Abby. Front: Mary, Judy, Wally.

Then Wally wanted to trade places with me, and a few more people jumped in:

So same people only me (not paying attention to the photographer!) Marianne and Debbie also.

Since Don is in a wheelchair, we took the people to him for another photo opportunity:

And then, Helen is pretty immobile (cane instead of wheelchair) so we went there for the next photo:

And once again, someone thought I needed to be in a picture, so:

So that was our lunch today. Happy Birthday to Bruce and Mary today! (We sang.) And to Mindy on the 9th, Don on the 12th, Helen on the 14th, Abby on the 17th, Dennis somewhere in the 20s. Hope I didn't miss anyone. (Lori Navratil Olsen would know if I did!!)

I forgot that Lavon took a picture of Pat and me, and messaged it to me! So here I will add it.(Also let me just say that Pat is 80 years old and still working. She is a barber, and she is still cutting hair.)

And here is another close-up that is very cute. Of Melinda, Abby, and Mary.

Books read in May 2024

 Here are the eight books I read this month:

1. I started the month reading Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye's book Crossings: a bald asian american latter-day saint woman through life, death, cancer & motherhood (not necessarily in that order) (2019). I read this book at this point in time because Melissa died on April 23, and people with whom we are mutual friends were frequently posting about her, and also various historians and organizations. Melissa was my former student Bryan Lew's cousin, and I met her when she was a visiting student at BYU one summer. (Normally she was a Harvard student.) She was a fun, happy person! I didn't know she would "grow up" to be a respected historian and author, but she did. This particular book was one she wrote for her children, when she was worried that she would die and since her house was not the most organized, if she just wrote stuff on paper it might get lost, but if she wrote a book for them, then surely they could find it, at least in a library somewhere! It was a beautiful book, and of course my eyes did some leaking as I read. 

2. We had the President's Leadership Summit at BYU on April 9, and we were all given a book: Russell M. Nelson's Heart of the matter: what 100 years of living have taught me (2023), and so I felt that I should read it. Ideas in the book were about fulfilling your life's mission (figuring out what that is first), nurturing enduring relationships, accomplishing the impossible (through God nothing is impossible if it is His will), keeping your covenants. (He calls this "the covenant path" and I don't love that phrasing. Because it is so much used. However, I just looked it up in the corpora, and was very interested to see that the first person to use that turn of phrase was in fact a woman!: Elaine S. Dalton said, in 2007,     "... The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine. We have three members of the Godhead--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--helping us because of the covenants we have made. " So now I like that phrasing better!)

3. Three nonfiction books in a row this month! (I was actually reading all three simultaneously, depending on my mood.) Chance Thomas, the video game music composer who is also my Facebook friend, wrote his memoirs Making it Huge in Video Games (2023) and I actually enjoyed it very much! I was very amazed by the incredible amount of work that is involved in scoring a game, when the music is reacting to the choices that players make as they play. (Chance's other book, which is more like a textbook than a memoir, is our library's highest circulating anything to do with video games--of books, scores, CDs, etc., whether in the music library or elsewhere, it is the top circulating item on the topic.)

4. After the heavier reading I began the month with, I was looking for something light, and happened upon Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes (1958) and the cute little cat illustration on the cover hooked me. She won the Newbery Medal for Ginger Pye (a dog in the Pye family), and Pinky Pye is a kitten in the Pye family. But having the kitten type--I just could not suspend my disbelief! Because in 1958--we had an old typewriter, and you have to push those keys hard. I just could not imagine a kitten having the strength (and dexterity) to do that. However, it was a cute story (also involving an owl, so my grandson Alexander would probably enjoy it) and a fun family dynamic. So I liked it, except for the typing.

5. We can work it out (2015) is the second book in Elizabeth Eulberg's Lonely Hearts Club series. (There are five books in the series.) I suppose I should have read the first book, but I just found this book on the sorting shelves, and it looked like a fun read, and it was. I enjoyed all the Beatles references and song lyrics scattered around in it. 

6. Okay, THIS BOOK. It was, as I wrote on our Reading Group's FaceBook page, a Remarkably Brilliant Book. Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022) by Shelby Van Pelt. Her first novel, and she hit it out of the ball park. She so elegantly weaves together the lives of Marcellus the octopus, Tova the cleaner, Cameron the orphan, and all of the characters who surround them. It is a beautiful, beautiful book. She has set the bar so high for herself as an author, but I hope she arises to the challenge, because I would love to hear her voice tell me another story. Highly recommended.

7. Nancy's children got such a kick out of All my friends are dead (2010) by Avery Monsen and Jory John, that I had to check if our library had it, put a hold on it, and read it. I read it quickly, but waited to return it until the next day just because! In our library it is in the humor section of the popular reading sampler collection. The tree was my favorite: "All my friends are end tables." And then the end table says "I am not your friend." And later, when the tree is an end table itself "I am still not your friend." I do not know that I felt like throwing my head back and roaring "hahahahaha" but I did find this book funny!

8. Kenneth A. Baldwin, aka Kenny, is the author of The Crimson Inkwell (2019) and I guess this may have been the book that caused me to first meet Kenny, who is Patrick's friend. Patrick bought Kenny's book via venmo or paypal or something, and asked Kenny to deliver it to me. However, now I work with Kenny every year on the Public Domain Film Festival. But...the reason I read this book was that Rachel W. is organizing a book club in the library, and for June, we were supposed to read a book somehow connected with BYU, and Kenny's book was on the list, so I chose it. And huh. I liked it, but I didn't. Like, it is an interesting story, but I just somehow could not really like Louella, the main character. When I don't really like a character, it is very hard for me to like the book. I liked many of the characters around her, though. This book ends definitely on a cliff hanger, so that you need to read the second book to find out what happens, but unfortunately, I am not sure that I like Louella enough to care if she resolves her problems or not. 

In other news, I have had the piano for one week, and I have been playing/practicing every day for an hour or a half hour if I spend too much time outside working, like I did a couple of days. It is so joyous to me to have this piano!