daughters – Peaceful Reader

Travel Time

If I were to be able to whisper in President-Elect Joe Biden’s ear or lucky enough to have a working lunch with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris I would ask them to make some changes to the Affordable Care Act to make it more like Bernie’s Health Care For All because while the ACA covers many people and has helped us go in the right direction I just don’t think it’s finished. We need to take it further. Why? Because we have a huge deductible as a middle class family and when we get hit with something our health savings accounts dwindle accordingly. America has such potential and I hope that we are only beginning our true journey toward that; instead of going backward. I listened to a podcast talking about this today as I journeyed home. And this is not to say that America isn’t great already but anything great can always be better. Am I right? Why settle…

I generally flip flop between listening to music on my phone or listening to podcasts. The last few weeks have been filled with a variety of podcasts: Up First from NPR gives me a quick 10 minutes of news every day. I don’t watch news programs ever so this keeps me up on a few major events and we leave it at that. Anything more critical my husband will read me from the newspaper as a good husband should. I also listen to SLJ’s The Yarn and Heavyweight plus I just discovered Teaching Hard History from Teaching Tolerance. I listened to one yesterday and had aenjoyed hearing correct spins on American history. I can’t leave out Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us which always makes me happy.

I spent last night hanging out with Groovy Girl in Iowa City. I felt terribly guilty moving about Iowa because we are such a flaming hot Cheeto for Covid cases. But our plans had been made months ago before our cases surged, we needed some mother/daughter time, and we are both extremely pro-mask. So we picked up Thai food for lunch and ate in the hotel and then we made a quick grocery run so she would have snacks through the next two weeks before she comes home for Thanksgiving. We had a great time cuddling, reading together, watching a couple of things on Netflix (hello New Girl-you still make us so happy) and basically stayed in and away from other people. My hope is that her sophomore year may be filled with the joys of college as it’s meant to be. I don’t want to get used to this as a new norm.

The two cool bookstores in town are both open only for curbside pickup so we couldn’t wander any exciting aisles for books, which we do totally understand and appreciate yet scratch our heads in confusion as people stream to sorority or fraternity house functions, and the bars-all open! The idea is to get over this not just live with it but I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir. Take care of yourselves, take care of your people, and be kind.

Happy Birthday Baby!

(Upside down in Maryland)

(In Virginia)

My youngest child turns 17 years old tomorrow! I truly can’t believe it. This is her senior year and after that she will fly the coop and I’ll have to find new things to do with my time. I’ve been chasing after her for so many years I won’t know what to do with myself. I mean I will but it just feels so lonesome to contemplate.

(in Central Park)

She has always been full of positive energy with a quick laugh. She also can be brutally hard on herself especially when it comes to her dancing skills. She loves to be in motion, dancing, yet she pushes herself and still never feels like she gets to where she wants to be. I say let it go and enjoy the beauty that is you. She gets a little tired of my ability to spin everything to the positive saccharine. level. Each and every one of us has our quirks and at some point in our lives it’s best just to play to your strengths and let go of what isn’t working. I wish I could give her a boost of real confidence for her birthday gift so that she would truly believe in her abilities and help her move forward when things are rough. I think it has to do with developing resilience. We could all use a little dose of that right now in our world- that and patience. And those skills take time to develop…

Groovy Girl was a beautiful baby and she is a stunning young woman; I love snuggling with her at any time of the day. She has always loved baking and creating in the kitchen and now her “concoctions” are delicious Indian dinners that we can devour together. She is thoughtful and insightful, a champion for all kinds of inclusive causes.

(Look at her beautiful tiny face)

Happy birthday my dear little one! You are greatly loved and appreciated.

How is it August already?

This summer is flying by…

Even when I was a young school girl I knew that as soon as August rolled around it wouldn’t be long before school started again. I love summer. I like to have equal time to relax and get things done in a very balanced summer way. This summer I’ve not had as much downtime as I would have liked. The one day I had time to lay in the hammock and read I broke the hammock trying to get Ruby the dog in with me! Luckily the crash was soft as the tree trunk timbered slowly down and didn’t hit me.

I spent my birthday weekend with Groovy Girl, her BFF Katy and Katy’s mom, Beth in St. Charles, IA for Hinterland Music Festival. We saw Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, The Wood Brothers, Jade Bird, Maggie Rogers, and St Paul and the Broken Bones just to literally name a few. I had so much fun listening to music under the sun and the moon.

(Hozier)

We camped and thankfully it didn’t rain. Camping in the rain is just not fun yet the weekend was super sunny and we all about suffered from heat stroke. Sunday afternoon we took a little break and headed into Winterset for a little lunch and a lot of air conditioning. We found a wonderful Mexican restaurant open and then found the Winterset Cidery where we relaxed with a flight of delicious ciders and a game of cards with the girls. Once we soaked up enough cool air we headed back to the festival to hear the last 4 musical acts. Maggie and Brandi were the last two singers and they were both amazing performers. Brandi is a natural storyteller and I love how she openly shares about her family.

I’ve had two teacher-librarian meetings this week and have a bunch of projects to work on before school begins. I’m going to have to cut out my summer naps from now on I guess. I still have a lot of books on my to-read stack (but really – who am I kidding-that stack grows more than it dwindles!)

Happy last weeks of summer..

Anne Ylvisaker and The Book Club

Author Anne Ylvisaker

I was the host of our book club last night and we had a a fantastic time. Through a round of chance encounters (one of our members worked with Anne’s husband in Cedar Rapids a few years back) and after I’d read and loved Little Klein we cooked up a plan to read a few of her books and see if she would skype with us. We’re so happy she agreed.

Ylvisaker grew up in Minnesota; in the St. Paul area, her father was a minister and she spent time in Iowa as an adult as well. All three of her fiction books take place in these Midwest settings. She had a lot of good stories to tell; some about her family and some about her writing process. I particularly loved this one…her writing group at one time gathered words and shared them with each other; using them to write with that week. She could pick them out of Little Klein and demonstrated how they raised the story up. She also shared many of the personal family stories that have became part of her books.

It was one of the best book club experiences we’ve had and it had nothing to do with the delicious food or the wine. It was the lively conversation we had with her and the discussion we had after we hung up the camera.
I’m a huge fan of hers and hope you will take time to read any of her fiction books for fun.

I read Dear Papa recently (2002) a wonderful elementary/middle grade fiction that shares the letters Isabelle writes to her deceased father and other family members as she deals with her grief and her mother’s eventual remarriage. The book is filled with daily joys and disappointments…just like real life. It takes place in Minnesota around the second World War.
Here’s a snippet:

“Dear Papa, Jan. 1, 1944 It’s a brand-new year. I have made some resolutions: Help the first time Mama asks. Hang up my clothes before bed. Go to church with a willing heart. Keep our family together. Your daughter,Isabelle, nine and a half today” (15)

I also read her latest book, The Luck of the Buttons (2011) about a young Iowa girl, Tugs Buttons, who is cursed with an unlucky family. Tugs changes her stars as she wins a three-legged race, an essay contest and a raffle all at the 4th of July celebration. She suffers some hard times but in the end she is able to show her family sometimes you got to make your own luck happen. Tugs is another positive young heroine!
Another snippet to share:

“Tugs shrugged into yesterday’s clothes, which still lay in a heap on the floor, slipped past Granny, who was writing a letter at the kitchen table, and collected five pennies from her mother on her way out the door. Wednesday mornings were Granddaddy Ike’s checkers mornings. and in the summer, Tugs was in charge of walking him from his house to Al and Irene’s Luncheonette…”(60)

We found out she has two more books in the works about this Button family and the next one up is Button Down, featuring Tugs’ cousin, Ned. Read my review of Little Klein here, which features an adorable boy and a dog combo that will make you smile to the heavens.

There was a grand moment for me when Ylvisaker recognized the “Peaceful Reader” name and asked if we were not on twitter together…I was over-the-moon-thrilled!

Thank you to Anne for taking time out of her busy schedule (her children had just returned home for the holidays) to talk with our group and to all authors who make themselves available to us, their adoring readers.
Thank you to my book club friends for willingly taking this leap of faith with me and Kay!
(now I’m thinking why didn’t I ask her for a preview copy of Button Down…silly me)
Enjoy.

Girl Power picture books

Groovy Girl read all these picture books the first two days we had the bag home from the library. Me, well, it has taken me over two weeks to read all of them and I had to renew them once in order to write about a few of them.

1. The Queen of France by Tim Wadham, ill. by Kady Macdonald Denton (2011); Rose wakes up and “feels royal” so she plays dress up and goes to look for her mother dressed regally. Using her imagination her parents play along as Rose changes from the queen to Rose and back again. A seemingly simple tale of love and acceptance, Rose demonstrates one can be a girl with many sides. Denton draws Rose with a Ramona-like haircut in amazing watercolor illustrations. Click here for an interview with Tim Wadham. Hooray for first time author Wadham, a fellow librarian, with this picture book.

2. Not All Princesses Dress In Pink by the mother/daughter writers Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple; ill. by Anne-Sophie Languestin (2010); Similar message in this one with quirky digital illustrations. Each page shares how princesses can play soccer, baseball, wrestle with a dog, dance in the rain, break their nails while planting a garden of pumpkins (of course), and my favorite, escape a stony tower using all their cool girl power, using a ladder like monkey bars. I like Denton’s illustrations better but the message of this one is equally strong: whatever you choose to be you can still wear your sparkly crown!

Happy Sunday and wear your crown with pride!

River House; A Memoir by Sarahlee Lawrence

I picked this book up from the public library a few weeks ago and enjoyed reading Sarahlee’s story. At the start Sarahlee is in Peru preparing to raft a river with her friend Marco. She’s always enjoyed the water, taking after her father in this regard, although his first love is the ocean. Sarahlee applied for and received a grant right out of college allowing her to travel for a year to a variety of different rivers and she loves it but as she is running the rivers she begins to miss home. She gets a letter from her dad that a family friend, Geraldine, has died and her dad is saving her woodstove for the time when Sarahlee builds her own home. She also reads Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Waldo as she is traveling, which creates a longing for land as well.

Her river images and her athleticism at manning the boats is an incredible part of her story but eventually she winds her way to Oregon and talks her dad into building a log home with her. There is a lot of family history to understand; how her mother has always lived in this part of Central Oregon and is passionate about horses, how her father grew up on the beaches of California, surfing day in and day out and how all three of them are hearty, strong and determined.

It is always difficult to move home after flying free for a few years of college but Sarahlee comes happily home, moves back into her old room and begins 12-15 hour work days, helping her dad with ranch chores and then planning, laying the groundwork and building her log home. It’s exhausting and at times they struggle with all they try to juggle as a family. She finds out a few personal things about her father and how he has and continues to struggle with daily life on the ranch. Their relationship as a family was interesting but I prefered the interactions between her and her mother. Her mother was low-key and calm; not filled with such frenetic energy.

I was drawn to this memoir because of the father/daughter relationship and Sarahlee and her father’s ties are strong but volatile, and eventually they learn to accept what is good about the other but it is a long journey together. I liked that Sarahlee strived to be intuned to nature, thinking about the placement of her home and how she cared about the earth around her. What bogged me down was all the log cabin building lingo…I’m not a builder and I understand about as much as how Lincoln Logs notch together. It was interesting but I found myself skimming some of the paragraphs about the house going up and the logs notching together just so. I did fully understand how complicated and delicate of an operation it was.

Checking out her website I discovered that she’s begun an organic vegetable farm and I would love to read more about this project. I’ve already recommended this book to several very outdoorsy friends and family as well as to other members of my Good Spirits Book Club. Be forewarned; the book contains swearing and a lot of references to her father’s pot smoking and drinking habits.

Find the author here –Sarahlee Lawrence.

Wordless Wednesday-Marc Brown Photo Op!

Groovy Girl and author/illustrator Marc Brown!

Seizing the moment she just went up and started a conversation with him while he was putting his computer away.

She Looks Just Like You! (Oh I hear that all the time!)

I remember the days when I had time at work or home to pull together extra minutes to write a book review. Hah! We are experiencing a crazy schedule and I have to pick and choose what I can get done.

I did manage to finish reading Peter and the Shadow Thieves tonight after our church dinner celebrating Haitian culture. I simply came home, laid down on the sofa and read. I wanted it finished for my 5th grade book club meeting at school, which meets today, and no way did I want to listen to 5 students discuss the ending without having my own insight. Now I can shout it from the mountain top-Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson wrote an a thrilling sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers. I wonder what Peter and the Secret of Rundoon is like….hmmm….must add to list.

But I digress because today I’m actually here to tell you about She Looks Just Like You; A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood(2010) by Amie Klempnauer Miller. This is a “hot button” topic right now and one that I am firmly for-and I will gladly shout this from the mountain top as well- people should be able to love who they want.*

The description of Amie falling in love with Jane while they were both at a Midwestern college could mirror my own love story. I’m probably preaching to the choir but my wish would be if just one person who is against gay marriage read this book with an open mind and had a change of heart would be mo. It’s about people and love and justice. I feel without a doubt that this is the Civil Rights struggle of the 21st Century. Same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexuals, to marry, foster and adopt children and to share health care. Amie explains how frustrating it was to have to go to court to adopt her daughter.

Amie and Jane’s love story and their decision to become parents after an 18 year relationship is personal, heart-warming and I recommend this book for the story it shares. Okay, for her first book she does overwrite a bit-lengthy discussions and overly descriptive at times, but it is her retelling. Once Hannah is born the book made me laugh and cry because parenthood is funny and tragic all at once.

Nursing, late night trips to the doctor, over guessing every dang decision, worry added to more worry is what encompasses the second half of the book and that is the dream/nightmare most parents also experience. It brought back my nursing joys and baby love. I nursed and hated weaning Groovy Girl. Yet I was the one who wanted to wean her because she was old enough to ask for it on demand and Spring Break and summer loomed ahead and I knew I just couldn’t take it anymore. Ahhh, the irony of it all!

The difficult part about reading this book is “watching” Amie and Jane’s relationship crumble as they find their new roles as mom and mamma much more difficult than any parenting manuel can ever express. Thank you to Amie for writing a book that is honest about how hard it can be for anyone to be sleep-deprived, work full-time, try to write, try to placate your partner all while the child is wailing-it’s painful but well-told.

My favorite movie this year was The Kid’s Are All Right, which has a similar theme of a longtime lesbian couple (Benning and Moore) with children and the children choose to meet their sperm donor father. It is realistic and hilarious!

Amie Klempnaer Miller’s website and blog-keep up with the family!

A random quote:

“Pregnancy slaps you in the face with the knowledge that much of who we are is defined by our bodies. On a daily basis, Jane is becoming less self-sufficient. Her growing stomach limits the clothes she can wear, the things she can reach, and the spaces she can fit into. Hormones course through her veins like hallucinogenic drugs, making her drop things, forget what she is saying in the middle of a sentence, and gag whenever she tries to brush her teeth. Her body is hot and tired and beginning to swell. And now she is surrounded by a room full of even hotter, more exhausted, and more swollen women, like perverse Ghosts of Christmas Future, presenting vision upon vision of what she will become.” (80)

Other thoughts:
Emily reviews it at What All the Cool Kids Are Reading…

I found my copy on the new shelf at my local library!

*disclaimer-understand this to mean I don’t consider small children or young adult children to be love interest candidates for adults. I’ve heard this argument before and clearly I know the difference between consenting adults who like each other or fall in love. Often we don’t pick who we fall in love with-it happens. I happened to have fallen in love with a tall, brown-haired man who slurps his cereal and drives with his knee. I still love him and find him incredibly sexy most of the time!

Do you feel GLBT can be good parents/partners? Let me know in the comment section…

My Abandonment

by Peter Rock

(2009)

I finished it yesterday which gave me some time to knit and start the third book I brought on our trip to Oberlin. My new book is A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce. I am reading it for my long distance book club and it is on my reading from my own shelves challenge, which I am wayyyy behind on.

My Abandonment is still twisting around in my brain, which I always take to mean well-written-the characters are often still poking me. I do think this is a literary story but I am left with questions.

Good Reads Synopsis:

A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, the enormous nature preserve in Portland,Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week, they go to the city to buy groceries, attend church, and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover

them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed Caroline’s narrator voice and the in-the-present-moment telling of this tale. The father obviously has had trouble fitting back into society after his soldier experience. He is paranoid and has taught his daughter how to stay below the radar in any given situation. I’m torn as to whether this is really his daughter. Rock has left it up to the reader to decide and I feel like I’ve fallen into a paranoid trap by thinking automatically that she has been kidnapped. Why do we assume the worst? It is perfectly logical that a father, having experienced war at it’s worst, would lose his daughter to a foster situation but then still want her back. When the police do pick them up they must run her picture, right? If she truly were a kidnapped child wouldn’t it show up then.

Beyond these questions my heart felt a deep sadness for Caroline. She wants a friend and liked thinking about a regular life (riding a bike is a big one) she misses out on making choices for herself. I do like how she is changing her path by the book’s end but she will always be on the perimeter, always having a difficult time forming friendships and trusting. I will recommend this book, can’t wait to hear what my book club has to say about it tomorrown night and would love to know other’s thoughts on whether this is her father or not?? Read it.