The Library

[Tomereader1]

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 simply fell in love with the actor who portrayed Cromwell.  He has such sad, expressive eyes.

Can anyone answer a question for me?  In Wolf Hall, as in other British medieval series, the men wear some kind of cap under their hats.  What was the purpose of this?  To keep the sweaty, stinky hair from ruining the hat?  To keep the ears warm in the large, unheated rooms?   It has been such a puzzlement to me.

[BarbStAubrey]

aha - 20 questions - remembering some from when the Needlework Guild was into making felt - there was a law passed in Britain - do not remember the date - but it did exclude Royalty - to push the woolen trade all the men and children had to wear this woolen cap - further up in rank and prestige you wore both the cap and the stylish beret or flat cap most often made from a wool velvet. You see paintings of peasants during the medieval just wearing the woolen cap that reached below the ears. Because of the rain and heavy pulling on and off when wet, these caps became felted.  

[Jonathan]

It started with feeling sorrry for Daisy, frightened by stormy weather, and soothed by being swaddled in her thunder coat. (See Steph's post, June 1)

Or was it curiousity about what happened at Vatican II, and finding the answers in the John O'Malley book recommended by Barb?

And then, last night, at 3:30 am, a monstrous thunder clap followed by vivid bolts of lightning that shook me to the bottom of my soul. Very strange. I had awakened a second before to an awesome, solemn silence.

Along the way, quite by chance, I came across the Huston Smith book, and his feelings about thunder...'formerly nothing so terrible, now nothing among all the works of nature, so sweet as thunder'. It has me wanting to know more. Is thunder an assurance that God's in his heaven, or is it an instrument of terror? And I may have found the book I'm looking for. Yesterday. And, again, quite by chance.

I've started reading Diarmaid MacCulloch's CHRISTIANITY: The First Three Thousand Years.
WOW! A thousand Pages, with a half-dozen of those on Vatican II. With an additional dozen pages of 'Further Reading'! That will keep me going all summer...with a break for The Palace Thief. Thunder has certainly taken on new meaning.

[Steph]

All the things I have read on the era have Norfolk as crazed with ambition, but I suspect at this point with all of the actual ruling in the Kings hands, many of the Dukes tried to become his advisor.

[serenesheila]

I do not believe that it is possible to go quickly into forgiveness.  The recent massacre results in grief.  There are definite stages to grief.  Forgiveness comes with acceptance. 

Sheila

[bellamarie]

I think those who express their forgiveness for this heinous crime is dealing with processing it.  I think they are not allowing themselves to go to a place of hate for what took place.  As a Christian person I have to think God's higher power is at play in the hearts of those who say they are forgiving.  I would pray if I ever had to experience anything so horrible, God would help me as He has these family members.  These people are from Christian homes, their loved ones were at a Bible study, they were Christian living people, so I do believe it is possible for these family members to concentrate on how their loved one lived for goodness and their love of God.

There are indeed stages of grief, and we all can not avoid them, but we can allow our heart and mind to forgive.  I'm just not so sure I could come out hours later and say I could forgive someone who murdered my loved one.

[mabel1015j]

Well! Who knew!?!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/http://www.modernmom.com/5fbdbdc0-48c3-11e3-87f1-bc764e04a41e.html-life/11672325/Agatha-Christie-Feminist-icon-surfer-and-single-mother.html

Jean

[MaryPage]

Jean, I could not get that;  I just get a message that says

Sorry,  we cannot find the page you are looking for.

[ginny]

Special Announcement

Our website will be down, beginning Monday evening, June 29, GMT, for a large update.   Please do not post at this time as your post will probably disappear. We do not know how long it will take the computer expert to load this update and have it working.   The website will not look as it has when it comes up until we tweak it, so please be patient. Please continue to check back for news.  We hope to be up and functioning by Tuesday, but if not, it shouldn't be too much longer. Thank you for your patience

[mabel1015j]

I'm watching (on tv) the tall ships sailing up the Deleware River. Very cool. Some are going under the Ben Franklin Bridge to turn around and come back to Philly to dock. They have 6-12 inches of clearence of the bridge at low tide! Got to get that right! Also, there's a SIX STORY high, 11 ton, rubber ducky. It is huge next to the tug boats that are guiding it.

MaryPage, let me find the newsletter that that article was in and i'll give you that link, maybe you can get the article that way.

Jean

[mabel1015j]

http://paper.li/chickhistory/1294838691?edition_id=d8219100-1b45-11e5-83ee-0cc47a0d1605&utm_campaign=paper_sub&utm_medium=email&utm_source=subscription

I hope this works, scroll down to "Arts and Entertainment" and try that link to Agatha.

[Frybabe]

We had a patron come in this afternoon at the library who was looking for books for a 16 year old boy. She is trying to encourage him to read more, I think. He likes the Michael Vey books. I am not familiar with them at all.

I opened my big mouth and said I would be happy to put together a book list of reading for Teen Boys. Of course, my list would be heavy with the adventure classics and scifi. Not quite as easy as I thought, because I am very much unfamiliar with the newer book authors. Some that have made it to my list: An Ember in the Ashes (new this year) by Sabaa Tahir, Marie Lu's Legend, The Messenger by Marcus Zuzak, The Hunger Games series, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, The Maze Runner by James Dreshner, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, and Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury.

Any comments? Suggestions? I am also making a list of Classics (or Adventure Classics) for Teens. Not hard at all for me. I suppose I will have to make a list just for girls too.

[maryz]

Frybabe, I'd certainly suggest the Harry Potter books, too.

[BarbStAubrey]

Frybabe - here are a few I would consider for a Teen - most at this age love fantasy and this is the first in a series The Arch of Avooblis
and this one is about a 16 year old who follows in the footsteps of his father who died while climbing this mountain in the Swiss Alps. Banner in the Sky and for a Viking Sea Story there is always Vandrad The Viking plus all the good ones by Kipling and Scott and G. A. Henty does a lot of teen age adventure stuff. And of course if he has not read Harry Potter that is a must...

Yes, MaryZ we are posting at the same time ditto on Potter

[jane]

Frybabe....I'm sure you are aware that the American Library Association has a large number of these lists for Young Adults.  You can find these various lists here:

http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook

You may need to check these lists against your library's holdings, so you're not suggesting books your patron may not have access to, of course. 

Good luck with this project. 

[Tomereader1]

The Percy Jackson books by Rick Reardon might be good for him.

[bellamarie]

My grandson is 13 yrs old and he is into reading many historical books.  He read Unbroken, and is reading all my hubby's Bill O'Reilly's "Killing" books...Killing Patton, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus and Killing Lincoln.  Bill has written specifically for kids Lincoln's Last Days, Legends and Lies, and others. 

Since so little history is being taught in the schools, it's a great way for young people to learn parts of their history. 

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=bill+o%27reilly+books+for+kids&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=31836596102&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8714758056051966024&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3oh2fodcga_e

[Steph]

my grandson is 13, but dislikes fantasy and alternate worlds.. I have more luck with true stories for him.

[Frybabe]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Jane, I looked at the ALA, but briefly, yesterday. I am sure it was not the page you linked to. I checked the Alex Awards and was very delighted to see The Martian and Lock In were among the 2015 winners. Both are books I highly recommend for anyone interested in science oriented scifi. In fact, The Martian is what I recommended to our patron, but it was checked out at the time. Neither have science that is overwhelmingly difficult to get through, and is not necessary to understand the story as a whole.

Bellamarie, I am also delighted that your grandson likes to read history. Does he have a particular time period he likes best? When I was in Jr. High I was very much into the Civil War, then as I progressed through high school, I also progressed through WWI and WWII. I also had a big interest in medieval history and British history for a long time. My main focus now is on Roman history, with minor incursions into other areas, most notably "The Great Race", the race between Russia, France and Britain to explore and open trade to India and China via the overland routes.

Barb, Banner in the Sky sounds super. If our library doesn't have it, I am going to recommend it.

[Frybabe]

Oh, how about that! Banner in the Sky was the basis for the movie Third Man on the Mountain starring James MacArthur and Michael Rennie. The mountain was the Matterhorn. I still remember the movie. Our library system has one copy of the book.

[MaryPage]

I recently bought my twelve year old (thirteen come August) great granddaughter Bella two books I thought she really needed to become acquainted with:  Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand and The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle.  Both are classics.  She loved them both.

Barnes & Noble emailed this today, and I just LOVE it.  Bet you will as well and all!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/headier-start?sourceId=L000017259&cm_mmc=Targeted-_-BN%20Review-_-150626_TD_BNR_BNREVIEW-_-NA

Jean, I will check that out soonest.  In the meantime, thanks!

[MaryPage]

Jean, I got in there this time.  Great!  Thanks heaps!

I would second the Harry Potter books, also.  And ANYONE would adore the Patrick O'Brian books about Captain Aubrey:  Master & Commander and the rest.  He is dead now, but I believe he left a series of 23, just chock full of history and the high seas.  I read every one of them as a grown up woman!

[pedln]

Another author might be Gary Paulsen -- Hatchet, The River, Woods Runner, and several others related to survival and outdoor adventures/

[Steph]

My sons would have loved some of the titles and read a good many of the others, but Connor is totally tech oriented. We went to a book store the other day and all he wanted was the Manga stuff. ugh.. Oh well.

[Tomereader1]

Tech oriented might like Corey Doctorow's books, the first one especially.  Can't think of the title, and I haven't read any of the others yet.  I enjoyed that first one.

[MaryPage]

I would think any techie would love the story of The Black Cloud, as the thing that saved mankind was the humongous computer at Cambridge University in England, back before we civilians, as it were, had ever heard of computers.

[Steph]

His version of tech is current and concerns games that are played on line with others. People he does not know but is comfortable playing with on line. He is not fond of person to person contact.

[Frybabe]

Further clarification from my library manager is that the initial list I am making is for this particular patron. And, I did a little looking into Michael Vey. It turns out that Vey is not the author but the protagonist of the series. It looks like one of those teens who gain special powers. With that in mind, the Pitticus Lore series, I Am Number Four, and Rick Riodan's Percy Jackson's series would fit the bill, as well as Harry Potter (if he wants to go the wizard route). I don't know if he would go as far as reading the SuperHero books on offer.

Meanwhile I am making a couple of general lists, one of which will be classics for teens. That is a list I will have trouble keeping to a manageable size 

[BarbStAubrey]

Good for you - when you get the list together please share here - so many of us have teen grands or friends with teens in their family who could benefit by the list -

One book I always give to High School Seniors as a token graduation gift but could be read enjoyably at an earlier age - the story offers environmental encouragement, an example of perseverance, making a difference with the simplest of gifts from nature and how one person can make a huge difference in an entire area - The Man Who Planted Trees, an allegorical tale by French author Jean Giono, published in 1953. The short story is still available to read online but the books are illustrated with lovely art work.

Here is the link to the PDF
http://www.ftpf.org/The_Man_Who_Planted_Trees.pdf 

[Steph]

Ugh.. morning,, a warning from one of my credit card companies. Some place in Ireland tried to submit a charge yesterday from May 1.. Said I bought a gift card and did not pay tax.. Since I did not under any circumstances buy a gift card, they turned it down and are sending me a new card. I was of course in Ireland, but cannot imagine who is trying to do this..

[bellamarie]

Frybabe 

Bellamarie, I am also delighted that your grandson likes to read history. Does he have a particular time period he likes best?

Xavier, loves anything to do with history and wars from WWI and on.  He will sit and watch the History channel for hours.  He wants to join the military once he graduates High School.  My hubby was Air force, and his other Papa was Army, and I think they have had a huge impact on his interest.  He saw my hubby's old Air Force fatigues and was so excited when we gave him some.  He and I played the game of Risk, and I told him to not go into Afghanistan because he would lose, and sure enough, I beat him!  All through the game he and I discussed history, generals, presidents, regions and past wars.  He is very mature for his age, never got into Harry Potter or any of the fantasy or medieval. 

[bellamarie]

I am a bit overwhelmed with cleaning out my basement, our city got torrential rains all day Saturday, and the city sewers failed us. We spent hours trying to contain the backup sewer with a sump pump in the drain.  We kept it at just an inch coming in.  Others in the area got up to a foot or more.  We use our basement for storage, laundry, family room, computer room etc., which means I had a lot of stuff to move in order to disinfect the floors.  Should finish up today.

We had back up water and sewer insurance, but our deductible is a thousand dollars. I know there was not that much damage, just lost the carpet.  So we decided to clean up ourselves.   Ughhhh....   On the bright side...I am sorting, storing and pitching everything that was in the entire basement, which was on my bucket list, since I retired in April.  Just didn't expect the clean up to hurry my process.

[PatH]

"Bucket" is the right term this time, alas.  What a mess.  And it takes a while to feel comfortable about whether things are really clean.  My sympathy.

[Frybabe]

Bellemarie, it is my hope that Xavier will read up on some of the ancient battles as well. I remember reading somewhere (of course I forget where) that while campaigning in North Africa General George S. Patton, a big reader of history, used some of the strategy/tactics he learned from ancient battles fought in the same areas he was fighting to help defeat General Rommel's troops.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh Lordy sewage - what a mess - but hurray on sorting and getting rid of stuff - as much as we remove it seems months later we realize there is still more we need to chuck but what a great feeling when we can view an area of our home that is easy to see what we have stored.

With all our rain the one time I planned for rain and it bypassed us - grrr - I put out some organic liquid fertilizer without cutting it with water and just sprinkling it directly from the bottle expecting the rain to do the job and I sprinkled some milkweed seeds as well as some sunflower seeds and shoot no rain - hate the idea of pulling out the hose which is stored in the garage just for this one job.

What a strange summer we are having - here it is the end of June and you can count the days on one hand that we even hit the high nineties much less triple digits - and this rain is continuous - oh we need it - and still do - the lakes are way up from only being 38% full last year through March of this year to after the first go round 68% and then with each go round the lakes are nearly full up to 90% now - I wonder why we got so much rain and it did not rain in California - I know the El Nino comes out of the Pacific but it appears to be crossing on a northeast path across Mexico and for us it hits fronts that come down from the North and our typical weather that comes up from the Gulf - but why is the El Nino not affecting at least lower California I wonder.

Bellamaria was your heavy rain as a result of the El Nino reaching you up north?

[ginny]

OK it looks like they are beginning now, to do a backup, and will start on the upgrade about 5:15  Eastern time. I don't think I'd post anything now until this is over, if you want to see it again.

Fingers crossed!!

[bellamarie]

I like the new look to the site.  Thank you everyone, I finished the clean up and feel really good about having everything sorted out, and smelling like Clorox bleach. 

Barb, Not sure about the reason for all our rain.  We have an inground pool and are lucky if we have used it three times so far.  This is not my idea of summer weather.

Frybabe, Xavier is reading the book Killing Patton, so I hope it has covered some of the things you mentioned.  I haven't read it, but my hubby did and really enjoyed it.

PatH.,  Hope you are enjoying your time with the grands.

I am excited my library notified me that my book The Palace Thief has come in, so looking forward to picking it up and beginning it.

[ginny]

OH good, well that's all good news, then. I'm sorry for that cleaning but just think now you're through with it. I'm doing the same thing but not because of a flood and it's so slow..

Well that was AWESOME, just really IMPRESSIVE to watch, they are now finished,  and I'm so impressed they managed to save so many of our features and didn't lose the first post, even one made 15 minutes earlier. Super job.

We will be tweaking this to look more like our old site as we go, day by day.  But there are some super features. There are more sizes for fonts. There are more colors. There are more fonts. It seems stable.

Color wise we may want a different look.

Gee I am really impressed with those folks.

So far, so good!

[ginny]

Still tweaking. Stay tuned. This  is not the final appearance we want. We appreciate your patience. 

[Steph]

hmm, teeny tiny print.. will wait before I start trying to enlarge.