Wednesday, May 31, 2017

At the Pitch • Poetry Wednesday



At the Pitch
If I could only live at the pitch
that is near madness, Eberhart wrote

but there was his wife Betty hanging onto
his coattails for dear life to the end of her life.

No one intervened when my mother’s brother’s
wife ran off with the new young rabbi

every woman in the congregation had a crush on.
They rose unleashed, fleeing west

into the sooty sky over Philadelphia
in a pillar of fire, at the pitch that is near madness

touching down in the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
Cleveland. Chicago. O westward!

O fornication! I was sixteen.
Eberhart had written his poem before

he sailed off to World War II and a boy
had just put his tongue in my mouth

which meant he could make
me do anything. No one

holding onto his coattails, no one onto my skirt
until my father switched on the back porch light.


by Maxine Kumin
from Where I Live: New & Selected Poems
courtesy The Writer's Almanac

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Summer Reading: Karen's List

Summer reading has begun! Are you as excited as I am? 

The Summer Reading Club is in full swing. It means days full of reading books: hopefully good ones, of course, but take a risk from time to time. Go out on a limb and reach for a book that may be different from your usual fare. Try a different media: try recorded books, or print, for a change of pace.

Ambitious Reader Karen has shared her reading list with us, and I'm very pleased to see a couple of books she and I both own. I will have to make sure she and I synchronize our Kindles to activate extra fun reading!

Here are her summer reading books, in no particular order:
  • A Second Daniel
  • The Haunting of Ashburn House
  • Stirrings in the Black House
  • The Miniaturist
  • The House
  • Little Red
  • Switching Hour
  • Darcy's Ultimatum
  • The Templar's Cross
  • Georgianna Darcy's Diary
  • Secrets and Sensibilities
  • Indiana Belle
  • Crossings
  • Nothing to Croak About
  • The Chocolate Cure
  • Evil Librarian
  • Rising Sun
  • Wobble to Death
  • Servant of the Crown Mysteries: Lost Innocents, Season of the Raven, Season of the Fox
  • Tempest at Dawn
  • Glorieta Pass
  • Collide
  • Tequila and Tea Bags
  • The Passage
  • Chocolate Shop in Paris
  • Freedom's Sword
  • A Spell of Trouble
  • The Bees
  • Troublemaker
  • Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story
  • A Night Without Armor: Poems

  • Chasing Down the Dawn: Stories From the Road
  • A Strange Beginning
  • Beautiful Storm

Do you see any books that look good to you? Check them out from the library, or see if they're in your Kindle Prime or Unlimited reading bank.

By the way, did you know that Kindle Prime readers have some great options open to them for free reading? Check out the list, which includes modern classics 1984, Animal Farm, and The Handmaid's Tale.

If you don't want to make a list, that's cool, too. Just start reading — and feel free to drop me a line to let me know what pages you are turning.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Library Loot: Print and Audio, Plus Drama

I went to the library this week and got some loot: I borrowed two books and purchased a third, only one of which is on my original summer reading list. 

(Like that's a surprise. We all know I make the list, I chuckle, and then a I reach for whatever I darned well please. Hey, it's summer reading: no rules, just reading! Plus, can you blame me if I stray with so many great choices?)

I shall read at least one this weekend, possibly two (if I am ambitious). 

I am excited that one is Ruined, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by a playwright new to me, and the others are by authors I know and enjoy. I have encountered Lynn Nottage in numerous articles lately, so it's really a sort of sign that she is in my loot today.

I also am excited about listening to Eric Weiner's new book. I so enjoyed his Geography of Bliss and I can't wait to see what he has to say about "genius."

As for Cristina HenrĂ­quez's book, I almost didn't leave the library before starting it. Her novel made my Favorites of 2014 List, so I am very hopeful about this tome.

The book I purchased at the ongoing Friends of the Library book sale, Being Mortal, is one I'm rather intrigued to read. I have read Atul Gawande's  The New Yorker articles and enjoyed them immensely. I heard his interview on Fresh Air about aging and medicine. 

Thanks to Clare, the Captive Reader, for such an inspirational column! I love my library, and what it gives me, and it's nice to share that love.

So, tell me: what did you get from the library this week?

Friday, May 26, 2017

Summer Reading: Making a List!

Summer means reading — and summer reading club! 

Remember back in the day, when reading came with rewards? In my local library, readers would have their names posted with the number of titles read during the summer. One year, I read 4o books. My librarian was skeptical — then she remembered how I sat in the library for hours at a time, reading. Forty it was.

Getting a shout-out on Hedgehog Lover may not be as cool as having your name posted on the Norwalk Library children's section activity board, but it's still not bad. 

Visit your library (public or private), your local bookstores and thrift shops, yard sales and online book suppliers, friends and family, and choose what books look like they need to be read this summer.

So here's what I hope to consume this summer between the Memorial Day weekend and the first weekend in autumn. This year, that date is Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24.

First of all, please take a moment to think about Memorial Day, and understand what it really means, 149 years after it began as Decoration Day in an Illinois town. May we strive for peace, and love, and the things that bring us together.  

In that vein, we may want to add a book to our list that reflects Memorial Day, and an article published by the Los Angeles Times may be a good place to start. 

My list is more a "wish" than carved in stone, but here it is, in no particular order:
  1. Hamilton: The Revolution
  2. Evicted
  3. Anna Karenina
  4. Lady Cop Makes Trouble
  5. The Burning Pages
  6. Dark Money
  7. Map of the Sky
  8. The Intuitionist
  9. Ready Player One
  10. The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books
  11. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
  12. Me Before You
  13. Yesternight
  14. The Fall of the House of Cabal
  15. The Descent
  16. The Book of Harlan
  17. At the Water's Edge
  18. Thank You for Your Service
  19. The Glass Sentence
  20. The Keeper of Lost Things
  21. The Lost City of Z
  22. Wicked
  23. Bone Season
  24. The Gun Seller
  25. Wolf Hall
  26. The Lowland
  27. And the Mountains Echoed
  28. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter 
  29. The Sixth Extinction
  30. Revival
  31. Bellman and Black
  32. Just Mercy
  33. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
  34. Redeployment
  35. The Handmaid's Tale
  36. The Case Against Sugar
  37. The Magicians
  38. The Unbanking of America
  39. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
  40. Welcome to Night Vale
  41. Hidden Figures
  42. Speaking from Among the Bones
  43. Ruined
  44. The Bear and the Nightingale
  45. Uprooted
I suspect this list will change. As soon as something looks or sounds good, it will be on the list. I can't help it!

Join the Summer Reading Club and put yourself in the running for a new book. Read as much as you wish from Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24, and if you read the most books, you will win a book of your own.

To join the club, just send me an e-mail or leave a message below. Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me a message or include your reading list in a blog comment. If you read the most, congratulations! If not, you still are a winner because you spent your summer reading.

I've already had a few e-mails from eager readers, and I can't wait to read your list!

I make sure summer reading is beneficial to my community. As I have done in years past, I will  donate $5 per book I read to Main Street Child Development Center (minimum $150) (I know, no sweat, right?), and I will buy three new books for the Fairfax County Public Library from its Amazon Wish List


Hopefully, reading club members also will find a way to help their communities through their reading, or to help share the love of reading with their communities. It's not a requirement, of course, but it certainly is a worthy effort. It doesn't have to be financial support, either — think of what the community wants and needs. Every reader can determine what is within her or his power to bestow.

Even if you don't join the reading club, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Essentially, Oils Can Make a Difference

My friend and co-worker Melanie has good ideas. She is the one who introduced me to audiobooks, and I'm forever grateful. I'm trying out a standing desk now, which is a good option (but never for the whole eight hours at work), and I've begun using essential oils in a diffuser.

I was skeptical. I understood how sniffing a pungent smell could affect my sinuses (thanks, Passover horseradish!), but it never occurred to me that they could change my environment.

Until both Melanie and I came down with the flu within about 48 hours.

Melanie had essential oils in her office, and she dabbed some eucalyptus on a tissue and taped it to my blowing heater. The smell emanated through the small room and my sinuses felt the relief. At lunch, I picked up a diffuser at lunch and some essential oils, and set up the diffuser in my bedroom.

Alas, diffusers all feature lights — and no matter the claims, there is no true "unlit" phase of any diffuser I've reviewed or purchased (and I've purchased a few). I prefer a dark bedroom at night, so I have rigged a cover for the lit area. It doesn't quash it, but it does tap it down a bit. Additional light tip: darker lights are less bothersome at night.

I was a little overwhelmed by the oil choices. At work, I wanted to be calm but alert. At home, I wanted to go to sleep. How should I combine oils to do that, and more, without earning certification in aromatherapy? Well, choose a couple of websites or books, decide what you think will work for you, and experiment.

I like Valerian root, but I sent a floral, citrusy mix to my granddaughters. My friend in a new home got tea tree oil and lavender. I have Rosemary in the office, and mix lavender with everything. So far, so good. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, nothing has wilted, exploded, or melted.

(You do want to keep an eye on furniture and books near the diffuser. I have a marble nightstand, and dust stuck better to the surface after the diffuser went into action. At work, my diffuser aims up toward the ceiling, and my desk and accessories haven't changed texture — but I attribute that to the cleaning staff, rather than the oils.)

Apparently, I am the last person to this party: a few other friends also were in the know. A friend had just met an essential oil expert before we began discussing it, and another had thought about using them but didn't know where to begin.

Essential oils have been around for a while, and I have found they they can help me accomplish my physical goals, whether it's sleep, alertness, calm, creative thinking, cleansed air, open sinuses, clear skin — or more.

I recommend choosing a reliable resource for information, and making sure the oils are good quality. Use oils only as directed, and read the instructions: if they alert you to photosensitivity or skin sensitivity, take the alert seriously. Do not be subject of the horror story of the person who uses oils right before hopping into a tanning bed, or doesn't add them to the proper base materials, or just pours them into a cleanser off the drug store shelf.

Sure, the current commercial focus on essential oils and diffusers may fade, but remember that oils have been around for centuries, and will be around long after any "fad" fades. Much like acupuncture and meditation, good practices will remain, and will work for you, for years to come. Try something new, or old — or new to you, and learn something about yourself and your environment.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

On Alcohol • Poetry Wednesday


On Alcohol


my first drink was in my mother
my next, my bris. doctor spread red
wine across my lips. took my foreskin


every time i drink     i lose something


no one knows the origins of alcohol. tho surely an accident
before sacrament. agricultural apocrypha. enough grain stored up
for it to get weird in the cistern. rot gospel. god water


brandy was used to treat everything
from colds to pneumonia
frostbite to snake bites

tb patients were placed on ethanol drips
tonics & cough medicines
spooned into the crying mouths of children


each friday in synagogue a prayer for red
at dinner, the cemetery, the kitchen
spirits


how many times have i woke
strange in an unfamiliar bed?
my head neolithic


my grandfather died with a bottle in one hand
& flowers in the other. he called his drink his medicine
he called his woman
    she locked the door


i can only half blame alcohol for my overdose
the other half is my own hand
that poured the codeine    that lifted the red plastic again & again &


i’m trying to understand pleasure     it comes back
in flashes    every jean button thumbed open to reveal
a different man     every slurred & furious permission


i was sober a year before [          ] died


every time i drink     i lose someone


if you look close at the process of fermentation
you’ll see tiny animals destroying the living body
until it’s transformed into something more volatile


the wino outside the liquor store
mistakes me for his son

by Sam Sax

Monday, May 15, 2017

Nightstand Reading; Or, Taking My Time and Restarting, Often

As I was dusting my nightstand, I found myself rather impressed by my stack of books to be read.

I think I need to have my head examined because I haven't finished Hamilton: The Revolution. I even have it on Audible. And yet. Unlike any other Hamilton-related experience, I am savoring the book. Plus, I just finished the chapter about Christopher Jackson, my Washington, and I want to spend an extra moment with him. I think I'll make it a summer read.

Interestingly, the book I am reading on my Kindle I also own in print — the latest translation of Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I hadn't really pondered translations until recently, when Oprah Winfrey's embrace of the new translation was chosen for her book club, and I heard a podcast featuring a strongly praised audiobook version of Don Quixote.


I have another translation on my Kindle, and whenever I read a delicious line in the newer book, I pull up the other translation to compare. So far, I have always, always preferred Pevear/Volokhonsky's translation. I may download the recorded book of the older translation that was so well-received last year, just to compare the page to the ear.

I actually read the first 300+ pages in January, but chose to start over this month so the entire book is fresh in my mind for my discussions next month with Carole. (This is our current Weighty Read.)

I have taken a bit of a break from Anna to read another book with Carole, The Persuasion of Mr. Cave. We read The Humans a couple of years ago, and it was one of the best books I had read in a while — so we decided to give this modest little tome a try. The foreshadowing is intense.

Of this list, I'm surprised that I have read some of every volume, except for one. I have started, put down, started another, put down, and re-started more than usual.

I must blame it on Elizabeth Kostova.

Her latest, The Shadow Lands, was not the book I expected. It's a love letter to Bulgaria, which isn't a bad thing, but the book jacket focused on what I consider the weakest storyline of the book. Had it been more aptly characterized, I would have liked it better; instead, I have to adjust my notions now the book is finished. I would have read it, anyway, mind you. I just prefer when the jacket blurb relates to the story more directly.

To be fair, she used her tools wisely, weaving between media and characters, which has served her well in the past, so the novel wasn't a disappointment. It was, however, a surprise (and not in the more pleasant way).

I am a huge fan of Cat Winters, but I don't think Yesternight is her strongest novel, either. Post-WWI America, West Coast, supernatural (but maybe not), women nearly thwarted, and trusting your own instincts — they're all interesting, but it doesn't get to where it should quickly enough, and there seems to be a stronger story not being told in the novel. (It's another I've put aside, just for a while.)

I started The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu a few times, but my mind wanders during the history portion of the book. I've tried the print and electronic books, so I think I'll give the audio a try next. (The library will come through soon, so I'll keep you apprised.)

Finally, I am working on two series: Johannes Cabal and Flavia de Luce. (Ne'er the twain shall meet, thank heavens, except on my nightstand.)

What are your reading challenges? Are you stopping and starting books? Or are you plowing through everything immediately, no holds barred? Let me know!

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Get Excited About Summer Reading in 2017!

Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means...

 ...summer reading!

If you're anything like me, you've been perusing your own bookshelves, reviewing your library wish list, pondering the bookstore inventory, and just thinking about books.

I also am pondering summer reading lists of the past. Every year, I come up with a list, and every year I veer off-course almost immediately. (I mean, 2016. And 2015!)

Want to join the fun? Join the Summer Reading Club! (You may even win a new book.)


The "rule" of the Summer Reading Club, if any summer fun can have real rules, is this: read as much as you wish from Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24. If you are the club member who's read the most book, you will win a book of your own. 

To join the club, just send me an e-mail or leave a message below. Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me a message or include your reading list in a blog message. If you read the most, congratulations! If not, you still are a winner because you spent your summer reading.


I've already had a few e-mails from eager readers, and I can't wait to read your list! I will publish mine this month.

I make sure summer reading is beneficial to my community. As I have done in years past, I will  donate $5 per book I read to Main Street Child Development Center (minimum $150) (I know, no sweat, right?), and I will buy three new books for the Fairfax County Public Library from its Amazon Wish List


Hopefully, reading club members also will find a way to help their communities through their reading, or to help share the love of reading with their communities. It's not a requirement, of course, but it certainly is a worthy effort. It doesn't have to be financial support, either — think of what the community wants and needs. Every reader can determine what is within her or his power to bestow. 


Even if you don't join the reading club, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

I am Waiting • Poetry Wednesday



I Am Waiting

I am waiting for my case to come up   
and I am waiting 
for a rebirth of wonder 
and I am waiting for someone 
to really discover America 
and wail 
and I am waiting   
for the discovery 
of a new symbolic western frontier   
and I am waiting   
for the American Eagle 
to really spread its wings 
and straighten up and fly right 
and I am waiting 
for the Age of Anxiety 
to drop dead 
and I am waiting 
for the war to be fought 
which will make the world safe 
for anarchy 
and I am waiting 
for the final withering away 
of all governments 
and I am perpetually awaiting 
a rebirth of wonder 

I am waiting for the Second Coming   
and I am waiting 
for a religious revival 
to sweep thru the state of Arizona   
and I am waiting 
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored   
and I am waiting 
for them to prove 
that God is really American 
and I am waiting 
to see God on television 
piped onto church altars 
if only they can find   
the right channel   
to tune in on 
and I am waiting 
for the Last Supper to be served again 
with a strange new appetizer 
and I am perpetually awaiting 
a rebirth of wonder 

I am waiting for my number to be called 
and I am waiting 
for the Salvation Army to take over 
and I am waiting 
for the meek to be blessed 
and inherit the earth   
without taxes 
and I am waiting 
for forests and animals 
to reclaim the earth as theirs 
and I am waiting 
for a way to be devised 
to destroy all nationalisms 
without killing anybody 
and I am waiting 
for linnets and planets to fall like rain 
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers 
to lie down together again 
in a new rebirth of wonder 

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed   
and I am anxiously waiting 
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered   
by an obscure general practitioner 
and I am waiting 
for the storms of life 
to be over 
and I am waiting 
to set sail for happiness 
and I am waiting 
for a reconstructed Mayflower 
to reach America 
with its picture story and tv rights 
sold in advance to the natives 
and I am waiting 
for the lost music to sound again 
in the Lost Continent 
in a new rebirth of wonder 

I am waiting for the day 
that maketh all things clear 
and I am awaiting retribution 
for what America did   
to Tom Sawyer   
and I am waiting 
for Alice in Wonderland 
to retransmit to me 
her total dream of innocence 
and I am waiting 
for Childe Roland to come 
to the final darkest tower 
and I am waiting   
for Aphrodite 
to grow live arms 
at a final disarmament conference 
in a new rebirth of wonder 

I am waiting 
to get some intimations 
of immortality 
by recollecting my early childhood 
and I am waiting 
for the green mornings to come again   
youth’s dumb green fields come back again 
and I am waiting 
for some strains of unpremeditated art 
to shake my typewriter 
and I am waiting to write 
the great indelible poem 
and I am waiting 
for the last long careless rapture 
and I am perpetually waiting 
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn   
to catch each other up at last 
and embrace 
and I am awaiting   
perpetually and forever 
a renaissance of wonder

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
from These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems