Old Mill Pond - Artist: Mark Frost - Cra-Z-Art - 1,000 pieces (missing 2)
This was such a fun puzzle to do when the leaves in the scene and the ones out my window are all changing colors.
The American author was in her thirties when a letter she assumed was mistakenly sent to her led to the discovery that her dad's family had been deeply entrenched with the Nazis in Germany and spied for the Japanese in Hawaii. This book, which I learned about from a friend, was written after the author spent three decades researching her family's past and their direct involvement with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
8:35:28, Secrets eat love like acid. But love regenerates.
Rooftoppers, written by Katherine Rundell and narrated by Nicola Barber
I recently read a different book by Rundell, so I checked to see if any of her other books were available immediately and ended up with this one. I enjoyed this middle grade novel about a girl in London who's believed to be an orphan, the kind man who's raised her after she was found floating in a cello case as a baby, and the kids who live on the roofs Paris that she meets when she and her guardian flee there in search of her mom.
41:38, "Books crowbar the world open for you."
Work in Progress, written by Devon Rodriguez and narrated by Devon Rodriguez and Maria Elana Estrada
After years of following his art, I was excited to learn Rodriguez was publishing a memoir. Then I found out his abuela was doing a little of the narration with him and knew I had to listen to the audio. I'll also look at a print version to see the pictures he included, but I prefer listening to memoirs instead of reading them when they're narrated by the author.
I already knew he came from a childhood of poverty, abuse, neglect, and drug use, but hearing details of his home life was heartbreaking. As a balance to the hard stuff, it was cool to learn about how much he's worked at improving his craft over the years, hear about the development and growth of his social media presence, and witness his deep appreciation for the people who've helped him along the way. I've always loved his art, humility, and kindness equally, and this book only increased that feeling. He's a talented artist and hard worker who really values people and is intentional about making sure they're truly seen. Heads up that there's a lot of profanity in this book, with the majority of it in the first part that deals with his upbringing.
UPDATE - I ended up seeing him in person at Powell's for an author talk, buying an autographed book that he personalized, and getting a picture with him.
2:59:58, Abuela's house taught me that love doesn't need to be expensive to be powerful. Sometimes love looked like a bunch of stacked milk crates holding clean clothing and socks.
7:00:44, Where I came from, survival was the goal. Success? That felt like a fairy tale.
7:25:28, The subway had chosen me. In New York everyone rides it. Bankers, artists, construction workers, immigrants, tourists, performers, kids from the Bronx like me. It's one of the only places where the globe fits into a train car. The subway isn't just transportation. It's theatre, anthropology, documentary, poetry; it's everything. Or at least it was everything to me.
