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One Smart. One Spicy. One Saucy. All Summa. Three Roman Catholic moms in Texas insist, "It's not gossip, it's blog!" Five Minute Friday By MamaT on June 17, 2011 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) I have been reading a wonderful blog called The Gypsy Mama . Every Friday she does a really cool thing--she gives you a writing prompt and tells you to go at it for 5 minutes. No hesitation, no editing. Just GO for 5 minutes. I think this sounds like a wonderful idea, so I'll be trying it out over the next few weeks. Today's prompt is: HOME. Ready.............. Go! +++++++++++++++ Home,home, home. So many sayings, so many memories. I've been going through boxes of pictures. And I means big old honking boxes of pictures. They were Mom's and she just saved EVERYTHING. But I've been most interested in trying to look *into* the photos. To see what my childhood home looked like. See if I could remember what it felt like, smelled like, tasted like. It's almost like peering around the corner of the pictures and stepping into that world again. I remember my childhood home's kitchen. The push buttons on the stove. The washer and dryer running. The piles of papers everywhere because not one of us ever learned how to clean as we went. Evaporative air conditioning, so that it was only cool if you sat right under the vent. One telephone with a LOOOOOOOOONG cord that reached into the bedrooms. The piano in the living room that everbody ran their fingers along as they walked out the door. First boyfriends who sat on the couch and watched TV with us and shyly pecked me on the cheek on the porch when they left. Oh, home. And all that it means....... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Stop. What does home mean to you? Booking Through Thursday By MamaT on June 16, 2011 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) Today's real question on BTT is about e-books, and I am still cogitating about them, even though I have, and love, my Nook. That's for another post. Since we haven't done a BTT entry in, like, forever, I decided to take an earlier week's question: Do you ever feel like you're in a reading rut? That you don't read enough variety? That you need to branch out, spread your literary wings and explore other genres, flavors, styles? Yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's why I'm always listening for what other people are enjoying that they are reading. I have a younger friend who is into fantasy in a big way, and it's not a genre that I've ever been particularly drawn to--other than, say, Lord of the Rings or Narnia , if those count as fantasy. When she put a fantasy novel in my hands and said, "Want to try this? I really liked it." I was tempted to say no. But she is such a dear, and we really share a lot of the same perspectives on things (albeit mine are more staid and OLD!). So I took a flyer on it and completely enjoyed the book. I still don't read fantasy. But a good book is a good book, and I'm happy that someone opened my eyes to something that was out of my box. What about YOU? Read anything I should be reading lately??? Music for Your Monday By MamaT on May 2, 2011 8:14 AM | Permalink Just something to get your heart pounding this rainy North Texas morning. We went to see The Chieftains when they were in Dallas and has an amazing and glorious time. But look who all has played with the Chieftains! First, I love me some Earl Scruggs. And banjo! And Allison Krause sings Molly Ban : : Emmylou Harris sings Lambs on the Green Hills : But we'll end with Cindy by the Chieftains and Ricky Skaggs: Happy Monday, ya'll! Whatcha Reading? Wednesday By MamaT on April 27, 2011 10:37 AM | Permalink Well, it's been awhile since I did one of these reading updates. Since I cannot go back to the last one and bore you with everything I've read since then---oh, ok, I could, but I won't --I'll just give a quick update of the few latest things I've read. Mike and Psmith in the City by P.G. Wodehouse. These are the first two books in the Psmith series. Mike is basically a book about the English school experience of two young men, the Mike of the title and Psmith, the "p" being silent in this case. It is about cricket, too, and I had to go read the rules of cricket (and watch some cricket on YouTube--isn't the internet amazing?) to really get into the book, but once I did, it was quite amusing. Mike's father falls upon hard times, so in the second book, he has to go to work at the bank instead of going on to University. Psmith follows and carries things along in his very, um, unique style. You run into evil bosses, socialist soapbox orators, and all kinds of cricket players. Wodehouse is probably an acquired taste that not everyone has. He once remarked that there were only 2 ways to write: as if everything mattered or as if nothing mattered, and he chose the second. I find him immensely funny and refreshing. I've got two more in the Psmith series on my Nook and I'll be popping into them over the summer. Besides the widely acclaimed Jeeves novels, Wodehouse also wrote a series about the inhabitants of Blandings Castle with one of his funniest characters--The Efficient Baxter. One of the scenes in the first Blandings book had me laughing so hard I nearly cried. Priceless, and highly recommended. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I am not normally a reader of fantasy literature. I don't know why, it is just a genre that I never read much in, beyond, say, The Lord of the Rings . A young friend of mine gave me this book to read, one she thought was extremely well done. I cracked it open with more than a little trepidation. I really dislike it when someone gives me a book that they loved and I think, "Huh, wonder what the big deal is about this ?" That wasn't the case with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was amazed that it was actually a first novel. It is very long--probably too long--but it is a page turner and keeps you interested in what will happen to the characters. It is the story of Kvothe--a hero of some sort--told in his own words to a Chronicler. So we only learn the pieces of his life a little at a time. Kvothe is the son of traveling troupers, used to performing and singing and moving about from place to place. Kvothe's parents, indeed his whole troupe, are killed by mysterious demon-like bad guys--the Chandrian--who are more than the stuff of myths and songs. Kvothe finds his way into the University after some years living alone on the streets. There he begins refining his great intellect, making friends and enemies, and falling in love. But we don't know much at the end of 800 pages, and that's where I find fault with the author. He is genius for making a world up that we believe in. He has a main character that I care about. But he has meandered through 900 pages, and his hero is 16 or so. We still don't know how he becomes a hero and what terrible things happen to him to put him in the place he is now. Plus, after luxuriating along for hundreds of pages, the ending to this book seems tacked on and abrupt. But it was good. Good enough to make me want to read the second book. Good enough for me to pick up some different fantasy works and try them out. So I recommend, with a few reservations. And finally, because it is obviously my nature to be an eclectic reader: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I don't know how I missed these novels as a girl. Lord knows I read plenty in the same genre. But I picked the first couple of books in the series up at the last used book sale. After the long haul of Lent and Holy Week, I wanted something young, fresh, hopeful to read. The story of the orphan Anne Shirley and her adoption by the old brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla was just the tonic I was looking at. Anne is always falling into trouble, but she has a good heart and an exceedingly good outlook on life. I would have loved this book as a 10 year old, and I love it now as a grownup. Mega thumbs up on this one. I'm on to Anne of Avonlea next. How 'bout ya'll? The Jesuit Gu...