review: The House of my Mother

 A Daughter's Quest for Freedom

by Shari Franke 

We all need a little reminder that if a sane person tries to live with insane people, they’ll eventually go insane themselves. Luckily, this young person gets away…but not before suffering nearly irreparable harm to her psyche.

Funny thing is, a lot of the incidents of her childhood seem perfectly normal—taken individually, who hasn’t suffered an occasional humiliation when a parent laughs at the wrong time? Or forces them to smile when they want to cry, or takes them out of the school they love, or punishes them for wrongdoings?  But when you start to take them all together, they get scary. 

I only wish she’d been a little less in her own head during the narrative and a little more omniscient. When something humiliating happens, I understand exactly how she feels, but I often didn’t have a clue exactly what was happening and how it would appear to an outsider.

Also beware that the times when she quotes the exact words used by her mother or the evil conneXions woman, Jody’s, or even Derek, the man who takes advantage of her pain, you’ll be so angry you want to scream. These people were psychological warfare experts. Evil.

Review: Be Reay When the Luck Happens

 Be Ready When the Luck Happens 

by Ina Garten 

I found this enjoyable, very, but not memorable. In fact, I know I finished reading it a few weeks back, but I can’t remember a single interesting anecdote or personal observation to note here. Except maybe the origin of the “Barefoot Contessa” name for her food store/deli—that was surprising.

Reading it made me want to go cook some of her food, though. Her attention to quality and good taste makes it sound like I’d like to eat some of it. I guess Food Network is next…..

 

Review: Cruise Ship SOS

 The Life-Saving Adventures of a Doctor at Sea

by Ben MacFarLane

Hard to believe but this sequel is even better than the first one!  In his first memoir, he describes his time as a repatriation physician. That’s a guide employed by the health service (the British one) to go pick up British citizens who have fallen ill or had a serious accident overseas and escort them back home.

That was an exciting job!  But in this one, he takes a post as the second physician on a world cruise. Imagine—traveling all the way around the world on a ship!  And imagine this—what sort of accidents and injuries can happen to the people along the way? 

His particular responsibility on this trip is for the crew members. Apparently those super big cruise ships employ a superbly huge number of workers. And some of them, of course, have alcohol or drug abuse issues; others go out on a binge during shore leave and end up in misery; and still others just plain get sick. It happens. And it keeps him really busy. 

From jammed fingers to full-blown DTs to heart attacks…to Italy and Hong Kong and Panama and Singapore…

This book has it all.

Review: The Night Woods

By Paula Munier 

I like her books at lot—her main characters are interesting and predictable in how they behave and respond to things. The mystery adds the element of surprise and uncertainty, and the plots are always fresh.

And having said all that, I felt like this one fell kind of flat. Not that the action didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat—it did! But the plot was a little on the weird and unbelievable side. The main perp’s actions made sense because she was a total loony bin. But the rest of the plot was confusing and I didn’t have any understanding of how the other evildoers fit in. Maybe I was just burned out and didn’t care at that point. Maybe it’s me.

Of course I’ll read the next one, when it comes. I just hope it’s a little better plotted.

Magnus On the Beach Day 5 and return

Friday July 18

       Bye beach! 

And bye, bathhouse!  (don't know why I took this picture, but it was a nice bathhouse) 

 

 

We headed to Lake Livingston State Park, a stop on the way to make the drive easier. Since the drive took us right through Houston, we left late on purpose to avoid Friday morning traffic.

The campground was really nice, but the spots just a tad too short. We backed in the Jeep behind Magnus so that we could hook it up and be ready to go in the morning, but the site was about three feet too short to accommodate the tow bar. So we left it until morning, when we’d be able to pull the Motorhome slightly out into the road while we hooked up. It was a wide enough road that it wouldn’t be blocking anyone.

The sites were concrete pads, full hookups, and well spaced apart. Just a few steps away was a circle of lovely cabins. Remember that if we ever need them.

It was awfully hot, but Molly and I took a walk intending to go to the bird blind and frog pond trails, a one-mile boardwalk circle. Heading over there, I noticed an unmarked trail going off to the right, which would take us there without having to walk on the road. So we took it, and found that someone had taken a vehicle down it and made some hideous, muddy ruts.  What the hey, we just walked around them and kept our fingers cross that this really was a shortcut and not a road leading off into the wilderness.

After about twenty minutes, I was getting ready to give up and head back (GPS on my phone didn’t help at all!), when I saw a sign ahead. We’d reached the intersection with the boardwalk. According to the map, we’d been on an official trail—just a crappy one.

The walk around the boardwalk was pleasant and we chose to take the road back instead of the rutted trail. It was hot and humid but not unbearable. Thunder sounded at sunset, but no rain appeared. Not very many birds, either.

And next day was home. End of beaching for the season—in Texas, at least. What we’ll do in Massachusetts remains to be seen.

 

Magnus On the Beach Day 4

Thursday, July 17

Magnificent Frigatebird!!! 

 

In the morning we drove over to the East End Lagoon Nature Preserve. The road was a little rough and partly covered with sand, but of course we had the Jeep which made easy work of it. But the preserve had a little trail system, well maintained, that looped in and around some lagoons. It was mostly hard to see the birds—there were no viewing platforms and the trails never went to the edge of the water—but it was still very nice. It would be especially nice in spring.

In the afternoon we went swimming again. I saw a few dead jellyfish in the water, small ones, but only once did I see a fish jumping up out of the water. Obviously the gulls, terns and pelicans could see plenty!

 

 

 

Ed went with us on our evening walk, and while he got to see the white crabs, none of the birds came out for his viewing pleasure. And the sunset was kind of dull—it had gotten pretty cloudy. Still nice.

 

Magnus On the Beach Day 3

Wednesday, July 16 

We took a drive over to the bayside area of the State Park, where I saw Roseate Spoonbills, dowichers (species unknown), White Ibis, Tricolored Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, and Black-necked Stilt.  Cool birding place!

Back at the campsite, I saw a Loggerhead Shrike on the wires over our campsite, also a Black-bellied Whistling Duck—I had no idea they could perch on wires!!!   On the beach there was some sort of plover, a few Least Tern, and either Royal or Caspian Tern. Most likely Royal because the Caspian Terns should be all up north right now.

Royal Tern, not in breeding plumage 

 

 

 

 

Bunch birds on beach. Sadly, no plovers.

Tricolored heron

Crabbies

Willet

In the afternoon we went swimming. I tried to walk down the beach with my camera in search of the plovers, but never saw them again.

Then at around 5pm (early, I know, but there’s Molly to consider) we went to Fisherman’s Wharf in Galveston.  We went there last year and liked it very much and the same thing was true this time. Ed especially loved his fried fish platter. I had a fish platter with excellent clam cakes, some grilled fish, sauteed vegetables and rice. All good—except for the two bacon-wrapped, deep fried shrimp. Hideous. I ate one and gave the other one to Ed.

In the evening I again saw the frigatebirds, two of them, this time not soaring but heading toward land and off into the distance. On my sunset walk I saw a black skimmer attacking a kite that some beachgoer had anchored at the edge of the water. It was weird.  It was a very lovely sunset, sadly, in the opposite direction of the water. But the pink tinge of the waves was cool.  On the way back to camp, white crabs scurried along the sand and ducked into the many holes there.

 

 

Magnus On the Beach Day 2

Tuesday, July 15

The only note I have for this day is that I saw a Magificent Frigatebird, over the beach at sunset. It was a female or a juvenile, I could see the white throat. (Males are all black).  It had tail feathers of a different length—very odd. Maybe growing one in after moulting?  I don’t know.

The book described them as “uncommon but conspicuous” which is a pretty apt way to put it. Think of an impossibly thin bird with very long wingspan and long tail feathers, soaring way up in the air with its wings held in an odd crook, vaguely like the shape of an ospreys’ wings but of course the bird looks otherwise not at all like an osprey. And it’s black. 

Setting up 

We had a pretty easy but very slow drive to the beach and were able to set up about a half-hour before check-in time.  All we did after that was take an easy walk along the beach with Molly. I stepped into the water and found it to be pea-soup warm.

 

 

Not very crowded and not very big waves. I love the Texas Gulf of Mexico. The beaches aren’t the pristine white sand of Florida and the shore is kind of a mess. But at least from where we were we couldn’t see any industry and only the slightest suggestion of a couple of drilling platforms out in the distance.  Lots of grackles—I forgot the check if they were Great-tailed Grackle or Boat-tailed Grackle—and the eternal lines of Brown Pelican hunting, soaring in synchronized flaps, and diving head first into the waves. Love ‘em.

Magnus On the Beach

 July 14, 2025

This trip was a short jaunt to the beach at Galveston Island. Last year we went to the bay side of the state park and hiked around on the little trails looking for birds.  If memory serves me, it was hot and there weren’t very many birds and we didn’t especially enjoy it. But we also decided to stop at the ocean side and check out the brand new campground they’d built. (How brand new I’m not sure, but I know it wasn’t there five years ago when we started camping.) We thought it looked really nice, so when I was planning an ocean trip for this summer, that came to mind.

But first we had to get there. From our house all the way to Galveston Island is a pretty ugly drive, so I broke it up with overnight stops on the way there and the way back. First up was Huntsville State Park.

We’d gone there on a day trip a few years back and the park looked very nice with lovely lake views. But that must have been at the day use area, because the campground didn’t have very lovely lake views at all. You could see the lake but only if you squinted through the trees.

Not that I minded. Trees mean birds…except there weren’t any,. Not a good time of year for birds, I’m afraid. And it was very hot and humid and not at all pleasant to walk around—I was a little bummed to be starting off a trip in such misery.

But there were trails, lots of them, and I think it could have been a nice place to hike. But a bit of a “blow”  started coming up while Molly and I were walking, so I stayed on the road to give us a better chance of avoiding deadfall. Not that there was any—I was just being paranoid.  After getting sprinkled on just a little, we managed a decent one hour walk.

Then poor Molly got left behind while Ed and I went and ate at Pappadeaux. Very expensive; very, very good. I had swordfish with cannelini beans. Lovely!

Then back to feed Molly, only a little late. On our evening walk we saw a deer, a racoon, and a Yellow crowned Night Heron. Better than nothing! 

Review: To the Gorge

To the Gorge

Running, Grief, Resilience & 460 Miles on the Pacific Crest Trail

By Emily Halnon

Interwoven short episodes of her mother’s battle with cancer and her own battle with a FKT on the Pacific Crest Trail. Fascinating and scary, in both respects. Hard to describe—hard to put down but depressing as heck to read. You know the ending of her mother’s story, but you are impelled to kept reading to get to the ending of her own trail run. Will she make it, and will she suffer a life-destroying injury in the attempt?  You never know.

Review: The Vet at Noah’s Ark

 By Doug Mader

More than halfway through I was beginning to think that this was the perfect veterinarian memoir for me because nothing really bad ever happened. Which is, of course, impossible and unrealistic. But truly—the worst things that happened involved a jerk lecturer who dissed the author at a conference; moneys throwing feces; and a woman wanting a sedative for her pet iguana so she could sneak it into Australia in her bra.

But it’s too real and it’s set in L.A., and worse yet, eventually hits the time of the Rodney King riots. A horrid time.  And there are also a couple of sad animal stories.

But for all the reality, it’s a very positive book and I recommend it completely. Too bad there’s not a sequel.

Review: Extinction

Extinction

By Douglas Preston

Pretty gripping drama; had me throughout. Not everyone dies in the end, but close enough. He was way too obvious in setting himself up for a sequel.

This was a much more realistic depiction of reviving long-extinct species than Jurassic Park, but then of course, the science has advanced a great deal since Jurassic Park. It’s all quite very believable…except for one big and pretty annoying “loophole” the author allowed himself. After decidedly stating something to be impossible (so far), he suddenly decided it was possible and didn’t give any explanation about what was different in this case or why the mistake was made. Sorry I can’t give details without revealing a crucial plot point.

Ignoring that anomaly, I highly recommend this.