We are seeing small fires in the mountains around us, but the worst one is out of control in the unique El Cajas National Park, 30 km above Cuenca, where some of you have visited. Volunteers are rushing to help, but the area is vast. (photo credit: Reuters).

Ecuador is not the only country affected by climate change, of course. We can only wait and see what will happen with this new guy in the White House, who has previously called climate change “mythical,” “nonexistent,” and “an expensive hoax.”

But let’s go back to a simpler subject: our arrival in Cañar, We’ve discovered the best way to travel and settle in:  bring friends!  Bruce & Nancy from Portland came with us and spent eight days helping clean, organize, shop, wash, prune, haul, change lightbulbs, and much more. Their idea, not ours! They had visited Cañar in about 2009 with their daughter Miranda and proposed they make another short visit to accompany us our first week. A few photos tell the story:

 Thank you dear friends. Now we can never come without you!

In other domestic news, maybe Michael felt cheated of his ladder time? So this week, he put on his old Carhartts and, with Marco, cleaned the chimney from the top down. Taking lots of photos allowed me to not appear as the hovering spouse (which I was).  Not to end on a downer, but I’d like to add a sketch that I made the day after the election. (I think there were a couple of “pink” states I didn’t get in.) The text below the image, a quote by Justice Louis Brandeis, says: “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.” (I might add that being out of the country and without Internet evening of the election helped a little.)

There’s lots more, but I’ll save some news for next time. I have a new/old project to tell you about, and Michael has a new deviled egg recipe to share. Everyone who tries them asks for his secret.

The Cañar Book Club

“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.” –Jorge Luis Borges

Dear book club members. It’s been so long since the last book club, I’m afraid I’ve lost some of your recommendations. I need fresh input. For myself, I find I’m drawn to a new genre: comfort books. At the moment, just loaded onto my iPad from the library:  The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig; and on my bedside table: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (both will be re-reads, always a comfort).

But on to testimonials and reviews: I’ll start with the most recent – Margaux and the Vicious Circle, an intriguing novel released in October by my Aristata Press partner, Anne McClard. “A young writer living in Lower Manhattan has penned a semi-autobiographical novel about her traumatic early childhood in Colorado, including the unresolved disappearance of a friend from the apartment complex where her family lives…..” (Read on with the above link to learn more and to order the book – Yay, Aristata Press!)

Regina from Cuenca:  I just finished The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango, a novel based on a true story. “Born in an Andean indigenous village in Ecuador, Virginia lives with her family and works in the fields. When, as a seven-year-old, she is taken from her home to be a servant to a mestizo couple, she has no idea what the future holds.” (Judy adds: This could be a story from Cañar.)

Poppy in Portland:  I just finished reading/looking at Nicholson Baker’s Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art. I appreciate his commitment to learning to draw and his various approaches to keeping the learning process interesting.

Arlene in Toronto: Brotherless Nightby V.V. Ganeshananthan. “Set during the early years of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman’s moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.”  The Ministry of Time (by Kaliann Bradley) is funny and touching. The conceit is that a recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. Six people from different periods of history are chosen for the experiment.

Pat in Bend:  Here are three books I loved.  Knifeby Salman Rushdie is a memoir/meditation on his recovery from a stabbing by an Islamic radical at his lecture at Chautauqua August 12, 2022. In part, he writes an imagined conversation with his assailant, who was a child when the fatwa was issued, yet he carried his violence so long and so far.  Flight Behavier by Barbara Kingsolver tells the many stories of monarch butterfly migration interruptions due to climate change, along with dynamics among scientists’ religious beliefs and traditions. The third book is a poetry anthology, “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” edited by Ada Limon. It features short poems by different poets that often stopped me in my tracks.

Finally, Claire in London reports:  I strongly recommend Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story by Sophie Elmhirst. It’s the most beautiful piece of narrative non-fiction I think I’ve ever read. An utterly compelling, true story of a couple who were shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean in the 1970s, but also a tender study of an unusual but very loving marriage. I couldn’t put it down. (If any book clubbers know of anything similar please point me in the right direction – I want more!)