The Guild 7-09-02 "So, Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?"

[sawsalimb]

If you like historical fiction,I'd like to point you at a series that you may not have heard of,until now.

For some years,Fred Saberhagen has been writing(albeit at a very slow pace-a book every 3 years is the approximate rate) a very interesting series with Count Dracula as the protagonist. There's a twist-Count Dracula is telling his side of the story,and he's the good guy,although not exactly the nice guy.

That makes for an interesting perspective,and Saberhagen is one heck of a good writer. Several of the books are also pretty good historical fiction-well researched,too. The series starts with The Dracula Tape,and goes on from there-head for the library and treat yourself!

[Carolina]

Good morning, daisy! Great idea for today's thread.

I'm a history nut so Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer is my current read. It's been around for awhile, but have now just gotten around to reading it.

It deals with American cultural history and the four great waves of English immigrants, where they settled, how their folkways differed in religion and culture, and how the folkways evolved into the distinct American regional differences.

• The first wave involved the Puritans from the east of England to Massachusetts
• The second wave was the Royal elitists and servants from the south of England to Virginia
• The third wave was the "Friends" migration, or the Quakers, from the Northern Midlands and Wales to the Delaware Valley
• And the fourth wave was the Scots-Irish to the American backcountry (Appalachia)

It is a fascinating read, and though it is a tome (900 pages), Hackett Fischer writes in an engaging way. I can't wait to see how these folkways have defined the political landscape.

[mountaineer]

The Mitford books are nice because they tell a good story with good character development, without the need to resort to vulgarity or sleaze. I guess that sounds kind of corny nowadays, but I sure didn't feel I was missing anything because there were no F-bombs or steamy sex scenes.

The house we rented for our Outer Banks vacation several weeks ago had a ton of books, and I read so many I can't even remember them, but given the choice, I'd pick a comfy chair and a stack of Ruth Rendell mysteries and suspense novels.

[lodwick]

Great stuff to start my day - thank you.
I started laughing with retrokitten's "...it's ugy and it's ugly..." and have not stopped.
The retreiver with his beach gear is too precious.

Gran's non-documented summer...FOF

A tremendous Tuesday to one and all.

PS: If I read it, most likely it's on this monitor, although Slander is alledgedly in the semi-trustworthy hands of the USPS.

[Portnoy]

Just finished Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" which is an excellent book. Its considered one of the top Sci-Fi novels of the 20th century

Currently reading William Gibson's "Neuromancer". Gibson coined the word "cyberspace". Considered "Cyperpunk", its a slow but interesting read.

On the horizon for my week long Northern Michigan vacation, I have planned "Founding Brothers", "From Here to Eternity" and/or "David Copperfield".

[lodwick]

Cold Mountain Movie News

[lodwick]

Cold Mountain Dairy - how it came to be written

[mountaineer]

My mother just finished "Shakedown," and she said it was so upsetting and made her so angry she had to put it down occasionally to regain her composure! I haven't had a chance to read it, but I expect to have the same reaction.

Because of how Coca-Cola knuckled under to Jackson's shakedown efforts, as described in the book, she's also planning to get rid of her stock in that company.

[lodwick]

A Husband takes his wife to play her first game of golf.....Of course, the wife promptly hacked her first shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course.

The husband cringed, "I warned you to be careful! Now we'll have to go up there, find the owner, apologize and see how much your lousy drive is going to cost us."

So the couple walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A warm voice said, "Come on in."

When they opened the door they saw the damage that was done: glass was all over the place, and a broken antique bottle was lying on its side near the broken window.

A man reclining on the couch asked, "Are you the people that broke my window?"

"Uh...yeah, sir. We're sure sorry about that," the husband replied.

"Oh, no apology is necessary. Actually I want to thank you. You see, I'm a genie, and I've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you've released me, I'm allowed to grant three wishes. I'll give you each one wish, but if you don't mind, I'll keep the last one for myself."

"Wow, that's great!" the husband said. He pondered a moment and blurted out, "I'd like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life."

"No problem," said the genie. "You've got it, it's the least I can do. And I'll guarantee you a long, healthy life!"

"And now you, young lady, what do you want?" the genie asked. "I'd like to own a gorgeous home complete with servants in every country in the world," she said.

"Consider it done," the genie said. "And your homes will always be safe from fire, burglary and natural disasters!"

"And now," the couple asked in unison, "what's your wish, genie?"

"Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle and haven't been with a woman in more than a thousand years, my wish is to have sex with your wife."

The husband looked at his wife and said, "Gee, honey, you know we both now have a fortune, and all those houses. What do you think?"

She mulled it over for a few moments and said, "You know, you're right. Considering our good fortune, I guess I wouldn't mind, but what about you, honey?"

"You know I love you sweetheart," said the husband. "I'd do the same for you!"

So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each other. The genie was insatiable.

After about three hours of non-stop sex, the genie rolled over and looked directly into her eyes and asked "How old are you and your husband?"

"Why, we're both 35," she responded breathlessly.

"NO SH!T. Thirty-five years old and both of you still believe in genies?

[mountaineer]

Sure, post that story the day after Mr. M and I did particularly poorly on the ol' golf course. No genies in our neck of the woods, though.

[Teacup]

Good morning everyone. Today, Mr. Teacup took my car to work, so I'm home with the kids, kicking back.
Hope everyone is doing great.

[Teacup]

Former President Clinton waves to the crowd surrounded by Turkish policemen in downtown Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, July 9, 2002. Bill Clinton is in Istanbul for a two-day private visit. - Jul 09 10:32 AM ET

The creep is out of the country again.

[retrokitten]

AAAHHH!!! I just had to come here and vent!!! I just say Tiny Tom and his buddy Dick's little press conference with the most iratating former Worldcom employees ever!!!

I didn't see what division the first woman worked in, but the second woman worked in the wireless division. Before this whole scandal broke it was announced the Worldcom was going to sell it's wireless division and close it's call centers. They were getting e-mails for weeks that were things like "How to Boost Your Resume". Hmm, that should have been a clue! Like I said, Worldcom Wireless was already going to be sold off before the scandal broke. Here is an article dated May 29, 2002 that says that Worldcom is going to sell wireless. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/29/BU184913.DTL


The accounting scandal broke on the night of June 25th . Then she says that she had Worldcom match her 401K contribution with stock. Well then don't come running to Tiny Tom and the rest of the gubmint when you lose all your dough! Worldcom will match your contribution (I think max contribution is either 3% or 5%) 100% with cash OR stock. When she saw the stock going in the dumper then why didn't she switch to cash????

Plus she starts in about management taking the coffee away. They had the vending companies bring in coffee vending machines and that is better then any coffee anyone made. And another thing, only certain departments or divisions didn't get raises. Maybe that should have been a sign, too?

Then she has the nerve to say, "Mr. President, I offer you this challenge..." PLEASE SPARE ME!! I challenge you to not let yourself be exploited by Tom and Dick. I am suprised Dick wasn't up there talking about all his friends who work at Worldcom.

[texasbluebell]

Highly recommended are the Mapp and Lucia books by E. F. Benson. Wonderful read. I have a compilation of the books, over 1000 pages, (though they're available individually), and enjoyed it thoroughly! Set in the 30s in rural England, it chronicles the doings of a charmingly funny group of people.

A couple of the books are available on amazon, though others are out of print, but you may be able to find them at an online used book service like abebooks or else libraries often have them. (I've just talked myself into reading it again!)

And my library also has the BBC series on film, about 12 installments (with the wonderful Prunella Scales as Mapp). Great fun if you can find it!

from the amazon site:

Book Description

This hilarious study of 1930s manners and pecking order begins when Lucia Lucas rents a summer place - the home of Miss Elizabeth Mapp - in the English village of Tilling. Between Miss Mapp's penchant for spying on neighbors and Lucia's fussy sidekick, Georgie, the stage is set for a battle of wits.

From the Publisher

Mrs. Emmeline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) is the recently-widowed newcomer to the village of Tilling, eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbent Miss Elizabeth Mapp and to install herself as its benevolent dictator. In their polite acts of sabotage, as they ruthlessly jockey for the position of cultural arbiter, Mapp and Lucia tear up the conventions of drawing-room diplomacy and enter a protracted conflict using fêtes, garden parties, musical soirées, and bridge evenings as their deadly weapons. Things finally come to a head with Miss Mapp's audacious attempt to steal her rival's celebrated recipe for Lobster à la Riseholme. With a charming satirical bent, E.F. Benson turns the pretensions and snobberies of English village life into a deliciously wicked comedy. E.F. Benson (1867-­1940) was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a member of a distinguished and eccentric family. He wrote more than 100 books but is best remembered for his Lucia novels, written between 1920 and 1939.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Excellent thread. Thanks for taking on the task.

I just got back from an early morning surveillance. I just hate getting up at 4 am to go sit in a hot cornfield for 5 hours. To make things worse, I left my car windows down last night and it rained. So I sat in a hot cornfield on wet lambswool and got a soggy tuckus.

I get to repeat the entire event tomorrow morning. Uck.

Kind of a funny Bare Escentuals story. My mother found out that all her friends were using Bare Minerals so she decided to hop on the bandwagon. ( I guess my telling her I would supply her with all the minerals she could ever want wasn't good enough for her). She ordered the kit from the informercial and told me that she really didn't think it gave the same coverage as the informercial. Well they gave her 2 mineral viels ( transluscent powder) and two warmths. No foundation!!! So I called the company, explained that my mother got an incomplete order and they are replacing everything.

I called the president of the company and told her what happened and told her that she needs to itemize what should be in the kit. Since there is no itemized sheet, gals might not know that they got the wrong stuff and be disappointed.

I will say, now that I know what should be in the kit, it's a HUGE value. All those brushes are worth more than the entire kit itself.

I also called the production company for those of you who wanted to know what the informercials would run. She said that they don't have a schedule, but they are running constantly, my mother says that she can't turn on the TV without seeing it somewhere.

The informercial can be seen on STYLE, Lifetime, CBNC, Animal Planet, Bravo, FoodTV, and several broadcast stations when they have paid programming.

[daisyscarlett]

I have heard of Albion's Seed but have never tackled it...Thanks for the review of it....

[mountaineer]

Who goes to Turkey for a "private visit"? Let's see, he just was in Colombia, the land of coca; now Turkey. Poppies? Hash? Whatever. He'll be in Barcelona by the end of the week for the AIDS conference and his MTV gig.

Perhaps we should post something scandalous about x42 or his spawn. I am 99.99% certain that Chelsea's stalker and biggest defender, the "moth to the flame," is back posting under his 6th or 7th screenname. You know who I mean!

[daisyscarlett]

I too am a Ruth Rendall/Adam Dagl. fan. Also like Elizabeth George/Lord Linley-she only produces a book about every 2 years though-she does extensive research in England and it sure tells in the finished product.