Like you, I am a reader. My early memories including reading Little Golden Books, going to the library, falling in love with series like the Betsy-Tacy books, Nancy Drew mysteries, and the Little House on the Prairie books. My favorite genres to read now are children's books (still/always), mysteries, and historical fiction. One of these genres frequently contains banned books. Sadly, that category is children's books and young adult novels. The top 10 banned books for 2014 were:
1) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
2) Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi 3) And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell 4) The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison 5) It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris 6) Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples 7) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini 8) The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky 9) A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard 10) Drama, by Raina Telgemeier
A few of the classic children's books that frequently appear on banned book lists include:
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling The Witches by Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl Forever by Judy Blume Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson The Giver by Lois Lowry Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Charlotte's Web by E.B. White Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak The Lorax by Dr. Seuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katharine Patterson
Banned Book Week was founded in 1982 by First Amendment activist Judith Krug. It was designed as a way to promote intellectual freedom in libraries, schools, and bookstores. You can find out more at the official Banned Books Week site. The site includes a great list of events (state by state) including read ins, panel discussions, and celebrations of books. As a reader, I encourage you to find out more about Banned Book Week and celebrate your freedom to read! Are you doing anything to celebrate Banned Book Week? I'd love to hear from you in the comments, below.
I always say that I don't like falsetto voices in music - and then I have to amend and add that I really like Lou Christie and Frankie Valli. "Lightnin' Strikes" was a number one hit in 1966, and was written by Lou Christie and Twyla Herbert. Lou Christie was born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Saccoin 1943 and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was an aspiring recording artist since his teens, and had his first hit in 1962 ("The Gypsy Cried"). I remember this song from AM radio when I was a very little girl. I loved it then and still do. The recording is below, for your listening pleasure.
Hi vintage friends! I went a little crazy listing some retro goodies at auction last week. As a result, I now have a record (for me!) 156 auctions running right now on eBay. I hope you'll stop by and peek at them: Birdhouse Books on eBay
You'll find some unique items, including: Cookbooks, like Savannah a la Carte and It's Dessert Time (a 1952 Jello cookbook):
Nonfiction, like Sojourn in Savannah (guide book with map) and Make a Merry Christmas (a 1970's vintage holiday crafts book from Current):
Unopened craft kits, like this project to embroider a Christmas angel ornament (Leisure Arts):
Vintage travel brochures, like the Fernbank Science Center (Atlanta) and Parrot Jungle (Miami):
Roadside Americana travel postcards - amusement parks, motels, restaurants, and more! Pictured here: Children's Fairyland (a story book land in Oakland, California) and the Imperial Motel (Daytona Beach, Florida).
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my shop. I'll be back next week with more -- Halloween cards coming soon!
A Master Passion: The Story of Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton: Book One: Love and Liberty
by Juliet Waldron
Publication Date: March 25, 2015 Books We Love
eBook & Print; 428 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction THE MASTER PASSION is the story of the marriage of our brilliant first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and his courageous wife, Elizabeth Schuyler. It begins with a whirlwind Revolutionary War courtship at Washington’s headquarters. Conflict, however, is built into this marriage.
Betsy's passion is Alexander. While Hamilton adores his wife and children, there are times when he loves America more.
“...And hence one Master Passion in the breast
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up all the rest..." ~~Alexander Pope
Juliet Waldron has lived in many US states, in the UK and the West Indies. She earned a B. A. in English, but has worked at jobs ranging from artist’s model to brokerage. Thirty years ago, after her sons left home, she dropped out of 9-5 and began to write, hoping to create a genuine time travel experience for her readers. Juliet’s a grandmother, a cat person, and fascinated by reading history and archeology. Juliet spends a lot of time visiting other centuries, but she’s also certain she doesn’t want to live there.
Juliet gardens, bicycles and is involved in local advocacy groups. She and her husband of fifty years enjoy the winding backroads of PA aboard their Hayabusa superbike.
For more information visit Juliet Waldron's website. Juliet also blogs at Possum Tracks and Crone Henge, and you can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Goodreads.
To enter to win a paperback copy of A Master Passion & $5 Amazon Gift Card, please enter via the GLEAM form below.
Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on October 2nd. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen. A Master Passion
Dear Friends, I hope you are having a wonderful week! I am so happy that it is Autumn. The weather will be cooler and nice for longer walks. Plus, there are fun holidays to look forward to in the next few months. Hooray! I have a great question today from my friends: Barbara, her kitty Zeus, and dachshund Oz:
We have a topic for you to write about: your experiences with social media. We
have made so many wonderful connections and even some lovely friendships. There
are some things that we don't enjoy about social media (like gossip, shaming,
judgmental comments etc.) but if you are careful and choose your connections
wisely, we find Twitter & Facebook to be a really good experience. Do you
have any tips to help people & pups with this? Looking forward to your next
column.
Barbara, Zeus, and Oz, thank you for the wonderful question! My Momma and I love social media too. It is a great way to connect with family and old friends, and we have made some wonderful friends on social media as well!
I like the way you worded this: "choose your connections wisely." I think that is a great point about social media. It is very public, much more so than email or a phone call, so you have to choose who you want to connect to.
With online
time I believe it is important to trust your instincts and if people or
pups do not seem to be friendly and kind, you can just disconnect from
them. We like nice people.
I
do not have my own social media accounts (alas!), but I have still made
friends with dachshunds, dog people, and animal lovers wherever we go.
On any of the social media sites, you can search for words like: dachshund, dog rescue, etc. and come up with lots of great results. That is a good way to find pages and groups on Facebook (those are fun places to interract with like-minded pups!). On Twitter you can search by the words on their own, i.e. dachshunds, but you can also search with hashtags, like #dachshunds.
We have learned that lists make Twitter a lot more fun. For instance, you can make lists of your dachshund friends and click on that list at any time (or save the link) in order to read the latest doxie news. Momma says you can do the same thing with blogger friends, eBay friends, etc. We like the free version of Hootsuite to read our Twitter posts. A neat feature of Hootsuite is you can display all your lists side by side. Twitter can get very overwhelming quickly with the volume of posts there; this makes it a lot easier to read.
One of the biggest issues we have with social media is it is addictive! Momma sometimes sets the timer when she is checking in on our social media sites for work. That helps!
We would love to connect with all our friends on social media. I help with these pages:
