One more week...one more week...
Had three wonderful, highly successful weekends at Yankee Peddler. Broke an all-time record the second Saturday, and set a Sunday record the final day. Now, I'm busy at work, getting Halloween/fall festival stuff together, and getting ready to take some (much needed) vacation days. Which means I'm doing two weeks of work this week. But if I can survive through Monday, the "chaotic season" will be over, and it will be back to the usual chaos for me.
I did finish a couple more books, including Zoo Story. Got some good news when I went to return it. I happened to mention that I hadn't been able to finish it. Well, I guess the hold was taken off it, so I was able to renew- YAY!!!
At any rate:
55. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives, by Thomas French. This book is a series of stories, more or less in chronological order, about the Lawry Park Zoo in Tampa, about its zoo keepers, its animal residents and more. French not only does a good job conveying the humanity of the animals in the zoo, but he captures the animal nature and "signals" humans make, showing we aren't as distant from the beasts as we may like to think. Readers will find out about the history of the likes of Enshalla and Herman, two of the more famous residents there, as well as of the newer denizens -- a small herd of elephants, who made their way from a preserve in Swaziland to Tampa. There's a lot of humor in this book, such as the friendly feud between the zoo keepers in the herpetology area and those that work with the mammals. But there's a sadness, too, such as the baby manatees the staff can't save, and the frustration of the zoo staff with the administration. The book deals a pretty even hand with the varying perspectives, and was very eye-opening (for example, I knew elephants were intelligent, but not to the degree described; and I had no idea how destructive elephants can be).
56. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Several people had recommended this book, and I finally got around to checking it out of the library. Wow. What an incredible, amazing read. This is a very inspirational, upbeat story. You might not think it, looking at the general synopsis. Basically, Pausch gave this lecture -- part of a series at Carnegie Mellon, where professors are told to give a lecture as if they were about to meet their demise. For Pausch, this was not a stretch -- he had recently been told that his pancreatic cancer had metastasized and that he had months to live. What he tells about are his childhood dreams and how they either came true (which most of them did) or how those dreams impacted his life for the better. Pausch was very candid about his strengths and weaknesses. Most of this book is very upbeat, with a positive message on getting around those brick walls that tend to stand between someone and their goals. My favorite story was the one about the hot air balloon on their wedding day.
I did finish a couple more books, including Zoo Story. Got some good news when I went to return it. I happened to mention that I hadn't been able to finish it. Well, I guess the hold was taken off it, so I was able to renew- YAY!!!
At any rate:
55. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives, by Thomas French. This book is a series of stories, more or less in chronological order, about the Lawry Park Zoo in Tampa, about its zoo keepers, its animal residents and more. French not only does a good job conveying the humanity of the animals in the zoo, but he captures the animal nature and "signals" humans make, showing we aren't as distant from the beasts as we may like to think. Readers will find out about the history of the likes of Enshalla and Herman, two of the more famous residents there, as well as of the newer denizens -- a small herd of elephants, who made their way from a preserve in Swaziland to Tampa. There's a lot of humor in this book, such as the friendly feud between the zoo keepers in the herpetology area and those that work with the mammals. But there's a sadness, too, such as the baby manatees the staff can't save, and the frustration of the zoo staff with the administration. The book deals a pretty even hand with the varying perspectives, and was very eye-opening (for example, I knew elephants were intelligent, but not to the degree described; and I had no idea how destructive elephants can be).
56. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Several people had recommended this book, and I finally got around to checking it out of the library. Wow. What an incredible, amazing read. This is a very inspirational, upbeat story. You might not think it, looking at the general synopsis. Basically, Pausch gave this lecture -- part of a series at Carnegie Mellon, where professors are told to give a lecture as if they were about to meet their demise. For Pausch, this was not a stretch -- he had recently been told that his pancreatic cancer had metastasized and that he had months to live. What he tells about are his childhood dreams and how they either came true (which most of them did) or how those dreams impacted his life for the better. Pausch was very candid about his strengths and weaknesses. Most of this book is very upbeat, with a positive message on getting around those brick walls that tend to stand between someone and their goals. My favorite story was the one about the hot air balloon on their wedding day.