Figleaves and FedEx

This is a bit of a rant. You see, twice I have ordered from Figleaves with a desire to receive the package by a certain date, and on the website it says that it only takes three days to ship to my area, plus the time that it takes for them to package my order (about 24 hours). Both times I ordered in more than enough time for the package to arrive according to the website and the package hasn't.

The first time I blamed it on a holiday weekend messing up the shipping, but there's no such excuse this time.

Since I had a free shipping coupon the first time I ordered and a less-than-free shipping coupon the second time, I guess I can't complain too hard. But I'm still not a happy camper.

(Oh, for those who don't know, Figleaves sells undergarments. And they do have a remarkable return policy which they have been nice about honoring.)

Interesting Quote - Are we barbarians yet?

"The mainsprings of human nature must always retain their power --- the majority of men must be brave, and of women chaste, parents must love their children more than themselves, and one man must be able to trust the word of another, or else we should relapse into the worst kind of barbarism."

Mary Cadwaldader Jones, "An Old-Fashioned Virtue," The Delineator, August 1896, p. 230.

Some of the books I read in July

I started quite a few that I did not finish, and finished some that I had started earlier.

Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance Her autobiography, which I had been meaning to read for years and years -- whew, I finally did it! I don't think I've ever read any of her fiction, but thoroughly enjoyed this book. However, I will note from comments that I have seen elsewhere that Edith cleaned up her story quite a bit -- that some of her close male friends were actually more than friends.

J. R. R. Tolkein, The Hobbit I quit this one repeatedly before finally getting to the end (I didn't finish it over a decade ago, started over this year, put it away, got it back out again and completed it). It is generally well written, but not quite my cup of tea.

Emily Whaley, Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden A lovely, fast read. I think someone recommended this one online and so I picked it up.

Lynn Morris, The Balcony An enjoyable novel.

Margaret Holt, Chinqua-Penn Plantation Interesting description of one couple's art collection, but probably of limited interest to the general public. (By the way, the art collection is no more as far as I know.)

Serge Normant, Femme Fatale I had an educational reason for checking this book out from the library. I wouldn't recommend it if you are easily offended by skimpy dress. It is interesting to see the celebrities photographed.

P. G. Wodehouse, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves I actually did not like Wodehouse very much when I tried him a few years ago, but found it quite funny now that I had seen some of the DVDs. Now I can scarcely wait to read more! (Unfortunately, the local libraries have almost culled out their collections of Wodehouse, but I can find some at a farther-off library system.) I recently read that there is an early movie version with David Niven as Bertie Wooster -- I'd be interested to see it as well.

Carolyn Wells, Patty Fairfield, 1901 I prefer Carolyn Well's Dorrance Domain to this novel, but both are nice. The books are meant for teenagers or a little younger. This one can induce guilt for not being good enough of a housekeeper.

This Fabulous Century 1870-1900 Interesting pictures; I read most of the text -- some of it had been torn out.

Frank Getlein, Art Treasures of the World I wasn't familiar with a lot of the objects in this book. The photography looks a little dated, but the text is still quite good.