Metamorphosis from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo.
My list:
book – The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow. I just started reading this. I like it so far; statistics is just about the only math I can stand.
sample – The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, by the Dalai Lama. I just read the first half of the sample. Given the easy prose and fascinating insights, I will probably get this book.
sample – God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Didn’t read the sample yet, so I have no opinion on this one.
sample – Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. I heard her on NPR. Sounded interesting so I downloaded the sample. Haven’t read it yet.
sample – Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling. I heard a snippet of a review or interview on NPR. Sounded interesting. Haven’t read it yet.
free book – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. You can get this for free at http://www.manybooks.net. It took two seconds to download to my computer. The last time I cracked open the ginormous doorstop that is my complete works was at least 15 years ago. I tried to read a poem in it right before I downloaded the free copy: the damn text was too small. So, goodbye doorstop, hello Kindle version.
free book – The Collected Works of Poe. Another freebie courtesy of http://www.manybooks.net. My good friend told me she read The Masque of the Red Death to her seven year old daughter for a bedtime story. Her daughter told me it was really good, but very creepy. They reminded me how much I like Poe. My favorite is the Cask of Amontillado. I’m looking forward to re-reading it.
free book – Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. Another freebie. Would you believe I have never read this?
book – Survival of the Sickest by Moalem Sharon. This book is fabulous. Have you ever wondered why humans carry around so many genetic diseases and just plain strange mutations (blue eyes, hairy arms) in our genome? This book answers a few of those questions and provides a number of good theories about the rest. I highly recommend this book.
sample – Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson. Didn’t read the sample yet, but I’m one of those people who is convinced that our culture is not deteriorating. This book speaks about that idea. I mean, have you ever tried to play Hexic or Empire Earth and answer your email at the same time? Do you know how much brain power that takes? Not to mention trying to keep up with the plethora of information that is the web. It’s an intellectual’s nirvana, our 21st century. I haven’t read the sample yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
sample – Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Steven Johnson. I have no idea what this one’s about but I absolutely loved the title. We’ll see.
sample – All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists by Terry Gross. She hosts my favorite NPR show, Fresh Air. I bet this book is going to be great.
book – The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster-Bujold. This is the third in a great fantasy series by a writer who has the uncanny ability to write in more than one persona. That is rare. Most writers have one voice and a few different characters they can believably manage to fool the reader into thinking are valid persons. Lois writes in wildly different characters and dialects with every series.
poem – Supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. One of my poems.
sample – Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar. Haven’t read the sample yet. I’m skeptical that any book can give a person a formula for happiness, but I’m willing to read anything at least once.
book – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. I’m halfway through this one. Her suggestions regarding character motivation when writing are brilliant.
sample – Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers by Carolyn See. I haven’t read the sample yet, but Carolyn wrote what might be my favorite (non sci-fi/fantasy) novel of all time: The Handyman. I’m willing to give it a try.
poem – The star trails of Kilimanjaro. Another one of my poems.
book – Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley. Another great book by another great fantasy writer. This one is remarkably original and in the world of dragon fantasy, that’s a nearly impossible feat to manage.
Greetings!
The tenth issue of Autumn Sky Poetry is now online.
Read poems by Elizabeth H. Barbato, John Byrne, Bebe Cook, Kathryn Good-Schiff, Christina Kapp, Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Nic Sebastian, Cheryl Snell, Farren Stanley, and S. Thomas Summers.
—It’s all about the poetry.
Sincerely,
Christine Klocek-Lim, Editor
because, you know, death happens when your head explodes after a long fall from a high place. So, how is this in any way a good idea?
I finally canceled the maid service I’ve had since I broke my ankle last August. My ankle is sorta better and the cleaners cost a fair bit of money. They did a nice job vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms, BUT they could not know that my younger son collects stuff. Lots of stuff. As in truckloads of cardboard, wood, screws, metal, branches, tape, glue, boxes, plastic, fabric, stones, etc.
My boys like to make things from this raw material, which is great. Very creative and non-conventional. Except I had a broken ankle and in the ensuing months of healing, I neglected to crawl upstairs to see what had been happening. I figured, hey, how bad can it get in a few months? So what if he couldn’t find his underwear?
So, today I decided to clean the boys’ bathroom (first time since I canceled the cleaners). I made the mistake of glancing into my son’s room on the way to the tub. His stuff went up to the ceiling. If it all had caught fire, we would be dead and my son would have been the first one to go. There was no way to get to the windows to jump out because I couldn’t see the windows. Hell, there was no way to get to the DOOR of his bedroom. He must have been crawling through a tunnel to get to bed at night. Thus, the 12 garbage bags of STUFF.
Never again. I have to go up there at least once a week and make him throw stuff out. It was that bad.
Again. Yet another surgery. Happily this one was voluntary, but still, weird. Soon I will start writing again and bicycling again and generally feeling like myself again, but right now I’m hiding in my bedroom with a good book and some chocolate.
Well, my friend Brenda tagged me. Cool. 🙂
And in turn, I tag Larina and Julie.
I was probably a bug. Wouldn’t suprise me a bit.
War of the Roses. I actually walked out of the theater in the middle.
What is your favourite word?
This changes depending on my mood. My latest favorite word is disheartened. Or maybe discombobulated. Do I have to pick?
but not my last. . .
Christine Klocek-Lim 