Shoulblog Is Moving!

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. First the bad news: this is the last post I’ll be writing at johnshoulberg.wordpress.com. The good news: the whole blog is moving on up to a new address: johnshoulberg.com. (Actually, that's the same old address, but without the .wordpress in the middle of it.) If everything …

Five-Star Reads

For as awful a year as 2020 was, at least it was good for me in one respect: I read a number of great books last year. Here are the books I liked enough to give five-star ratings to on Goodreads in 2020: The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey. You will have read about …

Books From The 'Teens

When I think about the books that are honored as the top reads in a given year, I usually find that I haven't read even a tiny percentage of the "best" books listed. I'm a decent reader; I have an annual goal of 25 books in a year, and I usually get fairly close to …

The Singers

My dad said he didn’t sleep well his first night in the assisted-living facility. It was because of the music. Dad plays the piano at his 99th birthday celebration last July. This was in October. After some eight years in an associated independent living facility down the street, he’d had two hospitalizations in six months, …

Walking With The Old Girls

This is our routine.

I get their leashes on and nudge Molly toward the front door. She slowly, awkwardly, haltingly walks to the door and goes out. Daisy is always several steps ahead of her ...

Back To Nature (L5N5)

Do I think you care about what books I have read and am planning to read next? Of course not. But do I secretly hope that someone will pay attention and actually get some ideas for books to read from these posts? Sure. I’d even welcome some return comments like, “hey, since you read XXX, …

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Ah, December. As the year winds down, all the major periodical publications start putting out their "Best of the Year" lists. And for me, the best of the "best" lists are the "Best Books of the Year" lists. This phenomenon means there's no shortage of ideas for books to read. I'm not going to pretend …

Reading List: December 2019

It’s been almost two years since I wrote one of these last five/next five book lists. A lot more than five books have gone down in that time; there's no "catching up" here. But let's jump in for a snapshot of where we are today. The last five books I've read, oldest to most recent: …

A Summer To Remember

Fifty years ago this week, on July 3, 1969, Rolling Stones guitarist and founder Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. The death was ruled to be accidental, but to this day, conspiracy theories circulate that he was murdered. Jones had actually been forced out of the band earlier that year, and replaced …

Here We Go

As the Democrats begin their debate season, they need to focus on putting forward their positive message and leaving the negativity to Trump and the Russians.

David Gray Live

A few years ago—OK, the date was October 17, 2014*—we saw David Gray in concert at the Touhill Center in St. Louis. He was touring in support of his album Mutineers, which had been released earlier that year. Personally, I hadn't taken to Mutineers right away. It was a somewhat unusual David Gray album, in …

Ocean Waves

... And maybe you prefer your ocean waves unsullied by surfers and surfboards. If so, here's a video for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7tsWjKAZBc

Sunday Surfers

Every day, as the morning light began to break over the shore, they were out there. Groups of wetsuit-clad surfers, waiting a few hundred yards or so offshore for just the right waves. For most of the seven days we recently spent in San Diego (Pacific Beach), it seemed like there really weren’t any waves …