I agree with you that non-fiction can be fascinating. We just have to choose our books wisely.

Robby

Random thoughts about books and matters mentioned above: Robert Farnsworth, the actor in The Straight Story, died several days at (I think) age 80. I believe it was a suicide. I wonder if death would make him a sentimental favorite for an Oscar....I read very little fiction and am especially fond (if that's the word) of true crime. "Blind Faith" of maybe 15-20 years ago concerned a man in N.J. who wanted to get rid of his wife so he could take up with his paramour. He took the latter to restaurants, motels, etc., that I was familiar with because my folks had a condo nearby. As I recall, he did the killing himself....I don't know much about the ACLU's founder, Roger Baldwin. He and the organization certainly made a big difference in American life. But that doesn't mean his own life was interesting. Last night we attended the Illinois ACLU's annual bash. Christie Hefner of Playboy spoke (and used "my" quote from Judge Learned Hand that I posted under Democracy in America awhile back). Other speakers included ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Executive Director Ira Glasser. We went downtown Chicago Friday, planning to bum around, but it was very windy and the temp. was in the 40s, so very little bumming was accomplised. One exception: We did see Sue, the 42-foot T-Rex dinosaur at the Field Museum.

Ella:The hotel was overrun with Ohio State fans en route to Madison, Wis., for Saturday's game. But other than that, the downtown visit was pleasant!

The retiring head of the Illinois ACLU rose to say something like, "I rarely disagree with Christie. But I say that, if you've got a good case, sue the bastards! That's one of the best ways to publicize the Bill of Rights and educate the public about their Constitutional rights".

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This is an 11-volume set that I have partially read. Each volume stands on its own (running from Ancient History to Modern History) and I suggested that we pick one volume and discuss it. A couple of other people were also interested.

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I have met Ella in Ohio at a gathering and she is special to me, so it is so nice to meet you here Jeanne I will email you soon. watch for me please.

Ginger

"Alan Greenspan has invited me to lunch, probably because he thinks I whisper liberal thoughts into Bill's ear. He would like to win me over and learn what I'm whispering, so he can whisper the opposite into Bill's other ear....


We have never met before, but I instantly know him.... One look, one phrase, and I know where he grew up, how he grew up, where he got his drive and his sense of humor. He is New York. He is Jewish. He looks like my uncle Louis, his voice is my uncle Sam....How did my Jewish uncle get to be the most powerful man in the world?


We spend the next hour talking about all sorts of things-the extraordinary ability of the Japanese to duplicate and improve upon innovations from elsewhere; the culture of American impertinence; why productivity data fail to account for much of the real gains in productivity actually occurring; why the well-off in America are getting richer and the poor are growing poorer; the increasing importance of education and skills.....He flatters me by telling me that something I've said is interesting, that he had never thought of it. I suspect bullsh..."

Or about Jean Rhys . Her output was moderate; her books are mood pieces, one might say, one of the books is titled AFTER MR. MCKENZIE.

Or about Sylvia Plath (author of THE BELL JAR). Since the fairly recent death of Ted Hughes, her estrangedr husband and British Poet Laureate, some previously suppressed material has come to light and been made available.

After Plath's suicide he "managed" her literary estate, which included arbitrarily destroying vast portions of her journals. Ted Hughes and his formidable sister had rigid control over everything and anything that was published after Sylvia's death.

Nonfiction genera

Re Nonfiction in general : I have just ordered HEART by Gail Godwin .

That alleged Democrat, Clinton, helped guide "welfare reform" through Congress on the theory that, if we can just get those lazy welfare-recipients to take jobs, all will be well. But what kind of jobs are out there for the unskilled or minimally skilled? The answer seems to be: jobs so lousy that you have to work two or more of them to survive.

But I have no plans to participate unless the library comes up with a copy of "Nickel and Dimed".

ALF is right that money is in the eye of the beholder. Today I'm giving $4,000 to a non-profit organization (Ella and Lorrie--guess who!), but I find it wasteful to buy a hardcover book that will be free at the library, or cheaper in paperback, before long.

What I think we have here, mostly as a result of the misguided War On Drugs, is a prison industry. The public is alarmed about crime. The politicians are alarmed that the public is alarmed and may vote them out of office. Many small towns are alarmed that, in the new economy, they've lost their factories and other jobs to cities or overseas. One easy, simplistic answer: prisons! (As one warden said, "No prison ever closed down".)

There's lots more, but I'll shut up.

More later, if time allows.

And, speaking for myself: Leona Helmsley, Dr. Laura (not to be confused with Dr. Ruth), Madonna, Bette Midler. Oh, lots of things and folks don't remind men of sex.

A beautiful 3-year-old blonde, not an immigrant, flirted outrageously with me a couple of days ago, grinning and strutting, and it was fun and educational for both. I wish she weren't so trusting of strangers (mother wandered around, wasn't very attentive), but teaching her about wariness is not my job, nor is she old enough to understand that concept, no matter who tells her about it.

I think these should be of interest to those who consider themselves feminists, as consider myself. Sorry I lack the copy-and-paste skills to post them myself.

Thank you to the folks who have posted friendly words here.

The gist was, How can you have had a mother or any other woman who treated you with incredible kindness and not be a feminist?

(I suppose it should work the other way. But we don't have a word for manimist, do we, except for the piggy version?)

There are men who treat women with great kindness who are not necessarily trying (or able!) to get in their pants.

This is verbatim from p. 28 of the July 22 NYT mag book review, New and Noteworthy Paperbacks. I started this book but got involved in some other non-fiction discussion on SN. " 'Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing' by Ted Conover. The author, a journalist with a reformer's heart, recounts the year he spent under cover as a rookie correction officer, or 'newjack', at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y., where he struggled to maintain order within the anarchic cellblocks while keeping his own psyche and moral code intact. His report, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is a 'moving indictment of our ways of punishment,' Daniel Bergner wrote in the Book Review last year."

• Trees in front of a house will stop the good luck from coming in and therefore need to be chopped down.
• A house must not be lower than the street.
• A house cannot be at the top of a cul-de-sac or at the cross of a t where a street dead ends into another since all the bad luck comes up the street and into the house.
• A stair well cannot be straight and in the middle of the house or it will break the marriage in half.
• The backyard must be larger even if only by inches than the front yard.
• The house cannot have the number 4 in it's address since 4 means death in Chinese.
• The front door cannot open to a straight hall or be in line with the back door or a back window or all the good luck will go through and out the house.
• In the kitchen - sinks, stoves and refrigerators must all be on one side of the kitchen, no walkway seperating them as a group.
• All drains must be closed to keep luck from going down the drain. There is a bit of water in all sinks ( usually there is a flower floating in the water) all tank tops must be down.
• A desk needs to face the door.
• Business should be worked at from the northern part of the house with the entire room in view.
• It is best to have something in each room that is wood, a live plant, water, metal, stone(preferably stone floor), a candle or fireplace.
• A hillside house should have any hill on the north side of the house
• There should be 7 or 9 or 13 fish in a tank.
• Running water or a fish tank slows the good luck or chi down as does wind chimes and plants.
• Oranges are good luck on Chinese New Year

I'm asking you now, at the outset, to put aside your ideas about heroes and miracles, because I'm not storybook material. This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill (on his bike). You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.

Cancer is like that, too. Good, strong people get cancer, and they do all the right things to beat it, and they still die. That is the essential truth that you learn. People die. And after you learn it, all other matters seem irrelevant. They just seem small.

ALF, that's a great quote from Tom Clancy. How ironic that reality doesn't have to make sense but fiction does! That's one reason I prefer non-fiction: the "plot" can blind-side you without being devious: You may not believe it, but this really happened!

Handsome Ted Bundy (for example) killed (how many?) women--and women fawned over him even after he was on death row. It would never make it as fiction because it makes no sense.

He had an old car, maybe a Studebaker, that he had rigged up to float; of course, guests didn't know that. He would drive them down toward the river, then frantically go through the motions of hitting the brakes, which didn't work. Before the car began to float, guests probably thought they were about to die. (Though when I saw the Pedernales at the ranch, around 1980, it looked like you might be able to get out and walk.)

As a teenager, Scott admitted, "I knew I was 'fresh' and not popular with the older boys. Generally - I knew that at bottom I lacked the essentials. And at the last crisis, I knew I had no real courage, perseverance or self-respect."

--Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sonnet XXX.

The ascent triggered something in me. As I churned upward, I reflected on my life, back to all points, my childhood, my early races, my illness and how it changed me... I saw my life as a whole. I saw the pattern and the privilege of it, and the purpose of it, too. It was simply this: I was meant for a long, hard climb.

People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong—a world-class athlete nearly struck down in his prime, who fought back to win the world's most grueling test of cycling. It's Not About the Bike is the amazing story of Armstrong's long, hard climb from inauspicious beginnings through early success, near-fatal cancer, recovery, victory in the Tour de France, marriage, and first-time fatherhood. Told in Armstrong's down-to-earth Texas style, it's an unforgettable story about tragedy, transformation and ultimate triumph.

From a newspaper article: "We read non-fiction to grow intellectually, and reading fiction helps us grow emotionally". I don't think it's nearly as clear-cut as that.

But some folks love that life. The monied ones can spend up to a million for "homes" with all sorts of electronic gadgetry. I read that a set of new tires can cost $5,000.

Gville supposedly has the densest tree canopy of any city its size in the country. Many are pines, 60 feet or more. But in deep winter, this is not tropical Florida. At night it can get to freezing or a little below.

Yes, I have posted this under Pop Music Memory Lane.

And I remember McCarthy well, too. I have to wonder if McCarthy really believed in his witch-hunts, or if he just recognized it as a rewarding political cheap shot. After all, the Communist party was tiny and ineffectual, its membership including a fair share of undercover FBI agents.

From outdoor photos and movies of the '30s, '40s, and '50s, you may also notice that, while not all men smoked, nearly all men wore hats. Today, if folks our (or any) age wear hats, they're probably baseball caps.

And then there are our requisite naps!

I remember Murrow's Person to Person (as well as See It Now). My family knew the musicians' union "czar", Jimmy Petrillo (James Caesar Petrillo, as the press took care to point out), who was featured on a Person to Person. I remember, as a kid, being impressed that they ran cables up 34 stories (or whatever) to his condo apartment to do the show. We visited that apartment, around 800 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, many times. Petrillo was a colorful, charming, witty guy--a very good subject for a one-on-one interview. We downed a few Heinekens together--he, my dad, and I.

I became an inveterate fan of MD's decades ago after reading A SUMMER BIRD-CAGE and from then on read everything I could lay my hands on : THE GARRICK YEAR, JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN, THE NEEDLE'S EYE, THE REALMS OF GOLD and others.

But Drabble lost me with THE ICE AGE, and I simply could not get into THE RADIANT WAY (1987), the story of three women friends who met at Cambridge and what happened to them in the next 25 years. And I wondered whether possibly something was wrong with me, the enthusiastic reader and fan. I am glad to see that the fault was not entirely mine.

As for the rivalry between MD and her sister, I find it sad and most regrettable. Clearly, both are enormously gifted writers and have been recognized and honored as such. But what would prompt them to try and outdo each other so energetically at every turn ? Was it basic insecurity ? What do they need to prove, to whom, and why ?

Thank you for your posts.

thank you for the singular gift you have given us by sharing Susie Mackenzie's interview of MD with us. I have always regretted that this immensely gifted author is not better known in this country. Your recent posts delighted and inspired me so much that I began rereading THE REALMS OF GOLD last night.

It is an unusually stimulating novel of ideas : Drabble weaves metaphysics into the daily life; her characters may casually discuss Freud and Schopenhauer or chat about the effects of heredity and environment, but they also throw crockery at each other when angry, drink a bit too much and wish they could behave more sensibly than they do.

Ginny and Viogert, this book would be a wonderful introduction to the work of MD; 'easy' it is not, but I would be pleased if it were chosen for our fiction folder.

• Waiting-- not hoping, not expecting, not fearing--just waiting. Whatever you are facing-- an insoluble problem, an overwhelming threat, or an impending conflict-- is entirely out of your hands.

  Although the problem is yours, its outcome is completly dependent on the actions of others. Although the threat is aimed directly at you, the threatner has the control over its being carried out. If you are constantly hoping for a way out, then you are living an unrealistic fantasy. If you are constantly expectant, guarded, watchful, then the problem has taken over your life; instead of avoiding it, you have let it consume you. Neither hope, expect, nor fear.

  Any action is your expression of hope, expectation, or fear. because it is impossible for you to affect the situation in any way ...if you wait in the knowledge of universal perfection then nothing and no one can have any affect on you.
  
  

• Free and harmonious human actions -- free of motivation and expectation. You desire nothing, so what ever you receive is a blessing; you expect nothing so whatever occurs is fresh and unexpected.
  
  
• An artist has the ability to discover and delineate forms and patterns that have a universal meaning. Your work communicates with others through universality of form-- beauty. The currently widely accepted view that the work of the artist is synonymous with "self-expression" is misleading. (this and all these "quotes" if you will, is taken from a translation in 1974 by Sam Reifler of work ascribed to be written 2,000 B.C. and practiced since 8,000 B.C.)

  In your personal life you may express your hopes, fears, pride, shame, political views, theories, best loved foods or views of the mountain; however as an artist whatever you express is the medium for the beauty of the expression, which has little to do with personal meaning.

  The artist is misunderstood. Your art is not the content of your work or life, but its form. You become other; an activity seems to be ordinary, natural, thoughtless, easy, the reflection of truth-- a work of art. Do not undertake anything that you consider important or crucial. Do not hold back in small matters, though.
  
  

• Enthusiasm is the music that moves. This is the music that gathers and inspires feelings of brotherhood and common cause. It is the music without pretension that seeks and woos and loves those who listen.
  
  
• Change is eternal and relentless. When life seems stable, static, and unchanging, the changes taking place are on levels that aren't part of the structure of form and idea; such change relates to us and involve us, but we cannot perceive or define them.

  Do not resist change. Do not ignore them or consider yourself above them. Revolution is a game--so is acting out every verbalized concept. At times this game is not irrelevant - it is direct, the manisfestation of the Universal flux. You must join it, accept it, be it. The wave of the future is no more; the wave is now. Try to remain stable on what seems solid, you will lose your balance. If you accept the inevitablity of the present moment, then you will ride out the present widespread catastrophe wiser and stronger.
  
  

• If the spine is totally at rest, the mind overcome the illusion of ego, that fosters man's alienation from the world around him. Do not express passion for either pleasure or conflict, increase or decrease, abundance or difficulty; be still, the moment is fulfilled, moving away is moving from the ideal perfect past. Be at peace with yourself although in conflict with outside elements. Do not value the glorious past over the difficult present or you will become brittle and immobile.

• If you are intent on the end and not the means than you are not a well written author or reader.
  
  
• "Waiting" has a basis in Madam Bovery and Fathers and Sons
  
  
• Writing well is a connection to other great works.
  
  
• Ha Jin writes for the small movement that he considers the magic in a story.
  
  
• A good writer does not direct a message but a message is uncovered while writing and reading.

Robby

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"Roger Williams was the most compelling figure in Colonial America and was, first and last, a champion of the individual against the entrenched power of any establishment, but such commitment had a cruel price. Banished by his fellow colonists in the dead of winter, he endured years of exile among the Narragansett Indians.

Ella: You obviously get much better service from your library than I get from mine. I'm back home in Illinois and just got a note from my Florida library saying that "The Corrections" is ready to be picked up. That discussion ended in March or April, I think.

“From New York Times Book Review "[Greene] delineates one of the most significant cultural divides in America—between the deeply dutiful World War II generation and its more cynical and radically individualistic descendants

Robby

Gollob studies WS and begins to teach a Shakespeare course for seniors. He takes the reader along to his classroom, on visits to the Folger, to encounters with directors and actors, to an Oxford course on Shakespeare and a trip to the Globe Theatre. Interspersed with WS is the author's family history and personal experiences. The bookjacket includes admiring, funny, irreverent reviews from authors who worked with Gollob (writers Dan Jenkins, Michael Korda, Thomas Cahill, and Bob Greene).

So far I'm enjoying this book immensely but don't know how to classify it beyond being non-fiction -- memoir? Has anyone else read this book? What did you think of it?

Marvelle

From the last lines of Chapter 1 in "Me and Shakespeare":

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I like this passage (p. 106) from a felon convicted by FBI-Director-to-Be Louis Freeh:

"Earlier this year you sentenced me to twenty years in prison. But I want you to know that of the five judges who have sentenced me to prison, you have been by far the fairest, and I endorse your nomination to be director of the FBI".

I'm not sure of it that's honesty, chutzpah, hilarity, or some combination thereof.

Robby

Of course, this has no relevancy to the merits of his writing.

It begins with 22 pages of his telephonic flirting with the widowed Jackie Kennedy ("sweetie", "darling"). He knew she could be helpful to him, particularly because of Bobby's obvious hostility.

Not very gentlemanly to secretly record a grieving widow's words. But, as the saying goes, "Politics ain't beanbag". Better post this before AOL cuts me off.

I have extremely mixed feelings about LBJ. I didn't vote for Kennedy/Johnson in '60 because I disliked Kennedy and loathed Johnson. (Obviously, I didn't vote for Nixon either).

In '64, following what the book blurb calls "more basic laws than any American President before or since" (voting rights, Medicare, etc.), I voted enthusiastically for LBJ. But by '68, I (a veteran) was in the streets with the hippies and Eugene McCarthy admirers. The blurb again: "You will hear him sending young Americans off to Vietnam while privately insisting that the war can never be won".

Change of subject: Boswell's Presumptuous Task, a biography of the most famous biographer in the English language--James Boswell, who wrote a famed biography of Samuel Johnson (who?). Review: "To attempt the biography of the greatest biographer of them all is a literary high-wire act indeed--yet one which (the author) has accomplished with great success and in splendid style".--Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman.

Navigator Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, pilot Paul W. Tibbets and weaponeer Morris Jeppson are the only surviving Enola Gay crew members.

Marvelle

Here's a new non-fiction book titled, "Searching For Hassan" by Terrence Ward. You will really enjoy this story of an American family who returns to Iran to search for their old cook/general handy man and his family who took care of the Wards in the 60's-70's. In 1998, they find a somewhat 'safe' way to return and end up taking a personal tour of Iran on the way to the man's supposed hometown. The descriptive writing is like reading something from Arabian Nights. The colors, the markets, the market goods--fruits, vegetables, spices--- the sights and sounds are described so well that you feel like you are right there. The comments on the history of Iran(Persia) and its new republic government were new to me. The mutual respect between the two families is quite a testimony. A quote from Hassan:"Remember, if you open the eye of your heart, then you can see things that cannot be seen."

Yes, Ella, I have a quorum. What do I do now?

I have changed my email and sent out notices of it. Also, noted the change here in my info folder.

Marvelle

Religion Related Books

Nonfiction Summer Reads

I have five books awaiting closer scrutiny for the two discussions that I am going to be involved in, in June. I need a another brain!!

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"Take wheat, when it's ripe and a strong wind comes along, it's laid flat on the ground and it never rises again. But buckwheat yields to the wind, is flattened and when the wind passes, it rises up just as straight as ever. Wheat people can't stand a wind. Buckwheat people can."

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" I wanted to prove that facing the elements until one is beyond exhaustion has nothing to do with being a man. Anyone who trains hard enough can do amazing things, I said to myself. I should have said, "Anyone who obsesses hard enough and ignores common sense can be amazingly stupid."

"If that person feels she is honouring a calling from somewhere deep inside -- one that makes her feel lonely and displaced when safe, and complete and truly human when a single slip means death -- so be it. Just don't call it heroic.Call it selfish and self-absorbed, advises Coffey, who lived for three years with climber Joe Tasker before he died on Everest."

Marvelle

"Wilson remains puzzling in a way that Lloyd George (of Great Britain) and Clemenceau (France) do not. What is one to make of a leader who drew on the most noble language of the Bible yet was so ruthless with those who crossed him? Who loved democracy but despised most of his fellow politicians."

Wilson spoke bluntly to a British official: "You must not speak of us who come over here as cousins, still less as brothers; we are neither." He went on to explain that many Americans were from other cultures and it was foolish to make too much of the fact that both nations spoke English.

Past practice offered little guidance for the new order that Wilson wanted. The rights of conquest and victory were woven deeply into European history-the Napoleonic wars, for example, where the victors helped themselves to what they wanted, whether land or art treasures.

Wilson believed that human nature was fundamentally good. Clemenceau had his doubts; he told Wilson that "we too came into the world with the noble instincts and the lofty aspirations which you express so often and so eloquently.

The French government tried to arrange a tour of the battlefields for Wilson, the devastated regions of their country, but he refused angrily saying he would not be manipulated like this; the peace must be made calmly and without emotion.