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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
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Welcome to our new Library spot!
jane
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I wonder if there would be any interest in discussing the Alexandria Quartet by the English author, Lawrence Durrell? The Quartet is composed of four different novels, Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea which are set in Alexandria, Egypt during the thirties, as I recall, and the collection is a tale of love in the twentieth century, although not the kind of romantic love those unfamiliar with Durrell's work might think. As I recall, Durrell's first publisher declined to publish the Quartet, concerned that it would not be accepted by the general public and would be deemed too sexually explicit and permissive for the time, the early sixties, as I remember.
The stories are powerful in their narrative and the reader's attention is required throughout the series as the conflicts and potent emotions of the principals is woven by the author.
What is fascinating to me about the author is that in addition to the The Quartet he also wrote some of the most delightful caricatures of the English diplomatic service in some short stories, including Stiff Upper Lip, Bitter Lemons and Esprit de Corps, quick, easy reads which are delightful and it's a something of a surprise that these tales came from the same author.
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Thanks for cleaning up our "Library", jane. It looks great!
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Just claiming my seat in the Library. :)
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I'm checking in also. I'm reading The day I ate Whatever I wanted by Elizabeth Berg.
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Thanks for rolling The Library forward!
The newest non-fiction I'm reading is by A. Goldsworthy, Fall of the Roman Empire.
I've only read the first 45 pages. I'm not sure if it's going to be a suggestion for others, as it is rather "dry" but for us intrepid Latin students, overwhelming numbers of interesting historical facts.
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Goodness, Fureteur, I hadn't thought of the Alexandria quartet for ages. It's been so long since I read it that I have no idea what I would think of it now. I remember an extremely complex network of emotional and physical relationships and an intense picture of the mindset of the city. When one of my daughters was in high school, a friend lent her "Justine" with the warning not to let her mother see she had it. She showed me anyway, and I laughed and pulled my copy off the shelf for her.
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hi all
fureture I remember the quartet. the interesting thing to me was that each book was written from the stand point of one of the major characters concurrently with all the others. the sexual content might be strong for a few members of this group but is mild compared to what is out there these days. forewarned is enough I think.
cofee's ready, the smell is even coming in here two rooms away. vanilla nut whole bean fresh ground. . . ym.
F nice to see you here . bestest, claire
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Yes, and with each book you get a different slant on the same events, and more details.
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Yes, I still have the Alexandria Quartet somewhere on my shelves...it might be interesting to revisit - I think there was a lot I didn't quite 'get' at the time - as PatH says - it's the mindset of the city - I think I was just too young... :o
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The Yellow Lighted Bookshop was mentioneed here and I felt called to it, being a life-long compulsive reader. Well, I was reading along when the "story" took an unexpected turn. The author began describing the scenes from his teenage years and he was describing MY old home town, San Jose. Valley Fair, The Pruneyard, Upstart Crow, places where I spent many happy hours. Lewis Buzbee worked in bookstores for 17 years, he states, and this is an affectionate memoir about books, bookstores, and the people who share them. Along the way he relives some raucous times with his fellow staffers, reminds one of books one has not read in a long while, and creates a fondness for fellow sufferers of that malady, Bookieness.
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Mrssherlock it looks like I have to add another book to my TB list. The Yellow Lighted Bookshop sounds delightful.
Fureteur (love the nomen), I have heard of Justine but never read it and didn't know it was part of a quartet. I am going to look into it. Thanks for the mention.
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Before the "old " Library seals up its doors, I want to say (isn't this a pretty new heading, tho?) I appreciate the kind words and thoughts, very much. thank you. :)
I love all the different things going on here, including a possible new book club for Masterpiece Theater, and a chance to win a trip to Guernsey. I've always wanted to go there for some reason, wouldn't it be a hoot if one of us won? hahahaa
I have never heard of the Alexandria Quartet, what fun! This is the place to come for all things books!
Mrs. Sherlock, what a hoot to find your home town described in The Yellow Lighted Bookshop and I agree with Frybabe, it sounds wonderful to me. There's nothing like the feeling of recognizing your own past in a book, it's magic.
I've been reading Carol Goodman's The Night Villa in preparation for her appearance (she's already been in to our The Night Villa discussion here twice) We have a GREAT crowd assembling, what excitement!
We'll begin on June 1 (everyone is welcome, do come by), and when I'm doing a fiction book discussion, I don't read any other fiction, I guess so as not to mess up what neurons I have left in confusion, hahaha so it's only Non Fiction for me for a while. I just finished the Desilu book, which is not new, about the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and this book has them nothing like I had known or thought they were. I thought I had read enough books on the subject, apparently not. I think it's the real story. Like most people they were very complex.
It's fascinating, I see that I Love Lucy reruns are still on TV! One thing I carried away from it was when they talk about "Show Business," they mean it: it's a business, and not always a pleasant one. I am positive I would not make it 30 minutes.
Still reading The Big Rich, Mary, I'm glad you liked it, and still reading Rogue's Gallery, I finished the Thomas Hoving section (he's in a lot of the sections) last night, WOW. I mean WOW. That man, all I can say is read it if you are interested in behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He's got his own chapter and is in a lot of others.
The book is called Rogues' Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money that Made the Metropolitan Museum by Michael Gross. Hoving, (Thomas Pearsall Field Hoving) is pretty amazing, to think we met with him in 1996! The section on the Euphronios Krater is quite interesting as well is a quote by the author in another chapter that at a recent exhibition, experts stated that 93 percent of the items on display had no true provenance. It's a fascinating look at the other side of what we think of as the museum business.
Also have started The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace. Reading about wine and vintners or growers fascinates me, I have no idea why. I guess it's all the hype. I don't drink and we are in the vineyard business, but I guess I'm like Kelly Killoren Bensimon on some things, she keeps saying: "I don't get it." I don't, either, when it comes to being an oenophile, and never have. So far it's fascinating. Have any of you read it?
It's interesting that thematically so many of the vaunted bastions of what we thought represented the good life are being exposed, there's a new one out on the collapse of Wall Street, too, House of Cards, A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street I think the author's name is Cohan.
Maybe this is a whole new genre: maybe they should call it....Melt Down Lit? hahaha
On the lighter side there is a new MC Beaton mystery and our own Op/ Ed discussion, Talking Heads, takes on Twitter this month! Do you Tweet? Is Twitter a sign that the world as we know it has come to an end? hahaha Do YOU do it? Come on over and see what the fuss is ( and isn't) about and share your opinion. http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=524.msg23096#msg23096
PS: EARTHQUAKE? I had to go back in the old Library to be sure this was where I read that! Good heavens how frightening, I hope you are all OK!! I don't think I have ever been in an earthquake, no matter how mild. I did go to LA right after the last big one, where bridges stood (or overpasses) with no continuing road, it was scary to look at. There seem to be a lot of earthquakes this year world wide, also. Be safe out there!
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So glad to see you back writing, Ginny!
Is the new MCBeaton about Agatha or Hamish? And I'm going to check out the one about the Metropolitan Museum. Thanks for the heads up.
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Here's another another one for the Suggesion Box and the future. What about the possibility of Wallace Stegner's A Shooting Star, the story of Sabrina Castro, daughter of a wealthy pioneering family in central California who, as a young woman faced with a failing marriage and the hostile realities of the world that she was born to, is obliged to undergo some of the ultimate tests of character and constitution that our age faces.
The piece is technically a short story, or novella, and is saturated with issues that we can all relate to, and while thoroughly readable, it most assuredly is not escape reading.
A note of clarification concerning the oblique reference to sexuality in the Alexandria Quartet: The sexual experiences depicted in The Quartet are not the lurid, graphic portrayals of cheap pulp fiction, but rather those of a real rather than fictional world, made powerful and disturbing by the emotions that accompany them. The Quartet is the story of love, loneliness, desperation, small triumphs and a search for the home that we never really are able to find.
And PatH, I have to laugh …
When one of my daughters was in high school, a friend lent her "Justine" with the warning not to let her mother see she had it. She showed me anyway, and I laughed and pulled my copy off the shelf for her.
It's nice to be reminded that our children haven't really discovered the world for the first time all by themselves, that the “reality” they think may be too much for us may have visited us before they were even a twinkle.
And Winsummm, it's good to hear from you again! You made a good point about the concurrence of the Quartet stories. I suspect that the emotional pain experienced by some of the principals may be more sobering to some than any of the sexuality. Would you agree?
Gumtree, I suspect there's a lot of the Quartet that, as young readers, we wouldn't “quite get.” I think it's generally reading for mature minds; for people who have suffered some exposure to the full range of relationships that people have, or are capable of having.
Frybabe, it's serious but rewarding reading. I suspect you would enjoy it.
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Ginny,
Good to see you posting! Hope you are doing okay, or as okay as can be expected with a broken bone in your knee.
I'm sending good wishes and healing thoughts your way.
Evelyn
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Marking my spot in the nice new Library.
Great to "see" you, Ginny. I've been reading about your injury and hope you're getting better quickly.
I just finished "Tea Time For The Traditionally Built", Alexander McCall Smith's newest.
Now I'm enjoying "Plantation" by Dorothea Benton Frank.
"The Yellow Lighted Bookshop" sounds very interesting.
Isn't it fun to read about a familiar place? Jim Lehrer's novel "The Sooner Spy" takes place in the area of Oklahoma where I grew up - and the spy is caught in my hometown. Even though the name of the business was changed, I knew exactly where it was.
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CallieinOK, how did you like Tea Time For The Traditionally Built? The title is intriguing.
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My library has three Carol Goodman books, but unfortunately, 'The Night Villa' is not one of them. I may check out one of the others, just to get an idea of her style.
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Babi, do try to find it. You have just the right flair for this type of story. I would love to see you in there with us. I'm having such a good time rereading the first few chapters.
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Night Villa is certainly "different" from many other novels, with all the material about ancient cults and Greek/Roman rituals and myths.
I hope everyone here reads this and talks about his/her opinion in the upcoming discussion group. I have to confess that I just finished reading it ... could not put it down. But I always enjoy a re-read with the group! And especially a group led by our Ginny!
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I think I put in a request with my library for "The Yellow Lighted Bookshop" quite some time ago, but it never came in, or maybe the request time ran out and I may have to re-request it. I am very interested in reading it.
As usual, someone's recommendation of "The Alexandria Quartet" has sparked my interest, as I have never read the books, although I have heard of them. I am sadly lacking the compendium of knowledge of most of you! Unfortunately, I didn't finish college!
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hi all.
NLHOME that's an ELIZABETH BERG I haven't heard of. I really like her. is it new???
ffffeut: such interesting analysis from you. onward . . .I still have trouble remembering where to put the "e's" in your screen name. it's good to see you again though J.
claire
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My message disappeared.
Someone here, I think, posted a list of the Pulitzer Prize winners. I thought I had saved it, but can't locate it. I need it for my f2f book club - - the sooner the better. H E L P!
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Hi! I don't remember how far back the list is but if you Google it, it should pop right up I would think. Try that!
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Hooray.. Back from a 18 day trip to the Pacific Northwest from Florida. We planed and trained and automobiled, just like the movie.. A wonderful trip. The train was a dream,, Seattle made our hearts sing and we fell in love with Tacoma and the Museum of Glass.. But oh boy,, they sure dont do sunshine out there. Only sunny day.. Mount Rainer on Sunday the 17th.. But it was worth it.
I remember the Alexandria Quartet. Actually I like his brother Gerald better. He wrote about his zoo and many animals and his life with his family. They are all decidedly odd.
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Thanks, Joan. I had googled it before, but didn't scroll far enough down the list to find the one I needed. This time I did. (The print is soooo small on this list though) Thank you again.
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Oh Steph, that's where you were.
I loved Seattle as well.
Sunshine does not grace the state of Washington very often. It has the highest suicide rate of any state in the nation and after spending time out there, I can understand why. My brother lived out there for 30+ years and talked about relocating for just about that amount of time. My neice still lives out there.
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Sounds like a great trip, Steph! You're so lucky to have seen Mt. Ranier. It is very special. Did you visit Mt. St. Helens? We loved that, too.
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THERE is Stephanie back!! So good to see you again, sounds like a super trip, welcome home!!
Mary, the Beaton is Death of a Witch and it's a Hamish McBeth.
I am tremendously enjoying A Billionaire's Vinegar! It's fabulous, starts out with an historic auction at Christie's which is very exciting and a colorful (real) auctioneer, and then explains about Thomas Jefferson in Paris, which I did not know, and his bottle of Lafite which became most expensive bottle in the world. Who knew?
Who knew Jefferson went to Paris and unlike Franklin, became quite the dandy, it's fascinating. I know it does not sound like it, but it IS! Stay tuned, the book is good enough to carry around the house.
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Frybabe, "Tea Time For The Traditionally Built" is a typical story about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency gals in Botswana. Same characters - different situations. As usual, everything looks better after a cup of bush tea. (I wish the author would provide directions for making that!) Enjoyable story.
Steph, Welcome home from your long trip, which sounds fantastic. I took a wonderful picture of Mt. Ranier from a plane window.
The couple sitting next to me were from Russia and didn't speak a word of English. She and I "visited" by getting out the airline map and showing each other where we'd started, where we were going and using our fingers to indicate how many plane changes.
When she saw me taking the picture, she got out her camera and indicated that she wanted me to take a picture for her, too. I did - and then wrote down the name of the mountain.
We landed in Denver, where I changed planes and they were greeted by people who were obviously family members.
Those on the other side of the plane saw Mt. St. Helens.
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Thanks, CallieinOK. I didn't know it was one of the #1 Lady's Detective Agency series. I haven't gotten into any of those yet.
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Winsumm, the Elizabeth Berg is short stories. I really liked some of them. However, I've never had to "diet" so I didn't relate to others, such as the title story, "The Day I Ate Whatever I wanted" (I'm not sure that's quite the right title - the book was overdue, so back it went today.) The last story seemed to touch me the most.
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Just marking my spot. And it’s so good to see everyone. Ginny, so glad you’re feeling up to joining us again. And Steph, you’re back from your trip already. (Time goes fast) I’m glad you at least got a peek at Ranier. You folks need to go to Seattle with me because the sun always shines when I’m there. :D
Callie, I liked your story about Ranier and the Russian lady. Back in my working days, when there were still travel agents making plane reservations, I’d go out to visit my daughter every summer and asked the agent to get me a window seat on the left going out and a window seat on the right flying home. Just to hopefully get another look at the mountain. Alas, now I need an aisle seat, to try to keep the legs from cramping.
After seeing Callie’s post about the Sooner Spy I took a look at Jim Lehrer’s website. I didn’t realize he had written so many books. I’ve read one of the ones about the retired CIA people, and one partly historical mystery – No Certain Rest – set in our time, but focussing on a Cival War incident at Antietam.
Currently reading Three Cups of Tea and a novel by Robert Dugoni mentioned in Mystery Books – The Jury Master – many characters in many different places. Keeps you on your toes.
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Thanks, Ginny, I'll look it up. Hamish is our favorite!
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Steph,
Your trip sounded great. You said the train was a dream. -- Where did you pick up the train and how far did you go on it. What kind of accommodations did you have? I'm curious because I have always wanted to take a train trip and wonder about which accommodations to choose.
Evelyn
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Pedln, I have Jim Lehrer's "Oh, Johnny" in the TBR stack. It's about a soldier in WWII.
I wonder how many outside of Oklahoma have read his One-Eyed Mac series (of which "Sooner Spy" is one) and if they think the sly references to state politics are as funny as those of us who live here do.
It's been a while, but I've read "No Certain Rest" - and also "Purple Dots", which is set in Washington, D.C.
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I had a 'most memorable' moment flying into Seattle. I had been looking
out my window at some mountains down below, enjoying the view very much. Then
I turned and looked out a window on the othr side of the plane, and was startled
to see the top of a mountain right there beside the plane. I had to adjust my
ideas about the 'mountains' I had been admiring down below. I now knew the
difference between mountains and foothills.
I've long thought I would enjoy taking one of those scenic train trips through
the NOrthwest and/or Canada. I gather it's something like traveling by ship, ie.,
a sleeping cabin w/ bathroom, etc. Is that correct, STEPH? Ah, I see Evelyn wants to know, too.
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The train.. Empire Express.. Chicago to Seattle about 46 hours. You get on at 2:30 pm and arrived in the morning two days later. We got a bedroom.. You eat together and since we got a bedroom, it is all included.. You sit with someone different all the meals as you come in and we enjoyed our companions. Many of them have trained all over the world and we also ate with a couple from Washington, who trained from Washington to Chicago and then Chicago to Seattle. When they got there, they were taking a cruise to Alaska two days later and then going to Vancouver and taking that train clear across Canada. It was their first year of retirement and they decided to sample a lot of things at once..
The train is a strange sort of environment. There is a lounge car and a sightseeing car ( windows all the way up to the ceiling and slightly around it). With the bedroom cars, you just have a corridor outside and we kept it open all day and could watch out of both windows which increased the fun. YOu can take a coach seat ( all reserved) or a roomette ( great for one person). We wanted a in room bathroom and that is a bedroom.
WE got up to 3500 feet at Mt. St. Helens, and ran into really dense fog.. Decided it was just a bit more than we had in mind for adventure.. I know, chicken, but I really really do not handle mountains driving well at all.
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library4h.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
JoanG:
Welcome back Steph!
Sounds like you had a fabulous trip. Helps me to recall my trip last summer. I visted much of that area. I loved seeing Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens. They are just fabulous. I did not do the train trip though. That sounds like lots of fun. I traveled from San Francisco up the coast and to Victoria. Flew home from Seattle.
Ginny great to see you back. Hope that you are healing well.
Joan Grimes
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Just reserving my place in the library :)
JOY
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Steph,
Thanks for the info. I have always wanted to take a train trip out West or up into Canada. I have looked into it, and thought we would want a bedroom with an in-room bathroom, but wasn't sure. I also wanted to hear someone's experience who has actually taken a train trip. I don't know if we will ever do it, but it really appeals. --- We took a cruise in 1984 and even with sea sick medicine, I was sick from the time we left port until we arrived back on land. They also lost my luggage, which didn't help my frame of mind. It was returned to me one day before we docked. The bright note of this "cruise from hell" was that it was a snorkeling cruise and they gave everyone a T-shirt. My bathing suit was packed in my husband's trunk, so I joined the snorkeling lessons and got off the ship everytime I could and wearing my bathing suit and new Tshirt I snorkeled and snorkeled. Had a blast. But I vowed I'd never take another cruise. (For those of you who are wondering, the ships store only went up to size 14, and I am to delicately put it, queen size, so buying anything wasn't an option.)---- The idea of a train trip where you just get aboard and stay put for a few days appeals to me. Just sit and watch the scenery go by.
It just sounds like a great trip. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Evelyn
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The train trip across Canada has always appealed to me. Maybe now I will decide to go on and do it. I'll start saving.
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I well remember my first auto trip through mountains, STEPH, with my husband driving. The road was so narrow, I could look out my window and
see straight down! I found it so unnerving I had to turn my head away and
studiously avoid 'sightseeing'. My new husband, bless him, thought it was funny.
The Canadian train trip through the Rockies is the one I have heard about and am interested in. Not all the way across Canada, but just through that very scenic area of their Southwest. Who knows, someday I may. My ex-DIL and two of my grandchildren (adults now, of course) live in Victoria, which makes
the idea doubly attractive.
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Stephanie, I am so glad to hear how you spent your vacation! When my chidren were small I took both of them separately from Chicago to Seattle in those bedrooms on....there were two trains from Chicago to Seattle, one was called the Empire Builder and one was called something else. (I thought it also had the word Empire but I can't find it now on the Amtrak site).
One went down thru Iowa and across Nebraska, barely skirting Kansas which is the one we did so the kids could see the changing great country we have, they were mesmerized, to this day my oldest talks about seeing Nebraska and "Kansas" as if it were Europe. You had to look fast tho, for the Kansas part, and you barely got into it as we entered it late in the day. And the black black soil of Illinois! Every little thing was amazing. TOO LATE we found they had included a wonderful little set of pamphlets, maps, which told exactly where we were, but we had fun guessing.
Then we were late, very very late getting in because of the great heat as we crossed Utah and labored to climb the various mountains. We went thru Denver too. It was kind of exciting. The scenery alone was worth it. We disliked having to share the dinner table with others as my boys were not of an age where causal dinner conversation came easily, that was a minus. Food was good.
It WAS a great way to see the country and I'm glad to hear it still is. Those trains must be dated by now.
The other train, can't remember its name, perhaps IT was the Empire Builder, went across the upper US back to Chicago, thru Montana, etc., I have heard it's very scenic about wildlife. I am glad they are still doing these trains because here the Amtrak comes thru at something like 4 am. And they wonder why people don't take the train?
So glad to hear an update!
The "new" Newsweek is out: I love it. I even wrote the editor which is new for me. Long, long literate articles. When have we seen that in recent years? Glossy pages. Love it. Of course they lost Anna Quindlen, which is a big loss, but the new format is fabulous. Have you seen it?
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Ok the Empire Builder still goes up: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Route/Horizontal_Route_Page&c=am2Route&cid=1081256321887&ssid=133
What's the one called which goes down into Kansas etc? Anybody know?
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Ginny, we've gotten our "new" Newsweek, too. It's okay, I guess, and we'll get used to it. But, to both of us, the new printing is harder to read. There's not enough contrast between the print and the background - maybe if the print were just a bit more bold. Also, sometimes I was unsure if what was on a page was an article or an advertisement.
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Absolutely right, Mary. .
I did comment on the new illustrations, also in the email (their letters to the editor of the in print magazine email is on newsweek.com) and you are right: they are hard to tell if they are ads or connected to the article, you actually tend to skip over them till you realize what they are.
I did not mention that the part (I thought it was just me, I should have come here first, maybe) where they had the orange background (is it the old conventional wisdom thing?) with the white print was almost impossible to read. Since you saw it too maybe others will mention it from their reader base.
But I do like the longer in depth articles and the slick paper.
I also said the loss of Anna Quindlen was a minus. I think she got some bad advice there, make way for the new generation. Of what? Pulitzer Prize winners like she is? Faugh.
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Ginny, I never even attempt to read anything in white print on a colored or black background. It's just too hard. I sent a quick e-mail to Newsweek about the print, and got an automated response to having received it. I didn't intend for it to be printed - just to be noticed (hopefully) ::).
Sometimes I think - well, I'm having trouble because I have old eyes (I'm not old, of course ;)). But then I think - Hey! who do they think is reading this magazine anyway. The younger folks are reading all this stuff on their computers or blackberries or iPods. It's ONLY us old folks who are still reading paper magazines, and they should be paying SOME attention to us.
Oops - did I get carried away there????
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Ginny, the lower train now goes from Chicago to California ( not sure if it is Los Angeles or San Francisco( actually the city across the bay since the train does not go across). Ours went very north.. North Dakota which was still flooded in so many places. All sorts of little towns with wonderful names.. Glacier National Park.. The people in the next bedroom and Tim and I spent our time racing from our bedrooms to the corridor to figure out which view was the best..
We love trains and have done the Canadian one as well. It used to be called "Rockies by Daylight" and was great fun. You trained all day for two days and then stopped about 5pm and bused you to a hotel and dinner. We went as far as Bamff and then took a bus back in a different pattern. Loved train, hated bus..
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I also have the new "Newsweek" and have yet to decide what I think about the new format.
The first thing I noticed is that the ads are mostly on pages facing articles - and, yes, it is hard to tell the difference.
I hate that white print on a dark background!!!!!!
Anna Quindlen's "farewell" column made me think of Eskimo elders being sent out to sea on ice floes when they were no longer "useful". Of course, with global warming, I s'pose that won't be possible for "us" - but that's the way I feel in more and more situations.
Bah, Humbug!
Steph, two friends and I did a "Railroading Through The Rockies" tour. We left Vancouver on the train - stopped overnight at a motel in Kamloops (great dinner-show there - like a melodrama and lots of fun) and continued on to Banff.
Then we went by "coach" (not "bus" 'cause it had a bathroom :)) up the Glacier Highway and over to Edmonton before flying home.
Super trip.
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All your travels bring back memories. I travelled by train from LA to Chicago about 45 years ago -- five months pregnant and with a two-year-old and a four-year-old. My mother was in Wisconsin having fits over the whole thing, which turned out quite well. The two-year-old had decided about three months earlier that he was terrified of large machinery and anything that made big noise, but once he was ON the train, everything was fine. Now I'd like to do the Northern route.
While we were in LA, my mother and aunt came to visit us via the train trip of a lifetime, which a travel agent had arranged -- from Chicago. They stopped and spent a few days at the Grand Canyon, then several days in LA, up the coast to visit THEIR AUNT and UNCLE in Seattle, and on to Banff and Lake Louise. That's were they decided to go to a very posh restaurant and have a cocktail and oer'derves and celebrate their successful trip. My mother was chewing on a fancy little orange sandwhich but found it rather tough. Then the people at the next table told her she was chewing on her napkin. :P
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GINNY, I never could get my kids interested in the scenery when we made our
car trips. A little, maybe, in the mountains. For the most part, it was just
grass and trees to them, and they would rather read their comic books.
Actually, MARYZ, I think you made an excellent point and I hope the editors
paid some attention. I doubt very much if the youngsters are spending much time reading Newsweek, so they should be attentive to the needs of those who do read it.
PEDLN, I got a grin out of the story of your Mother and the tough 'orange sandwich'. But considering some of the fancy stuff some restaurants put
in front of their customers, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
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We played endless games such as Ghost, car bingo, alphabet spotting on billboards, counting license plates (start at 000 and progress in order, 001, 002, etc.but only on your side of the car) Those were some very happy times.
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Our kids loved 20 questions in the car trips.. That and secretly trying to do battle with whatever was on hand ( nothing like boys). Now our grands have a portable dvd player to watch movies on . How life changes.
We hope to do the other Chicago train next year to California. The rockies part of the trip through Denver looks good.
The most amazing thing about Amtrak?? The Florida to Wilmington , Del train roomette costs exactly twice what the bedroom for two did out west. No idea why..
I have been hearing about a really great train in Australia,, I just hate the idea of that long long plane ride. I have gotten really absurd about hating plane travel.
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Gosh, I can't imagine taking little children on train or car trips unless absolutely necessary. When my husband and I traveled by car just for fun, we left the kids with their grandma. The only way to travel!
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Marjifay, we made an auto trip with our infant daughter from Texas to New York, so her Dad's folks could meet her. Not being a complete fool, I took my grandmother with us, so I would have some help with the baby. Daddy had a
tendency to disappear when a nasty diaper appeared. :(
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WE made car trips all the time just to show our children the countryside. I wish I had done some of the train trips with my kids too. They sound just wonderful to let children experience what the country is like.
Joan Grimes
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I took our sons on several train trips. They loved them.. MDH traveled for years and opened stores , etc. So he would b e gone two weeks or more at time. In the summer, he would go and then if there was a train around, we would follow for at least one of the weeks. Stayed in some of those places, with a kitchen and living room.. We made Breakfast and lunch and ate dinner out.. They got to see most of the southeast that way. But they truly loved the train.
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:) My children of course started out with comic books, books, stuff they had brought, but there wasn't anything to break up the trip, you didn't ride 2 or 3 hours and then get back in the car.
It wasn't like a car. You didn't stop, ever, not for us, anyway, to get off or eat or anything else: it stopped for others, but soon took right back off: it just kept going day and night and with a somewhat wild eyed mother rushing in their room screaming LOOK LOOK "amber fields of grain!" LOOK! Wheat! Look at that soil color (ours is red clay), LOOK! No towns, how do they go grocery shopping? Look at that FARM! Look at those silos! The dirt roads! (It's actually a wonder they weren't shell shocked when we got there hahaha). I'm trying to remember how LONG that trip was, it was LONG, three days? I want to say three days and possibly two nights? Three nights? I'm thinking two nights and three days. How long did it take you, Stephanie?
We took an entire extra day due to the heat, we were very late; the tracks or so the conductor informed us would...separate (this was many years ago) in the heat and that slowed down the train.
A little drama amongst our group, the mother of one of the train employees was on the train, they all treated her with great deference and kindness but the issue WAS would her son meet her or not? I never found out, I hope he did. It's amazing how caught up you get in things like that when traveling. There had been some estrangement. This is before cell phones, and we were a full day late. WOULD he be there or not?
Coming into Seattle we came thru that....oh dear, something about a river gorge, Washington? Gorgeous. Do you know a train ride would be a fabulous trip for our Books! hahaha We have talked about it several times after reading Nothing Like it in the World. A bit pricey tho, I think? For the bedrooms? Tho as Stephanie says, less than across the eastern seaboard, that Southern Crescent is still running, and is a MESS. Unless you like getting off at a stop at 4 am.
I loved riding the train. I loved waking up in some station (you have window shutters you can pull but I loved watching the land slide by) and guessing where I might be, loved it.
There USED to be a wonderful train from Paris to Rome, it went overnight and you woke up going down the Italian Riviera, that train has fallen into bad hands. Now goes thru Switzerland for some reason, probably terrorists who are ruining our lives, and does not take the scenic coast route, so you no longer wake up hanging off a cliff on the Italian coast. I've still got some of those photos tho, amazing.
The last I heard of it the customers (Italian) stopped the train (this is about 2 years ago) as it had bedbugs and almost did a riot. The last time I took it for nostalgia's sake, the septic/ sewer backed up, and the car was evacuated. Not exactly what you'd expect in the way of happy adventure. But in its heyday, it was a wonderful trip. They brought you breakfast, carried your bags on and off, and there was a lounge car with a bar on every sleeping car where the people would congregate and get acquainted. I didn't, but the people I was traveling with reported many from Texas in our midst. :)
I love this conversation, nothing about books, but hey! Our meet and greet place here. You COULD really do a nice thing on it however connected WITH books, a marathon of books readings about what you were seeing!
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Babi, I had to laugh at your story of your train trip and daddy's disappearance whenever a nasty diaper appeared. My former husband, a police officer, could pick up a man's severed head from the freeway after an accident (true story), but called me to come home in the middle of my bowling league game to clean up after our young son who had messed himself and his crib, because it would have made daddy sick to do it!
As to traveling with young children, I figured they could see the countryside for themselves if they wanted to when they grew up.
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Just marking my spot, we just got back from a week at "the shore" as we call it in New Jersey, so i haven't read all of your posts yet, but glad to see Ginny is back w/ us...........must have been those Peter Pan cream donuts :D ;).................jean
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Just a quick note to let you know that the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series has made 24 sets of THREE Detective Wallender novels available to our readers - just for cost of shipping. Are you interested in a set? Just email me and I'll get your set in the mail. (We have 7 sets left!)
Read what out readers are saying about the series - and some are enjoying the books even more! Masterpiece Mystery! (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=502.msg23537#new)
They are the best detective series I have ever read, bar none (and I love detective stories. Dana)
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That was an auto trip we were on, Marjifay. So Bill could pull over,
stop, and really disappear! I can sympathize with your husband, though it
seems strange. It's a sensitivity to odor, I believe. My aunt Marie could
not be around soiled diapers, or people who were throwing up. She
was too 'suggestible',and would get sick herself.
Gee, isn't this a genteel topic? :P
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Ginny.. Our train was 46 hours.. two nights and close to two days..We were absolutely smack on time.. We ran about an hour late through North Dakota since we had to slow so much for the flooded areas, but made it up afterwards. Yes, there is a gorge as you go through Washington.. But Glacier Park was our favorite. So spectacular from the train.. Our neighbors in the car and MDH and I raced back and forth across the aisle to admire each side and take pictures.
Such a shame about the train through France. I would have taken it.. But I did love all of the trains we took years ago .. Two weeks trip called " The Great Trains of Europe" It is now a bit longer, but fun.. You never sleep on the trains, always in a hotel..
I love novels about long distance trains. It also seems to me that Agatha Christie wrote a novel ( not the Orient Express one) where everything depended on the train schedule for alibis.. Sort of neat as I recall. I dont like Mexico, but am told the Copper Canyon train ride is spectacular..
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We took the Copper Canyon trip last September with Caravan tours. The canyons really are spectacular. Out of the week's trip, two days are on the train - one out and one returning. We took a bus from El Paso, then spent the first night in the town where we boarded the train. All day on the train to the near-Pacific-coast town of El Fuerte, where we stayed for a couple of nights. Then the return train trip to a glorious posada stuck to the side of a canyon wall for (unfortunately) only one night. Then bus back to Chihuahua for two nights, before returning to El Paso. We'd recommend the trip, but there was more "bus time" than we prefer.
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My daughter, on an overnight trip to Salt Lake City, found that she couldn't sleep; the matress, she said, was about 2" thick. Has this detail been improved?
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Here ye, here ye - after two humorous short story discussions there is change.
It was easy to see that more than a week on a short story is overkill.
We also have serious reading going on here on Senior Learn and so we did not need an in-depth discussion on yet another story.
However; as the newspapers had a section we called the Funnies it seems appropriate for Senior Learn to also have our version of the Funnies in the form of Funny Short Story discussion.
And so NEW PLAN -
Every Sunday evening a new humorous short story will be added to the bottom of our heading along with just a couple of questions to help focus the start of a post.
I am working harder this summer than I have in years and so I cannot promise to be here very often but the discussion really does not have to be managed - we are having fun - sharing what makes us laugh - what was funny in the story - and adding a bit of learning as we try to identify the type of humor in each story we read - is it a witty story, a story of satire a slap stick comedy, a farce -
Labeling the kind of humor is the only thinking in the entire discussion - the rest is just letting us know if you laughed, smiled or enjoyed the story and your thoughts about any part of the story that hits your fancy or reminds you of a real life experience along similar story lines.
And so please drop in and lighten up your day once a week with a short story from the funny side of life. http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=351.0
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Our matresses were sort of thin, but the swaying of the train was like a cradle.. Put us both right out.. Silly but true.
We are still getting a bit too much rain in Florida. WE needed it, but not all at once.
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I am not a good shopper except for books.. But yesterday MDH and I decided to go to a few outlet sales here. Went to a Van Heusen outlet store. 50% off everything in the shop and then an extra 10 to 40% on particular clothing.. Whew.. We figured that we spent what we normally would spend on two golf shirts for him and got three shirts for him and two blouse and overblouses for me.. I guess that clothing retail is really suffering.
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Don't forget that you can register each day - before August 11 - six lucky members of our SeniorLearn Book Club could win an all expense paid trip to Guernsey this fall!
It's a really short simple form to fill out every day.
Win a Bookclub trip to Guernsey this fall (http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/sweepstakes/)
Also, we have FOUR more sets (three books) of Henning Markell's "Wallander " mysteries to give away to any interested SeniorLearner. Many of us are enjoying the books made available to us from PBS Masterpiece Mystery Theater. If interested, just email me and I'll get them to you in today's mail.
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All this talk about trains. I'm ready for a long train trip again. It's been over twenty years since the last ones, which were in Europe. I remember travelling from Oostende, Belgium to Spies, Switzerland, at night in a 2nd class compartment with 6 bunks -- three on each side. Me and five strangers. We slept in our clothes, but everything was just fine. I had had some trepidations beforehand about what my travelling companions would be like, but they were lovely. Then I spent the next ten days travelling all over Switzerland by train (and bus and boat.) What a glorious way to travel.
One of my daughters, following her own path in Europe that summer, later told us about waking up during the night on the train, finding someone reaching up her skirt, looking for her moneybelt.
When my son was stationed in Naples he and his wife would bunk on the night train to wherever they wanted to visit, arrive in the morning and save the cost of hotel.
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http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4365716
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A friend of mine met his wife on the Orient Express. They started talking, found more and more things in common, especially music, and ended up singing Mozart together. They exchanged addresses (he was American, she European) and wrote letters back and forth. I'm not sure if they even met again before agreeing to marry, but it was obviously the right decision, because it was an extraordinarily happy marriage, producing 2 great children and lasting until his death a few years ago.
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John's finishing up reading The Big Rich on the Kindle. He's really been complaining about the errors in the text - general type errors, that should have been caught by an editor. For instance, it comments about a champion steer that was a heifer. Steers are always castrated male cattle; heifers are young females. It mentions one of the oilmen drinking Wild Turkey bourbon in 1936. We looked it up - the brand Wild Turkey was not named until 1940. It refers to the "big inch pipeline" as being 24 inches in circumference, and he meant 24 inches in diameter. The book also talked about "jet fuel" during World War Two.
These are nit-picky things, to be sure. But they are also inexcusable, and show insufficient research on the part of the author. Also they are the type of things that should be caught by a good editor and/or fact-checker. Obviously, once a manuscript makes it through a spell-checker program, nobody else ever reads it.
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carol goodmans first novel,Think, is THE LAKE OF DEAD LANQUAGES an d her primary character is a Latin teacher. . ., so is the the one in the book we will be discussing NIGHT VILLA. it's very good. I now have at least five or is it six books going o my kindle and lots of samples. twenty seven items in all actually twenty eight since I just added the Lake of dead languages today.
Mary Z do you and your husband share the same kindle? or do you each have one so you can read at the same time. just wondering. the beauty of having it is that any time you feel like it you can read any book you want to. it's like having more than one TV i the house I thinkThink. In the olden days when they first came out, we would watch TV during meals as a family and fight over the remote . . THE POWER. . . :-*
I've been using the READ ALOUD feature a lot lately with ear phones to make it l;loud enough. I like the woman's voice best. it sounds real and may be except there are mistakes in pronunciation as read aloud. Maybe it is real, a Chinese or an Indian, but there is no discernible accent otherwise.
as my daughter says "I LOVE my kindle".
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Claire, we share MY Kindle. :D If I've read something that I'm sure he'll like, I let him have it for a while. And I have to read a paper book. :'( I overstate the case, of course. That's probably the only thing I don't like about my Kindle, that I can't share my books easily. I don't really like being read to, and don't have vision problems, so I haven't even tried the "reading" feature. One of the folks on Seniors & Friends listens to hers all the time - as I gather you do.
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Pedlin, How brave. Dont think I could sleep with five strangers in the same room. I am not that good at relaxing, although perhaps when I was younger. We use a lot of trains in Europe, but have never slept in one over there. Its on our list however.
Next adventure set for next year is a transatlantic cruise.. Probably a repositioning one so it is not so formal.. My husband has had his heart set on this for years.. So probaly 2010 is the year. That is if we are both healthy..
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MARYZ, it does make one question the accuracy of the entire book, doesn't it? I'd be inclined to take everything he says with a grain of salt.
As best I remember, WINSUMM, when TV first came out, there was no remote.
It was 'get up and push the buttons'. And the family definitely had to
huddle together, as the screen was wasn't even the size of a video tape.
But it was such a novelty!
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library4h.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
WINSUMM- carol goodmans first novel,Think, is THE LAKE OF DEAD LANQUAGES an d her primary character is a Latin teacher. . ., so is the the one in the book we will be discussing NIGHT VILLA. it's very good.
No the protoganist, Latin teacher, in Dead Languages was named Jane Hudson. In the Night Villa it is Sophie Chase.
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MaryZ, I don't think those were nit-picky concerns about the book at. I mean, if you can't tell the boys from the girls or a straight line from a circle? You all would get along well with my brother, who once wrote the Chicago Tribune because they had used the term grade instead of incline (or maybe it was incline instead of grade -- I can't remember the definitions of either.)
I remember TV from my college years. It sure wasn't in the dorms. The only places you find TVs were the frat houses. And every Saturday it was George Gobel. I really disliked that show.
How things have changed.
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OMG, Pedln, I loved George Gobel. As they say tho', to each his own.
I couldn't finish The Night Villa. It seemed to me it could have been shortened a lot, and I found it repetitive. And I was disappointed because I was an anthropology major in college.
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Just finished "Cane River," a wonderful, wonderful story written by a woman who left her job at MicroSun to research her family history in Louisiana. Altho she writes a fiction story, she uses her family history from ancestors who were slaves to her grandmother in the 20th century and includes actual pictures of the people she is writing about. It's a story of 5 generations of amazing women, each of whom strategizes as to how to keep their families surviving and prospering both before and after being slaves.................i highly recommend it...........jean
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Another Kindle article -- this one from today's NY Times. Good points and bad points and some things that we might want to watch for or wait for. But it sounds like everyone who has one really likes it.
One thing this article mentions -- for a small fee you can download material from your computer. That's the first I've heard that.
More on the Kindle (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/books/29kind.html?_r=1&hp)
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Marjifay, do stay with us for the discussion of NIght Villa, even if you don't care to finish it. Carol Goodman will be there and she will no doubt offer some insight into why she wrote it as she did. Plus, the others of us who will be posting will want to hear your comments and views.
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BarbStAubrey,
Thanks for the link to the older couple playing music in a lobby at the Mayo Clinic. It was cute---very refreshing and entertaining.
Evelyn
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Marjifay, I did know you were an anthropologist, how exciting. What's the latest thought on Margaret Meade?
Barbara, thank you for that video of the 90 year olds, they are more spry than I am. hahahaa
Twitter is in the news every day, you can't even keep up with references to it. We're now talking cell phone conversations and texting in there, do join in if you like, just click on the Discussion Index on the top of every page on SeniorLearn (under the flower) so you can see what we offer. Just today Regis (no I don't watch the program normally but the tv was left on when my husband went to work) was complaining about trying to get in an elevator to go up to a party and the woman in front of him was texting.
USA Today just ran a half page article on Rogue's Gallery, the story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art behind the scenes, I'm really enjoying it.
I'm really proud of the group assembling for The Night Villa, there are 24 people there, one on the way in, from 4 countries, that's pretty darn good for a fledgling site. I'm proud of us. This is going to be a super discussion.
Now if all 24 will not be shy and will speak constantly we'll be in business. Devoutly to be wished.. :) What didn't you like about the book, Marjifay? You are welcome, too, as Pedln said.
Everyone is welcome!
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Ginny WOW! 24 people from 4 countries for the Night Villa discussion - and the author to boot! That's wonderful - congratulations
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Yes, I do remember changing the tv by hand. As a matter of fact, we had black and white and hand changing throught the beginning of the 70's.. as well as the beginning of HBO, which showed a movie maybe twice a night. We used to treat it like a regular movie.. Make popcorn, gather the boys and sit down like a regular show. Amazing how life changes.
When my parents first got their tv, I was a young teen and not much interested. My brother loved it though and was a Howdy Doody fan , etc. I was into horse shows and boys and that kept me really busy at that point. I actually was married before I watched much tv at all.
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Same for me, Steph! We didn't even own a TV when I was living at home. My grandparents had one the size of a postage stamp, black and white. My grandfather watched baseball on it and I have been told that my grandparents liked to watch the "wrestling matches"??? Good grief! I think they were sports fans! Probably football games in the fall.
I do remember George Gobels later after I had children.
Here's a joke that someone emailed me.
An email that I received:
The $2.99 Special
We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the 'seniors' special' was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $2.99.
'Sounds good,' my wife said. 'But I don't want the eggs.'
'Then, I'll have to charge you three dollars and forty-nine cents because you're ordering a la carte,' the waitress warned her.
'You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?' my wife asked incredulously.
'YES!!' stated the waitress.
'I'll take the special then,' my wife said.
'How do you want your eggs?' the waitress asked.
'Raw and in the shell,' my wife replied.
She took the two eggs home and baked a cake.
DON'T MESS WITH SENIORS!!!
WE'VE been around the block more than once!
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;D ;D ;D
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I bought my first TV in the the early 1950s when I moved into an apartment after graduation from high school. I drove my roommates nuts because I was obsessed with watching the Army-McCarthy Hearings.
Loved the eggs story, Annie. Reminded me of the classic restaurant scene in the film "Five Easy Pieces" with Jack Nicholson, which I re-watch every so often.
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Hey, I'll have to remember that one, ANNIE. ;)
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Annie, I just copied that and sent if off to a bunch of folks. It'll make their day. Now, what's the solution for those places that insist they can only sever THREE egg omlets.
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Annie, Oh, I love the joke.. Always nice to have a smile to start the day. Been to Panera for my bagel fix on Saturdays.. I do love bagels, but stick to cereal during the week trying to work on the fiber nonsense.
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Myfavorite restaurant scene is in When Harry Met Sally and concludes with the director's mother, playing another restaurant patron, says, "I'll have what she's having" referring to Sally. Although the Jack Nicholson scene is good, more like the egg lady above.
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Yes, Jackie, that was a terrific scene in a great movie. I didn't know that lady in the restaurant was Rob Reiner's mother.
By the way Billy Crystal did a terrific song and dance routine on the
Jay Leno show the other night. I didn't recognize who he was until someone mentioned his name. Darn, why does everyone have to get old?
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Speaking of getting old, I was noticing Maggie, our cat, the other day. As cats go, she is as old as I am, if not older. Yet she remains as gorgeous as ever. Now I ask you, is that fair? :'(
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My cats once they hit 12 or so both got strange. I suspect a stroke for one of them. He seemed to be convinced he no longer lived at our house and you had to be careful to make sure he did not wander. The other one decided litter boxes were for the birds.. I was not a happy camper with either of them.. Once they went, have not done the cat thing. Always have dogs, but no longer any cats..or birds or fish. etc. Dogs travel in the rv with no problems.
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What great and far reaching conversations here! I had no idea that the lady in the movie was Rob Reiner's mother, either, she was cute!
Do any of you get the Bas Bleu catalog? Desperate for some reading material I started reading the book blurbs and here are tons of books I never heard of, all of which look good! I love their reviews. It's a fabulous catalog in print but here it is online: http://www.basbleu.com/
Several of those look as if they would make a great discussion.
I'm reading Ayun Halliday's book No Touch Monkey!
It's about a different kind of travel than I do, backpacking, somewhat filthily, through Europe. It's an eye opener, she leaves nothing to the imagination, not the way I want to or would travel, but I'm not in my young 20's any more, and it's fascinating to see the "tricks" that they use to avoid paying hotel rooms etc.
So far it's pretty amazing, actually.
Haven't gotten to the monkey part and almost did not buy it because there's a monkey with teeth on the cover. I absolutely hate monkeys, just despise them. And the feeling is returned. That great ape in the Philadelphia zoo, the famous one, when I went to see it as a child, (it's now deceased) took one look at me and literally THREW itself against the glass, I'll never forget it: darn good thing it was bulletproof glass or whatever. I hate the nasty things.
Picking fleas off each other and eating them, EEEEUUUUUUU!
This latest thing with the...what kind of monkey was it recently in the news which attacked the friend's face, she's suffered unimaginable damage, hate the things.
So I may have to dance around that chapter but the list or rules i about dealing with the monkeys in some country (Bali? Tibet?) is absolutely hilarious, and worth looking at the book. They would not have to tell ME twice.
UGGGGG
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Ginny: I hate to be a nit-picker, BUT it was a chimpanzee that bit the lady's face, not a monkey.
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AH! There's a difference? (Now we see the ignorance born of disgust inherent in the system). To paraphrase Monty Python.
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Bas Bleu is always fun.. I generally get a few books a year from them. I love the great apes. Not smaller monkeys, but gorillas are so fascinating. Their faces are always so very sad.
Came all primed for Night Villa and the discussion is not up yet.. Sigh.. I really really like the book and was so good about not reading past 112 and that was really hard.
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Stephanie, it, as you now know, is up, we just didn't start a new discussion for it but continued where we were since there is so much good stuff in the pre discussion. That happens sometimes.
It actually went up last night, good to see you in there.
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I've always been fascinated by the Chimpanzees. They are so intelligent, hilarious cut-ups, and so able to show emotion in their faces and gestures.
They can apparently be quite affectionate and want other creatures to hug and keep company.
I am waiting for the return of 'Night Villa' to my daughter's branch library, so she can bring it to me. It is already overdue, and whoever has it seems in no
hurry to bring it back. I will have to read fast once I get my hands on it.
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I am in love with Mad Dash by Patricia Gaffney. You've got to love someone who, being named Dorothy, rejects "Dot" in favor of "Dash". She's definitely high maintenance but life with her would be so much fun that you wouldn't mind. What is it like to wear her skin? Ah, there's the rub. No one can see the invisible structure that sustains Dash until she loses it all. When she begins to question who she is. Sounds banal but believe me Dash is not in the least banal. I would love to discuss this book.
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Found Night Villa...Hooray. What a lovely book it is.. Will look for some others by her.
It finally stopped raining in Florida. We had a solid week to 10 days of rain sometimes twice a day. We are just fine, living in a slightly higher part of Florida, but the beaches were drenched.
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I'm reading Circle of Three by Patricia Gaffney - enjoying it..............and just finished Cynthia Riggs The Cemetary Yew, a mystery and have started the series Death on Demand by Carolyn Hart..............all good....................jean
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Death on Demand are fun because of the many mentions of all sorts of mystery authors and books.. Sometimes they get a bit too cute.. but it is still a nice series.
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Marjifay--I loved the McCarthy hearings. My parents had just gotten their first TV. I was in 9th grade and I watched the hearings obsessively. Later, I watched the Watergate hearings obsessively. It's all so interesting to me--real reality TV!
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Deems and Marjifay, I grew up in Wisconsin, living with my mother and aunt and uncle. My uncle thought McCarthy walked on water, I kid you not. And what did I know, until I grew up a little.
And went off to college and the summer after my freshman year visited an aunt and uncle in Washington DC. I went to the McCarthy hearings, taking along my 45 rpm recording of Stan Freborg's "Point of Order" and asked McCarthy to autograph it, which he graciously did.
(That's Freborg's parody of the hearings, with many "point of orders" throughout.) I've often wondered what happened to that little disc, but it most likely went to the great beyond after an attack of children's toybox.
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pedln--
Cool story about the record and the autograph. From what I've read, not at the time of the hearings, but much later, McCarthy was an alcoholic and quite unpredictable. Good thing he didn't decide to eat you for breakfast!
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Deems and Pedln, I'm happy to hear I wasn't the only person enthralled with the McCarthy hearings. I would have given anything to have been able to attend the hearings, Pedln. And I loved Stan Freberg! Had almost forgotten him.
I was also fascinated with the Watergate hearings. And the hearings for Judges Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Talk about drama! Yes, that was reality TV that kept me glued to the set.
By the way, Joe Biden's autobiography, PROMISES TO KEEP, has a very interesting chapter on the Bork hearings. Biden was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and very instrumental in keeping Bork off the Supreme Court, thank goodness. (Of course, I'm a Democrat) I found Biden's book fascinating to read about his long years on the Senate.
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Death on Demand are fun because of the many mentions of all sorts of mystery authors and books.. Sometimes they get a bit too cute.. but it is still a nice series.
That's why I didn't care for the Death On Demand series. I got bogged down in the lists.
I really liked the Henry O series, though - maybe because Henry (a/k/a Henrietta) is "our age".
BTW, Carolyn Hart is an Oklahoma author!
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I was obsessed with the Clarence Thomas hearings because all of those males had no intention of believing her. I was horrified and still am at his selection. I consider the court to be the best and the brightest and just now they arent..
MDH and I disagree on the court. He simply will not consider the many years of decisions pertaining to slavery, etc. that were wrong. I truly believe the court needs to be composed of all the disparate elements in the US.. He doesnt see that white male dominated is a problem. Oh well..
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I loathe the entire genre of 'reality' shows. The whole concept of the 'Survival' series is off-kilter, to me. It just promotes a cut-throat 'me first' view of life.
In actuality, human survival has always depended on co-operation, people working together and helping one another through crises. If these contenders really were on a desert island, the 'last man standing' would simply be stranded there alone.
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Babi: Put me down onyour side about Reality shows. I wonder how long their popularity will last as we go through these troublibng times. My life has more than enough Reality to suit me and I haven't lost a job, had my pension cut off, had my medical care cancelled, etc. I lost my money,(1/3) in the dot.com bust but there's enough left that I can support not only myself but my two adult children who can't find jobs. Of course I don't take cruises, my car is now 10 years old, and there are days when we are rounding up all our change to buy milk or cat food or some other necessity.
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Just to clarify--I agree with those who don't like "reality" shows like "Survivor." They're not for me either. But I have enjoyed all the hearings I've watched. I saw the Bork hearings too, Marjifay and also didn't think that Anita Hill had a chance in getting all those men to believe her during the Clarence Thomas hearings. I thought she was telling the truth, but then I was no doubt influenced by having colleagues who had experienced sexual coercion in the workplace. I think it happens less now, but am sure it still exists.
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Yes, Deems, I thought Anita Hill was telling the truth about Clarence Thomas. I couldn't see why she'd put herself thru all that embarrassment otherwise. Really ticked me off that all those men believed Thomas. And I know what you mean about sexual harrassment on the job. I quit two jobs because of that problem. Was so glad to see the law passed that forbade it.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
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Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
CSPAN will probably cary the hearings when Sotomayor appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was fascinating to watch some of the Obama Cabinet hearings. Sen. Sessions, R ranking member, was denied an appointment to federal bench and has vowed never to submit anyone to the ordeal he experienced.
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Yes, Jackie, and I'm looking forward to the hearings. I watched some of the ones for Alito and Roberts--was teaching at the time so I missed a number of days. But some channel reran parts at night, must have been C-Span. I think July is the time for the Sotomayor hearings, but I'm not sure. Unusual for Washington to work in the summer, but August is definitely out. The town empties out in August.
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I dislike and wont watch reality shows. They are anything but as far as I am concerned. So many sad people who think they are a star..
I remember many many years ago.. My husband was in the army (drafted) and we were really newly weds. Went to Columbia , SC and looked for a job.. My second interview was a man who had a small chain of barbecue places.. I came from a little town in Delaware and did not realize how protected a life I had led until this leering horrible little man, fat, bad breaths and ugly leaned into me and giggled and whispered the type of duties that were included as a bookkeeper. I was out of there... Oh wow.. still gives me cold shivers..all these years. What a baby I was.
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Oh, that's something else entirely, DEEMS. Those hearings are history in the making.
I admit I don't watch many of them, since I am one of those who learn best by reading
rather than hearing.
MARJIFAY, your post reminded me of a story of my ex-husband's. He was an inveterate joker, not always in the best of taste. Once he entered a copy room and found an attractive young co-worker there. So he shut the door and went into a villainous "Aha! At last I have you alone!" The girl screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring my ex half to death. She was having hysteria while he was protesting that he was only joking. Needless to say, he didn't try that 'joke' again.
STEPH, what an ugly experience. I can't imagine a prospective employer acting like that in an interview. Usually the predatory types like to
wait until their prey is actually hired an working, then start insinuating 'overtime'.
He'd have a hard time filling that job.
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Funny stories, Babi and Steph. Altho' your experience must have been scary and repugnant at the time as a naive young girl, Steph. I had a propsective employer imply such, saying "Well, ANYONE can type and take shorthand." Ugh.
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Actually I ended up with a delightful job as a bookkeeper, etc for an entertainment chain. Movies, Bowling alleys,pinball stuff.. The man ended up hiring and marrying eventually the darndest female..I guess he was just ready to be horrid. I did find out that he was crude at best.
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I have a feeling I know who that is. And if it IS who I think it is, his ways earned him a comeuppance in another area.
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Ginny, You just might. He had a chain all over South Carolina, but mostly in Columbia. Horrid nasty little person. The problem for me was I was so innocent, I thought I had caused it somehow..
Loved my job that I got however. Those guys owned movies and bowling alleys, etc all over South Carolina. I worked out of the bowling alley in Columbia, Star Lanes ( think its gone now) and also handled the cash from the movies, etc. Learned just how dirty money is at that point. I handled thousands each week and loved it.
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My first job was part-time while I was in college. I worked for a company that
did investigations for insurerers and people like that. I was a clerk-typist, not an investigator, but the stories they came back with were highly entertaining.
Like the investigator who was invited to step inside by a young woman, only to
have an older woman reach past her, latch the screen door, and say "Nobody
comes in here 'less he pays his $10. first."
::)
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Oh Babi, I loved it.. I can just see the face.. Our younger son when he first graduated from college got a job for a national company that deals in insurance fraud ( he had a criminal justice and history degree). He was given a black van, outfitted with all sorts of equipment and he traveled all over checking out people all over the US who had gone to work at Disney and then.. surprise surprise,, gotten terribly injured the first month of work or so.. He had some truly hysterical stories about watching the injured,, pick up furniture, go bowling,etc etc.
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It seems everyone who deals with the public has some hilarious, or frustrating, stories to tell. All three of my kids have work that brings them in contact with the public, and the stories they tell each other have us either laughing or, in my case, exclaiming that 'no one can be that dumb'!
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This is one of those questions that I probably will be sorry that I asked. A friend, on her way out of town, dropped me off a book and said "Andy, this is right up your alley, read it and I'll get it when I return home in a few weeks."
The name of the book is The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I have never heard her mention this story, nor have I ever heard of the writer-- so-o-o... I am wondering what does this woman think is my "thing", my taste in Literature?
That will be the most interesting facet of reading this book- to see if it truly IS right up my alley. Good thing she's left town. ::)
Has anyone read this novel?
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ALF: Go to #612 in the Fiction-Old-New folder where that book is mentioned.
Joy
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Thank you Joyous, I will go looking for it post haste.
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Alf,
I have read the book.I think I am the one who mentioned it.
Joan Grimes
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Alf, how neat. You must let us know if it was "up your alley". What people read and why is always a mystery.
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What do you all think about the California decision to drop textbooks for high
school math and science students? From now on, their texts are to be on-line.
Partly, it is a tech age innovation; partly it's because of a really short budget.
It will be interesting to see how it works out. Teens certainly should feel right
at home on-line, so it may work out very well.
I'm just a bit anxious about the possibility of a future without books as we
know them. Ah, well, I don't expect to see that day, anyway.
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Babi- That is an interesting question and I am going to ask each one of my high school and Jr. high school grand children how they honestly feel about that issue.
I will let you know what the "new age" regards this. Two of them are avid readers so they may have a different slant.
Thank you Joan, I read your comment and appreciate your response.
Steph- As soon as I get a minute I will check out the "alley." ::)
Next week we will be leaving for NY State for a month to attend graduations, parties, etc and play with the kids in the pool. The book is a hard cover and it's not mine (to leave up there) so I'm not sure if I am going to get it read before then.
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Babi, at least 11 or 12 years ago I partly read a book by Nicholas Negroponte titled Being Digital or Going Digital, something like that. He was mainly talking about college texts but even then advocating online texts. One reason was that a major cost of textbooks is the cost of inventory and distribution. And of course, the ability to continally update.
About the Calilfornia decision. I think it offers the students a chance to explore beyond their text books -- new theories, differing viewpoints etc. Perhaps it would even help eliminate the biases that show up in textbooks -- such as the debate between evolution and creation.
It used to be said, maybe still is, that ALL textbooks were geared to what California and Texas wanted, because they bought the most texts. Remember Ma and Pa Grable, how they upset the textbook industry. At any rate, the teachers should be happy because the kids can no longer say, "I didn't have my book because . . . ."
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PEDLN
At any rate, the teachers should be happy because the kids can no longer say, "I didn't have my book because . . . ."
:D
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There are still plenty of folks that don't have computers. I sincerely hope that they give the students enough time to do their homework at school. But then, doesn't that cut into real teaching time?
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And with that closing paragraph below, I’m shutting down for now and going to exercise in the swimming pool.
With the smartphone, he said, the stimuli are information feeds. “It can be powerfully reinforcing behavior,” he said. “But the key is to make sure this technology helps you carry out the tasks of daily life instead of interfering with them. It’s about balance and managing things.”
We’ve finished discussing Twitter, here is the rise of Smartphones – going from gadetry to necessity. Even if you’re counting pennies.
Smartphones Now a Necessity (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/technology/10phone.html?_r=1&hpw)
“The social norm is that you should respond within a couple of hours, if not immediately,” said David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. “If you don’t, it is assumed you are out to lunch mentally, out of it socially, or don’t like the person who sent the e-mail.”
Whoa!!! Who? What?
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Aarrgghhh! I hate this mindset that I have be available to everyone 24 hrs a day and that you have to be available to me 24 hrs a day and we all have to carry every piece of information w/ us 24 hrs a day. We recently tried to explain to a 9 yr old what it was like before there were cell phones - (using pay phones, etc.) When i asked her if she tho't it might be a good thing or a bad thing that her mother could not get in touch w/ her immediately every minute, she - being a 9 yr old - said it was a bad thing. A 19 yr old might have had a different answer. ;D
Cell phones are great for emergencies, but people's need to be available to the world 24 hrs a day concerns me. I guess like all technology the iphone has it's benefits and problems.
I was trying to tape a show on our new video/dvd recorder a few days ago and it has so many bells and whistles that have to happen before something can be taped i yelled at my husband "I just want a machine that records when you push the bottom and doesn't do a thousand other things!" He just said, "It's going to get worse." .................siiiiggghh...............jean
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Almost all students have computers now. In many schools, secondary and college, computers are required, and sometimes even furnished with the cost of admission and fees.
The price of textbooks has gotten totally out of hand, from what I hear. The latest version of Kindle has a larger screen so it can handle things like maps, diagrams, charts, etc., and be more available for textbooks. IMHO, I think it's an idea whose time has come. It's bad news for the textbook business, but perhaps they've pretty much priced themselves out of business.
We both carry cell phones (John's is usually turned off, though ;)). They don't take pictures or hook up to the internet, and I even had the text-message feature turned off by the provider. I did that after I got a wrong-number text-message, and had to pay for it. Once was enough of that.
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I would have loved to have had a computer during high school and college! I didn't even have a pocket calculator when I took Accounting and Finance in college. I remember staying up all night to retype a long report that was due and that I'd screwed up on the first draft.
I can't imagine what people with cell phones glued to their ears find to talk about so much. I have never liked talking on the phone. If I want to talk to someone, I go out to lunch with them. Our cell phone is used mainly for emergencies or very short calls like asking if the library has a DVD available, or making appointments.
Marj
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MaryZ, I don't think your cellphones (or mine either) will cut the mustard in the new age. ;D
Earlier today I was at BestBuy trying to get some information, and every young man I spoke with had a thing in his ear. Bluetooth, maybe? It was so annoying. Maybe that's why I was so grouchy. I just can't believe the company thinks that's good for business.
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pedln, one of our Thursday-lunch friends showed up a couple of weeks ago with "one of those things in his ear". He doesn't even have a computer, so we gave him a really hard time about it. Turns out it was one of those hearing aids that looks like a bluetooth. He says it does help focus the hearing magnification.
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MaryZ, I must confess that when I read your post my first thought was, "That guy's pulling her leg." And so I went looking for pictures -- and was amazed. Which is the hearing aid and which is the headset?
Hearing Aid or Headset (http://www.audiologyonline.com/articles/article_detail.asp?article_id=1542)
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pedln, my friend's aid looks like the one in Fig. #3. They've been advertised in the paper here.
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I cannot understand the need for constant communication. Yesterday we were having lunch in an old fashioned restaurant in Leesburgh. They had a dance school having lunch after a recital ( probably 20-25 , mostly girls). I realized that the flashes that I kept seeing were the girls with their cell phones, chatting, taking pictures, texting.. The whole lunch. You would think that their friends were all there with them. I could not begin to be on the phone all the time. Dont have that much to say and I am famous as a talker.
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I think of it as having to tell the world every time you burp. I do know how to text though, and once or twice a year, on trips, it's useful.
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My best friend has one of those bluetooth things in his ear almost always. Personally, when I am visiting or in my car driving, I don't want pested with phone calls. I think it is terribly rude to answer calls when you are visiting someone or in the middle of a meeting and downright dangerous in the car. He has answered my calls when he was in meetings and not told me right away. Either don't answer the thing or answer and right away say you will call back later. BTW, isn't this what voice mail is for?
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AMEN, Frybabe. I like the idea of hearing aids that look like Bluetooths, though. It replaces the frump factor with a cool factor.
BTW, maybe the plural of Bluetooth should be Blueteeth.
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Hey, I wear hearing aids and noone ever knows. People are so surprised if I mention them.. My dentist never knew at all, but yesterday, he reached up to pat my ear ( he is a bit weird) and I jumped because of course the hearing aids squeals when you cover it.. I told him and he could not believe. I had to take it out to show him.
My husband and younger son love to take pictures and text each other. I believe it is probably known as "Can you top this". But they have fun.
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FRYBABE, when my granddaughter went to high school, it wasn't long before her mother got a message from a teacher suggesting that Marie really, really needed a computer if she was going to be able to handle the schoolwork. My daughter maneuvered her budgetand managed to get a small computer, but I don't know how the schools cope in those circumstances where students' families simply can't afford one.
Aarrgghhh! I hate this mindset that I have be available to everyone 24 hrs a day..
JEAN, that is precisely why I never bought myself a cell phone. Now, of course, I couldn't use one anyway. But I never liked the idea that I was 'available' at all times. We all need some peaceful down-time.
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Steph you asked me to let you know if The Help was right up my alley. I really liked this book; particularly the characters of the 3 extraordinary women living in Mississippi, in the 60's.
I have ABHORED racial prejudice all of my life and felt my teeth start to grow fangs when I started to read their tale but as the story progressed I became these characters and fought tooth and nail right along side of them for "their (my) rights."
Of course we know about Medgar Evans and the atrocities that these people lived through but to look at these awful times through the eyes of those that suffered makes a difference.
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Hi, everyone. Like many people, I am a big fan of a lot of musicals. I think the genre of musicals fits on our SeniorLearn Books site since the book and lyrics of many musicals are as compelling as non-musical books and plays.
I received a notice from my PBS alert that Great Performances this week will be airing a broadcast of the cult musical "CHESS," in concert with Josh Groban, Idina Menzel (from WICKED) and Adam Pascal (from RENT). I had not heard of CHESS before and it's definitely not a traditional Rodgers and Hammerstein type of musical but it might be interesting (or not! ;)) Just FYI, in case you want to check your local PBS listings. In my area it will be showing on Wednesday evening. See more at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/
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Marcie: Thanks for the heads up. I'll put that in my July schedule. I love musicals and look forward each year to the Tony broadcast where I can keep up with the new shows and the revivals. While surfing cable I stumbled onto a glorious pair of shows which highlighted legendary director Hal Prince (#1) and Phantom, how it came to be, These are being repeated throughout June on the Ovation channel along with other musicals. Not much info on the web site but here it is: http://www.ovationtv.com/schedules
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Thanks for the info, Jackie. I checked and my cable network doesn't carry Ovation. It looks like a very interesting channel.
You might be referring to the documentary, "Behind the Mask: The Story of the Phantom of the Opera." There is some info at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478846/
The documentary is available in 9 parts on Youtube (google "behind the mask phantom youtube") but there are probably copyright issues as with a lot of stuff on youtube!
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I'm with you, ALF. I remember readint "The Glass House of Prejudice"
when I was in high school. I was reading it in gym one day, waiting for
practice to begin, when I read something that made me so angry I threw
the book and yelled, "They can't do that!" Needless to say, I got a
number of wary looks from my classmates.
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library4h.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Marcie: Yes, that's it. Jerome Robbins was on PBS recently, enjoyed it immenseley. Loved All That Jazz and Chicago. Caught the last little bit of Chorus Line - The Movie. Awful! Michael Douglas just ins't Zack! There was a little theater in Saratoga (CA) that put on musicals; it was great fun to go with friends, have dinner then the show. Tickets were something liike $10.
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Jackie, I think I saw something recently with Jerome Robbins talking about West Side Story.
I recently got a DVD set (3 DVDs) of the six-part PBS documentary on the American Musical. It's really good. See http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway
There is a good price at http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/Broadway-The-American-Musical-DVD/3622367/product.html
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Everyone of my favorite movies has been a musical. I have TVO'ed PBS Wed. night for Josh Groban. Thanks for all that info Marcie. ;D
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Will somebody explain Tivo to me? What does it produce? It copies and plays back but it's not on a DVD that you could then save or record or show later to others? How does it work?
I am somewhat irritated that I can no longer record a TV program and maybe show it to a class that's why i ask.
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ginny, I can't explain TIVO, but we have a DVR (digital video recorder). We can record directly to the machine's hard drive, programed just like the old VCR. We can also record onto a DVD, or we can record first into the hard drive and then transfer it to a DVD. Then it could be played on another machine elsewhere.
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Do you have this new HDTV? Because we don't?
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Nope - our TV is about 5-6 years old. It was digital-ready, though. And we have cable.
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Mary: How do you transfer recordings from your DVR to a DVD? Our hard drive stores only 40m hours and there are many hours we would like to be able to re-view but we can't store them for long, too many new things come up.
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Yeah, Mary, how DO you transfer DVR recordings to a DVD? Dish Network recently had to replace my DVR box, and I lost an entire season of about 5 shows along with footage of the Bejiing Olympics Opening/closing ceremonies, and parts of the Inauguration. Had I known how to transfer, I might have tried, although the DVR box was not working properly at the time they changed it out.
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Re recording to DVD - I just follow the directions that came with our DVR recorder. It's really a very simple box, more like an old VCR than TIVO. I can't help you other than that. Mostly we don't do that - just watch what we record and then delete it. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
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Mary, did you buy your DVR recorder or do you rent if from you cable provider. I need something. I use cable. My DVD player is a dog. My VCR is over 15 years old. But it seems all the DVD Recorders are combos with VCRs for people who want to put their tapes onto DVDs. I just want to record to watch later, or maybe put on a DVD to keep for a while.
The people I know who have DVRs also use Sateillite.
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pedln, I'm pretty sure John bought it at Wal-Mart (or maybe Best Buy) in Dec. 2007. It's a Phillips HDD & DVD player/recorder with digital tuner. This is a link to the web site for the current version. It didn't come from the cable company.
http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/us/consumer/cc/_categoryid_RECORDERS_SU_US_CONSUMER/
This replaced our VCR and our DVD player. It plays commercial DVDs, too.
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Mary, thank you for that. I've downloaded and saved the owners manual. I'm going out of town this week, but when I get back I'm going to seriously start looking for something like you have, maybe the same thing. It seems ideal. There is one store in town that I like to deal with because it's local, they're nice, trustworthy, etc.
Sometimes y ou just need the terminology to find something. I would never have thought of HDD.
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Hope it works for you, pedln. John managed to get it to work after the digital switch-over, too.
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Thanks Alf, We are on the road, but I will put it on the list to look for when we get home in bout a month.
Today in Sevierville,TN.. Had to have some work done on the way to achieve the new all digital in the rv yesterday at a Camping World. RVs have some special problems because of the way information is routed in coaches.. Darn.. All fixed now, thank heaven, mydear husband is a tv fanatic and a news junky.
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In August, we will be discussing the book, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor, and comparing the depression of the '30's to the situation we find ourselves in today. We need a quorum to plan the discussion.
Join in by posting a message! It will be a fascinating look at one of America's foremost career woman.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=587.0
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Mary that looks like what I need, also, thank you for posting that. Our TV's made the switch (most of them) because we are on satellite, but we did not do the upgrade of the dish and the boxes to get the HD, I wonder if yours would work with that? We don't have the HD, we don't get those "HD channels," but we get everything we did before, that's enough.
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We don't have an HD set either. Next one we get probably will be, but who knows what it'll look like then. :D
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Great, thank you! i tried this conversation with a guy in Best Buy with no result!
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Ginny, maybe a smart teenager is the answer. One who's always messing with media gadgets. I don't know why Best Buy doesn't hire them.
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I agree with that!
To top it off I can't find this Phillips thing anywhere, that's always the way, perhaps they are coming out with a new model. How hard can it be to get it to where people can record? I'll keep looking, I do need that capability.
HUGE article in the new Newsweek about how Amazon is taking over the world. I must admit I use them 10/1 over B&N, and they sell everything on earth.
What are you all reading? Once we finish with The Night Villa in a week, I've got a backlog of lucious books of fiction waiting for the summer, including the newest Preston and Childs, nothing takes you away like they do!
But I'm seeing some intriguing ones in Bas Bleu that I never heard of, I'd like to try some of them too. What's in YOUR wallet? ER...bedside table?
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Well Ginny, I signed on for the Agatha Christie series which starts next weekend. AND, I still have to finish the Wallander series. Heaven only knows when I will get to the non-fictions and SciFi books I recently bought.
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I am reading "The Birthday Present"by Barbara Vine(Ruth Rendell). It is sort of strange as most of the books that Rendell writes under the name Barbara Vine are.
Oh well after reading "Night Villa" I wanted just a normal mystery but sure did not hit on one. Any suggestions Folks?
Joan Grimes
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I know about DVD recorders such as the Phillips. Ginny, did you go online? I have found things online that would never be available in my small town of 150,000. Here's a review: http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/philips-dvdr3575h/4505-6463_7-32566451.html What I lack is a way to connect the DVD recorder to my DVR. I've gone online; apparently DirectTV, my satellite provider, used to use TIVO but they switched and have their own brand of DVR. I googled and found some nerd-types have also struck out on this problem. My TV isn't HD but if I switch to the HD DVR I will get over 100 hours on the hard drive as opposed to the 40 hours I have now.
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Whatever happened to "out from TV, in to VCR." I used to laugh at my friends who couldn't program their VCRs, but I tell you, it's a whole different ballgame now. And one thing I learned from the lovely people at the LOCAL store -- your DVR has to have a tuner, unless you have a box on top.
And then once yu get all this stuff, you have to key in the right numbers so you can play everything from the universal remote??? HA!!! Spaghetti city and more.
BTW, looking on line -- Mary's unit has gone UP in price, the reviewers say, and in some places it is unavailable. Probably like Cabbage Face dolls -- collectors items.
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Yes, Pedl'n, you are right. I looked online at Mary's unit and its hovering right at $300. I used to have our DVD/VCR all programmed into the cable TV butr when I moved here, it was a whole different game. I can't even get picture picture anymore. And, of course, we have lost the book on this 6 yrs old Sony plus the one downstairs--the big guy by Sansung. And its an HD unit that is 2 or 3 yrs old. But everything becomes an antique or is obsolete as soon as you bring it home. I am tired and becoming poor just trying to keep up to date with my computer. :'( :'(
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Adoannie: If you google your sony/samsung tv model number and add manual you may be able to download it. I've found many manuals online including one for a mandolin which I bought used on Ebay.
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Shucks, FRYBABE. You don't have to finish one before starting another.
Especially when one book is heavy going, I alternate it with other books.
Books with a discussion deadline, of course, take priority. :)
JACKIE, thanks for that tip. I had no idea you could find manuals on-line.
I try to keep all mine, but sometimes they get lost. Now, if we only had a
printer that works! ???
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Hey, Babi, You can always store the digital manual on your hard drive! Sometimes I'm too lazy to switch the printer from the desktop 'puter to the laptop so I just queue stuff to be printed. Not as easy to read as paper but better than nothing.
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Babi I usually have two or three books going at a time. One by the bed, one to carry, and one by the sofa. So, right now I have Lost Christianities (it has been a little neglected lately), One Step Behind(goes to work with me), and the Poirot book for PBS Mystery discussion coming up the 21st. Just finished The Night Villa ahead of time. And then there is the Latin class.
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Goodman's Night Villa is past tense except for the discussion, so I need more fiction.
The three Wallendar books were quite good, and I've sent them to someone else.
I'm also fond of reading many books at once. Right now I'm trying to do the PBS Mystery series, but for more "meat" I'm struggling through Goldsworthy's Fall of the Roman Empire, and also re-reading Shama's History of Britain, Vol 1. Husband dear is hogging Vol 2, so I'll get to that later in the summer.
BTY, if any fellow Latin students read this, Goldsworthy's Caesar is much better than the Roman Empire book. This new one reads like his publishers said, we want another book, so the author did cut and paste research and slapped it together ... heavy on facts, not enough analysis.
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Finally got back to wifi.. Remind me never ever to go to Beckley WV again.
So the expensive fix that worked at camping world does not in fact work here and no idea why. My husband is beside himself.. Even the tv that worked perfectly with nothing but the antenna is not functioning, which means to me the repair person really messed up big time. Sigh..All I need. I want to go to Falling Water tomorrow. We stopped in Washington, Pa on purpose to do this, but if the tvs dont work, I suspect we will be visiting someone who cn fix them. Darn..
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You will LOVE Falling Water, Steph. If they still offer it, and you can manage it, go on the very early, before-regular-opening-time tour. We hope to visit there for our second visit in September. Sorry about the computer/TV problems.
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Hi-
I have an ARC of Drood that I can send to anyone that would like to have it for your upcoming discussion. E-mail your snail mail. Thanks.
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Welcome, Chazz! Gotta ask - What's an ARC of Drood? Is this something everyone knows -but me? An annotated r.. copy?? If it's Drood, we want it!!! We're doing Drood in September and then - also Matthew Pearl's new "Last Dickens" in October- which is Drood too. We would love to have you join in either of these discussions, with or without your ARC.
It's so good to see you here! Ginny's been looking for you - how did you know?
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Hi Chazz--Would that be an e-book? Adobe something something? Welcome!
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Charlie!!! Is that YOU? I feel like Stanley finally finding Livingstone! Welcome!! We sure have missed you, how have you been?
What a great thing to see our Charlie here. Charlie invented Curious Minds, and did some of our most famous discussions, will never forget the Chabon.
Such a great feeling, we need a "Homecoming" here this fall, just to see our old friends.
What are you reading, Charlie? I'm right at the end of No Touch Monkey, I truly think that woman has a fetish about being dirty, that's all I can think of, the dirtier and grittier her travels, the better she seems to like it. Of course I have not backpacked where she has (nor would I) but it's almost...it ALMOST seems like a sort of rebellion, a hippie like rejection of somebody's money and social position. How far can you go? I dunno, it's....I truly don't think it's going to inspire anybody to travel that way. I mean, the dirt.
For some reason non fiction appeals now tho the new Monica Ali book really looks good and did you all SEE that Zafon has a new one out? I've ordered it. Again about Barcelona, again about books, literature, and the power of reading. I carried a battered Shadow of the Wind around with me one summer thru the Tuileries, the Amalfi Coast Thousand Steps torture and thru Greece, I can't WAIT to read this one. It looks strange and mysterious, he may have failed with it.
The instant The Night Villa is over I'm on to the new Preston and Childs, I see it climbing the charts, am addicted to Pendergast.
But I have coming one I'm excited about, I think Stephanie (hope your connectivity problems get OK, Stephanie, good to see you on the "trail," so to speak,) talked about it: Service Included: Four Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter.
I love this type of book. There's a website where hotel clerks talk about what it's like from their side and it's crazy, I love to read it and this is sort of the same type of thing apparently. I waited tables myself in high school after school and sports and on weekends, and I could write my own book about what happens in kitchens and customers, you think Gordon Ramsay is intense? Anthony Bourdain nuts? (I read his book, too) Hah! Can't wait to read it.
What's everybody reading?
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Well, an ARC is an Advance Reader Copy. Publishers send them out to reviewers and such and a friend sent this one to me and now I'll be sending it to JoanP (the early bird). Wonderful book, btw, though I found it a bit of a slog. Simmons seems to have a thing for door-stoppers, huh?
Wanting alternately explores Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) from the historical novel perspective and the Dickens-Willkie Collins-Ellen Ternan dynamic (a huge part ofDrood), Between that and Kneale's The English Passengers, which I read last year (more Tasmania), e 'met'' all these characters before, but through different prisms. I love reading that way.
Catching up on my reading...I read all of Sebastian Barry, last year and I discovered Willy Vlautin and Tim Winton (more Aussie fiction). Margot Livesey's House on Fortune Street and Per Petterson's To Siberia were both in my top 5. I started this year with the stunning Shadow Country (no novella itself) and it's still the best thing I've read all year. Someone turned me on to John Williams and Stoner and Augustus remain in my top 5.
After I finish up with the Flanagan, I going to start reading everythong I can get my hands on from Harry Crews. I'm picking up two tomorrow from the library. The guy just intrigued me (He went to the Uof Fla a few years before I did and I I wanted to find out what the buzz is all about. If I like how it goes, I intend to read everything- and there are a few...most out of print, I think.
Deems- I stopped buying books 2 years ago for the most part, and get everyting from the library Whig works out well. I did get a Kindle this year though, and have read several books on that (including the one I'm reading now. It's a fantastic device. If eye-sight is an issue you can large print everyting! But there are several other reasons why I love it - which I won't go into now.
What else? (I'm not usually this long-winded, right Ginny??!)
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ChazzW How great to see mention of a couple of Australian writers.
I've been 'wanting' to read Wanting - and especially in the light of the Dickens connection and our upcoming Dickens discussion. I think his first novel was The Sound of One Hand Clapping - he's always been busy as an historian and an environmental activist - he was at the forefront of the movement which saved the Tasmanian Franklin River Wilderness from development.
Tim Winton lives a few miles down the road from me and like Flanagan is another environmental hero. Winton is currently working to save some of our pristine ocean habitat at Ningaloo Reef from degradation. Ningaloo is on the West Aust coast and is stunningly beautiful. Within the last week he was awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for Literature for the fourth time - the novel this time was Breath. Winton is very popular locally, he writes about what he knows, and for many years has funded a writing prize for children in various age categories which is hosted each year by my local library. Tim always turns up to present the prizes - the kids love it and so does Tim.
I'm now wondering what, if any, other Australian literature you may have read.
I haven't read all of Sebastian Barry but I have read some including A Long Long Way which I found very moving and evocative if such words can be used about a book about war.
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Is there anyone who hasn't yet heard that Masterpiece Theatre is starting a
new Agatha Christie series this Sunday night? Two Poirots and four Miss Marples, with a newcomer in the Miss Marple role.
We've got a discussion site going...for the books and the films. Check into
the "Masterpiece Theatre-Agatha Christie" in the index if you're interested.
Who doesn't love Christie?
CHAZZ, what is "Shadow Country" about. Your rousing endorsement has me
very interested.
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We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
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My goodness, what fabulous conversation here, lookit you guys GO! The last Australian book I read was about the camel trek by the woman, can't think of the name now, and is that a Dutch book too Chazz?
I am so glad to see you again, you could write a book and it would suit me to read it.
GUM, Winton lives a few miles down the road from you? Wow!! Wow!
Chazz, I had not heard of any of those books, where do you get your ideas? I want to try one, I've gotten off on non fiction, particularly now that I can't travel this year, to faraway places. I'm now reading Italian Summer about a golf writer's summer at Lake Como, Italy.
It's good. He starts off trying to find a restaurant in the hills there where roads spur off on treacherous mountain climbs with no guard rails, no signs, and abruptly end in dirt tracks which MAY if you're not watching, lead to a drop off slap down the mountain. I've been there and done that, he's right. (Used to have nightmares as a child about driving down a road, going up a hill and the road disappears, it's like that in that area for real).
Then he goes into playing golf, a game I have always thought of as extremely stupid and boring, hate it (am not good at it) but he makes it interesting, I did not think that was possible. I think I now understand why people play golf, so it's useful to me for that alone.
Charlie where do you hear about these books? I looked two of them up, they both look good, I see the NY Times referenced, I do take the Times on Sunday but somehow missed them. If you had to recommend ONE book of good fiction this year which would it be? I have not read a stunning book of fiction in a LONG time. I started White Tiger but something about it disturbed me and I put it aside. He's written a new one too, by the way, for White Tiger fans.
Yesterday I bought Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, a National Book Award finalist, about travel in China, I guess I'm obsessed this year with non fiction armchair travel right now.
So good to see you again!
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Hi, Gumtree and thanks for that personal information about Flanagan and Winton. And for making me think about this. By the way, I watched the DVD of Australia last night. I don’t recommend it. Actually, Death of a River Guide was Flanagan’s first and I’ve always meant to go back and read that one. The first that I read (and only, up until now) was the amazing Gould’s Book of Fish one of the most beautiful and lovingly published novels I’ve ever seen. That’s a book you want to hold in your hands.
Breath was my #2 book of last year. Breath-taking! I’ve also wanted to go back and read his earlier work, but again….so many books, so little time. So let’s see. What else?
There’s Peter Carey, of course. I’ve read three of his most recent books (True History of the Kelly Gang, My Life as a Fake and His Illegal Self. Oscar and Lucinda has been on my tbr list forever.
I had forgotten about Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, another book about the clash of settlers and indigenous peoples.
But my earliest exposure to literature from that part of the world was Nevil Shute and Shirley Hazzard. I actually read Chute’s On The Beach when I was a kid and Hazzard’s Transit Of Venus some 20 years ago I guess.
When I was in college, one of the books we read for a modern lit course was Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Chidren. More recently I’ve read Michael Faber (Scotland by way of The Netherlands, but he grew up in Australia: Under The Skin. I have a copy of The Crimson Petal and the White, which I’ve yet to read.
Getting even farther afield, Matthew Kneale’s English Passengers was shortlisted for Australia's Miles Franklin Award in 2000, which was the first non-Australian author to be so shortlisted. The subject, again, revolves in large part around Tasmania.
Here’s an interesting one: Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram is a great, sprawling (my copy is a small print 930+ page paperback) Bombay novel – but he was born in Melbourne. He was sentenced to 19 years for armed robberies and later escaped to India. The novel – as well as his personal journey from there is absolutely fascinating.
Then there is my all-time favorite writer. There is no question about this. We think of him as a South African writer sure, but he now lives in Australia. I’ve read most everything from his ‘pen’ and was very excited to learn that there is a new one expected in September or October. I’m jumping on that one. Big time: J. M. Coetzee’s Summertime.
And I see that Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book is up in July. I liked Year of Wonders as I recall. Gosh, how can I fit this one in? I’m going to try. Depends on how long my “Crews” lasts!!
Babi: Shadow Country, is a “re-rendering” of three Peter Matthiessen novels about his life-long obsession with a real life-bigger than life Florida historical figure: EJ Watson. The Florida Everglades and the swamps of Florida below Tampa Bay remind me much of descriptions of the wilds of Tasmania and Australia. Plus Matthiessen is a nature writer on a par with Tim Winton. So I’m seeing connections here. It’s a long one, but well worth the reading experience. Winner of the NBA for 2008, I read this over DEC-JAN and it’s still the best book I’ve read this year.
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SEBASTIAN BARRY
I APOLOGIZE FOR THIS.....THE EDTING/FORMATTING DOES NOT WORK FOR ME
Some of my favorite excerpts from Sebastian Barry. Resist them if you can!
Start thinking in a different light…Some of his new thoughts offended even him. It had nothing to do with kings and countries, rebels or soldiers. Generals or their dark ambitions, their plus and their minus. It was that Death himself had made those things ridiculous. Death was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland. The King of France. Of India, Germany, Italy, Russia. Emperor of all the Empires. He had taken Willie’s companions, lifted away entire nations, looked down on their struggles with contempt and glee. The whole world had come out to decide some muddled question, and Death in delight rubbed his bloody hands. - from A LONG LONG WAY
Today, Death is still around and rubbing those bloody hands, yeah?
And these from THE WHEREABOUTS OF ENEAS McNULTY
How quick they come, how quick they go. Friendship. Oh, well. God sails his boats on the pond of the world and at fall of darkness goes off through the rubbed-out roses with the boats under his arms like a fabulous boy. The clock is the terrible high clouds fleeting to some unknown meeting. In the city encircling the park of the world lives are lived quickly, the admired baby soon the dreaming old bastard in the narrow suntrap under the lee of the church. Quickly quickly everything goes.
God as fabulous boy. That’s just about as perfect as any description I’ve ever heard. Here, Eneas talks to his mother:
‘Mam,’ he says, as the whiskey thaws his heart, ‘do you know, if it’s a sad life, it’s a bloody mysterious one too.’
‘It is’, she says……
‘Mam, I don’t understand the world, nor think I ever will, our going into it or our getting out of it. I am forty-four and none the wiser. Why is that?’
‘It seems to be the way for both of us, A bit of happiness here and there. Throw out your leg now and then and be dancing. Otherwise, a crooked way…’
And in The Secret Scripture, Roseanne McNulty is nearing 100 years of age. Lives in an Irish “mental” hospital, as she has for much of her adult life. ”No one even knows I have a story”, she muses early on. But what a story she has. And it’s told with such a breathtaking lyricism and cadence by Sebastian Barry, that you’d swear you’d lost yourself in a reverie of poetry. And Barry’s poetic bent is apparent right from the beginning when he has Roseanne tell the story of the time her father brought her to a tower with a bag of hammers and a bag of feathers in order to demonstrate Galileo’s assumption that all objects would fall at the same rate, no matter their weight, assuming a vacuum, of course. What they lacked was that vacuum. No matter. With her father at the top of a tower and Roseanne at the bottom, her father loosed the feathers and dropped the hammers.
Although there was not a breath of wind, the feathers immediately drifted away, dispersing like a little explosion, even rising greyly against the grey clouds, almost impossible to see. The feathers drifted, drifted away.
My father was calling, calling, in enormous excitement in the tower, ‘What do you see, what do you see?’
What did I see, what did I know? It is sometimes I think the strain of ridiculousness in a person, a ridiculousness, born maybe of desperation…that pierces you through with love for that person. It is all love, that not knowing, that not seeing. I am standing there, eternally, straining to see, a crick in the back of my neck, peering and straining, if for no other reason than for love of him. The feathers are drifting away, drifting, swirling away. My father is calling and calling. My heart is beating back to him. The hammers are falling still.
Here Roseanne recalls an incident from her childhood, which went into the local lore in a version that diverged from the truth.
For history as far as I can see is not the arrangement of what happens, in sequence and in truth, but a fabulous arrangement of surmises and guesses held up as a banner against the assault of withering truth.
History needs to be mightily inventive about human life because bare life is an accusation against man’s dominion of the earth.
And more from Roseanne on memory and time:
Memory, I suppose, if it is neglected becomes like a box room, or a lumber room in an old house, the contents jumbled about, maybe not only from neglect but also from too much haphazard searching in them, and things to boot thrown in that don’t belong there…
I am old enough to know that time passing is just a trick, a convenience. Everything is always there, still unfolding, still happening. The past, the present, and the future, in the noggin eternally, like brushes, combs and ribbons in a handbag.
Isn’t that just a wonderful passage? But Barry can strike sudden chords of humor as well in his same poetic style. Here, Roseanne speaks of John Kane, a maintenance worker at the ‘asylum’ where she lives:
At the same time he has been the same stranger to the washbasin and his flies were open as is mostly the case. Some day a small animal will notice his open flies and go in and live there, like a hedgehog in the inviting damp hollows of an ash tree
What I love about this group of books (besides the storytelling power and the sublime lyricism) is that there are characters that cross over from one book to the next. They all stand alone though, and can be read independently, and in any order. Given Roseanne’s stage in life in The Secret Scripture I’d really urge everyone – especially here – to read this one at the very least.
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Funny you should mention Peter Matthiessen, ChazzW. I read his The Snow Leopard(nonfiction) years ago along with all the articles he wrote for National/International Wildlife magazine. I was aware that he was writing novels, but never persued reading any of them. I prefer thinking of him as a wildlife writer. Bummer! I went to dig out my copy of The Snow Leopard but can't find it. I can't believe I would have given that away.
There is another book I can't find. It was by George (I think) something or other who also used to write articles for National/International Wildlife about the same time as Matthiessen and it was about the research he (George?) was doing on wild sheep/goats in Pakistan. I can't believe that is missing either.
Every once in a while I go looking for a book I knew I had and can't find it. Too many moves, I guess. There are actually a few boxes I haven't unpacked which have gone through two moves. Quite a few of my books have survived at least five moves.
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The Secret Scripture [Barry], Ginny. You MUST read that one. You just may be spurred to read more of him after that. And when I did, I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar faces from one book to the next.
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Frybabe, like you I read The Snow Leopard many years ago. And I had not read him since, until Shadow. He is a wildlife writer/novelist, I'd say. There are many, many memorable passageson the ecology - and the changong ecology - of the Everglades, in the trilogy turned novel.
By the turn of the century the last east coast birds was gone and the west coast birds was going and the white plumes was bringing twice their weight in gold. Men would fight over egrets and shoot to kill…Them Audibones was agitating harder ‘n ever, and in 1901, plume hunting was forbidden: our native state of Florida had passed a law against our good old native way of living.
House contemplated the battered landscape as if to fathom the mystery of its great ugliness. “They’re clearin these ‘retirement estates’ way out in the swamp-and-overflowed, sellin most of ‘em by mail order. Florida boom! Dredge out ditches, call ‘em bayous and canals, build up some high ground with the fill, call that prime waterfront property. All you need is some old swamp and you’re in business.”
He waved at the wasteland. “I kinda looked forward to them musky smells and swamp cries in the night. Owls, y’know, bull gators roarin in the springtime. I reckon you heard that sound up Chatham River.” House turned back into his doorway. “We won’t be hearin no bull gators, let alone panthers, cause them developers ain’t never goin to stop dredgin and drainin, strippin off cypress to make room for all them Yankees. God-a-mighty! Smashed this forest flat, never put aside no money to clean up. And now the boom is dyin down and hard times startin up so they can’t find no more fools to buy more swamp; they run out of money and before I could back out of the whole deal, I run out, too.” He rapped the thin wall of his new house. “You ever need a retirement estate, I know where you could buy one pretty cheap.”
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ChazzW, at least I still have Matthiessen's Sand Rivers. And, I remembered the George I mentioned is George Schaller. Tui de Roy is another photographer/writer I never missed reading when a ran across her articles. Those were my big three.
Was In the Spirit of Crazy Horse Mattiessen's first novel? Seems to me when that came out is when I discovered he was writing novels. I don't know what Schaller and de Roy are doing these days, except that de Roy seems to have moved on from her Galapagos roots.
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"Memory, I suppose, if it is neglected becomes like a box room, or a lumber room in an old house, the contents jumbled about, maybe not only from neglect but also from too much haphazard searching in them, and things to boot thrown in that don’t belong there…"
Oh so true. The trick is to get rid of the memories that don't belong in the jumble!
Is this the year of the Aussie writer, or what! A quick reminder - we are going to begin a discussion of The People of the Book (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=557.0) on July 15. (Next week we'll begin a pre-discussion in preparation for a fast moving discussion.)
Chairs are filling fast - the word is out that this book by Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks is something special. Sometimes the Aussies talk funny - but we have our antipode on board - who promises to translate for us when needed - right Gum?
Chazz, it's good to have you back in our midst - I'm sure everyone agrees. You've been missed!
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I'll be there JoanP - though I thought it was the 'Yanks' who talk 'funny' - Aussies speak English.
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Really, CHAZZ? How disappointing; the previews on Australia looked so good. Well, it's on our queue and should at least fill in one of these summer evenings
when nothing else is available.
Nevil Shute has long been a favorite of mine. I'm going to have to check into
some of the others you mentioned, like Winton and Coetzee.
Thanks for answering my question about "Shadow Country".
It was that Death himself had made those things ridiculous.
I am reminded of a line from "The Book Thief", in which Death is speaking.
"It kills me, sometimes, how people die."
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Well this is fun! I've ordered Shadow Country and also the The Secret Scripture, and am looking forward to their arrival, thank you for those recommendations, Charlie. AND for the quotes, that was the clincher. I love to see quotes.
I've got Shantaram here somewhere, have had it since it came out, but like Best Boy and A Fine Balance, it seems to depend on the mood of the reader at the time. And that's OK too. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. I'll pick them up again too.
What's everybody's recipe for summer reading?
Summer time is the perfect time to lose yourself in a LONG book or escape in a flashy book or both. It's like dining, you can start with something good, and then you might want something serious with your fluff. I like for summer reading a mix: first I want a total escape, that's why I'm going on Monday to Preston and Chlids, their new one, I just love them. Or the new Ruiz, he's hard to put down.
But for a main course maybe we want the salmon, something with a little more seriousness: those that Charlie has mentioned? Dickens? Why not try them all?
What's in YOUR wallet, or should we say your beach bag this summer?
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Babi- coincidentally I had recently watched
Japanese Story (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/japanese_story/).
The movie is a couple of yeas old, and I didn't even know it was Australian. At
any rate Toni Colette was great, and though the movie wasn't it was entertaining
and worthwhile, with beautiful vistas of the desert (or dessert, as the joke goes
in the movie).
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Being in the coach, means I must make decisions before we leave. Soo I am taking mostly mysteries and one Jody Picoult.. But we are in Chautauqua,NY and there is a really great looking book store across fromthe campground. Now everyone keep your fingers crossed that she opens on Sunday for me..
Lovely lake here.. No tv yet, this new and improved digital has messed up a lot of rv's. WE have a control box to work all electronics and it simply does not want to hook up to ours. We have already tried once and the guys messed up. Now we have found a dealer for our rv and they will try tomorrow. If not.. then we will go without tv until we get home.. Truly hard on MDH. He does love his tv.
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What's everybody's recipe for summer reading?
As I mentioned before, I'm going on a cruise with Crews. Harry that is. I saw
his name on THIS LIST (http://neglectedbooks.com/?page_id=271) and
thought I had heard of him before, so I checked him out. His bio convinced me.
Born and bred in Southern Georgia, and a teacher at The UF (Gainesville), he was
there around the time I was in the English department, so I became even more
intrigued. I've got two of his books from the library now, and started Florida Frenzy
last night because it's a collection of (mostly) essays, and a few short stories.
Figured that's be a good place to start.
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Hi, Steph-
Chautauqua,NY...Do you live around there or just camp? I work for Welch's (the Grape Juice Co., but in Massachusetts) and the grape must may just be wafting your way now. You are right n the heart of Concord Grape vineyards - and I know that Ginny knows a few things about vineyards herself. Enjoy! Even WITHOUT the tee-vee!
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ChazzW Hello again - I feel I should know you from the 'old' site but don't recognise your calling card. Now you have unleashed such a plethora of Australian titles that as the resident Aussie I just have to respond to some.
Your comment on the film Australia- took me a moment to realise what you were talking about. We saw it perhaps a year or so ago. It was a big flop at the box office which is something of a pity because Baz Luhrmann has done a lot of good work - Moulin Rouge for one. Nonetheless there were some elements within the film which were very true to life - well, life as it was at that time.
Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish was such an unexpected treasure - as you say - amazing!
Peter Carey has developed into an interesting writer. I didn't care for much of his early work but as I read each one and then the next the quality of his body of work builds up and taken collectively begins to have real things to say about Australia. Have you read his Illywacker? At risk of basking in reflected glory I just have to mention that I happen to be friends with Carey's ex-mother-in-law (the grandmother of his children) and consequently know things I wouldn't otherwise be privy to.-
Kate Grenville - like her work very much - she has a new one out Loss of Innocence I think it's called though I haven't seen it yet. Her descriptions of the countryside around the Hawksbury River in Secret River is perfect. The country is still very like she tells it and Wiseman's Ferry is still virtually inaccessible - and it's only a comparatively short distance from the Sydney CBD.
Christina Stead is regarded as an Aussie classic writer - it is many years since I read her work.
I haven't read Shantaram - despite Ginny's urging - as we all say -too many titles and not enough hours.
And you're right, we have adopted J.M. Coetzee. He came to Australia after being virtually forced to leave South Africa for his outspoken attitude. He is now a naturalised Aussie, has settled in South Aust and found a niche for himself at Adelaide Uni - well, who wouldn't want a Nobel Laureat around their campus. His Diary of a Bad Year takes a new look at the form of the novel, It's interesting but not his best and appears to have sunk almost without trace here. In my view Esther Costello, Disgraceand maybe Michael K are his best works to date. A film of Disgrace will be released here during this coming week - stars John Malkovich who should fit the role perfectly.
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Gumtree:
I liked Moulin Rouge quite a bit, which probably added to my disappointment.
I have not read Illywacker which I suspect is an Aussie term. What does it
refer to?
I lovedElizabeth Costello and all the other Coetzee novels she was "in".
Foe, though, remains my favorite. What a kick it would be to read the
the DeFoe classic along with Foe.
I had the [deleted] pleasure of seeing Disgrace at last years Toronto Film Festival.
Malkovich is excellent in it.
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Alf.. if you are here and not off line for a month. Right across the street from Camp Chautauqua RV is a wonderful huge used book store. Fell into it, even found a Carol Goodman.. Hooray.. Not to be missed. A reallyreally huge bookstore.
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What's everybody's recipe for summer reading?
I read "Home To Harmony" while riding back from Amarillo today (not that long a trip - but not that hard a book to read). Loved it. I was in the back seat and caught son, who was driving, giving me a puzzled look in the rear view mirror now and then. I was chuckling out loud at some of the small town situations and the way they were described.
Next up is "The Help" and David Baldacci's "First Family". I finally made it to the top of the library reserve list for both - at the same time, of course!
Chazz, I don't think we've met. Hello from Oklahoma. I read "Shadow Country" a few months ago. It took a while for me to get into the story (because of the writing style, I think) but once I got all the characters sorted out, I liked the book.
I've never been to Florida but it wasn't hard to imagine the setting.
I also liked the movie "Australia" - except I thought it ended about three times before it actually did.
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Right across the street from Camp Chautauqua RV is a wonderful huge used book store.
We all have our feelers out for different things, and mine vibrate to libraries, bookstores, and used bookstores. I can be in a town for an hour and know where the bookstores are. Amazon and Kindle, etc are great, but NOTHING beats going into some grubby little store, inhaling the wonderful smell, puttering around, and finding something you would never have thought of looking for.
I used to be an expert at getting temporary library cards at places where I was staying for a week or so, but I don't know how easy it is these days.
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Hi, Callie-
Yes, first there was the "Western" movie and then there was the "War" movie!
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Pat H., I aways gravitate toward book stores too. In fact when my family traveled, when my children were growing up , the big joke was always the warning to my husband to hurry by that book store before "mother sees it".
Now that I have vision problems I still browse in every book store that I can find. As I find books that interest me I note them down and go home to look on Amazon to see if they are available on Kindle. If they aren't I request them. No the kindle is not nearly as satisfying as owning the real book. It does have the advantage of not acquiring more books when my house is already overflowing with them. It makes it possible for me to be able to continue to read when I would have to cut my reading to a bare minimum if I did not have a Kindle.
Joan Grimes
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PatH I'm with you on finding book stores wherever we go - luckily my beloved one is the same so there is not conflict there. Is'nt it amazing how those rare finds crop up when and where you least expect it. Some of our country townships feature excellent bookshops which have become meccas for booklovers - sometimes there is little else of real interest in the area.
It's still easy in my part of the world to get temporary library cards whilst on holiday - one place will issue them for six months and they can be used at other locations within that region. Handy service to have.
JoanGrimes How great it is that the Kindle has come to your rescue and you are able to keep reading - I think we should all keep up with the gadgets as they come on the market as we never know when they'll come in handy or become a necessity to our enjoyment and quality of life.
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ChazzW The term illywhacker/illywacker is a piece of Aussie slang - it simply means a trickster, conman or shyster and sometimes simply a liar or one who tells tall tales. - It was popular in the 1920s/30s and 40s and used around travelling shows where there was money to be made by anyone with illywhacker tendencies. I don't think it was ever more widely used and it was almost obsolete when Peter Carey resurrected it as the title for his rambling novel. It's years since I heard the term used in everyday conversation.
Do you live in Toronto or were you just visiting for the films?
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JoanG-
I have nearly no vision in my left eye and love my kindle - although I can still
read the printed page with my one (fairly) good eye. With the font feature, you
can make you're own large print editions!! There are other advantages too. It's
nice to load up books for a trip. A recent addition is the function where you can
underline passages electronically and then access them on-line. Saves typing if
you want to share. A great tool for discussion leaders...
Gumtree-
I'm in the Boston area, but I love film festivals. I've been to Toronto several
times and I used to go to Montreal almost every year.
Re illywhacker...isn't that interesting. I recently read an excellent novel by
Christian Moerk titled Darling Jim. I won't recommend it here because it
would probably be too disturbing for some. But anyway, the 'Jim' is a grifter, a
con-man, and a gifted storyteller in an Irish tradition called seanchaí. Sounds
much the same as your illywhacker.
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I've just finished "The Book Thief", which someone here at SL reommended.
It was a bit slow getting into at first, but developed into a most engrossing book. A very original book in many ways, with memorable characters. I will
remember Hans Huberman, Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner, and, of course,
Death.
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A recent addition is the function where you can
underline passages electronically and then access them on-line. Saves typing if you want to share. A great tool for discussion leaders...
Now THAT would be super, I'm glad to know about that, thank you Charlie!
The Talented Mr. Ripley was on last night again, I saw in passing the TV, and while I couldn't watch it through, watched just long enough to see Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance (Matt Damon looked particularly demonic last night) I need to reread the book again, looks like I missed something the first time. I love that series and Patricia Highsmith, I hated to see it end, it's not every day you find yourself rooting for a psychopath, but somehow she brings it off.
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Babi I found The Book Thief to be one that improves with a rereading. - Another good book by an emerging Aussie author.
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Winton wins again (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25656383-2702,00.html)
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I love a bookstore and especially used ones. The Chautauqua one is truly a wonderful one. There is another in MOntgomery, Al. that is an old department store. Great, but smelly.
If I cannot access wifi, I immediately go to the nearest library. Have met some really nice librarians that way.
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Steph, tell me more about that book store in Montgomery, AL. I have never heard of it and I am an Alabama native and do go to Montgomery sometimes...It is just about a 100 miles from where I live. It might be worth a trip down there to visit that book store. I could go down to a play at the Shakespeare Festival Theatre and go to that book store too. That would be lots of fun.
ChazzW, it is wonderful that you have the kindle. I am so glad that you do have it. It has really made a difference in my being able to continue to read . I have a be a reader all of my life and really missed it when it became so uncomfortable for me to read.
Joan G
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Love the discussion on bookstores. Maybe we should get up a sort of travel log and log in here all the bookstores we go to with a short one liner about what we liked or did not, that might be fun this summer with so many traveling. I know Pedln and Joan R are visiting the Strand in NYC this week and look at Stephanie!
I'm reading Ripley again. There are 5 books. I had passed by the Matt Damon movie on TV the other night, and thought, I don't remember that scene in the book so am reading the books over. I can't get over how well it's written, and how easily she puts you right into the mind of Ripley, it's fabulous. Much better than the movie and I liked the movie.
I read half of it yesterday without getting up, it's wonderful. Perhaps not for everybody, but fantastically well written. Am going to read the whole series again, I've got all 5.
A perfect lazy day in the summer: reading.
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Sounds like a good idea, Ginny. My used bookstore, just down the street, give out a pamphlet a listing of PA used/rare bookstores with a map, addresses and what they specialize in (if they do). Comes in handy.
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Well I've been here for 5 days and have managed Borders, Barnes & Noble and a small book store downtown. I wound up with a book by Per Paterson called Out Stealing Horses. It's a ritual when I visit here to also buy the most recent Evanavich novel to act up with Stephanie Plum ;D
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Ummmm....I'll be at The Strand and The Blue Water Grill in a few weeks myself...
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Montgomery...hmm. I know it was close to downtown, since we passed it on the way back to the rv.. It is all by itself and is quite a large collection .. Several stores all in one now..
I keep notes on some of the book stores. others I simply google .. I also go to the Yellow pages in towns and ask about Books,used and rare. That works well since they also have a section for directions..
Seattle was quite wonderful for book stores. They had never,used, specialty ( the mystery is incredible) and some nice rare stuff. We probably visited 6-7 book stores just in downtown. Also the most magnificent Indian artifact store I have ever seen. Whew.. Mostly Alaskan native stuff and so truly remarkable. They have some tall banner like wooden objects that I really coveted.. Good thing we were flying home.. Way expensive, but oh me,, choice stuff. Wish I could remember the name, but it is on the street that ends up at Pikes Market.
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Wow, Charlie. Thanks for the link to the notice about Tim Winton's fourth Miles Franklin award. I haven't read any of his novels yet. I'm going to take the plunge with his short story collection, "The Turning," which I've just requested from my local library.
The "bookstores" I've visited the past few days are some great thrift stores in the Central Valley of California. A couple of St. Vincent de Paul stores have had a very big selection with paperbacks for 50 cents and hardbacks for $1. :-)
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Book stores that won't disappoint and will leave you with great memories - some of my favorites...
http://bookpeopleblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.squarebooks.com/
http://www.collectedworksbookstore.com/
http://www.musnaz.org/
http://www.murderbooks.com/
http://brazos.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
http://www.powells.com/
Their airport store is great
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/contact.php
http://www.fullcirclebooks.com/
http://www.abebooks.com/elders-bookstore-nashville-tn-u.s.a/117964/sf
http://www.nightbirdbooks.com/
http://www.paragraphbooks.com/
http://www.talesonmoonlane.co.uk/
http://www.urbanpath.com/london/books/waterstones.htm
http://www.urbanpath.com/london/books/hatchards.htm
http://www.urbanpath.com/london/books/daunt-books.htm
http://www.urbanpath.com/london/books/books-for-cooks.htm
http://musick-cokerybooks.com/Home/default.asp
http://www.theredwheelbarrow.com/home.html
http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/
When I am close to home I love looking at the home pages of these favorite book stores - reminds me of the time browzing and I often find recommendations that are terrific reads.
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Hi Charles - so glad you are among us again - are these your book lists?
http://www.librarything.com/profile/ChazzW/stats/places
http://www.notingbooks.com/users/ChazzW/readings
If so I noticed you read Haruki Murakami - hadn't read Norwegian Wood but was hooked when I read Kafka on the Shore and then followed it up with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:A Novel.
What in the world was Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain??!!??
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Marcie- Let me know how you like that one! And btw, I forgot to mention (or
did I) that the great J.M. Coetzee has a new book out in September - Summertime.
Barb- Yes, those lists are mine, though I think I've lapsed keeping them up.
And Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain was an impulse read given the 'concept',
but it didn't work for me. Loved Kafka on the Shore, ,- have not read WUBC.
Alf, I forgot to mention that To Siberia (Per Petterson) was in my
Fave Five last year, and I have his Out Stealing Horses at the top of my
tbr list, but I keep picking up other stuff, so can't get around to it. He's such
a lyrical writer. I always tell people that reading him was like having someone read
to you! A hauntingly beautiful novel of isolation:
I slept, and I dreamed I was in Siberia. There were the great plains with unbroken lines, and a sky and a light as from the dawn of the world, and timbered houses and flocks of birds like a thousand flamingos that changed into seagulls when they took off and flew and filled the world before they dissolved and were gone…
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I mostly use Amazon for new books, since they come through no matter what. Used ones are my love.. Our St. Vincent DePaul is sort of a bust on books. They have a lot of religous stuff, pounds and pounds of Readers Digest Condensed books that I hate and then some raggedy typeschool books. Lotsof series romance. However our Habitat bookstore does sometmes have good stuff. I also hit library book sales, always good.
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I like Amazon and Half.com for used books. Hardly ever buy new ones.
Thanks, Chazz, for recommending TO SIBERIA by Per Petterson. Sounds very good. I have OUT STEALING HORSES on my July list to read with another group. Looking forward to it.
Am going for a drive up the California coast with a friend starting Sunday (before gasoline gets any higher). Going to Monterey, Moss Landing and other places, including a stop at the John Steinbeck museum in Salinas. Missed it on my last trip and have heard it's worth a visit. Loved his EAST OF EDEN which I read not long ago.
Marj
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Barbara, it's going to take me days to explore your list properly, but it's got some favorites.
Abebooks is great for used books; once you order from them you get on a rather copious mailing list, which sometimes has some neat leads.
Powell's Books is magnificent. I get to Portland, OR a lot and always end up with weight issues bringing books home. They are huge (a whole city block), and for me very serendipitous. They shelve new and used books together, so you know exactly what options you have for any book. When you're done, you can walk around the corner and get a really good cup of coffee at Stumptown Coffee. You're right about their airport bookstore. A year or two back I found an extremely interesting book there (Her Majesty's Spymaster, by Stephen Budiansky) about Sir Francis Walsingham, who set up an espionage system for Queen Elizabeth I. Not your usual airport stuff. Powell's online ordering is good too.
Pasadena, CA has a good independent bookstore--Vroman's. It's another serendipitous place where you find things you wouldn't think of looking for. Fortunately, it's near my daughter, so I always get there during visits.
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I live in the Washington, DC area, so there should be plenty of good bookstores, but a lot of the interesting ones have gone belly up. One, Chapters, where we met Karen Joy Fowler, is in storage waiting to see whether they can rise from the ashes. Politics and Prose is still going very strong, and not too far from me, so I try to buy all I can from them. The used bookstores are retreating farther from the high rent district where I live, so it's getting harder to get to them, and I miss the pleasure of browsing and the joy of the hunt for something.
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What a disapointment Goodwill books is in Oregon. They charge more than used book stores. Here in Salem I like Paperback Exchange. We also have an SF store, Escape Fiction.
I dont understand why but I am fascinated by stories about Jewish Ameriicans. Dara Horn's In the Image takes one on a journey which ranges from Austria's WWI army to California by way of New Jersey. There are many elements to the story; the author has provided a genealogy table at the end of the book. Horn has 2 other books at my library; needless to say I have ordered the next one already. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/dara-horn/in-image.htm
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Jackie, I have been in Salem for only 4 hours, and most of that time was spent on the campus of Willamette University, where daughter Cathy was being sworn into the Oregon Bar. I still managed to spot a used bookstore on one of the central streets, but have no idea if it's any good, since we were too rushed for me to go in.
The photo I used for an avater on the old SeniorNet was taken on the beautiful campus there, and I am laughing because I am so happy.
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/09.jpg (http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/09.jpg)
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PatH, congratulations on your daughter Cathy's admission to the bar. She must
be a very smart young lady....like her Mama.
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What a beautiful photo, Pat and you look just like that but younger. I don't know where you found the Fountain of Youth but I'd like some too. hahaha Will never forget you in that hospital in DC, where did you get that disk of medical info? That was brilliant. I thought Pat might have to take over the ER, she was smarter than they are.
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What a georgeous photo of you Pat H.. Why don't you use it here in SeniorLearn as your avatar.
Joan Grimes
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Yes, Pat wonderful photo - isn't it nice to have a good photo of yourself that you can proudly display. I am green...
One of my favorites among the list of great book stores is the one is Oxford Miss. 'The Square' - it is not gigantic like some but the charm just oozes - a typical second story balcony that juts out over the sidewalk - it is two stories packed with so many authors, mostly southern, your eye cannot take it all in. The store is on a corner across from the park that is in the middle of a typical square that is in the center of most southern towns.
I never visited but all you west coast readers do y'all know of a small Swedish community in California that has a book store that specializes in books from, about, written by Swedes - some in English and just as many written is the Swedish language? Years ago I remember being told they have a great cook book section but for the life of me I cannot remember the name of either the book store or the town.
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Pat: Oregon should sign you for their advertising, you look so scrumptious. To see your daughter's induction into the bar, what a thrill. I can only say that she is lucky to have you for her mother. Paperback Express is not close to WU. But the Book Bin is right down town. That's a nice one too but lacks the depth of PbE. We've lost a souple of independent book stores in recent years, sad to say. Borders is here but for B&N its a Portland suburb or Eugene. Portland, of course, has Powell's which is one city block of books, etc, right in the Pearl district, Portland's bohemian district.
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Has anybody been having trouble getting on seniorsandfriends? I've had a quirky few days when sometimes i can get on and other days i can't...............jean
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I've had the same problem, Jean. I just tried and couldn't get on, though I had been on earlier. I think they are more crowded than we are here.
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i cannot get on there either. I was on there most of the morning but then could not get back on.
Joan Grimes
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It definitely seems to be off and on. Just persevere. ;)
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Alas did not get into Powells when we were in Portland in May.. Poured that day and we just got so wet and discouraged. We went to the Japanese Garden and the RoseGarden, but the rain was stupendous.. We finally threw in the towell, checked into our motel and slipped off to one of our joys in retirement.. an afternoon movie.. Star Trek.. Loved it.
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Great phonto, Pat. You have a very kind, happy look in your eyes.
Evelyn
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That towel must have been sopping wet by the time you threw it in, STEPH. I hope
the weather cleared up for you the next day.
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Babi, I have been wetter, but not often. And it kept getting worse. The Japanese Garden is truly a wonder, but oh me,, raindrops did fall on my head .We did have a neat lunch in a Bento cafe.. Bento means in a box and the meal was...in a small box and quite lovely.
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Yes, coming for here where we can almost count the days it rains and moving with three small boys to Portland was a shock so that my youngest and his family nearly went out of their minds. Back when the boys were 4 and 5 - [Twins 4 and Chris 5] they moved outside Portland - Beaverton - for 3 years and Sally was worn to a nub - 3 rambunctious boys indoors because of rain all the time - even the school had huge covered areas just so the children could play out of doors - They were never so glad to get back to Sun country when they were transfered back to Texas and the boys could let go and use their energy outdoors so they were tired at the end of each day.
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Stephanie, Barbara, and Jackie, when it's not raining too hard, Portland's Japanese Garden is one of my absolute favorite places. They do absolutely incredible things with different shades of green, and framing views, and using reflections to advantage, like this:
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/IMG_0888.jpg (http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/IMG_0888.jpg)
The duck is a bonus, but before he stood up, he was tucked up asleep on the rock, looking like a bronze statue, and since they have some, it took me a while to be sure what I was seeing.
There are also hidden views that you can only come on by devious ways. If you go behind the teahouse at the right of the entrance, you can follow a little path down to this:
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/IMG_0891.jpg (http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff125/PatriciaFHighet/IMG_0891.jpg)
That's the same pond, but I'm not even sure where you can see the lantern except here. It's a great spot for sitting quietly.
Don't reproduce these, except for personal use.
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PatH: Ooohh! I'm struck dumb.
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Incredibly gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.
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Marvelous - incredable scenes that I am sure all the rain made possible!
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Considering the size and color of most of the flowers in that whole area, rain must really be what flowers want the most. We have a smaller Japanese garden in Florida in Boynton Beach. Morikami. It was planned and executed by a famous japanese garden designer and is a delight, although much smaller. I love the use of pebbles and spare shades in the designs.. My idea of perfect is less ,not more.
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BARB, it sounds like Sally had a first-hand experience of the old timey
malady,...cabin fever! It was the bane of many a pioneer woman who was
confined to a small cabin for months on end. No wonder they died young!
You take such beautiful photos, PatH. I think I see the duck, but I'm not
at all certain. I remember a beautiful tea garden in Banff, and also in California,
but I'm not sure whether that was Los Angeles or San Franciso. It's been so long ago.
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The duck is in the very middle of the picture, on top of that little domed rock. It's easy to take good pictures in that garden. You just take a lot of them, and some of them come out good. But thanks anyway.
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Beautiful photos PatH.
Joan Grimes
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OH the Sebald books came, Charlie! They look JUST the perfect thing! You did not say they had photos in them or were ruminations, and philosophy or that's what they look like. I can't wait to read them. I got The Emigrants and The Rings of Saturn, and in both, it appears, we're going to walk thru Sussex, particularly the Rings of Saturn, I'm going to start with it. I tell you it's a real temptation to put down Ripley for it, thank you for recommending him, actually had never heard of him.
At the moment, however, I am deeply entrenched with Tom Ripley in the Dewatt scheme, book II of the 5 book series, about The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith: Ripley Under Ground.
I just got the new Ruiz in the mail, it looks glorious as well!
What are you all reading this hot summer? (It's hot here, is it where you are?)
We have listed a new game in our Literary Games section, Name That Literary Element, from glencoe, the textbook publishers. To find it go to Discussions Index at the top of the page, (under whatever photo is there), and scroll down to the (now 3) literary games listed on our site. Let us know in the discussion how you like it and how you did. :)
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Ginny, I'll have to look into Sebald's THE RINGS OF SATURN. It sounds intriguing.
I'm about half way through George Eliot's MIDDLEMARCH. Interesting story, especially women's lot in those days. The book takes a while to read with 800 pages.
Also read Richard Yates' REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. Very good writing. But kind of sad, and reminded me of my own marriage back in the late 1950s, and the roles women were expected to play. (Has anyone seen the HBO series, MAD MEN? Wow! Talk about sad memories of women's roles back then.)
Marj
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Marj, I am so impressed - 800 pages and MiddleMarch too! Wow. That's a big undertaking.
I read The Lumby Lines, which was discussed somewhere on the Seniorlearn site, along with a book by Philip Gulley, another author I learned about somewhere on this site. The only Gulley book we had was The Christmas Scrapbook. It was perfect for an overly hot day - lots of chuckles in that one. The Lumby Lines was pleasant, certainly not demanding of my attention, again good for sitting on the deck in the evening when the weather was hot.
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Yes, nlhome, there is a certain sense of accomplishment in reading a classic like Middlemarch. What helps me a lot is the Spark Notes summaries of each chapter which make clearer the sections I have a hard time understanding because the language has changed to much since the 1800s.
I'd never heard of Lumby Lines. Maybe I'll give it a try.
Marj
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Ginny- Yep. That's what they are. I know you'll love 'em.
Marjifay- Never did read Revolutionary Road, just his Collected
Stories. I did have the DVD of the movie this weekend, but it was defective,
and I had to send it back for a replacement. Mad Men is great, btw.
Over the last week or so I've finished by Harry Crews:Florida Frenzy (essays),
This Thing Don't Lead To Heaven, and Karate Is A Thing Of The Spirit.
I'll start A Feast Of Snakes next. So far Im partial to his non-fiction
essays.
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Just curious. Does anyone besides me appreciate that you can now go online to Dictionary.com and (with headphones), actually hear the pronounciation of a word? Now there's a technical innovation I love! The fellow in the following story, told by one of the co-owners of my favorite bookstore, Politics and Prose, could really have used that website:
"Twenty-four years ago I spent an evening with Tony Hillerman and his wife, when he was part of a mystery-author panel. Since then I've frequently retold a humorous anecdote he recounted that night about his interviewing a young candidate for a position in the English literature department at the University of New Mexico, where Tony Hillerman taught. The applicant, earnestly trying to make a good impression, spoke at length about how much he enjoyed the poetry of William Butler Yeetz (Yeats). By Hillerman's account, he patiently listened without interruption until the candidate had finished and then he said he had found his comments very interesting, but added, almost parenthetically, "Around here we call him "Yates." At that the young man replied, "And, oh, I love Kates (Keats) too."
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No, Marjifay, I didn't know it.Works without a headphone, too. Nifty.
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LOL. What a fun story about the interview with Tony Hillerman, Marjifay! Thanks for the information about the dictionary pronunciation.
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On my local PBS station this Wednesday there is a program called, "Digital Renaissance: Imaging the Iliad."
There is a little information at:
http://technology180.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/premiere-digital-renaissance-imaging-the-iliad/
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Marj, we had a lovely discussion of Middlemarch on the old SN site. It was a big
undertaking, but the book and the discussion both were well worth it.
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Thanks, Babi. I'll look for it.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
I read Revolutionery Road a long long time ago and hated it.. Hmm. so did not try the movie.. I am still staggering along with a Jody Picoult..."Nineteen Minutes". Thus far, I am trying hard to understand the kid.. Being picked on is one thing, his was past that, but how noone noticed is beyond me. The girl is simply a brat at this point.
--Steph
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Oh I'm just the opposite. I read Revolutionary Road also a long time ago and for quite a while thought it was the be all and end all of literature, serious literature. Became a total Yates fan, read all his books. When we read it here in conjunction with another book, which, strangely enough I can't recall the title of something about a gathering or dinner? Jonathan something?
Anyway I saw things in it that I had not seen before, and no longer thought of it as the greatest thing in print. :)
I have not seen the movie because as marvelous as the actors are, they are not what I envisioned in those roles.
Neither is John Malkovitch in Ripley's Game but I'm trying to keep Matt Damon's face in front of me, what IS it about those books! They are so addictive, you just can't stop reading them. Almost thru with Ripley Under Ground.
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Like most of us I am constantly on the lookout for new books/authors. NPR has a Book News site where there are some recommendations for summer reading listed. Looks like some good stuff here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105259115&sc=nl&cc=bn-20090625
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Oh and the entire new issue of Newsweek is on books!! The ones we SHOULD read I have almost not read any of, but Hedgehog is on there! :) Are we au courant or what? hhahahaa
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Jackie, thanks for the link to NPR and Nancy Pearl’s list. I have enjoyed having and using her Book Lust and More Book Lust, so I appreciate her list of new recent reads. Most of the authors here were unfamiliar to me, but the books themselves sound really interesting, especially one by Irina Reyn, What Happened to Anna K. Yep, you guessed it – only moved to another century and another locale. Pearl choses an interesting focus for her selections – the voice of the narrator.
I’m packing now to get out of town, but hope I’ll have a chance to explore the rest of NPR’s summer read suggestions.
Ginny, I’m off to check on the new Newsweek, but may have to buy that one for the plane.
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Here is Newsweek's compilation (from various lists) of the top 100 books of all time. As they say... "Let the debate begin." :-)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/204478
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I will have to pick up Newsweek. I am at a campground with a truly awful signal, Am cramped in a tiny corner of the office to get on line.. Hmm. and this is one where I had to pay extra for internet wifi.. I do wish people would pay attention to these systems that they buy. . Yesterday I found a Panera.. So much easier.. They know how to do it.
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Thanks for the list, Marcie. Seeing that Lolita is #3 and reading its description, starting off with the word "hilarious" in first place, reminds me of the sad story recently here of a 43-yr-old teacher who was arrested for sex abuse of a child starting when the child was 13 and continuing until the child reached 17. Three times a week or so they had sex, once in the classroom, though the child was not the teacher's student. Of course this story isn't hilarious because it was true. And the teacher is a woman and the child is male.
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GREAT NEWS! GREAT NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!
The author, KIRSTEN DOWNEY, is going to be with us when we discuss her book, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL, The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience.
Downey spent a decade researching the book; a look at the Bibliography and the Notes is proof of that. She is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, where she was a staff writer from 1988 to 2008 winning press association award for her business and economics reporting.
The book is written extremely well, as one would expect from a writer with such a background, and you will not find a dull page between its covers.
Join us in August when we begin discussing it.
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Wow! LOLITA -- right up there with WAR AND PEACE and ULYSSES as one of Newsweek's Top 100 of All Time Books! Guess I'll have to re-read that one. I don't remember it being hilarious. Boring was my word for it.
Marj
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Oh my that IS exciting, Ella!! WhOOP!! Everybody is talking about that book now, it's everywhere. Time's huge issue on FDR just a week or so ago? was fascinating, to me. And it mentioned and showed a photograph of her and of course I had never heard of her.
Congratulations, what a coup!
Charlie did you see the Sunday NYTimes Book Review? It's got Wanting and just reading it made me want to read it, author is from Tansania? I usually don't like historical fiction but let's face it, Dickens is all the rage this summer, everybody is reading Dickens. Big article in the Newsweek about rereading this summer and what you should consider rereading. The author is reading Dickens. I liked that article because he had read two books when he was much younger over and over, and finally met one of the authors. He confessed to the author that he read his book over and over and the author took a long look at him and said, "You must have been a dork."
Nice, huh? Guess we found out who was the dork, I never heard of the author or his book. hahaha
Thank you for that link, Marcie. Newsweek has three books in a little come on type quiz which it says are "The top of the Top 100 Books of All Time."
The three on the top are 1984 by George Orwell, Ulysses by James Joyce, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
Newsweek then says: These are the first three books on the list. Can you put them in the right order? Check your smarts and see the entire list...at.....
I thought that was intriguing. Which would you put on the top and why? Which three would you list in order? That's kind of fun to think about, don't PEEK at the answer.
I'm finding in general that their list of what you should reread NOW and why (another list) is a LONG way from my own taste, it's interesting.
They also have some interesting thoughts on lists in general: a good magazine this time.
But the Dickens Wanting really looks good, thank you Charlie for recommending it.
Have finished with Ripley Under Ground, that thing can scare you to death in strange ways.
Now am going to try a Sebald.
So which would come first to you? Can you put these in order of, YOUR order of, the Greatest 100 Books of All Time?
1984, Ulysses, or War and Peace?
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Ginny and others regarding our coming discussion of Kirstin Downey's book on Frances Perkins in August.
Our participation with authors associated with the Washington Post goes back a few years starting with Katharine Graham’s Pulitizer Prize autobiography A PERSONAL HISTORY which we discussed in 1998. You may recall she was the owner of the Post after the death of her husband and her son is now the publisher. It was a great book with such good participation. You will find it here:
http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/PersonalHistory.html
Two years later, in 2000, we discussed Ben Bradlee’s book, A GOOD LIFE. Bradlee was the Executive Editor of the Post during the infamous Watergate scandals and it was a fascinating look into an era with which most of us are familiar. The discussion is here:
http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/GoodLife.html
And now another association with the Post as Kirstin was a staff writer from 1988 to 2008 winning press award for her reporting and today is a frequent contributor to said newspaper.
THREE CHEERS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST. It has given us considerable hours of pleasure.
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I got the Newsweek yesterday and was very disappointed. The editoral statement said they intended to do a double issue on books, but Michael Jackson's death had to be written about. The list of books to read NOW was very narrow, very political and not much that i will put on my TBR list............jean
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Charlie did you see the Sunday NYTimes Book Review...
I did, Ginny. A good review by a very good writer in his own right: William Boyd (Any Human Heart (http://www.amazon.com/Any-Human-Heart-William-Boyd/dp/1400031001/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246492288&sr=1-2)).
The three on the top are 1984 by George Orwell, Ulysses by James Joyce, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
Two outta three and I already downloaded Ulysses to my kindle for a group read
next year.
Here's another, Ginny. For an ex-University professor, this is a must read. Stoner (http://www.amazon.com/Stoner-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590171993/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246492582&sr=1-1)
by John Williams.
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GINNY, of those 'first three' I have read only "War and Peace", so I really can't offer an opinion.
I have come to the conclusion that when someone or some group offers a
'must read' list, they are listing those books that they think will best bring the untutored masses around to their way of thinking. Sorry about that. 8)
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Seems like a list of widely varying quality. I've read 32, which is better than I usually do on these lists. I tried to read "Lolita" several times, and could never get more than a few pages into it.
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Chazz, you mentioned that you will be participating in a group read of Ulysses next year. Can you tell what/where the group is, or is it a private group?
A Yahoo book discussion group, Twentieth Century World Literature, will be reading Ulysses beginning the 15th of this month (July), a slow read of one chapter every two weeks, along with their regular monthly discussion schedule.
Marj
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I read, totally, 22 of the books on Newsweeks' 100 and there were about another 10 that i started and gave up on. All the King's Men was a prime example. I tho't i should read it since i was a history/polical science teacher, but it was one of the most boring books i've ever tried to read. The bio of Huey Long was a much better read to kn ow that story. I just kept thinking "get on w/ the story, please." ..............jean
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I need to look at that list!! I came IN to say I like Sebald and I like the Rings of Saturn, it's amazing what his mental peregrinations take him.
For instance he was talking about how easy it was to burn a corpse, giving Pompey as an example, and Ripley had just discovered the day before how difficult it was, in graphic detail which I think she must have researched.
It's very much like the way anybody travels or sight sees, the most innocent thing brings out a rush of speculation, all fascinating in his case.
I like the way Sebald's mind works and I'm interested in seeing some of the places he mentions like Somerleyton. His tale is one of "faded splendour," I am wondering when he went there, as Somerleyton, while still not being anything like it was, like so many other country houses, has taken on the venue of hotel cum wedding venue: http://www.somerleyton.co.uk/
Not too shabby but apparently only a shade of its former self.
I am a fan of a British TV show called The Inspectors in which people inspect British hotels and B&Bs in aid of smartening them up so they can get more stars. One of the places was a fabulous old converted monastery or something where the owner couldn't be bothered to work at the hotel business, wanted to concentrate on her "music," with the best clenched jaw accent I ever heard, but was financially unable to do so, so enter the consultant.
It was interesting, but she should keep her day job and hotel, frankly after "performing." :)
Sebald's got one thing that's hard to get used to: his lack of paragraphing. You read along breathlessly and suddenly you realize there hasn't been a paragraph for pages and pages. When that happens I have to put the book down, I need breaks! On rereading this morning I am noticing what apparently passes for paragraphs every several pages: there's no break in the prose but the first word may be indented two letters, so I can actually read two or three pages now in hopes of a break which I did not notice before.
I like the way he writes, but he's one of those authors who does NOT translate any foreign language, French, Latin, you name it, so the reader is somewhat admonished by his own dullness, that's OK, so far I can make out everything but the German. I'm enjoying it: it's a challenge in some ways and a delight in others.
Thank you Charlie also for Stoner, have wanted to read it forever, it's not what people think it's about, so as was ordering some Two Part Inventions, having lost mine, I ordered it too, very inexpensive. Can't wait to see the Newsweek List, I'm now in Book III of Ripley and walking around Sussex with Sebald. :)
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Ginny- Sebald really transports you, doesn't he? Yes, he can be challenging too. But I knew THAY wouldn't stop you! knew you'd like him. And it's even better when you've been to and seen some of....or read the book or story he mentions..you know me....I like to do this anyway. One of the things I like to do is put on a piece of music that is talked about in a book. Somebooks lend themselves to this better than others.
Marjifay- See e-mail.
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In the last few weeks, the best book I've read, besides those we are discussing, is
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, which is about the persecution of the Jews
in France in 1942. Very sad, but also uplifting. A remarkable book.
After a search back to post #285, I finally pulled up the Newsweek List. There are a lot of odd items, such as John Maynard Keynes ... does anyone still read him? And does reading the Bible count? (I didn't count it), and I did not include War and Peace since I never was able to finish it. I was amazed to find that of regular books my count was 46.
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I just finished reading Sarah's Key and I agree that it is the best book I have read in a long time.
It presented a part of the German eradication of the Jews (in France) of which I was not aware. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Joy
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Okay, Ginny and ChazzW. Your brief discussion of Sebald has me intrigued. I looked him up and now I've added his books to my TB list.
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I find I have read many of the books on the list, but just as many were things I put down because I either hated them or considered them unreadable. I loved 1984 when I was in my 20's.. Not sure now if I would even consider rereading it.
War and Peace. I staggered through , but never was compelled by it at all.. Amazing how many books are on lots of list, but you find very few people who have actually read them.. Hmm. I think it may be on the can you top this sort of list..
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Sebald died unexpectedly in a car crash in 2001 at the height of his powers (as they say). I'm a big fan of novels themed on the nature of memory and history. He combined those two in a unique genre-style all his own.
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Mippy nd Joy, I just bought Sarah's key for my Kindle. I will be reading it soon. Thanks for recommending it.
Chazz, I have been looking at the Sebald books but have not been able to make up my mind about them yet.
Joan Grimes
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Add my name to the Sebald list. For those of us who were not English majors, reading a novel can satisfy many different goals. The character driven works appeal to me because, as a sociology major, I am fascinated by the human condition(s). When history is an important component of the tale I really enjoy getting a more personal view of the events portrayed. Likewise those novels which have a strong sense of place take me to the unexplored (by me). Sometiimes the way the language is used resonates as a good poem should. When a book does not fulfill some of these conditions I usually don't/can't finish it. How will Sebald turn out for me? We'll see.
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Jackie,
I had majors in history, English and French. I got a Masters in History. if I could get Sebald in large print or on my Kindle I probably would not think so much about trying one of his books.
Joan Grimes
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On the local NPR station I heard a discussion about the Kindle and other ebooks. A publisher was one of the panel as was a professor/author and mike Powell, of Powell's Books in Portland. Pro opinions included the ease of carrying a large number of books on trips. Authors do not fare well with the reduced price of books since their contracts are based on the hard cover price set by the publisher. Publishers don't lose because Amazon tenders their usual price and eats the difference. Booksellers lose out in more subtle ways; since Amazon chooses the books it makes available on Kindle format it has another lock on the book business, although Kindle accounts for only 1% approximately of its book sales. Books with illustrations or unusual formatting do not convert to Kindles format, and Kindle books are B&W only so far. It was suggested that Amazon might offer such low prices now to build up the market, as Kodak did when they gave away cameras so they could cash in on the film market. Very interesting points.
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I just checked out Newsweek's 100 Books - I've only read 53 of them. I didn't count the Bible, Milton or Dante mainly because I haven't read them straight though cover to cover -or Keynes either which I never will read. It's a surprising list and heavily weighted in certain areas - much of the world is missing eg. no mention of Don Quixote . I scored 100% in the Shakespeare section :D - not so well with the Americana.
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Charlie, MUSIC, of course! That's why I ordered the Inventions, could not find my copy.
Still reading on, now also reading the musings of a waiter at Per Se, which I think Stephanie mentioned as well, it's amazing, it's kind of like Gordon Ramsay's programs.
:) Which I like.
I'm getting with my new B&N coupons Monica Ali's new book about a cook, they say it's fabulous, anybody read it? In my forced recuperation with the leg I devoured cooking programs on TV, specifically when I could stomach it, Gordon Ramsay and the Food Network. I canNOT cook, so it's interesting to me to see Bobby Flay make a hamburger which ends up like nothing I ever saw. I like the silly contests too for the next network star and the chefs face off, silly things, but fun to watch. I could not get in the door of those things.
They pretty much look all the same, even to me: you take the cooked meat and the plating is important so you put a little mountain of veg, and herbs and put a sauce over all : maybe (tho it appears this is now thought pretentious) drizzle a little sauce from a dispenser in patterns on the plate, and voila~! Except I could not make the sauce if you put a gun to my head. hahahaa
(It's obvious the phrase pearls before swine is not dead?) hahaha
I kept wondering what you all are talking about with the Newsweek 100 and found them online: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204478
I think, myself, that's a passable list of great books. Some of them I would not have on the list, but I've read 50, we're in good company, Gum, and there are several there I'd like to read (note also that the Iliad and the Odyssey are lumped together, I guess I should say I've read 51 then).
I see Brideshead there, I agree with that.
Those are good books? Frankenstein I think belongs there, and is there, it's a splendid book. So is Dracula, which is not there.
I wish I had read Invisible Man (F)
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A...
Ralph Ellison
And To the Lighthouse (F)
A landmark of modern fiction, Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse explores the subjective reality of everyday life in the Hebrides...
Virginia Woolf
I've always wanted to read that one.
And Night (NF)
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager...
Elie Wiese
I like the books. I don't particularly like the ones titled 50 Books You Should Read Now, but I like the longer list, lots for me to catch up on in it.
What book would YOU add to that list which is not there? I see they have put War and Peace first. I agree with that.
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I think Ishiguro's Remains of the Day should be in the top 100.
I also note (am I right?) there's no Hemingway. Good I always hated Hemingway.Not so much for his writing as for his macho swaggering.
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Invisible man is awesome.. I love it the first time and then reread it later. Another like that is The Blues for Mr.Charlie by James Baldwin.. They are quite masculine and the feminine would be The Color Purple and I know why the Caged Bird Sings.. All wonderful books to help me ( for one) understand another culture better.
I am not a Hemingway fan, but have read it.. A bit Macho again, but that is mostly what I hae against 100 great books. They tend to skew male and white.
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I have read 50 or so of the books on that list. I have read many that I consider much better than many of those books.But then who am I to say as I do not know anything . I just read.
I think Hemingway writes beautiful prose but I hate him as a person. I think his most beautiful book is "A Moveable Feast". Harold led a discussion on it on SeniorNet. My judgement of it may be clouded by my love for Paris.
Joan Grimes
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Following your posts I decided to take the count and surprised myself having read 48 - t here were a couple I thought I read till I realized no they were very talked about movies like The Color PUrple and The Maltese Falcon - I never did read either book.
I liked Dreiser's Sister Carrie more than The American Tragedy -
I remember reading Catcher in the Rye when it was first published followed by Franny and Zooey - for years I had what I called my Franny wall which was the back of a door that I covered in quotes that had meaing for me.
I was delighted to see both Pooh and Wind in the Willows on the list.
Did I miss him - I did not see Camus on the list
Still have not tackled Beloved and the one I forgot about and need to read is The Day of the Locust
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At PATH's urging I went through the list and found I had read 62. I wasn't as punclilious as you all- I counted the Bible, although I'm sure there are parts I haven't read. The reason I had so many is that in 1990, the New Yorl Public Library celebrated it's first 100 years by publishing a book of the most "influencial" books of the last 100 years, and I set a goal of readinhg -- not all, but many of them.
that list was more fun: it had a lot of books about cities (especially New York) at the turn of the century -- Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens, Jane Adams etc. which I found fascinating. None of them are on this list. I wish I could find the other list and compare. I'm guessing half to two thirds overlap. Of course, the NYPL list was only the last 100 years, and it was INFLUENTIAL books, so it had things like the UN charter (no-- I didn't read that).
MIPPY "John Maynard Keynes ... does anyone still read him?". As part of that project, I tried. I literally couldn't understand a word he said!! So I called a friend with a masters in economics and complained to her. It became clear that she hadn't read him either.
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Another funny experience: Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book" was on the list (as it is on this one). I decided to give it a try. But I got such funny looks when I asked for it in libraries and bookstores (none of which had it, of course) that I decided to forget it before I got the FBI after me.
(Or is that funny? I certainly don't want to be afraid to read whatever I want).
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Oh Joan -
What a shame we have to worry about others knowing what we're reading. I went through the same feelings when I bought Mein Kampf. I've had the book for several years now and haven't been able to finish it because it is so hateful. There is no way anyone could read that book and not understand exactly who Hitler was, what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. It is very important that we always know what others are thinking and doing (especially the leaders we don't agree with).
When my grandson graduated from high school he gave he a list of books he wants to read that he heard about in high school but didn't have time to read. Included on the list are Mein Kampf, Communist Manifesto, Origin of Species, Wealth of Nations, Relativity and others that are more science and math based that I don't understand. Most of them I've bought him for his birthdays and Christmas but I told him not to take Mein Kampf to college as others may misinterpret his interest in the book. I'm so glad that he wants to know what goes on in the minds of people. I remember in high school not being allowed to read anything about communism. I'm trying to read any book that he requested that I haven't read. I'll skip those heavy in math & science - Einstein & Newton.
There is no substitute for knowledge. I hope you get to read "Little Red Book". Mary
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That's one nice thing about the Internet, you can order what you please without anybody knowing. hahaha
If any of you read it, let us know what it says, I have a friend who just read The Good Earth for the first time, it might be interesting to compare them. :)
Hi Cub Fan, good to see you here!
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Way back in high school I remember a girl in our class who was reading Mein Kampf. She said it was interesting in that she could see Hitler starting out with interesting ideas but as she read further into the book she could actually see him getting crazier and crazier.
Someone once upon a time said to me that to know your opponent and to be able to oppose/rebut their ideas effectively, you need to read not just material supporting your position but also material your opponents are reading and writing.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
I loved Pearl Buck and tried to read every thing she ever wrote. Some hold up better than others. She was also a most interesting person to boot.
The huge variety of books and why, where and when we read them is interesting. When I think of the things I read in my 20's etc. I used to get on a streak and had to read everything a particular author had written. At that time, library loan was not a common thing and boy did it take forever to find some of the book. I still like to read everything if I like the author, but am not quite so posessed.
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Those contest may seem silly, GINNY, but the winner actually will be the
next Food Network star. Big money and big prestige, ...like Bobby Flay.
MARY, I'm impressed by your grandson's choices in his reading list. All are
certainly influential books. One doesn't have to agree with the premise of a
book in order to learn something from it. In fact, reading a book one
disagrees with can confirm and clarify one's own position. FRYBABE put it
very well in her last post.
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Oh I agree totally Babi, in fact, great minds run together, I was just thinking about Bobby Flay (who?) this morning and the fame he has reaped from this entire experience, including the Chef program, with the guy who does the karati or whatever it is, the Chairman. Now THERE'S a program, have you all seen IT?
These people, like Guy Fieri, have become stars, all thanks to the Food Network's programs. I guess it's OK because apparently they can cook, which I can't.
I think, however, they are capable of choosing a TV personality without a season's worth of grueling and demeaning contests. It's a cute gimmick and certainly in tune with today's media obsessed culture. That producer ( who is the nice looking man with grey hair who is one of the judges on the Next FN Star) knows what he is doing, apparently, since he in fact created all this....whatever you call it. Food World Celebrity.
Still reading Ripley, the third book, Ripley's Game, the one the movie is made from with John Malkovitch is DARK. VERY dark. Noir definitely. If I were going to skip one I'd skip it I think, loses somewhat the Ripley charm. The movie takes a lot more liberties with the book to make it clear what the resentment was which caused the unfolding events.
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Just a quick note - Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book - (voted for discussion by many of you several months ago) - will begin on July 15. Though travelling abroad, the author has agreed to communicate with us and respond to our questions, via email. We are quite excited about it.
Join the Prediscussion going on now, so that we will be ready to hit the ground running on the 15th. You'll find us right here - People of the Book (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=557.80)
For those who need more information about this book -
You'll fall in love with Hanna Heath, Geraldine Brooks' edgy Aussie rare book expert with an attitude, a loner with a real passion for her work. How could she refuse this opportunity of a lifetime, the conservation of the beautifully illustrated Sarajevo Haggadah, the mysterious Hebrew manuscript, created in Spain in the 15th century?
The invitation will bring Hanna into war-torn Bosnia in the spring of 1996 and then, into the world of fine art forgers and international fanatics. Her intuitive investigation of the manuscript will put her in a time capsule to medieval Spain and then back to Northern Australia again with a number of stops along the way. This is based on the travels of an actual manuscript, which has surfaced over the centuries since its creation in Spain.
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Oh - and don't forget tonight's episode on PBS Masterpiece - We're all looking forward to the new Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Pocketful of Rye.- this is an all new production with a new Miss Marple. Here is an interview with Julia McKenzie, talking of her role as Miss Marple - If you are hard of hearing, you will probably have some trouble hearing it - her voice is quite soft - If you can turn up your audio, you will probably have to do so.
Interview with Julia McKenzie - Miss Marple (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/marple/mckenzie.html)
Join the discussion here in PBS MASTERPIECE (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=617.120)
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GINNY: you lost me a few posts back. It sounded as if you wanted to compare The Good Earth with Mein Kampf? ??? ???
I salute those who read Mein Kampf. That was on my list of "most influential" too, but I knew I couldn't stand to read it.
Another such storyy: during the height of the cold war, I worked for a hush hush research organization. Every six months we had to take a lie detector test, in which they asked all sorts of question about whether we were communists. One of them was whether we had read "The Communist Manefesto". I had taken a course called "Great documents of history", in which we were required to read it. So I always had to say "yes, I read it, but I couldn't help it".
I was never picked to be on the most top scret studies, and I often wondered if this was why. I think the whole country was in a state of paranoa then.
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Joan K, no, I was responding to the last post above mine, by Mary who had just said, There is no substitute for knowledge. I hope you get to read "Little Red Book". hahaha,
So I figured it might make an interesting parallel to the Good Earth, which is actually required reading in China today to see what it was like around the time of the Boxer Rebellion.
BUT Mein Kamf would probably make an interesting parallel too, come to think of it! :)
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Funny perceptive article about romance writher Nora Roberts in the New Yorker. Wanna write a romance? Pick one from each grouping.
Plot Devices:
Marriage of Covenience
Mistaken Identity
Secret Baby
Stranded with a Stranger
Runaway Bride
Woman in Jeopardy
Reunion Romance
the Dad next door
Now pick a hero type:
Millionaire tycoon
Starving artist
Astronaut
Football coach
Cardiac surgeon
Motorcycle mechanic/poet
Forest Ranger
Judge\
Test pilot
Interesting locale
Tahiti
Manhattan
Sicily
Ecuador
Chicago suburb
California coast
College town in New England
Ireland
Color of heroine's eyes
Green (most popular)
Hazel
Gold flecked brown
Violet
Azur
Black, almond shaped
if you need more, get :Writing a romance novel for Dummies" Bet yu can come up with a best seller!
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Tee hee, Belemere.
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the new comedy short story is up and it is a bit of comedy that was requested back in the Spring 'the day I ate whatever I wanted'
The story is on-line - http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=351.msg28676#msg28676
Bellemere sounds like with the gift of gab any story can be told as long as you have the major ingredients.
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That's funny, bellemarie! About...what....30-40 years ago, it was sort of a well kept? secret that publishers had an outline of what they wanted in Romance books. That may be why a lot of them seem so similar, but people hotly denied it and now I'm sure they don't follow any outline. Or do they?
I went thru a stage where I read Gothic novels, which I believe are now (do they still write them?) considered Romances, I could be wrong, just devoured them, but they, also, were quite similar.
I'd like to read that article, hopefully The New Yorker is online, I used to love that magazine.
Barbara, that sounds like great fun. I'm on a new diet myself but one day is Pig Out Day, when I also eat whatever I want, it usually turns out to be no fun whatsoever. I'll look it up, thank you!
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I have started "Justine" twice and had to quit. I think I would love to try it again with a good discussion group. I love exotic locations, like Alexandria. I also like our new Library page.
Just finished "What is the What' by Dave Eggers. the story of one of the Sudanese Lost Boys . Riveting. Dave spent a lot of time with the refugee, Valentino, and not only gave an account but was able to convey the African point of view, with all its rich tradition.
Also just finished"Hapsburg Twilight" by Sarah
Gainham. Great chapters from the end of the Hapsburg Empire, including the tragedy of ;Mayerling. Scholarly, but especially great if you have ever been to Vienna and fallen in love with the city.
Our book club is picnicking or lunching during the day for the summer, instead of hosting evening discussions. We bring an old book from our shelves, talk about it , and lend it if somebody wants it. I just lent "Savage Beauty" the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Also finished "Losing Mum and Pup" by Christopher Buckley. Very easy reading. the last days of his parents. Revealed some of the fascinating side of William Buckley, brilliant, kind, but a pain in the butt. the fact that his son put the TV remote in his coffin with him says a lot.
so many wonderful recommendations here. I will go broke at the bookstore or amazon.
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Bellemere - please do go into Suggestions for future discussion. Justine is exactly the kind of book we are always looking for - one that would benefit with group discussion~. The link to the Suggestion Box is in the heading here at the top of the page. Thanks~!
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I have my library window open as well as a Fantastic Fiction window while I'm reading these posts so that i can research the titles/authors and request a reservation of those books which attradct me. Australian authors recommended her resulted in my reading list including Breath, by Tim Winton, I'm Dying Laughing, by Christina Stead, Illywhacker, by Peter Carey. Another book I read about here is Oracle Bones, by Peter Hessler. Thanks for keeping me aware. As a compulsive reader I can get testy when there are no books on my TBR list so this fills a vital need for me.
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Jackie, this isn't fiction but as a fellow compulsive reader ;), you might like "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" by Maureen Corrigan - published 2005.
Jacket blurb says "NPR's Fresh Air book critic on life as an obsessive reader" and "Part memoir, part coming-of-age story, part reflection on favorite and influential books, (this book) views the author's life through her love of books."
It's an easy read - 193 pages, including Acknowledgements and Recommended Reading List.
I found it at the library but I think I'm going to buy a copy so I can underline and add margin notes. That will save me from writing a chapter in my memoirs. :)
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Going to have to wait until we get home for the new discussion. Dont have the book.
Ginny.. Once upon a time, the Food Network had real chefs and cooks.. NOw they have beauty contests and male contestsfor biggest talker. I dont watch any more.. Only one on that is still good is Mario Batali.. So disappointing. I do love to cook and used to watch and take notes.. Not any more. RAchel Ray...boo... Some stupid countess... bah and the one with huge tatas hanging out.. Hmmph.. Cooks.. the two Fat ladies.. Oh me, they made me laugh and learn how to cook all sorts of improbable veggies.. And the Two Hot Tamales.. Wow.. were they fun, even though it was obvious they were not overfond of one another.
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Just finished "What is the What' by Dave Eggers.
That was s great one bellemere
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Food on TV: I like Alton Brown; he can be silly but he's not pretty and he's semi-scientific in his presentations.
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Since I do like to cook I find those chef things more about hysteria in the kitchen then learning anything uselful or even how a kitchen runs.
From what I understand evey chef bring their personality with them and some get results with insults and fear while othere instill a desire to make the food an art form using a quick deft of hand. I am sure there are other ways chefs inspire just as any manger of a department in any company inspires those who directly work for him as well as the relationships he develops with other department heads and outside vendors.
To be inspired to try something give me Jacques Pippin on PBS any day of the week. I seldom like the prep presentation offered by Martha although I like her cookbooks. And that new cutie pie Rachael Ray tends to serve foods that I do not eat and are geared more to family meals.
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Alton Brown. Hmph. I never heard of him until he became the latest spokesperson for the company I work for: Welch's. So now I've heard of him. For the record.
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CallieinOK
I have an autographed copyof "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading'. Maureen Corrigan gave a reading at ourlocal bookstore when she was promoting her book at the time it was published. I loved it, it was like chatting with a friend here about books. She is delightful in person;woudn't you love her job? Is she still on NPR?
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Re: food people on TV
I remember years ago watching this huge woman on our Boston public TV station and thinking, "Is she for real?"
She dropped things, drank the wine she was cooking with, and sounded like a nitwit with a fruity high voice.
Now I read that Julie and Julia is coming out, with Meryl Streep as Julia. They must have to put Meryl on a stool or somethingl But for sure, I won't miss it.
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I'm with Steph -- loved to watch the two fat ladies cook until their program was cancelled when one of them died. And I still miss the two Hot Tamales. They have a restaurant out here in Santa Monica, CA which I never have gotten around to trying.
I used to love to listen to and watch that old Cajun guy cook. He was a real kick
I also liked to watch the Southern lady, Paula Deen. But, good lord, her recipes had a month's worth of transfat in one dinner.
Marj
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Bellemare, as far as I could tell from the NPR web site, she is still on "Fresh Air". I didn't check to see if this program is on NPR in Oklahoma. I rarely listen to the radio at all.
Isn't it fun to meet authors in person? The Oklahoma Center For The Book in Tulsa has a bi-annual conference to which many authors come. There are workshop-type panel discussions by writers in various genres. A "major" author is the featured speaker at the concluding dinner. The writers all "hang around" and visit informally with those who attend. I've been privileged to have delightful conversations with Jim Lehrer, Billy Letts and others.
I can't wait for Julie and Julia to come out - and to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I don't think there's any role she can't do well.
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I'm currently reading "My Life in France", a posthumous book of reminiscences by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. It's a string of anecdotes, loosely woven together to tell the story of the newlyweds moving to France (he was in the State Department) and living there, her learning to cook and writing her books. At the start, she couldn't cook and hadn't eaten French food, but after her first meal she never looked back. It's a good read if you're a foodie--full of descriptions of meals she ate and places she went, some of which I went to 10 years later.
It's easy to forget now how important her first book was when it came out. Americans had just started to get interested in French food, and if you wanted to cook it, it was hard to learn how. The book singlehandedly changed that. The recipes were carefully tested and described in a way that made them almost foolproof. Some of them were a lot of work, but they almost all came out well, and the basic techniques and possible pitfalls were fully described.
The cover has pictures of Meryl Streep as Julia. She's too glamorous, but it looks like she might have caught the right spirit.
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PatH ~ What an excellent summary and post! I loved that book, My Life in France ! And I remember in the late 1960s that cooking with Julia was new and exciting. I'm not at all a foodie, but I sure loved trying her recipes. That was way back in the days when every tiny restaurant didn't dribble sauce around the edges of the plate, no matter what you order.
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I read that book too. It was recommended to me by Steph back when we were still on SeniorNet. I do not usually read that kind of book but read that because I love France.
Joan Grimes
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I'm still reading my way through the Wallander series and catching up on Christie. As an antidote to all the crime am also reading Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys. This is a novel in letter form which is a "funny and affectionate portrait of...muddling through on the Home Front" in England during WW2. Fun to read after having discussed the Guernsey Potato Pie book!
Someone posted this bit on Michael Dirda's page - I think it's great advice:
quote]"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."
— T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
Thus, Latin!!!!!!!
I'll have to find a place to save that and other good quotes. Maybe a Commonplace Book would be a good idea. Do any of you have one?
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For a while I attended the New Yorker Festival every October in NYC when my son was living there and I had free lodging. I cant tell you how ;may authors I have enjoyed hearing: John Updike, Dave Eggers, Frank McCourt, Martin Amis, Mary Karr, Simon Schama, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Gopnik, T.C. Boyle, Steve Martin,Annie Proulx . Calvin Trillin- it was so great. Then my son moved out of New York and I cant afford to go anymore! Sob!
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Joan R, Thank you, thank you for the quote from Merlin! Maybe we need a "
Bartlett type section for great quotes. Administrator?
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I had a commonplace book years and years ago - trouble was it so quickly filled up and then I couldn't find what I wanted...and it was so tedious to read through pages and pages to find items...now I have places on the computer for different sorts of quotes or references etc.
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For Years I had a "Franny" door and then I remodeled which included new 6 panel interior doors and so I wrote in lovely calligraphy using different styles and inks according the drawing on the page in a Gwen Frostic Remembrance Book till disaster ---
I was out of town visiting my daughter while having a my roof shingled. It was that infamies Saturday when we had 16 inches of rain in just over an hour - [periodically happens like that in Austin] Well the roof was in tar paper stage - I came home with 3 ceilings caved in and a 3 inch swamp through out the house - of course the books laying out were destroyed where as the ones on the shelves the bindings were wet but all salvageable.
Then my insurance company said it was the roofer's fault and his insurance company said it was an act of God - unless I sued there would be no compensation - So moi paid for ceilings and water removal etc. etc. and he said he charged me cost on the work he did but it left such a bad taste in my mouth.
I lost so many books including my lovely Remembrance Book. Never had the heart to start another - all it did was remind me of this debacle.
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I wouldn't have paid him one thin dime, Barb.
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I loved Juliafrom day one. That tall silly lady cooking and tasting and laughing on black and white TV.. One of my treasures is two volumes dvd of her shows.. I have all of her cookbooks.. all of the books about her and way back I read the blogs of Julie when she decided to cook her way through the first book.. I can hardly wait for the movie.. Julia was always my hero. The best volumes for me were the two PBS in color that I have the matching cookbooks for Julia Child and Company and More Company..She cooks, chats and all on all makes you a part of her cooking and the book. It contains many recipes that I have used over and over.. She gave me hints like using a cuisinart to mix up my pasta dough.. and then use my pasta and crank.. She loves all sorts of things and share how she does them.. My favorite lady..She and Margaret Meade were always my heros.. I wanted to be one or the other or both.. Hmm. never got to, but I did teach cooking and bread baking for a while and supplied a restaurant with bread and desserts for about ayear. Fun.
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Barb, how awful. As far as I know, my books are not valuable or rare but I would be devastated if something happened to them.
Your experience reminds me of a woman I use to know whose place was flooded during Hurricane Agnes. She spend a considerable amount of time painstakingly drying and restoring the books she could. I never heard how many she was able to salvage in the end.
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Steph--YES! I think I have all her cookbooks too, and although cooking for one is different, I still use them. When she died, local TV ran some clips from her shows. One showed her starting to flip something by shaking (pancake, omelet, or whatever) saying "Always have the courage of your convictions", followed, after it landed in the wrong place, by "That didn't go too well, did it?" I'm sure she then proceeded to make the dish come out fine anyway.
"The Way to Cook" should be part of everyone's cookbook shelf.
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I enjoyed her My Life in France, a lot of things about it surprised me, but I loved it anyway. i do have her book, you'd think I could then cook? Er....no.
On Alton Brown, he's something isn't he? That Iron Chef program is really something also. No matter who challenges, if it's Bobby Flay, Bobby Flay wins. Can't get over that Excoffier (that is how he spelled his name, that was his name, some name to live up to, huh?) French chef with his potatoes, drove a cylinder thru them and then sliced the cylinders of potato, to make fish scales for his fish dish the judges raved over it, over all of his dishes, and Bobby Flay won. That's the problem with WATCHING cooking being judged, you can't taste it. And maybe that particular judge on that particular day liked this or that taste better. Bobby Flay has emerged as the newest media king, I hope he's saving every penny against a rainy day.
I can't figure out the oriental guy, the Chairman, except I have seen him in a film somewhere, he's certainly limber. I wonder how long he will be able to do those back flips and what, if anything, they have to do with cooking, but I like him, and it, but Alton? Please. Very strange.
I'd still rather watch him than Guy Fieri, tho. What is the deal with Fieri? I guess he can cook, and that's the point. I do like the shows where he finds local places to eat, but I bet they about faint when he walks in. hahaha You have to wonder how much of this is shtick, how much is real, and how much just for entertainment.
Think about it. Due to the efforts of that one man, Bob Tuschman or whatever his name is, the kindly looking grey haired judge on the Next Food Network Star, ALL of these people have come to national prominence, including Rachel Ray. Alll of these people have become stars. They are now taking auditions for the next year's series, and contest: when he's finished his channel will have these "found" stars on 24/7, which is probably the point. I have a feeling beneath that sweet demeanor is something else entirely, he's going to be, if he is not already, a very powerful man. But who makes him so?
We do. Here's an interview of Tuschman
http://gothamist.com/2005/09/19/bob_tuschman_food_network.php
in which he talks about several interesting things, including what he's made of the Food Channel Network and a lot more:
In the age of the celebrity chef, food has become a mass media business. Our stars have big businesses in books, merchandise and media, not to mention restaurants.
and
Our weekend and afternoon "In the Kitchen" shows are primarily designed to teach you to cook in a fun, accessible way. This includes hit shows like 30 Minute Meals Barefoot Contessa and Everyday Italian. Since our viewer base has grown so much (we're now in nearly 88 million homes), our viewers have a broad range of cooking skills. So while our shows have a range of cooking styles, all feature accessible, "do-able" recipes that an average home cook can do -- easy-to-follow techniques, no hard to find equipment or ingredients, and most are filled with tips about saving time, money, and energy.
Our primetime programming is a little heavier on entertainment, though our viewers always want to learn as they're watching. We don't focus on cooking, but rather explore competitions, travel, reality and pop culture. Shows like Iron Chef America and Challenge are two shows that feature food as over-the-top Olympic style competition. Shows like $40 a Day and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels are travel guides, Unwrapped and The Secret Life of … are pop cultural histories of our favorite foods. The challenge is to always balance compelling, entertaining narratives, with interesting takeaway. Our viewers like to learn while they're being entertained. So it's always a challenge to find formats that can be strong enough entertainment to work in the highly competitive landscape of primetime, but still allow viewers to do some learning along the way.
and..
What do you say in response to hardcore foodies (e.g. Jeffrey Steingarten) that dismiss the celebrity success of your stars?
If the goal is to make food and cooking accessible, interesting and celebrated by as many people as possible, I'd say we're succeeding. On the other hand if the goal is to keep the food world limited to a small group of elite chefs and eaters, we're failing miserably.
Speaking of kitchens, I did get Monica Ali's In the Kitchen, which is a novel about kitchens and a man's life disintegrating. I can't wait to start it, will have several going which is about as good as it gets, Service Included, the surprisingly bland Four Star Secrets of a Eavesdropping Waiter, at Per Se, you don't miss it when you put it down, the Sebald, almost thru the Ripley's Game, and the Ali. Different times of the day you want different things, I think.
We have put the T. H. White quote here in our headings where we feature different quotes, I love it, thank you Joan R!!
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Have any of you noticed that these chefs reach right into the hot frying pans and turn the meat with their fingers? They must have fingers which have lost feeling! They also taste everything. THAT I think is my own problem, I don't know how it is supposed to taste so I don't taste, what's the point? Maybe the point IS make it taste good to you?
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I read a segment of "Losing Mum and Pup"..I think it must have been in a
Sunday supplement of the paper...and I found it just as readable as fascinating
as you said, BELLEMERE. This man is an excellent author, and I didn't even
know he existed!
Great quote, JOANR! Surely we all can find things to relate to,there.
Oh, that is really hard, BARB. If I could find a lawyer who would work on
spec., I think I would have advised the roofers insurance company that it
would cost them far more if I sued than if they paid for the damages.
FRYBABE, my local librarians have told me that a wet book cannot be salvaged. No matter how hard you work to dry them out, they will mildew and mold. A book brought in wet is a book that has to be tossed.
GINNY, my daughter and I watch the "Diners,Drive-ins and Dives" show, and like to dream of a tour of the country, visiting some of the places shown. It
would be fun, driving into a strange city and knowing just where to go for
a meal. 8)
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FRYBABE, my local librarians have told me that a wet book cannot be salvaged. No matter how hard you work to dry them out, they will mildew and mold. A book brought in wet is a book that has to be tossed.
Well, Babi, then ultimately I guess she lost all her books. I remember she said something about separating the pages that were stuck together, but don't remember what else.
Another book added to my TBL: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. The time traveler is a Librarian with a "temperal displacement disorder". Movie rights on this one. There are several TV shows I can think of that used that MO, but I don't think they starred a Librarian and they didn't jump in and out of their own lives at various points, just different times.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the wind and rain and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
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Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
I loved "Wife". It seems to be one of those books you either hate or love. That book would make an interesting discussion. Let me know how you like it, please.
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There are two Alton Brown, figuratively. One has his own show, Good Eats, and the other is on Iron Chef America. I used to watch the original japanese Iron Chef. Part of its charm was the use of ingredients not found in American kitchens. One of the judges was an actress and she was definitely more than just a pretty face. Good Eats is where I watch Alton Brown. He will explain how and why a cetrain treatment has a particular result which demystifies much that is obscure in cooking. Similar the the Cook's Illustrated school of cooking. I am one of those who uses a recipe the first time as it is written but I don't have a discriminating palate so the fine points are quite lost to me.
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04:05:06 07/08/09
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.? This will not happen again for a thousand years.
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hahaha, Barb - I'm thinking that this sequence will never occur again.
But how about next August - at 5:06:07, 08/09/10
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Ha ha JoanP and Barb -- I just showed that sequence to my almost 13-year-old grandson and his comment Joan, was the same as yours.
A terrific quote, Joan R. And isn't that what a lot of us do -- when things get tough or rough, just settle in with a good book, and let it take us somewhere or teach us something. White is right on.
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I wonder how long the sequence is repeated because of course next would be 6:07:08, 09/10/11 - and then 7:08:09. 10/11/12
followed by 9:10:11, 12/13/14
10:11:12, 13/14 That's it isn't it - no 13th month
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Barbara The sequences are fun but it depends on which convention is used to signify the date. Here we put it day/month/year so it reads 8/07/09 so it doesn't work for us. I haven't got the patience to work out a suitable sequence for our dates but I expect someone, somewhere has.
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Ginny, a chef tastes to correct the seasoning.. He or she knows what sort of flavor they want. You should taste to see if it makes you happy. If not, then think of what you could add to make you happy. How something tastes is truly personal.. I love tuna directly out of the can, but hate tuna raw or even cooked in a steak..I like a few sushi, but not many..
Think of the tastes you like and then go for it. You would like Julias Julia and Company. She explains what she is cooking the meal for and what taste she has in mind. A favorite of ours is the boned leg o lamb.. Perfectly simple recipe done either on the grill or the oven. I have had any number of people who went.."Oh I never eat lamb" go nuts over it. It is one of the most requested meal from my adult children when they come to visit.. Even the grands eat it.
There is a great apple dessert dish wih almonds ground up and sort of pancaky finish . Really try her, she is very basic in the book.
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Gumtree it looks like you have one coming up on the 7th of August
05:07:06,07/08/09
Six seconds after seven minutes after 5 AM on the seventh day, of August the eighth month of this year 09.
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So I'm reading Larry McMurtry's Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen - Reflections at Sixty and Beyond, a really wonderful reader's book. At one point he mentions his senior year in high school and his teachers:
The teachers were not above making us do book reports on Riley, Whittier, and the dog stories of Albert Payson Terhune.
Now this is only the secondtime in my life I've heard the name Terhune - and I could swear that the first time was a humorous (I think) mention by Ginny some years back. Right, Ginny?
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Hi, Chazz - Oh, I remember Albert Payson Terhune alright! I read everything of his that I could get my hands on as a child - rather nervously, actually, because animal stories could have such awfully sad moments. I think I was deeply scarred by Black Beauty!
I recall James Whitcomb Riley and Whittier too. How about Longfellow? Does anyone read him anymore? Of course I'm talking about the reading of a child 70 or 75 years ago!!! However, recently I visited Longfellow's home in Mass. and was told there that the reason he wore such a full beard was to conceal the facial burn scars he acquired when trying to help his wife who was engulfed in flames as a candle ignited her gauzy dress. I saw the double staircases and imagined Alice and Allegra (from the poem) playing up and down on them. Visiting an author's home does bring them to life for one, I think.
We bought our house from Jack Kerouac and have lived in it for 50 years. Wonder what that's done??
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Ah yes - Lad, A Dog - http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/lad-a-dog/
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We bought our house from Jack Kerouac and have lived in it for 50 years. Wonder what that's done??
- Oh my God! Tell more. Kerouac was a major influence on me. I run the Kerouac 5K every year, starting at the Kerouac Memorial in Lowell.
Julia Child fans need to check this out from August Esquire- http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/08/julia-child200908
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Good heavens, Joan, do tell ALL!
Charlie, yes that was me, what a memory you have, and I'm somewhat shocked to see they tore down the house, Sunnybank House which Terhune's parents built, and HE was born in the 1800's, in 1969.
Of all his books Sunnybank, Home of Lad, was my favorite. I devoured those books like Call of the Wild and the Black Stallion books as a child. But Sunnybank, Home of Lad, was about the estate, and the difficulty he had in keeping people out, and the invasions of his privacy and the ghosts of former dogs, (I think he takes that up in another book too) and the strange inbred character of the folk of the Ramapo Mountains. I lived in NJ, I had never heard of the Ramapo Mountains and the people there, it was magic. I almost did not believe it.
NOW it's a Terhune Sunnybank Memorial Park.
Here's an interesting site, apparently they have continued breeding his own collies, here are loads of photo of him, the dogs (lots of hair there) and the glory of the past:
http://www.sunnybankcollies.us/
And here's a virtual tour from Geocities: http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/1728/
A nice quote on this one but I can't get too much up, apparently there's not much left.
I am not sure that I'd make seniors read Terhune, tho he is, from the excerpt, quite a good writer. I guess everybody should read one Terhune, tho. That book you're reading sounds wonderful.
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Golly, from the Sunnybank site above (the first one) HERE'S the house and I can see why they had to tear it down. :
http://www.sunnybankcollies.us/place.htm
The above site also has sunsets on the lake which he would have seen, I agree, it's like a paradise which he seemed also to think.
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Must look for the McMurtry book. I like some of his books, but not all.. He is a good writer, but I am not a big fan of the old west.
Read all of the Terhune books.. Had a teacher who made us memorize poems in the 5th grade. I usedto know a whole bunch, No idea whether I can still make it through Oh Captain..My Captain.. hmm. I did like that one.
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JOANR - the Longfellow home?
Years and years ago I visited my sister who had settled in and around Portland, Maine and while there I walked around the city. The Longfellow home was fascinating and we were told that the holes in the wooden shutters were there to push a rifle through in case of pirates who at times raided the city.
Portland has been destroyed several times by various means, one of which was by fire set by the pirates.
That's my memory of the city and memories can be faulty, as you are now placing Longfellow in Mass.
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Charlie, thanks alot for the link to the article about Julia Child. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/08/julia-child200908
It was fascinating to read and, I think, captured why she was so inspirational to so many.
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Chazz, after you read "Walter Benjamin...", you might like McMurtry's memoir "Books". It tells how he achieved his goal as a book collector and seller.
He's had an interesting career in those fields.
I read some of the Terhune books as a child but must have been hard-hearted because I don't remember any of them making a lasting impression.
During the 60's and 70's I was living in a Colorado mountain town and totally missed out on all those experiences. What a dull life I've led...Not! ;)
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What a lovely treat to read this morning the Julia Child Vanity Fair article - wonderful - thanks...
Those of you who live north and experience a long cold winter use the time to catch up on reading - with 25 days so far with Temps over 100 and nothing to stop the exercise till October - I am sitting out the afternoons reading some of the books piled high ordered with a click of the finger.
The rhythm of life changes and only those who have moved here recently are lost - you get as much done as possible before 9: and do errends till noon when you disappear till 7: - even local laborers know to start work at 5: stop and 11: and then come back for a couple of hours after 7: till dark. Unless we want an electric bill equal to a downpayment on a vehicle we find the coolest spot in our houses and either nap or read it out.
Finished apologize, apologize! by Elizabeth Kelly - a first time author - I love authors who have a way of writing whimsically about the most serious - she has a great banter and the story is riveting till two thirds in and then it seems to me she had to stretch the story - she has the emotionally wounded brother first getting caught up in the war raging in the jungles of San Salvedore as a hapless church volunteer and then he is off to Ireland the birthplace of his parents - his gapping wounded soul is never healed with either experience and I think the book would have been a better story if it ended before his travels.
Also finished Mrs Fytton's Country Life by Mavis Cheek - what I thought would be a bit of fluff and turned out to have some depth - more so than the stories of Maeve Binchy - I enjoyed the book so much I have ordered another - Parlor Games.
Finally finished Spirit Matters by Michael Lerner
I am finding fascinating the tome - Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester around the World by Beatrice K. Otto - and a tome it is exploring the history of the Court Jester in both the East and the West - some had other skills - some were dwarfs - some were physically handicapped and others were acrobats - some had the power of life or death over those who came to court and others risked their own life if it was learned they were left in the Kings care not because of a deformity but because of poverty. However, they all had or learned quickly to communicate with panache in music or words that enchanted, excelled, informed and instructed.
As usual I've several books going at the same time - been pushing through faith fox by Jane Gardam a Whitbread and Booker Prize journalist - her merits are dropped in many critiques from Britain but it doesn't flow and the characters are so off the wall I could care less - I keep thinking it will all make sense in the next chapter.
And then I read the first chapter and cannot wait to plow into another that appears to be fluff but has more going for it - so far there is the whole bit of being accepted beyond Madame in a small seaside community in the Provence where [Lillie] Lily escapes after the early mid-life death of her husband - The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti by Annie Vanderbilt.
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Ella - you are quite right - the house in Maine is where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's family lived and where he grew up. The house in Cambridge, Mass. is where he lived as an adult and where he raised his children. So all is well!!!! After all, most folks have more than one house in their history!
Coincidentally, we went to a house sale this morning and they were getting rid of the entire library of the late owner. I should never have gone in! Naturally, I bought an armload which I really have no more room for BUT one book is a very nice slip-cased edition of the works of Longfellow - it was meant to be! Now I can revisit my childhood and read and read!
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Barb: Our climate here in Oregon's Wilamette Valley is lovely except for the frequent rain but last week we had 6 days of 90+. Lucky it cools down at night. The cats lay limply around and I stayed in my room, in bed lots of the ime, reading. Didn't cook, we ate take-out sandwiches, pizza, etc. No one had an appetite anyway. Thanks for telling us about your current reading; lots there for me, I believe.
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JoanR, your mention of James Whitcomb Riley brought back memories. My mother first read his poems to me and then I enoyed them myself, especially "The Raggedy Man" (he works fer pa) and "Little Orphant Annie" (come to our house to stay.)
JoanR, did you really only buy ONE book at that big sale? :D
I recently read an article by NYT journalist Nicholas Kristoff about his list of Best Kids Books. I don't think he had Terhune on it, but he did have Lassie. Then he invited readers to submit their recommendations and was totally shocked when he received over 2,000 responses. Such memories. Makes me want to go sit in the children's section of our newly remodeled library and read things like Freddy the Pig and Caddie Woodlawn and Anne of Green Gables.
Steph, I've been in Seattle for eight days and no rain so far. Looking forward to seeing Judy Laird on Monday -- and her new home and her Kindle.
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Ah Pedlin,, I got the rain and left the sun for you. Say Hi to Judy.. I miss seeing her notes.. The new retirement place must be keeping her really busy.
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Yes, do say hello to Judy and tell her we miss her and safe trip for YOU back again also!
Yesterday I picked up the Sebald again, it's something you read a little of and savor and think about. I was absolutely shocked to see the date it was published, the photos are grainy and black and white, and he keeps saying "nowadays....." I figured it was from the '40's or at the very least 50's, it's that kind of writing. (Wasn't the 50's yesterday?) No it's 1998.
1998, I had to blink several times and am still not sure that's right. As he walks along he ruminates on so many things, the herring, herring fishing, does a herring feel pain, and the very strange case of a man called LeStrange who was one of the soldiers who liberated Bergen Belsen but who returned home to the manor house in Sussex where he lived until the age of 77, and dismissed the huge staff and paid one housekeeper to take meals with him but she could not speak. That went on for years.
Truth is always stranger than fiction. You want to read a little and then go think about it. As I'm still watching the shows on British Inspections of hotels, a section in this about the hotel he stayed at on the coast in Lowestoft in Suffolk - the most easterly town in the UK really rings true. Looks like quite a pretty place, actually , maybe they read his book? http://www.lowestoft.org.uk/ He thought it had seen better days.
This section you really could talk about for some time, it would make a very strange book discussion which would have to go on for years I would think, but it's great off and on reading. You have to stop and think, it's quite unique.
Also finished the Ripley last night and am starting the Ali In the Kitchen for a break, so many bodies having been accumulated.
I read in the back of the book that it was the Ripley series which commended Patricia Highsmith to American audiences, her work before him was not appreciated. She was born in Texas and lived her live in Switzerland where she won many honors for her writing.
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Steph, I cook that lamb dish a lot too. You're right--people always love it.
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I am also so anxious for the Julie/Julia movie to arrive. May have to declare it a holiday!
I am a huge Alton Brown, but does anyone else like Andrew Zimmern from the travel channel
as much as I do? He pops up absolutely everywhere, and makes you want to try the most
bizaarre things. The way he interacts with his host and hostesses is really spendid.....a real
Renaissance man and goodwill amabassador.
isak
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GINNY, maybe Sebald was still living in the past. I've know other people
who never changed much once they reached a certain stage in life. Continued
to think, act and talk the same way no matter which way the rest of the
world went.
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Just read a Julia's Chocolates by Catherine Lamb, and about 10 toher books that were "bubble-gum" stories to read by the pool.
Yesterday I bought that new book The Physick of Deliverance Dane; a story about a graduated student who researches the Salem witch trials, only to discover that she had a relative that was a part of that story.
My 13 yr. old granddaughter has "moved along" with her reading this year and it scares the heck out of me what's out there for these kids to read. She's precocious but she's also into that Vampire and slutty stuff. That made for an interesting trip to B & N.
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Yes the teens are really into the vampires, aren't they? My goddaughter has sent me two books she loves, child is also very precocious also and they are that Stephanie Meyer, hope I've got that right, and Eragon.
I read the first chapter of both of them so I could see what the fuss (and there is one) is about. I can see why they would appeal to young adults.
Stephanie can't get the butterflied lamb off my mind, it's all over the internet but have sent for the original book as well, the book has a strange title but does have that lamb, thank you. I'll fix it this coming Sunday.
Babi, the more I read about Sebald, the more intrigued I am. He was Bavarian, (I did not know that, I love Bavaria), and according to Wikipedia, he was 57 when he died in 2001 and ...I love the photo Wikipedia has of him: (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/WG_Sebald.jpg/250px-WG_Sebald.jpg).
W. G. (Winfred Georg) Maximilian Sebald (18 May 1944, Wertach im Allgäu – 14 December 2001, Norfolk, England) was a German writer and academic. At the time of his early death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors, and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature - in a 2007 interview the secretary of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, stated Sebald as one of three newly deceased writers who would have been worthy laureates along with Ryszard Kapus'cin'ski and Jacques Derrida.
I was going to say to you, as I knew he died, as Charlie said, too soon, that IF he were a young man, he was an old soul, but certainly his writing has an indescribable quality.
Isak, is that Zimmern the guy who goes around eating strange things or do I have the programs confused? I know a lot of people also like that Anthony Bourdain (sp) . I read his first book and I have to say that his TV persona is a lot easier to like than he was in the book.
Fans of Alton Brown can see him live at ...I think...two... food expos, one in the south somewhere and one in NYC, I think he's planning to be there, this October. He's...well let's face it, everybody is quirky, but to me he lets the quirky out just a little too much, but that's HIS shtick, seems to be working for him so far. I've never tried one of his recipes, have any of you?
I can tell you the Neely's crab cakes (leave off the hot sauce and crab boil) are fabulous.
Barbara, what a list!! I love this spot as everybody is so reading something different and intriguing!
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You are going to love that lamb Ginny.. It is my foolproof favorite of all. I decided I needed to laugh, so pulled out a Terry Pratchett, that I had not yet read. I save them for special occasions. My 13 y.o. granddaughter is really into the vampires of Stephenie Meyer. I like Charlaine Harris much much more, but when you think of it,, Stephenie Meyer is rewriting Romeo and Juliet for teens,just adding in the vampires as a death in life sort of thing.
The newHarry Potter film is coming.. Oh I love the films and the books and just now I am listening to one of the books on cassette. They are quite special, since the reader is a man of 1000's of voices.. Absolutely incredible. He makes you feel you are there.
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Alf- Back in September, I read a book called The Heretic's Daughter , a first work by Kathleen Kent. She is related by blood to the Salem Witch trial family that was the subject of her book.
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PEDLN I HAD A VIRUS AND ALL MY NEW E-MAIL IS GONE i HAVE NO PHONE\ NUMBERS FOR YOU OR YOUR DAUGTER.
I HAVE A NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS WHICH IS JUST LIKE THE OTHER ONE EXCEPT WITH A PERIOD.
PLEASE GET AHOLD OF ME
judy.1007@live.com
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I'm so proud of my daughter!! All the summer programs my grands usually go to were canceled for lack of funding. The 10 year old didn't know what to do with himself. So what did my daughter do? Started a book club for him and some of his classmates! They are all in the gifted and talented program (which, guess what, is moribund, due to lack of funding) and advanced readers. They were so excited: they loved the first meeting! They drew lots to see who would pick the first book, and he is reading it now.
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Joan!!! Isn't that exciting? I love it! I bet you are proud of your daughter AND your grandson, how exciting. What have they chosen? Like grandmother like family! :)
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Judy L -- I just emailed you at your new address.
JoanK, that is really terrific, what your daughter has done. And it's so much harder to get the boys into something like that. Yes, I'd like to know what they're reading too.
Our rising 7th grader left for a week at camp today and took, reluctantly, one book -- Evil Genius, about 700 pages thick -- recommended by his friends. I'm not familiar with it -- I think fantasy or sci fi. He's a very capable reader, but not very enthusiastic about reading.
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Oh yes, what did they want to read. Boys are harder to get to read freely.. My two had to be interested in the specific thing the book was about. Our older hated fiction.. He only read some of the hard science,science fiction at the recommendation of his girlfriends father in high school. Jack was a physics professor at the college and he really could draw the kids in.. He got Timmy started on Arthur Clarke..Timmy adored them. Then all these years later, our grown up Timmy became Tim , went to Iraq and read his way through the year. He said he thinks he read more books in that year than in his lifetime thus far. Now home, he is back to simply keeping up with allof his engineering stuff etc.
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Thanks, Ginny. I can see that Sebald is definitely a writer I want to
look into. I may or may not like the writing, but it has certainly earned
a respectful investigation.
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Babi: Maybe you and i could comment to one another on reading Sebald. I'm next for Rings of Saturn at the library.
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Chaz
Alf- Back in September, I read a book called The Heretic's Daughter , a first work by Kathleen Kent. She is related by blood to the Salem Witch trial family that was the subject of her book.
I've not read that one Charlie, was it any good?
I love to read of those old trials and remember being fascinated with The Crucible story. seems that everything The Physicks (don't you love that old spelling) of Deliverance Dane is so predictable for me, possibly because of the volumes I have read about the trials. I like the way this Katherine Howe writes and am enjoying the story.
the protoganist actually reads old manuscripts, wills, deeds, etc and then visualizes what it actually looked like. (She also gets "visions" of those early days. She at first calls them hallucinations but then adjusts to the fact that perhaps they are REAL visions!!!
I guess that it's my problem that I keep wishing for a different slant on those times.
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| The Library
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Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
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Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
.re: childhood reading - I loved Black Beauty. I remember that it was sad, but i don't think it effected me adversely. I also loved Heidi and Robin Hood. Steph - we must have had the same 5th grade teacher, because we also had to learn poetry, i think it was a poem every two weeks and i loved it but can only remember bits of the poems at this stage of life.
Our weather here in South Jersey has been spectacular for about 2 months - huuuuummmm, does that mean there's a hurricane or 2 in our future, as pay back? There has been only 1 or 2 days when the temps have hit 90. Everyone is asking "is this July?" We had a lot of rain in June, but it was welcome, keeping the flowers and bushes happy.
I've been reading all sorts of things: i've mentioned the Condolezza Rice book by Eliz Bumiller - very good. I also read 2 Charlaine Harris books in the "grave" series. I like the querkiness and complexity of her protagonist because of having been hit by lightning and being able to find dead bodies, but it also bro't other complications to her life. And what's going to happen in her relationship w/ her stepbrother? A mystery in a mystery.
I also read an old Mary Alice Monroe book that i hadn't known about - The Four Seasons - about 4 sisters whose last name is "Season." Very typical MOnroe book about family relationships.....................jean
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I put this in my last post, but i don't see it, so i'll mention it again.............I don't know who's responsible for the T.H. White quote in the heading, but i love it...........thanks for sharing it w/ us.................jean
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Alf -
The Heretic's Daughter was good, but not great. I did love this metaphor, though:
A needle is such a small, brittle thing. It is easily broken. It can hold but one fragile thread. But if the needle is sharp, it can pierce the coarsest cloth. Ply the needle in and out of a canvas and with a great length of thread one can make a sail to move a ship across the ocean. In such a way can a sharp gossipy tongue, with the thinnest thread of rumor, stitch together a story to flap in the breeze. Hoist that story upon the pillar of superstitious belief and a whole town can be pulled along with the wind of fear.
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Ginny
It's true that Andrew Zimmern does eat a lot of very weird and to us
unappealing things, but in some of his segments, he visits cultures and
customs and gets very deeply into the why of what they eat - like, making the
best of what is at hand. There was one whole program about fooe in Ethiopia
where he shared the foods and cooking methods and also the social customs
of their hospitality and graciousness. It was a wonderful eye opener. When I was
in college, I had several Ethiopian friends and so this was especially meaningful to me.
isak
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Ginny, I have mixed feelings about Bourdain. While his show is interesting and he is cute in a devilish sort of way, I take exception to his rather frequent potshots at our involvement in the Vietnam War. In his season premier tonight, he couldn't resist starting out with a Nixon/Kissinger/CIA bash regarding Pinochet's (Chile) coup. I put him in the category of yet another celebrity who likes to bash America. I read one of his books and got a bit bored with it. Other than a little more of his family history, it was pretty much his shows.
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Well Chaz. how true is that thought. If only all of us could keep that in mind as we weave our own tangled webs.
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When I lived in New England and used to go to genealogical meetings, I met several descendents of the so called witches.. The real witch was the judge, who was a fanatic and the young children who were malicious at best.
I have made notes of the books, since I always found the story interesting.
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First, JACKIE, I've got to find a Sebald book. My library doesn't have a one.
I'll check the county library branches and see what I can find.
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Isak, your resounding support of him makes me want to take another look. One thing (one of the few things) I like about Bourdain (I missed the anti American slams, Frybabe, but he's pretty insufferable anyway, so it's up to the mark) but one of the few things I do like is his determination to appreciate what they are eating in the different countries, (and some of it is really eye opening), so I am going to try another look at Zimmern, it sounds like I have missed something by being so squeamish! Will give it another try.
Monica Ali's new book, In the Kitchen is quite good. It takes place in a giant hotel's kitchens and is somewhat like watching one of these kitchen shows combined with Gordon Ramsay not screaming, and one of the British Hotel Inspector shows, but it's really about a man somewhat falling apart before your eyes. It's really good so far, but I'm just about 1/4th through it.
Still reading Sebald as well, I finally found Lovestoft on the map of England, (I was WAY off on where it was), am so directionally challenged it's pathetic. It's a wonder I don't think Kenya is in the Bronx. hahaaa
I've got Ruth Reichel's new one too but have not read it yet.
Have you all seen, I just came in on the near end of it, about 3 shows from the end, that National Geographic Explorer program? It's a trek through Africa in the steps of Stanley, hoping to find his remains, if I understood that correctly, (In Edit: NO, that's not right, in looking him up, he died in London, so why are they slogging thru the jungle tracing his footprints? Wish I had seen the beginning of the series...strange thing, he looked like the leader of this present expedition).....but boy the adventures they have and the leadership struggles. It's really good and interesting, I'm going to see what books have been written on this.
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A favorite show of this family is History Detectives on PBS. (Bragging time, it is produced by Oregon's PBS station.) Fascinating; last night we discovered that the Chicago 1933 Exposition included a display, on the boardwalk right across from Sally Rand & her Fan Dance, a medical doctor's incubators with real live premature babies! In the research into a Navajo rug we traveled to Chinle and a Navajo medicine man, to the heart of navajo weaving country and a weaver who was wearing a fortune in turquoise, to a trading post' s mini museum of authentic rugs, and so on. In another segment a family's photo albums revealed how Philadelphia was the leading movie production site in the industry's eariest days.
Time Team is another newbie. Based on the British show of the same name it features an archeological dig each show. The team spends 72 hours on site; first show was Roanoke Virginia where the first settlers disappeared. Think Virginia Dare, the infant born on this soil. Next show is about the CLovis people.
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Ginny - I am super-squeamish about a lot of things that get shown,
but then I see Zimmern do a piece on wild rice harvesting in Minnesota, or
how Lutefisk is done at the church suppers in Minn., or how one lady does
smorgaasbords in her small town, and I am a goner. He does get it right there.
That is my prejudice, no doubt. He also has a segment on all the fried food that
get sold at the Minnesota state fair. Priceless
Isak
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Isak, I guess I am going to have to take a look at Zimmern too. And here I thought it was just one of those shows to attract the "gross-out" crowd.
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Jackie, sorry we missed the episode about the Navajo rugs. We've been in that area lots of times, and have been to that trading post (as well as others). We even own several small ones - not old or valuable ones, but they are authentic and bought from the weavers. Love that area!
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Monica Ali wrote a book?? Will have to look for it. I do have all of Ruths. She is quite a good writer as well as cook an reviewer.
I have quite a lot of books written about cooking..That are not cookbooks, but either biographies or just books.. Heat was good, but extreme.. James Beards.. way back about growing up with recipes and memories is excellent. All of Julias of course..and a lot of quite old ones.. Cooking interests me and people who make a living one way or another from food are interesting.
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Several months ago we had a vote for Individual Book Discussion Titles - and you all voted for Dickens' Mystery of Edwin Drood, which we hope to discuss in September - and Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book, which starts - TODAY!
Hope you didn't forget - we're waiting to hear what you think of Brooks' protagonist - Hanna Heath. If you haven't started the book yet, that's okay too. The author is travelling abroad on an international book tour this month, but promises to try to respond to your questions via email if she can. Please do come over and say hello -
People of the Book (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=680.0).
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I saw that show, too, JACKIE. One of their best, I think. The public
display of the incubators full of preemies seemed shocking at first, but
it did a very effective job of promoting use of the incubator our hospitals.
The lives of many babies were saved, and they received excellent care while
on display.
I haven't seen anything about "Time Team". What channel is it on?
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The Physik Book of Deliverance Dane is about a contemporary writer's research into Salem withcraft. It was the Top Choice of Barnes and Noble Booksellers, and the resulting sales put it on the NYT best seller list. My library has one copy with fify hold on it! So I am in line to borrow it from a family member who works for Barnes and Noble. He thinks it is an indication that Booksellers are determinants of best sellers, like Oprah.
Has anyone read this?
I love Salem. Our Book Club took a trip a couple of years ago and witnessed a suspected "witch" being arrested in the town square; we followed her trial in the Meetinghouse. it was an exact transcript of an actual witchcraft trial, except that the "witch" was allowed to take questions from the spectators, kind of like a press conference. Salem waterfront has a restored sailing ship, a walking tour of Salem by lantern light in the evening, featuring lots of sites where unexplained events have occurred. Hokey, but fun. the actress conducting the tour was both informative and witty. there is a witchcraft museum and also a great art museum with loads of oriental treasures the old sea captains of Salem brought back from their voyages.
Just don't land in Salem on Halloween. It attracts a lot of strange people; lots of weirdness going on.
s
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Babi: About Time Team (PBS) on the Clovis People: http://archaeology.about.com/b/2009/07/13/time-team-america-the-topper-site.htm
Salem, how funny life can be. Way back when I was shopping an estate sale and found some lovely dishes, a delicate green parsley spray on cream background, which I grabbed, never noticing that the pattern is called Salem. Another thread, my GM's family genealogy, commissioned many, many years ago, includes mention of an ancestor, an 80+ yr-old man who was tried and convicted of witchcraft during the famous trials. Another thread, in 1990-something I saw a little blurb about that conviction which had just been overturned. Lost my copy of the narrative report so can't remember his name. Jump to today: I am living in a Salem. I feel it was fate that brought me here. I get a thrill just writing my home address as Salem.
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Mrs. Sherlock , you live in Salem, but not in Salem,MA? and had ancestor executed as a withch? Wow. You gotta dig up that record. There were not that many men. Most witches were widows, without much family, thus isolated and vulnerable.
There are misconceptions about the deaths of witches, that they were burned at the stake. but in Europe , witches were burned. In New England, we hanged 'em. Why waste good fuel when gravity will do the job?
Seriously, it was a terrible time. So many conflicting theories. One holds that the group of girl accusers had eaten moldy wheat , a fungus called ergot, which can produce psychotic symptoms. Mass hysteria played a part, too. I look forward to reading the book; it is supposed to by more scholarly than sensational.
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Bella-Bella- there you are. Not to fret about the Deliverance Dane.
It is a book that is easily read so it soon will be returned to your library.
I am almost finished with mine and ready to pass it on to my daughter. It is OK, not earth shattering by any means but OK.
I am more anxious to see how this writer develops her skills as an author.
Matthew Pearl wrote a wonderful review for this novel and it makes me wonder if he is not a good friend of Katherine Howe, the author, who in now completing her PhD in American and New England studies. She really is a descendant of a woman who actually survived the Salem witch trials.
Damn good thing I wasn't around then or I would literally be TOAST.
The idea for this novel developed while Howe was sudying for her docgtoral qualifying exams and walking her dog through the woods between Marblehead (where the story takes place) and Salem. She lives in Massachusetts.
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Salem,Ma has a wonderful art museum.. It is full of oriental treasures, but it also is a genealogical heaven in that they have all sorts of old records of the area. When we lived in that area, we visited a lot..Actually Marblehead is more fun for food, etc. But Salem at Halloween is just awfu.. All sorts of " I am a true witch" stuff. I believe it is mostly can you top this.. Like the Stonehenge people.. A few true believers and alot of wanna bes.
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Steph, yes, Monica Ali has a new one called In the Kitchen, I'm somewhat in the middle, it's bogging down just a bit, so thought I'd pick up a new one while reading it in Cemetery Dance, the new Preston and Childs which I've put off for just such an occasion, what a disappointment! I won't spoil it for you, maybe I'm just getting OD'd on violence on TV and in the news, but....I'm disappointed and I hope it may...what can I say? I'm their biggest fan. Starts with a bang, but not the bang I wanted for my buck, I'll give it another go in a month or two, now will take up the Ruiz and hope for something a little different.
I have never seen so much violence in my life, on TV, in the news, in movies, seems like every movie there IS shows somebody with a gun, unless it's some kind of soppy boy meets girl thing, maybe there are no other plots. Bang Bang, shoot 'em up, chase them in cars, torture, Armageddon, soppy boy meets girl romance, is that all there is?
Horrific TV shows, since the leg incident am hooked on cooking contests, Iron Chef, Chopped, the Next Food Network Star, and even some of them are unnecessarily rude. As a consequence, I am seeing WAY too many commercials, as they have one every 5 minutes. Still having nightmares over the commercials for one show coming up, how people managed to get out of horrific circumstances, absolutely blood curdling, one woman's story is, could not watch it when it comes on TV, not even to the end of the commercial, just....unbelievable. I'm glad to see she made it out alive.
I think this may mean I'm getting old!
I did see the tail end of Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear and the woman who played the mother in Spanglish and it looks fabulous, and non violent, so have ordered it on Netflix, I had heard about it but did not get to see it. I like Netflix anyway, almost better than the theater.
The problem with getting old is you remember a different world. Was it that much less enlightened than today? I used to ride the subway at 5 years of age, from Holmesburg in Phila, PA, to Hahnemann Hospital to visit my grandmother. It was a LONG trip. I had to memorize all the subway stops, can recite some to this day: Ticonderoga comes to mind. Can you imagine in this day and time letting a 5 year old out of your sight, much less on a subway?
Do you remember Halloween in the "old days?" (Boy I really AM getting old. :)) Turn off the bubble machine! You'd go door to door on your street, and you'd have to come IN, have some cocoa or something (took an eternity, slowed down your progress in getting goodies) while whoever the people were guessed who you were? Because they knew you?
I remember the little nearby town where all the merchants had contests in their store windows and they were painted in Halloween motifs by the teenagers, ah well. We're in a new better society now, right? More enlightened.
I will say I think "Mischief Night" was a good one to get rid of, coming as it did the night before Halloween, so that any "mischief" which would come out of Tricks for no Treats would be done then, presumably. That was a no brainer.
Oh well, not sure what started this, sorry, probably the bath of violent commercials lately. (They do say, however that viewership is down for the 3 major networks to 18 percent of all people in the US, as compared to what it was, say in the heyday of I Love Lucy), when really more than half the people in the US watched, that should say something to those who continue to produce the stuff on the major networks, (is there anything on besides the CSI Chain of shows? And the Idol shows?) PBS is not included in their survey, it seems I only watch PBS or cable now except for the news and sometimes then.
All this to say have you noticed how violent everything seems to be now? Not only in the news but in our "entertainment" choices?
Why DO we read, anyway? Why do YOU read?
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ginny, I know this is discussion is about books, not about TV shows. But, try some of the shows on TNT and USA networks - The Closer, In Plain Sight, Leverage, Royal Pains. Or NCIS and The Mentalist on CBS. They're more character driven with generally less violence.
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MaryZ- we must be sisters. ::)
You've just mentioned some of my favorite shows. I love leverage. It reminds me of the old Mission Impossible. I love those zany characters and their clever wit.
The Mentalist is a given for me. Simon Baker sends the blood a-pounding through my ears and I like the way the creator of this show has given him that uncanny ability to "make people do what he wants them to." It would be no problem for me Senor Baker.
I, like Ginny, hate those violent shows, detest the stupidity of the reality shows and do not CARE who can sing and who can not based on a telephone vote. I like PBS but am always shopping for something new on the Networks. Hospitals I lived in for 45 years of my life so they are not even a feasible choice.
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Oops, sorry Ginny, you asked why DO we read and I got carried away thinking about Simon Baker's smile ;D and forgot what I was talking about.
I, personally read for reasons even too numerous to mention.
I read to relax.
I read to "get away" from my own mudane thoughts.
I read to vicariously live a life I would otherwise NEVER even consider.
I read to learn.
I read to live and
I live to read.
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Alf, I'll be happy to claim you as my sister. :D Leverage seems to be a later, US version of the wonderful Brit show, Hustle. We loved that one, too.
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I am fond of Leverage and of Timothy Hutton. Too bad they changed the night. Now it is on a night that I work. I don't know if Comcast will put it up on On Demand. My best friend and I still bemoan the demise of the Ellery Queen series that Hutton did with David Wayne years ago. I guess the people who invent these programs think we would all like to see blood and guts rather than follow a real plot with puzzlers that encourage you to use your brain to unravel the clues along with the character. Give me "Clue" any day over gratuitous sex and violence.
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I'm with you Frybaby.
Clue, I'll be in the Library with Col. Mustard and the wrench. ::)
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Alf: you said it!!! Ginny, maybe you should stay away from the violent Ripley for a while? We watch PBS, History, National Geographic, reality shows such as Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, and the usual series shows about doctors, nurses, police, psychics. That's what we watch when we are not reading. Recent reads include: The Spellman Files, The House on Fortune Street, In the Image, Deep in the Valley, Oracle Bones, The Various Haunts of Men.
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Ginny - i think all the news shows and the violence in the fictional shows have convinced us that the world is a much more dangerous place than it used to be, but someone recently did a study and based on % of the population, children are in no more danger than they were decades ago................isn't that interesting? We've become a more cautious and protective society and of course we are more urban, which brings many more people and news stories to our face, but maybe much of our fear is generated in our own heads.
I also love Simon Baker and yes, it is that crooked smile.
I'm sure you are all aware that the advertisers are interested only in the 18 - 24 yr old male - it boggles my mind that they haven't figured out that the 50+ crowd has more money than the 20's crowd. I think it is because of their own bias against older people.
I've just finished an entertaining book by a new author to me: Golden Destiny by June Davis. It's about a woman in Calif in the 1840's and 50's who has been physical and psychologically beat up by the men in the society of few women. She is reasserting her worth and independence w/ the help of a Chinese man who, of course, also is abused by the society. It is well-written and moves along nicely and probably is true to the atmosphere at the time and place. Not complicated, but interesting. I like period novels.
Another new author to me is Russell Banks - not the AIM leader. The book i'm reading is The REserve about a place in upper NY state that has been taken over by wealthy socialites in the 1930's, pretending that they are roughing it. The protagonist is a male artist who likes to present an anti-social personality while keeping people interested in his works. Another character is a mixed-up young woman who, of course, complicates his life.
jean
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Frybabe, Leverage is on On Demand with Comcast. Go to "TV Entertainment", then to the TNT network button. It's there with several others.
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Oh good, MaryZ, it wasn't posted when I checked. Sometimes it takes them a little while to post it after it is aired. I had checked shortly after the original airing and haven't checked back yet. I see they have Eureka up on On Demand too.
BREAKING NEWS! Frank McCourt is gravely ill. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/07/16/2009-07-16_angelas_ashes_author_frank_mccourt_on_deaths_doorstep_as_he_battles_meningitis.html
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I've seen promos for Eureka, but we haven't watched it yet. It seems it takes about a week from the original broadcast date for programs to show up on On Demand.
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Golden Destiny sounds really good. I too like historical novels. Oh me,, I am also a Simon Baker fan. I loved his first show .. He was a lawyer who had to work in a state facility.. A flawed human and extremely interesting. I was surprised to discover he is 40.. Would have put him younger.I am reading a new author for me.. Actually two new authors. I am reading one of the Covington novels, but not really thrilled at this point. I am also reading a book called Stalking Susan. by Julie Kramer.. Interesting.
Also on Facebook, they have a new special interest group on the Julie-Julia movie. Since I loved the blog, read the book and am anxiously waiting for the movie, I joined. Lots of neat things written by all sorts of people who knew one or the other of the women.. Neat.
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Wouldn't you know, JACKIE. The Time Team is in the same time slot as one
of my daughter's favorite shows. I'll try to keep an eye on the subjects
that come up, and try to record them for later viewing.
GINNY, thanks be to our modern TV set-ups, my daughter and I have found a
way to avoid most of the commercials. We set the remote to 'Pause', and
go do whatever. When we come back, we fast forward to the story again. And
of course if it's a taped show, we fast forward thru' the commercials.
Actually, there are some commercials we actually enjoy, but they are
definitely in the minority.
"they haven't figured out that the 50+ crowd has more money than the 20's crowd."
JEAN, I think the answer to that one is that they have figured out that
the 50's crowd has more sense than to believe their ads. 8)
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Babi - so true! ::) ::).............jean
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The arguement in advertising circles is that with a few exceptions, over 55 have more money,but are less likely to spend it.. Same with radio.. Findin oldies stations in our area in Florida gets harder and harder and it makes no sense since we are by far the majority in Florida.. The big thing now is spanish stations..Again they are considered great consumers and we are not.
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The Spanish population is a younger one, still raising families, and buying lots of "stuff". I saw a pundit on TV that said that,indeed the bulk of disposable income in this country is held by people over 55 who already ;have their "stuff", and whose clothing needs are filled by semi-annual infusions of socks and underwear. How true. But the engines of marketing are in the hands of 20 to 40 year olds who like to buy a lot of stuff, and like selling it to each other.
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bellemere: "20 to 40 year olds who like to buy a lot of stuff, and like selling it to each other. "
Great line.
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Bellemere, had to laugh at your post, and your remark that seniors' clothing needs are filled by semi-annual infusions of socks and underwear. Yup! I have enough clothes to last me into my next life.
My main purchases are food, books (used mostly), and gasoline for our junkets.
Marj
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
BABI: I have a different scheme for avoiding commercials. My cable TV also has a set of music channels, including a classical music channel. When the commercial comes on, I just swith and listen to music. I have to guess when to go back: sometimes I miss a minute, but it rarely matters. And sometimes I decide that the music is better than the TV show.
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Of course you are right, mary, it was a combination of things, Ripley included, all at once. I'm checking out the Ice Truckers also mentioned here, that is something else. What a strange program, and so interesting.
I must be attracted to the macabre tho, after watching Grey Gardens with Drew Barrymore on HBO I sent off for the movie at Netflix and they sent, instead, the original. I may have also requested the original. THAT thing is totally searing, have any of you seen either of them? Unlike the HBO documentary, of course, they could not include scenes from the past so you did not quite understand as well as you might but it made extremely difficult watching. In fact, I could only manage 10 minutes at a time, very depressing.
I did, however, finally storm in during my breaks from the show and clean out my youngest son's room, which I had been using as sort of a handy attic. I'm sure none of you have a spare room into which you throw things which are in the way, but I sure did and it had grown into a mess. After watching Grey Gardens (the Bouvier Beales living in the Hamptons in...unfortunate squalor, house now owned by Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee), my room is now 98.9 percent on the way to a home inspection.
Just about the most depressing thing I ever saw, and so tragic in so many ways. Too bad there's not a book about it, so we could discuss it here legitimately. There is a huge article by Sally Quinn on it however, on the internet. I now understand some of Quinn's statements more, on her impressions of "Little Edie" Beale versus how she now feels about her. Truth is always so much stranger than fiction, isn't it?
Yesterday I got Rosemary Mahoney's new book on the pilgrimages people take and her visits to the sites of pilgrimages. I loved her Down the Nile and hope this one will hold up to the last, I'll let you know.
I'm still reading Sebald's The Rings of Saturn in bits, I do like it. Traude remarked in another forum a lot of his work has yet to be translated, that was news to me!
Yesterday he was talking about Amsterdam and put in a quote in Dutch (thing needs a translator and it's already translated) but somehow I saw "Pinatubo" (sp) and I had just seen a documentary on the eruption of Pinatubo (sp) and so I think I figured it out. But the feeling is the same as anybody who did not read Dutch would have upon seeing the headline about "Pinatubo" in Dutch, so it's quite a ride. (For some reason I always confuse Pinatubo with Mt. Unzen where several National Geographic famous photographers and vulcanologists. Maybe because both of those eruptions were in 1991).
But so far this summer I have yet to find THE book, which I can't put down. Perhaps the Ruiz. Are you reading something that just sweeps you away and which you can't put down? I hear the newest Sophie Kinsella is not up to her normal mark, anybody read it?
In short, what are you reading now that you just LOVE? Did you see Dickens's Drood is scheduled to start here? I visited his house one time in London, that man must have had the leg muscles of a horse, you never saw so many flights of steep stairs in your life!
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I'm sure none of you have a spare room into which you throw things which are in the way
Ha ha ha.
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I don't, but then I don't have a spare room. You would be surprised, tho',
what I can cram into the laundry area. ;D
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Amazon.com Plays Big Brother With Famous E-Books (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/amazoncom-plays-big-brother-with-a-famous-e-book/?th&emc=th) in the New York Times.
This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
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As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.
New York Times
To read the whole article you may need to sign in; registration is free and does not include any spam.
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I watched the HBO film of Grey Gardens twice, it was so good. And the acting was wonderful. I hope Barrymore and Lange get awards for it.
I think I saw something about the TV awards nominations coming up soon. I don't usually watch it because about all I watch on regular TV are movies, weather, and some of the oldies (ie, Andy Griffith programs), but I'll be looking to see what awards go to HBO, espec. Grey Gardens.
Marj
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The name "Amazon" has been intriguing me. Did they choose that as a symbol of women warriors and if so how does it relate to reading? Did they choose it for the river and if so, why?
Pat - don't keep us in suspense, who was the author? Did it happen to everybody? ...............Oh! O.K., i missed your link to the article, got it..........................neevermiind :-[jean
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I thought those kindle things were on a time limit, is that not true? I don't really know much about them. Thank you Pat, I'll read the article.
Marjifay, it looks like the HBO Grey Gardens has a whopping number of Emmy nominations which it certainly deserves, I hope they win, too, unfortunately they are up against each other, that was not inspired nominating:
Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie
* Kalina Ivanov, Production Designer
* Brandt Gordon, Art Director
* Norma Jean Sanders, Set Decorator
Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
* Ellen Parks, CSA, Casting Director
* Robin Cook, CSA, Location Casting Director
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie
* Mike Eley, Director of Photography
Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
* Catherine Marie Thomas, Costume Designer
* Mickey Carleton, Assistant Costume Designer (New York)
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
* Michael Sucsy, Director
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie
* Alan Heim, A.C.E., Editor
* Lee Percy, A.C.E., Editor
Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Movie
* Jenny Fifield-Arbour, Department Head Hairstylist
* Nancy E. Warren, Hairstylist
Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries or a Movie (Non-Prosthetic)
* Linda Dowds, Department Head Makeup Artist
* Susan Hayward, Key Makeup Artist
* Vivian Baker, Personal Makeup Artist
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special
* Vivian Baker, Special Makeup Effects Department Head
* Linda Dowds, Department Head Makeup Artist
* Bill Corso, Prosthetic Designer
* Sean Samson, Special Makeup Effects Artist
Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score)
* Rachel Portman, Composer
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
* Drew Barrymore as Little Edie
* Jessica Lange as Big Edie
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
* Ken Howard as Phelan Beale
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
* Jeanne Tripplehorn as Jackie O.
Outstanding Made For Television Movie
* Grey Gardens—HBO—Specialty Films and Locomotive in association with HBO Films
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie
* Henry Embry, Production Mixer
* Rick Ash, Re-Recording Mixer
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
* Michael Sucsy, Writer
* Patricia Rozema, Writer
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That was Ken Howard??? I didn't recognze him.
Just finished an excellent read about Australia's early settlers. The Secret River by Kate Grenville is a product of her deep research into her own ancestor's arrival in Australia which she planned as a non-fiction book. This article in Wikipedia describes a book she has written about that research, Searching for the Secret River, which I must read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_River#Literary_significance_.26_criticism
A few weeks ago there was a mini-discussion here about Australian literature and this book was mentioned. Thanks to Gum, I believe, who told us about it. Australia has always fascinated me; at one time I was planning to immigrate so its still a secret fantasy of What If . . .
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Funny. I thought that the Gray Gardens was in fact a book first. Now you say it wasnt. I musthave read the article instead and not realized it. Must see the tv thing.. Did not.
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Frank McCourt lost his battle with cancer and Meningitis. Here is the breaking news item from FoxNews. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533941,00.html?test=faces
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Steph: Wikipedia on Grey Gardens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Gardens
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ginny, they've always said that once you buy something for your Kindle, it's always yours. Even if you delete it, it just goes to the Amazon "storage" (my word, not theirs), and it is always retrievable.
Sorry to hear about Frank McCourt. His work has been very popular.
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What author did Amazon delete and why?? That strikes me as piracy, since you paid for the book??
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Steph, it was George Orwell's 1984 and his Animal Farm. According to what I read, Amazon discovered that the third-party vendor who they contracted with or allowed to offer these two did not have the rights to the books. If I were to guess, and I am, Amazon didn't want to get involved in a lawsuit from the real rights holder. Intellectual property law in the digital age is still being hammered out so there is very little if any precedent to go by yet.
I find it a little disconcerting that Amazon was able to and did in fact erase everyone's copies. On the up side, they did give everyone their money back. Think of it as a defective product recall. The difference is that the product (the book) isn't going to harm anyone who bought it so why take back what is already sold? I would find it very upsetting if, say, a food company who had to recall a product could just come in and raid my fridge.
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Frank McCourt certainly had a good run for the money. Never wrote a book until after he retired, and really only had one good one to write. But it was great. I mean to put it on my re=reading list. I saw him in person on a panel of memoir writers, and he certainly has the gift of gab.
On another note: there was an article in the business sectin of the Ny
times about a new invention to help people with macular degeneration, (which I have) It is a tiny telescope, the size of a pea that can be implanted in place of the lens in the eye. It supposedly helps someone with AMD to read, watch tv and recognize faces. The progress of my own case is very, very gradual, and I don't need anything like that.....yet. But it is wonderful to know that something is out there. It is expected to get FDA approval this week and is already iin use in European countries. Now, the biggie question: Will Medicare pay for it?
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Wow, Bellemere, that sounds very SciFi. A tiny telescope? Wonder if it will have a zoom lens. I knew about the implants to help blind people to see, but haven't heard about this yet. Optical technology has come a long way from these implants to the Hubble.
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I am sorry to hear about Frank McCourt, and this is the first place I heard it, I like the idea that we're so au courant here. He really had a story in Angela's Ashes, and we read his memoirs of his teaching career in the Books some years ago.
This is also the first place I heard about the Kindle retracting books! Thank you Pat and Frybabe for that additional information, the copyright thing which people think is nothing, is actually BIG stuff and people really are liable to prosecution. It's a brave new world!
On Grey Gardens, as it turns out there IS a book which was written after the original documentary, it's called My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond by Lois Wright by a woman who visited often. It takes up after the documentary left off, I've got it on the way so will let you know how it is. There's also another one by somebody named Jenkins who was some sort of hanger on or something.
Lois Wright, if you saw the original documentary, was the female guest at the birthday party.
There is also a third film telling of the story! There's the original documentary, Grey Gardens, and then the HBO film, and another one called the Beales of Grey Gardens, which is unreleased footage by the makers of the original movie, the Maysles, for Criterion. Netflix has it, too. I found that out reading the Wikipedia (can't believe I'm saying this) site, thank you, Mrs. Sherlock.
I don't have a Kindle, I'm somewhat spooked that they can remove a book, I guess....are the books forever? That is, are they your own personal library for good or is there any time limit? How do you store them, is there any limit to capacity in the Kindle?
I guess one thing about it, you won't turn into Grey Gardens, (tho really you should have seen the "spare room" here, and have too much clutter. Still I do like the sound that Deems described of being able to index and search and highlight if I understood her correctly.
Oh but I love books, just the tactile feel and smell of them.
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Someone earlier mentioned that you can't download a copy to your computer or otherwise copy the book you bought for backup. That is the one thing that would stop me from buying such a device.
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Ginny, I have a Kindle. It's my understanding that the Kindle has a huge capacity for storage, and that "your" books are always stored in Amazon's "basement". So even if you delete a book that you purchased, it can always be retrieved from Amazon.
The way I read the story about the recall of the books was that Amazon found that the source from which they got the Orwell books did not actually have to rights to do that. And that's why they "recalled" (as somebody just said) them. IMHO, it was a simple recall of a product they didn't have the right to sell in the first place. And money was refunded. No big deal.
There have been several books that I would've liked to buy for my Kindle that are not available. There's always a place to click to send a message to the publisher that you'd like to have it available for Kindle - and I do that.
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I know that this folder is all about our books that we read buuuuut, if you were involved in the Curious Minds discussion about the Big Box stores a few years ago, I thought you might like to read this article that was left in the Organic Living folder over on S&F's. A surprising article about Walmart and their suppliers. This will have a big impact on the grocery stores we shop in. Good for Walmart. They have accomplised something that our government and the FDA couldn't accomplish for years and years.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/16/wal-marts-eco-labeling-mandate/?icid=main
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Good for Walmart. I'm used to thinking of them as "the bad guys". Have to look again.
I'm sorry to hear about Frank McCourt. I saw him, on TV, at a Dodger game a few months ago. I've also seen him in person, and to hear his "line of gab" is to adopt him as a friend.
At the book-signing (for "Tis") where I was, someone asked him if, now that he was rich and famous was he happy? He answered that he was Irish, and the Irish aren't meant to be happy, but sometimes he would feel happiness sneaking up on him.
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Amazon really had to recall those books. They had been unknowingly selling stolen goods, and had to get them back if they could. I hope they apologized properly to the purchasers.
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Mrs Sherlock Glad to know you read and enjoyed Kate Grenville's Secret River'. There's a lot in it that is a fairly authentic view of how it was during the 'wild colonial' days. It's beautiful country around the Hawksbury River and largely untouched today. The Wiseman's Ferry settlement where Grenville's ancestor settled is still much as she describes it and even now is only accessible by water. The companion book 'Searching for the Secret River explores her personal journey to find her ancestors and of course holds some elements which are similar to the fictional account - I found it worth the read.
So, you were planning to emigrate ?? You would be very welcome let me tell you! You could even join my F2F bookclubs ;D But I daresay you would have chosen to live in one of the larger cities -Sydney or Melbourne - or maybe in tropical Brisbane and not in my hometown, Perth which is smaller, quieter, friendlier, has the best beaches and is the best kept secret we have.
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Interesting article on Wal Mart, Annie. I'd read a similar one in the NY Times. There have been questions as to just how meaningful will the claims of these companies be, and will they be independently verified.
But at least it's a start.
I always feel guilty shopping at Wal Mart, but really can't afford not to as their prices are so low.
Marj
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I was glad to see that the article also stated:
Amazon said it would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books if a similar situation
arose in the future.
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Thanks for posting the link to the Wal-Mart article, Annie. No doubt there will be gripes about costs, interference, etc., but there should be benefits in the long run. No doubt there’s been much to criticize Wal-Mart about, but they’ve tried to do a lot of things right, too. I’ve been one of their fans for a long time.
Marj, if y ou won’t feel guilty about shopping there, I won’t feel guilty about using paper towels and napkins and TP that’s thicker than the ultra-thin stuff my girls use.
One thing about the Kindle that surprised me when Judy Laird showed me hers – how thin it was – ¼ in? 3/8 in? I was expecting something much more boxey. It would fit easily into most over the shoulder purses. I would love one, but have too many unread books right now. I did note that on Amazon this am the price for the Kindle version of Matthew Pearl’s Last Dickens was 11.99, which is slightly more than their set Best Seller price of 9.99.
Just a side note -- It's always been interesting to note the words that become more used in our vocabulary. The Wal-Mart article used "transparency," for example. I don't recall that word being used so much before the last presidential campaign. What are your thoughts?
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I'll admit to favoring Sydney way back when but from what I know now it would be a small town on the west coast where it's not too hot, in other words near Perth.
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pedln, I have also noticed higher Kindle prices - the Frances Perkins book was $19 and change.
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I am still on the fence on the kindle. It sounds great sometimes,,I especially like thethey can read it to you feature. I broke my regular glasses on this trip.. my backup pair turned out to being fine for far away and horrid for reading. Finally wentout and bought a pair 150 mag. of those drug store glasses.
work perfect but I want my regular glasses back.. Now I understandthe call back, but would have preferred to be told in advance.
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I'm having mixed feelings today as i do every summer when i get the latest Evanovich's STephenie Plum Book. I go Finger-lickin Fifteen yesterday from the library and started it last night - laughing already in the first 50 pages - with great anticipation.WoooHooo!..........................but my mixed feelings are because i know i will have it finished - sometimes in as little as 2 days, i have finished one of her books, - and THEN i have another year to wait for the next one! I'm going to try to read this one slowly, not stay up all night reading, and maybe i can stretch it to 2 weeks................ :( ............jean
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TP that’s thicker than the ultra-thin stuff my girls use.
Guilty, PEDLN? I feel very pleased with myself for having found it!
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ANN, there are so many ways of looking at Walmart stores. Sure, they are amazing; I believe I read that they are approaching the biggest employer in the USA. And they lower prices for all of us and now rating products for environmental impact.
It's all to the good. HOWEVER (and isn't there always a "however"), the impact this one store, this huge chain of stores, has had on America is devastating. It's closed small town America, put thousands of entreprenauers out of business, lost thousands of jobs for those who cannot find employment elsewhere because of transportation and other ills of the small towns.
Frankly, I am tired of it all. I want the small shops back again, the friendly clerks, the feel of a small town, the excitement of a new store opening, a new name, a new look, a new revitalized America without the big chains and the big malls.
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I feel as you do, Jean, about Evanovich. The ones I've read have been hilarious. (except Fearless Fourteen which I could not finish becuase it was too silly). I have Finger Lickin' Fifteen on hold at the library, but am still twelfth on the wait list.
Have you read Dorothy Cannell's funny mystery, THE THIN WOMAN?
If not, it might help until the next Evanovich arrives. Its about a 27-year-old woman who is invited to a family reunion with relatives she hasn't seen in some time. She's embarrassed because she's chubby and has no boyfriend, so she goes to a temporary agency and "rents" a good-looking man, a real "hunk," for the weekend.
Marj
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I'll come argue on the other side of the WM issue. I shop at WM every week - just once a week. I HATE to shop for groceries or anything else. And, in general, I can get everything I want at Walmart. Unfortunately, larger will almost always drive out smaller - whatever it is. It happened with clothing and department stores, with filling stations, with farms - whatever. And I enjoy going in those smaller stores from time to time, in different locations. But that's a tourist thing - not a weekly shopping thing. I want something that is one-stop, and for me, in this area, Walmart fills that need.
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I'm a N0-Walmart person, but i'm fortunate to have a l of of options, i have no need to shop at Walmart. I recognize that in some places that's the only store that has everything and that for some it's necessary to get those low prices. I just don't shop there on principle, but i must say that the pressure seems to have moved them to be more generous to their employees and certainly they are attempting to be more customer friendly. But i'm still angry at their heavy handed behavior in small towns and undercutting local merchants. That's capitalism at it's worst.
Marji - i've read some Cannell's, but not that one. I'll look for it, thanks for the recommendation. ....................
Just finished an interesting Susan Wigg book, Lakeside Cottage. It was a typical boy meets girl, boy leaves girl, boy and girl get back together story. The interesting part was that the male character saves the life of the president and has all the mountains of fame fall on his head. He hates it and tries to hide out. It gives that other side of the horrors of getting your name into the public sphere. I would not want to be in the public eye for any reason these days. I have a friend who has been a tv producer for talk shows on Phila networks for decades and has from time to time asked me to come on a show. I have always refused. I have spoken on many topics in a small arena close to home, but i have refused to go on Phila tv. I just don't want to be that exposed, there are too many nuts out there who think they have every right to get in your face and judge and comment what you are doing or saying.......................................jean
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We tend to buy gas at WalMart since it is cheaper where we live than most of the others. I dont buy groceries..Dont like the larger packages.. I buy paper goods from Sams.. which of course is owned by WalMart.. Although we just joined the new Costco in our town.. So I may change to that.. I like variety and we now have the open centers, which have a lot of clothing stores that I like and shoe stores, etc.. WalMart has some things I like, but not that many. Books are a good example. They seem to only carry romance and a few authors like Patterson.. I am a Amazon fan for new stuff and even a lot of used.
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I'm not a Wal-Mart person either. I usually shop from a list, and I can't find what I need quickly enough to suit me. So, I go to Wal-Mart about once a month, for those things that I can't find at our regular stores. I find that I don't save money at Wal-Mart, because I shop specials and sales and stock up for good prices at my regular stores, so I know the prices of what we buy most regularly. Wal-Mart has its good deals, of course, and for those who are low income, it can be a real savings place, except that it's too easy to justify buying because of the "low low" prices even when the items aren't necessary - speaking from watching friends and my one son's family and their buying habits.
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MaryZ, I wish I could get everything at one place, and I wish I could limit my shopping (mainly for groceries) to once a month. I’d probably save a bundle, but unfortunately have favorites from about four different places, but don’t go to each one every week. My knees don’t like to shop much either, which probably explains why most of my clothes now come from Target, WalMart and LL Bean.
And, while they may be fine for canned beans and toilet paper, do we want the Big Boxes to shape culture? How Target gets books to the best seller list.
Target Can Make Sleepy Titles Into Best Sellers (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/books/22target.html?hpw)
But in the last few years, much in the way it has cultivated its image as a counterintuitive purveyor of Isaac Mizrahi clothes or Michael Graves tea kettles, Target has been building itself into a tastemaker for books.
Through its book club, as well as a program it calls Bookmarked Breakout, both started in 2005, the company has highlighted largely unknown writers, helping their books find their way into shopping carts filled with paper towels, cereal and shampoo.
Ella, there were lots of good things in the good old days. We’d all like doctors to still make house calls, too. But that’s not gonna happen.
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I have trouble shopping at Wal-Mart because it is so big, and I cannot walk very far. So I just go to our local grocery store for the groceries and my husband does the Wal-Mart shopping about once a month mostly for cleaning needs and paper products. But if he didn't shop there, I don't think I'd go there for anything. I'd just pay the higher price at the grocery store. And the prices are higher because they pay a higher wage.
But this is a small town and the pay is low just about anywhere you work. Most of the people are glad of the job.
But I'm glad Wal-Mart is making such a commitment to "green".
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Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
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Let the book talk begin here!
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I love the idea of the small town shops, ELLA, but frankly, I can't
afford them. I agree with all you said, but ....
For the days when my legs aren't up to walking from one end of the
store to another, there is always the electric cart. Surprising what you can
cram into one of those things.
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Sometime in the future I can see it all going back to local establishments. The possibility is there if enough people buy into those little electric vehicles that don't go far without recharge, telecommuting, home schooling, online shopping, etc. Very SciFi stuff here.
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I sat and thought about it.. I have found some new authors in the Target.. I also have found some excellent books for my older granddaughter. I like Target for small appliances, etc. They have an English designer that has some great ideas for the kitchen. Dont wear their clothes though. We have a Belks, Bealls, Chico,Coldwater Creek , Maxx, Marshalls in a near open center We also just got a new stand alone Penneys very close.. Love their drapes, etc.
Tuesday Morning is great for linens.. and garden stuff.
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Someone mentioned Maureen Corrigan's book: Leave Me Alone I'm Reading which prompted me to check it out at the library. What a treat! Her book is a visual delight from the cover on. Her prose captures the thoughts and feelings of a bibloiophile, at least this one, so beautirfully. It is not a book to race through but one to savor in small bites so each one can resonate. Highly recommended. http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/60422.Maureen_Corrigan has two of my favorite quote so far.
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There may have been others - but I think I mentioned "Leave Me Alone..".
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was absolutely delightful.
Has "So Many Books, So Little Time" by Sara Nelson been mentioned here? I can't remember where I found out about it!
It's another bibliophile "read". She is a book reviewer in New York and decides to read a book a week for an entire year. None of them are ones she has reviewed or is reviewing. Some are re-reads, some are ones she started and didn't finish.
I loved her outlook.
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read the name of the wind by patrick ruffuss, but maybe you should wait for the sequal because he only gets started in this first of three series. and he is addicting. the first two pages told me that this was not just another sci fi writer. this is a poet and he is funny as a writer but principally very visual, the images being the thing in poetry. his reader are all waiting impatiently for book two, but his blog is very amusing in itself. just ask google for the way in.
claire
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For you Stephanie Plum fans, "Finger-licking" will not disappoint you.
When I read the part about Lulu "getting stuck" my husband came into the living room asking me if I was crying. I was laughing so hard, he thought I was sobbing. Even though Evanavich continues with the same story of Stephanie's zany family, it never ceases to amuze me.
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Alf, thank heaven.. she is back on form. The 14 book had its moments, but not enough of them. I missed The sisters husband..not enough Ranger or Joe.. Hmm..
I am in Ocala tonight.. We are almost home, but always stop within anhour or so of home. We use astorage area for the rv, so need to do our housecleaning, etc the night before.. So here we are, vacuuming,, scrubbing, getting rid of all sorts of things we dont need.
Thought of you Alf,, I think you live close by here.. We are at exit 350
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Another goodie in Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books is the five pages of Recommended Reading at the end.
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I miss the book I just finished. the name of the wind.
I think it woud make a great movie or two or three.
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Are you right at Camper World next to Sam's club Steph, off rte. 200? How long will you be there?
We are also at exit 350 and 6 1/2 miles down rte. 200 heading SW, at On Top of the World. I'd love to see you.
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Found while browsing the Internet this morning. This comes from the IndieNextList, put out by the American Booksellers Assoc. Here's a new (I think) Pat Conroy)
by Pat ConroySouth of Broad
(Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385413053 / 038541305X)
"After far too long an absence, Pat Conroy has returned with an epic tale of friendship that survives school integration, the AIDS epidemic, Hurricane Hugo, and horrific family pasts and secrets. You'll fall in love with Charleston, South Carolina, through the words and life of Leo King as he resolves to right his own life while reaching across racial and class lines to create lifelong bonds with an unlikely band of high school seniors." --Nancy Drott, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX
I'm currently reading the new Andre Dubus III -- The Garden of Last Days Definitely not a "feel good" book. Think Sept. 2001, a Florida Club for Men, down and outers. But still, a certain pull and draw makes you want to know more about these characters.
Am also reading, sporadically, Olive Kitteridge. It seems more a collection of short stories with Olive Kitteridge always playing a role.
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A new Conroy?? Hooray. One of my old favorites and he has not written a new one in quite some time.. Alf, sent you an email..
Home and unpacking. Managed to make my back scream and shout, so am trying to tone it down.
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Many thanks, pedln. The new Conroy will be delivered to my Kindle on 11 August. ;D
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Still unpacking.. The results of six weeks away in the rv are always interesting. I buy most of my birthday and Christmas presents on the road. That way they get different types of things. I bought a piece of original glass inCorning and unpacked it this am.. Now to decide where to put it.. I do love it..It is sort of a vase, but I wouldnt dare put real flowers in it..
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I love Conroy and will be ordering his newest as well. Steph, sorry we missed one another, perhaps next time. We were in an RV for 3 years while Bill had to travel to get his required months in prior to retirement. I know the problems inherent with it as well as the many joys.
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I finished Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout a few weeks ago, and thought it was worthwhile, giving incite into hardships in a small town in New England.
So I tried another by her, Amy and Isabelle, which unfortunately was less good, perhaps too down beat for my mood this summer.
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Oh wonderful a new Conroy!! MaryZ, I will be getting it on my kindle too.
Maybe it will be something that will really hold my attention. I have been in so much pain from a fall that I took recently that I have had a hard time concentrating on my reading.
Joan Grimes
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Well I sure am disappointed! I finally got Dear American Airlines which I had ordered a long time ago and eagerly got it out for a car trip and could not get past 2 pages. I was all set for some fun and laughter and really disliked the book, the tone of the book, what he was saying, and the way he expresses himself. I think that does add up to throwing it in the trash?! I need to start reading library books if I''m going to trash them.
Maybe it was just me, have any of you read it? A man, stranded in an airport, writes a....rambling disjointed letter to American Airlines about his life which he sees unravel, etc., on the way to his daughter's wedding. It's incoherent. It's supposed to be funny, and some of it is and a lot of it is not.
I think he got me being glad that his mother had a stroke because tho her left side was paralyzed, she had snapped out of the Alzheimer's she had previously had? I mean UGG?
Don't you want to run out and get a copy?
Welcome back, Stephanie! Enjoyed your road travels commentary. I see Longwood Gardens is mentioned in the Fiction discussion. I love Longwood and their sound and light show in the summer, and their fabulous store and greenhouses where I used to buy the most beautiful plants which promptly died upon getting home. Love Longwood and those water lilies. I originally went to Longwood to see a copper beech tree, mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories and which used to be in Kensington Park in London before that awful storm of a few years ago which took almost all of them. Longwood is one of the few places anywhere in the US you can (or could) see them. I wonder if they are still there. It's been a LONG time since I was there.
Marjifay, were you the one recommending the Cannell Thin Woman? I love the premise of that. I've ordered it and in so doing I see she has done takes on Remains of the Day and Brideshead Revisited, so was intrigued and ordered them also. Can't wait for them to come, she looks fabulous.
Meanwhile Ripley (yes Mary, I felt positive enough to try to finish the series, and already he's got me paranoid hahahaa) and I are in Berlin, in his fourth book The Boy Who Followed Ripley. That woman is a master in creating situations where your mind is screaming, no no but off you go anyway. She's having to strain a little with this one but as I recall the series the 5th and last before she died was one of the very best.
She could have written about him forever, actually, because he keeps changing in little ways, it's fascinating to watch.
I'm reading or trying to My Life at Grey Gardens and have the DVD The Beales of Grey Gardens, the unseen footage, but I need to feel a bit more energetic before I start as it always makes me want to clean something (which definitely needs doing here).
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Sorry to hear about your fall, JoanG. I hope you're feeling better soon. I'm currently in a reading "slump" - just can't seemed to do any sustained reading. That doesn't keep me from plugging away - I just haven't finished anything lately. I really HATE it when that happens. Nothing to do but hope it ends quickly.
ginny, we planted a copper beech in our yard a number of years ago. It's still pretty small - I guess they're pretty slow-growing. The leaves are so pretty in the fall, and stay on the tree a long time.
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JoanG, I'm very sorry to hear that you fell and are in pain. I hope you feel better soon.
Ginny, I've read a few of Patricia Highsmith's books, but only The Talented Mr. Ripley, from that series. The rest of the Ripley books sound captivating (literally.. I feel that the author reels you in and you can't put the book down!) I'll have to look for them. I think she is an amazing writer. There are some interviews with her on youtube.com (search for patricia highsmith).
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Yes, Ginny, I was the one who recommended Dorothy Cannell's book, THE THIN WOMAN. Too bad you didn't take that to read on your trip instead of DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES (which I have not read, not do I intend to after your enthusiastic review! LOL).
Just curious, Ginny, do you read much nonfiction?
Marj
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Mary, I have heard that the copper beech will not grow here where we live. I was stunned to see them in the UK, spectacular things. Good luck on yours!!
Marcie, Highsmith is mesmerizing, she somehow manages to get you to understand and go along with some definite...er... stuff. hahahaa I think book 3 is a good one too but I'm not sure they can be read out of order.
Marjifay, yes I like Non Fiction, I don't read as much American history and political/ press figures that a lot of people do, tho, but actually I read more non fiction lately than fiction. (You are not thinking that Dear American Airlines is non fiction? It's fiction).
Joan G I am sorry to hear that you fell, I hope you feel better.
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[quote author=PatH When one of my daughters was in high school, a friend lent her "Justine" with the warning not to let her mother see she had it. She showed me anyway, and I laughed and pulled my copy off the shelf for her.
[/quote]
Oh, PatH...loved this anecdote!!
Aliki
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[size=12pt]As is probably obvious, I am not used to the different rules and elements of this posting system after the other we had before so I think I'll go drop by the Questions and Help section on the front page.
Aliki[/size]
(I give up for now!!)
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Ginny - if you ever get back to Moorestown, you must go to Alice Paul's house (Paulsdale) on Hooten Rd in Mt Laurel and see the magnificant copper beech there. It is very tall and very wide and the branches droop so nicely, i can just see children playing under it in 1900. It was probably the coolest place on the farm in a day of no air conditioning. ........... i was the one who said i was going to Longwood Gardens to see the fountain and light display. I'm glad to hear that you and Mary both loved it...........jean
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Don't give up, Aliki. We're glad you're here.
Remember the film The Emperor's Club, that we talked about a few years back, and compard with the Ethan Canin novella The Palace Thief? I still think that's one of the best movies I've seen in recent years.
Has anyone read Canin's new book America, America? It's out in paperback now and a few bookstores in Seattle were touting it when I was there. Yesterday I made a big mistake by popping into our town's only used book store. And there on the recent arrivals shelf was America, America. After saying "no no no" to buying any more books, I bought it, don't know when I'll get to reading it.
Actually went in looking for the Penguin version of Edwin Drood. No luck in that department.
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Longwood is and always has been one of the most beautiful gardens anywhere. But we have seen magnificent ones all over the US.. We try really hard to take in the gardens whereever we go in the rv.. One of the joys of rv's is the ability to go to even tiny little areas and see what they have and are proud of.
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Mabel, if I ever get back to Moorestown, I sure will look it up, would love to see it. My interest in the copper beech occurred alas after I left Moorestown (how CAN they close that bakery!! Those creme doughnuts! Those cinnamon buns! ) so I was not aware of it, thank you.
Steph, that does sound most poetic. I wish that RVing appealed to me but it doesn't, but it's See the USA Your Way, I like the seeming romance of it, tho. Did you happen to see any of the films or demos at Corning on glass blowing? I have the DVD and they are fabulous, most interesting.
Allie, Jane and Pat will be glad to help you with the coding!
Pedln, let us know how you like America, America, I have heard of it. That actor in the movie The Emperor's Club, who played the young man is quite hot today in Hollywood, he's a lot younger than I thought, too.
A Mini Review:
I'm almost through My Life at Grey Gardens. I am not sure it's possible to describe it. You can't quote from it unless you are doing a review. It's ....strange....and fascinating. I am glad to see that in her own home Mrs. Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Big Edie) did enjoy respect and love from those around her despite the somewhat....uh...indescribable circumstances. The house is described as almost weaving a spell, being a safe type of haven despite the cats, etc., and no water in the bathtubs. They kept it like a fortress, locking each other in and out, worrying about burglars and kidnapping. It's only when you stop and think a minute that you can get an accurate picture. I swear it makes you consider aging and a lot of other things like self delusion.
It's another voice to go with the documentary. The one thing that I sort of disagreed with in the book's descriptions which make me rethink the whole, was how Big Edie's speaking voice was described. The author seemed to think of it as "lovely," and apparently she was felt to have a nice singing voice. The author of this book felt that her everyday speaking was melodious, and that the phone calls from her on the upper floor were what went thru them all like a knife. But it's her speaking voice that haunted me after seeing the movie, I don't think I could have listened to that demanding querulous constant slightly aggrieved insistent tone 5 minutes, much less constantly. I believe it would have driven me insane. It almost does in the movie and just reading the book. In some ways it's like an insane asylum, which seems strangely to affect everybody who stays there. It makes you question your own life, truly. Like "what is sanity?"
They also got almost nothing from the Maysles original documentary, at least here at 7/8ths thru the book which is an outrage. They also did receive a LOT of help from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a LOT, she paid monthly for a lot of things nobody knows about, after the movie , in addition to paying to fix up the house. I am not sure....I dunno, this is one of the strangest books I have ever read. Talk about truth being stranger than fiction!
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Oh my yes, We saw glass firing, glass blowing, etc etc. They have quite a few demonstrations in Corning every hour.. But if you want to see Glass Blowing as an art.. Tacoma, Museum of Glass. We spent a whole afternoon watching an Australian glass artists and the resident blowers work on a piece.. Wow.. That blew the mind. She had such a precise vision and it is so hard with glass , since it has to be manipulated in such precise segments.. Ginny you would love it.
Now you have me fascinated. Gray
Gardens is something I must read. Off to Amazon to see what it is..
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Ginny, you do make "Grey Gardens" intriguing! I'll have to check it out. There is a 6 minute interview with Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson about a musical version of Grey Gardens, including clips, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKb6a6irAiQ
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I've never seen glass blowing live, but when I lived near DC, PatH and I visited the Finnish Embassy, where there was an exhibition by a Finnish art glass blower who made glass birds. They were wonderful, and there was a short film showing glass blowing in his workshop.
I have also seen a film of glass blowing on the island near Venice where they make all the beautiful glass. Absolutely fascinating.
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JoanK, there are lots of glass artists around now - maybe even some in your area. Check some of your local art organizations. We have 2-3 places in our area, and they frequently have open time at their studios for "spectating". It's amazing to watch.
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Marcie, and Steph, yes the Beales were certainly one of a kind. Unfortunately I finished the last quarter of the book last night and it's quite sad and tragic, it really is, covering the death of "Big Edie" Beale.
Thank you Marcie for the link to Christine Ebersole's video and the musical. I watched some of the other videos there, they've got the DVD The Beales of Grey Gardens, a clip, showing the actual women in the added on footage to the original documentary, but it's hard to understand. The Maysles who made the original documentary in the 70's, were not wanted at the funeral. One of the Maysles came dressed in an old coat with a rope around it to hold it together.
Then there appears to be something of a strange cult following, on YouTube, some woman dresses up as "Little Edie" and gives opinions and such, 90th birthday, very very strange. Very strange, everything about the Beales was strange, including their friends and family. Can't understand the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Time for something happy and light, I think I'll read EF Benson again. I see somebody has done another sequel on Major Benjy, that might be tricky to attempt.
What's everybody reading this hot and stormy summer?
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Ginny, if you are wandering around you tube.. yes there are much and many weird things there.
Funny... Cant remember if you like Evanovich or not, but she is one in paper (14) and one in hardback(15). Then if you like science fiction fantasy.. any Terry Pratchett will make you laugh. Try any of the witches.. Can you resist a witch named Magrat, because noone spelled to well in her family? Or death who somehow takes a small child to raise in his mansion.. or Mort who hopes to fulfil Deaths job offer? Or the man who reinvents the post office..
A favorite reread of mine is Elspeth Huxleys stories of growing up in
Africa..See. there are lots of stuff..
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Those do sound good! Mort, etc. Love it. Magrat. hahahaa I'll look out for one this weekend.
I love Elspeth Huxley's on Africa, reread them often. Have you read her mysteries?
Somebody has a new "Elspeth Huxley" like account of growing up in Africa, I've seen it and it looks good, same type of thing. Africa is so interesting, to me.
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Any idea of what the book about Africa is. I have a lot of that type. Beryl Markham was a personal heroine of mine. Such a life..And Karen Blixen of course..
Yes, I have read Elspeths mysteries, but I like the childhood the best.
I ordered a Grey Gardens book from Amazon. Seems like there are four of them, so I sort of stabbed at which one. Will tell you what it is like when I get it.
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I still have some of the glassware that I watched being blown on top of a mountain in Caracus.
Ah a different time and world.
Now I am into locking things up. Instructed by the doctor to take care of Don's medical care and pills which I know nothing about. Jessss I did his pills yesterday after the doctor threw out about half his bottles. He was mixing metforman which is for diabetes with vicoden. He thought they were the same thing. He no longer run errands for me or can he fix anything. I have had a lock put on on a closet in my room and the drugs and ect are getting locked up as we speak.
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Oh, Judy, my heart is with you as you cope with this difficult time.
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Oh, Judy, that's so hard. I know you'll be given the strength from somewhere, but it isn't easy.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
{{{{{{{Judy and Don}}}}}}}}
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Judy, you have alot to deal with now. My thoughts are with you.
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Judy,
You are in my thoughts as you go through this difficult time in your life.
(((Hugs)))
Joan Grimes
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Oh Judy, I feel the pain. We went through that with Tims Mother and life is hard. Hopefully knowing you, you will feel some sunshine and joy with various small things. I will think of you and hold you deep in the flame within.
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JUDY, I'm impressed by your swift and firm action in coping with this problem.
You sound like a very capable woman. I know it must all be very distressing to
you. Thank God for that inner strength, and remember we are here for you
when you need to talk to friends.
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Thank you everyone for your kind words. I need to get a book Altzheimer for DUMMYS,
Found another pill bottle with two different kind of pills in it, took it to the drug store and they told me what was there.
Today the doctor ordered B12 shots for him so I just gave him one and he didn't complain about it so thats good. He should go down to the dinning room now but I don't know if I will wake him.
I had no idea how bad he was when we moved to Fairwinds but I sure am happy we did. this is where we really need to be.
I am driving people to the doctor from here everyday. One lady has cancer and she has to go to Evergreen hosp for radaiton, so I drop her of run to the office and get my work then bring her back here and go do my work. Busy Busy hehe
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Judy, the things we found most helpful when we were dealing with John's dad was the book The 36-Hour Day, and our local Alzheimer's Support Group. I would recommend both very highly. And it's SO important for you to get your rest and time for yourself, plus your sense of humor.
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Judy - When I was responsible for my Dad the following book was the one given to me by the Alzheimer Center as the best book available. I see that it has gone through a couple of revisions since then so I feel very comfortable recommending it to you as it would appear they are continuing to update. I found it informative, inclusive and provided information not only about the dementias but also how to deal with them and take care of yourself as well.
Do take advantage any help offered as you cannot do it alone. I have found that there is a good network of support groups throughout the country so if you aren't comfortable with the first one you visit, try another one. The make up the groups varies as do the experiences of the individuals attending. Some groups are more focused on learning about the dementias etc while others may focus on helping the care giver. You can find the groups online for your area.
The 36-Hour Day : A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss in Later Life
by Nancy L. Mace, Peter V. Rabins
My thoughts are with you. Mary
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Judy, I've been out of town and am sorry to come back and to hear of Don's condition but I am so glad you're in Fairwinds! And it sounds as if you are already making yourself indispensable as always, driving others to doctor's etc., that is wonderful. I have a feeling they are glad you are there, too.
{{{{ Hugs!}}}}} to both of you.
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Judy, you and Don have been in my thoughts so much. You will manage, you've already done the right thing by moving into Fairwinds. I'm so glad you are there, where there is help and support. Just keep on being the strong woman you are, doing what you think is best. But put yourself first sometimes, too. Don't forget to take care of you.
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I totally agree with everything said here! I'm glad we've got US and the range of experience here, too, which may be a help.
I'm just in from a weekend off during which I started a lot of good books. I've got the Noel Coward letters which are fascinating, those times are sure gone, not to mention the people, what a fascinating person. Very few famous personages that he did not come in contact with in one way or another, a look at the glitterati of the past, you might say. AND he wrote LETTERS, not emails, something very few do today. I've almost forgotten how to write in hand, am so used to typing.
Then in preparation for the movie Julia and Julie I started that book, and absolutely love it. Have any of you read it? It's light and happy so far and totally enjoyable, love it and am looking forward to the movie.
And today Richard Russo's comes out with a gigantic promotion from B&N, in store and out, members get 40 percent off, on That Old Cape Magic. The son of college professors who are snobs returns to the summer as I understand it place he used to go to scatter his father's ashes (and his mother's) and discovers a lot about himself in the process. It looks absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to start, but Julia and Julie is so much fun, a perfect summer read!
I've also bought my first Baldacci, the Winner, about the Lottery, pretty au courant I think, since a current big lottery winner lost his ticket.
AND if you watch the Food Network, Melissa won, so we can look forward to her new show debuting Sunday at 12:30 pm.
Our discussions here are smokin, the author is in the Frances Perkins discussion (and if you don't recall WHO she is, don't miss this one, it's gorgeous), the People of the Book is smokin, our Latin classes are filling up quickly, our general discussions are humming, and we're a GO here for the fall season, reading and class wise, what a trip! :)
Welcome, All, what are you reading this summer?
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Ginny.. I kept up with and joined in the original blog, which became Julia-Julie.. I laughed and sympathized with Julie and Kidneys.. and where to find a butcher.. and of course the fact she used the subway to get everywhere in NYC and how that causes problems with a lot of ingredients.. The book was fun and I am so looking forward to the movie.. The promos look great.
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Greetings from DC. JoanP and I got together for lunch yesterday -- it was great to see her and we had a good long visit. Joan -- there was NO traffic going home yesterday. At one point I thought I was on the wrong road because there were so few cars.
Julie and Julia sounds like a fun read. I'm looking forward to both book and film. Did you know that Nora Ephron tested each food item before she approved it for the film?
Also looking forward to the new Robert Russo. My f2f group is reading his Empire Falls later this year, so I'll be rereading that also. My first book discussion on SeniorNet years ago was House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III. And now I'm reading his Garden of Last Days. At first it seemed like it was going to be too much about sleaze -- I mean, how much do you really want to know about a men's club? (And I don't mean a gentlemen's club with deep leather chairs.) But Dubas makes you really care about what happens to all the characters, and there are many. I'm glad I'm reading it.
And have also brought Olive Kitteridge on this trip too. Last night my son showed me what he was reading -- Waiting for Snow in Havanna by Carlos Eire -- a personal narrative about being an 11 year old when Castro came into power. Maybe I'll get to take that one home if the family has finished it by then.
DIL's Book Club seems to be on a parallel track with us, having read Elegance of the Hedgehog, Guernsey Lit Society, and Team of Rivals. They took two discussion meetings for the latter.
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I am still not catching up on the reading.. Did however go to the doctor and am taking two different types of med.. She feels that my allergy turned nasty and so I am taking an antibiotic and also an anti inflamatory.. Must confess it is only two days and I still feel rotten, but my patience has never been my strong point.
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I've had the most delightful time since discovering a HalfPrice Books store in Cedar Rapids earlier this summer. I don't know when it arrived, but it's glorious. There's a second used book store in the same strip mall, and with combining the two, I can find lots of good things at prices that make buying what my local library doesn't carry affordable. I also like Half Price's policy of $$ for what you bring in...rather than the credit the other place gives. I've always used the $$ to buy more, of course, which seems to be what everyone else I've seen does as well.
jane
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feeling rotten me too. thank goodness books distract me when I get into a good one. I ordered three samples for the kindle from titles I got here and am looking forward to them. I checked out the nyt top list and found some of them there. ssya all.
claire
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Jane - where is Cedar Rapids is the half price book store? I will be there for a couple of days (Aug 17 & 18) and my friend and I always spend time in a bookstore so it would be nice to visit a new one. Thanks, Mary
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Yes, do tell about the two book stores in one center. We travel in the RV and I will put Cedar Rapids on my yes lists for that part of the country. I love visiting book stores that are not chains and I adore used book stores and library sales.
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Our library book sale is the last 10 days in August. Come visit!
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Happy Birthday, Gumtree! Enjoy your special day!
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Gum!! It's your BIRTHDAY?
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Happy Happy Birthday!!
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I hope you celebrate a wonderful birthday, gumtree! (That cake looks scrumptious, Ginny--good thing it only has virtual calories!)
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Hope your day is a great one, Gumtree!
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Happy Birthday Gumtree
and many more!!
Joan Grimes
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Let's make it unanimous. Happy Birthday Gumtree
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::) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUMTREE.. Well actually I am sure you have a real name, but you work with what you got. My favorite type of birthday cake.. non fattening.. Have a wonderful day. Treat yourself..
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Gumtree ... sincere wishes if late! Hope you had a great day!
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Me, too, GUM!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY![/
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Thanks for the good wishes everyone -
I see JoanP has much to answer for by letting the cat out of the bag. :-[
I had a good day - made all the better by your warm and friendly greetings.
I just loved the cake Ginny - put on 10 pounds just looking at it ;)
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A little late, sorry.
Happy Birthday, Gumtree.
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Early or late - no matter - Thanks Frybabe !
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Thanks, Marcie and Gum. I tell you what, that cake made ME so hungry I had a Celebratory Cup Cake in your honor, Gum! hahaha Toast to Gum!
Yesterday I saw Julia and Julie and am talking about it in our Books Into Movies discussion (look up on top of the page for the blue band, select Discussion Index and come on over). The theater was packed with mostly women, which is really odd for this area, I can't count the times there may be another patron besides my party in the movie, maybe not.
Packed. Am also reading the book, but Meryl Strep, of whom I am not a fan, outdid herself, she really did. That's Oscar material, even in the way she hunched over various meats: Julia Chlid to the life. I agree with the critics that perhaps a movie on HER life, leaving out Julie (although nicely played by Amy Adams) would be super, they left out a lot.
Got to have one of those pots she cooks in, she and Emeril , everybody but me. Of course I can't cook, maybe that's the reason? hahahaa
That must be it!
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I have recently gotten so many coupons from B&N in the mail it's unreal. I've been using them, too. 40 percent off Richard Russo's newest, can't wait to read it, 15 percent off another, Amazon should follow suit, I buy a LOT from Amazon but B&N has those huge delicious stores. Who can resist one? :)
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I am hoping to go see Julia-Julie today.. Actually Julie's original blog is much funnier than her book. She whines and moans and makes you laugh at her and her opinions of the recipes before she actually cooks.. She also brings in friends to help her eat and that gets funny sometimes. But Our Julia was always funny and kind and helpful. I always wished that I knew her. She just seemed like the nicest human.
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Ginny For someone who can't cook you did Ok with that gazillion calorie cake !
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Since the painters are coming Monday, spent yesterday and will spend today, getting ready.. Its lovely having a great room with living,dining and kitchen all in one space, but miserable to get ready for things like paint. So no movie, I just wanted to collapse after working all day..Maybe next week.
Am excited about the new paint. Also ordered sun shield type blinds for the west window in the great room. I will not cover the french doors and that area, but the two windows are getting wind up shades that will shield up to 80%.. Should cut down on our air bills in the summer. Now to find someone who wants to come in and clean and wax the wood floors.. Hmm.
Lived in the house five years now and guess it is time for the look at this category. Also donated my dining room table and chairs to New Beginnnings, a local charity.
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hahaha, that's my cooking, looks great but the taste? hahahah We'll have to make that our official Birthday Cake here!
Well yesterday from Netflix I viewed the last of the Grey Gardens films. First came the HBO new one, then I watched the original documentary from the '70s' called Grey Gardens, then I read Lois Wright's book My Life at Grey Gardens, and then I viewed The Beales of Grey Gardens which consists of footage they left out of the first one.
Each film gives a different picture. I am having to wonder about why they left out this footage, an entirely different light, and possibly a more positive one on both women. Big Edie is shown reciting, beautifully, long verses, so obviously her mind was intact. Little Edie is shown in some of the 10 "costumes" a day her mother wanted her to wear (!) and swimming in the ocean. She is a very fine swimmer, and I have to say that there's no way I could make the "costumes" she does and look half as good. She flirts with the Mayses. There is another young man (hanger on?) also in the house. The black guy who did the lawn work is not shown. It's a different take on them, and not a full one. If a person is interested, he would want to see the films in the order above to get a clear idea of the entire picture. The Beales of Grey Gardens is somewhat pitiful, and also hard to watch.
Lois Wright, who wrote the book, appears in this one. She looks clean, but is decidedly odd, herself. And her paintings! Finally we see her paintings she talked about in the book.. If you saw Mickey Blue Eyes with Hugh Grant, her paintings are almost exactly like the ones of the mobster's son, believe it or not. It's hard TO believe, there are no machine guns but other than that it's pretty much the same. Perhaps that was an early period or something of her work, a later one looks somewhat different. I don't know a lot about art, period. She reads palms.
One thing the Beals of Grey Gardens does have is Big Edie singing well. She sings beautifully, just as everybody keeps saying, sometimes off key in spots, but she did have a nice voice. That is not shown in the other film, she sounds quavery and kind of sad in the other film.
Stranger than any fiction, two women whose non existent careers never died, living in abject squalor in a big house in the Hamptons. It's quite sad. It's the last I will watch or read of them, but at least I now know more.
I've started Burn which Jane recommended in the Fiction discussion and am enjoying it very much. The author Linda Howard, is listed by B&N under Romance so I am somewhat shocked to find myself reading a Romance and not being able to put it down. A lot of her fans think this book is a departure for her;, if so, I say vive la departure, so far it's really enjoyable. I've had a hard time this summer getting INTO any book. I can't seem to start one. Or stay with it, so much for Monica Ali's The Kitchen. I guess they don't hold up to my former fascination with the Beales, but this one does. I had read 31 pages before taking a breath or so it seemed.
I had at the same time picked up the new Zafon. When you take off the book jacket, the cover itself has a gorgeous photo of books books books, this one also is about the love of books, just like his Shadow of the Wind, which I loved.
Still reading Ripley in small doses and Sebald. I have a book called Go Slow England which it compliments.
What are YOU reading which you like? Anybody read the new Ann Rivers Siddons? Or the Conroy? I did get That Old Cape Magic by Russo and it also looks wonderful. But Burn is first, the perfect beach book, unfortunately not in paperback yet.
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Ginny, the new Conroy won't be released until 11 August. I have ordered it for my Kindle. But it was thoroughly panned in a review in Newsweek last week. I didn't read the review, but John did. I must admit I didn't particularly like Beach Music and the one prior to that - at least not as much as I did Santini and Lords of Discipline. But I wanted to give the new one a try anyway.
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First and foremost I would like to thank Pat W. for coming through as she always does for me.
She sent me a lovely e-mail with things to do and look for with Don's Altzhemizers. You are one of a kind Pat.
Now I will tell you all al story.
Wed morning I was driving a lady from here to Evergreen Hosp for radation which she has every day. The phone rang and another really nice lady says Judy I have a doctors appt at 11:30 can you take me? No I say I can't make that. Then Rose comes out early so I called her and said be outside at q10:30 and I will get you there. After a hour in the doctors office the doctor comes out and gives me a perscription for her to go to the hosp ASAP for 3 ex-rays and a ultra sound. In the meantime I an thinking this lady fell and broke her pelvis about 6 weeks ago and you are yanking her in and out maybe thats not a good idea. Well too late for that.
She finially finished at about 2:30 and I made my 3 oclock appt to ge tmy hair done.
Thursday I get home from work and think I should rest a while, it wasn't 15 minutes later I hear a s
scream and Don had fallen off a 2 step ladder and fell back wards on this head and but. Here comes 911 and they take him to the hosp. About 8 hours later they have scanned eveything that is scanable and We go home Next day I even forgo work, not like me. They put dye in his veins that doesn't mix withemetforman and back for more tests.
Friday more tests.
Sat hospital at 8AM for more tests as we came home 911 was taking am out and his doughter asks if I will watch her Mother. No problems I say.
Sunday morning I get up and Don is sick I go across the hall and Florence is sick I go down the hall and Paul is saick. The place is now shut down neveryone is supposed to stay in their room the resturant is closed and they are bring food to the rooms. all activity cancelled for 71 hoiurs and how was your day.???
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Judy, you are one of the world's saints, wow, I hope you occasionally have a chance to take two breaths in a row. Don't forget yourself.
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Actually this is kind of spooky. They are coming to all the room and disinfecting them with clorox and water. They are spraying down the elevators. The general manager is here with shirt rolled up and is pitching in and cleaning. They took all the chairs and tables in the lobby and washed them down with something. I keep thinking about flu epedemics in the early 1900's and I wonder if this is it???
In the flier we got they said that thisis very contageous and we should stay in our apts. Scary stuff.Actually this is kind of spooky. They are coming to all the room and disinfecting them with clorox and water. They are spraying down the elevators. The general manager is here with shirt rolled up and is pitching in and cleaning. They took all the chairs and tables in the lobby and washed them down with something. I keep thinking about flu epedemics in the early 1900's and I wonder if this is it???
In the flier we got they said that thisis very contageous and we should stay in our apts. Scary stuff.
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Oh, JUDY. We will all keep prayers and good thoughts for you. But I think you will be alright as long as you get good care, should you get sick.
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{{Judy}} Yes, please don't forget to take care of yourself. It's good that the facility is shut down so you won't be asked to help anyone for a while. You need the rest!
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Judy, I'm sure you know this, but the best prevention measure you can take is to wash your hands a lot, especially every time you come back into your apartment and before touching food.
you surely don't need this on top of everything else.
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Judy, what a stressful time you've had!! {{{Hugs}}}}. I hope Don recovers OK, scary.
I've just been reading about this fall's expected "Pandemic," and the fact that there may not be enough vaccine by then. Sounds like you are on the cutting edge out there :). It also sounds like you're in a good place should this occur, so that was a great move. So good of you to take others, as always, (how many years have you been doing this?) to the doctor.
The Internet is wonderful, isn't it? You can keep us posted from the front as to what's happening.
I know YOU have a million books on hand as always for any duration! Good luck, we're all pulling for you!
Here's something today that the sender swears has been checked out at Norton and is it Snopes?
Do not open
>> any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM
>> HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus
>> which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole
>> hard disc C of your computer.
>> This virus will be received from someone who has your
>> e-mail address in his/her contact list.
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Oh Judy, you are doing so much.. Remember yourself. I is so important. I think we all worry about you. Make time for Judy.. Love yourself.
Wanted to mention. I just finished "Plaine Secrets" subtitled An outsider among the Amish by Joe Marshall. It is excellent. He lives surrounded by one of the strictest of Amish sects. This is about his neighbor and friend who is Amish. Excellent indeed. Gives you such a clear picture of their life and joys and sorrows.
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I hope the measures the management is taking are successful, JUDY. It does
sound as though they reacted promptly to the threat, which is to their credit.
Did they ever identify the 'highly contagious' illness? I can understand they
might want to wait until the crisis passes, so as not to alarm people too much,
but I'd definitely want to know at some point.
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Judy: As you can see we are a concerned community and please remember that you can always tell us how rotten life is and we will listen. SOmetimes all we need to do is rant a little and then we can go on with what needs doing. Rant away! My heart is with you.
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Good heavens, Judy, this is all too much coming at once. What do the docs say about Don, after the scans and the dye injections. I sure hope his fall didn't bruise anything seriously.
It's scary when you don't know why they're isolating everyone. Did they give a name to this illness.? Is anyone receiving medical treatment for it? Surely your docs should know.
Do be sure to take care of yourself.
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Pedln there are 56 people sick as of today. Candi told me last night that its the norwak flu like they have on the cruise ships. I think she is right. They just sent out a flier and they are calling it a NoroVirus Infection.
The break down is
8/06/09 First Reported case
8/07/09 Second reported case.
8/08/09 Fourteen reported cases
8/9/09 Twenty eight cased reported
8/10/09 Ten Reported case.
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Norwalk flu -- ask Jane about it. The danger is dehydration.
But it should not last too long, but it very hard on older people.
It is more a stomach/intestinal flu virus.
Drink lots of liquids.
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Wow, that flu spreads fast! I'm glad to see the latest count of new cases is
down by nearly a third of the previous days count. The end appears to be in
sight. My commendations to your management for their fast action.
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Cruise ships.. college dorms, enclosed environments.. Had not thought, but that also described a senior center with independent and assisted living. Stay in there Judy..
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I have a new favorite author for fiction. Joseph Finder who writes about corporate spying etc. Kindle has a free book of his paranoia which got me started. It is interesting as well as entertaining. He's a nice writer.
claire
8)
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The Norovirus, which we caught on a cruise ship in June, can spread rapidly. One sick person can infect 14 others. It sure spread fast on our ship and we were really, really sick for about 48 hours. It can hit like a bolt out of the blue.
Claire...my husband discovered Joseph Finder on a recommendation from another fellow while we were in S. Texas last year. He's come to really enjoy Finder's mysteries.
jane
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Thanks for reminding me, Claire and Jane, how good Joseph Finder's thrillers are. Paranoia, Company Man, Cut and Run (a book that defies you to put it down!). I haven't read him for awhile. Will have to get another one.
Marj
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Speaking of thrillers reminded me of Larry Hanna, a member of the old Sr. Net book discussion group who handled the book exchange. I got a couple of good books from him. Wonder if he's still around somewhere.
Marj
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Larry did a splendid job of keeping the book exchange going. I just realized that I have not seen any posts by him in here.
MFH loves Joseph Finder. I am not a fan of that sort of book, but he is.
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Yes Larry has been here, and occasionally posts also in the Seniors & Friends. I was just thinking about him. The last I heard he was doing well, and had taken up his walking again. I'll let him know you're thinking about him here. :)
I started again The Oxford Murders last night as I could not find Burn. I had put The Oxford Murders down originally, I can't imagine why, I love it. Did you finish it, Pedln?
It so reminds me of Oxford and it's a mystery, very literate, with neato clues that would engage a mathematician. Since maths are a mystery to me, the entire thing is fascinating. The author is Guillermo Martinez, and is a native of Argentina. The Oxford Murders won a prize. Martinez lives in Buenos Aires and has a PhD in Mathematical Science.
It's a lovely read, and a good mystery!
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Re: Oxford Murders -- I haven't started it, Ginny. Bought it at a mystery bookstore in Greenwich village last September, when SN was in NY, and it sits on my shelf. But that's okay because one day I'll be in the mood for just that, and there it will be. Glad to hear you like it.
My f2f group is reading Nevada Barr's Winter Study for next month. All about the wolf study on Isle Royale National Park. A good story, makes me appreciate the comforts of home.
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We just got the new Nevada Barr,Borderline . It's only a 7-day book, so we'll both have to be quick. ::)
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PEDLIN, MARYZ: just read "Winter Study". I liked it. I didn't know she had a new one out. Let us know in Mystery Corner what you think.
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there are so many finder books that i forget the title of the one i just finished . . . read in one day too. since i only read the kindle now because o my eyesight i have umpteen books to give away but don't want to bother with the mailing. can't read small type and don't usually reread mysteries or sci-fi.. i follow a thread at amazon's free kindles which are just a lure, sample the writing and then if I like it start in on the series which is usually around six dollars a shot. kinda expensive for me but, hooha anyway i love my kkindle.
claire
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Claire...a local Library Friends of the Library might welcome your books for a book sale to make money for a Library or there might be a nursing home nearby who would welcome your books...or may a Half-Price Bookstore that will give you cash for your books.
jane
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just getting the movement of all this stuff is beyond me. Currently it occupies five various small bookcases plus a wall of them. the good art and nature books and some of the classics are worth keeping. the rest just taking up space. I read a whole book kindle-wise yesterdaiy and a half a one today. . .the riding lesson it's a cliche but well done. this much in itself is a complete novel the resolution of various themes and of course beautiful horses. the teen theme, the dying parent theme, the hostile mother to older daughter theme, the love story theme and possibly a bit of skull dugery theme. I think I like the joseph finder books better. not at all cliche.
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Claire, the social directors of your local nursing homes might well be happy
to come pick up some of your books if they were offered. It would get them
out of your way for no more trouble than a phone call.
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Relative to our book discussion of Frances Perkins, we are having a mini-town hall meeting on the subject of health care reform. Perkins was responsible for many of the social programs we have today, e.g. Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, etc.
All good programs, but how far should the goverment go in interfering with the lives of its citizens? Come tell us your opinion.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=587.msg32733#msg32733
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Bas Bleu came yesterday. I was in the mood for different and ordered several of the books including one from a resident of Guernsey. He was around during wwII and I am anxious to get his take on it after the book discussion we had. Could not Resist something called "The Heroines" plus a few more. Ah.. I need more books like I need a second head.. Wait.. thats a good idea.. I could read more books that way.
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Well, Steph, you are a treasure trove. I'd never heard of Bas Bleu or The Heroines. Found out my library has the latter and it is now on my list, to be checked out after I finish some of my other reading committments.
And Bas Bleu. What fun. After looking at all their fiction I requested their snail mail catalog (something I usually try not to do) and got on their email list. So what is the title of the Guernsey book you ordered? Ebeneezer Le Page?
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Oh my gosh, Hugo Chavez has a Revolutionary Reading Plan, and is giving out thousands of free books! Don Quijote and Les Miserables are on it? Has anyone seen a complete list?
The books are promoted by books squadrons, who are denoted by their colors. For example, those wearing red promote autobiographies.
Book Squadrons (http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/book-squadrons/)
I actually came across that little tidbit while checking out Schott’s Vocabulary in the NY Times. Now that I know what an instead-man is, I want one. “Please go down to the basement and deal with the laundry.”
Instead men (http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/instead-men-and-cant-botherists/)
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All good programs, but how far should the goverment go in interfering with the lives of its citizens?
Ella: Since my everyday living depends on a combination of my private income and my social security plus Medicare, I do not consider it "interference" with my life that people like Frances Perkins had the foresight and compassion to interfere in my life.
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"Instead men" !?! Oh, Pedin, that's priceless! I'd start w/ a grocery shopper! I absolutely hate the big grocery stores that have taken over in my town shutting down the smaller ones. It takes me an extra half-hour to shop because the aisles are so long AND they keep moving things AROUND so i can't hop in and go directly to what i need, being sure that it will be in the same spot where i got it the last time..................
Authors have got to find other venues than the Charleston/SC Islands area........I just read THREE books by three different authors, all set in that section of the country. I know it's beautiful and probably fun to write about, but geez ??? ??? we're a big country! Guess i have to go get some Nevada Barr or Janet Dailey books. I've read all the Evanovich NJ books .. ;D ;D.......jean
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I lucked our --- married a man who loved to grocery shop. He would even go to the store when we didn't need anything, just to look around. He used to say that "grocery shopping was the Jewish man's hobby".
Lucky indeed: I get in those big stores with all those Neon boxes filled with chemicals and sawdust shrieking "buy me, buy me", and I want to run away screaming.
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Yes, the Bas Bleu book is Ebeneezer . Sounds great and maybe will give me a better picture of the Island. I loved the Guernsey book, but was puzzled by the Nazi invasion, etc.
I ended up with The Heroines,The Book of Ebenezer LePage. The Importance of Being Kennedy andService Included, Four Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. I love books on professionals in the restaurant or cooking business.
I just finished My Life at Grey Gardens by Lois Wright. Who seems to have lived with The Beales for a year or so.. What a strange and sad way to live.. And the cats and the fleas. Oh me, I could never have done it.. But a number of people seemed to have been devoted to them.
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Joan - can you send him my way about once a month? ;) ;) that would be to New Jersey.............
I picked up a Barbara Taylor Bradford for some light reading - The Heir - set at the beginning of the 20th century in England - entertaining, but she does do a lot of description about every room and what every person is wearing. But since i'm just using it for entertainment, it's kind of interesting. I'm also reading North of MOntana, which some one on SL mentioned, also entertaining, but not compelling............jean
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I've been reflecting lately on what I read and why I read. Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone: Finding and Losing Myself in Books prompted an attempt at a deeper analysis of the two Ws. Add to that my belief in a mystical brother-and-sister-hood of English Majors wherein they are taught the rites which can extract the darkest secrets from, say, "The Wasteland". Along came Sara Nelson's So Many Books So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading and I'm stil as much in the dark as I was before I started. But there has to be a core truth about my reading selections. Partly it is the lure of counting coup: Another notch in my belt. But if that is all why can't I devour just any old book? No, it has to be something that promises me something new. Ah well, more head scratching ahead.
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You lead me to some thoughtful musings, Jackie. I recently decided not to just keep a list of the books i read, but to write a little about each and how i felt about it. ........ i haven't started that yet ;), primarily because i have been stuck in the house w/ a sciatica attack and i intend to go to the store to get a spiral notebook in which to write those musings. But you add a question for me, "why did i read this book?"
Giving it some superficial tho't - for about a year i have been reading primarily books that are just easy, fun, entertaining, in contrast to my REAL life. My husband and i have both had some troublesome health problems over the last year and he is not a pleasant patient, so i've been looking for a "easy, fun,entertaining" life outside of my own. I have been wrapped up in the cozy mysteries, but i have also liked reading M.A. Monroe, who gives me interesting personal relationships to ponder. Historical fiction also takes me to a fantasy world, so i've read a few of those and i'm, at the moment, reading a Barbara Taylor Bradford book about a family in England at the beginning of the 20th century, which i mentioned earlier. Total fantasy for me - love it! But i also love reading the non-fiction books that we discuss here on SL. Having others to discuss them w/ encourages me to get deep into them. And i led a discussion at our library about the 50's and 60's, so, of course, i read some books from that ear..............one of my favorite parts of teaching was in doing the research and i miss it terribly, so being involved in book discussions nourishes that need for me................jean
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Mabel: You've hit on some of the reasons I find reading so seductive; health problems, family problems, the state of the world, money problems. Reading is escape into fantasy. The nice thing about a good book is that there is resolution at the end. My life, and I'm sure this is true for many others, just ambles along from one near-crisis to another with little definition between them. Looking back over the past year I can say, Oh, yes, I remember how that irked me or stressed me. Today it will be something else. But in my books, oh, nicely tied up with a bow on top are all the travails. I'm glad you reached out to me to share your thoughts. Now I will eagerly look for your name.
I read about her in Maureen Corrigan's book (above); Laurie Colwin was a writer who wrote about food and her book Home Cooking: A Winter in the Kitchen is a collection of her essays from Gourmet magazine. Much like reading M F K Fisher's books, her life is mixed in with the ingredients and directions for some yummy sounding dishes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55809-2003Jul1.html
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We listened to the audio of "Winter Study" and found it quite good. Will have to get another Nevada Barr for when we travel.
If one likes archeaology, Egyptology, the late 1800's, you might enjoy Elizabeth Peters titles about Emily Peabody and her husband, Radcliffe Elliott. In the first book, the couple aren't married yet but, of course, that's where it ends. Here's the comment from our library on the first in this 18 book series, entitled "Crocodile on the Sandbank":
"Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian age, embarks on her first Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy umbrella. On her way, Amelia rescues a young woman and helps her elude her rascally lover."
I find myself having a good time reading these books. Peters also writes under the name, Barbara Michaels. I want to see what she includes under another name.
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Annie, I have read those Elizabeth Peters novels. I have also read many of the book under the Barbara Michaels name. AT one time so into her books that I could hardly wait for a new one to come out.
I an experience the other day with discovering books by an author that I used to read all the time. I went to the big main library in Birmingham to return a couple of Agatha Christie books that I had checked out to read when the Christie presentations were being done on PBS. When I started out to the Library, I said to myself ,I am just going to drop these in the book return and not go into the library. I do not need to check out any books because I have several read on my kindle and I have not finished "People of the Book. So what did I do when I got to the library. Of course I went inside and directly to the large print mystery section. There the first book that caught my eye was a book by Evelyn Anthony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Anthony). She was on of my favorites years ago when I was into reading alot of Espionage novels, about WWII and the Cold War. I had just assumed that she was no longer alive and not writing any longer. How wrong I was. She has written several books that I have not read and I checked out two of them before I left the library. I am really looking forward to reading them. I just hope that I like these books as much as I used to like her books.
Joan Grimes
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
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mrssherlock and mabel, I appreciate your sharing some of your thoughts on why you read what you read. I too enjoy immersing myself in other worlds. I love authors who create detailed worlds or characters that help me to get new perspectives. I was thinking about fiction that I read but the same seems to be true of the nonfiction books I read too.
LOL, JoanG. You made me laugh when you said: "When I started out to the Library, I said to myself ,I am just going to drop these in the book return and not go into the library. I do not need to check out any books because I have several read on my kindle and I have not finished "People of the Book. So what did I do when I got to the library. Of course I went inside and directly to the large print mystery section."
I think that most of us can identify with you. I'm glad you found some new books by an author who used to be favorite of yours.
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Joan Grimes Yes, I really identify with you returning books to the library and swearing that you will not check any out - famous last words. But that's not so bad as walking past a bookshop and telling myself I won't go in - or maybe I will but I won't buy anything. Ha!
Your mention of Evelyn Anthony took me back - I too waiting for every book she wrote to come out and then presumably went off the boil - I'll look around for her later writings. Thanks.
Mrs Sherlock : Thanks for sharing your thoughts on why you read. I think escape from present troubles is often part of the reason we take up certain types of book. The desire to learn about people, places, customs and cultures sees us looking for a different genre and so it goes on. But as you say the book is usually tied up with a bow and has a resolution which life does not always offer.
Mabel: I keep a listing of books read and sometimes make a journal entry - though my efforts are intermittent it is interesting to look back and see what my thoughts were at the time. Wish I had done it all my life.
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Marcie,
I am glad to see that others do the same things I do ,such as checking out books when they have vowed not to do so.
Oh Gumtree, I am so glad to find someone else who read Evelyn Anthony. I also do the same as you about passing book shops. I always go in and never fail to buy at least one book and am lucky if I can hold myself to just buying one.
Joan Grimes
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I think we all do that, JEAN, ie., read for a change from our daily life.
Escapism when we need to 'get away', excitement when our work is routine.
Then we read on subjects/people that interest us; milieus that intrigue us.
Shucks, Jackie and Jean, the 'why' part is easy. We read because we love it!
But I think you are so right, JACKIE, that we like seeing a resolution..the
"nicely tied up with a bow on top".
I recognized the truth of that when I remembered how irked I get when a book/movie ends with some string left dangling and unresolved. Rarely happens, thank goodness.
JOAN, be sure and let us know what you think of the Evenlyn Anthony books.
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Book Marks came this week and I have been busy reading reviews, etc. On the back page, they always do a different year in books and this time it was 1971.. The Edgar was given to Maj Sjowall and Per Wahlo for The Laughing Policeman. I had not thought of them for years. I loved Martin Beck and read every single one of the books.. It is so funny to forget an author and then years later, up they pop.. Will have to check and see if they ever wrote any more books other than the Martin Beck series.
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Recently finished the revised edition of Biblioholism by Tom Raabe, I read the first edition years ago. No writer has ever described my book buying and reading habits better than he especially in the first hilarious chapter. There are books laying all over my house and all too often I buy a copy of a book I already have. My book buying rational and how he discribes his is totally irrational which is another way of saying some of us are true addicts. I expect I will read this book again just to maintain my sanity because even though I possess enough unread books to last me the rest of my life if I live to be about 500 years old, that fact does not necessarily reveal something bad about how I choose to spend my living moments and besides there are other people just like me.
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Donnie There certainly are other people just like you - I'm one of them. I've got lots of TBR piles around the house and still buy books incessantly and borrow from the library. And I can't seem to divest myself even of unwanted books - just love them, the look of them, the smell and the feel - and that's before I've looked inside the covers... ::)
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There's something so satisfying to gaze on one's own bookshelves, floor to ceiling, sutffed with books, knowing that they are all MINE! I'll never run out of somethng to read with all these here waiting for me. When I moved to Regon my son counted over 40 bo0xes of books, boxes which held 30 to 40 PBs. He was adamant about never again moving all those books. So they have gone away, slowly, little by little. Now my "wealth" consists of the 30 or so library books which go in and out of my house each week. Not as satisfying but the library has jenough books to keep me4 going at least into next week!
Mabel, there are some softwares which help one keep track of what they read. Google "book collection" to find shareware. Librarything is an online book community which provides a personal database to record books with your own comments/reviews. It's easy and intuitive. http://www.librarything.com/
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When you sign up for a library card at my library, you have the option of
requesting that they keep a record of the books you check out. So far I
haven't had occasion to use it, but I like the idea that if I'm not sure whether
I've already read a book, they can pull up that info.
[psst.. I had no idea some of you were obsessive-compulsive book buyers!
I promise not to tell. But, like JACKIE, if you ever have to move,you'll be
so-rr-rry.]
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One of the neat things about my paperback swap club is that they automatically keep track of all of the books I order from them and also the ones I list with them and mark them as read.. Helps a bit anyway.. But there are so many books i have read over and over.. Hmm. Can I walk past a bookstore or garage sale or library sale.. Noo.... have to check out the books. I would guess that we have a lot of book addicts here.
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mrssherlock
Thanks for the Librarything tip, I will look into it. People have talked about going in reading streaks. I have started one on what the elderly are writing about. There is some real good stuff. One women wrote what amounts to a travelogue as she starts to take adventurous trips without a man, another wrote about fears she had all her life and told of all the things she studied to live with her fears of what might happen that would bear unpleasant consequences. The best read I am having is by Helen Hills called Spiritual Living subtittled, What Matters and What Doesn't. I am reading this book very slowly because I don't want to finish it anytime soon. What pulls me into her writing is that she is a church going member that insists on not being preachy. Rather she anticipates all the ongoing arguments that undermine religion and addresses them in a way that provokes thinking. On the other hand I just finished Saving Grandma by Frankie Schaeffer, son of a prominent religious leader. We have the Schaeffer Academy started by Francis SR., still going strong in my community. Saving Grandma is a funny, funny book about an aging woman who fractures her hip and is brought to Switzerland to live with her only child. From her bedroom she does nothing but scream that all are lunatics, and worse than that. As a Christian community, all learn to tolerate her but the granson, Calvin, learns to really love her. I loved it.
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DONNIE: those books sound really interesting. How do you find books like that?
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We're in the final week of our discussion of The People of the Book. Let's compare reactions. Don't miss this opportunity to express your opinion and rate this best seller -
The People of the Book (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=680.400).
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grocery shopping . . . count ;your blessings
I'm having to pay a shopper because I can't be on my feet doing it for myself any more. I miss it. Even my IDa who tried very hard to do it all right did not. I fuss over brands and sizes and days that advertise some of my pet selections.
Her life became complicated and tomorrow I have to train her replacement at fifteen an hour including training time. . .at least two and maybe more hours including a couple of other errands. Even though I've made a list and can e-mail it to her, orientation in person here comes first. at fifteen an hour. Dear ida traded me for art and some other things. it doesn't seem fair somehow. I miss it.
claire
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Claire, I am sorry you cannot shop. I know people who hate it, but I have always loved grocery shopping. Gives me a chance to look at new stuff.. check out old and chat with my fish guy who is a funny New Englander.
Allergy is still with me. But seems to be at least slightly easier to deal with. I just wish I could breath through my nose. I hate mouth breathing.
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Steph: I thought I was the only person on earth that liked to grocery shop :o
I really like to see what is new on the market----also what is old. It is one of
the few interests in my boring life. ::)
JOY
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JoanK
I usually find most anything I want from Alibris. a new and used online bookstore. I usually have a title in mind when I start my search but one title thing leads to another and pretty soon I have several books in my wishlist that seem very interesting to me.
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wellll abut grocery shopping. . . . Monica came and cleaned up my kitchen, changed my linens and did a laundry before she even started to shop. She just kept seeing things to fix. In the end the groceries cost 280 because I was stacking up and she cost 50 although I offered 60, her idea for four hours and we work it from now on with e-mail lists and telephone for clarifiction.
she's better at it than I am and made suggesions which I was glad to have. So my shopper was worth every dime in tems of service, but I wish I could have done it myself.
However she is welcome to the housework any time.
claire
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Claire: I need to have a cleaner come in every quarter to get the corners behind the toilet, for instance. Between my spine (arthritis) and my knees (?) bending over is hard. I sit whenever I can, including cleaning the cat box. So having a cleaner 4 times a year means that nothing gets very dirty, right! My oven is a disaster. Reaching into the dryer requires my reacher tool. My niece has a washer/dryer set that is above waist level. Wonderful! Now my hearing is going bad. One dern thing after another.
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We have wood floors, two dogs and love to go barefoot.. So.. I really need someone to come in once a month and do our wood floors.. The problem?? finding someone.. Anyone in the neighborhood that has a maid service, hates them.. They change all the time. Biggest problem is the language barrier down here. I called one service and they wont go where there are dogs.. Sigh.. Oh well.
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Your Monica sounds like a gem, CLAIRE. Congratulations on finding her.
Personally, I would love to have someone come in twice a month and simply dust everything! Since my youngr daughter and I joined forces...and she has kept every gimcrack and accessory anyone ever gave her...we have a great deal to dust.
My hearing is already gone, JACKIE. All I get now is vibrations, as from a
slammed door. And the noises inside my head, of course, but that's only first thing in the morning, when I get up. Very pleasant, actually, to hear the
dings and tinkles. ::)
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on march 17 I began to read my new birthday present kindle and I have just stopped. Tired of it for now with forty one books in the archives and lots of samples gone since there were samples for all of those too. so now what. Monica is a find. so I'll save kindle dollars for another time with her. life is good.
claire :)
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How does one find a maid service? I've been reading Craigslist and have found some that sound good. We've had good luck with car repair sites there. In San Jose we were lucky to find a good repairman; my son does his books. but up here don't have any contacts in Salem.
Babi, if it isn't too personal, what caused your hearing loss? Mine seems to be just fading away. Noticed it at first when people seemed to be talking too softly. Now it's TV, I have to turn it up higher than my family needs. The newspapers are full of ads for aids, seems to be a price war going on but I don't know if I need those fancy multi-hundreds of dollars appliances. I've seen ads for $40 ones. I''ll ask my doctor next time. My aunt and my GM had macular degeneration - one dies at 85 the other at 90. So far there's no signs of that, only incipient cataracts. No symptoms but the Opthamalogist comments on it each exam.
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Jackie, I don't have a hearing problem, but a friend does and has hearing aids. But what seems to do him the most good is one of those $10-20 things advertised in the paper that looks like a "bluetooth phone" thing. We have lunch every week with him in a crowded place, and he always wears it. So it must help focus the sound for him. I don't know what it's called, but it's certainly not expensive.
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mrs sher and babi i think there is a discussion somewhere for us and our hearking loss. at least there used to be. mine started about ten ers ago when my daughter told me to turn down the tv. I wasn't otherwise aware of it so it is slow thing. I put my hands behind my ears and look questioningly at people when Idon't understand them. and then I say if it is important and you really want me to hear you speak slowy and emphasize the cononants. I'm getting deaf. this works pretty well.
I've looked into hearing aids and am told most of them don't help much. Digital is best and over three thousand dollars so I just putt along. some of our on line friends are completely deaf and this is the only way they can socialize.
as for cleaning help. the local church may have referrences. both Ida and Monica come from a church but I got ida from a friend who is a "shirtal cousin".
thwn I advertised for a personal assistant at fifteen an hour I was deluged with calls for two weeks . . . stopped answering the phone. in southern CA we have spanish speakers becuase of the closeness of mexico. I prefrer not too since they don't understand me vey well. Ida sent me Monica both call me "sweetie" I guess it's my age and general dimenor or something.
No pets here. But I shed hair when it's long so am trying it short. it sure grows fast though. I think twice a year for a thorough cleaning is enough for me. I'm cluttered and dusty but otherwise just kitchen and bathroom need it.
now as to books. Not reading yet. giving the eyes a rest.
claire
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JACKIE, my hearing loss was a two-fer. I lost hearing in my right ear in
infancy, from measles. Then a few years ago, I began a gradual loss in the
other ear. This one was a neural hearing loss, which the doctor suspected was
a late effect from a blow to the head I suffered as a child, affecting the
auditory nerve.
My ex-DIL is a deaf translator. From her experience working with deaf
people, she told me the most useful hearing aid is one that loops over the ear
to press against the bone behind the ear. Those don't cost as much as the type
that insert into the ear. That worked for me when I still had one usable ear,
but nothing works once the nerve is dead.
CLARE, maybe one of those behing-the-ear aids would help you. I'm sure you
can get one of those for far less than the Digitals.
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My hearing loss is hereditary according to the doctors. I know my mother grew more and more deaf as she aged. I have been wearing hearing aids since 2004.This is my second pair since my first pair were stolen from our hotel room several years ago. They were in a little black velvet bag and we assume the maid thought they were jewelry..
My aids fit in the ear.. my ear canals are too small for in the canal type. They ran 1600.00 for the two of them. They work well, but pick up too much sound in noisy places like restaurants, malls. My husband is even deafer but refuses to even try them.. He just points to me with waitresses, etc and says talk to her, I canot hear you.. Hmmm. urge to yell is sometimes overwhelming.
I love the aids. I got them to hear my grandchildren and can.. Besides I'm nosy and hate tomiss anything.
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I knew if I asked here I would get answers. Thanks for the tips. I'll try one of those el cheapos cause I sure can't afford what the others cost.
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Geraldine Brooks, the author of The People of the Book, just responded to some of the questions put to her by participants in the discussion. Claire, there's one remark that will be of interest to you, I'm sure - the very last one on the list.
She sounds really nice, like someone you'd like to hang out with. Her comments are HERE. (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=680.msg33321#msg33321)
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Thanks joan P for he reference. It didn't seem like much really since she was answering specific historical questions. I think she must have been somewhat interested in all ;our comments and would like to have heard responses re: them. We did spend a lot of time doing that. I liked the book but foud the discussion historically out of my league. WE are a good group though.
claire
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Welcome aboard to The Last Dickens, by Matthew Pearl. He has been invited by JoanP to join us in our discussion and he has just made his first post, offering us links to help in our discussion.
Please stop by The Last Dickens site to welcome him. Thanks.
It is great thing to have another busy author kind enough to accept our invitation.
Let's all show him what we are about!
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Our new library that was built jointly by the county, town and community college opened last week. I waited for a week and then visited.. well actually I tried to visit, but since it is on the same campus as the community college, there was zero parking.. Tried later and found one spot all the way across the campus. I went in and just as I suspected.. Full of college students. All computers with that age kid on them.. I begged the county and town not to locate it on the campus, but they would not agree.. So. the local library is lovely, new and completely inaccessible to the ordinary citizen.
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That's a pity, STEPH. Are they closing down the old library? The new library
being "inaccessible to the ordinary citizen" is a very strong argument for keeping the old one open. There should be more parking and less crowding in the summer
vacation, if that's any comfort. Probably not. :(
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Since my posts tend to be so long, I think I'll try different colors this time. :) I liked Geraldine Brooks' answers and I haven't read the book, thank you Joan for letting us know. She must be a very interesting person; her answers were intriguing.
And oh gosh look at The Last Dickens discussion!! Matthew Pearl is posting there in anticipation of his participation in the October discussion, wow!
That makes THREE, count them, three authors, including Kirstin Downey, now talking to our readers here on SeniorLearn, what an honor and a real coup for us, tell your friends.
We seem to be the best kept secret on earth, let's spread the word!
The perfect lead up to that is our September discussion of Edwin Drood led by our own Professor Deems and Marcie. HERE is your chance when somebody asks you what did you read this summer, to enrich your summer by reading Dickens! Who better? He's HOT right now!!
Boy things are buzzing here!
For my part I'm rereading EF Benson again. I originally started in order to find a quote I needed and the only volume I have of him which has not literally fallen apart is the multi book (7 volumes in one gigantic paper bound volume) Make Way For Lucia. I started with the book Mapp and Lucia and I can barely lift the book (thought of kindle) but you know what? It's impossible to hold up in bed but makes a satisfying lap book, and the writing as always remains pure and crystal clear. It's like a cool dip in a serene pool (tho no end of "exciting developments" are happening), they are all in the nature of a power struggle in this small town in England.
Somehow it's nice to have a comedy of manners to read where the worst things happening are things which won't keep you up at night and are actually funny. I love it. And in reading it one day, Trollope's The Warden literally fell off the shelf (knocked from the table while trying to wrestle the Benson into the Reading Chair as my grand baby calls it) and I picked IT up in curiosity and found it much the same, writing style, so I look forward to it, too, when done.
I have to say there's something satisfying about a gigantic book with book marker in it, one feels one is (aside from weight lifting) accomplishing something. I may try A Suitable Boy again.
And it has already split open and how fascinating is it to see it was sewn and then glued. I wish I knew why I am so interested in binding, but there it is. Just a delightful way to spend the summer. I recommend Benson if you like a comedy of manners, even if you never saw the old PBS series Mapp and Lucia. Makes me want to go back to Rye, England again. I'm going to follow it up with the two Tom Holts which are sequels but I think I'll pass on the new Major Benjy book which I hear takes up sex, of all things, as another new sequel.
I've also been reading a good bit of non fiction, including The Complete Pompeii and A Natural History of Latin: The Story of the World's Most Successful Language By Tore Janson (they are both marvelous but the last one is really worth reading if a person is interested in the development of Latin in it's 2,700 year history).
Wednesday night on flipping channels I came upon I Robot with Will Smith and got hooked in spite of myself: good movie! Have ordered it from Netflix. The info button on the tuner said it was a book by Asimov. Have any of you read it?
Am going to the library today anyway so will pick it up then. I love Robot books, finally got a copy of R.U.R, the first robot book (the author coined the term), Capek? Karl Capek? Not sure of the spelling, little play Rossums Universal Robots.
So that's what I'm reading now, what bizarre taste I have. :) What are YOU reading? What's on your beside table? I love the reading opportunities we offer here on SeniorLearn and the fact that we have authors participating is richness indeed! Help us spread the word!!
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Ginny, I was channel flipping too and saw the last part of I Robot. I enjoyed the film. I understand that it's based, in part, on details in some of the stories in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot short story collection. I love Asimov's Robot novels and his three laws of robotics and his idea of "positronic" brains. I've enjoyed the robot novels that are mysteries focusing on Elijah Baley and his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. Those characters are also included in his Foundation series. It would be fun to re-read them and all of Asimov's robot-related works.
I'm currently reading The D. Case: Or The Truth About The Mystery Of Edwin Drood
by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini. It's about a convention of the world's greatest fictional sleuths (eg, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Poirot and Hastings, Father Brown, Nero Wolfe, etc) and their attempts to resolve the mysteries in Charles Dicken's last unfinished work (he died when he was halfway through): The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The book contains the complete unfinished work by Dickens. Both the D. Case and Dicken's original have a lot of humor in them.
It's fantastic that we've had THREE AUTHORS participating in our discussions this month!! If you want to join the entertaining and informative Matthew Pearl in the October discussion of his THE LAST DICKENS, you might consider our upcoming discussion of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in September. Even those who may not have been able to get into Dicken's other works might enjoy this mystery, that we're going to try to solve ourselves since the book wasn't completed. See the "pre" discussion at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=69.0.
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Claire, I thought it was funny that the author of People of the Book had the same reaction to Catherine Zeta-Jones playing Hanna Heath as you did. We knew she had purchased the film rights, but that could have meant she was directing or...anything. How does that work? An actress can purchase film rights to a book that she likes and then choose to star in it herself? HuH!
What I liked about Geraldine Brooks was her open response to every question our posters put to her. Makes me wish that we had asked more. (It's still not too late!) I did describe the posts and the research told her she'd be overwhelmed - and supplied her with a link to the discussion pages. Maybe she will get a chance to look in. She is traveling abroad on an international book tour, so I don't think we can hope for more than email response to questions.
We are considering a discussion of this author's Pulitzer Prize winning, March. March is the absent father of the little women...the March girls. When was the last time you read Little Women? What do you all think of the idea of reading Geraldine Brooks' March and Louisa Mae Alcott's Little Women - in tandem?
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Daughter, Jean, just sent me this link to Forgotten Bookmarks (http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/2009/08/dwight-schrute-would-be-proud.html). It consists of actual photos of bookmarks that have been left in various books - and then found years later. It's fun, and new ones are posted regularly. Check it out.
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That's an interesting site, Maryz. What fun!
If you enjoy mysteries, join us in the discussion of PBS Masterpiece Mystery at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.msg31519#msg31519. We're talking about the Inspector Lewis series (an offshoot of the original Inspector Morse series). A couple of episodes from the Inspector Lewis I series are being shown August 16-August 23 (they're available online if they are not showing in your area). Then, starting August 30, seven new cases will be broadcast in a new series: Inspector Lewis II.
The consensus so far of everyone who's posted in the discussion is a big thumbs up for all aspects of the program!
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Joan, I found some information about Geraldine Brooks' MARCH at http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/march_reading.html
I would be interested in reading Little Women again, in tandem with March. I haven't any significant reading about the Civil War. This would be educational for me. I also enjoy reading books that build upon other fictional worlds.
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library7.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Thank you, Pat H.
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Ginny, about the only thing the movie "I, Robot" and Asimov's book have in common is the title. The book is a collection of short stories which sort of make a connected story--interesting enough for fans, but the premises are incompatible with the movie plotline.
I'd love to know what you think of R. U. R. when you finish. Maybe you could tell us in the sci-fi site as well as here.
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I'm in the midst of sev'l books: the Frances Perkins book, a Margaret Truman mystery - Murder in the White House, a Nelson DeMille book -The Gate House. DeMille makes me laugh w/ his wit. I mentioned in the mystery discussion that i almost passed up this book. I had read The Gold Coast and when i started The Gate House, the prologue sounded very familiar, so i tho't "I've read this book!" altho i was pretty sure i hadn't. I put it in the stack to go back to the library, however it worried me and about a week later i went back to it................it turned out the prologue was a dream the protagonist was having about an event that was in The Gold Coast, and the book is a continuation of The Gold Coast. I'm sure many of you who are DeMille fans know what i'm talking about. ..............authors shouldn't do that to those of us who have read thousands of books, it's tough enough trying to be sure we aren't re-reading a volume. We've all got strategies - keeping lists, notebooks, handheld devices, on-line lists - to keep us from doing that............. ;D ;D ............i do to, but i tho't maybe i had missed putting The Gate House on my list of "read" books! That could be a reality!?!
I'm so impressed that we have 3 authors with us! Way to do discussion leaders! ...............jean
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I've started the Frances Perkins book, too (on my kindle) and am really liking it. So much that I've sent a hard copy to our college-junior-political-science-major-lawschool-bound granddaughter to read. This is definitely a lady she needs to know. ::)
John also got a copy of an oldie - a 1962 John D. McDonald - The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything. It's a fun one, and I've just started it. Unfortunately, it's an old paperback, with tiny print, so even though it should be a quick read, I won't be able to read very much at one time.
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A fun site about the bookmarks, MaryZ. Thanks for posting. :D
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The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Laarrson, 2nd in the series, is open on my desk right next to the keyboard. Also Parlour Games by Mavis Cheek, open on the bedside. My sister got me started on Elizabeth Adler, sort of like Danielle Steel, I suspect, but addicting. I'm working my through her list. Sing it to her Bones by Marcia Ralley, is an author new to me; she writes about Hannah Ives, recovering from breast cancer, who finds herself caught up in tragedy when she discovers a body in an abandoned well. The World Beneath by Aaron Gwyn is a mythlike tale of missing person, a young half-breed boy in rural Oklahoma. Finally, I just finished a debut novel, A Bad Day for Sorry, by Sophie Littlefield. A 50ish woman has appointed herself as caretaker for abused women in rural Missouri. She takes care of the women by taking care of their abusers, so thoroughly that they dare not ever lift a hand against any woman. Then she runs into a stuupid jerk who can't quite believe that the rules are for other people. This one is fun but there is blood and gore, Also in the stack to be returned is Rachel Caine's latest in the Morganville Vampire series, Lord of Misrule; the kids are still hanging on, by their fingernails, but there is another book coming out. Stay tuned.
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Yes, Mary, that is a fun site. Haven't we all found detritus in our second-hand and library books? ....................jean
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Oh Maryz, The Girl, The Gold Watch and Everything is fun book. It's a favorite in our house.
N
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GINNY, I believe "I,Robot" was the first book introducing the robotic theme
to science fiction. Asimov was certainly the author who introduced robots.
I have seen a movie version of the book, but I don't believe I've seen one
with Will Smith. I've liked everything Will Smith has done. I'll have to
look into that.
Marcie, I read "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" sometime last year and thought
it fairly evident how it was going to turn out. I could have been completely
wrong, of course, but it didn't seem like something that would require Holmes,
Poirot, Wolfe, et al to solve.
MARYZ, the pictured bookmarks are real antiques. I suspect that the forunate
finder would also find they are quite valuable.
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GINNY, I believe "I,Robot" was the first book introducing the robotic theme
to science fiction. Asimov was certainly the author who introduced robots.
I have seen a movie version of the book, but I don't believe I've seen one
with Will Smith. I've liked everything Will Smith has done. I'll have to
look into that.
Oh no, Babi, not at all. The inventor of the word ROBOT and the concept of robots, was definitely Karel Capek, who was born in 1890. I can't believe I am giving a wikipedia url but there it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek
He coined the term in 1921, tho he gave credit for the term to his brother Josef, who apparently died in Bergen Belsen. The Wiikpedia article has a photo of his grave.
Thank you all for the great references. and info. PatH , I reread R.U.R. a couple of years ago after finally finding a copy, I found it something that a lot of other authors have copied, thematically, so that it seems the archetype of robots taking on a soul and human characteristics and rebelling. It is a play which can be read in 1/2 hour, and it has implications for humanity in it as well, like 1984, in this case against the growing Nazi menace. All that despite the simplicity. Such a shame nobody appears to know who it or Capek is.
Too bad that copies of it are so scarce, but there it is, it would make a super discussion. I'll look again on Amazon, maybe somebody has done a reprint. *** In Edit! WhOOP! They have a brand new edition for 8 bucks, $2.50 on kindle, and $3 used, it can be read in one sitting, what do you think, Pat H? Want to discuss this historic book? Maybe in ...whatever month is free in our discussions?
I picked up I Robot and another larger book of Asimov's robot stories, but could not find Baley (sp but had it copied down), will look further, Marcie, which one do you recommend I start with?
Golly how you all read!! And the variety! I am in AWR of you! Give us a quote from something you really love now! :)
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Mary what an interesting site, the Forgotten Bookmarks. I am interested in the Growing Sugar Beets, they look like parsnips to me? I wonder if that's the same thing? My grandbaby watches Curious George while eating lunch and on it they show a film of growing parsnips and leaving them over the winter so they will be sweet. They look exactly like that!
In Edit again: no apparently they are two completely different things! Who knew?
Prior to the Curious George program I did not know what a parsnip looked like. I'm pretty sure I have never eaten one.
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Ginny: where I live no roast dinner is really complete unless it has parsnips included among the roasted vegies along with pumpkin potatoes, onions and carrots- they're just the bare essentials. AND do you mean to tell me you've never made or tasted parsnip wine - it's enough to knock your socks off!
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I'm the wine drinker Gum but never have heard of parsnip wine.
ginny, thre's nothing like roasted parsnips- yum. I used to put them (just a little) in my veggie soup.
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Ginny, about the only thing the movie "I, Robot" and Asimov's book have in common is the title.
PatH, I am glad you brought that up. I read "I, Robot" years ago and didn't remember it being anything like Will Smith's movie. I thought "I, Robot" was a full book though, not short stories. Maybe I have a wrong name. Essentially, I remember the book being about a robot created at a robot factory, sent to serve a very wealth man, and through years of upgrades and modifications became very human like. The robot became like a son and learned how to run the "family" business. As I recall the old man passed away and left his very extensive estate to the robot. There was a legal battle over whether a robot could inherit or not. Is this what you remember? I don't have my early Asimov books anymore.
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Ginny & Babi: you are both right. Capek coined the word and concept for robots but Asimov, with his Three Laws of Robotics, set the standard against which all positronics robots can be measured today. The laws are used by other writers as if they were universal, i.e., someone will say, "That can't be, it violates the First Law of robotics." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_robotics
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"That can't be, it violates the First Law of robotics."
Yes, and that's one thing wrong with the movie: it violates the first law of robotics.
Frybabe, Asimov's book is short stories, but that might be the plot of one of them. It's been a long time, and I don't remember them well. Asimov also wrote 3 full length detective stories involving a collaboration between a robot and a human: "Caves of Steel", "The Naked Sun", and "Robots of Dawn".
Ginny, I don't think one could make a discussion of R. U. R. last more than a week at most. My copy is a Dover Thrift Edition which I bought for $1.50 in 2002; I've no idea if that is still in print.
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PatH: Yes it has a new translation. : http://books.google.com/books?id=kSOVBoeCitMC&dq=r+u+r&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Here's Wikipedia's take on R U R: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R._(Rossum's_Universal_Robots)
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PatH: The Dover Thrift Edition you have is the new translation.
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Indeed, Jackie, my edition is the first one on your page, with the black and white squared cover. I see the price has gone up a buck.
My father saw the play here in DC sometime in the twenties. The last scene (except for the important Epilogue) ends with: "A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March! [A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, as the curtain falls.]" In the production he saw, the robots are all marching toward the audience, and just as they reach the front of the stage, the curtain falls. No room for messing up there, or they're all toast.
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PatH, I haven't read those novels you listed. I did read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Looks like I will have to find a copy of I, Robot and reread it. If it is the story I remember, it is well worth rereading.
Never read R.U.R. nor say the movie (except for clips). Heard so much about it over the years though.
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I guess you're right, PatH, and R.U.R. wouldn't make a long thing to discuss, shame. I've actually been reading quite a few plays, it's kind of amazing what they can do with a play.
I'm trying to remember in our history of the Books what we have read in the way of a play, I know we did Waiting for Godot, anybody remember any others? Did we ever do Ibsen?
Do any of you get Ovation as a TV channel? I seem to have just discovered it. Yesterday they had Cosi Fan Tutte all day long, gosh what glorious music and an imaginative staging and tonight the Ian McKellan Richard III, another imaginative staging, which we've discussed before, very powerful.
Yesterday I bought a paperback autobiography of George ("Tanmaster") Hamilton because he's always fascinated me and today I finally read yesterday's Wall Street Journal's Weekend Journal to find that a new movie has been made of his mother's life, called My One and Only and it's gotten some very positive critical reviews, I had never heard of it. I hope his book Don't Mind if I Do, takes some of that up.
Also in this edition of the WSJ Weekend Journal is their book column which takes up the issue of whose translation you trust, for instance do you always go with Penguin or Oxford and why? The writer wants to read Madame Bovary so she turned to the woman who translated the Elegance of the Hedgehog, Allison Anderson, which we read here on SL, and asked HER. It makes great reading, and her advice was to compare the same excerpt from a few different translations and choose the one which "rings" truest to you.
The problem IS if you don't know the language in the first place, how can you figure out which one rings "true?" A very good column which also contains the assertion that Flaubert didn't sound like any of his translators.
I didn't think the WSJ is free online but I did find this page which is electric with all kinds of book news, including the finishing of the renovation of the Keats House. http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-books-best-sellers.html
I don't see the book column, tho. I like it very much, have any of you read it? It's called Dear Book Lover by Cynthia Crossen.
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Thanks for that clarification, JACKIE. I was glad to have the additional
information from Ginny about Capek, tho'.
I read those books about the robot detective, PatH. The awkwardness came
through so well initially, and then the growing sense of a common bond and
partnership. Asimov himself is an amazing person. It's hard to believe one
man accomplished so much.
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Gum, what? I meant to say last night, what? PARSNIP wine? hahaha No have never had it, either. I see my education has been greatly lacking here. PROBABLY why I am not one of those great chefs on TV: no palate.
(Am I the only one who notices in those TV contests with the great chefs, they put their fingers INTO hot pans, and turn the burning meat WITH their fingers? They must all be numb. Also lots of tasting while cooking, kind of makes you rethink the dining experience.)
Babi, I agree, Asimov is awesome.
Mrs. Sherlock and Pat H, I am not sure who has the latest translation of R.U.R., Amazon has a Penguin from 2004, but that may not mean it's "new," when I find out I'll let you know, at least it's unread, and the very thought of having a nice new copy rather than my extremely moth eaten treasure bought from somebody who obviously smoked on ebay, was enticement enough: I jumped at it.
Here is the more critical part of their review of the play itself, however: From Amazon's Penguin Classics R.U.R review:
Although the ideas that Capek broached remain extremely influential, the play itself is difficult to evaluate from a modern point of view because in many respects it conforms to then-popular but now outmoded ideas about dramatic structure. Even so, the story of a world gradually consumed and ultimately destroyed through its own technology remains a powerful one--as does the image of the robot, which gradually acquires an unexpected sense of identity and begins to vie with man for domination of the earth.
By and large, plays are written to seen rather than to be read, and this may be particularly true of R.U.R., which proves very difficult to visualize from the page. The seriocomic first act with its emphasis on exposition feels awkward to the modern mind, and the progression of the story has an obvious and awkwardly episodic feel. But it is worth pointing out that if R.U.R. seems obvious to us today, this is because its ideas have been so often used; everything from METROPOLIS to FORBIDDEN PLANET to TERMINATOR, from I ROBOT to RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA has borrowed from it heavily
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Asimovs Daneel is the subject of the three mystery scifi books. He was always interesting, especially the first of the series where he went to a world, where noone ever saw humans in person.. I loved Asimov, saw him once at a lecture. He was truly brilliant and funny and kind.. All rolled up in one. I loved his books and have read a lot of them.
Read RUR, but truthfully did not like it that much.
I might be up for the March.... book. Louisa Mae interests me..
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I saw R.U.R many, many years ago - in the 50's - in an off-broadway production somewhere in in the village. It was so well-done and, of course, I was young and impressionable so it has stayed with me all these years!! Another play that burned its way into my brain was Mother Courage by Brecht. That's a hard one to watch - so bitter - that I don't know if I could stand it now. I thought that the older one got, the tougher one became. Not so! One weeps for the world.
Enough! On to Dickens! I have the Penguin edition of "Drood" I also am reading "The Dragon Masters" by Jack Vance. I was alerted to Vance by a terrific article about him in the NYT Magazine section some weeks ago. It's been some years since I read a lot of science fiction and it's good to get back to it. Not so much the nuts and bolts stuff but the books about other societies and our relationship with the rest of the universe. "Left Hand of Darkness" is terrific. As is, also, "The Sparrow"!
I've been re-reading "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Zafon. Read it a few years ago, but now his next book is out and, since it is related in some ways to the Shadow, I felt I should refresh my mind
Boy! Nothing sticks to it as it used to!!!!!!!
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Just marking a place. :D
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Mother Courage.. Oh me,, that was my galvanizing mode way back in the 50's.. Led me down the garden path to protesting and a checkered younger life.. Oh me.. takes me back. Like you, dont think I could watch it again. I am way too soft in my older years.
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I think parsnips must be primarily a 'Yankee' thing. I've never seen a
parsnip served here in Texas, much less eaten one. Is it anything like a
radish? And pumpkin with the veggies in a pot roast?!! I can't even imagine.
STEPH, I envy you. I would love to have heard Asimov lecture. Don't you
sometimes wish you could have two or three lives, to do all the things you
would like to do?
I thought that the older one got, the tougher one became. Not so! One weeps for the world.
So true, JOANR. I think when we are young, we simply haven't experienced
enough pain and loss to understand. Once we do understand the empathy
is there and we share the grief.
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I think it's when we finally realize, deep in our gut, that we all suffer no matter what the surface of our lives looks like to the rest of the world. That and the ability to mentally put ourselves into another's place and feel their pain. When I was a junior in HS I was shocked to read about one of my classmates dying in Korea. He was not one of the in crowd, obviously, probably dyslexic, and to imagine one of the kids I knew, however slightly, being a soldier, and all that baggage, was too profound for me to absorb. Afrwe 58 years i can still recall that feeling.
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parsnips look like white carrots and take about as long to cook. they are sweet tasting but a little stringy. I like them very much but don't cook them very often. unlike carrots they are not good raw. . . to hard.
claire
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We don't do parsnips in the south, either. But we found out in the Caribbean and in New Zealand that what we call pumpkin (that big orange thing) is kind of a squash. Of course, a pumpkin IS a squash. Pumpkin soup is wonderful. And gives that lovely color.
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Parsnips do not grow in the South. I have never tasted one.
Joan Grimes
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Claire, have you tried calling grocery stores in your area? I am no longer able to shop myself at stores. But, in my area, No. Calif., Safeway stores offer online shopping. It gives me choices about delivery time, and day. I pay someone to come in twice a month to do some cleaning, including cleaning out my fridge, and putting my groceries away. The delivery costs $6.95, and I pay my helper $17 an hour. She also helps me with transportation, and miscellaneous things.
I am interested in a discussion of "March", in tandam with "Little Women". The later was my favorite book for years. I named my daughter after Jo.
Sheila
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Good point, Sheila. Claire, I've used my local online shopping at times when needed, and it works pretty well. If you have a good shopper already, that is much better, but if you ever get stuck, do try it. The main disadvantage is that with meat and produce you can't take a look at it and decide if it's ripe enough, or good enough, but otherwise it works well. Where JoanK lives Ralphs (Safeway) and Albertsons deliver from online orders.
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I''ve never had parsnips either but I'll get some to try. A look-a-like is rutabagas which my father hated, threatening divorce if my mother ever prepared them. Apparently they featured in his childhood diet. He was never one for salad or veggies in general though he moderated some as he grew older. According to wikipedia the parsnip was a standard root vegetable in most diets before the introduction of the potato; the rutabaga is a cross between cabbage and turnip and was likewise used where a potato is used today, i.e., baked, boiled, fried, roasted, eaten raw.
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My father grew parsnips in his vegetable garden. They are a common winter root vegetable here. We use them in soups, stews and roasted. they also make a potent wine.
We also use pumpkin as a vegetable - roasted or steamed. It's also useful for summer salads - lightly cooked and combined with sultanas, roasted almonds and a little dressing. Pumpkin soup is everyone's favourite. Pumpkin pie as a dessert is not so popular.
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Turnips, Rutabegas and Parsnips.. Oh me, My Mother adored them and I really truly hated them. Her favorite trick when I was young was Turnips and Potatoes mashed together. Since the rule was.. you take it.. you eat it.. I used to have to remember to smell before serving myself.. Hard when you are young and hungry
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My rule, adopted after I read Jackie Kennedy used it, was to insist on one spoonful.
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We never had turnips or parsnips when I was growing up, but rutabegas, yes. And this was before the era of Jackie Kennedy, but I always had to have one spoonful on my plate. I can understand your father, Jackie. How I hated rutabega. And I never fixed them for my family. Surprisingly, in my more adult years I found I liked raw turnip and dip as a party appetizer.
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Pedlin, I like raw turnips too, and include them when I make raw veggies and dips for parties, but I always stick a little sign on a toothpick into one of them: "warning! turnips". Most people eat them anyway, but they have been warned.
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Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
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Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
marketing. We have Vons on line but it is expensive not only the food but the delivery at ten bucks a pop. There is a ralphs here but I couldn't find them on line for this area. Safeway was hard to navagage so I gave up.
However, I just discovered tha Trader Joe's Alfredo sauce is not only good for that but salad dressing as well as a base or ok anyway. My shopper suggested it so I got three of them about twelve bucks but worth it.
my spy novel by christopher Reich has a sequel. both are about nuclear subjects, very current and well done.
Ny kindle sold me nine books last month re my charge account at amazon. I'm addictred.
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My father loved raw turnips. He would pull one from the earth, rinse it under the hose and eat it like an apple while he stood surveying his vegie patch. I've eaten them like that many times - but they have to come straight from the ground -
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Hmm. raw turnips. Now you have me intrigued. Think I will try them that way.. Couldnt be worse than cooked for sure and I love raw veggies.
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Rutabaga mashed up with potatoes was popular with my ex, STEPH. He was from up-state New York, where apparently they ate a good deal more of them than we do down here. Rutabaga I liked okay; turnips, nix.
My folks also insisted I at least try new things, JACKIE. Therefore, the
really small portion was standard in our house, too. It must have worked,
because I'm still read to try something new.
As we are in the Library (turnips and dip, anyone?) I thought I would mention
I was glancing over the bookshelves at the local seniors center and found an
old Vol. 1 of the collected works of Isaac Asimov. I'm also reading another
collection of four novellas by author James Schmitz. I can see where Asimov
was much more interested in educating his readers in the history and basics of
science.
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Yes I am enjoying the Asimov I Robot tho just getting into it and I do see what you mean about the movie and the book, the movie wil come tomorrow so I'm really going into an Asimov faze. :)
Yesterday President Obama's reading choices for the summer (variously dismissed as "beach books and thrillers," and then "classics")by US News: are John Adams by David McCullough, Hot, Flat and Crowded, Plainsong, The Way Home, and Lush Life.
I sat up on Lush Life as I just bought it at B&N on the remainder table last week, but I liked this, too: "if he's like most of us, he will read some of all of them and will finish one or, at most, two of them."
That's me. I'm still reading all the ones reported on earlier including the Sebald, except Kitchen, that one lost me but I enjoyed it as far as I got.
Last night for bedtime reading, despairing of the weight of the refreshing Mapp and Lucia, I picked up the Best Travel Stories of 2009, edited by Anthony Bourdain. I really enjoyed, believe it or not, the Introduction by the editor of the series, Jason something, about travel writing and two books I never heard of, both of which expose the travel writing industry. I'll have to look them up, the main editor described them as "whining." Apparently they set off a furor when one of them admitted that he in fact made up updates without actually visiting the area.
I am not a big fan of Bourdain's but have come to like his show. Very much disliked his first book, I guess because it's so ego centric, his take on travel is, surprise, likewise ego centric. It makes interesting reading. Why DO people travel? An interesting concept.
The first entry is something I can see Bourdain enjoying, and so am I, an essay from the New Yorker on Chocolate makers, the specialty world of Chocolate, which begins at a tony food fair in NYC and then takes off into the wilds to find the purest chocolate. Absolutely love it, Buford is the author, the writing is superior. Who knew chocolate had so many strange iterations and aficionados?
Maybe I need to be buying The New Yorker.
Also a big article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday (again) on the Kindle2 vs the Sony and travel overseas. Something about if you take the Kindle on a trip and the batteries run down you have to send it back? Did I understand that? It's dead and gone, 50 something bucks to send back? Not every country has Sprint? Had never heard that. I guess this issue was focused on travel?
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Why wouldn't you just plug it in the recharge it?
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Hahaha, JUDY! Cindy is taking her Kindle on a trip to Greece and Coatia and I'll ask about batteries or re-charging. I don't know a thing about the Kindle other than hefting one and looking at it. It seems to me that it weighs almost as much as 2 paperbacks! Perhaps take up less room in a suitcase?
I picked up Guterson's East of the Mountains and find it terribly depressing as far as I have got into it; I may just skim the rest. I am also reading SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS which I think was the first book ever discussed on Seniornet. It's familiar so I think I may have read it then, but if so, I'll read it again. I know that it somehow got lost in our archives; I just clicked on them and the first book was Stones from the River in 1997. I see Ginny, Joan Grimes, PatW and myself were there, as was Rosalyn Stempel and a couple of men, perhaps there were others. I didn't go very far into the discussion.
As something other than nonfiction and mysteries, I do scan fiction shelves and I have a number of books given to me on my shelves that I must read soon.
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When we lived in Morocco, we found out to our dismay that their electricity ran on 50 cycles where ours run on 60 cycles. We got an adapter but the timer still wouldn't work on the washing machine. Each time I washed clothes I had to manually turn the knob. I would time the wash and then turn the knob to rinse, then turn the knob for spin. So life isn't always simple when living or visiting in another country, not to speak of another culture. However, life might not be simple but it is very interesting.
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I don't know, Judy, and have thrown the paper away with the article in it. I thought perhaps the adapter thing but as Jean says it doesn't always work.
Never will forget the fan I bought in London and the electricity in the hotel was a different UK voltage, talk about nearly burning the place down. hahahaaa
JEAN! What a hoot, I think I could write a book about My Adventures in Washing Machines! hahaha I have never been in Moroco but once in the south of Switzerland in an Italian canton in a rental house owned by an absent German family, I just had the greatest adventure with their incredible washing machine, just took HOURS. Nice explanations by the owners in German, VERY complicated machine, too bad one of us is not fluent beyond danke schoen. What a hoot! I finally gave up, pulled it out wet (it never did finish washing and probably is washing still), and hung it up on their neato revolving carousel of an outside dryer (one of which I bought immediately upon returning home and have never used once).
The Coin Laundries of the world in the different countries are worth a visit just to see how different they can be, it's amazing even when the directions are in English, how badly you can ruin a wash, and how confusing they are.
Loved your post! :) Tell us about Morocco!
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Seems as if I have runin to a number of books lately which deal with a woman of a certain age (as the French say) who has profound life changes to deal with. Latest is The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti, said Mme. being an Olivetti typewriter. Annie Vander bilt says she spent ten years writing this book. It is very well done, memorable characters, keen sense of place. Highly recommended.
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The converter plug we took worked with our camera plug on a trip to Russia a number of years ago. I don't know why a converter wouldn't work with the kindle plug. I've never heard anything about sending it back to Amazon to be charged. I've charged mine a number of times with the cord that came with it.
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The converter plugs I have used in Europe have worked also...If you have something like chargers for cameras the power is universal then a converter plug is all you need.You have to have transformer also if you have something like a hairdryer. They frequently burn out.and ruin the hair dryer. I never took a hair dryer to Europe. I just shampooed my hair and let dry by itself. I never had time for all that when traveling. There was just too much to see and do to worry about it. Most of the time in the last years that I traveled in Europe the hotels all had hair dryers. In the early days of my travel hotels with hair dryers in Europe were few and far between. I have had lots of adventures too but not with burning up hair dryers and other appliances. Just lots of fun adventures.
Joan Grimes
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This is a lifetime ago now, but when I first stayed in cheap French hotels in the late 50s, they had switches so you could have either the overhead light in your room or the bedlight, but not both, and the hall light for going to the wc had a timer sufficient to get you there, but not long enough to get you back unless you were pretty quick. I bet a hair dryer would have fried the circuitry for the whole hotel.
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the kennedy's were on tv tonight. all of them and differently on wichever channel. So much that I never knew about jack but only that he and brother robert made me uncomfortable. I didn't believe them although bobbie changed his focus as he campaigned in terms of helping the poor and the racially challenged.. Teddy in the senate had the time to really make a differene and by age 77 he could claim to have done so. He was the most effective Kennedy.
claire
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Pat and Ginny, I laughed at your stories of traveling. We could write a book. We've all had them. I have a picture of where Cindy and I stayed on a beach in Costa Rica in the late 70's. $4 a night, no running water, no shower. You went into the ocean to bathe, of course, but there was a bano.
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We take the plug converters and have no problem with cameras or razor at all. Mostly now the rooms have hair dryers.. Sometimes I dry it ( if its cold), but mostly if its nice, let it do its thing without me.
Ginny.. Lucia.. Now you are going to make me dig out my Lucia books. I cannot count the number of times I have re read them.. She has an enduring quality that is fun.
I recently picked up a paperback called Califia'a Daughters by Leigh Richards.. Much to my surprise when I checked the copyright. This is Laurie R. King. Published in 2004.. Very different indeed from her other stuff. This is a science fiction type.. Some years ahead and the women are in charge. The men mostly died from radiation poisoning and some virius, so they are few and pampered. Most of the boy babies die young.. The women are the warriers.. Interesting, but I suspect about to turn into a voyage alone book.. Sometimes fun, sometimes not, but I do love Laurie King.
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We're down to the last day of what turned out to be a fantastic discussion of Geraldine Brooks, The People of the Book. The author responded to every one of our questions - so open!
She responded to last minute questions - just in case you didn't see them, I promised I'd keep you updated here in the Library -
Annie asked the question about whether a date had been set for the movie - Geraldine B responded -
"NOT YET. NOT EVEN A SCRIPT YET."
PatH asked about the Australian painter who was the model for Sharansky's work and she responded -
"NO PARTICULAR ARTIST. IT'S THE PAINTING I WOULD PAINT, IF I COULD PAINT."
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Our mother was into vegetables: there probably aren't many we didn't have as children. I'm not sure about parsnips, but rutabegas were the bane of my existance. I HATED them.
She also served rhubarb, which I loved, and as a small child I could never remember which name refered to which vegetable. She would say "We're having r--- for dinner, and I would worry all day whether it was the one I loved, or the one I hated! Torture!
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I missed a page, and didn't realize we'd moved on from rhubarb. Sorry!
Adventures in chocolate and washing machines. Wow! My son-in-lw wrote a chocolate cookbook ("Chocolate on the Brain" by Kevin and Nancy Mills). Each recipe is accompanied by an historical note on the history of chocolate (usually funny, Kevin is an histerical writer). Who knew that the Incas used chocolate for money? Or that it was considered sinful when it first arrived in Europe? Or that at one time cocoa houses were hotbeds of revoluitionaries in England, and were banned?
My favorite story is the reason why the first shipload of chocolate sent to Europe never got there. The ship was captured by pirates, and they dumped the load, thinking it was sheep-droppings.
Kevin was invited to give a talk at a chocolate convention. He found that the chocolate purists and fanatics weren't interested in what he had to say. But, as a reward for coming, he was given a huge tub of pieces of very expensive Verona chocolate (probably hundreds of dollars worth at retail prices, and we pigged out on it for months. (I can hear the horror of the purists. We delicately sampled it for months).
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Joan: Glad to see that you came to your senses before the chocolate police could get involved! :D
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Chocolate.. my huge downfall . I never met a piece of chocolate that I did not like. I have to really work hard to stay away from it.. I have a good friend who cannot even stand the smell. I keep telling her I wish I had the problem.
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JOANP, Catherine Zeta-Jones is committed to appear in a Broadway revival
of "A Little Night Music", so we probably won't see her filming "People
of the Book" anytime soon.
Payment in chocolate! A whole tub full! The chocolate lovers dream. :P
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I am tired of chocolate. my helper with my list in hand bought me three one pound bars of swiss and a box of truffles from trader joes. I've used up one bar and begun another and a few of the little truffles and now I do not want to even lookat anthing chocolate. That is strange for me. I've never felt it before and am a life long chocohalic.
Steph doesn't this sound like a likely fix?? have fun. . .
claire
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JoanK, your son-in-law is a hoot. I don't know why the name sounded vaguely familiar, but I googled it and all kinds of things popped up. So, the Nancy is his mother, and they've written these books together. I'm reading one on Google Books -- Help! My apartment has a kitchen -- which is a great fun read, and the recipes look easy enough for even me.
Do he and your daughter live near you? Does she cook too? And do they cook for you?
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I really need to go copy my son's entry in his and Julie's pre-wedding blog. He wrote the on 'The Proposal', and it definitely Andy humor all the way.
It's a pity more people don't seem to be watching the 'Inspector Lewis' series.
It's a winner! Perhaps they were so annoyed by the mishandling of the Miss
Marple series that are leery of this one.
Do let your friends know that the 'Inspector Lewis' series on PBS Mystery
Masterpiece Theatre is one they would greatly enjoy. Laurence Fox as Sgt.
Hathaway is simply great, as we all seem to agree. We are discussing this series
on the Masterpiece Theatre site...Inspector Lewis series.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.0
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I have been reading a really different type of book.. A woman named Laurie Graham has a diferent style. She takes on famous families ( in this case the Kennedys) and then veers off into speculation in a diary style of their servants.. Not really horrid, but very funny in part. This one has the childrens long term nanny commenting on the childrens growing up. She has written several and I found one about the Windsors in my paperback club and have ordered it as well. Funny and I suspect a lot of truth about the family..
Too much chocolate.. Truth is, nowadays a little bit of chocolate goes a long way. Anything sweet actually. I love the little mini desserts. Just enough to make my sweet tooth happy and I dont seem to want any more.. Hmm. hope for me yet?? Now if I could just lose the 20 extra pounds.
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little bitty bits of chocolate are enough. anyway I've lost some weight doing that recently. about twelve pounds. it is so satisfying that I don't want much of anything else.
claire
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My favorite "chocolate" story is about a friend of mine who is a huge chocoholic. She was having a "crisis" about turning 40. Her husband heard her talking w/ a frined on the phone and Janet was saying that she had never been to a pajama party, so her husband called their friends and said come in your p.j.'s to a party for Jan's 40th birthday, we have to cheer her up. ........ every body knowing about her chocolate addiction brought cards made out of chocolate or gift certificates for boxes of very good chococlate candies, or 40 pieces of chocolate truffles, etc. Her co-workers were the last to arrive and they came in w/ a huuuuggge flat box which was obviously very heavy.............when Janet opened it it was a 40lb block of chocolate which they had purchased at a candy factory. She and her husband both cook, so the family spent months chipping off pieces of the block, freezing most of it, but making all sort of chocolate goodies and trying new recipes of chocolate goodies. ..........jean
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JEAN: that's amazing!!
PEDLIN: " I'm reading one on Google Books -- Help! My apartment has a kitchen -- which is a great fun read, and the recipes look easy enough for even me".
Isn't that fun! He wrote in college (his mother supplying the recipes, and he cooking them up, and then writing them). and it helped finance him and my daughter in their early years. Yes, they live near me, and cook for me once a week. They're both good cooks. And their three boys are growing up cooking! I wish more men could say that.
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Oh, my, JEAN. I love chocolate, but after that much of it, I think I
might be off the stuff for a long time. They do say that people who work
in candy stores, ice cream parlors, and the like lose their appetite for
the goodies pretty fast. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it
makes sense.
Very shortly after my son first moved into an apartment of his own, he
came home asking me to teach him how to cook some of his favorite foods.
He claimed he was starving to death. So we went into the kitchen and he
quickly learned how to make pork chops with sage, tuna noodle casserole,
and a couple more stand-bys. The only drawback was that he quickly
became the cook for all his hungry buddies and eventually had to move
because he couldn't afford the grocery bills!
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When our oldest was in grad school, he asked for a cookbook made by me of his favorites. I had a great time doing it and then showing him what I meant by various instructions. He still has it all these years later. He is 48.. and his wife laughs since she says he still adores a lot of the older stuff. They cook together quite a lot.. I was happy since my husband cannot cook, wont learn and I do worry sometimes.
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Steph - My DH is much the same as yours. Can't cook and won't learn. After he retired I taught him how to open a can and heat the contents so these days when I'm 'out' he can at least do his own lunches. If I'm ill at any time his contribution to the culinary area is to phone for a take-away - which we both hate anyway. I worry too and think his mother had much to answer for in that regard.
I made sure my sons could cook, clean and iron and do small running repairs on their clothing - buttons etc. My DIL doesn't sew and my son has been known to turn a hem up for her.... ???
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Two of our sons-in-law are great cooks - and do a lot of the cooking in their households. My John fixes his own lunches - even if I'm home and eating at the same time. His mother believed, and often said, after his dad retired, that she married his dad "for better or for worse, but not for lunch!". John does all the "outside" cooking (I don't even know how to turn on the grill, and have no plans to learn ::) ).
Our library has been having its semiannual book sale. We worked shifts Wednesday afternoon and yesterday afternoon. Click here (http://www.tfponline.com/news/2009/aug/30/used-book-sale-helps-fund-library/) to read the article in this morning's paper about the sale. We were there, but didn't make the paper. I got a photo of the little boy, too, though.
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Mary, thats fantastic that your Friends of the Library group raised more that $20,000. It's interesting that you hold the sale in a shopping mall. Is that right? Our local Friends group holds a week-end sale twice a year in the large conference room in the library and has a small room open year-long for the sale of books.
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Babi, I agree that the Inspector Lewis series, which arose from the original Inspector Morse series, is wonderful. The "second season" of Inspector Lewis starts tonight on many PBS stations. Mystery lovers, and people who enjoy British television, will likely find this series very entertaining.
Each episode is also available online for a limited time (starting the day following the TV broadcast) for people whose PBS station isn't showing the program. You can get some information and a preview of the episodes by following the links in the heading of the discussion at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.0
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Gumtree - i love that you call it "take-away" while we say "take-out."
It is interesting how many man can cook outside, but in the kitchen. :P My husband could always cook for himself because his mother was a private-duty nurse and was often not home to cook for the family at meal time. Of course, she prepared and left alot for them because his father would have starved w/ out that. In our house, my husband started grilling about 20 yrs ago and has actually loved doing research and trying different recipes and he has progressed to where he will cook in the kitchen every once i a while, especially when the kids are coming over and he wants to try something on them.
My son learned all the necessities for taking care of himself, as did his sister and a foster son who stayed w/ us for awhile. I'm from a farm family and I learned the family philosophy that everyone did as much as they could for themselves because everyone had a lot to do and you didn't impose on anyone else to take care of you if they didn't have to. My DIL says he irons better than she does. They have a new baby and i'm very pleased w/ how equitable they are at taking care of the baby. As typical, i think, he doesn't wake as quickly in the night at the baby's crying as his wife, but he's an improvement over my husband who NEVER heard the children during the night. ................. jean
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My SIL is just as adept with a sewing machine as my daughter. He says to him, it's just one more power tool.
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marcie, the sale is too big to hold at the library. We have a small permanent bookstore in the library - at least we do when there are enough volunteers to keep it open. Plus the library sells books through Amazon and AlLibris websites. We set up in the "court" area in front of one of the anchor stores at one end of the mall.
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Greetings to all - I've spent the past few minutes catching up on all the news, especially about books and forthcoming sales. Our local Friends sale will be on Sept. 25th and 26th, when several thousand collected books are arranged for sale. It's a time that is eagerly anticipated. One of the members of our Adult SS class, who has been hospitalized and in a nursing home for several months after breaking her leg, even applied early for transportation on those dates so that she can at least sit in/browse through some of the book stands. The event is that important to her!
My husband - a lifelong bookie if there ever was one - is on a one year sabbatical from his university in Egypt. Upon his arrival in the USA in mid-July, one of his first questions was "when's the local book sale?" As if he needs more books! He's actually more interested in the date of the local book sale then applying for his new driver's license (the old one will expire soon) or preparing for his American citizenship.
Mahlia
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Hey, first things first.
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Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
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I'm glad that volunteer groups help libraries to keep their doors open.
It's good to see you here, Mahlia.
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Mahlia, everyone here knows that first the books, then anything else is the given rule.
Like many of you , since both my husband and my brother and father did not cook, I taught the boys cooking,ironing,sewing, etc. To this day, one of our sons does any ironing since his wife simply will not. I am trying to convince my granddaughter that learning to iron is a helpful skill. She simply does not get it yet..
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MARCIE, thanks for putting in that link to the on-line showings of the
Inspector Lewis series. I've never tried to watch a television program
on the computer monitor, so I didn't think of it. It is a happy solution,
tho', as PBS schedules are not the same everywhere.
JEAN, it can be amusing how differently people can take the idea of doing
as much for yourself as possible. I was struck by this during a stay in
the hospital. I was eager to to for myself as quickly as possible. My
roommate, however, regarded the hospital stay as a vacation from work and
happily lolled about doing as little as possible!
Look at it this way, Mahlia. I'm sure he could find some books at that
sale that would be useful in preparing for his citizenship exam. And I'm
so pleased to hear that he is on a full year's sabbatical!
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Mahalia: So glad to see you posting here. Your husband will have one whole year to spend here in the US? How lovely. What are his/your plans? Besides reading, that is.
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Hello everyone.
Please consider joining THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD discussion that starts tomorrow. The book is available online, as well as in libraries and bookstores. Charles Dickens was writing this novel at the time of his death and had only completed half of it. We'll have the opportunity to figure out for ourselves how he would have ended it. I think that you'll find it interesting whether or not you're a fan of Dickens' other works. As the book progressed, it was hard for me to put down. In addition to the intrigue, Dickens provides comic relief in several memorable characters.
Another bonus of participating in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD discussion in September is that reading this book is essential preparation for our discussion of THE LAST DICKENS in October. We have the good fortune that author Matthew Pearl will be joining us next month to talk about his book which is based on Dickens writing his final novel.
The discussion is at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=693.0
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I gave it away . . . my sewig machine so that i wouldn't have to use it. threading it was something I had to relearn each time since I didn't use it often enough to build in the process to my kinestetic mind.
I have two pairs of pants waiting for split repair now for a few years. I keep looking at them as I pass bye. they even have the sewing repair basket sitting under them.
I do have a professional desiger friend who drops in once in a great while and the last time was horribied that I no longer had a sewing machine. I feel much the same way about musical instruments, especially a piano and/or a guitar.
claire
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Enjoying all the various posts.
I have just started reading "March" by Geraldine Brooks (this was mentioned in the discussion about her novel "The Book"). The first chapter was so descriptive about the blood and gore of the Civil War that I almost stopped right there.
However, Chapter Two is starting out much better so I will stay with it - at least for a while.
My sewing machine is the bedside table in the guest bedroom.
Claire, there's a pair of slacks under my sewing basket waiting to be hemmed up. I think I bought them early last spring!
My husband didn't cook but he was wonderful with all other household duties, including vaccuming, so I didn't mind. Although I taught both sons the "bachelor survival menus" of fish sticks, mac & cheese, canned green beans and my mother's recipe for "Quick Spaghetti" (similar to today's Hamburger Helper but using hamburger meat, a can of spaghetti, tomato sauce and a pkg. of dry spaghetti sauce mix), they are both excellent cooks today and enjoy it. They also do household chores when needed.
Hi, Mahlia. How nice that your husband has a Sabbatical to be with you for a year.
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My sewing machine sat in the attic for years after we moved to this house until a friend said she had to buy a new machine that hers was worn out, my husband said "NO you DON'T, we have one in the attic you may have!" .............. I haven't missed it at all. My Mother was a fabulous seamstress, but it just never grabbed me. I prefer to knit and crochet where if i make a mistake i can take it apart and not damage any of the yarn and do it all over again - unlike sewing where when the material is cut................ :'( :'(.........................it's done! My Mother was a wonderful quilter, also, and i've always tho't i'll try that some day - i know exactly how to do it, but...............................it's now 50 yrs later and i haven't gotten around to it yet................i think that idea has vaporized ;D ...................jean
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Well, Steph, I don't iron - and John certainly doesn't. Ironing stopped in my house when permanent press was invented. I used to make all my clothes, all the girls' clothes, and all John's sport shirts (pre-knit) - and loved sewing!. Then I finally got rid of my console machine. 4-5 years later, I got a small portable, and rarely use it for anything. It's easier to mend something by hand than to mess with getting it out.
John does the vacuuming, cleans his bathroom, and defrosts the upright freezer when it absolutely has to be done - about once a year. The fridge/freezer is self-defrosting.
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I have a Singer that I've had for about 50 years; doesn't do much without lots of feet to put on andf take off. Few weeks ago Kmart had a special offer on a Necchi machine, all steel, many stitches builtin, including button holes, zigzag, blindhem, etc. So I put it on layaway (I have to plan ahead for large purchases like this for the quarterly check) and hope to have it here soon. Its supposed to sew on leather, denim etc.
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I am now reading Carol Goodman's The Drowning Tree. Fascinating. Not into kayaking, but the stained glass and mythology is interesting. I took an instant liking to the detective; don't like the kayak instructor; no real reason, a personality thing maybe. Kay is an interesting character. There is an actress, small and thin, who plays characters in a similar manner as Kay is described. I don't remember her name or even if she is still alive, but she is a perfect match.
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Love all the chocolate posts, it's apparently a fascinating subject and I really learned a great deal reading the Travel Writing of 2009, you just knew Bourdain would include such a fascinating subject. The Chef de Cuisine featured in the book , however, is not what you'd expect, but then, a lot of them don't seem to be, actually.
I can't go into a store now without checking the percentages of cacao in chocolate. The strangest little stores have sometimes the most!
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Joan K, how fascinating!! I have heard of that book, I did not know you were related to the author!!
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I guess I really missed my trip this year because I'm off with Frances Mayes (Under the Tuscan Sun) for a Year in the World.
Why DOES that woman annoy me? Have any of you read it? I got so angry at her Under the Tuscan Sun I almost threw it across the room.
Some of the stuff she's saying about Naples makes me think she's a fake, I'm sorry to say that but it's true. I mean stuff like "you can't think of it as Naples any more if you've been there, it's always Napoli, " oh for pete's sake. I guess if I had to say honestly what I dislike about that type of writing is I keep thinking of the innocents, the hopeful, the dreamers, who have not been to Naples, the couple who carved into a bench overlooking France at the English Channel, "Some day, Ida." And who will someday go to Naples and probably come back without feeling the need to refer to it affectedly as Napoli, and then feel they must have missed something important. Faugh.
Stuff like that. Something, just something is not right or true there.
It's quite a psychological study too, she pictures herself living everywhere she goes, but she does write beautifully, and "Ed" is revealed to be her husband (his last name is Mayes).
She also can be quite....opinionated (aren't we all) and negative, which is real, I think.
I had to skip some of her Spain writing, it was eye crossingly boring, and Portugal, but the Italy section has picked up, have any of you read it?
I'm traveling vicariously this year! :)
Just finished watching I, Robot and I see what you all mean by the Three Laws, now to read Asimov! Movie says it's "Suggested by Asimov's book." I loved it. I like Will Smith. Last night The Pursuit of Happyness was on, the Chris Gardner biography and in googling HIM I find he's written a book (other than the biography, his life was somewhat different than portrayed in the movie), and I like his philosophy, like: it's OK to fail, but it's not ok to quit. Stuff like that.
What are you reading?
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Frybabe, we were posting together, how does it compare to The Night Villa?
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Well, Ginny, I would have to say that The Drowning Tree is my current Goodman favorite. The Night Villa was good but some of the characters were not entirely believable at times. The very best part of Villa was our super discussion and the fact that it was, after all, an ancient Roman dig.
Like all her books so far, Goodman uses the first person narrative and explores mythology in a "parallel lives" kind of fashion. In this book, she uses stained glass restoration as her venue. Her setting is Penrose College and surrounding area (confession, I haven't looked up the college or the window in question to see if they are real yet). So far, I am more comfortable with the characters being believable than in Villa. As always, you can feel the ebb and flow of the writing itself. Like the currents in the waters (this case the Hudson River) she includes in her writings, you feel the pull of the currents in her writing.
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Whoo, that would have made a very lyrical review! Maybe we should write reviews here, I've got the book and you have made me want to read it! :)
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Book Bytes goes out twice a month, as email, to every registered person here on SeniorLearn.org.
This includes the new and returning Latin Students. If you do not receive your copy tonight -- look in your spam folder.
The address I use is SeniorLearnBooks@gmail.com.
This you should add to your address book.
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I've enjoyed all of Carol Goodman's books. It's difficult to pick a favorite but I'd say for me, like you Frybabe, it's THE DROWNING TREE. I was especially intrigued by the way Carol Goodman uses dreams in this one, a theme that's in most of her other books too. I love the way she creates parallel worlds in her books in the present and in a setting such as a myth or fairy tale, and weaves a story between them.
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Thank you very much for another informative Bookbytes, Pat.
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Good to catch up on what everyone is reading and enjoying (or not). I've just finished David Sanger's THE INHERITANCE, which I thoroughly enjoyed since it brought back a lot of memories about my own experiences in Washington DC and how "folks in high places" (regardless of their titles) REALLY function. To me, Sanger is an excellent journalist, as well as writer, and presents the complexities of the Congress and elected officials - from the Office of the President down to the freshmen electorate - in an intriguing manner.
Mahlia
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I read all of Carol Goodman too and I really like the first one about the lake of dead something or other. my memories are all tangled up amongst the books. They cowelles spelling defeats me
all the books are in CG's voice so it is as if they are really one. 8)
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My library is hunting for "March" for me, CALLIE. It's supposedly in
there somewhere! After reading Brooks' "People of the Book", I'm fairly
confident I will appreciate it.
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I think I want to read March, but am so far behind in the ones I already have. Sigh.
I just taught the boys emergency sewing. Buttens.. hems, rips.. I have a sewing machine somewhere... Hmm. I really dislike to sew except I used to love to make pillows and curtains, etc. Not any more, but used to love that. My mother made all of my clothes until I went to college. We lived in a little town, very few stores and I was short and skinny and nothing was small enough unless she made it.
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I've read March and only suggest it to others if you are ok with the bloodiness of war. This is nothing like the Little Women you remember. It's about the nitty gritty Civil War and the story of a man's struggle. I have mixed feelings about this, but read about it on Amazon and see what you think.
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Mippy: Is March more about the Civil War than it is about the father of the little women of the book by Louisa May Alcott?
Could this story be told with anyone other than Father March as its protagonist? Thanks
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I'm kind of in the mood to reread Little Women. Gosh - how long ago was that written? Was it during the Civil War? Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy - is that right? I do remember their calling their mother "Marmy."
What do you think of this - we have one discussion of March - and Little Women. Those opting for Little Women can bring in any mention of the absent father - any mention of the war. And those who prefer to discuss Geraldine Brooks' March can do that too? I think it would be quite interesting to read the two side by side. The father fighting in the bloody war, the family of women trying to carry on without the father... what do you think?
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To try to answer you, Mrs. S.: the book March is about a man's struggle, Dr. March, who is indeed the father of the girls in Little Women, but the entire book easily stands on its own for readers who have never heard of Alcott's book. The doctor struggles with being surrounded by the hardships of the War, plus the effects on the lives of slaves, but there is a very long, involved backstory which I won't go into, as it might be a spoiler for some readers.
Thus said, I could not re-read Little Women at this moment without feeling that the mother was unaware to a great extent of what her husband's life had involved in the past. That might always be a problem when an author writes a tie-in to a classic. What do others think?
JoanP ~ I'd suggest you read some of March, especially the backstory section, before you decide if the 2 books could tie together in one discussion. :)
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Interesting, the discussion on March. My reading of various letters etc during this era puts Alcott on the trancendentalist side. His family suffered from his inability to be interested in actually working, so the civil war is a side of him, I did not know.
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"March" is about the fictional father of the March family of 'Little Women', STEPH. The book is written by Geraldine Brooks, whose book "People of the
Book" we recently discussed and enjoyed so much. Mr. March, as vaguely
referenced in "Little Women", didn't sound like your description of the Alcott patriarch. I'd say it's very unlikely that Brook's book reflects Mr. Alcott either.
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One of the best articles I ever read on books and writing is in this past Friday's Good Books Don't Have to be Hard in the Wall Street Journal. Thrillingly, it's online:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html
It talks about the Conspiracy Against Plot and how that came about. It mentions "Pity the poor Pulitzer Judges in 1926" who had to choose between The Professor's House, The Great Gatsby, Arrowsmith, and An American Tragedy." Arrowsmith won, and Lewis declined the prize.
Of those books we've read The Professor's House here and none of the others. I have not read Arrowsmith in years but I once thought it the be all and end all of all books. I have tried Gatsby many times and as many of us have noted here, heartily disliked it. I'll try again.
He addresses Dickens, too. "Say what you like about the works of Dickens and Thackeray, you pretty much always know who's talking, and when, and what they are talking about."
He says there's a revolution under way. "Books are getting exciting again."
And he lists these books which are "rife with action:"
A selection of books that are rife with action
The Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
He says the new books "require a different set of tools, and a basic belief that plot and literary intelligence aren't mutually exclusive."
This is a great article, but do we agree with it? Of his list I have only read The Talented Mr. Ripley and Pride and Prejudice (years ago on P&P).
I am thinking I'll start here with these two lists and pick up Zartoum of which I have heard volumes, An American Tragedy which I saw on Broadway but never read and the new one by Doctorow, Homer and Langley, a novel in fiction about two Grey Gardens type brothers. I don't know if you get the series Hoarders, but it's eye opening and kind of disturbing as was the real life of Homer and Langley (and the Beales).
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Wow, Ginny, what a concept. Plot and intelligence? AND action? I've read P&P more than once, Gatsby after I'd seen the movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The cast reads like a Hollywood Who's Who. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071577/ I'll order it from Netflix and will reread the book. Ripley I tried; can't remember why I didn't finish it. Never heard of the Eggers and Waters books but I'll read them also. Golden Compass, it rings a bell. Fascinating article, BTW. Not one I can fully appreciate in one reading.
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Dave Eggers book - Zeitoun has been nominated in the Suggestion Box (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.80) for future discussion - The title in the header is a link to some reviews. If it sounds interesting to you for group discussion, please leave a note there in the Box. Thanks!
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Thanks, Joan. Sounds like a helluva story.
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A lot going on here. Today's issue of the local rag include it's monthly "Relish" section, complete with ads and recipes. And, after all our discussion of root vegetables, found that it included two recipes for parsnip bread and roast parsnip curls. To go with the wine, no doubt.
Ginny, I never read Under the Tuscan Sun, but I did enjoy the film.
Enjoyed the Lev Grossman article in the WSJ. So everyone is reading the YA Hunger Games. After reading a review of them I can't imagine anyone under the age of 14 wanting anything to do with them. Horrible sounding things.
I'm currently reading The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Bookstores in Seattle were touting it when I was there, and of course, it's set in Seattle both in 1942 and 1986. And it is a bittersweet story, about Henry Lee, a young Chinese American boy and his friend Keiko, a Japanese American girl. The focus is on father-son relationships, separations, music and prejudices. Jazz fans will find some familiar names there. Jamie Ford's great-grandfather was a Chinese mining pioneer who arrived in this country in 1865, changed his name to Ford to be more American, and caused all kinds of confusion.
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I just finished a Thomas Perry..Fidelity.. He is the strangest writer. I like him, but he never ever has a pure hero.. Now his Jane in the small series, he wrote was, but nothing ever again. He likes hitmen... and women who are complicated.
I loved Sinclair Lewis.. Have not tried to reread him for many years, but he is probably dated beyond belief. But I also like Fitzgerald.. Not all, but some of them..Many of our most admired writers do not really write well.. I cannot believe that John Opdyke and Philip Roth are so venerated. I certainly read them at the beginnings of their careers, but now.. totally avoid their stuff.
I like
Dickens, but he wrote in the era of getting paid by the word or serials and so overwrote fairly heavily..
OK.. now I understand about March. I was equating it with Louisas home life. She was the breadwinner in her family and the family home was stark and uncomfortable. The men believed in austerity in that part of Massachusetts.. Of course that applied mostly to their wives and children. They believed themselves above any sort of normal life.
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I have finished "March" - or as much of it as I cared to read. I simply could not finish Part One, which was about his war experiences. Part Two focuses on Marmee and her experiences in Washington after she learned he was in the hospital there. There were enough references to the portion of Part One that I skipped to let me know why certain things were so.
The book ends with his homecoming.
"March" might be a discussion topic if enough are interested in fiction about the Civil War as experienced from a chaplain's viewpoint (I am not). But I don't see how it would fit in a parallel discussion with "Little Women".
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We're just getting started reading and talking about THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. The first paragraphs are a bit confusing but, as one of our participants has said, after chapter 1, it's smooth sailing all the way.
We've got a good group of people who are sharing interesting facts and observations. If you don't want to borrow or purchase the book, you can read or listen to it online.
Please join us. The discussion is at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=69.0.
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I haven't been online for several days. So, I just read all of your posts, and am caught up. All the discussion about chocolate, something to which I relate! The best chocolate I have ever eaten, was Belgium. WOW. It melts in the mouth.
I discovered it while visiting my son, and his family in Southwest Germany. I don't think I would ever get tired of it!
Thanks for all of the great suggestions about books. I will be ordering several for my Kindle.
Sheila
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It's certainly true that when I was helping JoanK and her family "delicately sample" that monster tub of Valrhona chocolate, no one seemed tired of it.
That "melts in your mouth" quality is gotten by stirring the half-liquid chocolate for 24 hours, plus not adding stuff, which adds a lot to the cost.
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We're still continuing on with our vacation, but.......
You'll have to read the blog to get the full story. And I did get a bunch of reading done on the Frances Perkins book.
http://zelleworld.blogspot.com/
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
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Oh, Mary! I'm so sorry about John's broken bone. What a trooper he is. It must be painful. I didn't understand the medical explanation of the surgery but it sounds like he's going to be okay. I hope you have a better rest of your vacation.
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Mary: John sounds like a real trooper. A finger bone is bad enough; glad it wasn't a hep, though I suppose men don't have broken hips as often as we women do. This will be one trip you will never forget.
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First set of company gone, so life will get back to normal and I can finish some reading..I like company, but get so darned tired.. And this was relatives who are a delight.
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I haven't gotten "March" yet, CALLIE, but I agree it probably has little
reference to Alcott's "Little Women". As for the rest, I would have to
read it. I'll be at the library today, and hope to be able to find "March" ]
this time.
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I haven't read "March", but I'm guessing that it would be a mistake to read it simultaneously with "Little Women" because the difference in tone would be too jarring. "Little Women" should be known as the background instead. I'll be interested to know what some of you think after reading it.
I did buy Brooks' "Year of Wonders"; the subject interests me greatly.
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Mary, what a shame. I do hope John is not in too much pain. I guess the only good thing you can say about this is thank heavens he didn't fall in the shower. That little finger must be pretty tough. I hope the rest of your trip goes smoothly.
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Hi MaryZ,
In your blog of Sept. 2 you wondered about the origins of the name Loyalsock in PA. According to a letter written in 1961 from Genevieve Blatt, then head of the commonwealth's Bureau of Internal Affairs, to a Mr. Henry, the name is a corruption of an indian name Lawi-Saquick. Here is the letter: http://www.loyalsocktownshipbos.com/lyc-loyalsock/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=417497&lyc_loyalsockNav=
When I mentioned it to my best friend, who was raised in the area, he says that the Loyalsock looks like a peaceful little creek ideal for fishing. However, it is treacherous. Many fishermen have lost their lives because of unseen "potholes". The other thing he said is that he has never, heard of Muncy Creek mentioned in the letter. Now all of this has me curious enough to look up both of the creeks themselves and potholes. The potholes up that way, as far as I know, were created the receding glacier at the end of the ice age. I visited one years ago in the Scranton area.
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Just finished with The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman. Excellent! The bad guy was a surprise; the ending most satisfactory. Once again, the ending promises new beginnings for the main character.
Now I am on the prowl in my TBR stack to find a nonfiction that will fit in my purse. Hah! Not an easy task.
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Thanks for the kind wishes for John. The broken bone is actually in his hand - sort of the continuation of the little finger bones along the edge of his hand. Anyhow, he's in a good sturdy cast. He carried on like a trooper today, and we did all we intended to do (Corning Glass Museum, Glenn Curtiss Airplane Museum, a winery, dinner). But at 9, he admitted to having some pain, took one of his pain pills, and crashed. He even asked me to set out one of the pain pills so he could take it in the middle of the night (he can't open the bottle with only one hand).
Thanks for that information, frybabe! A most interesting link and letter. And thanks for clearing up our mystery. :D
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I said this over in 'Mystery', but didn't want to miss any of you here either.
The new PBS series, "Inspector Lewis", has been simply great.
Our posters have been giving these shows 5 stars!
The actors, the writing, the scenery....all are top notch. Airing Sunday nights, tomorrows episode is "Murder to Die For". You can see what it's about...and admire that handsome fellow in the picture..here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/lewis/musictodiefor.html
If you're interested, join us and tell us what you think about this winner.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.new#new
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Mary, Did you like the Museum of Glass. WE loved it and spent most of the day there. What a glorious place and the special exhibit of new donations was particularly gorgeous. I got some great pictures and they turned out quite well.
All of the wineries were fun.. Corning itself was a bit dreary, but we went up to Watkins Glen and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and some shopping there.
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Steph, do you have any of your photos of the new glass exhibits online where we might take a peek?
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lost my post so here again
nonfiction "animal vegetable, miracle" by barbara kingsolver about getting close to the roots of our food sources. my kids are doing that on texada island in british columbia. they even have baby pigs to raise and eat in five or six months. unable to resist they have named them as in pork and chop or pink and spot. that is an issue amonst home grown meat haisers :D.
claire
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Good for your kids, Claire. When my kids were young, I grew all our vegetables--in a rented plot from our city when I lived in an apartment, and then in my backyard when I bought my house. Lots of fun and kept me slim.
Haven't read Kingsolver's book. I want to read FARM CITY, a new book by Novella Carpenter . Reviewers say it's an absorbing account of her effort to farm on vacant lots in the slums of Oakland, CA. The story about butchering her turkey at Thanksgiving is both touching and hilarious. The pigs she slaughters are a different story. "Surpriseingly compelling reading," per Politics. & Prose review. Per Pub. Wkly, Starred Review, "utterly enchanting book."
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I grew up inthe country and we raised our own chickens, fowl and pigs.. Occasionally a steer.. and grew vegetables and fruit.. I remember my father.. No matter what, if it is bought to raise and eat.. NO NAMES.. and we adhered to that. Actually since the chickens that we raisied for eggs always pecked my hands when I went for the eggs. I was the cheering section when it came time to slaughter chickens, etc.
I raised vegetables when we were in houses. Not in the townhouse however.
No, I really rarely put my pictures on line.. One of those things that makes me nuts.. Sometimes it works and sometimes not.. I will look at facebook and see if I can add some of them there.. I like facebook and go on it close to every day.. Fun to keep in touch with old neighbors, etc.
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facebook: someone I don't know keeps inviting me to oin since someone I do know and don't like is one of her members. I tried the block on her and it didn't work. facebook and twitter are just not my game. I do e-mails with folks I really want to talk too, which could be any of you but probably not others that you have the pleasure of knowing s. this is enough for me. I like the reviews and referrals I get here.
claire
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Marjifay, thaat does sound awfully good, let us know when you finish it how you liked it? The porch or backyard garden is really getting a lot of interest, sort of like the old Victory Gardens.
Jerry Bledsoe wrote an hilarious account of his attempts to farm a long time ago, it's laugh out loud funny. It's called You Can't Live on Radishes, and I'm sure it's long out of print but it's a treasure if available.
I almost picked up the new Kingsolver but was undecided between it and the new Tracy Kidder which looks absolutely explosive and perfectly inspiring and marvelous. It's called Strength in What Remains, about a Rwandan refugee who came to the US not speaking English and with $100 in his pocket and how well he did. I really like Tracy Kidder's writing, his House is one of my all time favorites. Anybody here who has read Strength in What Remains? If so what did you think about it?
On Friday I got Doctorow's Homer and Langley, my new reading programme of what the Wall Street Journal recommended, as noted I thought I'd give those books a whirl.
I love it. It remains with you, even now I'm thinking about it. I read 1/3 of it this morning without putting it down, it's new, just out this month (September) and is fiction, but the subject is Homer and Langley Collyer, whom I had never heard of but this book is not a non fiction account of their lives but a re imagining with a lot of differences. The compelling thing is how Doctorow has made the main character so...winning and understandable and sympathetic.
Their situation was not sympathetic. 100 tons of trash were removed from their huge family home in NYC when they were both found dead in it. But they did not start that way. Doctorow imagines, and portrays, them beautifully (so far) and understandably.
I don't know where I've been all these years, am going to have to read another Doctorow, I like the way he writes. Are you all more familiar with him than I am? Anybody here read Ragtime?
I also got Zeitoum which the clerk at B&N could not find but another clerk came up and when I said it had been recommended by the WSJ, he pulled up the very page on the internet OF the WSJ's recommendations by date no less, and displayed it and there it was and yes they had it.
And finally, I just have to mention this! I had an opportunity also yesterday and early this morning to see the movie Fracture from Netfliix starring Anthony Hopkins and I've never seen anything like it, ever. Had to wait till the daylight, actually to view it.
Kind of a...it's indescribable. I imagine it would appeal to those who like CSI or Law and Order but in it an older man (Hopkins) who admits to having killed his unfaithful wife, and who is apparently a genius scientist, is intrigued by the brash young prosecutor and decides to play with him. A cat and mouse game. I don't think anybody would ever guess the end, I sure didn't. Twists and turns. Definitely 5 stars +. I am not sure if it was a book so did not put this in the Books Into Movies section. But it's a heck of a movie.
Or maybe I just like old actors, I also liked the one about the Clairmont and Mrs Palfrey, anybody seen that one?
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I very much enjoyed the film, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Ginny. Thanks for the reminder. It's based on a novel by the author Elizabeth Taylor, which I haven't read. I just looked her up in Wikipedia. Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words. I'll see if our library has her novels.
I've also put a hold on FRACTURE, at our library. A screenplay was written for the film but it's not based on a book.
I've not read anything by Doctorow. I think I'll start with his nonfiction, "Reporting the Universe." http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/DOCREP.html?show=reviews
I appreciate everyone's reviews and suggestions for books and films.
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I just put Fracture in my Netflix queue. I've read Ragtime; must check out his other works. H&L are on my library reserve list, added after I heard an interview with the author about their lives.
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Oh my, the Collyer brothers!! PatH and I have been talking about them for years -- whenever the mess gets too bad, we say "time to clean up before I end up like the Collyer brothers (PatH before me-- I throw things away!)
I don't know if I want to read the book or not.
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When they cleaned out the NYC apartment of the Collier brothers, they found 8 grand pianos which had not been visible behind the mess.
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That apartment must have been huge!
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Ok, I'll bite. Who were the Collyer brothers?
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Frybabe, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers. The topic came up when Ginny mentioned reading E.L. Doctorow's novel, Homer & Langley.
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C'mon Frybabe - even I've heard of the Collyer brothers !
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OK, it was a brownstone, not an apartment, but there were 14 pianos and a clavichord.
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Steph, this was our third visit to the Corning Museum, our friends' first. It's always wonderful. And for them, almost too much to take in in one visit. Tonight, we're tied up at near Macedon, NY. The Canal is beautiful and we're having great weather so far.
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Ginny, I watched "Fracture" several weeks ago. I was enthrolled by it. Had no idea how it would end. It held my interest until the last frame! "Mrs. Palfrey" is a real favorite, too.
Sheila
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Just read the Collyer link...indescribable. I must show it to DH who is something of a hoarder and wont discard anything without prodding. He's also very untidy with it which doesn't help much. I have a friend who advocates throwing out five things each and every week - even if it is only 5 old hairpins. It's a good philosophy and when things get too bad I make DH act on it. But it's the 'each and every week' that makes it really work.
It's a practice that should never be applied to books though.
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I really enjoyed " Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont".
Joan Grimes
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Sheila, wasn't Fracture something? I have to confess I fast forwarded thru the actual murder (in fact I got so nervous I more than sped thru it..... jumped an actual notch) , hahaha, but was mesmerized by the movie that followed it. I see it was made in 2007 so it's relatively new. Jackie and Marcie, I hope you like it, maybe we can all discuss something that (still) puzzles me about the end. I missed something somewhere, once everybody has seen it.
Marcie, Elizabeth Taylor? Somehow that rings a distant bell, I've somehow missed her writing, I think I'd like to read the original. And maybe something else she's done, thank you for that!! Me too, Joan G, who played Mrs. Palfrey? Whoever she was she was perfect. I don't know why I keep thinking Joan Plowright, I'll look it up on IMdB, I love their bloopers and flubs section.
I watched (the woman who NEVER watches movies is riding a recumbent bicycle an hour a day...in 20 minute segments..... that's where all this movie watching is coming in) Last Chance Harvey last night, and it, too, is wonderful, another Mrs. Palfrey perhaps, in a different way.
Pat, Joan K, Gum and Frybabe, I was really surprised in the Wikipedia article to see that even modern day firemen refer to a Collyer place. I had never heard of them, either! I had heard of the Beales but they are more recent I think.
The Collyer house was 4 stories, on Fifth Avenue, interesting parallels with the Beales. Apparently the father, a doctor, was also something of a hoarder. It was some of his own Cabinet of Curiosities which went out at the end.
The book is very clever in how it reveals that Langley is a little mad, it's not so much in the big things (which are astounding, so astounding that you go along with it, Homer the blind brother acts here as a buffer foil) but rather the small things like the copper flashing on the chimney and the gutters. You read right over that and then a day later think..... hold on...
Did you see the 25,000 books? I don't consider books hoarding, myself. Have you ever counted your own books?
A&E has a new series called Hoarders for the fall, in which, as mentioned, they talk to and try to help people who hoard. I just saw a notice that it's an actual series. I've seen two of them and in one of them you really have to hold on to something because the woman, in explaining why she keeps rotten food or food past the due date in the freezer seems to be any one of us, lucid, intelligent, ...very intelligent. With lucid explanations as to why it's still there. It's frightening. It's...Makes you wonder, somewhat fitfully, about the various closets ONE has waiting. :) I have to admit every time I see one of these things I do some major overhauling here.
Gum, 5 things a DAY. 5 Things. Is that once you've cleaned out the closets? Or is that every day regardless? I think in my case I'd need to get the closets first then start with the 5, I may not have that many years. hahahaa
In Homer and Langley, which I'm very sorry to say I'm in the last quarter of, and would be finished were it not for my reluctance TO end it ( gotta get another Doctorow). I keep putting it down, so that the spell won't be broken. It seems to be a sort of mentality in the book that this item MAY come of use some day...it's hard to explain. I am sort of afraid how this is going to end, tho I do know how it ended in real life.
I guess that's the fascination, most of us have junk I think (junk to others and maybe to ourselves) we've accumulated, if we're honest, unless we've done the deed and cleaned out. I remember when we moved to this farmhouse I said, "we'll never fill this up." That was 29 years ago, and guess what? hahahaa
There are other books on the Collyers, non fiction, I may see if I can find one of them. Doctorow is more or less making a good bit of this up to try to explain their reasoning. Jackie I sort of saw that interview too, is there somewhere we could read it online?
But you know what? It's so good to read a book with a real plot. The WSJ writer was right on. Good book. Doesn't seem like it, at first. It sort of grows on you when you are not paying attention.
What are you all reading?
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Alas, I ordered "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" from Netflix, and was really
looking forward to it. It came,...and had no closed captioning. I couldn't follow
the story at all and had to give up. So disappointing.
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I just read two reviews on the Doctorow book. The Langley brothers have fascinated me.. so it is on my list.. I have been following a policy now for several years. I have a large bag in my closet. Each month, I look hard at various parts of the house and my closet and fill it.. MDH helps me with his clothes.. If it is valuable, it stays in a separate bag until our sons and wives have been told of it.. not valuable.. Habitat has a thrift store here and they get it.. Furniture.. we have a Second Chance type place starting for women and children and they need furniture so they get it.. Slowly....very slowly, I am getting down to a more manageable level of belongings.
My clothes, I am trying hard not to look at them as if they are gorgeous, but instead..DID I WEAR THEM IN THE LAST YEAR.. Hmm. and I dont mean the ones, that might fit sometimes in the future ( not going to happen)
I did get three of the glass pictures up in my facebook.. it is open to all so you can look if you want to.
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Marjifay, I just copied your post about Farm City and sent it to my daughter who lives in Oakland. She belongs to some farm group where they bring her fresh veggies every week. Quite a bit of food for what she pays, and she usually doesn’t know what she’s going to get. When I was there in late March it was lettuce, asparagus, the most delicious tender cauliflower, and a fennel bulb. One of my other daughters who was visiting then made a pizza with asparagus and fennel. Really tasty.
Claire, I’m with you on facebook, and the more I read about it, the farther away I want to stay.
Ginny, Ragtime – yes, both the book and the film, years ago. Both excellent. And I also read World’s Fair, some time ago, and remember it as enjoyable. Fracture is now on my Netflix queue – it looks good, and is also in my Amazon cart, for maybe fleshing out a book order some day. I’ve been picking up DVDs occasionally, but only if they meet my “cheap” requirements. Picked up Sense and Sensibility yesterday at Target.
Marcie, I’m glad to know that Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is based on a book. I’ve wanted to see the movie, but alas, no captions, so will look for the book – it’ll probably be better anyway. Will check the library.
Gum, I need to do what your friend does, but on “each and every day.” Magazines, and only two are paid subscriptions. The rest just come and pile up. Steph, I remember one of our teachers, taught business ed, office practices, etc. always looked like a million dollars and very professional. She said that if she hadn’t worn something in a year, she got rid of it. She’s now retired and the elected mayor of the town next door.
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trader joes has wonderful bags with handles. I gave away five bags ful of books yesterday and have only just begun. Theprint is toosmall for me these days sice blow stuff up six times on the kindle in orde tø read anything. . . getting tire of that now. all this old body wants even after coffee is to sleep. I have visions of my heirs having to clean up all this st¨ff when I'm gone art and ceramics and still books books books. sigh..my friend/helper, her eleven year old and his friend also eleven made off with the stuff. probably not to read but maybe to the friends of the library.
i did paint a very yellow painting day before yesterday thinking about sunshine. I could do that in my sleep. Paintings happen very fast these days. they just drift through me onto paper.I've limited my pallet solving lots of provlems before they happen.
claire
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One of the best ways to trim your belongings is to move often. When I left my house of 30+ years I was appalled. My ex was a semi hoarder; when we divorced I found lots of his junk in the garage, neatly stored. Since I've become a renter and I'm living in smaller quarters I find each time I move that I've allowed the "things" to accumulate again so the process of trimming begins again. Moving itself helps; things get broken. They also can disappear; the cheap movers I hired off Craigslist managed to steal all my Christmas china, collected over several years, and a precious souvenir. I learned; next time I move each box will have a number.
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Ginny: Here is the link to the story from NPR about Doctorow and the Collyers: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112346577
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Did you see the 25,000 books? I don't consider books hoarding, myself. Have you ever counted your own books?
Ginny, I agree. I haven't actually counted my books, but I do think it is a good idea to inventory them at this point.
I think I am going to send George the link to the Wikipedia article about the Collyers. He has a cousin that is a major hoarder. Her husband says they literally have a pathway through their house that is lined four or five feet high with stuff. He tries to clear some of it out when she is not at home, but if she gets back before the trashman picks up, well, it is all hauled back into the house. She even has eight cats now.
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Greetings -
After cleaning out my parent's home following my mother's death, I decided to make things easier for my girls when it's their turn. I yearly go through my house - top to bottom - & eliminate anything that I haven't used in the past year or can't visualize using in the next year (clothes, kitchen utensils - everything - except books). We also established the rule that if they bring me something they will leave with something. I'm no longer in the accumulating business.
As for my books (which somehow do continue to multiply) I've done a couple of things. I limit myself to what fits in/on my bookcases - 8 of them - which amounts to about 1000 books. I generally give away fiction (except for selected authors) after my friends and I have read them. My one daughter takes a bag full at a time to put out for her coworkers after she goes through them. My other daughter passes them on to ladies in retirement homes or the local senior center after she goes through them. The non fiction that I decide in time to let go of - I donate to the local university library annual book sale.
For the books I keep - I have made a database that includes a column telling why I have kept each book. This way when the girls have to dispose of them they can decide if the book would therefore have meaning for them or their children. I have a collection of the books I read when I was a child - Bobbsey Twins, Mother West Wind, Five Little Peppers, Anne of Green Gables, Taffy's Foal, Mary LIzzie etc and grade school primers etc that I really liked - Tags & Twinkle (the 1st book I ever remember reading), If I Were Going (third grade) - that my grand children are enjoying reading because they are old and I read them.
I've also indicated which book were gifts and those that are autographed to me.
I've also identified for them places that might be interested in the books they don't want to keep - I have a lot of genealogy books etc.
This all did take quite a bit of time but I sure learned what I have and the girls have both said they appreciate knowing about the books. In my part of the country this makes for a good winter project. I also ended up re-reading a lot of favorites. The hardest part is remembering to add the new titles each year.
This August I ended up replacing the carpet/flooring in every room in the house - therefore every book has been moved at least twice. Real motivation to let some go - but in reality I only pulled 6 titles.
How do you all decide which to keep and which to let go?
Mary
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Amazing! Isn't it interesting how things come to your mind in groups? A name you've never heard before comes onto your mind and in the next few months you hear it again and again?!?
You all must be in my mind!...................I just read Lethal Legacy by Linda Fainstein - i had never heard of the Collyer brothers in my 68 yrs of living. The book is very interesting. A rare books/document researcher is murdered. It gets very complicated for the detectives and the prosecutor - who is the protagonist. In the process of investigating the murder they come upon a NYC apartment where lives the brother of a thief and forger. The detective calls in a summons for help saying something like "It's a Collyer brothers situation." ......... He has to explain to the prosecutor what that means....................I read this just 2 days ago and here you are talking about "the brothers" on SL! I liked the book, altho in the middle of it Fairstein gets a bit bogged down in rare books and maps. She obviously did a lot of research at NYC public library - she does a lot of description of the institution. I must go look for pictures of the interior. I had recently seen a "Whose Wedding is it Anyway" episode where the couple got married in the NYCPL. Fairstein is a good storyteller.
Also, my brother-in-law was recently in the hospital and while he was there my SIL hired a cleaning service to come in and clean out the downstairs rooms, so he could move easily thru them when he came home. They took sev'l dumpster loads out of their house, but there is still plenty there - there were paths thru the house, almost as bad as you all are describing and Fairstein talked about in Lethal Legacy. My BIL just collects things - papers, magazines, etc, but his wife is hooked on the tv shows that sell products and some of those things were still in the boxes........................ and just 3 days ago my husband told me about seeing "the Hoarders" on tv.
I read Ragtime decades ago and saw the movie and was recently surprised to know that Doctorow was still alive and writing. I assumed when i read Ragtime that he was an established writer and at least middle-aged at the time.
Jackie - how sad that you lost some precious things in your moves. Numbering the boxes is a good hint.
I'm in a cozy mystery niche. Besides Lethal Legacy - which i don't know if it fits the category of c.m., I'm totally confused by the way libraries and stores categorize books these days - I've just finished Between a Wok and a Hard Place by Tarar Myers - it was o.k., but she spent more time describing people, places and things than on the story. She also seemed to want to get in every stereotype about the Amish and Mennonites. It was a little over the top at times.
I've also just finished Arkansas Traveler by Earlene Fowler. Enjoyed it very much. We're an inter-racial family - many whites, blacks and Hispanics - and this is a story about the protagonist -Benni, who is white, married to an Hispanic chief of police in a small Calif town, returning to her small town in Ark with her girlhood friend, who is Hispanic and who is going to marry Benni's cousin. Another of Benni's childhood friends, a black woman, is running for mayor against a man who has been mayor for a while and has tight control on the police and other institutions in town. His son is involved w/ a group of young white supremecists. ............................is that complicated enough for you? ......................Joan and Pat, you may enjoy the banter between two older sister-aunts of Benni, who just compete w/ each other about everything, especially their cooking. Oh gosh, these books about food and w/ recipes in them are killing me!!! They all sound soooo good. .............. I like Fowler's writing, she's also a good-storyteller. The story moves along and she writes good dialogue.
All three of these books are parts of a series about the protagonists and i think i heard about each of the authors here on SL...........................jean
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Mount St Helens made a big impression on me back in the days when our family trailer traveled late seventies and early eighties. In fact I really identified wit her when she erupted inso far as I had just been diagnosed with arthritis in my hip. this painting grew out of that. we both had fire in our bones.
hope this works it is four by seven feet and in oil. I couldn't bring that off now.
claire
http://www.geocities.com/artetal/mtsthelg.jpg
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winsummm: I'm impressed. Abstract art is beyond me intellectually but the combination of the colors and the composition portrays fire very well.
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I now belong to a paperbackswap.com and that means, I trade a lot of books nowadays. One of my daughter in laws gets a big bag when she comes to visit. She takes it home, reads what she wants and shows them all to her sisters and friends.. I take some to the Habitat store.. also the small lending library at a assisted living center. I still have far to many books.
But the thing I have way to much of and am not going to get rid of is crystal and china and glass of all types.. My husband was an only surviving child, his Mother was an only child and her Mother was as well.. Then I had a big wedding 50 years ago.. and my Mother left me her Mothers china and glass.. All in all.. glass everywhere, but I love it and looking at it makes me happy.. Therefore.. I will let it be my descendents problem.
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Don't be too sure, STEPH. I despaired of ever wearing smaller sizes
again. However, about nine+ months of not being able to eat more than
barely enough to stay alive solved the problem. Not that I would recommend
that route, but I certainly lost the weight. Of course, my previous
wardrobe was then literally falling off me, so I still had to get rid of
clothes.
A beautiful, intriguing picture, Claire. Of course knowing what inspired
it was a great help in understanding it. Like JACKIE, in abstract art I
must judge purely by the colors and composition.
Now, what does one do about an overabundance of family pictures. I
have always been glad to receive them as the grandkids grew up, and I
still receive family 'update' photos and portraits. The problem is, I haven't
enough space for them. Every available surface has pictures, some are stored
away, and more arrive every year. Storage space is at a premium, too. Ah,
me. :-X
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How many books ... don't let me count the ways :) we keep adding more bookcases!
Well over 2,000? over 3,000?
We do sort fiction vs non-fiction, but even then duplicates occur every now and then.
The books I can usually push myself to give away to the library's used book room are
those we bought at the used book sales of various libraries in the town ... often are
stamped taken out of circulation and others are the mysteries bought on impulse that are so poor that I probably won't loan them to anyone.
Now that my daughter reads when she travels on her i-phone (downloading from Amazon) she won't borrow as many as she used to, so I'd better do more serious sorting this month.
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Babi: About the ever expanding store of family pictures, can you digitize them? Some printers are scanners, too, and it is much easier to store them digitally. Maybe you could request digital pix instead of hard copies. With the advent of digital photography we are taking pictures of everything and we simply upload them to the computer. Then they can be downloaded to one of those tiny thumb sticks.
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"Next time, by hook of crook, make sure you're born with a mountain in the front yard. It comes in mighty handy all the way around" Frank Waters "The Colorado".
Do you believe, I hadn't been in a used bookstore since I moved to California, almost three years ago. I've been ordering used books through Amazon. I almost forgot that the point of used bookstores is not just to get books cheap but to find books you would never know existed.
When I moved here, people told me that none of the used bookstores are wheelchair-accessable. Yesterday, I finally went to see for myself, and as a reward, found the book quoted above. It is delightful. It was worth the dollar I payed for it just for that quote.
If you're wondering how a mountain comes in handy "..you can even see it from behind the schoolhouse privy, so there's no need to worry about losing your way home" ibid.
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I love all of the book suggestions here. Like many of you, I have way too many books but like some of you I don't consider collecting books hoarding either :-) We keep adding bookshelves too but have now run out of wall space in every room and hallway.
JoanK, your mountain quote had me puzzled. I'm glad you explained it. That makes perfect sense. I'm glad you were able to get in the store with your wheelchair and find that great bargain.
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Glad to hear you're still painting, Claire! Me, too!
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When I was growing up (early teens), I counted my parents' books, and there were about 2000. I bet by the time I had to dispose of them it was closer to 3000. I haven't counted mine, but it feels about like the 2000. This might inspire me to make an actual count (no small matter). If I do, I'll report it here.
If I had to downsize, I think it would be dead easy to pitch 1/4 to 1/3 of them, but then it would start to get hard.
Claire, I'm an art ignoramus, but sometimes a painting will hit me hard, and yours did that.
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That's an amazing painting, Claire.
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Ah Used book stores or my online version. I love both and spend hours in them.. There are always new authors for me..
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Oh, dear me, no, JACKIE. I'm not a picture-taker myself, for the most
part, and know nothing about handling them via a computer. I rarely look
at those I have in albums, never mind any I might have stored in a computer.
The box of loose snapshots from years gone by sits in the top of my closet
waiting for the time when I am bedridden and desperate for something to do.
;)
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The box of loose snapshots from years gone by sits in the top of my closet
waiting for the time when I am bedridden and desperate for something to do.
That situation remionds me of an interesting mystery, The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, wherein her Scotland Yard Inspector, trapped in bed with a broken leg, is given a stack of portraits by his actress friend. She challenges him to discern what he can simply from the faces. This is a quiet book but for me it sang loud and clear as one of the portraits was of Richard III.
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Jackie, I loved The Daughter of Time. It got me interested in reading other books about the maligned Richard III.
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Someone somewhere on SL had mentioned not liking Pat Conroy's new book. I just read Newsweek's review:(I quote) Conroy's memlodrama is so perfumed w/ pathos it stinks........the friends occasionally hurt each other; they often hurt themselves, Conroy seems tothink they're heroes - flawed, to be sure, but the bet humanity has to offer. In fact, their obsessive romance of damage makes them self-indulgent and ultimately unlikable, not to mention tiresome.....what's really objectionable about the purple prose..is that it swamps everything in a homogenizing bath of sickly beauty.I don't think the reviewer liked it, either............it's kind of sad, Prince of Tides is one of my favorite books...............................
jean
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A couple of years ago, I went through all the photographs and divided them up into families or friends or whatever. I kept out a few that I really wanted to keep. The others I mailed to the designated family. I didn't ask if they wanted them or tell them this was happening. So they didn't get the chance to refuse. And then the photos were THEIR problem!
I read somewhere early on that Pat Conroy said that he wanted to write novels about the south in 'purple prose' - and I guess he's doing that.
We're docked tonight in Newark, NY. They provide great services for boaters (and I presume for bicyclers) - and all free. There's a shower, bathrooms, a washer/dryer, and internet service. I kept asking about charges, and the dockmaster kept saying "Welcome to Newark!" I'm sure this gives them great 'press' throughout the boating community.
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I am always a little fearful of reading The Library posts as I want to buy most books mentioned;they all are described so well. I worry I will die before I get a chance to read all those I buy. I am now reading the Library at Night by Alberto Manguel who tells book stories like those already told. For example, he tells of Patrice Moore who shortly after Christmas in 2003 was heard by his neighbors to be moaning and groaning but nobody could get into his apartment. Finally firefighters were called and after an hour of forcing a locked and blocked door with a crowbar, the man was found literally buried in books. The avalanche he had to be unburied from was a ten year accumulation of journals, magazines and books.
I found Nothing Remains the Same by Wendy Lesser to be an interesting read because she spends some time rereading books she read as a young person. I have always claimed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn saved me from a humdrum life. It was the first book I read that was like my life. As a young person I wanted so much that I most likely was not going to get. Then as an adult when I reread Tree, I thought the girl was a whiner: I could not relate with her at all; I hated the story.
I read a lot of books about books especially autobiographies written by book people. The thing that surprises me is how many readers who write come from non-reading families like mine. I continue to ponder this because it is so often said that you can't blame children for not liking to read if they don't see their parents as readers. I don't find that to be true.
I like the Inspector Lewis mystery series as I like a lot of the PBS mysteries. However, they usually come on later in the evening when I have had it with reading and just want to be entertained. I don't really want to talk about them. I hasten to say I read a book by someone who teaches these type of mysteries in college because she claims their setting (time and place) reveal so much about cultural values.
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I have an unusual request. I am looking for the absolute best book light. Two weeks or so ago we had a power failure at around 9 pm. It was dark but I have a book light a gift from my sister. It was no good, rigid, to move the light across the page I had to move the entire unit. I want to be prepared for the next power failure, reading is perfect when there's no TV or computer. Please tell me about your favorite book light.
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I use book lights mostly when I want to read without having the room light, or if I'm staying somewhere where there isn't a good light near the bed. My current favorite is one I got at Barnes and Noble for $13.95. It Says "Mighty Bright" on the base. Its base is a clip containing the 3 AAA batteries, from which comes a thin, flexible neck ending in a tiny but very bright LED light, with 2 brightnesses. You can get it to light a whole page or bend the neck around to get it where you want it. The batteries last a long time, unlike some lamps where they burn out in a single night if you fall asleep without turning them off. It's awkward with some books, though. You might try to get a chance to fiddle with it before buying.
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What in interesting premise, JACKIE. I very much like Tey, but I don't
recall having read that one.
"I don't think the reviewer liked it, either."
(JEAN)
No kidding. :D
Now that is a great idea, MARY. There could very well be photos in
there that others no longer have, and would treasure. Thanks for suggesting
it.
It's so true, DONNIE. How often the books that moved us and meant so
much to us when we were young, seem vapid to our more mature minds. Still,
they made a difference then, which is no doubt one reason we eventually
arrived where we are now.
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Babi: How insightful:
How often the books that moved us and meant so
much to us when we were young, seem vapid to our more mature minds. Still,
they made a difference then, which is no doubt one reason we eventually
arrived where we are now.
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booklight like that one. my daughter sent me one from amazone but so far haven't found the small three A batteries for it. it would be nice to be able to read anywhere with it. now stuck in an old recliner that hurts my back.
doctors visit yesterday finds me ok but uncomfortable. good blood pressure etc. but but etc. eighty one just isn't like even twenty years ago at at sixty one. shoot. back to yesterdays coffee.
books about animals relating to people pleased me in my youth i.e. Albert Payso n Terhune's collies and William Walton's horses and cowboys.and on the radio, the lone ranger capt. midnight and other heros. then there were the girl detectives like nancy drew. at least they made me into a reader. I came a cross two of them last week
when sorting. I wonder if I will still like the writing. 'have gotten fussy . . .
claire
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Pictures.. Several years ago, I made two photogallery's for our two sons. Each one containing pictures, newspaper clips, etc. of their lives. Put them in a scrapbook type.. To my amazement, they loved them and so did the wives.. They are treasures as far as they are concerned.
I also did a scrapbook of me and then one of my husband. This way I did use many of the old pictures, lots of houses we lived in. Animals we owned, etc. Great fun and again they are down in our living area and it is surprising to me the number of people who come to visit, who invariably find them and think they are neat.. I suspect its just unsorted pictures that get put in closets.
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It worked the other way round at our house, my dgt bro't me HER pictures and 2 empty photo albums for me to organize. (She had asked me if i would do it and i said yes, since she's 10X busier than i am). I filled up one album, but then i was left w/ the pictures that i didn't recognize, either the people or the events, so i told her she has to organize them, I didn't have any idea how she would want them placed, then i'll put them in the album for her.
I put together an album of the highlight's of our son's life to pass around at his wedding rehearsal dinner. Many of his bride's family had only known him for 3 yrs, so they had missed the previous 30 yrs of his life. I suggested to the bride's mother that she do the same for the bride. I would not do it, if she didn't want to make one for her dgt. She said she would, but then on the evening of the dinner told me she didn't do it. But everyone, including our family, enjoyed seeing Stephen's "life" even the parts they had "lived" thru.
I've put almost all the pictures from the last 3 yrs on disks. They were either taken by digital cameras, or sent to me from phones, or i scanned them into the computer and then every once in a while i transfer them to the cd's. That way if my computer crashes, or anything happens to the snapshots, we'll have copies of them. Every week i change the desktop picture on the computer, using one of the pictures that are still in "My Pictures" so i get to enjoy them each day, they aren't just sitting in the computer file. I think there are sev'l hundred by now..........................
Jean
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I have two book lights.
One is a Zelco Model 10080. It's about 6 inches long with the light folded half way over one end and the clip part (that goes on the book) folded over the other. Each one unfolds to a 90º angle. The light can be swiveled from side to side and is nice and bright.
I think I got it at a book store and don't remember what I paid for it. Neat feature is a little recorder inside on which you can put/play back things like...comments on reading, references to be remembered, etc. I really like it.
The other one is a Lumatec Ulltralite Reading Light. It's about 61/2 inches long. The book clip looks like a paper clip (stronger) and snaps out of a recessed area. The LED light extension is pushed up to curve over the book page.
I don't like it nearly as much because 1) the light extension wobbles, 2) the LED light isn't as bright as I like, 3) the lighted area is smaller than the other one and 4) the clip isn't as sturdy. May have ordered it from a catalog.
Is this where someone mentioned reading "Stone's Fall"? I finished it - but the ending made me think the author is SICK! :(
Now reading a good old "trashy" Judith Krantz novel. :D
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I didn't find the Zelco light with a recorder but here is a video review of one Zelco led book light: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/986846/4063478
Here are various models: http://www.offerfind.com/search/itty_bitty_book_light although the price at amazon.com is better for some of them.
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Thanks for your reviews of booklights. I found that my type is still available. One model at Amazon slips into the spine of the book and the light is on a flexible mount. http://www.amazon.com/Zelco-11324-LED-Bookmark-Lite/dp/B000PER22K/ref=pd_sim_k_2
That one sounds good but i'll look some more. Since i read in bed those whch mount on a book rack won't do.
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marcie which do you use? book lite.
claire
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Claire, My husband is a reader too so we both have lamps attached to the head of the bed.
I don't currently use a book light but when I rode an early commute bus to get to work in the morning while everyone else was asleep on the dark bus, I used a light that looked similar to the one here: http://www.amazon.com/Slim-Owl-Super-Bright-Light-White/dp/B0000DJADY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1252633261&sr=8-16
I don't know where my light is right now and can't remember the brand.
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the kindle 2 folio for fifty bucks looks nice. you don't scratch it up by carrying it in a purse but the three AAA batteries only last forty hours probably just llike the one I have which sells for 18 dollars if I can find it. it's a good lead marcie I followed yours to here at amazon.
I'm not able to read books with ordinary print anymore so am giving them away an d only using the kindle. have to stock up on tjese batteriest I guess.the two AA are easy to find but the three AAA are not. My son wants my old art text books on roman and greet architecture. he wants to look at pictures. of course I can do that too but am not into these particular ones.
thanks, claire
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One of the nicest thing about our nephews wedding last Fall was at the reception, they had a video running. It was pictures that Jen and Stephen collected from all of their families.. They also did some of their current lives. It was amazing watching the bride and groom grow up, see old friends and relatives. My brother who was his father is dead and I was shocked enough to cry when the very first picture in the show was his Dad..It was lovely though.
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I like the idea of collecting pictures from the life of each child into a special
album for them. I'll keep that in mind for the future, for the days when my
outside activities are more limited.
I was reading Eccl. 12 the other day, and was happy to declare that despite
the increased difficulties of these aging years, I still 'find pleasure in them'. :)
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sorting books in baggies. I did that a few years ago but found overlapping subjects. most of them are in a file box still in which ever baggie I thought most appropriat. i.e. friends, animals family mine hiss ours. etc.
claire
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Sev'l months ago Ginny mentioned "Down the Nile." Friends of ours are going to Egypt in Nov and they have read that book also. Didn't you all talk about another book of a woman traveling by herself in that area? I can't find the discussion. My memory was that there was even a tho't of using this other book in a book discussion. Does anyone recall that? ......................jean
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Jean, did they like Down the Nile? It sure made me want to go, I still think that's the best book on travel I've read.
There are others, older ones about women in Egypt, but I have not read them, you may be thinking of the one about the woman in Australia who crossed the continent by camel alone? Very annoying woman but it made for a good read. (Some animals harmed in making the trip, as they disclaim about movies). Those sections a total turn off for me.
I'd like to hear about their trip, a "totally to die for" trip is being put out by the...is it (I can never remember the name) American Archaeological Society? Anyway it's online and it's by boat in October, wait listed, starts in Alexandria, Egypt, and then goes across the entire top of North Africa, Roman ruins galore. I would kill to do it, right in the middle of grape season here. I think next year, our 30th in grapes, assuming there's no war or danger from pirates or Libya deciding war on Americans, and assuming I can wangle the tariff, which is much too high, I must do it. Never saw anything like it.
________________
But except for the trip to the library, one can travel at home with a good book. I finished Homer and Langley, reluctantly. He's done a masterwork in "creating" Homer, and I think if that thing doesn't win something it will be a real shame. Little by little Homer's personality grows on the reader till the poignant end....I'm going to carefully choose another of his. Meanwhile I'm off pursuing plot with the other recommendations of the Wall Street Journal article, that was a good article and so far, right on.
_____________________
Am also watching the documentary Mondovino, the world of wine. I would recommend it except for the subtitles (which it needs, being in several languages) but which are not put against a white background, but rather right over the film, which renders them almost impossible to see. I will say I think it's improving my French, because you can almost understand that as well as the sub titles and you can pick up a lot that the subtitles do not convey, which surprises me, i thought they did the entire speech, they don't.
It seems (hahha) to be about a failed attempt by the Mondavi vineyards in America to acquire? destroy? ...depends on who you ask..... a large section of...Burgundy, France? The amazing thing is that everybody has a different idea of what happened, and a lot of speculation about motivation, and a LOT of them are interviewed, it's absolutely fascinating.
___________________________
I've just started Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, which won the Book of the Year title from the New York Times Book Review and about 9 other publications. It's short stories and it's excellent so far, I'm in the first one. The pages of reviews are incredible.
_____________________
So what are YOU reading??
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My librarian who promised to find "March" for me proudly presented it
yesterday. My delight was fully equal to her pleasure. I won't be able to
start it immediately as I am currently reading two other books...but soon!
With my high opinion of Geraldine Brooks writing skills, I fully expect it to
be gratifying read.
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Excitement.. On our Bucket List ( like the movie) has always been a transatlantic cruise. We decided recently that 2010 was the year.. So I have been diligently searching. Came up with a dandy with lots of extras for early booking.. So Next May 14, we will leave from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona Spain.. 14 days.. Balcony.. We are both so up for this.. Silly but fun..We use river boats all the time, went to Alaska on a mid sized boat, but this one is 1600.. guest.. Holland America..Noordam.. So.. I must start reading up on transatlantic and Spain. HmmGinny, tell me about Spanish Wine..
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Jean, did they like Down the Nile? It sure made me want to go, I still think that's the best book on travel I've read.
There are others, older ones about women in Egypt, but I have not read them, you may be thinking of the one about the woman in Australia who crossed the continent by camel alone? Very annoying woman but it made for a good read. (Some animals harmed in making the trip, as they disclaim about movies). Those sections a total turn off for me
Ginny: I tried Down the Nile but couldn't get into it and didn't finish. DH was rather ill at the time so I guess my concentration was down. Might try it again sometime.
The woman in Australia with the camel--ssss only crossed half the continent - she started in the middle and worked her way south and west ending up about 150 miles south of where I am at this minute. Inhospitable country for most of the way to be sure - but she did have help. She was not Aust's finest hour.
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Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
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Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
This week's New York Times Book review had a review of Homer and Langley. I want to read it but I don't want to pay a hardcover price for about 200 pages. By the time I get done reading what I have started, it will be out in paperback. I went to Alibris to look up some of the other books about the brothers people had posted but those (used) books start out at even a higher price than the this new one.
I was haunted by The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri; there was so much in it for me. I sent the movie version to my aunt hoping she would see some of things about leaving your family and then becoming separate from them (especially in worldview) so that we could have a discussion. That didn't happen. A critic (I don't remember who) wrote that Lahiri only gets to a certain point in exploring major cultural issues and doesn't get to a resolution which is fine for a first book but then she goes over the same ground in her later works. I usually don't like the book that comes after the one I thoroughly enjoyed and found meaningful. I liked the Kite Runner; I didn't like his second book. I am currently reading the Book of Shadows by Namita Gokhale and really, really like it.
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Still wading through Lost Christianities.
Just started The Highland Clearances by John Preeble(?). I have my clan map and a travel map of Scotland to follow along.
Also recently started, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I got it because I read that it was a detective story about characters in books, in this case Jane Eyre, get kidnapped and the detective (Thursday Next) must find the villain, rescue the character and avert "literary homicide". There is much more to it than that -- people can time travel, cloning is routine, England is a police state, the Crimean War is still on, and literature is taken very seriously. It is all a little confusing at the moment, but I think it touches on real life things like revisionist history and forgeries, as well as the possibility of changing stories to suit your own personal preference, not what the author actually wrote. I think we see how easy that is now that we have computers and the internet. A very odd book altogether.
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Mavis Cheek has become a real favorite of mine. She writes about women who have lit Life carry them along until something disrupts the flow and they begin to make demands of Life which sounds banal and too, too familiar. Her powerful use of language, almost lyrical, elevates her books head and shoulders above many on the best seller lists. I'm reading the third, Sex Life Of My Aunt. I literally can hardly put it down.
There are three holes in people's lives. One is the hole that remains open because you do not get enough love to fill it. The second is the hole that remains because you do not find a fulfilling direction to live by. And the third is the hole that remains because you do not have enough money to make up for one or both of the other holes.
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Also recently started, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I got it because I read that it was a detective story about characters in books, in this case Jane Eyre, get kidnapped and the detective (Thursday Next) must find the villain, rescue the character and avert "literary homicide". There is much more to it than that -- people can time travel, cloning is routine, England is a police state, the Crimean War is still on, and literature is taken very seriously. It is all a little confusing at the moment, but I think it touches on real life things like revisionist history and forgeries, as well as the possibility of changing stories to suit your own personal preference, not what the author actually wrote. I think we see how easy that is now that we have computers and the internet. A very odd book altogether.
I thought "The Eyre Affair" was a hoot. I particularly liked the bookworms, who ate excess verbiage, and excreted punctuation marks, which t'ended to g;et int-o the con,ver.satio:n of people around them. And you'll find out who really wrote Shakespeare.
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PatH, I haven't gotten to the bookworms yet, but I am having fun with the character names - Paige Turner, Jack Schitt, Acheron Hades (appropriate name for a bad guy), Uncle Mycroft who is into games theory. Never having read Pickwick Papers I am wondering if there is any pun intended by naming her pet dodo Pickwick. Coming up on chapter 8.
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That book about 'literary homicide' sounds familiar, FRYBABE. I Think
I read that one. It was an amusing twist, wasn't it? There are more books
in the "Thursday Next" series, if you would like to read them. Check out
Fantastic Fiction.
Oh, jeepers, JACKIE. It looks like I've got,..let me see...about 1&1/2
holes. Would that be an average, I wonder? :-\ ;)
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Babi: 1.5 puts you ahead of me, with all 3.
I think it was Steph who mentioned The Heroines: A Novel which has me captivated. It will end too soon to suit me.
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I like very very few travel books.. Most of them seem to do such odd things. I would like to read Down the Nile since we were there.
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I was asked to post my comments in the Reading Around The World discussion here: Fitting into several of the semi-qualifications for this category is the latest novel to be translated into English by J M G Le Clezio, Desert, which received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature. Like many I said Who? Inflammatory comments by the permanent secretary of the Academy criticizing US literature as "too isolated, too insular" created a further barrier to our appreciation. Reading a review in today's Oregonian I learn that the author is literally a world traveller with, among others, teaching stints in Bangkok, Mexico City, Austin, Albuquerque and Boston.
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/l/jeanmarie_gustave_le_clezio/index.html
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Babi, I have two more of the Thursday Next series to read before I add more. I am really starting to get into it.
I looked Swindon up on the net last night and discovered it has railworks and Railway Museum. There is some current hope of reviving the canal area. Didn't see anything about an airport. Got their own soccer team. Google images has some nice images of the shopping area, canal, rail stuff, old town, etc.
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Well, how about that! Myrthyr features in The Eyre Affair. My Mom was from Myrthyr Tydfil
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Jon Krakauer has written some books I've enjoyed: Into Thin Air about 1996 season's Mt Everest climb, and Into the Wild has a new one, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman which is now on my TBR list. Pat Tillman was a professional NFL player who after 9/11 left his multi-millions job and enlisted in the army to fight in Afghanistan. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Filkins-t.html
and
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/09/nonfiction_review_where_men_wi.html
From what little I know Pat Tillman sounds like he was a helluva guy.
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I liked Into Thin
Air very much, but also read another book about the same incident that disagreed rather violently with Krakauer.. Who knows.
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"I thought "Travels With Charlie" was good, STEPH. Have you read that one?
Myrthyr Tydfil is a real place! How delightful. I love that name, but
didn't realize it actually existed. That's got to be Welsh, right, FRYBABE? The
Welsh names, all by themselves, are like a glimpse of the past.
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Anita Brookner has a new book out called The Strangers. I may or may not read it. I have read at least a half dozen of her books. They are quite depressing; yet, I find them fascinating. I say they are depressing because her main characters are often isolated, and lonely. What fascinates me is that they are almost always well educated, travel a lot, know about art, and are well read. They are not poor. I read Brookner to see if she can figure out a way to get her characters to open the door to their holes that they seemingly want to stay closed. From the review I read, the characters in Strangers are also alienated from their relatives, lovers, and themselves so they live with holes. My thought always is that her characters lack imagination. What's the point of doing anything if you don't participate and make what you are doing something other than what it is. For example, take reading; I read-not to manipulate facts or change history-but to stimulate thought and then write my own story; that's what gets me up in the morning in the anticipation of another joyful day.
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Yes Babi, there is a Merthyr. Merthyr Tydfil is named after St. Tydfil who was killed by pagans way back when. Merthyr means martyr in Welsh. I didn't know that until just now. At the beginning of the 19th century it was the largest town in Wales owing to its mining and ironworks industry. It was a somewhat depressed area when I visited relatives there in 1969.
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Donnie: I've read a good bit of Anita Brookner's work too. As you say its fascinating - I love her prose. I don't find her novels depressing but rather that her characters are often unfilfilled in their lives even though they are well educated, often financially secure etc etc. Perhaps they won't 'open the door' as you put because they feel safe where they are and don't want to take any risks even though if they don't they will miss so much of what life offers.
I think her novels are successful because she writes about the world she knows where the people are well educated, know about art, have travelled fairly widely and so on.
I'll look out for the new one you mention.
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Along long time ago, I read Travels with Charlie.. I loved it..
Now in The Heroines.. the 13 year old was rescued from the sanitarium by Conor, the Irish hero/villain.. Hmm. that makes them real. Curioser and curiorser.. This is one odd book.
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There are several Anita Brookner books at my library. Thought I would start with Hotel Du Lac as it won the Booker Prize, I believe. I've expanded my list of Geraldine Brooks' work; she has a non-fiction about her correspondence with the folks from Oz while she was at the WSJ in New York. Her novel, Year of Wonder, about the plague epidemic in 17th century London, is also on my list. I'm still waiting for my name to come up for March.
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I'll be starting on "March" as soon as I finished with the Dona Gracia Nasi
bio. Let me know when you get your copy, JACKIE, and we can compare
notes as to whether it might be a good discussion book.
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I really enjoyed Hotel du Lac, Jackie. Will be interested to see how you like it. I intend to read more of Brookner's books. BTW, I've just gotten BAD DAY FOR SORRY from the library after your recommendaion. Sounds good, something quick and easy after the book I've been reading, Maugham's OF HUMAN BONDAGE.
Marge
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Just saw in the paper this morning that our county commissioners are cutting back on library hours.. Amazing.. it is the place that people can go to use computers when they need them and look for jobs..On the other hand, I notice that no county commissioner or school superintendent has cut their salaries..
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Steph, It never ceases to amaze me that the politicians threaten or do reduce programs and services that are necessary while continuing to fund their pockets and those of dubious programs of little real worth. Not only do they frequently pick on the libraries, but they often threaten cutbacks on police and fire services too.
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And just think of all that could be done with the money that does into
paying lifetime 'pensions' to Senators. Serve a couple of terms, and walk
out with a very generous lifetime income that they really don't need.
How many ex-Senators are out there right now, receiving funds that could
pay for things we desperately need. Try prying that money loose!
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ALL of the libraries in PHiladelphia are to be closed because the Penna legislature couldn't - or wouldn't - get there act together to let Philly raise their sales tax and make some other adjustments to their budget. I have a feeling that the legistlature is playing politics, most of the legislators are from suburban/small town/rural areas of Pa and they have never been kind to Phila. they may have a battle w/ Ed Randle who's governor, but used to be the mayor of PHila. But! Imagine! ALL the libraries are going to close completely!.......................what a sad state we are in....................jean
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Jean I can't imagine the desolation I would feel if Salem were to close its library. Sometimes my feminist ire is aroused at the shabby attempts to blame the victim, in this case it is poor, inner city residents who have few resources (I can sense a hidden message, they brought it on themselves by their excesses.). How much comfort there is in a book! To be denied that comfort is abominable.
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Jackie - not only is the library the only place some of those children can access books but the library system has after school programs at many of the branches and as Steph said, the library is the only place where many people have to access computers. The system also has a great program of book discussions w/ authors, which have to be cancelled. It's a shame that everything can be a pawn in politics..............Many places don't provide much in the way of activities for children and teen-agers and then get out of sorts when the young people use their energies in misbegotten ways. The first cuts that came in our township budget were the recreation programs. I understand that saving people's jobs are more important, but we all know that there is a lot of unneccasary spending in municiple budgets. It would be nice if some of the folks who have a great deal of money - and their are many in PHila and in my town living in their 20 room, million dollar houses - would pony up some bucks instead of gripping about how much taxes they have to pay. Where are the options from those folks who say the gov't should stay small and out of our pocketbooks? .........................Jean
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Let's start the day with three bits of SeniorLearn information you may find of interest:
1. We are already hearing from the author, Matthew Pearl in The Last Dickens discussion (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=71.0) which is scheduled to begin on October 1. Even if you haven't read Dickens' last novel, you will find much intrigue in Matthew's historical fiction which takes place AFTER Dickens death. (You'll probably end up wanting to read Dickens' unfinished novel after spending time with Matthew.) If you think you might like to participate, please stop in The Last Dickens discussion (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=71.0) TODAY!
2. We have a proposal to discuss Pulitizer Prize winning author, Richard Russo's latest novel, That Old Cape Magic (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=73.0).
Described by Bookmarks magazine as "a novel of deep introspection and every family feeling imaginable, with a middle-aged man confronting his parents and their failed marriage, his own troubled one, his daughter’s new life and, finally, what it was he thought he wanted and what in fact he has."
" what it was he thought he wanted and what in fact he has" .
This is a subject that gets my attention every time.
If you think you might like to join us in November, please let us know. If enough are interested to form a quorum, we can put it on the schedule. You'll find the discussion here - That Old Cape Magic (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=73.0)
3. Last, but certainly not least, we are nearing a vote for upcoming book discussions. There's still some time for nominating a title that you would like to see included in the vote. We're waiting to hear from you in the Suggestion Box (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.80) right now!
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Yes, most legislatures are controlled by the rural areas in the state. An old holdover from less populous times.. They love to punish the cities and Pennsylvania and New York are particularly prone to this..
Libraries are the backbone of learning for recent immigrants and people with little or limited income. Politicians simply do not care about these people and never will. Sad, but I am convinced true.
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Jean, ALL of the libraries in Philadelphia. Holy Samolies. I can’t imagine such a thing happening. One would hope such a happening would bring forth all kinds of marches and protests, but unfortunately, that probably won’t happen.
When I started reading the beginning of this thread yesterday I realized how little this school librarian knew about our local city library budget, governance, etc, and so sent off an email to our very with-it and successful library director. I have not yet heard from her. But here we have a defined library tax which is included in the property tax. I think, but don’t know for sure, that this is the library’s budget, and that it can’t be taken away from it. A few years ago we needed a major overhaul of the current building (we have no branches) and a very strong effort was mounted to DOUBLE the library tax. The voters passed it -- .31 per $100 assessed valuation and a few months ago a newly renovated state of the art library was opened, I think, to the tune of $8 million. It was the first library tax increase in 30 years. You will hear some gripers, but I think on the whole people are pleased with and proud of what they have. Yes, there are lots of computers and the whole library is wi-fied. The users are tax-paying citizens getting their information. A lot of emphasis on services to children with three focused areas – little kids, middle kids, and teenagers.
Now, it’s not free for everyone in town because in the 1960’s the state legislature froze library districts, so those folks in the newer city limits, but outside the library boundaries must either use the regional library in a nearby town or else pay $65 per year for a family membership. A pretty good bargain, I’d say.
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Who here has read Rudyard Kipl;ing's "American Notes?" This is Kipling’s travel log account of his trip through the U.S in 1889. It seems in his work as an editor on an Indian English Newspaper he had embarrassed certain high officials or the Imperial Indian Government administration. His publisher thought it best he leave India for a while. The result was a long extended trip through the U.S. He arrived in San Francisco via Japan by steamship. Some of the scenes cover 1889 San Francisco with a Visit to a Chinese Opium Den where he witnessed a murder, then a train trip up the coast to the mouth of the Columbia where he toured a Tuna cannery built on pilings over the river. Then came a wild train ride east to early Yellowstone National Park, and on to the east for a unique Englishman’s accout of late 19th century America, Americans, and their culture.
I have a hard cover edition of the book now out of print, but the book should be available at most libraries and an inexpensive paperback seems available from Barnes & Noble. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/American-Notes/Rudyard-Kipling/e/9781406819021/?itm=3&usri=1
I have mentioned this title on our :Suggestions" Board as a possible candidate for discussion.Is anybody here interested?
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Harold: I am a fan of Kipling and would relish reading his views of America. Count me in.
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After reading the posts regarding public libraries, I never realized how fortunate we here in Baton Rouge are ::) Besides the Main Library, we have 12 branches from which you can ask
to have a book transferred. :)And------the Main library is in the planning stage for a much
larger new building. Actually, there is no place in this city that is not in close proximity to a
library.
JOY
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Harold: Project Gutenberg has the downloadable text available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/977
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thanks ms. sherlock for the link.I'm looking at free ebooks from gutenberg and how to transfer them to y kindle if possible. it is experimental with them beginning this month and will be bugg but useful to me in that the kinde is personally comfortable for me. thanks a bunch claire
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Kipling's KIM is also available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2226.
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So, can you believe a prestigious prep school dumping it's library? Take a
look.
James Tracy, headmaster of the Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Conn., told the Globe that ink on paper is so 20th century. So his school library is doing away with it -- and its 20,000 books.
"When I look at books, I see an outdated technology like scrolls before books,' Tracy told the (pardon the expression) paper.
He swears this isn't a school production of "Fahrenheit 451," Ray Bradbury's cautionary tale about books being burned in an anti-intellectual hysteria.
"We're not discouraging students from reading," he told the paper. "We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology."
Administrators at the 144-year-old prep school 90 minutes west of Boston have already given away many of the library's previous collection of classics, poetry and reference material. They are choosing instead to spend $500,000 on a digital "learning center" that will include flat-screen TVs for cruising the Internet as well as cubbies designed for laptops and a coffee shop with a $12,000 cappuccino machine.
The TV sets alone will cost $42,000
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OhBabi, that is so sad. What a stupid limited man.. When we lived in Bedford,Ma, we paid a library fee in our taxes.. Separate line and everything and like Pedlin, when the library needed updating, the customers passed the referendum.. But Bedford is a highly educated town and library usage was tremendous. Our used book store had some of the best books imaginable and a huge computer book section that people came to from miles around.
In Florida, the counties run libraries and some towns.. The results are spotty to say the least.
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Babi, I think they are making a HUGE mistake. I have observed and I am told by someone who took a PhD in Education, Reading specialty that people read differently on screen than they do with print.
In my case, I read more spottily on screen. My eyes "jump around" more. Anything that is too long is skipped through, and ads and sidebars are distracting, somewhat. Pages in print that are too "busy" have a similar effect. I don't have a laptop or Kindle, so I can't compare those. I cannot imagine sitting at a desk in a chair (at least not mine) and reading a book for hours. I like to snuggle into a sofa and read. On the other hand, someone I know who is dyslexic reads better with a screen than with paper print, at least at work.
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Golly moses, I can't believe my eyes! What have we come to, the free libraries of Philadelphia closing? My hometown? Closing the libraries? 1984 here at last?
Books like scrolls?
My goodness it's a Brave New World already!
Oh dear, what compares to cuddling up with a good book?
Stephanie I have to say I think your cruise sounds fabulous, and you must fill us in on every detail. Have always wanted to cross the ocean on a ship, and once I am no longer keeping my grandbaby that will be the way for me for the rest of time. I do hate the dressing up, but I guess you can overcome that in several ways.
Holland America has one of the highest satisfaction ratings in the industry, you should have a ball.
Does it have a library like the Queens? I want to go on one of the new Queens someday just for the library, the library on the QEII when last we went (I hated the dress up, did I mention that?) was fabulous. Still have a book I bought from it.
Did you all know that cruising has become the latest Assisted Living (this is NOT intended at Stephanie! hahaha) It's true. The cruise magazines report that some ships have people not only living on them in lieu of Assisted Living but that it's cheaper. Think about it. :)
What a way to go.
I can't get over the library topic here today.
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library8d.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Babi, is that for real -- that idiot at the prep school? It's not an urban legend? Updated War of the Worlds? Next week will he say, "ha ha ha, I didn't think you would believe me?"
That sent me off to the NYT to see what was under "library." O shock, shock, one of my favorite cities, and look what they've done.
Seattle’s entire library system — from its branches to book drops to Web site — is shut down this week to save money. All city departments have been told to reduce spending to make up a $43 million gap in the city’s 2009 budget. The public library is trying to cut 2 percent, or about $1 million, and the weeklong closing of its downtown central library and 26 branches is intended to save $655,000. About 700 library employees are forgoing a week of pay, and the system will reopen the day after Labor Day. No materials will be due and no fines will accrue during the closing. Library officials cautioned people not to simply leave books or materials on library doorsteps, saying patrons will be responsible for any damage or thefts. The shutdown is not unprecedented; Seattle has closed its libraries, for two weeks each in 2002 and 2003 during earlier downturns. The city announced this week’s closing in April.
from the Associate Press
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And another favorite city is doing it RIGHT!!
New York Public Library Extends Hours at 10 Branches (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/new-york-public-library-extends-hours/)
will mean that library branches are open an average of 52.5 hours a week, the most in more than three decades.
“In the current economic climate we have seen that access to libraries is essential,” Paul LeClerc, the president of the New York Public Library, said in a statement.
“We’re truly fortunate that our elected officials view libraries as one of the top public services to protect,” she said
To celebrate the change, the Mid-Manhattan Library, at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, will serve free coffee and doughnut holes from Tim Hortons from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday at its Cover-to-Cover Cafe. The cafe will also have live music starting at 8 p.m.
Wanna go?
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Hurray for the NYPL. Our local libraries are not closing branches, but they are shortening their hours.
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Actually, in a perverse way I approve of the way Seattle handled their problem, because it will have no lasting effects. It's bad to be without libraries for 2 weeks, but when it's over you still have the same hours and the same books (unless some got stolen from the doorstep).
What I don't approve of is the budget-cutting that made it necessary.
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Hurray for the NYPL. Our local libraries are not closing branches, but they are shortening their hours.
That's what they are doing here in Wake County, NC, too. I don't mind shortened hours as long as it helps keep libraries open.
When I was on the library staff in upstate NY it was a constant battle with the Town Council over library funding. It was always the first place the Council would go to when they needed to cut funds!
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Well, the Pennsylvania legislature finally got their budget passed, which will help Phila, but i don't know about the libraries. It saved 2500 jobs, but i have a feeling that will be for the people who work in some of the more direct services. Perhaps some of the libraries can remain open now.................jean
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It's so sad that legislators are so short sighted. Circulation and in-library use are all up significantly in our area. All the libraries are reporting this gain. People are watching their $$ and using the library to get books and videos (free) for their kids and for themselves. They're also using the computers in the library...perhaps to job hunt or have given up internet at home and coming to check their email, etc. at a place that's free.
Our summer children's programming had higher attendance than normal...and the most asked question was "How much does it cost for my child to attend"...and they were shocked to learn...it's FREE. The same was asked about some special programs funded by the Friends...and attended by 94. That's a lot for a small town like ours. With the price of books...gads, even paperbacks are often in the $12.95-$14.95 range the library remains a terrific bargain.
Our latest issue has been a change in our Sex Offender Law. The legislature changed the law from where they're required to live to where they're required to be. They can't be near a swimming pool, a playground, or in the Library (without written permission from the Lib. Director). Our Board passed a policy that no Sex Offender (against a minor) can be on Library grounds at all. No permission will be given to any of them. [Yep, several visited the library almost daily]. They can access the collection online and they can have someone they designate come and check out books for them. Several called for permission...DENIED....and two have shown up. The police were called and they were removed from the site. The Board has told the staff to call the police...let them deal with these people and not try to play "cop" themselves.
There was some talk that we were denying these people their "rights." Our view is the rights of children to visit the Children's Room and come to the Library comes over the rights of a convicted sex offender (against a minor). I don't think anyone here in small town USA will make much of a fuss about that.
jane
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FRYBABE, maybe you could pass along that information from the education
specialist to Mr. Tracy at Cushing. I am hoping that he is being flooded
with negative feedback on this one.
I've heard that, GINNY, and I think it's a wonderful idea. But cheaper
or not, I suspect I still couldn't afford it. And it would make it harder
for the kids to visit. ;)
THREE CHEERS FOR NEW YORK!!!
You fellow book-lovers may be interested in this bit I found in the book I'm
reading about Dona Gracia Nasi (converso name: Beatrice Mendes).
This lady was patron to several authors during her time in Ferrara, including
a translation of the Jewish bible from Hebrew to Spanish. Actually, it was a
Judaeo-Spanish dialect. It is know as the Ferrara Bible. I was especially
intrigued by this paragraph:
"Even before the Renaissance, wealthy and aristocratic women--Christian or Jewish--had been able to wield considerable influence by favoring the creation of books above all else. They used books to pass along to the next generation aspects of their culture or religious beliefs that they felt were important. They commissioned books as wedding presents for their daughters. They commissioned vernacular translations of religious books to help less-educated women follow Latin church ritual. By doing so, they undermined the stranglehold that the male clergy maintained over their congregations. Indeed, some scholars maintain that those books became a key element in the spread of the Reformation."
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Every semester that i taught i would start the term by saying "the library is the best buy in society and the best buy in your educational experience. You can learn about any subject you want to for free at the library." I have preached that to my children and all of their friends and relatives. Even w/ the internet, i think it is still true. Can you think of anything else that can give you so much education, fun, inspiration, how-to info, enjoyment for free as a library? Even if you are paying taxes, or a fee, to use it, it is still the best buy ever.
Babi - isn't it wonderful and exciting how much we are learning about women in history? When i was pregnant w/ our dgt, our first child, (1970) I, of course, had to stop teaching when i was 5 months pregnant and i started going to the county library, which was and is superb, and reading thru the biographies of women. I found many that i didn't know about, even tho i was a history major. From that point on i have had an avocation of women's history. The information has just been expanding by leaps and bounds and i read as much as i can, finding it fascinating what misinformation i had learned about women lives and lifestyles during my history education - pre1970.......................jean
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We almost did the QEii, but wanted to end up in Spain, since we have not been before. I do hope they have a library, but truth is, my suitcase is half books and half clothes always.
My husband hates the dressing up, but we are told that the Noordam has alternative dining places. I personally like to dress up, not every night, but on some occasions.
Libraries.. I cannot begin to imagine a world without libraries.. or a school with no books. I think I am glad I am older..
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Donnie, I keep meaning to say how much I enjoy your insights and the wonderful posts you write.
Loved the one on Anita Brookner: Anita Brookner has a new book out called The Strangers. I may or may not read it. I have read at least a half dozen of her books. They are quite depressing; yet, I find them fascinating. I say they are depressing because her main characters are often isolated, and lonely. What fascinates me is that they are almost always well educated, travel a lot, know about art, and are well read. They are not poor. I read Brookner to see if she can figure out a way to get her characters to open the door to their holes that they seemingly want to stay closed. the Book of Shadows by Namita Gokhale and really, really like it.
What's the Book of Shadows about?
I liked this too: A critic (I don't remember who) wrote that Lahiri only gets to a certain point in exploring major cultural issues and doesn't get to a resolution which is fine for a first book but then she goes over the same ground in her later works.
This is my first Lahiri, and it's short stories, so I'm curious to see whether that prediction holds true in them.
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I'm finished with the Boy Who Followed Ripley, finally. Not her best book, strained, but I know the next one is really good so I'm looking forward to it.
________________________________
But I am most excited about the arrival of Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor, whom I had never heard of until reading about her here.
Boy the reviews are out of this world for her! It's got Joan Plowright on the cover breaking up the actor who played Ludovic Meyer, it's obvious they enjoyed each other. But it's different, the people at the Claremont are different and apparently it's somewhat stunning, here from the Introduction: "It is the reader who acknowledges that they (the people living in the Claremont) have been cast aside, not they." The Introduction also notes, "[Elizabeth Taylor's] peculiar gift is for noticing the casual cruelty that people use to protect themselves from the not always casual cruelty of others."
Here are some of the reviews:
---Sarah Waters said, "Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth."
---"Always intelligent, often subversive and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person's dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, icy wit, and freshness in a stimulating cocktail--the perfect toast to the quite horror of domestic life."
---"How deeply I envy any reader coming to her for the first time!"
---"Sophisticated, sensitive, and brilliantly amusing."
Oh boy!! And it appears she has written quite a few novels, thank you Marcie for bringing her up!! I've read three pages of Mrs.Palfrey at the Claremont, and am hooked already!
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I love the movie, "Mrs. P. at the Clarmount", with Joan Plowright. Have watched it many times. JP is one of my favorite actresses! However, I didn't realize that it is based upon Elizabeth Taylor's book. This is great news. I will order it for my Kindle. Thank all of you for sharing this information.
Sheila
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the power of three by laura lippman well writen and much about the teen age sub cultue. interesting to me considering my grandson enmeshed .
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JEAN, since the Gracia Nasi bio. is about a remarkable woman, it
features information about other remarkable women of the times as well.
Many of them I had never heard of before. It has been fascinating
learning about them.
I was disappointed at being unable to watch the 'Mrs. Palfrey..." movie. (No
CC) My library has...guess what..the video only. However, I did find three
other books by an Elizabeth Atwood Taylor. Is this the same author, SHEILA? All three seem to be murder mysteries.
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Claire, I read all of Laura Lippman. Both her stand alone and her series are quite interesting. She seems to do a lot of research in her stand alone types.
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Babi: The government should make it mandatory that any movie have CC. Maybe the ADA folks or the ACLU could take a hand.
FF lists these novels by ET: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/elizabeth-taylor/
and here is her bio: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/elizabeth-taylor/
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Babi, you'll find a listing of the books written by Elizabeth Taylor at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Taylor_(novelist).
If that url doesn't work, search for Elizabeth Taylor novelist using the wikipedia search.
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Marcie: Thanks for fixing my dud URL. It was supposed to be the wiki link you posted.
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Oh, I didn't see your post, Jackie. We were posting at the same time. GMTA :-)
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I tried two of the Elizabeth Taylor books, but simply could not get into them.. No idea why.
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I would like another opinion of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Have any of you read that one or the follow up The Girl Who Played With Fire? It's about a troubled wise-beyond-her-years genius computer hacker.
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Thanks for the referrals, JACKIE & MARCIE. I don't know if the ACLU
would really consider closed captioning a civil liberties issue, but
the idea did make me grin. 8)
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I've read both Tattoo and Fire of the Steig Larsson books and I couldn't put them down. They are complex and violent but the milieu and characters keep me entranced. They are so popular at my library that I'm still waiting for the third one, Hornet's Nest, and overjoyed to hear that there is a fourth one scheduled.
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Thanks MsSherlock. I've read the Dragon Tattoo and enjoyed it as much as you. It was very violent but that didn't bother me too much. I like this guy's writing and it's my understanding that Fire is his LAST novel as he recently passed away.
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I would like another opinion of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Have any of you read that one or the follow up The Girl Who Played With Fire? It's about a troubled wise-beyond-her-years genius computer hacker.
My SIL - Patrick - has read both and recommended them to me. I have a hold for them at my library.
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Looks like Mrs. Palfrey was shortlisted for the Booker, too, I love the old Booker nominees and so far, the book.
But I came in to say I don't know if you got to see the Emmys last night, but I was really pleased, having blathered on and on about Grey Gardens on HBO and the book and the original documentary here, hahahaa ad nauseam, to see it win so many awards.
I think it got 6 all together, including some awarded previously, there must have been another earlier ceremony for writers, or something? Anyway it won Best Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress for Jessica Lange as Big Edie, and Ken Howard won for Best Supporting actor and he was good, too. It was really well done.
In fact the only show getting more awards was Little Dorrit and we all know who wrote that :) with 7 total.
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As always we're so au courant here! And now Matthew Pearl, the best selling author, will return next month in his new book which people say is fabulous about Dickens and the last book he wrote. Whether or not you have read The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens, people are saying you'll love Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens, so don't miss this chance (are we lucky here or WHAT?) to talk to an author about his work. He's wonderfully responsive, too. Everybody has heard of Dickens, but not everybody knows about his last unfinished book: should be a wow!
We have never had this many authors in our Books coming month after month! I'm so excited about our Books sections, even after 13 years (we started in 1996) we're going strong! YAY for our readers and participants!
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I've just finished "Last Light Over Carolina" - Mary Alice Monroe's novel that came out in July.
It's very good - set in a shrimping area of South Carolina. (Hint: the title refers to one of the characters as well)
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Callie,
I want to read that book. I really like Mary Alice Monroe. Several of us met her at a books gathering. I was very impressed by her. It was shortly after Theron died and she said the sweetest and nicest things to me that really encouraged me to go on.
Joan Grimes
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Mary Alice Monroe is another author I like so I've added Carolina to my library list. Thanks.
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Wow, Mrs Palfrey in its gentle calm tone is extremely powerful. You wouldn't think that a couple of pages about people sitting in a hotel lobby could be quite so....wow.
Here's an example of her prose:
In spite of long practice, she found that resolution was more difficult thee days. When she was young, she had had an image of herself to present to her new husband, whom she admired; then to herself, thirdly to the natives (I am an Englishwoman). Now, no one reflected the image of herself, and it seemed diminished: it had lost two-thirds of its erstwhile value (no husband, no natives).
The "natives" refers to her husband's being posted to Burma, where she had had to give herself a stern talking to (just like she has in her current situation), it's very powerful, about aging...very.
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JACKIE, are you any closer to getting your copy of "March"? I would be
interested in your take on it. I'm finding some things that would lend themselves to a discussion, but some of them are in sensitive areas and others
are 'been there, done that'. But it is a very good, beautifully written book. I
would very much like to have your thinking on it. Same goes for any of you that
may be reading this book.
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I finished the book written by a woman who grew up in a polygmous society. Excellent, although a bit drawn out. I cannot imagine putting that much faith in a single male.. But I would guess they dont know anything else..
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a new discovery, for me, is Sebastian Barry, Irish author: The Long Walk and Annie Dunne. Both deal with some of the same characters, The Long Walk comes first chronologically. But I read Annie Dunne first, so I know the tragic ending of the Long Walk. it is WW1, in all its horrors. Very strong, but what a wonderul writer. Annie Dunne is much gentler on the reader, rural Ireland setting, and I am thinking of making it one of my recommendations at Book Club. It is my turn next month, and it is so difficult. Recent recommendations have had us reading a lot of chick lit, and I think I would like to find something a little more worthwhile. Annie Dunne fits the bill.
since they want to hear more than one choice, I am thinking of going All Irish, besiddes Annie Dunne, with Felicia's Journey by the great William Trevor, and The Gathering by Elizabeth Enright, Booker Prize for last year.
any opinions on these to generate good discussion at the meeting?
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How about "By the Lake" by William Gahern, a highly regarded book that captures the essence of rural Ireland. See this Amazon article & reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Lake-John-McGahern/dp/0679744029/ref=pd_sim_b_2
I'm sorry! I don't know how to make url's shorter!!!!
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hahah Ginny always says that we are "au courant "and she's so right.
Matthew Pearl the author of The Last Dickens is just chomping at the bit to get in and get going with our discussion. Why not come on over here and join us? There are so many of you that add such a great dimension and contribute so much to our discussion. We would love to have you and your thoughts.
come on down and join us (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?board=71.0)
It's a great mystery and an enjoyable read. I am behaving (yeah, right) and reading only what we have been assigned- so I'm still in the dark with this "who-done-it." ???
JoanP and I will be there to meet and greet you. ::)
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I've read and enjoyed The Last Dickens and definitely want to participate in the discussion with the author. For those of you who haven't really been able to get into Dickens' novels, I want to say that you don't even have to be a fan of Dickens to enjoy Matthew Pearl's book. It stands on its own as a good adventure/mystery novel.
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What a journey I've just been on. It started with looking up William McGahern in FF but he isn't listed. The Amazon link displayed some other titles which lead in a round about way to Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/michael-morpurgo/private-peaceful.htm
So now I have more books on my TBR list! Just what I needed.
Read a couple of thrillers which were hard to put down. Christopher Reich's Rules of Deception (five stars) and Tell No One by Harlan Coben. A fun book is Elvis and the Dearly Departed, by Peggy Webb. Elvis is a basset hound who is convinced that he is Elvis. That Elvis. He and his humans, a family who have a mortuary, get into trouble when a body disappears. The trail leads to Vegas, a mysterious former show girl who inherits the dead doctor's millions. This is a change of pace following something intense like the thrillers above.
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Marcie said, "want to say that you don't even have to be a fan of Dickens to enjoy Matthew Pearl's book. It stands on its own as a good adventure/mystery novel."
That's interesting, and maybe I'll look into that one. The only book I tried to read by Matthew Pearl was his The Dante Club, and it was so boring I couldn't finish it.
Marj
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marjfay- The Last Dickens is FAR from boring. I really am enjoying the book. I never realized that Dickens had a sense of humor. You will love the characters in this one, naturally more modern and up to date in thought, even if it does take place right after Dicken's demise. DO join in with us in solving the mystery.
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following a lead from ginny i am into mary alice's the girl in the mirror. I do have to skip a lot of nice description to get on with the story though. Sometimes a good poetic lyrical writer forgets that she is telling a story.
claire
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Mssherlock, a few years back I read By the Lake, and its charm stayed with me. I could not remember the author's name, and the book title is replicated in the US in anovel about fishing.
But I dug up the author; he is John McGahern, not William, and By the Lake will definitely be one of the books I recommend. \
You would like Annie Dunne, it is also set in rural Ireland.
Thenk you for the link, I am anxious to read that review.
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I agree about The Dante Club. It is still sitting somewhere in the house. Just couldnt get at all interested in what was happening to anyone. Just now I am reading a fairly new Terry Pratchett and doing my usual hysterical laughing.. My husband grumps at me since I am told that cant read a page without breaking into more laughing.. Ah well, I was in a bad mood and Terry always cheers me up.
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I'm still waiting for March and when i went into the database to look where I was on the list it had disappeared! so I went through the reservation process again and there are many copies and all are available! I'll be picking it up as soon as they notify me its ready.
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ALF: I liked the "Dragon Tatoo" and "Played with Fire" too. The latter is definately violent, though. Larsson wrote one more before he died "The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest". It's coming out soon.
I'm glad Ken Howard won an Emmy, although I didn't see the show. I owe him a debt -- in his serial "The White Shadow" he was doing anti-drug stories for young boys years before anyone else was, and greatly influenced my son.
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Ken Howard's White Shadow was a jewel of a show and I feel it has been sadly overlooked. It was one program we never missed.
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Had not thought of the show in years. I did like Ken Howard very much.
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I'm so glad to hear that, JACKIE. I am finding more and more of interest
as I get further into the book. I'm anxious to have your opinion. I'm
also wondering if availibility will be a problem if the book is proposed
for discussion. I had to obtain my copy through a interlibrary loan. If
the book is eventually scheduled for discussion, I intend to pick up a
second-hand copy of my own.
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On the road again.On our way to Franklin,NC.. It had better be cooler and dryer than Florida. I am all out of wanting to be warm just now.
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Steph, we'll be home in a couple of days. You'll be just down the road in Franklin. If you decide to come to Chattanooga for a day, give me a holler. We'd love to meet up with you sometime.
It's been a long, but good month on the road. As always, we ready to head for home. We're in Norfolk this afternoon, stopping early, hoping to get to go to dinner with our Navy grandson.
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to make tiny urls go here to thie link.
''http://tinyurl.com/create.php?url='+location. and follow directions
claire
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Thanks Winsom - my old link was not working - I am so glad to have the new URL.
When I could not link on I found another site that does the same work
http://www.piurl.com/
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In Franklin for a few days, then on to Cherokee.. Am a month early for the good craft shows.. Southern Highlands Guild is in October and so is a big one in Gatlinburgh.. Ah well. it is cooler, but alas raining.. Since we must be home on the 6th, will not go over the mountain to Chattanooga this trip. MDH had MOHS on his arm and he must be home to get stitches ( a whole bunch down the arm) out.. and Gracie our rescue corgi is being treated for heartworm and must have her second and third shots.. Sigh.. I am healthy however and maybe sometime soon, we will get over the mountain and visit. Looks like such a nice town.
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Today I picked up March, Homer and Langley, and Year of Wonders, all of which may become future discussion subjects. Such riches!
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I just read "Year of Wonders". It's a very good read--I read it straight through. My main quibble is that the heroine/narrator has a tone that seems too modern, but it's still a good story.
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Add Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens to my list above; that discussion starts 10/1.
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It's great to have an author actively participating in the discussion, isn't it? M. Pearl seems to be ready to entertain all of our questions. Just wish we could communicate with Charles Dickens! The questions we'd be asking him about his last novel!
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Sorry we'll miss seeing you, Steph. Hope your DH is okay - but what is "MOHS"? (Can't figure that one out. ???)
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MOHS is a type of surgery for skin cancer. They keep shaving down until they find benign.. It is actually a technique.. Supposed to keep as much as they can of your skin.. We find it works maybe 50% of the time. Depends on the type of cancer.. Basal, it is really effective, squamus not so much, but he always tries for it since the other surgeries are truly extensive.. He only has 1/3 of hs ear on his right side because it could not be contained..
Beautiful today in Franklin,NC.. Hooray for us.
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Thanks for the info, Steph. Sunshine here today, too. Enjoy the fall crafts shows.
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Just finished having MOHS, Steph. My forehead looks like I have been in a wreck.They found no cancer on the tested places as yet but have 9 more samples to test. Two years ago, they found basal cell behind my ear. Good luck to your husband. (((((((hugs to both of you))))))))))
As my granny would say, "Ain't life grand!!"
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foggy here. unusual for summer in this area. san clemente
I'm into several books that don't hold me on the kindle. feeling older every day every hour. . .physically that is. the rest of me is frustrated and annyed at the world. politically I think I'll become an independent, especially if there is no public option. democrats, my party for my entire life, are wimps. I know it's not nice to bring politics into this descussion. . .sorry . . . claire
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Claire, same here, for the frustration, etc. anyway.
I am struggling to finish one book, have several others that are waiting but that don't appeal that much either. Am reading A Fearsome Doubt by Charles Todd, have several bathroom remodeling books to go through also.
Weather in this part of the state has been so excellent all September. We have a high wind warning for this evening, and rain. But right now the sun is out, it's about 68 degrees, and the flowers are still blossoming. Had coffee on the deck again this morning.
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I am reading a really funny book that uses as its base, the romanc of Wallis Windsor and the Prince of Wales. Laurie Graham does this sort of odd books.. based on reality with a good dose of other.. This one is truly funny. I love the odd swipes at both English and Americans..
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Don't apologize, CLAIRE. I've always been an 'independent'. I vote for
the man or woman, not the party. I always hope for a 'statesman', as
opposed to a 'politician'.
Nice to hear you find an amusing book about Wallis and Edward, STEPH.
Most of what I've heard is decidedly more on the sad and unpleasant side.
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Babi: Geraldine Brooks' March is a great story. As the father of Little Women Papa March becomes a fascinating, complex character who stands on his own here. There are many threads running through the story which would make for lively discussions. What awes me is Brooks' talent at weaving the threads and her use of the male voice seems whole and true. I must say that it was your enthusiasm that prompted me to read this book. I am grateful, it will be one of the one's that live on in my memory for a long time.
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Jackie, do you want to nominate March in the suggestion box? (there's a link in the header here.) I see that Brooks' Year of Wonders has also been nominated.
We will be voting very soon for upcoming books for discussion...
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March is certainly worth nominating but I'd hate to have two of Brooks' books competing. Since I intend to read both it matters little to me which one we start with since I believe that these should both be discussed. My taste of March so far has whetted my appetite and I have to restrain myself from galloping through it. Year of Wonders is attractive because of my multiple readings of Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, found in Science Fiction, a treatment of the effect of the plague on a small English village . Brooks' talent has me enthralled. Here is another of her books on my list: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/geraldine-brooks/foreign-correspondence.htm
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Christopher Riech's numbered account has me interested a murder mystery but mostly a person to person exploration of how the swiss banking system works andd how it can be employed for whatever nefarious purposes.
well written too. Writing with minor problems,usually in forms of the pronouns always interrupts me.this is fine or at least the editing is. I probably should do it better too but even the spell check isn't helping me today. sorry about that.
claire
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The Rules of Deception is also a Christopher Reich book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/christopher-reich/rules-of-deception.htm
The lead cxharacter, Dr Jonathan Ransom, works for Doctors Without Borders in some of the hellholes of the third world. He is devastated when his beloved nurse-wife, Emma, breaks her leg while they are skiing in Switzerland. He goes for help but when he returns he finds, as she has attmepted to come to meet him, she has fallen in a crevasse and lies dead many feet below. The ski patrol rescue team lacks sufficient rope and they must leave her body until the approaching storm has passed.
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JOANP & JACKIE, I was in the DL workshop before coming here, and mentioned
Jaqckie's enthusiasm for "March". I've already suggested that the book be
proposed to see if there was sufficient interest in it. I didn't know about
"Year of Wonders".
What is that one about? I'm sufficiently sold on Geraldine Brooks to be
interested in any book she writes.
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Babi - if you go into the Suggestion Box - see the link in the header here - you wll see a list of the books that have been suggested. The titles in that list are links to reviews of each book.
Must add that on my "to do" list for tiday - to add the recent suggestions to that list on top. But I know that Year of Wonders is up top with a link. Hope that helps...
We will be voting on those titles next week - if you have another title you would like to see discussed, there is istill time to nominate. We have two Geraldine Books up against one another this time. A tough decision, she is the best~ March is the one that won her the Pulitzer...
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Golly did you hear NPR this morning? Richard Russo was asked to review some fiction and he ended up doing works on the office worker, the state of office workers, who seem to feel they are something other than their job. This one has the Great American Novel in his desk, that one dreams of esacpe, but when their jobs are threatened, they find out something else. Very powerful. Already all over Twitter.
Yes, here it is: Reading 9-to-5: Richard Russo's Favorite Office Lit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113160169, you can hear it or read it. Love NPR.
He ended up comparing Melville's Bartelby the Scrivener if I have that right, I've never read that, have you? and the book he was reviewing and then I lost the satellite in the car and he was talking about Frank Wheeler, we don't need to be told who HE is, Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. I really like Russo, he read some fascinating quotes from the books which made you want to run out and get them immediately. Particularly the Melville (since we read Revolutionary Road here a long time ago with the Franzen). Apparently one man in an office, when asked to be part of a team, replied, "I don't care to," and this messed up the entire office.
His That Old Cape Magic is our November selection and sounds like a wonderful read. Did anybody hear him? I'm going to see if it's online by any chance, I missed some of it.
I'm reading Smile While You're Lying, an expose of travel industry writers and how to tell when they are making stuff up. It's one of two exposes referenced in the Bourdain edited Best Travel Stories. The author used to work for the Lonely Planet books and is scathing about them, it's an eye opener.
I'm also reading Ghosty Men, a very small non fiction book, not new, about the Collyer brothers and the author's Uncle Arthur. He's been roundly criticized for too much on Uncle Arthur and not enough on Homer and Langley, but there's enough in this tiny book on Homer and Langley that I did not know and I like Uncle Arthur. This appears to be some sort of anomaly, this collecting thing, and passed down. In most of the cases, the parents also "collected" different things.
What a lot of great reading you're doing and we've got another surprise coming soon, don't miss it!
What are YOU reading? Is anybody reading the new Zafon?
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Smile while you are lying sounds great. We travel a good bit and I am always surprised at the amount of misinformation out there. A guide now has to make me resonate with what they are telling me and if I know something did not happen or happened quite diferently I withdraw from this. Egypt was the worst. For some reason most of the guides simply cannnot or will not tell anything close to reality.
Then we had the austrian guide who admired Hitler ( sigh). Ah well, I also have had some truly great guides and some really fine agents who helped a lot.. If you find an agent who leads tours as well, they know the nicest small hotels.. And I do love small hotels..
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Stephanie, do you know Karen Brown's books of the best little inns, etc, and B&Bs? They are definitely not new books but they are really accurate. Have you ever seen the Inspector? A BBC America series on hotel inspections in the UK? Some of those hotels look really different, and some of them you wouldn't set foot in. :)
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I'm also reading Ghosty Men, a very small non fiction book, not new, about the Collyer brothers and the author's Uncle Arthur. He's been roundly criticized for too much on Uncle Arthur and not enough on Homer and Langley, but there's enough in this tiny book on Homer and Langley that I did not know and I like Uncle Arthur. This appears to be some sort of anomaly, this collecting thing, and passed down. In most of the cases, the parents also "collected" different things.
What are YOU reading? Is anybody reading the new Zafon?
Yes the collecting thing is some sort of an anomaly - Found this yesterday when I was clearing out lots of 'stuff' - Can't think why I kept it....
Secret of compulsive hoarding revealed
Do you know one of those people who just can't resist filling up every nook and cranny with junk? Now you can impress dinner party guests by revealing that compulsive hoarders may have a problem in their right mesial prefrontal cortex.
Steven Anderson of the University of Iowa and his team studied a group of pathological collectors. They found that damage to the frontal lobes of the brain impaired judgement and caused emotional disturbances. But only when the injury extended to the right mesial prefrontal cortex, did the patients develop a serious collecting habit too. Anderson told a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans this week.
Previous work in rodents shows that more prinitive subcortical brain regions produce the drive to collect food or useless objects. No matter how much they have stashed away, animals will just go on collecting.
We have the same basic drive, says Anderson. But the right mesial prefrontal cortex can normally discriminate between something of value and something that's useless, and keeps the drive in check. When it is damaged the more primitive collecting drive comes to the fore.
from New Scientist 15 November 2003
This could explain the collecting habits of people like the Collyers - judging by the amount of 'stuff' I've accumulated over the years I guess that at some stage I damaged my own right mesial prefrontal cortex. What about you ! ;)
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I guess that at some stage I damaged my own right mesial prefrontal cortex. What about you ! ;)
So that's why I'm like that! ;)
The more serious hoarders go through a classic set of stages, from saving old clothes and papers to newspapers to adopting a lot of stray cats. I've known some partial cases, but none reaching the danger point.
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Babi: A very personal reaction to Year of Wonders vs March Year is a good story by a journeyman writer. March is head and shoulders above it. I am reading Year but I am living March. IMHO a discussion of The Plague from a book would be exciting if it is Doomsday Book, somewhat pedestrian if it is Year.
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Ohhh, I hope I never reach the hording stage of collecting junk. All my stuff is treasure. :-)
If you've ever read The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens VOTE NOW (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=693.360) in our poll on what you think happened to Edwin Drood.
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treasures? I've got too many, most of it home made. I've been inviting old friends to to select art and ceramics to take home with them. let them collect for a while.
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That's generous of you, winsummm. It's wonderful to share your personal art.
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(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/library/library8d.jpg)
| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
Thanks, JoanP. I'll do that.
JACKIE, thanks for that comparison of the two books. I'll happily stick
with "March".
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my family is inundateed with it as are generous friends with wall space and I keep making it. . .even though I don't sese it as wel as I used to.
I looked at march on the kindle where they give samples. It is beautifully written. I'll get to it eventually.
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I know this is off topic but we were discussing the cost of bedsheets in ine of the forums so when I saw this I thought it worthwhile to sharei http://deals.yahoo.com/?name=woot#woott:
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I have way too many treasures, mostly glass,ceramic,pottery.. At least they are mostly small and kept in cabinets. I like a small piece of glass or pottery from places we visit.. To remind me.. MDH collects small rocks,, each place we go and then at Christmas presents them to our grown sons to remind them where we went during the year. Sort of a funny Christmas morning bit of nonsense that we all enjoy.. I buy lottery tickets and on Christmas Eve , each member of the family gets at least one.. Just for funand dreams. Now one of the dil is in love with this and participates as well.. We all enjoy the momentary dream part and laugh at the winnings..if an ( Mostly not).
Will look up Karen Brown.. I do so love small stuff, but mdh will NOT do b and b's.. He does not like them at all.
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I have angels, shells, and a few especially lovely rocks. There is a hotel in
Branson, Missouri with a facade of a sort of striped stone, and the same stones are scattered around the area. I picked up one of those as a reminder.
I don't think to look at the shells and stones very often, but when I do I still pause and find them as lovely and soothing as when I first saw them.
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just hello. been reserecting old computer art. . . . my coffee table is ful of pots wich are full of things like that. . .rocks and shells mostly from trailer trips i.e. canadian pacific beaches have hard rock ones that polish if you feel like doing it. I ust wet them. I would miss them though and the memories that accommpany..
claire
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I too enjoy collecting pottery and also shells and rocks and such.
This past summer we visited Glass Beach in northern California. See http://www.fortbragg.com/fort-bragg-attractions.php and a close-up photo at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Glass_Beach_Fort_Bragg_3.jpg. The glass is originally from waste (old bottles, etc) that was dumped on the beach and polished over the years. It may have been the tide, or the fact that the beach doesn't seem to be patrolled and I saw some people with buckets picking up glass, but the amount of glass was not as dense as in the photo. I thought I'd see a whole bejeweled fairy land :-) There definitely was glass strewn among the sand and pebbles but the beach wasn't completely covered with it.
I have a beautiful table-top book called The Shell: Five Hundred Million Years of Inspired Design.
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Thanks, Marcie, for the link to the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg on the northern California coast. We've driven thru Fort Bragg, but never stopped. Next time we will.
Years ago a friend of mine who loves to do crafts projects gave me a huge jar of seashells from Florida, trying to encourage me to use them to make a lamp with a glass base full of shells. I crafts person I am not, and I still have the jar of shells (and the unfinished lamp). I guess I should give them away to a crafts shop.
Marj
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My daughter fell in love with geology, probably resulting from living right next door to the San Andreas Fault in the Bay Area. Everywhere we go we are looking at the strata, she is an expert on different kinds of rocks and needless to say we have them all over the house. She purchases ash from volcanoes, Ebay is a good source, and has a large collecdtion of books. The Wilamette Valley, where we live now, was the resting place of the vast flood which resulted when the ice dam holding glacial Lake Missoula melted. The amount of water is estimated to be 1/2 the volume of Lake Michigan. It took two weeks for the water to subside.this is probably more information than you wanted but if you would like to see an illustration of this event click here: http://www.glaciallakemissoula.org/virtualtour/index.html
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I'm sure that a thrift store or, perhaps, senior center, would love your donation, marjifay. You might want to keep a couple of the shells :-)
How interesting, mrssherlock. It's wonderful that your daughter has such expertise.
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Thank you, Marcie. She would have pursued geology as a career but there was too much math and she does not do numbers well.
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Wow, so geology is her avocation. That's doubly great that she has such a passion and knowledge.
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John loves geology, too - and we love that area. I'll save that web site for him to look at. Thanks, Jackie.
On our recent Elderhostel on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, we talked a lot about the geology of the Bay of Fundy. Interesting stuff there, too.
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geology ucla two semesters and hooked. I watched on all our trips through road cuts where all was revealed. The second course was minerals which cam in handy during my life in ceramics what with glaze chemistry etc. everything is so linked.I have more ceramics from my thirty or forty years worth of making it than I can store inside so some is outside on shelves in the patios and some stashed on shelves in boxes in the garage. I'm giving some of that away too. none of my neighbors have seen fit to steal it. anyone stopping bye?
claire
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Claire: My daughter has become an avid ceramist so there must be a tie between love of geology and handling clay. How interesting. She is running out of room, too, what with the many, many rocks she has collecte4d and now the accumulation of her ceramic art. Ah, the burden of you talented folks never eases does it?
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the clay in my hands feels so grand especialy on the wheel which helps to shape it. I miss it because I can't work on it in this place, other things too. condos have dumb rules and no place to get dirty make messes.
claire
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Rocks and stones and shells.. Now you can all laugh at me. After my mother in law died, I found an entire drawer in her sewing cabinet full of buttons.. Hmm.. I also had a large clear crystal vase that had some clouding that would not go away.. Solution.. Which caused much laughter in my d-i-l's.. I emptied the buttons into the vase and now have a lovely multicolor container in an open shelf under one of my dollhouses.. Looks so neat and now everyone says I am a crafter.. I say,, not really , justa dont like to throw away useful things.
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Did your daughter make a career in geology, JACKIE? She obviously
has a natural bent for it. Not everybody knows where their greatest
interest lies, and too many wind up in unsatisfying work.
Do you think by any chance you have some really old buttons in that vase,
STEPH? Some old buttons are rare enough to be valuable to collectors.
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Gracious day what interesting posts here on so many fascinating subjects, who knew? Who knew about Glass Beach, thank you Marcie, I can't seem to close (I don't want to close) the Skunk Train link, aren't you lucky to live near it, my grandbaby would be over the moon about that ride, tho we did go to the NC Railway Museum a couple of weekends ago (Gammie got to go too) and he loved that, and rode a train.
And Mrs. Sherlock, who knew? Glacial Lake Missoula! Flood Debris: "These boulders were picked up and carried in the floods only to be stranded in fields and prairies when the flood waters subsided. "
Wow and you're right on this one: "...but there was too much math and she does not do numbers well."
Me either, I was a Geology Lab Instructor in college, in fact was in the lab when President Kennedy was shot, so I guess that dates it. I loved geology, it's fascinating, but it soon does move into numbers and higher ones at that, estimating oil fields, etc., so could not do it, either. Still.
And Claire with working with clay, what a fascinating bunch you are.
Mary, I have always wanted to see the Bay of Fundy, is it as exciting an experience as people say?
Gum, thank you for that fascinating discovery about what causes hoarding. The book Ghosty Men begins the Uncle Arthur section by mentioning that, I believe this is correct, he was the only male of his family who was in society, the other two were in insane asylums (I can look that back up, but I know two of his living siblings were in fact hospitalized for mental issues) so it may in fact be damage to a particular part of the brain and I wonder if it's inherited as well, perhaps some kind of missing what not of the brain, because it does seem to run in families.
However there have been Cabinets of Curiosities for centuries, perhaps not quite so bad as Langley's. You can't blame Homer, he was blind.
Did you all happen to see the news item about the Rottweiler who was thrown from a car in an accident, the family taken away by ambulance and the dog left? The dog then assembled combs and toothbrushes, on the spot, stuff with the family smell on it, made a nest, and was rescued half starved two weeks later by a Samaritan who was able to get the name of an insurance agent off the family artifacts and contact the owners who were very glad to have the dog back? It was a touching item on CBS news and is on YouTube I believe.
Maybe hoarders are making a symbolic safe nest.
What are you reading these fine fall days? Anybody reading the new Dan Brown and if so what do you think of it? I'm in the mood for an adventure, take me away kind of thing, but not Brown. After that Angels and Demons which I still think is the worst book I ever read, (or maybe second to The Liar's Club) I'll pass on his new one tho I hear people are enjoying it. Anybody read it and if so do you like it and how does it compare to the others?
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Meeting with Author, Kirstin Downey
National Book Festival 2009
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/graphics/kirstenpatjoanp.jpg)
LtoR: Pat Highet, Kirstin Downey, Author, & Joan Pearson |
Lucky for us, Kirstin Downey was in the first group to speak in the History and Biography tent at the National Book Festival on the mall in Washington DC last Saturday before the rains came down. PatH got there early to save seats for us, front and center. It's a good thing, because the tent was filled by the time she began her presentation. Since we had a little time beforehand, we introduced ourselves to Kirstin and she couldn't have been more gracious and happy to see us. She told us she really enjoyed taking part in the discussion of her biography, "The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins," led by Ella and Harold on SeniorLearn in August. She appreciated our interest in her favorite subject, commenting that our people knew what things were like during Frances Perkins' time in Washington and what she accomplished.
During her talk, Kirstin described her own early days in Washington as a reporter for the Washington Post. The first time she heard of Frances Perkins was on a tour bus to become better acquainted with the DC area and rode by the Frances Perkins Department of Labor building. She noticed the name because there aren't many buildings in Washington named after women. Later in the tour the guide asked what American woman had the worst childbirth experience? Frances Perkins. She spent 12 years in labor." Just a joke, but Kirstin made a mental note to learn more about this woman who had served as Secretary of Labor for 12 years.
She related how Frances Perkins found Washington to be a frightening place and tried to resign a number of times, but she was FDR's closest friend and he always managed to keep her at his side. When she came to the Dept. of Labor, she had ten items on her list that she hoped to accomplish. Her top priority was Social Security. The only item on her list that she was unable to accomplish was National Health Insurance. (This drew a reaction from the assembled crowd.) FDR abandoned it to get Social Security. Kirstin told the crowd how Frances Perkins had always fought for a better balance of power between the worker and the employer. Today she'd be talking about jobs, bringing jobs back to America and helping employers build workplaces here rather than abroad.
It was quite a spirited talk from this mother of five. We enjoyed every minute of it!
Joan Pearson and Pat Highet
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Pat you look like my friend Barbara Jean who has a twin sister but then do does Joam K and I haven't seen her up close. which one are you?
claire..
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In case anyone is interested I just got this CSpan bulletin about their upcoming documentary on the Supreme Court:
This Sunday night, Supreme Court Week kicks off on C-SPAN with the premiere of our new feature-length documentary The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court. Hear directly from all 11 current and retired Supreme Court Justices about the role of the Court, its traditions, and history. Tour the building and see the grand public spaces of this historic building, including the Great Hall and Supreme Court Chamber, and spaces only accessible to the Justices and their staff, such as the Robing Room and the John Marshall Dining Room. The rest of the week features more original Supreme Court programs, including interviews with the sitting and retired Justices, Supreme Court staff, historians, and journalists at 9 pm ET, Oct. 5 - 11. For video clips, a trailer, bonus material about the Supreme Court, and series information, visit www.c-span.org/supremecourt.
Marj
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Claire: Your post gave me a start. I have a cousin named Barbara J whose mother is a twin. d What a crazy old world we live in.
What I'm reading: Homer and Langley, The Last Dickens, Sing Them Home, Autobiography of Agatha Christie, The Wonder Years. Just finished March . Going to the library today to pick up another batch.
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ginny, the tides in the Bay of Fundy are incredible - may be as much as 30-40 feet. And the marine mammal and bird populations are fantastic. Go visit sometime.
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GINNY: saw the bay og Fundy at low tide, but not the tide coming in. Great.
WINSOM: PATH (on your left in the picture) is my twin. We are fraternal, not identical, but we look like sisters.
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pat that lady looks so much like my friend who has a sister twin lives in southern CA san diego way. husbands name is len, also son's, six children I think and rosenberg or something like that surname. I tried to call and ask but just got the machine. I also tried to capture the picture but it kept getting away. shucks. send it to me e-mail and I'll be able to do that. only joan I may get you mixed up in my head where all you folks I haven't met are rattling around. joan we talk on the phone fre
claire
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The Bayof Fundy is spectacular.. Great tidal change is amazing.When we were in Alaska, we discovered that they have very very large tidal change Watching our tour boat go from equal to the dock to way way above it was neat.
No, Babi, I am pretty sure the buttons were from every single piece of clothing my m-i-l threw away. She always cut off any buttons.. I went through them with my granddaughter when she was about 6.. We were looking for really pretty ones for a project ( remember the old glue on pasta pictures??). She was recovering from pneumonia and was supposed to be quiet.. So we did craft projects.
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Anthropology would be a good alternative for those who love digging
into the earth. Geology is such a large part of dating anthropological
sites, but I don't think math plays as big a role.
I've just started an sci/fi (fantasy, more like) by an author I'm not familiar
with. "Innocent Mage", by Karen Miller. Awaiting my attention are Anne Bronte's "Agnes Grey" and a 'true adventures' entitled "You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again". My daughter got the latter from a friend; I opened it and it
looks like it will be funny. The town referred to is Hollywood, by the way.
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The Highland Clearances by John Prebble and just started (finally) Relic by Preston and Childs.
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Frybabe, oh, Relic! Let us know what you think. I'm having to come to grips with as i said the beginning of their latest in the series, but will not spoil the series by talking about it, I think I've just about come around, tho, to the idea of how they started so I can start the last installment.
Mary and Steph, I've always wanted to see the Bay of Fundy, sounds so romantic. I loved St. Michael's Mount, you have to take the boat in and walk out, have not been to Mont St. Michel, the mirroring abbey in France, that's on my list too. Such a list!
Stephen King's got a new one coming out, Under the Dome, 1,000 plus pages. I want to hear from somebody who has read it first, as to what it contains. I've read the descriptions :)
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Stephen King. I think I may have, maybe not, read ONE of his books over the years.
If you just wanted to read ONE of King's books, which one would you suggest?
Ginny? Others of you?
Two recollections of King. Years and years ago, before his books were made into movies and before he became famous, he often would come into a Dairy Queen in Falmouth, Maine (or somewhere in that vicinity I can't remember exactly) where my nephew once was manager. His face was buried in a book and he never spoke to anyone; although by that time they knew he was a local author.
And years and years ago, I got a DVD from the library of a King book, CHRISTINE, which was about a car. My husband got a big kick out of watching that and he never liked movies.
Perhaps many people have a memory of King. How old would he be now and is he still living in Maine?
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Thinner! I'd read Thinner! Yes he still lives in Maine, was hit by a car and suffered no end of damage, he's speaking all over everywhere.
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I read all of King's books up to "Cujo" - couldn't keep reading that one! His absolutely best book was The Stand" although many would say it's the "Shining". Remember the movie of that one with Jack Nicholson? The scariest!
He is reputed to be a very fine writer - although sometimes it would seem as if he doesn't know how to stop.
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My sister is a BIG Stephen King fan. As for me, I have only read Misery. I have seen and like very much The Langoliers and Something This Way Wicked Comes (I thing that is King and I have the name right).
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"Something Wicked this Way Comes" is by Ray Bradbury. I never read it and now that you remind me of it, I think I certainly will!
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Steph, we waved when we drove through the corner of NC this afternoon. We came home from South Carolina through the mountains, which means Franklin/Murphy/the Ocoee River/etc. A beautiful day! Hope you're enjoying the craft fairs. We noticed that this weekend was the Fall Festival at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
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A Boston group of boosters is putting on the first ever Boston Bookfest this month in historic Copley Square. the keynot speaker is Orhan Pamuk, author of "Snow" and " Museum of Innocence " He is Turkish with a secular outlook.
Also we will hear boston author Dennis Lehane" Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and One Certain Day. He is speaking about Boston Noir. Does anyone know how to describe 'Noir" I know it when I see it but can't describe it.
some Harvard Business School prof will discuss Competitiveness for Book Sellers, and ther is a whole tech sectin on reading technologies of the future. And it is all free.
My Book Club is going to take the bus for the day and dine in Boston's wonderful Italian North End and sleep on the bus home. Great road trip. Viva
Boston!
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Thanks for the correction JoanR. I wasn't sure. If it is about a mysterious stranger showing up in a peaceful and friendly town after which the residents start doing strange things, then that is the one I thought was a King. Speaking of strange, that sentence sounds strange.
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I started with King years ago, but soon gave him up.. Too depressing for me.. The only one I loved is the one about the prison.. I read the novella and saw the movie as well.Excellent indeed.
Ray Bradbury is more fun and scary in a different way.
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Yesterday was such a perfect fall day, I looked at the stacks of books in between the grape customers here and thought, how I would love to sink into a chair and lose myself in a good book. Like most of you I've got a stack a mile high to be read and truly they all look good! Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't, what to pick? After reading 4 intros, all equally fine, just could not decide and finally settled on That Old Cape Magic which already has a quorum here for November.
I like it, I can't say why, tho, it's the first Russo I have read, there will have to be others. I like his writing style: Everyman tryiing to deal with aging and his critical parents (and apparently marriage problems too which come on after the death of his father whom he fears he is becoming) (And no, the fact that his critical mother's secret preference for Ripley and Patricia Highsmith) (who knew she was gay?!?) has nothing to do with it: hahahaa she is an EXTREMELY caustic and unsympathetic character.
It's amazing how an author can in a few pages create a person we have some sympathy for and empathy with, and at the same time make us part of his world, but it's a detached kind of thing....really indescribable. It's one of those books where you feel (and half fear) you're going to learn something about yourself, is the best way I can put it. Is he more like Updike or Roth? Or is Russo in a class of his own? I'm off tomorrow to get Empire Falls, which I never read, tho I know many of you did, he's a new discovery, for me.
I think for the people of our generation it sort of....peels back the layers of....what our parents may have considered "success," and maybe it's something of the....lady and the tiger aspect.. Or something. I dunno it's indescribable. I'm glad they are going to discuss it. I don't know HOW they are going to discuss it, but I'm glad they are.
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
welllllI just asked amazon for a sample of that old cape magic which has propably already appeared on my kindle. will try it on for not size but comfort and interest even pleasure. The writing seems to make a big differenc e to me these day. good reference ginni. thank you
claire
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I am getting itchy to do a little genealogy searching again. I just usually pick around and get nowhere. This time I might just join one of those genealogy search websites like Ancestry.com. I am also putting on my to buy list a book I ran across accidentally on Amazon: The George Family Name in History(or something close to that). Apparently Ancestry.com has several of these family name in history books published.
What got all this started again is the book I am reading now, The Highland Clearances by John Preeble. Lots of Scottish families got broken up and "transported" to the coast or onto ships to take them to the US, Australia and Canada, and probably other places.
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Frybabe: the Mormans have local centers in mqny areas where they help people get started on ancester searches. You might check if there's one near you.
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I have taken several geneaology classes at nearby Senior Centers. I also joined "Genealogy.com" a few years ago and found lots of good information about my family on that site.
At present, I am still reading "Paris, 1919".
Sheila
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Genealogy has been a passion of mine for close to 30 years now. I traced my paternal family back to entry in the US in the 1600's, did find my mothers birth family ( she was adopted) and did some work on hers as well. My maiden name was Clute and I have since kept on computer a data base of all of the Clutes in the US and Canada. I serve as a record keeper for the family and I know that most families have people who do the same.. So.. the mormons are excellent and have a good web site to use.. You can also use Genealogy.com.. They also have separate name web sites.. The census is the very best way to start.. Good luck
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Stephanie, where does Science Fiction reviewer, editor, and writer John Clute fit in your family tree?
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I loved Russo's Empire Falls, but didn't like Bridge of Sighs. He has an earlier book, Nobody's Fool that is a laugh riot, and even guys find it enjoyable.
Steph, here is a geneology story : i did some research and found my Irish born gradfather's date of birth. I also knew from me dad that grandpa was a Philadelphia fireman. He died in 1934 when I was a baby. i called the Philadelphia Fire Dept and they put me through to an archivist who had him on the computer in a heartbeat. Joined the force in 1898, left in 1929, date of birth 1860
"Oh, wait, " I saidl. that must be another Joseph Rowe. My grandfather was born in 1858
the fireman started to chuckle. "Lady, if he gave that date when he applied he would ;have been too old to be a rookie firefighter.
"What are you saying? That my grandfather lied? "
"Afraid so,my dear. Let's give him a pass this time, shall we?"
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That's a great story, bellemere, you made my day.
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Bellemere, I love that story. Am laughing right out loud.
How wonderful that Boston is have its first book festival. I'd love to be there as I have a very warm spot in my heart for Boston. We lived in Watertown in the '60s for two years when my husband was at the B school, and my son was born at Boston Lying-In. My in-laws grew up in Boston and his aunt lived in one of the Newtons. My FIL remembered when the waitresses at Durgin Park would "sell" their jobs when they retired. Our favorite author then was Robert McCloskey for his Make Way for Ducklings, and even now, as I read The Last Dickens, I'm wondering "is the old corner bookstore still there?" I've made a few trips back, but none since '84 when my son graduated from MIT. There were a lot of changes then and I'm sure there'll be a lot more now.
Besides Matthew Pearl's book, I'm reading Nancy Pickard's Virgin of Small Plains, a stand-alone, and set in Kansas. Quite different from her New England mystery series and the ones she finished for Virginia Rich.
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Why is it that when you're involved with something the subject crops up everywhere... Take genealogy for instance - I've researched our families on and off for about 20 years - lately a few other researchers in distant branches have contacted me to get or give new information which naturally started my genealogy bug twitching - so, on and off I've been pottering among the records. Amazingly, I take a break to come into The Library here and find everyone talking about genealogy - maybe we should form a SL family history group ;)
I'm reading the Seamus Heaney version of Beowulf. Interesting to compare it with Kevin Crossley Holland's older translation. I think Heaney is more readable though I can remember reading the Holland book to my sons when they were very young. They didn't really understand it at the time but they have never forgotten it. At times their eyes were as round as saucers and I've never forgotten that either.
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thank you for the lead. I just ordered the sample of Virgin of the Small Plains now if my eyes would stop stinginging. . .too much watching this and that etc. I love this discussion collect new authors etc. from you generous folks.
claire
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geneology is fun. I called Joan K laast night to check on a possible link since sister pat looks so much like my friends barbara jean who is also a twin. . . no connection but genes will tell.
my maiden name was lewis., no possibilities for research there and now of course Read has similar difficultis. fathers mother's was wolff and it ends there. mothers had a few more slighty more distinctive but I never really did anything with it although a cousin came out of no where and found me. she was adopted but her family was genetically conncted. we met once. charles didn't look anyhing like the male lewises who did. interesting in connection with the gene aspect. in general german jews or as I later found out ashkenazi jews. my lifelong friend explained the difference between that and russian jews as if it mattered on it did to her. she said she was jealous.
how involved can you get. sheeesh.
claire
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such a beautiful day today on the left coast.
http://san-clemente.org/Cameras/Images/HQ/09100507581900.jpg
see if this works. it is the address of the camera there. . . . claire
well almost but not in motion. . . .the sea is very blue though I love it. . .makes me feel happy inside.
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Hi former Bostonian
I was born in Watertown; Boston Lying_In is now Brigham and Women's Hospital, the B School is spreading all over that side of the river; Durgin Park is still there with the nervy waitresses; and myu sistr lives in Newton. I was sorry when I had to move to Western Mass; I grew up in Belmont and loved it there. but this is home now, and at this time of the year, it is gorgeous.
But we are looking forward to our day in Beantown.
One of th most beautiful changes you will see if you visit again is the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, replacing the elevated highway . So lovely to have in the very center of the city.
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CLAIRE: your link didn't work for me, but I know that blue. Here (a few miles further north), the sea reflects the color of the sky: on a day that is half sun and half coud the sea will be deep blue on one side and gray on the other.
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As a thinker and a lover of words I was awed by C-SPAN's The Supreme Court. http://supremecourt.c-span.org/ As today is the first Monday in October C-SPAN has scheduled a full week of programs about the Court. Last night's show introduced us to the overall view of the Court. The architecture is magnificent; as the cameras toured the building the progress of a typical case was outlined in the Justices' own words. It was in describing the rendering of the decisions that I was most struck by the power of the process. If you missed this C-SPAN has an online site where DVDs can be purchased at a very reasonable cost of $10.
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Thanks, Mrssherlock, for the reminder. I saw that C-Span was going to run the series, but then promptly forgot. Anyway, I was at work last night so I missed the first one.
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This schedule shows repeats of last night's program. http://supremecourt.c-span.org/TVPrograms.aspx
I will add this one to my library, plus The White House and The Capital. I may not ever get to Washington but I can enjoy some of its splendors.
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I also knew about the program and forgot. I'll try to look at it tonight.
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Just started The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper, a reporter for the Wall St. Journal and the New York times, about her childhood in Liberia, the country in Africa founded b y America for freed slaves. the sent over a few boatloads, including Cooper's ancestors, and promptly forgot about them. I have a feeling this bookd is going to get very dark, with what I remember of recent history of that unfortunate country.
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MaryZ. Theron and went an Elderhostel on Grand Manan Island.
We loved it there. The Bay of Fundy is fascinating. We saw Puffins on that trip. The Puffins were the reason we went on that Elderhostel.
Speaking of Elderhostel, I just returned from one in Chicago at the Art Institute. It was a fabulous experience. The focus was the new modern wing of the Art Institute. We were introduced to their modern collection. I enjoyed it very much. It was so well organized. I felt that I learned so much. I was happy in the Abstract Expressionist Gallery as they had a Joan Mitchell painting. I admire Joan Mitchell' s painting very much. My friend took a photo of me with the painting. I haven't looked at it yet but sure hope that it turned out well. In some of my free time at the Art Institute I spent some time in their Impressionist Galleries. I really enjoyed that.
Joan Grimes
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Glad you're back home, Joan. And how neat that y'all went to Grand Manan. I'd never heard of it before, but we surely did have a good time. Did you stay at the Marathon Inn, too?
Also I'm glad to hear the good report about the EH at the Art Institute. We're keeping that one on our list of probable programs. ::)
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"Afraid so,my dear. Let's give him a pass this time, shall we?"
I love your
fireman archivist, Bellmere. He's a sweetheart.
CLARE, your mother's name of Wolff reminds me of an old bit of trivia.
A man with the longest name I've ever heard of....
'Wolfensteinhausenbergerendorf'. I kid you not; that's what he claimed.
Needless to say, he shortened it to Wolfe. Maybe your grandmothers name
was a shortened version, also.
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this is the beach cam I tried to post a single sot and no go. try this.
http://www.san-clemente.org/cameras/hqcamera.aspx
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mrsherlock, Thanks for the info about the C-Span program.
I'm glad you enjoyed your Elderhostel, JoanG. I hadn't heard of Joan Mitchell before. Claire, you might enjoy some of her art. I found some paintings at http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=dyB&q=joan%20mitchell%20painting&cts=1254841228421&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
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Marcie thanks for the link to the Joan Mitchell Paintings. We have one of her huge paintings in our museum. It is called Bonjour Julie. We had an exhibition of her paintings several years ago and I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed learning about her life. I found her fascinating.
Joan Grimes
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JoanG and Marcie, thanks for the introduction to Joan Mitchell and for the link to her paintings. Like MaryZ, I'd never heard of her either and would like to see more of her work. Your link Marcie, will provide a lot to explore.
This is a "3P" day for me -- protime (lab), Panera, and pool. I eat breakfast and read the free copy of USA Today, and should get swimming before the Panera lunch crowd arrives. Has anyone read anything by Pete Dexter? He was in today's USA T -- has a new book, Spooner , out. A novel about a journalist. Another of his is Paris Trout, about a racist.
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mrsherlock, I, too, appreciate the information about the C-Span programs on The Supreme Court. I've tried to set my dvr to record each segment but am not sure I clicked the right thing. I missed the first one but have red-penciled my t v guide to remind me to tune in - or check record - to the rerun tomorrow night. Thanks.
JoanG: I so miss Elderhostels. Unfortunately, the situation with my feet makes traveling to/from and participating almost impossible these days.
With your volunteer work, I can understand why you enjoyed the EH in Chicago.
Yesterday, I put in a reserve request for Diana Gabaldon's latest (final????) novel in the "Outlander" series. I am #173 on the list and there are 27 copies available for loan. I surely do hope some read really fast - or decide it's too long and should be saved for another time. :)
I'm currently reading a Susan Howatch book that I either missed or read so long ago that I don't remember doing so. :-[
Also reading a memoir by Oklahoma's Poet Laureate. He grew up in the same general area as I did. Not too impressed with the free verse poems he's included but am enjoying reading his memories of rural eastern Oklahoma.
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joanie mitchell is a tallented musician and writer as well. is i the same lady I'm thinking of. the one who wrote both sides now. her art isjust great for me. if here is such a thing as a school of abstraction we both belong o it. lovely. . . claire
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Mitchell's work is gorgeous. Thanks for posting the link. Like Claire, I do nonobjective pieces, too.
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The Joan Mitchell that I wrote about was not a musician. The song writer was Joni Mitchell. Joan Mitchell the painter was from Chicago. She was an abstract expressionist painter. She went from Chicago to New York and from there to France to live and paint. She died of lung cancer in 1992. There is a book about her on Amazon but since it is not on Kindle or published in big print I have not ventured into reading it. There is also a video or dvd about her. It is short and I have seen it. I am not sure where you can find it but I think that you can buy it. Our museum has a copy of it.
I am so glad that so many of you enjoyed looking a her paintings.
Joan Grimes
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Joan G you and I have the same visual restrictions. if it's not on kindle I can't blow it up six times or if it is not in big print either. aren't we lucky to have these options. a few years ago reading wouldn't be one. my kindle has the voice capacity and when my eyes hurt too much to read I listen. . . added too by earphones and a plug in.
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Loved the fireman story.. Very common about the ages. People simply announced how old and there were seldom any birth certificates until the 1900's, even later in some states. They were extremely casual about names as well.. One of my favorite ancestors started life as Bata ( my paternal line is almost all Dutch), but as an adult became Bathsheba.. I suspect she was into drama.
John Clute.. Johannes and now John is by far the commonest Clute name.. I corresponded with someone who was related to that John, but had no information on his parents, etc, so I honestly know that we are probably related, but not how exactly.
Will look for the Nancy Pickard. She has done some interesting non New England stuff.
I read Paris Trout years ago and loved it. Very dark..
Now home.. Hurray.. We spent 10 years in Bedford, Ma.. just north of Boston. I loved Boston , but hate the cold.
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Yes Claire, we are so very lucky to have the options that we do to be able to continue reading.
Joan Grimes
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Joan Mitchell is a new name to me, too, but her paintings remind me of
Jackson Pollock.
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Babi, they should remind you of Jackson Pollock. They are both Abstract Expressionists. I like her paintings more than I do Jackson Pollock's . Just my personal preference.
Joan Grimes
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Claire and JoanGrimes, I, too, am having vision problems. There is a third option available to us, that is the Library for the blind. My late husband was blind for the last eleven years of his life. He loved the talking books for the blind. It is also available for those who have arthritis, of something that prevents their holding a book.
The service is free. Both the machine which plays the books, and the books themselves are free. The Library issues cataloges, listing the available books. Each user is assigned an employee of the Library, to help in choosing books. My husband loved this service.
Sheila
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Sheila, My husband was a radio announcer or DJ in our misspent youth and spent about 5 years as a volunteer reading and recording the books for the blind. He won some sort of award even. He loved it and would still be doing it, but we moved from the beach where they record.
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It's good to hear from other low vision people. for me it is macular degeneration , and the retina specialist says it is progressive, and we just can fight to slow it down. Hyper vitamins twice a day, and the rest is all adaptation to maintain quality of life. I have stopped driving at night, and must plan for a future without a car. Thank God husband is still around and can drive. (Although trips of more than an hour leave him exhausted.)REading is my "second life" and I dread seeing it go/ still manage the New Yorker with its tiny print, but dont know for how muchlonger.
Isn't it hard not to feel sorry for yourself? i forget the novelist wh described self pity as "a dirty little white dog with red eyes that keeps trying to climb into your lap"
thanks for the tips about the Library for the Blind.
when I asked the retina speciaist about a Kindle, he said that I need bright light, high contrast, and magnification and that a Kindle is still pretty small and lacks high contrast. Bu t so many of you are doing well with it, I may try one.
Has anybody else got this Macular degeneration problem? I can identify my car all the way across the parking lot but if someone is facing me four feet away, I sometimes cannot make oyt the details of the face. And cutting up meat is frustrating. Slicing veggies on the cutting board is a real adventure!
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bellemere, I wonder if you would be helped in the veggie cutting and other things by using something like a magnifying light. They come in different sizes from hand-held to desk-top and floor models. There is an example here: http://www.amazon.com/White-Magnifier-Magnifying-Light-Floor/dp/B000KLZK22
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| The Library
Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.
We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).
Let the book talk begin here!
Everyone is welcome! |
Suggestion Box for Future Discussions (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.0)
yes macular degeneration the dry kind. also cateracts, still fairly mild but changing now or is it the md and a focusing anomely which makes for three lines on the music staff.
last year the md didn't change and I didn't know about the vitamens but was taking centrum silver once a day and the doc thought that was why. I can tell it is changing this year. . .also dry eyes. So I'm, beyond self pity and attempting to cope.
The kindle 2 is veyr light weight about an inch thick and six by eight otherwise. it has a speech capacity and six levels of print size. the print is actually a kind of ink on paper so is not quite as contrasty as your computer screen would be but with supper bright light, even good day light works for me.
don't wait. your doc probably doesn't even need one.
you can blow up nyt's print on it too as well as your computer.
I still drive but only have a year left on my license and don't believe it will be renewed because things are getting hazy in the distance. doc wants to operate on cateracts but no.
I avoid stress if I can and with all the other problems it won't help that much. I have a collection of magnifyers tht belonged to my parents, my dad's for stamp collecting and my mom's for reading. all of us not wearing glasses for regular ware.
wet md can be fixed but your doc would know what y ou have . . .it must be dry too.
I google everything including all this. it is reacuring I'm writing this at blown up and make all sorts of errors which hurt my eyes to fix so I don't. sorry.
the v screen and the computer screen seem to irretate eyes now but the kindle does not. hmmmm. so much for that good luck belle. it is a new world full of gadgets and goodies.
it helps to touch type too = typos etc. but I do it with my eyes closed.
claire
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and a tip for evryone. it is easier for us visual challanged folk to read smaller shorter paragraphs . . . puleeeze
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Here is the link to the government's National Library Service. For those who qualify, they have braille and audio books. I am not sure about large print. You can also do a look up to find a participating library in your area.
http://www.loc.gov/nls/
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thanks for the link. I qualify as to you others who cannot read normal sized print as in newspapers and ordinary library books. Eventually I'll probably use it since it is free, but is also not electronic and may be limited i the number of people currently using it.
good reference though. I've saved it.
claire
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How frustrating it must be Bellemere. I love to read and really would miss being able to. I would think that the books for the blind would work however. You can get anything incidently. Where MDH volunteered, thats what he did. All special orders.Textbooks.. flower and garden books, a cookbook for diabetics.. All special order stuff.
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Steph, please tell your DH, thank you for me. He is an angel for his volunteer hours as a reader for the blind. My husband got so much pleasure from his Library for the Blind, membership.
Periocically, my DH would get a new cataloge. He and I would go through it and circle all of the titles available. We often spent time reading. Some of the books he read had some sexual scenes, and others had coarse language. Those startled me, at first. Hearing them outloud was different from reading those same scenes.
We also often visited a Low Vision Clinic. It has some wonderful aids for the low vision. Including, talking clocks, and alarm clocks, games, large type cards, and other types of aids for the visiually impared.
Sheila
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The volunteers at the center for the blind did wonderful things. They taped, helped with various orders..and mostly did whatever they were asked. I know the director was blind, had a dog and the dog died unexpectedly. They all pulled together and got him on the list and he got a new dog within months..
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And in audio books it makes such a difference, at least to me, who reads it, the type of voice. What interesting topics here, just love coming in, I wondered how they chose the readers.
I also love the Wall Street Journal Weekend section, and it's now online. In yesterday's Dear Book Lover the notion of the Great American Novel (you know, the one we're all going to write someday, hahaha, ) came up.
Apparently this phrase was coined in 1868 in an article in Nation magazine by John W. De Forest, saying that "no American fiction writer had yet produced a true painting of the American soul, 'a picture of the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence.' Only Uncle Tom's Cabin had come close."
Then Cynthia Crossen, the author of Dear Book Lover, mentions a book called 100 Great American Novels You've Probably Never Read by Karl Bridges. It, too, is a book but she and we can read the list on Google's books section: 100 Great American Novels You've Probably Never Read (http://books.google.com/books?id=gF3D6LDcIKQC&pg=PR9&dq=100+Greatest+Books+you+never+read&ei=SJbQStLYMY7ayATWgo2VDg#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
He's right. You can't copy the list as it stands, you have to scroll the pages of the book till you get to it, but you know how these lists are, you've read some, probably a LOT, you want to start copying the ones you have or have not?
The surprise here, at least to me, is that I haven't. I really have not read these books. At least not those in the beginning of the list and by the time I realized it I had gone a LONG way down.
I never even heard of half of them. Maybe I need to look again, the list is in alphabetical order of author, maybe I'm not TO the authors I've read? But Dear Book Lover goes on to say some which have been suggested. The Corrections has been suggested, I would disagree with that one. I need to get to the L's and see if Sinclair Lewis has been suggested. I would have said Revolutionary Road rather Than The Corrections, I need to get to the Y's and see if Yates is there.
How about Steinbeck? Surely he's on there. The Great Gatsby has been suggested. Moby Dick has been suggested. Olive Kitteridge rears its head again. My goodness what of Welty? How about Ferber? Giant? I need to look again, but it sure did not look promising the first time, how about you? What was the movie with Rod Steiger ...the Pawnbroker, surely that's on there, but I forget who wrote it? It was a good book.
WHOSE American experience, anyway?
Another mention on a different page is the 2009 Man Booker Award winner: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, about Thomas Cranmer and Henry VIII. I hate historical novels, just hate them. I guess I figure if I'm going to spend the time reading it, I'm going to believe what it says, what if it's totally made up? Then I'll be the fool, I'll believe something that never happened and my ignorance of history is such that I don't need that, and I'll have actually lost ground.
However Homer and Langley went OK (not that there are any other books out on them except Ghosty Men) so I'll try Wolf Hall, as Cranmer and his death haunt me to this day, having learned about it after I came home from Oxford one summer, and didn't know what I was looking at when I was there.
Meanwhile (don't you wonder about the Rabbit series, too, in that Great American Novel thing?), am still reading That Old Cape Magic by Russo, I think I'll go back and see if he is on that list for Empire Falls.
Have you read any of these books? What's your idea of the Great American Novel which embodies a true painting of the American soul? Which American soul? When? Don't laugh now, why am I thinking of Laura Ingalls Wilder?
What are you reading? Is it the Great American Novel? HERE is where those awful Longstocking books, I bet you a dollar come in, I'm going back to the list. :)
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I understand what you mean about misleading 'historical novels', GINNY.
I like to read those that advertise as 'well-researched' and "historically
accurate. With a well-researched historical novel, I find I understand
more about the customs, mores and general ambience of a period than if I
read a lot of facts in a history book. Then, too, I find biographies,
especially autobiographies, are often very slanted and not entirely
trustworthy.
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Historical novels appeal to me for I get a feel for the flavor of an incident or a time period. The "facts" can be documented but what do the common folk do, what do they eat or drink for breakfast. Reading historical fiction I learned that, at a formal dinner, one spoke to the left-hand diner for one course then switched to the right hand for the next. Silly, little pieces of everyday life afe included along the way of recounting the major events, brings the actors to life. But, most important, I always remember that history is written by the winners. Who, now, knows what really happened? Maybe all these years of reading SF has helped me to consider that what I'm reading is, at the least, possible.
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Sometimes historical novels start with a twisting of history and base the story on "what if". One of John's favorites is an oldie called Oliver Wiswell. It's based on the premise that in the Revolutionary War, the British won, i.e., the Rebels are the "bad guys". But, of course, the reader knows in advance that it's fiction.
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Mary: That is a genre called Alternate History; very creative One series I enjoyed, about Germany winning WWII, is by Jo Walton. Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown show how some Brits have assimilated themselves into the new political reality of Nazidom. Britain has sued for peace with Germany so it is semi-independent. But the reach of the abwehr was long and strong. What is it like for a member of Society to be married to a Jew?
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BELLEMARE:" i forget the novelist wh described self pity as "a dirty little white dog with red eyes that keeps trying to climb into your lap"
tHAT'S EXACTLY RIGHT!
JOANG: I missed the puffins when I was in Perce. To see them, I would have had to climb a long ladder up a steep cliff, and I am afraid of heights. Although I've seen them in a zoo, I've never seen them in the wild and always regretted it.
Are you a birder, like me?
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Yes, Joan K. I am a birder. I absolutely adore Puffins. They are the most adorable little birds. I had to go out in a tiny boat into the Bay of Fundy to see the Puffins. If I had not had Theron to help me I would never have been able to accomplish it. I am terribly afraid of water and boats.
It was a real experience and one that I know I will never repeat. I am just so thankful that I got to do it once.
Joan Grimes
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I like to fact check when I am reading. When reading about a place, I like use Google Maps and Google Images. Currently I am traveling the Scottish Highlands with a book about the Highland Clearances. Sometimes, I print out a map or a photo or two of people and places that I read about to put with the book.
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Ginny, are you certain about the subject of the book that won the Man Booker prize? I saw a mention of it the other day, and seem to remember it as being about Thomas Cromwell, that other Cromwell, who was Henry VIII's right hand man. I agree, the story of Cranmer's martyrdom is a moving event. As is most of the history coming out of the Tudor era.
As for not liking historical fiction, why don't you try Hilda Prescott's The Man On A Donkey. About the dissolution of the monastaries. Unforgettable.
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Something else to consider -
We are so close to putting out the titles for you all to consider and check off for future discussion - but there is a last minute suggestion - a novel by Katherine Howe called, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane suggested by our October guest author, Matthew Pearl in the Last Dickens discussion.
This is a tale of New England grad-student life in 1991 and the Salem witch hunts in 1692. The story follows several sets of mothers and daughters: Connie and Grace, Grace and Sophia, Deliverance and Mercy, Mercy and Prudence. Each of these women have different points of view, and they often have trouble communicating across the generations.
Here's Katherine Howe's website - I think it's fun to "play" with - http://katherinehowe.com
And quite a good review by the Washington Post's Carolyn See (http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1119313.html?storylink=mirelated)...
Let us know what you think? Shall we add it to our list for consideration? We may be able to get the author to participate. There's a link to the SUGGESTION Box in the heading here if you care to comment...Thanks!
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A most fascinating link, Ginny. I think what the author is listing is not, what in his opinion are the best 100 Great American Novels, but rather a list of great American novels we have not read because of the many obstacles that he mentions in his prefece – education, the tax code, discounts, publicity, etc. I had not read a single one, but was thrilled to see William Maxwell’s name on the list, as I had read his So Long, See You Tomorrow, a somewhat autobiographical novel of his coming of age in Lincoln, IL. Maxwell was an editor at New Yorker Magazine for many years. For some reason Oil for the Lamps of China by Alice Tisdale Hobart (c1933) rings a bell. And then there is William Dean Howells, who is mentioned in Matthew Pearl’s Last Dickens.
I would suggest that this is a good list to keep for when you finish all the titles on your TBR list. They may or may not be the Best, but they are Great.
JoanP, a very clever website by Katherine Howe and a good review by Carolyn See. That's a book worth investigating.
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Jonathan! SHRIEK! You are right! No no, not Cromwell, can't stand Cromwell and already ordered the book. Sigh sigh. Dissolution of the monasteries? I'll look it up but it was harrowing, I know that. There's a stained glass window left in Canterbury which the audio points out that they missed when they smashed the ones which dealt with the Archbishop of Canterbury who was being revered. I'm not sure I could take that but I'll look it up, thank you. You always know the best books. What are YOU reading now? I'm glad to see you!
Doggone it, that shows you who does not read closely, Cromwell not Cranmer.
Pedln I hope you are right because I don't think I have read any of them either. Why not? Why have we not heard of these books? If I put one of them on the end of my TBA list I'll never see it, my stacks are stored up against my husband's retirement starting in December. I just today got Still Life and The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny and I already like how she writes, and Her Fearful Symmetry which I've read the first chapter of, wow, and the new Patterson non Fiction on the death of King Tut. Have heard a lot about it.
Is anybody reading any of them?
CROMWELL! YIKES!
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Gosh Jonathan, every review of Man on a Donkey is 5 stars, there's nothing other? The author seems to have plenty of credentials:
About the Author
H F M Prescott was born in Cheshire. She read Modern History at Oxford and later received MA degrees there and at Manchester, as well as an honorary doctorate at Durham. She is best known for her historical novel THE MAN ON A DONKEY and her biography of Mary Tudor which won the James Tait Black Prize in 1941. The daughter of a clergyman, she was a committed member of the church of England, and her wide-ranging interests included travel and a deep love of the English countryside that lasted all her life. She died in 1972.
Plenty of rave reviews for the book, too:
If this is not the best historical novel ever written it is surely on the short list of contenders for that honor. It presents a broad panorama of Tudor England at the time when Henry VIII was breaking with the Catholic Church. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's daughter Mary, Cromwell, and other very well known historical personages make appearances. The central character however is Robert Aske, leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, the rebellion which aimed to preserve the old religion. The young girl who loves him, nuns, priests, and noblemen all play a part in the story, and all come alive. The depth of the theme, historical accuracy, and beauty of the writing far surpass what can be found in most of the many novels written about this period. This is a wonderful, profoundly moving book. It deserves a much wider audience.
Good heavens, another one I seem to have missed, where have I been? Thank you for this one, I never heard of it!
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I take it back, I've read two: Richard Yates IS on there but for Easter Parade, I have read that. And I've read Raintree County or Country. Strange thing, I remember seeing some of those titles on my parent's bookshelves, so they must have known of them.
Pearson, Katherine Howe's website is like a computer mystery game, how clever of her! Love it! That's what we need here! :)
And the reviews are really good, too!
Have you ever had to leave work early so you could go home and finish the last chapter of the book you’re reading? It happened to me recently: Katherine Howe’s debut novel . . . is a page-turning, delicious and devilishly delightful read. . . . The Physick Book is the type of book I love—a totally original work that defies description and takes control of your mind and your emotions.
— Publishers Weekly, Galley Talk column
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Greetings -
Ginny -
I was up until after 2 this morning finishing The Brutal Telling. I have read all of her books this year and like Still Life the best.
I also read all of the Thomas Fleming books this year. I liked the historical part of all of them since they dealt with periods of history I wasn't as familiar with as I should be; but, I didn't care for the main characters which was disappointing because most of them were women. They weren't very likable people.
In addition to reading The Help - which I started today - I'm working on three biographies, a Beatrix Potter, the Frances Perkins, and Cato's Robert Moses. All three are fascinating but I only read them a chapter at a time and think about them. Takes me a long time as I throw in some mysteries, fluff, and historical fiction along the way.
Since it's already cold outside it looks like a long reading season ahead.
Mary
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Mary! There you are! :) I just discovered Penny, not sure where I've been, I do like the way she writes, am just starting Still Life. Up till 2 this morning sounds like something I have longed for! Can't wait to get there.
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Jonathan, thank you. I was able to cancel that order for Wolf Hall, as it was not due to ship till the 19th, and ordered a Man on a Donkey, used copy, because of the cover, such a beauty, and the fact that new copies are not available except in the hundreds, I have no idea how I missed hearing of this author.
That's one thing I love about this Library, all the great book recommendations here.
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Mary, have you read any of Lindsey Davis? I got her Alexandria, it's new and thought I'd read it for a face to face class and found to my shock I like her? Again historical fiction, this time a detective in Ancient Rome (or in this case Alexandria) and really I like the way she writes, not at all what I had thought.
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I just read am article on A. S. Byatt's new one The Children's Book, I think it was in Entertainment Magazine, (don't ask why I take that thing, but they are good for media) and the photograph there stunned me, I had not pictured her like that, had thought of her as some kind of older Padma Lakshmi even tho I knew she is Margaret Drabble's sister.
They just did an article on Drabble in the NY Times Magazine a few weeks back and there SHE is looking severe, but ...whatever... they said her furniture is covered in plastic (did they say plastic? ) against the grandchildren.. I have a lot of problems with Drabble, but would never have marked them as sisters.
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Lindsey Davis.. Oh I do love her series. I have read a good many Falco's.. Wonderful evocative series on Rome.
I am now reading ( title escapes me, book is downstairs and I am up). a book by Rachel --- It is about a year of her life when she learns to live with her younger sister who is retarded. The Sister rides buses all day every day in a small city in Pennsylvania. Rachel joins her for weeks at a time when she can and learns how her sister lives and perhaps why.. She also works in the story of their growing up, which is heart wrenching. Amazing book.. Gives you such a clear picture of the limits of the educable retarded. Makes you understand how the state helps them to help themselves. The terrible risks involved when you dont understand long term risk. All in all, I love it and find I want to send it to everyone I know.. to say.. Look... did you know this.. Amazing. Am not generally that taken with any book.. It is true ....
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"Oil for the Lamps of China" was made into a movie, way back when. I saw
it years later (it came out the year I was born) and remember it starred
Pat O'Brien. Maybe that's why it's ringing a bell, PEDLN.
The Prescott book sounds like one I would like read. I'll see if I can
find a copy.
Shucks, I tried the Katherine Howe link and got "this web address is not
available'. I know that's not so, since some of you used it successfully.
Maybe I can find it through another route. A mystery game, huh? Sounds
intriguing.
I've read many of Lindsey Davis' books, GINNY, and enjoyed them very much.
She has written quite a few books about the ancient Rome detective, so
you have more to look forward to. You might think about going back to the
beginning, tho', as the characters and relationships develop over time.
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Ginny, You are finally reading Lindsey Davis. I have not yet read Alexandria. I am still waiting for the paperback version. It is slow in coming. My favorites her first Falco, Silver Pigs and The Iron Hand of Mars.
Her book A Course of Honour is very good. It is not a Falco, but related in that it is in the same time period. It is about Vespasian's mistress.
Her newest book due out next year is Rebels and Traitors which is about the English Civil War.
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A Special Announcement -
We've just opened a poll to assess interest in a number of titles for upcoming Book Discussions.
IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION, the titles in the header of the Suggestion Box (http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.msg41589#msg41589) are links to reviews.
PLEASE MARK AS MANY TITLES THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO DISCUSS in depth in the coming months. (We're looking for a number of titles)
WHEN YOU ARE READY, THE POLL IS HERE
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=GY5huAKPlhGJzIlGtuN3wQ_3d_3d)
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OK.. I have brought the book upstairs.. "Riding the Bus with my Sister", A true life journey by Rachel Simon. I loved it, hated it to end and feel I have learned many things about mental retardatiion and how different people react so differently. I lived next door twice in our life to someone who was retarded. At the beach, our neighbors, father and son ,, the son was retarded. Like the girl in the book, He was probably in the mid or low 70's. He had gotten a drivers license, could read and write.. but was a puzzle to us. He talked more or less constantly, very loud and when you went outside, would come racing up and not stop.. Hard if you were having a busy day. The couple who moved acrross the street had a terrible time. She was a beautiful woman, used to be a model and he fell in love and hounded her so much. She tried so hard to be gentle and nice, but he got more and more aggressive and would simply sit on her doorstep until she needed to go out.. Hard to handle. I know I talked to his Dad twice because when our granddaughter came to stay, he wanted her to come out and play with him. He was 40 and she was 3 and he frightened her with the loud voice and the boistrousness.. I always wondered how to deal with him and the book gave me clues as to what might have helped.
Years ago we had a neighbor whose son was the exact age as my younger son. They were both about 6 when we moved in. He was more retarded and attended a special school and also had physical problems.
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I just watched a segment on C-Span 2's, non fiction, weekend show. I had recorded it. It was the author of "The Harding Affair". It was so interesting, that I ordered the book, for my Kindle. It is not just about Harding's affair with a married woman, it is about world events, and people from 1911, forward.
I am fascinating about that time period of world history. Those years affected both my grandparents, and my parents. The more I read, and hear about that period of time, the more I wish I had talked more with my parents and grandparents, about their memories.
Sheila
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Serene Sheila, the wonderful novelist Pat Barker is also fascinated with that WWI period; her trilogy Regeneration, Eye in the Door and Ghost Road all deal with "shell shock" or battle fatigue, or post traumatic stress syndrome, as it came to be called. then she has a new one out, Life Class about the war and its effect on young art studentsw in London. Also, The Long Road,by Sebastian Barry is all abpit that terrible slaughter, but it is almost too graphic for most people. and of cours, the true memoir of Vera Britten, Testament of Youth.
Racking what's left of the brain to remember the novelist who described self pity as a dirty little white dog trying to climb up on your lap; I think it was Alison Lurie in the Accidental Tourist.
I love some historical fiction. Right now the book enshrined in my mind as the best I have ever read is Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. My daughter in law says she had to read it in French at Harvard; her provessor was crazy about it. It was the centerpiece for discussion at the New England Great Books institute a couple of years ago.
For real history writing, Barbara Tuchman is my idol she really makes everything come alive. Another WWI researcher with The Guns of August .
Oh, so many books, so little time.
Anybody a Flannery fan? Just getting into some of her stories, and keep thinking about the "grotesque" What does that word mean in terms of fiction? someone asked her why she wrote all her stories set in the south and she said the South is one part of the country that can still recognize a freak. What was that about? Anyway, I really like her unflinching look at hypocricy.
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Riding the Bus with My Sister -- that sounds like a winner, Steph. My library does not have it, but that's a title I'll watch for in the used bookstores.
Well, don’t feel bad if you found that you had not read any of the books on the recently posted 100 Great American Novels. Nina Sankovitch has a list – almost 365 titles – where you will have found many that you know. Read about her quest in the NY Times and then check out her blog –Read All Day – as she describes what it’s like to read one book a day.
A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/nyregion/12towns.html)
Read All Day (http://www.readallday.org/)
Ms. Sankovitch claims not to be a Type A maniac and does seem pretty normal. A non-reading indulgence, she says, is watching “NCIS” while folding laundry. Still, to make this work she’s cut out a lot — the garden, The New Yorker, wasting time online, ambitious cooking, clothes shopping, coffee with friends.
Aside from the pleasure of it, Ms. Sankovitch had other goals — inspiring a love of books in others and finding her way through a period of sorrow and soul-searching brought on by the death of her sister Anne-Marie in 2005
Bellemere, did you mean Anne Tyler for Accidental Tourist?
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I would think a mandatory "book a day" for a year would become quite onerous after a while, and no longer be a pleasure.
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She might do it my way, not that I'll read 365 books in 365 days. I'm usually reading 3 or 4 at the same time unless one is so riveting that I can't put it down.
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I watched the movie last night Riding the bus with my Sister.
It was very good and I enjoyed Rosie O'Donnell
as the retarted girl. Something I would not usually tape
but I am glad I did.
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Oh, pedlin, perhaps it was Anne Tyler. But the name Alison Lurie keeps looming. she must have similar book.
does anyone keep a systematic list of books read, and when?
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bellemere, I've been intrigued by Flannery O'Connor's novels and short stories. I haven't read them in a long time but would like to revisit them. I think that "grotesque" literature includes a focus on people and situations that make you want to cringe but that have some redeeming qualities. There is something about her writing that reminds me of Patricia Highsmith, of whom she was a contemporary (although O'Connor died very young of lupus).
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I looked up "grotesque" in my trusty Merriam Webster dictionary (which is published in our town, incidentaly) and it gave as the root "grotto" referring to the cave paintings of primitive people . some of them were fantastic animals, with human heads, or entwined with plants. In literature it came to mean the juxtaposition of the realistic with the absurd. Relating to Flannery O'Connor, it seems to describe her joining the comic and the tragic to each other , no? Especially the absurd self delusions with tragic consequences. At least that is what I can connect.
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The "dirty little white dog" metaphor was in "Foreign Affairs" by Alison Lurie. I didn't know that! I looked it up in Google!!! Poor little dog - I'd give him a bath, a cuddle and some dinner.
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Has anyone seen "Bright Star" (about Keats and Fanny Brawne)? It has sent me to my "Oxford English Verse" to re-read his poems. My sister has just memorized the whole of "Ode to a Nightingale" - I couldn't do that if my life depended on it! That's what she does for "brain exercise" - me, I take Latin!
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Since we don't have a discussion group for TV I'll chime in here. The Discovery Channel presentation last night on Ardi, Ardipithicus Ramidus , a partial skeleton of an ancestor 4.4 million years old which has turned the estimates of the evolution of Homo Sapiens on its ear. The previous oldster was Lucy, 3 million years old. Ardi is 100,000 generations older! My head is still swimming. http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1022
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It's time to move over to a new Library spot:
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=881.0