BW17: National Poetry Month

 Happy Sunday!  We are going to close out the month with a nod to National Poetry Month and this year's Poet Laurette Ada Limon.  

The Last Thing

First there was the blue wing

of a scraggly loud jay tucked

into the shrubs. Then the bluish-

black moth drunkenly tripping

from blade to blade. Then

the quiet that came roaring

in like the R. J. Corman over

Broadway near the RV shop.

These are the last three things

that happened. Not in the universe,

but here, in the basin of my mind,

where I’m always making a list

for you, recording the day’s minor

urchins: silvery dust mote, pistachio

shell, the dog eating a sugar

snap pea. It’s going to rain soon,

close clouds bloated above us,

the air like a net about to release

all the caught fishes, a storm

siren in the distance. I know

you don’t always understand,

but let me point to the first

wet drops landing on the stones,

the noise like fingers drumming

the skin. I can’t help it. I will

never get over making everything

such a big deal.

This week's post is brought to you by the letter Q for guiet, quintessential, question, and quest. 

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BW16: 52 Books Bingo - Food Lover

 

Happy Sunday. Calling all foodies! April is full of food holidays which means it is time for another round of 52 Books Bingo with Food Lovers.   Today is the Day of the Mushroom and I can smell the butter and garlic now. Wednesday is National Garlic Day by the way so get those garlic pressers ready.  Or maybe you are more in the mood for eggs with Eggs Benedict day, or cheese for cheeseball day or Jelly Beans.  Whatever you are in the mood for, let's get reading and cooking with: 

 32 Best Devour-Worthy Novels About Food

Novels About Food: 32 Scrumptious Books For Foodies

20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs

Top 10 culinary memoirs

Goodreads huge listopia of foodie books

Are you hungry now? 

Our post is sponsored by O and P which stands for Oulipo and Poetry. 

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BW15: Happy Easter

 

The Splendor of Lilies

by 

 Margaret Elizabeth Munson Sangster

Oh, rare as the splendor of lilies,

And sweet as the violet’s breath,

Comes the jubilant morning of Easter,

The triumph of life over death;

And fresh from the earth’s quickened bosom

Full baskets of flowers we bring,

And scatter their satin soft petals

To carpet a path for our King.

In the countless green blades of the meadow.

The sheen of the daffodil’s gold,

In the tremulous blue on the mountains,

The opaline mist on the wold.

In the tinkle of brooks through the pasture,

The river’s strong sweep to the sea.

Are signs of the day that is hasting

In gladness to you and to me.

Oh, dawn in thy splendor of lilies,

Thy fluttering violet breath,

Oh, jubilant morning of Easter,

Thou triumph of life over death!

Then fresh from the earth’s quickened bosom

Full baskets of flowers we bring,

And scatter their satin soft petals

To carpet a path for our King.

Happy Easter to all! 

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BW14: April Author of the Month - Barbara Kingsolver

 

Happy Sunday! April is a fun month of the year since it is National Poetry month as well as National Humor month, National Frog month, and National Kite Month.  Today we celebrate Palm Sunday as well as Children's Book Day, the 3rd is Find a Rainbow Day, the 4th is School Librarian day, the 5th is National Walking Day, the 6th California Poppy Day, and the 7th is Good Friday as well as World Health day, and the 8th is All is Ours day.

Plus our Author of the Month is Barbara Kingsolver, best known for the Poisonwood Bible which I found to be an absolutely amazing story and stayed with me long after I finished it. Nathan Price knows nothing about the Congo or its people, but is determined to start a church and save all the natives.  The story is from the perspective of Orleana Price and her four daughters.  Rachel, a teenager who vain and self absorbed; twins Leah and Adah, both extremely intelligent, but physically different.  Adah disabled from birth and can't speak.  Leah adores her father whereas Adah views him and the world more realistically. And Ruth who sees the world through her five year old eyes.  While Nathan insists on the natives conforming to his view of the world, Orleana and her daughters do their best to survive, learning about the world they now are forced to reside it. 

The Poisonwood Bible is full of African history and culture. Because there are many different meanings to the same words, whether the emphasis is on one part or another, it leads to many miscommunication between the Prices and the villagers. Throughout, the villagers remain a constant.  They end up teaching the Prices about life, individuality, liberty, and death.  Africa changes the Price family, for better and for worse, forever.  I didn't expect to enjoy this story as much as I did but from Rachel's self absorbed rants to Adah's metamorphosis, the lives of the Prices and the story of Africa completely enfolds you.  If you haven't read The Poisonwood Bible yet, I recommend it. 

Kingsolver has written many books which I am looking forward to reading. She was an editor for Best American Short Stories in 2001. Plus her stories are part of the core literature curriculum in many high schools and colleges. 

Join me in reading Barbara Kingsolver's works this month. 

Our post is brought to us by the letter N which stands for narrator, night, national, and names. 

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BW13: Happy Birthday Joseph Cambell

Courtesy of the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Happy Sunday! Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Joseph Campbell who is best known for introducing the concept of the Hero's Journey in The Hero With a Thousand Faces.  Campbell has written numerous books on comparative mythology and his entire booklist can be found on the Joseph Campbell Foundation as well as the list of required reading for the mythology course taught at Sarah Lawrence college. 

"The basic story of the hero journey involves giving up where you are, going into the realm of adventure, coming to some kind of symbolically rendered realization, and then returning to the field of normal life."  Pathways to Bliss

"My feeling is that mythic forms reveal themselves gradually in the course of your life if you know what they are and how to pay attention to their emergence. My own initiation into the mythic depths of the unconscious has been through the mind, through the books that surround me in this library. I have recognized in my quest all the stages of the hero’s journey. I had my calls to adventure, my guides, demons, and illuminations."  Man and Myth

"It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religion, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth."   Hero with a Thousand Faces

"For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are the spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source."  Hero with a Thousand Faces

"Blunders are not the merest chance. They are the results of suppressed desires and conflicts. They are ripples on the surface of life, produced by unsuspected springs. And these may be very deep—as deep as the soul itself. The blunder may amount to the opening of a destiny."  Hero with a Thousand Faces

"I didn’t write my books for critics and scholars. I wrote them for students and artists. When I hear how much my work has meant to them––well, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. That means that this great stuff of myth, which I have been so privileged to work with, will be kept alive for a whole new generation. That’s the function of the artists, you know, to reinterpret the old stories and make them come alive again, in poetry, painting, and now in movies."  Hero's Journey

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived."  Hero's Journey

Have fun delving to the world of mythology with Joseph Campbell.

Our post is sponsored by the letter M which stands for myth, meaning, and man. 

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BW12: March Equinox

 

Happy Sunday! This week we celebrate the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.  It seems Spring has sprung already in our neck of the world. The temps are rising and it was a balmy 70 degrees yesterday while I was running here, there, and everywhere. Today is also Let's Laugh Day, the 20th is not only the March  Equinox, but International Day of Happiness as well. The 21st is  World Poetry Day, the 22nd is As Young as You Feel Day, the 23rd is not only my dad's 92nd birthday, but also National Chip and Dip Day. The 24th is National Cheesecake day, and the 25th is International Waffle Day. I think the person who makes up the calendar was hungry.  LOL! 

Let's dive into spring (or autumn reads, depending on where you are)  with Beyond the Bookends list of 107 Sensational New Spring 2023 releases or She Reads Most Anticipated Books of Spring 

In the Southern Hemisphere, dip into the Republic's list of 23 African Books to Expect in 2023 or Australian Fiction authors new releases through March 2023. 

Read a book with Spring or Autumn in the title or Spring or Autumn flowers on the cover. 

Read a book that takes place during Spring or Autumn.

Join your local libraries Spring or Autumn 2023 reading challenge. 

Our post is brought to you by the letter L this week which means loads and loads of love, laughter and life to explore. 

Have fun following rabbit trails! 

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BW11: St. Patrick's Day

 

Happy Sunday! St Patrick's Day is officially March 17th, however, we're going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day all week long.   My father's side of the family came from Cork county, Ireland which is known as the food capital of Ireland. Plus it's northwest of the  Blarney castle where my grandparents have kissed the blarney stone a few times.  We have a plaque in our home my grandmother gave us that says "Fluent Blarney spoken here."  

Instead of loading our wish lists down with more books, let's find a book on our shelves about Ireland, with Irish characters, or with green on the cover or in the title. 

St. Patrick’s Day

BY 

Jean Blewett

There’s an Isle, a green Isle, set in the sea,

     Here’s to the Saint that blessed it!

And here’s to the billows wild and free

     That for centuries have caressed it!

Here’s to the day when the men that roam

     Send longing eyes o’er the water!

Here’s to the land that still spells home

     To each loyal son and daughter!

Here’s to old Ireland—fair, I ween,

     With the blue skies stretched above her!

Here’s to her shamrock warm and green,

     And here’s to the hearts that love her!

Our post is sponsored by the letter K which stands for kiss, kind, knight, kneel, kittens, and kites. 

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BW10: 52 Books Bingo - Fifteen

 

Happy Sunday! Since this is our 15th year of 52 Books, our next bingo category is Fifteen. Read a book with fifteen or 15 in the title or the 15th book in a series or about a 15 year old character or written by a 15 year old author. Read a book written in the 1500's, written 150 years ago, or written 15 years ago.  

15 Books Chris Pine Thinks Everyone Should Read

Books for fifteen years old recommended by Kidsbookfort.com

The Atlantic's 15 books You Won't Regret Rereading

Goodread's Fantastic Fifteen 

Infographic: 15 Books with More Characters than You Can Keep Track Of!

I currently have the time traveling adventure Fifteen Postcards by  Kirsten McKenzie as well as another science fi fantasy tale the First Fifteen Lives of Henry August by Claire North,  pus Cleo Coyle's 15th book Dead to the Last Drop in her Coffeehouse Mystery series in my stacks. 

 Have fun, be creative, and enjoy!

Our post is brought to us by the letter J this week.  J is busy journaling about juicy journeys,  judicious jargon and jealous judgements. Forget the jacket and join J in the jet to jaw about the jelly. 

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BW9: March Author of the Month - Douglas Adams

 

Happy Sunday!  It's time to say goodbye to February and hello to March. March is Irish American Heritage month, as well as Nation Peanut Month, National Craft Month, and National Women's History Month.  Hmm, let's see. Read something historical by an Irish American Woman while knitting and eating peanuts. *grin* 

This week we have February 26th which is Carpe Diem day, the 27th is No Brainer Day, the 28th is National Chili Day,  March 1st  is World Compliment Day, the 2nd is Old Stuff Day, the 3rd is I want You to be Happy Day, and the 4th is Huge a GI Day.  So be sure to seize the day, eat chili, compliment at least three people, do something different, make someone happy, and show some appreciation for the men and women in our armed forces.  

Plus our March author of the month is Douglas Adams, whose birthday is March 11, 1952.  He is best known for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.  My brother introduced me to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy way back in the 1980's and once I read it, went on to consume The Restaurant at the End of the Universe;  Life, The Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish; and Mostly Harmless.  Plus his other books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, and Douglas Adam's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones.  I'm looking forward to reading them all over again. 

This week our post is sponsored by the Letter I.  How fortuitous as I stands for Irish, industrious, Iambic, Innuendo,  Irony, and Imagination. 

Happy reading! 

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BW8: Storytelling

 

Happy Sunday!  Growing up, my brother was the one who told the most magnificent stories, whether he was retelling a Monty Python skit, relating an event that happened, or telling us about a book he'd read. We would hang on his words, groaning or laughing as he told a tale, astonished by the details, even if he'd only read or heard something once. I was never great at oral storytelling, maybe because it was difficult to get an word in edgewise with my large talkative family.  Today, the role has been taken over by my husband and son, both who have Eidetic memories,  remembering everything that's ever happened in their lives. Which can be great, unless it's something stupid you wish they'd forget. LOL!    I prefer writing, taking my time to remember, exploring thoughts and phrases, seeing the words on the page. 

Who is or was the Storyteller in your family?

 
Which brings us to our 52 Books Bingo quest for this week - Storyteller and all those lovely books they have created for our pleasure: narratives, myths, memoirs, drama, poetry as well as the world of fiction. From the classics to the contemporary writers of today there is a wide variety to choose from.  

Who do you think are the best storytellers of the past and present?   

50 Greatest Storytellers Of All Time

Masterful Storytelling: 10 Novels Worth Savoring

20 Best Storytelling Books of All Time

The Best Books On Storytelling

This week, our post is brought to you by the letter H.  Big h, little h, what begins with H. Why Homer and Horatio and Heyer as well as  Hemingway and Hosseini and Herbert to name a few. 

Happy reading! 

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BW7: Ode to Common Things to Pablo Neruda

Wishing you the happiest of days, the happiest of weeks as we celebrate Super Bowl Sunday, Galentine's Day, Valentine's Day, Singles Awareness Day, Do a Grouch a Favor day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, and of course, National Drink Wine day. 

As I was meandering about the internet I came across Meanderings and Muses (Don't you love that name) Odes to Common things. And wouldn't you just know it, I fell down a rabbit hole.  Found The Examined Life's article on Pablo Neruda's Sublime Poetic Wonder at Meaning and Utility in Everyday Things.   Then stumbled upon Interludes where his poetry inspired  The Music of Poetry - Pablo Neruda: Odes to Common Things.   Yes, he even penned An Ode to a Book, but I liked his Common Things better.  

Shall we should all write an ode to our books, our lives, our loves?   Have an adventure and read a book of Odes, offbeat odes, an ode to stardust, or An Ode to Snow. 

Ode to Common Things 

By 

Pablo  Neruda

I have a crazy,

crazy love of things.

I like pliers,

and scissors.

I love

cups,

rings,

and bowls –

not to speak, of course,

of hats.

I love

all things,

not just

the grandest,

also

the

infinite-

ly

small –

thimbles,

spurs,

plates,

and flower vases.

 Oh yes,

the planet

is sublime!

It’s full of

pipes

weaving

hand-held

through tobacco smoke,

and keys

and salt shakers –

everything,

I mean,

that is made

by the hand of man, every little thing :

shapely shoes,

and fabric,

and each new

bloodless birth

of gold,

eyeglasses,

carpenter’s nails,

brushes,

clocks, compasses,

coins, and the so-soft

softness of chairs.

 Mankind has

built

oh so many

perfect

things!

Built them of wool

and of wood,

of glass and

of rope :

remarkable

tables,

ships, and stairways.

 

I love

all

things,

not because they are

passionate

or sweet smelling

but because,

I don’t know,

because

this ocean is yours,

and mine :

these buttons

and wheels

and little

forgotten

treasures,

fans upon

whose feathers

love has scattered

its blossoms,

glasses, knives and

scissors –

all bear

the trace

of someone’s fingers

on their handle or surface,

the trace of a distant hand

lost

in the depths of forgetfulness.

 I pause in houses,

streets and

elevators,

touching things,

identifying objects

that I secretly covet :

this one because it rings,

that one because

it’s as soft

as the softness of a woman’s hip,

that one there for its deep-sea color,

and that one for its velvet feel.

 

O irrevocable

river

of things :

no one can say

that I loved

only

fish,

or the plants of the jungle and the field,

that I loved

only

those things that leap and climb, desire, and survive.

It’s not true :

many things conspired

to tell me the whole story.

Not only did they touch me,

or my hand touched them :

they were

so close

that they were a part

of my being,

they were so alive with me

that they lived half my life

and will die half my death.

Our post is sponsored by the letter G this week: Genres full of gorgeous, gregarious, generous, or gallant characters who gadabout.

Happy Reading!  

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BW6: 52 Books Bingo - Sleuths

 

Happy Sunday! Our next 52 Books Bingo category - sleuths - fits in nicely with our Agatha Christie read this month.  We have different varieties of sleuths from the amateur sleuth, to the hardboiled private eye to the religious investigator, to the kid, teen, and female sleuths to the cozy amateur or police detectives.  Below are just a few links for your perusal. 

Top 12 New Best Cozy Mysteries Featuring Amateur Sleuths

A Recipe for Hard Boiled Fiction

Divine Mysteries: 10 Great Clerical Sleuths

Middle Grade Mystery and Detective books 

10 YA Books That Prove That Teens Are the Best Detectives

Classic Teen Detectives

The Best Female Detectives in Fiction Written by Women

Tap Into Your Inner Sleuth With These Dazzling Detective Novels

Our post is brought to you by the letter F this week. From the feisty fiends to the felonious forger to the foxy fed, follow the footprints to find the facts. 

Have fun! 

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