Fifty … No, Fifty-two … Wait, FIFTY-SIX Books That I Love

I started this list some time ago on a sticky on my desktop, and just felt compelled to finish it (for the time being) tonight. Drop me a line and tell me your top 10 (or more.) You'll note that I don't discriminate between literature for children vs. adults. As far as I'm concerned, great books are great books.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird

2. The Wizard of Loneliness

3. Nightwatch

4. How Green Was My Valley

5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

6. Savage Inequalities

7. Storming Heaven

8. The Secret Garden

9. Red Sky at Morning

10.  The Book Thief

11.  Endurance

12.  The Chronicles of Prydain

13.  The Last Unicorn

14.  A Prayer for Owen Meany

15.  The Summer Book (Tove Jansson)

16.  Lord of the Rings

17.  Cider With Rosie

18.  Cold Comfort Farm

19.  Singing Family of the Cumberlands

20.  Of Human Bondage

21.  The Razor's Edge

22.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

23.  A Christmas Carol

24.  The Country of the Pointed Firs

25.  Twig

26.  Yellow Raft on Blue Water

27.  The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse

28.  The Wonderful Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

29.  Into the Beautiful North

30.  Charlotte's Web

31.  The Bean Trees

32.  All Creatures Great and Small

33.  The Ark

34.  The Outsiders

35.  Bridge to Terabithia

36.  Little Women

37.  Wise Child/Juniper

38.  My Family and Other Animals

39.  84 Charing Cross Road

40.  The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

41.  The Pushcart War

42.  The Wuggie Norple Story

43.  Rain Makes Apple Sauce

44.  Bud, Not Buddy

45.  The Graveyard Book

46.  "Little House" series (and yes I know it is racist)

47.  The Story of Ferdinand

48.  The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow

49.  The Dark Is Rising series

50.  Elsie Piddock Skips In Her Sleep

51.  The Island of the Blue Dolphins

52.  Apple Tree Lean Down

53.  My Side of the Mountain

54.  The Monstrous Regiment

55.  The Wee Free Men
56. Hannah Coulter (but any number of Wendall Berry's books could be on this list.)

Summer Reading, Pt. 2

Barreling ahead halfway through July …

In the mid-seventies Helene Hanff took a job writing a guide book of New York City for visitors, and as she set out to research the book (by becoming a tourist herself, with her intrepid friend Patsy by her side) she realized that there are a lot of places that native New Yorkers never go. As a guide book it is quite dated -- the World Trade Center was almost new, the tram to Roosevelt Island was brand new, and Ellis Island had just opened as a historic site. It is, however, written in Hanff's highly entertaining style and filled with the kind of people's history tidbits that I like, such as her observations that many of the wonderful artistic venues of New York (Carnegie Hall, the Frick Museum, the Cloisters, etc.) were essentially paid for with the lives of mine and factory workers. Good book, I recommend it, especially for New Yorkers.

 This one is really hard to classify. The author calls it "domestic fantasy". It is the story of a family that lives a seemingly idyllic life in the village of Applekirk, a place that exists in the middle of time. Further east is ruled by gods and goddesses (who seem awfully human,) while the land to the west is largely ruled by reason. Trouble arises when a scholar from the west arrives in Applekirk to study a long-vanished civilization at the same time that an elderly woman -- a former lord of Applekirk -- arrives from the east fleeing the wrath of the goddess of marriage. At times I was bugged by the language that Walton invented for the inhabitants of Applekirk, but the story raised a lot of interesting questions about what constitutes marriage and family. I liked it. (But if you want your novels to move in a linear fashion through time, you might go bonkers reading this book.)

I am a huge fan of Wendell Berry's writing. This is another story set in Berry's fictional Kentucky river town, Port William. It takes place over the course of one day -- the last day, in fact, in the life of 93-year old Jack Beechum -- as he recalls the many turnings of his long life. I've read enough of Berry's Port William stories that the recurring characters are like old friends, and it was wonderful to be among them again. Beautiful, tender, evocative writing. I cannot get enough of it.

The second book in the witches' strand of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Desiderata, one of two fairy godmothers has died and bequeathed her magic wand to the young witch Magrat, with explicit directions that she is to travel to Genua to prevent  Emberella from marrying the prince. Magrat embarks on her quest, accompanied by her formidable companions Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.

I finally got around to reading Personal Effects. (It's been in my "to read" pile only since it came out last fall.) This is a debut YA novel that happens to have been written by my neighbor Emily, so I can tell you that not only has she written one heck of a good novel, but she's also a good dog walker and lawn mower, not to mention a lovely person. But the book: Matt Foster is a 17-year old boy living with his emotionally distant and abusive father as he struggles to cope with his brother TJ's death in the Iraq War. When the family receives TJ's "personal effects", Matt discovers letters and photos that send him on a journey to find out more about his brother. I loved this book -- I could not stop reading it! The author did such a good job of portraying a grief-stricken, emotionally stuck, teenaged boy and I wanted to find out how the story would resolve for all of the characters. On a side note, it was fun that part of the story took place in Madison, in places that I recognized. I highly recommend this book!


Next up: The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys.

Notta Book Review

Summer vacation is coming (June 12 -- YAY!!!!!!!!!!) and with it, lazy days of reading on the back porch punctuated by afternoon naps. In preparation I have put a number of books on hold at the library. Just to update my interested bookaphile readers (all 6 of you!) here is my current reading: I have taken a break from Queen Bees and Wannabes, Silk Road, and The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins. They just weren't grabbing me, if you know what I mean.

Now I am reading In A Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages, first published in Europe in 1949, and translated from the Dutch. I picked it up on a whim at the public library friends' shop It's a tome -- 574 pages of dense print -- but so far, so good. I'm finding it to be very engaging.

Next up: Daniel Pinkwater's The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went To Hollywood, and Saved Civilization. Followed by The Iggyssey, also by Pinkwater. He is an author I frequently forget about, but I am always delighted by his writing. We used to torment our childless friends -- the ones who were scared of our children back when we were all younger and I hadn't yet become a hermit -- by forcing them to read Pinkwater's picture book The Wuggie Norple Story aloud. (Our youngest daughter, however, gave us our just desserts by insisting that we read it every night and change all of the characters' names to people she knew. Reading it became an ordeal of her barking out corrections at us: "NO, not Wuggie Norple. Petey!" Oh, how I miss those days now.)

Anyway, stay tuned for further book reviews.

WeRead

Our whole family just loves this book, Richard Bradford's Red Sky At Morning. As you can see from these photos, we've all read it. (As usual, there is no photo of me.) Well, all except for one family member. But she'll get to it. Tomorrow. :-)

Mr. Ether:

Young Sparkly Ether:

Daisy:

Feather:

Molly:

Pocket Petey:

Hello Kitty:

Have you read it?
(Note: Mostly conceived and photographed by Mr. Ether)

Reading

My brother emailed me today, and was teasing me about reading Lord of the Rings (see my sidebar.) "Why?" he asked facetiously. "Didn't you see the movies?" I'm actually reading it for [only] the third time. I think it is a superbly written book, and reads more like history than fantasy.

However, I'm finding myself bogging down and reluctant to pick it up these last few days. I think that with Israel's incursion into Gaza and the growing civilian casualties, I am having a hard time stomaching reading about epic battles between good and evil forces, and war as the dominant paradigm.

I picked up a copy of Natalie Goldberg's Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft at a used book store on Christmas eve. (I can't keep from going out and doing last minute shopping on that day, no matter how firm my resolve.) Tonight I abandoned LOTR (for the time being) and I read the introduction, where Natalie apologizes to her readers for misleading them down the writers' path in her first book Writing Down the Bones.

I had to laugh. I read -- and was profoundly moved by -- both Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind a number of years ago. It was during a period of time that I have little desire to revisit. I was teaching in a program that was being dismantled all around me and struggling with changes that were being wrought in the field of education by the advent of "the standards movement" (the precursor to No Child Left Behind.) I was in a fog of grief over the death of my daughter, and trying to be a good mother to my other two young children. It was also during that time that my father died suddenly. And I had two unplanned pregnancies (using contraceptives, just in case you are inclined to comment on that,) both of which I chose to terminate. There were days when I came home from work and literally curled up in a dark room with my fingers in my ears to block out all sensory experiences. My well was dry.

That's when I turned to writing practice, first Natalie Goldberg's books and then to Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. I got up every morning and wrote for 30 minutes. I filled notebooks with a lot of unhappiness (or so I remember; I can't bring myself to go back and reread any of it now.) I drew a lot of little sheep, because I really wanted to pursue fiber arts.

Thankfully, something shifted. The fog lifted. I fell back in love with teaching. I found ways to integrate my desire to write and to create art, with the rest of my life. So it is amusing to pick up Natalie Goldberg once again, and have her say, "Don't go down this path! It will only lead to suffering! All art leads to suffering!!"

I'll keep reading. I might even write a book review when I'm done.

Fun and Games

This game was posted on Facebook by an old high school compadre of mine, and I've adapted it for blogging.

The Book Grab Game
Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence in my comments. Post the rules on your own blog, if you wish to continue the fun. Whee!

I'm a little embarrassed to post mine; it came out of a book that my mother-in-law left on our diningroom table, and shall we say, she doesn't always share my taste in books. (She doesn't even like Terry Pratchett. Sheesh!) It sounds vaguely pornographic.

"I catch his eye and realize that his hand has moved on to me."

Hmmm ... What to read next?

Reading has really tapered off for me since school began. Between writing here -- which truly gives me a lot of pleasure, fretting about the state of the world -- which gives me no pleasure at all but is inevitable, lots of outside commitments, knitting, putting up the gobs of produce that came out of the community garden, cooking regular meals ... well, reading has gotten relegated to just the few minutes between when I crawl into bed and my eyes slam shut.

I have this stack of books though. It never seems to shrink much. From the public library:

• The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer
• The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba

A loan from my friend Mary:

• Silk Road: A Novel of Eighth Century China

A recent acquisition from a used book sale:

• the first three books of the Tuesday Next series by Jasper Fforde

And then there is the brand new book, Nation, by my favorite author, British satirist, Terry Pratchett.

I have also been enjoying two books that might fall into the reference or coffee table book category:

• Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
• Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match by Susan Briscoe (Just what I need: another craft!)

These are both library books as well, but I am thinking of buying them because they're beautiful, inspiring, and fun to peruse.

Dear readers, what would you do?

A meme from long ago

A few weeks ago, DCup posted photographs of her book collection and invited others to do the same. Well, it has taken me a while to get it together, but here goes. I started in the kitchen with the cookbooks. I love my cookbooks. Sometimes I just take them out and read them. (Lots of stirring passages, haha.) I probably use the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home more than anything else. I also have been getting many recipes out of the innertubes, so I have a big binder of recipes. I used to have The Boxcar Children Cookbook but I gave it to PoodleDoc as an engagement gift. (Note to PoodleDoc: We are expecting an invitation for wienies and s'mores. Said Benny.)
On to the basement. We shouldn't really store books in the basement, but we do. Our living room is too flargin' full of musical flotsam and jetsom to have room for another bookshelf unit. This shelf contains many children's books that our progeny don't want in their bedrooms anymore, but that I cannot bear to part with. I collected children's books long before I ever had children! Another basement shelf. You may not be able to tell, but there are actually 2 layers of books on these shelves, not counting the ones stuffed in on top of other books. The way that we keep our books is rather embarrassing, given that I am a wannabe librarian -- but there you have it. The shoemaker's children go barefoot.A portion of my craft books.

In the living room, this is a bookshelf that the lovely and talented Mr. Ether built. (There is a second one in pieces in the basement. If the giant black amps and speakers -- Mr. Ether's tools of the Rock God ™ trade -- ever get moved somewhere else, maybe we'll have room for another unit in the living room!)And a close-up.
Upstairs now. Molly is in her favorite spot, and it is yet another ridiculously disheveled bookshelf!A peek into the Luminiferous boudoir, and what do we have? More books!
Knitting magazines and miscellaneous stuff ...The nightstand/bookshelf ...And the pile on the floor (overseen by Feather.)

I left out a couple of smaller cases because I didn't want to become even more tedious than I already am. The fact is, I love books. However, I am a very discerning book buyer; I've reached the point where I will not buy a book unless I know that I absolutely love it and plan to read it multiple times. Yet we still have books in every nook and cranny of the house!

What I'm reading ..., pt. 2

I'm ba-a-a-ck!

I packed 4 books to take with me to Rock Island. No blockbusters, in the end wisely deciding that they simply weigh too much and are difficult to hold up for reading in the hammock. At the last minute I threw in 3 more, all Terry Pratchett books.

7 books? What was I thinking??? I ended up reading only 2! I read Wyrd Sisters by Pratchett, tried to read one of my other books (a novel by Peter S. Beagle, author of the cult classic The Last Unicorn) but got bored because he doesn't write like Terry Pratchett, and then read Witches Abroad by TP. I'm such a dork sometimes.

One year I'd like to try going to the island with just one book, or NO books (scary thought) and see what kind of entertainment I can make for myself. It's not as if there is nothing to do.

I should say that it feels good to be home, and it does, but I miss Rock Island. It is such a wonderful place. I have never put it to the test, but I think I could happily stay there for 2 weeks, pit toilets, hauling water, sleeping on the ground, and all. More on the week later.

What I'm reading ...

You might be concerned that I haven't posted a book review in a few days. I actually read a novel written for children, Seer of Shadows by Avi, but I wasn't particularly moved to write about it one way or another. Then I started the novel London by Edward Rutherfurd, a massive tome whose story spans from pre-Christian times to the end of the twentieth century. It is very much in the sweeping writing tradition of James Michener. I'm not even halfway through it. We leave tomorrow on our trip, part of which involves 2 ferry rides. Hope the boats don't sink under the weight of it (plus I also have Pillars of Stone by Ken Follett! I'm catching up on my epic bestsellers.)

More on "Human Smoke"

A comment from Quaker Dave on my last post led me to look up some of the major reviews of Human Smoke. The first one I read was originally published in the LA Times, and is by author Mark Kurlansky (who wrote the superb book Nonviolence: History of a Dangerous Idea.) You can read it here. For the record, the NY Times reviewer didn't like it.

Winter Reading Challenge

I have been remiss in not mentioning that I am participating in the Winter Reading Challenge. Participating bloggers get to post their reading list for all the world to see, plus write reviews of the books they have read. So far I have not read a single book from my list, which keeps getting longer because I add more books after reading other bloggers' reviews, plus then I have to read library books that I've placed on hold. Those, of course, aren't on my list, because I thought I would be smart and list the books on my shelf that I own and have been meaning to read for a long time ... Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

There's still time to sign up.

Anyway, my most current review is up, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood.

Thoughts For A Saturday Morning

Well, things are going well enough with Molly the Temp Dog (especially now that Mr. Ether has been taking her to the barky park to run) that she will be with us until February. I went to pick up her stuff from the house at which she was staying before, and the person I talked to there was wearing a "Not My President" t-shirt.

This set me thinking about the little man who is not my president. My first thought was, "He's never been my president." One thing that really bothers me is, how after 9/11™, the airwaves and print media were filled with people who should have known better saying things like, "We have to support him. He's our President."

There are a couple of prominent examples: The cartoonist/humorist Ted Rall wrote an essay after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, saying something to the effect of, "They attacked us. We can't just turn the other cheek." To which I said, "Why not?" It's easy to be anti-war when there isn't a war on. It is extremely hard to be anti-war at the outset of a war, yet that is exactly what Jesus was preaching. Ted Rall took the coward's road, and I have not been able to enjoy his writing since then.

The other example is the NPR talking head (or is it a talking voice when it's on the radio?) Scott Simon, who identified himself as a Quaker and then spoke eloquently in favor of the bombing of Afghanistan. The effect this had was to give the general notion that the majority of Quakers (and for those of you who may not know, the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers is one of the historic peace churches) supported the invasion, which was absolutely not the case. I had a colleague say to me, "But the Quakers think the invasion is a good thing!" It was appalling. I have heard that Scott Simon made peace with his Monthly Meeting, but I have had a hard time making peace with Scott Simon! (Which probably isn't very Quakerly.)

So now it is seven years later, and opposition to the war and to the policies of BushCheneyInc. has grown exponentially, a trend for which I am truly grateful. But sometimes I am angry, furious, enraged, thinking "How could you NOT have known then?" There were many people who know how bad it all was and tried to speak out, but there were so many more -- thinking, progressive people -- who practiced self-censorship (the worst kind) and wished that the rest of us would do the same. People for whom, literally overnight, the president who stole the election became "my President."

Just look at the mess we're in now. My younger daughter talks all the time about how she is going to move to Europe when she's old enough. And though it breaks my heart to contemplate it, I hope she does! It feels as if, in the last seven years, my children's future has evaporated. Poof! Gone.

My mood matches the November weather outside. Cold. Grey. Half-hearted drizzle.

Moving right along with Saturday morning thoughts -- although now it is eleven minutes past noon -- I finished reading Terry Pratchett's Making Money. As I said before, I love his books. When I say that, people often respond, "I tried reading one of them once, but I couldn't get into it." And to all you TP nay-sayers, I say "Try again!" But don't begin at the beginning. His earlier Discworld books, such as The Color of Magic, are not nearly as good as his more recent offerings. So here are a few suggestions:

Going Postal followed by Making Money. (They go together, sort of.)
The Monstrous Regiment
The Wee Free Men, followed by A Hat Full of Sky.
Small Gods

Pratchett nerds go to L-Space and read the books following characters they like, instead of necessarily reading the series chronologically. The characters I most like to follow are Sam Vimes (a cop) and Granny Weatherwax (a witch.) For you librarians out there, Pratchett has created one of the most memorable librarians ever. Ook! If you like zombies, werewolves, trolls, vampires, and dwarves and believe in affirmative action, you may like these books.

I'll leave you with a passage I enjoyed in Making Money. The background is, an ancient army of golems has descended on the city of Ankh-Morpork. Lord Vetinari is the city Patrician, who may or may not be a tyrant. The city is in an uproar over what to do.

"Any of the other cities would attack us if they had these golems," said Lord Downey, "... Surely a bit of conquest would be in order?"

"An empirette, perhaps?" said Vetinari, sourly. "We use our slaves to create more slaves? But do we want to face the whole world in arms? For that is what we would do, at the finish. The best we could hope for is that some of us survive. The worst is that we would triumph. Triumph and rot. That is the lesson of history, Lord Downey. Are we not rich enough?"

Off to get my hair cut. I pray that I do not come home with "car crash bangs." But that is another post.

Oh, Gods ...

Two excellent posts about church/state separation, theocracy, and religion in the last couple of days, one from Blue Gal and one from the good Doctor Monkey von Monkerstein.

On a related note, I am a huge fan of the novels of British satirist Terry Pratchett (and here I have to credit Mr. Ether, a.k.a. Enriched Geranium, for turning me on to them ... or he will hound me mercilessly.) I'm in the middle of the newest one, Making Money, where he takes on banking institutions, and I particularly liked this passage. (Note: Moist is the name of the protagonist.)

If we build it, wilt thou comest? he thought. But the hoped-for god never came. It was sad but, in some celestial way, a bit stupid. Well, wasn't it? Moist had heard that there were maybe millions of little gods floating around in the world, living under rocks, blown about like tumbleweeds, clinging to the topmost branches of trees ... They awaited the big moment, the lucky break that might end up with a temple and a priesthood and worshipers to call your own. But they hadn't come here, and it was easy to see why.

Gods wanted belief, not rational thinking. Building the temple first was like giving a pair of wonderful shoes to a man with no legs. Building a temple didn't mean you believed in gods, it just meant you believed in architecture.

Pratchett's books are full of this kind of thoughtful irreverence toward dogma. I consider myself to be both a human being trying to be spiritual and a spiritual being trying to be human,
and his writing often "speaks to my condition" (that's a Quakerism) plus it makes me laugh out loud. A winning combination!

How Jon Krakauer Killed My Book Club -- A Cautionary Tale

This weekend is the Wisconsin Book Festival, with myriad events a bookish person like myself could attend, except I probably won't. My time on weekends is achingly precious, and Monday morning comes all too soon. Sunday's booked with a summer camp board meeting and a going away party for friends who are moving to New Zealand, which leaves Saturday for the bare necessities of housework, family, and maybe a little self-care.

You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with Jon Krakauer.

Well, a number of years ago I organized a book club. I invited all of the cool women I knew with whom I wanted to spend time, but never seemed to make time for. It was a great group of women. We met regularly every month, read interesting books which we loved or hated, and enjoyed each other's company.

It was all going swimmingly, until we read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a gripping account of the most deadly climbing season ever on Mount Everest, in 1996. Oh, we loved the book! All of us did. We couldn't put it down. One friend, a second grade teacher, assigned her students an extra long independent reading period so she could finish it. Our next meeting was animated. At the end we selected a new book to read for the following month.

When we met next, we tried, we really tried, to discuss the new book. (I think it might have been The Poisonwood Bible, which I've enjoyed reading twice now.) We gave it a good 10 minutes. Then someone said, "Did anyone hear the program on NPR where they interviewed that doctor who lost his nose to frostbite on that Everest expedition?" (We all knew which Everest expedition ...) and we were off! An hour and a half of discussing Into Thin Air, again.

Somewhat sheepishly, we selected another new book. Damn, if the same thing didn't happen the next month, and the next! We tried to make light of it: "We're the Into Thin Air book club, ha ha." But in the end we couldn't sustain it, and we made our fond farewells.

I'm still friends with each of those women, and periodically, when I see one or another of them the subject of our book club will come up, and we have a good laugh.

I've never belonged to another book club with any success. Thanks, Jon.

Book Meme

Jan tagged me for this meme. I actually like memes, especially ones where I get to talk about books. I love books. Maybe I should become a librarian. And I tag anyone else who wants to answer, either on your own blog or in my comments, because I am also interested in what others are reading. Maybe I should become a librarian. Oh, yeah, I already said that.
Here goes:

Total number of books? Gosh, I haven’t counted. Ever. I actually seldom buy books these days, unless it’s something I know I will read again and again, or something with limited availability. I have a large collection of children’s books, many of them out of print favorites. So I probably have between 1000 and 2000.

Last book read? Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things (A mystery for middle school aged students that I read and reviewed as part of my student teaching for library certification) and At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman.

Last book bought? For myself, Two Sweaters For My Father by Perry Klass

Five meaningful books?

The Impossible Will Take A Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear by Paul Loeb

Practicing Peace: A Devotional Walk Through the Quaker Tradition by Catherine Whitmire

Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope by Jonathan Kozol

Push by Sapphire

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

How about favorite children's books? I LOVE children’s books, always have. I’ll name a few from my childhood:

Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones
Dr. Goat by Georgiana (I want this book! If you have a copy you’d like to sell, let me know.)
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
Pink Maple House by Christine Noble Govan (I’m looking for this one too.)
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

Most Used Cookbooks:

Whole Foods for the Whole Family, La Leche League (Jan's favorite too!)
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home, The Moosewood Collective
Extending the Table ... A World Community Cookbook, Joetta Handrich Schlabach
From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Farm Fresh Seasonal Produce, Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition
The Joy of Cooking, Rombauer & Becker