The Library

[BarbStAubrey]

The Property of a Reader...

[mabel1015j]

Sorry about all the mistakes in the previous post. I got company just as I finished writing it and posted it without reviewing. BAD IDEA JEAN. Lol

Jean

[bellamarie]

Jean, Yes, Zoey thought that Princess of the Potty was a funny book.  She has a great sense of humor.

I loved reading Danielle Steel years ago.  I abhor when authors repeat: 

every idea in the book was repeated about a half dozen times by various characters, or just by the author. The book could have been half as long,

Why, why, why..... do authors repeat so many times?  I remembering reading The Odyssey and I swear Odysseus must have repeated himself a hundred times.  Each new place he went he repeated himself.  I thought, PLEASE STOP!!!!  I too said the book would have been half as long without the constant repetition.

Thank you Ginny, those two bring so much joy to my life since the other four feel they have outgrown daycare at Nonnie's in the summer.  Your ice cream story as a child makes me laugh and think of Shirley Temple, she had spunk too. 

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Ginny and everyone - apologies for the long silence, which has no cause other than my drowning in work, writing stuff, etc plus having friend's daughter to stay, own daughter home at same time, other daughter's Higher exams, my own holidays and a trip to Paris.... the time just goes...

Anyway, I've been meaning to call in for so long! And now it is at the most depressing of times. We in Scotland are truly devastated by the vote to leave the EU. Edinburgh (where I live) voted 72% to remain, and every single district in Scotland voted the same way, though not always by such a huge margin. Edinburgh has been feeling more and more like a European city to me over the years, and now England has taken a completely divergent and frightening path. We are all in shock I think. One thing I am grateful for is that I do live in Scotland, and have done for 25 years now - our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is (in my opinion) magnificent, and she is just about the only politician in the whole of the UK who has been publicly present these last few days. Her speeches have been outstanding, really sensible and inspiring. She fully intends to keep Scotland in the EU by whatever means she can. I do think independence is almost inevitable for Scotland now. With a similar voting pattern in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein has already said that Westminster now has no mandate to legislate there. I know this is not supposed to be a political site so i will shut up now, but feel free to ask me anything about it and I'll try to answer.  I think that the US is facing similar problems, and they all stem from a disillusioned, disenfranchised 'working class' - the polarisation of wealth and the inability of the rich south to understand the point of view of anyone else has led to this, the blaming of an external body for internal woes. Remind you of anything?   

Back to less unhappy issues...  I had a great week's holiday  on a narrowboat around the Potteries, the area around Stoke on Trent. If you have seen The Great British Throwdown, that series was filmed there. There were once many working potteries in the area - now there are very few, and the towns are terribly run down, but the old bottle kilns and other industrial architecture can still be seen everywhere.   One of the potteries still open is the Emma Bridgewater place - you may have seen her very distinctive products, all polka dots and nostalgia-fest. I'm not too keen on all this stuff, which is what we would call very Stockbridge (this being one of the centres of yummy-mummy-dom in Edinburgh), but I must say the cafe was nice! We bought a guide to the canal which looked as though it would be basic and factual but turned out to be the most eccentric travel book - part of a series all written by Michael Pearson, and quite hilarious. The funniest thing was that some of the most bizarre things he said turned out to be true - for example he suggested that we would not have to travel far from one of the towns to feel like we were in the Amazonian rainforest - ho ho, we thought, as if - until an hour later (and an hour is only about 3 miles in canal travel) we were under a huge green canopy filled with birdsong, in an area unreachable by car. We then came upon some huge monuments that could have been right out of Conrad - they were in fact old lime kilns, but to us they seemed positively Aztec.

I also went over to Paris in May and discovered the Musee D'Orsay, which I'm ashamed to say I'd never visited before - it is amazing. Absolutely stuffed with art, fabulous Van Goghs, Monets, etc, beautiful Art Deco furniture, sculpture, the lot. A week later Paris was flooding and both the Musee D'Orsee and the Louvre were moving priceless artefacts out of their basements as fast as they could - made me think of Frank Cottrell Boyce's wonderful children's book, Framed, in which the National Gallery moves it paintings to an old slate mine in tiny Welsh village to avoid a deluge in London.

I read quite a bit on holiday and one book I loved was Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. It's a kind of guide to creative writing, but full of thoughts and stories too. I don't think it would be for everyone, but I enjoyed it a lot. I also read books 2 and 3 of Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet series, which begins in the 1930s and tells the story of several branches of a fairly wealthy English family - it's hugely rewarding if you like this sort of thing, especially as EJH is such a good writer. 

This post has become horribly long so I'll stop now and get back to writing a review of the Leith School of Art graduate show, which I went to over the weekend.

Hope everyone is well, and I'll try to pop in more often now (though we have the Edinburgh festivals starting in less than two months, so the summer's going to be busy....)

Rosemary x                                       

[ginny]

THERE is Rosemarykaye! Welcome back! We have missed you and your wonderful posts which can't actually BE too long.

And what wonders! I just finished several chapters of Bryson this morning and I truly wish you'd write a travel book, your descriptions are marvelous, made me want to pack for Stoke on Trent immediately, love that pottery show. You could actually just take your posts for starters from here and...I really wish you would.

Scotland and the 72 percent! I didn't realize it was that high.  Possible continuation with the EU and Independence! Wow. I get the BBC news APP (because you are 5 hours ahead of us and have news at 4 am when I wake up) and it's such an uproar, so many resignations. I wondered about Ireland!!!

And yesterday of course, another great fell, as Messi failed (why do we say "Messi failed,"  where were the rest of the forwards? I understand the coach is to blame). Another disaster. Iste mundus furibundus indeed.

Oh the d'Orsay! Isn't it glorious?  And you just made it before the flood, I see, reading more closely. The last time I saw Paris it was pouring rain, just pouring, last  year. JUST pouring but no flood.

And two great book recommendations, I'm not familiar with either, I will look for both, thank you!

Have you seen The Extraordinary Collector? What are your thoughts on it, if so?  Do you have any thoughts on Dad's Army, the new version versus the old? (I know I know but do you?).

Welcome back, we have SO missed you and hearing about your reading and adventures.

[ginny]

Why, why, why..... do authors repeat so many times?  I remembering reading The Odyssey and I swear Odysseus must have repeated himself a hundred times.  Each new place he went he repeated himself.  I thought, PLEASE STOP!!!!  I too said the book would have been half as long without the constant repetition..

Bellamarie, you've mentioned this quite a few times. I hope you'll forgive me for taking courage in hand and timidly  offering a possible explanation? I hope so.

The Odyssey is an epic poem meant to be recited or sung, it's part of the Oral Tradition.  For hundreds of years it was recited  around the campfire and not written down,  and like almost all poems or songs it has choruses and refrains. The song Clementine has many main verses and then choruses, and the poem The Blue and the Grey is another good example.

Over the centuries, it got longer and longer since so many bards added to it, they'd often use the refrain for a launching point to help them remember and add their bits to it. Imagine trying to recite the thing.

The repetition has many other uses too. As in all ancient languages there are patterns one has finally mastered and looks for. When the pattern is altered, even by a word or by word placement, the reader  sits up like an electric shock because it means something. It's used to build suspense or cast inference and in the Odyssey particularly at the end, the suspense is almost unbearable due to the alterations connected with  the repetition in the original. A good translator will show this in his translation.  It's done deliberately, for a reason.

I hope this helps explain the reason  why it's necessary.

[ginny]

Jean, Ginny, i suppose you are referring to the library in the Community House? Yes, it was a quaint old library, of course, the Community House is a jewel for Moorestown. It is still being used for many, many events for families. I moved here just before the "fortress" was built at 2nd and Church on the space where the old high school had been.

Yes, I have perhaps over romanticized memories of that library which was right behind my house,  and sitting in the window seat on the stairs of the high arched windows, reading. I am sure it was too small. Such a shame. Such a shame. I can't imagine why it couldn't be left,  surely those at the house now (isn't it some sort of rest home? Or is it back to being some sort of Community House? Is the pool still extant? ) would love it. Are there any archival photographs of it? At least they didn't tear the Jewel in the Crown (the building) down and replace it with some modern horror, that does show foresight.

So my old high school is gone, replaced by that thing?  Well, nothing gold can stay, can it? Once the Peter Pan creme doughnuts and sticky buns went, Moorestown lost me. We've still got the memories. The last time I came,  I got lost. I saw nothing on the way IN from Philly which reminded me of "home." None of the landmarks I had previously used.  This was before GPS. I  stopped at a gas station about 7 miles from Moorestown (which had just won the Best Place to Live in America or some such thing, that's how long ago it was) and asked directions. They had never heard of Moorestown. I'm pretty sure my accent is not THAT strong!!!   But I had only lived there since the 8th grade, an immigrant from PA, so perhaps that is not unusual.

I'm still reading Neither Here Nor There, we're now in  Switzerland, Geneva, Bern,  and Lichtenstein. Bryson is just hilarious. He's traveling by train or bus or he just sets out walking to the next town. I had skipped the beginning about Norway or whatever it is, for the Italy section,  and at the end I'm going back to read that part too.

He tends to get angry and snarky in response to the inevitable trials of travel, which he is not shy about mentioning,  and he's hilarious with it. The way some of us feel but don't dare admit because we're on holiday, and we paid for this and by gum we're going to enjoy it (or at least not admit the hardships).

Love it.

[ginny]

Frybabe,  I meant to say thank you for that explanation. 

[BarbStAubrey]

Today is the anniversary of the start of the conflict in Korea

 

June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military operation to enforce a United Nations resolution calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against invasion by communist China and ordered an acceleration of military aid to French forces fighting communist guerrillas in Vietnam.

At the Yalta Conference towards the end of World War II, the United States, the USSR, and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea into two separate occupation zones. The country was split along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone and Americans stationed in the south. In 1947, the United States and Great Britain called for free elections throughout Korea, but the Soviets refused to comply. In May 1948 the Korean Democratic People’s Republic–a communist state–was proclaimed in North Korea. In August, the democratic Republic of Korea was established in South Korea. By 1949, both the United States and the USSR had withdrawn the majority of their troops from the Korean Peninsula.

At dawn on June 25, 1950 (June 24 in the United States and Europe), 90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel, catching the Republic of Korea’s forces completely off guard and throwing them into a hasty southern retreat. On the afternoon of June 25, the U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session and approved a U.S. resolution calling for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” and the withdrawal of North Korean forces to the 38th parallel. At the time, the USSR was boycotting the Security Council over the U.N.’s refusal to admit the People’s Republic of China and so missed its chance to veto this and other crucial U.N. resolutions.

On June 27, President Truman announced to the nation and the world that America would intervene in the Korean conflict in order to prevent the conquest of an independent nation by communism. Truman was suggesting that the USSR was behind the North Korean invasion, and in fact the Soviets had given tacit approval to the invasion, which was carried out with Soviet-made tanks and weapons. Despite the fear that U.S. intervention in Korea might lead to open warfare between the United States and Russia after years of “cold war,” Truman’s decision was met with overwhelming approval from Congress and the U.S. public. Truman did not ask for a declaration of war, but Congress voted to extend the draft and authorized Truman to call up reservists.

[JoanK]

ROSEMARY: so glad you posted. I so envy you! Are the narrowboats claustrophobic inside? I've always wanted to travel in one.

[bellamarie]

Rosemary, it is so nice to hear from you.  I live vicariously through you sharing your adventures living in Scotland, yet jetting here and there.  It is very interesting to hear how the Brexit affects those living there.  As government has grown and gotten a bit too involved in controlling people's lives I fear this is going to be a possible trend.  Americans are uprising against the establishment heading into our upcoming election in November.  It will be interesting to see how our's turns out and the actual percentage who votes against the established candidate vs. the outsider.   

Ginny, Thank you so much for the explanation of the repetitiveness and it's purpose in The Odessey.  It makes sense when seeing it as a poem or song.  I can see the repeatedness as a refrain.  Can you tell I have no familarity in this genre?  I'm proud of myself venturing outside my comfort zone in reading The Metamorphosis and then The Odessey.  I actually liked The Odessey! 

Barb,  Thank you for those interesting history facts.   

[ginny]

News this morning from the BBC that Microsoft has had to pay a woman in California $10,000 for the windows 10 update which automatically installed Windows 10 on her computer earlier ths year, destroying her files for her business.   It seems that in February Windiws 10 was automatically programmed  to install, included in a pack of necessary updates on her computer,  which had many incompatible programs on it.  This was very interesting reading.

 The same thing happened to me this past spring, and  it's interesting to me to see that it actually wasn't anything I did that stupidly caused it, that it was programmed to intall when it automatically updated.   Certainly there is no $10,000 involved, but I did have to have the repair people out here, and  they took it with them and it they had it a week. But they did manage to save the files.  Thank goodness.   I am now running Windows 7. And a very good immediate back up program.


  I have a feeling that Microsoft is going to have a lot to answer for here because some of us who really don't know that much about computers use programs which are not compatible with 10, and so depending on what these things are, and how many files and/or  businesses are  involved, some  of us have had to pay  a good bit of money but certainly no $10,000 as she did in her  business. I can see that she would be quite angry  over that.

People  who don't use computers in business and just have family photos or just have letters or games they  would like to keep, or who just have hobby  fun things on their computers are likely never to have an problem, and if they do, they are likely to blame themselves and swallow the cost of repair without complainng, should there be one, when in actuality it was no fault of their own.

It's eye opening to me. They've been awfully quiet about 10 recently, too, just as the computer repair person predicted.   

[ginny]

Bellamarie, I agree. It's fun to try new things, isn't it, to challenge yourself,  one feels so triumphant or at least I do, over the silliest things that most people here would feel were nothing at all.  For years I have avoided seeing the Villa Poppaea at  Oplontis again because I remembered from my much younger days it had been a challenge even then;  it had a hundred steps down and a dicey approach thru the city. I was afraid one of my knees would give out and so then would the rest of the trip.

I read right before I left a quote   from a young American  athlete the thought that "you don't fail until you quit," and so this  year, repeating that constantly, I tried anew. Although I had been in the distant past, the experience was entirely new.

I thought I had gotten off the train at the wrong station. The approach was cleaned up. I really didn't recognize the neighborhood.  No longer did you go, alone, in alleyways,  around dumpsters in a slum. Arriving there the 100+steps were still there but I was wrong about the risers, it was one of those metal things with small risers. Nevertheless I felt like  Amundsen  upon exiting. All I needed was to plant a flag.

Too bad they have let it go, physically, somewhat, quite depressing, really, from my long ago  visit. Still! It's the trying new things (or in this case trying anew with new challenges like age)  that matters.  And the not quitting.

So good for you with the new genre.

[rosemarykaye]

Hello Joan - I wouldn't say the boats are claustrophobic, but they are certainly 'compact' - it's great if the weather is fine, as you are outside almost all day - we were even able to eat our dinner sitting on the little deck area at the back. However, I have been on a 2 week trip in France when my children were young, and it rained non-stop the entire time. It was GRIM, they had nothing to do, you couldn't get any clothes dry, etc etc. I think also that the hire boats are tight because they generally squeeze as many beds in as they can - my husband spent every evening looking at 'boat porn' - ie adverts for boats for sale (one big pipe dream I'm afraid) and some of them are amazing - even the smaller ones can look lovely as people stick to one bedroom and use all the rest of the space for living. They put in wood stoves and comfy seats, etc. Husband started off admiring 2 berth canal boats and ended up coveting a 37 million euro ocean-going yacht with staff 

Bellemarie - are you still planning a trip to Italy? I don't see this mess we're currently in as down to government interference, more to the indifference of government/wealth in the affluent south of England, ignoring the plight of the unemployed, disaffected people in the Midlands and the north of England. Also for many it is all about immigration, and unfortunately our very right wing press has tended to stir this up into far more of an issue than it is. People in Scotland and N Ireland see things very differently. Your forthcoming election is scaring us a great deal. Your president (whoever it is) has so much power.

In other news, my 'baby', who was 18 in April, is now in her very last week at school. It is a Steiner tradition that Class 12 stages one last play, so last night it was Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. As they had only had about 2 weeks to learn it, there were plenty of forgotten lines and muddled entrances, but they all know one another so well now, and have got past the stage of being embarrassed by everything, so they all had a great time, and the audience really enjoyed it too. On Friday they head off to Iceland for a week. After the summer, Madeleine is starting a year at Leith School of Art here in Edinburgh. Of course it doesn't seem long since she started nursery!

Has anyone else watched the DVD of The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency? I saw it last week - I didn't realise the one I have is actually a 2 hour feature film - it was really good, I thought, with some fabulous Botswanan scenery. Jill Scott was perfect as Mme Remotswe. There is also a DVD of the TV series, which I think had 6 episodes, so i will order that now.

Rosemary

[bellamarie]

Rosemarykaye,  Yes, we hope to visit Italy for our 50th Anniversary which will be in five years.  We may do it sooner.  Gosh by then there could be so much more change with all this Brexit. 

Also for many it is all about immigration, and unfortunately our very right wing press has tended to stir this up into far more of an issue than it is. People in Scotland and N Ireland see things very differently. Your forthcoming election is scaring us a great deal. Your president (whoever it is) has so much power.

I agree it is largely to do with immigration, but it is the government that decides who will enter, so essentially they are in control and the people fear their culture and safety is at risk.  Our forthcoming election scares me as well.  I am an Independent so my eyes are very open to what either candidate becoming president could mean and it causes me grave concern.  Our country has been going in the wrong direction for awhile now.  I'm not so sure it is just the very right wing stirring things up, I see both parties trying to capitalize on it politically for their advantage in November.

How exciting for your "baby" girl Madeline graduating.  I bet it was a lot of fun for them to do that one last play.  I look at my 20 yr. old "granddaughter" who will be 21 in Sept. and I shudder how the years have flown by.  My youngest granddaughter Zoey turned 5 in March and will begin full day Kindergarten in August.  I can barely believe it.  I wish time could stand still, but then that is life .....ready or not!   

Ginny, I keep trying to overcome so many concerns about traveling since we are retired, and yes, we have been trying to do new things.  Each time we do something new we say, cross that one off our bucket list!!

[FlaJean]

I saw the The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series on HBO and it was very good.  Jill Scott was excellent as Precious.  I thought the neighboring male hairdresser added to the series.  He wasn't in the books.

[BarbStAubrey]

The world is commemorating Shakespeare this year - 400 years since his death.

And so starting July 1 - day after tomorrow - in the Poetry discussion we will post a Shakespeare Sonnet a day to honor the Bard - the plan - starting July 1 daily postings will be in order from Sonnet 1 to 154 - 154 days brings us to the first day of December. Looking forward to your comments about the day's Sonnet -

 July 1, till December 1,
We read in order, from 1 to 154
A Shakespeare Sonnet each day.

Welcome to our Poetry Page

This may be the year I finally take on reading all of his plays - I am busy as can be till late July - I really need to make a commitment - maybe since daily would be a push that I just know I would fail I could think of one day a week taking myself somewhere special to read - Anyone else have this on their bucket list?

[PatH]

None of us will beat JoanP, who has actually SEEN all the plays acted, though one or two of the more obscure historical ones were readings.

[bellamarie]

How exciting Barb to see a sonnet a day.  Barnes and Noble has Shakespeare's complete writings for sale for only $10.00  I may have to go purchase it.  WOW!  JoanP., has seen all the plays acted.  I'm not sure I have seen even one. It's time I begin my introduction to his works.

[Dana]

I've had that same goal, to read Shakespeare, for a few years now.  I have read quite a few plays now plus the sonnets.  For the plays (and the sonnets--they are so convoluted with so many meanings I would never have appreciated) I do enjoy the Folger editions because they give help with "translation" on the opposite page, which speeds up the reading, rather than have to stop and look things up elsewhere all the time.  I usually read the play then watch a performance.  BBC did them all ages ago but there are often newer or different versions available.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh my JoanP has quite an accomplishment to remember - here it would take as many years as there are plays - during the summer there is a group that puts on a play by Shakespeare - and so at one play a year... Doesn't JoanP live near the wonderful Folger Shakespeare Library and I hear in D.C. there is a Shakespeare Theater Company as well... Wow to be so surrounded with good things... 

I wonder what the schedule is at London's Globe Theater - I wonder how many of the plays are performed each year at the Globe or for that matter at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Just saw that both you Bellamarie and Dana slipped in your thoughts while I was typing away - yep, making comments for a short one day we may not go very deep but it will be fun won't it - so glad Dana you have read the work - it will be great to hear your thoughts - Hope the book you pick up Bellamarie is a joy - my copy is illustrated with art work appropriate for each Sonnet - amazing all the ways a publisher has available using a little imagination that can make the works more meaningful.

We have read a few Shakespeare plays here on SeniorLearn and back when we were SeniorNet - I remember reading for the story - since I learned how Shakespeare used The Garden of Eloquence I really want to take the time to look closely at the sentences and construction of how he tells a story and use the copy of The Garden... to see how he was guided.

Been having a great time reading Maya Slater's translation of Moliere's The Misanthrope - she does the entire play in rhymed couplets regardless which character is talking - here let me give you an example...

Alceste has been sharing the poetry in an old-fashioned song - at the end of reciting the song he says;
   Those really are a lover's words, they show he cares
He turns to Philinte and continues with...
   Yes, you may laugh, and writers give themselves false airs,
   But I've got more respect for honest, plain desire,
   Than polished platitudes, for people to admire.

Then this, where two characters and a third coming in at the end of the exchange continue the rhymed couplets.

Oronte: Well, many other people liked it quite a lot.
Alceste: Yes, that's because they're hypocrites, which I am not.
Oronte: You think you're clever, yet you criticize my style.
Alceste: Not bright enough to find your poetry worthwhile.
Oronte: You ought to try your hand at poetry, so why
   Not have a go yourself? I'd like to see you try.
Alceste: My verses might be bad, like yours, that could well be:
  But I'd be careful other people didn't see.
Oronte: This is outrageous. I resent that nasty taunt.
Alceste: Don't come to me, then, if it's compliments you want.
Oronte: Hey, there, my little man, don't take that tone with me.
Alceste: I'll take the tone I like, you don't have to agree.
Philinte: Messieurs, that's quite
  enough--it's time for a reprieve
Oronte: You're right, and I was wrong; I think I'd better leave.
  With all my heart, your most obedient servant, Sir. 
Alceste: And I, too, am your humble servitor, Monsieur.

Brings back memories for me - we lived in Lexington Kentucky for 12 years and we had neighbors who came down out of the mountains after their family lived there for generations. This was a big cultural move. Many roads were finally built in the mountains after WWII and entire communities were found living and speaking as if it were still the eighteenth century - after the whisky tax of 1791 they could no longer afford to sell whisky they shipped using the rivers - those mountains are too steep, filled with cliffs and steep gullies to even think of shipping the corn crops so they became insular living off the land as if it was still the late 1700s and what was amazing is in some of these communities the normal everyday pattern of talking rhymed.

I was active in Girl Scouts and would bring my little guy with me and help out at the camp my daughter attended for two weeks - the camp was located in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and there also, the families who lived nearby and were hired as the cook and handyman etc. they too spoke naturally in rhyme. No thinking ahead - it just rolled out.

I often wondered if we made too much of the various ancient authors who wrote long Narrative Poetry thinking the rhyming meter was for easier memory while orally presenting the work when maybe it was simply art imitating life and we have been so removed for this type of conversation we see it as an affectation. Regardless it has been fun reading the play. I became curious after seeing on Amazon the delightful French movie Bicycling with Moliere - scenery is fabulous - great actors - done as a modern story - does not follow exactly the script but close and then these two actors are practicing the play for a Paris performance so we hear some of the diologue - yes, it is subtitled - but hearing the meter of the French is a plus. 

 

[JoanK]

ROSEMARY: I will envision you in your 37 mill yacht, but I won't hold my breathe! Grandchildren are amazing, aren't they -- my oldest is off looking at colleges to apply for next year.

I LOVED the HBO version of Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency: one of the best translations of a book to film I've ever seen! Jill Scott was fantastic, as was her co=star.

BARB: Could talking in rhyme be natural? What an idea! I knew someone who talked in rhyme once, and I often wondered if she knew she was doing it.

[ginny]

I think the Shakespeare is an inspired idea,  that's a lovely way to commemorate his works and his birthday! What fun, well done, Barbara!

I'm not sure that ancient verse rhymed as we consider rhyme.

Shakespeare. Do any of you remember...at one of our Bookfests,  when the Books got together, we went to see Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra?  I will never forget it for the horror of it. It was done on steps.  BIG white steps, impossible risers. The stage which we looked down on was built entirely  of a square  platform of steps.  The actors ran up and down the steps.

And placed themselves all over the steps. Some of the actors were not young. I wasn't either, even then, and all I remember was those white steps and sitting clenched waiting for them to fall and break their necks. No railings.

Perhaps everybody does not have my horror of steps but...let me tell you, it was more frightening than anything they were portraying. One actor in particular, if I remember correctly, an older man,  several times seemed to lurch toward falling.  I recall everybody leaning out in consternation as he lurched once precipitously toward the audience.  Didnt he, or another actor, actually fall?

It's funny about Shakespeare. You tend to remember the strangest things.  I haven't seen them all. The last one I saw was last year at "Shakespeare's Globe" in London, The Merchant of Venice,  with Jonathan Pryce, (he of Wolf Hall and Barbarians at the Gate Fame among others) and his daughter. He stood behind me waiting to get in before the doors opened, never will forget that. He's tall.

 Before him I saw Mark Rylance's (Bridge of Spies, Wolf Hall)  production of Richard III with him as Richard also at Shakespeare's Globe. Never saw anything like that, either. They all got up, Richard, included, at the end, just got up, murdered or not,  and did a madrigal or something with a live little chamber orchestra doing period music. I can see them to this day. Magic.

Shakespeare's Globe was  in the process of doing all the plays, at the time. I don't know if they still are.

I came in to say that I finished in one long luxurious read yesterday  A Hologram for the King which turned out to be a bit of a let down. I think the book got away from him, and the gratuitous (to me) sex in it was...odd. Very. Adolescent fantasy type of thing, bizarre. Actually quite a bit of the book was bizarre.

 I guess in a way it's a brilliant take on a middle aged man who is losing it in more than one way and I guess in future it will be considered as such,  but to ME, not being a middle aged man, there were too many flaws in the plot. Such a shame, he writes SO well and sweeps you right into it but the plot and the roads go nowhere. In bizarre not so appealing ways.

I think that's the point, actually.

Going to try The Nest next, it's also got great reviews.

Julian Barnes (who wrote Downton Abbey) has a new one out. Apparently a new series is based on it, it's called Belgravia. Not out in paperback yet, tho.  I have enjoyed all his books so have ordered it, love the title (Belgravia was the setting for Upstairs, Downstairs, wasn't it?) I like that little comic allusion.

Nice to be able to read the day away. Anybody reading anything good?

[BarbStAubrey]

Anxious Ginny for your opinion on The Nest - had it for awhile on my Amazon list and decided to take it off - the subject matter was just not what I was up to - tired of reading about one more of these dysfunctional families.

The copy of The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg  arrived the other day and I have been so busy have not had a chance to crack the cover. Evidently there are whole series of The _{something or other} Magician by this author - with the way the daily news is going and the phone ringing off the hook, that I try not to answer, with all the political trolls I needed something silly, full of fantasy - so we shall see -

I also received my copy of The Vegetarian: A Novel set in South Korea - I will start this with trepidation - not a subject I would choose but everyone is reading it and they all say it is a perfect metaphor to South Korea today and although, the main character's behavior is outlandish it is how grizzly folks are feeling in that part of the world. We shall see what we shall see...

I wonder if there is something afoot because I notice the last couple of Haruki Murakami, from Japan were not the kind of story or the kind of characters of his that I was used to reading and set them aside but then, from Ireland, Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin was another written about the underbelly of society - another I never did finish.

Well I am still enjoying ever sentence of Maya Slater's translation of The Misanthrope and the book contains her translation of Le Tartuffe and Les Femmes savantes - this may be my summer reading - I can read only one page and be enchanted.

[bellamarie]

I have started a book called Family Pictures by Jane Green.  I bought it drawn to the beautiful cover and title, I have a wall going up my staircase filled with a gallery of family pictures.  Well, I am 81 pages into the book and just not sure about the story.  The teenage daughter is suffering from bulimia, and the mother seems to be incredibly insecure about her marriage, and where her life is going after her daughter goes to college.  It's an easy fiction for summer, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

We are planning a trip to visit my daughter in New Port Richey, Florida next week.  We are going to take the Ohio turnpike through Ohio then take I-77 through W. Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  We think we'll just take our time and stop along the way.  Any suggestions of where we should stop to see interesting sites?  We have never taken this route before. 

[maryz]

One stop I would recommend is in Beckley, WV.  Right at the interstate there is the West Virginia Crafts Center - filled with wonderful works by master WV craftsmen, good food, and lots of motels.  It's definitely worth a stop.  Plus nearby is the New River Gorge bridge - one of the highest trestle bridges in the US (if not the world).  Just a stop-and-look, unless you want to do some hiking, but it's definitely worth seeing.

The Shenandoah Valley in VA, plus Skyline Drive have gorgeous scenery.  And then there's the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC.

In NC, a stop at the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, is at least an all-day stop - fabulous mansion and gardens, with great shops in the Biltmore Village just outside.

Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, are on the coast, but are fabulous cities with lots of history and great food.  It's always worth stopping there. 

Sorry you're missing Tennessee - you'll have to come visit us next time.  8^)

[ginny]

Bellamarie, I'm not over familiar with I-77 but I just  looked up New Port Ritchie and it's above Tampa, so what I had put here is all wrong and I've removed it. I don't know a thing about that area. Mary is a fount of good advice, too. Aren't there some big caverns in W VA?

  Trip Advisor probably has some good advice, tho, they usually do. 


Barbara, I am very interested in The Vegetarians, I heard about it wherever I went, I will be interested to hear what you thought.

[BarbStAubrey]

Just read... "Olivia de Havilland: Last Remaining 'Gone With the Wind' Cast Member Celebrates 100th Birthday on July 1"

[Tomereader1]

There has been awful flooding in WEst Virginia, and I don't know which area, North, South, East? I know it has done tremendous damage, so be sure and find out before you plan on going through there!  Have a great, safe trip!

[bellamarie]

Maryz, Thank you so much for all the possible sites to see.  I made a list and am showing it to my hubby.

Tomereader, Thanks for the heads up.  We will stay on the turnpike for sure.  My granddaughter and her boyfriend just came back I-77 through there and said it was easy, no problems.  I will check out the flooding you are speaking of.

[pedln]

Bellamarie, I'll echo MaryZ's comments about the West Virginia Crafts Center at Beckley.  I haven't been there for a few years but always liked to plan a lunch stop and have their delicious trout.  An interesting place.  As is the New River Gorge Bridge. Ironically, the New is one of the oldest rivers in the US.  Have a wonderful trip.

[ginny]

Yes, Bellamarie, have a wonderful, safe trip!

When Alan Rickman died, they mentioned a lot of his movies which we've probably all seen, but some people really had liked him in something called Galaxy Quest. Apparently it's a classic. I had never heard of it, it's a comedy, I think, with Sci Fi overtones and I rented it from Netflix because I was curious.

I just got around to watching it yesterday and I can see why people remembered it. I really liked it: it's camp, it's funny, it's fun.

Wonderful cast, Allen Rickman, Tim Allen, Tony Schaloub, Signorney Weaver, and they  play a troupe of actors who starred for many years in a Star Trek type  series on TV. Rickman plays the Spock like character. They attend as a group the Fan celebrations of the series where people dress up like Klingons, etc.,  but there is a lot of dissension among them, it appears to be a parody on Shatner and his ego, and then..... they find themselves abducted by real aliens who believe them to be real..

It's fun, it's a hoot,  have any of you seen it? And Rickman is good in it and surprisingly funny. And it's got some subtle points in it about not confusing the actor with the part he plays.

[PatH]

Indeed, Ginny, I've watched Galaxy Quest 3 or 4 times.  It's even funnier for fans of the original Star Trek series.  Rickman is really good, and I think all the actors were having fun with it. The actors are abducted by aliens who have watched the TV series, think it's a real documentary, and want the actors to save them from another alien race of oppressors.  There's a lot of humor in watching the actors trying to do for real what they pretended to do on TV.

"By Grabthor's hammer, I will avenge you."

[ginny]

hahaha "Don't SAY that!" hahahaa

I just ordered it, it's only 5 bucks and change with additional features and free shipping from Amazon. My grandson has not seen it. Yet. I was just thinking when I wrote that that I might like to watch it again before returning it. 

[ginny]

On travel, by Bill Bryson:


"But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about" (He only speaks English). "I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."

That's beautifully put.

From Neither Here Nor There. And the adventures he has with those interesting guesses and going with the flow are priceless. I've just laughed my way thru the last half of the book and now am starting on the first part.

His perspective makes everything else, in the book or out of it, bearable.   We've just been to Hammerfest, Norway, which bills itself as the most northern city in the world you can get to by public transportation. He went to see the Northern Lights. I feel as if I've been to Norway, because his adventures and descriptions where I HAVE been are so true, I have to assume these are true, too.  I haven't been to Norway,  and I have no intention of going,  but it's perfect armchair travel, and hilarious  in places on top of it.

I didn't intend to make reading all his books a project this summer but so far they are so good, I can't stop.

[ginny]

Well Barbara, I started The Nest, and got about thru the first chapter. I am not sure if the term here is "dysfunctional" families or not and I'm afraid I'm not going to go any further and find out.  It has  the prettiest book cover I ever saw, it really does, wonderful reviews, but as they say,  you can't judge a book by its cover.

It's well written, but it's a lesson for  me. You're standing in a book store, for Pete's sake,  read the first few pages and see what you're getting into. That's a good thing about many book stores online, you can read some of the prose first.

Not a subject I want to continue with so the library is going to get a beautiful new book for their sales. Lesson learned.

That's two duds in a row, very disappointing.  Good thing I've got some more.

[BarbStAubrey]

ah so - well you gave me a shot of yes, you can deduce things by reading what Amazon offers as an intro - it took me forever though - The Nest was on my list for weeks on end till I finally said no - sorry you ended up starting to read the dud but you did allow me to feel better about shopping online rather than standing and pouring over books at B&N. The more recent trick I have learned is those books that provide an audio snippet say more to me than reading the first few pages - I think because the tone I inject is too easily repeating the hope I have based on the 'cover' where as, the professional voice reads it as it is written.

Yesterday read a small book that I chose based on the recommendation on the cover from Jim Crace, whose work I had read, in addition short, two line commentaries by three Irish newspapers. The book was described as unforgettable, a masterpiece, spare, full of wisdom, restrained poetry, powerful, heart-warming, heart-rending... entitled A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler. 

Well if you want to read about someone whose entire life was one tragedy after the other just to feel better about some recent tragedy of your own then this is the book -

His mother dies of consumption when he is age 4 and is farmed out to a brutal uncle who is greedy for the leather sack around the child's neck containing some bank notes - the story takes place in the Swiss Alps, starting in 1904 with no electricity and little food since farming on the mountains is sparse at best. 

He is always second place to the farmer's children - harsh whippings with a wet, I think ash branch that the child had to prepare - so severe his leg and hip are severely wounded - weeks of healing in a rat infested attic as a local tries to set it because he won't spend money on a doctor - does attend a few years of school - he is slow but learns to read some and write some - crippled he becomes strong but a man of very few words - Is hired by convincing the boss of a company that transforms the Swiss Alps with ski lifts that also brings electricity to the Alps. Tourists and skiers bring huge changes from bare existence farmers to hostelers and locals suppling all the trappings for a tourist trade.

He falls in love and after only a few years an avalanche takes his new wife along with the house he spent years saving to buy - both legs are broken in the avalanche and he can no longer do the work for the ski lift company but the one good that is in his life, they give him a job of maintaining the ski lifts - then WWII and he signs up after the farmer convinced the board during WWI that he could not do without him - so now WWII is not going well and they are conscripting the old, the very young and the crippled. He is a German soldier who is captured in Russia and spends 8 years in a Gulag - comes home a broken man - again, a half bit of fortune, the town builds him a hut behind the school.

He sees the farmer as he pushes himself to walk - the farmer lost both his sons and his farm and and and - he still is afraid of him but says nothing - instead chooses not to walk that trail again - the farmer dies and is buried during a rain storm where everything is mud - He sees TV for the first time in a public-house (bar) and it is of Grace Kelly who is thinks is the most beautiful women he ever saw - this experience awakens his emotions that were dead all these years since the avalanche took his wife - years later he sees TV for the second time with many in the village jammed into the parish hall to see the American men walking on the moon - this made him feel closer to the villagers and brought back his memories of returning from Russia and finding the entire campsite for the ski lift company gone - he had nothing to return to - the company had switched to making guns during the war and they were not manufactured correctly so that accidents on the front had the owner feel guilt and he killed himself.

The veterans pay is not enough - he does odd jobs - the pain of his body is so bad he can't sleep - he climbs the mountain and in the first light an older lost couple ask for him to guide them down - then they ask him to guide them on other trails and he has a new business as a hiking guide - the last pages are various experiences that allows him to remember bits and pieces of his life and his concept of death till finally death comes at age 79.

Why I was compelled to read the book I cannot say - maybe because of all the names of things often in Swiss German and the setting being so different than my typical reads - maybe because of the continued bits of wisdom, like persevere regardless of authority - that authority could be a parent or substitute parent - or physical impairment - or national leader - or circumstance of war - or circumstances of nature - or that change brings both good and bad to a community and aging can be independently managed.  Not a book I will pass along with excitement - but I did pass a day and evening learning about a particular outlook on life. 

[bellamarie]

I love beautiful book covers, I am always drawn to books that have book covers that are more eye catching, in saying this, I clearly understand why they say, "You can't judge a book by it's cover."

I do like having the few pages Amazon offers to see if I might like the book, but I also love browsing in Barnes and Noble, reading the back comments on the bookleaf, and sitting and having a flavored coffee at their little cafe.  It's all about the atmosphere being around a place with books, coffee, people and cafe style.

[BarbStAubrey]

http://www.6sqft.com/life-behind-the-stacks-the-secret-apartments-of-new-york-libraries/

[jane]

Fascinating, Barb!  Wow...who knew??? 

Jane