Tag: leisure

Likeable Badass

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Fragale, Alison. Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve. Penguin Random House, 2024.

Reason read: just for the fun of it.

Here are my takeaways: Fragale talks about fixing a bad reputation or a misconception about yourself right away. Don’t let a bad opinion linger. What if you have no idea? What happens if you have no concept of what people think of you, good or bad? What if you believe one thing and the opposite is true so you are actually the one with the misconception? Confessional: I do not know how to read a room. I had this friend once who never gave me any indication she was pulling away. She just vanished. There were no signs to tell me what I did or didn’t do. Ironically, this same person falls in with another piece of advice from Fragale and the norm of reciprocity. I would have to say that sometimes does not work. I sent this friend (the one pulling away) a package of expensive crafting paper. I never received so much as a confirmation of delivery; never mind a thank you or a reciprocating gesture. Like I said, the crafting paper was of high quality and shipping to another country was not cheap. My mistake for sure.
Anyway, back to Fragale. Another takeaway from reading Likeable Badass was the collection of connections. Keeping important people close in case you need them later. I get that. That’s what LinkedIn is all about.

Music: “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi (featuring Daddy Yankee).

No More Words

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Lindbergh, Reeve. No More Words:

Reason read: this was a gift from a new pen-pal I just started exchanging letters with this last December. Something in her holiday card compelled me to write her back and we have been communicating every since.

Everyone knows the author Anne Morrow Lindbergh. If they do not then they should! In the summer of 1999 she was ninety-three years old and living with her youngest child, Reeve. Reeve, at the time of No More Words, was a fifty-four mother sandwiched between caring for her elderly mother, being a wife, and raising a seventh grader son. She writes of this experience beautifully.
In a nutshell, No More Words is a poignant memoir. It was lovely of Reeve to quote her mother’s work at the beginning of every chapter, but she also included some of her sister’s poetry and a snippet of her father’s autobiography. Like a delicious cake studded with extra sweet strawberries, Reeve’s memoir is a treat of all the Lindbergh’s voices.
Maybe it is because I am of Reeve’s age when she lost her mother. Maybe it is because my own mother’s health keeps me up at night. Maybe it is the simple fact that I know nothing lasts forever, but No More Words became a primer for me on how to listen to your mother. I mean really listen. Reeve taught me how to remove the resentment and hurt and just be. Reeve travels beyond correcting and criticizing to compassion and calm. I only hope I have that same grace when it is my turn.

Confessional: I had Reeve in my head when my mother telephoned last weekend. She can go months without speaking to me so when, after only four weeks, she said we hadn’t spoken for awhile I almost felt combative. Taking a deep breath, I let the comment pass and instead listened to her babble on about 1920 sausage-making methods, chimpanzees in space, and pheasants in the yard. How many of these moments will I have left?

Favorite takeaway (and there many): the chant of right here, right now set to breath in and out.

Book trivia: each new chapter begins with a quote from something Anne Morrow Lindbergh has published, either in a college paper or in a book.

Music: “Wabash Cannonball”, “Winter Wonderland”, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Andres Segovia.

Of Time and Turtles

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Montgomery, Sy. Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell By Shattered Shell. Illustrated by Matt Patterson. Mariner Books, 2023.

Reason read: my sister gave this to me as a Christmas gift. I have long since broken my rule about non-Challenge books, especially ones given to me by my sister. She is, after all, the one responsible for the Challenge in the first place.

If you remember (and it is okay if you don’t), my sister gave me another Sy Montgomery book called Soul of an Octopus. This time it is a book about turtles, my absolute favorite creature on the planet. Sy Montgomery and her friend and illustrator, Matt Patterson, spend some time volunteering with the Turtle Rescue League (TRL is not be be confused with the MTV show Total Request Live). This TRL is a Massachusetts-based organization with the sole purpose of rescuing and rehabilitating (when possible) turtles of all kinds. Think of Montgomery’s Of Time and Turtles as a love story; a memoir about her time volunteering with TRL making friends with people and rescued turtles instead of a scientific deep dive into the biological and physiological makeup of the species. She repeatedly falls in love with various snappers and sliders so much so that their stories become an integral part of the narrative. You want to know what happens to each and every rescue.
As an aside, Matt Patterson’s illustrations are fantastic.

As an aside, while I appreciated Montgomery’s openness surrounding transgender and transsexual people (she spent several pages on the topic), if she is going to talk about it, I would have liked to see her dive into the gender specifications and sexual preferences of everyone in her story: Cris, Matt, Michaela, Clint, Emily, and Heidi. I read a good blog

Author fact: Montgomery has written a plethora of books. The only other one I have read is The Soul of an Octopus given to me by, you guessed it, my sister.

Book trivia: Of Time and Turtles has a great collection of illustrations (by Matt Patterson) and a small section of photographs.

Music: Slayer, and “Sweet Home Alabama”.

Deep Work

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Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

Reason: professional development in 2025.

Newport may seem like he is giving advice that everyone should know, but it is much more than that. It is difficult to shut out noise and concentrate on one thing at a time, but if you can do it, according to Cal Newport you will be more successful. Did you know there is such a thing as a mental athlete? I had no idea there are some world class mental athletes out there able to memorize tremendous amounts of material.
As an aside, I am also reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and there is some overlap with the advice regarding setting up routines and developing rhythms. All good stuff!

Confessional: I had to look up where Alan Lightman spent his time writing. When Newport said it was a “tiny island” off the coast of Maine, I knew it was not Monhegan Island, but was still very curious. Not to disclose the location, I will say I knew people from that area (they have since passed).

Author fact: Newport has a plethora of material out there. YouTube, blogs, Wikis, you name it.

Atomic Habits

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Clear, James. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. Penguin RandomHouse, 2018.

Reason read: professional development for 2025.

Most of the advice in Atomic Habits may seem like common sense but really it is the advice that you don’t think to take. There are a myriad of tricks you can use to get ahead in life. Clear makes it abundantly easy to adopt many of them and he writes in a tone that is easy going and never didactic (he even throws in a Game of Thrones reference). Here are some of my favorites: think of getting ahead as a game, complete with competitive strategies and a well-defined playbook; reframe your why (saying “I do not smoke.” instead of “I am trying to quit.”) and you can learn a great deal by watching other successful people (what are their habits?). This last Clear advice is probably my favorite because I have always believed in what I call the Particle Theory. I honestly believe people come into your life for a very specific reason. When they leave your life as they often will, it is because you have used up their purpose or that reason for being in your life; you have gotten all that you could out of that relationship. I believe you will unconsciously pick up habits and personality traits from the people closest to you, whether you like it or not. How influential that person is to your life determines how steadfast the habit or trait will be.
If you are short on time, Clear also includes chapter summaries that are well thought out and detailed.

Favorite quote: “I sat in my car and cried as I flipped through the radio, desperately searching for a song that would make me feel better” (p 5). I have been there many times!

Music: Beyoncé.

Massachusetts Bucket List Adventure Guide

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Briggs, Erin. Massachusetts Bucket List Adventure Guide. Canyon Press, 2022.

Reason read: For fun, I decided to read an adventure book about places to see in Massachusetts. Here are a few of my favorite selections:

  • The Tiny Museum
  • the Forest Park rose Garden
  • Gunn Brook Falls
  • Purgatory Chasm
  • the EcoTarium
  • Chesterfield Gorge Reservation
  • Parker River National Wildlife Refuge
  • Hancock Shaker Village (Natalie connection: she performed there!)
  • Pontoosuc Lake (the book doesn’t mention swimming, but fishing is popular)
  • Myles Standish Burial Ground
  • the Museum of Bad Art
  • New England Aquarium (a word to the wise: be mindful of price information. Even though — was published in 2022, the price listed is $10. It’s actually $44 unless you are a member, child, or senior citizen.)
  • Warren Anatomical Museum (gets my vote for the strangest place)
  • Boston Gardens where the Make Way for Ducklings statue is located (I did not know that the Mallard family all have names. The ducklings have J-Q names rhyming with “ack” and mama is just Mrs. Mallard.)

The only complaint I had about the book is that the book is organized in alphabetical order of town rather than adventure. You have to know where you are going before you can chose the event. The “did You Know?” section is a little goofy, but I did learn a few things.

Soul of an Octopus

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Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. Atria, 2015.

Reason read: leisure. A coworker gave this to me and how could I resist?

I have mixed feelings about The Soul of an Octopus. If it had been titled The Soul of an Octopus: a Memoir about Bonding with This Mysterious Creature, I would understand the narrative much better. The subtitle made me think I would be getting something a bit more didactic and less charming and scientific-adjacent. Montgomery commuted from her home in New Hampshire to the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts, once a week to interact with various octopuses. [As an aside, if you have never been there – GO.] Montgomery developed relationships with NEA staff, trainers, and fellow volunteers while growing attached to the animals, specifically the octopuses. If you didn’t pick up Soul of an Octopus because the subtitle was a little off-putting, rest assured that the writing is not bogged down with technical jargon. It is an easy read. You will learn conversation-starting facts you can use at your next party; like, did you know an octopus lays eggs like a chicken, fertilized or not. You know an octopus has eight arms, but did you know an octopus has three hearts and will taste you with hundreds of suckers on each of those eight arms? If you have seen “My Octopus Teacher” you already know they are smart, clever, and seemingly emotional creatures.

Confessional: there was something to Montgomery’s writing that made me think she wanted her readers to be jealous of her. I have no idea why I feel that way. Maybe it is because she was continuously putting herself in a special relationship with various octopuses that may or may not have existed outside of her mind.

As an aside, a restaurant that Montgomery mentions, Jose McIntyre’s, is permanently closed. Since it was on Milk Street, I have to wonder if I have ever eaten there. It’s on the way to the aquarium.

Book trivia: The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award Finalist.

Music: John Denver, Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World”, Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”, and Roberta Flack’s “Baby, I Love You”.

Learning to Swim

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Dugan, Shayla. Learning to Swim. Egret Lake Books, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to read some pretty cool books. This is one of them.

Coming off of reading It Was Her New York by Moen, I thought Learning to Swim would be a hard act to follow. The premises appeared to be similar: daughters taking care of their mothers. But that is where the similarities end. Whereas Moen’s story is gritty nonfiction, Dugan’s Learning to Swim tells the fictionalized story of the “sandwich” generation – a woman taking care of her child at the same time as taking care of her parent. Gabrielle moved back home to care for former Olympic swimmer mother, Ida, who needs bypass surgery. In stereotypical fashion the two have never really gotten along. At the same time Gabrielle has thoughtlessly dragged her thirteen year old daughter, Juniper, along completely uprooting her life as well. I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say through learning to swim, grandmother, mother and daughter learn to accept each other. The ending of the book was very appropriate.
My only complaint is that Learning to Swim could have been a longer book. Dugan does such a great job sketching the characters and making them come alive. By giving them histories she creates depth, but she could have gone further with them. Here is an example: Gabrielle doesn’t know how she likes her eggs. It totally reminded me of a scene right out of Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts. She didn’t know how she liked her eggs because she was too busy trying to please others. Here is a better example: Gabrielle’s half-brother Chad refused to step up to take care of his mother despite living closer. When he does finally enter the picture it is out of greed and exaggerated indifference to Gabrielle’s grief. Nothing explained the disconnect except to say that the half-siblings were not close growing up.

Character question – Ida’s mother died and wasn’t found for three days because Ida and her father were at an out of state swim meet. Were there no phones? Neither daughter nor husband thought to check in with the woman? At the very least wouldn’t they want to tell her how the meet was going?

As an aside, there was one line that had me scratching my head. Gabrielle said her patience gauge was at “437”. What exactly does that number mean? Have you ever read the poem by Shel Silverstein about the number of teeth in a wild boar’s mouth? The narrator calmly tells someone he will not be impressed by any number thrown at him because he doesn’t know anything about the number of teeth in a wild boar’s mouth. Same with the patience gauge at 437.

As another aside, I loved that someone ate a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. That is my all time favorite.

Book trivia: this was my first book with a AI disclaimer on training.

Big Heart Little Stove

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French, Erin. Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals and Moments From the Lost Kitchen. Celadon Press, 2024.

Reason read: the obsession continues! Actually, in all fairness I needed a book that fit into two genres for the Portland Public Reading Challenge and this fits the bill. Part memoir and all cookbook, I think it fits.

In a word, gorgeous. There is very little else I can say about Big Heart Little Stove without trying the recipes and telling you how they turn out. The food looks delicious. The memoir portion of the book, disguised as longer then usual introductions to each chapter and recipe, are heart-warming. The photography is stunning. My favorite is the one of French sitting with her mother at an outdoor table. French goes a step further and offers advice about setting the table, making the meal special, bringing nature to the plate… And then there is Maine. What is not to love about Big Heart Little Stove?
While the television show never focuses on the alcohol served with meals (except to say French’s mother is the ad hoc sommelier), it was interesting to see beer in some of the the photographs. The coolest shot was of the Maine Beer Company’s best seller, “Lunch”, which also happens to be a favorite of my husband’s.

Sugaring Off

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French, Gillian. Sugaring Off. Algonquin, 2022.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library 2024 Reading Challenge and was struggling to find something from the North Star Award nominee list. I am nowhere near being a young adult. Sometimes I wonder if I ever qualify as adult, but that is a whole other story. I found this book and decided it fit.

The backstory: Joel Dotrice was arrested ten years ago for fracturing his daughter’s skull when she was seven years old. Imagine this – he threw her down the stairs. On purpose. Partially deaf ever since, Rochelle “Owl” Dotrice has lived with her uncle and his wife. They own a maple sugaring farm in the mountains of northern New Hampshire and life seems pretty routine…until the Dotrice family gets notice that dad has made parole and Seth hires a teen named Cody to help with the sugaring.
Whether French was intentional or not, in the beginning of Sugaring Off I felt the story of Owl moved slowly, like cold sap moving through the trunk of a maple tree. As the story heated up, like sap to syrup, it began to flow faster with more flavor and intensity. Having said that, I am not a fan of overly dramatic descriptions of characters or plots. I feel they are ploys to get the reader crack open the book. The inside cover of Sugaring Off describes Cody as “magnetic and dangerous.” Spoiler alert! For the first two thirds of the book Cody is a sullen and silent cigarette-smoking teen who wants nothing more than to stay away from adults and maybe take Owl’s virginity. Oh yeah, she’s attracted to him, too. The real threat seemed to be daddy making parole. Would he come back for revenge? It was Owl’s testimony that put him away.
As an aside, I understand why the parole of Owl’s father was pivotal to the plot, but I felt it was unnecessary trickery in the face of Cody’s mystique. More could have been done to build up Cody’s “dangerous” character because Seth’s outrage about Owl’s relationship with the teen was misplaced. If Seth thought Cody was such a threat, why did he let Owl work so closely with him? What happened to big bad dad? He drifted out of the story as more of Cody’s dark past was revealed. This was written for teens and so I thought like a teen and questioned everything.

Little Liar

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Albom, Mitch. Little Liar. Harper, 2023.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book currently on the New York Times bestseller list. Little Liar was on that list when I was looking for something to read.

Where do I begin with this little book about a liar? From start to finish it was amazing. I couldn’t read for hours at a time due to the subject matter of the Holocaust, but in small doses it was fantastic. I do not want to describe the plot at all except to say the angel of truth is the first person narrator which lends an air of fairytale, but it is far from being a magical imagining from Albom’s mind. The setting is World War II. Real people like actress Katalin Karady and real events like the rescue of families waiting to be shot by Arrow Cross are faithfully reproduced in Little Liar. The magic comes from Albom bringing all characters and events, factual and fictional, to life. The characters’ human emotions come across loud and crystal clear and yet, like glass, there is a delicacy, a subtle nuance that haunts. Take, for example, how easily the small misunderstandings during childhood can quickly blossom into full blown adulthood hate. Lifelong passionate jealousies carried behind a vengeful ice cold exterior. It reminded me of the cold and heavy chains of Jacob Marley.
As an aside, what an interesting locale for Little Liar. When people speak of World War II and the Nazi regime not many people think of how the island of Greece weathered the atrocities.

As another aside, the last person to read my copy of Little Liar must have smoked like a fiend because the book reeked of old cigarette smoke. So gross. I put it in the freezer for a little while with some lavender sprigs. That seemed to do the trick.

Line I loved the most, “By the time you share what a loved one longs to hear, they often no longer need it” (p 142). I am living that truth every single day.

Author fact: I was first introduced to Albom when he published Tuesdays with Morrie. While I haven’t read everything he has ever written, I can say I have enjoyed everything I have.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Playlist: Lucinda Williams

Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers

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Home Grown Gardening. Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers: Easy Plants for More Beautiful Gardens. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999.

Reason read: what can I say? I have fallen into a rabbit hole of discovery. From the moment I first read Finding Freedom by Erin French I have been on a culinary journey. I specifically borrowed Best Roses so I could do a little research on edible flowers.

The first chapter of Best Roses pays special attention to growing roses from the first day you put them in the ground to keeping them going for generations to come. That would make a lot of sense considering the title of the book starts with “best roses.”
In truth, I didn’t find Best Roses all that helpful. Maybe it’s because the focus is more on roses than anything else. Out of the 263 pages, the first 116 are all about identifying specific roses. There is one recipe for rose hip jam and how to transplant a rose before moving on to soil Ph, soil nutrients, propagation, and creating an aromatic garden. It isn’t until page 129 when you dig into herbs and edible flowers. The book ends with a primer on how to harvest and preserve herbs, a glossary, a hardiness zone map, credits for the gorgeous photograph, and an index.
As an aside, I was reminded of an episode of “Judging Amy” when Amy took over her mother’s house and dug up the “old” roses in the yard. Little did she know, the bush had been an irreplaceable family heirloom which had been passed down for generations. Why Amy’s mother never told her the story of the roses especially since they were so important is beyond me.

Author fact: Home Grown Gardening took most of the information from Taylor’s 50 Best Roses and Taylor’s 50 Best Herbs and Edible Flowers.

Book trivia: Roses is chock full of gorgeous photographs but short on in-depth information. I said that already.

Lost Kitchen

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French, Erin. Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine. Clarkson Potter, 2017.

Reason read: because I was curious, plain and simple.

It all started with Finding Freedom, Erin French’s memoir about overcoming hardships to return to Maine and create one of the most sought after dining experiences in the world. It is truly a rags-to riches, triumph-over-tragedy, feel-good story. Finding Freedom led to me to television series, The Lost Kitchen and that in turn brought me to French’s cookbooks. Lost Kitchen (the cookbook) is gorgeous with just the right amount of memoir and menus. Photographs and recipes crowd nearly every single page. There is a bit of her biography in the beginning, but she glosses over the messy stuff in order to get to the endearing parts of her story: local girl comes home and makes her hometown a dining destination and here, she has shared some of her recipes with you.
Confessional: I am not interested in quail eggs, razor clams, or chicken livers. I can’t eat shrimp or grapefruit, either. What I did salivate over was anything rhubarb, fiddlehead, or parsnip. I was super excited to see the spicy tomato/tomatillo soup she made on one episode of The Lost Kitchen. She serves it as a summer soup, but I’m thinking it could even be a warm soup served with garlic croutons…

Roma

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Croce, Julia Della. Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City. Chronicle Books, 2004.

Reason read: Having just come back from Rome, a coworker gave this to me as a gift.

There is more to Roma than delicious recipes and luxurious photographs. Inside the pages of this cookbook you will find the history of some of Rome’s most traditional ingredients like polenta, olives, and artichokes. You will read about what Caesar liked to serve his guests (moray eels) and learn that Anzio was the birth place of Caligula and Nero. Croce also includes a section on where to eat and sleep in and around the ancient city. Because she includes addresses, phone numbers, and days of operations, it is strongly advised to doublecheck this information as Roma was published nearly twenty years ago. Some places may have not survived Rome’s devastating battle with Covid in 2020. There is a section of mail order resources, complete with address, phone number, fax, website and a brief description. Again, I would check for accuracy.
One of my favorite sections of Roma is the information on festivals. The ancient city celebrates everything from polenta, artichokes, flower artwork, fish, pork, lentils, bread salad, olive oil, and of course, grapes.
Croce ends Roma with information about cooking schools, wine courses and Italy tours, starting with her own Italian cooking school, La Vera Cucina and ending with “To Italy with Julia”, a culinary and cultural tour of Italy.
As an aside, I liked the phrase “an aggressive use of pepper” but it had me wondering exactly how much constituted “aggressive” in Croce’s eyes.

Book trivia: The gorgeous photographs within Roma were shot by Paolo Destefanis.

Author fact: I only have this one cookbook by Julia Croce. Probably because I am not a huge fan of Italian cuisine. I am a huge fan of Chronicle Books, though. I have several cookbooks from them.

As an aside, while I was in Rome for ten days I had the privilege of staying with a Roman family in the Laurentino district. On New Year’s Eve, my host cooked an elaborate ten course meal that included pasta, fish, salad, and bread. The last dish (served at 1:30am) was a lentil-sausage stew. The sausage rounds symbolized coins of wealth in the coming year. It was really delicious.

Finding Freedom

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French, Erin. Finding Freedom: Celadon, 2021.

Reason read: this was a gift from my sister. I read everything that comes from her, especially if it takes place in Maine.

To say Erin French is a fighter is an understatement. Let’s start with childhood with an mentally abusive father. I think about what kind of person I would be if, unless I was doing something for him, I never received honest love from my father. To watch him drown kittens would be enough to traumatize me for life. [That is the stuff of nightmares, especially if you are too young to understand the necessity of the act.]
Finding Freedom is not only a story of redemption, but one of tenacity. Coming from a small town is almost always seen as a curse. There is a stigma around being from Nowhere, America. You are considered a nobody if you can’t get out. Breaking free and escaping from your small provincial hometown to make it in the “real world” is always the unspoken goal. Erin almost made it out, but when she had a child out of wedlock and had to come crawling home to Freedom, Maine, it should have been a source of shame, but instead the act saved Erin’s life. Even though there were more adversities to come, her son Jaim gave her a reason to live, to fight, and to succeed. Because of him she was able to navigate a horrific (some would say diabolical) divorce, survive a bizarre custody battle for Jaim, conquer an all-consuming alcohol and prescription pill addiction, and find financial stability. She was able to break down every roadblock her ex-husband and her own demons put in front of her.
You may think I have given you spoilers for Finding Freedom. Believe me when I say I haven’t. There is so much more to Erin’s story. Read it for yourself to find out.

Book trivia: Each section of Finding Freedom is separated by a place in Maine: Hope, Unity, Prospect, Liberty, and Freedom. If people are not familiar with rural Maine they might think she is talking about something entirely different.

Quote to quote, “I didn’t want to live a life where dollar amounts dictated dreams” (p 52). Amen to that. My father always told me, do what you love and love what you do. If you live within the means of your passion you will never want for anything.

Playlist: Cesaria Evora, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Bette Midler’s “Baby of mine”, Stevie Nicks, the Sound of Music soundtrack, and Whitney Houston.