What’s Happening in March?
Read Across America Day
Each year, young and old alike celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2 in conjunction with Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Join your fellow bookworms at Half Price Books for a special Dr. Seuss Story Time on Saturday, March 2, at 3 pm. The Humble location will be reading Horton Hears a Who and crafting clover pinwheels. Regular story time is every Wednesday at 10:30 am.
HPB Humble Book Club
Looking to expand your reading pleasure? Join the discussion at our HPB Humble Book Club. We meet the first Monday of each month from 7:30 to 9 pm.
March – Lords of Finance
April – On Chesil Beach
Latte Art
A Tidbit from Miss Golightly
This is my second attempt at latte art! And it tastes good 🙂 – JJ Golightly
What’s Awesome on Audio
FOR KIDS… actually, for adults too!
Title: The Bippolo Seed
Author: Dr. Seuss
Read by: Neil Patrick Harris
Until I went browsing through the audio book section of our public library I had never heard of The Bippolo Seed. I love Dr. Seuss, he’s pretty much always awesome… but the clincher for me picking up this edition to enjoy at home with the kiddo… why, Neil Patrick Harris of course!
Most child stars are annoyed by being referred to by the role that gave them their big name… I know Mark Wahlberg hates being called Marky-Mark and Maureen McCormack has made it quite clear that she is not Marcia Brady. But seeing Neil Patrick Harris’ name on that Bippolo Seed box, all I could think (and I apologize to NPH in advance!) was: Doogie Howser reads Dr. Seuss! What could be better!? Nothing, I tell you, nothing.
The fabulousness of Dr. Seuss combined with the sheer genius of Neil Patrick Harris is awesome. I love stumbling upon these kinds of wonderful things, because I’m certain my child is as tired of hearing my reading voice as I am of reading sometimes. I don’t feel so guilty passing the buck when I know someone as boisterous and Harris is taking the lead.
As for the “other lost stories,” there are a ton of talented stars featured on this audio book. Angelica Huston was surprisingly wonderful. Surprising not because she’s untalented or anything, just because I confuse her with Sarah Douglas and always imagine it was Huston, not Douglas, who played Ursa in Superman II (don’t ask me why)… and Ursa always appropriately gave me the creeps.
The point? Whether you’re a kid or a grown up, it’s never too late to hear The Bippolo Seed on audio.
Economic Education
Lords of Finance Discussion Part One (I am writing this only 150 pages into a 508 page book. I anticipate a series of reviews, much like how I handled Les Miserables in 2012, except over a short amount of time. I will have the book completed no later than March 4th, 2013)
Title: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
Author: Liaquat Ahamed
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Economics/ History
Length: 508 pages
Inevitably I read something and find about ten more things I need to read. My constant lament on this blog is why we didn’t read more source documents in school. So is it any wonder at all that while reading Lords of Finance for the HPB Humble Book Club I discover that I absolutely must have a copy of The Economic Consequences of the Peace
In addition to that title, I find myself longing to dive into more history books on the time period as well as full length biographies on a few of the people mentioned. You wouldn’t expect that kind of revelation out of reading a finance book, but Ahamed has a way of turning a phrase that makes interest and exchange rates, and the people directly responsible for their flux, fascinating.
I think this would be a great title to hand to a high school student during an economics course, it would definitely make the class more interesting. I enjoyed my economics classes in college, taught by a clever little man with a wonderful accent (Scotland? Liverpool? Not sure) and had a great sense of humor despite teaching all his courses at eight o’clock in the morning. But what I remember of high school economics was pretty cold and void of any kind of spunk. It was filled with boring formulas, worksheets, and a fairly heavy textbook that we read very little of. Obviously, the formulas are handy and important, but couldn’t there have been a little more meat? A little more perspective? A little more history?
Maybe living in a recession has weighed heavily in how I view the dollar, but I would like my child to grow to understand how much the economy effects politics, social customs, humanity, and art.
Idolizing money is a concern and a problem, but seeing how money fits into our lives and the bigger picture is important. So often we are taught that money is separate and that we should keep it that way, but the truth is money is never separate. Our history is riddled with money driven politics, so why is our history class and our economics class separate? Our religions are filled with instructions on what to do with our money, our philosophies rooted in our thoughts on whether to live richly or poorly and how rich and poor are defined. I think the history of banks, the dollar, and what your views are on the matter should all be addressed while you are learning how to calculate it, not as a completely separate train of thought.
Ahamed’s Lords of Finance was recommended to me by a customer at Half Price Books, it was actually chosen for the Humble location’s book club by that same customer, and I am so glad I took his advice. We will be discussing the book as a group March 4th, 2013, starting at 7:30 pm. Additional members are welcome, so if you are interested in the book and are in the area, please join us. Treats are provided.
So far, the book is enlightening and informative, it covers a lot of the banking information provided in the documentary Zeitgeist without the haze of conspiracy theories and blasphemy. I imagine we will have a lot to discuss when we meet. Until then, I plan to share my own thoughts here.
Other titles in my personal Economic Library:
Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
Thorstein Veblen’s Conspicuous Consumption
Craig Karmin’s The Biography of the Dollar
Thomas Stanley’s The Millionaire Next Door
Please share any titles you think should be added from a historical, philosophical, or sheer financial perspective.
It’s a Love Fest
Featuring all my favorite lovey-dovey pics from peeps I know…
Hannah in England
Will Staney proposing to his wife at a Foster the People concert.
Hubby and Me at a Party
If you don’t think this is sweet, there’s something wrong with you… Emily & Michael.
There we are again… The Klemms 2006
Andrew and Krystal
Valentine’s Book Love Art
If you don’t already, you should really follow Bookshelf Porn on Facebook. Click the image they shared today (Valentine’s 2013) to visit their page.
Valentine’s Day News
Weekly Lo
w Down on Kids Books
Title: Slugs in Love
Author & Illustrator: Susan Pearson and Kevin O’Malley
Join Herbie and MaryLou, two slugs on a farm, in their quest to find each other and true love. They write poetry and love letters back and forth on garden hoes and barn doors, leave messages in strawberry patches and on tomato vines. It’s really cute and a household favorite of ours year round, but is especially wonderful when celebrating Valentine’s Day with small children.
Also, tonight at Half Price Books Humble…
As it is the second Thursday of the month, we’ll be journaling at the table in Metaphysics and Health from 7-9 pm. Bring your love or come alone, either way it should be fun to journal with art together.
Featured on the right is a Valentine’s piece from a journaling/art blog I found today.
If you’re not into journaling, you should still come into HPB Humble before the Valentine’s display comes down. The Store Inventory Merchandiser did a pretty rockin’ job on it:
My Classical Re-Education Part 2
Kiddo and I started the year reading The Confessions over breakfast… we got caught up in The Magic Tree House Adventures and that got put on the back burner, but I intend on putting a good dent in this list this year, so we need to get back on it. Feel free to join me.
The Story of Me: Autobiography and Memoir
PART TWO of The Well-Educated Mind
Augustine – The Confessions
Margery Kempe – The Book of Margery Kempe
Michael de Montaigne – Essays
Teresa of Avila – The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself
Rene Descartes – Meditations
John Bunyan – Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Mary Rowlandson – The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Confessions
Benjamin Franklin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Henry David Thoreau – Walden
Harriet Jacobs – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself
Frederick Douglas – Life and Times of Frederick Douglas
Booker T. Washington – Up from Slavery
Friederick Nietzche – Ecce Homo
Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf
Mohandas Gandhi – An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Gertrude Stein – The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Thomas Merton – The Seven Storey Mountain
C.S. Lewis – Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
Malcolm X – The Autobiography of Malcolm X
May Sarton – Journal of a Solitude
Aleksandr I. Solzhenistyn – The Gulag Archipelago
Richard Rodriguez – Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Jill Ker Conway – The Road from Coorain
Elie Wiesel – All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs
Anakalian Whims 
The Price of Excellence
February 20, 2013 at 4:20 am (Education, Reviews) (Appleton, Bel Kaufman, books, college, education, May Sarton, novel, professors, reviews, social commentary, students, teachers, The Small Room, universities, Up the Down Staircase)
I have a love/hate relationship with education. Or should I say formal education.
I love to read, I thoroughly enjoy research. But most my teachers over the years would tell you I was a horrible student, if they even remember me. My work was typically mediocre, often done at the last minute. The ones that do remember me probably remember a fairly obstinate and argumentative irritant, not really someone you want filling out your back row.
Yet, I find myself longing for the chance to go back and get a frivolous Master’s degree. I watch movies only to be wooed by the montages of students in glorious libraries. I fall in league with nerds like Rory Gilmore and Felicity Porter and lean toward books like May Sarton’s The Small Room
.
Rather than an emotional feminist vs. anti-feminist story one would expect from the setting, The Small Room is about exploring the many nuances of excellence in education… and the price of obtaining it for both teachers and students.
Frankly, education is such a moving and sensitive topic. Who isn’t brought to tears by Dead Poet’s Society? Who doesn’t stand and applaud Mr. Holland’s Opus or The Emperor’s Club
? Who doesn’t watch Finding Forrester on repeat?
Then on the counter balance… Who doesn’t laugh their butt off reading Kaufman’s Up the Down Staircase and acknowledge how utterly familiar it sounds?
While reading, I imagined Appleton to be a smaller version of Wellesley.
May Sarton’s The Small Room is delightful and truthful. Without full on hating on education altogether, it takes into careful consideration the heavy weight being a teacher or a student can be on a human being and their relationships.
I have a 1976 Norton Library edition (featured above) and I fell in love with the book immediately. Long before I picked it up to read it, Sarton’s novel was part of my personal collection. I remember being so struck by the green leafy cover, the musty smell, and the promise of imaginary academia while holding the book in the used bookstore. The novel has lived up to the promise of its cover (and its smell!) and I think any alumni or teacher would appreciate the ethical discussions within its pages as Sarton and her characters attempt to define the price of excellence.
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