Books read recently by J. Zimmerman.
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New books on Christianity and Spirituality by Pagels, Ehrman, et al.
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Why read a book?
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Harry Potter;
also
Harry Potter en Español.
The Mental Health of George W. Bush
"The last poem in the world" by Hayden Carruth Would I write it if I could?
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Skip pages
Not read
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Not defend your tastes
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{ December (diciembre (see also books on Spanish)) 2006 }
(12.28.2006)
A hilarious book of 400-word essays that teach you how to do absolutely everything:
| "Things break for three reasons: you've used it too much, you've used it too little, or you've used if like an idiot. In each case you can fix it by using it less, using it more, or stopping being an idiot. " |
| "At the other extreme, couples who are married with children have heavily disguised tiffs. A man saying in a slightly strained way, 'I am going to turn the compost,' is actually saying, 'And that is all you are, Jean, compost.' " |
| "Apologies are the old rubber tyres [British spelling] hung over the sides of huge egos to prevent damage when they rub up against each other. ... Never repeat the fault in the apology: 'I am sorry I called you a grumpy old trout and I want everyone here to know that' ... Expert apologizers apologize even when it's obvious they're absolutely right. This gives the impression not that they're sorry, but that they're sorry for you, for being such a loser. " |
Main emphasis is sibling competition, particularly for the affection of the mother. Not bad; few overt referenced to mythology and relatively uncluttered punctuation make these poems fairly clear (for Louise Glück).
Main emphasis is sibling competition, particularly for the affection of the mother. Not bad; few overt referenced to mythology and relatively uncluttered punctuation make these poems fairly clear (for Louise Glück).
Another disappointment compared with the delight of reading her brilliant Averno.
A bit slow at the start, and Hillerman stumbles over some his words and chuckles over some of his own jokes. But the final third is a joy: he focused poeple that he met within and in relation to the Indian nations, and his detective novels that present various of their cultures. He is clearly an enthusiast for the self-made man and to some extent the self-made rules.
Obscure. Disappointing after the delight of reading her brilliant Averno.
"What a nightmare."
I was irritated by the first tape (probably I am a royalist at heart), so I listened to the last tape to make sure the story ended ok! It does. So then I listened to the complete book and it is hilarious. It presents the demoted royals as fitting in (or in some cases not fitting in) to a council estate. Townsend's take mostly matches my own: the likely grace under pressure of Queen Elizabeth (or Mrs. Windsor) and Princess Anne, the police arrest and jail escape of Charlie, the ditziness of Diana, and the pivotal roles of a corgi and a horse.
The reader, Barbara Rosenblat, is brilliant at all the accents (except for the brief appearance of a well-known media commentator, whom she neglected to present as a Geordie).
Not quite as good as Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole books.
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Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993)
by Scott McCloud.
Terrific book. See also
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A terrific book from someone who cares about people and society.
This may be the last Adrian Mole book by Sue Townsend, now ill with complications of diabetes. In the interview with her on the CD, she says that Adrian does not need to write a diary any more. Listen to (or read) the book to discover why.
Mistakenly ordered this from the library, having heard of Padel as a poet and the Chair of the British Poetry Society. She is also a member of the Zoological Society of London and great-great-grandaughter of Charles Darwin (so about 6% of Darwin).
The book turns out to be mainly prose, subtitled A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers, and with an appendix of poetry by herself and others. In it, Padel documents her two-year journey, tracking tigers on foot, elephant, and jeep. The book (from the jacket) blends "natural history, adventure, and memoir, and an intimate portrait of an animal we have loved and feared almost to the point of no return. Can wild tigers be saved, or is this their last moment before extinction?"
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Cognitive Psychology: In and Out of the Lab (2004)
by Kathleen M. Galotti. See cognitive psychology notes of class that used Galotti's Cognitive Psychology: In and Out of the Lab. Includes: |
Fire and its management.
See also The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge (2006).
Powerful and detailed report of the causes, process, and influences of the American Civil War. The complex situation is described, and the brilliance of Generals Grant (for the Union) and Lee (for the Confederates) become clear. Overall, it was Lincoln's "Let them down easy" directive that led to less harsh terms than the North could have imposed on the South, particularly at Lee's surrender to Grant and the way Lee's commanders were allowed to return home without surrendering their sidearms while their soldiers were allowed to return home without surrendering their horses.
Explains much of American political science, its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations.
See also Bruce Catton's book via Google.
{ November (noviembre (see also books on Spanish)) 2006 }
It's almost midnight GMT and 2006 NanoWrimo is done for me, though I was aided by using the Marianna Monaco "picture is worth a thousand words" haiku option. Now back to the real world ...
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Included two of mine:
lotus reflections
the hospice volunteer
just sits
the falconer
raises her fist
this brief life
Copyright © 2006 by J. Zimmerman.
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A delicious melange of poetry and prose, all with a sea breeze and a tide.
Photographic documentation of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem over 150 years "from the varied and generally open-canopy habitats of early European-American settlement days to the dense declining forests of today."
See also The Ecology of Fire by Robert J. Whelan. and The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge (2006).
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The Chocolate Connoisseur (2006)
by Chloé Doutre-Roussel. Read our Review of The Chocolate Connoisseur. |
At his most interesting when he leaves the business world and forages afield into the great outdoors, such as with 'dog-walking weasels' who don't clean up after their dogs poop on your sidewalk or petunias. Maybe he did a field trip to observe dog pooping in Bellingham, Washington.
Fictional account of a London thief who was convicted and transported to Australia, and later became an emancipist (former convict) settler in early colonial Australia and the resulting early white encounter with the Aborigines.
A short-list nominee for 2006 Booker Prize.
Ok, but a bit slow and sometimes awkward. I prefer other 2006 Booker short-list nominees:
A long-list nominee for 2006 Booker Prize. Set in the English midlands in the year of Thatcher's Falklands War, this collection of short stories about a 13-year-old boy whose parents are separating and who is being bullied by some of his schoolmates. He is also a parish-magazine-published poet hiding behind a pseudonym. The voice is too grown-up for the narrator.
I prefer 2006 Booker short-list nominees:
Averno (2006),
by Louise Glück.
Her finest book so far. These poems often have relatively clear narratives, which gives me more of a handle on them. And then the Persephone story has always been one of my favorites, and it's the core of her book.
The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter
by Colin Tudge (2006).
The best book on trees that I have read, full of information about the origins and interactions of trees. Great botanical illustrations.
I was an official winner of the 2005 NaNoWriMo -- write a novel in the month of November.
So I am back to 2006 NaNoWriMo -- write a novel in the month of November. This time in haiku. A haiku is a couple of juxtaposed images, right? And an image is worth a thousand words. There may be NaNoWriMo 2006 status.
Book Blog will be quiet in November.
{ October (octubre (see also books on Spanish)) 2006 }
Clearing the decks before NaNoWriMo -- write a novel in the month of November, I have:
I don't know what I am supposed to experience from reading these poems other than confused. The material is so unfamiliar and the poems hide the material in a jumpy form.
Poet Jean Vengua, however, is a fan of Mackey's work. She says that to read Mackey:
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"Think 'diaspora,' travel, migration, and how myth and rituals survive and/or change during migration.
Think about jazz and the roots of jazz. Think about 'The Middle Passage,' slavery, and storytelling.
Try reading Eroding Witness (which I think is pretty accessible)
or Song of the Adoumboulou.
... See also this interview: http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/funkhouser/mackey.html
It's really all about music, jazz & improv., thus the shifting of content in his poetry: he's riffing. I took a poetics class (Black Mountain Poetry) from him at UCSC, years ago. He had us sit in a big circle, and asked us for the first 'note' (our thoughts on the readings). He saw our dialogue almost as a process of musical/poetic composition. I remember listening to him talk and thinking he has a pretty amazing intellect. He also has some interesting ideas about dissonance and 'noise' and how it figures into our poetic/musical creating." |
One of the best books read in 2006.
Among my favorites poems are: "Homemade Dresses from Feed Sacks" (ending "What I learn from this: / nothing has to be / what it starts out as."), "The Heat in Summer, Mid-Century, Kentucky", "The Girl Who Wanted to Speak Other Languages", and "Identity", which ends:
"That is why there is no filigree in this poem, why it has honest, working hands, square, blunt nails." |
Better than The Best American Poetry: 2005, Guest Editor Paul Muldoon.
This early book by Pamuk is a messy story of identity swapping. Unclear if Pamuk wants us to believe that the swapping occurs or that it simply symbolizes Turkey's desire to have the knowledge of the West. As a result, the narrator may be the Westerner that he claims to be or he may be the Turk whose life he appears to live at the end of the book.
As one of the characters says that madness is thinking you are someone else, it is even possible that Pamuk wants us to think that his protagonist is mad.
Not enamored -- much prefer the work of the winner of the first Man Booker International Prize, Ismail Kadaré.
Nasty psychopath works as a seasonal high country ranger in a national park and tortures animals and young girls.
Barr must have been reading texts on criminal behavior recently, as this book is so heavy handedly dark, especially compared with the her pleasanter High Country.
It gets especially exhausting that her main female characters pretty much turn out to be 'good' and the main male characters are 'bad'. But it was a book-on-cd from the library so I got some chores done while I listened (and skipped over the saddest bits).
Not as good as
The Best American Poetry: 2006,
Guest Editor Billy Collins.
This exploration of Japanese folk art is in two parts:
The prayer of fire, To melt, to melt! |
One shines, All shine, Everything shines. |
Wabi and sabi; The beauty of poverty, Ordered poverty. |
I am you, The you that only I can see. |
Kawai-san marveled in the simple: a small wooden box of cherry blossoms preserved in salt; and a box of matches: "A box of fire! I marvel at the match! ... We can put fire in a little box and put it in our pockets. What a wonderful thing!"
A nominee for 2005 Booker Prize. A fascinating novel of a historical episode: the persecution and false imprisonment in the early 20th century of a solicitor George Edalji (due in large part to police prejudice against his Indian ethnicity and their apparent manipulation of evidence), and the subsequent reopening of his case and obtaining of a pardon for him by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous detective novelist and spiritualist.
Acknowledges first publications in:
My favorite of this series so far. A very cozy detective story.
Senior Detective Mma Precious Ramotswe solves many problems of her own life, in the lives of the people she cares most for, and for her clients. Assistant Detective Mma Makutsi opens her own business, decides against the approaches of a suitor, and invests her first teaching earnings in bright green shoes with blue linings. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (Mma Ramotswe's fiancee) continues to play a quiet but supportive role.
Mma Ramotswes read:
The Kalahari typing school for men. My favorite so far.
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.
Morality for Beautiful Girls.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Tears of the Giraffe.
Forget other series by the same author, including the boring: At the villa of reduced circumstances.
A nominee for 2006 Booker Prize. Set in Ireland, about an 11-year-old apparently psychotic boy who believes he is a human truth detector and plans to be accepted into the Guiness Book of records for this skill, in parallel with an odd relationship with his odd parents, one of whom he seemingly tries to kill.
I prefer other 2006 Booker shortlist nominees:
Winner of 2006 Booker Prize. Set half in a crumbling society in the north-eastern Himalayas below Mount Kanchenjunga, and half Britain a generation ago and in New York City today.
Expolores the terrors and confusions of being an immigrant, one legal and the other illegal, and how one's sense of identity can get confused by living in a different country. Also the terrors of living in a place of border arguments and rebellion.
Livelier and more intesting than other 2006 Booker shortlist nominees:
14th in his series of serial killers. The same scary combination of rule breaking by all concerned, which this time includes staff of a psychiatric hospital for criminals.
Another scary exploration of the nastiness of the criminal mind. But thanks to a running joke of the 100-best rock and roll songs, it's funnier than:
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Related pages:
Books on Buddhism.
Books on Learning Spanish.
Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own.
Forests of California and Trees of the World.
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