10 posts tagged “books”

Here's an interview with Beth Ashley, the doyenne of the local media, about the launching of her book, Harlot's Sauce.  I was here when Patricia showed up on Vox, but did not come across her blog until just about a year ago.  As any of you who have her in your neighborhood know, Patricia is a must-read.  Not only is Patricia smart, witty and eloquent, she is an active member of the community, who is fond of highlighting other Voxers whose writings she admires.  It would be fair to say that several of my neighbors came to my attention through her highlighting of them.  Not to mention her venture of the same name as her book, Harlot's Sauce Radio. 

You can imagine my surprise when I found out that she actually lives in the same town as my parents, in the county on the other side of the country in which I was born and raised.  My mother actually was able to attend a book-launch party for Harlot's Sauce, and had a chance to meet Patricia.  She informed me that Patricia is a very beautiful woman, and all but lamented the fact that she is happily married.  My mother is no fool, and is a shrewd judge of people.  She saw not just the obvious beauty of this woman, she saw her heart.  I was once the recipient of a compliment like that.  The first time I met my (now ex-)wife's grandmother, who in the Lebanese tradition was referred to as Sittu, I walked over to her and sat down next to her to chat.  When Eleanor came out of the kitchen after saying hello to her aunt, Sittu looked at her and said "I like this boy.  You should marry him." 

I don't know if Sittu was right about me, but I know my mother is right about Patricia.  If you are in my neighborhood, or even if you are just passing through, do yourself a favor.  Go over to Patricia's blog, and start reading.  You won't regret it.  Oh, and if her blog is any indication, you need to buy her new book.

 

 

Taking this parameter of the top 100 books from Hapa Love.  She suggests using the Modern Library list.  So, here goes:

 

 

 

1) Bold: I have read.
2) Italics: Those I intend to read.
3) Underline: Books I love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. 
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track dow these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them

 

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS  A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D. H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A.(trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E. M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T.  Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36. ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton  Wilder
38. HOWARDS END by E. M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D. H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D. H. Lawrence
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE by John Cheever
64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J. D. Salinger
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS by V. S. Naipaul
73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E. M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V. S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E. L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J. P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

Total read: 59

Total read and loved: 23

Total intending to read:  17

Total no interest in reading:  8

Total either don't know, or ambivalent about reading:  16. 

Which one book do you wish everyone in your life would read?

This book literally changed my life.  I was a junior in high school when I read it.  I had read other books by Eiseley, initially because he was one of the few men with my first name (although mine has an "i").  But he was a poet masquerading as a scientist, so I was drawn to his writings just by the quality. 

I had decided, when I was ten years old, that I wanted to be an archaeologist.  So, in my junior year of high school, I was starting to narrow down which schools I wanted to attend.  By then, I had it down to Harvard, Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Florida, and Arizona State.  Harvard got knocked out, when my teacher/mentor refused to write me a recommendation there.  (In retrospect, I agree with his decision).  Arizona State was sort of my fall-back choice, and USF had offered me a full scholarship for underwater archaeology.  Then I read All the Strange Hours, Eiseley's memoir.  What an incredible book.  I recommend it to anyone who knows me just on the basis of superb writing.  But that isn't why the book changed my life.  In the book, Eiseley talked about his time at Penn, and I realized that I could actually take classes from this giant of a man.

I literally applied only to Penn.  After having been rejected, and having talked them into changing their minds, (that's another story), I found myself on the other coast from my lifetime home of California, having chosen Penn sight unseen.  Indeed, I was the first member of my family to go East since the Civil War.

My freshman year, I was too shy to enroll in one of Eiseley's classes.  Besides, I thought, I needed to get my freshman requirements out of the way.  But he was teaching a class in the history of science in the first semester of my sophomore year, and I was determined to take the class.

Eiseley died that summer.  I never met him, never took a class with him.  It was, at the time, one of the great disappointments of my life.  But it is altogether likely that, without having read this book, I would not have gone to Penn in the first place.  And Philadelphia would not now be my home, and the place I met my (ex-) wife, and saw my son come into the world.  I have no idea what my life would be now.  Perhaps, on some other parallel dimension, there is a Lorin who was less shy, and met his inspiration.  What was that experience like for him?  Was is earth-shattering?  Or disappointing, as he found his idol with feet of clay?  And what of the Lorin who never read this book?  Is he diving for gold in the Caribbean now?

Our lives are driven, sometimes, as if by drunken drivers, in directions we cannot predict, by what may seem like ephemera to others.  I do not in any way regret where I find myself today.  For that happenstance, I remain grateful to Loren Eiseley for writing this book for me to read.  I leave you with a brief excerpt from the first chapter:

Make no mistake.  Everything in the mind is in rat's country.  It doesn't die.  They are merely carried, these disparate memories, back and forth in the desert of a billion neurons, set down, picked up, and dropped again by mental pack rats.  Nothing perishes, it is merely lost till a surgeon's electrode starts the music of an old player piano whose scrolls are dust.  Or you yourself do it, tossing in the restless nights, or even in the day on a strange street where a burdy-gurdy plays.  Nothing is lost, but it can never be again as it was.  You will only find the bits and cry out because they were yourself.  Nothing can begin again and go right, but still it is you, your mind, picking endlessly over the splintered glass of a mirror dropped and broken long ago.  That is all time is at the end when you are old -- a splintered glass.  I should have never gone to that place, never accepted the engagement, never have spoken under the lights of their brand-new auditorium.

It still gives me shivers to read that. 

I was tagged the other day by Tamzen, but have been under the weather lately.  Here, belatedly, is my list.  If you are reading this, and are so inclined, feel free to carry the torch after me.

1.  I am left-handed.  Hardly extraordinary.  But I had to fight for the right to remain so.  When I was in first grade and second grade, my parents were flush enough, for a time, to send us three kids to a private school.  It was called "3R School" (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetics).  Actually quite a good school.  When my parents pulled us out after a couple of years, and I ended up in a public 3rd grade class, I was two years ahead of the class.  They used the old "McGuffey's Readers."  Aside from the old fashioned bigotry, excellent teaching aids. 

The school was old fashioned in another way.  It believed in breaking the students who were left-handed, and making them right-handed.  My brother was originally left-handed, and is now right-handed.  I was more stubborn than he was.  I refused to comply with the demand to switch.  The first time, I was put in the hall, and the principal came by to explain that this demand was non-negotiable.  I agreed.  The next time, I was put in the hall again.  This time, the principal told me that if I refused a third time, I would be suspended.  (Remember now, I'm 6 at this point.)  I went home, and told my parents.  They called the school, and threatened to sue, bless them.  The school backed down, but essentially refused to teach me penmanship.  My cursive is so bad, that I print when I write.  And that is often no picnic either.  But it's a small price to pay for my freedom.

2.  I was watching when Bobby was killed.  I was 9 years old, nearly 10.  Because of my family background, I was fascinated by politics.  (My mom ran Goldwater's campaign in Northern California).  So, I was watching TV, alone, as Bobby gave his victory speech in that hotel ballroom.  "On to Chicago!"  And then the nightmare unfolded.  Now, I wasn't raised in a Democratic family.  And I was still young enough that issues like race and poverty, living as I did in a wealthy, mostly white community, hadn't touched my conscience.  (Beyond caring about Biafra, and trick-or-treating for UNICEF.)  It was only later that I came to appreciate what Bobby was talking about.  But I remember that night like it was yesterday.

3.  I have held human bone in my hands.  I spent several summers working as an archaeologist, and went to college for the purpose of following that profession.  When I was 10, my fifth grade teacher, Miss Symmes, came to the class to ask for volunteers.  A new development was being built down the road from the school, and they had come across a Miwok Indian burial.  Cal Berkeley had sent a team of archaeologists over, but the developers only agreed to give them a few days to get everything out.  (There are laws now).  I went to the site with some other students, and was given a standing sifter to shake and examine.  It was wonderfully exciting.  At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

4.  I got lost at the zoo on my birthday.  When I was a young child, my family took us all to the San Francisco zoo for my birthday.  I don't know what happened.  I was looking at the spider monkeys.  When I looked up, my family was gone.  They eventually realized they had lost me, but not a big confidence booster.  Not as bad as the time my brother gave me a table fork for my birthday, and not as good as the time my mother got me caviar and Swiss fondue for a birthday party with friends.  Ranks in the bottom quarter of birthdays.

5.  I had my first formal date when I was 7.  Her name was Karen Penhaligon.  She and I were in the same class at 3R in the second grade.  She was a cute little blonde pixie; think Coppertone Girl a few years later.  Her mom asked my mom if we could have a picnic together at the Mount Tamalpais Mountain Theater.  We went, and had a nice time.  I was in love.  As I mentioned earlier, I left 3R after the second grade, and I lost touch with Karen.  The next time I saw her was entirely coincidental.  I was taking my SATs, and I heard her name while roll was being taken.  I looked over, and there was this statuesque beauty.  I was feeling pretty grungy that day, and not terribly self-confident.  So I didn't go over to re-introduce myself.  I have no idea if she remembered me.

6.  I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy over Easter break when I was 8.  Well, I was almost 9.  My family rented a house down at the Sea Drift community in Stinson Beach, on the Pacific Ocean in Marin.  I loved being there.  But I had just finished the Hobbit, and decided to start reading The Fellowship of the Ring.  Once I started, forget about vacation, the beach, the ocean, eating.  I was in a trance.  I didn't stop reading until I had reached the end of the appendices.  It took me about four days.  That's an average of about 300 pages a day.  I reread the trilogy again every year, until I went to college.

7.  I have a genius IQ, but cannot speak any foreign language.  Frankly, I don't really care about the "genius" thing.  It just means I'm good at taking certain types of tests.  I've known a few Mensa people over the years, all of whom have been either boring or boorish.  (I stand willing to meet an exception to my experience to date.)  But I do really care about my not being able to speak or even barely understand any language beyond English.  I feel deficient.

8.  I need to touch things as I walk.  It's a sensory thing.  As I'm walking, every once in a while, I need to brush the fingers of my right hand against a wall, a post, a car, whatever.  One nice thing about having my son is that we almost always walk with me holding his hand with my right hand.  That seems to assuage my need just fine.

 

Not much of any note to report this week, but did finish three paltry books: Here is the first, such as it is:

 

This book was a pickup from the local thrift store.  I know, I know, what a schmaltzy piece of nonsense this movie is.  But I like it anyway.  The book was written by the head of the Somewhere in Time fan club.  Little know facts to those not obsessed with the movie:

The original setting of the book on which the story was based, Bid Time Return, was the Hotel del Coronado, near San Diego.  When making the movie, the director chose to use the Grand Hotel, on Mackinac Island, in Michigan, to shoot the movie.  The original location was surrounded by wires and modern upgrades which did not fit the story line.

The original choice to star as the male lead was Richard Dreyfuss, who declined.  Thank God for small favors.

This is Maude Adams, the actual actress upon whom the Jane Seymour character was based:

The author of the book also was the author of another book based on love, which was made into a film:

I will detail the rest tomorrow.  Right now, it's time to take my son home from school.  How is it he has no temperature in the morning before going to school, and has one by 10:30?

 

Books finished this weekend:

 Found this at a thrift store this weekend.  For anyone who doesn't know, this was written by Ann Rice, under the pseudonym she used for erotica. Figured I'd check it out, particularly since her books in this genre actually outsold Interview with a Vampire.   If this is a genre which interests you, particularly B&D erotica, I would give it a C+.  Pretty formulaic and unoriginal.  First book of a trilogy based very loosely on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.  Not as interesting as Brothers Grimm, not as truly erotic as The Story of O, and not as nasty as De Sade.  (This is not a regular category for me, but I admit having read the latter two in my college days).  I can now say I have read Rice's erotica, and can cross that permanently off the list.  Don't waste your time.

  Historical fiction centered around the life of Simon de Montfort, who defied Henry III, and is considered generally to have been one of the most important leaders of his day.  Often considered an early advocate of representative democracy, which may overstate his position.  The book also follows the struggle of Wales to remain free of English rule.  This has always been a modest blank spot in my knowledge, and I found out recently that I am actually a descendant of Simon.  Penman is a perfectly competent historical novelist.  I would not put her in Mary Renault's class as a writer, but she can weave a tale nonetheless.  I would recommend this, the second of a trilogy mostly centered on Wales.

Clever little diatribe about how bothersome children can be.  As the father of a holy terror, I had to shake my head from time to time.  Good perspective for first-time parents as to how adorable their kids aren't to other people.  If there is an underlying message, it is that most parents need a refresher course in courtesy to their friends and peers.  Often funny, rarely untrue.

Here, to the best of my recollection, are the rest of the books I've read so far this year:

1. 

Nice book on how not to look like an idiot when visiting France.  Which I hope to do this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

 

A gift from HapaLove, which I hope will prove useful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

 

Once again, thanks HapaLove.  You are a pearl of great price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.

 

Total bubblegum, it concerns corporate espionage.  Notable mostly for how quickly the world has changed.  None of the action in the book would have survived the advent of the cellular phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.

 

Faux Sherlock Holmes, from the screenwriter for The Seven Percent Solution.  I would tell the the bones of the plot, but it would ruin it for you.  Although I suspect reading the first 25 pages will suffice to let you know what's going to happen.  Set in Paris after the action in the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. 

 

Ultimately a very sad book.  Sad to think that the story contains the kernels of truth as to the neglectful childhood available to the children of wealth.  But funny if taken as straight fiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.

 

I buy a lot of used cookbooks.  One day I hope to own my own B&B, so I want to be fully prepared.  This book is notable not just for the fine recipes, but for the humanity of the writing between the recipes.

I joined this group late last year, with the intention to keep a log of what I've read.  Not doing so well with that so far, so time to remedy that.  This first installment includes the books I remember off the top of my head, from the last couple of weeks.  I'll go back to my shelves and update as I remember more.

1. 

This book is a remembrance of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the last century.  The writer passes along the memories of her mother, who passed away at age 99, a survivor.  Interspersed among those memories are vignettes of interplay between the daughter and the mother, which are sweet and moving. 

I highly recommend this book, especially if one has no knowledge of that period of history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

Written by Snorri Sturluson nearly 800 years ago, this is the story of Harald Hardradi, last Viking king to invade England.  He was killed by Harold Godwinson two weeks before Harold himself was killed at the battle of Hastings.  Interesting, if light reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

Ruminations on simplifying one's perspective on life.  Useful book for anyone who reads to facilitate meditation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. 

I admit it.  I've been on a saga kick lately.  This is one man's attempt to capture the glory of the Portuguese push toward empire, in a manner owing much to Vergil.  Not bad, especially for one not well read on Portuguese history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. 

A few hundred maxims on how to move through life successfully, from a 17th century Jesuit priest.  If you were interested in the works of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu or Castiglione, this belongs in your library.  An interesting mixture of grace and cynicism.  Hardly noble, but not as ruthless as Machiavelli.

Swiped at in a general tag by dewitte.

 

 

1. Grab your nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. Tag 5 different people.

 

I'm at work, so I don't have a lot of books here.

I do have Blind Date. written by Jerzy Kosinski.  Haven't read it yet; it was a gift from a friend.  I do admire his book The Painted Bird.

Here goes:

Madame Ramoz explained that she had come to New York on behalf of her husband, the President, to address a Press Club luncheon the following day.

American newspapers had been publishing articles and editorials highly critical of the President, she said, reporting that on the pretext of fighting Communist rebels he had established martial law and that he was suppressing political opposition to his dictatorial rule through merciless arrests.  As the economy of her country depended on American investments and its safety on American military aid, Madame Ramoz admitted one of the main purposes of her visit to the States was to present the truth and to counteract whaat she termed the antagonistic, Communist-inspired, liberal attacks on her husband, who had made the Republic of Deltazur a bastion of democracy and freedom.

I tag:

R.G. Ryan

Cori

Hapa Love

Patricia Volonakis Davis

Steve Betz

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show us what's on your nightstand.
Submitted by Mike E.

I am often working on several books at once.  These are the ones on the nightstand right now:

 AA Big Book.  A constant.  Part of my practice of prayer and meditation.

 The Lusiads.  This is the Portuguese national epic poem, written by a soldier of fortune in the late 1500s.  I love epics; just hadn't gotten around to this one yet.

I hope to go to Paris next spring.  I want to be prepared.