My Two Blessings

My personal goal in 2017 is to read my own books while working on the Birthstone Bookology challenge which may take more than the year to complete. We'll see how it goes.  In particular, my dusty print books that have been lingering on my shelves. They are all quite sad and have been loudly calling my name with each passing day. I also have a few ebooks that are aging away. However my goal is to read more print books this year.   Maybe this year I'll do a better job of keeping track of what I read and complete my own 52 Bingo challenge.  *grin*    On the shelf  Alexandria Link (#1) - Steve Berry  Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway Blinding - Mircea Cartarescu Daughter of Time  - Josephine Tey Devlin Diary -  Christie Phillips From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  - Stieg Larson Great Weaver of Kashmir - Halldor Laxness Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Neffennegger  In the Shadow of Young Gir...

Birthstone Bookology Reading Adventure   Inspiration struck me a few days ago while working on themes and authors flavors for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge.   Something that would spice up the old A to Z alphabet or spelling out the months.  The Birthstone Bookology Reading Adventure will take me around the world and through different time periods from the ancients to the present. Plus there are a variety of directions this challenge can go with exploring the myths and lore, different time periods and countries where the stones are found, as well as reading books spelling out the stones.  The possibilities are limitless and ripe with rabbit trails.  I'm going to keep an open mind, use my imagination and see where it takes me.  Join me on Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks and have fun exploring the world.   Possibilities One book per letter in the birthstone of the month. The birthstone name in the title. The color o...

2016 Reading Wrap Up! How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?  Or did you get caught up in reading and forget to keep?     2016 turned out to be a stressful year for a variety of reasons which means my goals went out the window and I escaped into comfort reads, sticking with favorite authors.    So I ended up rereading quite a few and didn't keep track of how many.  However  after perusing my shelves, both physical and virtual, recreated my reading year and discovered I have read 101 books.  What fun! What memories!    I discovered a few books lost in the shelves to read for next year.  They keep having babies.  Derailed by rabbit trails!  Back to the subject at hand. Statistics wise: 101 Books 49 authors 11 are new to me 34 female 36 whole series or part of series 49 paranormal and urban fantasy with a couple dystopian thrown in for good measure. The remainder a...

J.D. Robb's Brotherhood in Death  I am hooked on J.D. Robb   (aka Nora Roberts)and her  In Death series.  She is the one author I pre-order all her books and read them over and over again.  Yes, I've read the whole In Death series three times, plus listened to the audiobooks once. I'm currently on a 2nd go round of listening to them in the car while going to and fro. I learn something new with each read or listen.    I still consider myself a newbie writer since I discovered the joy about 10 years ago.  Around the same time, a friend suggested I read one of Nora's books from her McGregor series and I've been hooked ever since.  I studied how she handled all the elements from the dialogue to point of view to description.   And that's how I feel in love with Eve and Roark and the whole cast of characters from In Death.   No she doesn't hit it out of the ballpark with every story, but that doesn't stop me from reading every...

Zanzibar  Zanzibar hopped into the car and headed up the coast.  Yesterday he’d been fired, for nothing really, he told himself.  X’rays revealed a tumor so he used it as an excuse for his behavior.  Winding down the lonely road, he smiled and thought of Clover, the dunderheaded dog behind the factory.  Very stupid, but oh so brave.  Undoubtedly he should have taken the dog, but they kicked him out fast, only gave him time to clear his locker.  Trash talk, that was all.   Seriously, why had Blakely looked so appalled?   Really, who takes jokes literately? Quite the moron and he hadn’t been the only one.  Proud of his little ditties and songs, Zan had made a poster and hung it in the break room.  Oops!  No way he could have known Blakely or Singleton had minorities in their families.  Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut, but he’d never been too good with that.  Lazy, his dad said, too lazy to think, to...

Proust invokes the Past  “Taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remained poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.”  ~Marcel Proust  It’s on the tip of my tongue, both physically, mentally and emotionally.  A taste, a scent, that takes me back. But back to where?  A fleeting memory of time past. So amazing how smells and flavors catch me unaware, make me stop and reflect.  There have been many times over the years, a scent wafts past my nose and I’m taken back to high school, or an old house, a day on the lake, or a moment of grief. Honeysuckle takes me back to my first home in Texas and sipping on a honeysuckle bush outside a friend’s house.  I can see our block, our neighbors, all long forgotten, ...

Being Your Mother By  Barbara Cage  Being your Mother means that I have had the opportunity to experience loving someone more than I love myself. I have learned what it's like to experience joy and pain through someone else's life. It has brought me pride and joy; your accomplishments touch me and thrill me like no one else's can. It has brought me a few tears and heartaches at times, but it has taught me hope and patience. It has shown me the depth, strength, and power of love. Being your mother hasn't always been easy, and I'm sure I've said or done things that have hurt or confused you. But no one has ever made me as satisfied as you do just by being happy. No one has made me as proud as you do just by living up to your responsibilities. No one's smile has ever warmed my heart like yours does; no one's laughter fills my heart with delight as quickly as yours can. No ...

Trickery with X  for  National Poetry Month X-rays and xacto knives No, let's not go there. X-factor, No, I don't watch that either. Xenophobia Nope, none of that.  Xenogenesis Nah, my son looks like both of us. Although my three sisters and I all have different hair color. No one believed we had the same mother and father. Xenomorphic,  Lots of odd rocks in our collection. Xanth, I did love Piers Anthony's imagery world  When I was a teen. Xavier Cugat, He was married to the cuchi cuchi babe. Charo for those too young to remember. X  Beware the big bold x of the railroad crossing. Don't try to beat the train. Xeroxes to Xylographs modern to the past.  Time for me to make my exit, since I find that I'm quite perplexed. 

I've been derailed by nonfiction. Would never have believed it.  Me, who only reads fiction and likes to escape into a book has embraced nonfiction.  I knew absolutely nothing about flash fiction or flash non fiction before I started taking courses at WVU.  First I read Dinty Moore's Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Flash Fiction which led me to the Field Guide for Writing Flash Non Fiction I’m intrigued by Moore’s history of flash non fiction.  It’s renewed my interest for reading Montaigne’s Essays which has been languishing in my stacks. It occasionally yells ‘read me, read me’ and I say, ‘okay in a few.’   I’m fascinated by all the rabbit trails, authors and essays and magazines to read and absorb.  “Bernard Cooper offers perhaps the first attempt to define the brief essay form...To paraphrase Cooper, then, the brief essay form is discrete, sharply focused, and must be held up, studied like a small tableau, to review the secrets of human...

Friday Flash  Night Road  Decided to revisit Oulipos today and share my experiment utilizing Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken which turned out to be a big failure. I tried the N + 7 route which is replace the major nouns with another noun which is the 7 th one below it, in the dictionary.  However the first line ending up being  Two robbers diverged in a women.  After I stopped laughing and got over my hot flash, tried a few variations but it just wasn’t working.  Then I got the bright idea to take book titles and transform them into a story, but got as far as a weird poem.  Which is below for your viewing  pleasure.  On the Night Road  Death Comes Brightly Burning Across the Endless River On the Night Road. Dark Shadows  In the Woods Scream for Me, On the Night Road. Flashback Phantom Rainwater Dark Harbor. The Door Within All Through The Night Vanished A World I ...

Josephine Wall's Fairy Bubbles Universe Under the vast dark sky Unity binds the heavens Unusual pockets of stars Unlocking the black Underneath it all Understanding bursts our imagination Unlimited in potential Unabashed beauty Unique minds unspoiled

April is the 20th anniversary of National Poetry month  and I'm not much of a poet but like to play with Oulipo's .   So for your entertainment and mine, here's an oulipo made up of book titles  containing the letter F  from my shelves, in the form of four line stanzas.   Enjoy!  The People From the Sky Worst Fears Realized A Pirate looks at Fifty Final Approach.  Boy From Reactor Four Writing From the Inside Out  Flashback Fear the Dark. Fairy Godmother Her Fearful Symmetry Isle of Fire The Forgotten Garden, Fancy Pants Breach of Faith Foucault's Pendulum Things Fall Apart. Now it's your turn!  

Happy 9th Blogoversay to me!  Come on in, grab a glass of champagne and let's celebrate. My goodness, dear hearts. I can hardly believe it.  It feels like yesterday when I sat down, put my fingers to the keyboard and dipped my toes into the blogging waters.  I discovered an amazing variety of people from all over the globe who opened their blogging doors with a 'hey, come on in and join the fun.'   I'd always been that introvert who lurked on the sidelines, absorbing conversations, listening and learning, then tip toeing back home, Yes, I used to be the one who never got a word in edgewise at home.  Now they can't shut me up.  * grin *  I came to discover blogging is one big open never ending house party which is an introvert's dream.    No matter how long you've been gone, the door is always open and you are welcomed back with open arms. The blogosphere has taken me outside my comfort zone, time and time again, and encouraged me to ...

A picture, a snapshot of memory flashes through my head. I’m sitting in the waiting room while James is doing his occupational therapy.  There’s another mom waiting for one of her kid’s,  reading Hop on Pop to her two year old.  I listen to their conversation as he interrupts every other sentence to ask a question. Dr. Seuss was a staple in our household, same as hubby’s.  We found his old books while cleaning out the house after his mom passed.  We stopped what we were doing to browse through the books, his memories all the more poignant.  I think Hop on Pop is just one of those books that transcends time.  No matter what decade, kids everywhere learn to read with Hop or Pop or some other Dr. Seuss book.  And kids everywhere try to bounce on their dad’s stomach resulting in much groaning and laughter. When I was nine, or ten, I used to read to my brother.  I found a picture of us, sitting on mom’s bed.  Me in my white and pin...

"You too will marry a boy I choose," said Mrs. Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter." Did she or didn't she marry a suitable boy?  I'm sorry I won't share and remain coy, except to say, he was, for me, the most unsuitable boy.     

James Ensor Old Lady with Blue Shawl (1881)   Stolen Moments  Dorothy stroked the soft hand-crocheted shawl draped over the back of her mother’s rocking chair.  Her mother had had it for as long as she could remember. Once a brilliant blue, it had faded with time.   Elizabeth walked into the room with three tea cups and arranged them on the end stand.  The china clinked, fragile and empty. Her eyebrows furrowed as she gazed at Dorothy.  “The girl,” She waved toward the kitchen, “is making tea. Margaret, I think.” “Maggie.” “Ah yes, that’s right. I just can’t keep them straight these days.”  She sat, hands folded primly in her lap.  “Now then, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” Dorothy had learned a long time ago to go with her mother’s flights of fancy.  She smiled. “It’s Dot.” “You’re a friend of my daughter? Where did she go?” “She’s out in the garden.” Maggie bustled into the room with a sil...

Some days you feel classy and refined Sue Halstenberg -  Woman Writing in Chair Other days, not so much! Happy New Year. I've been contemplating this new year and once again, I can't find one word that defines what will take me through the year.   Perseverance came to mind and the little engine's mantra of I think I can, I think I can.   Yoda's wise Do or do not, there is no try.   I'm already feeling a bit disorganized as both James and I struggle to get back into lessons and writing classes.  The internet distracts, yet I can't unplug because so much of what we do is online.  My attention span...Squirrel! Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. ~Author Unknown Actually I think I will just gather up all the pebbles, mix with a bit of concrete, create stepping stones, make a path and see where it ...