A Big Ol' Bucket of Useful

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

The Books List, Part 14

20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

The weather is starting to warm up and Memorial Day is right around the corner! Time for another Books List post, because we are gonna head to the beach and read our little hearts out!

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

Survivor – Chuck Palahniuk
Tokyo Travel Sketchbook – Amaia Arrazola
Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
Atonement – Ian McEwan
The King in the Tree – Steven Millhauser – read my review: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/08/review-of-king-in-tree-by-steven.html
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety – Cole Kazdin
Marvel 1602 – Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert
Bombshells vol. 1: Enlisted – Marguerite Bennett
Just After Sunset – Stephen King
JLA Earth 2 – Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely
The Shifting Tide – Anne Perry
The Face of a Stranger – Anne Perry
A Dangerous Mourning – Anne Perry
Defend and Betray – Anne Perry
My Headless Son Fred and His Head Baby Brother Headley: The Curious Tale of Filmon Trout – T. Hudson Roberts
Dietland – Sarai Walker
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
The Mermaid Chair – Sue Monk Kidd
All that Remains – Patricia Cornwell

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

The Pocket Powter – Susan Powter
Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance
Lolita -Vladimir Nabokov
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;
They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or
I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

How We Think – John Dewey
Humboldt's Gift – Saul Bellow
Humphrey Clinker – Tobias Smollett
Hyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin
I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
I Hate Other People's Kids – Adrianne Frost
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
Idyls of the King – Alfred Tennyson
If Not Now, When? – Primo Levi
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino
If This Is a Man – Primo Levi
Ignorance – Milan Kundera
I'm Not Stiller – Max Frisch
Impressions of Africa – Raymond Roussel
In a Free State – V.S. Naipaul
In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
In a House of Dreams and Glass – Robert Klitzman
In Parenthesis – David Jones
In Sicily – Elio Vittorini
In the Forest – Edna O'Brien
In the Heart of the Country – J.M. Coetzee
In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan
Independent People – Hallidor Laxness
Indigo – Marina Warner
Inside Mr. Enderby – Anthony Burgess
Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
Ironweed – William Kennedy
Islands – Dan Sleigh
Jack Maggs – Peter Carey
Jacob's Room – Virginia Woolf
Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot
Jahrestage – Uwe Johnson
Jazz – Toni Morrison
Jealousy – Alain Robbe-Grillet
Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
Journey to the End of the Night – Louis Céline
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Julie, or The New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
July's people – Nadine Gordimer
Junkie – William Burroughs
Justine – Lawrence Durrell
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
King Lear of the Steppes – Ivan Turgenev
King Solomon's Mines – H. Rider Haggard
Kingdom of this World – Alejo Carpentier

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-books-list-part-11-20-books-i-would.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-books-list-part-12.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-books-list-part-13-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-dslr-camera-on-white-sand-near-brown-woven-bag-8093191/

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Improve Your Vocabulary-Today’s Lesson: Greek Roots, Part 3

You will recall that we left the festivities at the letter D, so let’s leave E in the dust (there’s no F in Greek) and move right along to G and H, shall we? Lots of things to do!

Today, we will cover the root gam, which refers to marriage. You will recognize this root in the words bigamy (married to two people, which is generally illegal), and polygamy, which denotes marriages to more than two people, also generally illegal. People who practice bigamy and polygamy are known as bigamists and, uh, Mormons. Just kidding!! There’s also the lesser-known word, misogamist, meaning one who is against marriage.

Secondly, we have gen, Greek for birth, race, or kind. Congenital denotes a characteristic one has at birth, such as webbed toes or attached earlobes. Often you will hear of things such as congenital heart defects. “Con” means “with”, so congenital literally means “with birth”. It's closely related to genetic, which refers to a trait or condition that runs in your family (therefore also related somewhat to birth, but more in a long-term way, so closer to the “race/kind” meaning). Other words with the root gen are genealogy, the study of your family ancestry (your race or kind), and progenitor (pro meaning “first” or “prior”), which is a fancy way to say “ancestor”, which is already kind of a fancy way to say “forefather” (also not as sexist).

Lastly, let’s dip our toes into the H's and come up with hydr, meaning simply “water”. Hydraulic things are mechanically operated by water or other liquids, hydroponics is the science of growing things in water, rather than soil, and we should all make sure to keep well hydrated, especially if you live or work in dry air or lose moisture from sweating.

I hope you had fun with this installment of Greek roots. There are many more to come, so stay tuned! Opa!

Did you learn the basic steps to building your vocabulary? here’s step one, here’s step two, and here’s step three.

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ancient-statue-at-acropolis-in-athens-31376221/

Sunday, May 10, 2026

How to Make Sure that Bad Habit You Dumped Stays Dumped

So, you've managed to dump a bad habit, like smoking or eating unhealthy food. Congrats to you! Also, good luck staying on the straight and narrow, because addictions are super hard not to fall back into.

Why so? The problem is not just that they are habits, but that sugar and nicotine are drugs that stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain, setting up a reward feedback for the consumption. So that's the stumbling block if you try to go cold turkey, and that's what the slippery slope is greased with, if you make that first doughnut shop visit: endorphins, the "feel-good" hormones that not only make you feel pleasure, they actually put a damper on pain, which is why you really do feel better after having such things.

But we all know that stuff is really bad for you! So what's the trick to stay quit? Well, it's not to live a monastic lifestyle of denial, because humans just aren't built that way. Instead, find a substitute activity that makes you feel pleasure. Something healthy, of course! A lot of people are pleased to find out that they can get a real high from exercise. I'm personally a fan of exercise-that-doesn't-feel-like-exercise, like dancing, sports, etc. Eating celery and putting in hours on the treadmill doesn't sound nearly as much fun as eating donuts and smoking, does it? But swimming and roller skating? I'll take that any day!

Another trick: don't just “use willpower,” because willpower is a battery, and batteries run down. Set up your life so that you don’t have to wrestle a craving every five minutes. Don’t keep the cigarettes, chips, soda, or whatever-your-thing-is sitting around like a tiny little villain on the kitchen counter. Make the bad habit inconvenient and the good choice stupidly easy. Put fruit where you can see it. Keep your gym shoes by the door. Have gum, tea, crunchy carrots, or some other “hands/mouth busy” option ready before the craving shows up with a megaphone.

Also, watch out for your triggers, because bad habits love a routine. Maybe you always wanted a smoke after coffee, or dessert after dinner, or junk food when you’re stressed, bored, lonely, tired, or celebrating because hey, Tuesday happened. Once you know the pattern, you can mess with it. Take your coffee outside and walk around the block. Brush your teeth right after dinner. Text a friend when you're feeling stressed instead of opening the snack cabinet like it contains the meaning of life (and do you need a snack cabinet?!?). You’re not just quitting a habit; you’re rewriting the little script your brain has been following.

Speaking of friends, another biggie when it comes to staying on track is the power of the "buddy system." It is way too easy to talk yourself into a "just this once" moment when you’re the only one watching. But if you’ve got a friend who knows you’re trying to quit the sweets or the smokes, they can be the external conscience you need. Whether it’s a workout partner or just someone you can chat with when the cravings hit hard, having that layer of accountability makes it much harder to sneak a "cheat" without feeling the sting of disappointment. Plus, doing hard things is just less miserable when you have someone else in the trenches with you to complain—and celebrate—with.

Finally, give yourself some grace if you hit a bump in the road. A lot of people fall into the "all-or-nothing" trap where they think that one single slip-up means they’ve failed completely, so they might as well go all in on the bad habit again. That’s like dropping your phone and then deciding to smash it with a hammer just because it has one tiny scratch! If you have a moment of weakness, don’t let it turn into a week of indulgence. Just acknowledge the slip, realize it was those pesky endorphins trying to hijack your brain again, and get right back on the wagon. One bad day doesn’t erase all your progress unless you let it. Celebrate the wins, learn from the wobbles, and keep going. Progress is not always glamorous, but neither is coughing up a lung or feeling awful after a sugar binge, so, honestly? Progress wins!

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-white-mug-on-brown-wooden-table-5196217/

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Improve Your Vocabulary-Today’s Lesson: Greek Roots, Part 2

Here's Part One: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/04/improve-your-vocabulary-roots-part-one.html

We have already learned a ton of prefixes, as well as the Greek roots anthropo, arch, and chron, so have you been having fun so far? Have you been spotting words out in the world with those word parts, such as anachronism, meaning “without” (an/a) “time” (chron), or in other words, something that is “out of time”, or rather out of place in a certain time, like Walt Disney World showing up in a Victorian novel, or Ben Franklin strolling Walnut Walk in 2026.

Today, we are moving on to delta—I mean, d—in the alphabet (which term we get from Greek in the first place, named after the first two letters, alpha and beta, of the Greek alphabet-a), so let’s learn about democracy, specifically what it means. No, this is not going to be a political science class, simply an etymology session. The Greek root demo means “people”, and cracy means “rule by”, so put it all together and you have “rule by the people”. Abe Lincoln knew his roots when he cited “government by the people” in his Gettysburg Address.

Other demo- words include demographics, “people-statistics” that include innumerable categories, from age, race and religion to socioeconomic status and number of children. For example, advertisers use demographics to determine the age and income of people who read certain magazines or watch certain TV programs in order to know if their products are an appropriate match. Also epidemic, “upon (epi) the people(demo)”, which refers to a widespread illness (and then there’s epizootic, EH-pih-zoh-AH-tik, which refers to an illness affecting many animals). Pandemic, which we all learned about during the COVID outbreak, means even more—an epidemic that is worldwide, instead of just hitting a group. Pan means “all”.

Next up is dox, meaning “belief, teaching, opinion”, and from this we get nifty words like doxology, the little song we sing about our beliefs while the collection is being taken in church (“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow…”), orthodox, the “standard belief”, and paradox, a conflict of beliefs. An example of paradox is the apparent proof by physicists that light exists both in particle and wave forms simultaneously. Weird, huh?

If that excited you, you’ll really get a “charge” out of dyna, meaning “power”, and sometimes used to refer specifically to electric power. The ancient Greeks didn’t have that, of course, so most words with a long pedigree refer to power in general, such as dynasty, which refers to power that is passed down along family lines. Dynamite is certainly powerful stuff, and for the science geeks among us, thermodynamics, or “power from heat”, is a worthy (and usually environmentally-friendly) pursuit.

So, do you now feel dynamic with all this new knowledge? Then go out and conquer some more words!

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/building-facade-with-colonnade-in-athens-16832790/

Did you learn the basic steps to building your vocabulary? here’s step one, here’s step two, and here’s step three.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Fast and Easy Two-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Did you try the fast and easy two-ingredient bread recipe? Or are sweets more your thing? In that case, you will love this super quick two-ingredient recipe for making oatmeal cookies!

All you need is two ripe bananas and and one cup of quick oats.

Mix them together and spoon them out onto a greased baking sheet, then bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes (start watching at 15).

If you have some dried fruit like raisins or cranberries or some chopped walnuts or pecans, you can mix those in, too (it won't be two ingredients any more, but I promise not to tell)!

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cookies-in-tilt-shift-lens-4182677/

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Improve Your Vocabulary: Roots, Part One

It’s All Greek to Me

Now that you’ve read the first three steps to building a better vocabulary (What? You haven’t? Well, here’s step one, here’s step two, and here’s step three. I'll wait!) and you have committed the prefixes I gave you to memory, let’s improve your vocabulary further by learning a few new roots.

These root words are all from the Greek language, which has given us a surprising number of words, considering the Teutonic and Latinate nature of our English language. Greek roots figure very strongly in certain fields, specifically that of medicine, so it would certainly benefit us to become acquainted with them. Even if you don’t want to become a doctor, it wouldn’t hurt to know what they’re talking about, now, would it? You might be watching one of those medical dramas and suddenly realize it’s not all gibberish anymore! Let’s learn some new root words now:

First, we have anthrop or anthropo, meaning man or mankind, or in less sexist terms, human or humankind (although sometimes it specifically means man, as in male human). Some examples of common words using this root are philanthropy, which literally translates as “love of [fellow] man”, and which we understand as “charity” or “charitable endeavor”. Of course, if you love your fellow man, it is easy to be charitable to him. Anthropomorphism, blending the root for “[hu]man” with the Greek root morpho, meaning “change”, is defined as the tendency to give animals human characteristics, such as similar personalities or opinions to those of people. Literally, it would translate as “change to human”. The word misanthrope combines anthro with the common prefix “mis”, meaning “not” or “against”, to describe a person who is averse to his fellow men—a hermit or antisocial type.

Another useful Greek root is arch, not as in a curving parabola such as the St. Louis Arch, but arch pronounced as “ark”, as in archangel, archaeology or archaic. This root means “first” in two separate ways. First temporally, as in “ancient” (which we see in archaeology, “study of the ancient”, and archaic, literally “old” or “ancient”, but more commonly used to mean “outdated”). Also it means first hierarchically, as in “chief” (hence archangel, meaning a chief or primary angel—Michael, Gabriel and Uriel are archangels in the Christian tradition). And didja notice I also sneaked hierarchically in there, too?

Last but not least, we have chron, a Greek root meaning “time”. The term chronic means “over time”, as in a chronic illness; chronology, literally “study of time”, is more accurately defined as “timekeeping” (the chronometer, or “time-measure”, on your wrist or office wall is a facet of this), and the prefix syn, meaning “same”, combines with our root to give us synchronize, which as we know from spy movies (“Synchronize your timepieces, gentlemen!”) means to operate at the same time, or “in synch”. Yep, it’s the same place lip-synching comes from.

Now, memorize these, use them in your speech and writing, and don't worry, there will be more roots to come soon!

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-a-greek-flag-11452708/

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

The Books List, Part 13: 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

Ah, spring! Time for sunshine and rain and flowers and loopy, loopy weather. Nothing will brighten a rainy April shower like curling up with a good book. I bet you'll forget the weather completely! Without further ado, here's another Books List. Maybe you'll find your new favorite below!

Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Great Train Robbery – Michael Crichton
The Stories of Eva Luna – Isabel Allende
Eat to Live – Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – coll. By Alvin Schwartz
More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – coll. By Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones – coll. By Alvin Schwartz
Draw Your Weapons – Sara Sentilles
Sam's Letters to Jennifer – James Patterson
How to Learn Any Language – Barry Farber
Where the Sidewalk Ends – Shel Silverstein
Year of Yes – Shonda Rimes
Confessions of a Carb Queen – Susan Blech
Cows on Parade in Chicago – Mary Ellen Sullivan
Psychology – Carol Wade and Carol Tavris
Your Head is a Houseboat – Campbell Walker
F*ck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me – Chloé Hilliard
The Witches Are Coming – Lindy West
Shrill – Lindy West
Race Records – Wendy Hayton

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

The Elements of Style – William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
The Riddle and the Knight – Giles Milton
The Story of O – Pauline Réage
White Noise – Don deLillo
Be More Wonder Woman – Cheryl Rickman