While doing my reading on Ernest Hemingway, I found this quote of his. Every memory soon becomes fiction. I guess looking back is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. This thought manifested itself this past weekend when I went to Texas to visit with my sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews. But let me digress. My father's side of the family is large. He had 6 brothers and sisters and with most of them living and fighting through Dubyah Dubyah Two, post war, they went forth and multiplied. Produced quite a few baby boomers they did. When my father was still alive and we would have family reunions, the most frequently shouted phrase between he and his siblings was, "you don't know what you're talking about!" At those reunions, the person who got heard was the one who shouted above the fray. It inevitably was about a memory one aunt or uncle had that the others did not agree with. When I met with my cousins, one brought up the fact that my two aunts didn't know what to do about their memories and wondered if they were still correct, and they so wished their brother, my Uncle C, was still alive because he was the arbitrator of "the truth". It pains me to say this, but one of these days my beloved aunts and uncle will no longer be with us to tell us tales of their growing up. Of their life during the depression or what it was like to live through "the war" years or humorus stories about my dear grandma and grandpa. I don't care if their memories are somewhat skewed. They are my heritage and they become my memories.
As my mother once told me, "one of these days you will be the senior generation." OMG. So it was very interesting when I had my reunion with my family and how easily the words came out from the future "senior generation": "you don't know what you're talking about!" Every memory does soon become fiction...Thanks a pant load Ernest.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
The Moveable Feast of Ernest Hemingway
The Paris Wife by Stephanie Deutsch (fiction)
A Moveable Feast by Ernst Hemingway (the restored edition non-fiction, although Hemingway believed that every memory soon became fiction)
The Paris Wife has become quite the rage with book clubs. I know my group, the Bibliochix, read it for our first book of the year. I was very curious as to how this book would read. I have a history with Hemingway. If you teach American literature in any high school in America, you have a working knowledge of Hemingway. He's always fascinated me. The macho man, bigger than life, hunter of big game of all types including fishing off his boat, the Pillar. And then there were always rumors that this hid his true nature. But I shan't go there because it isn't a factor in these two books. I do remember thinking, after studying his writings, that he seemed to believe there were 4 different types of women: the rich b*itch, the money grubber, the whore (not prostitute) and the mother. If you read both of these fascinating books, you'll see that all four are depicted. What I knew I would grapple with while reading this book was how true to life was the book and could a book with "fake" dialog be believed.
A Moveable Feast and The Paris Wife are both about Hemingway's early writing life in Paris during the 1920's with his first wife Hadley. Both Hemingway and Hadley lived in the Chicago area when he met her at the age of 21 and she was a 29 year old spinster living in a cob webbed apartment with her older sister. She meets him at a party and is truly smitten.
He asks her first to go to Italy with him but then another writer suggests Paris, the Paris of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Hadley saw the fork in the road and took it. One lane led to being an old maid while the other? Living a life with a dashingly handsome man with whom she was madly in love and would be moving to Paris. They married in 1921. It lasted 6 years. There should be no surprise here. Hemingway, Papa, was married four times. Each time to a progressively more wealthy woman.
I read The Paris Wife first and then followed with A Moveable Feast. I wanted to see just how closely Ms. Deutsch had stayed with the true story of Hadley's and Hem's years in Paris. And she does a remarkable job. The title, The Paris Wife, refers to the fact that while Hem was in Paris, he was married to Hadley. The title ,A Moveable Feast , comes from a comment that Hem made while writing about Paris, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." From Ms. Deutsch's book she has Hem and Hadley madly in love. And so does Hem in his memoir. (I call him Hem here because that is what his friends called him.) He talks about their making love, the poverty and hunger they both shared, their treks through the Alps and their visits to Spain for the bull fights, and they drank copious amounts of alcohol of all kinds. They even cut their hair to be the same length. In many of the draft intro's he wrote for A Moveable Feast (he never decided on one before he died), he continually called Hadley a "heroine". Deutsch and Hemingway both cover the agony of his learning to write, to go from a newspaper/war correspondent to a full writer of novels and short stories. Deutsch even goes so far as to emulate Hemingway's style when trying to interject some personal story told by Hemingway about his war years. He primarily used italics to does this. There were two fissures that occurred during their brief marriage that, even though Hemingway would not admit it, would bring about his having an affair with Hadley's best friend and subsequent divorce from Hadley. The first was that Hadley, with all good intentions, loses ALL of his unpublished manuscripts. "Loses" because even though she brought them to him to help him, they are stolen from underneath her train seat. He desperately travels back to Paris in the hopes the carbon copies are there, but she had brought the whole lot. The second is that Hadley becomes pregnant. He is an impoverished beginning writer and he felt this would get in his way. Just a tad selfish. Even though he comes to love Jack, Mr. Bumby. Then enters Pauline Pfeiffer, whom Hem calls a "pretty otter of a woman". He says in A Moveable Feast , that while pretending to be Hadley's best friend, Pauline became relentless and the "relentless wins. But finally it is the one that loses that wins and that is the luckiest thing that ever happened for me." He's referring to the fact that Hadley goes on to marry and stay married for 25 years to a very nice, wealthy man. He on the other hand? Well, we know what happens to Papa. There have been 5 suicides in the Hemingway family, the last of which was Margaux.
The major difference between the two works, other than one is fiction and the other not, is that Hemingway's memoir is told from his less emotional point of view while Deutsch's Hadley is told from a feminine and emotional point of view. Considering the emotional baggage that Hadley and Hem carried, both from dysfunctional, depression ridden, mother dominating families, and both with suicides within the family, it's surprising they lived as normal a life as they did. For five years at least.
My book club discussed extensively whether it was to Hadley's benefit to marry Hemingway and our conclusion was a resounding yes. Hemingway, in his memoir says of Hadley, "She is the heroine of the stories and I hope she understands. She deserves everything good in life including accurate reporting."..."The remorse was never away day or night until my wife had married a much finer man than I ever was or ever could be and I knew she was happy." The thing my group focused on was that Hadley had met a man she fell deeply in love with and he had brought to her experiences she never would have had living in her sister's attic.
I again bring up the dialog. At the book's end there is a bittersweet moment that takes place after Hadley has been married for the second time and for many years. Hem calls her out of the blue and acknowledges, to a certain extent, that he knows he broke her heart and he acknowledges his human failings. That he is sorry. In A Moveable Feast he does acknowledge this, but we don't really know if that call was ever made.
"I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after." Hemingway
Hadley, Jack (Mr. Bumby) and Hem
Hemingway died in 1961 at the age of 61 and Hadley, well, Hadley had a long life. She lived to 88 dying in 1979.
A Moveable Feast by Ernst Hemingway (the restored edition non-fiction, although Hemingway believed that every memory soon became fiction)
The Paris Wife has become quite the rage with book clubs. I know my group, the Bibliochix, read it for our first book of the year. I was very curious as to how this book would read. I have a history with Hemingway. If you teach American literature in any high school in America, you have a working knowledge of Hemingway. He's always fascinated me. The macho man, bigger than life, hunter of big game of all types including fishing off his boat, the Pillar. And then there were always rumors that this hid his true nature. But I shan't go there because it isn't a factor in these two books. I do remember thinking, after studying his writings, that he seemed to believe there were 4 different types of women: the rich b*itch, the money grubber, the whore (not prostitute) and the mother. If you read both of these fascinating books, you'll see that all four are depicted. What I knew I would grapple with while reading this book was how true to life was the book and could a book with "fake" dialog be believed.
A Moveable Feast and The Paris Wife are both about Hemingway's early writing life in Paris during the 1920's with his first wife Hadley. Both Hemingway and Hadley lived in the Chicago area when he met her at the age of 21 and she was a 29 year old spinster living in a cob webbed apartment with her older sister. She meets him at a party and is truly smitten.
He asks her first to go to Italy with him but then another writer suggests Paris, the Paris of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Hadley saw the fork in the road and took it. One lane led to being an old maid while the other? Living a life with a dashingly handsome man with whom she was madly in love and would be moving to Paris. They married in 1921. It lasted 6 years. There should be no surprise here. Hemingway, Papa, was married four times. Each time to a progressively more wealthy woman.
I read The Paris Wife first and then followed with A Moveable Feast. I wanted to see just how closely Ms. Deutsch had stayed with the true story of Hadley's and Hem's years in Paris. And she does a remarkable job. The title, The Paris Wife, refers to the fact that while Hem was in Paris, he was married to Hadley. The title ,A Moveable Feast , comes from a comment that Hem made while writing about Paris, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." From Ms. Deutsch's book she has Hem and Hadley madly in love. And so does Hem in his memoir. (I call him Hem here because that is what his friends called him.) He talks about their making love, the poverty and hunger they both shared, their treks through the Alps and their visits to Spain for the bull fights, and they drank copious amounts of alcohol of all kinds. They even cut their hair to be the same length. In many of the draft intro's he wrote for A Moveable Feast (he never decided on one before he died), he continually called Hadley a "heroine". Deutsch and Hemingway both cover the agony of his learning to write, to go from a newspaper/war correspondent to a full writer of novels and short stories. Deutsch even goes so far as to emulate Hemingway's style when trying to interject some personal story told by Hemingway about his war years. He primarily used italics to does this. There were two fissures that occurred during their brief marriage that, even though Hemingway would not admit it, would bring about his having an affair with Hadley's best friend and subsequent divorce from Hadley. The first was that Hadley, with all good intentions, loses ALL of his unpublished manuscripts. "Loses" because even though she brought them to him to help him, they are stolen from underneath her train seat. He desperately travels back to Paris in the hopes the carbon copies are there, but she had brought the whole lot. The second is that Hadley becomes pregnant. He is an impoverished beginning writer and he felt this would get in his way. Just a tad selfish. Even though he comes to love Jack, Mr. Bumby. Then enters Pauline Pfeiffer, whom Hem calls a "pretty otter of a woman". He says in A Moveable Feast , that while pretending to be Hadley's best friend, Pauline became relentless and the "relentless wins. But finally it is the one that loses that wins and that is the luckiest thing that ever happened for me." He's referring to the fact that Hadley goes on to marry and stay married for 25 years to a very nice, wealthy man. He on the other hand? Well, we know what happens to Papa. There have been 5 suicides in the Hemingway family, the last of which was Margaux.
The major difference between the two works, other than one is fiction and the other not, is that Hemingway's memoir is told from his less emotional point of view while Deutsch's Hadley is told from a feminine and emotional point of view. Considering the emotional baggage that Hadley and Hem carried, both from dysfunctional, depression ridden, mother dominating families, and both with suicides within the family, it's surprising they lived as normal a life as they did. For five years at least.
My book club discussed extensively whether it was to Hadley's benefit to marry Hemingway and our conclusion was a resounding yes. Hemingway, in his memoir says of Hadley, "She is the heroine of the stories and I hope she understands. She deserves everything good in life including accurate reporting."..."The remorse was never away day or night until my wife had married a much finer man than I ever was or ever could be and I knew she was happy." The thing my group focused on was that Hadley had met a man she fell deeply in love with and he had brought to her experiences she never would have had living in her sister's attic.
I again bring up the dialog. At the book's end there is a bittersweet moment that takes place after Hadley has been married for the second time and for many years. Hem calls her out of the blue and acknowledges, to a certain extent, that he knows he broke her heart and he acknowledges his human failings. That he is sorry. In A Moveable Feast he does acknowledge this, but we don't really know if that call was ever made.
"I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after." Hemingway
Hadley, Jack (Mr. Bumby) and Hem
Hemingway died in 1961 at the age of 61 and Hadley, well, Hadley had a long life. She lived to 88 dying in 1979.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The World Was Never the Same: Events That Changed "My" Life
I ordered from "The Great Courses" (college lectures you listen to in your car or home) The World Was Never the Same: Events That Changed History. Professor J. Fears from the University of Oklahoma selected 36 events beginning in 1750BC through today that in some way he feels impacted and changed the world. The Battle of Vienna (1683) anyone? It got me to thinking. Now that's a dangerous thing to do. It got me to thinking about what major events IN MY LIFE changed MY life. Were they decisions I consciously made or was I fortunate (to use a favorite Obama word) or had dumb/bad luck? The first major event I can remember that had an impact on me was that at the age of 13, I met my future husband. He was a part of my life for 20 years. Mostly good but then, as with a lot of marriages, there was also the bad and then, divorce. Which was good...for me any way. Another seminal event: At the age of 15, my mother decided to go to college, which means she will be away all week, and I become the precursor to today's ironcheflinda. In other words, I learned to cook and love it. During my 20th year, a beloved aunt and cousin die within the same year. I am so traumatized that I quit college and don't go back for 2 years. I make the difficult decision at the age of 33 to divorce and change careers. I change careers not to make more money but to do something I had always loved to do and that is travel. Luckily for me (but I will give myself some creds for my drive, my semi-good looks and my gift of gab ...thanks dad for the last one), I land a great job with a great travel company and meet the love of my life. The last event I will mention is one you've come across from the last two years. At the age of 59, I was diagnosed with spasmodic torticollis. I've chronicled that in my blog (I need to give you an update though).
But as Old Blue Eyes would sing, regrets I've had a few...Back in the '80's when I was a travel agent, the local ASTA chapter (American Association of Travel Agents) asked me to give them a seminar on...get ready for it...TIME MANAGEMENT! Actually, unless I'm in the procrastination mode, I'm usually on time with stuff. I'm sure they expected a seminar on "ok, this is how you prioritize and this is how you clear you paper work". No, not me. I went for the gut. Emotional time wasters. Worry, regret, procrastination, tardiness. Let's work with two of these: worry and regret. Now there are two time wasters. Why? While you're worrying about something that you can't control you could obviously be doing something that you can control. Regret? What the heck can you do about something in the past? But both of those comments are oversimplifications. There's worry and then there's WORRY, and there's regret and then there's REGRET. Somehow I'm been able to over come the small worries...the ones that take up too much of your time. Big worries...what will my test results be? Is he really having an affair? Did my son really kill that girl? Now those are worries. If I can't do something about something immediately, I put it on a shelf and deal with it at the time I CAN do something about it. Compartmentalizing I guess. Regrets. During the seminar I had everyone write down a regret that they really did regret. I told them I wouldn't read them. I did. NO I DIDN'T! After they wrote them down I had them fold them in half and then rip! Tear! Shred! We threw them in the trash because that is where they belong. Why? Because what can you do about it? It's in the past. Now I've come to learn that there are indeed two regrets...the one that when you're looking back you can say "what a stupid idiot I was" but I'm lucky I didn't get killed or catch a disease and will learn from it (in other words, you dope, you WERE lucky) to the oh, sh*t, this regret is truly coming to bite me in the rear. Kind of like Carrie Underwood's I Don't Even Know My Last Name. These regrets become reality. You can regret it all you want but you now own it. I remember back when I was a teenager I wrote some guy some stupid letter. 10 years later, 10 YEARS LATER, some guy who knew the other guy brings it up to me saying "I can't believe you wrote him that letter". I looked at the guy and said, " A, I can't believe you remember that, B, I don't know why you remember that and C, I was a f*cking teenager for goodness sake!" Oh he says.
As far as procrastination, I'm a great procrastinator. I work better under pressure. When in college, I used to get up at 3am and study for the next days exam. It just worked better for me. Maybe that's not procrastinating. In my current life, things aren't quiet so demanding. Although my husband sure thinks they are. A slight bone of contention, have we? Being late drives ME NUTS! I don't know why or how tardiness began to drive me insane but it does. I hate waiting on people. People who make people wait (which makes the people who are waiting waste their time) are usually, not always, but usually, attention seekers. Look it up. Even by the negatives they receive, they still garner the attention they seek.
Am I worried I will upset someone with my blog? No. Will I regret writing it? No. But I will worry about you, the reader, saying "what a friggin waste of time..."
But as Old Blue Eyes would sing, regrets I've had a few...Back in the '80's when I was a travel agent, the local ASTA chapter (American Association of Travel Agents) asked me to give them a seminar on...get ready for it...TIME MANAGEMENT! Actually, unless I'm in the procrastination mode, I'm usually on time with stuff. I'm sure they expected a seminar on "ok, this is how you prioritize and this is how you clear you paper work". No, not me. I went for the gut. Emotional time wasters. Worry, regret, procrastination, tardiness. Let's work with two of these: worry and regret. Now there are two time wasters. Why? While you're worrying about something that you can't control you could obviously be doing something that you can control. Regret? What the heck can you do about something in the past? But both of those comments are oversimplifications. There's worry and then there's WORRY, and there's regret and then there's REGRET. Somehow I'm been able to over come the small worries...the ones that take up too much of your time. Big worries...what will my test results be? Is he really having an affair? Did my son really kill that girl? Now those are worries. If I can't do something about something immediately, I put it on a shelf and deal with it at the time I CAN do something about it. Compartmentalizing I guess. Regrets. During the seminar I had everyone write down a regret that they really did regret. I told them I wouldn't read them. I did. NO I DIDN'T! After they wrote them down I had them fold them in half and then rip! Tear! Shred! We threw them in the trash because that is where they belong. Why? Because what can you do about it? It's in the past. Now I've come to learn that there are indeed two regrets...the one that when you're looking back you can say "what a stupid idiot I was" but I'm lucky I didn't get killed or catch a disease and will learn from it (in other words, you dope, you WERE lucky) to the oh, sh*t, this regret is truly coming to bite me in the rear. Kind of like Carrie Underwood's I Don't Even Know My Last Name. These regrets become reality. You can regret it all you want but you now own it. I remember back when I was a teenager I wrote some guy some stupid letter. 10 years later, 10 YEARS LATER, some guy who knew the other guy brings it up to me saying "I can't believe you wrote him that letter". I looked at the guy and said, " A, I can't believe you remember that, B, I don't know why you remember that and C, I was a f*cking teenager for goodness sake!" Oh he says.
As far as procrastination, I'm a great procrastinator. I work better under pressure. When in college, I used to get up at 3am and study for the next days exam. It just worked better for me. Maybe that's not procrastinating. In my current life, things aren't quiet so demanding. Although my husband sure thinks they are. A slight bone of contention, have we? Being late drives ME NUTS! I don't know why or how tardiness began to drive me insane but it does. I hate waiting on people. People who make people wait (which makes the people who are waiting waste their time) are usually, not always, but usually, attention seekers. Look it up. Even by the negatives they receive, they still garner the attention they seek.
Am I worried I will upset someone with my blog? No. Will I regret writing it? No. But I will worry about you, the reader, saying "what a friggin waste of time..."
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Two Mann Booker Award Winners: Julian Barnes and Michael Ondaatje
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2011 Mann Booker Award Winner
160p
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
256p
Winner of the Mann Booker Prize in 1992
For The English Patient
Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned The English Patient because you may go running from this review like Elaine did on Seinfeld when she went to see the movie with John Peterman. But please don’t. First let me explain why I’m doing two reviews at once. As you can see, both books are rather short. They both have a similar theme: Older men who are now looking back on their lives and contemplating if they’d made the right choices. They are both books about missed opportunities, imperfections of memory and reckless behavior. In The Sense of An Ending, Tony, a man now is his 60’s is forced to look back because it has raced forward to meet him. While in college, he meets and dates Veronica and one weekend he is invited to her parents’ home where he is made to feel very uncomfortable. He and Veronica’s relationship ends badly. She then begins dating Tony’s best friend, Adrian. Adrian soon commits suicide. Flash forward 40 years and he receives a letter from an attorney stating that Veronica’s mother had bequeathed him 500 pounds and Adrian’s diary. Why did she do that? He hasn’t a clue. He is then forced to relive those memories colored by age. Does he see his life as others have seen it? What did he do during that period when he dated Veronica that would bring on such a gift from a woman whom he hardly new? And now Veronica refuses to give him the diary. Veronica does give bits and pieces as if she is trying to torment him. They even meet a few times with Tony trying to get the diary from her. But these meetings are disastrous. The harder he tries to get the diary the more of his past he dredges up. And he begins to see how even immature angry outbursts can have consequences that transgress the years. He sees “that he avoids deep connections rather than embracing it, for fear of loss” and that “what we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them.” The ending will come as a big surprise.
The Cat’s Table seems to have a very simple story. It begins in 1954. A young boy of eleven is put on a boat named the Oronsay to sail from Ceylon to England. There he is to go to school and to live with is mother. The novel is about that voyage and the voyage of Mynah’s (Michael's) life. It is told from both the present and the past. When Mynah arrives on the ship, he finds that there are two other boys, the quiet, sickly Ramadhin and the tough, adventurous Cassius. They are all seated at the Cat’s Table, the furthest away from the Captain’s Table and the least desirable. But the cast of characters seated at that table could come from any Agatha Christie novel. Are they really who or what they say they are? Ondaatje weaves a brilliant tapestry of character for all of the passengers on the ship. The boys soon realize they are in a world of adults but also realize “they are invisible to officials” and become reckless and daring. One night during a severe storm, Cassius convinces Ramandhin to lash both he and Mynah to the deck. The boys almost drown and are severely admonished by the Captain. Their reckless behavior continues with Mynah allowing a male passenger to lather his body with motor oil so he can slip out of a port hole's bars and into other cabin's port holes to open the door for the thief. They also witness, well, I won’t give that part away. But looking back through the decades, Mynah, like Tony, wonders if he had made the right choices. Why did he keep one friend and not the other? He later finds that his shipmate, Cassius, has become a famous artist and that the voyage had a greater impact on him than he and Ramadhin. And he solves a decades old mystery.
Final word: Both are excellent reads.
2011 Mann Booker Award Winner
160p
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
256p
Winner of the Mann Booker Prize in 1992
For The English Patient
Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned The English Patient because you may go running from this review like Elaine did on Seinfeld when she went to see the movie with John Peterman. But please don’t. First let me explain why I’m doing two reviews at once. As you can see, both books are rather short. They both have a similar theme: Older men who are now looking back on their lives and contemplating if they’d made the right choices. They are both books about missed opportunities, imperfections of memory and reckless behavior. In The Sense of An Ending, Tony, a man now is his 60’s is forced to look back because it has raced forward to meet him. While in college, he meets and dates Veronica and one weekend he is invited to her parents’ home where he is made to feel very uncomfortable. He and Veronica’s relationship ends badly. She then begins dating Tony’s best friend, Adrian. Adrian soon commits suicide. Flash forward 40 years and he receives a letter from an attorney stating that Veronica’s mother had bequeathed him 500 pounds and Adrian’s diary. Why did she do that? He hasn’t a clue. He is then forced to relive those memories colored by age. Does he see his life as others have seen it? What did he do during that period when he dated Veronica that would bring on such a gift from a woman whom he hardly new? And now Veronica refuses to give him the diary. Veronica does give bits and pieces as if she is trying to torment him. They even meet a few times with Tony trying to get the diary from her. But these meetings are disastrous. The harder he tries to get the diary the more of his past he dredges up. And he begins to see how even immature angry outbursts can have consequences that transgress the years. He sees “that he avoids deep connections rather than embracing it, for fear of loss” and that “what we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them.” The ending will come as a big surprise.
The Cat’s Table seems to have a very simple story. It begins in 1954. A young boy of eleven is put on a boat named the Oronsay to sail from Ceylon to England. There he is to go to school and to live with is mother. The novel is about that voyage and the voyage of Mynah’s (Michael's) life. It is told from both the present and the past. When Mynah arrives on the ship, he finds that there are two other boys, the quiet, sickly Ramadhin and the tough, adventurous Cassius. They are all seated at the Cat’s Table, the furthest away from the Captain’s Table and the least desirable. But the cast of characters seated at that table could come from any Agatha Christie novel. Are they really who or what they say they are? Ondaatje weaves a brilliant tapestry of character for all of the passengers on the ship. The boys soon realize they are in a world of adults but also realize “they are invisible to officials” and become reckless and daring. One night during a severe storm, Cassius convinces Ramandhin to lash both he and Mynah to the deck. The boys almost drown and are severely admonished by the Captain. Their reckless behavior continues with Mynah allowing a male passenger to lather his body with motor oil so he can slip out of a port hole's bars and into other cabin's port holes to open the door for the thief. They also witness, well, I won’t give that part away. But looking back through the decades, Mynah, like Tony, wonders if he had made the right choices. Why did he keep one friend and not the other? He later finds that his shipmate, Cassius, has become a famous artist and that the voyage had a greater impact on him than he and Ramadhin. And he solves a decades old mystery.
Final word: Both are excellent reads.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Contain This! My Life In the Unorganized World
Somewhere along the way, maybe it was my husband spelling it out for me, I discovered I did not have the "organization" gene. Not anal enough, I guess. I don't mind going hunting for a pair of flip flops that have hidden themselves under the bed. Or better yet for an excuse, looking for one the cat hid during hide and seek. In reference to the above where my husband spells out my lack of neatness, I graciously let him know about a few of his idiosyncrasies. But this isn't about his lack of patience or his abundance of macho, it's about me and what I've been trying to do to overcome my A: lack of neatness gene B: laziness C: don't give a rip attitude. I blame it on A. But then I look at my older sister who has an overload of the neatness/organization gene. As the old saying goes, was I behind the door when God handed it out? I will never be a Martha Stewart or a subscriber to Real Simple Magazine. In the last two houses in which we've lived, we had them both built and therefore, had added in plenty of storage space. But 6 years ago, we moved into an older home that had/has very little storage space. What to do? Well, remodel is one answer, which we extensively did. But coming up with creative solutions for certain objects has been my objective these last few years. When we first looked at the house we thought we might buy, I noticed there wasn't a pantry. Spoiled brat that I am, I needed a large pantry. The house had a mud room. Hmmm. A mud room. Look at what it is now:
The left side is narrow for canned goods and other food stuffs, while the right side is about a foot and a half deep and used more as a butler's pantry. Facing that step stool you see there is a wall but in back of it is a door that has been sealed from the inside but seen as a door from the outside.
I also like purses. Not so much a shoe person but a purse person. I know this idea has been done before but I'll claim it as my own because at the time, I hadn't realized it had been done before. Like most inventions. And that is using a coat stand to hang purses and keep hats from getting squished. I used to have this in the closet but our closet is small. Well, it used to be but one story at a time. I took off a bunch of purses I rarely used and put them in plastic, sealed containers. Speaking of which...I am in love and always have been with The Container Store. Yes, I know. For the lacking in organization gene, it's sort of like an oxymoron to even walk in the place. But, they give me such great ideas...but do I follow through? Yes. Because they're not cheap. Anyway, here is a picture of my purse/hat stand:
So, on to the closet. Like with every good realtor, they tell the seller to declutter their closet. But we of walk in closets know closet space. This house had a small, for the south anyway, a small walk in. Some friends of ours had decided to forgo hiring a closet planner and had done closets to go on the Internet or something like that. My husband, who was raised in an apartment building in NYC that had a super, decided that, hey, I can do this. The positive of the experiment was that the ceilings were 10 feet so that we could get in three levels of clothing racks. The negative, the online planner forgot to take into account the huge crown molding southern houses have (even though we included the dimensions). But after much cursing, blackened finger nails and sore hands, we now have a suitable, albeit, stand on a foot stool to get to the third layer closet. But I still needed more room! I was, yes, I was stuffing stuff under the space beneath my clothes. I have three long haired cats. Get the picture. Even for me this had to end. So, I took the purse rack out of the closet. I wanted to go to Ballards Outlet to see if they had something I could use (hey, they have great stuff for the fixer up-per). But my hubby said, Go to Home Depot. So I did. And what did I buy? Storage units by...Martha Stewart. See below:
It has always been an irritant to me for a builder to put the closet in a place where there needs to be windows (to match the outer decor). So, here I have my Martha Stewart cubby holes and little linen "like" drawers. On the left side, from The Container Store, I bought one of those Velcro hooks and they had, get this, a do-dah to hang your flip flops. Too cool. I also bought two tie racks to hang my scarves and on the right two Velcro hooks for large bags and hangers. Voila! More room!
Our entry way from our garage to our kitchen was very small. The previous owners had used one whole side of the kitchen area for a desk and computer. I don't think so. We turned that into another clean up area with a third dishwasher and sink and disposal unit. So? What to do with keys, glasses, etc? After buying an antique plate rack at Scott's Antique Market (the largest in the southeast, in case you're interested), I contemplated (no I won't go there) what the heck to do with it. The I said, aha! This is what I did:
Keys, glasses (from 1 to 2.00 strength), sunglasses, community address book and to do lists (used by my husband).
And here are a few extras thrown in. Having started traveling the world in 1978, way before the Euro, I've collected all sorts of currency. I've given some to my nieces and nephews and to some kids I used to teach. But I did this one cold, snowy day. Again, I'm no Martha but not too bad:
Most, now, defunct currency. The majority that are still in circulation, I've kept in the hopes I'd go back there!
Another reason we bought our current house was because there was a bonus room over the garage. The previous owners used it as a play room for their grand kids. I turned it into a library. I did see this somewhere so forgive me for stealing. Take book covers from your favorite books and frame them for your library:
See what a perfectionist I am? They're crooked! I should have used those new Velcro things....
I also like purses. Not so much a shoe person but a purse person. I know this idea has been done before but I'll claim it as my own because at the time, I hadn't realized it had been done before. Like most inventions. And that is using a coat stand to hang purses and keep hats from getting squished. I used to have this in the closet but our closet is small. Well, it used to be but one story at a time. I took off a bunch of purses I rarely used and put them in plastic, sealed containers. Speaking of which...I am in love and always have been with The Container Store. Yes, I know. For the lacking in organization gene, it's sort of like an oxymoron to even walk in the place. But, they give me such great ideas...but do I follow through? Yes. Because they're not cheap. Anyway, here is a picture of my purse/hat stand:
Our entry way from our garage to our kitchen was very small. The previous owners had used one whole side of the kitchen area for a desk and computer. I don't think so. We turned that into another clean up area with a third dishwasher and sink and disposal unit. So? What to do with keys, glasses, etc? After buying an antique plate rack at Scott's Antique Market (the largest in the southeast, in case you're interested), I contemplated (no I won't go there) what the heck to do with it. The I said, aha! This is what I did:
And here are a few extras thrown in. Having started traveling the world in 1978, way before the Euro, I've collected all sorts of currency. I've given some to my nieces and nephews and to some kids I used to teach. But I did this one cold, snowy day. Again, I'm no Martha but not too bad:
Another reason we bought our current house was because there was a bonus room over the garage. The previous owners used it as a play room for their grand kids. I turned it into a library. I did see this somewhere so forgive me for stealing. Take book covers from your favorite books and frame them for your library:
Monday, December 26, 2011
Lists of the Best Books for 2011: A Compendium
I regularly get emails from numerous book purveyors from Amazon.com to iBookstore to Sam's Book Club. Of course at this time of year, the "best of" lists appear. I always view these lists with a jaundiced eye. (I'll bet you haven't heard that phrase used in a while.) Why, you might query. It's not that difficult to understand. Just take a look at Amazon's editors picks for 2011 and then reader favorites. Only three overlap: Bossypants by Tina Fey, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts. On this page they have "best ofs" by genres. So, if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/best-books-2011/b/ref=amb_link_358691402_3?ie=UTF8&node=3321372011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=0B8MGQK67DRA298AHTNV&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1331919922&pf_rd_i=0307700119
iBookstore also sends out a list that can be accessed thru iTunes. The books that appear on both Amazon's lists and iBookstore are: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (I read it and didn't think it was that spectacular. The part about the tiger's wife is very intriguing but the rest of the story, which is 75%, is so so), The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (which has been criticized for being anti-Semitic) and The Paris Wife (life in Paris with the first Mrs. Hemingway and Ernest).
In the Saturday, Dec 17 issue of the WSJ, they have a whole section on books read or being read by various authors, celebs, financiers, sports figures and politicians. They're not necessarily books from 2011. It's a lengthy article but worth the time (if you have it, that is): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204466004577102800650505034.html
And just so your eyes will cross, here's the link to Bookreporter.com's "best of " lists): http://www.bookreporter.com/bookreportercom-reviewers-pick-their-favorite-books-of-2011
As for me, I've read some really, really great books and some stinkers. I went thru my Kindle archived books to see which of the books I've read made it onto the "best of" lists. It looks like I've read 10 that were on somebodies list, somewhere. (DNL denotes "did not like", DL, you smart people out there, just the opposite): The Night Circus DNL, The Budda in the Attic DL, The Tiger's Wife DNLDL, State of Wonder DNL, The Art of Fielding (just not my kind of book), Lost in Shangri-La DL, Blood, Bones, Butter DL, The Sense of an Ending DL, Before I go to Sleep DL.
There were some big names out there with new books: Michael Connelly, Alice Hoffman, Michael Crichton (finished by Richard Preston), David Baldacci, John Grisham, Lee Cild, Ann Patchett, Lisa See and Erik Larson. Some were hits like The Drop by Connelly and others duds like Baldacci's.
I just finished The Dovekeepers and loved it. I told my daughter that I can't read another book for a week or so because I don't want to give up the characters Hoffman created. Those kinds of books are priceless...
iBookstore also sends out a list that can be accessed thru iTunes. The books that appear on both Amazon's lists and iBookstore are: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (I read it and didn't think it was that spectacular. The part about the tiger's wife is very intriguing but the rest of the story, which is 75%, is so so), The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (which has been criticized for being anti-Semitic) and The Paris Wife (life in Paris with the first Mrs. Hemingway and Ernest).
In the Saturday, Dec 17 issue of the WSJ, they have a whole section on books read or being read by various authors, celebs, financiers, sports figures and politicians. They're not necessarily books from 2011. It's a lengthy article but worth the time (if you have it, that is): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204466004577102800650505034.html
And just so your eyes will cross, here's the link to Bookreporter.com's "best of " lists): http://www.bookreporter.com/bookreportercom-reviewers-pick-their-favorite-books-of-2011
As for me, I've read some really, really great books and some stinkers. I went thru my Kindle archived books to see which of the books I've read made it onto the "best of" lists. It looks like I've read 10 that were on somebodies list, somewhere. (DNL denotes "did not like", DL, you smart people out there, just the opposite): The Night Circus DNL, The Budda in the Attic DL, The Tiger's Wife DNLDL, State of Wonder DNL, The Art of Fielding (just not my kind of book), Lost in Shangri-La DL, Blood, Bones, Butter DL, The Sense of an Ending DL, Before I go to Sleep DL.
There were some big names out there with new books: Michael Connelly, Alice Hoffman, Michael Crichton (finished by Richard Preston), David Baldacci, John Grisham, Lee Cild, Ann Patchett, Lisa See and Erik Larson. Some were hits like The Drop by Connelly and others duds like Baldacci's.
I just finished The Dovekeepers and loved it. I told my daughter that I can't read another book for a week or so because I don't want to give up the characters Hoffman created. Those kinds of books are priceless...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
A Girl Who Loves to Read (Non-fiction by your blogger)
It's a small town in south Texas. Population 900, three churches, one Lutheran, one Catholic and one Baptist. The elementary school is one long rectangular building with classrooms on each side of a long corridor. In the first grade there are a total of 30 kids. In the second grade a total of 25. And as you go up to higher grades, the numbers are always the same, 25-30. The business district of the town is primarily one long street with a pharmacy, shoe repair, meat market, bank, general store and several "pool" halls where residents of the town smoke cigarettes, cigars, down beer but above all play dominoes and pool. No traffic lights, a police chief, one deputy. There are two dance halls, one a VFW hall, one an American Legion hall and at both you can hear country and western and ompah music play into the night. No movie theatre (there used to be one where the girl and her older sister went to see "Tom Dooley" and "The Mummy" and other great monster movies but it closed). No bowling alley, no pizza palace, no Chinese restaurant. There was just a great diner and one "joint" that made the best, the very best chili where the grease floated to the top and you dunked your homemade bread into it and it was pure heaven. Then, if there was any chili left over for the next day that morphed into the best, the very best enchiladas you'd ever tasted. In this town was the grandest of homes. The little girl didn't live in this house but her grandma did. And her grandma lived right next door to her parents’ home. Her grandma was all soft and cuddly and full of stories and tall tales. Her grandma was the best cook ever. Chicken fried steak with milk gravy, pot roast with mashed potatoes, fried chicken, peach pie, apple pie, dewberry pie, banana pudding, rice pudding (and that was the girl's favorite, with red hots in it!) The house her grandma lived in was a three story house with a two story veranda that seemed to wrap its arms three quarters of the way around the house. The main floor had your basic kitchen, living room, bedroom, parlor, bathrooms. It was the second floor that brought magic to the girl. Her grandma had not changed the decor since before her children grew up and moved away. It was a second floor stuck in the 1930's and 40's. The girl's grandma never threw anything away and so there were dresses and hats and shoes and hose and ties and handkerchiefs and suits. There was a huge box filled with Life magazines from The War years. Smoke a Lucky Strike and you'll be glamorous. Ration so our troops will have the ammunition, tires, planes they need to shoot down the enemy. Another world to the girl. Up here, her grandma also had her small library. The girl's grandma had not finished the 3rd grade, but she had taught herself to read. So, during those hot, simmering summer days when it could easily reach 100 degrees, the girl would go up to her grandma's second floor and disappear. Disappear into those magazines and those few books. What else was there to do? Bike around a town you’ve biked around a million times? Go play in the hay bales you've played in a million times? No. For the girl she wanted a book that would let her imagine a life she thought she couldn't possibly live. Her grandma had an odd collection of books: Zane Grey, Frank Yerby and Reader's Digest Condensed books. And Gone with the Wind. The girl would go up to the magical second floor and stay from morning until the sunset. Lying on her back in a big, old bed covered in yellowing lace with a fan blowing and at times, watching dust float in the air as it passed through the sunlight streaming through the open window. This was her world and she loved it. Her world shifted from the dry arid plains of the west where the men were tough and women knew how to shoot and ride as good as any man but still had a heart of gold. And she dreamed of Rhett Butler. Then she was off to the Caribbean to where the strong, handsome stranger saves the life of a beautiful damsel in distress and as time passes, they eventually fall in love and make wild passionate love. Now these were the parts the girl liked best. And the girl will admit, she read those parts of the books over and over again. But one day the girl's mother came in unannounced and saw what the girl was reading and she was furious. She blamed the girl's grandma for letting her read those books. But, you see, the girl had lied to her grandma and told her she would not read them. So, now she was in double trouble and the girl was no longer allowed to read at her grandmas. With a lie, her special world crumbled. But her love of reading never went away. As soon as she could, she went to a big college in a big city and started to live a life she never thought she could. The girl is now a woman and has surrounded herself with books. Her husband says that a book store to her is like what honey is to a bee. The girl now owns first editions of the Frank Yerby books and she has a complete collection of those Zane Grey novels. Books still take the woman to places where she has never been, to places beyond the realm of possibility, to the past, to the present and to the future.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Cicero 106BC-43BC
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Cicero 106BC-43BC
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)