La Quinta Cove

The young and young-at-heart had a blast last week at the Friends of the Library event.  Chazz Ross provided a bongo drum for each of us.  Two clips of the resulting beats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc-8GA8SwiI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uc4CGyud3o

Our Anonymous Reviewer has polished off another tome and offers this review:

“Light of the Moon” by Luanne Rice

After the death of her mother, with whom she was extremely close, Susannah Connolly decides to take a sabbatical from work as an archaeologist and visit the French Camargue, where a special breed of white horses are found.  Her mother had told her of these horses and the legend of a saint connected with them.

Upon her arrival in the area, Susannah discovers that there are a group of gypsies, called Roms who have a special connection with the saint.  She meets a man whose daughter has suffered a trauma that has left her colorblind.  The daughter is very protective of her relationship with her father, so a budding romance is doomed to failure.

Through a series of revelations and efforts on both their parts to behave responsibly, a happy ending becomes possible.

Pretty typical romance with an interesting setting and story about the gypsies and the horses.  Quick read.

Carol “Soki” Webb prepares the chaji tea and Dr. Webb serves it to Keiko Nakada according to Chado tradition.  Subsequently, every attendee was served a bowl of the thick green tea in a large bowl and sweets served on rice paper.  Take a look at the final portionf of the ceremony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVw_W3ECsNs

Palm Desert is the home of Dr. Glenn Webb, a noted Japanese scholar and master of the Japanese tea ceremony.  La Quinta Arts Foundation and the LQ Museum sponsored this unusual event.  Along with his wife and several other trained “students of tea”, Dr. Webb lectured and then demonstrated the final 20 minutes of the 4-hour complete ceremony.  The “chaji” is a strictly structured partaking of tea and food, during which there is little speaking and every gesture and object have significance.  Although not a religious ceremony, the chaji focuses the mind on peace, harmony, and oneness with others.  For true practitioners of the ceremony, every day of every year has slightly different gestures and significance, including a distinct kimono for every day of the year!  Here is a short clip of Mrs. Webb making tea (grinding, ladling hot water, and whisking the tea to a thick froth).   She serves the first tea to Keiko Nakada, whose responses are also structured according to the chaji tradition.  Here’s part one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vrzFhVtD-E

Our intrepid Anonymous Book Reviewer submits third tome for your consideration:

“Lady Killer” by Lisa Scottoline

Mary DiNunzio is an attorney in a small law firm doing well with small cases, mostly from people in her neighborhood in south Philly.  She is surprised when an old schoolmate arrives in her office seeking her help.  This woman had been part of the fast crowd in their high school days, while Mary had been a quiet, straight A student.  Trish is now involved in a relationship with another old schoolmate of theirs, who, Trish reports, is abusive to her.  He’s also connected with the mob.  He has threatened to kill her.

Mary remembers Mike; he was the guy she’d tutored in high school and secretly wanted to be with.  How could he have become this abuser?  Trish disappears, which leads to a series of misadventures with Trish’s “mean girls” friends from high school, who are trying to find her.  Mary learns more about Mike and tries to save Trish’s life.  She agonizes over the feelings about Mike that this case has resurrected in her.  Feelings of rejection and inferiority that no longer fit with the successful lawyer she has become.

Mike turns up dead in an alley and Mary risks her livelihood and her reputation trying to solve his murder.

The story is plausible and has some good twists and turns.  Readable lite fare.

“Last Light”  by Terri Blackstock

This book is the first in a series of stories about a family living in a small community in the southern United States where a national disaster of epic proportions occurs.  Due to a mysterious extra-terrestrial disturbance, all electricity and telephones and computers and anything that is electronic is shorted out in one instant, nationwide.  The story of how one family’s lives are affected and their efforts to survive in a world that is no longer functioning in any way familiar to them is very compelling.  This family is very religious and finds much comfort in their faith in this dire situation, as they begin to discover how to survive in a 21st Century world under 17th century conditions.

Neighbors who had barely waved to each other in the past needed to workcooperatively in order to figure out how to survive without food, water and automobiles.  With no means of communication with the rest of the world, they are on their own.  Only caring for one’s own family and trying to help your neighbors seems an insurmountable problem.

The story takes many twist and turns, demonstrating difficulties common to human beings under stress.

The story continues in the second in the series, “Night Light”  and the third, “True Light.”  Another book, “Dawn’s Light” will continue the saga in the future.  I found the story believable if one can accept the original premise of the disaster. 

Some people may be a bit put off by the very strong religious tone of the books, but the insights into human character are excellent.

In about 25 years, these students (plus others) will be among our civic leaders.  Maybe some will work in traffic issues, as interest is obviously noted in “Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light”.  Check out the Community Center Tiny Tots visit to the Museum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vz_A1vxHT4