My 2013 "Wrap Up"

My 2013 "Wrap Up"




Challenge Level Achieved: Between Trying (15 books) and Making a Dint (30 books)

Books Read:
1. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
2. Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
3. How To Be Lovely by Melissa Hellstern
4. Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
5. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
6. An Open Life by Joseph Campbell
7. Fuseli: The Nightmare by Nicolas Powell
8. Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
9. The Finest Legends of the Rhine by Wilhelm Ruland
10. Persuasion by Jane Austen
11. Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples
12. Haveli by Suzanne Fisher Staples 
13. The Giver by Lois Lowry
14. Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. & John J. Ratey, M.D
15. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
16. James & The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
17. Knitting 101: Master Basic Skills and Techniques Easily Through Step-by-Step Instruction by Carri Hammett
18. Answers to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. & John J. Ratey, M.D

 

2014 Reading List:
1. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
2. Letter to a Child Never Born by Oriana Fallaci
3. Capitalism & Freedom by Milton Friedman
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
5. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
6. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
7. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
8. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
9. Bhagavad-Gita (The Song of God)
10. Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser
11. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
12. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
13. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
14. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
15. An Essay on Liberation by Herbert Marcuse
16. Essays in Pragmatism by William James
17. Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison
18. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat
19. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
20. Captains & Kings by Taylor Caldwell
22. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
23. The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
24. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
25. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
26. Transitions (Making Sense of Life's Changes) by William Bridges
27. A Brief History of Time (From the Big Bang to Black Holes) by Stephen Hawking
28. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
29. Tales From the Secret Annex by Anne Frank
30. Dewey (The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World) by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
31. The Great War & Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
32. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
33. Anthem by Ayn Rand
34. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

35. The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche

36. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
37. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
38. Quotations of Martin Luther King Jr. 
39. The Northern Lights by Lucy Jago
40. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
41. Dracula by Bram Stoker
42. The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman
43. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch with John Rothchild
44. Gilgamesh rendered by David Ferry
45. My Brother's Keeper (James Joyce's Early Years) by Stanislaus Joyce
46. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
47. Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
48. Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
49. Duino Elegies by Maria Rainer Rilke 
50. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
51. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
52. The Road Less Traveled and Beyond by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
53. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
54. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short Story of Modern Delusions by Francis Wheen
55. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
56. Judy Garland: World's Greatest Entertainer by John Fricke
57. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham  
58. Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell 
59. A Map of Misreading by Harold Bloom
60. You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo
61. Public Memory and American Roots Music: Romancing the Folk by Benjamin Filene
62. Traveling the High Way Home: Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music by John Wright
63. Zydeco! Text by Ben Sandmel and Photographs by Rick Olivier 
64. Old New York by Edith Wharton 
65. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 
66. Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh 
67. A Short Course in Photography: An Introduction to Black-and-White Photographic Technique by Barbara London and Jim Stone 
68. Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen  
69. Comfortable With Uncertainty by Pema Chodron
70.  A Seal Called Andre: The Two Worlds of a Maine Harbor Seal by Harry Goodridge and Lew Dietz
71. The Camera by Ansel Adams 
72. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
73. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
74. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 
75. All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 
76. Flood by Robert Penn Warren
77. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
78. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 
79. Mansfield Park  by Jane Austen 
80. Beauty and the Beast by Madame le Prince de Beaumont 
81. Titanic: An Illustrated History by Don Lynch & Ken Marschall 
82. In the Woods by Tana French
83. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
84. The Circus In the Attic & Other Stories by Robert Penn Warren

The Finest Legends of the Rhine by Wilhelm Ruland



This is a small collection of stories that originate from the area around the Rhine river in Germany.  I found it interesting to read literature from this country because I had never done so before.  However, on the whole I felt that the stories were not incredibly interesting. 

The first story spoke of a knight who desired the daughter of the king he served, however the king did not approve.  The knight and daughter were banished from the kingdom only to be discovered accidentally by the king much later in life.  At that point, he was simply happy to see them again.  This was one of the more enjoyable stories of the book, and a good example of the book's major flaw: the stories are incredibly short and underdeveloped. 

Another highlight is the story of a monk who lost his faith.  One day he went for a walk in the forest and fell asleep.  He woke up and much time had passed.  He returns to the monastery and none of the other monks know him anymore, and he quickly dies.  His lack of faith led him to this as punishment.  This was  another highlight of the book.

I would not necessarily recommend this to a friend.  But as I have long had an interest in mythologies, I could find some worth in reading it. 

Descending into the Mountains of Ignorance:  
An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation With Michael Toms 


This book is a compilation of conversations between Joseph Campbell, a man known for his knowledge of mythology, and journalist Michael Toms.  I find discussing this book is easiest by describing its parts.  It has four sections entitled: "Myth as Metaphor," "The God Denied," "The Social Contract," and "An Open Life."

In the first section, the duo discusses how myths' stories must be read - essentially without considering them literally or historically.  For instance, the story of the virgin birth shouldn't be taken literally (in fact it occurs in the mythology of multiple cultures), but as an expression of people's sense of the miraculous and, in turn, what that says about us. 

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather 

 


Like all of Willa Cather's works, this is a story about the American frontier & the people who lived there before it had been completely assimilated into the United States.  Just like My Antonia, the central character in this novel is a young man who comes of age during the course of the novel.  He is an idealistic young man who has a promising future as a lawyer & can leave the backwater town if he chooses.  Many of his peers don't have the same opportunity.  But the reader gets the sense that he can learn much of what he needs to learn about human nature without leaving his home town.  He observes Mr. & Mrs. Forrester, a  wealthy couple who live nearby, and learns a lot from them.  

As is typical of him, he idealizes Captain Forrester and his wife greatly.  He thinks Mrs. Forrester is the icon of femininity & sees refinement & style in everything she does & in the way she does it.  While Captain Forrester is a masculine symbol - a free man who symbolizes the dying wildness of a disappearing frontier.  The Captain idolizes his wife as much as the narrator does, and their perceptions of her slowly unravel over the course of the book.  Mrs. Forrester is, in some ways, not at all what she seems, and yet she is in others.  Mrs. Forrester was an interesting character to me - she was my favorite in many respects.  Willa Cather, in my opinion, is wonderful at descriptions.  Sometimes her descriptions are of landscapes and other times they are about people or states of mind/moments.  Her descriptions of Mrs. Forrester were the best passages in the book - with the exception of a few concerning the state of mind of the narrator.  

Are our perceptions of people the only way in which they exist for us?  Or do people exist apart from whatever we perceive them to be?  When they fall in our eyes and we think less of them - are they in fact less as a result?  Does Mrs. Forrester's refinement & grace get erased when the narrator no longer sees those qualities, or at least only those qualities without blemishes?  Can a man and a woman stay together once fidelity is lost & can that relationship still be based on a valuable foundation?  Is thinking in black and white a childish way to think?  

These are the central questions of A Lost Lady.  They are lived out by the narrator but they are really embodied in Mrs. Forrester's life and actions.  She forces the narrator to questions his assumptions once he learns she has been cheating on her husband for some time and probably never loved him completely.  She lusted after youth and excitement while the Captain was many years older than her & relatively sedate in lifestyle.  And yet, there is a memorable story in this book about when Mrs. Forrester meets the Captain for the first time.  They are climbing a mountain & Mrs. Forrester falls and breaks both her legs.  The Captain is the person who gets her down from the mountain, he carries her, and to safety.  While some of Mrs. Forrester sought excitement and was unfaithful to her husband, she is clearly a woman who always wanted to be cared for by another.  There was a frailty to her & the Captain was a suitable partner for that.  So, was she truly unfaithful to her husband?  

The other question that arises is whether Mrs. Forrester is as strong as she appeared to be.  She appeared to be a perfect hostess through much of the novel.  A woman who knew a lot, created great conversation, and interacted capably with men.  And yet, by the end of the novel she is a widow, living in a foreign country, & without the support of the Captain appears to be drifting.  Her appearance is no longer cared for she has no reliable partner & to the narrator's eyes she seems old.  

Can strength be true strength when it needs the presence of another to make or break it?  A central question of a good novel. 

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

Susanna Kaysen was admitted to a psychiatric hospital when she was 18 years old.  She had attempted suicide twice, and describes herself as lacking animation and interest in life during that time.  In fact, the first chapter of the book - which describes the meeting with the psychiatrist who sent her to McLean Hospital - is one of the most upsetting chapters in the book.  Within a half hour the doctor had decided to commit her and she was too apathetic to care much about it.  At that point, she describes herself as happy she didn't need to bother with a bus ride home and could simply get into a taxi - even if that taxi is taking her to McLean Hospital.  Meanwhile, she will spend most of the next two years as a patient who is cut off from the outside world. 

Susanna continues to observe from a distance the other patients at McLean. She witnesses suicides, the maximum security ward, and the bizarre actions of the other patients.  Susanna also offers some of the thoughts she had while living at McLean, and later her experiences in the world as someone who was once committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Much of the philosophizing in this book is confusing.  She speaks of the "topography" of this alternate universe of a mental institution, which is affecting but not necessarily a helpful point of view for a reader.  Her descriptions of events in the hospital are the highlight of the book.  One chapter, called "Bare Bones" was particularly poignant. 

Persuasion by Jane Austen


 I watched the PBS version of this story and enjoyed it so I became interested in the book.  

The protagonist of this novel, Anne Elliot, is in her late twenties, still unmarried, and living in a family that takes advantage of her.  Everyone she is supposed to care about (father, sisters, in-laws) only see her as a means of providing something for themselves.  Consequently, what Anne wants out of life (which seems to be genuine connection with others who value that which she values) she has no opportunities to find.  Her condition is, to me, the most interesting thing in the novel.  It appears as if all profitable opportunities have gone by for her and there is no chance that any will return.  

But that doesn't actually come to pass for Anne.  The story that unfolds is full of interesting characters and observations about different types of people you may encounter in life.  The novel seems somewhat abrupt because Jane Austen died before it was finished.  This quality to the novel is it's greatest disappointment.  Otherwise, I felt it worth the read. 

Fuseli: The Nightmare by Nicolas Powell

  I have never really read a book on the topic of art history before. It was an interesting challenge.  As a side-note, I first saw this painting on a high school professor's classroom wall.  He had always taught AP Art History, which unfortunately I never took while going to school there.  I often looked at his classroom walls curious about the pictures and about the opportunity to be in that class that I missed out on.

So when I came across this book it reminded me of all that had passed before.  I took it home ready to try the new challenge of this kind of reading.  Reading about visual arts seems to be a bit of a clash of sensibilities.  Trying to describe with words what someone else tried to capture with a brush often came across as the wrong way to explore a painting.  Also, discussing paintings really should require putting the picture in with the text which occasionally Nicholas Powell doesn't do in this book.  I felt it made the text difficult to read at those points. 

There were a few interesting points I took away from this book.  The first concerned the history of our theories about dreams/nightmares and how these theories have changed over time.  The second concerned understanding the imagery of the painting.  And, finally, the author's discussion on what has made this painting endure was interesting.

All and all, I enjoyed this book mostly because it was unlike anything I had read in a while.  

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 
 

I love this book.  Milo is a child who doesn't really enjoy anything.  He just kind of goes through life.  One day he receives a package in his room that is marked "the phantom tollbooth."  This package transports him into another world.  This is the plot of the book.  

 I had actually read this before but I cheated and put it on the list anyway.  It seemed really appropriate at the time.  

It seemed appropriate because of the only part I had remembered from when I read it as a child.  There is an episode about "jumping to conclusions" that occurs about half-way through that is pretty typical of how this book plays with words and creatively teaches to its younger audience (it is a children's book).  I felt I could benefit from this playful, frank way of understanding things now.  And I think it worked. 

I was looking for something fun to read as part of this book challenge.  In college I was an English major and all I did was read but in truth I stopped liking it.  And part of my doing this book challenge was to make it interesting to me again.  This book was all about that for me.  

It was a good time. :)



 

How to Be Lovely by Melissa Hellstern
 


The result of five years' study of Audrey Hepburn's life and statements, How to Be Lovely is a cool little book. It certainly succeeded in reigniting my interest in Audrey Hepburn's films as I have since watched many of her films I hadn't really looked at since I was a child.  But it will also probably teach you things about Audrey Hepburn you didn't know.  For my part, I had no idea that she was a survivor of the Nazi invasion of Holland during World War II and lived under house arrest for years.  She likened her experience to that of Anne Frank as she was also a young girl during the war.  This early experience seems to have prepared her to keep fame at arm's length and value what is actually important in life (or at least try to).

Mostly this book is comprised of her quotes and occasionally things her friends said about her.  The book is divided into topics- happiness, success, health, love, family, friendship, fulfillment, style, fame, and humanity- each of which Audrey Hepburn offered opinions on during her lifetime.  The author organizes these quotes in an effort to develop what may have been Audrey Hepburn's advice to others on each of these aspects of life.  I cannot say that every section of this novel was mind blowing, but a few in particular (style, health, happiness, and love come to mind) were enjoyable.  I recommend this book and enjoyed it.  

Paint It Black by Janet Fitch

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       This novel tells the story of a woman, Josie, whose boyfriend commits suicide.  The victim, Michael, is not depicted much at all in this book, which is more concerned with how the living get past such an event.

   While their relationship is rarely depicted, I think somewhat to the detriment of the story, the relationship that emerges between Josie and Michael's mother, Meredith, is central to the novel.  They are both coping with the same struggle of recovering from this loss.  This shared endeavor connects them, but the story reveals how differently they respond to the same event.
 
    This book occasionally reads well and then it drags again.  I think the author took on the challenge of depicting survivors of suicide, but often fails to depict this well.  I do not speak from personal experience only from how the book read.  The author often writes her thoughts with lofty ambitions, but the thoughts end up falling flat.  Personally, I enjoyed White Oleander by this author more than this title.  I might recommend the former to someone who I thought would have an interest in the subject matter; I cannot picture myself recommending this title to anyone.                                                                                            

Stepping into the map...Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

Stepping into the map...Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel 


"Thus, all the while that Galileo was inventing modern physics, teaching mathematics to princes, discovering new phenomena among the planets, publishing science books for the general public, and defending his bold theories against establishment enemies, he was also buying thread for Suor Luisa, choosing organ music for Mother Achillea, shipping gifts of food, and supplying his homegrown citrus fruits, wine, and rosemary leaves for the kitchen and apothecary at San Matteo" (118-119). 

                                                                                               

This quote is a good summary of the heart of Galileo's Daughter.  While it examines Galileo's public life - the discoveries that made him famous during his lifetime and beyond, the books he wrote, the inventions he pioneered, and his persecution by the Inquisition - its main purpose is to explore the relationship between Galileo Galilei and his daughter, Virginia Gamba (ordained Suor Maria Celeste).  How Galileo fathered the spirit of modern science is known by many, but his profound love for his child is not so well known.  The novel is shaped around Suor Maria Celeste's letters to her father (unfortunately Galileo's letters to Suor Maria Celeste were destroyed).  The author appears to want to revivify the memory of Suor Maria Celeste due to her deep respect for this forgotten historical figure.  

Suor Maria Celeste entered the convent of San Matteo at age sixteen.  She lived the remainder of her life within its walls.  Often her story is the story of the convent itself.  It also reflects the lives of many Italian women of the 17th century who appeared to have one of two choices: marry or enter the Church.  The convent lived in extreme poverty often without any food.  None of the sisters were allowed to leave the convent so it was a life of complete isolation.  

I found learning about the life in the convent was very interesting.  I also didn't know much about Galileo so that aspect of the story was also of interest.  The book also describes Italian everyday life around this period including its social structure, culture, and of course the Vatican.  

Basically, I would recommend this book to those interested in historical biography or perhaps Italian history.  It is a good story and reading Suor Maria Celeste's letters to her father is particularly enjoyable. 


Next up is Paint It Black by Janet Fitch.

P.S. NOVA produced a companion documentary to "Galileo's Daughter" featuring Dava Sobel. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnEH9rbrIkk&index=16&list=PLrBE6bh9hEysNWedoW5T6JcWPsCqRsMPE

Off the Shelf 2013 Reading Challenge

So this is a blog I created to participate in the "Off the Shelf 2013" reading challenge.  The challenge is: read as many as possible of those old books you've had on the shelf for years.  I've named this blog, servants of the map, because reading these books feels like a bit of a journey and because I love maps. 

While I will probably be happy to make it to 15 of these this year, these are all of the possibilities.  Let the trek begin...

1. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
2. Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
3. How To Be Lovely by Melissa Hellstern
4. Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
5. Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen
6. Capitalism & Freedom by Milton Friedman
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
8. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
9. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
10. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
11. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
12. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
13. An Open Life by Joseph Campbell
14. Letter to A Child Never Born by Oriana Fallaci
15. Bhagavad-Gita (The Song of God)
16. Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser
17. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
18. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
19. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
20. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
21. An Essay on Liberation by Herbert Marcuse
22. Essays in Pragmatism by William James
23. Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison
24. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat
25. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
26. Captains & Kings by Taylor Caldwell
27. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
28. The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
29. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
30. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
31. Transitions (Making Sense of Life's Changes) by William Bridges
32. A Brief History of Time (From the Big Bang to Black Holes) by Stephen Hawking
33. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
34. Tales From the Secret Annex by Anne Frank
35. Dewey (The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World) by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
36. The Great War & Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
37. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
38. Fuseli: The Nightmare by Nicolas Powell
39. Anthem by Ayn Rand
40. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
41. Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
42. The Circus In the Attic & Other Stories by Robert Penn Warren
43. The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
44. The Finest Legends of the Rhine by Wilhelm Ruland
45. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
46. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
47. Quotations of Martin Luther King Jr. 
48. Persuasion by Jane Austen
49. The Northern Lights by Lucy Jago
50. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
51. Dracula by Bram Stoker
52. The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman
53. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch with John Rothchild
54. Gilgamesh rendered by David Ferry
55. My Brother's Keeper (James Joyce's Early Years) by Stanislaus Joyce
56. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy

58. Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
59. Duino Elegies by Maria Rainer Rilke 
60. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
61. Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples
62. Haveli by Suzanne Fisher Staples 
63. The Giver by Lois Lowry 
64. A Seal Called Andre: The Two Worlds of a Maine Harbor Seal by Harry Goodridge and Lew Dietz
65. Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron
66. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
67. Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. & John J. Ratey, M.D.
68. The Road Less Traveled and Beyond by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
69. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
70. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short Story of Modern Delusions by Francis Wheen
71. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
72. Judy Garland: World's Greatest Entertainer by John Fricke
73. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl