I had heard of van der Kolk’s book and have thought about it a lot, since having a double bypass. Now that I have a copy of it, it’s one more book on my pile, and after watching a video with van der Kolk on You Tube, I trust it will be worthwhile.

As for my just-because-I-want-to list of Newbery Award winners, I read Emily Cheney Neville’s 1963 book, It’s Like This, Cat, in one sitting. Short books with large print and good white space are easy on my eyes. The story was good and the setting of 1960s New York City, drew me in. In it, a 12-year-old boy, Dave, who resented his father’s rigid attitudes, also traveled all over the metro area in a way that I never did as a teenager in the Sixties, or ever. The way he used pay phones, traveled on the subway, went to Coney Island, the Bronx Zoo, Staten Island, and to the movies, was a throw back to another time. Like a true New Yorker, he walked a lot. Like a middle-class white boy, he always seemed to have pocket change, but the low cost of everyday items was a shock. The final resolution of the subplots of the cat-lady neighbor, his old friend, drop-out friend, new girlfriend, and his uptight family, came together well.

I wasn’t sure what to think of Maia Wojciechowska’s shadow of a BULL (1964) when I first started it, but the story of Manolo Oliver, son of a deceased famous bullfighter, was intriguing. That everyone around him believed Manolo was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps didn’t prove to be true until later in the story. Details of smalltown culture in rural Spain were well done.  

Thank you to Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle for Saturday’sEarth Day article, “What will the Earth be like in 2050?”by Elizabeth Weiser. What a pleasure to read about how good the future can be as more already-existing technologies and solutions take effect. Thanks also for the article by Chris Potter on Cheap Old Houses, on a beat-up 1900 grand oldie in Hornell, New York, getting snapped up for $25,000. It was just the kind of reading that I enjoy on a slow weekend morning. I am very much looking forward to reading Justin Murphy’s article on the wampum belt exhibit at Ganondagan, in today’s paper. I had the privilege of attending the exhibit’s opening at the Seneca Arts and Culture Center. Truly history in the making.

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