I really think some stories are seasonal. Autumn stories get us to think about life and its priorities; generation-spanning epics are good for those long, winter nights and spring stories are about inspiration. Summer stories live in another world, one of twilight and green shade and flirting. Summer novels are meant to be read with pink lemonade on a porch swing or on a chaise in the shade. These are the tales of romance and fun, even the ones that don’t contain conventional love stories. Summer is the frothiest part of the reading year and Peter Mayle writes summer stories like no one else. His novel, A Good Year, suggests the summer can do more than help you through a domestic crisis; it can lead you to the best part of your life. This tale goes well with lemonade.. If Summer is the season for self-awareness, then Max Skinner is neglecting the calendar as well as his personal life. While others are living their London lives, Max has bartered his for a high-stress job and a possible bonus. A self-serving boss robs him of both just as Max learns the uncle who raised him died. Max may be out of…
Full Disclosure: I carry the “clutter” gene in my DNA. While my mother’s clan of military migrants moved their Spartan households around the map, my Dad’s family decided there wasn’t an empty bottle or old magazine on earth that shouldn’t be saved. And while half of my chromosomes are Clutter Monkey, my husband got the gene from both sides. Given this, you can probably imagine what our house has looked like in the past. You can imagine it, but you’ll be happier if you don’t try. By March of this year the flotsam and jetsam of life were threatening to swallow us whole. I’ve done a bit to beat back the tide but I’m getting a lot of help from a book my sister sent me. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo has done more than help clean up my house. It’s brought some needed perspective to my life. Most “how-to” books are filled with lists of steps. Marie Kondo teaches tidying by concept. One of her big ideas for recognizing the extras is to spread out everything you have of some category. Then pick up each item, one at a time, and see if it gives you…
Free, to good home close to me: one wooden student’s desk, desirous of continuing its Academic and Professional career. Although manufactured during the Cold War, Desk’s classic design and sturdy construction have allowed him to support generations of students through many levels of academia, earning various former owners multiple high school diplomas, three associate degrees and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Summa). Desk has also played a substantial supporting role in such post-graduate tasks as resume and correspondence preparation, personal accounting and other personal business concerns. Multiple levels of technology have partnered with Desk (starting with manual typewriters and continuing through CPU’s, CRT’s, printers, scanners, tablets and all-in-one flat screens) and all have found Desk’s surface adequate for their purpose. In addition, Desk has been successfully utilized for reading, creative writing, a solitary meal and the occasional nap. Although possessing only a single drawer, Desk’s storage capacity is surprisingly large, as the drawer can hold upwards of 40 pounds of clutter at a time. This drawer shows a positive talent for attracting and safeguarding all matter of small objects (even from their owners), from pitch pipes and guitar picks to flash drives, keys and pocket change. His open shelves are…
As a rule, we don’t question many things we are taught. If your Mom said stuffing should be cooked separately from the turkey and your Dad decreed all Fords are junk, chances are you accepted those statements, at least until you reached adolescence. If your favorite teacher taught a specific subject, then you probably learned to like the same field. Maybe you adopted some of the professor’s opinions. All of that is well and good until those beliefs become accepted history. As somebody said (Orwell? Napoleon? Churchill?) history is written by the winners which means some accepted historical accounts are nothing more than preserved propaganda and lies. You know this if you’ve read Caroline Alexander’s book, The Bounty. Or do you still loath and fear Captain Bligh? When I was a kid, my cousin used Captain Bligh’s name whenever we pretended we were pirates. According to my cousin, no buccaneer or sailor on the Seven Seas was meaner or sneakier than this terrible man. Of course, he got his ideas from watching Charles Laughton in “Mutiny on the Bounty”, a wonderful old black-and-white picture that contrasts Clark Gable’s bare-chested nobility with Laughton’s debased and evil Captain Bligh. The picture and source made…