Author Topic: The Library (Read 151520 times)

mrssherlock · « **Reply #360 on:** July 08, 2009, 11:48:23 AM »

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

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.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #361 on:** July 08, 2009, 11:58:36 AM »

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.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #362 on:** July 08, 2009, 03:43:12 PM »

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.

JoanP · « **Reply #363 on:** July 08, 2009, 07:21:44 PM »

hahaha, Barb - I'm thinking that this sequence will never occur again.

But how about next August - at 5:06:07, 08/09/10

pedln · « **Reply #364 on:** July 09, 2009, 01:36:48 AM »

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.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #365 on:** July 09, 2009, 03:59:55 AM »

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

Gumtree · « **Reply #366 on:** July 09, 2009, 05:43:52 AM »

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.

Steph · « **Reply #367 on:** July 09, 2009, 02:16:25 PM »

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.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #368 on:** July 09, 2009, 02:28:36 PM »

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.

ChazzW · « **Reply #369 on:** July 09, 2009, 08:22:18 PM »

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:

Quote

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?

JoanR · « **Reply #370 on:** July 09, 2009, 09:56:05 PM »

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??

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #371 on:** July 09, 2009, 10:52:17 PM »

Ah yes - Lad, A Dog - http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/lad-a-dog/

ChazzW · « **Reply #372 on:** July 10, 2009, 06:02:39 AM »

Quote

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

ginny · « **Reply #373 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:47:19 AM »

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.

ginny · « **Reply #374 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:54:31 AM »

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.

Steph · « **Reply #375 on:** July 10, 2009, 08:09:08 AM »

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.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #376 on:** July 10, 2009, 10:12:33 AM »

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.

marcie · « **Reply #377 on:** July 10, 2009, 11:28:19 AM »

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.

CallieOK · « **Reply #378 on:** July 10, 2009, 11:28:33 AM »

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!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #379 on:** July 10, 2009, 01:45:31 PM »

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.

JoanR · « **Reply #380 on:** July 10, 2009, 03:22:44 PM »

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!

mrssherlock · « **Reply #381 on:** July 10, 2009, 05:37:20 PM »

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.

pedln · « **Reply #382 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:56:24 PM »

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?

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.

Steph · « **Reply #383 on:** July 11, 2009, 08:31:51 AM »

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.

ginny · « **Reply #384 on:** July 11, 2009, 08:43:12 AM »

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.

PatH · « **Reply #385 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:49:49 PM »

Steph, I cook that lamb dish a lot too. You're right--people always love it.

isak · « **Reply #386 on:** July 11, 2009, 08:03:30 PM »

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

Babi · « **Reply #387 on:** July 12, 2009, 08:30:52 AM »

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.

ALF43 · « **Reply #388 on:** July 12, 2009, 08:43:15 AM »

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.

ginny · « **Reply #389 on:** July 12, 2009, 09:29:31 AM »

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:

.

Quote

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!

Steph · « **Reply #390 on:** July 12, 2009, 10:10:19 AM »

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.

ChazzW · « **Reply #391 on:** July 12, 2009, 10:26:44 AM »

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.

Judy Laird · « **Reply #392 on:** July 12, 2009, 12:51:08 PM »

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

JoanK · « **Reply #393 on:** July 12, 2009, 07:43:14 PM »

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.

ginny · « **Reply #394 on:** July 12, 2009, 08:24:20 PM »

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!

pedln · « **Reply #395 on:** July 12, 2009, 10:35:18 PM »

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.

Steph · « **Reply #396 on:** July 13, 2009, 07:58:47 AM »

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.

Babi · « **Reply #397 on:** July 13, 2009, 08:35:15 AM »

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.

mrssherlock · « **Reply #398 on:** July 13, 2009, 10:59:43 AM »

Babi: Maybe you and i could comment to one another on reading Sebald. I'm next for Rings of Saturn at the library.

ALF43 · « **Reply #399 on:** July 13, 2009, 11:59:08 AM »

Chaz

Quote

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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Author Topic: The Library (Read 151520 times)