Random Finds

In this best of all possible worlds, people turn up on my doorstep with exciting and curious books - just the sort for which Village Books is known. In addition to a large new trove of knitting books, some great non-fiction came through the door this weekend.

• An Arctic Boat Journey by Isaac Hayes, 1820, hardcover, very good condition (especially for its age) with 2 fold-out maps.  Slight tearing on maps.  Little foxing.  Tight binding with gilt still showing, blind embossed. Exciting old book on one of my favorite topics.  Sorry, no pictures yet.  $99.00 plus shipping.
• Die Pessach-Hagadah, 1929, printed in Austria in gorgeous color.   Calligraphic Hebrew text, with German translations.  Numerous full-page brilliant illustrations. Third edition. Good - some pages coming loose, tears at top & bottom of decorative cardboard covers. Oversized. $30.00 plus shipping.

     

• Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Vol. XXIV - July to December, 1887. Good - chipped, brittle leather spine, black & white marbled cardboard covers. Oversized.  Lavishly illustrated with both chromolithographs and engravings.  A few pages loosening, otherwise intact.  Beautiful. $45.00 plus shipping (very heavy).

 Frontispiece: Any Port in a Storm

• California and the Grand Canyon of Arizona, Fred Harvey, 1914.  This lovely, full-color book is softcover and bound with blue cord at the spine.  The color photos within show a California most of us have never seen, including an image of the Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Harbor prior to the building of  the Golden Gate Bridge.  Those of us with ties to California will treasure this book. Good, cover edges tattered all around, firmly bound & bright. $18.00 plus shipping.

SOLD!

Of course, I always keep more fiction in stock than you can shake a stick at (and that's a LOT, isn't it?) including new titles like The Help, and Homer & Langley (both hardcover); and old favorites like Cranford; novels by Michael Chabon; one of my personal favorites, Water for Elephants; and many other delightful reads. I've got  biographies of Edith Wharton & Henry James, memoirs by Jill Coorain & the endlessly amusing Bill Bryson, plus every John McPhee I can lay my hands on.

So stop by! The season for reading is now! Tues - Sat 10-5. Sundays by appointment or chance.  IF I'M NOT OPEN, it's that pesky employment again!

 

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

I'm not sure whether I found this book or it found me.  Mrs. Palfrey goes to the Claremont because she is old.  The Claremont is what we would call "Independent Living", although it is also a hotel, where, occasionally, a "rather noisy little band of commercial travellers"  or other temporary guests will invade.  It is economical, well-located in London, and serves sensible, unvarying food.  The regular inhabitants, including Mrs. Palfrey and the one male resident, Mr. Osmond, are tenderly drawn by the author.  There is comedy, but these are not comical characters.  Dignified and idiosyncratic, the Claremont regulars pass their days waiting for the daily menu, gossiping about one another, knitting (oh yes!), awaiting visits from relatives and walking about the  neighborhood.

The novel was originally published in 1971, so that the setting is a London where the young are discovering freedoms that no generation before them has enjoyed.  It was republished by Virago Modern Classics in 1982.  The author, Elizabeth Taylor, was an aclaimed British novelist who wrote thirteen novels and four volumes of short stories before her death, at age 63, in 1975.  The introduction to the Virago edition I am reading describes Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont as Taylor's "penultimate" novel.

I needed this book.  At my regular Thursday knitting circle, I was browsing the used book shelves of our library, as I always do, and it dropped into my hand.  At home, the email inbox on my laptop was stuffed with lacerating messages from several of my siblings accusing me of incompetence in the management of my elderly father's affairs.   I didn't (and still don't) know where this outburst originated, but understood clearly enough that what my brothers, at least, were advocating was Dad's removal to his own "Claremont Hotel".


I began to read my "new" book that night, to try and slide my mind toward sleep.  I expected a light comedy of manners.  Instead, I got insight into the elderly mind - not insistent information as in a nonfiction "help" book or a doctor's summation, but the interior of Mrs Palfrey's mind, described by Taylor in a compassionate, no-nonsense, often rueful murmur.  

My heart simply contracts with love and pity as I continue to read the book each evening.  This passage, from Chapter 10, particularly struck at me:

     Full summer; and Mrs. Arbuthnot left the Claremont.  It was going downhill, she said.     Trippery people coming at random.  It was not the place she had once known.  "We used to have bridge," she said wistfully. "A dowager countess stayed here."  In truth, Mrs. Arbuthnot had become incontinent, and in the nicest possible way, which in the circumstances could not be very nice, had been asked to make some other arrangement. 

We don't understand the old.  We begin to, at around age 50. But as long as we can move freely without pain and the intimate fear of it, remember most things easily and have control over our own bodily functions, we cannot understand them.  

I don't know where Ms. Taylor is taking her Mrs. Palfrey.  I haven't finished with her myself yet.  But I do know that my father will remain with the people who he loves & who love him for as long as I am able to manage it.

This book is highly recommended.

     


    

Books: DEAD or ALIVE?

Karen Jelenfy via Maine Magazine: This is absolutely wonderful! Share it!

Penguin turns traditional thought on its head: "The Future of Publishing" - 5 Blogs Before Lunch

daveibsen.typepad.com

The folks at Penguin books had a video produced for an internal presentation that's truly brilliant in its message and how it is presented. The intent was to make viewers think differently about the future of the publishing industry. It...

Re-Opening news!

Tomorrow, March 6th, Village Books will be open from 10 am - 2 pm to celebrate Saturday's great weather! Come & visit! Winnie & Lucy love company!

NOTE CHANGE:
GRAND RE-OPENING 10 am, Saturday, APRIL 10th!!!

NEW BOOKS, NEW BLOG

A huge number of "new" books have just tumbled (along with the leaves) right through my door, including a mint copy of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a fascinating novel & best-seller currently being read by Washington's book group.
Two "new" audio books are in: The Secret Life of Bees and Morality for Young Girls (a #1 Ladies Detective Agency book).
Brand new titles from Knitting Out Loud include The Secret Language of Knitters and Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines, both warm & funny. These are well-priced at 14.95 & 19.95 respectively and make great gifts. You don't have to be a knitter to listen to and laugh along with these wonderful audio books.

More titles:
Praying for Sheetrock by Melissa F Greene (non-fic), "a beautiful & compelling story of a small Southern town's awakening to civil rights and the courageous black man who led the call", $6;
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott, one of my personal favorites - Lamott writes about the "soft" topics - spirituality, motherhood - in an uncompromising, rueful voice, $4;
Selected Poems of WH Auden, anything by Auden is a score!, $6;
The Flame Trees of Thika and it's sequel The Mottled Lizard by Elspeth Huxley, classic autobiography of Huxley's African childhood, $6 each;
Collected Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, stories that are "rich & startling" by one of the world's greatest writers, $4;
and a bunch of cool additions to our mystery section.

I am currently looking for: anything by Annie Proulx; Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo; vintage knitting & spinning books; current audio books in great condition; anything about small farms, off-the-grid living, goats & such-like.

Lastly: I am starting a NEW BLOG, called My Life With Knitters, inspired by the many wonderful, creative, hard-working people that I've met since I re-entered the fiber world
about 2 years ago. I will be profiling designers, small business owners, mentors & friends who have helped to propel me on my way. These are fascinating people, making inspiring choices with their lives (and their dollars). Please read along & comment!

Bookstore hours are CRAZY: call ahead (845-2133), email (kjelenfy@fairpoint.net) or stop by on a Saturday or Sunday between 9 am & 3 pm, the surest times to see me. Don't forget to say hi to Winnie & Lucy, our adorable cashmere goats!