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.)