Kelly's Thoughts & Ramblings

Posted by: Kelly | June 23, 2026

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Classics Club 2 book 6 (1957)

BOOK BLURB FROM AMAZON:

After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life.

Both terrifying and intensely moving, On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.

FIRST SENTENCE:

“Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy woke soon after dawn.”

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

(3%) “The short, bewildering war had followed, the war of which no history had been written or ever would be written now, that had flared all round the Northern Hemisphere and had died away with the last seismic record of explosion on the thirty-seventh day.”

(27%) “”I suppose I haven’t got any imagination,” said Peter thoughtfully. “It’s-it’s the end of the world. I’ve never had to imagine anything like that before.”
John Osborne laughed. “It’s not the end of the world at all,” he said. “It’s only the end of us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan’t be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.””

(42%) “”You know,” he said, “now that I’ve got used to the idea, I think I’d rather have it this way. We’ve all got to die one day, some sooner and some later. The trouble always has been that you’re never ready, because you don’t know when it’s coming. Well, now we do know, and there’s nothing to be done about it. I kind of like that. I kind of like the thought that I’ll be fit and well up till the end of August and then-home. I’d rather have it that way than go on as a sick man from when I’m seventy to when I’m ninety.”

MY THOUGHTS:

What an incredibly sad story. I can’t really say I found it depressing because I knew from the start how it was going to end. Instead, I focused on the characters and how they each approached the situation at hand. It’s a fascinating look at human nature and what we would do if we knew our death and the end of human life on earth was imminent. It’s one of those times when I’m not sure any of us could truly say unless actually faced with the fact. I found it a hard book to put down once I began and I have a feeling it’s going to stay with me for a long, long time.

Book 4

A seaside scene on the cover

Miramar Beach, Florida
Gulf of Mexico

36 Comments

Posted in "S" authors, 20 Books of Summer 2026, books, reading challenges, sci-fi/fantasy/horror/dystopian, The Classics Club 2

Posted by: Kelly | June 20, 2026

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Heart the Lover by Lily King

BOOK BLURB FROM AMAZON:

“You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan’s youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.”

FIRST SENTENCE:

“You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

(76%) “You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.”

MY THOUGHTS:

I went into this novel knowing very little about it other than it was popular and someone in my book club recommended it. Then Rose had a review of it during the time I had it on hold at the library and her enthusiasm for it encouraged me.

It’s an easy book to read. It moves right into the story and never really lets up until the conclusion. Even the two time jumps flow easily. It’s a fairly short novel and I finished it in just a few sittings. In fact, I was almost through with it before I ever thought to pick out any “memorable moments”. I knew Amazon would have some “popular highlights” so I took one from there.

I don’t think I’ve ever been a particularly angsty, drama-laden person, even in my youth, and the older I get the less I can deal with drama. I couldn’t really relate to the narrator’s feelings throughout the majority of the book, but that didn’t matter. It was a quick, easy, summertime read that I enjoyed. Thanks, Karen, for the recommendation!

Book 3

Recommended by a friend

18 Comments

Posted in "K" authors, 20 Books of Summer 2026, books, contemporary/literary fiction, reading challenges

Posted by: Kelly | June 17, 2026

Football Crazy!

I’ve shared many puzzles from Jan van Haasteren over the years and they’re never easy to photograph well enough to capture all the details. This one is filled with the usual characters and objects he includes in all his puzzles. There’s normally a denture plate lying around somewhere, but I couldn’t ever find one this time. They work up very quickly and are always loads of fun!

Football Crazy
by Jan van Haasteren

(click photo to enlarge)

1000 pieces
68 x 49 cm

24 Comments

Posted in Jan van Haasteren, puzzles

Posted by: Kelly | June 14, 2026

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow

When Woman Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow

BOOK BLURB FROM AMAZON:

The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof – afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.

In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife tasked with attracting more shoppers like herself, and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II–before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies–becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store. With a preternatural sense for trends, she inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats.

In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries who took great risks, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. This stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, captures the department store in all its glitz, decadence, and fun, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.

FIRST SENTENCE:

(Prologue) “As ice gathered several inches thick on the Hudson River and the mercury plummeted below freezing, Hortense Odlum stepped from her chauffeured car onto the Fifth Avenue sidewalk.”

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

(11%) “As the Great Depression continued, women employed outside the home were increasingly described in the popular press as impertinent interlopers who stole jobs from more deserving men. Single mothers who toiled at the mill to feed their children, for example, or daughters who worked on the factory lines to support their out-of-work fathers were swept up in rhetoric that portrayed them as selfish, even immoral. The liberal journalist and editor Norman Cousins wrote of the assault on female laborers in his essay “Will Women Lose Their Jobs?” In it, he tidily summed up the opposing view: “There are approximately 10 million people out of work in the United States today. There are also 10 million or more women, married or single, who are jobholders. Simply fire the women, who shouldn’t be working anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls. No Depression.””

MY THOUGHTS:

I enjoy a good social history, especially when it focuses on women’s history, so I looked forward to this book chosen as our July book club selection. I planned to listen to the audiobook (which is the only version at my digital library), but when I visited Amazon to look up the first sentence I realized there were many photos included in the book. I decided to splurge on the Kindle version. I’m glad I did since the photos were some of the best parts of the book.

It’s a well-written, well-researched account of three women who were prominent in the world of department stores and fashion in the twentieth century. It’s not a topic I know much about (outside of this event) and unsurprisingly I had never heard of the women and only knew one of the featured department stores (Lord & Taylor). As the book progressed to the second half of the century I recognized far more of the names mentioned. Some parts were a bit slow for me, but overall I liked the book and learned a lot. I was often drawn to the architectural descriptions and would love to have walked through the “Street of Shops” on the ground floor of Henri Bendel. Bonwit Teller was purchased and demolished to build Trump Towers and true to form, Trump reneged on his promise to save the iconic relief panels promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, instead destroying them. Are you surprised? I’m not. There’s even a reference to Jeffrey Epstein in the book. Ugh. I also enjoyed the anecdotes of window dressing incidents and the fascinating section on mannequins. It’s one of those books I enjoyed more in hindsight than as I was reading it.

Book 2

Author’s last name begins with an S

23 Comments

Posted in "S" authors, 20 Books of Summer 2026, book club, books, non-fiction, reading challenges

Posted by: Kelly | June 10, 2026

A few nature videos

I often post short videos I’ve made on my Instagram account, but since I keep it private I don’t think I can post them here where everyone can view them. My solution to that is to make them into YouTube shorts. I don’t play with YouTube much, so I haven’t figured out how to combine several videos into a longer one. So…. you’ll just have to settle for a whole bunch of super short ones!

First up is a clip of the Gulf (of Mexico!) on a recent trip to Miramar Beach, FL. (more on that in a later post) Sorry I panned the waves so quickly. When I got home and showed my husband he said it almost made him seasick. I love the sound of the surf and this was the roughest day of it during our stay.

I have taken numerous videos of Canada Geese on my morning walks (both in our pond and in the pasture). Here’s one I took in May.

Here’s another taken the same morning. In the past we’ve seen babies, but I didn’t this year. It always makes me nervous when I do since the world is such a dangerous place! I don’t know if the odds are in their favor.

We have lots of Cormorants. When we grew catfish in the Delta, they were a big problem (along with Brown Pelicans) so we had to use various means of keeping them away. I’ve tried to remind myself they’re not my enemy here.

I have lots of “in flight” clips of Canada Geese, too. Here’s the most recent.

Grass and lilies are an ever present problem in our pond. We’ve added Asian Grass Carp several times in an effort to keep the former in check. (we won’t discuss the lilies)

The Carp can grow to a rather large size. I’m pretty sure that fin sticking up in the front is its dorsal fin and the one in back is its tail. It always reminds me of a shark swimming around in the pond when I only one or the other.

I saved this next video for last. I was afraid it might bother some of you enough that you wouldn’t keep going.

I you live somewhere that has them, you know that fire ants are terrible! I don’t remember them being in my part of the state when I was a child, but I’ve dealt with them my entire adult life. When they get on you they are like glue and have to be brushed off. The bite is an awful combination of itch and pain. My worst encounter with them was when we were spreading hay once. I thrust my arm into a bale to pull out the hay and discovered there were tons of them lurking inside. I quit counting the bites on my arm when I got to 100. It’s a good thing I’m not allergic to them!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve poked an ant mound (with a stick, walking pole, or whatever), just to stir them up and watch them go crazy. On a recent morning walk I saw a small mound forming on the top of a fence post. I took my walking pole and scraped it off. Here’s the result!