Happy Thanksgiving!

 Wishing all who are celebrating a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving,

and a very happy and healthy Thursday to those who are not!

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, with some Christmas knitting. It finally dawned on me that it's only a month away and I better get going if I am going to mail some gifts to Ryan and have them arrive on time.

To be honest I've had a little bit of trouble knitting through the pain during the past couple of days. I've tried knitting after taking tylenol with codeine, but then I seem to knit when I should be purling and vice versa. This is not helpful when the mitts are worked in k2p2 ribbing but I'm going to keep plugging away. I wanted to knit something bright and cheery for Ryan and these stripes in the Must Stash Vespa colorway seem to fill the bill (or is the expression "fit the bill"? Here's an opinion.)

There has also been some making for Thanksgiving, in the form of pumpkin pies, stuffing, and later today I'll be making several dozen crescent rolls. I make things ahead of Thursday mainly because I only have one oven, but I dream of the day when I might have double ovens or the boys will live close enough to make some parts of dinner. Who knows, maybe even next year? (I can dream, and I'm dreaming of Ryan and Justin being closer.)

I finished reading A Spot of Bother (an engaging three stars from me) and started Miss Benson's Beetle and A Promised Land. I haven't made a lot of progress in either book (see pain and drugs above) but Miss Benson seems entertaining and I'm very glad Joe Biden won the election (for many reasons). I don't think I could have faced reading the first volume of Barack Obama's memoir if that was not the case. Mr. Obama says, “I’m painfully aware that a more gifted writer could have found a way to tell the same story with greater brevity (after all, my home office in the White House sat right next to the Lincoln Bedroom, where a signed copy of the 272-word Gettysburg Address rests inside a glass case.”

“I found my mind resisting a simple linear narrative. Often, I felt obliged to provide context for the decisions I and others had made”

In my reading so far, I have found his writing brilliant (even if not particularly brief). Listening to him read his own book makes it even better. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Women of Brewster Place - It's a Wrap!

Today it's time for a wrap-up of our most recent Read With Us book group selection — The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor.

As the Read With Us group is evolving, growing, and trying new things, we did things a bit differently this time. Kym, Carole, and I each posed different discussion questions on our blogs last Tuesday, and some of you responded that way in the comments. 

Just in case you missed them or would like to review, here are the questions:

Kym asked several thoughtful questions: I'd really like to know what you thought of the book (or the movie, if you watched that). How did it make you feel? Did you like it? Do you think it deserves the attention it got when it was first written? How does it compare to more recent/contemporary novels you've read?

The actual street - Brewster Place - and its wall are like characters, personified. Do you agree or disagree? And would you say the street/wall is a protagonist or an antagonist? And does the street/wall, itself, have any impact on the story or its outcome?

Okay . . . that ending! What do you make of it? It's meant to be Mattie Michael's dream-scene, with the women of Brewster Place dismantling the wall brick-by brick. Does that work for you? Or not?

Carole wondered about these aspects of the book: What do you think of the novel’s structure? How does each woman’s individual voice reinforce the novel’s themes as a whole?

Each of these women is capable of enormous love, but they are often hurt by their loved ones. What do you think Naylor is saying about a woman’s capacity for love? Is this sort of love “worth it”? Would these women be happier if they had hardened their hearts to those who eventually let them down?

Many of these women came from the South and Naylor portrays it as both a land of plenty and a land of harsh deprivation. How are these women’s lives different living in the North–are they happier? more fulfilled? more subject to racial bias? Is there more opportunity for them in Brewster Place than in the South?

I asked just one question: Each of the women in The Women of Brewster Place copes with enormous loss in their lives, but each one of them manages their grief differently. Compare, for instance, Mattie’s loss of her house and her son with Ceil’s loss of her baby. How do the women support one another? What could these women learn from each other? 

(If you click on the link for each of us you will be able to read the discussion in the comments.)

Gloria Naylor

But then at 7:00 pm, Kym hosted a Zoom discussion session for the book. I know Zoom isn't new, but it was new for Read With Us, and I think it went wonderfully. There were seven of us that were able to attend, and that was a great number. Some of us knew each other, some of us did not, but it felt like were all fast friends by the end of the evening. I was a little too anxious and excited to even take a screenshot, but hopefully, this will just be the first of Read With Us Zoom discussions. 

We talked about the structure of the book, how our lives are similar with a sense of community, and how we thought and hoped that things should have gotten better since the book was published in 1983, but sadly they have not in any substantive way. 

We also discussed the ending, and several good ideas helped me to understand it a little bit better. Several of us thought the ending didn't fit very well because the rest of the book was so based in reality, but Karel pointed out that there really was no wrapping up a book filled with so much tragedy in a sweet package. Sarah suggested that racism and sexism were so ingrained in society that they had to be broken down from both sides of "the wall". 

We also talked about how we as white women have access to many more resources (emotional, physical, financial, etc.) than the women in the book, so we could only ever have a limited understanding of what it was like for Mattie to lose everything when her son Basil jumped bail. And then there was the age question. Kym asked Sarah how she felt about the book, given that she was significantly younger than the rest of us. I hadn't even thought about that, but Sarah did say that she had a little trouble placing the story in time and place because she hadn't lived through it. There is nothing like a good "in-person" book discussion to present lots of new and interesting possibilities in a book! (We also got to sip wine together and admire each other's knitting and spinning.)

We have a readers' surprise package and after putting the names of everyone that left a comment and participated in the Zoom discussion in a hat, I chose one and the winner is Patty! Thanks to Patty (your package will be arriving soon) and thanks so much to all of you for reading with us! 

And STAY TUNED for the big announcement of our next Read With Us book selection . . . coming to a blog near you on Tuesday, December 8th!

Sometimes Monday ...

... is a day for nephrolithiasis (in other words, kidney stones). On Saturday I woke up with severe left-side adbominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. After six or seven hours, the pain had migrated to my lower back, and I began to get a clearer picture of diagnosing myself. Initially, I was thinking about diverticulitis, but as the day wore on and a few more symptoms appeared, kidney stones seemed to be a more likely candidate in the differential diagnosis. 

I called my SiL (a family practice physician) to ask for her advice. I wasn't very anxious to go to the Emergency Room, and she agreed with my self-diagnosis and confirmed that all they could really do was give me drugs and do some imaging to confirm. I might call my doctor today to see what he wants me to do, but I don't want to spend any more time at the hospital than necessary. They are right in describing the pain as being akin to childbirth, so some good drugs might entice me. 

                Kidney stones under the microscope look like jagged spikes of pain. 

I could also try a roller coaster (but I am fairly sure I won't be doing that). I hope your weekend was a little better than mine!

Poetry on Thursday

Ryan and I talk often on the phone, and our conversations very often turn to food. It's one of the few joys that we can rely on to sustain us, make us happy, and give us something to talk about. We recently had a conversation about how to make lentil soup less boring. Ryan recommended kielbasa or chorizo, but he puts chorizo in lots of things. I wondered if there were poems about soup, and want to share this wonderful one with you today. 

Da Capo

Jane Hirshfield

Take the used-up heart like a pebble
and throw it far out.

Soon there is nothing left.
Soon the last ripple exhausts itself
in the weeds.

Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery.
Glaze them in oil before adding
the lentils, water, and herbs.

Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt.
Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat.

You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.
Begin again the story of your life.

Hirshfield, Jane. "Da Capo". The Lives of the Heart, Harper Perennial, 1997. 
You can read more about the poet here. 
And here is a recipe for lentil soup with chestnuts. I usually make my lentil soup with mushrooms, but since Jane wrote about adding roasted chestnuts, I think I may try this (if I can find a can of chestnuts at the grocery store). 

I wish you mindfulness, peace, good health, a pot of soup simmering on your stove, and some poetry as this week winds down.

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, with a bound-off  and blocked Stormy Night to Bright Light of Dawn. (Finally!)

This may be one of the favorite ones I've ever knit, but I think I've said that about almost every one I've made. It's chilly and breezy here today so I'm enjoying the lovely warmth around my neck and these colors just make me happy.

In reading, I finished The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop. Wonder Boy was sort of a sequel to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which I really enjoyed, but this sequel was too non-linear and jumped around too much in time and place for me to give it more than three stars. I also finished Winter Solstice, a comfort re-read that served its purpose well. I've started A Spot of Bother, and love this quote: “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” Those may be my words to live by this week.

What are you making and reading this week?

Women of Brewster Place - Book Discussion

Now that we've recovered (somewhat) from our election-induced stress, it's time to discuss our current Read With Us book, The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor. Carole, Kym, and I are each posting a different discussion question on our blogs today, and you are welcome to answer, discuss, or just leave a comment with your opinion about the book. Thanks in advance for participating in whatever way works for you! 

Here's one of the things that struck me about the book:

Each of the women in The Women of Brewster Place copes with enormous loss in their lives, but each one of them manages their grief differently. Compare, for instance, Mattie’s loss of her house and her son with Ceil’s loss of her baby. How do the women support one another? What could these women learn from each other? 

Then tonight at 7:00 pm Eastern, we'll be having a Zoom book discussion! If you haven't already done so, please let Carole, Kym, or me know that you would like to attend and we'll make sure you receive an invitation. I hope to see as many of you that can join us (with your knitting and beverage of choice). We'll have fun and maybe even discuss the book a little bit!