As of right now, I would say this book will end up in my top five for the year. Time will tell, but it was a superbly written debut novel. Here is my book review The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris.
Emancipation
The Civil War is in its final days and the Emancipation Proclamation has freed slaves, including brothers Prentiss and Landry. But when Prentiss and Landry encounter George Walker wandering in the woods and grieving the loss of his only son in the war, everything will change.
George’s wife Isabelle is distraught over the death of their son, and angry with her husband for it. George decides to turn his land into a peanut farm, to channel his own grief in work, and hires Prentiss and Landry to work the farm and live in the barn.
Admonished
Neighbors and the town’s elite are in an uproar over the Walker’s giving room and board and work to the black men and the Walker’s are chastised and admonished.
But while this is all going on a forbidden romance bubbles between two confederate soldiers, until Landry witnesses the lovers together.
The result will change the lives of not only the brothers, the lovers and the Walker’s, but nearly every person in the town of Old Ox.
Beautifully Written
The writing in this book is perfect and the story unfolds in Harris’ hands like a fine painting. I was riveted and could not put this book down. It is sweet, sad, violent, hopeful, painful and honest. A fresh new look from the viewpoint of exquisitely crafted characters, of this turning point period in our countries history.
Go read this book. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris.
Damn the PanDamit. We are traveling. We have our vaccine and our booster and we are working to safely and conscientiously get back out there, the way we intended our retirement to go. We want to live our life and so we plan to do it – carefully. It’s time. So after two months in Hawaii, and a brief stop back in Washington State for family issues, off we go again. Here is what’s next for My Fab Fifties Life.
This Month
We have one week in Utah and Arizona doing some hiking, including a visit to Antelope Canyon, a bucket list item for me. We then fly to Mexico City for six days where we will eat our way through the city (not kidding – blog coming) followed by two and a half weeks at the beach in Puerto Escondido.
Winter
Back to Washington State for Christmas with our family and then mid January we fly to French Polynesia. We have two months in French Polynesia on the islands of Moorea and Bora Bora.
Spring
We will return to Washington State again in March, regroup and say Hi, then depart in April for New York City and Boston. May 1st we plan to begin a guided tour of the “Stans” (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan) to be confirmed shortly. Followed by attending a wedding in Morocco.
Summer
If all goes well we will spend June back in Israel and Cyprus, the two countries we had to abandon on our itinerary when the world shut down in 2020. We also hope to include time in Malta before returning to Washington State for the summer, and returning to Hawaii for the Fall.
Living the Gamble
Not all of this is 100% booked yet, but we are deep into the planning and it feels good to be back into travel planning mode. Travel is never going to be as easy and carefree as it was when we began our Grand Adventure world tour in 2016. And we also recognize it’s going to be a bit of gamble, knowing how quickly things can change in the world. But we have coined a new phrase lately to add to our PanDamit phrase collection…”living the gamble”. And so we continue…
Continuing to Write
This itinerary above may not allow me to have a fresh new travel blog EVERY Friday. But I will do my best and I am grateful for all the continued support you give this blog. I also plan to step back from Tasty Tuesday, our weekly YouTube cooking show. I will do a Tasty Tuesday when I can but not every week. Tasty Tuesday was created as a way to travel internationally from my kitchen during lockdown. It has been fun and well-received during the PanDamit and I also thank you for that. Reading Wednesday will continue each week.
Living the Dream
So this is what’s next for My Fab Fifties Life. Living the dream, dreaming the life, finding the silver lining every day in this wild and wacky world. If we can encourage you to think outside the box, choose to be happy despite the world’s troubles and act positively and conscientiously in your Fabulous Life, our work here is done. Be Brave. Be Smart. Be Healthy. Be Happy. Be Fabulous.
See last week’s blog My Favorite Maui Restaurants here
One of my all-time favorite books was by William Kent Krueger This Tender Land. But I had never read any of Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series. So now I have. Here is my book review Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger.
Each of the books in Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series stands alone. You don’t need to worry if you haven’t read any of the many previous books. Lightning Strike is a fantastic novel all on its own.
We are introduced to Cork as a 12-year old boy in the summer of ’63. Cork’s father Liam is the local sheriff in the small Minnesota town of Aurora on the shores of Iron Lake. Long simmering prejudice quietly eats away at this town between the Native American Ojibwa people and the rest of the population of Aurora and the surrounding region.
When Cork stumbles upon a dead body at the sacred Native site known as Lightning Strike, Sheriff O’Connor will need to use every resource he can muster to decide if this was a suicide or a murder. Cork also sets out on his own to find answers as those living on the “rez” close ranks and those living in town point fingers, and the town’s richest man accuses everyone but himself.
This is a wonderfully laid out crime novel with a message of truth and justice in a coming of age story. Cork and his family, and everyone in this novel must grapple with a battle between their heads and their hearts.
I hope you enjoyed my book review Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
Not quite a year ago on our California road trip we listened to Wilkerson’s astonishing work, Caste. It was one of my favorite reads last year. And now I’ve discovered Wilkerson’s other work (2010), a look at a remarkable time in American history that nobody really has talked about or written about. Here is my book review The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.
You don’t need to read Caste to understand the story being told in The Warmth of Other Suns, but I do recommend both books very highly. The remarkable years of research Wilkerson undertook for both books is staggering. But because of this attention to detail the reader is transported to another time in American history, the great migration of blacks from the south to points north and west during Jim Crowe.
The Great Migration
Beginning in about 1915 and continuing into the 1970’s, about six million black American’s, slave descendants, left the south in search of something safer and better. Using the routes most accessible to southern Negroes at the time, the great migration brought thousands to New York, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and Los Angeles.
Years of Research
Wilkerson interviewed more than a 1000 people for this book and dove deep into documents and records never before used to tell this story. With her research and writing talent she brings to the reader three incredibly brave real people;
Ida Mae Gladney a sharecropper who left Mississippi in 1937 for a better life in Chicago where she lived the rest of her years.
Robert (Pershing) Foster who left Louisiana in 1953 despite his success as a doctor but discrimination kept him from practicing in the way he desired. Instead he traveled by car to Los Angeles where he would become wealthy and successful but always feeling inadequate.
George Starling who left Florida in 1945 to keep from being lynched and ended up in Harlem. Brilliant Starling wanted a college degree but he would spend his life as a porter on the trains but would make peace with his choices.
The New American History
Following these three individuals Wilkerson finds a way for the reader to feel all the slights, sadness, danger, injustice as well as happiness in these characters, their stories and all the people who they touch.
Read this book. Open yourself to new American history we were never taught. Wilkerson is a writer for our times.
*****Five stars for The Warmth of Other Suns – The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson.
After listening to a few books on Audible about Greek Gods, the Trojan War and a lot bravado…I was in search of something a bit softer. And I definitely found in in the sweet, sad and funny book, a debut novel. Here is my book review The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman.
The Garden of Small Beginnings
Although I am a writer, I do not write humor. Writing funny is hard. And it takes a very special talent. And Waxman nailed it in this sad story. This, her debut novel, is not about a funny plot…but she excels at dialogue that brings the reader right into the moment with hilarious quips and chatter. A big shout out too for the Audible reader Emily Rankin. She was a great.
Lilian is a widow, a young mother with two small girls and a talented illustrator. For the past three years she has struggled to regain her footing in life after she witnesses the death of her husband in a car accident. She doesn’t believe she has the right to ever be happy again. She sees any future happiness as a slight to her husband Dan’s memory.
New Beginnings
But when Lilian’s employer asks her to take a gardening class in preparation to illustrate a vegetable gardening book, Lilian is thrust back into the social setting she has abhorred for three years. Here she meets an eclectic group of individuals each with their own mysteries and compassion, talents and foibles. The diverse group soon becomes close friends as they plant and bloom, and Lilian becomes even closer friends with the instructor, Edward Bloem. Edward’s family owns the European Bloem Seed Company the company Libby is illustrating the book for.
Well of course there are many twists and turns, happy and sad moments and lots of plants and flowers as the gardening class individually and as a group all find their passions and small beginnings.
I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it on Audible too. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman. I look forward to what she does next.
*****Five Stars for The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
As an adult I look back on so many fond memories of my 1960’s and 70’s childhood, including Halloween. As soon as school began in September we began thinking about and planning for that big day. We always made our own costumes just from found things around the house…never sewing anything elaborate and NEVER purchasing anything from a store.
Halloween When I Was a Kid
Unfortunately my parents were not big photo takers so I have only one photo I know of, of me with my siblings on Halloween. That was the year my sister proclaimed she was going to be the Fairy Godmother and I was going to be Cinderella in rags. Okay fine. My brother was a “hippie” and my littlest brother was a cowboy. It was a time in life when it didn’t take a lot ot make us happy.
With my siblings, maybe around 1970
In high school and even college we celebrated the holiday with homemade costumes but the trick or treating gave way to parties. Here I’m sharing a few photos I pulled up from those days.
1979 College
1975 High SchoolAt my job 2005
1983 Newlyweds
Halloween When My Kids Were Little
When my kids were little I made their costumes most years and we had a lot of fun with Halloween as a family. In the 1990’s when my kids were young, trick or treating was still safe and the school always had a special event with costumes.
1988
19941987
1995
Today fewer kids wander the neighborhoods, but with Covid it’s hard to imagine that communities and malls will be holding their annual gatherings.
The History of Holidays
I’ve always been fascinated with how our holidays evolved into what we accept today as normal, ever since I discovered that Santa Claus is a fairly new invention. So I have over the years gathered lots of fun information about holiday rituals and their evolution.
Halloween Began 2000 Years Ago
The origin of Halloween can be traced 2000 years years ago to the Celtic festival called Samhain. This festival was a celebration to ward off ghosts and included costumes and bon fires.
Ghosts were responsible for death and havoc
In the 8th Century Pope Gregory III declared that November 1st would be All Saints Day to remember all Catholic Saints and the Samhain festival the day before became known as All Hallows Eve.
November 1st was also considered the New Year to the Celts and was marked as the end of the harvest and bounty and the beginning of the dark days of winter, a time of hunger and death.
People believed black cats were witches in disguise
The Druids (Celtic Priests) gave the Celtic people guidance during this time, when all believed the ghosts were responsible for failed crops, poor health and bad weather. The Druids built bon fires and everyone dressed in costumes to scare away the ghosts. Crops and animals were sacrificed.
Rome, Of Course, Intervened
When the Romans conquered this region, the Samhain festival merged with Feralia, a Roman festival similar to Day of the Dead; and Pomona, a celebration of the apple harvest (assumed to be where bobbing for apples comes from).
Christianity
By the 9th century the Celtic lands had become Christian and the November 2nd Christian holiday All Souls Day merged with All Hallows Even (Alholowmesse) and the costume tradition expanded.
Ritual bonfires helped ward off evil
Welcome to America
Colonial America celebrated this holiday, despite the New England Protestant objection due to the pagan origins. As immigrants from many nations came together, the American version of the holiday emerged.
Early Jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips
Outdoor parties, bon fires, scary stories, fortune telling, pranks, games, music and dancing were all part of the early American celebration. By the early 1800’s most communities celebrated an Autumn festival but Halloween as we know it was still a ways away.
Irish Americans Bring the Tradition
As Irish immigrants flooded America in the late 19th century, with them came many of the traditions we today associate with Halloween in the USA. This included costumes, Trick-or-Treat for food or money, and the focus of the holiday became more about children.
Bobbing for apples is an ancient game still practiced today
But in the 1920’s and 30’s vandals hijacked the holiday with pranks and sometimes drunken violence and many gatherings stopped. By the 1950’s local towns redirected the holiday back to family-focused and encouraged family gatherings. Trick-or-Treating was revived.
Today’s Halloween
Small homemade treats gave way to store bought candy in the 1960’s when parents feared for their children eating anything they didn’t know the source of. Today 6 billion dollars are spent annually on Halloween and it is the biggest candy buying time of the year in the USA.
Halloween candy
Both children and adults dress up annually, with many adults wearing costumes to their jobs. Halloween parties for kids and adults happen in the weeks ahead of the actual Halloween night.
Halloween is the second biggest commercial holiday after Christmas in the USA.
This book was written by a local author in the town where I live. I was asked to read this book, which sometimes can be a little tricky…but not this time. I really enjoyed this unique story. Here is my book review Rain Shelters and Ghost Gods by Jan Walker.
Location
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and on the Kitsap Peninsula. And, as you probably know, I also LOVE Hawaii and spend as much time there as possible. So when I realized this story was based in these two locations I quickly was intrigued.
Rain Shelters and Ghost Gods
Walker creates a well-developed cast of characters who befriend Eve Sorenson on the island of Oahu when she arrives to care for her dying aunt. Aunt Meg has lived on Oahu for thirty years. Her seventy-year-old body is failing her, and she asks Eve to care for her in her end of life. But Meg is no push-over…she calls the shots and Eve who adores her is up to the task, including writing her aunt’s memoir.
But Eve has left a complicated list of catastrophes behind back home on the Kitsap Peninsula when she answers her aunt’s call to come to Hawaii. Everything from an accusation from a student, a 15-year old son with usual 15-year old problems, a jerk ex-husband and a deep sadness for the recent loss of her father and the family home she grew up in.
Spirits and Ghost Gods
On Eve’s first day in Oahu she goes to the Lyon Arboretum at the University of Hawaii where she encounters a white dog. The dog leads her to a man who has fallen into a ravine and is injured and near death. After the rescue the dog has disappeared. Was the dog real? Or a spirit to help her find the man? Are the dancing lights around the man Hawaiian spirits? Are the tiny Menehuna forest people present and involved in the rescue? And why does Eve keep seeing her father’s eyes in the man’s face.
This encounter will build the plot of this book that explores the Hawaiian myths and legends; the idea that our paths and choices may not always be our own; and how finding family and friends in the most unexpected places can change our lives forever.
Healing
The well researched and written Hawaiian historical and cultural information in the book meld beautifully into the plot of this story. I particularly liked how the book discussed life and death, afterlife and how different cultures view passing differently. I also enjoyed the healing nature of both Meg’s end of life journey and Eve’s emotional one with her beloved aunt and her son.
An overriding theme in the book is the role flora plays in both the Hawaiian and the Pacific Northwest lifestyle.
Surprise
You won’t find this book on Reese Witherspoon’s list of the Oprah Book Club…but don’t let that put you off. Like the characters in this book the unexpected things we find when we aren’t even searching are sometimes the best. That is the way with Rain Shelters and Ghost Gods.
I hope you enjoyed my book review Rain Shelters and Ghost Gods by Jan Walker.
****Four stars for Rain Shelters and Ghost Gods by Jan Walker
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