Holiday Books and Bookstores ~ Dec. 15-31 ~ OPENING Dec. 15

[BarbStAubrey]

Holiday Books and Bookstore Starts on Tues. Dec. 15 through January 6, 2016 This discussion about reading books over the holidays is extended through the 12 Days of Christmas. What book are you reading... a Christmas mystery, a children's story that is an annual must read, a humorous love story that ends well. The story is sure to be a compelling read so that your nearby hot chocolate will have time to cool. Did you receive a book as a Christmas Gift or while shopping did you treat yourself to a book that you just could not pass? Have you started to read the book? Please, would you briefly tell us what it is about. Do you have some books already lined up to read over the next 12 days of Christmas? Has anyone looked up what the symbolism is for each of the 12 days of Christmas?

Has your favorite book store changed their display - What new books are they featuring?  Their coffee shop...  is it a place you want to snuggle down for an hour or so as we entire the dead of winter when reading keeps us warm with stories and dreams. 

We want to hear about the books you plan on reading the next few weeks.

P.S. If you share photos (and we hope you do) PLEASE remember the maximum width is 400 pixels. If your photo is longer than wide, height max is 400 pixels - in keeping with a typical magazine or web page and the size our server can best handle.
Discussion Leaders: Barb St. Aubrey

[BarbStAubrey]

I vaguely remember reading the Cricket on the Hearth years and years ago and not being able to make heads or tails out of the beginning - I am really excited because of our reading Dickens, one of the books talked about pattens and now it makes sense and also finally saw a graphic of the clock so the whole haymaker bit makes sense - there he is with his scythe at the top of the clock in front of the Persian temple. 

This is a link to the story -    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/678/678-h/678-h.htm

Here are the pattens worn over the shoe to bring the wearer higher off the mud and wet... and the next photo is of a finger post - that today, we would call it a cross road directional sign with the pointed ends rather than fingers.

   

Rather than supper she does a tea where traditional manners say, only the most intimate of family attend and the food leans to sweets and sandwiches rather than hearty food - her teaboard is a large tray where she serves and pours the tea -

Here is a middle class tea board that is a bit more than what this cottage could offer.

Only finished reading the first chapter - more as I read... I love the way he has given life to the teakettle as well as the cricket but mostly the teakettle and its wayward ways.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh oh oh - two illustrations of Tilly Slowboy - which is worse or would we best be saying which is better - goodness...

   

[BarbStAubrey]

If anyone can find what a 'deal door' is - the best I can find is that it is a closed interior door behind which deals are cooked up and agreed upon in secret - since this cottage does not seem to be a hotbed of deal making and Tilly Slowboy protects the baby from deal doors I'm thinking a certain kind of door was called a deal door during the mid nineteenth century.

[Steph]

I am so envious.. our PBS does not do Call the Midwife and I loved it. Darn darn darn.

[bellamarie]

With having grandkids ages 4 - 20 yrs. old my music knowledge and listening has a very wide range.  Myself I love country and pop.  My grandkids have actually gotten me to appreciate alternative and rock. I am amazed my 20 yr old granddaughter is as much in love with Luke Bryan (country) as I am.  Going to his concert in April.  I found tickets being sold online before they were open to the public a month or so ago.  They went on sale to the public in our town and were sold out in 30 seconds. 
http://www.toledoblade.com/Music-Theater-Dance/2015/12/18/Tickets-for-Luke-Bryan-concert-in-Toledo-sold-out.html

During Christmas season we only listen to our Christmas music station. I am so excited for American Idol's final season to begin in Jan.  I am sad to see this is ending, but I do watch The Voice, so at least I can look forward to that.  The winner on The Voice this past season was incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Ux80jK3bI

I am also looking forward to Julianne Hough playing Sandy in the remake of Grease, one of my all time favorites.  She did a great job in Footloose.

[Zulema]

Well, this is old Zulema showing up in a few discussions to say Happy New Year, no one's fault but mine that I disappear.  Mostly into books.  Since we are talking music, one local NYC station, Columbia U.'s has been playing Bach all day all night for the last nine days, until tomorrow at 11:59.  It has been absolutely wonderful.  Two kindly people sent me books, mysteries.  One was Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicky Delany, a Canadian writer, and I must say this is the first silly book she has ever written, a Christmas story obviously.  Then Hank Philippi Ryan, a woman investigative reporter now working in Boston, sent me her latest mystery, What You See. I couldn't put it down, a true "page-turner" I would call it.  I just finished it.

I did put up a little live tree on a table and some window lights (that was my daughter) but no one has visited, not that I expected anyone.  Spent Christmas Day at my daughter's in Peekskill with her husband and son, his girl-friend, and my older son and his live-in-lady.  Other children are a long way and we talk and e-mail.  But I am grateful for family and good cheer and that we all get along.

Again, best wishes to all and a Happy New Year in maybe a better world.

[ginny]

Well  hello, Zulema! How good to see you again! It's like Auld Lang Syne, (song always makes me cry for some reason) and a very appropriate time for you to appear!

Did you know it's our 20th Anniversary in 2016? I remember you well from our trips to NYC. What fun they were. Did you also come to DC? I can't remember but I thought so. At any rate, how nice to see you and those books look good. Why is the author sending you her book? I will look it up, since you recommend it so highly.

Happy New Year to you and everybody else! So nice to see you again!

[nlhome]

How pleasant to read this discussion. We are back from traveling south to hot SE Georgia, where Christmas was relaxing and fun with two of our grandchildren. We arrived home to several inches of snow and cold, which is much more like Christmas, but I already  miss the warmth. Sunday I wore sandals on my walks; today I needed boots and earmuffs. Our 8-year-old granddaughter picked out books for us, apparently looking at a books to movies display at B&N. My husband received The Martian which he really enjoyed, and I have Brooklyn, which has caught my interest. She did well.

Tonight is New Year's Eve, and we are weary from traveling (the drive took us three and a half days because we took our time to avoid the rains in Tennessee and Kentucky and the snowstorms in Illinois and Wisconsin) so I am having my glass of wine and reading while my husband watches a movie.

[Steph]

Happy happy new Year. Today, down comes the Christmas stuff, but I am so in love with my little lit up fawn in the courtyard, I think I will leave it up . It makes my heart sing to see it glowing after dark.

[BarbStAubrey]

Wishing everyone a 2016 New Year full of wonder

Today is the 8th day of Christmas - so let's hope all that milk from the 8 maids is turned into good cheese so that 2016 can be a year of bounty...

Each day I think I will take something down and decide it looks too perfect - as of now I'm thinking Saturday or Sunday - this evening the New Years Concert from Vienna - I look forward so to that program.

[BarbStAubrey]

Well for heaven's sake Zulema - been awhile - sounds like you are in a new phase of your life - always a challenge isn't it - I too had a Christmas on my own - for the most part it worked out fine - a little too quiet at times that even the music could not fill the silence and that reminded me of so many leaflets I get all year about silence and how it is what we need in today's world -

Your holiday season Nlhome  and especially when you were settling back in, sounded to me like a good year's worth of memories. I've seen the run down on Brooklyn and it sounded like a book I may like to read - tell us please what you think when you finish it up.

Ginny thanks for the reminder that we are celebrating our 20th year this year of 2016.  How time flies - children were born and are well into Collage who were born 20 years ago.

Steph glad there is a decoration that pleases you enough to leave it twinkling at you for awhile - it is the little things isn't it...

[Zulema]

Hi, everyone and thank you for making me feel so welcome.  As for books, it doesn't happen often, but I belong to a list-serve and Hank Ryan offered copies of her latest book.  She had extras, and it's just a mystery but very well done, she is a good writer.  I've gotten books that were so bad I couldn't even respond properly (one had talking cats and dogs), though I love books that have dogs in them.

I'll try not to disappear for such along stretch again.  Ginny, I was not in DC but I did go to the Montreal and Quebec get-together, was it in 2006? and brought my daughter and my other grandson who was 16 at the time.  I'll never forget there was something doing that I didn't want to go to, and he insisted.  When I asked him why, he said "because I like the group!" Imagine, a teenager!

[Steph]

I never went to any other of the meetings other than our bookie meeting, which was such fun.. although Ginny decided that the Charleston bridge was not something she was doing ever again.

[ginny]

No I didn't go to Montreal in fact I've never been there, that must have been SeniorNet not the Books.  Yes, please don't disappear, Zulema, we need your intelligent conversation.

But the one at the Isle of Palms was fun, Steph, you're right. I often think of that stupendous beach house. Elevator, yet.

Ha. That old Cooper River Bridge, now replaced. Wikipedia got something right when it says:


"Engineers and critics proclaimed colorful descriptions of the unique structure, deeming it the first roller-coaster bridge" and citing that "steep approaches, stupendous height, extremely narrow width, and a sharp curve at the dip conspire to excite and alarm the motorist."

Yes indeedy, alarm is a great description. hahahaa

Happy 9th Day of Christmas!

[Steph]

I loved the Isle of Palms trip and would go again tomorrow. Such fun we had.. Judy came with her daughter. You brought your best friend. Pedlin was there and she and I  had a blast at the scrabble game. and Robbie fed us all chocolates by the score..

[PatH]

Steph, if we do have a get together, I'll take you on at Scrabble, though I'm pretty rusty.

[BarbStAubrey]

who were the three kings and where did they come from...

http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/mysteries-three-kings-who-were-they-and-where-did-they-come-003966

[rosemarykaye]

PatH & Steph - I also like Scrabble but don't get the chance to play it often - you two would beat me hands down, but I'm willing to give it a go!

[PatH]

My two SILs are demon Scrabble players.  It's rare that I get a chance to play with them, but it's a battle of giants, with me, the little midget, cowering in a corner.  I never win, but it's fun anyway.

[JoanK]

My scrabble group dissolved, so I haven't played for awhile. PatH always beats me hands down, but I'm game.

[PatH]

Getting back to holidays and bookstores, I finished off the old year suitably with a trip to one.  I had gone downtown to an art exhibit I wanted to see, then on the way back stopped at KramerBooks to check out copies of Ovid's Metamorphoses for our upcoming discussion.  After buying a few things, I ate a light supper in their cafe, and went home, going to bed early.  It wasn't 2016 yet in Maryland, but it was in some parts of the world.

Now for a New Year full of books.

[rosemarykaye]

PatH - that is my kind of new year - doing what you want to do (books, food, art) and not staying up till some awful hour and/or (as most of the people one of my daughters served when working on the night of the 31st) getting exceptionally & expensively drunk. I have to admit I never enjoyed that kind of thing, even when I was my daughters' ages.  I have to go out later on and after reading this I might take in a bookshop, even though I don't really need to. Thanks for the inspiration!

[JoanK]

New years has to be the worse celebrated holiday! I like our family's tradition: we get together for dinner, and then work a jigsaw puzzle together, finishing well before midnight so everyone can get home before the crazies get on the road.

[BarbStAubrey]

Interesting - looked it up and in most of Europe during the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25. This date marked both the beginning of spring and the Feast of the Annunciation, a special day dedicated to Mary. Consequently, the holiday in Medieval Europe was a springtime celebration that was a mix of nature-based worship and the celebration of the divine feminine. Although the church officially changed the date of the new year to January 1 in the 16th century, in some places these older traditions are still followed.

And then in the later Middle Ages, a very controversial festival was celebrated by many on January 1. The Feast of Fools featured heavy drinking, gambling and even cross dressing. This celebration was also tied to nature-based activities, in this case the winter solstice and the Saturnalia, where leaders were mocked and society turned upside down. During the festival, slaves and servants openly criticized their masters, often dressing up like them in parody. The Feast of Fools disappeared in the 15th century after heavy suppression by the church.

Pope Gregory officially changed New Year's Day back to January 1 in 1582, but that did not mean that everyone in Europe gave up their traditional practices.

[BarbStAubrey]

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, marking the end of the 12 Days of Christmas and the new season of Epiphany, is observed on Wednesday, January 6, 2016.

Epiphany -- which is variously known as Theophany, Three Kings Day and El Dia de los Tres Reyes -- is a Christian celebration of the revelation of the birth of Jesus to the wider world. This is embodied most in the story of three wise men visiting a newborn Jesus with gifts, found in the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12.

In this story, Magi (wise men) from the east follow a star to Jerusalem -- Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar -- eventually find Mary and her son, Jesus, to whom they bow and worship. The Magi give Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then return home, for a dream told them to bypass Herod.

While Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity focuses on the story of the Magi, Eastern Christians, like the Greek Orthodox, celebrate the baptism of Jesus on Epiphany and consider the day to be more important than Christmas.

[BarbStAubrey]

Feast of Epiphany as celebrated publicly in Warsaw Poland