January 4, 2026 I’m surprised it’s six months since I’ve blogged. It’s been mostly a busy time for me. I published my cookbook on Amazon, using it’s kdp format. The last months of doing the cookbook had a lot of busy work. The final formatting, getting the margins right so the printed page looked ok was a problem. I had followed some kdp advice about a gutter and that caused all the problem. Once I got rid of that, it was fine. Inserting the photos and organizing the text and recipes is a fun part but time consuming as every little change shifts things. I am really pleased with the final product from cover to cover. Everyone who looked at it gave me great positive responses. It’s my least literary writing but the one that has given me most gratifying comments. I gave copies to all the contributors and sold about an equal number of copies, so obviously not a blow-out best-seller.
So what to do next? My project for 2026 is to turn my old Peace Corps journals into a memoir loaded with a lot of photos and again publish it on Amazon. I will probably order a few copies for family members but do not expect to sell any. It will feel good to turn the journal into a printed book. After that, all my other unpublished writings over the years I will review and send to the shredder. I have pared down my files a lot in the last two decades and now I think I should do a final sweep, get rid of what no one else will ever want and that I will never feel like re-visiting. Late in life Charles Dickens burned all his letters–in his day people saved their correspondence. Biographers have regretted his doing that but it has just made them more creative in piecing together his personal life. Well, that is what awaits a famous writer or used to. Nowadays just about everything is already known about famous people as our lives area basically digitized from birth.
July 18, 2025 I’ve spent a lot of time on the cookbook formatting both the manuscript and cover. Next I’ll tackle the index and plan to have a complete manuscript by the end of July. I’m pleased with the results so far. It’s an enjoyable project. Beyond that, I’ve had a rapid response, so to speak, from the orthopedist and will have knee replacement August 4, thanks to there being an opening on that day at the Menomonie hospital. I hope my recovery will go as well as the last one which was speedy and very effective, never a bit of trouble with it and a full return to ordinary physical activity.
July 5, 2025 Less reading, more writing as I am working on my cookbook. The formatting and illustrations are time consuming. Making the pages as well as the text appealing is complicated.
June 19, 2025 It’s been a really busy 10 days catching up on yard work but also doing a lot of reading, three books, all really good: The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb, Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, and Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson. Mad Honey in Picoult style, is at least half informational. Beeking, honey, and transgenderism in this novel. The Lamb and Wilson novels have gripping family stories, Wilson’s wrenching, Lamb’s both comic, endearing. All three novels are hard to put down. Wish I could write books like that.
Tour Groups: One of these days I will write an essay on the dynamics of tour groups. Organized tours have a lot of benefits but so does solo travel. I’ve done a lot of both. Right now I feel more like pursuing travel on my own, if I do any at all. Just staying home seems good too.
June 9,2025 Return to China after 38 years, a Road Scholar tour in May: I am totally impressed. When I taught in Beijing, it weas dreary and dusty. Now there has been impressive beautification with beautiful trees, shrubbery and massive flower plantings everywhere. Of course, everything in China is on a massive scale. With 1.4 billion people, there are over 100 cities with over 1 million people. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, for example all have over 20 million. One apartment complex on the island of Lantau near the Hong Kong airport has a bank of 52-story apartment buildings, each with 20,000 people, a few thousand more than the entire population of Menomonie.
Traffic: Super-modern highway system, though in the neighborhoods, streets are old, narrow. About half the cars are ev. The old mass of bicycles is replaced with ex scooters. There are rental pedal bikes. Traffic is quiet.
Nearly cashless society. People use the app on their cell phone to pay for everything. Even the small street markets have their hand-held computers to take cashless payment.
Tourism: We Westerners were just a handful among the masses of Chinese tourists everywhere. At the Summer Palace in Beijing, there was a crush of Chinese families enjoying the historic site on a sunny Sunday afternoon. On weekdays the crowds were smaller, but the 25-minute cable car ride to the mountain top where the world’s largest Buddha resides had plenty of riders. The site which seems pretty remote, has been developed for mass tourism with an enormous plaza, dozens of souvenir shops and places to eat. The same can be said of all the historic cultural places on our tour.
Infrastructure: Bullet trains that go from 230-300 mph. We traveled the distance from Chicago to DC in 4 ½ hours. The train stations and airports are super-modern, huge, clean. Trains are silent. The Hong Kong airport is breathtaking in scale and luxury.
Standard of living: As a tourist you don’t see too much of that but evidence of a certain amount of affluence: People nicely dressed, great sneakers, tourist sights crammed with Chinese tourists. Teslas, Buicks, BMWs, Chinese cars. Modern shopping centers as well as hole-in-the-wall shops. Where we BEST China: public bathrooms. Some were Ming-dynasty level, but the hotels had great bathrooms, even one in Tibet with the Japanese heated toilet seat.
Politics: Our guide was careful not to say anything about the government and leaders. Information of Chinese culture and history tended to focus on the ancient. Politics of the last 30 years—no mention. Also, like people everywhere, you may be critical of your government but you love your country. In private, two minutes in a taxi and the driver started in on Trump. No English-language tv stations in the hotels we stayed in but in Macau and Hong Kong where I went on my own, there was FOX, BBC America and CNBC. I was horrified to hear Laura Inghram who seemed to be on non-stop carrying on about CBS and ABC pedaling false info etc. On that side of the world, she sounded totally un-American, trashing our free press, Article1 of our constitution. I could see why FOX news fits in with the Chinese authoritarian, anti-freedom of speech ideology.
A fun conversation with South African tourists who blasted Trump and Musk and suggested we immigrate to South Africa.
March 16, 2025 Despite about a 30 degree change in outdoor temperature overnight, it’s a beguiling sunny day and I feel more or less normal for the first time in a couple months. The Meloxicam tablets and an injection of hylauronic acid in my arthritic knee seem to be working. I hope it’s permanent or at least a long-term change for the better but the orthopedist was hesitant to say that is likely. Not being able to carry on my normal routine and activity level is dismaying. Feeling better at the moment, however, is welcome and I feel energetic.
Two events at the Mabel Tainter this week: First a “Celtic Storm” concert preceded by a very loud band consisting of a guitar, drums and washboard. It was entertaining and a few tunes seemed Irish enough. There was audience participation and a couple local Irish step-dancers joined the band on stage. Last night it was a group of costumed elderly men singing a capello Voyageur songs mostly in French and telling about the fur trader and Voyageur life. It was an informative and entertaining evening. So, alll in all, a good week.
March 14, 2025 A painful arthritic knee not only has been impeding my walking but also my general sense of well-being and motivation. I have barely worked on my cookbook idea in months and wonder if I still feel up to the task. I started the year by doing a lot of reading but now even that seems like a chore. My eyesight too is a problem, often a cloudiness that the ophthalmologist addressed by removing some scar tissue resulting from cataract surgery, but the problem persists. Old age? I guess so. The continuing political upheaval in the country also weighs on my spirits. If I were still working, I wouldn’t have so much time to read the constant barrage of news. I have to change my habits and limit my screen time. Can’t go for long walks, can’t read constantly, don’t want to watch Netflix all day long–but maybe the latter is better than screen time on the computer.
Feb 19, 2025 Another month gone by. I miss my brother. Though Alzheimer’s claimed his memory and ability to have a normal old age, he never lost his common sense and sense of humor. He could always give me sensible advice on home repair and upkeep and make jokes about everyday matters. His family gave him loving care to the very end, a great credit to him as a parent and grandparent.
Bitter cold and some snow over the last month but only a week until March and temp predictions in the 40’s, so we have had a short winter. Of course we can have blizzards into April, but not Arctic conditions.
Meanwhile, I’m moving on with my Cooking in Old Age project. I’m behind schedule but I mean to finish it in good time.
January 22, 2025 The past week has been one of great change. My brother Mike died after about five years of Alzheimer’s. About a month ago he told me he was ready to die. He had lost a lot of weight and no longer was much interested in eating. He was physically weak. His daughter found she could no longer care for him and they transferred him to a nursing home less than a week ago. The next day he seemed to have only a few hours left, but with his family around him all day, he rallied and died two days later. Though Alzheimer’s claimed so much of him, he still remembered those closest to him and had happy memories of childhood. He was spared a lingering period of physical feebleness. Death was expected and welcome and yet the finality is very sad. The loss of yet another sibling makes life seem more lonely.
And then nationally: Pres. Trump assumed a second term and immediately embarked on all the harsh, vengeful dictates he had promised. His inaugural speech was dark, laden with untruth, without a nod of grace to President Biden or any other president in the last hundred years. He promised a return to the Gilded Age of the nineteenth century, insisting impossibly that this would bring prosperity to all of us who are not billionaires, the expulsion of immigrants who are not white, and so on. We’ll see how all these promises will go.
January 14, 2025, a sunny but very cold -6 morning, but an interesting day, starting with a long coffee session with friends at the Raw Deal and good conversation. Judy K had a great story about her father building a snow sled propelled by an airplane propeller and some kind of engine and traversing the frozen lake and mounds in Wakanda Park. Then IO got a fantastic sandwich of salmon, pesto, fried egg, salsa and creme fraiche on toast at the Scatterbrain Cafe in Downsville. I added a scandalous cinnamon bun with a mountain of frosting and a loaf of three-cheese bread to take home. In the mail I got a large, heavy “oral history” book of Peace Corps Volunteer memories from the last sixty years.
All this only takes me to lunch. I am listening to Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. I’ve read it before and seen the movie on Netflix. It’s such a moving story about lonely people in old age, finding love and companionship, going over a lifetime with the hindsight and understanding acquired over the years. On the negative side there is the Congressional hearing for Hegseth, a man totally unqualified for the cabinet position of Defense Secretary he is supposed to fill. Such an appointment must be motivated by a desire to see our national defense vulnerable to the dictators Trump want to please.
It’s January 8, 2025. Election anxiety has morphed into fear and trepidation about the future now that we seem to have normalized criminality, even made it a political bonus. Trump’s current blasts about seizing the Panama Canal, buying Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico and making Canada a US state have received a welcome counter-offer from Canada–buying Alaska and Minnesota. I’m hoping Denmark, Panama and Mexico will seize the opportunity to make similar counter-offers like buying Texas.
Recovery mode–the anxiety over the election transformed into anxiety about the future. 11-12-24
The fall months are always pretty busy. “Real life” returns after the summer months. Fall seems the season to get things done, and then December brings a lot of socializing. This year the election adds to ambience of the season. I can’t wait for Nov. 5 and hope for a return to normalcy, but I wonder if that will happen. Trump changed politics and he will have a lingering effect for years if he loses and cause a dramatic change if he wins. The whole country, I think, has a sense of worry about the outcome of the election. Yet we all go about our daily lives as usual. Millions of people have had their lives devastated by the recent hurricanes. For them, “usual” doesn’t exist right now. 10/10/24
Being alone, widowhood, does have its times of feeling down and missing having the one person that you can anything to, but then I reflect a bit and remember that I’ve had similar feelings from time to time most of my life. No doubt most people do. Even people who always seem happy may feel down at times. Maybe it’s normal, what makes us human, an ability to experience a range of feelings. But household pets also show a range of feelings, missing their owners when they are away, showing excitement at stimulation of some sort. Even that octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures shows feelings, so I suppose every living creature with a brain and sensory system has a range of emotions. So there, that has cheered me up. 10-6-24
Got the digitized photos and slides to use for my CVLR talk on teaching abroad, so now I have to finalize the presentation and slide show. It’s had to condense five years of experience into 90 minutes. I suppose I have to keep in mind “highlights,” what my audience might most be interested in and what they will find entertaining. 9-25-24
Finishing another in Osman’s “Thursday Murder Club” series about a group of pensioners in a retirement community in England who solve murders made me formulate my idea about what makes a good mystery or any novel for that matter. It’s that something in the “filler” material connects with your own life in some way. It’s the back story of characters or their thoughts about life. In this novel, it’s the coming to terms with dementia and end of life, and about love and friendship in old age. I suppose these are the qualities that make for enduring classics, Austen’s way of making our yearning for love so compelling, or the Odyssey and the yearning for home, or the Iliad on power, love and money as what war is all about. 9-22-24
Today WPR aired a fascinating program on near-death experiences. though now they use a different term. The main person being interviewed described an experience in the same way my mother did, doctors trying to revive them. My mother told me the doctor took off his gloves, tossed them on her chest saying, “I give up.” The doctor said about the journalist being interviewed, “I did the best I could.” I wish I had asked my mother more. She was dying, but lived several months after that survival moment at Mayo Clinic. I was scared and didn’t know what to say, how to act. Now I am old and often wish I knew years ago what I know now, what I wish I had said and done then. This is the nature of regret, I suppose. 9-22-24
It’s sort of wrenching to go over a lifetime of journals, but I am doing this for two purposes, first to gather material for the talk I am giving about teaching abroad for five years, and then to dispose of the journals and miscellaneous writing. Right now I’d rather do the latter, but I need to write up remarks for the talk-old writing vs. new writing, I guess. 9-22-24
I’ve finally started going through and discarding old diaries. Erik left his for me and I don’t want to do that. The main problem is that what is written might need explanation and cause bad feelings and there is no way to resolve these problems. Historians and academics love old letters and journals of the famous, but for everyday people there is little value in them. A cache of letters from Civil a War soldier, or a cache of journals of everyday life “found” a hundred years later might be of interest. For me, now, I wonder if the earth will still have human life in a hundred years. 9/9/24
At work on my CVLR presentation on five years of teaching abroad. I could spend the whole time on my Peace Corps and China experience. There is less to say about teaching in England and Sweden and I have few pictures from those experiences. It seems easiest and best to use the photos as the way to describe living and teaching in those countries.
A lovely sunny day, leaves starting to fall from some trees. Seasonal change here in Wisconsin has so much beauty to mark the passage of time. Every season has its color and scent. Some people have a favorite season but I like them all, the variety adds meaning. 9-3-24
The second day this week that looks like it will never really get light. It’s just about as dark at 8:30 A.M. as it was at 6:00, so depressing. Meanwhile, the political diatribe goes on, Trump adding a disrespectful gesture at Arlington National Cemetery, Vance insulting teachers and childless women, though Harris and Walz continue their happy camper politicking. I saw a campaign ad that touts Harris’s plans for her presidency, never mentioning her opponents at all. What a positive and welcome change to campaign ads. I wonder if the trend will catch on. Wouldn’t it be great to see the end of demonizing the opposition?
I’ve been indulging in audio books recently, two by the Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell who enjoyed his prime fame in the US about twenty years ago. The book I’ve enjoyed most is his The Man from Beijing. It has so much of interest to me beyond the really good storytelling. The story covers about 150 years with the settings divided between northern Sweden, the western US, and China. Primary instigators behind the plot are historical events in all three countries, the US being the use of Chinese laborers to complete the transcontinental railroad after the Civil War. Part of Mankell’s strength as a crime writer are his characters. In this novel, even the wolf who starts the novel has a backstory. I found the story and settings so compelling, I listened to all 16 hours in less than 3 days. 8-24-24
So many days since posting here due to being immersed in handing off copies of my memoir, being immersed in the political Sunami and convention, eternal yard work, and seeing a wonderful play at the Guthrie Theater, English about a group of students in Tehran preparing for the TOEFL exam. The play gives such an authentic view of the teacher and students, the complex feelings about learning a second language, study and living abroad, and reasons for doing all that, not to mention the interactions between teacher and classmates. Having taught ESL classes for many years both in the US and abroad, the subject gave me a certain sense of nostalgia and also some teaching tips I wish I had thought of.
My memoir, A China Retrospective is now live on Amazon in paperback, hardcover and Kindle and I also managed to get my author page on Amazon configured. Both seem like a huge accomplishment as I often found the technology part baffling. A big shout out to the women in India who work at Amazon’s call center. I actually talked to live people and they helped me link my earlier books to my new author page on Amazon.com. Finding a way to live contact was a feat in itself. Obviously, Amazon wants you to deal only with their digital assorted menus, online info and digital assistant. 8-10-24
At last! I think I have corrected the final formatting flaws and have uploaded a new copy of the manuscript. What a chore. I got help from Rob Bignell for the final step. I’m pleased that it looks professional and my early readers find it interesting. The book should be live in its glory in a few days. 8-1-24
Every time I think I have found the last formatting and editing flaw in my China Retrospective, I find a new one. I’ve uploaded a corrected copy at least once daily for a couple weeks. Maybe in another month I’ll be satisfied and then go public about the book. It’s been a travail. How nice it would be to find a publisher to do these editing things and produce a nice-looking book. I’m satisfied with the contents, though. It’s an interesting story. 8-1-24
National politics has been interesting and exciting for a few weeks and this has given the endless campaign new life. These next three months may even have matters of substance besides the usual name-calling etc. In my own life though, I have been endlessly frustrated with managing my China Retrospect manuscript. I decided to upload it to Amazon.com which is sort of simple and costs nothing, but requires tech skills that I can just barely handle. It’s taken me days to accomplish things that should take about 15 minutes. The format might look right in Word but uploaded looks different because of hidden edits. Then the proof copy looks different from the online edition. All this makes me feel I should have paid someone else to do all these things.
Today would be Erik’s 95th birthday. He died just shy of being 76 which then was considered the average age of male life expectancy. He could still be alive. Last week my sister and I visited our 99-year-old cousin who is sharp as a tack, no sign of being unable to remember names or anything else. She needs a walker but is extremely healthy, walks about a mile a day, plays cards every day, knits a hundred pairs of mittens every year to give away at Christmas. She’s not wrinkled or bent either and may well live another ten years. 7-24-24
July 21, 2024 President Biden withdrew as a candidate for the presidential election after securing all the delegates who would formally endorse him at the convention. He’s endorsed the vice president Kamala Harris and she will likely secure the party endorsement. It’s all unprecedented and highly interesting and exciting. A woman candidate for the second time against Trump. Will she succeed after Hillary Clinton failed?
The Republican Convention is over. One result is that it has totally normalized Trump, his wild ravings and fabrications either ignored or ratified by his supporters. The new VP hopeful looks good and has a great resume, but his extremist views were swept under the rug. The Republicans are measuring the drapes, expecting a landslide in November. I wonder if it will come to pass. 7-17-24
Bastille Day, the day after former Pres. Trump was victim of assassination attempt, failed by a split-second turn of the head as he requested a chart to show the audience. For him, it’s another of his lifelong stream of luck evading terrible consequences. The assassin turns out to be a very sad case of a middle-class white kid terribly bullied in school. That’s probably his motive, identified with all the people Trump bullies, and of course guns, the availability of them for any disturbed person to act on impulse. 7-14-24
Returning to New Prague, my old hometown, always arouses mixed feelings, both nostalgia and gratitude for my current life. A lot of the past remains, houses in the inner core and most of the buildings on Main Street, though universally repurposed and now surrounded by modern houses, stores, restaurants, and multi-story apartment buildings. Traffic circles have replaced four-way stops on the perimeters. The Czech heritage of the town is celebrated in various ways. Signs in Bohemian decorate walls. St. Wenceslaus Church is unchanged, trains still rumble through. But farther out, my old family farm is gone. The only remaining of the 1880s homestead is the driveway and placement of the mailbox. Not a single building remains, house, garage, barn, ancient woodshed, outhouse, granary and machine shed, corncribs, pig pen, chicken coop, all typical on small family farms of old are gone. Even the central giant boxelder tree has disappeared. From the end of the driveway the boundaries of the farm and fields remain as they were in my youth. The pasture and woods, the creek running through are there, still idyllic. But there’s a sign, “Lots for development.” Next time I drive by I suppose I will see those rich fields broken up and a modern village arising. 7-12-24
Weather: such a wet spring and summer, cloudy and often cool. My air conditioner has gone on only once. The fan brings up cool air from the basement and night temps have remained cool. So today was supposed to be sunny but there was a light shower when I was on my morning walk and now there is thunder and a bigger afternoon rain. On the positive side, most plants love this, though not my geraniums. The grass is green. It always looks fresh outdoors, and that’s cheering. PBS: Professor T is entertaining. Mystery writers always come up with a new quirk for their main characters. Grantchester keeps renewing itself too, now on its third pastor, this time a tall, handsome, British-born Indian. Geordie and Kate’s family seems to have shrunk. Previously they had 4 children, now only the oldest, Esme, has appeared, only to fly the coop after fighting with her mother. 7-8-24
A Sunday, and one of those useless days that started with well-meaning plans that were never carried out. Maybe we need days like that? Is it sloth or need for re-charging? It’s PBS TV tonight, a full slate of British shows. Do the Brits import American shows? The commercials stop me from watching network TV. 7-7-24
The endless presidential campaign, the election still months away, the candidates supposedly cementing their place months ago, yet it keeps producing drama. Now it’s Biden’s turn to get non-stop negative coverage because of his poor debate performance and urgings to bow out, but looks like he won’t. Who would replace him if he did? Democrats being democrats, it would turn into a pitched battle, entertaining in a way, but probably not conducive to winning the general election. Meanwhile Project 2025, the promise of a dictatorship, mass deportations and incarcerations and revenge on political enemies give most people heart palpitations. 7-6-24
The fifth of July, mostly sunny. I visited the garden store and bought some plants at discount to replace what hasn’t thrived well because it’s been too wet and too cool. The best part of the day was the arrival of three young neighborhood boys who wanted to wash my windows. What a happy event! I’ve been looking out those dingy windows, thinking I should wash them. A third happy event, I figured out how to enlarge the font on my website writings, so now it doesn’t seem imperative to change the theme.
Fourth of July, yet another rainy day, but interesting because the patriotic talk and presidential politics make for an interesting mix and creativity on the part of the news commentators. If Pres. Biden will step aside, he’ll have to do it in the next couple days. It’s hard to see the relentless drumbeat against him subsiding very soon and from a political point of view, the talk and excitement about something dramatic happening is good for his party. Mercifully there is little mention of Trump, such a relief.
Today is the 19th anniversary of my husband Erik’s death. I relive that day and the days leading up to it in stark detail every year. It’s so many years ago but some memories never fade. and somehow regrets get stronger as the years go by. 7-4-24
Today’s computer irritation: clicked on a link on Facebook and it immediately sent one of those scam alerts saying a dangerous virus was installed, don’t turn off your computer, call . . . to charge you a huge fee to correct a non-existent problem. Of course, I turned off the computer and unplugged it. I also removed browsing data and while I was at it, deleted passwords for sites I no longer visit like my bookstore which doesn’t exist. So, a day’s work, so to speak. 7-3-24
Sipsworth is a charming and amusing story covering a few weeks in the life of Helen, an 80 yr-old woman and a mouse she adopts. The novel is set in the small town in Wales where Helen grew up and has returned after 60 years in Australia. During the first half of the story Helen seems doddering and impoverished but we eventually learn this isn’t the case, and her empathy for the mouse has a good rationale. The novelist details the minutiae in Hellen’s routine which also explains how the mouse gives purpose to her life. Ann Patchet writes “I love this book.” I like it a lot but maybe not as much as Patchet and a lot of other readers. It’s definitely enjoyable and short enough to read in one or two sittings. 7-2-24
A dispiriting day if you are interested in government and politics, it remains to be seen how far along the path toward Russia etc. we will go. 7-1-24
The last day of June and it doesn’t feel like full summer, got down to the low 50s last night. Global warming affects central Wisconsin in surprising ways. 6-30-24
Occasionally I wake up with a “What’s the point?” feeling. That happened today even though it’s sunny, a beautiful summer day. Yesterday, dark and rainy, should have been the day to arouse that feeling. I binged on the last episodes of Bridgerton, then read too much about politics and couldn’t get to sleep. That’s a good enough explanation for pointlessness. To give today a point, I went to the Farmer’s Market and bought a lot of fresh vegetables and an odd “lion’s mane” mushroom. I’ll try that tonight. The local gardeners and organic farmers are so talented, such a wonderful addition to our summer food supply. 6-29-24
Reviewing and disposing of a lifetime of journals and notebooks and letters is one of the tasks I set myself for this year. Actually, I’ve been postponing this for a number of years and have still not gotten to it full steam. Maybe soon, as I’ve done about all I can do to procrastinate though yesterday an idea for a novel gelled and that seems a much more delightful alternative. It remains to be seen if I will follow through with it. I’ve already read 27 books this year and have completed nearly all the house maintenance work needed. I’m missing my bookstore even though I’m appreciating my “life of leisure.” Somehow I managed to do all the things I do now as well as run the bookstore full time for 14 years. The slowing down in old age is due in part to simply having more waking hours to fill, so doing things at a slower rate is a compensation for that.
Old age was painfully displayed in the presidential debate last night. We had a stark view of the competitors, one an immoral, inveterate liar and felon, the other a good man with a long and successful career in government and presidency, now physically and mentally stumbling. How can this country have gotten into this dismal state? 6-28-24
Why am I doing this? I’ve revised and reactivated my website and started blogging again for three reasons. First, I’ve revised an old travel-memoir manuscript on China and want to see it in print soon. Second, I like a daily routine, and third, I recently read that the oldest man in the U.S. who passed away at age 110, blogged daily until the end. The photo of him at his computer shows him pretty fit, not a wizened old man. I don’t know if the photo showed him at 110 or 80, though. In any case, his daily blog seems a good role-model sort of activity. 6-27-24
Took a break from reading, watching a few episodes of Bridgerton instead. The story line gets a bit tedious, but the costumes and hairdos continue to dazzle and delight. The series has been called a spoof on Jane Austen and I suppose that’s a good description but certainly the author of the eight bodice-buster romances novels in the series was inspired by Austen. In any case, the Netflix series is good fun. 6-26-24
Today’s book is Nina Totenberg’s Dinner with Ruth. It’s an autobiography but there is a lot about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the friendship Totenberg had with her as well as her other colleagues at PBS and elsewhere. It’s a good book. I envy the friendships Totenberg had, though of course they aren’t much different from the friendships all of us who had ordinary careers have had. The personal details she writes about public figures, especially supreme court justices, are interesting. She deftly navigates the line between personal friendship and her work as a journalist. The book is a delight to a news junkie like me. I’m listening to the audio book which is read by Totenberg herself. Since her voice is so familiar, it seems like a continuation of an NPR segment, even-handed but full of information. 6-25-24
Krueger’s Epilogue echoes the ending of The Great Gatsby and adds satisfying thoughts on remembering. Krueger isn’t quite The Great American Novelist but he’s a top tier writer and a really good storyteller, qualities he shares with Ann Patchett. Their novels are very good, very satisfying reads, but don’t leave me feeling “I wish I could write a novel like that.” Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry are recent novels that gave me that response. 6-24-24
As in Krueger’s other stand-alone novels, The River We Remember has quite a few bad fathers and sickly or dead mothers with surrogates providing needed parenting. His talk in Menomonie included childhood and family details that show the autobiographical origin of these characterizations. It’s Dickensian, homage to Dickens. A criticism, though: A River goes on a bit too long thanks to a few fairly implausible story lines. 6-23-24
William Kent Krueger’s third stand-alone novel, The River We Remember, is as enjoyable as Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. It mirrors his north-woods cop stories in some ways but takes the setting to the opposite corner of Minnesota. Krueger is a very good storyteller. His talk at the Mabel Tainter showed that too. It’s a gift, a honed skill, and seems to spring from a well of family and childhood experience that stalks him. And by the way, I learned about amaranth in The River We Remember. Don’t know why I never knew about this grain. 6-22-24
Susan Thurin 
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