I ran across this week’s word while reading Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym.

Jane recalls that a talented member of her husband’s last parish had actually had a household hint published in a homemaking magazine: ‘It was a use for a thermometer case, if you had the misfortune to break your thermometer, of course. A splendid case for keeping bodkins in!’ Jane chortled.

bodkin: a blunt needle with a large eye for drawing tape or ribbon through a loop or hem
From Middle English boydekin (“dagger”), apparently from *boyde, *boide (of unknown origin) +‎ -kin

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Candace over at Beth Fish Reads. Have a food-related posted this week, why not join the fun?

This is the first time I’ve joined this meme.

In the 1980s, I bought or received a copy of a small spiral-bound cookbook called Muffin Mania, written by two sisters from Ontario Canada, Cathy Prange and Joan Pauli.

The book has become somewhat of a cult classic, at least in Canada. Cathy & Joan followed up with the great Nifty Nibbles, as well as Veggie Mania and Sweet Mania, but none attained the commercial or fan success of Muffin Mania.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve lost my copy of this treasure of a book and so had to turn to the Internet to find the recipe for the muffins I made often for my daughter as she was growing up. They’re aptly called:

BEST-EVER BANANA MUFFINS

3 large ripe bananas
3/4 c white sugar
1 slightly beaten egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c melted butter

Mash bananas. Add sugar and slightly beaten egg. Add the melted butter. Add the dry ingredients. Mix until it is thoroughly moistened but not smooth. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes one dozen.

I used to add a cup of chocolate chips to the batter for Jen’s muffins. This weekend, I made half plain and half with that addition.

Does Muffin Mania stir up any memories for you? Have another good muffin cookbook you can recommend?

I ran across this week’s word while reading Stealing with Style, a cozy mystery story in which the lead character is an antiques appraiser

Putto: a figure of a plump, young male angel or cupid, as in baroque art (from var. of pusus, boy; akin to puer)

“The body [of the soup tureen] was gracefully shaped, and on the lid a playful putto sat astride a cornucopia overflowing with exquisitely painted, hand-modeled flowers.”

(pg 201) Stealing with Style by Emyl Jenkins

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

I just finished reading The Warden by Anthony Trollope so I have a font of new words, especially relating to the church and its clergy. Some of them are just obscure, other now obsolete (the book was first published in 1855). But here’s one that’s still in the dictionary:

Appanage: an accompanying endowment

The patronage was a valuable appanage of the bishopric; and surely it would not be his duty to lessen the value of that preferment which had been bestowed on himself (.)
(pg 28) The Warden by Anthony Trollope

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

Book Beginnings on Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Hop on over there to get a linky to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Opening sentences from The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam:

1930, Shantou, China
On a winter night shortly after the New year festivities, Chen Kai sat on the edge of the family kang, the brick bed. He settled the blanket around his son.

My thoughts: Oh, good – historical fiction! It will be interesting to see how this plays into a setting in Viet Nam, and into both the headmaster, and to his wager.

P.S. Gilion is also hosting a leap-frog giveaway for Dry Rot, a Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner. Visit her blog to find out how you can win!

I haven’t participated before in Bermuda Onion’s Wondrous Words Wednesday weekly meme , but I just had to share this one. To see what other Wondrous Words bloggers have found this week, visit Kathy’s blog (link above).

Analemma: a curve in the form of an elongated 8 marked with a scale, drawn on a globe of the earth to show the sun’s declination and the equation of time for any day of the year: formed by plotting the sun’s actual daily position at noon for a year.

From Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye Pg 101
It was beautiful, a tarnished nickel-silver pocket watch with an analemma on its face.

Linda Spalding has won this year’s Canada’s Governor-General’s Award for English language fiction for her novel, The Purchase, which the CBC describes as “a historical tale looking back at the lives of slaves and slave owners that was inspired by stories from her ancestors, who were Quakers. ”

Here’s the Globe & Mail’s story, citing winners for non-fiction, children’s fiction – writing and illustration, poetry, drama, and translation – for both the English language and French language categories.

The $50,000 ScotiaBank Giller Prize for Fiction was awarded tonight to Will Ferguson for his novel 419. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is Canada’s most distinguished literary prize, awarded annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.

This year’s jury made this citation about Ferguson and 419:
“Will Ferguson’s 419 points in the direction of something entirely new: the Global Novel. It is a novel emotionally and physically at home in the poverty of Lagos and in the day-to-day of North America. It tells us the ways in which we are now bound together and reminds us of the things that will always keep us apart. It brings us the news of the world far beyond the sad, hungry faces we see on CNN and CBC and far beyond the spreadsheets of our pension plans. Ferguson is a true travel writer, his eye attuned to the last horrible detail. He is also a master at dialogue and suspense. It is tempting to put 419 in some easy genre category, but that would only serve to deny its accomplishment and its genius.”

You can read my review of 419 here. (So I was wrong. I’m glad.)

Congratulations to Jennifer of Ragdoll Books Blog who has won my random drawing. Jennifer has chosen to receive a copy of Rohinton Mistry’s tour de force A Fine Balance.

If you like the books that I read, be sure to visit Jennifer’s blog. She seems to have similar tastes!

Thanks to all who took the time to peruse my book lists and enter this contest.

I’m taking part in Judith at Leeswammes‘ Literary Giveaway Blog Hop this week. If you’re just dropping by from the links, welcome and I hope you’ll subscribe. If you’re a regular reader – thank you!!

I’m offering any title from my list of the Best Books I Read in 2011 OR any book I’ve read this year to which I gave a 4, 4½, or 5 star rating, up to $15 from Book Depository. The contest is open to anyone who lives where Book Depository delivers. Contest closes 4 p.m. EDT June 27th. The winner will be selected randomly.

To enter, leave me a comment telling me which of those titles you think you’d like to win (don’t worry – that can be changed).

And then, hop on over to the other participating blogs. Have fun!

Kimbofo over at the great blog Reading Matters, runs a weekly series called Triple Choice Tuesdays, wherein she asks “some of (her) favourite bloggers, writers and readers to share the names of three books that mean a lot to them. The idea is that it might raise the profile of certain books and introduce you to new titles, new authors and new bloggers.”

I love this series and I’m honoured to be featured today on Kim’s blog. Go on over and have a look at my favourites.

What do you think of them? How would you have answered?

P.S. Today I’m using the ‘ou’ spellings I was taught in school as a ‘tip of the hat’ to Kim who is an ex-pat Australian living in London, UK. Enjoy – tomorrow I’ll get back to American spellings.

Since the old library in the village closed on March 17th, we have been without library services, eagerly anticipating the opening of our new branch. What better way to celebrate National Library Week (April 8 – 14th) than with its official opening on Wednesday?

I was blown away. From one cramped room with barely room to walk, we have a two story light & airy open space complete with kids area, teens area, a community activity room, a half-dozen big screen computers with Wi-Fi, washrooms, staff offices, and two beautiful reading areas. One of those is in the second floor loft and looks out over Tatamagouche Bay and the Northumberland Strait.

I know that ultimately taxpayers funded this project, but I’m ever so grateful to the powers-that-be who allocated monies to this project. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

How are you celebrating your community library?

Some of you may remember my post last year about the building of the new library in Tatamagouche.

I thought I’d show you a little bit behind the scenes of moving a village library to its new premises.

That old branch closed for good on March 17th.

The new premises are now complete and the official grand opening is next Wednesday. (April 11th). I can hardly wait to see inside!

No moving vans or professional crews – or even U-Hauls for us.

These are all volunteers.

For more photos of the move, click here.

I wasn’t able to help, but I love that community volunteers made this possible. It’s part of what makes rural living so great.

What do you think of our moving methods?

The catchphrase Keep Calm & Carry On has been appearing everywhere for the last couple of years.

I knew that it had been devised as a propaganda slogan in WWII Britain, but I did sometimes wonder how I had missed it for most of my life.

Well, now I know.

WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO AND YOU WILL TOO

I have put Northumberland (in “the northeast corner of England”) and this bookshop very near the top of my “Most Want to Travel To” list. (You have one of those, right?)

I think Keep Calm and Carry On has become a mantra for today’s society because it applies in just about every situation. As Rudyard Kipling said: “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs (…) you’ll be a man, my son.” What do you think?

I’m guest-posting today over on Alyce’s blog At Home With Books. I hope you’ll visit me there and see what I consider the best and worst of Canadian author Richard B. Wright.

Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting her sixth annual Spring Reading Thing. It’s a fun, low-pressure reading challenge open to anyone and everyone. It will take place March 20th-June 20th (which is, not-so-coincidentally, the spring of 2012).

To participate, I need to create a list of some books I’d like to read or finish this spring. I have to list specific books. I can feel free to set some additional reading, but that’s optional.

Until March 31st, I’m still participating in C.B.’s Double Dare where the rule is that from Jan 1 to April 1, 2012, I can read only books that were in my TBR pile on December 31st. (Library books were allowed only if they were in my possession or on my holds list at 12:00 A.M. on Jan. 1.)

But it’s that “Library Holds List Loophole” that’s kept this challenge from being as effective as I had hoped. I thought I thinned that list in December, but it seems that there’s always something (completely within the rules) from the library demanding my attention and keeping me from making any real headway on Mount TBR.

So for the Spring Reading Thing, I’m committing to read a number of books from my December 31st TBR pile. Two are chunksters; and since there are still a couple of books coming from the library, I’ve included those. AND I’m including some books that were wins since January and that I’ve been anxiously waiting to start.

Currently reading:
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

From Mount TBR
White River Junctions by Dave Norman
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Canadian Food Guide by Pierre and Janet Berton
Stephen Leacock: His Remarkable Life by Albert Moritz and Theresa Moritz
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, Book 7) by Jacqueline Winspear
One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane

Library Books:
Broken Music: A Mystery by Marjorie Eccles
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
Th1rteen r3asons why by Jay Asher

New arrivals (wins, gifts & ARCs)
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
African Love Stories: An Anthology edited by Ama Ata Aidoo
Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman
Manners for Women by Mrs. Humphrey
Murder: A Crafty Business by Lila Phillips

I’m doing my level best to have these all read by June 20th. I’m also committing to keeping up with my personal Bible reading schedule. Let’s see how I do!

What about you? What are your spring reading plans?

If I had any wall space to hang a poster, I’d be sending hints about this out to all my friends and loved ones. As it is, I have to make do with recording it here on my blog and Pinterest. [sigh]

By Grant Snider, available as a poster. Via Bookshelf.

The Classics Reading Challenge hosted by November’s Autumn is the one I’m calling “Classics with a Twist” – the twist being that on the fourth of each month, Katherine posts a prompt to act as a basis for my discussion of the classic I’m currently reading.

This month, the prompt is LOCATION – and the classic I’ve most recently finished is Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

In 1845, Thoreau spent two years living in a small cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, Connecticut Massachusetts. (oops! See comments.) In his classic discourse, Walden, the author discusses in some depth the economic theory behind his experiment in living, as well as minute observations about nature, including the pond itself.

After the introductory essays, Thoreau doesn’t so much introduce the location, as he does analyze it throughout the book. In fact, location seems inseparable to the book. It is, after all, called Walden.

This is how Walden Pond looked about the time Thoreau lived there. It would have been nicer to see this in summer when there were leaves on the trees – that is how I imagined it even though Thoreau talks in depth about winter and spring at the pond.

Would the book have worked as well if Walden had been located somewhere else? The southern US? Above the Arctic Circle? The Australian outback? Surprisingly (to me, once I started considering this), I think the basic premise of the book – which was Thoreau’s experiment in opting out of established society – would be as strong no matter where it was set. Certainly, the description of the changing seasons would have been replaced by other observations of the natural cycles.

What do you think? Is Walden Pond inseparable from the book Walden?

Yesterday afternoon we took a run into the city and, of course, had to stop at Starbucks for our ‘city coffee’ fix. While the others sipped their mocha white hot chocolate, I stepped over into the Chapters store (which had been my intended destination all along) and checked out the $5 and under table.

I found this beautiful copy of Jane Eyre.

This book is on my 2012 reading list and I already had a paperback copy of it in my TBR stack. But when I walked away from that copy with the leather-like cover, color spreads of Bronte Country, the Bronte family tree, Bronte timelines, principal characters and so on, I knew I would regret not spending the $5. So, of course, I had to go back and get the book.

And so now I have two Jane Eyres, although one is going in the garage sale in July. I love the way the black copy feels in my hand – it’s 100 pages shorter than the paperback which is chunky and feels awkward. Plus, there’s a built-on elastic to mark my spot while I’m reading.

I had been dreading tackling this classic despite everyone’s raves about it, but now I’m looking forward to it.

Which one would you prefer to read?

As a break from posting up my reading challenges, I want to share a few book-related items with you. Some you may have already seen around the web, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Since I’m a terrible procrastinator at reading the books I think I want to have read over the year, I was intrigued by AbeBooks’ Top Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Get to Certain Books. With me, it’s often a combination of these factors. Maybe it’s the same with you.

I just discovered a new blog (well, it’s new-to-me) called Isak. As Anna Clark, the voice behind the blog says: “Isak is a space to celebrate tales and truth in the curious, joyful way embodied by the writer for which it is named. The name ‘Isak,’ after all, means ‘laughter’.” Anna has just released her third annual Choose Books: A Gift Guide for People Who Care About Stories. It’s a free PDF file that goes beyond run-of-the-mill recommendations and profiles a delightful range of books with intelligent insights into the people for whom she proposes they be bought. Which is a fancy way to say: She’s fun, she’s bright, she’s surprising. You’ll like it! (Oh! And did I say it’s free?)

And, last but not least, I was charmed by this gingerbread typewriter, made by Patti of Baked Ideas and featured at BoingBoing. It’s edible, right down to the rice-paper ribbon. Don’t you just love details like that?