Scoffing No More
Title: Codependent No More
Author: Melody Beattie
Publisher: Hazelden
Genre: Self Help/ Addiction & Recovery
Length: 250 pages
When I worked in the bookstore full time, shelving, there was a brief few months that I ran the psychology section. I had become territorial over the fiction/literature section – my dream job if I’m to be honest with the world, despite the simplicity that infers – and this was an exercise my boss had to help me let go. To learn something out of my comfort zone. The psychology section was waaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone.
Being raised a Christian, there were some very un-Christ-like biases and stigmas surrounding that section. These biases were mostly self-righteous scoffing. Especially towards titles exactly like Codependent No More. I remember thinking, people should just stop being selfish whores and everything would be fine in the world.
Pretty sure, in hindsight, this was some very codependent thinking.
Whether you are a traditional codependent tied to a substance abuser in some way, an author looking for some insight into people and character development, or simply a breathing human – this book should be read. It opens your eyes to problems you might not know you have. It opens your eyes to problems I’m sure someone you know has – even if that someone is a psycho you wrote off ages ago.
Whatever your situation, whoever your person, this book is about peace. This book is about calming the anxiety and the panic and the anger issues. I wish I had read it much sooner rather than scoffing at it on the shelf.
Still Life
Title: Still Life With Insects
Author: Brian Kiteley
Publisher: Ticknor & Fields
Genre: Fiction
Length: 114 pages
“The narrator in this lovely novel may have set some kind of record for the longest, sweetest, fastest life ever lived. There are books twice as long as this one that do not tell us half as much about life’s wonder.” – Rick Bass
The thoughts I shared on Goodreads:
1. There are more reviews of this book under a misspelling of the author’s name. I have a first edition hardback from 1989 and wanted to honor the by line with the spelling that matched my book. So no, I did not read the e-book, but I do recommend purchasing it if you have an ereader.
2. I love his style. I will re-read this book because I feel like I should think it is amazing, but at this point in time with my first reading, I just liked it a lot. I think my amazement will come with another read through.
3. Something about the story Kiteley chose to tell reminds me of John Banville’s The Sea. The Sea won a Man Booker Prize and Banville is incredible. This should tell you something about Kiteley that (though an great writer in his own right) I will be filing him away on the same side of my brain.
Things I wanted to share here:
1. I’m really pleased with my first edition hardback. It was purchased for me as a gift by the wonderful Miss Golightly who I took shopping at Good Books in the Woods. I thought it was shockingly appropriate that they had so many first editions of Still Life With Insects, given the woodsy vibe of the whole store.
2. I look forward to collecting more of Kiteley’s work and I’d love to take a creative writing class under his teaching. I’ve been an aspiring novelist my whole life. I have my own novella currently out and a publisher wanting my next pieces. I’ve never taken a creative writing class and given the flaws in my novella, I think I would benefit from one greatly.
3. I’d love to re-read this book, as I stated in my Goodreads notation, but I’d love to read it for a book club. I think it would be well served in a group discussion among friends.
Histories and Education
In my pursuit for knowledge, and for schooling my own child, I have been pretty diligent about reading as much history as I have the mental capacity to remember. That means I read at least one non-fiction book a month (whether history or not) and I include one non-fiction book per quarter in the Half Price Books Humble Book Club line up.
This quarter we’re planning to discuss Herodotus’ Histories in March. (We meet the first Monday of the Month at 7:30 pm.) This isn’t just a fascinating work to read for book club, it was also on my life long list of books to read before I die. It’s a tome; but it’s important, I think.
Not only is it important, I have a pretty awesome copy (The Landmark Herodotus
So as I make my way through this book, that could serve as a book press for other books if I ever needed it to, I will share with you the gathered notes of our club members:
THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS
(Notes provided by Glenn Ray)
Book 1 CLIO
Below are the important kings and many of their exploits from book 1 ‘CLIO’. There are 9 books in all.
The ‘¶’ below is used to represent chapter #’s in this book.
A vertical line ‘|’ on a row by itself means next person down is child of this king.
NOTE: Where there is not a ¶ starting the line, then these are mostly from Wikipedia.
Below are 3 lines of kings, not all ancestral succession:
-
Lydia (modern day western Turkey) kings: Gyges, Ardys, Sadyattes, Alyattes, Croesus
-
Mede/Persian kings: Deioces, …Cyaxares, Astyages, Cyrus the Great, … Tomyris of Massagetae (not Mede or Persian) …
-
Darius I
Gyges
(¶8 Candaules was king of Sardis & Lydia before Gyges,
& his favorite spearmen was Gyges;
Candaules shows Gyges his wife (Nyssia) naked)
(¶11,12, 13 Gyges, at Nyssia’s command, kills Candaules, becomes king; but
that vengeance for the Heracleidai (descendants of Heracles (Hercules)) will come upon the descendants of Gyges in the fifth generation [that being Croesus below].)
(Gyges reigned from 716 BC to 678 BC (or from c. 680–644 BC).)
(¶14 led an army against Miletus)
|
Ardys
(Ardys II or Ardysus II) 678-629 BC (or 644-c.625)
(¶15 became king of Lydia; and continues daddy’s fight against Miletus)
|
Sadyattes
(629-617 BC (or c.625-c.600))
(¶16 became king of Lydia for 12 years; made war vs Cyaxares – king of Medes)
(¶18 and continues daddy’s fight against Miletus)
|
Alyattes
king of Lydia (619–560 BC)
(capital Sardis, & controlled all Asia Minor west of the River Halys, except Lycia.)
(fought against Cyaxares – king of Media, during the Battle of Halys, /wikipedia)
(¶18 and continues daddy’s fight against Miletus)
(¶25 reigned 75 years)
|
Croesus (pronounced ‘KREE-sus’)
(GLR: some info below is from: http://www.ancient.eu.com/croesus/)
King of Lydia 560-547 BC (palace of Croesus was at Sardis.)
(GLR: Croesus, you will see, is one mean grandpa)
(funded construction of the great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. / http://www.ancient.eu.com/croesus/)
(¶30 asks Solon who is happiest).
(Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet)
(¶53 Croesus is also famous for asking the Oracle at Delphi whether he should go to war against Persia. And… destroy a great empire)
(¶55 Croesus consulted the Oracle & was told …a mule of the Medes shall be monarch…)
(¶69 alliance with the Lacedemonians)
(¶73 marching into Cappadokia to fight Cyrus, who to avenge his brother-in-law Astyages (who was defeated by Cyrus)
(¶79 Croesus’ horses feared the camels of Cyrus and ran.)
(¶84 Cyrus’ man Hyroiades scaled the wall of the citadel at Sardis and Croesus is defeated)
(¶86-7 Croesus in the Pyre)
(¶91 Croesus learns the mule = Cyrus)
Deïokes (or Deioces)
(In the late 8th century BC)
(¶96 – was the first king of the Medes per Herodotus.
(¶97…his decisions proved to be according to the truth)
|
Phraortes
king of Media 665 – 633 BC)
(Phraortes started wars against Assyria, but was defeated
and killed by Ashurbanipal, the king of Neo-Assyria.)
|
Cyaxares [or Kyaxares in Gutenberg version]
king of Media 625–585 BC)
(¶73 Scythians serve Cyaxares human meat, and Scythians runaway to Alyattes at Sardis for protection)
|
Astyages
(king of Media 585 BC-550 BC)
(ruled in alliance with his two brothers-in-law, Croesus king of Lydia
and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whose wife, Amytis, Astyages’ sister,
was the queen for whom Nebuchadnezzar was said to have built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon)
(¶108 dream abo vine from Mandane; ordered Harpagos to kill grandson [Cyrus])
(¶118, 119 Astyages serves Harpagos his own son)
(Bible xref: Daniel 13:65(1). (1)This is per the “Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition” of the Bible, note the KJV stops at chapter 12.)
|
¶107 Daughter – Mandane married Cambyses from Persia
|
Cyrus the Great,
king of Persia, 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC
(¶55, 56 & 91 Cyrus is the mule)
(Bible xref: 2 Chron 36:22-33; Ezra 1:1-8, 3:7; 4:3,5; 5:13-17, 6:3,14, Isaiah 44:28, 45:1,13; Daniel 1:21, 6:28, 10:1,
and 1 Esdras 2. [Note: Church councils rejected 1 and 2 Esdras as non-canonical])
(was the monarch under whom the Israelites Babylonian captivity ended / Wikipedia)
(was prompted by God to make a decree that the Temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt / Wikipedia)
(¶79 Cyrus uses camels against Croesus’ horses (horses fear the camels and ran.)
(¶84 Cyrus’ man Hyroiades scaled the wall of the citadel at Sardis and Croesus is defeated)
(¶141 Cyrus spoke fable to the Ionians and Aiolians, piper played for the fishes in the sea)
(¶155-156 Cyrus takes on his mean grandpa Croesus [who multiple times tried killing Cyrus] as closest councilor)
(¶178-183 Cyrus plans & does to conquer Assyria & Babylon; Describes city of Babylon)
(¶205 Cyrus attempts to conquer Massagetae & their queen Tomyris)
(¶209 Cyrus dreamed Dareios/Darius would attempt to over throw him)
(¶211, captures 1/3 of her army & son Spargapises sleeping)
(¶213 -214, After Tomyris’ son, commits suicide, she defeats & kills Cyrus & give thee thy fill of blood.)
(¶216, Massagetae custom: when a man becomes very old, he is slaughtered, flesh boiled and the family banquet upon it.)
Darius I 550–486 BC
the third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
(Reigned 522 BC to 486 BC (36 years))
(Darius is mentioned in the Biblical books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah.)
(¶187 Darius attempts to rob Babylon Queen Nitocris’ grave)
(¶199. Now the most shameful of the customs of the Babylonians…)
More notes to come as we progress through our reading
. And when I’m done with Herodotus, I plan to conquer Xenophon…
I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, I challenge everyone to pick up any ancient history book and learn something about the world they didn’t know before this year. The most fascinating thing to me about it all is that, even though civilizations change and grow and change and grow… people essentially, are always – at their core – pretty much the same. I love learning about the world today through the eyes of our past.
A Shropshire Morning
Title: A Shropshire Lad
Author: A.E. Housman
Publisher: Penguin (Classics)
Genre: Poetry (English Journeys)
I know I just posted on this very same title yesterday, but I’ve been reading through it over my morning coffee on this cold, rainy day, and I couldn’t keep myself from sharing the best parts.
| A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896. |
| XLVIII. Be still, my soul, be still |
This melted me to my core. Melted me into a state of beautiful stillness, and I couldn’t keep that to myself. It’s so calming, so true, and so utterly gorgeous.
Not just for his poetry itself, Housman is inspiring because his work is so good and back in 1896 he was essentially self-published. Publishers turned this beautiful work down over and over again until finally he decided to publish the title at his own expense. Originally he wanted to call it The Poems of Terrence Hearsay, but was encouraged to change it. Sales lagged until about 1899 when the Second Boer War broke out and profits have surged for Housman’s work during every time of war since – especially World War I. Though this surprised the poet, it is not surprising to me… the entire work is about loss. There is much solace in reading about loss when you have lost or anticipate it soon.
Don’t be surprised if Housman is revisited often on this blog.
Shropshire Lasses (and dog)
Title:A Shropshire Lad
Author: A.E. Housman
Publisher: Penguin (Classics)
Genre: Poetry (English Journeys)
A few years ago I became completely hooked on the Penguin Great Ideas series. I think they’re wonderful pocket sized source documents to keep around the house. I also love the Great Journeys… and now, I have a small collection of English Journeys as well.
The kiddo and I love scampering through the woods. We also love reading outside. These little paperbacks are the perfect books to tag along for our wooded adventures and frolics in the park.
Not to mention that, today, I think Housman became my favorite male poet – a title previously held by William Carlos Williams. The two are nothing alike. But I am nothing like who I was when William Carlos Williams was awarded his place on my mental pedestal.
Where William Carlos Williams amused me with “This is Just to Say”:
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the iceboxand which
you were probably
saving
for breakfastForgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
I was in middle school when I discovered this. For some reason I found this bluntness endearing. I thought, “What a wonderful jerk to address poetry with such sarcasm.”
I don’t want poetry to be sarcastic anymore. I don’t appreciate the uncaring witticism the same way.
I do, however, love this:
Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew
How well did I behave.And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they’ll say that I
Am quite myself again– “A Shropshire Lad: XVIII”
Ok, well, it seems it’s always the jerk lines that appeal to me. But at least it’s not about stealing plums anymore. Housman has real heart and soul as he describes landscapes and lovers, crickets and dead soldiers, the woods and the very real feelings of longing for something that has gone. All so beautiful and natural; and the pattern in which he writes lends itself to easily reading it aloud outdoors while the kiddo plays.
The dog seemed to enjoy it too. He stopped to look at me every time a poem ended as though I was denying him the chance to be included in the written word of humans.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Title: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Author: Thornton Wilder
Illustrator: Jean Charlot
Publisher: Heritage Press
I didn’t care for Wilder’s work. It didn’t capture me. It left me pretty uninterested. I just wasn’t feeling it. I was, however, feeling the edition.
I read from the Heritage Press edition. Beautiful blue cover, fine blue buckram boards with gold. I love reading books on acid free paper and I really enjoyed the color lithographs.
Lithograph illustrations are gorgeous in general and Jean Charlot’s work was the most enjoyable part of this title to me – aside from a few lovely quotes. There’s no denying that Wilder has a way with words.
“She had a new way of fingering a wine-glass, of exchanging an adieu, a new way of entertaining a door that told everything.” – pg. 97
Monday, Half Price Books in Humble will be hosting a book club meeting. It starts at 7:30 pm and we’ll be discussing this title. It’s fairly short, only 137 pages long, and can be read quickly if you’re interested. I’d love to hear from people who are passionate about this title – always curious to know what makes something classic to the world that simply didn’t move me. After all, it won the Pulitzer in 1928.
So Many Books
I reblogged a post this morning discussing books, the acquisition of books, and when a person could possibly have too many, (*gasp*) yes, too many books. This got me to thinking, yet again, about my own collection – ahem – addiction.
You see, Spring is just around the corner. My husband just cleaned out our master bedroom closet the other day and I donated a trash bag of clothes to Goodwill. Nooks and crannies will be conquered. The stuff that has piled up throughout Winter will be organized. Although I clean the house every day, this is when the true disinfecting from top to bottom occurs.
And the biggest mess of my house is the part of me that I love to love the most…
Yes, those are piles on the floor.
Yes, those are paperbacks stashed in the window sill. (And an empty fish tank.)
You don’t want to see inside those cupboards… so many paperbacks.
Guardian of the Library
I don’t remember what the top of that end table looks like… and that basket underneath is filled with picture books.
That completes The Library. One day, the dream is for that room to be all built in bookcases. When that magical day comes, I’ll actually have lots of empty space on the shelves and nothing piled anywhere. I’ve done the math. Therein lies the dilemma when it comes to purging. Purge too soon and my shelves won’t be full. Too late and I could be on the next episode of hoarders.
Wait, but there’s more…
This is the “school closet.”
Kiddo’s shelf, comprised mostly of the books from my childhood.
Kiddo’s actual shelf – you know, the books she picked out. (And a few given to me at the baby shower many moons ago.)
The last one… I promise.
This is why, other than review copies, my goal for the last few years is to make sure I read more of what is already in my personal inventory… and attempt to avoid new purchases like the plague. I was largely successful in this venture in 2013 – here’s to continuing the plan in 2014. I will not allow myself to spend more than $100 on books this year, and I must give away more than I bring in. That is the goal.
What about you? Are you a book collector? A digital collector or physical copies? What is your vice and addiction? How do you decide what to keep and what to toss?
And lastly – am I a pack rat?
Bug Days
Homeschooling and reading go hand in hand. I don’t know how people who claim to not be readers attempt homeschooling. I don’t know how people can attempt to live life not being readers actually.
That being said, I read maybe a little *too* much in the grand scheme of things. And I’ll find any connections between something I can do while going over something my preschooler can do.
Like bugs and a Brian Kiteley novel.
So while I’m reading, “These beetles secrete a chemical, cantharidin, which blisters most skin.”
Kiddo is doing this:
When I read, “The beetles I caught today had lost their way. Several hundred Cow Dung Beetles in flight. Miles and miles of food, but not the sort they can digest.”
Kiddo has this action going:
Still Life With Insects isn’t as much about bugs as it might seem, but at least when Kiddo looks up from her bug studies, there’s an apparent theme in the house while I devour more literature.
Little Tiny Novels
Title: The Newton Letter
Author: John Banville
Publisher: David R. Godine
Genre: Fiction
Length: 81 pages
After publishing my novella (roughly 130 pages long), my editor and I decided to make the sequel to my novella much longer. The publisher wants a full length novel, but in our attempt for length we started to believe that length would equate higher quality.
Reading through drafts we found that for the sake of propelling the story and actually achieving the higher quality work we were looking for, large chunks of filler might have to be scrapped. So I set out to read some great short work, to make myself feel better about not being Kate Morton. And though I am no where near ever going to have the talent of John Banville, Panlo De Santis, John Steinbeck, or William Kennedy, there’s something to be said about reading these and knowing that a finished product is all about quality over quantity.
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” – Stephen King, “The Horror Writer Market and the Ten Bears,” November 1973 WD
John Banville makes me crazy jealous. I want his brain in my brain ever so briefly… just long enough to write something amazing. Because everything he touches is amazing. Even just an 80 page bit of story written before I was born reads like his full length prize winners.
The lesson in this for me (because almost every book I read teaches me something) is that while doing these edits for the second edition of my novella, I also need to edit in some breaks between paragraphs. Visually there are some things that don’t flow. I can thank my first edition readers for pointing this out. Even if I pout a little bit, I am so grateful for all the criticism on my first work. I’m pouting that I wasn’t more diligent about catching these things before you read it, not that you caught these things. Anything any reader of mine tells me is something I truly do ponder in great detail.
“The worst advice? ‘Don’t listen to the critics.’ I think that you really ought to listen to the critics, because sometimes they’re telling you something is broken that you can fix.” – Stephen King
I want even my first work to be better. I want my second work to be even better than the first. Whether I achieve the length of a traditional novel or not, I hope the second book achieves the complete story arch of a traditional novel. Hopefully, one day, when I’m old and gray, I can write something I’m happy with. It won’t be John Banville, because I’m not him, but in the meantime I can adore him a lot and work a lot harder.
Anakalian Whims 