The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life

By: Mark Rowlands

Hennepin County Library hardcover 230 pages plus "further reading"

Published: 2024

Genre: non-fiction, philosophy

The slightly sacrilegious title caught my attention but I love my dog and was curious about this for one of my daughters-in-law. I was on the waiting list for a very long time and need to return it now, but I've only read a fraction of it.

 

He is most definitely a philosophy professor! His references to Sartre, Socrates, etc. are numerous. The stories of his dogs are my favorite part. He clearly loves his dogs.

 

Page 21: "Shadow's  reactivity seems to be fundamentally territorial, but territory, for him, is a moveable feast. His territory is wherever he is."

Yes! This is how Titus is. His territory expands and he protects it vigorously. There was a lot about Shadow that I could relate to . . . 

Page 178: "Why do dogs love life so much more than we do? The answer, I think, is that life is always more precious for a dog than for a human because we have two lives and dogs only have one."

Rowlands goes on to explain that humans have the "inner" and "outer" lives to live simultaneously. I just like how he gets at the amazing exuberance that dogs have for life. They are very "in the moment" creatures.

I haven't decided yet if I'll buy a copy of this for Mari. I think she might like it, but I want to be a thoughtful gift giver. I will return it to the library for the next person on hold!

My Life Stories

by: Phillip Warren Radtke

Storyworth hardcover 355 pages

Published: 2024 (Storyworth)

Genre: memoir

My BFF from childhood on loaned me her dad's Storyworth book. I enjoyed reading it and am even mentioned a few times. (Jenifer and I did spend a LOT of time at one another's houses in the 1970s and 80s.)

In his answer to "Do you prefer summer or winter?" Phil made me laugh. As he was talking about the different seasons and what he liked, the repetition of weeds or no weeds culminated in "I DON'T LIKE WEEDS!!!" 

I liked how much he respected his parents. For years, I struggled to understand who raised him. Hearing "Ma and Pa Waknitz" always made me think Phil's grandparents had raised him. But when his mom died, Phil's dad had sisters who took in his sons. Louie and Martha took Don. Charley and Marie took Dean. At almost two years old, Phil went to August and Emma Waknitz. 

In "What games did you play when you were young?" Phil wrote about the fun he had with his brothers, cousins, and neighbor kids. He ends the section with, "Life was much simpler in those days. You worked hard, you played hard and you listened to Ma and Pa. Mostly Ma :)"

In "How did you figure out how to be a parent?" Phil said "I'm still working on it. :) A lot of it is what you see and experience by example. Being raised by loving and caring people sets the tone of how you learn to live." He has some nice wisdom here.

Reading the section dedicated to Jenifer made tears well up in my eyes. He ended it with, "I like to tell people that I spoiled you for sixteen years and you have been spoiling me ever since."

I enjoyed reading Phil's stories. One thing I noticed that I'm pretty sure happened in my book too was the repetition of certain stories or elements. It's hard to cull those out! I also wish Jenifer had taken me up on my offer to proofread before publishing. There were little spelling and grammar errors that don't detract from the stories, but make this English teacher do a mini cringe. (Things like "dinning" instead of "dining" room . . . ) Ah well. Most people aren't as picky as I am about that. I loved reading Phil's reminiscences and am so glad he wrote them down! I wish I had more of my parents' stories.

When I Looked Back, You Were Gone

By: Cary Waterman

personal paperback, 89 pages

Published: 1992

Genre: poetry

 

I got this book when I was working on my master's degree. It was required for one of my literature classes. Since I'm trying to decrease my possessions and one of my daughters-in-law enjoys poetry, I decided to re-read it and give it to her.

 

Waterman is very talented, but I mostly like poetry when I can read a little at a time, saying lines aloud, and thinking about the meaning. Some of the poems I had marked up with observations. 

 

I like the sentimental ones about parents the best. I love some of her figurative language; the images are evocative.

The Bangalore Detectives Club

By: Harini Nagendra

Libby audiobook 9 hours

Read by: Soneela Nankani

Published: 2022

Genre: Murder mystery, historical fiction

This was another audiobook that was available and a mystery. I enjoyed it, but felt like I was having an intense cultural immersion experience. If this had been a print book, I would have been turning to the glossary! Names of people, food, places, etc. were very, very Indian.

Kaveri has married the handsome young doctor Ramu. Libby describes the book like this:

The first in a charming, joyful cozy crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband, Ramu. Perfect for fans of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

I'm not sure how much was representative of the era (1920s) or the culture (India), but I had some difficulty with the child bride aspect (as young as 8 years old!?) and the idea that women were property of their fathers, then their husbands. A lot of the cultural aspects were challenging for me . . . but it was very well written. 

The killer was found. Kaveri is very fortunate to have a wonderful, supportive husband. I found it hard to believe that the police would share info with civilians and let them work on the case with him . . .

Murder at Morrington Hall

By: Clara McKenna

(Subtitled "A Stella and Lyndy Mystery Book 1)

Libby audiobook 8 hours

Read by: Sarah Zimmerman

Published: 2019

Genre: Murder mystery, romance, historical fiction

I grabbed this audiobook because it was listed as a mystery and it was available. It's more romance than mystery, in my opinion, but it was enjoyable. Stella finds out that she is to be married to a stranger on a trip to England with her father in 1905. The Earl of Atherly is in financial straits and Stella's father is a wealthy horse breeder. Viscount "Lyndy" Lyndhurst is more interested in the thoroughbreds that Mr. Kendrick has brought from Kentucky than he is (initially) in his bride-to-be.

The vicar is murdered at Morrington Hall and the wedding is on hold until the mystery can be solved. Alice (Lyndy's sister), Miss Westwood, her fiance', her parents, the Atherlys, and many servants both indoors and at the stables make up the possible suspects.

Stella must overcome everyone's bias against Americans. Her dad's rudeness doesn't help! Mr. Kendrick is the worst. This is the first in a series which I may read more or I might not. 

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of "agister" is: " an officer of the royal forests in England who has the care of livestock." I was guessing it was some sort of horse wrangler when the word was used in the book. I love words!

Leaves of Grass: Poems of Walt Whitman

By: Walt Whitman

Selected by: Lawrence Clark Powell

Woodcuts by John and Clare Romano Ross

Discarded hardcover 158 pages plus a "Whitman Reading List," an Index of Titles, an Index of First Lines, and an "About the Compiler" and "About the Artists"

Published: 1964

Genre: Poetry, American

I have, of course, been familiar with this title and with Walt Whitman for several decades. When I weeded my school library in the late 1990s and removed this title, I kept it with the intention that I would read it and then donate it. Well, over twenty-five years later, I'm finally following through! (I weeded it because it was not an appealing book for middle schoolers. It was a leftover relic of the high school collection.)

The Contents are as follows:

Walt Whitman

America the Beautiful

Earth, Sea, and Sky

I, Walt Whitman

Love Poems

War Poems

Come, Sweet Death

 

This book smells old . . . and I don't mean that in a good way. I don't see evidence of water damage or bugs, but it isn't terribly pleasant in scent. I noticed several places where Whitman wrote "Kanada" or "Manhatta" or other interesting place names. I'm not sure what that was about.

Page 20 (I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing): 

"For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,

Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,

I know very well I could not."

 

His vulnerability and admittance that he needs other people . . . I like how he ended this poem.

 

There were four poems that smacked me in the face with memories of college lit classes! Song of Myself (pg. 72),  I Sing the Body Electric (pg. 112), When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (pg. 130), and O Captain! My Captain! (pg. 139) were all written by Whitman. How did I not remember that?! When I had to study and analyze poetry in college, it kind of ruined my love of poetry. I've been trying to get back to a place where I can read it, savor it, and enjoy it. But seeing each of these titles was so fun! I'd forgotten . . . 

 

Page  103 (When I Read the Book): 

"When I read the book, the biography famous,

And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life?

And so will come one when I am dead and gone write my life?

(As if any man really knew aught of my life,

When even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,

Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections

I seek for my own use to trace out here.)"

 

This poem made me think about life and death and eternity. And what DOES anyone else really know about us - our thoughts, feelings, struggles. What would Whitman himself think of what is "known" and written about him now? 

 

Page  115 (I Sing the Body Electric): 

"The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow in the bones,

The exquisite realization of health;

O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,

O I say now these are the soul!"

Reading this makes me want to find and re-read Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name . . . 

 

The compiler took the liberty of including only the poems (and / or stanzas of poems) that spoke to him most strongly. I liked what he wrote in the introductory chapter. His passion for Whitman's poetry is a big part of the reason I read this entire book. One must really love an author's work to read ALL of it. This selection of poems was interesting, but I've had enough Whitman for a while. It's interesting to me that the poet continued to add and edit to his collection throughout his life and there are many, many different versions of Leaves of Grass available.

Fabergé books

After reading our last book club book and doing a little online research, I decided to request a bunch of books from the library on Fabergé and the eggs.

Fabergé 1846-1920: An International Loan Exhibition assembled on the occasion of the Queen's Silver Jubilee and including objects from the Royal Collection at Sandringham. (Debrett's Peerage Ltd. in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum) Published 1977.

• I love all the photographs! Both photos of the gorgeous works of art and of the history of Fabergé's shop. The color pictures of the creations are far superior to the black and white ones.
  
• Roy Strong (foreword) and A. Kenneth Snowman (introduction) walked a careful line in talking about what makes these pieces special while acknowledging that they were primarily extravagant luxuries for the royal and the rich.
• It was irritating to look at the images and then have to find the paragraph that referenced them. It was a LOT of flipping back and forth to match the info with the image. I didn't bother reading the paragraphs if I didn't have a corresponding picture to look at. (How many times can you read about gold, gems, and techniques?)
• My favorite was the peacock egg, shown on page 37. the paragraph about it was on page 97.

 

 

 

Fabergé's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire. (Toby Faber) Published 2008.

• I only read the intro because I have a lot of books to read right now! It was interesting - the author made it sound as though Fabergé wasn't really that big of a deal. But then he talks about how Fabergé products are made with exquisite quality.
• I went to the photos in the middle of the 241 page book (302 pages with acknowledgments, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index).
• The Fabergé Family Tree (Appendix 1) and the Full Listing of the Imperial Eggs (Appendix 2) were interesting. I'm fascinated by how many of the eggs' (or their "surprises") current location is unknown. Rife for treasure hunting indeed!

The Romanov children were not to blame for the tsar's leadership (or lack thereof). They were innocent victims, murdered with their parents in 1918.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition. (Margaret Kelly Trombly) Published 2017. 

• This one was different in that it examined many different Russian crafts and not just the jeweler's work. It had lovely photos and lots of text that I only skimmed a little. 
• The closeups and details make this worth a look at! These pics are of the "Rose Trellis Egg."
  

 

 

Peter Carl Fabergé: Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Russian Imperial Court. His Life and Work. (Henry Charles Bainbridge, with a foreword by Sacheverell Sitwell) Published 1949, second impression 1967. 

• This book is not attractive. Either it never had a dust jacket or it has gotten lost over the decades.
• The text SOUNDS like a man wrote it over seventy years ago! In a way, it would be an interesting historical study as a piece of academic writing.
• The pictures that are included are all black and white. 
• It still has the "pocket" with 1967 on it in the back of the book.
  
• I barely spent any time on this one.

 

Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé. (Alexander von Solodkoff) Published 1984, this edition 1989.  

• I wish I had spent more time reading this one. The writing is clear, interesting, and has strong historical connections.
• The photos, both color and black white, are wonderful. 
• Forbes (and other wealthy collectors) leave me feeling more grateful than resentful. Using their wealth to accumulate and SHARE great beauty with others is better than just hoarding.
• Honestly, of the five books I've looked at so far, this is the first one I would consider getting again to read and examine thoroughly. It's incredibly beautiful and clearly written. It's also big and heavy! 
• In fact, although I had planned to return all eight books today, I'm going to renew this one and hang onto it a bit longer.

 

Fabergé: Imperial Jeweler. (Géza von Habsburg and Marina Lopato) Published 1993. 

• So many more historical photos! Buildings, people, drawings . . . 
• This is the book for history researchers.

 

Fabergé Revealed: at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (Géza von Habsburg) Published 2011. 

• Big, beautiful, lots of info and pieces. 
• Wonderful photographs

Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths. (Gerard Hill, editor) Published 1989. 

• Pity this is the last one I looked at. It had a whole section about Carl Fabergé and his life. 
• The photos are huge with lots of detail visible.
• The book is also the physically largest of the eight I got and it is heavy and awkward.
• If one wanted a gorgeous coffee table book, this might be the one. 

 

Pearly Everlasting

By: Tammy Armstrong

Libby ebook / Hardcover from Scott County Library 343 with author's note and acknowledgements

Published: 2024

Genre: historical fiction

The HarperCollins blurb about this book says (if you don't like spoilers, skip this): 

An immersive and enchantingly atmospheric novel set during the Great Depression, about a girl and a bear raised as sister and brother in a remote logging camp and the lengths to which they’ll go to protect each other.

New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly. Growing up, Pearly and Bruno share a special bond and become inseparable. While life in the camp can be perilous—loggers are regularly injured or even killed—the Everlasting family form a close-knit community with the woodsmen, who accept and embrace the tame young bear.

But all that changes when a new supervisor arrives, a ruthless profiteer who pushes the workers to their breaking point and abuses Bruno. When the man is found dead in a ditch, the blame falls on the bear; soon after, Bruno is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Determined to rescue the only brother she has ever known, Pearly, now a teenager, sets off alone on a hazardous journey through the forest—her first trip to “the Outside”—to find him. In the harrowing quest to bring him home through miles of ice and snow, eluding malevolent spirits and the cruelty of strange villagers, she will discover new worlds and a strength she never knew she possessed.

Steeped in rural folklore and superstition, and set against the backdrop of an enchanting woodland, Pearly Everlasting is a story about the triumph of good over evil, the beauty of the natural world, and the bonds that cannot be broken.

 

 I don't remember who recommended this book to me, but I had a lot of trouble getting "into" it. 

 

In the chapter "Like Deep Water or Ghosts," there was a scene that really caught my attention. Swicker (the evil supervisor) offers the men in camp bottles of Coca-Cola:

 

"Me and Ivy had shared a bottle of Coca-Cola just about twice in our lives. Swicker's smile reminded me of a leghold trap. Slow and careful, I took them. He glanced at Papa in a smug way. I saw then something elemental in my father for the first time. A rigidness to keep course, a firmness in his own convictions - as easy for him as trickery or vanity or two-facedness was for another man. And I wondered if I too might possess this trait, and it saddened me to think that I might not, that, should the opportunity arise, I might choose the easy mistake again."

 

"When It Thundered but Did Not Rain" is the chapter I was on when I realized I wouldn't finish the ebook in time. I'm glad that I requested and received a print copy from Scott County Library promptly! Interestingly, I enjoyed the book much more (Page 78 of 339 was where I picked up the story). Reading the rest of it was a delight! 

Page 104: "Under all of this, tucked up in newspaper, was Song-catcher's gifts to me and Bruno: our little spoon with the silver bear and the bowl engraved with our names and birth date: Pearly Everlasting and Bruno False Spring 1918. For just a minute, I felt Mama beside me again."

For some reason, the tenderness of this moment really struck me. Pearly was an interesting character and her emotions in this scene are relatable.

Page 115: "It was a house of half-rolled shades and breakfast plates still on the table at suppertime. It was a house that looked preoccupied with thoughts other than being a house. Books strewn everywhere. One wall in the living room dedicated to scraps of paper and magazine tear-outs. Everything stuck through with sewing pins."

Song-catcher and Ebony were super interesting characters. I love this description of their home.

Page 142: "They told him of the daily shape-ups in New York where men stood before a hiring boss and were cut from the crowd like horses, just to earn a day's wages. All of them castaways. Homesick and lost. The world felt like a loose skin, shedding something Ansell could neither recognize nor name."

I love how she uses language here! And Ansell was another lovely character, with his silver-streaked skin that had been struck by lightning.

Page 176: "Everything was still in it, except for three cans of milk and Mama's double-horn necklace from the little inside pocket I'd placed it in to keep it safe. That's when I knew, with sinking certainty, the Go-Preacher had not gone as far away as he'd let on. Nothing but a sneak thief."

 

I hate it when people do evil! But it's ten times worse when it's someone who says they're doing the Lord's work. That is so reprehensible! 

 

Page  221: "'What'd they do with the molasses?'

'What?'

'After they got the windows out. They use it for cookies? Beans?'

'I don't think anyone's asked that before.'"

When Amaël is telling Pearly about stained glass windows being shipped from France to Bracken in vats of molasses to protect them from being broken, she asks a very logical question. Especially during the Great Depression when hunger was a huge force in daily life.

 

Page 246: "'When you leave here, go left, out past where Devlin's dairy used to be, then past where Shuggie used to have his smokehouse. It's out near Frog Pond Road, I think. Over where the old train station café was? The one that used to sell that real good potato hash? You can't miss it.'

As she explained all this, . . .  I walked in the direction the cashier had given me. Uncertain how I'd find things no longer there, I walked, out to where the houses thinned."

I laughed when I read this because I've actually heard people give directions like this! It's as though they think you can see the past and its images in your mind! Poor Pearly. 

Page 333: "'He's been outside your door for days now, hovering around. Bad as the Persian. Worried sick about you, he was.'"

 

Mrs. Prue is talking about her husband. Mr. Prue got Pearly's necklace back for her. She had been attacked by the awful twins. Ansell and Bruno had rescued her then left for the logging camp. I cried. Mr. and Mrs. Prue, along with Amaël the vet all helped redeem the story from all the bad guys and sad events. I love this book.

Postern of Fate

Subtitled: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery

By: Agatha Christie

Libby audiobook 7 hours

Read by: Hugh Fraser

Published: 1973 (this version 2012)

Genre: Murder mystery

This was Christie's last novel written before her death (though other stories were later published posthumously). It is NOT one of her better books. I confess that I had never even heard of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford before reading this book. (So clearly, there are several Christie novels I've not encountered.)

Basic elements of mystery, clues, suspects, etc. are present. But the story is so slow and so boring that I thought it was a knock-off written by someone else. Honestly, the dog Hannibal and the butler were the two best characters. 

Mary Jordan did not die of natural causes. Most of the people in the "case" are gone. Someone has coffee "problems." Tuppence looked through old children's books. Interviews. Old gardener murdered. Gossipy ladies. Blah blah blah. I can't recommend it. And I usually LOVE Agatha Christie stories!