Saturday, July 27, 2024

This Week

New pot of succulents joins my cactus.
I’m sharing this and other things in my life with the Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

Watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony

Olympics in our living room…yes to Paris in July! A favorite moment: when they tolled the bells of Notre Dame for the first time since the catastrophic fire.

The bridge was decorated with new murals to celebrate the Olympics.
80 boats carried the Olympic Athletes for a 4-mile trip down the Seine River to the Eiffel Tower
for the final march with the flags of all nations. Best ever opening ceremony!

The torch is lit.

We watched the entire 4-hour ceremony.

Family Visit July 18-23

Miriam finds interesting critters on her run. Time for Eileen’s critters.

We made our traditional pilgrimage to DQ for blizzards.

A fabulous seafood dinner.

One last breakfast before their 9-hour drive.



Time to say goodbye!

What I’m Reading This Week



The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a satisfying book. It’s funny and serious at the same time. The main characters are wonderful and memorable (but I'm not going to describe them). Just one example: this description of a very minor character:

“Bernice was also the proud mother of, at last count, eight children, all of whom looked more or less like Bernice in varying degrees of skin color from light-skinned to dark. That was not a bad thing. Nor was it a good thing. Everybody knew Bernice had the kind of face that would make a man wire home for money. The question was, who was the man and where was the money?” (p. 94)

In this novel, good people mostly end up with good things happening to them. Quite a few bad people end up not so happy, maybe even satisfyingly dead. Good individuals from several mistreated or unlucky groups are often rewarded — Jews, blacks, Italians, other immigrants, disabled people, poor people, people who can’t read, people with a secret past, and more. But nobody is a stereotype. 

What saves this book from being a cloying mess of well-meaning fake optimism? It’s hard to say how the author manages, but somehow the evil doers get their just deserts, the survivors don’t gloat, and there is exactly enough revenge on the bad ones and rewards for the good ones.

Vivid writing also is absolutely a key to why this is such a lovable book. Like this description of the sounds heard in a hideously cruel home for mentally and physically disabled people: “moanings, groanings, coos, burps, sighs, growls, yells, chirps, yelps, chortles, cacklings, farts, chatterings, and howlings …” (p. 266)

The NPR reviewer described the writing thus: “McBride's roving narrator is, by turns, astute, withering, giddy, damning and jubilant. He has a fine appreciation for the human comedy: in particular, the surreal situation of African Americans and immigrant Jews in a early-to-mid-20th-century America that celebrates itself as a color-blind, welcoming Land of Liberty.” (source)

The New York Times reviewer describes The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store as:  “a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel.” (source) From The Atlantic: “In McBride’s work, digging deep into the tangled roots of complicated communities is the antidote to misplaced blame and false history.” (source)

I enjoyed reading this Great American Novel. Totally. I’m grateful to my sister who gave it to me as a gift.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

28 comments:

  1. Hello Mae,
    Love the cute bunny with the tortoise statue. I watched the Olympics opening ceremony is was great. Your succulents look nice. Great family photos! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.

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  2. I only saw parts of the opening ceremony, so I missed the bells. I would have loved that too. Did you like the ceremony? And hurrah for family visits. I am supposed to be borrowing and reading that book, but I once again left it on the table of my friend's house. Thanks for reminding me-grin. Have a super weekend. hugs-Erika

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  3. In our news it was but the bombings around the opening of the Olympics. It was hard to see, such ... I have no words.
    Enjoy the hopefully peaceful games.
    My FIL was an unarmed police-officer at the games in Munich 1972. He survived (one police officer got shot and died, no infos got out but that and my MIL was pregnant with my BIL)... To peace, freedom and fun!

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  4. I caught Celine Dion, in a wonderful Dior dress, returning to sing so triumphantly. She epitomized the idea of the Olympics.

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  5. Great pics of the Olympic opening ceremony! For special circumstances, I haven't been able to watch it yet, but hoping to do so in a few days.

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  6. What a fun week, Mae. I haven't seen any news or Olympics up here but recording a lot of them. So good you're with the family too!

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  7. How nice to spend time with family! And I need to look at the youtube videos to see some of the Olympics opening. Hugs!

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  8. It sounds like a great week! Enjoy your weekend!

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  9. I forgot to add that I also watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremonies. It was great to see all the sites. It certainly was a modern show. I had tears though when I watched Celine Dion singing Edith Piaf’s popular Hymne a l’amour (Hymne to love.) Edith wrote the lyrics, as she did for many of her songs. Once, while I worked at the music editions on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, she called during lunch to change some lyrics words to a song. Our secretary was out to lunch and I took the call. I couldn’t believe that I was talking to Edith Piaf! I took the words for the new sentences and got two free tickets to see her sing at the Olympia theatre with my then fiance (first husband.). He still remembers it and he (who lives in DC now) just told me she did sing the Hymne to Love that evening long ago.

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  10. Lovel all the family photos, thanks for sharing. And The Heaven and Earth grocery store is a fabulous book, I loved it! Have a great weekend, Valerie

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  11. Your new succulent looks happy. It is certainly beautiful. Enjoyed seeing your family photos with food and drink. I was taken by all the trash cans everyone put out. Surely those weren't apartments.

    What a lovely sounding book. I wonder if my library as it. Nice gift from your sister, Mae.

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  12. Lovely screen shots of the opening ceremony and of your family get together.

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  13. Thank you for publishing a positive review of the opening. I for one thought it was original and fun and creative. Glad you had family time! That book is in my tbr stack. Nice review!

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  14. It's looks like you're having a wonderful summer! I haven't watched any Olympics yet, but now that we're home and settled, I hope to get started. The Heaven and Earth Grocery List is still on my list.

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  15. We checked into our hotel in Dallas a few hours before the Opening Ceremony was rebroadcast in the evening. I ended up watching the whole thing. I thought it was brilliant, a tribute to Paris and wildly creative.

    I heard James McBride read and speak in Houston last August (the reading and discussion is available here, if you are interested: https://inprinthouston.org/for-readers/inprint-archive-of-readings/inprint-james-mcbride-online-rebroadcast66667777626388/) but I've never gotten around to reading the book. I should look for it.

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  16. What great pictures! I haven't watched the Olympics but you make me want to. It sounds like the opening was wonderful.

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  17. Thank you for sharing your beautiful weekend. It makes our weekend more beautiful also. Aloha!

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  18. Looks like you enjoyed some fun family time. You took wonderful photos. I have also been watching and enjoying the Olympics.
    Take care
    Sonjia.

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  19. Sounds like you've had a great week! :D I'm glad you got a chance to visit with family and watch the Olympics. I didn't get a chance to watch the Opening Ceremony, but I've heard it was spectacular. I hope you have a great week!

    My Sunday Post

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  20. Wonderful family time :) Love the bunnie. I didn't watch the opening ceremony but we were away for the weekend, so just watched snippets of it on the net. Thanks for participating in Monday Murals.
    PS: that water tank at Cervantes school was about 2mt high x 5mt wide (6.56 x 16.40ft), so reasonably big.

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  21. Sounds like a fantastic week! I couldn't see the opening ceremony, but I am quite hooked and some of these games are eating up a lot of my time.

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  22. Ooooh that bridge in Paris. I love your familypics too

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  23. Mae, my grandson was 36 in June, I didn't mention it as most people know.

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  24. I'm glad you got to spend time with family! I want to read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. It gets really good reviews.

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  25. I really liked The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and was disappointed it wasn't selected as a Pulitzer finalist. I hope you like it. I love the photos this week from you. I have been enjoying the Olympics, watching sports I've never watched before: badminton, kayaking, mountain biking, fencing.

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  26. The mural along the Seine and the wall hangings in your photo are both fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Be well!

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