Tag: books

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National Authors Day

Since today is National Authors Day, I thought what better time to get back to writing my blog after an unexpectedly long hiatus.

One thing I love even more than reading is talking about what I’ve read with other lovers of reading. I feel an instant bond when I discover someone who has the same passion for a certain author; those people have a very special place in my heart. I also love when someone can turn me on to an author who I haven’t read before or give me a good reason to reconsider one who I had dismissed.

So, let’s take this opportunity to talk about authors and National Author’s Day!

What is National Author’s Day?

The purpose of National Authors Day is to take a moment to appreciate those authors who have written some of your favorite works.

The philosopher Michel Foucault once asked, “What is an author?” What is provocative about that question is that maybe someone who you would think of as an author – Homer for example, never actually wrote anything down. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an author as, “the writer of a literary work (such as a book),” but also as “one that originates or creates something.”

An author (who writes things down) whose work I appreciate, Stephen Kotler, likes to say that reading books gives you the most bang for your buck, so to speak, because the amount of time that has gone into researching, synthesizing, and presenting the information in a book is exponentially greater than the time it takes to read it. Books are like a superfood.

Although someone doesn’t necessarily need to write a book to be an author, for our purposes today, it may be more fun to think about those who do.

Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash

The History of National Authors Day

Unlike many this-or-that days, National Author’s Day actually has an interesting history. In 1928, Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, the president of the Illinois Women’s Club sent a letter of appreciation to the author of a book she had just read. The author responded and that exchange inspired her to establish an official day, “… to recognize all the people who have contributed to American literature.”

In 1929 the General Federation of Women’s Clubs approved observance of National Authors Day as a way to recognize American authors. The day was acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1949.

Some of My Favorite Authors and Books

For the sake of getting the conversation started, here are some authors of books who I appreciate:

  • Ken Kesey, Sometimes A Great Notion.
  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Barbara Kingsolver’s early work like The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams.
  • Deborah Harkness’s Witches Trilogy (it’s up to four books, I’m eagerly awaiting the fifth).
  • Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls (no, I didn’t know she wrote fiction either, but she does, and you should read it).
  • Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Yes, I read grammar books cover to cover. This one made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions.
  • Sylvia Plath. I just recently read The Bell Jar for the first time and I have a lot to say about how much I loved it.
  • Larry McMurtry. I may have actually read almost everything he’s written. If you haven’t read any of his books already, start now.

“The inconvenient – even distressing – lack of a Wanda means that I’m apt to be writing a one-character book, that one character being someone I have only a modest and flickering interest in: myself.”  

Larry McMurtry, Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways, p.22.

National Author’s Day Activities

If you’re feeling up for celebrating National Author’s Day with me, here are some suggested activities:

  • Tweet at your favorite author (or just follow them on Twitter – it is one of the best uses of the platform as far as I’m concerned).
  • Buy yourself a new book or give one of your favorites to a friend.
  • Be your own author, write something! (November also happens to be National Novel Writing Month, aka: NaNoWriMo.)

In celebration of National Authors Day, thank you for reading this post!

Also, if you would care to share, I would love to know some of your favorite authors and why.

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National Book Lovers Day

book stack

August ninth marked the observance of National Book Lovers Day, a day that encourages people to put down their devices (unless that device is an e-reader I suppose) and read a book!

I am currently reading around three and a half books:

  • Women Who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (a reread – but this time I’m taking notes)
  • Pilgrimage to Dollywood by Helen Morales
  • Women & Power, a Manifesto by Mary Beard
  • The Dharma Bums by Jack Keroac (this is another re-read and I’m not feeling that into it, I may put it back on the shelf)

Some books I have read recently that I really enjoyed:

  • Dreyer’s English, An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer (yes, it is a grammar/English usage book and yes, I laughed out loud many times while reading it)
  • Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein (I felt my entire existence was vindicated)
  • Circe by Madeline Miller (spoiler – I didn’t love how it ended)
  • Antigone Rising by Helen Morales (if you have two X chromosomes, this might get you riled up)
  • How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
  • Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (see, sometimes I read fiction; a suggestion from a friend)
  • City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert (see, more fiction; another suggestion from another friend)

As much as I love books and I love to read, I don’t love to keep ALL the books in my house. I was really into Larry McMurtry for a while; I had pretty much every book that he had written through 1998 or so and in the course of one move I got rid of all of them. I’ve only read one new Larry McMurtry book since then, but I loved it so much I’m almost feeling like I need to get my paws on a new copy of Lonesome Dove or Terms of Endearment. But I’m also trying to make a point of reading women authors, so revisiting Larry McMurtry may have to wait a little longer.

Much like all the cat holidays, I feel like National Book Lovers Day can be celebrated year-round. Here are some ways to celebrate National Book Lovers Day any day of the year:

  • Read a book!
  • Pass a book along to a friend.
  • Return a book that you borrowed from a friend.
  • Buy a book from your local, independent bookstore. Or any independent bookstore (they all ship). Page Against the Machine is my favorite independent bookstore here in Long Beach (I might know the owner). Chris carries an excellently curated selection of new and used books in the political and social justice genres.  However, he also is very happy to custom order any title that you are looking for.
  • Order a custom bookstack watercolor for yourself or a friend. Trying to think of what books I would want for my bookstack gives me anxiety, but if you know what you would pick, check out the Etsy shop of my friend Kiersten: ShortstackByKiersten.
How cute are these handpainted book stacks?
What books would you put in your shortstack?
Images by @kiershort_art

Did you or are you going to celebrate National Book Lovers Day? What are you reading now?  Any suggestions of books to check out?

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A History of Art

A long, long time ago, when I was just a wee lass, I went to college. I was looking forward to learning all sorts of new things and exploring all there was to offer. I did what I could but being a dance major and having ballet class every day in the middle of the afternoon put a big crimp in my schedule and I never got around to taking figure drawing or English literature, or the history of art.

After I graduated, I took up reading in a big way. I was going to make up for not taking English literature in the bargain aisles of Barnes and Noble. One day, I spied this tome, the same book that had been used as the textbook for the art history class that I could never work into my schedule.  Now was my chance, I would be my own art history class!

It is an unruly book and did not lend itself to beach chair reading (my preferred reading method).  I tried to be studious and read a bit of it, but I don’t know when last time was that I opened it.

I’ve dragged it around for the past *cough* 20+ years, always telling myself that one day, I would get around to breaking it open again. I would sit at a table with a good reading light and learn everything about art history.

Fast forward to last Monday. Because of the national hermitage movement, no one is meeting in person anymore. But everyone wants to meet on ZOOM.  Which is fine, except for the multi-neck, potato head effect that occurs when I have my laptop on my desk.  I needed a little booster, something sturdy that would raise my laptop enough that the camera was more at eye-level than chin level. And guess what, A History of Art is just the thing!

Since this book will be living on my desk for a while, I decided that I might as well crack it open. When I did, I laughed out loud!  The dust jacket flap was marking the place I had stopped at all those years ago … page 54, Ancient Near Eastern Art.

Here’s the thing, I know why I stopped. I wanted to learn about post-Renaissance, Western European art through mid-20th Century American art. And while I wanted to be a good student and begin at the beginning, I only managed to get from the Paleolithic era to roughly circa 2,000 BC.

It’s not because I don’t think that ancient art isn’t interesting or doesn’t have something to illuminate about the human condition, it’s just that I have a hard time relating when something is so far removed from my frame of reference.

Which got me thinking, I wonder if teaching history chronologically is the wrong approach? I wonder if we might be better served learning history backwards?

I flipped through the book to find where I thought I wanted to start, and I landed on page 636. This chapter deals with the period referred to as Mannerism, which seems to be the late Renaissance period immediately preceding Baroque. I think I’ll start there and work my way forward for a bit, then jump back and take a stab at the first half of the book again.

I’m looking forward to filling in the gaps in my knowledge of art history, even if it is in a haphazard way. And more importantly, to being able to ZOOM without looking like a potato head!

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I Published a Book!

Rough Writers Anthology 2019:
Moments in Space & Time

Guys, something cool happened … I published a book!  Crazy right? Full disclosure, I didn’t WRITE a whole book, I published a book with my writing club. I did however write many parts of a book.  First, I contributed a story and then I somehow got tricked into being the editor. 

  • rough writers anthology 2019
    beautiful cover art courtesy of Ben Horak
This is the proof of the book, hense the “not for resale” stripe.

Once I had agreed, I found out that being the editor didn’t mean just working with the other authors on their stories and/or editing the manuscript, it also happened to include project managing the whole shebang and creating the other bits of text that go into a book (which I learned is called the front matter and back matter).

Since I have been on a bit of a hiatus from project managing, I may have taken a few things for granted and not kept as tight reigns on things as I used to.  Fortunately, I had a talented and motivated team working with me and we finally crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s and now we have a book!

The book is a collection of stories contributed by members of the Rough Writers Toastmasters club.  We named it the Rough Writers Anthology 2019 because we have some delusion (at least I do) that we will do this annually. Moments in Space & Time is a nod to the writing prompt.

Everyone wrote their story using the same photo as a prompt (I don’t have permission to publish the photo here, but it is in the back matter of the book).  One of the benefits of being the editor was that I had early access to read everyone’s work.  I was so entertained by the range of perspectives. Even the stories that sort-of took the same tack are very different. Some folks had a specific message that they wanted to get across.  I let the photo take me for a ride (it was a strange ride, don’t ask me how I got there).

Here is a little snippet from my story:

As Bill approached the clipboard girl, she eyed him up and down and shot a look to the man standing next to her who was roughly the size of a refrigerator. This girl could tell Bill was trouble from 50 yards. The refrigerator nodded. Bill was used to being aggressive and intimidating to girls to get his way, but her disdainful gaze and pet refrigerator made him feel very small as he approached. Clipboard girl was already on to his game.

from Carl’s Green Galaxy by Cynthia Gellis

Our book, the Rough Writers Anthology 2019: Moments in Space & Time is available on Amazon!  Mr. Man says that it is the perfect size for a stocking stuffer (wink, wink).  If you want me to get you a signed copy, comment below or message me and we can make that happen.

I hope you’ll check it out!

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Cat Book Report

Today will be a cat book report on an important work of feline literature: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag. This is a book that is always highly recommended by any bookstore cat.

There once was a book about a very old man and a very old woman.  It was the oldest, continually published, illustrated book.  Because cats.

“If only we had a cat, then we would be happy,” she said.

But not hundreds of cats,

Or thousands of cats,

Or millions, and billions, and trillions of cats.

That is too many cats.

One cat is quite nice.  Personally though, two cats is purrfect.

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Stories of the Great Ballets

I just finished perusing this book titled, Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets .  I won’t claim to have read it since I *may* have skipped the first 734 pages. Those pages contained an exhaustive catalogue of “great ballets” according to George Balanchine (from skimming the table of contents, it appears that some of those listed are greater than others). 

It is certainly a “great” reference tool and I will plan on keeping it handy for the next time that I’m going to see a pre-1977 ballet (this was the fifth edition).  I just can’t imagine that anyone would need/want to read that whole list.

The remaining 150 pages seemed interesting so I dug in. 

First was a chapter titled “How to Enjoy Ballet” where Mr. Balanchine explains his thoughts on how someone who is new to ballet should approach seeing a ballet performance for the first time.  What was interesting to me is how much importance he ascribed to familiarizing oneself with the music before one attends a performance.  He didn’t feel that it was necessary to have any technical knowledge of dance, just an appreciation for the skill of the dancers.

The other key piece of Mr. Balanchine’s advice for the novice balletgoer really made me smile. It was basically, “if you go to the ballet and you think you don’t like it, just keep going and eventually you will like it!”  I suppose that you could call that the “eat your vegetables” approach to ballet appreciation.  

The next chapter was “A Brief History of the Ballet,” followed by “Chronology of Significant Events in the History of Ballet.”  This was a detailed timeline beginning with Lorenzo de Medici (ballet was imported to France by Catherine de Medici as a part of courtly spectacles). I felt that I had a good grip on the timeline, dissemination, and evolution of ballet, but this had some interesting details in it that raised some questions – I have a few things to look into and will report back!

Next is a brief autobiography by Mr. Balanchine, “How I Became a Dancer and Choreographer.” 

Then, “Ballet for Your Children,” “Careers in Ballet,” and a glossary which contains some very good illustrations of positions and steps.  It was surprising to me how adamant Mr. Balanchine was that children shouldn’t begin studying ballet until they are eight years old.  It just goes to show how long I’ve been away from that world that his talk about dancers’ development was a bit shocking in its frankness.  It certainly isn’t the way that those things are talked about these days.

I love classic books, and this is certainly a great addition to my dance book collection.  If you have questions about a “great ballet,” please let me know and I can tell you what Mr. Balanchine has to say about it!

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1,000 Books to Read…or Not

book stack

I was trolling amazon and came across this book called 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die. 

My first thought was, “Ugh, what a terrible idea!”  I don’t want someone telling me what I should be reading, I can’t even get around to all of what I want to be reading myself. To me, this book is setting you up to feel like a failure.

It gave me an idea.  I thought, “What are the books that I would tell someone that they have to read?”  But you know that I don’t like to be dogmatic, and we all read for different reasons.  That led me to ask myself, “What do I endeavor to get out of my reading?”

For the past few years, I have been very interested in histories and biographies.  Last year, my reading list had a theme: biographies about interesting historical women written by women.  Female authors are certainly not more sympathetic to the women they are writing about, but there is a subtle difference in perspective that, to me, informs their subjects in a more complete way.

Histories and biographies really illuminate the world for me.  Things that are happening today make more sense to me with a historic point of reference.  One book that I’m just finishing now is a collection of scholarly essays about the aerospace industry in Southern California.  It was amazing to read, like someone just said, “Hi, let me tell you why Southern California is the way it is.”  The impact that this industry had on the place where I live is enormous and omnipresent.

I think that is what I’m looking to get out of books that I read: some sort of frame of reference that can illuminate the world that I live in in some way.

Here are four books that I have read recently that you might be interested in (I went for a variety): 

  1. The Quartet by Jim Ellis.  A friend who shares my love of history recommended this book.  It is a terrifically insightful read about the political horse-trading that was integral to the creation and adoption of the US Constitution.
  2. The Discovery of Witches series by Deborah Harkness.  I really don’t read novels much anymore, but I couldn’t put these books down.  Deb Harkness is a history professor, so her historical fantasy stories are infused with so much rich historical detail, they are delicious.  Just make sure that you don’t need to do anything for a few days if you decide to pick these up; you won’t be able to stop until you’ve finished the last one.
  3. Of course, a biography of an interesting historical woman: Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff.  Let’s just say that men have been trying to erase powerful women from history for a long time.  And the fact that despite that, the historical record of Cleopatra’s power is undeniable.  What an interesting time! 
  4. And last, but not least, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga by C.G. Jung.  I didn’t study psychology in college, so I am not familiar with Jung, but I find his concept of the collective unconscious fascinating.  As someone with limited but profound exposure to Kundalini yoga, I was very interested to delve into the deeper meanings of the various chakras, especially from a Western perspective.

This year, I’m just trying to clean up the “to read” pile.  My hope is to eliminate the stockpile and transition to using the public library instead of the “buy it now” button on Amazon.  Keeping the books from piling gets tiresome but I am committed to reading books printed on paper, I love the low-tech-ness of it.  If you’re local and you’re looking for something to read, hit me up, I’d love to pass something along.

Anything that you have read recently that you would suggest I add to my list?

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Sometimes Ken Kesey

I recently read a historical biography of Ken Kesey called Its All Kind of Magic, the Young Ken Kesey by Rick Dodgson.  It reminded me of my fondness for Kesey’s writing.

I became interested in Ken Kesey when I read Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test in high school. It was not assigned reading, I think I borrowed it from the cool crunchy girl who lived down the street when I was going through my hippie phase (I had to abandon my goth phase when I got a convertible, it was impossible to stay pale and sullen).

Then in English class senior year, we were asked to pick our favorite writer then the teacher would assign each of us another author based on who we liked.  I picked Ken Kesey.  Then I was assigned Charles Dickens (the guy who loved Kurt Vonnegut was assigned someone comparable to Dickens, the very prim girl was assigned D.H. Lawrence, you get the picture).  So, I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion, then Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Ok, I really didn’t read very much of the Dickens books, just enough to write the book reports.  Anyways…

Do you like to go back and read books over again?  I don’t tend to re-read books, even books that I really like.  There are just too many books out there and I’m never going to get through all the ones that I want to read anyway.  In spite of that, I have re-read Sometimes a Great Notion several times over the years. It is so richly written, and I get more out of it every time.  The way that the scenes melt into each other is so interesting.

Sometimes a Great Notion would probably still be a good book if it was written in a more linear format, but the structure makes it so fascinating to me. Rick Dodgson talked about the process that Kesey went through when he wrote the book.  It was intense.  He had some sort of notated flowchart pinned up on the walls of the room where he worked. I really can’t imagine writing something with such a complicated structure.  Especially on a typewriter.  I mean, he was literally cutting and pasting sections together.  With scissors and tape, no CTRL X for him.  It’s no wonder that he didn’t write anything after it for a very long time.

As much as I love books, I try very hard to purge my hoard semi-regularly. Every so often I regret that I got rid of something like my collection of Larry McMurtry books, but in general, I try to only hang onto certain books (vintage etiquette books and dance histories are two big categories that get a pass).  For some reason, Sometimes a Great Notion has survived every book purge in the past 25 years.  After reading The Young Ken Kesey, I think that it is probably about time to dig it out and put it back on the “to read”pile.

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Frankenstein 200

Frankenstein is such a fixture of popular culture.  Growing up, I thought that I “got” Frankenstein because I had seen Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein and The Munsters.  It wasn’t something that I was interested in beyond that.

Then in 2017, San Francisco Ballet premiered a new, full-length story ballet, Frankenstein.  It was a wonderful production and offered a different take on Dr. Frankenstein’s creature than what I was used to seeing.  This creature was cunning and lonely – he was seeking out his creator who had abandoned him. We left the theater that evening with my carrying on and on about how that was “great art!”  The performance was nuanced and interesting and it did a great job of telling the story efficiently. Because every element of the production supported the story; and because it was evocative rather than pedantic (that is one of my pet peeves in story ballets).

When the 2018 season was announced, and Frankenstein was coming back, I was thrilled!  I decided that I wanted to read the actual book before I saw the ballet again and I loved it.  I really loved the depth of the actual source material.  The “daemon” (Mary Shelley’s word) was really kind of a super hero (my analogy) – he was unusually strong and all of that, but he was also exceptionally intelligent.  He didn’t want to be a scary monster, he wanted to be loved by his creator.  He didn’t know how to speak when he was “born” but learned how and educated himself. When the “creature” finally confronts his creator, he is eloquent and thoughtful in expressing his anguish and desires.  Mary Shelly’s daemon is not the Dr. Frankenstein’s monster of popular culture and it’s too bad that this distorted interpretation has become so ubiquitous because the original is so much more interesting.

But friends, it is no coincidence that San Francisco Ballet was producing a brand-new, full-length story ballet based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (the official title).  It just so happens that 2018 is the 200th Anniversary of the book’s publication!  That seemed google worthy and guess what, there are a lot of folks out there making a big deal about it.

Frankenreads is an international celebration organized by the Keats-Shelley Association of America.  They have 628 partner organizations (mostly universities) in 43 countries to hold a series of events and initiatives in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  The signature event of the initiative is an international series of readings of the full text of the novel on Halloween 2018 (today!) including one at the Library of Congress.

That’s fun, but I still have to go to the store to buy candy for the trick-or-treaters, so probably will have to skip it.

On Lit Hub, I found out where the Frankenstein of our popular culture originated: In 1823, Richard Brinsley Peake produced a theatrical adaptation called Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein.  Mary Shelley attended the premiere and let’s just say that she wasn’t impressed.  The theatrical adaptation took many liberties that are commonplace today: Peake reimagined the monster as mute and gave Victor the now legendary line, “it lives!” As these amendments were repeated in many subsequent adaptations, they became accepted as “authentic” elements of the Frankenstein story.  I’m really disappointed in you, Richard Brinsley Peake.