Milestone Birthday: 18

I dropped off
Gordan this
afternoon at
The Tinder Box!
He wanted to buy
a cheap cigar!
He is 18 today.
The 4th son.


He's going to
college in the Fall.
Waiting to hear from one more university
and then he will make his decision.

I've got to scoot to make lasagna for the
large birthday table of 10 tonight. Julia
Child will appear with a Chocolate Sponge
Cake with Choc. Buttercream Frosting!
Plus a homemade ice cream cake. YUM.

Speaking of Beauty

This came
in the mail
today.

Isn't the cover
beautiful.

Google Books
has it.

From Publishers Weekly

How we talk about beauty-"how they, you, and I talk about it, and why we say the things we say"-is the theme of this densely packed meditation, aimed at those who delight in, say, anyone's daring to call a poem "gorgeous." Donoghue assumes a reader as well read as he, a flattering assumption from a distinguished New York University professor and prolific critic (Adam's Curse; The Practice of Reading; etc.). His tone, lucid and jargon-free, reminds rather than instructs.

Named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year.

Review for the NY Times here. "Clearing A Space in the Mind."

Denis Donoghue is University Professor and Henry James Professor of English and American Letters at New York University.

the sound of clicking

It was like the music in
Atonement but different.
In the movie, the typewriter
is used as a percussion instru-
ment. Today in my high school
class, it was the sound of PCs.
Listening and typing. It is
what we all do. Mulitask.
Hard to think someone is
listening when they type.
They all do it. I do it, but
not well; you know "MOM
are you listening!" "What
did I say?" ( it happened tonight
with my daughter holding
Oreo!)


So will libraries become all
technical ~ what will happen to
books? Will everything look different?
Yes, our library system will be
cutting back with some closings
and some hour changes. Sort
of like the Post Office. Two of
my favorite places.

If you want Shelf Life, Dr. Grant
has a SALE here.

If you want a list about A LIFETIME
OF READING,
go here.

If you want to hear him read,
go here.
Where he finds the time and
what he is reading.



Woman Reading in a Landscape, 1869, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot

My question to Lauren

"How will reading and writing
change with technology changing
how we read and write? " That was
what I wrote on a small piece of paper
to put in the box of questions for
Lauren Winner as she left a bit of
time at the end of her Writer's Workshop.
She picked it up at the end , right at
almost 3:00 and stopped the day by
just reading it.

My 4th son, who is almost 18 , tells me
that I will have a Kindle one day.
I laugh and chuckle because I have
a house full of books. Real leather,
real paper, even dust. He says that
because at one point I wasn't going
to have a cell phone and now it is
a must. All of my older sons only
have cell phones. So I wonder if I
will have a kindle in my lifetime.

I found a blog on the subject
( Why You Should Write in Your Books
Now) which examines the future
of real books made with paper.

The sun is starting to set on the golden age of the printed book. ....

Your writing is what will make your books cherished artifacts to your descendants.

There are virtual bookclubs, blogs,
new ways of reading and connecting
online and how will that change us?
We are already.

I found this through a link
from Ann Voscamp's blog, Holy
Experience. I think she is becoming
a household word. I smile at that,
thinking how God takes a mom on a
Canadian farm to write and glorify
His Name! God's way for sure.


View Larger Image

A New Month for Gratitude Monday

My sister left this afternoon and
we had such fun going to a local
thrift store: 5.00 a bag! It was
contagious and addicting to fill
it up with clothes! How could we
leave something when it costs so
little? Anyways, we met another
set of sisters who mirrored us:
one brunette and one with grey
hair! Getting a good deal is fun.
It is something to be grateful for.
It is another thing to share it with
a sister. For those of you with sisters,
close ones, you know that deep kind
of gratitude!

Then we came home for a salad and
laughed until we cried. One bag at the
thrift store was less than the 2 books
and 2 videos she bought at the Christian
library across the street. I mean 2.00
for a hardback compared to 25 cents.
( about what the sweaters, dresses,
tops amounted to , you know, you see
how much can go into a grocery bag!)
It makes you feel very frugal and that
makes it weird. The books seemed so
expensive compared to our bags.
We laughed so hard we cried.
We could not even talk
because each word brought another
funny thought . THAT laughter is good
for the soul.

We were thankful to get new things
that were really others old things!

Learning from a Winner

It is always a blessing to meet
authors, especially one that you
loved listening to in their book
That was me when I
finished "Girl Meets God" many
years ago. I wanted to hear more
of her voice. I got to hear it LIVE
on Saturday.

She is writing another
memoir now. I have not been in
a "class" like this in years. Many.
I've been to lectures on writing, read
books about writing and READ.

Two principles she taught:

1. Do it. Writing is like prayer. Don't just
read about it , do it.

2. Revise. Revise. Revise.

She gave us many exercises to do both.
We wrote and we revised.

Now a few days later, I am thankful for
how it opened my mind to new ways of
seeing. We took a passage we wrote and
revised in by a child's point of view,
made a dialogue , use another sense instead
of sight, description of a person, and
many more. We started with writing our
My Name of this short chapter from
The House on Mango Street. In revising
my orginal writing about My Name , I used
my mother's point of view. That opened my mind
to memory because she has passed away.
I hope to write a memoir for my grand-
children , great, great, etc... on her so
they will know her. That is why I went
and need to do what she said: do it.

here's a link to another blog ( googled)
about a similar workshop Lauren did.

Rainy Monday Gratitude

Gratitude:

Rain instead of snow.

Lauren Winner's Writer's Workshop.
Excellent teaching. Lovely to meet
an author who is passing her craft
to others. Amazing mind. ( more in
another blog on what I learned)

Mission's Conference this week at our
church. The atmosphere is festive.
The air is full of the Spirit. The sounds
have foreign dialects.

Beauty of the past as we went on a field
trip to a museum for a tour of Renaissance
Paintings. Churches are not the same today.
Beauty has become plain.

Good worldview in Larkrise to Candleford.
Emma and I are watching Series 2 on Youtube.
The inner struggles surface in short amounts
of time on film. The writers show transformation
so well. I wish I could give such wisdom as Emma
Timmons or her husband Robert. "What is love"
is what Robert is asked to define. He thinks so deeply
to finally say: it is himself being himself with Emma.
Always. Laura gives him a poetry book
and he finally defines love by reading
Shakespeare's Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


 William Shakespeare   
(1564 - 1616)