The Vintage Reader

I would be a little disappointed if any of my regular readers didn't know at least the basics of the WPA; we've all heard about the WPA highway workers, builders, and such who built the nation's infrastructure during the Depression. We've probably seen the awesome posters designed by WPA artists. But did you know that the WPA also produced a series of children's science books? Well, then. You can look at them all online here:

WPA Children's Books (1935-1943)

I'm having a hard time coming up with titles for my posts these days, if you haven't noticed. Probably from lack of practice.

Anyway, Michael Schaub at The Bookslut points us to Awful Library Books, where people submit old books that have not stood the test of time particularly well.

I went to Manderley again.

There's something so wonderful about Daphne du Maurier's leasing the house she based Manderley on, and renovating it with her own money. Not to turn a profit, but just because she loved it.

Times Literary Walks: Daphne du Maurier's Cornwall

(Tweeted by Jessa Crispin of The Bookslut)

NPR tells us What People Were Reading During The Depression. Interesting stuff: a dog's memoir by Virginia Woolf, some now-classic adventure tales, non-fiction (of course), and White Collar Girl, one of my personal favorites by Faith Baldwin. Linda, the heroine, leaves college and returns to her small hometown when her father dies, only to find that before his death he had lost the entire family fortune through speculation. First she goes to work for the local stationer, pushing postcards and touristy gewgaws at day-trippers from Buffalo, and spends her evenings hanging out with her high school friends. But then she takes a job selling investments to women so they can be financially independent if something happens to their husbands, and ends up saving her family, gaining her independence, and also getting the guy. It's Faith Baldwin in her prime, and it stands up well in the face of the passing decades. She had a gift for dialogue that usually keeps it from sounding too dated (even if sometimes it's a little strained because of her tendency to use conversation to explain the backstory), and she wasn't afraid to talk frankly and without sensationalism about things no other romance novelist would have touched—District Nurse has a scene with a botched abortion, for example, and The Incredible Year takes on casual adultery, promiscuity, and materialism.

I do wonder, after reading this, if we're about to see a flood of chick lit about plucky young women losing their jobs in the recession and finding love and a livelihood all at the same time. I might actually read something like that, as long as it didn't have shoes on the cover, and as long as the heroine's former job wasn't in publishing and her new job doesn't involve walking other people's dogs, working for celebrities in any capacity, or (despite having no previous professional experience either as a chef or a business owner) opening a whimsically named cafe that instantly becomes the place for everyone in New York to be seen. In the meantime, I think I'll go back and read White Collar Girl again.

(via Nathan Bransford)

Ellen Raskin, author of the beloved children's book The Westing Game, thought it would be useful for writing students and others to see what goes into the preparation of a book manuscript: the writing, the editing, the back-and-forth between all the different people who have their hands in the project. So she tried to donate her own manuscript of The Westing Game to the library. Which didn't want it. (I know, I know: gifts and scope and all of that. I'm an ex-librarian, I've had to turn down gifts too.)

But she kept offering it to these folks, and eventually they caved... and took in the manuscript of the book that would go on to win the next year's Newbery. And now they've put it online, with audio and notes and design materials (she designed the jacket and some other elements of the book too). Enjoy!

The Westing Game Manuscript

Labels: children's books, libraries

Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets: Reading Rocks

Usually, Cake Wrecks is all about horrible cakes, but these are quite wonderful: cake homage to classic children's books. Enjoy!

Well, I'm not sure if this counts as synchronicity or serendipity or what, but last week I was wracking my brain trying to think of a great fairy tale site I used to visit regularly. It's such a cool place that people like Jane Yolen and Ellen Datlow (I think; it might have been Ellen Kushner) used to post on the discussion board. And then today, what should show up in my RSS feeds but a post that links to SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations. That's the site, and since I've been away they've added an array of beautiful buyables from Cafe press and a TON of gorgeous fairy tale illustrations. Don't click that link unless you have a couple of hours to surf... but do click that link.

Labels: fairytales

This morning I went to my long-neglected PaperbackSwap account to see if I could figure out why nobody had yet requested the Moosewood cookbook I posted last week, since I know that there are always approximately 86 people wishing for any given Moosewood cookbook at all times. I know this because every time I add one to my wish list, I am at around #87 on the list. I solved that problem (apparently it didn't actually repost last time when I thought it did), but realized that I have lots and lots of books around here... somewhere... that I have never read but still really want to. And also a lot that I have gotten through PBS, read, and then not reposted, even though I have no intention of ever reading them again.

And so today, when I'm not watching inauguration coverage on the Internet and chatting with my Facebook friends about it, I'm planning to start weeding the Vintage Reader collection and posting on PBS. So if you're interested, head on over and check out new stuff from me (vintagereader). Keep in mind that I buy a lot of stuff in boxlots or at garage sales, so I haven't read a lot of my inventory and can't really tell you whether the books are any good or not.

[NOTE: If you're not already a member of PaperbackSwap and would like to be, click here to join (hint: that's my referral link, so if you join and swap 10 books, I get a credit! Which is worth approximately two bucks. But hey, free book for me!). It's a great way to get rid of your old books and get new ones, including some vintage ones.]

Seriously, this is the first time anybody has ever tagged me for anything, except for those "participate if you want to" kinds of things, but Michelle at The Zen of Knitting has tagged me to list five (FIVE!) projects to commit to. Mine are a little different from hers, since I've nearly given up knitting entirely in favor of other pursuits, but here goes.

1. Make a shower curtain for Vintage Boy's bathroom. Several years ago I found some AMAZING Route 66 fabric in gorgeous retro colors and bought two yards of it. Then I saw it on sale at Jo-Ann Fabric and bought two more yards. Then it occurred to me that they might discontinue it, so the next time I had a coupon I bought two MORE yards. Which gives me six yards of Route 66 fabric, and that's just enough to make a shower curtain. Since Vintage Boy is still delirious over all things car-related, I've been buying him adorable Do Your Room car stuff at Target every time I see it on sale; fortunately, the colors are EXACTLY THE SAME as the ones in the Route 66 fabric. It's decorating kismet! He now has towels with vintage vehicles on them and a soap dispenser/night light (the headlights work!) in the shape of a vintage tow truck. Now all he needs to complete the decor is for me to make the shower curtain, which should take about an hour: sew yardages together at sides, hem the whole thing, and set big metal grommets across the top for shower curtain rings (a task that was assigned to Mr. Vintage Reader the last time I did this, and that he finds highly satisfactory, involving as it does pounding on metal with a mallet).


2. Make a small cardboard house (See previous blog post about small cardboard houses). Eventually I want to design my own Midcentury Modern cardboard houses (curious about this, I searched Flickr and found that someone else had already had that idea and implemented it wonderfully) but for now I will use a pattern from a master glitterhouse architect and learn from his expertise.


3. Write a Facebook app. I have several started already, but just haven't gotten around to finishing them to my standard, which is Not Another Crappy Facebook App That Doesn't Work, and Nobody Would Want to Use Even If It Did.


4. Finish a mystery short story for potential submission to EQMM's Department of First Stories. I have very good premises for about 10, good beginnings for two, and sucky beginnings for about five. No middles or ends. Which is saying something, because short stories, as the name implies, are just NOT THAT LONG.


5. Plant a Victory Garden.

EDIT: I haven't figured out who to tag yet. I'm not sure I still have readers, let alone readers who do projects. Hmm...

What is a Glitter House?

A fascinating and time-consuming site that includes the history of "glitter houses," small cardboard houses covered with glitter that were popular in midcentury America. There are also links to some incredible instructions for making your own cardboard houses.