B There or ...

From Peggy:

I just want to remind you that the RR Table book club meeting is this Saturday, December 4, 2010. Nancy has graciously agreed to moderate this discussion on Ella Minnow Pea: A Discussion in Letters.

I agree with Ron that it would be a nice idea for each of us to come to this and future meetings with one thought...one idea...one question to offer for discussion in addition to the moderator's guidance. As we are now all "active" moderators/members of the RR Table book club community it will be nice to have as many voices present as possible going forward.

I believe January's book, 1906, will be available at the Booktique by this Saturday's meeting. According to Lori, they expected to receive them this week.

I have been collecting book ideas for the second half of 2011. There are some great suggestions, however, it is not too late! In fact, we do not need to have a final decision until our meeting on January 8, 2011. However, I believe it is best to have some time to suggest and reflect on the offers ahead of time so we can all be "informed" voters.

Finally, I intend to have some extra flyers at this Saturday's meeting. If any of you frequent coffee shops, cafes in the area that have a bulletin board, please consider taking one to hang up.

Fictional Character as President

From Linda via the DailyLit forums:

Which fictional character would you vote for?

Farm City Wrap and Link-Fest

On Saturday, November 13, 2010, just a week after Novella Carpenter spoke about her book and her farm, the Readers Roundtable book group met in the San Leandro Library to discuss
Novella Carpenter's book Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. Of the 11 present, 9 liked the book, 1 was indifferent, and 1 hadn't read it.

Everyone found the book entertaining at least at some point. Several people said they liked the first part of the book better than the last part. At least one person, having been to the talk the week before, felt Novella Carpenter was better as a speaker than as a writer. I mentioned that I cried when "Harold" became Thanksgiving dinner. A number of us had tales of our own urban gardening triumphs and disasters. No one present had any prior urban livestock experience. In fact, Linda shared with us an ordinance from the San Leandro Municipal Code which prohibits the keeping of any animals except "...cats, caged birds, caged birds, not over two spayed or neutered pot-bellied pigs, not over 2 dogs, and not over four doves..." kept as household pets or pet-shop animals and further prohibits the keeping of bees within 600 feet of any dwelling.

Link-Fest

• Novella Carpenter's own blog.
• Article about books on ethical eating, which appeared in the Chron the same week I started reading Farm City.
• The Murray McMurray poultry catalog. This is the catalog Novella Carpenter ordered her first batch of meat birds from and was a major wish-book for me back in the days when I dreamed of "getting back to the land." (Disclaimer: I had never even been to the land, so getting back to it was a double-layered fantasy). Did you ever imagine there were so many kinds of domesticated fowl?
• I read this article about one man's attempt at urban farming in Brooklyn when it first appeared in New York Magazine back in 2007. I noticed a post on Novella Carpenter's blog which indicated that she had taken a second look at this article recently and had softened on her earlier harsh criticism of it (so apparently her initial impression was not favorable). I personally found it humorous and well written, and probably more like what my experience would be like if I ever tried urban farming for real.
• For those of you who have a place 600 feet from a dwelling to keep bees, a link to the Alameda County Beekeepers Association.
• Novella Carpenter mentioned Detroit's place in the history of urban farming. Detroit is also a pioneer in the renaissance of urban farming. Here is a link to an article and video clip about Detroit's revived urban agriculture movement from the Guardian in the UK.
  

Mark Twain Autobiography

For those of us who weren't paying attention (including me), the first volume of Mark Twain's complete autobiography has been released.  Here's a link to an article in the Chron about it.  Two more volumes are to be released in the next few years.