Talking Heads: Twenty Questions

[BarbStAubrey]

Talking Heads #15 - Twenty Questions

This discussion will be open from September 19 through September 30.

Library Bar in Auckland NZ

"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.

TWENTY QUESTIONS
 
Remember '20 Questions' on TV or better yet, remember when we were very young Teens and we set up a black marble composition book to list our classmates 20 favorites  - Let's have some Teenage fun and share our favorites.

Your memory is probably chucked full but please just share one choice for each question. - Think, carrying your own luggage aboard a flight to a mountaintop or ocean isle - What do you pack?

Please keep the conversation in a separate post from the post where you simply with a few words list your answers to our 20 questions. I wonder how many new books and places we will learn from each other.
  

Here are our Twenty Questions...! 1.   What is your favorite fiction book? 2.   What is your favorite nonfiction book? 3.   Who is your favorite author? 4.   What is your favorite children’s’ book? 5.   What book have you intended to read but haven’t yet? 6.   What movie made from a book is your favorite? 7.   Where is your favorite place to read in winter? 8.   Where is your favorite summer reading spot? 9.   What made for TV interpretation of a book is your favorite? 10.   What is your favorite time in history to read about? 11.   What library any place in the world would you like to visit? 12.   What author’s house would you like to visit? 13.   What is your favorite cookbook? 14.   Over the years, what desert cookbook did you use the most? 15.   Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover? 16.   What is your favorite book blog? 17.   What is your favorite holiday book? (any holiday) 18.   What is your favorite quote from an author? 19.   What is your favorite memory of reading to someone? 20.   What is your favorite memory of someone reading to you? Contact:   BarbStAubrey

[BarbStAubrey]

     I am still chuckling - some of us cook and some of us eat and some of us will even garden what others will cook - love it... 

[Gumtree]

MaryPage!  My sentiments exactly !

[mabel1015j]

I'm not much if a cook, but i do collect a lot of recipes!?! Don't ask me why, i'm an eternal optimist - hoping i may soooommmeeddaayy make one of them. And i do, altho right now my retired DH has become a "i'm going to try this" cook. He started at the grill with ribs, of course, but he enjoyed the compliments and has continued indoors w/ things like linguini w/ garlic shrimp.

 The only meal i love to cook is the Thanksgiving meal which some how became the meal where the family comes to our house. I love to eat that meal also - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravey, peas, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. ALWAYS the SAME foods. My SIL who used to like to try gourmet cooking said snidely, after about the 3rd or 4th  time they had been to our house for T-giving, as i brought the turkey to the table, "oh! Turkey,!?!" i said "yes, if you come to my house on T-giving you are going to get turkey!"

Jean   

[MaryPage]

I used to garden, and miss it most dreadfully now that I am unable to;  and, Oh Boy, do I EAT!  I celebrate the cooks of this world, and, truth be told, I am a pretty good cook when forced into that activity, which I attribute to my own predilection for good food.  These days, I take all guests OUT.  Out to breakfast, out to lunch, and out to dinner.  Period and Amen.

Good Grief, Jean!  I've been eating almost the same exact Thanksgiving Feast for 82 years now and counting.  What happened to TRADITION?

I know, I know:  that is exactly what you were thinking.

[rosemarykaye]

Well, Marypage, sometimes I feel the same about the actual cooking (as my mother in law said in a recent email, "What a FAG") - but I do love reading cookery books     I don't remember any of the recipes in the James Beard book except one that told you to use 10 eggs and if it went wrong you were to throw it away and start again - this made a huge impression on me because my mother would have had kittens if you had wasted one egg, never mind 10 - but what I do remember about the book are the descriptions of upper class Portland life, the ladies wearing gloves to go to tea with one another - little details like that.  It was all so different from my own life.

Similarly, I like to read Nigel Slater's books because he lives a very grown up life in London, and tells you about the markets he visits, his garden in Islington, his cats huddled up beside the Aga on winter days - it's all so beautifully written.  And Constance Spry, with all her stories about cooking for the coronation, and of the baking done in Irish farmhouse kitchens years and years ago, gives you a glimpse into yet another world.

When I actually cook I most often use straightforward recipe books with little narrative - they are not the ones that I sit down and read!

Barb - we have Amazon UK here, but i have a feeling that they don't have that James Beard book - but I think I found it on a specialist cookery book site, so if people do want to read it I might order it from there, as I would love to have it to keep.

Rosemary

[salan]

I like a variety of foods; but when it comes to Thanksgiving, I want the traditional meal I had growing up.  Roasted turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, hot rolls, pecan pie and pumpkin pie.  The rest of the sides can vary depending on how many people are coming and what they wish to bring.  I had four sisters and as we married and families grew, baked ham was added as well as many, many sides and pies!

Sally

[PatH]

One cookbook writer who can really make me salivate is Elizabeth David.  Her descriptions are wonderfully evocative.  Good recipes, too, although often vague about quantities.  I've got some favorites.  Rosemary, although Aga cookers are available here (at wondrous prices) they are a pretty special interest item.  I remember reading a reminiscent article by someone which included telling you what compartment was suitable for keeping newly hatched chicks warm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker

[PatH]

Sally, I think you have the answer.  When more people are added, you ask them to bring the new side dishes that are important to thm.

[BarbStAubrey]

Sally just add some green beans to the menu along with another family favorite mince pie - we always have three pies - and we could swap tables on Thanksgiving Day. My daughter in law makes the best cornbread stuffing - only she bakes it in a separate iron skillet using Turkey drippings and so we stuff the Turkey with cut into quarters apples, oranges and onions mixed with pieces of bacon - flavors the Turkey and after it is cooked we put the mixture out for the deer and any birds that fly in for a mouthful.

Haven't heard Elizabeth David's name in years Pat - and what is so great her books cover a wide variety of kitchens - these two, I love the concept and titles although, I do not own them - on my shelf is her French Provincial Cookbook that includes some lovely photos.

South Wind Through the Kitchen and this small tome that I would love - maybe next month - spent my book buying wad for this month - An Omelette and a Glass of Wine

Look Rosemary wonders of wonders we can order in the States the Constance Spry Cookery Book those are pretty proud prices for the used books    but the book is still available from others with an affordable pricetag.

And an entire page filled with cookbook after cookbook for Nigel Slater I had no idea the man was so into food and cooking - I think I have only seen him as an actor.

[rosemarykaye]

Barb - Nigel S isn't an actor, he's most definitely a cook.  The only time he has acted is when he played a cameo tiny part in "Toast" - the TV adaptation of his own autobiography.  He is on TV quite often, but in a cooking capacity.  You're not thinking of Nigel Havers are you?

PatH - Agas cost a fortune here too - they are very much a status symbol these days, part of the "country living" thing for those who can afford it.  I must say they do keep a kitchen cosy, but having used them in other people's houses from time to time, I have found them a bit of a pain - you can't control the temperature and you can't grill anything.  They are also very expensive to run.  In the past they would have featured in real farmhouse kitchens, and were indeed used for all sorts of things, including drying laundry and hatching chickens - my Irish friends had one in their not at all smart kitchen on their very much working farm - but now I'm afraid they have become a "look at me and my money" thing.  Having said that, Nigel Slater would be someone who would really use his, and he's so lovely that I could forgive him anything  

MaryPage - I agree about taking people out!  I can just about manage dinner, but if I have someone staying I try to engineer lunch out - often just a coffee and cake - I really cannot be producing several guest type meals a day.

I have more or less given up on breakfast  

Rosemary

[rosemarykaye]

Barb - here is Nigel S's official site.  If you click on the "television" link you get a photo of him.  It also says somewhere that "toast" is touring the US as part of a "From Britain with Love" season.

http://www.nigelslater.com/home.asp

I don't think we could do one of his books as a cookery read - he doesn't say enough about himself! - I just thought you might like to see him.  Elizabeth David would be a good one, and somewhere I have also got a book, "Dear Francesca" by Mary Contini, a member of the Scottish/Italian family who own Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh -` I haven't read it but it's said to be good:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/656622.Dear_Francesca

http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/html/dfpage.html

http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/index.html

(Readers of Alexander McCall Smith's Scotland Street books will recognise the name - Angus Lordie does all his shopping there - but it is a real shop, and absolutely wonderful - though how Angus affords their prices is a question that McCall Smith chooses to sidestep 



Rosemary

[salan]

Ah Barb, definitely green beans and up until my mother died; always mince meat pies!  Oh, and I forgot--fruit salad.  I'm stuffed just thinking of it.  Have you always lived in the Austin area??  I also cook my dressing separately and stuff the "bird" with apples, oranges, lemons and onions.  Never tried bacon, but how can you go wrong with bacon in anything!
Sally

[Steph]

Being alone means most of my cooking is microwave stuff, but I do love cookbooks and would participate.. I have quite a few James Beard books, but the memoir which includes recipes seems to be appropriate for us.

[Babi]

 How very different your experience was, BARB. To begin with, there were a lot of
cherries on the tree, and only one melon on our mound. The mother of the offending
party didn't understand what I was so pset about; apparently swiping watermelons was
a standard kid thing in rural Arkansas where they came from. My parents insisted I
not make a big fuss about it.So unfair!!!   

 We still have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, too, but my daughters do most of the
prep and cooking now.  I no longer have the stamina for the two-day cooking extravaganza
I once happily prepared.

[BarbStAubrey]

Dashing today so a quicky till tonight - I realized my error - I am thinking of Christan Slater where as the chef is Nigel Slater  -  I wonder if they are related or maybe it is a common sur name in the UK - Sally no, not always in Austin - been here in this same house since 1966 but lived several places as a child and a young married... Florida, Georgia, New York, Kentucky... I'm off -

First stop Court House to support my 92 year old friend who received a ticket from some mean spirited neighbor for feeding the deer - many of us are feeding at night - with this drought we are seeing ribs.  Hungry unhealthy deer do too much damage during the rut as well as, sire unhealthy fawns - some folks if they did not grow up around wildlife need to at least read and learn - this is the ONLY neighborhood in town where there is a contingent of folks who have no liking for wildlife and here the city declared Austin as being a wildlife preserve - sheesh

[pedln]

Barb, are you serious?  It's against the law in Austin to feed the deer?  A misdemeanor?  And the whole city is a wildlife preserve? The former is unbelievable, the latter sounds pretty good.

[rosemarykaye]

Barb - I hope you won - how RIDICULOUS - not to say inhumane - not to be able to feed hungry animals.  I seem to be the only person around here who feeds the birds (as a result of which I am shelling out goodness knows how much on fat balls and seed each week) - worth every penny to see them all in my garden, and if I had a deer I would feed it to.  My mother feeds the fox in her London garden.

Rosemary

[mabel1015j]

My Mother baked pies every Saturday morning and in the fall it was pumpkin and mince, of course, and so mince pie at Thanksgiving also.  I never liked mince pie so it hasn't been a guest at T-giving at my house. My SIL - the same one who said "oh!Turkey!?!" - brings either sweet potato casserole or sweet potato pie and my DIL, who loves baking, brings some kind of dessert that that is always a surprise. This IS my favorite meal of the year! I love the left-overs, but now must try to curb myself since i go all out w/ real butter and full milk, etc. for this meal.

Nobody is mentioning The Joy of Cooking? I have one, never used it much for recipes, but have checked it frequently for basic info about cooking. I go online often these days for recipes. I rather like Allrecipes.com. It's easy to use and has lots of comments by people who have tweaked the recipes and i can save my favorites.

Jean

[JoanK]

Mary: I read the OZ books, and almost picked them as my favorite. The first movie I remember going to was the Wizard of Oz, I was so afraid of the flying monkeys, i hid under my seat. Since then, i've seen it at least 10 times.

BARB: "I know we have a mystery group but I do not think they actually discuss a book." You're right, and there's a reason. most mysteries don't have enough meat in them for a month discussion. We tried discussing The No. 1 Ladies detective Agency: while everyone loved the book, the discussion limped.

[BarbStAubrey]

Joan you bring up a good point that may become an issue for doing a cookbook - hmmm maybe a 2 week read and discussion would be the thing - or maybe try it without one cookbook but as we have this discussion with generic questions that allow for the discussion of cookbooks and the content of the cookbooks other than recipes - hmmm that may be a good way to get our feet wet on this - of course we already know there is a lot of cooking we do for the holidays that is not typical of our kitchen actions - but it seems most of the dishes prepared are from family recipes that go back generations.

If anyone has any brainstormed ideas please share them..

In the meantime the cartoon of the day - a dozen white haired ladies and one gentleman in his 60s descend on the courtroom - the judge looks above his glasses and says nothing as he organizes his desk and picks up the paper work - takes another look at us - and declares 'Case Dismissed for lack of evidence ---

Hahaha I think a couple of things - he took one look - I was the youngest at 78 with the others ranging closer to Charlotte's age of 92 and he probably thought, get them out of here before we have the EMS hauling one of them away - plus, wouldn't that go down well for his career as the court reporter has a photo of us in the newspaper saying the judged fined a 92 year old woman for feeding the Deer!!??!!

Turned out the neighbor who brought the charges did not show up and so that was a stike against their case and then to top it off the only evidence was there was a lot of deer on Charlotte's front lawn so she must be feeding - no photo no nothing - and so all that tension and  upsetment for months now and then, the young attorney's time - although, he got a meaty case from one of the women who volunteers with the group that support children whose parents are in jail - but all that for a dismissed case.

There is a group who moved into this neighborhood in the past 15 years who are upset with especially the deer - they have all sorts of wild stories of fear that they are going to be hurt and they do not like having to drive slowly because Deer do a lot - a lot - of damage when they hit a vehicle.

The way Austin is covered as a nature preserve is between 4 groups - Texas Parks and Wildlife, Watershed Protection and Development, LCRA [Lower Colorado River Authority] and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department - with all the patchwork this neighborhood was not covered and so they pushed through the ordinance over a year ago - there were meetings like you wouldn't believe with the City and the residents both for and against - this is a community of mostly mature folks and to have around 400 show up for a meeting about the Deer you know how contentions it was.  

Well the group that was actively enticing all young new comers in the neighborhood,who were mostly from big cities out of Texas to their point of view had a ringer on the City Council - well what do you know - the entire city votes and last Spring she received so few votes she is gone - now we have folks who are going to try to get rid of or bury the ordinance.

Here is a link to the web site for those of us who want healthy deer in our community - the site includes a copy of the ordinance.
http://deeraustin.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=70

Charlotte got home about 11:30 - had some breakfast - couldn't eat before - laid down for a nap and only woke up at 7:30 this evening - she didn't realize the stress she had been living with.

[BarbStAubrey]

Once a week pie making - how wonderful your house must have smelled over the weekend - brings back memories of how our week was organized with certain things we did every Saturday and church on Sunday along with either visiting or dinner at home with more family or going to see a place of interest or even a trip to the lake in the afternoon often with a picnic - then always washing on Monday and and and... one house we lived in I even remember the church bells ringing for the Angelus - talk about organizing your day.

Jean you may want to re-look at what is in the make believe butter or milk unless you are saying that you do not eat prepared foods that uses any butter, real or otherwise - to my way of thinking the difference in calories  outweighs the difference in chemicals that fills the make believe stuff - I do know my daughter-in-law prefers the taste of margarine but for me anything made from corn has me retaining water so real butter has been part of my diet now for at least the last 10 to maybe 15 years.

Oh yes, The Joy of Cooking - like you it is on my shelf and I bet many shelves that we all turn to when we forget an amount of this or that - it sure is like the Britannica of recipes.

[BarbStAubrey]

An interesting list - some never did comment on question 5 - a book we each intended to read and have not yet read. However, here is the list with links to the book on Amazon.

• A Confederacy of Dunces
  http://tinyurl.com/3rsrago
• Ulysses - Annotated
  http://tinyurl.com/63jc6h8
• Aeniad
  http://tinyurl.com/6hvkl44
• The Art of Racing in the Rain
  http://tinyurl.com/3kodkpu
• Too long to list
• Too many
• Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
  http://tinyurl.com/3vnwyjq
• Divine Comedy
  http://tinyurl.com/3roeq8y
• 15 cubic feet TBR pile

[Steph]

I find that if I want to read a book, I do.. but if you are saying, a book that we think we should read and have not.. I have a ton of them..

[salan]

I'm that way, too, Steph.  In fact, I need to rethink my many cubic feet of tbr books.  Some have been there for years.  Obviously I really don't want to read them; but think I should.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll weed them out!
Sally

[Babi]

 You'll have to be stern, SALLY.      No other way to do it.  

 ROSEMARY, my stepmother has her back yard filled with water pans and bird feeders,
notably a couple of hummingbird feeders. Even a small birdhouse tucked into the
shrubbery along the back fence.  Her yard is so full of birds they are
getting in one another's way.  Sparrows, hummingbirds, doves,..bluejays stopping
by. It's bird haven for them.  It is fascinating to sit and watch them.
 

[rosemarykaye]

 -Barb, don't fall off your chair with shock, but I have finally done it.  For what it is worth, here are my answers - and like everyone else, I have to say that if I repeated this tomorrow they might well be different!

1.   Favourite fiction book:  The Wind In The Willows; I Capture the Castle; Bleak House; the Towers of Trebizond

2.   Favourite non-fiction book[:  King James' Bible

3.   Favourite author:  Barbara Pym; Alexander McCall Smith; Charles Dickens

4.   Favourite children's book:   Josephine and her Dolls; My Naughty Little Sister and Bad Harry; Alfie and Annie Rose; The Treasure Seekers

5.   Book I have intended to read but haven't: (this is one of hundreds...) War and Peace;

6.   Favourite film made from a book:   Pride & Prejudice (Keira Knightly version); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

7.   Favourite place to read in winter:   in bed

8.   Favourite place to read in summer: in my garden (where I am now sitting - fabulous afternoon, blue, blue sky, birds singing - can it really be October next week?)

9.   Favourite TV interpretation of a book[:  Brideshead Revisited; The Jewel In The Crown

10.  Favourite time in history to read about: British Raj; 1930s; 1950s

11.  Which library would you like to visit? - The Vatican

12.  Which author's house would you like to visit? - LM Montgomery's (does it exist?)

13.  Favourite cook book:  Constance Spry; Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries; Sheila Hutchins Daily Express Cook Book

14.  Which dessert cook book did you use the most?  - Mary Berry's Fast Cakes/More Fast Cakes

15.  Did you ever read a book that you had to hide with a fake cover?  NO!

16.  Favourite book blog:  Senior Learn; Thoughts from a Compulsive Reader; Stop, You're Killing Me (is that a blog?);

17.  Favourite holiday book:  The Wind in the Willows (when the animals go carol singing); The Fortnight in September - RC Sherriff

18.  Favourite quote:  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", "The past is another country, they do things differently there", "In the beginning was the Word", "Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face"

19.  Favourite memory of reading to someone:  Once we were on holiday in a cottage in Northumberland and the only book we could find was Roald Dahl's The Witches.  I read it to all three of the children together - one of the few times they all condescended to have the same book - and we all enjoyed it so much.

20.  Favourite memory of being read to:  I honestly can't remember this happening, although I expect it did.  I learned to read very young and from then on I think my mother thought that was one less thing for her to do!  

Sorry, I know I've chosen 3 things for many of the questions instead  of one!  Also I see that my attempts to turn the questions red has for some reason also turned half the answers red - I have checked back and only the questions are highlighted, so I have no idea what I did wrong!  hope you can stand the glare!

Rosemary

[BarbStAubrey]

Wheee she did it - The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the Plain - I think she did it... 

Hope you do not mind Rosemary it was just a couple of misplaced brackets and all was fixed in a wink...

Now I need to find RC Sherriff - Rosemary what is The Fortnight in September about - the only thing I can find is that it is autobiographical.

Have you read the books written by William Horwood continuing the Wind and the Willows - they are quite wonderful. He sought and received permission from the family to continue the story and I think he did a grand job. There are about 3 or 4 squeals including a Willows at Christmas that is a nice story.

I do not know The Towers of Trebizond - found the Amazon link http://tinyurl.com/3mugnoh

ah yes, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie seems to me I saw that on the London stage with a young Maggie Smith - this had to be back in the late 70s or maybe very early 80s.

So many great Roald Dahl stories - I have not read The Witches - another added to my Amazon list - hmm maybe I will put it on my Christmas list - what a fun gift to receive from one of my grandboys.

[BarbStAubrey]

Sally and Steph I think Babi is right on - we find books on sale that we know are important authors and then we use the book as wall decoration - I am with you - need to cull some of these books - all it does is create stress that I have not read as many as I should.

Well AT&T have been here all morning - seems all phones are going Digital in the next couple of years and by doing it now I save a bunch on my phone bill - had to sign up for their TV service which is free for a month and then if I stay one more month I get a $300 Visa card then I am removing the service - I do not need 99 channels - he even had to reset the TV back on the original service for me to get my 3 PBS channels - but to pay $29 for one month and get back the $29 + $271 is not bad. By ordering the TV they could send out a service rep to hook me up - thank goodness - I have 3 landlines - my computer and my laptop and the TV - actually I have two other TVs but I never did all the fandango to change them from analogue so I use them only for watching videos and DVDs.

Well I am starving - did not feel comfortable eating while he was here and it took him over 3 hours. Nice guy - very helpful.

[BarbStAubrey]

Cleaning up my folio for this discussion where I park links and found this - back when we were discussing Libraries and Jean shared a wonderful link to I think 20 libraries and then there were a few more links to a single library shared by I think pedln or maybe it was Pat - well anyhow I found this - I just wonder if this it a grown up version of that original link we remember from a few years ago with almost 100 world wide beautiful libraries - this link has the libraries grouped and it is the private libraries that are to me especially interesting.

http://www.beautiful-libraries.com/index.html

[ANNIE]

Oh yes, Barb, that link led me all over the place reading and looking at the photos.  Did anyone look at that link I put in here that was the largest digital photo ever taken of one of those libraries.?
My book still to be read this year is:"The Art of Racing in the Rain". I have a copy so its just been put off and put off.
And I did mention Irma Rombauer's cookbooks She wrote "The Joy of Cooking".  My daughter swears that she really learned a lot from the book.  The one I also remember was "A Cookbook for Boys and Girls" by Irma Rombauer.  We had one for a long time and I did like using it as the 12 yr old daughter of a widow and just wanting to do my cooking with mom's and my grandmother's approval.  There were always 5 or 6 of us for supper every evening so we shared the cooking and cleaning up.  I only cooked about 1/4th of the time but it was always a challenge, pleasing everyone's palette.

So, your friend won the day but she wore herself out going to court.  Some people are so unpleasant and anxious to find someone doing something wrong.  So your picture was in the Statesman tonight?  I will go see if I can bring it up.

[BarbStAubrey]

No Ann it didn't make it - good news is not news these days and this was anti-climactic plus good news for both Charlotte and the Deer - not juicy or spicy enough for news...Plus we had some horrendous auto accidents that took preference.

Getting the name of the complainer was worth it all - we were able to look him up on the tax roles and then noting where his house is located near the City Council member that did not get re-elected plus knowing how far he lived from Charlotte and how there is no way he would be driving down to the street by her house to drive to the main thoroughfare with other closer through streets and so we are seeing this was probably a set up - but why oh why and how did they see it would benefit their viewpoint to have a 92 year old women ticketed and if it went as they hoped convicted - some folks just do not use their heads.

I did not know that Irma Rombauer wrote A Cookbook for Boys and Girls need to find it and see what it looks like - I still like the cookbooks that have more information about a place or food or gardening or meal plans than recipes - I guess because I come from a family of cooks who once we got the gist of what the dish was all about we could produce it with a series of fractions and so we did not cook by recipe so much as taste and ratios.

Some of my favorites are John Tovey's Country Weekends - Michael Ruhlman The Soul of a Chef, Christopher Petkanas At Home in France; Eating and Entertaining with the French, Russ Parsons how to pick a peach, Frank Browning & Sharon Silva An Apple Harvest - oh yes, gotta have michel roux eggs.

[rosemarykaye]

Barb - thanks for fixing my colours!  Of course I don't mind!

The Fortnight In September is a wonderful novel - it's a very simple story of a London family preparing for and taking their annual holiday at the seaside.  The genius is in the writing - Sherriff shows us every family member's thoughts and feelings, - they are all decent, kind people, all with their own hopes and worries.  The two almost grown up children want partly to re-live all of the holidays of past years, but partly to move on - but also don't want to hurt the parents.  The mother sees that the boarding house owner isn't managing as well as she used to, but says nothing because she doesn't want to show she knows. The father worries about work, but loves treating the family to a beach hut on the sands, from which they can feel slightly "superior".   There is a lot of period detail - for example, the mother goes out and shops for groceries every morning even though they are staying in a guest house - the owner then cooks whatever meat that the mother provides.  The family travel to the seaside by train, because in those days no-one of their social position would have had a car - and Sherriff lets us see the mother's worries about catching the connecting train, the preparation of the sandwiches for the journey.  To me at least, it is all so real - but I love it not only for its accuracy but also for the kindness with which Sherriff writes about his characters.  I do recommend it.

The Towers of Trebizond is IMHO FANTASTIC.  This is the review I put on to Amazon some time ago:

"The discovery of this book has been one of the greatest pleasures of my year so far. It is a beautifully told story of three eccentric characters and a camel travelling to Turkey to start a High Anglican mission. Usually I find this kind of thing very irritating, but Macaulay writes entirely without condescension or coyness. There are many references to High Anglican, and Muslim, practices and ideas, and I very much enjoyed the way in which they were simply introduced, without explanation - I was happy to look them up for myself.

The story moves along at a cracking pace, and can be read on several levels - as an adventure, a travel book with marvellous descriptions, an observation of the often hilarious relationships between the travellers, and as a slightly mysterious story about the narrator's own personal life. Information is skilfully fed to the reader as the journey progresses, and the ending is one of the most poignant I think I have ever read.

Highly recommended."

To change the subject - Barb, you reminded me about John Tovey - my MIL (who lives in the Lake District, where Tovey had his hotel) has his books, I love to read them - they are so 1970s, but still so accessible, Tovey's chatty style is great fun.  My parents-in-law have been to his restaurant, it was indeed fab, apparently.

Rosemary
 

[Steph]

Oh my, tomorrow is the 30th and we will be finished. This has been so much fun. Made me think about reading and what I do and do not read. Reminded me of so many books that I loved over the years.. So thank you  Barbara for thinking of the topic.. and keeping us on the path.

[Babi]

 I particularly liked your quotes, ROSEMARY. I couldn't think of one..or four...
that stood out from all the rest, but I know and love all those you chose.

 BARB, we have ATT U-verse, which puts all our electronics on one line, including
the telephone, which Valerie definitely needs for her at-home job. One bill for
it all. It is high, but it includes long distance at local rates..another
necessity for her work.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, Babi that is what it is called U-verse - for me the only service if I were to keep it that is new is the TV connection because I had the one fee a month long distance service and call waiting and call notes and I was paying it all as one bill that includes my wireless - supposedly the U-verse will be cheaper - but when you consider what we pay a month for communications it is more than the food bill for most months.

I just never understood the need for all those TV channels - most are old movies or music videos - I guess CNN and Discovery Channel but now that our local PBS has branched out with two more English channels and one Spanish and they are showing an old but good movie on Saturday night in case the Brit Coms are repeats that I have seen a few times I can pick up the movie - I know - I bet it has to do with sports - I like watching a baseball or football or even a basketball game from time to time but for me it the game is a good one it will be on one of the 3 or 4 major channels so the idea of having some off beat channel to see more games is the same as those who want extra movie channels. I still think it is less out of pocket to rent a video every week or even a couple a week than pay the amount for cable. Some folks are paying $69 or  $79 a month - month in and month out - a year that is minimum over $800 just for TV??!!??

Although I should not be so quick to judge - I buy books easily to the tune of $800 a year - try to keep it to $50 a month but with one thing and another I go over. Usually the book I want is only down at the main library - by the time they get it up here and then I am limited how long I have it - plus I like having books to refer to long after they are read - plus    I like buying used books and keep thinking I am saving a book from that dump of books we read about where higgly piggly they are piled with no order as if for a bonfire so said the author in whatever that book was we read a few years ago. Do you think I am addicted and using any denial excuse I can think up 

[BarbStAubrey]

Steph so glad you enjoyed the past week or so - I enjoyed the conversation as well - some precious memories were shared that stay with me - and you are so right - we were re-acquainted with authors and books that we read and enjoyed long ago.

Really, we could turn around and do this again with another whole group of books to focus on - like nature books or adventure books or biographies or favorite hobby books or books that help us understand various cultures or books of jokes and funny stories - so many interests that we love to talk about and I bet we all have a story or book that is special in our memory about some of these book topics.

I was telling my sister about some of the shared memories and she reminded me that the boys still talk about how when grandma visited when all 5 grandboys were together we let the grownups catch up with each other and grandma and all 5 boys sat on bed pillows piled on the floor of the dark closet and with door closed using flashlights we read stories -

Still remember Cade, the youngest by 3 years than the other 4 whose birthdays are all only months apart and they, older, were at the stage of wanting read spooky scary stories - Cade got so scared when I hit the spot in the story where you shout out the scary phrase - we had to stop and the boys all comforted Cade so we could go on - no one wanted to leave the closet and 'have to' sit still at the table while grownups visited.

[BarbStAubrey]

Rosemary thanks for the rundown on those books - especially the Sherriff - I could find the book available used but there was no information and Googling the book did not provide the wonderful synopsis you gave - great and thanks.

Interesting I found thee books written by John Tovey about weaving - is this a secondary hobby or a different guy with the same name - evidently the chef John Tovey has many books to his credit - sounds like your in-laws have some good memories to conjure up on a dreary day.

[BarbStAubrey]

My only disappointment is that Carolyn from NZ did not pop in - I emailed her but do not know if she received the email or not or if the email address I have is correct - I did so want to learn more about these Library Bars that are all over NZ - I hope she is alright and just busy but then again it could be I do not have her correct email address.

[BarbStAubrey]

With all our talk of libraries I became curious - no Chinese library - are there any that are famous and how many volumes etc. -- I found this - evidently one of the biggest and main libraries is the one in Beijing History Beijing Library  and then I found this which is enlightening -

SiKu QuanShu, or Complete Works of Chinese Classics, is the largest collection of books covering all subjects compiled under imperial commission in ancient China. The work comprises four traditional divisions of Chinese learning --classics, history, philosophy, and belles-lettres. Containing 3,503 titles, the book were divided in 79,337 chapters, almost including all books of ancient China, hence the name Complete Works of Chinese Classics.

Evidently in these libraries are some ancient texts written - get this - on the backs of turtle shells - can you just imagine asking to see and then reading from the back of a turtle shell - talk about exotic.