A girl in a blue beret

From his seat on the train now, he watched as the farm filed yielded to ragged outskirts, which melted into factory buildings, which gave way to the switching yards …. His stay with the Alberts in 1944 overlapped his visit now, as if he had jumped over time and might still be hiding behind an armoire or in a haystack with a cat. The shadowy figures of the brave people who had saved his life — in barns, in hidden rooms, on bicycles — were coming clearer, almost reachable. He welcomed them. … he could almost believe that the girl in the blue beret would be waiting when the train pulled in to the station.” — Bobbie Ann Mason. The Girl in the Blue Beret. Published by Random House, 2011.

A lovely book, well paced and interesting. For me, it was more about the mysteries of lost connections than WWII, but there’s enough of both. Sometimes the main character seems egocentrically North American, but that seemed to ring true to the character’s development and his reason for visiting France decades after his plane was shot down during the war. I enjoyed the gentle unfolding of the different truths within this tale, and will look for more books by the author.

Knitting things (apropos of nothing): I have done some knitting for PS5 blue. But mostly, with the hot weather and book sales at closing bookstore chains, I’ve been reading or taking photos of cool blue. If you’re doing PS5, hope you had a good time with blue and are gearing up for August (pinks and purples).  I’ll probably be wrapping up “blue” a little late, since I still have some yarn to photograph and I got some yarn that fits in with this months’ theme as well.

Gates of Ivory – a good choice for travel reading

I rely a great deal on libraries, which leads me to dark thoughts about people who think libraries aren’t relevant or helpful. Every time I go to my branch, I see people looking for jobs online, or kids using the computers to do their homework (or maybe play video games with the sound off). Where do people meet if they don’t want coffee or don’t want to shop for things? How do people find new authors? How do students find research material? How do cooks explore new cuisines without investing in a whole new cookbook? When I was little, the local library even rented artwork for 3 weeks at a time, so people could bring a little culture home with them. I do wonder if other countries have libraries like the ones I’m familiar with [thank you Carnegies for investing in building them everywhere].

Margaret Drabble’s book, Gates of Ivory (mentioned here) has been a lovely book to read while trapped in airports waiting for connecting flights. Earlier in the year, I tried to read The Peppered Moth, but had difficulty enjoying it after the glut of novels set in the Victorian era by modern writers. I do wonder if the author was influenced by the organizational structure of Pynchon’s V.  Sadly The Radiant Way is not available at the library right now, so I’ve settled for another book until I can get The Radiant Way through another branch of the library, so I can see where Alix and Liz meet in the 1950s.

Gates of Ivory

I’m thinking about reading The Gates of Ivory by Margaret Drabble. A friend loaned it to me, and it’s on my list of books to read. I’m just a bit put off by life-threatening chaos and the mention of finger bones on the blurb on the back. So, has anyone else read the book? Is it interesting, and should I soldier on past the first chapter? Or is it something I should put aside, so I can focus on poetry instead? Or should I wait until I read the other 2 books in what sounds like a trilogy?

 

It’s fig season again

In my burgh, it’s fig season. I have 2 trees, and between workplace diplomacy and a neighbor with a ladder, lots of figs have been used up. I have a bunch waiting in the refrigerator, and I’m hoping they stick around long enough for a fig and almond cake. I made a good lot of fig jam (in the refrigerator). And, sadly, fig processing and knitting are not compatible (unless I want to hand-dye everything an amazing color of purple-brown). Also, some of the yard work I’ve done lately has banged up my fingers, so beyond fantasizing about getting a pair of socks done, not much knitting right now. Many books are being read in the meantime.

I finished up a Laurie R King book: The Language of Bees.

I’m now onto 3 others — an Edith Pageter book about Czechoslovakia, W. Somerset Maugham’s Cakes and Ale, and an Alexander McCall Smith mystery (set in Edinburgh). So far, Edith is winning. I haven’t quite figured out what the Maugham book is all about, other than making me think I’m reading unfunny Bertie Wooster (hopefully it will improve once I get used to the narrator).

Gilgamesh found

It’s interesting how the Gilgamesh book unfolds and becomes more claustrophobic as you go back into past, as though you’re digging under the ruins of Ashurbanipal’s great library to find the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh that he collected along with around 25,000 tablets of correspondence, spies notes, and literature (including poetry). One quote: “Sudden destruction is disastrous for the people who suffer it, but it can be a godsend for archaeologists: no neighborhood of ancient Rome has been preserved with the perfection of Pompeii.” p. 194, Damrosch, David. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. Holt Paperback, 2006.
I’ve now reached the chapter titled the Edge of Culture, which discusses the Epic itself, which is a fun read.

Opening a book that burrows into the past

I’ve been enjoying The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. I’m eager to see how author David Damrosch will manage to take us from looking through the eyes of the Victorian explorers with their goal of assimilating knowledge for empire (or for the joy of deciphering a mystery) back to the days of Gilgamesh and then back to the near present, with the first and second Gulf Wars. It’s an interesting slice of history, served up with a good dose of perspective on Empire building.

But for now, I’m enjoying going back in time and reliving those heady days in second grade when I believed I might be able to have a job deciphering Cunieform similar to a later mad belief  in 7th grade that I might be good at organic chem someday.

All I have are a couple of strange links

Sadly, a bunch of scattered links that sort of show the way my brain darts around when it’s home from work.

Find out how snow removal can provide a workout, and work your laugh muscles at the same time: Check out the funny at Cabbages and Kings. Yes, as someone who has lived in a frequent snowzone, I remember one week when I couldn’t drive to my apartment parking lot because of the small glacier on the hill.

Apparently you can find almost any kind of premade socks for baby — including ones that look like shoes with spats, ones that look like Mary Janes, and ones that look like Teenage Mutant Ninja somethings. (Who knew there was something called a shopwiki out there? Not me. I just found it looking for baby bootie patterns with spats.) If you’re not into knitting (and not trying to figure out how to do TMJT in intarsia or duplicate stitch, you might find this lamb gift a cute one for a newborn (and thank heavens, it doesn’t seem to be “for boys” or “for girls”).

Film noir links here and a dress that purports to be a women’s black film noir dress, on a site called the Peruvian connection. Other pretty objects on the site are made from more natural fibers — cocktail dress with swirly pattern and alpaca Bartlett shrug (knitters out there — do you think that shrug is felted or knit?), or this expensive but interesting jacket. I think I may have to hit the thrift stores sometime soon to see if there’s something out there that would be interesting for wardrobe changes.

Visit Anne over at Gunsmokeandknitting to read about peace, bayberry candles, and a decadent toffee treat. Wish I’d found this one prior to the holiday of gifting.

And if you want to look for reading ideas from across the pond, try DoveGreyreader, or Harriet Devine. Anyone know where I could find someone’s take on current Australian literature? I ran into a couple of mystery novels (that I didn’t enjoy one jot so no names of authors or titles of books), but it made me wonder if there was better literature that someone outside of Australia could get their hands on.

Getting in the mood for winter

If you’ve been hoping for snow, and it’s still too warm… (or you live in a snow-adverse region, like the desert) here’s a book that will make you want to burrow delightfully under an afghan with a hot drink: The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys.
In different years, the Thames has frozen solid. The author tells stories from the perspective of first-hand narratives from moments in time when the water is still.  These are the extraordinary moments when ordinary folk skate on ice in the margins of a rich man’s Book of Hours. Each story is self-contained, so the book can be picked up and put down inbetween preparations for holiday visitors. Perhaps it would be a good gift idea for your favorite Anglophile.

Kind of Odd signs on trucks

I’m not talking about the KANE is Able truck signs (although they make me smile with this slogan that sounds like a Biblical joke), the Batesville Casket Company logo with its green tree or the Leidy logo (which I remember in its pre-2003 incarnation, with Leidy in the shape of a pig). I’ve shared my drive with all three of these.

I’m talking about homegrown slogans with hand-drawn letters (or reflective letters lovingly glued to the side of a truck. Recently I saw two:

1. On the back of a moving van: “The Lord Is MY God!” (Is it me, or do you wonder if the truck was professing its faith too? All I could think in the heat of the commute was “You go, Van! Tell it to the faithful!”
2. On an old, green dump truck, in silver hand-painted letters with red outlines “Pimpin Aint Easy” (Even the trucks out there realize it’s hard for a pimp. I mean honestly… what? Maybe an explanation of why the driver is behind the wheel earning an honest day’s work hauling dirt?)

I’ve seen hand-painted logos from team sports, marijuana leaves on the back of a city trash truck, and a Pinto painted a pink most often found in the medicine cabinet.

So, seen any fun signs on trucks or cars while you fight the fumes of the morning commute? I’ll keep watching. It makes a welcome break in the day when I find something as fun as a yellow rubber ducky stuck on the end of someone’s antenna.

Two More Gifts

… and I can mail out packages.

One of the great things about my friends and family is they love books. An easy trip to a bookstore with a coffee shop attached; I get to look at some of the current books and music that are out; and the wrapping is a snap.

If you’re shopping for books, here are a few ideas (depending on the personalities of recipients, of course):

• For the kids: Bats at the Library — it’s a lovely, illustrated, imaginative book that’s a wee bit meta (see how many characters from other books you can identify in each picture). Check it out at your library, and see if it would work for a boy or girl (or grownup) you know. Another great book is Arabel’s Raven for preschoolers.
• For the preteens: Mistress Masham’s Repose. I loved this book when I was a preteen. Another book by TH White, The Goshawk, is good too.  I remember The House With a Clock in its Walls as one of the books that gave me fits when I was 11, but might be just the cup of tea of a brave preteen boy or girl. If you want adventure with fewer sleepless nights, try Aiken’s Midnight Is a Place.
• More for preteens: All of a Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor, and The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright. The first is about an immigrant family living on the Upper East side in NYC in 1912 (please ignore the phrase “heart-warming story”… as a kid I was fascinated about the different time period). The second is about a family of kids who pool their money each week so one person can go do something they’ve always dreamed about.
• Teens have the Twilight books, but there are also classics like Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (yes, I cried while reading the last page in a library),  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (more hankies), and Gothic classics — Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, including Fall of the House of Usher, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre or Villette, and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (which is a spoof of the genre).
• Adults might appreciate books filled with: Christmas carols, recipes, diy crafts (if you know a craft they enjoy), stories about nature, or vacation ideas.

Note: when I was a student, I was able to find lots of out of print books that I knew people would like at a second-hand store. Sometimes an older book is better because it’s a collector’s item or has illustrations the recipient would remember.

Hoping your season is jolly, and you manage to survive with your spirits intact.