A LONG TIME AGO AND ESSENTIALLY TRUE

A Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka - What a great title. This is the best book I'll read this summer. A book group in the weekly Chicago Tribune book group column had noted that this was their current selection. I loved the title and couldn't resist reserving it immediately. If you're like me, you'll fall in love with the Pigeon and with this story. Like many of my favorite stories, this book takes place in two different times. The setting is Poland, in the village called Half-Village, and then in the city of Krakow. Enjoy!

THE DAUGHTER TRAP

The Daughter Trap by Laurel Kennedy - Wow. If you're a caregiver, or the main sibling on the front lines with an elderly parent, just know that you're not alone, and that nothing you're experiencing is unique or unusual. Laurel Kennedy talks about all aspects of this dilemma which is going to be huge in the coming years with an aging baby boomer population. She offers solutions going forward, but more than anything the book is a support in itself. A must read if you are that daughter or person.

On another note, I am currently gearing up for a driveway sale. I've got a lot of stuff and it's all over the place. The only goal here is to make a little space, since the whole thing is beyond beyond right now. Unless I get really busy and determined, things won't look much different after this sale. I wish there were three clones of me. We'd get it done then. One of me would be the decision maker - the one who goes through the stuff and says "sell this", the next me would get the thing into the sale pile and price it, and the third me would clean up after. All three of them would do the actual sale. The fourth real me would watch all this, go to some other sales that day, and then get the money. Voila. Job done.

I SOLD ANDY WARHOL. (TOO SOON)

I didn't, but the author of
i sold Andy Warhol. (too soon) did. Richard Polsky writes about his life and times as an art rep in the rarefied art world. What a job. It's turned into a business with the art as commodity rather than art. There is so much to think about here. Are the great modern and contemporary artists really good? (some are) Is the art worth that much? (when art is a commodity, it's worth what the buyer will pay and the seller will take) Is this high end art honest? Hmmm....Is this high end art honest.
Richard is a so so writer, and there is something to learn here. He has watched the art world in it's transformation, and he's gone along with it, but knows that something innocent has been lost. Although I like the pink cover, the cover art could have been better.

WHAT WE KEEP

What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg - This little paperback was in a drawer at my aunt's house, and when I finished Hurry Down Sunshine, it was this or nothing. It's a story about two sisters and their mother. It's told in two stories, thirty-five years apart, and the moral for me is that young people cannot always be blamed forever for their actions in their teens through thirties. If the mature ones can give a break to the immature ones, then we'd all be better off. People can be so mean to other people. When they are older and meaner, it's as unpretty and unpleasant as can be. It's a good book. Some people will cry at the end. I didn't. I'm numb this week.

But I am DETERMINED to get things in order. Once and for all. To go toward minimalism in all the categories where things are readily available otherwise. To not own it is OK if it can be obtained easily. Can this saver of stuff be saved?

DIAMOND RUBY * HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE

It's been a rough couple of months, but I continued to read.

Diamond Ruby - by Joseph Wallace - I loved this story about a girl born with long strong arms at the turn of the century (the last century). Ruby and her sister warmed their way into my heart, and along the way, so did Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. It's an old time baseball story that rings true like all good baseball stories do.

Hurry Down Sunshine is a small biography/memoir/documentary style book about the author Michael Greenberg's daughter's year of madness when she was 15. Mental Illness is an illness like any other, little understood, and not often acknowledged by families. In some cases, it comes on, is treated and is cured. In other cases, it's chronic, and resurfaces throughout life.