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Sometimes you just gotta stop
and smell the roses.... |
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Between the Lines
Reading Recommendations from the Cottage Shelves |
 Greensboro writer Jo Maeder should have a hit on her hands with When I Married My Mother, one of those rare memoirs that reads like a novel. In her late forties, Maeder leaves NYC and a career in radio, to move in with and take care of her elderly mother. Maeder is a gifted storyteller and will be at Duck's Cotttage on August 21 for a book signing. I can't wait! (Did I mention I read this book in a day!! It's that good!) The cover of Cathy Olton's Beach Trip (see below), is sure to attract attention; the story of four college friends reuniting in a beach house in North Carolina (!) should keep it moving briskly from the shelves and into beach bags. A blurb promises an 'unforgettable tale of lifelong friendship, heartbreak and happiness'.  Our book group LOVED Jhumpa Lahiri's latest short story collection, Unaccustomed Earth. There's a reason this book received the honor of being named the New York Times Best Book of the Year. Read it now. I also recently read and reviewed Jill Kargman's The Ex. Mrs. Hedge Fund for bookreporter.com. It's a good summer read. Our signed copy of Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian finally showed up but between Charlie and Sarah I haven't gotten my hands on it yet. However, I do have a BIG confession to make in the YA department. I am finally immersed in the Twilight series. Friends and customers have been trying to talk me into picking these books up for over a year. Sarah downloaded the movie and now I'm hooked. I immediately read New Moon, started Eclipse, stopped halfway through to go back and actually read Twilight because I thought I was missing some pieces (I was). My apologies to Clai, Lucy, and everyone else who was raving about these books. I get it now.
Movies from books are predominating this summer's big screen: Tom Hanks stars in the much anticipated sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons based on Dan Brown's novel of the same name; Jodi Picoult's huge best-seller My Sister's Keeper, starring Cameron Diaz, arrives June 26; Johnny Depp shows up July 1 as Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in the movie version of Public Enemies; I can't wait for the latest and long overdue chapter from Hogwarts, Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (July 15); Look for Julia Child everywhere you look in the weeks leading up to the August 7 release of Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia- a blend of Julie Powell's book of the same name and Julia Child's My Life in France. I'm nervous about the adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife (due August 14). Can the movie possibly match the book which was one of the most beautiful love stories of the past ten years? Finally, on September 1, Susan Sarandon stars in Alice Sebold's blockbuster The Lovely Bones. And, FYI, The Road is now scheduled for an October release. Sheesh!
It's graduation season! Some great gifts for the new grad: Pro Bronson's modern classic What Should I Do With My Life: the True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question; Florence Isaacs' What Do You Say When: Talk to People With Confidence On Any Social or Business Occasion; a must for the new generation- Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview (A crash course in finding, landing and keeping your first real job!) by Ellen Gordon Reeves; Class With the Countess, tips for real life from Bravo's RHoNY reality Queen LuAnn de Lesseps; and what fledgling out on their own for the first time doesn't need Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything! |
| Flotsam & Jetsam
Footnotes from life at a coffee shop |
 CARPOOLING IN DUCK
Still no batting cages anywhere on the beach but we now have TWO laser tag places, 3-D miniature golf and another seafood buffet (luckily all down the beach in KDH/NH)... our family went to see Wicked last month at Chrysler Hall, it was good but not one of our favorites... enjoyed a nice dinner at Basnight's Lone Cedar restaurant after Sarah's dance recital.. a bit pricey, but the new building is really nice and the food was good... Sen. Basnight is gung-ho on some initiatives that would require local businesses to begin seriously reducing the use of plastic bags in Dare, Currituck and Hyde county, we'll keep you posted.. Keely is coing to Duck! Savvy Home & Sublime Design is moving from Southern Shores to Duck and should be open soon across from Duck Methodist Church.. on your way to or from the Outer Banks be sure to stop at the Weeping Radish complex across the bridge in Jarvisburg.. it features an award-winning brewery (super hand-crafted beers), a butchery presided over by Master Butcher Gunther Kuhle that specializes in natural grass fed beef and free range pork (you HAVE to try their hot dogs; or order a grill box to pick up on your way to the beach- it's so worth it!) Weeping Radish also runs the CSA program I'm part of- our weekly veggie boxes are AMAZING!
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Foie Gras
Tasty Tidbits from Duck |
| The latest from Madame De Canard's North Beach Sun column...
Bon jour! It does not seem that long since Madame last brought you all the latest events and news from our darling little Town! Our typical Outer Banks Spring (cold, windy, unpredictable) turned into a gorgeous Summer almost overnight and now we are in the midst of the very best time to live at the beach! There are so many wonderful things going on at the Town Park this summer it is simply impossibile for Madame to recount them all here. However, there is a schedule of Town of Duck Summer Events elsewhere in this paper. Be sure and cut it out! You don't want to miss anything!
One of Madame's favorite events of the summer is coming! The annual Town of Duck Fourth of July Parade will be held on Friday, July 3rd at 9am. It is impossible to hold the parade on the fourth this year since it falls on a Saturday. Turnover traffic you know! This is a wonderful community event featuring hundreds of participants viewed by thousands of parade goers. Madame typically escorts local and visiting children riding bicycles with streamers and flags, bells and whistles along the parade route. Afterwards, moi is always grateful for the after-party at the Town Park which features live music, ice cold drinks and watermelon!
Madame was so looking forward to the Town's pilot Farmer Market program this summer. The program was to run two hours a week on Tuesday evenings for five weeks and would have featured fresh agricultural products from within a two hundred mile radius. Many residents of Duck, Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk were most enthusiastic as moi is sure our visitors would have been. Alas, the program has been postponed due to an unsubstantiated uproar from misinformed merchants. Tut-tut.
Beachgoers in Duck please be aware of some new and much needed beach codes that recently went into effect. Madame realizes that tents, umbrellas and canopies do much to alleviate the hot Carolina sun, but if you put it up, you must take it down every evening when you leave the beach. It is tres dangerous to have these obstacles on the beach at night. Not only for evening strollers, but in an emergency it would be un desastre for a rescue truck to suddenly find tent poles and ropes in front of them. Many people were also simply abandoning them at the end of their vacation, leaving them to become storm tossed debris. Additionally, please be sure to fill in any and all holes you or your children may dig on the beach. Madame would strongly recommend holes not reach the size in which someone, big or small, could sit or stand. There have been instances of 'cave-ins' and they can be deadly!! In fact, Duck Volunteer Fireman Bob Mack- on a recent visit to Ocracoke- saved someone from just this type of incident! After frenzied digging and several rounds of CPR, the victim's life was saved. Hats off to Mssr Mack! And let this be a lesson pour tout!
In the summer, Duck's bike path is full of pedestrians, joggers, bikers and even babies in strollers. Add to this a plethora of cars pulling in and out of our local businesses and our Village Commercial area becomes a very busy place! Please do not forget that the speed limit throughout this area is 25 miles per hour. Je Repete: TWENTY FIVE MILES PER HOUR. If you speed, you will be stopped and no amount of letters complaining to merchants or residents will change your ticket. Would you like us to come to your hometown and race down Main Street at 20 miles over the speed limit? Madame did not think so. Relax! Slow down and enjoy your vacation!
Everything moi has mentioned above underscores the many reasons Duck was named to the Travel Channel's list of the Fifteen Best Beaches for Families. Citing its wide, clean beaches, village-like charm and focus on families, Duck was the only Eastern Coast beach listed north of South Carolina. Madame knows that all of her dear readers want to help keep Duck this way and will do so by obeying the speed limit, enjoying all the great offerings from the Town of Duck, disposing of your trash properly (and picking up anybody else's litter) and doing your part to ensure that the wonderful, unique atmosphere of Duck thrives.
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| Jamie's Book Club
The May Selection |
 Lost on Planet China
by J. Maarten Troost
One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation
J. Maarten Troost is a funny guy. His previous two books, Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned with Savages, recount his experiences living in far flung places like Kiribati and Vanuatu. As his wife works at her job with a non-profit, Troost is free to observe and record, with pure honesty and sheer wit, the completely foreign cultures in which he finds himself immersed. The couple returned stateside once children came into the picture but then Troost started thinking... if China is the future, and we want to give our children the best possible future, shouldn't we move there? Wisely, he decides to do some reconnaissance first, packs his bags and sets off for China. He spends several months traveling the country- from its biggest cities to its smallest towns and, in his journeys, runs out of ways to describe the polluted skies. In fact, he ultimately decided that whatever advantages his children gain from moving to China will be cancelled out by their likelihood to have emphysema by age 25. What he discovers is remarkable. No, amazing. In fact, I have suggested this book more than once as recommended reading for any citizen of our planet! Jamie's Book Club members will be discussing the book at www.duckscottage.blogspot.com. Please join us!
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It's June and Summer is here. The grass is greener, the sky bluer; the days are longer and nights more magical... isn't it time to slow down, take a deep breath and smell the roses wherever you are?
Jamie Layton
Duck's Cottage
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