To Read Is To Fly

 

No offense to my human email contacts, but Wowbray from the Hutchinson Public Library is probably my favorite Wednesday in-box entry.

Wowbray gives thumbnail glimpses of new books coming to the Hutchinson Public Library and offers a chance to put them "on hold." It's a good day when a favorite author has a new book coming to the library.

Here's how Wowbray describes itself:

Free Alerts about Your Library's Newest Books, Movies & Music!

✓ Receive free weekly email alerts or RSS

✓ Discover the latest books, DVDs and CDs

✓ Reserve bestsellers instantly

✓ Enjoy the early notification

✓ Completely private - 100% spam-free

✓ Wildly convenient - view it from home

 

My first "click" is always "Mysteries and Thrillers." After I've perused and clicked my way through that list, I go to "Literature and Fiction." I usually take a quick glance at "Romance," though unless it's a go-to author in that genre, I usually don't do a lot of reserves.

It was a sad day on Wednesday, January 4: My Wowbray didn't show any new books in any of those categories. 

"Oh woe is me! Oh lack-a-day!" In other words, I was sad I couldn't add to my ever-burgeoning "hold" list. (That's a family joke. That phrase was my most memorable line from Skyline High School's play back in the mid-1970s. I don't remember the name of the play, but I remember the line and have thrown it out repeatedly through the years.)

There were a few new additions coming to the Hutchinson library's shelves, but none in my usual categories and none had me signing up. 

As I've mentioned before, libraries are among my favorite places. Just like I can't go to Stafford without making a stop at the local grocery store, I can't go to Hutchinson without a trip to the library. Borrowing from the library keeps me out of the poor house. I read 101 books last year. Imagine the impact on my checkbook if I were purchasing them all from a bookstore.

On the same week that Wowbray let me down, another email from Inspiring Quotes arrived in my in-box. Its subject line read: To Read Is to Fly: 25 Quotes about the Wonder of Reading." (Honestly, I don't remember signing up to receive Inspiring Quotes. But I do love quotes, and the subject lines often capture my attention. So, of course, I clicked.)

I loved many of the quotes. (Click on the link above to see them all.) Here's one from Walt Disney:

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main… and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.

— Walt Disney

And from Jackie Kennedy:

There are many little ways to enlarge your world.  Love of books is the best of all.

— Jacqueline Kennedy 

During the past year, I've recommended a few books to blog post readers. As I've said before, I always find it a little risky to recommend books to others. We all have wildly different tastes. I may love a book, but that doesn't guarantee that you will, too. When Jill or my sister, Lisa, recommend a book, I am usually fairly confident that I'll like it. We've been trading books ideas long enough that each knows what the other likes.

Sometimes, a reader may find the content offensive. I may not always agree with every decision made by a literary character either. But sometimes thinking about topics in new ways expands our ideas. It may open an avenue to a real-life discussion or connection. I find value in that, too.

So, with that caveat in mind, I have a few books to suggest. They were among my favorites in 2022.

This book was inspired by a true story from Depression-era America. In 1938, two giraffes survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. West with Giraffes tells the story of their journey from the eastern seaboard to the San Diego Zoo with their truck driver, Woodrow Wilson Nickel, and an accompanying cast of characters. In the book, Woodrow, now age 105, tells their story - part adventure, part love story, part history. I'm not the biggest animal lover in the world, so I wouldn't necessarily have gravitated toward this book. However, I saw it recommended on numerous book lovers' sites. I'm glad I added it to my "hold" list at the library. 

***

Same message as above on this book: I held out for awhile on this book, even though I'd seen it recommended multiple times. But I really couldn't imagine a book partially narrated by an octopus. However, this New York Times bestseller proved me wrong yet again. 

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift as a custodian at the Sowell Bay Aquarium in Puget Sound. She forms an unlikely friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who lives there. Marcellus eventually helps Tova uncover the truth about the mysterious long-ago disappearance of her 18-year-old son, Erik. She also connects with a young man new to the city and to work at the aquarium. Amazon describes the book this way: Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

***

The cover of this book is misleading. It looks like a romance. And while there's some romance involved, it's more about life for a strong woman in the early 1960s. Chemist Elizabeth Zott is the only woman among an all-male team at Hastings Research Institute. Her striving for equality in the workplace is not well-received among most colleagues. Forced out of the lab, she uses her love of chemistry in a very different way - as the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. While she shares recipes, she also subtly urges women to change the status quo.  And, it's funny!

***

A Quiet Life follows three people dealing with loss: a man who mourns his wife, a daughter who loses her father and a young mom whose daughter is abducted. As their lives intersect, all of them find a way to move forward with a little help from each other. The book celebrates the way we connect as humans during times of pain and uncertainty. 

I plan to request Joella's other book, A Little Hope, from interlibrary loan at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford. 

***

OK: This is one of those books that some people aren't going to like because of the subject matter. I am a Jodi Picoult fan. I've only quit reading one of her books. My parents never censored my books - even as a child. I believe reading should help you open your mind to new ideas and help you look at the world in a way you may not have considered before. OK: You've been warned.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She moved back to her New Hampshire hometown, living in the house where she grew up and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. High schooler Lily Campanello is also starting over with her mother in the same New Hampshire town. 

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Amazon says: Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

***

Molly Gray struggles with social skills and misreads others. Her grandmother helped her navigate the world, but now 25-year-old Molly is on her own. Even though being a maid is not everyone's dream job, Molly finds comfort in the routines and procedures that make her good at her job at the Regency Grand Hotel. A murder happens in one of the Regency's hotel rooms, and Molly's unusual mannerisms have the police considering her as No. 1 suspect. With a little help from her friends, can she convince the police that she's not the one they're looking for? Amazon says: A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

*** 

In a Kim's County Line blog post on September 20, 2022, I suggested some other books. They still rise to the top of my list in 2022. They include The Measure by Nikki Erlick; The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley; and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

To read is to fly: It is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience, and the fruits of many inquiries.

— A.C. Grayling, philosopher and author

For the record, I am also a big fan of the Nora Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford. I'll have more on it another day.

Pay Attention: Be Astonished

The first sunrise of 2023 - 7:34 AM, January 1, 2023

Instructions for living a life: 

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

Poet Mary Oliver

 

Mary Oliver likely didn't have a lot in common with me. During her life, she won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. I sometimes write in verse for my granddaughters, but I'm well aware I won't be collecting prestigious awards for those rhyming verses - or for anything else I write, for that matter. No National Book Award for me either.

Even though she died at the age of 83 in 2019, her poems and observations about life keep getting shared in memes and other social media posts. She grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, not on the plains of Kansas. 

But as we begin the new year, I am still drawn to her observations about life and how to live it. The city girl loved nature like this country girl. Her "Instructions for living a life" came up on Facebook as we turned the calendar page from 2022 to 2023.

For several years, I've taken photos of the last sunset of a year and then the first sunrise of the new year.  Sometimes, the skies are spectacular. Sometimes, they are not. This year was a little bit of both. 

December 31st's sunrise had pretty colors, but not a lot of drama. Because of the sun's position in the winter sky, I decided to use the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op for my farewell to 2022 sunset shot. It's as much a part of my "commuting" life as the Brooklyn Bridge is to New Yorkers.

At first, my "chauffeur" drove down the co-op's driveway, trying to get me in a position that the sun was setting between our version of city skyscrapers. That didn't work, so I settled for it landing underneath an auger.

Then we went back to the Zenith Road for a wider angle.

I've taken more dynamic and dramatic photos of the Zenith elevator through the years. But there's a simple beauty in the quiet colors of the setting sun, too. As the sun set on 2022, the co-op seemed a fitting place to say goodbye to a year when we retired from active farming. 

On the way home, we stopped for a snapshot of one of the many deer we have to avoid at dusk and dawn on our Zenith Road journeys.

The next morning, we drove down to my sunrise tree, just a half mile south of our house. With a little more cloud cover, 2023 dawned with a little more drama than the exit of 2022.

With the road illumined by our headlights as we first arrived.

I don't think I'd ever tried a panorama of the view from my sunrise tree. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

In other writings, Mary Oliver said that “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” In her essay "Teach The Children," she reminded us that contemplation of nature’s small wonders and life's simplest things have the power to change us in the deepest ways. In paying attention to our surroundings, we can invite joy to our lives and avoid letting our negative thoughts spiral. She reminds us we have a choice: We can let the world delight us, rather than let it beat us down.

It's a good reminder for me as a new year begins. It may not seem likely to combine quotes from a Pulitzer Prize winning poet with a zany actor. But I also liked a quote from comedian Jim Carrey that ended up in the email in box earlier this week.

I feel that we're all lighthouses, and my job is to shine my light as brightly as I can in the darkness.

Jim Carrey

 

Do you ever feel like God is trying to get your attention? My email devotional from The Upper Room continued the theme:

  

A Time to Think

I believe God embedded the miraculous in the ordinary, and it is our task to discover it and celebrate it.

Kent Nerburn

That's a good goal for 2023, don't you think?

***

On New Year's Eve, we also discovered this message on our dirt road from an unknown correspondent. I posted it to Facebook. So far, no one has claimed authorship, though everyone I've asked wished it had been their idea.

 

 

May it be true for you, too!

 

 

Holiday Traditions

You don't have to be famous to have a stable of paparazzi clicking away trying to capture the perfect shot. 

My mom's birthday and our family's Christmas Eve gathering have a good share of "Smile!" "Look this way!" and "Wait! Just one more!"

This was the first year since 2019 that all 32 of us were together. Covid canceled the whole affair in 2020. My family was absent last year, also due to Covid. So it was even sweeter to be together this year. 

My mom celebrated her 87th birthday on December 24.  Ever since the grandchildren were little, we've been taking a photo of the birthday girl with the troops.The first one with all seven of the grandchildren was in 1994.

From left: Abby, Brian, Blake, Mom holding Madison, Jill, Brent & Paige

The grandchildren shot is easier these days. They can even look the same direction. 

Now, my parents' 10 great-grandchildren are the little kids in the Christmas/birthday photos. But that gets easier every year, too.

December 24, 2022: Front row: Pratt, Mom, Dad, Clara and Cole. Back row: Benson, Holte, Braden, Neelly, Beau, Brooke & Kinley

 

Here was the 2017 version of the great-grandchild shot. See? I told you it was easier these days.

A few years ago, someone suggested an "outlaw" photo. So they got in on the photos this year, too. 

This was the entire gathering - minus my niece, Madison, who took the photo. 

Several years ago, we moved the evening meal to the shed to accommodate the crowd. I'm thankful to my brother and his wife, Kent & Suzanne, for the work they do to make it possible. 

It was good to be together.

We had our immediate family Christmas on Friday. The Ladds came a day earlier than expected to avoid the worst of the weather. While Jill and Eric worked remotely on Thursday, we still found some things to do. 

The girls also helped me make our traditional Oreo Cheesecake for our Christmas dessert, but I missed getting photos of that. 

It was a very Merry Christmas! 

 

Christmas Greetings from Our House to Yours

  

I know that Christmas card letters have their share of detractors. But, I love getting cards and letters from people at this time of year. Even in this electronic communication age, I send quite a few Christmas cards. It's been a way for me to keep in touch of childhood friends and college buddies, along with sending greetings to landlords and family members across the U.S. and seasoning's greetings to neighbors. It seems we get fewer in return each year. I get it: We connect via social media. And the price of stamps continues to climb. Still, I love Christmas cards.

I've been involved in Christmas photo cards for most of my life. It's a family tradition. I starred in my very first one in 1957, as a 6-month-old baby.

By the time 1958 rolled around, I was already sharing space with my sister, Lisa, on the annual missive from Bob and Janis.

Though my brother, Kent, was born in December 1966, he didn't make the Christmas card until 1967. This is the first photo card with all my siblings. I would have been 10, Lisa, 9, Darci, 6 and Kent was 1.

My parents included their children on the family Christmas card until we graduated from college. Randy and I sent our first photo card in 1981, the year we were married.

We didn't send another photo card until 1985, the year Jill was born. It was only natural, I suppose, that we continued the tradition with our own children.

Christmas Card Photo - Jill - 1985

We sent one with the three of us in 1986, when Jill was 15 months old. After that, I usually stayed on the other side of the camera and just included the kids. (When you're the one doing the work, you get the most votes.)

Christmas Card Photo - 1986

The first one with Brent was in 1988. Brent would have been about 7 months and Jill was 3.

Christmas Card Photo - 1988

Back when Jill and Brent were little, this annual attempt was captured on film. And you weren't sure what you'd gotten until the film was developed. I have rolls and rolls of film chronicling the misadventures of getting two little kids to look their best in the same frame. The move to digital photography makes the storage problem easier - though it can't help everyone look great in every frame.

This year, we had the opportunity for several rounds of family photos, including Brent's and Susan's wedding in May and our farm machinery sale in August. Our retirement trip to National Parks also made the cut for the annual photo card with a snapshot taken by a Grand Canyon park ranger. 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Peace on earth, good will toward all.

The Music of the Season

 

There's just something about Christmas music that helps set the mood. Whether it's practicing the piano solos I play for church service preludes myself or singing "Joy to the World!" with people from several different churches during a community Christmas service, it just wouldn't be the same without the music of the season.

This month has been rich in music of all types - from school programs to church to professional musicians. And it's made my month "harmonious" - so to speak. 

Our first concert was at Wichita's Orpheum Theater. It featured pianist Jim Brickman with father-daughter singing duo, Mat and Savanna Shaw. The Shaws began recording videos during the pandemic, and I'm a big fan. I hate to admit it, but I was less familiar with Jim Brickman, though he's had a long and storied career as a solo pianist. But the whole thing concert was great. (They sang the song on the video above during the Wichita concert. However, I was a good girl and didn't record or take photos during the concert since the audience was asked to resist that urge. Still, I wanted to give you a taste of what we enjoyed that night. I love the message of the song!)

I did take the photo of the piano before the concert ever started, and I love the black and white version.

The other professional concert was a last-minute addition to my schedule, thanks to my friend and PEO sister, Okema, who had an extra ticket to The Texas Tenors. 

That concert was last Saturday night at the Fox Theater in Hutchinson. 

And surprise! Her tickets were on the third row. 

Before the concert began, the general manager gave the go-ahead for photos, though he said audio and video recordings were prohibited. These three classically-trained tenors were fantastic. I'd seen them on television several times, but I'd never attended a concert in person.

Again, the lighting for the show added to the beauty of the music.  Their pianist was phenomenal, too. (That level of talent kind of makes this amateur a little "green" with envy - though I suppose green is an appropriate color for the season).

I promise I didn't record it myself, but I found their same rendition of "O Holy Night!" on YouTube.

 

But it doesn't have to be professional musicians to get me in the mood for Christmas. We also got to go to Kinley's and Brooke's school music concerts. 

 Brooke's was first up. There were four classrooms of second graders on stage that evening.

Brooke had a speaking part and did a great job.

Kinley's fifth grade music concert was the following night. In their school district, fifth graders must choose one of three options: choir, band or orchestra. I was surprised at how few chose choir, but Kinley was one of them.

She played the jingle bells in one song.

 And this was a small video clip from a crowd-pleasing song. 

Grandma had to have a photo of Kinley and Summer at home before we left for the concert.

And Kinley went along with a photo on stage after the concert, too. How'd she get to be so grown-up looking?

It's been a wonderful month of music - and it's not over yet!

 ***

I seem to have taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging. I had several homemade Christmas presents that took a lot of time and effort. I don't feel all that retired, since I continue to complete my weekday KFRM radio reports and devote a lot of volunteer hours to the church and other community ventures. So blogging fell by the wayside for a bit. As my Facebook memories have surfaced this month, I've also noticed a lot of cattle moving and feeding blog posts. I am thankful that I'm retired from the feed truck with wind chills forecast at well-below zero later this week!