Louis Arata's Blog, page 6

Book Review: Henry David Thoreau: A Life

My moment of epiphany occurred in the back of a pizza joint. I was the only one working that night, and no customers had come in for over an hour, so I spent my time reading Walden for my American Lit class. 
I knew the gist of the book: a guy builds a cabin on a pond to get back to nature, and he experiences profound epiphanies about life. In high school and other college literature classes, I had read selections of Walden – in particular, the first chapter, “Economy” – but I had never read the entire book, front to back, before.


They're called
Galway whiskersOn this snowy February night, in solitude next to the warm pizza oven, I reached the point in the story where Thoreau meets Alek Therrien, a Canadian woodchopper. Thoreau paints him as a rough-and-rugged sort of animal-man, where the “spiritual man” in him still slumbers. 
And yet, according to Thoreau, Alek “could defend many institutions better than any philosopher.” The woodchopper once heard that Plato defined “Man” [sic] as a biped without feathers, and when someone displayed a plucked rooster and called it Plato’s man, Alek “thought it an important difference that the knees bent the wrong way.”
Wait, was that a joke? Was this supposed to be funny? Hang on a second …

“I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.”

Well, there's a funny image: Thoreau strutting about the yard, crowing as loud as he can. I guess I would wake up for that.
After that, I read Walden with an eye focused on the wit and the glorious Chanticleering that Thoreau conducts through the course of his time in the cabin. Never before had I paid attention to how joyous the writing is. This book wasn’t a millstone; rather, it challenged readers to transcend their limitations. It held up a lens to our foibles and made gentle (and not so gentle) correctives to our behaviors. This book was filled with happiness and wisdom and a celebration of Nature.
Thus began my love affair with Walden. 
I have lost track of the number of times I have read it. My guess is over a dozen. In recent years, I have dipped into its pages when I need a bit of freshening. It’s like connecting with a dear friend where they tell the same jokes, and I still laugh, and they share their insights, and I am still amazed. 
"I went to the woods because
I wished to write about Thoreau."I have read a few biographies of Thoreau, but never one that tackles the breadth of his life in the manner of Laura Dassow Walls’ Henry David Thoreau: A Life. This book was a wonderful discovery. Right from the start, when Walls describes her own first encounter with Walden, I knew I was hooked.
Dassow Walls takes time to construct the environment and times in which Thoreau lived. She is also sensitive to how culture has changed since the 19thCentury, so she explains how she will handle topics such as First Nation/Native Americans/Indians.
In practical terms, Thoreau never experienced “success.” While he had been employed as a teacher, a surveyor, a pencil-maker, and a lecturer – and he performed all these jobs with care and professionalism – he never quite established a solid foothold in his desired vocation of writing. He wrote numerous essays – many of which were well-reserved – but he always seemed on the cusp of success. 
He certainly had people in his corner, from Emerson to Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller to Horace Greeley. They all cheered him on, given that he was capable of great things. 
Walden Pond
(not actual size)But here’s the conundrum of Henry David: He really did march to the beat of his own drummer. Thoreau’s integrity was evident in that he wrote what he believed, even if readers might misinterpret it as atheistic or a bit vulgar and unrefined. He was desperate to figure out the Grand Scheme of Nature. He was an uncompromising, unapologetic Transcendentalist. He practiced what he preached.
Thoreau wrestled with big concepts, and his life’s work was figuring out what it all meant -- Life, the Universe, and Everything. Wrought with curiosity and inventiveness, he sank himself into Nature to comprehend what it meant to be alive. His vocation was a Naturalist philosopher who lived by example. 
Friends and family found him endearing, comic, introspective, intriguing, peculiar, and downright weird. Evidently there was something in him that also fostered a great deal of loyalty.
Laura Dassow Walls’ biography treats Thoreau’s life as an existential journey toward the true self. The author’s insights into the meditative, connective tissue of Thoreau’s life guides the reader from the earliest gleanings to the final moments when he was still curious about what life was all about. While she gives solid attention to his Walden years, Dassow Walls recognizes that time period was only part of his journey. Thoreau lived a lot of life before and after he left Walden Pond.
A confession: when I reached Thoreau’s death at the end of the book, I experienced a deep well of grief at his passing. That is a testament to Walls’ ability to bring alive this complicated individual. I have a feeling I will be coming back to Dassow Walls’ work many times to reconnect with my dear friend.

Book Review: From Baghdad, With Love

In November 2004, outside Fallujah in Iraq, members of the First Battalion, Third Marines discover a puppy in an abandoned house. 
Regulations prohibit any service member from adopting or even taking care of an animal, domestic or wild. The standard procedure is to take the animal and shoot it.The theory is that service members cannot be distracted from their duty. They are fighting a war, and they cannot load themselves down with anything that is deemed unnecessary. And a pet is definitely unnecessary. Not only would you have to feed it, you would also be concerned for its safety. From a purely practical viewpoint, a dog is a liability, especially inside a volatile war zone.In spite of this, the Marines take in the puppy, name him Lava. They deworm him and fatten him up on ready-to-eat meals. Lt Col Jay Kopelman immediately begins plans to transport Lava to the states. But how to navigate through regulations, vaccinations, an animal passport, not to mention transporting Lava out of Baghdad and to a safe zone where he can board a plane? Kopelman contacts state-side organizations such as the Helen Woodward Animal Center, who begin coordination with Vohne Liche Kennels and Iams Pet Food. Along the way, NPR journalists agree to puppy-sit and escort Lava into and out of Green and Red Zones in Baghdad. Thus begins the rescue. But whose rescue?To be honest, when I read the premise of this book, I expected a cloyingly sentimental, Disney-esque tale of war-hardened Marines turning into good-hearted souls. Just look at the jacket cover: a sweet-faced, sleeping puppy. But the magic of the book is its focus on fundamental humanity in the face of oppressing odds.
Yes, that still sounds potentially sentimental, but here’s the thing: throughout the book, Kopelman and co-author Melinda Roth address the reality of the violence: IED, mortars, fire fights, and death upon death. They do not shy away from the physical and psychic horror of the war. As a result, they reveal a level of heroism that is not about Hollywood glamour or feel-good moments. Over and over, the rescue should nothappen. Too many things can go wrong, and many times they do, and yet the rescuers continue to rise to the occasion.
Kopelman sounds about as no-nonsense as you can get. He is busy training Iraqis to fight the insurgents and has little patience for their shortcomings. Throughout the book, you feel the piano wire of his frustration. 
And then along comes this puppy. How and why Lava awakens his heart perpetually perplexes the lieutenant colonel. He shouldn’t care, and yet he does. The discovery of something to love and care for produces a profound transformation. He still remains a Marine throughout, but there is no denying that he has rediscovered a part of soul. As with grace, you don’t really need to question why; it simply is.
Kopelman’s reflections are the meat of the story. He describes what it means to be a Marine, something he claims is akin to having a specific gene for it.
Lava and Kopelman
(Kopelman is on the right)

“It’s not because we didn’t belong or didn’t like team sports, and it’s not because we couldn’t afford college or were manipulated by recruiters or dumped by some chick and then had to prove a point…. We didn’t have rotten childhoods, we didn’t hate math, we didn’t bully skinny kids on the playground and didn’t start fires in the garage.
 “And it’s not like we joined up without thinking about it, or like once we got in they didn’t give us time to think about it…. We weren’t coerced We weren’t brain-washed. Our souls weren’t plundered.
 “We just can’t help it.
 “We aren’t cut out for anything else. We were Marines going in and Marines coming out.”

And then there’s the puppy. Kopelman writes, “I really like what I am – a Marine. I like being strong. I like being brave. I like going in first. I want 
to go in first, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anyone shoot my puppy.”

All the heroes of this story – and there are plenty of heroes – face unfathomable odds, and they still persevere. They do something good for a Marine and for a puppy. They do something good for themselves. They are the best of what is humanly possible.
Sounds like a rescue to me.

Book Review: Girls Write Now

Girls Write Now is a writing and mentorship program for underserved female students – 90% high-need and 95% girls of color. They are paired with a mentor who teaches them how to write and to cultivate their voices. The program produces some impressive results: 100% of Girls Write Now seniors go to college, many with scholarships.Recently, the organization released Girls Write Now, a showcase of essays from the first twenty years of the program. And it is a brilliant collection – vibrant and challenging, perceptive and insightful, funny and heartbreaking. And most of all, fearless. These young writers tackle some challenging topics: racism and microaggression, religion and faith, moving to the U.S. With startling honesty, they describe personal experiences that are also universal experiences. On the surface, they may be facing the typical struggles of being a teenager, but they also consider the world that they live in. A world that has grown increasingly complex and dangerous. How do you rise through those obstacles and break the surface to shout to the heavens? You do it by writing with beautifully crafted phrases and piercing imagery. You do it by believing in yourself.Not all the essays focus on struggles. Some are expressions of pure joy. They cheer for their heroes (oftentimes one of their parents). They delight in a meal with family. They celebrate their own brand of quirkiness. I was blown away with admiration for these writers’ craft. Their choice of similes, their precision of detail gave me a clear glimpse into their world. And I admit it: I was envious of their skills. Hey, I wish I’d written that!

“Being a parent, I’m sure, is like slowly diffusing a bomb. You say or do the wrong thing and the child explodes.” (“Bubbly,” Shanille Martin) 

“I have my father’s eyes, eyes that are the color of an oak tree. Eyes that are pulled down by invisible strings on the outermost corners…. Our eyes saw the bleached pillars of Pompeii rise high, fighting other tourists for an inch of shade. Our eyes saw each other stagger up a mountain, sweaty and silent as we pretended that our feet weren’t hurting…. Our eyes see each other.” (“Four Eyes,” Kiara Kerina-Rendina) 

“I was at that age where boys and girls were at the same height and my secondary characteristics hadn’t developed yet, so it was easy to mistake me as a boy.... I was playing basketball with a group of boys, killing them, of course, when a boy asked:
‘Are you a boy or a girl?’
"I swooshed a three before telling him, ‘I’m a girl.’ I was never mistaken again.” (“A Slight Misunderstanding,” Joy Smith) 

“Like a bride on her wedding day, the scriptures abandoned me, left me in solitude at the altar with nothing but the vows of the Bible to accompany me, except now the parchment was just a painful reminder of what we could have been together.” (“Abandoned by Faith,” Laura Rosa Cardona)

I am tempted to keep quoting from individual essays, but I would probably end up quoting the entire collection. Go read it. If you want to believe in the future, if you want to disappear into the prose, if you want to smile, if you want to feel … go read it.Also, check out the website: www.girlswritenow.org

Book Review: How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

A restaurant patron can order a meal from any place in time, so long as they have the precise date.Computer codes track down a rogue “ghost in the machine” bit of programming. A young man encounters the dragons that fight back the evil that unleashes a flood on New Orleans.A caregiver struggles with the moral dilemma of supplying fresh living bodies to the parasitic Masters.The short story collection How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? showcases author N.K. Jemisin’s fertile imagination; each one of the stories conjures up a unique premise that uncovers the human experience.I confess that every time I started a story, I thought, "Wow! What an amazing idea!" As a writer, I want to cultivate premises that take me into undiscovered territories. Jemisin inspires me to keep working.I’m hard put to identifying which story was my favorite, because each time I started a new one, I was immediately drawn in. Jemisin’s writing is crisp, efficient, and evocative. She understands that precision and brevity are the hallmarks of good storytelling. Throw in her rich imagination, and you have stories that will make you delight that you are a reader.Okay, if I have to choose a favorite, I would select “Red Dirt Witch.” Emmaline dreams of the White Lady, who reveals glimpses of the racist struggles in the future. As payment for warding off these visions, the White Lady comes to collect one of Emmaline’s children. In her desperation to save her own daughter, Emmaline must confront her dread of the future by recognizing that the future must be preserved so that her children may fight for justice. In her introduction to the collection, Jemisin describes her frustration that “traditional” speculative fiction is always geared to the white, male audience. Characters of other races or non-binary genders rarely make an appearance, other than as something other-worldly and certainly not as central characters to the stories.Jemisin’s vision is much more inclusive, which makes her stories more representative of how we can see the world. If the stories were only about racism or sexism, they would wind up with a pedantic tone. No amount of message – regardless of how important it is – can make a reader care about an issue if the characters and story are not thoroughly engaging. Jemisin never falters in her art of storytelling.Jemisin is the first African-American author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel, for her novel The Fifth Season (2016). She then went on to win Best Novel in 2017 and 2018 for The Obelisk Disk and The Stone Sky, which makes her the first author ever to win in three consecutive years.The title of her short story collection, How Long 'Til Black Future Month, is taken from an essay she wrote in 2013. The essay is available on Jemisin's website: How Long 'Til Black Future Month. It is essential reading.I am eager to catch up with her other work. 

Book Review: Camber of Culdi

After The Lord of the Rings, there are several fantasies that had a profound impact on me as a teenager.  One of my favorites is Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni series, a collection of five interlocking trilogies that take place in a medieval setting.  The land of Gwynedd definitely has a British feel to it, what with its Protestant high church and the royal court.  Overall, the series reads more like historical fiction than rousing fantasy adventure.
As a race, the Deryni have moderate magical abilities, such as extrasensory perception and in some cases healing skills.  Because of these powers, nonmagical humans tend to be distrustful of Deryni. It’s in this pervasive uneasiness that most of the plots unfold.
Camber of Culdi is the first volume of The Legends of Camber of Culdi trilogy, chronologically the first part of the overall history, though it is the fourth novel that Kurtz wrote.  It follows the efforts of the earl Camber and his family to restore the human Haldane line of kings in the face of the tyrannous reign of King Imre, a Deryni.
Camber’s son Joram and son-in-law Rhys discover the last living descendant of the Haldane line, and they intend to restore him to the throne.  The only problem is that Prince Cinhil is a cloistered monk who has no interest in the material world.  How do you convince someone to forsake their vow to God in order to become a king?
Kurtz is not interested in spectacular swordfights.  She is more interested in the emotional challenges her characters face in terms of racist tension.  Neither humans nor Deryni fully trust one another.  Some humans claim the magical powers of the Deryni must come from the devil, whereas some Deryni consider nonmagical folk as something less than human.
When I read the series as a teenager, I was often frustrated that Prince Cinhil was so reluctant to be released from his religious vows and to become king.  He struck me as a morose stick-in-the-mud.  After all, he was being advised by the magnificent Camber of Culdi, a Deryni mystic who was focusing on the greater good.  In other words, how could Prince Cinhil remain cloistered when he knows that there is a tyrant murdering innocent people?
Katherine KurtzBut when I read the book recently, I picked up on the moral ambiguity that Kurtz is most fascinated with.  Neither humans nor Deryni are angels.  Some are more ethical than others, and certainly many characters act admirably. But there are shades of gray throughout the entire Deryni series.  And that is what makes the stories so compelling.
By today’s standards, Camber of Culdi may seem a bit dry.  But I encourage readers to persevere, because what comes in the second volume (Saint Camber) and the third volume (Camber the Heretic) are worth it.  Kurtz’s storytelling abilities keep getting better and better through each subsequent volume.
One of my reading challenges this year is to make my way through all five trilogies and one stand-alone novel.  It’s fun to rediscover these works.

Book Review: The Old Curiosity Shop

I’ve read all of Dickens’ novels at least once and a few of them multiple times. Over the last few years, I’ve been hitting some of the less popular books for a second go-around.  For 2018, I tackled The Old Curiosity Shop.
Dickens initially wrote a series of stories that were grouped in a magazine called Master Humphrey’s Clock. When he started the story of Little Nell and her grandfather, he soon realized that he wanted to write a novel rather than a story, so he abruptly dispensed with the first-person narrator so he could widen the stage with assorted characters. 

At the time of its publication, The Old Curiosity Shopwas an immense success.  Apparently, people clamoring for the next installment broke the glass of the print shop window.  The popularity even spread to the U.S., where people gathered on the docks in New York to shout to the incoming ships to find out if Little Nell was still alive.
"Oscar Wilde is a jerk."Nowadays, if The Old Curiosity Shopis mentioned at all, it is in comparison to the hysteria surrounding the Harry Potterseries.
It’s also remembered for Oscar Wilde’s quote: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.”
As for the story itself, it follows the adventures of Nell and her grandfather who have gone into debt at the hands of the villainous moneylender, Daniel Quilp. They lose their Curiosity Shop and hightail it out of London.  Along the way, they encounter a Punch-and-Judy show, a touring wax work exhibit, and a lonely school teacher.
Much of the second half of the novel follows the moneylender Quilp, who delights in tormenting people, including his own lawyer, as well as a good-hearted lad, Kit, a close friend of Nell.  As with any Dickens’ novel, the villain gets his come-uppance in the end, but along the way he proves most dastardly.
Unfortunately, the book is saturated with maudlin sentimentality.  Readers are expected to sympathize with Nell’s plight, given how she sacrifices everything to protect her grandfather, which sounds good in theory; given what the character goes through, you shouldfeel for her.
And yet I didn’t.  I got bored with her sweetness.  She is one of Dickens’ angels, practically a cypher when it comes to character depth. Her grandfather is little better. He suffers from a gambling addiction, which is the cause of all of their problems.  But that is about the extent of his characterization as well.
Dickens had a talent for giving his characters evocative names, so I wonder why he didn’t bother in The Old Curiosity Shop.  The lack of names waters down the novel with placeholders rather than actual people.  Here’s a partial list of the nameless ones:
GrandfatherHis younger brotherThe two sisters from the schoolThe little scholarThe schoolmaster (who eventually is given a name)The Old GentlemanThe SextonNell’s little friend in the final townQuilp’s servant boy (who eventually is given a name)
The two most memorable characters are Daniel Quilp and Dick Swiveller. These are the only ones who are given any sort of internal life.
As a character, Quilp is problematic by today’s standards.  Described as a dwarf with an overly large head and bent legs, he smokes himself into a stupor and eats chicken legs whole.  He grimaces and mugs and generally terrifies people with his antics, and his villainy is made manifest in his “deformity.”  
Dickens could have suggested Quilp’s twisted nature through his behavior, but to focus so much on the “grotesque” features of the man makes the portrayal decidedly unpleasant.  The only justification to this portrayal that I’ve come across is that Nell’s adventures are set in a sort of circus world, filled with performers and oddities. That’s about the only lens that helps, but even still, it’s not enough to dispel the warped depiction of the novel’s primary villain.
Dick Swiveller, a spendthrift lay-about, proves to be a bit of a hero.  He owes money to every shop-keeper, and he quotes snatches of poetry.  He pines for a lost love (possibly).  And he proves observant enough to catch on to Quilp’s schemes.  His maturation throughout the novel from a pseudo-villain to a hero is quite charming.
While Dickens does excel in his descriptions of places and in the quirky nature of his characters’ lives, overall The Old Curiosity Shopis rather a bore.  It feels like Dickens leaps out of a plane and tries to construct a parachute on the way down.  He manages to land, but the journey down is definitely not smooth.

The Top Twelve Books (I've Read) of 2018

In previous years, I’ve limited my Best Of list to 10 books, but this time around, I had to go for a dozen.
Out of the 50 odd books I read each year, there are usually several standouts, plenty of solid reads, and a few misses.  2018 proved a good year for reading, because most of the books were vying for the top spots.  There were only one or two duds overall, and that was due primarily to poor editing and pacing.

Here are my 12 favorites:
The Genius of BirdsJennifer Ackerman
I totally geeked out over this book.  Fascinating research, interesting theories, and plenty of nifty facts about how birds do their bird-thing.  From problem-solving crows to inventive sparrows, crafty mockingbirds and milk-stealing zebra-finches, this book covers amazing material about intelligence and how it is defined.





Stories Doris Lessing
First off, a confession.  One of my favorite novelists is A.S. Byatt (see below), and I knew that she had a sister who was also a writer (Margaret Drabble).  While browsing a bookstore, I confused Doris Lessing with Margaret Drabble, and wound up with this collection of short stories.  A momentous find!  Lessing’s use of language is a masterclass in itself, plus her crafting of her stories is something that all writers can learn from.  Whereas oftentimes short stories focus on one pivotal event in a character’s life, Lessing’s stories take their time so that her characters learn a little bit about themselves and then a little more, emphasizing that insight is rarely a flashbulb moment but rather something much more nuanced.  An amazing read.

You Don’t Even Know Meand The Skin I’m InSharon G. Flake
A two-for-one.  It’s a tough call to name one book as better than the other, but if I had to choose, I would select You Don’t Even Know Me, only because this is the one that introduced me to Flake’s talents.  She drops her characters into identifiable situations and allows them to face challenges in realistic ways.  Plus, she is a fine wordsmith.  More please.




Six FourHideo Yokoyama
A police procedural set in the bureaucracy of a Japanese district.  The story follows the director of media in a police station who becomes involved in the cold case kidnapping of a young girl. Much of the novel follows his pursuit through a network of political rivalries and bureaucratic blockades as he deals with the disappearance of his own daughter.  Highly recommended.




Pilgrim at Tinker CreekAnnie Dillard
I’ve lost track of the number of times I have read Thoreau’s Walden.  When a friend heard me praising that book, he recommended Dillard’s Pilgrim.  Poetic language blends with scientific observations to create a meditation on environment, biology, and our connection to the natural world.  This is a book I will come back to again and again.  It’s my new Walden.




The Real Life of Marian Evans:  George Eliot, Her Letters and FictionRosemarie Bodenheimer
George Eliot is one of my favorite authors, so it’s no surprise that I’ve read a few biographies about her.  Bodenheimer’s book does not focus on the chronological details of Eliot’s life. Instead, it offers an analysis of key points in the author’s life as they are addressed in her private correspondence and novels.  Plenty of keen observations about Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, and The Mill on the Floss that offer a slightly different lens on viewing these works.



Stories of Your Life and OthersTed Chiang
A collection of sci-fi stories that address metaphysical questions, such as first contact with an alien race (bring in the linguists!) or building the Tower of Babylon and what happens if you reach heaven.  Clever and thoughtful.







The Three-Body ProblemLiu Cixin
Another sci-fi novel that also addresses issues of first contact.    The Three-Body Problem uses questions regarding physics and astronomy to pose the challenges facing an alien race which must migrate to another planet to survive.  But the true focus of the novel is on the humans who have made first contact and how they view the arrival of another species as the necessary judgment against how humans have mishandled society.  This story also harks back to some of Doris Lessing’s science fiction novels, which are more about society and less about science.  There are two other books in the series:  The Dark Forest and Death's End.


An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on EarthCol. Chris Hadfield
Lots of space-related winners this year.  Col. Hadfield proved to be a YouTube phenom with his mini science lessons on-board the International Space Station (ISS).  In this memoir/self-help book, he describes what skills are required to become an astronaut and how to meet the unexpected challenges of living on the ISS.  All these skills are applicable to everyday life on earth, so pay attention.  A fun read.



The Sweetness at the Bottom of the PieAlan Bradley
Flavia de Luce is a sleuth who knows a thing or two about poisons.  She is also 11 years old.  Bradley has created a vibrant character who commands this story (as well as multiple sequels).  Her enthusiasm makes her highly observant as well as extraordinarily brave and quite witty. Pure entertainment.





A People’s History of Chicago Kevin Coval
Taking Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States as a model, Coval tackles the often-times overlooked or marginalized history of Chicago.  Self-described as a breakbeat poet, Coval offers up 77 poems (one for each of Chicago’s neighborhoods) that jazz on Harold Washington, Jane Addams, Studs Terkel, Fred Hampton, and many others.  Entertaining, informative, and definitely challenging when it highlights racism, classism, and all sorts of other -isms that have kept Chicago decidedly segregated.  But his poems also celebrate the heroes we have not yet learned enough about.
Here’s the complete list of books I’ve read in 2018:
The Genius of Birds, Jennifer AckermanI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya AngelouThe ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ Book, Jeanine BasingerDeath is a Lonely Business, Ray BradburyThe Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan BradleyThe Cat Who Played Brahms, Lilian Jackson BraunThe Biographer’s Tale, A.S. ByattJunky, William S. BurroughsIn Cold Blood, Truman CapoteStories of Your Life, Ted ChiangDie Trying, Lee ChildThe Three-Body Problem, Liu CixinBarely Breathing, Pamela ClareThe Man in the High Castle, Philip K. DickThe Old Curiosity Shop, Charles DickensPilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie DillardThe Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, David EdgarDangerous Minds, Janet EvanovichThe Black Stallion, Walter FarleyThe Skin I’m In, Sharon G. FlakeYou Don’t Even Know Me, Sharon G. FlakeJudith Guest’s Ordinary People, Nancy GilsenenAn Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Chris HadfieldThe Homecoming, Earl Hamner, Jr.Invisible Life, E. Lynn HarrisMisty of Chincoteague, Marguerite HenryAll Creatures Great and Small, James HerriotSelected Poems, Langston HughesFinders Keepers, Stephen KingA Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’EngleStories, Doris LessingUltimate Voiceover!, Jeff LupetinA Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, Lee MendelsohnThe City and the City, China MievilleStickeen, John MuirDog Songs, Mary OliverMy Life in Dog Years, Gary PaulsenFantastic Beasts: The Original Screenplay, J.K. RowlingThe Golden Gate, Vikram SethThree Doors to Death, Rex StoutGhosts, Raina TelgemeierThe Other, Thomas TryonVinegar Girl, Anne TylerMary Poppins, P.L. TraversMary Poppins Comes Back, P.L. TraversIn a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth WareBirdy, William WhartonBend, Kivrin WilsonWordsworth, William WordsworthTony and Susan, Austin WrightSix Four, Hideo Yokoyama

Book Review: The Genius of Birds

In the alley behind my apartment, a nest of monk parakeets built a four-foot tall nest against an electrical transformer, ostensibly to keep warm through the Chicago winter.  Their squawking drove my cats into fits.
Think about it:  Monk parakeets, which originate in Argentina, are surviving in the Windy City, not the most temperate climate in the US.  How is that possible?  It must take some genius.
Hence, Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds.  


Ackerman’s book does not address the Chicago parakeets’ adaptability, but it does probe all sorts of curious abilities that birds possess.  Exactly how does a bird learn to sing?  Why are some species better problem-solvers than others?  Do birds innately know how to migrate or must they construct a mental roadmap?
I admit that I’m not much of a bird-watcher.  Typically, I notice birds as harbingers of spring, when they wake me at 4 am with their songs.  And I do find it exciting to spot a less ubiquitous species in my neighborhood.
But after reading Ackerman’s book, I'm hooked.  
Birds of all species exhibit degrees of intelligence that surprisingly match some of the methodology that humans use.  Birds can figure out puzzles, identify paintings by particular artists, recognize human faces, orient themselves in new environments, and pick up on subtle non-verbal communication from their mates.
But can you measure a bird’s intelligence against a human’s?  Are they comparable?  According to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, there are eight types of intelligence, ranging from bodily, linguistic, logical, spatial, and musical.  Apparently, birds and humans share some of the same measures.
For example, a New Caledonian Crow, named “007”, exhibited some impressive cognitive ability.  Presented with various stones and sticks, it picked out tools to access special chambers to secure a cube of meat.  007 had seen pieces of the puzzle before but never in this particular 8-step configuration.  In 2 ½ minutes, 007 figured it out and won the prize.
Birds have been shown to adapt to their environments.  Sparrows can figure out how to trigger a sensor above an automatic door so they could gain access to a mall food court.  Finches discovered how to pop the lid off of milk bottles to steal the cream.
Ackerman writes:

“Birds know where to sing and when.  In the open, sound travels best a few feet or so above the vegetation, so birds sing from perches to reduce interference.  Those singing on the forest floor use tonal sounds and lower frequencies than those singing in the canopy.  Some use frequencies that avoid the noise from insects and traffic. Birds living near airports sing their dawn chorus earlier than normal to reduce overlap with the roar of airplanes.”

"Bird-brain is a misnomer." That’s pretty amazing stuff.  Another example is that zebra finches which sing more complicated songs are also better problem-solvers:  the better singers could also figure out how to get the lid off of a food container.
Bird song itself is remarkable.  A bird either learns its melody by listening and practicing its song or is coached by a parent.  Birds can replicate a complicated melody better than a human can repeat a set phrase. Researcher Richard Mooney had a graduate student repeat a simple sentence one hundred times.  He then compared the spectrogram next to that of a bird’s song.  

“No matter how hard the diligent student tries, his replications of his own syllables are wildly variable.  The zebra finch’s are nearly identical.”

Ackerman’s book is chock full of fascinating studies, as well as explorations of behaviors and traits.  Clearly researchers are picking up clues about the special abilities of birds, but also determining how it relates to human intelligence.
I had only two complaints about the book, and these are negligible:
1)    The book was so fascinating that I was reading it too quickly.  There was such a wealth of information that I could not retain it all.  I will definitely have to re-read it (not a hardship).2)    I wish there had been pictures of the different species of birds, just for general reference. But I suppose that is what search engines are for.
I already know that this book will be on my Top Ten list at the end of the year. It’s that good.

Stage Directions

I open a Word document and prepare to write this blog.  I pause to consider my opening sentence, and during that pause I take a sip of Starbucks coffee.  The addition of Half-n-Half smooths out the inherent bitterness.  I set the cup down and place my fingertips on the keyboard, and I begin typing ...

There is a vast difference between action and stage directions.  Action advances the plot.  It informs the reader about the nature of the characters.  It drives the story onward.  Stage directions, on the other hand, are mere descriptors about what a character does.  It is the day-to-day activities that we all engage in; thus, it is not terribly informative.  It places a character in a situation, describes what she is doing, and yet tells us nothing that advances the story. 
I am currently reading a novel in which the author spends an infuriating amount of time on stage directions.  In one scene, the main character takes out a cutting board, picks up a knife, selects a tomato, slices the tomato, sets it aside, picks up a red onion, peels it, chops it, etc., ad nauseum. 
There is a point to the scene:  the character cuts her hand on the knife and must get stitches, which leads to a significant encounter.  Technically the scene advances the plot.  However, I do not need to know the precise sequence in which she chops the vegetables, only the moment in which she cuts her hand.  A bit of efficiency would have served the pacing better.
The novel is not aspiring to be Literature with a capital L.  It is intended to be an enjoyable page-turner.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I am not critiquing the lightness of the tale, but I do take exception to the wasted words in a needlessly lengthy novel.
I suspect that stage directions give the illusion of action.  The reader’s eye moves across the page, from line to line.  It gives the sense of verisimilitude to the story because it takes the reader the same amount of time to read as it does for the character to complete a task.  In effect, stage directions are a sort of place-holder until the real action occurs.
Earlier this year, I read a collection of Doris Lessing short stories.  By today’s standards, the stories might appear slow-paced, yet Lessing uses language efficiently.  She does not waste words on simple acts, unless they are vital to the story.  Her characters often experience an incident which sets in motion a series of actions, which inform the reader of the many layers in the characters’ lives.  There are no single epiphanies of insight, as though life were boiled down to solitary acts.  Rather, her world unfolds naturally, so you get a sense of the day-to-day lives of the characters without being told they drank coffee this morning, and on the next page, they drank coffee the next morning, unless that is crucial to the story.
Another way to think about the difference between stage directions and actions is through word count.  Most novels run between 60,000 and 100,000 words.  In effect, an author has an allotment of words in which to tell a story.  If the writer uses up 10,000 on stage directions across the course of the book, that is a significant amount of words that could have been put to better use.  Or better yet, dispense with them altogether if they are unnecessary.
Not all stories need to be Literature with a capital L.  Even a light, frothy story can be efficiently told without boring the reader with superfluous details.  I would much rather read a well-crafted, 80K page-turner than a baggy one at 90K.

Book Review: Die Trying

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novel, Die Trying, is written in short declarative sentences.  The sentences impart information.  The reader registers the information.  The plot advances.
The story begins with three armed men kidnapping FBI agent Holly Johnson outside a dry cleaning store in Chicago.  Innocent bystander Jack Reacher is captured as well.  Reacher and Holly are transported to a separatist military base in Montana where the commander, Beau Borken, plans to have the community secede from the U.S.  His intention is to use Holly as a leveraging tool against the U.S. government.  
Meanwhile, the FBI tracks Holly to Montana.  Unbeknownst to the FBI, there is a moll in the operation who notifies Borken of everything the FBI is about to do. 
In a race against time, Jack Reacher must use his military training to assist Holly in escaping the compound before Borken and his fanatics exact their true plan. 
From a story standpoint, Die Trying is entertaining.  Child keeps the action foremost, and he nicely builds the tension as the puzzle pieces come into place.  Reacher himself is an interesting character; his skill set is enormous without being superhuman.  He has learned to be observant and to pull together clues about what is going on.  To escape, he does a fair amount of killing, without turning into Rambo.  His moral compass is definitely  not rigid, as he must struggle with choices of whether to kill or not.
Child makes an effort to give Holly depth as well.  She is resourceful, tough, and sharply intelligent, and she is skillful enough to be instrumental in her own breakout.  I suspect the author’s intention is to make Holly fiercely spirited; Child has all the FBI agents who work with Holly apparently respect her for her intellect, but they also never overlook how beautiful she is.  All her character traits – even her physical strength – are seen through the male lens.  Would she be less valuable if she lacked beauty or wasn’t so smart?
As a villain, Beau Borken is intriguingly charismatic, albeit sickly sadistic.  At first, he comes across as highly intelligent.  He has put together a curious plan to initiate his community’s secession from the U.S.  But as Jack Reacher undermines his plans, Borken all but devolves into a spittle-spewing sociopath, and by the end of the novel he apparently lacks the wit to pull off his intended coup.
Back to those declarative sentences:  Jack Reacher has an eye for detail.  He is constantly observing and assessing information so as to make the most informed decisions about escape.  Child uses language that is primarily informative, rather than emotive, which allows the reader to absorb the clues much in the same way as Reacher.  Like a murder mystery, there are hints along the way, so the reader has to pay attention.  Also, the declarative sentences help the reader empathize with Reacher’s perspective. 
One problem with declarative sentences is that not all information is essential to the story:

“Five o’clock in the summer, the afternoon sun streamed in through the walls of windows and gave the people arriving in the room a choice.  If they sat facing the windows, they got the sun in their eyes and squinted through the meeting and ended up with a blinding headache.  And the sun overpowered the air conditioning; so if they sat backs to the window, they got heated up to a point where it got uncomfortable and they started worrying about whether their deodorant was still OK at five o’clock in the afternoon.  A tough choice, but the top option was to avoid the headache and take the risk of heating up.  So the early attendees took the seats on the window side.”

If this situation was from a single character’s perspective, it would tell the reader something about him or her.  But the generalized take on where this cast of extras chooses to sit doesn’t really advance the story.  There are plenty of instances in the novel of people walking across rooms, picking up phones, sitting in chairs – specific action-related details that are really just stage directions.  As a reader, I don’t need to know that someone had to cross a room to pick up a phone; you can just tell me that the person answered it on the first ring.
Other times, Child’s focus on detail is fascinating.  For instance, he describes the process of firing a rifle.  Not simply the action required, but also the physics of how a rifle works: 

“Firing a sniper rifle over a long distance is a confluence of many things.  It starts with chemistry.  It depends on mechanical engineering.  It involves optics and geophysics and meteorology.  Governing everything is human biology.”

Child then proceeds to give the specifics of the physics so that you are experiencing the moment with Reacher’s depth of knowledge. 
Then there are the shoulder shrugs.  Characters are constantly shrugging their shoulders in response to a question, a comment, or an observation.  If someone is unsure what they might discover, they shrug.  If they are asked a question, and the answer is not as hopeful as you might want, they shrug.  At first, it is primarily Jack Reacher who shrugs, but then so do the FBI agents, and so does Holly, and so do all the other characters.  If it had been a sole trait of a particular character, it would not have been as prominent, but once everyone is doing it, it makes the characters all appear to have the same degree of closed-lipped stoicism. 
In summary, lots of shrugging goes on in Die Trying.  I intended to count the number of times someone shrugs, but then, well, … [shrug].