words by Annie posted a review of When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park for the WWII reding challenge. Here’s an excerpt:
I loved this book!!! It was very moving and very emotional–happy at times, sad at others. I think this will be a story that stays with me forever, and I can’t say that about many books.
Read her complete thoughts here.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
Brilliant But Organizationally Flawed
I decided to read Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory, in order to better understand what set the stage for a twentieth century replete with totalitarianism, genocide, and economic upheaval leading up to a twenty-first century beginning with an American regime tilting ominously towards some of the worst features of the prior century’s fascistic tendencies.
Blanning attempts to cover European history from the treaty of Westphalia of 1648, which concluded the Thirty Year’s War to 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in roughly 677 pages. Given the plethora of detailed material this task could easily have taken 4 volumes of that number of pages as in fact the Durants did in their Story of Civilization series.
There seems to be no question as to Blanning’s mastery of the material of this period, and I found his writing style more entertaining and readable than that of the Durants’. But I ultimately found the book disappointing for a number of reasons.
First, I believe this work is organizationally flawed. Once Blanning chose to forego employing a linear approach, he clearly needed to contrive a thematic structure within which the massive amount of information about this period could be organized and conveyed in order to optimize the reader’s ability to absorb it. Blanning certainly had many options from which to choose. For example, he might have centered the narrative around the various interrelationships among the historical personalities, including how they came into and out of power, how they attempted to influence each other etc.
The subtitle of the book, “The Five Revolutions That Made Modern Europe 1648 – 1815,” would have, in my view, provided just such an excellent strategy, and in fact I bought this book, and, I expect, others have on the mistaken assumption that this subtitle was descriptive of what the book intended to focus on. Blanning apparently had no such intention in mind. Except for the back cover of the book, where, I assume, it is the marketing editor’s blurb that informs us that the five revolutions referred to in the subtitle are: “scientific, industrial, American, French, and romantic,” nowhere else in the book is there mention of them as a group, or as the defining events of the period, let alone as organizing principles, and without that blurb, I would be hard pressed to name which five revolutions Blanning himself might have been referring to.
Instead, Blanning structures his book around the wholly arbitrary themes: “Life and Death,” which contains material about the development of communications, including transportation, medicine etc, “Power,” including discussion of rulers, reform, and revolution, “Religion and Culture,” including material on gardens and palaces, and a discussion on the dialectic between what he calls “the Culture of Feeling,” and the “Culture of Reason,” and finally, Part Four: “War and Peace,” which is the most linearly written and most compelling narrative. Perhaps he should have used Part Four as the template and filled in the rest of the material in and around that structure.
Except for Part Four, this structure has the effect of providing a conglomeration of facts, events, and characters interspersed in and among the various themes without a coherent context holding them together so that one gets the sense of slogging through details and from time to time asking oneself, who is this person, or that monarch, and who is related to whom, and again, why? I had the sense that it needed one more rewrite to get to the level of coherence I was missing.
This is not to say that there aren’t insightful arguments presented or conclusions drawn. There are many. For example, there is a fascinating discussion on pages 596 – 9, which describes the effects of how the British resolution of their “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, which confirmed that “public finance would be subject to parliamentary control,” contrasted with Louis XIV’s absolute control over public finance in France. This gave the British a huge advantage in their ability to fund their war efforts since, one, the system they devised for revenue income through collection of excise and customs made these taxes invisible and therefore easier to collect, and two, with the formation of the Bank of England, the British government had the ability to finance its national debt much more efficiently and effectively than the French monarchy did. In contrast to the situation in Louis’s seventeenth century France, where tax farmers collected the government’s income, and the monarch himself had to borrow funds on his own credit, in the UK “the money was lent not to the monarch but to the nation, with the nation’s entire landed wealth, represented by Parliament, as the collateral.” p. 596 It is easy to see, given these differences why Great Britain was able to remain economically independent, and how it became a dominant world power at least until 1914.
For the sake of space I will offer only one more complaint: which is: the lack of sufficient material about Turkey. One gathers from repeated references to Turkey that it was an incredibly influential power during this period. Yet, there is precious little here about its internal political development, the history of its ruling elites, or economic situation, let alone the undoubtedly huge influence of Islam on its historical agenda. We only get to know Turkey as the shadow that is casts on Russia, The Holy Roman Empire, The Balkans, Hungary etc., never in its own right. In my view, there is no accounting for this omission.
While I have to say I did profit from the pile of facts, views, and insights that comprise The Pursuit of Glory, I think Blanning would have done us all a bigger favor, if he had given it one more draft worth of work, in which to write the book that his subtitle so compellingly implied it was, an elucidation of what he considers the five (or more) revolutions were during this period, how they inter-related with each other, and how they contributed to what the modern world turned out to be.
Copyright Harry Cock 2006, courtesy Stichting Fotografie Noorderlicht
Omstreken (Environs) is the title for the twenty-five year retrospective of Dutch photojournalist Harry Cock. The Dutch word is used to indicate the area and localities that are surrounding you, a fitting description of the territory for Cock’s focus. Similar to Gunmar Smoliansky who photographed his local Swedish surroundings for the majority of his photographic career, Cock has been primarily interested in the everyday of his local Northern Netherlands region.
Cock’s day job is photojournalist for magazines and newspapers in The Netherlands, but he maintains an eye for the normal, especially in his own rural agricultural region. I share this description of Cock’s body of work by the publisher;
The ways in which people try to keep their bearings in changing situations is a recurrent theme in Cock’s work. What is striking about this is his often nimble, humorous approach. Certainly when he turns his camera on the ups and downs of (and in) the urbanizing landscape, his visual language is extremely recognizable. In both black and white and color he has an almost poetic eye for the small things in life…. Collectively they offer an overview of Cock’s development as a photographer, and, sometimes in the background, sometimes in the foreground, they also reflect something of the changes that have taken place in Dutch society over the course of time.
Cock is a photographer-flaneur of the Northern Dutch landscape, observing the subtle social and environmental changes of this rural region which have slowly become more urban over time. His Photographs are amusing, wry, humorous, poignant, and subjective. He captures the Dutch foggy landscapes, mysterious and looming, yet documents that in the midst of this calm beauty, everyday life still continues on.
There is a calmness in his photographs, the capture of the normal day-to-day activities that can become invisible and taken for granted, which he extracts to reveal our humanity. There are the Henri Cartier-Bresson moments of the children playing in the shed, hide and seek or the moment before setting a boat to sail the adjacent and seemingly ever-present waterways. He is a sensitive witness who captures the small details of life.
Even though he is a subjective photographer-flaneur, I am bothered by a retrospective that does not place the photographs in some chronological order. Thus it can be difficult to notice his transition to include color occurred in 2001 and how his vision may have changed over time. I realize that the pairing and sequencing of the images are provided a stronger emphasis, consistent with the design of Smoliansky’s book, that the photographs of a flaneur is about the singular images, randomly found and captured.
Since this is my nick-picking section, I will add that I am less of a fan of the small and diminutive images with large margins within an already small book. These small images are difficult to see the details, lessen the impact of the image and dilutes the image, a disservice to the photographer.
Cock sees his environment like an outsider might. A yellow caterpillar tractor sitting on a sea of white rocks has become an unusual garden decoration. An artist is sitting alone in a field patiently drawing a dairy cow, while even the cow appears to be amused by the situation. What appears to be a judging panel of sitting men, with the lone man who is interacting with the photograph is bathed in a shaft of white light, while in the background stands a row of plastic cows. A building has plastic cows grazing on its well manicured lawn, as though they should be real.
He has a respect for work and labor, showing with dignity those who labor on the farms and in the fields to harvest the crops. Straight forward portraits of those who work the fields, bail the hay and straw, dig the holes, watch over the cows, drive the tractors and trucks, trim the hedge atop the tractor’s roof, or enjoy a night singing songs together. He notices the humor of a man kneeling and vacuuming the rock garden in front of probably his home, or an older man on a rider-mower, massive over-kill, mowing in a tight circle due to the small size of his yard.
But Cock reveals that he is urban enough to recognize the composition of canvas, rope, wood and a tire intended as counterbalance takes on the appearance of Robert Rauschenberg collage painting. Likewise with a small patio with a ladder balanced on the roof and the hose snaking around and the flatness of the remaining composition of constructed rectangles in contrast to the organic soft shapes of the background trees. What you might expect of a museum composition, with a sea of varying textures, range of grays, with repeating patterns of the floor, walls, roofs. A tree towering over a hedge creates a resemblance to Beth Dow’s and Eugene Atget’s gardens.
The essays are in Dutch by Eddie Marsman and Marcel Moring. An accompanying English translation, even as an insert, might benefit Cock’s work and provide a larger international audience for this body of work. From what I can understand, Marsman appears to discuss the development of Cock’s photographic work, while Moring appears to discuss how the work is in essence a self-portrait of the artist.
By Douglas Stockdale
I have always been proud of my country, but this book made me ask questions to myself, what is it that I am really proud of? Is it the beauty of the landscapes in India or the hatred among the citizens of one country?
There are 5-6 stories going on at the same time in the entire book, still she managed to tell it all in just 234 pages. All the stories are so well written that there could be a separate novel written for ech of those stories.
As Salman Rushdie says, Kiran Desai is a terrific writer! Three cheers to the girl who penned down this amazing novel. She very well deserved the Man Booker Prize for it.
Tomato Rhapsody: A Fable of Love, Lust & Forbidden Fruit
By Adam Schell
Published June 23, 2009
Delacorte Press
352 pp.
ISBN 0-385-34333-7
Reviewed December 29, 2009
With 2009 coming to a close, the book journalism world is awash in lists of the best titles of not only the last year but the last decade. The lists vary in terms of depth and focus, and the majority have selected some genuinely good titles, but nevertheless it feels like something’s missing. Words like “sublime” and “captivating,” “nuanced” and “illuminating” are all being tossed around regularly, but the one word that seems to be missing on the majority of these lists is “fun.”
Now I would never insist that literature try to avoid these heavier adjectives – being the aspiring alpha male of the literary criticism world that I am – but I do feel that too often literature is in the position of bringing people down. Sprawling character studies and painful memoirs have their place, but sometimes one wants to sit down with a book and feel good rather than insightful, pleasantly satisfied rather than enlightened. And this year, “Tomato Rhapsody” by Adam Schell was a book that provided that feeling in spades, an appetizing and ultimately joyful novel to brighten up a frequently dark field.
“Tomato Rhapsody” takes place in 16th century Tuscany, where where its titular fruit is limited to one farm where it is grown by a young Jewish farmer named Davido and his grandfather Nonno. When a papal decree of free trade and allows them to bring their produce to the village, it brings them into contact with the village’s unique inhabitants: an almost mystical priest, a restless duke, a conniving orchard owner, his beautiful stepdaughter Mari and a drunken puppeteer to name a few. The events that follow generate a great deal of wine and partying, luck that leads to love and recipes which will shape the country forever.
Stylistically, “Rhapsody” is very similar to a Shakespearean comedy, broken up into three parts and involving a series of interwoven plot threads such as star-crossed lovers, clever servants and comic foils. Lively discussion in taverns and festivals is prevalent, as are the occasional comedy of errors and nobles “slumming” with the common folk for a change of pace. Don’t expect iambic pentameter though, or any other kind of formality: Schell’s is a writing style that goes around in many occasions, prone to asides and comments to the reader on Italian drama tradition.
It’s in the dialogue that the Shakespearean influence is much clearer. The majority of the peasants speak in rimatori, an “aabbcc” rhyming style that lends a singsong cadence to the book’s conversations. It could easily be forced but Schell handles the writing more than competently and in many occasions often veers into bawdy limerick territory, discussing the ravages of syphilis or the arousal of a donkey. The speech is quirky without ever being grating, particularly if you have a strong tolerance for dirty jokes.
And for those who don’t have a taste for dirty jokes, the book’s culinary obsession will more than make up for it. Fittingly for a book that deals so heavily with food – gardens, orchards and markets are the main settings, and food analogies regularly describe the main characters – much of the inner dialogue and conversation is devoted to recipes. Be it the Good Padre’s fried eggplant with mint pesto, Mari’s technique for curing black olives or simply the contemplation of a tomato on the vine, “Rhapsody” quickly makes the mouth water. This is a book that demands you have a small carton of cherry tomatoes on hand to pop between your teeth as you turn pages, or be sitting in a restaurant that serves big plates of bruschetta.
And in its culinary focus, “Rhapsody” manages to once again prove the old adage that the quickest way to the heart is through the stomach. Emotions regularly run high in the book, be they the ebullient joy of the Drunken Saint festivals, debate over letting the Jewish farmers into the village or the growing romance between Davido and Mari. Much like the tomatoes and olives that drive the plot along, this is a story that is full of life and joy – chaotic to be sure, but undeniably alive.
While “Tomato Rhapsody” is certainly far from perfect – the ending scenes of each act go a bit too long, and only a couple members of the cast have any depth beyond stock characters – its flaws are masked under a seasoned sauce of energy and humor. It would be hard to see it fitting into the more prestigious “best of 2009” lists, but if you let it take you in you’ll feel better after finishing it than most of the year’s releases – and still have the energy to head down to the local Italian place for an early supper.
Mel U from The Reading Life read Adventures of a Child of War by Lin Acacio-Flores for the WWII reading challenge. Here’s an excerpt from his review:
Adventures of a Child of War by Lin Acacio-Flores (2002-144 pages) is a very well written, simply and straightforwardly told story of the experiences of a young middle class boy growing up in Manila during the period of the Japanese occupation. (The years covered are 1940 up to 1947.)
Read the rest of the review here.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
Lorri from Jew Wishes read Kahn & Engelmann by Hans Eichner, which counts toward the WWII reading challenge. Here’s a little of what she had to say about the book:
If you are looking to read a novel that encompasses decades of Jewish life leading up to World War II, and post World War II, then Kahn & Engelmann by Hans Eichner is the book for you! Eichner has masterfully written a story that is based in part on his own family, and their experiences as Jews in Vienna. More than that, Kahn & Engelmann is a tribute to all of the Jews of Vienna who had to leave their homes, leave their country, in 1938, because of the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. This novel is a compelling saga.
Read the full review here.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
This is the last Sunday Salon of 2009, and it’s got me thinking about how things has gone this year, as well as what I want to do next year. For one thing, in looking back at all the books I’ve read this year (76 as of right now), it seems like it’s been a LOOOONG year, lol. AND I started the year late, finishing my first book, Bedlam, Bath and Beyond by J.D. Warren on February 10. I also took a detour into the land of Azeroth, discovering the world of MMORPG (the acronym for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”) when I decided to check out what all the WoW fuss was. And while I still enjoy playing, I’ve gotten over it as such an obsessive distraction. Recently, a friend of mine tried to get me into another game like World of Warcraft (or WoW is like it, since it was first) called Guild Wars, but I didn’t really dig it. I also gave Warhammer a try, and was unimpressed by it, as well. Books just beat any other medium of escape!
This past year I’ve read a variety of genres from sci-fi like Freedom’s Landing, Dune and Dune Messiah (not yet reviewed) to classics such as Silas Marner, Emma, and Northanger Abbey (not yet reviewed). I’ve read horror, like Heart-Shaped Box, children’s books, like The Tutu Ballet, and serial books like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6 of the Harry Potter series), Marked (Book 1 of The House of Night series), and Brisingr (Book 3 of The Inheritance Cycle). I’ve read books that have been made into movies, sometimes for the better, like Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, and Confessions of a Shopoholic. I didn’t limit myself to fiction, either, and read The World Without Us, The Stettheimer Dollhouse, and An Inconvenient Book (not yet reviewed) and read poetry and plays like Dr. Faustus and Custard and Company, too.
For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read this year and it’s hard to pick favorites. But I shall try! The following are my stars of 2009 (in no particular order):1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ~ My all-time favorite book, I fell in love with the story and Zusak’s writing style. I hope to give his other books a read as well someday. After finishing this book, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t start another book for awhile. I still find myself thinking about the beauty of the writing, the characters, and I want to reread it sometime soon.
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ~ First off, I love dystopic books, it’s probably my favorite genre. My definition of dystopia is: Someone’s Utopia is another’s HELL. I’ve been thinking a lot about this book lately, as I look at pictures I’ve taken of my 16-year-old this year. In every one she’s got her mp3 player going in her ears. At one point in time this year, all four of us were sitting in the same room, all of us listening to our own little soundtracks of our own lives. We were all in huggable difference, and yet we were in different universes. All I could think about were the seashells that Montag’s wife wore in her ears. It was a disturbing and surreal moment.
3. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen ~ This book was vivid and well-researched, and it made me feel the magic of going to a circus as a child for the first time. It had intrigue, romance, and the Great Depression. The moving back and forth from the present Jacob Jankowski (who was 92, or 93, or 94.. he couldn’t even remember anymore) to the young Jacob who walked away from his vet finals after the death of his parents, becoming the vet for the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen ~ I recently finished this one, but in my rush to reach my goal of 75 books I’ve put off writing a review. Hopefully I’ll get to it this coming week, but it’ll probably not happened until after the kids get back to school in the new year. Northanger Abbey is my FAVORITE Austen book. It’s witty and fun and Austen uses it as a great vehicle for arguing the criticisms of her day. Reading this book was like watching myself as a teen. I was soOOo Catherine Morland! Dreamy, romantic who read way too many books and had no grasp of how the real world worked.
5. Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper ~ Probably the book with the longest full title I’ve read: Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat. This is my pimping-book for the year, meaning it’s the book I’ve been telling EVERYONE I see to read. In addition to mad reco’s, I gave away copies as Christmas presents. It’s such an inspirational and heart-warming story that I just can’t stop talking about it. I know I’ll reread this one again and again 
So, what are my plans for the New Year? Well… I don’t really want to say I’ve made RESOLUTIONS because they never really work. I’ve been thinking in terms of REALIGNMENTS. I’ve gotten a bit lazy or distracted about things and have gone a bit off mark from where I wanted to go at the beginning of this year. So, here’s what I’m wanting to do as we begin 2010:
1. Um… I really need to do some house cleaning. Bad. I keep waiting for Miss Niecy to show up, lol, but I don’t think she’s coming. Honestly, with all my online game-playing (WoW and facebook games being the main offenders) in the last few months, the laundry has piled up as have the dishes, and it’s starting to look like we have a dirt floor in the kitchen. So, that’s first on my list of what I need to get done.
2. I need to get back to cooking dinners. Again, I’ve been lazy about not wanting to stop playing the games, and Domino’s has become #1 on my speed dial. My kids are probably the only ones in the world that have said “Please, no more pizza! I’m sick of pizza!” And no, frozen dinners don’t count as “cooking more”… lol.
3. Get back to blogging regularly. I’ve been bad about writing meme posts (which I enjoy) and writing reviews (which is sometimes a bit of work, but I also enjoy), mostly because *cough* it’d require me to get off the game and write them. Yeah… like I said, I’ve been bad about the games here lately.
4. Try to take things in balance. I have a bad habit of going “all one thing at the expense of everything else”. When I’m reading, that’s all I’m doing. That’s how I’ve managed to read almost 20 books in a little over a month. It’s pretty much all I’ve done. When I was playing WoW, that was all I did, too. All day, every day… sometimes for more than 24 hours straight. I just don’t seem to know how to do moderation.
5. Get through all my ARC-alanche pile. Period. Some of them have been on this pile for almost 2 years now. I still have Stealing Athena, The Aviary Gate, Zoe’s Tale, and The Good Thief on it. SOME are now available in AUDIOBOOK FORM. I really need to focus on getting these books done. I have FIVE LibraryThing Early Reader books to read, including Any Given Doomsday which I received back in February.
So, how about you? Any resolutions? What do you hope to do in the year to come?Mags and I love watching Style Network’s Clean House (the ones with Niecy Nash… not the other lady) and we love to veg in my bed together and watch marathons of the show. Miss Niecy is lovely and hilarious, and after a few shows we can’t help but walk around doing Miss Niecy impressions… lol. But, of course, it’s never as good as the original 
A Facebook friend told me about this book and mentioned that I might enjoy it – so I contacted the author and got a copy of the book.
I may be very open minded about sex – but I am concerned about teens and the things they are bombarded with every day. I may sound old – but I remember when kids, could be kids. They weren’t flooded with sexual messages everywhere they looked.
Sure there was sex in the music, the movies etc – but not like it is now. And, we had to get creative to send sexy and suggestive messages. As an example, when I was a teenager, our parents insisted that my boyfriend and I were “forbidden” to see each other and to even talk most of the time. So, we worked out a system where a friend of his brought me messages. It worked beautifully.
These days teens have email, chatrooms, instant messaging, cell phones, text messages, social networks and so many other options. But we have all heard of the things that can happen with these technological advances. It seems to me that few teens have the chance to be teens - they are pushed into adult situations by the media, their peers and many other things.
So – how do young people handle this “hyper” sexual culture? I think parents, other teens and anyone else who cares about teens need to read this book. It contains personal experiences from a wide variety of teens in their own words. This book contains the good, the bad and the ugly about this “easy access culture”.
Shannon T Boodram – accepted pieces written by a variety of young people about their experiences with sex in their teens. Some are narratives and some are poems – but they all tell very personal stories to share their experiences.
Chapter 1 – Hookups That Fell Down (about hookups)
Chapter 2 – And Then I Saw Stars (about positive sexual experiences)
Chapter 3 – Haven’t Been Quite Right Since That Night…. (about physical consequences)
Chapter 4 – When No! Loses All Meaning (about date rape)
Chapter 5 – Save Your Cherry… or Banana (about abstinence)
Each of these chapters is broken up into several different sections. There is an introduction, a list of possible questions and answers about the chapter content, and a list of questions to ask yourself about the information in the chapters.
This book needed to be written. In case anyone has any doubts – times have changed for everyone, but times have changed much more for teens and we need to understand what they are facing and what they are doing to help teens that we care about.
I highly recommend this book – the insights are very revealing and often disturbing. I’ll also warn you that reading this book will bring back memories for each of us – that first kiss, that first sexual experience, yearning for someone when we weren’t sure if we were ready for sex, having sex and then realizing it wasn’t right for us, learning from our mistakes and our triumphs and much more.
How the Hula Girl Sings is Joe Meno’s second novel, and it reads like an author who is beginning to get his legs about him in terms of style, tropes, and characters. There are flashes of what we see in later novels—experimentation with genre fiction, a blend of real and mystical imagery, and lovable characters who drive the action of the story.
This novel focuses on Luce Lemay and his return to the small town where, three years ago, he accidentally hit a baby carriage after robbing his boss in order to elope with a girl who had lied to him about being pregnant. It was the culmination of bad luck and bad decisions, tragic in any number of ways.
Meno uses Lemay’s story to begin an examination on problems like guilt and what individuals must do to come clean not only with themselves but with the people they hope to reintegrate with. While Luce reaches the point of making peace with himself, small-town Illinois never really does. Lemay concludes, “When it came down to it, it wasn’t about the things we had done, it wasn’t about the crimes we had laid with our own hands, it wasn’t even about us, it came down to what kind of men believed they had the right to lay judgment.”
Meno also tries to consider why some are lucky and some are tormented, especially in the novel’s final, poetic paragraph:
“There was no difference between a saint and a sinner in the skin, it all came from the sweet blood within. It all came from the tender truth hidden deep inside. The difference between the two was a think, wavering gentle line…Maybe it isn’t exactly clear how your heart beats, good or evil, dishonest or sweet, until it’s your time all alone in the dark, listening to the quiet whisper of your own lonely heart, the empty thump of your own fears shivering like an old kettle drum, bent and rusted and warped all wrong, or the distant murmur of all your hope, the lonely lullaby of a hula girl’s song.”
That gives a good sample of Meno’s phrasing and pacing, his ability to make something like Clutch’s (the gas station owner) tattoo into a larger symbol of hope.
The other images he works with in the book are arresting in the way that I tend to think of Southern literature and its violent tradition: the bird’s eyes that Junior tucked away in the wall, the birds in pink sweaters the hotel owner saves, the corn queen having snow cone debris raining down on her from an exploded machine, and then the man with no feet having his face burned on a gas stove. They are startling and each builds a character or characterizes the town and world that built a man like Luce. In the end, the town judges itself when it judges Luce, and maybe that’s why they show no mercy.
In terms of style, Meno is very concrete in this novel, the way rural writers tend to be as they re-create a hard world. But Meno blends his humor as well. After Lemay encounters Charlene’s fiancé, he says, “Losing that molar over a girl who wouldn’t even spare me a kiss made me feel like the imperial king of all fools.” Then later Meno is able to shift to a more metaphorical level without losing the immediacy he already established. In Lemay’s room is a picture of Mary. “The virgin’s breath revealed a hole in a dark-lit soul.” Or later still Meno gives us the line “Nothing had been there all along.” His short stories Demons in the Spring explore these boundaries more fully, but he’s hinting at it here.
As far as style goes, in this novel Meno writes reminiscent of Keith Lee Morris and The Dart League King in its empathetic style and voice.
In an interview on Bookslut Meno acknowledges that he re-edited this book when it was re-issued in 2005 to cut “like 20 percent of the book,” mainly what he called “lots and lots of repetition.”
It worked. The novel is slim, fast, and focused. It’s also in memory of Johnny Cash with an epigram from “Folsom Prison Blues.” Cash would have fit in with Lemay and Junior, a mixture of bad luck and bad choices seeking redemption from a crooked past. And as Hula Girl closes we get the sense that Luce is ready to finally walk the line.
Other books by Joe Meno:
I admit it – I’m a cookbook junkie! I love reading through cookbooks of all kinds. I can actually fool myself into believing that I will cook or bake some of the recipes found inside, too. Well, once in awhile I have the time to do that. Here are a couple of my very favorite cookbooks:
Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead
This book is great for busy moms on the run. Having a meal or 2 in the freezer is so very nice for those nights when your family is running in 10 different directions. There is a second edition, as well, and I cannot WAIT to try the eggroll recipe in that one – they sound fabulous!
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
I also love this bread book. I have made the basic white bread recipe more times than I can count, and it turns out amazing everytime. My kids love it, too. There is nothing like crusty, fresh bread with a bowl of steaming soup to warm up a cold winter evening.
What are your favorite cookbooks? Feel free to share them here – I may just find a new favorite!
Mark Batterson is right. Christianity needs a new reformation and he is on the right track telling us how to accomplish it. I don’t necessarily agree with every part of his theology, but that’s the point: I don’t have to. The things that we have in common are greater than the things we disagree about. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, making disciples is the goal of fulfilling the Great Commission, and all of the law and the prophets can be summed up in the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
It is through the Great Commandment that we will see reformation in our lifetimes, as we return to the things that are of first importance to disciples of Jesus Christ. Things like love, compassion, and a humble reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who desires to grow in their faith and live out the Christian life, in deeds and not just words. I pray that people would look beyond their distinctive denominations and see the truth that is written so clearly in this book. I pray that you allow the truth found on these pages to reignite the fire in your soul that can only come from being alive in the Holy Spirit.
This book is part of the series The New Critical Idiom edited by John Drakakis. It is written by Laurence Coupe who is a Senior Lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University. Myth was written with the students of literature in mind. It gives them a comprehensive overview of the development of myth, showing how mythic themes, structures and symbols persist in literature and entertainment today. This book shows the relation between myth, culture and literature, it explores uses made of the term “myth” within the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, cultural studies, feminism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis, it discusses the association between modernism, postmodernism, myth and history, it familiarizes the student with themes such as the dying god, the quest of the Grail, the relation between chaos and cosmos, and the vision of the end of time. And finally demonstrates the growing importance of the green dimension of myth.
The introduction of the book is trying to establish a definition of myth that will take us forward into the book. The author starts by giving simple examples of how the myth is seen from different angles by different people. In literary and cultural studies myth is usually used as a synonym of ideology for example when we say “the myth of progress” or “the myth of the free individual”. In the entertainment world it is used as a synonym for fantasy. In either case the meaning is illusion. Then the author gives us four stories that define different types of myths, fertility myths, creation myths, deliverance myths, and hero myths. These are not the only types but they are the most seen in mythology. The author believes that mythology is an important element of literature and that literature is a means to extend mythology. The author decided to use the approach outlined by the theologian Don Cupitt to define myth. Don Cupitt considers that there are so many conflicting definitions of myth because each theorists takes one sort of myth and makes it the center of his studies that it is better to list a number of “typical features” and then act on the assumption that a narrative is mythic if it has most but not necessarily all of these features.
Part one is about reading myths.The author uses as his vehicle the film by Coppola Apocalypse Now. Through it we discuss the work of Frazer, T.S. Eliot and his “mythical Method”, Edgell Rickword’s mythopoeic program and Mircea Eliade’s work. Chapter one focuses on the fertility myth and Frazer’s work on it. Chapter two focuses on the creation myth and Mircea Eliade’s work on the subject and in chapter three the myth of deliverance is discussed and through out all three chapters the hero myth is discussed in relation to the material. All this is done with an eye on the literary and cultural texts and contexts.
Mythic reading is the subject of part two. Chapter four talks about two kinds of mythic reading: allegory, which is identified as realist; and typology, which is identified as non-realist. Chapter five and the subsequent chapters talk about the theories of the past and present. The people whose works are discussed are Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Claude Lévi-Strauss in Chapter five; Ronald Barthes, Northrop Frye, Fredric Jameson and Marina Warner in Chapter six; Gary Snyder, James Lovelock, Theodore Roszak and Michel Serres in Chapter seven.
I really loved this book and enjoyed the examination of three types of myths in relation to the movie Apocalypse Now. I also very much enjoyed the easy explanation of the theories of myth in part two of the book. I think what makes it really good is the fact that it uses examples from works we have all read or seen at some point or another in our lives. It keeps the book fresh and makes the thought process very easy on the student (or in my case reader). It also brings about the conclusion that with the loss of myth we lose our environment, and that if the natural world is not alive (as is portrayed in myths) then it is a “wasteland”. Another idea that came across loud and clear was how to read myths and how to be a mythic reader. It is all in how your “see” the myth and from what point of view. A wonderful book indeed!
Living in English recently reviewed The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald for the WWII Challenge. Here’s an excerpt:
Sebald doesn’t do much explaining, but rather shares the fragments, facts he has gathered. The remainder you have to guess, you have to sense yourself and build the whole picture from the fragments. Photos of people, places, buildings which accompany the text help you in this process of perceiving the era. I guess, knowing the Europe’s history would help reading this book.
Here’s a link to the full review.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
To church this evening for carols by candlelight. Nothing can replace singing the traditional carols with the descant on the last verse or that funny shifting-about thing the organ does when everyone sings together. What’s that called? You all sing in unison and the organ does a weird thing of its own. We did them all: Once in Royal – the traditional choirboy on the first verse replaced by two teenage girls (Mark: “What’s a descant?” Me: “Duh!”); Hark the Herald, the First Nowell (I nearly wrote “The First Newell” which would have been a member of my grandfather’s family some generations ago), While Shepherds Washed – sorry, watched: and of course, Come all Ye Faithful with the descanty and organ-doing-its-own-thing bits. Grand. On Tuesday there is Beer and Carols at a local pub but I don’t think I’ll go as I’m off alcohol.
I am lending someone “A Suitable Boy” for a trip to India. Ideal reading! If you haven’t read it, do so immediately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Suitable_Boy
What do you want for xmas? I want a new house.
It occurs to me that we haven’t heard from Ladimir and Oestrogen for a long time. I’ll try and find out what they’re up to.
TTFN
PS If it seems like I’m blogging a lot lately, it’s because I’ve broken up for Xmas and will not be doing any more serious writing till the New Year.
Kathy from Bermudaonion’s Weblog read A Teenager in Hitler’s Death Camps by Benny Grunfeld (with Magnus Henrekson and Olle Hager) for the WWII reading challenge. Here’s an excerpt from her review:
I’ve read several other stories of surviving the atrocities of the concentration camps, but I don’t think I’ve ever read one told from a teenager’s perspective. This book is gut wrenching and heartbreaking. As I read it I couldn’t help but wonder how individuals can be so cruel to other human beings. I also wondered how young people could survive these camps and go on to live “normal” lives. Of course, Benny tells of several events that occurred that still haunt him to this day. This book is geared to middle school and high school students, but it affected me deeply – moving me to tears on more than one occasion.
Read the complete review here.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
I just came across a website that looks really interesting for getting suggestions on good books to read. It is called Flashlight Worthy — their tagline is “Handpicked book recommendations on hundreds of topics”. Here’s what they say about themselves:
Amazon sells every book in print, but the choice can be overwhelming. Flashlight Worthy is here to help:
Flashlight Worthy is nothing but thoughtful, hand-picked recommendations…
Organized into hundreds of useful, interesting, fun lists…
And all we do is books.
Currently they have 53 different categories, 331 unique lists, and 4.532 great books for you to peruse. They also say they welcome YOUR ideas and contributions with regard to new lists. So have a look; your next fantastic read may be just a click away!
Another book read by Serena for the WWII reading challenge was Toni Warner Shepard’s Now Silence.
Here’s an excerpt from her review on Savvy Verse & Wit (click to read the full review):
Overall, readers will enjoy what they learn about the Pacific front and the characters are well-developed, even if Phyllis is a bit tough to take most of the time. While readers may find there is too much detail about Phyllis’s earlier exploits and some of the sections about the WWII events are told rather than shown, Now Silence sheds light on the Pacific Front of World War II from Americans on both sides of the ocean.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
“Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts” was written by Laura Benedict, a resident of Southern Illinois. The 2008 novel centers on three women who have been best friends since childhood: Roxanne, Del and Alice. The story shifts between a few years when they went to a Cincinnati Catholic school and the present-day.
The reader is introduced to the girls as they play at a ritual that’s supposed to conjure a man who will be their “boyfriend.” The spell is led by Roxanne, the manipulative leader of the group. Alice is the neediest of the group, and she succumbs to enduring the humiliation of being the “sacrifice.” Things go awry, but Alice claims to have seen the being they called up. Their games become more dangerous as they get older.
Their story is one of secrets and lies. The girls have a secret they share about the lies they told concerning a terrible incident they caused. They ruined someone’s life many years ago, and they realize that their actions also came with a price for them.
The girls have grown up, though they all still live in Cincinnati. Roxanne is a successful artist. Del married a widower who has a young daughter. Alice married Thad, and their marriage is disintegrating due in part to her inability to conceive. The friends’ lives took different paths, but they remain close.
Benedict builds suspense with the careful introduction of characters using descriptive language that often seems darkly lyrical. Each person plays out the destiny that was laid out for them years ago, with frightening results for them and their loved ones. The book might be best described as a “spiritual thriller” considering the sinister, unseen forces that intertwine the lives of the three best friends.
Steven E Woodworth’s Six Armies in Tennessee, in print now for just over a decade, is a well-written, highly readable and deftly paced short history of the Civil War campaign for Central and Eastern Tennessee in 1863.
Beginning with the aftermath of the battle of Stone’s River, continuing through the battle of Chickamauga and the battles for Chattanooga, and concluding just after the failed siege of Knoxville, Six Armies in Tennessee explores a campaign, overshadowed in the popular imagination by the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg that same year, but no less decisive in its results. Chickamauga, which took place precisely one year after Antietam, was the bloodiest two-day engagement of the entire war. (Antietam witnerssed the single bloodiest day for American troops in all our history.)
Woodworth’s treatment of the oft-disparaged Confederate commander General Braxton Bragg is an eminently fair and balanced one, far more sympathetic than most. Bragg’s greatest failing was not so much strategic acumen or its lack as it was a plague of truly dismal subordinates who failed him repeatedly, and whom he could not or would not motivate or break.
Similarly, Woodworth’s analysis of the merits of the successive Union commanders, Major Generals William S. Rosecrans and Ulysses S. Grant, is equally perceptive and balanced.
At just under 220 pages, Six Armies in Tennessee is brief, but not too brief, graced with good footnotes, an adequate index and a short but useful Bibliographical Essay.
I heartily recommend this history to anyone curious about this vitally important but too often ignored campaign.
Confederate Commander throughout the campaign, Braxton Bragg
Bobby Ward’s new book Chlorophyll in His Veins, J.C. Raulston, Horticultural Ambassador has been released.
Here’s is what is being said about Bobby’s latest book.
Finally, the inspirational story of this century’s most important horticulturist can be told. Bobby Ward’s well-researched chronological biography weaves J. C.’s life-long diary entries with outside perspectives in detailing J. C.’s lifelong passion for learning about plants, his desire to share with others, and the against-all-odds stories that shaped his life. Even those who knew J. C. for decades will be surprised to learn the “rest of the story” of the man who shaped so many gardening lives . . . a truly fascinating read.
–Tony Avent, Raleigh, North Carolina, Plant Delights Nursery, author of So You Want to Start a Nursery
Countless gardeners and nursery owners benefited from J. C. Raulston’s extensive travels in his search for new and worthy plants. Two rare mahonias in my own garden, Mahonia chochoca and M. lanceolata, testify to his generosity. This book is a celebration of the life and accomplishments of one of the most-loved personalities the gardening world has known.
–Pamela Harper, Seaford, Virginia, author of Time-Tested Plants
Still to this day, after so many years passed, hardly a day passes without being reminded of J. C. There will be a plant encountered in the garden that he gave me, or mention of a book or film or something in the kitchen that brings him back briefly, fondly remembered.
Though, like many others, I felt I knew J. C. as a friend and mentor while accepting the complex texture of his personality, Bobby Ward’s biography on this giant of American horticulture makes me realize, in truth, how little I knew of his life. He has written a highly readable and intimate biography that ensures the legacy of this man will continue unchecked into the future. As we owe J. C. Raulston an enormous debt of gratitude for what he proffered the horticultural community of North America, a certain ration of thanks should also be reserved for Bobby Ward for guiding this project through to a befitting conclusion.
–Daniel J. Hinkley, Indianola, Washington, plantsman and author of The Explorer’s Garden: Shrubs and Vines
J. C. Raulston, a professor of horticulture at North Carolina State University and founder of the arboretum now named in his memory, was arguably the most important and influential figure on the American gardening scene during the last half of the twentieth century. The number of uncommon but highly desirable plants for both the residential and the commercial landscape is unmatched. It is everyone’s good fortune that in Bobby Ward’s biographical assessment of his life and works Raulston’s significance is assayed with both wit and accuracy. Readers who are familiar with the academic scene and its often petty politics will be fascinated by this book’s treatment of the history of Raulston’s arboretum.
–Allen Lacy, Linwood, New Jersery, author of The Gardener’s Eye
In all pursuits, there are those individuals who excel beyond reason, who set the standard so high we ultimately deify them: in North American horticulture, names like Meehan, Sargent, Bailey, Wilson, Wyman, Creech, Dirr, and Raulston. For those of us who knew J. C. Raulston–the countless students, his colleagues or dear friends–this book begins to connect the dots, making the person we know as J. C. more real, more human, and even more inspiring.
–Richard T. Olsen, Washington, D.C., United States National Arboretum
The late great J. C. Raulston was a man for all seasons in and out of the garden. His prodigious energy for work, travel, books, students, and friends was legendary, and with this biography those who knew him—and those who didn’t—will be awed by the way an Oklahoma farm boy overcame many obstacles, including his own self-doubts, to become what The New York Times called ‘a generous-spirited giant among horticulturists’. He was troubled, like all people of great talent, living in a troubled world. But his motto, ‘Plan and plant for a better world’, was a serious, lifelong effort to leave the world better than he found it. He was a North Carolina treasure, whose legacy is the NCSU Arboretum in Raleigh. And his legacy is also legions of friends, among them, new readers like myself.
–Emily Herring Wilson, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, author of
No One Gardens Alone: A Life of Elizabeth Lawrence
Contact Bobby today to purchase your copy Chlorophyl in His Veins, J.C Raulston, Horticultural Ambassador
When you have finished reading Bobby’s book, please e-mail me your comments to Helen@GardeningWithConfidence.com and I will add your comments with the others.
Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™
Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.
Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum
There are so many wonderful book challenges going on for 2010 that I just want to join them all. But, that would be unrealistic. Speaking of reality, I rejoin the work force tomorrow after what feels like forever. I’m excited and nervous all at once. It’s been a rough year for Michael and I but we have survived. I owe much of that to my beautiful and loving family. Michael’s family deserves a bow too. They’ve been incredibly warm and welcoming to me … and incredibly supportive. I guess it is important to remember that it is always darkest before the dawn. I am looking forward to brighter days in the new year.
Phew, enough of that gooey garble. Lets talk books. Since I wasn’t slayed in the night by any bitter Twilight fans I thought I should take this time to post my New Moon review. On the bright side, I haven’t read the last two so you’re safe for a bit. You know I’m just busting your chops, Twilighters. Any book series that gets people reading is a-okay in my book. I was just extremely surprised to find that it was this book series.
Without further adieu – I present my review of Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon after the cut. You’ll find this and my other reviews on GoodReads and please be advised of possible spoilers.
GoodReads Book Description: Legions of readers entranced by Twilight are hungry for more and they won’t be disappointed. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. The “star-crossed” lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy’s reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.
Rating: 
Recommended For: Not for anyone I actually liked, that’s for sure.
My Review: Here is a short list of things I do like about this book:
1. The wolves are not man-wolves, they’re actually wolves. I dig the Native American background on that.
2. Stephanie Meyer seems to have taken a writing workshop or two since her last book because the writing is marginally better.
Before we start handing out the awards, lets remember that it would be pretty difficult for anything following Twilight to not be at least a marginal improvement. At least Stephanie Meyer s…more Here is a short list of things I do like about this book:
1. The wolves are not man-wolves, they’re actually wolves. I dig the Native American background on that.
2. Stephanie Meyer seems to have taken a writing workshop or two since her last book because the writing is marginally better.
Before we start handing out the awards, lets remember that it would be pretty difficult for anything following Twilight to not be at least a marginal improvement. At least Stephanie Meyer seems to have come to the phenomenal realization that *gasp* we do not need to know everything from what color underwear Bella puts on in the morning to how many pillows she sleeps on at night to identify with the character. What we need is for the character to actually be identifiable which, for a number of sad and hopeless reasons, she is not. While Bella is vaguely less annoying in this book, you realize very quickly that is mostly due to Edward’s absence through most of the book. The second Meyer puts these two paper-thin characters on a page together it instantly loses what little credibility it has gained. I can’t speak very highly of a book that centers it’s plot around a torrid love affair between two characters that you have no desire to read about when they’re in the same place at the same time.
We get a little action straight out the gate with Bella, oh clumsy Bella, giving herself a paper cut while opening birthday gifts at the Cullen house. The blood sends a room full of vampires reeling and that oh, so ridiculously clueless Bella crashing into a table of glass. More blood? Oh, what will the vampires do?! Yes, the action is predictable and flimsy but it does beat reading 300+ pages on the transparent hope that something entertaining will happen. While this book seems to overcompensate for the action that was missing from the former book, it really doesn’t make it all that much more enjoyable. The characterization is still vague, at best, especially where supporting characters are introduced.
In Twilight, Stephanie Meyer could not find a plot till the book’s conclusion while in New Moon she cannot seem to commit to one. Let’s see, we’ve got the fact that Bella loses Edward (he tells her he’s through with her) and alienates all her Forks “friends” as she tries to cope with losing the love of her life, much to the dismay of her dear old dad. In Edward’s absence Bella grows close to Jacob Black and, oh no, Jacob ends up being a werewolf — just in case it wasn’t made blatantly obvious in the first book. And, insert gasps of shock and amazement here, werewolves and vampires don’t get along. All the while, Victoria – the accomplice of the previous book’s vampire villain – is on the rampage out looking for that sweet smelling delicious morsel that is Bella Swan. Will poor Bella ever catch a break? No, of course not, because Bella’s still an idiot who seemingly can’t pull her head out of the sand long enough to realize that hanging out with monsters is not a keen idea. Not even after she meets Emily, girlfriend to the werewolf pack’s ring leader. Emily was mauled by her own boyfriend during one of his werewolf-evoked fits of rage and is brutally scarred as a result of it. Finally, Edward’s love for Bella sends him on a suicide mission in Italy where an ancient vampire clan resides because he fears that his beloved Bella has killed herself. With all the references she makes in her books to Romeo and Juliet did Meyer not think anyone was going to catch onto the fact that she shamelessly rips this suicide/star-crossed lovers motif straight from it’s pages? I understand the need to recycle themes in literature, but seriously, isn’t this taking it a bit far? And vampire suicide? It’s like she is striving to make these characters as unbelievable and irritatingly useless as possible.
Still, all things considered, a terrible read. I really need to stop reading these books because clearly I lack the mental incapacity to cope with the asinine musings of blundering Bella and her fickle vampire lover. I’m so over this series.
How random and unstable are your phases? (Dec. 7, 2009)
There are phenomena in the natural world that behave randomly or what is seems chaotic such as in percolation and “Brownian movement” of gases. The study of phases in equilibrium among chaotic, random, and unstable physical systems were analyzed first my physicists and then taken on by modern mathematicians. The mathematician Wendelin Werner (Fields Prize) researched how the borders that separate two phases in equilibrium among random, and unstable physical systems behave; he published “Random Planar Curves…”
Initially, the behavior of identical elements (particles) in large number might produce deterministic or random results in various cases. For example, if we toss a coin many times we might guess that heads and tails will be equal in number of occurrences; the trick is that we cannot say that either head or tail is in majority. The probabilistic situations inspire the development of purely mathematical tools. The curves between the phases in equilibrium appear to be random but have several characteristics: first, the curves have auto-similarity, which means that the study of a small proportion could lead to generalization in the macro-level with the same properties of “fractal curves”, the second characteristic is that even if the general behavior is chaotic a few properties remain the same (mainly, the random curves have the same “fractal dimension” or irregular shape; the third is that these systems are very unstable (unlike the games of head and tails) in the sense that changing the behavior of a small proportion leads to large changes by propagation on a big scale. Thus, these systems are classified mathematically as belonging to infinite complexity theories.
Themes of unstable and random systems were first studied by physicists and a few of them received Nobel Prizes such as Kenneth Wilson in 1982. The research demonstrated that such systems are “invariant” by transformations (they used the term re-normalization) that permit passages from one scale to a superior scale. A concrete example is percolation. Let us take a net resembling beehives where each cavity (alveolus) is colored black or red using the head and tail flipping technique of an unbiased coin. Then, we study how these cells are connected randomly on a plane surface. The Russian Stas Smirnov demonstrated that the borders exhibit “conforming invariance”, a concept developed by Bernhard Riemann in the 19th century using complex numbers. “Conforming invariance” means that it is always possible to warp a rubber disk that is covered with thin criss-cross patterns so that lines that intersect at right angle before the deformation can intersect at right angle after the deformation. The set of transformations that preserves angles is large and can be written in series of whole numbers or a kind of polynomials with infinite degrees. The transformations in the percolation problem conserve the proportion of distances or similitude.
The late Oded Schramm had this idea: suppose two countries share a disk; one country control the left border and the other the right border; suppose that the common border crosses the disk. If we investigate a portion of the common border then we want to forecast the behavior of the next portion. This task requires iterations of random conforming transformations using computation of fractal dimension of the interface. We learn that random behavior on the micro-level exhibits the same behavior on the macro-level; thus, resolving these problems require algebraic and analytical tools.
The other case is the “Brownian movement” that consists of trajectories where one displacement is independent of the previous displacement (stochastic behavior). The interfaces of the “Brownian movement” are different in nature from percolation systems. Usually, mathematicians associate a probability “critical exponent or interaction exponent” so that two movements will never meet, at least for a long time. Two physicists, Duplantier and Kyung-Hoon Kwan, extended the idea that these critical exponents belong to a table of numbers of algebraic origin. Mathematical demonstrations of the “conjecture” or hypothesis of Benoit Mandelbrot on fractal dimension used the percolation interface system.
Werner said: “With the collaboration of Greg Lawler we progressively comprehended the relationship between the interfaces of percolation and the borders of the Brownian movement. Strong with Schramm theory we knew that our theory is going to work and to prove the conjecture related to Brownian movement.”
Werner went on: “It is unfortunate that the specialized medias failed to mention the great technical feat of Grigori Perelman in demonstrating Poincare conjecture. His proof was not your tread of mill deductive processes with progressive purging and generalization; it was an analytic and human proof where hands get dirty in order to control a bundle of possible singularities. These kinds of demonstrations require good knowledge of underlying phenomena”. As to what he consider a difficult problem Werner said: “I take a pattern and then count the paths of length “n” so that they do not intersect twice at a particular junction. This number increases exponentially with the number n; we think there is a corrective term of the type n at exponential 11/32. We can now guess the reason for that term but we cannot demonstrate it so far.”
The capacity of predicting behavior of a phenomenon by studying a portion of it then, once an invariant is recognized, most probably a theory can find counterparts in the real world; for example, virtual images techniques use invariance among objects. It has been proven that vision is an operation of the brain adapting geometric invariance that are characteristics of the image we see. Consequently, stability in the repeated signals generates perception of reality. In math, it is called “covariance laws” when system of references are changed. For example, the Galileo transformations in classical mechanics and Poincare transformations in restricted relativity. In a sense, math is codifying the processes of sensing by the the brain using symbolic languages and formulations.
Reading a “blurb” on the inside front cover of a hardbound book or the back cover of a paperback is probably the most common way we decide on a book, when we’re browsing for something to read. How about trying something new…. a book trailer! Like movie trailers, these short videos give you a small taste of the plot and mood; the intent is to tell you just enough to capture your interest. Here’s one for the Night World Series by L. J. Smith:
The light contemporary paranormal romance has some elements of a cozy mystery, but hasn’t got enough mystery to be called one. Chloe Hobbs is the very human and unmagical daughter of a long line of witches who have acted as guardians of the small and decidedly magical town of Sugar Maple, Vermont. Chloe is holding one of her many knitting classes that have become famous among the knitting community as is her yarn shop. As she’s teaching some visitors and two townswomen some knitting tricks, a stunningly beautiful woman comes to the window. At first she appears naked, but then Chloe realizes she’s wearing an expensive and very thin dress. Suzanne Markham, despite her beauty, seems strangely sad and Chloe relents and sells her a shawl that she has for display only. Next morning life in the village will change forever when the woman is found drowned in a local pond, apparently the victim of a tragic skating accident.
Sugar Maple, Vermont is a safe haven for all things magical. Witches, wizards, werewolves, vampire families, Fae, ghosts and the like. The first witch in Chloe’s line cast a protective spell over the entire town so visitors would never notice all the odd happenings around them. For the last 24 years the spell has been slowly eroding, starting when Chloe’s mother and father were killed in a car crash. Chloe father was an ordinary human male. Unfortunately, Chloe seems to take after him and hasn’t a shred of magic, so she can’t renew the protective spell. The death of Suzanne is the first ever in the village. People here ‘pass over’ quite literally to another existence. The death triggers a huge problem. First, Suzanne was an outsider, so her death is real and must be reported. Once they do that, Sugar Maple comes onto the state’s radar and their lack of a police force and a town clerk for vital statistics – like birth, death and marriage certificates – especially death certificates. Other than voting and paying taxes, it’s like they don’t exist. The signs of the protective spell’s weakening rapidly and the risk having a cop in town presents to all the magical inhabitants, sends a town meeting into a battle between Chloe and Isadora, a powerful Fae that covets the Book of Spells that Cloe’s ancestor Aerynn. One of Isaroda’s twin sons, Gunnar, gets between her and Chloe and protects her from Isadora, at great personal expense.
Luke MacKenzie is a Boston detective who wants to be a small town police chief. He’s tired of the city and he’s been looking for awhile. The job in Sugar Maple might only be temporary, and it means he has to quit the force, but it’s the chance he wants. Luke’s arrival accelerates things in Sugar Maple. He has an immediate attraction to the town’s nominal mayor, Chloe. There are sparks – literal sparks and when he takes her to a ‘business’ dinner that night, there’s a floating brandy glass. As Luke drives her home, his truck spins out on black ice, narrowly missing the same fate as her parents. Midge, the vampire undertaker who finds them, claims the road is ‘as dry as a lizard’. Luke was born and raised on Cape Anne, in the town next to Salem. He knows there’s more than meets the eye, but this place is strange. And why did Chloe tackle him and kiss the stuffing out of him when they got to her house? And what’s with all those sparkles when they touch? And just what is the knitting maven mayor hiding?
Chloe managed to keep Luke from seeing Isadora and Dane, Gunnar’s evil twin brother, wrecking her house as they searched for the Book of Spells. Isadora desperately wants the book so she can drag Sugar Maple beyond the mist and rule it with her powers. Only Aerynn’s spell and the fact the Gunnar refuses to have anything to do with his mother’s plans is stopping her. Now Chloe must deal with what’s happening to her every time she gets near Luke, the dangerous Isadora, and a state official who wants the birth and death certificates – NOW!
Luke, a childhood friend and one time boyfriend of the late Suzanne, wants to know what the hell is going on in this strange town. And he finds he really wants the mayor. Chloe slowly realizes that she might be more like her mother than she ever knew. Even though Gunnar has always loved her, the spark has never been there for her. He’s her best friend, but that’s it. Luke is a whole different thing. He sets off fireworks. And he’s making her magic bloom – finally. Bet everyone, her friends, other townies, even Sorcha, the woman who raised her, keep reminding her it just isn’t possible to have humans in Sugar Maple. Some even agree with Isadora that it’s time to move beyond the mist. But love can’t be told what to do. Both Luke and Chloe can’t pretend the attraction isn’t there or that it isn’t real. The denouement is all about what love, even twisted love, can do to anyone, Fae and human.
While Casting Spells was an easy, light pleasantly entertaining read, it lacks depth. The characters are superficially drawn and the plot, though moving quickly, has little substance. Like most chick-lit books, the emotions are shallow rather than deep and meaningful. The plot is OK, but no surprises along the way, nor much excitement. I felt like I was just skating over the surface of the story. Aside from Luke, there is no strong male presence other than Gunnar. Even Chloe’s friends barely register as individuals. Despite its length, you can knock the book off in a couple of hours. Casting Spells is harmless fluff entertainment, not worth the price of a trade paperback, but if you buy a remainder or get it from the library or through book swapping, it’s an enjoyable couple of hours.
Who are you? Is your identity static, defined only by your past experiences? Or is it dynamic, able to be created, altered, or eliminated as you move along in life? Await Your Reply, the new novel by National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon, raises questions about and suggests implications of modern identity while weaving together the story of three characters trying to figure out their own identities.
Await Your Reply follows three ordinary characters in less than ordinary circumstances. Ryan, a college sophomore, finds out he is adopted and disappears from his crumbling life to enter the world of identity theft. Lucy decides to leave her sleepy hometown, swept away by her charming high school teacher who promises her adventure and fortune, only to end up in a motel in Nebraska. Miles has given up living his own life, and possibly his hold on his sanity, in a desperate search to find his long-lost, possibly schizophrenic, twin brother.
Chaon uses the mundane details of the characters’ lives—Ryan sitting in a rental car office; Lucy watching movies in the motel; Miles at his job in a novelty shop—to cultivate the core essence of the novel. These meaningless details show that “most people . . . [have] identities that [are] so shallow that you could easily manage a hundred of them at once.” A person’s identity is so often defined by one’s job, hobby, or favorite movie—superficial attributes that can easily be culled from an Internet search—that anyone with a little determination could actually maintain several separate and disparate identities at the same time. It’s the ramifications of these multiple identities that propel the story to its satisfying conclusion.
As is often the case in real life, the small details in Await Your Reply can easily be overlooked by the reader as insignificant. It is not until the end that the reader is able to put everything together and realize what’s been happening the whole time. Await Your Reply is a novel that begs to be reread as soon as the reader finishes the final page.
Title: Girl on the Other Side
Author: Deborah Kerbel
Rating: 8/10
Summary:
Tabby Freeman and Lora Froggett go to the same school, but they live in totally opposite worlds. Tabby is rich, pretty, and the most popular girl in her class. But behind closed doors, her ‘perfect’ life is rapidly coming apart at the seams.
On the other side, Lora is smart, timid, and the constant target of bullies. While struggling to survive the piranha-infested halls of her school, she becomes increasingly nervous that somebody might discover the unbearable truth about what’s been happening to her family.
Despite their differences, Tabby and Lora have something in common – they’re both harbouring dark secrets and a lot of pain. Although they’ve never been friends, a series of strange events causes their lives to crash together in ways neither could have ever imagined. And when the dust finally settles and all their secrets are forced out into the light, will the girls be saved . or destroyed?
My Thoughts: Girl on the Other Side started out slow but ended up being much better than I ever expected. While the two main characters were pretty stereotypical, I felt that they each had a few characteristics that made them a little more real. However, I wish that some of the other characters had been more involved in the story and given more personality. I feel like the only two characters we ever get to know are the main ones, even though so many other characters were introduced.
Fortunately, the plot made up for my issues with the characters. Even though it seems like the plot is going to be your general popular vs. unpopular plot, there is so much more to it than that. I loved the family issues added to each side of the story and, for me, that’s what really made it stand out in my mind.
Overall, while I do wish that it had been longer, I recommend this one. It’s more than your typical popular girl vs unpopular and makes for a great read!
Bryan Mabe
10.17.09
Report On:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
A Novel By Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie is one of the most known authors of modern times thanks to his authenticity and natural ability to tell stories. Most, if not all of his stories surround the subject of his Native American culture. These stories reflect the tragedy and unfortunate circumstances that affect not only his own Native American tribe, but tribes all over the United States. It is rare that an author can take a tough subject, make light of it, and still come off as heartfelt and genuine as Alexie does. Many writers poke fun at, point out the ironies in, or simply avoid racism. Alexie tackles racism head-on with no apprehension, which makes him a very controversial figure in the literary world and among the Native American people. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an excellent example of such, with the inclusion of racism, Native Americans and the examination of class structure and its “voice.”
The central character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a teenager named Arnold Spirit, he is also known in the novel as simply, Junior. Alexie introduces his protagonist as he is living on an Indian reservation. Junior seems out of the ordinary even on a reservation filled with other Native American boys. See, Junior is filled with issues. He is poor. He is ugly. He has got a terrible stutter, and he is considered somewhat of a loner. The teenager has a difficult time living life amongst his peers and even his own teachers acknowledge that staying on the reservation might “kill him.”
Even though Junior is considered different, one of the boys on the reservation is considered to be Junior’s best friend. The boy’s name is Rowdy. He and Junior are friends within the reservation and it is their friendship which comes into question within the novel. Rowdy, along with Junior’s grandmother are the most recognized secondary characters.
Junior’s number one passion is drawing. He is a skillful cartoon drawer and even states at one point, “”I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” In other words, drawing cartoons is Junior’s way to escape the harsh aspects his life consists of and is the only piece of his life that stays consistent throughout the novel.
With encouragement from much of his family and many of the adults in the reservation in Spokane, Washington, Junior transfers to an all-white school which is located off the reservation in Reardan, Washington. The change of setting turns out changing Junior’s life immensely.
The move from the reservation school to the suburban white school disturbs not only the white kids who attend Junior’s new school, but also his own reservation’s young companions have issues with him making the move. His Native American brethren see Junior’s move as one a “trader” would commit. They do not see why he would want to go to school with the very people who shun him and his tribe away from the outside world. And the white kids in Junior’s new school treat him as an outcast as racism ensues. The result of the move is a painful, but sometimes a funny account of his first year of high school.
During that transition period for Junior no issue seems too taboo for Alexie. He addresses much more than obvious racism. He tackles less-talked about types of discrimination. He picks apart friendship; what it really means and the heartbreak that it can cause. Teenage love is something else he touches on as well as death, which does its part of rounding out subjects which make up troubled years for most teenagers. The death occurs to Junior’s grandmother.
Junior’s grandmother’s name is given only as Grandmother Spirit in the book. Her first name is never mentioned. Junior speaks about his grandmother at length in two places in the narrative and he addresses her only as “Grandma” or “my grandmother.” When he is at a loss as to how to respond to the treatment he is receiving at the white school he has chosen to attend, he goes to her for advice. Junior admires her especially because out of everyone he has ever known, she is the most tolerant. In life, she accepted everyone as equal, even “weird people”. On her deathbed, her dying wish is that the drunk driver that hit her be forgiven. Grandmother Spirit very clearly had an enormous impact on Junior’s life.
There are several themes that are present throughout The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is the reclamation of voice. A central idea of this novel is the idea that a person’s voice can be authentic and powerful despite powers that seek to silence it. Another theme is the idea that a person’s identity is forged through social and political hurdles, not necessarily by what race, gender or class one is from. Junior’s identity and idea of self is enhanced only when he undergoes extreme levels of challenges from his own people and white society. Like many novels and stories that reflect race and class, this novel explains the difficulty in being considered a hyphenated American. The final theme is something that is very intriguing; it is how these voices can be brought from margin to center when society pays attention and listens to these voices. The narratives of Native Americans have not been included in American history. There is evidence in the book that talks about how Junior sees himself as an American whose voice “sings” America, even if American society itself does not fully acknowledge his voice. He speaks and sings regardless of who listens. This idea of the freedom within the American narrative is a powerful one and seems to be the most established of themes throughout the novel.Towards the end of the novel, Junior plays a basketball game as a starting guard on the all-white school’s team against his old classmates who are still attending school on the reservation. It is at this game where Junior questions his loyalty to his people and ultimately to himself.
Broken dreams and loss may be prevalent throughout the story however they are a “fact of life.” And these facts of life are rarely as realistically and eloquently stated as they are in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The last chapter of the novel concludes that Junior will always “love and miss (his) reservation and (his) tribe.” He prays they will forgive him for leaving, and that he will forgive himself. He cries a little as he wonders about the future. Then he and Rowdy play ball, without keeping score.
Alexie’s delivery and intelligence is what sets The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian apart from other books that deal with racism and class. Junior is a real boy with real issues and he deals with them with the same incompetence that a real, awkward, 15-year-old boy would. In fact, much of the story is considered to be semi-autobiographical. Although it has been some time since Alexie was a teenager, he manages to invoke the life of a teenage outcast in a manner unequaled many other modern adult writers. Most people try to block out most of their teenage memories, especially the painful ones, but Alexie communicates them through the story The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie has written a novel that entertains and educates, and one that should be read by every teenager or young adult, regardless of ethnicity, class, age, sex or race.
For a book lauded as one of the great commentaries on society Fahrenheit 451 was not what I expected. Before this I had never read any Ray Bradbury nor seen the movie based on his novel, so I like to think I’ve come in pure and untainted.
What I’ve left with is nothing really. The book I struggled to read, and not because it was bad but because it didn’t hold me. The point it makes is valid though at the same time hypocritical because of its own dismissal of other forms of media.
Books like television, movies, and other mediums can be dumbed down to an equal degree as well as be used to supplement free thinking, family, and other connections that we make as a society. Ultimately his argument is flawed by his dismissal of these other mediums but he still manages to get his point across.
In the end Bradbury undermines his argument further with the scholars destruction of the books and their carrying on of the memes within. What’s to say that the writers of parlor screen stories weren’t attempting to put those very ideas across but because of the way society was they had to be more subtle than some books are.
Yes books are necessary, particular since I would like to write som and really enjoy reading them, but mere censorship of them isn’t where any of it stops. Movies, TV, video games, music, art, theater – all of it gets censored and yet we don’t scream nearly as much as we do with books. I think if anything it stems from the length of time which books have been a part of our culture in comparison to the others. Books have a couple hundred years on everything when it comes to a replicable format. Books also have the bonus of being used for other purposes – pushing other memes, providing documentation, education, etc.
I feel that Ray Bradbury gets his appoint across far better in the afterword provided in the 50th Anniversary Edition in his complete railing against any censorship that people attempted to put on his own works. Read it to understand. I also think that he may have a point in whether or not an author should ever go back an edit or add to a piece of work that he/she did when they were younger – different person, different time after all.
If you are looking for a compelling novel, and one that will keep you emotionally involved from the first page to the last, then Rachel Sarai’s Vineyard, by Deborah Rey is a book you should read. Ms. Rey sent me a copy of her novel as a gift, to read (not necessarily review), so I could gain a better insight into the plight of abused and misused children during World War II (WWII).
What I have grasped from this compelling novel is difficult to articulate. I don’t want to write too much and give the majority of the story line away, and/or spoil it for others. Suffice it to say that child abuse is a prevalent theme within the novel, not only physical abuse, but emotional abuse also. Within the confines of the abusive situation that Rachel Sarai was forced into is the fact that she was used (after her father’s death), beginning at the age of five, as a messenger, guide, and smuggler during WWII for the Dutch Resistance. That she was given tasks to do that many adults would refuse enhances the fact that her childhood was lacking in the ethical and moral structure that every child deserves. She had no childhood, she was trained in thievery, lying/deceit, and smuggling, and was manipulated into situations beyond belief.
Her “commanding officer” was the woman who seemingly was her mother. She was a belittling, coarse, brutal woman, who thought little, if anything, of the child she molded to suit her own needs and agenda. Rachel Sarai’s formative years were less than happy and desirable, and included not only extreme situations, such as being dragged to witness scenarios that would make adults feel nauseous, and bring chills up and down their spines, but also the demeaning and degrading abuse of the mind and emotions.
Rachel Sarai’s life was controlled insidiously, manipulated to the extreme by the woman she knew as her mother. She was put into situations at a tender young age, situations such as guiding others to a safe spot during WWII. She delivered messages for the Dutch Resistance, taking over where her deceased father left off. She did this under extremely adverse conditions, risking her own life in order to fulfill the desires of a desperate woman seeking power and recognition.
Did Rachel Sarai truly understand what she was ordered to do? Did she comprehend the inner workings of the Dutch Resistance? Was her youthful naivete an asset? How did she manage to survive the emotional and physical abuse she was thrust into? Question upon question entered my mind while reading Rachel Sarai’s Vineyard.
The novel depicts a strong Rachel Sarai, and how she was able to conquer the evil forces within her life, and overcome the devastation, horrors and abuse. For a short period of time, she had a mentor, a mother figure and person who treated her with love and respect.
Rachel Sarai’s Vineyard is not a pretty story, not a sugar-coated story, and not one to read if you are prone to having a weak stomach and/or dislike harsh language. But, for those who can persevere through the emotional content, you will finish the story with an education of how some children were abused and misused during World War II, to suit the goals of adults. You will come away appalled at how children could be forced into the workings and hold of the Resistance. Deborah Rey’s writing is vivid and compelling, and she paints pictures that boggle the mind.
Will you understand the reasoning behind the abuse, or the abuse, period? I didn’t. For the life of me I can’t fathom anyone treating a child with such moral, emotional and physical debasement. Will you cry for Rachel Sarai? Possibly. Will you become angry at the way she is treated? Yes. Will you be appalled at the circumstances she is forced to deal with? Yes. Will you be inspired by her will to survive and stamina? Yes!
Thank you, Deborah, for the gift copy you sent me of Rachel Sarai’s Vineyard.
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© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.
Tuesday December 8, 2009 – 21st of Kislev, 5770
I am someone who loves self-publishing. I have spent this entire weekend, with the exception of a bit of marking, expanding my self-publishing pool. I have 32 books for offer on Lulu.com (http://store.lulu.com/kakonged). Now I am waiting to find out about whether my books will be accepted for Amazon Kindle as e-books, as well as CreateSpace. CreateSpace is similar to Lulu.com, however is one of Amazon.com’s companies.
It was a lot of hard work. Having my books on Lulu.com made it a lot easier. I found the Kindle system fairly easy to use, however with my computer at times it would take a lot of time to upload large documents that would have photos.
CreateSpace uses a .pdf format. I found this extremely efficient for uploading large files that also had photos. The first entry point seems a bit daunting at first and I ran across some glitches at first. The excellent thing about CreateSpace is that they offer free ISBNs that are generated instantly if you do not have one. This way you can also make your books available for international distribution, as well as available in libraries.
Overall I found my time working on these self-publishing projects to be well-spent. Even though I have 32 books published, I was unable to publish them all. Lulu.com may remain the key depot to find all of my books. I was able to offer some of my books for better prices than they appear on Amazon.com currently, as well as Lulu.com. I will keep you posted.
