Day 30 - An Author that you will read whatever they put out

I was so busy yesterday, that although I had this topic covered, I didn't have time to post day 30. This is a good topic to end a 30-Day book challenge.

If you've hung with me, you know there are others whom I could have put in this spot; Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. I decided on Erik Larson because he writes what is probably termed "historical fiction". This means, he takes a real event, researches it and then writes about that event, but he makes up things that couldn't possibly be known, such as how people felt or what private conversations they might have had with, say, a neighbor.

I stumbled across Larson in 1999, when I worked at The Bookstore. A book named Isaac's Storm had just come out. It was about the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900, which has been labeled the deadliest hurricane in US history. As the hurricane category scale and the appellation of names to them had not happened, it's referred to only as the "Galveston hurricane".

The Isaac of the title was the chief meterologist stationed in Galveston. The book details not just how much the fledgling US Weather Service knew, but when they knew it and the whole political climate surrounding how much information to feed the public. In reading this book, particularly with the backdrop of Hurricane Irene behind us, you might be appalled at what people of 1900 took for granted. Galveston changed the Weather Service.

I was allowed to take the book home to read. After all, it's hard to sell something you haven't read. Jenny, one of the co-workers, called and said she wanted it back the next day so she could put it in the window. I had already read a bit over a third of it so let's keep going.

I distinctly remember looking at the clock in the living room at 1:30 a.m. Larson was building up to the arrival of the hurricane. I like to tell people, "The hurricane arrived at 2 a.m. and I didn't put the book down for another hour." I know I was tired the next day, but I could take Carole to school, go drop off the book at the store and come home for a nap. 

After that, I read Devil in the White City. This was another "can't put me down" books. I supposed the setting, Chicago and the World Colombian Exposition of 1893 was appealing from the start. There are things still on the south side of Chicago which were created for that world's fair. The 'devil' was one, H. H. Holmes who, it is thought, murdered from 20 to 200 people while he lived in Chicago. Most of these murders took advantage of the World's Fair by luring people to stay at a 'boarding' house Holmes had set up along one of the avenues to the fair. The house has been long gone. I read this at a time when I had to drive through that area for work and I tried to imagine what it looked like, with all the buildings and the people.

His next book, which I have not read but which is in the pile is Thunderstruck, a story about the first wireless transatlantic communications. Guglielmo Marconi's story is told in tandem with that of a Scotland Yard detective who is hot on the trail of a murderer who is moving to Quebec. It's been called Larson's least compelling book. As I haven't read it, I can't testify to that.

The book at the top of the column is Larson's latest. It came out in May. It's the story of William Dodd, the US ambassador to Hitler's new regime. All the press I've read about it say this is Larson's best book to date. I'll have to see if I can get it.

And this concludes 30 days of books. This has been quite fun and has forced me to assess my reading.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Day 16- Favorite book turned movie

The Lord of the Rings trilogy would fit here nicely too, but as I've already used them, I decided to pick something else.

I remember how we were all so worried about the adaptation of this book. It's impossible to get all subplots into a 2 hours movie. I know people who were peeved with Peter Jackson leaving out Tom Bombadill in the LotR movies. You have to make executive decisions on what you keep and what you leave out.

I think we have been pleasantly surprised by how well all the movies have been done.

I haven't read beyond Goblet of Fire. I admit it. I got involved in other books and Harry Potter is down in the pile waiting for me. I also haven't seen any of the movies beyond the Prisoner of Azkaban. Some day.

I feel this series is a good example of how working with the author yields a good movie. You can't always do that, but having the an author who understands you only have 2 hours to tell the story means the important parts are emphasized and some of the side plots, which add body and depth to a book, can be left aside. This series and its movies probably did a great deal to excite kids on reading.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

30 Day Book Challenge

Facebook has a lot of junk floating around it. You can take a survey about anything. You can join a fan site. You can play games. I noticed Carole and David had these posts regarding "30 Day [insert noun] Challenge". For 30 days, you have a topic and you post something that, to you, reflects that topic. I've seen music and movies. Carole is working through the "30 Day Book Challenge". This was intriguing so I decided I'd do it too, but post my books here as well as on Facebook.

I started yesterday. I had to be out in the heat yesterday for a good 4 hours and that just roasts your logic and thought processes. So I didn't post anything, obviously. Today there will be 2 book posts. As I don't always post daily and, in some cases, I can't post daily, you'll need to bear with me getting caught up on occasion. I'm going to try to keep on the daily schedule, August 1 to 30.

Day number 1 was easy. "Your Favorite Book". I chose Macbeth by Shakespeare. I used to have Hamlet as my favorite book. One of my life guiding quotes is from Act 1, Scene 3, where Polonius gives advice to his son, Laertes.

"To thine own self be true And it must follow, as night the day, Thou can'st then be false to any man."

Of course we all know the "To be, or not to be, That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of trouble And by opposing, end them." 

Great quotes and scholars have debated "To be, or not to be" for millenia. Just what was Shakespeare saying here?

Macbeth is less quoted and it's usually the witches, "Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble", or "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Lady Macbeth's "Out damned spot! Out, I say!" in reference to her madness at being unable to get her hands clean of Duncan's blood.

It's not the abundance of quotes which can be tossed into a conversation that makes Macbeth my favorite. I've come to appreciate how rooted in Scottish history the play is. Shakespeare probably wrote the play for King James who was a Scot. As he fancied himself descended from Banquo, the commissioned work was intended to show how James was really the heir to the Scottish throne. James' ancestral opponents were shown to be horrible monsters capable of offing a king in an attempt to gain the throne they couldn't get any other way.

What I've been intrigued by is Lady Macbeth. This is one of Shakespeare's most complex plays. The main characters have nuances well beyond the words on the page. What could have driven a woman to force her husband to kill a sitting king? The dim history we have from the time period of the real Macbeth suggests Lady Macbeth's father was the rightful heir to the Scottish throne, but he was killed. The real Macbeth, who came by the throne legally, had a perfectly uneventful reign.The person we think we knew is all a product of a play wright creating something 400 years after the fact and catering strictly to his royal audience.

I think I should reread this.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

My Favorite Tulips

My favorite tulips are blooming right now.

 

These are Shirley Tulips. They start as a yellowish flower. When they open, they are still a bit yellow, but that yellow fades away to a dazzling white. What's extraordinarily special about them is that trim you see on the tulip edge. It's purple. 

It starts as a thin line delineating the petals of the flower. As the plant ages, the purple expands through the flower until the whole bud is this reddish purple with white instead of the white with purple. I have quite a few in the overgrown bed to the north of the front steps. "Some day", I will dig that bed up, lift the tulips and have more Shirley's the following year. 

Unfortunately, these don't last as cut tulips. They are made to be enjoyed in the garden. They will often wilt before the complete color change happens or they will go from the white delicately outlined in purple to purple with almost no white overnight. 

Hence, I leave them in the yard and enjoy them through the living room window and when I come home from work. Soon, it will be lilac time. 

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

FOUND!

I went to the closet on Saturday to get a shirt and this was on the floor.

It's the missing sock from my favorite pair. Obviously, it was stuck in something that, only recently, was pulled out to wear. I thought back over what I'd worn in the previous week and couldn't think of anything I hadn't worn recently. Oh well, reunited with the other one I had saved and I have my favorite pair back again.

Somewhere, a sock stealing gnome is crying.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

A Travesty!

I wanted to sit down with a movie, tea, Pilchard in my lap and my current cross-stitch project. So, I got the cross-stitch and the tea ready, turned on the TV and went to look for "Nightmare Before Christmas". Great movie.

I don't own it on DvD.

I searched everywhere. I don't own it. I have a videotape, but since my player went belly-up several years ago, a videotape is quite useless to me. I don't own this. My DvD collection goes from Muppet Treasure Island to Ocean's Eleven without a stop in the "N's".

I was crushed. I read instead, setting the cross-stitch aside but still having the cat in the lap and the tea.

I'm not going to rush out and buy it. I'll wait until after Christmas. The $20 or so for this is really needed elsewhere right now. I'll live. I need to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" anyway.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb

Fleurs Préférées

Starting your week with a little French...

A couple of my favorite flowers are in bloom at this time of year and they are in my garden. I've mentioned before that my absolute favorite flower is the lilac. Never mind that, technically, it's a flowering shrub. Those are flowers and they smell and I love that smell. But you can't really walk into a florist and ask to send me a dozen lilacs.

I'm not that fond of roses. They are pretty but too many times I had roses sent to me when there should have been an apology offered. In talking with other women, that's a theme. A guy thinks he can avoid dealing with the problem if he sends a dozen roses. We silly women fall for it a lot of times, too, and the problem goes unresolved. So, roses aren't one of my favorite flowers.

I would have to say after lilacs, I like to receive Stargazer Lilies.

This fine specimen is in the front garden by the mailbox. I don't remember when I planted it. Some years, it looks kind of straggly. This year, it's beautiful.

I have always loved the dramatic colors on this Asiatic lily. I also like the scent. It's quite spicy. I think it smells like Noxema face cleanser, a bit of a menthol tinge to it.

I possibly would melt at a half dozen of these delivered, but I'm thrilled they like my yard.

My next favorite flower is the daisy. These Shasta Daisies are interspersed in the pseudo prairie.

We had daisies on the farm when I where I grew up. We mowed them once in the spring and then mom made sure we left them alone the rest of the year. We always had cut daisy bouquets on the table. When I got married, I had daisies in the bouquets.

A guy I used to know asked me what my favorite flower was. I made him guess because no one guesses any of my top three. I was floored when he said, "You like daisies." I had not told him. He said it just fit with who I am. I'm not sure I understand but it's a nice thought. I should cut some of my daisies for the kitchen table.

I come home and I see these flowers and I smile. Every life should have flowers in it.

Beverage: English Breakfast tea

Deb

Happy Birthday!

Jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw would have been 100 on Sunday. NPR did a nice piece on him which you can read here.

Artie Shaw was interviewed and profiled extensively for the Ken Burns' Jazz series on PBS. As one of the last remaining band leaders of the swing era, his memories formed a core around which that era could be examined in the limited amount of time allotted to it. He said one of his fondest memories was of giving a concert on an aircraft carrier somewhere in the Pacific. The sailors had seen some of the bitterest fighting and a lot of men were not coming home. The USO arranged for Shaw and his band to give the guys in this battle group a taste of home.

The band was set up on one of the flight decks which was lowered into the carrier. The sailors weren't told which band was coming only that a jazz band was coming to play for them. As the deck rose to the top, Shaw and his band started into their signature song "Begin the Beguine". He said he remembered the roar that went up from the men. He said he could still hear it 60+ years later. There was film footage of that event shown in the program. Men sitting everywhere on this carrier and Shaw standing front and center starting the song.

"Begin the Beguine" is one of my top 10 favorites. It's a song I love to play when the top is down on the Jeep and I'm driving along at 60 miles per hour. I think of Mr. Shaw and his story every time I hear it and I think about those guys in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from home, doing something I wonder if I ever could because the world's freedom depended upon the performance of their job. Shaw said he never wanted to be a "popular" entertainer because he felt you gave away too much of your music. Yet one song cheered thousands of guys and has gone on to cheer millions. That's my definition of "popular".

Happy 100th Birthday! I'm sure the concert you're giving on Sunday will make the angels sing.

Beverage: China Black Tea

Deb

This is silly.

I received a bag of M&M's with peanuts, my absolute favorite candy, and a bag of M&M's with peanut butter, for Christmas. Last night, during a raid of Naxxramas, I finished off the ones with peanuts. It is a sad day but I'll survive.

I was cleaning up the bags last night and noticed the nutritional panel. This always so humorous to me. I know, by law, all food products are to have a nutritional label. It's just that, well, if you buy a bag of M&M's with peanuts, you really aren't that interested in the nutritional value of the candy as you are about whether there is an equal amount of reds, yellows, oranges, browns, blues and greens. Each of these was the 2 pound bags and both bags claimed "8 servings" in each bag. So, my favorite candy is 220 calories per serving.

I noticed there were layers to the colors in the bags. I got the yellows, oranges and reds first, followed by the browns and blues and then the green ones at the bottom of the bag. I could have sworn I shook the bags to mix them up but there were predominant colors as I worked through each bag.

I wanted these to last awhile so I would dump out a handful and eat them one by one. I always, always, sort my M&M's by color and then eat all of one color first. I'm sure that says something horrible about my personality but that's the way I eat them.

I'm out of M&M's now. The Valentine ones are available; pink, white and red. If I find them on sale and I have some extra cash, a bag of those would be fun.

I'm curious. How do my friends eat their M&M's? Do you eat them one color at a time or doesn't it matter?

Beverage: Scotch Blend tea

Deb

Gray watch - month 5 - almost there

Yesterday was month #5 since I started letting the hair go gray. You can see, from this late evening photo, that it's pretty much there. What you can't see are the streaks of tan that represent the remnants of Nice 'n Easy #118 from February. I'll have to get a friend to take a side view.

My stylist said it would be all gone by Christmas. I sort of didn't believe her, but she was right. What I really need is a haircut, but at $40, I simply can't afford that right now. My bangs are driving me nuts so I'm sorely tempted to trim them just to get them off my face. Somewhere, and I don't remember where it was, I saw a video on how to home trim bangs when you can't make it to a stylist.

It's going to be interesting, the reaction when I go home around Christmas, but this is who I am and I have gray hair. By the way, that's my favorite sweater in the photo. I don't remember where I got it but it's incredibly soft and it looks good. I'd love to have 3 or 4 more in this material in different colors.

Beverage: Dr. Pepper

Deb

Favorites

This will be the first in an on-going series of posts on my favorites. Today's favorite, socks.

Anyone who knows me knows I like my socks loud. If they aren't loud, I don't buy them. I do have plain colored socks for those times when loud would detract from what I need to do but 90% of the time, patterns and colors are what I look for in a sock. You saw, back in May, where I was sewing the holes in the toes of socks and how all of those were patterns. Today, I am wearing solid chocolate brown socks.

In the morning, I reach to the bottom of the sock drawer and fish out a pair. Whatever pair I grab, unless it's the trouser socks or the fluffy bootie socks, that's what I wear. The knee high trouser socks are for those occasions where decorum must prevail over humor or I wear them with mid calf-length skirts. The bootie socks keep my feet warm. I would rather go barefoot but, in the winter, that's a mite chilly so I wear those.

To the left here are my all-time favorite socks. Carole gave me these for Christmas. They are soft and sturdy and feel very good on my feet. The socks shown above are my second favorite. They aren't as soft but they are colorful and I feel happy when I wear them. I was on a job when I took the above photo. Yeah, I was kind of bored because my job on this project was to be "gopher" and there wasn't anything for me to go fetch at the time. My third favorite pair is a medium teal blue pair made from hemp that my sister gave me two Christmases ago. They are also really soft and are a thicker knit. I like to wear those when I have to wear my work boots to a job.

I don't really need socks right now. Carole gave me three pair of Gold Toe socks for Mother's Day. Fixing the holes in the toes of all the rest has given me a huge pool for my daily choice. I could use a couple pairs of Iowa Hawkeye socks, however. Must put that on my Christmas list.

Beverage: Assam Tea

Deb