Friday, October 16, 2015

October book club selection...

AMERICAN NATIONS
a history of the eleven regional cultures of North America

by Colin Woodward

A history of North America's eleven rival cultural regions challenges popular perceptions about the red state-blue state conflict, tracing lingering tensions stemming from disparate intranational values that have shaped every major event in history. (NoveList)

Kirkus: /* Starred Review */ Forget about the United States and Canada. The true nations of North America, writes historian and Christian Science Monitor foreign correspondent Woodard (The Republic of Pirates, 2007, etc.), have little to do with those artificialities. Borrowing fruitful notions from Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America (1981) and David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in North America (1989), Woodard traces the differences in America's regions to cultural, ethnic, religious and political differences among various strains of settlers, many of them long in play back in the British Isles. What he calls The Midlands, for instance, extends from the central Atlantic Seaboard deep into the Great Plains, encircling "Yankeedom" by taking in the southern tier of east-central Canada. These regions are the historical purview of, respectively, the Quakers of the English Midlands and the Puritans of England's eastern coast, with their distinct views of human nature and how government had to be organized to respond to it. Some of his "eleven stateless nations of North America" descend from these two regions, representing the old divide between moderate conservatism, with its "middle-class ethos and considerable respect for intellectual achievement," and moderate liberalism, with its view that "society should be organized to benefit ordinary people." Other regions, though, are the product of an English elite that mistrusted any government that presumed to tell them what to do, even though they descended from feudalism. Behold, then, the South, both the aristocratic piedmont of Virginia and North Carolina and the hardscrabble, God-haunted, fearful Deep South. The author connects these regional differences to deep divisions in American life, noting that the old struggle between those moderate forces has been supplanted by the rise of that Deep South, perfected in the 2000 election, when it "established simultaneous control over the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in forty-six years."Woodard offers a fascinating way to parse American (writ large) politics and history in this excellent book. (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2011)

Chapter Two Book Club meets 
October 28 at 7pm. 
Call LIZA 612-8462 for more information

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Fall Journaling



The Journal Group meets tomorrow, the 14th, at 7pm.
  • When the colors of autumn are in full splendor, do you notice an electrifying feeling in the air? Do the colors saturating the atmosphere have an impact on your mood or outlook? If so, how would you  describe it?
  •  Write about one of the five senses (related to your autumn experience): 
    • The smells of autumn 
    • The sights of autumn
    •  The sounds of autumn 
    • The touch of autumn 
    • The tastes of autumn

  •  What is your favorite fall memory? Write about it.  Be sure to tell who it involved, what happened, when it happened, where it occurred, and why it is a favorite memory?
  • What are three experiences that you enjoy most about the fall season? Is it the colors? Cooler  temperatures? Kids going back to school? Pick three random things and write about them. If that gets you going and you want to write about more, have at it.  
  • What is your favorite fall holiday?  Why?  How does your family celebrate this holiday? 
  • What is your favorite fall activity?  Why? 
  • What is your favorite food made from apples?

This is a drop-in group that welcomes all new members... no commitment, but we think you'll be addicted to journaling! Call Liza for more information, 208.612.8462