A list of organizations that are helping people in Ukraine. UNICEF UNICEF supports health, nutrition, HIV prevention, education, safe drinking water, sanitation and protection for children and families caught in the conflict in Ukraine. Médecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders MSF runs a range of activities in Ukraine working with local volunteers, organizations, health care professionals and authorities to help people travel to health care facilities and access prescribed medications Voices of Children The Ukrainian organization's Charitable Foundation helps provide psychological and psychosocial support to children affected by the armed conflict, according to its website. Sunflower of Peace The nonprofit organization is raising money to prepare first aid medical tactical backpacks for paramedics and doctors on the front lines. International Committee of the Red Cross This Switzerland-based organization is aiming to help people affected by the conflict and support the work of the Ukrainian Red Cross. Save the Children Save the Children, based in London, helps to deliver lifesaving aid to vulnerable children in Ukraine and around the world. UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) The international organization aims to provide emergency assistance to families in Ukraine — providing aid such as cash assistance and opportunities for resettlement in Canada. CARE CARE is raising money for its Ukraine Crisis Fund, which will provide immediate aid including food, water, hygiene kits, support services and direct cash assistance. International Medical Corps The global nonprofit has been delivering primary health care and mental health services in eastern Ukraine since 2014, and is raising funds to expand those services for people affected by the latest conflict. With thanks to NPR.

Although Al Purdy was writing about one ill person and a sense of helplessness, the lesson I choose to

Dad's can get a lot of grief, most of it well-earned to which I can attest! But today is a good day! Lots of love to all the dad's out there!

At the start of the final section of James Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, is an epigraph for the 14-year-old protagonist that foreshadows the long, difficult journey that will lead him from his bitter childhood into whatever he makes of his life: ''Then I buckled up my shoes,/And I started.' Have we finally buckled up our shoes and started?

We are often self absorbed; it appears to be both a human failing and survival mechanism. It seems to me that now during this time of social distancing (or time of weirdness as I will repeatedly call it), we might be able to learn a few things from a group of people who have been socially distanced or isolated most of their lives. Thus I began to read Donna William's autobiography Nobody Nowhere. And true to to my instincts, in the 'author's note' she writes: "If you sense distance, you're not mistaken; it's real. welcome to my world." I know folks are reaching out in other ways but I urge folks to think about the perennially socially distanced folks amongst us...

Sometimes referred to as International Chocolate Day and celebrated since 2009. Why did we wait so long?!? I can't imagine a better holiday to celebrate. Bake a cookie for someone you love today! Do you love chocolate? Any favourite books on chocolate?

It is troubling that during this lockdown, many of us were and are denied access to libraries, but it is understandable. Because, even though libraries may seem like they cater to solitary endeavours, they play a far greater role with communities than given credit for. They are a place to gather for children for story-time or creative programs; folk can gather in a book reading club; anyone can go to a library to ask questions and find answers that lead to more questions and hopefully other answers. You don’t have to have financial wealth to visit, study, and learn. Nothing beats your local library (so please support them) but as travel opens up again, here is a totally subjective list of the top 8 most interesting libraries in the world; not just for their books, but their beauty, architecture, size, and ability to gather people (in no particular order): George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Part of Johns Hopkins University, this library is open to the public in Baltimore. The New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA The main branch on Fifth Avenue boasts a lovely marble façade and lion statues that guard the base of the steps. The Central Library of Vancouver, BC, Canada Modeled after the Colosseum in Rome, it has nine floors with over 9 million items and a rooftop garden. Bodleian Library, Oxford, England In use since the 14th century with 12 million volumes to peruse thought handling the first Gutenberg Bible or Shakespeare’s First folio may be frowned upon. Trinity College Old Library, Dublin, Ireland Beautiful dark wood arches contain over 7 million volumes and home to such ancient texts as The Book of Kells. Admont Abbey Library, Admont, Austria Attached to a monastery, this library opened in 1776, and contains the largest number of monastic items in the world. It is a stunning interior to study in. Library of Alexandria, Egypt Wait, it still exists you say?!? Well, no, the original was burnt down by Caesar’s armies but this attractive building is covered in carvings from local artists and is surrounded by a reflecting pool. Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Its interior has a decorative design that certainly impresses book lovers but don’t be too awed, you can still study here. And one more for good measure: Beitou Public Library, Taiwan Just because it looks so incredibly beautiful and has balconies along the buildings side where you can curl up with a favourite novel in a rocking chair. Do you ever visit libraries when you travel?

Happy holidays to everyone and thank you for your time and patronage. Let's all keep a little ......... on for each other.

2 or the human race rebelling against an absurd universe, but I like to think he had smaller, more personal So, let's think of the small, personal things.

Look, let's face it, in this time of stress and weirdness we need a purpose. This is mine. I started this little online bookstore partly to remove clutter and partly to share wonderful ideas and themes and settings and characters from the books I've loved over the years, and hopefully make a little cash at the same time. I've been reading Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania and the following quote from Tennyson's Ulysses struck me as appropriate at this time: Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world, Push off, and siting well in order to smite The sounding furrows, for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulf's will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles... Poetry can be soothing at this time...

"I cannot die before I set foot on these untrodden shores that rise from within my heart". Columbus by Nikos Kazantzakis In a previous post I gathered together my top travel books to read and while those books are specifically about travelling and the misadventures one can get into, I thought I'd take a look at other writings, fiction and non-fiction, to see what various authors have said about travelling. I found a common theme: many of these writers seem to seek themselves in other places, faces, and experiences; searching for themselves through travel. So below, in no particular order, are a bunch of quotes on travel that will hopefully inspire folks to get back out there, experience the world again, and reflect on the why of travelling. "At last, in those far off deserts, I finally knew that the observer is part of the subject..." Lawrence, The Uncrowned King of Arabia by Michael Asher From the opening pages of Michael Asher's biography of T.E. Lawrence. A good reminder, not only of our responsibilities to each other and the places we visit when travelling, but of travel as search for oneself. "Travelling and migration are evocative symbols of spiritual passage." Holy War by Karen Armstrong An unlikely line from a book called Holy War (which is about the crusades and their impact on today's world) but it makes sense when you think about travelling as a yearning for experience outside of the everyday. "Out of the sea, as if Homer himself had arranged it for me, the islands bobbed up, lonely, deserted, mysterious in the fading light. I couldn't ask for more, nor did I want anything more. I had everything (anyone) could desire...I knew too that I might never have it again." The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller A bittersweet reminder that experience can be beautiful and fulfilling at the moment but fleeting, so savour the moment. "I stopped by a red front door and felt an intense longing to spend the rest of my life there." The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton Who hasn't visited a place, humble or grand, and thought that they wanted to stay there forever. "I look upon it (travel) as a spiritual journey...It brings us back to ourselves" Notebooks 1935-1951 By Albert Camus Camus' dourness mars the larger quote from which I've taken this but he seems to be saying that there is a need for travel to fix a perceived absence in oneself. A remark that I keep finding in other writers when they speak to travel There was nowhere to go but everywhere so just keep on rolling under the stars." On the Road by Jack Kerouac Wise advice to end on. And I leave you with one last quote: "...trust in the spirit of the journey..." - An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot Why do you travel?

In Hardcover: James Patterson and Bill Clintons' The President's Daughter drops to number 6. The Shadow by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, updates the pulp hero and comes in at number 14.

In Hardcover: Two weeks on the list and already number 1 is James Patterson and Bill Clintons' The President's