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Author Karen White will be joining us at the end of our meeting via Skype to answer any questions of interest! If you still need a copy of Flight Patterns, copies are available on request at the Fiction desk. While we discuss Flight Patterns, we will be enjoying James Rish's Tupelo honey from last year's harvest on mini biscuits from East 59 Cafe. James Rish is the beekeeper that Karen White credits with teaching her "everything I needed to know about harvesting tupelo honey in the Florida swamps." A special thank you to my mother, Sue Harrell (who happens to be friends with Mr. Rish), for providing us with this treat!
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Flight patterns
by Karen White
Forced by a work assignment to return to the Florida hometown she swore she would never revisit, Georgia, an expert on fine china, encounters her estranged mother and sister and realizes that she must heal past rifts in order to live an authentic life.
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"Bee amazed. FLIGHT PATTERNS is sure to create a buzz!" —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author "[A] Master storyteller...Her iconic mellifluent, innovative narrative is hauntingly beautiful…Her perceptivity of family complexities and the extraordinary never-saw-them-coming epiphanies make this a one-of-a-kind story." —RT BookReviews Magazine 4 1/2 stars TOP PICK! "It's the best one ever." —The Pilot (Southern Pines, NC) "White creates characters with depth." —The Fayetteville Observer "The true beauty of White’s writing comes in her creation of characters... [O]ne of the most satisfying stories you will read all summer long. The payoff is that good, and the pleasure of White’s words that intense." —Jackie Cooper, The Huffington Post
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FLIGHT PATTERNS Is Intense and Complicated, But EnjoyableFLIGHT PATTERNS by Karen White Karen White does not believe in keeping things simple. Her novels are full of complicated relationships and ominous occurrences. Her new novel FLIGHT PATTERNS is a good example of this style. In it every single character has some complexity as is the case in real life. Plus there is a family mystery foreshadowed in the early pages of the book that continues to loom until the very end when all is explained. Because of these factors FLIGHT PATTERNS is a book that is hard to put down until the last secret is uncovered and the last mystery resolved. Georgia Chambers is living in New Orleans and working as antiques evaluator. She is in her thirties, single and totally independent. One day her boss introduces her to James Graf, a New Yorker who is wanting some of his grandmother’s china evaluated. He has brought with him a cup and saucer that shows the unique patterning on the china. Georgia is immediately struck by the thought she has seen this pattern before on pieces located in her family home. She decides to make a trip back to Apalachicola, Florida and see if she can find the pieces. This will help her set a value for James pieces. In an awkward moment in the story James insists he should accompany her to her home. Georgia has not been back to her home place in ten years and has had little if any communication with her grandfather, mother, sister or niece who live there. She tries to dissuade James from accompanying her but her boss is on his side so she agrees. Once home old conflicts with her sister Maisy raise their heads. She also has to deal with her mother Birdie who does not speak. Plus there are instances in Georgia’s past she does not want to face but at every turn they seem to be waiting to be brought up. White focuses on the complications family relationships can have. She draws a bead on the lack of communication that arises when two people are unwilling to meet each other half way. And she shines a light on dark secrets that can corrode our souls and decay our lives. These are not simple things to write about, much less create. The true beauty of White’s writing comes in her creation of characters. Readers don’t just meet these people, they get to know them pretty much inside out. It is as if you could head to Apalachicola and find their house and them living there. If the Apalachicola Chamber of Commerce hasn’t sent a letter of appreciation to Ms. White they should do it now. She makes Apalachicola seem just a step under Paradise. This book is not a simple summer read. It takes concentration and effort. Still it is one of the most satisfying stories you will read all summer long. The payoff is that good, and the pleasure of White’s words that intense. Somehow White finds these plots and characters in the recesses of her mind and brings them forward in living detail. Let’s hope she continues to do so. Jackie K Cooper This review is from the Huffington Post : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackie-k-cooper/flight-patterns-is-intens_b_10230798.html
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- The title FLIGHT PATTERNS has many layers of meaning that only become clear after you’ve read the novel. What do you think the title represents?
- Many people collect china or have pieces that have been handed down in their family through generations. Do you have a china collection and if so, do you know its history? Is knowing its history particularly meaningful to you?
- Georgia and Maisy grew up knowing that their mother, Birdie, was mentally ill, but it doesn’t seem to be something that is openly discussed in the family, and even between the sisters. Is there a stigma in talking about mental illness? Is this something you think you would be able to discuss with either family or friends?
- One of the themes in FLIGHT PATTERNS is family and what people do in the name of family, to protect their families. Many of the characters in FLIGHT PATTERNS have done extreme things to protect their family—whether it’s Giles sending Colette away, Georgia giving a precious gift to Maisy, or Ned protecting his wife even long after her death. Do you feel that this is realistic? Would you go to the same extremes for your family?
- Bees and beekeeping are important elements throughout FLIGHT PATTERNS. What do you think the bees represent to the different characters?
- After caring for the bees almost religiously most of his life, Ned does something so destructive towards the bees and nearly burns down the house and kills his granddaughters. Why do you think Ned acted the way he did?
- Birdie has been acting for nearly her entire life, despite not having a career on the stage or screen—who do you think the real Birdie is?
- Becky finds out a truth about herself accidentally. Is this something that Maisy should have told her about before? Why or why not?
- We find out that Ned is the one who sent in Giles Mouton’s name to Yad Vashem to be recognized and honored for what he did during World War II. Do you think this helps to mitigate some of the guilt he bears in Giles’s death?
- Birdie’s inability to cope with her past and her emotional instability lead her to being a neglectful mother to both Georgia and Maisy. Do you think she deserves forgiveness from her daughters now that they know the truth of her damaged personal history?
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Karen White After playing hooky one day in the seventh grade to read Gone With the Wind, Karen White knew she wanted to be a writer—or become Scarlett O'Hara. In spite of these aspirations, Karen pursued a degree in business and graduated cum laude with a BS in Management from Tulane University. Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and wrote her first book. In the Shadow of the Moon was published in August, 2000. Her books have since been nominated for numerous national contests including the SIBA (Southeastern Booksellers Alliance) Fiction Book of the Year, and has twice won the National Readers’ Choice Award. Karen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and currently writes what she refers to as ‘grit lit’—Southern women’s fiction—and has also expanded her horizons into writing a mystery series set in Charleston, South Carolina. Her 22nd novel, THE GUESTS ON SOUTH BATTERY, was published January 10, 2017 by Berkley Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House Publishing Group. Karen hails from a long line of Southerners but spent most of her growing up years in London, England and is a graduate of the American School in London. When not writing, she spends her time reading, scrapbooking, playing piano, and avoiding cooking. She currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children, and two spoiled Havanese dogs.
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Haviland China In 1839, a customer brought a broken cup to David Haviland, a retailer who ran a china shop in New York. Haviland, as they say in the Big Apple, knew from china, but he had never seen anything like this. Being a particularly determined individual, Haviland eventually matched the cup with one from Limoges—the French city known for its pure, white kaolin clay—and in 1842 he built a factory there to produce china specifically for the American market. Appealing to American tastes meant not only bone-white china of flawless quality and uniformity but also engaging, colorful designs. Haviland hired a painter and sculptor named Felix Bracquemond to lead his design team, and Bracquemond, in turn, created an atmosphere that drew painters as renowned as Paul Gauguin and Raoul Dufy to the firm. It wasn’t long before Haviland china was a frequent guest at the White House. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison all ate off Haviland china. While the high profile of supplying presidents with dinnerware certainly helped the firm’s reputation, in the 19th century, Haviland’s target customers were mainly Victorian housewives. The way to these customers’ hearts, it was believed, was to provide them with lots and lots of choices. In fact, in the more than 150 years between the time Haviland embarked on his audacious adventure and the present day, the company has produced more than 20,000 patterns of fine china; some say the number is closer to 30,000. To make matters more complex, there have been five different Haviland companies over the years on several continents, including the United States. Of those 20,000-30,000 patterns, only about 4,000 have been given a Schleiger number. When it comes to Haviland, the name Schleiger is almost more important to the collector than Haviland. It refers to Arlene Schleiger, a Nebraskan who, in the late 1930s, was trying to fill holes in a set of her mother’s china. Much to her consternation, she learned that Haviland never bothered to put the names of its patterns on its pieces. Using the backmarks on the bottoms of Haviland pieces as her guides, Schleiger and her son Dick, both of whom have since passed away, managed to identify 4,000 patterns—the last volume of their six-book set, which is illustrated by Dick, was published in 1991. Today, Haviland dealers and collectors often refer to patterns by their Schleiger number. So, for example, a plain, white, scallop-edged pattern called Ranson is also known as Schleiger No. 1. Despite all the difficulties associated with collecting and identifying Haviland, the dinnerware remains immensely popular. For example, people love the floral patterns from the ...1950s, with their delicate pink roses and gold trim, or the Art Nouveau-era floral soup sets that are ringed with bands of green. In many cases, a pattern will resonate with a collector because of the name of the U.S. importer stamped next to the "Haviland, Limoges" stamp, thus giving the prospective owner a chance to buy a piece of local history, too. For those who, like Arlene Schleiger, are simply trying to fill out a pattern, one of the tricks is to identify the pattern’s "blank," which is the shape of, say, a plate before any sort of pattern is painted or screened onto it. Common Haviland & Co. blanks include Bowknots, Cannelé, Diamond, Double Scallops, Fiddle, Napkin Fold, Silver, and Strasburg. Theodore Haviland blanks include Chippendale, Geisha, Ruby, and Theo Ranson. One particularly handsome American-made Theodore Haviland blank is called Wheat. Finally, there are the collectors who gravitate to the non-dinnerware Haviland pieces. For them, a humidor in the shape of Mephistopheles’ head (his mouth being the ashtray) is an especially sought-after prize, as are the firm’s hand-painted terra-cotta vases from the late 19th century. This article is from Collectors Weekly:
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What is Tupelo Honey? Worldwide diabetics also know it, it’s a honey with a low content of glucose and therefore useful to sweeten their food. They know it not necessary for its health benefits but for its incredible amber color, awesome taste and aroma, low glycemic index and its capacity of staying liquid for many years. Tupelo honey is a high grade honey produced where a water-lover tree grows. It is called tupelo honey, but in fact it comes from only one tree from the many tupelo tree species, Nyssa ogeche, found in a small region in North Western Florida and Southern Georgia. We can also find this honey with its whole name: Ogeechee Tupelo honey. Scientific name: Nyssa ogeche Other names: Ogeechee tupelo, white tupelo, river lime, ogeechee lime tree, sour gum or wild lime. Genus: Nyssa The name refers to a Greek water nymph. The name tupelo is the common name used for Nyssa, comes from a Native American language, the Creek, from the words ito ‘tree’ and opilwa ‘swamp’. Native to: North America, easily found in abundance in the southeastern United States, particularly in the Gulf Coast region. Nowadays thousands of hectares of Ogeechee tupelo have been planted in bee farms along the lower Apalachicola River and around swamps where it grows naturally. Particularities: It grows up to 15 m (49 ft 3 in), it flowers from March to May, and the seeds ripen from August to October. The wood is light (specific gravity of 0.46), soft, tough but not strong. It is coarse grained, difficult to split and of little value. Tupelos are popular ornamental trees for their mature form, shade, and spectacular autumn leaf colors. In the past, the hollow trunks were used as “bee gums” to hold beehives.
It loves water! it is most often found along streams and in low-lying areas which are regularly flooded in spring and winter. It prefers a moist site on acid soil. Nyssa ogeche – picture credit JAM, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Photographer’s note: “This is an amazing swamp forest now protected by the State of Georgia. The bald cypress trees are so impressive but equally impressive are the Ogeechee lime trees (Nyssa ogeche), like the giant one to the left of me. I climbed as high as I could in an adjacent giant bald cypress so my camera position was better. I used my remote clicker to avoid a sloppy 10 second sprint. Notice how large some of the cypress knees are.” To read the full article on tupelo honey, click on the link below:
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Italian Occupation of France
For more information on the Italian occupation of France followed by the German takeover of the Italian occupation zones in September of 1943, follow the link below.
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