Squeaky is puzzling in 2024 - 2nd Quarter

(Continued from here.)

This year I've been dedicating my threads to a fun pastime that I started doing more often during the pandemic...jigsaw puzzles! I'm posting on this thread pictures of puzzles that I've completed with my family and friends.

When I'm not puzzling, I'm either trying out new recipes, reading, playing Pokemon GO, exercising to fight my newly diagnosed osteoporosis, working on my TIOLI challenges, or watching free streamed movies on Kanopy. I have been posting my Kanopy film reviews on this thread. Come join me there!

Here are my 2024 stats so far:



Pages Read YTD: 1,498
Pages Read per Day: increased to 12
Books in my To Read list: decreased to 396
Bookcrossing books in my home (to eventually be released elsewhere): decreased to 2,025

April:


1,000 pieces “Japanese Maple Tree” by Peter Pauper Press

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. Kensington International Day of the book Street Festival in Kensington, Maryland, USA

COMPLETED:
5. The Whole-Body Approach to Osteoporosis - R. Keith McCormick. - TIOLI #2: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge: Aries - has a word on the first page from the ram-related list (that few ever see) - 220 pages

May:


1,000 pieces “The Home of Famously Low Prices” by Fred

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. Gaithersburg Book Festival in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

COMPLETED:
6. The Book of Jones - Ralph Steadman - TIOLI #4: Read a book with a title to spell out MOTHER (T) - 76 pages
7. War Story - Gwen Edelman - TIOLI #1: Read a book whose title, subtitle, or author's full name begins or end in the letter "Y" - 168 pages

CURRENTLY READING:
8. Horse - Geraldine Brooks - TIOLI #2: Read a book where a 4-legged animal is mentioned in the title (horse) - 35/401 pages = 8%
9. Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood - Sam Machado TIOLI #4: Read a book for a rolling challenge to spell out MOTHER (T) - 25/227 pages = 11%
10. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari - TIOLI #13: Read a paper book - 213/278 pages = 77%

WILL READ/FINISH A BIT LATER: :D
11. Maigret in New York - Georges Simenon - TIOLI #5: Read a book that you acquired in 2024 (interlibrary loan) - 4/184 pages = 2%
12. On Tokyo's Edge - Gaijin Tales From Postwar - Gordon Ball - 19/138 pages = 14%
13. Four Fish - Paul Greenberg - TIOLI #6: Read a book that poses a new question or answers a question already posed (What Have We Here?) - 5/256 pages = 2%
14. In Praise of Shadows - 51/73 pages = 70%

June:


1,000 pieces “Legend of the Jaguar Shaman” by Art and Fable

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. BookCrossing Meetup in Alexandria, Virginia

COMPLETED:
???

Happy new thread, Madeline! I love the puzzle pictures.

Happy new thread Madeline!

Happy new thread, Madeline.
Love the puzzles.

Happy new thread, Madeline! And I love the puzzles too!

>5 atozgrl: >6 quondame: >7 Helenliz: >8 Kristelh: Thanks, all!

Now that I’ve started watching films on Kanopy, I can’t seem to get my old reading rhythm back. I feel as if I’m catching up with all the movies I haven’t seen for all the years I’ve been wearing hearing aids. Modern technology of captioning is so precious to me!

I’ve recently been starting books, putting them down and starting other books. I can’t seem to read one long enough to finish it. I think my anxiety is starting to surface again, but I’m trying hard to keep it under control. World news doesn’t help although I try to limit what I read.

Happy new thread!

Thanks, Lily!

>9 SqueakyChu: - Happy new thread, Madeline. I hear you on the reading/putting down/ picking up something else. I feel like I've been doing that for months, if not longer!

I actually bought 2 puzzles in the last 2 weeks. I must be going crazy because I haven't done a puzzle since the boys arrived and I honestly don't know when I'll begin. Plus, I have at least 5 on my shelf, unopened. I will have to crack open the new puzzle mat and see if that might work! Your >2 SqueakyChu: is stunning!

>11 SqueakyChu: Your Welcome!!

>12 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley.

I’m so sorry about the loss of your mom, but I’m glad your life will hopefully be less stressful going forward. And that “High Tea”! I’m guessing you’ll be doing that with Madeleine? :).

I found other puzzlers in my BookCrossing group so now we swap puzzles as well as books at our meetups. I swap with 6of8, bluemozaic, and KateKintail. We just don’t register them. However, we do our “puzzle journal” right on the box (date completed, how many days, where & by whom). So much fun!

We still rent puzzles from Completing the Puzzle. All of the puzzles on the thread are from that puzzle rental company. The Japanese Maple Tree was the hardest puzzle we’ve ever done.

Happy new thread, Madeline!

>15 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

Happy new thread, Madeline!

>9 SqueakyChu: I’ve recently been starting books, putting them down and starting other books. I can’t seem to read one long enough to finish it. I think my anxiety is starting to surface again, but I’m trying hard to keep it under control. World news doesn’t help although I try to limit what I read. I understand that and hope that the anxiety stays at bay.

I join in the puzzle love!

>17 alcottacre: I think my anxiety might lessen a bit once the weather warms up, and I can garden. I never suffered from anxiety ever in my life before pandemic/Trump. Now it seems to come and go but never goes entirely away. Too many things to worry about as I age and read the news! I long for the those olden days that nothing seemed to bother me!

Art and Fable has become my favorite puzzle company.

Happy new thread and a very happy new Quarter, Madeline. xx

>19 PaulCranswick: Thank you so much, Paul.

Happy new thread, Madeline!
Thanks for featuring such lovely jigsaw puzzles.

>9 SqueakyChu: >18 SqueakyChu: So sorry you feel this way, anxiety is hard to live with.

Happy new thread!

>4 SqueakyChu: Wow! that is striking. You can't even tell it's a puzzle.

>21 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita.

Some of the jigsaw puzzles are amazing!

>22 figsfromthistle: Art and Fable puzzles have a matte rather than shiny finish and feature stunning works of art. That’s why I love this puzzle brand so much. They’re pretty challenging to do as well.

Found you! Happy new thread! Wishing you more puzzles and less anxiety.

>24 Berly: Thanks, Kim.

>18 SqueakyChu: Anxiety about the world situation I can fully comprehend. The news media these days seems totally bereft of balance and seems intent on setting agendas.
I am extremely distressed by the obvious and quite virulent anti-semitism that seems to be back in vogue at the moment and we are in a dangerous place.

I suppose we must be fatalistic Madeline and realize that it is beyond our power to affect monumental change and just do our own little bit to do good on the micro level in the meanwhile. I genuinely believe that people have more goodness than they have badness in their souls and platforms such as this do raise my spirits about the joy, peace, stimulation and comfort inherent in small communities such as ours here. If only we could bottle it and pass it on!

Keep your chin up dear lady.

>26 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I try to find happiness in family, friends and small things, but I am always worried in a way that I never was before.

The worldwide antisemitism is deeply painful to me, especially since October 7th did not even need to happen. Now the world has turned upside-down for those of my religion, and I won't even go into the sad situation for my family and friends in Israel or the devastating situation for everyone in Gaza. An especially upsetting incident happened recently to a cousin-in-law of mine. She is an Israeli, away from her family in Israel, living alone near me and teaching in a private Jewish school for one year. I make it a point to get together with her, usually having her here with our family for Friday night meals. She told of an incident in which she recently met another Israeli she knew in a retail store and they were both happily conversing in Hebrew (which she rarely does here in the U.S.). The owner of the store heard them speaking Hebrew and threw them both out of the store. This was in the heart of Montgomery County, Maryland. Our population is 10% Jewish. We feel fearful so much now.

On a better note, two of my kids went west today to view the total solar eclipse. My son said it was the coolest thing EVER. My husband and I got to watch the eclipse here in Maryland where it was not total. We had 87.9% coverage of the sun. It was fun to watch on this beautiful day today plus I got to do a little garden work.

>27 SqueakyChu: Oh Madeline! How extremely distressing. And so startlingly blatant! I feel for your cousin and you as well.

>27 SqueakyChu: That's horrible!! I am sorry for your cousin, and you, and all people who feel threatened because of their religion (or any other reason).

>28 quondame: >29 Berly: Susan and Kim, I felt so sad when she told me what happened.

>30 SqueakyChu: Sad and a little disgusted. Isn't this supposed to be the 21st Century? Haven't we learned nothing from the lessons imprinted so tragically upon our forbears?

>27 SqueakyChu: Was Montgomery county in the Confederate part of Maryland?

>31 PaulCranswick: Some people do not learn a thing from history. Sadly, history eventually always seems to repeat itself.

>32 m.belljackson: Yes, because it was south of the Mason-Dixon Line. All of Maryland was south of the Mason-Dixon Line. However, Montgomery County is now a very liberal, diverse place to live. I usually feel more comfortable here than in some other parts of Maryland.

>33 SqueakyChu: The scenes in Michigan with protestors screaming for "Death to America" and obviously Israel too are frankly as disgusting as they are disturbing. Why on earth are those people enjoying American freedoms if they hate you all so vehemently.

I know you have free speech and that that free speech is protected by the constitution but surely that is either treason or seditious. The authorities must do something about this nonsense.

>34 PaulCranswick: My husband, who is a native Salvadoran, always thinks that people in the U.S. (he's now an American citizen) have too many rights. I'm more worried now about our right wing Supreme Court than I am about the wording of our Constitution.

5. The Whole-Body Approach to Osteoporosis - R. Keith McCormick


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TIOLI #2: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge: Aries - has a word on the first page from the ram-related list (that few ever see)
--------------------------------
Having been recently diagnosed with osteoporosis, I borrowed this book via inter-library loan through my own public library. This is a very comprehensive book about osteoporosis told from the vast experience in this field by R. Keith McCormick, doctor of chiropractic. The book is full of information and very detailed.

This book worked less well for me than I had hoped. I was overwhelmed by the amount of detailed information and cannot say that I even understood all of it. I also found it terrifying. It was really more than I wanted to know from a person who is not a medical doctor. I have no less regard for doctors of chiropractic than for medical doctors, but I feel that medical doctors are more likely to order medication at the first sign of osteoporosis so what I really wanted to know was more about the medications and how they would affect me. I am not one to second guess my own medical doctor and tell her what tests to order. By the end of this book, I had had enough and just skimmed the last few pages to be done with it.

I think this book has great merit for those who are trying to avoid osteoporosis medication and take control of managing all the aspects of their disease mostly through diet and exercise. This is just not me.

Rating - 3 stars

You want to do enough exercise to tell your bones that they're needed, but not so much that you risk breaking one.

6. The Book of Jones: A Tribute to the Mercurial, Manic, and Utterly Seductive Cat - Ralph Steadman


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TIOLI #4: Read a book with a title to spell out MOTHER (T)
-----------------------------------
What a gorgeous book! Actually, it made me cry. Ralph Steadman, author and artist, drew fantastic ink drawings of a cat named Jones who lived at the mountain home of author Hunter S. Thompson. This cat was master of his own fate and owed no one anything. Years ago, I had a feral cat named Lord Bravery who was just like Jones. Therefore I loved reading about this cat's interactions, however brief, with others. For the beautiful artwork and the author's appreciation of a cat's personality, I say that this is a book not to be missed by those who love individuals of the feline persuasion.

Rating - 5 stars

Jones treated him and the rest with similar detente. Everypne was a moving thing to tease his whim with respect and worship at the altar he had made his own.

Nice to see you posting my friend.

I hope everything is ok with you despite the madness going on all around us.

>38 PaulCranswick: Every day is indeed pure madness here in my country and around the world, Paul. That being said, I enjoyed a wonderful Passover holiday with family and friends and was honored to host two Israelis (one a long-time dear friend and the other, her cousin) at our house during the week of Passover. It was really a delight. Despite the work involved, I was so happy and anxiety-free...a real change for me.

7. War Story - Gwen Edelman



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TIOLI #1: Read a book whose title, subtitle, or author's full name begins or end in the letter Y
—————————
This is a moving story of Kitty, a young aspiring writer, who meets Joseph Kluger, a much older published author and Holocaust survivor. They quickly become lovers, and she learns to tolerate his crude behavior and listen to his war stories. He had survived the war because his Viennese parents sent him to a foster Dutch family as the war years began. The novel traces Joseph’s life, the pair’s relationship, and their final breakup. As the novel opens, Kitty is traveling to his funeral in the Netherlands, and the book is the story of their relationship over the years they were together.

Rating - 5 stars

I have had many names, he said with a shrug. The fate of a Jew my darling. He must constantly metamorphose to stay one step ahead, to remain alive.