A LOOK AT THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF A CONSERVATIVE FREE-SPIRIT

Sunday, November 19, 2023

BBC Book List AKA Books I should read

I've got some work to do!  I've read less than a quarter of them!


 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 

 

6 The Bible 

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

 

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

 

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

 

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

 

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

 

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

 

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

 

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

 

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

 

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel-

52 Dune - Frank Herbert 

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

 

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

 

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

 

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 

72 Dracula- Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce 

 

76 The Inferno - Dante

 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

 78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

 

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

 

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

 

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

 

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Monday, October 2, 2023

From the Cobwebs: I am the Fury




 01 Sep 06 Friday



I am THE FURY
Current mood: Victorious!! (ROOAARRR)

My superhero alter ego is THE FURY!! I know that this might come as a surprise so quickly on the heels of my last post, but it just goes to show ya that even miserable people can rise to the occasion every now and then. I'll begin where I ought...at the beginning:
It was approximately 2:30 a.m. on Friday the 1st of September, 2006. I was sleeping quite comfortably in my nice, warm, sleep number bed (which was set to 35 which is the most comfortable according to me, to Lindsay Wagner, and to the salesman who sold it to me.) when I was awakened by the sounds of what MUST have been a whole load of bowling balls being dropped on the floor in the room right above mine. In between the huge bangs on the ceiling, I heard the mellifluous sounds of the young couple who live above me fighting. Those two have really great vocabularies, I'll tell ya. Well, they were arguing at what seemed like the top of their lungs, hurling the "F" word helter skelter, stomping around the apartment, throwing bowling balls willy nilly. It was quite an adventure listening to it all. I wondered for a moment if perchance they were rehearsing for some strange rock opera. The man of the house up there is, by the way, a musician, so perhaps that is what was happening. I tried to roll over and go back to sleep. I hoped, momentarily, that they would confine their stomping, fighting, and bowling in the front room and stay out of the room directly above mine, but they didn't. I sighed and unwrapped myself from the sheets and got out of bed. They were getting louder and louder, so I decided it was time to find my trusty broom. Well, my well intentioned pounding on the ceiling was to no avail. In fact, they just got louder. I sighed some more. I really wasn't interested in having to go up there again and knock on the door. The last time I had to do this particular chore, it was 4:00am, so at least today, they had gotten into it a little earlier.
Now, here is the fun part, y'all: Things started changing up there. I don't know if the man of the house realizes, but when it is quiet in my apartment, I can hear whole conversations up there. He was getting mean to her. I started hearing her shout, "Don't you hit me!!!" over and over again. Then I heard her cry out in pain. It was at that point my Superhero alter ego started turning around in circless inside of me (You know... the way Wonder Woman does it?) My blood was boiling!!! I could actually feel my blood pumping in my veins. I didn't really know what to do, so I grabbed the nearest weapon that I felt I could reasonably wield and I dashed up the stairs to the apartment above mine.
I really sorta wish I could have had a video of the moment that followed. I'm sure I must have looked really scary. I pounded on the front door and was just as surprised as they were when the front door flew open!!! (I suppose it was that they just didn't shut the door properly and not the super human mother-like fury that my fists were wielding) I'm sure that if this was a movie, my hair would have been flowing back behind me and a large halo of light would have been encircling my head. As I walked into the entryway of the apartment, I saw her cowering on the couch with her hands covering part of her face (well, to be honest, she was only PARTLY cowering cuz she is one touch chick AND it turned out he hadn't actually HIT her. He had spit whiskey in her face and her eyes were burning like crazy). I looked straight at him and roared (seriously, I roared!!) "WHAT IS GOING ON UP HERE?" He started back-tracking and I heard some nonsense flow out of his mouth...something like, "blah blah blah we'll quiet down up here blah blah blah sorry blah blah blah." He was sounding a lot like Charlie Brown's teachers, and well, I was having none of that!! I brandished the weapon in my right hand (the one I felt I could reasonably wield which would cause some fear in him? It was my telephone) waving it wildly about and roaring, "THAT DOESN'T MATTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER? DO I HAVE TO CALL THE POLICE?" I even might have slipped in an "I got my eye on you, Buster." However, at that moment, I was so upset that I forgot to do the the thing with the first and second finger where I'm supposed to wave my fingers back and forth between my eyes and his disgusting, sorry, offal-like personage. That would have been pretty cool, but whatever. I must have scared him this time cuz he actually acted like he might behave and he and she must have said something to convince me that he was telling the truth because I found myself walking down the stair back to my apartment. She came down a few minutes later pleading with me not to call the police and then many more minutes later, she came down with the baby and all the baby paraphernalia and she stayed with me down in my apartment for two hours talking and trying to call her mother to come get her. It ended up that she went back upstairs and locked herself and the baby up in the bedroom and told the man of the house they'd talk about it tomorrow. Who knows what will happen, but she promised she'd let me know what she decided. Needless to say, I am one tired superhero. (The Sleepy Fury isn't quite as scary, is it?) I had only slept two or three hours when the bowling balls started flying and I couldn't get back to sleep after it was all said and done, and sadly, very soon, I must report to work. ~~SIIGHHH~~ Man, I sure hope I don't come across any Kryptonite or garlic (or whatever it is that is my weakness) today whilst I'm out and about. I'm not sure I could survive the battle.

Slowly, Autumn (2007)


Slowly, Autumn is drifting this way.
I sensed her yesterday--but just slightly--as the wind playfully blew hair out of my face as I crossed Lamar on my way home from breakfast at Mickey D's.
Slowly, Autumn is strolling this way.
I noticed her last Tuesday morning as I walked down Guadalupe through the crunchy, brown leaves, whilst smelling the crisp, cool air.
Slowly, Autumn is sauntering this way.
I saw her today in the large piles--10 feet high, at least--of multi-colored pumpkins which waited, patiently perhaps, just outside the doors of the Whole Foods Market on 6th.
Slowly, Autumn is heading this way.
I felt the excitement lingering in the air--and in the hearts--of both the 17-year-olds and the 38-year-olds as they sat en masse, under the stadium lights screaming "Go Buffaloes!!! De-bill the Cardinals!!"
Slowly, Autumn is meandering this way.
I wish she'd hurry up, though! I know this is central Texas and the heat makes her a bit lethargic, but...
...Oh Autumn! Run! Come this way!! Oh Autumn! Rush! I'm ready to play!!

Here's a little something I learned (03OCT23)





As most of y'all know, I'm living and working and learning in Korea.  Obviously, one of the things I'm doing (and not well or swiftly enough, in my own personal opinion) is learning Korean. I AM learning, just slowly. One of the first things I learned was:

감사합니다

(Gahm Sah Ham Nee Dah)

which is what Koreans use for ‘Thank You.’  What is interesting to note is that what the word does is to combine 감사 (Gahm sah) which means ‘thank’ or ‘gratitude’ with the verb form 하다 (hah dah). So, in its literal form, what is being said is “I do thanks.”  How interesting!


Some other interesting beginner word(s) I learned were 아녕히 가세요(Ah Nee’Yuhng Hee Kah Say Yoh) and 아녕히계세요  (Ah Nee’Yuhng Hee Kay Say Yo).  They BOTH mean ‘goodbye’; however, you use the first one when you are the one staying behind and the second when you are the one leaving.  They mean, in order, ‘Peacefully, go’ and ‘Peacefully, stay.’    I often wonder, when I say these words as I’m leaving a shop, if the original meanings are something the native Korean thinks about as they say it or if they have just become words with their modern meaning.  


Then I read somewhere very recently about the origins of our English word ‘Bye' and I realized that most Koreans prolly don't think about the original meanins because I certainly haven't internalized the original meaning of our English word with the same meaning.  I’m pretty sure most people realize that 'Bye' is a shortened version of the word ‘Goodbye’.   Didja know that even ‘goodbye’ organically grew, changed, shortened, and lengthened in its own history? 


Descending in history, here is how it seemed to have gone:

–Bye!

–Goodbye!

–Godbwye!

–God be with ye!


‘Goodbye’ is a contraction of ‘God be with you (til we meet again–LOL) in its essence.  How interesting! I know for certain that I don’t think ‘God be with ye!’ whenever I say ‘Goodbye’ (although, certainly, I should!)    

Anyway, y’all–here’s a little something I learned!





Saturday, August 26, 2023

From the Cobwebs: We're Num-Nums to the End

 I found this old memory online today.   It was a poem written by one of my Air Force basic training flight mates.  The poem regards our time at basic training. Imagine 70-something women all sharing a space which no bigger *and actually smaller, I think * than the annex at Southwest Church of Christ in Austin! I cannot begin to count the number of times our Tech Sgt. Phillips yelled at us, "YOU NUM-NUMS!!" I think that was part of the inspiration for Angela to write this poem.  Perhaps, I will remember some memories  and share a little later on, but--for now--the poem written by Angela Kay Hubacek, our 'class clown' of Flight W077 from San Antonio, Texas:

To Sgt Phillips, With Love from Flight W077


I can remember all those people.

All those different faces. 

With different personalities.

All from different places.


We didn't know what to expect

When we first arrived.

But I'm sure if we were honest,

I wasn't the only one who cried.


We were simply scared to death

Wanting to go home

But one thing kept us hangin' on

We were not alone.


All of us fought like cats and dogs

Never bonding together.

Screams were heard throughout the dorms

At the drop of a feather.


Looking back on the last six weeks, 

I really am surprised

That all of us have made it through

Still with both our eyes.


We slowly learned to get along.

Apart, we could not do it.

But, it took a lot of time, 

Trial, and error to prove it.


We learned things from each other

To help us stand proud and tall.

I even catch myself saying

That dreaded phrase, "Y'all."


We've shared a lot of grievances

We've shared a lot of joys.

The only thing we did not share

were those Air Force BOYS!


Graduation time is come 

and we'll go our separate ways

But a little piece of everyone is in our hearts to stay!


Now I'm really proud to call

Everyone my friend

And no matter where we'll be--


We're NUM-NUMS to the END!!


--Angela K. Hubacek, from Seattle, Washington


Saturday, June 24, 2023

From the Cobwebs: 365-Day Four-What a Wonderful World.

 Written June 25th, 2009

I remember once in the Spring of '89, Jolene and I were in her sporty little car driving south away from the USAFA.  Not sure where we were going, but I think it was to her Aunt Rainey's (sp?) house for some pork chops.  I remember the pork chops twenty years later because they were the first pork chops I remember REALLY liking.  My Mom was an absolutely fantastic cook, but--for some reason--pork chops were never my FAVORITE meal, yeah? Even today, I don't really like pork chops. Maybe it was the seasoning she used??? But I loved her pork chops!

Anyway, Joli and I were listening to music and driving along with the top down.  It was my turn to pick the tunes, so I grabbed my soundtrack to 'Good Morning, Vietnam." One song caught my eye and I excitedly told her to put it in-this was a GREAT driving song! When she heard it she looked at me as if I were crazy. 'This isn't a great driving song! I was expecting something a little more rockin'!!"  I remember being kind of surprised that my song choice didn't fit the bill.  Surely, when you're driving through the mountains under a clear blue Colorado sky "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong is a great driving song, yeah?"

Ahh well!!  Twenty years have passed and soon Joli and I may be taking a road trip to celebrate our 40th birthdays.  I'll have to make sure we have some rockin' tunes and some Louis Armstrong in tow as we head south to frolic youthfully in the waves of the Gulf of Mexico.  I think we're gonna have good times equal to all the times we had when we were young and full of energy--prolly cos we know a lot more about how fun life is now.  That line from the Lenny Kravitz tune really fits here well. "I'm old enough to see behind me, but young enough to feel my soul."  Joli and I are DEFINITELY young enough to feel our souls, yeah? after all, we're only (going to be) forty and fabulous. I can't remember the last time I thought that was old!

P.S. This summer we'll be celebrating our 54th birthdays!! :)  My how time has flown!

Friday, April 28, 2023

From the Cobwebs: On the Bright Side

 On The Bright Side

Current Mood: Delighted with life. After a short meeting with Athena at the Good Will building this morning, I was sitting, happily, in the warm morning sun at the bus stop. Having pulled out Deathly Hallows, I was prepared, perhaps, for a long wait. I did not know when the # 339 bus would come to pick me up and take me home.I decided to escape into Joanne's world. I was perched nervously on the edge of the bench with the pinky fingernail on my right hand slowly being chewed down to nothing. Ron, Hermione, Harry, Dean, Luna, Mr. Olivander, Griphook, and Dobby (sniff) had escaped, by the skin of their teeth, from Malfoy Manor and had apparated to Shell Cottage (just on the outskirts of Tinworth, by the way) when I noticed someone sit down next to me on the bus bench. I looked up to see the bright and beautiful smile of a teenage girl. Her white and lime green outfit (with matching jewelry) was fabulous, but the greeting she gave me was even more so.Crystal was her name and she, several of her friends, and her teachers from the Life Skills class at a local junior high were on a field trip to the Good Will offices and Highland Mall. The first half of their trip was finished and we were all waiting for the bus to arrive to take us on the next phase of our journeys.Crystal's friend, Anna, tried to sit down on the bench beside her, but she would not allow it!! At least not until I had sufficiently wiped off the condensation ring left by my soda. With the ring magicked away by a small bit of my t-shirt, Anna sat. Anna was also dressed fabulously. She wore an adorable jumper of fuschia and orange. In her hair, was a matching ribbon and the fuschia crocs sitting on her feet brought the whole ensemble together. The bright smile which shone out of her dark brown eyes and decorated her slightly Mongoloid features made her one of the most beautiful people I saw today. Crystal took the time to make sure I knew that her name was Anna, and we all sat and talked about this and that. I can't actually remember the content of the conversation, just that it was fun.They introduced me to another of their pals, Richard Nelson. He smiled with pleasure when his teacher informed me that he was really "Ricky Nelson", not Richard. He smile grew wider still when several people began singing o/' Hello Mary Lou. Goodbye Heart o/'They bus arrived much sooner than I would have normally like for it to have come. I was having fun with them!! From my normal seat, I watched as Crystal walked toward the back of the bus. Halfway there, however, she stopped short and a huge grin popped onto her face. She immediately turned around and took the seat to her left. In the seat just next to the one where she was perched sat a nice looking teenage boy...17, perhaps?Crystal looked over at him and grinned. You know the kind of grin I'm talking about, dontcha? Imagine a 12-year-old who walks late into the class. All the seats are taken except one. As she walks to the seat right next to the best looking guy in school, this 12-year-old tries desperately to hide her grin of happiness which is threatening to spill out of her heart and onto her face. She turns her body slightly away from him and toward her friends. As they exchange "thumbs up" and huge grins, giggles escape from her mouth. It is this kind of grin about which I am speaking. Crystal was the queen of this kind of smile today. Her delight was evident as her head swiveled back and forth between her friends (who were giggling in the back of the bus, by the way) and the waaaayyyy cute boy sitting next to her. Even the adults on the bus began to grin and giggle a bit. Eventually, even Guapito (that is what we're calling the waaaaaayyy cute guy) started smiling. The whole situation was just so...so...adorable (another movie reference-10 points if ya got it.)Aaaaahhhhhh, I gotta tell ya, it always makes me so happy to see the beautiful innocence and joy of a child, yeah? Here is Robin's response about which I told you:

I adore the way you can turn a random, chance encounter at a bus stop into an insightful, smile-inducing, jaunt down the lane of human nature's most elemental and undeniable truths. Because of you, I don't look at strangers the way I used to. Thanks for your blogs!