Day 143: William Faulkner: New Orleans Sketches



Chatting Books Online Day 144. Today’s recommended book is an Indispensable book for those who like Southern Fiction . William Faulkner: New Orleans Sketches .

This is a collection of short stories which were written by William Faulkner in the year 1925 while living in the French Quarter . It basically marks Faulkner’s transition from writing poetry into fiction . Most of these stories were published at the time either in The Times Picayune or The Double Dealer (a “little magazine” published in New Orleans at that time). An amazing body of work in such a short time period these “sketches” tell stories of New Orleans life and it’s characters.

In a lovely hardcover edition it makes a great gift or a nice addition to your own collection . 139 pages , selling for $25 a copy.

To purchase a copy of this book come see us Mondays - Saturdays between 10:30am and 4pm at the shop, or you can message me and we can ship a copy directly to you. Take Care, Mask Up and Carry On .

Day 142 : My First Book of Sign Language

Chatting Books Online Day 142 . Let’s continue the theme of learning something new that we started yesterday . In that spirit today’s recommended book is “My First Book of Sign Language “ from Scholastic.

This paperback children’s book doesn’t go I’ve descriptions , it just jumps right into a page per letter of the alphabet where you first learn (through illustrations by Joan Holub) the sign for that letter , and then at the bottom of the page the sign for a few useful words starting with that letter . Like on the “A” page you can learn the sign for the letter A as well as the signs for “animal” and “apple”. After the letters of the alphabet there are 7 additional pages of useful signs for things like numbers , members of the family , days of the week and other useful phrases .

A simple but useful little paperback , only costing $4.99 a copy .

To purchase a copy of this book come see us Mondays - Saturdays between 10:30am and 4pm at the shop, or you can message me and we can ship a copy directly to you. Take Care, Mask Up, and Keep On Learning !

Day 141 : Let's Learn Spanish

Chatting Books Online Day 141, I thought we might start off the new week by learning a little something. With that in mind today's recommended book is Let's Learn Spanish : First Words for Everyone by Aurora Cacciapuoti.

While printed in a storybook type format I would say that this book is a great place to start for anyone (child or adult) who wants to learn a little of the second most spoken language in the world.

After a couple of introductory pages about feminine and masculine, plural and singular words the book goes on to be broken down into pages of food and drink , colors, numbers, animals, body parts, vegetables, fruits, home ,garden etc. Each word is shown in English, then Spanish with a simple illustration of each. Even if you only learn one new word in Spanish each day you are well on your way !

This hardcover book is about 40 pages long and sells for $12.99 a copy.

To purchase a copy of this book come see us Mondays - Saturdays between 10:30am and 4pm at the shop, or you can message me and we can ship a copy directly to you. Take Care, Mask Up, and become Bi-Lingual!

Day 140 : The Week in Review : July 27 - August 2, 2020

Chatting Books Online Day 140.  The Week in Review July 27 - August 2, 2020. 

Time is really flying by these days.  We shared quite a slate of popular titles this week (thanks to everyone who came in or called/messaged to order copies).  Among those very popular titles were:

A lovely hardbound copy of The Tao Te Ching,

A fun piece of brain candy fiction in Little Fires Everywhere,

An even more fun children's storybook in Dragon's Love Tacos,

Did we say fun?  How about Drinking With the Saints?

Then a beautiful art book with an equally captivating story in Martha Wright Ambrose: The Rediscovery of a Southern Regional Artist,

and finally we closed it out with The Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield (brought to our attention courtesy of "You've Got Mail". 

If you missed any of these reviews and want to read what I had to say about them you can see all of our Chatting Books Online picks by visiting our website at: http://www.conundrumbooks.com/chatting-books-online .

We still (and always will going forward) offer shipping if you cannot make it to the store.   Or just stop by the shop Monday - Saturday between 10:30am and 4pm 

Thanks to everyone for your support throughout this bizarro-world time period.  It is thanks to you that we are still standing today and hopefully will be for a long time to come.

Day 139 : Martha Wright Ambrose : The Rediscovery of a Southern Regional Artist

Chatting Books Online Day 139.  Today's recommended book is Martha Wright Ambrose (1914-2000) : The Rediscovery of a Southern Regional Artist by Roulhac Toledano and Scott Veazey.

This book contains several hundred beautiful artworks and one fascinating story!  To tell the story first it is about  when New Orleans home restorer Scott Veazey bought the home of a life-long family friend after her death.  The friend , Martha Wright Ambrose, had been a painter and art instructor most of her life.  Martha's home had sustained damage from a tree falling through  the studio after her death and languished on the market for some time. When Scott heard of her death he contacted the agent and went to look at the home and discovered in the studio and garage were hundreds of Martha's works stacked and unfortunately exposed to damage from water and even pets.  Scott bought the house and contents and set about securing the works and having them lovingly protected and restored .  The works are enchanting.  Martha was an artist who worked in watercolors, oil and pencil and the works span mediums as well as subject matter with much of the works reflecting the city of New Orleans and life in the south.  An amazing story and beautiful collection of art , this book shares them both with the world. 

The book is full color , paperback, 232 pages and sells for $30 a copy.

Day 138 : Dragons Love Tacos

Chatting Books Online Day 138. Today's recommended book is from the Children's Section. It is Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin.

In this fun book we learn that Dragons can be very helpful creatures, particularly when they are "paid" for their labors with a taco party. But there is one word of warning : Make sure there are NO Spicy Peppers in the salsa. You see spicy peppers give dragons tummy problems and when Dragons have tummy problems they can't help it sometimes they let out a few sparks ...or maybe more than a few. As you can imagine this can cause a bit of a problem for the party host!

This hardcover storybook sells for $18.99 a copy

Day 137: Drinking With the Saints

Chatting Books Online Day 137. Today's recommended book is a year-round favorite: Drinking with The Saints by Michael P. Foley. This fun and informative book celebrates the lives of many Saints of Christianity by pairing Saints with their feast days or birth days throughout the year. As you look up a date it will tell you a bit of history about any saint who happens to be associated with that date. After learning a bit about the Saint the book then gives a cocktail and possibly also a wine or beer that in some way pays tribute to that Saint. It gives the recipe for the cocktail and an explanation of the connection - however ethereal (pun intended) that connection may be. The book will also often list a "Last Call", sort of a "why don't you do this today to honor this Saint" . It may be a toast or a thought , or even in the case of today the suggestion that you "Take the Better Part" like Mary rather than Martha (more on that next). As an example today (July 29) is the feast of St. Martha. You remember Martha. She was the sister of Jesus' friends Mary and Lazarus and always seemed to be working to serve her guests and upset that her sister Mary was instead enjoying the party. Jesus explained that in this case Mary had chosen "the better part" as she was spending time with her guest Jesus. AND, Martha is also purported to have slayed a dragon according to "the Golden Legend". I had never heard this legend before but an interesting little factoid. The book goes on to give us a cocktail recipe for the "Martha" and then to suggest several wines from Spain, Tuscany and France all From vineyards named "Martha" or "Marta" .Interestingly the next entry is for St. Ignatius of Loyola on July 31 (there is not necessarily a saint feted every single day). Having grown up surrounded by Jesuits in New Orleans I found it interesting that the drink they pair with St. Ignatius is the Pat O'Brien's Hurricane (and yes, Pat O's actual recipe is included). They chose this drink because it uses passionfruit syrup which is apparently a discovery of Jesuit missionaries in Mexico. Who Knew ?This hardcover book makes a fun book for yourself, a useful book for quarantining fun , and a fantastic gift for your cocktail loving friends who may also be Christian - or not, interesting either way. 487 pages. $ 29.99 a copy.

Day 136 : Little Fires Everywhere

Chatting Books Online Day 136. Today's recommended book is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I have been meaning to read this book for a while but had not gotten around to it yet, I was flipping through show listings trying to find something new to binge watch the other day and saw the listing for this show starring one of my favorites: Reese Witherspoon. Well, I could not watch the show before I read the book so this book moved up the "to be read" list. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, not literature that will change the world but a perfect piece of brain candy . There are so many fully developed story lines it was hard to decide who was the main character. Was it Elena? Pearl? Mia? Maybe Izzy, or maybe even Lexie, Trip or Moody. I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil the ending , and besides which I now have a series to watch so gotta go! We sell this book in paperback. It has 336 pages and then a bookclub discussion question section. It sells for $17.00 a copy. P.S.: (Next morning) I have only watched 2 episodes of the show so far and let me just say : the show is enjoyable but the book is SO much better !