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?

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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. 

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Flowers

This little beauty self propagated from last year. 

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Flowers

Here's another one. 

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Flowers

One of the flowers I planted in my garden. 

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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 

     

     

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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!

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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. 

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Campus flowers

Aren't they lovely?

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Orono Public Library calendar

See what's featured July 2. I'm really looking forward to that. 

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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 

     

    

     

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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. 

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Critters

And a far from terrifying tiger. 

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Critters

Here's a pensive looking panda.

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Colorful critters

They're part of a large herd that takes up residence in Orono every June. 

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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 

     

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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. 

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Book challenge

This is the free book I chose. 

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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!

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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 

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More healthy Orono 💐

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Flowers in back of Orono Public Library

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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 

     

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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 

      

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Reading challenge

And I've read 2 books. I'll have this part of the challenge completed by July. 

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Reading challenge

I've already completed two of the challenges. 

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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 

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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. 

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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. 

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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 

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Pictures from camp

A nearby lake 

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Pictures from camp

I wonder if these stones were part of a wall. 

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Pictures from camp

The road that goes by our camp.

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I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (YA romance)

     December is the seasonal setting for many a Hallmark romance movie. In an ambiance of softly falling (not Maine blizzard driven) snow, beautifully decorated trees, candles at windows--the whole Noel nine yards--a couple of unlikely people fall in or back in love in a magical Christmasy grand finale...

     ...It's gonna take a whole lot of magic to get Juniper and Lyric, narrators of Mariama J. Lockington's I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, to basically understand each other--never mind fall in love. They're as different as you can get down to their feelings about the season. 

     Juniper is a total fan, especially of the music. Except for the year her moms temporarily separated her memories are merry and bright. But a couple of worries are tempering her joy. Her moms are once again fighting. And she has a plan for a desperately needed gap year neither of them will approve of. 

     For Lyric Christmas is just another let down in a life full of distress. Her flashbacks are truly heartbreaking. She started life with a mentally ill mother who couldn't even provide her with the basics. When the authorities intervened she spent time in foster care until she was rescued by her grandmother who was able to provide a real home and stability. 

     Now the caregiving role has changed. Her grandmother has had a stroke and knee replacement. In addition to school and a job, Lyric has a household to run and complex caregiving responsibilities. She's the one who has to deal with the doctors, monitor the meds, etc...

     ...She's also a fashion influencer, earning money through sponsored posts. That's how she gets involved with Juniper. She asks her to pose for pictures with her. Unexpectedly that post blows up with seriously lucrative offers...

     ...Both girls can use the money. They agree to fake a romance. It's strictly a business transaction...

     ...Or is it?

     One thing I especially love about I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm is the distinctively different voices of the narrators, facilitated by Lyric speaking in prose and Juniper in free verse. Both come across as complex, highly relatable individuals whom it's easy to care about. 

     No matter how you feel about the Christmas season--love, hate, or somewhere in between--if romance is your genre of choice you'll find I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm to be a real treat. 

On a purrrsonal note, this week, with Clean Sweep wrapped up, I was able to settle into my routine summer commitments. Tuesday was the first day of this year's children's garden, a beloved program of Orono Public Library. I get to be paparazzi, a very fun role appreciated by the librarians and the proud parents of the little gardeners. The kids are so bright and curious. After that I volunteered at the Orono Community Garden where we're harvesting some early crops like asparagus. We've almost finished planting the beds. And there's always weeding and watering. Wednesday I participated in the weekly vigil along Route 2 in downtown Orono. It went well. We got 112 cars honking in solidarity. 

With the exception of the weekly vigils which started in 2025, these are long term commitments. I've volunteered with the library almost 17 years, with the garden even longer. I'm big on commitments. Eugene and I will celebrate our 37th anniversary next month, God willing. And this blog will turn 15 in August. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Lady T

Tobago finally has a scratching object courtesy of Clean Sweep. She's seemed to figure out what it's for. Hopefully it will deter her from clawing the new sofa. 

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Amber's latest event

The moderator did a most excellent job.

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Amber's latest event

The moderator did a most excellent job.

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Amber's latest event

The discussion was lively and animated. 

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Amber's latest event

Amber was one of seven horror authors on a panel answering questions such as why they chose that particular genre.

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According To Plan (YA fiction)

     Mal, protagonist of Christen Randall's According To Plan, is going through life feeling like they're too much. Being gay, nonbinary, overweight, and neurodivergent (diagnosed wi ADHD and possible autism) they don't feel like they fit in anywhere: not in school, where keeping up is a constant struggle and they don't have the bandwidth for friends...

     ...and certainly not at home. Their father is hardly ever there because of job demands. Their mother is always on their case to be more like little sister, Maddie. She tells Mal she wants them to have options...

     ...but in reality she only endorses one option--a traditional college and career route that doesn't take into account who Mal really is. To cope with her mother's constant nagging Mal adheres to The Plan...

     ...only to have it trashed the first day of her senior year. Collage, the school's student literary magazine, has been canceled due to lack of funding. It was Mal's only extracurricular and the one place where they felt like they fit in. 

     Maddie, who is not only Mal's sister, but the person who they feel closest to, tries to find another club Mal can join. Nothing else is a close to good fit. It's a mandate from their mother. 

     "You just need something, Mal. It doesn't even have to be something you love, just something you have. Colleges just look to see that you're doing something, to see where you're in the pack."

     When another Collage staff member wants to continue it in the form of an unofficial zine Mal sees all kinds of red flags. It sounds downright risky, possibly even against all the rules. And colorful, loud, impulsive Emerson is not exactly their choice of collaborator...

     But Mal's in and about to go way out of their comfort zone. 

     This gay romance is a great read, especially for people who feel both not enough and too much because of intersecting identities. 

On a purrrsonal note, Eugene and I went to Governors for breakfast which was, as always, fabulous. Then a few minutes after we got home he announced he was going to camp. Fortunately I had packed just in case, something I do every weekend in the summer. It was very cold 🥶 out. Every time I stopped at a yard sale I froze. One woman gave me a winter hat and warm shawl that will go perfectly with my warmest winter coat. After lunch I took a wilderness walk so I wouldn't break my 237 day perfect exercise streak. Otherwise we stayed in the camp with a fire in the wood stove. I got in some mighty fine reading. We left for home and sweet Tobago (who was overjoyed to see us) the next morning. 

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and the kind woman who gave me the hat and the scarf.

Jules Hathaway 

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My succulent

I potted it and took it home almost a month ago. Miracle of miracles, it is still alive and even seems to be thriving. Tobago hasn't devoured it. And I'm not watering it too much or too little. 

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Reading light

This is the reading light I took home from Clean Sweep clean up. It was Emma's idea. She thought it would be purrrfect for my before bed reading. She was right. 

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My door yard

These flowers from last year are doing a great job self propagating. Now I've gotta get a ride to buy some flowers 💐 to plant before the weeds totally take over my actual garden. 

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Clean Sweep

Here's a member of the Clean Sweep crew trying on a dress. I told him I was so going to post the picture. 

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Backtalker (adult memoir)

     Kimberle (there's a punctuation mark over the second e. I have no clue how to create it on my smartphone.) Williams Crenshaw's Backtalker is the perfect follow up to the review I posted yesterday. Although Few Blue Skies is fiction and Backtalker is anything but, both deal explicitly with racism. When Crenshaw discusses how urban renewal targeted vibrant Black communities for razing, with eminent domain as the weapon of choice, and the people whose properties were stolen were paid unconscionably low amounts my mind jumped right to the placement of the noxious warehouses in the part of town where the people of color lived in Few Blue Skies. 

     For those of you who have never heard of Crenshaw or have been exposed to the totally off the wall misinterpretation of her critical race theory propagated by Ron DeSantis, she is a highly esteemed and accomplished law professor, scholar, and writer whose work has appeared in really prestigious publications. She is also the creator of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality which are basically two of the most important theories of recent history. 

     I met Crenshaw's works in the theories course in my higher education student services masters program. I loved that class. While my classmates saw theories as set in stone, wisdom to follow in professional practice and information to memorize for the dreaded final, I saw them as living and evolving, a body of knowledge we could aspire to contribute to. When we got to intersectionality it was love at first read. Basically it says that a person is not oppressed or privileged because of one identity but a combination of identities. Like a Black woman at a pregnancy doctor's appointment can be treated with both biases on the doctor's part, not just one. It made total sense. Crenshaw became my favorite theorist.

     So when I read that her memoir had dropped and was in the process of being acquired by several libraries in the Minerva network I was like a three-year-old who was told that on Christmas Santa would leave presents under the tree. Then when it reached me via inter library loan it was even better than I imagined. 

     Backtalker in itself is beautifully intersectional. Throughout the book, from readers' introduction to Crenshaw as a kindergartener heartbroken because she was never allowed to play the coveted role of Thorn Rosa through her current role as distinguished law professor and scholar, three strands are braided together: her personal and family life, the events and beliefs (and biases) of the nation, and the way both strands lead inexorably to her creating theories out of necessity.  

     Her voice is an eminently readable and engaging one. Even when she covers topics that many people make confusing through jargon and abstraction she makes them come to life for those of us without PhDs. She's vulnerable and authentic. She knows what details to include to create engagement and empathy. She had me in tears when I read about the deaths of her father and older brother when she was quite young.

     And if you want drama Backtalker is the book to pick up. My textbook made it look like Crenshaw came up with the idea of intersectionality and it was a done deal. I had  no clue of the level of opposition she encountered from very powerful people and groups. 

     If you want to understand the things that are seriously problematic in this country or want an awesome shero to believe in or maybe want to nurture the hidden backtalker in yourself this story of the little girl from Ohio who grew up to be one of the most brilliant and bad ass intellectuals of our time is a most excellent investment. 

On a purrrsonal note, I too was a backtalker from an early age. In church I was banned from asking questions in Sunday school after my first grade teacher ran out of the room in tears and quit. My principal didn't appreciate my informing my classmates that the duck and cover drill she'd just taught us wouldn't save us because an atom bomb would pulverize the whole school. The year I had American history I asked so many inconvenient questions we ran out of school days before I served all my detentions. So now I have a new ambition to add to my list: getting a job at UMaine, getting my stroke narrative published, continually adding to my impressive cat tattoo collection, climbing a mountain, flying to Ghana to visit a friend, finding more venues for performing in drag shows, and meeting Crenshaw in person. 

A great big shout out goes out to Crenshaw for her lifelong backtalking and fighting for justice and for the precious gift of her memoir. 

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