Annie's Ghost

I actually read this book a while ago but I think it would be good to describe it now: Annie's Ghosts by  Steve Luxenberg.  Steve is actually a journalist rather than a genealogist but still describes the research he did to find this lost Aunt.  The start of his search came after his mother died and they receive a notice from the cemetery about flowers.  But the notice lists 3 graves, rather than the two expected.  A girl named Annie is listed.  Most of her life, Steve's mother repeatedly stated she was an only child but once when she was sick, she mentioned a younger sister who was institutionalized at the age of 2.  So after finding out the name of this mysterious Aunt, Steve goes looking for the truth.  The story is set in the Detroit area and also describes the treatment regularly given at this large institutions.  Good story and worth a read!

Book recommendation

I have been working my way through The American Resting Place: Four Hundred Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds by Marilyn Yalom. Let me just say, you need to look at this book just to see the pictures (by Reid S. Yalom) that are all at the beginning of the book. They are very cool to look at! The cover is one of the pictures and I really like it :)

I am enjoying the book and finding it very informative. I have been reading a bit at a time since it is hard to digest 400 years of history in three weeks! I am not even half way so I will be spending a few more weeks with it. (I actually read really fast but right now I have to read for a committee I am on so I don't have as much time to devote to non-teen books.)

But if you are at all interested in cemeteries, which most genealogist are, check out this book!

Reading related to Genealogy

Sometimes I come across (or hear about) a book that relates to genealogy. The book I am reading right now qualifies. I want the author, Ingrid Hill, to write stories about my ancestors and I don't care if it is all fiction! The book is Ursula, Under. The reason I am reading this book is because the main piece of the story is set in Michigan, where I live. My library, KDL, does a winter reading program for adults and this is the last book I needed to read to complete the entire bingo page. So I really didn't know a lot about this book before I picked it up. It is actually kind of hard for me to describe but I will try.

The story centers around a little girl named Ursula who falls down a mine shaft. The story then goes back and forward through time exploring this girls ancestry. These stories are so vivid that I felt that I could go to the location described in the book and actually find the grave (or skull) of the person who has since passed from history. I haven't finished the book yet (I'm about 2/3 of the way through) and there is very little information about Ursula's current condition. But I am really enjoying the book! Read it! :)

History of Ellis Island

I am reading an interesting book right now called "American Passage: The History of Ellis Island" by Vincent J. Cannato. Although there is some less interesting political stuff, I enjoy reading about Ellis Island and how immigrants were treated. It really makes me wonder what happened when my ancestors came through Ellis Island and before when Castle Rock was the entry point. And yes, there were translators!

(#22) Podcasts

Maybe it is because I am more familiar with iTunes store but I really do like it better for finding podcasts. Podcastalley didn't give enough information about the podcasts and there were not any customer reviews. I have heard of this site before because certain podcasts want listeners to vote for them here so that their show goes up on the ratings listed on the side of the main screen. Podcast.net had categories to select from as well as a search bar and there were keywords to use also but again no reviews. Yahoo podcasts has ratings and I liked this one the best of the three. I found one library related blog that could be interesting and I linked it to my bloglines, Hennepin County Library Teenlinks Podcast. This podcast is created by teens for teens and could be something KDL could do also.

I actually listen to a lot of different podcasts and here are some of the book related ones:
Amazon Wire books, movies, music
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
NY Times book reviews
Book talks with Nancy Keane
Just One More Book children's book reviews
NPR Books reviews authors etc

Plus I listen to a few different Harry Potter podcasts!

(#21) YouTube

There should be a warning on this site: CAUTION: watching this site causes addiction! As you probably can tell, I have used YouTube before! Actually, everyone in my family has used this site including my 7 year old daughter. I hear "can I go on YouTube?" almost as much as "can I play RuneScape?" My husband started it and now every one of us has been taken over! So here is one of my favorite videos from YouTube - Brotherhood 2.0 singing sensation: Hank Green! (My kids call him Uncle Hank). FYI: Hank sang this song the Wednesday before HP & the Deathly Hallows was released.

(#11) LibraryThing

This might be the easiest of the training because I have been on LibraryThing since August 2006. But I added the random book covers to the sidebar. I don't use LibraryThing much now because I was introduced to another tool which I like better. Goodreads allows users to link up with their friends. On my account I have different shelves for my books so others can see what I am currently reading, going to read, and have read. Also, when I log on I am given a list of updates from my friends pages so I can always see what they are reading. We can rate books and link to others on the site to see what they had to say about the book.

I am one of those people who loves to have a list of the books I own, know where the book is located and when I last read it. So I have a program on my iMac at home to keep track of books for my whole family. (They don't appreciate it as much as I do!) I use Bookpedia which operates a lot like iTunes. Love it!

My blog title selection

So I wanted to explain why I choice "On the Edge" for my blog. This could mean many different things! When I first setup my blog, I didn't have any idea what to call it (the hardest part of setting up a blog) so I was looking at the different blogs I have bookmarked to find some ideas. One of my bookmarks was for the Edge Chronicles, a book series I love!! So that is where the title came from and if you read the opening section of any of the Edge Chronicle book, you will see why this is a good title. Read the books too!