Ohioana Book Festival

by Carol9 Comments
I went to the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus this past Saturday, an event celebrating Ohio's authors, along with my husband, Amber(10), my brother and sister-in-law. It was really fun day, at least I enjoyed it a lot. I know Amber did too. As for the rest of the bunch, I think they had an okay time, but were basically there because I wanted to go. There were tons of authors chatting and signing their books. I think we all came away with something. Amber bought The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. This is a picture of the two of them. She was really nice to Amber, interested in talking to her and encouraged Amber to send her an e-mail after she reads the story to tell her if she enjoys it. We actually picked up a bunch of books.  In addition to that one, Amber also got Pencil, Paper, Draw!: Dogs (signed) by Steve Harpster, who told her that the...
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Giveaway of The War Lovers by Evan Thomas

by Carol27 Comments
The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas Here's the blurb: On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal whipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines, Spain's sprawling colony on the other side of the world. As Evan Thomas reveals in his rip-roaring history of those times, the hunger for war had begun years earlier. Depressed by the "closing" of the Western frontier and embracing theories of social Darwinism, a group of warmongers that included a young Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge agitated loudly and incessantly that the United...
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The Three Bears by Robert Southey

by Carol2 Comments
"The Three Bears" by Robert Southey I always knew this story as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," but apparently in its earliest versions the bears' intruder is actually an old women. Southey's version is from 1837. The story itself is familiar. A family of good-natured, trusting bears lives in a nice house in the woods. Each bear has his own chair, bowl of porridge and bed. One day when the three go for a walk in the woods while waiting for their porridge to cool, an ill-tempered, perhaps homeless, old woman enters their home, making sure no one is around to see her. She eats the little bear's porridge, breaks his chair and eventually falls asleep in his bed. That is where the bears discover her. The small bear cries out that someone has been sleeping in his bed and states she's still there. The old woman awakens and jumps out the...
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