December/January/ February/March Reads

December:  

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak. 1939.  Nazi Germany.  At her brother's grave, Liesel finds and keeps, The Gravedigger's Handbook, beginning her fascination with books and reading.  Her story of living with a foster family, their harboring of a Jewish man, her friendships, how they and others resist and comply with Nazi rule are an intense and poignant telling of the events and that moment in time, but speak volumes for us today.  I found Death as a character, while crucial in giving scope and providing narration, strange and disruptive at times.  However, it is a book that stays with you forever ~ and should. 

January:

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz - Lucy Adlington.  True story of amazing women and the horrors of those able to use others so completely.  Difficult to read in many ways.  But, apart from the absolute cruelty man is able inflict that others are miraculously able to withstand, the telling could get repetitive and disjointed at times as the author would interject each woman's arrival no matter the time or events surrounding it, rather than provide a cohesively linear story.  Not at all saying I could have done any better and I am sure the method was rooted in the desire to maintain facts and authenticity based on papers and interviews that had been used, which I really do appreciate.

February:

The Librarian of Auschwitz - Antonio Iturbe.  Based on the true story of Dita Kraus.  I will never understand how cruel some humans can be.  I cannot imagine living through such things.

World Travel, An Irreverent Guide - Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever.  Not the book I thought it would be.  More of a list of cities/countries with a bit of travel data and Anthony's comments lifted from prior shows and books with no new material from Anthony.  Still, it is always nice to hear his voice.

March:

Resistance Women - Jennifer Chiaverini.  I wanted to love this more than I did.  It was a LONG haul.  While I was thrilled it was a real accounting of brave strong women during unspeakable times - it often felt trite and repetitious.  Through the lives of the characters - Mildred Fish, an American married to Avrid Harnack - a German economist who returned to Germany before all the horrors began;  Martha Dodd, daughter of the American Ambassador to Germany; Greta Kuckoff a German and aspiring writer; and the only fictional composite - Sara Weitz, German, Jewish student - we get lots of details but I never felt I knew the women.  Perhaps, simply my own fault, but it felt more like reading a report than a novel into which you breathe with the characters.  Still - filled as it was with details of these incredible women and their group of resistance fighters - it gives the obviously damning and horrible view of those who committed atrocities but almost more horrible - the inaction of those who stood quietly, and therefore complicitly, by - doing nothing - while their neighbors and friends were removed from their jobs, homes, families -  first to undesirable areas in town, then tenements, to compounds, to camps.  Much like The Dressmakers of Auschwitz - making it clear that while hatred and prejudice were key in the events of Hitler's Germany - basic greed combined with the desperate economic conditions of the depression - fueled many of Hitler's directives and the willingness of the populace to follow them.  Removing Jews from their jobs opened up positions for other Germans.  Their removal from their homes and the distribution of their possessions directly benefited those ruling and the citizenry as well.

Heavy reads in these months.  They were painful, so the going was slow.  Due to my own poor education in these matters, I had rather missed how large a role financial greed, obviously combined with the desire for power and general racist hatred, played in Nazi Germany.  There is so much to learn from Germany's Nazi past as well as how it has risen from such horrors.  Despite pushback from right wing extremists in recent years, Germany has laws against promoting Nazi sentiment on-line and off, wearing the SS uniform, supporting Hitler, using swastikas and hate speech, as well as publicly denying the Holocaust.  So much we could learn here... Man's incessant need for power and to tear down others is incomprehensible to me.  

Wishing you all the freedom to be who you are, love who you wish, worship as you desire, and tend to your own damn business.  I know I got enough on my plate without worrying about what somebody else has on theirs!!!

Live kindly if chaotically!  ~ les  

Across 13 Aprils!!!

   Yes, it's been a minute, but I'm still here and doing well!  Thanks to all you sweet peeps who have stayed in touch and checked in despite my silence here.  Thirteen years since a brain met was zapped and the right upper lobe of my lung was removed due to Stage IV melanoma!  Time goes by in a blink doesn't it?  Yet, my peeps and I are here - living and loving together!  For some melanoma intel and general past April info you can check out this link (with more within) from last year, if you like ~ Across 12 Aprils! 

And, since it's been a bit, this updated "count up" (That's better than 'count down', don't you think???!) may help give some perspective to these Aprils for old and new peeps alike - here you go:

I am now:

236 months (19 1/2 YEARS!!!!) post my original melanoma diagnosis in 2003 at the age of 39
156 months Stage IV (13 years!!!)
150 months NED (12.5 years - well....for melanoma at least)
148 months after starting nivo (Opdivo)
118 months (almost 10 years) AFTER my last nivo infusion in June 2013.

I am also:  
56 months (4.6 years) post my diagnosis of adenocarcinoma ex-goblet cell carcinoid (GCC) and the removal of my appendix with its 10.5 cm tumor, my ascending colon including ileocecal valve, gall bladder and ovaries
53 months (4.4 years!) post completion of 3 months adjuvant CAPOX chemo for same

Despite all the crazy, a great deal of beautiful and vibrant life has been lived in the past 19 plus years with so much more to come!  But moving on to April...  Fall and winter on the mountain were harsh this year!  Temps dropped below zero, followed by the coldest spring we've had in a while!  I feel blessed to have lost only 2 rosemary bushes and 3 azaleas, though the fig, a couple of hydrangeas, the Camila, and the nandinas are having to start from the bottom up.  While flowers may not have been as brilliant and bountiful as in Aprils past as we all work hard to shake off winter's insults and repair ourselves, beauty remains easy to find.  

From my mountain garden to yours ~

The crocus brought spring in - whether she liked it or not - with their delicate beauty.

My trout lilies bloomed for the first time this year!

Their speckled leaves give them their name.

Trillium of all sorts were really lovely.

The rhodies may not have been the huge bank of blossoms that they are in some years, but they were still amazing.

The wild azaleas were just incredible!

My Biddy Buddy and I smelled them all!

Bridges from last year have been duly tromped!

Many walks of wonder taken!

All under the very protective and watchful eye of Teveo!

Sending much love and warm wishes for a happy spring and beyond to each of you!! 
Live and love chaotically!
~ Les

October/November Reads ~

 October: 

The Night Portrait - Laura Morelli.  The story of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting Lady with an Ermine shared in two story lines:  In 1492 Milan, sixteen year old Cecilia, newly positioned as mistress of the Duke, sits before Da Vinci to be painted.  In 1940's Munich newly engaged Edith, who cares for her ailing father while working as an art conservator, is retained by the German government to assist in the capture and cataloguing of art for the Nazi regime.  The lives of both women, along with the true story of the painting and the efforts of The Monuments Men, come to life despite the occasionally stilted writing and wholly unnecessary contrived links between chapters in which the last sentence of one may be - "the paper flutters from Da Vinci's hand..." while the first sentence of the next reads "the paper flutters from her hand as Edith ..."  Oh well.  Who am I who has never written to write a critique?

The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner.  I REALLY enjoyed this book!!!  It was a quick engaging read but still had lots to say and provided much to think about.  Set simultaneously in current and 1790's London, through Nella, Eliza, and Carolina we face the reality of the lives of women across the centuries.  The pages are filled with history, fate, friendships, and poisons.  I wish Dame Agatha could have read it.  I think she would approve.

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah.  While clunky in places, the flow developed and the story of occupied France during World War II, along with the efforts of the French resistance, many of them women - leading downed Allied airman to safety in Spain and protecting Jewish children from being deported to concentration camps - becomes clear and heart rending.  Hannah's characters shine a bright light on the best of human impulses ~ and the worst.

The Last Bookshop in London - Madeline Martin. This time, World War II, the British perspective, particularly from London.  Through the story of two girls who moved to London just before the war we experience blackouts, the blitz, nights spent sheltering in the tube line (reminding me of Lady Clementine, by Marie Benedict - the story of Churchill's wife), the power of small kindnesses and unknown strengths, as well as the value of words and stories to get us through.

November:

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr.  Probably the best juxtaposition of both sides of the participants/victims of World War II that I have read.  Marie Laure, blind, living in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where her father works, flees with him to Saint Malo as the Germans occupy France, to the home of her uncle who remains traumatized by his experiences in World War I, when she is 12.  Meanwhile, an incredibly bright child, Werner Pfennig, lives with his sister in an orphanage in a poor mining town in Germany.  His fate is dramatically changed when recruited by The Hitler Youth where his talents are used as a radio builder/operator during the war, ending up on Saint Malo as it was bombarded by the Allies once occupied by the Germans.  Perhaps, not entirely worthy of the hype, but a valuable read.

Mixed with pages and pages of articles covering everything from encephalopathy, child abuse, SIADH, refugee children, blood transfusions, racial disparities, myocarditis, the needs of homeless children as well as those in military families, food insecurity, care of adoptees and foster children...  Whew!  Important stuff!  Plus, recertification accomplished.

Read and live chaotically! ~ les

Fall in my little corner...

 All the seasons come with beautiful blessings here on the mountain ~

Perhaps fall's beauty is so poignant because it requires that we simultaneously let go of the past, enjoy what we can in fleeting moments, and look to the future with hope ~ much like life.  May your days be filled with joys and golden light!  But even when they aren't, know that brighter days will come. ~ les

Sew Chaotically! ~ Fall Linen

In further sewing room clean up, I found a remnant of this lux linen, purchased from B&J on a lovely trip to New York a few years ago and partially used creating this Japanese Sewing Pattern top, I never got around to blogging about almost a year ago ~  The top is nice and has had good wear.  The material turned out to be a little thick for the gathers along the collar and I would make the placket differently were I to sew up another.  Also, beware the narrowness of the arm cuffs.  They are close to being too tight on me and I don't think I have particularly large arms!!!

The material is almost iridescent, with a bronzy brown thread running through several shades of green.  I found I had just enough to stitch up the Teddy Top from Style Arc.  I made a size 10 with no modifications.  

The pattern went together well.  I had no trouble with the collar or front neckline as some reviews had mentioned.  However, the instructions are SPARSE!!!  Because of this, these patterns may not be the best choice for a beginning sewist!

I like that there is a graceful swing to the back of the garment without a lot of extra fabric in the front.

Speaking of linen and patterns perfectly suited for it ~ there are many free and really great patterns available from FABRICS-STORE.com with good information on their blog, The ---------- Thread, not to mention their selection of incredible linen!!!  I have loved their Mariana Jacket, both in the wearing and the making, that I stitched up back in 2019.

Check that welt pocket detail! Pretty impressive for a free pattern, no?

 

Early last spring I made two Paola Workwear Jackets, another of their free patterns.  One in a very durable medium weight linen and another in a rather odd brocade (?) that for reasons I am now a bit unclear about, caught my eye when shopping in Walthamstow back in 2017.  As per their name, these jackets are more of a Worker Jacket style.  I adjusted the size and placement of the pockets to suit my fancy.  They stitched up easily.  In fact, the instructions for both these patterns, which include plenty of clear pictures on the blog, are aces!  Much better than anything offered by Style Arc, for which you pay $14 to $18.  Just say'n!!!

Happy chaotic fall sewing! - les

Fall on the mountain and in the valley!

 Sharing a bit of my weekend...

My photog, always part of my view!

Ridge along Lookout Mountain.

Color, sneaking in.

Getting ready for next year...

Drying sage, thyme and basil before the first freeze.

Mise en place!  A little effort now to keep the week easy.

Sneaky kitty testing out Fred's quilt while the binding is being attached!

Be yourself...

...while having a buddy alongside! 

Happy Fall Y'all!  Don't forget to get your flu shot!!!! ~ les

September Reads ~

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock - Imogene Hermes Gowar.  A very strange tale!  The story of Jonah Hancock, a shipping merchant, intertwined with the life of Angelica Neal, a famous courtesan, and the spell of a mermaid.  Though fickle and flawed, the characters get under your skin, causing you to believe and root for them. The historical vision of London whose modern streets I have walked was a bonus.

Castle Shade - Laurie R. King.  Had put this one of King's stories of Holmes and Russel aside due to a concern that it would be marred by vampires.  Didn't feel that Sherlock would fall for such.  No need to fear!  It was fun and a nice break from some of my heavier recent reads.

Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders.  The most original and strange format for a historical novel (or any novel really!!!) I have EVER read, capturing at least some of the horror and pain of America's Civil War, but mostly - through an incredible cast of characters whose lives (and deaths) - confirm the beauty that is life and love.  (Made B read it!)  Thinking about it still...

Sherlock Holmes - various stories - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Re-reads.  Just needed a little Sherlock.  He never disappoints!

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - Balli Kour Jaswal.  Brilliant.  Yet another incredibly different format for story telling (a theme this month???) but extremely effective and perfect.  Nikki, daughter of Indian immigrants, born in London - law school drop out, working as a bar tender - takes a job teaching creative writing at the local community center in the heart of London's Punjabi community.  It turns out that neither the job nor the students are what they at first appear.  However, through erotic tales, the Punjabi widows share the stories of their lives - or the lives they wish they'd had.  In doing so, revealing their true selves and their community, becoming a threat to the secrets and authority of the Brotherhood.  Incredibly well written with lots to say about community, women, and religion.  The fact that I have been to and enjoyed a wonderful day on Goldhawk Road and Shepherd's Bush made it even more special.

Book Lovers - Emily Henry.  A bit clichéd, but a fun and absorbing read of star crossed lovers who are a bit uptight and stand in their own way - for a minute.  Henry's characters are real and multifaceted.  I immediately wanted to read another of her books, but paused, fearing it might simply be a rerun.  Unfair assumption not having read them.  I am sure I will capitulate in time.  As always, books about books are forever fun. 

A good month of reads - slightly frivolous but engaging stories that still had wonderful well developed characters combined with more thoughtful and important works.  Perfection. 

Read and live chaotically! ~ les