The Library

[Steph]

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 
 

I met Anna in the beach bookie bash.. A lovely woman indeed, although her idea of a diabetic diet for her was somewhat unusual..She lived an interesting life.
Now.. why oh why cant I get my messages. It tells me that I have an error, This is on senior learn, not my normal mail.
Kait wants Berlin, Holacaust, not Italy..I had hoped for a London-Paris, chunnel sort of trip..Oh well. I will say that Italy is sort of a push shove sort of time when we went.. Too many people in the museums and Venice really is lovely, but smelly.

[ginny]

Stephanie, I love Munich, too.  How interesting that Kait wants to go to Germany,  my youngest also wants this summer to go with me, and it's Berlin he's wanting, (which would never have been on my list), plus Paris, Aachen and perhaps Cologne,  and then maybe Dresden, etc., so Berlin is apparently a popular destination.

I've been reading  up on it and it appears one thing nobody should miss in Berlin  in addition to the Brandenburg Gate of course  is the Pergamon Museum, that thing is just out of this world. Just to read up on it makes the heart surge.  Hopefully you can get to see it.  Hopefully I get to see it.

I have had to apply a good bit of persuasion to get him to Rome, but I did!! And I'll stay on there for a bit  when he returns.  I can't personally  get enough of Rome and Italy, particularly the  South, Sorrento, etc.,  absolutely love Italy. To me, there's nothing like Rome in the world.   I can't say I've encountered the famous smells  in Venice, but I  have encountered the crowds there, every time I've gone, regardless of when it was.  In fact, I love to eat in the restaurants right on the water. Maybe it's some side street clog that caused the smells one encountered? Or the time of year?  No smells here.

I  don't know of any tours but the main most wonderful thing is you get to share this experience with your granddaughter!!!  Is it her first trip abroad? What a spectacular and marvelous memory for you both. No matter where you go, that's what matters the most.

Congratulations!

[pedln]

Steph, I sent you a message -- it just asked you to send me your email address.  My friends sent me info about their recent tours, including links and maps, and I thought it easier to forward them to you, than posting here.  Trafalgar was one they used -- 18 day tour, 7 countries.

We went through Affordable Tours.  They sent us with the Trafalgar Company.

It was very good===Excellent Hotels, Food, Tour Manager, Bus Driver, and local Tour Guides at most locations

[ginny]

Winchester Lady, oh it's on Netflix? I thought it was on TV (shows you perhaps what I watch on TV hahahaa), oh ok, I'm starting Orange is the new Black today in earnest. I like her style, so far, but I'm curious as to why she's carrying all that money.

I finished the  Jessie Kaplan book which also takes us  to Venice and I have to say that it was the lighter of the books of Paula Marantz Cohen but it really sticks with you. She does have a way of explaining how, despite the trials and tribulations of putting on a  Bat Mitzva, what really matters. When you have finished the book, you feel you really understand what it is, or at least have an appreciation for the traditions of  what's going on, even if you're not Jewish. She has a way of really...it's hard to describe,  but you feel you have a small inkling of the power of the thing, despite all the extraneous trappings, disk jockeys, entertainment managers, etc., it's  the symbolism and continuity. I really like a book where I can enjoy reading it and learn something on top of it. You also learn a great deal about Shakespeare, his sonnets and the Dark Lady.

 This one is a tad light and perhaps a bit fantastical with the protagonist at 73, having lost her husband, fantasizing about being the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets, but  it's interesting. Different. Maybe too lightweight for our group, and I  never was  into Shirley MacLaine.



Jean, yes we are au courant, even when we seem to be reading something quite old.

[ginny]

Ok staying au courant, here's the latest one, the "FBI" just called me. They chose a woman to represent them who barely spoke English. (DUH) She warned me that my computer had been taken over and was committing crimes as we spoke. I said goodbye, thank you for calling,  and hung up on her.

She called me back and said very harshly, DO NOT HANG UP ON ME, this is the FBI!

I kept saying what do you want?

She finally wanted me to go to the computer, turn it on, bring up a browser, and she got as far as "type in this address...p...."

 I said no Ma'am, I'm not doing that and do not call me back, and hung up.

She is very aggressive and hostile as she apparently thinks the FBI is. Maybe they are, but this room full  of people who don't speak English aren't getting me to go to a website where they can "help me" fix the bad things these bad people have put on my computer.

So beware!

[Frybabe]

I'm surprised she called back, Ginny.


I am farther into Devil's Lair now. I guess you can call it historical fantasy fiction as well as a Grail quest. It turns out that one of the main characters is Giovanni Boccaccio of DeCameron fame. At the point I left off he was in Padua to see his friend Petrarch. That dates this novel's time period at 1351.

Here is what Wikipedia says about Boccaccio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio

I've been lazy about looking up the unfamiliar words that are not in the Kindle dictionary. Shame on me. A few are in the dictionary, almost all marked as archaic. Also, lots of Latin quotes to translate. Heaven. I'm actually learning how to highlight the passages, so I can go back and translate some I have trouble with. In spite of the odd words and the Latin, the story is easy to follow.

[Steph]

Pedlin, I cannot seem to access either your email or your original message. 18 days would be a tad long for me, but I have accessed Trafalger.. It is one of my choices,but in the end, the choice will be Kaitlyns.. She is serious about wanting to know more about WWII. This seems to be the reason for Berlin and the museum of Holacaust there..

[JeanneP]

Steph. You would be better having your GD take a trip through the holocaust museum in DC than going though one of the camps. She will learn more. Has I went through the war it took awhile for me to visit Germany. having had friends loosing family members in the camps. My grandmother never talked about but I know she lost folks. I had no wish to visit those parts.  When I did go into Germany I did really enjoy it. Beautiful parts and found the people like able.  I got on group tours in most of the cities  just going into the tourist offices and booking what the had .  A great one when in Trier and so easy to get into Luxembourg . Lots of history there. I have always traveled alone since 1965 . Found doing it that way interesting. Meet lots people. Just do not like arraigned tours.

[pedln]

Steph, I don't know why you can't get messages or access my email.  I just clicked on the envelope that shows up on our posts and it worked.

[JoanP]

 VOTE THIS WEEK for OCTOBER'S  BOOK CLUB ONLINE selection!

The process has begun to choose group read.

You can vote and  find descriptions/reviews from the title links in SeniorLearn's Suggestion Box header at:
http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=309.msg198035#msg198035  

September's choice, The Good Earth, will begin Sept. 2. Join us HERE.

[Steph]

Pedlin, I agree, but all I get is OOPS.. an error is here.

[ginny]

Stephanie, are you able to receive email at the address showing for your name?  thochuli@cfl.rr.com

If not you may want to send Pedln another one where you can be reached.

If we're talking about the IM here, until it's sorted out on our end, why you get an error message, it might make more sense to correspond in email.

[PatH]

Today's New York Times has a lengthy article about Edmund de Waal, The potter-artist who wrote The Hare with Amber Eyes, which we read here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/arts/design/edmund-de-waal-prepares-for-an-exhibition.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=arts

He's shortly going to have an exhibit in NYC, and they talk both about his pottery and the book.  There's a link to a slide show at the left on the first page.

He had a lot of trouble finding someone willing to publish the book; he was told "there was no market for a Jewish memoir about a family you can't spell who collected objects you can't pronounce".  I love this sort of story, love thinking of the chagrin of the editors who turned down such books.

[mabel1015j]

I have finished Calling Me Home. I liked this story of an 89 yr old white woman who is relating the story of her teen-aged relationship with a teen-aged African-American boy in Kentucky and Ohio in the late 1930's and early '40's . She is telling the story to a middle-aged Black woman who has become her friend at the present time. The fear and passion of the young couple and the young man's family is palpable, although a little too romanticized for me. The love and friendship of the two different aged women is told with sensitivity and nuance. It is a story of it's time, both of the 1940's and of the 21st century. It has much drama. I like the characters. This is the debut novel for this author. I hope she writes some more.

Thank you Jeanne for bringing it to my attention.

Jean

[Steph]

yes, that ismy email, but I cannot use my site to get to Pedlin... so maybe she will read this and see my email address. No idea what is happening, but it may be connected to the fact that earlier this year,outlook express started messing me up until I could not answer my email and on advice of a computer guy, I changed over to Google Chrome, which I love.

[pedln]

A done deal, STeph.  I just now emailed you.

I still use Outlook Express, mainly because I'm so used to it and like the format.  But Chrome is now my main browser -- love it, and I also have a gmail account -- for newsletters, etc.

[Dana]

I have recently done several trips to Germany and E. Europe.  We used Insight vacations which is a British company that we reached thru Grand European Tours.  Both companies are excellent--super hotels and great tour guides.  One German trip started in Berlin.  We went a couple days early because you need 4 days to see Berlin.  Which is a fantastic city.  Don't miss the Russian War memorial.  One of the most moving memorials I have ever seen.  In Munich the Hofbrauhaus (a must visit anyway!) is where Hitler made his first speech, and many others, and you can see outlines of the swasticas on the walls, now painted over of-course.  Brechtesgarten has been razed to the ground but you can visit the Eagle's Nest, biult by Bormann for Hitler's 50th birthday.  Well worth a visit for the magnificence of the view and the architecture of the place.  Of-course Hitler seldom went there because he was afraid of heights.  Must have been claustrophobic too, because the elevator (original) is paned with mirrors so he could use it.  Dachau is near Munich.  We didn't go there, I'd been to Auswich many years ago and one concentration camp is more than enough.    There are so many other fascinating things to see in Germany--but these are the 2nd WW things that come to mind.

[mabel1015j]

I am reading People of the Century, a book about the 20th century published by Time and CBS News, AKA Dan Rather and Walter Isaacson. Rather writes a lovely intro about the century titled "The Reporter's Century" and then there are 100 longish bios (several pages) about each person (not in any obvious order) starting with Sigmund Freud and ending with Unknown Tiananmen Square Rebel. ( it's hard to say Tiananmen without including an extra vowel syllable   ) It ends with another nice essay "afterword" by Isaacson,  "Our Century and the Next One."

I've just started to read the Freud essay. The essays are written by such writers as Edmund Morris, Lee Iacocca, Bill Gates, Molly Ivans, Gloria Steinem, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, Susan Cheever, Peggy Noonan, William Buckley, Jr. And Colin Powell.

 My library did not have the book, so i have it on library-loan for 3 weeks, but i see Amazon has the hard copy for $4.00. I think i will just buy it. I can see using it as a basis for a short course at the senior community where i sometimes give lectures in what they call their "university."

Jean

[Dana]

Who wrote the Freud essay?   As an erstwhile analyst I'm interested.  So much bs has been written about Freud.....not that he didn't write some himself, but of a higher calibre I still like to believe.

[mabel1015j]

Peter Gay, professor emeritus at Yale. Sounds like he had an interesting life........has written several books on Freud and many, many others........

Wiki and Amazon links:


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


http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Gay/e/B000AQ52UM

My library has several of his books, they'll have to go on the TBR list. I can see it is going to take me a looonnngggg time to get through this book. I definitely need to buy it. I'll be off on all kinds of tangents! What fun!

Jean

[Dana]

He's written a lot hasn't he.  My favourite Freud book is " Freud and his Followers" by Paul Roazen which was written back in the 70s I guess, at the time I was into Freud. 

[MaryPage]

I've just ordered two new books from Barnes and Noble:  The Return by Michael Gruber and Daughter of Empire by Lady Pamela Hicks.
Gruber is one of the finest writers I have ever had the privilege of reading, albeit I hate his venues and plots.  But if you can manage the horrors, oh, oh, the writing!  He has a Ph.D. in Biology, of all things!  Lady Pamela is the daughter of Louis Mountbatten, last Viceroy to India and a cousin of Prince Philip's and a Lady In Waiting to the queen.

[mabel1015j]

This word history on Dr Goodword just struck me as interesting this morning.....

Berserk - Word History: This word comes from the name of an Old Norse warrior, a berserkr, a compound made up of some ancestor of bjørn "bear" (possibly bera, though we are not certain) + serkr "shirt." The berserkrs wore bearskin hides and went into battle screaming, foaming at the mouth, and gnawing at their shields (not unlike Mel Gibson in Braveheart). This word is Old Norse, suggesting that it might have entered English with the Viking invasions beginning in the late 700s. However, it doesn't appear in print until the early 19th century, introduced in a story by Sir Walter Scott.

Thought you might enjoy it......

Jean

[Tomereader1]

Looks like the Peter Gay "Freud" book is more expensive than $4.00, it is $14.00 and not available on Kindle at all.

[Steph]

Dana, thanks for the advice. I do like Grand European, so will check them. I love Munich and it is somewhat lighter than a good deal of Germany, so want her to see that as well.She is the concentration camp person. I have been to Dachau and vowed to now go back, but she is my treasure, so I will go for her..Berlin sounds fascinating. and I want to see Ludwigs Castle..

[mabel1015j]

There's a lovely photograph of Sigmund and dgt Anna in the People of the Century book and an interesting quote by Gay about Freud:

As a loyal follower of 19th century positivists, Freud drew a sharp distinction between religious faith (which is not checkable or correctable) and scientific inquiry (which is both).......As for politics, he left little doubt (of its value) and said so plainly in his late - and still best known - essay, "Civilization and Its Discontent" (1930) , noting that the human animal, with its insatiable needs, must always remain an enemy to organized society, which exists largely to damp down sexual and aggressive desires. At best, civilized living is a compromise between wishes and repression - not a comfortable doctrine. It ensures that Freud, taken straight, will never become truly popular, even if today we all speak Freud.

Huuuummm, maybe that explains a lot of events happening in the world at the moment!!! ...."insatiable needs....an enemy to organized society."

Comments?

Jean

[Dana]

Oh yes, well I still think Freud has many of the answers tho' not comfortable ones--even penis envy has a place!!   I have thought it interesting how he initially believed that his female patients were actually having a sexual relationship with their fathers, then changed his mind (after being ostracized by Viennese medical society) to making it all a fantasy.....now we know how common incest really is.......I remember when I was a psychiatric resident that it never entered our minds (or our supervisors' minds) that patients might have been abused, so we never asked them, and they never told us....that started to change about halfway thru my residency.
His views on religion and the human animal have always seemed pretty realistic to me.

Ludwig's castle and the area are stunningly beautiful,  and i was fascinated by the story of mad king Ludwig and read up about him afterwards.  It is interesting how he was related to half of Europe and his fiancee was the sister (or cousin....) of Sissi of the Hapsburgs.

[Steph]

Yes, somehow in all of our wanderings, we never got the castle, so will try with my granddaughter inext year.

[Frybabe]

Came home last evening with two of the books I requested from the Library. The one I've just started is The Night Circus. It's been on my wish list a long time. I'm trying to clear it out a bit.

[PatH]

Let me know how The Night Circus is, Frybabe.  I was supposed to read it for a book club, but didn't have time.

[BarbStAubrey]

I enjoyed it - a bit magical and a bit does seem like cruelty but the magic of the story takes over - reminded me some of the movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

[Frybabe]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Carlisle Branch of the County Library System had a bed bug scare this week. Two books returned to the library showed signs of bed bug, so the library got in the pest people to investigate. They brought in bed bug sniffing dogs. I didn't know dogs were trained to sniff bed bugs. The dogs found six chairs, a cart, several bookshelves, and another small area (if forget where) that sniffed positive. Those are being treated. Meanwhile the rest of the library areas are open. One of the books I brought home last night is from that library. Yuck!

I hope someone can track down where the bed bugs came from. I would certainly like to know if I had taken out an infested book without realizing it. Those books could have circulated a while before being noticed, and/or circulated to other branches. My library director is strangely unconcerned saying their regular scheduled pest control was done a few days before the other library found and reported the critters.

[BarbStAubrey]

Frybabe she is probably right when you think of it anything we bring home from anyplace - grocery shopping, sitting in the movie theater, even attending church we can bring home all sorts of tiny eggs and bugs as we can a cold or the flue. There is no protection once you leave your home but most things can be annoying but they can be treated so no sense in spending time worrying.

[pedln]

Barb, I like your attitude.  There are lots of things we can worry about and let frustrate us, but most of them are things we can deal with and turn around.  Now, if I can just follow your advice and myown little piece of wisdom .   .    .     .     life would be easier.

[ginny]

I like the way you can (or could)  ride up to  Neuschwanstein on a wagon pulled by horses, I think that adds to the romantic aura. Unfortunately I was in one of my health nut stages so of course I walked behind it, how stupid can you get, huffing all the way.  Sometimes I think it takes me longer than the average person to learn something. hahaha

It's a magic place, too. Love all the puzzles you can buy at the top. There's a day tour from Munich which does three of those castles and the Romantic Road in one day.

[PatH]

The good news about bedbugs is they aren't a health hazard.  They don't carry diseases, and they aren't the result of dirty habits.  The bad news is that there is a big nationwide upsurge of them.  They're all over--fancy hotels as well as modest ones, apartments, libraries, etc., so you have to be lucky to avoid them.  And getting rid of them is a real pain.  I'm scared of getting them for that reason.  So far so good, but I stay in hotels, and get library books, so it's just luck.

[JeanneP]

Both our libraries are having financial problems. Now another thing to add to it. As we know it cost them to buy the IBooks and the do try to keep current. Well now finding that many more people coming in to get a library card that have never had them before. Not to get books off the shelf but to put the iBooks on their readers. You need a card to do this . So now long waiting lists fro new books. Say will get worse as people figure can read for free.  Will have to put a week borrow limit on them like the DVDs. Something else the did not figure on.  Technology getting out of hand. One has now started charging $140 every year for  a card if you are not inthe city limit.

[Frybabe]

Barb, I expected her to be a little more excited about it partly because she had us checking all the DVDs to make sure we had them (except the ones actually checked out) when the main library discovered someone had disappeared half their BluRay collection. We have very few BluRay discs at our branch.

[BarbStAubrey]

   I guess outgoing permanent 'lending' is more valuable to her than the possibility of incoming pesty nature... plus I have a sneaky suspicion it was not about the dangers to the public at all but she being the 'leader of the pack' so to speak has to control what is worthy of dramatic upsetment so that no matter what upsetting possibility you mentioned, it and you would be dashed -    can't have anyone stealing or switching her thunder. Just a thought, how some folks in authority handle things.

Talk about bugs - this is the time of year we have flying elephants in our homes - no need to go to a library or shopping or or or - we have these monster size roaches that live in the oak trees and in the grass - in August and early September they are looking for water and often come up from the drain - these things are minimum 3 inches and a few have been as much as 5 inches - I hate them - to squish them is a mess but I am so allergic to bug sprays.

I try baking soda and cornstarch and other times of the year just spraying right on them the bathroom cleaner works but now they are flying - you would think they were rattle snakes the way I run from a room - I was so proud of myself as one was scurring up from my kitchen drain I was right there and sprayed it with hot water. Wasted water but it is dead and threw some cornstarch on it for good measure. agghhh with their 6 giant and crooked legs they are ugly.

[JeanneP]

Gosh. Dont remind me of the Roaches in Texas.  I have to be down there in Oct. Those things scare me.  Out at the Ranch they don't seem to to there although they do have their place Pro. Sprayed every month.  Not the house in Houston it was sprayed but would still get them
I got home to Illinois one time and one was in my suitcase.  I no longer bring my cases into my house after a trip anyplace.  Even the bed bugs in hotels have me worried.