The Library

[ginny]

 

The Library Our library  is open 24/7; the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

The December  Book Challenge!! 

  We have so enjoyed our 30 Day Book Challenges!  Let's do our own December Book Challenge to start December 1:  one for every day in December concerning our December reading.

ALL suggestions welcome and needed! To start us off for December 1:

  1.What should no Christmas book be without?

[ginny]

What was it called, Frybabe? I do like a Christmas Mystery.

What is an example of a Christmas book with wonder in it? I'd like to try one, we all can use something uplifting about now!

I like to start reading them right after Thanksgiving.

I got out my own shelf of  Not Yet Read  Christmas Mysteries, and they are:


---An English Murder by Cyril Hare

---A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer

---Murder for Christmas by Frances Duncan

Then I have these all  Many Times Read Christmas Mysteries with  yellowed pages, short stories by old authors whom I love like John Mortimer and  Arthur Conan Doyle:

----Murder for Christmas Volume II (Can't find Volume I anywhere, one of those old Mysterious Press books)
----Murder Under the Mistletoe
----Christmas Ghosts
----Crime for Christmas...

I read the above  every couple of years when I have forgotten the plots, but several of them have lovely heartwarming moments of joy (somehow) included

---The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor (spelled correctly) by Simon Brett which I read every year when I have forgotten the solutions to the puzzles, like this year.

---Can't find Red Christmas by Patrick Ruell supposed to be the best ever, didn't like it the last time I picked it up

---Can't find the gigantic hard to lift The Big Book  of Christmas Mysteries which I never seem to get far into

So that's 8 in hand and 3 lost but being looked for, and not mentioning  several new ones I this year don't want to deal with but highly  recommended, usually involving a woman sleuth who really doesn't want the job. Not for me this year,  I want the old settings, plots, and authors  with a couple of exceptions, this year.

And of course A Christmas Carol by Dickens, which I usually try to read every year in homage  to his sort of creating what we think of Christmas celebrations and the wonderful ghosts.

I think I'll start with my favorite, read many times, since I have once again completely forgotten all the puzzle solutions, The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor.

(There are SOME benefits to getting old and forgetting what you've read).

[nlhome]

I just received The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stores, edited by Martin Edwards. I think that will be my next, maybe only, holiday book. I am reading The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsen, which uses up a lot of my reading time.

[rosemarykaye]

I've never read any of those mysteries Ginny, but I would just say that Scotland can be a setting as well as England (!)

For me I think the most important element would be snow, and a cosy interior from which to watch it.  One of my favourite Christmas books is The Jolly Christmas Postman by Allan Ahlberg. The postman has to deliver cards and letters to lots of nursery rhyme characters, and the book has little letters in slots that children can take out and read (or have read to them.)  The real joy is in the pictures, which are full of instantly recognisable detail, but the rhymes are also very clever and funny. Eg:

One upon a Christmas Eve
Just after it had snowed
The Jolly Postman (him again* came down the jolly road.
And in the bag upon his back
An..... interesting load.

First stop: Four Bears Cottage.

All of my children loved it. (*this refers to the first book, The Jolly Postman)

In 'grown-up' books, a blogger friend of mine has done a round-up of Christmas/snowy books, and I'm sure she won't mind if I share it here:

Crime:

Snow Blind - P.J. Tracy
The Virgin in the Ice – Ellis Peters
The Sittaford Mystery – Agatha Christie
The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L. Sayers
After the Fine Weather – Michael Gilbert
The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney
Dead Cold – Louise Penny
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow – Peter Hoeg
Ghosts in the Snow – Tamara Siler Jones
Death and the Dancing Footman – Ngaio Marsh
A Christmas Journey - Anne Perry
Raven Black - Ann Cleeves
Death at Wentwater Court - Carola Dunn
Ice Cold - Tess Gerritsen
Mystery in White - J. Jefferson Farjeon
Sworn to Silence - Linda Castillo
The Cold Dish - Craig Johnson
In the Bleak Midwinter - Julia Spencer-Fleming
The Virgin of Small Plains - Nancy Pickard
The Wolf in Winter - John Connolly
White Heat - M.J. McGrath
Iron Lake - William Kent Krueger


General Fiction:

Ordinary Wolves – Seth Kantner
Dr. Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
Light on Snow – Anita Shreve
A Winter in the Hills – John Wain
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras – Jules Verne
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
Winter at Thrush Green - Miss Read
A Country Christmas - Miss Read
Once Upon a Christmas - Sara Morgan
The Abominable - Dan Simmons
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
Winter People Jennifer McMahon
The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey


Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror:

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula Le Guin
The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett
The Forbidden Tower - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Helliconia Winter - Brian W. Aldiss
The Mountains of Majipoor - Robert Silverberg
The Terror Dan Simmons
The Winter Haunting - Dan Simmons


Children's/Young Adult:

The Long Winter – Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Snowman - Raymond Briggs
North Child – Edith Pattou
Predator’s Gold – Philip Reeve
At the Back of the North Wind – George MacDonald
Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper
The Snow Queen – Hans Christian Anderson
Winter Holiday – Arthur Ransome
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
The Rat-A-Tat Mystery - Enid Blyton
No Such Thing as Dragons - Philip Reeve
The Dead of Winter - Chris Priestley
Magyk - Angie Sage


Short Stories:

The Triumph of Night - Edith Wharton

I've read The Nine Tailors, The Sittaford Mystery, Dead Cold, The Wind in the Willows, The Snowman, Little Women and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I also tried hard with Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, but gave up. I think I should try it again.

So there's quite a lot of ideas for me here!

I've today finished Dana Stabenow's A Cold-Blooded Business. Unlike most of the Kate Shugak books it takes place mostly at the Prudhoe Bay oilfields inside the Arctic circle. It was very interesting to me to read about life on a huge, remote base a few years' back.  I told my husband about it - he recognised some of the details, such as the way the buildings up there are on stilts, but he professes not to know about the drugs, women, and gambling...:-)  Stabenow apparently worked at a similar place in Alaska back in the 1970s, when the life must have been quite different from how it is today. She was hired to take tour groups round the plant - groups of senators, businessmen, and so on - and this is the undercover role that Kate takes on to investigate the source of the hard drugs that are becoming rife in one section (only) of the field.  I like the way in which Stabenow also tells us about the customs, traditions and often very difficult modern day life of the native peoples - mainly through Kate's rather terrifying grandmother, Ekaterina and her other relations - one of whom is working at Prudhoe.  It was a good read (and plenty of snow and ice, though none of it cosy or Christmassy!)

Now I've just started Judy Blume's Are you there God? It's me, Margaret, which is the starter title for the Six Degrees of Separation blog challenge set every month by another blogger. You don't have to have read the book, I just thought I would (espcially as it's short!) and you can link your next five books one to the other in any way you like.

8pm so I think it must be almost dinner time.

Keep warm everyone!

Rosemary

[BarbStAubrey]

OH my - the lists - as many Christmas books and stories I've read those lists include far more than I not only have ever read but some stories I never heard of...

And yes, I do think some mysteries fit the idea of wonder - Wonder is defined as; a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. I think it is that admiration component mingled with surprise that is the key to wonder. Wonderment strengthens that aspect and is defined as a state of awed admiration or respect.

One of my all time favorites is A Child's Christmas in Wales - and for sure most of the books on the children's book list are stories of and with wonder - how can we get through the season without re-reading Dulce Domum in Wind in the Willows. My favorite Miss Read is the Christmas Mouse Oh and The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder is lovely, filled with wonder. and then for adventure and awe there is A High Sierra Christmas by Johnstone - and for a gripping story that starts during the Winter of 1870 in Witchita Falls when a young captive was to be returned to her family in San Antonio, News of the World: A Novel by Paulette Jiles, No easy adventure or answers in this National Book Award Finalist The book will be made into a motion picture.

[Frybabe]

Ginny, the book is Winter's Secret by Lyn Cote.

RosemaryKaye, the only one on your list I read is Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow which was published in the US as Smilla's Sense of Snow. I read the book and saw the movie. Too bad the author never wrote any sequels to the Smilla story.

Barb, News of the World was one of my first Audible listens, narrated by Grover Gardner. If you like audio books, try to find one or two of his narrations. Best I can tell, he started his audio book career at the Library of Congress's Books for the Blind Program. He is one of the very best. It looks like the movie is scheduled to release on Christmas Day. I am looking forward to seeing it. Tom Hanks seems a very good choice for the starring role. Sam Elliot would have been another super choice.

[ginny]

Oh of COURSE, Scotland, Rosemary! hahaha Do you have a snow bound Scottish Christmas mystery in particular to recommend among all those great looking books? What a wealth we would have here to read them all in concert! I do wish I had known about the Jolly Postman when my children and grandson were young.

Frybabe, that looks really  good, too, I will look for it as well as several on Rosemary's and Barbara's lists.

I had the BEST day yesterday!  I curled up and read all afternoon my first Christmas mystery of the season, and was totally engrossed in it, The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor, which I have read MANY MANY times.  I found this time that (1) I remembered absolutely nothing of the plot and (2) that I was unable (now half way through it in one sitting, in Chapter 6) that I could not only not figure out even one of the first 5 puzzles, which years ago I thought ....with one exception...somewhat easy and fun.....but I found I could not understand at all even the explanation of several of them at the ends of each chapter, so I had to reread the explanations at the end of the chapters several times. This does make me wonder about myself.

However it could not have been more fun. My oldest had put up the new Christmas tree on Friday  which looks like it belongs in Times Square or something,  it definitely hits the ceiling and bends there, talk about monster tree, but he put on the lights, and even though that's all it's got on,  I had my book and the tree lights out of the corner of my eye,  and all I lacked was a nice fire but being too settled and lazy to go out  on  the porch and get the heavy logs, I pretended it was there. That was all that was lacking for a perfect afternoon.  Afterwards I thought I'll find the tape of the  recording of Yule fire from  DISH and play it next time. I  was somewhat irritated that DISH has erased my tape of same and instead of two free channels showing nothing but films of Yule Fires with snap crackle and pop sounds,  now they have these scenes or something you get to pay for. A nice hefty fee yearly too.

I'm not related to Richard Nixon, but I like to read in front of  a fire. I noticed in the Airport Lounge at Heathrow they have a "faux fire," going all the time even in the summer and it's quite...peaceful.

So Amazon to the rescue and a DVD is coming Wednesday which will restore the fire on the TV in the background when wanted with the click of a button.  And I'm waiting till then  to resume, as the book is all new to me, the clues incomprehensible,  but it's a good ride and now all I need is snow. But we've still got beautiful color in some of the trees and the forsythia outside the window has  bright yellow leaves  to go with the red, and it's been warm actually, so I doubt we'll have any  snow any time soon.

[BarbStAubrey]

Looks like today you can download FREE Winter's Secret by lyn Cote on your kindle

frybabe in my mind's eye while reading News of the World all I could see is Tommy Lee Jones - granted when he was a bit younger.

Funny Ginny - no matter how old our boy children get they all want the biggest tree they can find.

Rosemary careful what version of The Bishop's Wife you watch - there was a new version made that is not near as good as the old Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven version. 

Cannot believe yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent - Christmas falling on a Saturday does give us a whole week however, it also means Advent starts earlier - need to get going this week, wrap and get my Christmas sent off - I'm thinking there is so much being mailed with Covid that I need to get my packages out a bit earlier than usual.

Well I, among many did not keep up with the times - here, because of being home, many of us assumed their would be a large spike in the number of babies born but instead, did y'all read that the number of births is down by I think it said a half a million, the article said in the US the lowest number of births in 35 years.

Looks like we are in for a week of cold - another cold front coming mid week - tonight the temp goes into the 20s which is really cold for us - for sure the air will be full of ceder, the go-to wood for winter fires around here. As cold as it will get the forecast is for sun and lots of it - as long as the sun shines I will be just fine...   

[ginny]

Nlhome, I didn't see your post! I just received The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stores, edited by Martin Edwards. I think that will be my next, maybe only, holiday book. I am reading The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsen, which uses up a lot of my reading time.

That is the very thing I am talking about and he's got 3 of them from different years! Let us know how you like it as you go! The golden age of Mystery writers. British Library Crime Classics. Sounds just the thing!

I've heard about the Eric Larsen too, do you like it?

Barbara, Cedar trees, lots of snap crackle and pop,  burn up fast, though, but love that pop.

[BarbStAubrey]

Ginny our Cedar trees are actually Mexican Juniper - we just call them cedar - and so not much crackle or pop however they burn up fast as compared to live oak.

[Frybabe]

RosemaryKaye, I read all the Kate Shugak books up to #20, Bad Blood, when she broke off to write her Silk and Song series. I kind of forgot about her after a few years so I missed that she is back writing more Kate Shugak and has a new Liam Campbell book coming out in 2021 (yea!). Going to have to catch up.

You know Barb?  I don't remember ever actually reading A Child's Christmas in Wales. Shame on me!

[rosemarykaye]

Goodness Frybabe, Stabenow is a prolific writer, isn't she? I've read interviews with her and she sounds like a very nice person, and one with a lot of real experience of Alaska (I know she was born there, but you can be born in London and still have no experience of the rest of the UK - in fact that is part of the problem, the south has very little understanding of the north. Stabenow, however, seems to know so much about the native people and the way of life in The Park, as they all seem to call it.

I defintely haven't read twenty, let alone any that came after that. Plenty to look forward to.

Rosemary

[rosemarykaye]

I finished Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and I really enjoyed it. I can see why it's so well known and loved. 

Judy Blume seems to have a great understanding of what it's like to be am 11 year old girl, when the most important thing in the world is to fit in with your peers, especially at a new school (Margaret has moved with her parents from New York to New Jersey because her mother wants a garden.) 

I like the way Margaret (for a school project) investigates religions and finds them all lacking. Margaret's parents are also well drawn - although their inter-religious marriage has caused problems with their own families (especially the mother's), most of the time they are just jogging along, leading normal 'parent' lives - it all comes across as very realistic. And although the book is short, Blume develops the characters of Margaret's friends, especially Nancy, so that I felt that by the end I knew them. She manages to show us Margaret learning life lessons (not everyone tells the truth, most people are just as insecure as you are, the best  looking boys are rarely the nicest...) without letting her writing become preachy and boring. I loved Margaret's Jewish grandmother, who can't understand how anyone could want to live outside New York, and who visits, laden with carrier bags of good Kosher food, and conspires with Margaret to arrange outings for the pair of them.

I'm so glad I decided to read this one, which I'd never have picked up if it hadn't been for my book challenge.  Now I just have to link five more books to it (!) - I've thought of the next one, which will be Peggy Woodford's Please Don't Go, about a young girl on her first trip to France, her infatuation with an older man, and eventual romance with a younger one. I first read if just after I came home from my own French exchange (aged 12) and saw so much of myself in it.  And of course it has a Tragic Ending (I'm glad to say my own trip didn't - the worst thing that happened to me was my mother having fifty fits about the smelly goat's cheese I brought home), which is exactly the kind of thing you enjoy weeping over at that age. It wasn't until I read the reviews on Amazon quite recently that I discovered how many other women of my age had similar memories of it from their own teenage years - they had all been moved by it and treasured it still.

No idea what I'm going to link to that one yet.

In the meantime, I started David Baldacci's The Christmas Train. Not sure about it yet - has anyone read it?

Rosemary

[ginny]

OH my, I have not read Are you There, God, It' s Me, Margaret and A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich,   in easily 40+ years.  They were both, at one time, considered wonderful books for...not sure what age....but they ARE good, aren't they? I was taking a course in Adolescent Literature, I think, at the time. I don't know why.  Wonderful books for any age, really. Brings back memories.

[Frybabe]

RosemaryKaye, this is about as much info about Dana Stabenow as I could find, but it does give you an idea of her range of experience while growing up in Alaska. https://www.enotes.com/topics/dana-stabenow She still lives in Alaska.

[nlhome]

Ginny, yes, I like the Erik Larsen book. It's an interesting view of the war through Churchill and his family, just for the one year or so that is covered, 1940. It's slow going for me, my bedtime book, and between tired body and tired eyes, I can't read much at a time, and my hope is that I finish before it's due back at the library. In yesterday's mail, I received a gift of "We Must be Brave" by Frances Liardet, which starts out in 1940, too. I had not heard of the book, but the friend who gave it to me said she really enjoyed it.

[nlhome]

Rosemary, I read The Christmas Train, and I recall I enjoyed it. I think I'll have to check it out again.

[Tomereader1]

I had downloaded "Winter's Secret" to my Kindle last year.  I decided I'd go ahead and read it now, since it's been on there so long, and we are getting into Winter. (not as much as most of you are...we had one freeze, last night.  Don't know if we're due for another before this week is out!
Stay warm and stay safe.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, I noticed that clicking as well - and at night lots of flying light that I assume are large insects.

Joanne we too are cold cold cold - hate it when the heat comes on at night but I turned it off two nights ago and it got down to 62 in the house - fine when I was under my covers but brutal being up and about till the heat could warm things up again. Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder than today - and no real warm up in sight - far too early for this nonsense - I've pulled out my knitting needles - too bad PBS is doing it's fund drive - nothing on - I did notice the movie channel (I don't have cable) is showing some blockbuster movies this month - watched Music Man and both Barbara Streisand movies about Fanny Brice, Funny Girl and Funny Lady. Later today they are really reaching back but it was a good movie - 7 Brides for 7 Brothers - I wonder how it will hold up - regardless, good background music.   

[ginny]

Well I did finish today, next to my new  TV  electronic "crackling fire," which was fun, because it runs forever,  The Christmas Crimes at Puzzel Manor. As it went on I got kind of used to his style but he pulled out all the stops, very difficult word puzzles,  anagrams, crosswords, even a backgammon game which I gave up on, on sight,  as I don't play backgrammon. The man is brilliant, there's no doubt about it.

I got about 4 of them, and felt pretty proud of it, too, but one problem this time is the print on some of the puzzles, like the  Christmas reading of Mr. Pickwick's Papers, is the smallest I've seen, not 1, but -3 I'd guess, and one of those in handwriting,  and I didn't have a magnifying glass  handy so held it at arm's length with my new glasses, and kind had to guess  through those, figuring I couldn't have gotten them, anyway. hahaa 

And once again,  I could not figure out the last one, but I recalled somewhere somebody DID and lo and behold one of the reviewers on Amazon had done it nicely, first with clues, then with more clues, so you could figure it out for yourself, without spoiling it, which was nice of them. I've copied that information out and pasted it in the back of the book for the next reader (or me) depending on how long it takes me to forget it. hahaha

So now it's on to the next one in the stack. I do like a Christmas mystery. (I actually liked Mr. Pickwick's Papers , from The Pickwick Papers, and don't think I've read that, either.)

[rosemarykaye]

Good mnorning all,

It is freezing here, the roads and pavements are lethal, so I am waiting till the sun has melted the ice before venturing out. It's a fine sunny day though.

Pat - I am over half way through The Christmas Train now and enjoying it a lot. Baldacci certainly knows how to tell a story and keep you interested.

Last night I watched the second and final part of the 3rd series of Strike. I'm not entirely sure what was going on half the time, but I enjoy watching Tom Burke!

Ginny - having said that mysteries can be set in Scotland, I have singularly failed to remember any Christmas ones that are!  I'll keep thinking.

Have a good day everyone, and stay warm (my Siamese insisted on touring her (tiny) garden this morning. It took her approxinately 5 milliseconds to work out that I had, in fact, been speaking the truth about how cold it was. She came storming back in full of fury - 'why did you make me go out in that Arctic waste? what happened to summer?')

Rosemary

[Frybabe]

Pat, I guess you've heard by now that the telescope at Arecibo came down of it's own accord rather than waiting for them to dismantle it. I wonder if they will eventually build a new telescope on the site.

[ginny]

Rosemary, you'd think that would make a wonderful setting.   Well there's the Hamish McBeth series but I am not sure there's a  Christmas one? I think that's where I got the idea that Glasgow was not appealing, it looked fine on the Portillo show.

On to the next in the stack! I am enjoying this, this Christmas, and I don't think I would have done more than the one if you  all had not brought it up.

Nlhome, so that's  non fiction,  is it, about Churchill? I'm not getting too far at night with my reading either but it sure does put you to sleep, I think it must be the movement of the eyes. I am finding myself playing an OLD solitaire game kind of incessantly now at night, screen and all which they say you should not ever do before bed. It's by moblity ware, it's really old and simple, but I find myself playing it and thinking of other things, even singing snatches of long forgotten tunes  in my mind and it's very restful. Always trying to beat that top score. I wish I knew what others had scored with it, to compare... I don't know if I'm good or bad with it. I FEEL pretty good, but who knows?

Tomereader, I will wait and see what you think of  Winter's Secret, I'm really not in the Romance mood right now.

Cold here, too, Barbara, but nothing like what's happening elsewhere. I think personally I like 51 degrees for walking and for me, again, it's optimal for travel, (which of course I'm not doing), but it makes for a great walk.

[Tomereader1]

Ginny, have finished "Winter's Secret".  I somehow can't connect the title with the storyline.  It is very, very "romancy".  Also, deeply Christian, which I can deal with more than the romance.  I believe that author writes an entire series of these books.  To me, like all the "romance" genre, (or going back many years - - the "bodice rippers") the stories are formulaic and you've read one, you've read 'em all.  Kind of like "cozy mysteries" (sorry if I trample on anyone's toes with that remark!)

[rosemarykaye]

Ginny - I am exactly the same at bedtime, I have to have some plays of an ancient Wordsearch game as part of my routine - and yes, I too know that using phones that late is supposed to affect your sleep. but I tried leaving the phone in the kitchen and slept just as badly as I always do.

I too have read (and enjoyed) more Christmas books already this year than I ever normally would. I think I am usually in denial about the meteor of Christmas hurtling towards me, with all the work, shopping, cooking and cleaning it brings, followed by the having to be 'on' for several days without any opportunity for solitude - whereas this year no-one is coming, and we're doing a secret santa so I only have to buy one family present (which I must get on with). And I very fortunately drew one of my daughter's names - they are the easiest to buy for. All of the children said 'I hope I don't get Dad!' because he is nigh on impossible. I don't know who did get him.

I'm not even at work any more, so don't have to deal with all the Christmas stuff in the Cathedral (we would normally have had a large number of very big carol services and concerts, not only our own but also those of several local schools and at least two major charities - and one of those also involved a very smart dinner for VIP donors. It was nice to meet all the people involved in the organising, but it was non-stop just when there was so much to do at home.) And I'm also enjoying not having to go home every night in the darkness, and enter a dark and empty house. Now I try to be indoors before it gets dark, or at the very least just to pop to our local Co-Op (5 minutes walk away) if I need something - and I'm not even doing that while this ice is on the ground. I could so easily become a hermit. In fact I have probably almost achieved that status    I like being cosy. I feel a lot like the animals in The Wind in the Willows, who snuggle down to pass the winter in front of their fireplaces, with fond memories of all the joys of summer

Someone on our local Facebook group has just offered lots of cookery books 'free to good homes'.  So I have acquired Theodora Fitzgibbon's Traditional Scottish Cookery - I remember this book from my childhood, which was spent largely in our branch library - I think it came out in the late 1960s.  Blackwells Bookshop says its contents range 'from the simple scones, broths and bannocks of the Highland Gaels, to the sophisticated meat and game dishes that are a legacy of the Auld Alliance with France.' I'm not sure that I will actually cook any of these things but I am interested to read about their history. I had not really ever thought about the French influence on Scottish cookery, but of course there are a lot of historic connections between the two countries.

Rosemary

[Frybabe]

I am not generally a romance book person either. I liked Winter's Secret but not enough to continue with the series or get into other primarily romance stories. Oh, but then there is Jane Austen. Did I mention I downloaded an audio book of all her books? About 45 hours worth of listening, it has at least five narrators including Emma Thompson and Billie Piper, who played the part of Fanny Price in the 2007 movie version of Persuasion and was a regular on the TV show Penny Dreadful.

[rosemarykaye]

Oh I would like to have that on my phone Frybabe - now that I have these fabulous wireless headphones I am going through the classics like a knife through butter, whereas I doubt I would ever have picked up a physical book by, for example, Edith Wharton.  An audiobook would be a great way to revisit the Austens that I read years ago, and finally to 'read' the ones I never got round to.

[PatH]

Frybabe, I did already hear about Arecibo, but thanks for making sure.  My news reading is kind of spotty these days.  It's frustrating to have it the victim of bad maintenance when it was still doing useful work.

Ginny, the Churchill book is as far from fiction as you can get.  It's a detailed account of the life of Churchill and those around him during his first year in power, and for every single thing he has people saying, he's got written evidence of some sort, though he mercifully doesn't clutter up the text with it.  It's a really good read.

Rosemary, I have a lot of cookbooks that I bought for reading rather than recipes.  A writer good for both is Elizabeth David, who can write very evocatively, but also has recipes that I like.

[ginny]

Thank you, Tomereader, I am definitely not in a read a romance mood at the present time.

Rosemary, I have been thinking the same thing. I would make a good hermit. I have actually enjoyed the calm and peace... I really needed a break,and have enjoyed  the garden resurrected and the renewed appreciation of the farm, including the time for  reading but I don't think I could manage without the internet. Our classes here,  and the Zoom classes this term were ideal. No more leaving the house before dawn and trying to find the roads or returning after dark, both in rush hour traffic,  no more driving in hazardous weather....  I had hoped to be able to continue a couple of the Zoom classes at least (the early and late ones) for a while, and while  I know they go through the winter and spring semesters till  May now, I think people will  miss the campus,  in the end, we'll see. At the moment they are awfully good natured  about everything involved with it.  Am even picking up new students.  So far so good.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh Pat I was so tempted to get Elizabeth David's Christmas cookbook - I do not have any of her books - but I have been culling my books along with everything else in my big clear out and so to add yet another book I have to hold back my click finger - ordering a book on Amazon is just too easy  and it is too easy for me to succumb.

Did something so dumb last night but feel better - my daughter also did something really dumb - My dumb - Watching TV all cozy under a quilt on the sofa and a couple of pillows behind me and sure enough fell asleep - light on, scented candle lit, TV on all night, heat on - woke up around 6: with such a stiff painful neck I had to use this sports cream I have - did not even change but shut everything down and went to bed when it was almost time to get up - of course only awoke after 10: At least no neck pain however, lost the entire morning... thank goodness it is Friday - I even panicked thinking it was Saturday.

Well this email arrives from my daughter who was also in despair - from her email - oh yes, she has gas logs in her fireplace - propane at that $$$ - "I snaped the fire place on in the big living room about 9:00pm to warm it up a bit because I had planed on watching a movie.  Even poured myself a small glass of cold white wine and set it down next to the remote preparing to relax in front of a movie. Then SOME HOW as I went to put wash into the dryer I got an obsessive cleaning frenzy started …CLEANED THE ENTIRE LAUNDRY ROOM…and 2 more loads of wash…reorganizing, matching socks, tossing out a full trash bag of junk…  it almost looks like a magazine laundry room.  Here it is 1:20 in the morning and I LEFT THE FIREPLACE on from 9:00 till now!!!!  GEEEEeezzzzzz… I turned it off and downed the warm glass of wine in 3 gulps."

No excuse - the moon was full the other night - sheeesh...

[nlhome]

Ginny, as Pat says, The Splendid and the Vile is nonfiction, and it's really interesting. It's about Churchill and what is happening in Britain, but also talks about FDR and the US and the reluctance to get involved. When I read a good book on history like this, I always wish I had paid more attention in the history classes I took, and I wish at the time I was taking the classes I had understood why I should pay more attention. And perhaps the instructors could have put things more into perspective.

Anyway, it's mild here for December, hard to get into the Christmas spirit as it is, perhaps a bit of snow would motivate me, but none in the forecast. Good for heat bills and driving, though, and walking, as the sidewalks are not icy.

[ginny]

 Thank you Pat and Nlhome!  I am looking for a book for my husband for Christmas, he likes history, and this seems particularly good for him. I appreciate that.

Well I can truthfully say the history classes presented to me were nothing as interesting as we read about and see films on today. It was DATES. We memorized all the battles of WWI. Who do you know who has done that?

 We never got to WWII or the "Korean Conflict," much less anything else.  Well steeped as a child in the history of Pennsylvania, though and the  Westward Ho type stuff because of our interesting readers, I still have a couple of them,  but that all stopped later on and it became dates dates dates,  so much history to cram into only a couple of years. It really wasn't the fault of the teachers,  I guess.  They had a curriculum and a book to get through. OR they were all just as dull as dishwater. hahahaha

The Guardian has been talking about a new Christmas Carol, very inventive, put to dance, here's the trailer: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/dec/04/a-christmas-carol-review-jacqui-david-morris

But I mention it here because of  the comments for that article with people remembering their favorite productions over the years.

I think one reason I like the Guardian as the people writing in it seem to reflect my own taste. At any rate there were many mentions of Alistair Sim's portrayal, one of George C Scott's, and two of Michael Caine in the Muppets, which I have never seen.  I think I might try to find it. One of the very old ...who was it...... Seymour Hicks, almost... (that might not be right), it's the really really  old one barely talkies, and  one the one with Bill Murray which is on TV a lot.  Another one I realy liked was the musical with Albert Finney ("Thank you very much," song). I liked that too. But for sheer perfection, I have to  have Alastair Sim with the BEST Marley there ever was. It's black and white and has been colorized,  too. More Dickensian, to me. And you can see a young "Upstairs/ Downstairs" butler "Hudson" (Gordon Jackson) in it as well.

What's your favorite?  There's a new one from the BBC too which looks totally scary!

[rosemarykaye]

You've not seen The Muppets' Christmas Carol Ginny?!  It's a huge favourite with all of my children (even now, when the youngest is 22) and I love it too - it's hilarious.  Do find it - I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I'm afraid my school history was just the same. The Agricultural Revolution (yawn), the Industrial Revolution (yawn) and the American War of Independence. And all three were just dates, dates, dates. I started History A Level (the stage at which, in the English system - I was at school in London - you have to narrow it down to 3 or at the most 4 subjects) and was so bored after two weeks that I switched to Latin. 

And my daughter, who took the Scottish exams in History just a few years ago, found it just as dull. Tons of dates of Scottish battles. And those tedious revolutions yet again.  As you say, not the teachers' fault (usually!) but the fault of the curriculum, which requires students to churn out endless facts as a memory test. I think it also makes the marking quicker and easier - the markers just have a list of points and dates that have to be regurgitated, which means they are expected to fly through the papers and therefore accept the tiny pay they get for doing so. Then these students arrive at university and have no idea how to write a coherent essay with reasoned points, and can you blame them?

[rosemarykaye]

Pat - I agree about Elizabeth David, though sometimes I get a tiny bit irritated by her very privileged life - eg floating aroung France on a boat with some lover or other during the war. But she is a great cookery writer.

Another cook whose books I read simply for the narrative is Nigel Slater. His Kitchen Diaries are wonderful. I have made a few of his recipes (which are great), but mostly I just like to enjoy his descriptions of life in his North London kitchen, his cats, his cycling through Islington market, and his trips abroad to sample the market foods of places like Norway and Japan.

And I'm sure I've mentioned him before, but I did enjoy James Beard's books about his childhood in Portland (I think). I read them in the local library when I was at school - his experiences were so far removed from my suburban existence, I found them fascinating.

[Frybabe]

I never got along with memorizing names and dates in high school. My one and only D came from the World Culture class mid-terms which was almost all names and dates. I was aghast!

As for A Christmas Story, I don't recall seeing any of the later ones, but I most certainly would have seen the 1951 production, and quite possibly, the 1938 production with Reginald Owen as Scrooge. Oh, and I did read the story. A favorite of mine, I would have remembered seeing the George C. Scott one, and no, I didn't see the Muppets version; I didn't even know they made one.

Two more library books dropped. I almost forgot to pick up Alone at Dawn which is the true story of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient for his action in Afghanistan. The other one is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Ginny, I downloaded Douglas Jackson's Gaius Valerius Verrens series for a really good price, so I thought, what the heck. After all, the first book starts off in the Severn Valley in Siluria in 59AD. It will be a while till I get to reading it though. Oh, and I have the first of the Masters of Rome series in my wish list at the e-library.

Last night I finished listening to a short novel called One Man's War by Steven Savile. It is a Scifi mercenary story. and I can't say I liked the characters. They liked killing way too much. To counter that, I am now listening to anothe shortie,  How to Survive the Roman Empire by Pliny and Me by Hattie Naylor. It is rather amusing with a somewhat unterstated humor.

I really have to stop buying/borrowing books. I've way more than I will ever get through. Oh, but I can't. I am still in the middle of several series I want to finish.

[ginny]

Frybabe,  I forgot about Reginald Owen! Yesterday I read a column on Ranking the Best Versions of A Christmas Carol Worst to Best and when you get to the end (I had no idea at all there were SO many) the last two are missing. Top spots  (the "best" according to this reviewer), are not there. Some ad has removed them, to the disgust of the reader's comments, but the only one missing is Alistair  Sim (or so I thought till you mentioned Reginald Owen) so of the two it's got to be Alistair Sim for top spot, IF the top two are ever revealed. But that's only one man's taste.  (He hated the Albert Finney one which was good) Gosh there must be 20 of them, though, including one from 1901, a silent film with a Youtube short bit to go with it.

I went looking for my copy of A Christmas Carol in print last night, because I have several versions including the Annotated one and found a handsome one I had not even read, it's the original unedited version with wonderful paintings and illustrations, a wonderfully printed  book  with large print, big pages,  but light. I thought I'd read a Stave a night but like nlhome, went to sleep before Marley got there. There must be a prize somewhere for people who can pretty much speak all the lines with the characters. hahaha

I was quite excited to see Ruth Ware has a new book out, and the plot is right up my alley:  this time a posh alpine ski resort (no English manor house here) , not Christmas, a conference about doc.coms and IA if I  understood the write up correctly, and an avalanche snowing them  in with a murderer.  Sounds perfect to me for a New Year's read:


  Reviews:


'Fiendishly delicious' RED

'Agatha Christie fans will love this ingenious thriller...the pace is fast and furious and the twists satisfying'

'Deliciously sly' SUNDAY TIMES

'The sense of dread deepens as the snow falls in Ruth Ware's tensely plotted...alpine thriller'

'A chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Agatha Christie would have been up all night reading this one!' Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door

'Greed, ambition, manipulation, secrets, nifty plotting and a cracking denouement add up to a suspenseful and spine-tingling page-turner' Guardian

'An engaging page-turner that will keep you guessing' Daily Express

'Books shouldn't really be gobbled down like cake but with Ware's there's no other way' Metro

And so on....Some of the "reviewers," on Goodreads,  however, don't seem to like it. Harumph harumph. It seems that some folks take their "reviewing" quite seriously.


 Thankfully, I like to make my own decisions.

[ginny]

 Goodness me. Look at this! I was looking up articles on Victorian Classical Scholarship and found this quote on the Cambridge site:

"Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out."

- J.K. Rowling, Writer

[BarbStAubrey]

How much fun can a person have - this was a day that did NOT go as planned but oh oh - my daughter and two sisters tried to Zoom - best that can be said it was a practice session - some camera's were not set up at all and another would freeze - we had two messaging and two that could be seen - all we could do was laugh after all this with plans how to get us all hooked up properly

Well that was only half of it - the bottom of this story does get to books

on Facebook I'm connected to an embroidery group and this women from Croatia puts up some of her recent work - let me see if I can get it...

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1684011235091884&set=pcb.3481217731913719&__cft__[0]=AZX_OiXHqoC4shJkEIdg2cTq7Y82I3GUD2tfh4t9GPVgusFOCqwwJt_3cYfYQAKAd5-rsn7etzVs82q8SSP3u18MQEHOTP45mkXYXYVGJDr0WxZmhyLE6LY4EDSC3LYFFS0cUQDVFMFX28cgJ9CK9OjN&__tn__=*bH-R

which reminded me of embroidery I saw on Tumbler that was mostly in red and black so asked where it was from and if the designs were hers or in a book etc. - so one thing and another she is writing in Croatian and Google has a translator - the name of the embroidery is in English called snake - then she says, it is a type of embroidery that is protected with national identity by the  UN  -

Well I start looking and no embroidery but I do find information about the settling of that part of the world in the 3rd century on and on - Googled Croatian snake embroidery - then UN Protected Snake Embroidery all I came up with is stuff that is similar from Palestine - she is saying something that is not clear - something about it is not the same but the same something pictures on the wall  - All I can find when I eliminate snake is this very colorful embroidery from Croatia and I also find similar patterns for tattoos done in Croatia all in black - which she agrees with and says something about a pie but I can find nothing on cloth that looks like the black or Navy blue of the traditional ′′ Zmijanje ′′ pattern that translates as snake pattern - she says something that includes the word English as if suggesting it is the English translation that could be a problem - Well I'm about to give up after a half hour of this I post to her "OK gotta go - things to do - thanks bunches for introducing these designs."

Talk about an outloud laugh and a half - I decide to translate what I just said into Croatian and then using another translating site I put the Croatian translation in and ask for it in English and this is what I get - "All right, I have to go -- what needs to be done -- thank you to the crowd for introducing these designs." - that is what she is reading that I have said.

I laughed and laughed and then instead of using the word snake which is the English translation for Zmijanje - I use the Croatian word and bingo this among other sites come up and yes, it is UN protected through UNESCO
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/zmijanje-embroidery-00990 -

here is a Youtube of the embroidery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_ZwV-ieKSQ

what an adventure and learned on the way all about the history of Croatia and when the Serbs came from India in the 7th century but even more - I decided the embroidery design must be from a myth or folklore and thought I'd look up snake folklore - in Croatia the closest I can get to is a dragon and all these sites about three kinds of snakes that are very dangerous in Croatia -

So I look up folklore and myths about snakes without being specific to place and this wonderful site comes up from U of Pittsburgh that alphabetizes all these myth stories and following alphabetically the snake myths is the myths about the Snow Child -

Well I have that book and Eowyn Ivey has written another - I liked her writing and story telling although I seldom read fantasy - WELL turns out it was not her original story at all - it is bits and pieces with a new location in Canada or maybe it was the Western US anyhow the story is a retelling of the myths about the Snow Child -

Here is the book
https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Child-Novel-Eowyn-Ivey-ebook/dp/B004RD856M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26IPAMLM1EC01&dchild=1&keywords=snow+child+by+eowyn+ivey&qid=1607302076&sprefix=snow+child%2Caps%2C246&sr=8-1

And here is the Pittsburgh link - frybabe if you do not have this bookmarked I think you will like it.
https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html

Of course I got nothing done today either in my clean out or preparing Christmasor packages wrapped and ready for the mail - between new Zoom experience and the lady from Croatia whose name I cannot even pronounce much less remember - instead it was a day full of adventure and fun...

[Frybabe]

Barb, when I first looked at the embroidery posted by the lady from Croatia I thought it looked a lot like blackwork embroidery, which can get quite elaborate. I have a pattern somewhere in my collection that uses a variation using black and gold threads that is just lovely, but since I wasn't into cross stitch type embroidery, I never tried it. Unfortunately, my embroidering stopped when I couldn't see well enough with out lots of magnification before I had my cataract surgery (at 45). I never got back to it but still have all my threads, needles, etc.

I've bookmarked the U. of PA folk lore index for further investigations. Thank you for posting it.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, many of us thought it was Blackwork but I did see a version of these designs from someone I follow on Tumblr stitched in reds and black, sometimes a yellow or green thrown in and she too was from that part of the world and so that was made me start to ask more questions - what to me is a riot - we think we are being brief, friendly and clear with our Posts and when it goes into another language I had no idea till this experiment how convoluted what we think is so simple can translate.

The Pittsburgh site was I Though a mine of information - I bet this professor has classes in folklore stories - now that would be a class I would love to attend. Now I'm wondering how many other novels, especially the fantasy novels are based in these old myths and folk stories

I was looking around last evening and I have all these books started with anything that was close by used as a page marker - I really need to finish a couple of these and if I stopped because I was bored then don't leave the evidence of guilt and simply get rid of the book- I hate to pay good money for anything and then not use it but I've brought so many 'things' I've purchased over the years, that I never got their full value, to the Goodwill and so why do I feel I need to hold on to a book - somehow I give special status to a book and feel positively awful not finishing one.