Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback

I read this book in January 2020. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

'On Midsummer's Eve put seven different kinds of flowers under the pillow tonight and you'll dream of the one you'll marry.'
I have always been drawn to old traditions and practices involving nature. Mom said someone at her work told her I was a witch. I feel I was one in a past life. I want to be one, I just don't know enough now. I love nature, and plants, animals,  and rocks/crystals. I do believe they hold a certain power.

'Birds carry the souls of the unborn and the dead.'

'Sometimes when you had a thought, it refused to leave. You rejected it, disowned it, sent it away, to find, moments later, that you were still spending time with it. It might have  a different shape or use different words, but there was no mistaking: it was the same one.'

'You know the meaning of seeing bear, don't you? Ancestor, coming with a warning.'

'A being was either strong enough to hold their ground or they became small and bottomless and started feeling on themselves. They turned into something they never saw coming. Something they never intended.'

'A candle goes out and someone close to it will die.'
Well I don't like that saying. I burn and blow out candles all the time. Usually Dalton will blow it out for me. Ok, I think I am done posting blogs for today! See you soon!

Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown

I read this book in December 2019. I rated the book 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads.

'It was easy to doubt it all, the lake so flat and calm, a thing whose secrets would never surface.'

'There was Solomon's seal, which grew like a spine in the ground, with a perfectly circular vertebra for every year of age.'
        -soothe the stomach
        -clear the lungs
        -slacken excessive bleeding during woman's time of the month'

'Sassafras tree, whose leaves were often mitten shaped'
        - chewed into a poultice for poison ivy
        - roots dried and steeped for teas to purify the blood and warm the spirit

Water Hemlock
        - causes the most violent of death - seizures and convulsions
        - "unlike poison hemlock of Europe which shuttled philosophers so gently into the dark"

Rabbit's foot or Spikeweed
        - mix the root with honey to make a cough syrup

Ginseng
        - a root
        - used in teas and tonics
        - digestion, appetite, lethargy, fainting, blood troubles, masculine, vigor

'You know hat makers used to use mercury vapor to size the felt of their hats. Caused all kinds of problems. Amnesia, shyness, even red noses and toes. That's why they say 'mad as a hatter.'

'He could almost see the music erupting from the place as he neared, in bolts of rampant light, white and gold, and there were words too, howled and shrieked and sung.'

'That what you gave into the world came back to you in kind, and you could wear what you were owed like an armor into the darkest times.'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The title seems familiar. I read this book in November 2019. I rated the book 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads.

"There is a girl, a girl who does not fear death
Because she has her father and her mother and her twelve hunter brothers,
A home of three floors and a barnyard farmhouse,
In the middle of the farm, an apple tree that gives love apples in the winter and summer.
In the farm there are seven grottoes,
Each and every grotto secured . . .
Death was light and slipped in through the lock."
Death and the Girl, Sephardic ballad

"We are the shepherds, we walked 'cross the mountains. We left our flocks when the new star appeared."  Johnny Cash

'The crazier the victima, the closer to God.'

'It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed.'

'Love is a shared delusion
Two people reciting the same spell.'

'People who can't be bothered by manners pretend to be amused by them.'

'Have power on this dark land to lighten it, and power on this dead world to make it live.'

'Cautious was helpful, paranoid was just another word for distracted.'

'I let you die. To save myself, I let you die. That is the danger in keeping company with survivors.'

'Why do you think they built so many churches here? Somehow the men and women of this city knew: Their streets were home to other gods.'

'Peace was like any high. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever. Only two things kept you safe: money and power.'
That is very sad, and very true.

'There's no doorway the devil doesn't know. He's always waiting to stick his foot in.'

'The magic of this place and the blood shed to retain it is all that stands between the city and the end.'

"While the Gardens of Eden maybe closed, Hell is always open." Ladino saying



'

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

I read this book in November 2019. I rated the book 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads. I wrote in my book, the book was good! The reviews were all great!
'I remember being pestered by a sense of dread as I walked to my car that day, pressed down by a wave of foreboding that swirled around my head and broke against the evening in small ripples. There are people in this world who would call that kind of feeling a premonition, a warning from some internal third eye that can see around the curve of time.'
Those were the first two sentences of the book.

'Like any town, Austin had it's good points too, although most people don't see the skin besides the pimples.'

'It was easy to lie to Jeremy, his trusting temperament being incapable of understanding deceit.'

'We never had been apart for more than a single night or two in all our lives until a month ago, when i moved to campus, leaving him behind with a woman who swam in chaos.'

"only two people know what happend: Crystal Hagen and the person who killed her. Anybody else is just saying what they want to believe."

"It's a principle that says that all things being equal, the simplest conclusion is usually the correct one."

Becoming More Involved in the Community

Since the medium visit I have been thinking of becoming more involved it the community. Fair Haven is an amazing little small town community. There is a little box library and a food pantry. I always go to the little box library and exchange books. I go there after I read books friends and family pass me books that they don't want back. The food pantry is something I have yet to donate to. I will do for sure.
I read a blog by Alicia Sparks, she had a list of things to do to become more involved.
1. Look for Local Events
2. Volunteer Your Time
3. Donate Your Resources
4. Shop Locally
5. Join a Class or Group
6. Support Your Local Sports Teams
7. Organize Your Own Event
All great ideas and easy to do in Fair Haven. In the summer especially it is easy to attend local events. There are lots of little great stores to shop at locally. There is a community center in Red Creek. There are art centers that hold classes all the time.
As of today, there is a virus (corona) going around the whole word and people are told to stay home, wash hands often, and be socially distant. All non essential businesses are currently shut down. The schools are all closed. It is scary. I am hoping this summer everything will be opened back up. This town comes alive in the summer. We get thousands of tourists that bring in a lot of money every summer. I am not sure what will happen if the quarantine is still going on.

Medium Visit at The Purple Door in Rochester

I forgot until was looking in my book that I never posted about my first visit to a medium! I went on 11/18/19 with my cousins Emily and Olivia to The Purple Door in Rochester. It was a very good experience. It gave me chills and made me feel good. The medium's name was Kathy. We all had separate readings with the same person. Emily and Olivia has seen her before and recommended her.
I highly recommend her and will go see her again.
She wrote things down on a piece of paper while she was doing the reading. I kept it and wrote in down in my book. That is what I am reading now to put it down in here.
Almost the whole reading was about Todd. I had expected that and was a little nervous. I didn't want him to come across to her angry. He didn't, not at all. The opposite actually.
He told her he wants me to see him. I am thinking about the dreams. I haven't had any dreams of him in awhile.
He also said he was sorry and he knew he messed up. Hmmmm
He said he could never do what I had to do (duh!) He is with his father, and maybe Bud's mom. That made me happy. Todd loved his father so much.
Kathy said there was a father figure (Ed?) He had cancer and couldn't breathe/talk at the end. So that surprises me, that Ed might be around. She said there is actually a lot of people around me.
She asked if I was a teacher. Now I did not tell her anything before she started the reading, I just told her I wanted a general reading.
She sees me studying and getting a degree in something in childhood education. Well I just did took some workshops and took the state test to become certified to be a teachers assistant.
She asked if Dalton was advanced? I told her I wasn't sure. He is really good at math, like his father was.
She saw a move in the near future. That's good, and we will be moving at some point. I love this apartment but it is getting crowded and it really too small for us now. There is no privacy at all and Dalton is getting older.
She said that Todd was handing her what looked like a leather bound book? Photo album? I told her I wasn't sure.
She saw Dalton in a leadership type role when he is older, he was holding a flag, political?
Todd said we were going on a trip, N.C?
She saw me moving up in the school, some sort of leader?
Also she saw me working in the community.
She saw music lessons for Dalton.
Also said I will have a love interest, a professional, independent, has a brain.
I shouldn't worry about introducing anyone to Dalton - he is so easy going. I do worry about that, it gives me anxiety just thinking about having Dalton meet any guy.
She said Dalton sees Todd all the time, esp when playing on the floor. She also saw an old fridge, rounded edges, maybe is in a picture?
So it was good, Todd said I was doing a great job. Everything was positive, she only saw good things for Dalton and I.

The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

For book club this month we are going to read "The Last Letter from Your Lover" by Jojo Moyes. I really like this author, I have read quite of few books from her. I follow her on Twitter too. I read "The Giver of Stars" in November 2019. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

'And there is the bare truth of it, for her and all the woman around here. Doesn't matter how smart you are, how clever, how self - reliant - you can always be battered by a stupid man with a gun.'

" . . . and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. " Louisa May Alcott, Little Woman

"This is what people don't see, wrapped up in their cities, with the noise and the smoke, and their tiny boxes for houses. Up there you can breathe. You can't hear the town talking and talking. No eyes on you, 'cept the Gods. It's just you and the trees and the birds and the river and the sky and freedom . . . out there, it's good for the soul."  - Margery talking about the mountains.

" . . . marriage, they say, halves one's rights and doubles ones duties." - Louisa May Alcott, Little Woman
I completely agree!

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

'Every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important today, and when you say of a thing "nothing hangs on it" it sounds like blasphemy. There's never any knowing - how am I to put it? - which of our actions, which of our idleness won't have things hanging on it forever.'

This post will mostly be quotes from the book that I put in my commonplace book. I started reading this book in October of 2019 and rated it 3 of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Chapter 1
'This is what divorce is: taking things you don't want from people you no longer love.'

'He had decided instead to mortify his own flesh, to take his own life, to free himself from a path that had taken him down numerous wrong turns, led him deep into the wilderness and finally petered out completely, its breadcrumb course gobbled up by the birds.'

'A dull childhood, a bad marriage, a dead-end job - the classic triumvirate - they all flicked by quickly, silently, with little dialog, feeling pretty much the same as they did the first time around.'

"Go home, get some rest. Marnin' de the world new, everytime. Man . . . dif life no easy!" - Clara

Chapter 2
'For ridding oneself of faith is  like boiling sea water to retrieve the salt - something is gained but something is lost.'

'Walk in white with Him: for [she] was worthy.' Revelation 3:4

Chapter 5
'It was awkward, an Indian telling on Englishman what to do - but somehow the quietness of it, the manliness of it, got them over it. It was during this time that Archie learnt the true power of do-it-yourself, how it uses a hammer and nails to replace nouns and adjectives, how it allows men to communicate. A lesson he kept with him all his life.'

"What I have realized, is that the generations, they spoke to each other, Jones. It's not a line, life is not a line - this is not palm reading - it's a circle, and they speak to us. That is why you cannot read fate, you must experience it." - Samad

Chapter 6
'The cricket test - which side do you cheer for? . . . Are you still looking back to where you came from or where you are?' Norman Tebbit
What if it's the same place? Like in my situation? Then I guess there are no opposing teams!

"The sky isn't blue. There's just white light. White light has all the colors of the rainbow in it , and when it scattered through the squillions of molecules in the sky, the short wave colors blue, violet - they are the ones you see. The sky isn't really blue. It just looks that way. It's called Rayleigh Scattering." Magid

Chapter 7
'They are the only part of the body that a man must grow into. Because they're your father's teeth, you see, wisdom teeth are passed down by the father, I'm certain of it. So you must be big enough for them.'

Chapter 9
"Either everything is sacred or nothing is." Alsana

Chapter 15
'It was important, in Hortense's presence, never to admit to illness. The cure, as in most Jamaican households, was always more painful than the symptoms.'

Chapter 17
'What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were , despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or weeping Madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll - then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship.'

There are many people that are this way, they don't understand when people don't love them, something must be wrong with the other person. I for one am not that way and don't understand that line of thinking. I try to instill that into my son. I have told him before and will tell him again, not everyone is going to like you, and that is perfectly okay.

Chapter 19
'But the world happens to you, thought Joshua, you don't happen to the world. There's nothing you can do.'

I wrote after the quotes, book was okay, 3 of 5 stars.

Commonplace Book #2

I have been keeping a commonplace book for a few years now. It is something I seen on Pintrest and it really caught my eye. Something I wanted to do!
It is basically a collection of anything you want. I mainly put in quotes from books that I find interesting and want to remember. Some people put in recipes or song lyrics, really it can be anything you want.
I like a composition like notebook. I love to read but I have a hard time with retention. I have an awful memory and I forget a lot of what I read. I even forget what books I have read.
I am thinking of reviewing books on here. Making a blog post per book. I would really be posting a lot of material and not sure how many people would actually read it. I will try though, why not? I have always actually wanted to be a writer. I read enough books, however I am not delusional, I know how hard actually writing a book would be!
I will post a review of the last book I read.