Super Bowl in the Hood

So it’s Super Bowl Sunday here in our neighborhood, and while in recent years it’s not been a big deal — obviously this year — it will be.

But wait, first, I need to tell you about our little neighborhood. We purchased this house for more than our budget in the early 1980’s. The real estate agent said it had been on the market for a long time and didn’t show well. Translated: the house was a dump, a student rental house for the university nearby – complete with shag green carpeting, leaky sink, drunken party scrawling on the walls, and ancient aluminum siding. We never looked back.

Our house is right in the middle of a single block of row houses which sport various Easter egg colors — it’s a thing out here – quite cheering in the fog. The block dead ends at a rec park with tennis courts, soccer pitches, a baseball field, and our local branch library. Across from us is a private college preparatory school – so no houses across the street.

In recent years our little ‘hood’ has become close – we have a nice, friendly mix of middle class neighbors who watch out for each other. We remind each other to move cars on street cleaning day. We call if a garage door is left open too long. We take delivery of packages and many of us have spare keys. Our mail person is never in a hurry and stops to chat if we’re around. We have lots of little ones learning to to ride bikes across the street and tossing basketballs at portable hoops. Dog walkers go by and say hi. Books are discussed as we come and go to the library. We trade excess farmer’s market hauls and overzealous cookie bakes.

Yes, it is just like Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.

Today will be gentle fun. We leave our doors unlocked and we are expecting a few neighbors who will come and go during the big game. We will do the same — sharing and helping ourselves to snacks and drinks. Here, there will be shrimp, guacamole, chips, lemonade and beers. We’re further prepared with our basket of kids toys. Next door has their basketball hoop set up and there is talk of someone firing up their grill.

Appropriate dress is not required, but appreciated.

Join us, will you, and cheer on the San Francisco 49ers.

I’ll be in it for the commercials.

Crooked by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin

I’m a New Year’s cliche.

Early January I started back with Classical Stretch– a PBS series Husband faithfully does every morning and claims great rewards — (no more need for his knee brace when playing tennis, etc.) However, I tend to forget to breathe, which is very, very bad, and as a result, I twisted my back. Cut to severe pain – out of commission. Doctor diagnosed a herniated disc – my second one — darn it. So as I gingerly stretched (breathe, darn it, breathe) and took short walks, I suddenly remembered I had this book ~~ Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery.

I dug it out and found my bookmark still 1/3 of the way through. I restarted and read along as, Ms. Ramin, an investigative reporter takes us through her experiences with back pain, caused by a horse riding accident in her teens, and continued through three decades. In an attempt to search out the best practices among the plethora of back treatment options, she peels back the cover on the often profit seeking ‘crooked’ back pain industry. She interviewed spine surgeons, pain management doctors, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, exercise physiologists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and specialized bodywork practitioners. Further she talked to back pain sufferers – those still suffering and those recovered.

The first part of the book discusses the problems of the back care industry, and the often quick leap to back surgery and other invasive treatments. Ms. Ramin, as a journalist, submits herself to various treatments in the name of research and exposes corrupt practices and doctors. The author is not a fan of chiropractors or their treatment practices. They are, it turns out, pretty loosely regulated.

(N.B. I know many people who benefit greatly from chiropractors and, so for me, this may still be an option.)

I somewhat skimmed through this section as I’m not that bad, and neither I or my doctor are even considering surgery. But I did learn that disc problems like mine are not helped by removing or fusing a disc. Herniated discs will go back in place and get well. Which led me to the the second part of the book, which focuses on solutions.

I honed right in on my diagnosis, and learned that discs don’t actually slip. They are securely attached to the end plates of our vertebrae, but they do bulge and herniate. The dubious good news is that as we get older the less likely discs will herniate, because they dry out.

Ms. Ramin reinforces that our sedentary lifestyles with too much sitting, heads constantly forward, and a c-curved spine causes deterioration of the spine, muscle loss, and resulting pain. Then I read (and re-read) the best chapter in the book — The Back Whisperers. Turns out proper reconditioning with exercises and soft tissue work can make such a difference. She talks about how we limit our movements and hold our backs in awkward positions to avoid back pain — which promotes further back de-conditioning. (I’m automatically straightening up as I write this). She goes into detail on the importance of proper body conditioning with correctly executed exercises and how to reduce the effects of poor posture and body movement.

Yes, Crooked reveals the dark side of the (money making) back pain industry and spends a lot of time on what NOT to do. But happily, there’s plenty of advice of what one should look into: Non impact exercise such as Tai Chi, Pilates and Yoga; body movement classes such as Feldenkries; and PT sessions with a certified orthopedic clinical specialist who importantly, should not be connected with a surgery practice. (See I took lots of notes)

In the end, I came away with the sobering thought that there is no cure for chronic back pain. But can it be successfully managed and one can return to a normal life. For me, that doesn’t mean running a marathon — just now the ability to walk and climb stairs without pain. And eventually back to my garden, exercise classes, hiking, working at my book store, and, of course being able to travel/traverse around far flung destinations.

I highlighted this quote:

“You are going to hurt while you go through treatment – I know myself that it is no picnic. But the opportunity cost of not climbing out the other side is not acceptable.” She adds: “Back pain is not the unsolvable enigma of modern medicine, but successful rehabilitation takes sweat, persistence and a lifetime of hard work.”

Talk about hard word, Crooked is a result of just that — with its incredible amount of research. I wholeheartedly prescribe this book and a personal thank you goes out to Ms. Ramin.

What the book doesn’t discuss is that when your back hurts – the universe suddenly makes you fumble fingered – dropping everything from the soap in the shower to your keys — just sayin’.

See you. I’m getting up now to do a beginners Tai Chi session – turns out there’s all sorts of videos on You Tube.

Any other advice from my Book Barmy gang would be greatly appreciated.

My copy of Crooked was most generously provided by the author several years ago.

Faithful Place by Tana French

Faithful Place is the third installment in the Dublin murder squad series and I’m just as jazzed about this one as the first two — In the Woods and The Likeness.

What is unique about this series is that a character who had a minor role in one book may be the protagonist in another — with a case told from their perspective. You don’t have to read Ms. French’s series in order – but I am.

Here we have the foul-mouthed, manipulative Frank from the second book, The Likeness which focused on Cassie, a female undercover officer. But in Faithful Place we get a better understanding of Frank’s hardscrabble childhood and gain insight into his toughness.

Frank is called back to his poor childhood neighborhood of Faithful Place, Dublin — which he has avoided for years. His sister calls to tell him that his first love Rosie Daly’s suitcase has been found.

Twenty two years ago, Frank was in love with Rosie whose father forbid the romance, assuming that his own family, poor as it might be, was stationed above the Mackeys. Frank and Rosie are determined to escape their families and inevitable destinies by running away to London. They saved their money, bought the tickets, and on the night they were to leave, Frank sneaked out to wait for Rosie ~~ but she never showed up. With his heart broken, Frank fled the rough neighborhood of Faithful Place vowing never to return. Now he’s drawn back to investigate the discovery of her suitcase and long ago disappearance.

“I waited there in the shadows, watching the plumes of smoke that my breath sent into the lamplight, while the bells tolled three and four and five. The night faded to a thin sad gray and round the corner a milk cart clattered over cobblestones towards the dairy, and I was still waiting for Rosie Daly at the top of Faithful Place.”

“The suitcase was by the window. It was a pale-blue thing with rounded corners, spotted over with big patches of black mold, and it was a crack open; someone had forced the pathetic tin locks. What got to me was how small it was… Rosie had been heading for a whole new life with something she could carry one-handed.”

The opening pages of Faithful Place draws you in, as we go back in time to Frank’s younger years in this rough Dublin neighborhood. There are many flashbacks, which under a lesser writer can be confusing and superfluous, but Ms. French handles them with such genius that a reader will never loose track of what’s happening.

Frank’s perspective is often cruel, unforgiving, and especially self serving. But here is where Ms. French shines. One can’t help but become deeply involved with her characters. And, as you keep reading and start to scratch the surface you see why Frank is such a mess (can everyone say ‘family discord’? ). About a third of the way through the book, I fell hard for Frank and my heart ached for him. In Faithful Place, Frank faces unanswered questions, unethical behaviors, and ultimately himself. Ms. French takes us on this roller coaster ride all while deftly adding layer upon layer to the mystery

It’s difficult to pigeonhole Ms. French’s novels – they are so much more than mere police thrillers or murder mysteries. Her books are atmospheric, yet literary, and deliver complex insights into what brings people to the precipices in their lives — and then — what ultimately saves them.

If you’re not reading this Tana French series, you’re seriously missing out.

Marriage for Rosamond by Louise Platt Hauk

I’m sure most everyone is bored by this, but sometimes it bears repeating.  I volunteer at the Friends of the S.F. Library Bookstore, and every so often we get vintage books.

For five dollars I took this charmer home.  Just look at that cover, can you blame me?  (Volunteering yet still buying books — this is why Husband has gray hair.)

Marriage for Rosamond was written in 1937 and published by Madison Square Books which sports the following marketing blurb on the back with a listing of their titles:

Books for every taste and mood — outstanding novels, delightful romances, thrilling mysteries, two-gun Westerns.

Can’t you just picture these colorful volumes carelessly stacked on musty bookshelves in knotty pine summer homes in upstate New York, with comfortably shabby furniture, porch swings, and long afternoons reading…

Okay, sorry folks, I’m back from my daydreaming digression.

Marriage for Rosamond was one of Madison Square’s romances, the chick-lit of the 1930’s.

The plot revolves around the innocent and privileged Rosamond who falls in love with Jim.  But in this period piece they don’t just fall in love, they woo, for pages and pages.  I almost gave up, but when they finally get married and Rosamond moves to Jim’s grand home in Kansas City, the plot actually got more interesting and there were some simple, but unforeseen developments.

Jim has a sickly brother Rich, and Jim dotes upon him.  Rich moves into their house and while he doesn’t seem all that ill, he has trouble recovering from small health setbacks.  Rosamond has mixed feelings, recognizing that Jim is being manipulated — but she decides to stick it out as a loving and devoted wife:

[She] learned hard lessons during these weeks.  She learned to sit quietly by while Jim talked of Rich; his accident, the possible weakening of his reserve strength, his childhood illnesses.  She learn to eat her meals with Jim sunk into depressed silence or starting up when one of the nurses came downstairs.  She learned — and this was the bitterest lesson of all! — that she did not count at all with Jim, at least while Rich was so ill.

When Rosamond is called upon to be Rich’s full time caregiver — the situation becomes intolerable.  Rosamond flees back to her devoted grandfather and their comfortable family home.  All seems over with the marriage — but in the end the story revolves around to a satisfying ending.

What I found most interesting about Marriage for Rosamond was the author’s writing style — typical of the period.  The literate vocabulary was a joy with proper usage of words such as ~~ benighted, quiddity, indubitably and vivant.

And, the often sentimental passages, which border on the saccharine, in this context are merely old-fashioned and somehow touching:

She dropped a velvet cheek against his hand…

Jim was too close to the weaving to see the pattern…

For me this romantic novel was a master class in 1930’s American domestic drama and while it was sometimes over dramatic, it was never overwrought.

I had a grand time reading Marriage for Rosamond

Cirque du Soleil

Every year Husband and I give each other one special Christmas present — tickets to Cirque du Soleil. You’ve probably heard of this unique contemporary circus show. There’s no animals, only humans — but what humans.

Let me give you a bit of background, Cirque du Soleil is based out of Montreal and has been producing and performing shows since 1984 (that’s when we first discovered them). They tour around world setting up a huge tent, wherever they perform. The troupe is made up of performers from all over the world — aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, gymnasts, trapeze artists, clowns, musicians – well you get the idea.

Every year the show is different and always magic. It’s wonderful artistic madness, amazing athletic abilities, insane props and gorgeous costumes. We find ourselves sitting upright, heads tilted upwards and mouths hanging open in delight. It’s sensory overload in a very good way.

There’s a live band and singers who sing in no particular language. In between the death-defying acts, there are unique clown segments — they use a bit of English but mostly gibberish to tell their stories and always get laughs. The performers actually change the sets and equipment in costume which is worked into the show. And, because it’s performed in the round and has tiered audience rows — there’s not a bad seat in the tent. Which is a good thing, because the tickets can be pricey.

Amaluna the show we just saw, is set on a mysterious island ruled by strong women warriors, so most of the performers were women – as were the musicians.

HERE is more information about their shows, including their permanent ones in Las Vegas. (Husband once scored a cheap air fare and hotel package to Las Vegas and we went JUST to see the Cirque du Soleil shows.)

And HERE a video of the show we just saw – Amaluna. Be sure to turn up your sound.

Do, please. try to see a Cirque du Soleil show live and in person you’ll be amazed.

And, I don’t know about you, but I always leave silently thinking now if I just get to the gym a bit more often I could do that too ~~

Educated by Tara Westover

I’m late to the party on this one. It seems everyone has read this gripping memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, escapes her survivalist family, goes on to college and eventually earns degrees from Harvard and Cambridge. Ms. Westover has been interviewed by all the major press and television outlets and Educated was on the bestseller list for many, many weeks.

Tara’s father, Gene Westover is a self-appointed prophet, with a psychotic nature, as well as revolutionary religious beliefs. He traumatizes his family both emotionally and physically. His children are indentured workers for his scrap metal business — and they suffer burns, head injuries, and deep wounds. No medical intervention was allowed, so these dreadful injuries are treated at home with the mother’s homemade collection of herbs, tinctures, and salves. The children and their mother are manipulated and controlled by Gene who demands loyalty at all costs.

On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes my family different. We don’t go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go, but it can’t because it doesn’t know about us. Four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom.

I kept having to put Educated aside, not because of the writing — no, no — Ms. Westover writes beautifully — but because this book is so very hard. This is no sugar coated story – this is grim reality and I needed many breaks from this mesmerizing but cruel account.

I no longer needed breaks once Tara strikes out on her own and surmounts many, many hurdles — from passing the testing required to get into Brigham Young, to interacting with the outside world. She makes friends, gains mentors and discovers just how much she doesn’t know. This second half of the book tells of her struggle to be ‘educated’ and her pursuits to pass the next course, the next level, the next requirement which takes her eventually to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

During this time Tara goes back home to try and help her sister in law (married to Tara’s abusive brother) and then again to nurse her father after a horrific burn accident. Each visit leaves her with a new perspective that even this craziest of upbringing was, in her child’s view — normal.

Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.

Having grown up loving school and education, I found the notion of being deprived even the basic education just heartbreaking. I finished Educated feeling wrung out, yet I still must recommend this incredible memoir. Educated is beautifully written, heartrendingly insightful, and uplifting.

So if you think your New Year’s resolutions are insurmountable – read Educated – getting back to the gym will seem like a cake walk.

A digital review copy was kindly provided by Random House via Netgalley.

Book Barmy is back!

Well folks, Book Barmy is back after what I thought would be just a short break, but turned into a long slog.

It’s been quite an experience, but see up there — see that little ‘s’ in the web address – that’s actually a big thing.

It only involved switching my hosting service, getting bogged down in a black Friday backlog of new customers at said service, and numerous steps to finalize the migration.

Husband an ex geek IT guy, gamely stepped in and did some work in the background and provided translation service between me and the migration geeks. My amazement at Husband’s technical prowess knows no bounds. I could say much more about Husband qualities… but I’ll spare you.

So, if any of you lovely readers have had Book Barmy blocked in the past this little old ‘s’ should fix that. If you have Book Barmy bookmarked on your computer – you’ll want to re-book mark with this new and improved web address.

https://www.bookbarmy.com

What have I been reading while this all happened ?

There are many, many reads to share with you. I’ll be back – stay tuned.

I didn’t get to wish you a Merry Christmas, so I will wish you a very Happy New Year with one of my favorite quotes.