Reading does a Mind & Body Good! Plus, a good cuppa or glass of Wine!!!

Reading can seriously damage your ignorance~ Mindset of Greatness~ 

SeriouslyY'all, I've been reading some words since Ms.Covid walked into the Universe and decided to stay a spell. The last couple years was a great journey into subjects that enhanced my Mind and gave me pause. Here's a sampling of what I read. 

Books in 2021

Books at the end of 2021 my "Russian Series". To say the least, I needed THERAPY after reading "The Life and Times of Rasputin". Wow! I also watched related movies on some of these books.

Seems I got hooked on "Whodunnit" Murder Mysteries by M.M. Kaye. What a great writer. I think I'm on to her because it is the least talked about person in the scheme of her books that is the criminal. They are quick reads for me with only 275-300 pages, takes 2 or 3 days to complete. The fact they are based upon real locations and all the pertinent facts are true (I looked them up of course). Had not ever heard of Andamans, Zanzibar and Kashmir geographically and the culture was an eye opener.

Another covid-related "Staycation" I really got into ~WINE~. Since 1983, I've loved different Wines. I started buying books back then, never really took off until 2019. I always loved Cabernet Sauvignon. But, I started tasting other REDS as I'm not fond of White Wine except Bubbly stuff (Prosecco or Champagne). Seems I really like Pinot Noir as a first choice now. I did a personal  Wine tastings of several different Pinot's from various Countries. For example:

My second choice are two grapes I'd never heard of before my Wine Education began. 

Negroamaro...

& Porrera

Other discoveries:

What a 3-year journey of discovery of new Books & Wine ...oh & new Teas!

I'm on a ROLL...

Check out my 2022 Reading List. Y'all Come Back Now😍

Greetings for the Holidays!

We are just about rounding out another year that has been shocking and devasting to many since 2019.Whether it's been Covid-19, Politics, Forest fires, Floods, unrest World-wide, Far Right, Far Left, Food shortages, Job shortages, Climate Changes, Believers of the BIG LIES that flow each day, JANUARY 6,2021 coup d'etat  at The D.C. Capitol and the List goes on. 

Regardless, "Be Thankful" for what you do have & always show "Kindness to another Human Being".

Back in 2013,I Posted this Holiday Greetings to Friends Around the World, The Sage Book Whisperer: ~ Friends Around The World ~ Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!    I'm repeating it AGAIN with so much Love to You & Yours Around the World!

 

See you in 2022 with soooooo many Books,Movies,Wine ,Food and more to explore. 

Sheeeeee's BACK! Book Review

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

The last 4 years have come and gone...Thank Goodness! I chose to spend my time Reading Book, watching movies, exploring Cooking recipes from around the World, losing weight etc...then in walks Covid-19 _so I added Social Distancing to the Mix. I'm looking Onward & Upward since January 21,2021. Although,I did NOT keep a Record for the entire 4 years of books read, here's a couple of Books from 2020.

 

There's a couple missing_they didn't make the Photo Shoot (lol). Of all the Books  I read "The Outlander "by Gil Adamson (not part of the Series aka Outlander) was my #1 Favorite. It told the story of a very brave women living in the times when women were really belittled and had no rights.

~JUNETEENTH A FAMOUS CELEBRATION SINCE c.1865 IN TEXAS~

CONTRARY to what the 45th President of America in 2020 says_that HE made June 19th Famous; it was President Abraham Lincoln 16th President of America in 1863 that freed the Slaves. It was NOT until 1865 that the Slaves of Texas got that message they were FREE! Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.IT IS NOW A WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION.IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF ALL MANKIND.

For further Knowledge...this Link will help...https://www.history.com/juneteenth 

Martha and Pinkie Yates in a buggy decorated for the annual Juneteenth celebration in front 319 Robin St. in the Fourth Ward (c.1895-1905). Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public  

Early Celebrations 

May31-June 1,1921*** ~Remembering Greenwood Oklahoma Massacre of an All Black Community~

           ~FLASHBACK~ 

In these days of Social-Distancing, a Friend CHALLEGED me to list the top 10 Albums that influenced my taste in Music. My First thought_well this SHOULD be a piece of Cake. Wrong! Today was Day 9. I posted: 

DAY 9 Album Challenge...The Gap Band...The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson; and it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, and Pine = GAP)_ in the historic ~GREENWOOD~ neighborhood in the brothers' hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. GREENWOOD WAS BURNED DOWN BY WHITE PROTESTORS May 31 & June 1, 1921, when mobs of WHITE RESIDENTS attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Early in the Morning" was my Exercise Routine dance song of which I still remember the moves! 

                                                     OFFICIAL VIDEO...1982
Note: I love the girl in Yellow Exercise tights...that would be me. lol 

Anyway...
It dawned on me that 99 years ago TODAY...May31-June 1,1921 _A White MOB burned down Greenwood Black Community. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history, and one of the least-known: News reports were largely squelched, despite the fact that hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless. 

  

BACKSTORY:
On May 30, 1921, a young black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator at the Drexel Building, an office building on South Main Street. At some point after that, the young white elevator operator, Sarah Page, screamed; Rowland fled the scene. The police were called, and the next morning they arrested Rowland.......AFTERMATH...In the hours after the Tulsa Race Massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped. 

For decades, there were no public ceremonies, memorials for the dead or any efforts to commemorate the events of May 31-June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up.

The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. As a result, until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about. Source:https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

Further Sources: James S. Hirsch, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

Scott Ellsworth, “Tulsa Race Riot,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa Historical Society & Museum.
Nour Habib, “Teachers talk about how black history is being taught in Oklahoma schools today,” Tulsa World (February 24, 2015).
Sam Howe Verhovek, “75 Years Later, Tulsa Confronts Its Race Riot,” New York Times (May 31, 1996).

FAST FORWARD MAY 2020 

George Floyd: US cities brace for new protests after another night of violence....

George Floyd protests spread globally while China reacts.... 

But, this says it all (Quote)... 

Hua Chunying, a "Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman", pointed out America’s racial unrest by tweeting ~“I can’t breathe,”~ which Floyd said before his death. 

All this + COVID-19 PANDEMIC..."I Can't Breathe" either. Guess, I just listen to the GAP BAND...sigh!

How I Spent MY Summer of 2018_"On the Trail of Spies, Colluders,Offshore Banking,Espionage Russian -Style".

AND....

An EPIC Summer of....
Suspense,Intrigue,Trickery,Art of the Deal(aka lies),Frame-ups, Conspiracy theories,Collusion,War of Words,etc..! 

NOPE,I'm not talking about the Headline News.All from the writings of "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold...John le Carre'.
  

John le Carre',aka_David John Moore Cornwell.

An British Author..Extraordinaire! During the 1950's and 1960's, he worked for both the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence service in the UK.His third novel,The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time Author. 

In his novels you're getting a glimpse into an occupation that begs to meme present day Headlines.

I chose these books for Summer 2018:

1. Absolute Friends 

                           "Absolute Friends"is almost autobiographical. 

John Le Carre' was an agent of the Cold War Espionage team UK.

International espionage that spans the lives of two friends from the not-torn West Berlin of the 1960s to the grimy looking-glass of Cold War Europe to the present day of terrorism and uncertain new alliances that aren't always what they seem to be. 


2. Single & Single 

This is a story of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. an intimate portrait of two families: one Russian, the other English; one trading illicit goods, the other laundering the profits; one betrayed by a son-in-law, the other betrayed, and redeemed, by a son. Carre' knows this territory better than anyone else as he lived it in Real Time as a agent. 


3.Our Kind of Traitor  

Not only did I read this book by I purchased the movie.EXCELLENT. 

Big-Time Money Launderer_Dima_ is ready to rat out the Russian Criminal Brotherhood.compatriots and expose CORRUPTION throughout the so called legitimate financial and Political Worlds. 

4.The Constant Gardener 

Yet another movie by the same title I purchased.Vaguely based upon a story that played out in Nigeria. 


Tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the truth and finds an "International" conspiracy of corrupt Bureaucracy and Pharmaceutical money.A brutal & unfortunate look into how Pharmaceutical Corporations use poor people in Africa as guinea pigs for Drugs that are NOT approved for Human use & the profits by the Shareholders & Executives made thereof. 

Here are the remaining Books to be read.It will finish out this web of  "BIG LIES & SPIES"!


5.The Tailor of Panama 

Panama—the young country of 2.5 million souls which, on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal—is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption.For what is a tailor for, if not to disguise reality with appearance? What is truth if not the plaything of the artist? And what are spies and politicians and journalists if not themselves selectors and manipulators of the truth for their own ends?

6.The Night Manager 

The movie was GREAT! Now for the read.


Espionage novel published in 1993. Le Carre' first post-Cold War novel, detailing an undercover operation to bring down a major international arms dealer.It is an unholy alliance operation between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade.  

7.A Legacy of Spies 

This is his latest published in September 2017.Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications. 

 Indeed...my Summer of 2018 has given me an insight to the real workings behind many of the "Headline News"stories of today. I like the fact it's written by someone who in fact was part of the Secret Service of the UK. I can't imagine that he does NOT have knowledge of some of the twist and turns of these Criminals that have perpetrated these scenarios again & again_continuing the traditions today.

What began as 

                    A Dossier  

With many,many....

And always money under the table....

Offshore accounts and..

FAKE...

Undercover Operatives with "Fake"Intel...

HEADLINE NEWS...

ENDS up with this....

More importantly....

Nope...so until COMPLETION of Reading & Investigating....I am in a STATE OF DOWNLOADING...