Those of you who love Louise Penny and her wonderful books about Armand Gamache and Three Pines, the fictional village in the Eastern Townships of Canada, may not know that she has an amazing website: louisepenny.com. It is full of information about all 16 of the Gamache books and offers links to author events, frequently asked questions about the books, and a pronunciation guide to the French words sprinkled throughout every book.
You may also sign up, via the website, to receive Penny’s newsletter, an excellent source of all things to do with the books and something you will surely grow to eagerly anticipate each month. In fact, if you wish, you may go back as far as August 2010 and read each letter, making yourself even more conversant with the books and their generous author.
A recent newsletter offered a link to some remarkably interesting discussion questions dealing with Penny’s latest and wonderfully received book, “All the Devils Are Here.” For example, one of the 12 challenging questions reads: “‘Hell is empty, and all the devils are here” is a line from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest,’ Stephen’s favorite saying, and, of course, the source of the book’s title. Why do you think this quote resonates so much with Stephen? Why do you think Louise chose this saying as the inspiration for her title?”
These questions will make you want to reread and consider the implications of many facets of the book you may have missed. And they just may encourage you to reread all the books in the series, “a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” as far as I am concerned.
On the last Sunday in November, I was pleasantly surprised to find a reference to Penny and her novels in the New York Times Magazine. (Patrons may access this through their free subscription to the Times via their library account.) In her column in the magazine, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan explains that after reading and loving all of Penny’s books and meeting Penny in Paris, she became so enamored of Gamache that she was inspired to create a recipe in the Chief Inspector’s honor. She confesses that she is “obsessed with Gamache, whose ‘job is to investigate murders’ but his “remarkable gift is to understand people.”
Gamache is known for adoring lemon meringue pie, but Greenspan wanted to make something new and unique in his honor. Thus, she came up with lemon meringue cookies, a treat that stars a shortbread cookie dressed with a smear of lemon curd and topped with bits of crunchy meringue. She ends her column by stating that she imagines eating the cookies with Gamache: “Maybe he’d find them heavenly. I would.”
You have lots to look forward to if you haven’t read Louise Penny. Like Dorie Greenspan says, her books “include family, mystery, murder, knotty moral dilemmas, goodness lost, goodness found, dogs, a duck, children, very old people, and food, lots of it.” If you have read her, I’m sure you are a member of the can’t-wait-for-the-next-Gamache-novel-club, definitely a crowded organization!
Not Just One Word
“Seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage” is how the Oxford English Dictionary describes 2020. Thus, the redoubtable British publisher has eschewed naming just one word, as is its usual practice, for the past year.
Instead, it acknowledges 2020 as a span that has numerous new or newly popular words. Not only have scientific terms come to be widely spoken, but phrases such as “flatten the curve” and “community transmission” have become routine. And “following the science” has increased in usage by 1,000 percent.
According to the OED, in 2020 words associated with the coronavirus became part of our vocabulary at “hyper-speed.” Other language addressing the world health situation that increased in frequency includes the words “lockdown,” “shelter-in-place,” “face masks” and “keyworkers.”
In addition to terminology having to do with the virus, our speech also reflected social attitudes and concerns. So, it’s no surprise that the use of “Black Lives Matter,” “impeachment,” “mail-in,” and “conspiracy theory” surged.
Casper Grathwohl, the president of OED, said he has never seen a year like 2020 where there were so many new words and phrases in use. “It’s both unprecedented and a little ironic - in a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other,” he said.
Great Courses
It has been 30 years since the first Great Courses lectures debuted. Here at the Library we have more than 150 of these offerings, some with CDs, some with videos, and some with only print lessons. These products have been used and appreciated by many serious students who want to immerse themselves in a topic.
Partnering with such esteemed organizations as National Geographic, the Smithsonian and the Mayo Clinic, these courses present lectures on a wide variety of topics, from philosophy and music to history and literature. While we do not have every one of the courses that have been published, we do have a good representation that covers many categories.
Lifelong learners have enjoyed checking out these courses from the Library for years, and, now that many of you are staying home, we at the Library wanted to remind you that the courses are still here, ready for you to explore.
If you are interested in widening your knowledge of a particular subject, you may investigate the titles via our card catalogue or call us and we will be happy to help you find one you will like.
Here are the titles of just some of the courses we have available for check-out: American Civil War, American Religious History, Augustine, Philosopher and Saint, Bach and the High Baroque, Churchill, Classics of American Literature, Dante’s Divine Comedy, The History of Ancient Rome, The New Testament, Tools of Thinking and Understanding the Fundamentals of Music.
Thank YOU
We so appreciate our patrons who have stuck with us during these last trying months. The many of you who regularly use our curbside pick-up have been so enthusiastic about our service! While we are yearning to reopen fully, we want you to know that your support has buoyed and sustained us.
by Karin Glendenning
You may also sign up, via the website, to receive Penny’s newsletter, an excellent source of all things to do with the books and something you will surely grow to eagerly anticipate each month. In fact, if you wish, you may go back as far as August 2010 and read each letter, making yourself even more conversant with the books and their generous author.
A recent newsletter offered a link to some remarkably interesting discussion questions dealing with Penny’s latest and wonderfully received book, “All the Devils Are Here.” For example, one of the 12 challenging questions reads: “‘Hell is empty, and all the devils are here” is a line from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest,’ Stephen’s favorite saying, and, of course, the source of the book’s title. Why do you think this quote resonates so much with Stephen? Why do you think Louise chose this saying as the inspiration for her title?”
These questions will make you want to reread and consider the implications of many facets of the book you may have missed. And they just may encourage you to reread all the books in the series, “a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” as far as I am concerned.
On the last Sunday in November, I was pleasantly surprised to find a reference to Penny and her novels in the New York Times Magazine. (Patrons may access this through their free subscription to the Times via their library account.) In her column in the magazine, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan explains that after reading and loving all of Penny’s books and meeting Penny in Paris, she became so enamored of Gamache that she was inspired to create a recipe in the Chief Inspector’s honor. She confesses that she is “obsessed with Gamache, whose ‘job is to investigate murders’ but his “remarkable gift is to understand people.”
Gamache is known for adoring lemon meringue pie, but Greenspan wanted to make something new and unique in his honor. Thus, she came up with lemon meringue cookies, a treat that stars a shortbread cookie dressed with a smear of lemon curd and topped with bits of crunchy meringue. She ends her column by stating that she imagines eating the cookies with Gamache: “Maybe he’d find them heavenly. I would.”
You have lots to look forward to if you haven’t read Louise Penny. Like Dorie Greenspan says, her books “include family, mystery, murder, knotty moral dilemmas, goodness lost, goodness found, dogs, a duck, children, very old people, and food, lots of it.” If you have read her, I’m sure you are a member of the can’t-wait-for-the-next-Gamache-novel-club, definitely a crowded organization!
Not Just One Word
“Seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage” is how the Oxford English Dictionary describes 2020. Thus, the redoubtable British publisher has eschewed naming just one word, as is its usual practice, for the past year.
Instead, it acknowledges 2020 as a span that has numerous new or newly popular words. Not only have scientific terms come to be widely spoken, but phrases such as “flatten the curve” and “community transmission” have become routine. And “following the science” has increased in usage by 1,000 percent.
According to the OED, in 2020 words associated with the coronavirus became part of our vocabulary at “hyper-speed.” Other language addressing the world health situation that increased in frequency includes the words “lockdown,” “shelter-in-place,” “face masks” and “keyworkers.”
In addition to terminology having to do with the virus, our speech also reflected social attitudes and concerns. So, it’s no surprise that the use of “Black Lives Matter,” “impeachment,” “mail-in,” and “conspiracy theory” surged.
Casper Grathwohl, the president of OED, said he has never seen a year like 2020 where there were so many new words and phrases in use. “It’s both unprecedented and a little ironic - in a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other,” he said.
Great Courses
It has been 30 years since the first Great Courses lectures debuted. Here at the Library we have more than 150 of these offerings, some with CDs, some with videos, and some with only print lessons. These products have been used and appreciated by many serious students who want to immerse themselves in a topic.
Partnering with such esteemed organizations as National Geographic, the Smithsonian and the Mayo Clinic, these courses present lectures on a wide variety of topics, from philosophy and music to history and literature. While we do not have every one of the courses that have been published, we do have a good representation that covers many categories.
Lifelong learners have enjoyed checking out these courses from the Library for years, and, now that many of you are staying home, we at the Library wanted to remind you that the courses are still here, ready for you to explore.
If you are interested in widening your knowledge of a particular subject, you may investigate the titles via our card catalogue or call us and we will be happy to help you find one you will like.
Here are the titles of just some of the courses we have available for check-out: American Civil War, American Religious History, Augustine, Philosopher and Saint, Bach and the High Baroque, Churchill, Classics of American Literature, Dante’s Divine Comedy, The History of Ancient Rome, The New Testament, Tools of Thinking and Understanding the Fundamentals of Music.
Thank YOU
We so appreciate our patrons who have stuck with us during these last trying months. The many of you who regularly use our curbside pick-up have been so enthusiastic about our service! While we are yearning to reopen fully, we want you to know that your support has buoyed and sustained us.
by Karin Glendenning