My New Book

Since there hasn't been any chatter about what books ya'll would like to read together, I think I'm going to pick out a pair of how-to book to work with for a while. I've been wanting to improve my sewing for a while, so I'm going to work on that.

The first book is Stitch-by-Stitch. I already have a copy of this one, and most of the projects are pretty easy. What I'm looking for with this is to make sure that my basic sewing skills are solid. Plus, most of the projects are cute. Maulbeere and I have plans to do one of them - a cute bag with an owl appliqued on it - together.

The second book I want to study is Shirtmaking, about making men's shirts. I checked it out of the library years ago and wanted it for my personal library, but couldn't find a copy then. By the time I realized that Amazon has it, it was way down the priority list. However, I was recently reminded that Andy pretty much never has shirts that fit, and I'd like to do something about that. So this is the second book I'll be getting. In the mean time, I can brush up on my skills with the other.

Wish me luck - and feel free to play along with either these books or a how-to of your choosing!

Another Book?

Even if we don't finish posting about the books we read, I feel like having a place to talk about the books we're reading - together or independently - is useful. To that end, I'm sharing a great list of historical and historical fiction authors that I came across this evening. Anything look interesting to you girls?

New Year; New Book

Looks like Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn will be our next book. I'm thinking that a start-date of about Jan. 15 sounds like that will give us enough time to finish out the holidays and get copies of the book and be ready to go. What do you think?

More Movement

I'm still playing around with what happens when you photograph music. It's a fun game.



Did we come to a consensus on if we're doing The Good Earth or Enchantment?

Choosing a New Book

So, I know we've all but chosen The Good Earth for our next book, but can I suggest that we consider Enchantment: the life of Audry Hepburn anyway? Apparently she was part of the Dutch resistance in WWII, and carried secret messages in her ballet slippers & got caught & put on a German truck one time, but escaped, and it just sounds interesting.

The King and I

Anna and the King of Siam is a 1944 semi-fictionalized biographical novel by Margaret Landon.

It's also our next book selection.

The First Book

So, here we are at the end of the first book. The end of the March girls' childhood. It's something of a reflective moment. Initially these 2 books were published separately, so there was a great deal more meaning to Ms. Alcott's "So grouped, the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given to the first act of the domestic drama called Little Women." I find myself feeling inclined to take a minute and look back on the book and ponder it a bit.

Susan Bauer talks about the importance of not only finding out the bare facts of the story, but asking yourself, "So, what?"

So, what? What about this book so far? I think it's clear that we both like the book. One thing we've both commented on a couple times in a couple different ways is that Little Women inspires us to do better, to be better. So the question I'm pondering right this minute is, "why?"



Also, we should probably think at least a little bit about what we want to read next.
Did you ever decide what to do about the Olive Tree?

The Book I Meant to Propose

I had actually intended to propose reading "The Allegory of the Olive Tree," which is a collection of essays about Jacob 5. It's a good, dense read, and one that I think would submit well to this sort of thoughtful exercise that we're doing here. It's put out by FARMS, and the parts that I've read so far have been really interesting. Here's the catch: it's a difficult book to find. So if you're interested we can talk to Andy about where he found my copy & see if we can scour the internet to find another copy for those that want to participate.

Book Idea

So, we're not even halfway through the current book, but I'm reading Beethoven's Hair, which is awesome and would be a fun one to revisit in a more thoughtful way in a few months. Something to consider, anyway.

Proposed Reading Schedule

Little Women

Chapters 1-3: Read & post by Dec 6.
Chapters 4-6: Read & post by Dec 13.
Chapters 7-9: Read & post by Jan 3.
Chapters 10-12: Read & post by Jan 10.
Chapters 13-15: Read & post by Jan 17.
Chapters 16-18: Read & post by Jan 24.
Chapters 19-21: Read & post by Jan 31.

That's about half the book, so at this pace it's going to take a while. Let's start out & see if this schedule is realistic. Now that it's been written down it's looking a bit drug out. We'll have to see how it goes. This schedule would probably take us into March.

Approaching the Book

How do you want to do this book? Do we want to do things in a more orderly fashion - a set goal for a chapter, that sort of thing? Or do you want to just read & post our thoughts as we go along?

I was sort of leaning toward a more orderly reading. A chapter a week, 30 pages a week, what have you. Then we could look at those questions I collected in the side bar, or other thoughts the reading spawned. Maybe aim to do a post every week, excepting some holiday weeks, of course. Personally, I think I'd get more out of a more organized approach, and that way we might get several discussions of different elements of the book going on, as we're almost sure to notice different things.

What do you think?

Little Women

Kate & I were thinking that it would be nice to take a break from all the Serious Nonfiction we've read and try a nice fiction book. We were planning to read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott next. I figure that we could officially "start" right around the 1st of December, if that's something that's going to work for those that want to participate.

Ideas For a New Book

Seeing as we've been stalled on the discussion action, I suggest that we think about picking a new book to read. I ran across a website with a couple of likely possiblities here, or if ya'll have seen anything that looks interesting recently, we could do that to. Whadya think?

Let's Go Ahead

I'm going to begin looking for the book. Doesn't look like anyone's got any objections, so I say lets DO it! I'm really excited to get looking at this book, the excerpt on Amazon is a nice read, the topic is interesting, I'm thinking this could be just the thing our blogging needs.

Race ya to the bookstore!

Last Call for Objections

So, if nobody is going to object, I think we should read 1421: The year China discovered the world.

Looking at New Books

Well, I propose that we quit with the Brain on Music already. Nobody is enjoying it, and we're not posting about it, and I think it's time to move on. I dug up an old post from when we were last deciding on what book to read - we'd discussed doing some sort of biography. There weren't any comments on that post, so I don't know if you guys thought any of those people were even slightly interesting or not. I also saw a book over at Barnes & Noble a while back that looked interesting: 1421: the year China discovered the world. Or, I picked up America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations not too long ago, and that's got a ton of interesting quotes in it. Maybe it'd spark some interesting conversation as we (ahem) gear up for the whole Presidential Circus Elections thing. I've heard good things about George Washington's World, although I haven't actually read it myself. Hmmmm. That's another history book. I think I'm detecting a theme here. Maybe someone else ought to suggest a book if ya'll want to do something besides history, LOL! I'm completely open to that other stuff too. Just can't think of any of it right this very minute, if you know what I mean!

Thoughts on our Book List

So, I'm just thinking out loud here, but I'm thinking that biographies & autobiographies and maybe some histories sound like the most interesting thing to read right now. As nobody seemed opposed to this idea when I talked to ya'll offline, anyone care to help me brainstorm a list of folks that might be interesting to read about? We can narrow the list later.

Betsy Ross
the Prophets
Abraham Lincoln
Richard I, the Lionheart
Henry III (had to deal with the Magna Carta)
Henry VIII or his wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard & Catherine Parr
Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
Martin Luther
Wilbur & Orville Wright
Porter Rockwell
Murasaki Shikibu (Ancient Japan, wrote the "Tale of Genji")
Minamoto no Yoritomo (founder & first shogun of Kamakura Shogunate)
Nicholas Romanov the II (Anistasia's father)
Martin Luther King Jr.
the Founding Fathers

I guess that ought to keep us busy in the biography department for a while. Especially if we stick to the 3-4 a year that we originallt talked about.

Of course, there's also regular histories that could be added to this, and maybe even historical fiction? That might be getting too broad. I don't know. Anyone else have any ideas?