Greatest global online bookclub in town

I added you to our distribution, Jan, and then sent around an email with you included. When you click on reply, everyone’s email address should appear in full.

Somehow in the process of moving I lost everyone’s

e-mail address.  I assume you are all e- mailing back and forth occasionally and don’t have mine.  Most of the time we can communicate here, but the last I heard of Jacky, until just a couple days ago, was that she had gone to Hawaii about the time that awful storm hit out there and didn’t know how they made out.  Apparently they came out of it okay as I see she was visiting on the east coast.  Anyway, my current e-mail address is janishtchnsn@yahoo.com. so include me if anything important comes up.   Thanks -

 Jan

Thanks for recommending this, Jan. Yesterday while in Austin I had lunch with my daughter-in-law and a friend of hers. Both are in neighborhood book clubs. They asked for recommendations–my dil’s group had decided they really didn’t care for the list they had. I gave her suggestions I picked up from here as well as my own. Her friend suggested The No. 1 Ladies Detective series. I told her I had all of them and I’m mailing the first one to her today. The rest I’ll deliver next time I go up there. I’d forgotten the first one had been circulated among several of us and I was apparently the last one so it ended up here–there were notes inside with names and dates. That was fun when we used to do that.

Candace

I don’t remember if this book has been discussed here or not.  It was the choice of our book club this month and it is a book I won’t soon forget.  It is about an extremely dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father, a free spirit of a mother who is an artist and their four children.  The children are very resilient and turn out remarkably well for the most part.  This book will make you cry, laugh and become very angry.

Jeanette Walls is the author and the book is a memoir.  You can type in her name on Google and there is quite a list of articles about her and I came across an interview video of Jeanette  and her mother which was really quite fascinating.

It led to a very lively discussion yesterday when our book club met.

I haven’t been here for awhile– so I missed Jo’s birthday. Belatedly, I send you all best and hope you enjoyed your celebration. I read Tall Grass, and although I thought it was a well-told story, and it held my interest, it made me remember Snow Falling on Cedars that was also about the internment of Japanese-Americans and that, imho, was a great book.. a much more original story line,lovely characters, leaving the reader with the same sense of outrage for the behavior of our government in understanding the issue. (As a biased aside, I don’t think the government has gotten any smarter, either.)

Jacky called me yesterday from Dalyne’s and we had quite a nice chat. They won’t be coming by, I’m sorry to say, but it was lovely to talk to her anyhow.

The books sound really good Jerry; I plan to put them on booksfree; I hope they have them.

I’ve finished “Vinegar Hill” and “Tallgrass” and enjoyed ‘em both a lot. Just starting on another book by A.Manette Ansay; “Blue Water”. A middle aged couple, grieving over the loss of their little son in an auto accident have packed up and are starting out in a sailboat for a trip to anywhere. Just started and already it’s pretty exciting.
Huggz all,
Jerry

We went out to lunch and had a nice visit. I think they had a little trouble getting out of Princeton but I hope are on their way now.

I have resisted turning on the heat but have a space heater where I sit and go there whenever I need to warm up. I just don’t want to pay for oil yet—–but my electric bill will probably go up, sigh!

I have started Once Around the Track by Sharyn McCrumb and am finding it funny and informative. A bunch of wealthy women decided to have a race car and enter it in the car racing world. The whole pit crew and managing people are all to be women except the driver. Their sponser is Vagina, a Viagra for women. The driver they choose who is expected to promote the product is probably going to balk when he finds out what it is. I am just getting into this book but so far like it, even though I don’t give a hoot about car racing.

I had to turn on the heat! The last few days have been quite cool – temps in the mid-high 60s and today it really hit. I do face north and get zero sun which adds cool. And I still have it on today. Nights have been downright cold – temps in the 40s. Weird weather.

Received late yesterday after I had shut down the machine. BTW Jerry, I sent her your AOL address.

Sept 14

I appreciate your forwarding my school message, I was hoping
you would. We are now in Boston, and barely found a motel,
the Yankee/Boston game seems to be filling up rooms, plus
there are conventions and weddings. We’d hoped to stay the
weekend, but have to find a room, plus Clive is getting
tired of being gone from home, plus, we are not used to
traffic like this. We can drive from Oslo to Grand Forks
and hardly meet a vehicle, that 25 miles. But we do ok, I
read the map and he steers, and we do get lost every once in
a while.

We have a school friend who is a retired teacher in
Mattapoisett, MA, and hope to see him and his family when we
leave here.

Now I’ll see if I can figure out Jerry’s address to wish him
a HB.

Thanks again, Jacky

Friday, Sept 14

I’m glad you included me in my school message. As I read it
I realized I had left out a lot of the “Rest of the Story”.
It sounded like all was wine and roses, but believe me
there were lots of thorns, including two severe depression
episodes after our second and fourth babies were born. And
the spiritual knowedge I gained after Rhonda, the fouth, was
where I really started enjoying living, warts and all. But
I did love school, and have always enjoyed reading.

We saw the JFK library in Boston, and as it was pouring rain
this am decided to go south to Mattapoisett, MA and visit
friends who went to school with us in Oslo. Imagine our
shock to learn that our friend’s wife died 6 weeks ago, and
he is in treatment for cancer at his daughter’s in Buffalo.
It makes us realize again how precious and temp. life is!

And Happy Birthday, Jerry! Thanks, Jo

Jacky

How DID your b’day go, Jerry? Did the girls at the coffee shop treat you like a king again this year?

Jo

Green kuki cha is from Japan and quite tasty altho very subtle. Green tea isn’t supposed to be strong, like Earl Gray or English Breakfast. I order my teas thru uptontea.com and they have a wonderful selection.

The Kuki cha is naturally caffeine free and I can drink a cup of that late in the evening and still sleep. “Course I might have to get up and make a potty stop (or three) but it doesn’t keep me awake.

You can order samples for less than $2. I make my tea in a coffeemaker that has the cone shape for the coffee grounds. I put in two rounded teaspoons of tea and I can get one pot at 7 cups and one at 4 before I need to do fresh tea. Of course I don’t like my tea strong since I drink it without milk or sugar.

I LOVE the kuki and Devonshire Earl Grey, also. That was a new one when I last ordered tea and when I opened the packaged, it was quite a difference scent. Earl Grey with extra bergamot is what I’ve been drinking for some 10 years; one of my DILs introduced it to me. So any one of those 3 I have around. Another DIL brings me small ‘sample type’ bits of different teas.

I do like tea.

>green kuki cha

Well, I’ve tried bush tea–what is this one? I’m trying to shift from coffee to more tea, green in particular. It hasn’t become my automatic first choice but did have jasmine with a Chinese lunch today.

Candace

I didn’t realize that about PA, Candace. I’ll bet we may only drink Earl Grey ‘together’ but not my green kuki cha (that’s green tea to those of you who don’t know and which is caffeine free). I KNEW I like PA for some reason!!!!!!!!

We have two local papers and they cover a few surrounding small towns. The best one is free and it is delivered to every household. I don’t subscribe to the other one but do read their web age where I get the editorials and letters to the editor. The letters usually are the same in both papers as the locals submit them to both. I look forward to them. The free one is a weekly and the other bi-weekly.

I’ll finish again the thought I had when it all disappeared…I started to say my program does a good job of weeding out “junk” and “spam” and putting those where I can decide. I’m not quite sure how it defines junk as opposed to spam, but it does. I don’t ordinarily open emails from an unknown source but the name was vaguely familiar–I couldn’t place the context. It was from a professor of journalism at the University of Texas. At least seven or eight years ago I had emailed a comment about an article he had written. He clearly has an efficient filing system–he said since I had responded to that article, he has now written a book about the culture of masculinity in case I would be interested. It’s a small paperback published by South End Press, CSP–Community Supported Press described as part of a move toward local businesses, including Community Supported Agriculture. It’s one of the many little niche organizations and/or concepts that don’t get much publicity. The description of his book sounded interesting so I got it. It brought to mind discussions about the loss of local newspapers which used to be a major source of information important to every community. We do have in my area a small paper, The Leader, which covers a quadrant of communities. It survives on ads from businesses in those areas and covers details of activities and people the Houston Chronicle doesn’t.

Incidently, Jo, did you hear that Pennsylvania is the state that drinks the most tea–you’re in the right area.

Candace

This is a story of a homesteaders covered wagon trip from Iowa to Colorado and their life settling in the area, sod hut, Indians etc. There also is a little romance but it isn’t a romance novel. It is written in the form of a friend of a granddaughter of the writer, reading the diary. (What a sentence!) I really enjoyed this book although not as good as her latest.
Dallas wrote Tall Grass and The Persian Pickle Club which I read. I plan to read other of her books as I think she is a great story teller. You quilters especially will like The Persian Pickle Club.

Good luck with your search, Candace. Keeps life interesting, eh wot?

Continuing my efforts to organize, found a folder of odds and ends, some of which were responses to notes I had written to columnists, authors and a musician over some years, some of which I hadn’t thought of in years. In a real coincidence, while involved in that, I had an e-mail from a vaguely familiar name. My program

I just found this original start from yesterday–haven’t found the rest of it I tried to send. Found that one I thought I’d published earlier this afternoon did not publish and gave me the same can’t edit message. I don’t know if I can find it either. Just trying to see what’s going on with this one.

Candace

I too am enjoying this little book. Got it at the liberry.
It’s really cute the way the little girl narrates it.
Huggz all,
Jerry

Candace, IF your post went into the draft area, there will be an indication of Draft Saved or Saved Post or some such nomenclature as that below the GGOBIT.com thing and the blank post; you won’t have to ‘search’ for it. If it isn’t there, then it is in cyberland with a gazillion other posts which, I’m sure, got there just about the same way.

Jo

Jo, now that 60 is the new 40, that makes 70 the new 50–so you’re actually 57!

I tried searching “draft” with no success but maybe next time…..if it happens again.

Candace

Thank you so much to whoever told us about this one.  I am about 3/4 of the way through and have a hard time putting it down.  It is an interesting part of our history.  I remember hearing about it  when it was happening, but not until many years later was it really discussed and exposed.  I think most people thought putting the Japanese in the camps  was a good idea at the time.  There are similarities to “To Kill A Mockingbird”, but I expect that is true of a lot of our literature – nothing new under the sun – and I doubt the author was doing that on purpose.  I am going to recommend it to my  local book club.

And yes, indeed, do have a happy birthday, Jo.  There is about three months difference in our ages.

ROFL, I’d be in a snit, too. But the DRAFT place is a good place to look for things you lose.

You’re right Julie – it IS my birthday today…I’m a young 77 (at least I think it’s ‘young’) but suffice to say that I don’t FEEL it. Had an ice cream cake at g’daughter’s on Saturday and son/DIL drove up from MD.

I’m still rereading some of my ‘old’ books — they are like old shoes.

Take care all; it’s raining here today and I’m staying inside.

I seem to remember that it’s Jo’s birthday today. If I’m right, then Happy Birthday to you, Jo, and many happy returns of the day!

Julie (Darlyne C’s daughter)

I wonder if your post went to the draft place. It took me a while to learn that is what would happen sometimes when I disappeared a post.