tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139339872024-03-08T02:01:27.978+01:00U KrakoviankiKaren G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.comBlogger339125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-37867841616154483332012-01-27T13:06:00.004+01:002012-01-28T08:26:34.246+01:00Reading Barzun...<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5186RN6N3SL._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 106px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5186RN6N3SL._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />As part of a sincere effort on my part to insure that in 2012 I do read some of the serious books on my "to be read" list, I've been working my way through the essays in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226038475/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0226038475"><span style="font-style:italic;">Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning</span></a> by one of my favorite contemporary heroes in the realm of education: Jacques Barzun.<br /><br />There are 15 essays in this book under three headings: First Things, Curriculum, and Advanced Work. I've finished the first section, and as is usual for me when I read this sort of thing, there are copious amounts of underlining and comments penciled into the margins.<br /><br />Perhaps when I've finished I'll be able to articulate the primary message of the book; but for now, I'll just share a few quotes.<br /><br /><blockquote>Teaching is an art, and an art, though it has a variety of practical devices to choose from, cannot be reduced to a science.</blockquote><br /><blockquote>Again like governing, teaching is telling somebody else how to think and behave; it is an imposition, an invasion of privacy. That it is presumably for another's good does not change the unhappy fact of going against another's desire--to play, whistle, or talk instead of listening and learning: teaching is a blessing thoroughly disguised.</blockquote><br /><blockquote>The computer, moreover, does not teach, does not show a human being thinking and meeting intellectual difficulties; it does not impart knowledge but turns up information pre-arranged and pre-cooked.</blockquote><br /><blockquote>Knowing something--really knowing it--means being able to summon it up out of the blue; the facts must be produced in their right relations and with their correct significance. When you know something, you can tell it to somebody else.</blockquote><br /><br />For my readers who know who Charlotte Mason is--narration, yes?<br /><br />There is more, about the hazards of fragmented knowledge, and importance of understand the relations that exist between subjects, but that should be enough to whet the appetite of anyone who has an appetite for this sort of reading in the first place.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-27136791385037219412012-01-16T08:00:00.001+01:002012-01-16T08:00:05.413+01:00Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51OwAscy5mL._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 102px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51OwAscy5mL._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140089365/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0140089365">Q's Legacy</a> by Helene Hanff is one of those little books that you can pick up and begin enjoying instantly. No "read 50 pages to see if the story captures your attention" needed. I was laughing out loud by page two.
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<br />Helene Hanff is better known for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140143505/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0140143505">84 Charing Cross Road</a>, which I have also read and enjoyed. In this book, she traces her life from her early ventures in autodidactism (I may have made that word up--spellchecker doesn't recognize it--but I give spellchecker a withering glance, and use it anyway) to her late-in-life success as an author, after years of financial leanness.
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<br />"Q" in this case is Arther Quiller-Couch, author of <a href="<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Quiller-Couch&tag=ukrak-20&index=books&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">many books</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />, including lectures on writing and literature.
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<br />I love the story of how Hanff, at age 18, selected Quiller-Couch's books from among other similar works. She was working through the authors alphabetically at the library, and must have looked at quite a few of them before she made it to "Q." She eventually purchased all his books, and they planted the seeds of her desire to own and read still other books--many of which she ordered from Marks&Co at 84, Charing Cross Road. As her relationship with the book-shop employees became the foundation of her first truly successful work, and opened many doors of friendship, travel, and opportunity for her, she realized that she ultimately owed "Q" a great deal, on many levels. Thus the title: "Q's Legacy."
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<br />This is a short book--I read it through in a day or two, as a light change from <span style="font-style:italic;">Anna Karenina</span>--and I think most enthusiastic life-long readers would enjoy this additional peek into Helene's life, and all that <span style="font-style:italic;">84 Charing Cross Road</span> meant to her.
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<br />I acquired my little paperback copy of this book via a generous giver at <a href="www.bookmooch.com">Bookmooch</a>, and penned inside the front cover is the brief notation "London, Foyles, 1991." On my brief trip to London in 2009, I spent an evening in <a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/bookstore-charing-cross">Foyles</a>--a truly wonderful memory--and I'm pleased to know this book about Helene Hanff comes from a place I've visited, on Charing Cross Road itself!Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-57404329284932626972012-01-13T08:00:00.001+01:002012-01-14T08:10:14.271+01:00More Books for 2012I enjoy crocheting...with thread. Tiny hooks and size 30 thread make me happy. Sometimes I use sewing thread (the color selection is wonderful). Everything I make is essentially useless, but I like to think I'm adding something beautiful to the world when I do it. But my real reason for crocheting is that I find it relaxing--nothing so peaceful and mesmerizing as making round upon round of perfect stitches and seeing a lovely pattern emerge. Love it.<br /><br />But although I like to thus occupy my hands, the pleasure is increased many-fold if I have a good book to listen to while I work. <a href="www.librivox.org">Librivox</a> is one of the nicest things that ever happened to me. I really love them, and I hope, someday, I'll have time and resources to record something for them, as a small repayment for the many, many hours of enjoyment I've had from them. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-3mm6bsXHMVmfjj1B3ya0HbknTtNWrI8dx-Kn10uCa-yZao7kQsNNeP9c8jYumyTnzTRNL5cQXB9QMla6sDwuNCcGP9BxlMIQSyE8XSGBAhAN8hArYp1Bj8Giu7jyyDlUsPKgQ/s1600/IMG_0053.JPG"><img style="float:center; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5-3mm6bsXHMVmfjj1B3ya0HbknTtNWrI8dx-Kn10uCa-yZao7kQsNNeP9c8jYumyTnzTRNL5cQXB9QMla6sDwuNCcGP9BxlMIQSyE8XSGBAhAN8hArYp1Bj8Giu7jyyDlUsPKgQ/s200/IMG_0053.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694989295341087746" /></a><br /><br />I have a number of interesting books on my "to listen" list for the upcoming year. I might have another go with Eleanor Porter and listen to <a href="http://librivox.org/the-road-to-understanding-by-eleanor-h-porter/">The Road to Understanding</a>. I'm interested in continuing my acquaintance with Edith Wharton, and I have my eye on <a href="http://librivox.org/bunner-sisters-by-edith-wharton/">The Bunner Sisters</a>. Or perhaps <a href="http://librivox.org/the-glimpses-of-the-moon-by-edith-wharton/">The Glimpses of the Moon</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileasC-fYlaWdJO8waJ1hSO2s1xWoWOqCdVQO54_JoddIV4et4yKKt6tQ7C5uj43uef3M9FGmZgnasho10YeMOth0P7H2k4KWDcHobz_grXZ_OSiP3F7QBT9Dd0S9_7ApKAOPBnA/s1600/IMG_0061.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileasC-fYlaWdJO8waJ1hSO2s1xWoWOqCdVQO54_JoddIV4et4yKKt6tQ7C5uj43uef3M9FGmZgnasho10YeMOth0P7H2k4KWDcHobz_grXZ_OSiP3F7QBT9Dd0S9_7ApKAOPBnA/s200/IMG_0061.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694987765371255234" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://librivox.org/the-return-of-alfred-by-herbert-george-jenkins/">The Return of Alfred</a> by Cecil George Jenkins sounds like it might be fun. It's a case of mistaken identity, and that's usually fertile ground for good comedy. I'll probably choose another Wilkie Collins, either <a href="http://librivox.org/basil-by-wilkie-collins/">Basil</a> or <a href="http://librivox.org/the-law-and-the-lady-by-wilkie-collins/">The Law and The Lady</a>. If I listen to both, that would be nearly 24 hours of crochet time! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMormPrId8fnmJtD_F3PlMoMOIy3NZGcpptwESweAKQ0DlRybHrplMtKIZcA2JyddIJGzCyvWT1ILy6N38M60ioQ0JMdzM62AyHPXyViV3wYTNsu1A8bLqxrHzbqdlXmYU7KyvZQ/s1600/IMG_0051_2.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMormPrId8fnmJtD_F3PlMoMOIy3NZGcpptwESweAKQ0DlRybHrplMtKIZcA2JyddIJGzCyvWT1ILy6N38M60ioQ0JMdzM62AyHPXyViV3wYTNsu1A8bLqxrHzbqdlXmYU7KyvZQ/s200/IMG_0051_2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694987759417429026" /></a><br /><br />I really like good stories for my crochet-reading. I can't follow non-fiction or arguments or essays, but engrossing stories are what I usually choose. I probably "read" books this way that I would otherwise never get to in the ordinary course of reading. Along those lines, I've also bookmarked <a href="http://librivox.org/mary-barton-by-elizabeth-cleghorn-gaskell/">Mary Barton</a> by Elizabeth Gaskell and <a href="http://librivox.org/shirley-by-charlotte-bronte/">Shirley</a> by Charlotte Bronte.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixypkkYrZAcI756TykXH3mp1kQG5LlGwsxQkV-Iy3OXPIei_4hqhjGJ2gCjwV3hr7cWeRAWCIkS0cLoljebAS3dvbMlO4B73PUvio2DbiWtCteS38FVegAqiLlQ410ZSf_ra-6RA/s1600/IMG_0067.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixypkkYrZAcI756TykXH3mp1kQG5LlGwsxQkV-Iy3OXPIei_4hqhjGJ2gCjwV3hr7cWeRAWCIkS0cLoljebAS3dvbMlO4B73PUvio2DbiWtCteS38FVegAqiLlQ410ZSf_ra-6RA/s200/IMG_0067.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694987774375203714" /></a><br /><br />Sometimes I like to listen to vintage mysteries or humor, and I've marked <a href="http://librivox.org/the-confession-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">The Confession</a> by Mary Roberts Rinehart and <a href="http://librivox.org/the-coming-of-bill-by-p-g-wodehouse/">The Coming of Bill</a> by P.G. Wodehouse. Sometimes I really just want something light for this book-listening, so if you have suggestions for this category, toss them my way.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6jMJ_xuoqHS4c_9nMQbsay4wUU_MGKoNW1BHen6fXYpNtQ4TTGq2idDStaWudfZje5F20lOe8pGUYoqFImQMWVfTsJNtkCzKXJOygEpmMSgJtQRZmdQEUJnD3GDcd2ZGHpeuHQ/s1600/IMG_0041_2.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6jMJ_xuoqHS4c_9nMQbsay4wUU_MGKoNW1BHen6fXYpNtQ4TTGq2idDStaWudfZje5F20lOe8pGUYoqFImQMWVfTsJNtkCzKXJOygEpmMSgJtQRZmdQEUJnD3GDcd2ZGHpeuHQ/s200/IMG_0041_2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694985959045873314" /></a><br /><br />I have a couple of other authors I might try this year, if I'm feeling ambitious. I've got my eye on <a href="http://librivox.org/in-the-year-of-jubilee-by-george-gissing/">In the Year of Jubilee</a> by George Gissing <a href="http://librivox.org/the-gray-mills-of-farley-by-sarah-orne-jewett/">and The Grey Mills of Farley</a> by Sarah Orne Jewett.<br /><br />The photos I've shared here are just a small part of my crocheting from last year. Books and thread...it doesn't get much better than that. Anyone else listen to a great Librivox title? Share it with me...I'll queue it up!Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-24139014901786655062012-01-11T08:00:00.000+01:002012-01-11T08:00:09.820+01:00Well, this is embarrassing.After organizing (sort of) my Kindle books and lining up things for 2012 (I've added several more things to that "To Be Read in 2012" folder since my last post), I cast my eyes toward my paper-and-ink books. I have a lot of unread books that I've purchased or acquired through Bookmooch, and I want to read them all. That's not embarrassing. The embarrassment stems from discovering that I have a rather large stack of books that I've begun...in some cases, my bookmark is at the half-way point...but not finished. One or two such books is understandable, but I have eight.<br /><br />I didn't stop reading any of these intentionally. I just stopped. Probably my mood changed, or I was side-tracked with other activities, and when I got back to reading, I wanted to read something else, and...well, I'm sure it's happened to everyone.<br /><br />The problem is that these books have lain dormant so long I must <span style="font-style:italic;">go back to the beginning</span> and start again. Considering that most of these are formidable in either length or scope (with only one exception), it's daunting. In fact, I refuse to commit to finishing all of these in 2012. That just isn't going to happen (remember, I have to start over). So I'm going to share the titles and ask for suggestions--which ones should I finish?<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011UGLMY/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0011UGLMY">Winter in Madrid</a></span> by C.J. Sansom--This one causes me weeping and gnashing of teeth, because I read to page 436 of 538. Why did I stop? Is it worth starting over (and I must--it's been too long to pick up the thread of the story)?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TpmPL3GpL._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 102px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TpmPL3GpL._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830822739/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0830822739">Habits of the Mind</a></span> by James Sire--Another book of a type that I like to read, but I didn't get through this one. I appreciate a Christian perspective on intellectual pursuits, though, and that's why I started this. (I've read <span style="font-style:italic;">The Universe Next Door</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">How to Read Slowly</span> by the same author.)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JBFCEQ/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003JBFCEQ">Sophie's Choice</a></span> by William Styron--I think you really have to be in the right mood for this story, but feel free to recommend it and convince me that I should give it another try. (I read to page 124 of over 600 pages.)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UQKAW2/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000UQKAW2">A History of Education in Antiquity</a></span> by H.I. Marrou--This reads like a textbook, but it contains some extremely valuable information that cannot be found anywhere else. (David Hicks, for example, most likely got his information about Isocrates from this book.) Is this the year I should make myself finish? With this one, I could possibly forgo the "starting over" requirement and continue from where I am (page 122 of 465 pages of extremely fine, dense text).<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156027321/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0156027321">Life of Pi</a></span> by Yann Martel--This is the shortest book I started and abandoned, and maybe in this case, that means it wasn't for me? But maybe I should try again? It would be the easiest book on my list to finish, as it is a normal-length novel of some 300 pages or so.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC128M/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FC128M">I Know This Much is True</a></span> by Wally Lamb--I've long wanted to read something by Wally Lamb. Everyone who has read him seems to find his work compelling. I made it to page 100 of this 800+ page book. Should I try again? <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CYdlIwTcL._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CYdlIwTcL._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013TX6YY/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0013TX6YY">Edith Wharton</a></span> by Hermione Lee--I really didn't get that far into this 750+ page biography, but I bought it because I really wanted to read it. Edith Wharton is one my "new" favorite authors, and I've always enjoyed author biographies.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060928832/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060928832">From Dawn to Decadence</a></span> by Jacques Barzun--This is probably the most embarrassing of all the books I didn't finish, as I am a huge fan of Jacques Barzun. Did you know he's still alive at age 104? If you are as impressed as I am, you should listen to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsTfvuEOhYo">this interesting discussion</a> with him. I will finish this book sometime...and perhaps I could forgo starting over with this one, too. Is this a book for 2012?<br /><br />I'm thinking of committing to finishing just two from this list. I might potentially read more, but I am being realistic. I'm going to pick two to focus on. Help me out--which ones? At the moment, I don't have strong feelings about any of them.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-69129530136709379332012-01-09T06:00:00.002+01:002012-01-09T06:00:01.917+01:00The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/312Ea0uBlcL._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 92px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/312Ea0uBlcL._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XREM38/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003XREM38">The Wheel Spins</a> ended up in my "must read" pile via Danielle at <a href="http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2011/09/the-lady-vanishes-by-ethel-lina-white.html">A Work in Progress</a>. I downloaded it to my Kindle, and, true to form, I read the first part rather slowly, then finished with a mad dash. The book is extremely atmospheric. Iris Carr is trapped in a nightmare, and you are there with her. Alfred Hitchcock used this story as the basis of his film <span style="font-style:italic;">The Lady Vanishes</span>, if that gives some insight into the mood of the story.<br />Iris has been vacationing in a quite remote location with a group of noisy friends. When it's time to go home, she lets them go on without her in order to enjoy a day or two of solitude and quiet. She gets lost during a walk and loses her sense of direction. When she can't find her way back to her hotel, and realizes that no one can help her because she doesn't speak their language, it gives her a fright. Then, already feeling unsettled, she loses consciousness on the train platform (sunstroke?) and nearly misses her train.<br /><br />A rather annoying spinster-governess in her compartment latches onto her, and fills her ears with bits of gossip about the other passengers, stories of her home and family, and half-dropped hints about her highly-placed, secretive employer. Iris is bored by her, although she recognizes her fundamental kindness and goodwill, and after spending a few hours in company with her, she drops off to sleep for some peace. When she awakes, the lady is gone--not only from the compartment, but also, apparently, from the train, as well as from the memories and knowledge of every other passenger. No one will admit to seeing her with Iris.<br /><br />Iris's recent unsettling experiences make her doubt herself. Did she imagine or dream the whole thing? But the growing conviction that Miss Froy (the spinster) both existed and is in trouble pushes Iris to put aside her selfishness and discover a way to rescue her, even at the risk of being suspected of madness.<br /><br />Not a long story, but engrossing. It reminded me of that newer Jodie Foster movie, <span style="font-style:italic;">Flightplan</span> (2005) , in which a mother dozes off on an airplane and awakens to find her child missing--a child no one will admit to seeing.<br /><br />My Kindle copy of this book is lendable, and I will lend it to the first person who asks me. Just bear in mind that you'll have just two weeks in which to finish, so please ask only if you plan to read it for certain, as I can only lend it once.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-55060840597110344882012-01-07T13:27:00.006+01:002012-01-08T09:02:46.899+01:00SynchronicityDon't you just love it when you start reading a book, and you are arrested by something unexpected that confirms that <span style="font-style:italic;">this</span> book is <span style="font-style:italic;">the</span> book that you are meant to be reading <span style="font-style:italic;">right now</span>? Synchronicity. Serendipity. Synthesis. I've run across those words <a href="http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/search/label/Synchronicity%2FSerendipity%2FSynthesis">somewhere</a>, and I love it when that happens.<br /><br />I just <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2012/01/castle-in-pyrenees-by-jostein-gaarder.html">finished reading a book</a> which was a dialogue on the nature of man--material only or is there a spiritual nature as well? <br /><br />Moving right along, and (since it's still January) focusing on my planned reading for 2012, I decided to dip into <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JMLILO/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000JMLILO">Anna Karenina</a> to see if that was the right book to read next. Within the first couple of chapters, I was drawn right into Tolstoy's world. His writing is so vivid. But within a few chapters, I stumbled over another discussion on the material vs. spiritual nature of man, accompanied by the identical question addressed by Jostein Gaarder: Is death the end of existence or not?<br /><blockquote>With him there was a well-known professor of philosophy, who had come from Harkov expressly to clear up a difference that had arisen between them on a very important philosophical question. The professor was carrying on a hot crusade against materialists. Sergey Kosnishev had been following this crusade with interest, and after reading the professor's last article, he had written him a letter stating his objections. He accused the professor of making too great concessions to the materialists. And the professor had promptly appeared to argue the matter out.</blockquote>The main character at this point, Levin, is listening to the discussion and feels that they are arguing around the main question at hand, so he cuts to the chase.<br /><blockquote>But here it seemed to Levin that just as they were close upon the real point of the matter, they were again retreating, and he made up his mind to put a question to the professor.<br />"According to that, if my senses are annihilated, if my body is dead, I can have no existence of any sort?" he queried.</blockquote>I nearly laughed out loud at the best answer the professor was able to make: We can't answer that because we don't have enough data. <br /><br />Tolstoy is good stuff. When it comes to weaving together story and philosophy, he is the master.<br /><br />This is definitely the right book for me, right now.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-66976203084895594672012-01-05T12:37:00.002+01:002012-01-05T13:16:39.949+01:00The Castle in the Pyrenees by Jostein Gaarder<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-VncKSd5L._SL160_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 99px; height: 160px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-VncKSd5L._SL160_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0753827697/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0753827697">The Castle in the Pyrenees</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0753827697" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> by Jostein Gaarder is the latest to be translated into English from the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374530718/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0374530718">Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy (FSG Classics)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0374530718" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. Most people have heard of <span style="font-style:italic;">Sophie's World</span>, and some have even read it. I am fascinated by Jostein Gaarder's work (in spite of the fact that we have some fundamental differences of belief) and I have read everything he's written that has been translated into English. Even <span style="font-style:italic;">Maya</span>.<br /><br />So, I must begin by saying that I enjoyed this book. The premise is intriguing. Two young lovers experience a life-changing event. For one, the experience is a prelude to a life of faith. For the other, the same event confirms a dis-belief in anything supernatural. Their differences lead to a parting of ways, and they do not meet again for 30 years. Suddenly, in the same location as their long-ago crisis, they meet unexpectedly. Both have married other people and have families, but they embark on an email exchange (the novel should be considered epistolary) in which they explore their common experience (which was confusing and unsettling) and their different beliefs.<br /><br />When I realized that the book was essentially a discourse on the existence of the supernatural versus a purely material world, I was further engrossed. I consider the question of no small importance, and I am unabashedly on the side of the spiritual, and reject statements such as:<br /><blockquote>There is no inherent intent, purpose or essence to the universe, and this is generally held to be a self-evident assumption.</blockquote><br />How convenient, no? You call it self-evident, and thus side-step the necessity of supporting it, but it's absurd in light of the order and intent we see in our world, from the smallest microorganism to the cosmos itself. If you were walking through a jungle, and you suddenly emerged into a cleared space, in which the trees grew in orderly rows (a row of nuts, a row of fruit trees, another row of a different fruit, and so on) and if, between the evenly-spaced trees, you found clipped grass and beds of flowers also growing in homogenous groups and grows, you would <span style="font-style:italic;">know</span> that someone had planned that space, cleared it and cultivated it, cared for it, and kept it separate from the wild disorder of the nearby jungle. Not for one, tiny, instant would you imagine that the clearing was an accidental, natural occurrence in the midst of the jungle.<br /><br />So, feel free to tell me that it is "self-evident" that the universe reveals no intent if you want to, but I will only believe you if you can tell me that you would also believe that a child could pour a bucket of Legos onto the floor, and that they could fall into a model of the Eiffel Tower. Order is order, and it reveals intelligent intent, not chance. If you saw the model of the Eiffel Tower, you would know, instinctively, that someone had planned and executed it, and you would not be foolish enough to suggest otherwise.<br /><br />So Gaarder sets up this dialog between the materialist scientist (and I'll just mention here that there is a lot of gratuitous propaganda about global warming in this book as well) and the vibrant, convinced believer in the supernatural. At the halfway point in the book, I was fascinated to see how it was going to play out--who was going to convince whom?<br /><br />But this is Gaarder, and if you read him, you know that he isn't about black-and-white, clear-cut answers. I applaud him for facing the questions and hashing it out in story form. I love that sort of thing. But if you are looking for resolution or final answers, you won't find them here. The ending is ambiguous, and both parties walk away from their encounter with their convictions shaken, less certain than they had been before. Yes, the person with faith wavers, and wonders if the materialist might have a rational, scientific explanation after all. But that is not the end. The end of the story is shaped in such a way (and I really can't give that away, in spite of the fact that very few people are likely to read this book) that the materialist <span style="font-style:italic;">cannot</span> continue to disbelieve in the supernatural. He knows--he cannot longer doubt--that death is not the end of existence, and that there are yet many, many questions about the universe which science is in no position to answer.<br /><br />This is one of those books in which nothing really happens--we have only the letters, which do tell us some of the events which have occurred, but mostly the story is about ideas. Both characters are sympathetic, although they are not developed in great depth. What we know about them, we know through their letters. He drinks too much. She is carrying on the correspondence with her husband's knowledge, but he begrudges her time thus spent, and so she placates him. Neither has forgotten their former love and relationship.<br /><br />It was an interesting book--an interesting story. I really wish I could share the crux of the ending, the paradox that brings the past and present together, and leaves the future in question, but that would spoil it. I hope Gaarder keeps writing. Mostly, I hope he finds some real answers, and then keeps on asking good questions. There aren't many people who weave philosophy and story together as skillfully as he can.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-35098535768245050852012-01-04T15:51:00.003+01:002012-01-04T16:10:24.341+01:00Some books to read in 2012I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to be more disciplined about my reading, because I ended up squandering a lot of reading time on a lot of worthless twaddle last year. I would like to blame Amazon and Kindle for this, but although the Kindle *enables* the reading of twaddle, it's not really to blame for how I spend my time, is it?<br /><br />Right.<br /><br />I have a number of goals and plans for 2012 (blogging more isn't one of them, but if that happens, okay, fine). I spent a bit of time yesterday and today working on organization. I had nine pages of unclassified items on my Kindle! It's not quite as bad as it sounds--I have two pages of collections alone....<br /><br />I created a new folder called "To Read 2012", and shuffled 15 books (so far) into there, cleaning up my loose items and my laughable "In Progress" folder. This is what's there so far:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31j4J7xlQ3L._SL110_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 71px; height: 110px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31j4J7xlQ3L._SL110_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00433SVI8/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00433SVI8">Think: The Life of the Mind and Love of God</a> by John Piper and Mark A. Noll<br /><br />...because I want to read a bit of Piper and the topic is of interest to me.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ta3OgncfL._SL110_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 73px; height: 110px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ta3OgncfL._SL110_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003RRXXMA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003RRXXMA">Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell</a> by Susanna Clarke<br /><br />...because what <a href="http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/jonathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-by-susanna-clarke-thoughts-on-rereading/">Eva of A Striped Armchair</a> says about it makes it sound like a book I'd enjoy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004PGNH00/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004PGNH00">South Riding</a> by Winifred Holtby<br /><br />...because I want to watch the film, and I can't until I read the book.<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RS66HE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002RS66HE"><br />done: What most religions don't tell you about the Bible</a> by Cary Schmidt<br /><br />...because I read the beginning and was completely intrigued.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OI0FOE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000OI0FOE">The Double Bind</a> by Chris Bohjalian<br /><br />...because...because...I can't remember why but I'm pretty sure this author and this particular book sounded like something I wanted to try.<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HJV7EW/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005HJV7EW"><br />The Faith of Ashish</a> by Kay Marshall Strom<br /><br />...because I want to read more books set in India and also by Indian authors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510%2BZw-tn2L._SL110_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 82px; height: 110px;" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510%2BZw-tn2L._SL110_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004N3AZAU/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004N3AZAU">On Gold Mountain</a> by Lisa See<br /><br />...because I am very interested in reading about China and Chinese families.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767916158/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767916158">Your Child's Growing Mind</a> by Jane Healy<br /><br />...because I need to finish this book and see if I can use it to help my youngest daughter.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W94GJ0/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000W94GJ0">American Childhood</a> by Annie Dillard<br /><br />...because I've never read anything by Annie Dillard, and I need to!<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />A Passage to India<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by E.M. Forster<br /><br />...because it's totally time for me to read another book by Forster, and then something by Edith Wharton.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Intellectual Life<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by Philip Gilbert Hamerton<br /><br />...because...because...again, I can't remember why. Probably the title interested me. This book bears the distinction of "most likely to be dropped from this list."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Les Miserables<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by Victor Hugo<br /><br />...because....can you believe I haven't read this yet?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Napoleon Of Notting Hill<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by G.K. Chesterton<br /><br />...because I assigned this to one of my homeschool students, and now I need to read it, too. And because I haven't enough Chesterton.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Anna Karenina<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by Leo Tolstoy<br /><br />...because Tolstoy is amazing and I haven't read this yet.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Crown of Wild Olives<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> by John Ruskin<br /><br />...because Charlotte Mason thought it was a good book to read for young people "coming of age" intellectually, and I want to see why she thought so.<br /><br /><br /><br />Now, these are just the books on my Kindle that I want to get to in 2012. I have paper-and-ink books crying, pleading, begging for attention--practically falling off the shelves when I walk by, and increasing in pitch if I so much as glance in their direction. More about those another day.<br /><br />And if you think it's beyond insane to have Anna Karenina and Les Miserables on the same "to read this year" list, you don't have to tell me. I already know.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-49575209089148152672011-12-30T16:20:00.005+01:002011-12-31T14:03:48.278+01:00Highlights from 2011 (Books, of course)I am a most unfaithful blogger. Thank goodness nobody gives you little award buttons that say so. Not that it would matter if they did. Bloggers like me aren’t exactly sure how to make cute buttons and linky-things appear in the sidebar. If we did, we wouldn’t be such bad bloggers, and it takes all kinds to make a blogosphere, don’t you think? Bloggers like me allow you to appreciate those good bloggers all the more, I’m sure.
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<br />Nevertheless, I can’t resist popping in here to share my “most interesting books of 2011” and linking up to Semicolon’s year-end wrap-up. There is no special number here--I’m not limiting myself to 10 or 12 or 25. I’m not going to tell you how many books I read, or how they fall out into categories. That’s a secret. No, really, it is. Even I don’t know.
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<br />These are the books that, as I think back over 2011, have stuck with me. These are the ones that made a difference for me in 2011, or held my attention, or made me laugh. You really don’t want to know how many books I read that didn’t make a difference at all (and neither do I). I don’t remember most of them, because they aren’t worth remembering! This is a list of the good stuff, the books I’d offer a friend.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CrEqCnVmL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CrEqCnVmL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
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<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586174908/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1586174908">The Island of the World</a><img class=" ikbuaokroqnrtppguzip ikbuaokroqnrtppguzip" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1586174908" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />
<br />by Michael D. O’Brien--This was one of the first books I read in 2011--a wonderful gift--and something <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/01/island-of-world-by-michael-obrien.html">I blogged about at the time</a>.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sA77fnIJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sA77fnIJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MQ87ZA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002MQ87ZA">A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True</a><img class=" ikbuaokroqnrtppguzip ikbuaokroqnrtppguzip" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002MQ87ZA" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />
<br />by Brigid Pasulka --This book was of particular interest to me, because it takes place not only here in Poland, but mostly in Krakow. It spans several lifetimes, from World War II to the early 1990s--those first years after Poland shrugged off communism and was struggling to find her feet. I caught the very end of that era in 1997. Things have changed a great deal in the nearly 15 years I’ve lived here. This book is a family saga--full of the love and struggles that make for a good family story--and the background history of Poland is a bonus.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1274947740l/8313025.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 198px; height: 280px;" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1274947740l/8313025.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Lawendowy Pyl</span> by Danuta Marcinkowska, Ewa Marcinkowska-Schmidt and Klaudyna Schmidt.
<br />This is another family story, spanning the exact same era. However, this book is written in Polish (and I’m actually not finished with it yet). It is also “essentially true,” but is written as fiction, with altered names, because some of the people in the story are still living and were not consulted. Nevertheless, it is the real story of a real family, told by three generations of women, and they’ve included lots of family photographs. The war...the Stalin years...the shortages...Martial Law...it’s all there. I hesitate to mention it, because I don’t think it will be translated, but it fits the criteria for this list--it’s a wonderful book that has made a difference for me.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513CficPVUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513CficPVUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UXRF6M/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002UXRF6M">Shades of Grey: A Novel</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002UXRF6M" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<br /> by Jasper Fforde--I must say that I am not a huge fan of Fforde. The weird existentialism overwhelmed me when I read “Thursday Next,” and until this book (recommended by <a href="http://somanybooksblog.com/2011/05/11/shades-of-grey/">Stephanie</a>) I wasn’t willing to give him a try. But I am a glutton for a good dystopia story, and this one is intriguing and unique--a world in which “progress” is measured by backward steps (old spoons are shockingly precious), and society is highly stratified based upon an individual’s ability to see color. There will be sequels. I will read them.
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<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XEC084/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004XEC084">This Perfect Day</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004XEC084" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<br /> by Ira Levin--This is an older dystopian story, rather well known. It isn’t quite as classic as <span style="font-style:italic;">1984</span> or <span style="font-style:italic;">Brave New World</span>, but it does have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Perfect_Day">its own wikipedia page</a>. I read this story through, and immediately started over and read it again. Then I read it two more times. I find it very difficult to articulate why it fascinated me so, but it did. One of the most poignant parts of the story, to me, is the great lengths two characters go through in order to learn a foreign language--for them, an unknown language--in order to be able to read books. Some of the technological elements in the story are dated--we’d never need bracelets to identify us to computers today, in this age of microchips and near-field scanners--but the extreme control of every aspect of life looms too close for comfort.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Aaw-Ui9%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-48,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Aaw-Ui9%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-48,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LLIX7Q/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004LLIX7Q">RENA'S PROMISE: TWO SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004LLIX7Q" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
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<br /> by Rena Kornreich Gelissen with Heather Dune Macadam--One of my non-fiction reads, touching two areas of interest for me--biography and holocaust literature. This is a newer memoir (the author has since passed away), telling the story of Rena and her sister. Rena was a rare long-term survivor. She was on the first women’s transport into Auschwitz, and she survived the death march to Ravensbruck at the end of the war. Her story was as compelling as every survivor story I’ve ever read, but this memoir seems remarkable to me as much for what it does not include as what it does. Rena shared her story with Heather Macadam so it would not be lost, but I am convinced she left out a great deal. The truth is, you could only survive that long in Auschwitz by being ruthless. Rena chose not to tell that part of her story, but the parts that she does share are a tribute to her endurance, ingenuity, and determination.
<br /><a href="http://librivox.org/the-old-manor-house-by-charlotte-turner-smith/">
<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Old Manor House</span></a> by Charlotte Turner Smith--Written in 1793, this is a strange Gothic story, by a nearly-forgotten author of the Romantic era. (She was known by authors such as Wordsworth and Southey.) It is most interesting to me for the picture it paints of a long-gone era of English life. This is Jane Austen’s world. Money and family govern the choice of marriage partners, not personal feelings. But what happens when real love does spring up? The main character goes to America to fight on behalf of the British, and Charlotte Turner Smith uses the setting of the American revolution to show her sympathy with the French revolution. I listened to this at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.librivox.org">Librivox</a>, and thus gained, over some time, 24 hours of crocheting time!
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ia700407.us.archive.org/7/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/ohmoneymoney_1104_thumb.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://ia700407.us.archive.org/7/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/ohmoneymoney_1104_thumb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Oh, Money! Money!</span> by Eleanor H. Porter--This is no Pollyanna! A wealthy bachelor needs to decide on an heir, so he gives a little money to his distant relatives to see which one will use it most wisely. But he can’t resist watching what happens from nearby, and as he gets to know them, he realizes what a dilemma he has created for himself. Besides the (rather predictable, but fun) main plot, there is a great deal of commentary here about the proper role of money in life, showing that both overspending and miserliness are poor substitutes for good stewardship.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ia700407.us.archive.org/7/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/viceversa_1103_thumb.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://ia700407.us.archive.org/7/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/viceversa_1103_thumb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">Vice Versa</span> by F. Anstey--Remember the movie "Freaky Friday?" This is a Victorian-era version of the same tale. An unhappy son is miserably contemplating his return to boarding school, when fate steps in and he and his father change places. He remains comfortably at home, while his father is packed off to school with the meager allowance he made his son all the money he has in his pocket. Naturally, they come to understand each other better, but the naughty son doesn’t really want to change back, and so Dad needs all his ingenuity to effect the switch (courtesy of a charmed stone brought from India by a relative).
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<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">No Name</span>, by Wilkie Collins---I really love these Victorian-era tales that sprawl across chapters and months, drawing widely-flung threads together in a satisfying end. For a wonder, <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/03/no-name-by-wilkie-collins.html">I blogged about this one</a>, too, if you want a closer look at the plot and characters.
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<br />A Way of Seeing</span> by Edith Schaeffer--This is a non-fiction collection of short essays, most of which were originally published as columns in <span style="font-style:italic;">Christianity Today</span> (in the 1970s). I love the way Edith describes them: “This is what I was thinking about while I was washing dishes...” I liked most of them, but what was astonishing was how very, very apropos they are to today, in spite of some dated references. Some of the essays were written while Francis was filming his “How Shall We Then Live” series, and there are a few interesting references to that. I received permission to translate some of these into Polish, and that will be a project for 2012.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ia700202.us.archive.org/17/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt6/Aurora_Floyd_1012_thumb.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://ia700202.us.archive.org/17/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt6/Aurora_Floyd_1012_thumb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Aurora Floyd</span>, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon--This is my second book by Braddon, after reading the better-known <span style="font-style:italic;">Lady Audley’s Secret</span> some time ago. Aurora is a spoiled, willful girl who does some very, very foolish things before she is out of her teens. Her whole life might have been spoiled, but it seems a fortuitous chance has given her an opportunity for something better, and she marries happily. When the dark shadow of her past re-emerges, she despairs. But would she commit murder to secure her safety? Someone certainly has committed murder, and suspicion falls upon Aurora from the beginning. I almost felt as if I were reading another Wilkie Collins during this story!
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<br />Can you handle a couple more?
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://elizabethstrout.com/images/books_olive.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 355px;" src="http://elizabethstrout.com/images/books_olive.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013TRR80/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0013TRR80">Olive Kitteridge: Fiction</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0013TRR80" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<br /> by Elizabeth Strout--Probably the only "prize winner" I read this year (I think I read a lot of junk--something I plan to rectify in the immediate future), and <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/02/olive-kitteridge-by-elizabeth-strout.html">wrote about at the time</a>. I love a good character-driven story.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ot7K2gu8L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-5,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ot7K2gu8L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-5,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1846682665/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ukrak-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1846682665">Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ukrak-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1846682665" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<br /> by Susan Hill. This is a book about books and reading--<a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/01/howards-end-is-on-landing-by-susan-hill.html">I gleaned many potential titles and authors</a> that I wanted to pursue while I read it. Maybe I'll get to one or two of them in 2012!
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<br />And that's it--the best of 2011, gleaned from dozens of titles, most of which were forgotten as soon as I finished them. I admit to being somewhat disgusted with myself, and I hope to do better next year. That is, I intend to plan my reading time more carefully, and read more purposefully. There will be moments of light reading when I just want to escape, but I hope that will be the smaller part of the list next year. I hope.
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<br />Sneak Preview: I'm currently reading the newest Jostein Gaarder!!! <span style="font-style:italic;">Castle in the Pyrenees</span>....stay tuned. I might even blog about it.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-80105417820451002322011-04-19T12:08:00.004+02:002011-04-19T16:04:11.832+02:00Further thoughts on Poetic Knowledge, chapter two, part twoThis is my contribution to <a href="http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/poetic-knowledge-book-club-chapter-2-part-2-the-philosophical-foundations/">the on-going book discussion</a> of <span style="font-style:italic;">Poetic Knowledge</span> by James Taylor. Although this week's discussion is supposed to cover only half of chapter two, there is so much in there, that I thought about writing more than one post for this section. Then I had to chastise myself for acting in direct opposition to what I think is the most fundamental point I want to make, which concerns the importance of integration and wholeness of knowledge. Therefore, I will say what I want to say in one post, no matter how difficult.<br /><br />The title of this chapter is "The Philosophical Foundations," and Taylor delves pretty deeply into the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and others. He is tracing the historical "conversation" on the validity of poetic knowledge from its known roots to the present. It isn't easy to read or to follow, and I'm not going to attempt to summarize. For me, the topic crystallizes in a few key ways. First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, poetic knowledge is closely allied with love. Education is concerned with "ordering the affections"--teaching us to know and love that which is beautiful and good. I liked this quote from Augustine:<br /><blockquote>Because love is a movement [of the soul] and every movement is always toward something, when we ask what ought to be loved, we are therefore asking what it is that we ought to be moving toward....It is the thing in regard to which possession and knowing are one and the same.</blockquote><br />This is not a thing that can be accomplished by systems, lesson plans, or direct command. You can make a child memorize the multiplication table, but you cannot force him to see the relationships that exist within it, and thrill with appreciation for the patterns and wholeness and orderliness of it. For that relationship to occur, you have to give him a chance to know it and "discover" for himself some of the possibilities. Poetic knowledge cannot be forced, and my personal feeling is that it is unlikely that everyone will develop a poetic relationship with every area of knowledge. We can but try, which is why Charlotte Mason urges us that it is not "how much" a scholar knows that is the measure of his progress, but "how much he cares," and about how many things has he learned to care? <br /><br />Caring about something...loving it...requires that a person be allowed to interact with the wholeness of the subject at hand--to meet the universal in the particulars, and to interact with it personally. A required unit on insects, for example, which points out the peculiar characteristics of all insects, perhaps requires the identification of a few (via pictures), and finishes with a written test on the subject matter before moving on to reptiles is not likely to produce a roomful of enthusiastic amateur entomologists. Consider the child who has leisure to observe a beehive, an anthill, a ladybug. Perhaps he knows its name already, or perhaps he has to ask (asking shows that he cares a little bit already). Perhaps he wonders what they are doing, or why. Perhaps he is amazed by some insect feat of prowess, or overwhelmed by their numbers, or curious about their ability to fly. Perhaps he is merely amused at the idea of walking on six feet. If he is anything at all besides indifferent, he is experiencing the tiny beginning of a relationship with knowledge about insects, a poetic understanding of their little lives that no factual "knowing about" will ever match. How far his interest in insects will go depends on many things (my own extends primarily to keeping them out of the house), but his knowledge of one kind of insect that he has observed closely is the gateway to the greater, more universal knowledge that could be learned.<br /><br />A few other examples come to mind, and I fear that many of us, educated in the fragmented, analytic system of education, can be confused about what constitutes "wholes" and "parts." A few examples spring to mind, and I have had...warm discussions...on a few of these topics. "Art" is not a whole thing to be introduced. You cannot know "art" or develop a relationship with "art." You can acquire poetic knowledge about an individual picture or sculpture, and through close association and affection (love) for some pieces of art, develop an understanding about the more universal topic of "art." An apple is not a part of tree--it is a whole thing, complete in itself, both coming from a greater whole (the tree), and containing within it another whole (the seed). The universe is made up of whole things within greater whole things, which work together to make up still greater whole things, and not of discrete things that have no connection to anything else.<br /><br />In our increasingly fragmented post-modern culture, letting our children experience the wholeness and connectedness of knowledge is probably one of the most important things we can do for them. I marked every instance of words like "whole" and "integrated" in this chapter, because it seems to me to the most vital thing--the one thing that we must see and grasp for ourselves, if we want to have a chance to convey it to those we teach.<br /><br />Poetic knowledge is important because it recognizes the wholeness of the learner in the first place. We are neither entirely material or entirely spiritual beings--we are both. We perceive the world through our senses, but we also bring emotions and rationality to bear on what we perceive. I really could not begin to articulate the various aspects of sense and intellect that are discussed in this chapter, but my heart resonates with this conclusion:<br /><blockquote>It is also important to restate that this is all an integrated experience, not occurring in mechanical steps or linked together as a chain...</blockquote><br />Wholeness. Oneness. Integration. Unity. A synthetic universe in which all things interlock and move and work together in an organic whole that staggers the mind, and makes the most complex mechanical process look shabby by comparison. We can't grasp that all at once, or perhaps not ever completely. But when we deal with knowledge in terms of wholeness rather than as isolated parts, we are functioning in the poetic mode, and behaving as whole-hearted human beings, and we are experiencing in the minute particulars the greater universal truths.<br /><br />Having written all that, which sounds so serious, I just have to add that, among my other markings in this chapter, I've made marginal notes about Orson Scott Card. It's because this discussion reminded me that in <span style="font-style:italic;">Ender's Game</span>, Ender understands deeply the fact that he must love his enemy in order to know him well enough to defeat him.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-66906960672106967102011-04-16T14:52:00.002+02:002011-04-16T15:19:28.484+02:00Thoughts on Poetic Knowledge, chapter two (part one)I'm hopelessly late in <a href="http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/pkbc2/">this week's discussion of the first part of chapter two</a>, but life is what it is. I want to join in this discussion, but finding the time to devote to it is tricky.<br /><br />I read over the chapter, including my marginal notes, which made reference both to Charlotte Mason (of course), and also to Alfred North Whitehead. It's been several years since I read <span style="font-style:italic;">The Aims of Education</span> by Whitehead, so I had to pull the book out and look over my notes there to recall the similarities. One thing that I think is important to understand about "poetic knowledge," as it is called by Taylor in this book, is called by other names from other authors. Thus, when you read about "romantic knowledge" in Whitehead or "synthetic knowledge" from David Hicks (<span style="font-style:italic;">Norms & Nobility</span>), it's really important to realize that they are talking about the <span style="font-style:italic;">same thing</span>. Taylor borrowed the word "poetic" from some older authors, and it is valid, but it is not the only term to describe what he means--what Charlotte Mason called "the science of relationships."<br /><br />Poetic knowledge is very much the difference between knowing things, and knowing about them. Our information age has made "knowing about" extremely easy, and it is easy to confuse a second-hand familiarity with real knowledge. We mustn't. The real knowledge is the poetic knowledge of close association, interaction, and ultimately, love. <br /><br />This poetic knowledge begins with a sense of wonder, and I really like the quote from Dennis Quinn:<br /><blockquote>Wonder, always considered a passion, was classified by Aquinas and many before him as a species of fear....There are, of course many kinds of fear..[and] it is helpful to distinguish wonder from some passions in its immediate family. When we do so, we see that wonder is the most rational form of fear.</blockquote><br />This kind of wonder, that makes us approach some new and unknown with awe and reverence, is, I think, what the Bible means when it tells us that <span style="font-style:italic;">the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom</span>.<br /><br />It is, of course, closely connected with the sense of ignorance that makes us aware that there is something we do not know, and that we need to know, or want to know--a state of humility without which true education cannot take place.<br /><br />The one author that springs to mind when I think about this is Jostein Gaarder. I have read everything he has written (that has been translated into English), and I have never encountered anyone better able to articulate this sense of wonder than he does--from <span style="font-style:italic;">The Christmas Mystery</span> to <span style="font-style:italic;">Sophie's World</span>. I don't agree with all of his conclusions, but there is no doubt that understands the right frame of mind for looking at one thing--a flower, an orange, a sheep--and understanding how truly amazing it is--how worthy of our awe, because it is such an amazing thing, "infinitely more than nothing."<br /><br />Now that I've wondered all over the map, it's probably pretty clear why I didn't get any kind of post done earlier for this chapter. In the end, it was this or nothing. I've avoided reading everyone else's thoughts until I posted my own, so I'm to do that now. <a href="http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/pkbc2/">You may want to join me</a>.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-39489656872214355272011-04-06T07:00:00.000+02:002011-04-06T07:00:02.772+02:00I haven't blogged about Poland or Krakow for a long time, although I remain "Krakovianka"--a resident of Krakow (similar to "New Yorker").<br /><br />But I have something to share that compels me to call up blogger and type away. My family and I visited a new museum recently, and most of this post was written immediately afterward, in great enthusiasm. I've been to any number of museums here in Krakow (not all of them), but this museum is unique in my experience. The Oskar Schindler factory, made well-known via the film <span style="font-style:italic;">Schindler's List</span>, has been converted into a museum about the war years here in Krakow. The exhibits are laid out in a convoluted path which draws you through the museum in chronological order.<br /><br />It begins in the pre-war era, with period photographs of entertainers and people living ordinary lives. It was the end of summer--people were just finishing up their vacations--when Nazi Germany invaded. It's really not possible to use words to explain the way the museum makes this an experience, not just an exhibit. There are areas of light and darkness. There are video clips that you view through the window of a home, or a tram. There are prison cell-like cubicles (complete with barred windows on the doors) where you can read about the arrests, and listen to first-hand accounts (in Polish, with English subtitles). Period furniture, clothing, accessories, weapons, and posters are used throughout the exhibits. The section on the ghetto is experienced between authentic walls that resemble those that surrounded that area. When you read about the labor camps, you are are behind barbed wire and walking on very rough gravel. You can duck into a basement where some Jews were hidden in the dark and damp for years to save their lives. You can walk through the main square of Krakow (the way it is evoked is truly amazing), where Nazi flags are flying, and learn with horror that on the first anniversary of the invasion, the main square was renamed "Adolf Hitler Plaza." I was shocked to see a picture of a small indoor market where I've shopped for years with swastika-blazoned banners on the front!! The exhibits lead you through the museum and through the course of the years from 1939 to 1945 in Krakow, until the liberation.<br /><br />The exhibit ends in a brightly-lit circular room called the Room of Choices. Written all over the walls, in many languages, are brief comments from those who tell how they helped, or were helped by others, during the difficult years. Set within the walls are rotating pillars (each in a different language). On the rotating pillars are the words and testimony of those who did not help when they could have. The thing that struck me about all of them was that the help they were asked to give, or considered giving, was of the smallest kind. One person planned to share some food with another, but by the time they reached the person, they had eaten it all. Another saw that clothing was being collected to give to Polish prisoners, and she packed up her dead brother's clothing to donate...but left the bundle at home, and missed the opportunity. Those folks had little to share, but they could have shared...even meant to share...but they didn't. The small amount of food or the warm sweater wouldn't have fixed the evil situation they were all in, but it would have provided comfort to one person, for a little while. The excuses were tinged with regret...the remembrance that they could have helped, but failed to do so. <br /><br />As I thought about it later, it seemed so easy to say, "I'd have done this or that" if I'd been living in Krakow in 1941, but...it was those small regrets that really struck me. We don't have the power to fix, for example, the dreadful results of a tsunami in Japan, but is there something that it is in our power to do? Some small service, or sacrifice, or helping hand. Those little things count.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-17054919336288155512011-04-05T16:24:00.004+02:002011-04-05T18:48:19.736+02:00Thoughts on Poetic Knowledge by James Taylor, ch. 1I decided to reread this book <a href="http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/pkbc1/">along with those who are are reading and discussing it in book-club format</a>. I first read it several years, ago, so my copy is already well-marked with my original comments and thoughts.<br /><br />Being practically a disciple of Charlotte Mason in the realm of education, I was most forcefully struck by the fact that poetic knowledge is precisely what Miss Mason is aiming to achieve with her young learners, and therefore her methods are most efficacious is achieving what is essentially somewhat elusive and spontaneous.<br /><br />James Taylor takes up the whole first chapter to convey what he means by poetic knowledge, and tells us<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">So whatever poetic knowledge is, it is not strictly speaking a knowledge of poems, but a spontaneous act of the external and internal senses with the intellect, integrated and whole rather than an act associated with the powers of analytic reasoning. It is, according to a tradition from Homer to Robert Frost, from Socrates to Maritain, a natural human act, synthetic and penetrating, that gets us <span style="font-style:italic;">inside</span> the thing experienced.</span></blockquote><br />For my friends who are familiar with Charlotte Mason, don't you immediately see this as virtually identical to her "science of relations," wherein she urges us to allow children to form their own relationships with every branch of knowledge.<br /><br />The concept of synthetic and analytic knowledge could have been lifted right from her own writing. In <span style="font-style:italic;">Formation of Character</span>, she explains: <blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">There is also a time for sowing the seed of this knowledge, an intellectual as well as a natural springtime; and it would be interesting to examine the question, how far it is possible to prosecute <span style="font-style:italic;">any</span> branch of knowledge, the sowing and germination of which has not taken place in early youth. It follows that the first three lustres* belong to what we may call the <span style="font-style:italic;">synthetic</span> stage of education, during which his reading should be wide and varied enough to allow the young scholar to get into living touch with earth-knowledge, history, literature, and much besides. These things are necessary for his intellectual life, and are especially necessary to give him material for the second stage of his education, the <span style="font-style:italic;">analytic</span>, which, indeed, continues with us to the end.</span></blockquote><br /><br />I could say much more on the subject, but this is a blog post, and not the book I ought to write. The most important point for me is taking careful note of that world "whole." Studying the wholeness of things, and their place within greater wholes, is the key to opening the door to synthetic/poetic knowledge, and avoiding the analytic knowledge trap. This is most important because those of us who grew up in institutional schools have experienced only an analytical approach to knowledge, and we need to be very, very careful to avoid the tendency to break everything down into small parts. None of us would give our children a vitamin tablet, a bit of sugar, and a dose of fiber and imagine that it was the equivalent of giving him an apple. The whole apple is much better for him, and so is the wholeness of poetic knowledge. It goes without saying that it tastes better, too.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />*Let me save you the trouble I went through to figure out what she means. <span style="font-style:italic;">Lustre</span> can apparently be understood, in French, as a span of 5 years. It is thus used in a poem by Victor Hugo, and should be understood in this case to mean up to the age of 15 or so.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-14315858778025124842011-03-19T09:38:00.003+01:002011-03-19T11:18:00.681+01:00No Name by Wilkie Collins<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ia600309.us.archive.org/26/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt5/noname_1005_thumb.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://ia600309.us.archive.org/26/items/LibrivoxCdCoverArt5/noname_1005_thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Ah, the poor neglected blog. It's a little like those books I have on my shelf that I want to read so badly. I need to get around to them soon, but when I do, it's usually only to dust. <br /><br />I've been meaning for weeks to write about <span style="font-style:italic;">No Name</span> by Wilkie Collins. I've read the obligatory <span style="font-style:italic;">The Moonstone</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Woman in White</span>, as well as two others, <span style="font-style:italic;">Armadale</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Haunted Hotel</span>. Collins was as prolific as Dickens, and is at least as wordy, but there is something different about his books. He is a master of suspense. The tension builds and builds, and you know something terrible is going to happen. And then it does. Because he is a Victorian author, you sort of know how things are going to come out in the end, to a point. Virtuous behavior will be rewarded, and evil behavior will either be repented of or duly recompensed.<br /><br />In <span style="font-style:italic;">No Name</span>, we meet a quiet country family (genteel and wealthy, of course) consisting of father, mother, two grown daughters, and their faithful governess/companion. The eldest daughter, Nora, is quiet and old enough to be well and truly in danger of being considered an "old maid." The younger daughter, Magdalen, is just reaching maturity. She is impetuous and spoiled, and falls unfortunately in love at the first opportunity. However, her indulgent father plans to do what is necessary to make her marriage possible, which basically involves giving her a large sum of money, as her chosen partner has shown himself unable to succeed at any profession.<br /><br />However, before this marriage can take place, a shocking series of events leaves the girls orphaned and penniless, without even a legal right to their father's name. This seems like enough to be a whole story in itself, but this is a Victorian novel, so it is just the very first section, laying the scene for the rest of the story.<br /><br />Nora, assisted by her former governess and friend, quietly makes plans to support herself as a governess. Magdalen, willful and angry, vows revenge against the uncle who has behaved so cruelly to her and prevented her marriage. She runs away from her sister and friend, and embarks on a course of action that would have been shocking to Victorian sensibilities, but tends not to horrify me in the same way. (She begins by going on stage.)<br /><br />Magdalen must fight all her better instincts and finer principles as she pursues her course of revenge and her attempt to recover her father's fortune. Nora never stops believing in her sister, and hoping and praying for her recovery and redemption. How far does Magdalen go? Does she succeed in the end? Will it be in her own best interests if and when she does? Well, that would be spoiling it, wouldn't it? I can't imagine that anyone is going to line up to read this book, and if you haven't read any Wilkie Collins, you certainly want to start with <span style="font-style:italic;">The Moonstone</span> or <span style="font-style:italic;">The Woman in White</span>. I'd probably suggest <span style="font-style:italic;">Armadale</span> before this one, too. But if you already have a taste for Wilkie Collins, and you enjoy having suspense built to a fever pitch in long, long chapters before the conclusion is reached in a credibility-stretching series of coincidences (it was all I could do not to roll my eyes), this story will repay the effort to read it. Magdalen is a well-drawn, complex character, and I enjoyed the story very much. Most of Wilkie Collins characters are caricatures (Dickens-like), but they are fun to watch. There is a whole company of them in this book, aiding or thwarting Magdalen in her ventures.<br /><br />If you have a large crochet project (or other handiwork) to work on, this will occupy 29 hours of time if you listen to at <a href="http://librivox.org/no-name-by-wilkie-collins/">Librivox</a>, as I did. It took about two months to complete, and I suppose it's only fair to say that I have several other Wilkie Collins titles on my to-be-read list (I do enjoy them), but I'm not in a hurry to start another one.<br /><br />By way of a teaser, though, I'm listening to another book at <a href="http://www.librivox.org">Librivox</a> right now--<span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://librivox.org/aurora-floyd-by-mary-elizabeth-braddon/">Aurora Floyd</a></span> by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. <br /><br /><a href=""></a><a href=""></a><i></i><i></i>Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-14311518729419147292011-02-28T14:49:00.004+01:002011-02-28T14:56:26.036+01:00On books and hats...I quoted in my last post from<span style="font-style:italic;"> The Joys of Reading: Life's Greatest Pleasure </span>by Burton Rascoe. That is because I am reading this slim little book (185 pages, cloth-bound, falling apart) right now, and enjoying it very much. I think I'm going to blog my way through the book so you can enjoy it, too. It's the sort of book that readers enjoy reading--a book about books and reading, and why reading is worthwhile, and different kinds of reading, and so forth. At the same time, I am most emphatically NOT recommending that anyone search out a copy to buy and read. Some of it is too specific to its time and era to be universally interesting (it's never been reprinted, so far as I can tell).<br /><br />The book is recent enough that the expressions and sentiments ring very true and sound modern, while it also old enough that the author writes enthusiastically of then-living authors such as Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It makes for fun reading, and gives rise to all sorts of interesting reflections. <br /><blockquote>Books may fall into neglect. Fashions may shift in that demand for the "continuous slight novelty" we all require to escape monotony or satiety. And good books, even the best books, may be obscured for a while, unread for months, for years, even for centuries.<br /></blockquote><blockquote>Literature does not die. It is the self-perpetuating product of an ever-flowering process like life itself; and it is the articulate spirit of life, voicing the hopes, aspirations, the conflicts, the experience, of people, of time and of place--and the best of literature, the literature that endures, is the literature which arouses in the breasts of all literate peoples at all times the emotion of recognition that this book, this poem or this play is something they know, they feel, they have observed, they acknowledge to be true, they have felt or observed, expressed in a language that is clearer, more exact, more comprehensive, or more subtle than is within the average man's power of articulation.</blockquote><br />I appreciate the fact that he encourages readers not only to read those books which are classic and worthy, but not to be ashamed to read current literature that is worthy. He also encourages readers to actually read those worthy books, and not just skim them to be able to say "I've read that," as we might buy the latest fashion (or not) in order to make "groupthink" a veritable reality.<br /><blockquote>It is quite true that a great many people make no further use of books than as a means of keeping up with the fashion. That is to say that, when a book becomes a best seller, they want to get hold of it and perhaps only to skip through it, not out of a love of literature, not out of curiosity even, but merely to be in the swim.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.acertaincinema.com/workspace/media/optimized-judith-wood-hat.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 374px; height: 480px;" src="http://www.acertaincinema.com/workspace/media/optimized-judith-wood-hat.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />When nearly everybody else seems to have read the book, and to be talking about it, they feel as uncomfortable as if they had on clothes that are last year's and, there out of date. When the Empress Eugenie hats were so much the rage in 1931 that Queen Mary was probably the only living woman who didn't wear one, it was also so much the fashion to read<span style="font-style:italic;"> The Good Earth</span> by Pearl Buck that it took more courage than most can muster to resist a desire to buy or borrow it.</blockquote>Now, with the plethora of book bloggers out there, there is this tendency to want to read what everyone else is reading and talking about. There are challenges that tempt us to read the same kinds of books everyone else is reading. When half-a-dozen of my favorite book bloggers have waxed enthusiastic about a new book, I want to read it too. Sometimes I don't like the books that are enjoying the wave of popularity. I have read a few books that I could have easily dispensed with. But. I have read some wonderful, wonderful books that I <span style="font-style:italic;">would not have known about</span> if I hadn't picked up the chatter about them and hopped on the bandwagon, to mix a few metaphors. I would not willingly have missed <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-thief-by-markus-zusak.html">The Book Thief</a></span>, <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2007/05/thirteenth-tale.html">The Thirteenth Tale</a></span>, or <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2008/07/jayber-crow-by-wendell-berry.html">Jayber Crow</a></span>. If I have to read something like <span style="font-style:italic;">The DaVinci Code </span>once in a while, that's not too high a price to pay for the sake of reading truly great books written by the better authors still living among us.<br /><br />Burton Rascoe agrees.<br /><blockquote>The sneer [at those who read currently popular books] is both stupid and vulgar. For the undeniable fact is that the Empress Eugenie hat was so beautifully designed that no woman could but add to her appearance by wearing one, and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Good Earth</span> was so good a novel that no one could help deriving some pleasure, some good, out of even a very superficial skimming of it.</blockquote>Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-32237250775482667222011-02-20T14:00:00.000+01:002011-02-20T14:19:23.011+01:00Some things never change...<span style="font-style:italic;">People who say they cannot find time to read anything, except a detective story or some other work of current light fiction now and then, are deceiving themselves; and self-deception is an evil to be modified or corrected at all hazards, for it is infinitely worse than the habit of deceiving others.<br /><br />***<br /><br />It were far better for a man or a woman to give the real reason why he or she rarely reads than to give the false one that he or she cannot find the time. It would be better to say, "I am such a confirmed movie addict that I have to go to a movie two or three times a week, and, then, of course, I play bridge," or "My mind is so jaded by the fast life I lead that I cannot concentrate on a book long enough to make any sense out of the words, unless the book is spicy with sex or full of murder and sudden death," or "I am so indolent and my mind is so slothful I can't make the effort to find out anything about the world of the mind, the spirit and the imagination; I am content with the little effortless, half-awake world of platitudes which circumscribe my life." <br /><br />Any such confession of the real facts of the matter would be better for the soul than the self-deceiving untruth of saying, "I can't find any time to read."</span><br /><br />I didn't write that--It's a quote from a book called <span style="font-style:italic;">The Joys of Reading: Life's Greatest Pleasure</span>, by Burton Rascoe and it was written in 1937. Perhaps the references to movies instead of television and bridge instead of video games gave it away?<br /><br />But the sentiment rings so true and sounds so very contemporary, doesn't it? It's sort of hard to believe that 80 years ago, people were more interested in seeing a (black-and-white!) movie or playing an insipid card game than reading the really exciting new books by authors like Pearl Buck and Ernest Hemingway, or the worthwhile books that were classics even then, by Mark Twain or Charles Dickens.<br /><br />Why do we always seem to imagine that things are worse today, concerning books and reading, than they were a couple of generations ago? We imagine our grandparents and great-grandparents were much wiser, and devoted their spare time to worthwhile literature instead of fleeting entertainment. Why? If Burton Rascoe's opinion is valid, it appears they were much the same as we are.<br /><br />The irony of all this is that the only way to apprehend that thoughtful reading, both widely and deeply, has always been the province of the few and not the many is to read, and read a lot. And that reading has to extend into the past. Reading only current literature will not give you the insight that people in Victorian England, Renaissance Italy, ancient Greece and Rome, and the Garden of Eden were <span style="font-style:italic;">exactly the same sort of people as you and your neighbors</span>.<br /><br />When a moment of free time opens up, be it 15 minutes, an hour, or a day, a person is faced with a choice of how to occupy it. Idle entertainment or serious reading? Nine times out of ten, desultory entertainment wins out over any serious pursuit, which is why you are reading this blog post instead of, for example <span style="font-style:italic;">Paradise Lost</span> or <span style="font-style:italic;">The Good Earth</span>, or even a more recent worthwhile book, such as <span style="font-style:italic;">Island of the World</span> or <span style="font-style:italic;">Jayber Crow</span>. <br /><br />But I have faith in us readers--we will never read all the excellent books we'd like to get to, but we will read some. We will blog about them, talk about them, keep them on our shelves, and remember them. And in 2090 or so, our great-grandchildren will imagine, perhaps, that this generation was a generation of readers and did not waste countless hours watching DVD's and playing video games. Because why should we expect them to be any different than we are?Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-16904891448938209602011-02-19T08:28:00.004+01:002011-02-19T09:43:36.188+01:00Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://elizabethstrout.com/images/books_olive.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 355px;" src="http://elizabethstrout.com/images/books_olive.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I will start off by saying that I enjoyed this book very much, and I made myself read it a little more slowly than is my wont. I'm beginning to see a pattern in my efforts to read more slowly (and I am most thoroughly convinced that slow reading is better than fast reading, but old habits and all that, etc, etc.) <br /><br />1. I determine that a book is worth reading slowly and I resolve to read it that way.<br /><br />2. I read the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the book at a leisurely pace, taking my time to enjoy the language and think about the development of the story.<br /><br />3. I finish the book at the break-neck reading pace to which I am accustomed, and come up for air.<br /><br />That's how I read Olive Kitteridge. <br /><br />This book has been on my "to be read" list for long enough that I had forgotten the reasons and reviews that led me to put it there in the first place. I would almost hesitate to call it a novel in the usual sense, because if there is a plot, it is fractured beyond recognition.<br /><br />How can I explain this book? <br /><br />Olive Kitteridge is a wife, a mother, a teacher, and a lifetime-resident of a small community in New England. Because she lives her whole life in this one place, she interacts over many years with her students (who grow up, and remember her in different ways), her neighbors, and her family (husband and son). <br /><br />Each chapter is a stand-alone event. If they were photographs (but they are not static, and I don't really want to compare them to photographs), some of them would be close-ups of Olive alone, and others would be photos of, for example, a couple sitting on a bench, in which Olive happened to be walking past at the moment, and so she appears in the far edge of the frame. Other photographs might be close-ups of people busy with their own lives, who happen to be thinking about Olive, so you can't really see her in the picture at all, and only the subject of the photograph knows she is there. Other chapters unfold more like home-movies, and we get a brief close-up glimpse of Olive's life.<br /><br />You see, it's complicated. This book is about a woman, Olive Kitteridge, and she is not really a pleasant person. She physically unattractive, and she appears brusque and unfeeling. There is a another side of her, but for most people the lovable parts of Olive are buried way too deep to find--they aren't going to get past the genuinely unpleasant aspects of her nature. <br /><br />As I read through the book, chapter by chapter, I grew gradually to understand her a little better. She wasn't really a happy woman, and much of her unhappiness was the result of her own behavior. You meet people like that in real life. At the same time, I grew gradually to understand that Olive didn't waste her time feeling sorry for herself--at least, not for long. She found ways to deal with her unhappiness (you can't always make it go away), some of them productive and healthy, others not so much. <br /><br />Nevertheless, the impression I was left with at the end of the book is that even a person who seems on the surface to be utterly unpleasant is still very human--with needs and feelings that are worthy of consideration. Olive is a very, very complex person, but in that way, she is representative of people everywhere--especially the ones who make a bad impression from the start.<br /><br />I enjoyed <span style="font-style:italic;">Olive Kitteridge</span> very much, because I enjoy character-driven books and don't care much about plot. Olive isn't the only person whose character is drawn in sharp relief in this book--there are many others--but hers is the one that is sounded in depth. This is the first book that I've read by Elizabeth Strout, but the rest of her books are now on my "to be read" list. <br /><br />I don't feel as if I've said much about the book, so I'll add one more thing. Olive lives in a small community, as I mentioned, and the story draws that community into focus in several ways. We see the continuity of Olive's students growing to adulthood and either living in town or moving away or coming back. The changes of time and modernization are felt, as the corner drugstore is bought out by a big chain. The shocking effect on a community of violence or tragedy plays a role. Olive is part of a bigger picture, and the book includes that bigger picture as well as its focus on Olive, and is part of what makes this a good book.<br /><br /><br /><br />Afterthoughts: I read this book on my Kindle. Only when I needed an image for this post was I reminded that this book won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 2009. It is considered a series of 13 individual stories (which explains my sense of fractured plot), not a novel. I probably added this to my "want to read" list in the first place because it won the Pulitzer, but <span style="font-style:italic;">I did not realize or remember</span> that while I was reading the book, so my review as it stands above was written in ignorance of the fact that the book was so acclaimed. I'm not sure why that makes a difference, but I feel that it does--I liked the book for its own merits, and much better than <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/01/blindness-by-jose-saramago.html">the last prize-winner I read</a>.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-79332513459867272362011-01-22T10:38:00.003+01:002011-01-22T11:52:05.380+01:00Howards End is on the Landing, by Susan HillThe full title of this book is actually <span style="font-style:italic;">Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading From Home</span>. I actually love the title of this book, but I'm not sure I can articulate the reasons. <span style="font-style:italic;">Howards End</span> is a book I have read only recently (within the past 3-4 years), and it made a powerful impression on me. Then the title is both evocative and enigmatic, and it is long--so blatantly different from the short, punchy titles popular with modern novelists (<span style="font-style:italic;">The Road, Twilight, The Notebook, Freedom</span>, and so forth).<br /><br />It's not a thing I do very often anymore, but if I were browsing in the stacks of the library, this title would make me pull the book off the shelf and investigate further. And it would repay my effort for doing so.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ot7K2gu8L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-5,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ot7K2gu8L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-5,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>One autumn day, the author was looking for a book in her home. There were a lot of bookshelves, in a lot of different rooms, and tucked into nooks and crannies such as landings. (I have books on my landings, too.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1758/1245/1600/IMG_8370.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width:175px; height: 300px;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1758/1245/1600/IMG_8370.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Surrounded by all those books, which were her own possessions, but also "old friends," she decided somewhat impulsively to spend an entire year reading only from her home library, which meant, for the most part, only rereading, and not reading anything she had not read before. (She made a few exceptions, connected with her professional obligations.)<br /><br />This book is partly the story of that year, but mostly it is sort of bookish memoir, looking back at people, places, and books that made up her reading life across many decades. Looking back, and thinking over all the books she has read, it occurs to her how unlikely it is that there are two people living who have read exactly the same books, and only those books. <br /><blockquote>So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.</blockquote><br />I have not hurried through this book, and it has been a pleasure to glimpse the literary soul of someone as well-read as Susan Hill. I could not read this book without frantically making lists of authors I never heard of (how did that happen?) and particular books by authors I have heard of that I must read, immediately, right now, so I can enjoy them as much as Susan did. I know that we are kindred reading spirits, because of all Dicken's novels, she did not care for <span style="font-style:italic;">A Tale of Two Cities</span>. I think I'll stop feeling guilty about finding it my least favorite of all I've read so far.<br /><br />Ms. Hill doesn't have much use for electronic readers, and has some rather bitter things to say about them. I only found this amusing, because I was reading the Kindle version of the book. I love physical books for many reasons, but I love my Kindle, too. Just think--I can download every single Thomas Hardy title she recommends most highly, and I won't have to find space on those already-full bookshelves to house them. She also warns:<br /><blockquote>The internet can also have a pernicious influence of reading because it is full of book-related gossip and chatter on which it is fatally easy to waste time that should be spent actually paying close, careful attention to the books themselves, whether writing them or reading them.</blockquote><br />So here I am, contributing to the noise by telling you about this book. But there it is. We live in a world of contradictions. The internet takes up too much time away from books, but without it, I probably wouldn't have heard about this book at all (I've never seen a real-life copy), nor read it, nor told you about it. I'll stop now, and let you get back to your library, literal and virtual.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-14892888879591680772011-01-15T08:00:00.003+01:002011-01-15T09:33:06.324+01:00Island of the World by Michael O'Brien<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oysBy0seL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-17,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oysBy0seL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-17,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />There could hardly be a larger gap between the worldview expressed in this book and the one shown in <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/01/blindness-by-jose-saramago.html">the last book I reviewed</a>. From hopeless relativism, we turn 180 degrees to face redemption and responsibility.<br /><br />I've put off writing about this book, because it's hard to know what to say--how much to try to convey. It's a very long book. I read the Kindle version (a surprise gift), but I understand the print version is over 800 pages long. <br /><br />The story begins in a mountain village in Croatia, during World War II, and ends more or less in the present, thus encompassing the reign of communism in post-war "Yugoslavia" from beginning to end. However, the story is not especially political--quite the opposite. It follows the story of one man's life--Josip Lasta--from his boyhood in the village to the end of his long life. Josip's happy childhood is interrupted by the violence taking place throughout his country, not just during the war, but immediately after. <br /><br />He adapts himself to a certain extent to his new reality, and shapes a life for himself in Yugoslavia--one of the most peculiar countries ever to be found on a map (only old maps, now). Most of the story is the struggle of Josip to survive, not in body (although he has to fight that battle as well), but in his soul. I love my fiction laced with philosophy, and this book is full of profound questions, deep thoughts, and soul-searching complexities.<br /><br />In my last post, on <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2011/01/blindness-by-jose-saramago.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">Blindness</span></a>, I said that one of the things I most intensely disliked about that book (and other post-modern fiction) was the lack of names for people. It depersonalizes the characters, making them less than human. With that on my mind, I was struck forcefully by the importance of names in <span style="font-style:italic;">Island of the World</span>. Part of the story takes place in a soviet-era, hard-labor prison camp. The prisoners use monikers instead of names for themselves--"the owl" or "the wedding guest." For a few men who allow themselves to trust each other, sharing their real names is an act of fellowship, trust, bonding, and an assertion of the importance of individuals. Each one matters. No one is expendable.<br /><br />This quote from the book summarizes the ideas contained here:<br /><blockquote>It all fits together, and it moves in a marvelous order. This is the first time he has seen it with his eyes. Though of course, his textbooks and Tata's lessons have already inscribed it in his mind. Now it lives. It is immense, complex, and so moving that tears spring unbidden to his eyes. "Oh cosmos!" he gasps.</blockquote><br />That sense of order--of all things, including suffering, grief, and loss,fitting together into an order too great for us to comprehend entirely is integral to the story, and to life.<br /><br /><blockquote>"My father was a literate man," says Josip to Ariadne. "Not in the sense of one who merely filled his mind with the contents of what he read. He understood that words of beauty and truth raise man higher than himself."</blockquote><br /><br />How many ideas are packed into that little morsel? 1. Literature contributes to moral growth. 2. There is more than one kind of knowledge, and "mere contents" is the lesser kind. 3. Man is not the pinnacle of worthiness, and not only can he be raised higher, but he needs to be. 4. Beauty and truth are means to that elevation. ...and I've probably missed something.<br /><br />You can see from that little example how much meat there must be in this book--food for thought for a long time to come.<br /><br />I loved the writing, and I loved the setting. My only perception of Croatia to this point was through television travel-ads (come visit warm, sunny beaches!). Croatia is a popular tourist destination for Poles, not least because the languages are very similar (I understood all the Croatian words in the book, even the ones that weren't translated). This book fleshed out the geography and the country, and I now have a positive desire, which I hope will be fulfilled, to visit Split, one of the cities in which Josip lived.<br /><br />While I whole-heartedly embrace the central premise of <span style="font-style:italic;">Island of the World</span>--that man is in need of faith, and that he is part of a whole greater than himself--I have to include one caveat. There was one thing that was a bit of stumbling block for me, and that was this: Josip's faith is based largely on mystical experiences, rather than having its foundation in the Word of truth. Part of my disappointment is that readers who sympathize with Josip (and surely that will be most of the people who read this book) will not be having mystical visions in which swallows speak and white horses take them on journeys. They could, however, read the Words of truth which are very life.<br /><br />Having expressed my one reservation about the book, I still recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone. And everyone. It will help you see, if you want to see.<br /><blockquote><br />"We live and move and have our being with a vast masterpiece. Nature itself is speaking or, rather, God is speaking through nature--"<br />"Yes, everything speaks because it is given by the Creator of all things."<br />"His hand is upon it all, the damaged and the undamaged. We must learn to see the original intention even in the damaged."<br /><br />As they continue to follow the path deeper into the woods, the mother keeps an eye on her daughter, but Josip is staring simultaneously inward and upward, and also connecting to the colors blazing all around him. "We are so blind, so blind!" he groans, flailing his arms for emphasis, his face flushing, his voice intense with the excitement of this new discovery. "It's as if heaven is raining miracles upon us, but we cannot see because we do not look. It's as if fabulous birds fall unceasingly from the skies!"<span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span></blockquote>Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-5001772132480656922011-01-07T09:59:00.003+01:002011-01-07T11:24:31.614+01:00Blindness, by Jose Saramago<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161054077l/2526.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width:100px; height:133px;" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161054077l/2526.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />In the interest of attempting to blog more regularly in 2011, I decided to post something about my reading. Seven days into the new year, I must confess that I have not finished any books. I am reading at least four books at the moment, but it may be a while before any of them are finished.<br /><br />So, I cast my eyes back to December, and while none of my December reading made it to my "best of 2010" list, at least it is relatively fresh in my mind. I read quite a bit in December, at least partly because I spent several sick days lying on the couch needing something easy and simple to do.<br /><br />Not everything was easy and simple, though. I was offered a book from my <a href="www.bookmooch.com">Bookmooch</a> wishlist, and happily accepted it. (I have plenty of points, and in general, the books I want are not available.) So, one cold day in December, I received <span style="font-style:italic;">Blindness</span> by Jose Saramago. I put it on my list so long ago, I have only the vaguest recollections of the book, but I wanted to read it at some point, so I plunged in and was taken unaware.<br /><br />I am not post-modernist in my thinking. My world-view is shaped by a solidly Biblical foundation, and I am far more sympathetic to the medieval mind than to the post-modern one. <span style="font-style:italic;">But I live in this age.</span> Whether because the post-modern mindset is crystallizing, or simply because I am older, I see it coming sharply into focus everywhere around me. When I find myself immersed in a post-modern world such as the one in <span style="font-style:italic;">Blindness</span> (or <a href="http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/2008/02/road-by-cormac-mccarthy.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">The Road</span> by Cormac McCarthy</a>), I never fail to be moved. I don't agree that the world is as it is pictured--so utterly without hope, without redemption--but my spirit bleeds for those who live in that world, and do think that there is nothing more.<br /><br />In the story, a viral blindness strikes humanity. Those afflicted are isolated at first, and the story focuses on the first few individuals incarcerated in an abandoned hospital. There is no one to take care of those affected by blindness, because they would simply be blind themselves almost immediately, so they are left to fend for themselves, and naturally fall into anarchy, with the strong preying on the weak. As the situation deteriorates within the hospital, the blind are not aware that the blindness has not been contained, and the entire population is affected. Amongst the blind, there is one person who is not affected--just one person who retains sight. What can one sighted person do for a building full of blind people, or for a city? <br /><br />The story is meant to be allegorical--it is stated plainly. Unfortunately, accurately portraying a post-modern world is not the same thing as offering a remedy for that hopeless thinking. In fact, it would be altogether un-post-modern to do that. So the book is built up of layers and layers of hopelessness, grief, anguish, loss, confusion, anger (all perfectly legitimate human reality) without a single moment of relief, hope, optimism or redemption. It's a perfect post-modern book, and if you want to read something to illustrate post-<span style="font-style:italic;"></span>modernism, this will fit the bill. I can't think of any other reason for reading it, and I'm not recommending that anyone do so. I read a review of the book which describes the author's writing as "compassionate," and I agree--he tells us very gently about these horrors. But I find that chilling.<br /><br />One of the things I dislike most intensely is how impersonal the story is. The story focuses on a handful of individuals, but we never know their names. They are always referred to as "the doctor" or the "the girl with dark glasses" or "the first blind man's wife." For the entire book, no names are ever shared. It was the same in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Road</span>--there is a father, and there is a son, and they have no names. <br /><br />There is no pleasure for me in this kind of reading, but for some reason, every few years, I end up reading a book like this. It makes me draw back in horror...I'd rather read a brutal crime novel or a harrowing holocaust memoir than look too closely at the bleakness of the modern psyche.<br /><br />But the book does put forth that proposition--when you live in a world of blindness, where the blind are led only by the blind, what is the role for the sighted person?Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-19633624632581488822010-12-31T15:57:00.002+01:002010-12-31T16:27:38.462+01:00Best reads of 2010I stopped keeping track of my reading sometime in 2009, and never even tried in 2010. I miss having those complete records and seeing an overview of my reading at the end of the year, so 2011 will be...better. Probably not perfect, but I do want to keep track of what I read, and maybe if I blog about that, I'll blog about a few other things, too. You never know. I hope no one is holding their breath?<br /><br />The only thing I've posted about in the last six months is my Kindle. Now, I love my Kindle, and thanks to my Kindle, I can do a lot more reading. I have access to so many books. I never go anywhere without 200 books tucked into my purse, and that's really cool. Thanks to my Kindle, I read some really great books, and thanks to my Kindle, I read a LOT of trash.<br /><br />Let me explain...<br /><br />There are hundreds of free, public domain texts available to read on the Kindle--you know, the Classics, which are Literature and Worthy of your reading time. What I didn't really understand, until I had the Kindle, is that there are also absolutely piles of newer titles that are offered for free. Publishers have their reasons, and I won't go there just now, but the fact is, you can download more free Kindle books in a week than you could read in a month. Please believe me when I tell you that most of these really are not worth your time. I know this, because I wasted a lot of *my* time reading them. I have read at least 40 books on my Kindle since May, and 30 of them were probably a waste of time.<br /><br />It's so much easier now that I'm back in Europe. Europeans don't believe in free. A book that's free for the Kindle in the US will cost $2-5 here. Now I can stop reading free twaddle and start reading free classics--or at least, really good books that were worth paying for.<br /><br />2010 wasn't a complete loss as far as reading goes. I read some wonderful books, and these are the best of them, in no particular order. I wish there were 10. There should have been 10 great books out of the (probably) 100 or so that I read. These are the ones that stuck with me.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Q&A</span> by Vikus Swarup</span> -- This is the book that the movie Slumdog Millionaire is based upon. The movie was good. The book is different...and even better. I'd really like to explore more Indian authors.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />The Long Song</span> by Andrea Levy</span> -- Once you know this book is written by Andrea Levy, author of <span style="font-style:italic;">Small Island</span>, do you really need to know anything else? I prefer the books she has written that take place mostly in England, but this was still an excellent novel, and it was nominated for the Man Booker Prize.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Age of Innocence</span> by Edith Wharton</span> -- I have developed a real taste for Edith Wharton's writing, and my biggest project for this year was this, the book which won her the Pulitzer Prize.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />A Room With a View</span> by E.M. Forster</span> -- I loved this story. It had a happier ending (I thought) than <span style="font-style:italic;">Howard's End</span>, but didn't make quite as strong an impression on me.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />The Hunger Games</span> trilogy by Suzanne Collins</span> -- This is outside my reading comfort zone in several ways. I don't read much YA fiction, and I don't care for science fiction as a rule. But a good dystopian story will usually hold my attention, and I did like the young heroine in the story.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />The Upas Tree</span> by Florence Barclay</span> -- I listened to this as an audiobook at <a href="www.librivox.org">Librivox</a>. It was different, with a taste of the supernatural, marital complexities, and a happy ending. I was surprised by it, but I definitely liked it.<br /><br />So, those are the best books I've read this year. I'm going to be very severe with myself in 2011, at least for a while. I need to buckle down to some serious reading and studying. No free Kindle fluff...at least for a while.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-56175588194538851672010-10-20T12:58:00.006+02:002010-10-20T16:44:49.005+02:00I remain enamored of the Kindle...I haven't actually counted or kept close records, but I have read between 30 and 40 books on my Kindle since I purchased it in May. I love it even more than I thought I would before I bought it. I love it so much, I do not even regret (much) that Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle by $70 about five weeks after I bought mine. I thought it worthwhile to pay the price I paid, and I was not wrong.<br /><br />Today, I had another Kindle-love moment.<br /><br />I'm 99% percent finished scheduling out one daughter's schoolwork for the year (we're getting a very late start, because we just returned to Poland from the US one week ago). She'll be doing <a href="http://www.amblesideonline.org/11bks.shtml">Year 11</a> from <a href="www.amblesideonline.org">Ambleside Online</a>, which focuses on the 20th century. One of the books she needs, and which we certainly have, since my son did this work a few years ago, is <span style="font-style:italic;">Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave</span>, by David Breese.<br /><br />I have scoured our dusty (neglected for six months) bookshelves twice, and I have the allergies to prove it. However, I have not located this book, and there is the niggling suspicion in my mind that I loaned the book to someone. As soon as I remember who that might have been, you can be sure I will not lend that person any more of my books. In the meantime, I really do think this book is important enough to replace. Right now. <br /><a href="www.bookmooch.com">Bookmooch</a> failed to yield any available copies (a frequent occurrence for me), so I turned to Amazon. I thought there might be some inexpensive used copies available, and indeed there were. I could have paid less than $2 for a copy, plus shipping to Poland, which would have been quite a bit more--probably $5 or $6.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fF1PvQ-9L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-19,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fF1PvQ-9L._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-19,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>But! What do I see, but that this book is available for the Kindle? Considering that it was published originally in 1979, I find this nothing less than astonishing. It took me about ten seconds to decide that I will purchase the Kindle version, which will be available in the promised 60 seconds, even here in Poland.<br /><br />And so I bought it, and I was reminded all over again that this is exactly the sort of reason I wanted a Kindle in the first place. The truth is, even without the Kindle device, you can take advantage of Kindle books using the Kindle apps for PC, Mac, and even smart phones. But I love the physical e-reader, too, which seems like a magic book (I keep mine in a book-like cover), becoming almost whatever I want to read, almost whenever I want it. I do exercise a great deal of restraint, however, and do not click "buy" very frequently. But when I do, I'm so very that I am able to do so.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-1574371431921577682010-05-12T20:50:00.002+02:002010-05-12T21:13:51.027+02:00We interrupt this discussion of Norms & Nobility.......to chortle with glee over my newest acquisition, guaranteed to spend many hours entertaining and educating me.<br /><br />That would be an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Generation/dp/B0015T963C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273690288&sr=8-1">Amazon Kindle</a>, an e-reader featuring e-ink, so that reading from it feels mostly like reading from a printed page instead of a back-lit screen. I spent quite a lot of time thinking about this purchase before I spent the money, but so far, I have not the slightest regret. I've already read through one and a half books (more or less), and I have visions of reading many, many more.<br /><br />I indulged in just one "for purchase" book--the newest title by Andrea Levy, The Long Song--and downloaded all six volumes by Charlotte Mason, the Bible, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle, as well as numerous free chapters from books I might want to buy in the future....<br /><br />This lovely gadget also holds PDF versions of my crochet patterns, which makes me want ALL my patterns to be PDF files, so I can have them at my fingertips.<br /><br />I'm totally enamored of my new device, and look forward to many, many hours of happy reading. It can hold up to 1500 titles, although the thought of such a library in my purse makes me slightly delerious. It's even nicer in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/M-Edge-Prodigy-Leather-Display-Generation/dp/B001S0EXEK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273690349&sr=8-2">this leaf-green cover</a>, which protects it and makes it feel more like a book while holding and reading.<br /><br />It won't make me a better or more frequent blogger, I am sure, but it did at least merit this one post.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-39229937721607315562010-05-04T15:20:00.003+02:002010-05-06T17:26:03.383+02:00Norms & Nobility, chapter 4, section IDavid Hicks opens this chapter by saying, “An Ideal Type tyrannized classical education.” It's a simple sentence, but it implies so much. The very concept of an Ideal Type is antithetical to our post-modern culture, because it presupposes that there exists some kind of moral absolute value by which we can judge ourselves (and others). Moral absolutes are not popular, and it seems to be the gleeful task of our culture to tell the kinds of stories that undermine absolute values. Killing is usually unacceptable, but what about this scenario....? So ask our movies, books, and talk shows. I recently watched a peculiar movie (on an airplance) called “The Invention of Lying” which basically showed that lying is an important and desirable aspect of our culture--that life with lies is more comfortable and pleasant. <br /><br />An Ideal Type is prescriptive--normative--because it presents us with a picture of how we ought to be--how we ought to behave, think, respond, and speak. I have absolutely no notes or underlining in the first section of this chapter, which means I glossed over it the last couple of times I've read this. For some reason, this time around I was arrested by what Hicks is saying about how the Ideal Type has to be defined, and contrasting it with the definition of liberalism.<br /><br />The definition of liberalism is a moving target—it shifts and changes according to current trends and mores, and the definition of a century ago could sound like a definition of conservatism today. The definition is not prescriptive, but descriptive, changing as needed to suit the mood du jour.<br /><br />The Ideal Type, on the other hand, is not dependent on history or current thought. It seeks to provide a prescriptive, higher standard by which we will judge ourselves as more or less successful according to how well we measure up against it.<br /><br />Oddly enough, no matter how degraded our culture, we still seek for mythic versions of the Ideal Type. The majority of us approve of a “good man” and abhor a “bad man.” No matter how much psychologists might leap to the defense of the ill-used, misunderstood “bad man” and attempt to elicit our pity and sympathy for him, they cannot convince us that he is a model that we should try to emulate. Most of our educational systems are not actively teaching any kind of Ideal Type, but in some ways, it still “tyrannizes” our thinking. Unfortunately, in our culture, we have no frame of reference for what it looks like.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13933987.post-34063636371277758232010-04-28T21:45:00.002+02:002010-04-28T22:25:36.780+02:00Norms & Nobility, chapter 3As my internet time grows more limited, I think I'll post all my thoughts on chapter 3 at the same time.<br /><br />Chapter 3 draws our attention to the role of the teacher in classical education. David Hicks paints us two pictures of "ideal" classical teachers--Socrates and Isokrates. Most of us are familiar with Socrates, and his method of question and inquiry, which is a good example of the kind of inquiry that David Hicks wants us to see. Isokrates, on the other hand, is...well, what? I never heard of him before reading this book, and I have been unsuccessful in learning much from the internet. Whatever he might have written, I haven't found that any of it has been translated and published for a long, long time.<br /><br />Only recently did I realized that David Hicks primary source of information about Isokrates is probably Marrou's <span style="font-style:italic;">History of Education in Antiquity</span>, in which he features prominently. And Marrou probably read Isokrates in the original Greek. I own a copy of Marrou's book, and it is on my "to be read" list, but it is so long and detailed, I fear it may be some time before I get through all of it (I have dipped in here and there).<br /><br />In the meantime, I take Hicks word for it that Isokrates focused on training children to be adults, and that he understand that children value that knowledge which they perceive as bringing them closer to the world of adult-hood. From the teacher's vantage point, this is accomplished by taking his place as a fellow-learner who is a good bit further down the road than his pupils--he is there example, and the one who is able to ask the questions that will set them to thinking and discovering for themselves. The knowledge to be acquired--not the teacher, and not the child--is the most important thing.<br /><br />I am reminded of something Charlotte Mason writes in Philosophy of Education:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding.</span><br />In this case, "books" should be understood to be the source of knowledge, and anyone familiar with her will know that real books, not textbooks, are needed.<br /><br />I think that those of us who are homeschoolers, and who have not been classically educated ourselves, need to (humbly!) take our places beside our students and acknowledge that we, too, have a lot to learn. I am not Socrates or Isokrates, or Charlotte Mason, either. I fall way short of David Hicks ideal classical teacher, and for that reason, a knowledge-based education, in which both my students and I turn to excellent books as our teachers is very appealing to me. David Hicks recognizes this need for teachers, too, and his indictment of the trappings of modern education is that they are set up to conceal the teacher's lack of real knowledge. <br /><br />Most of the time, I consider myself as much as student as my children, and I would love a classical teacher to lead us both.Karen G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00680320370181357559noreply@blogger.com0