If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)
by Betty White
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publish Date: May 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover | 272 pages
Rating: 3 of 5
Doesn’t everyone adore Betty White? She is sweet, funny and down-right inspirational. I’ve been watching her for more years than I care to admit and have always enjoyed her performances. When I saw her new book on the ‘hot picks’ shelf at the library I just had to read it.
This is a delightful little book that you can enjoy in an hour or two. It’s not really a memoir but I’m not sure how else to describe it. There are lots of photos accompanied by short commentaries of about 2 or 3 pages on a variety of subjects mostly covering the past 15 years. She discusses life, love, aging, her beauty secrets, her love of animals, the television industry and her new show. And that’s just a few of the many topics she touches on.
As enjoyable as this was, there’s not a lot of depth to any of the chapters. It was light and breezy, reading like a magazine interview or conversation on a talk show. I would have liked a little more detail. Unless you’re a die-hard fan, read a copy from the library.
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Source: Public Library
Last Saturday I went for a walk in one of my favorite nature spots looking for migrant birds. I wanted to see some warblers, tiny little birds that pass through the Chicago area in the spring and fall. I did see a few but they would not pose for photos. More on that later.
As I was standing at the edge of the prairie watching a tree filled with goldfinches, I spotted a gorgeous monarch butterfly. She stayed on the same flower for several minutes. This must have been a very tasty flower because there were several bees buzzing around in there too.
As impossible as it sounds, this monarch will soon be migrating south to Mexico. Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains will migrate to southern California. They can travel 2,500 miles and are the only butterflies that make such a long migration each year.
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Now for that little warbler that I was observing. I don’t see this particular bird very often so I was determined to get a shot. They are fairly common in the eastern US and Canada in the summer and during migration they fly through the Midwest.
This is her on the left, a Black-and-white Warbler. She was creeping along a large branch high up in the tree, out of range of my camera. Eventually I got off a few shots, a little fuzzy but still identifiable. I’m now thinking about a longer zoom lens.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
Almost Wordless: She was relaxing in my flowerbox, a safe place to dry off after splashing around in the water.
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More Wordless Wednesday.
Winners
BBAW Giveaway
and
Weekend Birding Giveaway
Erika of One a Day Y.A. won The Language of Flowers.
Candace of Beth Fish Reads won The Joy of Birding.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to enter the contests. I’ll be hosting a giveaway for The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, the book that everyone is raving about, sometime next week. .
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The September host is Amused By Books.
Now that summer is ending I’ll be spending less time in my garden and more time with paper books. Audiobooks were perfect for the garden; I was able to listen to several books I never would have found the time to read otherwise.
I received an interesting variety of books this week. The Night Circus seems to be on everyone’s mind this week and I’m thrilled to receive a copy for review and to be able to offer a giveaway. Check back in the next week or so for that; Fare Forward has a time travel element to the story, one of my favorite genres; and I made one last trip to Borders and picked up two more books.
From Doubleday for review and a giveaway:
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors… more
From the author for review:
Fare Forward
by Wendy Dubow Polins
Gabriella Vogel is a young architecture student who is standing on the threshold of the beginning of everything in her life. As her grandfather—the world-famous physicist, Sydney Vogel—is about to receive the Nobel Prize and reveal his stunning proof about the nature of Time, Gabriella knows that everything we take for granted will come into question. She must decide—are chance encounters, the merging of past and present, and intersections in art and science mere accidents? What are the things in life worth fighting for? more
I purchased these two from Borders on the last day before they closed:
Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater under standing of her own confined place in the world. more
The Butterflies of Grand Canyon
by Margaret Erhart
Set against the backdrop of the brooding and sensual canyon, a young woman’s heart awakens and a decades-old mystery is solved.
When Jane Merkle arrives in the tiny town of Flagstaff, Arizona, with her much older husband on a summer day in 1951, she hasn’t any idea that her life is about to change forever. After all, one of Jane’s favorite sayings is “When in Rome, remember that you’re from St . Louis.” But over a summer spent with her sister-in-law, Dotty, and Dotty’s lepidopterist husband, Oliver, in a village perched on the rim of the Grand Canyon, Jane discovers her latent ability with a butterfly net and… more
I have been trying to attract Hummingbirds to my garden for a few years now by planting flowers that they like. It’s finally working and I’m seeing them flitting around the yard. They were out there this morning buzzing around the yellow cone flowers and spider flowers. They zip around so quickly that they are difficult to photograph.
I have only a few Hummingbird photos but I wanted to feature them before they left for the winter. The beginning of Autumn is migration season and they are now starting their journey south to Central America, with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight.
While walking on the nature trail near my home I spotted this little hummingbird stopping for a rest on a branch. The sun was in the wrong position so the background is a little too bright but overall I was thrilled to finally get a photo of one!
This is an immature female Ruby-throated Hummingbird. They are found in the Eastern US and Canada and are the most common Hummingbird in North America. The males have a bright red throat and emerald green wings and crown. The female has white underparts. They are named for the male which seems to be quite common in the bird world. If you are on the west coast you will see different hummingbirds, most commonly the bright orange Rufous Hummingbird.
To the right is another photo of the young female. She fluffed up and turned her head and now the long length of her bill is visible. (click photos for clearer image).
Interesting Facts:
- They can beat their wings about 53 times a second.
- They prefer red or orange flowers, have good color vision and can see into the ultraviolet spectrum
- The female lays eggs about the size of peas.
- Males don’t help raise their young. Pairs are together long enough for courtship and mating and then he goes off on his own.
- Their migration north appears to be timed according to the appearance of certain flowers along their route.
- They can fly forward, backward and can hover.
If you are interested in learning more about birds take a look at my review of The Joy of Birding: A Beginner’s Guide. There is still time to enter my giveaway to win your own copy. Enter through Sunday, September 18th.
I link up my bird photos on Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share your FRIDAY FINDS! This weekly event is hosted by Should Be Reading.
I saw this book featured on Shelf Awareness’ Author Buzz this week. I’m not sure what caught my eye more, the soothing blue of the cover or the intriguing description. A novel that explores the nature of time, the merging of past and present and has a mysterious physicist sounds like a book made for me.
Fare Forward
by Wendy Dubow Polins
At the crossroads of cutting edge physics and ancient mysticism, is a story about three generations of family and their search for the things that transcend time.
Gabriella Vogel is a young architecture student who is standing on the threshold of the beginning of everything in her life. As her grandfather—the world-famous physicist, Sydney Vogel—is about to receive the Nobel Prize and reveal his stunning proof about the nature of Time, Gabriella knows that everything we take for granted will come into question. She must decide—are chance encounters, the merging of past and present, and intersections in art and science mere accidents? What are the things in life worth fighting for?
When she meets a mysterious physicist, Benjamin Landsman, she will finally understand why her own future is tied up in the connection between Albert Einstein’s theories and a secret that has been hidden in the Judean Desert for generations. What she does not expect to learn is that Benjamin, the man she believes is her destiny, has been at the center of her grandfather’s research for hundreds of years, had met her grandmother on an archaeological dig sixty years earlier, and that he hasn’t aged … at all.
Description above is from the author’s page.
Under My Apple Tree 