Odds & ends

• I was thrilled when the private Gateway Women community marked Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month (in part) by setting up a new Childless After BabyLoss group -- and incredibly honoured when I was asked to co-host!  Not only that, but my co-host is the lovely Bamberlamb, who blogs at It's Inconceivable. It's been a while since I put my support group facilitating skills to use, but I hope to do justice in the role! 
• The New Yorker published one of those articles that I think should be mandatory reading for people who go around asking childless women why they don't "just adopt": "How an adoption broker cashed in on prospective parents' dreams." 
• There was also this piece in the Atlantic: "The New Question Haunting Adoption." (Tagline: "At a glance, America’s shortage of adoptable babies may seem like a problem. But is adoption meant to provide babies for families, or families for babies?")  
• I've read and recommended two of the books mentioned in the article, earlier this year: "American Baby" by Gabrielle Glaser, and "The Child Catchers" by Kathryn Joyce. Click on the links for my reviews. 
• I also thought this Atlantic article was interesting: "The Hidden Costs of Living Alone."  (Tagline: "In ways both large and small, American society still assumes that the default adult has a partner and that the default household contains multiple people.")  Obviously, I do have a partner, but I can still relate to a lot of this -- couples without children don't quite conform to the assumed default household either...! 
• Sample passage (which I think could also apply in many ways to childless couples -- boldfaced emphasis mine): 

And many single people, whether they live alone or with others, constantly face the stigma associated with not being partnered. “It’s oppressive, always getting pitied,” [Bella] DePaulo said. “People have bought into the ideology that having someone is better—[that] the more natural, normal, superior way of being is being coupled or having a family.”

She sees this norm in the political rhetoric around virtuous, “hardworking families,” and thinks that this cultural default can to some extent be blamed for the ways in which American society has been slow to adapt to people who are single or live alone. She also attributes the slowness to “cultural lag”: In the future, lots of Americans are going to live alone—tens of millions already do—and eventually, society will, with hope, catch up.

• The latest edition of Anne Helen Petersen's "Culture Study" newsletter focuses on The Ideological Battlefield of the "Mamasphere," with a fascinating interview with Kathryn Jezer-Morton, who is studying "momfluencers" for her PhD dissertation (!!). (Sometimes when I read about mothers like these, I'm glad I never got to be one, and certainly not with today's social media... I could never keep up!)  I especially loved reading the comments about the "Performative Farm"...! 

"Why it's OK to quit"

I get a daily newsletter from the New York Times that features highlights and links to the day's opinion columns. I don't always open it, depending on time and interest, but today's header caught my attention because it encapsulates one of my favourite topics:  "Why it's OK to quit." 

The newsletter was written under Lindsay Crouse's byline, featuring a video she produced on this topic, with a brief introduction in the newsletter. I am not sure if Crouse's words are duplicated somewhere on the NYT site that I could link to -- but I'm going to reproduce them here because I think they are so worth reading. (Infertility is never mentioned, but I think there's a lot here that applies!): 

It hit me over the summer: Everyone was quitting. Certainly, there has been an exodus from jobs. In what’s been called the “Great Resignation,” the number of workers who quit their jobs in April alone broke an all-time U.S. record. But then more people quit in July, and in August, even more.

But people aren’t just quitting jobs. They’re moving cities too. Divorce rates are up. If there was ever a time to shake up your life, 2021 seems to be it.

As you’ll see in today’s Opinion video, which I made with Kirby Ferguson, I find this turn of events fascinating. It’s scary to confront the stigmas around quitting, which are instilled in us from childhood. We’re taught that quitters are losers, who shuffle through life without ever achieving the great breakthrough many of us have been raised to covet, not just by our families, but by movies, songs and general Americana.

 

For our whole lives, our culture has encouraged us to embrace toughness and perseverance at all costs — but those costs can be higher than we realize, especially to ourselves. What if sticking with something for the sake of sticking with it actually causes you more harm than good? What if the smartest thing you can do to achieve success is quit?

As brutal as it’s been, I think the pandemic has forced many of us to reflect — and to realize that our tolerance for change might be higher than we thought. The disruption has helped us see what we were too busy to notice before. Now that we’ve been jostled off the treadmill of our ordinary lives, we have a chance to figure out what we path we really want to be on. And to start down that one instead.

Here's a link to the video Crouse mentions, which is also worth watching.  :)  (The comments are worth a glance too.) 

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends from a visit "home"

• 

(Not exactly a "micro" post, but it's what I've got this Monday...!) 

• We spent last week visiting my parents in western Canada, for the first time in almost TWO YEARS (since Christmas 2019, pre-pandemic). While we were there, we also celebrated (Canadian) Thanksgiving.  Thankful doesn't even BEGIN to describe how I was feeling!   
• We had our big Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Monday itself, and then feasted on leftovers for the rest of the week. My sister prepped the turkey and got it into the oven while our mother slept in. I got the stuffing/dressing ready. 
• As usual, my time online was limited/sporadic while we were there -- so I am waaayyyyy behind on blog reading & commenting, as well as on keeping up with all my social media sites. 
• It's not that we were terribly busy while we were there (especially with COVID-19 restrictions & precautions in place) but with six people in one small house, there's a lot of noise (not a lot of privacy) and a lot of interruptions. 
• BIL gave us some N95 masks the week before we left. We tried them on the night before our departure -- but decided not to wear them, even though all the experts advise they are the most effective. They were TIGHT -- I could feel mine digging into my face -- and while I felt like I could breathe in mine fairly well, they smelled, and they felt sweaty. I salute all the hospital workers and others who wear these things all day, every day. I couldn't do it!
• We double-masked instead, with a standard blue disposable medical mask worn under a cloth mask from Old Navy. We put them on before we entered the airport terminal where we were departing, and didn't take them off again until we left the terminal upon arrival, with the brief exception of when we had to show our faces to the airline staff for identification purposes before boarding. That was more comfortable/do-able, especially for a 2.5 hour flight. Add in time spent in the airports, pre- and post-flights, and we had the masks on for about 5 hours straight. 
• Masks are mandatory in the airport and on the plane, but you're allowed to remove them when eating and drinking. There were quite a few people around us in the departure lounge who apparently couldn't survive the prospect of a 2.5 hour flight without their Starbucks or Tim Hortons...!  
• I guess they deserve SOME slack, though, since our flight west left the airport at 8 a.m....!  We were up before 4 a.m. (gulp...!).   
• The weather was gorgeous the day we arrived, miserable for most of the week we were there (people blamed us for bringing the bad weather!), and gorgeous again the day before we left, lol -- 16C (about 60-61F), sunny and not a cloud in the sky.  We spent a lot of that afternoon outside, helping my dad do some yard & garden cleanup.
• My parents are now in their early 80s -- and definitely aging. I've noticed it on previous visits, of course, but the gap between visits has emphasized to me that they are slowing down. They both have some mobility issues (my mother uses a cane or walker outside the house and has a tremor in one arm/hand, my dad shuffles more than he walks and his balance is not good), and they REALLY need to get out of their early 1980s split-level house (three levels, with about 8 steps between levels to go up and down) with the big yard to keep up. (*I* found the stairs tough on my already-wonky knees, and I'm 20 years younger than they are!)  My mother in particular is resisting any talk about moving/downsizing, though...! 
• You will all remember my moaning and groaning about my long, shaggy hair during the time(s) salons were closed over the past 20 months (on & off) because of COVID-19...!  ;)  Let's just say I come by it honestly, lol.  
• My mother comes from a generation/culture where, as an adult woman, you get your hair done once a week. She's had a weekly appointment for a wash-and-set (or, these days, wash-and-style), wherever we were living, for as long as I can remember -- but that's gone by the wayside during this pandemic. And she's always worn her hair permed (and, until just recently, coloured). 
• She stopped colouring her hair shortly before our last visit, almost two years ago -- so the mostly grey/white hair was not such a shock to see -- but I can't remember the last time (if there ever WAS a time) I saw my mother without a perm -- and she is MISERABLE about not having one. I had to admit, she did not look entirely like herself (to me, at least). Without it, and especially without her weekly wash-and-style appointment, her hair is now stick-straight and flat. 
• On top of COVID restrictions/closures, her regular stylist recently retired because of health issues, and her next-favourite stylist (a former neighbour) is on maternity leave.  Another stylist she knows mostly cuts men's hair and has agreed to cut my mom's -- but she won't do perms because the chemicals bother her skin too much (one reason why she generally only does men these days).  
• So Mom's hair is, at least, neatly trimmed now that the salons are open again, even if it is also grey/white and flat (if only temporarily...!). 
• My sister had the week off work and was able to spend it all with us. She & her partner picked us up at the airport and dropped us off again when we were returning home. 
• My sister's partner/boyfriend/common-law husband is a computer techie who sets up and fixes computers for a living. I brought along both my current (HP) laptop and the one it replaced (an ASUS), which died on me last February. Miraculously, he was able to retrieve ALL my data (aside from just five photos).  Not bad, eh??!  He never charges us because we're family. Nevertheless, I left him my old computer to use for parts, etc. -- and Mrs. Santa Claus will be adding a little something extra to his stocking this Christmas...!  
• He also brought me a portable hard drive (I did pay him for that), and set me up with a program (called SyncToy) that will help me do regular backups more easily. (Lesson learned!!)
• I have some cleanup to do -- some of the files on my computer are now duplicates or partial duplicates, and some folders need to be combined -- but it's so much more preferable to NOT having the files at all...! 
• A couple of the neighbours dropped by briefly to say hello -- one stayed at the door and another wore a mask -- and we ventured out to the grocery store a few times -- but we mostly stayed close to home.
• Mom & Dad live 20 miles away from one of the province's/country's anti-vax/anti-mask hotspots (perhaps not coincidentally, also one of the province's current COVID-19 hotspots too). Normally, we would go there to shop (it's a much bigger town with a small mall, a WalMart and a large supermarket, among other retail outlets) and maybe have some lunch somewhere. Not this time! 
• We played cards almost every night we were there. Normally, Parents' Neighbours' Daughter (PND) would have joined us, at least a couple of times. She loves to play cards and has played with us from the time she could hold the cards in her hand and count her points. 
• Unfortunately, a few days before we arrived, one of Older Little Princess's classmates tested positive for COVID-19 (age 10/Grade 5 = too young to be vaccinated). As a close contact, Older Little Princess had to isolate for several days, including part of our time there.  
• Her isolation time also overlapped with Younger Little Princess's 7th birthday, and so plans for a birthday party gathering with friends had to be postponed. :(  Needless to say, Younger Little Princess was hugely disappointed.
• We did all drive over there one night with cards & presents, and that seemed to cheer her up. It was a brief drive-by visit -- we stayed in the car & rolled down the windows to chat. 
• Not only was Older Little Princess a little too close to COVID-19 for comfort, but PND/her mom herself teaches school in the anti-vax/COVID-19 hotspot just down the road that I mentioned above.  
• PND said she would love to play cards with us, but she would leave it up to us. (I think maybe she still felt a bit sheepish about what happened the last time we saw them...!). My mother was inclined to call her to come over, but both my sister & I felt (reluctantly) that it was better to be safe. I think PND understood. (I think. I hope.)  I hope things will be different/better/safer the next time we're there...! 
• While we were there, the U.S. government announced they will reopen the land border as of Nov. 8th. My American mother was ecstatic at the thought of making a day trip to her hometown, 20 miles south of the border, for the first time in almost two years, to check out things and visit a few people -- and one of her friends called the next morning, full of plans to head to their favourite casino in northern Minnesota as soon as they could book rooms at the hotel there (!). 
• Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. Besides meeting vaccination requirements, all visitors to Canada crossing the border from the U.S. -- including returning Canadian citizens -- must present a negative molecular (PCR) test taken within 72 hours of departure. Rapid/antigen tests are not acceptable.  
• For short trips that are less than 72 hours, Canadian citizens are allowed to do their pre-entry molecular test before they leave Canada. 
• PCR tests for travel purposes are NOT covered by provincial health insurance (at least, not here in Ontario), and cost approximately $150-200, whether you take the test here in Canada or in the U.S.  That's a lot of money for people on a limited income, like my parents -- especially for a short cross-border visit. 
• From what I could tell via Google, most private insurance companies will not cover the cost of the test through their supplemental health insurance plans either.  
• News stories on this subject here and here, fyi. 
• We got back home last night -- and spent most of today recuperating, lol. Slept in, unpacked and took our suitcases back down to our storage locker, went to the supermarket to stock up on groceries again. 
• We're both wanting to see Little Great-Nephew, but will probably stay away this week, just to be on the safe side. 
• We are planning a return visit at Christmastime. (Crossing fingers & toes and knocking wood...!)  My dad wants us to stay through New Year's. We'll see...! 
• We had to turn on the heat this morning. It wasn't THAT cold in our unit (70F -- we normally keep the temperature around 72F at this time of year), but it was starting to get a little chilly...! 
• Tomorrow is supposed to be 20C/68F -- one last blast of summery weather to enjoy, before temperatures start to plunge again! 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore

I've been meaning to read "The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women" by Kate Moore for quite some time now. Thankfully, so did my friend who organizes our "Clever Name" book club:  she made it our October selection, which gave me the nudge to finally pick it up and read it on my trip west to visit my parents last week. I started the book on the flight there, and finished it on the flight back home.  ;)  We'll be discussing it (as well as September's book, "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig -- which I read late last year and reviewed here) at a Zoom meeting in early November. 

When Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898, it was regarded as a miracle substance. During the First World War, radium was mixed into paint to create luminous dials for airplane instruments, clocks and watches. Hundreds of women -- mostly teenaged girls -- were hired for highly coveted, well-paid jobs as dial painters for companies in Orange, New Jersey; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Ottawa, Illinois (NOT Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada! lol -- we drove by there on a road trip to Iowa via Michigan and northern Illinois a few years ago and were quite amused to see the signs pointing the way to "Ottawa."). The women were taught to put their paintbrushes in their mouths to hone them to a fine point, dip them in the radium-laced paint, paint -- and then repeat the process, over and over and over again. At night, their clothing, skin and hair would glow from the accumulated radium dust. The girls would even paint glow-in-the-dark designs on their skin and teeth to entertain each other. 

And then, one by one, they started getting sick. And one by one, they began dying -- prolonged, horrible, painful deaths. 

This is a horror story of sorts, made all the more horrific because it really happened. What makes it even more horrific is the companies' response -- or rather, the lack thereof -- to their workers' plight. They lied to the girls about the hazards of working with radium -- even after the hazards became well known and documented -- they refused to disclose the results of medical tests they required the workers to undergo, and they did everything they could to cover up what was going on -- to avoid acknowledging responsibility or compensating their former employees for their pain and suffering, or even to improve conditions for current employees. It took many long years for "the Radium Girls" to receive a modicum of justice (and some did not live to see or benefit from it), but their courage and tenacity led to changes in workplace safety regulations, a greater awareness of the hazards related to nuclear weapons and energy, and ultimately saved countless thousands of lives. 

From an ALI perspective, as you might expect, many of the women experienced infertility, miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births.  "...how many women were crippled or suffered the unique pain of childlessness as a result of their poisoning is also unknown," Moore writes in the book's epilogue. Poignantly, she also writes there how one Radium Girl's nephew "picked his way through the items Pearl kept in her loft:  a baby stroller, a crib -- strange things for an old lady to have in her attic, but perhaps Pearl found herself unable to let go of these final traces of the many children she had wanted, but could never have."  

This is a long and detailed book, written in a very readable style, focusing on the personal stories of some of the key women involved. Some readers will find it all fascinating and gobble up all the details -- but I can understand that it might be a lot for others to absorb. My main issue/complaint:  there's a very large cast of characters spread over several locations, and it was sometimes difficult to keep them all straight. It probably would have helped to have them listed at the front of the book for easy reference. 

Whether or not you read "The Radium Girls," it's a story that deserves to be much better known than it is, and Kate Moore deserves credit for bringing it to our attention. 

4 stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #51 read to date in 2021 (and Book #3 finished in October), bringing me to 142% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. (This exceeds my best-ever showing in the Goodreads Challenge since I joined in 2016 -- which was 50 books read in all of 2019.)  I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 23 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

"Gerald and Elizabeth" by D.E. Stevenson

My D.E. Stevenson group recently started reading "Gerald and Elizabeth" together -- one of Stevenson's later novels, first published in 1969. As usual, I read the entire novel though myself, and will count it as a re-read once we've finished our chapter-by-chapter group read in December. 

This was a new book to me (if I did read it as a teenager, I have no memory of it), and my assumption from the title alone was that Gerald and Elizabeth would be a romantic couple. (I may also have been influenced by the cover image on the used paperback edition I managed to find and purchase online -- see photo, left!). They are, in fact, half-siblings. 

Even though it was published in 1969, there's still a very 1950s flavour to this book (not a hippie or Beatle in sight, lol).  As the story opens, Gerald is travelling aboard a ship from South Africa back to England.  He is in no mood to socialize and keeps to himself (we soon learn why), but still manages to attract the attention of a wealthy American family (and their pretty daughter Penelope, in particular).   

Back in London, he reunites with his half-sister, Elizabeth (Bess). Bess has always wanted a husband and family, and has neither, for reasons that eventually become clear -- even though she's being pursued by Sir Walter MacCallum, a wealthy shipbuilder from Glasgow. Instead, she's pursued a career on the stage and become a famous stage actress. She's overjoyed to see Gerald again, give him a home and help him get back on his feet again. 

Many Stevenson novels are at least partly set in Scotland, and this one is no different: Gerald travels there to visit his aging Uncle Gregor on Cannochbrae, the farm where he spent part of his childhood. 

Many Stevenson books contain references to the characters and settings in her other novels, and this one is full of them: Drumburly ("Music in the Hills" and "Shoulder the Sky/Winter and Rough Weather"); Haines, Reverend Mr. Kirke and Freda Lorimer ("Five Windows"); the Reverend Mr. Heath and Limbourne ("Katherine Wentworth" and "Katherine's Marriage"); and I believe there are others from the books I haven't yet read (which I'm sure my fellow DESsies will point out as we progress through the book together). ;)  Gerald's story continues in "The House of the Deer" (the last book Stevenson wrote before her death in 1973, published in 1970), which we will also be reading sometime in 2022. 

This had many of the hallmarks of another great Stevenson read: strong characters, lovely descriptions, a strong sense of morality and propriety. Unfortunately, my usual enjoyment of another Stevenson novel was somewhat marred by a couple of things as the plot unfolded. 

(**SPOILER ALERTS**) 

Bess's reluctance to marry and have children stems from the mental illness that runs in her mother's side of the family. Gerald sets out to learn more and hopefully put her mind at ease. What he discovers had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head. It's one of those hoary old plot twists -- not entirely out of the realm of probability, I'm sure -- but one that happens far more often in the books and movies than in real life...!  

The books is also marred by some anti-Semitic references in a scene that takes place in an antique shop near the end of the book. I was forewarned because I had read some reviews mentioning this on Goodreads (and apparently this passage was toned down somewhat in later editions of the book), but I still found it wince-inducing to read. Yes, times were different then, and Stevenson was very much a product of the time and place she lived in -- but still, this was 1969 and not the 1930s, when she began publishing books. One would hope for something better, 24 years after the end of WWII...!  I would never tell anyone not to read a book based on a few offensive paragraphs -- but be forewarned.  

2.5 stars on Goodreads, rounded up to 3 (because of my abiding affection for DES) -- but not one of her best. 

This was Book #50 read to date in 2021 (and Book #2 finished in October), bringing me to 139% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. (This equals my best-ever showing in the Goodreads Challenge since I joined in 2016 -- 50 books read in all of 2019.)  I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 22 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: Thankful

I am "home," for the first time in 22 months (!). Back in the province where I grew up (mostly), back with my parents, my sister & her partner. 

We had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to leave the house at 6 and be at the airport by 6:30 for an 8 a.m. flight. We were double-masked (standard pleated medical/disposable and Old Navy cloth) for five hours (not bad in flight terms, but longer than we've had to do for a while...!). 

My sister & her partner met us at the other end. She likes to present herself as a tough cookie -- but we hugged and we both had to wipe our eyes. 

When we arrived at my parents' house an hour or so later, I sobbed in the embrace of both of my aging parents -- a little slower, a little more frail and a little more stooped since the last time I saw them.  

I am beyond thankful to be here with them all. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

Odds & ends

• It's 7 p.m. and it's almost dark outside... already!! (And the time change hasn't even happened yet...!) 
• On the bright side, the autumn colours are starting to pop out, and they are gorgeous. :)  I hope they aren't all gone by the time we get back home...! 
• As I mentioned in a recent post, dh & I are headed west this weekend for a long-overdue and long-anticipated visit with my family -- our first visit since Christmas 2019!  I am SO happy to FINALLY be going -- but also a little stressed. :p  I tend to get a bit stressed before travelling anyway -- what to pack, errands to run before we leave, making sure the alarm clock is et, etc. etc. -- and of course, flying while COVID-19 is still very much in the picture does NOT help (despite double-vaccinations & double-masking!). Send good vibes, please!  
• A member of dh's extended family has experienced a double tragedy/loss this week. Not really my story to tell, but suffice to say, we had a shocker of a phone call this morning. I know I don't really have to remind people in this community, but tomorrow is not promised... hug your family members and tell them you love them, every day. 
• Blog housekeeping: New tags recently added for "food" and "my reading life." I've tagged a handful of relevant posts that I remembered and could easily find, but I am sure there are more out there among the nearly 2,000 (!!) posts I've published over almost 14 years... I will tag more as I encounter them!   

#MicroblogMondays: The best meals I've ever eaten

Mel recently asked us  "What are the best things you’ve ever eaten?"  Here are a few random memories (the list could change as I remember more!).  

• Mrs. G's perogies and holubtsi (cabbage rolls). She used to cater events in the small Manitoba town where my dad's family is from, which is where my parents first encountered her and her cooking. My aunties make excellent perogies and cabbage rolls too, but my mother did not want to pester them every time our family wanted some. (We tried making perogies ourselves once when I was a kid, from my best friend's mom's recipe... they weren't too bad tasting, but they are time consuming and very finicky to make.)  So, back in the mid-1980s, my parents started ordering from Mrs. G -- like 20 dozen each at one time -- driving more than an hour & a half one way to pick them up (and then an hour & a half home again -- my dad calls it "making a perogy run,"  lol), and then freezing them, to be doled out as treats when we kids come to visit and on special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Mrs. G is now in her 90s (!) and her catering days are long behind her, but she will still do a large order for my dad once or twice a year (although her daughter does most of the work these days). Dad is now 82 himself (!) but says it's worth the drive to get what he wants. My sister has searched for alternatives in the city (which is full of Poles & Ukrainians, so you'd think it wouldn't be hard to find...), but nothing she's come up with has quite equalled Mrs. G's, according to the taste buds of our family. ;) 
• (My dad prefers things simple:  her perogies are filled with a mashed potato/cheddar cheese blend, boiled and then served with melted butter and sour cream. Sometimes a bit of fried onion (although dad is not fond of onion) &/or bacon bits.  Her Ukrainian-style cabbage rolls are small and filled with rice, dill and a bit of bacon for flavouring. No meat, aside from the bacon bits. Dad cooks them in the oven with tomato sauce/juice & oil, or even just plain, with some oil & water and a lot of dill. Divine!)  
• My mom's turkey, gravy & stuffing (my grandmother's recipe, which includes bread cubes/croutons, raisins, celery, onions, apples and seasonings). Nothing compares. These days, my sister cleans & preps the turkey while I chop & prep the stuffing, under Mom's supervision. 
• Speaking of turkey dinners, I have fond memories, growing up in small Prairie towns, of the fall suppers (sometimes referred to as fowl suppers) organized by various church and community groups as fundraisers at this time of year at church and community halls. For a ridiculously low price, you could line up at the hall, grab a plate and help yourself to a buffet that would include turkey and mashed potatos with gravy & stuffing, vegetables, several kinds of salads, buns/dinner rolls, a bottle of water or can of pop and/or coffee/tea, and then a luscious spread of pies (apple, pumpkin and others) and other desserts, all while visiting with your neighbours while seated at long trestle tables covered in paper tablecloths. I haven't been to one in years myself, but my parents still go. Some now offer takeout, and I believe that's how most operated last year during COVID-19.  
• The cafeteria at my workplace in downtown Toronto offered subsidized and surprisingly tasty breakfasts, lunches and snacks at very reasonable prices, dine in or takeout. It first opened when the building was new, in the late 1940s/early 1950s, when there were far fewer affordable dining choices in the area available to employees. It was specifically for employees of my company and their guests, but people working for other companies in the building and neighbourhood knew about it and often got their lunches there too. I don't think anyone ever stopped them. There were usually two or three hot entrees offered daily (meat, starch & veggies for $5-7);  a short-order grill where you could get a hamburger, hot dog or grilled cheese, etc.;  a salad bar; a soup bar with four different kinds of freshly made soups daily (I particularly liked the navy bean, the cauliflower cheese and the broccoli cheddar); a made-to-order sandwich bar, with your choice of bread, meats and condiments, served with sides of potato chips and/or carrot & celery sticks;  and a daily grilled panini. Just before Thanksgiving, Christmas & Easter, there would be a turkey dinner including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos & gravy, veggies, a small salad, a bun, a can of pop or bottle of water, a small cup of nuts, and a choice of apple or pumpkin pie (or a piece of fresh fruit). I don't think the price ever went above $10 for all that while I worked there.
• There were some great places to eat in the food court of our building (and the other nearby office buildings) as well (along with the usual fast-food chains). There was an Italian restaurant (now long gone) that had a takeout counter, where I got excellent pizza slices and wonderful risotto for years. A Chinese restaurant (also long gone) with a takeout counter that offered wonderful spring rolls and lemon chicken. And many others. 
• The linguini with clams & white wine sauce at a little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant near our first apartment in midtown Toronto. I particularly remember going there with dh, BIL & SIL on Valentine's Day in the mid/late 1980s, pre-nephews. The place was decorated with confetti on the tables and helium balloons that clustered on the ceiling, with curled ribbons dangling down (very festive). The friendly staff (who knew us by then) greeted us warmly (even though we didn't have reservations! -- we went early, before the expected crowds, so they were happy to accommodate us) and were attentive but not obtrusive. The restaurant, sadly, is long gone, but the fond memories remain. 
• Breakfasts at the Charles Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, described here. 
• The maple salmon at Salty's on the waterfront in Halifax. I had lunch there by myself while in Halifax on business in mid-November 1997, after a lovely Sunday morning exploring the waterfront and visiting the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (which has a marvelous Titanic exhibit -- this was just before the movie came out). It was a grey day, not too cold, with snowflakes softly falling. The restaurant was not too busy, and I had a table with a view of the boats on the harbour and the twin city of Dartmouth across the water. Dh & I returned there in September 2010 on our belated 25th wedding anniversary trip to Nova Scotia, and it was every bit as good as I had remembered. I look forward to returning someday!  
• The thin-crust, wood oven pizzas we get from a local Italian restaurant (including a "white" pizza with thinly sliced potatos, pancetta, caramelized onions and rosemary for me). Besides pizza, they're also known for their gelato and they do a booming business at the takeout counter, especially in the summertime. :)  
• Also:  the thin-crust, wood oven pizza we had at Fiazza in Byward Market in Ottawa a couple of years ago, recommended by a friend who lives there (described here). Yum! 
• Burgers and fries from Hero Burgers, a local chain. (Haven't been there since the pandemic began, sadly.) 
• A nice, well-seasoned steak (medium well, please) with a baked potato and veggies. I've had great steaks in several places, both at restaurants & people's houses (dh's cousin barbecued some amazing, tender steaks for us on our recent cottage weekend)... I don't have it often these days, but it's something I love to eat now & then. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

"The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown

"The Lost Symbol" is the third of five mysteries/thrillers by Dan Brown, featuring Harvard professor/symbologist Robert Langdon. Tom Hanks played Langdon in movie versions of  "Angels & Demons," "The DaVinci Code" and "Inferno," and I'd read and (mostly) enjoyed all those books and seen those movies with dh. (The only one I haven't seen or read now is the most recent one, "Origin.") (I reviewed "Inferno" on this blog, here.) 

I recently saw an ad for a new TV series/adaptation of "The Lost Symbol." It's already being aired/streamed on the Peacock streaming service in the States right now, but it starts here on Oct. 11th (on Showcase). I always like to read the book before I see the film version, if possible, and I was able to find a cheap copy for my e-reader, so I picked it up and started reading. 

As with most Brown/Langdon novels, this was a fast-paced book that kept me turning the pages (waaaayyyyy past my usual bedtime last night, in fact, to finish it!). The previous Langdon novels I've read mostly took place in Europe:  Paris, London, Scotland, Rome, Florence, Istanbul. This one (aside from the opening and some flashbacks) is set entirely in Washington, D.C.  

As the book opens, Langdon receives a phone call from the assistant of his old friend Peter Solomon, asking him to fill in as guest speaker at a dinner at the U.S. Capitol that very same evening. But when Langdon arrives at the Capitol, there is no dinner -- just a disturbing object, encoded with symbols that Langdon recognizes as Masonic. Then he learns Solomon has been kidnapped. Over the next few hours, to win his friend's freedom, Langdon must decipher and follow the Masonic clues to unlock some powerful ancient secrets. As usual, there's a pretty girl (Solomon's sister, Katherine) tagging along for the ride.  

As I wrote in my previous review of "Inferno":  

Having read previous Brown/Langdon adventures "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons" (as well as seeing the movie versions), I knew what to expect... You don't need to have read any of Brown's previous books to understand or enjoy this one. They aren't great literature, but they're generally fun, and you learn a bit about history and art and religion (and, in this case, science) along the way. 

I think that description fits this book as well. As dh said to me last night when we were discussing Brown's novels, "They're kinda dumb, but they're incredibly entertaining." 

3 stars on Goodreads. I'll let you know how the TV version stacks up to the book!  

This was Book #49 read to date in 2021 (and Book #1 finished in October), bringing me to 136% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 22 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

The old "self-absorbed" stereotype again...

I've mentioned the comic strip "Between Friends" here a few times over the years. I've followed it for years -- I don't get a physical newspaper anymore, but it's in my Facebook feed. The cartoonist, Sandra Bell-Lundy, is Canadian. :)  The strip follows a group of women/friends, who are now middle-aged/50-something: Susan & her husband Harv went through infertility and eventually adopted a daughter, who is now in college (!)... Kim is a freelance writer married to a widower with a grown son... Maeve is divorced & childless... and her assistant, Helen, has two grown children.

Here's Friday's strip: 

LOL. 

However, my enjoyment was marred by a comment beneath the post which said "Maude [she didn't even get Maeve's name right...!], you are self absorbed. You will never know."  

Grrrrr....  

Right now

Right now...* 

*(an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

Pandemic diary/update: September was Month #18 going on 19 (! -- a full year & a half/plus!) of living with the COVID-19 pandemic. After hitting an all-time one-day high of 4,812 new cases on April 16th, daily new case numbers here in the province of Ontario (population about 14 million) dropped as low as 114 on July 12th -- a level not seen since last Sept. 1st (2020). They remained below 200 for 20 days straight -- but then (sadly) cracked the 200 mark again near the end of July -- and have, unfortunately, never gone back below 200 since then. During September, the daily new case numbers have bounced around between a low of 463 on Sept. 22nd and a high of 944 on Sept. 4th.  

Yesterday (Sept. 30th), no COVID-19 stats were released by the provincial government because of our country's new National Day of Truth & Reconciliation holiday. This morning, there were 668 new cases and 11 deaths. 394 of those cases were confirmed in unvaccinated people, 39 were partially vaccinated, and 166 fully vaccinated. 

These numbers aren't great -- they're not zero -- but they've been holding fairly steady throughout September -- even as kids returned to school -- and we're all holding our breath that it doesn't get any worse...! I saw some comparative numbers from all the provinces across Canada this morning that put things into perspective. Couldn't find those exact numbers, but here are some that make the same point: as of yesterday, the 7-day rolling average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 people for all of Canada was 11.5  Here in Ontario, it was 4.1.  In Manitoba, where my parents & sister live, it's 5.9.  But in the hotspot provinces of Alberta & Saskatchewan (west of Manitoba), the respective numbers are 36.8 and 40.2 (!).  

As of this morning, 76.9% of all Canadians ( = everyone, including children under 12 who still aren't eligible for the vaccine yet) had received at least one shot, and 70.9% were fully vaccinated. Here in Ontario, 75.7% of the total population have received one dose of vaccine, and 71.0% are now fully vaccinated. (Among adults 18+ in Ontario, those figures are 86.7% and 81.7%, respectively.) 

We've been holding at stage 3 of reopening since the beginning of mid-August, because of the surge of new Delta variant cases. Stage 3 reopened indoor dining, movie theatres and casinos, and larger indoor gathering limits were implemented (with mask mandates, social distancing and other limitations still in place).  The province did further increase capacity limits for large events such as professional sports games, late in September (conveniently, peak baseball season and the start of hockey & basketball seasons...!). Proof of vaccination/vaccine "passports" kicked in on Sept. 22nd, with proof of vaccination now required at "high-risk" indoor settings such as bars, restaurants, gyms, movie theatres and nightclubs. We're using paper receipts/proof of vaccination right now -- which are, apparently, very easy to manipulate/forge -- but a phone app with a QR code has been promised by Oct. 22nd.    

The border reopened on Aug. 9th to fully vaccinated American citizens, and to fully vaccinated people from the rest of the world on Sept. 7th.  The U.S. has announced it will reopen to international air travellers in November, but has yet to reopen the land border -- even though U.S. politicians and border communities applied significant pressure on our leaders to reopen, and even though our new case and vaccination rates are (still) so much better than theirs. Go figure... :p 

 

We are still staying pretty close to home, but -- with the warmer weather, and both of us fully vaccinated -- we have been out & about a little more recently. On top of dh's usual (once or twice weekly) trips to the supermarket for groceries and for takeout dinners on Saturday nights, we've been: 

• To BIL's 6 times -- mostly to spend time with SIL & Little Great-Nephew.
• Shopping:
• To the bookstore twice (Sept. 7th & 14th). 
• To Canadian Tire (Sept. 13th) to pick up some things for our cottage weekend (resusable water bottles, insulated cooler bag, etc.). 
• To the supermarket with dh 2 times (Sept. 15th & 16th) to pick up some things we needed for our forthcoming cottage trip, and some takeout soup for lunch. 
• To the gelato shop on Sept. 7th (first day of school hereabouts). 
• On a day trip with BIL & SIL & dh to the town of Elora on Sept. 4th, which I wrote about here.  
• To Older Nephew's house, an hour north of us, on Saturday, Sept. 11th... dh & BIL (his dad) were helping him drywall the basement ceiling (!), while SIL (his mom) & I wrangled Little Great-Nephew and the dog until LGN's mom/Older Nephew's wife got home from work, mid-afternoon. Both of us were exhausted, but exhilarated, by the time we got home around suppertime. 
• To dh's cousin's cottage (with BIL & SIL) for the weekend of Sept. 17th. 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 

Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 4 books in September (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads, & tagged "2021 books"):

• "Emily Climbs" by L.M. Montgomery (the second book in the "Emily" trilogy, for my LMM Readathon Facebook group. Our group discussion just began on Sept. 20th -- you are welcome to join us! I will count this book as a re-read when we finish, in mid-December). 
• "Still Glides the Stream" by D.E. Stevenson (chapter-by-chapter group read with my DES online fan group). 
• "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens (the Gateway Women/NoMo book club pick for September -- long in my TBR pile...!) 
• "The Foundling" by Paul Joseph Fronczak & Alex Tresniowski 

This brings me to 48 books read so far in 2021 -- 133% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books (!!). I have now completed my challenge for the year, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 22(!) books ahead of schedule. :)

Current read(s): 

• "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (a Robert Langdon mystery). I saw an ad recently for a new TV series adaptation of this book -- I believe it's already being aired/streamed in the States, but it starts here on Oct. 11th (on Showcase). I've read & seen the screen adaptations of "The DaVinci Code," "Angels & Demons" and "Inferno" (all with Tom Hanks in the role of Langdon), and mostly enjoyed those, so I'm going to try to finish this one before the show starts.  
• "The Menopause Manifesto" by Dr. Jen Gunter. 

Coming up: 

(Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and this is a great place for me to keep track of what I should read next, lol.) 

• For my "Clever Name" book club:
• "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig (September -- already read late last year, reviewed here, to be discussed at a Zoom meeting in early October.  Not sure if I will re-read (or if I have time to do that!) or just skim to refresh my memory...) 
• "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore (October) 
• "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver (November) 
• "Recipe for a Perfect Wife" by Karma Brown (December) 
• "The Bright Side" by Cathrin Bradbury (January -- already read, reviewed here.)
• "Donna Has Left the Building" by Susan Jane Gilman (February) 
• "Equal Justice: My Journey as a Woman, A Soldier, And a Muslim" by Rabia Siddique (March) 
• "The Lost Apothecary" by Sarah Penner (April)
• "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb (May)
• For the Gateway Women/NoMo book club: 
• "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman (October -- already read, reviewed here, but may have to re-read or at least skim to refresh my memory on some of the plot points...!) 
• "Widowland" by C.J. Carey (November -- not yet available in Canada in any format, but if that's still the case by November, I can order via Amazon.com in the States and have it shipped here... looks interesting!) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson fan group (no set timeframes, but these are the next ones we've agreed to read after we finish the current book, in order):  
• "Gerald and Elizabeth" 
• "Charlotte Fairlie" (also known as "The Fair Isle" and "Blow the Wind Southerly") 
• "House of the Deer" 
• "Anna and her Daughters" 
• "Sarah Morris Remembers" 
• A Facebook group I belong to for Canadian childless women is going to read and discuss Tracey Cleantis's book "The Next Happy," in mid-October... right when I'll be visiting my parents. I read the book when it first came out, and was I hoping to participate when I first heard about this, but I'll have to see if I can find a quiet corner for an hour (not always an easy thing to do there...!).  

A few recently purchased titles (in both paper and digital formats, mostly discounted or purchased with points):  

• "Forever Young" by Hayley Mills 
• "Recollections of My Non-Existence" by Rebecca Solnit 
• "My Ticket to Ride: How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll Banned in Cleveland (a True Story from 1964)" by Janice Mitchell (how could I resist, with a title like that??  lol) 
• "The Man Who Died Twice" by Richard Osman (a sequel to "The Thursday Murder Club," which I absolutely loved!). 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 

Watching: Lots of interesting viewing this month! 

• Videos of webinars that I missed during World Childless Week (all available on the WCW website). 
• The results of our federal election on Sept. 20th. 
• We caught some (but not all) of Ken Burns's four-part documentary series about "Muhammed Ali" on PBS. (We missed part 2 because we were watching election results, and part 4 because... we forgot, lol.)  Burns's docs are always excellent, although I was slightly less interested in this one than some of his other work. 
• "Citizen Hearst," a fascinating two-part "American Experience" documentary on PBS about William Randolph Hearst. 
  
• CBC is showing "Downton Abbey" reruns in the afternoon... again!! I think this is the third go-round. We've caught the odd episode or ending, but we're not making a point of watching it all over again. 
• "The Lost Sons," a documentary aired on CNN last Sunday night, based on "The Foundling," which I recently read & reviewed here. 
• When I was 5 years old and living in a small town in northeastern Saskatchewan, my mother took me to the movies to see "Hold On!" starring the British Invasion band Herman's Hermits. (Before that, she also took me to see The Beatles in "Help!" -- and a few years later, we saw Herman's Hermits again in another movie, "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" -- but I digress.)  The Hermits were not the Beatles, and this was no "A Hard Day's Night" (which is generally considered a masterpiece of the genre) -- but then, I didn't actually see "A Hard Day's Night" until I was in my 20s at university. The songs and the (rather contrived) scenes of screaming girls chasing Herman's Hermits around Los Angeles made a huge impression on me, and I asked for -- and got -- a Herman's Hermits album for my 6th birthday in January (which I still have -- one of the few in my collection that I did not turn over to Older Nephew, lol). I've continued to love the band's music throughout my life, and it remains a bucket list item to see Peter Noone (aka "Herman" -- who still tours with a version of the Hermits) one of these days and get him to sign my treasured album. ;)  However, I hadn't seen the movie since my mother took me to see it in (gulp!) 1966.  Dh noticed it was on TCM recently, and so I watched the whole thing for the first time in... many, many years (cough!). It was as dumb as I expected (lol) -- a relic of a very different time -- but fun to revisit nevertheless. 

Listening:  I am not really an audiobook listener, but I see that Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters, and before that,  Nirvana) has a book coming out next week!!  And I was thinking that if ever I was going to listen to an audiobook, this might be a good one to start with. (Probably not if you don't like strong language, though, lol. ;)  )  I think he's great. :)  

Eating/Trying: (not always succeeding, but trying...!) to watch/reduce my sugar intake since my brush with gout earlier in September, since that's a trigger food. (So are red meat and alcohol, which we only consume a few times a month as it is, and organ meats, which we don't eat at all.) 

Drinking: Ditto above re: alcohol, although we don't drink very much these days either -- maybe a glass of wine with dinner a couple of times a month. 

Buying (besides books, lol):  Not much! We bought an insulated cooler bag, some ice packs to go in it, and a couple of insulated water bottles at Canadian Tire in preparation for our cottage weekend. That's about it. 

Wearing: I've been able to wear my denim capris and sandals, and capri yoga pants and bare feet around the house, for most of September, until just recently... but those days are numbered (if not already gone until next spring/summer)...!  I had to put on long jeans, socks & shoes for the first time in months while at dh's cousin's cottage two weekends ago (it was pretty chilly there in the evening and early morning!), and I've had to put on socks and/or slippers to wear around the house a few times recently. I know that, generally, any time I spend in my capris past October 1st is a bonus, but I'm still sad to have to put them away... 

Definitely not wearing: Shorts, since early in September. 

Wanting: My new (bought in July) cellphone -- a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G -- has been pretty good so far... BUT... I did not realize when I got it that it does not have a headphone/earphone jack!  I've always used the same basic, simple Sony earphones that I bought years ago at for $15-20 (they probably cost even less these days) to listen to things on both my cellphone and my laptop, and they are fine for my purposes. I don't want to shell out big bucks for wireless earbuds when I already have several pairs of these lying around the house. I understand there is a cheap adapter that I can buy... I just need to get over to Best Buy to see if they have one -- hopefully within the next week or so, before we are scheduled to do some travelling... (see further below).  ;) 

(I already dropped my new cellphone and cracked the screen -- gulp & eyeroll.  Fortunately, it seems to be just the screen protector that's cracked, not the actual screen itself, and it's just a small hairline crack in the lower right-hand corner. I only just started paying for this thing...!)  

Noticing:  The autumn colours are JUST starting to show themselves here... Hoping:  They will not be past their peak by the time we get back home from our upcoming trip (see "Looking forward to,"  below...!) 

Appreciating:  All the thoughtful social media posts and news coverage on National Truth & Reconciliation Day yesterday. 

Loving:  Spending time with Little Great-Nephew.  Even when he's (occasionally) throwing a tantrum, he's cute. (And of course, even when he does, it's ultimately not our problem!  lol)  

Remembering: LGN's parents (Older Nephew & his wife)'s wedding, FIVE years ago today!  Time flies!  

Feeling: Happy to put the extreme heat & humidity behind us... not quite so happy to have to give up my capris & sandals/bare feet until next spring/summer  :(   (as I've whined above, lol).  Fall itself is generally enjoyable... it's what comes afterward that gives me pause...! 

Looking forward to: Seeing my parents and sister VERY soon!! after 651 days (or 21 months & 11 days -- or 1 year, 9 months & 11 days -- in other words, a long time...!)(for me, anyway...!)!  In my 60+ years on this planet, I have never gone that long without seeing my family until now.  :(   There were a few years early in our marriage when we didn't get there during the summer (also during my pregnancy) -- but we always went there for Christmas, and my mother usually came to visit us during her spring break, while she was working. 

We will be celebrating (Canadian) Thanksgiving while I'm there. To say I am thankful to (finally!) be going "home" is an understatement!  

(Any good tips for air travel during a pandemic??)  

Thinking about:  What to take/pack? (I am out of practice...! -- although we did get a small trial run with our cottage weekend!) 

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends

• 
  Did you watch any of the World Childless Week webinars or read any of the submissions?  I will admit I quickly fell behind and am still trying to catch up on all the wonderful content -- which, luckily for us, is archived permanently on the WCW website.  
• The Independent (UK) posted a great (albeit brief) opinion piece in connection with World Childless Week last week: "We need to stop describing women based on their maternal status."  You will need to register to read the article.
• Between WCW, the federal election here in Canada last week (dh & I voted at an advance poll a week before the election day, and stayed up till midnight, watching the results), visiting Little Great-Nephew at his grandparents' house, and getting ready for (and then recuperating from...!) our cottage weekend, I am feeling a little swamped lately. I've been trying to catch up on everything that I've missed online while we were away (and failing miserably) -- blogs, social media posts, newsletters and emails, WCW content, a towering TBR (to be read) stack of books (both paper & digital), some with "deadlines" of online book club meetings and related screening dates of film versions. If I haven't commented on your blogs lately, I apologize!   
• It was, apparently, National Daughters Day on Saturday. And even though I had put it on my calendar after being overwhelmed by social media posts on the same day last year (here's my post about it), it kind of slipped my mind.... so I wound up being overwhelmed and annoyed all over again. After a few perfunctory likes, I just started scrolling quickly past any posts of beautiful happy smiling young girls and their proud moms. (Apologies if any of those moms were you, but there's only so much a bereaved childless mother can handle sometimes...)
• Related warning:  Apparently it's National Sons Day tomorrow (Sept. 28th). 
• Finally:  Anyone have any tips on pandemic air travel for me??  I may be putting them to use soon..!  ;)  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

"The Foundling" by Paul Joseph Fronczak & Alex Tresniowski

Mid-last week, I saw an ad on CNN for an upcoming documentary -- to be aired  tomorrow/Sunday night (Sept. 26th) -- called "The Lost Sons."  As I watched, I realized the storyline sounded very familiar. A while back, I'd read a story/review of a fascinating-sounding book called "The Foundling," and bought a paperback copy when I saw it in the bookstore (albeit it had been languishing in my "to be read" pile ever since then). I went to my bookshelves and pulled it out. Sure enough, same guy, same story. 

I always like to read the book before I see the movie, if possible -- but I was in the middle of reading "Where the Crawdads Sing" (reviewed here), and I wanted to finish it before I started yet another book. I closed "Crawdads" yesterday/Friday morning, and picked up "The Foundling" later that afternoon. Could I get through the 347 pages in the 48+ hours or so before the documentary aired on Sunday (tomorrow) night?? 

I decided to give it a shot -- and fortunately, I found it to be a fast and captivating read. I finished it tonight -- about 30 hours after I opened it. :)  

"The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me" is the jaw-dropping true story of Paul Joseph Fronczak. When he was 10 years old, Paul was snooping in the crawl space of his family's Chicago home for hidden Christmas presents when he stumbled on some boxes of old letters and newspaper clippings that changed his life forever. The clippings told Paul that he'd been kidnapped (!) from the hospital on the day he was born (in April 1964) by an unidentified woman in a nurse's uniform. 

Two years later, a little boy, approximately two years of age, was abandoned in a stroller in front of a department store in Newark, New Jersey.  Blood tests were inconclusive -- no DNA testing back then! -- but the heartbroken Fronczaks immediately identified the boy as their missing son, legally adopted him and took him home to Chicago. The story of Paul's abduction and abandonment two years later was never referred to, even after the boy's discovery in the crawl space. But Paul couldn't help but notice that he looked nothing like his parents or younger brother, or that he seemed to have little in common with them either. 

As an adult, Paul bounced around the country from job to job and relationship to relationship. Then, in 2012, he became the father of a baby girl. Questions from the baby's doctors about his family's medical history prompted Paul to take a DNA test and begin investigating the truth of his origins:  Was he really Paul Joseph Fronczak, the kidnapped baby? If not, then who was he? And if he wasn't Paul Fronczak, what had happened to the real Paul? 

This was an absolutely fascinating story, with many elements that have always intrigued me:  it's a true crime/mystery/detective story that delves into issues of genealogy and adoption, and raises interesting questions about how we define family and identity. 

(Interestingly, the Fronczaks had had a stillborn son before Paul was born. Imagine being a stillbirth mother in the early 1960s, when such losses were generally brushed under the carpet, only to have your "rainbow" baby literally stolen from your arms in the hospital...!)   

The story ends in late 2015 (the book was published in 2017). I've been trying to avoid finding out too many spoilers about the documentary before I watch it tomorrow night, but inevitably a few crept in... I will say that I think it reveals some developments in Paul's story that have unfolded since the book was published.  

If you wind up watching the documentary, let me know what you think! 

A solid 4 stars on Goodreads. If I had one criticism of this book, it would be that there's a very large cast of characters, and it was sometimes confusing to remember who was related to who and how. A family tree or "cast of characters" list might have been helpful -- although, to be fair, it also might have spoiled some of the surprises.  

This was Book #48 read to date in 2021 (and Book #4 finished in September), bringing me to 133% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 22 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

"Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens

"Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens is this month's pick for the NoMo/Gateway Women book club (and yes, there is a childless angle/character in the story, albeit childlessness is not a particular focus). It's been in my "to read" pile forever, and it's been enthusiastically recommended by several of my friends (and even dh!! who picked it off our bookshelves, read it earlier this year and loved it). 

The protagonist/heroine is Kya, who grows up alone and unschooled in a shack deep in the marshes near the coast of North Carolina after her mother, her siblings and finally her abusive alcoholic father abandon her and leave her to fend for herself. She survives by foraging for mussels and fish, and selling them to a kind black man who runs a nearby general store.  With little human contact, she becomes a keen observer of the natural world around her, known to the curious locals as "the Marsh Girl." 

The story develops in two tracks that gradually merge: Kya's solitary growing up years in the 1950s and '60s, and a murder mystery that grips the nearby town in 1969. 

I'll admit, this one was slow going for me, initially. The writing was beautiful, but I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about. Once I got midway through the book, though, I couldn't stop turning the pages. 

4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 on Goodreads. It was, in the end, a really, really good read -- but I was expecting it to knock my socks off, and it didn't quite do that for me, so I don't feel like I can give it 5 stars. 

"Where the Crawdads Sing" was a Reese (Witherspoon)'s Book Club pick, and Witherspoon has produced the movie version, to be released next year. British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones, who was an amazing Marianne in the screen adaptation of "Normal People," will star as Kya. (David Strathairn, whom I have adored ever since "The Days & Nights of Molly Dodd," years ago, will play lawyer Tom Milton.) 

This was Book #47 read to date in 2021 (and Book #3 finished in September), bringing me to 131% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 21 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books."