Thanksgiving thoughts

I have always loved Thanksgiving.  Maybe it is because I was born on Thanksgiving day, but I don't think so.  Thanksgiving epitomizes all that is good and sacred and wonderful in our lives.  Each Thanksgiving I think back on past ones, and rejoice that I am able to celebrate another with loved ones. 

We consider ourselves especially fortunate, because in our later years, instead of shrinking, our family is growing.  We came to grandparenthood late, but that has made it all the more wondrous for us.  When Steve married Marie, March 2004, we became instant grandparents to Isaac.  He was a great first. He took us into his life and love, and we began to appreciate the joys of being grandparents.  In July 2006, rambunctious,  energetic, funny, funny Eric entered our lives.  He keeps us on our toes.  Last November, 2009, beautiful, sweet Emily came to bless us all, and we thought, completed the family.

However, life has a way of surprising us, and this year Jeff came into our lives, and he and Paula will soon be husband and wife.  He is a delight, and a perfect match for our Paula.  We have met his family, and will share Thanksgiving with them this year.  Our lives just get more exciting and fuller each day.

It is a shame that there are not as many Thansgiving books as there are Christmas books.....if you know of any good ones, please share those titles and authors with readers of this blog.  No doubt we all read stories of the first Plymouth Colony Thanksgiving, and that celebration has shaped us in ways we don't even know.    Several years ago  another professor and I led a literary tour to New England, and part of that trip was a Pilgrim style feast at the Plymouth historical site.  We were very glad that we have today what we have.....but that was an intriguing peek into the early settlers' lives, and we have much to thank them for.

Growing up, my big chores were to polish the silver, set the table, and help clean up.  Then, when my own family came, I did the cooking and hosting.  When our two were in high school, we had numerous teen age guests, sometimes we didn't know how many we'd have, but it was exciting.  A couple of years about 10 of us sat around the table after dinner cutting snowflakes for Christmas decorations......each of us trying to be exceedingly creative with paper and scissors.  Now, our children's generation is taking over some of the hosting and I will be preparing side dishes while my daughter cooks the turkey.....and the traditions continue.  May you all have a blessed, relaxing, tummy-filling Thansgiving.

We'll talk again afterwards.

Any good Thansgiving books?

Introduction and Invitation

Do you love to read?  Would you like to have a place to discuss your favorite books, and perhaps get ideas for good books to read?  If so, I hope this becomes a place for just that. 

I love to read.  I have loved to read for at least 67 years.....yes, since I was four years old!  Books have been my constant companions.  Some were great, some were good, some...I couldn't get through the first chapter!  But, if that happened, there was always another book. 

I also love libraries.  I remember the first book I ever checked out of a library: it was the school library of Harriet B. Sayre Elementary School in Chicago, and the book was a child's biography of Mozart....a yellow binding with black figures on it.  I worked in the school library in junior high school and in the college library for four years of college.  I consider libraries the bulwarks of civilization.  When I travel, I visit libraries!  So, that's a little about me. 

I just finished a mesmerizing, wonderful book about 1941, the year before the U.S. entered World War II.  The name is "The Postmistress" the author is Sarah Blake.  The author pulled me into the story and never lost me.  There are three major female characters, all separate from each other at the beginning of the book, and the way Blake brings them together is profound.  One lady, Irene,  is postmaster of Franklin, Massachusetts (the last town on Cape Cod); the second, Frankie is a war correspondent in London who travels across Europe riding refugee trains for CBS; and the third is Emma, the young wife of the town doctor.  Each woman comes alive, and I was invested in all their lives.  The characters live.

I learned more about the immediate pre World War II era than I had known, and felt like I was back there and then.  Noone had recommended this, I just happened on it at, yes, the LIBRARY!!! 

What have you read that you like?  Let's talk.

Carolyn