May 26-Monday (holiday)

We had a nice weekend with Marty and his friends going wine tasting in Sonoma and visiting at our house in Vallejo but I didn’t have as much time for reading and for annotating books as I had hoped.  I did get to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this morning and tonight I will finish Silmarillion before I go to bed.  I also read An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Friday and finished last night-so I guess I did get some reading done.  The summaries will have to wait until later this week when I get home.

I got to visit 2 bookstores this weekend.  Friday we went to Barnes and Noble to browse and I did break the “no buying” ban.  I found a beautiful edition of The Divine Comedy in the Longfellow translation (which I have been trying to find ever since I read The Dante Club) which also had the Gustave Dore illustrations.  I had to buy it (only $18 in HC!) because there was only one copy on a bargain table and I might never see one like this again.  So far I’ve done admirably on resisting books during the buying ban but now I’ve ruined my record.  Today we went to Borders in Vacaville which is where we were to meet John and Susie.  Jim found a book about the Mondovi family that he wanted and since it was on a buy one get one at ½ price he also bought Devil in the White City, a nonfiction story that takes place in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair which Tucker had recommended to him.  He doesn’t have to pay attention to the ban because although he likes books he can control himself most of the time in a book store.

I’ve been reading a “book about books” that I got from the library, The Yellow- lighted Bookshop, subtitled a memoir, a history.  It is one man’s journey with books both as a vendor and as a reader.  The most important thing I have learned in this book is that not only do I suffer from “book lust” I am also a “book snoop!”   Whenever I see someone reading I am always curious to know what the book is-not to make judgments but just interest in what other people are reading.  I tend to surreptitiously try to read the title or at least see the cover (in an airport I’ve been known to then go to the bookstore to see if I can locate the cover to find out the title).  It was nice to discover that I’m not the only one who does this (the author at least tries to see the title-I don’t know if he carries it to the extreme I do).

When I get home I will have to get serious about making my “classics list” for the challenge I plan to do.  I’m still trying to decide if this is a good time to try Anna Karenina.  We only have to read an average of a book a month and if I did it in the summer I should be able to not get too bogged down.  This challenge will probably make me have to give up my goal of 100 books this year anyway.  As Dad’s doctor said-you have to weigh quantity against quality-although he was talking about life, not literature.  Although, come to think of it, is there really that much difference between the two?  There are just so many books and I have so little time-and that gets shorter every year!

Stevenson, Robert Louis:  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

After seeing the musical a couple of years ago I wanted to read the original. Yesterday (Memorial Day holiday) I finally did it.  This is another one to forget any dramatized versions you’ve seen-this is classic good vs. evil.  I only wish I could have read it before I knew the secret.  That’s pretty hard to do now but the story still holds your interest especially as a psychological thriller of the 19^th century-pre-Freud.  I wonder if Freud got some of his ideas from Stevenson!  It is short-more of a novella-but a great story.

Tolkien, J.R.R.:  The Silmarillion

This was interesting because it gives the background myths that Tolkien spent years working on and from these ideas came the germination of the idea of the Lord of the Rings.  This is not easy to read because there are many stories loosely linked as a mythology with so many names to keep track of you need a reference to keep them straight.  (Tucker says he couldn’t get into War and Peace because he couldn’t keep track of the names, yet this is one of his favorite works.  Go Figure.  W&P is a piece of cake compared to this.)   However it is interesting and enriches the legend of Middle Earth.  I will probably read it again so that more of the stories “sink in.”  It was definitely worth the effort although most of the stories are tragic.  For me, the geography, which Tolkien always emphasizes, was even more difficult than the names.  I could picture individual places as they were described (loved this part!) but had trouble visualizing the routes to get from one place too another.

Milosz, Czeslaw:  A Book of Luminous Things (An International Anthology of Poetry)

A truly international collection, this book contains wonderful, accessible poems with an emphasis on excellent poets that aren’t household names, although many of my favorite 20th century poets are represented.  Walt Whitman is also well represented and I’m reminded that I must read LEAVES OF GRASS soon (as a challenge book!?).  I was especially pleased with so many entries from ancient Asian (especially Chinese) poets, an area with which I am not as familiar.

The poems are grouped by categories such as People, Places, Travel, etc. and Milosz has an introductory comment on most of them.  I preferred to read the poem before I read the comment so I could compare my reaction to his.   Now that I have read the entire collection, I would like to have 2 copies–one for my guest room bookshelf and one to keep in my night table when I want to find something soothing and lovely to read before falling asleep.

The following example is by one of my favorite poets and reminds me of when I lived in Savannah, Georgia, one of my favorite places. Sometimes I was privileged to see these magnificent birds:

THE KINGFISHER

The Kingfisher rises out of the black wave

like a blue flower, in his beak

he carries a silver leaf, I think this is

the prettiest world-so long as you don’t mind

a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life

that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?

There are more fish than there are leaves

on a thousand trees, and anyway the kingfisher

wasn’t born to think about it, or anything else.

When the wave snaps shut over his blue head, the water

remains water-hunger is the only story

he has ever heard in his life that he could believe.

I don’t say he’s right.  Neither

do I say he’s wrong.  Religiously he swallows the silver leaf

with its broken red river, and with a rough and easy cry

I couldn’t rouse out of my thoughtful body

if my life depended on it, he swings back

over the bright sea to do the same thing, to do it

(as I long to do something, anything) perfectly.

Fadiman, Anne:  At Large and At Small

A second book of essays by the author of Ex Libris, this book is meant to be read slowly and savored.  I managed to do this for a couple of weeks but then I got impatient and “gobbled” the last half of the book in one evening.  However, that gives me the excuse to reread this in the not too distant future. The range of topics is wider in this collection although there are essays that mention books, authors and libraries.  Two of my “favorite things”, ice cream and coffee, each has an essay of its own.  Reading Fadiman is a pleasure, a learning experience (she is full of tidbits of interesting information) and a vocabulary enhancer-be sure to have a dictionary handy!  This was a gift from Tucker and Valerie last Christmas.

Robb, J.D.:  Witness in Death

This is probably my favorite J.D. Robb so far.  I might even read this one again.  It starts with a murder that happens on stage during a performance of Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie.  Eve is at the performance so actually witnesses the crime.  However, in this case the “dead” that she is standing as justice for is actually the villain and a lot of good people get hurt in the process of finding the solution. This was not a simple good against bad story with easy answers; this actually gave the reader a chance to ponder “what is justice.”  Robb also worked in some parallels between the plot of Witness for the Prosecution and her plot that as an Agatha Christie fan I found interesting. I shed a lot of tears in this book and even though I did figure out the perpetrator before the end of the book (as did Eve) I still had a few surprises in the dénouement.  This was a terrific read.

Winspear, Jacqueline:  Pardonable Lies

Another interesting outing for Maisie Dobbs in which her search to find out if the son of a peer of the realm actually died in WWI because his dying wife made him promise to find him as she didn’t believe he was dead.  The father wished it to be proved he was dead.  The search leads her to also find out about the brother of her college friend, Pricilla Everden.  The third Maisie Dobbs book is a well written and historically researched novel which adds to the pleasure of a good story.

Christie, Agatha:  A Pocket Full of Rye

This was an audio edition of an enjoyable Miss Marple mystery, well read.  The patriarch of a dysfunctional family dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances at his place of business.  When he is examined it is discovered that there is a handful of rye grain in his pocket.  As the story unfolds it is discovered that the son who has stayed home to help run the business has had a major rift with his father and the prodigal brother has been invited to return home.  Blackbirds figure in the plot, also.  Even though I didn’t remember the story I’m sure I must have read this many years ago so it’s possible I figured out the villain so early based of half remembered information.  However, there were still some surprises for me at the end and I had a good time using this as a “walking book.”

Saroyan, William:  Essential Saroyan

This is an anthology of some of Saroyan’s best writing.  This year is the centennial of Saroyan’s birth and Fresno, California having been his home there have a flurry of activities celebrating his life and works which includes movies (”The Human Comedy” starring Andy Rooney is one of the best known) as well as novels, short stories and other writings.  Since I now live in this area I was able to take part in some of these events.  I don’t remember ever reading Saroyan before and I really loved this book.  He has a different style-often in his shorter works it’s more like he is talking to the reader rather than trying to write a formal essay or story.  He has a feel for the “common man” (whatever that is supposed to mean-I doubt if Saroyan thought of anyone as “common”).  He also writes with a great deal of humor and frequently with a touch of fantasy.  Often the reader feels that under the humor there is pain.  This book was given to me by my local library for the book discussion they sponsored.  Unfortunately I didn’t get word of the discussion until I had missed two of its meetings.  See the April General Reading section for my discussion of this book. My biggest complaint about this book is that some of the selections are excerpts from longer works and I find it disconcerting not to be able the read the entire work.  I would prefer to have more short stories and let the longer works be published separately.

Bohjalian, Chris:  The Double Bind

This was interesting, with a real twist at the end. Laura Esta Brook is a young social worker who works at a homeless shelter.  She is struggling with the after shock of an attempted rape attack on her when she finds a box of photos taken by a homeless man who has dies.  Many are pictures of celebrities and Laura becomes obsessed with trying to find out why a man who was obviously a successful professional photographer and spent time with celebrities became homeless. I don’t want to reveal much more because part of the fun is how we keep peeling away layers of the story as we read.  I will just say that I was glad I had recently reread The Great Gatsby because it was fascinating how Bohjalian used those characters in this book. I had a few questions at the end–I may have to read it again to see if the answers to my unanswered questions were just too buried for me to catch.  (The photos in the book were actual photos taken by a homeless man that Bohjalian.  You will recognize some of the people in them..  Of course that homeless man was not part of the novel.)

Saroyan, William:  My Name Is Aram

This is a collection of short stories about a young Armenian boy in Fresno, California in the 1930’s named Aram Garoghlanian.  They are deceptively simple and could be easily read by a student in middle school.  However, for the more mature reader there is a quality in Saroyan’s observations about people and about the simple situations he portrays that gives depth to the stories and helps us to a better understanding of humanity.  This book has been described as the Armenian Tom Sawyer, but the humor is gentler and sometimes masks hidden pain.  Saroyan’s love of his fellow man, and his tolerance, shine through these stories as much as in his more sophisticated writing.  He really thought man was basically good.

Frost, Robert: Versed in Country Things

This is a beautiful collection of several lesser known of Frost’s poems combined with wonderful black and white photographs of the New England countryside that Frost portrayed in his poems.  Although no attempt was made to have the photographs illustrate particular poems,  the pictures enhanced the power of the words and were also enjoyable to view on their own.  I purchased this for $1.00 at the friends of the library sale; it is a hardcover in mint condition including the dust jacket.  I couldn’t pass it up!

Hoving, Thomas:  King of the Confessors

Hoving describes his long  process to “win” the ivory cross, the most important medieval object of art so far discovered, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (actually for The Cloisters, the Medieval branch of the Met that is in a separate location).  This was a fascinating account that read almost like a novel-much better than Dan Brown novels.  Not only was the story exciting but the reader is treated to a revealing look at the chicanery that often goes on behind the scenes for a museum to acquire a significant work.  But the “star” of the book was the magnificent cross.  The history of the cross was fascinating and the descriptions let the reader visualize the cross even more clearly than the wonderful photographs at the beginning of the book.  Hoving obviously became very intimate with the object to be able to describe its intricacy in such detail. If you like mystery and suspense with an added bonus of beautiful art this book fits the bill.

April 5-Saturday

Marty asked me to slow down on Silmarillion so he can catch up so I’ll put that on the back burner for awhile.  Hope I don’t forget too much to be able to pick it up again.  It is interesting that Tucker won’t read War and Peace because of the difficulty with all the names of characters and yet can’t understand why Marty and I have trouble with Silmarillion!

We have a meeting at the library on Thursday to discuss Essential Saroyan, a selection of William Saroyan’s best writings. I have about a hundred pages to complete this week’s assignment so that will keep me busy this weekend.   This year is the celebration of Saroyan’s hundredth birthday which is why the Fresno library system is scheduling many events about him.  His writing tends to be quirky but he really captivates the reader with his great love of humanity-all of it in its individual components of one life at a time.  This is one I should read with a notebook at my side to copy down appealing passages.

My two favorite selections so far, “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze” and “Seventy Thousand Assyrians” reminded me of Down and Out in Paris and London as all of these bring to life the lives of the “anonymous poor.”  Although none of these are religious writings (and the authors would probably be appalled if someone suggested they were) they should be appealing to Christians because both writers seem to see humanity as Jesus did-as individuals rather than definable groups.  I got the Saroyan book for free from the library so it is legal to consider it a BC book for this month.  I need to be more aggressive this month because I read only 3 BC books in March which was much less than a third of the quarterly total of 16.

April 10-Thursday

I went to the library book discussion about Essential Saroyan this evening.  I was a Johnny-come-lately because I didn’t realize it was happening until 2 meetings had already taken place.  This was the next to last meeting-the last will be April 24.  I read the entire book this past week because I was enjoying it so much, so I was rather disappointed that so many in the group were not enjoying Saroyan-including Ernst, the librarian.  Saroyan was a quirky writer and leaves much up to the reader as far as trying to figure out what “he means” but that is part of the charm.  It is almost like having a dialogue with the writer as you react to what he says.  Most of the discussion tonight was about “Tracy’s Tiger” which was one of my favorites.  The discussion was pretty lively and some of the teenagers who attended contributed quite a bit.  Ernst didn’t care for the story because there was no definite resolution to whether the tiger was real or imaginary.  Others couldn’t figure out what the “meaning” of either the tiger or the story was.  Surprisingly, one of the teenage boys seemed to like the story as much as I did even though there seems to be no definite answer to many of the questions that were raised.  It’s nice to know that there are still young readers who don’t mind working at their reading and don’t need a definitive answer to what it all means.  Maybe he doesn’t watch much television-where all the answers are revealed in either 30 minutes or an hour!  Thinking about the story in retrospect and as a result of the ideas I got from the discussion, I am struck how much the tone and development of the story reminds me of the novel Going after Cacciato. Both stories leave you wondering about what is real and what isn’t in the story.  I wonder if Tim O’Brien ever read Saroyan?

April 26-Saturday

I spent the day playing with librarything.com instead of reading my book.  But I did have a good time adding comments to some of my entries and submitting a couple of reviews.  Now I just have to find time to finish King of the Confessors and The Silmarillion before the end of the month.

Exploring a book by David Whyte called Crossing the Unknown Sea makes me think maybe I could justify using my time off next week after the recital is over to do the reading.  I need to get that book by Whyte.  I loved The Heart Aroused, the book by him that that I bought and read because our friend and former pastor Lowery recommended it to me. (see comments below)

Whyte, David:  The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America (read 2004; recommended by Lowery Brantley)

David Whyte is a fine writer and this book is a noteworthy contribution to the       literature on how to bring creativity and soul not only into the corporate world, but into each of our lives. The book grew out of work he did as a consultant for many corporations presenting seminars to their personnel to help them become more successful and personally satisfied in their jobs.  In this book he works hard at underscoring the symbolic importance of his literary references to Beowulf, Coleridge and Eliot, among others as he assumes many of his readers might not otherwise be poetically inclined. A Heart Aroused argues very simply that each of us owes it to ourselves to bring courage and passion into our work and into our lives. If we cannot embrace the job with passion, perhaps we are in the wrong job.

I need to reread this book as I face the changes that Jim’s retirement (and mine?) will bring.  How do we make retirement as fulfilling as work?  Another of his books, Crossing the Unknown Sea, is especially recommended for reading when life changing events such as retirement occur.

Desultory “daily” notes:

March 30, 2008

This is the last day of our “tax trip” to Vallejo.  We have had a nice time with Melinda visiting for the weekend.  She lives in Kansas but her older son and his family live in San Ramon which is only about 20 minutes from our Vallejo house so she came over to spend a couple of days with us.  She has lent me the next two Maisie Dobbs books (the series she started me on in February) which I don’t have to return until July-something to look forward to reading and no pressure to read quickly.  I finished the 1^st book in the Julia Spencer-Fleming series, also Melinda’s recommendation, and can look forward to getting the next one from the library after I read a couple more for the Book Challenge.  Melinda also recommended three other books for me to read:

Zigzag by Ben Macintyre, the true story of an MI5 double agent during WWII based on files released by the British a couple of years ago;

Killing Floor by Lee Child, the first in a series of novels about Jack Reacher, a former military policeman who travels incognito solving problems as he meets them-there are 12 books in this series so far, so if I like it I’ll be set for quite a while;  and

Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, a young adult novel about a Maori legend and Maori culture.

I will be examining these sometime soon.  I’m not likely to run out of ideas for reading.  It is nice to have someone to “talk books” with for awhile.

We took Melinda to a new (for us, that is) winery in Napa (which is about 45 minutes from Vallejo) called Hess Collection.  The wine was good and they have a wonderful art gallery that takes up two floors-museum quality modern art.  My favorite artist was Franz Gertsch, especially his woodcut prints.  I also liked Magdalena Abakanowicz, especially her fiber art and Frank Stella.  We’d like to go there with our son  Marty sometime as he, too, really enjoys art museums.

I had hoped to finish Silmarillion this month for the BC but I’m only a little past the halfway point so I guess I’ll have to wait until April to get credit for that.  I also need to read the J.D. Robb book I borrowed from Mary in January.  I did a better job journaling this month but didn’t get as much reading done.  I guess it is a trade-off.  At least I’m caught up with my summaries.

Lorenz, Konrad Z.:  King Solomon’s Ring

I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. -Konrad Lorenz, ethologist, Nobel laureate (1903-1989)

I loved this book-and I think my husband Jim will, too.  He’s reading it now.

Lorenz was an ethologist, one who studies animal behavior especially in its natural habitat.  The variety of animal species with which he had experience was incredible and his obvious fascination with them and even love for them radiated through the entire book.

The following review from Amazon by Carrie Laben of Brooklyn, NY (sorry–I couldn’t make a link) expresses my feelings exactly:

In readable, friendly style, Konrad Lorenz uses illustrations from his everyday life among animals of all kinds to illustrate a variety of fascinating points. The balance between anecdotes and theory is well handled and the book stands out both as education and as entertainment. I find the sections dealing with keeping animals in captivity especially worthwhile - Lorenz explains clearly and concisely why most people feel sorry for captive animals for all the wrong reasons, this section should be required reading for most people who think that they are promoting ‘animal rights’. Highly recommended.

The chapter on buying pets should also be required reading.  He gives meticulous detail about how to care for pets and why exotic pets are only for those knowledgeable enough and who have enough time to care for them properly.

Lorenz does not idealize animals nor try to make them seem more like humans and he pulls no punches in showing how ferocious and dangerous animals can be to each other as well as to man.  But he has great respect and affection for all animals, recognizing their attributes as part of God’s creation (he actually says it in those terms at one point).  After reading this book I will definitely get more out of my animal watching in our backyards at home and in Vallejo.

Bass, Dr. Bill & Jon Jefferson:  Beyond the Body Farm

This is a follow-up to the memoir Death’s Acre I read in 2006.  (see review below) In this second book Bass discusses different cases he has been involved in since he started the “body farm.”  They are all interesting-even the ones that aren’t completely “solved.”  I was especially interested in the woman, Joanna Hughes, who convinced UT to let her design her own major as a forensic artist.  She now uses a sculpture technique with skulls to put faces on unidentified corpses.  She has a remarkable success rate in her so far brief career.  Her case was fascinating as is her procedure.  I also learned a lot about the Buddy Holly plane crash in the story of Bass’s exhumation of the Big Bopper.  Because I am interested in forensic anthropology I found this book enjoyable-and a quick read.

(The following review was written in March 2006. It was the second review I wrote for my new adventure in journaling my reading.  The first review was of the book that encouraged readers to get more from their reading and suggested journaling as one technique to use. I will revisit that book sometime soon since I think it will give me ideas how to improve my blog–although that is not a topic he covered.  Both of these books were bought while I was in Monterrey where Jim had a conference for a week.)

Bass, Dr. Bill & Jon Jefferson:  Death’s Acre

A review in USA Today at the hotel in Monterey put me on to a mystery Carved in Bone: a Body Farm Mystery by Jefferson Bass that sounded like it might be one I would enjoy.  But when I went to the book store it was a $30 hardback that I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay that much for-I’ll try the library first.  However, in the bio blurb I learned that Jefferson Bass is a Pseudonym for these two writers and this was their first book together-a memoir of Bill Bass’s career as a forensic anthropologist who founded the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee to study the decomposition of human corpses in order to be able to more accurately pinpoint the time of death.  The book is fascinating with several case studies in addition to explanations of how a forensic anthropologist does his job. The introduction is written by Patricia Cornwall, author of The Body Farm which I read several years ago (in Savannah) - she based her novel on Dr. Bass’s work and he appears in the book (under a fictitious name, of course).   I started it on our trip and finished the night we got home-2 books in one week-and both non-fiction!  Maybe I will get back into the habit of reading regularly.  (When I got home I did get the mystery from the library.  I was okay but I was glad I hadn’t spent $30!)

(My library finally tracked down a copy of the Jefferson Bass mystery in June of 2006–new books are hard for them to get– and the following is the review I wrote for it.)

Bass, Jefferson:  Carved in Bone

I had a good time reading this book but I don’t think it was quite as good as the review in USA Today which I read in March when we were in Monterrey) indicated it would be.  The forensic detail was fascinating-probably what I enjoyed most about the book.  I also enjoyed the “local color” of the Tennessee area around Knoxville-I wonder if Cooke County exists.  I’m sure there is some county that it very similar to the area they describe but maybe under another name.  The plotting is a little weak; I had most of the mystery solved about half way through. Also for two intelligent men-a forensic anthropologist who has a PhD, is the head of a University department and also devised the Body Farm and his buddy, an upper echelon police detective-the protagonists surely put themselves in too many dangerous situations without having any plans for either escape or back-up.  I found that a little unbelievable-at least tell somebody where you are going!  The two “hillbillies” who always seemed to be there to bail them out were a lot smarter than the “educated” men.  But this is “escapist” literature so I shouldn’t be too critical-it certainly was a lot better story than The Da Vinci Code!  I’m sure there will be another effort from this writing team and I will read it.

Chesterton, G.K.:  The Man Who Was Thursday

A fantastical story with more twists and turns than a labyrinth; this was a great read for the time we were in Monterrey for the wedding (2008). The story is about a man who has been recruited to track down a master criminal-but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  He infiltrates the ranks of the criminal by impersonating the person whose code name was Thursday-hence the title.  I was able to anticipate some of the “surprises” but that in no way diminished my pleasure and the ending  was magnificent-although many reviewers disliked it because it did not neatly tie up all the loose ends.  However, this book was not about answers but questions.  I will definitely reread this one, and next time I’ll read the introduction first to help me get even more of the symbolism.  Chesterton introduces some very profound ideas in this one.  It was a good choice for the BC-one I had been thinking about for years and finally got to–which was the purpose of the Challenge!