WRITE ME A LETTER: My Obsession with Paper, Notebooks, and Pens (Part One)

Posted on August 25, 2026 by novelrambles

When I decided to write this blog, I planned to focus on the lost art of letter writing and on how a book sparked a correspondence with a long-distance friend. Then I started remembering other aspects of writing, and more and more recollections surfaced, so this may be a two-part topic.

My love of paper, pens, and writing started waaaay back when I was learning to read and write my name. My first act of writing is forever held in perpetuity in the Betty Crocker Cookbook on my shelves. I had nothing else to write on, so I chose my mother’s cookbook to practice my name.

One of my memories of grade school days was the excitement of visiting the grade school in August to find out what we needed for school supplies. Who else can remember running up to the front doors to read the posted list of requirements for each grade? What I remember most was the disappointment when I didn’t qualify for anything higher than the 8-count box of Crayola Crayons, let alone the 64-count (although I doubt the 64-count was ever a requirement).

Checking out the recommended notebook paper from the grade school lists was another item that incited a frisson of excitement, especially when I no longer had to use the fat pencils and cheap brown tablets. In the fourth grade, my classmate, Linda Fredrickson, had the best 3-ring binder paper; it was college-ruled (not sanctioned by the supplies list!) and high-quality, which meant writing on it was smooth as silk. I loved that paper and have spent my life trying to locate a comparable product. But then, a few years ago, while perusing Walgreens’ stationery section, the angels sang when I discovered “stone paper” notebooks. I have multiple copies and use them for my Books of Books notebooks (they are the dark green notebooks in the blog photo); a highlight of finishing a book is using a favorite pen to note the title in my Oxford stone paper notebook.

(A side note: Linda became a good friend in junior high, but I’m sorry to say she led me down the road to near ruin by encouraging me to sneak out in the middle of the night and roam the streets of Cottage Grove. We had some, well, interesting adventures. She (and Cher) was the inspiration for my bangs during that time.)

“I Love the Smell of Ditto Paper in the Morning!”

No doubt there are many of my blog readers who have a pleasant memory of the freshly minted ditto/mimeograph papers passed out by the teacher. Who could resist smashing the paper onto our faces and inhaling that intoxicating chemical (surely carcinogenic) scent? I swear, if someone would develop it into a candle scent, it would be a bestseller. Am I right?

My next post will talk about my pen obsession and how I relearned the art of exchanging real letters.

So, what is your favorite memory of grade school supplies, and do you have a favorite notebook paper?

BACK IN THE SUMMER OF ’69: Feelin’ Groovy

Posted on July 24, 2026 by novelrambles

Lost in the Summer of ’69 by Eliza Knight

Well, that was a nostalgic blast from the past! This chronicles a grandmother, her daughter, and granddaughter reconnecting through a cross-the-U.S. road trip to music festivals (including Woodstock) set in 1969, and even though there were times when the travel details seemed quite unrealistic, it is still the feel-good story of the summer. The author incorporated much of the music culture of the time, which brought back tons of memories, including when I was introduced to the music of Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and others who burst onto the scene during that time.

Readers of Daisy Jones and the Six will enjoy this along with other books set in the late 1960s, including Elin Hilderbrand’s Summer of ’69 and Jane Green’s Sister Stardust.

My Own Summer of ’69 Experience

I was 16 years old and had what I still think of as the best summer of my youth (the other fab summer happened a year later, when I had a brief romance with a drummer in Minnesota, but that’s a story for another time). Before I had to toil in the beanfields in order to make money for school clothes, I had time to spend at the local lake with my friends and maybe read a few books. Then I met a cute red-headed boy who was travelling with friends in a yellow VW bus from California and introduced me to the wonders of Led Zeppelin music (among—ahem—other things), and I had the time of my life. Even though it’s been 57 years, hearing the guitar introduction of Babe I’m Gonna Leave You takes me right back to those days on the lake shore with the VW bus’s door opening, blasting the Led Zeppelin 8-track tape.

Literary Fiction for Book Groups: Whistler and Shampoo Effect

Posted on July 17, 2026 by novelrambles

Whistler by Ann Patchett: Ann Patchett is a beautiful writer who creates characters we come to love. For the most part, this was quietly compelling and powerful in its portrayal of relationships and themes. While I liked both Daphne and her former stepfather, Eddie, their current relationship was a little unsettling at times. Although I have thoughts about why, I won’t say, because it would be a spoiler. This story will make you think about relationships that, while brief, made an impact on your life.

Shampoo Effect by Jennie Jackson: This is a sudsy, soap-opera-ish story about a tight-knit group of spoiled, entitled 30-something friends in a Massachusetts coastal town. When Caroline, a new girlfriend of one of the male friends, arrives to live in a cottage for a fellowship, the situation quickly lathers into a tangled mess of relationships and secrets. It comes to a head when Caroline writes a thinly disguised short story published in a national magazine.

This was a fast-paced read that infuriated me with its snobby, sometimes mean-spirited characters, and even though I didn’t end up loving them, I at least understood their situation. It reminded me a bit of books by Elin Hilderbrand (mainly because of the beach setting), without the ritzy setting, and it’s also good for fans of Cynthia Sweeney, Sarah Damoff, and Catherine Newman.

Interesting note that I wish I had known before I started the story. The town and its famous resident author are based on the author John Updike, who published the novel “Couples,” a thinly disguised exposé of the town.

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BEACH THRILLER by Jamie Day

Posted on July 14, 2026 by novelrambles

This was fine. The setting of a coastal small town was very well done, the characters were appealing (even the obnoxious realtor grew on me), and the story, with a gothic tone, was suspenseful. However, the last fourth grew so complicated that I had a hard time keeping up, and some parts had a few holes. Read this if you like domestic thrillers by Mary Kubica, Lisa Jewell, Shari Lapena, and Rachel Hawkins.

I gave it a 3.5 rating, with a bump up to 4 as an homage to Michael Palmer. Who? Back in the 1980s/90s, I read all of Michael Palmer’s medical thrillers, and later discovered his son, Daniel Palmer, had continued writing thrillers, so I read a few of them, too, although he hasn’t quite inherited his father’s talent. Later on, Daniel Palmer became DJ Palmer and eventually adopted the name Jamie Day, switching to domestic thrillers. The more you know…

SINGLE GIRLS by John Searles + Homage to Cosmopolitan

Posted on July 1, 2026 by novelrambles

Today’s blog background is pink in honor of the July 7 publication of Single Girls by John Searles.

John Searles appeared at the Salem Public Library in 2014 to promote Help for the Haunted, and we discovered that not only is he a talented author, he’s also a super nice guy.

His next book is a novel about Helen Gurley Brown, the editor who took Cosmopolitan magazine to new heights of popularity by understanding her target audience and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable to print in the 1960s. Single Girls traces her early life, where she started her career as an advocate for the sex lives of single women by publishing Sex and the Single Girl in 1962. It continues with how she transformed a failing magazine into Cosmopolitan, a magazine many have known and loved over the years. John Searles knew and worked with HGB for 25 years and is more than qualified to write this fascinating tribute to her journey of becoming a powerful woman.

As a young teen in the mid-1960s, I was a little “young” to appreciate this magazine (but I do remember the cover with the crochet bikini), and since I married on my 20th birthday, I never felt like I was the intended demographic for the articles, but I went on to avidly read it whenever I went to the hair salon. Does anyone remember when the covers with the scandalous article titles were censored at the supermarket checkout line by placing metal shields over the bottom 2/3 of the magazine?

And, if you were around in 1972, who can forget the iconic poster of Burt Reynolds as the Cosmopolitan centerfold, wearing nothing but a smile, a lot of body hair, and a droopy cigar?

Even if you have never opened an issue of Cosmopolitan and know nothing about HGB, I highly recommend John’s book. It is chock-full of memorable and compelling characters (not the least is HGB’s famous movie director husband), a trip back in a time machine that looks at the culture of the 1960s, and a charming, funny, and sassy novel about an amazing woman.

[I don’t often recommend this, but read the “Afterword” before the book; it will give you a better idea of why the author is qualified to write it, along with some notes on structure.]

LATER TEEN READING, or, My First (and Last) Foray into Journalism

Posted on June 10, 2026 by novelrambles

My high school years brought more assigned reading, some I loved, some I disliked. During my late “junior high” years (now called “middle school), I had a young, progressive English teacher whose assignments included Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The class enjoyed the Salinger book, but I think many were left unsettled by On The Beach, and quite frankly, it haunts me to this day. In my junior year, Miss McGinniss assigned us Moby Dick. She was a fanatic about “biblical allusions” and just loved the first sentence, “Call me Ishmael,” saying it was the first one in the book. I think I was in the minority, but I actually liked the book.

We were assigned other books: The Scarlet Letter (meh), The Crucible (hated it), and another one that required a project that to this day, remains one of my crowning achievements, but more on that later.

In between assigned reading, I remember continuing my journey through gothic romances, and was happy to discover I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which took place in a crumbling manor but it was more of a coming-of-age novel than romance.

And I never lost my love of magazines, moving on from 16 to Seventeen, and then, upon the recommendation of my business teacher, Glamour, for which my love continued until it ceased publication in 2019. From there, it was a quick slide into more sordid content, such as True Story (PG-rated) and True Confessions (R-rated), and for celebrity gossip, Photoplay. So, was anyone else highly disappointed to discover that the stories in the “true confessions” magazines were fiction?

The Raveloe Report

As a sophomore, we were assigned Silas Marner by George Eliot, with a required project to receive full credit. I may have gone a little overboard (story of my life), but I decided to create an entire newspaper issue called The Raveloe Report. Now, for those of you who may not remember the book, after being framed for a crime, Silas flees his home and moves to the village of Raveloe, where he becomes a hermit and hoards gold. He finds a 2-year-old girl and decides to raise her. So my newspaper was patterned after the local newspaper with the big news of the day, social news (a wedding!), advertisements, and even an advice column. But here’s the thing: in those days, we had no computers with newsletter software, no printers, and not even an electric typewriter. I had to use my mother’s ancient manual typewriter WITHOUT WITE-OUT (yes, the horror, the horror)! I eventually crafted the following masterpiece, which to this day I believe was one of my greatest achievements. (Note: the third page is part 2, 16 years later, and the last page is my teacher’s grade and comment. For the record, I tried signing up for the high school newspaper in my junior year, but I expended all of my talent on this project.)

CASHIER DREAMS: Grocery Store Confessions

Posted on June 3, 2026 by novelrambles

When I was young, one of my career aspirations was to be a grocery store cashier. I always loved working with all kinds of business machines (which is why I excelled at typing), and punching a cash register sounded like a whole lot of fun. I actually kept that dream until I met my father-in-law, who worked as a grocery store cashier for most of his life, and his hands were all gnarled from constant cash register work. Then self-checkout stands were invented, and despite my excitement about living my dream, the bloom soon faded.

But one thing that hasn’t ended is my fascination with trade jobs and I will read any kind of story where the author immerses themselves into a particular profession (usually undercover) and journals the experience. I tag them with the topic of “industry insiders.” Lest you think going deep into these kinds of jobs is boring, au contraire; they are all worth reading about.

One of the first books on this topic was Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, which became a bestseller and remains popular. Her reports of working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, and other minimum-wage jobs were eye-opening. Another book on the topic, On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did To Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger, chronicled the author’s work in an Amazon fulfillment center (before robots took over picking orders), as a call center representative for a cell phone company (more interesting tha one would think), and in a San Francisco McDonald’s. Another fascinating book is Benjamin Lorr’s The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, where the author takes us behind the scenes of the grocery business, working in Whole Foods, traveling across the country on a trailer truck, visiting a pig farm, and talking to a man who was forced to work for years on a Thai fishing boat (you may not want to read about where most of our shrimp comes from).

That brings me a new book coming out on June 9, Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson.

The author, a journalist, needed work during the pandemic, so she found a job as a supermarket cashier in Utah. In this memoir, she takes a deep dive into the inner workings of supermarkets and observes her co-workers as they deal with harsh conditions and poor management. Her reporting on self-checkouts was especially interesting. The main thing I took away from this is that I will never ever chastise or give a cashier a hard time — prices aren’t their fault; items ringing up incorrectly (hello, *#$%*@ digital coupons!) isn’t their fault, and if they are curt, their feet probably hurt, or they had to come to work with a terrible headache.

So I guess it’s time to give up my dream of working as a supermarket cashier and make do with typing games.

TWO FANTASTIC NOVELS

Posted on May 28, 2026 by novelrambles

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline: This historical novel about the marriages of the famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, is fascinating, informative, and respectful; the author (a distant relation to the twins) never resorts to sensationalism or melodrama. I have always been fascinated by the history of Chang and Eng, and told from the perspective of Eng’s Wife, Sarah (her sister, Adelaide married Chang), the reader is inserted into the inner workings of the marriage including intimate relations, children (21 total for both brothers!), along with the history of the time, including slavery, women’s rights, bigotry over interracial marraige, and the Civil War. I was absorbed from start to finish, and the ending was quite emotional. I have enjoyed all of Kline’s books, but this is my favorite.

Recommended for readers who enjoy Ariel Lawhon, Melanie Benjamin, and even Kristin Hannah.

Side Note: This comment is not meant to denigrate the book or make light of the hardships, but there were times the storytelling gave “Little House on the Prairie” vibes, mainly because of the farming and food-raising descriptions, and honestly, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer. This is a compelling gothic-toned novel set in contemporary Australia. Recently divorced 50-something Fiona, a successful architect, buys her late uncle’s decaying country estate with plans to refurbish it, but various things start getting in her way, including her mother, who is adamant that she not live there, and locals who fear the place is haunted. Fiona discovers a novel that appears to be set in the house, and from there it becomes a dual-timeline story, with chapters from the book woven into the narrative. At about a third of the way through the book, it’s apparent where the story is going, but that didn’t stop me from racing through the pages. This is a perfect readalike for Kate Morton, although not quite as complicated, and fans of Lucinda Riley will also enjoy this. (To be published in late July.)

A POTPOURRI OF RECENT FICTION

Posted on May 21, 2026 by novelrambles

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. The question of whether crusty and snarky Mabel is really a killer or just misunderstood is examined in this dual-timeline story that alternates between current events and her upbringing. I enjoyed it, but there were a few too many twists, plus a plot device that I found annoying. I have enjoyed most of this author’s novels, but my favorite is The Good Sister.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub. A novel about a middle-aged woman taking a tropical music-themed cruise featuring a “boy-band” from the 90s (think New Kids on the Block) was just OK. I never felt that the promised relationship between the main character and a boy band member was developed, and for some reason, the writing was flat. However, the hellscape of being on this kind of cruise confirms my thought that I would never ever (and I mean NEVER EVER) even think of going on any kind of music cruise, even if Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits were part of the entertainment.

The Insomniacs by Allison Winn Scotch. This was a very readable combo of relationship drama, a bit of suspense, and a touch of romance. Consider taking this to the beach this summer.

Sulfur Springs by William Kent Kreuger. Even though this author’s mysteries have been on my radar for years, I’ve never read any because, well, you know, so many books… But since this takes place in my Southern Arizona neck of the woods, and illegal immigration is a main part of the plot, I wanted to try it. It was fine. There were too many characters and twists, and I got confused (easily done), but it was a solid mystery. Perfect for fans of CJ Box and the Joanna Brady series by JA Jance.