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Reader's Paradise

September: sweet corn, stormy skies, school bells. Your readings?

13 years ago

I am currently enthralled by Sally Gunning's "The Widow's War." I think some of you on this forum had mentioned it favorably. It's set in a fascinating time in the history of our nation, where, in 1700's New England, a lone woman must struggle against the narrow confining society which gave women little or no rights.

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pam53
13 years ago
It's been quite a while since I posted. My mom died in early July and I still don't feel like doing much-but I am reading.
Right now I am reading The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and enjoying it so far (half done). It's kind of funny as I just finished another book with an orchard as backdrop and loved it-The Right Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman. It is historical set in the late 1800's along Maryland's eastern shore.
Both books are different and wonderful which is hard to find with historical novels lately. The Orchardist is set in the Oregon/Washington area-late 1800's and early 20th century.
vickitg
13 years ago
Pam -- I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. Losing my mom was one of the hardest things I've ever been through. Reading was actually one of the things that helped get me through that time.

I just read a sample of a book about an orchard, an olive orchard -- The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo -- about five generations of women in California. It looks pretty good.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Roots of the Olive Tree
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I will try to condense this because I could pontificate for hours on this! My love for gardening came from my father. He was the ultimate green thumb-he didn't have formal training that i know of, but he was a street tree gardener for two of the communities we grew up in, and always had a vegetable garden as a way to supplement our large family's food budget.(Six kids) He was a school music teacher and when summer vacation began he was always found out back tending the garden for pretty much the whole summer. Of all six children I seemed to be the most interested in what he did-and my first memory of my own interest was when he gladly allowed me to plant marigolds around the border of his garden to keep pests away(this was a fairly large plot and now I know why he jumped at my offer to help him!)I was in elementary school at the time. Also eating a tomato whole and sprinkled with salt always brings dad's tomatoes to mind. And asparagus and homemade pickles.... That was my first taste of working in a garden. It wasn't until I was a first-time homeowner that I knew I was going to be a gardener but I chose to go the route of flowers instead of vegetables. The saddest thing, though was that the year before I moved into my new home, my dad developed Alzheimer's disease and everything I needed to ask him for gardening advice about trees and organic gardening was completely gone-he was just a shell of my father-quite sad. Not a day goes by when I'm in my yard and garden that I don't think of Dad and the gift he gave me. I just wanted to share it with him. He passed away two months ago. Just an interesting note; Our family surname has it's origin from Poland and it means 'gardener of an estate' I find that kind of neat. Maybe it's in our bloodline to be gardeners! * Posted by: pkock Zone 6 (My Page) on Tue, May 28, 02 at 2:44 So glad to find this thread - hope it lasts, because it's fun! Honestly, I am not sure what got me hooked. I think it's my tendency to love "scientific" stuff - I never pursued it professionally, but I'll make anything into a science experiment. I got through two pregnancies with that attitude. ;-) My grandma was the gardener in our family. She lived with us, and each year we had to have a veggie garden. My dad wasn't into yard work much, but was "forced" into the labor required, turning over the clay soil with a spade and protesting the entire time. Always basic stuff - tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, but they sure tasted good. We had strawberries for a couple of years, and there was a big apple tree in our yard that grew "cooking" apples. Grandma made lots of pies and applesauce. Then there was Girl Scouts - one year we had a hike with a knowledgeable person who pointed out all the fantastic wild plants along the trail. I absorbed it all like a sponge. This is rare, this is edible, this is a cure for poison ivy, etc. I still remember most of it, teach my daughter, and soon will teach her scout troop too. I was voted "Miss Outdoorswoman" in high school. Isn't that neat? Some things never change. :) --Pam * Posted by: Lucy2 Z7Atlanta (My Page) on Wed, May 29, 02 at 8:23 I love reading these. I remember going to visit my grandparents in Texas every summer. We lived in New Hampshire and would fly down and my grandparents would meet us at the airport. The first thing we would do when we got to Grandma's house was run to her garden. Every year she planted a watermelon JUST FOR US! Oh, how special that was. We would walk into the garden and she would "double check that it was ripe and time to pick it and she would let us watch as she "ever so gently" plucked the watermelon from the garden and we would sit on her front porch all afternoon eating the best watermelon we had ever tasted and spitting seeds as far as we could. Sadly, my Aunt burst my childhood memory bubble (when I was in my 40's but it still hurt!) by telling me that my Grandparents would go to the grocery store the night before we flew in, buy a watermelon and lay it in the garden "just for us", pretending they planted it and grew it all along...I guess I'm in denial because I still tell my children about those fond memories! * Posted by: becki3 z5 IN (My Page) on Tue, Jul 23, 02 at 20:34 Can I still step in here? This is such a wonderful thread, brought back some great memories. But now I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat. One of my first garden memories is of my next-door neighbor when I was very small. She had a gigantic (to me) gooseberry bush that she would make pies for us from, if I would pick the berries. And she also had a thick grape vine that she would sit down with me in the middle of the yard and eat grapes from right off the vine. We always sat on the other side of it so my mom couldn't see us from the window. I don't think she would have minded, but my neighbor made it fun, thinking we were being secretive. She also had about a million plants in her house that she would show me all the time. Thinking back on it now, I realize they were mostly African violets. She was in her late 80's, early 90's, and I thought she was the best neighbor a girl could ever have. (still do) :) Then there was my grandpa. When he was a teen in the service, he had come home to visit his mom just before being shipped overseas. He took ONE little segment from her Christmas cactus, which had been a wedding present 25 years before that, and put it in his wallet. He then drove all the way across the country (took a few days), all the while sitting on this wallet. Just before being shipped out, he stuck this one little smashed, dried up piece of Christmas cactus and stuck it in a little pot of dirt from the ground outside his barracks. I'm not sure what happened to it (where it was, who took care of it) while he was in the war. But I do know that when he died in 1994, that Christmas cactus was not only alive, but very, very, VERY big. He had built a planter for it on wheels so he could move it outside in the summer and back inside for the winter. He also had a ramp leading up to his patio door, which he had to remove to get it through. This "planter" was 5 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. Filled all the way with soil and thick, long roots. And the plant filled every inch of the top of the soil and hung down to the floor all around. He had to give it a "haircut" every time he moved it in or out so he wouldn't run over it with the wheels. I now have a pretty good size pot of this same plant in my husband's office, where it sits in front of a huge window all year long and blooms from Oct to around May every year. I ask about or stop by to check on this plant about once a week. I'm always terrified I might lose this plant, I feel like somehow I would be losing my grandpa all over again. Or that he might be disappointed in me for letting his precious plant die after having survived 4 generations in our family. But my all-time favorite childhood memories (of any kind) come from my Aunt Julia and Uncle Bill. They had a big farm in Missouri with a couple horses, a coop full of chickens, and about 300 head of dairy and beef cows at any given time. Along with the usual couple of dogs and a barn full of cats. And I remember one time my Aunt sent me out with the horse to get a few apples from the big tree out in the east pasture to make a pie for dinner. She told me to get a sack out of the barn to carry them in. Well, being about 8 or 9 at the time, I had no idea how many apples it took to make a pie. So I took 2 big gunny sacks, and me and Ginger (the horse) set out to find that big tree. Ginger was so patient with me as I stood on her back on the blanket that I rode with (never used a saddle) to pick all the apples that I could reach. I tied these two gunny sacks across her back and filled them up full. (poor horse!) When I got back, I didn't think my Aunt and Uncle would ever stop laughing. Instead of a few apples for a pie, I had just picked enough apples for an entire week of non-stop canning, freezing, and baking everything we could think of that contained apples. Then there were the times that Aunt Julia and I would pack a picnic basket to take out to my Uncle Bill when he was working the fields. We would sit under a big tree and just watch him disking the field, or baling the hay until he noticed us in the distance. Then he would come get me and let me drive the big tractors for a while before we ate. But one of my most vivid and comforting memories is of me and Aunt Julia sitting on the porch swing snapping beans or shelling peas. I can't remember who picked those beans and peas, or what she did with them afterwards. But just sitting there snapping and shelling, not even having to speak, but feeling like the most loved person in the world. I just started to garden seriously for myself last year, and this year I had to have those green beans and peas. And I think of my Aunt Julia and Uncle Bill every time I go out to the garden. I almost started crying when my daughter (5yo) asked me the first time if she could help me shell the peas. She had so much fun with them I didn't even mind the ones that kept flying across the kitchen to land under the cabinets or off in a corner with the dust bunnies. And I can just see my Aunt and Uncle smiling now (more like giggling probably). Right now I think I need to call them (they live in Arizona now) and tell them how much I love and miss them, and maybe thank you for teaching me about all the things I love the most. Then I think I will sit down and start crocheting an afghan for Aunt Julia (she taught me how to do that when I was 6). Luckily I learned to crochet a lot better than I learned how to milk a cow (sorry Uncle Bill)! Thanks for letting me take this stroll! Becki :) * Posted by: Mirri 5 (Finland) (My Page) on Fri, Jul 26, 02 at 3:06 My first attempt to garden vegetables was when I was 9. I loved peas, so I wanted to grow them. My father formed me a lot saying it would be too hard for me, turning the thick soil. Then I sow the peas and watered them for about 2 weeks. Then my first dog - who died of old age a few years back at 13- had a friend over. They were just puppies back then, running and playing. My daddy warned me, but I wanted to let them play on our rather tiny lot. They run over my pea-lot several times, breaking all those tender 15cm pea shoots. Oh, how I cried. Then I took little sticks and tied the shoots back up. Most of them recovered. Then the dogs, Roope and Olga, run the pea shoots down again after a week or so. And I gave up. I quit gardening for about 10 years. I only had a few cacti which I killed and bought new ones. But now I am a horticulturist. Working, ironically, in a greenhouse that produces pea shoots! I think that the wonder of growing, seeing the shoots come up from earth was a positive thing in the end. Even though I didn`t get to harvest the peas. This year I have a tiny pea-lot again, the first time after I was 9. I have harvested some, but my dog keeps steeling the pods before I find them. When I was 17 I found gardening again, in the form of houseplants. I was living in a tiny oneroom flat without balcony. The houseplant hobby lead me into studying horticulture. Now I have a son and 2 dogs. If Pyry wants to be a little gardener, I will build a fence around his lot. * Posted by: prairie_rose southalta (My Page) on Tue, Aug 20, 02 at 23:56 my earliest memories. being sat in the potato patch with a coffee can with some kerosene in the bottom and picking potato bugs and putting them in the can. i think that was the way my mom and grandma kept us out of their hair on wash day ( the old wringer washer, rinse tub, mangler days.) i remember the smell of the compost heap, and i never thought it was nasty. my grandpa and i spent lots of time there, spreading things out, turning it over occasionally. i think i must have got compost in my veins, replaced all the blood, cause i still don't find the compost heap all that nasty. (compost tea, well that is a different story. lol) i remember i hated bringing kids to our house in the fall cause you could smell the crocks of sauerkraut brewing. we lived on the edge of town, and i swear my mom was the only one who canned. but i couldn't wait for it to be ready and eating the stuff till i was sure i would burst. i remember we were the "poor kids" but we ate better than any of my friends, and were healthier than most of my friends. the garden was a way of life, and everyone was expected to pitch in. and when harvest happened, everyone was expected to come home to can. my mom would pick the weekend and as young adults, we all showed up. 5 women in a kitchen!!!!! lots of hard work, but lots of laughs, too. and when it was over we all got our share to take home. now, i am a single mom with two kids, and all those lessons are paying huge dividends. my two are the "poor kids" but they eat better than most of their friends and are healthier than most, too. what i save at the supermarket because of the garden pays the morgage and the extras for the kids. and this year, my daughter is taking an active part in the canning. i just wish my grandma, mom and sisters were here, too. * Posted by: lynne_s z5ny (My Page) on Mon, Sep 9, 02 at 22:23 I remember planting potatoes on my grandfather's farm in the early spring when i was about 4 years old. We weren't just planting a little garden patch...I swear this field must have been at least an acre. I remember the fun we had, laughing and running around in the dirt...getting dirty, but it was ok..we were doing something productive. I remember Grampa explaining the different types...we even planted purple potatoes from Russia. Later in our visit to his farm my brothers and sisters and I helped plant the seeds that would become carrots, corn and beans. I remember trudging through the brambles in search of the elusive blueberry bushes...after a morning of picking berries, we'd stop and have lunch...Grampa would take a fishing line and hook out of his pocket and catch small trout from a nearby stream and we'd roast them on a stick over a fire...just like a hot dog. He amazed me...the man could survive in the wilderness with nothing, and probably live better than most of us do today. lol The outdoors was his church; where he prayed, pondered and planned his life. My grandfather, retired by this time still loved gardening and sold his veggies every summer from his down-sized farm. We spent the entire spring and summer there. Everything we ate and drank came from that farm. I still remember how wonderful everything tasted...the taste of fresh food was foreign to me then. I went back to Grampa's farm many times until he passed...there, I worked hard, enjoyed the freedom of being in the outdoors and learned how important it was to treat our planet with respect, for it is what feeds us. It seems I forgot a lot of his wisdom until quite recently. Now that I'm a Mom of 5 boys, with many mouths to feed as well as many personalities and value systems to help develop, the things he taught me are returning. My husband and I have purchased a home out in the country trying to create an environment for our boys that my Grampa created for us...one of fresh air, sun, fun and respect for all things living...an I'm proud to say, we are well on our way! * Posted by: KCtomato1 z5/6 KC, Mo (My Page) on Sat, Sep 14, 02 at 0:36 My grandfathers both got me started. My first memory is of dark purple tulips and tulips that were taller than I. I recall what a joy it was grandpa let me pick one. Somewhere in the family, someone has a picture of it. I was 2-3. Both gardened but it was my paternal grandfather that let me try everything. He introduced me to raw veggies. I still prefer them over cooked. He would also let me in the berry patch - which is what really got me growing. He made a deal with me - if I picked 2 I could eat one. He'd go in and I would pick 'em clean of course taking the best for myself. We both walked away thinking we got the better deal. My maternal Grandfather taught me more on the "how's" rather than the "whats". He grew to sell and was not keen on kids picking things he could potentially sell. When I was small I would go out to the garden where he was working just to be with him and I'd watch. I would have worked but he wouldn?t let me. He thought I was nuts for wanting to work. He told me there were snakes in the berry patch in an "effort" to keep me out. Most the time he ran me off I was just looking for the snake. Him teaching me things came at a much older age. Im grateful for the time I did spend with them and the gift they passed on. Keith * Posted by: bizmhamama CA z10 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 8, 02 at 15:09 This answers your interest in childhood memories in a roundabout way. My parents and I immigrated to the United States when I was four years old and I never really knew my expanded family. My mother, who grew up on a sugar plantation, cared absolutely nothing for getting her hands dirty. Our back yard was concrete! Her only gardening interest was roses. I became interested in indoor plants as a teenager and then became obsessed with succulents once I moved out of the house & had a patch of dirt of my own. I even wondered what it would take to go back to school for a landscaping degree, and daydreamed about owning a nursery. My maternal grandmother came to America only a few years ago. I was fairly shocked to learn that she loves gardening! She grows guava trees from seed. In her 80s, she still derives incredible enjoyment from simply watching living things grow. I realize now my passion for gardening would have been sparked much earlier in life if geography (& politics!) hadn't intervened.
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September week 2, COLDFRONT!
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dbarron, I have not been out planting a fall garden, but have been enjoying the cool weather while it lasts. Actually, I think it is here to stay. We likely will have days in the 80s and nights in the 60s down here for a while, but they've taken the forecast high temps in the 90s out of our 7-day forecast, so perhaps autumn weather is here to stay. We haven't really been extra cool or cold like some people, but I'm pretending we are, and have had hot cocoa and hot spiced apple cider along with warm apple-cinnamon muffins straight from the oven....as if it were really cold and these warm things were necessary. We drained the pool today and will take it down tomorrow and take it all apart and pack it away in its big box in the garage to overwinter. There doesn't seem to be enough warm weather left in our forecast to make swimming much of a possibility the next time the girls come over. So, summer is officially over for them, and I think they are ready for it to be over. Larry, Your peppers look great---there is no reason to be ashamed of them. You have had such horrible weather this year that it is a miracle they look so awesome. Be proud! We really don't need any more rain. We just drained a ton of water from the big above-ground pool onto our yard, so it is mud city here again. I used to dehydrate a lot, and I really miss my prior stove which had a convection oven with a built-in Dehydrate mode. I had it running all the time for years and years because it was just so convenient. Jennifer, I hate that y'all have to deal with Covid-19. Tim deals with it with his employees regularly, but most of them have had a mild to moderate case, and none have had to be hospitalized. Still, by the time you quarantine everyone who had close contact at work with them, it is hard to get your staffing for a shift up to normal levels, so it continues to be disruptive. I hope and pray nobody here ever gets Covid-19. Our dear friend who has been hospitalized with it, in the ICU down in the DFW metro area on a ventilator for over a week, was steadily improving and everyone was very hopeful. Really, the news we were getting was that he was doing extremely well...as recently as this time yesterday. Suddenly this evening he took a severe turn for the worse, quickly deteriorated and passed away. We received the devastating news less than an hour ago. I have no words and am completely discombobulated by this. For most people in the USA at the present time, it seems like about 80% who test positive have a mild form, about 15% have a moderate form that may require hospitalization of some sort for at least a few days or may require they recover at home for a few weeks, but about 5% have a more serious case that will require hospitalization, often in the ICU on ventilators, and some of them do not survive, even after a very prolonged battle. The thing that none of us ever can know in advance of getting it is what form of it we will get if we contract it---our friend was strong, healthy, very physically fit, recently and happily retired, loving life and had no underlying conditions that would lead you to expect a poor outcome. We did not expect that he would lose this battle. I am sad we didn't have the Spring Fling too, but it was absolutely the right decision. Covid-19 was very slow to take off in our county, but is running wild here now, and we have responded personally by shutting ourselves back down a bit more, avoiding going out for meals, avoiding gathering with anyone except our kids/grandkids, etc. I don't know if we can stay safe---our daughter-in-law recently had a patient with issues not generally recognized as Covid-19-related, so no one wore PPE, etc. Twenty-four hours later, that patient began to exhibit symptoms of Covid-19 and then was given a test and tested positive. So, everyone in the hospital who crossed that patient's path for the first 24 hours after they were admitted to a non-Covid-19 floor has been exposed to it and now must watch themselves carefully for symptoms. I've said all along that I think either Tim, Chris or Jana will bring Covid-19 home from work to the rest of us, but there is no way to avoid it really. They have to work. They have to be able to come home. We choose to stay within this small family bubble that includes the six of us because the month we went without even seeing each other in the spring was so horrible. They can be just as careful as they can be, but they still will encounter someone in the course of their workdays who has it and is asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, and they won't know they've been exposed until after it has occurred. I guess at this point we are relying on faith and medical science to hopefully keep us all safe from it, or at least to help us survive it if we get it. I am so ready for 2020 to just march on and take all this ugly stuff with it and let us get back to our regular lives, but 2021 could be the same as 2020. I need to go plant shopping tomorrow and hope I can convince Tim that we should. We could mask up and shop early at outdoor garden centers like we did in late May and in June. It isn't that there is any specific plant we need so much as I just need to be around plants that aren't glaring at me and begging to be weeded and deadheaded. I've heard that Lowe's and Home Depot already are putting out Christmas merchandise---I hope that is not true. I'm certainly in an autumn frame of mind, maybe even a Halloween frame of mind, but am not even ready to see Christmas stuff on store shelves. It is too early for that. The merchandise at our garden center at the local Wal-mart is being scrunched into ever smaller spaces, packed in like sardines as they empty adjacent shelves, so I expect the Christmas merchandise will begin appearing on those shelves any day now. Dawn
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kathy9norcal
13 years ago
I just finished "Oxygen" by Carol Cassella. It is a mystery of sorts about an anesthesiologist who loses a child during surgery and the impact it has on her life. I loved it.

I also finished "The Gum Thief" by Douglas Coupland. I found it more interesting as it progressed. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone.

In addition, I listed to "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". I found it truly fascinating and would recommend it to both introverts and extroverts alike. A very worthy read.

Currently, I am reading "The Unnamed" by Joshua Ferris. I am really enjoying the story and the writing. It's about a young, successful lawyer who has a pathological compulsion to walk.
My current listen, with an excellent narration, is "The Persimmon Tree" by Bryce Courtney.
annpan
13 years ago
Sad news today for Bryce Courtney fans. He announced yesterday that he is dying of cancer and has only a short time left to live.
My husband had this same devastating news and I know how hard it is to comprehend.
carolyn_ky
13 years ago
Pam, I'm sorry to hear about your mother. It has been almost twelve years for me, and I think about her a lot. I hope your good memories soon outweigh the loss.

I am reading The Yard by Alex Grecian. It is a mystery involving Scotland Yard the year after Jack the Ripper was not caught and is quite good.
Kath
13 years ago
Pam, my condolences on the loss of your mother - losing a parent is such a hard thing.

I finished The Fallen Angel, the latest Gabriel Allon book from Daniel Silva, and thought it a very good addition to the series.
I am currently reading The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny and that is going well too.
timallan
13 years ago
Pam, I am sorry to hear about your mother's passing.

Yesterday I finished Me Talk Pretty One Day, at the request of a coworker who is a huge fan of David Sedaris. Though I find his books amusing, I don't find they leave a very deep impression on me. The paperback copy of this book, which was loaned to me, has no less than five double-sided pages of excerpts from rave reviews. I find myself wondering what I must be missing, since his books apparently send reviewers into raptures. I find Sedaris overrated, but I don't dare express this opinion.

Carolyn, the Budapest train station sounds gorgeous. Travel by train seems to have a very glamorous mystique. It always makes me think of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in "North By Northwest".
pam53
13 years ago
thank you for the condolences-my mom and I liked the same books and used to pass them back and forth-I really miss that. sarah-thanks for the link. The book sounds good.
Chris_in_the_Valley
13 years ago
Pam, I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your mother.

I'm about halfway through Woman in White but leave it regularly for books that cause less anxiety. I read both of the Diesel and the Cupcake baker novels by Janet Evanovich. I hesitated to get them because the reviews were not good, but, truthfully, I enjoyed them. The second had a few laugh out loud moments.
bookmom41
13 years ago
Pam, so sorry about the loss of your mom.

Woodnymph,Five Quarters of the Orange was such a good book, my favorite of Joanne Harris.

I very quickly read The Midwife by Jennifer Worth, a memoir by a woman who trained as a nurse and midwife with a group of nuns living in London's East End. Her writing style was lovely and very natural and the stories she told are funny, heartbreaking, and eye-opening. I understand her books were made into a TV series and will be shown on US--PBS this fall. It's being touted here as perhaps some competition for Downton Abbey. Anyone else familiar with these books or the show?
sheriz6
13 years ago
Pam, I'm very sorry to hear about your mom.

I just finished Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets and really liked it. It's a coming-of-age story set in 1955 England, just at the end of rationing and the beginning of rock and roll. I thought Rice's writing was solid and in places beautiful (she's the daughter of lyricist Tim Rice) and while I felt echos of I Capture the Castle here and there, I thought the story was fresh and original.

I also finished The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger's Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband by David Finch. Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome five years into his shaky marriage, Finch and his long-suffering wife, Kristen, were finally able to understand why their relationship was so difficult. Finch writes about his quirks, compulsions and obsessions with great humor and self-awareness, and the book chronicles his years-long effort to improve himself and his marriage as he strives to develop "best practices" for his life (among them: "Don't change the radio station when she's singing along", "Laundry: better to fold and put away than to take only what you need from the dryer", and "Apologies do not count when you shout them.") A very interesting POV, and a very funny book.

I also flew through three books by a new-to-me romance author, Tessa Dare, which was just the brain candy I needed during a nasty summer headcold.

All have gone back to the library now, and after reading the "Tell Me About Your TBR Pile" thread, I think I'll have to try to stick to reducing mine in the near future.
rosefolly
13 years ago
Pam, I'm very sorry to hear your news and I send you my condolences. In time your memories bring you more comfort than sorrow, but that is likely still quite some time away.

Rosefolly
veer
13 years ago
bookmom, the TV series Call the Midwife based on the Jennifer Worth book was shown on the BBC last winter and proved very popular. Tales of her young life working in the tough East End of London Thames dock area. As nearly all this area has been 'redeveloped' they had to recreate 'dockside' scenes, which all looked rather too neat and clean for the early 1950's. Some reasonable performances especially from the hefty 'stand-up' comedienne Miranda Hart who plays the part of the unlikely aristocratic midwife. Vanessa Redgrave does the voice-over. I understand a second series is being made.

Here is a link that might be useful: Call the Midwife
annpan
13 years ago
Vee, this series is being shown in Australia at present. I watched the first episode and was surprised that this was set in the 1950s. The conditions seemed to be more 1930 pre-war than during the time of the 1950s that I recall. The London which was described to me by my grandparents, who had lived in the East End, had been demolished during the bombing and was being cleared and rebuilt.
Life had improved for the poorer class. Hire purchase meant better furniture, a television etc. and the television programmes were showing people a better way to do all kinds of things.
I haven't watched any more after that first one. It didn't feel right to me! Also I don't like watching childbirth!
bookmom41
13 years ago
Annpan, some of the saddest parts of Worth's memoir take place in Stepney. She describes the post-war era in Stepney with crumbling and bomb-damaged tenements scheduled for a demo which didn't take place for another twenty years and the poorest folks living in crowded squalor. At the same time, vice and prostitution exploded in the area; one of her stories about this area is so appalling I had trouble reading it. I am so glad this was not your grandparents' experience. The book reminded me of James Herriot's books, right down to the birthing scenes, even if one described farm animals and the other humans.

I was trying to read The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen Carter but have given up. It is a hefty, interesting "what if Lincoln hadn't died" historical fiction but requires a lot of time and close attention. Matthew Dicks' Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is narrated by the imaginary friend of little boy with autism who has been abducted and is good so far; next will be native American author Louise Erdrich's newest, The Round House about the rape of a woman living on a reservation and her family's search for justice.
bookmom41
13 years ago
Also, I meant to say thank you to both Vee and Annpan for the information about the television series. Here in the US, her first book has been rereleased using the title Call the Midwife in anticipation of the TV show spurring book sales.
annpan
13 years ago
Bookmom, I read some reviews and they said that the book was quite upsetting in parts. I do hope that US viewers don't think all the UK in the 1950s was like the scenes portrayed.
When I went to stay with an Australian family in 1960, my hostess showed me the bathroom and said quite seriously that she didn't keep coal in the bath. "We know you do in England!" I don't know where that came from! I assured her our family certainly did not but she didn't look too convinced!
veer
13 years ago
Annpan. "coal in the bath" was one of those derisory expressions used when Council Housing was first built after WWI as was "chickens under the kitchen table". The implication being that previous slum dwellers wouldn't know/appreciate how to live in a modern house.
In one of the episodes of Call the Midwife they used one of the remaining 'Prefabs' as the setting for several scenes.
These were prefabricated houses put up from 1944 as part of a Temporary Housing Measure to provide simple accommodation for the hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by bombing. For the first time many folk had access to separate bedrooms, indoor flush lavatories, bathrooms, a fitted kitchens and a small garden. They were meant to last only 10 years but some of them are still standing and cherished by their owners.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prefab Housing
annpan
13 years ago
Although I never saw one of the pre-fabs, I do recall going into a Nissan hut near Sidcup, Kent, which was done up in a similar fashion. The lady who lived there was very proud of it and happily showed us around.
It would be a good idea to put up some of this temporary housing here in Australia. The so-called "Lucky Country" has many homeless families because of the high rents and low rental home availability. Council home waiting lists are up to 9 years in some places! People live in tents or even cars. Either can be very hot or freezing cold in Winter. It is a disgrace.
annpan
13 years ago
I read a couple of chapters of yet another follow-on to "Pride and Prejudice". I don't know why I bother! I haven't found one I liked yet.....
lemonhead101
13 years ago
Just finished up a very good book called "Nervous Conditions" by Tsitsi Dangarembga (1989). It's been categorized as an African coming of age novel, and it's one of the best books that I have read this year. My friend here has done a lot of NGO work in Ghana, and she recommended it. I had not heard of it before.

Anyway, well written, very wicked sense of humour, and so much to think about as the story progresses: gender roles, colonial/Africa roles... Absolutely fascinating. If you'd like more about it, I have written a blog post (attached), but long story short - great read about 1950's Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from a very funny/poignant PoV of someone who grew up there as a African person.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blog post about Nervous Conditions
frances_md
13 years ago
Pam, I'm also very sorry about your mother and send my best wishes. About a month ago I lost my very best friend Brady, the standard schnauzer, and still can barely function so I can only imagine how difficult it is for you to try to get back to some semblance of normal.

While reading has been somewhat on the back burner, I did listen to some extent to Stephen L. Carter's latest book, The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. I'm sure I missed a lot of the detail, and it is very detailed, but it definitely was worth the time.

Even though I seldom read books from the library I happened upon a nonfiction book there entitled The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. Mr. Whicher was a detective during the time of Dickens and Wilkie Collins and served as a source and inspiration for some of their writings. The book is written as a murder mystery concerning the death of a four-year-old boy who disappeared from his bed while numerous family members and employees of the house were present. Has anyone else read this book?

I've also finished Laura Lippman's latest, And When She Was Good, which is about a woman who lives a secret life while trying to be a good mother.

Currently I'm listening to Shadow of Night and wishing I hadn't started it because Lee Child's new book is out now and I love Jack Reacher but I know if I stop Shadow of Night I'll never go back to it. It is mildly interesting but not really my kind of book. And I'm ready to start again to read Gone Girl.
veer
13 years ago
Frances I read Mr Whicher a couple of years ago and found the true story interesting, how 'evidence' was looked for etc in the 1850's and the facts about the family (even then they had the dysfunctional sort) but I felt Summerscale had used quite a bit of padding to produce a full length book.
I have listened to her Mrs Robinson's Disgrace a true story of a Victorian woman who became infatuated with a doctor and foolishly kept a diary about her feelings and their possible 'goings-on', only to have it read by her husband. A court case followed emphasising that 'respectable' women didn't have sexual desires and that she must therefore have been insane. The fact that her husband kept a mistress and another 'family' was quite a different kettle of fish . . .
lemonhead101
13 years ago
Oh, and Pam - I am very sorry to hear about your mother. Sending you peaceful wishes from here to there.
liz
bookmom41
13 years ago
frances, I'm so sorry about the loss of your Brady; I, too, have a standard and they are wonderful companions.

I finished Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend mentioned above. Matthew Dicks also wrote Something's Missing; both of these books deal with characters who seem to be somewhere "on the spectrum." He writes with humor and insight and I think excels at portraying the personality traits and thought processes of folks with forms of autism.
Chris_in_the_Valley
13 years ago
Frances, you didn't say whether you liked the Lippman. Lippman fans want to know. Well, I guess I want to know because I'm finding her recent work less engaging than I once did. I find I'm not buying her novels the minute they are available any longer.

Having been entertained by the new Evanovich Wicked series, I bit the bullet and read the latest two Plum novels - 17 and 18 - and had more than one laugh out loud moment, so I'm happy. I'll probably get 19 when it comes out this fall.
frances_md
13 years ago
vee, I agree about the padding in the Mr. Whicher book.

bookmom, thanks. Brady was absolutely the best friend I've ever had and I'm lost without him. He was only with me for a little less than seven years and had a bad early life but was a perfectly behaved dog.

chris, I liked the Lippman book but didn't love it. It was an easy read and was worth the time. Try the library.
Chris_in_the_Valley
13 years ago
Currently, I'm reading Conrad's Victory and remembering how very much I love Conrad.
sheriz6
13 years ago
I'm half way through The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It's really pulled me in and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. I think fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell would definitely like this one.

Up next for my book group: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
carolyn_ky
13 years ago
Sheriz6, I really liked Unbroken.

I am almost finished with In the Wood by Tana French. I had read her second book and thought about not going back and picking up the first, but I'm very glad I did. She is a great story teller. Now I look forward to the rest of what she has written. Rather than a series (they're mysteries), she takes a character from one book and makes him or her the featured character in the next one.
woodnymph2_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
I'm currently ploughing through "The Anglo Files: a Field Guide to the British" by Sarah Lyall. The author is a New York writer who married an Englishman and moved to London where she lived for several years. With scathing wit she dissects the details of class, language, and customs of her adopted country.
phoebecaulfield
13 years ago
Pam, I'm so sorry about your mother. I still miss my mother each day, and she died 28 years ago.

As time goes by, photos and memories become more and more important--or at least that's how it's been for me.

--I'm tackling another Virginia Woolf novel. This one is Mrs. Dalloway. I already "know" Clarissa Dalloway from The Voyage Out.
yoyobon_gw
13 years ago
I am thoroughly enjoying RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles.
woodnymph2_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
I'm engrossed in Susan Hill's latest Simon Serailleur mystery: "The Betrayal of Trust." She is my favorite who-dunnit author, although there is often a tinge of sadness to her characters.
lemonhead101
13 years ago
JWTtrans - I am impressed that you are soldiering through all Woolf's works... I don't find her to be the easiest read, so I bow before you, the Ruling Reader of Woolf.... :-)

I've been reading quite a bit lately - I know, shocker. Finished an excellent read called "Once Were Warriors" by Alan Duff (1990), a hard-hitting novel about Maori life in a small town in New Zealand. Although this wasn't the easiest read in the world (due to content), the writing was superb and I was completely drawn into the story. There were some scenes that drew my insides out - it's that powerful in places. "Raw", "harrowing", "realism"... all adjectives used to describe the book on its back cover. It's a very ucomfortable read, but really - one of the best reads this year.

Then finished up a easier-to-read but still very good novel by Jonathan Tropper called "The Book of Joe" about a best-selling novelist who has to return to his home town when his father gets ill. The writer has not been home for 17 years, and in the meantime, he has published a novel that eviscerates the town's residents (although thinly veiled). Of course, his return home is fraught with difficulty as he tries to reconcile with his estranged brother, help a dying high school friend and sort out his old relationship with the girl he went out with in high school. Nothing hard-hitting, but a good solid read all around.
veer
13 years ago
I recently picked up an elderly paper-back copy of Adventures in Two Worlds by A J Cronin. Despite the minuscule print it was an enjoyable read. Cronin was a hugely popular writer from the 1930's onwards using his own experiences as a young doctor in the Scottish Highlands, the Welsh coal-fields and both ends of the social spectrum in London, to retell the stories of the characters he met and the difficult living conditions of the times. He lived in the US for many years once Hollywood started making films of his books.
An excellent story-teller if perhaps a little sanctimonious for modern tastes.
The very popular TV series Dr Finlay's Casebook was a 'must' on Sunday evenings in the 60's. He did for doctoring what James Herriot has since done for vets.

Here is a link that might be useful: old clip from 'Dr Finlay's Casebook'
twobigdogs
13 years ago
Pam, so sorry for your loss. My thoughts are with you.

Read the Marigold Hotel book. And um... I did not think it worthy of much praise. Honestly? I did not like it. Perhaps the movie is different. I've not seen it yet.

Now reading a short fun easy mystery, a new Hazel Holt, Mrs. Malory and a Necessary End. Light, entertaining, like having a chat with old friends.

Carolyn, I read The Yard a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

PAM
woodnymph2_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
Finished the Susan Hill mystery and am now enchanted by "The Sweet Life in Paris" by David Lebovitz. The author is a superb humorist and cook, who got his start with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Calif. He now lives in Paris and his commentary on French culture is spot on, in my view, and often laugh out loud funny.
georgia_peach
13 years ago
Currently reading one of those forgotten gems -- Jetta Carleton's The Moonflower Vine. I was delighted to find it available as an ebook.
annpan
13 years ago
I took a break from my usual murder mysteries to read "Abdication" by Juliet Nicolson. Rather a misleading title as there is very little about the abdication of Edward V111. It is quite a well researched novel and, for me, a page-turner, because I flipped through it trying to find about the abdication! What got mentioned was only the well recorded stories of events at that time.
yoyobon_gw
13 years ago
Twobigdogs.........
Re: Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Did you see the movie ? It is just a delight !
I didn't know there was a book first, but should have suspected as much after seeing the movie. It is such a fun story.

Unfortunately it got a very limited showing in this area.
I guess the movie theaters prefer multiple showings of loud, violent, 3D teen fare.

It was quite comical, when we went to see Marigold Hotel almost the entire audience was over the hill.

Or as someone said: "Over the hill? Over the hill was a distant speck in his rearview mirror !)
woodnymph2_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
Another positive vote for "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" as a film. And yes, everyone in the audience was "senior."
lemonhead101
13 years ago
Georgia - happy to see someone else reading "The Moonflower Vine"... It was a title I found somewhere and dug up and enjoyed.

I've been reading (and reminding myself) how to write by reading "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser. A book straight out of the late 1970's, Zinsser was/is? a prof at Yale and has a journalist's background. It's more of a primer than anything, but he has a good sense of humor and I've finally learned the plural of "genius" is "genii".

And then speaking of well written, I am also reading and enjoying "Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain" by Judith Flanders which is *packed* with detail about this time. Obsessed with Victorians as I seem to be, this is a great read and I'm having fun. However, it suffers from a steady stream of typos which is a bit distracting.

Speaking of distracting, I am also reading "Skippy Dies" by Paul Murray about a death in an Irish boarding school. Light hearted and the writing is fine, but whoever decided to "translate" all the English/Irish bits into "American" needs to smothered. "Mum" or "Mam" is now "Mom". "Shopping Center" is now "mall" and numerous other examples. Unless things have been decidedly American in my long absence from living in UK?...

All good reads if you're not too pedantic about stuff other than the story. (The pains of being an editor.) :-)
annpan
13 years ago
Lemon, this may not be editing. A number of books I read by British authors use US terms because of their general readership. "Flashlight" is common, also "Morgue" etc.
I also noticed and commented on "Mom" in an Irish author's book in this forum a while ago. A US poster replied that she thought it was unnecessary. My thought too. I wouldn't expect to see a US child refer to their "Mummy" in a British publication of a book written by a US author. Unless it was set in England of course!
carolyn_ky
13 years ago
Interspersed with reading the 800+ page Drood by Dan Simmons, I have read Murder on Fifth Avenue by Victoria Thompson, whose books are set in Victorian New York City and whose heroine is a midwife earning her own keep in spite of being from an affluent family. It was certainly more fun to read than Drood is, but I am persevering. It is purportedly written by Wilkie Collins for publication 125 years after his death and deals with the last five years of Charles Dickens' life, including a lot about Ellen Tiernan. I should have read it before the Dickens discussion!
Kath
13 years ago
Liz, have you read another book by Judith Flanders called 'The Victorian House? It goes through the house room by room and talks about the era via what happened there. For instance, food and cooking in the kitchen, birth and sex in the bedroom, and so on.
PurpleBookCart
13 years ago
Pam and Frances--my condolences.

Kathy-- Quiet changed my life when I read it over the summer. Happy to see that another enjoyed the book.

Sheri--thank you for your recommendation on The Night Circus . I am a Jonathan Strange fan.
twobigdogs
13 years ago
Just started Death Along Spirit Road by C.M. Wendelboe. It is a mystery set on Sioux Reservation. Only on page nine... not far enough to form an opinion yet.

PAM
timallan
13 years ago
Took advantage of a rainy morning to finish The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie's second novel, published way back in 1922.

I enjoyed it. Her class prejudices are pretty obvious, and often unintentionally funny to a modern reader. Still, I am one more book closer to completing one of my reading "projects", namely to read the Christie books from the 1920s (before she was the most best-selling writer in the world).
lemonhead101
13 years ago
Astro - Yes, I have read that other Flanders book which I loved and which led me to this current one... I had thought she was a Victorian scholar, but I think that's Amanda Vickery (another Victorian fan). Flanders is, according to Wiki, a British history author and journalist. Her most recent book is "The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime" (2011). Adding that to the TBR pile as we speak. :-)

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