Meier, Peg/Wood, Dave "The Pie Lady of Winthrop"

Meier, Peg/Wood, Dave "The Pie Lady of Winthrop: And Other Minnesota Tales" - 1985

How did I come by this book, a collection of reports by two Minnesotan reporters about interesting and remarkable people in their area in the eighties? Well, a blog friend of mine talked about it, her great great grandmother was "The Pie Lady of Winthrop". The book sounded interesting and I ordered a used copy (it's out of print).

These stories take me back to the eighties, to a time when most situations were very different than they are today. I wouldn't say, people like Mina Peterson who work hard all their lives and still don't stop at a certain age don't exist anymore. Let's just agree that there are fewer of them.

So, we don't just get to know this lovely Swedish-born lady who, at the age of 94 gets up early in the morning so there are fresh pies in the café. And she's been doing it for forty years, beginning after the death of her husband.

There are lots of other tales about immigrants and other folks, former slaves who get together with a huge amount of family, Norwegian-born, Swedish-born, Jewish, any kind of person that doesn't just try to live a quiet life and think about their own family but people who are there for the community.

I decided, after reading a couple of stories, that I liked the ones written by Peg Meier best. They seem to come from the heart, Dave Wood's are also good but more the style of a reporter who will write about anything. You could tell before even turning to the index that lists all the stories with the respective author.

Nice book, even though I'm not very fond of short stories. But these talk about everyday people who make a difference.

From the back cover:

"As reporters for the Neighbors section of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Peg Meier and Dave Wood have written about fascinating people and places in all parts of Minnesota. In 'The Pie Lady of Winthrop' you'll meet some of their favorites, including the powder room attendant at Murray's restaurant in Minneapolis, Cedric Adams' old troupe, the sausage makers of New Prague and a 10-year-old kid in Rollingstone. You'll also visit such places as a funeral parlor in Kenyon, two saloons in Minneapolis and the old jail in Taylors Falls."

Book Quotes of the Week

This week, I have a few quotes about education.

"Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you." John Green

John Green is always right when it comes to his insight into education.

"The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it."  Osho

Unfortunately, we all had to learn that lesson in the past years. 

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book." Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society

And that's why reading can lead us anywhere.

Find more book quotes here. 

#ThrowbackThursday. Murder in Amsterdam

Buruma, Ian "Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance" - 2006

Murder in Amsterdam. Not any murder. The murder of a director, a public figure. Why? He made a movie not everyone agreed with. He made a movie about the Muslim faith. I was talking about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel: My Life" last week. This is the guy who had made the movie "Submission" together with the Somali-born feminist, activist, writer, politician. Ian Buruma, a British-Dutch writer, tries to explain the events in his book.

The book gives a good insight into Dutch culture and immigration.

We discussed this in our international book club in December 2007.

Read more on my original posts here.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Attention! Coffee!

 

Top Twelve Tuesday ~ Book Covers That Feel Like Summer

  

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is Book Covers That Feel Like Summer
Usually, I love these topics and try to get books with a certain word in the title, this time "summer". But I've done a post like that before (see here) and I'm not a big reader of beach novels but I was surprised to see that I could come up with quite a few.

Benali, Abdelkader "Wedding by the Sea" (NL: Bruiloft aan zee) - 1996
Booth, Cathleen "Mercy & Grace on the Camino de Santiago" - 2020
Drinkwater, Carol "The Olive Farm" and further Olive Farm Books - 2001-2010
Geti, Monica "The Year of Sunshine" - 2004
Grenville, Kate "The Secret River" - 2005
Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005
Karystiani, Ionna (Ιωάννα Καρυστιάνη) "The Jasmine Isle" (GR: Μικρά Αγγλία/Mikra Anglia) - 1997
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (GE: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Nadal, Rafel "The Last Son's Secret" (E: La maldición de los Palmisano) - 2015
Stewart, Chris "Driving over Lemons" - 1999
Tucholsky, Kurt "Rheinsberg - a Storybook for Lovers" (GE: Rheinsberg - ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte) - 1912
Weidermann, Volker "Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936" (GE: Ostende - 1936, Sommer der Freundschaft) - 2014

So, my summer books took me to Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Russia. Not necessarily all countries where you think "summer holidays" but the pictures all look summer-y to me, don't you agree?

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Leroux, Gaston "The Phantom of the Opera"

Leroux, Gaston "The Phantom of the Opera" (French: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) - 1910

 

This is my ninth Classic Spin and we were given #5. And it also coincides with another challenge I take part in: Paris in July.

My niece gave this to me. Thank you, Jessica. She had received it from a friend and said she'd never read it. I said I love classics and would gladly read it. And I am always interested in reading any classic book and loved most of them. So, I put the book on my classics spin list and the number was drawn. Looks like it was the right time for it.

The description of the story says that it's riveting. Maybe I already heard too much about it before but I thought I misunderstood the word. But no, it is supposed to be completely engrossing; compelling. Well, it is a little too "fantastic" for me, a little too gothic.

Well written and the characters come to life, though I didn't really care for any of them. I love the French language and I really like the French but I seem to struggle with their literature. I have no idea why.

I like a few of the songs written for the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber but I have never watched it. There must be a reason.

We read this in our international online book club in November 2023.

Some remarks from the discussion. The meeting was started with listening to the Phantom of the Opera signature song by Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley to make a suitable gothic atmosphere. 

The original story was much more a book than expected. It had a backstory, very visual storytelling, and a scary villain. Of course with old stories like this, it had not aged so well in terms of gender equality, but the mechanics and psychology of the phantom was quite interesting.

We were happy to know the original story now, compared to just the Lloyd Webber musical version.

From the back cover:

"First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.

Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows."

Six in Six 2022

From The Book Jotter

I found this through one of my blogger friends, Emma @ Words and Peace who was made aware of it though Jo @ The Book Jotter. Jo started this in 2012, so congratulations on doing it that long and providing us with a great way to reminisce about our books of the year so far.
She has given us 52 categories from which we can choose six and mention six books that belong into those categories. (But one book can be in several lists, see her rules here).

I have tried to stick to books that I liked which wasn't always easy but I succeeded.

Six new authors to me

Adams, Sara Nisha "The Reading List" - 2021
Alvarez, Julia "In the Time of the Butterflies" - 1994
Boschwitz, Ulrich Alexander "The Passenger" aka "The Fugitive" (GE: Der Reisende) - 1939
Leky, Mariana "What You Can See From Here" (GE: Was man von hier aus sehen kann) - 2017
Shaw, Karl "Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty" - 1999
Uthaug, Maren "Before there were Birds" (DK: Hvor der er fugle/Hannahs Lied) - 2017

Six authors I have read before

Eliot, George "Silas Marner" - 1861
Harari, Yuval Noah "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" - 2018
Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace" - 2021
Orth, Stephan "Couchsurfing in Saudi Arabia: My Journey Through a Country Between the Middle Ages and the Future" (GE: Couchsurfing in Saudi-Arabien: Meine Reise durch ein Land zwischen Mittelalter und Zukunft) - 2021
Rutherfurd, Edward "China" - 2021
Shakib, Siba "Eskandar" (GE: Eskandar) - 2009

Six authors I read last year - but not so far this year
I have only included authors where I would like to read more.

Böll, Heinrich "The Silent Angel" (GE: Der Engel schwieg) - 1949/50
Follett, Ken "A Column of Fire" (Kingsbridge #3) - 2017
Harris, Kamala "The Truths We Hold. An American Journey" - 2019
Hesse, Hermann "Narcissus and Goldmund" (GE: Narziss und Goldmund) - 1930
Hislop, Victoria "One August Night" - 2020
Mantel, Hilary "The Mirror and the Light" (The Wolf Hall Trilogy #3) - 2020

Six books from authors I know will never let me down

Bythell, Shaun "Confessions of a Bookseller" - 2019
Chevalier, Tracy "The Last Runaway" - 2013
Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace" - 2021
Orth, Stephan "Couchsurfing in Saudi Arabia: My Journey Through a Country Between the Middle Ages and the Future" (GE: Couchsurfing in Saudi-Arabien: Meine Reise durch ein Land zwischen Mittelalter und Zukunft" - 2021
Rutherfurd, Edward "China" - 2021
Shakib, Siba "Eskandar" (GE: Eskandar) - 2009

Six Non-US/Non-British Authors

Enquist, Anna "Mei" [May] - 2007 - Dutch
Harari, Yuval Noah "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" - 2018 - Iraeli
Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Yevgeny "The Twelve Chairs" (RUS: Двенадцать стульев/Dvenadtsat stulyev) - 1928 - Russian
Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) "The Miser or The School for Lies" (F: L'Avare ou l’École du mensonge) - 1668 - French
Uthaug, Maren "Before there were Birds" (DK: Hvor der er fugle/Hannahs Lied) - 2017 - Norwegian
Weiler, Jan "And the puberty animal sleeps forever" (GE: Und ewig schläft das Pubertier) (Pubertiere #3) - 2017 - German

Six classics I have read

Boschwitz, Ulrich Alexander "The Passenger" aka "The Fugitive" (GE: Der Reisende) - 1939
Eichendorff, Joseph von "Life of a Good-For-Nothing" (GE: Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts) - 1826
Eliot, George "Silas Marner" - 1861
Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Yevgeny "The Twelve Chairs" (RUS: Двенадцать стульев/Dvenadtsat stulyev) - 1928
Van Dyke, Henry "The Story of the Other Wise Man" - 1896
Waugh, Evelyn "Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder" - 1945

If you like the idea as much as I do, go ahead, choose your own "Six in Six" and let Jo know.