Mysteries of the Middle Ages

Mysteries of the Middle Ages, the latest offering by Thomas Cahill displays his scholarship and his skillful insight into history's great personalities, adventures, tragedies. A Cahill sentence from Chapter 2:

"Eleanor [of Aquitaine] loved musical performances, especially the newly
harmonized chansons ...of the troubadours -- of whom her grandfather
had been the first, a sort of knightly Chuck Berry to a younger
generation of Beatles and Rolling Stones."

Full of maps, charts, and beautiful four color images of medieval masterpieces. This gorgeous volume, the fifth in Cahill's Hinges of History series, is as wonderful as time spent in rapt attention to the lectures of your very favorite history professor. I devoured Cahill's earlier volumes, and still contemplate our Western civilization indebtedness to the tireless, scribing monks of How the Irish Saved Civilization (his first work in the series). From Alexandria to Rome to Paris; Constantine to Giotto to Dante; Cahill's range is broad and his mastery is compelling. If you love the language and lore of the age in Europe's past we call "dark," you will thrill to this narrative. Again, Cahill:

"To medieval man, the cosmos was full of 'secret confines,' arcana no one knew
the way to and few knew anything about but which one might stumble upon without
warning. As in those fables rooted in the Middle Ages and collected by the
Brothers Grimm in the the nineteenth century, a secret door or a hidden pathe
might lead the unsuspecting traveler almost anywhere. Like Alice's rabbit hole
or the wardrobe that leads to Narnia or Hildegard's imagine mountain perforated
by windows, reality itself was permeable. "

Monopoly: The world's most famous game and how it got that way

Philip Orbanes' history of this most famous game recounts that Elizabeth (Lizzie) Magie of Illinois invented the rules and general appearance of the "Landlord's Game," precursor of Monopoly, which she patented in 1904. Its design concept was original: a continuous path game, unusual in its day. The four squares of Lizzie's game were: Mother Earth; Absolute Necessity/Jail; Public Park; and No Trespassing/Go to Jail. Does this sound familiar?

Another story about this early game: it was added to the curriculum by the young Wharton economics professor, Scott Nearing. Some of his students followed his lead and a tradition was establishied of introducing homemade copies to new students.

Monopoly saved lives in World War II: specially manufactured editions contained "escape tools, maps, and compasses hidden inside their game boards, and real currency tucked under the game's colorful bills. The Red Cross would deliver these games to Allied airmen housed inside Nazi stalags -- prisoner of war camps...the Nazis considered games and puzzles 'pacifiers' that kept prisoners occupied with something other than escape schemes" and furthermore, had stopped inspecting Red Cross package deliveries. (Chapter 8)

If you grew up on Monopoly, like I did; if you remember pleading with your parents for "just one more trip around to Go" before bedtime; if you have a favorite playing piece; and if your childhood home often as not had an in-progress game commanding prime space and attention -- you'll enjoy the story of this cultural icon.

Making the Most of your Scrapbook Supplies

This title from the folks who bring us Memory Makers magazine, includes many ways to use all those scrapbooking supplies in your stash to create edgy, up to date pages. Let's face it: scrapbooking is a pricey hobby and many of us are working within a family budget. This book gives you oodles of ideas, with great color illustrations, on how to stretch your stash. From shrink plastic to brads to chipboard to rhinestones to beads. And don't forget clever ways to use tools such as label makers, corner rounders, deco scissors.

With even just a few of these ideas you will make your scrapbooking dollars go farther!

And if you get inspired all over again to dig into those pages, have a look at these many other scrapbook idea books . And don't forget digital scrapbooking!

Penguin Lives

Do you like biographies? But you don't have time for the exhaustive, scholarly tomes that are often produced? You might enjoy the Penguin Lives Series, fascinating to me for their intriguing pairing of author and subject. Here are just a few examples of the many titles:

• Jane Smiley on Charles Dickens
• Bobbie Ann Mason on Elvis Presley
• Roy Blount on Robert E Lee
• Patricia Bosworth on Marlon Brando

These endearing little reads (about 150 pages) offer us the talented and the great in the context of the their times and their influence on our own.

Grab one.