Making Money Pratchett Style

Well, I can hardly wait - I'm biting my fingernails, waiting on tenterhooks, with bated breath - all those great expressions. For what am I waiting so anxiously? For the 36th Discworld book by Terry Pratchett, even now being processed at the local library. If my name isn't first on the hold list, I don't know what I'll do!

For those of you who are uninitiated into the wonders of Discworld, I am taking this opportunity to attempt a conversion/introduction. The more people who read Terry Pratchett, the better this world will be.

The Discworld is, appropriately, a flat, round disc-shaped planet, resting on the back of four elephants which stand on the shell of a giant turtle as it swims through space. Among the many mysteries of Discworld science is how exactly the world can turn on the elephants' shoulders without causing the mother of all friction burns. The most likely answer? Magic. Of course a world as illogical as this can't exist without a substantial magical field in place. The answer to any question of technology or history is magic. Much to the dismay of Rincewind, the Disc's most incompetent wizzard (note spelling), there is no such thing as special light sensitive paper for taking pictures of things. When you point a little black box at something and push the button, a tiny imp inside the box paints the scene for you. And when lightning strikes, it is because the gods are having a particularly bad day, not due to the build up of some unknown force in the air.

Naturally, for a world so steeped in magic, the presence of magic workers is essential. Discworld's Wizards and Witches make life easier for the average citizen, mostly by doing nothing in the case of the wizards (they don't use magic but they do it in a dynamic way, not like people who don't use magic because they can't, but because they can, they don't. It makes sense to them, and lets them eat huge meals and lounge around on tenure doing nothing and feeling very accomplished.) Of course, no mention of the wizards is complete without introducing their librarian, who loves bananas and says 'Oook', due to his unusually ape-like physiology. Just don't call him a monkey.
The witches, on the other hand, do quite a lot for everyone, but they also avoid using magic whenever possible. In their case, they figure why waste magic when good old headology (psychology) works so well? No need to curse someone when you can mutter under your breath and have them jinx themselves out of fear. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg hold local farmers in thrall - Granny by her cussedness, and Nanny by her atrociously bad jokes.

All of the Discworld is, of course, carefully watched by Death, a seven foot tall skeleton who SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS and tries very hard to understand the humans in his care. A surprisingly personable fellow who even has a granddaughter (she fills in for him on his occasional disappearances) and a pet, of sorts. Death of Rats SQUEAKS IN CAPITALS, but at least he's some company.

The Discworld is a wonderfully comfortable, familiar place, with the kinds of people you could pull off of any street here. So, go out to your local library, or bookstore (yes, we do carry them!) and start reading! First, read The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Then, go wild! And when you've worked your way through the wonders of Terry Pratchett's fabulous imagination, you can get in line behind me to read Making Money. I promise you, it will be well worth the effort!

Jessica Recommends The Phoenix Guards

It’s time for another edition of

Jessica Recommends a Book!

You probably won't like Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guards. I say that with some confidence, not because I dislike it myself, but because, statistically speaking, 9 of 11 people I’ve lent it to have returned it unfinished. Nevertheless, it is one of my favorites. Consider the following note about the geography around the Imperial Palace:

“At any rate, the aforementioned Vallista reign saw, in addition to the construction of the Imperial Palace, the creation for the first time of forts and fortresses (the distinction, certain comments by the Lord of Snails notwithstanding, having nothing whatsoever to do with the presence of breastworks, nor the size of buttresses) along what was then the Eastern border. The construction of the Great Houses around the Imperial Palace did not begin until the Second Cycle, with the reign of Kieron the Younger, of the House of the Dragon. He ordered the building of the Great House of the Phoenix, opposite the Palace, as a tribute to Empress Zerika II, or possibly as a bribe to persuade her to relinquish the throne – history is unclear on this.”The Phoenix Guards, page 30.

If your eyes glazed over, believe me, you’re not alone. But if this lecture about the architectural history of a fictional palace complex made you smirk, well....

At its core, this is a deadpan parody of The Three Musketeers. Not just the absurdities of manners and customs exhibited in the book, but also the persistent quality of narrative voice in nineteenth century romances, where the narrator’s character is just as apparent as those he pontificates about. And the narrator does pontificate. He expounds endlessly and inventively about the history of places and people and regional cuisine our heroes encounter in their adventures, often spending more time discussing the history of the inn than the ambush our heroes actually thwart at the inn.

That is not to say the characters are in any way lacking. Our heroes are delightful re-imaginings of the classic four Musketeers, recognizable in archetype but with their own flavor. For example, one of the four appears as a woman. But rather than take the easy route, with the woman in the place of the foppish schemer Aramis, Tazendra takes the role of the brash warrior Porthos, always a step behind in the planning but taking the lead in battle. The other three, Khaavren, Aerich, and Pel, each have their own charms.

Oh, and did I mention the swashbuckling? Because they have rather a lot of that. There are epic duels, invading armies, love, rivalry, revenge… What more could you ask for?

I attended the Fort Collins Sustainable Living Fair with my husband this past Saturday. All I can say is (to quote a customer who also attended) 'I'm ready to go live in a yurt and raise goats!'

The fair gave us the much-needed reassurance that we are not alone in our concern for the environment, and our search for alternative ways of living. And did they ever have choices for those other ways! We passed booths dealing with every conceivable aspect of the green/sustainable lifestyle - many of them issues that we had never thought of! From the solar oven (knew about that) to the necessity for all eight sugars in a balanced diet (??? never knew that) and everything in between. The best part was the relative lack of structure. We moved from a display on alternative building materials to a booth with free meat samples (we'd just had brunch, more's the pity, because that steak smelled good!) There was no feeling of 'now we're in the energy section, now we're in the clothing section, etc' but of a wonderful holistic jumble! Just like the reality of a sustainable lifestyle, the fair offerings looked at the integrated whole.

Of course, being the bibliophile that I am, my attention was grabbed by any booth with books on display. While I was a good girl and resisted the temptation (merely noted the titles for later purchasing) my husband, surprisingly enough, found one book that he had to have, Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods by Dan Chiras ($19.95, New Society Publishers). I definitely got some leverage out of his succumbing to temptation while I stood firm! So I used my high ground to justify my ordering of the three books that I wanted - I know, three to one hardly seems reasonable, but I've never denied that I'm an addict! So, in a few days I should have Everything I Want to Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin ($23.95, Polyface) A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity by William Coperthwaite ($25, Chelsea Green Publishing Company) and Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter by Lloyd Kahn ($26.95, Shelter Publications). I can't wait!

While our time at the fair was unfortunately limited - only two and a half hours to see all that we could - we had enough time to realize that our Northern Colorado Community has a strong group dedicated to finding ways to live in harmony with nature. Even driving past the parasitical mall at Centerra afterwards couldn't entirely erase our sense of hope. Of course, now we have to decide how we will apply ourselves to meeting these challenges. My husband votes for the Green Party in Ireland and watches for any new research about organic farming, genetically modified foods, and oil alternatives. I, of course, tend to be a little more (over)enthusiastic. So, I'm ready to go handbuild a completely green shelter with all alternative energy, a complete water recycling system and a biofuel converter, grow organic foods for our own consumption, make all of our clothing, outlaw TV, and banish consumerism. Oh, and raise goats, of course.

Every few weeks, I get an urge to be crafty - handcrafts, that is. Especially when I look at my budget, and then consider my closet. Clothing is just not affordable now! I do most of my shopping at GoodWill, but the options are slightly limited there. Unless...I've taken to looking at every piece of clothing as a potential blank canvas, to be remade in any way I can dream up. Last summer, I purchased Megan Nicolay's book Generation T: 108 ways to transform a T-shirt (9780761137856, $14.95) and started down the primrose path to T-shirt frenzy! My culminating triumph (so far) was my handsewn wedding dress, which took more time than I care to admit, and was worth every second of it when my husband realized that I had made it myself. Whenever I clean out my closet now, I make three piles instead of two: keep, give away, use for cloth. The only problem is that the potential projects pile up so quickly!

It struck me recently that what was a neccessity for our ancestors has become a hobby for us. I sew, knit, and crochet for my own pleasure, not because I will go naked otherwise. I find ways to re-use objects because I have the time and an urge to experiment, not because I can't afford to purchase something new. Hard on the heels of that thought came another: we have made it more expensive to create than to purchase. How sad is that? If I lived in poverty, I would not save any money by making my own clothes. Yarn, cloth, tools, and time make any project more expensive than simply buying an equivalent item from a department store. While our culture professes to celebrate individuality, we are pressed into purchasing monotony.

My new goal: to wear only socks that I knit myself (as soon as I learn how to knit socks). To make the majority of my own clothes, not just the occasional funky top. To live as though I couldn't run down to the store to purchase new things. To rediscover the pride of creating in all aspects of life. To sew a straight seam.

I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our customers who have celebrated with me this week. The announcement of my marriage to Fintan Dinneen appeared in last Saturday's Reporter Herald, and the response of our regulars has been very heartwarming. This experience has also brought home to me what a small town Loveland has remained, despite its ever-increasing population. My family has lived in this area for several generations, and people have come into the store to ask after my connections - usually because they went to high school with my great-aunt, or were taught by my grandfather. Photographs of me as an eight year old, and reminiscence of holding me as an infant make me feel as though I am living in an old-fashioned, storybook community.
This strength of human connection is one of Loveland's most valuable assets. Nowhere do I feel it as strongly as when I am at work, hearing about the events large and small in our customers' lives. Downtown Loveland has fought back against the slump that threatened it in recent years. Even with the eastward expansion drawing commerce away from the center of town, 4th Street has managed to revitalize itself. I am so encouraged by the number of new customers that we get each day, people who want to shop locally instead of giving business to a faceless big-box store. As these new converts find us, we are also establishing close ties with the other businesses nearby. People come to us on the recommendation of Monika from Woolen Treasures, or the folks at MommaStyle. In turn, we make it a point to know where we can send people when they ask for suggestions.
I am fortunate to be a fourth generation Colorado native, three generations in Loveland itself. I inherited my great-grandmother's diaries, which she kept from age 12 to age 90. Reading about her Loveland, and then coming to work and experiencing my Loveland, I am thrilled to still feel the sense of unity and fellowship that she did. Granted, we're a lot larger now, and we no longer depend just on our own community to meet our needs. However, we have not become a virtual ghost town, or 'dormitory' suburb. I believe that 4th Street, the Library, the Museum, and yes, Anthology Book Company have all done a tremendous amount to keep our town vital and friendly. When I look online and see better prices than I can find in the stores, or when I know that I can drop by Hobby Lobby for cheaper yarn, the strength and commitment of our downtown community reminds me that its value is greater than any money I could save elsewhere.
So, thank you all again for your best wishes. Also, a particular thank you to the mystery benefactor who paid for my husband and my dinner at Cipoletti's the other day. Your generosity is yet another example of Loveland's fine heart, and we will pass it on someday.

Book Review by Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer

Dust off those classics ~ they deserve another chance
By Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer


In this fast paced world of cell phones, ipods and virus videos it is easy to forget about classics. You know, the classics; those books collecting dust on your bookshelf, behind the best-sellers you bought because Oprah liked it or because you liked the attractively decorated cover.

I want to share two of my favorite books, they both happen to be classics. These books and other so-called classics contain the writing that is used as the stick with which to measure great writing, and in this world increasingly full of one-liners and text messaging it's all too easy to forget what good writing looks like.

Both books are packed with innuendoes, intrigue and sexual tension, and both authors have first-person experience with the attitudes and time periods of which they write. There are other classics that some people would rate higher on a literary scale of greatness, but no one will argue their position among the great literary books of all-time.

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

This is my all-time favorite book. The story incorporates social commentary with brilliantly written social and sexual tension. It follows the life of a 19th Century New York gentleman, Newland Archer, and his intense feelings for Countess Olenska, who has fallen from societal graces by leaving her husband. The story grips the reader and pulls her into the world of New York high society and the strict conventions that come with it.

Wharton writes in great detail, never leaving a teacup unmentioned and this intense attention to scene setting draws an exceedingly accurate and vivid picture of the society’s obsession with opulence and the outward appearance of perfection. The following paragraph describes the Beaufort house:

Then the house had been boldly planned with a ball-room, so that, instead of squeezing through a narrow passage to get to it (as at the Chiverses') one marched solemnly down a vista of enfiladed drawing-rooms (the sea-green, the crimson and the bouton d'or), seeing from afar the many-candled lustres reflected in the polished parquetry, and beyond that the depths of a conservatory where camellias and tree-ferns arched their costly foliage over seats of black and gold bamboo. ~The Age of Innocence, Chapter III.

Archer’s problem is not only that he is in love with a woman who has left her husband, but that he is engaged to May Welland, a proper young woman whom he admires, but is not in love with. In the following paragraph Archer contemplates a photograph of his fiancé:

As he dropped into his armchair near the fire his eyes rested on a large photograph of May Welland, which the young girl had given him in the first days of their romance, and which had now displaced all the other portraits on the table. With a new sense of awe he looked at the frank forehead, serious eyes and gay innocent mouth of the young creature whose soul's custodian he was to be. That terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything, looked back at him like a stranger through May Welland's familiar features; and once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas. ~ The Age of Innocence, Chapter VI.

Countess Olenska is everything May is not; worldly, daring and seemingly indifferent. But is she really so uncaring? Is her air of confidence a ruse? Archer aches to find the true Countess Olsenska, but how can he when he is soon to be wed to Miss May Wellen?

The Age of Innocence explores the relationship between people and the societal constrains under which they must live. It is a character study as well as a study of 19th Century society in upper class New York.

Countess Olenska is character Wharton very well may have fashioned after herself. Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a wealthy New York family (whose last name of Jones has been associated with the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses”). She was a divorcé who spent much of her time abroad in France and was said to have had a three year affair with journalist Morton Fullerton. She was also very close with author Henry James.

Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (1921) for The Age of Innocence.

A Room with a View, E. M. Forster

A Room with a View is another story written by an author who enjoys writing fiction that comments on societal conventions and the absurdity of many of these conventions. This book is the story of a young English woman named Lucy Honeychurch who takes a holiday in Florence, Italy that changes her life forever. The first part of the book is based in Italy where the reader meets some odd and highly comical characters that reappear throughout the book.

Based in the 19th Century, the book is full of societal mores of the day. Including the necessity of a chaperone to accompanying a young woman traveling abroad; an unaccompanied young woman would be scandalous. Miss Honeychurch’s chaperone is her spinster cousin, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. The two cousins stay at a pension with many amusing guests, including a young man named George Emerson, who is traveling with his father. George is not only from a different social class than Miss Honeychurch, but he is also a philosophical fellow who is profoundly affected by the world around him, in other words, despite his handsome face, he is quite odd.

While loitering in a Florentine plaza, Miss Honeychurch witnesses a brutal murder and faints into George’s arms and thus begins the rocky relationship between the two. However, back in England, Cecil Vyse, a rather dull, yet highly suitable young man with all the right bloodlines is waiting for Miss Honeychurch.

The second half of the book is set in Surrey, England where Miss Honeychurch reintegrates herself into her proper upper class English family. Just as things are getting back to normal, George and his father move into a house down the road and Miss Honeychurch is torn between society’s wishes for her to marry the rich boring Cecil or her own wishes to marry the man whom she loves.

The highlight of this book is the entertaining character development. Forster has crafted a humorous story chockablock with colorful characters too rich to work and so very bored with their own pampered lives that they spend a great quantity of time meddling in other peoples.

E.M. Forster knew first hand the cost of not conforming to social conventions. Born into a middle-class London family in 1870, he became good friends with controversial writers D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. He was also a homosexual. He wrote one book with a homosexual theme (Maurice) which he circulated privately; it was only published after his death in 1970.

Of course we're all super excited about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! The end of the series (supposedly), the release party (you can still come, and get 10% off your copy, if you pre-pay with us) and the thousands of kids eager to read all heighten our anticipation! But we shouldn't let our Harry-craze make us overlook all of the other marvelous books available for young readers. I scanned the shelves in our kid's section, and pulled a few of my longtime favorites, perfect for summer reading.

Miss Hickory, a Newberry Medal winner written in 1946 by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, is a sweet and simple story. The title character, a doll made of an apple twig and a hickory nut, must fend for herself through the winter after her young owner leaves her in the country. If any of the children you know are fascinated by miniatures and dolls, this book will strike a chord and inspire their imagination.

Along similar lines, Mary Norton's beloved series about the Borrowers has enchanted readers since the 1950s. Personal favorites of my own mother, they were staples of my childhood as well. The ingenious uses to which the Borrowers (no taller than a pencil) put our everyday items such as pins, spools, game pieces and more, are inspiring to anyone who still plays make-believe. The series, a total of four volumes, are perfect reading for lazy summer days. Books include: The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, and The Borrowers Aloft.

For slightly older audiences, Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, a Newberry Medalist, and its sequel The Blue Sword will thrill and excite. Set in the land of Damar, both stories feature strong young women who deal with the challenges of not fitting in, until they find their unique place in the world.

Goody Hall, by Natalie Babbitt, is one of the strangest and most delightful books that I've read. With a famous outlaw, a missing fortune in jewels, an oddly heavy ottoman, and an aptly named (though he doesn't think so at first)actor/tutor, the book captures and keeps you through twist after twist. One of the few books that I cannot recall the ending of when I re-read it, it delights me anew each time!

Finally, I suggest two books by the marvelous Ellen Raskin. Her Newberry Medal winner The Westing Game is a marvelous introduction to the mystery genre, with full-fleshed lively characters, and plenty of mistaken/assumed identities. It is one mystery that you can gladly read again and again - knowing 'whodunit' won't ruin the book for you! Her book Figgs & Phantoms, a Newberry Honor book, is absurd realism at it's very best. The heroine is the only normal person in her circus-like family aside from her adored uncle. When he passes away, she begins a journey of self-discovery and learns that she may not be all that normal after all - fortunately!

Whatever your reading tastes (even if you don't think you like to read at all) we have something in the store to capture your imagination this summer. And even if you're just counting the days until Harry comes back, we have stories to make the time fly by!