Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 86

*Sit-in for Books

In a largely Hispanic neighbourhood on the lower west side of Chicago, parents and their kids have been occupying a field house, demanding that it be turned into a library instead of being torn down and the land used for a soccer field. This is a neighbourhood where 40% of the students live below the poverty line.

With shouts of "We want a library!"…as many as 30 parents and children have defied local police since September 15, occupying the building and spending their time creating signs and saying the rosary.

So far, the Chicago School Board is unpersuaded, evidently indifferent to the fact that La Casita, as the small building is known, has been unofficially used as a community centre where English as a second language can be learned. The problem is that the building is unsafe and fixing it would cost much more than destroying it. Surely some billionaire philanthropist can save the building for these parents. Bill Gates? Oprah?

Even better–something ought to be done about American funding for public structures. Whittier, the local elementary school of the striking families, only has classroom libraries, which, according to a spokesperson for the Chicago School Board, is okay because 160 of their schools only have classroom libraries.

I find that very sad, especially in Chicago, which is home to one of the earlier and most beautiful public libraries in the U.S., with a ceiling made by Tiffany. I saw it years ago when I was visiting Chicago to promote The River Midnight, and researching the (later to be cut) Chicago section of my next novel. The library had amazing archives and an inspiring interior. If only it was still inspiring Americans to build more libraries.

It would cost about a million dollars to fix up La Casita. What does a million dollars get the American military in Afghanistan–a paperclip? Surely President Obama, formerly a resident of Chicago, could turn his sights to these brave and struggling families yearning for books.

(Full story here)

h/t Bookninja

Filed under: Politics & Economy Tagged: Chicago sit-in, libraries

*Monday, Sept 27, 2010

Bookmark by H, click to enlarge

In case you can't make out the writing, on the crossed out computer screen it says, "Book service online."

Filed under: A Monday Moment Tagged: out of the mouths of babes

*Brooklyn Books of Wonder

Melvin Jules Bukiet, in the August '07 issue of The American Scholar, defines BBoW's (Brooklyn Books of Wonder):

Take mawkish self-indulgence, add a heavy dollop of creamy nostalgia, season with magic realism, stir in a complacency of faith, and you've got wondrousness. The only thing that's more wondrous than the BBoW narratives themselves is the vanity of the authors who deliver their epistles from Fort Greene with mock-naïve astonishment.

Among the authors of BBoW's are Alice Sebold...

*The Outcast

The Outcast by Sadie Jones won the Costa Award for a first novel and was short-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize, deservedly so. The first 2/3 of the novel is brilliant.

This is a coming of age story, not my favourite genre, but I couldn't put it down and finished it in 2 days. Somehow I managed to help my children with their homework while completely absorbed in 1950′s Britain, where post-war repression, denial, and dissociation are a practised art in the village where Lewis Aldridge grows...

Monday Sept 20, 2010

Run Tambi run…, originally uploaded by KalerBlind { Im Back for Sexy No JutSu }.

The photographer writes on Flickr:

I love running. Hitting the pavement frees me from all other thoughts and allows me to feel entirely united as a being. I start out fully aware of the way I breathe, how my foot falls, how my arms drop and grip. Five minutes later, I am flowing.

I am not flowing yet. But this is what I am learning while running. Although I prefer to run fast, if I do I run out of breath fast...

*Starting

I've forgotten how to start writing. It's been 6 years since I started anything new. The kids are back in school and I have mostly been refining the art of procrastination. I keep asking myself how–and I keep hearing "ask different questions." What does that mean?

Starting Dragonfly

Filed under: My Life Tagged: writing

*Murdoch Mysteries

On Monday, I picked up A Journeyman to Grief by Maureen Jennings, and by Tuesday I had finished it. I was thoroughly entertained, couldn't put it down, and subsequently spent some time researching the historical incident on which it was based.

This is the 7th in Jennings' Detective Murdoch series. I read the first one and enjoyed it, and I think that the series gets even better as it goes along. Set in 1890′s Toronto, the novels are more serious than Murdoch Mysteries, the enjoyable and...

*Monday Sept 13/10

TATTOOED POST RUNNER — Delivering the mail in Old Japan (2) 入れ墨, originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba.

The art of the Tattoo showed up everywhere in Japan — from the Ainu in the North, to the Okinawans in the South. Above photo from ca.1896.

There is some controversy as to whether the tattoos in these hand coloured photographs are genuine, completely added by the colourist, or a combination. Soba, who posted these on Flickr, presents an interesting case for it being mostly genuine, with s...

*Inspiration: American Widows Help Afghani widows

Beyond the 11th is a non-profit organization founded by two American women whose husbands were killed on 9/11. It is dedicated to:

help widows [in Afghanistan:] gain the skills necessary to generate their own income and become self-sufficient. We strongly believe that education and empowerment are the keys to creating lasting social change.

For more information or to donate, the link is here.

Filed under: Politics & Economy Tagged: women helping women

*After Ecstasy, The Laundry

My favourite part of After Ecstasy, The Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfeld is this story, paraphrased.

When a Buddhist master was dying, his disciples crowded around his bed, eager to hear his last words of wisdom. He was very ill and in pain and couldn't get comfortable in his bed. Sighing, he looked at each of them, his attention seeming to wander. Finally he said, "You want to see how an enlightened teacher dies?" They all nodded, leaning forward to...