Books Read in 2021

January - 9 

1. The Purple Onion Mystery (aka Murder on Friday) - book 7, and last, in the Spike Tracy series 

by Harriette Ashbrook

mystery 1941

Kindle

finished 1/2/21

2. The Theft of the Iron Dogs aka Murderer's Mistake - book 28 in the Robert Macdonald series

by E.C.R Lorac

mystery 1946

Kindle

finished 1/10/21

3. The Railway Children

by Edith Nesbitt

children's fiction serialized in The London Magazine 1905, published as a book in 1906

Kindle

finished 1/14/21

4. The Owl Service

by Alan Garner

children's fiction 1967

Kindle

finished 1/16/21

5. Murder in Vienna - book 42 in the Robert Macdonald series

by E.C.R. Lorac

mystery 1956

Kindle 

finished 1/21/20

6. Kamala and Maya's Big Idea

by Meena Harris; illus. by Ana Ramirez Gonzalez

Children's picture book 2020

print

finished 1/24/21

7. Joey  The Story of Joe Biden

by Jill Biden; illus. by Amy June Bates

children's picture book 2020

print

finished 1/24/21

8. The Fatal Flying Affair - book 7 in the Lady Hardcastle mysteries

by T. E. Kinsey

mystery 2020

Kindle

finished 1/27/21

9.The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse

by Charlie Mackesy

illustrated fiction for adults and children 2019

print

finished 1/27/21

February - 5

10. A Shot in the Dark - book 1 in the Mydworth mysteries

by Matthew Costello (with Neil Richards)

mystery 2019

Kindle

finished 2/6/21

11. A Pint of Murder - book 1 in the Madoc and Janet Rhys series

by Alisa Craig 

mystery 1980

Kindle

finished 2/20/21 

12. The Old Woman Who Named Things

by Cynthia Rylant

illustrated by Kathryn Brown

children's picture book 1996

print

finished 2/22/21

13. A Little Night Murder - book 2 in the Mydworth mysteries

by Matthew Costello (with Neil Richards)

mystery 2019

Kindle

finished 2/24/21

14. Murder at Melrose Court - book 1 in the Heathcliff Lennox series

by Karen Baugh Menuhin

mystery 2018

Kindle

finished 2/27/21

March - 4

15. The Black Cat Murders - book 2 in the Heathcliff Lennox series

by Karen Baugh Menuhin

mystery 2019

Kindle

finished 3/5/21

16. The Splendid and the Vile

by Erik Larson

nonfiction 2020

print

finished 3/15/21

17. The Curse of Braeburn Castle - book 3 in the Heathcliff Lennox series

by Karen Baugh Menuhin

mystery 2019

Kindle 

finished 3/19/21

18. Inked Out - book 2 in the Snug Harbor series

by Karen MacInerney

mystery 2021

Kindle

finished 3/23/21

April - 5

19. Sable Messenger - book 2 in the Inspector Knollis series

by Francis Vivian

mystery 1947

Kindle

finished 4/2/21

20. The Threefold Cord - book 3 in the Inspector Knollis series

by Francis Vivian

mystery 1947

Kindle

finished 4/8/21

21. Something in the Water

by Catherine Steadman

mystery/thriller 2018

Kindle

library book

finished 4/10/21

22. The Swiss Summer

by Stella Gibbons

fiction 1951

Kindle

finished 4/20/21

23. Convenience Store Woman

by Sayaka Murata

translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

fiction 2018

Kindle

library book

finished 4/22/21

May - 6

24. The Plumley Inheritance - book 1 in the Ludovic Travers series

by Christopher Bush

mystery 1926

Kindle

finished 5/4/21

25. High Wire in Nuala - book 9 in the Inspector De Silva series

by Harriet Steel

mystery 2020

Kindle 

finished 5/7/21

26. Dandelion Cottage

by Carroll Watson Rankin

children's fiction 1904

Kindle

finished 5/9/21

27. Sweet Bean Paste

by Durian Sukegawa

translated from the Japanese by Alison Watts

fiction 2017

Kindle

finished 5/12/21

28. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - book 1 in Before the Coffee Gets Cold series

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselo

fiction 2015

Kindle

finished 5/17/21

29. The Consequences of Fear - book 16 in the Maisie Dobbs series

by Jacqueline Winspear

mystery 2021

Kindle

library book

finished 5/23/21

June - 3

30. Cold Case in Nuala - book 10 in the Inspector De Silva series

by Harriet Steel

mystery 2021

Kindle

finished 6/15/21

31. Citizens of London

The Americans Who Stood With Britain In Its Darkest, Finest Hour

by Lynn Olson

nonfiction 2010

print

finished 6/7/21

32. A Shropshire Lad

by A.E. Housman

poetry  

Dover Thrift Edition published 1990

first printing was 1896

finished 6/18/21

July - 4

33. The Affair of the Christmas Card Killer - book 1 in the Lord Kit Aston

by Jack Murray

mystery  2018

Kindle

finished 7/3/21

34. The Whitstable Pearl Mystery - book 1 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2015

Kindle

finished 7/11/21

35. Murder-On-Sea - book 2 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2015

Christmas

Kindle

finished 7/20/21

36. The May Day Murder - book 3 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2016

Kindle

finished 7/28/21

August - 4

37. Murder on the Pilgrims Way - book 4 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2017

Kindle

finished 8/6/21

38. Disppearance in Oare - book 5 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2018

Kindle

finished 8/13/21

39. Murder Fest - book 6 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2019

Kindle

finished 8/24/21

40. Murder on the Downs - book 7 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2020

Kindle 

finished 8/28/21

September - 5

41. Strictly Murder - book 8 in the Whitstable Pearl mysteries

by Julie Wassmer

mystery 2021

Kindle

finished 9/2/21

42. Dear Hugo 

by Molly Clavering

fiction 1955

Kindle

finished 9/7/21

43. A Study in Stone - book 1 in the Devonshire mysteries (a short novel)

by Michael Campling

mystery 2019

Kindle

finished 9/8/21 

44. Valley of Lies - book 2 in the Devonshire mysteries

by Michael Campling

mystery 2020

Kindle

finished 9/17/21

45. The Colors of All the Cattle - book 19 in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series

by Alexander McCall Smith

mystery 2018

Kindle

library book

finished 9/21/21

October - 4

46. "Murder Isn't Cricket" - book 4 in the Doctor Harry Manson series

by E. and M.A. Radford

mystery 1946

Kindle

finished 10/3/21

47. Murder Between the Tides - book 3 in the Devonshire mysteries

by Michael Campling

mystery 2020

Kindle

finished 10/19/21

48. The Road to Grantchester - prequel to the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

fiction 2019

Kindle

finished 10/26/21

49. Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death - book 1 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2012

Kindle

second reading

finished 10/31/21

November - 5

50. Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night - book 2 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2013

Kindle

second reading 

finished 11/8/21

51. Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil - book 3 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2014

Kindle

finished 11/16/21

52. A Child's Christmas in Wales

by Dylan Thomas

autobiographical prose poem 

Christmas

published in Harper's Bazaar 1950

recorded by the author BBC Radio 1952

my edition New Directions 1954

print

finished 11/16/21

53. Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins - book 4 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2015

Kindle

finished 11/24/21

54. Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation - book 5 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2016

Kindle

finished 11/28/21

December - 8

55. Sidney Chambers and The Persistence of Love - book 6 in the Grantchester series

by James Runcie

mystery 2017

Kindle

finished 12/1/21

56. The Bishop's Wife

by Robert Nathan

fiction 1926

Christmas

Kindle

finished 12/3/21

57. Mrs Lorimer's Quiet Summer 

by Molly Clavering

fiction 1953

Kindle

finished 12/5/21

58. Because of Sam

by Molly Clavering

fiction 1954

Kindle

finished 12/10/21

59. Murder Jigsaw - book 2 in the Doctor Harry Manson series 

by E. and M. A. Radford

mystery 1944

Kindle

finished 12/18/21

60. Edward Speaks At Midnight

by Pamela Terry

illus. by Kevin Nichols

children's picture book 2015

Christmas

print

finished 12/18/21

61. Who Killed Dick Whittington? - book 6 in the Doctor Harry Manson series

by E. and M.A. Radford

mystery 1947

Kindle

finished 12/27/21

62. Lucy & Tom At Christmas

by Shirley Hughes

children's picture book 1981

Christmas

print

finished 12/28/21

Quote du jour/John Lennon

 "... happy new year. Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear."

John Lennon (1940-1980)

Warren Haynes - New Year's Eve

For all of us who have lost loved ones, or just plain had a tough, tough year "watching time go by."

"New Year's Eve"
(feat. Railroad Earth)

Next year's gonna be better
Next year will surely be the one
And it's right around the corner
Hell, it's just about begun
So what am I still sitting here for
When everyone's inside?
What am I doing drinking whiskey
And looking for a place to hide?

Yeah, old buddy, I sure miss you
You and old "What's his name?"
And I know if y'all were here now
This party wouldn't be so damn lame
There'd be dancing, and fighting,
And cussing, and laughing
Raise our voices to the sky
Bring the new year in right
Instead of watching time go by

Yeah, sometimes I wonder what
The world would be like
If I didn't have strangers as my best friends
I'm sitting here on new year's
Thinking 'bout old friends and old times
We'll never see them again

Yeah, sometimes I still wonder what
My life would've been like
If I didn't have angels at my defense
I'm sitting here on new year's
Singing 'bout old friends and old times
We'll never see them again

But next year's gonna be better
Next year will surely be great
Well, I guess I should say "This year"
Geez, how did it get so late?
What am I still sitting here for?
When did everybody leave?
What am I doing here drinking whiskey?
Oh yeah, it's New Year's Eve

Quote du jour - Call The Midwife 2020 Christmas special

The fellow tipping his hat is none other than the wonderful Peter Davison playing the ringmaster of a circus that comes to Poplar during the Christmas season.

These are the last words of this excellent episode, again spoken by Vanessa Redgrave.

And so it is Christmas. As eternally different as it is the same. We come together, drawn to the place that we call home or where we are simply welcomed in. We can be broken, but we still belong. We can be fragile, but are valued all the more. We each have our place, our part to play, our seat at the table, and our purpose. The future will not be unwrapped just yet. We can't know if it holds the things we dream of, and if only for today, that is exactly as it ought to be. For now, the moment holds us in its arms. We are as safe as a child once was, beneath a star and swaddled in a manger. There is no darkness that is of any consequence, and yet not one space that is not filled with love.

Keith Urban - I'll Be Your Santa Tonight (Official Music Video)

I just discovered this song! Don't know how I missed it last year. The only thing better than Keith Urban is three Keith Urbans. Haha!

 

"Just Breathe" - Live At Austin City Limits - Pearl Jam

On his 56th birthday, thought I'd share an older song sung by Eddie Vedder. In my very most humble opinion, he has the best voice in rock music.

Today's poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I was looking at my 2020 Susan Branch calendar and saw that the last piece of verse she noted on the December page is the last verse of this poem. It is quite fitting for our very strange and sad year. Ah, Longfellow. Always and forever one of my favorites. He puts his whole soul into his work. And I've just ordered a brand new biography of him! So excited.

This was first published in 1838. His first wife had died just a few years earlier after a miscarriage.

Here is an 1840  portrait of him done by Cephas Thompson.

A Psalm of Life

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
   Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
   Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
   And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
   In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
   Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
   We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
   With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
   Learn to labor and to wait.

Quote du jour/George Bernard Shaw

 I am currently watching a New Zealand show on Acorn TV called Nothing Trivial, and I just saw a quote from George Bernard Shaw that I had never heard before.

"A happy family is but an earlier heaven."

Isn't that just the best!

Here's a picture of the man. 

Lukas Nelson - Focus On The Music (Quarantunes Evening Session)

 

Gotta focus on the music
Focus on the heart of things
Focus on the peace that music brings

Musicians have been very creative in getting their music out there. This "quarantune" was an early example. You can see it is as homemade as it gets.The singer, the guitar, the recording device.

There were three evenings in the past few months when music did "carry me merrily and gently down the stream".

The first one was early on, in March. Chris Smither was on what is called a Parlor Room Home Session. He is a longtime time favorite of Tom and I, and it was a delight to see him in his own home. He told stories and sang his wonderful songs. I was transfixed. The music was just what I needed when everything had changed so much in such a short time. You may watch it here. Just to let you know, it takes a few minutes before he appears.

The second one was Keith Urban, live streaming on Amazon Music. An hour in which I thought of nothing. I just basked in the music. There are several videos on YouTube from the show. Here is one where Keith sings with Pink.

The third was a live stream of Farm Aid. You may find most (all?) of the performances here. I hope that address works, but if not, just go to YouTube and type in Farm Aid 2020. This is where I first heard Lukas Nelson, and I've since bought an album, and follow him on Instagram where he often posts videos. Lately he's been doing something called Soundcheck Songs where his band Promise of the Real explores "songs and artists, some well-known, some more obscure, that have influenced us as a band in one way or another." These are also on YouTube on his page. Farm Aid introduced me to other artists I'd not heard before like Black Pumas, whose album I've also bought. You may see a Tiny Desk Concert of them here. 

And speaking of Tiny Desk Concerts, they are a wonderful music source to visit, if you haven't already. The main page is here. 

Music gives solace to my soul and is as necessary as air, never more than in this strange and sad year.

The birthday pals

 Yesterday the birthday pals, Tom and Hazel celebrated their special day. And indeed, this one was particularly special, numerically speaking! Hazel turned 7 and Tom 70 which means he is, for this year TEN times older than she is!! 

And turning seven is in itself a special day. There is quite a quite a wonderful article here, if you are interested. It isn't necessarily exactly seven. Kids develop differently. But it is right around seven that is a real milestone in one's life.

If you watch the Up series, you'll remember that the first episode began with these words:

Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.

I've looked it up and they have been variously attributed to Aristotle, Francis Xavier, and the Roman Catholic Jesuits. 

"Six or seven or eight" is in Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. I'll quote the whole song because it is so moving. 

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

There's a lovely version done by James Taylor here. 

So, it is a big deal to be turning seven!

I thought I'd put up pictures of Tom and Hazel over these seven years. Most of them on or near their birthday.

The first one, the very first time Tom held her, one day after she came home from the hospital - February 9, 2014. If you don't know her story, you made read it here. 

December 5, 2014

December 6, 2015

December 5, 2016

December 5, 2017

December 7, 2018 (opening a coconut)

November 28, 2019

And this year

In this strange year, she had a drive-by birthday party. People stayed in their cars, everyone wearing masks, and gave her presents! Margaret's text to me said, "overwhelmed with the love". There have been many things that have been wonderful in spite of the virus, and this party was certainly one of them. 

Queen - Thank God It's Christmas (Official Lyric Video)

This is, hands down, my favorite Christmas song - not hymn, but popular song. That voice. I've read it ranged four octaves. 

 "It's been a long, hard year"

 "We live in troubled days" 

I couldn't find a live version, but I think the video is very special, and the bonus is that you can read all the words.

 

Wham! - Last Christmas

I figure someone else must love this song as much as I do!

 

Addendum: The next day, this showed up on the BBC Radio 2 feed on Instagram!

Cactus revisited

Last fall I wrote about my two cactus plants.

This September we decided to transplant my mother's cactus. It just didn't look like a healthy plant to me anymore. The transplant didn't help, so I threw it out. I looked it up and saw that the lifespan is 20-30 years. I gave it to my mother in 1972, so it has already beat the odds. 

The "anything but fuchsia" is still going strong, and here it is today.

Blurry but kinda cool.

Alice's Restaurant - Original 1967 Recording

On November 22, 2006, I wrote my very first blog post. It is quite unbelievable to me that 14 years have gone by.To celebrate I am going to offer you a song for the season. It takes a few minutes to listen but is oh, so worth it!  

 

Johnny Mathis - We Need A Little Christmas

Quote du jour - from Pie in the Sky

Do you know this wonderful television series? I've watched it at least twice all the way through and recently bought it on DVD and am watching again. The late, much missed Richard Griffiths plays a policeman who wants to retire and just be a chef at his restaurant Pie in the Sky. He is a man who really knows and loves good food, and bemoans the fact that his accountant wife played by one of my favorites, Maggie Steed is happy with prawn chips and take-out pizza. Anyhow, a lovely series that cheers my soul each evening. If you have Acorn TV you may watch it there.

The quote du jour was spoken by the Griffiths character, Henry Crabbe.

"I rarely plan more than a day ahead and even that usually ends in disappointment."

A lot of wisdom in those words, methinks. 

As if we needed something else to worry about... glass pans

 I have always used glass pans for baking bread, cakes, supper recipes, desserts. My mother always had Pyrex pans, and I continue to use them. 

Three nights ago, I was roasting a 7x11 pan of potatoes and onions. It was covered in tin foil and the temp was 400º, just like always. It was a relatively new pan, but I'd used it a few times since buying it. We were in the living room watching Autumnwatch on BritBox when we heard a crash, a kind of explosion in the kitchen. And this is what we discovered.

The side of the pan was bowed out

We were stunned, to say the least. We thought it must be the new pan, though why it would have been alright before and not that night we couldn't figure out. So, I went online and was very surprised to discover that this is a thing! Hot glass pans can explode!! Some sites said that the new glass isn't like the ones in the past. Pyrex and Anchor say it is strong. Though they do add some directions like never put your dish right out of the oven on your stove or on a cooling rack - both things I have done forever. They say it needs to go on a cloth or potholder. That right there is pretty weird. I read that sometimes they explode after you've removed them from the oven - one family had sat down to Christmas dinner when it happened and they found pieces of glass three feet away! 

Well, being a quick-thinker and a cautious person, I went right to Amazon and ordered all new cooking pans - stainless steel. Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks!

Home For Christmas by Susan Branch

 

This is a wonderful, delightful reminiscence of Susan Branch's family Christmas in 1956. She was inspired to write it after reading a book last Christmas to her five and seven-year-old nieces. 

The book I chose for the girls told the tale of a grandmother describing to her grandchildren what Christmas was like when she was young, a passing of memories that took us back in time. I've always loved stories of life in the "olden days," hearing the jingling livery of a horse-drawn carriage, the sound of long skirts sweeping the floor, a teacup settling into a saucer in Emma's garden ... it's the closest thing to time travel I know.

I'm like that, too. I've always loved stories from the past. And Christmases in older times seem so special to me. 

Somewhat shockingly I must admit that Susan Branch's memories are of "olden days". Shockingly because those were my childhood days as well as hers. She was nine and I was eight in 1956. I tried to find a picture of me that Christmas but apparently my mother didn't take pictures of every Christmas and occasion in our lives. This fact in itself sets 1956 apart from 2020. Do you know I have over 70,000 pictures (and videos) in my iPhotos on the computer?! Granted they could use some culling - a dozen shots of one daylily for example - but still. I managed to come up with one of me in 1956. Wish I could see what that book is. It almost looks like a booklet of some kind.

It feels like just about every single thing is different. You don't see many large families anymore. It surprises Margaret when I tell her that I was the odd duck as a kid, being an only child. I can think of just one other in my class. Hazel knows several like herself. Susan writes:

... everything we had was made in America. Milkmen left glass bottles of milk on our porch, gas cost 30¢ a gallon and was pumped by an attendant. There were individual jukeboxes on lunch counters - for a nickel Elvis, Doris Day, Little Richard, or Buddy Holly would serenade you over your banana split. At school we practiced cursive on huge blackboards that covered the walls, and lined up to get our polio vaccines. Girls wore dresses for everything, to school, for roller skating, hopscotch, and cartwheels, too - and every boy on our street had a six-shooter and a coonskin cap. Drive-in movies were wonderful, under the stars, the whole family went to see Lady and the Tramp, us in our jammies. We had rotary telephones and a party line, and the new thing in the living room called television.

This was a middle-class white American family, like so many others in those days.

My dad got a job with General Telephone, so they moved from Long Beach to the San Fernando Valley. That's where I grew up, along with my seven brothers and sisters in a pink-stucco four-bedroom house my parents bought for $16,000 with help from the GI Bill. ... We didn't have a lot of money but just enough, apparently, because we had the basics, warm beds, clean jammies, friends, shoes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and parents who loved us. I always thought we were rich because I felt so happy. ... There wer 53 children living in the twelve houses on our dead-end street, and more coming all the time. ... Bikes made us totally mobile from about six-years-old. Parents didn't worry as long as we told them where we were going and were home for dinner.

Olden days, indeed. 

But the thing that still lives, that still rings as true as then is the love in the family. I would hope younger people than I am will read this to see that though some external things change, love in a family is timeless. 

"Are we rich" I asked my mom. "Not rich in money," she said, "but rich in love. We have each other. That's what counts." It was a highly satisfactory answer. It sounded exactly like "Yes."

This is Susan Branch's family in 1956.

Today's Song - Blossom Dearie/ Rhode Island is Famous for You

I was listening to Jazz 24 the other day when the DJ played Back Home in Indiana, and introduced it by whimsically asking "how many electoral college votes does Indiana have?". It made me think of this song. It is a wonderfully witty and delightful way of looking at our states in a non-political way. 

 

Sunday surprise

 Yesterday we met Campbell and Indy halfway between our towns, and brought them up here for the day. Margaret did not tell Hazel they were coming. After we let her know they were here, she told Hazel there was a surprise up at Pop and Nana's. The boys hid, she came in and closed her eyes, and then this happened!