Author Topic: The Library (Read 151536 times)

winsummm · « **Reply #680 on:** August 25, 2009, 11:39:12 PM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from the heat and humidity and join us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

Everyone is welcome!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

marketing. We have Vons on line but it is expensive not only the food but the delivery at ten bucks a pop. There is a ralphs here but I couldn't find them on line for this area. Safeway was hard to navagage so I gave up.
However, I just discovered tha Trader Joe's Alfredo sauce is not only good for that but salad dressing as well as a base or ok anyway. My shopper suggested it so I got three of them about twelve bucks but worth it.
my spy novel by christopher Reich has a sequel. both are about nuclear subjects, very current and well done.

Ny kindle sold me nine books last month re my charge account at amazon. I'm addictred.

Gumtree · « **Reply #681 on:** August 26, 2009, 01:36:08 AM »

My father loved raw turnips. He would pull one from the earth, rinse it under the hose and eat it like an apple while he stood surveying his vegie patch. I've eaten them like that many times - but they have to come straight from the ground -

Steph · « **Reply #682 on:** August 26, 2009, 07:48:30 AM »

Hmm. raw turnips. Now you have me intrigued. Think I will try them that way.. Couldnt be worse than cooked for sure and I love raw veggies.

Babi · « **Reply #683 on:** August 26, 2009, 08:51:42 AM »

Rutabaga mashed up with potatoes was popular with my ex, STEPH. He was from up-state New York, where apparently they ate a good deal more of them than we do down here. Rutabaga I liked okay; turnips, nix.
My folks also insisted I at least try new things, JACKIE. Therefore, the
really small portion was standard in our house, too. It must have worked,
because I'm still read to try something new.
As we are in the Library (turnips and dip, anyone?) I thought I would mention
I was glancing over the bookshelves at the local seniors center and found an
old Vol. 1 of the collected works of Isaac Asimov. I'm also reading another
collection of four novellas by author James Schmitz. I can see where Asimov
was much more interested in educating his readers in the history and basics of
science.

ginny · « **Reply #684 on:** August 26, 2009, 09:08:02 AM »

Yes I am enjoying the Asimov I Robot tho just getting into it and I do see what you mean about the movie and the book, the movie wil come tomorrow so I'm really going into an Asimov faze.

Yesterday President Obama's reading choices for the summer (variously dismissed as "beach books and thrillers," and then "classics")by US News: are John Adams by David McCullough, Hot, Flat and Crowded, Plainsong, The Way Home, and Lush Life.

I sat up on Lush Life as I just bought it at B&N on the remainder table last week, but I liked this, too: "if he's like most of us, he will read some of all of them and will finish one or, at most, two of them."

That's me. I'm still reading all the ones reported on earlier including the Sebald, except Kitchen, that one lost me but I enjoyed it as far as I got.

Last night for bedtime reading, despairing of the weight of the refreshing Mapp and Lucia, I picked up the Best Travel Stories of 2009, edited by Anthony Bourdain. I really enjoyed, believe it or not, the Introduction by the editor of the series, Jason something, about travel writing and two books I never heard of, both of which expose the travel writing industry. I'll have to look them up, the main editor described them as "whining." Apparently they set off a furor when one of them admitted that he in fact made up updates without actually visiting the area.

I am not a big fan of Bourdain's but have come to like his show. Very much disliked his first book, I guess because it's so ego centric, his take on travel is, surprise, likewise ego centric. It makes interesting reading. Why DO people travel? An interesting concept.

The first entry is something I can see Bourdain enjoying, and so am I, an essay from the New Yorker on Chocolate makers, the specialty world of Chocolate, which begins at a tony food fair in NYC and then takes off into the wilds to find the purest chocolate. Absolutely love it, Buford is the author, the writing is superior. Who knew chocolate had so many strange iterations and aficionados?

Maybe I need to be buying The New Yorker.

Also a big article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday (again) on the Kindle2 vs the Sony and travel overseas. Something about if you take the Kindle on a trip and the batteries run down you have to send it back? Did I understand that? It's dead and gone, 50 something bucks to send back? Not every country has Sprint? Had never heard that. I guess this issue was focused on travel?

Judy Laird · « **Reply #685 on:** August 26, 2009, 11:06:30 AM »

Why wouldn't you just plug it in the recharge it?

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #686 on:** August 26, 2009, 11:37:17 AM »

Hahaha, JUDY! Cindy is taking her Kindle on a trip to Greece and Coatia and I'll ask about batteries or re-charging. I don't know a thing about the Kindle other than hefting one and looking at it. It seems to me that it weighs almost as much as 2 paperbacks! Perhaps take up less room in a suitcase?

I picked up Guterson's East of the Mountains and find it terribly depressing as far as I have got into it; I may just skim the rest. I am also reading SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS which I think was the first book ever discussed on Seniornet. It's familiar so I think I may have read it then, but if so, I'll read it again. I know that it somehow got lost in our archives; I just clicked on them and the first book was Stones from the River in 1997. I see Ginny, Joan Grimes, PatW and myself were there, as was Rosalyn Stempel and a couple of men, perhaps there were others. I didn't go very far into the discussion.

As something other than nonfiction and mysteries, I do scan fiction shelves and I have a number of books given to me on my shelves that I must read soon.

FlaJean · « **Reply #687 on:** August 26, 2009, 12:12:08 PM »

When we lived in Morocco, we found out to our dismay that their electricity ran on 50 cycles where ours run on 60 cycles. We got an adapter but the timer still wouldn't work on the washing machine. Each time I washed clothes I had to manually turn the knob. I would time the wash and then turn the knob to rinse, then turn the knob for spin. So life isn't always simple when living or visiting in another country, not to speak of another culture. However, life might not be simple but it is very interesting.

ginny · « **Reply #688 on:** August 26, 2009, 01:42:36 PM »

I don't know, Judy, and have thrown the paper away with the article in it. I thought perhaps the adapter thing but as Jean says it doesn't always work.

Never will forget the fan I bought in London and the electricity in the hotel was a different UK voltage, talk about nearly burning the place down. hahahaaa

JEAN! What a hoot, I think I could write a book about My Adventures in Washing Machines! hahaha I have never been in Moroco but once in the south of Switzerland in an Italian canton in a rental house owned by an absent German family, I just had the greatest adventure with their incredible washing machine, just took HOURS. Nice explanations by the owners in German, VERY complicated machine, too bad one of us is not fluent beyond danke schoen. What a hoot! I finally gave up, pulled it out wet (it never did finish washing and probably is washing still), and hung it up on their neato revolving carousel of an outside dryer (one of which I bought immediately upon returning home and have never used once).

The Coin Laundries of the world in the different countries are worth a visit just to see how different they can be, it's amazing even when the directions are in English, how badly you can ruin a wash, and how confusing they are.

Loved your post!

Tell us about Morocco!

mrssherlock · « **Reply #689 on:** August 26, 2009, 03:03:58 PM »

Seems as if I have runin to a number of books lately which deal with a woman of a certain age (as the French say) who has profound life changes to deal with. Latest is The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti, said Mme. being an Olivetti typewriter. Annie Vander bilt says she spent ten years writing this book. It is very well done, memorable characters, keen sense of place. Highly recommended.

maryz · « **Reply #690 on:** August 26, 2009, 07:08:30 PM »

The converter plug we took worked with our camera plug on a trip to Russia a number of years ago. I don't know why a converter wouldn't work with the kindle plug. I've never heard anything about sending it back to Amazon to be charged. I've charged mine a number of times with the cord that came with it.

joangrimes · « **Reply #691 on:** August 26, 2009, 10:55:21 PM »

The converter plugs I have used in Europe have worked also...If you have something like chargers for cameras the power is universal then a converter plug is all you need.You have to have transformer also if you have something like a hairdryer. They frequently burn out.and ruin the hair dryer. I never took a hair dryer to Europe. I just shampooed my hair and let dry by itself. I never had time for all that when traveling. There was just too much to see and do to worry about it. Most of the time in the last years that I traveled in Europe the hotels all had hair dryers. In the early days of my travel hotels with hair dryers in Europe were few and far between. I have had lots of adventures too but not with burning up hair dryers and other appliances. Just lots of fun adventures.

Joan Grimes

PatH · « **Reply #692 on:** August 26, 2009, 11:18:37 PM »

This is a lifetime ago now, but when I first stayed in cheap French hotels in the late 50s, they had switches so you could have either the overhead light in your room or the bedlight, but not both, and the hall light for going to the wc had a timer sufficient to get you there, but not long enough to get you back unless you were pretty quick. I bet a hair dryer would have fried the circuitry for the whole hotel.

winsummm · « **Reply #693 on:** August 27, 2009, 02:15:02 AM »

the kennedy's were on tv tonight. all of them and differently on wichever channel. So much that I never knew about jack but only that he and brother robert made me uncomfortable. I didn't believe them although bobbie changed his focus as he campaigned in terms of helping the poor and the racially challenged.. Teddy in the senate had the time to really make a differene and by age 77 he could claim to have done so. He was the most effective Kennedy.

claire

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #694 on:** August 27, 2009, 10:16:05 AM »

Pat and Ginny, I laughed at your stories of traveling. We could write a book. We've all had them. I have a picture of where Cindy and I stayed on a beach in Costa Rica in the late 70's. $4 a night, no running water, no shower. You went into the ocean to bathe, of course, but there was a bano.

Steph · « **Reply #695 on:** August 27, 2009, 01:01:03 PM »

We take the plug converters and have no problem with cameras or razor at all. Mostly now the rooms have hair dryers.. Sometimes I dry it ( if its cold), but mostly if its nice, let it do its thing without me.
Ginny.. Lucia.. Now you are going to make me dig out my Lucia books. I cannot count the number of times I have re read them.. She has an enduring quality that is fun.
I recently picked up a paperback called Califia'a Daughters by Leigh Richards.. Much to my surprise when I checked the copyright. This is Laurie R. King. Published in 2004.. Very different indeed from her other stuff. This is a science fiction type.. Some years ahead and the women are in charge. The men mostly died from radiation poisoning and some virius, so they are few and pampered. Most of the boy babies die young.. The women are the warriers.. Interesting, but I suspect about to turn into a voyage alone book.. Sometimes fun, sometimes not, but I do love Laurie King.

JoanP · « **Reply #696 on:** August 27, 2009, 01:03:54 PM »

We're down to the last day of what turned out to be a fantastic discussion of Geraldine Brooks, The People of the Book. The author responded to every one of our questions - so open!
She responded to last minute questions - just in case you didn't see them, I promised I'd keep you updated here in the Library -

Annie asked the question about whether a date had been set for the movie - Geraldine B responded -
"NOT YET. NOT EVEN A SCRIPT YET."
PatH asked about the Australian painter who was the model for Sharansky's work and she responded -
"NO PARTICULAR ARTIST. IT'S THE PAINTING I WOULD PAINT, IF I COULD PAINT."

JoanK · « **Reply #697 on:** August 27, 2009, 03:04:19 PM »

Our mother was into vegetables: there probably aren't many we didn't have as children. I'm not sure about parsnips, but rutabegas were the bane of my existance. I HATED them.

She also served rhubarb, which I loved, and as a small child I could never remember which name refered to which vegetable. She would say "We're having r--- for dinner, and I would worry all day whether it was the one I loved, or the one I hated! Torture!

JoanK · « **Reply #698 on:** August 27, 2009, 03:25:04 PM »

I missed a page, and didn't realize we'd moved on from rhubarb. Sorry!

Adventures in chocolate and washing machines. Wow! My son-in-lw wrote a chocolate cookbook ("Chocolate on the Brain" by Kevin and Nancy Mills). Each recipe is accompanied by an historical note on the history of chocolate (usually funny, Kevin is an histerical writer). Who knew that the Incas used chocolate for money? Or that it was considered sinful when it first arrived in Europe? Or that at one time cocoa houses were hotbeds of revoluitionaries in England, and were banned?

My favorite story is the reason why the first shipload of chocolate sent to Europe never got there. The ship was captured by pirates, and they dumped the load, thinking it was sheep-droppings.

Kevin was invited to give a talk at a chocolate convention. He found that the chocolate purists and fanatics weren't interested in what he had to say. But, as a reward for coming, he was given a huge tub of pieces of very expensive Verona chocolate (probably hundreds of dollars worth at retail prices, and we pigged out on it for months. (I can hear the horror of the purists. We delicately sampled it for months).

mrssherlock · « **Reply #699 on:** August 27, 2009, 04:07:45 PM »

Joan: Glad to see that you came to your senses before the chocolate police could get involved!

Steph · « **Reply #700 on:** August 28, 2009, 07:49:59 AM »

Chocolate.. my huge downfall . I never met a piece of chocolate that I did not like. I have to really work hard to stay away from it.. I have a good friend who cannot even stand the smell. I keep telling her I wish I had the problem.

Babi · « **Reply #701 on:** August 28, 2009, 08:53:15 AM »

JOANP, Catherine Zeta-Jones is committed to appear in a Broadway revival
of "A Little Night Music", so we probably won't see her filming "People
of the Book" anytime soon.

Payment in chocolate! A whole tub full! The chocolate lovers dream.

winsummm · « **Reply #702 on:** August 28, 2009, 03:10:25 PM »

I am tired of chocolate. my helper with my list in hand bought me three one pound bars of swiss and a box of truffles from trader joes. I've used up one bar and begun another and a few of the little truffles and now I do not want to even lookat anthing chocolate. That is strange for me. I've never felt it before and am a life long chocohalic.
Steph doesn't this sound like a likely fix?? have fun. . .

claire

pedln · « **Reply #703 on:** August 28, 2009, 05:54:38 PM »

JoanK, your son-in-law is a hoot. I don't know why the name sounded vaguely familiar, but I googled it and all kinds of things popped up. So, the Nancy is his mother, and they've written these books together. I'm reading one on Google Books -- Help! My apartment has a kitchen -- which is a great fun read, and the recipes look easy enough for even me.

Do he and your daughter live near you? Does she cook too? And do they cook for you?

Babi · « **Reply #704 on:** August 29, 2009, 08:37:58 AM »

  I really need to go copy my son's entry in his and Julie's pre-wedding blog. He wrote the on 'The Proposal', and it definitely Andy humor all the way.

It's a pity more people don't seem to be watching the 'Inspector Lewis' series.
It's a winner! Perhaps they were so annoyed by the mishandling of the Miss
Marple series that are leery of this one.
  Do let your friends know that the 'Inspector Lewis' series on PBS Mystery
Masterpiece Theatre is one they would greatly enjoy. Laurence Fox as Sgt.
Hathaway is simply great, as we all seem to agree. We are discussing this series
on the Masterpiece Theatre site...Inspector Lewis series.
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.0

Steph · « **Reply #705 on:** August 29, 2009, 09:41:17 AM »

I have been reading a really different type of book.. A woman named Laurie Graham has a diferent style. She takes on famous families ( in this case the Kennedys) and then veers off into speculation in a diary style of their servants.. Not really horrid, but very funny in part. This one has the childrens long term nanny commenting on the childrens growing up. She has written several and I found one about the Windsors in my paperback club and have ordered it as well. Funny and I suspect a lot of truth about the family..
Too much chocolate.. Truth is, nowadays a little bit of chocolate goes a long way. Anything sweet actually. I love the little mini desserts. Just enough to make my sweet tooth happy and I dont seem to want any more.. Hmm. hope for me yet?? Now if I could just lose the 20 extra pounds.

winsummm · « **Reply #706 on:** August 29, 2009, 12:38:57 PM »

little bitty bits of chocolate are enough. anyway I've lost some weight doing that recently. about twelve pounds. it is so satisfying that I don't want much of anything else.
claire

mabel1015j · « **Reply #707 on:** August 29, 2009, 05:28:49 PM »

My favorite "chocolate" story is about a friend of mine who is a huge chocoholic. She was having a "crisis" about turning 40. Her husband heard her talking w/ a frined on the phone and Janet was saying that she had never been to a pajama party, so her husband called their friends and said come in your p.j.'s to a party for Jan's 40th birthday, we have to cheer her up. ........ every body knowing about her chocolate addiction brought cards made out of chocolate or gift certificates for boxes of very good chococlate candies, or 40 pieces of chocolate truffles, etc. Her co-workers were the last to arrive and they came in w/ a huuuuggge flat box which was obviously very heavy.............when Janet opened it it was a 40lb block of chocolate which they had purchased at a candy factory. She and her husband both cook, so the family spent months chipping off pieces of the block, freezing most of it, but making all sort of chocolate goodies and trying new recipes of chocolate goodies. ..........jean

JoanK · « **Reply #708 on:** August 29, 2009, 09:38:04 PM »

JEAN: that's amazing!!

PEDLIN: " I'm reading one on Google Books -- Help! My apartment has a kitchen -- which is a great fun read, and the recipes look easy enough for even me".

Isn't that fun! He wrote in college (his mother supplying the recipes, and he cooking them up, and then writing them). and it helped finance him and my daughter in their early years. Yes, they live near me, and cook for me once a week. They're both good cooks. And their three boys are growing up cooking! I wish more men could say that.

Babi · « **Reply #709 on:** August 30, 2009, 10:13:17 AM »

Oh, my, JEAN. I love chocolate, but after that much of it, I think I
might be off the stuff for a long time. They do say that people who work
in candy stores, ice cream parlors, and the like lose their appetite for
the goodies pretty fast. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it
makes sense.

Very shortly after my son first moved into an apartment of his own, he
came home asking me to teach him how to cook some of his favorite foods.
He claimed he was starving to death. So we went into the kitchen and he
quickly learned how to make pork chops with sage, tuna noodle casserole,
and a couple more stand-bys. The only drawback was that he quickly
became the cook for all his hungry buddies and eventually had to move
because he couldn't afford the grocery bills!

Steph · « **Reply #710 on:** August 30, 2009, 11:16:21 AM »

When our oldest was in grad school, he asked for a cookbook made by me of his favorites. I had a great time doing it and then showing him what I meant by various instructions. He still has it all these years later. He is 48.. and his wife laughs since she says he still adores a lot of the older stuff. They cook together quite a lot.. I was happy since my husband cannot cook, wont learn and I do worry sometimes.

Gumtree · « **Reply #711 on:** August 30, 2009, 11:59:25 AM »

Steph - My DH is much the same as yours. Can't cook and won't learn. After he retired I taught him how to open a can and heat the contents so these days when I'm 'out' he can at least do his own lunches. If I'm ill at any time his contribution to the culinary area is to phone for a take-away - which we both hate anyway. I worry too and think his mother had much to answer for in that regard.

I made sure my sons could cook, clean and iron and do small running repairs on their clothing - buttons etc. My DIL doesn't sew and my son has been known to turn a hem up for her....

maryz · « **Reply #712 on:** August 30, 2009, 12:36:27 PM »

Two of our sons-in-law are great cooks - and do a lot of the cooking in their households. My John fixes his own lunches - even if I'm home and eating at the same time. His mother believed, and often said, after his dad retired, that she married his dad "for better or for worse, but not for lunch!". John does all the "outside" cooking (I don't even know how to turn on the grill, and have no plans to learn

).

Our library has been having its semiannual book sale. We worked shifts Wednesday afternoon and yesterday afternoon. Click here to read the article in this morning's paper about the sale. We were there, but didn't make the paper. I got a photo of the little boy, too, though.

marcie · « **Reply #713 on:** August 30, 2009, 03:00:06 PM »

Mary, thats fantastic that your Friends of the Library group raised more that $20,000. It's interesting that you hold the sale in a shopping mall. Is that right? Our local Friends group holds a week-end sale twice a year in the large conference room in the library and has a small room open year-long for the sale of books.

marcie · « **Reply #714 on:** August 30, 2009, 03:04:25 PM »

Babi, I agree that the Inspector Lewis series, which arose from the original Inspector Morse series, is wonderful. The "second season" of Inspector Lewis starts tonight on many PBS stations. Mystery lovers, and people who enjoy British television, will likely find this series very entertaining.

Each episode is also available online for a limited time (starting the day following the TV broadcast) for people whose PBS station isn't showing the program. You can get some information and a preview of the episodes by following the links in the heading of the discussion at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=707.0

mabel1015j · « **Reply #715 on:** August 30, 2009, 03:05:25 PM »

Gumtree - i love that you call it "take-away" while we say "take-out."

It is interesting how many man can cook outside, but in the kitchen.

My husband could always cook for himself because his mother was a private-duty nurse and was often not home to cook for the family at meal time. Of course, she prepared and left alot for them because his father would have starved w/ out that. In our house, my husband started grilling about 20 yrs ago and has actually loved doing research and trying different recipes and he has progressed to where he will cook in the kitchen every once i a while, especially when the kids are coming over and he wants to try something on them.

My son learned all the necessities for taking care of himself, as did his sister and a foster son who stayed w/ us for awhile. I'm from a farm family and I learned the family philosophy that everyone did as much as they could for themselves because everyone had a lot to do and you didn't impose on anyone else to take care of you if they didn't have to. My DIL says he irons better than she does. They have a new baby and i'm very pleased w/ how equitable they are at taking care of the baby. As typical, i think, he doesn't wake as quickly in the night at the baby's crying as his wife, but he's an improvement over my husband who NEVER heard the children during the night. ................. jean

PatH · « **Reply #716 on:** August 30, 2009, 07:14:40 PM »

My SIL is just as adept with a sewing machine as my daughter. He says to him, it's just one more power tool.

maryz · « **Reply #717 on:** August 30, 2009, 07:58:04 PM »

marcie, the sale is too big to hold at the library. We have a small permanent bookstore in the library - at least we do when there are enough volunteers to keep it open. Plus the library sells books through Amazon and AlLibris websites. We set up in the "court" area in front of one of the anchor stores at one end of the mall.

Persian · « **Reply #718 on:** August 30, 2009, 09:59:02 PM »

Greetings to all - I've spent the past few minutes catching up on all the news, especially about books and forthcoming sales. Our local Friends sale will be on Sept. 25th and 26th, when several thousand collected books are arranged for sale. It's a time that is eagerly anticipated. One of the members of our Adult SS class, who has been hospitalized and in a nursing home for several months after breaking her leg, even applied early for transportation on those dates so that she can at least sit in/browse through some of the book stands. The event is that important to her!

My husband - a lifelong bookie if there ever was one - is on a one year sabbatical from his university in Egypt. Upon his arrival in the USA in mid-July, one of his first questions was "when's the local book sale?" As if he needs more books! He's actually more interested in the date of the local book sale then applying for his new driver's license (the old one will expire soon) or preparing for his American citizenship.

Mahlia

PatH · « **Reply #719 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:19:37 AM »

Hey, first things first.