Author Topic: The Library (Read 2086199 times)

marjifay · « **Reply #2640 on:** September 22, 2010, 03:16:59 PM »

The Library

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

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

Loved your story about Miss Lillian, MaryPage! One of the early morning radio hosts here in So. Calif. used to call her every now and then to talk. She loved to talk about baseball, of all things. She was sharp as a tack and a real kick.

Marj

FlaJean · « **Reply #2641 on:** September 22, 2010, 04:00:57 PM »

I sure did enjoy "listening" to this discussion. I also enjoyed Jimmy Carter's mother, refreshingly candid and non political.

PatH · « **Reply #2642 on:** September 22, 2010, 06:02:38 PM »

Politics and Prose is hosting a talk, reading, and book signing by Franzen on Friday, 7 pm. Because of the anticipated large turnout, it's not at the store, but at Lisner Auditorium, which seats about 1500.

maryz · « **Reply #2643 on:** September 22, 2010, 06:11:55 PM »

Wonder if the Franzen thing at Politics & Prose will be on Book-TV (CSpan2). They do a lot of things from P&P.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2644 on:** September 22, 2010, 06:38:48 PM »

Yes I've seen those reviews. Sounds like he covers everything in the characters lives. I think I'll give one of them a try and see how I feel about his writing.......Jean

JoanP · « **Reply #2645 on:** September 22, 2010, 09:11:58 PM »

This Saturday Jonathan Franzen will speak at the National Book Festival on the Mall in DC - and then sign his book, Freedom. Laura Bush will also speak of her new memoir - "SPOKEN FROM THE HEART"...but no signing. I guess it's a security matter. I think that these two will be televised on Book TV if you can't make it to D.C.

Persian · « **Reply #2646 on:** September 22, 2010, 09:32:07 PM »

It's been a while, but catching up with all of the comments here has been a really wonderful way to spend the evening.

JOAN - let me add my best wishes to that of others that you are back in your own home. Makes a huge difference, doesn't it, even though I'm sure you had wonderful professional care before you returned. I appreciate the toil of having to work with leg restrictions. I've been practicing with an "ankle boot" for weeks to help balance my pronated left ankle. Not there yet, but giving it the old Irish try!

And I'm also using the quiet of my household for the next week or so while my husband is in Maryland to arrange for some medical tests in preparation for what I assume will be another abdominal surgery for a small hernia. Enormously grateful for the wonderful medical professionals who have worked with me.

BABI - I really laughed at your assurance that "Bless your heart" is always a possible response, but one must be careful RE tone of voice. You and I have discussed this topic many times since we relocated from Maryland to NC several years ago. I've come to recognize the facial expressions, so I then know what my own response will be, coupled with a BIG dose of my Irish temper if I don't like what I see. Or perhaps a dose of this California-born gal's own "attitude."

I also laughed at the comment about that Southernism perhaps not working in the NE. Wonder if the Southerners who use BYH all the time have ever heard someone from Chicago or the Bronx ask "So?!" We're about 22 miles NE of Charlotte, NC and there are hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of folks from the NE in our area. I hear those accents all the time when I'm shopping.

I've enjoyed working with Friends of the Library in our area and responding to invitations to lecture to groups who wish to learn more about a variety of multicultural issues. Thus, I've been fortunate to discuss many aspects of verbal "regionalisms." Always great to learn something new!

I've also referred audience members to this site on many occasions. I don't know if any of them checked in, but ears must have been burning here occasionally as I speak about the discussions quite a bit and applaud the interesting range of comments I've read.

Hope your earlier online compromise requesting $$$$$ is way in the past now. Did you have to change your email address?

MARYPAGE - wonderful to see your comments, too. I'm still one of your BIG fans. Everytime I see your name, I become homesick for that beautiful Bay area!

And to everyone else, a BIG HELLO. I'll be back!

Mahlia

serenesheila · « **Reply #2647 on:** September 22, 2010, 09:34:41 PM »

WHOOPEE! Today, after a week of trying, and many phone calls to both Amazon's Kindle support, and the telephone company, I finally have my new Kindle working. Oh, happy day! I just had to share my good news. This one gives me a choice of either reading one of my books, or listening to it. I just love my Kindle.

Sheila

kiwilady · « **Reply #2648 on:** September 22, 2010, 10:28:04 PM »

Can you get audio books for a kindle?

Carolyn

maryz · « **Reply #2649 on:** September 22, 2010, 11:15:22 PM »

Carolyn, some books have audio, but not all - it depends on the book.

Steph · « **Reply #2650 on:** September 23, 2010, 06:35:02 AM »

Persian.. Oh me, I had not seen a post from you in so long..Glad to hear all is well.. Hope the surgery goes well. My husband had two hernia repairs.. Both worked well, although the recovery period is long.

Babi · « **Reply #2651 on:** September 23, 2010, 08:57:23 AM »

Mahlia, I didn't have to change my e-mail address, just my
password. I'm not sure how that works. but those were my
instructions.
There are so many standard replies that depend on the inflection and
tone to carry their message, aren't there? Perhaps the most flexible
of all time was the Chinese "Ah, so."

pedln · « **Reply #2652 on:** September 23, 2010, 09:57:51 AM »

Finally catching up on all your posts that I missed while travelling. You all are WICKED!

But a barrel of fun. Roshanarose, I had to laugh at your depiction of the Greek student. It reminded me of a recent review on Amazon. Now that I have a Kindle I've been checking out free and inexpensive books for Latin and was looking at the Latin edition of Caesar's Gallic War. There was only one review, and the reviewer gave it only one star because there was NO English.

Bless your heart and Isn't that nice -- more civil than "so?" and certainly more than "how does that affect the price of milk in Timbuktu?"

JOanP, the description of Freedom sounds good, but 600 pages?

I've been wondering about the marketing of books. I guess if you're Jonathan Franzen you probably don't have a problem. It's a lot harder for newer authors who have to work hard to market themselves -- and they're mostly just plain nice, too. We've been lucky beneficiaries of that. Amazon Kindle has a forum that has been discussiong new authors and marketing -- how the prices rise as the author gains in prominence. And there seems to be an effort on the part of forum members to purchase their books. Has anyone read anything by Karen McQuestion? Her books were mentioned several times in the forum. I've downloaded one, but haven't read it.

Right now I"m reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. (I wanted to see the film, but there were no captions.) So far, it's a little depressing. We shall see.

maryz · « **Reply #2653 on:** September 23, 2010, 09:59:33 AM »

Pedln, glad you're enjoying your Kindle.

bellemere · « **Reply #2654 on:** September 23, 2010, 10:41:15 AM »

anybody still reading newspapers? Take a minute today to be thankful for the health care reforms that meant that none of us can be dropped or "capped" by our insurance plans because we develop a serious illness; for those of us who will never have to face the dreaded "prescrption douthnut hole" and most of all for the little ones with disabilities who can never again be dinied health insurance. Somebody is doing something right.
don't want to get all political, just taking note.l Now, what to read next?My Book Club picked Half Broke Horses for next month, but i am curious about a mystery I heard of called "American Rust." Anyone heard of it? I also love Alice Munro and have not yet read her latest collection of short stories. And non-fiction is full of freat stuff. "The Nine" by Jeffrey Toobin about the Subpreme
Court, is one that is beckoning. Any opinions?

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #2655 on:** September 23, 2010, 10:42:16 AM »

Oh, Pedlin. "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" is such a beautiful movie. I can't remember whether the one I got from Netflix had captions. Does your TV not support captioning? I have a menu button on my TV's remote, and when you have pressed the buttons in the correct order (hah, didn't you know that was coming?) it gives you closed captions.

ANNIE · « **Reply #2656 on:** September 23, 2010, 11:02:27 AM »

Good morning to all,
I just came in to leave you a link to a humorous article in the Washington Post on the death of the Englsh language. And here I find out where everyone is posting. My goodness, Mahlia, how good to see you here plus many other familiar 'faces'. So here's the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091304476.html?referrer=emailarticle

We are in Johnstown, NY and will leave for Ithaca later after we eat lunch. Taking a leisurely drive, admiring all the color changes as Fall has arrived in NY. Today, we hope to see the great gran boys before anyone else in Ithaca. The 4 yr old called me yesterday and said hurry up, Gram.

bellemere · « **Reply #2657 on:** September 23, 2010, 11:21:17 AM »

Oh, Ado Annie, are you "Gram" goo? That is my handle , too, since myfirst choice, "Nana" was appropriated by that other woman. When I was teaching at the college I asked the class what they called their grandmothers. it was a very diverse group, I heare: "M'mere" from the French Canadians, "YaYa" from the Greek, "Baci" fromn the Polish kids, Nonna from the Italians, and "Madea" from the local African American kids, but "Bit Sis" from the Georgia kid. Yes, Big Sis. I settled on Gram, even if one of my grandsons spells it Graham, since he likes the crackers, I guess.

maryz · « **Reply #2658 on:** September 23, 2010, 12:03:17 PM »

bellemere, I love the idea of being "Graham"!!

AdoAnnie, my husband is heading in your direction - as you're leaving. He's picking up our daughter at the Buffalo airport tomorrow, and they're going to pick up another daughter and spouse in Rochester on Saturday. They're doing a week-long boat trip on the Erie Canal.

bellemere · « **Reply #2659 on:** September 23, 2010, 12:26:50 PM »

That trip sounds so cool. Is it one of those boats they sail themselves? Great time of year!

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2660 on:** September 23, 2010, 12:29:14 PM »

Bell - if you are "Graham" does that mean you are "crackers?"...............sorry, couldn't resist.

.....jean

Judy Laird · « **Reply #2661 on:** September 23, 2010, 02:47:27 PM »

HaHa Ann no I didn't trip over the dog she would be on my lap.
My foot went to sleep and when I went to stand up no leg down I went and had on heavy sketchers lace up balance shoes. My ankle twisted and went where ever the shoe did. I believe if I was in stocking feet I would not have been hurt at all. Now the big toe on same foot is infected and the anti-bkiotics make me sick as a dog. I could go on and on and ------------------

I wondered about some one asking about talking books for the kindle.
The kindle will read aloud any book you purchase if you wish.

Thats all from the funny farm.

BTW Hi Mary Page I am such a fan.

kiwilady · « **Reply #2662 on:** September 23, 2010, 03:28:39 PM »

Im gonna have to save up for a kindle! It will cost me a lot more til they become available here. Now we can only order them from Amazon. With exchange rate and postage etc it works out at more than a third more than you pay in the US. Boo Hoo!

Carolyn

Persian · « **Reply #2663 on:** September 23, 2010, 04:28:14 PM »

Hi STEPH - thanks for the welcome. Indeed, it has been a while!

BABI - glad for you that you did not have to change your email address. Such a hassle!

ANNIE - I, too read that article in the Washington Post - my favorite publication for many years!

BELLEMERE - there must be a lot of us "Grams" in the world, since that is my "call sign" from my two grandkids, too. Their maternal grandmother is from the Appalachian Mountains and they call her Me-Maw (sp?). I'm not sure where that came from.

PEDLN - I laughed when I read the title of the book you mentioned, since the teenage grandson of one of my neighbors told me recently that his grandmother was "exploring recipes from other cultures - even ancient ones." When I inquired about the titles, he said "Well, one of them is very old. It's called Caesar's Garlic War." He went on to inquire why I thought someone as "busy as Caesar" would have been involved in a garlic war? The only correct response to that young man's inquiry surely must be "Bless Your Heart!"

Mahlia

maryz · « **Reply #2664 on:** September 23, 2010, 04:30:58 PM »

Sorry Carolyn - I do wish you could get them in NZ. There are other electronic readers - maybe one of them might be available there. I don't know anything about them, though.

Judy, I don't think all Kindle books have reading - I know some of the ones I have gotten don't have that feature.

bellemere, Yes, they'll be sailing (driving) the boat themselves - just the four of them. John and I (with his sister & BIL) did the same trip (with another company) last September and had such a good time, the girls decided they wanted to do it, too. John sort of invited himself since they had an extra space, and they agreed to let him come. Also he volunteered to drive, so they could fly up (since they are more time-limited) and not have to rent a car.

bellemere · « **Reply #2665 on:** September 23, 2010, 05:03:33 PM »

but the Erie Canal boat is motorized, not a saliboat right?

maryz · « **Reply #2666 on:** September 23, 2010, 05:10:17 PM »

Oh, yes - it's a motorboat -"sailing" is just a general term, I guess. As I remember, the normal speed we attained was about 4 mph. Just a lovelyweek. If you're interested, I can send you links to the only two companies, or just put "boating on the Erie Canal" into google. We used one of them last year, and this year's group is using the other. When they get back, we can give you a comparison.

kiwilady · « **Reply #2667 on:** September 23, 2010, 06:14:51 PM »

Mary - we have NO readers here. Every other gadget BUT readers!

Carolyn

kiwilady · « **Reply #2668 on:** September 23, 2010, 06:23:21 PM »

I have a just turned 13 year old granddaughter who was diagnosed as a dyslexic at 7. She has a phenomenally high IQ. I am so proud of her that she is an avid reader and reads adult books most of the time. She has been doing a critique and character study on a movie for English. She always shows me her drafts. She has done an incredible job of it. I had to explain to her how she had to show examples from the movie to validate her statements about the character as she did not understand what the teacher wanted in that respect. I don't think I could have written a better critique even maybe not as good. School is very hard for her. Even so she is in the top stream of her year. I suppose you would call it an honours class.

Its great that today they keep the childrens interest by showing "books into movies" allowing the kids to critique using the movie. It keeps their interest in books if they don't always have to read a book to do the work they need to do for English credits. Sometimes they will see the movie and desperately want to read the book. When they read the book they find there is so much more to it than what they saw in the movie.

roshanarose · « **Reply #2669 on:** September 23, 2010, 08:24:49 PM »

Slightly off topic, sorry. Last night I watched a BBC program called "Lost Gardens". A combination of history and gardens is irresistible to me.

FYI Gum and maybe Kiwi it is on ABC Thursdays at 6pm.

It is quite similar to "Time Team" in that archaeological digs are carried out. This particular dig was at a place called Shelley/Schellie Hall owned by the Tindle family in 1619.

By 1783 there was no trace of the garden. The dig started in 2009.

There were many small plants for the garden pre1519, angelica, rosemary, iris, roses, dianthes, valerian to name those I noted down. They loved many colours in their gardens in 1519.

There was a moat and a river from where fish were caught for the table. They had "stuponds" or "stewponds" (unsure of spelling) which were large fish ponds closer to the house where the fish were kept, making it easy for the cooks to choose the fresh fish for that night's dinner.

Knot gardens and mazes were also very popular at the time. Hyssop was used to outline the maze, and rose gardens nearby were surrounded by gravel. The greens of chives and artichokes were planted together for "gentle effect"

There were also trellises on which Hazel trees were trained which would eventually yield nuts.

When the site was excavated to the workers' satisfaction, the original plants were planted around the maze and knot gardens and the stupond was rebuilt. Although only small plants had been planted the result was lovely. The garden experts left the house occupants advice that the plants needed lots of water and warm sun. It must have been summer

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2670 on:** September 23, 2010, 09:01:52 PM »

I think "Me-Maw" is a southern term. At least the friends I have who areM-Maw are from the South......Jean

Persian · « **Reply #2671 on:** September 23, 2010, 09:43:07 PM »

Thanks for your explanation, Jean. I'll add it to my collection.

Mahlia

bellemere · « **Reply #2672 on:** September 23, 2010, 10:05:22 PM »

kiwilady, What a joy your bright little granddaughter must be to you. I've got one like that, graduating from university in June and it looks like she is headed for a doctoral program in linguistic anthropology, probably at M.I.T. And writing her second bi-lingual children's book. Her first one, Enfrentando el Gigante, (Confronting the Giant) was pulished this year in Bolivia, by a government grant to increase the supply of children's literature in their county.

Gumtree · « **Reply #2673 on:** September 24, 2010, 03:12:42 AM »

Roshanarose - yes - I noticed that Lost Gardens programme but only caught a couple of minutes of it this week.- we were too busy watching Jupiter rise. The programme looked interesting. We are fans of the Time Team and this show seems to have the same approach. I've been an avid gardener in my time so the combination of history and the garden should prove irresistible.

While we're off topic - the news has it that Kerry O'Brien is leaving the 7.30 Report - big loss - but he expects to stay with the ABC - says it's time for him to decide 'what to do with the rest of his life' - somehow I don't think he's quite ready for SeniorLearn.

Steph · « **Reply #2674 on:** September 24, 2010, 05:56:13 AM »

I have a note about a book called Forgotten Garden. It is fiction, but concerns an English garden that had been neglected and ignored for years. Wonder if the author had been to the one mentioned in the TV show.

Gumtree · « **Reply #2675 on:** September 24, 2010, 06:14:25 AM »

Steph - do you also have a note of the author of Forgotten Garden

joangrimes · « **Reply #2676 on:** September 24, 2010, 06:39:03 AM »

Quote from: mabel1015j on September 23, 2010, 09:01:52 PM

I think "Me-Maw" is a southern term. At least the friends I have who areM-Maw are from the South......Jean

Well I am a life long Southerner ad I never hear Me-Maw but I am Maw-Maw which I hear all the time...Then again we have small regions within the South ...Joan g

Babi · « **Reply #2677 on:** September 24, 2010, 09:08:27 AM »

Oh, goodness, JUDY, I hope you called your doctor about the antibiotics that make
you sick. There are nearly always alternatives available that he could order instead.
The broken ankle is bad enough to deal with w/o being sick, too.

Mahlia

A big 'garlic' grin.

ROSHANAROSE, that BBC program sounds wonderful. That's one I would love to see here.
BELLEMERE, KIWI, congratulations on those bright granddaughters. BELLE, is the book
Spanish/English? I'm seeing more and more children's books in Spanish/English in
our local library, since we have a good size Spanish-speaking population.

I'm Texan, JOANG, and my stepmother is from Mississippi. She has always been 'Me-maw' to
my children.

joangrimes · « **Reply #2678 on:** September 24, 2010, 10:05:52 AM »

WEll I said there are regions within regions in the South...Miss. is very different from Alabama...one of my daughters has just moved to Vicksburg, Miss. She has been astounded at the differences...She and I have been talking about it...Of course I do not consider Texas as Southern State at all...I hope you don't take offense at that...That is just my personal opinion...Oh don't know why I am even reponding to posts...nothing else to do I guess...This leg has me so confined and I feel the need to talk to other humans...Don't care about regionalism at all..JUst need human contact...JoanG

roshanarose · « **Reply #2679 on:** September 24, 2010, 10:48:49 AM »

Gumtree - I am a fan of Kerry O'Brien of the green pen. I like this description of him "Kerry O'Brien is the thinking woman's crumpet". Whatever he does in the future, I will follow him.

Steph - Maybe you could check it out. "Twould be interesting if they are referring to the same "Lost Garden".

News:

Author Topic: The Library (Read 2086199 times)