This 'n' That

 It's now about 11 months into the COVID shutdown. I've adapted to many things and feel as if I can't stand one more minute of many others.

I've sort of gotten used to staying at home, though I sometimes find myself planning for a weekend and wondering which friends to invite. M and I used to go out just about every Friday or Saturday night depending on what was happening. Since we were more active than most of our friends, it was usually up to us to initiate a get together with another couple or two. Now, many of our friends are not going to any indoor venue and some of the rest are not meeting with people regardless of the location.

Perhaps I should feel grateful. The fewer people with whom I come in contact, the less my chance of contracting COVID or even the seasonal flu.

Right now (as I look out on the snow-covered yard) I'm (not so) patiently waiting for spring and warmer weather when we can entertain on the patio or screened in porch. At least the days are getting longer.

I now have a walking buddy. C, who also leads senior exercise classes in Hatfield, walks nearly every day. Since she lives near the center of town, she many routes from which to choose and they are all relatively flat. Where I live, there is only one place to walk and it's all downhill. Which means on my way back, when I'm getting tired, it's all uphill. C and I have been meeting about once a week and walking around town in different directions. We walk about 3-4 miles (which is much more than I would do on my own); once we did nearly 5 miles.

Walking is good especially because I seem to have lost interest in Yoga and Pilates. Suddenly, I just didn't want to do them anymore. Maybe I just need a break. Or need different CDs and DVDs.

Of course, I've been doing a lot of reading. I began the V.I. Warshawski mystery series by Sara Paretsky. I'd forgotten how much I like her books. When I first discovered them many years ago, I read all of them. But then, as always happens, I caught up to her and she doesn't write as fast as I read. At best, only one is published each year. The same thing happened with Louise Penny. But it's been so long since I read Paretsky's earliest books, they're all new again.

And on my alphabetical list of potential duplicates, I've reached The most ...

Today, I'll be going into the MLS office. It's the highlight of my week.

Spring?

The calendar says it's spring, but there's still a little snow on the ground and more is predicted for this afternoon. Well, it is New England.

A couple of days ago, I looked outside and even though there was ice on the pond, there were fish swimming around underneath the ice. And there are daffodil sprouts in the garden. Clearly the fish and the flowers are ready for spring and so am I. I even heard the song Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most last night during Jazz à la Mode.

I'm getting tired of my winter clothes; I want to switch to shorter sleeves and fewer layers. I want to paint my toenails and wear sandals. I want to pack away those warm scarves and gloves till next year.

I know it will all happen soon, but waiting can be hard.

On the work front, I've reached the title Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I've pretty much cleared out those duplicates and problems already because I dealt with  Little Men a couple of weeks ago. Little Women is a wonderful book that every girl should read. About ten years ago, I read it again and was surprised to realize I was reading at that level when I was in elementary school. It is a great read, but not an easy one. The vocabulary is quite sophisticated.

I've never seen any of the movies that have been made. One fan of the book told me the 1994 movie with Winona Ryder was terrible.

I tried reading Little Men, but didn't get very far. I'm not certain why. I had planned to read the entire series that Louisa May wrote. I guess I got distracted by murder mysteries. I know I read Eight Cousins when I was younger.

I was a voracious reader as a child. Come to think of it, I read a lot of mysteries then, too.

So Many Books!

Lately, I've had the great fortune to be able to do a lot of reading and the reading has been quite eclectic.

First, through Wowbrary (new additions to the Hatfield Public Library sent to me in a weekly email) I learned about Hissing Cousins, the story of Eleanor Roosevelt and her first cousin Alice Longworth. U.S. politics and government is so much more interesting when it involves the lives of people. Eleanor and Alice were born the same year (1884). Alice was Teddy Roosevelt's daughter and Eleanor was his niece (as well as Franklin Roosevelt's wife). They spent much of their lives together, but were very different people. Both were quite influential in Washington politics, but in entirely different ways. While I can't be as effusive about Hissing Cousins as I am about Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the story of Eleanor and Alice is very readable (and much shorter).


True history was followed by a thriller by one of my favorite authors, Lisa Scottoline. I love her Rosato and Associates series, but this was a standalone title, Every Fifteen Minutes. The opening chapter made me feel anxious, which kept me reading so that I could get to a resolution. Highly recommended if you like thrillers and don't mind feeling unsettled for several days.

On the lighter side, I learned about Arsenic and Old Books from an AUTOCAT post. It is written by a librarian and the mysteries all take place in a library. Charlie Harris is a librarian with a Maine coon cat named Diesel. While Diesel accompanies Charlie everywhere, he does not solve the mystery like Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy or Lilian Jackson Braun's Koko. Even though I'm a cat lover, I find having an animal so intimately involved a little silly. While Charlie talks to Diesel (and I've always talked to my cats), Charlie solves his mysteries without Diesel's input. The plot is definitely light, but there is an intriguing twist at the end.

Currently, I'm reading an oldie: The Edge by Dick Francis. Whenever I'm at a loss for what to read next, I can depend on Dick Francis. Even though he died in 2010, he was a prolific writer and I can always find something of his that I haven't read, or read such a long time ago that I can't remember the plot.

Happy reading!

Who Are You Reading?

I've always been a reader.

Maybe it's because I'm a librarian. Maybe it's why I became a librarian.

Regardless, I read every night before going to sleep. It's the best way I know to separate the work and worries of the day from the relaxing and refreshing aspects of sleeping.

I'm a pretty eclectic reader, though I do love mysteries (in all their forms: hard boiled detective, police procedurals, cozies, legal thrillers, etc.) and I lean toward female authors. I also like biographies. I've read all four volumes of Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson. I recently finished Lyle Leverich's biography of Tennessee Williams which ends with The Glass Menagerie becoming a hit on Broadway. I plan to read John Lahr's biography of Tennessee Williams, but I wanted to read them in order (being the OCD-ish person I am).

I've read a lot of Rita Mae Brown's book. I'm not that fond of the Mrs. Murphy mysteries (written with the assistance of her cat Squeaky Pie; they're pretty light), but I do like the foxhunting mysteries. Even better, are her non-mystery fiction works such as Alma Mater and Bingo. The latter book is a sequel to Six of One. Not knowing that, I read them out of order. I've know of her first book Rubyfruit Jungle for about as long as I can remember, though I never knew exactly what is was about. I was reminded of that book when I saw the play (and also the movie) Educating Rita. Rita (whose real name is Susan) is a hair dresser from a working class family who wants to become educated by taking classes at the local college after reading Rubyfruit Jungle. The book has made such an impact on her, she even changes her name.

Well, it's a little dated (a lot has changed in 40 years) and I'm not going to change my name, but I loved the book.

Now on to the stack of tomes sitting on the night table next to my bed. What will be next?

Applying for Jobs

In the last few days I've seen two posts for jobs I would love. I applied for them both.

I have to admit, they're not perfect. For one thing, both are full-time and my preference is to work only part-time since I'm planning to continue teaching at Simmons GSLIS-west for at least another year. But these two jobs were just too good to pass up.

One is a Cataloger position at an academic library. It's a place that I worked temporarily many years ago and it's a lovely campus. The commute, however, is long and something I'm not looking forward to.

The other is a local company that publishes textbooks and they need an Assistant Editor. Catalogers make good Editors since they (we) are used to detailed work. When I read, it is not unusual that I find a typo or an inconsistant name or some other mistake that should have been caught before the book went to press. I make the correction in the book. I couldn't go to sleep and leave it there.

And while I'm confessing to writing in library books, I will also admit to having a private logo which I add to the book so that I know I've read it. Most readers of genre fiction have their own private logo; we read so many books it's hard to keep track. I want to reassure those of you who are gasping that I would deface public property that my mark is small and discreet and is not anywhere near the barcode or anyplace that would interfere with reading any part of the book. Some libraries have a small slip of paper attached to the inside front or back cover just for this purpose. It's fun to see other people's initials or squiggles. It's like being part of a secret community.