Children's books forever!

On her Christmas wishlist Anissa expressed a desire for a beautifully illustrated edition of The Secret Garden. At 23 she still maintains a love for the books she loved at 9. That's my girl!

One discussion in the house a few weeks ago centered on my own library. She told me she would donate it. "Libraries are so personal," she reasoned, implying that my tastes do not match hers, adding that she would have no room. Robert intervened; there would be at least one room in their house dedicated to books he insisted. OK, I said I will leave the books to Robert then to make sure they stay in the family.

What's on your wish list?

I have filled in a lot of gaps in my own library the past year so the hard-to-find list is getting shorter - and more expensive.

P.D. James has a new book coming out. As she advances in years, I always fear her current one will be her last. And, Frank McCourt has one that may be worthwhile. Tis was a disappointment, but it seems that a passage of his writing that attracted me to him related to his teaching years, which is the subject of his latest memoir, Teacher Man.

Team of Rivals looks interesting, a study of Lincoln's team-building skills with his cabinet of bitter political enemies. I am waiting patiently for Diamond's Collapse to appear in paperback, or remainders. The same with Mark Helprin's The Pacific and other stories. I find my interests moving to language and logic, too. Even some poetry.

The design books I eye (aye!) are so pricey but maybe someday price won't matter (or maybe it always will no matter how much disposable income I have) Just like Schama's Rembrandt's Eyes. $35 for a paperback. Ouch!!

Nourishing the brain

Oranges! What a lovely book! I know, no one can quite believe that McPhee wrote a book about nothin' but oranges. Lots of lore, and anecdotes, facts too about liquid sunshine. Changed my attitude a bit about 'artificial' handling or the fruit (wax, coloring, gassing). Of course, I know that there is another side. Books like these become dated- it was finished in mid-60s, and it makes me wonder how much things have changed since then. It is really an interesting profile of a fruit industry that on one hand is so... managed- a science with its mechanization, chemistry etc. and on the other hand is so vulnerable to weather and nature itself - pooh- the trees are all hybrids, one type of stock grafted onto another. And the seeds will produce who knows what???

Now I am on to a charming portrait of China, Shanghai in particular, The Breach in the Wall. The author is a Westerner who grew up as the daughter of a tea merchant in China. So far I am particularly intrigued with her brief non-scholarly, non-political description of China and its relationship with the rest of the world. She waxes a bit rapturous at times, but hey, it is her story so she should be able to tell it the way she wants. I am sorry it has taken me so long to dust it off. OK, so the jacket is ugly, she has managed to draw me in at last.

Book juggling

My reading lately is done in snatches. That is OK for Hemlock at Vespers a collection of Sr. Fidelma stories, a bit more difficult for the Colette biography. Dense with info as many good bios are, the narrative gets a bit hard to follow if you keep have to backtrack and figure out who is who. But so far, it is worth the effort.

In a rare flash of decorating with personality - I pulled out my collection of bookmarks and arranged them in a basket on top of a bookcase. :-)

I may be skipping the October sale at Borders, partly because I have been too indulgent lately, partly because their selection has been disappointing the past year or so.

Book buying in London!

I know how blasted heavy books can be to lug around. So I tried hard not to buy, but Anissa insisted we hit the used bookstores in Charing Cross. She knows my weaknesses too well.
First quick round found a Simenon quartet, and one Farrell volume I had been seeking. The second a few days later rounded up more brain candy- Michael Jecks, Peter Tremayne and the other two parts of the Farrell trio. Anissa wheedled the latest Russell/Holmes books. Yum. Actually the venerable Blackwells bookstore was a bit disappointing in its selection, but then I was trying to be very focused on some older hard to find whodunnits. Not enough time or luggage space to do it all.

Oh what did I read there? Robert's Necromancer got finished in Paris even though neither Anissa nor I are completely sure why it ended the way it did.

I read Simenon's Little Saint- "one of his favorites"??? I should know better- I have not really liked any of his works that do not feature Maigret. I wanted to read it to get a snapshot of Paris. Unfortunately his work is not anchored in a time period so it is hard to visualize.

For brain candy I read Jecks's Belladonna at Belstone. A fine distraction. That is what traveling and books are all about, aren't they?

Outward bound!

Can't leave home without good reads. Light stuff works well, both literally and well, literally. I suppose I could go and pick up something at Bookaholic that I don't mind leaving behind. Hmm.

I am nearly finished with Women Who Wrote the War. Terrific anecdotes. It is good to remember that the professional paths women have access today have not been paved too long ago. In its epilogue, the author noted that the terrific impact the war correspondents did not really reverberate until two generations later.

Anissa took off with the next book I was going to read, so I picked up the Colette bio Secrets of the Flesh. Someone once wrote that no one evoked Paris like Colette so her image will be fresh in my mind when I arrive. In my CR days The Vagabond made an impression and I have enjoyed the settings of her works but I just can't connect with her characters, and while it might have bothered me at one time, I am OK with that now.

Tangled threads

Anissa and I both feel a bit lost and cranky if we can't escape into reading. Her extremism finds her taking books into the bathtub. In desperation, I have found myself reading almost anything in print put in front of me. In one printmaking class at KU, one fellow classmate got a charge out of finding me reading the newspapers that protected the worksurfaces.

Newby's life in Tuscany is a soothing summer escape, although his (requisite) Italian terms throw a jolt into the narrative, especially if you are only able to pick up the book a few pages at a time. His strength is the ability to evoke environment, however rustic, so that the reader is filled with such longing. I am surprised, though, that he just brings the book to an end without much ado, - just a litany of who died, they left, goodbye, the end.

I have moved on to Marquez's collected short stories. Not good light reading, lots of voices of people observing the twilight after death. They are arranged in the order of creation, so it will be interesting to see how his work changes with time.

Sidetracked

Eric and Wanda have been left to their own devices for a bit in their small place in Italy. But it won't be for long, as my own European plans proceed!! Ka-ching, we spent the money on plane tickets, train tickets from London to Paris and back, and the London hostel. The Paris lodgings are yet undecided.

I have picked up The Women Who Wrote the War, - female war correspondents, primarily World War II. Wonderful, gutsy, women all so different in their styles and approaches.
(Aside: I rarely use the word 'unique' - one of the most abused words in the English language - I find if I do, I am being lazy, not willing to find more appropriate modifiers bah!)

I found three great additions to the library- the second Thursday Next, the latest Michael Jecks, and The Granny, which completes Brendan O'Carroll's trilogy. Happy dance for brain candy! And Robert loaned me another highly recommended cyber-punk sci-fi piece in exchange for One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Hitting the road

Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar was my first introduction to travel writing. His fiction is uneven, very uneven but his travel writing is hypnotic. I also have a fondness for Eric Newby - sometimes a bit wordy but toughing it out for his dry humor is worth the effort.
Right now, I am discovering his Small Place in Italy, a spot not much different that the one Under the Tuscan Sun. I like approaching travel with a sense of light-hearted adventure. Especially since something goofy or weird, always seems to happen to me, and so it seems with Newby.

Finished with muses for now.
What a bunch! Prose's selection - the various roles her lineup played is intriguing. At first I thought the idea of a muse is a bit contrived, but it makes a good premise. Several of her choices, particularly artists, were not necessarily first rate- it is hard to take the pre-Raphaelites very seriously, and Yoko and John? Well we are talking about the roles of muses in *various* lights. The book has sent me scurrying to investigate some of the more interesting women, Lee Miller and Lee Salome-Andreas.

Just finished a loan from Robert via Anissa- a cyperpunk fiction piece- Idoru. A pleasant surprise, really.

Muses and more

I like to read introductions to books just to get a feel for what inspired book or just an overview. Sometimes they drag on so long that I just skim and move on. The intro to Lives of the Muses is so well written that the length seemed of no consequence. Well, it drew in some of my favorite topics, art, storytelling, strong women. Familiar figures and new ones- I am looking forward to a great read!

I dropped by Bookaholic with notebook in hand- whoohoo! I found three books on my hard-to-find used list! One has been on the list so long I had given up and taken it off. The Bookaholic freaks are gradually getting back in my good graces, even though I am still annoyed that they don't take my books either because they have too many of the same title or it is a title that too obscure to sell. Bah to them, hello Goodwill

Muses

I just finished The Artist's Wife, a fictionalized account of Alma Mahler. She made a career as a muse to Mahler, Gropius, Klimt and more. She even attempted the same with a priest who, unfortunately, was sent to Dachau. Not a particularly admirable woman, but fascinating. I don't know a whole lot about Vienna's Golden age or the revolutionary work that followed its decay, and the book gave some interesting insights. It has also piqued my interest in the role of the muse- I plan to follow up soon with Francine Prose's Lives of the Muses, which includes Mahler as one of its subjects.

I would like to integrate the role of art people such muses, collectors, critics, curators into AR100 but I am not sure how that aligns with the outcomes.

Correction- Prose's book does not profile Mahler but should give an interesting counterpoint to the variety of roles muses can play. Are there any male muses?

Moving on

Finally I finished The Name of the Rose. Bleah! Overrated, overlong. Big fuss over the role of humor in theology. Throwing in all this Latin just to look profound. Brother William was cool but his horny little sidekick was annoying. OK.

Carol Higgins Clark cannot write. Mama Higgins Clark can spin a good tale, even though the characters are always rich, beautiful, refined, and live in Connecticut or New York. Baby H.C. cannot tell a story, draw anything but cardboard characters, unbelievable dialog, one page chapters!? OK, CHC and Eco are permanently off my reading list.

In the meantime I found a yummy novel, The Book of Salt to savor (pun intended). Novel of a Vietnamese cook working for GertrudeStein and Alice B. Toklas. The language is so seductive and lush.

Detour

I have been continuing my way through Name of the Rose, but I got distracted (deliberately) by one of Margaret Frazers's medieval detective books' The Clerk's Tale' With series I tend to become interested in following character development as much as plot. Dame Frevisse was beginning to annoy me in this one (but not as much as little Miss Perfect in Tremayne's Irish nun/lawyer series) but I suppose it was because she truly disliked the victim.

Ladies Night at Finbar's Hotel and more

Following his success with Finbar's Hotel, a novel composed of uncredited chapters written by contemporary Irish writers about a seedy Dublin hotel, Bolger has returned to the newly remodeled scene with stories by Irish women writers. I don't know them well enough even to begin to guess who wrote which. It doesn't matter; the idea just tickles me.
Anyway I have devoured the seven stories this week, one I have even reread. They are united by the themes of adult women, many well educated, who deal with family, the ghosts of their past, their uncertain future. Some are almost painfully recognizable within my own sphere of experience.

I am working my way through Name of the Rose. It is an enjoyable but slow read. The Latin gets in the way a bit, so does the Church politics - ouch- Reminds me that the politics exist even today as the speculation about the new Pope and the high profile of Cardinal Law illustrates.

Whore's Child

I absorbed this book of short stories by Richard Russo, during breakfast this week.

I really began to read short stories of all sorts when I was introduced to them formally in high school and college. D.H. Lawrence, Saki, O. Henry, the masters. I continued because the length was so much more manageable when I got too busy to read longer works. Actually my love of short works goes back to high school. Magazines before the 70s seemed to have a lot of great short fiction. I have strong memories of short stories from American Girl (a Girl Scout publication) and Seventeen magazine in the 60s.

Anyway, I recognize what a difficult form it can be. And Russo does it so well. Generally I do not like to analyze work, I don't try to anticipate what the author is trying to do. I just like to shut up and go along for the ride.

But the stories are so elegantly formed, something to hold up to the light and admire. The sounds, sights, thoughts all resonate with me. And, they seem so intensely personal, so much about himself. Granted a writer, professor, are often characters, but it goes beyond that. The experiences, emotions, are not ones he has imagined but ones he knows firsthand.