November 25, 2020 THANKFUL

 Thanksgiving 2020. It's going to be weird. First time in 30 years that we won't be with the cousins. No Buffers--just my lovely family. Yup--it's gonna be weird.  It's all good though. I just keep reminding myself to be grateful. I have a lot to be thankful for.......

• My family                                                   
  
• Good health
• Employment
• Insurance
• Good Friends
• Laughter
• Sunshine
• Running
• Reading
• Yoga
• Art
• Wisdom
• My dogs
• Happy hour
• Biden
• Students
• My life

If you're feeling out of sorts this holiday season--stop--make a gratitude list and things will turn around. Another thing that always helps me get through tough times is a good book. I'm currently reading Kate Morton's best selling book The Secret Keeper. I love Kate Morton, she is a great writer who takes you to another place and time. She also really understands people and creates characters who are interesting and complex. As this novel unfolds, it's 1961 and  Laurel Nicolson, a sixteen year old girl living on the family farm,  witnesses a horrendous crime involving her mother that changes her life. The novel then jumps to 2011. It's 50 years later, and the Nicolson family is gathering at the family farm to celebrate their mother's 90th birthday. Laurel realizes that time is running out if she ever wants to find out what really happened in 1961.  Laurel starts to question her mother, Dorothy, who is not in good health, and realizes that her mother is haunted by a past that Laurel knows nothing about. The novel then shifts to 1940 during World War II, when Dorothy (Dolly) lived in France and had a boyfriend named Jimmy and a "friend" named Vivien. The novel jumps between Dolly's perspective of the past and Vivien's which  really adds another layer of mystery to the story. What happened during the war that caused Dorothy to commit a crime in 1961?   I still don't know. I have 92 pages left.  I'm dying to finish the book on one hand, and don't want it to end on the other. It's always a dilemma for me. I heard that there's a real twist at the end of the story......this book is about 495 pages or a 5 mile run that will keep you guessing til the bitter end. Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble Gobble. 

November 22, 2020 GOOD LOOKIN' MAN

 It's been a tough couple of weeks. First--Sean Connery AND  then Alex Trebek. A double whammy. How I LOVED Sean Connery--when he was James Bond. I could watch him all day--he was THAT good looking-Suave-Debonair--did I mention EXTREMELY HANDSOME too.  He was the whole package--James Bond---Hell--I would have given my left arm to be a BOND GIRL. My WEAKNESS for good looking men--It's sort of a curse--so I have to be careful. Enough Said. Alex Trebek. He was also a handsome man but my attraction to him was completely different. I started watching Jeopardy with my grandmother WAY BACK WHEN and still watch it at 7:00pm most nights. Trebek was like an old friend--a link to my grandmother and childhood. It was always comforting to sit with a cocktail and spend 30 minutes with Trebek. It doesn't seem real yet as the show is taped through Christmas but when they get a new host it's really going to hit home. I'm hoping they replace him with Ken Jennings--that I could handle. He seems like a good choice to carry the torch into the next generation. 

 It's been 65 years since Eva Traube Abrams has seen The Book of Lost Names, also the name of Kristin Harmel's new novel. As this lovely novel begins, Eva, an 86 year old librarian living in Florida, sees a photograph in the New York Times that sends her reeling. It's a picture of The Book of Lost Names, an 18th century religious text looted by the Germans during World War II. It's finally been recovered and researchers are trying to break the code contained in the book. Eva is torn because she knows that she is the only one left who can break the code, but doesn't know if she has the strength to go back to the past. The reader is then back in 1942. Eva and her mother are fleeing Paris after her father, a Polish Jew, is arrested by the French police. They travel to a free zone in Switzerland where Eva meets a priest working against the Germans. It's here that she realizes she has a talent for forgery and works alongside a handsome Catholic named Remy to forge documents for Jewish children to cross the border. Don't want to say too much more about this interesting historical fiction/love story other than I really enjoyed it and encourage you to read it. It's only about 390 pages or a 4 mile easy read that you won't be  able to put down. Enjoy. 

November 11, 2020 HOME ON THE RANGE

 

What's scarier than shingles and covid? Getting hit by a deer--THAT'S WHAT. So--I'm minding my own business driving to work the other day and from out of nowhere--a huge deer--while attempting  to cross route 32-- literally smashed into my car. It was awful. The poor deer. I was shocked when it got up and limped into the woods. What was equally shocking was that NOT ONE PERSON STOPPED. People drove around the deer and my car and just kept going on their merry way. When I finally recovered enough, I moved my car to the side of the road. I was literally SHAKEN AND STIRRED. I still can't believe NO ONE STOPPED.  But the poor deer. It's our fault really. These poor animals have NO WHERE ELSE TO GO. We have encroached on their land--how many dollars stores, malls and fast food restaurants do we need?? I'm fine and my car can be fixed but what about the deer? I love deer. They are one of the most beautiful, elegant animals I've ever seen. Hoping that the deer is in recovery mode and lives a good long time. While recovering from my latest escapade, I read a great mystery called Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger. In this crime drama, Nell Flynn is an FBI agent on medical leave who goes home to Long Island after her father, Martin, dies in a motorcycle accident. Martin, a Suffolk County detective, was investing the mysterious death of a 17 year old at the time of his death. After another girl ends up dead, Martin's partner, Lee Davis, asks Nell help solve the serial cases. While investing, Nell begins to question her own mother's mysterious death, especially,  when all leads make her own father look like the prime suspect. Find out who killed Nell's mother and who is responsible for the murders in Suffolk Country when you read this page turner for yourself. It's about 290 pages or a 3 mile run that will keep you guessing until the end.