Posts

A Good Animal by Sara Maurer

Image
A beneficial aspect of my library job is that I see a lot of new items cross my desk before they are cataloged, processed, and sent out into circulation. When Sara Maurer's novel A Good Animal found its way into my work space, and I saw the setting was Sault Ste. Marie (MI), I knew I had to place a hold on it. Now, here is where the danger comes in. Sometimes library holds are fulfilled at inopportune times, or the initial enthusiasm you had for the book has dulled. When my turn came, I was already reading a book that I didn't want to put down ( Beeswing by Richard Thompson). I checked out A   Good Animal , a 7-day loan, and it languished on dining room table for a week. When the due date arrived, I seriously considering taking the loss and returning the book without even cracking it open. I hate doing that. Having finally finished Beeswing, I decided to ignore the overdue notice and give A   Good Animal a shot. If it didn't grab me after the first ten page...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Deto Bobcats imaginary baseball team, part 1: the backyard fungo era

In honor of the beginning of baseball season, and marking the 50th anniversary of my baseball fandom, it's time for me to finally write a post that I've been thinking of writing for a few years. I've avoided it all this time due to a level of embarrassment I've had about the subject. In 1976, when I was eight years old, I created an imaginary baseball team called the Deto Bobcats. (Deto pronounced "DEE-to"). I imagined Deto as an imaginary city, and it's name was inspired by Detroit, the city I lived in between 1973 and 1979. I probably don't need to explain that "Bobcats" was a feline spinoff of "Tigers." In the Bobcats' earliest incarnation, the "team" (i.e., ME, with a whiffle ball and plastic bat) played its games in my backyard. The way our backyard was configured, it loosely resembled a tiny baseball field. The "homeplate" area was a strip of lawn that was bordered on the left by a concrete walking path...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jimi Hendrix's Kiss the Sky revisited

Image
Way back on December 22, 2022, I wrote a nostalgic post about becoming a full-blown Jimi Hendrix convert via the 1984 compilation, Kiss the Sky . I lamented jettisoning my cassette of the album decades ago. Well, guess what? I found the comp on CD at my local record shop and, after some wavering and hemming and hawing, I bought it. The icing on the cake is that it's what is known in CD collector geekitude as a "target CD," as in the design of the CD surface resembles a target. I can't tell you how exciting it was to pop that CD in my car's disc player and hear that Hendrix collection for the first time in at least 24 years (probably longer than that). It's not as if Kiss the Sky is that earth-shattering--with the exception of the live "I Don't Live Today," I have all of these songs on other albums--but listening to those songs in that order was like taking the Wayback Machine to 1987, when I was playing the hell out of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wolverine Tracks: On the Trail of Memory and Meaning in the Wild by Dag O. Hessen

Image
Brace yourselves for another "word vomit" book review. Don't say I didn't warn you. Wolverine Tracks : On the Trail of Memory and Meaning in the Wild is yet another book that crossed my desk at work and looked intriguing enough that I placed a hold for it. My 2026 winning percentage for these "on a whim" books remains perfect. I will cut right to the chase and say I loved this book. At its most basic level, Wolverine Tracks is a chronicle of Dag O. Hessen's quest for a face-to-face encounter with a wolverine. Hessen, a Norwegian biologist, writes about his lifelong relationship with nature and the wild. In 1972, as teenager, he found wolverine tracks while out on a nature expedition with his father. About a decade later, he had a brief face-to-face with an actual wolverine. So, the premise of the book is Hessen trying for one more wolverine sighting. But Wolverine Tracks is so much more than that. While the book reads as a jour...
Post a Comment
Read more

Berlin Shuffle by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

Image
Berlin Shuffle (Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz). This is another book that passed across my desk at the library and piqued my curiosity. Since I've been interested in German history more in the last five years than any time in my life, I placed a hold on it. This promises to be another of my "word vomit"-type book reviews. I want to get my thoughts down before I forget. Since Berlin Shuffle is a novel, I will avoid spoilers.  Allow me to cut to the chase and declare my enjoyment of this book. Berlin Shuffle , written in 1937, takes place in approximately 1929. At this time, Germany is a country reeling from World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, buried by draconian reparations it can't hope to repay, struggling with inflation and unemployment. So in this setting, we have several characters who for various reasons are beaten down by life in post-Great War Germany. These characters are as follows:  Fundholz is an older man (between 65-70) who is possibly/pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Winning the Earthquake by Lorissa Rinehart

Image
Amidst all the horrors taking place in Minneapolis right now--I swear that every week and almost every day the terribleness changes location--I managed to finish reading a book. It was just the sort of book I needed right now. When Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress (by Lorissa Rinehart) crossed my desk at work last month, I was quickly intrigued. I had never heard of Jeannette Rankin. In all the American history classes I took at an undergraduate, I don't recall ever hearing her name. This probably speaks to the way history was taught in the 1980s, and how women's stories were relegated to Women's Studies courses. It's a shame, because Jeannette Rankin was an incredible and inspiring person. I want to share my impressions of the book and of Rankin's life right here on this blog because for one, it's fresh in my mind and secondly, I want anyone reading this blog to seek out this book ei...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Ray of Light?

Image
Oof, sorry about the buzzkill that was my last blog post. I was not feeling good that day, not that I'm that more upbeat today. I mean, we're still living under the Trump regime. How much happier could I get? I hope there's a day in the future where we can just say, "Wow, what a relief we survived THAT! What the heck was THAT about?! We lost our minds for [??] years." Do we have to live through some of the darkest years in American history in order to emerge into the light and a better future? Or am I delusional. All I know is I can't cave in to despair, particularly when our president is such a buffoon. (On the other hand, his buffoonery could get us into trouble if there aren't any adults in the room to reign in his worst implulses. For example, need I reiterate how batshit crazy this "take over Greenland" nonsense is?). After my lowpoint on Thursday morning, spending far too much time doomscrolling, I had a nice late afternoon and ...
Post a Comment
Read more