Book Review

Nina Romano

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR72NYHV

Winter...Woods

 

Languages & Life Lessons

 

Virginia Woolf

“Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.”
Virginia Woolf

From Canada

 

marginalia

January 25, 2023
Merriam-Webster's "word of the day" is marginalia:
"Marginalia is a plural noun that refers to notes or other marks written in the margins of a text, and to nonessential matters or items."

I wonder what word besides notes I can use for my marks on my Kindle books. 

Ivy Logan

 

Languages & Life Lessons

https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Life-Lessons-Afarin-Rava/dp/B09TYZN5MY

 

Year of the Rabbit

The Lunar New Year is the first day of a lunar calendar year (or lunisolar calendar year), whose months are, as its name suggests, moon cycles. Many cultures use the lunar calendar and celebrate the new year in different ways and on different dates.
To those who celebrate the new year today: 
Happy New Year!

Reflections

 https://www.amazon.com/reflections-journey-transformation-Afarin-Rava-ebook/dp/B0B33RN2Z4

George Orwell

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”
George Orwell

Noosha 's...

Fourth Birthday

 

Isabel Allende

Over a decade ago, when I went back to school to get a second master's degree, I had a long commute to and from the university. I made a list of all the books I wanted to read and searched the catalogs of my local libraries for those available on CD so that I could use my commute time doing something I liked. 

During those two years, I had the pleasure of listening to dozens of books, including a few by Isabel Allende. Many parts of her stories reminded me of events in my own life. I believe this was when I first thought about writing a memoir.

Languages & Life Lessons

 

https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Life-Lessons-Afarin-Rava-ebook/dp/B09GMYGGQ1

Fingers & Toes

I saw this on social media and immediately decided to share it:

"Your fingers have fingertips, but your toes don't have toetips, yet you can tiptoe but you can't fingertoe."

C.S. Lewis

“In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
C.S. Lewis

Diane Riley

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR72NYHV

Book Review

 

Cheryl Burman

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR72NYHV

 

Rachel Carson

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
Rachel Carson 

About My Cabin

Yesterday I posted a photo of my cabin in the woods, the one I bought in 2018. It was a tiny cabin, only 196 square feet, and I loved it, but it had many problems, so I built another cabin. 

I've written about all of this in my #memoir Reflections: A Journey of Transformation. This section describes the issues of that tiny cabin, reflecting my decision to start building a new one.

Reflections
December 21, 2018
6:22 p.m.

Today, I started digging the ground. Why am I doing this?
Current Cabin: Current Problems 12/13/18
This cabin has no foundation. It sits on broken pieces of cinder blocks and rotten pieces of wood. The small size of the shower doesn’t allow me to lift both my arms at the same time to wash my hair. The bathroom has no sink; I have to use the hand-held shower head to wash my hands and face and to brush my teeth — not practical at all. The kitchen counter doesn’t have enough space to prepare anything (mix, chop, ...). The cabinets waste a lot of space because they occupy the whole area under the counter and have no shelves inside. I tried to put shelves and little drawers to organize non-perishable grocery items in that space, but the posts supporting it and the cabinet doors are too narrow, and nothing fits through them. The kitchen sink is ridiculously small. Anything I wash makes the water splash all over the counter. If the counter were empty, it would be easy to wipe it. It is not, though. My toaster oven, coffee maker, cooktop, and refrigerator are on the counter. Wiping the whole counter every time I wash a plate is super annoying and a definite waste of time. There are smaller issues, too. For instance, most of the electric outlets are located in places that can't be reached. No matter which way I put my bed, it covers three of the four outlets in the room. Another example is the toilet. Both the bowl and the tank have problems, so the toilet needs to be replaced completely. These could be fixed, but considering there are too many things to repair at a high cost and fixing all the little things would end up costing a considerable amount of money, it wouldn't make sense to spend any money on the current cabin. All of these, combined with my need for a little more space for a desk and a comfortable chair and my desire to have a fireplace, have convinced me that I need a new cabin, one that would be designed and built exactly the way I want.

Reflections

https://www.amazon.com/reflections-journey-transformation-Afarin-Rava-ebook/dp/B0B33RN2Z4

 

Afarin Rava Page

 

... Said the Editor: Anthology 2022

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR72NYHV

Will Durant

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Will Durant

Proust

The first paragraph in Reflections: A Journey of Transformation is only one sentence. 

The road trip began right after the last session of my last class at my last college job at the end of the spring semester at 9 p.m. on May 23, 2018 — with my three companions in the back seat with their harnesses and safety belts on — and lasted five days, but only because I took the long route, going through Nevada and spending the first night in Las Vegas, a familiar place not too far from home, before getting on the I-40 in Arizona and heading toward the unknown.

It reminds me of Proust... and his long sentences... and madeleines, of course.

Book Review

 

Byron Pulsifer

"Tuesday is the affirmation that my goals are being moved another step forward."
Byron Pulsifer

Book Review

 

Happy New Year!