Tales from my book club

Tales from my book club

December 12, 2022 / 3 Comments

The Manchester, NH chapter of the Silent Book Club used to meet in person, twice a month, at a local bookstore/cafe. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, our members have continued to gather via Zoom. Just like before, we chat about books and then read in silence for a whole hour. There are no assigned titles — we read what we want — and recommendations are freely shared.

It is, quite simply, the perfect club for bibliophiles, introverts and people who just want to meet with others without having the pressure of required reading.

Here is our chapter’s favorite books of the year:

There’s probably a local chapter of the Silent Book Club near you. If you’re interested in joining, click here.
2021: The Year In Review

December 13, 2021 / 3 Comments

At the end of each year, I always take a moment to examine the ups and downs I experienced. What follows is my personal and professional review of 2021. I:

* Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the global coronavirus pandemic, the shifting of power in the Senate, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump’s second impeachment, President Joe Biden’s first term, the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and the massive Haiti earthquake, the collapse of a Miami Beach condo, the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics, the fall of Afghanistan, Texas’s ban on abortion, many mass shootings and numerous celebrity deaths. Also survived yet another round of layoffs.

* Penned at least 23 journal entries.

* Maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.

* Read 62 books and completed the 2021 GoodReads reading challenge

* Subscribed and read numerous magazines, including Cook’s Country, Cooks Illustrated, Bake From Scratch, Architectural Digest, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, The Saturday Evening Post and TeaTime Magazine.

* Watched at least 48 TV programs and 63 movies and listened to many podcasts.

* Rented a movie theater for M’s birthday and saw a Marvel film with two friends.

* Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild and the Silent Book Club, Manchester, NH chapter.

* Received the coronavirus vaccine and a booster six months later. Also received a flu vaccine.

* Planted a container garden, grew herbs and flowers and veg, and updated my gardening journal.

* Completed many home repairs, including a new furnace, a new central air conditioner, a new gutter system, a new hot water heater, a new garbage disposal and a new dishwasher.

* Spent months searching for our next home (alas, not in Scotland — damn pandemic). No luck. Finally just refinanced our mortgage.

* Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.

* Experienced a fender bender while dropping off treats at a friend’s house. Thankfully, the other driver eventually returned to apologize and there was no damage to either of our cars.

* Adopted a kitten named Pepper and built two very large kitty condos.

* Finally bought a pair of new glasses that I like. Two months later, I broke the frame and had to have them replaced. Been wearing glasses since the fifth grade and that’s never happened before.

* Continued to wear these damn braces (and miss the process of enjoying food).

* Decorated the front and inside of our house for Halloween and dressed up as Chuck Bartowski.

* Decorated the front and inside of our house for Christmas and mailed more than 30 Christmas cards.

* Suffered from at least 30 migraines and lost 50 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 28 hours.

* Worked my 31st year as a journalist.

* Celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary.

* Turned 48.

Goals for 2022

* Change careers.

* Purchase a new home.

* Improve my baking/cooking skills.

* Work on my fiction.

* Read at least 50 books.

* Sleep at least 7 hours a night.

* Practice hygge.

* Win the lottery.
In Memoriam: A Look Back At Many Of The People We Lost in 2021

December 9, 2021 / No Comments

Some people view obituaries as morbid stories, but in truth only one line of an obit deals with death. The rest of the story focuses on the amazing lives people led.

In 2021, these obituaries featured people whose lives — and deaths — most affected me:

* Helga Weyhe, bookseller

* James Cross, British diplomat

* Larry King, talk show host

* Captain Sir Tom Moore, British knight, veteran and philanthropist

* Danny Ray, emcee and cape man for James Brown

* S. Prestley Blake, co-founder of Friendly’s ice cream chain

* Florence Jones-Smith, fashionista and social media star

* Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, publisher, bookseller

* Bruce Meyers, creator of the first fiberglass dune buggy

* Glynn Lunney, NASA flight director who helped save Apollo 13 mission

* Beverly Cleary, children’s author

* Sharon Matola, zookeeper who was dubbed the “Jane Goodall of jaguars”

* Tempest Storm, burlesque dancer

* Kathie Coblentz, librarian

* Olympia Dukakis, actress

* Janine Brookner, ousted CIA officer and attorney

* Chad Kalepa Baybayan, seafarer who sailed using the stars

* Vance H. Trimble, Pulitzer Prize-winning badass

* Alice Clark Brown, pioneering Ringling Bros. circus perfomer

* Jehan Sadat, former first lady of Egypt and women’s advocate

* Marianne Bly, Dollar Tree worker

* Jimmy Elidrissi, Waldorf bellhop

* Phyllis Gould, World War II welder

* Maki Kaji, “Godfather of Sudoku”

* Carolyn Shoemaker, detector of comets and asteroids

* Michael K. Williams, actor

* Willie Garson, actor

* Colin Powell, former secretary of state

* Margaret York, homicide detective
My top 10 favs of 2021: A year spent reading, watching and listening to stories

December 5, 2021 / No Comments

During 2021, I consumed 61 books, 48 TV programs, 60 movies and many podcasts. These were my favorites:

(Note: Not all were released during the past 365 days.)

MY FAVORITE BOOKS – FICTION

1. “Blacktop Wasteland” by S.A. Cosby

2. “Bella Bella” by Harvey Fierstein

3. “The Last Flight” by Julie Clark

4. “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” by V.E. Schwab

5. “Bottle Demon” by Stephen Blackmoore

6. “Fire Season” by Stephen Blackmoore

7. “Later” by Stephen King

8. “Billy Summers” by Stephen King

9. “The Last Bookshop in London” by Madeline Martin

10. “Unclean Spirits” by Chuck Wendig

(Honorable mentions: “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir, “Falling” by T.J. Newman, “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig and “Marigolds, Myrtle and Moles: A Gardener’s Bedside Book” by Alan Titchmarsh.)

MY FAVORITE BOOKS – NONFICTION

1. “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law” by Mary Roach

2. “The Detective in the Dooryard: Reflections of a Maine Cop” by Timothy A. Cotton

3. “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President” by Candice Millard

4. “The Hotel: A Week In The Life Of The Plaza” by Sonny Kleinfield

5. “Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt” by Todd Harra and Ken McKenzie

6. “You’re Lucky You’re Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom” by Phil Rosenthal

7. “The Rural Diaries: Love, Livestock, and Big Life Lessons Down on Mischief Farm” by Hilarie Burton Morgan

8. “When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today” by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

9. “Books” by Larry McMurtry

10. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

(Honorable mentions: “Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth’s Most Awesome Creatures” by Nick Pyenson, “Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library” by Wayne A. Wiegand, “Haunted Hillsborough County” by Eric Stanway, “What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You” by Heather Corinna, “The Experts’ Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do” by Samantha Ettus, “American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI” by Kate Winkler Dawson and “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements” by Sam Kean)

Overall reading ratio: I read 18,452 pages — 65% fiction, 35% nonfiction; 53% male authors, 47% female authors.

MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS

1. The Great British Baking Show

2. Gardeners’ World

3. Love Your Garden

4. Ted Lasso

5. The Repair Shop

6. Escape to the Country

7. America’s Test Kitchen — At Home

8. The Morning Show

9. Evil

10. Grow Your Own At Home With Alan Titchmarsh

(Honorable mentions: I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, Staged, Grand Designs, Active Shooter: America Under Fire, For All Mankind, Lovecraft Country, WandaVision, Travelers, Nadiya Bakes, Bridgerton, The Hot Zone, Punisher, Ghosts, Ghosts (UK version), Falcon and the Winter Soldier, The Outsider, The Witcher, Altered Carbon, Chicago Med and Alpha Dogs.)

MY FAVORITE MOVIES

1. Nomadland

2. One Night In Miami

3. Love, Gilda

4. Gunpowder Milkshake

5. Four Hours at the Capitol

6. Studs Terkel: Listening to America

7. The Last Cruise

8. The Phone Call

9. The Aeronauts

10. Soul

(Honorable mentions: Dune, A Quiet Place Part II, Red Notice, Black Widow, Jungle Cruise, 76 Days, Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings, Fear Street Part 3: 1666, Greenland, Luca, Fear Street: Part 2 – 1978, Fear Street: Part 1 – 1994, Verify Road Trip: Climate Skeptic Examines What Scientists Know And How They Know It.)

MY FAVORITE PODCASTS

1. The Vinyl Cafe

2. Small Town Dicks

3. Against the Rules

4. BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast

5. Lost At the Smithsonian with Aasif Mandvi

6. Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

7. Backstory

8. Awards Chatter

9. Sidedoor

10. The Anthropocene Reviewed

(Honorable mentions: 99% Invisible, Radiolab, Christmas Past, Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With…., David Tennant Does a Podcast With…, The Christmas Stocking, Fresh Air, Clear + Vivid With Alan Alda, The Daily, Beautiful/Anonymous, Dear Hank & John and Mobituaries With Mo Rocca.)
In Memoriam: A Look Back At Many Of The People We Lost in 2020

December 28, 2020 / 1 Comment

Some people view obituaries as morbid stories, but in truth only one line of an obit deals with death. The rest of the story focuses on the amazing lives people led.

In 2020, these were the obituaries of people whose lives — and deaths — most affected me:

* Betty Pat Gatliff, forensic artist

* Neil Peart, drummer

* Michael Cafferty, author and attorney

* Mary Higgins Clark, mystery novelist

* Kirk Douglas, actor

* Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician

* Clive Cussler, adventure novelist

* James Lipton, “Inside the Actors Studio” host

* Kenny Rogers, country music singer/actor

* Bill Withers, R&B singer

* Earl Deutch, ‘Kiss Cam’ favorite

* William Helmreich, sociology professor and New York walker

* Bob Otto, who played “Taps” at more than 5,000 veteran funerals

* Tom Burford, apple expert

* Kate Matte, bookseller

* Brian Dennehy, actor

* James M. Beggs, NASA administrator

* Madeline Kripke, doyenne of dictionaries

* Jack Randall, ichthyologist and coral specialist

* Little Richard, self-described “King and Queen” of rock and roll

* Roy Horn, illusionist

* Motoko Fujishiro Huthwaite, last of the “Monuments Women”

* Fred Willard, actor

* Ian Holm, actor

* Joel Schumacher, director

* Carl Reiner, comic actor/writer/director

* Hugh Downs, broadcast journalist

* Ennio Morricone, film composer

* John Lewis, civil rights leader and congressman

* Kelly Preston, actress

* Regis Philbin, talk show and game show host

* Olivia de Havilland, actress

* Wilford Brimley, actor

* Chadwick Boseman, actor

* Ruth Bader Ginsburn, Supreme Court justice

* Eddie Van Halen, rock guitarist

* Sean Connery, actor and original James Bond

* Luis Troyano, “Great British Baking Show” finalist

* Alex Trebek, game show host

* Jan Morris, travel writer, historian and memoirist

* Ben Bova, science fiction writer

* Betsy Wade, journalist

* Al Cohen, magician and magic shop owner