IT'S A NEW YEAR!!! YAY!!!

First, let me say I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year holiday and that the year so far has been kind.  How many of you have started your year off with the awful resolutions we always subject ourselves to at the beginning of the new year:

1. Healthy diet
2. Exercise more
3. Stop smoking
4. Get out of debt
5. Get organized
6. Save money
7. Volunteer to help others
8. etc., etc., etc.

   

   Rio is my inspiration - always ready to walk

I actually had started my new year exercise and diet routine that many of us endure for as long as we can and was doing wonderfully.....walking 3 miles every morning with my dog, then swimming every afternoon (swimming was only 5 days a week).  Anyway, that lasted for 2 weeks until my first of the year head cold kicked in.  I'll get back on track as soon as the congestion eases.

The one good that comes out of my cold is that it has slowed me down so that I can concentrate on the blog. 

There are some wonderful new books out this year and I will try to keep you apprised of many of them.  Unfortunately, we will not try to select best sellers for use in the the book club.  Our experiences with the book The Help, and how hard it was to get copies of the book (without buying a copy) has taught me that no matter how tempting, we have to hold off on new books.  That will not keep me from listing a lot of interesting choices on our Suggested Reading page.

We started off with a bang last year, with The Help, but peetered out during the holidays.  I'm not sure if it was the book choice - Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burrows - or just because everyone was busy, but I am hoping for bigger and better things this year.  I have been keeping abreast of others that are trying to start online bookclubs.  Some are having problems getting people to join, or stay and others are having issues with choice of reading.  Since I already had a loyal following from my established bookclub, I had a few people from that club that were happy to support an online club and surprisingly there were more of my friends and family in other states who were not a part of the original bookclub that leaped at the chance to help get the online version up and running.

That being said, please don't shy away from books that are selected that you wouldn't normally read.  That is really the point of a bookclub, to kind of get you out of your comfort zone in reading.  We'll read fiction, non-fiction, biographies, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, mysteries, science fiction.  Our reading selections will be as diverse as our bookclub members.  I wish you could all meet each other face to face.  Many of you I know personally.  We have some new members out of the Detroit, MI area that I have never met, but I am learning of them through their facebook postings.  Stop in on our Facebook page and welcome them.  It is an amazing adventure that I am having.  Our club members are African-American, white, hispanic, male, female, young and not so young.  It's makeup makes for wonderful discussions, because we come at books from all angles.  lol.   I don't care what people say about social networking - I think it is a wonderful tool.  That is one of the reasons I am asking again that you support the book selections each month.  I am quite sure that everyone is not going to love every selection - that would be impossible.  Each one of us has our likes and dislikes, but that is what makes for a good discussion.  Give each book a chance, I guarantee you there will be someone in the group that absolutely loves something about at least one book that we read during the year.  I have only selected one book that I thought people were going to beat me for:  The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid.  People were stopping me in the library telling me how much they hated the book, and I have to admit...though it was a short read, it was a difficult read.  I couldn't figure out why it was so hard to get through until one of the ladies that read it told me, it was written in the first person.  There wasn't any dialog at all.  Funny the things that are just expected in novels...  Well I went into the conference room the night of bookclub, very apprehensive of the reaction I expected from the members.  Lo and behold, there were two members - a young woman, and a middle aged professor who loved the book!  And what is even stranger, they loved it for the same reason...they felt the author put the main character in the position of speaking directly to the reader.  They felt she was speaking to them.  That was the same reason most of us didn't like the book.  I read it again, from their point of view and the book flowed much easier.  Still not one of my favorite books, but you might want to pick one up and see how you like it.

So on with the show!  New year, new selections, new members, new meetings.  I am soooo excited right now, you don't even know!

SO MANY BOOKS.....SO LITTLE TIME

Infinity Bookshelf

THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

I still remember the snow.....I just don't miss it!

"All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day."
- Mammas and Pappas, California Dreamin'

It is just about here. The season that just happens to be my favorite: Winter.  Not so much for all the things that people do in the winter such as:  skiing the slopes, hitting snowmobile trails, blazing cross-country ski trails, doing a Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation slide down a massive hill in one of those little snow saucers.  Don't get me wrong, I find nothing wrong with all of the outdoor cold and snow activity, being from the Chicago, Illinois area, I have indulged in most of it.  I even owned a toboggan when my kids were small and took them tobogganing until one of my sons decided to go down the chute with his hands on the outside of the sled - OUCH.  The burn scars are still evident on the back of his hand.  Well, I don't have to have the snow and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, I have plenty of cold nose memories.  (see photo) 

I would love to see some of your favorite snow photos too...don't be shy, I did it....

I am faring very well in my new adopted home of Tucson, Arizona...without the snow and cold, that's just how some parts of the country celebrate the season.  As a matter of fact, my plants in my yard are still in bloom right now.  I am really talking about entire fall and winter season with the holidays starting with October and Halloween, November and Thanksgiving, now December and Christmas.  This time of year is just marvelous!  Everyone is just a little bit different this time of year.  People who are usually Scrooge-like through the rest of the year, have a little more spring in their step, a little more twinkle in their eyes, and possibly a little more tolerance in their attitudes.  You find yourself striking up conversations in lines at stores with perfect strangers (at least I do). 

I'm sure one of the reasons winter is it is my favorite time of year is because I don't have to make excuses for wanting to curl up with a good book and read.  After all, outside activities have slowed down because the of the shortened daylight hours.  

I love reading nonsensical things in the winter.  A favorite of mine is trivia.  I was in a movie theater recently and was upset when they finished the little trivia challenges before the previews - I wanted more.  As a result of my love of trivia, I am very good at games like Trivia Pursuit or Jeopardy and I sometimes feel like Rosie Perez as Gloria in the movie White Men Can’t Jump...I should go on Jeopardy because my head is full of useless trivia information.  Anyway, I thought we could have fun in this blog…not that I haven’t been having fun all along.  I am going to throw trivia at you guys and hopefully you will comment back with some of the answers.  Just enter the number of the question, and your answer.  I’ll be changing the trivia questions weekly, so make sure you come back.  Maybe we could think of some type of prizes…..

1.     Who is the composer of the music used for “The Nutcracker”, a Christmas ballet favorite? 

2.    What is the busiest shopping day of the year?

3.    What is the third-largest occasion for Americans to consume food?

4.    What do the items in The "Twelve Days of Christmas" represent?

5.    What are the four ghosts in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol"

6.    Where do cows have their sweat glands in their body?

7.    How much does our Earth weigh?

8.    Which man-made place on Earth appears the brightest from space?

9.    What was the famous Walt Disney, afraid of?

10.  Which entertainer passed away on April Fool’s Day in 1984?

WHAT IS THANKSGIVING REALLY ALL ABOUT?

I know this is a loaded questions and one to which there may actually be no answer but here it is......

What is your idea of Thanksgiving?  By this I mean, what does it actually mean to you?  Is it just a day filled with food, family, festivities, fun, football, etc, etc, etc?  Oh yes, and don't forget Charlie Brown and company in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade !

Or is there a deeper meaning for you? 

I'm stretching my memory here for my elementary school years, but I can still remember Ms. Bastinelli, Ms. Norris, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Garrison, and others at McKinley Elementary School teaching about Thanksgiving and it's meaning.  We learned about a group of religious dissidents who believed it was necessary to separate from the Church of England.  Persecuted in England, these "Separatists" moved to Holland in 1607/1608.  The group, joined by other colonists recruited by the venture's financial backers, began the move to America in 1620 upon the Mayflower, the first of four ships used in the crossing. 
We learned of their inititial hardships the first year.  During the first winter in the New World, the colonists suffered greatly from diseases like scurvy, lack of shelter, and general conditions onboard ship. Forty-five of the 102 emigrants died the first winter. Additional deaths during the first year meant that only 53 people were alive in November 1621 to celebrate the First Thanksgiving.  Of the 18 adult women, 13 died the first winter, while another died in May. Only four adult women were left alive for the Thanksgiving.  No women died aboard the ship, though a newborn baby and three men, including the captain, did.  Anyway, the event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World.  The first Thanksgiving feast lasted 3 days, and provided enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.  Some of the foods they ate at that celebration are still incorporated in one form or another, into our Thanksgiving dinners today such as:  corn, squash, duck, turkey, venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkins, and potatoes). 

I say all that to say....I don't think we are properly teaching many of our children the real meaning of Thanksgiving.  I have had grandchildren come home from school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with a little drawing of a turkey or a pilgrim hat or an Indian feather, but you ask them to explain what Thanksgiving is all about and many of them go back to the holiday with family and friends and food.  Do you know of any children or young people that no matter how much they have, they just are not satisfied?  I have seen children rip open present after present on Christmas and instead of showing any real interest in what they have in front of them, they are looking for more.  There just seems to be something missing.....dare I say gratitude?

Gratitude is a simple act of showing appreciation and being thankful.  It doesn't take up a lot of our time or effort to be thankful so why is it that people are not showing appreciation for the things that they are receiving in life?

We often have the mentality that we ar entitled to little things in life.  This causes us to be ungrateful and think that things should happen in a certain way for us.  I thoroughly believe that people with this mind set will never be really happy no matter what they acquire, because they will feel they are always lacking.  A vicious cycle if you will....the more you have the more you want, the more you feel you are entitled to because someone else has it.  I guess being born poor (although we didn't realize it, because most of our friends were poor too) I have learned not only to be grateful, but to marvel at what I have in my life.  I'm sure not much by many standards, but abundance to me, because of what I see on cable televsion channels like Travel, National Geographic, A&E, and others every day in many third world countries.  Countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia where there is no clean water to drink.  Food is at a premium, sometimes totally dependent upon aid from other countries such as...wait for it...United States of America.  Some of our associates (I dare not call them friends) with ungrateful attitudes should wake up in one of these countries like Vic Morrow in the Twilight Zone Movie.  I'd be willing to bet if they made it back over here, they would look at what they had with a whole new perspective. 

No matter how bad some of the people in this country think things are, or how ungrateful they are for what they have, just think about the people that are dying - literally - everyday trying to get into this country.  They are swimming, digging underground tunnels, climbing fences, crossing deserts, you name it, they are trying it to get here for a better life, much like the pilgrims.  I bet you when they make it here, they know how and why they are celebrating.  So we make think it's broken, but we are living in one of the greatest nations in the world.  I used to say with pride "The Greatest" and I hope to soon be able to use that label again. 

Oh, you thought I wasn't going to talk about reading?  Come on now, you know me better than that!  Another thing I am thankful for is being able to go into a bookstore, a library, a trift store, a grocery store, an airport, the list goes on and on and on....and be able to pick up a book to buy, rent, borrow, trade.  There are still communist countries where even what you read or see on television or hear on radio is restricted to what the government wants you to read or see or hear.

Yes, my friends, I know what Thanksgiving is all about......comment with your point/counterpoints.  I eagerly await any and all debates. 

Oh yes, and enjoy your celebrations.  I have nothing against them, I am going to indulge myself.  I can hardly wait for my sister's pie.  I don't even care what kind of pie....mmmm mmmm mmmm!  But let us not forget the reason we are celebrating....

And in closing, some Thanksgiving reads:

Berne, Suzanne. Ghost at the Table
Thanksgiving at the New England home of the second of three sisters marks a reunion between the three Fiske sisters–including Cynthia, the youngest, an author writing a book about Mark Twain’s daughters–and their long-estranged father, in a portrait of the unraveling of a family, set against the famous nineteenth-century author’s own family dysfunction.

Bittle, Camilla. Dear Family
In this Massachusetts setting, Ed Beane loses his job in 1935, his wife, two children, and widowed mother must go to live with Dorothy’s mother on her farm, where they continue to support each other through a series of family celebrations.

Bowden, Susan. Bitter Harvest.
An estranged grandmother and granddaughter have a Thanksgiving reunion in this tale of romantic suspense.

Boyle, T. Coraghessan. The Tortilla Curtain.
Illegal Mexican immigrants clash through a series of coincidences with a wealthy Jewish family in California around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Cross, Amanda. A Trap for Fools
Kate Fansler Mystery

Davis, Krista. The Diva Runs Out of Thyme.
Determined to take down her childhood rival at the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown, Sophie Winston instead finds herself accused of murder when her quest for basting the perfect turkey goes horribly wrong, in a mystery complete with tasty recipes and entertaining tips. Domestic Diva series; bk.1.