This was our first book for our new Classics Books Discussion group at the Library. Meeting on Thursdays, once a month at 1 pm, we are choosing the books from the Big Read sponsored by The National Endowment of the Arts. We had a small group for our first discussion, but there is promise there, as people have shown an interest. We talked most about our own insecurities, our competition with others, and the American dream of acquiring wealth and what it means. All the characters in the novel were flawed in their own way. We find out that Gatsby is driven to New York to acquire his dream girl, Mrs. Daisy Buchanan, married to Tom Buchanan. After going off to the first World War, when he comes back to Louisiana, he finds that Daisy and her husband are on their honeymoon. He has to win her back by acquiring wealth and social status. He buys or rents the house across the Long Island Sound, to stare at the green light at the end of the dock at the Buchanan home. We discussed whether Jay Gatsby would ever really fit into Daisy's world. Just as Myrtle would never really stay with Tom, or that he would even take her permanently. Nick decided that the Buchanans are just careless, running away to avoid the truth if it embarrassed them. Conspiring together over the kitchen table, Nick notices the intimate world they live in that Gatsby will never be able to separate them. Gatsby is stunned. He is so sure that Daisy will call, he is still not realistic at the end. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald when he is just 29 years old, it seems so sad that the prominence this novel has achieved could not have been realized while he was still alive. Much of Nick is Fitzgerald, always the boy looking on, from early school to his Princeton years, he was socialising with the wealthy, but never quite meeting the mark. His whole dissolution with the wealthy types is portrayed in this novel extremely well. I think is is as great as everyone says, and his writing is poetry, and it is the type of novel I love to savor and revisit. Our next novel for November 17th will be The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, about the restrictions on the classes during the Gilded Age in New York.http://www.neabigread.org/books/greatgatsby/
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This was our first book for our new Classics Books Discussion group at the Library. Meeting on Thursdays, once a month at 1 pm, we are choosing the books from the Big Read sponsored by The National Endowment of the Arts. We had a small group for our first discussion, but there is promise there, as people have shown an interest. We talked most about our own insecurities, our competition with others, and the American dream of acquiring wealth and what it means. All the characters in the novel were flawed in their own way. We find out that Gatsby is driven to New York to acquire his dream girl, Mrs. Daisy Buchanan, married to Tom Buchanan. After going off to the first World War, when he comes back to Louisiana, he finds that Daisy and her husband are on their honeymoon. He has to win her back by acquiring wealth and social status. He buys or rents the house across the Long Island Sound, to stare at the green light at the end of the dock at the Buchanan home. We discussed whether Jay Gatsby would ever really fit into Daisy's world. Just as Myrtle would never really stay with Tom, or that he would even take her permanently. Nick decided that the Buchanans are just careless, running away to avoid the truth if it embarrassed them. Conspiring together over the kitchen table, Nick notices the intimate world they live in that Gatsby will never be able to separate them. Gatsby is stunned. He is so sure that Daisy will call, he is still not realistic at the end. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald when he is just 29 years old, it seems so sad that the prominence this novel has achieved could not have been realized while he was still alive. Much of Nick is Fitzgerald, always the boy looking on, from early school to his Princeton years, he was socialising with the wealthy, but never quite meeting the mark. His whole dissolution with the wealthy types is portrayed in this novel extremely well. I think is is as great as everyone says, and his writing is poetry, and it is the type of novel I love to savor and revisit. Our next novel for November 17th will be The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, about the restrictions on the classes during the Gilded Age in New York.http://www.neabigread.org/books/greatgatsby/
Monday, October 10, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Sock Knitting
Branching out of my comfort zone and will try something new at the libray. Teaching sock knitting. The five needle, knitting in the round will be the technique I will teach.
The yarn I will be using is
Debbie Macomber's Petal Sock Yarn:
Inspired by the softness of fresh petals, Petals Socks is a wonderful blend of fine merino and angora "with added nylon for strength" the perfect combination for soft and warm socks. Available in 9 tonal self-patterning prints and Machine Washable!
Yarn Details: Yards: 462.00 Grams: 100.00
Yarn Composition: Angora - 20% Nylon - 30% Super Wash Fine Merino - 50%
1 - Super Fine Weight Yarn
Knit STS: 6.75 - 8.00
Crochet STS: 5.25 - 8.00
Recommended Needles (US):
1.0
2.0
3.0
Recommended Hooks (US):
B-1
C-2
D-3
E-4
Socks
The yarn I will be using is
Debbie Macomber's Petal Sock Yarn:
Inspired by the softness of fresh petals, Petals Socks is a wonderful blend of fine merino and angora "with added nylon for strength" the perfect combination for soft and warm socks. Available in 9 tonal self-patterning prints and Machine Washable!
Yarn Details: Yards: 462.00 Grams: 100.00
Yarn Composition: Angora - 20% Nylon - 30% Super Wash Fine Merino - 50%
1 - Super Fine Weight Yarn
Knit STS: 6.75 - 8.00
Crochet STS: 5.25 - 8.00
Recommended Needles (US):
1.0
2.0
3.0
Recommended Hooks (US):
B-1
C-2
D-3
E-4
Socks
Monday, June 14, 2010
blogging
Here it is a beautiful day, the air is working at work, and I am enjoying this magnificent day. It's Flag Day, our neighbors were up early to Raise the Flag at 8 a.m., So there we were, outside to Raise the flag, celebrate flag day, with a new flag, and John playing his trumpet. They had installed a new flag pole and wanted to made a production of it's induction. The cute little boy next door was peeking out his curtain at the riduculous neighbors. I think his name is Hayden. My husband said we needed to go out and make a memory, so we did.
I was up early to make fruit pizza for Carol's birthday, or I would have slept through the whole thing.
I was up early to make fruit pizza for Carol's birthday, or I would have slept through the whole thing.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Summer 2008
I am reading a Jodi Picoult book, Nineteen Minutes. It is very engaging, the story of a community wracked by a school shooting that leaves ten people dead, and the shooter in jail. The author creates an omnipresent view of the effects of the shooting on everyone, examining the community years before and the effects of friendships and relationships gone askew. Jodi Picoult has wide appeal for her character developement and story line.
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