Countdown: 27 Days to Christmas,

Let's start making Christmas presents!

This is truly a Christmas-focused package, with paper, instructions and one finished origami creation: a 4" high Christmas tree, to kickstart a tradition of handmade ornaments and gifts.

If you are feeling ambitious, you can work with felt or yarn, to make a little something for everyone.


If you feeling ambitious but a little purse-pinched, you can look to Amy Sedaris (who had a great interview on "Q," a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company)) show for inspiration.

"Homemade" is back in style. Get into the groove with making everything from your own greeting cards to your own decorations to your own cookies to your own gifts.  Of course, if you feel your inkjet printer doesn't quite convey your quirky, but festive intentions, come to Books on First and pick up some great quirky yet festive greeting cards from Avanti.  We especially like the one depicting the dog with his tongue stuck on a cold lamppost (shades of Jean Shepherd's Christmas Story).

And of course, everyone loves something from the kitchen.  Beyond luscious cookies (or biscuits if you speak Brit) like Vanilla Stars with Chocolate Filling and Ginger Crisps (my personal fav), you can try Kugelhopf, a fruit- & nut-studded yeast cake for which Austria, France and a host of countries claim origin, marinated goat cheese, tangerine curd, cheese straws or simple but irresistible Sugar & Spice Pecans.

Again, if your candy thermometer breaks (or even if not), be sure to come to Books on First and get some Zee Best English Toffee, made in Amboy, IL. Hurry, because 10-oz-boxes which we are selling for $11, are making like Santa's reindeer and flying out the door.

Julie & Julia But Really & Eric, & Paul and & Larry

On Tuesday, we went to see the movie "based on two true stories" as it is being touted.
It was all about this book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (technically, renamed volume 1 upon update and after volume 2 was published) by Julia Child, Simone Beck & Louisette Berthol, as referenced in these two books:
My Life is France by Julia Child
and Julie & Julia: A Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (the original hardcover subtitle described the project and blog: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
(being sold at the official movie site with links to Borders and B&N, but curiously, not amazon.com nor IndieBound (organization of independent booksellers formerly known as BookSense)
Confession: I have not read either of the two books on which the film is based. My sense of Julia Child comes from memories as a (not so young) child watching her cooking shows aired on PBS and a biography covering her life (including mother's and father's (and grandparents') history through to saying good-bye to Paul (who died in 1994) as she scattered his ashes out to sea.
I believe it is this one, Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch. With full access to Julia's papers, it was so intimately done, that I erroneously recalled it to Jim Ferolo as being an autobiography. Jim told me a few Saturdays ago that he had really enjoyed the movie, especially the performances by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, how they portrayed the love and respect Julia & Paul must have shared. I agree. Was this relationship idealized, either in all these books or in the film? Who knows? If so, it's a great feel-good take-away myth, and I always say, truth can appear even more unreal than fiction.

Additionally, I had stumbled across a blog or comment regarding Julie Powell's husband Eric (I'm sorry -- I meant to doublecheck if his surname is Powell, too), and how the online writer appreciated such a mature depiction of a man in these times, strongly supportive of his wife, which seemed so few and far between.

I am hoping that such depictions are the thing that is few and far between, not the real men who are strongly supportive of their wives, nor the appreciation of them. Why, just in this one blog, I can say there are three of us women who had/have and appreciate(d) the main man in her life.

Thank you, Larry, for working nearly 90 hours/week for the past 11+ years (Books on First officially opened for business on 4 Oct 1998 after one year of renovation at 202 W First St, Dixon), and being what Carolyn could not be -- personable, local (from Walton and Amboy HS graduate) boy with world-class panache, the hardest worker alive, a voracious reader who enjoys reading for pure enlightenment and a spot-on sense of what we can offer the customers (without breaking anything including our backs, our piggybank, our word or the law).
Because he is more in tune with our would-be customers, as we worked on the business plan and then, the store itself, he described it to the banker and curious passerbys as a "miniature Barnes & Noble," because he said people could "get it" more easily that way since that's how he finally "got it," after walking into one with a Starbucks in the middle of it, on Diversey near Clark in Chicago -- a forum for exchange of ideas which included people and books. I had to chime in and say, "but better," because another quality of Larry is that he's modest.
The idea for Sauk Valley's premier and independent bookstore/coffeehouse came from an 18-year old idealist when Vassar classmate Kathryn Bing-You invited me home to Boston on break and I walked into (now gone) Harvard Bookstore/Cafe in Faneuil Hall and thought, This is cool. This is what I want.
However, Books on First would neither be premier nor independent nor in Dixon today if it weren't for Larry not only supporting but helping improve upon the then crazy idea of allowing people to sit down, look at books and get coffee & crumbs everywhere with the hopeful belief that these same people will realize they really need to buy that book and take it with them.
I tell people I didn't agree to marry him until he agreed to the idea; that's my storytelling version and I'm sticking to it. How else would I be able to say he's the third wisely patient husband in this blog?

Remembering Les Paul and Frances Fanelli Dunphy

Larry just told me about the death of Les Paul, whom we saw in 2002 at the Iridium in New York (two years before this picture was taken per AP), while in town for the BookExpo at Jacob Javits Convention Center.
That was a serendipitous occasion. Larry was reading one of those visitors' bureau publications put into the hotel room for guests' information for "things to do" (yes, and we didn't even need to fire up a laptop), and he said, "Look, Les Paul is playing. I didn't even know he was still alive." So, we had to go. Already dark, of course, as it was after 9pm on a June night. Walked down Broadway, enjoying the hustle & bustle and lights of New York City at night. Nearly passed the unobtrusive entrance to the jazz club with a lone attendant at the door. Paid the cover charge. Walked into a room where all the light was focused on the stage on which Les Paul sat on a chair with his guitar in lap with two much younger musicians accompanying him. The audience sat at small tables in almost total darkness not more than a few feet away. And, except to respond to the show (ripple of laughter, round of applause), in attentive silence (I recall little of that chit-chat you usually hear in clubs during live music). It was a very intimate setting, and an enjoyable and moving time, being in the presence of a living legend.

Let me also take this moment to mention the memory of Frances Fanelli Dunphy who passed away one year ago Tuesday (11 Aug 2008). I like to think we had a tiny bit in common. We celebrated Mother's Day together, two women who had borne no children yet were (still am) quietly proud and loving grandmothers. She had a rich life, enjoying playing cards and participating in so many groups and extension classes. I loved hearing stories and talking with her about her childhood in Amboy, IL, her stint in the Coast Guard during WWII, her family including her brother who died in The War, her sisters, nieces and nephews, the Fanelli Candy Store where she worked after school (she especially liked assignment to the Dixon branch shop where there was a soda fountain),... And she made the best fruit pies -- especially crust which "makes" the pie. She used to make a special one to order for a family member's birthday. Since Larry's b-day is in February, he once asked for a raisin pie, instead of one made of frozen or canned fruits. I had never heard of a raisin pie until I met Larry and then, Frances. We all miss you, Frances.