Memory Tree - #SaturdaySnapshots

Our Christmas this year didn't work out exactly as we'd planned. In fact, we haven't exchanged gifts yet! That's because our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter have all been sick with a highly contagious virus. So we'll keep our tree decorated for another week and celebrate a delayed Christmas in a few days. In the meantime, here's a photo of our tree. It's artificial because of my allergies. [Click on photos to enlarge]

Our collection of ornaments has grown over the years and many of them represent a memory or were given to us by friends. This Käthe Wohlfhart brewmeister (and a couple of miniature nutcrackers) came home with us from Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany.

This guard left his post at Buckingham Palace to perch on our tree.

A side trip on our Alaska cruise resulted in this ornament.

Closer to home, we picked up this moose while skiing at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. My granddaughter loves it because the moose jumps when she pulls his string.

Since we're both native Texans, we have lots of ornaments from our home state, too.

And for many years my sister-in-law Judy has sent us official Texas capitol ornaments, each one with its own history. Here's the one for 2016.

When my son was young, I did a lot of crewel embroidery, including these two ornaments made from kits.

My friend Nan created this ornament for me because we share a love of quilting.

And Sandra gave me a herd of candy cane hobby horses.

Add in a bottle of wine, some jingle bells, and much, much more and we have a one-of-a-kind eclectic Christmas tree full of memories!

I hope your Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or other holidays have brought you peace and joy. Wishing you a glorious 2017!

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Náápiikoan Winter - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

    Readers who enjoy stories set in the era of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada and the western U.S. will love Náápiikoan Winter by Alethea Williams. Told from the point of view of Native Americans, as well as through the eyes of an indentured employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and others, this epic adventure kept me enthralled. The story is even more meaningful because it's based on a real person's experiences.
    Although at first the unfamiliar Native American names slowed down my reading, I soon became comfortable with them. Their inclusion adds color and authenticity to the story. (The author includes a list of "connections.") The author's meticulous research shows up in her portrayal of the characters and their way of life. No wonder Alethea Williams has won so many awards for her writing!

Disclosure:
The author provided me with a free ebook copy of Náápiikoan Winter. I have featured other fine books by Alethea Williams on my blog before: Willow Vale and Walls for the Wind.

Book Beginning:
     Isobel, a light sleeper, woke in darkness to the sounds of her parents' habitual nighttime dispute.
     "Will you do nothing? Stupid, lazy bitch! No better than a dog in heat - you breed bastard children from different men and leave them to raise themselves. You're like a mangy cur bitch on a leash of gold. I wish I'd never set eyes on you!"

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
All the chiefs stood, extending a hand, and Saahkómaapi and the Orator grasped each in turn. Then the Piikáni approached the Whites, a short line of oddly-dressed, stunted and pale men who reminded Saahkómaapi of the tobacco spirits, in Piikáni legend dwarfs no more than one foot tall. Every one of them looked wan and sick, the mature one’s faces matted with hair just like dogs, exactly as the Káínaawa messenger had described them.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 295 Pages
Amazon Link: Náápiikoan Winter
Author Website: Actually Alethea

Synopsis (from Amazon):

At the turn of a new century, changes unimagined are about to unfold.

THE WOMAN: Kidnapped by the Apaches, a Mexican woman learns the healing arts. Stolen by the Utes, she is sold and traded until she ends up with the Piikáni. All she has left are her skills--and her honor. What price will she pay to ensure a lasting place among the People?

THE MAN: Raised in a London charitable school, a young man at the end of the third of a seven year term of indenture to the Hudson's Bay Company is sent to the Rocky Mountains to live among the Piikáni for the winter to learn their language and to foster trade. He dreams of his advancement in the company, but he doesn't reckon the price for becoming entangled in the passions of the Piikáni.

THE LAND: After centuries of conflict, Náápiikoan traders approach the Piikáni, powerful members of the Blackfoot Confederation. The Piikáni already have horses and weapons, but they are promised they will become rich if they agree to trap beaver for Náápiikoan. Will the People trade their beliefs for the White Man's bargains?

Alethea Williams is the author of Willow Vale, the story of a Tyrolean immigrant's journey to America after WWI. Willow Vale won a 2012 Wyoming State Historical Society Publications Award. In her second novel, Walls for the Wind, a group of New York City immigrant orphans arrive in Hell on Wheels, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Walls for the Wind is a WILLA Literary Award finalist, a gold Will Rogers Medallion winner, and placed first at the Laramie Awards in the Prairie Fiction category.

Partially based on the works of Canadian trader, explorer, and mapmaker David Thompson, Náápiikoan Winter spans a continent, examining the cultures in flux at the passing of one era and the painful birth of another.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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The Japanese Lover - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I've been trying to find words to describe how much I enjoyed The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende, but nothing I write can compare to what others have already said.

"Themes of lasting passion, friendship, reflections in old age, and how people react to challenging circumstances all feature in Allende's newest saga, which moves from modern San Francisco back to the traumatic WWII years." - Booklist

"The Japanese Lover is a poetic and profound meditation on the power of love: a common theme, sure, but in Allende's capable hands this trope is made utterly new." - Bustle

"Animated...lush...a novel that's a pleasure to recommend." - The Washington Post

First Paragraph (Current day)
Lark House
     When Irina Bazili began working at Lark House in 2010, she was twenty-three years old but already had few illusions about life. Since the age of fifteen she had drifted from one job, one town, to another. She could not have imagined she would find a perfect niche for herself in that senior residence, or that over the next three years she would come to be as happy as in her childhood, before fate took a hand. Founded in the mid-twentieth century to offer shelter with dignity to elderly persons of slender means, for some unknown reason from the beginning it had attracted left-wing intellectuals, oddballs, and second-rate artists. Lark House had undergone many changes over the years but still charged fees in line with each resident's income, the idea being to create a certain economic and racial diversity. In practice, all the residents were white and middle class, and the only diversity was between freethinkers, spiritual searchers, social and ecological activists, nihilists, and some of the few hippies still alive in the San Francisco Bay area.

Teaser #1 (During World War II - from Page 82):
     The Belascos' garden remained deaf to the defamatory propaganda campaign against the Japanese, who were accused of unfair competition against American farmers and fishermen, threatening white women's virtue with their insatiable lust, and corrupting American society by their Oriental, anti-Christian ways. Alma only found out about these slurs two years after she had arrived in San Francisco, when from one day to the next the Fukuda family became the "yellow peril." By that time she and Ichimei were inseparable friends.

Teaser #2 (Current day - from Page 185):
At sixty she had thought of death in abstract terms as something that did not concern her; at seventy it was a distant relative who was easy to forget because it never arose in conversation, but would inevitably come to visit one day. After she turned eighty, however, she began to become acquainted with it, and to talk about it with Irina. She saw death here and there, in a fallen tree in the park, a person bald from cancer, her mother and father crossing the street: she recognized them because they looked just like they did in the Danzig photograph. 

Genre: Saga / Magical Realism
Book Length: 321 Pages (Trade Paperback)
Amazon Link: The Japanese Lover
Author Website:  Isabel Allende

Synopsis (from the author's website):

     In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family—like thousands of other Japanese Americans—are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

     Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco’s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives. Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits, The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

A Wintry Walk at #Snoqualmie Ridge - #SaturdaySnapshots

I had a great time with the walkers and hikers from the senior center on December 15 at our year-end potluck lunch and last walk of 2016. Two vans transported us to Snoqualmie Ridge, where the recreation coordinator of the senior center lives. He graciously opened his house for our party.

After we unloaded all the food at his home, we got back into the vans and headed to the nearby Snoqualmie River Trail. 

[Click on photos to enlarge] 

The flat path was paved with crushed rock and ran alongside the Snoqualmie River. Patches of snow covered the grass underneath trees that lined the path, and a layer of ice crusted the edges of nearby shallow ponds. 

Though the sky was overcast in the morning, we didn’t have rain or snow. The temperature stayed in the twenties (F) all day. I knew the weather would be cold and dressed accordingly. Long underwear under my jeans, ski mittens, wool socks, a scarf around my neck, and my heavy hooded coat. I wasn’t cold at all!

At the end of our walk, we got back into the vans and headed back to the house for lunch. Lots of yummy food. Afterwards, some people opted to return to the senior center, so they filled one van and left. The rest of us went on a walk around the beautiful neighborhood. 

By then most of the clouds had disappeared and revealed gorgeous views of the surrounding snow-dusted mountains. 

The total mileage shown on my FitBit for the day was 6.35 miles - not enough to burn up all the calories from the potluck but lots of fun.

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Cold Betrayal - #Friday56 and #BookBeginnings on Friday

I never know what I'm going to find at the freebie table at the senior center. 
Good news: Recently it was a hardback copy of COLD BETRAYAL by Seattle mystery author J. A. Jance. 
Bad news: This book is #10 in the Ali Reynolds mystery series! I enjoyed the story a lot, so now I guess I'd better go back and read the first nine. Although this book stands alone, I'm sure I would have understood more about the relationships between some of the characters if I'd read the first nine books.

Book Beginning:
     As the snow started to fall in thick, feathery flakes, Betsy Peterson, seated in front, checked the tension in the seat belt against her collarbone, clutched her purse to her chest, and peered out through the headlights into the dark night. Marcia Lawson was a good driver, but a fast one. She seemed to be under the impression that just because she was driving a four-wheel-drive Kia, an older and decidedly dilapidated model, she didn't need to worry about road conditions.
(NOTE: I hate to be out on the road in snow, whether as a driver or a passenger, so I can relate to Betsy's nervousness!)

Friday 56 (from Page 256):
".... Little girls are expected to be betrothed by the time they're six or seven. When they're in their mid-teens, they're forced into marriages with much older men and end up giving birth to children while they themselves are still juveniles."

Genre: Mystery
Book Length: 337 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: Cold Betrayal
Author Website: J. A. Jance

Synopsis:
     Ali’s longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.
     Meanwhile, married life agrees with Ali. But any hopes that she and her husband, B. Simpson, will finally slow down and relax now that they’ve tied the knot are dashed when Ali’s new daughter-in-law approaches her, desperate for help. The girl’s grandmother, Betsy, is in danger: she’s been receiving anonymous threats, and someone even broke into her home and turned on the gas burners in the middle of the night. But the local police think the elderly woman’s just not as sharp as she used to be.
     While Ali struggles to find a way to protect Betsy before it’s too late, Sister Anselm needs her help as well, and the two race the clock to uncover the secrets that The Family has hidden for so long—before someone comes back to bury them forever.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Too Big - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

     If you're looking for a book for an 8- to 12-year-old, you'll like TOO BIG by Judy Dearborn Nill. It's the story of Shelby Bradshaw (AKA "BIGshaw") who's large for her age and a target of bullies. Shelby has been offered a chance to skip fifth grade; but when she makes friends with an older girl, she must make difficult choices.

     Topics of bullying, peer pressure, self-esteem, and friendship are addressed in this thoughtful and true-to-life story.

     FYI: I've featured another of Ms. Nill's books for younger children (SAMUEL AND SOPHIA, A Tale of Two Teddies) on my blog HERE.

First Paragraph(s):
     Shelby Bradshaw threw herself into an empty bus seat. "I hate fifth grade," she muttered with a fierce swipe at her curly bangs.
     This had been the worst first day of school in her life. The ride home promised to be just as bad. Already sweat pooled under her legs, and her jeans stuck to the hot plastic bench. Shelby's glasses slipped to the end of her nose. Pushing them back, she twisted sideways to open a window. It felt like a hundred degrees in the bus.     

Teaser (from page 72 of my paperback copy):
Shelby glowered at them all. These boys had needled her about her weight, her height, her glasses, and her smarts every day for longer than she cared to remember.

Genre: Children's Book / Growing Up (Ages 8-12)
Book Length: 160 Pages
Amazon Link: Too Big
Other Books by This Author: Amazon Author Page

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Shelby Bradshaw seizes an opportunity to skip fifth grade for all the wrong reasons. She expects to escape the teasing she suffered all last year for being the biggest girl in her class. But her problems follow her, growing even more difficult when she tries to act older than she is.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link up HERE

Seward Park, #Seattle - #SaturdaySnapshots

Question: Why did I sign up for a hike (3+ miles) and a walk (2.6 miles) during the middle of December when there's so much going on? 
Answer: Because I've found that when I'm hiking or walking, I'm "in the moment" and all my "shoulds" fade into the background. Besides, maybe some of those calories from cookies, candy, and other treats will get burned up... I hope!

On December 13, I joined the Auburn Senior Center group for a walk around the perimeter of Seward Park, a peninsula poking out into Lake Washington near Seattle. On this brisk, blustery day we walked around the park's perimeter on a paved path. This was a good workout for a cold day.
[Click on photos to enlarge.]

That's the Seattle skyline in the distance.

Lots of ducks and geese, but not much sunshine. 

What a delightful surprise along the side of the path!  

Park benches are placed at intervals. Good spots to rest and contemplate nature so close to the city.

Inside the Seward Park Audubon and Environmental Center, a cozy place to warm up on a wintry day. 

Native born Pacific Northwest children seem to be impervious to cold and rain, while the rest of us savored the warmth inside.

I'd love to come back to Seward Park on a sunshiny day when both Mount Rainier and Mount Baker are visible in the distance.

Find out more about Seward Park and its history HERE.

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Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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Beyond the Ashes - The #Friday56 and #BookBeginnings on Friday

     In Beyond the Ashes, Karen Barnett takes her readers to San Francisco after the great earthquake of 1906. The city is rebuilding, and young widow Ruby Marshall decides to leave her home in Sacramento to join her brother in his medical work in San Francisco. She finds more challenges than she expected!
     What I enjoyed most about this novel was the way the author immersed me in the era. Her descriptions of the social expectations, clothing, medical practices, and day-to-day life of that time brought the book to life. She created a vivid, believable character in Ruby Marshall.
     FYI: I met Karen Barnett at the Pierce County (WA) Sumner library during its Write in The Valley event. Karen was one of the authors on the panel. I enjoyed her presentation and her candid answers to the audience's questions. Lucky me, I received a hardback copy of this book as a prize for correctly answering a question. Beyond the Ashes is Book Two in The Golden Gate Chronicles, but it stands alone.

Book Beginning:
Sacramento, California
July 6, 1906
     "I refuse to attend another wedding. I'm through." Ruby King Marshall juggled two glasses of punch in her gloved hand as she shepherded her blind cousin through the overcrowded ballroom. Each doting couple waltzing around the polished floor reminded Ruby of her loss, like a needle thrust into her heart. Widows and weddings - shouldn't it be bad luck?

Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my hardback copy):
"Why must men drive so recklessly? You think you are invincible and nothing can happen. You're all alike."

Genre: Historical Christian Romance
Book Length: 320 Pages (hardback edition)
Amazon Link: Beyond the Ashes
Author Website: Karen Barnett Books

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Where better to rebuild and face one's fears than in 1906 San Francisco, a city rising from the ashes? Ruby Marshall, a young widow, is certain she'll discover new purpose assisting her brother Robert with his cancer research, but she doesn't anticipate finding new love. Dr. Gerald Larkspur dreams of filling his empty home with family, but he'd always hoped it would be a wife and children. In the aftermath of the great earthquake, the rooms are overflowing with extended family and friends left homeless by the disaster. When Robert's widowed sister arrives, the close quarters seem close indeed. Ruby and Gerald's fledgling romance is put at risk when Gerald develops symptoms of the very disease they're striving to cure. Together they must ask--is it worth a second chance at love when time might be short?

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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Betrayed - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Lisa Scottoline knows how to ramp up the tension! In BETRAYED, her character is dealing with a demanding job, a favorite aunt who's facing surgery for breast cancer, a strained relationship with her mother, a boyfriend who just isn't working out, and then there are the murders! That's not all, either, but I don't want to include spoilers. This is the only book in the Rosato & DiNunzio Series that I've read, and I'm looking forward to more. (It stands alone.)
FYI: Betrayed is another book I picked up from the bargain shelves at Barnes & Noble. I like this author a lot. 

First Paragraph:
Judy Carrier eyed her reflection in the shiny elevator doors, wondering when mirrors stopped being her friends. Her cropped yellow-blonde hair stuck out like demented sunrays, and her pink-and-blue Oilily sweater and jeans clashed with her bright red clogs. Worst of all was her expression, easy to read on a face as flat as an artist's palette, with troubled blue eyes set wide over a small nose and thin lips pressed unhappily together. 

Teaser (from Page 125):
Whoomp! Judy startled at a rushing sound, a rapid movement in the air around her, too fast to be anything natural. A large figure zoomed into her, a shadowy blur streaking the darkness.

Genre: Legal Thriller/Mystery
Length: 340 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: Betrayed
Author Website: Lisa Scottoline

Synopsis (from Amazon):
     Blockbuster author Lisa Scottoline returns to the Rosato & Associates law firm with Betrayed, and maverick lawyer Judy Carrier takes the lead in a case that's more personal than ever. Judy has always championed the underdog, so when Iris, the housekeeper and best friend of Judy's beloved Aunt Barb, is found dead of an apparent heart attack, Judy begins to suspect foul play. The circumstances of the death leave Judy with more questions than answers, and never before has murder struck so close to home. 
     In the meantime, Judy's own life roils with emotional and professional upheaval. She doesn't play well with her boss, Bennie Rosato, which jeopardizes her making partner at the firm. Not only that, her best friend Mary DiNunzio is planning a wedding, leaving Judy feeling left behind, as well as newly unhappy in her relationship with her live-in boyfriend Frank.
     Judy sets her own drama aside and begins an investigation of Iris's murder, then discovers a shocking truth that confounds her expectations and leads her in a completely different direction. She finds herself plunged into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police, and where others are so ruthless that they prey on vulnerability. Judy finds strength within herself to try to get justice for Iris and her aunt -- but it comes at a terrible price.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea