The Library

[pedln]

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!

Talking too much.

My (only slightly younger) seatmate on the plane yesterday was reading Wild Swans by Juang Change -- published several years ago, about three generations of Chinese women.  I remembered the name, but not much about the book.  Then she asked, "Have you read The Help?" and so we both agreed that that was a very good book.  I'm kind of slogging my way through Norwegian Jo Nesbro's Nemesis, about Oslo detective Harry Hole.  Not making a lot of progress.

Your discussion about volcanoes reminded me of an excellent title read several years ago, The Day the World Ended by Thomas and Witts, about the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelee on the island country of Guadaloupe.  Politics played a part because an election was coming up and the powers that be did not want the citizens to leave town.  I'm not sure it's still in print, though it is available through some 3rd party Amazon sellers.

[serenesheila]

How about San Francisco?  If you haven't been West, that is a great place to begin.  It is a beautiful city.  Lots of different things to do.  Cable car rides, Golden Gate Park, good shopping, lots of book stores, plays, boat rides, and many more.  I just wanted to make that suggestion for a get together.

Sheila

[Steph]

I have been to San Antonio.. I liked the riverwalk and the Alamo is glorious.. But I am not flying this year, so unless I could find a train, would not go.
San Francisco is neat, but tends to be expensive.
Being in the south.. if this is in the fall.. Savannah is a great great town to visit. Lots of walking things.. the funniest tours in creation..Food is wow.. Harbor the same.. All in all a lovely city that is always eclipsed by its neighbor Charleston..

[Frybabe]

Ah, Steph, Savannah!  For years, I have wanted to take the Silver Bullet down and visit that lovely city of gardens.

[pedln]

Savannah -- have only spent a weekend there, but I love it.  We toured on the trolley, but missed the cemetary, so I have to go back.  Those wonderful live oaks, the Savannah School of Design, Juliet Low's house, and Beaufort's not too far away, is it.  That warrants another visit too.

[kiwilady]

Today I thought I would go into one of our archived book discussions just to jog my memory about a particular book. I ended up bawling my eyes out because there were posts by bookies who were now passed on. Has anyone else had this experience when going into archived discussions.  We did have some incredible discussions in SN didn't we?

Carolyn

[Steph]

Ah the archives. Source of some of the most heated discussions. I dont think I will ever forget some of them. I still think of how much I thought I loved a book and ended up not liking it at all..

[Judy Laird]

There is only one place in the world that would get me off my lazy self and
that is Savannah. It is magicial and I think the  greatest historical town in the
country.

I have been on the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at least 3 times.
In face the lady that owns Southern Hospitialty Tours has become a friend.
The Bonevienture Cematery is so beautiful. I've been there at least 3 times.
Mrs Wilke's Boarding House and The Ladies and Sons are 2 places that are a
must eat at.  I am not sure which has the best fried chicken but maybe if I went
one more time??

You'll have to get Ann to tell you about a day in Beaufort some time.

My friend was in the movie and she took us out to meet the lady who played Miss
Mminerva IN THE MOVIe and then we went to her husbands gravesite, what fun we have had there.

[winsummm]

the ground shook about four this afternoon just over the california border near mixically about the tip of baja sea which is  considered an earthquake zone where the north and south plates come together.

at a 7.2  and two hundred miles away epicenter it was enough to get me out of my recliner to the door frame and as it seemed to get stronger out of the house still holding my kindle and reading glasses where I met some of my neighbors for the first time, three men and one woman. we chatted and they helped me hold onto things that I had brought including a folding chair I keep near the door for that purpose.  Word    Malibu had an after shock  barely felt by motorests.   there are connected ones in northern ca relative to san fransisco and sacremento as well.

I belong to the usgs news letter for anything over a 4.0 and have noticed a swarm lately. the strongest one here just after the major one was a 5.2.  There will be more for as much as eleven days.  no damage or injuris so the new pundits are all but enjoying it here at least. but it was on ALL the news channels and interrupted others.

claire

[mabel1015j]

That must be a scary sensatioin Claire. Is it always in the back of your mind?..................jean

[Steph]

Yes, MDH was in one of the smaller ones years ago in San Francisco.. He was on the 12th floor at the hotel and swore never again to stay any higher than the third floor. I have never felt the tremors, but it sounds decidedly odd.
Hmm. Savannah is sounding more and more the choice of a lot of the people.. Ginny.. are you listening?? Do you have any ideas.. We have stayed in a small Inn ( did not like it, so would no recommend it) and at least one hotel right on the main area, so you can walk everywhere..

[ginny]

Oh yes I'm here and listening and Judy knows I am not the person to ask about Savannah but I know people love it. Frybabe does the Silver...is it Meteor, what is the name of that train,  still run?

I love all the ideas here,  I think was it Jean way back there talking about a cruise? Now there's an idea, very cheap ones leave the ports of Florida and SC, Reader's Cruise? There would be no need to do the sort of planning we did for the beach house, but there would not be an author either unless we found one on the beaches or coast of SC before the cruise  or Fla, and there are plenty of them in both states.

Why does Pat Conroy keep coming to my mind? I understand he's very generous with his time and I've certainly, like most everybody else,  read his books.

Be our luck to get the Norwalk virus  the entire trip. Still, a cheaper trip is hard to imagine.


Claire! You should take up writing, how well you wrote that, I felt I was there also, but have there been any aftershocks? I hope you all out there are OK. As Jean says is it something you think about all the time?

I saw some film of a swimming pool with waves, kind of scary in fact.

Be SAFE out there!



In re Vincent Van Gogh, I sat down yesterday evening  and picked up Lust for Life by Irving Stone and noticed an Arles chapter and since I'm going to Arles in July I thought I'd just read it, boy that guy can write. I hate historical fiction but this time I'm glad I read it, I read the  Arles section, the St.  Remy section (two more Roman ruins I did not know about) and the Auvers sur Oise (I'm sure that's misspelled) section and his death.

Stone says he based a lot of it on the letters. What a love story between brothers, and what a shock to see so many of the very famous artists ill, dying young, and in miserable straits. Too bad they could not have lived long enough to see the prices they get now.

Poor man, lived on practically nothing but absinthe and coffee literally, it's no wonder people thought he was crazy, don't they still sell absinthe? Stuff is poison isn't it?

What a story, Theo and Vincent, what a story. I would like to read the letters which involve his being placed in St. Remy,  Stone did that so beautifully.  I must find which volume that is, they are not on the internet by any chance are they? Gutenberg Project? I'll do some sleuthing.

Boy Stone can write. I'm not going to read the rest right now but if I ever need something to sweep me up, he's the man.

What are you reading??

[ginny]

Yes, the letters are online but they don't show Theo's, and they aren't on Gutenberg. Here's one site, note the calendar arranging them by order, I did not realize he illustrated them as well: http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/

I think it might be better to see these three volumes Mrs Sherlock is talking about.

[Babi]

 Well, CLAIRE, that's one way to meet one's neighbors. Personally, I can't
help feeling that earthquakes are a warning from nature that it would be
a good idea to 'get out of there!'. Ah, well, we get hurricanes. I guess
there are dangers everywhere.
  We lived in California for two years...twice. I've experienced the
tremors, tho' never a severe one. There is definitely a tenseness in
waiting to see just how bad it's going to be.
  Irving Stone was good. His historical biographies were reputed to be
very accurate. I read several of his; notably "The Agony and the Ecstasy"
(Michelangelo) and "The Greek Treasure" (the Schliemans).

[Frybabe]

Well, Ginny, I checked the Amtrak schedule and there are the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor. I don't know where I got Silver Bullet from. I must have remembered wrong. AAA had a trip on one maybe six years back I wanted to go on but the timing was off. It is an overnight trip so I would miss most of the scenery on the way down. I assume the trip back would be daylight.

[winsummm]

GINNY Et  AL  there were five aftershocks that I know of on my current e-mail listing  at sngs out of twenty per page bt I did't feel them. However I did have a peculiar  shaking of my hands an hour or so later.  moy innards were elling me to run even then.

Irving Stone: I read everything I could find about forty years ago. is it that long. just guessing. He did a good job novelizing the artists.

my mind keeps going back to that rush down the hall and out the front door, with he chair and the kindle. silly really both can be replaced but not  me and they through me off balance, a problem these days. thanks for asking it helps to share. I think I understand post   tramaticv stree thingee.
claire

[Gumtree]

Winsumm : How scary for you. Hope things have settled down again though it seems the aftershocks keep on for some time. Take care of yourself. You were right to take your kindle, reading glasses and chair - what more does a gal need!

Read a lot of Irving Stone at one time and recently (a year or two ago)Joan Grimes led us in a great  discussion of his Depths of Glory - Camille Pissaro - he made that man and his work come alive before my eyes. And of course the Michelangelo one and  Dear and Glorious Physician etc etc - great reading. Maybe we should consider the Vincent Van Gogh one for a discussion. I just fancy something like that -I'd better check it out of my library.

[mabel1015j]

My favorite Irving Stone book was Immortal Wife about Jessie Benton Fremont and her husband John. What an intelligent, strong, adventuresome woman she was. I also liked Love is Eternal about the Lincolns..................jean

[mrssherlock]

Oh,Dear Claire, of course you now know about PTSD.  The 1989 quake, now named Loma Prieta, was so traumatic we quivered at each aftershock, of which there are always too many.  Seems like there are a great number of big quakes recently and warnings for places where "The Big One" is due or past due so we're all nervous.  Don't beat yourself up over your response; you did what you did and would have found something to criticize no matter what you took with you.  If it makes you feel better you could take advantage of some of the advice which gives lists of emergency response and supplies for a quake.  Here's FEMA's site:  http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm

[Frybabe]

I am glad that you are okay Winsumm.

I have the USGS earthquake map bookmarked, but don't get their newsletter. It looks like that the after shocks are still coming hourly out your way. I am afraid that that would totally unnerve me.

What a surprise to see that Maine had a small one this past week as did West Virginia. Also, a 2.6 reported between Quebec and Montreal yesterday.

[JoanK]

And I felt it another hundred(?) miles further North in LA. I was talking to PatH in Maryland on the phone, and suddenly realized that my chair was rocking back and forth. It continued to rock for what seemed several minutes. For some reason, it scared me more than earlier, stronger quakes I've been through. I think there is something in the air that is making everyone nervous and edgy: I feel that way, and so do friends I've talked to.

CLAIRE: don't beat yourself up for taking your reading material with you. It shows you are a true blue bookie!!! I didn't even move, and kept on talking on the phone (guess it takes more than an earthquake to get me to stop talking  )

[PatH]

Plus, there was no way I was going to hang up and sit around wondering if you were all right.

[winsummm]

time for bed. I just watched a David LYnch film   MULLHOLLAND DRIVE  which  is very dark and abstract and is not a good thing to take to bed with me so I am here. the music alone which he collaborated on is a steady but varied just enough drone.  well good night all.    claire

[winsummm]

I just lost my password for this . . .Ihave lists o them all over the place but this one isn't there. so ow do I recover or change it so tha I can change m profile etc.   claire

[Steph]

I loved Irving Stone and think I read every single book of his. The Van Gogh was wonderful. I have read at least one book of letters, although that was quite a few years ago. I loved the grave site.. Very peaceful and lovely.
A cruise. I know we tossed it around over and over in senior net, but never agreed on where. I do agree that it couldnt be cheaper.. but would wonder if they would place us all together on the boat or widely separated. I personally love the mountains of Western Georgia and North Carolina.. Dont know where we could meet..I have been looking at cabins in the mountains.. but they dont have many for just one person and those are too isolated for me.  www.homeaway.com   has a nice site for rentals. pretty much everywhere.

[ginny]

Claire look up to the top of the page where it says Profile in the blue band across the page, click on that and you can change your password there? It's in the column which begins under the picture in the heading, over to the right.

Golly you've alll read so many Irving Stones! They all sound good to me, this may turn me on to historical fiction but I still think it's Van Gogh's voice which stands out. I wonder if there is a shorter book of his letters to Theo maybe at the end, I'll do some searching.

Letters, what will posterity have of our digital age.  How many (not email, not with a keyboard) do you write? I can barely write a sentence anybody can read because of lack of practice, my handwriting is totally incoherent.

Do YOU write letters?

Well then of course one can cruise FROM Savannah I think if not I know one can drive up to Charleston and cruise from there. We've never done it.

[Babi]

 Claire, I sometimes wonder what I would grab in case of fire. The list
keeps changing, and of course it would always depend on the circumstances.
If it came right down to it, I'd probably grab my purse and whatever else
came to hand, like you and the chair.

 Ah, yes, "Dear and Glorious Physician" was a great Stone book, and I
read about the Fremonts as well. Stone was simply tops in that genre.

[Gumtree]

Ah me, I made a boo boo ! Dear and Glorious Physician wasn't written by Stone - it's one of Taylor Caldwell' s - about St. Luke. Good book!

[winsummm]

the password:

when we sarted here at seniorlearn my old password was acceped so I left it alone and now it is not.  I have files and files full of passwords but not the one or this discussion. I spent  over an hour looking for it last night. PAT help help.

claire

[mabel1015j]

I use only 2 passwords for everything, one much more frequently than the other, so it doesn't take me long to figure out which one i should use.................jean

[mrssherlock]

Why are we (some of us) so captivated by reading fiction?  Have you ever wondered?  Science is beginning to look for aanswers to these questions.  Patricia Cohen, NY Times News Service, sheds some light on this intersection between literature and cognitive psychology:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/books/01lit.html

[bellemere]

My friend the Barnes and Noble exec thinks "Matterhorn" , about the Viet Nam war, will become THE war novel classic of America, like All Quiet on the Western Front was for Germany. It is just out and I asked if it would appeal to women and he said he thought it would, although it is very graphic.  so I have my name in for it, hope it doesn't disappoint. 
I finished The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, all about family, power, history, and some mayhem in old Boston in 1919.  Lehane did incredible research, and it is very gripping, but I think the editor dropped the red pencil. the author is either out to write the longest sentences or the most strained metaphors of today.  (Sorry, the old English teacher keeps emerging, even after all these years.)
I am trying to clear up my "to read" list to get ready for Possession  I know I read it years ago, and will love revisiting it.

[winsummm]

fictrion? and nonfiction.  I use both but real life is harder to absorb since it cannot be altered as in WIRED FOR WAR  about the developement of ROBOTS  whichis slowly being fiished . fiction can be fnished in a day depending and often contains much technological information which I find interesting and follow in the real world as well.  a balanve is good.  the NYT isnpt one of my favorite papers.  I like SALON  and WASHINGTON POST betteer.  You can't read em all although  there are some who do and it is easy here on the internet.

The Kindle makes my searches easy becuase I canonly read whole books there. anything else has to be on the computer where I can bow up the print and it hurts my eyes.  Kindle technology doesnt do that to me.  it happens here too so oten idon't bother editing, but I guess you all know that.

claire

[Frybabe]

Bellemere, I welcome your impressions of Matterhorn when you read it. I bought All's Quiet on the Western Front last summer but haven't read it yet. It was my Dad's favorite silent movie. I wonder if there was ever a talkie remake.

[Pat]

I just lost my password for this . . .Ihave lists o them all over the place but this one isn't there. so ow do I recover or change it so tha I can change m profile etc.   claire

How then are you managing to post ?  You must be logged in?

Write marcie .. if you have more problems -- I'm not very good at sorting out passwords

[winsummm]

I never logged out. I just stayed put. I went to the HELP section but there was nothing there about retrieval of  passwords as there usually is in most cases. I don't really need it except to change my information. for example I love my new age, even want to brag about it and before I was a little embarred, before I hit eighty and heighty two which is a fine age if you can still keep your mind andactivities in order.  I love being in m eighties even with all the new little probems that keep popping up.

good night all.
huggles 
cliare

[marcie]

Hi, Claire

I've sent you an email with your password. Let me know if you need help. It's fantastic that you want to brag about your age!

[winsummm]

thanks marcie. I've got it because I had to  use it to LOGIN again so that I could thankyou here as well as there . . . e-mail. 

now to fix my profile.  hugs

[Steph]

I must confess that graphic is the last thing I want in a book nowadays. War fiction or non fiction never interested me.. The ultimate horror is war..
Hmm. A cruise from Savannah for a few days and a few days in Savannah sounds like heaven to me..

[bellemere]

A terrible incident in the town next to mine, a young Irish immigrant girl took her own life after ;months of bullying by a group of girls and boys at the high school   It has brought mention of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" and the comparison is very apt.  Maybe that book should be required reading for all high school freshmen.
The students involved have been charged with serious crimes and three of them will face trials in adult courts because they are 17and up.  The others will be treated as juvinile offenders.
The big question people i\are asking:  Where were the teachers and administors ? 
And the parents?