Recent Reviews

If you're not already a Harry Potter fan, then you'll probably find Tales of the Beedle Bard by J.K. Rowling unremarkable. It made me want to read her novels again; it didn't compare well. It was a very short, very quick read that fit snuggly in the morality tales genre. It was much lighter than Grimm's Fairytales and more like Han's Christian Anderson's morality tales.

On Pilgrimage by Jennifer Lash details a journey from Caen to Santiago de Compostela conducted by Lash over the course of a couple of weeks. She travels alone, largely, and speaks frankly and lovingly of the places she visits and the people she meets along the way. I liked it, but I did find portions of it to be very wordy and in need of editing in some places; for example, it used some words interchangeably, like paramount and tantamount etc., that were not the best choices. Having not read travel/personal pilgrimage books before, I don't know how it compares, and, I think it would have been easier to follow if I had been more familiar with the places being visited. Also, the mood set by the writer was one of perseverance, but she sounded so tired as she forged on.

I can't begin to explain how much I enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It was marvelous. If you love Rebecca or Jane Eyre, then please pick up The Thirteenth Tale. The only disappointing thing is that the author has published no other books (at least that I can find). It was a wonderful read. "Do you intend to tell me the truth?" one of its characters asks. Is that really the point of a good story?

It was mesmerizing. Finally, a book written by someone who clearly adores books and the written word. The story is dark, but not humorless. I certainly wont be putting this one up to trade on bookmooch.com. I loved it. It had everything that a novel should: it had a good point; it was superbly written; and I can't stop comparing other books to it. I finished it weeks ago, reading at least four other books since then and none of them compare.

A friend of mine kindly gave The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber this book (and others) so that I might have something to entertain myself as I recovered from surgery. The book fits in the complex literery, historical thriller category. I feel like I should have loved it, but I really disliked it. Why? I hated the main character. I just couldn't make myself like him. He was so focused on sex; he was boring beyond belief. I found myself hoping to come upon chapters narrated by other characters. He was an antihero that just cried out for a severe beating. Just kidding--sort of. I raced for the end of it driven not by a desire to find out what would happen as much a desire to finish the damn thing and move on to something else. It's like someone took all the elements that I like--drama, Shakespeare, mystery, plot twists, multiple narrators, book lover, manuscripts, forgers--ate them and vomited them in the form of this book. I so wish that I had like it because one of my dearest friends did and gave it to me, but, regrettably, I did not.

I finished The Courage to Be Rich by Suze Orman and Howard Clark's Big Book of Bargains by guess who? Howard Clark at about the same time. I've watched both of their television shows a handful of times as well. They've mentioned one another and referred to one another as friends and so, at times, I chuckled while reading their books because they are so different. Suze Orman is much more in touch with emotional spending and is more thorough in attempting to get people to prioritize and to come to terms with bad spending/saving habits. I think that Clark Howard’s book is a good one for someone that is already money conscious and is looking for affirmation of their penny pinching ways or is looking for some great tips; though Orman’s book is better for someone who is curious about the world of personal finance. Orman’s book is also a better fit for someone who has had money problems and is looking for a light at the end of the tunnel. I took a couple of notes from Clark’s book but have put it up on bookmooch since it isn’t one that I need to keep for reference, but I’ll be hanging on to Orman’s for a while.

I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge is a quaint, heartwarming story. It’s a brief, beautifully written, lyrical and sentimental Christmas tale about a little orphan girl named Polly who experiences a number of Christmas miracles. It is light handed and well-paced. Also, my version has some simple illustrations by Margot Tomes that, like the story itself, are sort of Dickensian. I enjoyed it and wish that I could find a copy of Goudge’s The Little White Horse to read too. It’s crisp and clean and warm all at once.

Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World--If only it had just been about the library and the cat. The portions of the book that were not directly about Dewey were opressive in tone and, at times, clumsily executed or extraneous. It's a testament to Dewey and Myron's love of Dewey that I liked the book as much as I did. Somtimes we so want our pets to matter to other people, that we try to make others understand how important they are to us by demanding that they feel the same way about them; it can be uncomfortable when someone becomes really insistent that we have to feel the same way about the things they love as they do. Myron tried to make Dewey matter to us in exactly the same way he mattered to her by giving us all sorts of information about herself and her family. Dewey mattered because he was Dewey. The story didn't need anything more than him.

Speechless

I have never really written anything that mattered. And I remain without the words to adequately express the sorrow that is currently burning a hole in the pit of my stomach. Singing with Anne, in her choir, was magical. I have often, since graduating, missed the choir and the people in it; I have never missed it more than I do today having found out that Anne has passed away. We were her choir, no matter what name we took, e.g., St. John's Small Choir, St. John's Choir.

When I read about her passing, through tears of denial, I felt compelled to go back and listen to Rachmaninov's Vespers. While listening to them, it's hard not to realize that Anne had a profound influence over the St. John's musical tradition, as well as each of her choir members. I can't listen to good music without thinking: What would she think of this piece?; Anne would love this; or, I wish we were all still singing together.

It kills me that I can't really remember exactly what we sounded like, but I'll listen to something like the Vespers and moments of memory rise within me. I can feel what it was like more than hear it. We were beautiful because of Anne. She had an amazing ability to select just the right pieces of music, to know exactly what we should sound like, and to pound those pieces into us until we sang them as she had imagined they must be sung. She always maintained a sense of humor with her students and friends, never shying away from laughter or a glass of wine as I recall.

It's been almost ten years since we all started singing together. I've been in multiple choirs since and none compare. Thank you Anne.

Merry Christmas!

Peace on Earth! Have a wonderful day with your friends and family. Praise God our Heavenly King.

Read In Order to Make Room for Other Books

To a Very-Special Friend (Exley Gifts Books, 1997). Short, sweet.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success... (New World Library, 1994). People rave about Depak Chopra, but I just don't see it. This one did not speak to me. If it works for him, then great.

JonBenet: Inside the Murder Investigation (St. Martin's Press, 2000). Not sure what to say about this one. The failures of this particular investigation are good examples of a)why inexperienced officers should not be allowed at murder scenes; b) why written policy of how to investigate doesn't matter if it isn't followed; c) ineffective communication between officers and a DA office; d) how important intuition is to investigation, but that it doesn't mean anything if there isn't evidence to make the case; and e) politics can overcome investigations.

The Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan was really interesting. One of the many things he discusses is the influence of weather on art. It's almost a footnote to the book as a whole, but I found it very interesting to posit that you can measure climate changes by changes in art content, such as the number of winter scenes in certain centuries or the types of clouds that are being painted. We're keeping this one because Bill wants to read it too. It's very well written and though I didn't always agree with all of Fagan's conclusions, I did find it difficult to put this one down.

I also finished Jan Dargatz, 52 Simple Ways.... Of all the Christmas books of this ilk, it's the most helpful one I've read; though, it was repetitive in instances. Every Chapter was supposed to have a different Christmas related suggestion, but, at times, it seemed like suggestions would come in one chapter and then have their own heading later on, having already been mentioned under a different chapter heading. I enjoyed it though and actually took down some notes in my journal on suggestions for Christmas questions to contemplate in Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. I also took down some of the craft/packaging suggestions. For example, Dargatz recommended taking the fronts of of last year's Christmas cards and sending them as postcards in order to save money and paper. That seems pretty cute and clever. I'd recommend borrowing it from the local library, as I am glad I read it, but we don't need to own a copy.

Haunted

I can't begin to explain how much I enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It was marvelous. If you love Rebecca or Jane Eyre, then please pick up The Thirteenth Tale. The only disappointing thing is that the author has published no other books (at least that I can find). It was a wonderful read. "Do you intend to tell me the truth?" one of its characters asks. Is that really the point of a good story?

It was mesmerizing. Finally, a book written by someone who clearly adores books and the written word. The story is dark, but not humorless. I certainly wont be putting this one up to trade on bookmooch.com. I loved it. It had everything that a novel should: it had a good point; it was superbly written; and I can't stop comparing other books to it. I finished it weeks ago, reading at least four other books since then and none of them compare.

Having finished The Haunting by Shirley Jackson shortly after the The Thirteenth Tale, it was a bit of a disappointment. I've enjoyed some of her others stories much more. It wasn't nearly as haunting as I had expected. The old movie was more interesting to me than the book, and don't even bother watching the remake. I'd probably eat blood pudding again rather than watch the remake, and that ended with me gagging, so you can imagine how good the movie was. Also, I don't think I've ever read such a short book with so many semicolons in it; perhaps, the driving test I took when I was sixteen compares.

Everyone raves about Jodi Picoult. She's definitely an accomplished writer, very adept at switching perspectives between characters. She has an identifiable style, but I was left with a who cares kind of feeling when I finished in Plain Truth. It might have been me. That's why I'm going to try one of her other ones.

The Last Duel by Eric Jager was fun. It was sort of like a short survey book of 14th century French culture told by through the rivalry between the Carrouges and the Gris. I was entertained by it, turning pages to see what happened to its characters. It certainly served to illustrate how brutal life can be. It provided some interesting information about what French 14th century culture was like, particularly for women. I found it to be informative, but I wanted more insights. The book wasn't without insights, but it was almost too short; I yearned for more from the author in the way of conclusions. Sometimes after watching a particular movie or book, I sit and think: Damn it. I wish someone else had made this or someone else had written this. I did not think that after finishing The Last Duel, but I did wish that Eric Jager had done something more with the piece. It was very good and I enjoyed it, but I felt like it was missing something--something that Jager could have given it.

Now, Randy Pausch certainly gave his all to the Last Lecture. Much has been written about this. Websites all over the internet have his actual lecture posted in print and pictures. I wont go into the details of it here, because there's no reason to describe it where others have done so quite well. I'll simply say that my mother-in-law left the book here after there last trip in September. She seemed to think it was ok but not wonderful. I liked it. It made me laugh aloud; he preserved who he was in life while confronting horrible circumstances and the scariest thing of all: death. I found it pretty inspirational and I'm going to loan it to my Dad because I think he'll like it too. From it, I took this sound advice...Dream, help others dream, and enjoy the journey of making your dreams and others' dreams come true, because your journey may be both longer and shorter than you think.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves was hilarious. Portions of it were repetitive, but, if you've ever looked at a sign like "Shcool" or "Buckle Up/The Life You Save Could be Your Own Self" and thought "What the #*(RY@#*($?," then this is for you. It revived in me a desire to read punctuation and grammar manuals. Yes, I know they have doctors for this sort of thing.

Anyway, I've been tagged with a book meme, but it isn't an easy one. Posting my answers will have to wait for tomorrow.

New Booty

My mother recently recommended that I read Child of the Sea by Elizabeth Goudge, then very shortly thereafter Kate wrote highly of Goudge. Trying to find any works by Goudge was like trying to buy fine wine in Burger King--nothing, absolutely nothing of hers was in stock/print at B&N. It was disappointing, but I'll continue to look elsewhere. I was able to make the following acquisitions:

Kate Atkinson, Case Histories (Back Bay Books, 2005). Thriller/Family Saga.

Thomas Gallagher, Paddy's Lament (Harcourt Brace, 1987). I was in a history mood. Who doesn't like a little Irish with their History?

Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth (Washington Square Press, 2007). Picoult seems to be extremely prolific, so I thought I'd give one a try.

Justin Pollard and Howard Reid, The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World (Penguin, 2007). Who doesn't like Dido?

Eric Jager, The Last Duel (Broadway, 2005). It was almost difficult to tell whether this should be in the history or the fiction section of the store.

Sheridan Hay, The Secret of Lost Things (Anchor Books, 2008). I like novels about books/bookstores and mysteries. This one appears to have received some what mixed reviews, but I'll just have to make up my own mind.

Thomas Sowell, Affirmative Action Around the World (Yale University Press, 2005). Sowell is a brilliant economist and sociologist. I can't wait to read this one or Race and Culture.

Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots, & Leaves (Gotham, 2006). This book looks absolutely hilarious.

Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Novels Like a Professor (Harper Paperbacks, 2008). I miss St. John's.

Brian Fagan, The Little Ice Age:How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 (Basic Books, 2001). Many actually think we are headed to another Ice Age. I thought I should bone up. Yes, that was meant to be taken in jest, at least partially.

Norman F. Cantor, Antiquity (Harper Perennial, 2004). I'm not sure, given its length, that it can meaningfully cover as much history as it purports to cover, but it looked like a light survey.

Joan Aiken, The Watson's and Emma Watson: Jane Austen's Uncompleted Novel By Joan Aiken (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2008). Don't mess with Jane unless you're up to the task. I like Aiken, but will withhold final approval for now.

Joan Aiken, Jane Fairfax: The Secret Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen's Emma (St. Martin's Griffin, 1997). I love Austen, so I just can't help myself when I spot a possibly good spin off. It strikes fear into my heart that there appears to have been a recent proliferation of Austen spin offs that may fall very short of the mark.

Amy Shuen, Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide (O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2008). This one is my husband's pick.

Tracy Chevalier, The Lady and the Unicorn (Plume, 2004). Art, history, fiction. What more can a woman ask for?

Sarah Waters, Fingersmith (Riverhead Trade, 2002). Some people have drawn comparisons between this book and the Usual Suspects. Yippee!

Rebecca Stott, Ghostwalk (Spiegel & Grau, 2008). Supernatural thriller.

Sally Beauman, Rebecca's Tale (Harper Paperback, 2007). I'll reread Rebecca before reading this one.

Ah. Now I get to sit down and read them. I'm thoroughly enjoying Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale at this time.

Good Reads

Happy Fourth!

I recently finished Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume, Penelope Fitzgerald's Bookshop, Kevin Dwyer and Jure Fiorillo's True Stories of Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit, and Angela Rixon's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cat Breeds.

Jitterbug was titillating. Never having read any of Robbins books before I have to admit I have not been a fan of the contemporary novel. Characters in them often seem bored with themselves and I'm left wondering: "If your character is bored with himself and you sound bored with your character, why should I be interested?" This novel, though, is different. Personally, portions of it were an affront to my sense of morality; yet, I realized "Erleichda, Erleichda" was meant for me too. You'll have to read the book to know what that means. (Robbins doesn't appear to be a fan of Christianity). I am; however, one can't fail to appreciate the completeness of what Robbins creates. It's nice to read something with an actual point of view. His characters operate outside the bounds of morality--that's the point. "The universe does not have laws. It has habits. And habits can be broken." There could be too much of a good thing in reading his novels one after the other, but I will return to Robbins in due time.

I'm not sure that I liked The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. The story feels like it's over before it has begun. The characters are considerately crafted, but what a downer. She artfully recreates the backbiting and constant gossip of a small town where the inhabitants attempt to keep things the same or control all things at all costs. How dare anyone attempt to elevate themselves without their permission? It was very well-written, but I can't say it was enjoyable to read about people behaving horribly.

True Stories was a quick read. Can't say it was incredibly good or bad. It was what it purported to be: summaries of the real crimes that inspired SVU episodes. This one was a gift from my mother in law. Given what I do, I can't say I'm surprised that she thought of me when she came across the book. Plus, we do share a love of SVU and old Law and Order episodes. The book doesn't really provide any substantial insights, but simply provides easy-to-read, brief summaries of the criminals and their crimes.

Angela Rixon's book was quick and cute. Love the kitties.

Short Post

While catching up on work and spending time with friends and family over the last few days, I've finished a Tom Robbins book and am in the process of finishing a Penelope Fitzgerald book. Posts about them shall follow later this week. I wish we had something other than Barnes and Noble in town--maybe a Borders. I truly miss the Tattered Cover (Denver). This next weekend we'll try to do some second-hand book shopping or make it to the Green Valley Book Fair. Nonetheless, here are some of our newest acquisitions from the Barnes:

John Williams, Augustus (First Vintage, 2004). Who doesn't miss the HBO series' Rome.

Tom Robbins, Wild Ducks Flying Backward (Random House, Inc., 2005). I think I liked Jitterbug Perfume, probably. I am, at the very least, interested.

Patricia Hampl, Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime (Harcourt Books, 2006). I'm not fond of art books without pictures. Yes, I know how that sounds. Would you find reading a cookbook without ever trying its recipes fulfilling? This one looks very interesting though, so we'll give it a try.

Angela Rixon, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cat Breeds (Wellfleet Press, 2008). This one was a gift from my Mom. It probably doesn't have much new information in it compared with books on cats that we already possess, but it has some good skeletal drawings and pictures that should help with the Life with Cats series that my husband is working on.

Books!

Newest acquisitions:

Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire (Bantam Book, 1998). One of my favorite books (if not my favorite book) is Thucydides' History of the Pelopennesian War. His description of the Battle of Thermopylae is epic, memorable, and, to this day, brings me to tears. I look forward to this one.

Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (Penguin Books, 2005). Looks warm, peaceful. Can't beat something they bother to make a BBC version of with Judi Dench starring.

Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale (Simon & Schuster, 2006). One of the reviews on the back compares the book to Jane Eyre and Rebecca. I'll take eerie and fascinating any day.

Jon Spence, Becoming Jane Austen (MJF, 2003). Apparently the movie Becoming Jane Austen, used this book and it's author as a consultant in the course of making its movie. I, of course, love all things Jane Austen.

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (Picador, 2004). It purports to reveal the human condition. Keep your fingers crossed.

Mark Helprin, Freddy and Fredericka (Penguin Press, 2005). This one comes highly recommended by Carly. Satire and parody suck if they aren't well executed. Carly assures me that this book does both justly.

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, Steel (Norton, 1999). This one makes it on to many must-read lists.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation (Penguin Books, 2003). History and religion--Oh my.

Patrick Taylor, An Irish Country Doctor (Forge, 2004). The title says it all.

Unread LibraryThing Meme

Consider yourself tagged if you are reading this. When you post your list on your blog, please track back to mine so that I can read your lists too.

The rules:
Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your tbr list.

Jonathan Strange & M. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment*
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights*
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick*
Ulysses
Madame Bovary*
The Odyssey*
Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov*
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies? I think I've read this but am not entirely sure
War and Peace*
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad*
Emma*
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Atlas shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury tales*
The Historian
A portrait of the artist as a young man*
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead*
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein*
The Count of Monte Cristo I have read this, but it was so long ago that I can't count it.
Dracula*
A clockwork orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno*
The Satanic Verses
Sense and sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray*
Mansfield Park*
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse*
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver TwistA long time ago.
Gulliver’s Travels*
Les misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Dune
The Prince*
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
DublinersThe unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter*
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita*
Persuasion*
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye*. I didn't really like it.
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid*
Watership Down*
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit*
In Cold Blood
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Kindling

I read--ok, skimmed--a book while waiting for my husband to finish up at work, and it occurred to me: Thank God for books like these. Else, what would we use as kindling? I am sure that someone somewhere will learn to appreciate this book. It's one that I've put on Book Mooch--have at. Only because it's one that I am trying to off load will I spare naming it here.

Gracian's The Art of Worldly of Wisdom was interesting. I read it (along with the one above) while getting a pedicure and waiting for my husband. It definitely has some gems in it. For example, "...Virtue alone is sufficient unto itself: and it, only, makes a man worth loving life, and in death, remembering."

So, today the fam' spent a day shopping, and, I, as a result, have some new acquisitions:

Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Greatest Hits (Ballantine Books, 1988). With my job, I could use some laughs.

Steve Martin, Born Standing Up (Scribner, 2007). I think he wrote this a long time ago, but I am not sure. This was one of Bill's picks.

Dava Sobel, Longitude (Walker and Company, 2005). If Patrick O'Brian and William F. Buckley like it, then that's good enough for me.

Vanora Bennett, Potrait of an Unknown Woman (Harper, 2007). Historical Fiction has been on my mind recently. Henry VIII's court and the English in general around that time interest me. Note to authors: if you put Sir Thomas More on the covers to your books, I'm at least 50% more likely to buy it than not.

David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper (Ballantine Books, 2001). Historical thriller. Could be horrible. Looked worthy. We shall see.

Martha Cooley, The Archivist (Back Bay, 1999). It's described in one review as valuable and rare. I've liked Byatt's spin on literary detective stories, so I thought I'd try this one.

Mortimer J. Adler, Aristotle for Everybody (Touchstone, 1997). Thank God for used bookstores.

Kelly Jones, The Seventh Unicorn (Berkley, 2005). Art detective story.

Edwin Thomas, The Blighted Cliffs (St. Martin's Press, 2005). Naval adventure.

Matthew Pearl, The Poe Shadow (Random House, 2007). "Thick with intrigue." We shall see.

Charmaine Craig, The Good Men (Riverhead Books, 2002). A historical novel about the Cathar Rebellion. It's probably a lot about the failures of the Catholic Church. I hope it does more than harp on those failures and is, instead, informative about the Cathars.

John Irving, The Cider House Rules (Ballantine Book, 1993). Let's hope it's as good as they say it is.

Alison Jenkins, The Antique Sampler Set (Reader's Digest, 2007). Looks like some good crossstich projects may be in my near future.

Caleb Carr, The Italian Secretary (Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005). I loved the Alienist, which I read nearly 10 years ago; so, keep your fingers crossed, please (I know I will).

Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth (New American Library, 2007). Oprah and I don't generally overlap in our reading selections. I guess I can make one exception.

Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels (Ballantine Books, 2007). One of my favorite (most inspiring) speeches ever is in this book. At some point, I'll post about it.

Finally

Well, it took much longer than expected, but, finally, the vast majority of our books has been entered into LibraryThing (or enough that I feel comfortable changing from a private to a public setting). I'm not going to add all of our music scores, as they would all have to be hand entered and I simply don't have the patience for that. Our library is under Voracious_Reader should anyone be looking for it--see the side bar as well for a direct link to our library. LibraryThing really is terrific for keeping track...especially at 1,665 and counting.

Not Bad

I read She said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall by Misty Bernall yesterday. Cassie's mother's expresses that her daughter's death matters more or at least as much as what lead to her answer of "Yes" at the hands of the Columbine shooters, than that she simply said "Yes."

She makes the case that without faith and parents that happened to find out that their child was in trouble, Cassie could have had a very different, but equally infamous life. The story is of what was--as well as what could have been--for a deeply troubled, but incredibly determined teen.

It is the power of a mother's love that hopes all things, that brings us Cassie's story. Her mother asks "why my daughter?" "My death is not my own, but yours, and its significance depends on what you do with it" she quotes from a Hebrew prayer service for fallen soldiers. What significance does her daughter's death have?

Whether or not the exchange between the gunman and Cassie actually took place, which is apparently debatable, doesn't really matter. We want that exchange to have happened. She's a heroine. For evil to have looked into the face of good, and for good, even in the face of death, to have triumphed is uplifting. Faith does not come easily for Cassie, nor most of us. Yet, in the end, when it was really all that mattered, it did come. She was not alone, and she did not doubt. So, it isn't the truth of the exchange that matters. The significance is the desire within us to answer "Yes."

Much News

I always feel that so much time elapses between posts that I can hardly decide what to write each time. I wont discuss work, as I have done nothing but for a month. In terms of books, our library was recently finished, and I am still busy cataloging all the books. It's not easy, but it is a lot of fun.

On a related note, one of my dearest friends has mentioned being a devoted Book mooch member and I have finally joined as well. It's almost cult-like. I find myself checking to see when my friends last longed onto the site. Creepy? Perhaps. It really is a lot of fun though. There will be a hyperlink or a cloud on the left-hand-side of this blog to get to the site. If you love books, don't always want to keep what you've read, you have access to the Internet and the post office, then this is perfect for you.

Regarding recent reads, my mother-in-law gave us two huge bags of books to read and dispense with however we should chose. Yippee! I wont give a list of the acquisitions here because the books are already tucked away in the library. Most seemed highly readable, some are keepers, and others will make a graceful exit to the Book mooch pile when we've finished with them. Either way, it was really very nice of her to think of us.

On an earlier visit she had brought a pile and in it was Daniel Tammet's Born on a Blue Day. It's an autobiography by a man who has two unusual genetic syndromes: (1) autism and (2) synesthesia. He has a highly functional form of autism called Asperger's with which I am somewhat familiar because one of my friends has the same syndrome. Asperger's manifests itself in a variety of ways, but most people who have it are highly intelligent and lack the ability to develop social skills from the same set of stimulus as others. In short, they tend to be smart and awkward. Synesthesia can mean the ability to see words as colored, numbers have personalities or shapes etc.

Hence, born on a blue day does not mean a rainy day, but that Tammet experiences Wednesdays, the day on which he was born, as blue. It was entertaining and uplifting, but I still get the sense that I don't entirely know him. It's not clear whether that's as a consequence of his syndromes keeping him from adequately expressing himself, that it's my failure as a reader, or, that, in his late twenties, he simply isn't old enough to know himself. He is clearly highly creative and mathematical in the way that he experiences and interprets things. In some ways, he is able to describe the difficulties of his life as concepts and experiences, but not as feelings. I found myself filling in the gaps in emotion with my own. He verges on poetic at times--mostly, as he describes his experiences of synesthesia--and has wrought an inspiring tale. Being entirely unfamiliar with autobiographies, I can draw no comparison. If you like reading about the human mind, I would recommend it.

On an entirely different note. I was entirely ready to call Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl a delicious piece of smut, and, then I realized that that simply wasn't giving it it's just due. It was an exceptionally quick read for being slightly over 700 hundred pages. If you enjoy light historical fiction, I would highly recommend it, having no idea how it compares to the movie, which I've not seen.

It was fun if not entirely historically accurate. I wont go into the deviations from accepted history, as that would ruin aspects of the story. I realized that anyone writing about Henry VIII's wives would find it difficult not to read a little bit like a romance novel at times. Gregory really didn't slip too often into lurid details, and she really gave a good feel for the comings and goings to and from the Tudor Court. In terms of historical drama, I prefer Gulland's ability to craft characters with greater depth and sense of purpose to Gregory's entertaining but weaker narrator and a 21st century perspective that creeps around all four of the book's corner, but I will gladly read another Gregory book.

Friends

My husband and I are having bookshelves built into the walls of our library. It has been so exciting-and a little frustrating if truth were told-to watch as a room, with hundreds of books piled as high as the eight-foot ceiling, has slowly transformed. We are still waiting for the process to be completed; yet, I can feel the books, which have been packed away for over a year, call out to me: Read Us! I can’t wait to put them away, thumbing through the ones I have read and the ones I haven’t and deciding things like, does Spinoza get shelved with religion or philosophy? What a delicious exercise to categorize and reread as I go, and, finally, to be able add them all to Library Thing. I’m doing mental cartwheels if you can’t tell already.

Yet, while I relish the prospect of seeing and putting away our beloved books that have been collected by us over the course of 30 years from library sales, garage sales, dusty, used bookstores where we literally had to hack our way through a film of dust and cobwebs, as gifts, and from a multitude of other places, I found out earlier this week that some of our friends experienced a terrible flood and lost a number of their dearly-loved texts. I’m not sure that anyone could love books more than my husband and I do, but, if anyone could, they’re pretty good candidates. Their loss, but also a wonderful description of their experiences regarding their books can be read at http://littlebookroom.blogspot.com/. If you love books, please visit their blog. The entries regarding the flood made me mourn; they also made me incredibly grateful. I’ve been privileged to fall in love over and over again with books and the characters and ideas therein and to have many wonderful discussions of Great Books (and not so Great Books) with insightful friends. I am hopeful for my friends that they shall not only recover the collection they lost-so that it can be passed on to their son-but that they will continue to delight in reading together and enjoying relationships they have with other booklovers. It doesn’t matter how many texts they have at any given time; they will always be able to pass on their abiding love of reading and writing.

Delays

If you like historical drama or even French history, I would recommend Sandra Gulland's The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Series. It's deftly crafted and certainly made me want to reinvestigate my knowledge concerning the French Revolution and Napoleon's rule. Although Gertrude Himmelfarb's book on philosophy did concern the French Enlightenment, and, therefore, the Revolution, it's emphasis was not on battles, but the history of thought etc. I think I might to follow-up and read a couple of the books Gulland provides in her acknwoledgements section.
Months ago when I finished the Harry Potter series, I thought about writing about it, but I think I'll wait even longer. Not that many are reading this, but I would hate to spoil someone's read. Let's just say that I would continue to argue that there is more to the series than initially mees the eye. It is about good and evil. It does have a religious point-of-view. It is overwhelmingly about love and free will. It provides for a jolly good week of reading too.

Recent Reads

I've been extremely busy with traveling and such and that has actually afforded me substantial time to read but not to post. So here's an update on the latest reads:

Good Omens by Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett--what a good little book. It has definitely inspired me to read more of each author's books. FUNNY! Definitely British humor though.

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion was informative, a little scary, and parts were boring. The author attempted to be scholarly and to keep it historical, as opposed to editorial in focus. I'm not as familiar with pieces about Islam (other than the Koran) and so I don't have much of a basis for comparison with other works, but it probably compares well with other works of the same type.

Orange Trees of Versailles by Annie Pietri was strange. I thought it was a children's book and it's listed as such, but I don't know that it was. At best it would fit in the Brother's Grimm sort of category of children's stories. It was a quick read, but I am not convinced that I enjoyed it. Nice cover illustration though.

The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success was wonderful. It's nice to read a fact-based history of economics and religion that isn't written by someone with a secularist agenda. I so enjoyed it that I bought another book by the same author and am looking for more. It's dense in terms of subject matter, but it makes for a very entertaining and quick read.

The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots was boring. I had a "so-what" response upon finishing it. Plus, I found it very difficult to finish the book. I kept reading and finishing other books before finishing this one. It was thick with information, but I didn't find it at all engaging. I actually felt the book was a little cowardly, safe.

The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments was perfect. I read Gertrude Himmelfarb's The Demoralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values a few years ago, and thought it was extremely thought provoking and well-written. I think the same of The Roads; however, I would recommend becoming familiar with the basics of western philosophy before reading this one. If you're unfamiliar with Kant, Hume, Smith etc...(the list goes on and on), then it would be really difficult to follow or identify with what this author writes.

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield was ok, not wonderful. I felt like the fantasy/philosophy story was well excuted, but I felt like the religious/philosophical stuff was jumbled. It was a little like: let's put some ancient Greek ideas of religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity (and golf) in a pot and see what we cook up. I did like some of the sentiments like God is always with you etc., but I can't quite say I enjoyed it. I also think other books have tried the same sort of thing but have done better. I may retract this later. Maybe I should let the book sit and steep a little.

Green Valley Book Fair

Bill and I went on a spontaneous day trip with friends on Sunday. We went to the Green Valley Book Fair. Bill had never gone before and I haven't gone in years. It was worth the hour-long treck to Mount Crawford. The drive was beautiful and conversation was great. We were able to catch up with old friends and make a new one (I hope). We had a few exciting moments when we had to pull over because an unexpected rain storm made it impossible to see the road. All in all it was a fun day with friends that ended with dinner at Mono Loco and drinks at a local bar.

I couldn't resist temptation, so our acquisitions were as follows:

• Johnathan Swift, A Tale of a Tube and Other Works(Oxford University Press, 1984). I think that many of the stories in this volume were published before Gulliver's Travels, but I'm not sure.



• Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian (Little, Brown and Company, 2005). Challenging royal authority is rarely good for one's health, but it sure can be fun.



• Owen Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read (Penguin Books, 2004). Revolutionary.



• Nancy Geary, Being Mrs. Alcott (Warner Books, 2005). I was feeling a bit stodgy?



• Marisha Pessl, Calamity Physics (Penguin Group, 2006). Now this one is actually one that a friend passed on to me after having finished it. So, after having finished it, I'm sure I'll feel morally compelled to do the same.



• Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing Our Common World (Westview Press, 2001). I wish I were that smart.



• Pope John Paul II, The Way to Christ (Harper Collins, 1984). He seemed like a wonderful person.



• Louisa Thomas Redgrave, The Vineyard (Penguin Books, 2003). Having recently entertained thoughts of starting a business, I thought a reality check was probably in order. Plus, how could one read a book about a vineyard and not drink wine while doing so?



• Mark Helprin, A Dove of the East (Harcourt Brace and Company, 1975). He's a great writer, and I've now gotten word that I must absolutely read his Freddy and Fredericka, his thinly veiled satire of Diana and the Prince.



• Mark Helprin, The Pacific and Other Stories (Penguin Books, 2004). One always have to have a few short story books available for those moments when you can't really set aside enough time to read a whole book.



• John Dunning, The Sign of the Book (Scribner, 2005). I do like a good mystery. Keep your fingers crossed.

I've been in a reading as opposed to a writing mode recently, but I've made a promise to myself to set the necessary time aside to write some reviews.

Oops

I'm a moron.

At some point, Blogger and Google merged (don't ask me what that means exactly), and, as a consequence, I've had difficulty logging into my own account.

On top of that we've been really busy since our wedding. Because I didn't see any of my friends commenting on my blog, I thought posting could wait--nobody's reading it anyway.

Wrong.

I finally got into my account only to be reminded, that last year after having received one too many "Please feel free to purchase our condoms and anal lube at lolawannadoya6969.com," that I had selected to moderate comments before they posted to the blog. As a direct consequence of having forgotten that, I had over 70 comments waiting to be published. Oops.

It shant happen again.

Anyhoo, in four days, I'll be sworn in as an assistant commonwealth's attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yipee! I am very happy about this new job, and the opportunities that come with it.

If anyone had wondered during my hiatus: "Does she have time to read?" The answer is "yes," but I haven't had nearly enough time to read all the things want to (but that's not new). With my new job I believe I'll have more time to read--since I wont be working seven days a week. I've run out and gotten a new bunch of books in preparation (not that I needed more of them).

So, without further ado, this weeks acquisitions:

• Matthew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic:Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World(W.W. Norton & Company, 2006). Hello, my name is Kat, and I'm a Johnny.



• Danny Danziger and John Gillingham, 1215: The Year of the Magna Carta (Simon & Schuster, 2003). Challenging royal authority is rarely good for one's health, but it sure can be fun.



• The Thomas Jefferson Reader (Konecky&Konecky). How could a UVA graduate not have at least one Jefferson book?



• James T. Fisher, Communion of Immigrants: A History of Catholics in America(Oxford University Press, 2002). I don't know. It looked interesting.



• Paul Doherty, Alexander the Great: The Death of God, (Constable and Robinson, LTD., 2004). I'll be imaging the cast of 300 while I read this one.



• Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (Everyman Classic, 1993). I wonder what the differences are between French chivalry and English chivalry? Any takers? I remember your essay on the Knight's tale Peculiar.



• Annie Pietri, Orange Trees of Versailles (Delacorte Press, 2004). What an intriguing cover.



• Philip Zweig, Icons (2004). Bill and I love artbooks. No shocker given his aspirations. But we simply can't afford those big huge art books that cost more than our student loan payments, so this one was a great find. Byzantine art, even when shrunken down to 4" by 8", is breathtaking.



• Elizabeth Cook, Achilles (St. Martin's Press, 2001). It's suprisingly tiny.



• Aline S. Taylor, Isabel of Burguny (Madison Books, 2001). I'm not one who much goes for books that fall into the "women's studies" category, but this one did look good; it also pops up under european history, so I'm willing to take a chance.



• Jean Zimmerman, The Women of the House (Harcourt Books, 2006). I hate it when there are errors on the book jacket, they never bode well for its interior. We'll see.



• C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on tape as read by Michael York. Yes, yes, cheesy I know, but you just want one of your own.



• Benton Rain Patterson, Harold and William (Cooper Sqaure Press, 2001). History!



• Caryl Johnston, Consecrated Venom (Floris Books, 2001). I just finished Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett's Good Omen's--funny, by the way. Caryl's book, same theme, different genre.



• Harold Bloom, Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (Riverhead Books, 2004). Bloom's an odd duck.



• Clare Francis, A Dark Devotion (Macmillan, 1997). I'm on the look out for a new mystery series. Is this the one?



• Philip Larkin, A Girl in Winter (The Overlook Press, 1985).

Congrat's to the recently engaged Richmond couple and to the-ready-to-burst-with-child Charlottesvillian attorney. No, I do not mean me.