Mending, making, and sewing up rips

I read somewhere online:  "I can embroider, cross-stitch, use a sewing machine, and sew by hand to alter clothes.  If my clothes rip in a way I deem unsuitable, I can mend them.  Sewing is an art fewer people learn every year."

Once upon a time, I made my children's clothes and could do all the things that person listed.  One of my daughters wanted my sewing machine, so I haven't been doing much sewing lately.  Now I wonder how many people still know how to mend clothes.  Do you?  And do you make clothes for your children?  Or did you, when your children still lived with you?

Fiction by Margaret Atwood

Surfacing ~ by Margaret Atwood, 1972, literary fiction, 233 pages 

This novel grapples with notions of national and gendered identity, anticipated rising concerns about conservation and preservation and the emergence of Canadian nationalism.  It tells the story of a woman who returns to her home-town in Canada to find her missing father.  Accompanied by her lover, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues to her father's mysterious disappearance.  Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness.  What she really discovers is the truth about her past, her inner fears, and the strengths she never knew she had.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ at a bookstore event

Beginning

It would be a night of murder, they'd been told.  And there'd be lemon squares, too.  The group, mostly women, gathered in a half circle, some in the old leather chairs that book browsers coveted and others in the folding chairs the bookstore owner, Archie Brandley, had set up for the special event.  At the other end of the cozy loft, narrow aisles seperated wooden bookcases that rose nearly to the ceiling.  One section was crammed with mysteries, the spines straight and proud — a perfect background for the night of crime.

The Wedding Shawl: A Seaside Knitters Mystery ~ by Sally Goldenbaum, 2011, cozy mystery, 307 pages

Izzy Chambers is about to get married, but much remains to be done.  Then the wedding plans get complicated when the wedding party's hair stylist begins missing appointments.  When she's found dead, things really begin to unravel.  Rumors circulate about the stylist's past and her connection to an unsolved murder years ago.  All the Seaside Knitters really know is they must rally to find some answers, so Izzy can don the wedding shawl they're surprising her with — and replace the whispers about town with wedding bells.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Today is World Philosophy Day 2024

World Philosophy Day is an international day to be celebrated every 3rd Thursday of November.  It was first celebrated on November 21, 2002.  Celebrating World Philosophy Day each year underlines the enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual.  Critical questioning enables us to give meaning to life and action.  Philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promoting tolerance and peace.

Okay, so you probably aren't surprised that my double major for my bachelor's degree included philosophy, right?

Later in the day, I happened to read this quote from page 54 of The Wisdom of John and Abigail Adams edited by R. B. Bernstein (2002):  "What is philosophy but the study of the world and its cause?  Man is a riddle to himself.  The world is a riddle to him.  He puzzles to find a key, and this puzzle is called philosophy."

Beginning ~ at her mother's feet

Beginning

Little Thérèse sat on the floor at her mother's feet, watching the bright needle as it flew through the cloud of fine lace her mother was making.  It was a winter day in the year 1875.

Saint Thérèse and the Roses ~ by Helen Walker Homan, illustrated by George W. Thompson, 1955, young adult, 149 pages

This story from the Vision Books series for youth 9 -15 years old is a beautiful story about the most popular saint of modern times, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower."  Growing up in Lisieux, France was occasionally painful but usually delightful for Therese and her four sisters.  For practical Marie, studious Pauline, hot-tempered Leonie, mischievous Celine, and beautiful, lovable Thérèse, growing up meant growing closer to God.  The Little Flower found her pathway to holiness right in her own back yard.

With their disagreements, secrets, visits to the convent, school adventures, and romances, these five girls are an enjoyable handful for their kindly, widowed father.  But Thérèse, because she loves her family, discovers that one of her sisters might unwittingly prevent her dearest wish from coming true.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Still musing about Coke for a nickel

The coincidences continue (a week later, see HERE, where I wrote about Coca-Cola coincidences).  I was reading Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney (1996), and the main character had time traveled to 1898 (p. 74). On the opposite page, I read this:

She didn't have to figure out how to buy a ticket; her driver and the porter accomplished this. She did buy a Coke, which cost a nickel. It made her happy to buy a Coke in a glass bottle and pay five cents for it.

What I'm re-reading next

Out of Time ~ by Caroline B. Cooney, 1996, YA fiction, 210 pages

Strat, the wealthy boy with whom Annie fell in love during her first time trip to the 1890s, needs her help when he reveals her real origin and finds himself confined in a mental asylum.  The back cover says:

Annie Lockwood exists; everyone admits it.  Everyone has seen her.  But only Strat insists that Miss Lockwood traveled a hundred years back in time to be with them in 1895.  Now Strat is paying an enormous price; his father has declared him insane and had him locked away in an asylum.  When Time calls Annie back to save Strat, she does not hesitate, even though her family is falling apart and desperately needs her.  Can Annie save the boy she loves, or will her choice keep her a trespasser out of time?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.