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July 22
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Scot
gave
to:
American Gods (Paperback)
by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in July, 2008
Scot said:
"I knew that Gaiman was a particularly gifted and special author when I read Anansi Boys. This earlier novel inhabits the same universe as that work, and shares some characters, but either can be read first as the stories do not affect each other.
...more
I knew that Gaiman was a particularly gifted and special author when I read Anansi Boys. This earlier novel inhabits the same universe as that work, and shares some characters, but either can be read first as the stories do not affect each other.
I loved Greek mythology when I was a small child, and that led me to explore the pantheons of various other ancient cultures at an early age, and to a lifelong fascination with folklore and folk traditions. Therefore, when I got caught up in the world Gaiman creates and conveys in American Gods, it blew me away. I didn't want this book to end--after 588 pages I just wanted it to go on and on. (Other things that seemed so pressing a few hours earlier simply weren't.) Gaiman is, in a word, brilliant, and this is the richest and most satisfying novel I have ever read based on the premise that the ancient gods only live on as long as we believe in them, or that suggests there are places or ways for characters from one mythical belief system to interact with those from others, and with people in the everyday world, at the same time. Gaiman's masterful understanding of pop culture and folklore from around the world combine with his great sense of humor (and excellent command of both plot development and timing) to make this the best book I have read in a long, long, time. I love this book! ...less
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July 21
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Scot
gave
to:
Holy Skirts: A Novel of a Flamboyant Woman Who Risked All for Art (P.S.)
by Rene Steinke
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Scot said:
"I happened upon this book by chance. I had half an hour to kill while waiting for a bus and noticed the unusual cover, which seemed ugly to me. The title suggested a chick lit book, but when I quickly perused the back cover, I discovered it was his...more
I happened upon this book by chance. I had half an hour to kill while waiting for a bus and noticed the unusual cover, which seemed ugly to me. The title suggested a chick lit book, but when I quickly perused the back cover, I discovered it was historical fiction about one of the most colorful characters in the avant garde artistic circles of Greenwich Village's bohemian counterculture just before and during World War I. That intrigued me.
Although the author takes a lot of literary license, the main character, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhaven, truly existed, as did most of the supporting characters around her. During this novel she sleeps with Marchel Duchamp, poses for Man Ray, writes poetry for the acclaimed Little Review, and shocks conventional society with her revolutionary clothes-as-art. The poetry presented here is either her actual work or closely modeled on it--and I have to say, it's quite good. Sort of Emily Dickinson mixed with advertising jingles, with sensuality and the Modernist cult of the artist overlay. I think the author catches the spirit of bohemia quite well. (Anyone know the musical number performed by the group around the Stammtisch in the musical Rent, "La Vie Boheme"? It conveys the same sense of bravura, celebration of artistic vision, and deviant independence.)
The baroness is a tragic figure, plagued by slowly debilitating illnesses, mental and physical, inherited from (and due to the sins of?) her parents. Nevertheless, she is courageous in her determination to celebrate art for art's sake, the rights of women, the joy of sex, the energy of Dada. She starts out as an exotic model in Berlin, works her way through three unusual husbands (getting the title from the last one), and finds her niche pulling pranks and creating art in Greenwich Village. She lives life on the edge--in poverty, with thieves, whores, addicts, homosexuals, anarchists, longshoremen, and artistes. Fans of Dada should enjoy this book. It made me curious to know more about the real woman, and I discovered that the University of Maryland has a digital library of her work online that's easy to browse.
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July 16
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Scot
marked as to-read:
A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa (Paperback)
by Howard W. French
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Scot
gave
to:
Watchers of Time (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries)
by Charles Todd
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Scot said:
"Fifth in the series, and to my mind, one of the best ones so far (the fourth was also top notch...this series keeps getting better!). Wonderful sense of mood and tone evoked in the rural village setting of the Norfolk marshlands where most of the ac...more
Fifth in the series, and to my mind, one of the best ones so far (the fourth was also top notch...this series keeps getting better!). Wonderful sense of mood and tone evoked in the rural village setting of the Norfolk marshlands where most of the action takes place. The mystery, set in 1919, involves a faithful sexton of the village Church of England parish suddenly demanding not the Vicar, but a Catholic priest to come speak with him in private on his deathbed. That priest, much beloved by his flock and admired as a community leader by the rest of the locals, then dies a violent death in his home a few weeks later. Is there some connection? Inspector Rutkedge needs to sort it all out, even while dealing with his own personal demons from the fighting in France. Others start to worry they might die next......less
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July 22
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Scot
is currently reading:
A Fearsome Doubt (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries)
by Charles Todd
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 12
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Scot
gave
to:
The News from Paraguay: A Novel (Paperback)
by Lily Tuck
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Scot said:
"This National Book Award winner is historical fiction set in Paris, Buenos Aires, London, and Paraguay in the 1850s and 60s. The main story follows the life of a beautiful Irish girl who becomes a powerful courtesan in aristocratic Paris then moves t...more
This National Book Award winner is historical fiction set in Paris, Buenos Aires, London, and Paraguay in the 1850s and 60s. The main story follows the life of a beautiful Irish girl who becomes a powerful courtesan in aristocratic Paris then moves to Paraguay as the common law wife of a violent, ambitious, ruthless, macho general who becomes president and dictator. We trace her life experience and his after they meet, the perspectives and encounters with them of a range of peoples from different cultures, and what happens to their children.
The topic intrigued me. One concern--so much of the true historical context is unclear to me, that although many parts of this work were entertaining--some colorful, some poignant, some shocking in their brutality--how do I know which parts are a fair representation of that true cultural context? An afterword explains some of the characters are based on people who really existed, many are not, and that in the phrase "historical fiction" the emphasis is on the noun not the adjective. Now I probably need to read up some on the true historical record of these wars and battles, and the culture of this part of Latin America in this period. My grandmother used to warn me away from historical fiction for this very reason: it begins to blur one's perception of what really occurred, and most people often accept the fictional account of history in films and books as a fair representation when they know too little of more scholarly historical records of what actually occurred. I do think this piece was probably well researched, but many of the most poignant vignettes are incredible (sheer suffering or endurance or stupidity, etc.) so while enjoying the tone these vignettes set, now I am not at all sure what life in Paraguay in the 1860s was truly like.
The strategy for structuring this novel is presenting an ongoing series of vignettes--perhaps a better phrase to describe this would be "snapshots of experience." These are brief glimpses into a character's encounters or interactions, perhaps a page or a page and a half each, jumping around back and forth through a range of many varied and different perspectives. As a result, as a whole the work didn't hold together for me, although the ending did start to resolve a few things. Even though as a whole it didn't hold together well, some of the vignettes, on their own, are truly moving, distinctive, and powerful literature....less
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July 09
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Scot
gave
to:
Death of a Squire: A Templar Knight Mystery (Templar Knight Mysteries)
by Maureen Ash
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Scot said:
"Second in a new series set in Lincolnshire, 1200 A.D. Our detective is a one-eyed Templar knight who cares for a mute servant boy he brought home from Italy as he returned from the Crusades. This installment is even stronger than the first with reg...more
Second in a new series set in Lincolnshire, 1200 A.D. Our detective is a one-eyed Templar knight who cares for a mute servant boy he brought home from Italy as he returned from the Crusades. This installment is even stronger than the first with regard to plot, and makes interesting connections to the well-founded fear that King John had concerning conspiracies to replace him and the outlaw life of crafty hunters in Sherwood Forest. Conveys social history, clarifies medieval laws about rights and obligations for different people at various levels in the class heirarchy, and enriches vocabulary without slowing down plot. Not demanding yet rewarding, a good summer read....less
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July 08
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Scot
read and liked
Joe's
review of Evergreen: A Guide to Writing With Readings:
"We hates it. We haaaates it.
Some bloke named Jeffrey gave this monument of shite four friggin stars. Look for us to oil wrestle soon on cable.
Why can't I give this book negative stars? I want to take away the stars anyone else gave this book....more
We hates it. We haaaates it.
Some bloke named Jeffrey gave this monument of shite four friggin stars. Look for us to oil wrestle soon on cable.
Why can't I give this book negative stars? I want to take away the stars anyone else gave this book. That's right, Jeffrey, I'm vetoing your stars. Like I'm China.
Show of hands -- who here actually begins writing anything by first clustering? Eh? Who counts the sentences in their paragraphs to make sure there are between five and twelve sentences? You? Who stops after drafting a paragraph to notate each sentence as "more specific" or "more general" and then rearrange them into a more "logical" order?
The answer is that no one does. Actually, two people do, but no one likes them very much, and they're both stuck trying to find new superlatives for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special.
The fact of the matter is that concepts like "coherence through inductive order" and "parallelism in number and person" only make sense in retrospect, after you have firm working experience with those tools. Spanking a 100-level composition student with this crap is like expecting someone to understand Sartre before they've had their own existential crisis. And let's be honest here -- this is the same bullshit students were fed for four years throughout high school. If it didn't take then, what on earth makes you think what they really need is a rehash of the same? Brilliant. Clearly, when these students didn't sponge up their sophomore lesson that a "topic sentence is a topic plus a controlling idea," the only reason for that failure is because they were too preoccupied with prom/puberty/the Olson Twins, those lazy bastards. Let's beat them with the same switch again.
I'd like to suggest a (not really) radical idea -- that these students are stuck in a 100-level "remedial" composition course precisely because of the disgusting, patronizing pedagogy exhibited in Fawcett's Evergreen. I'd like to suggest, moreover, that students learn to write, not by placing their boots carefully in the footprints of people who have gone before and just now noticed their own path, but rather by writing, and they learn to write better by reading.
Noooo, no no. That's absurd. Instead, let's follow the little gems of uber-writing wisdom from Ms. Fawcett: "Consider adding a good quotation to emphasize one of your key points. You can begin by looking through...an online version of Bartlett's Quotations." Please, do. Also, why don't you draw jazzhands in the margin? Just to spice things up. I'm sure it will perfectly offset Mark Twain's insights into birth control and HIV in subcontinental India. "Suggested topics for persuasive paragraphs: (1) Occasional arguments are good for friendships. (2) ________ (writer, singer, or actor) has a message that more people need to hear. (3) People should laugh more because laughter heals." Fantastic. Thank you for that insightful bit of writing, Gidget. I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I have testicular cancer.
Perhaps, when you feed students purile, infantilizing bullshit, they give you only purile, infantile bullshit in return. Perhaps, instead of secretly believing that all 100-level students are utter morons who are "slow" in developing their language skills and who just need more of the same crap that didn't work the first time around -- perhaps, instead, if you believe they're secretly brilliant and already fluent in a multitude of discourses, they'll grow into that picture of themselves that you present them with.
The day I am granted tenure? That is the day I shred this book for the green manure that it really is....less
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July 04
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Scot
gave
to:
The Invention of Curried Sausage (Paperback)
by Uwe Timm
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in July, 2008
Scot said:
"Although fairly unknown and relatively obscure in the United States, this novella by Uwe Timm was a best-seller in Germany in the mid 1990s, and it is a remarkable piece of literature. The translator, Leila Vennewitz, deserves a word of praise too--...more
Although fairly unknown and relatively obscure in the United States, this novella by Uwe Timm was a best-seller in Germany in the mid 1990s, and it is a remarkable piece of literature. The translator, Leila Vennewitz, deserves a word of praise too--even in translation this story unfolds in a lyrical, captivating manner.
A fellow living in Munich sometimes debates with friends where his favorite German specialty snack, curried sausage, originated, and he maintains it began with a woman who lived in his aunt's building in his boyhood home city of Hamburg. He tracks that woman, Mrs. Bruecker, down in a convalescent home in Hamburg, to discover the story of just how curried sausage came to be, and through the elderly (now blind) woman's recollections, and the snippets of information he gleams from others who knew her in the 1940s, we learn not only the recipe and origin of the dish, but what it was like for Germans in the closing months of the war in that part of Germany, and how one woman in particular dealt with informers, rationing, the black market, a handsome young deserter, and a philandering husband.
Part of the magic of the story is the way old Bruecker tells the tale in her own good time, often while simultaneously knitting a cheerful sweater, and occasionally stopping to savor a nice piece of German cake. It is a story of endurance and survival, of coping with defeat and loss and making the most of what you've got when the going gets tough. It is also a story that confronts evil, passion, betrayal, and unexpected kindnesses, so I give it five stars for being both a fascinating look at Germany from within in the time around 1945 and on a larger level, a piece of literature evoking and artistically presenting universal themes and truths. ...less
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