9 posts tagged “books”
I've been asked several times in the last few weeks what my summer plans will be. They are many, varied, occasionally peculiar, and most of them very ME. Observe:
-No school. No, that isn't like me. Yes, I'll have a good 12+ weeks sans-school. I'm tired and my brain has the IQ of soggy and day-old oatmeal. Furthermore, I don't NEED those classes to be finished by a certain time, so ha!
-Lots of work (bit more like me :P). I was told that hours would be cut this summer, and was most unamused as we had hired almost a dozen new people for summer (my point being "if you have people who are already trained and want more hours, why the blazes would you cut their hours and hire seasonal summer people?"). However, of the ten hired, EIGHT have already quit in one way or another. I've given the store almost complete availability, and was told yesterday that my hours would "max out" throughout the summer. $$$=nice. Veeeerrrrry nice. Some in savings, some fun purchases, etc. I'll also do some pet-sitting; I have a few groups of people in the area for whom I will take care of critters in exchange for money while they are on vacation or what have you. What can I say? Getting paid to receive fuzz therapy: it just doesn't get much better than that!
-My books-to-be-read-during-summer list is growing. Some great literature that I've never read (Wuthering Heights, most of Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, did Victor Hugo write anything beside Les Mis, and that's a very partial list), some books on music/singing/singers that I've wanted to read but not had the time (Joan Sutherland's autobio, bios of Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, Tebaldi's biography, for a few examples), some books on theology (there is so much I don't understand but want to know more about and try to see the reasoning, etc), some just-plain-fun books (yayyayyayyayYAY Elizabeth Peters is FINALLY doing another Vicky Bliss novel, I think Donna Andrews has another coming out, I need to catch up on Iris Johannson -sp?-, etc, etc, etc)
-then there's the yard, which has definite potential, but needs more time than I have during the semester. The patio needs work, weeding and mulching must be done, and an herb pot or two (or six) need to be set up.
-SOUTH PADRE. 21ST BIRTHDAY. ENOUGH SAID.
-Oh, yeah, and there'll be some music in there, too. :P I'll be stopping by school a few days a week to practice songs for next semester, which will be fun/productive/focusing and all that good stuff.
yes, that books list is long. I read REALLY quickly. Even with school and work, I finished Les Mis (all 800+ pages, if I remember correctly) in a couple of days. Without school, I could easily sit down and read something like that cover-to-cover just because I enjoy it.
Oh, and amusing story today. I attend the traditional (ie, pre-'64) Latin Mass. I suspect I stand out a bit in this relatively small congregation (about 150 or so) as I'm a single woman who doesn't live with her parents, dresses considerably more liberally than most there (I once brought a friend to church with me, and she has ever since refered to the congregation as "fundamantalist Catholics"), and attends college with every intention of a career.
So, as I walk from my car to the church, I notice that something doesn't feel quite...right. Hmm.
I am wearing a light (green underskirt, tropical flower veiling overskirt) summer skirt, as it is in the 70s. It reaches to about mid-calf, and is slit on one side to the knee. Perfect for evening church in the spring with an uber-conservative congregation. All light, airy, spring-y, etc.
In fact, a bit too airy.
When I glanced down, I realized that I must have caught part of the skirt on something while getting in or out of the car, because that slit is now more like mid-thigh.
Naturally, I realize this while I'm in the middle of crossing a street.
On the bright side, I'm about two minutes late for church. No one else is in the street with me.
I finish crossing the street with a dainty grasp on the edge of the skirt. Anyone seeing me might (I can hope, right?) think that I was just lifting my skirt slightly, the better to take long steps. Or something.
Once I get inside and get into a pew, I dig discreetly in my purse for my emergency safety pins, which, I belatedly realize, I neglected to return to my purse post-musical. Brilliant. I decide that this skirt will become a "hip-hugging" skirt, rather than have it sit at my waist where it usually is. That slit is still somewhat above the knee, but at least there is no breeze in the church and the skirt is rather full.
Did I mention that this priest once gave a sermon on how SHORT SLEEVES (ie, above the elbow) are immodest? Really, he has many good points, but he is a bit over-sensitive on the modesty in dress issue.
(my crack after that sermon about "if someone is turned on by my elbows when I bare them during a texas summer, it's his problem and not mine" would not have gone over well, I think)
Needless to say, I departed RAPIDLY when Mass was over, skirt still delicately clutched in left hand.
If you enjoy light and humorous mysteries, you will enjoy Donna Andrews' Meg Langdon series. I'm rererereading it at the moment, and laughing out loud as hard as I did the first time. The first is Murder with Peacocks, followed by Murder with Puffins, Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos, We'll Always Have Parrots, Owls Well That Ends Well, etc, etc.
In the latter, Meg and her fiance have recently bought a house and are holding a yard sale to get rid of the excess of junk to which the last owner was most attached. Needless to say, someone is murdered and she has to solve the case, but prior to the murder Meg is describing to her fiance a particular lamp shade that, to her amazement, two buyers are fighting over:
"The lamp shade was huge--three feet tall, and equally wide at the base, though the sides curved in as they went upward and then flared out again, making it look like an inverted Art Nouveau birdbath. Its dominant colors were orange and purple, though at least a dozen other hues appeared here and there in the trimmings. And as for the trimmings, I had nothing against lace, fringe, braid, bows, beads, tassels, appliques, rosettes, silk flowers, rhinestones, prisms, or embroidery, but I thought that inflicting all of them on one defenseless shade was unforgivable."
Snort. Chuckle. Giggle.
Off to work...
Book, magazine, catalog, nutritional information, billboard, website, newspaper... What are you currently reading and would you recommend it to others?
I really have no time to read right now. The only reading time I'm getting is over breakfast, or about 10 minutes each morning. I'm currently reading Hans Christian Anderson's fairytales, as annotated by Maria Tatar. Sadly, this is not a complete edition, but it is true to the style, has all the old language and beauty, and is just full of gorgeous word images. Everyone--adults and children--should read these.
PS-I am about one third of the way through Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I never read it before, but after being reminded of its existence during vocal rep a few weeks ago I thought, "Hm, another 'great book' I've never read. Maybe I should." All I can say is that if you loved The Count of Monte Cristo (I did), read Les Mis. I'm having a hard time putting it down, to the point where I'm reading it in the recital hall during rehearsals (not while I'm supposed to be on stage, of course). It really is fantastic. Yes, it is abridged, but apparently it is only missing the history of a religious order of some kind. It is the B&N Classics edition, which came to about $5 with my discount. Even with the abridgement, it is 830 pages without the footnotes. As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing: I can enjoy it longer!
Things I should be doing:
a) sleeping
b) homework
c) tidying the house
d) doing laundry
What am I doing?
Composing a list of the ten books that have most influenced/impressed me. Or the most important books (for me) that I've read. Or something along those lines. It's a list that has been brewing in my mind for a while, so maybe if I write it down I can concentrate on other things better! :P I was inspired to do this by a thread on a website that I visit frequently, which asked each person to post the three most influential books of his/her life. I can't possibly list just three, so here are my ten.
This is in no particular order, though I'd say that the Iliad would rank higher on the list than most.
1) Homer's Iliad. Everyone should read this. EVERYONE. Best line: "I have done what no other mortal man has done; I have kissed the hands of the man who killed my son." Graduating from college without reading this (no matter what the degree plan) should be illegal because of how much this book makes you think. It's about refusing to fight a war for the wrong reasons, going into battle for the right reasons, forgiveness, the sorrow and grief caused by war (however just it may/may not be), the importance of philosophy, and so much more.
2) The Time quartet, by Madeleine L'Engle. These books are about doing the right thing (however difficult and frightening), drawing closer to the Divine via the Aquinian idea of beauty+goodness MUST come from the Divine no matter what the apparent source, time/space/dimensional travel, family, the good kind of feminism (women can be both brilliant Nobel-Prize-winning scientists and still be fantastic wives and mothers), the importance of love, and (again) so much more. I reread these about twice a year (usually on school breaks). The best kind of children's book can be genuinely enjoyed by adults and kids more than once.
3) Heart and Hands, by Elizabeth Davis. This is a very entry-level midwifery textbook. Every woman ought to read it for a better understanding of her body, femininity, fertility, women's health overall, etc. It is extremely readable.
4) A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. While this is not considered a children's book, I first read it when I was about 12. I didn't understand all of it, but I enjoyed it generally and appreciated it as a whole. Three or four years later, I read it again. I finally bought it and reread it about a two years ago, and I loved it even more. Womanhood, love of books and music, the importance of great books in children's education, growing up/coming of age, poverty, the importance of imagination, delight in small pleasures--all of those are covered. Oh yeah, and it's a REALLY fun read. I've reread it twice in the past two years, and intend to continue.
5) My Name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev, both by Chaim Potok. These aren't as well known as Potok's The Chosen, but they spoke more to me. A Jewish Hassidic boy with an incredible and uncanny talent for art (particularly Impressionistic) comes of age (and, in the second, is married and a father to his own children) in New York in a fictionalized Ludivicher (sp?)-style Hassidic community. This is a brilliant book just in the attention to the details of what it is like to grow up in such a community, though that is a sideline in much of the book. The community in which Asher Lev grows up is not one that approves of much of his kind of art (everything from nudes to crucifixions to portraits to impressionistic landscapes/still lifes et all); the less judgmental tend to think of it as a waste of time, while the very critical consider parts of it to be an abomination. Unusually (and this is part of what makes these books great) the Rebbi (the leader of the Hassidic community) is not portrayed as cruel or even unkind. Instead, he is thoughtful in his dealings with Lev; he does not give approval to certain aspects of this art, but he does not judge, either. His concern, as a truly great and wise man, is for the well-being of his community, of which he clearly considers Lev a part. Lev gives (particularly in the second book) excellent (yet gentle) rebuttals to the community: he goes to the childrens' school and, upon being criticized openly by a young child, turns to the board and draws a masterpiece in chalk: a portrait of the Rebbi. Now, to this community, the Rebbi is much like the Pope is to Catholics, but he is (due to the size of the community) more like Peter (first Pope) would have been to the early Christians: closer, and therefore draws God closer to them. Lev explains that by depicting that which is uplifting and good, art can draw us closer to the Divine, and that by depicting evil, one can understand it better (and therefore avoid it). I know that these are technically two books, but they really should both be read if one is read.
6) Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella. This is the book from which the movie Field of Dreams was based. It is NOT just about baseball. It is about baseball, the love of the game, the "thrill of the grass," following important ideas if they feel right and even if they seem absolutely crazy, dreams coming true, broken hearts being mended, and souls finding peace. Even if you aren't a baseball fan (and I'll admit, I pretty much grew up on stories about the old-time Yankees, the Black Sox, et all) you should read this.
7) Tolkien's The Hobbit. While many people will cite The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a favorite, I think I am one of about five people on this planet who preferred The Hobbit. I find it easier to identify with the main character, I laughed more while reading it, and the imagery/descriptions/scenarios were just beautiful and crystal-clear. Important themes? Well, not so obvious. Perhaps expecting the unexpected, finding hidden depths, not being content with a regular and comfortable placency but instead stretching oneself mentally and physically, etc. (and yes, LOTR fans, I realize that those and more are all in your beloved LOTR. I don't particularly dislike LOTR. I just never enjoyed it the way I did The Hobbit. Chill.)
8) The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery. Montgomery is best known for her Anne of Green Gables series, of course. Personally, I always liked The Blue Castle more than anything else she wrote. It is (I think) still in print, but it is rather unknown, particularly compared to her Anne and Emily books. In short, a girl (Valancy) finds out that she is dying, and is given about a year to live. In her late twenties, she is considered a hopeless spinster by her thoroughly unpleasant family. Upon learning she is dying, she determines to keep that a secret, and to really live life to the fullest. She leaves her mother's house and goes to nurse another girl who is dying of TB. No one else will take care of this other girl because she is considered "bad" after being knocked up, but Valancy discovers a gentle and innocent soul. She uses the money that the girl's father insists on paying her for the nursing and housekeeping to purchase pretty new clothes that she would never have been allowed to wear before. Eventually she marries a rather disreputable man who was kind to the dying girl, and enjoys every minute of the next year. There is a surprise ending, which I shan't post here. I know I've made all this sound very Victorian-novel-y, but this is really a well-written and enjoyable book. I probably identify a lot with the character (no, I'm not going anywhere! :P), but in all honesty anyone who feels pressed down or what-have-you should read this. Very liberating.
9) The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Beauty, magic, mystery; the smell of beautiful flowers and fresh air and rich dirt; the importance of nature in anyone's life. It's all in here. Oh, yes, and a wonderful story, too. This book more than makes up for that nauseating Little Lord Fauntleroy nonsense; in fact, it just stands on it's own as A Good Book.
10) Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Again, I'd say that every college student should have to read this. Right now, the educational system (at least in this country) is such that few have actually read any of the great books from which great ideas come (I had a speech teacher once who had never read Thomas Paine's Common Sense or Aristotle or Plato or Homer and objected to my referencing them). Most college students could tell you who was on American Idol, and a heck of a lot fewer could tell you the great ideas in the Odyssey or why they are both important and relevant in today's society. Many spot-on quotes, including, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them so full of noncombustible data, chock them so damn full of "facts" they feel stuffed, but absolutely "brilliant" with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy....So bring on your clubs and parties, your acrobats and magicians, your daredevils, jet cars, motorcycle helicopters, your sex and heroin, more of everything to do with automatic reflex. If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the theremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile response to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment." Bradbury's Coda at the end of Farenheit 451 shoul be read by every reader. A brief (okay, relatively) quote: "Some five years back, the editors of yet another anthology for school readers put together a volume with some 400 (count 'em) short stories in it. How do you cram 400 short stories by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book? Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito--out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch--gone! Any aside that would have explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer--lost! Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like--in the finale--Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention--shot dead. Do you begin to get the damned and incredible picture?"
I've intended for some time to send the whole of that Coda to my high school English teachers and the principal of that high school. We were given such readers. Yes, we did read a few, a very few, books in entirety, but so much of what we read was excerpted/shortened/abridged etc. When I hear at work of teachers actually assigning the "Shakespeare Made Easy" series, I want to reach through the phone and strangle them. Books are important. Ideas are important. One asks the student to stretch his mind to encompass new ideas; one doesn't condense and distill the new ideas to fit the student's mind in its present state.
So, that being said, I'm curious about what other people would put on their "Ten Most Influential/Important Books"/"Books That Made Me Who I Am Today" list. This isn't necessarily a "Greatest Books Ever Written" list; it's supposed to be more personalized. Consider this a sort of meme, if you will, and tag at least three people. Carapiccoladiva, katiebell, misskate, themaureencorps, and shewhomustbeobeyed, consider yourselves tagged! :)
Book: The Inner Voice
Author: Renee Fleming
Originally Published In: 2004
Rating: How much higher than five stars can one go?
Several weeks ago themaureencorps and shewhomustbeobeyed asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I gave them a list which basically said opera, opera, more opera, some music, some books, some prints. Obviously, this was a list from which they would choose a few things to get; I was just trying to make it easy. We do lists for each other around Christmas because while I know that themaureencorps will want DVDs, she has THOUSANDS of them already so I would otherwise have no idea what to get her and shewhomustbeobeyed has specific yet wideranging ideas (this year, I got her temporary tatoos and a new sweater). In my case, they admit to not knowing much about my kinds of books or music or art, so I give 'em a list.
Anywhoooo-where was I?
Oh, right.
Bear in mind that while I love classical music as a whole, I am still but a freshman, and really haven't familiarized myself with opera as much as some others have. I grew up in a household with NO exposure to opera beyond the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas (don't get me wrong, I still love G&S). So, aside from Pavarotti (childhood friend introduced me to him singing "Nessun Dorma" and I fell in love) I know almost nothing about opera or its singers except what I hear around me at school and read about in my spare minutes. I watch clips on YouTube and am slowly aquiring a CD collection. Right now I have some each of Joan Sutherland, Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Cecilia Bartoli; very wide ranging, but I'm still trying to figure out what I like and what's what and who's who in opera. This is a very fun time!
So, when asked what I wanted for Christmas, I threw some of the aforementioned names on a list, along with that of Renee Fleming. When themaureencorps and shewhomustbeobeyed found that Renee Fleming had written a book, they got me two of her CDs and the book (as well as some delightful Degas and Monet prints, but that's another post) for Christmas. (end of second digression)
I just finished reading the book.
Wow.
Wow.
WOW.
I think I'm still trying to process a great deal of it. But still---WOW.
She wrote that she wrote the book in part because she wanted a book like this when she started out as a singer. It is brilliant. Perfect. Exactly what I needed right now. And I'll be reereading this periodically.
She describes so many of the ideas (technical, emotional, performance, you name it) that I have or had been thinking about or ponder occasionally. This really is exactly what I needed. I only wish it had gone on longer, but she covered pretty much everything.
This book is not an autobiography of her so much as it is an autobiography of her voice and what singing is all about. It is humorous, supportive and gentle. She doesn't (thank you!) turn her life into a soap opera (oh, thank you so much!); instead, she touches on family stuff so far as it affects her voice, but doesn't air dirty laundry. In short (now that WOULD be a first) the book is broadening, amusing, and classy. She discusses things technical (mask singing, how to reach high notes, et all), businesslike (managers, for example), scholastic (her wonderful teachers through the years) and even relationships with directors/producers/actors/singers.
If you are considering studying classical voice, are interested in opera or classical singing, or need, as a singer, a boost of wisdom and humor--READ THIS BOOK. NOW. And I don't want to hear about how you don't have time to read anything. I (who am a firm believer in practicing, practicing a lot, and then practicing some more to the point of occasionally solfeging in my sleep) say that this is as important as practicing.
So, READ THIS!
What, you may ask, do I get the child between 3-8 on my list? Easy! (and yes, I know this is a little belated, but it is too good a book not to rec)
Book: Bad Kitty
Author: Nick Bruel
Genre: Kids' Fiction
I saw this in the kids' section the other day, and thought that it was so cute that I promptly bought one for Spiderman for Christmas. It goes through the alphabet four times, so it is somewhat educational. It is, however, extremely humorous (actually, I was laughing so hard back in kids' that a coworker came back there to see if I'd finally gone around the bend). Kitty is a good kitty until the family runs out of cat food. They do offer kitty some nice, healthy substitutes: asparagus, bananas (I think) and so forth. Kitty takes umbrage at this, and decided to be a bad kitty--but not just any bad kitty. A very, VERY bad kitty. So he claws grandma, demolishes the daisies (I may be paraphrasing here, but he runs through the alphabet of bad behavior). Then the family returns home with tasty (to a cat's mind) food, and they list (alphabetically, of course!) all the tasty food they have for Kitty, who then repents of his bad behavior and fixes all the messes he created. "What a good kitty. What a very, very good kitty." The family rewards this behaviour by...getting a puppy for the kitty to play with "and share your food with." The book closes with Kitty getting a "bad kitty" look on his face and the words, "uh oh..."
I am not doing justice to this book. You'll have almost as much fun reading it to the kid as the kid will have hearing it (or vice versa, if the kid is at the reading-to-you stage). There is a sequel (Bad Puppy) which, though good, is nowhere near as humorous. I give Bad Kitty six out of five stars. In short, go get it!
well, sort of.
This customer walks into the music department and asks me to help him find a CD.
Ordinarily, it drives me a bit batty when any customer prefaces any request with something along the line of "I don't know the name of the artist"/"I'm not sure what song it was but it had the word 'love' in it"/"I'm not sure what genre it is; it could be heavy metal, but it might be new age" or (my personal favorite, and one that I've actually gotten) "Do you sell CDs?". For this guy I made an exception.
He (incidentally, this was a big dude--well over six feet, a good 250-275, ponytail, looked kind of bikerish) handed me a slip of paper on which was written a name and what appeared to be a song title. The handwriting made mine look copperplate. And I've been told several times that if I wanted to be a doctor, I'd already have the handwriting for it. But I digress.
Then he said, "I've been to three different stores and none of them can find this guy or this song. My son really wants to get this for his girlfriend for Christmas."
(Okay, this piques my curiosity. I mean, who sends his dad out shopping for his girlfriend?)
So I search for the artist's name, based on what I am deciphering from the paper. No dice. As I continue to search (trying all kinds of different variations on the name and song title) I chat with the dad. All we know for certain is that this music is probably country. And since I know very little about country music and the dad knows NOTHING ("I''m strictly a metal and rock man, myself,") this is gonna take some time. Turns out his son is in Afghanistan and won't be home for Christmas, but he wants his girlfriend to get this cd because she loves country music.
Finally I find an artist with the same last name but a somewhat different (same first initial) first name. The artist has a recording (which we do have) that features a song that is almost identical to the song named on this scrap of paper. I get the cd, and hand it to the dad. All of a sudden, this big tough biker guy gets really quiet. Then he says, "That has t'be it. Except for the long hair, that guy looks just like my son. Looks like his momma, God rest her soul. No wonder she wants this. She'll be so surprised to get this; they decided to wait to do presents 'til he got back!"
Then he reaches over and gives me a hug and says, "Thanks for finding this; you did a great job. You tell your manager he needs to pay you more! Merry Christmas!"
It's amazing how many opportunities I get to touch people's lives, both on the bookfloor and in music. I get to recommend books for people who want to get "baby's first books." About a month ago, I helped a woman pick out an audio book for her mom, who was dying of cancer but still wanted a book for her birthday. Then today, I got to make sure that some service member (whether Army, Navy or Marine I'll never know, and it doesn't matter) was able to tell his girlfriend "Merry Christmas." Today I also helped a coworker keep an eye on a kid with Down's for a few minutes (very well-behaved kid who is in the store all the time) so his parents could grab a quick cup of coffee in the cafe. (No, I doubt that corporate would approve, but y'know what? We had no other customers, the parents were in the building, and the parents know my coworker.).
There are times when I hate customer service with a passion. I know for a fact that I can't do this for the rest of my life or I would go stark raving mad from irritation and boredom. However, there are moments--like when I helped that guy today, or when, a month ago, I got that woman's mom the perfect gift--when I know that I've brought joy into the lives and eased the pain (even if just by saying "I'm sorry" and handing her a book of which she had good memories that included her mom) of a few people.
And that's something I really want to accomplish with my music. Music has the power to make people smile, to lighten loads, to bring joy, to diminish pain, to bring healing tears--for the musician and for others around her. To quote a Joseph Martin song I sang in high school (this song, oddly enough, has stuck in my head to the point that it has become something of a mantra):
Let music never die in me! Forever let my spirit sing!
After all the crazy customer stories, there's this one that just broke my heart. Maybe it was a week for that, 'cause there's another I want to post when I have more free time.
As I rang up a customer's order, I chatted with him about the items he was buying, which included several very good children's books. He was tall, about 60ish, very dignified. When I asked him about the books, he said, "They're for my granddaughter." "Oh," I said, perkily, "Does she like to read?" "Yeah, she does. She learned to really love books while she was in treatment." He paused, and I tried to figure out what to say next. Then he said, "Y'know, cancer's something that's supposed to happen to people my age. It isn't supposed to happen to four-year-olds. She just had some tests run; they told us a few months ago she had a 98% chance of beating this thing, and now it's down to 37%."
What could I say? I couldn't. All I could do was reach over and pat his hand, tell him to take care, hand him the receipt and then turn to the next customer and say, "Next."
You're so right, sir. Cancer isn't supposed to happen to four-year-olds.
