Unlike many of his peers, Michael Feinstein loved old songs, those of Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Cole Porter and so on. As a child, he collected all the old records and sheet music he could find. In 1977 he went to work for Ira Gershwin (a dream come true)! Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme is a delightful read, but be sure to catch Michael Feinstein in concert, even if only on PBS. His love and enthusiasm for these wonderful old standards is catching! I loved the parts about lyrics (just as important as the melody), and about Harry Warren (composer and lyricist), who is little known these days but shouldn't be! He wrote, among many other songs, 'That's Amore', 'Chatanooga Choo-Choo', and a favorite of mine, 'Lullaby of Broadway' (from the first big musical show 42nd Street).

'Lullaby of Broadway' made me think of Jerry Orbach .... a few years ago a biography about him was published .... Jerry Orbach Prince of the City: His Way From The Fantasticks to Law & Order, by John Anthony Gilvey. The good and bad thing about a Broadway performance it is that when it's over, it's over ... fortunately there dvds that have captured a few of them so it is possible to see Jerry Orbach performing 'Lullaby'. His career included films, and tv (he was a winner on celebrity Jeopardy). He was the voice of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and, of course the jaded, street wise cop on Law & Order. For a glimpse of the man behind all these characters, as well as in his private life, this is the book to read.

Just who is Michael Patrick Dumbell-Smith? He was in the movie version of Hello, Dolly; the sadly overlooked movie Condorman (okay, okay, it is rather silly, but also fun!); a delightful stage musical in which he does all his own stunts that was (fortunately) filmed, called Barnum ... oh, yes, and he might be better known as the original phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. You know him as Michael Crawford! Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied With String. My Autobiography, is the story of his life (up to 1999 or so). Charming, witty, he tells of the good and the bad things in his life with style and humor, er, humour. :-) You'll have to read the book to learn about his name change, and the title.

Oscar Hammerstein built theaters and opera houses (late 1800's) in New York. His grandson, Oscar Hammerstein the Second wrote the lyrics for shows by Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers. After reading as much as I have on WWII recently, the lyrics for 'The Last Time I Saw Paris', written when Paris was occupied by Nazi troops, brought tears to my eyes. His grandson, Oscar Andrew Hammerstein (Oscar H. the Third) tells of them, and the generations in between in The Hammersteins: a Musical Theatre Family. They were a talented lot, to be sure! Lots of great pictures.

If a mistake is made on a tv show, or in a movie, it can be edited out but this cannot happen on the stage. Usually the actors are able to continue on, but not always, and these are the stories in Stop the Show!: A History of Insane Incidents and Absurd Accidents in the Theater, by Brad Schreiber. From flubbed lines, to falling scenery, fires, even folks wandering through an open door and onto the stage, not to mention obnoxious (or snoring) members of the audience, these are things that brought a show to a halt. A fun read. :-)

"They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway (on Broadway)" (George Benson)

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There are some oft repeated themes today (music and horses) as well as one that came as a recommendation because of a more recent post. :-)

For me, Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection, by Toby Faber, was even better than the one on Faberge Eggs, but this was probably due to the subject. While there are many types of stringed instruments made by Stradivari such as violas, lutes, and even a harp, this book follows five (sort of, there's a surprise at the end) down through time. There is a picture of a Very Young Yehudi Menuhin getting his first Strad, and wonderful comments on what it's like to play one. It's amazing to hear one Stradivarius being played, but what about four? That's what the Tokyo String Quartet has .... it must be an amazing sound!

When one reader of my blog saw the listing for The Secret World of Slugs and Snails (March 20, 2015) she suggested The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. It seems that not only can you see a slug breathing, you can hear a snail eating! The author was pretty much totally incapacitated by some unknown (at the time) disease and spent a long time on her back, in bed. Even sitting up was difficult. One day a friend added a small snail to some woodsy flowers she was bringing as a gift and so started the year of snail watching. Sweet, reflective, and informative.

For an interesting contrast to James Herriot, give Ben K. Green's The Village Horse Doctor: West of the Pecos, a try. He was a vet in the 1940's in west Texas. He mostly did large animals, in large quantities (think herds of cattle). He did all his own lab work, discovering what plants were toxic and then a remedy for the animals that had eaten them. His territory was so big he might not make it back home for days. He made arrangements with the two pharmacies in town to take his calls. When a call came in, they'd phone the ranches in the hopes of catching him. (Sometimes an owner would flag him down on the road to pass on the messages).

He is also the author of Horse Tradin' (first of several, actually) about, well, horse trading. Read all about the scams and deceit ... how to make a horse appear younger, or a different color. Lots of fun, actually, as Dr. Green had a good sense of humor.

Dr. Green's interest in if the color of a horse had anything to do with stamina or intelligence started when he was a young boy when he heard old cowboys talk about their choice of color, and why. He did a thorough investigation! I do know that a dark hoof is stronger than a light hoof, but, being from the PNW, I never knew there was something called "sand scald". His studies took him on to the actual pigment of each color and a drawing of that is shown with each picture. Interesting, but a bit technical at times. My copy of The Color of Horses: the Scientific and Authoritative Identification of the Color of the Horse is illustrated by Darol Dickinson.

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As readers of this blog might remember, one of my all time favorite horse books is Justin Morgan Had a Horse, by Marguerite Henry and illustrated by Wesley Dennis. I love the story of this not-so-big horse that could do everything .... pull a carriage, plow the fields, carry a rider in style, even beat bigger horses in a race. This book so inspired me that when I visited Vermont I made sure to include the statue of Justin Morgan at the University of Vermont. I also toured the stables there. Amazing!

It was there I found The Morgan Horse, written and illustrated by Jeanne Mellin (and also with photographs). The "little wonder colt from no where" was considered a 'runt' and too small to be of much use. What a surprise he turned out to be! A nice, well written history of the breed.

Mellin also wrote The Morgan Horse Handbook which goes into more detail as to the ideal breed characteristics, faults to try and avoid, blood lines, and so on. There are wonderful pictures and illustrations (by the author) of all the many things the Morgan can do.

Jeanne Mellin was a familiar name to me. She wrote and illustrated another horsey favorite of mine: Horses Across America. On her Morgan horse she takes an imaginary trip across the United States visiting breeds specific to various states such as the Chincoteague Ponies, Tennessee Walkers, Quarter Horses and (drum roll please) the Appaloosa, the subject of the last Horse Crazy Posts!

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In addition to friends who scrapbook, I have friends who knit. One even knitted me a hat from the shedded hair of one of my dogs. Knitting With Dog Hair: Better a Sweater From a Dog You Know and Love Than a Sheep You'll Never Meet, by Kendall Crolius and Anne Montgomery was fun for me to look at, but not being a knitter, the instructions meant little to me (although I'm told they are good). :-) It also tells you how to collect the dog hair, clean it, and how to find a spinner.

Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches by Sally Muir has patterns for purebred dogs, but what about mutts? An expert knitter (the one who knitted my hat) tells me that if you know what you are doing, you could knit a mixed breed dog. (Nice pictures!)

Are there pine cones in your yard? Or on the trail you walk? They can be used in all kinds of fun projects and Super Simple Pinecone Projects: Fun and Easy Crafts Inspired by Nature, by Kelly Dounda explains how. This book made me think back to summer camp ....

I picked out this book because of the title: The Stick Book: Loads of Things You Can Make or Do With a Stick, by Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks and discovered a nice gem of a book! So many ideas! I spent a lot of time outdoors as a kid, and this would have given me even more to do. :-) Partner it with Mud Pies and Other Recipes (April 29, 2014) for days filled with fun.

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These seem to all be books I just didn't want try to group with anything similar, mainly because those with a similar subject just didn't seem to match up ...

A search on the call number and subject heading for books similar to Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: an Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights brings up titles like the Guinness Book of World Records, list books of the biggest, or the fastest, and so forth. This book, by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins is unlike any of those. It is a gentle, quirky book about small, little (or even un-) known things such as the language of fans (the kind that fold up in your hand), the definition of pell-mell and pouf (talk about big hair!). The more I read, the more I enjoyed the 'delights' gathered here.

Lost Hollywood, by David Wallace is a nostalgic, reflective read. Wonderful descriptions of Hollywood during the new and 'golden' years, the people that populated it and the houses they built (or yachts they bought). Sad, too, though in that so many died young and the houses are gone. I know that change is inevitable, but for a beautiful house to be torn down for a mini-mall or fast food franchise just seems wrong! Look for Spencer Tracy waiting on soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen.

Ward Kimball was an artist with Disney (Bambi, Sleeping Beauty among many others), and one of my dad's friends. I remember Dad saying Mr. Kimball had a quirky sense of humor. One day something arrived in the mail. It was a copy of the book Art Afterpieces. Here are many of the most familiar of paintings (the Mona Lisa, Birth of Venice, etc.) but with an added, mmm, twist. This is a totally irreverent book and I do remember some people being offended by it, so consider yourself warned!

I never saw the daily comic strip for this, so I am very happy that they were gathered into a book titled Who Was That Monolith I Saw You With, by Michael Goodwin. Follow the Starship Enterprise on some adventures that were never included in the tv series (that's how old this is). (!) Somewhat dated now in the references to popular science fiction, it still makes me laugh each time I read it.

"Read at whim! Read at whim!" (Randall Jarrell)

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I must have been in a poetry frame of mind one day when checking out a used book sale because I came home with four poetry books: The Birds and the Beasts Were There: Animal Poems Selected by William Cole. The illustrations are woodcuts by Helen Siegl. Not as wide a variety as the Oxford Book of Animal Poems (April 7, 2015), but more poems on each animal included.

What a Wonderful Bird the Frog Are: an Assortment of Humorous Poetry and Verse, edited by Myra Cohn Livingston. A rather odd collection, to be sure, but I'll admit to laughing out loud at several entries.

I bought this one for the title: Imagination's Other Place: Poems of Science and Mathematics, compiled by Helen Plotz and illustrated with wood engravings by Clare Leighton. There are many interesting poems, some of which (mostly the math ones) I haven't figured out yet.

This one just made sense for me to buy: Untune the Sky: Poems of Music and the Dance, compiled by Helen Plotz and illustrated with wood engravings by Clare Leighton. While I admire all the poems about instruments, composers, dancers and so on, my favorite is about the piano tuner by Ogden Nash (with rhythm and rhyme). ;-)

And don't forget two poetry books from earlier posts: Stars To-night by Sara Teasdale (August 16, 2014) and Collected Verse of Banjo Patterson (May 27, 2014)

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I was one of those horse crazy kids and over the years I became most fond of Morgans, Lipizzans, and the Appaloosa, especially the Appy! This means I have enough books for several posts! (For you non-horse lovers, I will spread them out and list books on other 'themes' in between). ;-)

My mother was a world traveler. She took students all over the world with the People to People High School Student Ambassador Program. One year she took me to visit some of her favorite places. This included staying with a couple in Vienna that had been her home stay visit in past years. They didn't speak English, I spoke no German. I remember good food, walks in the evening, and the gift of an amazing book The White Stallions of Vienna, by Alois Podhajsky (translated by Frances Hogarth-Gaute). Filled with hundreds of photos, this book is a treasure.

For fewer pictures, but more text, there's The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, by Ann Tizia Leitich (translated by Stella von Musulin). A nice history of the horses and the school.

Two books, for the tourist (which, after all, is what I was) ;-) .... a wee book of mostly photographs: Lipizzan Horses. The text, by Podhajsky, is in English, French, and German. The Spanish Riding School of Vienna is one of those books you'd find in the tourist shop after a tour, concert, etc. At the time I was at the Spanish Riding School, there was no such shop, but Mom did find me this book somewhere (possibly on another of her trips).

I rarely read romances, but made an exception for Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart because of the Lipizzans. Decades have passed since I read this, but I have a memory of one scene of a retired Lipizzan 'dancing' to the music coming from an open window. Stewart wrote historic fiction and did a good job on her research.

And, of course, White Stallion of Lipizza, by Maguerite Henry and illustrated by Wesley Dennis (from March 25, 2015 post). This book explains the movements performed by the riders, what the brands each horse carries mean, and a bit about the training process. It's a book I enjoy every time I read it.

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This is a crossover book and I debated whether or not to include it in a biography post, a post about women, or do something about maps. Maps won out!

Soundings: the Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor, by Hali Felt. Well written, but also frustrating! I know, I know, it takes place at the time when women were entering the work force ... as secretaries, stenographers and so forth, but still, the amazing work that Marie Tharp did was dismissed as 'unlikely' and 'the flights of a female mind'. She checked, and double checked and that rift in the mountains on the ocean floor really was there. The one that would prove the (at the time) shaky theory of continental drift, and, eventually, plate tectonics. It reminded me a bit of Mary Sherman Morgan and Rocket Girl (July 26, 2014 post).

I read the first edition of The Mapmakers, by John Noble Wilford, but I see where there is a revised version available. I loved this book! It is the history of mapmaking and the people who made them. There are maps from the earliest of times, to mapping outer space and from the oceans to the human mind.

On the Map: a Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, by Simon Garfield covers, oh, just so much about maps! Early maps, early globes, street maps, military maps, they're all here. So are guide books, maps in movies and fiction. Those who love and collect maps, those who steal maps. There are spoofs of maps, and finally, of course, Google earth, GPS, and smart phone apps. All in all quite a nice read.

Remember when the glove compartment in a car contained road maps?

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I have friends who are scrapbookers. Serious scrapbookers! One in particular makes pages that move .... including a roller coaster that goes up and down. There was an article in the July/August 2014 Smithsonian about scrapbooking (first popularized by Mark Twain!) titled Piece of Mind, by Clive Thompson which lead me to Scrapbooks: an American History, by Jessica Helfand. The author traces the practice of keeping a scrapbook from the Renaissance to on-line versions. Starting with just a blank page, the industry has moved to archival quality products and specific instructions on how to preserve your family records. There are books and websites filled with page layout ideas, and a huge selection of design elements.

I love looking at what my friends have done, but I just don't have their skills! Instead, I do a sort of journal type thing about, well, mostly my dogs! I do it on the computer so I can bring in photos or other graphic elements, as well as easily include text. While I learned many of my Photoshop type skills from Pete, I also have a few favorite books: Photo Retouching with Adobe Photoshop, by Gwen Lute is the one I use most often. I especially liked learning how to remove a trash can from an otherwise wonderful photo. :-)

If you want to add some 'artsy' elements to your photos, then Creative Photo-cropping for Scrapbooks, from Memory Makers is the book for you. Add wings to your pets, put your kids onto kites, there's lots of fun stuff here! Also from Memory Makers comes Pet Memories: How to Create Pet Scrapbooks. (They put out really nice books).

Do you want to put an image on an apron? A plate? Lampshade? To carry your photos beyond a scrapbook or journal, take a look at Photo Art and Craft: 50 Projects Using Photographic Imagery.

Feeling creative, but want a break from scrapbooks? Why not design your own puzzle! Puzzle Craft: the Ultimate Guide on How to Construct Every Kind of Puzzle by Mike Selinker & Thomas Snyder has instructions for more puzzles than I knew even existed. (Okay, so maybe that's not such a stretch ... still .... there are lots of puzzles here)!

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Here are more local history books, some new, some older that I'm finally reading.

For a delightful nostalgic journey read Drive-ins, Drive-ups, and Drive-thrus: the History of Drive-in Movie Theaters and Drive-in Food Places in Whatcom County, by Wes Gennaway and Kent Holsather. I miss drive-in theaters, or at least I think I do ;-) The best time I saw Star Wars (the original) was at the old Moonlight ... in a thunderstorm during the final battle scene ... with John Williams wonderful music ... ! A final proof reading would have been nice. Any of you remember Virginia's Cafe with the lighted mural of Mt. Shuksan?

Music of all types thrives here, musicians get their start here, so look for lots of familiar names in Music in Washington: Seattle and Beyond by Peter Blecha. Yet another in the Images of America Series there are, of course, lots of wonderful pictures. (And everyone is so young!) ;-) This would go nicely with The Drums Would Roll (May 24, 2014) and, especially, Puget Sounds (April 29, 2014).

The first time I read The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest, by Timothy Egan, I just could not get into it. Good friend Char said "give it another chance" and handed me a copy. Taking her advice, I did just that, and she was right, it is a good book. Still, I'm not sure I liked it as well as others did. Egan did his homework, he always does, and he has a nice style, but there was much that was sad and depressing (at least to me): the way we treated the land; the animals; the native peoples that had been here for thousands of years. I did enjoy learning about the history of some of the apples and cherries grown in Washington. :-) This fits in very nicely with the book below though ...

For a nice overview of Washington history, read It Happened In Washington (second edition) by James A. Crutchfield. From the mudslide in (what became) Ozette in 1480 to the discovery of the skeleton known as Kennewick Man in 1996, this collection of historic events was a great read. It overlaps nicely with several of the books here as well as others on local history from past posts.

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The hidden treasure books from the February 28th post took me on to books on optical illusions or other images where you had to look more than once to be sure you saw what was there. (Check out the August 5th, 2014 post for books on Escher, Bev Doolittle, etc.)

Many years ago a friend, an elementary school teacher, showed me a book with a title, I think, something like 'What Is It'. One page would have a close up of part of this object and you were to guess what it was. I was unable to track it down, but did find others of a similar nature.

What in the World: Fun-Tastic Photo Puzzles for Curious Minds, by Julie Vosburgh Agnone and one of the wonderful National Geographic KIDS books. It is full of fun mind games ... match the pattern to the animal, looking for what is different in two similar pictures, optical illusions (and how they were created), even a few word scrambles.

There are many things too small, or too far away for us to see. Out of Sight: Pictures of Hidden Worlds, by Seymour Simon solves that problem. What does Velcro really look like? MRI images? Distant galaxies?

Another from the National Geographic KIDS collection: Xtreme Illusions. There are pictures that pulse and squirm, some that change color, images that change (a sleeping elephant, or a leaping elephant?) and one of my favorites ... the "Escher" stairs that go up. Or is it down?!

The Art of Deception: Illusions to Challenge the Eye and the Mind, by Brad Hunicutt is filled with all kinds of 'look again' art. I love the 3-D art on sidewalks that create amazing illusions, and the puzzle art with hidden images, and where there are trees at the base, but tall buildings at the top, and, well, the list could go on and on, but it's best if to just read the book yourself! There are some remarkable twists on Escher, words within words, words that can be read backwards and forwards .... all in all just an amazing book.

 

And, for a fun twist on Where's Waldo? (aka Where's Wally?) books, try this: When's the Doctor? from BBC Children's Books. Look for the Doctor (the Eleventh) and other characters throughout time, then, when you've found those, check in the back for a list of other things to find in each time period. I'll admit it, this book was a lot of fun!

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Ever heard of the SPEBSQSA* ? Do you like close harmony, a capella music? Want to learn more? Four Parts, No Waiting: a Social History of American Barbershop Harmony, by Gage Averill, is a detailed (and I do mean detailed) history of just that. From it's origins to composers who wrote for them (Stephen Foster, to name my favorite), to famous fans, or members (Roy Rogers, Bing Crosby, president Truman) to an explanation of the harmonies involved to create a 5th tone, this is a book that will require time to read, but it's worth it. Or at least, it has been so far. I am about half way through as we come upon an auspicious date. I'm just coming up on the chapter about the Dapper Dans in Disneyland and the Buffalo Bills in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. Norman Rockwell did at least two covers for the Saturday Evening Post featuring Barbershop Quartets. For a while 'Sweet Adeline' was barred from use by BQ's because it was so closely associated with inebriation. Good end notes, a great bibliography and index, a lot of work went into this book, and it shows. And that auspicious date? Today is Barbershop Quartet Day!

*Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America.

Now then, for some lighter, easier, totally fun reads:

I often wander through the tween and teen shelves at Village books and have made some wonderful discoveries! The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart, is the first in a series about smart kids. An unusual ad in the newspaper leads to a series of tests. Four children pass them all and go on to solve puzzles and eventually, a mystery. Once I started this book I could not put it down. Fortunately I had already walked by dog! Lunch and dinner were foods I could eat with one hand, I even read as I brushed my teeth. The rest of the series is good, too. Be sure to pause and see if you can solve the puzzles. There was a surprise at the end. (Well, I was surprised, but California Reader figured it out beforehand). :-)

When their summer plans are abruptly changed, the Penderwicks find themselves in a house at the edge of a large estate in the Berkshires. There's an imposing owner and a lonely boy. Wonderful, strong female characters here, and a great story. Personally I think the dog should have been mentioned in the title, too, but I just might be biased. The Penderwicks: a Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall, is the first in the series. I just finished the newest title, fittingly titled The Penderwicks in Spring. I am enjoying reading along as the family grows and changes.

Two children and a collection of unusual events make for a fun read in Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Baliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. I learned a bit about art (mostly Vermeer, obviously), too. This quote, found on amazon.com, does not seem to give credit to the author, but it is perfect so I am adding it here: "This bewitching first novel is a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery, disguised as an adventure, and delivered as a work of art." :-) Again, this is the first in a series, all have been enjoyable.

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James B. Rhoads, aka 'Bert' died April 7, 2015. I doubt it will be on the national news, although it can be found in a local newspaper. Dr. Rhoads was the 5th Archivist of the United States. (During, among other events, Watergate). He is responsible for the network of regional archives that are found across the country. He also taught at Western Washington University .... more specifically the graduate program of Archives and Records Management in the History department. He was witty and had a delightful sense of humor. We used to love to get him 'off topic' and talk about his experiences, they were absolutely fascinating.

In memory of him I'm doing a one book post: The National Archives of the United States, by Herman J. Viola. A coffee table book, it is a nice overview of some of the collections in the Archives. (Archives are so much more than just paper records)!

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Here are a few more poetry books for Poetry Month. :-) A great start for children, and part of the "An I Can Read Book" collection is Seasons: a Book of Poems, by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated by Erik Blegvad. (The first book I read by Zolotow was William's Doll, well worth a read!) Note: Erik Blegvad also illustrated Mud Pies and Other Recipes. (April 29, 2014 post).

For a fun and poetic look at each month, read A Child's Calendar, by John Updike with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. The pictures are wonderful here, and the book is a Caldecott Honor recipient.

Did you know there are poems about egrets? Or locusts? Fleas, and flies? The Oxford Book of Animal Poems collected by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark has all these and much, much more. It's worth a browse just for the variety of both the poems and the artwork.

I remember when Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein came out. It had the perfect poem for a friend of mine, it fit her husband to a 't'! Check out the one about the beard!

An old favorite, The New Modern American & British Poetry, was new as of 1939! I found it on my Mom's 'favorites' shelf. It must have been a text book as it is 'edited with suggestions for study and appreciation by Louis Untermeyer'. There are lots of the poems I learned in school here, or that my folks liked and read to me. An "oldie but goodie" for sure! :-)

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Every so often I come across a book that, for me, at least, is a wonderful find. The Jigsaw Puzzle: Piecing Together a History, by Anne D. Williams, was one of those books. The puzzles we know as jigsaw puzzles started as dissected maps for teaching geography, now dozens, if not hundreds, of sites provide us with on-line versions ranging from simple to nearly impossible. In between there have been puzzles made from wood, cardboard, plastic, foam, and chocolate. Some pieces that merely fit against each other, some interlock (there are variations on these, too). There are puzzles with layers (think inside the house, outside the house), and 3-D puzzles where the result might be the Eiffel Tower, or the Golden Gate Bridge. The industry actually created jobs during the Depression, and for women during war time. Pieces could be uniform, or cut in shapes such as birds, dogs, hats, etc. There are simple puzzles for children, and, more recently, easier puzzles with a more grown-up theme for those of us with arthritis or dementia. (And yes, there are R and X-rated puzzles, too). There was even one mystery book that came with a puzzle that had to be put together to discover the murderer. All in all just a wonderful read!

Doom and gloom, death and despair. Does it sometimes seem like there's a lot of bad stuff going on? And has been since the beginning of time? The Pessimist's Guide to History: an Irresistible Compendium of Catastrophes, Barbarities, Massacres, and Mayhem --- From 14 Billion Years Ago to 2007 by Doris Flexner and Stuart Berg Flexner confirms it! Granted, this is a somewhat dark and overwhelming journey through history, but it's also very interesting. I find myself referring back to this book from time to time, most recently when I read about London in WWII to see what was happening in other parts of the world.

Go ahead, blink twice at this title, I know I did when I first saw it, but The Humble Little Condom: a History, by Anne Collier turned out to be a great read. The condom has been around for a very long time, as far back as the ancient Egyptians. Follow it through history, learning about customs, beliefs and attitudes towards birth control and disease prevention. Gabriello Fallopio (yes, the discoverer of the Fallopian tube) added a pink ribbon to his design. When so many businesses failed during the Great Depression, the condom business didn't. While other governments provided the military with condoms, the U.S. didn't (at first), with sad results. Witty, funny, well researched ... all in all just a fun popular history read.

What would happen if humans suddenly vanished from the Earth? No decomposing bodies, no pockets of a few survivors, we're all just gone ... poof. This idea is explored in The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman, and then later in the History Channel series Life After People. While I found the book to be most interesting, this is a rare instance when I recommend viewing the dvds as well since the images created there are amazing. Watch as bridges collapse, vines over take buildings and eco-systems evolve in high rise buildings with broken windows. What survives, what doesn't? Lots of food for thought here.

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Today is the hub of two 'special' days. Yesterday, or so the Calendar of Special Days tells me, was Tweed Day. I found just one book to include: The Alto Wore Tweed: a Liturgical Mystery, by Mark Schweizer. What a hoot! There is a story within a story: the main character is writing a mystery in the style of Raymond Chandler (be on the lookout for many cliches). There are puns and silly names (Pete Moss, Barb Dwyer). The victim was poisoned, but by whom, and how? Then there are the balloons purchased for a party. Balloons in the shape of a nude female. They escape from under the tarp and show up at the most, um, interesting times. There's an owl who uses an automatic door, a 'battle' of live creche scenes, and a bagpiper who wears long, red underwear. A totally fun discovery I made because I did a search using 'tweed' !! :-)

Tomorrow is Easter so the focus this post from here on will be eggs. ;-)

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by DuBose Hayward with pictures by Marjorie Flack. It would also fit well with the posts on working women as it's about the mother of 21 who still has the time to deliver Easter eggs. This is a favorite from my childhood.

For a good history of the Faberge egg, try Faberge's Eggs: the Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire, by Toby Faber. Nicely detailed, and with a good bibliography, appendixes, etc. this book follows the famous egg from conception to gift to life after the Romanovs. (Note: I did find it a bit confusing from time to time, mostly due to the number of folks named Alexander (or the female version) and family names that were used over and over).

The wife of a coworker (long ago now) made incredible designs on her Easter eggs. It was called pysanka, a wax-resistant technique (makes me think of batik). They were Ukrainian Easter eggs and she used traditional folk designs. They were stunning, but I did not find any books (at least locally) to read. If you do a goggle image search, however, you can see what these eggs look like.

For the mystery lovers there's The Easter Bunny Murder, by Leslie Meier, and Eggsectutive Orders by Julie Hyzy. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog

April is National Poetry Month so I have prepared a few posts about poetry books. While I do enjoy reading poetry from time to time, it's a rather limited 'like' in that I prefer a poem with rhythm and lines that rhyme.

I recently reread, and enjoyed, two from my childhood, which, conveniently, came in one volume. ;-) The World of Christopher Robin, by A.A. Milne contains both "When We Were Very Young" and "Now We Are Six". It was fun revisiting Buckingham Palace, and Solitude (even then I was a bit of a hermit), and determining that Puppy and I is still my favorite.

I seem to have a bit of a past with Robert Louis Stevenson. The first poem I remember memorizing is Rain, the first poem I remember a teacher reading to us is Windy Nights, and an early song from Camp Kirby is Where Go the Boats. My copy of A Child's Garden of Verses is illustrated by Michael Foreman.

Tall Reader loaned me Piping Down the Valleys Wild: a Merry Mix of Verse For All Ages, edited by Nancy Larrick and illustrated by Ellen Rasking and I liked it so much I got a copy for myself. I Like It When It's Mizzly describes some of our pnw days perfectly.

From the number of book marks in Magic Ring: a Collection of Verse for Children, edited by Ruth A. Brown and revised by H. Jean Breck, I must have found many poems that I like! (And upon rereading them, I had)!

I like designing cards and customizing them for a specific person. Once there was such a card and I could NOT find the perfect verse for it ... until I came across I saw a man pursuing the horizon, by Stephen Crane in A Child's Anthology of Poetry, edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword with Victoria Flournoy McCarthy. It was perfect (and it didn't even rhyme)!

Reading Hermit With Dog