To Read & To Write

Because of the subject matter of this book, I couldn’t write a proper review (maybe I’ll be able to write one sometime in the future). What came to me instead was a short note to Laura. A bit of *fanfiction* for those who are as obsessed with Twin Peaks as I:  Dear Laura, You are wise beyond your years: you are willing to accept what most people, young and old, cannot. Your innocence was robbed from you, yes, but you have something still, a power all your own that has nothing to do with sex. I know you’re surprised. But I mean it: it has nothing to do with sex. Though I know that’s one of your favorite things :) But this has to do with your capacity, your ability, to reflect, honestly and truly, within yourself and within each of your relationships, bringing out something that bravely stands in the face of superficiality and says: “F-you. I want - I need - something deeper.” It’s all right there in your diary. Between the horror, the twisted pleasure, the games - through the s...

I chose Maria Popova's "Figuring" as a Staff Pick for CPL in May. I was only halfway through, but here is my annotation from my recommendation: Beginning with planetary motion and ending with ecology, Figuring is an impressive historical treatise on the scientific mind. Connections are made between moments in science, philosophy, art and social circumstance, all the while bringing great women of science and culture to the forefront of a new understanding of history. The erudite prose within these pages makes heady and otherwise academic language graspable for an audience inclined to the intellectual. Its aim is to share and teach more than entertain, but fascinating anecdotes about figures both well-known (such as William Faulkner) and lesser-known (such as Maria Mitchell) are bound to enthrall and touch. Give yourself time with this book: it's best taken in slowly and savored. Author Maria Popova is the mind behind the popular literary website Brain Pickings...

I read this, electronically, in full on a whim today. I haven't read this since some time in grade school and never saw the film (nor do I wish to). I am *so glad* I read it again. While there is plenty to discuss about this Newbery-Award winning children's book (first published in 1993) - now considered, rightfully, a classic - what I learned from the Lois Lowry's "The Giver" is this: that some people don't want to feel pain. Maybe some people refuse feel pain. Especially the pain of others. That pain, most importantly, includes that strong pull of sympathy and empathy that we, in shared humanity, bear for others to order *share* the burden; in order to help and in order to heal. While empathy and sympathy are subjective, especially when two or more people have gone through similar life experiences (such as going through war, or heartbreak, a divorce, et al), we must strive and we must reach towards understanding those different kinds of pain that we may...

I could not finish this one (I read 133 pages of 248). I think it's more a matter of writing style than anything else, not subject matter. Though the stories were creative, they didn't give me pause. Also, the irony within the text was a bit too direct for my taste.

"Soft Targets" is a gorgeous book of poetry that breaks free from over-sentimentality and romanticism. Landau writes about how the body continues to "be", how it continues to "exist" in a world of emotional and physical violence and how this isn't always in sync with the beauty that can be found in smaller, quieter spaces and places. My review will not do justice to Landau's lyricism. I'd say about two hours for a careful read that you won't regret. I love that Landau writes as a mother, a lover, a daughter, a friend, and a citizen of the world. I didn't give it five stars because her poetry seems fragmented, like scenes zipping by in this contemporary life: i.e. it is all too real.

"In the Land of Giants: A Journey Through the Dark Ages" by Max Adams (2016) is exemplar of how I wish history would always be written. Adams, an archaeologist, writer, and traveller has a profound understanding of Great Britain's history, and uses its architecture, landscapes, metalwork, books, and other geological sites to explain and theoretically dissect the events of its past in order to understand the present historical - and moreover - social - conjuncture. In this book, Adams unpacks one of the most ambiguous times in Great Britain's long history, what is known as the Dark Ages, using artifacts, pathways, and geological markers that still, unbeknownst to the majority, stand (either above or underground) to this day. Furthermore, to make his work all the more visceral, Adams avoids traveling by anything other than his own two feet, and in doing so falls into the landscape and its horizons as his predecessors would have.  Though there have been recent e...