Ponder: Rules for Disappearing

Rules for Disappearing ©2013 byAshley Elston is a page turning, intense, suspense tale, relating the experiences of a family of four in the Witness Protection Program. A father, mother, and their two daughters, ages seventeen and eleven, are forced to relocate multiple times for their own safety. It is told in first person by the seventeen year old. Aspects really tugged at my heartstring for the adolescents of the story. Having to abruptly abandon friends, clothing, and hairstyles while changing schools repeatedly takes a toll on the psyches and chameleon lifestyles. Because the main characters are teens, the novel is characterized as the young adult genre, but that category did not diminish its appeal to me. Per Wikipedia's description of Young Adult Literature, "Young Adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality." The main characters of young adult novels may be teenagers but the conflicts and dilemmas are mature enough to engage an adult reader.

In The Rules for Disappearing, seventeen-year-old Meg (aka, a slew of other names) takes on adult roles in caring for her panicked younger sister, her alcoholic mother, and her overworked and overstressed father, while struggling to avoid making any relationships or ties that she anticipates will need to be broken off with no warning and no goodbyes. Pile on top of those struggles, the fear of avoiding those who are after her, and this book grips its reader in an unrelenting strangle hold unable to escape until its completion.  This is the fifth book I have enjoyed by Ashley Elston. I have read two adults novels and three YA novels by Ashley Elston and rated them all highly.  The Rules for Disappearing follows the same pattern. Follows is the list of those five books followed by the dates I posted my review of each.

5 stars First Lie Wins ©2024 (adult)  — see post for 9/6/24
5 stars The Lying Woods ©2019  (young adult)  — see post for 10/8/24
4 stars This Is Our Story ©2016 (young adult)  — see post for 10/29/24
5 stars Anatomy of an Alibi ©2026  (adult)  — see post for 10/14/26
5 stars The Rules for Disappearing ©2013 (young adult)  — see this post 11/9/26

I rate The Rules for Disappearing five stars. The first book can be complete in and of itself and does not end in a cliffhanger. But I became invested enough in Meg's family and the budding relationships that I need to know what happens next. I have already purchased the second book of this two part series and look forward to reading it as well. 

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

Yet Another Pumpkin Patch

Sunday, October 18th we went to yet another pumpkin patch to get our fill of the fall season. The Moore Pumpkin Patch is a chain and this small one is located on a lot associated with a church and only a few blocks away from Alex's home. Alex general picks two or three small pumpkins to take home with him. When we first arrived I asked Alex to pose for a picture and this is the result.  When you tell Alex to smile he closes his eyes and says "yeah, yeah" and I caught him in the action. For his eyes to be open, the shot needs to be candid.

Aside from the pumpkins there are several displays to amuse and educate. Alex made himself comfortable by the goat and the chicken.

I learned something new from the cow display. How many...

• Squirts does it take to make a gallon of milk?  350 squirts
• Gallons of milk does a cow produce in a day?  10 gallons
• Stomachs does a cow have?  4
• Hours a day does a cow spend eating/chewing? 6 eating/6 chewing
  
  

 

Even ghosts want to get into the pumpkin carving act. Alex will not carve his pumpkins, just carry them around with him.

There are several photo opportunities scattered though out the small lot of this pumpkin patch and I paused at several of them. There is the truck carrying a load of pumpkins and there is the bales of hay with cornstalks display. Alex's pumpkin preference is for small palm size pumpkins or slightly larger ones if they are light enough and have a stem for carrying. He picked one small pumpkin with a tall stem and two tiny pumpkins this year.

After the  pumpkin patch we went on to our regular Sunday bowling. Even Earl Anthony's Bowl  is decorated for the season.

Unlike his wiser son — who picked only pumpkins small enough to carry by himself — Frank picked a huge one we struggled to get into the car at the patch and out of the car once home. Frank did select a good one. It does look quite grand near our front door, even if we do not carve it.

I myself, for one, am content with an eclectic collection of soft cloth stuffed pumpkins displayed on the living room hearth. I also enjoy a fall-themed soft goods seasonal display on the dining room table.

   

Ponder: Don't Let the Forest In

Don't Let the Forest In ©2024 by CG Drews is a #1 best seller in Teen & Young Adult monster fiction per Amazon. I did not even know there was such a category. This book was a real page turner for me, despite the category — or most likely because of it. I chose this young adult book because I enjoyed the author's adult novel You Did Nothing Wrong which I recently read and reviewed 10/9/26. I gave You Did Nothing Wrong four stars and will similarly give Don't Let the Forest In four stars as well.

My reading choices this October have most certainly leaned toward the macabre, probably because I have Halloween on the brain. This leaning is weird for me. I am a "merry witch, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or smiling pumpkin" type of gal. This book is definitely none of those. Although it is chuck full of monsters, I could not help caring deeply for the characters and their struggles. These are teens in their senior year of high school and the stresses put on them, above and beyond the academic and social ones, are tremendous. I felt like I wanted to defend them and comfort them.

All the while I was reading Don't Let the Forest In, I kept visualizing how this novel would make an awesomely illustrated animated horror movie. I was about to scan some of the illustrations from the book to show what I meant and realized there were only a few in the book. Those of monsters were not at all what I had pictured. The text in this book is so vivid, my mind was filled with curling, coiling, twisting images of vines and tendrils and claws, slender and graceful while deadly. The teens longing, affection, and defense of each other ran painfully deep.

The setting takes place at a boarding school in Virginia. Andrew and Dove, twin siblings, and Thomas are the main characters and share a sort of a three-musketeers-type camaraderie. Andrew is an incredibly talented author whose strength lies in writing macabre fairy tales with monsters. Thomas is an incredibly talented artist who generates illustrations that bring these gruesome tales to life. These monsters live in the forest which is on the other side of the fence from the school. When the monsters begin to cross that boundary and seek satiation among the students and teachers, Thomas and Andrew take it upon themselves to act as protectors and fight the beasts. An intense plot keeps this book moving due to nightly monster battles. However, the emotions and relationship among the characters was also a real draw for me. A nasty, vindictive teacher, an abusive bully, and gender identification struggles add the spice to the story in the same way hops plays a key role in beer production. The resolution was not what I expected.

I rate Don't Let the Forest In four stars, deducting only one star because the novel may favor a limited audience. I could not put it down; it was riveting and sad. If you are curious... no, it did not give me nightmares. 

  ★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

I generally do not read Amazon reviews until after I have read a book to prevent the reviews from influencing my blog post. If you read this book however, and wonder how to interpret what really happened, this review on Amazon for Don't Let the Forest In is an excellent clarifier. I cite only the opening paragraph here, but the four star review is worth looking up after you've read the book.

Alden Lane Fall Festival 2026

This past Sunday, October 11th, Frank, Alex and I went to Alden Lane Nursery's annual Fall Festival. We enjoyed a leisurely low-key stroll on a beautiful day that felt more like spring than autumn. At the entrance we availed ourselves of the photo opportunities near the painted cow and the growth chart. Alex clutches the map and entry brochure throughout our visit. He is obsessed with these orientation papers like the playbills at shows or song lists at concerts, which seem to add extensively to his tactile enjoyment of the experience.

One of the advertised attractions fro the festival was a petting zoo, happening only for a limited time window within the afternoon. The petting zoo turned out to be a few 4H members with a chicken and a bunny. Alex liked the bunny.

Some of the carvings we say hello to each visit to the nursery are a gnome and a giant squirrel.

One of the highlights of the festival is the scarecrow building contest. It is fun looking at all the entries. Alex posed near Farmer Rick and Frank posed near Dolly Parton. Others were equally clever such as one by a boy scout troop and one representing the three head monster form Harry Potter fame. Hagrid's Fluffy is based on the Hades three headed beast names Cerberus who falls fast asleep whenever he hears music or a harp playing. Note the harp at the base. There were other rows of scarecrows scattered throughout the nursery

We took some time to sit a bit and listen to the music of a local folk band. I did not recognize any of the songs but enjoyed them anyway. The weather was positively gorgeous as can be seen from the flag waving in the cloudless blue sky.

One of the buildings at the nursery housed a rose show. I was impressed with how many varieties there are, not to mention how many different colors within those varieties. When I got home I looked up the classifications.

• Hybrid Teas: Classic, large, high-centered flowers borne singly on long, upright stems.
• Floribundas: Compact bushes that produce large, continuous clusters of smaller flowers.
• Grandifloras: Taller, vigorous plants that cross Hybrid Teas and Floribundas, bearing large blooms in small clusters.
• Miniature Roses: True roses bred to stay small and compact, usually reaching 15 to 30 inches tall with tiny flowers.
• Climbing Roses: Vigorous plants with long, flexible canes designed to train up trellises, walls, or fences.
• Old-Fashioned Roses (Old Garden Roses): Historic varieties that existed before 1867, noted for their intense fragrance and full, double blooms.

At random hidden spots throughout, were small vignettes to remind it is the autumn season. California may not have the riotous foliage display of New England but it has its own beauty in another way and fantastic weather to go with it. Pumpkins and gourds and purple tones abound in rustic displays

After we left the nursery we went to Loard's for ice cream sundaes. Alex positively devoured a black and white, which for him is a scoop of chocolate ice cream a scoop of vanilla ice cream and lots of whip cream. We leave off the nuts and the cherry, afraid Alex might choke on them. I leave those off my own sundae also out of preference, so I do not feel like I am denying him. The hot fudge sauce...? There is a tiny twinge of guilt there. We also left off the hot fudge sauce  — in self defense. There are no pictures of Alex eating the Sundae. I was too busy trying to minimize my own accumulating level of stickiness  since I was seated next to Alex. Had the hot fudge been there as well, the stickiness challenges would have been insurmountable. I was glad that the only syrupiness I had to deal with was my own. Alex seemed no less happy, sans sauce — a win-win for sure! The treat was a sweet finale to a easy-going seasonal outing.

Phantom of the Opera

Saturday, October 10th, Frank and I attended the musical Phantom of the Opera at the Center for Performing Arts in San Jose. Frank and I are season ticket holders and this seasons's seats are on Orchestra Left (even numbers). We now have end seats 46 and 44 in Row 8. Our angle of view to the stage is about the same as last season and we are a bit closer than last year's Row 12. Here is what we saw. Note the chandelier suspiciously suspended above the audience for this show.

I am not a fan of opera. Although I appreciate the skill and talent in the voices of the singers, I still find the sound a bit pretentious. The power is incredible, but in this performance I could understood only about 10% of the words. In Act I, the staging of the gondola scene in the misty subterranean lake of the opera house was impressively well done. Even so, slightly discouraged, I actually considered leaving at intermission. Frank was enjoying the show more than me (which is not usually the situation) so I banished the thought of not staying. I was so glad of that decision. 

The opening song of the second act was Masquerade. The visual spectacle of the broad scope of the colors and creativity  of the costumes and masks along with the sheer size of the cast blending their voices was so powerful I was glad I was there to soak it all in. This short facebook reel gives a brief glimpse. Full lyrics describing what we saw are here.  What follows is just a sample of the choruses.

Masquerade, paper faces on parade
Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you
Masquerade, every face, a different shade
Masquerade, look around, there's another mask behind you

The word Masquerade also brings to mind the quilt I made for Robin's and Jeremy's 2011 wedding (completed nine years later). The title reflects that the quilt was made from fabric with masks all over it. For a full account check out my 10/16/2020 quilting blog post.

In retrospect I am glad we committed to be season ticket holders. Having done so gets Frank and me off our duffs and relieves us of the boredom associated with staying only within the confines of our comfort zones. Perhaps if I had reviewed the lyrics on Wikipedia or some similar source I would have gotten more out of the show. But that would have been homework! So much better to just go and relax.

Ponder: Anatomy of an Alibi

I read First Lie Wins, the first adult novel of Ashley Elston, in September of 2024 and rated it five stars. So enamored with this author, I followed on by reading two of her young adults novels in October of 2024, The Lying Woods and This is Our Story, rating them five stars and four stars respectively. I was excited to see Elston had a new adult novel Anatomy of an Alibi ©2026 and I am pleased to declare that after relishing it and devouring it within a day and a half, I rate Anatomy of an Alibi five stars as well.

In murder mysteries a rare, but not unheard of, plot is where Person A agrees to murder Person B's spouse/partner/relative/lover in exchange for Person B returning the favor and offing Person A's desired victim. Other than this secret agreement, Person A and Person B have no connection to each other.  The murders occur at a time when each person has an alibi that he is somewhere else. Anatomy of an Alibi is a slight twist on this theme. 

Camille suspects her husband is up to something no good and she wants to spy on him to learn what that might be. She is kept under such close scrutiny by her hot-shot, wealthy, lawyer husband, Ben, that she cannot break free to investigate. But what if she found someone to pretend to be her and fooled her husband into tracking that person in some innocent activities instead, leaving her time and a chance to snoop? Maybe Camille could find something that would invalidate her prenup? 

Aubrey is haunted by the circumstances ten years ago around a hit-and-run accident that killed both her parents when she was sixteen, leaving her grieving and destitute. The man incarcerated for the crime believes himself to have been framed and contacts Aubry from prison to tell her this. Anxious to learn the truth, Aubrey, dresses in a wig and the fancy clothing of Camille. Armed with Camille's credit card, iPhone, and car, Aubrey puts on a show in a distance town, acting as a decoy to Ben, thus giving Camille a window of opportunity, while Aubrey does some poking around of her own.

From the book flap...

Except the next morning Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

The book has many characters beyond the main ones of Camille and Aubrey, but the author does a great job of keeping them straight and giving them distinct personalities and traits. Wealthy powerful daddy has many of the police and officials in his town in his pocket. Husband Ben and brother Silas are stuck under grinding thumb of wealthy, powerful, crooked daddy. Does Ben's law firm partner Hank have ignorance of shenanigans or motives of his own? The story is revealed in scenes titled before and after the alibi; they are clearly labeled in the chapter headings by time and speaker and so the sequence of events is easily followed.

Who is lying to whom? Who is not revealing all they know? The tension during interviews and confrontations is palpable. There are multiple plot twists. I really, really, really enjoyed this book!

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

Ponder: You Did Nothing Wrong

All the while I was reading You Did Nothing Wrong ©2026 by CG Drews I kept visualizing how this novel would make one terrifying horror movie. Descriptions were gross but the narrative was engrossing and I read the book in a day and a half in two sittings. I am not a fan of horror movies but I can tolerate horror books since I can skim over the too intense parts. The mystery in this book was strong and the characters complex and indecipherable. I had to finish the book to see how it all came out. The ending was not to my liking but I have to admit the final pages fit in with the genre of the book. Horror movies do not always end happily ever after.

The basic plot line is that the main character single mom Elodie with her six-year-old son Jude, who has autistic traits, move in to a Victorian house that Elodie's newly wed husband Bren is renovating. Bren loves Elodie deeply and truly; he exhibits love as well as patience for Jude. Elodie is obsessed with being a good mother, having come from parents where she was ignored, unloved, and unsupported.

The house itself appears to be a character in this drama... maybe. Both Elodie and Jude assert that the house talks to them and wants them out. Bren loves the craftsmanship and challenge to transform the house into the beauty it once was with elegant woodworking, wallpaper, furniture and lighting. A construction zone, however, is full of hazards for a young, difficult child. Compound that with an anthropomorphic house that hates them, or is perceived to hate them. Are the threats real or delusions of Jude or his mentally imbalanced mother? 

What did other readers think of You Did Nothing Wrong? These are the ratings on Amazon and Goodreads. Less than one third of the Amazon readers thought it was great.

This is not a book to make you smile or feel good. This macabre tale is not my usual taste in literature or movies but I could not put it down. I deducted one star because it most certainly is not the taste of the majority. Portrayals of fears and suspicions, as well as depictions of ominous, dangerous settings

used foul, putrid, disgusting metaphors (blood, slime, pus, yuk!) were hard to plow through. I skimmed a lot these phrases under the rationale of, "Ok, ok. I get the idea". Due to intriguing characters, suspense, several climaxes, and plot twists — despite the abundance foul descriptions —  I thought You Did Nothing Wrong was well written, if not at all pretty or soothing. Maybe consider it for a Halloween read?

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

Ponder: Whistler

Whistler by Ann Patchet ©2026 was the October pick for a bookclub I frequent. It is said that Ann Patchett is a "master of character-driven literary fiction". That may be all well and good but I like a plot and I had to work hard to find a point or direction or conflict in all the verbiage of this novel. Motives were absent, weak at best. The setting was basically high brow city or upper middle class suburbs, and I could identify with neither. Country clubs, mimosas, museums, brunches, cocktail parties lacked enough familiarity to me to draw me into this book. Contrary to the 4.5 stars from 45,483 Amazon ratings and 4.3 score from 220,839 rating on Goodreads, I did not enjoy this book at all. 

The novel centers around the adult main character Daphne's relationship with the second of her mother's three husbands. There are two stories about accidents within the novel, both told in retrospect: one is a fall from horseback in a remote location and the other is a car veering off a mountainous road. Finally! Some action that could excite me! Beyond these two diversions I was bored with this book.

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

51st Anniversary

Sunday, September 27th, was Frank's and my 51st wedding anniversary. The Saturday night before we remarked how we had absolutely no plans and that was perfectly OK. Unbeknownst to me he got early up before me Sunday morning and snuck out to the store. He pointed out how difficult it is to get a card for 51 years so he did the best he could by modifying a card.

I came down the stairs looking for him and intercepted him coming in from the garage. He told me to go sit in the living room because he was not finished "setting up". Here is what he set up. Frank says when we were first dating he got me red roses since they mean love. He rationalized that since both he and are are a bit faded now, he got me pink roses instead because they are a paler version of red. In the pink striped box are my favorite donuts, French crullers. Frank had the bakery section of the grocery store write on the cake. Our wedding album is at the bottom of the photo. In the center of the table is our scrapbook that he made during our dating years. Why the bananas? In my aging years they have become critical for my health and Frank wanted to make sure I had enough for my daily needs and at the correct stage of ripeness. Romance also has a practical side to it.

The scrapbook Frank made for us is just above the wedding album. It is open to my 21st birthday. Note that the rose I am holding there is red. The cover of the scrapbook is silkscreened from a set of computer punch cards. Now that really dates the relationship.

We normally take our son Alex bowling on Sundays but the alley had a tournament this week and we would not have been able to go until late afternoon. Instead, I went online and located a cell phone directed scavenger hunt in our hometown of Livermore. Afterwards, I recreated the route we took, counterclockwise starting at the red dot where the car was parked, using MapMyWalk.com. It was generated from memory so there may be a few inaccuracies. The total distance as calculated by the app was 1.28 miles.

The hunt took us to historic buildings in Livermore then asked challenge questions about what we had seen on the plaques. The first site was the building near the flag pole that used to house the Independent newspaper. Called the Bank of Italy, Unfortunately my selfie skills showed little of the building but the phot does prove that Frank, Alex and I were there.

Our next stop was the Muse and Mane Hair Salon. The significance of that business is the building that houses it, the Bernal Building. The plaque  had interesting facts about early history, such as it was built with bricks salvaged from the Livermore Brewery.

Our third stop was Carnegie Park, the green area on the route map. Central to the park is the Carnegie building that once was Livermore's first library and has a gazebo for outdoor concerts. In the surrounding paved area I located a Livermore-made brick. The hunt instruction told us to make sure we stretch at this point. Alex and Frank complied. I did too but there is no picture to document that. It is hard to simultaneously selfie and stretch.

 Next stop on the hunt was the Veteran's Memorial on Fifth and L Streets. I photographed Frank posed at the corner near the flagpole. Frank photographed Alex and me executing an honorary salute as instructed by the hunt. 

The next stop on the hunt was to locate murals in Downtown Livermore. The area was very busy as this particular Sunday was Nostalgia Day for Livermore and the streets for a about a three-block by four-block area had classic cars parked all along them. I took a photo for our son Dan of a particularly striking Corvette since he likes those. One definite advantage of Nostalgia Day is that the streets were closed off to traffic, leaving pedestrians free rein to roam wherever, not having to pay attention to traffic lights or walk signs, or even having the freedom to diagonal across streets safely as they pleased.

We decide at this point we'd had enough of the hunt and wanted to take a break. We all had sundaes at Loard's Ice Cream. Afterward we walked back to the car and drove Alex back home to San Ramon.

Once home we chilled for a couple hours and turned on recorded football. That cake was calling to us and we rationalized it had been about four hours since the ice cream, so not too soon to commemorate our 51st anniversary by cutting the cake.

Frank had bought the cake because he liked all the colors on top. He did not know what flavor it was, only that it was pretty. I read the label describing the cake as Chocolate Enrobed Mousse Cake, which I had never heard of. I googgled it and AI informed me that

A chocolate enrobed mousse cake is a rich dessert featuring light chocolate mousse layered with sponge cake and completely coated in a smooth chocolate glaze, ganache, or icing.

We do not know what it was, but it was certainly GOOD — no glaze, no ganache, no chocolate icing, no chocolate at all. It was full of surprises, just like 51 years of marriage.