Book a Week in 2014 - BW41

[Pam in CT]

I am only fourteen chapters behind in HoAW (cough, cough).  I must share a footnote from the book (Chapter 38) that completely cracked me up.  SWB is commenting on the use of the word "nimrod" to mean a "foolish and ineffectual man":

 

 

Quote

 

The only etymology I can find for this suggests that, thanks to some biblically literate scriptwriter, Bugs Bunny once called Elmer Fudd a "poor little Nimrod" in an ironic reference to the "mighty hunter." Apparently the entire Saturday-morning audience, having no memory of Genesis genealogies, heard the irony as a general insult and applied it to anyone bumbling and Fudd-like.  Thus a distorted echo of Tukulti-Ninura's might in arms bounced down, through the agency of a rabbit, into the vocabulary of the twentieth century.

 

 

Jenn and Nan may recall that I often thought my son was receiving a Monty Python based education in high school (consisting of all the classics and historical references necessary to understand the comedy) but I suppose one could also create a Bugs Bunny educational plan. My husband and I have commented on how many pieces of classical music were introduced to us via the old Saturday morning cartoons.

You have made my day.

 

(I assume Mel Brooks and related references were also covered in your curriculum?  Cuz it's important to get a bit of balance, y'know...)

[Onceuponatime]

 

 

Jenn and Nan may recall that I often thought my son was receiving a Monty Python based education in high school (consisting of all the classics and historical references necessary to understand the comedy) but I suppose one could also create a Bugs Bunny educational plan. My husband and I have commented on how many pieces of classical music were introduced to us via the old Saturday morning cartoons.

 

 Those old cartoons are an education in themselves.

 

My 10th grader is going through the history cycle for the 3rd time and it is funny to see his brain finally getting references from movies and books. Almost every day he finds another connection that amuses him, which in turn amuses me.

[Pam in CT]

Violet Crown - this one's for you - I just got an email from my 19 yo at college, titled "Reading Rasselas.."  I share it herein with you, in its entirety:

 

 

Y'know, Samuel Johnson's Rasselas -- I'm reading it in English Lit.

 

Which led me to the great word...

 

Perspicacity.

 

I'd never thought about the noun form of perspicacious, but it is even better than the adjective.

 

 

xo

E

 

 

 

I actually *did* Tweet That.  #wordnerd #college...

[Jane in NC]

You have made my day.

 

(I assume Mel Brooks and related references were also covered in your curriculum?  Cuz it's important to get a bit of balance, y'know...)

Not only Mel Brooks...

 

 Those old cartoons are an education in themselves.

 

My 10th grader is going through the history cycle for the 3rd time and it is funny to see his brain finally getting references from movies and books. Almost every day he finds another connection that amuses him, which in turn amuses me.

 

Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons are my absolute favorite.  History, literature--and science from Mister Peabody!

[Violet Crown]

Welcome to Sadie and PrairieSong!

 

VC, my copy of The Golden Legend arrived yesterday. The initial plan had been to read about a random saint on a weekly basis. Looking at the book, I now wonder if I might want to attempt to read it from cover to cover--although certainly not quickly.

 

 

You could read it according to the (old) calendar. Yesterday was St Dionysius, aka St Denis, who was martyred in Gaul by the Romans by having his head cut off, and who thoughtfully picked it (his head) up and carried it two miles to a hill with a much better view, and there expired, thus providing an ideal site for the construction of Montmartre, Martyrs' Hill.

 

On a tangent (though still hopefully education- and literature-related) when I teach Sunday school the awful textbooks we have to use feature sidebars with tepid saints' lives that go like: "St Denis was a special friend of God who lived in France in Roman times. He spread the Good News, and was killed." It's like these people never met a child. Do you think they might remember Denis better if they got to hear "the Romans got tired of his preaching so they tortured him horribly and then whacked off his head with a sword; but he showed them by picking up his own head and hauling it two miles, uphill, just to make the point about who was really winning here"? [/rant]

 

Still reading The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Just finished the James entry, which was great, and started the H. G. Wells, which looks less promising--illustrative quotation later.

[Pam in CT]

You could read it according to the (old) calendar. Yesterday was St Dionysius, aka St Denis, who was martyred in Gaul by the Romans by having his head cut off, and who thoughtfully picked it (his head) up and carried it two miles to a hill with a much better view, and there expired, thus providing an ideal site for the construction of Montmartre, Martyrs' Hill.

 

On a tangent (though still hopefully education- and literature-related) when I teach Sunday school the awful textbooks we have to use feature sidebars with tepid saints' lives that go like: "St Denis was a special friend of God who lived in France in Roman times. He spread the Good News, and was killed." It's like these people never met a child. Do you think they might remember Denis better if they got to hear "the Romans got tired of his preaching so they tortured him horribly and then whacked off his head with a sword; but he showed them by picking up his own head and hauling it two miles, uphill, just to make the point about who was really winning here"? [/rant]

 

 

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Nan in Mass]

Jane - I've often thought of extending my classical music education (which so far has just consisted of about 45 years of accidentally running across things I like and then listening to them over and over) by working my way through Loony Tunes cartoons lol.  It is really fun when our children pick up references as a result of our education.  Youngest took an intro music class first term at college and now catches all sorts of references that he missed before, to his delight, something I regretfully scratched from our already too full educational goals.

 

I've been reading back through the last two weeks threads and have some comments.  Very late to the party, but maybe they will amuse someone.

 

Honey comb - I love this.  I put it dripping with honey on toasted oatmeal bread and then enjoy the contrasting textures of the wax, oatmeal, and melted butter.  I just chew it up and swallow it.  I've eaten lots of bee's wax over the years.  It is very edible.

 

Caves - In college, my husband decided spelunking might be a cool new hobby for us.  We tried lots of things that I didn't think were at all a good idea that worked out just fine.  Even though caves were one of my deep down in the gut fears, I thought it would be easier to be with him than waiting at the top worrying about him.  It is one of the few things I have ever done that was way, way worse than my imaginings.  It started by sliding head first down a huge muddy boulders onto rocks and mud and got worse from there.  At one point, I was wading in a half crouch with my nose an inch from the water and my helmet scraping the ceiling.  Keeping the flame on my helmet going was a challenge.  We stopped in a sort of beehive with a tiny opening into the sunny woods high over our heads and while the rest of the group went squeezing through various side cracks, my sweet sweet husband offered to sing rounds with me, something I did with my sisters in echoy places and he had previously refused to do because he claimed he couldn't sing.  The cave was and upside down T.  We went back the way we came and when the rest of the group went off to explore the other half of the T, we offered to stay with a girl who had sprained her ankle.  We were so glad we had.  The group had to duck under and swim through one section and the boy who rode back with us had gone the wrong way and hit a dead end and was running out of air when someone went back and found him as he was running out of air.  Then they had to relight their helmets.  No underwater flashlights or anything, although everyone had candles and a flashlight in addition to the traditional flame on their helmets.  Horrible horrible trip but in a way I am glad because if it had been something milder, my husband might have decided that he wanted to continue the hobby.

 

Mines - This bit was interesting, especially after recently rereading Silver Pigs.

 

Sukriyya - I'm looking forward to listening to that interview you posted about consciousness.

 

Pam - Would you be willing to tell me more about Kaddish: Women's Voices?

 

Eliana - I loved the "What reconsiles me" quote.  Lovely, lovely.  I had to read it to my husband, too.

 

Jane - What a lovely gardener quote.  I'll have to read it to my mother.  I always think that the dead time is that still period in November when there is only wind and grey sky (only lasts a few weeks) and then new year begins when the snow comes.  The world brightens and comes alive with the snow in New England.  Snow and Christmas come about the same time here, so there is a lovely new-beginnings feeling to me.  One of my Japanese garden books said that a well-designed garden is just as beautiful in winter as it is in summer.  One of my favourite book descriptions is that description in Wind in the Willows of the still Nov. time:

 

“It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things as on that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet cheering— even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood, which lay before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some still southern sea.†- Wind in the Willows

 

I made it through the forward of my Nitchidatsu Fujii.

 

Jane - Have you read Galctic Gormet?  It's about a cook in an intergalactic hospital.  Another wacky book, but it might appeal to the problem-solving foodie piece of you.

 

Nan

 

 

 

[Mom-ninja.]

I am loving Snuff so thanks for informing me that one can read these books in any order. It's like reading a bad @ss version of Wooster and Jeeves.  :lol:

[Pam in CT]

 

Caves - In college, my husband decided spelunking might be a cool new hobby for us.  We tried lots of things that I didn't think were at all a good idea that worked out just fine.  Even though caves were one of my deep down in the gut fears, I thought it would be easier to be with him than waiting at the top worrying about him.  It is one of the few things I have ever done that was way, way worse than my imaginings.  It started by sliding head first down a huge muddy boulders onto rocks and mud and got worse from there.  At one point, I was wading in a half crouch with my nose an inch from the water and my helmet scraping the ceiling.  Keeping the flame on my helmet going was a challenge.  We stopped in a sort of beehive with a tiny opening into the sunny woods high over our heads and while the rest of the group went squeezing through various side cracks, my sweet sweet husband offered to sing rounds with me, something I did with my sisters in echoy places and he had previously refused to do because he claimed he couldn't sing.  The cave was and upside down T.  We went back the way we came and when the rest of the group went off to explore the other half of the T, we offered to stay with a girl who had sprained her ankle.  We were so glad we had.  The group had to duck under and swim through one section and the boy who rode back with us had gone the wrong way and hit a dead end and was running out of air when someone went back and found him as he was running out of air.  Then they had to relight their helmets.  No underwater flashlights or anything, although everyone had candles and a flashlight in addition to the traditional flame on their helmets.  Horrible horrible trip but in a way I am glad because if it had been something milder, my husband might have decided that he wanted to continue the hobby.

 

______

 

 

Pam - Would you be willing to tell me more about Kaddish: Women's Voices?

 

 

(shudder re: cave stories)  I'll try a lot of weird and goofy things for my husband and kids, and as you say lots of things -- most, even -- turn out to be not nearly as terrible as I imagine, but I'm All Done with Caves.

 

____

 

re: Kaddish: Women's Voices -- I'm happy to try, but TBH I'm still very much in the throes of processing it.  I'm rather a slow processor.  It's a series of essays, nearly all by observant or Conservative movement women, who sought after the death of a loved one to recite daily Kaddish.  In order to do so, they had to find a venue with a minyan, and that search brought them into communities in which their presence and participation in the ritual was complicated.  Their experiences varied -- several of them eventually made allies across the mechitza who made sure that Kaddish was started, kept  to the mourning woman's pace, passed the tzedakah box to them, etc; several others had other women join them for part of the mourning internal.  Others experienced some dismayingly hurtful responses.  Many found great comfort and healing, eventually, in the practice.  But the kinks are surely not yet worked out, in terms of women's access to such healing.  

 

It's definitely worth reading if the subject interests you.  I wish I had someone IRL I could talk about it with.  None of my Reform women friends are much interested, lol...

[shukriyya]

This is lifting my spirits on a rather gloomy, Eeyore-ish day, inner weather systems and all that...

[Pam in CT]

This is lifting my spirits on a rather gloomy, Eeyore-ish day, inner weather systems and all that...

 

Apparently she was in chemistry class when the award was announced.  Her teacher told her.  I have to imagine that's a Nobel first.

 

:laugh:

[PrairieSong]

Welcome! Nice to have you here.

 

Three Gaimans so far this year, eh? Impressive. The ladies here recently turned me on to my first -- Good Omens, which I greatly enjoyed -- and I have Neverwhere floating around somewhere in my car awaiting me...

I loved the world he created in Neverwhere. I hope you enjoy it. The only Gaiman I had read before this year was Coraline, years ago when I bought it for my 19yo dd who was about 9 at the time. My 25yo kept talking about Neil Gaiman so I finally dived in.

[Angel]

You could read it according to the (old) calendar. Yesterday was St Dionysius, aka St Denis, who was martyred in Gaul by the Romans by having his head cut off, and who thoughtfully picked it (his head) up and carried it two miles to a hill with a much better view, and there expired, thus providing an ideal site for the construction of Montmartre, Martyrs' Hill.

 

On a tangent (though still hopefully education- and literature-related) when I teach Sunday school the awful textbooks we have to use feature sidebars with tepid saints' lives that go like: "St Denis was a special friend of God who lived in France in Roman times. He spread the Good News, and was killed." It's like these people never met a child. Do you think they might remember Denis better if they got to hear "the Romans got tired of his preaching so they tortured him horribly and then whacked off his head with a sword; but he showed them by picking up his own head and hauling it two miles, uphill, just to make the point about who was really winning here"? [/rant]

 

Still reading The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Just finished the James entry, which was great, and started the H. G. Wells, which looks less promising--illustrative quotation later.

 

:lol:  Dh, who teaches the teen class, says that the kids in the younger classes learn about God, Baby Jesus, and Moses, with the occasional Joseph, David, Noah, and Jonah  :laugh:   When he does his series on the Judges, with things like a tent peg through the temple and a dagger that gets stuck inside a very large man, well, they DO remember that!  In fact, a few of the kids we've graduated out of our teen class went on to teach the Judges in Junior Church.  The little ones had lots to tell that month :laugh: The Bible is visual, he says, and it doesn't take much to bring that to life.  Our Sunday School superintendent stopped buying dh the awful textbooks for our class a long time ago because dh barely used them!  I hope you are teaching them about him getting his head whacked off  ;)  I guarantee they will remember that more!

[shukriyya]

I loved the world he created in Neverwhere. I hope you enjoy it. The only Gaiman I had read before this year was Coraline, years ago when I bought it for my 19yo dd who was about 9 at the time. My 25yo kept talking about Neil Gaiman so I finally dived in.

 

Ds enjoyed Gaiman's, 'Fortunately the Milk' 'Interworld' and is currently reading 'The Silver Dream'. He's a fan and all the talk has my attention though most of it sounds a bit macabre for me. I do have one of his, Stardust, on my tbr list.

 

And btw, welcome Prairie Song and Sadie :D

[shukriyya]

Apparently she was in chemistry class when the award was announced.  Her teacher told her.  I have to imagine that's a Nobel first.

 

:laugh:

 

Adding this to my inner cheer-up roster :D

 

[Robin M]

The saga continues ...

 

Closed on the house today.  Everything went off perfectly.  A bunch of friends came over to help us move the library and then we had pizza and sat around and talked.  It was finally starting to feel like home with everyone in my kitchen laughing and having fun.  

 

Despite all that my stress level is still high and will be for the next few days.  I have a major project deadline on Monday.  I'm going on the Girl Scout campout this weekend and it's supposed to be cold.  DS has had a horrible cold for the last three days.  It's taken me three solid days of being coughed on, thrown up on, and breathed on but I finally managed to catch his cold.

 

I just have to make it until noon on Monday and my stress level will seriously decrease.

 

 

 

I'm struggling with finding an audiobook series that I like.  I've given up on the Hamish MacBeth series after half a book.  All the descriptions I read just don't grab me.  I've loved and listened to most of the Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, and Lillian Jackson Braun book.  

 

Any recommendations?  I really want a cozy mystery or a historical mystery or anything wonderful set in England.  Nothing too gruesome.  A fantastic narrator is a huge plus.  

 

Amy darlin' - Don't you know that a cold trumps all and it gives you permission to stop what you are doing and rest.  Take is as a sign from you know who.  Forget the campout, nest in your wonderful new home and sunday, work on that project for monday.  Because I know you are so organized, it's already mostly done, except for a little tweaking.   Just my 2 cents.  :grouphug:

 

[Robin M]

Wow, three newbies in one week - :hurray:

 

Welcome Nan, Sadie and Prairesong. 

 

We have to have a  :party:

[brehon]

You could read it according to the (old) calendar. Yesterday was St Dionysius, aka St Denis, who was martyred in Gaul by the Romans by having his head cut off, and who thoughtfully picked it (his head) up and carried it two miles to a hill with a much better view, and there expired, thus providing an ideal site for the construction of Montmartre, Martyrs' Hill.

 

On a tangent (though still hopefully education- and literature-related) when I teach Sunday school the awful textbooks we have to use feature sidebars with tepid saints' lives that go like: "St Denis was a special friend of God who lived in France in Roman times. He spread the Good News, and was killed." It's like these people never met a child. Do you think they might remember Denis better if they got to hear "the Romans got tired of his preaching so they tortured him horribly and then whacked off his head with a sword; but he showed them by picking up his own head and hauling it two miles, uphill, just to make the point about who was really winning here"? [/rant]

 

<snip>

 

.

MmmmHmmm...Eldest son mentioned something similar to me a couple of years ago. He much prefers our selection of stories at home.

[*Inna*]

Finished The City of Dreaming Books and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you, onceuponatime, for recommending it! :)

 

Not sure what I'm in the mood for right now. I have a bunch of holds at the library though.

Every time I pick up the holds, I feel like a pirate returning after a successful plunder. Arrrr!  :D

[Shawneinfl]

The saga continues ...

 

Closed on the house today.  Everything went off perfectly.  A bunch of friends came over to help us move the library and then we had pizza and sat around and talked.  It was finally starting to feel like home with everyone in my kitchen laughing and having fun.  

 

Despite all that my stress level is still high and will be for the next few days.  I have a major project deadline on Monday.  I'm going on the Girl Scout campout this weekend and it's supposed to be cold.  DS has had a horrible cold for the last three days.  It's taken me three solid days of being coughed on, thrown up on, and breathed on but I finally managed to catch his cold.

 

I just have to make it until noon on Monday and my stress level will seriously decrease.

 

 

 

I'm struggling with finding an audiobook series that I like.  I've given up on the Hamish MacBeth series after half a book.  All the descriptions I read just don't grab me.  I've loved and listened to most of the Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, and Lillian Jackson Braun book.  

 

Any recommendations?  I really want a cozy mystery or a historical mystery or anything wonderful set in England.  Nothing too gruesome.  A fantastic narrator is a huge plus.  

 

I listened to Call the Midwife earlier this year narrated by Nicola Barber. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Shawneinfl]

Okay, I just looked up Snuff on Goodreads and finally realized it was a Pratchett book not Palahniuk. :blink:

[Jane in NC]

Jane - I've often thought of extending my classical music education (which so far has just consisted of about 45 years of accidentally running across things I like and then listening to them over and over) by working my way through Loony Tunes cartoons lol.  It is really fun when our children pick up references as a result of our education.  Youngest took an intro music class first term at college and now catches all sorts of references that he missed before, to his delight, something I regretfully scratched from our already too full educational goals.

 

I've been reading back through the last two weeks threads and have some comments.  Very late to the party, but maybe they will amuse someone.

 

Honey comb - I love this.  I put it dripping with honey on toasted oatmeal bread and then enjoy the contrasting textures of the wax, oatmeal, and melted butter.  I just chew it up and swallow it.  I've eaten lots of bee's wax over the years.  It is very edible.

 

Caves - In college, my husband decided spelunking might be a cool new hobby for us.  We tried lots of things that I didn't think were at all a good idea that worked out just fine.  Even though caves were one of my deep down in the gut fears, I thought it would be easier to be with him than waiting at the top worrying about him.  It is one of the few things I have ever done that was way, way worse than my imaginings.  It started by sliding head first down a huge muddy boulders onto rocks and mud and got worse from there.  At one point, I was wading in a half crouch with my nose an inch from the water and my helmet scraping the ceiling.  Keeping the flame on my helmet going was a challenge.  We stopped in a sort of beehive with a tiny opening into the sunny woods high over our heads and while the rest of the group went squeezing through various side cracks, my sweet sweet husband offered to sing rounds with me, something I did with my sisters in echoy places and he had previously refused to do because he claimed he couldn't sing.  The cave was and upside down T.  We went back the way we came and when the rest of the group went off to explore the other half of the T, we offered to stay with a girl who had sprained her ankle.  We were so glad we had.  The group had to duck under and swim through one section and the boy who rode back with us had gone the wrong way and hit a dead end and was running out of air when someone went back and found him as he was running out of air.  Then they had to relight their helmets.  No underwater flashlights or anything, although everyone had candles and a flashlight in addition to the traditional flame on their helmets.  Horrible horrible trip but in a way I am glad because if it had been something milder, my husband might have decided that he wanted to continue the hobby.

 

Mines - This bit was interesting, especially after recently rereading Silver Pigs.

 

Sukriyya - I'm looking forward to listening to that interview you posted about consciousness.

 

Pam - Would you be willing to tell me more about Kaddish: Women's Voices?

 

Eliana - I loved the "What reconsiles me" quote.  Lovely, lovely.  I had to read it to my husband, too.

 

Jane - What a lovely gardener quote.  I'll have to read it to my mother.  I always think that the dead time is that still period in November when there is only wind and grey sky (only lasts a few weeks) and then new year begins when the snow comes.  The world brightens and comes alive with the snow in New England.  Snow and Christmas come about the same time here, so there is a lovely new-beginnings feeling to me.  One of my Japanese garden books said that a well-designed garden is just as beautiful in winter as it is in summer.  One of my favourite book descriptions is that description in Wind in the Willows of the still Nov. time:

 

“It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things as on that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet cheering— even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood, which lay before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some still southern sea.†- Wind in the Willows

 

I made it through the forward of my Nitchidatsu Fujii.

 

Jane - Have you read Galctic Gormet?  It's about a cook in an intergalactic hospital.  Another wacky book, but it might appeal to the problem-solving foodie piece of you.

 

Nan

 

No to Galactic Gourmet.  I had to Google that one.  Admittedly I have read very little sci fi.

 

Love the Wind in the Willows quote.

 

And that cave story!  Shudder! 

 

Back when my son was quite young, we did one of the family friendly tours at Jewel Cave in SD.  We were the only ones who signed up so the ranger took my son's hand and took him on a tour, basically ignoring my husband and me as we tagged along.  Boy did I appreciate how she did the tour at his level--pointing out those things that a  four or five year old would notice.  This is my speed of cave touring--none of the spelunking stuff for me!  But what sticks in my mind are nineteenth century photos taken inside the cave of people having picnics!  Imagine women in long billowy dresses descending in the dark!

 

 

[NoseInABook]

Neil Gaiman is my man crush these days. Who cares if he's old enough to be my father? Certainly not me. 

 

Into book two of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein books called City Of Night. I'm still kinda meh on these. Teaching From Rest is beautiful and I'm loving it Makes me feel like I should relax a little with homeschooling because I'm very much push to do your best and check off the boxes. 

[shukriyya]

Having a hard time putting Some Kind of Fairy Tale down. It's a compelling story and, with hopes it won't get too spooky or weird, I went ahead and borrowed it on overdrive to go along with my audio credit version thinking I'd stop at chapter endings so as to be able to toggle back and forth easily. Much to my delight I can stop wherever I am and whatever current device I'm using will pick up where I left off. I thought this was only available if one bought the whispersync version but nope, a library copy does just as well :hurray:

 

Mumto2, you're in for a treat. Graham Joyce's descriptions of the landscape are enchanting...

 

"The Outwoods is a hundred acres of oak, rowan, and birch, of holly and yew, trembling on the lip of an ancient volcanic crater and peering out over the Soar Valley, a timeless pocket of English woodland inside the boundaries of Charnwood Forest. Its rock formations contain the oldest of fossils. In its mineral soil rare plants flourish. The inspirational red-and-white-spotted fly agaric mushrooms spore and fatten around the gleaming silver birches, sucking sugars from the roots and feeding back minerals and water. The trees conduct and transfer energy around the woods. The land is a mysterious freak, where the air is charged with an eerie electrical quality, alternately disturbing and relaxing. The earth echoes underfoot."

[Pam in CT]

OK Eeyore -- I mean, shukriyya -- here's one for you:

 

GirlsWriteNow on Malala

 

(I'd embed it but, big shocker I know, I don't actually know how to embed a video)

 

http://www.girlswritenow.org/2014/07/girls-write-now-presents-ode-to-malala/?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite

[Jane in NC]

OK Eeyore -- I mean, shukriyya -- here's one for you:

 

GirlsWriteNow on Malala

 

(I'd embed it but, big shocker I know, I don't actually know how to embed a video)

 

http://www.girlswritenow.org/2014/07/girls-write-now-presents-ode-to-malala/?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite

 

How beautiful!

 

[shukriyya]

OK Eeyore -- I mean, shukriyya -- here's one for you:

 

GirlsWriteNow on Malala

 

(I'd embed it but, big shocker I know, I don't actually know how to embed a video)

 

http://www.girlswritenow.org/2014/07/girls-write-now-presents-ode-to-malala/?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite

 

Nothing like a few cleansing tears in the presence of such beauty. These young people are Lights, shiny with hope and the profound realization that "we are all Malala" as they so poignantly sing. Thank you, Pam, for sharing!  xo, eeyore

 

[JennW in SoCal]

Neil Gaiman is my man crush these days. Who cares if he's old enough to be my father? Certainly not me. 

 

 

He isn't that old!!  He's my age!!  

 

Given all the Gaiman love here, I have to add a small brag.  My dh was an artist on a Hugo nominated graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman,  Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?  (You can see some of the artwork on that link.)  

 

My youngest ds and I were talking about Gaiman at dinner one night, we must have been bouncing ideas about a story around because my husband quipped that he could just e-mail the question to him.  I asked why Neil Gaiman would be in e-mail contact with the inker and my husband said "oh we were talking about the Hugo awards and if we should attend."  My son and I both gasped "The Hugos? Why?"  To which my dh answered, "Oh, didn't I tell you?  The book was nominated but we didn't win."  No, he had never mentioned it to us, didn't tell us that we could have gone to Australia to the attend the awards ceremony.  We have never let my dh live that one down. Nominated for a Hugo and didn't bother to tell his sci-fi and fantasy genre-loving wife and son.

[Stacia]

Wow, Jenn! That's so cool.

[Stacia]

In light of the Nobel prize, how about Critically Acclaimed Authors Who Never Win Prizes?

 

And :seeya:  Nan, Sadie, & Prairiesong! So fun to have you joining us! :001_smile:

[Kareni]

Last night I finished the contemporary romance Fix You by Beck Anderson which I enjoyed.

 

"When Kelly Reynolds' husband died, he left her--the awkward, cautious one--to raise their two young boys. She's pieced herself back together, barely. Now she takes refuge in her routine: running her kids around and running the trails near her Idaho home. Two years after her husband's death, a chance encounter on a run brings Andrew into her life. But Andrew is Andy Pettigrew, the Andy Pettigrew, famous actor. Kelly hates risk, and a love affair with Andrew is certainly tempting fate. She doesn't fit into his Hollywood world. She doesn't own a pair of Louboutins, and she couldn't walk five paces in them if she did. Andrew oozes cool. She reeks of dork. But despite this, they click. It may be inexplicable, but it works. However, it's also becoming clear that Andrew struggles with the pressures of his fame. Kelly's hold on a so-called normal life is already tenuous, and as much as she might want to indulge the fantasy, she doesn't know how either of them is supposed to cope with stalkerazzi and tweet-happy fans with camera phones. She and Andrew both have secrets that seem impossible to keep. Beck Anderson's witty, engaging writing yields an emotional tale of love, loss, and all the little things that make up a life. In the end, what is it that really holds us together? Kelly must decide if love can fix two people who might be broken beyond repair."

 

This book is not graphic.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Violet Crown, you are the Sunday school teacher I wished for when I was a kid! :laugh: :hurray:

[PrairieSong]

Wow, three newbies in one week - :hurray:

 

Welcome Nan, Sadie and Prairesong.

 

We have to have a :party:

I can imagine a party of bookworms. The only sounds to be heard are the turning of pages and possibly the sipping of tea.

 

Sounds delightful.

[Stacia]

mumto2, I think Pam read The Bone Clocks. I have it on request at my library, but suspended the hold so I won't get it until later this month.

 

I feel like I'm in such a reading rut (or hole). Just not much inclination to read right now, other than dipping into a few things, mostly cookbooks & such. Took a huge stack of books back to the library today.

[PrairieSong]

Neil Gaiman is my man crush these days. Who cares if he's old enough to be my father?

You did NOT just say that. I am almost his age.

 

Love,

 

Granny

[shukriyya]

You did NOT just say that. I am almost his age.

 

Love,

 

Granny

 

:lol:

 

from one "Granny" to another ;)

[Stacia]

:lol:

 

from one "Granny" to another ;)

 

Yeah, he could be my older brother.... I guess I'm almost to the granny group too.

 

Add the sound of creaking rocking chairs to the party, I guess.

[Robin M]

Neil Gaiman is my man crush these days. Who cares if he's old enough to be my father? Certainly not me.

 

Into book two of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein books called City Of Night. I'm still kinda meh on these. Teaching From Rest is beautiful and I'm loving it Makes me feel like I should relax a little with homeschooling because I'm very much push to do your best and check off the boxes.

 

Momma Robin isn't ready for her rocking chair yet. You now have several book mom's. Aren't you lucky. on a side note, My friend who wrote Mr. Wicker had the pleasure of being mentored by Gaiman as well as Clive Barker. Yes I am jealous.

[mumto2]

Just pulling my rocking chair up to join the fun here!!! I can't imagine a better group of grannies to hang out with. :lol:

 

mumto2, I think Pam read The Bone Clocks. I have it on request at my library, but suspended the hold so I won't get it until later this month.

 

I feel like I'm in such a reading rut (or hole). Just not much inclination to read right now, other than dipping into a few things, mostly cookbooks & such. Took a huge stack of books back to the library today.

I knew someone had read it, just could not remember who! I think part of it is that the cover art doesn't look like me. Both dc's have commented on it not "looking" like something I would enjoy. I did finally open it yesterday and read a few pages while waiting for something. Not bad, I know I could read it just maybe not right now. Probably an almost 600 page hardcover is not a great choice for me currently. Portable Kindle reading seems to be easier. I have decided to return the hardcopy, due on the 15th so not much choice! ;) planning to request it on kindle through overdrive.

 

Jenn, how cool!!! I really think all of you should have gone to that awards festival. The artwork looks really neat too. I may just have to read my first graphic novel in order to see more!

[Rosie_0801]

\Oh, and talking about full moons. I've been enjoying the moon for the past two mornings. I've always been crazy about the moon. I love waking up in the early morning hours while everyone's sleeping and wishing that I could throw a lasso around it. I love "It's a Wonderful Life". Need to see it again this Christmas. :)

 

I watched the moon set over the desert a few times this week.  :001_wub:

 

Also picked up a book on Sturt Desert Pea while I was out woop woop and read it today. If you don't know what one looks like, you must google it right now. 

 

Right now.  :toetap05:

[Rosie_0801]

Good morning ladies-

 

I've followed news from their foundation for a long time, but I only recently came across Bill Gates' personal blog... here's his list of six summer book recommendations.  Several are just what you'd expect from a, you know, run-of-the-mill gazillionaire-turned-philanthropist, but one of them is the BAW-beloved Rosie Project!!!   :laugh:

 

:laugh:  If you're reading here, Bill, I'll send you a postcard from Shepparton!

 

 

 

While road tripping this week, we listened to a dear little book called 'Fairy Tales of Science.' I was rather taken by chapter four, describing the journey of a carbon atom through time. Does anyone know of any other books that do this? I'd love a little set of one for each element. How gorgeous would that be? !! Are any of you sciencey? I don't expect to have them in time for dd to enjoy, but she informs me I'll be getting two grandkids...

[Jane in NC]

I watched the moon set over the desert a few times this week.  :001_wub:

 

Also picked up a book on Sturt Desert Pea while I was out woop woop and read it today. If you don't know what one looks like, you must google it right now. 

 

Right now.  :toetap05:

 

What a beautiful wildflower, Rosie! Desert plants are such strange little creatures to me, given that I live in a humid sub-tropical climate.

[mumto2]

:laugh: If you're reading here, Bill, I'll send you a postcard from Shepparton!

 

 

 

While road tripping this week, we listened to a dear little book called 'Fairy Tales of Science.' I was rather taken by chapter four, describing the journey of a carbon atom through time. Does anyone know of any other books that do this? I'd love a little set of one for each element. How gorgeous would that be? !! Are any of you sciencey? I don't expect to have them in time for dd to enjoy, but she informs me I'll be getting two grandkids...

I read about this book in a Charlotte Mason how to homeschool book several years ago and downloaded it for free when I got my kindle, The Fairyland of Science by Arabella B. Buckley. Never used it but it might be what you are hunting for.

 

You might also enjoy some of the old Mary Frances books which I think are all out there with project Gutenberg. Dd and I did the knitting and crochet one together. It was great fun! Each chapter tells more of the story and teaches a new skill that enables you to make a pattern that dress your doll or bear. It was lovely......

 

There is a gardening book also, maybe cooking and sewing....

[Butter]

I finished reading the fourth Michael Vey book at 12:30 this morning.  They are aimed at middle grades I guess, but those books are really good.  And the ending of this one... no fair that I have to wait another year for the fifth.

 

I was going to read Blood of Olympus next (yes, I clearly go for the deep reading lol), but I should probably finish Gulliver's Travels first.  My son is catching up to me in his assigned reading (he's got two or three more days of Robinson Crusoe).

[shukriyya]

While road tripping this week, we listened to a dear little book called 'Fairy Tales of Science.' I was rather taken by chapter four, describing the journey of a carbon atom through time. Does anyone know of any other books that do this? I'd love a little set of one for each element. How gorgeous would that be? !! Are any of you sciencey? I don't expect to have them in time for dd to enjoy, but she informs me I'll be getting two grandkids...

As Mumto2 said, it's by Arabella Buckley. And yes, they're lovely stories. More by her, for free (!) here :: http://www.mainlesson.com/displayauthor.php?author=buckley

[NoseInABook]

I'm dying laughing. Sorry, ladies! I've totally outed myself as a youngster, huh? I have a couple months left yet of my 20s and he's indeed my parents' age. Well, a smidge older than my mother. Doesn't negate the smokin' hotness that is Neil and his brilliantly creative mind. :p

 

Robin, I need to get my hands on Mr. Wicker then!

[shukriyya]

I'm dying laughing. Sorry, ladies! I've totally outed myself as a youngster, huh? I have a couple months left yet of my 20s and he's indeed my parents' age. Well, a smidge older than my mother. Doesn't negate the smokin' hotness that is Neil and his brilliantly creative mind. :p

 

Robin, I need to get my hands on Mr. Wicker then!

Oh darlin', you're a babe in arms! And yet, in my books, your descriptions of your work with and love of the foster kids you take in automatically gives you a place at the wisdom-women's table.

[mommymilkies]

Ds enjoyed Gaiman's, 'Fortunately the Milk' 'Interworld' and is currently reading 'The Silver Dream'. He's a fan and all the talk has my attention though most of it sounds a bit macabre for me. I do have one of his, Stardust, on my tbr list.

 

And btw, welcome Prairie Song and Sadie :D

It's macabre but beautiful and innocent in many ways, too.  It's hard to explain.  It's not dark or gory for the sake of scaring, but because the books are Hero journeys in many ways and you have embrace the dark to get past it.  That doesn't make sense.  My half-finished coffee apologizes.

 

Neil Gaiman is my man crush these days. Who cares if he's old enough to be my father? Certainly not me. 

 

 

Hush now!  We don't say that.  I'm not even paying attention to that.  I'd still go googly eyed fangurl over him, anyway.  His voice...oh my.  And his brain.  And everything else!  Amanda Palmer is one lucky gal!

He isn't that old!!  He's my age!!  

 

Given all the Gaiman love here, I have to add a small brag.  My dh was an artist on a Hugo nominated graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman,  Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?  (You can see some of the artwork on that link.)  

 

My youngest ds and I were talking about Gaiman at dinner one night, we must have been bouncing ideas about a story around because my husband quipped that he could just e-mail the question to him.  I asked why Neil Gaiman would be in e-mail contact with the inker and my husband said "oh we were talking about the Hugo awards and if we should attend."  My son and I both gasped "The Hugos? Why?"  To which my dh answered, "Oh, didn't I tell you?  The book was nominated but we didn't win."  No, he had never mentioned it to us, didn't tell us that we could have gone to Australia to the attend the awards ceremony.  We have never let my dh live that one down. Nominated for a Hugo and didn't bother to tell his sci-fi and fantasy genre-loving wife and son.

:w00t:  Wow.  That is awesome.  Just awesome.  

 

My oldest is into the Tiffany Aching books of Discworld now.  She got all excited that she could ILL them finally.  I'm still reading World War Z.  I've been falling asleep early.  I also have some catching up on homeschool-related books to do.  Stupid adulthood. 

[Guest]

I just finished Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret. Apologies if anyone enjoyed this, but I thought it was awful. It was an absolute train wreck of a story, but the kind you can't take your eyes off of? Ugh. DH worked late last night and I sat up almost all night reading it and just finished off the last little bit. Back to Sixty-One Nails today.

[NoseInABook]

Shukriyya, that's the sweetest thing someone's said to me all month. <3