Meet Capitola

One of the best parts about having a business based on old books is that I have an excellent excuse to visit estate sales on the weekends. When Captain America raises his eyebrows, I just say, “Hey, it’s for Reading with Scissors. I have to, because you know, I’m making you rich one art project at a time.” Sometimes that even works!

So it was the other day when I found myself way out in the country in someone’s house searching for books. I always hope to find sales that have big walls of books, but this one wasn’t like that. The owners had books scattered throughout the house--a shelf of books here and another shelf of books there. However, when I got to the living room I finally saw a big shelf of books…with an even bigger man standing in front of it. I stood over his shoulder for a bit, watching him carefully open each book, thumb through all the pages, close it up, put it back, take the next book off the shelf. It was obviously going to be a while.

That’s when I turned around and saw another small shelf near the door I came in. Many of the books on this shelf were decidedly older than anything I would cut up. First I grabbed this 1935 jewel about fellow Oklahoman, Will Rogers.

And then I found this one, The Spirit of the Border, by Zane Grey, published in 1906. Is that an awesome cover or what?

But then I saw this one, and I had to have it.

I mean, c’mon, isn’t that a great title? Capitola’s Peril! And if that’s her on the front cover, I figured the peril had to be from that big ole scarf around her neck that was causing her to walk around with an s-shaped spine! She’s so bent over, her bosom is even with her elbow. Girlfriend, I can relate!

The title page held even more intrigue…

First, this isn’t the first the world had heard of Capitola. It’s a sequel!

Second, E.D.E.N. Southworth – What kind of initials are those?

I had to go check it out. A Wikipedia search later and I had my answer. The author’s full name is Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth, and according to the article, she was the most popular American novelist of her day. And her day included Hawthorne, Melville, Alcott, Twain, and James. So there.

Why hadn’t I ever heard of her before? And what made her so popular?

That’s when I got the idea that I should actually read Capitola’s Peril. The problem was the pages in the book, while in fairly good shape, are still pretty brittle. I was afraid that they could end up disintegrating in my hand.

Kindle to the rescue! Capitola’s Peril is available on Amazon—for free!

So wanna read along? Download it on your gadget and join the first selection of the Reading With Scissors Rare Reads Book Club. And sign up for my newsletter so you can keep up with all the fun.

Here's some chocolate and some wine to set the mood. Now get going!

I Shop, Therefore I Buy

Don't you hate it when you go to Goodwill to look for books to fold and you find a book you really want to read? And it's about making stuff with paper? And it's only $1.99?

And then you walk next door to 

and you find another book you want to read? And it's about making stuff with paper, too?

And you realize that "paperie" is actually a word? And more than that, you realize that in this store...

I mean, don't you hate it when that happens? Yeah, me neither.

Book Review: Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee

That Thomas Jefferson spent time in France is nothing new.There have been many books, movies, and mini-series to attest to that, but what is less well-known, at least to me before reading Thomas J. Craughwell’s  delightful little book, Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brulee, is the special attention he paid to food while he was there.

I like to eat, mostly what my husband refers to as Oklahoma food, which is shorthand for white or yellow, bland, and most often made of wheat or corn. Some of my particular favorites are macaroni with just a little bit of tomato juice, corn bread, hominy, biscuits and gravy, and fried mush. In Jefferson’s day the American cuisine of the day was similar, simple foods prepared simply.

But France? France was a wholly different place with wholly different ideas on how food should be prepared. There was nothing simple about it; food was designed to impress, and Thomas Jefferson wanted to bring that impressive food back to America when his 5-year stay was over. To do that he enlisted the help of his slave, James Hemings, who agreed to accompany Jefferson to Paris and learn to cook from the French in exchange for his freedom.

Craughwell takes the opportunity in this concise, little book not only to relate the story of Jefferson and Heming’s agreement, but also to explore other interesting byways such as what Hemings status as an American slave was in a country where slavery was illegal and how did Sally Hemings,James’ sister and the eventual mother of several of Jefferson’s children, also find herself in Paris.

My favorite chapter was a description of a 3 ½-month trip that Jefferson took throughout France and eventually into Italy in order to sample foods and wines and record the status of the peasantry he encountered along the way. The American experiment at the time was in its very infancy and Jefferson was determined that his country emulate the best of what he found and avoid the worst.

I enjoyed this book, most of which concentrates on Jefferson,which is understandable since documented sources about him are much more plentiful than those on Hemings. Craughwell himself bemoans the fact that we don’t know more about Hemings, and I, too, found myself wishing I knew how he felt about living in a country where he did not speak the language while learning an rigorous new skill, the successful completion of which would mean his freedom. One can only imagine.

I would recommend this book for Jefferson buffs, cooking enthusiasts, and anyone looking for a quick overview of life in pre-revolutionary France. This book is definitely

Good Things, and By Good I Mean Free!!

Two quick pieces of news:

1. Drumroll......I finally got my domain name functioning, so now you can bookmark my blog at readingwithscissors.com. Whoo-hoo! No more dashes; no more blogspot.com, although both of those should still work if you need them to.
2. Amazon announced WhisperSync for Voice today. Buy a Kindle book, add the Audible audiobook version to your purchase, and WhisperSync for Voice will synchronize your reading.
   
   This is going to be great at our house. Captain America is always snoring in my ear late at night, so now I can start reading my Kindle and then when I get in the car to go to lunch the next day, I can plug in my iPhone and listen to the same book in the car AND Whispersync starts the audiobook right where I left off in the Kindle! Wowser!
   
   But better news than that is that right now, Amazon/Audible is offering 20 free titles to try it out. These are all classic books, and if you've had a Kindle for awhile, you've probably seen free classics before. But the really good part is that right now the Audible part is free, too. This isn't a public domain recording they're offering, but the real live professionally recorded versions with narrators like Davinia Porter and John Lee.
   
   I've already downloaded about 15 of the titles. (Did I mention I'm a hoarder?) Interested? Start here:  http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=5744839011.

In the Beginning

The most common question I get asked when someone sees one of my folded books is, "How did you learn to do that?"

The first folded book projects I did came from The Repurposed Library, the book I bought in Palm Springs.

It was a very simple design with a single point fold on each page, similar to those old Reader's Digest Christmas trees we all used make back in the day, but with a book cover. I just used a book I bought at the Dollar Store. Here it is reimagined and sitting in my mother's house.

What I liked about this project was that I got to cover the plain endpapers with scrapbook paper. I learned that I love scrapbook paper, even though I don't scrapbook.

And by love I mean hoard.

Anyway, I started searching on the Internet for more folded book projects. That's when I ran across the work of Isaac Salazar.

The dude is amazing and his Etsy store says,

Unfortunately he is no longer accepting custom orders as he is completely booked (no pun intended) thru the end of 2013. Thank you all for your continued support!

Holy schmoley!

I started printing out his pictures and blowing them up to see if I could figure out how he did it. No luck.

I kept searching, and that's when I discovered Heather Eddy at Rhymes With Magic. She has a GREAT website, free patterns, and very inexpensive tutorials on how to fold books on her Etsy store. In fact, she published a new one just last week.

Heather taught me how to smock books...

(see what a difference scrapbook paper makes!) and twist books...

...and arch books.

And in the end she even taught me how to fold words, like my name.

Obviously she did not teach me how to count because I got as far as S-T-E-P-H and ran out of pages. You will learn that running out of pages is a recurring theme in my work.

Regardless, check out those endpapers! The butterflies are foil and in real life they shine! I think I will go back upstairs now and smell my scrapbook paper. Did I mention...yes, I did.

Anyway, the moral of the story is if you want to get started folding books, start with Heather's tutorials.

~~~~
In today's Books I Read news: There is nothing better than getting a notice like the one I got today from LibraryThing.com.

Congratulations. You've been selected to receive an Early Reviewers copy of Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee by Thomas J. Craughwell from the August 2012 batch.

 

From Amazon:

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The founding Father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose” – to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom.

Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure – and includes 12 of their original recipes!

Over 1000 people requested it; only 30 copies available; and I got one of them.

Another book! A free book! We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.