Category Archives: books

2026, books, education, History, Movies, Mysteries

Rebel with a Clause

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A couple of weeks back, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see the world-premiere of Rebel with a Clause at the Main Cinema downtown.  I’d never heard of this but my friend is a writer, super funny and super curious and super intelligent so without so much as even “bing-ing” it, I bought ticket online and that Sunday, off we went. 

Explaining it doesn’t even begin to do it justice, so here is the trailer:

It was SO funny, mostly because the idea of her quest is funny and a lot of the folks in the clips were hilarious but also because the audience was also hysterical.  The movie is split up into chapters.  For example, The Comma was a bunch of clips about comma questions.  In fact, when “Commas” came up on the screen, there was a huge reaction/laugh/groan from the audience.  Clearly grammar and usage hit a spot for many people and the audience obviously knew what those hot spots are!  This happened several times.

I have never been what you would call a stickler for grammar but for most of my adult life I’ve lamented about the sad state of English.  Even having studied Shakespeare and Chaucer and knowing that English has evolved, I stood my ground.  And then I had one of those life-changing reads.  The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson (what a great title too).  He was so effective in mapping out the path of our language that by the final page, I was completely converted.  The grammar that we were taught in school really is just arbitrary made-up rules and communicating is what’s important, not whether we’re splitting infinitives or not.  (And I’m really hawking his book – interesting and funny.)

This doesn’t mean that I have thrown grammar to the wind.  I still like to speak well and I certainly appreciate it when someone uses the subjunctive correctly.  I also still cringe when people mis-use reflexive pronouns, which seems to be more often than not these days.  But overall, I’m trying to let all that go.

Ellen Jovin clearly comes down on the side of not holding people’s feet to the fire over their use of grammar even though she really knows her topic.  (This is not a spoiler alert by the way.)  Turns out that in addition to setting up her Grammar Table, eventually, in all 50 states, she also wrote a book about the experience.  I have it on hold at the library. 

So…. (VS acknowledges she is using the ellipses incorrectly) I’m highly recommending both Mother Tongue and Rebel with a Clause.  And, if you’re here in the Twin Cities, the movie will be showing again at The Main Cinema on September 21 and September 24.  Highly recommended!!

Do you remember learning grammar in school?  Any grammar rule/s that you feel warmly about? 

2026, books, Family, History, holidays, Uncategorized

You Call This A LIbrary?

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This week we have encountered two external references to our former region of ND. At church on Sunday we spoke to some fellow parishioners who had just returned from a cattle buying trip to Montana. They stopped in Medora, ND on the way there. Medora is about 40 miles east of where we used to live. It is a small town of about 120 people adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and home to the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Daughter’s best friend’s dad owns a ranch there, and she spent a lot of time there as a kid. It is also home to the Medora Musical, an outdoor theatre that has a cast of singers and dancers all summer for shows every night. The various attractions of the place have been promoted by a foundation started by Harold Shaefer, the manufacturer of Mister Bubble.

Our church friends were quite disappointed by the library, due to the pushy crowds and the fact that they saw no books in the library. We thought that perhaps all the books were digitized, but had no other explanation.

The other Medora connection was an article by Rachel Monroe in the August 17 edition of The New Yorker describing what is was like to be there during our current president’s visit on July 4th. It was, of course, a disaster. The musical had to be cancelled because the tech crew couldn’t got the stage ready in time to support heavy protective barriers for presidential security. She had much better experiences at the Mandan Rodeo and the 250th Celebration at the Sisseton Wahpeton pow wow. I encourage you to read the article if you can.

I know there is a special Teddy Roosevelt department at the university in our former town. Maybe they have some books. Who knows?

Ever been to a Rodeo, a pow wow, or a presidential library? What sort of books might Teddy have had?

2026, animals, Art, books, Kids, Uncategorized

Reading Rules

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Finishing a book that I started was a “rule” of mine for more than half my life.  If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have said it was a rule, but that must have been what it looked like from the outside.  My three copies of Ulysses are a case in point.  Ever since my college years, I have thought I should read it but could never make it more than a couple of pages.  Then I would forget I ever had a copy and eventually buy a new one. 

At some point I read some place that so many books are published each year that even if you read a book a day, you would never get to all of them.  That’s when I did make a rule for myself – if I’m not enjoying the reading, I quit and move onto the next book.  I can be ruthless about this; more than once I have dumped a book after just a few pages. 

Today I am returning a book to the library that I have not finished.  It’s a Maggie O’Farrell, an author who I normally adore.  Every one of her books that I’ve read has earned 5 stars.  But yesterday, while listening to it on CD in the car, she broke one of my rules… the dog died.  When it happened I turned off the CD immediately to think about it.  That’s when I realized that even though I was about 1/3 of the way through the book, I hadn’t really connected to any of the characters and wasn’t enjoying it.  When I got home I looked up the summary online and found that continuing was probably not going to be enjoyable to me.  That made me ponder my reading rules.  I’ve never written these down before, in fact have never really thought of them as a list before, but here things that can put me off:

The dog dying (specially if the dog is killed)

Children dying (same caveat as the dog…)

Torture/rape (I quit Rob Roy because of this)

Graphic violence (Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy went back to the library quickly)

Child abuse (a fairly long string of abandoned books for this rule – Demon Copperfield, Swamplandia, Where the Crawdads Sing….)

Vapidness.  This probably seems a silly rule, but if the main characters are all shallow and full of themselves, I don’t see a finished book in my future.  (These tend to get rejected very quickly so I can’t even think of a title!)

I realize that these are all negative rules.  I’ve been pondering if I have any positive reading rules; the only thing I can come up with is things that draw me to books and that list is way too long to put here.  Suffice it say that the list would start with dragons and fairies!

Do you have any reading rules?  What draws you to a book?

2026, books, History, Uncategorized

The Boys

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Ever since Luverne was included as one of the four US communities featured in Ken Burns’ The War, townsfolk have been intent on highlighting veterans and their stories.

It was with great excitement that we heard about the heroism of yet another local veteran. Writer Nina Willner recently published a book called The Boys In The Light, the story of how her teenaged father and a teenaged companion were saved by a Luverne local after they had escaped from a Nazi death camp.

Elmer Hovland was a 23 year old Luverne native and a commander of a tank unit. They were rolling through northern Germany in 1944 with instructions to stop for nothing and no one, when Elmer spotted the two emaciated teens along the side of the road. Despite orders, Elmer immediately stopped the tanks and picked them up and took them along. He discovered that Nina Willner’s dad, Eddie, spoke English as well as German. He convinced his superiors that Eddie would make a great translator, and he was put to work doing just that. Both Elmer and Eddie survived the war. Elmer returned to his immigrant Norwegian parents’ farm near Luverne. He became a carpenter. Eddie eventually immigrated to the US and built a successful life.

The two men didn’t meet again until decades later. Nina Willner attributed Elmer’s actions to his Norwegian heritage and the values that were important to people from Luverne. I vaguely remember Elmer since he attended the same Lutheran church as I did. He died in 2012 at the age of 90. Very few people in Luverne knew anything about this story until the book was published late last year. It is next on my reading list.

Any notable people from your town? Any books written about your community or residents?

2026, books, Mysteries, pets, Technology

Rookie Mistake

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I made a completely rookie mistake this week.

As you know, I have a highly curated library account.   My Holds list includes books that are on order still, that I am on the waitlist for and quite a few books that I have “paused”.  Every couple of weeks I go through all the paused holds, resume a few of them and then reset the pause date to some time in the future – usually three to four weeks out.  This has been my pattern for a couple of decades.

The past month my attention span has been fairly limited to the new dog.  Paperwork, initial vet intake, spay, the cone of shame, then the sleeve of shame (she got razor burn from where they inserted her IV and she just could not leave it alone).  Now we’re through all that and have started working on preliminary training and walkies every day.  Add the early morning potty breaks and the last in the evening journey outside as well and I feel consumed.  In a good way.

So it was shocking when I opened up my library account Monday night and saw that I have THIRTY books in transit.  THIRTY!  I completely forgot to check my Holds, so everything that had been set to July 27 is now on its way to me.  How could I do something this dumb?

I called my buddy who’s the manager of my library and he said there is really no way to circumvent this process short of calling the origin library for each book and asking if they can catch it.  I’m not doing that.  In addition to being a serious pain in the patoot for me, it would be an even bigger pain for the libraries and as my buddy said, probably wouldn’t work anyway.  Sigh.

So I guess I’ll have to seriously step up my reading for August.  For fun, here are some of the titles that are on the way to me right now!

  • And to My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game (one of the long-titled books I found earlier in the month)
  • The Chinese Parrot (a Charlie Chan novel)
  • The Concord Quartet (Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne & Thoreau)
  • Crock of Gold (people, gods, Irish fairies…)
  • Cursed Cocktails (blood mage tries to retire)
  • Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (“biography”)
  • Elizabeth I, CEO (what you think)
  • Ex-Wife (1925 woman finds herself after divorce)
  • Illuminations in the Flatwoods (wild turkeys?)
  • In Seven Stages (Elizabeth Bisland side of the Around the World story)
  • Kipling Sahib (Rudyard Kipling bio)
  • The Last Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes knock-off)
  • Lost Believers (novel inspired by true story… we’ll see….)
  • Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (2013 Pulitzer Prize)
  • Marie of Romania (queen consort of Ferdinand, King of Romania)
  • Murder and the First Lady (Eleanor Roosevelt solves the murder)
  • No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (another long and intriguing title)
  • A Short Bright Flash (lighthouses!)
  • Enuf is Enough (a book about English spelling – yeah, I know I lead an exciting life!)

What’s a rookie mistake you’ve made?  Any good books on your nightstand?

2026, books, Food, Gatherings, Travel

Lazy Daze

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Every summer I spend a long weekend with one of my besties, who lives in Madison.  We always have a great time but I’m always amazed at how different these trips are from other trips, especially the ones I take with YA.

On Friday night we went to Susan’s favorite Mexican restaurant.  I’ve been there before with her and it’s nice.  On Saturday we went up to the capital building early for the Dane County Farmers Market.  I got my five loaves of Chili Cheese bread, a bunch of corn, a slice of purple yam pie, squeaky cheese curds, a massive cinnamon roll and a dozen peanut coconut donut holes.  Sunday night we went to her favorite pizza place – I got a tomato pie (similar to a margarita) – yummy.

That’s the most active we were.  The entire remainder of weekend was reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, yakking and then more reading and yakking.  I probably spent 10 hours sitting in a big comfy chair with my books.  I finished two books, well actually three if you count the CD that I listened to in the car on the way there and back.

Compared to my usual travels, it was a lazy lazy trip.  And I loved it.  No to-do list, no normal daily stuff.  Just relaxing.  As I was doing some errands Tuesday morning, I was already missing that comfy chair!

Where do you like to read? 

2026, Art, books, dreams, Fantasy, Stories

Library Art

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My local library might as well be my second home; I’m there on average twice a week.  I was hoping they’d have some adjunct program this summer to the Library Passport but alas, they’re just running it the same as last summer.

Two weeks ago, they broke out the chalk for one of the Reading Hour programs and the pavement all around the entrance was decorated with colorful artwork.  The photo above that says “Pippa was here” is my favorite.  Yesterday I noticed that it’s still there, albeit a little faded after two weeks.  I love the idea that some kid planted a metaphorical discovery stake at the library.  Or maybe creating their version of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star?

Whatever the reason, I adore that my library is used and treasured!

OK, fantasy day.  I’ve giving you each a box of chalk.  What artwork will YOU leave in front of the library?   Will you use all the colors, or do you have favorites?

2026, Art, books, Fantasy, Mysteries

Fire Drill

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Last week when I stopped at the library to pick up a couple of things, there was signage at the entrance that at 2 p.m., there was a schedule fire drill.  I asked one of the librarians what was involved and she said “the drill rings, everybody goes outside and stands around until the bell rings to indicate they can come back in.”  She said that they are usually very low-key.

But it made me think about what would happen if it were a real drill and the library was on fire.  It reminded me of the ending scene of Legal Eagles, a wildly improbable film from the mid 80s.  The bad guy sets a fire in a swanky art gallery in New York (where they just happen to be having a memorial service for one of the owners).  As the funeral goers are rushing to get out, there is a quick shot of some folks trying to take some of the art with them:

So, here’s the drill.  You’re in the library when the bells go off, somebody yells “smoke, smoke”.  You have just enough time to save five books.  What books will they be?  I’ll get us started.

  • Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  • The Martian by Andy Weir
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Us by Heather McGee.

Go.  (elaborate if desired)

2026, books, Business, Mysteries

Grade-B Titles?

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I just finished The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny (5 stars).  The main character has a tense relationship with her mom and early in the book came this:  “My mother loves a monster.  Now there’s the title of a Grade-B movie.”

It made me laugh and lead me to thinking about some other funny titles that I’ve read over the years.

  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip Dick)
  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Oliver Sachs)
  • How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You (Matthew Inman)
  • The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (Elisabeth Bailey)
  • The 100–Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson)
  • Everyone Poops (Taro Gomi)
  • Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (Nick Flynn)

Of course, there are a LOT of funny titles out there; I suppose authors think it will hook readers into picking up their books.  It certainly works on me.

Here are a few others I found online…

  • No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (Edgardo Vega Yunque)
  • And To My Nephew Albert I Leave The Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game (David Forrest)
  • The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)
  • Shit My History Teacher Did Not Tell Me (Karl Wiggins)
  • Everything I Know About Women I Learned From My Tractor (Roger Welsch)

Of course, now I’ll have to read these too!

Any funny titles on your reading list lately?

 

 

2026, books, gardening, home, Nature, Seasons

Is It Summer Yet?

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In looking for my packing list on my pc last night, I found a Word file titled “From Books I Like”.  It’s only a couple of pages long and I would not have remembered that I have this document if I hadn’t stumbled upon it.  It has a few quotes from books that I’ve read; one of the quotes is that wonderful metaphor about the town from The Egg & I by Betty MacDonald that I’ve written about before.  Then there are two other quotes from Michael Perry’s Off Main Street.  One is another transfixing metaphor….

“Summer is a seducer.  After bundling through another tight-lipped winter, after enduring the mounting frustration of spring’s titillating dance of veils, we gape as summer comes sliding down her blazing ecliptic like a woman down a banister.  She laughs with her head thrown far back; she throws her hands high in the air, releasing fistfuls of butterflies.  She belly dances through the cornfields until the dust rises like a charmed snake, hanging in fat curls, leaving you cotton-mouthed.  She makes the fox pant, she drives the hawk to think air.  Weaker creatures curtain themselves away to complain.”

Fairly appropriate as I’m enjoying the beginning of spring/summer this week.  My major gardening push is done so now I can enjoy my yard without massive effort.  Bird feeders are full, hummingbird feeders are out (although I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet).  YA and I have new Adirondacks in back as one of our old ones gave up the ghost a couple of weeks back.  Windows open.  No fans down from the attic yet although I have had my overhead fan going a couple of times in my bedroom.  Did my twice-a-year laundering of  my bedding and allergy covers.  Swapped out my spring/summer wardrobe for my winter one.  Aaaaahhhhhh.

Of course, unearthing these quotes on the pc makes me wonder if I have other files like this started and squirrelled away.  Suppose I’ll have to take a look one of these days!

You enjoying anything in particular this week?