Mah Jongg box with trays 

5 Trays with Mah Jongg pieces 

My Latest Obsession

I've received my Mah Jongg set from a very nice Ebay seller in Indiana. It is a vintage set from China, made for export in the 20's or 30's. The pictures come from the Ebay website-thank you to the seller!
It is a small box with 5 drawers. It contains over 140 bone and bamboo tiles, plus teeny dice and counting sticks and betting discs. Now I'm ready to learn to play Mah Jongg! Unfortunately, the box didn't come with directions!!! I've added a link to a great website: the Mah Jong Museum, which has lots of good info about the history of the game, sets and directions!
I know the game is a cross between dominos and gin rummy, and there are as many variations as there are groups that play it. Will keep you posted on my progress!

Book Title Correction

The correct title for Gabriel Garcia Marquez's masterpiece, is, of course, "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

Cliff at Beachy Head, England 

What I'm Reading

I seem to have finished more books than usual this month.

I like to read one book at a time, but I often seem to have two books going at once.

The first book I read this month was Cliffs of Despair:A Journey to The Edge by Tom Hunt. I saw a review of it and thought it would be interesting because it talks about a place I’ve visited. It’s about the cliffs in southern England called Beachy Head that are one of the top places in the world for suicides. When I went there I didn’t know this. I just wanted to see the white cliffs, and when I looked on a map, I knew we could go to Beachy Head. Now that I think about it, our driver guide probably thought we wanted to see it because of its reputation…She didn’t want to linger there, but we were fascinated and could have rambled over the grounds for longer than we did.

I’ll try to add one of my photos of Beachy Head (very similar to the one on the cover of the book).
At any rate, the history of the place and the author’s attempts to understand why people commit suicide is interesting. I’m sort of glad I didn’t know all this when I went there.

The next book I finished was The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Interestingly enough, Rory Gilmore was reading this book in an episode of “Gilmore Girls”, which I thought a strange choice. I’ve never read any of Ms. Didion’s work before, and I enjoyed her direct style. This is a very personal account of what it’s like to lose a family member suddenly, and how hard it is to go on alone.

For my book clubs we had an oldie and a new book.

The Last Tuesday Book Club (LTBC) will discuss Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert-I’d never read this book, and I’m glad we put it on our list. I will be interested to hear the opinions of the book club members on this book. I don’t think I would have gotten through it in high school, however.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez-This is my first Garcia Marquez book, although I started One Thousand Years of Solitude at some point. It is only 120 pages long, but it isn’t a fast read. Perhaps it’s the translation, or just the way the story goes from present to past and back again. Some of the similes and metaphors are amazing. I’m not sure if this is a very good book, although it seems that it is an interesting portrait of an old man trying to keep living. I’m not sure he ever deflowered the virgin he wanted on his 90^th birthday. Perhaps the book club discussion will enlighten me. Anyway, you could have a good time comparing this book to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead for old men looking back on their lives.

On tap for next month are: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (LTBC selection).

Wild Swans by Jung Chan (to feed my China obsession)

Lost in a Good Book by Jason Fforde (sequel to The Eyre Affair)-A Thursday Next novel. Michiko Kakutani called Thursday Next a cross between Bridget Jones, Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry. That’s about right. Actually, I’ve already started this one. Twice.

Why Blog?

My first/most recent post was a little snippy. I didn't save earlier posts so they won't be reposted here. So herewith a new post.

Why blog? This is a very good question. Perhaps people want to comment. I'm not sure why I want to do this, but I do. I guess my friend's blog is cool and when I see her interesting posts and great photos, want to do it, too. I know my kids have blogs, so I guess this helps me move a little further into 21st century technology. I don't know what will come out of this, so it's an interesting experiment. I wonder what others get from their blogs.

I will post more info about the great mah jong set I purchased on ebay, but my payment took a while to go through and I haven't gotten word about shipment.

Beginning Again

I deleted the first incarnation of Molly's Road Show and am giving this a second chance. No help from Blogger about the fact that I could not view my blog after the first post. I hope the Google people have been working on their servers and whatever, because I am rapidly becoming disenchanted. Nothing worse than extending the promise of cool technology and then not being able to use it....
Will check back and see if this blog is viewable.