Garfield - My Soul Mate

James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, not the orange cat! He's either my soul mate or I'm his reincarnation. I'm not kidding. Last week, the book club I run at the library read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Assassination Vacation is a non-fiction book documenting Vowell's experience with historical tourism. She decided to take her love of history and her fascination with the macabre and write a book incorporating her vast amount of research and her visits to historical sites associated with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. The book was OK. I learned a lot about American history of those periods and about Garfield and McKinley - two of the more obscure American Presidents. Vowell's writing style is one that is both witty and sarcastic and her book reads like a series of blog posts.

The book really doesn't merit a blog post from me, but what does is former President Garfield himself. What I learned from Assassination Vacation is that Garfield was a voracious reader. He was frequently found within the stacks of the Library of Congress. He had a special reading chair designed with one side arm higher than the other, because he liked to sit sideways with his legs draped over one arm of the chair - not very Presidential. His diaries are filled with entries lamenting the fact that his governmental duties were keeping him from reading his newly arrived 26 volume collection of the complete works of Goethe. He even writes, "Perhaps that study of literature is fullest which we steal from daily duties". There is some sad wisdom in that statement for all confessed bookworms.

According to Vowell, the recurring theme in Garfield's diaries is: I'd rather be reading. Hey, me too! His regret over a lack of time for reading is even reflected in the commencement address he gave at Hiram College in 1880. As quoted in Assassination Vacation, he told the graduates:

It has occurred to me that the thing you have, that all men

have enough of is perhaps the thing that you care for the least,

and that is your leisure - the leisure you have to think;

the leisure you have to be let alone; the leisure you

have to throw the plummet into your mind, and sound the

depth and dive for things below.

Wow! This is the rousing speech he gives to recent graduates to go out and grab the world by the tail? Interesting. I like it! Echoes my feelings exactly. As I said, he's either my soul mate or I'm his reincarnation. Who knew a long assassinated and mostly forgotten President could be so fascinating?

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Musing Mondays

MUSING MONDAYS are hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading…

Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?

2009 has been a fantastic book year for me so far. As you all know, I've been on a bit of a book roll recently. I've already posted reviews of all my 2009 favorites. Here are the links:

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (for some unknown reason, I can't get the link to work for this one. If you are interested you can type The Help into the Search box on my sidebar to read this post. Sorry.)

It's pretty unusual for me to find 3 amazing books in one year, let alone by mid-year. 2009 - it's been a very good year.

How about you? How has your 2009 reading shaping up? Please leave a comment here or link to your own Musing Monday post.

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Sentimental Sunday

Today's Sentimental Sunday highlights the wedding of my cousin Aime. Aime and her husband David were married this past Friday at a local Country Club. The ceremony was held outside on on the patio and miraculously it wasn't raining (it's been raining pretty much everyday since April), the humidity had eased off, there was a lovely breeze and no bugs. Perfect!


This first picture is of Aime and her dad, my Uncle David, walking down the aisle. I love Aime's expression here as she recognizes our family standing and honoring her on her special day.

This picture of Geoff and I with Aime was taken during the reception. Aime is twelve years younger than I am and I have fond memories of her as an adorable toddler running around my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve in her red feety pajamas. She is just as cheerful and full of joy now as she was as a two year old. She is an incredible sweetie.



This last picture is not that great, but it contains many of my cousins, their spouses, one of my uncles and aunts, my dad and Sandy. This was such a happy day for our family. Like most extended families we see each other at weddings and funerals. At these times we always say we should get together more often. But, like families everywhere, it rarely happens. Our family has suffered some tragic events in the last year and we really needed a happy occasion to be together. It's though these horrible times that we realize how important family is. Even if we don't see each other often. This is my family. And I love each and every one of them. I would do anything for them. And I know they would do the same for me. They're my family.

In a Book Rut?

Can't decide what to read next? In a book rut? Can't find a book that holds your interest? Well, look no further. I just found the most amazing website. It's call the Book Seer. How it works is you type in the name of a book you loved and just like magic it provides you with a list of books that you might like. How awesome is that?! (I know Amazon does something similar, but this is much more user friendly). So, if you're ever wondering what to read next (like that ever happens) this site was made for you. I can feel my to-be-read list growing by leaps and bounds. Hello my name is Pam and I'm a book addict.....

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Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursdays are all about taking the time to appreciate all the little things that actually went right during the week. I am someone who can get flustered very easily - even when the smallest thing goes wrong. So why not focus on all the little things that went right and be grateful?

1. I am extremely thankful that school is finally over for my girls (as of Tuesday). I love the more relaxed pace of summer and I was more than ready for that.

2. I'm also thankful that now I can sleep in in them mornings. No more getting up at 6:30 am. Though so far I've managed to sleep until 7:30 am on Wednesday and this morning I was up before 7:00 am. What's up with that? I must be getting old. Ugh! But, it still feels wonderful not to set an alarm clock and to get up when I'm ready.

3. I'm also thankful that my sister-in-law hosted a fun and relaxing pool party and BBQ on Saturday. It was a great opportunity to see some family members that I don't see all that often. It was a great day.

4. I'm thankful that this past week was full of fun activities with my friends - book club, Moonlight and Magnolias and Mah Jong. Time with my friends is always time well spent.

How about you? What are you thankful for?

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Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer

Summer is FINALLY here! Yesterday was the girls' last day of school. It took forever to get here. June 23rd seems awfully late for school to be letting out. And actually it was. School was supposed to be over last Friday, but we had to make up two snow days. I love the more relaxed pace of summer - no schedule, no after school or evening meetings, no homework hassles and especially no getting up at 6:30 am (have I mentioned I'm not a morning a person?).

In light of the fact that it's now officially the lazy, hazy days of summer and my recent struggles with Guilt Free Blogging, I may be backing off a bit here on Pam's Perspective. I've done a lot of soul searching on this and I've figured out that I really do enjoy posting and responding to my comments, but I may post a little less frequently this summer. A summer vacation of sorts.

And to follow up a bit more on my Guilt Free Blogging post, what I figured out was that I was simply following too many blogs - 72 to be exact! That's just too many. I will admit that I went through my Reader and weeded that list down to the 51 blogs (still a lot) that I enjoy and identify with the most. It was very hard for me to do this. I had some guilty feelings about it. But, I decided I had to get back to basics - blogging for me. Since I did that I have noticed that keeping up with the blogs in my Reader is much more manageable and I've had much more time to write posts. Which is what I enjoy the most. I still plan on posting a few times a week, it just may not be every day. (I have a bunch of posts in my drafts folder, ready to be posted, so you may not notice a change right away). I hope you will stick with me as I try to figure out a workable schedule of posting, visiting other blogs, commenting and responding. And for those of you who are struggling with these same issues, I encourage you to determine for yourselves which aspects of blogging are taking the most time and that you enjoy the least and let them go. It's hard at first, but it's also very freeing. And summer is the perfect time to do that. After all it's the lazy, hazy days of summer. Everyone should relax and take it easy during the summer. Even amazing bloggers like you!

Theater Review: Moonlight and Magnolias

Last Friday night my friend Colleen and I attended the final performance of The Community Players 2008-2009 season - Moonlight and Magnolias. Neither one of us had heard of this show and we both intended to "google" it before the show, but both of us got busy. (Too much time blogging). We didn't have very high expectations because a friend of Colleen's had seen it and didn't have all that much to say about it. She did say the acting was good. Colleen and I even discussed the possibility of leaving during intermission if we weren't enjoying it. Well, I am happy to report that the acting was not only good is was fantastic and there was no need to leave early!

Moonlight and Magnolias tells the true story of the rewriting of the screenplay for the movie Gone With the Wind. Before I talk about the play itself I should mention that Gone with the Wind is my all time favorite movie. I absolutely love it. In addition, I read Gone with the Wind the summer between 8th and 9th grade and could NOT put it down. It is the first book I read that I loved and considered a favorite. I have such fond memories of sitting on my front steps throughout that summer with my nose in that book.

As for the play... Moonlight and Magnolias depicts how during the filming of the movie the producer, David O. Selznick, decided he had an unworkable screenplay. He convinces the journalist/screenwriter, Ben Hecht, to rewrite the screenplay - even though Hecht hasn't even read the book and is convinced a Civil War movie that glorifies the South will never make money. Selznick offers him an outrageous sum of money ($15,000. Remember this is 1939) and gets Hecht to agree to work on it for 5 days - no more. What ensues is the hilarious telling of how Selznick, Hecht and the new director Victor Fleming, who Selznick pulls off the set of The Wizard Oz, lock themselves in Selznick's office for 5 days and rewrite the screenplay. It is hilariously as Selznick and Fleming act out scenes from the book so that Hecht can write them. And all the while Hecht complains about how awful the book is and how corrupt the themes contained in the book are.

I absolutely LOVED this play. The actors were amazing. These were extremely difficult roles as there was a ton of dialogue and the three actors were on stage for the entire show. It was also a fairly rigorous production with lots of physical humor. Through the concerns of the journalist Hecht, I learned so much about the controversy surrounding the making of this movie. It was fascinating to look at Gone with the Wind (the book and the movie) through the lens of "political correctness". I've said this before and I'll say it again - The Community Players is the best kept secret in Rhode Island Theater. If you live in Rhode Island, I urge you to attend a show and see this for yourself. I don't think you will be disappointed.

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