SIGNINGS, BOOKS, AND A POEM OF DAFFODILS
NOTICE OF FAMILY SIGNINGS:
UNION COMMUNITY MARKET, New Community Church of Union (Washington) on May 13, 2023 to offer Arts and Crafts, Outdoor Flea Market, Food, by Hood Canal Improvement Club 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Poets Sterling Warner and his sister-in-law, Cathy Warner, have invited Susan Lampe and her daughters Mindy Hardwick and Becca Hardwick to participate in the signing at their table.
GET LIT AT THE BEACH (Cannon Beach, OR) April 14th to 16th. Mindy Hardwick was the featured speaker on Friday night at this event. She spoke at the Cannon Beach Library about her life as a writer. The annual event is sponsored by science fiction author Terry Brooks.
BOOKS OF NOTE: I have recently read the following outstanding books and recommend them to readers of my BLOG:
Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright.
This new book brings to light another woman hidden in history. She was born Ann Trow in the Cotswold area of England. She led an interesting but controversial life dedicated to providing healthcare for women in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At age 15, she became a domestic servant for a butcher’s family. To escape that life, she married a tailor at age 16. They had a daughter, Caroline, and decided to sail for New York in 1831. Ann joined thousands of women there as a seamstress. Her husband Henry died in 1833 of typhoid fever, leaving Ann with a young child at age 21. Work choices available for her were as a seamstress or a prostitute. She met a man who concocted and sold pills and joined him. People believed in her and began asking her for help with unwanted pregnancies. She remarried in 1835 and her brother also arrived about that time. Ann and her husband, Charles Lohman, were drawn to prosperity. Ann wanted to help women trapped in poverty and marriage. She offered healthcare for women, something they needed. She was good at what she did, and eventually became a self-taught physician. She rarely, if ever, lost a patient. Ann and Charles decided to advertise to prosper their business. They concocted an image of a Frenchwoman, a specialist in women’s health, trained in European countries. They said Ann’s French grandmother had given them a special pill recipe. Ann became the famous Madame Restell and her husband was Dr. Mauriceau, who specialized in medications. He also wrote a book about women’s health in which he advocated birth control by using medications. With this dazzling lie, the couple did relentless advertising, mainly in the New York newspapers The Sun and The Herald. They became very prosperous, built a mansion on Fifth Avenue across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and had numerous carriages. Occasionally Madame Restell found herself in jail as men resented her success as a self-made millionaire and often tried to accuse her of abortion or other crimes done to women. The author has packed the book with much authentic history.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Tova Sullivan’s husband has died and she also lost her only child, a son, Erik. To keep herself occupied, she has taken a job as a night cleaner in the local Sowell Bay Aquarium where she mops, cleans windows, and tidies up. She becomes acquainted with Marcellus, a Pacific octopus who she meets unexpectedly as he escapes on occasion. The two become friends. Unknown to Tova, Marcellus has information about what happened to her son, who disappeared mysteriously. He tries to provide this information for her. The author brings together many pieces in this story. In addition to the octopus and marine creatures, the reader meets members of the Knit-wits, a group of women who meet for luncheons and have become good friends. We also learn about Cameron, a young man, orphaned by his mother and left in the guardianship of his Aunt Jeanne in California. Ethan, a Scotsman who runs the local grocery and café, keeps gossip going and provides a link for the characters. Charming story, one to read in one or two sittings.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
In this novel of intriguing fantasy, the author, a known master of horror novels, gently leads his reader into a multi-part story fashioned with some of the characteristics of a fairy tale. Most prominent is a journey into another land through a portal. Perhaps the story really begins with the death of the hero’s mother when she is hit by a truck on a neighborhood bridge. Her son, Charlie Reade is left to be reared by his father, an insurance salesman whose grief leads him to alcoholism. Charlie excels at sports and school activities but finds himself fascinated by the Victorian house near his own home. One day he is drawn into the yard of that home by cries for help and a barking dog. Charlie finds a man on the ground with a broken leg and a dog named Radar. Charlie befriends the man, Mr. Bowditch, and his dog, and becomes ensnared by the man’s amazing life, one full of secrets like the bag of gold bits upstairs and the mysterious shed behind the house where Mr. Bowditch once shot something. When Bowditch dies, he leaves everything he owns to Charlie who discovers the portal in the shed that leads down a spiral staircase to another world. Charlie enters that world in hopes he will find help for the aging dog Radar. He finds a land of monarch butterflies where the people have been captured and are terrorized by monsters. Charlie lands in prison and learns he may be destined to save the people in the butterfly land. Stephen King employs his wonderful sharp writer skills to craft this special book molded in the structure of an unusual fairy tale.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
This book grew out of a textbook study Loewen made, was first published in 1995, has sold millions of copies, although Loewen has since passed away. He wrote a new preface in 2018. The book won an American Book Award. Fascinating study of what truly happened in history. Loewen, a professor himself for many years and history teacher became frustrated with the way textbooks are published and how history is taught. He believed good critical decisions could not be made unless students knew the truth. This book has been read by thousands of teachers and others. I have a personal interest as well since I grew up on the same street as the Loewen Family, and Jim’s sister was and still is a good friend. Fascinating read for those who love and enjoy history.
ALL OF THE ABOVE BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON.COM
SPRING ARRIVES IN HOOD CANAL
Spring arrived the last week of April for us in Union. The magnolia blossomed where I planted it years ago outside my kitchen window. The rhododendrons have begun to bloom with a few red ones coming first, then yellow, then white, now more red. Brave daffodils bloomed in mid-April giving us hope that spring would finally arrive and bring us out of a rather brutal winter.
THE HAPPY DAFFY DAFFODIL by Susan Glenn Lampe
A brilliant flash of yellow
Elegant against a world of gray
Spreads hope
Through a late winter world in the Pacific Northwest.
In a sudden burst, yellow appears in yards, fields, grassy areas, by rocks
Daffodils capture sunshine in trumpet-shaped petals
Yellow on yellow, yellow on white with orange accents
They verify my hope, my trust when I planted them
As daylight slowly disappeared into short, dark days of Fall.”
I placed the bulbs gently into pots, into soil, beside rocks along garden walls
“I’ll be here when you come up!” I promised.
I will witness your first green shoots through the barren black soil.”
I gave those bulbs my commitment.
Some call them jonquils
I label them “the goofy flower”
No matter the name, they are a brave plant
Poking leaves up despite fierce winter winds that cling and blow
When rain seems eternal, even laced in bits of snow and hail.
Some lean over and I rescue them from deer and bunnies, bring them inside to fill vases
They thank me with a fragrance more delicate than a Parisian perfume.
