Books read in November of 2025

 Wow. November is ending. So strange. It just came, and there it goes...on to December.

Thanks to the Thanksgiving Holiday, it is an 8 book month for me. I read three books over the weekend. One of them I had started, though. So only two were complete holiday reads.

1. The Burning Book by Jason Olson and James Goldberg (2022). I read this because James is my friend, and since I just read his book about his grandpa, I wanted to read this one, too. The book is actually about Jason Olson's experiences as a Jew and a convert to the LDS church, and how he honors both religions. James was there because he is an actual author, so he could do authorly things to the words. It was very interesting. It is a story that would resound with James, since he is part Jewish (hence, Goldberg) too. Anyways, it was good. Fascinating read.

2. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion vol.5 (2022) by Beth Brower. What can I say? Emma is a delightful character, and her many male friends are an interesting if motley crew. I just worry about her because a girl in Victorian England--how is she not going to be able to escape getting married? And which of her men friends will she settle on (her first love, Maxwell, having died in the war with France)?

3. Who gets the drumstick? The story of the Beardsley Family (1965) by Helen Beardsley. Who does not love the movie "Yours, mine, and ours"? I do not remember knowing that this story actually happened to an actual family, but it did. Thank you to Facebook, who randomly shows all sorts of interesting things instead of my actual friends. Learning that the movie was based on a book, I had to read the book. So Frank Beardsley had 10 children and Helen North had 8, and they married and had two more. At the time, they were a media sensation. I was alive when it happened, but blissfully unaware. My one concern in the book was adopting the North children and changing their name to Beardsley, even though the North grandparents were okay with it. But the book helped me to understand that it was for protection--all of those children had already lost one parent. What if they lost another? They were making it legal so that the children would all be able to stay together. I get it.

4. The gashlycrumb tinies (1963) by Edward Gorey. I ILL'd this tiny book because I wanted to see it after it was the subject of a family chat. Apparently Patrick owns the book, and it is here in my house in a box somewhere, but I borrowed one instead of looking for one. This reminds me of the Australian Transit Youtube video "Dumb ways to die," but as an alphabet book for children. It would probably be banned today--parents would demand its removal from the library! Anyways, you have to pay hundreds of dollars to buy an out-of-print used copy. I am just going to share the text here, which I am calling okay to do, because without the macabre illustrations it just doesn't pack the same punch. Of the book, Gorey said, it was inspired by "those 19th-century cautionary tales, I guess, though my book is punishment without misbehavior."

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
C is for Clara, who wasted away
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leach
G is for George smothered under a rug
H is for Hector done in by a slug
I is for Ida who drowned in a lake
J is for James who took lye by mistake
K is for Kate who was struck with an axe
L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks
M is for Maud who was swept out to sea
N is for Neville who died of ennui
O is for Olive run through with an awl
P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl
Q is for Quentin who sank in a mire
R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire
S is for Susan who perished of fits
T is for Titus who flew into bits
U is for Una who slipped down a drain
V is for Victor squashed under a train
W is for Winnie embedded in ice
X is for Xerxes devoured by mice
Y is for Yorick whose head was knocked in
Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.

5. The Judas Effect: How Evangelicals betrayed Jesus for Power (2024) by Amy Hawk. I really liked this book. This lady was raised in a family that was nominally Christian, but no denomination, no church attendance. She initially became Episcoplian because she and her husband wanted to get married in a venue that was an Episcopalian church building. And then, they became Evangelical Christians, and they loved it. They loved their Bible study. They loved serving in their church. They were fully committed. And then 2016 came. And they just were not having it. They had studied the Bible. They knew Jesus, and the hate and discontent and malfeasance that they were seeing being endured and then condoned by the Christian Right--nope, nope, nope. They kept waiting for the depravity and unkindness to be denounced from the pulpit, but that never happened. So they are no longer Evangelical...but they kept Jesus. They are attending church with the Episcoplians again. This woman has seriously studied the words of Jesus. She knows them. She speaks wisdom, I think. I was glad I read this.

6. How to stop time (2017) by Matt Haig. This was a fascinating read. Tom is a person who ages slowly. Like, he ages normally only it takes him decades instead of the quick aging that the rest of us, called mayflies by the group of slow-aging people who call themselves the Albatross Society, or Albas. Longevity is not really a blessing--it is something that bothers other people when they see you NOT aging like they are. Beautifully told story! Also very glad I read this. Thought-provoking. (Why can't people just be nice, no matter what?)

7. The floating girl (2000) by Sujata Massey. If you have memorized my reading over the years, you will recognize the name Sujata Massey. I have read her books about Perveen Mistry set in India in the 1920s. But never before have I read one of her Rei Shimura books, set in Japan. She wrote these first, which surprised me because she is half Indian. But she did live in Japan when she started writing the Rei Shimura books. I like Perveen Mistry books better, but this was an okay book to read. (I got this book because I was working at the 5th floor reference desk, and it was on their staff picks shelf. So I am staff so I picked it up!)

8. Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon (2025) by Matthew Norman. This was my book group's pick for December reading and I really liked it. Despite the swearing, despite the sex talk (honestly there was more of that in book #7 above), I found it really touching and I cried several times. But the person who recommended the book posted in our Facebook Group, "In my opinion this book is terrible! Im so sorry I recommended it. Is it too late to shift gears? I dont have any other ideas. I'm sorry everyone. " I think that she, who has lost a husband, maybe had trouble understanding the way grief was for the characters in this book, Grace and Henry, who are also grieving the loss of their respective spouses. So this is what I wrote on that chain "I actually like this book. One chapter in, I was tearing up--that is my eyes were leaking, not I was ripping pages! I don't love the swearing, but it actually gets better--as Grace works through her grief, she does less of it. Swearing doesn't really bother me, though, because they are just words. The sex talk is not my favorite, either, but in the end, what appeals to me about the book is the exploration of grief and its stages, the way the characters learn to grow and to know themselves, the really interesting tie-in with Christmas movies, the way the characters give service and find healing through that. So, overall, I like it." And now that I have finished it, I really liked it, and would recommend it. It is very tender and heart-warming in the end.

For fun, here is a picture of Cleo in the snow today:

Josie and I had gone for a walk, and JUST got in when the heavens opened and white fell down!! Hurray!! We need it. But when Cleo saw it, she began demanding to be let out!! She was insistent, and didn't want to come back inside, even when it got very stormy.

Which was scary for me because Rachel and her roommate were driving back from Idaho. That road gets icy. And then Josie sent me this hilarious set of texts:

They are passing legislation

What

No. Rachel is passing Levi

LEHI

My response: Belly laughs.

Gotta love it when the phone takes over! Clearly "they are passing le" calls for legislation! If not legislation, then surely you mean LEVI!! I laughed so loud!!

Wrist Surgery

 This has been a long half year of surgery after surgery for Bruce. June 12, he had the first surgery on his right wrist and right elbow. Carpal tunnel on the wrists, and something about a tendon or something in his elbow. Two surgeries in one go. Six weeks of bandaging.

Then, on July 23, a change of pace for Bruce, having a colonoscopy.

August 5, the same surgeries he had on the right side done on the left side.

Somewhere in there during a follow up appointment, they decided that a previous surgery done on the left wrist was messed up. Some hardware they had put in had moved.

So, another surgery was scheduled for September 30.

And then we were treated to a very long time of Bruce being very unhappy and that was very taxing. He was unhappy about how that wrist felt, and couldn't wait to get the bandage on and get a cast. (pink) And then he was still unhappy, and they had to put on a new cast because a mistake was made in how the first cast fit. (purple   green actually; purple was last year) He was even deciding his neck was causing his wrist to hurt. It was, for me, a very long and frustrating time because he was so complainy.

Apparently for good reason, because the new hardware in his wrist had slipped, and when they took the purple cast off on Nov. 11, they discovered this, so on Nov. 13, he was back in for surgery to fix that once and for all.

He had to come home with oxygen that time, and honestly, it really helped, I think. And apparently it worked this time, because he has not been over-the-top complainy. Phew. 

Today he went in to get the bandage off and get the cast put on (red). The nurse, who had also been there for the surgery, told him that when they had him all sedated and in the operating room, that the doctor picked up his wrist, and the part in his hand popped into proper place. He put his arm down, and it popped out. He repeated this over and over and the part was moving like it isn't supposed to do. 

He ended up with a crowd watching the surgery, including the maker of the part for his wrist, as his body was behaving uniquely. Too bad he slept through all of that attention! It would have been a captive audience for his dad jokes.

Anyways, here are some pictures. If you don't like looking at x-rays and body parts, don't look at them! They are in opposite order, with newer pictures first, and then the older pictures. So the good hardware is first, and the hardware that turned out to not work last. Also I am leaving them small, but you can click on them for a better look if you choose to. 

Graduation for Hadis

 I got up extra early so I could tune into the University of Vienna graduation for Master's degree students, of which Hadis was one. (2 AM start time for me.)

I really liked the focus on the students--they each had to talk about their area of study and thesis topic. I unfortunately caught Hadis with her eyes closed instead of open--I am not the best photographer, and especially not using Control Print Screen.

Took this shot while we were listening to the string quartet? I think it was a quartet and not a quintet? They were playing I think Haydn. My classical music identification skills are rusty.

Beautiful room. Patrick pointed out himself in the picture.

He calls his bald spot huge, but trust me, if you look at other heads, they are more bald!

Patrick also took a shot of the ceiling:

Our ceilings are usually boring. I am not in the habit of always looking up. If you fail to look up in Vienna, you will miss a lot of beauty!

Hadis is just behind to the barely left of the girl with red hair:

(Notice several heads that are balder than Patrick's head.)

They all had to come and touch the sceptre thing. Of course I was anticipating the moment and hit Control Print Screen just too early to capture the moment.

And also just too soon to capture the moment of the handshake as Hadis received her diploma:

Patrick took some videos. They do not copy and paste, so I don't know how to put them here.

The main man then spoke, and it was really interesting because I was understanding random words, some in German (like Gesellschaft, platz, kleine) and some in English (like low hanging fruit, fake news, recycling) and I think he was talking about the environment. Patrick informed me that several of the students (Hadis included) were writing theses about reducing a greenhouse gas.

There were several songs to sing:

In Latin: Long live Academia! Long live professors!

In German: The National Anthem (without standing and turning it into worship)

And Beethoven's Ode to Joy, for which they also had words, but I missed taking a picture of them, because since Patrick and I were doing a bit of classical music identification, I was instead messaging him to claim that I knew who this composer was, and he should too. Totally missed whatever they were singing, but Europe was in there somewhere. (The other two songs, the main man was singing into the microphone and he had quite a good voice, but for this song, he wasn't. Apparently the crowd was singing, but like most video platforms, the sound of a congregation singing did not pick up. I actually could only hear the instrumentalists, and didn't even realize singing was going on til I clicked back (mostly because Patrick mentioned singing) from my chat (which was surely bothering Patrick, who was trying to sing) and saw the words posted but was not quick enough to capture them.)

And then, the graduates were leaving, and there was such a nice view of the person walking out, and I thought I could catch Hadis again, but no! They turned off the feed before it got even close to her turn to walk. 

How amazing is it that I can tune in to her graduation in Vienna, and see everything and hear everything so clearly!! What a blessing!!

Anyways, I am so proud of Hadis! Getting a master's degree taught in English in a German-speaking country when neither of those languages are her native language. I think that is amazing.

Edited to add this picture:

If you noticed in those pictures above, those long red tubes given to each graduate were their diplomas! Patrick's caption for this picture: "She wanted to look at her degree. You might even be able to see it from space." Maybe not...but!! It is LARGE. That would take a mighty big picture frame!

Also edited to add these photos Hadis just sent me of her and Patrick immediately after the graduation ceremony:

Close up and with more perspective:

A handsome couple in a beautiful building!! What a great day for Patrick and Hadis but most especially for Hadis!!

Electric Maze

 Yesterday morning I attended a workshop called "Building Effective Teams" and it was actually really good. Besides the regular listening to things and watching video clips and having discussions, we did a couple of fun activities that I want to remember.

One of them was to line up in birthday order without talking to each other. (There were 9 of us.) That was pretty fun. Being a December birthday, I figured I would be last, so I just had to figure out which end of the line was the end. So that went well! We did it!

The other fun activity was actually one that I would not have done. Like, if I was at a party, I would slip out the door and not do it. Which I maybe should rethink, because I was actually the person who finished the electric maze first. (But I only figured it out because of the people before me.) Again, we could not talk, but we had to get all of us from one end of the maze to the other.

The facilitator put this on the ground: A grid of 9 x 6.

But some of the squares are electric. If we stepped on them, the annoying buzzer would sound. We had to figure out where to step to make our way from one side to the other--bottom to top in this example. We all made mistakes. We all were uncomfortable. (I sometimes make the erroneous assumption that everyone else is okay with doing things when really I am often NOT the only person who feels uncomfortable.)

You could move directly or diagonal. When you made a mistake, you had to also go back without making a mistake. You would have a mythical $1000 and you would lose $100 with every mistake. (We went $2800 in the hole.)

We finished (with nine people) in 25 minutes. This was the path (starting at the bottom and moving to the top). And I was the first to finish. But that is because when the person two before me got all the way to the second last spot, and went directly forward only to be buzzed, I knew that it would have to be the spot to the upper left. (Because someone had already gotten buzzed on the spot directly left.) The person just before me made an earlier mistake, or she would have been first to finish. 

It was so interesting! You get a different perspective watching than you do while actually doing it. And it was interesting to trust each other to help us know where to step when we could not talk to each other. Very interesting!

I think that I shall never see...

 ...a poem lovely as a tree. This was my dad's favorite and oft-quoted poem (by Joyce Kilmer, 1913, who is male) with its famous last line:  "Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree".

We have only one tree, but dressed in its golden autumn gown, it has been a wonder to behold this particular fall. I wish I had taken a picture of it when it was at its maximum of loveliness, but I did not. 

Josie snapped a picture of it from inside the house when it was first turning color, and it is lovely, but you cannot see all the way to the top.

At this stage, it was wearing most of its leaves, so had I taken a picture of it from outside in all its splendor, it would have been most lovely.

But yesterday morning I took a moment to snap a picture of it from outside, and you can see that it is now surrounded with fallen leaves, so its gown is less full than it was.

The top is starting to look a bit barren, like it will in winter. Still, I am glad I took a picture. I have been deriving a lot of joy from looking at this tree every day! Now I can look at its image, too, if I want to.

Work Stories

1.  Saturday I spent most of the day at UDEO - Utah Dance Educators' Organization. This was, I think, my fourth time attending UDEO. The first year I went, in 2019, I did a poster. That was technically my first poster, and it was very simplistic. (I did not know what I was doing!) I had even forgotten that I did it! That year it was at Weber State U. Then I attended two times when it was at Westminster U. And this year, it was at BYU, so I put in a proposal, which was accepted, so it was my first time to be a presenter at UDEO.

At most of the conferences I attend, people present for 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion, questions, comments, etc. So when they told me that I had 1 hour and ten minutes--holy doodle, how to fill the time? I invested HOURS into this talk--timing myself, adjusting the powerpoint, looking for material to fill the time in an engaging way. Also, I didn't know that I have enough voice to TALK for that long--when I do library instruction sessions that are back to back, my voice starts to give out.

So, I planned a "false start"--I gathered 40 quotes about ballet (I didn't think I would have 40 people, maybe 20 but I wanted to be prepared.) The idea was that people would take a quote, and then they would talk about it with another person. I was going to plan for five minutes for that.

Then, dispersed throughout my talk, there were four dance breaks. Two "therapeutic bar" exercise sessions, and two dance improv sessiosn. My talk itself, including four video clips that were respectively 3.5 minutes, 5 minutes, 1.5 minutes, and 3 minutes, was about 38 minutes long. (So I was doing my typical length 20 minutes, actually!) The dance breaks would add 15-20 minutes, so I would use up an  hour or just over, and still have a short amount of time for questions at the end. I could control the length of the dance breaks depending on time, and there was conveniently a big clock at the back of the room to make timing easier.

Speaking of the room, only a week before the event was the schedule posted, so I could walk down to the RB and take a look at the room I had been assigned. It was the room that I had health in when I was a freshman at BYU (only refurbished since then!) so there was a front entrance that led onto the floor where the lecturer stands, and a back door that leads up to some stairs, so that the back of the room is higher than the front. There was floor space for dancing, or at least movement, which meant my dance break plan would work. And there was a piano, so I could have a pianist for the dance breaks. 

My research assistant, Megan, is also a pianist for the dance department, so I asked her if she was free, and she was--well, free to work. Because of course I was planning to pay her for taking the time to prepare and play for this event.

Well, when I got there on Saturday morning, I was like "where are all the people?" Because in the opening session (called the plenary in my usual settings but not called that here) there were maybe 40-50 people, and all of the other UDEOs I have attended, there were more like 150-200 people. 

And then everything started late. The opening speaker (who had nothing prepared, seriously--he was just talking off the cuff) went over time showing some break dance moves. So all the talks went over. Lunch started almost on time, but then there was a floor show of dancers from a middle school, a high school, and several BYU groups.

During all this, Megan is texting me, worried about the music. And I was like "you really don't have to worry. Whatever you choose to play will be fine. There will not be very many people."

And I was right. There were three. Three people.

Because the floor show went over, we did not start until 15 minutes past our start time of 1:00 pm. I didn't even get out the materials for the "false start." I skipped one of the four dance breaks, and only did about 2-3 min. for each break. 

And it went really well! I could see that the entire plan for the time would have worked really well, had we needed to fill the whole time.

So I am a little bit sad. I put hours into preparation, and I know that it "counts" on my CV whether I speak to hundereds of people or to three people. I just actually feel bad because I wanted to promote my topic to more people.

Oh well.

2. When I was walking out of work yesterday, so was Mike, my former boss, who moved to a different position. We chatted for a bit, and because I mentioned seeing him bringing his sons trick or treating to the library, he told me about his son running away the day after Halloween!

Mike and his wife adopted their grandchildren. Mike is my age exactly (same birthday) and he has been raising these young boys. It is keeping them young--or aging them quickly. I am not sure which!

So this boy was hitting his little brother, so was sent to his room for "reset" time. (They call it that--not "time out.") But when they checked on them, he had gone! His bedroom window was open, the screen was out--he had jumped out the window! And a pretty high window--they have a high basement. They quickly scoured the neighborhood. (They live near Cherry Hill Park, so I could totally imagine where they were looking.) He was nowhere. Mike got in the car to drive further afield. His wife called the police.

He had run, literally running the entire way--all the way down 2000 S Orem towards the roundabout on Sandhill Road, under the freeway, past the railroad tracks, where three concerned motorists stopped because they saw this little child running BAREFOOT, on a cold Saturday morning, in this strange location that is not near very many houses.

So then he was trying to run away from the strangers! One of them called the police, who put two and two together, and went to pick him up.

So he got rewarded with a ride in a police car. (Fun! His little brother was jealous.) But also he got a bit scared, and he hurt his leg. So Mike hopes that he will not do that again. Mike was flabbergasted. Their older children had their quirks, but nobody ever ran away!

He was running to Idaho, he said. He decided his parents treat him like a servant. (Mike was like What! We can't get you to to anything!) So he was going to run to Idaho, where his brother is a BYUI student. What did he think he would do there? He would go to class with his brother.

Mike told him, "You were running the wrong direction!" The child responded "Well, which way is north?" Mike said, "I'm not going to tell you today..."

3. I seriously can't remember anymore!! There was another story. Apparently not very memorable!