Set sail for murder

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I took the long weekend to read this book for Book Club. I have seen the movie, I was definitly motivated, but for some reason everytime I took this book home I couldn't start it. I think it was the dialect. So, I bought my copy from Amazon and kept it til I was ready to read it. Sunday was jam day and that's want I did, all day, and into Monday morning. It is an excellent book, everyone knows that by now. Kathryn's voice was so true. All of her characters are fully developed, showing their good side as well as the difficult parts of their personalities. A native daughter of Mississippi, the author used stories from home, stories from the help that lived with her family, and stories from her Grandaddy. Demetrie was the name of the domestic help that came into the family life when her dad was a boy, who brought the babies home from the hospital, and cared for them for many years. She told stories to the children and told Miss Kathryn that, "she was beautiful," even if she wasn't, just like Abileen tells dear poor little Mae Mobley, That part of the story really toched me, I want to be the fairy godmother who whispers into my grandchildren's ear as they fall off the sleep, "you is kind, you is smart, you is wonderful." As I read this book, I became more aware how very dangerous life in Mississippi was during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement. The author mentions in in an interview on a website that, "Skeeter was the hardest to write because she was constantly stepping across that line I was taught not to cross. Growing up, there was a hard and firm rule that you did not discuss issues of color. You changed the subject if someone brought it up, and you changed the channel when it was on television." At the end of the book the author tells someone in New York that, My hometown is number three in the nation for gang-related murders." Because that surprised me I had to google Jackson, Mississippi gang-related murder and found this story from August 2011. This disturbs me, but we are living in a hate filled society, and the race issues are as prevelant as ever. Another thing that was brought out in our discussion was the amount of attention that a white women receives for writing the black views of the domestic help, when clearly books have been written form the black point of view and have received less attention. From the back of the book, Telling Memories of Southern Women by Susan Tucker is mentioned by the author. Interviews with forty women from both races are recored in this book published by  Louisiana State University Press in 2002. I remember a book by Dori Saunders, Clover, that shares her farming life stories from South  Carolina. Maybe other readers can suggest books that have been written by African American authors on this subject.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Intimidated by Pie Crust? or Just Love Pie

I am writing to promote a Pie Crust Program for this Thursday at the library at 1 pm. Lois Anderson and I are going to demonstrtae 2 easy pie crust recipes, and we will bring fresh home baked pie for you to sample after the demonstration. This is for the "intimidated by pie crust folks", or for the folks who just love pie. Tell me you don't need a break this week. I hope to see some friends out there. Registration is requested so we have enough pie! Even Anthony is going to get into the pie making mode if we have a lot of people sign up.http://www.tippcitylibrary.org/

ah, the Kindle question

So much is about ebooks. I was noticing that certain patrons weren't showing up in the the library, and then they told me they had received a Nook, Kindle, or a ebook reader for Christmas, anniversary, or just because. Even my daughter told me after I gifted her with a beaded bookmark, "I don't read books any more, Mom, I have  a Nook. But, I'll put it in the Bible you gave me." She went on to tell me that me that she loved her Nook, to take on trips, instead of three or so books. She liked to read in bed, it was light weight, and  the size of the font could be changed. Of course we had the patrons who needed help with their ebook reader, we learned about them when they came into the library for tips on downloading. And they also asked, can I download a library ebook onto my new Kindle? Well, Amazon caught on pretty fast and yes, you can now download a ebook from the library catalog onto your Kindle. The procedure will take you back to  your Amazon account where you will log on the complete the download. If you buy your Kindle at Staples or the like, you will need to create an Amazon account. Just this morning on the blog, Everyday I Write the Book, Gayle Weiswasser wrote about receiving a Kindle and those were the typical comments I hear from many of the book lovers that I meet every day. I suggested a Kindle to an elderly man with a handicap that he would be the perfect candidate for a Kindle, because of the weight of the books he liked to read, but also because of his eyesight was going bad, and some of those books he likes to read don't come in Large Print. I hear from a Random House representative that they may be printing less Large Print in the future, because the Baby Boomers will most likely have the ebook readers. Do you want to weight in on this? What format do you use to read your books or newspapers with? Personally, I always have a book on audio in my car, and then a different book for my night reading. Some audio book readers are better than others and then I like to browse the library catalog for performer to find them and listen to that actor read. Now if I could only convince my husband to read to me at night, I'd be covered. Must be reverting back to my childhood, it was my Dad who read to us at night. I was blessed with parents who loved books, and they passed that on to their children, with reading to us, buying lots of books for us, and then discussing their favorites with us as we became adults. Wherever you find your books, I hope you are sharing your enjoyment of them with the next generation.