A Work in Progress

A Few Used Bookstore Finds...

Last week I stopped by my favorite used bookstore, Jackson Street Booksellers, to find a copy of Auster's, New York Trilogy.  No one seems to have it, and I didn't find it at Jackson Street either.  Is is just really popular or does no one stock it these days?  My library where I work didn't have it, and the public library only had two of the three books (and one was checked out).  I want to buy the trilogy in one volume, so I guess I will have to break down and order it.  This is for the online book club over at Reading Matters.  I am currently reading the other book choice for September, Out.  It is good.  It is a very dark, noir type thriller.  Not for the faint of heart I would say from the little I have read.  It is very gritty and not at all how I have ever pictured Japan.  I guess every place has its dark underside.  I did, however, manage to find a few other books that looked interesting.  Rage for Fame falls under my strong, interesting women biography category.  I had heard of her in reference to Life magazine, which her husband created, but I didn't realize she herself led such an interesting life.  She was beautiful and ambitious.  She understudied on Broadway for Mary Pickford, she was a playwright, editor, politician, wit, and social seductress.  I guess she must be the female version of a self made man!!

Trail of the Serpent is a Modern Library reissue.  This was originally published in serial form in 1860.  She was Victorian England's bestselling woman writer.  According to the book jacket she blends Dickensian humor with chilling suspense.  Kirkus Reviews called this "exuberantly campy".  Campy sounds fun.  I saw this on the ML website, but couldn't decide, so I am glad I found a nice used copy.  Finally I bought The Butterfly Plague.  This was written in 1969, and it is now out of print.  This is what caught my eye "a haunting chronicle of murder and the death of dreams, in the old days of Hollywood."  It sounds pretty dark.  It is set in 1940s Hollywood--against the backdrop of the annual migration of the monarch butterflies.  "By the time the butterfly plague is over, only the killers remain."  Hmm.  I guess this comes from reading the noir, "Out"!!   I guess I must be in a dark reading mood at the moment.  Even the Clare Luce Booth bio isn't about a nice, sweet lady--she clawed her way to the top and sounded rather ruthless.  I suppose I will have to read some happy chicklit after a round of these books!!

Room in New York

Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists.  I found this is in a cool little card store downtown.  As it happens this painting is in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  Here are some interesting Hopper links: An Edward Hopper Scrapbook, Room in New York.

...But What is It?

    

This is Omaha's downtown Mall.  There is more of it, but this is what you see from the public library, which faces it.  There is some interesting artwork there.  I kind of like the sculpture in the bottom right of the photo.  Now if you'll just look under the bridge to the left of those bushes you'll notice (if you really look closely), something white in the water.  Hmmm.  Shall we take a closer look?

Let's just follow the path around.  Is it debris floating in the water?  Looks kind of strange.  Well, this is what two of my friends and myself thought when we spotted it a couple of nights ago as we were out walking. 

Let's take a look from the bridge.  Looks rather skeletal to me.  It is anchored to the bottom of the pond somehow.  It just lazily floats around keeping the fish, ducks, and muskrats company.  Sorry, didn't spot any muskrats today when I was there.  They must have been hiding somewhere in the bushes.  They put on quite a show the other night.  So, any guesses from the general public?  I am sorry I forgot to go and take a look at the artist's name and the title when I was there earlier.  I'll get it next time I am there.  This is sort of morbid, but curious looking as well.  I wonder what else is floating around down there that we missed...

A Few More ATCs

These very cool ATCs area few from a larger group that my friend, Laurence in France, sent me.  She made these back in May!  I have been  so unmotivated with my collage projects.  I still have not completed my last chunky page.  I ended up taking it apart.  I have a good idea of what I want to do with it now, but it is a combination of not enough free time and the infernal heat we have had, that has kept me from getting out my papers and glue!  The weather has turned cooler thankfully , so I just need to find some time and inspiration to get going.  I also have in mind a good idea of what I want my ATCs to look like.  I want to do a little series of them.... 

By the way Laurence is also a fellow needleworker and she sent along some paper ephemera as well as a lovely skein of overdyed French floss.  The color is anemone and it is made by a company called L'Atelier du pic vert.    It has reds, purples, greens, and golds in it.   It is just waiting for a special project!

Lucky Me

For once I seem to have had a little luck and I have won something.  Recently I read about the First Look program over at The Brown Bookloft.  It sounded like fun--in exchange for getting a book that is soon to be released you write up a review about it and submit it to the Harper Collins website.  You put your name into a drawing (online), and they pull out I am not sure how many names--and if it is you, they send the "advance reading edition" to you.  Each month they have a list of new releases, and you enter your name into the drawing. 

My choices, and I was chosen for both of them, are: The Stranger House by Reginald Hill, and Court Lady and Country Wife by Lita-Rose Betcherman.  I love mysteries, but I have never read Reginald Hill.  It sounds like a good one, though.  The nonfiction title is right up my alley--biography of two gentlewomen in the time of Elizabeth I.  I had put my name in another online drawing for the new Jacqueline Winspear mystery, but unfortunately my name wasn't chosen.  It doesn't take much to make my day--I am pretty happy to get two new (and not yet released!) books!

Literary Reference Books

Working in a library I think I have a particular affinity for reference books.  Since I work in Acquisitions I get to see lots of new books and other materials pass by my desk.  I wish I could soak in all the information as I browse through the books.  I tend to buy reference books for myself as well, but more on a whim.  I get them and then they end up on a shelf or in a stack somewhere forgotten about.  I took a look around my book room looking for some inspiration  on what to post about today, and I decided to pull this one out.  The Atlas of Literature by Malcolm Bradbury appears to be out of print, but if you can check it out from the library, it is a fun book to look at.  It is literally an atlas of literary places.  And yes, there are essays in it as well.  It essentially goes by time period and locale giving a brief overview of the literature particular to it.  For instance there is Dicken's London, Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Kafka's Prague, Faulkner's South, etc.  Since I am currently reading Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility", now is a good time to read about Austen's Regency England!

The Dive from Clausen's Pier

About two or three years ago I read Ann Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier. I have to say that the book has stayed with me since I read it.  I liked it, but at the same time I remember thinking the main character, Carrie Bell, just annoyed the heck out of me.  I guess I didn't agree with all her choices and decisions.  Lifetime TV has made the book into a movie and it premieres later tonight.  You can read about the movie here.  I probably won't be able to watch it, but I plan on taping it so I can watch the whole thing later.  I would be interested in hearing if anyone else read the book/or watches the movie, and hearing what you think about it.  I am looking forward to seeing how they handle the characters in the movie. 

Interesting Lives

I love nonfiction.  Sometimes I think just about everything I see in a bookstore sounds interesting in some way.  I tend to choose biographies or travelogues though, when buying nonfiction.  I lucked out and found Maeve Brennan: Homesick at the New Yorker on sale at Amazon.  They had remaindered copies for only $7.99!  This has been on my wish list for a long time.  Maeve Brennan was Irish born, but lived in New York City for most of her life.  She wrote short stories and wrote a column for the New Yorker.  She was very pretty, and it sounds as though her short stories were critically acclaimed.  According to Angela Bourke her biographer, she went from "happy Dublin childhood to Manhattan glamour, and from literary achievement to breakdown, homelessness, death--and rediscovery."  I read an article about her somewhere and if I remember correctly at some point she was living in the bathroom at the New Yorker offices.  I guess when I get to read this I will find out if that is true or not.  I am curious now about her short stories and essays.  I believe I have those books somewhere in my piles, so I will have to dig them out.

I don't know where I came across this biography.  If a biography is about women and/or artists I am usually doubly intrigued.  May and Amy: A True Story of Forbidden Love, and the Secret Lives of May Gaskell, Her Daughter Amy , and Sir Edward Burne-Jones--The subtitle just about says it all.  Amy Gaskell was the great-aunt to the author, Josceline Dimbleby.  Dimbleby found a cache of unpublished letters from Burne-Jones to May Gaskell.  Amy was her daughter and apparently led a tragic life.  Per the book jacket blurb: "In piecing together the eventful life of her grandmother, Dimbleby takes us through a turbulent period in history that includes the Boer War, the Great War, and the Second World War and visits to the most far-flung corners of the British Empire.  The Souls-William Morris, Rudyard Kipling, and William Gladstone--all play a part in this sweeping, often funny, and sometimes tragic story."

Inspector Lynley Series

Elizabeth George is my favorite mystery author.  I have read all her books and am currently working on her newest, With No One as Witness.  The BBC has filmed her books and they can been seen on PBS (or at least the earlier ones were shown on Masterpiece Theater).  I haven't watched any of them however.  When I saw the actors they chose to represent the characters I was very disappointed as they were not as described or as I had imagined them.  Inspector Lynley is fair and very handsome (also a posh Earl who drives an expensive sports car).  Instead they chose Nathaniel Parker to play him.  While he is handsome in a nonconventional sort of way, he is dark and not really what I had imagined.  I think the series has been running for a little while now, and I am not even sure if they are making up episodes at this point or are sticking with George's published books.  I have heard the series is very good, so I decided to just give it a try.  Hopefully I will get to watch it this weekend.  I still have "A Very Long Engagement" to watch as well!  Since it is so hot and sticky out, it will be a good time to stay inside and watch movies!

Jane Has Come Calling

Yesterday this surprise came in the mail for me!  Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye has been on my wish list for years now!  It is funny as everyone knows I like books, but rarely so people give me something off my wish list.  This came from my friend Sandy (thanks again!!).  We are in a year long needlework exchange together.  It is through one of my online stores.  The owner matched up stitchers and we do a sort of Secret (in this case not secret at all) Santa thing each month.  Sandy always comes up with the best surprises.  Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite novels, so this is great.  The book is published by Harry N. Abrams.  They print lovely art books. This one is also nicely illustrated.  It is a combination of biography, criticism, and social history of Jane's time.  I can't wait to start it.  I admit that I have not read all of Jane Austen's novels, but I have seen all the movies.  I plan on getting them all read, however! Fittingly I very recently found this Jane Austen Blog.  Go take a peek--it is very cool. 

And since I am on the topic of reading and classic literature--I am going to have to go through my current read pile and do a little reorganization.  Since I have been reading a lot of library books lately, I have fallen behind in my other current reads.  I have been dragging on the Dreiser book.  I hate to say it, but I am going to have to temporarily set him aside.  At over 900 pages, I am not going to get it read anytime soon.  I have wanted to read at least one classic a month, and I have fallen behind.  So I may just pull out a Jane Austen now, and get back to the Dreiser later.  I hate starting a book, and then putting it away again, but I think sometimes you have to choose the right book for the right moment!