When I was in junior high school I read Gone with the Wind 3 times. Granted, the last time I was speed reading to see how fast I could get through the 1000+ pages, but it certainly was one of my favorite books. I know I saw the movie at least twice on the big screen. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable are firmly entrenched in my mind as Scarlett and Rhett.

Now, Donald McCaig has written Rhett Butler’s People, Gone with the Wind from Rhett’s point of view. He gives us the back story for the Butlers of South Carolina, Rhett’s relationship with Belle Watling and much more. The book goes beyond the last chapter of GWTW much to my delight!

McCaig was chosen by the Margaret Mitchell estate to write Rhett Butler’s People and they chose well. He deals with the Reconstruction more even-handedly than Mitchell did. The effects of the war and slavery are devastating, though the burning of Atlanta does not get as much attention. I did wonder about what other books deal with the aftermath of war. Certainly the sections of Memoirs of a Geisha that showed life at the end of WWII were particularly moving.

For all Gone with the Wind devotees, I hope you will find this book as rewarding as I did.

I finished Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells this weekend — Fabulous! It reminded me of Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and Dancing on the Edge of the Roof by Sheila Williams. The food in it reminded me of Jeanne Ray’s Eat Cake.  I wanted to try some of the recipes the author has on her website.

Here is Neal Wyatt ’s article from Library Journal about the book and others you might like.

Like many people my age, I remember watching Steve Martin and his wild and crazy guy routine for most of my adult life. I saw him on the Smothers Brothers Show, Johnny Carson, and certainly Saturday Night Live. I loved some of his movies — Roxanne and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels but rarely paid to see them. I always thought a little of him went a long way when it came to movies. I really enjoyed his book The Pleasure of My Company, about an obsessive compulsive neurotic, but didn’t finish Shopgirl. However, I can full recommend his memoir, Born Standing Up.

There is much more to Martin’s comic routine than meets the eye and ear. His influences were magicians, musicians, and comics such as Laurel and Hardy, Jack Benny and the old time radio comedians. He describes how as he went from gig to gig, he developed his philosophy of humor. A gag or joke works because it builds up a tension in the listener. When the release comes, so does the laugh. Martin wanted to know what would happen if you built the tension, but didn’t ever release it. When would people laugh and why? The way he talks about his process makes the reader want to see some of the skits to see how he is building this tension.

Another interesting part of the memoir is his struggles with his family, and his father in particular. Most of Martin’s personal life — and certainly his marriage — are left out of this story. He does talk about the tension in his family life and how, before the death of his father, he was able to reach out to him at least on some level. As a parent and a child, I could relate to the misunderstandings that can contaminate family life.

Here are links to some works of Steve Martin. Some of the older movies and tv shows are only in vhs.

Films

The Pink Panther (2006)

Shopgirl (2005)

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)

Bringing Down the House (2003)

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)

Novocaine (2001) (vhs)

Bowfinger (1999)

The Out of Towners (1998) (vhs)

The Spanish Prisoner (1997) (vhs)

Sgt. Bilko (1996) (vhs)

Father of the Bride II (1995) (vhs)

Mixed Nuts (1994)

A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)

Leap of Faith (1992)

Housesitter (1992)

Grand Canyon (1991)

L.A. Story (1991)

Father of the Bride (1991)

My Blue Heaven (1990)

Parenthood (1989)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Roxanne (1987) (vhs)

Three Amigos (1986) (vhs)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

All of Me (1984)

The Lonely Guy (1984) (vhs)

The Man with Two Brains (1983)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) (vhs)

Pennies from Heaven (1981)

The Jerk (1979)

The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977)

Books

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life Listen to audio clip

The Pleasure of My Company

Kindly Lent By Their Owner: The Private Collection of Steve Martin

Shopgirl

Pure Drivel

Wasp, a Play in One Act

Cruel Shoes

Fierce Pajamas: an anthology of humor writing from the New Yorker
Records

The Steve Martin Brothers 1981

Comedy Is Not Pretty! 1979

A Wild and Crazy Guy 1978

Let’s Get Small 1977

Television Shows

Best of The Muppet show. (vhs)

Muppet Show 2

SNL. The complete second season

Saturday Night Life : the best of Steve Martin

Saturday Night Live, the classic years (vhs)

The best of Saturday night live. 1991 (vhs)

Saturday Night Live 15^th anniversary special (vhs)

Even if the Patriots had won the Super Bowl, their “perfect season” would be nothing compared to the 1934 season of the North Attleboro High School football team: they were undefeated and unscored upon. Jem, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird would have risked more than a broken arm to play on that team.

Here’s what the Evening Chronicle article about the 1934 closing Thanksgiving game against Attleboro said about the team: “The doughty band of crimson-jerkined youngsters with spartanic grit and courage repulsed every attack of a great Attleboro eleven, which had never before tasted defeat, and when the final whistle had blown they stood on the pinnacle among Massachusetts schoolboy elevens - the only one undefeated and unscored-on in the 1934 crusade.”

Football was primarily a college sport when it began in 1869, but high schools quickly formed their own teams. The North Attleboro-Attleboro rivalry predates 1921, but had been interrupted due to a ban on the sport in the early part of the 20^th century. Without television, local sports were a popular source of entertainment. Players were on the field for the whole game, playing both offense and defense and were not as specialized as they are now. In the 1934 Thanksgiving game, the captain of the team kicked off, passed and ran for the one touchdown.

The first team is composed of, Louis Difiore fullback; Norman Poirier, quarterback; Hubert Rice, left half; Capt. Maurice Fournier, right half; Harold Tennant, left end; Russsell Smith, right end; Stanley Lycus, right tackle; Ray Bozzo, left tackle; Jack Daly, right guard; Bancroft Austin, left guard and Nate Phipps, center. Others on the team were Clifford Wise, Norman Benoit, Joe Tremblay, Ray Collard, Eli Beaupre, Walter LaRosee, Eugene Lorden, Emil Jacobs, Arthur Irvine, Cordner Stuart, Tony Difiore, William Thorp, Clinton Tingley, Herbert Ballou, Ray Brastow, Harold Hall, William Prew, Orin Armstrong, Whicott Robinson, Joseph Kivlin, Raymond Vandette and Leonard Simms. The head coach was Raymond Yates and his assistants were Roland Chandler and Charles Wettergreen.

Beatrice Montplaisir left her scrapbooks of North Attleboro life to the Falls Fire Barn. She had clippings on the reunion of the 34 team which allowed me to find the article and picture in the microfilm. Her scrapbooks are organized by theme and make for fascinating reading. This picture (wrongly labeled The Champs … 1933) was in the paper. Maurice Fournier and Eli Beaupre died in WWII.

Join the Big Read by reading To Kill a Mockingbird or the biography of Harper Lee, Mockingbird, and by attending one of the many events during the month of March. Visit the website RMLonline.org and click on The Big Read logo for more information or stop by at the library.

The North Attleboro community-wide Big Read will be looking at the life of the town in the 1930s as it relates to To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the aspects of small town life featured in Harper Lee’s book is the importance of gardens and flowers to the people of the town. Three of the main women expressed themselves primarily through their gardens: Miss Maudie with her azaleas, Mrs. Dubose with her camellias and Mayella Ewell with her geraniums in six chipped-enamel slop jars.

North Attleboro has been home to beautiful gardens and an active Garden Club for a very long time. The 1930s saw the Garden Club’s tenth annual June Exhibition in June 1933. To quote the Evening Chronicle, “This was the first Iris show ever held by the club and was very successful, more than 150 different varieties, many of them of very recent introduction.”

The Garden Club had monthly meetings in the Elks’ Home, usually featuring guest speakers. One talked about growing gladiolus. Sometimes they visited gardens around town, seeing in 1934, the gardens of Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Fisher (152 S Washington St.), Mrs. Ellen L. Mason (238 S. Washington St.), Merrill Marty (florist at 46 Washington), Fred Hayward and the Birch Hill Gardens. Popular flowers included iris, lupines, petunias, peonies and rock gardens.

Roses were also popular and Mr. Raymond Hoisington (83 Leonard St.) was famous for his collection of over forty varieties of Hybrid Tea roses. One website mentioned that a 1930s garden would have lots of formal rosebeds, though none are mentioned in “TKAM.”

Throughout the month of March, Nolan’s Flower (which has been in business for over 100 years) will be displaying arrangements of 1930s styles in the Richards Memorial Library. The library is grateful to the Angle Tree Garden Club who displays arrangements at the library every month and frequently donates gardening books to the collection. The Angle Tree club was founded in 1962.

This February sees two local flower shows: Rhode Island’s Spring Flower and Garden Show at the RI Convention Center, on the 21^st through 24^th and Attleboro Arts Museum’s show at the museum on the 27^th through March 2.

Join the Big Read by reading To Kill a Mockingbird or the biography of Harper Lee, Mockingbird, and by attending one of the many events during the month of March. The opening event, at the Masonic Lodge at 1:30 on March 1, will present music and dance of the ‘30s. Visit the website RMLonline.org and click on The Big Read logo for more information or stop by at the library.

This year for our Book Pot Luck we had a tea party, with a variety of teas and pots! The books that were chosen were:

Old Wives Tale by Electa Trisch (Virtual Catalog only);

Lost art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice;

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips;

The Ghost by Robert Harris;

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Venora Bennett;

Alligators, Old Mink & New Money by Alison Houtte;

Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene;

Sammy’s Hill by Kristen Gore;

The Partner by John Grisham;

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies.

The food was delicious, especially the unusual chicken salad sandwiches made with dried cranberries, allspice, chili, cinnamon and ginger!

Books to Choose From

Teas from Basically British in Warren, RI

Sharing a Favorite

Three at the party

It’s not just me! Other people at our Poetry and Acoustic Music Open Mike on Jan. 27 agreed that we are getting better and better. The poets have become much better at reading their poetry. There was a wide range of types from moving memorials to fallen comrades to a humorous piece about a dog to poems about a trip in a dory and the struggles of being 12. The music was also wonderful and varied: a couple of pieces on accordion, two pieces in tribute to Dan Fogelberg and Garth Brooks and a couple of songs written by the performer. Thanks to our participants:

Bill Lambert, Brad Smith and Chuck Durang were our musicians.

Bob Maskell, J. Richard Lebel, Joanne Bixby, Ken Patton, Leslie Joanne Hill, Mary Gregory, Richard Menoche and Robert Toto were our poets.

The Sun Chronicle had a nice spread of pictures. You can see them online in their photo gallery for Jan. 28, 2008.

Another article that appeared was about Irene Davey who just turned 100. Irene graced our poetry open mikes several times in our early years. She once offered a poetry prize for the best poem by a youth.

They also had an article about a poetry slam at the Attleboro Art Museum, that sounded fascinating. Watch for it next time they hold another one.

Romantic Times has their list of the best books of the year — in more categories than you can imagine. They include mystery, suspense, paranoramal, vampire, erotic, African-American, and much more. Here are the list of their recommendations for Contemporary and Historical Romance.

SIZZLING Susan Mallery
NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR’S Christie Ridgway
THE WINTER LODGE Susan Wiggs
JUST LIKE HEAVEN Barbara Bretton
SUGAR DADDY Lisa Kleypas
VIRGIN RIVER Robyn Carr
ALL ABOUT EVIE Beth Ciotta
TANGLED UP IN YOU Rachel Gibson
A TOUCH OF MINX Suzanne Enoch (no one owns yet)
THE PERFECT MATCH Kimberly Cates

THE SECRET PASSION OF SIMON BLACKWELL Samantha James
SIMPLY MAGIC Mary Balogh
NOT QUITE A LADY Loretta Chase
LADY BEWARE Jo Beverley
THE SECRET DIARIES OF MISS MIRANDA CHEEVER Julia Quinn
SCANDAL BECOMES HER Shirlee Busbee
NEVER DECEIVE A DUKE Liz Carlyle
BEYOND SEDUCTION Stephanie Laurens
SECRETS OF A PROPER LADY Victoria Alexander
MINE TILL MIDNIGHT Lisa Kleypas

Every year I compile a list from various review sources that recommend best books at the end of the year. Here’s this year “holdable” list. Tell us what you think of the books you’ve read. The descriptions are taken from a variety of sources. Check the Romantic Times blog for romance “best” books of the year.

Aciman, Andre Call Me by Your Name
A 17-year-old boy who lives along the Italian Riviera experiences a sexual awakening when a young man stays with his family. CT, PH, PW

Alarcon, Daniel Lost City Radio
The shadows of civil war hang heavy over three lost souls in a fictional South American country. CT, LA, WP

Berlinski, Mischa Fieldwork
The intentions of anthropologists and missionaries clash in the rice fields of northern Thailand. CT, LA, LJ, PH, PW

Black, Benjamin Christine Falls
When Dublin pathologist Garret Quirke discovers a family member altering the public records of a young woman who died during childbirth 50 years earlier, his curiosity leads him into a conspiracy that stretches across the Atlantic and deep into the Catholic Church. FL, SF, VV (Pseudonym of John Banville)

Bloom, Amy Away
A desperate Russian woman who has recently made a new life for herself in New York drops everything to return to her former burnt-out home when she learns that the daughter she thought was murdered may be alive after all. CT, LA, PJ, STL, WP

Bolano, Roberto The Savage Detectives
In this vividly ironic work by the late Chilean-born novelist, two poets at the heart of a radical literary movement in 1970s Mexico City travel the globe in search of an aging writer. FL, LA, NYT, PPG, PW, WP

Chabon, Michael The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
You haven’t heard of “the frozen Chosen”? They, of course, are the Jews who settled in Alaska after World War II. Welcome to Michael Chabon’s alternate reality. CT, FL, LA, LJ, PH, PJ, STL, VV, WP

Davies, Peter Ho The Welsh Girl
During World War II, a Welsh teenager does the unthinkable, falling in love with a German prisoner of war. BG, CT, FL

Diaz, Junot The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A clever, lyrical debut in which a nerdy Dominican-American who loves science fiction is enveloped by an ancient family curse. CT, FL, LA, LJ, NW, PJ, PW, STL, TIME, VV, WP

DeLillo, Don Falling Man
Just after the towers of New York’s World Trade Center crash to the ground on 9/11, a man makes his way uptown to his estranged family. A masterful exploration of those murky days following the attacks. BG, CT, LA, NW, PPG, PW, STL

Englander, Nathan The Ministry of Special Cases
In 1976, a Jewish couple in Buenos Aires search for their son, who has become one of Los Desaparecidos — the “disappeared” in Argentina’s Dirty War. BL, CT, LA

Enright, Anne The Gathering
A young Irish woman copes with the suicide of her alcoholic older brother and its effects on her family, in Enright’s fourth novel, winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize. BG, LA, PJ

Ferris, Joshua Then We Came to the End
Ferris explores the insular world of office life, that fertile breeding ground of romance, mental disorders and desktop tchotchkes. BG, NYT, STL

Hamid, Mohsin The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Pakistani man finds success in New York, but after 9/11 he abandons that life when he realizes America isn’t what he had hoped. KI, PW, WP

Horan, Nancy Loving Frank
Fictional account of Frank Lloyd Wright’s passionate affair, a Chicago scandal that ended violently. NPR, PW, WP

Hosseini, Khaled A Thousand Splendid Suns
A look at three decades of Afganistan’s history told from two women’s points of view. FL, PJ, WP

Johnson, Denis Tree of Smoke
The long-awaited novel from the author of “Jesus’ Son” is a zinger about the CIA and the Vietnam War. BG, CT, FL, LJ, NYT, PJ, PW, STL, TIME, WP, PPG

Lippman, Laura What the Dead Know
A woman is involved in an auto accident outside Baltimore. When police demand identification, she has none. FL, PW, VV, WP

Martin, Valerie Trespass
This novel travels from upstate NY to Croatia and links 2 disparate families and 2 generations in relationships that are both volatile and loving. KI, STL, WP

McEwan, Ian On Chesil Beach
A wedding night goes painfully awry, and the aftershocks are felt for years. BG, CT, PH, PJ, WP

Murakami, Haruki After Dark
Short, hypnotically eerie, full of noirish foreboding. It keeps ratcheting up the suspense. NW, PJ, STL, WP

Patchett, Ann Run
A Boston snowstorm results in a traffic accident — and some shocking discoveries within one family. CT, FL, PPG, STL, WP

Roth, Philip Exit Ghost
Philip Roth alter ego Nathan Zuckerman faces the savagery of old age. CT, NW, STL

Rothfuss, Patrick The Name of the Wind
From the day his family’s theater troupe is massacred by mysterious, demon-like entities known as the Chandrian, the young boy must live by his wits, struggling through crushing poverty on city streets before gaining a place for himself at the university. FL, PW, SF

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
This instant classic earns its catharsis honestly, not through hype or sentiment but through the author’s vision and hard work. NW, PPG, TIME, WP

Russo, Richard Bridge of Sighs
A man travels to Italy to better understand a close childhood friend who, unlike him, long ago deserted their hometown. CT, FL, LA, PJ, STL, WP

Shepard, Jim Like You’d Understand, Anyway
A brilliant collection of wildly imaginative tales. Sometimes eerie, sometimes hilarious, Shepard’s writing is in a league unto its own. CT, FL, LA, PJ, TIME

Shriver, Lionel The Post-Birthday World
A woman lives out her lusty desire to cheat on her long-time beau in an alternate reality. CT, FL, LJ, TIME

Simmons, Dan The Terror
The novel opens in 1847, with the two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, trapped and being slowly crushed in the Arctic ice. Worse, a ferocious and disconcertingly devious predator stalks the subzero wasteland. FL, SF, STL

Trevor, William Cheating at Canasta
Readers slip into the lives of the marginalized and the melancholy in Irish author William Trevor’s latest poignant collection. BG, CT, FL, LA

Wiggins, Marianne The Shadow Catcher
A multihued novel about Edward S. Curtis, a photographer who spent decades snapping shots of American Indians. CT, LA, PPG, PW, WP

Code:

BG Boston Globe

BL Booklist

CT Chicago Tribune

KI Kirkus Review

LA Los Angeles Times

LJ Library Journal

NW Newsweek

NPR NPR Independent Booksellers

NYT New York Times

PH Portsmouth (NH) Herald

PJ Providence Journal

PPG Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PW Publishers Weekly

SF San Francisco Chronicle

STL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

TIME Time Magazine

VV Village Voice

WP Washington Post

This year the Library received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts Big Read program for a community-wide read of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We are partnered with UMass Boston’s Healey Library and WUMB-FM, Newburyport Literary Association, and the Silver Lake School and Gallery in the grant. Our events will include a visit by Charles Shields, author of Mockingbird, the biography of Harper Lee. We will also focus on North Attleboro in the ’30s with a music of the ’30s event. Other activities are still in the works.

We are encouraging groups around town to participate in book discussions. We will provide guides courtesy of the NEA. If anyone has ideas for other programs, please contact Maggie at the library.

Visit our Books Open Doors home page to keep up with the latest.