Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Happy New Year! Stepping into a new year is good. A fresh start. A clean slate, where we can take new approaches, forge new paths, try new endeavors, make changes without and within. And read more books! Of course, in my life, books are a constant. Before we leave the old year, let’s take one last look back… In 2020 we visited cozy mysteries, brand new worlds in our universe and beyond, we read of winters and wonders, great loves and bullies. We also stayed home a lot. Many people like to rea...
In the classic “Twas The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, one of my favorite lines reads, “And visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.” As a child, this was a delicious visual for me and my sweet tooth. Dancing candies! What could be more delightful? I learned in that story that people wore caps on their heads to keep them warm through the night and Santa carried a bowl full of jelly. Well, that part was misconstrued but a fun mistaken concept. Concepts. This book always...
The paper is thicker and glossy. The cover is sturdy. They still offer serials, but also complete stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. And they cover not just superheroes, but anthologies and classic novels, and new novels with artwork that can’t be provided in traditional book format. Graphic novels provide both a reading and artistic experience, yet still let your imaginations soar. Graphic novels have actually been around for almost two centuries. The first graphic novel was pu...
A diverse and varied host of religious and non-religious people annually celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. What is really unique about Thanksgiving measured against other major holidays is its ability to be inclusive. Everyone can be included into a day of enjoyment focused on being thankful and sharing the bounty of meals, family and friends. Yet, here we are in November 2020 approaching a very different holiday season. Decisions must be made on how we celebrate during a pandemic. Do...
It has become a popular tradition to retell fairy tales. From Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Anderson, the life of fairy tales have survived famines, wars and the ravages of time. The retelling of the old stories in modern circumstances has become almost as popular as the original stories themselves. I will share with you some of my favorites and hope you add some of them to your family book collections… “Peter and the Wolf” was written in 1936 by Sergei Prokoliev as an opera, telling the c...
Have you felt prickles crawling across the back of your neck, your hair raising straight up on your arms? Perhaps you were watching a spooky movie or were feeling watched yourself, or having that feeling that someone was standing on your grave? Some books can produce those very same reactions. I have a few for you in this review. Just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. Winters are known to be cold in many locations around the globe. Extreme low temperatures freeze the ground hard and freeze whole l...
I love watching British murder mysteries. When a person is traumatized by finding a dead body, the police immediately sits them down and brings them a cup of tea. The same is true when the police deliver bad news, question residents in the neighborhood, dig through trash bins or tromp through murky woods for clues. That cup of tea on a saucer or in a mug, steaming hot, enters the scene. It is comforting. So what could be better than reading a series of six books titled, “Tea Shop Cozy M...
Thanks to Woody and Buzz and the gang in the Toy Story series, the world learned that dolls and toys have lives, too. That when people are not there, not watching, toys move and talk and have feelings and adventures. A doll’s life includes baby dolls and Barbies, stuffed animals and plastic figures from Little People to superheroes. But long, long ago, it started just with dolls, porcelain dolls and dolls stuffed with straw. Dolls made of rubber all squishy and soft, to dolls stuffed like p...
In spite of dilemmas, conundrums, inquisitions and counteractions, school has been initiated. Did I manage a good use of my words? A nice variety, slightly challenging, apart from the usual? Put in plain words, school has started. A different kind of school for most, in front of a screen instead of the usual room of 30 or so desks, a screen with many bobbing heads in Zoom squares, double sets of eyes and ears, and voices that must listen and speak only in turn to escape chaos. Virtual school in...
Imagine the exhaust coming from a train, car or industrial chimney, dissipating without leaving in its wake deadly pollution because it is steam, merely evaporated water billowing in the air. That was the real possibility for humanity as we approached the Industrial Revolution between the 1700s and 1800s. We were faced with a choice. We could turn left or right. Imagine a world that had turned toward steam power instead of bio-fuels. It was a real choice, the world’s crossroad. Just imagine! I...
A huddle is when a group of people gather closely to share important updates and information. A team of marketing reps may huddle at the beginning of their day to get everyone on the same page before creating a project for a client. Teams huddle before and during football and basketball games to plan their next moves on the field or court. In my last book review I highlighted how women circled together in support of each other to share ideas and feelings. Men gather to play sports or watch the g...
It used to be a sewing circle where women gathered from surrounding farms and nearby towns to sit and chat while their hands moved stealthily over quilt pieces with sharp needles and multi-colored threads. They would create a beautiful piece of art out of scraps for a bride or newborn baby or a sick friend. Every stitch with love and care followed the chatting and sharing of their everyday lives and challenges. They supported or admonished one another, cried together in grief, laughed together...
On July 4, it seems there were more than fireworks lighting up the Tehachapi skies. People were asking each other if they had seen the very bright lights over Double Mountain, Tehachapi Mountain, Stallion Springs, Bear Valley Springs and town. It’s been many years since I watched lights pulse at the tops of mountains and come tumbling down the hillsides. Lights dazzling my eyes and imagination. I therefore dedicate this book review to unexplained phenomena. As a child, it was the story of ...
Have you ever walked in the footsteps of history? Good writers use their words with skilled precision. They draw the reader deep, immersing them so completely they feel the emotions as if they had lived the events themselves. Feel them, taste them, hear them, touch them. Readers can experience history like a memory. It’s good to remember history … the lessons, how humanity moved through it and came out of the hardest parts. Acknowledging history helps us hold the good parts close, keeping the...
When the last book in the Harry Potter series was published, readers wondered what J.K. Rowling would write next. She said she was doing something completely different and had already started. She said it was nothing like Harry Potter. Then she hinted at a children’s fairy tale. That was the last we heard of it, till now. During the time between, Rowling kept busy raising her young family. In her spare time she did manage to write a gritty novel in typical British style. Quite droll. Plain t...
Everyone deals with stress in different ways. Books help. Some need a deep diversion and turn to literary novels, complex and compelling. Others may need an escape into fiction, perhaps science fiction about other worlds and challenges from a different reality. Then again, there are those that go the light comedy route, tongue in cheek stories that take little concentration and in turn, releases stress with laughter and a rueful shaking of the head. I have a few of those! Pretend a cozy mystery...
There comes a time, after strong fall winds and freezing winter nights, that there is enough warmth from the sun to once again trigger the miracle of spring. And within that miracle, trees burst into all shades of tender green leaves. Have you noticed? But what if you noticed something else? What if you saw a great oak fall to the ground, then stumble to her feet as a girl? That is exactly what happens in the first pages of “A Tree of Ages” by Sara C. Roethle. What would it feel like to be a tre...
“The change was such as might have plunged weak spirits in despondence,” words by Jane Austen that could easily apply to the isolation of the COVID-19 virus. “We were most commodiously disposed of.” Yet, spring has sprung in spite of all disruption. “Every day is adding to the verdure of the early trees...the season, the scene, the air were all favorable to tenderness and sentiment.” In other words, spring has sprung without us. But we have inside activities, right? Some people during this...
Home-schooling responsibilities came suddenly. Parents had to become teachers, utilizing friends’ suggestions, online sites and varied school packets. For me, this extra time is perfect for reading books, books and more books. Even if you have a large family library, no one can ever have too many book suggestions in my world. And starting a new series is always exciting, especially when you have extra time to fill. I was quite surprised to read on Twitter that many adults were reading Harry P...
The earliest podcasts were spoken around fires and deep in caves, at the bedsides of children, and later over smoldering marshmallows while camping. Humans have always loved a good story! The earliest of stories can be found painted on walls of caves and tombs, drawings and carvings of people, animals and nature living in harmony or colliding. There is a reason for the term “carved in stone.” Messages and stories can be kept foundationally solid for thousands of years. Oral tradition, on the...
“Beware the Ides of march,” thought often to be a term from Shakespeare, really originated in Rome around 753 B.C. marking the first full moon of the new year on the Roman calendar. It sounds ominous. Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day. Today the Ides of March ushers in a celebration for St. Patrick and the wearing of green. But beware, there is a dark side to leprechauns and October is not our only scary month! As humans, we are curious by nature, whether that curiosity is good for us...
February is a month when we turn to great loves, in our lives, in cinema, in novels, in history. What would you consider the greatest love story ever? Perhaps Romeo and Juliet? Cleopatra and Alexander? Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton? Enduring romances found in “Wuthering Heights” and “Dr. Zhivago?” I personally lean towards Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” There are so many heartstrings to pull. Then you have novels like “The Thornbirds” by Colleen McCullough, of forbidden fruit,...
TADA Acting Studio’s Theatre Creators Kids are at it again. We are proud to announce our fourth Theatre Creators production since Tehachapi Academy of Dramatic Arts (TADA) opened its doors in 2018. This is a strong cast of 12 actors ranging in ages from 9-17, many of whom have been with us from the start. In “Casper & The Haunted Mansion” a group of orphans and the caretakers who have inherited the land they live on, find their way to a new definition of family. Show times for “Casper & The Hau...
Three winter stories could not be more different. I suppose just as each winter, year by year, is not the same. Components can be similar. Cold temperatures, rains and snows. Winds. But one year might have mightier winds and the next frigid deep snow. Such are these winter stories. Two have religious aspects, two have mysticism. All three deal with medical concerns. People are lost and some are found, and some people find themselves in the process. The first book, “Winter’s Secrets” by Lyn C...
It is a brand new year, so how about exploring brand new worlds? The first book to be reviewed in 2020 is "First Encounter" by Jasper T. Scott. As in many of the sci-fi movies and shows we love, a smart and adventurous crew flies through space to planets never explored, in search of life and a first encounter with an alien race. In "First Encounter" they have no idea what to expect on landing. They find a beautiful and exotic landscape and a plethora of strange animals. Or are they intelligent...
