These are the books got me from the antiques and books store that used to be a commercial chicken coop.
Sent from my Galaxy
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Father's Day
These are the dresses I got at the yard sales. Do you recognize the Annabelle one? It's probably going to be my Halloween costume. Guess I'd better watch the movie.
Sent from my Galaxy
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Joyspan (adult nonfiction)
I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of lifespan. You may also be familiar with healthspan. But have you heard of Joyspan? I hadn't until I read Dr. Kerry Burnight's Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life's Second Half. It's a must read for everyone who's living, no matter how far along the path.
A long joyspan is good in its own right. A long life is potentially good. But without joy, even a healthy life can lead to depression, anxiety, isolation, heartbreaking loneliness, and just plain boredom. Is that really what you want for your later years?
The elements of a good joyspan have a positive impact on healthspan and lifespan. Curiosity and lifelong learning nurture neuroplasticity which can help prevent or delay dementia. Maintaining healthy connections with family and friends can add seven more years.
How you feel about aging very much effects your joyspan. There are two mindsets: aging as decline and aging as growth. The former is prevalent in America. We're taught to see older people negatively (ugly, boring, irrelevant) and pass as young as long as possible (making plastic surgeons and cosmetics companies obscenely rich). But those who see aging as growth fare a lot better, even living seven and a half years longer.
There are a host of other traits that lead to a longer joyspan--curiosity, engagement, social connection, and so many more. Burnight shows you why they matter.
The really good news: unlike stuff like genetics, they aren't set in stone. You can cultivate them in small steps with Burnight's advice and the inspiring real life stories Joyspan is full of.
No matter how far you are in your lifespan, the time to get the book is now. Investing in future you is money well spent.
On a purrrsonal note, yesterday late afternoon through evening was truly joyous for me. I started off taking pictures at the children's garden. The kids were being so cute doing bee related crafts. Then I was pitching in watering and harvesting at community garden. While there I got sponsors for the library's fund raising readathon. I ended up taking pictures at the library's amphitheater of their concert, a really informal and joyful family and community celebration. I've volunteered in Orono for decades. I'm an integral part of the community. People know that they can rely on me and they're there when I need help. That's what I consider the good life.
A great big shout goes out to my Orono community.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Father's Day
Two of my yard sale treasures. The boots actually fit me. They're children size 3. And check out my new Vans which cost only $5!
Sent from my Galaxy
Father's Day
Katie checking out the works of her favorite author, Maine's own horrormeister, Stephen King. She's built up an extensive collection of his books.
Sent from my Galaxy
Monday, June 29, 2026
The Calamity Club (adult historical fiction)
It took me over a month and a half to get my hands on Kathryn Stockett's The Calamity Club. When I finally acquired it six days ago it had 286 holds on it. Just think--nearly three hundred people desired to read it enough to put in a request.
Which is perfectly understandable. Stockett made quite a reputation for herself when her debut novel, The Help, dropped in 2009 and made it's way to the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list and was made into a movie. Most deservedly.
Both books have an awful lot in common. Both are set in turbulent times in America: The Help in the 1960s when the Civil Rights struggle was really dividing the country and The Calamity Club in the 1930s when the nation was in the relentless grip of the great depression. They give the reader a real sense of what life felt like back then. Both center themselves around the lives of the downtrodden: Black domestic workers in The Help and the desperately poor and powerless in The Calamity Club. And both have a strong social justice theme.
The Calamity Club is narrated by three truly unforgettable protagonists.
Eleven-year-old Meg was taken to the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum when she was discovered alone, abandoned by her mother. That would be bad enough in itself. The whole place is in a moldy state of disrepair with sub par housing, food, everything. Although the babies and toddlers are loved by the volunteer ladies who staff the place, the "big girls" are scorned and neglected and seen as defective. If they are not adopted by twelve they are sent to work in a cannery.
But Garnett, the woman who runs the place, --for some unexplained reason--hates Meg. Instead of attending school--which she loves--with the other big girls she must spend her days alone in a room that is a serious health hazard with the window boarded up. And Garnette is determined that she go to the cannery rather than get a chance to become part of a family.
Birdie had worked part time at a drug store and lived with her mother and grandmother as finances got tighter and tighter until they had no alternative to sending her to visit her younger sister. Frances is married to a bank executive from a monied family. They live with his widowed mother in a big old house. Surely they can spare enough to keep their in-laws from going under...
...or maybe not. Weeks go by without Frances making any effort to effort to ask Rory for the money. Maybe their show of prosperity is merely a sham...
...Maybe it will take really drastic action to keep their own big house from being foreclosed on.
Life has really been cruel to Charlie. She's just been released from prison after spending time behind bars on a totally bogus charge. She's lost the only person who matters to her and is determined to get her back, ever though any way she can think of carries a serious risk of arrest and reimprisonment.
This deeply engaging book will touch on all your emotions. As you read episodes ranging from tragic to triumphant with a little bit of burlesque thrown in for good measure, you'll find yourself rooting for Meg, Birdie and Charlie to achieve their security and happiness.
The Calamity Club has a very strong social justice undercurrent which Stockett makes explicit in her author's note.
"As I was writing this book, a curious fact caught my eye. It was regarding an act that made it legal to sterilize any person in Mississippi deemed an imbecile."
[Reviewer's note: This dubious privilege was extended to the nation as a whole in the Supreme Court's tragically misguided Buck v! Bell.]
Sexual promiscuity was considered to be a symptom of imbecility. It was a very subjective decision. Imbeciles were considered so overly sexual they would produce legions of illegitimate children who would be a drain on society. Sterilizing these women and children was considered society's protection from individuals whom eugenicists considered a clear and present danger. The number of females who were robbed of the chance to become mothers has been estimated at 70,000 but could be much higher.
"It is with the utmost sincerity that I acknowledge the women who endured this shameful chapter of our nation's history, and those who fought--and continue to fight for women's healthcare as a human right today."
On a purrrsonal note, if I'd lived back then I might very well have been sterilized. I have petit mal epilepsy as a result of a concussion when I was ten. I knew from really early in life that I yearned to have children. Being a mother has given me more joy than just about anything else in life. I would have been heartbroken if I'd been robbed of the opportunity.
A great big shout out goes out to the people Stockett acknowledged.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Katie
And a new little friend. She bought this hen for her handsome, fluffy orange and white cat, Archie.
Sent from my Galaxy
Katie
See what I mean by diverse and fascinating. Check out the antique diving helmet.
Sent from my Galaxy
Katie
See what I mean by diverse and fascinating. Check out the antique diving helmet.
Sent from my Galaxy
Katie and Adam
Eyeing the merch at Route 1A Relics. If you ever find yourself in Central Maine make sure to check it out. Three floors of the most diverse and exciting stuff you can imagine.
Sent from my Galaxy
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Stonewall (juvenile nonfiction)
When I spotted Rob Sanders' Stonewall: A Building, An Uprising, A Revolution in the children's wing of the Orono Public Library I was totally at a loss for words--something that happens very rarely. Seeing one of the most important events in LGBTQ+ history chronicled in a young reader friendly format was priceless, especially in a time when so many people are working overtime to limit the information and voices our kids have access to.
Sanders chooses a quite unusual narrator: a pair of buildings that were built in the 1840s as stables. That was when horsepower was literally that and the wagons and carriages they pulled were state of the art transport wise. As its neighborhood evolves from the wealthy to immigrants and artists of all kinds and automobiles replace horses and carriages it becomes a restaurant in a place very open to diversity of all kinds...
...including by the 60s gays and lesbians. It becomes a gay bar where they can gather.
"Women and men, young and old, teenagers, transgender people, drag queens, veterans, business people, people of different colors, religions, and cultures, gathered, chatted, laughed, and danced under one roof."
Unfortunately the police kept making raids--harassing and arresting--until one night people started speaking up and fighting back.
Jamey Christoph's vivid illustrations really bring the narrative to life.
Stonewall is a most excellent acquisition for public, school, and family libraries.
On a purrrsonal note, it's been a good week. Tuesday they didn't have children's garden. But community garden was fun and I got good spinach. Wednesday when I went to the thrift shop I saw the donation bin on the porch was overflowing with bags of donations. I carried all those bags up the stairs with hardly any effort. The ladies were ever so grateful. But I was grateful that I'm now strong enough. When I got to the library the librarians wanted to make sure I talked on camera to a guy who was interviewing people about the library. Well of course. He asked me what is so special about the library. I explained how it's the beating 💓 of the community. He asked me what I like best about it and I had plenty to say. He asked if I was looking forward to the renovation. I said like a kid looks forward to Christmas. I asked him if my speech defect was too evident. He asked what speech defect. I hope he wasn't just being polite. Laurie who runs the library was pleased that he interviewed me. The vigil went well. We got 144 honks. I don't know what I'm doing this weekend beyond having breakfast at Governors.
A great big shout out goes out to the Orono Public Library community and the man who is documenting the library's specialness.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Friday, June 26, 2026
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Sophie's Gifts (juvenile fiction)
"'I agree, but I want to wait and see how things go before I join a group of intimidators, especially if you have plans to rile up the KKK,' Dad answered. 'Dorothy never liked my participation in that organization. She and my mother always complained whenever my father and I attended their meetings or joined the marches.'"
My antennae twitched. The KKK, What is that?
Mr. Kelloway (minister) sounded agitated now when he spoke. 'Remember, Robert, you are a deacon at First Christian. The congregants won't like it if your daughter runs around with Catholics, and the idea of her using a Rosary is enough to cause you to lose your position in the church.'"
We tend to associate the KKK with the deep south. Actually in the 1920s, they had a resurgence all over America. In Maine, which is about as far north as you can go from the Mason Dixon Line without crossing over into Canada, they were still a decided presence in the 1930s, the decade in which Shirley Coulter Ericson's Sophie's Gifts is set.
Ten (almost eleven) year old Protestant Sophie, Ericson's protagonist, is the only child in a very traditional family. Father is the breadwinner. Mom's domain is home and family. When they differ on anything she must defer to his authority. And children must obey adults and never stick their noses into grown people's business.
Sophie's very best friend is Evelyn. In most ways they are similar, but...
"There is one difference between us too. Evelyn attends the Catholic church at the west end of town, and I belong to the Protestant one. Our difference in religion isn't a big deal as far as we are concerned, but that isn't how many people in the community feel. There are way more Protestants in Kittington than Catholics, and some Protestants wish there weren't any Catholics in town; zero. Evelyn and I hadn't figured out why, but we were about to learn more about that."
After Sophie's grandmother dies Evelyn gives Sophie a beautiful Rosary. Knowing how much it means to her friend, Sophie senses the love and caring behind the gift. Her mother sees things quite differently.
"It's no good. They aren't just beads. They are used by Catholics, not Protestants. You can't have them. Many of the people in the community have an aversion toward Catholics. They are strongly disliked."
Her father burns the beautiful beads. He considers her questions defiance. And he tells her that it would be better for everyone if she would play with Protestant children instead of Evelyn.
"It makes a difference because I don't think Evelyn gave you the Rosary out of friendship. It was probably her mother's idea. They are trying to influence you, Sophie. Like every other Catholic up and down the road, they want to push their papist ways on to Protestant children. I won't have it."
Things go from bad to worse when the larger community becomes involved. Sophie eavesdrops when the local minister makes a house call. He wants Sophie's father to visit Evelyn's parents as part of a group intent on keeping the Catholics under control. The owner of the only store in town decides not to sell to Catholics or immigrants. Masked men in white robes and pointy hats make a terrifying night visit to Evelyn's home.
Evelyn's parents are thinking the town is not a safe place for their family...
...meaning Sophie is faced with the prospect of losing her best friend forever.
This is a most excellent book for younger readers and for their parents and teachers. Sophie really springs to life as an intelligent, curious child with a passion for fairness and justice. Her narrative is believable and engaging. Ericson creates a real sense of time and place.
Sophie's Gifts is a most excellent acquisition for public and school libraries and a great choice for parent/child book clubs.
On a purrrsonal note, if Sophie was a real flesh and blood child born in the 1950s we would have been inseparable. I was considered a defiant child because of my inconvenient questions and my passion for fairness and justice. In fact the main reason I refused to become confirmed at 11 was the church's insistence that the only route to salvation was through Jesus. I couldn't see a loving God sending Jews and Muslims to Hell for all eternity.
Unfortunately in the 60s prejudice against Catholics was still very real. In the 1960 presidential race a lot of people felt that Kennedy's religion should disqualify him from running.
In fact despite Ericson grounding the narrative beautifully in time and place there is a disturbing sense of timelessness. Many of the things they were saying about Catholics then people today are saying about Muslims. Are we ever going to learn better?
A great big shout out goes out to the "impertinent" children and teens asking inconvenient questions and fervently seeking fairness and justice and those adults who have not been seduced into accepting the status quo, especially those who participate with me in the weekly Orono vigil.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Father's Day
And yet another yard sale. Father's Day weekend is always when the Veazie town wide yard sale happens. It's why we wisely decided to celebrate one day early.
Sent from my Galaxy
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Lies Between Us (YA chiller)
When it comes to authoring YA chillers, Jessica Goodman is in a class of her own. She has the ability to create complex characters with hidden desires and motives complicating even their most intimate relationships. The drama rises from their far from perfect personalities and interactions. Her latest masterpiece, Lies Between Us, perfectly illustrates this dynamic.
The affluent Gold sisters--Lucy, Millie, and Frankie lead a seemingly perfect life in their beachfront island mansion. Their best friends, the Silver brothers--Ethan, Trevor, and Alex--live next door and are like family. There's very little crime and a deep sense of security in their sheltered community. At the start of what promises to be another idyllic summer the girls' most pressing concern seems to be the impending departure of Lucy and Ethan for college.
But nothing is as picture perfect as it seems on the surface. It turns out that the Gold girls have some pretty serious secrets that have the potential to mess things up. Lucy and Ethan have been planning to go to college together as the next step in their relationship. Lucy, however, has chosen a further away college. She's not sure she wants what Ethan has to offer. She also isn't sure when she'll tell him. Millie, meanwhile, is seriously and secretly coveting Ethan. Little sister Frankie seems to be channeling Nancy Drew, digging up the dirt on quite a few people...
...and there's plenty of dirt to dig up. Seems like the sisters aren't the only ones with closely guarded secrets.
The catalyst that really sets the narrative in motion happens on the heels of a late night party thrown by Ethan's best friend, Billy. Billy disappears and is found dead in the ocean at the beach where Ethan and Millie are on life guard duty. His death doesn't seem to be due to simple drowning. There's evidence of foul play.
Other than Ethan, most people didn't like Billy. There are plenty of people with motive and opportunity, even in his family.
The police investigating Billy's death are being totally inept. Frankie is in full Nancy Drew mode, determined to solve the case despite admonitions to leave the detective work to the professionals. And everyone is clinging more tightly to their secrets.
Can you deduce the identity of Billy's killer before Goodman reveals it. I have to admit I couldn't.
On a purrrsonal note, we celebrated 🥳 🎉 🎊 🍾 Fathers Day on Saturday. It was the most perfect day imaginable. Katie and Adam came up from Southern Maine. They, Eugene, Amber, Brian, and I went yard saling and got great finds. My favorites were butterflies 🦋 print Vans high tops, an Annabelle dress for Halloween, a cat Christmas sweater, a Hello Kitty and Friends hoodie, and darling rain boots. Then Katie, Adam, Eugene, and I went to Route 1A Relics, an amazing 3 floor antique store. It was Katie and Adam's first time there and they loved it. I found 3 Squishmallows Eugene picked up the tab for. Katie treated us all to a scrumptious subs and French fries lunch. Then we explored an antique and book store housed in what used to be an industrial chicken coop. I actually found 5 YA books which was very fortunate because that night I ran out of library books. Then we went to an ice cream 🍦 😋 place. I remembered Dr. Teddy instructing me to decide what foods I missed the most and now and then have a small portion. Ice cream tops my list. With my little dish of sea salt caramel I was in seventh heaven. The perfect ending for a perfect day.
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene, our children's wonderful father who is also the love of my life.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Monday, June 22, 2026
Banana 🍌 bread baked from scratch
When my son-in-law, Brian, gave Eugene a bunch of bananas Saturday I knew just what I'd use some of them for. Now Eugene has a surprise to come home to. Of all the baking recipes that I have it's my absolute favorite. Doesn't it look yummy 😋 😍 maybe even professional?
Sent from my Galaxy
Me at last week's vigil
Don't you love the flower crown? Bailey and Cam gave me it. When I was a teen people called us flower 🌼 🌸 children. I guess I haven't changed. What sometimes scares me is that what we're protesting seems to have gotten worse if anything. War: more deadly technologies and weapons. Environmental destruction: rapidly escalating. Inequalities: widening. And now there's book banning, curriculum censorship and so much more. Sometimes I wonder if things will ever change for the better. But I'm in the fight for as long as possible, especially since I brought children into this world.
Sent from my Galaxy
Sunday, June 21, 2026
America, U. S. A (adult nonfiction)
I'm not really a fan of July 4th commemorating. Sure, I like my sister-in-law's barbecue. When the kids were still at home I enjoyed the special family time. I'd be lying if I claimed to not like fireworks. But the premise of the whole thing--bogus AF. You don't claim to be creating a nation dedicated to the premise that all men are created equal while proudly practicing land theft, genocide, and enslavement with its attendant evils. The annual Disneyficatation of our nation's history leaves me cold. And big year celebrations leave me especially cold. I was around for the Bicentennial. I saw how much energy and time was put into presenting a ruthlessly curated version of our origins to the world.
This year, with the White House incumberance (not a misspelling) running the show I am really apprehensive. Imagine my delight when I learned that a renowned scholar had written a whole book addressing the issue. Eddie S. Glaude Jr.'s America, U. S. A.: How Race Shadows The Nation's Anniversaries is a brilliant revelation of the huge gaps between the nation we celebrate and the nation we actually inhabit at different points in time.
Glaude's theory gets right to the heart of the matter:
"American double consciousness is the consequence of a nation that defines itself with the foundational principle of the equality of men and, yet, holds others as chattel or resigns them to second-class status...It is the split that comes with the American promise and contempt for that promise--warring ideals, from the beginning, that have threatened and continue to threaten to the tear the nation apart."
In other words America is either a nation for all or a whites only nation. People are usually fighting over which it is and should be. Sometimes whites try to do better or look like we do better for BIPOC. But when we tire of trying we can lash out in pretty vicious ways. When an event is coming up that will turn the attention of the world on America--say a milestone anniversary--those in charge will demand consensus on the shining light on the hill narrative, making sure people with legit grievances are not seen or heard.
Our Centennial came close on the heels of the Civil War. Slavery had been outlawed. Blacks were voting and even getting elected to offices. Didn't that rile a lot of whites! Not to mention whites on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line were getting tired of Reconstruction. Whole lot of violence being committed by those angry whites. Well the Centennial was focused on the beauty of the North and the South reuniting after a bloody civil war. The plight of the nation's blacks was swept under the rug.
The Sesquicentennial came right in the middle of the roaring twenties. A world war and a global pandemic were over. A whole lot of invention and innovation were going on. But there was something sinister afoot. The film Birth of a Nation had rekindled white race paranoia, enabling the KKK to go mainstream and become hugely popular, even in Maine. Immigration restrictions on "certain racial types" became the law of the land and eugenics its secular religion, the better to keep the undesirables from taking over the nation...
...See any resemblance to our times?...
...And while all that was going down President Coolidge was reassuring the world that whatever crisis or conflict America faced its citizens could look back to its birth for the solution. "It was not only the principles declared, but the fact that therewith a new nation was born founded upon those principles and which from that time forth in its development has actually maintained those principles, that makes this pronouncement an incomparable event in the history of government."
Glaude does due diligence for each anniversary including the one we're stuck in now. I'm really impressed with the breadth and depth of his scholarship and the passion and urgency he brings to the topic.
If you, like me, are not quite sold on the semiquincentennial as cause for unquestioning celebration most definitely put America, U. S. A. on your summer reading list.
On a purrrsonal note, it's been a really good week. Tuesday Bailey, Cam, and I had a picnic at Orono Community Garden. The weather was purrrfect. I showed them the gardens and they were really impressed. Later I took pictures for the children's garden and volunteered in the community garden. Wednesday I participated in the weekly vigil. I wore the flower 🌼 🌸 crown Bailey gave me. I had a new sign I made: HONK IF YOU WANT PEACE. We had a record 164 honks. Before our record was 112.
A great big shout out goes out to Bailey, Cam, gardeners big and small, and the faithful vigil crew.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Saturday, June 20, 2026
My next tattoo
Here is a sneak preview of my next tattoo I plan to get really soon. Isn't it sweet? Between the $200 I received from Wilde Stein and the money I saved I have almost $300 to invest in body art this summer ☀️. I am so excited!
Sent from my Galaxy
Counted cross stitch
This is the first piece I've started since the stroke. It's so much harder but not impossible. I intend to finish this piece by Christmas.
Sent from my Galaxy
Orono Public Library calendar
See what's featured July 2. I'm really looking forward to that.
Sent from my Galaxy
Friday, June 19, 2026
Cope Field (YA sports fiction)
Can you recall someone who seemed to have it all made in the shade--famous family members, looks, talent, money and other resources--until you learned that the covet worthy image is not the whole story? Can you remember what you thought and felt about the revelation? If so you are most definitely ready for T. L. Simpson's Cope Field.
Craw is the son of a beloved local legend. His father, Hunter, rose from his small town to make it in major league baseball. Back in his hometown he's their hero par excellence. Anything he does is golden. Craw's mom vanished when he was quite young. Ever since then it's been the three guys (Craw has a younger brother affectionately nicknamed Big Time) against the world.
Craw is following in his father's legendary footsteps. His training has been intense. A lot of resources are dedicated to developing his talent. He's pitcher for his high school team with an incredible arm, attracting scouts from colleges and pro teams. True his dad is quite demanding and critical...
...and intense...
...but it's for his own good so he won't let his talent go to waste...
...When Craw attacks his famous father with a baseball bat it's assumed that he has an anger management problem. He's assigned community service rather than something more severe.
"Crawford's a good kid. A great kid. An asset to the community. Not to mention an important member of this year's baseball team, given he pitches in the 90s. Given he controls the ball when he pitches. Given nobody in the state can hit off him...
The Hosanna Patriots need him this year. "
Craw is assigned to help rehabilitate a really deteriorated baseball diamond, a field that will be named after his father.
He and the other community service teen, Hannah, are a real odd couple. While he's into sports, her enthusiasm is punk rock. While he's the privileged scion of a legend, she's the dirt poor offspring of a mother in prison for prostitution and a paranoid drug addict father. While he feels destined for baseball fame, she feels stuck in a small town with a bleak future.
But they achieve honesty, real vulnerability, and caring.
Could the legendary baseball player be a seriously abusive parent? Could Craw and Big Time be in danger?
Could Hannah have reason to hope and dream?
On a purrrsonal note, when Amber was maybe about 10 she wanted to wear just a sweater to school. I insisted that she wear a coat. She told me Chelsea was wearing a sweater. I had to explain that Chelsea lived in an affluent neighborhood while we lived in the trailer park and that we were, therefore, more in danger of being reported. Later I saw a social worker acquaintance and asked her if I was being paranoid. She said, "Not in the least." This bias endangers both richer and poorer kids--putting the latter in danger of being taken away from their loving families needlessly and the former of being injured or worse by unsuspected toxic parents.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who are working to reform the system.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Thursday, June 18, 2026
And a flower
The dear little purple and yellow flowers 🏵 💐 are Johnny jump ups. They're one of my favorites. They self propogate. You never know where new ones will be jumping up next.
Sent from my Galaxy
Colorful critters
They're part of a large herd that takes up residence in Orono every June.
Sent from my Galaxy
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Right Call (juvenile fiction)
"He [team manager] just...he always gives the umpires a hard time, you know? And also he...Like, he fires up my dad about how important everything is all the time, almost like it's life or death and not a baseball game. Always talking about how the scouts are going to be there and all that crap."
My Adam was in Little League back in the day. He liked playing the game and being with his friends. He knew he could quit if it stopped being fun. Fortunately he had coaches who kept things in perspective, who saw kids' sports as a way to learn life lessons while having fun with peers. I was horrified at the pressure some parents and coaches put on the kids and the inexcusable things those supposedly adults said to referees and kids on opposing teams.
Now things are exponentially worse. As Tommy Greenwald shows in The Right Stuff, this can lead to pretty bad consequences.
When Cal, Greenwald's protagonist, started playing baseball he wasn't all that great.
"He couldn't hit all that well, and fielding for him was an adventure. And where he threw the ball, it tended to go everywhere except where it was supposed to."
Things changed when Cal developed an incredible pitching arm. Suddenly there were special coaching, summer camp, encouragement to play all year round. And Cal's father, who had previously spent game time on his phone or chatting with friends with occasional glances at the field, becoming way overinvolved...
...until a post game incident leaves him arrested and a ref in the hospital.
Greenwald wrote the book because of his concern about the rise in referee and umpire abuse in youth sports.
"There has been an increasing pattern of arguments, screaming matches, and yes, even violent episodes across the youth sports landscape, from high school down to the pony leagues. In fact, it has become so serious that there has been a growing epidemic of game and seasonal cancelations--at all levels and age groups--because leagues simply can't find enough umpires, referees, and officials to work the games."
With school just about out for the year, The Right Call would be a great addition to young athletes' summer reading lists.
On a purrrsonal note, my summer is being delightfully busy. Last Friday I was able to get plants to fill out my garden. It looks so lovely now: a space of magic and enchantment for my evening reading. Sunday was the Orono community picnic. It was out behind the library. I went with Bailey. It was really fun. There was a good turn out even though it was misting out. The food was great with lots of stuff I could actually eat. There was a local musician playing. Yesterday the weather was perfect for a very profitable Goodwill run. Today Bailey, Cam, and I had a picnic at Orono Community Garden and I got to show them around. They were quite impressed. Now I'm hanging out in the library reading until it's time for gardening.
A great big shout out goes out to Bailey and Cam who remind me so of me and Eugene when we were newlyweds.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Book challenge
This is the back cover. The endorsement by Maine's own horrormeister, Stephen King, is one of the main reasons I chose it. Some people think these blurbs are unnecessary. I totally disagree. I find them really helpful in choosing future reads.
Sent from my Galaxy
Goodwill haul
Yesterday I went to Hannaford to do some shopping for a picnic Bailey, Cam, and I are going on today. Of course since I was in the neighborhood I checked out Goodwill and was very glad I did. Check out these finds!
Sent from my Galaxy
Monday, June 15, 2026
Killer House Party (YA chiller)
"In the kitchen, glass shattered. Then, there was a sound like wet laundry hitting the ground. A pale white hand flopped over the threshold. It laid perfectly, eerily still.
The Drama Club was dead. Again. Or they weren't. They could get up, find another bottle, and start the cycle all over. Or they could stay dead, surrounded by broken bottles and a nightmarish mix of crawling spiders."
I imagine at this time of year there's a lot on high school graduations going on. Which means a whole lot of graduation parties going on--both the officially sanctioned ones and shall we say more covert ones. The gathering that is the setting for Lily Anderson's Killer House Party definitely is of the latter variety.
Arden, Anderson's narrator is furious with good reason. All through high school she's been the perfect student--sacrificing any vestiges of a social life and studying diligently with dreams of college and med school dancing through her head. So when her parents tell her that they have spent all her college fund on a house but it's no big deal because one semester of community college will net her the realtors license she will need to follow in their footsteps...
...she is not a happy camper. Determined to follow her own script, she looks for a way to earn the money she needs to attend the four year college she's been accepted at. How about holding a clandestine graduation party at the house Mommy and Daddy Dearest spent her college money on? The school's official lock in party is much too tame for many graduates' tastes. Why not provide a pay to enter alternative?...
...Even under the best of circumstances this would be such a not good idea. Think lack of supervision. Think illegal substances. Think property damage, injuries, legal liability...
...But these are far from the best of circumstances. The house has been abandoned for a century which bodes for all kinds of property damage. And then there's the reason it stayed vacant. Nobody knows exactly what happened to the family who lived there. But all kinds of sinister and gruesome theories are floating around.
The night of the party the venue transforms itself into a hideous hellscape from which the teens cannot escape. Only one thing is for sure...
...not all the guests will get out alive.
On a purrrsonal note, I know with me raving about the Orono Public Library Summer Reading Challenge some of you may feel let down that your library doesn't have one. My Amber, whose second horror novel, Hallowed Deadly Seeds, is dropping soon, has a great solution: create your own. It doesn't have to be fancy schmancy. She's planned a family one because her siblings live a distance away in South Maine. Each person sets their own reading goal. We buy or make prizes for each other. At the end there's a pizza party. Sounds like fun to me.
Amber has another great suggestion for summer fun. If you want to know what it is I guess you'll have to keep reading this blog.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Thrift shop haul
Check out the sneakers. The flowered 💐 ones are Vans! Aren't the Squishmallows darling? Just $1 each. A woman thought I shouldn't get a kid's dress. It fits. Most women's dresses don't.
Sent from my Galaxy
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Books
When I told them about the little free library that will be installed in the trailer coop they invited me to take some books. Our very first donation. I'm sure the kids will love these.
Sent from my Galaxy
Books
When Eugene and I went to Governors for breakfast this morning we saw this couple in the lobby. They go around to places giving kids free books to promote literacy. I'm gonna send a shout out to them for doing such important work and to Governors for being the kind of family friendly and community centered restaurant that would host them.
Sent from my Galaxy
Friday, June 12, 2026
Shards of Silence (YA fiction)
I tend to get the books I review through Inter Library Loan. On line newsletters and other publications keep me supplied with more titles than I could ever read. But when I drop in on my home library, Orono Public, I find real gems. Brian Lee Young's Shards of Silence is one of them.
Derrick, Young's protagonist, is about to make an enormous life transition. He's starting his sophomore year far from home at an elite historically white (and wealthy) boarding school. It's quite a challenge. Between the intense academic workload, his sports commitments, and the rest of life he's struggling to do well enough to maintain his full ride scholarship. And a lot of his seriously privileged classmates ask him all these ignorant questions. Does he live in a teepee? Why doesn't he have long hair?
Derrick's heart is torn between school and home. He's very worried about his beloved great grandmother's health. She's undergoing testing for quite alarming symptoms and forgetting to take her medicine. If he had stayed at the local high school, although he wouldn't have the many opportunities Sagefield Academy offers, he would be able to help and protect her. When he sees her he wonders if it's the last time.
His great grandmother fears for his safety when he's away at school. He understands that it's because of the terrible years she was forced to spend at a government boarding school with a kill the Indian to save the man (or woman) mandate. He knows she is still suffering from this experience. But whenever he tries to bring up the subject she tells him to drop it.
Perhaps if he writes his big history research paper on the experiences of Indigenous children in those schools he will find a way to help her bring her experiences into the light and break their hold on her.
Young based Shards of Silence on his last three years of high school at an elite boarding school. Like Derrick, he experienced culture shock in his new environment and had a lot of stereotype breaking to do.
When his grandmother came from the reservation to see him she saw the bruises he acquired playing football she asked if the teachers were hitting him. She had suffered through the government boarding schools. As an adult he started the manuscript when her health was failing and he didn't know how long she had left. It became his "goodbye love letter to her.
Shards of Silence is such a good read for its target demographic and well beyond. It's highly engaging with a beautifully nuanced and complex plot and relatable protagonist. It covers one of those inconvenient chapters in America's history that the MAGA crowd would dearly love to erase.
But in my mind the best thing it does is it tackles something I don't think any of us have an easy time with no matter how old we are when it happens--the impending death of a loved one. Young perfectly captures the intensity and bittersweet nature of the knowing. Many teens who have not lost a friend or relative have experienced the death of a beloved animal companion.
On a purrrsonal note, mostly I learned about deaths after the fact. But in 2019 I walked that path with Joseph Jacob Hathaway, my beloved feline companion of 16 years. We were especially close because of a birth defect that required special care on my part and close partnership with his vet. But unless he was acutely sick no cat loved his family, his life, and his home as robustly as he did. And he was an affectionate and loving lap cat. I had almost finished my first year of grad school. I'd just returned from an international conference when I noticed troubling symptoms. It turned out to be lung cancer. With medicine to restore his appetite I could give him a last good summer. He left the world hearing my voice, feeling my touch. I was hesitant to adopt another cat because I was afraid I couldn't love him/her enough. But a little girl cat insisted on claiming me for her own and thawed my heart. Years later I was able to cope with my stroke by channeling the courage and determination I saw in precious Joey.
A great big shout out to Young for creating this beautiful literary labor of love and Joey and Tobago for being their catly selves.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Thursday, June 11, 2026
I Don't Wish You Well (YA chiller)
Fans of true crime podcasts, fans of narratives in which the protagonist gets in a world of danger while unearthing and trying to expose the truth about a cold case for a podcast, and folks who like a dark, engaging, fast paced chiller with multiple twists and turns will really love Jumata Emil's I Don't Wish You Well. It's got everything: a gruesome crime, new evidence that the wrong person might have been convicted, a small town that strongly desires that the case that brought them lots of notoriety not be reopened, lots of dark and dangerous secrets, football stars who must be protected from consequences of their misdeeds, inept or worse police officers...truly something for everyone.
Five years ago four stars of the Moss Point (Louisiana) Football Team were killed one by one. The killer wore a Trojan mask. When the police were tipped off as to his identity they found him dead, supposedly by suicide. Evidence in his home seemed to confirm his guilt. That's it, folks. Case closed...
...or is it?...
...Pryce, a journalism major, is returning to Moss Pointe for summer vacation. When he sees evidence that the wrong person was convicted he senses opportunity. If he spends the summer investigating he could have the material for a fall semester podcast that would help his academic and professional career. His advisor lends him a professional camera and recording equipment.
Back home people aren't happy about his project. The police chief tries to talk him out of it. His father thinks he should instead do a podcast on the football team rebounding after the murders. Bryce's little brother is on the team and his dad is a hard core fan.
But early on he uncovers incriminating evidence against Bertrand Gatson, president of the booster club, a man considered to be a pillar of the community. He sees Gatson burning a bunch of photos and is able to save some.
"The photos all featured little boys. The one with orange-red curls Pryce recognized first. As he shifted through the rest of the disturbing images, the other innocent faces became instantly familiar. Immortalized in acts no boys their age should be doing."
He confronts Gaston with the Polaroids, thinking it will enable him to glean more information. Gaston agrees to meet him...
...but he and his wife are found dead in their home--an apparent murder/suicide.
But the boys aren't, it turns out, all that innocent. They learned from their molester the joys of nonconsensual sex. As football stars in a football obsessed town they got away with it.
It turns out there are plenty of people who had motive and opportunity to commit the murders.
I don't wish you dead is a beautifully scripted impossible to put down chiller and so much more. It covers topics too often swept under the rug in YA literature considered appropriate by the censors and banners but highly relevant. Homophobia, sexism, and the lengths schools and police will go to shield athletes from the consequences of their actions are some of them.
In my opinion it is an important acquisition for high school and public libraries. In fact it could be a worthy replacement for the work of a long dead white guy in the curriculum.
On a purrrsonal note, here in Maine we're most definitely having summer weather: hot and humid. Yesterday I volunteered in both gardens. I took pictures in the children's garden. There was a lot to do in the community garden because there were only two of us to do it. Today was the weekly vigil. There was a really good turnout and we got lots of honks. I got another windfall at Orono Thrift Shop: a really cute dress, two good sized Squishmallows, a pair of Barbie high top sneakers, and a pair of Vans decorated with flowers and leaves. And don't worry. I took a picture.
A great big shout out goes out to the dedicated vigil crew and the all volunteer staff of Orono Thrift Shop who raise money for important causes by selling merch at rock bottom prices.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Reading challenge
And I've read 2 books. I'll have this part of the challenge completed by July.
Sent from my Galaxy
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Hattie Mae Begins Again (juvenile historical fiction in verse)
Speaking of important writers I haven't seen anything by lately making a grand return, how about Sharon G. Flake? I cut my blogging teeth on her earlier books. Her Hattie Mae Begins Again combines a relatable character in an engaging plot with rich insights into life in Philadelphia in the 1930s, a time when the Great Migration and the worst depression in this country's history were going on.
"Miss Abigail's School
for Exceptional Young Ladies
is for well-to-do girls whose fathers are
lawyers, architects,
and engineers
politicians, surgeons,
painters and doctors of note.
Ma is a plain old schoolteacher.
Daddy works on a factory floor.
I do not belong here with these girls."
Hattie Mae experiences quite a bit of culture shock when she leaves her rural home to attend a boarding school in Philadelphia. Everything is new and different down to clothing, daily routines and indoor plumbing. And as for her soon to be classmates--
"Everything about them was different.
Their hair was curled in ringlets
Down to their shoulders.
They'd probably die before using rag ties
at night like me."
The girls are the very privileged daughters of high society Black families, the "talented tenth". They have impeccable backgrounds, cultural experiences, beautifully styled clothes, and familiarity with the boarding school lifestyle. Unfortunately some of them look down their privileged noses at Hattie and delight in making life hard for her, hoping she will give up and drop out...
...and there are times she feels like doing just that...
...but they've badly underestimated her spunk and determination. Her family has gone all out to equip and prepare her for her new experience. She is desperate to not let them down. One way or another she is going to fit in and make their aspirations for her and her dreams for herself come true.
Flake is a proud Philadelphia native with long roots in the city and a lively interest in its rich history. The woman knows how to do research. She brings a quite turbulent time in her hometown's history vividly alive for young readers. I consider Hattie Mae Begins Again to be a most excellent acquisition for public and school libraries.
On a purrrsonal note, I have some really exciting news. Orono Public Library has issued a summer reading challenge. Being a true book geek, I live for reading challenges. I got to choose a free book to keep from a really good selection. In it was an attractive bookmark. When filled out it will be my entry into a September grand prize drawing. All I have to do is read eight books and complete eight out of eleven challenges. I'll post pictures of the bookmark tomorrow. This will be so much fun! I sure hope lots of people join me in taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity.
A great big shout out goes out to the librarians who provide Orono Public Library patrons with a wealth of diverse and engaging programming.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Monday, June 8, 2026
Camp
Eugene does the cooking on this grill. The solar panels provide electricity for lights and Eugene's TV which we sometimes watch a movie on.
Sent from my Galaxy
Camp
Eugene and Adam built this camp. It's stood up to many years of Maine winters which is no small feat. Unlike many people who shut their camps after summer ends Eugene goes even during the winter. I stay home in the winter. I'm too much a fan of indoor plumbing when night temps are below 🥶 freezing. The porch is where I do a lot of reading.
Sent from my Galaxy
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Change of Plans (YA romance)
It's been a minute since I've seen any new books by Sarah Dessen, one of the consistent bright lights of YA fiction. So I was over the moon when I discovered her Change of Plans. It most definitely lives up to the complexity and emotional depth of her earlier works.
Right after her high school graduation narrator Finley gets some devastating news: Colin, her adoring and attentive boyfriend of two years drops her long distance (He's on a cruise) with no warning. Needless to say, she's devastated. And she has to deal with the heart break in a quite unfamiliar environment.
Finley and her mother have a rather unusual relationship. She lives with her father, stepmother, and half siblings. Her mother had taken off when she was only four. The occasional visits--"a week at Christmas, two in the summer, plus a handful of weekends she always claimed in January"--seem awkward for both of them. Finley doesn't really know the woman who gave birth to her.
Catherine has requested Finley for the week after graduation. The plan is to spend a celebratory week in New York City. But when Catherine picks her up there's been a change of plans. They're headed out to the old family home to help get it ready to sell.
Finley is not the only one to be to be shocked.
"You realize how incredibly selfish this is, don't you? To ignore us for ages and then decide oh, hey, I do want to sell the house, at the worst possible time?"
It seems that Finley isn't the only one Catherine has ditched. She's abandoned her whole large family.
Now Finley has to adjust to her heartbreak in a strange place where her mother and her kin are having to adjust to each other while carrying out the emotionally charged task of cleaning out the memory laden family home.
But wait. There's more drama.
Anne, Catherine's niece, is so resentful of her future mother-in-law making all the decisions about her upcoming wedding that she just might call the whole thing off...
...and the rotten cherry on top of the shitstorm sundae? Finley discovers a devastating diagnosis her mother has been hiding from them all.
But Finley is quite resourceful. She's working at the family diner and making friends. She just might be falling for Ben, an unabashedly awkward coworker and gifted musician.
Readers who enjoy fabulous but flawed characters in complex relationships and challenging situations will find a lot to like about Change of Plans, a beach read extraordinaire.
Hopefully Dessen is working on more simply irresistible narratives.
On a purrrsonal note, my mother-in-law has been in the hospital with pneumonia since Thursday. I frantically searched for a crafts project I could carry in when visiting her because I have basically no tolerance for sitting doing nothing. I can't start a scarf because I can't cast on and I don't remember how to crochet. Finally I picked a relatively easy cross stitch kit which now takes a great deal of concentration but is doable. That's fine motor progress.
A great big shout out goes out to my mother-in-law, Arlene Hathaway, with best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)