Relationship Blues

Ah, love.  Amour.  You have finally found the One.  In the first throes of love, everything is new.  You can't get enough.  How did you live without this?  You give friends the brush off, wanting to spend the evening or weekend with your new love.  You forget to eat, forget to sleep, the new love is so fascinating.

But after a while things start to get stale. Slowly but surely, the newness wears off.  It's the same old same old.   Yet you persevere.  Maybe this is just a phase.  Don't all relationships go through this? Things become too comfortable, like an old pair of shoes. Predictable. Dare I say, boring?

Let the library set you up on a blind date. Through the month of February, the Superior Public Library will give readers a chance to go on a blind date with a book.  We select the books, wrap them up, and you check them out.  When you get home, rip off the cover to discover something new.

What's beneath the covers?

It is very easy today for a person to stay in their own comfort zone.  Only enjoy classical music?  or country? or hip-hop?  iHeart radio, Spotify, Sirius-XM will all give you more of the same.  Want to watch sports all day, or game shows, or only listen to a certain slant on the news?  Very easy to do with so many channels available.  Gone are the days of 3 major networks, when, because of limited offerings, a person was exposed to so much.  Ed Sullivan had the Beatles and Elvis Presley on his stage, but he also had the Russian Moiseyev Dance Troupe, an interview with Fidel Castro,and Topo Gigio.  If you wanted to see one of these, you were exposed to all of them. Talk about broadening your horizons.

Yes, you can go to Goodreads or Amazon to find the next thing to read.  Computer algorithms are very good at giving us more of what we already like. And sometimes we all go on a binge, reading every book ever written by M.C. Beaton or whoever.  But a steady diet of the same old same old gets dull. Blind Date with a Book is a low-stress way to get out of your reading comfort zone.

 But really, the whole library is a low-stress way to get out of your comfort zone.  If you only watch the new release movies, wander down the documentaries aisle.  Check out a few jazz CDs.  Walk past the new fiction to the non-fiction.  Or just head over to your usual aisle, close your eyes, and put out your hand.  Check out whatever you happen upon.  It's all there for free. You won't be out anything except a little time.  And you just might find a new love.

How to Cook a Turkey-The 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Cookbook Extravaganza

We can all picture it-the Norman Rockwell Turkey. Huge, enough to feed 20 people with leftovers for a week. A glistening golden brown skin. A moist, juicy interior. There is Grandma bringing it out from the kitching. The loving family gathered around oohs and aahs over it as Grampa expertly carves it all up.

Norman Rockwell was an artist. Art does not always imitate life.  A  huge turkey will never cook evenly in a home oven.  That golden perfection of a skin will hide an under-done inside. Grandma will never be able to lift that platter. (Really, take a look at the size of that bird in the original. Maybe scrubbing all those floors by hand and kneading homemade bread made Grandma strong.) As for the rest of it, you know your family better than I do.

But the question remains: How to get that perfect turkey? There are as many ways to cook a turkey as there are cookbooks. Brined-wet or dry. High heat . Slow heat. Deep fried. Spit cooked. Stuffed/unstuffed.  What is the home cook to do?

My old Betty Crocker cookbook says you can cook the turkey from frozen.  Just remove the giblets about an hour into the cooking time.  My mother told me they used to put the turkey in the oven at very low heat the night before Thanksgiving and it was ready to eat around noon.  This might be similar to a recipe found on the Nourished Kitchen blog: 225 F for 12 hours, then 375 F for 1 1/2 hrs until the turkey is done, basting it every 2-3 hours. The instructions can be found here http://nourishedkitchen.com/slow-roast-turkey/

Nigella Lawson's turkey recipe in 'Feast calls for 2 hours for a 10 pound bird,. It involves starting the roasting off with the turkey upside down at 400 F for 30 minutes, down to 350 F for the rest of the time, and turning it back right side up for the last half hour. I don't know about you but turning a hot turkey up and down sounds like a recipe for disaster. Of course Nigella is English and the English don't really do Thanksgiving.

Rick Browne in 'Grilling for all Seasons' says you can pretty much grill the whole meal, He allows 20 minutes/lb if you are grilling the bird, 3-4 minutes for deep fried.  This means my 10 pound turkey will be done in half an hour or so.

'Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well' by Sam Sifton suggests cutting the turkey up into its parts before roasting.  This method takes 45-60 minutes for a 12-18 pound bird.  I can see the merits to this method, but it just doesn't appeal to me for obvious reasons-see the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving above and replace the whole bird with a platter full of parts.  Just doesn't seem right.

This is just a sampling of what's out there.  Check out the library's display of Thanksgiving cookbooks for all the help you need.  Or you could always do the smart thing and have it catered from the deli. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Of Blanket Forts and Books

It's official.  The kids went back to school this week.  The air has that crispness in the mornings that we love, but also secretly kind of dread, because we know what's just around the calendar corner.  I won't go into it here.

Even though I am long out of school, this time of year always brings me back to those first days before the start of a new academic year.  The anxiety dreams before school started-I can't find my locker ANYWHERE!  I am late for ALL my classes!  My alarm never went off, I am LATE FOR SCHOOL!  I didn't sign up for any of these classes, WHERE IS MY SCHEDULE?!  Lots of variations on the panic dream. And of course, just lots of stress in general, from "Who will I be sitting next to?"  to "I hope everyone likes this John Travolta folder." I think that sense of anticipation which gets so ingrained in you as a child that you can't  help but feel it still as an adult when September rolls around.

For myself, and many of my colleagues here at the library, reading was (and is) a great escape from a stressful world.  We all have that one favorite book memory, the one that can take us back in time to lying on the bed reading late at night, or making a fort out of blankets, with a glass of milk and some cookies, and a good book.  Someplace to hide from the world and enter a new one.  I asked some of the staff here what their favorite childhood book memories are, and the answers follow.

The 'Golden Stallion' series by Rutherford Montgomery. "I had a Breyer horse collection lead by my own Golden Stallion, a dashing palomino, and his mare buddy, Trey Spot, an appaloosa also from the
series. I spent many hours in horse fantasy with my pal who had her own favorite Breyer, Black Stallion. Golden and Black had many adventures together."

 'Daughter of the Mountains' by Louise Rankin.  Momo's treasured Lhasa Apso Pempa is stolen by traders travelling the Silk Road into India.  Momo follows them, trekking through Tibet, Nepal,
Bhutan, and India to find her beloved dog.  "I was absolutely fascinated by the exotice locale.  And I also wanted very badly to drink some butter tea, and acquire a golden Lhasa Apso for myself. I'm still on the lookout for a prayer wheel."

'Black Beauty' by Anna Sewell.  "Not only did I love the book, but my grandmother would tell my sisters and me stories from the book if she was babysitting for the evening. I still remember  listening to Grandma as she regaled us with Black Beauty's adventures."

"Here is my favorite book when I was very young (Rabbit Hill).  I loved animals for as long as I can remember (like a lot of people; nothing special there).  I remember little Georgie rabbit getting hit by a car, but recovers, and the book has a happy ending for all the animals.  Just resonated with me."

Other staffers mention 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle, the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Drew Mysteries, and the Happy Hollisters.

And finally, here is a story that a staffer related to me.  The other evening, 2 staff members were talking about how their absolute favorite childhood book was "Anne of Green Gables."  A child came up to the desk with some books to check out, and one was "Anne of Green Gables."   When she was asked if she wanted to check it out she replied,http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/5-steps-to-building-your-own-epic-blanket-fort#4j501y0 "No, this is my own personal copy."  So good to know that another generation is discovering these wonderful books, and making their own memories about them.  I hope she went home and built a fort to read it in.

Click here for ideas for your own blanket fort! http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/5-steps-to-building-your-own-epic-blanket-fort#4j501y0

The Great American Road Trip

The romance of the open road is mythic in America. Just get in the car and drive.  Pack a cooler, stop at the wayside for lunch, and let the road take you wherever. North, South, East, West-the destination is not as important as the road to it.

Growing up, the Road Trip was eagerly looked forward to in my family.  At first they were short trips-camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Glacier National Park in Montana.  Then my older sister moved to the West Coast, and our Road Trips became much longer. Planning was almost as fun as going.  We would haul out the Rand McNally road atlas and plan our route. The drive itself was enforced down time, at least for us kids-no cell phones then, no CD or DVD players, no Sirius XM radio. Only the view out the window, whatever was on the local AM station, and some books.  Lots of napping. The afternoon ritual of finding a motel that my mother approved of.  Later on I made the same trips with my own kids.  A little more stressful than I remembered, what with having to be in charge of packing, but I had a great time.  And still, no entertainment other than the talking robot 2XL that my son had, and lots of books and napping. The Great American Road Trip is quantity time, but it somehow morphs into being quality time, too.

The Lewis and Clarke Expedition has to be the first Great American Road Trip.  They set off with the purpose of finding and easy water route to the Pacific and came upon many unforeseen obstacles and fortuitous meetings. 'Undaunted Courage' by Stephen Ambrose is a riveting account of their journey, and the inspiration for many a road trip following in their steps.

'Travels with Charley in Search of America' by John Steinbeck is another great Road Trip book.  Steinbeck took his dog Charley and drove across the US in a camper in 1960.  For a different take on roughly the same time period, try the classic 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac.

The Road Trip has been used as the basis for lots of movies.  Here's just a few:

• Little Miss Sunshine
• Paper Moon
• It Happened One Night
• The Road movies of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope

If you want to plan your own Road Trip, I recommend 'Let's Go Roadtripping USA.' It covers every region of the country and parts of Canada, too.  Reader's Digest's 'Off the Beaten Path' will guide you to our country's hidden gems. And I still use the Rand McNally Road Atlas.  The Internet is great for researching specifics, but an atlas is full of possibilities.

 And as usual, your library has everything you need to plan and carry out your own Road Trip.  But I wouldn't recommend planning too much. Let the road be your guide.  Drive Safely!

Summer's Guilty Pleasures: in Praise of the Gothic Novel

Lying out on a blanket in the backyard, a Shasta pop near at hand. The scent of Johnson's baby oil (for getting a tan-no sunscreen in those days).  A good friend to share the blanket with.  And a book, most likely some gothic romance. These are the things that marked summer days when I was growing up.

With the warmer weather of summer beckoning,  many of us turn to lighter reading.  Beach lit.  Chick lit.  The romance novel.  Fantasy. We all have our guilty pleasures and summer is the best time to indulge in them.  One of mine is the gothic novel.

What is a gothic novel?  They have a few characteristics.  They generally have a real sense of place-most often a house-the more run down the better.  The protagonist is isolated, physically or metaphorically. There is a sense of decay, either in location (the aforementioned house) or circumstance (a family that has come down in the world).' Wuthering Heights' is a classic gothic novel.  Other, newer examples include:

     'Rustication' by Charles Palliser.  The protagonist is a young man who has returned home after being kicked out of Oxford for mysterious reasons, only to find murder and suspicion rife among the village's inhabitants.

 'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice.  If you've been reading this blog awhile you will know that his is one of my favorite books.The story takes place in modern day New Orleans The heroine is a brilliant young doctor who returns home after the death of her mother and learns about her family and the strange hauntings of their decrepit Garden District home.

     The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  Set in post war Warwickshire, England , not only is the family house, Hundreds Hall, in decline, but a whole way of life for the upper classes of England is on the brink.

But I have to admit that my favorite guilty pleasure is still the gothic romance novel. I was first introduced to this genre with the book 'My Brother Michael' by Mary Stewart. It has all the hallmarks of the.gothic romance:

 the Young Heroine-Camilla Haven, British subject;
 the Exotic Locale-Delphi, Greece;
 the Handsome Stranger-Simon Lester, searching for his brother who has gone missing;
 and, of course, a mystery to be solved by our heroine.

To a 12 year old this was all pretty sophisticated stuff. Romance, mystery, British dialogue. Like Nancy Drew, but all grown up. I wanted more. I devoured Ms. Stewart's other novels: Nine Coaches Waiting, Touch Not the Cat, This Rough Magic and more.  I also discovered M.M. Kaye and her 'Death in' series: Death in Zanzibar, in Kashmir, in Kenya, in Cyprus.  Today when I see a battered paperback with a fuzzy drawing of a young woman sneaking around I am invariably drawn to read it.  I stash these away for vacations or long twilight evenings on the porch.

 

Whatever your guilty reading pleasure, get out a blanket, pour yourself a beverage, and settle down for a good read. And don't forget the sunscreen.

In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of...

Gardening!  The past few days it truly has felt like Spring. We hit 50 on Monday.  I even caught a glimpse of grass in my yard, which lead to thoughts of my garden.

My garden came into being on a summer day a few years ago.  On a whim, I asked my teenage son if he and a friend would dig up a strip of yard along the sidewalk. Of course, I would pay them. He said yes, but knowing how teenage boys operate I figured it would get done sometime in the fall. This would give me time to plan-how to prep the soil, lay out a well-coordinated flower plot, and plant the following spring. Well they must have needed the money, because two days later I had a muddy strip of yard 20 feet long and 4 feet wide dug up. My timetable suddenly moved forward.

Now what?  I knew peonies would do well in the heavy, clay based soil since the house came with many well-established plants. And I love the big, overblown flowers with their luscious scent.  Peonies would form the backbone of the garden. But where to go from there? I hit the library's gardening section.

My hands down favorite gardening book is this one:

Don't judge a book by it's cover. This is  'Easy Care Perennials' by Patricia Taylor. In my opinion the best book for a lazy gardener.  Every suggestion she gives for our climate is thriving. Some of them have taken off so well that I need to divide them (thrifty).If you are at all hesitant about your ability to garden I highly recommend this book.

My other go-to gardening book is 'English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners' by Margaret Hensel. Lots of inspiration as well as practical planning tips. If you dream of living in England but you live in the Midwest, your garden will have you thinking you live in the Cotswolds. Tea is in order, I should think.

If you need further help, the Douglas County Extension website has lots of information.  http://douglas.uwex.edu/.  The Lake Superior Master Gardener Association is another good local resource http://lsmga.weebly.com/  I especially look forward to their plant sale in June. In the meantime, hit the shelves at the library.  Our gardening section is huge and there is something  for everyone-just look for the blue 'gardening' sign. And be sure to check out our display of gardening themed books.  In no time you'll be enjoying your lovely new outdoor space. We'll ignore the weeding for now.

It's the New Year-Try Something Different

                                       

                                           'Well, so that is that.  Now we must dismantle the tree,
                                            Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes-
Some have got broken-and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school.  There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week-'

That is an excerpt from one of my favorite poems, W.H. Auden's "For the Time Being".  I think it captures the post-holiday mood perfectly-back to routine, which is somehow depressing and reassuring at the same time. This poem speaks to me.

 For whatever reason, many of us never get past Shel Silverstein in the second grade so far as reading poetry goes. But if you scan the library's poetry section (which is rather vast), you will find some interesting items.

I recently found this little gem on the library shelves:

It may say 'Minnesota' in the title, but any Northlander will appreciate these lines from "Spring in Duluth" by Elvira T. Johnson:

                                   I cry aloud that wind and sleet and storm
                                   Have been my bosom cronies much too long!

This is exactly my mood come April.

If you're a hip cat you might prefer the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets anthology 'Beat Poets'.  How about this by Lew Welch-
                               
                          I know a man's supposed to have his hair cut short,

                          but I have beautiful hair.
                          I like to let it grow into a long bronze mane.

Well, I can hardly blame him! Hard to believe that this was once counter-cultural.  How the times have changed. The Everyman's Library Pocket Poets is a nicely edited series with poems on lots of subjects-you may have seen the Christmas Poems edition in my last post. Also they have nice covers. (Yes, I know I shouldn't, but sometimes I do judge a book by its cover.)

For a nice selection in one volume, Garrison Keillor's 'Good Poems' is very accessible.  You may have heard some of these poems on The Writer's Almanac on NPR.

So give poetry a chance.  Ask any of the librarians where the poetry section is. Hopefully you will spend some happy time browsing the shelves on your next visit to the library. I hope you find something that speaks to you. 

                         by Librarian Mary