Rabbit

I meant to post this a while ago and forgot. I imagine that this is the most bizarre Macy's Parade balloon ever, Jeff Koon's "Rabbit."

Mexican Buddha

The Buddha Clay bought in Tijuana and the elephant lamp I bought at Target

She's An Excellent Helper!

Desie helps Mom and me make apple pie

*Thanks to Clay for pointing out my grammar error*

Lovely Foliage

Trinity Church

The Sphere

"The Sphere" and Eternal Flame in Battery Park

"The Sphere" by Fritz Koenig used to stand in the courtyard at the World Trade Center. After 9/11 it was recovered and placed in Battery Park as a temporary memorial.

R.I.P. Little Glass Tree

My plan was to continue with my "What I did for Thanksgiving" series, but circumstances intervened and my beautiful new Christmas ornament was accidentally destroyed. I'll probably pick up a replacement tomorrow since I'll be near Bryant Park after work and can run by the Holiday Shops. Still I wanted to immortalize my poor glass tree because it was so beautiful while it lasted.

The background is a hand painted card that Jenny sent to Clay for his birthday. Thanks Jenny!

The East River

One last shot from Top of the Rock

A Man and His Reflection

A Solitary Clay at Top of the Rock

Top of the Rock Is Awesome!

Central Park from Top of the Rock

I can see my house from here!

A Sea of Playbills

We recently redecorated the living room and changed out the framed playbills on the wall. The only sensible way to do this obviously was to spread them out on the floor so we could see everything. No this is not all of them.

Desie and George helped for a while but eventually gave up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mountains Are The New Sunset!

The Smoky Mountains off the Blue Ridge Parkway

Fuzzy Fuzzy Branches

A very mossy tree in Cataloochee Valley

I Don't Know Where The Spider Is

This is a web that Mom and I found while exploring Cades Cove. The sunlight hit it just long enough for me to take this. I started to take another shot to make sure I had it and the moment had apparently passed. This small image really doesn't do it justice. Please click on it to get a better look. Or if you're at my apartment ask to see the original print!

Elk!

Hanging out in Cataloochee Valley.

The Riverside Church Tower

At the moment it's completely covered with scaffolding like the windows. I know it needs to be cleaned once in a while, but it's kind of depressing.

Three Junes

I’m sorry to anyone who has actually been waiting with bated breath to find out what I read next. I had a very bad cold that made it impossible for me to think, much less write. Anyway, after Midwives I picked up another Amy recommendation, Three Junes by Julia Glass.

Three Junes is made up of three stories that span ten years in the life of Fenno McLeod. The first story is told from the perspective of Fenno’s father Paul, who has gone on a trip to Greece to try and move on after his wife’s death. Paul contemplates his relationship with his wife and sons and meets a young woman named Fern, who he winds up confiding in. In the second story Fenno travels to Scotland for his father’s funeral. In flashbacks he tells the story of his friendship with a man named Mal, who Fenno cares for as he dies of AIDS. The third story is from Fern’s perspective. She meets Fenno while visiting a friend in the Hamptons. He opens up to her just like his father did in Greece ten years before.

I didn’t love the first and third parts, but I really enjoyed the middle, and longest, story about Fenno and Mal. Glass does an amazing job of painting her characters and their complex relationships; Fenno and his father, Fenno and his brothers, the brothers and their parents, Fenno and Mal. Three Junes is an excellent character study, allowing the reader to see Fenno from various angles and perspectives.

That is what I liked about the novel. My problem with the story was the tidy way in which each story wrapped up. Each story had the central character take a break from regular life, think over the life altering events of the past and realize how to move on and truly live life. Fenno’s story doesn’t wrap up quite so tightly, he’s not entirely healed when shows up again in Fern’s story, but he has learned his lesson about being afraid of life and love.

This comes across as very uneven, which is a pretty accurate picture of my thoughts. My opinions were all over the place while I was reading, but I think I finally came down on the side of really liking it. The language is beautiful and as I’ve said repeatedly, I love a good character study. I’d recommend it to anyone who has similar tastes.

Midwives

After The Lovely Bones I moved on to Midwives by Chris Bohjalian which was lent to me by Amy. This may actually be the first time that I’ve read an official Oprah’s Book Club selection. I’m not saying that there’s anything the matter with it, but it’s interesting to me. In any case, it was good, not great, but a solidly good and interesting novel.

Midwives is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a midwife who is charged with murder after one of her patients dies in childbirth. It’s told through the eyes of Connie, Sibyl’s now adult daughter, as she looks back at the trial and the events leading up to it and tries to make sense of what happened.

There’s not a tremendous amount to analyze about the story. Like I said it was interesting and solidly written. Whether Sibyl should be held responsible for Charlotte’s death is an interesting question, the evidence is put forth slowly throughout the book giving the reader time to decide. I didn’t and still don’t know a tremendous amount about midwifery and enjoyed getting a peek into the world of women who deliver children at home. I thought that all of the characters were well fleshed out, especially Connie, the bewildered teenager, first watching her family fall apart around her and later performing a very daring act to try and protect her mother.

Spoilers Follow

I can’t claim to be any kind of expert on the subject of childbirth, but it did seem to me that Sibyl’s actions were justified. Even though it does appear that Charlotte was likely still alive when the c-section was performed it seems that it came to a choice between saving the child and letting them both die. I felt that ultimately Sibyl was stuck in a series of very unfortunate circumstances.

I have to say I was truly surprised when Sibyl was acquitted, as I’m sure I was supposed to be considering all the buildup leading me towards the opposite conclusion. The device of having Sibyl’s journal entries scattered throughout the story worked very well and the very last one had the appropriate impact and shock value.

Before finishing this I checked an archive of Oprah’s book club selections and found that I’m wrong. To date I have read 4 other book club books: The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Gap Creek by Robert Morgan, As I Lay Dying by William Falkner, and White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Again, this is not to say that there is anything inherently wrong with Oprah’s book club, I just found it interesting.

Smilin' Des

Yay More Whales!

Beluga Whale at SeaWorld

The Lovely Bones

While I was on vacation I borrowed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold from Mom. I was intrigued by the book when it came out and even more interested after reading Sebold’s other book Lucky last year. Mom endorsed The Lovely Bones and I borrowed Lucky from Jenny who had borrowed it from Amy.

The Lovely Bones is about a young woman named Susie Salmon. After Susie is raped and murdered she watches her family and friends from heaven as they grieve and attempt to move on. Her father and sister attempt to catch her killer, her mother withdraws, and her brother is too young to understand what has happened.

For the most part I really enjoyed the story. It’s an intense character study that examines the nature and effects of grief. There’s no mystery, we know who killed Susie, but there is still suspense in wondering whether Mr. Harvey will get caught. I loved how realistically each of the family members was drawn. It was amazing watching each of them react to their loss in different ways. Sebold does a wonderful job of painting each person as a three dimensional character, including Mr. Harvey, he is not simply a monster, but a damaged man who I almost, but not quite, felt sorry for.

Spoiler Warning

The only thing that I did not like about the book was towards the end when Susie possesses the body of her friend Ruth and has sex with her childhood sweetheart. I felt like it didn’t fit well with the rest of the story. The lack of sentimentality is one of the major strengths of the book and this scene was awfully trite. That said, I thought the remainder of the book’s conclusion was perfect. Having Susie “kill” Mr. Harvey with an icicle was an excellent way to close his story. It shows a lot of restraint to allow him to disappear and not tie the loose ends too neatly. It was enough for Mr. Salmon to know that he was right.

The Lovely Bones is yet another book that is being made into a movie and interestingly enough Saoirse Ronan, who is playing Lina in City of Ember, is attached to play Susie. There’s a pretty impressive cast attached to the film including Susan Sarandon, Ryan Gosling, Rachel Weisz, and Stanley Tucci. However, what really make me excited is that Peter Jackson is directing. I trust him to do a good job and not turn this well written character study into a Lifetime movie.

I mentioned earlier that reading Sebold’s memoir Lucky is what made me interested in The Lovely Bones. Lucky details the story of her rape and the aftermath as she attempts to recover and move on. I can’t say that I enjoyed it, but it was incredibly moving and beautifully written. However, I have to warn anyone thinking about picking it up that the first chapter is very graphic and disturbing. I don’t want to talk anyone out or reading it because I thought it was amazing, but the reason that Jenny gave it to me to read is that she couldn’t make it past the first couple of pages.

Anyway, I don’t think that it’s necessary to read both, but I do think that they certainly inform each other. I always enjoy reading about writer’s lives to see where real life and fiction overlap. For example reading My Losing Season by Pat Conroy was fascinating since he writes so much from his own experiences. I saw characters in many of the real life people he described and it was interesting to see the real events that are mirrored in his books. Also I’ve mentioned before that I like to read about the writer’s process.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

No, I haven't read it yet, but seeing Jenny's comment with the number of books on the list that she's read made me wonder what other people's numbers are. As far as I know Jenny, Stephen, Clay (when I remind him to), and Mom are the only people who read this with any regularity, but I'd still like to know. If anyone has figured out how many of the 1001 he or she has read please leave a comment and share. Maybe you can all make me feel sad and inadequate as Jenny did.

Not A Sunset

Corona Del Mar

Yet Another Sunset

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from the Circle Line (again)

Everything Is Illuminated

After I finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close I decided that I needed to read Jonathan Safran Foer’s first book Everything is Illuminated. For once no one suggested the book; I managed to pick it out all on my own.

Everything Is Illuminated is another about a young man, also named Jonathan Safran Foer, who travels to the Ukraine to look for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He’s accompanied in his journey by two people Alex, his translator and Alex’s grandfather, who is also named Alex, his driver. That’s the simple version of the story. It is told through the letters Alex writes to Jonathan, Alex’s version of the journey, and Jonathan’s story of his grandfather’s history.

Alex’s letters and chapters are very amusing and his imperfect English is convincing. I enjoyed his evolution over the course of the book. I was less thrilled with Jonathan’s chapters. The story of Trachimbrod was both funny and tragic, but it was also odd and occasionally difficult to follow. I know it was purposefully surreal, but sometimes it was gratuitously so.

In general I liked the book, but it didn’t come close to the brilliance of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I felt like this was Foer’s warm up novel where he worked out the kinks in his technique. Both books have similar themes and a similar style, but I think Foer’s second attempt is more effective. I’m interested in checking out the movie if only because I can’t imagine how it could work.

On a different but related topic, I recently read about a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall on LibraryThing. I don’t know that I’ll strive to read them all, but I think the book sound interesting and it could be a good way to find new books to read. Someone on the site has created a handy spreadsheet to check off the books you’ve read and has equations that indicate what percentage that is and how many of them you’d have to read a year to read them all before you die. In case anyone is curious, I’ve read 46 of the books, which is 4.6% and I would have to read an average of 18 a year to read them all before I die. That’s just a bit morbid, isn’t it?

Lists like this must be taken for what they are, someone’s opinion, but I enjoy reading them anyway. I’m interested in looking at the book to see the reasoning behind putting some books on the list. For example, I'm surprised that The Shining is included, but not The Stand, which I think is far superior, not only as far as King’s novels, but also as a book in general. Of course I also would place Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on the list instead of Everything is Illuminated. Anyway, I’m interested in learning more about the books that I’ve never heard of and I’m always looking for something new to read.

The Most Adorable Ever!

George showing off her supreme cuteness.

Just A Penguin

Just a penguin at SeaWorld

Equal Time For My Babies

George is wondering why Mama is lying on the floor.

For She is the Queen of the World

When I was a kid I had a hamster named Possum who looked strikingly similar to this cat toy. I love it, but no matter how hard I tried I could not make Desie interested in it. In desperation I put it on her head hoping to annoy her into playing, but instead she took it in stride and modeled her new hat like the pro that she is.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

After finishing the His Dark Materials books I asked Clay to recommend a book for me to read. It took a lot of work to get him to suggest something, but he finally gave me a book that his friend Drew had recommended to him and that he hasn’t gotten around to reading. I’m amazed at his ability to dodge the request. The book was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and I absolutely loved it.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is about a nine year old boy named Oskar whose father died on 9/11. When looking through his father’s closet he finds an envelope with the word Black written on the outside and a key in it that does not fit any of the locks in his apartment. So he decides to visit every person with the last name Black in New York City and see if any of them know anything about it. Woven through Oskar’s story is the story of his grandparents who both survived the bombing of Dresden during WWII.

Oskar is an amazing character; an eccentric nine year old boy who only dresses in white and is a vegan, Stephen Hawking enthusiast, photographer, and inventor among many other things. All of that is balanced with a little boy who is carrying around a lot of pain and guilt about his father’s death. I loved his chapters and the variety of people he met on his quest to find the lock that goes with his key. Foer did a wonderful job of creating the sort of child who has trouble relating to people his own age, but can easily interact with adults.

Spoilers

The chapters in which Oskar’s grandparents describe their lives and relationship are fascinating. His grandfather is mute and communicates by writing and using the Yes and No that he has tattooed on his palms. His chapters are the letters he wrote to the son he never met because he left his wife soon after learning that she was pregnant. The grandmother’s chapters are addressed to Oskar, attempting to explain why she has left. Each section was a portrait of an emotionally damaged person and shows how the baggage from their pasts has dominated and destroyed their relationship.

The peripheral characters were all well drawn and fleshed out. I enjoyed Oskar’s interaction with each and how he seemed to be able to draw each one out and connect with them. I was thrilled when some of them showed up to see him in Hamlet, which made his relationship with the Blacks that he met very real. If he can affect people on that level it doesn’t seem wrong that Mr. Black was willing to join in the search and that the other people he met confided in him as much as they did.

The story is interspersed with photographs and good use is made of color and the placement of words on the page. It has a very livre d’ariste feel that I thought was really cool. The pictures used are beautiful and work well within the story. The close up of an elephant’s eye is truly haunting. The chapter in which the grandfather reveals what happened to him during the bombing is corrected in red ink which is an interesting way to create a detached atmosphere for the story. Still it doesn’t remove the power of learning just how much he has lost in his life.

This is the first book that I have read that deals with September 11 and I was impressed with how well it was used. The book never becomes overly sentimental. Oskar’s attempts to make sense of his father’s death work well as a representation of the country’s collective attempt to come to terms with our loss. I loved that when Oskar finally found out what the key was for it was not the answer and could not explain his father’s death. There is no easy answer, but by the end of the book I felt that he and his mother had at least started a dialog and he will be okay eventually.

I’m not so sure about the end of the grandparent’s story. They certainly turned a similar corner with each admitting that they each knew about Anna’s pregnancy, but I don’t know what I think about leaving them at the airport. Will they stay there? Won’t they eventually need to go home? I suppose if Ruth Black can live on top of the Empire State Building they can live in the airport. It is certainly good for Oskar to have his grandmother’s dependence on him at least lessened.

As I said at the beginning, I loved this book. I had a strong emotional connection with the story. This is now the second book in a row that I have had to put down to keep from bursting into tears on the subway. I think it’s time to try a happy book.

Another Tourist Classic

Bethesda Fountain

I Still Love Sunset Pictures

Leaving Ellis Island on the Circle Line

Like Gatlinburg, but on the West Coast

Jenny on Catalina looking all modelesque and pretending she doesn't know that I'm taking her picture

The Former View From My Window

The church across from my apartment has been covered in scaffolding since last spring. This picture makes me really miss my view.

His Dark Materials

I spent a bit of time today and yesterday reading over reviews and comments about the books because it’s always interesting to see what other people think about books. It’s one of those wonderful conveniences brought to us by the internet. I was just saying to Clay this weekend that while I certainly remember the time before the internet and did not have regular access to it until I went to college, I still have to wonder sometimes what people did before. I often finish reading a book or watching a movie and immediately go online to read more about it.

Anyway, I wanted to see what other people thought of the His Dark Materials books, particularly The Amber Spyglass so I spent some time on LibraryThing, Amazon, and a His Dark Materials message board. The opinions varied wildly, which I expected, The Amber Spyglass is a very love it or hate it sort of book. I think my favorite response was on a LibraryThing thread about books that one would not recommend. Someone actually said that he or she would put the His Dark Materials in the category of “Books that put souls in peril.” Seriously.

There is a tremendous amount of debate about the role of religion in the triology. It seems plain that Pullman has issues with the church and organized religion in general, but so many people seem to feel that his religious beliefs got in the way of the story. I don’t really understand since it seemed clear to me that the story was headed in that direction very early on. Then again it is clear that some people did not understand the humanist message of the books. My, that sounds snobby, but I’ve so often found that particularly religious people cannot comprehend humanism and the idea that one should do what’s right not because he or she will be rewarded in the afterlife, but because it is the right thing to do in the here and now. I think that that is what Pullman is trying to say with the idea of creating a “republic of heaven” where one is.

Beyond the “Amber Spyglass is crappy” debate, the hottest topic in the His Dark Materials universe seems to be, “Did Lyra and Will have sex?” I don’t really think that it’s particularly important, especially since I read somewhere that Pullman himself said that he doesn’t know whether they did. The important thing is their realization that they love each other and that their relationship caused the Dust to stop escaping. Initially that is what I thought was being implied, but after that one scene I wasn’t so sure anymore. I’m certain that when and if a movie is made it will be portrayed as a largely innocent romantic moment. I’m dancing all around giving my opinion on this because I really don’t know and I’m not sure what I want to think. I’ll probably continue to think on this issue.

The more time that I spend thinking about these books, the more I like them and the fact that I’ve spent so much time thinking about them is, in my opinion, a huge indicator of the high quality of the books. I’m looking forward to rereading them eventually to look at the story through the lens of knowing how it all ends.

The Amber Spyglass

I finished The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman last night. I have to thank Amy once again for recommending the series. I really enjoyed all three books and am now a bit sad that I won’t be spending more time hanging out with Lyra and Will. It was not an ending that I expected, but I think it was pretty satisfactory.

Spoilers abound!

Once again I was impressed by Pullman’s writing skills and refusal to spell everything out for his readers. The characters continued to be complex, especially my old favorite Mrs. Coulter. I enjoyed trying to figure out her motives and love it was her, for lack of a better word, evil nature that allowed her to do one good deed and help defeat Metatron. Lord Astriel remains a mystery to me though. I never got a particularly clear picture of his motives, I guess he’s the person who sees what must be done and ruthlessly looks out for the greater good. Their relationship was very interesting, not to mention their relationship with their daughter. I admire Pullman’s restraint in not giving a picture perfect moment when Lyra learns that her parents did in fact care for her and sacrificed themselves to allow her to complete her destiny.

Pullman continued his tradition of devastatingly beautiful scenes with his description of Lyra and Will’s journey into the land of the dead. Lyra’s decision to move ahead and leave Pan behind was heart wrenching. Once again Lee Scoresby had a lovely death scene. I loved the image of all of the ghosts disintegrating and rejoining their dæmons, but the image of Lee finally being reunited with Hester was beautiful. Lyra and Will’s love scene was incredibly well written and the Adam and Eve symbolism was very well done. I’m wondering how that will work when and if a movie is made. I’m not sure that people will accept the visual of two twelve year olds falling so entirely in love.

I love that the solution in the end was that essentially the dogma of the church was getting in the way of the necessary action of basically being in right relationship to other people. I did not expect the further solution of Lyra and Will being forced to give each other up to save the dust and allow all the worlds to continue to exist. I was sorry that there is no epilogue, but I suppose it is unnecessary as one can be sure that the dust that is Lyra and Will will be reunited in the end.

All together I very much enjoyed the His Dark Materials trilogy. I felt that Pullman did an excellent job of building his story and laying the groundwork that would allow the conclusion to work. Lyra and Will grew and changed so much through the three books to become the two people who could sacrifice their own happiness for the good of others. I liked the ending with Lyra keeping the secret of her new relationship with Pan, where her previous self would have shown it off.

I imagine that I may have more to say about the books in the future as I’m sure I’ll continue to think about them over the next few weeks. Someday Clay will manage to get through them as well and any discussion that we have will likely spawn even more thoughts so there will likely be a follow up to this post in the future.

Our Lady of the Lost and Found

I’ve been unable to post for a few days due to the laziness imposed by a long weekend followed by our internet dying, but I did do one thing this weekend. I spent several hours adding books to my LibraryThing account so roughly half of our library is in now, half of the portion that is not in storage anyway. As soon as we get the internet back I plan to finish adding books. Because I’m proud of all my work I added a widget to the side of this page that shows a random selection of books from my library. My point is that LibraryThing is really cool and everyone should check it out so they can have an awesome widget like mine!

Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Shoemperlen was sort of recommended to me by Amy, who let me borrow her copy. I say sort of because she basically handed it to me and said it was kind of interesting and that she didn’t really like it, but it wasn’t too bad. That’s pretty much how I felt about it.

The book is about a writer who is visited by Mary. Mary tells her that she needs a rest and would like to stay for a week. The two women spend a quiet week together taking, cooking, and shopping. Mary tells of her miracles and appearances, while the writer reflects on her life.

It’s really not as dull as it sounds; it’s just not my sort of thing. I enjoyed the history of Marian visions and miracles, although I constantly felt like the author was taking the supposed miracles too much at face value. I understand that the book works under the assumption that such things are possible, but some of them are so far fetched that it’s just ridiculous. I kept expecting the scene to return with Mary saying, “of course they just made that one up.” There is a lot of discussion of the writer’s process, which I found inspiring. I liked reading about her writing random sentences down just to see if anything might come of them one day.

As I said in the beginning, I didn’t really like the book, but I didn’t particularly dislike it either. I probably won’t be recommending it to friends or reading it again, but it was an interesting read.

The Subtle Knife

Last night I finished reading The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. As with The Golden Compass I credit Amy with recommending it and I don’t want to write a real review yet. This is just my initial thoughts on finishing the book. These books don’t stand alone so they really should be taken as a whole. The usual spoiler warnings apply, especially if you haven’t read The Golden Compass.

I think I may have enjoyed The Subtle Knife more than The Golden Compass, although I didn’t think that I would at the beginning. I missed Lyra and Pan, but I got used to Will and his story fairly quickly. It seemed to be more tightly written to me, with less time spent on getting the story going, which is the luxury of a sequel I suppose. I enjoyed seeing Lyra start to mature though the book, although I don’t remember finding her particularly immature during The Golden Compass, she was irritating me in the first few chapters. It was character appropriate considering all that she’d just been through, but her lack of forethought, especially when compared to Will, was annoying.

It was good to spend more time with Lee Scoresby, but I was devastated when he died. Pullman did a wonderful job of writing his death scene; it was terribly sad and beautiful. I’ll miss him and Hester. I will be very upset if Lord Astriel does something evil with the knife after Grumman told Will to take it to him.

Speaking of Lord Astriel I can’t wait to see more of him. Is he good, evil, or morally ambiguous? My money is on the moral ambiguity. So many apparently good people seem to be rallying at his side, but I can’t forget that he had no qualms at killing Roger to get to the other world. I’m guessing Lyra won’t be able to forget that either.

The Specters are some of the most terrifying monsters I’ve experienced in a book. The scene when Lena Feldt went to spy on Mrs. Coulter and wound up being tortured was horrific. I’m still very interested in Mrs. Coulter and her horrible monkey. I’m pretty sure that she’ll have a hard time bringing herself to destroy Lyra, if she tries at all.

The expansion of the Dust lore was very interesting. I like the direction in which it’s going. I assume Dr. Malone will have more to do in The Amber Spyglass I want to see more about the Dark Matter / Dust theories.

That Thing in the Distance is the Statue of Liberty

I'm forever in the debt of this seagull.

After Dachau

First of all I have to clarify that Stephen was possibly the one who recommended The City of Ember, or he at least had a hand in the recommendation, neither of us can remember. So in any case, thanks to Anji and Stephen for recommending and lending their jointly owned books.

Moving on, the next book on my list is After Dachau by Daniel Quinn, which was recommended to me by Jenny as we browsed at Barnes and Noble one afternoon mostly because they didn’t have a copy of Ishmael, which I still plan to read one of these days. I’m going to spoil the heck out of it, as usual, so normal spoiler warnings apply. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, but if you’re going to read it don’t go past the spoiler warnings below as there are some pretty good surprises involved.

After Dachau takes place around the year 2000 A. D. A wealthy young man named Jason Tull, who is involved in an organization that investigates cases of reincarnation, meets a young woman named Mallory Hastings, who appears to have reverted to a previous life as a woman named Gloria MacArthur following a car accident. Jason gets to know Gloria to try and understand the mystery of her past. Spoilers!

When he learns that Gloria was African American he finally understand what is going on. A. D. in Jason’s time means After Dachau. The Nazis won World War II, after Hitler won the arms race, and exterminated not only all Jewish people, but all non-Aryans. Gloria was one of the last two in New York before she and her partner took their own lives to avoid being found over two thousand years before. Jason begins a quest to learn more about Gloria’s world, looking for the illegal books published before the war.

Jason’s activities are noticed by a family friend who is also a government agent. He kidnaps Jason and takes him to a remote location until he acknowledges three words, “No one cares.” Jason is not deterred and returns to New York to open a gallery to display non-Aryan art with Gloria, who is now his fiancé.

After Dachau is exactly the sort of book that I should love, it’s a reincarnation story about the Holocaust that takes place in a sort of dystopian world. When I was about halfway through I was ecstatic and planning on recommending it to everyone I knew and buying copies for everyone in my family (which is what I did after reading Life of Pi). Once I’d finished I only gave it to Clay, because I had to know if he agreed with me (he did). The book has some wonderful elements, the reincarnation stories at the beginning are fascinating and the scene when Jason asks a group of schoolgirls to explain the Holocaust to Gloria is perfect, but the book begins to go down hill when Jason is kidnapped. First of all, if no one cares then why on earth would there be a need to kidnap Jason to convince him that no one cares. That would indicate that someone must care but if the government, for example, does care, then why are they not shutting down the gallery? However, having it end with Jason planning to publish Anne Frank’s diary truly killed it for me. It took a smart commentary on the nature of history and reduced it to something a child could have written.

It’s a very short book so it doesn’t take long to get through and it might be worth reading for the excellent first half. I don’t really think anyone should be discouraged from reading a book they are interested in by someone else’s opinion. But I certainly won’t be clamoring for everyone I know to read it like I am with most everything else I read.

The Golden Compass

I finished reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman this morning. First, credit goes to Amy for telling me about the books two years ago. It’s been a while, but I would certainly say that it was her recommendation that piqued my curiosity. I don’t want to write too much about it right now since it is the first book in a trilogy and I would rather treat them as a whole like I did with The City of Ember and The People of Sparks yesterday. Still I wanted to jot down at least a few things to organize my thoughts on the subject more than anything. *There will be spoilers so don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know.*

The Golden Compass is interesting because I really am not sure how to describe it. It takes place in an alternate world where all people are accompanied by a dæmon, which is an animal representation of the person’s soul. Adult’s dæmons are a particular animal, but children’s can change shapes until they are frozen around puberty. I’m impressed with Pullman’s ability to characterize the relationship between people and dæmons without leaning too much on exposition. Even the discussion Lyra has with a sailor about why dæmons must eventually take a particular shape doesn’t feel inorganic. The set up worked well enough to allow me to feel properly horrified when Lyra’s dæmon, Pantalaimon is nearly cut off.

I’m fascinated by the Dust and the philosophical and religious ideas hinted at by Lord Asriel’s explanation. Speaking of Lord Asriel, he and Mrs. Coulter are amazing characters and I can’t wait to see more of them in the next two books. I spent the whole book imagining Asriel as a benevolent father, even though I should have known better, and was pretty shocked by most of the last ten to twenty pages.

This is another book that should make a pretty good movie and has a phenomenal cast. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Daniel Craig does with Lord Asriel.

Now I'm going to go get started on The Subtle Knife!

The City of Ember and The People of Sparks

I’m writing about The City of Ember and The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau together since they’re the two parts of one story. I want to thank Anji for recommending them and letting me borrow her copies. I love when people are enthusiastic enough about books to recommend them and I’m always looking for something new and interesting to read, especially when it comes complete with someone who’s already read it for discussion. I’m pretty compulsive about recommending books to people and always delighted when someone asks to borrow or picks up a book I suggested. I think it’s a pretty big complement when someone makes the effort to read a book based what you thought of it. That’s my long winded way of saying that I’m going to try to mention when someone recommended a book to me and that I always want to hear about it when someone else has read the same books I have. I guess I should add that Fingerprints of the Gods was both recommended and lent to me by Jenny, so thanks to her too.

The City of Ember is a dystopian young adult novel. I’m a huge fan of the dystopian genre and City of Ember is just the sort of thing I love. The story is about two children, Lina and Doon, who live in a city that is lit entirely by electric lights. Thing are getting scary in Ember because there have been blackouts due to problems with the generator and the stock of light bulbs is dwindling along with the other supplies. Lina finds a mysterious torn letter and asks Doon to help her figure out what it means. They interpret the letter and make some very startling discoveries. *I’m going to go ahead and spoil the ending here and talk about the plot of the sequel so don’t continue if you don’t want to know.*

They find out that Ember was built to be a temporary hiding place for a group of people chosen to ensure that the human race continues in the event of a “Disaster.” After 200 years the mayor was supposed to lead the people back above ground, but a corrupt mayor stole the box containing the critical information. They escape through the river and drop a message to let the remaining people know how to follow through a hole above the city.

The People of Sparks picks up right where The City of Ember leaves off, with Lina and Doon waiting to see if the note that they dropped was found and if anyone was able to escape. They are soon joined by those who were brave enough to leave and survived the journey through the river. The citizens of Ember walk until they find a small village called Sparks which has only recently begun to prosper following the Disaster that occurred 200 years ago. The inhabitants are reluctant to allow the refugees to stay as they already have a difficult time providing for themselves, but they do not feel that they can send them away to starve. Over time resentment grows between the two groups and Doon must attempt to avert all out war between the two groups.

I enjoyed The City of Ember tremendously, but was less enthusiastic about The People of Sparks. The City of Ember is very dark and the central mystery of who these people are and where they are is interesting and leads to a satisfying conclusion. At the beginning I thought I was in for an Anthem style, people being forced to do assigned jobs with no regard for their wishes, for the good of all, screw the individual type of book. However it quickly proved to be a much more complex comment on the folly of man and abuse of power. There are some coincidences that strained my suspension of disbelief a little, but all in all it’s very well written. The People of Sparks is not as dark and much more heavy handed. I often felt that I was being beaten over the head with an anti war sledgehammer. It was very reminiscent of Wesley’s “If drugs are bad then why do people take them?” scene from Star Trek TNG. War and prejudice are bad, I get it! I was also disappointed that there was no resolution for the question of Lina’s dreams of a grand city, which had been teased from the first book. Perhaps it represents the city they might build some day or the grandeur that was lost due to war, I really don’t know.

I’m interested to see how The City of Ember works as a movie. They’ve got a pretty impressive cast signed up. Who knows, I might even go see it.

Exploring a Fuzzy Keyboard

This is my desk buddy, de Soto. It's a bit fuzzy because I took this with the camera in my new phone. I obviously need more practice since the monitor and coffee cup are in focus, but not my poor manatee. However, I wanted to try out the micro memory card and adapter.

Fingerprints of the Gods

I had so much fun writing my thoughts about Lord of the Flies that I thought I'd go back and write about the other books I've read this year.

Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock documents the author’s attempts to find evidence that an advanced society existed long before conventional scientists believe. Whether one believes him or not, it is a fascinating look at many unexplained wonders of the ancient world. I had previously heard some things such as the evidence that the Sphinx is much older than it is generally dated (weathering of the stone that could only have come from copious amounts of water), but did not know about others, like the mapping of Antarctica. It was not an easy read, but I found it enjoyable. I was especially fascinated by the section on Egypt, which has been a particular interest of mine ever since I read an article about Egyptologists in 321 Contact when I was about nine.

I don’t know if I agree with his conclusions, but he makes many good points, especially about the structure and possible uses of the pyramids. I was pretty disturbed by what he has to say about global warming and the “end of the world.” The part about mammoths being flash frozen is a bit scary, especially when he’s talking about how the world is supposed to end in fire next time.

I ♥ Whales

Strawberry Fields Forever

It's so generic and touristy, but I still really love it.

I'm a sucker for sunset pictures

Lord of the Flies

I finished reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding this afternoon. I already knew a fair amount about the story mostly thanks to Stephen King, but also just because of various references and parodies, like the one on The Simpsons that inspired me to go ahead and read it. So I came into it knowing that Piggy was done for and that the boys would get rescued in the end. Anyway, I enjoyed the story although I found that occasionally I had trouble following the descriptions. I have to wonder if maybe this was on purpose, because of the surreal nature of the story. I was frustrated with the actions of Jack and his followers, which reminded me so vividly of the realities of being a kid. Every time Piggy accused the other boys of “acting like kids” I remembered being in elementary school and being so frustrated with the immaturity of so many of the other people kids. I would probably have been similarly ostracized when I was 12.

There is a short afterward by E. L. Epstein in the edition I have (1959 paperback published by Capricorn Books) that includes a quote from Golding’s description of the themes of the book that I found interesting. “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer, having interrupted a man-hunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same implacable way. And who will rescue the adult and his cruiser?” If that’s not food for thought I don’t know what is.

The Riverside Church Angel

This is one of my favorite pictures. If someone asked me to show them my top three photographs this would certainly be one of them.