BW48 - December dawdle and dabble

Courtesy Aiken House and Gardens

Our winter weather has finally arrived and it was a frosty thirty degrees this morning. Welcome to December - a time to dawdle and dabble.   I'm ready to curl up by a cozy fire with one of my fur babies and/or my hubby, and read. Our reading year has flown by far too quickly and I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready to just relax and read whatever suits my fancy this month from my teetering book stacks.    

Good thing that includes Henry James since he is our author flavor of the month.   I just happen to have Partial Portraits, an older 1970's version,  with his essays about the art of fiction as well as Emerson, Eliot and De Maupassant to name a few.  I read The Portrait of the Lady a few years back for a literature class, but never got around to reading any of his other stories, short stories or non fiction.  Now seems the perfect time.  

While we are dawdling this month, we can't forget this month heralds the arrival of Winter as well as Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, St Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and St Nicolas Day.  Plus  many other things to celebrate from the inspirational to the absurd like wear brown shoes day  to the silly like national Ding a Ling day to the optimistic with look on the bright side day.   

So go dawdle and dabble through your book stacks and enjoy! 

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History of the Medieval World

Chapter 66 -     Turn of the Wheel pp 498 - 503

Chapter 67 - Capture of Baghdad  pp 504 - 510

Chapter 68 -       Three Kingdoms   pp 511 - 517 

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BW47: Happy Thanksgiving

Courtesy of  Averie Cooks

The Pumpkin

BY

 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,

The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,

And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,

With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,

Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,

While he waited to know that his warning was true,

And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain

For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden

Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;

And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold

Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;

Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,

On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,

Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,

And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,

From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,

Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon,

Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,

In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better

E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!

Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,

Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!

And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,

Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,

That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,

And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,

And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky

Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

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History of the Medieval World

Chapter 63: Basileus  pp 479 - 487

Chapter 64: Creation of Normandy  pp 488 - 491

Chapter 65:  The Kingdom of Germany   pp 492 - 497

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BW46: Armchair Traveling West of the Prime Meridian

Courtesy of World Atlas

I had an epiphany after last week's post, since we only have a few weeks left in the year. (oh my!) Started giving some thought to 2016 and had a grand idea. For our armchair travels, will split our bookish travels and the world up into four quarters: Traveling East and West of the Prime Meridian and North and South of the Equator. Which will give everyone a variety of ways to go. For example: East of the pm and north of the equator booking it across Europe and Asia or exploring the seas, South of the equator and following the ocean currents or hang out in South America, West of the pm and sail across the Atlantic to North America.  I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

This week we'll be doing a scouting trip West of the Prime Meridian. But let's not forget those countries intersected by the dividing line on the Continent of Africa as well as Europe.  You can dip down into Morocco with Edith Wharton's tales of her journey in 1917 

In Morocco

Before hopping on a steamer ship and traveling across the Atlantic with Simon Winchester.

Atlantic 

as well as Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, which Moby Dick was based upon.  By the way, if you missed the 2012 MD readalong, you'll get another chance in 2016.  More on that later. 

Are you in the mind to explore North America with Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods

or dip down into South America with David Grann's Lost City of Z.

Put on your traveling shoes and join me West of the Prime Meridian.

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History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 60 - Great Army of the Vikings pp 458 - 465

Chapter 61 - Struggle for the Iron Crown pp 466 - 471 

Chapter 62 Kampaku  pp 472 - 478 

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BW45: Armchair traveling East of the Prime Meridian

Seoul Korea - Beautiful steps around the world
courtesy of Kevin Lowry

It's been a while since we've been around the world, armchair style, so thought I'd meander about and see what I could find.  We've traversed the continents, our backpacks filled mostly with fiction, although I remember seeing a few travel and historical books mixed in with our reads.  Time to delve a bit deeper and see what we can see.  This week we'll trek east of the Prime Meridian and start at the North Pole with Hampton Sides and his thriller chiller of a tale - In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette. 

Then drop down into Siberia with George Kennan's Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival 

before exploring a bit of China with Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze.

I have a hankering to follow the Silk road across to the Mediterranean sea with Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road where I'll settle for a while on the Turquoise coast for a breather.

Join me in exploring East of the Prime Meridian.

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History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 58 Foreign and Domestic Relations pp 442 - 449

Chapter 59 The Second Caliphate pp 450 - 457

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BW44: Non fiction November

Welcome to Non Fiction November.  Are you ready for a month of reading diaries, dissertations and dramas as well as anecdotes, adventures and autobiographies. Our author flavors of the month are Truman Capote, Stacy Schiff and Bill Bryson.  Yes, a rather eclectic grouping and it just so happens that  I have those authors on my shelves. 

I'm actually not a huge fan of reading non fiction, except for writing books,  Which makes it all the more interesting that I'm now leading a flash non fiction writing class utilizing Dinty's Moore's Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Non Fiction.  I've stepped way outside my box and well as comfort zone with the writing exercises.  Which has lead to my wanting to read more non fiction.   

I've gathered quite a collection of world war history books as well as spy craft, thanks to my husband and son. Thanks to numerous recommendations, I now have Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, Susan Cain's Quiet as well as Erik Larson's Dead Wake and In the Garden of Beasts waiting in my stacks to be read.   We'll see how far I get. 

Also, thanks to the ladies on WTM, Stacia and Rose,  we have in the works for this month:  a comparison reading of Shakespeare's The Winter Tale along with Jeanette Winterson's modern retelling The Gap of Time. 

Join me in a game on Non Fiction Bingo, made especially for you all, and see how many bingo's you can complete, vertically, horizontally or diagonally.  And if you want to get really creative, try a T or an L or an E.   

Happy Reading! 

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History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 56:  The Vikings -- pp  427 - 436

Chapter 57:  Long Lived Kings -- pp 437 - 441 

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