April 26, 2026 PERFECT

 

Perfect. That's the word my daughter used to describe her bridal shower last weekend. And that made it worth all the time and effort. When I decided to have her shower at our house--extreme action was necessary to get our house up to par. Rooms needed painting--aging furniture desperately needed replacing. Light fixtures dating back to the Civil War (JK) needed to be updated. Our house was a hot mess. Figured that it would cost  a good chunk of money to have the shower at a destination so why not spend that extra money on the house and have it here. AND IT REALLY WAS PERFECT. I love a home shower. Ours was intimate--cozy-- AND  the 15 bottles of Prosecco really added to the celebratory mood. Only 5 weeks until the nuptials. Praying for good weather. In the midst of all this craziness, I 'm still managing to read and recently finished the National Book Award winner from 2025, The True True Story of Raja The Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. As this quirky story unfolds, Raja is a retired, gay teacher who lives in a tiny apartment in Beirut with his 85 year old domineering, over protective mother, Zalfa. It's definitely a love/hate relationship. One day, Raja gets a letter in the mail telling him that he has been awarded an all expense paid writing residency in Virginia and he is extremely flattered. The story then flips back and forth through time, as Raja remembers some of the decisions he has made because of his gullibility and the consequences of those choses. The story covers six decades that include war, a banking crisis, sexual violence, kidnapping and even the pandemic. Some of the stories are absurd, crazy and laugh-out-loud funny,  while others are more somber and heart wrenching, but they are all his true stories. This gem is also filled with outlandish characters including his cousin, Nahed, Aunt Yasmine, the neighborhood "godfather" Madame Taweel and many more. Find out if Raja takes another leap of faith and goes to Virginia when you read this well-written, one of a kind story. 

April 6, 2026 IMMIGRATION SONG

 

Back in the day, my grandmother went to the beauty parlor every Friday to have her hair "set".  This ritual  involved a professional shampoo, rollers, pins, a magical "hooded dryer" to "bake the set" and copious amounts of HEAVY DUTY HAIRSPRAY. Yup--that's all it took to have perfect hair for an entire week. And if it rained?? My grandmother must have had the market on plastic rain bonnets. One would magically appear on her head if there was even the threat of rain.  My other grandmother also had a very serious hairdo--the bee hive. It literally stood up on her head almost a foot. I bet that needed some serious hairspray. She wrapped the hive in at least a roll of toilet paper every night to keep that baby in place. I got to thinking about this last weekend while at the hairdresser. I'd had my hair washed, colored and blown out. It look great.  Just wished it would last as long as the "set" did back in the day. Fond memories. Ma, the main character in Megha Majumdar's new book A Guardian and a Thief is not so fortunate.  Set in Kolkata, India, Ma, her father, Babu, and her two year old daughter, Misthi, have one week until they immigrate to the United States to join her husband in Michigan. Ma is the manager of a homeless shelter in the city--a city facing climate change and severe famine. People are desperate to feed their families and many face choices between life and death. Boomba is a twenty year old homeless man who came to Kolkata to save his own family. Instead, he is penniless and staying at the shelter. One day he follows Ma home from the shelter and later breaks into her house looking for food and inadvertently steals their passports. Don't want to say much more about the plot other than that I never would have guessed where it was going. This is a novel about morality, desperation and the choices we make for family. Pretty sure it was a finalist for The National Book Award in 2025. Enjoy.