Adafruit's HalloWing

Adafruit's new product, Hallowing, is perfect for Halloween,
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3900

A similar yet different product, Adafruit's Animated Eyes Bonnet For Raspberry Pi,
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3813.

Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash

Check the Adafruit website for availability.

Columbus Day

Before you decide whether to celebrate Columbus day, read a biography about him. One of the best recent books about Columbus is actually about his illegitimate son, Hernando Columbus.

The Catalog of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest by Edward Wilson-Lee is an amazing story about Hernando and his desire to honor his father's memory while also creating the first private library.

Gravity is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty: a Fun Novel That is also Thought Provoking

Young adult author Jaclyn Moriarty's newest novel is for adults, Gravity is the Thing, that is both a  mystery, love story, comedy, and a light-hearted critique of the self-help industry.

Abi Sorenson's life is upended when her fifteen-year-old brother disappears on her birthday. 

In his place, Abi begins receiving anonymous chapters from a self-help book called the Guidebook. She receives the chapters for twenty years and is asked now and then to mail "reflections."

Abi who has always believed there must be some connection between the missives and her brother's disappearance agrees to go to an all-expense paid trip to a remote island off of Tasmania.

The invitation promised someone would explain the truth of the Guidebook. On this island, she meets a kooky cast of participants who have also been receiving chapters of the Guidebook in the mail.

The truth, however, is not what Abi nor anyone else expects; she is curiously let down. She ultimately decides, as do a few others, to continue to take seminars with Wilbur, even though some think the seminars are a cult or a sham.

Nicole, Niall, Sasha, Anthony, Abi, and pest control man meet every Tuesday for wine and cheese or dessert at Wilbur's apartment. Though she expects little of these meetings, they have a profound effect upon her life. 

Abi, who recently went through a divorce, and who subsequently opened a business, the Happiness Cafe, is looking for self-love, a sense of belonging, and romance.

The flight lessons, as the webinar is called, ultimately does give Abi what she needs though not in the way she predicts. This is an enjoyable, delightful, slightly off-kilter novel about self-discovery.