Book Reviews

 Here are a few things I've been reading lately.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Adult fiction, 1948.

What it's about: I Capture the Castle is a coming-of-age story for Cassandra and Rose in the 1930s, and is told through Cassandra's journal entries. Their family moves into a run-down castle in England, and their mother dies a few years later. Their father, who had great success with a novel, has writer's block for years. With no money coming in, they sell off most of everything in the house and live in isolated poverty. Two young men inherit the castle, and the one next door and complex relationships follow.

What did I think? The story is rich with detail, and you get a good feel for the family's day-to-day lives. I missed visiting with them when I finished. However, as romances develop, I did get a bit tired of Cassandra's teenage angst over unrequited love. I would recommend this book if you like relationship narratives over action stories. It is an easy read, but not a quick one. The details and the longer sentence structure make it apparent that this book was written over 70 years ago, when longer sentences and paragraphs were the norm.

What did others think? The book is considered an influential classic by some and has appeared on several "best of" lists. There have been musicals and movies made from it. I watched a BBC film based on I Capture the Castle after I read the book and enjoyed it. Although it was beautiful to watch, it lacked the depth of the book, and I wondered whether someone who hadn't read it would understand the motivations behind some of the characters' actions.

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim, Adult fiction, 2024.

What it's about: City of Night Birds is the story of Natasha, a world-renowned Russian ballerina, and her beginnings with a difficult mother and absent father. It chronicles her journey to the top and the relationships that both hindered and propelled her art. It is an intimate look into the competitiveness and intensity of Russian ballet.

What did I think? I thought it was an interesting story that kept me reading. There were many Russian and ballet references that I didn't know anything about that occasionally slowed me down, but didn't have a major impact on the novel. The story starts in the present day (2019) when Natasha is trying to make a comeback and flashes back to build her story to that point. The switches in time were not well signaled and confused me at times, but even with this, the story was easy enough to follow.

What did others think? City of Night Birds was a pick for Reese's Book Club and had a starred Kirkus review. Amazon and Goodreads gave it an A-.

My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney, Adult fiction- psychological thriller, 2025.

What it's about: In the small town of Hope Falls, Eden returns from a run to find out the locks have been changed to her house and her husband has a new "wife".  Neither claims to know her. She desperately tries to find some way to identify herself. Six months earlier, Birdie in London receives a fatal diagnosis and inherits her grandmother's house in Hope Falls. When Birdie receives the date of her death from a company that claims they can accurately predict it, she returns to her childhood village to live out her final months. When Eden goes missing, Birdie partners with the local policeman, Carter, to figure out what happened. The story twists and turns, and you're not sure what's the truth and what's not. Everyone is hiding something.

What did I think? I wouldn't say it's great literature, but it's definitely a page-turner. Each character has their own chapters, which helps keep the story straight. This is not a book I would have picked up on my own, but it is next month's book club selection. I'm glad it was because I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

What did others think? The book has been on multiple best-seller lists and received almost uniformly positive reviews. Hundreds are on the waitlist for it at the library. 

Afterlight by Caleb Nolan, Adult/Young Adult poetry, 2026.

What it's about: Afterlight is about a troubled young man's journey through adolescence into adulthood. Each poem is a vignette that combines together to tell his story. The poems are autobiographical as Caleb struggles with an absent father and the early deaths of friends, among other things. They should be read in order.

But it's more than that. Here's a more detailed explanation from Amazon:

Told through the voice of one of the boys who left and is later looking back, Afterlight navigates the silences left by absent fathers, early deaths, and a God who doesn't speak. Interwoven throughout are letters to saints and biblical figures: pleas for intercession and understanding that echo the speaker’s search for grace amid violence and loss. By the book’s end, the lost boys and the saints share the same hallowed space, their stories entwined. Written in plain, unsparing language, these poems reveal the tenderness within troubled masculinity and the ache of trying to love what has already vanished.

What did I think? I found these poems full of emotion, often through simple, sparse language. My heart ached for the turmoil felt by the author. 

What did others think? Afterlife won the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. 

This and That

 Otherwise known as Speed Blogging or a Check-In (with unrelated flower pictures from the yard)

Allium

Has anyone else been having this problem with Blogger? It used to be that the blogs I followed would show up in my reading list pretty much as soon as they were published. Now, they are hours or days late. Yesterday, I got notice of some posts that had been published four days earlier. And when I get notice for the late ones, they don't show up at the top of the list. They nest themselves in the list with the time they were published. All of this means that I am missing some posts and/or not commenting on them until days later. This is certainly a small problem in the grand scheme of things, but I find it annoying. You are my friends out there, and I like checking in with you. I guess I could do some research and see if there is a fix for this. But you know how it is; it's always easier to complain than to take action. 😀

The Japanese beetles have found the roses.

For the last month or so, I've been on a decluttering kick. In a few spots, it was because I was running out of room. However, in most places, it was time to open drawers and boxes and sort shelves that haven't been looked at in a couple of years or even decades. The work has been tedious, but I'm making progress. 

And so have the lantern fly nymphs.

First, I went through all of my clothes. I'm not a clothes horse by any shape, but I still found a lot to donate. Now that I don't have to worry about work clothes, I don't need as many options as before.

Next up was the family room. I went through every shelf and drawer in there and found more things to donate or recycle. I spent the most time going through old letters, emails I had printed, and notes from over the years. I guess you would call my papers a very large, unorganized journal. Much of it was recycled, especially emails that reminded me of some of the difficult times. I don't need to relive the details of them. Some of the letters and notes I saved with the idea that I would write up some of the stories about Wally and Theo's early years. They definitely exemplified the phrase, "Kids say the darndest things." But that will be a huge task for another day.

We aren't getting much action on our butterfly bush, but they seem to like the nearby coneflowers.

Next, I moved into our office. I started with a tall bookcase that is home to many more things than books. That has been sorted, including one of the important things: our gift card basket. We truly appreciate gift cards when we get them, but are not the best at using them. They go into the basket and are then out of sight and out of mind. We have inventoried them all and got balances on some of them. A few of them are old enough (no PIN) that we need to take them to the store to see their value. And unfortunately, a couple of the stores are no longer in business. I'm going to blame Ward for these because they were ones he got at the gym for winning some kind of contest. (Anyone remember Sports Authority?)

Balloon flower from Ward's grandmother. Yes, it's blooming in the middle of Lamb's Ear.

We are slowly starting to use them. We zeroed out a Domino's card and found out the store closest to us had moved several miles away. We didn't figure it out until we showed up at the old location to pick up our carryout. However, they moved in April, and I was a little surprised that we haven't ordered our pizza since then. 

Another day, we spent a Target gift card on some groceries. The card was a metal Star Wars-themed card that I think played music at one point. The young man who checked us out was totally fascinated by the card and loved it. I left the empty card with him, and he was very happy. Sometimes, it's so easy to make someone's day.

Well, my time is up. I need to go get ready for a line dance class at the gym.

Until next time...

Throwback Monday, Birthday Memories

 Today is my birthday. No big celebrations planned, but my family has made it special for me all the same. After I get past the number, I don't feel much older than I did years ago. However, perhaps I am a little wiser and more content.

To celebrate on my blog, I'm going to rerun a post I did in June 2022 about birthday memories from when I was a young child. Here it is.

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Memories

One of my recent StoryWorth prompts was, "What Were Birthdays Like When You Were A Child?" For the prompt, I wrote about birthday traditions from my childhood and how they varied as I got older. Then I sent a draft to my sisters, complete with a picture from my 6th birthday party. I often send drafts of the prompts to them to get comments about what they remember and sometimes to clarify things. This usually leads to interesting discussions and reminiscing.

After reviewing what I had sent, my oldest sister commented that the picture was not from my 6th birthday but more like my 4th. She is six years older than I am, so she often has clearer memories of things than I do from the early years. However, I told her that I remember this birthday very clearly because that was when I got a Bible with my name on it, and Mother didn't give us Bibles until we could read. I was not reading at four. Then another sister chimed in and said that four made sense to her. I was starting to get irritated because they didn't agree with me. This was not a fuzzy memory as some things were. It was very clear to me. I responded and said the picture was labeled on the back in Mother's handwriting, and it said, "June's 6th birthday." The oldest sister said that wasn't right if you looked at the clues in the picture's background; it looked like we hadn't lived in this particular house for very long because of the sparseness of furniture. I couldn't believe that she was persisting with her line of thinking after all I said. 

The next thing I did was get the picture out to scan the back of it and send proof that I was right. And you know what I found? I found it was my handwriting on the back of the picture, not my mother's. When I looked at the picture more carefully, and one of my 5th birthday, I had to agree that it was when I turned four that I got the Bible. 

How could I be so sure but be so wrong? I had a clear mental image of my mother's labeling on the back, and I thought I remembered the event so well. This points out that our memories are just memories, not necessarily an accurate depiction of what really happened. In this case, I think what I had done was combine my "memories" with labels from other pictures. And over the years, I reinforced my confusion until I was sure of the "facts."

There have been many studies about the accuracy of memories, and they have concluded that there can be problems. In general, the more sensory clues associated with the memory, the more likely it is to be accurate. However, a person can totally believe what they "remember" is true. Not necessarily that they were lying when facts prove them wrong. What does all of this mean? Well, not much in my case. Whether I was four or six when I got my Bible is of no consequence. But in serious issues such as trials or hearings, the complexity of memories should be considered.

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Until next time...

Thankful Sunday

 

I am thankful for rain.

We have been suffering from extreme temperatures and bad air quality from the Canadian wildfires. We had a couple of days of Code Purple for air quality. I guess I'm lucky that I didn't even know that there was a designation beyond Red before this. However, yesterday a series of storms moved across the area and cleared the air. So, today I plan to be outside and enjoy the sunshine and plants around me. And for that I am thankful.

Dancing Under the Stars

Sky Stage Ribbon Plant Sculpture

Ward and I went line dancing last Saturday evening to a new venue for us - Sky Stage in Frederick, MD

The Sky Stage building was originally built in 1762 and was used to manufacture gun parts for the Revolutionary War. In more recent history, it was owned by General Engineering Co., which manufactured sewer pipe fittings. In 2010, a fire gutted the building and left the original stone structure with no roof. It sat boarded up for years until Heather Clark envisioned it as an art venue. Today, it has an open roof, concrete floor, bleachers, and a unique ribbon-sculpture garden. It hosts dramas, storytimes, art classes, films, dances, and various other events.

Saturday, it was host to a line dance. Ward and I have been curious about Sky Stage for a while, so we took this opportunity to see what it was like.  

I was too hot at this point and was sitting out for a while.

The dancing was okay, but it was hot! It didn't seem too bad at first, but once we started dancing, the heat and humidity became apparent. At one point, I wasn't sure if it was raining or if that was me dripping sweat. Later, in the evening, a storm blew over with a little rain, but brought a welcome relief from the heat. 

What did we think? Will we go back? For the right program, yes. But not for dancing until it's not so hot.