Life: It Goes On - September 7

Happy Sunday! Going to make this short because I'm only finally getting it written just before bedtime. I can't say I've been too busy to do it; just wanted to get a pic of my new auction "win" in its new home and I had to get dressed before I could go outside to do that. If you've been reading this for very long, you know how much I like to spend weekend days in my pajamas and since I couldn't do that yesterday, I was determined to do it today. 

We've had a lovely, cool and dry weekend here so doors and windows have been thrown open and we spent a lot of time outdoors. Yesterday we went to Lincoln to pick up my auction item and to visit family. Because they live downtown, we also got to walk around downtown Lincoln, soaking up the excitement of the first home game of the season, even if it was six hours before it started.  Had to stop on our way home and pick up some Baker's chocolates at the factory store. Did we need two pounds of chocolates? No. Did we actually consider buying a third flavor? Yes. But like the grownups we are, we used restraint. 

Are you old enough to remember
when milk was delivered to your 
house and put in these boxes? I 
was so nostalgic about this when 
I say it on the auction. It even 
has the little clip where the wife
would put her order 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Still listening to Harriet Constable's The Instrumentalist. I'm afraid it's a little repetitive but otherwise, it's an interesting story based on a real person. 

Watched: Lots of football (including our Husker's first shutout in 16 years), three volleyball matches, and some episodes of Only Murders In The Building. 

Read: Still reading Rachel Hawkin's The Woman in Suite 11. 

Made: We used the leftovers from the taco bar in a lot of ways, including old-school taco salad with Catalina dressing. Yesterday for game watching I made a cream cheese mixture with dried beef and chopped dill pickles that we spread on mini-bagels. Tonight I put together a ham, broccoli, and potato casserole we'll toss in the oven for dinner tomorrow. Later this week we'll have onion sandwich, based on a recommendation from BG's brother and SIL. I'd be as skeptical as you are right now if it had come so highly recommended by two people who know good food. 

Enjoyed: Dinner with friends Friday - I was jonesing for poutine and they all humored me. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: My office has once again become a dumping ground so I need to get up there and work on that. Then I'm hoping to get out to the garage now that's it's cool enough to work out there. 

Thinking About: A couple of long weekends we have coming up. I can't wait! 

Feeling: Tired. I never get sick when I get my Covid vaccine, but it always makes me really tired for a day or two. Got it yesterday so I'm hoping tomorrow is better. 

Looking forward to: Miss H is coming up for a cleaning job this week so we'll have her with us one night. The next night Mini-him and I are going to see Hamilton in the theater. Saturday we're going out to eat with friends to a new-to-most-of-us place as part of Omaha Restaurant Week. 

Question of the week: Do you go to auctions, estate sales, or garage sales? Have you ever done an online auction or bought something off of Facebook Marketplace? I'm a little addicted these days, even if I don't buy much (because it's kind of hard to justify it while at the same time trying to get rid of stuff). 

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Read by Alana Kerr Collins

9 hours, 1 minute

Published October 2018 by Source Landmark

Publisher's Summary: 

From the author of The Other Einstein, the mesmerizing tale of what kind of woman could have inspired an American dynasty.

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home.

If she can keep up the ruse, that is. Serving as a lady's maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills he doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for, coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future -- and her family's.

With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie's Maid tells the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world's first true philanthropist.

My Thoughts: 

A couple of months ago I was texting with a friend I've known and loved since I was 19 years old. She happened to mention that she was reading the last book by Marie Benedict that her local library had available and that she loved Benedict's books. Two things: 1) after more than 40 years of knowing this woman, I had no idea she was a reader (how in the world has that NEVER come up?!); and 2) if she loves this author so much, I need to read something by her, preferably an audiobook since I was just finishing one up. So I grabbed up this one, eager to find out if I would feel the same way about Benedict and to see what the book could teach me about a man whose generosity funded hundreds of libraries across the country. 

As do most historical fictions books I read, this way had me heading to the internet to find out how much truth there was to this story. In point of fact, not much other than the fact that Andrew Carnegie was, himself, an immigrant that came to this country destitute only to become one of the richest men in the world. He was known to be ruthless in business, but more generous in his personal life; still, historians have long wondered what caused him to become such a philanthropist in later life. Benedict has taken her own family's history as immigrants and woven it into Carnegie's life to try to explain that change. It's an interesting idea. 

There's a lot to be said for the socioeconomic portrait Benedict paints of this time in U.S. history and the life of the poor in Pittsburgh at that time, tying in some Irish history as well and I enjoyed those parts of the book. Overall, though, I felt like Benedict was trying to pull too much into her story and things got a little dramatic at times. The fact that our Clara Kelley needed to have her backstory to give us that history that Benedict wanted to give, but would never have been able to work in the capacity in the Carnegie household that she held had she merely applied for the job made for much more drama. Benedict also pulls in a story about the former slave head cook's missing family is another example of pulling in more drama than was necessary to tell the story. But the drama ended as soon as Clara had to leave the Carnegie household and the ending of the book fell flat for me. 

Would it make my top ten list at the end of the year? No. But it was well read and offered enough to be a solid read. It could make a good book club choice, as well. 

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

224 pages

Published October 2003 by Simon and Schuster

Publisher's Summary: 

In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell travels through the American past and in doing so ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?

Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration. 

The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.

My Thoughts: 

Number 1 - let's give me a pat on the back for finally reading a book off of my own bookshelves. 

Number 2 - this is the fourth book by Vowell that I've read and reviewed so I think it goes without saying that I'm a fan, but I'll say it anyway. Because this book did not disappoint. 

Vowell is both a political and historical nerd who doesn't even own rose-colored glasses when it comes to looking at the ways of the United States. Vowell has this about the days immediately following 9/11: 

"...when the newspaper I subscribe to published a full-page, full-color flag to clip out and hang in the window, how come I couldn’t? It took me a while to figure why I guiltily slid the flag into the recycling bin instead of taping it up. The meaning had changed; or let’s say it changed back. In the first day or two the flags were plastered everywhere, seeing them was heartening because they indicated that we were all in this sorrow together. The flags were purely emotional. Once we went to war, once the president announced that we were going to retaliate against the `evildoers,’ then the flag again represented what it usually represents, the government. I think that’s when the flags started making me nervous. The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government."

She seems to want to be patriotic but it's just so darn hard to do if you're an educated person who really knows and understands the history of this country. The thing about Vowell is that she brings us all of her truth with a terrific sense of humor and irony which I really enjoy. 

This one started off solid for me with "What He Said," which sees Vowell attending the 137th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As an American history teacher's kid, who has visited Gettysburg (among countless (no, really, countless) others, I was caught up with mentions of Joshua Chamberlain, George Pickett, and Little Round Top. Vowell asks us to remember that the Lincoln we idolize was also a politician who was running for re-election when he gave that address. 

Another essay I enjoyed was "Ike Was A Handsome Man," where Vowell is "writing" to Bill Clinton about how his presidential library should be curated. She recommends following the lead of the JFK library, using Clinton's words and voice, rather than narrators as well as the Eisenhower library which emphasizes the highlights of what was accomplished. But she also recommends following the lead of the Lyndon Johnson library, which includes the lowlights as well as the highlights. 

 Vowell has this to say about being a nerd, the thing that has made her so successful: 

"Being a nerd, which is to say going too far, and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friends has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm like detective novels or Ulysses S. Grant." 

Me too, Sarah, me, too. 

Happy Sunday from grey and rainy Omaha! So very happy that it's a long weekend (hope it is for you, too!). It's been a busy week here, filled with a lot of fun things, but I'm needing a day to just rest and recover. In fact, it might just be a day spent curled up reading. 

On last week for my summer Life Goes On photo - can't believe summer is unofficially over already. Going to do my best to enjoy the fall this year. Might be buying a lot of mums just so we continue to have blooming flowers later into the year so things don't look so bleak so soon and winter doesn't feel as long. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Isabel Allende's Ripper, which finally all pulled together although I'm not sure it was in time to save the book for me. Just started Harriet Constable's The Instrumentalist, which I learned about at our library's annual Book Bash the other night. Historical fiction, based on a true person, featuring Antonio Vivaldi? Count me in! 

Watched: Lots of volleyball, our Huskers' first football game of the season, and several episodes of Only Murders In The Building. 

Read: I started Ruth Ware's The Woman In Suite 11. 

Made: Teriyaki stir fry, salads, and meats for a taco bar we had last night. 

Enjoyed: Book club Tuesday, the library Book Bash on Thursday with friends, dinner Friday with my niece and her husband who were in town for a concert, and an impromptu engagement party last night for Mini-him and Miss C. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I think this will be a quiet week. With the house having been cleaned for company twice this week, there's not a lot of that to be done which should give me time to get back to some family genealogy work. Or maybe a furniture project. 

Thinking About: How smart I was to make a little of the food for last night as possible. Cake & queso from Costco; carnitas, tortillas, chips, salsas, and guacamole from one of our fave Mexican restaurants; and margaritas brought by the bride-to-be's parents. Still busy getting everything pulled together but so much more relaxing than trying to make everything myself. 

Feeling: Tired, y'all. This girl is not used to having so much going on in her life! 

Looking forward to: It's "get my hair done" week and you know how much I love that excuse to just sit and be pampered without guilt. 

Question of the week: Are you celebrating the end of summer or mourning it?