Honoring Will Shakespeare

Being that Mr. Shakespeare's birth and death dates are somewhat ambiguous I am going to say that this post is not necessarily late in honoring the great bard!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/23/arts/shakespeare-obituary.html?_r=0

SHIRT COLOR OPTIONS

Hello Spirits, 2 things:

1. Archimedes, Chief, Boss, and I went to the Lee Smith presentation and book signing today. She is a great speaker and story teller. She should really consider writing her stories down and getting them published in bound book form. I think she could have some success with that. Maybe I'll contact her about being her talent agent. Or perhaps I'm a bit late on that idea. Anyway, she gave a great talk in which she read a few excerpts from her newest book, which is an autobiography about her life experiences, and how she obtained inspiration for a lot of her previous books. It was an enjoyable experience and I gave a shameless plug to her about us, THE NOVEL SPIRITS!!! Of course I charmed her (as I do quite frequently), and I think we have strong chances of having her come be a special guest at a future book club meeting. Full disclosure: I am not a charmer and there is pretty much a 0% chance she'll come to a meeting. On that positive note, lets move on to thing number 2...

2. Deuce colored our logo drawing! She made two different options, and gave us the opportunity to vote on which one we like better. So I am putting up a poll here on the blog so we can vote and see how everyone else has voted also. You should be able to see the poll gadget to the right of this post and below Chief's Bonus Book. I'm attaching each of the two pictures here below. One we'll call "White Wine" and the other we'll call "Red Wine" and I'll label the corresponding options on the poll the same way. So here they are Spirits, let us know which you prefer...

White Wine:

Red Wine:

Hope all is well Spirits, see yall soon

Baron 

AUTISM ARTICLE

Hello Spirits, as you may know, this month is autism awareness month. I ran across this article tonight and thought I'd pass it along. It reminded me of our book THE REASON I JUMP. An autistic teen gives us a glimpse into his condition and offers some helpful tips for us:

Huffington Post Autism Article

Additionally, Chief and Archimedes ran in an Autism Awareness 5k race this morning (quite early I might add) and Chief set a personal best! Well done Chief. 

GUESTS ON EARTH is very good IMO. Long chapters though.

See ya Spirits

Baron

GOOD NEWS, GOOD NEWS!!!

Hello Spirits, remember the old TV show The Dukes of Hazzard? The good ole sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane used to always say, "Good news, Good news!!" when he thought he'd finally caught the kind-hearted, morally straight, handsome Duke brothers in yet another illegal moonshining activity. Not to mention, have you ever thought about the lives they put in danger with all that reckless driving across the country side!?!?! That should be many months of jail time, large fines, and plenty of points on their license. But that just goes to show, as long as you stand up for what's right, have a great, flowing head of hair, and drive a sweet ride, you can break all the laws you want.

Anyway, there was the typical, completely random tangent I like to provide. First off, congrats to Deuce on her first blog post! Now let the flood gates open.

So I found something really cool Spirits!! I'm pretty excited, maybe you won't be. I spend quite a bit of time at the local library here in Abingdon. I normally try to stay anonymous and not give too many details about me or my location or anything but I can here because: 1. the location is on the picture I'm attaching, and 2. I'm not even an important person, so neither the FBI, CIA, NSA, Russia, China, local police department or the security guard here at the library cares one bit about who I really am or what I write on the internet. So there you have it world, I disclosed my location!

Sorry, another random tangent. So, the good news: Lee Smith is coming to Abingdon!! This Sunday, April 24th at 3:00pm. I'm going to attach the picture but my phone won't email me the pic, GRRRRR!!!

This is super short notice, I know, but wanted to pass it along in case anyone wants to meet the author of our current book. 

Additionally, (the second good news Roscoe refers to), JB has already selected his next book submission, and the author is Sharyn McCrumb. Well guess who else is coming to Abingdon??? Oh my, What's that?

BOOM! This area is full of great authors and we can go talk to them if we want to. Let me know if there is any interest Spirits. And enjoy GUESTS ON EARTH, I am enjoying it so far.

Until next time Spirits

Baron

My First Blog!! Go Me!!

Hello Spirits!

This is my very first blog and I am a bit nervous about it. I don't know why, really. But I had news that I wanted to share! Today I went and made copies of Baron's drawings for our t-shirts. Now to do the coloring and take it to get them made! I thought it was a step in the right direction. I do enjoy all the posts and comments even if I don't comment myself. I think about it, but I am just not very good at putting things into words. I have our next book on hold at the library and can't wait to start reading it. Thanks to Cat for the posts! I do hope I don't get chastised if I don't have the t-shirts at our meeting!! :(

See you soon,

Deuce

Highland Hospital, Asheville

Highland Hospital, Asheville NC

Though predominantly a single family residential neighborhood, land use in Montford has been mixed since the earliest days of development. A number of establishments from boarding houses to public schools to a city cemetery have appeared throughout the neighborhood. Several small, private clinics and hospitals for tuberculosis and other ailments were also established. Best known of these was Highland Hospital, originally known as "Dr. Carroll's Sanatorium," founded by Dr. Robert S. Carroll, a distinguished psychiatrist. His program of treatment for mental and nervous disorders and addictions was based on exercise, diet and occupational therapy, and attracted patients from all over the country. The hospital was relocated from downtown Asheville to the northern end of Montford Avenue in 1909, and was officially named Highland Hospital in 1912. 

The campus included landscaped grounds for patients to recover through means of "diversion" and "productive occupation." A variety of buildings built in Georgian Colonial, Norman and Arts and Crafts styles housed the patients and the facilities, most of which still stand today including Highland Hall. The campus also included Dr. Carroll's home at 19 Zillicoa Street, known as Homewood. Dr. Carroll's wife and world-renowned concert pianist Grace Potter Carroll, ran a music school at their house from which she gave lessons and held performances for many years. Among her students was Nina Simone, a nationally known jazz musician herself. In 1939, Dr. Carroll entrusted the hospital to the Neuropsychiatric Department of Duke University. It was during this time that on the night of March 10, 1948, a deadly fire broke out in the main building and took the lives of nine women. Among the victims was author Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Duke owned the property until the 1980s and today the complex functions as an office park and shopping plaza. 

Highland Hospital is located along Zillicoa St. on the western edge of the Montford Area Historic District. The grounds currently house commercial enterprises; stores are open during normal business hours.

Rumbough House, a late 19th-century home in the Montford neighborhood, that became the Administration Building for Highland Hospital

Highland Hall, one of the Colonial Revival buildings built specifically for the Hospital in the early 20th century and Homewood, house of Dr. Carroll and his wife, Grace Potter Carroll. 

WICKED IS GOOD

Hello Spirits,

Just finished THE MAZE RUNNER at the recommendation of Chief. Unfortunately I never read it when he submitted it as his book several months ago. But he recently told me that I would probably like it and I should give it a try. 

So I did and was very pleasantly surprised!! Two thumbs up on that one for sure. I was skeptical since this book (and series) is for young readers. So I thought maybe I wouldn't like it. (Especially after being forever altered by the very non-young reader 1984!) But  I was very wrong. As Stephen Colbert says, "Young adult fiction just means fiction that people actually read." Great book IMO and I am definitely completing the series. 

Brief description of the series: initial series was a trilogy but a fourth book was released as a prequel to the original three. And now a fifth book is coming out in September. It is another prequel but I'm unsure if it takes place before or after book 4 (first prequel). 

So thanks Chief for following up with me to read this book. It was well worth it. I can't wait to read the second installment THE SCORCH TRIALS. 

But first I am reading GUESTS ON EARTH of course. Only two chapters in right now. I think the author is a very good writer. Very good at describing scenes and stuff.

Archimedes and Instill owe you the posts from the last meeting and show. Hopefully soon.

Until next time spirits

Baron

GENIUS

Hey there Spirits!

I hope everyone has almost recovered from our last book club meeting.  Baron and I haven't gotten around to blogging yet, what with baseball and soccer practice and games for Boss and Chief almost every day, spring has been a hectic time at the castle.  But to tide you guys over, I wanted to share the mover trailer for Genius, the upcoming movie about Thomas Wolfe.  I have to be honest, seeing the trailer makes me want to give Look Homeward, Angel another go.  Maybe one day...  In the meantime, enjoy!

Archimedes

A FEW RESOURCES

Hello Spirits,

In advance of our meeting and show this Saturday, I'm providing a few links for your review if you'd like. The first couple come from the Barter website: a YouTube video about the show, a study guide (meant for high school students I think), and the link straight to their page about the show.

YouTube Video

Study Guide

Barter 1984 Webpage

Also, here are a few examples of some discussion questions. If there are any that you definitely want to discuss, then make a note of them for the meeting. Otherwise, I'll try to pick 5-10 or so of my favorites to bring to the meeting. I like some of the ones in the "Questions 3" link since it asks about parallels to issues of today. Let's get political Spirits!!!! (just kidding) But admittedly I am a step more skeptical of the government now.

Questions 1

Questions 2

Questions 3

Wow, this book was a doozy. I am still recovering and Archimedes may never fully recover or be the same..... EVER. But I am definitely glad I read it. Two thumbs up on everything except being so depressing.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again, and looking forward to seeing the show.

Baron

I SOLD YOU, .... AND I SOLD YOU AGAIN

Hello Spirirts and WOW I just finished 1984. 

Hopefully I won't give any spoilers but let's just say I need to apologize for knocking y'all out with a one-two punch combo just like Sandman did to Lil Mac. See, I know you are wondering whybIbsaid Sandman and not Mike Tyson, but Mike knocks out Lil Mac with just one punch, not two, which is the number my simile required. The Nintendo game Mike Tyson's punch out, is the source of this nonsense.

So anyway, my apology is for two ultra downer stories back to back. I am fired!! Don't get me wrong, I loved both our recent books, but Dang! I feel terrible!

I solemnly swear that my next book submission (if I ever get another one) will be an upbeat story with lots of funny nonsense. 

Also, don't forget about book club meeting and field trip this Saturday. So was everyone okay with meeting at the Stage 2 restaurant around 5:00, then see the show after?

The title of this post is a slight variation of a song mentioned in the book. Varied to reflect how I sold y'all out to depressing stories twice.

Until Saturday Spirits! In the meantime I'll try to regain the happiness in my soul.

Baron