*Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin by Michelle Meadows and Jamiel Law *My Block Looks Like by Janelle Harper and Frank Morrison
Middle Grade
*We Still Belong by Christine Day *Not So Shyby Noa Nimrodi *Eagle Drums by Nasugraq Rainey Hopson *The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn by Sally J. Pla *The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba, Avery Fischer Udagawa (Translation), Yukiko Saito (Illustrations) *Between Two Brothers by Crystal Allen
*The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman by Mari Lowe
Really gets into those lonely middle school feelings. Cover art gripe: the girls are wearing roller skates, not rollerblades.
*The Jake Show by Joshua S. Levy
I really felt for Jake; it’s tough to be saddled with parents whose vision of their child doesn’t take into account the child’s vision. I needed to suspend my disbelief for a major plot point, but a great read overall.
Young Adult
Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta *Pardalita by Joana Estrela; Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Translator) *In Limbo by Deb J.J. Lee *Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez
*Going Bicoastalby Dahlia Adler
Two different romances in one novel? Yes, please!
*Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian
Stories of three young men (sneaky historical fiction: two are from prior decades.) Period details were solid, including the contemporary ones. Also good: the journeys of the characters.
Young Nonfiction
*She Persisted: Wilma Mankiller by Traci Sorell *Log Life by Amy Hevron *Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava by Gary Golio and E.B. Lewis
Matt and I took in PCS’s Quixote Nuevo, and had a great evening of theater. The story transports Don Quixote to La Plancha, Texas, where a retired English professor with dementia heads off on a journey for his long-lost love.
Among the great performances and great songs there was also great puppetry. The cast of nine was kept busy with multiple roles, and the story was compelling.
Also, this was a co-production and traveled from the South Cost Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California, to the Seattle Repertory Theater and then ended its run in Portland. The set was designed to fit all three stages, and the actors worked for longer because of it. In a time when arts organizations are struggling, this seems like a brilliant plan.
Disneyland, The Unofficial Guide. While this super-planned approach won’t work for everyone, I was a huge fan. It aims to get you what you want out of Disneyland/DCA by planning and prioritizing. It’s also quite amusing in places. The book provides many different touring plans (Two-day with small children, one day without children, etc.) and offers an app to help you plan. The app, alas, is only for IOS right now, so we used the website version in the parks.
Things this book did well: Encouraged walking back and forth across the park to hit rides at the best time rather than a close-by geographical approach. Provided reviews and rankings of all rides so that we could rank the rides into categories of must, maybe, and probably when planning. Provided reviews of every restaurant and recommendations of favorites at those restaurants. Explained how policies like rider switch or single rider could improve your trip. Talked through strategies for best viewing of the light shows and whether one should buy a dining package that guaranteed seats.
Things that didn’t quite hit: Despite the book’s attempt, I didn’t understand how Lightning Lanes worked until my Fairyweather Travel agent walked me through it (and gave me a handout). Having now been there with Lightning Lane access, I also would take a slightly different approach than they recommended (at least at the time we visited).
I would prioritize must-visit (and then maybe-visit) attractions without Lightning Lane access from rope drop to about 11:00 and then start the Lightning Lane process after that time. We waited a very long time for the Peter Pan ride (a maybe-visit) and used our Lightning Lane for the Matterhorn (a must-visit) at 8:30 in the morning when there was basically no line. We should have reversed those. While some attractions did “sell out” their Lightning Lane availability before the day was done, most did not. And we were planning to be there All. Day. Long. so we could have better used the Lightning Lanes beginning in the late morning rather than first thing.
Overall, though, this is a great book and well worth both the money and buying a year’s subscription to the app to view their extended content. At less than $50 total, this book and the paid website will add value to your trip.
The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland. Somewhat out of date, this small book provides behind-the-scenes information and fun facts about how exhibits at Disneyland were created. I read it before we left and envisioned paging through it while waiting in line, but never actually did that.
The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney California Adventure. This is very out of date; things have changed a lot since this was published. Still, there was some good information including the relationship between Grizzly River Run and the water at Pixar Pier.
Mouse-Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland. This book was published in 1994 and contains the experiences of former cast members. There are some fun stories like the one where so many people at the local naval base moonlighted at Disneyland that one Friday when there was a navel emergency, and they were called back to the base, and Disneyland had to close due to lack of workers. Given the era, there were some tales of “funny” mild sexual harassment. The author also discussed the difficulties Black people and all women had getting promoted, which is important perspective. That said, it wasn’t especially gripping, and I didn’t finish it.
I put all four of these books in a Little Free Library. The guidebooks were gone the next day, and the Mouse Tales book lingered for about a week.
Though I have no photo proof, Friend Jessica and I attended McMenamin’s Oscar Viewing Party. It was good fun. As usual, I brought along my Happiest Oscar Viewer game, so we could pick who we wanted to win.
While I wasn’t happy for every category category I picked, I was thrilled that the Zone of Interest won best sound design (truly amazing) and that the Last Repair Shop won for Best Documentary Short.
Famous costume designer Ruth Carter was scheduled to come to Portland in January, and I neglected to get a ticket and was sad. But it turned out that her visit coincided with the ice storm and didn’t happen, so she was rescheduled to March, and I did buy a ticket.
After finding my assigned seat (instead of the random seat I grabbed because I didn’t pick up on the fact there were assigned seats, even though I had picked my seat hen ordering the ticket (the Disney trip really overloaded me, and I had trouble navigating spaces for a few days after our return)) Ruth Carter appeared and was interviewed.
It was a great interview, and I learned a lot about her many Oscar nominations (she said that Black Panther was the first time she was favored to win and that the interview requests scaled up to match that favored status, so much so that she was exhausted by the time of the ceremony. Also that when they were making Black Panther, no one knew it was going to be as successful as it was, so midway through she lost half of her team to a different movie (that was a flop).
She also talked about working with Spike Lee and their long collaboration.
For those of you not able to see Carter in person, you can check out her book, The Art of Ruth E. Carter.
My plan to get many pictures taken by Disneyland photographers on this day was thwarted by the rain. Turns out, the photographers disappear when the rain appears. But when it was still sunny, we got a few photos in front of the Millennium Falcon.
With BB-8
And with this little fellow.
We rode Space Mountain twice, once each day. It’s still just as great as it was when I rode it when I was six. The first time we weren’t ready for the photo, but the second time we were.
Still coming down off that mountain high.
Ready for our closeup. As were the people behind us.
And thus ends the chronical of our Disney vacation. We had a great time.
We were at the rope drop outside Adventureland for our second and final day at Disneyland.
The sun was shining, but rain was forecast.
No rain here yet, though.
We rode the Indiana Jones ride (much fun!) using the Lightning Lanes, and then had a Jungle Cruise. My joke in the lead-up to the trip was that we should watch the Jungle Cruise movie so that we would be caught up for the ride, but Matt declined. He seemed to catch all the Jungle Cruise stuff even having not seen the movie.
We hung out in Galaxy’s Edge and Matt took part in some missions.
There was a tiny Rey running around, and she and the grown-up Rey eventually connected. Here they are watching some Stormtroopers and formulating a plan.
The rain was forecast to begin at 1:19 p.m. and it pretty much did begin at that time. I had hoped the rain would chase some people away, but like us, people were willing to hang out in the rain for their Disney vacation. We prioritized things that had us under cover.
We also rode the train! Twice! The first time I looked out the left-side window (not much to see) and the second time I looked out the right-side window (much to see).
Some of our fellow travelers who weren’t on the train and were in the rain.
We also rode the omnibus that took us from Main Street to Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
As you can see, the rain was persistent. We were both glad we sprung for the good ponchos as they kept us dry the entire time.
Some merry-go-round action showing off the poncho.
And some time for a self-portrait.
The poncho ruins this effect, alas. Matt is attempting to pull the sword out of the stone.
We lasted until about 6 or 7 that night and then returned to our hotel. Though rainy, it was still a good day in Disneyland.
