Today in History

Author Rudyard Kipling celebrated his birthday on December 30th. He lived to be 70 years old. He was known for his poems of British soldiers and his Children's stories. In 1907, he received Nobel Prize for Literature.  Among his most popular works were 'The Jungle Book', which was written in 1894 and made into a Walt Disney movie in 1967.

Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours.

Word of the day

• mahatma
• \muh-HAHT-muh\

• • DEFINITION
  noun
  1

  : a person to be revered for high-mindedness, wisdom, and selflessness

  2

  : a person of great prestige in a field of endeavor

I found the cutest bookstore in downtown La this week.

Book Review: My Sister's Keeper

"Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look." 

Word of the day

• plummy
• \PLUMM-ee\

• • DEFINITION
  adjective
  1

  a : full of plumsb : choice, desirable

  2

  a : having a plum colorb : rich and mellow often to the point of affectation

Book Review: Music For Torching

You are your own beginning. Every day, every hour, every minute, you start again. There is no point wishing you were someone else, you are who you are-start there. Accept the things you find

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”

—	Anne Herbert

Word of the day

• nosegay 
\NOHZ-gay\

• DEFINITION
noun
: a small bunch of flowers

sapiosexual (n.) — a person who is sexually attracted to intelligence in others.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

Thomas Jefferson

Word of the day

• ekphrasis
• \EK-fruh-sis\

• • DEFINITION
  noun
  : a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art

Word of the day

• welter 
\WEL-ter\

• DEFINITION
verb
1
: writhe, toss; also : wallow
2
: to become deeply sunk, soaked, or involved
3
: to be in turmoil

Today in History

A Christmas Carol was first published 167 years ago on December 19th in England.

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.

December, 1843.

It is amazing how far a book can go.  Movies, musicals, plays, and much more are created from this classic story 167 years later. Charles Dickens should be a proud man :)

Education Statistics

• 33% of children in California will not finish high school.
• More than 20% of adults read at or below fifth grade level
• 44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.
• 50% of American Adults are unable to read an eighth grade book

Word of the day

• cohesive 
\koh-HEE-siv\

• DEFINITION
adjective
: exhibiting or producing a condition in which people or things are closely united

What is everyone reading?

What book are you currently reading? What are your opinions on them? Let me know!

Word of the day

philately \fuh-LAT-uh-lee\

• DEFINITION

noun

: the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps :stamp collecting

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

I don't know if I would call this a book review, it's a little different. This book has touched me, when I closed the book, I sat there and cried for a couple minutes and just reflected on my life. It is so powerful.

Word of the day

Vermicular

• DEFINITION

adjective

1

: resembling a worm in form or motion

2

: of, relating to, or caused by worms

Biggest turn off: Illiteracy

It makes me so sad when I bring up books or reading and someone responds along the lines of "I don't read". It is so degrading to our generation. I would not date a guy that 'doesn't read'.
What do you think about these kind of people, the ones that make remarks such as "Reading is so boring!"?

Philippa Gregory FAQ's

Q. Which of your books is your favourite?

My favourite book is normally the most recent book, as I have lived and breathed the characters for so long.  The Queen’s Fool remains a firm favourite but as I have just finished work on The White Queen about Elizabeth Woodville, it is my most precious.  That said, I am also working on The Red Queen and The White Princess and I’m finding the war of the roses a fascinating period.

Q. Have you ever considered writing about Laetitia Knollys?

I agree that Laetitia Knollys was a fascinating woman. She appears briefly in my novel The Virgin’s Lover, which you might enjoy but I would love to write a novel about her in the future.

Q. Are you going to write any more about Queen Elizabeth?

Elizabeth is such a key figure and she comes into two of my published books, The Queens Fool (as a young Princess) and The Virgin’s Lover (in her first years as Queen).

Q. Have you ever considered writing about Jane Seymour?

I think I covered much of Jane’s courtship in The Other Boleyn Girl and I have to say, she does not interest me as much as the other wives.

.Q. In The Boleyn Inheritance, you depict the life of King Henry VIII and his court through the eyes of three very different characters and use this technique in The Other Queen too. Why did you choose to narrate in first person?

I have a great liking for the first person narrative because I think it gets the reader into the head of the character; it’s a very immediate style. For The Boleyn Inheritance I realized that I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the three women who were so intimately involved in the perils of being Queen of England at this time. Anne of Cleves, the wife that Henry chooses and rejects, Katherine Howard the girl he adores but who is too young to keep herself safe, and the woman who advises them both to their great danger: Lady Rochford, Jane Boleyn.  I liked it so much, I replicated it for The Other Queen, using narrative from Mary, Queen of Scots, Bess of Hardwick and Bess’s husband George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury.

Q. How much of what is written about the characters in the Boleyn series is fact and how much is fiction?

This is an almost impossible question to answer since each character and each novel is different. By and large the fiction fills in the gaps of the known historical record and brings it to life. In a story such as that of Elizabeth 1 when we know so much about what she thought and did the fiction animates the story that we know (and sometimes gives us a different slant on the well-known material) In a story like that of Mary Boleyn we know only the slimmest outline and the fiction fills in the gaps.

It's a small, uncomfortable world.

‘Dogrun’ by Arthur Nersesian

Book Review : Dogrun by Arthur Nersesian.

God isn’t the moon beautiful? Every night it gets a new chance to come up just right. And every morning no matter how imperfect it is, it’s just washed away. When you are young you have all these chances, and with time you blow them, one after the other (page 242)

Why I'm [NEVER] going digital