January Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

*Note to first time readers: the following is a summary of a discussion by friends who gather monthly in a virtual space called Second Life. Reading notes are lightly edited reflections shared in real time via text chat.

Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved – by Marcia Bartusiak

Sierra shared that this is not a physics book per se…but more about the development of an idea. It isn’t just about the idea of what we call black holes now but really it is also about different cohorts of scientists over time.

This very interesting and enjoyable read got Sierra interested in more stuff about black holes and astrophysics kinds of topics.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Veyot read this mostly true story about an East Coast zoo sending two giraffes in a truck to a California zoo in 1938. The author learned about the trip while sorting through newspaper clippings when writing a book about the history of the San Diego Zoo. The book is partly funny and partly serious because the two truck drivers discuss life as they go – and are tailed by a suspicious news reporter. Veyot liked the book!

Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering compiled by Hal Cannon

FireWoman read this book of cowboy poetry from 1985. It was compiled from cowboy poets at a gathering in Utah. It’s compared to the work of Lomax gathering folklore in the 1930s. The poems are presented from oldest to newest. Some are long narratives of riding crazy-wild bulls or broncos…and cold winters and hot summers on the range.

The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston

FireWoman also read this new book, published posthumously. It was rescued by a neighbor who saw people burning things from Zora Neale Hurston’s travel trunk after she died. Some pages were missing, scorched or water damaged from the 400-page handwritten manuscript but Deborah G. Plant successfully restored it and had it published. FireWoman highly recommends this book. Hurston’s research into Herod tells a totally different story than the one told now.

Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell

Petronella has been reading her way through Thirkell’s novels which are set in the fictional site of Barsetshire, England and written between the wars and also during WWII. They are gentle social satire with strong emphasis on the women characters. Petronella said that Thirkell is a wonderful and funny writer, good to read before bed.

Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers by Jean Strouse

Petronella is also reading this history book. The problem she is finding with it is that Strouse describes Sargent’s paintings but there are only a few reproductions which makes her want to look up ALL the paintings. The Wertheimers were a fabulously wealth family going back several generations. Personally, Petronella would have preferred less family history and more art history.

Human Acts by Han Kang

Connie came across this book by coincidence, though it felt serendipitous. Over the past year, she’s become deeply fascinated by South Korean culture and language, and iscurrently studying Korean. Additionally, the author recently gained international recognition, having won the Nobel Prize.

This is a fictional story that takes us through the real-life 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea (and beyond), from the perspectives of different characters. By ‘from the perspectives,’ Connie means it literally—the narrative breaks conventional writing rules, switching between points of view and tenses. Yet, it works wonders.

Connie said that the author’s writing skills are terrific and that it goes well with Asian storytelling and folklore somehow.

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

This history of the notebook is sort of written like a memoir. In an author interview that Zoe listened to, the author said that he tried to choose a protagonist for each chapter, then told the story of the notebook through their experience of it. So one chapter might feature a mathematician, another a sea captain, another a nurse, etc. And lots of famous folks, too. Erasmus, Leonardo da Vince, etc. Zoe recommends this highly readable and informative book!

Our next gathering is January 9 at 1pm SLT.

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45

October/November Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

Here are the books that were shared at our October and November gatherings.

Beethoven: Biography of a Genius – by George R. Marek

This was FireWoman’s mother’s book. It’s a big one with small print – FireWoman said that she can read and read and read…and still have read only twenty pages. Beethoven is her favorite composer – and she discovered that he was her mother’s fave as well.

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

FireWoman heard about this book from her BFF. Goodreads recommends it for fans of The Midnight Library. It features a dangerous journey, magical landscape and the Trans-Siberian express. A young woman has lived on the train her whole life and new passengers are just getting on. FireWoman is looking forward to reading it.

Philosophy for Passengers by Michael Marder

Sierra shared that this is a book trying to tackle being a passenger as a philosophical thing…so it is kinda in the same set of books about philosophy of travel. She’s had a hard time getting engaged with it.

Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser

Sierra said that this is in another category of books about books & reading…and that she honestly hasn’t given it enough of a chance yet.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Rethinking Geopolitics by Jeremy Black

Sierra recently purchased these titles. Zoe read the Aoyama book and loved it!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Fantasy Fiction/Occult Fiction. This is a book that is set in an alternate version of Earth where there are “muggle” humans and magical beings. A man named Linus is a caseworker who works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He’s summoned by Extremely Upper Management to visit a unique orphanage.

So he visits this orphanage on a faraway island and discovers there are 6 children there who are far more magical than the orphans he’s used to seeing. One is a gnome, one is a sprite. There is a wyvern and a shapeshifter and some sort of blob. And – a six year old Lucifer, son of the Devil aka the antichrist.

So Linus is tasked with being there for a month, to see if the orphanage should remain open or be shut down. Zoe said it’s a cozy, heartwarming read.

Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore and Herb Craft by Ann Moura

FireWoman mentioned this title when Zoe shared about a recent National Geographic issue about witchcraft.

A set of books by Rudolfo Anaya: The Sonny Baca Novels: Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, Shaman Winter, and Jemez Spring

Magical realism. These are set in and around Alburquerque (the original way that it’s spelled). Includes shaman, dreams, shapeshifting – everything FireWoman likes to read. She said that storytelling is Anaya’s focus, and New Mexican history. The one thing that she initially found irritating in the style of writing is that Anaya repeats the same things several times. But then she remembered a Choctaw storyteller telling her that things to be remembered are repeated four times throughout the story.

FireWoman also recommends reading the books on a device so that the Spanish can be easily translated.

My Staggerford Journal and Days with Smoke: A Minnesota Boyhood – two books about Minnesota author Jon Hassler

Jon Hassler wrote My Staggerford Journal in 1975. It’s about his sabbatical year when he wrote his first book, Staggerford.

Days with Smoke is a collection of unpublished stories of Jon Hassler, edited by Will Weaver. Veyot commented that Weaver wrote Hassler’s stories in a way that was interesting to her. He repeated things and made the sentences shorter.

Sweet Land by Will Weaver

Inspired by her Hassler reads, Veyot read this collection of short stories. One of them was made into a movie. It’s about a Norwegian farmer who imported a German wife. His town didn’t accept her.

Another story was titled Sheet Rock. The wife in the story says that she knows all about sheet rock from watching This Old House with Bob Vila.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Veyot mentioned this one too and asked if anyone had read it. Zoe said it’s on her list and that it features snippets from Tan’s nature journal.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Irisse has been listening to the audiobook version of this classic novel from old England. She can relate a lot to the main character. She said it’s about inner healing and the healing of others. And bits of magical realism as well. Many of us agreed that The Secret Garden is a special book.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Zoe is reading Klune’s unofficial “Kindness Trilogy”. It in includes House on the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door and The Lives of Puppets.

Under the Whispering Door is about a man named Wallace who is kind of a jerk. He dies in the first chapter. He attends his own funeral and is stunned to learn that others view him as a jerk – because that’s not how he saw himself. So Hugo, a tea shop owner and ferryman for the dead, tries to help Wallace with his transition. Wallace ends up finagling on week to reutrn to the living to try to live a different sort of life.

Zoe had only just started this novel so she’ll let everyone knows what she thinks at the next meeting.

Our next gathering is January 12 at 1pm SLT.

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45

September Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

*Note to first time readers: the following is a summary of a discussion by friends who gather monthly in a virtual space called Second Life. Book notes are lightly edited reflections shared in real time via text chat.

Based on a book that our friend Veyot read a few years ago, our Book Lovers Coffee Hour group started a roadside poetry project. We host a mailbox near the Reading Room where random passersby are invited to share an original poem.

In August, we received the following poem by Emm Evergarden.

 In the hush of a still room, books find me,
Their spine-tingling whispers call me home,
Through ink and paper, they draw my heart's plea,
Each page a pulse, a beat in this tome.

They find me when the world is loud,
In silent lines, I find my crowd,
Stories seek the depths of my mind,
Books find me, and in them, I’m defined.

Each cover a compass, each word a key,
Unlocking realms where I’m truly free,
They find me lost, they find me whole,
Books bind my wounds and heal my soul.

Books. Find. Me.

Here are the books that were shared at our September gathering.

Go Set a Watchman – by Harper Lee

FireWoman truly enjoyed this book. She could see how it could be/was written before To Kill a Mockingbird.

It’s about Scout/Jean Louise, who is in her early 20s. She’s going home for a visit and comes face-to-face with the segregation in her small hometown in Alabama. She’d been living in New York City and only visits Maycomb periodically. Her Dad, Atticus, is old and very arthritic.

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

FireWoman also read this eye-opening read about an elementary school librarian who spoke at her local public library in favor of not banning books. Four days later, she started receiving death threats. Her lifelong neighbors chimed in.

She hires and lawyer and has an ongoing suit against the baddies. It’s written with some fun parts. She has a chapter titled WWJD: What Would Judy (Blume) Do.

Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

Set in WWII, a young librarian is recruited by the U.S. Military to work in Portugal, posed as a librarian, but walking the streets gathering magazines and newspapers that give clues to the German military strategy.

One day, she discovered some words that seem misplaced and realizes that it is a secret code, sent by a French resistance worker. Then the story switches to tell about the French resistance worker’s strategy.

The stories of the librarian in the safety of Portugal and dangers involving the young resistance worker who was the typesetter in Lyon France were a stark contrast. The end involves resettling lots of Jewish and French people to Portugal.

Veyot liked her writing.

The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Cold Shiver mentioned this sci-fi that takes place in a library. Despite glowing praise, Cold personally wasn’t a fan of the writing style – but said that it’s a creative and original story with interesting takes on AI in the future. Worth a read.

Anarchist Cybernetics by Thomas Swann

Sam shared about an essay that explores how cybernetics, a system of feedback and self-regulation, can inform anarchist organizing. Swann argues that cybernetics can help anarchists develop more efficient, adaptive systems of collective decision-making, mutual aid, and resistance to authority.

It’s short in size but very technical.

LINK: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/thomas-swann-anarchist-cybernetics

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

Each chapter in this book is a new story with a new main character. The first chapter is about an author taking five years to write her first book. The next nine chapters are about the different people who read the book. One is the professor who encouraged her to write the book, and of course, one story involves the author meeting a reader. Veyot liked all the stories and the style of writing.

House Lessons: A Memoir in Essays by Erica Bauermeister

Veyot’s share reminded Zoe of a different Bauermeister title that someone recommended. It’s on Zoe’s TBR.

Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries edited by Sarah Gristwood

Zoe bought a copy of this book while on vacation. It’s a collection of excerpts from over a hundred diaries. Organized by month and date, each day offers a few entries from different people – sort of like snapshots into the lives of a spectrum of women through the ages. It’s pretty neat.

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

Fiction, set in the 1850s. Mary Elizabeth Frankenstein, grand niece of the famous scientist, is young and trying to make her own name in the world of science. She stumbles upon a cache of old documents and discovers the “shocking truth” of her great uncle’s past. Then sets out on a quest in the wilds of Scotland.

Zoe is only 25 pages in, so she doesn’t know what the quest is yet – but she’s enjoying it so far. She found it at her public library’s display of horror books. She typically doesn’t go for horror books but the cover is really pretty so she figured, why not?

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Sam mentioned this book as an example of one that they chose based on the cover. It was a big book for them at the time so sometimes it works to judge by the cover!

Our next gathering is October 6 at 1pm SLT (Note that this is the 1st, not the 2nd, Sunday of the month). All are welcome – bring a friend!

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45