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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com)
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Don't you just love taking time to day dream about your favorite stories - with so many it is often hard to choose a favorite - I bet like me one day my favorite is this and the next day that - like snapping a photograph, on Monday I will list my favorites - gives us the weekend to scour our memories and bookshelves.
NO we are not going to be asking Animal, Vegetable, Mineral to guess our favorites - just an old fashioned chin wag about what it is that makes a book, an author and places to read our favorite.
Please, pull your computer closer and type away so we too can smile with the memory of your selections and maybe, just maybe, there will be a few selections that are new to us - and then we will want to hear all about it.
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What a great Talking Heads idea, Barb, and I’ll jump in with No. 4, as it is the only one I don’t have to think twice about.
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
Without a doubt, Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink, about a 19th century Wisconsin farm girl. Make that “tomboy.” Miss Lyons, our 4th grade teacher, read it aloud to the class, always stopping at a place that had us glued to our seats. And every evening at dinner I regaled my family with all the exploits of Caddie and her brothers Tom and Warren. And surely that farm must have been just down the road from my aunt and uncle up in Waupaca County.
Caddie was under the Christmas tree that year, and in the spring another aunt and uncle came to visit and, -- oh joy how did they know -- brought me Magical Melons, her sequel. Good, but not as good as the first one.
I don’t think I’ve ever revered or have had such good memories of a book as much as Caddie Woodlawn. And I still occasionally repeat to myself Warren Woodlawn’s school program performance of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” which came out as his siblings’ version of “If at first you don’t fricassee, fry, fry a hen.”
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Well there is a new one for me - I am not familiar with Caddie Woodlawn - oh this will be fun - I wonder how many books will be favorites that will be new to us - What would be fun to hear about in a follow up post is when you were introduced and read Caddie Woodlawn - a bit about how old you were and if the book was a gift or was it borrowed from a library etc.
OK I need to do my list - I think I will simply copy and past the 20 questions and after each put my answer - it is the first question I am having the most difficult time choosing - Maybe that is it - the ones that I cannot decide I will simply write later and follow up later with my choice - OK here goes...
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1. What is your favorite fiction book? --- Risen of the Moon - William Martin
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? --- Ascent of Mount Carmel - St. John of the Cross
3. Who is your favorite author? --- Jean Giono
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? --- Wind in the Willows
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? --- A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? --- Gigi - Colette
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? --- Curled up in the corner of my sofa
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? --- At the Breakfast Rm Table next to the double window so I can watch the deer.
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? --- Masterpiece Theatre Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? --- Myths and legends before time and during the first A.D. 8 centuries.
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? --- Trinity College Library, in Dublin
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? --- The house where Dag Hammarskjöld was born at Liljeholmen in Jönköping, Sweden.
13. What is your favorite cookbook? --- Simca's Cuisine - Simone Beck
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? --- (in taters) A World of Good Eating
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? --- I hid a few from the Nuns, Peyton Place - what can I say...
16. What is your favorite book blog? --- Roses Over a Cottage Door - http://rosesoveracottagedoor.blogspot.com/
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday) --- A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? "Men say they only learn this but he said that no creature can learn that which his heart has no shape to hold.— Cormac McCarthy
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? --- When my daughter was about 7 in bed with Tonsillitis and we spent every minute of her waking day and evening reading an entire Honey Bunch Book.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? --- Sister Rose Imilda in seventh grade read us the entire Longfellow's Evangeline - [/b]
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A couple of these were hard - if you asked me tomorrow I may have a different answer - but I tried to imagine I was choosing for that proverbial trip on a plane for a small Island and the one book I just had to have with me would be or one author or whatever the question...
I did copy and past the questions from the heading but I had to go back and hit color for each question - and then to make them easier to read I put in a couple of spaces.
The books that were made into movies was a hard one - but I kept coming back to Gigi - if I can find it again the other day I found this great site that gave by year all the books that had been made into a movie since the 1940s - within recent years it is astonishing how many films were first in print.
Another that was so difficult was my favorite Children's book - oh me oh my - so many - more than even favorite fiction or non-fiction.
Well it will be fun to see a few more lists...
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I think I'll start backwards:
19. My favorite memory of reading to someone. I loved reading The Pokey Little Puppy to my first child, and we did that once a day for quite a spell. My second favorite memory is reading The BoxCar Children to all 3 of my children. The oldest was able to read by that time, but he joined us for that "chapter book" and listened as carefully as he used to when he was smaller.
20. My favorite memory of someone reading to me was when I was little and my Mom would sit down at lunch time, waiting for my father to come home for lunch (he worked right next door) and she would read to me. One book, highly un-politically correct now, I suppose, was about Little Black Sambo.
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Gee, each of these questions take much thought and leads us down memory lane.
Right now I can answer only the first two.
Favorite book:
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevski
Favorite Nonfiction book:
Markings by Dag Hammerskold (For those who perhaps don't remember, he was the first head of the United Nations. He died in a very suspicous airplane accident.)
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nlhome the fond memories of reading to our children and then being read to by a parent - and the books we read and had read to us - oh my - as you say not exactly politically correct but I do not know about you, I never associated some of these children's characters with live people in current society even then - thank goodness - but I can see the wounds and that is painful and sad.
Jude how great to start at the beginning - the hard choices - did you read recently that they are really questioning the so called plane crash - looks like the stories we read of Greeks and Romans are still with us...
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1. What is your favorite fiction book? Emma by Jane Austen
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
3. Who is your favorite author? Jane Austen
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? Anne of Green Gables
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? need to finish Ulysses
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? The Forsyth Saga
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? In my easy chair
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? the same
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? Anne of Green Gables
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? 15th century
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? Vatican
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? Beatrix Potter
13. What is your favorite cookbook? Fanny Farmer's
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? n/a
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? no
16. What is your favorite book blog? n/a
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? the verse beginning with "Build Thee more stately mansions, O' My Soul", by Oliver Wendell Holmes
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? Reading Charlie & The Chocolate Factory to my youngest and discovering all the older children were listening in
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? My Dad reading Brer Rabbit from the Baltimore Sun 78 years ago
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I couldn't even begin to answer most of those questions - so I'll just check in from time to time.
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1. What is your favorite fiction book? The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? No favorite
3. Who is your favorite author? Alexander McCall Smith (presently)
4. What is your favorite children's book? Anne of Green Gables (my copy is falling apart)
5. What book have you intended to read but haven't yet? Too many to list.
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? The Bridges of Madison County
7. What is your favorite place to read in winter? My swivel rocker.
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? Same place.
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? Anne of Green Gables
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? 20th century.
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? Library of Congress
12. What author's house would you like to visit? No preference
13. What is your favorite cookbook? The 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook.
14. Over the years, what dessert cookbook did you use the most? n/a
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? No
16. What is your favorite book blog? n/a
17. What is your favorite holiday book: A Christmas Carol
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. C. S. Lewis
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? Reading to my attentive little grandson.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? My mother, not reading, but telling me bedtime stories.
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Umm...I'm thinking, I'm thinking.
Sally
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This doesn't come up on "responses to your posts", or whatever it says, so i forget that it's coming up each month, thanks for posting in "mystery" Barb.
1. What is your favorite fiction book? .......The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?.......ohhh, so many - any women's history
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?......all the Nancy Drew books
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?...the Longest Day
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? In my bed
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? On my patio
Can we take these one question one per week? ;)
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
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Sorry i can't delete the rest of the list on my ipad, or move down the list to answer. I'll continue the list here
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?.....The Dollmaker w/ Jane Fonda
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?.....18th century
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?.....Library of Congress
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? .......None
13. What is your favorite cookbook?.....Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two or the one i've put together for myself
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?......don't do desserts
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?....probably Peyton Place and Lolita
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
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I'm starting over ;D ;D. I'd like to hear you all talk a bit about your favorites.
#1. I choose Prince of Tides because the emotion of the book just sucked me right in. I was anxious. I was scared. I laughed. I cried. I know some of you like other of Conroy's books better than Prince, but none of the others caught me in the same way.
#2. I've liked so many non-fiction. Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time, David McCollough's John Adams, Jared Diamond's Gun, Germs and Steel, and Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, and as i said any women's history.
#3. Because i just finished a good book of hers, today it's Lisa Scottolini, Philadelphia mystery writer. Like Barbara, ask me next week it will bedifferent.
#4. Nancy Drew started me liking mysteries and she was a great role model for young girls.
More later......Jean
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1. What is your favorite fiction book? War and Peace
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? Walden
3. Who is your favorite author? ? Beston, Austen,
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? Depends on age. Winnie the Pooh, Wizard of Oz
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? Aeniad
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? Pride and Predjudice
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? My recliner
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? Same
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? Anne of green Gables No Contest.
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? US, beginning of 20th century! So MUCH was happening then.
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? Bodlean
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? Austen
13. What is your favorite cookbook? NA
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? NA
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? No. Too chicken.
16. What is your favorite book blog? Seniorlearn, of course!
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? Bader "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single 'oye'". (Just kidding)
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? Reading to my 2 year old son, just before I went to the hospital to have my daughter.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? My father reading us Mark twain every night at bedtime.
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Look at the differences already - wow - oh yes, Jane Fonda in the Dollmaker - that was a great interpretation wasn't it.
FlaJean, you and Marypage have the list making down - great -
Now that is two of us who want to visit the Library of Congress - oh yes, and the Vatican Library - that would be filled with the wonders of history -
Anna of Green Gables - another great story - we had a discussion for awhile on the old SeniorNet of reading children's books and when Harry Potter came along we even did the first three - then other books and reading became more important - But to this day if I am feeling antsy I will pull down one of my favorite children's books for a cozy and safe read - I alway know that the problems will not be so horrendous that I am torn up trying to come to terms with what I have read as compared to some adult books. Although, Watership Down was not a walk in the Park was it.
Jean I saw the movie, Prince of Tides but did not read the book - you are making a real good case for reading the book - wasn't that the story where a man broke into the beach house and they killed him and secretly hid the body never letting on to the authorities?
Now I have enjoyed several of her books - oh for the life of me can't think of her name but I have a couple on tape. I like listening to a novel on tape when I am on a long drive and a 15 hour book is just the right amount of time to drive from here in Austin to my Daughter's in NC.
And so you read Nancy Drew - interesting during my early teens I seemed to be into the lives of explorers and adventurers where as the series that I loved was when I was younger - for me it was the Bobbsey Twins.
Flajean I keep forgetting about The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - I have been meaning to read the book and keep forgetting - Need to put it on my Amazon wish list.
Oh and MaryPage, yes, the Chambered Nautilus - we just have to have it - here goes...
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main, --
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed, --
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathe`d horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: --
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
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JoanK you posted while I was typing away - my word - War and Peace - now that was a tome - Joan why is it your favorite - what is the attraction - when did you read it - and ;) ;) how in the world did you manage to say all those names or didn't you..?
Hehehe cooking was not your forte was it - or maybe you had all the recipes you ever needed in your head. And yes, a couple of winners - those children's books - I am telling you - so many memories are wrapped in children's stories for ourselves in addition to when our children and grands were growing up.
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Gollee, I need my thinking cap. ??? Have printed out the questions. Now I'm going to try to think and remember the answers. I never know my favorite "anything." I could just use Julie Andrews' My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music. Okay, time to think. Shhhh....
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Here are a few answers.
1. The Cheerleader by Ruth Doan Macdougal..Because I really thought she was writing my life.
2. This stranger my son... biography by the Mother of a schizophrenic..
3. changes all the time, but just now.. Dennis Lehane
4. Misty of Chincoteague
5. now that is a long long list.
6. My Friend Flicka ( whew, years ago)
7. and 8... in my just right size lazy boy
9. Years ago, there was a series.. Conrad Richters... The Woods, The trees, etc. About a family going west. I think the heroine might hve been Meredith Baxter Birney. Not sure.
10. Oh the English Kings and Queens.. so much foolishness
11. The library in the British Museum. Was there, but not nearly long enough
12. Agatha Christies in England.
13 . Two volume of Julia Child..
14. The Joy of Chocolate
15. No.
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hmm, kept flickering, so the last ones
16 . Seniorlearn
17. The Christmas Carol
18. no idea
19. Horton hears a who to my small granddaughter and my corgi at the time, both listening enthralled.. Kait had the thing memorized and I could not skip a word without much protest.
20. Thats interesting. I dont think anyone ever read to me.
Whew... now I am sure the answers would be different tomorrow or the next day, but there it is for today
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Great Steph - wow several books that are new to me - need to look up the Cheerleader - I am not familiar with the book or the author - And your dog is a Corgi - I did not know that - how much fun with so many stories written that include a corgi = ahum - the Queen's dogs - as I remember so too for Tasha Tudor and vaguely I am remembering a Walt Disney - something about a lost dog and the dog was a corgi.
So far we have a couple of folks who like The Christmas Carol but another new one for me is Misty of Chincoteaque - haha I love it - you like to read about the English Royalty because of so much foolishness - just love it - leave it to you Steph to bring an early morning smile.
I'm off to research these books you have introduced - :)
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1. What is your favorite fiction book? Chesapeake and Alaska by James Michener. I love historical fiction!
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? Devil in The White City by Erik Larsen
3. Who is your favorite author? James Michener and many others who include Laurie King of the Mary Russell and Sherlock mysteries
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? Where the Wild Things Are
and most of Shel Silverstien's poetry
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? The Art of Racing in the Rain
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? In the rocking chair in my office with the door closed.
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? On my screened porch
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? The Inspector Lynley mysteries by Elizabeth George
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? Victorian age
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? The Great Britain Library
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? Stephen King's
13. What is your favorite cookbook? Irma Brombaur cook books
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? None
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? Yes
16. What is your favorite book blog? Bookmarks and Maryann McFadden
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday) Dicken's Christmas Carol
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thourghly persueded of each others worth". Its at the bottom of all my posts and the author is Robert Southey? I don't know who RS is so I will be googling that momentarily. :D Well, Barbara, you will be glad to know that I have found a new poet for you to read. Here's his bio: http://www.poemofquotes.com/robertsouthey/
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? My 8yr old son became bored with the school reading program so he and I started reading out loud to each other; the Tolkein books with the first, The Hobbit. We both caught each other reading ahead because we liked it so much.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? MY grandmother used to read the poem "Who Killed Cock Robin" to us and cry over the poor robin. Who could forget that?
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Here is the link to the Maryann McFadden web site that include the link to her blog -
http://www.maryannmcfadden.com/ I wonder how many other current authors have their own web site or their own blog - interesting Ann
And another I did not even know was made into a movie - Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic - did you enjoy it - was it close to the book or just a piece of the book?
Isn't it amazing how each of us has brought something new to our attention - this is great - we really need to create our own library from all of this - Ok that is a job for next week - to take the books mentioned and simply list them in probably alphabetical order.
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Ann I KNOW this is NOT your favorite Bookmarks Blog but it is so much fun - her graphics are a riot.
http://pilesofwashing.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-bookmarks-aussie-bloggers.html
Now which of the many blogs called Bookmarks is the one you like to visit?There appears to be several
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One of my all-time favorite series of books also, Steph: Conrad Richter's trilogy THE AWAKENING LAND, consisting of The Trees, The Fields, and The Town. Unlike you, however, I hated the television films. They just did not present the books the way my mind's eye saw them. Neither the settings nor the cast seemed right to me. I have yearned for another group to come along and do them ever since. But ah, those splendid books! A JOY to read.
Love Horton Hears A Who, as well.
Because I actually live on the Chesapeake Bay (right on it) and also spend a lot of time on the Eastern Shore near where Michener stayed while researching the book, I nit-picked a lot of little and a few big boo boos in Chesapeake. We all did. Par for the course, I expect.
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Barb,
We were posting together! My author of that quote is Robert Southey and here's his bio: http://www.poemofquotes.com/robertsouthey/ (http://www.poemofquotes.com/robertsouthey/) He is another poet for you to discuss on the poetry site.
Will now look into your link!
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Ann thanks much for the link - reading the bio it appears his friend, Coleridge and his wife had a house full of friends living with them - I wonder how that worked out - sometimes it is hard enough to live with family much less a couple of friends - maybe it was a big rambling house...
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MaryPage I had not read any of Conrad Richter's books however reading his bio and brief explanation of his books it sounds like he is another I need to make time to read. Another who saw and wrote about what destructive forces are changing this nation - and now we know the change is no easy matter to reverse. I kinda remember when 'Light in the Forest' was a big seller. Wasn't that made into a movie - sorta remembering Fess Parker.
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Mabel
-I too love Pat Conroy. His last book, "South of Broad" is simply wonderful! Does it beat out "Prince of Tides?
It's so different and yet it has that Conroy touch that hits you in the gut.
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Barbara, that trilogy is simply NOT to be missed in one's lifetime; so get busy! It is still in print and easily obtainable in paperbacks.
As I remember it, it is the story of a young girl who goes with her family out into the deep forests (The Trees) to be among the very first to settle what later became Ohio. In the second book, she is older and the forests become The Fields. I remember well that in the final book, The Town, she winds up a very fiesty old lady.
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Several of you wanted to visit the Library of Congress. I went to college in DC, and when I did a term paper on the Norse settlements in Greenland, I used some of the material there. It was really exciting. I got to look up all these obscure Danish archaeology journals (mostly in English, fortunately) and read them at one of the desks in that huge round reading room. I forget whether I could reserve the same desk, but once they had fetched your material, which took a day or so, they would keep it for you for 3 days, and you could come back and use it whenever you wanted. It felt really good to have the right to use this splendid resource, in such a splendid setting.
Later, local high school students started overrunning the place, and the LOC cracked down. By the time my daughter went to high school, you had to be over 18 to use books. When she wanted to reference something for a paper I had to go down and xerox it for her. And I think that by then you mostly didn't use the big room anymore. Goodness knows what it's like now. Security is probably a nightmare.
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That sounds quite a wonderful experience.
I want to get into the Vatican Library with the same results; something I know is impossible, but I can dream. I would like to spend months there, if not more. Would like full access to see if there really was a female pope way back in the 11th century. I have read so Much on both sides of this that my gut instincts simply cannot point one way or t'other. There are many, many priceless manuscripts I would love to see and attempt (4 years of Latin!) to read, as well. It is really beyond amazing the historical material stored away in this place.
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I just poked my head into this discussion - WOW
How in heaven's name can anyone answer those questions definitively - a few of them are easy enough but some will have me scratching my head -it's like opening a tin of worms...
Will do my best - though I'll have to have a little think about it all first.
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Gum, you notice I haven't actually come out and listed my favorites. I'm much too indecisive to make it easy. But my favorite memory of someone reading to me is my father reading Mark Twain to us at bedtime.
Funny, that's what JoanK said too. You'd think we had the same father.
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PatH ;D ;D ;D
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Continuing.......
16. What is your favorite book blog? ........seniorlearn!!
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)......does the "book" from The Nutcracker count?
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?...get back to you on this one
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?.........reading Dr Seuss to my first grandchild. He loved it so.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?.......i know that i was read to when very little, but i don't have the vision in my memory. I do know that someone read The Bobbsey Twins to me.
JudeS - South of abroad is on my TBR
Annie - i too liked Chesapeake, what an interesting book.
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PatH, I enjoyed your comments about the Library of Congress and their cracking down on high school kids. When he was about 13 or 14 my son visited family members in DC, and naturally when he came home, was full of what he had seen and done. And the Library of Congress seemed to have made a big impression on him. His final comment was . . .
"Yep, adults can go there anytime, but kids have to WORK if they want to go."
Adoannie, I'll have to agree with you about best non-fiction -- Devil in White City. And the best of Larson's in my opinion. Just about finished with his In the Garden of Beasts, and it doesn't come close to being as good.
Best TV interpretation of a book? I haven't read the book, but I loved the PBS Bleak House, shown a few years back. So much so that I bought the 15 episode set of DVDs.
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Hehe that list is the bane of the day for most of us - I have decided to treat it like a snap shot - today at this time such and such - tomorrow much less an hour from now - but I have narrowed a few down and the others I realize fall along similar lines - but "A" favorite book - either novel, or children's or even cookbook much less a favorite author and I even have a couple of favorite non-fiction and then the memories of either reading or being read to - oh oh oh - and to choose a favorite - at least I have a movie of events running through my memory and that is nice - some even make me laugh.
I just know I could go nowhere without easy access to St. John of the Cross however, when I was in seventh or eighth grade I was blown away with Nathaniel Bowditch and later - i think in the 50s there was a children's version of his story that I had to give to each of my children and each of my grands.
And then some dismiss the Leather Stocking tales but I loved them - not just The Last of the Mohicans but, The Deerslayer, The Pioneers, The Prairie and then some of the adventure stories at sea, like The Sea-Wolf and Captain Courageous - and then the special book that my grandmother gave to me saying, this was a real German when she was upset with Hitler Count von Luckner the Sea Devil.
And so I am thinking that MaryPage your suggestion to read the trilogy is right down my alley - in line with books I have loved since I was about 12.
And then favorite times of reading - only recently 3 years ago I found a copy of the Christmas story I read each year to my children and a particular favorite of my Daughter - Under the tree it went to her delight The wonderful world of Aunt Tuddy my two grandboys with a sigh and 'we have to be polite after Christmas breakfast' when it was time to read a Christmas book I suggested we read the book - they all but rolled their eyes and before I was finished with the first page the chairs were pulled closer and then really close they came to observe the pictures while the story continued - we were going to finish it another time but no, a quick break, more coffee and on we went as the Major B. Dexter on his speeding new motorcycle flies across the Susquehanna bridge landing in the river. Even Gary, my son-in-law was glued to the story - it was a wonderful Christmas memory as good as the memories of my reading the story printed in a Women's Magazine back when the children sat on the sofa with me every evening for the 4 weeks of advent listening to Christmas stories.
Pat you and Joan - how wonderful to have shared memories that connect after all these years - your father was a special father wasn't he. I forget where it was that you grew up - but you have both shared before some of the special times with your father and it is a joy for us to read your posts.
Gum we need you - notice the picture is from close by in New Zealand - do they have Library bars in Australia? I wonder how they work - do you get to take the books out of the bar like a library or do you only get to read them while in the bar - and is the bar a real drinking bar or simply an anachronism for a place that offers a variety of books? We really want to hear of the books and authors that turn the memory pages for the whole 'down under' gang - even if it is not a definitive list - just a snapshot in time.
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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com)
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JoanK
BooksDL
I did some research as a graduate student in the Library of Congress. I didn't have my own desk, but I had my own shelf, so once I ordered a book, I could keep it there indefinitely. We weren't supposed to wander in the stacks, but I found if I looked like I knew what I was doing, no one would bother me. I used to spend hours there: it's like a maze in back, where no one sees it. Sometimes I'd come across a desk in a corner, with someone who looked like they'd been sitting there for 10 years or more.
I wondered if they ever found a skeleton sitting at one of those desks. |
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Barb, Carry on MR. Bowditch -- that was such a good children's book. Good for adults, too. I think it received the Newbery Award.
I wonder if we read the same Christmas story in the Woman's Magazine. I had just started teaching and my mother found it for me. About sharing and being happy with what you have. Little Girl's mother knew there would be no doll that year, but wouldn't it be wonderful to have a mouse that you could carry in your pocket. Can't come up with title and author.
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Amended list:
Favorite dessert cookbook: "Chocolate on the Brain" by Nancy and Kevin Mills. It's full of hilarious tidbits on the history of chocolate, as well as yummy recipes. Kevin is my Son-in-law, so whenever I visit my daughter, I get a dessert from it.
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Hehe that list is the bane of the day for most of us - I have decided to treat it like a snap shot - today at this time such and such - tomorrow much less an hour from now - but I have narrowed a few down and the others I realize fall along similar lines - but "A" favorite book - either novel, or children's or even cookbook much less a favorite author and I even have a couple of favorite non-fiction and then the memories of either reading or being read to - oh oh oh - and to choose a favorite - at least I have a movie of events running through my memory and that is nice - some even make me laugh.
Barb - didn't you make up this list??? :D ;D :D i'm beginning to think there is a touch of evil in you. TIC
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Jean do you remember which of the Bobbsey Twin books was read - I still have the copy of the first book - since it was my mother's it is precious - where the little guy - can't remember his name - is locked in the Department store - then there was something about them all ice skating - they were easy characters to identify with at our early age weren't they.
Pedln yes, Carry on Mr. Bowditch - came out later and that was the book I gave to my children and their children where as, my read was Berry's Sextant and Sails; the Story of Nathaniel Bowditch
Do not remember the Christmas story you are remembering Pedln but for years there were two inexpensive magazines at the grocery check out - one was special to the A&P and the other was Living something or other but I am remembering when they were both only 2 cents and later a nickel and still later a dime - the Aunt Tuddy story was illustrated by Hilary Knight, who did Eloise.
Aunt Tuddy had 7 cats with these astonishing names like Ashurbanipal for one of them and she visits the department store every day to check up that they have the latest and try out everything that is new - she receives a Christmas check to the store from her nephew that is incorrectly printed out because the equipment got stuck and so she buys and buys and buys for everyone in her life including all the sales clerks - the president doesn't have the heart to stop her and ends up covering her buying spree chalking it up as good will since most of the gifts are for his employees - of course she and the major marry after years of - I forgot why but they were in love since they were young - and of course he is wealthy as all get out and pays for not only her gifts but uniforms the boys soft ball team that she had befriended all the 'terrible' little boys.
Oh Lordy Joan Chocolate on the Brain Here of late I have turned into a chocoholic so now I will just have to stop and pick up more individually wrapped Dove bars - and the history of chocolate - fascinating...!
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:D :D ;) :-* No just an imagination of wonders that can be that is greater than even I - :D - I thought it would be fun and then when I got to answering the questions reality hit...ta ta ta boom
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Weren't they Bert and Nan and Freddie and Flopsie? The Bobbsey Twins.
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Yes! Give that woman a $5 cigar... Yes...
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Barb - I just love that blog that you posted the link to - the "roses round the door" one - I have bookmarked it.
I have visited Beatrix Potter's house and I am sorry to say that it is really not all that interesting. I remember liking Keats' house at Hampstead much more, and the house that Wordsworth stayed in at Cockermouth is very good:
http://www.wordsworthhouse.org.uk/aboutthehousegarden.html
Will have a think about all these questions!
Rosemary
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I have to decided to answer those questions that I immediately knew the answer. I'm still thinking and narrowing down the rest.
6. movie made from book. Gone With The Wind and Anne of Green Gables
7. & 8. Favorite place to read. In my recliner in den, or at the kitchen table
13. Favorite cookbook. Both of these were given to me as a wedding gift in 1964 and are falling apart....Better Homes and Gardens (red & white checked cover) and a regional cookbook with tried and true southern recipes given to me by my older sister--Tried & True Methodist Cookbook from Gonzales, TX. That one was reprinted a few years ago due to popular demand and my sister bought me a new one (same good recipes) and also one for my daughter.
14. The same two cookbooks listed above
15. Book I had to hide. Lady Chatterly's Lover. My best friend sneaked it out of her mother's bookcase and kept it under her bed. I would go over and she & I would lay in the bed and read it.
16. Favorite book blog (and only one I belong to) Sr. Learn
17. Favorite holiday book. I love reading Christmas book and usually spend all of December reading books with a Christmas theme.
Sally
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OH, I just said yes that I had to cover a verbotten book but I didn't give the title. Salan reminded me with her title of Lady Chatterly's Lover. Mine too. We lived in a small apartment, my mom and I and my sister, and I was so afraid of being caught that I read in the bathroom with the door locked. Even when no one was home or awake! ;D ;D
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:D ;) some of us just cannot take no for an answer especially if it is the title of a book - censor - please - we can just censor ourselves so we said if not outloud at least in our heads - so there - hehehe - some of the books they are censoring now though is un-be-liev-able
Oh oh oh Gone with the Wind - Salon were you one of those who like myself dutifully read Gone with the Wind every year for years and years and years - although, I must say unlike you I was not crazy for the movie - I was not a Clark Gable fan and my Rhett was prettier although built like a tree.
And you also an Anna of Green Gables fan - we have several among us who noted Anna as a favorite - y'all almost need to start up a in-house blog discussion all about Anne - seems to me there were books of her as a child and then later when she grew into adulthood or am I thinking of A Girl of the Limberlost
Rosemary we are anxiously looking forward to hearing more about you through this list - and yep, it takes some thinking doesn't it...
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This does indeed take a lot of thinking. Jean, your suggestion that we take it as a snapshot opinion is a big help. With that in mind, I'll quote one of my favorite quotes. It's from Greek poet George Seferis, from the "Thrush":
As the years pass
so increase in number the judges who condemn you.
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What library to visit? That's an awful choice. But for tonight (thanks, Jean) I'll go for the library of the Abbey of Saint Gallen in Switzerland. Aside from its important manuscripts, including a Niebelungenlied, it is beautiful architecturally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_library_of_Saint_Gall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_library_of_Saint_Gall)
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Pat I would have loved it if we could have printed out the entire poem but it is too too long - so here is a link - the poetry of George Seferis has hit the poetry followers of the world by storm - the link to the poem http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181853'/
Thanks for including the link to the Library at the Abbey of St. Gallen - can you just imagine trying to focus and study in such surroundings and then, the thrill it must be to hold in your hand a book bound and printed several hundred years ago. This reminds me how I used to have a dream that whatever I owned was less in number but each object would be a beautiful piece of the best handcrafted visible entity. hmmm the early computers just do not cut it and mine is now considered by the geek world ancient therefore ugly. A library like this reminds us that we use our computer among other things as a library and how do we compare thee...are thou more lovely...
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PatH,
The library is beautiful and look at the link that I found inside. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenlied (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenlied)
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As of right now - tomorrow others will come to mind.
1. What is your favorite fiction book? War & Peace, A Tale of Two Cities
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book? The Coldest Winter (most recent read) - any McCullough or Halberstam
3. Who is your favorite author? Taylor Caldwell
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? Anne of Green Gables, Caddie Woodlawn, Boxcar Children
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? Gone With the Wind
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? Crawled in a snug sack in a recliner with a cup of hot chocolate.
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? Outside in a my swing.
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? none
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? 1900 - 1970 - that which I’ve heard about or don’t remember
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? Bodleian
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? Shakespeare
13. What is your favorite cookbook? Betty Crocker - wedding present in 1964
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? none - my Mother’s individual recipes
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? Peyton Place in high school
16. What is your favorite book blog? Senior Learn
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday) Why the Chimes Rang
18. What is your favorite quote from an author? can’t decide
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? Every December I would read spend about an hour reading A Certain Small Shepherd to each of the fourth classes in my schools. One year I was somewhat apprehensive about reading it as I had a non attentive combined group of about 75. They started out politely listening and then they collectively became so engrossed in the book that when I finished it you could have heard a pin drop. They quietly got up and returned to their classrooms without saying a word.
20. What is your favorite memories of someone reading to you? I had two teachers I remember reading to the class - third grade Miss Batten read Through the Ant Hill (which I later read & found it harsh) and Little House in the Big Woods’ and seventh grade - Mr. Williams read Freddy the Detective. And - public library story hour - Timothy Turtle, & the Golden Egg Book.
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Barb - What have you unleashed??
I found this quote and liked it.
I thought that the chief thing to be done in order to equal boys was to be learned and courageous. So I decided to study Greek and learn to manage a horse.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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Oh yes, do read Conrad Richter, but I loved the series.. Some of it is still so vivid in my brain.. I loved the books and the tv series and that is certainly rare for me..
Still working on the quote. I have dozens and trying to nail it down is tricky..
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May I take the questions out of order????
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
I would have to say ROOTS by Alex Haley. Haven't read the book. Thought the week of programs wonderful.
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What is your favorite nonfiction book?
I think my favorite nonfiction book is Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama. I really enjoyed that book especially his travels back to Africa.
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6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
I loved the book and the movie.
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17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
The Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
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Great hats - so glad you are sharing - Roots - that sure was a wonderfully done TV series wasn't it - the whole concept of starting from the beginning and giving us a glimpse of life starting in Africa - That series elevated the careers of so many actors some of who went on to bigger roles that brought them acclaim for their work.
You've nudged me - I read one of Barack Obama's books before he became president but did not read this one - sounds like I need to add Dreams of My Father to my reading pile.
Yes, The Christmas Memory - so many wonderful Christmas stories by many an accomplished and well known writer with Truman Capote among that elite group. ''imagine a morning in late November" oh yes, and "it's fruitcake weather!"
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Still working on my 'snapshot' - almost there but so much is crowding into my mind.
Hey Hats I'd forgotten about Roots - I didn't read the book but did watch the series and thought it was great - I'm still whittling down my choices for the TV - and everything else as well.
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Hi Hats! So good to "see" you (post).
Oh! Yes! Roots! I totally forgot it. It was wonderful.
Roshanarose - i remember that quote of ECS only because I downloaded her free autobio some months ago from- i think - google books. Your posting reminded me or i never would have thought about it. I'm a concept person, have a hard time remembering details unless i'm focusing on them regularly, as for teaching my classes.
Barb, this has been fun.
Jean
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roshanarose - perfect - that quote sounds just like how we want our picture of Elizabeth Cady Stanton to be portrayed and it seems she was every bit what we hoped. Looks like you took her lead and followed with your own ability to show courage and be learned.
Steph are you saying the Richter trilogy was a TV series - honestly - I had no idea - more and more to push me towards getting started with his books. I think that is why I like the Irish authors - not only have the a gift with language that blows me away but they seem to have an inborn knack for a good yarn with adventure on every other page. Sounds like Richter has that same gift.
Since most of us are people of words - words stir us - words calm us - words give us direction - once you choose your quote we really see you in 3D. You already introduced a couple of books like the Cheerleader and the one about the wild horses.
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Jean - :-*
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Whoops Gum came in for a minute as well - good morning - have you had your coffee with your list making - for some reason the coffee this morning tastes extra good - could be because a light cool front came in - can't get excited the temps will still hit the 90s today but it sure makes for a lovely morning and I am getting the biggest enjoyment from this list making that everyone is doing - can't wait to start grouping likes together regardless of who contributed what...
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Are you save now Barb?
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Ta Ta Ta Tah - Clubfan YOU DID IT! The entire list - let's see now - you also with War and Peace - that was a tome wasn't it - did you read it in your adult years or when you were a teen?
Ah and the Tale of Two Cities - there has been many a movie or TV movie of the story and each time the edge of the chair is all I can manage. What a story and what a time in history.
I do not know The Coldest Winter - need to look that one up - oh and your library - The glories of the technology of the twenty-first century - here is a YouTube virtual tour of the Bodleian in Oxford - those doors - talk about a slice of time made visible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNUuiVXYpQw
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Jude Was interested in your mention of Dag Hammarskjold - I had a friend who was a prominent journalist and who was among the first group to reach the site of the plane crash he died in. Until her death about three years ago she remained convinced that there were suspicious circumstances surrounding the crash even though nothing was ever proven. She was also convinced that there was an official cover-up as to the cause of the crash and the way Hammarskjold had actually died. I guess there will always be conjecture about it.
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Yes Jean, I am assuming you mean from the fires - we are all chipping in everyway we can to help out now - I have been involved with an out-door and environmental group from Austin to Bastrop and beyond to Smithville and so my focus is on the donation of seeds and the kind of pine trees that will grow in our drought like conditions - looks like we have an offer from a tree farm in Alabama who not only will sell the trees but is making a hefty donation of trees -
A lot of work and a lot of families - last week buried was a police officer and a fireman both victims of the fires. 11 Firemen lost their homes. And closer to me 27 Real Estate agents lost their home.
It has been a summer - the hottest on record and this week although it dipped below the 3 digit mark it still is in the high 90s - with hardly any acorns falling looks like we are in for a warm winter as well. The temps would be easier to contend with if we were not so short of water - ah so - Into each life a little rain must fall, now if the rain would just fall we would have it made...
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Gum there was only recently - maybe last week - an article on the BBC news that they are opening the investigation into the plane crash - maybe enough time has passed that the truth can be told.
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do they have Library bars in Australia?
Barbara: I don't know about library bars but we do have 'Book Caffes' which are a combined bookshop and coffee shop. They are very popular with F2F bookclubs as the club can hold their meetings over coffee and and the bookshop side sells the books at discount prices. Likewise people buy a coffee to drink while perusing a couple of books and deciding whether to purchase or not. Generally I don't buy my books from Book Caffes as I always feel they've been a little too well thumbed by sticky fingers.
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I had posted something like this site of beautiful libraries in "library" some months ago, but here is a list of 20 beautiful libraries. I had also posted a video of the Libray of Congress which precipitated my wish to visit it. Some of these are just exquisite.
http://www.oddee.com/item_96527.aspx
I see some of your choices in this list.
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I had no idea who Jay Walker was or why he would have a library pictured in that group. Here is what i found:
Walker owns what he calls "The Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination."[35] Located in his Ridgefield, Connecticut home, the 3,600 sq. ft. private facility contains more than 50,000 volumes including thousands of landmark books and museum-level artifacts. The architecture is a multi-level, maze-like setting, inspired in part by the paradoxical spaces depicted by artist M.C. Escher.
The "library" is the subject of a short documentary film[35] by David Hoffman, and was profiled as "the most amazing library in the world" by Wired magazine.[36] Walker, who refers to himself as the library’s “curator,” has spoken about its theme and displayed some of its contents at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, California.[37] Jay Walker has hosted numerous world leaders from business, government, science, medicine, the arts and education. It is not open to the public.
How about that?
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they've been a little too well thumbed by sticky fingers.
I wondered - but then what I loved was similar here with both Borders [that just went out of business all over the nation ] and Barnes and Noble - both stores have a coffee shop in the bookstore and folks pile up some books to thumb through while drinking their Latte and some even eating a heated sandwich - but amazing I have never noticed sticky pages when I purchased books at either store. I'm thinking maybe folks are conscious of the problem.
I had never heard of a Library Bar and instantly became curious...I wonder if Kiwilady would know and could fill us in on the mechanics of their operation.
Jean I wonder - said with a smile - is Jay Walker the same as the character we see striding on a whiskey bottle - from the description of his home library sounds like the bottle was at his elbow -
So glad you included the link to those beautiful libraries - there was one wasn't there a link I mean to all the most beautiful libraries in the world - seems to me there were some 91 of them but the site does not seem to be online any longer - I had bookmarked the link and the page shows that it is no longer active. And so your find is a real gift - thanks...
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This is my snapshot for today -I expect that in ten minutes time some answers will have changed - though some are firmly fixed.
This really was some exercise.
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
George Eliot - Middlemarch
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
Eric Rolls – A Million Wild Acres – his Celebration of the
Senses is great reading too!
3. Who is your favorite author?
William Shakespeare – Nowadays I don’t read him often
enough
4. What is your favorite childrens’ book?
Richard Scarry – The Great Pie Robbery
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
Dante’s Divine Comedy – have only read parts of it
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
The Leopard – Guiseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
In ‘my’ armchair.
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
Under a shady gumtree or alongside the pool with a glass
something cold at my elbow.
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
Brideshead Revisited – Forsythe Saga - equally
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
In fiction – 18th & 19th Century. History – Ancient, Medieval and
Renaissance
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
The British Museum and the Vatican Library equally.
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
Not much interested in their houses – or in what they had for
breakfast.
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
The Country Women’s Association Cookbook – Wouldn’t
you know -It’s Australian!
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
The Golden Wattle Cookbook - you guessed it – another
Aussie – I’m not really into cooking or desserts but these two
books taught me how to cook -
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
Vicki Baum’s The Mustard Seed – I was about 11 or 12
and read it whilst supposedly doing my homework.
16. What is your favorite book blog?
SeniorLearn – though I don’t class SL as a ‘blog’ exactly.
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
Any long book. I have taken Proust with me on holiday – only
one volume though
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
In the context of ‘reading’ it has to be Holbrook Jackson -
Reading is an art and the reader an artist.
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
Reading Richard Scarry’s The Great Pie Robbery to my
younger son. He loved it so – as a grown man of 30+ he found it
on my shelves one day and sat down on the floor right there and
then and read it aloud from cover to cover.
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Don’t really have one – my father told us stories instead. Once I
learned to read I didn’t like being read to – still don’t much like audio
books.
It's past my bedtime - g'nite
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Gum you did it! And lots of goodies for us to look up - I wonder if your cookbooks are even available here in the states - am not familiar with Eric Rolls - either his, A Million Wild Acres or his Celebration of the Senses - need to look into both those books - the titles are intriguing.
And great fun the Great Pie Robbery is available at Amazon - here is the link The Great Pie Robbery (http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Scarrys-Great-Robbery-Mysteries/dp/1402758235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316626690&sr=8-1) Look at that illustration will you - I think I have to break down and add this to my collection - if just for the illustrations.
hahaha I cannot believe - oh dear - :o I just looked up A Million Wild Acres on Amazon - get this - the paperback copy is $156. 61 or if you want to pay the international postage you can order it used directly from Australia for $140. and the Hardback copy is $234 - OK not exactly pocket change ::) :D :D ;)
They do look like good books and the cover is very attractive - however not quite enough gold impregnated in the pages ;) :-*
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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com)
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"Eric Rolls is an almost revolutionary figure in Australian literature. He was always prepared to challenge ideas," said his widow, Elaine van Kempen, who joined him as a research assistant 22 years ago after the death of his first wife.
"He doesn't belong to me or the family; he belongs to Australia more than any other writer. Epic Rolls, I always called him."
Rolls was born in 1923 to a farming family at Grenfell, NSW, and after serving in World War II farmed for 40 years in the State's central-west.
A poet, historian, gastronome, environmentalist and romantic, he published more than 20 books, including a two-volume history of Chinese immigration,
"It was such an original voice and made such an impact. He was really a very significant Australian writer."
Rolls and van Kempen moved 13 years ago to North Haven, overlooking the Camden Head River on the northern NSW coast and helped found the Watermark Literary Muster, a biennial festival about writing on nature and place.
Eric Rolls, Australia's farmer-philosopher and author of the classic A Million Wild Acres, died at the age of 84 in 2007
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Barbara, there were 8 Anne of Green Gables books (written by L.M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery. Anne married Gilbert and had 5 children and they grew up and then the books ended. Girl of The Limberlost was also a great favorite of mine, but it was not an Anne book; it was by Gene Stratton Porter and was about butterflies and other bugs.
It is not hard to pick favorite books of fiction, but the non-fiction is excruciating. I have loved, for instance, every book ever written by John McPhee, but of all of his great long list, I truly believe everyone in the world should read "Coming Into The Country," which is a book about traveling through Alaska. Fantabulous!
I have also loved every book by Stephen Jay Gould and Lewis Thomas, who wrote separately, not together. These books are for those who love learning about every little scrap of everything. Wonderful writing. Amazing facts.
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Is "The Coldest Winter" the Laura Engels Wilder book? If so, it was in the running for favorite childrens book. It made a trememdous impression on me.
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AHHH, libraries. When I was young, I was fearless at going to libraries where I didn't belong. Once, I spent hours in the MIT library. Wondered why everyone who passed looked at me oddly. But no one said a word. I only remembered afterwards that MIT at the time was a men only university.
I tried the same thing later at Cambridge, in England. I was asked to leave pretty promptly.
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Joan since Clubfan said that Halberstam was a favorite author I bet the book is The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/1401300529/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316634883&sr=1-1)
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MaryPage thanks for the rundown on Anne - I knew there were quite a number of books but did not know how they all fit. I do remember the the Girl of the Limberlost being on TV- don't remember for sure, but possibly PBS. Seems to me she grows up and becomes a school teacher and while young there was a young boy she either played with or they walked home from school together - and I think I am remembering she lived out away from town and there was no father.
Many of you not only read Anne but her story was a favorite - why I have no idea but I was not exposed to her till adulthood - her books were not in our library - but then I never read The Water Babies either till I was an adult.
The books that I did not like at all was Little Women and Little Men - Jo was the only one I could relate to and she was not a favored child - that did not set well with me. They were all too cautious for my taste. To me even Mary Poppins had more going for her and her charges.
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John McPhee is another author new to me - a link to his Coming Into Country (http://www.amazon.com/Coming-into-Country-John-McPhee/dp/0374522871/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316636830&sr=1-3) He has quite a list of books published doesn't he.
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HURRAY :D Let fly the balloons - Throw the confetti - strike up the band - let the chickens out - dance to the piper - I cannot believe it...
I found and went ahead a ordered a used copy that is supposed to be in excellent condition of TaTa dadah
"Golden Wattle Cookery Book"
A recommended Australian Cookbook by our own Gumtree...Ta Dah
The copy only cost with shipping $9.98
Now I feel as though I can make some connection to these folks who visit with us each day beside just allowing images of movies produced in Australia pass through my mind's eye...
Gum you will have to tell me which recipe to try first.
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Joan since Clubfan said that Halberstam was a favorite author I bet the book is The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/1401300529/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316634883&sr=1-1)
That is correct. The Korean War was a period in our history that I remember very little about and Halberstam has great credibility with the veterans. It was a long overdue read for me because I have a hard time reading about difficult situations when I know someone who was involved. So far I've only read one Vietnam War related book for the same reason. The one book I did read was a fiction book set there during the Vietnam War and was written by a friend who served there during the war and I felt I owed it to him to read it.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder book, also a favorite of mine, is The Longest Winter.
I read War and Peace as an adult and am glad I did it then because I think that there is a lot there to be missed when we read it before we have lived more of life.
This book reading reminiscence has prompted me this week to go back and read some of my childhood favorites that I've collected over the years. So far I've read Mary Lizzie and Adopted Jane. Plan to read Taffy's Foal tonight.
Mary
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Barbara, you may well have read John McPhee, as I believe almost every single one of his books has appeared first in THE NEW YORKER magazine.
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of The Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne’s House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
http://www.anneofgreengables.com/
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Wow, what an exciting topic!
My favorite children's book: Any one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. The first one is set in Wisconsin, I believe. I read and reread them as a child.
The library I would like to visit: I did get to see the Library of Congress. I always make it a point to visit libraries when I go to a new place. I would love to see the New York Library, just because.
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Years ago - just as the TV series was starting and the Laura books becoming known to the public, I took my girls to some of the sites where the family had lived: Pepin WI, Walnut Grove MN, DeSmet SD, and Mansfield MO. We felt at times as though we were encountering the trials & tribulations of the Ingalls. In WI we had trouble getting to the cabin because of road repaving, Walnut Grove had just received record rains and Plum Creek was flooded, the foundation of the DeSmet house was being redone, and there were termite problems in the house in MO. But -- we did see a very nice pageant based on the books in DeSmet performed by local townspeople at the house stead site where the original cottonwood trees were still growing and I still have samples of hay twists like those used in The Long Winter. That's one vacation everyone remembers.
Mary
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Cubfan,
Looks like you did a circle of the Wilder family's homes. Are you from Chicago by any chance? :D :D
I have been in the Bodlien Library and the Ashmolean Museum but it was awhile ago so I don't remember much about Bodlien but the Ashmolean has quite a collection of the old masters plus many of the Impressionists works.
Mabel,
Those 20 beautiful libraries are just that! Some of them should have that giant mirror table that in the Hampton??? Palace so visitors could really get a better view without getting a crick in one's neck.
I found Jay Walker's library/museum inviting. Well, I will most likely won't be invited to see it.
After looking at all 20 pictures, there are some comments recorded and one a link of a gigapixel photo of the Strahov Theological Library . You can puruse the whole place enlarging the art in the ceiling and other places. Amazing!
http://www.360cities.net/image/strahov-theological-library-prague#105.77,32.99,60.1 (http://www.360cities.net/image/strahov-theological-library-prague#105.77,32.99,60.1)
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I found and went ahead a ordered a used copy that is supposed to be in excellent condition of TaTa dadah
"Golden Wattle Cookery Book"
Barbara You are too impulsive by far. That book is a very basic cooking book - as I said, I learned how to cook by using it. There are no colour plates of irresistible concoctions - no photographs at all in mine - just recipes and fundamental 'how-to' for plain ordinary fare.
It was published locally right here in my home town (Perth in West Aust) by the staff of what would now be a tertiary institution teaching Home Economics or whatever they call it these days. The first edition came out in 1925 and new editions appeared almost annually until at least the 1950s (mine is 1948 edition) - I haven't actually looked at it or used it for years ... and years ... but I still make my fruit pies, slices, baked custards, Xmas cakes and many other dishes using the recipes (now in my head and perhaps adapted somewhat) that I learned more than half a century ago from either Golden Wattle or the CWA book.
The prices you quoted for the Eric Rolls book are not real - Booktopia has A Million Wild Acres for around $35 - it's in paperback and is a fairly recent edition. Not sure what it would cost at my local bookshop but it would be in the region of $30.
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Girl of the Limberlost. I loved that book. Did not know until I owned the used book store, that she wrote a sequel to it..
a favorite quote.. Winston Churchills.. History of Great Britains
"They flayed the archer".. in reference to King Richard The Lionhearted
death.Just seemed so sad.
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Oh Gum do not pop my balloon - ah so - I hear you however, I will be delighted to have a cookbook that is filled with recipes that y'all would know about and use - the fact that it is local to me makes it even more precious because just as my one kitchen drawer is filled with slim paper recipe booklets of less than 30 page each from areas of this country and places abroad where I have lived or visited featuring local fare using the local foods grown in abundance I will have yet another part of the world represented in my drawer.
Where else would I turn to the best recipe for Woodford pudding except my paper cookbook from Woodford County Kentucky or my recipe for fasnacht from the Lancaster County Pennsylvania cookbook. And so we shall see - now the other author looks like he has written some striking books covering an interesting view of Australia - fascinating to me is the two books about the Chinese Australian connection - where as the other books appear to dwell on issues of nature and the natural environment.
Steph - I agree with you, that is a sad phrase - poignant, which gets to the heart of the death of the Lionhearted Richard.
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Sounds like you are having a bit of nostalgia each night Mary as you re-read your collection of children's books - aren't you amazed how they actually hold our interest - they are not like watching some children's program on TV that is fun to activate the memory but not that satisfying where as reading most children's literature seems to be a new experience each time.
The trip you took with your girls sounds grand even if there were not all the challenges - what a great idea to take youngsters on a tour of the places included in a story they have read - what an adventure - there are various cities that have tours to the places mentioned in a book - I guess I am thinking of London where there is a tour of the Sherlock Holmes locations and in Ireland where Joyce's Ulysses is a tour and then the one in Paris - Things Remembered - Proust. There are probably others but to make up our own tour - now that is creative thinking...
Between Laura Ingalls and MaryPage listing in order all the Anne of Green Gables books and now Steph bringing in her bit about the Girl of the Limberlost - sounds like three important series of books that young girls still turn to and probably the handling of life in the story adds to their identity. All three have a bit of spunk and yet show values of love and caring - those authors did all of us with girls to raise a favor.
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Besides, Barb, then you can tell me what a "slice" is the next time Gum refers to it.
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;)
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Jean/Mabel -- thanks for that wonderful link to the fantastic libraries. Now wouldn't that be a grand tour -- visiting them all. It's a very inspiring and hopeful thought to know that books, and their access, have been important throughout the ages, wold-wide. I doubt I'll get to the older, glorious sites, but have been to Seattle's cool house by Koolhaus, and Baltimore's Peabody certainly is doable. The additional pictures/contributions were also interesting, and I was delighted to see a picture of our country's oldest lending library -- the Redwood Library of Newport, RI, founded in 1747. When I was a member in 1957 the annual dues were $12 per year.
Hats, it's great to see you here, and your nomination of Roots is right on. I'd love to see that again and you prompted me to check both Netflix and Amazon. Roots is available both sites. Gosh, when that was broadcast I think it was showing in every house in the country that had a TV.
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PatH re slices - you're kidding me.
now the other author looks like he has written some striking books covering an interesting view of Australia - fascinating to me is the two books about the Chinese Australian connection - where as the other books appear to dwell on issues of nature and the natural environment
Barbara I haven't read Rolls' books about the Chinese migration to Australia but they're somewhere here in the depths of TBRs. They were both very well received and have been translated into Chinese.
Though his others do appear on the surface to focus on environment issues they are in fact history - he first burst onto the scene with his And They All Ran Wild which on the face of it is about the problems rabbits caused to the country once they were released - but once again it's the subtext to the history.
About the only 'regional' recipe I can think of in GWC is for Kangaroo tail soup - you might have some difficulty sourcing the main ingredient :D
I can't think whether it even contains the recipe for the old bush tucker bread substitute called 'damper'
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You're an imp :D :D ;) :D :-* "Kangaroo tail soup - you might have some difficulty sourcing the main ingredient " OH and 'damper' I have to look forward to - not even a bread a substitute bread - oh my... ::)
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:D
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Damper... oh me, you have to share that recipe. A substitute for Bread. I assume no flour might have been the problem. But do let us know.
I am glad someone else looked at my quote the way I did. Richard was an interesting man. Probably would not have been a good King for the time, but who knows.
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Damper - why did I open my big mouth and where is Roshanarose when she's needed?
Steph - Damper was essential tucker for men in the outback in the early days - the swaggies, explorers, stockmen, prospectors - They would make camp and then set about cooking their meagre rations. They generally had the flour - but no raising agent and most wouldn't have had any kind of camp oven either so they cooked their damper in the coals of the fire.
Here's a bit from Wiki: The article states they used baking soda and 'sometimes milk' but in the early days most would not have had either of those on hand. These days trendy bakeries offer a soda bread that they call 'damper' but it sure isn't cooked in the ashes of a fire in the outback.
Damper is a traditional Australian soda bread prepared by swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travelers. It consists of a wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire. Damper is an iconic Australian dish. It is also made in camping situations in New Zealand, and has been for many decades.
Damper was originally developed by stockmen who travelled in remote areas for weeks or months at a time, with only basic rations of flour, sugar and tea, supplemented by whatever meat was available.[1] The basic ingredients of damper were flour, water, salt and sometimes milk. Baking soda could be used for leavening. The damper was normally cooked in the ashes of the camp fire. The ashes were flattened and the damper was placed in there for ten minutes to cook. Following this, the damper was covered with ashes and cooked for another 20 to 30 minutes until the damper sounded hollow when tapped. Alternatively, the damper was cooked in a greased camp oven.[2] Damper was eaten with dried or cooked meat or golden syrup, also known as "cocky's joy".
Steph: Odd you mention Churchill's book which I think must have been published here as 'The History of the English Speaking Countries' or another one of his - 'This Island Race' - I was tossing up whether to put one or the other of those as my favourite non fiction - loved them both - apart from the history he imparts the guy knew just how to construct a sentence. They're wonderful reading.
One Churchillian quote I love is in relation to King Arthur: It is all true or ought to be, and more and better besides. I can quote most of that particular long paragraph from memory.
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There are few books that I've read more than once; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Main Street, Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, to name but a few. However, Gone With the Wind is my all time favorite. The book is so well crafted, the characters so real and their relationships, so complicated and thought provoking. Ms. Mitchell was a truly ourstanding talent. Despite the tragedies, disappointments and lost loves, this book never fails to make me feel good.
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Well Gum you sure gave us all the skinny on Damper - sounds like so many breads from various cultures that were baked when life was more primitive - I found a recipe online that made the essentially unleavened bread in ramekins with slices of tomato on top and another sprinkled with cheese - should be fun to try and it sounds like as long as it cooks through all is well - if not cooked fully the ingredients say to me that it would be a ball of dough lodged in the pit of your tummy.
Steph looks like it does have flour - just nothing to make the flour do anything remarkable like rise. ;)
Cookbooks are a genre that provides so much other information with the right book - some go into the history of the area from where the recipes originate and others into the culture of the people and still others into the growing of the foods and still others into the planning of the meal that often includes explaining the event or holiday the author is accommodating. I love to read the cookbooks that are more than a tome of recipes - even Ol' Martha Stewart's cookbooks are a great read.
Just realized, I think cookbooks are like my romance novel - nothing of consequence and often filled with ahum 'sage' advise - Just picked up Susan Colon's Cherries in Winter - about her family and their recipes during hard times.
Jim, yes, Gone With the Wind is so much more than a Southern Civil War Novel isn't it - now there was , an author with one book in her but my word, what a book... remember, "With enough courage, you can do without a reputation." and how many times have I said - "It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'."
Now Grapes of Wrath was a drama that had me glued to the pages - so many good quotes for today economy- "We can't depend on it. The bank – the monster – has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size."
And the other one I remember reading at the same time was Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre - Mr. Ty Ty, you oughta' be out raisin' cotton. You're a good farmer - that is, you USED to be. Why, Mr. Ty Ty, you can raise more cotton on this land in one season than you can find gold in a whole lifetime. It's a waste of everything, Mr. Ty Ty, diggin' them holes all over the place.
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Damper reminds me of Matsoh, the bread the Jews took with them on the Exodus when they didn't have time for the bread to rise. I'll bet a lot of cultures have the equivelant.
I wonder what out Western cowboys did.
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Well if our Girl Scout experience was anything close to reality there were two kinds of bread according to how close to the border you were cowboying - the one was basically flour and water with some salt - squished and kneaded then wrapped around a stick so that after it was cooked there was a hole in the middle that was filled up with what ever was handy even if only beans - and the other of course is Tortilla using stones to slap the corn flour dough and then cooked over the fire on the lid of a dutch oven again filled with whatever was being cooked for the meal.
Later there were many a corn bread made in the dutch oven and served with just as there were biscuits up north that would even be used to top a fruit like sauce as in a cobbler.
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Great! Thanks.
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Corn bread? Cooked on the lid of a Dutch oven??? Only in Texas! I love the idea though. Sounds delicious! :D I though the one's you cooked on a stick over the fire were delicious with jelly poured into the hole. Never thought of using beans. I think I must bid you adieu and get something on the fire for supper. Ciao!
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I wonder what out Western cowboys did.
Let's not forget the term "sourdough", which I think is used more for prospecters than cowboys, but refers to their habit of carrying a blob of sourdough starter with them, which they could then use as leavening for the bread they made. I bet it sometimes got pretty powerful after hanging from a saddle for days.
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I'd better be good and actually answer some of the questions.
3. Favorite author: Jane Austen
1. Favorite fiction book: tie between Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, maybe slight edge for P & P.
5. What book have you intended to read but haven't yet? I thought of posting a picture of my 15 cubic feet TBR pile, but decided it was too sordid.
13. What is your favorite cookbook? I'm a cookbook nut, read them for pleasure even if I don't mean to cook from them, and have more than a bookcase full. But I'm most grateful to Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", which taught me how to cook all those wonderful dishes I had just discovered from living abroad for a year.
15. I never had to hide anything I read. My parents were very liberal, never tried to control my reading, and by the time I was reading anything they could have objected to, I was a grown up, and could do what I wanted.
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Answer to a question not asked--what is your favorite comic author?
Terry Pratchett, head and shoulders above the rest. His books are fantasy, not to everyone's taste, but great if you like that kind of thing. His sense of timing is superb, like all good comedians, so he can re-use the same jokes and still have you laughing at them.
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Gumtree - I never knew you cared. ;) You are doing just fine without me. Cooking is not my forte at all. I must admit that I love damper and a good cuppa of Billy tea. Do they still make Billy Tea, I wonder. Remember - a cuppa tea; a Bex and a good lie down? My mother followed these instructions as long as I can remember, but she used to take the other powder, was it called Vincent's? I should remember because I was sent to the corner store every day to buy just one. I wonder to this day why she didn't buy a packet? It hadn't occurred to me until now, reading about Vincent's, that they were probably addictive.
Here's a link : I remember buying them for her long before the dates mentioned here.
www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=341257
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Pedlin
If you liked Bleak House try the PBS version of "Little Dorrit".
I think it is an outstanding interpretation of a book.
However I still love the movie of "Great Expectations"even more . Somehow the great story teller,Dickens, lends himself to movies and TV like no other.
As a young child I loved Dr. Dolittle. When I grew older (about ten) I gravitated to Nancy Drew and tried to collect each one as it appeared. Still love mystery novels.
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Pat another who like to read cookbooks - what are some of your favorites other than dear Julia and her friends - like you my copies of book one and two were spotted and stained but I too learned many basics from trying out her well explained recipes.
I must say though after I got into her dishes there was a way of cooking that was so familiar - my mother kept a German kitchen with nothing wasted - I'm thinking much of the basics is the same for all European kitchens - where as I see many differences in both a Mexican kitchen and an Asian Kitchen.
I do not have the skill or kitchen for most Asian dishes but I can do a few just as I can do a few Mexican dishes however, some of the Moles are complicated. It is so much fun and I love serving my family where I can put it all together and surprise them with a new taste.
Pat where did you live outside the US?
And your Terry Pratchett - looked him up on Amazon - what a great gaggle of giggly titles and book themes - looks like you have introduced a fun author to this conversation - even the reviews are hilarious -
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roshanarose you just gotta - pllleeaaassseee - won't you do a list of your favorites for us - I am imagining what great Greek story will be on the list and what marvelous library and what in the world book have you not yet read that has been on your list to read and the who and when of both being read to as well as, reading to someone - oh please, give us a list - your interests are an eye opener to many of us.
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Jude you have just reminded me - somewhere in this house, there is an old copy of Dr. Doolittle - seems to me it was published back in the 1930s and vaguely I'm remembering the movie either changed some of the story or cut it shorter or something.
I always liked Push me Pull me - even when I was a kid I got it and saw it as the perfect metaphor for my sister who one minute would agree and the next, oh no we mustn't and so she often sat and pouted - I had no sympathy - she had no courage I decided and would look at her out of the corner of my eye actually looking down my nose at her. Since, of course I found myself often in that push me pull me reaction and then wondered why I felt so worn out - you would think I was going to cause the world to tip with the inward negotiations to get an acceptable détente in my head.
Ah "Little Dorret" the English sure know how to film a period book don't they - did you have a favorite actor or actress in I am assuming the PBS version? Bleak House did seem more bleak in comparison didn't it and yet the family situation in Little Dorret seemed more horrific living and growing up in essentially jail. Interesting to see some of the actors in Little Dorret go on to other roles - I wonder if they were there all the time and just not noticed until they acted in a blockbuster like Little Dorret or Bleak House. Although the father in Little Dorret - wasn't he years ago in Dr. Zhivago? Lara's legal young husband who went on to be an important general with his own private train?
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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com)
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OK.. so damper corresponds to almost all other cultures bread that is done over an open fire with few ingredients. There is indian bread from the southwest..,tortillas,dough for dim sum, matzoh, etc.
Oh, I love the King Arthur quote and had forgotten it.. Churchill had such a way with words. A great gift.
Cookbooks. I have collected them all of my life and am just now trying to get down to a reasonable number. I also asked for and got for last Christmas a book that was great.. What we Eat.. and it was from all over the world. Each page a different person with what they ate that day along with a picture. Great book. I adore it.
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(sigh) I could only answer a few questions on my own. Then,reading the posts, I'd think "Oh,
yeah, I loved that one, too?" But, was it my favorite or just the stirring of my sluggish memory by someone else's favorite?
Let me go ahead an put down the few answers I've got....and don't make me swear eternal
fealty to them, please!
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?- Does the Bible qualify? Actually, it s
a library itself.
3. Who is your favorite author? Jane Austen 4. What is your favorite children’s’ book? "Anne of Green Gables", but only after MARYPAGE brought it up.
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite? Pride and Prejudice
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter? Recliner
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot? Same as above.
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about? 16th-18th Cent. England
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit? Boston Public Library
12. What author’s house would you like to visit? Emily Dickinson13. 15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? No
16. What is your favorite book blog??Who remembers blogs?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone. I was reading Elizabeth Goudge's "Blue Hills" and paused to read a section to my daughter Sally. She liked
it so well she sat down and asked me to read more. Andy walked by, stopped to listen a minute and was hooked. The Valerie joined us. I wound up reading, over a period of several days, the entire book aloud.
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Steph I bet this is your book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets (http://www.amazon.com/What-Eat-Around-World-Diets/dp/0984074406/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1316879205&sr=8-2) although, he wrote several book on what folks around the world eat and how they live - facinating - thanks for introducing us to him.
Babi so glad you gutsed up and wrote it out - Babi the story of your reading by accident a whole book to your daughter and son is one of the most precious experiences I have heard - what a wonderful warmhearted memory to pull up from time to time - Babi just special and thanks for bringing it to us -
Looks like a trip to New England would be a perfect goal for you with a chance then to see not only the Emily Dickinson house but the Boston Public Library as well. Certainly a place where the early churches are preserved and where this nation had its beginnings as folks wanted among other incentives religious freedom.
I wonder what the earliest Bible is that was printed in North America - oh we know of some of the ancients and some libraries including here in Austin have a copy of one of the earliest beautifully illustrated Bibles but I wonder where the first Bible was printed in North America and for that matter in what city or town it was printed. Anyone have any clue?
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Thanks for posting this discussion, Barb.....you have sent me spiraling down memory lane. Some answers were easy and others I am still pondering...
19. Favorite memory of reading to someone. I read to my daughter every evening for 30 minutes. I let her chose which book she wanted me to read. Her tastes were eclectic and it was interesting to see which book she would choose. She was reading before she started kindergarten and by the time she was in 3rd grade, she usually read on her own. When we travelled; she & I would chose a book that we thought my ddh would enjoy listening to (those were the days before books on tape). Some of our favorite travel books were, Owls in the Family, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Another great reading aloud memory was the summer my 9 year old nephew spent a week with us. He had trouble reading (auditory discriminatory & was slightly ADD). I read Winnie the Pooh to both of them; and he absolutely loved it and kept giggling all the way through the book. He and I were talking at our last family reunion (he's now 44 years old, 6ft 3in, 200 lbs. and a police chief). Imagine my pleasure when he whipped out his IPad and showed me that he had downloaded Winnie the Pooh and said he re-read portions of it all the time! Truely a memorable moment!!
Sally
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I just remembered another favorite children's book, one i had read to me before i got to Nancy Drew - Black Beauty! I remember, vaguely, having it read to me over and over.
Jean
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I read to my children right up until they turned 13 each. This because it had become a nighttime ritual and because they loved being read to and because I am a very excellent reader aloud. Each was more than competent to read to themselves.
We still talk about the night I was reading to my youngest from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. He was about six and his next to oldest sister was home from her Freshman year at college and their high school age sister was with her in the bedroom next to his. When we got to the end of a chapter, I announced that was all for that night, but before Chip could complain and beg for just one more, these loud groans came from the other bedroom; these two girls had been listening to every word and wanted it to go on and on!
There is always a little kid within each of us.
I love the story of the police chief who still cherishes Winnie Ther Pooh. (That is what Christopher Robin called him.) I, personally, have never outgrown those books by A.A. Milne. When We Were Very Young is my all time fav!
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BARB: you are more perceptive than I am. I loved the "Push-me-pull-you" as a child, too, but never thought to equate it to humans. I can think of some good examples.
Anyone notice that "Mr. Poppers Penguins" is just out as a movie?
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Marypage
Yes! Winnie The Poo is a book for all ages, not just for children.A.A.Milne wrote it as a soldier in WW1 as letters to his son at home.
Another book for all ages is The Little Prince by Antoine St. Exupery.
Barb:
The movie version of Dr. Dolittle was , in my opinion, terrible.
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Sally - You also with a wonderful memory and to think it was your nephew's seminal memory or else it would not be on his phone. Just think, a policeman with the memory of an aunt reading to him Winnie the Pooh - hopefully. Pooh and all his friends from time to time gives him the sage advise we all need.
Hehehe you also MaryPage with your older children thinking they were just too big to listen to Mom read a story. Love it...
Ah yes, Black Beauty- I hated that bit where he was the ill treated work horse - so much so that I did not want to go to see the movie when the next door neighbor offered to take me. Inwardly I shuddered and that scene unfortunately became for me the center of the story. I think back and the things I experienced as trauma hearing and seeing golly most kids today know about and have seen these things by the time they are age 2.
I still remember at age 6 standing before a colorful poster of frightened running Chinese men women and children with bombs exploding in the background - something about the Japaneses invasion of China - I couldn't move - I couldn't even come up with words to ask questions -
Mom pulled me away as they were walking on and I was standing there - that scene stayed with me for so long with my feeling just numb and rooted to the thought 'how could this be' and there is no escape because as I recall in the left, bottom, smaller, that I was supposed to know it was a separate vignette however, at that young age I only saw it as part of the whole, there were a group of soldiers with those bindings on their legs, rifles raised with knives attached to the end that I could only think these fleeing masses of terrified people were all going to be killed front or back.
I guess what astonishes me to this day is how I felt and how many years till I finally learned what was real in a poster - I sure didn't need a movie did I - I laugh at myself now as I realize I have an active movie in my head all the time.
OK decided to leave my story because I think it reminds us of how kids can see things that we take for granted and probably why so many of these childhood stories and experiences stay with us - as children we seem to form a stronger attachment to what goes on around us - good or bad. Parents have to do a lot more explaining today don't they...
What a great suggestion Jude - The Little Prince - so many wonderful quotes - I remember working at Girl Scout Camp when my oldest were camp age and the unit leaders printed out on the dinning room blackboard each day a new quote from The Little Prince. Oh you know we just need a few here don't we...
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction
Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
He who would travel happily must travel light
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Joan I could be dead wrong here - but for the life of me I am just not remembering penguins in the book and I even have the book of Mary Poppins Comes Back - I wonder if they made a bigger story of the penguins that Hollywood put in the dance routine with Bert and now they have created a storyline that will be the basis for a new children's movie. After all that movie about the penguins dealing with pollution on their land so that the younger one who is different goes off to find answers was a surprise hit a couple of summers ago. I can almost see the wheels turning - penguin stories make money...
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Barbara, I think you were born with a very large Empathy gene. Not every human being is, you know. In fact, many are born with no ability to empathize whatsoever, and what's more, many never acquire a scintilla of compassion.
So good on you. Me? It takes one to know one.
Stuff like that hurt me when I was little, too. And like you, I still remember. People hurting people, people hating people. It still tears me in tatters.
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I would expect that they movie if taken from
Mr. Popper's Penguins the 1938 book by Richard and Florence Atwater.
I remember it was in every school & public library children's room. Because it was an older book, it was not picked by the children, but was often a teacher read aloud. It was a Newbery Book Award runner up in 1939. I think it is available in paperback now.
Mary
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Mr. Popper's Penguins - another memory of reading to my children. What fun.
I'm still coming up with answers.
7. My favorite place to read in winter? The recliner in the living room, with a cup of tea and a cat next to me.
8. My favorite place to read in summer? The deck in back, under the sun umbrella, with my feet up and a blas of ice tea beside me. Very peaceful.
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Aha - if I just read correctly ;) :D
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My goodness look - among other publications there is a Study Guide for Mr. Popper's Penguins
http://tinyurl.com/3cjfkek
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MaryPage :-*
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Study guide to Mr. Popper's Penguins? Good grief. I loved that book when I was little, but I can't imagine what you could say about it to justify asking people to pay money for a guide.
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I read to my sons for years, but my older son is a very very straight line thinker. He only wanted true stories..Used to drive me nuts. Thank heaven, the younger loved Babar and The Little Prince and even the Oz series..
I must be an optimist, not am empathist. My only memories of WWII.. Being so excited when my Mom came home with groceries. She used to solemnly give me the margarine bag. It was white stuff with a red button. You pressed, broke the button and then squashed away until the whole bag was yellow..She hated margareine, but during the war, that was what you got. The war simply did not impinge on me except my Dad and Uncles were all in various types of uniforms. My Dad was blind in one eye, so he was in reserves, so he never went away , but wore the uniform once a week for reserve training..Coast Guard yet, I have a picture somewhere in a 6 year old with long blonde pigtails (me) perched on his knee when he was in full uniform.. But posters.. No,, gave my money each week for saving bonds..Remember that at school. We filled up a card and then turned it in.. War bonds.. not saving..Sorry.
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Love the story about your nephew, SALLY. Isn't it a marvel the impact those early
experiences can have on people. You never know what is going to 'stick'.
BARB, you remind me of a very different sort of reaction. My aunt told of taking
my cousin, when she was quite young, to see 'Godzilla'. She was horrified when the
scene came of the monster picking up a human being and popping it in his mouth.
She looked quickly at my cousin, afraid she had traumatized the child for life!
My cousin, however, simply popped some more popcorn in her mouth, remarking, "Well,
he got one."
MARYPAGE, I remember reading "The Glass House of Prejudice" when I was in high school.
On one occasion I was doing some quick reading while waiting for gym class to start.
I read something that so angered and upset me that I threw the book, yelling, "They
can't do that!" Needless to say, I got a lot of stares.
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In rereading this morning I realize Sally mentioned The Best Christmas Pageant Ever back there, and I failed to comment that I had forgotten about that book (with about a bazillion others!), but it WAS a wonderful, very best book I ever read when you finish it, sort of book. If you've missed it, there is Still Time!
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Steph
You reminded me of Oleo during the War.
I was so traumatized by the "red stuff" pouring out into the "white stuff" that I have never eaten margerine or butter on bread till this day!
I think it reminded me of blood and all the horrors of war. Weird what children's imaginations will do.
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When we lived in Atlanta, GA, our next door neighbors invited us to join them for the Christmas program in their Baptist church. They gave us 4 tickets and off we went---my daughter and I plus her two children, ages 5 and 7. The first part of the program was "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and we all loved it. Never knew about the book so it was all new to us. Wonderful story!
I am changing or adding to my 20's list:
Favorite fictions: All of Thomas Costain's novels which were Historical Fiction. I cut my HF tooth on his writings.
Another favorite non-fiction: "The Wild Trees" by Richard Preston---
http://www.richardpreston.net/books/wt.html (http://www.richardpreston.net/books/wt.html)
When you go to this site, you can listen to excerpts from the book. The book made me crave to see those trees and their canopies but getting into the forests is probably a little too much for this old lady. He did take his grandparents up into the canopy of one of the wild trees. I am so green with envy!
Well I tried to listen to the excerpts but ended up clicking on the interviews with author as my Mac with Quicktime couldn't open the excerpts. But the interviews are quite interesting also. Try them!
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I share your love of Thomas Costain's historical novels. My very favorites were the 4 books that made up the quartet titled together "The Last Plantagenets." Blood and gore, gore and blood. And all true!
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STEPH: our father had one eye, too. He didn't even make it into the reserves (he was near the top age for being drafted).
I hated those red buttons as well.
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I loved mixing the margarine--made me feel so grown up. :) We lived near an army/air force base and we always had several servicemen around visiting my oldest sister (13 years older than I was and very pretty) and staying for dinner. My mother was a wonderful cook and, having three daughters and no sons, she loved cooking for the young servicemen.
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Babar - you reminded me Steph - Still have my large paper copies of both The Story of Babar and the one I liked less Babar the King. I was in the hospital when I was 7 and these two books along with doll I named Francis for the Hospital were gifts and when Mom was allowed in to see me she sat next the bed and read to me The Story of Babar And then when I got home not only did she finish these two books but my father brought home a copy of Robinson Crusoe which was at that early age the first chapter book read to me.
Talk about backwards because Mom found her copy of the Bobbsy Twins and read it after she finish Robinson Caruso. She made all stories sound exciting and would stop to explain or compare the scene to something in my life so the difficulty of the story was never an issue for me.
I never thought till now I bet those Babar books are valuable - they are the 1930s copies - I should root them out and see the copywrite and publisher - something of value to pass on to my grands...
Babi that is what I mean about kids being exposed to fantasy and understanding it as fantasy at such a young age - Heck I didn't see my first movie till I was 7 and we only got a radio for Christmas when I was 5 going to be 6 in another month. And so at times I wonder if we have coarsened childhood so they are numb to what is real and what is fantasy.
There was a few years there where it seemed to me every church group in town and every other middle school was doing a stage version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Now that everyone is so politically correct about the only Christmas plays we see are the few churches that do these outdoor dramas with farm animals telling the story of the birth of Jesus. I hear of high schools doing Broadway shows, usually musicals but do not hear about grade schoolers or those in middle school performing anything any more.
Ha looks like several of us have the memory of mashing the red button into the oleo - I guess that was the first packaged spread because I am remembering when butter was available it was in a large round wooden barrel just like a wheel of cheddar cheese so that the store keeper cut into and measured out on a scale the amount of butter we wanted and then it was wrapped like meat was wrapped almost like doing Origami in front of us. As I recall the Oleo tasted nothing like butter so that mom ended up using it to cook with and we just went without on our bread.
The two thick tomes that came in the mail when I belonged to that book club where you purchased 6 books a year and got 4 free was Constain's Tontine - I was as riveted as ever whenever reading his books.
Yes, my father was too old for the service during WWII as well - he was just of age when WWI wound down but he was also the only one bringing in money - my aunt did get to go to school and his father was a drinking man who could not hold onto a job and so my father was their sole support from the time he was 10. He had some harrowing tales to tell of his early days earning his wages.
There are so many children's books - surprisingly good literature that I have fond memories of reading - the two Kate Seredy books The Good Master and The Singing Tree were favorites - I loved the illustrations and the older published jackets are of colorful Polish cutouts -
And then we had a neighbor clearing out and asked if I wanted a wonderful set of 12 books called My Book House, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller - chuck full of wonderful wonderful stories - somehow I am missing Book 2 and every so often I remember and go on a search mission - but I read from this set to my grands taking the appropriate book for their age when I visited or we would vacation down on Aransas.
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Ah Flajean you posted while I as busy typing away and so I missed and just saw your post -yes, WWII was heady times weren't they - I had cousins who were dating age and there was mail on those onion skin approved paper mailers and the bands from the sailors hats naming the ship or simply saying US Navy hanging from their vanity mirror and all the giddy chatter with make up being applied and pencil seams so they could go to this or that dance -
I'm remembering the swapping of stamps that women did in order for some to get shoes and others to get more sugar - Mom was one of those after more sugar since she did so much preserving and jam making - I am remembering my father borrowing a car and getting enough gas so that we, my sister and I, plus my Mother and our next door neighbor all went to a farm with a huge apple orchard with no menfolk to pick apples. The women gave permission to anyone who wanted to take the apples to do so - in a couple of hours we filled up the entire inside of the car so that on the way home in the front seat was squeezed my mother, the neighbor, my sister on her lap since she was closest to the door and I got to sit on top of all the apples with my head bent over as it hit the roof - after we had apple sauce, apple butter, apple jelly, backed apple, apple Kuchen, sliced apple and raisin pie - that was the year of the Apple in our house.
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Well I tried to listen to the excerpts but ended up clicking on the interviews with author as my Mac with Quicktime couldn't open the excerpts. But the interviews are quite interesting also. Try them!
No one looked into these wonderful excerpts?? What I say above is not right. I was able to listen to the excerpts if I clicked on the correct link to them.
Barbara,
Not only were we exposed to "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" that evening but we saw our first Living Christmas Tree done by the choir on a borrowed tree. And after that their orchestra played some wonderful classical music interspersed with Christmas hymns that we all sang along with smiling and tearstained faces.
Our Christmas pageants were always held for the school and the women's club! My first one was about the birth of Jesus and I was was one of the three kings dressed in a heavy chenille maroon bedspread(trimmed down, I was only 7yrs old) with a corded tieback as my belt. Can't remember what Mom came up with for the crown, probably gold painted cardboard. Man, I was really weighted down in that costume!
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#4. My favorite books as an older child were definitely the Nancy Drew mysteries. At one time, I had the whole collection. Every Christmas I would get the latest books in the series. Later on, I gave them to my oldest niece and she added to the collection. Umm, wonder what she did with them. I also loved Black Beauty, the Bobbsey Twins, Anne of Green Gables, and many more. When I was younger I liked the fairy tales, like Cinderella, Snow White, Snow White and Rose Red. I did not like Hansel and Gretel. It was too disturbing to me.
#20. My favorite memory of being read to as a child. Every Christmas my mother would get out her copy of Turkey Trott and the Black Santa (not politically correct today). It was her special copy and it only came out in December. She would sit down and read to my younger sister and myself. My older sisters would linger around the corner and listen. Mother loved that story and we did too. It was heartwarming and forced us to think of others who were in a worse situation than we were. Both of my parents worked full time and grew and canned their own vegetables to make ends meet. We lived out in the country and kept a milk cow and chickens. Mother's outside job, and cooking, canning, cleaning and washing gave her little time to read to us. My two older sister's read to my younger sister and myself. Later on, I read to my little sister until she was able to read for herself. The special time Mother took to read to us was as important as the book itself!
Sally
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Well I can't keep up with all the wonderful children's books mentioned these past few days - and so I think I will simply print out what I have - the other list I really want to print out is all the books we have not yet read and are on our TBR pile -
That to me would be facinating and may even give us some ideas of books to consider when we are making our choices - we used to have more than one book going at a time -
I know I am always reading more than one book at a time - I wonder if we are to the point we would consider reading together more than one book at a time -
I would think though to do ourselves a favor if we did make that choice that the one book ought to be something meaty and maybe even something current and meaty where as a lighter story would be lovely to read and discuss -
I know we have a mystery group but I do not think they actually discuss a book - or wouldn't it be fun to discuss a cookbook especially now that the weather is cooperating so that turning on the kitchen oven is not like turning on a blast furnace in the middle of a heat wave - but to choose a cook book and try at least one recipe a week sharing the experience and results - could be fun.
OK next post will have the list of most of the children's books we have fond memories of reading NOT including the Holiday books that for many of us are Christmas Children's stories.
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Caddie Woodlawn - Carol Ryrie Brink
Caddie Woodlawn
Caddie Woodlawn
http://tinyurl.com/3cw5ra2
Magical Melons
http://tinyurl.com/4yby9wy
Wind in the Willows
http://tinyurl.com/3rgmhx6
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
Anna of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
http://tinyurl.com/3vje7c5
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of The Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne’s House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
http://tinyurl.com/432x8xa
Nancy Drew books
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
http://tinyurl.com/3g7rycp
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie The Pooh
http://tinyurl.com/3hwxgmy
Wizard of Oz
http://tinyurl.com/3v5qnx3
Misty of Chincoteague
http://tinyurl.com/3o3skb2
Where the Wild Things Are
http://tinyurl.com/3wq4yl4
Shel Silverstien Poetry
http://tinyurl.com/3tjq6jl
Carry on MR. Bowditch
http://tinyurl.com/3lprfez
Bobbsey Twin books
Bobbsey Twins
Bobbsey Twins
http://tinyurl.com/43pfrf2
Boxcar Children
http://tinyurl.com/3trqkms
The Great Pie Robbery Richard Scarry
http://tinyurl.com/3khau92
The Long Winter - Laura Engels Wilder
http://tinyurl.com/3g32lvf
Dr. Doolittle
http://tinyurl.com/3qwrhku
Black Beauty
Black Beauty
http://tinyurl.com/3r9gm4a
The Little Prince - Antoine St. Exupery
http://tinyurl.com/4xoycb7
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Mr. Popper's Penguins
http://tinyurl.com/3omocqo
The Deerslayer
http://tinyurl.com/6h69zlq
The Pathfinder
http://tinyurl.com/3pjqb6d
Robinson Crusoe
http://tinyurl.com/3lmccmb
Fairy Tales
http://tinyurl.com/438unmd
The First Book of Fairy Tales
http://tinyurl.com/3fqktax
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Barb - I think it would be great to discuss a cookbook, preferably one that has plenty of narrative as well as the recipes. I don't know many American ones, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to get them, but I'd try. I'd love to do the cooking as well, so long as the recipes aren't too complicated/expensive.
Some UK ones that come to mind are Elizabeth David, Constance Spry (a real picture of 1950s-60s upper class living, but probably too long to read together) and the Barbara Pym cook book (which has refs to her novels and recreates the food from them) - but as I am sure I will already have mentioned, I have very fond childhood memories of an American book, James Beard's Delights & Prejudices, with its stories about life in Portland (I think) in the early 20th century. I so wish I had bought that book when the library no doubt sold it off (they certainly don't have it now).
Rosemary
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I was a big James Beard fan, so have that book and quite a few others of his. Beard on Bread has always been my bible for bread making.
Thomas Costain, on me, I had forgotten him and I loved his stuff. The Tontine.. The Plantaganets.. Wow.
But I opened up Southern Living yesterday and found the perfect quote for me at this point in my life.
Carson McCullers.. The Heart if a Lonely Hunter.
"And how can the dead be truly dead when they stlll live in the souls of those who are left behind?"
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You remind me, BARB, that we had a 'victory' garden. So many people were planting
food to help take the strain off resources. I remember cutting potatoes so each
piece had an 'eye' to take root. But most of all I remember waiting impatiently
for the first watermelon to ripen, only to find the kids next door had swiped it!
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Ouch - kids do that as a prank but oh if it is the only one or one of just a few it does feel meanspirited. As a kid I was one of those kids that took but not from a garden patch - one of the neighbors had several fruit trees and nearest to our back fence so that some branches just barely went over the property line was of all things a cherry tree - a tree that does better further north - well my friend from across the street and I were in the tree eating cherries when my mother came out and saw us -
Wow, wow, wow - we both were scolded good a proper and I was grounded for a week. I had not ever remembered seeing my Mother so angry and scolding a neighbor child but she laid into both of us and walked her across the street to her mother scolding in a loud voice all the way - the whole neighborhood heard her with folks popping out their front door to see what the commotion was all about.
I smile now because it would make a great cartoon - more so than a movie since I have not seen a movie in forever where the parents showed any backbone expecting certain behavior.
I can't believe the memories that are coming up as we share with each other our own memories -
With so many today starting to kitchen garden again or create 'Victory' gardens it brings back memories of our youth - our family didn't have a cow like Sally but my father did have chickens and I still remember a couple of times the Doctor coming to the house and my father payed him with eggs.
Sally were you one of the milkers or was that a job for you mother and father? Did you have a shed for her or was there enough land so that you actually had a barn? And did anyone ever tease and send a stream of hot milk toward kids watching the milking?
Have you noticed so much of this self-sufficient attitude is in the characters of the books we loved as children - there was none of this 'the world and universe is greater than my ability to affect our life'. No fear was left untouched and a bully got his comeuppance - a fantasy world for sure but one that I think many of us believe in as we keep trying to bring it about for ourselves and others.
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No one seems to have read the Oz books. I think there were close to 32 of them all together, and when Frank Baum died his daughter Ruth continued them. At least, that is what my memory tells me. I read them ALL! And adored them and my mental picture of the Land of Oz! Purple country in the north, red in the south, blue in the east (my favorite) and yellow in the west. Green in the center, and that was The Emerald City.
I spent hours and hours and hours of my childhood with those books. A lot of it in live oak trees!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books
http://thewizardofoz.info/
And then there were TWELVE collections of fairy tales, each a different color books. These took hours, as well and all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books
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Sounds like trying at least one month of a cookbook has some takers - what fun we could have - being practical - the holiday months sound like a good time and yet, most of us are either busy or we have family recipes we are busy preparing - I wonder if either January or February would be a time to make a stab - I could see us doing one cookbook every season - but y'all may have some ideas and who knows - it may not be more than the one time but it is worth a try to see how we enjoy the experience.
Now January is usually our coldest month but for those that join us from Australia it is their warmest month - I guess we will just have to play it by ear - but if there are at least 5 of us interested we can make a go of it -
So far James Beard has been mentioned and again, since we are in different parts of the world to find a cookbook we can all share would be the challenge - but how much fun since not only will we learn what books are available to all of us but, in addition we will learn about the various ways we measure and various foodstuff that is available to us - I am smiling already thinking about reading like a novel the cookbook itself.
OK here is the US version of the Amazon page for James Beard - seems to me Amazon is available to order from in Britain - I do not know how that works for Scotland but since even we can order from the English site and simply pay the extra postage I bet Rosemary you can do the same and more, the book we choose, as long as it is available on the UK Amazon site it may very well be available in a local bookstore.
Here are the James Beard Cookbooks available to us...Not saying at this point he is our chosen chef but it is a start and based on interest here we can set something up to gather interest and offer a choice of cookbooks to vote on for either January or February after the holiday season leaves us with a bit more time on our hands.
http://tinyurl.com/3boc9mm
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MaryPage - you are so right - the Oz books are not a favorite for most of us - one mention was made of the book we all know because of the movie - and that cast of characters was perfection along with a song that still brings tears to our eyes. But the other books in the series hmmm may be worth looking into. Again, some of these so called children's books beat some of the fiction pumped out for our enjoyment today.
Oh and the Fairy Tales - that is a study in itself isn't it - I remember being enchanted when I saw in Paris the statue to one of the better known Fairy Tale authors - Charles Perrault. Every nation has their fables and Fairy Tales - what a treasure trove you have linked for us - thanks.
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I am going to opt out of any cookbook discussion. I have a very small wooden motto board attached to the kitchen cabinet nearest my fridge. It says quite simply, but with the most deeply sincere of sentiments:
COOK IS A FOUR LETTER WORD.
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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com) |
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:D :D ;) I am still chuckling - some of us cook and some of us eat and some of us will even garden what others will cook - love it... :-*
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MaryPage! My sentiments exactly !
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I'm not much if a cook, but i do collect a lot of recipes!?! Don't ask me why, i'm an eternal optimist - hoping i may soooommmeeddaayy make one of them. And i do, altho right now my retired DH has become a "i'm going to try this" cook. He started at the grill with ribs, of course, but he enjoyed the compliments and has continued indoors w/ things like linguini w/ garlic shrimp.
The only meal i love to cook is the Thanksgiving meal which some how became the meal where the family comes to our house. I love to eat that meal also - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravey, peas, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. ALWAYS the SAME foods. My SIL who used to like to try gourmet cooking said snidely, after about the 3rd or 4th time they had been to our house for T-giving, as i brought the turkey to the table, "oh! Turkey,!?!" i said "yes, if you come to my house on T-giving you are going to get turkey!"
Jean
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I used to garden, and miss it most dreadfully now that I am unable to; and, Oh Boy, do I EAT! I celebrate the cooks of this world, and, truth be told, I am a pretty good cook when forced into that activity, which I attribute to my own predilection for good food. These days, I take all guests OUT. Out to breakfast, out to lunch, and out to dinner. Period and Amen.
Good Grief, Jean! I've been eating almost the same exact Thanksgiving Feast for 82 years now and counting. What happened to TRADITION?
I know, I know: that is exactly what you were thinking.
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Well, Marypage, sometimes I feel the same about the actual cooking (as my mother in law said in a recent email, "What a FAG") - but I do love reading cookery books :) I don't remember any of the recipes in the James Beard book except one that told you to use 10 eggs and if it went wrong you were to throw it away and start again - this made a huge impression on me because my mother would have had kittens if you had wasted one egg, never mind 10 - but what I do remember about the book are the descriptions of upper class Portland life, the ladies wearing gloves to go to tea with one another - little details like that. It was all so different from my own life.
Similarly, I like to read Nigel Slater's books because he lives a very grown up life in London, and tells you about the markets he visits, his garden in Islington, his cats huddled up beside the Aga on winter days - it's all so beautifully written. And Constance Spry, with all her stories about cooking for the coronation, and of the baking done in Irish farmhouse kitchens years and years ago, gives you a glimpse into yet another world.
When I actually cook I most often use straightforward recipe books with little narrative - they are not the ones that I sit down and read!
Barb - we have Amazon UK here, but i have a feeling that they don't have that James Beard book - but I think I found it on a specialist cookery book site, so if people do want to read it I might order it from there, as I would love to have it to keep.
Rosemary
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I like a variety of foods; but when it comes to Thanksgiving, I want the traditional meal I had growing up. Roasted turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, hot rolls, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. The rest of the sides can vary depending on how many people are coming and what they wish to bring. I had four sisters and as we married and families grew, baked ham was added as well as many, many sides and pies!
Sally
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One cookbook writer who can really make me salivate is Elizabeth David. Her descriptions are wonderfully evocative. Good recipes, too, although often vague about quantities. I've got some favorites. Rosemary, although Aga cookers are available here (at wondrous prices) they are a pretty special interest item. I remember reading a reminiscent article by someone which included telling you what compartment was suitable for keeping newly hatched chicks warm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker)
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Sally, I think you have the answer. When more people are added, you ask them to bring the new side dishes that are important to thm.
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Sally just add some green beans to the menu along with another family favorite mince pie - we always have three pies - and we could swap tables on Thanksgiving Day. My daughter in law makes the best cornbread stuffing - only she bakes it in a separate iron skillet using Turkey drippings and so we stuff the Turkey with cut into quarters apples, oranges and onions mixed with pieces of bacon - flavors the Turkey and after it is cooked we put the mixture out for the deer and any birds that fly in for a mouthful.
Haven't heard Elizabeth David's name in years Pat - and what is so great her books cover a wide variety of kitchens - these two, I love the concept and titles although, I do not own them - on my shelf is her French Provincial Cookbook that includes some lovely photos.
South Wind Through the Kitchen (http://www.amazon.com/South-Wind-Through-Kitchen-Elizabeth/dp/1567923097/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1317099447&sr=8-8) and this small tome that I would love - maybe next month - spent my book buying wad for this month - An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (http://www.amazon.com/Omelette-Glass-Cooks-Classic-Library/dp/B002KE4938/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1317099447&sr=8-9)
Look Rosemary wonders of wonders we can order in the States the Constance Spry Cookery Book (http://www.amazon.com/CONSTANCE-SPRY-COOKERY-BOOK-Constance/dp/1904010970/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317101159&sr=1-4) those are pretty proud prices for the used books :o but the book is still available from others with an affordable pricetag.
And an entire page filled with cookbook after cookbook for Nigel Slater (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Nigel+Slater&x=13&y=21) I had no idea the man was so into food and cooking - I think I have only seen him as an actor.
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Barb - Nigel S isn't an actor, he's most definitely a cook. The only time he has acted is when he played a cameo tiny part in "Toast" - the TV adaptation of his own autobiography. He is on TV quite often, but in a cooking capacity. You're not thinking of Nigel Havers are you?
PatH - Agas cost a fortune here too - they are very much a status symbol these days, part of the "country living" thing for those who can afford it. I must say they do keep a kitchen cosy, but having used them in other people's houses from time to time, I have found them a bit of a pain - you can't control the temperature and you can't grill anything. They are also very expensive to run. In the past they would have featured in real farmhouse kitchens, and were indeed used for all sorts of things, including drying laundry and hatching chickens - my Irish friends had one in their not at all smart kitchen on their very much working farm - but now I'm afraid they have become a "look at me and my money" thing. Having said that, Nigel Slater would be someone who would really use his, and he's so lovely that I could forgive him anything ;D
MaryPage - I agree about taking people out! I can just about manage dinner, but if I have someone staying I try to engineer lunch out - often just a coffee and cake - I really cannot be producing several guest type meals a day.
I have more or less given up on breakfast :)
Rosemary
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Barb - here is Nigel S's official site. If you click on the "television" link you get a photo of him. It also says somewhere that "toast" is touring the US as part of a "From Britain with Love" season.
http://www.nigelslater.com/home.asp
I don't think we could do one of his books as a cookery read - he doesn't say enough about himself! - I just thought you might like to see him. Elizabeth David would be a good one, and somewhere I have also got a book, "Dear Francesca" by Mary Contini, a member of the Scottish/Italian family who own Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh -` I haven't read it but it's said to be good:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/656622.Dear_Francesca
http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/html/dfpage.html
http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/index.html
(Readers of Alexander McCall Smith's Scotland Street books will recognise the name - Angus Lordie does all his shopping there - but it is a real shop, and absolutely wonderful - though how Angus affords their prices is a question that McCall Smith chooses to sidestep :))
Rosemary
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Ah Barb, definitely green beans and up until my mother died; always mince meat pies! Oh, and I forgot--fruit salad. I'm stuffed just thinking of it. Have you always lived in the Austin area?? I also cook my dressing separately and stuff the "bird" with apples, oranges, lemons and onions. Never tried bacon, but how can you go wrong with bacon in anything!
Sally
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Being alone means most of my cooking is microwave stuff, but I do love cookbooks and would participate.. I have quite a few James Beard books, but the memoir which includes recipes seems to be appropriate for us.
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How very different your experience was, BARB. To begin with, there were a lot of
cherries on the tree, and only one melon on our mound. The mother of the offending
party didn't understand what I was so pset about; apparently swiping watermelons was
a standard kid thing in rural Arkansas where they came from. My parents insisted I
not make a big fuss about it.So unfair!!! >:(
We still have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, too, but my daughters do most of the
prep and cooking now. I no longer have the stamina for the two-day cooking extravaganza
I once happily prepared.
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Dashing today so a quicky till tonight - I realized my error - I am thinking of Christan Slater where as the chef is Nigel Slater - I wonder if they are related or maybe it is a common sur name in the UK - Sally no, not always in Austin - been here in this same house since 1966 but lived several places as a child and a young married... Florida, Georgia, New York, Kentucky... I'm off -
First stop Court House to support my 92 year old friend who received a ticket from some mean spirited neighbor for feeding the deer - many of us are feeding at night - with this drought we are seeing ribs. Hungry unhealthy deer do too much damage during the rut as well as, sire unhealthy fawns - some folks if they did not grow up around wildlife need to at least read and learn - this is the ONLY neighborhood in town where there is a contingent of folks who have no liking for wildlife and here the city declared Austin as being a wildlife preserve - sheesh
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Barb, are you serious? It's against the law in Austin to feed the deer? A misdemeanor? And the whole city is a wildlife preserve? The former is unbelievable, the latter sounds pretty good.
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Barb - I hope you won - how RIDICULOUS - not to say inhumane - not to be able to feed hungry animals. I seem to be the only person around here who feeds the birds (as a result of which I am shelling out goodness knows how much on fat balls and seed each week) - worth every penny to see them all in my garden, and if I had a deer I would feed it to. My mother feeds the fox in her London garden.
Rosemary
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My Mother baked pies every Saturday morning and in the fall it was pumpkin and mince, of course, and so mince pie at Thanksgiving also. I never liked mince pie so it hasn't been a guest at T-giving at my house. My SIL - the same one who said "oh!Turkey!?!" - brings either sweet potato casserole or sweet potato pie and my DIL, who loves baking, brings some kind of dessert that that is always a surprise. This IS my favorite meal of the year! I love the left-overs, but now must try to curb myself since i go all out w/ real butter and full milk, etc. for this meal.
Nobody is mentioning The Joy of Cooking? I have one, never used it much for recipes, but have checked it frequently for basic info about cooking. I go online often these days for recipes. I rather like Allrecipes.com. It's easy to use and has lots of comments by people who have tweaked the recipes and i can save my favorites.
Jean
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Mary: I read the OZ books, and almost picked them as my favorite. The first movie I remember going to was the Wizard of Oz, I was so afraid of the flying monkeys, i hid under my seat. Since then, i've seen it at least 10 times.
BARB: "I know we have a mystery group but I do not think they actually discuss a book." You're right, and there's a reason. most mysteries don't have enough meat in them for a month discussion. We tried discussing The No. 1 Ladies detective Agency: while everyone loved the book, the discussion limped.
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Joan you bring up a good point that may become an issue for doing a cookbook - hmmm maybe a 2 week read and discussion would be the thing - or maybe try it without one cookbook but as we have this discussion with generic questions that allow for the discussion of cookbooks and the content of the cookbooks other than recipes - hmmm that may be a good way to get our feet wet on this - of course we already know there is a lot of cooking we do for the holidays that is not typical of our kitchen actions - but it seems most of the dishes prepared are from family recipes that go back generations.
If anyone has any brainstormed ideas please share them..
In the meantime the cartoon of the day - a dozen white haired ladies and one gentleman in his 60s descend on the courtroom - the judge looks above his glasses and says nothing as he organizes his desk and picks up the paper work - takes another look at us - and declares 'Case Dismissed for lack of evidence ---
Hahaha I think a couple of things - he took one look - I was the youngest at 78 with the others ranging closer to Charlotte's age of 92 and he probably thought, get them out of here before we have the EMS hauling one of them away - plus, wouldn't that go down well for his career as the court reporter has a photo of us in the newspaper saying the judged fined a 92 year old woman for feeding the Deer!!??!!
Turned out the neighbor who brought the charges did not show up and so that was a stike against their case and then to top it off the only evidence was there was a lot of deer on Charlotte's front lawn so she must be feeding - no photo no nothing - and so all that tension and upsetment for months now and then, the young attorney's time - although, he got a meaty case from one of the women who volunteers with the group that support children whose parents are in jail - but all that for a dismissed case.
There is a group who moved into this neighborhood in the past 15 years who are upset with especially the deer - they have all sorts of wild stories of fear that they are going to be hurt and they do not like having to drive slowly because Deer do a lot - a lot - of damage when they hit a vehicle.
The way Austin is covered as a nature preserve is between 4 groups - Texas Parks and Wildlife, Watershed Protection and Development, LCRA [Lower Colorado River Authority] and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department - with all the patchwork this neighborhood was not covered and so they pushed through the ordinance over a year ago - there were meetings like you wouldn't believe with the City and the residents both for and against - this is a community of mostly mature folks and to have around 400 show up for a meeting about the Deer you know how contentions it was.
Well the group that was actively enticing all young new comers in the neighborhood,who were mostly from big cities out of Texas to their point of view had a ringer on the City Council - well what do you know - the entire city votes and last Spring she received so few votes she is gone - now we have folks who are going to try to get rid of or bury the ordinance.
Here is a link to the web site for those of us who want healthy deer in our community - the site includes a copy of the ordinance.
http://deeraustin.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=70
Charlotte got home about 11:30 - had some breakfast - couldn't eat before - laid down for a nap and only woke up at 7:30 this evening - she didn't realize the stress she had been living with.
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Once a week pie making - how wonderful your house must have smelled over the weekend - brings back memories of how our week was organized with certain things we did every Saturday and church on Sunday along with either visiting or dinner at home with more family or going to see a place of interest or even a trip to the lake in the afternoon often with a picnic - then always washing on Monday and and and... one house we lived in I even remember the church bells ringing for the Angelus - talk about organizing your day.
Jean you may want to re-look at what is in the make believe butter or milk unless you are saying that you do not eat prepared foods that uses any butter, real or otherwise - to my way of thinking the difference in calories outweighs the difference in chemicals that fills the make believe stuff - I do know my daughter-in-law prefers the taste of margarine but for me anything made from corn has me retaining water so real butter has been part of my diet now for at least the last 10 to maybe 15 years.
Oh yes, The Joy of Cooking - like you it is on my shelf and I bet many shelves that we all turn to when we forget an amount of this or that - it sure is like the Britannica of recipes.
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An interesting list - some never did comment on question 5 - a book we each intended to read and have not yet read. However, here is the list with links to the book on Amazon.
- A Confederacy of Dunces
http://tinyurl.com/3rsrago - Ulysses - Annotated
http://tinyurl.com/63jc6h8 - Aeniad
http://tinyurl.com/6hvkl44 - The Art of Racing in the Rain
http://tinyurl.com/3kodkpu - Too long to list
- Too many
- Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
http://tinyurl.com/3vnwyjq - Divine Comedy
http://tinyurl.com/3roeq8y - 15 cubic feet TBR pile
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I find that if I want to read a book, I do.. but if you are saying, a book that we think we should read and have not.. I have a ton of them..
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I'm that way, too, Steph. In fact, I need to rethink my many cubic feet of tbr books. Some have been there for years. Obviously I really don't want to read them; but think I should. Maybe, just maybe, I'll weed them out!
Sally
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You'll have to be stern, SALLY. >:( No other way to do it. :)
ROSEMARY, my stepmother has her back yard filled with water pans and bird feeders,
notably a couple of hummingbird feeders. Even a small birdhouse tucked into the
shrubbery along the back fence. Her yard is so full of birds they are
getting in one another's way. Sparrows, hummingbirds, doves,..bluejays stopping
by. It's bird haven for them. It is fascinating to sit and watch them.
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-Barb, don't fall off your chair with shock, but I have finally done it. For what it is worth, here are my answers - and like everyone else, I have to say that if I repeated this tomorrow they might well be different!
1. Favourite fiction book: The Wind In The Willows; I Capture the Castle; Bleak House; the Towers of Trebizond
2. Favourite non-fiction book[: King James' Bible
3. Favourite author: Barbara Pym; Alexander McCall Smith; Charles Dickens
4. Favourite children's book: Josephine and her Dolls; My Naughty Little Sister and Bad Harry; Alfie and Annie Rose; The Treasure Seekers
5. Book I have intended to read but haven't: (this is one of hundreds...) War and Peace;
6. Favourite film made from a book: Pride & Prejudice (Keira Knightly version); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
7. Favourite place to read in winter: in bed
8. Favourite place to read in summer: in my garden (where I am now sitting - fabulous afternoon, blue, blue sky, birds singing - can it really be October next week?)
9. Favourite TV interpretation of a book[: Brideshead Revisited; The Jewel In The Crown
10. Favourite time in history to read about: British Raj; 1930s; 1950s
11. Which library would you like to visit? - The Vatican
12. Which author's house would you like to visit? - LM Montgomery's (does it exist?)
13. Favourite cook book: Constance Spry; Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries; Sheila Hutchins Daily Express Cook Book
14. Which dessert cook book did you use the most? - Mary Berry's Fast Cakes/More Fast Cakes
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? NO!
16. Favourite book blog: Senior Learn; Thoughts from a Compulsive Reader; Stop, You're Killing Me (is that a blog?);
17. Favourite holiday book: The Wind in the Willows (when the animals go carol singing); The Fortnight in September - RC Sherriff
18. Favourite quote: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", "The past is another country, they do things differently there", "In the beginning was the Word", "Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face"
19. Favourite memory of reading to someone: Once we were on holiday in a cottage in Northumberland and the only book we could find was Roald Dahl's The Witches. I read it to all three of the children together - one of the few times they all condescended to have the same book - and we all enjoyed it so much.
20. Favourite memory of being read to: I honestly can't remember this happening, although I expect it did. I learned to read very young and from then on I think my mother thought that was one less thing for her to do!
Sorry, I know I've chosen 3 things for many of the questions instead of one! Also I see that my attempts to turn the questions red has for some reason also turned half the answers red - I have checked back and only the questions are highlighted, so I have no idea what I did wrong! hope you can stand the glare!
Rosemary
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Wheee she did it - The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the Plain - I think she did it... :D :D ;)
Hope you do not mind Rosemary it was just a couple of misplaced brackets and all was fixed in a wink...
Now I need to find RC Sherriff - Rosemary what is The Fortnight in September about - the only thing I can find is that it is autobiographical.
Have you read the books written by William Horwood continuing the Wind and the Willows - they are quite wonderful. He sought and received permission from the family to continue the story and I think he did a grand job. There are about 3 or 4 squeals including a Willows at Christmas that is a nice story.
I do not know The Towers of Trebizond - found the Amazon link http://tinyurl.com/3mugnoh
ah yes, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie seems to me I saw that on the London stage with a young Maggie Smith - this had to be back in the late 70s or maybe very early 80s.
So many great Roald Dahl stories - I have not read The Witches - another added to my Amazon list - hmm maybe I will put it on my Christmas list - what a fun gift to receive from one of my grandboys.
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Sally and Steph I think Babi is right on - we find books on sale that we know are important authors and then we use the book as wall decoration - I am with you - need to cull some of these books - all it does is create stress that I have not read as many as I should.
Well AT&T have been here all morning - seems all phones are going Digital in the next couple of years and by doing it now I save a bunch on my phone bill - had to sign up for their TV service which is free for a month and then if I stay one more month I get a $300 Visa card then I am removing the service - I do not need 99 channels - he even had to reset the TV back on the original service for me to get my 3 PBS channels - but to pay $29 for one month and get back the $29 + $271 is not bad. By ordering the TV they could send out a service rep to hook me up - thank goodness - I have 3 landlines - my computer and my laptop and the TV - actually I have two other TVs but I never did all the fandango to change them from analogue so I use them only for watching videos and DVDs.
Well I am starving - did not feel comfortable eating while he was here and it took him over 3 hours. Nice guy - very helpful.
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Cleaning up my folio for this discussion where I park links and found this - back when we were discussing Libraries and Jean shared a wonderful link to I think 20 libraries and then there were a few more links to a single library shared by I think pedln or maybe it was Pat - well anyhow I found this - I just wonder if this it a grown up version of that original link we remember from a few years ago with almost 100 world wide beautiful libraries - this link has the libraries grouped and it is the private libraries that are to me especially interesting.
http://www.beautiful-libraries.com/index.html
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Oh yes, Barb, that link led me all over the place reading and looking at the photos. Did anyone look at that link I put in here that was the largest digital photo ever taken of one of those libraries.?
My book still to be read this year is:"The Art of Racing in the Rain". I have a copy so its just been put off and put off.
And I did mention Irma Rombauer's cookbooks She wrote "The Joy of Cooking". My daughter swears that she really learned a lot from the book. The one I also remember was "A Cookbook for Boys and Girls" by Irma Rombauer. We had one for a long time and I did like using it as the 12 yr old daughter of a widow and just wanting to do my cooking with mom's and my grandmother's approval. There were always 5 or 6 of us for supper every evening so we shared the cooking and cleaning up. I only cooked about 1/4th of the time but it was always a challenge, pleasing everyone's palette.
So, your friend won the day but she wore herself out going to court. Some people are so unpleasant and anxious to find someone doing something wrong. So your picture was in the Statesman tonight? I will go see if I can bring it up.
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No Ann it didn't make it - good news is not news these days and this was anti-climactic plus good news for both Charlotte and the Deer - not juicy or spicy enough for news...Plus we had some horrendous auto accidents that took preference.
Getting the name of the complainer was worth it all - we were able to look him up on the tax roles and then noting where his house is located near the City Council member that did not get re-elected plus knowing how far he lived from Charlotte and how there is no way he would be driving down to the street by her house to drive to the main thoroughfare with other closer through streets and so we are seeing this was probably a set up - but why oh why and how did they see it would benefit their viewpoint to have a 92 year old women ticketed and if it went as they hoped convicted - some folks just do not use their heads.
I did not know that Irma Rombauer wrote A Cookbook for Boys and Girls need to find it and see what it looks like - I still like the cookbooks that have more information about a place or food or gardening or meal plans than recipes - I guess because I come from a family of cooks who once we got the gist of what the dish was all about we could produce it with a series of fractions and so we did not cook by recipe so much as taste and ratios.
Some of my favorites are John Tovey's Country Weekends - Michael Ruhlman The Soul of a Chef (http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Chef-Journey-Toward-Perfection/dp/0141001895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317268653&sr=1-1), Christopher Petkanas At Home in France; Eating and Entertaining with the French (http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-France-Eating-Entertaining/dp/0753807084/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317270190&sr=1-1), Russ Parsons how to pick a peach (http://www.amazon.com/How-Pick-Peach-Search-Flavor/dp/B002CMLR9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317268498&sr=1-1), Frank Browning & Sharon Silva An Apple Harvest (http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Harvest-Frank-Browning/dp/1580081045/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317268574&sr=1-2) - oh yes, gotta have michel roux eggs (http://www.amazon.com/Eggs-Michel-Roux/dp/0471769134/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317268434&sr=1-2).
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Barb - thanks for fixing my colours! Of course I don't mind!
The Fortnight In September is a wonderful novel - it's a very simple story of a London family preparing for and taking their annual holiday at the seaside. The genius is in the writing - Sherriff shows us every family member's thoughts and feelings, - they are all decent, kind people, all with their own hopes and worries. The two almost grown up children want partly to re-live all of the holidays of past years, but partly to move on - but also don't want to hurt the parents. The mother sees that the boarding house owner isn't managing as well as she used to, but says nothing because she doesn't want to show she knows. The father worries about work, but loves treating the family to a beach hut on the sands, from which they can feel slightly "superior". There is a lot of period detail - for example, the mother goes out and shops for groceries every morning even though they are staying in a guest house - the owner then cooks whatever meat that the mother provides. The family travel to the seaside by train, because in those days no-one of their social position would have had a car - and Sherriff lets us see the mother's worries about catching the connecting train, the preparation of the sandwiches for the journey. To me at least, it is all so real - but I love it not only for its accuracy but also for the kindness with which Sherriff writes about his characters. I do recommend it.
The Towers of Trebizond is IMHO FANTASTIC. This is the review I put on to Amazon some time ago:
"The discovery of this book has been one of the greatest pleasures of my year so far. It is a beautifully told story of three eccentric characters and a camel travelling to Turkey to start a High Anglican mission. Usually I find this kind of thing very irritating, but Macaulay writes entirely without condescension or coyness. There are many references to High Anglican, and Muslim, practices and ideas, and I very much enjoyed the way in which they were simply introduced, without explanation - I was happy to look them up for myself.
The story moves along at a cracking pace, and can be read on several levels - as an adventure, a travel book with marvellous descriptions, an observation of the often hilarious relationships between the travellers, and as a slightly mysterious story about the narrator's own personal life. Information is skilfully fed to the reader as the journey progresses, and the ending is one of the most poignant I think I have ever read.
Highly recommended."
To change the subject - Barb, you reminded me about John Tovey - my MIL (who lives in the Lake District, where Tovey had his hotel) has his books, I love to read them - they are so 1970s, but still so accessible, Tovey's chatty style is great fun. My parents-in-law have been to his restaurant, it was indeed fab, apparently.
Rosemary
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Oh my, tomorrow is the 30th and we will be finished. This has been so much fun. Made me think about reading and what I do and do not read. Reminded me of so many books that I loved over the years.. So thank you Barbara for thinking of the topic.. and keeping us on the path.
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I particularly liked your quotes, ROSEMARY. I couldn't think of one..or four...
that stood out from all the rest, but I know and love all those you chose.
BARB, we have ATT U-verse, which puts all our electronics on one line, including
the telephone, which Valerie definitely needs for her at-home job. One bill for
it all. It is high, but it includes long distance at local rates..another
necessity for her work.
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Yes, Babi that is what it is called U-verse - for me the only service if I were to keep it that is new is the TV connection because I had the one fee a month long distance service and call waiting and call notes and I was paying it all as one bill that includes my wireless - supposedly the U-verse will be cheaper - but when you consider what we pay a month for communications it is more than the food bill for most months.
I just never understood the need for all those TV channels - most are old movies or music videos - I guess CNN and Discovery Channel but now that our local PBS has branched out with two more English channels and one Spanish and they are showing an old but good movie on Saturday night in case the Brit Coms are repeats that I have seen a few times I can pick up the movie - I know - I bet it has to do with sports - I like watching a baseball or football or even a basketball game from time to time but for me it the game is a good one it will be on one of the 3 or 4 major channels so the idea of having some off beat channel to see more games is the same as those who want extra movie channels. I still think it is less out of pocket to rent a video every week or even a couple a week than pay the amount for cable. Some folks are paying $69 or $79 a month - month in and month out - a year that is minimum over $800 just for TV??!!??
Although I should not be so quick to judge - I buy books easily to the tune of $800 a year - try to keep it to $50 a month but with one thing and another I go over. Usually the book I want is only down at the main library - by the time they get it up here and then I am limited how long I have it - plus I like having books to refer to long after they are read - plus ;) ::) I like buying used books and keep thinking I am saving a book from that dump of books we read about where higgly piggly they are piled with no order as if for a bonfire so said the author in whatever that book was we read a few years ago. Do you think I am addicted and using any denial excuse I can think up :o :D ;)
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Steph so glad you enjoyed the past week or so - I enjoyed the conversation as well - some precious memories were shared that stay with me - and you are so right - we were re-acquainted with authors and books that we read and enjoyed long ago.
Really, we could turn around and do this again with another whole group of books to focus on - like nature books or adventure books or biographies or favorite hobby books or books that help us understand various cultures or books of jokes and funny stories - so many interests that we love to talk about and I bet we all have a story or book that is special in our memory about some of these book topics.
I was telling my sister about some of the shared memories and she reminded me that the boys still talk about how when grandma visited when all 5 grandboys were together we let the grownups catch up with each other and grandma and all 5 boys sat on bed pillows piled on the floor of the dark closet and with door closed using flashlights we read stories -
Still remember Cade, the youngest by 3 years than the other 4 whose birthdays are all only months apart and they, older, were at the stage of wanting read spooky scary stories - Cade got so scared when I hit the spot in the story where you shout out the scary phrase - we had to stop and the boys all comforted Cade so we could go on - no one wanted to leave the closet and 'have to' sit still at the table while grownups visited.
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Rosemary thanks for the rundown on those books - especially the Sherriff - I could find the book available used but there was no information and Googling the book did not provide the wonderful synopsis you gave - great and thanks.
Interesting I found thee books written by John Tovey about weaving - is this a secondary hobby or a different guy with the same name - evidently the chef John Tovey has many books to his credit - sounds like your in-laws have some good memories to conjure up on a dreary day.
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My only disappointment is that Carolyn from NZ did not pop in - I emailed her but do not know if she received the email or not or if the email address I have is correct - I did so want to learn more about these Library Bars that are all over NZ - I hope she is alright and just busy but then again it could be I do not have her correct email address.
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With all our talk of libraries I became curious - no Chinese library - are there any that are famous and how many volumes etc. -- I found this - evidently one of the biggest and main libraries is the one in Beijing History Beijing Library (http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInformation/BeijingsHistory/t1140838.htm) and then I found this which is enlightening -
SiKu QuanShu, (http://history.cultural-china.com/en/37History514.html) or Complete Works of Chinese Classics, is the largest collection of books covering all subjects compiled under imperial commission in ancient China. The work comprises four traditional divisions of Chinese learning --classics, history, philosophy, and belles-lettres. Containing 3,503 titles, the book were divided in 79,337 chapters, almost including all books of ancient China, hence the name Complete Works of Chinese Classics.
Evidently in these libraries are some ancient texts written - get this - on the backs of turtle shells - can you just imagine asking to see and then reading from the back of a turtle shell - talk about exotic.
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Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions
This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/talkheads/library.jpg)
Library Bar in Auckland NZ
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.
Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?
Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
Here are our Twenty Questions...!
1. What is your favorite fiction book?
2. What is your favorite nonfiction book?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. What is your favorite children’s’ book?
5. What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet?
6. What movie made from a book is your favorite?
7. Where is your favorite place to read in winter?
8. Where is your favorite summer reading spot?
9. What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite?
10. What is your favorite time in history to read about?
11. What library any place in the world would you like to visit?
12. What author’s house would you like to visit?
13. What is your favorite cookbook?
14. Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most?
15. Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?
16. What is your favorite book blog?
17. What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday)
18. What is your favorite quote from an author?
19. What is your favorite memory of reading to someone?
20. What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you?
Contact: BarbStAubrey (augere@ix.netcom.com) |
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Barb - yes, yes, let's do it again! Maybe we should wait a month or so and then do a different list? Ones I was thinking of were favourite fictional detective, favourite mystery writer, book about animal(s), coming-of-age novels, family sagas, biography, comedy, - oh i could go on...... :D
Thanks for organising this topic, it's been great fun and I enjoyed reading about other people's memories,
Rosemary
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Barb, this has been a great discussion and I have enjoyed it immensely. So much diverse information here and so much to talk about. I loved the library link you just recently posted and sent it off right away to a friend. One could spend hours looking at the site.
Has anyone been to or heard of a small public library that sits on an island between Vermont and Canada? From what I understand, it's about the size of a house. I don't know how I happened to hear of it -- it sounds intriguing. Don't know who supports it.
Still can't get over the ticket for feeding the deer. In a way it's too bad someone didn't pass out for just a minute or two, and then be fine. That ridiculousness should be publicized.
I'd be delighted if U-verse was available here to be competition for Charter, which keeps raising it's prices. I still haven't forgiven them for taking Hallmark Playhouse and the CSpan book reviews out of expanded basic. Your math shocked me -- $800 annual just for the four or five channels I mainly watch -- the cable news and PBS. Without cable (or satellite) I'd have decent reception on only two or three area channels, and the local programs have the world's worst captions. I use Netflix for my movies and the few weekly shows I follow.
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Cable is so common here, that in
Scotland, I was startled to see all of the rooftop antennas.Obviously a bit sparsely populated in the north of Scotland for cable of any type. But then when we got really really north, there were no electric wires as well.. Bus driver was startled when we asked and was matter of fact, that the isolated areas often have no power.. Whew.. Hard to believe, but I knew that Alaska in the deep bush is the same way.
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Steph you do not even have to go that far - places in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah that I know about and according to an AP report there must be other areas in the lower 48. Also, I hiked and stayed in areas of north west Mexico with no power and no roads either - or rather dirt roads. Folks still leave messages to each other by piling stones in a certain patterns on the sides of paths and roads like as kids we learned from Boy Scout manuals.
Area without power covers more than 5 million people across US Southwest, Mexico
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This is an email that I sent out this morning and thought I leave it here also since we are a group of friends and Ralph and I could use some prayers.
We are doing okay considering the big flood yesterday. Ralph left a faucet running on Wednesday night to fill a half gallon pitcher. The pitcher's pouring funnel was leaning against the sink top. When we arose in the morning, there was water anywhere you can think of including in the kitchen floor and cupboards, garage and downstairs rooms including the drywall, ceiling tiles and carpeting plus the storage area. We had to get an electrician to replace the electric breaker box before they would even do the downstairs to the tune of $1750. By the time water restoration people were done it was 10pm last night. The carpeting is up and the padding is gone. What a mess!
The home health care nurse and he's on his way so I will bid you adieu for now. Keep us in your prayers.
luvya,
Ann
p.s. We are going to blow away with alll the fans and dehumidifiers that are running upstairs, downstairs and in the garage. It will take 4 or 5 days for the drying.
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{{{Ann}}} left you a message in another discussion
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It has been a great couple of weeks - enjoyed hearing so many heartfelt stories and so many wonderful memories - book really do tie us together - not sure what the next topic is and with Ann having a house to dry out I am sure she is glad there is time between these conversations - However, I am signing off - lots of busy days ahead of me and I need to get started - thanks to everyone I had a great time.
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This discussion is now closed.