The Week of All Weeks

I'll never know what I did to deserve all the goodness that come my way last week.  Wednesday is typically my day off, and when I got in on Thursday morning, there were some beautiful yellow flowers dropped off by a customer.  On opening my emails, I found a touching note from a friend.

Life is good, right?  It got even better on Friday when I received an autographed copy of Flora the Flamingo along with print of one of the book's illustrations signed by the artist.  Something I said during a phone conversation with a sales rep prompted her to pull that little gift together.

Saturday brought another surprise - signed copy of the book you see above, along with another print autographed by the illustrator.  Also included was a little poem written by author Debra Frasier.

Ode to Picture Books

The picture book is first a story,

but it also gives us

proximity to each other,

as it is most often delivered by

an older person to a younger person.

You must sit close

to turn the pages,

to see the pictures.

Your fingers point

and touch the paper.

Shoulders can rub lightly together.

Repeated often,  reading a picture book with a child becomes

a doorway that is recognizable as as opening to beauty - reliable,

surprising, safe, and adventurous all the same moment.

Just lifting the cover of the book between you

can become the silent signal that the way is opening

and beauty beckons.

This is not a small thin at the edge of a complicated century.

Originally published for the Read With a Child campaign,

Association of Booksellers for Children 1997

Wishing you a lovely week filled with surprises.

Thanks for stopping by.

Delicious!

Finally.  Ruth Reichl has returned.  Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples remain two of my favorite memoirs.  In those books, Reichl shares her adventures and mis-adventures with food having been strongly influenced by a mother whose cooking ineptitude nearly killed several dinner guests.

Luckily, Reichl learned what not to do, and her early books take us on adventures through windy roads in the hills of Italy, into the secret passages of New York's culinary centers, and into her own kitchen.

Delicious! is a novel - The Devil Wears Prada meets Julie and Julia.  Billie Breslin has travelled from California to take a job at Delicious! the most iconic food magazine on the planet.  From the moment she enters the centuries old mansion housing the heart of the publication, she is tested.  Can the shy small town girl keep up with the snobbery, and the blatant jealously of the seasoned staff?  Before she has a chance to discover what, if any, impact she can make, the magazine is shut down and she chooses to remain in New York at an interim job.

A series of complex events leads her to a collection of correspondence exchanged during WW II between a twelve-year-old girl and legendary chef James Beard.  That's a far as I am.  this is a gentle novel with a Maeve Binchy feel.  I am especially enjoying the local color and the collection of characters that work as food artisans in the city.

These arrived today.  Great pictures and bits of local history.  We'd be happy to set one aside for you.  Click on the EVENTS tab for information on an author signing.

Thanks for stopping by.

To the Moon, Alice

This book took me back to some of the grad school documents I read for my thesis - totally boring, studied, academic writing - yet totally fascinating subject.  Lawrence Wright has packed his book with bizarre facts and incidents presented in the most matter of fact manner.  I imagine he had to struggle to keep his words from becoming sarcastic, or worse - glib.

For those of you who think that Scientology died with L. Ron Hubbard in 1985, never fear.  Hubbard simply chose to "drop his body" and move to a new level of existence.  If Hubbard followed the same path he asked his acolytes to accept, he first went to Mars (yes, Mars) where he spent time before a huge wheel depicting significant moments in his life.  As the wheel spun, Hubbard's past grew weaker and weaker until it no longer existed.  He will be back.  He promised that.  After spending time with the wheel on Mars, a Scientologist finds a new baby's body to occupy.  If no baby is readily available the Thetan (believer) energy simply lurks around a pregnant woman until she goes into labor.

Yup.  You're right.  I'm not going to be signing up for these fun and games any time soon.  Seriously, Hubbard was dangerous, delusional and a bigamist.  And that is only the beginning.  Some will say that this book is certainly the work of a conspioracy theorist, but the amount of research that went into this is evidenced by footnotes and over fifty pages of end notes documenting sources.  This isn't a Kitty Kelley expose type book.  Wright never tells us that his sources have asked to remain anonymous.  He never quotes the cousin of a neighbor who one had a sister who sat next to Hubbard's son in second grade.  He names his sources and presents them as credible by explaining their background and association with Scientology.

What I don't understand is how this organization has managed to maintain its status as a religion.  That position has been challenged more than once, yet it continues to enjoy the privileges granted to more traditional churches.  Maybe that will be answered for me in the coming chapters.  I was also curious about how this group enticed so many celebrities, but now I understand that.  I just began reading about Tom Cruise's early involvement, while he was still married to his first wife, Mimi Rogers.

I haven't decided how much more time Ill spend with this book.  It's an eye opener, for sure, but the I can't imagine that my opinion will change if I continue to read.  200 pages to go....skimming might work (not that I every skimmed in grad school., mind you).

Thanks for stopping by.

Because I've been binge watching British mysteries on PBS, this advance reader seemed like a great choice for some weekend reading.  I figured I'd scan a few chapters and that would be that.  Nope.  This turned out to be both fun and enlightening reading.  Lesley and Roy Adkins created a fully painted picture of the 18th century, validating my long held belief that I would not have survived long under those conditions.

The past ten years or so have been good to Jane Austen.  Most of her books have been made into movies, some being big Hollywood ventures, others smaller offerings by the BBC or public television.  The pictures of rural England, serene, slow, with gallant men in breeches and women in empire waist dresses writing in journals tells only part of the story.

The Adkins tell us the rest.  This book portrays to daily lives of ordinary people with discussion topics as diverse as childbirth, marriage, religion, sexual practices, hygiene, highwaymen and superstitions.  Fetching water from a well or river every day?  No thanks.  Medicinal leeches.  Nope. Children working in the mines meant certain early death, that is if the plague from really creepy bathroom practices didn't get them first. Oh, and how about  the corpses left in public swinging from gibbets for everyone to see?

Yes, it was all quite bleak by today's standards.  Most people could not afford lawyers so many couples suffered intolerable marriages as a result. A woman could not divorce her husband on grounds of cruelty since it was legal for a husband to beat his wife.  But if he did beat her to the brink of death, he was punished, and asked to "be good" for about three years.  A husband could end a marriage by selling his wife. Sometimes the woman consented, but not often. The woman was led into the public square with a rope around her neck and auctioned off. Once money exchanged hands, the deed to her ownership was transferred to the highest bidder.  

And of course, there were the gypsies. Apparently child stealing was common in parts of England; the gypsies were often credited for the abduction.  Kids were stolen for various reasons - couples desperate for a child, for cheap labor or to sold into slavery.  Local newspapers reported these abductions with most reports ending with "....the child is probably gone forever."

Oh, these were not easy times for those people who did not live between the covers of an Austen novel.

By they way, if you have time, try to catch an episode or two of "DCI  (Detective chief Inspector) Banks" , Scott & Bailey, or Father Brown Mysteries.  Sometimes I have to use the closed caption button of the TV since these Brits talk quickly and quietly.  PBS doesn't always keep a consistent schedules with these shows, but check them out ifyou can.

I'm also re-reading Tom Maltman's Little Wolves for our books discussion this week.  I must have read it too fast the first time, because I certainly missed a lot.  Not sure about the ending, though.  We'll see what the discussion offers.

Thanks for stopping by.

A World of Mess

No post today.  I am moving shelving around so that some drywall work and painting can start tomorrow.