Dude! Christmas is Coming! (or) Library Shelf #7

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That’s my “Dude!  Christmas is coming!” face.  It is also my “I have 3,000 cookies to bake and 300 gifts to wrap and 30 errands to run and 3 estranged relatives and this tree gives me hives but, wow, I love you!” face. I’m sure you all have a face like that.  Probably with more makeup, though.  

Here’s our most recent stack of library books:

• Weird Carolinas; Roger Manley
• The Islands of the Blessed; Nancy Farmer
• Salamandastron; Brian Jacques
• The Dancing Plague: the Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness; John Waller
• Under the Dome; Stephen King
• Liberating Atlantis; Harry Turtledove
• The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to Connecting Through the Written Word; Margaret Shepherd

Library Shelf #5

Here's what we found at the library this week:

• Mariel of Redwall; Brian Jacques
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government; Mary M. Shaffrey and Melanie Fonder
• Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style; Mark Garvey
• Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots; Scott Hahn
• How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food; Mark Bittman
• Julie & Julia; Julie Powell
• This Year You Write Your Novel; Walter Mosley
• Draw Cartoons; Noel Ford, Pete Dredge and Steve Chadburn
• Amphigorey Too; Edward Gorey
• And Another Thing; Eoin Colfer
• The Naked Chef; Jamie Oliver
• James Beard's Simple Foods; James Beard
• The Lost Art of Gratitude; Alexander McCall Smith

Have you read anything good lately?

Library Shelf #4

Sorry I haven't been posting lately; we've been dealing with sick kids and West Virginian weddings, and the first blog post after a break always kicks my butt so I've been putting it off.  But when we returned from our trip I saw the big stack of library books we forgot to drop off before we left, so I'll tell you what will be costing me $10 in fines later this afternoon.

• Bloom's Notes: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter; Harold Bloom, ed.
• The Star Wars Cookbook: Wookie Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes; Robin Davis
• Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology; Peter Straub; ed.
• Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic; Elizabeth Little
• The Book of Beasts; John May and Michael Marten
• Amphigorey; Edward Gorey
• Knitted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make and Give; Ann Budd
• Signatures of Grace: Catholic Writers on the Sacraments; Thomas Grady and Paula Huston, eds.
• Beowulf on the Beach; Jack Murnighan
• Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident; Eoin Colfer
• The Gates; John Connolly
• The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds; John Yow *

By the way, I read a terrific book while I was up in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.  It was called Empire Falls by Richard Russo.  I've read two of his other novels, Straight Man and Nobody's Fool, and enjoyed them, but I had never seen Empire Falls.  Of course that's the one that won the Pulitzer - how do I miss these things?  Anyway.  Go read it.  You won't be sorry.

* Oops.  Found these library books upstairs:

• Christian Reflections; C. S. Lewis
• Tree and Leaf; J. R. R. Tolkien

The Library Shelf: Part 3

Oh, look.  It’s time to copy Applie again.  We didn’t get much from the library this week, mostly because we’re all very busy reading (and rereading) the books we already own.  We’re reading aloud from the Narnia series, the LOTR series and the King James Bible, and we have other books going on our own.  I’m reading Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C. S. Lewis.  JellyMan is reading The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, and Anemone is rereading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

Me

Ordinary Resurrections; Jonathan Kozol
The Years of Talking Dangerously; Geoffrey Nunberg
Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories; C. S. Lewis
The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty; K. C. Cole
Sister Wendy on Prayer; Sister Wendy Beckett
The World Without Us; Alan Weisman

JellyMan

A Tolkien Bestiary; David Ray
The Art of Star Wars: Epidode III; J. W. Rinzler
Beowulf: A New Translation; Seamus Heaney
Artemis Fowl; Eoin Colfer

Anemone

The Cake Mix Doctor; Anne Byrn
French Made Simple; Eugene Jackson and Antonio Rubio
Beowulf: A New Telling; Robert Nye

The Library Shelf: Part 2

What can I say?  I like copying Applie.  And she, apparently, likes copying The Happy Housewife.  It’s all good.  We’re all just one big happy internet family, right?

We only went to one library this week so our list reflects the meager 15 item limit imposed by our county library.  Isn’t that ridiculous?  It isn’t as if anyone checks out the books anyway - the county library is mostly used as a public computer lab.  The computers are always full, and the stacks are always empty.  It makes me sad until I remember it means the books are essentially all mine.  Mine, mine, mine!

Me:

Through Black Spruce; Joseph Boyden
This Song is You; Arthur Phillips
And the Waters Turned to Blood; Rodney Barker
How to Read and Why; Harold Bloom
Reflections on the Psalms; C. S. Lewis
Twisted Head: An Italian-American Memoir; Carl Capotorto
Naming the World; ed. Bret Anthony Johnston
The Modern Scholar: Masterpieces of Medieval Literature(lectures); Prof. Timothy Shutt of Kenyon College

JellyMan

Nick of Time; Ted Bell
The Sea of Trolls; Nancy Farmer
Guerilla Learning; Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver
Homeschooler’s College Admissions Handbook; Cafi Cohen (leftover from last week)

Anemone

Retro Desserts; Wayne Harley Brachman
The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide; Brian Sibley
Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet?; Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori (leftover from last week)

Our Library Shelf

The Goobs and I are still in our pajamas and we haven’t yet done anything worth writing about today, so I’m going to copy Applie and tell you what’s on our library shelf at the moment.  (It’s okay.  Applie copied me first.)

JellyMan

• The Thief Lord; Cornelia Funke
• The Vampire Encyclopedia; Matthew Bunson
• Eyewitness Monet; Jude Welton
• Neverwhere; Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys; Neil Gaiman
• The Nitpicker’s Guide for X-Philes; Phil Farrand
• Homeschooler’s College Admissions Handbook; Cafi Cohen

You can see that JellyMan likes spooky stuff and wants to move out, like, yesterday.

Anemone

• Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet?; Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori
• Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans; Erin Hunter
• Warriors the New Prophecy: Midnight; Erin Hunter
• Coraline; Neil Gaiman
• Pie Every Day: Recipes and Slices of Life; Pat Willard
• Best-Ever Brownies: 76 Delicious Recipes; Joan Steuer and Rick Rodgers
• Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters; Marilynn and Sheila Brass

You can see that Anemone likes cats and sugar.

Me

• Evening Prayerbook: Sunday Vespers; Patmos
• Tea Time for the Traditionally Built; Alexander McCall Smith
• Atlas of Unknowns; Tania James
• Usher’s Passing; Robert R. McCammon
• Mirror Mirror; Gregory Maguire
• Libraries in the Ancient World; Lionel Casson
• The Tummy Trilogy; Calvin Trillin
• Crossing the Threshold of Hope; John Paul II
• The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher; Lewis Thomas
• Cambridge Latin Course, Unit 1
• Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google; Charlie Ayers
• Learn to Read Latin; Andrew Keller and Stephanie Russell
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist; Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox; Eoin Colfer
• Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis; C.S. Lewis
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Barbara Kingsolver
• Fragile Things; Neil Gaimon
• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything; Ken Robinson

I don’t know what you can see from my list other than my being really sick of books like the Federalist Papers and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.  Blah.

Well, that was fun.  Thanks, Applie!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with a perch - luckily it is past caring that I am still in my pajamas.

Blips. Blurbs. Blah.

• I wish I could make Norman understand that I am coming right back.  I feel terrible that he wakes up and follows me upstairs every time I have to pee.
• We used to have library cards in the next county, but we let them lapse after The Man got stuck with a $100 late fee.  (Oops.)  So the minute he went on his TDY, I rushed over there to get our cards renewed.  The conversation went like this:

"Hi, we live in the next county.  We used to have out-of-county library cards here, but we let them expire and I'd like to renew them, please."

"No, you can only have a card here if you live in this county."

"But we had out-of-county cards.  See?  Here it is."

"But those cost $65.00."

"I know."

"You'd have to be willing to pay the $65.00."

"Um.  I know.  Will you take a check?"

"Well, okaaaaay.  But it's $65.00."

"WTF????!!!?!??!?"

• The Goobers have eaten all the candy canes off the Christmas tree.
• This picture has nothing to do with anything:

• JellyMan lost one of the tips to his woodburning wand thingy.  We searched the house, but couldn't find it.  Before I went to bed last night, I tidied up the living room and cleared off the stacks of books and papers on the coffee table.  I love the look of a cleared coffee table!  The woodburning tip wasn't on the coffee table when I went to bed, but it WAS there when I woke up.  Neither Goober will admit to finding it in the night.  Freaky.
• This picture doesn't have anything to do with anything, either:

• My mom put me in charge of all the cookie baking this year.  I've come up with a plan so that I am NOT in charge of the cookie baking next year - I've replaced all the walnuts with pecans!  Ha!  Haha!  Hahahahahahaha! 
• Popeye is one of my favorite movies ever. 

Anemone's Lemon Bars

Anemone recently got her very own library card!  That may not seem like such a big deal, but trust me, it is a big deal for Anemone.  You see, my Anemone likes books, but in the vague sort of way in which I like turtles; she is charmed by them when she sees them, but does not go out of her way to seek them out.  She's always been content to let someone check out her library books for her, much like I've always been content to let someone else catch my turtles for me. 

That's all changed now.  (For Anemone, that is.  You won't see me catching turtles anytime soon.)  With brand spankin' new library card in hand, Anemone is systematically checking out every cookbook our little library offers.  This week she picked The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.  It's a big, thick, intimidating book, but it didn't phase my baby.  She dived right in and is learning very important things, like how to use the food processor and that she should always gather her ingredients before she starts baking, because Daddy gets irritated when he has to run to the store in the middle of a football game.  She also learned that he is a sucker for a damsel in distress.  Or maybe she knew that already.

Last night she made the Classic Lemon Bars, and learned for herself what I'd been trying to tell her all day:  that lemon bars don't taste anywhere near good enough to justify all the work that goes into them.  I'm not even going to post the recipe because they are made just like every other lemon bar recipe I've ever made, and they taste just like every other lemon bar I've ever tasted, which is most likely why Cindy Marsh called them "Classic" lemon bars. 

My Anemone is also learning that not everyone is worthy of recipes requiring four hours, lots of money, and the washing of every dish in the house.  JellyMan liked her lemon bars so much that he said, "Anemone, will you please make these for my next cast party?"

Anemone replied, "No, your drama people aren't worth lemon bars.  But I'll make them cookies." 

That's my girl.