The Library

[CallieOK]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

*Suggestion Box for Future Discussions
*SeniorLearn's Archives  
 

Oh!  Just thought of something....if I've read "Gone With The Wind" at least half a dozen times ( my Mom's 2nd edition copy- practically every summer during high school/college ), does that count for 6 books?  

I made a book report on "Anna Karenina" during my Senior year in High School.

[BarbStAubrey]

Ha ha you too Callie - I would re-read Gone With the Wind for years like going to a tent meeting every summer -

Thanks PatH for the recommendation with a capsule run-down of The Riddle of the Sands... I think I may even have it on my shelves - one of those good intentions that got waylaid for something newer that I just had to read.

Another that I never read and really want to get it up there on my list is Jack Kerouac - one of those books at the time seemed out of my realm and now is the touchstone for so many other books.  

PBS just had a wonderful documentary on the life of Graham Greene that included the background on just about all his novels.

Another on my shelf that I never did read is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

I loved our reading Penelope Fitzgerald and yes, Elizabeth Taylor does remind you of Fitzgerald. I did like the movie - usually I picture different characters while reading than the actors chosen in a movie version but that move hit the nail on the head.

[Frybabe]

I read 12 fiction and three non-fiction. About three of each I started but never finished. I saw a number (didn't count) of books I have on my TBR pile to read and several movies I watched but never read.

PatH, I felt the same way as you about Riddle of the Sands that you did with 39 Steps. However, they both showed the suspicion and paranoia (well founded) about German intentions pre-war WWI.

I am back to reading Carol Goodman's Acadia Falls, waiting on the second Dana Stabenow, Kate Sugak series book from the library, and am about to download my next SciFi from Amazon's Lending Library. That should keep me busy for a while. Only one month until Latin classes.

[Steph]

I loved "To say Nothing about the dog" Very funny and lots of obscure references for a non english..
I love the part of the interview, where he said, his wife was christian and so was his mother.. He has written a lot of religious books, but then that is what he teaches for heavens sakes. Didnt the interviewer at least research him a little.

[JoanP]

All of these "never-read" titles!  Right now we are looking for suggestions to vote on for our group read in September!  If there is a title you'd like to suggest, please click the link for the SUGGESTION BOX in the heading at the top of this page and let us know!  We'd love to hear from you!

[rosemarykaye]

Ginny - the old O-levels (which have long been replaced by GCSE exams, which so far as I can see are exactly the same) were 'ordinary level' and were taken when the pupil was about 15-16 - at the end of 5th year in senior school.  The matriculation requirement for universities used to be at least 5 O-levels (which must include Maths and English) plus the 2 or 3 A-levels I already mentioned.  In a school like mine, most people would have taken 9 or 10 O-levels - obviously these were at a lower and less specialised level than the A-levels two years later.

In A-levels you can get A*, A, B or C grades which are all passes, A* obviously being top.  Some universities will give out conditional offers of things like ABB or AAB, or variations thereon - some of the less prestigious ones will take BB or BBC for courses that are less popular.  For things like Medicine, Law, International Relations, etc you would probably be required to get at least three As and sometimes A*.  Anna has to get three As, and a friend of hers holding an offer from another Cambridge college has to get A*AA.  It's all much more competitive than when I went to university - in those days I recall a girl in my year applying to do Engineering at Loughborough (then an unknown new university, now a world class centre for Sports Science, etc) and getting an offer of two Es (in those days, for some inexplicable reason, the A-levels were graded A, C and E - all pass grades - and F for fail.  This was changed some time ago to A*, A, B & C, which does at least make some kind of sense.)

Anyway, feel free to ask more questions - I'll do my best!  As to where to place someone who'd done A-level Latin - I suppose it would depend partly on how long ago they took the A-level and whether they've kept any of it up.  My Latin would now be terribly rusty.  The A-level course did include a lot of Virgil in my day, also some Cicero, which I found very difficult.  Loeb translations were our unofficial friends!

Rosemary

[ginny]

Rosemary, thank you SO much!! It seems to keep coming up and I never know what to say! I've copied that out too. ORDINARY, ok now  we know!!  I am so glad to finally find out what people are talking about!!

Best of luck to your daughter, I know she will ace it!

On these A Levels, are you given any texts in advance? Or are the Vergil and Cicero all sight reading?

[JeanneP]

Rosemary.

On coming to US and applying for a certain job. Was confusing to them when you would try putting Education on their forms. As I was just applying as accountant and had taken a refresher year in US I just used years of education.  Satisfied them.

[JeanneP]

Going back to my previous posting on the Polish people in my tow. That 30 thousand was my town.  After the war, hundred of thousands of displaced people from Europe were brought into UK . They went to work in factories. Mines, etc. as thousands of UK people died in the war they were a great help in getting these businesses going again. Many also sent to Austrailia .NZ and Canada.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Ginny

It's AGES since I took A-level!  But I seem to remember that you studied some texts in advance, but also were presented with an 'unseen' piece (which could be anything) for translation.  (I still remember my O-level set text, part of the Gallic Wars - "Gaul as a whole is divided in ?four parts....") Don't know if the syllabus is still the same - and I'll never find out, as my daughters both gave up Latin as soon as they could, and my son's school did not teach it.  Sadly, there are no state schools (at least as far as I know) still teaching Latin, and even some of the private schools are having to stop because they can't get the teachers.  My friend's husband has come out of retirement to teach Latin part-time at Loretto, a very smart private school just this side of Edinburgh - he is enjoying it, all the more so because he only does mornings and doesn't have to do any of the admin paperwork.

I went to a state (grammar) school and felt disadvantaged because they didn't teach Ancient Greek (the boys' school did!) - when i went to university, for some reason most of my friends were Classicists who had taken Latin and Greek, and although i was not studying Classics, i was so jealous of them - especially as they had all had 'gap years' travelling round the Greek islands!  Cambridge did offer a crash course in Greek for students whose schools had only offered Latin, but the only girl I know who started it gave up, as it was just too hard to catch up with the others - she changed to another subject altogether.

Let me know if you have any other queries,

Rosemary

[mabel1015j]

From my library this morn.......50 novels of 50 states.......i don't think i've ever read a novel set in Iowa, Idaho, Nevada or Utah or Kansas - only saw Wizard of Oz, never read it. Delaware? Don't think so. Indiana? Rhode Island? Huummm. Don't remember any.  Now i am reading an old ebook where a dgt and father are driving from Chicago to Seattle in the early 20th century, so i guess that covers that section of the country, and i did read the Lewis and Clark book, but that was non-fiction. I need to go back and look at my list of books and their descriptions. Huumm, just think James Mitchner, he covers several states. Does Goodreads have such a list? Have to check.

 Just something fun to think about.

http://qwiklit.com/2013/07/24/50-states-50-novels-a-literary-tour-of-the-united-states-2/

Jean

[mabel1015j]

Goodreads does have a Listopia - " Around The USA in 52 books" (Wash DC and a "journey" book). Those listings will help me a lot in figuring my list. I started to go to a computer page to list them and then thought, "oh, NO! Paper and pencil will work better, be less complicated, until i get the list made! " sometimes you just can't beat paper and pencil!

Jean

[HerbertPowell]

YO!! Thank  you, but no it's not moi, I was the default person when a Gathering was requested, it's Pearson for the Books and Ann Alden for NYC of late, she's done the last two in NYC.  We have had fun, haven't we?  I particularly remember Books at the Beach and our fabulous Books Festivals in DC, all of them, each of them were different and fun. I was looking at the photos the other day, who WAS that woman? hahahaa

Mercy, the Hotel Harrington! Our high school went there every year, so convenient to everything. Pearson introduced us to the tapa, (along with all her other great accomplishments, author wise).  I had never had tapas, and a famous  tapas restaurant as well.  If we wrote down our memories, I am sure everybody's would be different and amazing.  I remember Ella standing out in the rain in line with the life size  figures (in bronze?) symbolizing the Great Depression, in a line for food? Where was that memorial? WHAT was that memorial?

I see Bob Balaban at the National Book Festival. I didn't realize he was a writer. I admire his work in film, he's in those Christopher Guest Movies: Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, ensemble casts, ad libbing a lot of the movies, very talented people. I love Balaban's work in them. I must look up some of his books, apparently for children. He's very smart, I bet they are interesting.

We've certainly had a fine time here.

Speaking of fine times, I'm very much enjoying John Grisham's The King of Torts. It's old but I have apparently missed a good many of his, and he's such an escapist read, I just love it.

And after all the fuss on our boards  about Olive Kittreridge, contrarian that I am, I had it, so had to start it, I figured if it's short stories then it can't take that much time and it's mouldering on the shelf.

I read the first one. I can see the aversion to Olive expressed here in our Books. She's painted with such a broad brush tho that I have to feel there's a purpose there and a change coming somewhere. I feel sorry for her and her husband. She's a thoroughly unpleasant person. Negative. Opinionated. Rude.  Can't imagine her teaching anything, I hope it's not small children. Can't imagine having to live with her but wasn't the contrast in her and Henry strong tho? He fairly glows with goodness. Or does he? Sort of an Our Town. Had she been left out, he and the descriptions of his pharmacy and small town and berries would have been enough. The writing is good.

I almost put it down over one of her sourisms and thought, no, I'll give her another shot. So on we go. I may not make it, but there ARE people like her: negative, always down, always see the dark side.  Don't see how anybody abides them, they squeeze the life and breath out of everything. Lots of pronouncements, that seems to be all she's capable of: pronouncements.

One of the best book discussions we had was one on the incongruously named" Best Short Stories of XXX " whatever year it was. Lots of raw talent. I discovered some amazing authors there. I need to read another one of those, if they still make them.

And of course Ethan Canin's  (In Edit: The Palace Thief, thank you Pedln),  one of which led to the movie The Emperor's Club with early appearances by Emile Hirsch and Jesse Eisenberg (who played Zuckerman on the  movie on Facebook). It's a wonderful movie, I thought, about an idealistic Classics teacher in a small private boys school, a contest he put on every year about Roman Emperors,  and principle. Sort of a goodbye Mr. Chips with a twist. A major twist. The short story was different from the movie, too. Still, both book and movie say something to the idealism of Classics in general, and what happens when the ivory tower and Classicism come up against the real world.  It's a good movie. Or so I think. Canin also wrote The Emperor of the Air, also a good book of short stories. He's very talented.


So I'm going to take Olive in small doses, one story a day to see how long I can stand her negativity. Like castor oil.  Hopefully she'll see the light?

Nice story.. Will follow all your post to read those wonderful stories

[CallieOK]

Well, I have to question the inclusion of a Toni Morrison novel as representing Oklahoma.  I understand her fame - but would suggest something by Rilla Askew, who is a native Oklahoman, as more appropriate for stories set in Oklahoma.

http://www.rillaaskew.com/

[ginny]

Why thank you, Herbert Powell, and welcome!

If you like that one you might like the next to last (of the most recent posts)  in the discussion Books into Movies.

What types of books do you like to read, any particular genre?

We are so glad to have you here!!

 Rosemary, again  many thanks! Your explanations of the British educational system are very interesting. I just heard the people who head up the Cambridge Latin course speak in a 6 hour 2 day workshop at a conference and I was pretty stunned at what they said.   

Good on your husband's friend stepping in to help the Latin program.  Latin needs all the help it can get!

[mabel1015j]

Well, as it turns out i have read a book located in Iowa - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and liked it very much. Of course, i was almost raised on a farm - my 15 yrs older sister and her DH owned a dairy farm - so i could identify with a lot of the story. I also have read 2 books set in Rhode Island - the Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky, who i think i've always liked her books, and Witches of Eastwich by John Updike. Still don't have connections to about 20 states, but haven't checked them all.

A fun exercise!

Jean

[BarbStAubrey]

Idaho stumped me so I looked it up - what a wonderful group of books - there is so much to read and not enough hours in the day...http://www.virtualcabinidaho.com/books-by-idaho-authors.html

A Thousand Acres was a great movie.

[mabel1015j]

Wow! Barbara, you're right, long list, have you read any of them or the authors? We are probably going to find that's true for any state we can't immediately think if books for.

Thanks, Jean

[Frybabe]

A Hearty Welcome, HerbertPowell.

[BarbStAubrey]

Good selection Callie for OK - my first reaction was to include N. Scott Momaday - or Tony Hillerman.

For Montana Ivan Doig for his English Creek Trilogy.

And for Wyoming it has to be Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote

Jean  What have you got on your list so far?

[rosemarykaye]

Ginny - what did the Cambridge Latin course people say?

When I was at school our truly terrifying Latin teacher (who luckily retired before we started the A-level course, otherwise I wouldn't have taken it) thought the Cambridge Latin course was far too easy, so we were allowed to do it only on Friday afternoons - for the rest of the week we suffered ancient text books based on some strange boy called Pseudolus who seemed to be forever pulling up mandrake plants!

Rosemary

[jane]

Jean...I found a list of novels set in Iowa...

Shoeless Joe; Gilead; Bridges of Madison County; Thousand Acres are maybe the most famous???


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pages in category "Novels set in Iowa"

The following 22 pages are in this category, out of 22 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
A
The Able McLaughlins
B
The Boat (short stories collection)
The Bridges of Madison County
Butterfly Winter
C
The Cobweb (novel)
G
Generation A
Gilead (novel)
H
Home (Robinson novel)
I
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy
J
Jasmine (novel)
K
King of Spades (novel)
L
The Law and the McLaughlins
O
On Wings of Song
P
Patriots Novels Series
The Puppet Masters
S
Shoeless Joe (novel)
S cont.
The Stones of Summer
Stumptown Kid
T
A Thousand Acres
The Twelve (novel)
V
The Vast Fields of Ordinary
W
Wish You Were Here (novel)

[JeanneP]

During the war .when I started school in u.k . (Anglican girls) Latin was dropped. We didn't have female teachers but then the men called up to service. So other than the older men. They started hiring women.  I wish I had gotten more Latin as in later years I think I would have picked up Italian easier, also Spanish. I had to learn a little of both in my work later.  I learned to read both enough to get by but not to converse in it. 

[MaryPage]

Haven't been in here for a while, and am astonished at how much y'all have been chatting away.
I find I have read all 6 of the books listed up at the top, but cannot strain my brain to think of a famous one off hand that I should have read and did not.  Believe me, there are Plenty!
I am appalled at the hubris of that newswoman (?) on FOX who thought a Muslim should not be writing about Jesus of Nazareth.  If you are a scholar, it does not matter what your personal religion if you are interested in researching and writing about a historical figure.  Imagine how many Christians have written scholarly books about Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, and many other men of many other faiths!  Scheesch!  As for the Muslim's interest, I am told the people of Islam have always been fascinated with "the People of The Book," which is how they refer to Jews and Christians.  His studies may well have led this man to know more about Jesus than a lot of Christians know.
I found my 5 years of Latin studies invaluable in my understanding of my own language.  Pity if Latin is disappearing.  It was required at my school when I was young.
I read a favorable review of that book about the historical Jesus.  Can't remember where, but probably in The Washington Post.

[kidsal]

I consider Muslims People of the Book.  The child From Abraham and the servant who Sarah had sent away.  Muslims honor Joseph and Mary and consider Jesus a prophet. 

[ginny]

Rosemary, you've definitely put your finger on the $24,000 question as they used to say.

Ginny - what did the Cambridge Latin course people say?

The party line,  that Cambridge is the best, they can prove it, the system works, etc.



When I was at school our truly terrifying Latin teacher (who luckily retired before we started the A-level course, otherwise I wouldn't have taken it) thought the Cambridge Latin course was far too easy, so we were allowed to do it only on Friday afternoons - for the rest of the week we suffered ancient text books based on some strange boy called Pseudolus who seemed to be forever pulling up mandrake plants!

It's quite a controversy actually. It's hard to cover in a few sentences. Essentially the Cambridge has no grammar (which they vehemently deny).

It's intended to teach students to read Latin and it does that. It works on "expectations of sentence patterns."  (Which shows you why Caesar has been almost non existent in curriculum until recently, apparently nobody told him about expected sentence patterns).

Cambridge  does work. Unfortunately when the student gets to college with it he feels (in the words of a U of Colorado professor attending the workshops whose department will not consider or allow her   to use any "reading immersion" system) cheated, he feels lied to when he sees all the beautiful underlying grammar. So he can't do grammar.

However the horrendous old grammars which most of us came up thru  produce the opposite effect, students who can't read,  but who know the grammar inside out. What to do?

In the US we try to counter this by augmenting Cambridge with grammar. One of the three gentlemen (these were the ones in charge OF the CLC),  said to me, I've never understood how anybody "augments" it with grammar.  Everybody in the US  does this because we have national tests,  too, and the Latin students need grammar or they can't progress on the tests here. They fail them.

They countered  this by saying they have such tests, citing the GCSE (which, so far as I know, is all translation, nothing even approaching grammar questions).

It's a raging controversy. One of them went to the presentation of the Chief Reader of the Latin AP test on our own College Boards, Dr. something, I've forgotten his name and don't have it handy,  and I'm sure he was shocked at what the Chief Reader refused to accept as answers,  some very specific issues. He was picky. Cambridge appears to take anything offered vaguely approximating the comprehension of the question, and gave an example. I'm sure they were shocked at the AP presentation.

So it's really the eye of the tornado to enter this issue.

I personally think the Cambridge I is the best introductory textbook out there, culture and history wise and with a continuous story. Would I even read two pages of it if we did not add grammar? Probably not.  When our project started we had three retired faculty teaching our classes, one of them quit immediately upon getting a look at the Cambridge I text. No grammar.

The Cambridge II,  in my opinion is much less but the students love it,  the Cambridge series does confer the gift of reading,  and it's a great supplementary reader,   kind of like reading chick lit. It's all made up stories  in an odd sort of  Anglicized Latin prose, and while it does talk about real people, the student would be much better off  reading the real history of Rome, Horatius at the Bridge, Cincinnatus, Regulus, the first Brutus, Coriolanus, etc. Our texts here do that.

The rest of the Cambridge series  is  ...to me...again....not even that. I personally despise the Cambridge III, but my face to face classes love it, so I've introduced them to Caesar and Eutropius so they can see the real thing.

The Cambridge people say the old approach and Latin books killed Latin and they have plenty of stats to prove it. Now they have a great number of enthusiastic students entering and doing well (translating wise) in university. Grammar wise they truly know nothing and it's VERY difficult to take it  up at that time:  that's when their progress stops.

[PatH]

Muslims honor Joseph and Mary and consider Jesus a prophet. 

Exactly.  Jesus has a place in the Muslim religion.  The interviewer was showing total ignorance of the subject.  Might as well be surprised that a Christian would be interested in writing a book about John the Baptist, or Moses, or any one who wasn't actually the Deity.

[Dana]

I am amazed to read about Cambrige Latin.  What is the point of learning a language without learning  the grammar?  Its like learning to play the piano by numbers instead of reading the music!  You can get thru a basic tune, but that's it.  Besides, grammar is so fascinating, the more complicated the more fascinating, really.

[PatH]

Besides, grammar is so fascinating, the more complicated the more fascinating, really.

Especially Latin grammar, which has such a logic about it.

[mabel1015j]

Welcome HerbertPowell, join in, glad to see you here.

Well, i've not completed checking my reading list, but i've still not got any books for Alaska - yeah i know about the Stebenow books, but haven't read any; Delaware, Idaho, Nevada, N D, Ohio, Oregon, S.D. Utah, Vermont, WV

Of course, the most books per state are North and South Carolina!!! NJ and Pa - because i have been deliberately reading books set in those states and i read all those John O'Hara books in my youth, Mass - starting with The Scarlett Letter, Thomas Fleming's historical fiction,  right up to the Vineyard mysteries. NY, Ga - all those Eugenie Price historical fiction, and a surprising number for Miss. from The Help, Sweet Potato Queens, and Deep South a Nevada Barr mystery. Of course, she filled up Tenn also! 

I did remember that Don Coldsmith's South Wind and Tallgrass where set in the "Kansas Territory", which covered a lot more then the present state of Kansas, but i don't remember exactly where he placed them. I loved both of those books, good historical fiction.

Jean

[PatH]

If you want to read a book about Oregon, I suggest either of two by Molly Gloss.  The Jump-Off Creek describes a widow homesteading, solo, in western Oregon in the 1890s, and is loosely based on the story of the author's grandmother.  The Hearts of Horses is about a woman who makes a living gentling horses, in a small town in western Oregon, mostly during WWI.

[PatH]

Have you read any of the later Laura Ingalls Wilder books?  They take place in De Smet, SD.

[BarbStAubrey]

OH I bet in the recess of your mind you remember reading Jack London - White Fang - or reading Service, poet of the Yukon with all the childhood angst and awe The Cremation of Sam McGee although Sam is from Tennessee he is mushing on the Dawson Trail.

[BarbStAubrey]

oh and this is where Toni Morrison comes in - Delaware is the setting for Beloved

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh please tell us that you read at least one book written by  Eudora Welty  or Faulkner or Shelby Foote or Charles Evers or  Stephen E. Ambrose or  John Grisham - all writers from Mississippi

I never have read Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson but i read many an Erma Bombeck column and I bet you did as well - she was from Ohio also wonderful poet Mary Oliver

[MaryPage]

One of the best writers about ALABAMA ever was Lella Warren.  She wrote Foundation Stone and Whetstone Walls, among other books, and was working on another in that series when she died.  I knew her well, as she was my mother's dear lifelong friend.  If you have never read her books, see if you can get hold of them.  Wonderful.  Oh, and based on her real family, too.
Her father was a doctor and served as head of the Public Health Service of these United States.  Her brother, Monroe Warren, was a famous developer in the Washington, D.C. area.
In todays The Washington Post there is another long article about Reza Aslan's book:  "Zealot, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth."  It is by Melinda Henneberger, and maybe you can find it and read it.  Turns out she feels much the same way as I do.  Also, and here is a surprise for FOX news, who obviously did not do their homework re a guest who was scheduled for their show, but Aslan started life as a Christian!

[mabel1015j]

Nope - no Ingalls Wilder, London, Beloved, or Anderson. Yes, Welty, Ambrose and I read The Firm, but isn't that Louisiana? I'll check out Molly Gross and Warren.

Here's a beginning of my list:

Around the USA in Books

Alabama –Fried Green Tomatoes, To Kill a Mockingbird
Alaska
Arizona – Waiting to Exhale
Arkansas – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
California – Song of the Gorilla Nation, East of Eden, Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Coast Trail
Florida – Rubyfruit Jungle (Rita M Brown), War Woman (story of Cherokee woman by Robt Conley), Staurt Woods and Anne George mysteries
Georgia – The Color Purple, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gone With the Wind, Endangered Species (Nevada Barr), Eugenia Price historical fiction of Savannah
Hawaii – Hawaii (Michener), From Here to Eternity

[JoanP]

Lurking here - waiting for that special title to jump out and appeal to all many - to spend a couple of weeks reading and discussing in September.  Any ideas?

[PatH]

If you mean to check her out, it's Molly Gloss, with an l.

[mabel1015j]

  Yeah, that would probably work better, Pat, LOLOL

Idaho -
Illinois - Twenty Years at Hull House, The Jungle, Native Son, Jane Jeffrey mysteries
Indiana
Iowa - A Thousand Acres, Bridges of Madison Co
Kansas - South Wind and Tall Grass, both by Don Coldsmith
Kentucky - The Dollmaker****(on my top five list), Passion and Prejudice (Bingham newspaper family)
Louisiana - The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
Maine - Colony, Off Season (other Siddons)
Maryland - Chesapeake (Michener), Lippman mysteries in Baltimore, Rita Brown
Massachusetts - Scarlett Letter, Vineyard mysteries, John Adams, Little Women, Little Men, Linda Barnes - Carlotta Carlisle mysteries, The Emperor of Ocean park
Michigan - The Dollmaker (half in Kentucky, half in Detroit), Three Women (Piercy)
Minn - Main Street, Nickeled and Dimed, Chocolate Chip Cookie mystery
Miss - The Help, Deep South (N. Barr), Sweet Potato Queens books, almost forgot Cat on a HOt Tin Roof

Joan - I loved Chesapeake by Michener. Of course, since it's JM, it's long, as with all his books he starts at the beginning of humankind in the area,  ,
but I found it really interesting, and I think many on the site have spent some time in the middle Atlantic states and might enjoy it. Does anyone else have an opinion about it?