Saturday, July 31, 2021

On "Beatrix Potter: A Journal": A Book Review

This month's book chosen in honor of Beatrix Potter's birthday, which was July 28th! (And for fun, you might want to check out her recipe for gingerbread shared on LitHub this week!)


Title: Beatrix Potter: A Journal
Genre: Non-fiction

About the Book...
Compiled in scrapbook fashion, a presentation of 
journal entry excerpts, correspondence, photos, artwork, and other epherma chronicling Beatrix Potter's life.

What I Think...
This is a lovely book and as an adoring fan of Beatrix Potter (as indicated in my review of a biography about her) I was delighted to be given this book earlier this year. 

While it's aimed at children, this is definitely one of those books that can be enjoyed by all ages.

The layouts are beautifully done, mixing photographs of Potter, those close to her, and locations as they were when she was alive; Potter's artwork; and fun elements, such as facsimiles of correspondence, various programs, and other things you would expect to be saved in a scrapbook, alongside the text from her journals.

 
The later elements are probably one of my favorite aspects and really make the book special, including things like letters that can be unfolded or removed from the book, her Peter Rabbit board game, and at the very end, resting within the fairly thick cover, a facsimile of her personal copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit that is removable.

While I have never ventured into fully reading her journals beyond bits and pieces, I enjoyed the selection included in this book and thought that the editor did a nice job finding material that showed her growth as a person and her journey of becoming an artist and writer.

To Sum it All Up...
If you're a fan of Beatrix Potter, you will love this book!

Monday, July 5, 2021

On Some Thrift Store Finds

A a little over a week ago, I decided to have a "fun" shopping trip and venture out to one of our local thrift stores. And while it was a little stressful, I mostly browsed the media section and happily came home with a few treasures.

Having an adoration for old Scholastic paperbacks (really, I could write a whole post about how much I like them), I was delighted to find a few. My elementary school library had a lot of older children's books, many which I still love, and among these were the Miss Pickerell books, which I promptly snap up when I see them. Mr. Pudgins is another title I remembered and how could anyone forget that cover!

I know absolutely nothing about The Ghosts Who Went to School or The Moonball, they just sounded fun and I'm looking forward to including them in my summer reading. 


I also found newer editions of some Roald Dahl books, some which filled gaps in my collection like The Magic Finger and Esio Trot (one needs a romantic tortoise story sometimes), a nearly complete set of Tove Jansson's Moomin books, which I'm very much looking forward to reading, and a few more contemporary reads.

Aside from the book section, I really love going through the albums at this store, since they're only a dollar and found some 45s I'm excited about, which is kind of unusual for me as the bulk of my record collection is made up of the larger sizes.

The cover of this Waltzes From the Classics box set got my attention and the fun surprise upon opening the box to check them in the store was that they're red! (the only other colored albums I have are a pink My Fair Lady soundtrack and a golden Hymns one.)

For the fun covers, I bought two Peter Pan records: "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" and "Nursery Rhymes". I'm looking forward to getting to listen to these two!

Additionally, I've long been a fan of what I think of as "mood music sets" because it's fun to see what's been chosen and, as a bookworm, finding this little two album set "Music for Reading" is pretty fantastic, in my opinion. 

I also bought the accompanying two album set, "Music for Courage and Confidence". Not as fond of the songs on this one, but still fun to think that someone chose it as a mood music theme and the inside cover contains encouraging quotations to provide an extra boost of courage and confidence (the reading one has a bio of the orchestra leader). 

By the time I was done looking through those, I really wasn't up for much more, so I did a quick glance through some miscellany and ended finding these small wooden Pilgrims to add to my Thanksgiving decorations, which upon seeing them I realized consists mainly of leaves, turkeys, and pumpkins.

I probably won't be venturing out again anytime soon for something like this, but it was nice to be able to do a little treasure hunting for random vintage finds rather than just doing a search online! 

♥ ♥ ♥