Lynness: The Mansion FYI

I've never heard of The Mansion- I'll have to give it a try.  If anyone else wants to, just google it.  It's on project gutenberg and googlbe books and other pages with public domain literature.

Lynness: favorite fiction authors

Can anyone/everyone give me some names of their favorite fiction
writers? It's more of a challenge to find well-written, clean,
enjoyable adult fiction these days, so when I find an author I like I
tend to read everything the library has by that author. That said, I
know there are some authors I enjoy who have one or two books that I
will not read (Barbara Kingsolver, Connie Willis, for example) and know
the dangers of giving a blanket recommendation for an author, but it is
a place to start. I don't necessarily want series books, and I'm open
as far as genre. I just want some fresh ideas and I don't want to wade
through a lot of trash to get them.

MIM: Merry Christmas!

Hi All--I know you won't all read Christmas stuff this month, but that's what I'm going to read for our book club and I wanted to announce my choices now just in case somebody else would be reading the same things.  President Monson said he reads The Mansion, by Henry Van Dyke, and Dickens's A Christmas Carol, every Christmas.  I decided to read both of them this year, and also Dickens's The Life of Our Lord.  One good thing about these choices during the busy holiday season is that all of them are quite short.  In fact, I've already read A Christmas Carol this past week.
 
I love A Christmas Carol!  And Dickens.  I hadn't read it since we lived in Preston, when I was probably 11.  I remember finding some stories on the bookshelf that must have been a collection of classics, although I think I had no idea at the time that they were classics, or what a classic was--that people all over the world had read and loved these stories.  Since I didn't know this, I didn't mention to anyone that I was reading A Christmas Carol (in the summertime, I think) till afterwards, when I remember thinking it was so cool that I had to tell Mom and Dad about.  (The Lady or the Tiger was the only other story I remember from the collection.  That one haunted me,  being sort of an unresolved dilemma.)  It's to Mom and Dad's great credit that we could pick up any old thing in the house and read it, and that a lot of stuff was mighty good for us.
 
Anyway, if you've been watching the various Scrooge movies over the years, you probably remember this line from Scrooge regarding the poor, who would rather die than go to debtors' prison:  "If they had rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."  That's one of my favorite lines.  But I brought so much more to my reading, after 40+ years, and it was fun to realize that this was a reference to Thomas Malthus who perpetuated the idea of that era that there wasn't enough food on the earth for the too-rapidly increasing population, and I learned about Malthus while I finished my recent BYU degree.  Of course there are a zillion other things I understand better about Dickens's England now too.  And about the things he was documenting.  I love his characterizations.
 
The Life of Our Lord won't be the same kind of a read, not having fictitious characters, but so far I like it well enough.  President Hinckley had some complimentary things to say about it, as well as some reservations (I'm going to look up his comments).  It was written for his children, to teach them about Jesus, and he expressly forbid that they should publish it.  Publication would've spoiled his purposes, I think.  His children did not publish it.  Those of a later generation did.  That made me think of the oath of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies never to take up weapons again, and how their children didn't make that oath so they were free to do what was relevant for their time period.
 
The Mansion is a short story that's hard to find in print.  We found it a couple of years ago in a library and photocopied it to read as a family (because of President Monson's references to it).  We did read it at Christmas time, but it'll be like a new story to me.  Unlike the person who wrote Lyness's little poem about reading, I can't say that the stories I read aren't in the books but are in my head.  Sadly, I forget too much of what I read!  And it was worse with this story because I happened to be very sleepy on some of the evenings we read together, and I dozed off too much!  I hope it wasn't boring.  I kind of wonder why it's out of print . . .  I'll report back.  May you all have at least one cozy evening at home with a book.  Wish I had a fireplace, but at least I have a soft warm kitty.  Love, Mim

Rae: Foreign Earthiness and December

My book for November, The Shadow of the Wind, was an earthy and suspenseful gothic novel set in post-war Barcelona. The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is a native Spaniard. He used the technique of parallel plots in the narrator's life and the mystery he was trying to solve. It all starts when the narrator's father takes him to a secret library where a keeper maintains a collection of lost books. The narrator (a ten-year-old) is allowed to choose one and to take very good care of it. He selects The Shadow of the Wind and is enthralled by it. He discovers, while trying to find more to read by the same author, that someone is tracking down all of the author's books and is destroying every copy. The question is why?


Like Lynness and her Umberto Eco title, I found this one full of earthiness and sensual description. Not smutty but full of senses--taste, smell, sound, touch, etc. I never felt like any of the description was gratuituous (in the way it so often is in American writing) or offensive. It seemed very natural and integral to the scene or character. I have noticed that many Spanish and Latino writers use that sensual earthiness to describe and broaden their characters. I was intrigued by Zafon's many specific descriptions of the city of Barcelona. It was almost as if the city was a character in the story also. I enjoyed the book very much and wouldn't mind reading some more by him. As with Umberto Eco, though, I suspect that not everyone would enjoy this author's writing.


This particular title was translated by Lucia Graves, who is Robert Graves' daughter. Graves (the father) wrote I, Claudius and was also known for his reinterpretations of Greek mythology. I remember how much Matt loved I, Claudius. Matt is one of the few people I know who actually read the book and watched the whole series on PBS! I enjoy finding little connections like that which make me happy...

Now...on to December. We are wishing for snow here in Payson. The holiday lights are up in the city. The temperatures have dropped to below freezing. BYU has beaten Utah. Fat Christmas geese will soon be here. We will all be busy enjoying the sights and sounds and feelings of the season. Wherever we are. Recognizing that, this month will be a "Reader's Choice" affair. You may choose non-fiction OR fiction. A title you've not read before. Your choice. Enjoy. Report back.

Happy reading!

Mim: Musicophilia and The Little Prince

Hi All Y'all! I got my copy of Musicophilia in late October here in Japan, so I finished it in November. It's been really fun to read everyone's October comments and to think about musical genius and extremes. This book is technical, like you said, Rae. And Lynness, you read it with a nursing background. As for me, since I did my BYU Closure Project in 2004 on Neuroscience and Agency, the terms and topics and tales were so happily familiar! All of you, like me, must feel so much reverence for Heavenly Father as our Creator when you read about the capacity of our brains and think about each person's unique identity as shaped by their desires (including the music they love).

I think about my brain-damaged family members (ha ha) and various looney-tune cases I've encountered and I wonder sometimes if Heavenly Father is preparing me for special experiences (with people and neuroscience) in the future. I've already felt great compassion for Mom with her aphasia, Grandma Mary with her dementia, Blake's Granny with her repeating story-tracks, etc. But my closure project and several books like Musicophilia have hugely broadened my understanding and compassion. Don't you all find that a book can open up whole new comprehensions of things?

I'm pretty sure our brains would use a whole population of very specific neurons to tell the difference between a Stradivarius's sound and the sound of a less phenomenal instrument. Do you think any of us could hear the difference if someone played a painted violin? Because I remember an auction of beautiful painted violins at one of Kate's symphony performances. (Google-search "hand-painted violins" to see lots of cool ones.) I'm not sure I'd be able to hear the difference without a lot of training. At any rate, I'm sure I couldn't feel quite the same about playing one of them versus playing one with typical wood finish . . .

Well, my real November book was The Little Prince. Like Beccy's November choice, my choice was influenced by my kids. Maddie read it last month, and Kate's always loved it. And we all love the art. I think the author, the Frenchman Antoine de St. Exupery, must be one of those child-oriented people like Roald Dahl or Eric Carle or Edward Lear. So his book is very gentle, and very short. He does use a lot of dry humor, though, and that's adult-ish. His little prince puzzles over the adults' strange behavior, like the drunkard who's drinking to forget, and the thing he wants to forget is that he's ashamed, and the thing he's ashamed of is that he's drinking. There's also the geographer who doesn't leave his study, because "geographers are too important to go wandering about." Anyway, now I have another bond with Maddie and with any of the rest of you who've read The Little Prince.

In our Relief Society book group we read Pearl Buck's The Hidden Flower this month. It sparked all kinds of discussion because it's about Japanese-American relationships and all of us here are into those. That group hasn't always had a lot to discuss. But I love the way our online book group is Family and we all have lots to share. So what's the "mission" for our December books, Rae? Love you each! Mim

Beccy: Woodworms and Pesticides

Yes, Lynness, I had read that article. I know Dr. Tolley--funny how--He taught a kickboxing class that I took after Jared was born. His whole family are black belts and they ran a karate center in Springville. He made the class especially fun because while we stretched or warmed up or cooled down he would tell us about his latest research or passion. He is interested in so many things and his profession takes him into many interesting fields of study. He was also a mentor to a good college friend of mine who graduated in statistics. Anyway, isn't it kind of funny to think woodworms and primtive pesticides could be the reason for the Strad's amazing qualitites?!

Lynness: November read

My November read, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Italian author Umberto Eco, was long (500ish pages in 3 parts), compelling, odd, and somewhat testosterone addled. I really liked the basic premise and storyline. At the beginning, the reader wakes up with him as he is awaking from a coma of sorts after a stroke. He does not know who he is. He has forgotten all memories that have to do with his own experiences but can recall things he read or learned about. As part of trying to 'find himself' again, he goes back to the home he grew up in and immerses himself in the books and music that he grew up with to try and trigger some memories. I have said for years that I would love to take an American history class that teaches the events through an analysis of political cartoons, songs, advertisements, pop culture, etc.. This is basically that class, but with Italian history. It is obvious that this part of the book is highly autobiographical and is the main reason for writing the book and required much research.
There are a couple of narrative devices: a hidden room, which doesn't seem too far-fetched; and finding a rare-book dealer's dream in the last box of the attic- a 1623 Shakespeare print, giving him another stroke. (This does seem too much of a coincidence). This second stroke leads to the last part of the book. He is in a coma-like state again and sees his life passing before his eyes and is able to remember (and thus show the reader) all the things that he struggled to discover and fit into his past through the first two parts of the book. He is aware that he now remembers and wonders how real this is or if the previous was all a dream.
Now for testosterone addled bit: being a man, especially one trying to rediscover (literally) his youth, and one who has had many affairs (though he doesn't remember them) there is a lot of attention to sex. Actually, not so much sex as sexuality- him remembering looking at National Geographic-type naked women as a kid, conflicting feelings and advice on his body and on girls, his growing awareness of the opposite sex and their effect on him. This comes to a climax (well, what else would you say?) toward the end of the 3rd section just before he dies, his memories marching by him. Characters and songs from his youth that the reader has become familiar with through his readings in the attic in the second part start to intermingle and take on a life and story of their own in a fantasy.
Throughout this whole 3rd part you and he have no idea of the passage of time- it could be months or seconds- and then he dies. The story is well written, it ends right, it is a very masterful translation, but I don't really think I'd recommend it. I would, however, like to see this sort of idea used with American history!

Sam: Howdy!

Well I just caught up with you all and found out what this months subject/theme/genre/pick is supposed to be. You could say I'm a little behind. After reading about 50 pages of First Nights, although rather interesting... it didn't grab me as imperative to read. So I switched to a book called Amazing Grace - which is about the author of the words to amazing grace and how it became the song we know today. I am still in the middle of it, but I am really enjoying it and I can really see how this man's life was changed by his excepting the gospel into his life. Granted, he didn't have all the knowledge, but what he did have he used quite well. He is a very good example of fufilling his potential.
Anyway - I think I am going to sit November out - due to the lateness of the month (did you know that next week is Thanksgiving already? Just realized that 3 hours ago!). I have read some wonderful books by foreign authors -
Happy Turkey Day,
Love to you all,
Sam

Lynness Re: Stradivari's Genius

Just a follow-up to your book post. I remembered reading something about Stradivari in a BYU news email and I went looking for it- here is a news article about it from the Deseret News almost a year ago. Maybe you read it.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20061130/ai_n16909853

Lynness: maybe an answer for Rae

Your query on the moth boy immediately made me think of Elizabeth Enright's Then There Were Five. Oliver collects bugs and one night has an experience with a luna moth. I ran and grabbed my copy and it's in chapter 5. This may not be it- Elizabeth Enright is nothing like Ray Bradbury, but it may be.
I enjoyed checking out freerice- thanks Rae. I missed palfrey (a saddle horse) on my 14th word.

Rae: Fun Diversion

I found this little vocabulary game through the website that Lynness referred to--go to www.freerice.com and you will be able to assuage world hunger through your immense vocabulary. Or not. It's addictive.

I love the Loganberry site and am contemplating a query myself. But I thought I would ask you ladies first. Does anyone remember a short story (I have always thought it was by Ray Bradbury, but I could be wrong) about a boy who collects insects or butterflies? I definitely remember that he has a luna moth inside a box or on the wall and at night he hears it trying to get out? I would love to find that story.

Hope you are all enjoying your foreign authors. Or not.

Happy reading!

Lynness: A poem on reading

This simple poem is posted in the children's section of one of our county libraries. 
I like it and thought I would share it...

Reading

A story is a special thing
The ones that I have read
They do not stay inside the books
They stay inside my head.

I also thought I would post this website that I love to browse through.  If you are trying to get information on a book but just remember bits and pieces about it, this is the place to ask to get a title or author or info.  Mostly I just like to browse through the "solved mysteries catalog" to get ideas for books other people have loved.

http://loganberrybooks.com/solved.html

Lynness: Odds and ends and October and November reads

I really opened a can of worms with my post about how I read. Someone asked if Nathan still speed-reads and he doesn't really. This is mostly because he doesn't have time (make time) to read for pleasure. He reads computer instruction/reference books for work and for working on his hobbies, and he reads the scriptures. Neither lends itself to speed-reading well. I have noticed that when I pay too much attention to how I'm reading that I slow down and start to subvocalize, and when I am trying to read my scriptures at 10:30 at night and falling asleep as I do so, I intentionally slow down and subvocalize so I get SOMETHING out of it. (Let's face it- Leviticus and Numbers are extremely repetitious and sometimes quite dull).
As for October, I picked out a book right after I joined the book blog on the 23rd called Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment by James R. Gaines. It's a history of the two men, of music forms, and of European history as well as the challenge that culminated in the creation of Bach's A Musical Offering. I got through close to half of it, and was interested and still plan to finish it, but there were several other books I wanted to read that I had gotten at the same time. This books doesn't really pull you along, so I wanted a break from it and I wanted to read Musicophilia, which I did. Books like that make me want to go back to school and take up neuroscience (or whatever the book I've reading happens to be about). There are so many things about ourselves that we don't know and even scratching the surface yields astounding results and even more questions. I remember Freeman saying something about how we only use 10% of our brains and (him) wondering what it will be like when we get beyond the veil and remember all that we once knew. Perhaps those artistic and musical and savant-like abilities are latent in all of us and will be brought to the fore, along with many other things.
In Musicophilia a footnote referenced Italian author Umberto Eco's "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" and I looked him up and have put that book on hold. That may be my November read, if I think it will be rewarding. If not, I'm considering something from the Polish section of the list Rae provided a link to (since Nathan went to Poland on his mission) or something from the Far East.

Abby: October's NOT-read and November's pick

Well, I made it through 100 of the 500 pages of Mozart: A Life. The one-fifth I read was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. But I really had to concentrate and it ended up being more work than pleasure. I'd like to revisit it another time.

I didn't think I would pick a book for November but after reading Beccy's post, I think I'll read Inkheart, the first in that series. There are so many fun juv. fiction books and I'm always up for trying another. I think it'll be fun to see if I can spot any of the "Germanisms" in the book since the author is German and these were written in German first.

Why is Stradivari so hard to spell?! sorry. . .

Beccy: October's read, November's pick

I loved Stradiveri's Genius. I suppose some might find his conclusion rather anticlimactic—that even with modern science and technology, we have yet to understand or duplicate Stradiveri’s mastery at producing such perfection in string instruments. The book begins in 17th century Cremona, Italy, which was Stradivari’s home and where violins became a dominant musical instrument (pardon the pun). I had never heard of Cremona before, but have added it to my mental list of places I want to visit in Italy!

I enjoyed learning about how violins are constructed and exploring all the abounding theories about why Stradivarius violins (and also others made by lesser-known luthiers of his century) are so superior: Is it his secret varnish recipe? Is it the European mini-ice age that affected the wood of that area and time? Is it the layer of volcanic sand discovered between the layers of varnish (discovered by modern high-power microscopes)?

I enjoyed making connections between history, musical performers, people and places I had heard of (such as the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, who made grandma’s piano) and many I hadn’t heard of. I hope I someday have the now very rare opportunity of hearing a Strad played live. Yo-Yo Ma actually still owns The Davidov Strad cello, but does not play it exclusively. At least I could find some recordings that were made on Strads.

I loved the idea that
“A great violin is alive; its very shape embodies its maker’s intentions, and its wood stores the history, or the soul, of its successive owners. I never play without feeling that I have released or, alas, violated spirits.” – Yehudi Menuhin

As for naming my own violin, I’m still thinking. I have considered The Liahona, since it is to me an instrument of curious workmanship and “works” only by faith on my part. I do often have the feeling that I am trying to coax good sounds out of it. It is really a marvelous instrument—I am reminded of that whenever my teacher plays on it!

I asked Katie today what she has named her violin, and she said, “Bocci.” This really made me laugh, because it sounds Italian and I have no idea where she would have heard that (isn’t it a game?)! I told her she should name it Valentine, because we often need to remind her that it is not pronounced “biolin” but Violin, with a v- as in VALentine!

My November pick is Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. It’s juvi fiction, but Curt really wants me to read it. I rather liked Inkspell and Inkheart and I’m in the mood for something light after this month’s nonfiction. Cornelia Funke is German and her books are translated from German (though you probably all know that).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Beccy: Thoughts on Reading, Language and Music

Lynness’s post and everyone’s responses to it gave me much delicious food for thought! I think I read pretty fast, but other than in grade school when you're told your reading grade-level, I’ve never been timed—like how many words/minute I can type. Have any of you? When I read fiction, especially something suspenseful or very compelling, my eyes take in several lines at once like Abby described. I read differently when I am reading non-fiction.

Is sub-vocalizing pronouncing the words mentally as you read—“hearing” each word in your mind? If so, I’m a sub-vocalizer for sure when I’m reading with learning as my specific intent; non-fiction reading such as the scriptures or The Art of Practicing, for example. It depends on my intent, though, because some parts of the scriptures I read more like a novel (the war chapters in the last part of Alma, for example).

For me, much of learning is fused with hearing. If I am given a list of seven unrelated words to memorize, I do it by sound, not by meaning or visualization. I often find I have unintentionally memorize scriptures because of their peculiar language and memorable sound (there are certainly better reasons to memorize them :).

Like Lulu and Rae, I love to read out loud (ask my kids) because I love the actual sound of the words. More specifically, I love human expression in spoken language. And, like all of us, I subconsciously judge people, or learn much about them by how they speak. I am delighted by accents, quirky speech impediments and colloquialisms. To my thinking, language—in an aural sense—is a form of music. For me, reading is taking in meaning from the music of language. Add to that the joy of imagination—no wonder we love it.

Aside from the sound of it, language captures so much of personality. I enjoyed acting in plays as a youth because I loved becoming a different person; talking differently than I talk and trying to convince listeners that the pretend emotions were genuine. When I read out loud to my kids I am just being a ham and indulging myself in that pleasure. My kids’ (when they were small, but Katie’s still) most requested picture book for me to read them is Eric Carle’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? because each animal has it’s own distinct voice and accent suggested to me by their appearance/type of animal. The more I exaggerate, the more we laugh.

Rae’s post about music and the brain led me to compare my mental process when writing words to writing music. When I write words, there is an idea I want to express, and I am accessing my vocabulary and emotions, trying to find words that capture the essence of my thoughts. Usually there is an initial “brain dump” and then lots of editing to clarify, capture subtle nuances, etc. When I write music (without lyrics), there is something to express, but I’m not sure what to call it. It’s some combination of idea, sound and emotion. There is an outpouring of musical mess as I try to convey the ‘idea,’ and then lots of highly-detail-oriented refining. I consider each note, constantly going from micro to macro to measure the value of the individual sound and its place in context. In writing prose or poetry, we do that with words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. It’s interesting to me that in both cases, the finished product is so much more than the sum of its parts. I suppose that is the essence of creation.

It’s lunch time and I’m still in my pajamas and slippers. I’m down with flu today and finishing Stradiveri’s Genius. I average about 3 nose-blows per page (on tissues, not the book). I’ll comment on that and my November book pick next post.