Worth the Wait?
A previous Book Nook article featured Helene Wecker’s imaginative debut novel “The Golem and the Jinni”, which told the story of two mythical creatures against the backdrop of New York City in 1899. Eight years later we have her sequel: “The Hidden Palace”.
I am old enough to remember when you couldn’t find a store open on a Sunday, not even a gas station. That was because government bowed to Christians who demanded that we all honor the Sabbath.
Perhaps the most disturbing conclusion of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is the permanence of climate impacts. Changes like shrinking ice sheets, rising sea levels and oxygen depletion and acidification of the oceans are deemed "irreversible for centuries to millennia."
Life just isn’t the same for most of us. And I wonder if it ever will return to what we used to call "normal." Covid has redefined life for many, many people. We have learned firsthand the powerful lessons of contagion. Now I imagine all the droplets in a movie theater or a crowded restaurant as all those people breathe and cough and sneeze.
Tobacco 21 legislation is pending in our state legislature, which would align our state laws with federal law. This legislation is very important to me and I appreciate Sen. Howard Marklein’s work and leadership on this bill.
