The Bookwright
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Will and Harper -- a Movie Review
Friday, May 24, 2024
Fall of Giants -- a Book Review
Of course it is, and I can't read it without having read the first, so, I went online to my local public library and downloaded the first book in the trilogy to my eReader -- The Fall of Giants.
tennis courts in a line. Along one side, seventeen long windows overlooked the
garden; on the opposite wall, the windows were reflected by seventeen mirrored
arches. More important, this was the room where in 1871, at the end of the
Franco-Prussian War, the victorious Germans had crowned their first emperor
and forced the French to sign away Alsace and Lorraine. Now the Germans
were to be humiliated under the same barrel-vaulted ceiling. And no doubt some
among them would be dreaming of the time in the future when they in turn
would take their revenge. The degradation to which you subject others comes
back, sooner or later, to haunt you," Maud thought. "Would that reflection occur
to men on either side at today's ceremony? Probably not."
War I. I could never understand why. Now, thanks to Fall of Giants, I do.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney -- a book review
"the original chamber of the House of Representatives ... a room full of the
history of our republic. Brass plaques on the floor mark the locations of the
desks of presidents who served in the House, including Abraham Lincoln and
John Quincy Adams. Statues of prominent Americans line the outer walls
of the room. ...law enforcement officers in tactical gear were seated on the floor,
leaning up against every statue and all around the walls of the room, exhausted
from the battle they had fought to defend the Capitol. I walked around the room
thanking them for what they had done.
"One said to me, "Ma'am, I fought in Iraq and I have never encountered the
violence I did out there today."
my 5-year-old daughter the week before to take care of some business. We could
easily have been there when Americans bombed it.
"In the era of Trump, certain members of Congress and other Trump enablers
-- many of whom carry the Constitution in their pocket but seem
to have never read it -- have attempted to hijack this phrase [we the
people] to claim it gives them authority to subvert the rule of law or
overturn the results of elections. They have preyed on the patriotism
of millions of Americans. They are working to return to office the man
responsible for January 6."
can stop them. This is more important than partisan politics. Every
one of us -- Republicans, Democrates, Independents -- must work
to ensure that Donald Trump and those who have appeased, enabled,
and collaborated with him are defeated.
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon -- A Movie Review
".... As with any appointed guardianship, if the ward died before the legal age of competency, the guardian could petition to inherit their estate." [From the National Archives]
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
The Wheels of Justice
Jay Kuo, in his Status Kuo Substack, reminds me to patience. He explains the steps in the process toward justice. Steps toward justice, the wheels of which I’ve heard many times in my long life, turn slowly.
Too many times this process seems not only slow, but like a maze. A maze whose every turn I fear will be a dead end.Kuo’s step by step explanations remind me that we are a nation of laws. Laws that our Constitution requires protect all of us, including a criminal defendant.I know that’s not how it always works. I’m old, not devoid of common sense. And I’m certainly not immune to the fear that the rich and powerful among us can and, too often do, get away with all kinds of stuff and the ex-President might, too.I know, I know. In Trump’s case, rich may be much less rich than we’ve been led to believe and powerful may be more about those with actual money and power who support him.Kuo reminds me that the slow legal process leading to justice must be meticulous and methodical. He reminds me that the steps being taken in this particular case are and must be “by the book.”Because these trials involve an ex-President, they can be seen to be without precedent. Which doesn’t seem right to me, just because an ex-President is the defendant. He should somehow be better than an “ordinary” person? Nonetheless, it is on the bases of precedents, that the judicial system moves. And, it appears that the courts are going to have to rule that the extant precedents do apply to the Trump cases. Those slow wheels. Those slow wheels.In that same long life, I’ve lived, I seem not to have learned the lesson of patience. So, Jay, keep reminding me and maybe I’ll live long enough to see justice served.
If you would like to read Kuo’s article, go to
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/taming-the-online-terrorist
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Plastic? PLASTIC!
From Jokes and Pokes on FB
Plastic! Our polyester clothes, water jugs and jugs of kitty litter. Drinking straws and stir sticks at our favorite coffee shop. Even 'paper' cups are, more often than not, plastic coated. Parchment paper and butcher paper? Yep, plastic coated. Hey, though, Cut-Rite wax paper is NOT. Plastic coated, that is.
In Colorado we pay 10 cents for what they call single-use plastic bags to carry whatever we buy home in. (I know. I ended that sentence with a preposition.) But I do reuse those bags when I clean the kitty box. (I’ve been saving them since before Daddy died, because he knew they’d eventually be outlawed or restricted somehow, so I have a lifetime supply in that little skinny closet at the end of the counter in the kitchen. And what’ll I do after that runs out, well it’ll be cheaper to buy a box of single-use trash-can liners than to pay 10 cents apiece at a store for one.)
I actually like people bringing their own bags. It’s more interesting while you stand in the check-out line, because you can check out other people’s bags. Some of them are pretty or odd, great big or little bitty. Of my bags, my personal favorites are the one from Lucile’s Creole Café in Littleton, CO. It was for carry-out food during the old CoVid days, so it’s a nice big size. Yes, the food was in plastic or aluminum trays with plastic lids. And the smaller bag from Pops convenience store/gas station/diner/motorcycle rider destination in Arcadia, OK. It had a couple of souvenir t-shirts in it. They launder nicely so it’s safe to say, they’re polyester/cotton blend.
I’m getting better about remembering to put my bags back in the car after the stuff is put away. And when I forget them in the car and have to walk back to get them. Well, that’s just extra steps and that’s good for me, right?!
I’m not sure what the solution will be to reduce our dependency on plastics, but I have every faith that someone will solve the problem and someone else will find a cure for at least some of the cancers, and several someone elses will broker lasting peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine and in the U.S. Congress.
Saturday, December 10, 2022
David Copperfield --- A Book Review
“Ah, child, you pass a good many hours here! I never thought, when I used to read books,
what work it was to write them.” Copperfield's aunt said.
from the publication of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield in serialized form
on a pole, in the centre, without any pigeons in it; a great dog-kennel in a corner, without
any dog; and a quantity of fowls that look terribly tall to me, walking about, in a menacing
and ferocious manner."
and old tea-chests, when there is nobody in there with a dimly-burning light, letting a
candles, and coffee, all at one whiff."
"There is nothing half so green that I know anywhere, as the grass of that churchyard;
in the morning, in my little bed in a closet within my mother's room to look out at it; and
I see the red light shining on the sun-dial, and think within myself, 'Is the sun-dial glad,
I wonder, that it can tell the time again?'"