Some of you might enjoy this poem. Some of you might need this poem.
Being alone is really rather lovely sometimes. A rhythm of alone time and people time is the best.
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Poetry Friday: Poem #30, Lucy II by William Wordsworth
“Poetry is ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings . . . recollected in tranquility.'”~William Wordsworth
Sir William WordsWords proved to be quite popular back when I did my poetry survey, with three poems in the Top 100 list. Wordsworth’s Lucy poems are comprised of five poems written between the years of 1798 and 1801. Nobody knows quite who this Lucy person was, or even if she was a real girl or just a figment of Mr. Wordsworth’s imagination. However, she seems to have evoked some powerful feelings in Mr. Wordsworth.
Charles Lamb said that Lucy II was one of his favorite poems from Lyrical Ballads, the famous collection of peoms by Wordsworth and Coleridge that initiated the Romantic movement in poetry and literature. Keats also singled out this particular poem for praise.
VIII
Composed 1799, publ 1800
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love;
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
– Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!
The poem rather reminds me of Engineer Husband’s favorite movie, It’s a Wonderful Life!
Today’s Poetry Friday Round-up is at Laura Shovan’s blog, Author Amok.
Today, by the way, is Tennyson’s birthday. We’ll get to him soon.
Sunday Salon: Shakespeare and Company
We’re back from our annual pilgrimage to Winedale where we saw the University of Texas summer program students perform two plays: Macbeth and Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night was Friday night, and all of the family who were able to go this year enjoyed the comedy together. Twelfth Night is not my favorite play. Malvolio evokes my sympathy as the victim of a cruel practical joke, and I feel uncomfortable laughing at him. I know he’s vain, but other than that his worst fault is that he wants Sir Toby and his drinking buddies to “amend your drunkenness” and settle down. Anyway, everybody makes a fool of himself or herself in Twelfth Night, and the only one who doesn’t get a happy ending is poor, vain Malvolio, who whimpers an empty threat of revenge as the play limps to a close. The student who played Malvolio, by the way, did an excellent job, and therefore made the character even more the central enigma of the play as he engaged my contradictory emotions of ridicule and sympathy.
What other people have said about Twelfth Night:
“The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life.” ~Samuel Johnson.
“Refined minds today are apt to find the trick put upon him as distasteful, his persecution too cruel. Elizabethans enjoyed that sort of thing; we are no better–though our sympathies may well be with him, endeavouring to do his duty and keep some order in the house among the hangers-on, drunks, and wasters.” ~AL. Rowse, Introduction to Twelfth Night.
“Everyone, except the reluctant jester, Feste, is essentially mad without knowing it. When the wretched Malvolio is confined in the dark room for the insane, he ought to be joined there by Orsino, Olivia, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Maria, Sebastian, Antonio, and even Viola, for the whole ninefold are at least borderline in their behavior.” ~Harold Bloom, Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human.
“It is a wildly improbable, hugely entertaining fantasy. And just beneath the surface are life’s darkest, most terrible truths.” ~Ed Friedlander, Enjoying Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
“If this were play’d upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.” ~Fabian in Twelfth Night.
Macbeth I found the more congenial of the two plays, even though “congenial” is an odd word to use about a play filled with murder, betrayal, and evil witchery. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are thorough-going villains and deserve the end they get. Malvolio’s pride only leads him to be foolish and absurd and pathetically vengeful. Macbeth and his lady screw their (malevolent) courage to the sticking place, literally, and commit bloody, violent murder and then they both go really, truly insane, not just pretend-mad like Malvolio and his tormentors.
I guess I can imagine myself in Malvolio’s place, being made ridiculous by a bunch of practical jokers and by my own stupidity, but the evil deeds of the Macbeth duo are beyond me. So Twelfth Night makes me more uncomfortable than Macbeth, and I can watch Macbeth with a more detached feeling.
The students who played Macbeth and Lady Macbeth gave a chilling and superb performance. I did feel sorry for poor, tormented Macbeth, somewhat against my will, and I was glad to think that I know no Lady Macbeth who would goad her husband to such vile murderous deeds. At least, I don’t think I know anyone quite that far gone.
All in all, our weekend in the country was an enjoyable success. In addition to the plays, I finished two books, Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper and Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card, and started a third, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. I’ll write more about the three books soon, I hope.
If you get a chance to see some Shakespeare this month, or anytime, I highly recommend it.
In Which I Am Born
In 1957, the year I was born, Ed Sullivan had Elvis on his show for the third time, showed him only from the waist up, and said: “This is a real decent, fine boy. We’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you. You’re thoroughly all right.”
Published in 1957:
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
If Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout.
Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot
Movies released in 1957:
Loving You with Elvis Presley.
Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley.
The Bridge on the River Kwai with Alec Guinness, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
On the actual day of my birth an earthquake shook Mexico City and Acapulco. But I doubt if my mom noticed it way out in West Texas.
Also born on July 28th (not 1957): Beatrix Potter, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Last year I wrote a list of lists and a bit of a meditation on the number 52. 52 is an interesting number with lots of associations. It’s a good number for lists, and I used it this year a few times to confine and order my thoughts in certain areas:
52 Ways to Celebrate Independence Day
52 Things That Fascinate Me
Summer Reading: 52 Picks for the Hols
I have several other lists of 52 in the works. I think I’ll stick with 52 (and 12) for lists; it just feels right.
53 is more solitary. It’s prime. In fact, it’s an Eisenstein prime. Whatever that means. And 53 is a self number. 53 is obviously not a number for links and lists and affiliations and organization. 53 is independent and somewhat isolated. It’s unique.
For this year, I’ll enjoy being 53, somewhat solitary, odd, and eccentric. Perhaps I’ll even be reclusive at times, as much as one can be reclusive in a family of ten people. I enjoy alone and different and distinctive and slightly idiosyncratic. 53 is the number of countries in Africa, so I’ll continue to work on my African reading project. But 53 isn’t the number for much else. It stands alone.
But at the same time, I still get to be 52. I still get to make lists and connections and relationships. Life, like numbers, has a rhythm. Pull back and enjoy your individual times of 53-ness, and then be 52 or 12 or whatever age the Lord has given you to be and fill the year with people and books and written words and encouragement and the messiness and joy of relationships.
That’s how I plan to celebrate this next year of becoming what God has for me.
And I might memorize Isaiah 53, a very 53-ish passage of scripture:
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Books About Teddy
Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris.
Theodore Roosevelt is one of my fascinations. I read McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback back in March, but I never got around to reviewing it. It was a lovely narrative biography of the young Teddy Roosevelt and a good attempt to bring to light some of the influences and experiences in his childhood and youth that made Teddy Roosevelt the man he became. However, the book stops rather abruptly just as young Theodore is on the brink of his national political career. I was primed and eager for more “Teedy” after reading Mornings.
A few Teddy-isms:
“For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”
“There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.”
“Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
“I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” Teddy’s response to a request to better control the behavior of his eldest daughter, Alice Roosevelt.
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
“I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more.”
“If I’m to go, it’s all right. You see that the others don’t stop for me . . . I’ve the shortest span of life ahead of any in the party. If anyone is to die here, I must be the one.”
That last statement was made to a member of Roosevelt’s expedition through the Amazon when Roosevelt was so seriously ill with fever and infection that he was not expected to survive to complete the journey of exploration. On this expedition Theodore Roosevelt was 55 years old, and until his leg became infected he could keep up with or outlast any man in the group.
Theodore Roosevelt became president at forty-two, when William McKinley was assassinated. Although he wasn’t the youngest man ever elected president (that was Kennedy, age 43), Teddy was the youngest to become president. When TR’s second term was over, he was still only fifty years old, making him the youngest ex-president, too.
T.R., b. 1858, is my favorite of all the presidents. I don’t say he was the best or the wisest or the one I would most agree with politically, but he would definitely be the most interesting dinner guest of all the presidents. He was a talented politician and statesman, but he was also real and straightforward and ingenuous. That’s an amazing combination.
What people said about Teddy Roosevelt:
“Look out for Theodore. He’s not strong, but he’s all grit. He’ll kill himself before he’ll even say he’s tired.” ~A doctor who knew young Teddy Roosevelt.
“Now look–that d— cowboy is President of the United States!” ~Senator Mark Hanna after hearing of McKinley’s assassination.”
“You must always remember that the President (TR) is about six.” ~Cecil Spring RIce
“One subject I do know, and ought to know, is the birds. It has been one of the main studies of a long life He (TR) knew the subject as well as I did, while he knew with the same thoroughness scores of other subjects of which I am entirely ignorant.” ~Naturalist John Burroughs.
“Mr. Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political world of the twentieth century; always showing off; always hunting for a chance to show off; in his frenzied imagination the Great Republic is a vast Barnum circus with him for a clown and the whole world for audience; he would go to Halifax for half a chance to show off and he would go to hell for a whole one.” ~Mark Twain
“And talk! I never saw a man who talked so much. He would talk all the time he was in swimming, all of the time during meals, traveling in the canoe and at night around the camp fire. He talked endlessly and on all conceivable subjects.” ~Brazilian Colonel Candido Rondon who led with TR an expedition down the previously unexplored River of Doubt in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
“The truth is, he believes in war and wishes to be a Napoleon and to die on the battle field. He has the spirit of the old berserkers.” ~William Howard Taft.
Teddy Roosevelt “read so rapidly that he had to plan very carefully in order to have enough books to last him through a trip.” ~Roosevelt’s son, Kermit.
“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there’d have been a fight.” ~Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-president of the U.S.
“Never before has it been so hard for me to accept the death of any man as it has been for me to accept the death of Theodore Roosevelt. A pall seems to settle upon the very sky. The world is bleaker and colder for his absence from it. We shall not look upon his like again.” ~John Burroughs
I saw River of Doubt at a bookstore in South Dakota, and I had to buy it. After viewing Teddy’s unmistakeable visage on Mount Rushmore and then seeing the Badlands Teddy’s old stomping grounds, I had to read about this Amazonian journey of exploration undertaken after Roosevelt’s disappointing loss in a bid for a third term as president. Teddy Roosevelt was intrepid and courageous to a fault, and he lived for adventure. At the age of 55 a trip down an unexplored South American river in canoes passing through the territory of savage and violent native tribal peoples who had never seen a white man before should have been out of the question. And the fact that the trip almost ended Roosevelt’s life makes it all the more fascinating.
I’m still reading the my third book about Theodore Roosevelt, a biography that begins with TR’s sudden elevation to the presidency. I’m finding it just as interesting and inspiring as the other two were. I’m not tempted to undertake any physical feats of daring and bravery, but I do want to live as passionately as Teddy Roosevelt. Don’t you know that heaven itself is a more lively and passion-filled place because God created Theodore Roosevelt and took him to explore the universe of God’s creation?
100 Movies of Summer: North by Northwest (1959)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Ernest Lehman
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau.
Karate Kid says: The movie had a fairly interesting plot, but I didn’t like it that much because it didn’t confuse me. I thought it was predictable.
Betsy-Bee says: The movie wasn’t really scary, but it got my attention when the suspenseful parts came.
Z-baby says: It was about a guy getting mistaken for somebody else. He got drugged and arrested, and they were chasing him.
Mom says: I like North by Northwest because I like Cary Grant. And some of the scenes are unforgettable: Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) running through the corn fields to get away from the crop duster assassin, Thornhill and Eve Kendall climbing around on Mt. Rushmore, the flirting on the train and the meeting in the woods.
Some lovely dialog, too:
Thornhill: In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration.
Roger Thornhill: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve Kendall: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger Thornhill: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve Kendall: Then again, she might not.
Roger Thornhill: What’s wrong with men like me?
Eve Kendall: They don’t believe in marriage.
Roger Thornhill: I’ve been married twice.
Eve Kendall: See what I mean?
Roger Thornhill: I don’t like the games you play, Professor.
The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill. Even when it’s a cold one.
Roger Thornhill: If you fellows can’t whip the VanDamm’s of this world without asking girls like her to bed down with them and probably never come back, perhaps you should lose a few cold wars.
The Professor: I’m afraid we’re already doing that.
IMDB link for North By Northwest
Screen shot gallery for North by Northwest.
Buy North by Northwest at Amazon.
100 Movies of Summer: Unforgiven (1992)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, RIchard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Frances Fisher
Mom says: When writing about the movie Red River, I said, “Dunson shoots or threatens to shoot a few men in cold blood basically for just getting in his way or challenging his authority, and that part was rather shocking to my youngest (and to me).” Now that I’ve seen Unforgiven, Red River would be a walk in the park.
Unforgiven is a western about cowboys and gunslingers, too. The movie begins with a shocking scene of graphic violence when a cowboy cuts up a prostitute’s face because she says something he doesn’t like. It get worse after that. I lost track of the body count towards the end. The language is crude, profane, and socially unacceptable. None of the characters is really very likable or sympathetic.
But what really bothered me were all the moments when I felt as if I were left hanging. I kept asking over and over again, “What the heck was that?” Why did Clint Eastwood’s character, William Munny, suddenly decide to leave his kids and go kill somebody after eight or nine years of peaceful pig-farming? Why did his friend Ned go with him? What was the significance of Little Bill’s bad carpentry? Comic relief? Or was he living in a shaky house, metaphorically speaking? Why were the prostitutes so vengeful and willing so spend so much money to get revenge? Why were two cowboys held responsible for the knife cutting when only one of them did it? What happened to the journalist fellow? Why was he in the movie at all? Why couldn’t Ned shoot at the critical moment? Why could Will shoot at all of the critical moments? Was the point of the movie that people never really change? If so, why does the Kid seem to learn from his violent act that he’s not really a killer at all?
Maybe the point of the movie was that people are crazy and unfathomable and don’t follow the movie western formulas. Although I easily can believe that, I don’t want to think about the fact that I inhabit a world in which violence and murder are so easy for some, the “unforgiven”, and so shattering and unrepeatable to others (the forgiven?). If the goal of the movie was to make me think and to turn movie conventions on their heads, Unforgiven was successful. I just don’t want to spend much time thinking about what the creators of this movie gave me to ponder–mostly a lot of unanswered questions and raw, violent brokenness and spiritual emptiness.
Key quote:
The Schofield Kid: [after killing a man for the first time] It don’t seem real… how he ain’t gonna never breathe again, ever… how he’s dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger.
Will Munny: It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.
The Schofield Kid: Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming.
Will Munny: We all got it coming, kid.
I don’t recommend this movie for children (rated R), and I actually felt uncomfortable with my 13-year old watching it. He lost interest fairly quickly, though. Adults who are interested in the western genre might find the movie has “redeeming qualities.” Not my favorite, but it did make me think.
100 Movies of Summer: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Director: Otto Preminger
Writer: Screenplay adapted by Wendell Mayes from the novel by John D. Voelker
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, Arthur O’Connell, George C. Scott
Mom says: The actors in this movie were of particular interest:
Jimmy Stewart is always good. The unassuming, but brilliant, country lawyer who outsmarts the big city sophisticates has become a cliche, but my man Stewart does the role with panache and credibility.
Lee Remick plays a beautiful and enigmatic young wanton, Laura Manion, and she has the allure to pull it off. She may be one of the most beautiful actresses I’ve ever seen. She was offered the role after first choice Lana Turner had a disagreement with director Otto Preminger.
Duke Ellington did the musical score for the movie, and he makes a cameo appearance.
George C. Scott plays prosecuting attorney, Claude Dancer. (Isn’t that a great name for a prosecutor? I wonder if it’s from the novel.) I couldn’t place him. I knew I knew him, but in this movie he’s so young. I just didn’t associate him with grizzled old Patton.
Ben Gazzara is, of course, Paul Bryan, the fugitive in Run for Your Life. In Anatomy of a Murder, Gazzara is Lt. Frederick Manion, on trial for shooting the man who raped his lovely young wife. He’s not a sympathetic character.
The movie keeps you guessing to the end. Did he or didn’t he? Was he justified? Was he insane? I thought it was a very cynical movie. Nothing is as it seems. No one can really be trusted. Defendants don’t really get exonerated as they do in Perry Mason, but rather they get off on a technicality or a mistaken doubt on the part of the jury.
Maybe that’s the way the world really is, but I prefer tales of innocence vindicated or guilt revealed and punished. I can see why it’s a good movie. Lee Remick, especially, gave a brilliant performance. The story reminded me of the perennially popular novels of John Grisham, right down to the jaded view of justice and the courtroom drama. But Grisham is more hopeful somehow.
The only hopeful thing about this movie was Jimmy Stewart’s indefatigable and irrepressible attitude. You just can’t keep a good man down.
I read the first chapter of Anatomy of a Murder by (Judge) John D. Voelker here. I might like to read the rest of it someday and compare it to the movie.
Link to Anatomy of a Murder at IMDB.
Buy Anatomy of a Murder at Amazon.
100 Movies of Summer: Adam’s Rib (1949)
Director: George Cukor
Writers: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin
Starring, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy
Brown Bear Daughter says: Good movie. Very feminist, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the feminism was sort of undermined in the end when Spencer Tracy fakes tears in order to get Katherine Hepburn back, saying later that he only did what all women do. Ehhh.. I guess I think the wife (the one on trial) was sort of crazy, and I don’t believe that someone of the male sex is actually more likely to be exonerated from such a crime.
Mom says: Not bad, but I think neither the feminists nor the traditional marriage crowd would be completely pleased with this story of husband and wife who are both lawyers litigating against one another in the same court case. She says the woman who shot her adulterous husband should be acquitted because a man who did the same thing to his wife and her lover would be exonerated. He says the law is the law, and people shouldn’t be allowed to go around waving and shooting loaded guns at each other. I’m on his side.
However, when the characters in the film go on to argue about the nature of marriage itself, I’m not so sure I’m with Mr. Tracy/Assistant DA Adam Bonner nor with Ms. Hepburn/Amanda Bonner. He says something to the effect that marriage is not meant to be a competition and implies that defense attorney Bonner isn’t “fighting fair.” She says at the end of the movie that “there’s no difference between the sexes. Men, women, the same.” Nonsense. If it’s legal and the judge allows it, it’s fair in the courtroom. And of course there’s a huge difference between the sexes, thank the Lord.
According to IMDB, the movie screenplay was “inspired by the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William Dwight Whitney and Dorothy Whitney, who represented Raymond Massey and his ex-wife Adrienne Allen in their divorce. After the Massey divorce was over, the Whitneys divorced each other and married the respective Masseys.” Adam’s Rib is comedy, so you can guess that the ending
Sunday Salon: 20 Examples That Feed My Fascinations
Last week, I gave you a list of 52 things that fascinate me. This week I’m going to list some specific examples of the stuff that fascinates and gives joy and makes me think.
1. Crayola Monologues: I found this video in a list at First Things.
2. Carol at Magistra Mater recommends five five-star books. Carol’s entire blog is fascinating. She says, “My goal is to make my home a light, a sanctuary, a dwelling filled with the aroma of good things, a place where friends and family can flourish.” Carol reads and writes and makes bread and best of all, she thinks. Lovely.
3. What if the problem of evil isn’t a problem at all? by Christopher Benson at Mere Orthodoxy This brief article speaks to my fascination with God’s providence and with apologetics in general. What if evil in the world provides the only context from which we can talk about the goodness and mercy of God?
4. I already tweeted this link, and probably everyone has seen it. But since I am a fan of all things Lewisian, here’s a link to the first trailer for the new Narnia movie, due out in December, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. If they don’t showcase the meaning of Eustace’s dragon transformation and his healing, I’m out of patience with these movie interpreters of Lewis’s wonderful stories.
5. Carrie hosts The Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge at Reading to Know. This challenge supports my love of all things Lewisian.
6. Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books, and Me shares her list of things she loves, a Bliss List. She loves Celtic Women, and John Denver and teacups and reading on rainy days. So do I.
7. Some others are calling their similar lists Book Hooks, a list of things, people, places, ideas that catch their interest and make them want to read more.
Word Lily likes books about spies and detectives, other cultures and languages, and convents/cloistered life, among other things.
Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness likes reimagined fairy tales and multiple narrators.
Ms Bookish has 20 hooks that will make her pick up a book, including bookstores and “a Cinderella angle.”
Stella Matutina loves New Orleans and the French Revolution.
Melissa at Book Nut: A few things that fascinate me.
Carol’s fascination list at Magistramater includes clerical life, conversions, and names. Me, too.
Do you have a list of fascinations, or book hooks, or a bliss list? Please share.
8. Heidi at SImple Homeschool lists picture books that take you around the world. I love exploring other cultures and places, and I like picture books. I’m working on a sequel to Picture Book Preschool, called Picture Book Around the World. I keep collecting titles, but I’m not finding the persistence and self-discipline to finish this project. Anyone want to give me a kick in the pants? Or more suggestions for picture books that explore other lands?
9. The 2010 Bad Poetry Contest at Chip’s Blog. These are some seriously BAD poems. I don’t know how the judges managed to choose the worst of the worst.
10. To feed my Shakespearean muse (and to get the bad poetry taste off of my palate), I turn to this brand new version of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.
11. “Mpower Pictures (“The Stoning of Soraya M.”) and Beloved Pictures are teaming to co-produce C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel The Great Divorce. Veteran producer and Mpower CEO Steve McEveety will lead the production team. Childrens’ book author N.D. Wilson (Leepike Ridge, 100 Cupboards) is attached to write.” I told you I’m a C.S. Lewis fan, and I’m rather impressed with Mr. Wilson’s oeuvre so far, too.
12. This project ties in to my love of community and outside-the-box, but I have practical questions. Doesn’t it ever rain in New York? How can pianos stay outside in the weather and remain playable?
13. Hmmmm. My teens watch Glee, and I’m wondering how this new character for next season will work out. Probably very badly, but we’ll hope for the best.
14. Speaking of love, courtship and marriage, there’s an op-ed in Newsweek (June 11, 2010) about how marriage is outdated and unnecessary. Albert Mohler comments on this idea from a Christian perspective. Could it be that instead of gay “marriage” what we’ll eventually evolve to is no marriage for anyone other than Christians who still in their dinosauric way see the value and sanctity of such a union?
15. Mockingbird by Katharine Erskine. Small World says: “If you liked the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, you will love Mockingbird.”
16. Prepare to Die: A Princess Bride quiz by David K. Israel.
17. I could have used this advice about making a youtube video embed show up as a simple audio file last year when I was counting down the hymns. Some of the video is annoying or unnecessary.
18. Tim Hawkins: I Don’t Drink Beer. Someone asked The Headmistress what she thought about drinking alcohol, and then later I saw a video by Christian comedian Tim Hawkins. This song explains exactly why I don’t drink beer, right down to the nauseous.
19. Your Book as a Database by Chris Kubica. I’m not sure I understand completely, but it’s definitely mind-expanding.
20. “Social science may suggest that kids drain their parents’ happiness, but there’s evidence that good parenting is less work and more fun than people think. Bryan Caplan makes the case for having more children.” The economic and long term benefits of having more children.