【推荐1】I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed when the phone rang.

“Lindy, this is Leslie,” she said. “I hope I didn’t catch you sleeping.”

I didn’t know Leslie very well. We had children of similar ages and occasionally spoke with each other at various community events, but to say we were friends was a stretch.

She asked me a most peculiar question “Do you have room for turkeys in your freezer?”

We had lots of room in our freezer. In fact, we had too much room. My husband’s business had taken a downturn and we were pretty much at the bottom of our food supply.

“Sure,” I responded, “Did your freezer break down?”

“Not exactly,” Leslie replied, “but if you will give me directions to your house I will explain when I get there.”

A few minutes later, Leslie stepped down from a huge freezer truck and explained that her husband serviced a small grocery store that had just lost its lease. They had to empty all the freezers before midnight. They thought it was a shame to just throw away all this good food so she began to go through her list of contacts, dropping off food to anyone she could think of who might be willing to take it.

As we started carrying blocks of food to fill our freezer. I asked her. “When will you be coming back for all this?” Leslie just laughed, “We don’t want it back. It is yours to eat, to share to enjoy!”

Then she and her husband climbed back into their truck, waved goodbye and backed down the driveway.

Leslie had no idea that we were in such a tight financial spot that we struggled to buy groceries. It was not something that I shared with anyone. Having plenty of food for my family was a huge stress reliever during a difficult time.

Over the next several months we ate well and shared turkey with friends, family and neighbors. By the time the freezer food finally ran out we were back on our feet.

Yet I always remember that summer night when an acquaintance called. She had a smile in her voice when she asked, “Do you have room for turkeys?”

【推荐3】Janet Fein, aged 84, received her bachelor's degree from the University last week, having waited a long time for her chance to reach that goal.

Growing up in the Bronx area of New York City, Fein worked at a dress manufacturer after graduating early at the age of 16. After getting married, she spent 18 years staying home with her children. She held several jobs through her life, including 20 years as a secretary at a hospital until her retirement at age 77.

Fein has had a full life. But even then, she was not ready to take it easy and rest during a well-earned retirement. She decided to major in sociology because she felt it was “substantial.”

Fein took part in a state program that lets people who are 65 and older take free classes at public universities in Texasand kept going to class even as her health conditions worsened. During her studies, it became necessary for her to use a walker to get around and she required oxygen. She also developed knee problems. So, Fein took online classes to finish the last part of her degree requirements.

Sheila Rollerson, Fein' scollege advisor, and Carol, the professor told the media that Fein never showed signs of giving up even with all of her difficulties. She would speak up a lot in class and it just made for a more interesting class.

Fein has also inspired Renee Brown, one of Fein's caregivers. At 53, Renee plans to begin nursing school to further her career. “Renee, you can do it. If I can do it you can do it, and you will feel so good about it,” Brown remembers what Fein told her.

【推荐2】The 2021 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, for his "compassionate insight of the effects of colonialism (殖民主义) and the fate of the refugee (难民)".

Gurnah is a Tanzanian writer who writes in English and lives and works in the United Kingdom. He was born in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous island off the east African coast. Zanzibar underwent a revolution in 1964 in which citizens of Arab origin were persecuted (迫害). Gurnah was forced to flee the country when he was 18. He began to write in English as a 21-year-old refugee in England. He has written numerous works that pose questions around ideas of belonging, colonialism, displacement, memory and migration.

He is one of the most important contemporary postcolonial novelists writing in Britain today and is the first black African writer to win the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986. Gurnah is also the first Tanzanian writer to win.

Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said that the Gurnah's novels abandon stereotypical descriptions and turn our eyes to a culturally diverse East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world.

Gurnah, who was in the kitchen when he was informed of his win, said that he believed it was a wind-up.

"I thought it was a prank (恶作剧)," he said. "These things are usually floated for weeks in advance, or sometimes months beforehand, about who are the runners, so it was not something that was in my mind at all. I was just thinking, I wonder who'll get it?"

"I am honored to be awarded this prize and to join the writers who have been superior to me on this list. It is overwhelming and I am so proud."

His longtime editor, Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsburg, said Gurnah's win was "most deserved" for a writer who has not previously received due recognition.