For my regular visitors, if you find that this blog hasn't been updating much lately, chances are pretty good I've been spending my writing energy on my companion blog. Feel free to pop over to Moving On, and see what else has been going on.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Latest library list

I've been rather neglectful of this blog - too busy trying to keep up with the other one. I missed last week's list entirely, though we tried to be disciplined about in and take out very little, since we still had so many books at home.

Today, most of those had to go back, though there's still a few we're not done with yet. Which reminds me. I made a mistake on one of the titles of the books Eldest took out. Discarding the Past was actually supposed to be Discarded Science. How I goofed to badly on the title, I have no idea.

It was supposed to be a small trip today. Eldest wasn't even really planning to take out anything at all. She'd even asked to stay home, since we missed her at-home day yesterday (she's asked for a couple of days a week where she, at least, doesn't have to go anywhere, but sometimes we can't quite accommodate her). She only had one book on hold ready to be picked up, and that was all she needed.

Yeah, right. And I wasn't going to pick up too many books, either. The only one of us that showed any discipline in that regards was Youngest, who's still working her way through Protecting the Gift, whenever she gets a chance.

So here is this week's list.

Eyeglasses Retrospective; Where Fashion Meets Science: A very cool look at eyeglasses throughout their history. Some of the first glasses were amazingly beautiful works of art!

Reforming Women's Fashion 1850-1920; Politics, Health and Art: an interesting look at women's clothing in that time period, including how and why certain fashions were banned (like the Mother Hubbard look - apparently, women weren't supposed to go out in public wearing their "work" clothes).

The Courage to Heal; A guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: after reading Creating Hysteria, Eldest just had to look this one up, and see what it was that caused so much damage. Beyond, that is, that claim that virtually all women have been sexually abused; especially if they couldn't actually remember being abused, because not remembering was proof that they were abused.

Dressing Up Vintage: a look at vintage clothing from the 1940's to the 1990's. 1990's clothes are vintage already???

Shoes: Eldest picked this one strictly for drawing references. :-D People have put some pretty darn funky things on their feet over the centuries.

Historic Costuming: This book is aimed for the theatre. I'm definitely going to have to take a closer look at the clothing from the middle ages for our next Medieval Day.

Women's Headdress and Hairstyles in England from AD 600 to the present day: Some of today's more excessive hair styles don't hold a candle to what women used to do to their hair in the past! *L*

Corset; A Cultural History: Wow. Even men wore corsets. I didn't realize that!

Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: This was something that caught Eldest's eye as she was heading out. All sorts of neat stuff, from creatures, gods and goddesses, to mythical lands.

The History of Bread: It was probably silly of me to grab this book - it's quite large and heavy, but hey - we didn't have to take the bus home. (We haven't had a car again for long, but it's *really* being appreciated. Even with having to pay for parking.) I was actually leaving when I spotted this one and had to grab it, too. There's just something about the history of bread that fascinates me.

Old Cook Books; An Illustrated History: Okay, am I sad, or what? I'm taking out history books about old books. *L* Actually, this traces the history of cooking in general, too. Would you like a recipe for boiled boar? It has one. :-D Stuffed dormice, too. How 'bout boiled electric eels? Grilled Womb? K, this is one very cool book! Either that, or some one sick puppy. ;-)

Simply Thai Cooking: I'm not actually the most adventurous of eaters. I like my familiar Polish food, as well as typical Canadian fare. It's only been a few months ago that I tried Thai food for the first time, and I LOVE it. I'd love to try cooking it at home. I think I need to get a wok, though. Ah, well. I wanted to get one, anyways.

The History of Cooks and Cooking: Man, you'd think I was obsessed with food or something. *L* Actually, I like this sort of light reading to get my mind off my more cerebral stuff, like the research I've been doing on global climate. Cookbooks are my brain breaks.

Specials: Ah, finally - book three of the trilogy. I've had it on my hold list for quite a while.


We got quite the selection in the audio/video section.

A Matter of Life and Death; Magic Moments and Dark Hours in the History of Medicine: This is a two dvd set that includes The First Breath, The Wild Years, Mid-Life and Aging and Death. This promises to be very fascinating.

Electric Edwardians; The Lost Films of Mitchell & Kenyon: Covering the amazing find of original footage of ordinary people going about their lives, filmed for traveling showmen to use at fairgrounds, theatres and town halls.

The Future is Wild; 5 Million Years - Ice World and 100 Million Years - Hothouse World: We've read the books these are based on, and I think we may have borrowed one of these dvd's before. I haven't been able to figure out why these futuristic projections are always so... negative. *L*

Rumpole of the Baily featuring Rumpole a la Carte, Rompole and the Summer of Discontent and Rumpole and the Right to Silence. We're really enjoying this old series.

The Ultimate Cruise Collection: I must've been a fool to grab this 6 dvd set. When will I have time to watch them all? Especially with all the others we've got?? It includes Alaska, Hawaii & Tahiti, Mexico, Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean and Northern Europe.

As if the movies weren't enough, I grabbed more music cd's.

Celtic Harp Airs & Dance Tunes from Robin Williamson
The Faerie Isles; Celtic Harp Music from Carol Thompson
The Peacock Feather; A Celtic Quest, also harp from Carol Thompson
Legends of the Scottish Fiddle, various artists
and finally, two from Loreena McKennitt; Elemental and An Ancient Muse. I had the pleasure of seeing Loreena McKennitt performing live for HRH, Queen Elizabeth II when she was in Winnipeg for the unveiling of the newly restored Golden Boy statue. What an amazing talent.

I think we're set for the next while. What do you think? ;-)

Friday, January 04, 2008

Books list

I've been very lax in our library lists lately! Though we've been actually keeping more of our books longer, therefore not replacing quite so many of them late. Today was an exception - I went a bit overboard on the audio and video. *L*

From our last trip, Eldest is still working on Does God Play Dice, the Mathematics of Chaos and, among the , plus she's got a few tattoo books kicking around. We picked up a stack of photography books for Dh. Of the dvd's, we've renewed one on learning to knit and crochet - Youngest crochets, and Dh has decided to learn how to knit recently. I've finally started reading Heat, How to Stop the Planet from Burning and have Unstoppable Global Warming next on that list.

For today's list, we've got:

HiarTalk; Stylish Braids from African Roots - I spotted this one among a rack of gardening and cooking magazines. My thanks to whoever dumped it there. *L* Youngest's hair is getting so long, and my fingers are itching to play with it. She might even let me do it. *L*

Learn to Knit - a beginners book I picked up for Dh.

Beadwork - a magazine demonstrating a wide variety of techniques. I may need to subscribe to this!

How to Live in the Woods - partly a survival book, it's also for short or long term stays in the wilderness with only some basic equipment.

The Myth of Ability; Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child - I put this one on hold after seeing a recommendation for it in our local hs'ing newsletter. I think it's as much for me as for the kids. *L*

Savoring the Past; The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789 - personally, I would've preferred an earlier time period, though I still think it'll be a fascinating look at culinary history.

Discarding the Past; Ideas that Seemed Good at the Time... - Eldest picked this one. I just had to giggle at the title! Descriptions of scientific "truths," both ancient and modern. Should be very interesting!

Creating Hysteria; Women and Multiple Personality Disorder - another eclectic choice by Eldest. It's about the scandal during 1985 to 1995, when over 40,000 Americans, mostly women, were diagnosed with MPD.

Evolutionary Wars; A Three-Billion-Year Arms Race, The Battle of Species on Land, at Sea, and in the Air. An evolutionary look at how animals attack and defend.

Fabric of Society; A Century of People and their Clothes, 1770-1870
Costume Reference; History of Men's Costume
Five Centuries of American Costume
(I think those are pretty self explanatory)

Read My Lips; A Cultural History of Lipstick - You know, it's pretty scary to read some of the ingredients lipstick used to include - things like lead and mercury. Ah, the things we do for beauty...

Next, our dvd's. We'll be watching a lot of tv in the next while, if we're going to see all these!

Eldest grabbed Walking with Cavemen (I think we may have already seen that one), Prehistoric Park; Extinction Doesn't Have to be Forever, and Runaway Universe; Beyond the Big Bang - See the Future of the Universe.

I grabbed Rumpole of the Bailey, Season 2, vol. 1. I've never heard of the series before, but it looked interesting. I also got Tsunami; The Wave That Shook the World, and two Brother Cadfael's, The Devil's Novice and Monk's Hood - they're on dvd now! They don't have a lot of extras, but I want to check them out. Oh, and Sky High. Dh recommended that one. We'd already watched it. The girls found it embarrassingly painful. *L*

And finally, the music cd's. Eldest picked something from Black Sabbath (I don't have the case to read off the title). Me... I went all weird on myself.

Respighi - Ancient Airs and Dances - Trittico Botticelliano, feat. Jesus Lopez-Cobos Orchestre deChambre do Lausanne

Bach - 3 Sonaten fur Viola da Gamba und Cembalo - Kim Kashkashian (Viola) - Keith Jarrett (Cembalo)

The Renaissance Album (various artists)

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade - Capriccio Espagnol - Orchestre Symphonique do Montreal - Charles Dutoit

Musique do Foire - Fairground Music - Gasparini Organ

Villa-Lobos: Forest of the Amazon - Renee Fleming - Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra - Chorus of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institution

Night of the Mayas - Music of Silvestre Revueltas

and finally, Brahms - Stravinsky - Violin Concertos - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Hilary Hahn.

That's a lot of music to listen to! :-D