Michele @ North Bend Archive.

I read Somewhere in Time when I was a young teen and thought it was the most romantic novel, ever! So I decided to read it again, refresh my memory and enjoy the romance. Well there is a twist that I ignored the first time around, or maybe I just refused to believe. Now that I am a little older and of course much more mature, I am ready to entertain the thought that it might not be a romance but just a figment of the imagination of the main character who had a brain tumor. So it was all in his head! But on the other hand, the brain tumor might have helped, (added some space or pressure or created an aura) so it was possible for
Richard Collier to fall in love with a picture and will himself back in time to meet his true love.

Richard Collier decided to take the last four to six months of his life to travel and write a book. He packed two suitcases, got in his car and flipped a coin; heads north, tails south. Tails it was. He stopped at a lovely old fashioned hotel and as he takes in the sights he sees a photograph of the actress Elise McKenna and he falls in love immediately; he can even tell you the moment it happened, 11:26 am on November 17, 1971. He settles in and begins a search to find all he can about Elise. The more he learns about her the more he feels a connection and that he did travel back to 1896 to find her. He studies time travel books, checked out from the San Diego Public Library I might add, and he manages to transport himself back to November 19, 1896. If this seems familiar to you, you may have read Bid Time Return, which was the original title, but became Somewhere In Time when it was released as a movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Richard Matheson, the author, has written many horror stories (I am Legend for example) and has also done episodes of Twilight Zone. However, he tapped into his romantic side for this lovely evocative emotional story of time-crossed lovers.

When I was in fourth grade I saw the book Hawaii by James A. Michener; it was the biggest book I had ever seen. I started to read it (I was a precocious child), but I couldn't get past the italics, you know the whole section that was the geological history of the islands. It was many years later before I picked up that book again. Then I discovered The Source! It is my favorite Michener book and it is even bigger than Hawaii. (The book not the state).

The Source is the story of an archeological dig in Israel. It starts in May 1964, describing who will be working at Tell Makor and why they are there. The archeologists are from all over the world and arrive with various specialties that will help decide and define who lived at Tell Makor and what those lives were like. It starts with a bullet casing from a British rifle circa 1950. The last artifacts discovered are five sharpened flints from 9811 B.C.E.

What makes this book so special to me is Michener tells the story of each person that uses the artifacts discovered. He makes the science of archeology up close and personal, it is about the people and their stories. I got the feeling that people really haven't changed over the centuries, we all want the same things and it seems we enjoy fighting to get them, okay maybe not enjoy, but it is much harder not to fight and hate than it is to be peaceful, kind and honest.

If you like a good big story with lots of Holy Land history you will certainly enjoy The Source.

Martin has many clients of whom he is very fond.  He keeps very close tabs on them; he reads their emails, checks their regular mail, watches their homes, discovers their schedules and then takes what he needs from their cupboards.  They have never met him and they have never discovered that he has been stealing from them for years.  That is because Martin has very strict standards and rules.  His clients are always married, no children, no dogs and no maids.  No dogs, because he doesn't want to be bitten.  Married couples would assume that the other spouse had forgotten to replace the toilet paper or ate the last tomato (Martin isn't greedy, he only took what he needed of foods and household supplies; he carefully followed his list which was written in French, to slow down the police if he was ever stopped.) He felt that children and maids would complain about being accused of theft and therefore the couple might start to look around and think the word thief and that would be dangerous for him.  Also children break up parent's routines, so Martin wouldn't be able to maintain a regular schedule of visits.  Martin is very cautious in selecting his clients; he watches the house for months, sometimes. He reviews their belongings, bank accounts and schedules before deciding that they are worthy of being a client.

Martin always takes a camera with him and photographs how items are placed in the pantry or sitting on the refrigerator shelves.  He takes pictures of the couple's valuables, like jewelry, silver and crystal.  He would take pictures over time and then help himself to the valuable that hadn't moved or been touched in months. Then after it was fully cataloged (using Excel) he would sell it on E-bay using his alter ego Barbara Teal.

Then one day Martin decides to interfere in the life of one of his clients...it made him feel good.

Something Missing is a compulsive read about a thief suffering from OCD.  The author Matthew Dicks has said he has never worked as a thief, but the story is so thorough, it made me wonder.....

My name is Michele and I am a cat lover, nay a cat-fanatic, okay, okay, I am crazy about cats! I have three beautiful Himalayans who rule the house. (You know what they say, with a dog you are a friend, with a cat you are staff.) So imagine how tickled I was to discover Planet Cat: A Cat-alog on the library shelf. This compendium of cat information was fascinating. It manages to be funny, silly, and informational. I plan to read the 17 New Year's Resolutions for cats, to my three and emphasize #12; I will not sit on pizza. I will read 25 Reasons Cats are Better than Dogs to my Dad, who is a dog lover. Do you want to toilet train (literally) your cat? Page 312. The most popular cat names are on page 243; George is the 18th most popular name for males; Sasha is 18th for female kitties. There are lists of cats found in art, literature and music and the movies. If you aren't sure about getting a kitty, you might want to check out page 249; Are you sure you want a cat? #11 is Use a staple remover to punch two holes in every scrap of paper around the house.

Planet Cat: A Cat-alog is a book to read straight through or dip in and out of as the mood strikes, or as the incident with your lovely pet arises.

My sister and I have decided our next diet will be eating all the diet books that we have bought over the years.  As Teresa says there is plenty of fiber.  But before I pour the low fat sugar free ketchup over 100 Easy Ways to Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Minutes!!!!!  I thought I'd read 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman's Diet, by registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer.

Her strategies for losing weight are realistic, healthy and not easy!  Hope springs eternal in my chubby cheeks, but there is no quick fix, no miracle pill from a refined rare plant from the hills of Shangri-la. Darn!!

Ms Somers explains why diets don't work.  Actually it doesn't have anything to do with the diet per se; it is sabotage.  And guess who is the saboteur?  That's right me!  Or in your case--you!  The tools of sabotage are bad habits.  The author explains how to identify (or own up to) these diet destroyers and break them.   How many times have you said to yourself, I don't eat much. What you may not notice is, no you don't eat much at one sitting, but you are pretty much sitting and eating many, many times during the day.  Do you believe there are no calories in food taken off your spouse's or child's plates?  Surprise!

There are no recipes in 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman's Diet, there are quizzes for self-awareness and suggestions and solutions for breaking the bad and starting the good habits.  One that caught my eye: carry a glass of water in your dominant hand, so it isn't as easy to pick up those chips at the party buffet, or at least it will give you time to think about those chips as you switch your glass to the other hand.  I carefully read chapter six, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses; she took care of all of mine. Ya know what?  I am going to reread 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman's Diet and follow her recommendations.  I recommend that you read (and don't eat) this book.

I am having a hard time deciding what to call, I Love it When You Talk Retro-- its American history, its etymology, its social studies, and it is a dictionary!You can start at the beginning and read right through or you can dip in and out of the pages. Now you are wondering what is the book about? It's about the American language, specifically -- "verbal artifacts that hang around in our national conversation long after the topic they refer to has galloped into the sunset", or "a word or phrase that must be in current use yet have an origin that isn't current." To list a few retro terms: hit the sack; skosh; stump speech; Home James and don't spare the horses; cut and run; taken aback; start from scratch; pleased as Punch--how many do you know and use and how many do you know where or when they began? I Love It When You Talk Retro explains the start of these colorful terms. It is a fun read, I frequently have entertained the people around me when I say "oh that's why we say that", and then of course, I read the passage to them.

Author, Ralph Keyes explains why some words "strike a chord" and stay with us, while other popular at the time sayings just disappear. Retro talk can be punch lines of jokes, advertising slogans, lines from movies, TV shows and radio and even a person's name. It can be a quote from someone famous, mmmm I not famous but I wonder if I can come up with a phrase that will resonate with people and become a part of the American Language--I'll put "my nose to the grindstone." And "that's all she wrote."

LaVyrle Spencer was and is a very popular romance author.  Her stories are about ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, no alpha males dragging the heroine across his saddle and racing off into the sunset.  No heroine has gone into a jungle and brought back evidence of a lost civilization.  No, many of her heroes and heroines tough it out in small towns and difficult circumstances. Morning Glory takes place just before, during and after World War II in a small town in Georgia.

Elly Dinsmore was a young pregnant widow with two small boys when she advertised for a husband to help her take care of her run-down farm. Will Parker was a convicted felon--he murdered a prostitute. Both were lonely outcasts, she because of her upbringing by her fanatical grandparents and he was an orphan who drifted all over the States until he went to prison. 

The townsfolk, the ones who made fun of Elly and called her crazy and the town's "naughty lady" are not caricatures, but fully rounded sad people.  My favorite character in Morning Glory is Miss Beasley the librarian, she helps Will find information about bees and apples and birthin' babies.  She starts out as a stereotypical librarian and the reader sees her become a good friend to Will and Elly, just what librarians are supposed to be, thank you Miz Spencer.

Above all, Morning Glory is about friendship, trust and love.  Elly and Will both come out of their shells, and overcome some very big obstacles; for Will it is going off to war and for Elly conquering her shyness and fear of the townspeople.  This story is my favorite LaVryle Spencer novel.  I love how the two bring her farm back to life and in a way Will and Elly come to life too.  If you enjoy a down home romance with some funny and sad moments, (some scary ones too), you will like Morning Glory.

 

My three favorite movies are An American in Paris, Bandwagon, and Singin' in the Rain.  At the drop of a hat or raindrop I can start singing the songs or quoting some of the funny lines.  My friends are very careful not to drop any hats, good thing they can't do anything about the rain!  I was real tickled to discover Singin' in the Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece. It is a biography of the movie; from Arthur Freed's June 1950 request to Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write a musical comedy to the 1970's and 90's where film scholars are discussing the importance and meaning of Singin' in the Rain.  I do not think one raindrop was left unexamined.  This isn't to say that the book is dry and pedantic, just the opposite, it reads like a life story with lots of interesting little tidbits, like how long it took to film the Singin' in the Rain dance--six days of rehearsals and two days of filming, (July 18th and 19th) also how much the policeman in the scene got paid ($22.23).  It was fascinating to read how they prepared the street and made the puddles for Gene Kelly to stomp in.  (One puddle needed to be two inches to make a nice splash).  The authors go into great depth discussing how the actors were chosen, story lines developed, and songs, dances and characters that were added and dropped from the final cut.  The appendix lists all 237 people involved in the making of Singin' in the Rain; it describes what they did and where they are now.   So see the movie and read the book and you too will be singin' and dancin' in the rain.  Do da do to, da da do da do to....I'm singing!

When I told many of my friends that I was going to blog about Katherine by Anya Seton, they all sighed and said it was one of the best historical romances that they had ever read.  Yes, ALL of them sighed and said it was the best.  Why is it so "sighable?"  Katherine was a fourteenth century woman, born in 1350 to a poor family; at a young age she married Sir Hugh Swynford, a rather boorish extremely jealous man.  Because her sister married Geoffrey Chaucer and was part of the court of the Edward the III, Katherine caught the eye of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt.  After the Duchess of Lancaster's death, Katherine became the mistress of the Duke.  She was called a witch and a whore, but she was with the Duke, through his second marriage to Constance of Castile and after Constance's death, she became his third wife which caused a bigger scandal than when she was his mistress.  Katherine was at the center of the most turbulent times, and she was a strong woman who held the Duke's love and attention for more than twenty-five years.

Anya Seton brings the English medieval times to life, in all the filth, disease, superstition, royal pageantry, intrigue and of course Katherine's love story, mistress and wife to a Duke and the ancestress of Kings.

I read Katherine many years ago and had almost forgotten about it. But then I spied the Mistress of the Monarchy; The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, by Alison Weir.  When I read the introduction and discovered that Alison Weir enjoyed reading Katherine and the book had a large impact upon her, I had to read it again. (Ms Setons's book that is, although I have read Alison Weir's introduction more than once too).  Ms Weir states that she wanted to write Katherine Swynford's biography for forty years. Although Ms Weir enjoyed Anya Seton's book, she said, "Do not forget it is fiction."  Anya Seton wrote accurately but from a twentieth century perspective; this does not lessen the quality of the story, but it might change your vision of Katherine.   I suggest you read Katherine first and then read Mistress of the Monarchy, because sometimes the facts could lessen the impact of this classic romance.  On the other hand why should the facts bother you when you are reading a great love story?

Looking at the book jacket of Ada Blackjack, I thought that I would be reading a story of a Sacajawea of the Arctic.  The picture is of a petite pretty young woman with a Mona Lisa smile and she is all dressed in furs.  The book jacket blurb led me to believe that her knowledge led to her survival in the Arctic.  Au contraire!  Even though she was an Inuit she was a city girl, well as much as Nome, Alaska was a city in the early 1900's.  She had no training or understanding of living off the land, let alone an Arctic island.  She was hired to be a seamstress and a cook.  She signed on with misgivings, but she needed the money to take care of her son who was ill with tuberculosis.  What did she sign on to?  One of the worst planned expeditions ever!  Vilhjalmur Stefansson believed that anyone could live in the "friendly Arctic" as he called it. He conned four young men to go to Wrangel Island to live and claim the island for England (it was and still is a part of Russia).  Wrangel Island is noted for its severe polar weather and it is a breeding ground for polar bears. However, Stefansson was so believable that one man, Fred Maurer signed up right away and he had been on an earlier ill-fated expedition to the same place.  Allan Crawford and Lorne Knight had Arctic experience, but Milton Galle and Ada had no experience at all.  Stefansson did not go with them.  He went around the United States and Canada whipping up enthusiasm and money, which did not get to Wrangel.  The expedition soon ran out of food and 3 of the men left to get help--in the winter--Ada was left to take care of a dying man.  She was ill herself, but she taught herself to shoot and trap and she managed to stay alive.  After her rescue she was proclaimed a heroine and then vilified as a prostitute and murderess.

It was good thing I read Ada Blackjack on the hottest day of the year.  The author, Jennifer Niven was quite graphic in describing the bitter Arctic cold.  So I was quite comfortable reading in the 90 degree heat.  Niven captured the personalities of everyone in the story--the young men's sense of adventure, their over-romanticizing of life in the Arctic, and their belief that they could do it all.  Ada was shown to be a very naïve young woman who placed her trust in the wrong people.  Stefansson was the villain who believed in his own stories about the Arctic and believed that he himself was a great hero and explorer.

I read Ada Blackjack as part of The Big Read and I believe it ties very tightly in with The Call of the Wild; they are both stories of survival under extreme conditions and that the survivor isn't always

the one you'd expect to make it.