A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Woke up to find the house surrounded in fog.  At first I didn’t notice because the rain was pattering on the sky light and it was rather dark.  Once I got up and looked out there was fog, the thin grey blanket type over, around, and cloaking everything.  It made for the kind of grey, lazy day where you just spend your time catching up on all the little chores you’ve been meaning to do.

Picked up the kitchen and cleaned the counters and stove top.  Then started on the big job.  Taking down the Christmas tree.  Wish we could leave it alone since my back has been quirky for days now.  But, it’s not the decorating statement I want to make.  The hold up was having to replace the ornament boxes which we’ve had for years and were more tape than box now.  So, lots of shopping and checking in stores as we did errands over the last couple of weeks and found a couple of reasonable substitutes.  It seems that ornament boxes have become tiny little things that won’t hold ornaments — go figure.  So, today we took all the ornaments off the tree and got them packed up.  We started going branch by branch to pull the branches towards the center: you know when you separate and fluff them when you put the tree up that you just have to squeeze them all down again.  Got about 1/6th of it done.   Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll finish that bit of it and get the tree apart, wrapped, and stored.  Then it’s clean the living room and rearrange the furniture and the plants.

Meanwhile, I’m almost done with a sock … maybe another 1/2 inch and bind off. Then start the second one.  I joined the Rocking Sock Club and I’m really looking forward to the first package.  I’ve never joined a sock club before but heard a lot about this one.  I  just never remembered about it during the signup period.

I’ve found the black yarn for the bear’s face so hope to get that done tomorrow or at the very least over the next week. I’ve been finishing things lately and that’s a good thing.  Got the cowl done.  Just need to sew in the ends and block.  Should have pictures up for that soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading in all the in between times to get my commitments for reviews done this month.  Trying to catch up and arrange some interviews before it gets too late, too.

Gumshoe Review published it’s first original short story this month.  We’ve already chosen the story for February.  We hope to have a new story featured each month.  This is a new venture for us and we’re still working out how to streamline the system: reading the submissions, ranking them, going over our favorites, notifying the authors whether we’re interested or not.  We’re getting better but still need to get a system that’s easy for us to deal with and make swift decisions for the sake of the authors.

Nevertheless, I still feel even though I got a lot done today that I’m still running in place rather than moving forward.

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Arthur A. Levine Books, AN Imprint of Scholastic Books. ISBN: 978-0-545-15761-2, hardcover. $16.99 US/$19.99 CAN.

Stick Man is a delightful story about a stick man who lives with his stick wife and children in a very nice tree house. He goes out to jog and spends nearly a year having one adventure after another trying to get back home to his wife and children. Stick man is mistaken as a throwing stick, a Pooh stick, nesting material, beach detritus, building material, and kindling among others. Each mistaken identity leaves him struggling to escape and find his way home.

The drawing are semi-realistic as you can tell from the cover image. The drawing adds visually to the journey, showing the changing seasons and the various plights in which Stick Man finds himself. The colors are bright and cheerful and the people and animals realistic.

The text is simple and mostly rhymes. It’s difficult to do a book in rhyme and Donaldson manages to do without being too cutsey or over-the-top. I’d imagine a young reader would get caught up in the tale and cheer on Stick Man to find his way home.

The book was published in September 2009. The ending is very Christmas oriented and leaves a nice feeling of completion to the story. I’d suggest that this would make a great book for children anytime of the year but the tie to Christmas at the end makes it an especially good Christmas book.

The only problem I had with the story is wondering about the message underlying the story. Stick Man goes off one morning and doesn’t come back for a year. He doesn’t, of course, call home and he just shows up expecting to be taken back into the bosom of his family as if nothing has changed at all. It worked for Job’s wayward son but I’m wondering about the subliminal impact the book would have on children whose fathers have abandoned the family. Would they see this story as a reason to believe that he’d return and everything would be as it was? I don’t know. It just occurred to me on a third reading that there was another way children might interpret the story so I thought I should put it out here for potential buyers of the book to be aware of the circumstances of the child to be gifted with the story. In some cases this might be just the underlying message you want to convey in other, well, maybe not.

The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson is a simple story of Santa Claus who lives alone in the woods. As the Christmas holiday approaches he can feel the magic and opens his workshop and prepares a bag of toys for the children listed in his book. He polishes the sleigh and the bells and gets ready for deer to come to fly him on his rounds on Christmas eve.

The illustrations are beautiful and simple in style with deep rich colors. Santa’s orange-colored wooden house has a bright and cheerful red door that makes it look very inviting. The snow is brilliantly white with a rich deep blue sky at night and lighter blue during the day. It’s a story of the season that sets out Santa Claus as a being who is used to the magical holiday traditions.

I can see the story’s appeal to young children as it slowly shows Santa preparing for his big night. However, I wonder just how many children can hear this story or read it to themselves and not ask questions based on what they know about Christmas. Where are the elves? Who made the gifts? How do the names of naughty and nice children get in his book? How can he just show up and pack the sleigh with presents? Where did they come from? How do the reindeer know to show up?

While it’s a wonderful story and very much in keeping with the season and the holiday spirit, this is so out of line with the accepted givens of the Santa story and myth — that it may take a lot of talking to get children to understand that some people may believe that things happen in ways other than what we’re used to hearing.

Not that this is a bad thing. It’s actually nice that children would get a chance to explore some new ideas about Santa and Christmas traditions.

Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775 and died in 1817.  She was 41 when she died.  During her life she wrote several novels that live in the hearts of her many readers.  The novels (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibilities, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Lady Susan) have been in print almost continuously.  I say almost because during her lifetime, she found it very difficult to get her novels published and she made very little money from them.

The books have been made into movies that either use the books as a base and then modernize the nearly out of recognition (Clueless) to the wonderful BBC productions.  I own most of the BBC and A&E movies and watch them often.  I also love the books and find that they have joined the other books on my comfort shelf for those times when I really need to visit with some dear and old friends — special books.

There are societies and clubs that have sprung up where those who enjoy her works can get together and discuss them in depth as well as the society that is depicted in the novels and other related topics.

You can find a brief biography of Jane Austen’s life on the website of the Jane Austen Society UK. This biography includes photos of some of the places where she lived.

The Republic of Pemberley has a wealth of information on Jane Austen, her life and times, and her works. Including the text of her major novels. I’ll warn you if you’re a fan of her works you can lose a lot of hours just dipping into the various areas of this website.

There have also been many books written that either continue the stories of Jane Austen’s characters or deal with the impact that her novels have had on readers. I’ve reviewed a number of these books (and movies) on this blog. You’ll find them if you scroll through the Reviews link at the top of the page.

So, celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday. Go read a book.

Postscript from Pemberly is book seven of the Pemberley Chronicles. Unfortunately, I haven’t read any of the previous six books. Well, that’s not entirely true. I did read the “look inside” of the first book a while back and put it on my wish list on Amazon; but with the height of my TBR pile…. But, when I got the chance to read Postscript from Pemberley, I wasn’t going to be stopped by the lack of prior book knowledge (and you shouldn’t either). The book, you see, has an appendix that lists the major characters and their family relationships. As you can probably imagine by the seventh book, we’re into cousin and grandchildren territory.

The main point of view character is Jessica Courtney. Jessica is the daughter of Rev. James Courtney and Emily Gardiner Courtney (the daughter of the Gardiners — Elizabeth’s and Jane’s Aunt and Uncle Gardiner). Jessica’s parents run the church and parish at Kympton. When the book opens we learn that Julian Darcy, the oldest son of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, is having problems. His wife, Josie, has left him and their son to run off with a man who has promised to publish her book. We later learn that the book never got published, Josie got left on her own, and is very ill. Josie doesn’t recover and dies. Julian returns home to leave his son with his sister and her husband before going to France to continue his research.

All this is in the first few pages but it sets up the relationship that develops between Jessica and Julian as they become friends. Whether this relationship will develop into anything more is anyone’s guess as Julian is much older (Jessica is eighteen). Besides, Julian is headed to Paris for more study and Jessica is offered the chance to run the expanded and upgraded school on the grounds of Pemberley.

Mr. Darcy, ever concerned for the people that look to him for their livelihood, has decided that the current school at the church and at Pemberley is not educating the children for anything other than menial jobs and he wants to do better. Jessica is hired (and moves into Pemberley) to run the school and hire two additional teachers to develop a course of study that will better prepare the area’s children.

Thus we have at least two plot lines going. Actually there are several other plot threads in this volume. Will Jessica and Julian fall in love? Will they remain friends? Will the school work out? Will Jessica find qualified teachers? Will bringing two people in who have not been part of the previous books cause problems? What other family squabbles and events will occur to stir up the family.

What’s a novel without some conflict? Not very interesting, actually. Luckily for us, Rebecca Ann Collins knows that we need to have some conflict and some ambiguity in our reading and she provides it. Told mostly from Jessica’s point of view, we learn about the ups and downs of the now fairly large cast of characters. Jessica being the kindhearted person she is tends to be the one that her cousins turn to when they need advice or just to talk candidly without rumors spreading. Jessica listens, seldom judges, and knows how to keep secrets — especially her own. One interesting choice is that some of Jessica’s interior thoughts are told from snippets from her journal and from letters written to her and from her to others.

When a young lady with impeccable teaching credentials returns to live with her parents, Jessica finds not only an exceptional teacher for the school but a friend. However, Jessica is not the only person with secrets. Remember too that while we’ve reached 1866 — the times are not our own and in many ways the rules of behavior in that period of time make it difficult to understand the utter devastation that can be done to someone’s reputation for behavior that in our time wouldn’t even lift an eyebrow. Women were kept to a strict standard that most of us would rebel against with all our might today.

Postscript from Pemberley is fine addition to the growing list of Pride and Prejudice sequels. A marvelous book to curl up with on a rainy day with a hot cup of tea, to sink into a time and place so different from our own and visit people who seem so familiar. There’s no explosions or car chases, but there is tension and conflict and people we care about and hope will turn out happy at the end. It’s a book that when you finish you give a sigh of satisfaction and perhaps turn back to page one and start over.

Haven’t posted lately — still down with the flu.  The cough has gone from the polite heh heh sound to a racking deep thing that takes on a life of its own.  I swear any minute I expect to either cough up my lung, my toes, or some dwarf or balrog.  I’ve pulled muscles coughing and still I cough.  I think there’s a design flaw in this cough to rid the lungs of crap idea.

Meanwhile, in my befuddled state of illness, I came across this lovely book ad for Maurice Gee’s Going West.  Put out by the New Zealand Book Council, it has the tagline, “where books come to life.”   I can’t follow all the words but the experience of watching the short video is one that puts you (or me anyway) on sensory overload.

It’s gorgeous to watch.  Don’t believe it’s convinced me to try the book but I’ve watched this short film a few times.  Maybe books about train journeys and the inner landscape of the narrator just don’t do it for me when I’m coughing up my lungs.

It has rained all day today.  It seems like it’s rained more than not lately.  Matches my mood though since I’ve been headachy and out of sorts — maybe flu maybe not.  Hyperion though definitely has the flu but is back to work (out of sick time).  Luckily the Thanksgiving holiday is coming up so he’ll get a long weekend — hopefully that will help.  Telecommuting would help but contractors are not allowed to telecommute (not that the govies are allowed to either).

Anyway, I ran into this article the other day on “Ten things mobiles have made, or will make obsolete” on recombu.com. The ten things listed are: phone booths, wristwatches, bedside alarm clocks, mp3 players, landline home phones, compact digital cameras, netbooks, handheld game consoles, paper, and brains. The author gives a reason for each choice.

I found the list and the reason interesting. However, computers were supposed to get rid of the need for paper. Remember the paperless office? Well, we still have paper — lots and lots of paper. Can’t see that it’s reduced in amount just because a copy of each document is electronic.

It’s the phones screen size that doesn’t work. I’m older and even though you can increase the font size somewhat on the smartphones it’s not a pleasant experience for long term use. Though for emergencies and for keeping in touch or just giving you something to do while stuck somewhere the phone is taking the place of many gadgets.

One that was not on the list was books. Many phones now have software so you can read books on your phone. Of course I’ve got my Kindle but I know many people who read on their mobiles.

I don’t carry a watch anymore. My cell has the time in a small window on the front. I don’t listen to music on it because my mobile phone is older. I may upgrade to a blackberry or android-type soon but I’m happy with what I’ve got for now because I have an iPod, a Kindle, a digital camera that fits in my purse along with my netbook.

The problem with a mobile taking on the jobs of all those items is that when you lose one — the phone — you’ve lost them all. If I lose my phone, well I’ve lost the phone but I still have the music, camera, computer, and books. So, while having one item instead of five is seductive — the thought of losing everything because one item died is just too scary for me right now.

This isn’t really new information for many people but I thought in view of this new YouTube video that others might like to see what goes on in the U.S. Library of Congress to preserve our written history.

I visited the Library of Congress shortly after the Reading Room and other parts of the library were renovated several years ago. It’s a beautiful place. The tour was wonderful. My husband and I were two of four Americans in a tour group of about 20 people. I don’t know if the numbers have changed much over the years. A friend who works there doubts it. It seems many people from other countries put visiting the U.S. Library of Congress on the list of interesting stops when visiting the US. However, American’s visiting Washington, DC don’t seem to have the same list of priorities.

Wonder why? Hope you enjoy a pick at American’s premier library.