Book For The Week - 12/29/11

Twenty Years At Hull House

by

Jane Addams

While visiting the Hull House Museum this past October I decided I wanted to read something by Jane Addams.  There are several titles available for free on kindle by her and so I selected one called Twenty Years At Hull House.  Since it was written early in the 20th Century,  I found it a long read for me although it was filled with information and brought the inner city immigrant experience of the late 1800s into a clear view.   The labor movement is also described as are reforms in education and health standards of the inner city.  This book gives insight as to why Jane Addams chose to spend her life living in a  poor immigrant neighborhood when she was a woman with resources and shows the ability she had to interact with not only the poor but with the powers of city government to initiate change.  It is an amazing true story.   It is also available for free on Project Gutenberg.  Follow the links by clicking on the title and author's name to learn more.  Or google Jane Addams/Hull House.  There is a wealth of wonderful information online. 

Book For The Week - 12/26/11

My Antonia

by

Willa Cather

Set in the late 1880s, a young man is orphaned and sent from Virginia to live with his grandparents on a farm in Nebraska.   This book is about the people he meets on the Nebraska plains who are immigrant farmers trying to make their way in the new world.  A classic book written in 1918 My Antonia by Willa Cather was a book title brought up by my library reading group as a possibility to read and discuss in 2012 but it was not selected.  It sounded like it would be good to me so I picked it up on sale from audible and listened to it during my commute.   To make a bit of a confession,  I have been MIA from social media the last month or six weeks except for occasionally peaking in quickly,  because I have been very busy with my family tree.  I have found a friend to research with and that makes it so much more fun.   Much of my computer time is spent in data entry or searching for information online.   Since there are a couple of Eastern European lines in both my kid's dad's side of the tree and on my side of the tree,  I found My Antonia   really brought those lines to life.   Even though my ancestors were in the mid west and not Nebraska,  I am sure they struggled to survive.  The book makes real the way that immigrants worked so hard in order that their children could have  a better life than they had.   It shows not only the hardships that were endured but the social outcasts that the people who had been here longer made out of the more recent immigrants.  The young Bohemian, Swedish and Norwegian women were not quite good enough dating material for the towns boys.  This book is a delightful tale of the building of the USA and does a good job of bringing the late 1800s to life.   It is available to read for free on Gutenburg.com so therefore can be downloaded to a kindle at no charge.  Be sure and click on the title and the author's name to follow the link and learn more.

Book For The Week - 12/17/11

Dragonfly In Amber   is the second novel in The Outlander Series which is written by Diana Galbaldon.   I am totally hooked on this series of novels.  In this book, the story of Claire and Jami takes up where it left off in the first novel,  after some time back in the "present"  which is 1968 this time.  After bringing Clair and Jami to the point where she returns from the 1740s to post WWII Europe the book then returns to 1968.   These books have everything.   Science fiction,  adventure,  romance,  sex,  violence are wound around in a web that mesmerizes.   I have been listening to the series on audio and intend to continue through the book list.  If you need a good escape I highly recommend this fiction series. 

Book For The Week - 11/11/11

Outlander By Diana Gabaldon

From the book description:

"Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives."

This is a book I have wanted to either listen to or read for quite a long time but since it is so long I needed a time when I had the time to devote to it.  I should not have worried about not having time.  This is a book that makes time for itself.  I would actually leave for work five minutes early so I could sit in the parking lot at work and listen to just a few more minutes.  And I left it on and in my ear when I walked out and got the mail when I returned to my driveway at night and then would (really)  make a bee line to the treadmill so I could listen awhile longer by walking a mile and a half.  I wore my IPOD and listened  to unload the dishwasher,  to iron and to fold clothes.  Although there have been times an ending of a book has caused me to listen after getting out of the car this is the first book that has had me not wanting to stop listening from the very beginning.
The story begins just after WWII when a couple who have been separated due to her being a nurse for the soldiers and him being a soldier are on their second honeymoon.  Not too far into the book she falls into a time portal and is transported to the mid 1700s.   What follows is an adventure story,  a love story,  and a historical novel.   Between the blood and gore are steamy love making scenes with characters that capture the readers heart.
Outlander is book one of a series and I do intend to eventually either read or listen to them all.  The story ended in such a way that very much left me wanting to begin the next in the series.
Click on the title of the book and the author's name to follow the links to learn more.

Albrecht Durer

Link

The book that I am reading mentions the artist Albrecht Durer.  So I had to stop and look him up.  The picture at the above link is one that this artist did that must have been what  the author of the book is referring to.  Jane Addams in her book Twenty Years At Hull House  refers to her draw to this artist during her time as a young woman and  of touring Europe as her social consciousness became very aware of the poverty of the lower classes in Europe.   She felt his pictures were "surcharged with pity for the downtrodden". 

Book For The Week - 10/31/11

Far Away Home by Susan Denning

In between purchases on my Kindle I try to read two to three free books.  Last night I finished a novel that I obtained off of Amazon's free list shortly after I received my kindle for my birthday.  It appealed to me because it is an historical novel.  It starts out with an Irish Catholic Immigrant community in NYC and follows some of it's young people west.  I really enjoyed the book.  I have to admit I am a sucker for books with wagon trains.   I probably should not admit this on the web but anyone who knows me knows this story.   When I was in the fourth grade I stayed in trouble.  My mother kept me grounded trying to obtain some control over me.  Most of my fourth grade year I had to go straight to my room after school,  I was allowed to come down to the table and eat with the family and then I had to go straight back to my room.  As a result I would ask my fourth grade teacher if I could bring some of the books home from the classroom to read.  When I explained why I wanted them I think she felt sorry for me because she sent me home every night I was grounded arms full of the most wonderful books.   As a result I really learned to read well.  My favorite books were about the families that were traveling in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail.  So once this book Far Away Home  got to the point that two of the young people decided to join a wagon train rather than ride the rails on the passenger trains out west I was thrilled.   Here is a video of the author learning to drive a wagon as research for her writing the book.  As always click on the title and the author's name to follow links to learn more.

A Day In Chicago - October 2011

Yesterday morning I finally made it to the Jane Addams Hull House Museum.  I have wanted to go there for several years.  Thursday evening I traveled to my friend Linda's house in Valparaiso and on Friday morning we caught the South Shore into Chicago.  First on the agenda was the Jane Addams Hull House Museum.  The trip in on the train was especially interesting due to the fact we were joined by several school buses of middle school students.  It was NOT a quiet ride into the city.  On a good day the South Shore is crowded but normally the back of one's head is not in danger of being bumped by feet.  Never the less after disembarking the South Shore we caught a city bus to the area where the University of Illinois Chicago Campus is.  After climbing off the bus we only had to walk about a half mile rubbing shoulders with  all the twenty something students on the sidewalks and we arrived at the Hull House.  We lucked out because there was a class of university students being given a tour/lecture at the museum so we just joined them and listened in.  The entire time I was in the house the hair on my arms was just standing up on end.  There are many things that struck me
especially interesting.  For example,  Jane Addams started the Hull House in an immigrant neighborhood that was at the time of the early 1900s mostly Eastern European Immigrants.  There was no water or plumbing in the neighborhood so one of the first things they did was provide a daily bath for children.  They started a day care like setting and later a kindergarten for the children of the working moms.  As time went on they realized that they were limited in the services they could offer to older children because at about age six the little ones joined their older siblings and parents in the work force.  Therefore the Hull House became involved in the labor union movement in order to improve working conditions so children could go to school.   Jane Addams was also involved in the Peace Movement which was not a popular movement during the first world war.  In fact besides winning the Nobel Peace Prize http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html she was also considered one of the most dangerous women in the country by the FBI which had a very large file on her.  She was inspired to begin her work with the Hull House when she visited Europe after graduating from college.  In London she visited Toynbee Hall  http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/page.asp?section=30&sectionTitle=History+of+Toynbee+Hall  and there she then knew what she wanted to be her life's work.  The Jane Addams Hull House Museum can be found on the web at
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/ and is a place that I would encourage any one in the Chicago area to visit.

Dinner And A Movie 10/22/11

Since I am tethered to the beeper this weekend, Mark and I went to our favorite local place to eat (North Side Grill) and rented a movie afterward to watch. I had read this book a few months ago and wanted to see the movie. It is definitely a chick flick but if anyone needs a good cry it will certainly get the job done. I liked it almost as much as the book.

Book For The Week - 10/20/2011

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

http://saragruen.com/water-for-elephants/about/

http://saragruen.com/bio/

Library Journal

When his parents are killed in a traffic accident, Jacob Jankowski hops a train after walking out on his final exams at Cornell, where he had hoped to earn a veterinary degree. The train turns out to be a circus train, and since it's the Depression, when someone with a vet's skills can attach himself to a circus if he's lucky, Jacob soon finds himself involved with the animal acts-specifically with the beautiful young Marlena, the horse rider, and her husband, August. Jacob falls for Marlena immediately, and the ensuing triangle is at the center of this novel, which follows the circus across the states. Jacob learns the ins and outs of circus life, in this case under the rule of the treacherous Uncle Al, who cheats the workers and deals roughly with patrons who complain about blatant false advertising and rip-off exhibits. Jacob and Marlena are attracted to each other, but their relationship is fairly innocent until it becomes clear that August is not merely jealous but dangerously mentally deranged. Old-fashioned and endearing, this is an enjoyable, fast-paced story told by the older Jacob, now in his nineties in a nursing home. From the author of Riding Lessons; recommended for all libraries.-Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

I finished listening to this on audio last pm as I worked on  a sewing project after work.  This is a book that the first few chapters I was afraid was going to be too sad to enjoy.  I had heard so much good about it and was surprised when it started out as such as downer.   But by chapter 4 or so I was sucked into the story and really enjoyed it.  It flips back and forth  between present day with a man in a nursing home and back during the depression when he ran off to join the circus.  Audio books with  more than one voice are always cool.   It is a great love story and I want to see the movie.  The animals in it are delightful  -  especially Rosie the elephant.  And by the way it has a very happy ending!

BTW this is the second book I posted about this week.  I finished one on my kindle earlier in the week.  But instead of posting in the usual format here in blogs,  I posted a video.   In case you missed it http://skeezicks1957.multiply.com/video/item/328/The_Immortal_Life_Of_Henrietta_Lacks

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Written by Rebecca Skloot, the Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks is a book that will stay with me a very long time. I am almost done with it, in fact would have finished reading it on my Kindle last night if I could have stayed awake just a few more minutes so I am sure I will finish it tonight. It deals with the issues of research and gene patents and informed consent. It is excellently put together and I highly recommend it. I was most shocked by the story of Henrietta's one daughter who died shortly after her. I think because I kind of knew what happened with Henrietta but the young daughter's story caught me by surprise.

Book For The Week - 10/7/2011

One Thousand White Women:
    The Journals of May Dodd

by
Jim Fergus 

I just finished listening to this book on audio on my way over to pick up my pay check and attend payday meeting.   This is one book that really lends itself to the audio presentation.  There were two readers and the female voice did a superb job of changing her voice to reflect the different accents of the different female characters.    If an audio book fan this is a good choice for your next selection.  Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I really got lost in this book and swept away to another world.  It starts out with a historical fact that once a Native American Chief did ask for white brides as part of a peace treaty.  His request was not granted and took place fifteen years prior to the time the novel is set.  The novel is fiction and great fun.   In it one thousand white women set out in answer to a request to help our government in a secret program to assimilate the Native Americans for the wild west by agreeing to marry into the tribe and have a child.   They come from various immigrant backgrounds and problem environments that they seek to escape from.   Their story is told through the fictional diary of a woman named May Dodd.   The story is uncovered and her journals found in the medicine man's bags by May's great grandson during  his genealogical research.   While it is not realistic on some fronts it is a delightful fiction story that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-White-Women-Journals/dp/0312199430
http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Fergus/e/B001H9U1HU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Vacation September 2011 - Our Last Day

After packing up our suitcases, loading the car and checking out of the lodge we headed Peg's little car toward a pre-arranged meeting place in Waynesdale OH for lunch called the Cobblestone Cafe. Waiting for us and already saving a table was a classmate of mine from my high school graduating class that I had re-connected with on Facebook. He was a gracious tour guide and host as he showed us the town. http://www.waynesvilleshops.com/ It was just a delightful afternoon. After saying good bye to Bruce and Waynesdale we made one more stop before heading back to Fort Wayne. We went to Caesar Creek Sate Park http://caesarcreekstatepark.com/ and walked around and photographed the Pioneer Village. It was a great few days and next year it is Peggy's turn to plan our vacation. The word Gettysburg is on the wind.

Vacation September 2011 - Day Two

After leaving the lodge at ten am and not returning till twelve thirty am on Tuesday,  we decided to take Wednesday a little easier.   We didn't leave the lodge till close to eleven and headed to an area north east of Dayton rather than back into a city area.  We arrived at Springfield Ohio in time for a late lunch and then enjoyed a wonderful tour of The Westcott House. Peg and I both enjoy Frank Lloyd Wright houses and The Westcott House did not disappoint.   Although we had to dodge rain drops to get from the car into the house,  it was well worth the effort.    I was especially impressed by the way the master and mrs bedrooms were arranged.   Each had their own room at the front of the house upstairs.  They were next to each other with a door between.  The two of them took up the entire front of the house.  But what was really cool was that they were exact mirror images.  Each had their own walk in closets,  dressing rooms,  window seats,  bathrooms and bedroom areas that exactly  matched each other only backwards.   Pictures were not allowed inside the house and it was raining so we did not even think to hang around taking pictures after the tour.

After leaving Springfield Ohio we drove south to a little town called Yellow Springs.   I have been told on good authority that Yellow Springs was full of hippies before there was ever such a thing as a hippie.   I found the stores there delightful.   The first one we walked in was called Eco Mental and I bought  re-use-able coffee filters there.   The worst part was my umbrella kept collapsing.   The shopping was fine and we headed back to the lodge for a late dinner in the dining room.  What amazes me about traveling and eating out is the problem of getting enough fruit in one's diet.  It seems you either have to order desert or wine to get anything that is close to fruit.  After dining that night I made the sacrifice and ordered a desert that was bananas in warm rum.  It was wonderful. 

Vacation September 2011 - Newport KY

After leaving The Underground Railroad Museum Freedom Center we drove across the bridge to Newport KY. First stop was to see The World Peace Bell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Bell I was disappointed that the building is no longer ran by the peace bell people and they did not allow us to go up in the building to where we could see the bell better nor would they ring it. After that we walked around a place called The Levee that was supposed to be shopping but in reality was more like places to eat, a movie theater and a bowling alley so we found a coffee shop and rested. Luckily we decided to allow ourselves thirty minutes to find the riverboat dock. http://bbriverboats.com/ According to my google directions it was only two miles from where we left the car in the public parking lot next to the World Peace Bell. Hummmmmm. It took us thirty minutes to find the dock. While we were not in danger of missing the boat we were able to board as soon as we got there. We did not have to wait. I am not sure if it was the fact that anything would be anticlimactic after the Freedom Center or if we were just tired but Newport Ky did not impress me. The riverboat cruise was not at all like the cruise I took up north in Michigan through the Locks. There there was a guide who told us what we were seeing. Also on the Chicago Riverboat Ride I took there was a guide explaining every thing. On the Newport riverboat cruise there was not guide making announcements about what we were passing. Also on the Locks tour they served us our meal while on the Ohio River one it was a buffet. We arrived back in our rooms at the lodge Tuesday night about 12:30 am (Wednesday morning) after getting lost in Cincinnati on the way home a few times. During the drive home we decided that Wednesday was going to be a day that was starting later and ending earlier.

Vacation September 2011 - The Freedom Center

  If you have been over to my photo's section you know that my most recent posts of pictures were of my visit to Harriet Beecher Stowe's house this past Tuesday.   After we finished that tour we headed over to The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  As I mentioned, getting to The Stowe House was no easy matter.  GPS is very much needed if you ever decide to go there.   In the same manner if you travel to The Freedom Center in Cincinnati Ohio be sure and bring the GPS.  I am sure I hold the award for the most U turns in Cincinnati for one day.   No photographs are taken inside The Freedom Center and I forgot to take one of the outside.  I was flustered from being lost when I got there and too blown away from the exhibits when I left to think of it.   As a result I share a video of the facility with you.   Also the second video explains there is an IPOD app of the museum.  I downloaded it before I went so that I could play the audio/videos for each display as I looked at them.   But if you download the free app you can see the exhibits just as they are in the museum.   I highly recommend if you can't get to Cincinnati to visit The Freedom Center that you take the time to view the app and share it with everyone you know.

Vacation September 2011 - Harriet Beecher Stowe House

http://stowehousecincy.org/

The first place we toured on Tuesday morning was The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati. More accurately, this was the first place we toured after seeing quite a bit of the Cincinnati area. It is not the easiest place to find and I had ran google maps to help me find my way around on this trip. Normally I use Yahoo map it and have had good luck. Not so with the google maps for this area. Next road trip, if I am going to be in a city area at all, I will need to invest in a GPS on my phone for at least the month the trip is in. But eventually we did locate the Harriet Beecher Stowe home and enjoyed the tour very much. The curator was an older black woman who was very knowledgeable. I had re-read (or more accurately listened to on audio) Uncle Tom's Cabin the month prior to this trip in preparation. And I knew that the years that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Cincinnati provided her with the motivation and the material for the novel. But I did not realize she lived in the area for a long as she did. Also the guide told us that Harriet's father was the president of the Presbyterian Seminary in the area of the home and that is why she came to Cincinnati as a young woman of 21. She married one of the professors of the seminary and she interacted with some of the key abolitionist leaders of the time while in the Cincinnati area. Visiting her home was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Vacation September 2011 - Where We Stayed

The evening we arrived I stepped out on my balcony and snapped some photos.

http://www.huestonwoodsstateparklodge.com/

The last two years when Peggy and I have went on vacation we rented rooms at Bed and Breakfasts. This year I thought it would be nice to stay at a state park lodge so I reserved us each a room at Hueston Woods Lodge. I picked a location half way between Cincinnati and Dayton because there were things I wanted to do in both areas.

Book For The Week - 9/24/11

Blackbird Fly

by

Lisa McClendon

From the Kindle Ad for this book:

"A house in France connects three women together -- the woman who owns the house, the woman who lives in the house, and the woman who died in the house sixty years before. Who are they? Merle Bennett inherits the house of her late husband, in a small village in the Dordogne. But when she arrives a deranged squatter won't let her inside. Who is the woman? What is her connection to Merle's husband? Secrets from the post-war period, when southwest France was crushed and left to wither by Nazi occupation, and secrets of a newer kind, occupy what should be a fine French summer for Merle. With her teenage son in tow, a sexy roofer in her kitchen, and a nasty discovery in the pissoir, there is plenty to keep her mind off her endless to-do list. A story of murder, self-discovery, and family, deep in the heart of France.
"A heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loss, sisterhood, and the ties that bind us together," says novelist Jenny Siler."

(This was on the free list for my kindle shortly after I received it for my birthday and I picked it to try.  I enjoyed reading it.  The story held my interest.  It had a good share of wine,  sex,  friendships,  bad marriages, and murder in it.  I would not call it the best book I ever read in 2011 but it did the job I wanted it to.  It cleared my mind so I could sleep soundly when I was ready to put it down.  And it held my interest enough that I was in no hurry to put it down.  As always click on the author's name and the book title to follow the links to  learn more. )

Book For The Week - 9/19/11

Murder On Bank Street

by

Victoria Thompson

Often,  in between heavier books,  I sandwich in a mystery.  Mysteries are not particularly my favorite genre of book but they do well to entertain in a lighter way and so are a good escape.   After "The Thirteenth Tale"  it was time for something lighter.   Therefore I turned to Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Series.  The heroine of The Gaslight Series is Sarah Brandt.  The setting for The Gaslight Series is New York City in the late 1800s.  Sarah is a nurse midwife who serves the poorer women of the New York tenements.   The plot of most of the books is that a murder takes place in a tenement building and Sarah becomes involved in solving it.  She has a friendship that has sprung up with one of the police detectives.   As the books progress they deal with various  women's issues, including: childbirth,  poverty,  crime, corruption in police departments and health issues of varying types.  Sarah Brandt is a widow.  Her husband,  who was a doctor,  was murdered.   In Murder On Bank Street,  her detective friend is determined to solve the crime in which Sarah's husband was murdered even though it is several years old.   Just prior to his death,  Dr Brandt had been doing case studies on women who had Erotomania and were fixated on their doctors.   See THIS .  In the book it is referred to as "Old Maid's Disease".   I listened to the book during my commute and at the very end the author adds a note in her own voice where she encourages victims of stalkers to go to the following WEBSITE  For an entire list of the Gaslight Series go HERE.  One of my contacts here at MP recommended this series to me and I have enjoyed a couple of the books.  They are a fun series to read and with my line of work  I find them particularly interesting. 

'Source Code' Trailer

Mark and I watched this movie tonight. We had some technical problems because the DVD I rented was damaged but we were able to see almost all of the movie.

Book For The Week - 9/11/11

The Thirteenth Tale

by
Diane Setterfield

"From Publishers Weekly

Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle's twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children's caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield's sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she's a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That's where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures."

I finished listening to the end of this book after I got home from work last night.  It is usually a sign of a good book if I turn my IPod back on to finish listening after my commute ends.  But I am not sure if I would call this a good book or not.  I can say that I really didn't like the first third of the book.   The second third there started to be parts that I liked along with more parts that I did not like.  But the last third was really good.  And I have to admit that the parts at the beginning that I did not like were necessary to the story.  The reason I selected this book to listen to is that it was one that I noticed the library book groups around were reading and discussing last fall.   My own library book group did not select it but it looked like an interesting storyline.   A young bookish type woman receives a letter from a famous authoress asking her to come and write her biography.  The writer is elderly and ill.   A friendship develops between the two women as they collaborate on the book they are writing.   While all that seems like a nice story it soon becomes apparent that the elderly female writer has some real family skeletons in her closet.   As a reader I soon hated the house she grew up in.   The story is told in a manner that keeps you guessing about many aspects of the people involved right up to the ending.   If a reader can get through the first of the book and keep reading it will be well worth the effort.    Click on the title of the book and the author's name above to follow the links to learn more.

Book For The Week - 9/5/11

I finished up this delightful fluff book early this morning.   Since I got my kindle I have been throwing  a load of laundry into the washer or starting the dishwasher  and curling up with my kindle.  When the appliance is done I throw the stuff in the dryer (in the case of the washer)  and go on to bed.   Except last night.  I started the washer as usual and started reading.  I was about 75% done with "Lye in Wait"  by Cricket McRae.   I never heard the washer buzz.   The next thing I knew I was at the end of the book and it was 4:30 a.m.   This is a fun little book.  It is one of those mystery stories that doesn't take a lot of brain power to follow.   The main character makes home made soaps, lotions and lip balms as the story unfolds and then at the end of the book the recipes for the items she makes are all listed.   I got this book off the free list at Amazon's kindle's bestsellers page.  I am sure when I am ready for another fluff book that this series will be one of the ones I rotate through.   Follow THIS LINK to the author's website to learn more. 

Pulling My Head Out Of The Sand For A Moment

I have been coming home from work,  quickly checking messages online, on to the  shower and then into bed with my kindle on which I have been reading fiction.   Therefore I have been calmer than I have been in years.  Calm but out of touch with what is going on.  Oh,  I did notice a hurricane on the east coast.   This pm I checked a few sites a little deeper and felt compelled to re post a video and add some links.   I find it makes me feel better to avoid products that are putting money into people's hands that act in ways I don't agree with.   Here is a list for you from the Democrats for Progress site:

Koch Industry Gasoline:

Chevron
Union
Union 76
Conoco

Koch Industry/Georgia-Pacific Products:

Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins

Koch Industry/Invista Products:

COMFOREL® fiberfill
COOLMAX® fabric
CORDURA® fabric
DACRON® fiber
POLYSHIELD® resin
SOLARMAX® fabric
SOMERELLE® bedding products
STAINMASTER® carpet
SUPPLEX® fabric
TACTEL® fiber
TACTESSE® carpet fiber
TERATE® polyols
TERATHANE® polyether glycol
THERMOLITE® fabric
PHENREZ® resin
POLARGUARD® fiber and
LYCRA® fiber

Georgia Pacific Building products

Dense Armor Drywall and Decking
ToughArmor Gypsum board
Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood
Flexrock
Densglass sheathing
G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)-
Agricultural Plaster
Arts & Crafts Plaster
Dental Plaster
General Purpose Plaster
Glass-reinforced Gypsum (GRG)
Industrial Tooling Plaster
Investment Casting Plaster
Medical Plaster
Metal Casting Plaster
Pottery Plaster

FibreStrong Rim board
G/P Lam board
Blue Ribbon OSB Rated Sheathing
Blue Ribbon Sub-floor
DryGuard Enhanced OSB
Nautilus Wall Sheathing
Thermostat OSB Radiant Barrier Sheathing
Broadspan Engineered Wood Products
XJ 85 I-Joists
FireDefender Banded Cores
FireDefender FS
FireDefender Mineral Core
Hardboard and Thin MDF including Auto Hardboard,
Perforated Hardboard and Thin MDF
Wood Fiberboard -
Commercial Roof Fiberboard
Hushboard Sound Deadening Board
Regular Fiberboard Sheathing
Structural Fiberboard Sheathing  

Furthermore,  follow this link for organizations that (if you think like me)  you might want to avoid giving money or support to. 

Then watch the following video.  Different Day Same Sh*#.  Although an older name than what they call themselves today.  Keep up the good fight folks.  It has been going on since the formation of our country.  I stay on the side of   Thomas Jefferson,  Lincoln,  FDR,  Carter, Clinton,  and Obama.  It seems clear to me that people don't play fair unless there are rules.  So I support regulation to prevent abuses of the people.  People like the man in this video scare me.



Now back to my kindle and my fiction. 

Book For The Week - 8/29/11

Never Let Me Go

by
Kazuo Ishiguro

This is the first book I read on my Kindle and it is one of those books you never forget.   The person who recommended it to me called it a masterpiece and oh my it is.   I am not sure I want to watch the movie.  It can't be as good as the book.  Click on the author's name and the title to follow links to learn more.

Book For The Week - 8/22/11

Murder on Nob Hill


by


Shirley Tallman


This pm I just finished listening to  Murder On Nob Hill by Shirley Tallman.  While I would definitely put this book in the "chick lit"  category,  I did enjoy it as a fluff book to sandwich in between more serious books.  Mystery is not my favorite genre but once in a while I do find a series that is great to pick up one of the novels when I need an escape book.   Much on the same level as Victoria Thompson's Sarah Brant,  Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody,  Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plume,  and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone -  Shirley Tallman's Sarah Woolson is a gutsy female that makes a series hold one's attention.  Murder On Nob Hill  is the first in this series and it is delightful.  The story is set in the late 1800s in San Francisco and Sarah Woolson is working her way into the male dominated field of law.  She takes on cases where she defends women who would other wise be swept under the carpet and ignored by the male attorneys who dominate the career of law.  In this first novel she is working to clear a woman who is accused of murdering her husband and in the process becomes in danger herself.  Learn more about this book,  the other titles in this series and the author by clicking on the author's name and the title of the book.    A big thank you to Heidi for telling me about this book series!

Book For The Week - 8/18/11

Uncle Tom's Cabin
by
Harriet Beecher Stowe


Next month a friend and I have a trip planned to Cincinnati Ohio to visit some of the Underground Rail Road sites.   One of the places I hope we get to tour is the home that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in between 1832 and 1850 when she was living in Cincinnati.    After my vacation last year to the greater Boston area and the fun I had touring the homes of Louisa Mae Alcott,  Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandparents home where he wrote Nature,  Henry David Thoreau's Waldon Pond and Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables,  I came home and listened on audio to  The House of Seven Gables,  Nature,  Little Women and On Walden Pond.   As I listened I knew it would have been better to listen first and visit second.   As a result,  earlier this week,  I finished listening to Uncle Tom's Cabin.   Even though I can't remember ever reading it,  I must have either read it a long time ago or had parts of it read to me as a child because there were portions of the book that were very familiar to me. 
While listening to the story several things came to mind.  It is of course propaganda that was meant to encourage people to become involved in the abolitionist movement just prior to the civil war.   I was surprised to see the amount of time that the author spent developing the point of view of the southern slave owner and her defense of their point of view.   She did make it crystal clear that even a kind and generous slave owner put his slaves at risk for mistreatment if he should die unexpectedly by having the character in the book who was a kind and generous slave owner have an unexpected fatal encounter.   She also developed at great length the separation of families that took place with the system of slave trade that was practiced in the south.   The author allowed us to be a part of one families escape and to experience the underground rail road that they followed to Canada. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin filled to the brim with her Christian point of view.  It is a book filled with religious references and was meant to be read by a Christian audience.  There were many places where the Bible was quoted and Christian language was used throughout.   The novel made clear in the character of Uncle Tom how the idea of the  "Promised Land"  was used to endure hell on earth.
This book is a classic and should be read by everyone.  It is believed that Abraham Lincoln accused Harriet Beecher Stowe of starting the Civil War with the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin.    This year is the 200th anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe's birth.  What a wonderful  time to read or to re read her book! 
Please follow the links to learn more.  It can also be listened to HERE.

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

From My Email Bag Tonight

2 TOUGH QUESTIONS.... INTERESTING

 
Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?


Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.



Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates.


Candidate A:
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.  He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 Martinis a day.


Candidate B:
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.


Candidate C:
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never committed adultery.


Which of these candidates would be our choice?

Decide first... No peeking, and then scroll down for the
response.
















Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolf Hitler.

And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question:
If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it?
Makes a person think before judging someone.

Willie Smits

This video was made in 2009.   There is also and excellent TED talk by Willie Smits that I have posted on another site and is available on YouTube.  I think Willie Smits has a really interesting program going on his land preserve  that solves many issues. 

Book For The Week - 7/16/11

Stones Into Schools

by

Greg Mortenson



The Following is from the Author's Website:

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace Through Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan (www.stonesintoschools.com). Over the past seventeen years, Greg Mortenson, through his nonprofit Central Asia Institute (CAI), has worked to promote peace through education by establishing more than 171 schools, most of them for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The story of how this remarkable humanitarian campaign began was told in his bestselling 2006 book, Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson’s philosophies about building relationships, empowering communities, and educating girls have struck a powerful chord. Hundreds of communities and universities, as well as several branches of the U.S. military, have used Three Cups of Tea as a common read.
Just as Three Cups of Tea began with a promise—to build a school in Korphe, Pakistan—so too does Mortenson’s new book. In 1999, Kirghiz horsemen from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor rode into Pakistan and secured a promise from Mortenson to construct a school in an isolated pocket of the Pamir Mountains known as Bozai Gumbad. Mortenson could not build that school before constructing many others, and that is the story he tells in this dramatic new book. Picking up where Three Cups of Tea left off in late 2003, Stones into Schools traces the CAI’s efforts to work in a whole new country, the secluded northeast corner of Afghanistan. Mortenson describes how he and his intrepid manager, Sarfraz Khan, barnstormed around Badakhshan Province and the Wakhan Corridor, moving for weeks without sleep, to establish the first schools there.
Those efforts were diverted in October 2005 when a devastating earthquake hit the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan. Under Sarfraz’s watch the CAI helped with relief efforts by setting up temporary tent schools and eventually several earthquakeproof schools. The action then returns to Afghanistan in 2007, as the CAI launches schools in the heart of Taliban country and as Mortenson helps the U.S. military formulate new strategic plans as a road map to peace. As the book closes, the initial promise to the Kirghiz is fulfilled.
Stones into Schools brings to life both the heroic efforts of the CAI’s fixers on the ground—renegade men of unrecognized and untapped talent who became galvanized by the importance of girls’ education—and the triumphs of the young women who are now graduating from the schools. Their stories are ones you will not soon forget.

(I finished listening to Stones Into Schools last pm on my way home from work.   As most people know,  60 minutes did a negative program on Greg Mortenson in April which has resulted in law suits being filed against Greg.   It is my hope that even if adjustments are needed to be made (and I am not saying that there are adjustments that need to be made as I am still waiting on the outcome of all this to make a judgement)   that it is all resolved and Greg and the CAI are able to continue their very important work.  Please follow the links at the title and the author's name to learn more about Greg and the CAI.    In the past I have posted the 60 minute video about Mr Mortenson so I am not re-posting it at this time.    I am going to post a video about the CAI which I hope will help people understand how important the work of the CAI is.   A friend and I hope to get tickets to hear Greg Mortenson speak in October as he is scheduled to be in Chicago.  Since he had open heart surgery last month I do hope he can make it to his Chicago presentation.)

Unstoppable Movie Trailer Official (HD)

After dinner and fixing the dishwasher's kinked drainage hose Mark and I settled down and watched a movie. This one will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba story

http://movingwindmills.org/story

I was reading through my app on my Ipod of Al Gore's Our Choice and got to about the middle of chapter four and found this gem of info. How cool is this??!!

A Poem

It has been a long time since we have had our Poetry Wednesday Group.  And while I miss it,  there isn't time in my life for it right now.  But occasionally I still come across a poem that I really like.  Here is one of them.  And don't forget to follow the link to learn more about Naomi Shihab Nye.

Before You Know What Kindness Really Is
by Naomi Shihab Nye


Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
    purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

--Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words

Book For The Week - 7/1/11

AT HOME by Bill Bryson

     I finished listening to Bill Bryson's At Home on my way to work yesterday.   It was great fun but I would recommend reading it rather than listening to it as in order to really enjoy it  a person needs to be able to back up and re read a paragraph or even turn back to a prior chapter.  In the book Bryson walks you from room to room and explains the history of normal every day items.  I had thought I would choose a favorite topic to tell you about but there were too many favorites.  From the life of Mr Mason who invented the canning jar to the people that went into the jungles of South America and the forests of North America for excursions that lasted years to gather plant samples,  I found my self fascinated with every word.  The only chapter that I really felt a bit squeamish during was the one that covered pests,  starting with rats and going all the way down to germs,  covering bed bugs and all sorts of things in between.   And I even found the part of that chapter on bats interesting.   Follow the link to learn more and enjoy the video which is a portion of the audio book. 

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth (FULL)

An Evening At The Theater

Live theater is something that I do not get to enjoy too often.  It is an expensive love and  it had been about a year and a half since my Aunt took me to see Man Of La Mancha at the theater in Munster IN.   I was really ready to see another live production.  So my friend Linda and I made plans to go to the Fort Wayne Community Dinner Theater called The Arena and selected their production of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" .  I was able to obtain the tickets and took a vacation day this past Friday for the event.   Since the Bagel Station catered for The Arena I assumed we would be stopping on the way home for a snack.  So I was presently surprised.  We both had selected the vegetarian selection and it was something like a spinach lasagna with an alfredo type sauce served on a bed of fresh spinach.  The other people at our table had the regular selection which looked like either turkey or chicken over angel hair pasta with alfredo sauce and green beans on the side.  There was water,  ice tea and coffee and a raspberry cheese cake for desert.   There is also a cash bar.   From our table we could see and hear fine.  I doubt there was a bad seat in the house.  The only problem with the physical surroundings was having to climb over every one to get to the bath room and the fact that the ladies room only had two stalls so there was quite a wait.    I had been warned that the play was a real belly laughter so I knew to be sure to use the ladies room after all the decaf and water I drank with dinner.   The play is a comedy musical and although the jokes had sexual content it was really funny.   The entire house was roaring with laughter through out the performance.  It is a story of two men on the French Riviera who make their living cheating bored rich women.  They make a bet that they can get 50 k out of this one woman first and whoever wins gets to stay and work the area and the other one has to find a new place to do his con.  Below find the finale song from a Chicago production of the same play and then the trailer of a movie of the same story.  The movie is not a musical. 

Book For The Week - 6/10/2011

The Red Tent

by

Anita Diamant

(This book is the book selection for my library book group  for the month of June.  I just finished listening to it as I walked on the treadmill after work tonight.  Be sure and get out the hankies for the last half hour of the story although the entire book is touching.  As always click on the authors name and the title of the book to follow the links and learn more)

Book For The Week - 6/1/2011

Angels and Demons

by
Dan Brown


From the authors website:
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati... the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth.

The Illuminati has surfaced from the shadows to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy... the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces he has hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.

Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair... a secret location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller,  Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war...

(This book I actually listened to prior to About Face by Donna Leon but I never got a post up about it.  I really liked Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.  I had listened to The Da Vinici Code a couple years ago and enjoyed that also.  I think Angels and Demons was more graphically violent but it really kept me on the edge of my seat.  That Dan Brown can sure spin a tale!  Click on the authors name to follow the link to learn more.)

Book For The Week - 5/31/2011

About Face

by
Donna Leon

From the authors website:
"Donna Leon’s eighteen novels have won her countless fans, heaps of critical acclaim, and a place among the top ranks of international crime writers. Through the warm-hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Leon’s best-selling books have explored Venice in all its aspects:  history and tourism, high culture and the changing seasons, food and family, but also violent crime and political corruption.

In About Face, her latest mystery, Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy in recent years. Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who-knows-what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore.

Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti’s work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he’s seen before.

Donna Leon’s readership has significantly expanded with her recent books, including 2008’s The Girl of His Dreams, her most successful hardcover yet. Coupled with a major marketing campaign for new trade paperback editions of key backlist titles from Penguin and audiobooks from BBC America Audio, About Face, an exceptional addition to the series, is sure to take her sales to new heights. "


(I finished listening to this book last pm on my way to work.  This is the book that caused me to be interested in looking up about dumping toxic waste in Africa.  It is the second book by Donna Leon I have listened to.  A couple years ago I listened to her "Blood From a Stone"  which prompted me to learn more about conflict diamonds.   It is my understanding that all her novels introduce a social issue.  I will look forward to listening to more of her work.  As always click on the author's name to follow the link and learn more.)

Book For The Week - 5/13/2011

Yesterday

by


Fern Michaels

Publisher Comments:

Raised on her father's South Carolina plantation, Callie Parker wanted for nothing, and now she is about to marry wealthy local scion Wyn Archer. But her wedding wouldn't be complete without the three people she grew up with under the sheltering branches of the angel oaks at Parker Manor.
There's Bode Jessup, part brother and part idol, who has become a wildly attractive man. Next is Brie Canfield, Callie's freckle-faced playmate, now an FBI agent with a life of her own. Last is shy waif Sela Bronson, whose only reason for returning to Parker Manor is to escape an unhappy marriage.
As Callie's childhood companions gather to relive the charmed years they spent together, they discover how little they know of their beloved yesterday...and how one woman's darkest secret can tear them apart.


(I finished listening to this audio book a week or so ago.  My younger sister suggested I try a book by Fern Michaels called "Seasons of her life"  but I could not find that one on audio so I obtained "Yesterday"  by the same author.  I enjoyed the book.  It is a fluff book.  I would put it in the same area  of the  book shelf as Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts or a Harlequin Romance book.  It is not serious fiction by any means.  But it provides a good escape and it held my interest. Click on the authors name and the book title to learn more.)

Dinner and A Movie April 2011

I had my Tuesday evening with Mark and it was my turn to cook.  We rented the following movie.  I really liked it and suggest that others might enjoy it too.  Well . . . fans of former President Bush would probably not like it.  Of course I liked it for the same reasons they would not.

Book For The Week - 4/13/2011

The

Help

by

Kathryn

Stockette








(I just finished listening to The Help on my way home from work tonight.  It is a wonderful book.  There were parts that made me laugh out loud and parts that made me cry.  There were characters that I dearly loved and characters I wanted to smack in the mouth.   It is my hope that many, many people will read this book.)

 
From the author's website:

"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't."

How to Change the World

I Wanted To Change The World

Author: Unknown Monk 1100 A.D.

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Book For The Week - 3/26/2011

Three Cups of Tea:
One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace,
One School At A Time.
By Greg Mortenson
 and
David Oliver Relin

While I was sitting with the lights out on Earth Day 2011 I cheated a little and finished listening to the book I have been listening to for the last couple weeks.  I can imagine my contacts on FB will be glad that I am done as I have been posting links while listening to this book.  But my contacts here on Multiply have not been pestered yet (except those of you who are on both of the contact lists) so here is a post on "Three Cups Of Tea". 

This is a very inspiring book about a man who becomes lost while attempting to mountain climb in Pakistan and is taken in by villagers who he becomes fond of in the time it takes for his guide to find him.   As a result of relationships that were built while he was staying in the village he finds his passion for life in returning to Pakistan at regular intervals and building schools for the villages children and encouraging education, especially for girls.   The book covers his struggle to get the first project off the ground and covers approximately ten years of Greg Mortenson's hard work.   The message is clear through out the book that the real way to fight terror is not with bombs but rather with education and through building relationships.   Please click on the three links scattered through out the title and the author's names to learn more of this man's work.   And do some searching on your own over at YouTube to enjoy many fine videos on this subject.

Watched an Oscar Winner

After a dinner of corn beef and cabbage topped off with key lime pie,  Mark and I watched the AWARD WINNING documentary INSIDE JOB.  As a result I have a better understanding of our current economic situation.( although I really need to watch it a second time to get all the details)  I would put this movie right up there with FOOD INC,  THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH  which are all documentaries I have  found really  good in recent years.  

Book For The Week - 3/15/2011

The Translator

by
Leila Abolela

From Publishers Weekly:

"Sammar, a young Sudanese widow, is working as a translator in a Scottish university when love blossoms between herself and her Scottish supervisor, Rae Isles, a scholar of the Middle East and of Third World politics. A religious Muslim who covers her hair, Sammar has left her young son in Khartoum to be raised by her aunt and quells her loneliness by throwing herself into her job translating terrorist documents for kindly divorcé Rae. The two signal their growing love for one another with sympathy (and chastity). On the eve of her trip to Khartoum to see her son and bring him back with her, she confronts Rae, desperate to know if he will accept Islam—since a relationship to her is impossible without marriage, and that marriage is impossible without his conversion. His hesitation reveals the cultural gulf between them, and Sammar is pierced to the quick. Though The Translator is Aboulela's second novel to be released in the U.S., it is the Sudanese-British author's first, published in the U.K. in 1999. (Her third, Minaret, appeared here last year.) With authentic detail and insight into both cultures, Aboulela painstakingly constructs a truly transformative denouement."


(This is the second book by this title I have posted about in the last month.  If you remember,  the last one was one I listened to by mistake and found very meaningful.  This is the book that I was supposed to read for the book group at the library this month.  I had to stay up most of Sunday night to get through it in time for book group yesterday before work.   I can't say that I liked this book very much.   First of all it was mostly a love story and I am not real fond of love stories unless there is something else to them that interests me.   Second of all the author weaves in and out of the present,  the past and dreams and I spent a lot of the book trying to figure out where the story was at the moment.  Third,  the main character in the book was a woman that I had little patience with.  I know the book is supposed to help a person understand a different culture but I felt the woman the book was about needed to get a grip in general.  Even though it was probably her religion and her culture that made her so depressed and mealy mouthed I just was not impressed.   If you are in the mood for something a little different perhaps you will enjoy this book.  It did make for some lively conversation at book group.   I make it clear I never met a man I would pine over for four years and eat moldy bread because I was so depressed over him.   As always, click on the title and the author's name above to learn more.)

Faith and Globalization 2008 - Audio

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/yale.edu-dz.4359493321.04359493323
I only get one audio book a month from Audible.com for my Ipod. So I have been exploring other free sources of audio books and podcasts. ITunes offers free course lectures in an area called ITunesU. The first one I enjoyed listening to was from Standford University and was about Benjamin Franklin. Currently I am listening to one from Yale called Faith and Globalization 2008. It has panel members from BP, Goldman Sacs, and experts on China and Islam involved in discussions and making presentations.

Book For The Week - 3/10/2011

Walden

by

Henry David Thoreau

I took the above photo while on vacation to the Boston area last fall.  It is taken in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord Massachusetts and is of the Thoreau family grave plot.  The day we spent in Concord we visited a house called The Manse that was related to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorne,  we visited the home where Louisa Mae Alcott grew up,  and toward the end of the day we drove by Walden Pond.  It was too close to dark and raining too hard to get out of the car and explore but even driving by it was clear that the area was beautiful.  I promised myself to expose myself to the works of Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott,  and Thoreau and tonight as I walked on my treadmill after work I finished up listening to Walden in an audio format.  It was a beautiful book.  As always click on the author's name and the book title to follow links to learn more.   And below find both a video of the area and below it and audio  presentation of the book.