As we head into summer – yes, spring is almost over already, at least in Florida – my thoughts turn to beach reads. To some people, that means romances set at the beach, the most literal definition, I guess. To others, it means gripping, compulsively readable thrillers. My personal reading habits have changed over the years.

I started reading thrillers when they first became an alternative to the more traditional mysteries, back in the 1970’s; books like The Boys from Brazil, The Day of the Jackal, The Bourne Identity, The Matarese Circle, and so many more. I loved those books and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The genre kept growing; John Grisham became the king of the legal thriller, and Patricia Highsmith proved women could write thrillers, too. Now it feels like there are more women writing thrillers than men.

Then America changed, became a divided nation, and starting in 2016, every day was a shit show. I needed to escape, escape from the world I was living in, escape into books that guaranteed me a happy ending. I turned to romance.

I had a brief fling with romances when I was in college, but every time I finished a book, I’d want to throw it at my boyfriend. He was a great guy – hell, I married him – but he was only a romantic hero on occasion, otherwise known as real life. For the sake of my relationship, I stopped reading romance and turned back to thrillers.

Now I read mostly romance – I still need those happy endings – but I also read thrillers. I’d rather read the book than see the movie, and many of them are made into movies. I don’t read them every day like I used to, maybe more like one or two a month? And I read women’s fiction/domestic fiction, and historical fiction. An occasional – very occasional – fantasy or the newest genre, romantasy, and even more rarely, sci-fi. Once in a while, I’ll pick up some nonfiction besides cookbooks, which I still like to read (and cook from!)

I’ve had some serious eye issues over the years, and I rarely read a book a day anymore. The eye issues have slowed me down some. But I do read several books a week, and that makes me happy – and I’m looking forward to all the great new beach reads that are heading our way in the next couple of months, starting with my favorite, the absolute Queen of the Beach Read, Mary Kay Andrews. Her newest, Summers at the Saint, comes out May 7, and you can preorder it now. I hope you do – she is the best way to start summer!

Book News

How to shop in used bookstores: 14 tips from a bibliophile

Bring a flashlight and expect to get dirty. Michael Dirda, a used-bookstore connoisseur, shares his shopping tricks.

Google Books Is Indexing AI-Generated Garbage

Google Books is indexing low quality, AI-generated books that will turn up in search results, and could possibly impact Google Ngram viewer, an important tool used by researchers to track language use throughout history. 

There’s a library on the moon now. It might last billions of years.

From ‘Dune’ to Dogecoin, the first true backup of human civilization contains a few surprises.

Food News

We Need to Talk About Trader Joe’s

Behind the bubbly cashiers in Hawaiian shirts, craveable snacks, and bargain-basement prices are questionable business practices that have many food brands crying foul at the company’s blatant and aggressive copycat culture.

I’m not sure what to think about this. I love Trader Joe’s, and I’m sorry they are doing this sort of corporate espionage to create store-branded products. On the other hand, some of these small businesses couldn’t possibly scale up to be a viable vendor for a nationwide chain of grocery stores. Maybe they should just pay some of these artisans an hourly rate for consulting instead of what they are accused of doing here. I’d love to know your thoughts about this – please leave a comment!

Red velvet cake is ‘the color of joy.’ Here’s how it rose into America’s dessert canon.

Other News

It’s a girl!

My son and daughter-in-law were expecting next week, but the little rascal fooled them by making an early appearance. Her big brother is over the moon, as are we! We are thrilled to welcome Sylvie Maya to the family. I can’t wait to meet her in person!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

Happy April Fools’ Day!

If you are curious as to the origin of the holiday and where it is celebrated, check out this article, courtesy of the Library of Congress:

Scan your favorite newspapers or news websites this April 1, and chances are you’ll see some headlines that look suspicious. Read further, and you’ll probably find that some of those stories are complete hoaxes. After all, it’s April Fools’ Day.

But where do we get the strange custom of playing pranks on April 1? The short answer is that nobody knows for sure. All we know is that the custom was known in Renaissance Europe, and probably has roots older than that. Read on

Good News

File this under who knew??

Book News

I started reading King when Carrie, his first novel, came out. I read every book he wrote under his name, then the books written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman (recommend Thinner!), and his collaborations with Peter Straub, (who also wrote the incredible Ghost Story.) I stopped with Misery, at least for several years, because it was so gripping and so horrifying that I read it in one night (as usual) but it left me feeling so uncomfortable it turned me off to the horror genre in general. I’ve read a few of King’s books since, but I still tend to avoid the horror genre for the most part.

So what I’m really saying is that King scared the crap out of me! That said, the NY Times offers the Essential Stephen King. If you haven’t read him, you really should. Let me add that not all of his books are considered horror – in fact, he writes all over the spectrum and honestly, I can say the man has never written a bad book. His On Writing has pretty much become a classic, and it’s nonfiction.

I went back to college when my daughter was in school, and there were times I had to bring her with me to class. She never minded, and one semester I was taking a class on noir books (English major – anyone surprised?) those classic pulp mysteries of the Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett era and it was an afternoon, after middle school let out, class. My professor loved that she read all the books for class, plus many more. She would come to class and sit and read. He jokingly threatened to make her take the final, then told the class it probably wouldn’t be fair as he was sure she’d ruin the bell curve. Aside from all that, one of my best Stephen King memories came in that class. She was deeply immersed in Cell, when a classmate’s cell phone went off. She jumped about a foot in the air and the whole class cracked up!

Some King books are better than others, not that he’s ever written a bad book, and many have been made into films, for better or worse. The man is an American icon, a legend, and a brilliant storyteller.

The Morning is my favorite NYT daily newsletter, and a few weeks ago they did this story about how the Whitney Museum of Art is doing storytimes on Sundays. They are trying to fill the gap since the NY Public Library system is closed on Sundays due to budget cuts.

Best story of an author visit that I’ve heard in a long time!

This is an interactive map if you click through or go here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/17024101/

Food News

Ina Garten’s bagel slicing is so wrong it’s right

The Barefoot Contessa stirred up a bagel-slicing debate, so we gave her method a try

. . . nope, I think she’s wrong.

If only I had this talent!

Home cook superheroes J. Kenji López-Alt and Deb Perelman team up on a new podcast

López-Alt and Perelman have each amassed millions of followers online for their food insights. Now, they’ve joined forces to launch a biweekly podcast where they obsess over finding the perfect recipe. I’m loving it!

Other News

My family flew to New York for my grandson’s third birthday. This time, I found great airfare with JetBlue – we usually fly either JetBlue or Delta, depending on price. We are fortunate to live between two major airports, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and only 40 minutes or so from the Miami airport. So it’s fairly easy to shop around, especially as New York City has three airports to choose from as well. LaGuardia is gorgeous now, and the closest airport to my son in Brooklyn, but JFK and Newark are only five miles further away.

JetBlue offers a stripped-down, no carry-on, no seat selection fare, BlueBasic, that competes with the horrible discount airlines like Frontier and Spirit, but it’s worth the extra money to fly Blue and select our seats and bring carry-on luggage on board. Usually, it’s just $20-30 or so. So that’s what I did, I selected our seats and waited for our trip.

When I went to check in 24 hours before our flight, I noticed our seats had moved. They had my husband sitting in the middle seat across the aisle from my daughter and me. I was able to switch our seats so we all sat together, and I remember thinking it a bit odd that there were so many available seats. The same thing happened on our return flight, only this time the flight was maybe half full.

We fly to New York a few times a year to visit my family, and 99% of the time, we are waiting at the gate when they announce they’ve overbooked and ask people to move to a different flight and basically threaten everyone waiting to board that there’s a good chance there won’t be room in the overhead bins. That is the norm, for both JetBlue and Delta. Only this time, a half-empty plane.

The first thing we noticed was the TV screens on the seatbacks were smaller than we are used to, and a bunch of them weren’t working. In our row, only one TV worked, and same in the row in front of us. That row was empty, so my husband moved there to a TV that worked.

The next thing we noticed was that we had legroom. Like my giant feet weren’t smushed under the seat in front of me. And finally, we noticed that the seats themselves were more comfortable, maybe a bit wider and definitely a lot more padded. I have a big butt so I notice these things! As we were getting ready to take off, the pilot came on the PA system and told us this was an old plane just put back into service, and it would be making some weird whiny noises that we may not be used to. He also said the air conditioning wouldn’t kick in until we took off. He assured us it was perfectly normal and not to worry, and he was right. Take off and landing went just fine, with some additional noises.

I’m just guessing here but I think switching to an old Airbus plane may have something to do with the Boeing plane issues? With all the problems with Boeing planes, I was thrilled that we were on an Airbus. And frankly, I had forgotten how much more comfortable those old planes were. You hear that the airlines are making the seats smaller and closer together to fit more seats in and using less padding in the seats themselves, probably to save a few cents per seat. Flying on that old plane was such a stark contrast to the many flights we’ve been on these past several years, and it was so much more comfortable. I wouldn’t mind if they flipped all their flights to old Airbuses! It felt way safer than flying Boeing, too. More and more horror stories are coming out, from employees sharing how lax Boeing’s quality control is and how they wouldn’t fly on one of their own planes, to news stories about damaged, unrepaired Boeing planes still flying. Loose bolts. Missing bolts and other missing pieces. This is scary stuff!

Speaking of flying, this is new:

See what’s fueling the return of supersonic passenger flights

More than two decades after the Concorde’s last flight, several private companies are competing to bring supersonic travel to the masses

I am old enough to remember the Concord. My father and stepmother flew it to Paris back in the day, and I think the tickets cost $10,000 per person. That is 1970’s dollars, which translates to about $78,000 today. I can’t imagine what the costs will be if these start flying regularly. One of the reasons they grounded the Concord was that when it took off, it spawned a sonic boom, and the people who lived on the flight path were subject to that noise. Now they are saying it’s quieter, and even better, there are several companies looking at building these things. Competition helps pricing so we’ll see, but it’s not happening anytime soon.

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

Last week was my craziest reading week ever – I was reading four books at the same time. Usually, I have at least two going. I like to read before bed, and I prefer light romances that won’t keep me tossing and turning. During the day, I read whatever I want. Last week I was also listening to an audiobook, which I haven’t finished yet. I have a hard time with audiobooks; my mind tends to wander.

I’ve never listened to a contemporary romance, and I was curious as to how I would handle it, especially ones with graphic sex scenes. I listened to all the Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) books and those held my attention, even though I had already read the print/digital version prior to listening. This has been an interesting experiment for me. So far, I think I’ve listened to most of it, but occasionally I find myself thinking about something else. Plus it takes so much longer to read a book by listening to it. I can read a typical contemporary romance in a few hours, and I’ve been listening for a couple of weeks now. I don’t listen every day, so that’s part of the problem, I guess. I was also reading Fourth Wing, a romantasy, while reading the other books, so that’s how I ended up reading four books at once. I don’t think I’ll be doing this again.

Book News

How anarchists in North Carolina rescued books banned in Florida

A bookshop in left-leaning Asheville is now sending children’s books back to the Sunshine State

Food News

I have tried making all sorts of different chocolate cakes. Not my favorite, but my family loves it. I finally found THE CAKE! This is the one that everyone loves best, family, friends, and co-workers. It’s called Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, and I got the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten. I used Ghirardelli Majestic Premium Cocoa Powder and Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Dark Chocolate (the one in the brown wrapper, which is about 57% – the red wrapper is 72% so more bitter if that’s your preference.)  I’ve tried so many other recipes, from Dorie Greenspan, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Deb Perelman, Claire Safitz, several from the New York Times cooking app, Bon Appetit, America’s Test Kitchen, etc. and this is, by far, everyone’s favorite. I don’t even love chocolate cake and I happily devoured this one. If you give it a try, please let me know!

Other News

My grandson’s first trip to DisneyWorld was a blast!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

It’s Leap Year! Happy Birthday, leap babies – you get to celebrate on your real birthday this year!

Book News

In case you missed it: my list of the Best Books of 2023

Banned Books Back!

 Firestorm Books in Asheville, N.C., has devised a clever plan to help kids trapped in the censorial state of Florida. Last winter, Firestorm was offered more than 22,000 diverse books that had been pulled from Duval County Public Schools. Despite the logistical challenge, the bookseller jumped at the chance to rescue these Florida books from destruction. A statement on the store’s website says, “That’s 11,000 pounds of titles that right-wing politicians and small-minded school administrators conspired to keep out of the hands of young folks.” 

Not for long. Firestorm has just launched “Banned Books Back!” It’s a bold project to ship those titles for free back to kids who want them. Children, parents, teachers and librarians in Florida can request picture books or chapter books (start here). 

But fighting tax-engorged prigs isn’t cheap. The store is trying to raise $30,000 for postage, packaging supplies, labor and storage (make a donation).

Thanks to The Washington Post book critic, Ron Charles, for bringing this to my attention via the Book Club Newsletter.

When should you give up on a book? Readers weigh in.

Some bail after a couple of sentences. Others slog through to the bitter end.

Like a lot of great ideas, Nancy Pearl’s “Rule of 50” arrived in a flash. The librarian and best-selling author was fielding questions on a public radio show when a woman called in and explained she wasn’t enjoying the book she was reading but felt guilty about abandoning it.

“And then it just came to me,” Pearl says over the phone from her home in the Pacific Northwest. “I said, give the book 50 pages and if, at the bottom of page 50, all you care about is who the murderer is or who marries whom, turn to the last page, and then stop reading.”

Good advice or not??? Post a comment!

Librarians, who lost jobs for not banning books, are fighting back

Librarians in at least three states are asking the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to intervene after they were fired for refusing to ban books.

At least one has already won.

Book Tour: Celeste Ng shows us her personal library

The author of ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ and ‘Our Missing Hearts’ guides us through her personal library (with very cool pictures!)

Breaking up with Goodreads: The best book-logging apps for 2024

Fed up with the Amazon-owned book app? Check out these alternatives.

Book News & Good News!

TikTok Defends ‘Mychal the Librarian,’ Confronting Online Hate with Empathy

If you grew up a bookworm, or maybe even a social outcast, Mychal Threets, a Bay Area librarian who has become a social media star, knows what that’s like. 

And his mission is to make the library — and the digital world — a better place for everyone.

Food News

If you’ve ever enjoyed a bowl of ramen, check out this video on how ramen noodles are made!

Other News

Bird populations are declining

Interesting article in The Washington Post! Includes a way to check your neighborhood, “Are birds disappearing in your city?“

My grandson got to have fun in the snow! It’s only snowed once since he was born, and he was too young to appreciate it. January’s snowfall was fun times for Jonah!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

Book News

In case you missed it: my list of the Best Books of 2023

First-time author loses book deal for ‘review bombing’ authors on Goodreads

A first-time author lost her book deal Monday after readers and fellow authors accused her of creating fake Goodreads accounts and repeatedly trying to sabotage other writers’ books through negative reviews.

Food News

There’s a better way to grind coffee, according to science

Static electricity builds up on beans during grinding, creating mess and waste. Scientists have a simple solution.

Other News

Just for fun…

The Washington Post offered up “hand curated, inspired life stories” and I loved them. The news is so tragic, day after day, and I find these stories truly uplifting (obviously, WAPO knows I love animals!) I hope you enjoy these as well.

We told their stories in 2023. Here’s what happened after we published.

After his dog died, he adopted dozens of the oldest dogs he could find

A Virginia woman was feeling sad. Her doctor prescribed her a cat

Firefighters make kids breakfast after mother is rushed to hospital

How a former prison cook became one of the country’s top pizza chefs

My son and his family came to visit over the holidays. Jonah, my grandson, will be three years old in March, and it seemed like a good time for his first trip to Disneyworld! We spent Christmas day in the Magic Kingdom, which was truly magical. It probably helped that it was a rainy day; the rain kept a lot of people away. We primarily stuck to Fantasyland, and my son and daughter-in-law did a great job preparing him. It cost a not-so-small fortune, but it was my birthday gift – I do not need any more stuff, but creating a beautiful memory like this is priceless, as far as I’m concerned. We stuck to rides we thought he would like; It’s a Small World (he knows all the words to the song!) Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, the train ride around the park, and his first movie, the 3D Mickey’s PhilharMagic. A good time was had by all!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

Wishing you all the joys of the season!

MY EXPERIENCE WITH BOSS & PLANET AUDIO & SOUND STORM LABS CAR AUDIO PRODUCTS

It’s not often that I use this space to complain about a product I purchased, but I am making an exception here because they sell such bad products. I spent almost $200 on a new car radio, and I’ve had too many years’ worth of aggravation with it. Boss Audio, Sound Storm Labs & Planet Audio are the same company. They make inexpensive car stereos. Inexpensive is a comparative term. For a librarian, that $200 is a lot of money. But inexpensive shouldn’t mean the product doesn’t work.

So here’s the story. A few years ago, I purchased this: BOSS Audio BVCP9685A Apple Carplay Android Auto Car Multimedia Player – Double Din Car Stereo, 6.75 Inch LCD Touchscreen Monitor, Bluetooth, MP3 Player, USB Port, A/V Input, Am/FM Car Radio. They no longer make this model as far as I can tell, but it had decent reviews and it didn’t cost a ton. It was installed, and everything worked pretty well except the radio. We were only able to get one FM station, but since I rarely listen to the radio, no big deal.

If you are not familiar, Apple Carplay means the radio basically uses your phone for everything. Siri is available to make phone calls, for instance. My apps, like Overcast, which I use for podcasts, and Spotify show up on the screen. Google Maps and Apple Maps are there. It’s a touchscreen, incredibly easy to use, especially while driving. I can stop at a light and switch from one to the other or ask Siri to do it. It read me my texts, and I could dictate a response. It seemed like a good thing.

The day after it was installed, there was no sound. No radio, no podcasts, no maps, no Spotify. Everything looked like it was working, but there was literally dead silence in the car. The next day it worked again. Then it didn’t. After two weeks of this insanity, I contacted Amazon, where it was purchased, and arranged for a warranty return and replacement. Easy peasy.

A few weeks later, the new radio was installed. It worked for a while, but the same problem kept happening. I would be listening to a podcast, and the sound would just cut out. Or the map would stop speaking, which certainly isn’t ideal as I have a terrible sense of direction. I put up with it for months, and finally, it just dropped dead altogether. That was in June, so I contacted the company directly since Amazon doesn’t care about anything 30 days past your purchase.

The radio came with a one year warranty, but they extend that to three years if you purchase through Amazon. So I wasn’t really worried about it other than it was super annoying to have the same problem happen on two different, albeit the same model, radios. It didn’t take a genius to realize that perhaps a different model would be better.

The customer support from Boss Audio, someone named Christian Hill, contacted me and asked for receipts and so forth. I explained that I didn’t want another obviously badly designed radio, and asked for another model. They suggested a radio made by SoundStorm, but the reviews all mentioned the same issues. He then sent me a list to choose from. I picked the model that didn’t mention those issues in the reviews, but they wanted another couple of hundred dollars for that one. Not sure why he offered it other than to upsell me? Finally, they told me which models I could actually choose from without having to pay anything more. One didn’t really have any reviews, so I figured no reviews are better than bad reviews, and I selected the Planet Audio model.

Christian stopped contacting me, but someone named Candice Peterson did. She’s wasn’t very nice, to say the least. They told me the warranty didn’t cover uninstalling or reinstalling, so it was on me. They also charged me $20 for shipping their POS back. A few weeks later, the new radio arrived. And guess what.

This was the worst one of the bunch. The sound worked, but only on the podcasts, Spotify, and the radio. The radio even got several stations, which would have been nice had I wanted to listen to the radio, but I did not. What didn’t work? The phone. The maps. Siri. Major, major issues for me. What is the point of offering Apple Carplay if most of the features don’t work?

So here was my dilemma. I’ve been putting up with it, but it’s super annoying. I have to unplug from the radio to use the phone or maps, completely defeating its purpose. If I can’t use the phone hands-free, I don’t need this. Do I want to pay someone to uninstall and reinstall another new radio from this company that is bound to be another piece of shit? Hell no.

I wanted my money back. I was done with the company and all the crap they sell under different names, like Boss Audio, Planet Audio, and Sound Storm Labs. They are all the same junk. I emailed their customer support and asked for a refund. I was not hopeful, especially as the immediate response was just a form letter asking for a copy of my receipt so they could replace it with another of their horrible radios. Their customer service is apparently run by a bot.

They have all these companies, and they keep changing the model numbers. The models I had are no longer available. The same crappy radios are available though, just with different numbers. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but I ain’t no fool, and I’m done.

Follow up: As I suspected!

Hello Stacy,

We apologize for the inconvenience your new unit has given you. We would be happy to replace or upgrade your unit; however, refunds are only available via the original vendor from whom you made your purchase.

Thank you

Frank

I have long agreed that the very definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. I’m not insane, I’m angry. And they know full well that Amazon doesn’t get involved with refunds more than 30 days after purchase. So they replaced it yet again, with a different, updated model. Again, return shipping was on me, as was the removal of the unit and installation of the new one.

It’s been a couple of years now. This newer one works sometimes, and it’s the best I can expect at this point, so I just live with it. Sound still cuts out regularly. Sometimes the maps work, sometimes they don’t. Same with all the other features. If I had extra money, I’d just replace it, but at this point, it’s an old car, and I don’t want to invest any more money into it. When it works, great. When it doesn’t, I manage without it.

I should have waited and saved some more money to get a decent Apple Carplay radio. I’m putting this out here, hoping someone will learn from my mistake! My mother always told me that sometimes cheap is expensive, and expensive is cheap. As usual, she was right.

Consider yourself warned. You’re welcome.

How did we get to the end of 2023 so quickly??? I like to take this time to say thank you to all my readers. I post several times a month and sometimes it feels like I’m sending my thoughts out into the void – I don’t really know who is reading or if anyone really is. But I am too opinionated to keep thoughts about books to myself. Especially when I love a book, then I want everyone to read it!

Thank you to everyone who reads my thoughts, gets notified every time I post, and subscribes to my woefully neglected newsletter. Thank you for your comments, your emails, for reaching out in whatever way works best for you. I love hearing from you all!

Whatever you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with laughter, love, and of course, good books! See you in 2024!

Best Books of the Year!

I’m working on my list and hope to have it posted by mid-month. I think there may be some surprises – well, I’m surprised at some of the books I enjoyed most this year, so maybe you will be too. I’d love to hear about your favorites, so please feel free to leave a comment! Meanwhile, here are a few lists to get you started:

The Washington Post: The 10 best books of 2023

Amazon: Best Books of 2023

The New York Public Library: Best Books of 2023

Barnes & Noble: Best Books of the Year

The New York Times: The 10 Best Books of 2023

Food News

Regular readers will recognize the name Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen fame. I am a long time fan, and have introduced her to many of my friends, relatives, and readers. My friend Nora was one, and she became as big a fan as I am! When my daughter-in-law was pregnant a few years ago, I mentioned her blog to my son, specifically her recipe for Broccoli Slaw (which I’ve mentioned here before) because I remember reading her blog post about it in which she mentions how she was eating it every day while she was pregnant. He made it for his wife, she loved it, and they’ve both been fans ever since.

A couple of months ago, my son sent me a link to vote on which South Florida city Deb Perelman would visit on her upcoming book tour. The choices were Boca Raton (where I live) or Palm Beach Gardens, about an hour north of me. PBG was way ahead in the poll, and it stayed that way. Then I forgot about it. I do subscribe to Deb’s newsletter, but I don’t always read it the second it appears. Luckily for me, my friend Nora does. She texted and asked if I wanted to go to see her in PBG for a book signing and a Thanksgiving cooking class. We signed up immediately. It was $50 per person for the cooking class and that included a copy of her latest book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers.

I already had a copy of the cookbook, courtesy of her publisher, but I checked with my son to see if he thought my daughter-in-law would like a signed copy. He thought she’d be into it, so I was happy to do that for her (one Hanukkah gift down!) A day or two later, we found out that the cooking class was sold out – actually, all the cooking classes on this leg of her tour were sold out! Nora had already purchased several copies of the cookbook for herself and some family members, but none had been signed, so she was delighted to get a signed copy.

Deb partnered with Williams Sonoma for this Thanksgiving tour. Williams Sonoma served us some sort of pomegranate drink and a piece of pie while we waited for Deb, both of which I assume were made from the cookbook, and both were appreciated! I didn’t know Williams Sonoma did cooking classes, and it turns out they do not. It was more of a demo than a cooking class, as Deb was the only one cooking. She demoed turkey gravy and her pie crust, and best of all, she was as chatty and friendly as I always imagined she would be. She is just like she is in her videos. She encouraged questions and was kind and super friendly to everyone.

Nora and I had a blast until we were told we needed to get to the back of the line for the book signing. All the people who didn’t sign up for the cooking demo were already in line for the book signing by the time we were ready for that. Williams Sonoma is not a bookstore, but still, I would think they would have been savvy enough to know that the people who paid extra for the cooking demo should have been able to get their books signed without going to the end of the line. But we did it anyway – actually, Nora waited in line while I rested my knee (I’ve been having some knee issues since walking up a steep hill in NY a few weeks ago), and standing on it for more than an hour was about my limit. I rested for fifteen minutes or so and got back in line.

Deb signed the book for my daughter-in-law, and when I mentioned the broccoli slaw story and that she was pregnant again and having a lot of morning sickness, she recommended freshly made lemonade with seltzer. I think she was on to something – my daughter-in-law had mentioned that sour gummies were helpful, and she loves seltzer, so that lemonade sounded like a win to me. And Williams Sonoma was kind enough to mail the book for me! It was a really fun time and made this Thanksgiving special.

Other News

I spent a few days in New York last month visiting my kids. My daughter came with me, and we left my husband at home to take care of the cat. My beautiful Loki is 15 years old and is having some serious health issues. My daughter and I headed up north for her first autumn! We saw some gorgeous trees but surprisingly, a lot of the trees were still green. It was colder than I expected – it went down to 38 our last morning there.

I love spending time with my grandson. I don’t get to see him often enough – if it was up to me, I’d move next door to them! But that is an impossibility, so I do the best I can (a lot of tears are involved.) Even though airfare is manageable, NYC has recently banned all Airbnb, VRBO, etc.; shockingly, hotel prices have skyrocketed. We usually stay at the Sheraton in downtown Brooklyn, as it is a half-mile walk to my son’s apartment, so very convenient. Their rates have gone from the ridiculous, averaging about $350/night, to completely unaffordable at over $500/night. I don’t know how I’m going to manage that. If anyone has a spare bedroom or couch in the NYC or Brooklyn area and wouldn’t mind a couple of people crashing there, I’d be eternally grateful!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

The War in Israel

Patton Oswalt posted this on Twitter, and it really resonated with me.

I feel like I’ve watched Israel under siege for most of my life. I was a child during the Six-Day War in 1967. I was a young teen during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when, inconceivably, Israel was attacked on the most sacred holiday of the year. I’ve lived through many, many Arab-Israeli peace talks. There has been a sort of armed truce in the area for many years, with terrorist martyrs blowing themselves up fairly regularly. But this latest attack from Hamas has me reeling, as does the Israeli response.

I am sickened by how the Israelis treat the Palestinians, but we have to differentiate between those Palestinians trying to live their lives peaceably under the most horrific conditions, with Hamas, a terrorist group with only two goals: destroy the country of Israel and kill all the Jews, with little to no regard for the repercussions that will affect the majority of Palestinians who are not part of Hamas. It’s an untenable situation with no discernible way out. It is heartbreaking for everyone involved and everyone watching from afar.

Book News

The Palace Project

The Digital Public Library of America and public libraries in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle have launched programs to ensure that young people can get online access to frequently banned books no matter what political hellscape they’re currently stuck in. Raise the alarm and spread the word.  

The Spy Who Shushed Me: How the Government Is Removing Our Right to Read in Private:

On the Links Between FBI’s Controversial Library Awareness Program, the Patriot Act, and Book Bans Today

The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts

In addition to political censorship and budget cuts, libraries are being undermined by rapacious digital licensing agreements.

Finally, some good news on the book banning front in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from Salon.com:

Moms for Liberty meets its match: Parents in this swing suburban district are fighting back

Republicans hope to use education wars to turn purple suburbia red. In one Pennsylvania district, that backfired

More good news on the library front: Overdue library book returned after 90 years, $5 fee forgiven

The due date tucked inside the book of fiction was Oct. 11, 1933

Food (and Drink!) News

How to make sure fish and other seafood are fresh and safe to eat

Seafood is prone to fast spoilage and carries special food safety concerns, especially when eaten raw. Our advice will help you get the health benefits of fish and shellfish while reducing the risks. (From Consumer Reports, courtesy of The Washington Post.)

The Big Cheese (Tour)

A writer spends eight days exploring the world of British farmhouse cheeses, from London to the West Country, where a good Cheddar rules the day.

Other News

My grandson is bilingual; he speaks both English and Spanish and also speaks a bit of Hebrew. I did not realize how well he understands and speaks Spanish. He’s 2 1/2 now, and while I don’t speak Spanish, I was blown away by this video of him conversing with his nanny, Maria (who is such a gift!)

My husband loves carving pumpkins, but he stopped doing it once my kids were adults. This year, he decided to surprise my grandson long distance – he found a Daniel Tiger drawing on PBS Kids, and printed it out. Then he did his magic. We FaceTimed while he was working on it; here are the results!

BONUS: a free, 30 day guest pass to The Athletic to the first five readers who claim it! If you are into sports (or know someone who is,) I hope you’ll check it out!

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.

Fall! Pumpkins! Pumpkin spice lattes! Halloween! Cooler weather?

I grew up on Long Island, New York. This is what fall looked like. It was often too cold, but always beautiful. Autumn in South Florida may be a few degrees cooler than summer – 88 instead of 95. The leaves don’t change. The palm trees keep their palm fronds and coconuts.

For most of the country, fall promises cooler weather. For us in South Florida, fall promises the worst of hurricane season, followed by slightly cooler, more temperate weather. But it’s the hurricanes that have always been the problem.

When you are sitting smack dab in the middle of most hurricane routes, you tend to spend quite a bit of time keeping an eye on things. The past few years, the storms seem to be hitting the Gulf coast rather than the Atlantic coast. Or if they are hitting the Atlantic coast, they have been problems for the states north of Florida. Maine was in the eye of Hurricane Lee just a few weeks ago! One of my good friends moved to Maine from Florida almost 20 years ago. Trust me, she never once thought about a hurricane following her there. But that is the weather we live with now. Everything we once knew? Not so much anymore.

Even more disturbing are the water shortages worldwide. There are countries shooting at each other over water rights. Iran and Afghanistan. Haiti and Santo Domingo. And then there is America, and the fight over the Colorado River. There may not have been shots fired here, but there is fighting.

Then there was this:

Book News

‘There won’t be libraries left’: how a Florida county became the book ban heartland of the US

Food News

I love the New York Times Cooking App. They have great recipes, lots of videos, people like you and me post comments, most of which are incredibly helpful, and best of all, you can ask questions of the staff and they will get back to you pretty quickly.

Freebie P.S.A. coming your way! New York Times Cooking is offering a free trial right now. Previously, the Cooking app was available to subscribers only, but for a limited time, you can access any recipe via the app at no cost. (I cannot emphasize enough how big a deal this is!) Just download the NYT Cooking app to start your free trial: iOS users can download the app here, while Android users can use this link.

Last month, I wrote about the beautiful tinned fish stores in Portugal. Now, the New York Times is writing about the beautiful tinned fish store in Times Square in New York City!

For jet lag, a hearty breakfast in the new time zone may help

Eating an early meal in the new time zone and avoiding a meal late the night before could mean two fewer days of jet lag, a mathematical model showed

Other News

A few weeks ago, we had a pretty bad scare with my cat, Loki. We’ve noticed over the past several months that he occasionally gets tremors. They only last a few seconds, and he is pretty old – he’ll be 15 on Nov. 1 (that’s 76 in human years!) But then, a few weeks ago, it got more serious. He let out this really loud, low-pitched meow, one that we rarely hear from him, but when we do, he’s usually in pain. My husband and I ran and found him lying on the floor near the litter box. He was lying in a pool of urine and couldn’t move. We crouched there with him, he looked into my eyes, and I petted his head. It felt like hours, but probably just a few minutes later, he stood up. I cleaned him up as best as I could – I didn’t want to give him additional trauma by bathing him, and he spent the next little while cleaning himself. He seemed perfectly fine after that, but it scared me badly.

Our vet was out of town (this happened over the Labor Day weekend,) but I was able to bring him in that Tuesday. He did a pretty thorough examination and didn’t find anything wrong. Heart and lungs were clear, no protrusions or growths anywhere. No weight loss. He wanted to know if he was able to see me, to focus, or if his eyes were shifting around or closed while it was happening. He said to keep an eye on him for the next month, and if it happened again to try and video it, especially his eyes, and to get a urine sample. It’s been a month, and I’ve seen a few seconds of tremors one time, and that’s it.

The vet thinks it may be a brain tumor. He said he could x-ray him, but an MRI is the best. There are two machines in South Florida, and it would cost $2000. So I asked what would happen if he did have a brain tumor – could it be surgically removed? How would that affect his quality of life? He said if it was him, he wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do the x-ray, and he wouldn’t do the MRI. He wouldn’t put an old cat through the trauma of it all, especially surgery that may or may not extend his life or even help in any way. It was discouraging, but I appreciated his candor.

I love my vet; he has been practicing medicine for decades, and he really cares about his patients. He caused quite an uproar around here about twenty years ago or so. The local newspaper, The Sun-Sentinel, did a feature story on him. He said that animals, especially those that stay indoors like our cat, do not need annual exams. Then he really poured fuel on the fire; he said they don’t need annual rabies vaccines, either. He started giving his patients rabies vaccines in their tails instead of their thighs. Why? There were way too many incidents of cancer at the injection site. He didn’t want to amputate another animal’s leg. It wouldn’t be as big a loss if they got cancer in their tail.

Around that same time, the pharmaceutical companies had come out with two, three, and five-year rabies vaccines at two, three, and five times the price. Except each of those vials contained the exact same dose of the vaccine. He was furious, and he called them out. He called out every vet in town that was selling them. He said that vets insist on annual visits and vaccines for one reason only: to make money. As you can imagine, he was none too popular among his peers. He had that article blown up, and it hangs on the wall in his waiting room.

Loki is the first purebred cat we’ve ever had. I wrote the breeder and asked for his medical history. I was delighted to find out that he has real longevity in his gene pool. His dad lived to be 21, and died of pancreatitis. His mom had recently passed at 18, of old age. The breeder said she got slower and slower, slept more, and ate less. Never seemed to be in any pain, though. She also said there was no history of brain tumors in any of her cats. She shared a lot about his family, and it was all reassuring, so we are hoping for the best.

Loki is a very special cat. He is just as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. He has brought me and my family so much joy in his years with us. Most days, when I get home from work, he is sitting in the sidelight window, waiting for me. He sleeps between my husband and me during most of the night. He naps on my bed all day, hiding under it if we make too much noise and disturb him. Sometimes he lies under there with his head in my husband’s sneaker. When he’s had enough napping, he hangs out with us. He lays on the hassock with his head on my ankle, or on the arm of the oversized chair my husband prefers, cuddled up with him.

He is the world’s pickiest eater – he turns his nose up some days at the food he previously devoured. When I make a turkey, he becomes my shadow, not leaving my side until he gets his. The only times he ever seems inclined to jump on the counter is when I make a turkey or sponge cake. Yep, something about that cake just makes his nose quiver.

When my grandson comes to visit, Loki hides. Not because Jonah is rough with him; he’s actually been incredibly gentle. But as Loki has gotten older, he doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone; he just wants to get his 18-20 hours of sleep in and be left alone. That said, he occasionally would wander by, and Jonah would be so happy! When we Facetime with him, he always asks for Loki. If he’s not around, we say Jonah, where’s Loki? And he says, he’s hiding. That little boy understands.

As always, thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Thanks to The New York Times and The Washington Post for allowing me to “gift” my readers with free access to these articles, a lovely perk for subscribers.