Deb Nance
Kenn Kaufman left high school before he finished to make his own way in the world by exploring nature and the world via hitchhiking. He sets out to break a record for the most birds seen in the US in a year, and he ends up realizing that what he really wants to do is study birds.
Kingbird Highway is Kaufman's story of his Big Year, his adventures on the road, and his encounters with birds, many of them for the first time.
It's surprisingly hard to read an eighty-page book composed simply of 253 three-line, seventeen-syllable poems. This is Basho's oeuvre, and it had a profound effect upon the world and all the Japanese poets who came after him.
A few favorites:
“From the heart
of the sweet peony,
a drunken bee.”
“In my new robe
this morning—
someone else.”
And, of course...
“Old pond,
leap-splash—
a frog.”
It made my heart hurt just a little to see that black marker slash across the checkout barcode on this book at the library book sale—culled, in pristine condition. How could patrons at my county library have overlooked this wonderful book of Billy Collins' work?
I delighted in the re-reading of it, a book full of many of my favorites: “Traveling Alone,” “The Peasant's Revolt,” “Bereft,” and, of course, the first Billy Collins poem I ever read, pointed out to me by my teenage son, “The Lanyard.”
A woodchuck couple happen upon a human child, abandoned in a ditch by her siblings, and they name her Margaret and take her home. Margaret wreaks havok on the woodchuck home, and it is only because of the love and care of the woodchuck wife that Margaret is retained in the new family. Somehow, out of these efforts to tame Margaret a community emerges, and all are left, somehow, better.
I cannot imagine that children would enjoy this book, and I wonder that it was published at all, much less that it was a finalist for the National Book Award. But perhaps I am missing something...
Dorothy and Toto head to the Land of Oz to celebrate Ozma's birthday. They meet up with their old friends, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, and they make new friends, Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome.
My favorite parts of this Oz episode are the introduction of the character of the Shaggy Man and the Love Magnet.
Annie is a custom designed robot designed to be a perfect girlfriend for Doug. Annie has been given the gift of sentience, and her evolving cognitive abilities and emotional perceptions are something Doug loves—and hates.
Annie Bot is the story of the development of a relationship in which one person holds the power as well as the development of a bot becoming more human, and it's the story of how these two developments interact.
Yuval Noah Harari tells the story of human evolution in a spellbinding way that manages to teach and entertain at the same time. The author does what I thought was impossible—to talk back to naysayers in a manner that is both irrefutable and yet also humorous.
I learned a lot from this book. And I enjoyed the read. I wonder if I should now read the nonfiction book Sapiens from which it was derived.
Ferris and her sister, Pinky, live with their parents and Grandmother Charisse. Uncle Ted has moved into the basement and Aunt Shirley has not. Charisse has seen a ghost and she is convinced the ghost wants her to accomplish a difficult task. Pinky is on a rampage and her parents can't figure out what to do with her.
Pure Kate DiCamillo. Keep writing, Kate.
Lots of takeaways from How to Hug a Porcupine...
The brilliant pioneering psychologist, Albert Ellis PhD, taught that no one can upset us unless we allow them to. Instead we can choose to think rationally, feel calm, and act with consideration, kindness and empathy. We can learn not to think and act irrationally and not to automatically stick our quills out during threatening or provocative situations. Even if the Porcupinely-acting person who you are dealing with resists, your open-hearted approach will not be wasted. Every time we practice kindness, compassion and unconditional acceptance of others, we are reinforcing it within and for ourselves.
How to Hug a Porcupine (Little Book. Big Idea.) . Hatherleigh Press. Kindle Edition.
As should be clear by now, dealing with your porcupine will require your very best effort. You will need to be patient, kind, and loving. You will have to be generous, understanding and empathic. In short, to love a porcupine, we must be the best that we can be.
How to Hug a Porcupine (Little Book. Big Idea.) . Hatherleigh Press. Kindle Edition.
By listening, you are transformed from a potential adversary to an ally. By listening, you become someone to be trusted. By listening, you cease to be part of the problem and become, instead, someone who has the information to offer a solution.
How to Hug a Porcupine (Little Book. Big Idea.) . Hatherleigh Press. Kindle Edition.
Set a good example for your porcupine as well as the other members of your family. Your willingness to talk openly about relationships, and to accept criticism of your own behavior, will help shape how your porcupine learns to handle uncomfortable situations.
How to Hug a Porcupine (Little Book. Big Idea.) . Hatherleigh Press. Kindle Edition.
At times, it may feel like you are the only one who is really trying. But know that your porcupine is always watching. Demonstrate your love by practicing patience and empathy and by being supportive. Love is what will teach your porcupine to keep his quills down. Just when you are about the give up ... your porcupine will surprise you.
How to Hug a Porcupine (Little Book. Big Idea.) . Hatherleigh Press. Kindle Edition.
Jack and Elizabeth meet and fall in love and marry and have a child and buy a home...and everything falls apart. Jack and Elizabeth explore their marriage and think about their childhoods and contemplate what they have learned from science and life.
I finished this book feeling satisfied. The relationships the author described, the characters he created, the situations he shared—all felt genuine, full of conflicts and resolve and all rooted in patterns from the past.
What a delight! Reading about Garrison Keillor's cheerful take on all that happens to him at eighty years of age makes me feel quite cheerful myself.
Keillor quotes Emerson (and this quote is one I can't hear often enough):
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. Nothing great is achieved without enthusiasm.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (pp. 14-15). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Diligence is all well and good but thank God for wild good luck.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 29). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Cheerfulness is rare among writers, maybe because the failure rate is so high, or maybe because it's not taught in school.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 44). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
NOTE: Never marry someone who lacks a good sense of humor.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 56). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Nobody ever said to me, “Eighty is the new seventy.” Because it's not, it's the home stretch. Most of the people living on earth when you were a child are now dead: that world is gone.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 56). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
As a young man, I practiced irony and saw pretense and arrogance wherever I looked, and now I see splendor and bravery and genius and kindness as the real story and have faith that the story will keep going. I am kind to strangers; I hold the door open for people except young women who might be offended and tell me to go to hell.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 65). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
As Anne Frank wrote, “Despite everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. ... I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” If this child hiding from Nazis in an attic in 1943 could be cheerful, then by God so can I.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 74). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Cheer up. As Dr. Nash once said about my skinned knee, “It looks worse than it is.”
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 114). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
At age 96, Mother told me, “There's so much I'd still like to know but there's nobody left to ask.”
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 126). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Like the old gospel song says, “This world is not my home, I'm only passing through,” and it feels good to be a tourist.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (pp. 128-129). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
It wasn't depressing to visit the dying, it was a mission: nobody should die alone, we need to see our people to the end of the block.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 144). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Most tragedy is misunderstood comedy. God is a great humorist who is working with a sleepy and distracted audience. Lighten up. Whatever you must do, do it wholeheartedly, even gladly. As you get older, you'll learn how to fake this.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 162). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
I go to church to think more freely. I mostly believe or believe that I do. I understand those who don't—the idea that omniscience and omnipotence are contradictory, I get that. I believe God will clear this up when we meet Him. But I am moved by the prayers, the readings of Scripture and sometimes the singing is so joyful it reduces me to rubble.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 166). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
I hum a note and a thousand people sing “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder” and they know the words, the stars and the rolling thunder and with all their souls they sing, “How great Thou art” and it is sort of stupendous, and it feels like even the unbelievers got swept up in it and we sing the last line, “How ... great ... Thou ... art” and I put my hand to my heart and thank them. They've given me a new vocation. I'm the only octogenarian stand-up comic who incorporates hymns into the act and it serves a holy purpose: it pulls people into harmony with others they imagined they despised.
Keillor, Garrison. Cheerfulness (p. 189). Prairie Home Productions. Kindle Edition.
Penny has left her husband and quit her job. Her grandmother is living amid the squalor of a hoarder, her grandfather needs to escape from his hateful second wife, and her parents are missing, lost in the wilds of Australia. Penny must find a way to help all of these people, but especially herself.
It's the humor of the quirky characters—the strange lives they lead, the odd challenges they face—that I enjoyed with this book. But mid-book, as situations began to be resolved, the story got clunky, forced at times, and the humor grew thin, even non-existent, and that was disappointing to me; I'd had such high hopes for this book.
A blogging friend suggested this book to me as I was learning to become a sea turtle rescuer, and I'm so glad she did.
I quickly realized most of the book is devoted to rehabbing land turtles, but there is one chapter in which author Sy Montgomery spends time searching for sea turtles along the shoreline who have been stunned by the cold.
Montgomery becomes a volunteer turtle rehabber during the pandemic. One of my favorite parts of the book is when the rehabbers release seventy-five baby turtles into the world. As one observer says, “‘How many things can make you feel this good?'“
I learned a lot about turtles from this book, enough to inspire me to seek out a few turtle reference books for my upcoming stint as a volunteer at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.
Here's a bit of what I learned:
“Turtles are as old as the first dinosaurs, older than the first crocodiles, and have been around for over 250 million years.”
“The more than 350 species of turtles, gracing six continents, display breathtaking talents. One...is their longevity...Some can sense a lake or pond a mile away...Some breathe through their butts; some pee through their mouths. Some are red, some are yellow, and some change color dramatically once a year. There are turtles with soft shells, turtles with necks longer than their bodies, turtles with heads so big they can't retract them, turtles whose shells glow in the dark.”
“The major organs of a hundred-year-old turtle...are indistinguishable from those of a teenager of the same species. Their hearts can cease beating for long periods without damage. In species that hibernate...turtles can survive buried in mud for months without taking a breath.”
“...the heart of an alligator snapping turtle...kept beating for five days after the turtle was decapitated. In laboratory experiments, even when completely deprived of oxygen, the brains of sliders can continue to function for days.”
“But this is one of the astonishing things about turtles: They can regenerate nerve tissue, even sometimes when the spinal cord is actually cut in half.”
“The shell is one reason turtle-kind has persisted so long on this earth, and why they are blessed with such long lives.”
I must admit that I was not looking forward to reading this book for our book club. I am a person who is greatly interested in soldiers or, really, biographies.
But Tammy Duckworth, I quickly discovered, is not just a soldier and this isn't just a biography.
Tammy Duckworth was born to an American soldier and his Thai wife in Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Though her family was, for a time, affluent, later they spent many years in deep poverty.
It is Duckworth's drive and resolve and persistence and grit that won my heart. She clawed her way into college, into becoming a helicopter pilot, through the trauma of losing her legs after being shot down, into a Senate seat, and into having children.
What an inspiration.
Oliver Twist is orphaned at birth, and he is sent to live in a workhouse as a child where he is starved, both for food and for love. The boys in the workhouse draw lots to protest, and it is Oliver who famously dares to stand up to those who run the workhouse and ask for more. Deemed a troublemaker, the result is that Oliver is farmed out, for money, to an apprenticeship where, once again, the boy is starved and is put to work doing dangerous things grown men refuse to do. Oliver can think of nothing to do but escape to live on the streets where he is recruited for a gang of pickpockets. It is only after Oliver is falsely accused of pickpocketing that his life takes a serendipitous and sharp turn toward healing.
Oliver Twist was my spin choice in February for The Classics Club. If I had to sum up the book in a few words, I would say that it is almost unremittingly grim. Reading this book explains, for me, why people can become filled with hatred and cruelty, and that's what I would have expected of Oliver Twist. Somehow, though, the boy kept his kind and generous nature through his exceptionally miserable childhood ordeals.
My notes...
How to get ideas
1. Have fun...“people who enjoy what they are doing, do it better.”
2. Be more like a child...ask questions
3. Become idea-prone...come up with many ideas and do it fast...ideas are out there and they will find you
4. Visualize success...set your mind on the goal
5. Rejoice in failure...go too fast, go too far, let your mind wander into silliness, absurdity, stupidity, impossibility...crash and burn
6. Get more input...make a JUNK PILE of useless info...do things you have never done...Do something surprising...see, really see...
7. Screw up your courage
8. Team up with energy
9. Rethink your thinking...don't assume boundaries...think with pictures...think laterally, not vertically or horizonally...
10. Combine—compare it to something else, take chances, break the rules, play “What If,” look to other fields for help
5 Step Method
Define the problemGather info
Search for the idea...saturate yourself in the idea...THEN FORGET ABOUT IT
*Put the idea into action—Give yourself a deadline, make a list of what you must do, burn your escape boats
Dorothy is in Oz again, this time as a result of an earthquake. She meets back up with the Wizard and she comes across the Mangabooks, vegetable people; the Braided Man; and land of the Gargoyles, where everything is made of wood. The characters she meets on her road to finding her way home, as always, are the charm of this series.