11/5/20  The once a month meeting with my “other” book club was this morning.  When I lead, like today, I’m always a bit apprehensive.  Do I have too many questions?  Not enough to fill the time?   Don’t talk too much.   But those concerns couldn’t spoil the joy of this wonderful book.  Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, one of my all-time favorites, was our choice for today.  I love the main character, Father Latour’s approach to life – non confrontational, patient, persistent.  Cather gives us many vignettes, told like family stories after a good dinner, and from them emerge the story of an adventurous, successful life in the new world of New Mexico in the mid 1800’s.  The Archbishop defines that success: “To fulfil the dreams of one’s youth; that is the best that can happen to a man.” 

The serene ending is one of my favorite in literature.  The dying Archbishop relives the emotional turmoil of a young man leaving the French home he loved for the adventure of the unknown world.  Now as an old man, it is time for him to repeat that scene; he will leave his beloved new world for the next unknown.

11/5/20  An appropriate article for upcoming winter from the NY Times:  “What Scandinavians can teach us About Embracing Winter.”  Hygge in Danish; Koselig in Norwegian are the words used to describe the comfort of coziness when the weather is dark and cold.  Bundled up, sitting around the bonfire, drinking something hot  – these things create comfort in an unfriendly environment.  Getting outdoors is key.  Hmmm. 

11/8/20  Last year, our daughter gave us tickets to the Rolling Stones concert in Seattle.  It was an amazing experience – wailing guitars, a wall of sound.   Front man Mick Jagger ran back and forth for two hours dominating the stage.  What great physical shape.  He was 76.   Today, it is Joe who is the inspiration.  Running for and being elected president!  We are the same age – 78.  These two men are wonderful examples of the new old age.

11/10/20  We finished our discussion of As I Lay Dying.  Two books with death in the title in a short time, but both were about ways to live.  This one I didn’t care for.  Why does Faulkner use illiterate people to explore the most sophisticated ideas – being/non being, what is language? His stream of consciousness and dialect made this a very difficult book with little return.

11/15/20  I was gifted The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman, non-fiction and yes, about birds.  Fascinating to read what scientists have learned in the last couple of decades with new mini equipment and to think of the patience required to conduct their experiments.  One kind of bird, while still in the egg, can understand its parent’s concern about heat and adjust its growth accordingly.  How do scientists know this? I’ll take their word for it, but it is mind boggling.

Another bird fact learned this week from a totally different source is that a group of coots is called a cover.  It was my birthday and we rented a house on a lake hoping for some good birding.  There was little variety, but one afternoon along came thirty or so coots swimming in a V.  It was a first for us and Google was able to supply the word.

I started this blog in October but it took until now to overcome my resistance to something techie and figure out how to get online.

Life brought an unwelcome surprise to everyone this year. No more meeting inside or at restaurants. We had to learn to Zoom. Luckily there were people still working, or grandchildren, who could help with that. As summer came, we three readers ventured outside for picnics with our bookbags, and finally an outdoor restaurant. What a treat!

Our last outdoor meeting required a coat at lunch time as we sat around a picnic table in front of the taco shop discussing The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.  We enjoyed her take on differing views of history.  For the Armenians, it was important and part of their lives; for the Turks, not so much.  Her writing, tho, is the classic definition of “overwrite” – way too much rambling for me.

10/23 “The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk”.  What a wonderful saying for old age.  I came upon it today when reading David Brooks’ article in the Atlantic, “Bruce Springsteen and the Art of Aging Well.”

10/31  Halloween.  No masks; No coats.  Rainy weather so our group stayed inside and zoomed.  Our discussion today was the second half of Safek’s book.  One of us liked the warm family feelings evoked by the “aunties.”  The other enjoyed the exploration of memories on our current lives.  I found a murder/suicide scene set in the middle of all this unrealistic. 

But in a book I didn’t care for, this great nugget:  The overwhelming majority of people never think and those who think never become the overwhelming majority.

An escape to Vancouver and a restaurant along the river with both an overhang and heater.  Fun to see on the wall a quote from Virginia Woolf.  “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”  A woman after my own heart.

11/3/20  Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is today’s book.  We read only the first 60 pages and it took that long to get the characters straight.  I had a routine hospital procedure but couldn’t bring myself to take that book into the waiting room and let someone see the title.