REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

A Wi-Fi Visit From the Tumwater, WA Public Library

Now, if you want next to perfect weather, you need to be in Tumwater, WA today. I write to you from the Tumwater Timberland Library, which is about a mile from my sister's home. It's here I can get wi fi.

In fact, I've become so accustomed to dropping into libraries when I travel when where I'm staying doesn't have wi fi, but then libraries are my home away from home anywhere I go. 

This library has a very small Friends of the Library section, but I always find great books and magazines here and I did today.

I arrived yesterday and my sis and I joyfully reunited after a 10 month in between of seeing one another. You've heard me talk about Betty before--an 85-year-old larger-than-life kind of woman. She has cooked up a storm for us and last night we watched back-to-back movies of her choice, neither I had seen before. Nights in Rodanthe was a little too schmaltzy for me, but the scenery sure was beautiful. Flywheel is a Christian movie she really wanted to share and it had its humorous side along with the ageless message. The actors in Albany GA were priceless. Tonight it is Gran Torino, a film I'm looking forward to.

Betty took us to the Red Wing Casino today as she loves to play the slots and often arranges bus tours there of her senior complex members.Casinos are not my thing but I got some great photos of her at the slots and then we had a humongous and extremely reasonable buffet. She always delights in showing me the beautiful countryside although building still seems to be going on here.

Tomorrow we will visit some of her friends in the afternoon, after her weekly hair appointment. Needless to say, I'll spend that two hours back in the Tumwater Library. By the way, I'm reading Shanghai Girls and it is fabulous!

If I'm Not Here I'm at the Beach

On Saturday I took the Redondo Beach Historic Homes Tour one week early as I'm docenting and they had a caravan tour just for us. I had great fun and took lots and lots of photos. If you live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, this tour on June 27 will be one you won't want to miss. I'll post a photo now and then. 

I love signs people who live at the beach put in their windows and I saw several. I'm into minimalist posting, at least today, so all I can say is this is a weekend of gratitude on so many levels. Friday was the talent show, Saturday was a fav artist's garage sale, the home tour, and I volunteered at the Malaga Cove Library in the afternoon. My son Tony and his family moved into their new house in Palos Verdes and last night I attended a party honoring a very dear and old friend's 70th birthday. And today, at the beach, the sun came out. Just living by the ocean is a gratitude within itself. 

Elin A. Vanderlip: A Palos Verdes Legend Still Larger Than Life

If you live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, you have probably heard the surname Vanderlip. Financier Frank A. Vanderlip bought 16,000 acres of undeveloped land on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1913 with the dream of creating a community not unlike the Italian Riviera. In 1924 he built his own home, Villa Narcissa, and that’s where his son Kelvin’s widow, Elin Brekke Vanderlip lives to this day. She turned 90 last weekend. 

Mrs. Vanderlip also released a book his past year about her life and the history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It is called “Eccentric, Obstinate and Fabulous” and on Sunday, June 14, we had a tea in her honor, as well as a discussion and book signing at the historic Malaga Cove Library. She has indeed had a very colorful life and her memory for names and places are still sharp as ever. 

I was photographing the event for the Malaga Cove Library to put on our Friends of the Library weblog, but following are a few photos of her.

Daily Breeze columnist John Bogert wrote a wonderful article about Mrs. Vanderlip’s birthday party on Tuesday, June 9, which you can read at “Age hasn’t reduced RVP woman’s stature.” You can also see photos of Mrs. Vanderlip and her home, Villa Narcissa, by Daily Breeze photographer Brad Graverson in his online Capture Gallery.  They are well worth looking at. Her home is a landmark high above Portuguese Bend and you can get the feeling of it by clicking above.

Though I am not and will never be a local legend, it's nice sometimes rubbing elbows with those who are. 

Books for Troops: How You Can Make a Difference

The Chairman of the Book Sales at Peninsula Friends of the Library recently sent me a copy of a book plate he ran across while sorting books. 

Looks like World War I and here we are in 2009 and the Books for Troops programs are alive and well still. Our Peninsula Friends of the Library has been sending paperback books, videos, magazines and CDs to troops all over the world since 2004. 

They go to military hospitals, USO facilities, Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force units in 43 countries. This program is an off-shoot of book donations made regularly to the library district. More than 55,000 items weighing more than 12 tons has been sent so far and everything is prepared for shipping by the library volunteers. 

It's the shipping that costs money, so periodically our regular used book customers or library patrons will support our program specifically. Only $15 can defray the cost of sending out 40 books. The two main volunteers not only pack the boxes and address them, they shlep them to the post office and wait in line to ship them. 

I imagine that your own libraries have Books for Troops programs, too, so check your local websites. And all libraries always welcome donations of books and medias for their used book sales. As most of you know who read here, I'm a huge supporter of public libraries. 

Our Peninsula Friends of the Library even keeps a scrapbook of letters and e-mails we receive from our service people who heartily send their thanks. One young man in the library district actually uses his birthday gift money to support this program. If your library doesn't have this program and you are interested in defraying expenses for mailing, make your check out to: Books for Troops and mail it to Malaga Cove Library, 2400 Via Campesina, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274. 

By the way, and this comes as no surprise, the most requested genres are science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, Westerns and adventure. 

"Loving Frank" and Ken Burn's Documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright

Who among us does not know of the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright? Though I have various architects whose work I’ve admired over the years, it’s his that has fascinated me the most. I knew little about his life, however, until I read Nancy Horan’s “Loving Frank” this week.

Mamah Borthwick Cheney was FLW’s mistress for several years and this novel is written from her point of view. Mamah and her husband, Edwin Cheney, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them in 1903 in Oak Park, IL. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. You'll love the Random House website for this book which even uses the fonts Wright liked when he incorporated sayings in his buildings.

"Loving Frank" was a very compelling read and immediately afterwards I went to the library and checked out Ken Burn’s 1998 PBS documentary “Frank Lloyd Wright” and now I want to read his autobiography and his biography. Though I have seen some of his buildings over the years, my interest is piqued to see even more. I’ve seen the Guggenheim in New York (but haven’t been inside), Hollyhock House in Hollywood, and Taliesin West outside Phoenix. 

I see there is a whole array of documentaries available about him at the library and about specific houses and buildings he designed.

As an older person myself, it was amazing to see how creative and bright he remained until the end of his life. He died at 92 in 1959. He also had some deep flaws and an ego a mile wide, but most highly creative people I've known are far from perfect.

I’m a sponge for learning new things so this novel has started me out on a journey. It helps that my two young grandsons love to build things, too, and that Fritz, who will be five this fall, wants to be an architect, he says. He loves to show me a book with many architectural styles in it and he knows most of them by name already. I sure as heck wasn't remotely interested in architecture at that age. 

Incidentally, for those of you who live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, the famous Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes was designed by his son Lloyd Wright. I often go there to write. 

What I Did During the Power Outage

When I got home from work last night about 6 p.m., the garage door wouldn’t open. Frustrated, I assumed my battery had died.

So, I parked Sophia on the street and came in through the front door for a change. That morning I had put chicken breasts in the Crockpot to make Cookies’s personalized dog food  and she was barking her readiness for a meal. The Crockpot was cold and the chicken uncooked. My Inner Critic loudly said, "Dumbo." Hmmm.

Next I flipped the on button to the kitchen TV and nothing happened. Then I looked around the room and saw that none of the clocks were on and the refrigerator was off. So was the stove. Now and then switches will pop off on the electrical panel, but everything looked OK. I did a general trip and reset just in case. Nada.

I tried to phone my neighbor to see if it was just me, but the phone didn’t work. I rang her doorbell and it didn’t ring. I banged on it. When she came to the door, she reminded me that the electric company had sent a warning that the power would be off until 4. There were trucks working in the next block and Cookie and I trotted up and asked the guys what was up. The old transformer they were replacing ended up being problematic and we were in for the long haul. 1200 customers were affected and they hoped to have it on by 11 p.m.

That’s when I remembered that I was going to update the earthquake kit after our latest shaker and other than buying the water, I hadn’t  done anything. Next I thought about New Orleans during Katrina and the big New York/Northeast power blackouts in 1965 and 2003. Our two decades of camping came to mind when we used a campfire and a Coleman lantern for light.

I have a flashlight in every room of the house, so that’s where I started knowing dusk would be coming before long. I could only locate two. I found the stash of batteries but couldn’t find the portable radio. I love candlelight so I rounded up a dozen candles to light the bedroom when dark came and got out my B&N booklight and “Loving Frank,” the current book I’m reading. I got my journal and pens out—and then it was dark. I walked Cookie and there were no streetlights, but the power company had generators going at the traffic signals. It was eerily quiet except for the guys next door listening to a ball game on their car radio. I could have gotten out my MacBook and run the computer on battery, but I decided to really experience the solitude.

So, now I’m ready to get serious about the earthquake kit. I need to replenish all the flashlights, get a new battery for the Coleman lantern, make sure the Coleman stove has propane, and get the battery-operated radio up and running.

I fell asleep reading by candlelight, and jerked awake when the power came on at 10:30 p.m. I walked the house and was happy I wasn’t going to have to dump the stuff in the freezer, but I didn’t turn on the TV or computer. At a time when I have been observing my personal behavior, it was a real wake-up call to see how much I depend on the power grid—how much we all do.

Anne Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea Still Relevant Today

Only those of us who are a "certain age" probably recall air pioneers Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In my growing up years, however, both of them were household words. My dad worked in the aircraft industry and the kidnapping and subsequent murder of their first child in 1932 was a piece of history every American who lived in those times knew about. 

In 1955 Anne wrote Gift From the Sea--and in 1955 I graduated from high school, but I was too young to appreciate this book then. I never read it seriously until the early 1970s when I was raising three young children and wondering if I would ever have any private time again; the book really helped me clarify myself, motherhood, marriage and my relationships with others. I reread it periodically; I have a paperback, underlined, grungy to the max, from 1965. I often give this book to young women just entering the middle years of marriage. 

So, I was delighted when my book club chose this book for today. My book club is an unusual one; it was started by several young women as a spin off from my school's formation of The Friends of the Library in the mid-1990s. When I partially retired, I was invited to join. I am the oldest woman in the group. Today was a walk through the 1950s with several women dressing the part; all the snacks were '50s appropriate, and the beverages were served in those metal tumblers we all used then. The moderator had checked out several 1950s cultural books and we heard the highlights of those years, including the top literature of that decade. Another woman had done research on Anne and gave us the timeline of her life. Then we launched into the book. 

If you haven't read it, Anne shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life is relevant to men and women at any stage of life, but I suppose mostly women.

I was delighted to find an old NPR All Things Considered interview with Anne's youngest daughter Reeve after her mom's death in 2001 which was deeply touching to me. Half of my book is underlined, but in the section called Oyster, she writes about long-term marriages. This passage has stayed with me:

I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and awkward and ugly. it is slate-colored and unsymmetrical. Its form is not primarily beautiful but functional...

But is it the permanent symbol of marriage? Should it -- any more than the double-sunrise shell -- last forever? The tide of life recedes. The house, with its bulging sleeping porches and sheds, begins little by little to empty. The children go away to school and then to marriage and lives of their own... What is one to do -- die of atrophy in an outstripped form? Or move on to another form, other experiences?

Married 27 years, divorced 23 years, I still mourn the idealism of what I thought marriage was. I still wonder if I just moved on to another form, or if I had been more patient, our problems would have ultimately resolved. But--I don't dwell on this a lot. I've had such a wonderful life, but a very different life than I had expected.

Gift From the Sea was written well over 50 years ago, but all of us in book group today were amazed at how relevant the book still is today. 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

A few months ago I read John Boyne's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and though it was a difficult read, I was mesmerized by the tension of innocence and evil as it is a story of the holocaust from a child's point of view. The librarians at school had talked about it and I knew I had to read it. I read a few chapters and put the book aside for a full week; I wasn't sure I was up to it. Then I dived in and read it to the very end. It has haunted me ever since. 

Tonight I watched the 2008 film version of the book as I was curious how film makers would create the film. It followed the book pretty closely, but I'm glad I read the book first even though it was a spoiler. You can check it an IMDB if you haven't seen it and want to. I rented it from Netflix. The film was done remarkably well and I go to bed with such sadness tonight. But the holocaust is history and it is important that young people today continue to know the truth about a very dark period for humanity. I have been to Berlin once, only two days after the wall came down, but I have never been to Auschwitz or any of the death camps. 

This work was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. 

I highly recommend both the book and the film and would be very curious to hear what you thought if you have already read it and/or seen the movie. 

I just keep thinking about the January reinstatement of a holocaust denying clergyman, Bishop Richard Williamson, by the current Pope. When I first read about this in the Huffington Post I felt deep shame and anger. After sitting with "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," I feel really outraged. In fact, I didn't follow the news about the Pope's visit to Israel and Palestine recently. I know he has apologized for the Church's behavior during World War II, but I'm not sure I believe it when he supports someone like Bishop Williamson. 

 

 

 

Can You Imagine a World Without Books?

"Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child." Anonymous

When I see a child reading with great concentration, I realize that in spite of outer appearances, all is well with the world. This is my grandson Henry who will be six years old next week. He and his brother Fritz are voracious readers as are his dad and mom. Trips to the library are frequent to bring home a new stack of books. I cannot even imagine a world without books. 

Handle With Care: Jodi Picoult’s Newest Book

" I have read every book Jodi Picoult has written and each time I am amazed by her ability to draw the reader into the story. Two other favorite fiction writers are Alice Hoffman and Anita Shreve. They write about relationships and love, marriage, family, and the problems associated with every day life. Of course, their problems are often unusual and I learn about things I did not know.

When I saw Picoult’s newest book, “ Handle With Care” in the Palos Verdes Library’s rental collection on Friday, I checked it out for two weeks. Released March 2, "Handle With Care" is a hard back with nearly 500 pages. I have been so mesmerized, however, that I’ll probably finish it tonight, only five days later.

At Picoult’s website, this synopsis about “Handle With Care” appears:

"When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.

Handle With Care explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, at which point should an OB counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? How disabled is TOO disabled? And as a parent, how far would you go to take care of someone you love? Would you alienate the rest of your family? Would you be willing to lie to your friends, to your spouse, to a court? And perhaps most difficult of all – would you admit to yourself that you might not actually be lying?"

By the way, if you are a dedicated book reader, I strongly recommend joining "Good Reads," a website where you can list books you've read and exchange information with other book lovers. It's easy to use and a great way to keep track of what you are reading and want to read.