The Library

[ginny]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is  always out. Do come in from the cold and join us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not) right now. Let the book talk begin here! Everyone is welcome!

 Suggestion Box for Future Discussions


What interesting conversations here and so au courant, Newsweek has just come out this week  talking about the Kindle. Interesting that Tom Hanks will read his newspaper with it but not a book. He feels a book is different. I do like the idea it will read to you. Don't you find the narrator can make or break a recording tho?

There are people's voices I can't stand to listen to, totally destroys the ambiance for me.

I am reading a most interesting book but it's certainly gritty and ...I don't know the word, honest?

It's called Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by  Rosemary Mahoney.  It was written in 2007. She's young and pretty.

It's a true account of a woman rowing a rowboat down the Nile alone and the hazards and problems thereof. It gives another glimpse into the Egyptian mindset, perhaps, as well. It's quite startling, sort of reminds me of that woman who wrote about crossing Australia on a camel which we read a few years ago here..

I'm about 1/4th of the way through  but already it's full of fascinating facts. I did not know Flaubert despised his own country. I did not know that Muhammad Ali  who became pasha of Egypt in 1805, exchanged for technical  and political advice the ability to excavate and remove archaeological sites out of the country. it's horrifying what was taken away.

 I did not know that the Egyptians themselves until the Rosetta stone was decoded, could not read their ancient language. I did not know anything about  Florence Nightingale who was MOST interesting apparently  and who also penned a book in called Letters from Egypt: A Journey on the Nile, 1849-1850.  about going through Egypt. I want to get that  book now. There is a LOT to the Lady with the Lamp I apparently did not know.  Just reading the advice to the travelers from the guidebooks of the day including Baedekers, is an eye opener.

 Amelia Edwards also wrote a very descriptive account called A Thousand Miles Up the Nile in 1872, describing conditions on the ships called dahabiehs.

From these records we can see what the traveler in the 1800's packed. You know how we talk about a book on the plane? hahahaa

Apparently it was the custom to carry "a shockingly hefty  supply of books" with you on a trip down the Nile. Napoleon and his men carried with them a library of 500 volumes!!

Murray's Handbook of 1858 recommended:


Volums ii and iii of Larcher's Herodotys
Champollions Phonetic Systems of Hieroglyphics, Letters and Grammar
Pococke
Denon
Hamilton's Aegyptaica
Savary's Letters
Clot Bey's Apercu Generale de L'Egypte
Gliddon on the Hieroglyphics
Mengin's Egypte Sous Mohammad Aly
Robinson's Palestine and Mount Sinai
Stanley's Sinai
Lane's Modern Egyptians
Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians
Hoskin's Ehtiopia
Colonel Leake's Map of Egypt
or
Lapie's Map of Egypt
or
Wilkinson's Map of Egypt
Captain Smythe's Alexandria
Wilkinson's Survey of Thebes
Costa's Delta
Parke and Scole's Nubia
"to which may be added Burckhardt, Laborde's Petra, Ptolemy, Strabo and Pliny."

Isn't that interesting? How many of those have you read? I have read some Strabo but not on Egypt and some Pliny (not on Egypt).

Do today's travelers take books about the place they are going? I know when I've traveled I keep seeing Rick Steves' books everywhere, hardly in the same company as these, but still better than not having anything at all.

I guess the thing so far that really stands out for me is a sort of...what's the word? Being abashed. Heretofore I thought my own excursions in travel alone  were quite exciting and I felt proud of having survived some of them:  (the 1,000 steps of Amalfi for one, the "hell Walk" of Cornwall, and other less savory moments, but that's NOTHING compared to what this woman did. I mean nothing.  Nor the one on the camel whose reminiscences I thought ok till it got to driving a peg in a camel's nose, kind of hard to get over that one)...

it makes you wonder how are these women different from us? And what sort of person needs this type of challenge and why aren't we all out there rowing down the Nile, and why don't we actually want to? Do we? hahahaa

I suppose if she really wanted danger she could go into the wilds of Borneo (or Africa for that matter) but she doesn't seem to be courting danger, at all. She's taking lots of precautions.

It's really a good book, full of all sorts of things (now I know what Upper and Lower Egypt are and how the Nile runs backwards, who knew?). I did know a passable amount about Alexandria and the Ptolemys, Cleopatra and Antony/ and  Caesar and the Battle of Actium,  from  a Latin course I teach situated IN Alexandria, but this is...unreal.

Have any of you read this?

[Babi]

 I have been hearing for years about the wonders of Italian ice cream, or 'ice', and have never tasted one. I am beginning to feel it would be a shame to live my whole life without that experience.    Unfortunately, I don't know of any place within reach where I can find some, and I don't expect to be traveling to Queens... or Italy...(or London, where my ex- discovered it) anytime soon.
I'll have to do some research.  After all, Houston is a big, sophisticated city, right?

[ginny]

Yes that was a charming story, Mahlia, they used to sell it on the streets of Philly where I grew up. They have something similar (but of course not the same) called True Italian Ice in the supermarkets Babi, in the frozen section,  but it's like snow cream, it's the spontaneity of the moment.

You don't see a lot of it in Italy, at least I never have, and I've been going for 24 years, you do see coconut on ice on the streets, sometimes they will do ice with syrup,  in the little street vendors,  but the gelato is  the thing there, completely different concept.

Sort of like a snow cone as I remember it, a scoop of ice  with syrup over it, which I have seen in Italy sometimes called shaved ice.

It was really good, as I recall as a child.

Sort of like egg cream which you don't see much any more, either.

[ginny]

And chopped chicken livers which I have not seen properly done (it's NOT pate) in years.

Things That Aren't There Anymore: (a true title of a series of DVD's) Shibe Stadium and Willow Grove Park for openers.

[Babi]

  GINNY, my younger daughter had the chance to visit Italy this past year, and 'discovered' the Italian ice there.  She confesses to sampling it at every opportunity.  I never had an 'egg cream' either, that I recall.
  I do remember loving a choclate candy wafer flavored with rum, of all things. The same people put out a plain chocolate wafer and one cover with sprinkles...nonpareils, I think they are called.  You can still find the latter, I believe, but the delicious rum-flavored ones disappeared.
  Reminds me of a memorable event in my life.  When I was of an age to have an alcoholic drink I was offered one while visiting at a co-workers house. I knew nothing about drinks, but was interested in trying one.  I remembered how much I had liked the rum-flavored chocolate, and asked for a rum drink.
Different thing entirely!  One sip...that's all it took to convince me.  Red-faced, I changed my drink to lemonade.   

[Frybabe]

Interesting! I looked up Italian Ice. Apparently is is NOT the "snow cones" of my childhood. Maybe this means a trip to the Rita's Italian Ice near my boyfriend's house to do "research".

Ginny, you mentioned you grew up in Philadelphia. My Dad grew up in the Cheltenham area. His Dad used to run a haberdashery in what is the Old Town area. Family lore has it that the George family once owned substantial property (I forget where exactly) but there was a big family fight over inheritance. The lawyers supposedly ended up with most of the money. Anyhow, Dad said the property turned into what he called "lawyers row". I have not been able, in my meager attempts, to substantiate this. There was a George family that owned about 83acres which  was donated it to the City of Philadelphia for the park. It is now part of Fairmont Park and is called George's Hill. I have not been able to connect that George branch to ours yet, but than I am not actively doing genealogy, just picking about on occasion.

ps: I really should have written down Dad's family tales before he  passed away.

[BarbStAubrey]

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney would make a great discussion wouldn't it - with Egypt so often in the news wouldn't it be nice to have another view -

Reminds me I had ordered a couple of years ago a copy of  The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century and it is in my pile that I have not finished along with so many of the adventurers on my shelf -  The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang - The Ultimate Journey where Richard Bernstein follows the travels of Hsuan Tsang across in Asia in 629 - Forbidden  Journey the life of Alexandra David-Neel  the first western female to enter Lhasa- and then the story of the Five American Airmen who crashed in Tibet back in 1943, Lost in Tibet - but getting back to the desert The Desert Queen by Janet Wallach that I have a place marker just before she heads off for Damascus but after she was in places like; the Jordan Valley, The Turkish Islands, Jerusalem, Tyran, (Tehran) the Sea of Marmara - enchanting sounding places.

And then there is the sage Ibn Khaldun who wrote The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History in the fourteenth century - the book is still read today having been translated back in the 50s – so many books to read – so little time…

My only concern reading the older books about the Middle East, Egypt to India, is after reading Edward Said's Orientalism we learn that so many of the authors write from a privileged West's viewpoint, coloring the narrative as the Middle East being a place of mystery, unchanging and inferior to the west. And so now I read with a yellow eye - The TV documentary that Henry Louis Gates, Jr. did that aired on PBS a few years ago had a wonderful section in the 6 part series of the Nubian and also of the Nile River.

[mabel1015j]

An amazing story of a cross-country trek here in the U.S. is "Bold Spirit." In 1896, a 36-yr-old Norwegian immigrant named Helga Estby took up a dare from an eastern paper who would give $10,000 to a woman who would walk across America. She took up the dare to get the money to save their farm in Washington and she and her teen-age dgt w/ a change of underwear, a little food and a pistol began their trek across the country. She was denigrated by her community for leaving her family to make this journey - altho i suspect that a man who did such a thing to save the family farm would have been considered courageous.

It's a very interesting story, which was almost lost. When she died her children were throwing out her "journals," knowing nothing about her odyssey, and her dgt in law decided to save them. A grandson in the later part of the 20th century wrote an essay for the Washington State History Day contest  "Grandma Walks from Coast to Coast" and Linda Hunt's (the author's) husband was one of the judges of the contest. He suggested to Linda, a professor of English, that she might want to read that essay.................thus began her research into this amazing woman's story. A comment on the back of the book says: "Linda Hunt's well-researched narrative allows us to follow Helga Estby not only across the physical landscape of 1896 America - its mountains, plains, deserts, reservations, cities and towns - but across the country's social, political, economic and cultural landscape as well. It's a fascinating jouney." .....................jean

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

[mrssherlock]

Mahoney and Hunt are on my reserve list now at the library.  When i was young I loved to read about women who tested the limits, Elizabeth Blackwell - first woman phycisian, etc.  My family was old-fashioned; my parents wanted me to try nursing to see if I liked it, then I could go to medical school.  They didn't see the difference between one who gives the orders and one who is on the receiving end.  Needles to say I didn't break out of the mold.

[lucky]

Hi Babi

I don't think you can find egg creams today.  They were very popular in the l930's, 1940's and maybe in the 1950's and the authentic ones were only found in Brooklyn, New York.  You can make your own.  You will need chocolate syrup, a bottle of seltzer and of course milk.  To an eight ounce glass you add 1/4 cup  chocolate syrup, 1/4 cup milk and then fill the rest of the glass with seltzer.  It is a little bit of heaven.  Enjoy! 

[mrssherlock]

Did I see The Zookeeper's Wife mentioned here?  This book tells a remarkable story but it is told in such a flat style that there is no life to it.  Maybe the weight of the story itself, which is about the Nazi infested Warsaw of WWII, was deemed enough.  I haven't read anything else by Diane Ackerman so I don't know if this is typical of her writing but, while I will finish this book, I have no interest in reading more by her.

[Gumtree]

Wow - such a lot of really interesting titles mentioned here overnight...I'll be looking out for Down the Nile...by Rosemary Mahoney as well as Bold Spirit...Linda Hunt . I agree that if a man had done the walk across the states he would have been lauded a great hero...but a woman is another story entirely.

Now Ginny mentioned a book that's really got me curious... whilst talking about Down the Nile she said: It (Down the Nile) is quite startling,  sort of reminds me of that woman who wrote about crossing Australia on a camel which we read a few years ago here

Soooo,... does anyone remember the title of the book about the woman and the camel crossing Australia....Who was she? What was the Book? When did she do the crossing? Was she alone??? Can anyone help with any information at all? Thanks

[ginny]

Golly MOSES, are we here au courant or what? Those of you who take the NY Times will be startled to see TODAY an article on the very book,  Gum: it's Robyn Davidson,  and the book is Tracks.  Yes she went alone, at 27, in 1977.

The only thing that confuses me is why they are talking about it today? Is it a reissue or a new book, we read it eons ago!

Here's the article: back after the kids leave today as  I want to respond to some of the things you've said (it seems you  may be right, Frybabe on the Ice issue! hahahaa)

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/10/travel/bookshelf-from-camels-to-cruises.html?sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=all

We read this ages ago, we were reading in a discussion called Adventure. I have to tell you as many have noted here, this is not uncommon, and Barbara, I agree,  I think a topic on this type of book might make a great book discussion, we'd have to pick,  there are tons of them as we can see mentioned here. I had no idea!

[ginny]

I tell you what, this is  EERIE. In trying to read why this book is mentioned I SCANNED down but did not read the article and I see....Egypt, Egypt, Egypt! Now I'll have to read it but I mean really. EERIE! Are they reading this discussion? hahahaah

[Babi]

BARB, do you ever actually go back and read, or finish, a book you've had that long?  I figure if I haven't been interested enough to read a book after 2 & 1/2 yrs., I never will.

  If you say so, LUCKY, but...7 1/2 ounces of seltzer?...no egg in an 'egg' cream?...doesn't really inspire me with anticipation.   

  I'm going to check and see if my library has the Linda Hunt book.  It does sound interesting, but it was published so long ago I think it is unlikely they will have it.

[ginny]

Yes that's the real egg cream but there used to be a Philly Egg Cream, too, you take cream soda (remember that) and put vanilla ice cream in it, voila!  Fizz and fun.

And I mean it's good. Used to serve them at the roller rinks. We used to wear short skirts and outfits somewhat like the Marcia Brady character wore in the Brady Bunch movie (like ice skaters today).

Remember when a cherry coke came with a cherry on the end of a straw? Ah the fountain drink, where has IT gone?

[BarbStAubrey]

A quicky - showing property - yep, I am like the deer I browse and get into a subject that I may read 5 books on and that leads me to another stack all the while I have 2 or 3  unfinished books and 2 or 3 stacks of interests that have to wait -

I was into adventure about 2  years ago and read a wonderful book of a women who walked from Ireland to China through Europe, the Middle East and India - the Muslim culture evidently offers hospitality to anyone who asks or knocks on their door - this took place as I recall back in the 1960s -  Have to fish out the book to refresh my memory - then I was reading a book of a woman who after divorce lived in a one room cabin someplace on the 1000 Island Lakes of upper New York - her adventure was different but still she was full of pluck especially since she was frozen in  every winter.

I have a few other books  related to that curiosity on my shelves to read - Gotta go...

[Persian]

GINNY - the Cherry Coke has relocated to Kannapolis, NC - about 4 miles from my home in Concord and the site of the relatively new N.C. Biotech Research Campus.  Martha Stewart was in town a couple of months ago as the guest of David Murdock (whose $$$$ was instrumental in tearing down the former Cannon Textile Mills and clearing the way for the research campus). Oprah's Tuesday program will also feature Kannapolis.  Her TV team was in town a few weeks ago and they filmed at the new CORE Lab with a focus on healthy eating, and addressing obesity in the USA. The GEM theatre in downtown Kannapolis which, I understand, used to serve Cherry Cokes years ago, was featured on National news this week, since they now offer Wed. night free movies to the community (although folks still pay for the popcorn and drinks).  Although for generatations Kannapolis was known for its textile background, that has gone the way of many other multi-generational employment industries, there is LIFE surely coming back to the area.  In the meantime, as a native Californian, I'm still trying to get used to sweet tea, Cheer Wine and trying to remember to say "pop" instead of "soda."

Mahlia

[mabel1015j]

Babi - the Bold Spirit book by Linda Hunt was published in 2003 by the Univ of Idaho Press, not so long ago.

Mahlia - what is Cheer wine? That's a new term to me. You Southerners will be chagrined to know that the only time i drink Coke is when i can get a real fountain coke. I hate the bottled stuff they make these days. Even in south central Pa we drank "pop." Obviously too close to the Mason-Dixon LIne. LOL

Cherry cokes, egg creams, chicken livers - get me to a Jewish Deli!!! You folks are too far away from the Northeast cities! I'm glad that there is still regional food, since there is hadly a definable regional "look" of towns any more. When you drive into any town in the country, there is the WAlmart, the MacDonalds, a Ritas, CVS, Home Depot.................it's disheartening. But in the PHila area we still have a lot of regional food, which is really, Jewish, Italian, Pa Dutch, Polish food. 

Jackie - was it Eliz Blackwell who, even tho she had taken all the teasing and nasty looks and comments to go thru medical schl, asked her brother to go up on the stage to collect her diploma because she tho't it was too unladylike for her to do it? I believe i remember that correctly....................isn't it interesting how when people are breaking down traditional barriers, making changes,  that they still have their boundaries of what is acceptable? ...................jean

[maryz]

Down here in our part of the South, we never drink "pop".  That automatically brands you as from the Middle West.  We drink "coke" - even when it's root beer.  As in "Do you want a coke?" Or "what kind of coke do you want?"  "Yes, thanks, make it a Dr. Pepper or a Pepsi." 

[mrssherlock]

Mabel:  Your memory is much better than mine.  However, surfing took me to this site:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/blackwell/

[mabel1015j]

Thanks Jackie - it must have been Dr Josephine Baker - not the dancer, the doctor,  that i read that about, she was also an early doctor and went to medical school in upstate NY also. She developed the idea of school nurses in NYC. School nurses could, by having children hold their hands up in front of their faces, observe their hands, eyes, faces and diagnose many potential contagious diseases and send the child home. I'll have to go find those two bios, which i read ------let's see, my dgt is going to be 39 in May ------ so, 39 yrs ago when i was pregnant w/ her. No, my memory is not that good, it just happened that i lived around the corner from the county library in 1970 and when i had to quit teaching because i was p.g., one of things i did to fill my time was to go to the county library and started reading bios of women. Since i started w/ the A's, the B's came up quickly, thus Baker and Blackwell. Blackwell i had known a little about, but i knew nothing about Baker, and i found many other women i had never heard of, or things i didn't know about the women i had heard of - despite having been a history major in college. Of course, i don't remember a woman even being mentioned in my college history courses ................. I had never been taught that Jane Addams was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and i learned about her cohort, Emily Green Balch, who also won the NPP, the only American women who have won. Now, wouldn't you think that they would have taught me about those two women somewhere in my education?..............i figured out that probably the reason i hadn't heard about their peace work was that they opposed WWI and worked w/ leaders all over Europe and w/ Pres Wilson to try to prevent and then stop the war. They, of course, in the process, worked w/ women/groups from communist/socialist countries, in international organizations. I was in public school in the 50's and in college from 59-63 - in those years even the YWCA had an FBI file and was suspect of being a little "pink" because they held international mtgs. Sen McCarthy and J Edgar probably proscribed the teachers from telling us about these two venerable women. Hull House, social work, those i learned. Nobel Peace Prize winners - uh-uh! ......................jean

[Persian]

MABEL - according to one of the online sites, Cheerwine is "a burgundy-red soft drink. This is a bubbly cherry concoction, named for its appearance.  Cheerwine was established in 1917 in Salisbury, North Carolina."  I've seen Cheerwine, but never tasted it.  It just didn't appeal to me, in much the same way I feel about sweet tea.  "Sweet" does not appeal to my taste buds.

Mahlia

[pedln]

I've never heard of Cheer Wine.  And rarely heard the term "sweet tea."  Usually it was "ice tea -- do you want sugar?"

What amazed me about Coke -- I was a married woman before I ever knew people drank it in the morning!!  Oh my goodness    .

[BarbStAubrey]

Some areas of the south it is Mountain Dew others, Big Red or Dr. Pepper, still others Coke or Pepsi - years back in some areas Coke was for the front porch and Pepsi for the back steps or back porch -

Southern big cities and in the north you start your day with coffee and OJ where as many folks in small towns and rural areas in the South start their day with one of the drinks mentioned - it is why dental care for kids is a big issue- finally there is concern so that dental clinics in buses visit especially the mountain communities where living is 50 or more years behind the times.

And Tea in most areas is sweet unless you ask for unsweetened. Many hamburger or barbecue places do not have unsweetened - they have to make it for you. 

Different strokes for different folks - all part of learning the culture so that as the old saying goes 'When in Rome do as the Romans.'

[ALF43]

I swear I posted this in here yesterday but the cyber "junky" must have eaten it. 

In June we are reading and discussing The Night Villa, by Carol Goodman.  She just wrote me and agreed to come into our discussion.

News  Flash! Carol Goodman, award winning author of The Night Villa, will attend our June discussion of her book. If you like mystery mixed with mythology, cultural and religious history and intrigue then this is the story for you.

The novel is a multi layered mystery  set in the exploration of an ancient Roman villa. Mrs. Goodman is a former Latin teacher who knows her stuff,  and since we met with her in NYC, we know she is an incredibly responsive person. This will be "one for the  Books.."  Do join us June 1!

She is just lovely and I am so excited that she will be with us.  Do join us there, too.

[Steph]

ah accents. My husband was a speech major in college and then on the radio for many years. He is like a mocking bird. Whoever he is talking to becomes his accent. Always amazing and it is totally unconscious..

[Babi]

MAHLIA, I never cared for iced tea until an SIL introduced me to it w/o sugar,
lemon only. I've been drinking it like that happily ever since.  I don't care for Coke either; I prefer diet Dr. Pepper, which makes some folks look at me like they think I'm weird.

Oh, JEAN, how I wish I could hie me to a Jewish deli.  I love liver pate', but none
of the 'deli's' around here carry it. They seem to be mostly glorified sandwich shops. There used to be a great Jewish deli in Houston, but I don't know if it's still there or not, and I'm not sure I could find it again if it is.
  I remember a period when I was reading biographies about women, and it seems to me nurses were at the top of the list.  I remember reading about Florence Nightingale (of course) and Clara Barton.  I think this was probably because I'd been reading a series for young girls about a nurse, and had visions of being like her.  Looking back now, I seem to have had very eclectic tastes in biography, and no planning whatsoever.

[pedln]

I think this was probably because I'd been reading a series for young girls about a nurse, and had visions of being like her.

  from Babi

Babi, did you read the Sue Barton series in your younger years?  Sue Barton, Student Nurse; Sue Barton, Emergency Nurse; Sue Barton, etc.etc. etc.

That series came to mind last week when I read an article in one of the newspapers about a possible nursing shortage, one big reason being a lack of nurse educators.  And I thought, we need a modern day Sue Barton series to promote more interest in nursing.

[BarbStAubrey]

Babi you reminded me and made me smile - my youngest was a big Dr. Pepper fan - growing up that was his drink of choice and I remember visiting New  York city when he was only about 5 or 6 and no one had Dr. Pepper - he was distraught - nothing would work as a substitude - thinking back it was probably his way of reacting to all the 'new' around him. All it did was strengthen his life long appreciation for Dr. Pepper - in fact he never adopted his sister's love of coffee and still sticks to his Dr. Pepper. I can only smile - the differences in our kids still amazes me.

By the way have you ever visted the Dr. Pepper Museum up in Waco? http://www.drpeppermuseum.com/Visit-Us.aspx

[maryz]

Babi, I checked on line to be sure about the Jewish deli in Houston, and I think it was called Alfred's.  I remember it, too.  Kahn's in the Village was also mentioned, but I don't remember that one (even though I lived in Bellaire and went to Rice).

[ginny]

Sue  Barton, Student Nurse! Yes~!~!

Cherry Ames, Student Nurse~!! Yes~!

I had a friend who had two sisters. I was the most avid reader, but they were not. In their house attic, one of the old timey attics, were literally hundreds of books like these, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins. I don't know where they came from but the Getzes let me read them all (are you out there Marilyn? Laverna? Mary?)

And I did read them!

Bonita Granville, I thought the books on her were the beginning and the end. Apparently she had been a movie star? And her husband financed these books of adventures (fictional) about her. I looked for a Bonita Granville book for years and years finally found one on the internet, what a disappointment when it came, dirty and nasty but still I've got it.  Even IF I want a pair of gloves to look at it.

Bonita Granville!!!

[marcie]

That's great news, Alf, about Carol Goodman joining our discussion of her novel, The Night Villa. I haven't read that book yet but have read all of her other novels. They are mysteries with protagonists who are women who are teachers or women involved in the arts in some way. The protagonists are women who have flaws but who are interesting characters. The arts play a role in the background and settings. The author uses fascinating parallel stories involving myths or poetry. In each of her novels, there is some secret in the protagonist's past that relates to the mystery that has to be solved in the present.  She does a lot of research to provide authentic settings and the parallel stories. They've made me want to learn more about the topics. I don't think that her novels fit into one genre/category. I would recommend her books and I look forward to reading and discussing her latest novel in June.

[catbrown]

Sue  Barton, Student Nurse! Yes~!~!

Cherry Ames, Student Nurse~!! Yes~!

I had a friend who had two sisters. I was the most avid reader, but they were not. In their house attic, one of the old timey attics, were literally hundreds of books like these, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins. I don't know where they came from but the Getzes let me read them all (are you out there Marilyn? Laverna? Mary?)

And I did read them!

Ah, Ginny, you were lucky. Me too! There was a Jewish Community Center very near where I lived as a kid in upper Manhattan and they had in their library all the books that the NY Public Library was too snobby to shelve. Ahh, all of the aforementioned nurse books, but also all of the Black Stallion, all of Tarzan, all the Oz books, all of Bomba the Jungle Boy, all of Nancy Drew, all of everything! Bliss!

[marcie]

Catbrown, I loved the OZ books that I read as a child. I just checked and didn't realize that  L. Frank Baum wrote 14 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books). I didn't read all of them. I  did read all of the Andrew Lang "Coloured" (Blue, Green, etc) books of fairy tales that were in our public library (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books). It was wonderful to be transported to so many enchanted places.

I also loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

[mrssherlock]

Perhaps it was reading all the Nancy Drew, all the House on the Prairie, etc., that created the market for long series which so much of what is published today consists of.  I regularly read the New Books and Coming Books sections of Fantastic Fiction.  They will have listings like, #17 of series, etc.  While my authors' newest are high on my list, it astounds me how much of what I read is just another chapter in a saga.  Nothing excites me more that seeing a familiar author's name in the new books at the library.  Sounds like I am in a rut.

[mabel1015j]

Me Too! All those books! Plus Black Beauty, Ivanhoe! I mentioned somewhere before that our small town library was in the old rr station and at 11 or 12 my girlfriend and i spent so much time there that the librarian allowed us to "help" her. We shelved books and stamped the date on those orange cards that went in the back of the book to remind people when they were due. My current library has gotten so sophisticated that i get a computerized print out of a LIST of all the books i have signed out! That's NOT helpful. I'm at the library at least once a week and so the books/mags i have are due at all different dates, and lord knows, i can't keep track. I generally try to put the dates on my computer calendar immediately, so i get a reminder two days before of when a book is due.
"Working" at the library allowed me to get to know adult books at an earlier age than i might have otherwise. So, in my early teens i was reading "adult" books. Nothing solacious, but adult stories, with interesting characters and as movies came out, i read the books that had proceeded them. The Silver Chalice, stories about Napoleon and Josephine, Magnificent Obsession, From Here to Eternity, Caine Mutiny, etc. It was a really ideal childhood, altho i didn't realize it at the time.........jean

[mrssherlock]

Mabel:  SOunds like my library, the computer list.  However, my library sends me a reminder two days before they are due.  I get in trouble cause I reserve online and when there are books waiting for me I'll pick them up when I'm in the area, not always bring back the ones I've read.  Then I've got books due at different dates.  Lucky for me the library site lets me print the list of books charged to my card so I can check them off as I return them.  There is a list, also, of my reading history so i can see what and when I checked a book out.  That list isn't searchable, though, so it's eyeballs only.

[mabel1015j]

Jackie - i try to remember to put the author and title of books i've just finished in my palm pilot list-of-books-read. I also have BTR list on the palm pilot, so i take it to the library w/ me (when i remember) so i don't sign out a book i've already read, or can look for some wonderful author that some one here recommended.................jean

[FlaJean]

My most memorable Christmas as a child was the year I got 12 Nancy Drew Books.  I had my nose in a book the whole Christmas vacation.