When my daughter Ann was a child she liked to read (and still does) as much as I did as a child (and still do) so I would recommend books/authors to her such as The Lord Of The Rings (she didn’t like), Dean Koontz (she did like), and others. Some of my best memories with her are either singing songs together in the car on rides or reading books together and discussing them.
These days, as a grown woman and mother, I’m thrilled to say SHE recommends books/authors to me. I might not have ever discovered how much I enjoy books by Jim Butcher or James S. A. Corey if she had not wholeheartedly (and sometimes forcefully, lol) encouraged me to read their writings. And we still read books we both like and discuss them. I’m thankful for that.
Lately she has been trying over and over to get me to read a series called Dungeon Crawler Carl, a “science fantasy” series based on a RPG. I’ve never been a fan of RPG’s, so it’s been a hard sell for her. But she keeps telling me how good they are and I imagine at some point I WILL pick up the first one and see what it’s all about. However my TBR pile, both dead-tree and digital, is still stacked pretty high, so it might be a while.
But I’m SO happy with the feeling that it has come full circle when my little girl (because as wonderful a woman as she is, she will always be my little girl) is now the one suggesting books and authors to me.
The other day I was digitally thumbing through an old issue of Epic Illustrated dated June of 1985 and came across a full-page ad for the Science Fiction Book Club. Do you remember the Science Fiction Book Club? It was the science fiction book club equivalent of Columbia House Music for people who loved science fiction and fantasy books. It was a natural ad opportunity for readers of Epic Illustrated magazine which was published by Marvel Comics and featured more “mature” illustrated stories than comic book readers of the time were used to seeing.
But the thing that jumped out at me was looking at the ad and realizing THAT was the specific ad I used to become a member of the Science Fiction Book Club.
If you look at the ad above you’ll see the 5 books I chose circled in black.
Starting on the top row from the left I chose Heechee Rendezvous by Frederik Pohl because I had been reading his work and had not seen this book yet.
Next to it was The Book of Lost Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien because I had already read The Lord of The Rings Trilogy (and The Hobbit) multiple times in the previous 15 years and wanted to read this collection. Later I would find The Silmarillion and I have NEVER been able to get past the first few chapters of that work. But on the whole, I love Tolkien’s work.
On the next row down and all the way to the right is The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah and, since it was a story based in the Star Trek Original Series, was an absolute MUST for me. I have been a Star Trek fan since 11-year old me first discovered Captain Kirk, Spock and Doctor McCoy on TV in 1966.
Three books in on the following row is Limits by Larry Niven. I had recently discovered Niven and wanted to read his latest work.
And finally, on the last row and the last book, I chose The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. One of the masters of science fiction and one of his greatest (and longest) works.
Oh, and I got the cool FREE carryall you see pictured in the ad to lug all those books around in. Whoo hoo!
Over the years only three of those books have remained with me. The Pohl and Niven books were, after being read of course, either donated to the public library or traded in at a used bookstore. I’ve read the Tolkien book once, the Lorrah book at least three times and have never finished the Asimov book. I’ve kept it with the goal of one day completing it, but we shall see. All three remain packed away in storage while we travel.
Did YOU ever join the Science Fiction Book Club back in the day? Let me know in the comments.
I have known of author Joe Hill, adult son of Stephen King, for several years but have never read any of his works. I didn’t really have a good reason, except that I probably was a little fearful that he would not be as good as his dad. And that probably would have been a bit disappointing.
But recently Goodreads (yes I’m still there and on Storygraph) had a challenge for me and “King Sorrow” was one of the books listed to fulfill that challenge. So I thought I’d knock off, as the old phrase goes, two birds with one stone; read my first Joe Hill book and complete the Goodreads challenge.
I will say that when I started reading “King Sorrow” I did not realize that the book was a doorstop in size, because I was reading the Kindle version and didn’t look at the stats. If I had, I would have seen that it was 896 pages in length and about 250,000 words. That puts it on par with his dad’s “The Dark Tower” or “11/22/63” in length.
Yet Hill showed that he is as good as his dad at keeping a behemoth of a story like that interesting and engaging. The plot was one which held up and the characters were multi-faceted.
In “King Sorrow” one good deed sets off a string of events, both good and bad, that last years for a group of college-aged friends who make a pact with a demon and misunderstand the details and length of that pact. We follow them through their lives as they try to escape the pact and then, at least some of them, try to make peace with what they have done and must do to fulfill their parts in that agreement.
The story is a character-driven tale of friendship, love, loyalty and consequences that takes place in a supernatural and dark horror world. Despite its length, as I mentioned earlier, the book holds your interest; or at least it held mine.
As a first-time reader of Joe Hill, I can highly recommend “King Sorrow” to those who enjoy this kind of novel.
National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, the founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. The day’s motto is: “It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!”
Lots of punctuation and grammar rules in that sentence, lol!
I used to be a stickler for proper grammar, but over the years it’s been obvious that correct grammar is a losing battle in this day and age of the Internet. There are very few things I read online that don’t, at some point, make me cringe. Even so-called “professional news outlets” post things that are rife with spelling and grammatical errors.
And that’s not even mentioning the failure to follow simple journalistic rules such as who, what, when, where, and why being observed. Poor Cindy has to listen to me grouse about that way too often.
That’s a whole ‘nother post of its own.
But these days I just try and make sure that what I write is grammatically correct. And I’m sure I don’t always succeed, even though I proofread things multiple times and use a spellchecker. There’s no doubt I’ve split an infinitive or two in my writing, put a comma in the wrong place, or misspelled a word. We’re imperfect human beings and I don’t have a personal editor on hand, so I just try and do the best I can with MY writing and limit myself to shaking my head about what I read online.
Instead I just urge you, dear reader, to do YOUR best if you write something to be sure it follows good rules of grammar.
Here’s wishing you a Happy National Grammar Day 2026!
I should have done this last month, but here it is already February so I need to post my 2026 Reading Challenge.
The goal I set this year is to read 4 books each month, for a total of 48 books to read in 2026. That’s almost double the goal I set for 2025, which I exceeded by 43 books that year. I’d like to think I’ll exceed the goal this year, but you never know.
So far, as you can see by the graphic below, I am ahead of that monthly goal; having read 6 books thus far is 2026.
Sometimes, you get an absolutely perfect gift. My brother has always been especially adept at giving me gifts that are thoughtful and special.
One year it was a set of books about the works of one of my favorite modern artists, painter Norman Rockwell. Another year it was a chess set where the pieces were made of lava rock from Mexico (where he honeymooned) because I enjoy playing the game.
This year it was a book…about ME! Or, more accurately, about Cindy, Bella and I and what happens when our RV suddenly becomes a spaceship and the adventures we have across the galaxy. The book is titled, “Jeff Escapes Gravity – Interstellar RV Odyssey” with me on the cover in a spacesuit standing in front of a spaceship view screen and control panel against the blue/black star field of outer space.
I know that when I unwrapped it that my eyes MUST have been round with surprise. Then, as I read the first paragraph aloud to Cindy and began laughing uncontrollably, they filled with tears from laughing so hard. That hardly ever happens to me, but I was literally laughing so hard I was crying.
“The stars outside the RV window were moving like startled fish. Jeff sat very still. His coffee cup hovered three inches above the table. Bella barked once and then barked again in slow motion. Cindy slept through a passing comet and snored like a small engine. The steering wheel hummed with a song that sounded suspiciously like a lounge singer. Jeff s hands trembled in a way that made the manual slide open. The manual landed on his lap as if it had bodyguards. The RV smelled faintly of burnt toast and distant rain. A road sign floated by the window, offering directions to Orion. The sight made Jeff laugh in a short, shocked burst. He felt like a tourist who took a wrong exit into space. Bella nosed a drifting kibble and performed an elegant midair pirouette. Cindy shifted, still dreaming, and her hair made an orbit. The ceiling light drifted toward the microwave and then stopped.”
What my brother and saintly sister-in-law had gifted me with was a book that was created (I hesitate to say “written”) by Authortales.com about what happens when our RV becomes a spaceship.
What Is Authortales.com?
Authortales.com is a platform that allows users to create personalized storybooks quickly. It utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform user-generated stories into hilarious custom fiction books. The service includes professional covers and engaging content, making it suitable for various audiences. No NSFW passages in here.
Someone, (like my brother and saintly sister-in-law), gives Authortales.com a few key characters (like me, Cindy and Bella), a couple of important settings (like our RV and outer space) and then Authortales.com uses AI to create a personalized story, custom cover art (using a headshot that’s also provided by the givers), and incredible moments with the main characters…all in one amazing hardback book of approximately 200 pages. Then they print the book and ship it to the givers or the giftee.
There’s even a summary and fake review(s) on the back cover, just like any book you would find in a bookstore.
Now, to be sure, the writing is obviously AI and probably primitive AI at that. The writing is (and I’m saying this charitably) BAD, lol! As you could clearly see from that first paragraph above. But none of that matters because the story is about you and possibly your loved ones and you cannot help but read the entire 200 pages, painfully bad writing and all, to see what happens.
My brother and saintly sister-in-law even included a dedication page at the front of the book.
To be honest, I’m not sure how my brother and his wife will ever top this year’s gift in the future. They may well have hit the pinnacle with this one.
Thanks, as always, to the Bestest Brother and his Bestest Wife for such a wonderful and unique gift.
Today, January 18th, is celebrated as National Thesaurus Day in honor of the birthdate in 1779 of Peter Mark Roget who gave us the first thesaurus in 1852. Roget, who was born in London and was a British physician and lexicographer, started his work of research in 1848 and finished it 4 years later with 15,000 words. What we know today as “Roget’s Thesuraus” was first published under the title “Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.”
THAT’S a mouthful!
But accurate.
When I was a wee little Word Of Jeff and would ask my mom what a word meant, she would point me to the Webster’s Dictionary and tell me to look it up. A few years later, when I was in school and had to write a report, she and my dad bought a set of encyclopedias for me and my younger brother to use for research. And at some point, when I was doing more than just parroting what I read in the encyclopedias and expressing myself more fully in those reports, she introduced me to Roget’s Thesaurus.
Ever since then, until online resources were available, there were always two books on my desk or on a nearby bookshelf; Webster’s Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus. Today I keep a physical copy of each book in case the Internet collapses, but mostly make use of online sites like dictionary.com and thesaurus.com to inform my speaking and writing.
But as someone who first wanted to expand my vocabulary as a child and then later as a writer and speaker, Roget’s Thesaurus was like a goldmine to me. No one wants to read, or hear a speaker say, the same word for something over and over, if at all possible. With a thesaurus at our fingertips, we can expand our vocabulary and move beyond writing or saying we are happy repetitively. A look inside a thesuraus lets us say or write that we are glad, delighted, overjoyed, ecstatic, jubilant, elated, gleeful or joyous.
And if we want to find a word that is the opposite of happy, a thesaurus can point us that way to with antonyms that help us say we are unhappy, sorrowful, miserable, troubled, hopeless, or morose.
So today, I want to express to you that I am thrilled, excited, delirious, psyched, pumped and tickled pink to say Happy National Thesaurus Day.
Today, January 2nd, is National Science Fiction Day. National Science Fiction Day is a day that celebrates the science fiction genre-its stories, ideas, and impact on science, technology, and culture.
The date of January 2nd was chosen to observe National Science Fiction Day because it is the birthdate of famed science fiction author (and one of the most influential figures in the field) Isaac Asimov, born January 2, 1920. It has been observed since 2011.
Science Fiction and Me
To the best of my recollection, when I started reading as a child the first genre of interest for me was science fiction.
First, I was reading superhero comic books which are certainly a form of science fiction, such as (obviously) Superman. But even earthbound heroes like Batman and others had their phase of science fiction adventures in the late 50’s and early 60’s.
Second, the first books I found intriguing were the stories of Tom Swift (or more accurately Tom Swift Jr.) because of their grounding and setting in science and science fiction. Those were followed by authors such as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and then Robert A. Heinlein, Pohl Anderson, Madeleine L’Engle, Arthur C. Clarke, James Blish, Ray Bradbury and others.
That interest in reading about science fiction also held true in my media viewing choices because…
Third, the first TV series I had real interest in were science fiction based. I grew up watching westerns because that’s what my dad watched and series like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin because what boy doesn’t love stories about dogs, (except maybe the current occupant of the White House) but when shows like The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and The Invaders came on the scene they were all I had an interest in watching (somehow I missed ever even being exposed to Doctor Who in my youth, but I made up for that lack later in life).
Fourth, my favorite movies of my childhood were films like The Time Machine, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Planet of the Apes, First Men in the Moon, and Fantastic Voyage (Raquel Welch, notwithstanding, lol).
And I remember being at the doctor’s office when I was 8 or 9 and he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. My answer; an astronaut. However, my near complete non-aptitude for math scuttled that dream.
But even today, though my reading and viewing interests have grown and expanded, my default subject and genre choice is science fiction.
How Can You Celebrate National Science Fiction Day?
People often celebrate National Science Fiction Day by:
Reading a science fiction story
Watching a science fiction-themed TV show, series or movie
Sharing their favorite science fiction stories or characters on social media (#NationalScienceFictionDay)
Discussing how science fiction inspires REAL science and REAL inventions
Participating in themed events at libraries, book stores, conventions or other gatherings
It is, at its core, a day to appreciate and celebrate the imagination, curiosity, and future-thinking that makes up the basis of what we call Science Fiction.
Well, the year is almost over so it’s time for a post about the Books I Read In 2025.
At the beginning of 2025 I set a goal of reading 25 books this year. I felt like one book every two weeks was an achievable goal that would not make me feel like I had to pressure myself to read a book every week, but would allow me to exceed the goal if I was able.
As you can see from the graphic below (courtesy of GoodReads this year) I WAS able to exceed my goal by reading 63 books in 2025.
Giuffre was a prominent figure in the accusations against the late Jeffrey Epstein that he sexually molested and trafficked underage girls to friends and business associates of his, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Windsor was stripped of his royal titles and evicted from his royal residence by his brother, King Charles.
I had just finished reading this sad, deeply troubling, and rage-inducing book a few days ago. If all the things the author shared were and are true, it should fill any normal father, brother, son or man with disgust.
And it is a true shame that Giuffre is not here to realize that her strength and courage have resulted in her story and book selling more than 1 million copies worldwide.
This is not to be confused with the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which is still being published. I know, it can be six-seven (as the kids say); especially for those of us who did not grow up on farms and did not use this yearly guide.
I was trying to remember when I first laid eyes on the Farmer’s Almanac. It seems that it was probably at my aunt and uncle’s rural home in the early 1960’s where they had a large garden (as opposed to a small farm), that we visited each summer when I was growing up. My aunt kept a basket of rotated reading material next to the toilet in the bathroom and I believe the Farmer’s Almanac was in there among the Reader’s Digest, Country Life, and the Sears Catalog magazines.
Anyway, since this was going to be the last Farmer’s Almanac, Cindy and I decided to order one so we would have it…for some reason. Maybe just to have it, maybe to pass it along to which ever kid or grandkid might want it when we die, maybe to even use it as we travel.
So now we have our copy of the last Farmer’s Almanac and we’ll see what happens.
For the first time ever, I think, the winners do not include ANY books I read in this past year of 2025. Not one.
Some of the books I have read this year WERE included in the nominations under categories I read such as “107 Days” under Memoirs; “Never Flinch” under “Horror”; and “The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy―and Why it Failed” under History and Biography, but none of those won in their respective categories.
To be sure, there are some of the winners that I WANT to read and I’ll probably get to some of them at some point. It just wasn’t this year.
And there are some books under categories that I never read such as “Romance” or “Romantasy” because those are just not in my circle of interest.
But 7.5 million readers can’t be wrong can they? I honestly wish even more voting had taken place because we need all the readers out here that we can get. I mean, to steal the title from one of my favorite non-profits, Reading Is Fundamental.
So, congratulations to all the Goodreads Choice Awards Readers’ Favorite Books of 2025 winners.
Did any of the books you read this year make the list? If so, please drop the title or titles in the comments below.
Strangely enough, even though I was 20 at the time, I don’t recall reading or hearing about the sinking when it happened.
In fact, the first time I heard about it was listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And even though I loved the song I remember thinking that it was referring to something that happened many years prior, not something that happened less than a year earlier. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized how close in time the sinking and the song about it were in relation to each other.
Then, just a few months ago when we visited the Great Lakes region, my interest in the sinking was spurred by our tour of the Soo Locks. In looking for books on the subject I came across Bacon’s upcoming (at the time) book and reserved it at my library.
A couple of days ago it became available to borrow and I’ve been engrossed in it ever since. And it struck me that I would still be reading it when the 50th anniversary of the sinking happened, which felt strangely like some kind of fate was at work.
Anyway, I have read about 35% of the book so far and it is very engrossing. And the story hasn’t even reached the sinking yet, but the lead up and history is so intriguing and captivating.
If you have any interest in the subject, this is an excellent book to read about it and I highly recommend it.
Posted inBooks, Historical|Comments Off on The Gales Of November
As book readers, we all owe a great debt of gratitude to….AUTHORS! Because without authors, we would have no books to read. We would have no bookstores, no physical books lining our shelves in our home library or public library, and no digital books filling up our hard drives.
We would not have fiction writers taking us to different lives, different worlds or even exploring our own lives and own world in ways we’ve never experienced or from perspectives we’ve never considered. We would have no writers of non-fiction, experts on subjects we are not but wish to learn more about, helping us to expand our knowledge and intelligence.
In short, without authors we would miss out on a lot of things.
In 1928, the president of the Illinois Women’s Club, Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, came up with the idea to create a day that recognized American authors. She was an educator and quite an avid reader. The inspiration for the holiday came while she was in the hospital during the First World War. She had just read Irving Bacheller’s “Eben Holden’s Last Day A-Fishing” and sent a letter to him expressing her love for the book.
After receiving the letter, he responded by forwarding a signed copy of another one of his stories to her. McPherson, overwhelmed by his generosity, thought of a way to repay the gesture. She concluded that a National day for authors would do the trick and presented the idea to the Generation Federation of Women’s Clubs. The club approved, and in May 1929, issued an endorsement to celebrate American Authors on National Author’s Day.
The U.S. Department of Commerce acknowledged National Author’s Day in 1949. Although it took 20 years, McPherson’s vision finally became a reality and the holiday has been celebrated across the country every year since.
Ways To Observe and Celebrate National Author’s Day
One of the first ways is, of course, to read a book by one of your favorite authors. It might be a new release or perhaps a book you have read before and want to enjoy again.
Buy a book by an author whose work you have enjoyed.
Write a review of a book by an author you found impactful.
Post something about an author you love on social media.
Follow Ms. McPherson’s example and send an email, social media post, or even a physical letter or card to an author whose book(s) you have enjoyed.
Give or loan someone a book by an author whose work you have enjoyed so as to share that joy.
Use the inspiration you may have received from an author’s work to write and become an author yourself.
Whatever way you choose to observe and celebrate this day, I hope you have a Happy National Author’s Day!!
