Books

An Attack on Us

Is it possible the United States could face the same kind of danger here at home that many countries have experienced? What if Israel’s 10/7 happened here? Most importantly, is that plausible?

Kurt Schlichter thinks so. This author, attorney and commentator released a short novel on Jan. 8 that says yes, it could happen here, all too easily. “The Attack” takes the current national security weak points that everyone knows about and yet no one does anything about, the porous border and an ineffectual government response, and draws the tale out to a logical conclusion. If there is no real border, and thousands of undocumented, unverified, *unvetted* people are moving across each day, hundreds of jihadi could be slowly positioning themselves for an attack. With one phone call they could be activated to strike at once. As Kurt points out in his novel, it’s quite an enhancement when the leaders don’t have to do any command. Jihadis eager to kill as many and welcoming death will cause significant chaos without any fancy plans or leadership.

The novel suggests an event that spreads to touch nearly all Americans. During 9/11, most of the country was untouched physically. Imagine an attack designed to be so vast that no one section of the country could look on in horror, and reassure themselves, that kind of thing happens only in New York or Washington. I remember during 9/11 reassuring my roommate that terrorists weren’t coming to our small town – and being fairly certain I was right. In the novel, one statistician estimated that 84% of Americans knew someone personally who had been killed. Ninety-eight (98)% knew someone who knew someone who was killed. That impact is the kind which remakes country.

Kurt wrote “The Attack” in just three short months after the October 7 attack in Israel. The man is known for turning out a novel each year in his Kelly Turnbull series, on top of his regular day job, but this is impressive even for him. A publishing house approached him about doing a non-fiction work, but another friend persuaded him to turn it into fiction.

The story takes the form of an oral history, with “The Author” interviewing witnesses and participants in the attack five years later. Kurt structures the interviews into before, during each of the three days of the attack, and after. Each story is a short chapter. The “interviewees” range from those cartel members who facilitated the transfer of jihadis and weapons, housewives and mothers who survived attacks on their families, orphans who saw their families killed in front of them, to historians cataloguing the events. It is hard to read, but the story is so fascinating you are compelled to read on.

And it is all too possible. Pray that such an event never happens here.

Books · Christmas · Family · Gratitude

The beautiful books of Christmas 2023

Friends and family showered me with books

Every Christmas – what do you do after the last present has been unwrapped, ooohed and ahhhed over, and the ribbons and paper tossed aside? I don’t know about you, but I grab another cup of coffee and sit down with my new books. And this year was a doozy! Some came from my Amazon wish list, and some came from the stellar gift-giving skills of my friends and family. Here, let me show you:

The first one I read through in just an hour or two – it’s a speedy read at only 108 pages. How the *Bleep* Did You Find Me? is skiptracer Judi Sheek’s story of her 30 years in the skiptracing, or “bounty-hunting” business, as I call it. She actually had one subject ask her the question that became the book’s title point blank. It’s the perfect collection of stories about how we leave evidence of our lives EVERYWHERE. Of course, you think – we have digital footprints all over! But people were doing skiptracing long before the internet. She can find practically any document you’ve ever signed. If you have a utility bill, then you can be found. I loved this book. After reading it I immediately checked to make sure all my social media settings were “private.”

Next, I tore through a commemorative magazine on The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mom knows I’m fascinated by the British royals – all those pretty gowns! The jewels! The tiaras and crowns! – so she made sure I had this copy. It even covered the 2023 coronation of King Charles III.

Art and Wisdom

Next were three beautiful books that arrived before Christmas, from my sweet friend Jill. First one I read was Rooms of Their Own: Where Great Writers Write. She knows I’m working on a story of my own, and I was thrilled to see the different spaces famous writers had created for themselves. Some were pristine, set with windows looking over beautiful views, and others were as messy as mine. Jane Austen made do with a tiny 12-sided table in the family parlor. The book is illustrated with glorious watercolors of the spaces, and some vintage photographs.

Next up is Bedside Companion for Book Lovers: An Anthology of Literary Delights for Every Night of the Year. I’ve read just one item in it, for the day I received the book. Then, I decided to keep it by my bedside for 2024. Each page is numbered by the day of the year – January 1, January 2, and so forth. The night’s selection might be a poem, single paragraph, or a full page. I can’t wait to delve into it each night before bed, last thing before I go to sleep. With this gift I moved the floor lamp behind my bed to function as a reading light.

Jill gave me also a new book from a favorite artist and author – Susan Branch. Her Distilled Genius – A Collection of Life-Changing Quotes is enough to fill three commonplace books. Each page is hand-painted – both text and illustrations – by this wonderful artist. Because of her work I’ve added Martha’s Vineyard, her island home, to my bucket list of places I must visit.

Romance, Thrills, and Horror

When I looked at my Christmas gift from “the Rust gang” – my brother Bill’s family – then I knew I was in for a treat. Sister-in-law Reisha wrapped everything in a bibliophile-friendly book tote, with the covers of famous classics on the front. In addition to many other gifts (stationery AND stamps! An embosser to put my seal on all my books!) I received three books I’ve moved to the top of my must-read pile.

I’ve already started Neal Shusterman’s Unwind and it is living up to the word ‘dystopian.’ A group of teenagers is on the run in a post-war America; an America that fought a civil war over abortion. The two sides signed a treaty that outlawed abortion; but made it possible for parents and the state to “unwind” teens from 13 to 17. It’s a basically organ donation of – everything! And society tells itself that the teen isn’t technically being killed – they keep living in a “divided” state. Now that I type that I realize how ridiculous it is. But I want to find out what happens to these three, so I’m gonna keep on reading!

The two that I haven’t started are When in Rome by Sarah Adams and The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I will probably read “When in Rome” first – it looks like a cheerful romance. Per the cover blurb: “This modern take on the Hepburn classic Roman Holiday is a quick, fun, slow-burn romance.” Sounds wonderful! And then I get to enjoy a Reese’s Book Club selection, “The Guest List.” From the back cover:

An exclusive wedding on a remote Irish island. The bride. The plus-one. The best man. The wedding planner. The bridesmaid. All have a secret. All have a motive. But only one is a murderer.

Yes, please! I’m so excited to have a few days off for the holiday. Lots of time to read!

Books · Christmas

Quotes on Christmas

Even though we’re still in Advent, I’m looking forward to Christmas. And I’m reading thoughts from my favorite authors about this feast. Below are just a few:

If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkenness and gluttony, that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says the Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something which is not so much false as startling and arrestingly foolish. He might as well say that the two sexes were invented by jewellers who wanted to sell wedding rings.

G.K. Chesterton

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

Charles Dickens

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!

Dr. Seuss

Christmas is a together-y sort of holiday.

Winnie-the-Pooh

And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Charles Dickens
Books

The benefits of a merry heart

After last week’s tough realism, this week I needed a book that helped me relax. “With a Merry Heart” is perfect for the reader who wants to leave the high cost of everything, the war overseas, and every personal problem for just a few hours, and enjoy this tale of childhood in New England.

Author Janet Gillespie grew up in a loving family of five. Her tale begins with vignettes of summers spent at the family place at the shore, where her Victorian grandmama celebrated her birthday with the planting of a special lane of trees. The year was 1914. Each chapter is a look back at her truly merry childhood, with a father (“Pop”) who was a pastor and then chaplain at Princeton, and a mother who loved cuddling her babies.

Tolstoy once said “every happy family is alike.” That may be true, as the pictures of the happy Wicke family in this book are of universals and American traditions: family gatherings, the birth of new babies, childhood playmates, going to school and Christmas celebrations. The beauty of this memoir is in the details. Gillespie tells the stories of her young life so that we are transported back a century and more; it made me feel I was there on the Point, their summer place, taking part in the sledding at their childhood home in Holyoke, or sitting surrounded by plush green tufted chairs and mahogany furniture in her Pop’s study, reading before dinner.

This book is a magical experience. As Pop exclaimed each morning at the Point, “This is the day which the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

Books

Surviving in dangerous times

The world seems to have gone nuts ever since the Covid lockdowns. With the protests which devolved into riots that summer of 2020, to the constant demonstrations in big cities over anything – climate change, oil, illegal immigration – we’re constantly spinning from bad news to worse. Don’t like who got elected? Riot. Upset about a war in a foreign land? March. Oh, and don’t forget the random terrorist attacks.

All of it makes me want to avoid large crowds.

You can’t stay locked up in your home forever, though Amazon would love to be your supplier of choice. To learn more about self-protection, I’ve been reading Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley.

No, this book isn’t going to turn me or any reader into a Recon Marine. But it does teach readers how to recognize, use and improve what so many people call their “gut instinct.” Such as:

  • You’re about to walk onto an elevator with a stranger – but something stops you
  • You are ready to go inside a restaurant – but something tells you to leave and not enter
  • You’ve finished an interview with a job candidate who looks good on paper – but your senses say, don’t hire

“Left of Bang” is the phrase the authors use to describe the time leading up to an event which they call the “bang” – a shooting, mugging, or even terrorist attack. “Left of Bang” is the time when you can take steps to avoid or get out of the way of the bang. “Right of Bang” is the aftermath: the reaction and clean up after the event. This book is designed to keep you on the left side of the bang.

I’m currently working through the section on the six domains which make up the language of profiling: kinesics, biometrics, proxemic, geographics, iconography, and atmospherics. Next, the authors will teach me how to take action as I apply all the technical knowledge.

I’m probably still going to avoid large crowds in big cities, but it is nice to know I can be proactive.

Beauty · Books · Cooking · holiday · hostess with the mostess · just plain fun · Something wonderful · Thanksgiving

Let’s read and eat this holiday!

This year’s Thanksgiving, I’m keeping it minimal. No two main dishes of both Turkey and Ham, no 12 side dishes, no pie and cakes (plural) for dessert.

It’s a bare-bones Thanksgiving dinner: ham, one side dish of green bean casserole, and one recipe inspired by something I read: Bourbon-Berries. The recipe I got years ago from Gabriel Mallor’s recipe exchange on the Ace of Spades website. Sorry, no picture of that – but it looks delicious! I’ve already made it in advance of the holiday and it is chilling in the fridge.

I smile and shake my head thinking about the Thanksgiving extravaganzas I’ve put together in the past. Last year I brined the turkey for the first time ever, taking the recipe from the Pioneer Woman’s wonderful book: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays.

That lovely book, a gift from my sister-in-law (who knows me well) helped me create my aforementioned Thanksgiving extravaganza. There were so many dishes on the table that as we were finishing, I exclaimed: “I forgot the carrots!” Or some such extraneous side – I can’t remember now. Everyone looked around and laughed. And Dad, ever the wit, said, “Well, Thanksgiving is ruined!”

Cookbooks – books that please twice

Anyone who knows me knows I love to read and I love to eat. It’s just too bad for my waistline I also love combining the two. Reading cookbooks is one of my favorite pastimes too – if you truly want to learn the history of American food, how it developed from the colonial days, suffered through the “better living through chemistry” boxes and cans of the middle 20th century and has enjoyed the renaissance since the early 70s of Alice Waters and other chefs, NEEDS to read’s James Beard’s classic: American Cookery.

I bought this book from a kiosk in the old Dutch Square Mall in spring 1985 – the year James Beard died. In a fit of religious zeal I had just decided to do a Lenten fast from Diet Coke and sweets – I was so ambitious those days! Therefore, I was hungry. So naturally I had to buy a cookbook. But this cookbook – it was an inspired choice. If I had to save one cookbook from my house in a fire, it would be this one. All the beautiful illustrated cookbooks by Susan Branch, the Moosewood Cookbook, the Pioneer Woman, *even* The Joy of Cooking – I’d leave all those to burn up if it meant I could save this book.

Beauty in the word and image

I adore the writers of cookbooks who not only write delicious recipes, but also illustrate them with beautiful artwork they’ve created. I love both cooking from and just admiring the ones I own by Susan Branch, an artist/writer/cook who lives on Martha’s Vineyard. I started with her first book, Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen, and now with the change of the seasons, I’m cooking from her aptly named Autumn. Just look at these beautiful covers and pages – all hand-drawn:

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and may you cook something special this year!

Books · just plain fun

For the literary tippler

“An English major walks into a bar….”

Today’s book isn’t the usual work of fiction I love. Instead, I got a present for my birthday which I love just as much: Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist. This collection of recipes carries the theme of “cocktail book for the literary obsessed” from the dedication: “For Brenda … – worth her weight in Cuervo Gold” to the Acknowledgements (“Loud, slurring thanks to my first readers and drinkers.”)

This book is for anyone who actually read all the way through the classics we were assigned in ninth grade (except for Moby Dick, who could get through that) or the introverts whose idea of a good time is a good book, and something to munch on. It’s for all the book nerds. Make that the mixologist nerds too.

Every cocktail recipe celebrates a book. Choose your favorite poison; Author Tim Federle, a former Broadway actor, found a literary allusion for it. Is it five o’clock somewhere? Have an Are You There God? It’s Me, Margarita. Love the juniper in gin? Enjoy a Gin Ayre. For something sweet, try Love in the Time of Kahlua.

Perfect for Christmas!

Ever since I started stocking a bar cart during Covid-times (no bread-baking for me, no sir) I’ve had lovely bottles of spirits sitting around on display. Now I can invite the Book Club over and make “The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose” and facilitate the most convivial book discussion ever!

Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist

Books · Introspection

What if you lived forever?

Escapism with truth thrown in

Columnist John Nolte took on this theme in his first novel Borrowed Time, published this September. I bought it almost immediately and read it in two days. Then I proceeded to re-read it, savoring my favorite parts. I’m still re-reading chapters.

This is not a typical science fiction story, although the premise begins that way: a man born to a tribe of North American Indians, so ancient they predate all others we know about, learns he cannot die. Or rather – he dies, and then comes back, always to the same spot in the southwest desert.

We learn just enough about Joshua Mason’s life across the millennia to understand his frustration and fascination with the “All-at-Once” – Mason’s term for the stupendous amount and rate of change that took place in only the last 150 years of his existence. To him it seemed as if modernity hit “all-at-once” – the machines, the speed, the conveniences. His love of modern air-conditioning made this Southerner smile.

Not about the woo-woo

Mason is far wiser than most he meets today, who are never happy, never have enough, never stop to think how blessed they (and we) are. Written by a lesser author, you’d get the feel of a forced sermon. But Nolte is too good for that – Mason’s thoughts are woven into the book’s central plot: a love story. Nolte never hectors the reader.

Mason loves Doreen so fully that he gladly participates in their “secret” marriage. He spends 30 years as her handyman at the motel she runs on a back road bypassed by the interstate. Guests are so few no one realizes it is the same handyman over the years. How they cope is a blend of comedy and tragedy, especially after Doreen’s brain-damaged grandson comes to live with them. He is not just physically ill; the car accident warped his soul as well.

Their love story, and the people they meet over the years, are the reason I come back to the book. Even the evil characters in this book are painted in full, allowing us to realize why they act the way they do. Every time I came close to pitying a major antagonist, I realized that character’s choices made them the way they were.

Thankfully, there are a few in the book who are purely happy. And these people, Mason thinks, are the few he’d want to live forever. They are content. They make me think of Paul’s words:

 I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 

Philippians 4:11b-12

Borrowed Time by John Nolte

Books

Are we doomed to be poor forever?

You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back is infuriating.

The author’s details of how you will be made to own nothing are well-documented. Author Carol Roth quotes the financial leaders themselves who are moving us toward this goal.

My oldest nephew is 25. When his dad was just two years older, he bought his first house. My nephew is currently renting and living a low-budget lifestyle as he plans out his future – which doesn’t include home ownership any time soon. Chapter 8. “Renting the American Dream” made me despair that my nephew, or any of my younger relatives, will be able to do the same. They’ll be in their early 30s before they achieve that goal. When home ownership is THE way to creating wealth for most Americans – how can they truly say they have a piece of the American dream when they’re just renting?

Roth is a former investment banker (she says “recovering”) and entrepreneur, TV host and pundit, and New York Times bestselling author. Her other books include The War on Small Business and The Entrepreneur Equation. She’s written this book to explain why these problems are happening – and what we can do to fight back. I read it because it is the first selection in Stephen Kruiser’s Morning Briefing Book Club.

Practical Note: For a gen X’er like me, who has ruined her attention span with social media over the last 10 years, forcing my brain to focus on the financial details was a strain. The book’s Audible version made this easier and about 9 hours, it was perfect for a weekend trip.

A debased dollar

We know how much less our dollar buys these days. A debased dollar is just one facet of the move us to a new financial world order. Roth acknowledges exactly how conspiratorial the “new world order” concept sounds. But she illustrates with mini lessons from financial history, tales of our government’s financial blunders, and the trends toward globalization how we’re headed to this future.

Anyone who is not looking askance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) – an entity I couldn’t name three years ago – simply hasn’t read this book.

Looking askance is too ladylike a phrase. You’ll be spitting blood at the description of this group and their plans to beggar middle- and working-class Americans. All Americans except for the wealthiest who can maneuver in ways we cannot.

Demoralized yet?

Roth acknowledges “you may be demoralized” in the book’s final chapter on how to fight back. “No kidding,” I thought. The first 10 chapters detail how many parts of American lives today are all working to render us poor.

Crushing college loans, stripping of digital rights in social media, and digital currencies are all a part. Her explanation of Environment Social Governance (ESG), shows exactly why certain companies make moves that crater their stock price, ensuring stockholders own less. Think Anheuser Busch and the Bud Light debacle.

The complexity of our financial system, coupled with the shattering of our concentration by 280-byte posts and 20-second reels, has led us to ignore what is happening. We can’t do that any longer. Roth exhorts us through well-documented stats to wake up, realize what is happening, and take back control of our own finances. Then we can work with others to assert our individual rights over the financial tyrants positioned atop the corporations who want to ensure we will own nothing.

blogging · Books · Gardening · Keto

I’m back!

Hi folks. I stopped writing because posting four times a week was just too much – with my full-time job, and my anal-retentive perfectionist procrastination. Then things happened. Hope some of you are still here to read this!

Why’d you leave?

In the winter and spring of this year, I decided to focus my blog on just a few things:

  • Keto journey
  • Books I’ve read
  • My garden

God chuckles when you make plans. This happened:

I fell off the keto bandwagon for about four months. How can I write about Keto when I’m not doing it?

It got so hot and humid I lost all interest in garden, after a few desultory attempts at tomatoes. So, again – how can I write about gardening when I’m not doing that either? I spent much of the summer enjoying air conditioning. The garden is a mess, but I may post my winter clean up pictures.

And third – I re-read a LOT of books that I’ve read before! Some of them are so trashy I’m embarrassed to admit I read them – Revenge by Tom Bower, a book about Meghan and Harry? Such a good hate-read! So, I wasn’t posting about that.

However….

I did read a few good books over the past few months and I have some reviews coming. AND – I’ve been working on another writing project; just not ready to talk too much about that one yet. Yes, I’m working on my own book! That’s all I’ll say.

Look for some reviews to come. And maybe some Keto posts – I did start up again last month, and it is going well.

See you soon!