pontalba

Love. This. Thread! Yup, reading's the thing. Although I would like to finish off Sherman before the end of the year, hate to bring the bugger forward to another year. /sigh/

I don't remember the last time I ironed. In fact, although I know we own an iron, I have no idea where it is. Not that I want to know.............

The only reason that is a problem with the NYT, is the simple fact that they report their opinions as news. I don't care about their opinions, everyone has them. I want the news to form my own opinion. They slant, slant, and then, slant some more. I'll find out they left out elementary data of a story, only by reading about the same news item in the Washington Post. That is just wrong, imo. I grew up mostly with my Mother, as Father died when I was 8. We did everything, as there was no one else to do it. So it's difficult for me to see things as "women's work" or "man's work". It's work that according to your strength and inclination that you are able to accomplish.

He ordinarily goes by Charles. And, sheesh!, ya can't remember everything! I really want to get to Oldest Living Confederate Widow.....there is another one on the shelf here, The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. Must read as well. /sigh/ We have to look at it, like any other section of history, through the lens of the time. Looking back with 21st century eyes doesn't cut it. We cannot apply today's standards to another part of history. States Rights, IOW, who was going to politically control the country was a huge factor in causing the war. Think about the many of the Founding Fathers that were Southerners, and held control in the government. There was a great deal of resentment brewing on account of that. I've got some books from my great grandfather that were contemporaneous views of the time. I'll take a look-see and find the titles for you.

You are always Our (wonderful) Poppy.

Hadda post this! http://www.fox8live.com/story/24193353/search-continues-for-stolen-truck-with-120000-worth-of-hersheys'>Search continues for stolen truck with $120,000 worth of Hershey's Ok, 'fess up! Which one of you chocoholics committed this heinous crime?

Yes! We've seen the pilot and first season of Endeavour. Love it. I used to watch Morse when we had a television, but haven't seen all of them. I do have some old VHS tapes of a season, I believe, of Morse. Just the other day I priced the entire Morse collection, and it ran about 285. USD. /gulp/ Sooooo, won't be purchasing that anytime soon. drat. I'll be on the lookout for sales though. The library doesn't have a good selection, and the DVDs are usually a bit tattered.

Julie, I love Shelby Foote's writing! I've read a few, and he is marvelous. That book looks wonderful. Great review.

I will start with the first HP book, at some point, Gaia. Just wanted to mention that I appreciate your writing in the name of the person you are quoting in your posts...it really helps context!

Yes, that is my husband's thread. We registered on BCF back in 2006 way before we were married. He used to use different names on the various forums. And, yes, his name is Charles. LOL Not ditzy or nosey! I actually have a bio of Mitchell, unread..... But I have skimmed it some. I believe mostly what she wanted to impart was the broad sweep of history. You see, she grew up with those veterans of the War, knew them, loved them. She grew up on their stories, both good and bad. They were dying out by her time and she wanted to get their stories out there. To try to make people in the "present" understand more of the lives and losses of the South. It's so easy for one side to "throw rocks" at the other side and make "them" the bad guys. There was good and bad on both sides, and wrongs perpetrated from both sides of the fence. One of my Mother's favorite sayings was "two wrongs don't make a right". In war, especially, that axiom goes straight out of the window, and it's winner/killer take all. Everyone suffers. One of the books I am currently reading (on and off) is Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman by Michael Fellman. If you read the description of Sherman's March through Georgia, it'd make you cringe. Utter barbarous cruelty. Women and children left to literally starve. Which was what it took to "win" that war. That methodology was new to the modern warfare of his time. Sherman had to reach back in history to find that one. Of course slavery was wrong, no question there. But the North was certainly complicit in the practice. They were no innocents, and that lost them the right to throw stones. IOW, they were not anyone's moral superior. But certainly pretended to be that. /rant over/ I see Charles has posted, have to see what he said.....

There are some that would say, YES, the NYT is a dirty word. My husband is with you on that, frankie! As much as I enjoy some of the New York Times articles, particularly their fashion and movie/book news. But. I suppose the most diplomatic way to put it is that the NYT is the most liberal, left leaning newspaper I know of. Of course it is, poppy, and I realize that they can't help themselves in most cases. I think that "OCD" or "obsessive" is probably way over used in a loose manner in ordinary conversation by non-professionals. I live out in the country, although not close to a "small town". I grew up in a suburb of a large city, so have never been around, or been subjected to that particular frame of mind to which you are referring. But I have to say, my mother was a housewife in the 1950's and our house was not spotless, it was mostly, fairly neat, and the cleanliness factor was good with reference to food and the necessaries. I don't know what small minded numbskull made up those rules, but they need(ed) a serious readjustment to their thinking! Probably a man....... All part of the "barefoot and pregnant" brigade. That was my initial reaction..... You sound as though you do have the fairest system...and it makes total sense.

That's right sonny-boy, I remember walking to school, barefoot.........in the snow! right, snow in new orleans....yeah. Glad to hear it. I put it on my kindle....on a good sale.

Much lighter, The House of Sand and Fog was truly heartbreaking. Similar to watching a train crash and topple over in slow motion. You know there'll be casualties, just not sure how many, or how fatal. I love the cover on By Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept.....and the quote from Angela Carter...."Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening......a masterpiece." Whoa!! Your kate.

Agree re the Scarpetta mentioned above.....first ones were pretty good, but then they went downhill, fast. Too repetitive, too graphic for my taste. Re Midnight's Children. I started it once, didn't get too far. I think it was more my mood than the book though. I'll try again, sometime. I suspect I'm not a great fan of magical realism.

Of course, for health's sake, many things must be down. It's the obsessive neatness and lengths that some people go to that slay me. And that is what I think, in the end, the article was about. Controlling obsessive behavior. No one wants to live in true filth, but a little dirt never hurt anyone. Good grief, there'd be no humans left if that were the case.

Julie, here is the comparative review I found.....I think I posted it here a few years ago, but here 'tis again. Thought you might find it interesting. A Woman In Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City by Anonymous compared to Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Probably a more unlikely comparison cannot be imagined, on first look, and granted it is only certain sections that are applicable in this arena. I wish we knew more of Anonymous, her background and what happened to her after that fateful and terrible eight weeks. We don't, and that is the end of that for now at least. But we do know some of what happened to Scarlett, and she reaped what she sowed to a great extent. Did she overcome her own short-sightedness regarding Rhett? We don't really know as Ms. Mitchell didn't write the sequel and the same applies to Anonymous. We don't know what happened to her after the rift with Gerd, her returned lover. In both cases the romantics among us can only hope that love won out. "A Woman in Berlin" is a terrible story of the eight weeks surrounding the Fall of Berlin in 1945. This woman, an experienced journalist, recounts with clarity and a certain cold-bloodedness the Hell that was descending on Berlin. Waiting for an army to occupy.....that is one of the first points of comparison. So much that Anonymous recounts is exactly the same as Scarlett waiting for the Northern Army to descend on Atlanta in 1864. The cannons in the distance drawing closer and closer. From "A Woman in Berlin".... "The courtyards echo the sound of the gunfire. For the first time I understand the phrase "thunder of cannon", which until now has always sounded like a hollow cliché, such as "courage of a lion" or "manly chest". But thunder is an apt description. Showers and storms outside. I stood in the doorway and watched some soldiers pass by our building, listlessly dragging their feet. Some were limping. Mute, each man to himself, they trudged along, out of step, toward the city. Stubbly chins and sunken cheeks, their backs weighed down with gear.......The only thing they inspire is pity, no hope or expectation. They already look defeated, captured. They stare past us blindly, impassively, as we stand on the curb." The starvation. At one point Anonymous says... "My sole concern as I write these lines is my stomach. All thinking and feeling, all wishes and hopes begin with food." Reading the above reminded me so much of the Confederate soldiers leaving Atlanta just ahead of the Northern Army.....from old men to beardless young boys marching out to try to face the enemy one more time. Hopeless. But still they did it, and died for nothing. This is from GWTW just before Scarlett left Atlanta with Melanie..... "I must think. But thoughts eluded her, darting in and out of her mind like frightened hummingbirds. As she stood hanging to the sill, a deafening explosion burst on her ears, louder than any cannon she had ever heard. The sky was rent with gigantic flame. Then other explosions. The earth shook and the glass in the panes above her head shivered and came down around her. The world became an inferno of noise and flame and trembling earth as one explosion followed another in ear-splitting succession." Both women waiting for the enemy to descend. Scrabbling for the barest of essentials. Food. Water. Both enduring the terrors that an invading army of desperate men bring. Anonymous did endure repeated rape and the swift realization of the realities of her situation, choosing to find an officer to keep her and thus prevent the enlisted men from gang raping her. The character of Scarlett also left niceties behind when she went after Rhett to try to get him to marry her...she hated him at that point, but swallowed her pride, chose common sense and went after the richest man she knew to save her family and land. So really in the end the stories are at their heart more alike than I even realized even though almost a century and an ocean apart. Two women surviving men's war, with their sanity (more or less) intact and able to face the world. The styles are of course vastly different, but the message the same.

Julie, Gone With the Wind is one of my favorites, but I can see your point. When did you first read it? I think that makes a difference.....I was quite young, probably around 11 or 12 the first time. I've reread numerous times, and each time it's different, and I see things and parallels that I'd not noticed before. I'll find an old review where I compared it, and post on my book thread. Ok, My honey, Paul, Now you've had your coffee. So, what's the verdict? Yup, too many books, (ha ha) and no filing system. /sigh/ One of these days..........oh, that's a song, yeah?

Haven't read much of anything, besides catching up on some newspapers and periodicals around here. I'm about 135 pages into Purge, but every time I pick it up, something distracts me. Purge is beginning to come together, and I'm understanding most of the connections, I believe.

(bolding above is mine) I well know it was a chore! But the bits you read out loud to me were both interesting and occasionally very funny. I just wish that Pynchon would devote himself to simply writing, and not digress into politically motivated, paranoid rants. It seemed a book to me, from what I heard, of extremes. Beautiful and articulate prose that degenerates either into rants or swipes at ethnic groups. Back handed stuff. Oh, well. What is next?

Scream as much as you need to! How awful, I'm so sorry this has happened to your family. Miserable buggers. grrrrr!

Thanks, Ruth! They're very different, and well worth it.

That is a pretty one, muggle. But they all are, really. It's true! I had no idea, either. Visions of Grandeur is gorgeous. I think I like the Poinsettia Chianti, for the fullness and the depth of the red, or the Winter Rose Red.....it is rose-like. But I like the orange one too! I'm very flexible in these things. I want several of each!

Congratulations on surpassing your original goal! Well done, Athena. I've only read the last of the Harry Potter series, and wasn't much impressed. Which, I know is not fair....I don't think it's possible to read the last of a series and be a fair judge of it. I have the series on the shelf, and will def give it a read. Maybe next year!

Yeah, that is a bit of a head-banger! I know there are men like that out there. Hopefully, it's less and less as women become more self aware and able to get out from under that sort of situation. Sometimes it simply comes down to money. It has to be terrible to be caught up in a situation where the husband holds sway over the wife, only because she is either afraid, or unable to support herself and the children. Agreed, re compromise. Absolutely. LOL agreed!

Oh, you're quite welcome. I've gone back and viewed some more tonight as well. Fascinating stuff. My husband is from New York, and gets quite a kick out of it. Says it's right on target!