JJ ColourArt

I am putting this on its own page because I like to discuss books and I can’t do that if this is situated on the blog sidebar. It will change periodically, but I’ll try to leave books and comments up for a time even when I have finished them.

This was my page for 2008. There is a new page for 2009.

PREVIOUSLY ON BOOKS I AM READING. . . .

The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber

Another one I randomly picked from the the library OPAC. It got good reviews at Amazon and is an art mystery, so I hope to enjoy over the Christmas holiday. I just felt like something light for a change.

It started out reminding me very much of Daphne du Maurier’s book The House on the Strand, but it moved along well and had a twist at the end. Good characterization, but a very light read.

John Lennon : The Life by Philip Norman

I tossed this after 170 pages or so. Sometimes you can know too much about a person. A fine musician and songwriter, but as a human being. . . . I’m getting old I guess, I just didn’t want to know. The fact that Yoko went back on heroin during the last 10 months of his life, and he was screwing around, and that he seemed to have a fixation with an episode where he might have had sex with his mother when he was 14 or so, and his shoplifting and stealing as a youth, was too much information. Way too much.

Nicely written with some interesting stuff about his father and family, but in the end, life’s moments are too important to waste on this book. It was depressing to go back in the Wayback Machine.

I preferred reading about Thomas Bewick, who was a man that helped his neighbour and community without publicity, and worked hard at his art without taking drugs and becoming an alcoholic, or deserting people or stealing from them. It takes a lot more than money and fame to make a man.

Nature’s Engraver : A Life of Thomas Bewick by Jenny Uglow

Jenny Uglow, a British author, is becoming known for her excellent historical non-fiction and biographical books. This odd book took off in America and became a bestseller. It deals with scientific illustration and engraving as well as the early book trade–some of my favourite subjects, so I bought a nice hardcover copy. There are colour plates in two sections, but more delightedly, Bewick’s black and white engravings are sprinkled about on every page and chapter heading.

He apparently was a big influence on book illustration for a century, and reminds me of the woodcuts and engravings done by my favourite illustrator, Rockwell Kent, in the editions of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick that Kent illustrated. Bewick and Kent both shared an interest in designing bookplates too although they were not contemporaries. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bewick also influenced William Morris. His illustrations also remind me of the art that Pauline Baynes did for The Chronicles of Narnia that was sprinkled throughout these C.S. Lewis books. I definitely feel that she must have been influenced by Bewick’s earlier work.

A fascinating read ahead that ties into many of my personal interests. There is some information on the book trade and the evolving market for children’s books in the 18th century which is interesting and ties into my collection of books about fairy tales. I just find it interesting to compare Bewick’s love of nature and descriptions of the more rural area of Newcastle at the time. He tried London but couldn’t stand the big city, and he was just a bit older than William Blake so they missed each other, but he did know John Flaxman I believe.

I loved this book, and Thomas Bewick seems to be a man of integrity and charity, very responsible and fully involved in his community and helping others. An ethical, moral person, so nice to read about in comparison to the latest celebrity having an affair.

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

I finally got this from the library. It is good, and he has so improved as a writer in the 33 years since the first book. I am glad I reread The Great Railway Bazaar so that it was fresh in my mind.

One of things I find interesting is how the politics of each region or country has changed. Countries that once were accessible are now not and vice versa. Excellent book, I liked it so much I did a review.

The Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux

Upon checking my shelf, I realized I still have an unread, used copy of The Pillars of Hercules, Theroux’s book about the Mediterranean region. I have just seen Michael Palin’s excellent television documentary Sahara that covers a few of the same places, so it will make an interesting comparison.

So far it’s great, he’s been through Gibraltar (where my husband lived for several months), and into Spain, including Mallorca, to visit the house of Robert Graves. I am just starting his journey into France. Now I’m in Sardinia and Corsica, both very interesting. He just has a way of looking at odd things and people that others don’t notice that I like. An interesting book, upon completion, I think it’s one of my favourites of his.

I’ve got Theroux’s new book Ghost Train to the Eastern Star on my wish list, but I’ll wait for the library to get it or order it from the library after a year. It’s a follow-up to his book The Great Railway Bazaar, which I recently re-read in preparation for the new book. (see below)

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

What a great book. W.P. Kinsella’s comment on the book jacket refers to this as a “five-hanky ending” and it’s true. I was sobbing in my chair and had to go hug my dogs and cats.

She’s got some fascinating historical information on the town of Spencer, Iowa, as well as reflections on farming and rural living. Even her own family was fascinating. Dewey lived for 19 years and I kept getting a feeling of the importance of small things, short lives, and how attitude and care can go a long way in making extraordinary resonance in life.

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

It’s Travelling with Theroux week! I found a copy of this in the library so am rereading it. His writing and observations have improved over the years, but he’s pretty mocking in flavour, which is why people like him–always a bit of scandal. Still, at least he gets off the train and looks around and talks to people.

Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Icongraphy by Douglas Keister

I bought this as a treat for myself in order to further an interest piqued by the Graven Images Oracle. What a wonderful book! Great typography and layout; beautiful gold-stamped linen book with a ribbon marker; lots and lots of photographs and interesting tidbits and history. Various architectural styles are examined and some are hard to differentiate as they borrow from each other or monuments contain several styles. Symbols of flora, fauna, biblical and religious symbolism, philosophy and societies, clubs and fraternal organizations like the Freemasons, Elks, Odd Fellows, Foresters, and Shriners to name a few. This is delightful to read.

Love in the Driest Season : a Family Memoir by Neely Tucker

I requested an interlibrary loan for this book as it was recommended to me by a friend in South Africa. Neely Tucker was working as a foreign correspondent in Zimbabwe in 1997, when he and his wife started volunteering at an orphanage, and came upon an infant girl that had been left to die in a field the day she was born. That was the start of their journey to nurse her back to health, adopt her, and bring her home to America. It was not a great time for foreigners in Zimbabwe, and they ran up against a bureaucratic stonewalling of their efforts because they were American, and threats to their security because he was a journalist.

I finished this in one day, just couldn’t put it down. I generally like books on adoption but this had the added drama of political uprising and murder, and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. If you get a chance, read this page-turner.

An Illuminated Life by Heidi Ardizzone

A biography of Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian who shaped the Morgan Library. Her early years when she was hired by J.P. Morgan, her personal life, and career. Quite an astounding woman and very, very sharp. Back in the days when you survived on your wits and ability and not by waving about a dubious Master’s degree. Interesting book.

Belle seems to have been emotionally immature in her personal life, if not unpleasantly manipulative. It’s strange that this didn’t spill over into her professional life and ruin it, but she was quite canny about lying about herself! It’s a very strange dichotomy, her professionalism and keenness to remain open to knowledge and mentors, and, if I’m truthful, the low-class way she conducted her personal flirtations and affairs. Today she would never get away with it.

A Heavenly Craft : The Woodcut in Early Printed Books by Daniel De Simone (editor)

Like a lot of my art books, this one is a catalogue from an exhibition. It concerns a donated collection in the Library of Congress about early books with woodcuts, and the exhibition they mounted pertaining to that. It has some information about private and public collectors and how they go about obtaining things at auction. I was interested in this through my interest in J.P. Morgan’s respected librarian Belle da Cost Greene, and she is mentioned in this book for specifics she added to the collection of the Morgan Library.

As well, this ties into my interest and collection of books about illuminated manuscripts and woodcuts in general. A tad ponderous in execution, but an interesting reference book. They have a page from the original edition of Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools, and I compared it to my facsimile edition published by Dover. The layout for the original edition was extraordinary with fancy borders and text.

Creations of Fire : Chemistry’s Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Age by Cathy Cobb and Harold Goldwhite

I had purchased it to augment my use of the Elemental Hexagons deck. It has short segments that are not too complicated but gives interesting insight into social periods and personalities. It’s amazing how the human mind can ask a question and keep pounding away at it until something is discovered and developed.

I am finding it a bit too episodic in nature. It’s set up like a timeline, with discussion of each scientist or discovery in order of time. This makes it a bit choppy to read, much like reading an encyclopedia. In retrospect, I would have preferred a narrative history.

My Secret Life on the McJob: Lessons from Behind the Counter Guaranteed to Supersize Any Management Style by Jerry Newman

I put in an interlibrary loan for this. Jerry Newman is a professor, so I expected more analysis and reflection in this book. It’s very short, 190 pages and the print is large and there are filler pages between chapters, so it actually feels more like 160 pages. He has annoying boxes on almost every page highlighting specific incidents he experienced or saw in fast food restaurants, but they interrupt what he’s talking about in the main text, so the whole thing feels like a jumbled up notebook that he couldn’t bother to organize in a cohesive form. Good thing I didn’t buy it!!

What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain’s Camino de Santiago de Compostela by Jane Christmas

This is an interlibrary loan and another book on the Camino. I was hesitant about this one because of the goofy title but it’s very interesting. The author went to Spain with a group of 14 women she’d organized for the hike, and things don’t work out quite the way they expected. Whew, fourteen women in a group is asking for trouble! Does no one remember high school cliques?

I was delighted with this book, it was very readable and not silly as I expected.

The Camino by Shirley MacLaine

Walking the Camino has been a dream of mine since last year, so I like to read memoirs of people that have walked it. I enjoyed the first half of this book, but felt Shirley’s visions were off-topic and self-involved. Her past life vision of being a Moorish woman connected to the Camino, and being baptized and getting a cross were okay, but she lost me with Lemuria and Atlantis and extraterrestrials, and a somewhat bizarre focus on sexuality. Why are people who talk about their past lives always connected to kings or famous people? How come they never are friends with Hans the cobbler or Edith the kitchen scullery maid or something? It always has to be a king, Charlemagne no less in this case. I think perhaps Shirley was highlighting her importance to the human race as a messenger or visionary, and dabbled among all her visions were episodic chases with photographers and journalists who got wind of her presence, and the Cult of Celebrity reared up yet again.

I understand that those with a voice in the world might believe they have a message. I understand the being a celebrity might cause you to feel some importance, but I’m wary of those whose focus is continually on themselves and their importance. I think it unlikely that any human could be given such messages and continue doing any good, or relate to other humans in a natural, helpful way.

I find it a bit tiresome when people make fun of Shirley MacLaine. She is widely travelled and experienced with people, so I’m sure she does have some interesting insights into life. However, I found this book discouraging. The Camino always enhances the spiritual and personal reflection of people who walk it. It’s a private thing and cannot be passed to anyone else. I saw Shirley’s lack of humility in this book, and while complaining about lack of privacy she draws attention to herself.

Discernment and intuition are necessary when dealing with people. The book was not about the Camino, it was all about Shirley and how she feels she is a chosen one.

A friend of mine, a deck creator and artist, once got an e-mail from an assistant of MacLaine’s. She wanted a free copy of my friend’s deck and seemed to imply that it was only fair that Shirley be given a free copy since she would give it publicity, being a celebrity. That’s kind of sad that someone with obvious means would try to get something free from someone who was struggling to run a business and pay a mortgage. The word “pretense” comes to mind. Shirley hates to talk about Hollywood but will cash in on her celebrity when necessary.

So much for Shirley as an evolved being from the dawn of time.

The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Short story anthology with more tales that are featured in the H.P. Lovecraft Tarot. I am finally managing to catch up on some anthologies I bought a couple of years ago. How much horror can you read at one time? A few stories, which is why this is taking so long to read.

There are some good stories in here, although flavoured with Lovecraft’s overwrought prosey lyricism surrounding indescribable monstrosities. Yeah, they sure don’t write ‘em like this anymore.

The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman

I bought this because Eric Shanower, the author of Age of Bronze cited it as inspiration for his project to write a graphic novel of the Trojan War. I expect to love it as I have read one of Tuchman’s other books. I liked this blurb from the front flap:

“Surveying the vast spectrum of our recorded past, Barbara Tuchman now traces and explores one of the most compelling paradoxes of history: the recurring pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.”

Just finishing this book up, I’m at 1964 in the Vietnam War. I thought I might have trouble reading this section as it’s the longest in the book, but Tuchman is making it really interesting. My memories of Vietnam really start about the time of the My Lai massacre and the subsequent court marshall of William Calley in 1970, so I was VERY interested in the history of it and how the US got involved. My other memory of Vietnam is of draft dodgers at the infamous Rochdale College in Toronto in the late 60s and early 70s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_College My friend and I went downtown in 1972 and bought some fancy tea in Chinatown and then went to gawk at Rochdale. Of such memories are a life made.

Overall, this book was very enlightening, particularly in the two sections on American history regarding the American Revolution and the Vietnam War. I would consider this a vital read for anyone interested in history. Tuchman’s writing and research are superb but not stuffy.

Walking Through the Fire
Signs of Spring
Mourning into Dancing
Tapestry
by Laurel Lee

Had a bit of a catch-up on an author that piqued my interest when I was in my twenties. I was sorry to hear that cancer finally claimed her in 2004, but I enjoyed hearing about her life. Boy, you think you have problems…

The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson

I was watching the movie Elizabeth for about the fifth time, and then watching its sequel The Golden Age, and decided I wanted to reread this book. I first read it in the early 80s when it came out. I have had an interest in the Tudors since I was a teenager and was influenced by the BBC productions The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. Movie and television scripts often smoosh the facts around and these recent movies, particularly the sequel really mishmashed them around and left people out and invented facts, so I wanted to refresh my memory of real events. I just checked the rating of this book at Amazon and it gets an average of four stars with some criticism for novelistic content. Still, I am keen on a refresh.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

This is a reread for me, but I wanted to refresh my memory of it due to the impending movie in 2009. It’s an excellent book. The first time I read it I found myself rushing through some of the more subtle bits just to find out how the story ended. This time I took my time, propped up on pillows after asthma attacks. It holds up very well. My particular favourite bit is the news vendor and the young kid who keeps coming back to read the comic The Black Freighter for free. Alan Moore’s characterizations are always good and filled with the poignancy of real experience.

The Terror: The Shadow of the Guillotine: France 1792–1794 by Graeme Fife

This is great. I got going on this via one of the Sandman comics–volume 6 that had a story about Robespierre and Saint-Just and The Terror. I didn’t remember any of this or the people involved, and have a facsimile deck of cards from that time with all the court cards changed to reflect “correct” revolutionary ideas. So I ordered this book from the library and what an eye opener it has been.

It has information on the entire country of the time and how revolutionary ideas were different in other cities and provinces than in Paris, thus fueling a paranoia that got completely out of hand. Many people in France did not speak French proper, but dialects and holdovers from the influence of countries nearby like Spain and Italy. Odd sort of Latin/Celtic dialects that were unfathomable to Parisians for instance. So communication broke down, as did laws, which were classically different in the north and south of the country. We think only revolution, but I never knew they had civil war as well after the King was killed. France at this time was invaded by Austria and England so had to fight a war with them, and internal towns wanted a different idea of revolution and government which led to civil war and The Terror, where you could be guillotined because a neighbour said you were not a proper revolutionary. Wow, and some people today advocate anarchy, they have no idea.

This is an excellent book and it gives enormous insight into the factions of the Revolution. After reading this book, I would be more likely to call it a civil war rather than a revolution. So many interesting facts about provincial taxation and life, and the murderous reaction to their difference in political view, which was much, much different than in Paris. The country was a real mishmash of culture and language–much more so than I realized. A really fascinating account of history.
This is a page-turner and not to be missed!

The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs

This is supposed to be the only adult fantasy Bellairs wrote and since I wasn’t familiar with him I got an interlibrary loan for this. It was good but had an abrupt ending that seemed rushed. I didn’t see what the fuss was all about for a “classic.”

The Skull Beneath the Skin by P.D. James

I am not a huge fan of P.D. James but the mention of John Webster and his play called The Duchess of Malfi on a reading list led me to this mystery, so I’m having a go. The James book apparently has lots of references to Shakespeare and Marlowe and quotes from Elizabethan playwrights. I’ll see how it goes. As it happens I tossed it after skipping to the last chapter and finding out whodunit. I really don’t like P.D. James as a writer.

The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe

A new mystery by an old writer; Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym for a literary writer. What, is she slumming in the Mystery genre? Hahaha. What a great book, it really rolled along and I didn’t quite finish it on the first day, so savoured the 40-page climax early the next morning. She has planned others in a series featuring this same police crew, so I will look forward to sequels.

Design & the Decorative Arts : Georgian Britain 1714-1837 by Michael Snodin and John Styles

Another high-quality series by the Victoria and Albert Museum. I recently bought two books in this series on sale. Beautiful photography and lots of interesting information as only the V & A can tell it and show it. The layout and design of the book itself is gorgeous and draws you in to read the particulars. I am enjoying it.

Alice in Sunderland : An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot

A very innovative graphic novel that is based in an old Edwardian theatre and has all kinds of interesting snippets about history, noted people, and Lewis Carroll and his book Alice in Wonderland, all played out within a larger history of Britain and the town of Sunderland and area. It’s a really good book and just the kind of inventive thing I like in graphic novels.

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994) by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, editors

This is the third of these collections I’ve worked my way through. I am not fond of full fantasy novels but I like short stories in the genre. The horror tends to be fantastical too and intriguing. I was able to buy a used copy very cheaply years ago which got me going on the series, and every now and then I get a further edition from the library. I’ve read the 12th and 14th editions and now this 7th one. Still lots to work through! This anthology is still going in its 20th edition but under slightly different editors.

It’s well worth a read, even for someone like me who mostly tackles non-fiction. In fact, this is my favourite of the three anthologies I’ve read so far, it has so many good stories.

Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations by William B. Jones Jr.

I wanted to buy this but it was $56, so I took a chance and put in an interlibrary loan. It has a lot of information in it and having worked for a major publisher and as a librarian, I am generally interested in the book trade and the history of books. I used to read and reread the Classics Illustrated version of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, which was great. I learned what a daguerreotype was from that comic and was able to explain to my 11th grade English teacher what it meant when she asked if anyone knew. See what you can learn from comics?

The book itself was really only for people who collect the issues. It goes into great detail about the artists and authors but nothing vital I needed to know. The world changed in 1962 when the original publishing momentum for these shut down and sales slowed, but they carried on with reprints for several years, and had an unsuccessful attempt to revive the comics under another publisher in the 1990s. I expect television and the Internet have taken children out of their beloved comics, plus the Japanese comic seems to be more popular than westernized fiction.

Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

A Thousand Ships – Volume 1
Sacrifice – Volume 2
Betrayal, Part One – Volume 3

This is a graphic novel series on the Trojan War with a projected seven volumes. I reread the first book and then caught up on book two and I’m just starting three. It’s very well researched and drawn–definitely a five-star series and one of the better graphic novel efforts I’ve seen in a while. You can’t beat a good story and characters! I admire Eric Shanower for having the fortitude and passion to tackle the subject.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
Fables, Book 2 – Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
Swamp Thing, Book 3 – The Curse by Alan Moore
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I discovered that my library system (I pay a membership for a system south of me because my own library system is so mismanaged and unethical that I won’t patronize it), has some graphic novels that I had dithered about buying, so I put a hold on these and read them this week. The Arrival was a stunning and poignant book with very fresh and interesting artwork. It would be a waste of money to buy as it’s very short, but to get it from the library it was great.

The other four were awful. It turns out I was right to be wary of getting involved with these books or series. The Batman book has won rave reviews everywhere–I thought it was a messy story that degraded into nonsense at the end. If this is the best, I worry about the future of graphic novels. Fables and Swamp Thing were incoherent and violent and the Clowes book was a coming of age story that had some poignancy but too much swearing. The last frame was wonderful.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

A quick reread preparatory to reading Buchan’s follow-up book with the character Richard Hannay, Greenmantle. What struck me most about this is that the author took about 100 pages to tell a wonderful story that would be turned into a bloated 400-page opera of espionage and sex today. Sometimes progress is not a good thing.

Riding Between the Worlds: Expanding Our Potential Through the Way of the Horse by Linda Kohanov

I got his through the library as I was interested in reading more books by the author of my Way of the Horse book and cards. I am enjoying it, it’s a very different take on human emotions. In a world where we are taught to deny emotion as tasteless and irrational, she makes a good case for a more balanced, human way of thinking of emotion. They aren’t such villains and realizing that makes for a better human.

Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino by Joyce Rupp

My interlibrary loan for this finally came in after eight weeks. This is a lovely, gentle book–most of the books on the Camino I have read are strictly about the hike and what to see and such, but this is written by a 60 year-old nun, whose travelling companion was a 69 year-old priest, so very spiritual and uplifting.

Not quite the harum-scarum “Let’s hike the Camino in 20 days!” sort of thing. Very nice book, I am really enjoying its spiritual and reflective flavour.

A Gentleman’s Game, A Queen & Country Novel by Greg Rucka

This fellow apparently writes the series as graphic novels, which I couldn’t get hold of through the library unfortunately. I’m going to try one in the form of a regular novel and see what it’s all about. International espionage can be really good or really bad in books. Having finished this one I can definitely say it’s really bad, he’s not a good writer and the characters were clichés.

Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier

I read this in a few hours but I had the ‘flu so appreciated a simple book. I expected not to like it as I’m not a great fan of historical fiction, but this was a light read so not too bad, but the ending was sort of goofy. It’s a book geared to 11 year-old girls.

Myths and Legends by Neil Philip

A library book, one of those fantastically illustrated Annotated Guides by publisher Dorling Kindersley. They always have great layout, art and snippets of text. This one reminds me of my Fandex Family Field Guide to Mythology, which is also a terrific reference.

Great Natural History Books and Their Creators by Ray Desmond

A hardcover I bought on sale. Some interesting biographical information on several artists, and fascinating information in general on publishing and the book trade in the 17th to 19th centuries, particularly in Europe. Lots of colour reproductions of antique scientific paintings and illustrations from specific books.

Nearly finished this one. The writing isn’t great, but I’ve just read the chapter on Captain Cook and the botanical research and painting and drawing that was part of his voyage on the Endeavour. That was pretty good–somehow the engraving plates of those illustrations were saved for years and modern artists and printers cleaned them up and printed from them.

The Art Thief by Noah Charney

From the library. This is his debut novel, and an art mystery. Thought I’d give it a go. There are several artists doing art mysteries and if I like this I would have to do interlibrary loans for others. I read so much non-fiction that it’s nice to get a break with a good mystery.

John A: The Man Who Made Us by Richard J. Gwyn

The first of a two-volume biography. This book recently won the Charles Taylor prize for literary non-fiction in Canada. I scuttled down to the library I patronize in a town south of here and was pleased to find they had a copy. So far it’s been terrific, although Gwyn has an unfortunate writing style of frequently inserting commas to isolate one word or setting bits of a sentence apart in em dashes that interrupts the flow and becomes irritating. These affectations aren’t necessary.

He manages to make pre-Confederation parliament interesting. Usually in books about this we get a lot about the Family Compact, but Gwyn has kept the focus on developments and personalities that I don’t remember being featured in other Canadian history books.

I found the book bogged down slightly during the pages about Confederation. Hard to make political wrangling interesting, although I did find it fascinating that we weren’t quite the valued colony I had thought; they were happy to let us go. Anti-Americanism literally made Canada a country but our fear of the American military after the U.S. Civil War never came to fruition.

Zelda, An Illustrated Life : The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald edited by Eleanor Lanahan

I first became aware of Zelda’s ability as a painter when tracking down books and information on Alice and Wonderland early in 2007 to go with the Wonderland Tarot. Zelda did some marvelous paintings of Alice in Wonderland and I wanted to know more about her as an artist. I bought a biography about her but I really wanted a visual reference, so found this book by the Fitzgerald’s granddaughter. This is pretty much the only book dedicated to Zelda’s artistic endeavours and I had trouble tracking down a used copy. It’s excellent and has essays and personal observations, photographs, and Zelda’s artwork.

Much of her work was destroyed after her death unfortunately, but there is enough here to see her vision and vivacity. She was also an excellent writer and her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, plagiarized some of her writing for his books! A book with a focus on a woman who is probably best known for being “mad” but seems to have had an exuberant creative side rarely heard about or respected.

One of Zelda’s paper doll dresses is the inspiration for a bead embroidery necklace I am doing, so I am immersed in Zelda for a while.

Farthing by Jo Walton

I am familiar with author Jo Walton from this story that I enjoyed reading several years ago:
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/garden.htm

She is classified as a fantasy writer but I saw that she had a mystery novel set in an alternate history setting that seemed like it would be interesting. So I put a hold on it from the library, and I’m reading it now. It seems a bit light but I’m expecting it to pick up.

Whoa, and for 255 pages it was like an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers English country-house mystery, and then the underlying shift with the subtle stripping away of freedom by fascism comes to light, and escalates. Absolutely chilling for the last 60 pages. It was like a different book and all the more frightening for that.

There is a comment by Ursula Le Guin on the front cover that says:
If le Carré scares you, try Jo Walton. Of course, her brilliant story of democracy selling itself out to fascism sixty years ago is just a mystery, just a thriller, just a fantasy–of course we know nothing like that could happen now Don’t we?

Yeah be afraid, be very afraid.

Wicked Women by Fay Weldon (short stories)

I was surprised by how good this is. I have one of her books that is a favourite of mine called Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen , and she did a lovely adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for a television series from the BBC in 1980 which was charming.

How To Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

I keep this on my night table to reread bits and pieces as it’s a wonderfully timeless book. Get back to basics with Dale Carnegie, the original modern proponent of living in the “now.”