August, noun, (stress on first syllable, au'-gust)
- Eighth month, following July and preceding September, containing 31 days.
- Named after Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar.

August, adjective, (stress on second syllable, au-gust')
- Inspiring reverence, admiration, or awe; majestic, grand, venerable, or eminent.
- From Latin: augustus, meaning venerable, sacred, or noble. 
- Even older: augur, meaning consecrated with favorable omens.
- Sample sentences:
  1. Our Earth is an august planetary masterpiece.
  2. The power of Nature is august, weaving breathtaking beauty with unyielding power.

August in the Beautiful Sierra Foothills, California’s Gold Country

Books to Movies! #1

I’m not a huge fan of poetry. Sometimes it’s because I just don’t get it. But usually, it’s because many poems require that I slow down, think, reread, ponder, reread again. Often, I’m in too much of a hurry, too to-do-list oriented, to give the time and attention demanded by a good poem. However, occasionally, I break pattern to read a poem. When I do, it’s often something written by Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who is probably most famous for her poem “The Summer Day” that ends with the universal question,

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Perhaps, it’s Oliver’s focus on the august nature of Nature, both its breathtaking beauty and its unbridled power that pulls me occasionally into her words.

I was fortunate enough last week to catch the new documentary film Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World on its final day at the Onyx Theatre in Nevada City (my favorite place to watch movies). I was overwhelmed by her life story, by the film-making, by the tender heart of the story, and I even cried a few times. You can watch the film on PBS and AppleTV. I would urge you see it. I recommend you set aside your phone, turn out the lights, and give the movie the time and attention poetry asks of us.

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Books to Movies! #2

Deadline.com announced that Warner Bros is locking down the film rights to Theo of Golden, and Tom Hanks is in talks to play Theo! I can easily picture Hanks as Theo, can’t you? Allen Levi’s book was one of my favorite novels of 2025. And I’m eager to see how the movie tells the story of Theo.

What’s especially interesting to an author like me is that Levi originally self-published his debut novel in 2023, then it was picked up and republished by Atria Books (part of Simon & Schuster, one of the “big four” publishing houses). What an amazing story in the modern writing-publishing world! How does one get a big publisher to grab your book and shoot it to the moon? My book Force of Nature came out just days before Theo of Golden in fall of 2023. Anyone what to buy the movie rights? What actors should play The Three Women?

Happy Twentieth Anniversary! Special Edition Coming Soon!

I’ve been drizzling out what I hope has been tantalizing news, announcing that a special edition of Force of Nature is coming soon. I’ve shared that there will be two color photos inside of the hard cover edition. And I’ve hinted that there will be something more! I’m expecting to have books in hand before I fly out to Cambridge to visit “the kids” in two weeks. Watch for a short, mid-month update in September with photos of the new edition of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail!

I will have the special hardcover editions on display and for sale at three late September - early October events. Join me!

• Sierra Club’s Delta-Sierra Group meeting in Stockton - Mon, Sept 28

• Gold Country Writers special 5th Wednesday Book Sale in Auburn - Wed, Sept 30

• Sun City’s Needle Arts Club meeting in Roseville - Wed, Oct 7

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute - OLLI at Sierra College - Fall Semester!

Buckle up for another awesome semester of academic courses designed for those of us who are “55 and better” at OLLI at Sierra College. The new catalogue is out, enrollment is open, and classes begin this week at all three locations and online!

I’m enrolled as a student in movie discussion classes, political discussions focused on the midterm elections, and a California history field trip in Sacramento! Are you enrolled in classes yet? Which ones did you choose? Do you have favorite instructors or subjects like I do? There are over 120 to choose from!

I’m teaching one OLLI class beginning in November, “Women’s History through Literature.” It’s part book club, part lecture, part discussion class focused this semester on author Stephanie Dray’s latest historical fiction novel A Founding Mother about First Lady Abigail Adams. You know how obsessed I am with both First Ladies and with women’s historical fiction. This promises to be a terrific class. We’ll meet three times, Nov 17, 24, and Dec 1. I’m facilitating the course twice—in the morning at the Rocklin campus and in the afternoon at Lincoln Library. I hope to see you there!

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Auburn Library’s Gorgeous Grand Reopening

Don’t you just love the idea of a free public library system? We all pitch in a few bucks a year in our taxes, and Voila! “We the people” share ownership in a vast collection of books that we can read or listen to for free. (Plus movies, puzzles, newspaper subscriptions, park passes, book-centered events and a whole lot more!) It’s such a brilliant democratic idea!

Our local Auburn Library, which is part of the Placer Public Library System, reopened in August after a major, multi-million dollar (and much needed) renovation. The results are spectacularly inviting—a crown jewel in the city’s social infrastructure. Be sure to drop by and check it out! Get a library card and join the Friends of the Library!

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August Book Recommendations

I’ve gotten behind in sharing with you all the great books I’ve been reading! I still don’t have space here to share everything I’ve had the pleasure of reading, but I’m going to share a recent Top Six today! [A list that was just meant to be displayed together—look at that beautiful lineup of dramatic blue-and-gold book covers!] BTW, I listened to all of these book on Audible.

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan is a contemporary novel told in two voices. Both begin telling at the moment of the critical event, but one tells her story forwards from there, while the other tells her story backwards from that point. Picoult took on one of the narrators, while Finney Boylan wrote the other voice. I was captivated from the first page and hated when it was over, and I never expected the ending! Most definitely a 5*****

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (of The Help fame) is a very long book, but I was engaged for every single moment. Set in the depths of the Great Depression in an already impoverished Mississippi, the story brings together a cast of female characters that will stay with you forever. This is a book I will refer to and think about for decades. The bonds of friendship these women foster lift them all—the formerly rich and powerful and the always dirt poor and abused—and together they overcome the insurmountable. Absolutely a 5*****

Whistler by Ann Patchett surprised me. I do not like horses, at all, so when I saw the cover, I assumed it was not a book for me. Wrong! The horse is symbolic only. It’s a contemporary novel that reaches back into the past as the characters dance around the details of an old traumatic event. The surprises and insights were many. Not at all what I expected, and so much more. For sure a 5*****

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin is an historical novel set in the Victorian era among the wives of wealthy men. The gentlemen forbid their wives from reading books or participating in society beyond looking beautiful and hosting elegant parties. The men believe those activities are unseemly and could damage the women’s brains and bodies. A group of women slyly uses the system of social hierarchy and an old vast library to their advantage. Still another 5*****

Smokey Blue Sunrise, by my Black Rose Writing sister-author Lucille Guarino, is a contemporary novel set in North Carolina, in the hilly inland region that was surprised to be severely battered by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Families and communities were isolated and unreachable. It’s the story of one rural family and their neighbors before and during the natural disaster. It’s also a love story and a story of family and personal growth and resilience. A definite 5*****

Desert Brave is also authored by a Black Rose Writing sister-author, Gin Coleman. The intriguing story is set in an unusual place that I’d previously known nothing about, which is what drew me to the book. Set in a North African desert in the post-World War I Era, the story begins with the crash of a small plane carrying an archeologist, his team, and his daughter. Two women are left to rescue themselves from the crash, the desert, and people who would do them harm. It’s a fascinating story that includes some legendary beautiful golden horses and mysterious golden artifacts, though it’s a tad rough around the writing edges. Absolutely a strong 4****

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August Harvest Time at the Local Farm Stands and Farmers’ Markets

Grandma in Board Book Heaven

It’s not really a board book that I’m celebrating this month. It’s a beautiful children’s picture book. It’s back-ordered absolutely everywhere, but that’s okay. A good book will always be good. I ordered a copy from my local bookstore, and they’ll let me know when I can pick it up. I kind of like that Dolly Parton’s delightful book, Coat of Many Colors, about a little girl and her colorful coat made of rags by her loving mother, based on Dolly’s song by the same name, is sold out everywhere. What a tribute to her angel status. Some would describe her as a bodhisattva, a enlightened being of great wisdom and compassion, who spends her time on Earth helping others toward their own wisdom and compassion.

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.
A circle is round, it has no end.
That's how long, I will be your friend.

Thank you, my friends! Thank you for subscribing to my Substack blog/newsletter! Whether you are an old gold friend and long-term subscriber or a shiny new silver friend and recent subscriber—thank you! I am deeply grateful to each one of you.

I do my best each month to provide you with fun, interesting, and valuable things to read. I write about stories and storytelling. I write about places and adventures and beautiful things in my world. My hope is that you will be uplifted or inspired when you read what I write. Thank you!!

Usually, I create a fresh Substack at the start of each month. Occasionally, there’s new news that just can’t wait, so I send out a mid-month update like this one.

Congratulations! And The Winners Are…

Wow! Over 180 people entered the recent Adventure Book Giveaway! To celebrate two significant anniversaries, my friend and sister Black Rose Writing author, Jann Alexander, and I offered up copies of our two book for a drawing. Jann’s historical novel Unspoken is celebrating its first birthday! And I am celebrating the 20th anniversary of the John Muir Trail trek that became Force of Nature. The following lucky readers had their names drawn from the magic hat! (Actually, it was a random number generator! But I like that image of the black top hat and magic wand better than some faceless computer app.) Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing!

• Susan won a signed copy of Force of Nature

• Arlene won the audio version of Force of Nature (narrated by Anna Crowe)

• Yvette won a signed copy of Unspoken

• Lowell won the Kindle version of Unspoken

Speaking of the Twentieth Anniversary…

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. But you have to promise not to tell anyone. Mum’s the word! Zip the lips! Cross your heart!

My publisher, Black Rose Writing, has come up with an amazing way for us to celebrate the Twentieth Anniversary of the John Muir Trail Adventure that became Force of Nature. I set out on the JMT with Cappy and Jane twenty years ago! We stepped foot on the long-distance trail through the heart of the Sierra Nevada on July 19, 2006. “Follow the Yellow Brick Road!” we playfully sang as we walked across the bridge into Lyell Canyon that day. We finished on August 15, 2006.

Twenty years ago TODAY Cappy and I, along with a new hiking friend we renamed Zoe, came down off Mt. Whitney and walked into Whitney Portal on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. (Craving fresh fruit and those amazing bacon cheeseburgers!)

To celebrate the adventure and the book that grew out of it, there will soon be a very special hardcover edition of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail!

It will have two color photos inside!!

I spent last week sifting through more than 1200 photographs from the trek! (Most of which were not from my camera. If you read the book you know why!) I could only pick two of the 1200! The photos had to be vertical or portrait (not horizontal or landscape). They had to include people, one of whom was me. And the images had to have enough pixels to print vividly. Suddenly, there were fewer than ten (!) that fit all those requirements. It was a hard choice!

You’ll have to wait to see the two photographs that did make the cut.

But wait! There’s more! The special edition has another over-the-top feature, too! But that one is still TOP SECRET! Not even any hints are allowed. I’ve not even seen it yet myself. So we’ll all just have to wait a few weeks.

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Summer Means it Time for the County Fair!

Book Recommendations

Since this is a special, short mid-month post, I’m going to skip the recommendations this time. But I have been reading up a storm and have several really good titles to share with you in two weeks when it’s time for a new month’s Substack. In the meantime, if you want to see what I’m reading, you can always follow me on Goodreads, where I post everything I read. You can also check out my Bookshop.org pages, which are still a work-in-progress.

Help me promote my Substack blog/newsletter by (1) leaving a comment, because that activates the Internet’s algorithms, (2) liking/heart-ing it, which also tickles the algorithms, and (3) share it with your book/story-loving friends. Thank you!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

It’s also Fire Season! I follow the news, read local updates on the Watch Duty app, and view the video clips posted online. My two Go-Bags (one near the front door and one in my car) stand at the ready. It’s Eastern Washington, Canada, and Western Europe that are terrifying to watch this week. Friends post photos of smoke and flames. I’m reminded of similar scenes here in California in recent years. It’s horrible! I’m sending love and courage to everyone facing these wildfires and their devastating aftermath. Above all else, stay safe, please.

AuthorFest Celebrates Writing, Authors, Along With Songwriters

The last days of July found me in Nashville, a city I’ve never visited before. I joined my Black Rose Writing author friends and colleagues for our annual AuthorFest at the beautiful century-old Noelle Hotel in the heart of Music City. This was my fourth time at the conference hosted by my publisher, Black Rose Writing.

It still sounds so strange to my ears every time I say “my publisher” in a sentence. I’m beyond grateful that my first book Force of Nature was selected by such a terrific publishing house and that I’m part of such a dynamic, welcoming community of writers. The fact that my second book, the forthcoming Strangers in My Blood, already has a home there brings me great happiness, because I know it will be in good hands.

In addition to two days filled with sage advice and inspiring author talks, many of us grabbed an evening of Nashville Music at The Listening Room. I’m not knowledgeable about Country Music, but I’m told the singer-songwriters who entertained us that evening are well known—Josh Phillips, Rotundo, and Beau Bailey! When they found out there were three tables full of authors in the audience, they posed for photos with us—songwriters & authors, storytellers all, unite!

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The Odyssey - from Oral History to Written Story to Modern Movie

Have you seen it yet? I was hesitant when I saw the trailers so full of violence, but then the positively raving reviews came pouring in from every direction. It was all those English majors loving on the movie that convinced me I needed to see it. It’s hard to find a movie that satisfies book lovers! I watched it at the Onyx Theatre in Nevada City, my absolute favorite movie-watching venue.

I have to agree—the movie was over-the-top good. [Though I had to cover my own eyes a couple of time!] The Odyssey has been re-written and re-translated scores of times. The very first English translation by a woman author is recent, however, and it’s been praised repeatedly for providing a more accurate portrayal of the women characters in the story. It turns out that, in the original telling, they weren’t really secondary characters providing foils for the strong and brave men—the women were strong and brave and smart in their own right. Christopher Nolan’s retelling of the epic drama was based on that 2018 translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson. I read it shortly after it was released and definitely recommend it.

Please share your thoughts about the movie, the book, the fanfare, the women.

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Reading in the Wild - New August Episode of My TV Show

Each month, I review two or three books chosen from my Read Your Way Through Earth Month list of thirty titles, one for every day in April. What all the books have in common is a central nature and/or environmental theme. For August, I shared two Women’s Historical Novels set in the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s. [Thanks to Auburn Community Television, ACTV, and manager-director Philip Jacques.]

Watch Reading in the Wild on ACTV or on YouTube by clicking on the image below. In the video, I introduce two fun and inspiring stories with strong women in starring roles: Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor and Unspoken by Jann Alexander. From the same time and place, with similar protagonists, these authors have created two very different tales. I know you’ll enjoy both of them!

For more information about my Earth Month Calendar of Books, click here to go to the Earth Month page on my website.

For more information about Book Club visits, click here to go to the Book Club page on my website.

A Tip of the Hat to Black Rose Writing Authors

I thought it would be fun this month to change up the way I share my book recommendation. Usually, I tell you about the random collection of books I’ve read in the previous few weeks. This time, I’m highlighting books written by my BRW author colleagues, all of which I’ve read in 2026. Some I read as a member of our BRW monthly Zoom book club, some I read as pre-publication “advanced copies,” some I just automatically read everything that author writes. All of them I recommend. One thing that’s fun about making a practice of reading my BRW colleagues’ books is that I get a chance to read in genres and on subjects I’d ordinarily not seek out. Variety is the spice of the reading/writing life!

• Rat Town Blues: Slag Ferguson, Book One by Brian Kaufman

  • Highly entertaining, fast-paced detective novel of the Sam Spade variety.

• Under Two Flags: A Novel of World War I by Janis Robinson Daly

  • Women’s historical novel based on the life of an American opera singer in Germany at the start of World War I.

• Unspoken: Secrets & Survival in the Texas Dust Bowl by Jann Alexander

  • Historical novel set in the Dust Bowl Era featuring strong women as heroes.

• Everest and the Rest of Us: Four Journeys in Search of Adventure by James Nehring

  • Memoir filled with challenging adventures and a fascinating investigation into why we seek out adventure in our lives.

• Diverted: A Town, A Tune, A Secret by Cam Torrens

  • The latest in one of my favorite adventure-mystery series all set in the Colorado Rockies. (To be released Fall 2026. I read an early copy.)

• Braving the Dawn: A Novel of New France by Peggy Joque Williams

  • Women’s historical novel chronicling the life of one of the Daughters of France who sailed to the New World to help settle New France.

• Descartes’ Demon: A Cyber Satire by Ross Hightower & Deb Heim

  • Hysterically funny satire set in the high-tech world that includes both viruses and ghosts.

• Finding Naomi by Diane Hawley Nagatomo

  • Contemporary fiction set in Japan and the American Midwest with the young woman protagonist searching for family.

• Mall Goddess by Marilee Dahlman

  • Delightfully funny story with an artistic and eccentric female protagonist set mostly in a dying mall, the small town’s heart. (Release date August 6, 2026)

• Smokey Blue Sunrise by Lucille Guarino

  • A nanny, a young family, and Hurricane Helene all come together in Western North Carolina, where love abounds.

• Following Sunshine: A Voyage Around the Mind, the World, the Heart by Niamh McAnally

  • A memoir about a woman’s chosen life of adventure that takes her around the world and ends in unexpected love.

• Willie - Rum Running Queen by Louella Bryant

  • Historical novel set during the Prohibition in Rural Virginia, the heart of the bootlegging business, and based on the true story of Willie Carter Sharpe.

Happy Twentieth Anniversary! Happy First Birthday! Let’s Celebrate!

July-August 2026 is the 20th Anniversary of the John Muir Trail adventure that became my adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. It’s also the 1st birthday of my friend and colleague Jann Alexander’s historical novel Unspoken: Secrets & Survival in the Texas Dust Bowl (see above for details).

Final call to enter the book giveaway Jann and I are hosting. The LAST DAY to enter is AUGUST 7! Click the image above to find the entry form. There are FOUR days left and FOUR opportunities to win one of the books.

Sweet Nostalgia

My Aunt Doreen passed away in July. In her nineties and “with it” until the very end, she was the last of my parents’ generation to leave us. My parents and aunts and uncles, the four Griffin brothers and their wives, had nine children among them, my cousins, who have scattered across the country from coast to coast.

I’ve been working on Strangers in My Blood, my adoption memoir, for months now. I was already digging deep into my family’s history and lore. Aunt Doreen’s death has sent a wave of nostalgia over me, sparking sweet memories of events and gatherings I’d not thought of in years. I was so fortunate to grow up in the little City of San Fernando in Southern California back when The Valley was still filled with orange groves and horse property. It was a Wonder Years world that doesn’t exist anymore. [That makes me sound old, doesn’t it? I guess I am!] Aunt Doreen’s passing has me really missing my folks, too!

A Bow of Gratitude to Jim Nehring & his Substack The Daily Adventure

In June author James Nehring announced a Flash Nonfiction Story contest on his Substack The Daily Adventure. I entered a short story based on Chapter One of my upcoming adoption memoir, Strangers in My Blood. Judges chose my entry titled “Phone Call From a Stranger” as the winner.

I’m honored and grateful! Thank you, Jim! The other winners are:

• “The Grand Adventure” by dRae Sutherland

• Nicolle Goldman’s “Picnic of the Lost Pilgrims”

• Honorable Mention, Cam Torrens’ “Anatomy of a SAR Mission—Iowa Gulch”

You can read my entry and the other three winning stories here on Jim’s Substack: Flash Nonfiction Contest Winners. While you’re there, I highly recommend subscribing to his Substack. He puts out a weekly post. They remind me of the weekly newspaper columns written by “columnists” like Jack Smith and Irma Bombeck back in the heyday of print journalism and the daily newspaper.

Grandma in Board Book Heaven

The classic Eric Carle storybook, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is available in both English and Spanish. Kids love its call-and-respond rhymes and bold illustrations. I have fond memories of reading it with my son when he was little. I can’t wait to read it with my granddaughter. I grabbed one in each language for my soon to be bi-lingual Lia. I’m going to have to learn Spanish right along with her!

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What’s Your Favorite Summer Dish?

For me, fish ceviche positively screams summer! Until this year, though, I’d never made it myself! My friend Holly recently shared this recipe with me, and I’ve already made it three times! She got it from her husband, who seems to remember he got it from Rachel Ray’s TV cooking show. Wherever it originated, it’s easy and delicious!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

Looking for inside adventures when it’s too hot outside and you can’t get to the beach or the mountains? Movies! Libraries! Stage plays and musicals! Museums!

I watched Hail Mary a second time and it was just as terrific on the small screen as on the big screen. I’m looking forward to seeing The Odyssey at my favorite movie theater, The Onyx. Both the Crocker in Sacramento and the de Young in San Francisco have some amazing exhibits lined up for summer. I like to make a whole day of it and plan to each lunch in their excellent cafeterias. I’ve got tickets at the Sofia for the B Street Theatre’s annual New Comedies Festival of plays. What are you doing when it’s too hot outside? How do you stay both cool and busy?

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Celebrating Big Anniversaries with Book Giveaway Promotions

July 2026 is the 20th anniversary of Joan and Cappy’s Wild Adventure that became Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. It was on July 19, 2006, that we took our first steps on the iconic 200-mile trail through the heart of the Sierra Nevada. We spent nearly a month in the gorgeous wilderness, finishing at Whitney Portal on August 15, 2006. You can hike right alongside “The Three Women” when you read . too. And check out the Photo Album from the hike on my website.

My friend and sister author, Jann Alexander, is celebrating, too. It’s her book’s first birthday this month. She writes women’s historical novels (my favorite genre to read). Her first book Unspoken, is set in North Texas during the horrible Dust Bowl years, and her main characters are a mother and daughter who try, against all odds, to hold their family and their farm together. The sequel, Vacancy, will be out in September.

I love love love teaming up with other authors, and this summer, I’m teaming up with Jann to share our books with you and your friends. You can enter the book giveaway on Jann’s website by clicking on the graphic above or the button below.

Enter Book Drawing

While you’re there entering the drawing, if you are a book club person, be sure to sign up for us to visit with your book club! Book clubs are the best!

There’s a special Book Club page on my website, too, where you can find a discussion guide for Force of Nature. Message me if you’d like me to visit with your book club!

Visit Book Club Page for Force of Nature

Reading in the Wild Book Recommendations - Unspoken

The latest episode of my local TV show, Reading in the Wild, is now live on YouTube. This month, I review and recommend two more books from my Earth Month Calendar of Books. Both are Women’s Historical Fiction. One is Jann Alexander’s Unspoken, which I paired with Hazel Gaynor’s Before Dorothy, a new entry into the Wizard of OZ canon.

Grandma in Board Book Heaven

What could be better than a timeless classic? Where’s Spot was one of the first board books to feature flip-up tabs. When we search all over the house for the puppy Spot, we can look together for him under the bed and in the closet. And we can even search for Spot in Spanish!

Years ago, I discovered an amazing book for parents of young children, The Jim Trelease Read-Aloud Handbook. My copy is an early edition from over 40 years ago. The latest version is the 8th edition! It walks parents through best (and “funnest”) practices for sharing books with children, from infants to teens and all in betweens. I cannot recommend it enough. (I gifted it to “my kids,” Dean and Marta for my new grandbaby Lia!)

Reminder: Bookshop.org - An Amazon Alternative for Online Book Buying

Are you familiar with Bookshop? It’s an online ordering platform for books that supports thousands of local bookstores all across the country. You pick the bookstore that gets credit for the books you purchase. For example, I have my own account set to the Book Seller in Grass Valley. So every time I buy a book using Bookshop’s website, Book Seller profits. It’s a great way to support your local businesses with the convenience of online shopping.

I have set up a special page on Bookshop for all the Earth Month 2026 books. You can visit that special Read Your Way Through Earth Month 2026 page here.

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

June triggers adventure planning: Quick day-trips, overnight adventures, and long journeys to new places. Lounging days of reading. Movies in cool dark theaters. Hikes along the water’s edge. Packing overnight bags. Sand between our toes. Sunhats and sunscreen. Dips in the water. Sun tea and wine spritzers. Shade umbrellas. Blank white space on the calendar to squander as we please.

Ahh! Summer has just begun! What are your plans for summer?

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Twentieth Anniversary of The Three Women’s Excellent Adventure!

Inconceivable! Twenty years ago, in June 2006, Cappy and I were in the final throes of preparing for the month-long adventure that would become Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. Twenty years ago? How can that be?

That anniversary means TWO fun things:

• Scroll to the end of this newsletter to read a brief excerpt from “Cornucopia,” one of several Force of Nature chapters that were left on the cutting room floor. Over the next couple of months, I’ll share photos and little stories from our Big Walk!

• To celebrate 20 years, I’m combining energies with my friend Jann Alexander, author of the women’s historical fiction novel Unspoken, who is also celebrating an important anniversary. We are doing a drawing for book giveaways (2 paperbacks, 1 ebook, 1 audiobook). Click the image below to see all the details and to enter the drawing before August 7.

Anniversary Book Giveaways — Enter to win!

Click Here for Entry Form

The Latest Episode of Reading in the Wild

Available to watch on Auburn Community Television (ACTV) and YouTube, the next installment of Reading in the Wild spotlights 3 terrific books. Though they all have a hiking-adventure theme, they deliver very different tales. All three come from my 2026 Earth Month Reading Challenge. The video is 20 minutes and includes enthusiastic book recommendations with special suggestions for book club readers! (Thanks to ACTV and manager/director/editor Philip Jacques.)

• A Walk in the Park - a wild Grand Canyon adventure memoir by Kevin Fedarko.

• Havoc: Trouble on the Trail - part of the Tyler Zahn adventure-thriller series by Cam Torrens set on the Colorado Trail.

• Everest and the Rest of Us - an adventure-filled memoir by James Nehring that also investigates why humans are drawn to adventuring.

You can find the entire list of 30 nature-centered books at my website here.

When purchasing books, if you prefer to support local bookstores and avoid using Amazon, you can still conveniently order online while supporting the bookstore of your choice using Bookshop.org. The books I discuss in my Substack are spotlighted on my Bookshop.org page here.

Speaking of Long Distance Hiking… A Trail Angel Story

I recently had the distinct honor of playing the role of Trail Angel to two friends who are hiking from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT runs right through the Sierra Nevada, doubling up with the John Muir Trail for most of it’s 200 miles. The PCT by comparison is over 2600 miles! I met up with my friends, Cam Torrens (author of Havoc noted above) and his daughter Natasha, where the PCT intersects with Old Highway 40 near Donner Pass’s Rainbow Bridge.

I fed them lots and lots of the fresh foods they were craving. They restocked their packs at the market, mailed home no longer needed ice axes and spikes, showered, did laundry, and slept in my guest room.

I enjoyed an amazing vicarious thrill from filling them up and listening to their stories. Twenty years ago, I walked about 200 miles on the JMT in the lovely months of July and August. They traveled the same miles where the trail was buried deep in snow. I admired blue lakes, plunging waterfalls, and green meadows filled with seas of wildflowers. They saw meadows, frozen lakes, forests, and granite all turned white by a blanket of snow. We experienced very different versions of the High Sierra.

I dropped the two of them back the next day at the intersection where I found them, and they headed north at a 25-miles-a-day pace, so I’m sure by the time you read this, the father-daughter pair will be well inside Oregon.

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Strangers in My Blood Update

The Big Edit…

It’s coming right along, one chapter at a time. I started at the beginning using comprehensive editorial advice from editors and critiquing partners. I even rearranged my book’s “Murder Board” to keep up with the new order!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch…

Strangers in My Blood, my adoption memoir, is partly the story of meeting new half-siblings. Two months ago, I introduced you to my new half-sister Genie. Last month, I hinted you’d meet Glenn this month. (You can meet Christina in a couple more months. I’m stringing this out, hoping to pique your curiosity!)

Glenn and I are close in age, but because we didn’t know one another as children, we were both raised as the first-born, with the privileges and expectations of the eldest child in our parallel lives. We two share both genes and that “first born” attitude, so are alike in many ways. When we spend time on the phone, sitting on opposite coasts in New York and California, we talk away an hour digging into serious topics and laughing a lot!

However, there’s one slice of life where we’re very different. Like everyone else in his branch of the family, Glenn is an accomplished musician! (I didn’t get that gene!) He made his career in the music business, as owner of Bar/None Records. Now retired, he and his band, Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help, are about to release their newest album in July. Glenn is much “cooler” than me. Check out the band, music, and album here.

You can watch and listen to the album’s trailer video by clicking on the image below.

Movies Are Stories, Too!

I love good stories, whether on the screen, on the stage, or in the pages of a book. I saw two excellent movies this month, Disclosure Day and Pressure. Have you seen them?

One, set in the near future, looks at the possibility that all the alien sightings over the decades were real and they live amongst us. Disclosure Day is a Spielberg movie and exhibits all the suspense and surprises you’d expect from him.

Pressure is set in the past, in the last few days before D-Day’s Allied invasion of Europe. The main characters are General Eisenhower, two expert meteorologists, and the weather. It was way way more exciting than that lineup might suggest!

Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter gives 95 to Pressure and 70 to Disclosure Day.

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Surprise, Surprise! Force of Nature was Spotted in the Wild!

I get goosebumps every single time Force of Nature is spotted on a bookshelf in a library or a bookstore! It never ever gets old! Thanks, Bart O’Brien, for the photo and the alert! And thanks, Once Upon a Trapeze for stocking my adventure memoir!

Thank You, Dear Readers!

Thank you for reading my book, following me online, and subscribing to my Substack blog/newsletter. I am beyond grateful for your support!

Books thrive in our busy world only when readers like you share them with others!

P.S. Be sure to invite me to attend your book club when you read my Force of Nature. I can join you in person if you’re nearby or via Zoom if you’re not. I have Book Club Kits, too, complete with goodies. Check out the Book Club page on my website.

A Story Left Lying on the Cutting Room Floor

Excerpt from “Cornucopia” — Twenty years ago, June 2006

I sat on my living room floor surrounded by mounds of food and supplies collected over the preceding weeks. Beside those piles stood my empty backpack and four boxes I’d soon ship ahead to resupply locations along the trail. One cardboard box, already packed, taped, and addressed to Red’s Meadow Resort, sat off to the side. It contained the first five days’ meals—four days of hiking plus one just-in-case extra day.

I addressed the second box to myself at Vermilion Valley Resort (VVR), where I intended to arrive on Day Nine. Red’s and VVR, commercial campgrounds on the border of the wilderness, sit a short hike off the JMT. For a moderate fee, they provide caching services to thru-hikers.

Container number three’s destination was Muir Trail Ranch. Near the halfway point along the trail, it’s pretty remote. They required that we pack our supplies inside five-gallon plastic paint buckets to keep the wildlife out.

To whittle down the mounds, I had measured and packaged individual portions into bags for each day. Thirty little bags of instant coffee. Thirty of Gatorade. Thirty of nuts and dried fruit. Thirty lunches. Thirty freeze-dried dinners. Then, each of those I arranged into larger bags, one for each day.

I looked around at the dwindling piles. “3000 calories! That’s a lot of food!” The meals were based on a 3000-calorie-per-day diet that included plenty of protein (for keeping muscles strong) and ample fats and carbohydrates (to maintain consistent energy).

Food for eleven days still waited to be packed. I’d carry six of those in the bear canister in my backpack on the first leg. The final five belonged to a box to be mailed to a packing service.

Just thinking of the final food cache plan made me a little nervous. The last spot where Cappy and I needed to resupply was nearly twenty miles from anywhere, so we arranged for a packing service to meet us right on the trail. Those arrangements left us both anxious. The fee was expensive, and the meet-up directions were vague.

Excitement overpowered my anxiety. Physically arranging food in boxes made the trip feel real. “This is actually going to happen!” My dream adventure was about to happen!

I turned to the final box. Food went in first, sturdy dinners in a pile at the bottom, then the more fragile lunches on top. I pressed protein bars snugly around the edges. Personal care and first aid items along with the softest bits—undies and socks—covered the meals. Chocolate treats and other surprises were cherries on the top. Finally, crumpled newspaper filled any empty space.

We three women planned to take our first steps on the trail at Tuolumne on Wednesday, July 19, 2006. So, I would mail my four carefully packed resupply containers at the post office on June 30… Twenty years ago!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

For some reason, I was under the mistaken impression that retirement was a time of rest and relaxation. I am over a decade into my “golden years,” and I have discovered that I’m as busy now as I’ve ever been. I don’t know how I ever had time to hold down a real job! My calendar is filled to bursting! Most of my retired friends have found the same thing to be true in their lives.

I think being a “senior citizen” is a lot like being an adolescent. There are so many new and exciting things just waiting for our attention! The sky’s the limit.

There are classes to attend, trips to take, arts and crafts to develop and enjoy, friends to dine with or play games with, and service clubs that need volunteers. There are concerts and plays to attend, pickle-ball games to play, hikes and bike-rides to take, new musical instruments to learn, gardens to care for, grandkids to dote upon, protest signs to paint and rallies to attend, and so much more! And of course, there are books to read and life stories to write and share.

Author/Artist Field Trips

In the spirit of Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I took myself on two delightful local adventures, or artist’s field trips, this past month. What do you do for inspiration?

A Sense of Beauty at the Crocker Art Museum

An amazing collection of paintings from Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico was on display at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum. “The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce” is a captivating sampling from museum’s large eclectic collection.

The Museo was created by Luis A. Ferre and his wife Lorencita Ramirez de Arellano beginning in the 1950s to bring together beautiful art from across centuries and cultures. It highlights both the commonalities and the uniqueness of beautiful art inspired by the world’s beauty. I selected portraits to share with you, but the collection includes landscapes, still lifes, and sculptures. Art tells stories, and art brings people together. Ferre described his museum’s purpose and goal.

Here, culture will be made with universal harmonies, but with Puerto Rican notes, seeking the fertile synthesis of the old and the new, of our own and the strange; opening new horizons and new perspectives to the human sensibility that has no borders nor nationality.

Stage Version of Back to the Future!

I love the energy of live performances! Don’t you? The Broadway Series at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, AKA Sac Community Center in Downtown, featured the stage version of Back to the Future based on the 1980s classic sci-fi movie. I loved that movie. I’ve seen it several times over the years. I bet you have, too. I knew the Broadway Musical version would be spectacular, and I was not disappointed!

The stage craft was worthy of movie CGI special effects. The way they made the car tear across the stage and fly into the future was the frosting on the special effects cake. The storyline was as fun as ever. The acting was superb. The music was powerful. My friends John and Janiene Lynch and I laughed and cheered and leaped to our feet for the standing ovation. If you get a chance to catch the play in your city, go for it! You won’t regret it.

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Another Book Becomes A Terrific Movie!

Speaking of sci-fi, I hope you’ve seen the movie version of Project Hail Mary. Based on the book by Andy Weir, the movie stars Ryan Gosling as a middle school science teacher (this retired middle school teacher loves that detail!) who ends up in a spaceship headed out on a mission to save all the living things on Earth from “something” that’s destroying entire solar systems and their suns. Initially, everything goes wrong. Then thanks to our hero’s creativity and perseverance, things begin to go right. Once the mission begins, there are only two characters—one human, one rocky.

The special effects are startling and stunning and beautiful. The story is rich and meaningful. The acting is perfect. Despite the otherworldly sci-fi setting, I was there, right there inside the story. We need heroic and gentle stories like this in chaotic times like these. I laughed, I screamed, I sighed, I cried, and then I laughed again. If you’ve not seen it, it’s big screen worthy.

I confess, I’ve not yet read the book. Have you? Which was better—book or movie?

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Strangers In My Blood Update

As you know, Book#2, Strangers In My Blood, is about growing up adopted in the Fifties and Sixties and later discovering my biological family members. I finished the rough, rough, rough draft last month and sent it off to my developmental editor, MaxieJane Frazier at Mighty Mule Editing, to work her creative magic.

She returned my manuscript completely covered with notes (both atta-girl! and seriously? comments). I have a lot of work to do to ready it for publishing. But I knew that going in, and I’m super grateful for the feedback Maxie provided.

It’s previously been scrutinized chapter-by-chapter by my two brilliant critique groups, the Willow Valley Writers and the Picnic Table Group, it’s undergone a terrific “global read” by my book coach/editor, Rebecca Inch-Partridge.

I’m excited and overwhelmed by all the insightful suggestions. Now, after taking a relaxing and mind-clearing hiatus from writing for a few weeks, with the manuscript in back in my hands, I must get back to work!

In the meantime… Back on the ranch…

Remember Genie? Last month, I introduced you to an important real-life character from Strangers. I told you about Genie, one of my “new” half-siblings who appear as characters in Strangers In My Blood. Next month, in July, I’ll introduce you to another character, my half-brother Glenn. So, stay tuned! Same time, same channel!

Reading in the Wild is Back and Rivers Run Through It!

That’s right. Reading in the Wild is back with new books chosen from my 2026 Earth Month collection. With the guidance of Auburn Community Television’s studio manager, Philip Jacques, (who is also cameraman, editor, and director) I’ve recorded a new episode featuring three terrific books. Rivers flow through each of them.

• Go As A River by Shelley Read is an historic novel.

• Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane is a hybrid memoir.

• Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny is a dual biography.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled. In the show, I make one obvious mistake when I’m speaking. When you find it, send me an email at joangriff@gmail.com describing my error and I’ll enter your name into a drawing for a copy of my book Force of Nature!

My Obsession with All Things US First Ladies & A New Book to Read

A quick note! If you know me, you know I love anything to do with America’s First Ladies. Just in time for our 250th anniversary, one of my favorite authors of women’s historical fiction, Stephanie Dray, has just released a new book that has me super excited. Founding Mother is about the extraordinary life of Abigail Adams, whom Dray describes as a “Fearless Patriot, First Lady, and the Formidable Force Behind Two Presidents.” I wholeheartedly agree!

I will be teaching one of my “Women’s History Through Literature” OLLI classes during fall semester using Dray’s Founding Mother. I hope you will join me! I will be teaching at both Sierra College’s Rocklin campus and at the Lincoln Library. The OLLI at Sierra class catalogue will be available in August, and I’ll share more information about dates and times in this Substack as we get closer.

Twentieth Anniversary!

This year, 2026, is the twentieth anniversary (how can that be!!!) of the Grand Adventure that led me to write my adventure memoir Force of Nature. It was twenty years ago in July that Cappy, Jane, and I stepped out on the John Muir Trail. Watch for more information on the celebrations to come. We’re still cooking up the details, but subscribers to this Substack will be some of the first to know!

Strong Women — Powerful Journeys

Four authors — Five books — A plethora of strong women — will all sit on the shelf together at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Chicago in June. They sit under the banner “Strong Women—Powerful Journeys!” Thanks to author and friend Janis Robinson Daly for arranging for our books to sit in such a place of honor!

• Saving Vincent by Joan Fernandez - Women’s Historical Fiction

• Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip by Gail Ward Olmsted - Creative Nonfiction

• My own book, Force of Nature - an Adventure Memoir

• Under Two Flags by Janis Robinson Daly - Women’s Historical Fiction

• The Unlocked Path by Janis Robinson Daly - Women’s Historical Fiction

A Book Filled With Pride

June is Pride Month, so I want to point you toward an excellent book. Cleve Jones’ 2016 memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, tells his story of growing up gay in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, moving to San Francisco, finding himself, and living through the AIDS epidemic while others did not. It’s not only his life story, but the history of the Gay Rights Movement centered in San Francisco’s Castro District.

Jones and I are exactly the same age, yet he knew and witnessed so much that I was oblivious to. The book is absolutely the very best memoir I have ever, ever read. Jones narrates the audio-book himself, and that is extra powerful. I cannot recommend it enough! (really, it’s off the charts)

Book Club People Are The Best!

Are you in a book club? What kinds of books does your group read? Do you have book recommendations?

Both of my book clubs make eclectic choices, so I get to read books I’d not ordinarily pick out for myself.

My local, in-person book club recently talked about Theo of Golden by Alan Levi. Everyone loved it! We have three genuine and very accomplished artists in our group, so the story really resonated with us. The rhythm of the story was like strolling through an art gallery, pausing to look closely at every piece and reading all those little descriptive signs, then turning the corner to walk into a new gallery display and WOW! a total surprise!

• Next we’re going to discuss Plainsong by Kent Haruf.

My online book club, made up authors who share the publisher Black Rose Writing, recently read and discussed two books:

• Descartes’ Demon by Ross Hightower & Deb Heim. It’s a deliciously fun satire the authors’ aptly describe as “A rollicking Manhattan Cyber Mystery with a Touch of the Supernatural.” Not my usual fare at all, but I loved it. It was a quick read that kept me giggling and guffawing page after page.

• Mall Goddess by Marilee Dahlman. Again, not my usual fare, but a delightfully fun and funny read. The mall goddess, AKA mall custodian, sports tattoos, pink hair, and overalls, and she makes cute pink pottery pigs in her spare time. She’s the hero and the rebel leader, who challenges the powers-that-be to save the town’s mall. Another story that kept me laughing.

A Grandma in Board Book Heaven

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat…

Jan Brett has created so many absolutely gorgeous books for children. Every page is covered in fine details beautifully rendered. Her art is the music that accompanies the action on the story’s stage. The classic story in poetry form, “The Owl and the Pussycat,” is enriched by the jewel-like colors of Brett’s artistry.

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

As I write this, it is May the 4th Be With You Day, which many use to kick off a whole month of fun celebrations of movies and books in the Sci-Fi or Speculative Fiction genre. There is just no getting away from good stories, is there? Nope. There’s not! At the end of this newsletter, look for recommended books, old and new, that fit in this category from sister author Rebecca Inch-Partridge.

Final Week of Earth Month Books

I like to include one old classic and one children’s book each year. And I like to start and finish Earth Month with books that leave me feeling realistically optimistic about our future on this planet. So here are the last five books from the 2026 Read Your Way Through Earth Month collection.

A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko is a wildly popular true adventure tale, a best seller. The subtitle, The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, hints at the reasons why. But the book is so much more than “just” an exciting (mis)adventure memoir. It’s a history of the Grand Canyon before, during, and after its elevation to National Park. It’s a look at the geology, natural history, and ecology of the region. It’s “just” a terrific well-told story all around. I devoured it!

The classic Watership Down by Richard Adams was first published in 1972, the same year I graduated high school, and during the heady early days of the Environmental Movement. Nixon had just signed the EPA into law, and the momentum was strong to save the world from ourselves. Everyone was reading Watership Down back then. It’s a story of rabbits, a community of talking rabbits, whose meadow home is about to be demolished by humans with bulldozers and a plan to build a new housing tract. The author said, “It’s just a story about rabbits,” but everyone else interpreted it as an insightful political and social allegory.

Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore is a dark story set in the not-too-distant future. The seas are rising, the storms are growing larger, and the seed vault hidden away on a rocky remote island is threatened by both Mother Nature and humans with nefarious plans. The vault holds seeds from every plant on Earth, a safety precaution against a future climate disaster. Now the seeds are in danger. This is a breathless thriller by an award-winning author.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown is my children’s book choice for 2026. It’s the first in a series of three books, and it’s been made into a wildly popular movie. A little robot wakes up after an accident to find itself on a remote island populated only by animals. It discovers that to survive it must learn from those animals, so it sets out to do so with heartfelt and humorous results. Another allegory perhaps?

I close the Earth Month 2026 list with Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. As the title implies, it’s an honest and forward-looking nonfiction book about the state of our earthly environment. It’s filled with ideas that add up to a roadmap for moving forward in saving that environment and with it humanity. It looks at environmental science, history, technology, economics, and politics. Despite that heavy-sounding list, it’s uplifting, optimistic, and empowering. I wish every person in DC and Sacramento, and other power centers all across the country would read it. I’m tempted to send one to each of my representatives. Perhaps if we all did that, their offices would grow abundant with floor-to-ceiling piles of Abundance, and they’d each read one of them!

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***A HUGE thank you to:

• Everyone who hosted or attended one of my Earth Month book talks (Friends of Auburn Library, Lincoln Library, Kilaga Library of Lincoln Hills, OLLI at Sierra College, and PECA-Placer Earth Care Action). You can find the link to the Zoom video recording of the PECA talk on their website.

• All the readers who attended one of those talks and played my book-bingo game.

• Book-lovers who perused the list, purchased books and/or borrowed titles from their local libraries to add to their TBR (to be read) lists and piles.

• Terrific authors who joined with me for this celebratory month and provided copies of their books for the book giveaway drawings.

• Dedicated citizens who are determined to “save the environment” and save humanity from the ravages of the Global Warming disaster we have created.

Congratulations!! Earth Month Book Giveaway Winners

I used an RNG (random number generator) to “draw names out of a hat.” Winners are listed below and will receive a congratulatory email from me or the author shortly!

• Nancy B. of Oregon - Force of Nature by Joan Griffin

• Sam D. of Montana - Havoc by Cam Torrens

• Cindy V. of Wisconsin - Drawing Water by Barbara Lawrence

• Carla H. - Everest and the Rest of Us by James Nehring

• Linda M. - On Hiking by Arnold Marsden

• Tara S. - Unspoken by Jann Alexander

• Deb K. of Maryland - The View From Half Dome by Jill Caugherty

• Suzy M. of California - Crossings by Ben Goldfarb

• Bianca B. of Michigan - Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

• Anne H. of California - California Against the Sea by Rosanna Xia

• Nicole B. of New York - The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

• Ashley G. of Michigan - Go As A River by Shelley Read

• Janis R. of Ohio - The Gray Wolf by Louise Penny

• Darlene B. of Pennsylvania - A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko

Author/Artist Field Trips

In the spirit of Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I took myself on two delightful local adventures, or artist’s field trips, this past month. They lifted my spirits, and just as Cameron predicted, they inspired me. I have photos to share with you, hoping you might find inspiration, too.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips at Crystal Hermitage Gardens

Every spring, over 70,000 tulips bloom at the Crystal Hermitage Gardens at Ananda on the ridge above Nevada City. I try to make the pilgrimage every year to wander through the rainbow of color on the terraced hillside overlooking the river canyon. I always come home filled with a lightness and newfound inspiration. With this year’s early onset of spring, the flowers were well ahead of time. My book club friends and I stuck with our plan and drove up on what was to be the last day the gardens were open. We took watercolors and paper, pencils and pastels, and sat in a garden almost free from people and attempted to capture the colorful beauty in photos and on paper. I haven’t indulged in an artistic adventure like painting en plein air in a very long time. It was really relaxing and emotionally refreshing! My bright pink, almost red, tulips are a lopsided version of the spectacular original!

Pine Tree Quilt Guild’s 40th Anniversary Quilt Show

Every May, I like to attend the annual quilt show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley. There are hundreds of quilts—traditional and antique, artistic and experimental, huge and tiny—it’s a visual wonder. I do a bit of quilting, nothing fancy, and I find the displayed quilts both intimidating and inspiring. This year, just for fun, as I walked through the labyrinth of vertical displays, I went birding!

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Which is Better, the Book or the Movie?

Remarkably Bright Creatures, the delightfully entertaining novel by Shelby Van Pelt, came out a couple years ago. It seemed like everyone I knew was reading it. My book club loved it. I taught a literature class for OLLI at Sierra College based on the book. And it got rave reviews! Now Netflix has turned it into a movie, staring Sally Field as the central character Tova. I loved Field as Gidget and The Flying Nun. I loved her as Norma Rae and Forrest Gump’s mother and as Mary Lincoln. Now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to love her as Tova. Let’s all watch it together starting on May 8! Then, let me know if you like the book or the movie better. Okay?

Read about the movie here. And find the book on Amazon here, on Bookshop here.

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Strangers in My Blood - the First of Many “Final” Drafts

Book #2 is coming along—slowly but surely. As you probably know, it’s about growing up adopted in the Fifties and Sixties and then later meeting my biological family members as an adult. I sent my manuscript of the complete book (a very, very early draft) to my developmental editor MaxieJane Frazier at Mighty Mule Editing a couple weeks ago so she could work her creative magic. I’m expecting it back later this month. I’m a little excited and a lot worried about what she’s going to say. But, I know I’ll have renewed creative energy to take Strangers in My Blood to the next level!

In the meantime, let me introduce you to one of my “new” sisters, Genie Morrow. She’s a much younger half-sibling on my birth-father’s side of my oft-grafted family tree. We “found” one another back in 2019, just before the big Covid shutdown began. Along with her siblings, Genie makes a significant appearance in the third third of Strangers in My Blood. Like her brother and sister (not me), she’s an accomplished musician, a singer-songwriter. (I obviously didn’t get that gene.)

Genie and her husband Nigel and their Indie Rock Band Sputnik the Band are in the process of putting out a new album. They just this week released the first song from the new album and have come out West and are touring in California. The song is called “Lone Wolf Party,” and you can check it out at the QR code below. Of course, they’re on Instagram and Spotify and everywhere else!

I’m so proud of my baby half-sister. And excited to introduce her and her band to you. Here’s their webpage. I can’t wait for you to read in my book about how I met and got to know all my half-siblings. It makes for quite an exciting story!

May the Fourth Be With You!

My friend, sister writer, and editor/book coach, Rebecca Inch-Partridge, writes speculative fiction, AKA sci-fi for those of us old-school types. She has put together a collection of “31 Novels that Ask… What If?” in honor of “May the 4th Be With You” Speculative Fiction Month. The book list includes old classics like Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and my favorite Handmaid’s Tale, as well as fresh new titles like her own growing Paraxous Star Cluster series, Escaping the Dashia and Hunting the Dashia. You can find more about this terrific book collection at Inch-Partridge’s website by clicking on the image below. There you can also find information about the planned book launch party to celebrate the release of Hunting the Dashia.

A Grandma in Board Book Heaven

Author and artist Sandra Boynton is the Board Book Maven, the Queen of the love-drenched, silly stories that kids and parents and GRANDMA’S love to read aloud!

Thanks for Reading and Subscribing to my newsletter/blog. It means a lot to me!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

Only months later, President Nixon signed into law the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. Since then, many bird species have come back from the brink of extinction and the skies over Los Angeles are blue, no longer smog gray. Wolves and beavers are making a comeback. But monarch butterfly populations are crashing, seas are rising, and glaciers are melting. We have so much more work to do.

The National Earth Day Organization has lots of information on their website about events taking place all across the country and things individuals and groups can do to help save our home planet. The theme for 2026 is Our Power, Our Planet. Click here for more information.

Ironically, April 22 is also my mom’s birthday. She’d have been 101 this year. No Earth Mother-type, “roughing it” for her meant staying at Motel 6! Raised during the Great Depression, Mom was dedicated to recycling, reusing, and never wasting a thing.

Upcoming “Read Your Way Through Earth Month” Events

If you’re local, join me for one of my fun Earth Month events. I will share my curated collection of Earth- and nature-centered books that I gathered from across genres. There’s something for every reader and nature-lover: adventure, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, historical fiction, memoir and nonfiction. These are fun interactive events with games and prizes, too!

Monday, April 27 - 10am - 12noon - OLLI at Sierra College - Rocklin, CA - Free event for OLLI Members, no registration required - More info here.

Sunday, May 3 - 1:15pm - 2:30pm - PECA Placer Earth Care Action - Auburn First Congregational Church, Fireside Room - open to the public​ - More info here.

Bookshop.org - The Amazon Alternative for Ordering Books Online

Are you familiar with Bookshop? It’s an online ordering platform for books that supports thousands of local bookstores all across the country. You pick the bookstore that gets credit for the books you purchase. For example, I have my own account set to the Book Seller in Grass Valley. So every time I buy a book using Bookshop’s website, Book Seller profits. It’s a great way to support your local businesses with the convenience of online shopping. Click here for my Earth Month Bookshop.org page

Two Book Giveaways to Celebrate Earth Month!

There are two ways to win a book!

First, several of the authors have donated paperback copies of their books to be given away in a random drawing at the end of the month. You can enter to win one of the books (including a copy of my own Force of Nature) by filling out an entry form (a mini-survey format). You can enter to win a book on my website by clicking HERE or on the image above. Or, you can enter by using the QR code in the image above. Winners’ names will be drawn randomly by May 2 and notified by email.

Second, is for Kindle users. I am hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 100 Kindle versions of my book, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. You can enter to win an ebook on the Goodreads website by clicking HERE or on the image above. The winners will be chosen at the end of April.

Read Your Way Through Earth Month - Week Four Titles!

I whittled the collection down from a list of over 100 books. Some are titles that were nominated by friends or readers of my blog. [If you have suggestions for 2027, be sure to share them with me!] Some are classics, others are “hot off the presses.” You can download a copy of the calendar and list of books by clicking the image below. It will take you to my website’s Earth Month page.

There’s a great variety of nature- and Earth-centered books for week four: Three historical novels. One eco-thriller. One literary fiction. Two adventure memoirs.

Unspoken by Jann Alexander is a dramatic historical novel set in the Dust Bowl Era in Texas. A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered. And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage. The story opens on Black Sunday, the day of the biggest and blackest dust storm ever witnessed. It’s the story of a family striving to hold on to their failing farm, despite “dust pneumonia” taking family members. It’s the story of one strong young woman coming of age filled with courage. Jann Alexander is a friend and sister Black Rose Writing author!

The View From Half Dome by Jill Caugherty is a novel set during the Great Depression, during the early days of Yosemite National Park. A young San Franciscan woman flees the city to work amidst the beauty of the National Park. There she interacts with the first woman park ranger and the photographer Ansel Adams and his wife. For anyone who loves Yosemite, this glimpse into its past is a fun trip back in time. Jill Caugherty is another of my Black Rose Writing sister authors!

In One Two Three by Laurie Frankel, three unforgettable narrators, triplet sisters, join together to tell a spellbinding story with wit, wonder, humor, and deep affection. Set in a small town where nothing ever changes, until everything suddenly does, it’s the story of the power a polluting, money-making business wields over the citizens, until the citizens begin to fight back.

In Storm Warning, wildlife biologist Alex Carter jumps at the chance to work with hawksbill turtles in Hawaii, only to face an unthinkable threat that endangers countless lives in the captivating latest entry of the acclaimed series by Alice Henderson. The main character in this fun mystery-thriller series reminds me of Nevada Barr’s famous Ranger Anna Pigeon.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey is an unique book. It’s a realistic fictional story of twenty-four hours in the lives of eight astronauts who are living on the International Space Station. In those twenty-four hours they experience over a dozen sunrises and sunsets, watch as a massive storm moves across the Earth’s surface, interact around meals, chores, and exercise, and feel a sense of awe every time they look out the window.

Arnold Marsden’s On Hiking is part memoir and part motivational how-to guide. He describes life lessons awaiting those who venture beyond the roadside pullouts and trailheads. Marsden reflects on his own epic hikes in the Grand Canyon, on the John Muir Trail and the Teton Crest Trail, and to the summit of Mt. Whitney to explore themes such as paying it forward, making second chances, and making your own trail luck. It’s a book for beginners and trail veterans alike.

I saved the best for last! My own adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail! It’s my true story of hiking the 200-mile John Muir Trail through the heart of California’s Sierra Nevada with two friends, all of us in our fifties. The JMT is said to be the “most beautiful long-distance trail in the world.” The first four days were awful! I wanted to go home. But the rest of the twenty-seven days were wonderful, and I wanted to stay in the wilderness forever! Come saunter with me!

Writing Contests! Attention Writer Friends!

Gold Country Writers celebrate the winners of their 100-Word Story Contest and Poetry Contest at their meeting in the Rose Room at City Hall on April 29 at 10am. I have the honor of acting as emcee for that celebration. Come hear the authors read aloud their entries, cheer for the winners, and join in the potluck party afterwards! For more information click here to go to the GCW website.

Jim’s Adventure Story Contest - My friend and fellow Black Rose Writing author, Jim Nehring, is the author of the adventure memoir, Everest and the Rest of Us, one of my 2026 Earth Month selections. Jim is hosting an adventure story writing contest on his Substack blog/newsletter, “The Daily Adventure.” It’s a fun theme, my writing friends. Check it out here at this link.

A Grandma in Board Book Heaven

Once again, because I can’t (don’t want to) get the images and optimism out of my head: In honor of the crew of Artemis II, NASA’s Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist and the first American woman on a moon mission), and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist), the classic board book, I Love You to The Moon and Back, written by Amelia Hepworth and illustrated by Tim Warnes.

Book or Movie? Which is Better?

I just went with friends to see the amazing, over-the-top, edge-of-your-seat, heart-squeezing movie, Project Hail Mary, staring Ryan Gosling and “Rocky.” It’s based on the novel Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. It’s an award-winning book that’s received accolades from every corner. I have not yet read it, I confess. Perhaps, it should have been included in this year’s Earth Month book collection. In any case, the movie was so wonderful that I intend to see it again on the big screen. It was long, but I didn’t even realize it because I was so engrossed, so wrapped up in the story and the relationship between school teacher Ryland Grace and Rocky the extraterrestrial.

The movie has my votes for Best Picture and Best Actor Academy Awards! Could a CGI character win an Oscar? If so, my vote goes to Rocky. Next, I have to read it!

Have you seen the movie? Have your read the novel? Which did you like better? Why?

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

“Your lives are really going to change,” is the line all new parents hear from their more experienced friends. It’s usually delivered with a knowing chuckle and a shake of the head. New parents rarely imagine just how much their lives will change. How can such a tiny creature create such a vast disturbance in the ether? How can such a little being captivate and create such awe in everyone around them?

What’s the source of the myth that storks bring babies? Many Northern European cultures favored weddings at the June Summer Solstice for its fertility blessings. Coincidentally, nine months later, in the spring, flocks of storks returned from their migrations to settle into their nests atop roofs all around town. Hmmm. All those babies arrived at the same time as the storks! Correlation… Causation?

Lia is my first grandchild. I am absolutely enthralled! (No stork was observed.)

I’m so grateful to live in a time when I can keep in close touch with “the kids” even though we live on opposite coasts, thousands of miles apart… jet flights, Zooms, and calls will all allow me be in frequent and familiar contact. I am imagining singing silly songs and reading books to my granddaughter using our screens. I’m even imagining traveling with Lia on Road Scholar Grandparent-Grandchild adventures when she’s a bit older. Big grandma dreams for a little munchkin!

Time for Earth Month’s Week-Three Book Recommendations!

I have been reading books, curating lists, and planning for my annual Earth Month reading extravaganza since early fall. I’ve chosen 30 books, one for each of April’s 30 days, from across genres. This week’s 7 books, many of them award-winning titles, include two mystery-thrillers, two nonfiction science books, two futuristic speculative fiction novels, and one with feet in both the historical past and the speculative future.

Which have you read? Which are you now putting on your TBR list? Click on the calendar below to visit my website to download the entire calendar and book list.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny pits her favorite detective, Inspector Armand Gamache, against eco-terrorists. Rather than solving his usual murder mysteries in Quebec, this is a bigger story, with bigger risks for the whole country. He must solve and block a sophisticated international terrorist plot that threatens the lives of perhaps millions of people, and time is running short!

Havoc: Trouble on the Trail by my friend and fellow Black Rose Writing author, Cam Torrens, is my favorite book in his terrific six-book series. Two strong, capable women set out to backpack the long-distance Colorado Trail through the Rocky Mountains. They just happen to be our hero Tyler Zahn’s daughter and girlfriend. When crazy scary things start happening in the mountains, he feels compelled to head out to rescue them, whether they need it or not. It’s another one of Torrens’ edge-of-your-seat thrillers. (Zahn is a bit like Connelly’s Detective Bosch, only instead of on the streets of LA, he’s in the Rockies)

Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben is an optimistic, forward-looking exposé of everything solar. There’s a bit of history, a lot of science, a bit of economics and politics, and lots of fascinating what-ifs. What if we really invested heavily in solar energy? What if we threw everything, all our technology and brilliant scientific minds, at preventing the coming climate disasters? What if we didn’t spend so much of our national treasure on carbon-heavy energy sources? What if…?

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde is a really cleverly created cross-genre novel. The first 1/3 is set in England in the 1800s, when people perfected the domestication of honeybees. The middle 1/3 is set in the contemporary American Midwest, when the collapse of bee colonies is becoming widespread. The final 1/3 is set in China several decades in the future, when pollinators have all but disappeared, impacting humans’ food supply.

Robert Macfarlane’s Is A River Alive reads like a combination of a personal love story to a river, a travelogue to rivers all around the world, and the science of rivers and their watersheds. It’s both personal and scientific. It’s local and international. It’s the country river and the city river. It’s water; it’s what keeps us all alive.

A little bit of magical realism and a whole lot of science fiction combine in The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton to make a unique story. It all begins when a child is born and orphaned during one massive hurricane named Wanda. The seas are rising, and most of the people are leaving Florida for higher ground. Young Wanda and a few others decide stay behind, and they create a wild world for themselves in the wetlands that Nature has reclaimed.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is another super-creative tale. British Intelligence has figured out the science of time travel. Their goal is to use the still imperfectly developed technology to go back in time to fix the environmental problems mankind neglected to take seriously in previous decades. This cross-genre story is funny and thrilling and mysterious and even romantic, and wildly entertaining. It would make a fun TV series.

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A Grandma in Board Book Heaven

I’m staying with “the kids” in Cambridge, which sits across the Charles River from Boston. Author Robert McCloskey is celebrated in the heart of historic Boston Public Gardens for his beloved children’s book Make Way for Ducklings with Nancy Schön’s Ducklings sculptures. The bronze version of the book’s mother duck and her ducklings have stood for over 30 years in the park, and they are dressed up for holidays and all sorts of occasions. The book is now available as a board book!

What children’s books celebrate your town or city? Recommendations?

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Two Book Giveaways to Celebrate Earth Month!

There are two ways to win a book!

First, several of the Earth Month authors have donated paperback copies of their books to be given away in a random drawing at the end of the month. You can enter to win one of the books (including a copy of my own Force of Nature) by filling out an entry form (a mini-survey format). You can enter to win a book on my website by clicking HERE or on the image above. Or, you can enter by using the QR code in the image above. Winners’ names will be drawn randomly by May 2 and notified by email.

Second, is for Kindle users. I am hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 100 Kindle versions of my book, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. You can enter to win an ebook on the Goodreads website by clicking HERE or on the image above. The winners will be chosen at the end of the month.

Celebrate the Written Word

The Sacramento Book Festival is this Sunday, April 19, from 10am to 5pm, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac. It promises to be a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors. It’s free to the public! There are lots of activities for adults and for children planned. Join us!

Bookshop.org - The Amazon Alternative for Ordering Books Online

Are you familiar with Bookshop? It’s an online ordering platform for books that supports thousands of local bookstores all across the country. You pick the bookstore that gets credit for the books you purchase. For example, I have my own account set to the Book Seller in Grass Valley. So every time I buy a book using Bookshop’s website, Book Seller profits. It’s a great way to support your local businesses with the convenience of online shopping.

I have set up a special page on Bookshop for all the Earth Month 2026 books. You can visit that special Read Your Way Through Earth Month 2026 page here.

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Thanks for reading It’s Dawning on Me! This post is public so feel free to share it.

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

The photographs the Artemis II crew have sent home of our gorgeous planet just in time for Earth Day (April 22) and all of Earth Month have been stunning… spectacular… amazing… a real JOY! And a reminder of an adventurous spirit that has lain dormant for a long while.

I’m old enough to remember the first series of trips to the moon. I was 14 and in the 9th grade when the first manned spacecraft circled the moon in 1968. My science teacher had us create scrapbooks about the team and the route that included clippings from newspapers and magazines and drawings we made in class. A year later in 1969, the first humans walked on the moon.

Less than a year after that, on April 22, 1970, we Earthlings held our first Earth Day! The Blue Planet looked so fragile, so small, so isolated from the distance of the moon. It was shock-and-awing for most residents of Earth. Those first photographs of the Earth taken from the vantage point of the moon highlighted the need for humans to take better care of our home planet and helped spark the Environmental Movement and the first Earth Day celebration.

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Time for Earth Month’s Week-Two Book Recommendations!

Rather than one LONG newsletter/blog at the start of the month, for Earth Month only, I’ve chosen to write several shorter newsletters highlighting one week’s worth of the books in the Earth Month calendar of books. #30TitlesEarthMonth

I have been reading books, curating lists, and planning for my annual Earth Month reading extravaganza since early fall. I’ve chosen 30 books, one for each of April’s 30 days, from across genres, finding something for every reader and every nature-lover. Historical fiction, sci-fi or speculative fiction. Mysteries and thrillers. Memoirs and scientific nonfiction. Romance, adventure, and even a children’s book.

𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑴𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏 by Melissa L. Sevigny is the dramatic true story of two botanists, who in 1938 became the first women to travel down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The women were serious scientists, making the first ever survey and collection of the flora in the Canyon, but all the news reporters wanted to know was how they would wash their hair and would they be wearing pants or skirts and other silly things. Sevigny’s biography of the women is both an powerful adventure story and a spotlight on the once-forgotten (or hidden) accomplishments of two strong, smart women.

𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒂 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒂: 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑽𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒐𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 is a powerful nonfiction book. Along California's 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. LA Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change? Through graceful reportage, she charts how the decisions we make today will determine where we go tomorrow: headlong into natural disaster, or toward an equitable refashioning of coastal stewardship.

Why did the turtle cross the road? The same reason the chicken and the elk did! 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑹𝒐𝒂𝒅 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕 by Ben Goldfarb is written with passion and curiosity. 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural world―and how we can create a better future for all living beings. It’s also a fun read, as Goldfarb is a great storyteller! My dad the civil engineer would have loved this book as much as every nature-lover will enjoy it.

𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒚 𝑾𝒂𝒚 by Barbara Olson Lawrence is a memoir of resilience and overcoming odds. It is a testament to the power of kindness and caring interventions to heal a damaged heart. A series of beautifully written personal essays and stories filled with love and beauty describes a life of thriving, not just surviving. It is about the power of art and nature to heal us.

𝑫𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒔 by Archana Maniar is a novel about the worsening drought in Mumbai, India, and one young American woman's new life in the land her parents left behind. As the taps run dry, Shyamala finds herself at the crossroads of her family’s history and her own destiny. The air is heavy with secrets, but when the deluge finally comes, will she be ready for what it might reveal―about her mother, herself, and the maddening city she’s starting to think of as home?

“Because it was there!” is the classic answer to why did you climb it? 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑼𝒔: 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 by James Nehring is the author's attempt to answer the question of why humans set out on adventures great or small. Why do we climb mountains, bike across the continent, paddle down the coast in a tiny boat, set out on long-distance trails? Nehring's personal stories of his adventuring are fun and exciting. His philosophical chats with readers about the motivations and benefits of adventuring are positively enlightening.

𝑮𝒐 𝑨𝒔 𝑨 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓 by Shelley Read was inspired by true events surrounding the destruction-by-drowning of the town of Iola, Colorado, with the construction of a giant dam in the 1960s. 𝑮𝒐 𝑨𝒔 𝑨 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓 is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut historic novel explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

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Flying Closer to the Earth

Staying closer to the ground, far from the moon and space, I took flight from California to Massachusetts to see my brand-new grandbaby Lia for the very first time. I was so excited I might have been able to fly cross-country under my own power! Flap-flap-flap!

A Grandma in Board Book Heaven

In honor of the crew of Artemis II, NASA's Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist and the first American woman on a moon mission), and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist), and the joy and optimism they have bestowed on all of us these last few days, I give you, board-book versions of Margaret Wise Brown’s classics: Good Night Moon and Buenas Noches Luna!

Celebrate the Written Word

The Sacramento Book Festival on Sun, Apr 19, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac, promises to a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors.

Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail is available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. It’s also available in Spanish. You can find it (or order it) at your local library. You can find it (or order it) at your local bookstore. And it’s available online at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and BarnesandNoble.com

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

That plate-spinning image has become a metaphor for trying to keep lots of simultaneous projects and priorities in focus—or multi-tasking to the extreme.

So far, 2026 has been a wild plate-spinning experience for me! I’ve got so many plates balanced atop sticks! My annual Read Your Way Through Earth Month events are represented by a delicate green-glass plate, one of the Depression glass dessert plates I inherited from my Grandma. My adoption memoir’s first draft manuscript (Strangers in My Blood), due to my editor by Sunday night, is symbolized by a sturdy blue-and-white stoneware dish from my childhood. A bright sunflower-yellow Fiestaware dinner plate stands in for all the social events, birthday celebrations, club gatherings that I love to attend with friends. Daily life, with laundry and cooking and errands, looks like a chipped pottery dish, decorated with hand-painted birds, that was one of the first dishes I bought when I first started adulting. (Notice how I almost avoided mentioning social justice? There’s a plate for that, too.)

And now I’m a grandma to baby Lia. Since her birth nine days ago in Boston, I’ve been walking on air, my head in the clouds. I have now added, in her and her parents’ honor, a fine china plate, with a golden rim and wreath of painted flowers, to the other plates! Can you picture them all spinning atop slender sticks?

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Read Your Way Through Earth Month

It’s finally here! I have been reading books, curating lists, and planning for my annual Earth Month reading extravaganza since early fall. I’ve chosen 30 books, one for each of April’s 30 days, from across genres, finding something for every reader and every nature-lover. Historical fiction, sci-fi or speculative fiction. Mysteries and thrillers. Memoirs and scientific nonfiction. Romance, adventure, and even a children’s book.

Ta-da!

Two Book Giveaways to Celebrate Earth Month!

There are two ways to win a book!

First, several of the authors have donated paperback copies of their books to be given away in a random drawing at the end of the month. You can enter to win one of the books (including a copy of my own Force of Nature) by filling out an entry form (a mini-survey format). You can enter to win a book on my website by clicking HERE or on the image above. Or, you can enter by using the QR code in the image above. Winners’ names will be drawn randomly by May 2 and notified by email.

Second, is for Kindle users. I am hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 100 Kindle versions of my book, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. You can enter to win an ebook on the Goodreads website by clicking HERE or on the image above. The winners will be chosen at the end of the month.

Earth Month Book Recommendations!

Rather than one LONG newsletter/blog at the start of the month, for Earth Month only, I’m going to write several shorter newsletters highlighting a week’s worth of the books in the Earth Month calendar of books. #30TitlesEarthMonth

The first week in April is a short one, four days & four books.

One hybrid memoir, one nonfiction, one speculative fiction set far in the future, and one historical fiction. I loved them all for very different reasons.

I chose The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of the best-selling Braiding Sweetgrass) to kick off the month in the prime position of April 1. It’s a quick read, a heartfelt read, an optimistic look at the potential relationships between humans and the natural world. It’s full of hope and beauty.

The Arrogant Ape, a narrative nonfiction by Christine Webb, takes a deep plunge into human history and our relationships with the rest of the world, with all the other creatures who inhabit Earth alongside of us. It’s a serious look at who we are and what we’ve done and what we can do in the future. Another great forward-looking book for the first week.

Susanna Kwan’s futuristic speculative novel Awake in the Floating City takes us to San Francisco after the oceans have risen to inundate coastal cities. She creates a world where the remaining inhabitants, the stubborn ones who refuse to run away, live in the top floors of high-rise buildings, farming on the rooftops, and moving about over bridges spanning from building to building, never touching the ground.

Before Dorothy, written by accomplished historical fiction author Hazel Gaynor, takes a familiar story and turns it upside down. We begin in Kansas, on the homestead and once-thriving farm of Auntie Em and Uncle Henry of The Wizard of Oz fame. The story begins before their orphaned niece Dorothy comes to live with them. Gaynor drops “Easter eggs” throughout this Depression-era Dust Bowl story about a family and a community in the midst of a human-made environmental disaster.

Check out the entire list of #30TitlesEarthMonth on my website. There, you can download a PDF version of the calendar and book list.

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In-Person & Zoom Events Celebrating Books & the Environment

I have scheduled several in-person events in my local area to celebrate Earth Month with talks about books and the environment… with games with prizes!

There is also one Virtual Gathering on Zoom scheduled for Earth Day, April 22. I will be joined by other author-storytellers to talk about our books and about the environments we spotlight in our stories. More information next week. Join us!

A Grandma in Board Book Heaven!

I love books! I have always loved books! I love my new granddaughter Lia, whom I will meet for the first time next week when I fly to Boston.

As Grandma Joan, I have hit the local bookstores and indulged in buying board books. There are so many to choose from! A dear friend, just gifted this pair of books to me for my Lia. OMG! Perfect for Earth Month, these books hit two of my obsessions: books and national parks. Perfect. Heavenly. There are little sliders to make the sun rise and set, the moon rise, the whale breach, and the fireflies emerge. Be still my heart!

I am eagerly accepting board book suggestions!

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Celebrate the Written Word

The Sacramento Book Festival on Sun, Apr 19, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac, promises to a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors.

Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail is available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. It’s also available in Spanish. You can find it (or order it) at your local library. You can find it (or order it) at your local bookstore. And it’s available online at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and BarnesandNoble.com

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

Sending out a deep bow of gratitude to YOU!

I just learned that, as of the Spring Equinox on March 20, there are now a total of 1000 of you subscribers to “It’s Dawning on Me”—this Substack blog/newsletter.

I am deeply humbled to realize that so many people are reading my words—stories, book recommendations, and observations. Thank you!

May I have the envelope please!

The following readers were the winners of the Get Ready for Spring book giveaway. In order to make room for the thirty new books selected for my 2026 Read Your Way Through Earth Month events, I am giving away some of my books from my 2025 list. Congratulations, everyone!

• Melinda from Connecticut won Gloryland by Shelton Johnson

• Karen from Florida won Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Regina from Pennsylvania won Eager by Ben Goldfarb

• Cindy from California won Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

• Judy from Indiana won Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

• Jennifer from Massachusetts won a signed copy of my own book, Force of Nature

March is Women’s History Month

I had the honor of speaking about one of my heroes, Frances Perkins, the Architect of the New Deal and Social Security, and about the power and changing face of Women’s Historical Fiction twice this month! First, I spoke at the Women’s History Summit at Sierra College in Rocklin. A special thanks goes out to history instructor Megan White for hosting me. Then, I spoke at the Roseville-South Placer District of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) at their annual celebration of Women’s History Month at the Lincoln Library. A special thanks goes out to Lynda Stockwell for inviting me to take part in their terrific event.

At each event, while discussing the growth and impact of the Women’s Historical Fiction genre, I shared this curated collection of titles by my friend and author Janis Robinson Daly. Check out her website and download this great list of books about women accidentally forgotten (or purposefully erased) from history. Her own fascinating book, Under Two Flags, is in the calendar at March 26.

April is Earth Month! And I’m Super Excited!

My annual Earth Month reading event is right around the corner. In fact, it kicked off a few days early thanks to the Friends of the Auburn Library (FOAL)! I previewed my curated list of earth- and nature-centered books chosen from across all genres at the FOAL’s monthly author series on the third Friday of March! Everyone left with a smile and several new titles on their TBR (To Be Read) list. The Auburn Librarians put together a list of Earth Month-related books available in their collection. (Local patrons, if you’d like a copy of that list, contact me with a comment, and I’ll send it to you.)

My 2026 Earth Month calendar and list of carefully chosen books is available at my website.

Let’s Celebrate Our Beautiful Planet Earth with awesome books that put the environment front and center. What’s your favorite genre? Is it murder mystery or outdoor adventure? Is it edge-of-your-seat thrillers or futuristic fiction? Maybe it’s memoir or nonfiction. Our beautiful Earth can be found as a theme in every genre.

I hope you will join me for a fun and informative conversation about books that highlight our environment.I have a number of local events schedule that you can attend. I not only share the list and give a quick personal review of each selection, but there will be prizes!

• Lincoln Public Library - Wed, Mar 25, 6:30pm - Willow Room @ 485 Twelve Bridges Drive, Lincoln, CA

• Kilaga Springs Library - Mon, Apr 6, 2:30pm -Sun City Lincoln Hills Kilaga Springs Presentation Hall, Lincoln, CA

• OLLI at Sierra College - Mon, Apr 27, 10am - Sierra College, Rocklin Campus, Rm D-12, Rocklin, CA

• PECA - Placer Earth Care Action - Sun, May 3, 12:30pm - Auburn Congregational Church @ 710 Auburn Ravine Rd, Auburn (this event is available remotely via Zoom)

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A BABY GIRL!

My first grandbaby is on her way and scheduled to arrive via stork in Cambridge, MA, on Tuesday to my son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Marta! We are all of us over the moon! And I’m holding my breath! I’ll be heading Back East in early April to lend a hand! (Note all the exclamation points!!!!)

And do you know what this book-crazy former English teacher grandma has been doing for the last few weeks? Buying baby board books, of course! OMG! There are soooo many to choose from at my local bookstore—shelves and shelves of them! How’s a new grandma to choose?

So far, I’ve mailed them a Valentine’s Day board book by Sandra Boynton and a Lunar New Year board book in honor of the baby Fire Horse this granddaughter will be. Just packaged up The Very Hungry Caterpillar for Easter, and the baby’s not even here yet! They’re going to need a bookcase really soon! Calling all grandparents out there, do you have baby board book recommendations?

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” ~ Toni Morrison

It’s March first. On February 2, that ridiculous groundhog poked his nose out of his burrow to tell us that we would have six more weeks of winter. At first, I thought his prediction was way off, as it was a balmy 70º. Then, out of nowhere, we had SNOW! I stayed in, using the Snow Days as a Snow Writing Retreat in my own home. Finally, I forced myself shovel a path to my car. Just a few days later, and it’s over 70º and sunny. This weather whiplash makes me think this is going to be a wild year. Move over, Groundhog, here comes the Fire Horse!

The Lunar Year of the Fire Horse began on February 17.

Fire Horse Baby

My first grandbaby—a little girl—is tentatively scheduled to arrive in just 28 days! And she’s going to be a little Fire Pony! Historically, women born in Fire Horse years (which come along every sixty years) were described negatively as unruly, undisciplined, and headstrong. Nowadays, we’d describe those same traits as independent, confident, intelligent, creative, and energetic. My granddaughter is going to be one of those Fire Ponies! I can’t wait to meet her!

Get Ready for Spring - Book Giveaway - March 1-15

Out with the old—in with the new! To make room on my bookshelves for 30 new books for Earth Month 2026, I am giving away many of Earth Month 2025’s books! You can win one of six books from my personal collection by entering the drawing.

Click the image below to go to the survey / entry form. Enter starting on the First of March. The last day to enter is on the Ides of March, the fifteenth. The random drawing will be on March 16. If you are already a subscriber or if you’d like to be a subscriber to this newsletter “It’s Dawning on Me!”, click YES in the survey, and you will get an extra entry, a second chance to win one of the books.

March’s Giveaway: Five books that celebrate nature, including my own book, Force of Nature. All compelling reads!

• Braiding Sweetgrass, a best seller by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Eager, a delightful romp in nature by Ben Goldfarb

• Finding the Mother Tree, a fascinating look at forests by Suzanne Simard

• Flight Behavior by the Pulizer Prize winning Barbara Kingsolver

• Gloryland, a deep dive into the making of Yosemite by Shelton Johnson

• Force of Nature, my own adventure memoir

(All books are from my personal collection, in very good shape, but gently used by me. Books will be shipped to US addresses only, as postage outside the US is prohibitive.)

And the Winners of February’s Book Giveaway Are…

• Erin from Wisconsin won The Trail by Ethan Gallogly

• Miranda from Georgia won In My Boots by Amanda K. Jaros

• Jackie from Southern California won A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

• Ann won Tales From a Rogue Ranger by Rosanne S. McHenry

• Anne won Muir Trail Magic by Arnold Marsden

• And Cindi from Northern California won a copy of my own book Force of Nature

Congratulations to all the lucky winners!

February is Women’s History Month, and it is a Very Busy Month!

“Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” is the theme of Women’s History Month in 2026. Women are not just looking back at history to find inspiration, women are making history each and every day, and this year’s theme embraces that forward-looking view.

Events are planned all across the country. Join one if you can! Locally, both Sierra College and the Roseville-South Placer Branch of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) have great events scheduled to celebrate women’s history. And I am honored to be a speaker at these two events.

• March 10 - Women’s History Summit - Sierra College Campus, Rocklin, CA

  • My talk, “Frances Perkins & Women’s History Through the Eyes of Historical Fiction,” is at 2pm in the Music Hall, Room D-12, and is open to the public. I’m being hosted by History Instructor Megan White.

• March 21 - Women’s History Month Celebration - AAUW at the Lincoln Library

  • My talk, “Frances Perkins & Women’s History Through the Eyes of Historical Fiction,” is at 10am in the Willow Room at Lincoln Library in Lincoln, CA, and is open to the pubic. Please RSVP at aauwrosevillesouthplacer.org/events

Finding Women’s History in Women’s Historical Fiction

If you love Historical Fiction, and especially if you love literature about strong women with interesting stories, then you will LOVE this curated list of books by my friend and author Janis Robinson Daly. Each year, in honor of Women’s History Month, Janis gathers together 31 books that celebrate women whose achievements have languished in the shadows, awaiting authors to write their stories and readers to embrace them.

Historical fiction can be inspiring. It’s more accessible for most of us than all but the most brilliantly written nonfiction history books. It can transport us into the lives of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, where we can witness courage and creativity, perseverance and triumph. We are currently living in extraordinary times, and we need that kind of strength.

From Janis Daly’s list of books for 2026, I have read The First Witch of Boston and Under Two Flags, and I loved them both. High on my TBR list is The Cassatt Sisters. So many books, so little time!

You can find this entire list on Janis’s website, where you can download it. While there, you can also enter a drawing to win a copy of one of the books. I find Janis’s website to be a wealth of information. Check out her own women’s historical fiction titles while you’re there. Her newest book, Under Two Flags, will be released later this month. Click on the calendar above to visit Janis Daly’s website.

The Lunar Year of the Fire Horse is a Wildfire Year

The last Fire Horse year was sixty years ago. It was 1966. It was a Fiery Year full of upheaval and energy. It was the beginning of an era of transformation and change.

The Buffalo Springfield sang “For What It’s Worth” that summer.

Let’s grab that figurative energy. Let’s claim this metaphor of change. Let’s use our words. Let’s write letters and emails. Let’s paint signs and show them off on overpasses and on street corners. Let’s write and speak and post and shout, if necessary. Let’s write stories and sing songs. Let’s share ideas of justice and freedom and fairness. Let’s use the power of words. Let’s demand “freedom and justice for all.”

The American Creed

Do you know the American Creed? It contains some powerful words that can provide us with inspiration and courage. They can also provide us with the confirmation that we are doing the right things in the weeks and months ahead.

I believe in the United States of America as government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.

Written by William Tyler Page. Adopted by the Government Committee on Publication and accepted, April 3, 1918, by the House of Representatives, on behalf of the American people.

Celebrate the Written Word

The Sacramento Book Festival on Sun, Apr 19, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac, promises to a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors.

Sierra WordFest, formerly known as Sierra Writers Conference, on Sat, Mar 7, at Sierra College in Grass Valley, is always an interesting day filled with great talks and workshops for writers. I’ll be a speaker along with Lisa Redfern on “The Power of AI.”

Check the calendar on my website for all my upcoming classes and author events.

For more information about the traditional views on the Lunar Year of the Fire Horse, check out this informative website, The Power Path.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

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Happy Valentine’s Day, My Friends!

It’s almost time for the annual big celebration of “Read Your Way Through Earth Month” in April. To make room on my bookshelf for the 30 new books I’ve selected for 2026, I’m giving away many of the books from my 2025 list.

A Love Affair with Nature - Book Giveaway!

There will be two random drawings. One in February and one in March. You can enter both.

Click on the button or on the image to get to the entry form for February.

Enter Book Giveaway

Sneak Peak at Earth Month’s Books

Here’s a sneak peak of the newly curated list of books for my annual “Read Your Way Through Earth Month 2026” event. You can see the complete list and download the calendar from my website.

Go to Joan's Website

“Read Your Way Through Earth Month” Events

Locals: Mark your calendar to attend one of these fun interactive “Read Your Way Through Earth Month” events with me:

Friends of the Auburn Library – Thurs, Mar 19, 12noon
       Rose Room, Auburn City Hall 
       @ 1225 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA
Lincoln Public Library – Wed, Mar 25, 6:30pm
       Willow Room @ 485 Twelve Bridges Drive, 
       Lincoln, CA
Kilaga Springs Library – Mon, Apr 6, 1:30pm
       Sun City Lincoln Hills Kilaga Springs 
       Presentation Hall, Lincoln, CA
OLLI at Sierra College – Mon, Apr 27, 10am
       Sierra College, Rocklin Campus, 
       Rm D-12, Rocklin, CA
PECA – Placer Earth Care Action – Sun, May 3 , 12:30pm
       Auburn Congregational Church 
       @ 710 Auburn Ravine Rd, Auburn

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“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.” ~ James Baldwin

Time doesn’t just fly, it rockets! I barely remember to date my papers 2026, and it’s already the first of February! A very belated Happy New Year to you!

The very best news I have to share with you in this newsletter is that I am going to be a grandma! Yep. That’s right. Grandma Joan! My son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Marta, are about to become parents for the first time, and we’re all over the moon!

They’re back in Cambridge, MA, while I’m here in California, but we’re all counting down the days. Remember those chains we made as kids out of strips of brightly colored paper? Sometimes we used them as holiday decorations, sometimes to count down to a special occasion. I have a long chain of pretty paper rings draped across my living room. Every day, I tear off one paper circle. It started out with nearly 200 links!

Today, there are only fifty-six rings left! Dean and Marta have a paper chain, too. I made it for them when I last visited. It runs up their staircase banister, though it’s getting shorter by the day! My flight back to Boston in early April is already reserved. I can’t wait to welcome that already beloved baby girl into the world! Whoo-hoo!

Strangers in My Blood and Ghosts in the Family

I’ve been writing like a mad woman on my second book, Strangers in My Blood, about growing up adopted in the Fifties and Sixties and meeting both of my birth-families many years later. It’s the story I’ve wanted to write for decades, but didn’t believe I was ready for the challenge. After my first book, Force of Nature, debuted to wide success, I gained the confidence to give my second book, the harder one, a try. I’m twenty-five chapters in, with only a few more to write.

Studies show that nearly 5% of all people who spit in a tube and send it off to AncestryDNA to find out about their forebears are surprised to discover a “ghost branch” of their family, a branch kept secret for decades or generations. There’s a whole lot of “fudging” of the truth and “covering up” that’s been going on!

Perhaps that has happened to you or someone you know! I think lots of people will be interested in learning what it’s like to meet those secret family members and unravel the mysteries around them! I also believe that there are other adoptees, adoptive families, and birth-families out there who might benefit from my experiences. With Strangers in My Blood, I intend to write an interesting story that’s also informative.

My final draft needs to be ready for my publisher, Black Rose Writing, by Nov 1, with the book release around Mother’s or Father’s Day in 2027. Keep following this newsletter for updates!

Earth Month 2025 Meets Earth Month 2026

Last year, for April, Earth Month, I curated a list of Earth- and nature-centered books from across genres to celebrate. I called it “Read Your Way Through Earth Month.

I shared the books in the collection at libraries, with environmental and community groups. It was a great success, so I’m doing it again for 2026. I’ve already selected the new books, and the fun graphics and the bingo-like game are almost ready for prime time. I’ll be unveiling the new collection in mid-March! So keep your eyes out.

Reading in the Wild Television Show

I host a monthly television show about books on Auburn Community TV and YouTube. The two or three books I discuss each month are selected from the same Earth Month book collection, but I go into each book in much greater depth.

Click on the photo above to watch the recent episode. I discuss two awesome hybrid memoirs, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Eager by Ben Goldfarb.

A Love Affair with Nature Book Giveaway - February 14-28, 2026

Out with the old—in with the new! To make room on my bookshelves for 30 new books for Earth Month 2026, I am giving away many of Earth Month 2025’s books! You can win one of the books from my personal collection by entering the drawing. I’m giving away six in February and six in March. You can enter both drawings.

Click the image below to go to the survey / entry form. Enter starting Valentine’s Day, Feb 14. The last day is Feb 27. The drawing will be on Feb 28. If you are a subscriber to this newsletter, you will get an extra entry, a second chance to win a book.

February’s Giveaway books: Five are adventurous tales of long-distance hiking, including my own book, Force of Nature. One is a collection of short stories by a retired park ranger. All fun reads!

• The Trail by Ethan Gallogly

• In My Boots by Amanda K. Jaros

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

• Tales From a Rogue Ranger by Rosanne S. McHenry

• Muir Trail Magic by Arnold Marsden

• And my own book: Force of Nature by Joan M. Griffin

(All books are from my personal collection, in very good shape, but gently used by me. Books will be shipped to US addresses only, as postage outside the US is prohibitive.)

Joan’s Favorite Books of 2025

I keep track of all the books I read on Goodreads.In 2025, I set a goal of 75 books. I conquered my goal, reading 79 books. Feeling proud. Do you set yourself a reading goal? Do you use Goodreads?

Of the books I read in 2025, the following 20 titles are the BEST! The one thing they all have in common, is they are each unique or unusual in some way.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Drawing Water by Barbara Olson Lawrence

Havoc: Trouble on the Trail by Cam Torrens

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Guiffre

The Missing Pages by Alyson Richman

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor

And (drum roll, please) the TOP FIVE:

A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko - Recommended by a dozens of friends, it lived up to all that hype! A true story of two young men’s adventures attempting to walk the length of the Grand Canyon, a feat few have accomplished and made difficult by their inexperience. I loved the gorgeous descriptions of the canyon and enjoyed learning the history of the canyon and park. But most of all, I was moved by the author’s personal journey of self discovery. 5*****

The Names by Florence Knapp - This novel is three stories in one. Their telling is braided and based on the premise that the name a mother gives her child impacts the child’s life forever. It’s a beautifully told tale that reminded me of the previous year’s best seller, The Measure. Both are based on an odd “what if” question that surprises the reader on every page. 5*****

Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor - The prequel to the silver-screen version of The Wizard of Oz, Gaynor’s Before Dorothy introduces readers to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry long before they come to adopt their niece Dorothy. Reading it is like a clever scavenger hunt—scattered throughout the novel are clues and characters that will surface in Dorothy’s movie dream of Oz. A super fun read! 5*****

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans - It seems that this is everyone’s favorite book this winter. I certainly loved it. The book is comprised of letters, notes, and emails between an eccentric elderly woman and her friends, relations, and acquaintances. It starts out staid and predictable, just like the main character, but then surprises the reader with abundant and delightful twists and turns and surprises. 5*****

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi - This feels like a perfect book—or at least for me, a perfect book for this moment in time. The pace is slow and languid, like the water in the quiet river that flows through Golden. Then pace picks up, twisting and turning and bumping over unexpected obstacles, just like a river growing wild. The role of art in the story is a delightful theme. 5*****

The Power of Our Stories

I believe in the power of story, be it written, oral, or visual—a movie, a book, a painting, a poem—told by a writer, a comedian, a songwriter, an artist, an actor.

I also believe that artists, creatives, and writers have a responsibility to speak out and us the power of their media for good. I’m grateful to those who are speaking out, using their art and platform to stand up for “freedom, justice and the American way.”

Like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s classic protest song “Ohio” about the Kent State Massacre in 1970, Bruce Springsteen’s new song “Streets of Minneapolis” carries a message that touches the heart and moves people to action. The Power of the Pen.

Celebrate the Written Word

The Sacramento Book Festival on Sun, Apr 19, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac, promises to a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors.

Sierra WordFest, formerly known as Sierra Writers Conference, on Sat, Mar 7, at Sierra College in Grass Valley, is always an interesting day filled with great talks and workshops for writers. I’ll be a speaker along with Lisa Redfern on “The Power of AI.”

Check the calendar on my website for all my upcoming classes and author events.

Leave a comment

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

My friends, we have entered that time of year when we both celebrate and lament the passage of time. Even when the days go by slowly, the weeks and months speed by. Every Friday, I’m surprised it’s time to start a new weekend and wonder, “Where did the week go?” Every Sunday, when it’s time to refill my little medicine/vitamin organizer, I’m shocked it’s empty already! Does that happen to you?

Last week, most of us gathered at America’s holiday, Thanksgiving, with family and friends or “fremily,” those people we count among our “chosen family.” We eat “traditional” foods, or we break the “rules” and try something new. Personally, I’d trade that green bean casserole for something fresher and crisper. But I wouldn’t substitute anything for the pecan pie! What are your Thanksgiving faves?

Now, we look ahead to the Winter Solstice—the first day of winter—the day with the fewest minutes of sunlight and the most minutes of darkness. “Here Comes the Sun!” We celebrate the turning of the wheel and the growing minutes of sunlight that follow. Raised in SoCal, I love the sunshine. Some of you love the gray skies and rain that come with winter. Not me. I know, I know, we need all that water falling from the sky to replenish the natural world that surrounds and supports us.

I have now lived just over half of my life in NorCal, so I’ve learned to tolerate embrace the gray, the fog, the rain, even the snow, but I throw my celebration energy into the Solstice and its promise of just a little more sunshine each day.

The New Bridge - A Time to Build Up, A Time to Break Down

When our family first moved to Northern California thirty-six years ago and I started teaching at Colfax Elementary, I also began a daily drive from Lake of the Pines in Nevada County “over the river and through the woods” to Colfax in Placer County. The narrow, rocky-edged Bear River is the county line, and an old, wooden bridge spanned the boundary. It was single-lane wide with short wooden barriers along each edge. Wooden slats lay in parallel lines along the wooden base to mark the path for my car’s wheels. As I drove slowly across the span, my tires on the wooden slats made the sweetest sound—a warm “clackety-clack, clackety-clack, clackety-clack.”

One fall, when school started up again, I discovered the powers-that-be had decided the bridge needed to be up graded. Workers had removed the parallel slats and added a new smooth wooden layer across the surface of the whole bridge. That new surface made its own new sound. Gone was the sweet “clackety-clack.” In its place was the distinct deep-throated hum of my tires on the wood. “Hummmmmmmmmm.”

A decade later, someone in charge decided it would be a good idea to slather the entire surface of the bridge in a personality-less layer of asphalt, which gave up no noise at all, only silence. I felt a bit sad every time I crossed the span.

For the last several weeks, engineers, carpenters, and other craftsmen have been building a grand new bridge next to the old bridge. The new span sweeps smoothly in a wide curve from the east side to the west side of the Bear River (and vice versa), eliminating the difficult sharp turns onto and off the old bridge. It’s twice as wide, so I’ll no longer have to wait while a car crosses the bridge from the other side. We’ll be able to pass one another safely and wave while crossing.

I crossed the new Bear River Bridge for the first time last week, while they were busy tearing down the old bridge. I was a little sad. I still miss hearing “clackety-clack.” I am also happy. The new bridge is a safe and smooth improvement. “Turn, turn, turn.”

National Adoption Day - November 22

I’ve been working hard drafting my second book. I’d set myself a goal to finish the first/rough draft by January 1, 2026. I’m proud to say that it’ll be close, and I might even make it! With a working title of Strangers in My Blood, it’s an adoption memoir about growing up adopted in the Fifties and Sixties and about later, as an adult, meeting both my birth-families, including my six(!) half-siblings.

In honor of National Adoption Day, I thought I’d share some insights into my progress with you. And, I have a question you might be able to help me with.

I’ve been doing lots of writing, but I’ve also been doing a bit of researching. I dug through all my parents’ high school yearbooks, The Orange Blossom, from the Thirties and early Forties, where everyone was a “swell pal” or a “sweet girl” and everything was “really swell fun.” My mom was addressed as “Glamour” by several guys and gals. I wish she was around to ask about that! All the boys seemed to comment on how my dad was a “smart little guy,” emphasis on the little.

I found one interesting use of slang several times, and I do not know what it means. Do you? They wrote about “going wolfing” at “Pop’s Place,” which was the local summer lake hangout in the east end of the San Fernando Valley, and they called one another, both boys and girls, a “wolf.” Anyone have a clue? Google didn’t. The Online Slang Dictionary didn’t either.

Movie Recommendation

No, it’s not Wicked For Good (though that was a fun movie).

It’s Train Dreams on Netflix. It is a beautiful movie that I’m sure will earn awards. The cinematography is gorgeous. The acting and character development is rich. The story is compelling. It begins in the early Twentieth Century with a young orphan boy, who, as a young man, goes to work as a lumberman in the Pacific Northwest. Time passes, things both good and bad happen, he and everyone around him grow old. And suddenly, a lifetime has passed in a shocking way.

The wheel of life turns, sometimes slowly, sometimes with blinding speed.

Seasons Change, But It’s Earth Month All Year

Reminder. The 2025 Read Your Way Through Earth Month calendar and list are still available on my website at www.joangriffin.us, and the 2026 calendar and list are currently “under construction.” They will be available on April 1, 2026. I’ve already booked several speaking events at local libraries, environment clubs, and community organizations to share the list next spring. The details about those events can be found on my website, too. If you belong to an organization or club that would enjoy that presentation, please reach out to me.

In the current and former episodes of my TV show Reading in the Wild I share book selections from the 2025 Earth Month calendar and list. Those shows at Auburn Community Television are available to watch on ACTV’s YouTube page.

The current December episode focuses on four fun hiking adventure books: Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, In My Boots by Amanda K. Jaros, and The Trail by Ethan Gallogly. Four very different books set on long-distance trails—a novel, a biography, and two memoirs.

In partnership with Phil Jacques, manager and videographer at ACTV, I recorded the next episode this morning. That show will focus on Tangle by Kay Smith-Blum and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, two thrillers about mankind’s impact on the natural world—one historical fiction based on actual events, the other set in a realistic near future.

Jólabókaflóð - The Christmas Book Flood

Every year in December, I think about the Icelandic tradition called Jólabókaflóð, which translates roughly to the Christmas Book Flood. The people of Iceland give one another books as gifts on Christmas Eve, then spend the day relaxing and reading their new books together. Of course, there’s hot chocolate and other holiday treats on hand, too. It sounds heavenly! Maybe we can all be Icelandic for a day! Reminder: Books make excellent gifts.

Currently, Amazon has the paperback version of my adventure memoir Force of Nature on sale for only $14.70, the best price I’ve seen anywhere!

The best gift you can give any author is to write a review of their book on Goodreads and/or Amazon, as reviews drive success in the publishing business. Amazon doesn’t make it easy—you have to scroll down, down, down until you see the “Write A Review” button on the left side of the screen.

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So Many Books, So Little Time!

This month’s books were a real eclectic collection with little or no pattern in my selections: two memoirs, two contemporary thrillers, two narrative nonfiction, one contemporary fiction, and one near-future eco-sci-fi. You’ll recognize several titles and authors, I’m sure. (Secret: Four of these titles will show up on the 2026 Earth Month List. Can you guess which ones?)

I will be interviewing Sidney Niemeyer, author of Atomic Peril, for my OLLI at Sierra Author Spotlight Series this Friday. He describes the book as “a nuclear forensics thriller.” There are brilliant scientists, national security officials, and evil terrorists. And there’s unaccounted-for nuclear material surreptitiously crossing borders for nefarious purposes. All very realistic and terrifying! Highly recommend! 5*****

Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, has been all over the headlines recently, and rightfully so. I pre-ordered the book, but put off reading it for a couple weeks. I had to build up my nerve to read what I knew would be a difficult and deeply emotional story. Nobody’s Girl is well written and gentle as it delivers her horrific story. It’s an important insightful book and I’m really glad she wrote it and I read it. Virginia’s recent death really highlights her book’s importance. I strongly encourage you to read it. 5*****

Here Comes the Sun by the king of environmentalism, Bill McKibben, is an engaging look at the power of the sun. He shares the history of mankind’s relationship with the sun, the history and science of solar energy, and describes clearly how the healthy future of our home planet, and all organisms we share it with, will be ensured by our shift to solar energy. This is a brilliant book, a call to action, and a hopeful look at our future. Ya gotta read this one! 5*****

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s hybrid memoir, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, is a lovely look at interconnectedness in nature. Like her previous Braiding Sweetgrass, it’s beautifully written and full of insights and metaphors. It’s a love letter to nature that will make you want to hug a tree, install a bird-feeder, and plan a weekend hike. 5*****

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy has made the top of so many lists in recent months. It’s a dark, near-future thriller that will get your blood pumping. Most of the story takes place on a remote island near Antarctica, where an international organization has a bunker filled with a carefully organized collection of the seeds of every plant on Earth. It’s a “just in case” collection meant to repopulate the world after an environmental catastrophe. The facility and its contents, however, are in great danger, and the story is about the people trying to protect it. 5*****

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny is a biography and an adventure rolled into one. This is another example of how the stories of women scientists seem to disappear into the void of history. In their day, they were discounted and their accomplishments diminished in the news. Sevigny returns them and their scientific work to the forefront and tells an engaging adventure story at the same time. 5*****

Terminal Exchanges by Gary Gerlacher is a fun read. Gerlacher’s series features a nomadic ER doctor “Doc” and his dog “Banshee,” who was a highly trained police dog before he retired. The pair manage to discover, disarm, and bring to justice evil-doers in every city where they spend time. I’ve read the whole series and really enjoy the “escapism” these mystery-thrillers deliver. 5*****

The Winners by Fredrik Backman is set in the same locale as his world-famous book A Man Called Ove. The town is dedicated to its hockey teams. The town is divided around its hockey teams. We meet engaging characters and fall in love with them, despite their flaws and conflicts. We watch as three generations lose themselves and then find their way back. This is a lovely contemporary “story well told.” I read it fast, because I couldn’t put it down. 5*****

Seasonal Goodness - A Simple, Festive Recipe

Thank you for inviting me and my newsletter into your home each month. I’m honored that you choose to read and respond to my thoughts and idea. So I have a little gift for you—a favorite seasonal recipe, that’s delish and super simple!

I received this recipe from my dear BFF Sandra several years ago, and I’m passing it along to you, my friends. I make a batch of it more than once every holiday season. A little jar of it makes a great hostess gift, too.

Orange-Cranberry-Pecan—Is it a salad? Is it a relish? Is it a healthy dessert? Yes!

Force of Nature!

Support your local independent bookstore. You can even purchase books conveniently online and still support your local store at Bookshop.org. My adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook! You can purchase it wherever books are sold online or in bookstores, and I’m proud to say it’s available in over 160 libraries across the country! It’s newly available as an eBook on Libby and Hoopla library apps. It is also available in a Spanish translation, Fuerza de la Naturaleza!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. From the small commission I earn, I donate a portion to Sierra College Food Pantry, The Basic Needs Center.

Read on for art in the garden, scientific sculptures, author’s graves, and lots of books!

Massachusetts in the Fall

I spent ten delightful days in early October visiting “my kids”—my son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Marta—at their home in Cambridge, MA. It was a bit of a working visit, I got a lot of writing done and even a couple of author events, and they both went to work most days, but we squeezed in some really fun adventures, too.

We headed up to Concord’s Minute Man National Historic Site, home of the “shots heard round the world.” The British Redcoats faced off with the Minute Men across the bridge at Concord 250 years and 6 months ago, and the folks there are still celebrating the 250th anniversary every day.

As a reader and a writer, I was tickled to visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, where some very famous American authors are buried along what’s called Authors Ridge. Headstones for Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Emerson are marked by offerings of pencils placed there by large numbers of devoted admirers.

We also visited two amazing artistic sites: the de Cordova Sculpture Garden Park and the Glass Flower Exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The de Cordova Sculpture Garden is vast and varied. We walked a mile or more over rolling green hills to clusters of sculptures on wide open areas and then discovered others hidden among the trees or at the end of winding paths. Some were classic, others modern, some were musical, others changed with the wind or sunlight. It was a bit like a scavenger hunt. The natural setting, just beginning to change into her autumn colors, competed with the human-made art for great beauty.

The Glass Flower Exhibit was a real surprise. The Ware Collection is part gorgeous glass art and part scientific botany display. Hundreds of glass sculptures or models, precise to every detail, of flowering plants are displayed in old-fashioned glass cases. The plant anatomies are complete from the tips of their thread-like roots to the ends of their veined leaves and the hearts of their blooming flowers, every detail rendered in colored glass. Many are enlarged, so microscopic parts are visible to the eye. Mind-boggling in their glass details.

We also enjoyed delicious meals, some short walks, a movie, long talks, and more. Best of all was spending extended time with my two favorite people in the world!

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Author Events & Talks

I was invited to speak with several different groups during the last several weeks. I enjoyed talking about Force of Nature and the John Muir Trail at the Centerville Public Library in Massachusetts, and to be a part of an author’s panel discussion for UCLA’s Alumni Association’s Act Two program. Giving the keynote talk about writing one’s personal stories at Gold Country Writers’ Nonfiction Short Story Contest celebration of winners was a real honor, as was presenting at the Elk Grove Writers Conference about writing narrative nonfiction. It was a busy and rewarding two months. I’m deeply grateful to the lovely people in each organization for the invitations, opportunities, and support.

My future speaking engagements on a variety of topics and my classes can be found here on my website. Contact me there or email me to schedule a talk with your group or club.

Books, Books, and Coincidences

You know how, when you are focused on something specific in your life, it seems like that same thing pops up everywhere you look? Like when you buy a new car, and suddenly your see the same Honda CRV in midnight blue everywhere on the road? That happened to me with this month’s books.

I’m writing my second book, Strangers In My Blood, about growing up adopted and meeting my birth-family members, and now it seems like nearly every book I pick up includes an accidental pregnancy as a significant event in the plot. At different times in history, that would be a devastating problem in a woman’s life, changing the course of her life. The cover-up of her “situation” could become the source of a fascinating plot twist, even an intriguing mystery, in a book’s plot. Only one of this month’s books did I choose intentionally for that topic, the others were all surprises! Odd, but interesting this magical tendency of literature and storytelling to mirror life!

All of this month’s books are novels and at least partially historical fiction. Nine of the ten are written by women and all are about strong women finding their strengths and their voices. Again, I didn’t set out intentionally to find books with those qualities, but those are the characters and tales that I’m drawn to.

The Girl From Greenwich Street: A Novel of Hamilton, Burr, and America’s First Murder Trial by Lauren Willig is a deeply researched novel set in the early years of the United States in New York City. Alexander Hamilton and his nemesis Aaron Burr act as the defense attorneys in a murder trial. The victim is a young woman, the orphan of a fallen woman, who works in her Quaker aunt’s boardinghouse. She’s hardworking, ambitious, and vulnerable, and trying to make her way in a world where women have few “ways” to choose from. Using the actual records of the trial, the author tries to find truth and redemption for her character within the ambiguous and conflicting descriptions. 5*****

The Missing Pages by Alyson Richman splits its time between two eras and is inspired by the true story of the Harry Widener Memorial Library at Harvard which was created to memorialize the young Harvard student and avid book collector Harry Widener who died in the sinking of the Titanic. A bit of magical realism connects Harry’s ghost with a 21st Century young woman, a freshman at Harvard who works in the library and is grieving the death of her boyfriend in a drowning accident. The fun plot is filled with twist and turns and even a Ouija Board. 5*****

The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano is set in the earliest colonial days in the 1600s, where a strong-willed and childless woman, educated in the ways of midwifery and medicinal herbs, finds herself on the wrong side of powerful people’s religious beliefs and accused of doing black magic. I was taken with the parallels between the events of 400 years ago with the modern struggles professional women face from the privileged powers-that-be in society. 5*****

Jennifer Weiner’s The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is a fun energetic story that reminds me of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and The Six, with its deep dive into the musical entertainment world. Sisters Zoe and Cassie and their band are popular music sensations in the early 2000s with a massive following of devoted fans, until they’re not. It’s a fun roller-coaster ride that grinds to a halt under the weight of so many secrets. 5*****

What About the Bodies by Ken Jaworowski is the complex story of three intertwined lives, each with its own mystery and dangers. Carla, Reed, and Liz are each frantically trying to escape their own impending disaster in this Rust Belt community. This edge-of-your-seat, don’t-look-away-for-a-second story is compelling. I didn’t want to stop reading, forced myself to put it down long after my bedtime, and still finished it in a day and a half. 5*****

Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour is a book lover’s delight. Set in two eras separated by centuries—during the back-to-the-land commune craze of the 1960s and during the early 1800s when the country was still in its infancy—in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. A liberal sprinkling of magical realism brings the two eras into direct contact through the power of a signed, first edition of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. I especially enjoyed the theme of the power of books and stories to change lives. 5*****

Once You Were Mine by Elizabeth Langston is the one book on the list I specifically chose, because it’s about a family’s efforts to solve a mystery that began with a secret adoption in the 1960s. The contemporary troubles begin with DNA-testing results which reveal the existence of even more mysteries. The central thread in this novel is one that is more and more common today for thousands of families. DNA-testing has opened a Pandora’s Box for many families. 5*****

Linda Rosen’s The Emerald Necklace is set in the late 1960s when the Women’s Rights Movement is in full swing and “the pill” is widely available. A pair of retired women, one an artist and the other an author, share a bumpy new friendship. Both are grieving great losses and neither realizes that they actually share two halves of one big secret. It takes one’s granddaughter’s involvement to help them connect all the dots and cement their friendship. I enjoyed unraveling the tangled threads of the mystery. 5*****

The Names by Florence Knapp is a love-it-or-hate-it book, and I loved it. The novel’s story plays out three times. Each scenario begins with the ritual of naming a new child. The reactions to that name determine the destiny of the child and his entire family. Though the story is completely different, the energy and imagination of this book reminds me of last year’s The Measure by Nikki Erlick. I kept thinking, “How did the author even come of with this idea?” It puts a twist into the way we usually think about cause-and-effect, of how things unfold in life, that really intrigued me. 5*****

Amy Sue Nathan’s Well Behaved Wives is a kick! It’s the early 1960s and new young wives of wealthy and up-and-coming professional men are meant to be their husband’s helpmates. They need to be trained in etiquette and proper behavior for a wide array of settings, so of course, there’s a training program for that. Behind the polished surface of those very proper lives, however, are secret channels for rescuing young women who find themselves “in trouble.” I enjoyed the way the women empowered one another and lived their lives on several levels simultaneously. 5*****

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What have you read recently? Any of these same books? What do you recommend?

Read Your Way Through Earth Month 2026

Thanks to all those who participated in April 2025’s Earth Month events and read some of the books from the Earth Month calendar. I’ve finished curating the new list for Earth Month 2026, and the new calendar is currently under construction! There are once again 30 nature-centered books selected from across a wide array of genres—from mystery and thriller to historical fiction and near-future eco-fiction. There are adventure memoirs and nonfiction science and history books. I’m eager to share it with you, but you’ll have to wait until the new year. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of time to read more books from the 2025 list. The detailed 2025 list of books is available here on my website.

The Aborigines of Australia believe that, gifted with the power of speech, people are the voices for all Creation, and as such, we have the responsibility to tell stories for all of Earth’s inhabitants and even for Earth herself.

My Read Your Way Through Earth Month events celebrate books by authors who do just that, they take on the responsibility for telling those stories.

Strangers In My Blood

Just a quick update: The first draft of my adoption memoir is coming right along. There are 58 days left until my self-imposed deadline to have that first draft completed. I’ve written all the “low hanging fruit,” and now I’m standing on the second rung of the figurative ladder to get to some much more difficult-to-reach pieces of fruit. I’m optimistic that I will be able to meet that January first goal.

Force of Nature!

My adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook! You can purchase it wherever books are sold online or in bookstores, and I’m proud to say it’s available in over 160 libraries across the country! It is also now available in a Spanish translation, Fuerza de la Naturaleza!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. From the small commission I earn, I donate a portion to Sierra College Food Pantry, The Basic Needs Center.

[Whisper: Shh, don’t jinx it! Though it was a tad warm over the weekend, we in Northern California have enjoyed a rather mild summer, with very few hot days, including only about half our average number of days over 100º. Highs in the 70s and 80s are in this week’s forecast. I’m loving it!]

The Art of Storytelling - Touching Hearts

"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms." - Muriel Rukeyser

Stories come in a variety of forms—books, movies, plays, etc.—and I love them all. I had the pleasure of attending three terrific stage productions in August—all different, and each delightful in its own way.

The B Street Theatre at the Sofia in Sacramento, where friends G&L and I have season tickets, delivered an hysterically campy version of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. The Off Broadstreet troupe in Nevada City performed the high-energy musical-comedy Misconstrued, which J&J and I enjoyed along with their fun drinks and luscious desserts at our front row cafe table.

But the coup de grace of this month’s plays was Sacramento’s Broadway at Music Circus series, with its stellar production of the classic musical HAIR! performed on their theater-in-the-round stage. I’ve seen HAIR! twice. The first time was in 1969.

I was fifteen years old and saw the controversial play along with several of my swim team friends. Our parents had debated at length whether or not the play was appropriate for us to see. That same year, my parents had refused to allow me to go to what was considered to be “Woodstock West” at Devonshire Downs, not far from home in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Why they said yes to one and no to the other I couldn’t figure out at the time.

I have vivid memories of sitting in the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood and watching the play. It was wildly energetic, with the colorful “hippie” costumes, flashing “psychedelic” lights, and music already made familiar on the radio—songs like “Aquarius,” “Hair!,” and “Good Morning Starshine.”

The controversial conflicts central to the play’s script seem almost quaint in 2025—smoking marijuana, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, civil rights, sexual freedom. However, though we talk about those things openly these days, it’s beyond disheartening to see that those very same issues continue to haunt us—we still haven’t guaranteed rights and freedoms to all!

I’d forgotten all about the Vietnam War scenes towards the end of the final act, so I was totally taken aback when I saw HAIR! the second time recently. More than taken aback, I was really emotional. I wept. All these years later, the needless, purposeless, and very vivid death of a young man was all the more heartbreaking, because these days there’s near unanimous agreement that the young war protesters were right and the powers-that-be of the time were wrong.

That’s good storytelling, when your readers or members of your audience identify closely with your characters and are moved to powerful emotions by your story.

I spent Monday morning at one of the Labor Day protests in Auburn. The young people represented in the play and my friends and I are now the gray-haired, sign-waving protesters of 2025. We’re fighting the same battles for the same rights.

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HUGE NEWS! - Strangers In My Blood

I am very excited to announce that I have signed my second book contract with my publisher Black Rose Writing! This new book is the book I’ve wanted to write for over three decades!

I’m glad I waited. In the intervening years, more events have occurred that have added important new layers to my story. Plus, I’ve had fifteen years to develop and polish my writing—practicing on my adventure memoir Force of Nature. The working title for this second memoir is Strangers In My Blood. It is the story of growing up adopted in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies, and then meeting both of my birth-families, one through a private eye in the Nineties and the other via AncestryDNA just six year ago.

That’s the good news!

This is a harder story to tell—it’s much more personal and has so many “moving parts,” but I believe readers will find it really interesting. So, now, I’m furiously writing towards a big deadline. The projected “launch date” is between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 2027. My due date to my publisher is November 1, 2026. Fourteen months sounds like a long time, but those months are going to fly past!

Phase One: I write rough drafts on my laptop, print them out, revise and edit them, print them out again in multiple copies, share them with my amazing critique groups, where we discuss their insightful responses and suggestions. Then, I file each chapter safely in order in a hanging file with all its notes and comments. My goal is to have all the chapter rough drafts written by January 1, 2026! Wish me luck!

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Goodreads Giveaway — Celebrating Force of Nature’s Second Birthday!

That’s right. My book-baby is soon to be TWO! They grow up so fast, don’t they? It seems like only yesterday I held the first paperback copy of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail in my arms. UPS had just delivered a box filled to the brim with carefully swaddled stacks of paperbacks in late September of 2023. I actually cried when I flipped through that first copy. A dream come true!

To celebrate that day, I’m working with Goodreads to do one of their famous Book Giveaways. Signed paperback copies of Force of Nature will be mailed at the end of the month to the ten lucky winners of Goodreads’ drawing. Click below to enter.

Enter Goodreads Giveaway

Delicious Books On The Menu!

Starting with a tasty appetizer of futuristic speculative fiction, followed by a sumptuous main course of seven historical novels, one with a spicy dash of magical realism, and finishing with a sweet modern mystery-romance for dessert!

Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley is set several decades in the future when the disasters predicted (and ignored) about climate change have all come to pass. Scientists in Britain’s Security Ministry have figured out how time travel works and are attempting the go back to make changes in the past to save the future. Complex, wild, inventive, beautifully written, and oh, so believable! 5*****

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King and Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien are both dual timeline stories set partly in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, as well as in the several decades since then, both in China and in the US. Both involve Chinese immigrants to the US looking for a new life. Because I’ve never studied Chinese history below the surface, much of that was new to me. I found it riveting. It was only through coincidence that I read them back to back, but I found doing that enriched them both for me. It’s the Pencil Company that employs some very clever magical realism, using pencils in a magical way to communicate messages in times of war. 5***** and 5*****

Unspoken by Jann Alexander and Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor are both set in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, Before Dorothy in Kansas (of course) and Unspoken in East Texas. Both have as a central character a strong and clever young woman. In Unspoken, Alexander puts us on a failing farm with a crumbling family, one of the last to give up on their land and leave, which puts the central character in real danger. In Before Dorothy, Gaynor introduces readers to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry of Wizard of Oz fame before they adopt their niece Dorothy. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these stories, and being in California, I wondered from the beginning if everyone would get to the Golden State safely or if they would make other choices. 5***** and 5*****

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor and The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens are set in times of war and populated with courageous women who make behind-the-scenes contributions to the war effort. Like many of you, I’ve read lots of historical novels set during WWII, yet The Last Lifeboat tells a story I’d never heard before. It’s about British children and their escorts who were evacuated before The Blitz on a ship headed to America. They end up in lifeboats after the ship is torpedoed. It’s an edge of your seat tale based on a true story. The Quiet Librarian is set during a different war, one I knew little about beyond newspaper headlines. One of its dual timelines is set during the Bosnian war, when Muslim-Bosniak families were being forced from their homes and hunted down. The other setting is modern Minnesota, where war comes back to haunt. I would give both of these books 6 stars if I could! 5***** and 5*****.

Fortune’s Price is Frank Nissen’s second book in this series set in California’s Gold Country during the Gold Rush. Several months ago, I interviewed Nissen about his first book, Fortune’s Call, in my monthly OLLI at Sierra College Spotlight on Authors series. Fortune’s Price is the sequel. The main character is young Pegg, who travels from New England to California in the first book and hits gold in the second, has many a wild adventure and interacts with a colorful cast of characters in these carefully researched books set right in my backyard. I can’t wait to find out what happens in the third book which is due out next year. 5*****

Finally, dessert. Love, Lines, and Alibis by Patricia Puentes is a fun romp! There’s the cute couple who just can’t seem to commit. There are the rich and powerful (and has-beens) of Hollywood making appearances. And there’s a murder in their apartment building that they must solve! All of Puentes’ books are fun and clever, combining humor, passion, and murder! I love her characters! Puentes has a new book coming out this week, too—Scripted for Love and Poison. I’ve not read it yet, but I will be interviewing the author about her books in my monthly OLLI at Sierra College Spotlight on Authors series in November! 5*****

What are you reading? Have you read any of the same books?

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Upcoming Events For Writers

Gold Country Writers 1500-Word Nonfiction Story Contest - Entries are open August 6 to September 17. The awards celebration will be held on October 4, where the winning stories will be read and cash awards presented. I am the keynote speaker.

Elk Grove Writers Conference - October 25 - It will be full day of presentations and workshops. I will be presenting “Explore Narrative Nonfiction & Jazz Up Your Writing.

Force of Nature!

My adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook! You can purchase it wherever books are sold online or in bookstores, and I’m proud to say it’s available in over 160 libraries across the country! It is also now available in a Spanish translation, Fuerza de la Naturaleza!

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. From the small commission I earn, I donate a portion to Sierra College Food Pantry, The Basic Needs Center.

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Yet, I haven’t managed to squeeze one in recently, so I’m starting to crave a good old fashioned road trip. I have such fond memories of crisscrossing the country on family trips. There was the one in 1964 in the brand new Buick station wagon my dad was so proud of. It even had air conditioning! Highlights included Williamsburg and Niagara Falls! I was ten.

Years later, in 1987, Tom, Dean, and I spent three months circumnavigating the country in the little old motorhome we christened Barney. Dean turned three in West Virginia among locust and fireflies. Highlights included Mesa Verde National Park, Disney World, Cape Canaveral, and Yellowstone National Park.

Dean and I made a 6-week trek to and from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, stopping often along the way, including a couple days in DC and then at Gettysburg. We picked up Dean’s good friend Chris in Tennessee, and he made the homeward bound trip, too.

More recently, in 2021, my friend Nicky and I wandered up the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Portland. Two highlights were the Redwood Skywalk’s overhead bridges among the giant trees in Eureka on the way north and the Hotel Sylvia in Newport, Oregon, with its literary-themed rooms, on the return trip south.

Writing this makes me want to hit the road again! Do you have suggestions? What’s your favorite road trip? What’s on your road trip bucket list?

Road Trip Books

While we’re on the topic of road trips, here are some of my favorite road trip themed books you might find interesting, two old classics and two more recent ones:

• Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

• Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

• Travels With George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick

• Katherine’s Remarkable Road Trip by Gail Ward Olmsted

Do you have another to recommend? Maybe a new road trip book will partially satisfy my craving to get on the road! Or perhaps it will just fuel it!

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Reading in the Wild - Again

Episode 2 of my monthly ACTV show all about books is live! And you can watch it here on YouTube. All the books I review on Reading in the Wild have one thing in common. Nonfiction or fiction—no matter their genre—nature and the environment play a central role. I invite you to check out the show and my recommended books, too.

In Episode 2 of Reading in the Wild, I discussed two terrific novels:

• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

• Scorched by Cam Torrens.

Enter to Win a Book!

Like last month, I am giving away the two Reading in the Wild books, and you can enter to win one of them! When you click on the blue button below, you will be taken to a Substack Survey Form. There you can select which book you’d like to win in the drawing. It will also ask for your name, email address, and the state where you reside. You must be a free or paid subscriber of this newsletter/blog to enter. I will keep your information private and use it only for the purpose of this month’s book drawing.

Start Survey

Entries will close at midnight (Eastern time) on Friday, August 22. Due to the cost of postage, books can only be mailed to US addresses. You must be a free or paid subscriber to enter the drawing. Good luck!

¡Buen Viaje! or Happy Trails!

It’s here! Fuerza de la Naturaleza is here! Thanks to Zach Bennett who translated the original manuscript for Force of Nature into Spanish and to my publisher Black Rose Writing for arranging all the logistics! Narrator Anna Crowe, who narrated the English version, will soon have the audiobook ready to go in Spanish, too.

If you are a fluent Spanish speaker and reader, I’d love to facilitate you getting a copy so you could review it for me. If you’re interested, reach out to me.

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Black Rose Writing’s AuthorFest

I just returned from San Antonio where I attended my publisher’s annual AuthorFest, a productive two-day event featuring talks by authors and the publisher, as well as lots of good food and networking fun. The first year, I went just two weeks before Force of Nature was released, and all I knew was that I knew nothing. I met fellow authors and took lots of notes, but most of the information went over my head! Last year, my second year, I was able to absorb so much more and came away enthused, inspired, and full of new ideas.

This year, I was honored to be one of the speakers! My talk was on Literary Citizenship, the idea that when we work together collaboratively and support one another in writing and promoting our books, and also support the community of book sellers, libraries, and ultimately our readers, then there’s a synergistic multiplication of benefits for us all. My talk was well received by the already enthusiastic community of authors in attendance. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity.

Once again, I came away energized and inspired!

Force of Nature!

Wow! Photos of "Force of Nature," my adventure memoir, is out in the wild... In Switzerland!! Deep bow of gratitude goes out to Michele Runko in New Jersey and her Swiss friend Raphaël who took these amazing photos!!!

My adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook! You can purchase it wherever books are sold online or in bookstores, and I’m proud to say it’s available in over 160 libraries across the country! Is it in your local public library?

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Fall Semester OLLI Classes Begin Soon

I’m excited to announce my fall class lineup!

FLOTUS: With all the upcoming celebrations for the USA’s 250th Birthday, George and the Founding Fathers are getting lots of attention. To balance that out, I’ve revived my popular First Ladies series, which begins with Martha and other Founding Mothers on August 28.

Author Spotlight Interviews: My monthly OLLI Zoom interviews with authors continues in August with Meade Fischer. We will discuss one of his many travel books, With the Sun Beside Me, a guide to California’s Central and North Coast.

You can find all the details for these classes and all the other 120+ classes on offer at the OLLI at Sierra College website. You can even flip through a virtual catalogue, check out the instructors, and register for classes.

Check the calendar on my website for all my upcoming classes and author events.

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. From the small commission I earn, I donate a portion to Sierra College Food Pantry, The Basic Needs Center.

Read on for puffins, book recommendations, some old backpacking pix, and in honor of Father’s Day, a quick fish story about my dad.

Puffins in Paradise! Plus Pride Parade & No Kings Since 1775

Off I flew to Boston, where I spent a week with “the kids,” my son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Marta, in their new/old house in Cambridge. (Built in the 1880s, it’s brand-new to them.) I moved into the sweet sunny room on the third floor under the eaves, the perfect guestroom.

Boston’s annual Pride Parade coincided with the No Kings March on June 14 this year. Patriots have been protesting Kings in Boston since 1775, and Boston’s Pride is always spectacular. In fact, the events also fell on the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, too, one of the first Revolutionary War battles, when the untested Continental Army valiantly battled Mad King George’s Redcoats on the Cambridge edge of town. There were celebrations and parties and music and dancing and costumes and signs and reenactments all across the city. I was so fortunate to be in town for all that over-the-top excitement!

That same afternoon, we drove north to Portland, Maine, staging ourselves for the next day’s adventure out of New Harbor, ME, to Eastern Egg Rock to see the puffins in their protected little paradise. The skies were clear, the seas calm, and the puffins plenty! What goofy-looking birds they are! They’re the cute little koala bears of birds—if koalas wore tuxedos and clown makeup and flapped their stubby wings like hummingbirds! They stood on the rocks, swam about in the water, and flew past our boat on their way to and from their tiny rock island.

“The kids” and I enjoyed several meals of delicious traditional, and not so traditional, New England seafood fare during my stay, including at Scales in Portland, ME, and Fisherman’s View in Sandwich, MA. Then—drum roll—I came down with Covid, the new “razor-blade throat” strain, and spent the rest of my vacation tucked into bed in that cozy third-floor guestroom, being waited upon and nurtured by “the kids.” Geez!

Where are you headed this summer? Somewhere exotic? Somewhere familiar?

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Prideful Books

On this last day of Pride Month, I want to point you toward two excellent, but very different books, one old and one new, that I highly recommend reading.

Cleve Jones’ 2016 memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, tells his story of growing up gay in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, moving to San Francisco, finding himself, and living through the AIDS epidemic while others did not. It’s not only his life story, but the history of the Gay Rights Movement centered in San Francisco’s Castro District. Jones and I are exactly the same age, yet he knew and witnessed so much that I was oblivious to. The book is absolutely the very best memoir I have ever, ever read. I first read it back in 2016 and was both educated and moved. I cannot recommend it enough! 5***** (really, it’s off the charts)

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s women’s historical novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, is brand spanking new, released on June 3. I loved her recent book Daisy Jones and the Six, so knew I wanted to read this when I first saw the release announcement. It’s inspired by events during the early years of NASA’s Space Shuttle era—when they first started recruiting women to be astronauts—and follows the lives of several of those women. It’s also a time before the US allowed LGBTQ Americans to serve openly in the military, which presented additional obstacles beyond simply being a woman in a man’s world. I found the combination of the excitement of “shooting for the stars,” and the struggle faced by brilliant people navigating a system that rejected them, to be fascinating and intriguing. 5*****

Force of Nature in the Wild

Be sure to let me know when your book club is going to read and discuss my adventure memoir, Force of Nature. I’m happy to join you for your discussion to answer questions and tell stories in person locally or via Zoom at a distance. Even if we can’t visit, let me know where to send your Book Club Kit and Discussion Guide.

If you’ve got photos of Force of Nature in the wild, be sure to send them to me and I’ll post them for all to see and send you one of my pretty handmade beaded bookmarks!

June’s Books

I’m still playing catch-up on my book lists, but I’ll limit myself to eight books (in addition to the two above). One speculative fiction, four historical novels, and three mystery-thrillers.

Michael Connelly is one of my favorite writers of fun detective novels. They’re all set in Southern California, often along streets and in locations I am familiar with. His Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series are classics everyone loves. Nightshade, his newest book, introduces the reader to new characters and a new locale, Catalina Island. A detective, is banished to “paradise” for being a thorn in the side of less honest, but more powerful, LAPD officers. This is the first in a new series, and it lives up to my expectations for fast-paced action, interesting mysteries to solve, and flawed, but lovable, characters. 5*****

Gary Gerlacher’s Faulty Bloodline is another in his AJ Docker and Banshee series. Somehow, I read this out of order, it’s book #2 and he’s up to 4 or 5 now, but it doesn’t matter. Gary’s books remind me a bit of Clive Cussler’s thrillers crossed with the Superman story, where the hero, “Doc” in this case, and his sidekick Banshee, a highly trained retired police dog, are crazy brave, ridiculously lucky, and determined to save the underdog and bring the “bad guys” to justice. Faulty Bloodline is fast, fun, upbeat, and good always conquers evil! A timely read, I think. (Gary is a fellow Black Rose Writer.) 5*****

Miranda Fights by Gail Ward Olmsted is also a part of a fun series of mystery thrillers. The central character, Miranda, is a lawyer and a bit of a celeb. She’s a bit quirky, too, as are all the characters, which makes them all lovable. This time, Miranda takes on a human-trafficking ring. Plot twists are abundant, so don’t get too comfortable, as this is an edge of your seat experience. (Gail is a fellow Black Rose Writer.) 5*****

Copy Boy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud is the first in an historical fiction series set right here in the Sacramento-San Francisco area during the Great Depression. (I reread this book as I prepared to interview Shelley via Zoom in mid-June as a part of my OLLI at Sierra College monthly Author Spotlight series.) The central character, a strong-willed young woman, an “Okie,” who must disguise herself as a man to break into the “man’s world” of journalism, is adept at moving through the seedier parts of the city, while both solving mysteries and disentangling herself from family problems. 5*****

Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale does not need accolades from me—it’s considered one of her best. My book club read it this past month and will be discussing it at our next meeting over a luncheon with a French theme (I’m bringing Salade Caprese!) This historical novel is filled with strong female characters, including two sisters who take on very different roles in Nazi-occupied France in WWII. One rebellious, one traditional, neither can avoid becoming involved in the French Resistance in their fight for survival. It’s a long, luscious book filled with ordinary people doing extraordinary things. 5*****

The historical novel The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard grabbed my attention because one of the significant side characters is none other than Abigail Adams. With my obsession for all things First Ladies, I couldn’t resist. The story is set during the Revolutionary Era in the small town of Braintree, MA. The women bade farewell to their men who have gone off to fight the British on battlefields and as statesmen. The women come together in community to valiantly maintain the farms, raise the children, and “hold down the fort” amidst intrigue and plenty of work for the midwife. It’s a fun, light read, with a mostly happy ending. (Spoiler: they win the war!) 4*****

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick is a kick! Imagine if Elizabeth Zott from Lessons in Chemistry (by Bonnie Garmus) started a book club and the first book the “troublesome” women chose to read was Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. You can imagine the “good trouble” those bored and energetic early-Sixies housewives could get into! And they did! A great summer read. 5*****

Francis Stufford’s Light Perpetual, a speculative piece of literary fiction, has an intriguing theme and a complex braided structure, the kind of book I generally love, love, love, and parts of it I did. But overall, it didn’t touch me, move me, intrigue me the way I think the author intended. In the very first scene, based on a real event, five children are killed instantly when a bomb goes off during the Blitz in 1944 London. The rest of the book speculates on how their lives would have unfolded had they lived, and we follow them as they develop careers, marry, have children, succeed and fail. It’s a brilliant idea, but it just didn’t fulfill its promise for me. 4****

My starred ratings are a measure of how much I enjoyed a book, how it lives up to my expectations. So, light fun reads can get a 5-star rating for doing just that, while a more complex, rich novel that doesn’t reach a different level of attainment doesn’t get the 5 stars. Everything is relative!

What are you reading? What do you recommend?

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June’s Book Giveaway Winners

In mid-June, I sent out an extra newsletter/blog announcing I was giving away the two books I had highlighted in the first episode of my new Auburn Community Television (ACTV) show Reading in the Wild. In addition, to celebrate my birthday, I also gave away a copy of my own adventure memoir, Force of Nature. I drew the names out of a hat. (Really, I used a random number generator, but the hat image is more fun!) Congratulations to the following winners!

• Susan from Kentucky won my copy of Heartwood by Amity Gaige

• Lynn from Oklahoma won my copy of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

• Trudie from Texas won a copy of my book, Force of Nature

I’m recording a new episode of Reading in the Wild in a couple weeks and will be highlighting two new books, Cam Torrens’ Scorched and Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior. Be sure to tune in (I’ll send you the link) and if you’re interested in one of the books, enter the next drawing. Watch for a note from me.

June 2006 - Cappy & Joan’s Final Shakedown Hike Before Our Grand JMT Force of Nature Adventure

I’d forgotten I even had these photos, but discovered them recently in the recesses of my old computer files. I thought you might enjoy them. In June of 2006, Cappy and I set out for a three-day, two-night backpacking trip into Grouse Ridge Basin area of the Northern Sierra Nevada. Jane joined us for day one only, while our friend Patty came along for the whole weekend. We hiked in past Carr and Feely and Island Lakes, all the way to Glacier Lake. There was still a lot of snow on the trail, so we did a lot of “dead reckoning” on the way in. We found tiny Glacier Lake almost completely frozen over and a small stash of beer buried in the snow by some previous hikers. We set up camp at Glacier, and did day hikes out to Six Lake Basin the next day, where Cappy and Patty insisted on swimming with the icebergs! Not me!

Interesting note: My photos were taken with my brand-new Nikon digital camera. If you’ve read Force of Nature, then you know that very camera was doomed. You’ll have to admit it took really great photos!

In Honor of Father’s Day - A Fish Story

It’s 1960. I’m six years old. We’re on a family vacation at the Lair of the Golden Bear, the family camp in the Sierra Nevada operated by Cal (AKA UC Berkeley) for alumni and their families and staffed by Cal students.

A small stream flowed through the Lair. Dammed and widened into a small pond under the shade of tall trees, it was kept richly stocked with trout exclusively for young fishermen and women. Dad and I took part in an organized father-daughter fishing activity one afternoon. A good sport, Dad patiently followed the leader’s directions to guide me through the complicated task of putting a bait worm on my hook—a “night crawler” pulled from a cardboard cup of soil and worms we’d picked up at the camp store where we’d checked out my bright orange fishing pole. I wrinkled my nose, but didn’t let go when the long, pink worm wiggled and contorted each time I stabbed it with the small barbed fishhook. And I had to stab it a few times to get its long body to stay on the hook. When I’d finished, the poor thing looked like I’d tied it into a big, ugly, painful knot.

Next, Dad showed me how to get the bait and hook out into the water. The trick was to gently cast it into the pond without entangling my line with any of the dozens of other lines being tossed about by the other father-daughter pairs encircling the pond. Inexperienced young fisherwomen sent their lines flying this way and that, and lines crisscrossed first to the left, then to the right, sometimes three and four at a time. It was a bit like a circular firing squad, the result being entangled lines galore.

Miraculously, fish were actually caught despite the chaos! I yelped each time there was a tug on my line. Usually, it had just caught or been caught by another young angler. But once, the tug came from an actual fish!

Dad, seeing the tip of my pole dip dangerously toward the water, grabbed it halfway up and held it steady. “Reel it in,” he said. There was excitement in his deep voice, though not nearly as much as there was in mine.

“What do I do? Daddy, what do I do?” I squealed! I gripped the handle of the pole with my left hand and the handle of the spinner in my right. I was concentrating so hard on the fish and the pole that time seemed to stop and the other people and their noise disappeared.

“Don’t rush now. Very slowly, turn the handle this way,” Dad said, his bushy black eyebrows pulled together in concentration. Still steadying the pole for me, he put his large, free hand over mine and together we turned the handle and began to pull in my fish. After a few turns, he removed his hand, but held it close by at the ready.

When my fish began to emerge from the water, Dad helped me swing the pole to the side and bring the sparkling and wiggling trout to dry land beside us. He grabbed the line, and the fish flopped and thrashed on the ground. “Daddy, take it. Take it,” I said, pushing the pole towards my father.

“No,” he answered. “It’s your fish. You get to finish this.” His dark eyes were serious and his deep voice modulated to keep me calm.

Together, we held the wet slippery animal, while Dad worked out the hook.

I don’t remember how we transported my catch to the cleaning area or anything about that messy process, but I remember taking the cleaned fish to the back door of the Mess Hall. I remember the kitchen staff accepted my prize, wrapped it in white butcher paper, labeled the package with my name, and placed it in an oversized refrigerator.

The next morning, at breakfast in the huge, rustic mess hall, my name was called on the loudspeaker. Dad and I stood and waved from our wooden benches, and a white-aproned waiter wound his way across the room to deliver to me my own cooked catch. Head and tail still attached, its round black bead of an eye staring directly at me, my fish greeted me. Dad showed me how to pull the head, tail, and backbone out with one smooth movement.

“I’ve never had fish for breakfast,” I laughed, my fork poised.

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Force of Nature!

My adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook! You can purchase it wherever books are sold online or in bookstores, and I’m proud to say it’s available in over 160 libraries across the country! And, now, (drumroll, please) it’s going to be coming out in a Spanish translation very soon! That just tickles me to no end!

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. From the small commission I earn, I donate a portion to Sierra College Food Pantry, The Basic Needs Center.