Julie ~ "Lucky" 2013 ~ Booklist

[Devi]

Devi

That's really interesting --who are you supposed to be related to ?

 

George Bernard Shaw - he would be on my mothers, parents side.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw

 

 

Edited January 21, 2013 by Devi

[Athena]

@ julie

Nice photos ! I don't have any such old photos digital, we have a few around the house but I've never thought to scan them and make them digital (I have done that with a few old photos of my grandparents for their anniversary).

[chaliepud]

George Bernard Shaw - he would be on my mothers, parents side.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ge_Bernard_Shaw

 

Wow!!!

[chaliepud]

Kylie

Isn't that neat ? I love hearing stories like that about people's past history . I was big into genealogy about 10 years ago,and looked up my maternal side of the family -- which was quite interesting .

The only people in our family that people may have heard of ( and they played a minor role) ,was one of my great,great,great uncles ( I think I have the greats right, I'd have to dig out all my books to see , was one of the people in the Donner Party. Not sure if you would've heard much about it over there,since it's a small part of our "westward expansion" here. The Donner party was a small group of wagon trains who left to go west ,and the leader of the group made several errors in judgement ,the main 2 being that they left too late in the year and the weather got dangerously bad for the wagon trains by early fall,but he chose to go anyhow . His second mistake was the route they took. He had others who had traveled the route tell him NOT to take the route he did because of the difficulty in getting through the mountains ,even in GOOD weather,but it sounds as if he was pretty headstrong and decided he knew better than others did .

They ended up getting stranded in the mountains in a severe winter blizard . My great-great-great uncle William McCutchen (spelled McCutcheon now ) was in the wagon train,along with his wife and 1 year old baby girl . He was one of the men who left on horseback when they realized they were gonna be stuck there for a long time ,and they had short rations. He and another guy made it to the closest fort, and they got food and provisions to bring back,but it took them quite awhile to get there and back,due to being frostbitten and in bad shape by the time they arrived at the fort .

In the meantime, the remaining people started getting sick and frostbitten -- the place they stopped had a couple old deserted cabins, so they had shelter ,but they couldnt find much wood to burn ,being in a blizzard .They had very little food,so they began starving. They ended up practicing cannibalism to survive,by eating the victims who died .

They waited as long as possiblle for the rescue party to arrive,and the group ended up splitting up,some of them staying there, others who left ,feeling that it might be their only chance of surviving .

My uncle and aunt both survived,but their baby daughter died .

 

My aunt ,who lived to be 93 ,told me that we are also related to an author, George Barr McCutcheon .You can still find his books in the classics area of amazon . I never figured out how he was linked into the family,but it's highly possible we are,because my grandfather's side of the family (McCutcheons all had several kids ( mostly sons ) .

 

So those are the only 2 who may have made a small name for themselves .

 

Well, that is a true piece of history Julie, isn't it amazing to think those sorts of things were still happening in the last century, I suppose it was reasonably common before reliable transport and communications became more common.. I wonder how many lives the mobile phone has saved since it's invention, I won't even go on a dog walk without mine!!

[julie]

Devi

THAT is exciting ! That's a name that everyone has heard !

 

Athena

We wouldnt normally have photos like that scanned either,but I worked on our family history about 10 years ago,and we scanned all the old photos I was able to locate ,because the people that attend our family reunion wanted the info put into a book,so I compiled a huge book with photos,,names of family members,birthdates,their kids,etc. It was a really interesting hobby,and once you get going on it,it just grows and grows. There are websites online that help you find more info, and you meet people on them who are also researching their families, that tie into your own. so you also gshare info that way .

 

Chalie

Yea, it makes me feel old to realize my grandma was born in 1890 . She was 50 when she had my mom, who was her last child ,so I had grandparents who were always REALLY old ,and they died when I was still a kid,so it's been interesting to learn more about them ansd their ancestors . Helps you to understand a lot about your family and all those who came before them .

Sadly cell phones wouldnt have helped in the area they were stranded in out west -- you'd get no signal down in this gulley area even today .We are certainly fortunate we have so many more inventions now than they did back then,though .

[frankie]

Frankie

It's really not that hard over here to keep track of the laws . I think sometimes people from other countries ,if they aren't real familiar with ours ,or maybe havent been here and traveled extensively, they don't realize the size of the states . We rarely EVER leave Ohio ,unless it's just a random vacation,which we dont get to do very often anymore. It's been several years since we've gotten to leave the state due to health reasons and medical expenses.

So ,to leave Ohio, if you were going north, it 'd be an hour and a half,south is 2 and a half, east is maybe 1 hour or more,west is about 2 hours . That'd be to get to the border . Most of the states abide by the same rules,but on certain issues like gun control, death penalty, some states have a little different speed limits on the roads ,etc .. It's really not hard to live here and keep track of things because I'd say most people spend 99 % of their time in the state they live in, unless they take a vacation or need to go see family in another state ,or they travel for their job .

 

Yeah The United States is so huge that it would take half a lifetime just to visit all the interesting places there. There is a lot less to explore over here because Finland is so much smaller. I guess eventhough one knows the States are huge, one doesn't really think about it or realise it, unless maybe one flies over and experiences it oneself.

 

The age limit to drinking is another thing that comes to mind that I know depends on the laws of different states.

 

As for the books, the offer is open .I rarely read paper books anymore unless they are library books ,but if you ever do get a Kindle, I'd be more than happy to share my books with you .

 

Thanks Julie, I'll keep that in mind in case I go over to the dark side and get a Kindle

[julie]

Frankie

Since you are such a book lover and lover of any form of reading in general, then your collection won't be complete until you have an ereader at your disposal . Very handy to keep in your purse all the time,that way you are never stuck book-less !

I bet one of these days you'll get one,just to test it out.

Does your library have them on loan ? Ours does, so you can "test -drive" one before you buy it .

[pontalba]

Those are great pictures Julie! It is great that you have stories to go along with them as well. Plus the other stories of course.

 

I really ought to scan my family pics into the computer. My Great Aunt was a genealogy expert, made herself so, waaaay back, a hundred years ago. She actually travelled to Germany with her daughter to inspect records. She managed to trace my grandfather's (her brother) family back to Charlemagne. She was a verra stubborn woman and very much ahead of her time in every way. She died when I was about 11, wish I'd known enough to appreciate her.

 

My husband has several cartons of pictures of his antecedents that his father assembled and he is sorting them further and writing a history of the family for his children.

[julie]

Pont

 

Your great -aunt sounds like she was such a neat lady . I know exactly what you mean about not getting to know her as well as you wish .

I'm the same with my Grandma , I wish I would have asked her so many questions while she was still with us ,but sadly ,,when you are a certain age, lots of other things seem more important, other than sitting and talking to an old lady . I've thought of a million things I would have liked to ask her ,about people.places and events that happened to her in her life . She DID sit with me and tell me about past family ,etc,and show me photos albums ,but I never realized then what a treasure she was .

 

Your husband is giving a wonderful gift to his kids by putting alll the family info together for them . Someday they will be thankful they have it .

 

Interesting to hear about other people's search for ancestors and the neat info they find ...

Edited January 21, 2013 by julie

[julie]

Missing You: Australia's Most Mysterious Unsolved Missing Persons Cases -Justine Ford 4/5

 

This book is divided into chapters, one for each of the 20-some cases mentioned. A few chapters mention several people who are missing ,because they think the cases may all be linked to one killer,but they aren't sure .

The author did a good job in choosing the cases .There are people from every age group,from 3 years old, up to their 60's .Many were totally innocent,really good people with no trouble in their lives who just vanished,while some of the others had records of being in trouble, possibly drug use,dealing, or prostitution .

They have identities for most of the cases,but some of them,they are clueless as to the name of the person whose body was found. Some are checked in every way possible to match them with a missing person,and no one has come forward to report a missing person that would fit the category of the body they have.

It sounds as if the police never give up on a case ,no matter how long ago it was. They have one from 1958 that they are still working on.

The saddest is the one of a little 3 year old girl.She was at the beach with her mom and 3 older brothers and the kids went to the changing rooms when they were getting ready to go home . The boys came back withou their sister,saying she didnt want to come with them.The little girl was never seen again. The brothers were all young kids,too,the oldest being 8 .Their mom spent her entire life thinking her little girl was taken by someone who wanted to have kids, but were unable to,so they took her little girl to raise . They have no info to refute that claim,other than someone at the beach spotting a man carrying a little girl to his car,but that could have been any man and any girl on the beach that day .

This book makes you think a lot about the families and what torture they must go through,always wondering what happened to their family member .

An interesting book ..

[pontalba]

Whoa, how frightening.

 

Julie, have you ever watched the TV series Without A Trace? I watched it a bit when it was on, but now have been watching it on DVD. Man, wowee, the stories they can come up with! Scary the number of ways a person can disappear. Without a Trace. /shiver/

[julie]

Yes, it was one of my favorite tv shows ..Used to watch it, and Criminal Minds -- it's a lot scarier . Shows more about what goes on inside some of these killer's heads .. Pretty graphic sometimes too .

I do much better READING about things than seeing them play out on a screen . I think because while you read, your brain will only let you see what you can handle -- if you see it on a tv show, someone ELSE's brain is interpreting it for you .

 

Some of the Without a Trace shows actually used real cases ... It's surprising ,the number of people who come up missing and are never found .

[Devi]

I have been watching cold case lately, it's an awesome show! Keeps you guessing till the end. They make you think it's one person, then they find another, and then another who has a link to the victim. You should consider checking it out if you haven't already seen it.

[julie]

Devi

Yes, I've watched all the Cold Case shows too, if you mean the one that is fictional.( The one with Lilly as the main character ?) There's also a true crime docu type show called Cold Case that I've watched lots of too. I usually watch lots of those type tv shows ,since a lot of them tie in with the type of books I like .

Thanks for mentioning it though !

[pontalba]

I have been watching cold case lately, it's an awesome show! Keeps you guessing till the end. They make you think it's one person, then they find another, and then another who has a link to the victim. You should consider checking it out if you haven't already seen it.

 

I like that show too.

Shallow as it is though, her hair really annoyed me.

[julie]

Archie & Amelie Love & Madness in the Gilded Age  -- Donna Lucey  5/5 *

 

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's a true story of Archie , a young man from the Astor family in New York ,who meets Amelie, a Southern Belle from Virginia . Archie falls for Amelie and they eventually marry. He spends the remainder oif his life totally infatuated with her.

 His family never accepted her ,and Archie had trouble throughout his life because of her,and other decisions he made in his life . Amelie's true love in life was writing,and she wanted to be a well known author. She got her first book published,called The Quick and the Dead ? .It became an overnight success,not for the writing ,but for the subject matter . It was very risque for the late 1800's . It sold as fast as it was printed,even though people ,made a fuss about it,they all wanted to read it,so Amelie became an overnight celebrity of a sort . Archie was left in the background ,but he was so crazy for Amelie,he was willing to do anything to keep her .

Archie's family didnt approve of the marriage,so Archie spends the remainder if his life having difficulties with his family. They eventually have him committed to an Insane Asylum ,

Rather than give away the whole story, lets just say there was divorce, remarriage ,escape from the asylum,murder ,communicating with the dead, and undying love .

The book has such a bittersweet ending . Very sad,but yet fitting ,in a way . 

If you're looking for a good read about a true life tragedy ,then this is the book to read . Heartbreaking,but wonderful,all wrapped up in one book .

 

** As a side note, I looked on Amazon and Amelie ( Rives) has 2 books available in the free Classics section,so I got them both. Neither is the one she first had published,but I thought I'd give them a try just to see if I could get a closer glimpse of what she was really like .

 Also, several famous writers of the time were friends of Archie and Amelie : Henry James, Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde, to name a few .   

[julie]

Clueless in New England - Michael Dooling 4/5

 

This book was interesting ,and told the stories of 3 girls who came up missing in the New England states ,all within a few year's time of each other. It also touched on some other disappearances that have never been solved ,a few from 75- 100 years ago.

I've never been to the Vermont area in which most of these occurred,but it looks like it's a lot of miles and miles of woods and hills .Some of the cases mentioned really are clueless as far as what happened to the people. Some were cases where they apparently got lost and could never find the way out of the woods .

The 3 main ones they concentrate on in the book are of different aged people ,in diffrent type situations. The first was a college girl who told her roommate she was going hiking .She was really smart and pretty ,very dependable ,no boyfriends ,mainly concentrating on her schoolwork ,so the case seemed odd that she would go hiking in the mountains around 4 pm on a late winter night. It gets dark around here by 5 or so in the wintertime,so it seems very odd that she'd choose that time to go on a hike. They really are clueless as to what happened to her..They never found her body,they never found a reason she would have come up missing on her own,so it's probably always gonna be a mystery. This happened in the 1950's .

The next was a 10 year old girl at summer camp who took off walking ,was seen hiking down the road and never seen again. Same story, just gone .

The 3rd girl was around late-teen aged ,there on a vacation where her family had gone for years . She also took off hiking and was never seen again,but a few years ago, hunters stumbled across her remains which were laying under a tree ,but they never could figure out how she died ,if she got lost and couldnt find her way out or if someone is stalking these girls .

There have been MANY people come up missing in that rea for many years. I've read books about several other girls who were hitchhiking and never seen again,so there may be several serial killers on the loose in the area. These couldnt have all been committed by one person, there would have been too big a time span between all of them,but it seems like there are more than the usual number of missing girls for such a small area .

 

Anyhow ,another interesting book. I like reading about the unsolved type stories to see if I can figure out whodunnit,but with these,there really wasn't much info to work with .

Good writing,so it gets 4/ 5 .

[julie]

Gonna skip writing reviews for my last 2 books read -- both were true crime and both interesting books,but nothing outstanding .

Not sure what to start on next. I think i need to try something besides true crime for a bit of a change .

Will drop in and yak more about it when I find something to hold my attention a bit.

Got a little sidetracked here .

[Devi]

Glad to see you back again Julie!

 

I missed you and our true crime discussions! 

[julie]

Thank you Devi

 

 How have you been ?   Have you read any true crime lately ? I'm reading a book at the moment,but not true crime. Will probably start another one after this,though ,since it's my favorite type book to read .

[julie]

Canada      -Richard Ford --- 4/5

 

I Finally finished a book. Good grief !

 

I really like Richard Ford's way of telling a story ,and this one doesn't fail to entertain . It's definitely not a happy story .In fact, it's downright depressing,but it makes you think ...a LOT ..

 

I'll start with the first 2 sentences,since they are what the whole story hinges on.

 

"First I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed,. Then I'll tell about the murders ,which happened later . "

 

The story is told by 15 year old Dell,who has a twin sister named Berner . They are a military family,so really have never had "roots" anyplace for very long . It sounds as if their parents could have possibly made better choices and everyone would have ended up much better,but they seem doomed to making bad decisions ,which in turn ,affect the entire family .

When the first big event occurs, the kids sorta know what may happen, but their family really didnt communicate with each other very well,so although the kids were aware of what may happen,,no one said anything to stop it .

In response to what happened, the entire family fell apart ,which left the 2 kids to fend for themselves. They each went their separate ways .Dell tells his story,so you know what is happening in his life, but you aren't very aware of what happens with the rest of the family.You are kept in the dark like he was .

At 15, he ends up on his own and living with several unsavory characters. He's old enough to know they aren't the type of people he should be around, but sadly, he doesnt have much choice in the matter .

As the story goes on, he starts hinting that something bad will happen,and you see it coming together and hoping he gets away before it's too late,.

The story finishes up when Dell is an old man, ready to retire ,and he gets the chance to see his sister one last time .

The story has so much sadness in it,but I think it also has some lessons in it, if you can only digest it a bit .This is one of those books in which you can't just close it, ,open another and begin reading. \

I think I need to ponder this one a bit .I'm missing the message in it. It's one of those books that isn't JUST a book, it's got a lesson that runs clear through it . My job is to figure out just what that lesson is .

 

[Devi]

Sounds like a great book. I love it when one can get down that deep and really make you think.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Devi

[bookmonkey]

Frankie

 

Yes, each state has different guidelines to follow regarding gun purchases ,so some would have stricter rules than others . I think it's a 3 day wait for some areas,time enough to do a background check to see if the person has a criminal record, been diagnosed with a mental illness, been using illegal drugs and been caught,etc .

You're right,though,lots of people who have gone on these killing sprees did NOT own the weapon,they either borrowed it or stole it ,so if they want one bad enough ,they will find it .

 

As for the Adam Lanza boy who shot all the little kids at school his mother (we've heard ) was one of the End-Of-the World fanatics,and she thought she needed guns for protection from ... UM ZOMBIES ???

I have no clue WHOshe thought would get her . The crazy thinking of hers got her shot by her own son ..

 

Do you have a Kindle ? I could do the loan thing for you if you guys can do that over there .Some of the books I buy are loanable to another kindle owner ,so if it'll work from over there, I'd be happy to pass them on to you .That's what type books I own most of now are Kindle books . If I run across some paper true crime books, I could pick them up for you and send them if you'd like .

 

 

 

Devi

That doesnt sound like that bad a mix of people then --they may have been petty criminals with no violent tendencies . Everyone can make a mistake sometimes . Have any of you from Australia done any type of geneolgy searches to see who was the original person in your family who started their lives in the country ? It'd be really interesting to find out .

 

I'm probably a bit late to this but I wanted to answer your genealogy question.  My great something grandfather was a transported convict.  (I can never remember how far back).  He was transported to Australia for stealing a loaf of bread.  Somehow he escaped from Australia and ended up on the West Coast of New Zealand.  We don't know how he got to this country.  According to Australian records he died escaping, so we can't find out.  He was from a small island in I think the Orkneys in Scotland.

[julie]

Devi

Thanks for the comment, and yes, I do like books like that,that seem to have an underlying message that you learn something about after completing the book. It was such a sad book,but yet, it seemed maybe like the author is trying to convey something to you . Not sure what -- it's not like the main character had many choices in life. He was underage and wasn't really in charge of his own fate for the most part,so he kinda rode along through life and let things take him where they did,even though he knew he wasn't headed in the right direction .Maybe it's trying to tell you that if you see that your life is headed in a bad direction,stop it before you get into a situation that you know will end badly. Maybe listen to your intuitiion a bit more and dont let things happen without trying to lead them someplace else if you have the ability to do that .

 

 

 

Bookmonkey

That's really interesting about your great grandfather,and sad that he did something so small,but got such a huge punishment for it . I'd bet there are family members left someplace that may have the answers you would like . Have you tried Rootsweb or Ancestry.com ? They have forums where you can look people up, or put a question out to see if anyone responds .You probably have other family out there someplace,maybe long lost cousins or some such thing that may have your family history figured out. I met lots of family in those areas who were all searching for info,so we all shared what we had,which helped us all out .

 

I used to really enjoy working on it, but kinda hit a dead end. There's a lot more research left to do,but I think I got burnt out at one point, took a break,then never went back to it. I have thousands of pages of info, lots of still unidentified photos, etc .Maybe I'll leave them to a future family member to take up one day down the road .

[julie]

Little Girl Lost: The True Story of the Vandling Murder- Tammy Mal ----4/5

 

I like books like these that are Kindle books written by a new author ,about a true crime case that I've never heard about before .

The crime happened in 1945 in a small town in Pennsylvania . A totally senseless crime ,with a small town police station ,but they were able to find the killer in a very quick time frame .The townspeople were all very surprised to hear who had committed the crime . He was quickly taken to trial and given his sentence . The author had done lots of research on the book,and when you find out what happened to the guilty person later in life, it makes you pretty angry to see how things turned out .

A very odd murderer ,and lots of questions,wondering what made him do it in the first place,and how safe would he have been afterwards ? Wouldn't he have been inclined to repeat his actions again ?

In case anyone decides to read the book, I'll leave that part out. don't want to give the complete story away .

Anyhow,although the book had some difficult subject matter, I'm always glad to find a story of a little-known crime that happened long ago,so it's a new story to me. I have read so many books and watched so may tv shows on true crimes, it's hard to find any that I havent heard something about .