Deb Nance
I've been participating in a citizen science project for three years about butterflies. This book is the ideal first book about butterflies for kids. (Maybe even for us grownups!)
The book explains the differences between moths and butterflies. It describes the process of change that all butterflies go through. It explains how some butterflies migrate.
It's the illustrations that put this book, and this series, over the top. The illustrations are stunning.
I like quirky books. I like books-about-books.
As best as I can figure out, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a quirky book-about-books.
The novel begins:
“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade...“
Let's see if I can summarize the plot: Two people meet at a bookstore. They are both returning the same book, a book which they believe has been incorrectly bound. Somehow that book morphs into many other books, which the two follow. Along the way, there are many delightful and intriguing philosophical musings shared about how we make meaning of the world as well as reading itself.
Here's a sample:
“...you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out: the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages, the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success, the Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment, the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case, the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer, the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves, the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified...“
Calvino, Italo. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (p. 5). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
This will go on my list of favorites.
Rick Rubin looks at creativity and the making of art as dispassionately as it is possible to be. Rubin is highly regarded as a cultivator of creativity and art in the music world.
Somehow this book takes the pressure off the trying part of making art and centers the focus on listening to the universe and capturing what arrives at one's door.
Scientist Suzanne Simard tells the story of her life, focusing on the development of her love for trees and her studies about the ways trees communicate and thrive. Simard is an early voice against clear cutting and she dares to challenge the scientific giants in her field, sparking resistance initially but eventually gaining followers.
One of the first clues came while I was tapping into the messages that the trees were relaying back and forth through a cryptic underground fungal network. When I followed the clandestine path of the conversations, I learned that this network is pervasive through the entire forest floor, connecting all the trees in a constellation of tree hubs and fungal links. A crude map revealed, stunningly, that the biggest, oldest timbers are the sources of fungal connections to regenerating seedlings.
Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 5). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the social nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children.
Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 5). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest is wired for wisdom, sentience, and healing. This is not a book about how we can save the trees. This is a book about how the trees might save us.
Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (pp. 5-6). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I have come full circle to stumble onto some of the indigenous ideals: Diversity matters. And everything in the universe is connected—between the forests and prairies, the land and the water, the sky and the soil, the spirits and the living, the people and all other creatures.
Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 283). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
We have the power to shift course. It's our disconnectedness—and lost understanding about the amazing capacities of nature—that's driving a lot of our despair, and plants in particular are objects of our abuse. By understanding their sentient qualities, our empathy and love for trees, plants, and forests will naturally deepen and find innovative solutions. Turning to the intelligence of nature itself is the key. It's up to each and every one of us. Connect with plants you can call your own. If you're in a city, set a pot on your balcony. If you have a yard, start a garden or join a community plot. Here's a simple and profound action you can take right now: Go find a tree—your tree. Imagine linking into her network, connecting to other trees nearby. Open your senses. If you want to do more, I invite you into the heart of the Mother Tree Project to learn techniques and solutions that will protect and enhance biodiversity, carbon storage, and myriad ecological goods and services that underpin our life-support systems. Opportunities are as endless as our imagination. Scientists, students, and the general public who want to take part in this interdisciplinary research deep in the forest and be part of a citizen-science initiative, a movement to save the forests of the world, can find out more at http://mothertreeproject.org. Vive la forêt!
Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 305). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Timothée de Fombelle names and Benjamin Chaud draws 101 different kinds of readers.
Which of these am I?
I once was The Diva (when I was a school librarian).
I have been both The Champion (big books) and The Wisp (tiny books).
I wanted to be The Connoisseur (reading at the table) but my parents would never let me.
Other people probably think of me as The Plunderer (taking huge stacks of books from the library at one time).
The Early Bird...The Night Owl...The Explorer...The Dreamer...I've probably been most of the 101 at some time in my life.
Morrigan Crow attends school, though her classes are limited, and develops friendships and rivalries. She is taught that wundersmiths are the cause of a great deal of misery and wickedness in her world, and she questions her mentor Jupiter's assurance that this is not true. What is her place in the world? Will she simply become another source of pain and despair? What is behind the mysterious blackmailer and will her group of students be able to successfully cope with the blackmailer's demands?
Another intriguing fantasy novel. I await the arrival of book #3.
Patrick Bringley leaves a cush job at The New Yorker after the death of his beloved older brother and he becomes a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work offers time for reflection and over the course of five or so years, Bringley heals. He and his wife have two children, and he continues to work at the Met for five more years. Bringley develops close friendships there and thinks about art and life and death and meaning.
A lovely, thoughtful book. I enjoyed Bringley's reflections on life as well as the anecdotes he shares.
My favorite part was the last day he spent at the Met.
He decides his favorite piece of art is a Crucifixion by Fra Angelico. “My fondness for it owes something to my biases...I like old Christian art and its luminous sadness. I like that the picture makes me think of Tom, however painful that may be. Christ's body looks like it's been nailed to the mast of some storm-tossed ship. It's the center around which the rest of the world seems to rock and wheel. A graceful, broken body, it reminds us again of the obvious: that we're mortal, that we suffer, that bravery in suffering is beautiful, that loss inspires love and lamentation.”
He takes away much from his experiences in the museum. “Artists create records of transitory moments, appearing to stop their clocks. They help us believe that some things aren't transitory at all but rather remain beautiful, true, majestic, sad, or joyful over many lifetimes—and here is the proof, painted in oils, carved in marble, stitched into quilts.”
And more: “But when I took up my post ten years ago there were things I didn't understand. Sometimes, life can be about simplicity and stillness, in the vein of a watchful guard amid shimmering works of art. But it is also about the head-down work of living and struggling and growing and creating.”
Oh, yeah. I can think of a hundred people right away who need to read this book. Would you folks please stop telling me what I should be doing as a Christian and simply read what Jesus said? That's what Skye Jethani does in this book, and it's worth reading, I believe. Something to think about in a brand new year.
Iris moves to New York City to start over, and she wanders into a gelato place that feels oddly familiar.
And that's not all that feels familiar...Gio, the gelato shop owner, and his entire family...plus the recipe for amazing gelato...
What's going on here?
I think you know. It's a romance, for goodness' sake, and romances thrive on odd coincidences. And it works, for the most part.
It's my choice for a winter-y, Christmas-y read.
Hildegard of Bingen...Teresa of Ávila...Thomas Aquinas...George Herbert...St John of the Cross...Bashō...St Francis of Assisi...Wislawa Szymborska...Czeslaw Milosz...Octavio Paz...Lao Tzu...Virgil...Dante...King David...Yes, everyone you expected, and more, many more...they are all here with the thoughtfulness, the surprise, the Big-ness, the wonder of the divine.
I don't like series (too many times I've loved book one and read on to find more of that and was disappointed) so it was with great trepidation that I began listening to The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor, #1).
I couldn't resist reading about a Cursed Child, blamed for all the bad things in her world, who is chosen to compete with others to become a member of the Wonder Society (I am completely fascinated with the idea of a Wonder Society; I may start such a group here on Earth).
Book one did not disappoint. Now I'm on the waiting list (very, very long...a good sign) for book two. Not sure if I can wait!
An excellent choice for the first book of the year, I think. Let's bash those misconceptions and out-and-out lies about what leads to our best life with the greatest tool there is, science. And let's start out the year with some lovely new daily routines that will get us in line for creating our best life ever.
Poet Ross Gay is back for more sharing of the (mostly) small and (occasional) big delights of another year of his life, all told in little essays that swing around and wrap and cross each other with hyper-extended prose and footnotes and footnotes to the footnotes with lots of lovely conjunctions and asides, full of charm and wisdom and, of course, full-on delight.
During the pandemic, college student B. Dylan Hollis took a break from his studies toward a musical career and he began to bake.
He had no baking training.
He had no baking experience.
He had no baking equipment.
He just had an idea to try to re-create recipes from the past, from the 1900s through the 1980s.
So he did. And he began to post these recipes on TikTok.
And thus his book, Baking Yesteryear, was formed.
I spent a day going through the book. I saw lots of recipes I remember from those times. Ambrosia. Divinity. Haystacks. I saw lots of recipes that were new-to-me, that I wanted to try, and I wrote these down in my recipe book. Magic Peanut Butter Cookies (only three ingredients). Melting Moments (I think I saw these on an episode of Great British Baking Show). Ricciarelli (Italian cookies). Sequilhos or Meltaway Cookies (from Brazil).
I also saw lots of recipes I would never, ever try:
Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake
Tomato Soup Cake
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Candle Salad
Velveeta Fudge
Pickle Cheesecake
And, the ultimate, I'd-Never-Bake-That-Horror: Spaghetti-O's Jell-O Ring (with Vienna sausages in the center)
What do you think? Do any of these appeal to you? Have you eaten any of these abominations? Do you dare to try?
David Brooks is a human being. And just like all human beings, he wants to connect with people. To do that, he knows we must see others deeply and we must be deeply seen.
This is a book about the things Brooks has learned about how to see others deeply and how to be deeply seen.
Brooks tells a little about one thing he admires about his friend, Jimmy Dorrell: “When Jimmy sees a person, he comes in with the belief that this person is so important that Jesus was willing to die for their sake. As a result, Jimmy is going to greet people with respect and reverence.” He adds that we may be an atheist, an agnostic, a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or something else, but it is this “awareness of the infinite dignity of each person you meet” is a “precondition for seeing people well.”
Brooks encourages us to be Illuminators, someone who illuminates people with a gaze that is respectful, warm, and full of admiration. To do this, he suggests the gaze be tender, receptive, filled with active curiosity and affection, generous, and holistic.
Brooks lists ways to become a better conversationalist: (1) Apply what some experts call the SLANT method: sit up, lean forward, ask questions, nod your head, track the speaker. Pay attention 100%. (2) Listen so actively that “you're practically burning calories.” (3) Stick with the familiar. Find the thing the other person is most attached to. (4) Ask for stories about specific events or experiences and then go further. (5) Don't fear the pause. (5) Loop. Repeat what someone said in order to be sure you are understanding what they are saying. (6) Be a midwife; be there to make the person feel safe, but also prod. (7) Keep the gem statement, the truth underneath the disagreement, at the center. (8) Find the disagreement under the disagreement. (9) Don't be a topper.
In addition, Brooks suggests we ask big questions.
One of Brooks' friends is David Bradley, and he does this neat trick with index cards. When a person presents a problem to Bradley, he asks questions. He begins with three questions: What are your ultimate goals, your skills, and your schedule? Then he ranks the things a person really wants to do on one card and the things the person is actually doing on the other. On a third card, he writes out a strategy for how a person can get Card B to look more like Card A.
If a conversation starts to go south, Brooks knows a way to redeem it. “First, you step back from the conflict, and you try to figure out together what's gone wrong. You break the momentum by asking the other person, ‘How did we get to this tense place?' Then you do something the experts call ‘splitting.' Splitting is when you clarify your own motives by first saying what they are not and then saying what they are. Then you try to reidentify the mutual purpose of the conversation.”
Instead of using the traditional Myers-Briggs test to define one's personality, a better choice is to look at the Big Five traits: extroversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness.
Finally, he sums everything up with this lovely paragraph: “She who only looks inward will find only chaos, and she who looks outward with the eyes of critical judgment will find only flaws. But she who looks with the eyes of compassion and understanding will see complex souls, suffering and soaring, navigating life as best they can.”
For a taste of David Brooks, take a look at his interview with Action for Happiness host Dr. Mark Williamson here.
A UFO-themed wedding held in Roswell, New Mexico amid the UFO Festival.
A less-than-reliable roommate as the potential bride.
An alien abduction.
A hitchhiker who doesn't seem concerned about an abduction.
Eula Mae, who is keen on getting to a casino.
Joseph, driving an RV...sorry, no a Western trail wagon, loaded down with old Western movies.
Lyle, who is quite certain the aliens are here to exterminate us all.
Super fun scifi.
This is an ugly story, and I wish with all my heart that it had never happened and that it wasn't happening right now. It's the story of the American evangelical church, and it's the story of the corruption of that church over the last forty or so years, especially in the last eight years. It's the story of the use of the evangelical church as a political tool by the right, and it explains why many people I love and admire have become vicious scrappers against migrants and Democrats and women and people of color—Why? Because these people I love and admire are hearing these hate-filled opinions from their pastors and the leaders of their churches.
It's an ugly story, and I want everyone I know who has repeated these awful distorted comments to read this book and see where this is coming from. I want them to hear the truth about people they respect and see if their respect holds up after reading this book.
Two girls, Keira and Bianca, are friends. Then they discover that a flag can divide them.
For the Black family, the flag is a symbol of “violence and oppression.” For the white family, the flag is a symbol of “courage and pride.”
The girls visit the Southern Legacy Museum. After the visit, Keira and her family discuss the ways that her family, as Blacks, have suffered from racism. The class discusses what the children saw in the museum, and Bianca is confused about the flag that flies in front of her house. The teacher encourages Bianca to talk to her family about the flag and its meaning.
Then two Black people are shot by three white men. The three men are standing in front of the flag. That flag.
This is a powerful story. It could provoke discussion. It could help people understand each other better.
Stickler LOVES the world. Everything in it. Sticks. Flowers. The sun. Everything. Especially sticks.
And then a...is it an alien from another planet?...arrives and Stickler shows the creature everything he loves, and it's almost like Stickler has a chance to see the world through new eyes.
A new favorite.
Author/illustrator Pedro Martín shares the story of a trip to Mexico his family took when Martín was just a kid. The family has many adventures including a tussle with border guards and a skirmish with a deer, and they pick up Martín's abuelo and the boy learns the stories of his grandfather's life.
Quite a wonderful book.
