I love books. Especially good used books that can be had for next to nothing.
This was the week of the annual book sale at our local library. For far less than one might spend on a single, new, hard-cover book, I brought home 17 barely-used, new-to-me books:
COOKBOOKS
- No Salt, No Sugar, No Fat Cookbook, by Jacqueline Williams and Goldie Silverman
- Plain & Happy Living: Amish Recipes & Remedies, by Emma Byler
- Better Homes and Gardens Complete Book of Baking
- Herbs are Good Companions: To Vegetable - In the Garden, To Cooks in the Kitchen. by Adelma Grenier Simmons (founder of Caprilands Herb Farm, Coventry, CT)
- The Pasta Machine Cookbook, by Donna Rathmell German
- The New Book of Favorite Breads from Rose Lane Farm, by Ada Lou Roberts
- Perfect Pasta: 100 Suppers in a Flash. Rodale Press
- The Complete Guide to Claypot Cooking, by Bridget Jones [seriously!]
GARDEN AND HERB LORE
- The Complete Book of the Greenhouse, by Ian G. Walls
- Crockett's Victory Garden, by James Underwood Crockett
- Dandelion, Pokeweed, and Goosefoot: How the early settlers used plants for food, medicine, and in the home. by Elizabeth Schaeffer
- The Healing Herbs: The Ultimate Guide to the Curative Power of Nature's Medicines, by Michael Castleman
OTHER
- Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook, by Paula Gunn Allen
- Field Guide to Gestures: How to Identify and Interpret Virtually Every Gesture Known to Man, by Nancy Armstong and Melissa Wagner
- Blow a Bubble Not a Gasket: 101 Ways to Reduce Stress and Add FUN to Your Life, by Janie Walters [The book actually smells like bubble gum!]
- Cat Massage: A Whiskers-to-Tail Guide to Your Cat's Ultimate Petting Experience, by Maryjean Ballner
- The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit, by Don Campbell
ADDITIONAL READING
Also, last Saturday at our great big yard sale, I rescued a copy of "The Wind in the Willows,"by Kenneth Graham, from one of the boxes of kids books we had for sale. I'd never read it as a child, so I started on it while sitting in the shade during lulls in business that day. Just finished it yesterday afternoon.
I was surprised by the poetry of the prose and the sophistication of the vocabulary used in a book intended for children. It was first published in 1908. It's heartening to think of the respect given to the intellect of children in a book such as this, discouraging when compare with the mindless entertainment provided for children by today's media.
Today I just returned borrowed library copies of "Northanger Abbey"* and "Persuasion"* by Jane Austin. I'm in the process of reading through her works, for the first time, this spring and summer. Read "Emma"* a few weeks ago. Have checked out "Mansfield Park"* to begin this week.
[*Skip over plot summaries in these links if you don't want to spoil reading the novels for yourself.]
Though Jane Austin's books were written nearly 200 years ago, the characters described within their pages demonstrate that human nature has changed little over the last two centuries, if at all.
In this light, I'm able to view my own encounters with difficult characters less as a matter of personal bad luck and more as the inevitable result of living and interacting with others.
(c)2008 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing
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