Becoming by Michelle Obama and A Promised Land by Barack Obama.

She Said, He Said

Both Michelle and Barack Obama have written best-selling books, so I guess now we can call them a “power couple.” I recently finished reading A Promised Land, Barack Obama’s memoir of the first part of his presidency. And just a couple of months ago, I read Becoming, Michelle Obama’s telling of their family’s life...

New website; Happy Mardi Gras!

Welcome To The ‘New’ Shoulblog!

After 11 years under the wordpress.com umbrella, today marks a new beginning for Shoulblog, now at its own, self-hosted site, johnshoulberg.com. Along with the new address, the blog has a completely different design; the home page features a slider across the top for featured posts, and a grid pattern below offering post excerpts with...

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...

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...

Dad plays the piano at his 99th birthday celebration last July.

The Singers

My dad said he didn’t sleep well his first night in the assisted-living facility. It was because of the music. 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, each followed by a short stint in a rehab facility....

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...