the joy of books

Oh my lord, this short stop-motion film is so spell-binding! It makes my little book-loving heart swell with joy. Of COURSE books have a secret life when we're not in the room with them!




"But before we walk in and catch them, they return to their place as quick as lightning!" ~Capt. Crewe, A Little Princess

flowers on the brain

So...in the spirit of my last post, I do believe I'm becoming a little obsessed with flowers.

I ran across this post from frolic!, and thought it was just the thing to perk up this wintry day...

...which sent me off to explore the language of flowers, and lo and behold, there is a book of the same name that looks pretty intriguing.

Then again, maybe I just have (way-too-premature) spring fever. Either way, happy Wednesday, everyone!

book talk: book clubs

Let's talk book clubs.

Last year, some friends and I started a book club around this book.

We met at my house. I bought cheese and wine, and everyone else brought whatever they felt like noshing on. We ate, chatted, and then settled down in the living room to discuss. I tell you what, though, sometimes it was intense, the conversations we had. But, it was also deeply personal, bonding, and uplifting. Always, it was lovely!

Now, I'm getting the itch to start again. But, since the last book was so, sort of personal and non-fiction, I was thinking about a novel this time. I'm halfway through this one and it's blowing my mind!

I'd love to be able to talk about it with some fabulous women.

What do you think about book clubs? Are you in one? Any great recommendations for mine?

Five Gratitudes

Happy, Happy Friday! Whew. Does it seem like this week took forever~yet went at a frenetic pace~or is it just me?

Here's what I'm grateful for today:

image source

1. Today marks the Autumnal Equinox, and I'm so grateful that my favorite season officially here! I'm also grateful to Adam Frank for posting a thought-provoking blog about The Tyranny of Modern Time on NPR's website that fits in with the occasion perfectly.

2. I'm grateful to my uncle for posting this mesmerizing video shot from the International Space Station.  Can we say jaw-dropping? Look at all those cities!

3. I'm grateful to Alli for posting about one of my favorite books ever, Pride and Prejudice. On a rainy day like today, thoughts of curling up with a classic comfort read make me smile.

4. I'm grateful that tonight, Jake and I have the chance to try out this new restaurant that just opened in our town. Looks like it will be a delicious dinner!

5. Last but not least, I'm grateful to ProfHacker for this blog on thinking about ways to make writing fun. For myself, for my students, I want to think more about ways to inspire a desire (heh, that rhymes!) for writing...and I am still musing on this quote: 

"I wonder what it is that tells us that only difficult tasks are worthwhile, that fun tasks are frivolous and unnecessary."

Indeed. 

What about you, friends? What are you grateful for today?

book talk: forgetting and remembering

I was just about to start teaching yesterday, and was pawing through my bag for the adaptor cord that links my laptop to the projector in my classroom. Paw, paw, paw. Rats.

I'd completely forgotten to throw it in my bag! The consequences weren't completely dire; my class that day just suddenly "got real." We were live and un-plugged. No powerpoint to help guide the mini-lesson on rhetorical appeals, no visual examples to practice with, no visual journal prompt. The students completely tuned in, though, to our discussion and participated with sharp insights and good questions. It might have been the best class of the semester...

It got me thinking about the meaning of forgetting, the consequences of it, the value of memory.

I've been connecting dots; the other day on NPR, I heard a review of this book:

A murder mystery where the main character, and primary suspect, is a 64 year-old woman with dementia. Now, I'm not usually one for murder mysteries, but the concept of forgetting and the tension and confusion it causes...this intrigues me. 

It is not a large leap from ideas of memory and forgetting to ideas of smell. I am currently nibbling my way through Diane Ackerman's Natural History of the Senses, and her connections between smell and memory are so rich.

Within the first pages, Ackerman hooks you with evocative, intuitive sentences to link smell and memory:

"Nothing is more memorable than smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary, fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the Poconos, when wild blueberry bushes teemed with succulent fruit and the opposite sex was as mysterious as space travel...Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of many years and experiences. Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once."

All this has me thinking about memory, how important it is, and how bittersweet. Our senses are attuned to collecting memories. They document them and then hide them away for us, ready to be unearthed at the specifically triggered moment. Or, not. I wonder--is it better to remember, or to forget? Or, is it the subtle homeostasis of washing between the two that keeps us sane? 

book talk: on chesterton, cheese and francophilia

By jove, if it isn't another Book Talk Tuesday!

On my dream (read: would-love-to-but-already-have-too-many-other-commitments-and-so-don't-have-enough-time-for-these-additions-to-the-list) summer reading list, there are the following books:

The G.K. Chesterton Biography. I mean, who wouldn't want to know more about the man who gave us such witty literary gems as:

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." 

— G.K. Chesterton

and

"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously." 

— G.K. Chesterton

and

"The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man." 

— G.K. Chesterton

right?!?

I want to read pretty much every book on Madame Fromage's Cheese-Reading List. She sure knows the way to my cheese-and-book-loving heart!

This book has been mentioned on a couple of other blogs, but it wasn't until I read Jamie's review on Charmingly Ordinary, that I decided I for sure wanted to read it. 

Looking back over today's list, I realize that there isn't any fiction (except for the Bulgakov on Mme. Fromage's list). What do you think--fiction: for or against? (or ambivilant?) I know what our friend Chesterton would say:

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity." 
— G.K. Chesterton

 Do you agree?

book talk

Hey friends! Sorry that I'm a little late on this---but it finally is time again for Book Talk Tuesday.

I have so much that I want to talk about today, but I'll try to keep it brief ;)

First off, I have to confess something: I'm re-reading. I do this every now-and-then. My dad just shakes his head at me--he'd rather spend his precious book-reading-time covering new territory. But then, he does re-watch his favorite films...so I may have him there.

I am re-reading one of my favorite books on the writing process:

Heather Sellers is just a gem of a writer--the kind of lady I want to take me out for a cup of tea and tell me all of her funny and heartwrenching and warmly human stories. This book is a way to pretend; it has frank advice, humor and honesty about the writing process that is really (in my opinion) hard to find in these types of books. Plus, it has really, really fun writing exercises. 

I'm also re-starting this book of short stories, edited by Alison Swan. I've skipped around in it before, circling around the poignant story "Lake Huron's Tide" by my friend, Rachael Perry. This time, I'm starting at the beginning, and reading through. I already love it. "HOMES: Living with Lake Michigan," by Judith Minty, sucked me right in with its grade-school reference and at turns wistful, harrowing and wise tale. 

This will be, I think, the perfect book to take up north this weekend.

Today, though, a couple of new books caught my eye. There's this one:

The newest from Geraldine Brooks is set in Puritan New England and told from the point of view of a young female narrator, built around a "slender factual scaffold"--much like People of the Book. It was while reading the New York Times review that I made the connection: Brooks also wrote Year of Wonders, about the plague that my sister-in-law was recommending to me at Christmas. Hmmm, Geraldine Brooks, I am intrigued. And I can't wait to read more...

Last but not least, I heard the news that Pete Townshend is writing a memoir. Awesome. 

book talk

hello, friends!

Today I'd like to talk books, poetry and all things literacy. What do you say? I'm thinking of making Tuesday "Book Talk Tuesday." It has a nice ring, yes? The only thing is, I might be too flighty to make it *every* Tuesday...but I'm gonna try. We can get together on a Tuesday and talk books--what we're reading, interested in reading, recommending others to read.

Y'know, book talk.

So, here goes:

photo sourced here

How much would you love to go to a poetry reading at the White House? Billy Collins will be one of the poets to read. Here is one of my favorite Billy Collins poems--

Also, here is an article by Christopher Hitchens, beautifully written and sharply bittersweet, reflecting on potentially losing his speaking voice and how that relates to his writing voice. Hitchens quotes a few lines from one of my favorite poems, "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot. While Hitchens and I do not share the same views about faith practice, he had me at Eliot. Well, he had me at himself, actually. Though we do not agree on theology, I have to appreciate his intellect--sharp, sharp, sharp!  I find his version of the Ten Commandments to be so thought provoking...

...as well as his debates with Douglas Wilson over the question, "Is Christianity Good for the World?" Collision, the film that documents their debate tour, is equally fascinating, no matter what "side" you come down on, or how you answer the question.

So then, Saturday, on my way to hang out with a friend at a bookstore, I heard Demetri Martin on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 

He was talking about his new book so cleverly (I've enjoyed his humor since his Flight of the Conchords days!) that when I got to the bookstore, I thumbed through it--and chuckled to myself for several minutes. I also saw that he will be performing a reading at this Barnes and Noble this Sunday. Do I want to go? 

Oh yeah. 

But, it's probably lucky that I stumbled upon this hilarious blog post first. I didn't know who Emily St. John Mandel was before reading her tips on what *not* to ask at a reading...but she seems like the kind of chick who'd be awesome to be friends with. Doesn't she?

I'm gonna have to check out her latest. 

Add it to the summer reading list! Speaking of, what are you planning on/hoping to read this summer?

judging a book by...

Hello from Hot-lanta! I am currently in the throes of an academic conference here; having fun, learning a lot, and pooped out. More on the conference particulars later...

For now, I just had to share this fascinating article I came across about the (scary? imagined? very real?) importance of book cover design. As a writer myself, I instinctively balk at the notion that anything other than my brilliant words would be the crucial factor in someone deciding to read my writing, or not. But...as a visual learner, and someone who considers herself at least mildly aesthetic, I have to say that I see the cover as an important part of the rhetorical strategy. It is trying to persuade an audience for a specific purpose. And, as a reader, I have to admit that I'd rather read a book with a cool cover than one with an embarrassing cover. I can't pretend that my book purchases aren't based, at least partly, on the cover-factor.

Take, for instance, this book I just started:

The author, Geraldine Brooks, is a Pulitzer Prize winner. So, automatically she comes with "writer street cred." But, if I'm gonna be really honest, I never would've picked up this book if the cover hadn't "grabbed me." 

What do you think? Is judging a book by its cover inevitable? Avoidable? Just a part of the rhetorical exchange? 

I'd rather be reading.

It is rainy and grey, though only a little chilly in the mitten, today. Spring is punching it's way through! The only thing about a drizzly day, though, is that *all* I want to do is curl up in fluffy blankets and read (she writes in the whiniest tone, while stamping her foot).

I'm currently engrossed in a couple of great reads:

Annie Dillard's book, The Writing Life, is as poetic and evocative as you'd expect any of Annie Dillard's books to be. It is packed with inferred wisdom, stream-of-consciousness brilliance and insights into her own thought process as a writer. I'm zooming through it--but I constantly have this urge to read slowly, ever so slowly, to savor it. I really want it to sink in. 

Ms. Hempel Chronicles, by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, has completely sucked me in! I got it from our local library to push myself into fiction again...I need to balance the memoirs and histories somehow...and it had me at "hello." From my initial glancing at the jacket and the first page, standing in the stacks, I was smiling. It's about an English teacher, so of course I felt I could relate. But, it is a funny and insightful and pretty precise look into the heart and mind of--not just an English teacher, but a woman who's trying to figure out her life, even though she's already a grown-up. Still in the first chapter, but can't wait to see  where it goes from here!

Enjoy the spring showers!