Taking time to read a good book

I am so glad my favorite author of the last decade is so prolific. Alexander McCall Smith has five or six ongoing series from which to choose.

I started with the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. Next came The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency Series. Then I began the Isabel Dalhousie Sunday Philosophy Club series. Lately, I jumped into the 44 Scotland Street books.

There are just some truly warming, light, fun moments in these books, but every series includes the best life philosophy quotes. I love the way the author looks at the world through the eyes of all his different characters: young and old, male and female.

Here is my latest underlined quote:

"How about some chocolate?" Nobody had ever said that to Bertie before. It was not a complex phrase, but its power, its sheer, overwhelming sense of gift and possibility filled Bertie with awe. Well might more of us say these words to others, and more frequently - how healing would that prove to be. "Look, we've had our differences, but how about some chocolate?" Or: "I'm so sorry, how about some chocolate?" Or simply: "Great to see you! How about some chocolate?" ~ from The Importance of Being Seven (pg. 244) by Alexander McCall Smith

Isn't that delightful?

I am a strong believer in daily reading that delights and feeds the soul. We should have other books going, yes. Books that challenge us and make us think. I like sharing with you all books that are light and warm that also happen to challenge and make us think, as well as warm our hearts.


What books are you reading as we wrap up winter and head toward Daylight Savings Time in just about a week?


Happy Spring! (Meteorological spring, anyway :-)

Javamom

New Book on my Wish List

Book 12 in the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes out tomorrow, and I am pretty happy about that. I just purchased book 11 online about two weeks ago, because it is the only one that I have not been able to find used at Half Price Bookstore. It was hard to finish the final pages of book 10 and say goodbye to the ladies for who-knew-how-long at the time.

I began reading book 11, The Double Comfort Safari Club, just as soon as it came in. This series has been my choice of story before I fall asleep most nights these past few years. So knowing book 12 is coming out tomorrow helps me to "proceed" with book 11 at whatever pace each night allows, without feeling the need to make it last as long as possible, if you know what I mean.

I've recently gotten back on a kick of reading an author I hadn't read since the mid-nineties, the Anna Pigeon National Park ranger mysteries. Her novels are exciting, though sometimes pretty graphic murder-mysteries than are the stories Mma Ramotswe encounters in the mostly-calm pleasantries found in The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

I'll write more about the Anna Pigeon novels another time (author Nevada Barr). For now, I don't want to spoil the simple joys and love for Africa and humankind that flows around and to the brim in the McCall Smith stories.

Time to go read!

Javamom

Getting Settled

My family is happy that I'm home, and my kitty is too! He promptly found a napping spot on my luggage. I keep trying to load that picture, but my three photo-hosting options are not working! Some gremlin has messed up my settings or passwords, or some other strange thing. I cannot get it figured out and I really am not interested in wasting a lot more time online.

When I wanted to check my e-mail while at my folks' house in Oklahoma, I had to go over to Dad's prison ministry office, behind my parents' home. On top of that, they live in a tiny town with old phone lines...thus pretty bad internet connections, when one can get online. This really allowed me to be more focused on family and less distracted by technology, and made me reconsider how easy it is to be distracted by the computer when I am here in my own home.

Anyway, I am restless. It's not easy for me to switch gears since returning home, for some reason. Laundry is caught up, but I haven't wanted to cook. It is so hot and dry here that nothing sounds good, except watermelon and oriental cabbage salad! I needed to go to the grocery store, so I finally got that accomplished today. I still need to vacuum the carpet. I'd rather repair and restore an old, sentimental domino box for a friend; it would be much more fun.

I've been doing light reading for the most part, working my way through Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith. It is the second book in the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series. It really is just what the doctor ordered! I am also still reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 again.

I rediscovered an old favorite CD while on the road the last two weeks. It is Carolyn Arends' album from the 90's with "Seize The Day" on it. It is an awesome, folksy, acoustic project. I love it, love it, love it. I also listened to Michael W. Smith's Instrumental project, "Freedom," which is another all-time favorite from my collection.

Smith's versatility, his orchestrations and arrangements range from simple and elegant to layered and intricate. He is such a talented artist and musician, which is why I think he has had such staying power for so long. Think about it, he was one of the first popular artists in the contemporary Christian music market (I first heard him in the early 80's), and has continued to produce projects and work with/promote other artists on a consistent basis, in spite of my brother or nephew's opinion that he cannot sing. I beg to differ. His voice is nice and different, which is one of the things I really like about it. I get tired of formulaic arrangements and voices. I think that the proof of his talents has been borne out by the market over time. So there. :-P That's your baby sis' opinion, whether you like it or not, and you, dear brother are free to disagree with me!! It won't hurt my feelings one bit. ;)

Cheers!!

Heard in my book restoration class

Michael Faraday was a self-educated man who had a speech impediment which seemed to lead to his physical abuse in the public school of his day. After being removed from the school by his mother, along with his older brother, he was apprenticed to a bookbinder beginning at the age of 12. It was while learning the craft over the next six or seven years in the bookbinder shop that he read and developed a keen interest in Science. He met people (satisfied customers of his and his boss' bookbinding services) who took him in and introduced him into the Scientific community, and the rest, as they say, is history. He had hard times with some colleagues, and there were controversial claims made against him as he gained notoriety in the community, but you can read more about that by doing an internet search.

I learned this from one of the newer members of my book restoration class, a personal friend of Alexander McCall Smith, author of "The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency" and the Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld series.

What a small world, indeed, when I stepped into the bookbinding studio recently to find two older gentlemen joining us. Both have a lot of prior experience in bookbinding and restoration. One of them looked very familiar, I thought. When our teacher introduced us to each other, I asked, "Are you --------- whom A. M. Smith said in his lecture was going to be written into one of his next books, along with your wife?" To which he answered, smiling, "That'd be me!" He is also the man who introduced the author this past spring at a local author's lecture series that I attended with a friend.

I just finished the third book in the Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld series last week. It is so funny and even a little bizarre! I recommend it for quick, light reading. Maybe you can find it at your local library.

The three books in the series by Alexander McCall Smith are:

Portuguese Irregular Verbs
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
At The Villa of Reduced Circumstances


I'm going to take all my Smith books up to leave at my mom's when I go this week. That way she, my sister, and I can read them throughout the summer. I think they'll enjoy the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series the most.

I'll post again from Oklahoma!

Alexander McCall Smith

I am hooked. Alexander McCall Smith is a very amiable, very funny man. A friend and I went to hear him speak, and have him sign some books last night at the Arts and Letters series in the city. In the above book, he pokes fun at professorial types, which may lead one to think that he himself is an arrogant man. After watching and hearing him, I think he just does not take himself or intelligence too seriously; he pokes fun at himself, and perhaps colleagues he has known.

After telling us a bit about the history of his characters and how he writes certain people into his books, he read to us from one of the Professor Dr. von Igelfeld books, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. I had not laughed so much and so hard in one evening in quite some time. It was a terrific reminder to me that life has been (or "I" have been) rather serious of late, and that I need to seize opportunities to laugh more often.

The author was born in Zimbabwe and educated in Scotland. He now lives in Edinburgh with his family.

Last night, he was dressed in his kilt and suit coat, with a vivid-green tie! What drew me to like him most was his involvement in and attitude toward music. I was raised with vocal and instrumental music of all sorts since birth. I played the flute from fourth grade on and switched to bassoon in high school and the early years of college.

He plays the bassoon and his wife plays the flute in a group called the RTO (aka the "Really Terrible Orchestra")!! He shared that he doubts whether he should say that he can really play the bassoon at all, because he has some trouble with any of the high notes (above D, lol). He tells of how he thought about redesigning the instrument, to help him achieve more success. He mentioned trying to play without the top piece on, to which I could relate. I had done the same back in 1982 when travelling on the road and needing to practice an intro of five mellow, stirring, notes for a solo(some of them high notes) for our school's chamber orchestra competition. In order to practice and break in the new reed I'd just bought, I had to play in the car on the two hour road trip, and I had to remove the top of the bassoon to fit in the old station wagon! It's probably only funny if you'd been there, or have ever wanted to make such adjustments "on the fly" in order to accomplish a goal :-).

I purchased book number six, In The Company of Cheerful Ladies, the American edition was just launched yesterday, in fact. I also bought the three Professor Dr. von Igelfeld series for my husband, but I intend to read them first! Now that I know the author's voice, I will hear him when I read them.

One final note, for any who are wondering, is that he is not the reader on the audio versions of his books. A woman reads The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Mr. Smith doesn't like to listen to any of the audio books completely, although he highly approves of the readers of his audio books. He just doesn't want their voice to somehow mess with the "voice" or the "lack thereof" that he himself writes with as he puts the stories on paper. I thought that was an interesting detail to note. I can understand how that could happen.

If any of you have a chance to hear this author, or go to a booksigning, I highly recommend that you make the effort, as it is truly worth it!

Alexander McCall Smith

A friend recenty recommended this author's series to me. The same weekend she told me about the series, I happened to hear the author's name on a program on our local classical radio station. My ears perked up, as I heard the interviewer discuss upcoming authors who were presenting special programs this spring. Among them, Salman Rushdie, Frances Mayes and Alexander McCall Smith.

I would have liked to have gone to the Frances Mayes program on Tuscany and Tuscan cooking, but I can only justify spending money on one lecture series this spring. I've been to Tuscany, enjoyed the villages, museums, churches, food, natural settings and atmospere. I decided to sign up for the Smith program instead, to see what all the hype is about! I've heard a few other people now mention how much they are enjoying the Ladies' Detective Series.

I hope to buy the first book before the program in April, so I'll be more prepared to have a fuller experience. At the art museum where these programs are held, we (the friend who told me about the author in the first place) will be able to meet A. M. Smith and buy another book for him to sign.