Psalm 1

 ¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

 ²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

 ³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 ⁴The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

 ⁵Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

 ⁶For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

my idea!

It's book review time!

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The Count of Monte Cristo

 by Alexander Dumas, pere

Edmond Dantes had everything: a beautiful fiancé, a rising career as a sailor, and loyal friends. Then in one stroke of fate he loses everything and is imprisoned in the Chateau d’If.

When Dantes finally escapes, there is only one thing he seeks: revenge…

This extremely long book is one of those classics everyone has heard of, but fewer take the time to actually read.

Its plot is simple, but elaborated upon by the addition of a whole host of characters and their stories.

Character development in Dantes was slow, but interesting. The reader sees him grow from a young and naïve sailor to a complicated, bitter and cruel enigma: the Count of Monte Cristo. The three men upon whom he vows vengeance all have interesting and different characters too.

The parts I didn’t like in the book were the casual way having mistresses outside of marriage were discussed, as well as the stupid custom of arranged marriages which probably led to the former! These customs also annoyed Abigail Adams when she visited France in the 1780s.

This leads me to say that French and Italian women, at least in this book, are/were so different from American women. They were supposed to be weak, soft creatures who didn’t seem to do much, with the exception of Eugenie Danglars, the daughter of the avaricious Danglars, who dresses up as man and runs away to start a music career.

Also, be aware that the Count smokes a lot of hashish! Please remember “hugs not drugs”, children. :)

As a Christian, I must note the interesting perception of God in The Count of Monte Cristo.  The Count thinks he is an avenging angel appointed by God to dish out justice to the men who wronged him, until he experiences the love of kind people at the end and repents of his deadly pride. This is really a long adventure story of revenge, not a really religious book, but could offer many lessons to a discerning eye.

All in all, I give this book four stars out of five. A classic tale, although it does get a bit boring in parts, and a rewarding read.

“How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure. ” 


“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.” 
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

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Next review will be Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. (I happen to like weird old sci-fi-ish books)




Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Nothing particularly exciting happening today for us; but I suppose it could be worse.....


Random photo time!!!!!

Petunia, 2009

Silkies for sale now

Silkie butt!

Pussywillow tree

Letchworth park, the Grand Canyon of the east (New York)

Sunset near our house last year

Adios! ~ D

some great literature!

I'm reading a book. Don't you EVER interrupt me---or ELSE! (Think violent, gruesome and nasty death, accomplished without my eyes leaving the page)


Then, I'd like to review some books I've recently read. Particularly, Alice Adams, Seventeen, and The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, as well as Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Tarkington was a G.A.W. (Great American Writer) but sadly has been all but forgotten these post-modern times due to the occasional word in his books considered racist by the hyper-sensitive, self-proclaimed politically correct "censors" of our age. Mr. Tarkington had a style of his own, and incorporated many interestin' little-used words for the vocabulary sharks (I just coined this descriptive word!) like myself.






Alice Adams featured the saga of a manipulative, conniving and selfish 1920's era girl of plebeian position who strives to be accepted by the patrician upper-class families in a midwest town. Her attempts to do this are at times sad, at times funny, and you get a sense of her maturing throughout the book. The rest of the Adams family are all different, with different faults which lead to the demise of the family fortune. Alice eventually entangles Arthur Russel into thinking she is different than she actually is, however after his disillusionment  at the end of the book, he shuns her, and she has to move on. NOTE: this is NOT a romance, and I did a bad job reviewing it. See this for a too-wordy but more descriptive synopsis.The end of this book was sad, yet beautiful. Four stars.


The Magnificent Ambersons was a slightly dramatic epic which to quote an reviewer on Amazon.com was "an Horatio Alger story backwards." It tells of the demise of the awesomely rich Amberson family as the world changes around them.  Basically, it is about "being things" as opposed to "doing things". I won't attempt a synopsis, but let you read it for yourselves. The beginning chapters are slow, and overall it is a sad book, but very interesting historically.


Seventeen is a hilarious story. It is about...young love, which is very funny to me, despite my being a youth myself, rather than a wizened geriatric. 


And guess what??? All of the above books are FREE on Kindle or the Kindle app. 
  <---- Perhaps uncalled-for smiley face, again to appease the populace, and to make me appear extra enthusiastic.   Whee.


Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery


                     ........Nice cover!


EONM contained Montgomery's usual failings: over flowery descriptions (which seems to be a failing especially of female authors, but Lucy Maud takes the cake for them. Some are quite beautiful.), unrealistic characters, "kindred spirits", fairies (and I don't mean Artemis Fowl fairies. Pu-leez!!!) and similar plot lines. But I liked Emily better than Anne (in some ways) because she was less Pollyanna-ishly happy, and Emily's aunt was MEAN to her, as was her teacher and some others. Emily seems to be sort of psychic too, but this was minimum. The plot was similar to Anne, but with much darker themes, and a neat mystery thing going on. Oh, and Emily can bake a cake. She's less dreamy than Anne, and must have been party-autobiographical for L.M. Montgomery who wanted to be a writer as did Emily. 
Three point five stars.


Somewhat randomly, I would like to mention briefly that I want this shirt. 


..Farewell, readers. And as this is Sunday, don't forget to spend time reading the greatest book, and indeed the only one we need for life, the Bible. 






 A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb


There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.  ~G.K. Chesterton


Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.  ~ Attributed to Groucho Marx